To thine own self be true

“A contented man is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”

is a weekday morning walk through beautiful Laurier Park. Quiet, peaceful, colorful, with chickadees and squirrels to feed, leaves to scuff through the last week of the month, and a large green field to walk on as well as riverside path walk access. A real no-brainer for anyone locally seeking peace and solitude away from the crowds. Rated low risk for public exposure on the Covid scale.

should be all charged with trespassing schools there. Dangerous, irresponsible, lawless behavior. Again, egos before others/society/children/”the greater good”.

My audio trips and probes via Bertoia continue….

He not only invented and created his sound sculptures of various shapes, sizes, and types of metal, he explored, organized, and purposely edited his individual works, which illustrate the odd private worlds he lived in and explored in great depth.

And he wisely committed his different audial recordings to vinyl LPs originally in the 1970s. Creative genius and artist that he was visually, he was also much about, if not moreso, about the possibilities of sounds and the medium of metal to communicate previously unknown dimensions, regions, and ranges to minds, feelings, and souls.

Bertoia is the most eloquent exponent of pure sound via his uniquely created audial pieces. His sculptures became serious instruments that have led to powerful listening experiences and a strange new music and poetry connecting people with matter and essence, hitherto unexpressed and unknown.

We are quite fortunate today that his original albums have been transferred to CDs that can be experienced and enjoyed forever.

Personally, I cannot say enough about how eloquent and positive his collected works are. My personal exposure has likely been optimal–listened to after 3 a.m. in bed, alone with headphones, lying flat on my back, allowing the pieces to ‘have their way with me’. For comparisons, I can only point to other works like those of Gyorg Ligeti’s music in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Peter Weir’s Fearless with its plane crash music (Henryk Gorecki’s “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”),  though there is far less edginess, fear, and angst about Bertoia’s work.

His affects are more ambient, reassuring, even relaxing, and not alienating if the listener is open and receptive. The pieces are also discrete from one another and one feels they are journeys, probes, or trips that the artist first went on himself prior to recording them after 20 years of developing, processing, and, ultimately, editing.

Personally, I can only vouch for the palpable inner peace, calmness, contentment, and pleasure that his work has brought to my life at this rather late listening phase. I feel myself in good guiding hands, enjoying powerful, unexpected bliss and vibes I’ve not previously encountered in such sustained, predictable depth.

And I am not surprised, too, that a totally unconventional artistic medium and non-traditional musical instruments have been the means for fashioning sublime audial experiences and connections for listeners.

“Sonambient”, the boxset title, is the perfect title to describe Bertoia’s collected works on CD. That one word really says it, finally, memorably, and decisively.

the connections with Nature, and the many pleasures and Beauty of The Arts.”
-RD
(with a thanks to Frost for the first part going back to 1966)

The first, personal hand-greeting I taught them…

between the van carrying ammunition (!) and the oil tankers takes one’s breath away as witnesses have attested to. A mini-version of the Halifax Explosion which wowed everyone at the site!

One is additionally gobsmacked by the driver bad choices, the bad timing, and the synchronicity of what kinds of loads were involved. What are the odds, eh? The only blessing is that other passing vehicles were far enough away and that the collision happened away from buildings and even more people.

Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective, easily 1 of the top 5 literary characters known throughout the world. (Doyle’s works and the highly entertaining Granada Jeremy Brett tv series have been translated in to many languages.)

There is lots to admire about this character, but for me in a nutshell, it is his astute intelligence and quirkiness which draws me back to the series and stories, periodically. How ironic that Doyle hated him and tried to kill him off, and is not what he wanted to be remembered for in his writing!

Unfortunately, Brett died of cancer before the series could do all the stories, but the most popular and canonized ones are available on DVD in the boxset.

Brett, of course, is simply outstanding–the definitive Holmes, and Edward Hardwicke is the most well-rounded, hugely likable, sympathetic Dr. Watson of all time. Their interplay is a wonder and delight to behold.

The high level of British tv production is evident throughout the scripts, the adaptations, the British acting across the board, the sets, the music, the pacing, and cinematography. Would that it was available in HD!

An unexpected treat is DK Publishing’s The Sherlock Holmes Book which highlights every story and deep-backgrounds the reader on many contexts and tangential references and sources. It is a must for the true aficionado.

As is the complete footnoted, illustrated stories and novels originally available in W.W. Norton’s 2005 3 dust-jacketed hardcovers slipcased.

Holmes’s and Watson’s heads on an English lit. bookcase bedroom wall.

The famous1893 Sidney Paget illustration of Holmes and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls in “The Final Problem” now on my study wall.

A good documentary on the Holmes phenomenon.

I never grow tired of re-watching many episodes and always see subtleties and nuances I missed and can belatedly savour. This is a fun, rich, imaginative world to escape to in a time of massive limitations, stultifying restrictions, needless suffering and death. A huge refresher for the mind and soul. Grand viewing.

Sound sculpture music and poetry by 1950s American sculptor Harry Bertoia. I picked up a box set of his collected works this summer and was listening again quietly last night via headphones @ 4 a.m. Highly recommended the CD containing the original ’70s LP pieces–“Space Adventure” and “Echoes of Other Times”.

Eliot’s “The Peace which passeth understanding”. I have not been this totally relaxed from head to toe and completely inside: mentally and spiritually, in a long, long time.
Much of Bertoia’s work reminds one of bells of different tones and timbres. The effects are profound and very deeply felt and experienced. I was very surprised at the myriad vibrations and reverberations and how they, cumulatively, affect/penetrate the listener in subconscious and conscious ways. This may be the most sublime music I have ever experienced. Very transcendental, zenish, calming, peaceful, and satisfying.