[NetBehaviour] swansong

[Alan Sondheim]

Hi Max, I didn't really think of it as a gladiatorial chamber - not sure 
what it was, fortification perhaps? In any case of course in London. I 
imagined people going up and down the stairs. Azure and I went both recent 
times to all the Roman sites we could find; I'm fascinated by the 
almost geological occlusions they represent. I've also stayed near the 
Lutece arena when I've been in Paris, by the way. It also was a bus depot 
at one time.

The swans, like a Japanese painting of a certain period, at the edge of 
the void, where all creation sooner or later sleeps, however not so 
peacefully perhaps, nor ever waking up -

best, Alan

On Sun, 18 Oct 2020, Max Herman via NetBehaviour wrote:

> I like these images Alan!  A gladiatorial chamber like a cistern of bloodletting, and an angle of gravel with resting sinuosity: rivers and ancient might.
> 
> They remind me of the trip I made to Europe last May and June, which to me is now most halcyon of the world before what we have now, a crown of consequences, lysis, and death down to
> the first molecules of our frames.
> 
> At the time I was very interested in the then-upcoming solstice of summer 2019, and how it might relate to stone circles, pantheons, and the indigenous medicine wheel (viewed from an
> internally and externally European afar).  In Paris we stayed on the Rue de Boulangers with a view from the third floor of the Ar?nes de Lut?ce, closed today for Covid-19, seen in
> fragments through green branches.  One could imagine it soaked in blood, or pageants and music after enormous banquets, but also now mainly for football and reading, beautiful in the
> sun or the rain.
> 
> Rivers of that summer were the Arno and Seine, accompanied by the bays and hillside streams of the picturesque Cinque Terre, and then of course later back home by the Mississippi.  I
> can't remember any birds at all, even at the gardens of Luxembourg, but there must have been some.  Another rocky arena in Nice, and the rocky beach too which had a lovely green-blue
> color to swim in.  I'm sure I must have seen pigeons and seagulls on the trip, and wish I had seen fish, but I can't remember any of either specifically which makes me a little sad.  
> 
> I guess for me the image that contains this all most fairly is the "mill of the heavens" or the 25,772 year precession of the north stars.  It's a big set of nested cycles all going
> on its terrifyingly slow and eventful path at lightning speed, a millstone slightly off its axis and grinding out not just peace and life but the evils of war and waste, tended by
> deposed persons of conscience who live partly by procrastination and partly by camoflage.  Yet the mill does turn on!
> 
> All very best wishes to all,
> 
> Max
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> From: NetBehaviour <netbehaviour-bounces at lists.netbehaviour.org> on behalf of Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com>
> Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2020 10:43 PM
> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>
> Subject: [NetBehaviour] swansong  
> 
> 
> swansong
> 
> http://www.alansondheim.org/london0249.jpg
> http://www.alansondheim.org/slow.jpg
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