calm & blue...

The courtyard area in Pablo Neruda's home.

For a large version of the photo, try clicking here.

So serene. And...the lovely blue paint exudes completeness...unlike the dining room in my corner of the world (The gorgeous pink paint, custom-mixed by JR, awaits application...and is bound to make the wallpaper in the adjoining kitchen look unattractive and outdated!!! A project in the wings???) Ah, blue -- makes me think of Patricia Barber's 'blue'...lift the sash to air the breeze...a mixture of both the serene and the somber.

The other connection, this night, is with Neruda's poetry, as Lauridsen uses one of his poems in his 'Nocturnes' set. However, my excessive self simply can't get past the 'ultimate', represented by the Shining Night offering in that group.

I suppose blue could carry me to other places tonight...perhaps to a cosmic veil of musical tears in one of my other current 'ultimate beauty' cravings: 'When David Heard' by Eric Whitacre. Here I must interject: does a composer who is as California surfer blond and beautiful as Whitacre understand if we at first wonder if he is too pretty to be taken seriously? Obviously, though: serious talent he is.

So, in 'When David heard...' we get 11+ minutes of wailing on a biblical text. When David heard that Absalom his son was slain he went up into his chamber and wept. Oh, my son...Absalom.... Tears. Sobbing. Wailing. Catching of breath...Starting all over again. The climactic musical ascension to the throne of God? A veil: not draping, falling, bidden earthward by gravity, but rather quite palpably, literally, building itself a bridge to heaven...touching the heart of God with its grief. (And let us not forget the context: King David's son Absalom was waging battle so as to win his father's kingdom and throne by force. Yet...the father grieves for the loss of his life.)

Profound. Somber. But indescribably beautiful.

Tonight, though much work (though never 'enough') was done here in my all too earthly un-kingdom, I'm grateful for an escape to the blue, with some rare time & energy allowing me to reply to some recent-and-beyond blog comments.

Off to dream... But first: must face the 'music' in the basement. This evening, Bixby brought in a not-very-dead GIANT pigeon, undoubtedly to impress us. It's about half his size. He only maimed it. I will lift it with tshirt-gloved hands and carry it out to lie under a fern in the front yard. Make he soon rest in peace.

Mercy.