Days are getting shorter, sort of...new art, lots of music, though.

Below the Fold is where lies controversial stuff, if you don't want to go there, stay above.

The link to my website: Claude Lyles Art Works  , recently updated. Best view is on your desktop, tablet or laptop; if, however, you view on your phone, the menu is in the "hamburger" in the upper left of the opening screen. It will give you several viewing options.

My only social media is Instagram. I use it to keep track of all the wonderful art being created every day, all around the world. Artworks without the blog! You can see a more current version of my comings and goings, art in progress, friends visiting SW Florida, etc. Instagram link, then to estudiocieloazul, or Claude Lyles

Reminder that you can click on photos to enlarge and pinch open even further. And, if you are curious about possibly purchasing a piece, contact me and I will quote you a price framed/ unframed. They are surprisingly affordable. 

New Art:

Rock study at St Clare Monastery, Ft Myers Beach FL , pencil, ink, pastel; 12 x 9"

Photo taken July 5 on FtM Beach, 7 AM walk

     I'm In: Registered for Drawing II at FSW for fall semester,  still working on registering for a painting class at FGCU.

Photos don't do the campus justice

FSW is a hybrid, there are several in Florida, essentially a community college with, I think 8 BA programs, such as Nursing. Athletics take place in the National Junior College program. Over the last several years men's basketball and baseball, and softball have been ranked #1 in the nation at several points over their season. Many players, also in women's basketball have gone on to DI programs. The campus is 3 miles from my house, which is convenient. The campus owns and operates The Barbara Mann Theatre which is the largest performing arts venue between Tampa and Miami. I have written about it in prior blogs. At The Mann we have attended many symphony performances, traveling broadway shows, pop/rock acts such as Gordon Lightfoot, Boz Skaggs, V Gill and L Lovette, Kenny Loggins, Debbie Boone's Vegas act, and various Christmas musical performances. Also, I am waiting to register at FGCU for a painting class. In FL, if you are a resident over 60 you may audit classes at the university level for free. The catch is, you can not register until the first day of class (week of Aug 19) to see if there is room - paying customers get first placement. So, we'll see. It is about 12 miles from the house. I, however, like "free".

Old Art:

"Finished" this pastel from last week at Lakes Park

This was an oil I did two years ago after a visit to Cashiers NC. I loved the pastel I finished at the time, hated the oil. Recently during some down time (I have lots of down time), I pulled it out of the "bad" pile, sanded it down and built on the underpainting. I feel it is much better now. Whiteside Mountain, a little east of Cashiers. 14 x 11 on wrapped canvas. 

Fun With Filters:
I applied my filter app to some photos, two of which are:

July 4, 2019 Fort Myers Beach, FL; backlit by lightning.

Listening To:

Leonard Cohen (see Watching below) recorded Live in Concert at the 02 Dublin, September 2013; More Girl Group Greats (although some are solo's, such as Lesley Gore, Mary Wells, etc. Still, fun 50's and 60's female singles.)

This is a family blog so I can't/won't reprint all of the lyrics to Cohen's Chelsea Hotel #2, a song about his time with Janis Joplin in New York. The story in the song is great, captures the place and time. Then I had to laugh, if you have seen these two faces -

..."I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel

Your heart was famous, your heart was a legend

You told me again you preferred handsome men

but for me you would make an exception

And clenching your fist for the ones like us

Who are oppressed by the figures of beauty

You fixed yourself and said, "Well, never mind

We are ugly but we have the music"

... I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best

I can't keep track of each fallen robin

I remember you well at the Chelsea Hotel

That's all

I don't even think of you that often.

     +++++++++++++

I wondered: What is the Beatles best song? So many from which to choose, an impossible fool hardy task? Just enjoy the music, guy.

Recently I read that Rain was Ringo's favorite -and one of mine, I would add. So different, and the drum lines are unique.

I perk up every time I hear the simple but pop-perfect Love, Love Me Do. She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand were massive game changers from what we had been listening to in the early 60's. Norwegian Wood, I love the feel and the story. Something? Many of their songs sold a zillion so they must be great... A Little Help From My Friends sure helped Ringo and was covered by so many.

