Author Archives: essiep

On Murakami

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13°C, windy, cool and fresh. C 53 miles

Book: "Norwegian Wood", by Haruki Murakami
There is a lovely line in the book I am reading currently ("Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami.) He uses a simple language that is all the more powerful for it:

"Something inside me dropped away, and nothing came to fill the empty cavern. There was an abnormal lightness in my body, and sounds had a hollow echo to them."
…..Know that feeling?

I’m currently quite charmed by this book, it’s full of appealing characters and observations.
Today has been a relief, my heartbeat has dropped back to normal, (probably in the high 40s), so cycling was worry free. The air was fresh, sweet smelling and clear. All of this because my physical health has returned after long stubborn colds. I rode 53 miles today with no perceptible signs of tiredness, perhaps another 10 or 15 miles wouldn’t have gone amiss.
However, I failed to change a wheel on the car this weekend. It is getting close to the mark.

Summer’s end

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20°C, sunny.Sun

Thinks: there must be something about the end of summer. Why? After a nice day walking the dogs, sharing a meal with friends and stuff, I lay in the garden hammock until the sun went down listening while to my iPod*. I had that feeling that crops up, the one about the close of the season, time to finish unfinished business, lament, take stock and look back on the time of year that makes us feel alive.

*iPod: I need to upgrade, it’s a real pain that this Nano has such restricted space (4Gb) so I am looking at the Classic (which now start at 120Gb) but are much more bulky and heavy. There are some odd stories on the web about reduced sound-quality over the Nano series; they probably relate more to the 2nd series though.

Jacob Golden

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15°C, rain this afternoon.

Revenge Songs; by Jacob Golden is getting rave reviews in the media, is that because of the record’s euphonic sound? I’m not really sure how long I will like this album, but for now I am playing it every day. I never ever play an album more than once in a day, I really hate doing that- it just ruins the experience. On the negative side, is seems a little naive in places, and the production is a bit heavy on the reverb (or whatever it is).

News: I get to keep the toaster and the kettle!

I’ve returned, this far

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14°C, light clouds, warm afternoons.

This is: the new me. Or at least I am back, after wandering in the mires; I have returned. I shall not be stifled this time.
My cold is nearly over, my legs have the urging fizzy feeling again, so I rode at race pace to work today despite my lungs not being clear, none-the-less, I am out of the slow country. I draw breath through flared nostrils and the air smells sweet. My heart pounds against my chest in the old way it used to.

Wyeth: much to think over here, the more I try to understand the visual language, the more I am drawn in. I have two problems to solve, one is my own lack of experience with tempera painting. The other is the desire to become more fluent in this visual language. I shall read on.

Revenge Songs

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14°C, crystal clear, sunshine and hard-edged shadows.

Jacob Golden: "Revenge Songs" is presented with a euphonic sound, simple songs with charm and energy in places. Other times the close miked vocals create an intimate contact with the singer which invites repeated listening. There is none of the bitter melancholy of Malcolm Middleton, but this chap is far younger- this is, after all his debut album. there is another which should be worth getting.
The other new purchase worth discussing is the Andrew Wyeth book: "Memory and Magic". His art is a natural step from Hammershøi’s paintings. Some bear very close comparison, if only to suggest further understanding of both. The book is based on a set of excellent quality plates and three main essays by; Christopher Crossman, Kathleen A. Foster and Michael R. Taylor. I confess I have only heard of the last one, and have yet to read any of them- the book only arrived yesterday.

Fledge, little one

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9°C, rain & it’s heavy.

Sketchbook in watercolour: it came out as I expected, but it’s just too close to post here: take my word for it.
Instead, a short line of verse that entered my head in the early hours:

"I start this walk through bramble hedges and wait for the view to soften into cherry blossom"

Goodbye, but not for too long.

Period 5

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Sun & gales, 14°C.

What a muddle: I left my sketchbook at home today, today of all days! What with a period five meeting, I needed that book. In the end I cut some paper in the art department.
The face was from a  meeting, but the hand was drawn in Sch. Assembly this morning.

Murder, rain and rage.

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15°C, rain.

Unsettling: I rode passed a murder scene on the way to work this morning. The Police had closed the road, set up a cordon and a canvas tent stood ominously over a garden. Clearly, something dreadful had happened. Read
Later: I was subject to a road rage assault from a dustbin lorry driver. Had he some upset to recover from that drove him to verbally attack me? My “offence” was trivial, I overtook his lorry climbing to Shire Oak and which put him driving two cars behind me blasting his horn and shouting. He thought I should have stayed behind him. The rest of his thoughts were a jumble of obscenities and fist waving, all incoherently thrown as he stood at a red traffic light.
I remained calm.
Perhaps he was always like that; how unfortunate.