To thine own self be true

In my new red Dodge Caravan just washed, waiting for the light to change at Calgary Trail to go east on 34th. Old white-haired guy in a white SUV beside me honks at me, pointing at right side of my van, wants to talk. I roll down the window. “You got a speck of dust there,” he says, pointing again. “Thanks,” I say laughing. “Just kidding you,” he says. “I know,” I answer. “Merry Christmas.” “You, too.” The light changes.

(top:14 nicely arranged tunes played by The Nancy Walker Sextet and the Dwyer Quintet; Reflections Music; bottom: the equally satisfying Beegie Adair album with 12 snappy tunes, Green Hill)

(top: 14 songs, a somewhat minimalist approach to the melodies, but successful approach by Brubeck, Telarc; bottom: boldly arranged band approach to 15 songs by Edmonton’ own jazz great Tommy Banks–Royalty)

*I should also mention Vince Guaraldi’s classic A Charlie Brown Christmas album which works for kids and romantic adults alike; get the 12 evocative songs plus 4 bonus tracks version on Fantasy.

(top: 18 classics by the voice Sinatra admitted was better than his own; 20 Century Masters/MCA; bottom: includes the ultimate version of “The Christmas Song” and old kids’ favorites “All I Want for Christmas” and “The Happiest Christmas Tree”, Capitol)

(top:16 nicely arranged songs including “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” setting the pleasant tone; bottom: a venerable popish choir sound with distinctive female voices in the fun mix)

I noticed her name tag and immediately thought of a basic understanding or an idea what something or someone is like, not fertization.as some might. She explained “It’s for Immaculate Conception”. And I said “Wow, what a spiritual name! You must be a very special person.” She smiled and thanked me and I wondered then how many times in the past she must have explained her name, her explanation ready-to-go. And then I wondered if she or her parents had any ‘conception’ of the other meanings and possibilities for her name, and which ones she would have found interesting, funny, or apropos.

PS/My daughter then mentioned the today/the next day that she had encountered a Resurrecsion! I guess that covers both biblical bases. (Only at Christmas. The world is absurd enough to not make up this kind of stuff.)

The great ironic comedian reads Dickens on CD (NPR).

(at work in the great storm scene of Ryan’s Daughter; Photofest)

Happiest alone
in front of
an editing machine
white-gloved
admiring the panoramas
he shot on location.
Blowing up holes
of great rock faces
in A Passage to India,
sweeping the desert
in Lawrence,
waiting for the morning frost
to be just right–embroidering
Zhivago’s window.
Painstaking, patient
and more concerned
about ‘the shot’
and its composition
than his actors’ performances.
Explaining the script
ahead of time
to the cast
leaving nothing left to chance.
‘This is my vision
my script.
Hope you like it.’
Unapologetic.
Supremely confident.
‘Tea anyone?’
Days waiting to shoot
waiting for clouds
to clear or for
a certain mountain look.
‘Could you change
that red blanket
200 yards behind the actors
down the road
for a yellow one?’
Asking for the train front to be
painted red while
thousands of extras
stood idly around.
Knew what he wanted.
Exactly.
Control.
‘Here is how you stand.’
‘Here is how you touch her.’
to Robert Mitchum
no less.
Every detail.
Few today know
or appreciate the beauty
of his bountiful films.
So much beyond
the story or literature
that inspired him.
“I am fascinated by these nuts,”
he once said.
David Lean.
A true gentleman
and deep visual artist.
Tasteful.
Romantic.
Passionate.
All ways.
Life and movies
mattered to him
not the money.
Genius.
Old school.
White gloves
at an editing machine.
Tenderly sensuous.
Would have died
rather than use CGI.
No falseness
in his sensibility.
Su-blime.

………………..

CGI: computer generated imaging; used obsessively today to nullify the need for location shoots and great numbers of extras; totally unLeanish

(RD at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in January; Scottsdale, Arizona; click pic to enlarge)

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”

From a mere 62 years ago.
How to make a decoration at home.
Supplies needed : 1 empty toilet paper roll, one piece of Xmas wrapping paper, a piece of ribbon, scissors (to cut the paper to size), glue, and awl (to punch the ribbon holes)

(cozy famille room)

(some decorations by evening)

(mantel figures)

(presiding over the fireplace)

(coverlet, my bed)

(blanket for baby’s playpen)