I’d like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support that followed my report of morning nausea.

From simple condolences, to offers of chicken soup, to comparisons with personal situations, to ginger ale, to gastroenterology, to charcoal pills, to staying in bed, to an Italian sta bene, and a raunchy suggestion that I consider I may indeed be pregnant. She’s a rascal, that one.

Which got me to thinking.

I’m certainly not publishing to gain sympathy.
On the other hand, I do see this blog as an examination of life which inevitably leads to a discussion of the place of death in our lives, and, of course, anywhere along the continuum of illness and aging.
Sharing of personal events as goes on here is spectacularly on target.
And if sympathy for each other is a by-product of the sharing, so be it.
The price of honesty.

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Tagging Today
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
My 229th consecutive posting.
Time is 12.01am.
Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 48* under partly sunny skies with a breeze.

Dinner is leftover Hot Pot and a Tuna sandwich. 

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Question of the Day:
What mechanics did Michelangelo employ to sculpt the Duccio block?

Hints:

Left:
The key to the beauty and the balance of the composition was David’s right hand enclosing the stone.
This is the form from which the rest of David’s anatomy and feeling grew.
As the key to the Bacchus had been the arm raised high to hold the wine cup, the Virgin’s face the key to the Pieta.

This hand with its bulging veins created a width and a bulk to compensate for the leanness with which he had to carve the straight left hip opposite, even as the right arm and elbow would be the most delicate form in the composition.
Remember that the Duccio-block had been severely gouged and Michelangelo had to work around the cut.

Second from left:
Detail.

Second from right:
David as a political piece, asserting Florence’s resistance to more powerful neighbors.
Eyes warning enemies to stay away. 

Right:
Michelangelo sculpted David as a free-standing piece to be viewed at forty different angles.

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Short Takes:
During this time when I’m not at 100% I’ve continued to go to the club for workouts.
However, I lift only 65% of my normal load.
I make going to the club an easy piece to maintain the rhythm of my day.
It’s easy to add more weight when we’re ready.
It’s a lot harder to get back into a rhythm once it’s broken.

Short Takes:
Spoke to receptionist at my primary care office re: an appointment with a gastroenterologist.
It’s one of those deals where one needs a referral from one’s PCP.
So I got an appointment at 9.00am on Wednesday.
But not with my PCP who is booked for the week, but an associate.
Nobody knows me that well, anyway, as my last two PCP have left the clinic.

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Love your notes.
Contact me @ domcapossela@hotmail.com

Here’s one from Jim Pasto, educator, who’s done considerable research on sleep and dreams.
When Jim talks, people listen.

Dom,

I am sure it will be something minor. Could be acid-connected.  I have had odd sleep related symptoms related to acid reflux. It does strange things. That would make sense of the coffee connection too.  Please keep us updated.  

Jim

Web Meister Responds: The reduced enjoyment of my morning coffee continues.
Could be an age thing, body not wanting more coffee than 10oz, down from 14oz, my past normal.
But I am a believer in monitoring body signs and will continue to watch and report.

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Sketches of the City

Left:
Sunrise from apartment.

Second from left:
Sunrise reflecting from window into apartment and then reflecting back at photographer and into mirrors and reflecting back out into room and through window.

Second from right:
Sunrise reflecting from window into apartment and then reflecting back at photographer and into mirrors and reflecting back out into room and through window.
Less blurry.

Right:
Sunrise over waterfront.

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Answer to Question of Day:
The mechanics of sculpting a 2.000 pound, 17’ high block of marble, with a deep gash in the middle.

Setting up the Studio:
On 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task.
He began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September, a month after he was awarded the contract.

He would work on the massive statue for more than two years and needed a space for his studio. He found an artisans’ piazza, a private world surrounded by the backs of palaces and two-story houses. Work shops for about 20 artisans: leather tanners, coppersmiths, carpenters, wool dyers, flax weavers.
Michelangelo found a space.
Bare. Rough. Incommodious. Him.

But first he had to move the 2,000 pound damaged block to his studio.
The block was so seriously gouged in the center of its 17’ length that any attempt to move it in its current state could be fatal; a single jarring or lurching might split the column in two.

Michelangelo bought several of the largest pieces of paper he could find, pasted them over the face of the horizontal column, and cut a silhouette, taking care to measure the deep cut in the marble accurately.
He then took the sheets to his workshop where his helper, Argiento, nailed them up to the wall.

He moved his worktable to face the silhouette and on a second set of sheets, marked which parts of the marble would be discarded.
He returned to the yard of the Florence Cathedral and, careful to keep the balance in the piece, chipped away enough marble from the top and bottom corners of the block to relieve the danger of cracking.

For the move, help came from stonemasons, friends and family, who poured in to help Michelangelo.
They smoothed the road to the studio and then used block and tackle to raise the marble so they could get rollers under it.
Moving slowly.
As each rounded beam fell out the back end a workman ran ahead to insert it under the front end.
By nightfall, the marble was in Michelangelo’s enclosure and when his friends went home Michelangelo was alone with the marble.

Michelangelo had no use for his hundreds of drawings that took him to this point so he burned them. 

Michelangelo hired his out-of-work architect-friend, Giuliano Sangallo, to design and build a revolving table that could hold the 2,000 lb block.
And to design and build a scaffolding 15’ high that wrapped around the marble block so Michelangelo could work at one section for a while and then, jumping like a cat, get to another as he saw fit, top to bottom, side to side to side.

When Sangallo’s table was ready, more friends, 15 of them, all experienced stoneworkers, raised the horizontal marble to the table, standing it vertically.
Quite the feat.
Then the scaffolding went up and Michelangelo was in heaven.

As he started the actual chiseling, first Sansovino moved into the Duomo work yard between Beppe and his stonemasons and Michelangelo, to begin carving a commissioned marble of St. John . Rustici often came over to draw with one or the other. Baccio joined them to design a crucifix. Bugiardini regularly brought hot dinners in pots from a nearby osteria. Former apprentices came over to socialize. Soggi visited once in a while, wheeling a cart of cooked sausages.

Michelangelo, the star, ready to get to work.

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Good morning on this Tuesday, November 27, Christmas now 28 days away.
We talked about the essence of the blog, letters of commiseration, saw images of a sunrise, and talked about getting a 2,000 pound block of marble ready to work on.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom