Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, March 6 through
Saturday, March 12, 2022
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It’s Saturday, March 12, 2022
Welcome to the 1,381st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Church of Saint Quentin
Tournai
Jean-Pol GRANDMONT - Own work
This is a photo of a monument in Wallonia, number:
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Commentary
A G.O.A.T is back in Boston.
His name is Jason Tatum.
Watch a Celtics game soon to see an emerging goat in the guise of a 24-year-old basketball forward.
JT ranks in the top five players in basketball.
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Reading and Writing
I am reading the third book (again) of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.
I’ll soon be editing the second book of the Conflicted Series and I want a refresh from the Dragon Tattoo author, Stieg Larsson
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Screen time
Vogue’s Review:
My Brilliant Friend’s Stunning Third Season Is Its Best Yet
BY TAYLOR ANTRIM February 25, 2022
https://www.vogue.com/article/my-brilliant-friend-season-3-review
And from Indie Wire:
‘My Brilliant Friend’ Review: Season 3 Imparts an Enthralling Journey from an Inescapable Past
Based on the third book of Elena Ferrante's quadrilogy, the elegant HBO series from Danielle Luchetti remains a vivid look at friendship over time.
Grade A
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/02/my-brilliant-friend-season-3-review-hbo-1234702982/
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Wellness
I woke today with a pian in my left eye and a good deal of tearing.
I hope it lasts until my health care providers can take a look at my eye.
Nope. It disappeared in an hour.
It did return when I was in the middle of things and couldn’t break off.
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Understanding aging
I notice my shoulder slumping.
I hate the look.
I want to see if I can forestall the trend.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
If at first you don't succeed,
then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
~Stephen Wright
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Sally C sent a very helpful list of publishers who accept submissions without agents.
Hi, Dom,
I don’t know if you have acquired a literary agent for your manuscript yet, but if you haven’t, the attached list of publishers that don’t require submissions through agents might be of interest to you. It’s very hard to find a literary agent to accept one’s manuscript to represent it to publishers, if an author takes the traditional publishing route.
This list was made available to me this week through one of the writers’ groups I belong to. I can’t vouch for it yea or nay, but it would appear to be a useful resource.
Good luck, have fun, and keep writing! (I know you will …)
😊
Sally
Blog meister responds: I will definitely give them a very close look. Thank you, Sally. And thanks for sharing.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Cousin Lauren and I had lunch at the Mooo restaurant on Beacon Hill.
It was excellent.
The service and the food were ideal.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Boston Common and Winter
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Short Essay*
The Church of Saint Quentin (Église Saint-Quentin de Tournai) is a church in Tournai, Belgium. The largely Romanesque building is located on the main square of the town, the Grand-Place. Known to have existed since the 10th century, the current building was built around 1200, but has been altered several times throughout history.
In the late 15th century, a major reconstruction effort altered the chancel, created an ambulatory and replaced earlier side chapels. This reconstruction was partially financed by tapestry maker Pasquier Grenier and his wife Marguerite de Lannoye, who were also buried in one of the chapels.
During World War II, the church was heavily damaged by German bombing in 1940 and subsequently reconstructed after the war. It opened again in 1968. The current facade and tower are reconstructions from this period.
Inside, the church contains two Late Gothic wooden sculptures, made by Jean Delemer and painted by Robert Campin and dated to 1428. They are of art historical interest as early examples of such Late Gothic sculpture.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, March 11, 2022
Welcome to the 1,380th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Boudica
An engraving by William Sharp published in 1793, based on Boadicea Haranguing the Britons (called Boudicca, or Boadicea) by John Opie (died 1807). See source website for additional information. This set of images was gathered by User:Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London website using a special tool. All images in this batch have been confirmed as author died before 1939 according to the official death date listed by the NPG.
John Opie - one or more third parties have made copyright claims against Wikimedia Commons in relation to the work from which this is sourced or a purely mechanical reproduction thereof. This may be due to recognition of the "sweat of the brow" doctrine, allowing works to be eligible for protection through skill and labor, and not purely by originality as is the case in the United States (where this website is hosted). These claims may or may not be valid in all jurisdictions. As such, use of this image in the jurisdiction of the claimant or other countries may be regarded as copyright infringement. Please see Commons: When to use the PD-Art tag for more information.
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Commentary
I’ve had a great winter bringing my manuscript to the end game of publishing.
But I’m going to investigate what it would take for me to spend next winter in the Caribbean.
I would stay through the holidays to enjoy that wonderful family season and then go somewhere like Martinique or Guadeloupe.
