Duty

April 29, 2010 By

“By July 1945, Los Alamos was ready to test its bomb. Oppenheimer sent a cryptic telegram to scientists back at Berkeley: “Any time after the 15th would be a good time for our fishing trip…As we do not have enough sleeping bags to go around, we ask you please do not bring anyone with you.” The test, code-named “Trinity,” took place on July 16. It exploded with a force equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT. Recalling the scene, Oppenheimer said: “A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. There floated through my mind a line from the “Bhagavad-Gita” in which Krishna is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty: “I am become death: the destroyer of worlds.”

-PBS- Robert Oppenheimer

I watched the above program about Robert Oppenheimer several years ago.  Recently, I watched another PBS program on “Mai Lai”, called “the worst atrocity in American military history”.  The victims:  Vietnamese women, children and elderly in 1968.  It is a part of the always amazing “American Experience” series and I immediately thought of Oppenheimer’s above quote and the exhortations to the Prince to do one’s duty.

The disquiet in my room following this Mai Lai show has not gone away three days later.  I do my daily shooting and find the shadows and fore-shadowings even in flowers and spring.  It is a documentary that is a meditation on people doing their “duty”–One man’s duty, Lt. Calley, another man’s death.  One man’s duty, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson (US helicopter pilot), another man’s savior.

Same war, same side, same human nature: one American soldier (as well as others)  kill Vietnamese women, children and elderly and another American soldier fighting the same war, on the same side, with the same human nature, rescues Vietnamese men, women, and elderly.

How can “duty” be so different?

You can watch it online here.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Flower Photography, PBS, Robert Oppenheimer, Vietnam War Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Black Radish

April 28, 2010 By

I think there has been one too many “man-with-a-bomb-on-board” stories.

When I look at this black radish all I see is some sort of explosive device- not a garnish.

I can tell you one true thing:  I wouldn’t travel with one in my pocket.

©Pat Coakley 2010

PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Humor, Radish, Vegetable Art, VEGETABLES Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Upside Down-UnTiring Potion #1

April 27, 2010 By

Remember Harry Callahan’s simple (O, yeah, simple–until you try to duplicate it) image that has been speaking to me for several weeks?

Oh, admit it you’ve forgotten.  Here it is again.  CLICK!

Well, it’s been speaking to me for weeks but it was only the other day when I listened.   I landed on a new website by accident and read the words of a Robert Lowell poem called “Eye and Tooth”:

“I am tired.  Everyone is tired of my turmoil.”

Click I understood what I’d been hearing from Callahan’s image.  I knew where to start.

I went down to the Queen Anne’s Lace clump (there’s no other word for it) by the pond early this morning and began a new series.  A series that shall take time to evolve but I begin with an image that suggests ‘time’ to me by turning it upside down.   I don’t mean just the approximate hourglass shape either.  I mean it is only sharp on the edges, top and bottom; the center is not in focus.

By making it into a near tentative shape,  recognizable–but not really; evocative–but evocative of what exactly?–I begin with skeletal symmetry, my version of Harry Callahan’s image.

This is a prevailing creative mood I have: flashes of sharp focus on the periphery–but, rarely, is there a sharp dead center.

Perhaps, it is an evolutionary mechanism that as we get older, we grow more comfortable in blur?

Why get really really clear on the endgame, anyway?  Just more to worry about.

PS.  My cousin’s husband and his first wife used to live in Hartford, Connecticut in the house Robert Lowell had once called home. He has many Robert Lowell stories.   First and foremost, he told me that Lowell was a notorious crank:  if  little children bothered Lowell as he walked to work in the morning, he’d kick them!

He was in bad need of becoming “un-tired” of himself , but apparently didn’t know about the “upside down-un-tiring” potion.

Or, and I think this more probable: I think he saw the endgame more sharply and nuanced (as poets do) than the rest of us.  His poem of this photo would have the center in focus and the peripheral out of focus.

Note to self:  continue to live in a non-poetic blur as much as possible.

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Filed Under: Creativity, Deep Thoughts, Narcissim Tagged With: , , , ,

Sunday Brunch

April 25, 2010 By

If I was having a Sunday brunch these flowers would be on the table.

“Fancy” tulips they are called in the store but there’s gotta be a better name.

I’m calling them the “John Singer Sargent” Tulips because their color and texture reminds me of the silk dresses he painted so fabulously on his turn of the century (19th century!) fancy ladies!

At this fictional brunch I would also serve little pancakes filled with raspberry jam or chocolate chips or my personal favorite, heath bar toffee chips with maple syrup or homemade hot fudge sauce and bacon.  I just bought the pan at William and Sonoma outlet store in anticipation of an upcoming sleep-over of my 12 year old grand-niece.  It is the cutest damn pan.  It s called Ebelskiver and is described as making “delicious round pancakes wth fillings inside”.  Here it is in French: “crepes rondes delicieuses avec remplir.”

Anything in French makes my mouth water.

You could serve me sardines from this pan and I’d eat them if you said it in French.

Well, no, I wouldn’t go that far.  But, it’s cute, this pan.   Trust me.  I’m going to photograph it today to see if I can scan sweetness from its contours and add it to my “Tools of the Trade” gallery which you can view below.

“Tools of the Trade”

©Pat Coakley 2010

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

••Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Food, Food Preparation, Odds and Ends Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Don’t Take This The Wrong Way: You’re a Bitch

April 23, 2010 By

I was afraid to put my face in the scanner as 100% bet your house on it I’d open my eyes as the scanner light beam passed over me.

My hand will have to do.  It’s a 65 year old hand and it looks it.

My face does, too, apparently.

I heard it through the toxic grapevine.

What exactly is “the toxic grapevine”?

An old friend I had recently seen told another friend that although I looked very good (weight loss) my skin care needed some work.

BTW: of the two “friends”, I’d say the one who passed on the information to me directly deserves the “Meow Meow” award.  However, since I don’t want to insult kitties everywhere (I’ve got some kitty lovers who read this blog) I’m renaming the award to “Bitchy Chardonnay”.

This grape is a particular vintage with many varieties.  In my instance, it is the screw-on cap bitchy chardonnay with a small “b”.  For most women, like the GE commercial, “It is the fabric of our life”.  Friends can be petty.  Particularly, about how we “look”.  Big whoop.

As my wise niece says, “It’s about balancing things out.” If you say something positive, gotta level it out with a negative because lord knows you don’t want anyone getting too big for their britches.

I suspect more women than male readers are now nodding, “Say no more.  I’ve been on both ends of this petty bitchy-britches party.”

But, there is the aged, cork-in Bitchy Chardonnay with a capital “B” variety that both sexes can contribute to and that is the fuel of bullying networks within schools and playgrounds and, in fact, all abusive relationships.  This variety is not simply meant to hurt feelings or demand britches adjustments– it wants more than that.  It is as aggressive as a machete.

It can kill people and wants to.

One chronically “bullied” boy in Massachusetts is currently on trial for stabbing a classmate to death in the school bathroom.  The dead boy was unknown to his murderer.  They had never crossed paths until this fatal moment.

The bullied boy’s defense is mental illness.

In a separate case, high school kids from a different Massachusetts town have just been charged for a pattern of bullying and tormenting a fellow classmate that led to her suicide.  I’m not sure about their legal defense but a mother of one of the accused teens was quoted as saying that the dead girl, “started it”.

Bitchy chardonnay with a small “b” requires another “friend” to decide it is information that needs to be shared with the introduction, “Don’t take this the wrong way.”  And, it requires the phrase being uttered with conviction–as if there is more than one way to take something– even when there is patently only one way.

Bitch Chardonnay with a capital “B” simply dispenses with the ‘don’t take this the wrong way” entirely and goes for the jugular.

It is not about my skin care no matter how wrinkly, just as it is not about the dead boy’s relationship with his murderer.  There was no relationship.  It is a about how we human beings try to make our own sad twisty little selves feel better at the expense of others.

It’s in the DNA of human history writ large–wars, genocide as well as writ small, such as as Madison Avenue.  It can sell “stuff”.   Oh, let’s say a skin creme, for example– (out of nowhere, I know) as in “You are going to look better than other oldies, if you buy this skin product.”

It starts out so simple, doesn’t it?  A throw-away line like “Don’t take this the wrong way” or even more subtly, Clairol’s, “Because I’m worth it” (the subtext being there are others who are not worth it?)… and it ends up.. well, frankly, it ends up sometimes with folks dead.

Mental illness as a defense may explain some of this, but, clearly, not all.

Whilst I think my deep thoughts about all this, has anyone heard about Retinol A?

©Pat Coakley 2010

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Filed Under: Friendship Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Underwear Ha Ha

April 20, 2010 By

Oh, I am not kidding about this.

Underwear shopping in 2010 for the agin’ single gal is foot stompin’ hilarious.

My first pass by the rack left me thinking this must be a sewing store with a sample rack of pieces of fabric.  It’s either that or the assembly line in China forgot to assemble the whole garment.  Underpants require some sort of pant, no?

The 2010 answer is clearly, “No”.

I just saw a rather large string with a waist band.  Granted they were different colors and patterns but honestly some were not large enough to even display a pattern.  Was that a flower or a polka dot?

You know I love polka dots but this garment promised me a permanent wedgie and that was before I put my clothes on.

And, hold on, but I think we’ve also gone from the wedgie to the ridiculous with the selection of girdles available: they range from whole body sausage casing (thank you, Carol, for putting that image in my head for the last four days) to- and this is not one word of a lie-the thong bottom attached to a girdle midriff top.  I suppose it’s for those ladies who have that little extra somethin’-somethin’ muffin top that might interfere with their bangin’ bottom?

This photo is from that lovely exhibit I saw at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, title, “Waste Not”.  It explored permanence and intransience through a reconstruction of the home of the artist’s mother and the actual entire contents of the home in China over a fifty year span.

No thongs visible in this house but the factory which makes them was probably down the street.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Humor, Shopping Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Chrysler Building

April 19, 2010 By

Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.  (Thank you Carol King for reminding me of all my infomercal puchases over the years in search of transformation)

If I ever fall through the black hole of transformations, tumbling a over tea kettle gripping my plastic, please let me become a painter.

©Pat Coakley 2010

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMSSION

**select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Botanical Photography, Organic Vegetable Art Tagged With: , , , , ,

Stacked Up

April 18, 2010 By

If you are female between the ages of 40 and 60, you need to read this article n the NY Times today, called, “The Estrogen Dilemma”,

If you are my age, 65, you can read it—go ahead–but the decision you’ve already made– at least since 2002– to steer clear of estrogen replacement regimens, is not being revisited for those of us well beyond menopause.  Just about everyone seems to agree that starting hormones long after menopause is a no-no.  Something about irritating those dead cells and increasing your risk for every goddamn thing.

But, women in mid-life need to educate themselves again on what the science is today, as unlike the 2002 sudden reversal of hormone replacement treatments, many scientists studying this question now say that there is a window following menopause where taking estrogen may be a healthy decision and lower risks for heart disease, osteoporosis, depression, as well as Alzhemer’s.

Which, by the way, is what doctors USED to say to all women (except those with a history of breast cancer) when they approached menopause.

So apparently just like fashion, e.g. those platform shoes of the 60′s that one can now buy in 2010, your meds can go in and out of truthiness.

I feel like I’m in a Samuel Beckett play.  One day it takes me all day to stack the dishes in the left kitchen cabinet and then the next day I spend all day taking them out and re-stacking them in the right cabinet.

At least, they are colorful.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Depression, Female Health, Health Tagged With: , , , , ,

Botanical Belief in God

April 17, 2010 By

There is a pattern.  I see it now very clearly.

