The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
Jelaluddin Rumi
Photo: Roses I, 2009, Guido Mocafico, Via Wayneford’s Posterous
Guns and Roses Exhibit, Hamiltons Gallery, London thru 20 February 2010.
Text: The Essential Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks.
Cocktail of Choice: la fée verte (the Green Fairy), also known as Absinthe.
Good
and
quickly
seldom
meet
~Anonymous
L’esprit de l’escalier or esprit d’escalier (stairway wit) is the sense of thinking of a clever comeback in an encounter when it is too late.
The phrase can be used to describe a riposte to an insult, or any witty, clever remark that comes to mind too late to be useful— when one is on the “staircase” leaving the scene of the encounter.
The phenomenon is usually accompanied by a feeling of regret at having not thought of the riposte when it was most needed or suitable.
Featured: Stairway at the Louvre, Paris, 2007
“A man
should look
as if he bought
his clothes
with intelligence,
put them on
with care,
then
forgot
about them.”
-Hardy Amies
“Life itself is the proper binge.”
~Julia Child
As I bounce around online looking for images I always look for the extraordinary, the esoteric, the naive, and the emblematic of a time; works that are not the pieces we often see in design history books.
Just as a map helps us find our way and shows us where we are, looking at design from years past helps us better understand the trajectory contemporary design has taken. DesignObserver.
The novelist Alison Lurie wrote: “Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of the mind beneath it.”
Stephen Jones, the greatest milliner of his generation, disagrees.
“Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of what a person would like to be."
“The golden moments
in the stream of life
rush past us
and we see nothing
but sand.
The angels
come to visit us,
and we only know them
when they are gone.”
-George Elliot
“I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fake Chanel”
Following her counterfeit faux pas, the culture’s rebellious “bad girl” Courtney Love has been granted a reprieve by Karl Lagerfeld’s court. Fortunately, the iconic rock star is now decidedly back in fashion.
In this classic novel of old New York, Edith Wharton recreates the city of her girlhood in the 1870s. The Arion edition has been illustrated with photographs of the actual settings of the story.
“Truly a thing of beauty” according to Forbes magazine, this edition celebrates a classic of American literature. The book has a special status as an affectionate record of the streets and buildings of New York City. At every moment of the novel the reader knows where the characters are, walking down a particular street, standing in front of a certain address, looking out the window of a familiar room.
The Arion Press edition is illustrated with images of the novel's actual setting, as they are today, captured by noted photographer Stephen Shore who brought to this project a personal knowledge of the historic buildings and streets that made up Wharton's New York world.
New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman raved: "The work’s laconic eloquence speaks of an era and a nation."
Francis Bacon's sickly serene Self Portrait 1971 is a refracted faceted face akin to some of Paul Cézanne's self-portraits which are reminiscent of cut precious gem stones reflecting light. Bacon painted with a very dry brush giving the sensation of a granular, grainy effect.
The melancholia mood is of a man melting before you: a disturbing image of a disturbed man in a disturbed century. This is one of the last great self-portraits Bacon painted before he went off the rails and went back into to the lazy worn grooves of inane illustration.
The Errant Aesthete©
July, 2007 - January, 2012
The Errant Aesthete©
All Rights Reserved
If you would like to reprint an article or repurpose a photo, please email for permission.
EMAIL: worddrawing@gmail.com
Chère Suzanne:
Happy Valentine’s Day, and thank you for the beautiful roses. Since you have been getting back to your cocktail swilling roots lately, I would like to recommend one of my favorite cocktails to you and your readers for your Valentine’s celebration, the French 75, named after a French canon known for its reliability and nice kick.
French 75
1 oz Bombay Sapphire® Gin
½ oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
4-5oz well chilled champagne
Combine gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup with cracked ice in a shaker. Stir or shake well, strain into a chilled champagne flute, and fill with ice cold champagne. Garnish with a maraschino cherry in the glass and (optionally) a small orange wedge on the lip. Get ready for a treat.
–Utah Mixologist
How divine – a valentine we all can toast to. Dear sir, a profound thank you for this exquisite cocktail aptly named after a French canon “known for its reliability and nice kick.” Something, I daresay, we all need from time to time. Happy Valentine’s day!
That cocktail does sound good. Unfortunately, I am suffering the after effects of swilling too many myself last night.
Happy Valentine’s Day. Hope you receive the roses you post.
CG,
Make no apologies. Swilling is an art that requires ceaseless practice.
Delightful…!