I’d prefer Trinidad to all but getting there is substantially more difficult than the rest of the Caribbean.
The investigation will give me something to do.
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Reading and Writing
While I’m writing my blog, I am also continuing to edit the manuscript, staying with 10 pages a day.
Also, I am working on the Query letter that will be sent to agents.
Also, working on a system for discovering agents who will be appropriate for finding a publisher for the manuscript.
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Wellness
Two consecutive nights now of unsettled rest.
Wondering if my body is perhaps telling me that I have a cold or some such bothersome illness.
That has often been the case in the past.
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Understanding aging
I feel eighty.
And eighty feels pretty good.
I would be very happy to feel this well for the next five years.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
What's another word for Thesaurus?
~Stephen Wright
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
More communications wishing me a happy birthday.
Blog meister responds: I appreciate each of them. Thank you.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Planning breakfasts seven days out seems to be a good ideas.
Instead of being bogged down with eggs, for example, which, while very good for you, are redundant in most people’s diet: we already get plenty of protein. What we don’t get enough of is plant-based food.
So, simple green salads, or tomatoes, or cereals/oatmeal using non-dairy milk, (I chose oat because it seems to have a higher fiber count than others) really help balance my diet.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
Tree singing in spotlight
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Short Essay*
Boudica or Boudicca, also known as Boadicea was a queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. According to Roman sources, shortly after the uprising failed, she poisoned herself or died of her wounds, although there is no actual evidence of her fate. She is considered a British folk hero.
Boudica's husband Prasutagus, with whom she had two daughters whose names are unknown, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome, and left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will. However, when he died, his will was ignored, and the kingdom was annexed and his property taken. According to Tacitus, Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped. Cassius Dio explains Boudica's response by saying that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on the reluctant Celtic Britons.
In AD 60 or 61, when the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning on the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) on the northwest coast of Wales, Boudica led the Iceni, the Trinovantes, and others in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester), earlier the capital of the Trinovantes but at that time a colonia, a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers and site of a temple to the former Emperor Claudius.
Upon hearing of the revolt, Suetonius hurried to Londinium (modern London), the 20-year-old commercial settlement that was the rebels' next target. He lacked sufficient numbers to defend the settlement, and he evacuated and abandoned Londinium. Boudica led a very large army of Iceni, Trinovantes, and others against a detachment of the Legio IX Hispana, defeating them, and burning Londinium and Verulamium.
An estimated 70,000–80,000 Romans and Britons were killed in the three cities by those following Boudica, many by torture. Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces, possibly in the West Midlands; despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated the Britons. The crisis caused Nero to consider withdrawing all Roman forces from Britain, but Suetonius's victory over Boudica confirmed Roman control of the province. Boudica then either killed herself to avoid capture (according to Tacitus), or died of illness (according to Cassius Dio).
Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era. Boudica has remained an important cultural symbol in the United Kingdom.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It’s Friday, March 11, 2022
Welcome to the 1,380th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
Boudica
An engraving by William Sharp published in 1793, based on Boadicea Haranguing the Britons (called Boudicca, or Boadicea) by John Opie (died 1807). See source website for additional information. This set of images was gathered by User:Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London website using a special tool. All images in this batch have been confirmed as author died before 1939 according to the official death date listed by the NPG.
John Opie - one or more third parties have made copyright claims against Wikimedia Commons in relation to the work from which this is sourced or a purely mechanical reproduction thereof. This may be due to recognition of the "sweat of the brow" doctrine, allowing works to be eligible for protection through skill and labor, and not purely by originality as is the case in the United States (where this website is hosted). These claims may or may not be valid in all jurisdictions. As such, use of this image in the jurisdiction of the claimant or other countries may be regarded as copyright infringement. Please see Commons: When to use the PD-Art tag for more information.
______________________________________
Commentary
I’ve had a great winter bringing my manuscript to the end game of publishing.
But I’m going to investigate what it would take for me to spend next winter in the Caribbean.
I would stay through the holidays to enjoy that wonderful family season and then go somewhere like Martinique or Guadeloupe.
I’d prefer Trinidad to all but getting there is substantially more difficult than the rest of the Caribbean.
The investigation will give me something to do.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
While I’m writing my blog, I am also continuing to edit the manuscript, staying with 10 pages a day.
Also, I am working on the Query letter that will be sent to agents.
Also, working on a system for discovering agents who will be appropriate for finding a publisher for the manuscript.
______________________________________
Wellness
Two consecutive nights now of unsettled rest.
Wondering if my body is perhaps telling me that I have a cold or some such bothersome illness.
That has often been the case in the past.
____________________________________
Understanding aging
I feel eighty.
And eighty feels pretty good.
I would be very happy to feel this well for the next five years.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
What's another word for Thesaurus?
~Stephen Wright
____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
More communications wishing me a happy birthday.
Blog meister responds: I appreciate each of them. Thank you.
____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Planning breakfasts seven days out seems to be a good ideas.
Instead of being bogged down with eggs, for example, which, while very good for you, are redundant in most people’s diet: we already get plenty of protein. What we don’t get enough of is plant-based food.
So, simple green salads, or tomatoes, or cereals/oatmeal using non-dairy milk, (I chose oat because it seems to have a higher fiber count than others) really help balance my diet.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
Tree singing in spotlight
_________________________________
Short Essay*
Boudica or Boudicca, also known as Boadicea was a queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. According to Roman sources, shortly after the uprising failed, she poisoned herself or died of her wounds, although there is no actual evidence of her fate. She is considered a British folk hero.
Boudica's husband Prasutagus, with whom she had two daughters whose names are unknown, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome, and left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will. However, when he died, his will was ignored, and the kingdom was annexed and his property taken. According to Tacitus, Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped. Cassius Dio explains Boudica's response by saying that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on the reluctant Celtic Britons.
In AD 60 or 61, when the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning on the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) on the northwest coast of Wales, Boudica led the Iceni, the Trinovantes, and others in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester), earlier the capital of the Trinovantes but at that time a colonia, a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers and site of a temple to the former Emperor Claudius.
Upon hearing of the revolt, Suetonius hurried to Londinium (modern London), the 20-year-old commercial settlement that was the rebels' next target. He lacked sufficient numbers to defend the settlement, and he evacuated and abandoned Londinium. Boudica led a very large army of Iceni, Trinovantes, and others against a detachment of the Legio IX Hispana, defeating them, and burning Londinium and Verulamium.
An estimated 70,000–80,000 Romans and Britons were killed in the three cities by those following Boudica, many by torture. Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces, possibly in the West Midlands; despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated the Britons. The crisis caused Nero to consider withdrawing all Roman forces from Britain, but Suetonius's victory over Boudica confirmed Roman control of the province. Boudica then either killed herself to avoid capture (according to Tacitus), or died of illness (according to Cassius Dio).
Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era. Boudica has remained an important cultural symbol in the United Kingdom.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, March 10, 2022
Welcome to the 1,379th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Saint Peter Attempting to Walk on Water
(1766) painting by François Boucher
François Boucher - Unknown source
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Commentary
From March 10 hrough March 17 only one day will be colder than 45*.
Winter’s grip is broken.
Not entirely over.
But broken.
Yippee, from me.
And Yippee to report that the US is now 76.5% vaccinated with at least the first shot.
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Reading and Writing
I am setting April 1 as my goal for sending out my first submission.
It’s tempting to say, “Well another week gets it perfect.”
That search for perfection can go on forever.
Sometimes it’s incumbent on us to “Do something.”
It might be missing this or that but doing something is ore important.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I think it's wrong that
only one company makes the game Monopoly.
~Stephen Wright
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from good friend but dangerous Colleen G:
Wow, Dom!!
I feel like you've been talking about it for years--haha:) The big 8-0!!!
At least you are turning 80 when things are feeling less sheltered . . . much better time for it.
Whatever will you do to mark the big day.
More importantly--who will be responsible for the 80 spanks--and 1 for good luck! You won't be able to sit down for a week:)
Happy Birthday . . . I hope the day is kind to you:)
Cheers,
Colleen
Blog meister responds: Thank you, my dear. And thanks to the dozen well-wishers.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Comic book festival at the Pru in Boston
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I saved the oil from a can of Italian-style tuna.
Today I used the oil to broil/sear a piece of Swordfish.
Enhanced with a pat of butter and a squeeze of lemon added a bi of depth.
Very nice.
Very little work.
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Short Essay*
The supernatural encompasses supposed phenomena or entities that are not subject to the laws of ature. It is derived from Medieval Latin supernaturalis, from Latin super- (above, beyond, or outside of) + natura (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings since the ancient world, the term "supernatural" emerged in the medieval period and did not exist in the ancient world.
The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in the cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal. The term is attributed to non-physical entities, such as angels, demons, gods, and spirits. It also includes claimed abilities embodied in or provided by such beings, including magic, telekinesis, levitation, precognition, and extrasensory perception.
The philosophy of naturalism contends that nothing exists beyond the natural world, and as such approaches supernatural claims with skepticism.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Welcome to the 1,378th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Birthday Cake
A black forest birthday cake with 40th anniversary decorations on top alongside a candle
Lionel Allorge - Own work
A Black Forest cake.
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Commentary
The lead picture cake.
I need two of those to mark my day.
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Reading and Writing
I am reading about new classifications of genres of books to best suggest to agents
which genre my manuscript falls into.
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Screen time
Monday evenings have become my big screen night when I get to watch two new releases of quality films: the Gilded Age and the incomparable My Brilliant Friend.
Friday may ask for a similar ranking because the incomparable Mrs. Maisell releases TWO new episodes of that worthy film.
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Wellness
After boasting of two weeks of excellent sleep, Monday night to Tuesday proved to be a sleepless night. As usual when that occurs, I had my breakfast at 1.00am and then alternated between rest and work. It’s proving to be a productive day.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
If it's a penny for your thoughts and
you put in your two cents worth,
then someone, somewhere is making a penny.
~Stephen Wright
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
I’ve gotten several emails relative to the Query letter I am composing.
Blog meister responds: The input from these literary friends is most welcome.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I finished the Shrimp, Sausage, and Clam stew I made with beans and spinach.
As good as new.
That stew keeps on contributing to my menu. I have a little leftover I’ll finish tonight with a piece of swordfish.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
First robin of 2022
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Short Essay*
A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person, or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage.
Many religions celebrate the birth of their founders or religious figures with special holidays (e.g. Christmas, Mawlid, Buddha's Birthday, and Krishna Janmashtami).
There is a distinction between birthday and birthdate: the former, except for February 29, occurs each year (e.g. January 15), while the latter is the complete date when a person was born (e.g. January 15, 2001
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Welcome to the 1,377th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Corot’s Woman with a Pearl
Woman with a Pearl
1868–1870, Paris: Musée du Louvre
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot - http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/corot/
Portrait of Berthe Goldschmidt
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Commentary
Even if you’re not a sports fan, Sunday’s victory against the Brooklyn Nets was a wake-up call.
Hello!
The Boston Celtics have built a credible championship caliber team.
Ignore us at your peril.
A reminder.
A TV series worth watching: The Gilded Age.
Two other series, must sees: Marvelous Mrs. Maisell and My Brilliant Friend.
All three currently playing.
Wowza!
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Reading and Writing
I have edited through p123 of 190 pages, although I may have to take another look at the last ten pages.
Why?
These pages required so many edits that they are calling for yet another round, until I get to a single edit per page.
At that point I am ready to submit.
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Screen time
At the suggestion of my oldest niece, I watched a season of Stranger Things.
I enjoyed it.
Probably not going to watch more of it.
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Understanding aging
I am in a good place.
For ten days now I’m eating to my diet.
I’m sleeping well for the first time in my life.
My daily routine is energizing and fulfilling.
Covid is fading.
Days are getting warmer.
Days are getting longer.
I’ve increased my weights without my body rebelling.
And Wednesday I’m officially eighty.
I am in a good place.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I would have made this shorter but I didn’t have the time.
~Blaise Pascal
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Thoughtful responses to my first effort at a Pitch for my Query letter help make it a better pitch.
Blog meister responds: Thank you for your time and thought. Love
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I’ve entered a list of desirable breakfasts on my Daily Calendar.
The emphasis is on plant food: only one day a week I allow for eggs.
And on fiber-rich foods.
I will own up to continuing to eat a half portion of a breakfast roll with coffee.
Too ingrained to surrender, at least right now.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Cute Starbuck’s barista.
Kat was 15 years old.
I had to walk downtown to pick her up from her evening shifts.
Those were the days my friend.
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Short Essay*
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875) was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching.
He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast output simultaneously referenced the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipated the plein-air innovations of Impressionism.
Corot is a pivotal figure in landscape painting. His work simultaneously references the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipates the plein-air innovations of Impressionism. Of him Claude Monet exclaimed in 1897, "There is only one master here—Corot. We are nothing compared to him, nothing." His contributions to figure painting are hardly less important; Degas preferred his figures to his landscapes, and the classical figures of Picasso pay overt homage to Corot's influence.
Historians have divided his work into periods, but the points of division are often vague, as he often completed a picture years after he began it. In his early period, he painted traditionally and "tight"—with minute exactness, clear outlines, thin brushwork, and with absolute definition of objects throughout, with a monochromatic underpainting or ébauche. After he reached his 50th year, his methods changed to focus on breadth of tone and an approach to poetic power conveyed with thicker application of paint; and about 20 years later, from about 1865 onwards, his manner of painting became more lyrical, affected with a more impressionistic touch. In part, this evolution in expression can be seen as marking the transition from the plein-air paintings of his youth, shot through with warm natural light, to the studio-created landscapes of his late maturity, enveloped in uniform tones of silver. In his final 10 years he became the "Père (Father) Corot" of Parisian artistic circles, where he was regarded with personal affection, and acknowledged as one of the five or six greatest landscape painters the world had seen, along with Meindert Hobbema, Claude Lorrain, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. In his long and productive life, he painted over 3,000 paintings.
Though often credited as a precursor of Impressionist practice, Corot approached his landscapes more traditionally than is usually believed. Compared to the Impressionists who came later, Corot's palette is restrained, dominated with browns and blacks ("forbidden colors" among the Impressionists), along with dark and silvery green. Though appearing at times to be rapid and spontaneous, usually his strokes were controlled and careful, and his compositions well-thought out and generally rendered as simply and concisely as possible, heightening the poetic effect of the imagery. As he stated, "I noticed that everything that was done correctly on the first attempt was more true, and the forms more beautiful."
Corot's approach to his subjects was similarly traditional. Although he was a major proponent of plein-air studies, he was essentially a studio painter and few of his finished landscapes were completed before the motif. For most of his life, Corot would spend his summers travelling and collecting studies and sketches, and his winters finishing more polished, market-ready works. For example, the title of his Bathers of the Borromean Isles (1865–70) refers to Lake Maggiore in Italy, despite the fact that Corot had not been to Italy in 20 years. His emphasis on drawing images from the imagination and memory rather than direct observation was in line with the tastes of the Salon jurors, of which he was a member.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, March 7, 2022
Welcome to the 1,376th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Edouard Manet
Close-up photograph of artist Édouard Manet. 39,6 x 29,8 cm, enlargement by Paul Nadar of his father’s original.
Nadar – This file comes from Gallica Digital Library and is available under the digital ID btv1b10535676j/f1
Commentary
It’s a very exciting time.
The employment percentages are great.
The covid percentages are great.
The number of jobs added to the employment rolls are great.
Our southern border isn’t dominating the news.
Reasonable Republicans are getting bolder in their resistance to Trump.
And my writing is going well.
My most recent reading of the manuscript is going along methodically and the resulting text feels real fine to me.
And my query letter is taking shape.
One week from now and I should be able to set a date for my first submissions to agents.
Screen time
Mrs. Maisel continues great.
Chuckles and Thoughts
Italian Alzheimer patients forget everything but the grudges.
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Sally C:
Goodness, Dom! Lauren looks like a movie star! What an exquisite beauty!
Interesting name of the restaurant – Les Deux Magots – a magot is a Barbary ape. I only know this because certain old tunes and dances, which I’ve come across in researching music for my fife and drum group, are referred to as a “magot” or “maggot.” The tunes and dance steps are lively, and some scholars speculate that the term “magot” suggests the jumping nature of this particular ape.
You just never know what tidbit of trivia you’re going to run into in life!
Sally
Blog meister responds: “Two stocky men from the Orient” is the translation intended. And yes, my cousin shines.
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday I had a light leftover North End Gravy with store bought ravioli which were very good.
Pictures with Captions from our community**
Tree early blossoming in Public Garden
Taken March 3 2022
Short Essay*
Édouard Manet (23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born into an upper-class household with strong political connections, Manet rejected the naval career originally envisioned for him; he became engrossed in the world of painting.
His early masterworks, The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe) and Olympia, both 1863, caused great controversy and served as rallying points for the young painters who would create Impressionism.
Today, these are considered watershed paintings that mark the start of modern art. The last 20 years of Manet's life saw him form bonds with other great artists of the time; he developed his own simple and direct style that would be heralded as innovative and serve as a major influence for future painters.
Manet's public career lasted from 1861, the year of his first participation in the Salon, until his death in 1883. His known extant works, as catalogued in 1975 by Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein, comprise 430 oil paintings, 89 pastels, and more than 400 works on paper.[34]
Although harshly condemned by critics who decried its lack of conventional finish, Manet's work had admirers from the beginning. One was Émile Zola, who wrote in 1867: "We are not accustomed to seeing such simple and direct translations of reality. Then, as I said, there is such a surprisingly elegant awkwardness ... it is a truly charming experience to contemplate this luminous and serious painting which interprets nature with a gentle brutality."
The roughly painted style and photographic lighting in Manet's paintings was seen as specifically modern, and as a challenge to the Renaissance works he copied or used as source material.
He rejected the technique he had learned in the studio of Thomas Couture – in which a painting was constructed using successive layers of paint on a dark-toned ground – in favor of a direct, alla prima method using opaque paint on a light ground. Novel at the time, this method made possible the completion of a painting in a single sitting. It was adopted by the Impressionists, and became the prevalent method of painting in oils for generations that followed.
Manet's work is considered "early modern", partially because of the opaque flatness of his surfaces, the frequent sketch-like passages, and the black outlining of figures, all of which draw attention to the surface of the picture plane and the material quality of paint.
The art historian Beatrice Farwell says Manet "has been universally regarded as the Father of Modernism.
With Courbet he was among the first to take serious risks with the public whose favor he sought, the first to make alla prima painting the standard technique for oil painting and one of the first to take liberties with Renaissance perspective and to offer "pure painting" as a source of aesthetic pleasure.
He was a pioneer, again with Courbet, in the rejection of humanistic and historical subject-matter, and shared with Degas the establishment of modern urban life as acceptable material for high art."
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, March 6, 2022
Welcome to the 1,375th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Jean-François Millet
Painter Jean-François Millet by Nadar,
Nadar - Metropolitan Museum, New York]
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Commentary
News reports tell of Russian territorial advances in the Ukraine.
They sound surprised.
Honestly, I’m surprised that there hasn’t been even more brutality than we’ve been watching.
And that gives me hope that the economic cost to their nation is causing the Russians to rethink their egregious error of judgment and are looking for a face-saving way out.
You can tell that I am an optimist.
Between Friday’s job reports, a robust hiring, and the morphing of the pandemic into endemic, this is a good moment. (Always the Russian cloud to dampen our spirits.)
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Reading and Writing
My association with the team of players who are helping me with my manuscript is worth all the effort I’ve put into the project.
The talent, love, and effort they have put out has been heart-warming.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring...
'How to Build a Boat.'
~Stephen Wright
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A writer-friend has just shared the recent passing of her mother.
Blog meister responds: God bless you, my dear. Love from all of us in the community.
And this from Colleen G:
Hey, Dom:
You might be interested to hear--speaking of creative--I'm employing an old Italian technique in my garden starting this spring. Started by the Italians and then fancified by the French, hence the french word it goes by: espalier.
I have two apple "trees" coming in the mail next week: golden delish and red roma--and I will be planting them in a narrow part of my garden where I will train them to grow in the espalier style. It will be several years before there's anything to show for, but I'm excited to try this out for myself.
So, spring is on the way and I guess that's my long way of admitting that whatever time I think I may spend on writing creatively may get pushed aside by gardening creatively--as is often the case for me.
Enjoy the weekend.
Cheers,
Colleen:)
Blog meister responds: Love the gardening. Reminds my of my straight from Ital grandfather.
As to your blog, mommy, mommy, mommy.
mommy comes first.
don't ever get frustrated.
you are molding a most extraordinary group of human beings.
nothing is more creative than that.
not even close.
love
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sally C sent in a recipe yesterday.
I have taken the essence of it and am going to try my interpretation today, using pork chops.
And I did make it for Friday dinner.
I first made Sally’s Fire Vinegar and let it sit overnight.
Then I fried the pork chops in olive oil and duck fat.
When cooked, I removed the chops, added a pat of butter to the pan and then whisked in some flour. I added the fire vinegar and apple cider. It thickened right away and I poured it over the chops.
Tasty!
Thank you Sally.
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Community Photos**
Ogunquit Marginal Way view
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Short Essay*
Jean-François Millet (October 4, 1814 – January 20, 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. Toward the end of his career he became increasingly interested in painting pure landscapes. He is known best for his oil paintings but is also noted for his pastels, conte crayon drawings, and etchings.
It was in Paris in the middle 1840s that Millet befriended Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz, Charles Jacque, and Théodore Rousseau, artists who, like Millet, became associated with the Barbizon school; Honoré Daumier, whose figure draftsmanship influenced Millet's subsequent rendering of peasant subjects; and fr:Alfred Sensier, a government bureaucrat who became a lifelong supporter and eventually the artist's biographer. In 1847 his first Salon success came with the exhibition of a painting Oedipus Taken down from the Tree, and in 1848 his Winnower was bought by the government.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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