This puzzle started when I heard Ticket To Ride on Sunday. This might have been a remastered version but as I listened I appreciated how they were able to blend John and Paul's voices, with John occasionally growling over the top, the drumming kept you interested and moved the story along. George's lead guitar lines work in any Air Guitar setting. Paul's base line pops up here and there. And, important in any pop song, a good story line. Give it a listen.

A lot of choices, probably none of them wrong. I'd like to hear what you think is their GOAT. I won't back down on my album choice, however...Beatles '65.  Actually released in 1964. Song after song, mature pop, no mushy Michelle ( I think the most covered song in their inventory and a contemporary, released on their next album, by the way), or Hey Jude here. Singable. Baby's In Black; Rock and Roll Music - what fun is that one; I'll Follow The Sun - totally different for them; Ringo go, on Honey Don't: She's A Woman, oh yea; The great lead-in on I Feel Fine; and all the rest. This album rocks, George was coming in to his own, it's is creative, is fun. I think it's their best.

Reading:

Leonard Cohen: The Flame - Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings; Leonard Cohen: Book of Longing. Tremendous lines and lyrics, you've heard them in his recordings. Nevertheless, most of this is reminiscing - some 30 years in the making/rewrites and often drug or alcohol infused rambling, apologizing, regretting. Yet, "...I've always felt an ambiguity about accepting an award for poetry. Poetry (and I the blog editor will add visual art) comes from a place that no one commands and no one conquers. So I feel somewhat like a charlatan to accept an award for an activity which I do not command. In other words, if I know where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often." 

I suppose I can add that artists work, study, attempt, erase, sand down, and recently for me, dream about pieces to come. We do our part. I have read it, heard it - Art (in the broad context) is what makes us human, elevated above the animals and vegetation. I guess our willingness to participate is part of our God-given free will.

..."We'd lay us down to give and get

beneath the white mosquito net

And since no counting had begun

we lived a thousand years in one..."

   ********

"You took me to your family
You warned me well before
that your father is a fascist
and your mother is a whore

I was kind of disappointed
I was bored to tell the truth;
your folks they're just Good Germans
but you, you're Hitler Youth

So I'm going to live in China
where you get a better deal
where your killer is a poet
and your comrade is a girl" - 1973



Humor:



   


Somebody I know?

There Goes The Neighborhood - Part 2:

So this guy couldn't leave his Z stock; he repainted in a custom red, added fender flares, new wheels, all of the emblems are off and changed his air dam/scoop.

Visiting:

We live 10 miles away, but had a chance to stay free (there's that word again) on the beach so we drove over on July 3, watched the fireworks, felt like we participated with a storm that came through two hours before the fireworks, took in some typical beach sunsets, ate lots of fish, including a couple of soft-shell crab tacos, walked, did some art, and returned home Saturday evening. Nice Staycation.

enlarge me

Watching:
Rented I'm Your Man, about Leonard Cohen, particularly his last years (died 2016 "You want darker, kill the flame".) You have heard several of his songs (really poems with "music" added) Such as Suzanne; Bird On The Wire; (flames that follow) Joan of Arc; Hallelujah; So Long Marianne; and Chelsea Hotel #2.


"You go your way,
And I'll go your way, too"

****

"I'm back on Boogie Street"

****

Who writes about the sun?
"I've been to the sun
It's nothing special
A place of violence
Much like our own

The sun said
I am an open book
Be patient
You will find
That everything happens
The same way
Here and there

The solar winds
are something else
no one masters them
No one really
Navigates them

You survive them
Or you are never
Heard from  again

I love the way the sun speaks
It is so calm and honest
Except when seized
By its own misfortunes."

Library rental, on tap to watch later this week.

Below The Fold---------------------------------------

Enter at your own risk

I can't add much to these clips from Babylon Bee, Patriot Post, etc.

What?

Unfortunate, but true. The poor father and daughter who left Central America, walked through Mexico, drowned in the Rio Grande, and floated back into Mexico. This wasn't a U.S. issue, was it?

Finishing with Phonies: