7th june 2006


Rembrandt - Portrait of a Young Man

This Rembrandt from the Dulwich Picture Gallery (the world's first purpose-built picture gallery, of course), which may or may not be a portrait of his son Titus, makes me think of something Mrs Rosenbaum says somewhere: When I meet a man on the street I think sometimes: I have known you on three continents for six decades.

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9th june 2006

I followed the other Experiment around yesterday afternoon, at a distance, to see what it might be for, if I could. But I was not able to make out. I think it is a man. I had never seen a man, but it looked like one, and I feel sure that that is what it is. I realize that I feel more curiosity about it than about any of the other reptiles. If it is a reptile, and I suppose it is, for it has frowzy hair and blue eyes, and looks like a reptile. It has no hips - it tapers like a carrot, and when it stands, it spreads itself apart like a derrick, so I think it is a reptile, though it may be architecture.

. . . When I found it could talk I felt a new interest in it, for I love to talk; I talk, all day, and in my sleep, too, and I am very interesting, but if I had another to talk to I could be twice as interesting, and would never stop, if desired.

- Mark Twain, Eve's Diary

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12th june 2006

the road to Victoria Crater

The car moved over the old highway like an eraser, coming upon blind soil, passing over it, dusting it away to reveal the emerald and gold color of ancient Martian mosaics worked into the road surface.

- Ray Bradbury, The Blue Bottle

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28th june 2006

when the green field comes off like a lid

Rouault - Man with a Suitcase, 1928

Who the heck is that.  No, don't look;  run.  Run.

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