Here are examples from last year:

Queen Anne’s Lace

The Dill Plant

The Zinnia

This year, 2010, I begin my ‘under’ thing with the Fancy Tulip.

Seriously, this flower may actually make me believe in God.

If you can’t fly to France today due to the volcanic ash cloud or go to church because it’s closed due to the costs of excessive pedophilia, go to the flower store.

You can view my “Tulip Love” gallery here.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Flower Photography, Flowers Tagged With: , , ,

A Harry Callahan Kinda Love

April 15, 2010 By

The divine Donald Diddams (I am working out his nickname- 3D, Triple D, Divine Double D but am verging on Victoria’s Secrets so have to decide on just one) raised an issue on his blog about the cross pollination of  influences we all have when making “aahrt” in this global, internet age.  We are a click away from someone else’s vision and does it homogenize our view or expand it?

Recently, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and saw three exhibits that triggered my creativity button.  I’ve already blogged about Luis Melendez and posted some images here and here which I did after seeing his exhibit.   You can view pieces from this exhibit( and two others I’ll talk about) on this website, arttattler.com.

After viewing some of Melendez’s images,  I think you’ll agree that no one would look at my images and say, “Damn, that’s a Luis Melendez’s knock-off!”  (I wish, btw.  I friggin’ wish.)

But, what I took away was being in the presence of an artist with great love of his subject.  A subject, I share in common with him.  Does it sound too goofy to say after viewing his still-lifes, I wanted to love my subject just a bit more passionately?  If this is cribbing, bring me more of it and if some skill comes with it, so much the better.

But, today, it’s Harry Callahan, an American Photographer, whose work was also on display and some of his images I actually have in my own portfolio.  What?  Yes, images taken by me but images he would recognize.  The one posted is exhibit A.  Was it taken by Mr. Callahan. No.  Had I seen Mr. Callahan’s work when I took it?  No.  But when I saw his images, I did a double-take.  I thought he might have been under the same tree in England,  He displayed multiple frames of his tree.  All of them were different angles from this image.   I took this many years ago, so many years ago that it was in slide form and I had to scan it into digital form.

This exhibit would also be affirming to Razzbuffnik as I saw several of his shots in the Callahan exhibit also.  On the arttattler.com, it is the street scene of a woman passing him.  It looked the black and white version of many street scenes Razz has taken, most recently on his recent trip to Europe, Spain and Portugal.  You can view several of Razz’s street images HERE.

I think my Lucy five cents on this topic of cross-pollination is that while we may stand under the same tree, or walk on the same streets, or strand of beach, what we shoot is invariably different.  Our own personalities cannot be “lifted” either consciously or unconsciously.  But, our love of our subject can grow more passionate by viewing other artists’ work..

The image from the Callahan’s exhibit that has caused me the most reflection can be seen HERE.   Those familiar with this blog know I am totally taken with the architecture of Queen Anne’s Lace in all four seasons.  I know I shall be visiting them soon with this image in mind.

And, Divine Triple D, I think that’s a very very good thing, as Martha would say.

Here’s what Harry Callahan said about the subject:

In order to make a statement about one’s photography, there should be some statement about oneself. I started photography as a hobbyist in 1938 at the age of 26.  I had had no formal training.  In 1941, as a member of the Detroit Photo Guild, I saw and recognized for the first time some fine photography by Ansel Adams.  This was a revelation.  It led me to search out my own way of photographing intuitively.  Searching and stumbling revealed to me that my photography would be one of continual change.

That about covers it, 3D, don’t you think?

Let’s raise our glasses for a toast.

(sounds of “tap tap tap” on a crystal glass)

“Here’s to MORE Pollination!.”

(sounds of bees buzzing and/or mouse clicks)

©Pat Coakley 2010.

PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com

Filed Under: Art, ART IS WHERE YOU FIND IT, Artists, Creativity, Culture Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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