Or You Practice Guitar (It Works For Me)

You use a glass mirror to see your face;  you use works of art to see your soul.
―     George Bernard Shaw
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On This Day In:
2022	Three Treasures
	Memorial Day 2022
2021	How Trump Won The Fringe Right
	Hold My Hand
2020	I’d Include Health Care
2019	Accustomed To It
2018	Booking My Trip Into The Expanding Universe
2017	Fear Instead Of Convictions
2016	Memorial Day – 2016
2015	A Handful Of Reviews
	And You Can Quote Me
2014	Get Wisdom
2013	Enjoying The View?
2012	Adam’s Rib
2011	I’m Sure I Remember That…
	Memorial Day, 2011

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For All

I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.
—    William Morris
[Found at one of the blogs / web sites I follow:  https://ididnthavemyglasseson.com/
The specific post is at:  https://ididnthavemyglasseson.com/2023/02/22/33779/
Please visit the original site if you have some spare time…    —  kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	Dreading The Slide Towards War
2021	Joyous Incompatibility
	My Heart Will Be Waiting
2019	Two Guarantee Freedom
2018	Less Mouth And More Back
2017	I Ought To Be A Little Careful
2016	Rising From The Ashes
2015	Honor
2014	Disappointment
2013	Seeing Heart
2012	On Success
2011	What This Place Needs Is Another Theory

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Living By The Seat Of Our Pants

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
––     Ernest Hemingway
[Realist, Modernist, Expressionist, Impressionist, Abstract…  We each paint our own picture with our lives.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	Putin Invades Ukraine To Recreate The Old Soviet Union
2021	Even If It’s A Nice View
	There’s A Calm Before The Storm
2020	First Steps – The (California) Primary Vote
	#IncompetentTrump Administration Faces A Pandemic
2019	Hearts Torn In Every Way
2018	Recently Seen On A T-shirt:
2017	Rhythmical Creation
2016	In The Beginning
2015	False Gods
2014	But Sometimes Careers Choose People
2013	Pretty Sure Of Uncertainty
2012	Face Reality
2011	Intelligent Luck

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Take Time

It takes time to live.  Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.
—     Albert Camus
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On This Day In:
2021	A Loss Of Happiness
	Early Boy Band Choreography
2020	Wear A Damn Mask!
	I Can’t Stay For Long
	Boxing (#2): First Lessons
2019	A Surprisingly Good Way
	It’s Official X-mas (Tree) At Home
2018	Weight / Health Update
	What’s Happening With You?
2017	The Great Leveler
	Conservative Depressions
2016	Election + 1 Month
2015	Dance And Sing
2014	A Measuring Stick For Progress
2013	Courtly Love Or Victory Over Habit
2012	Have We Met?
2011	Efficiently Useless

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How To Begin

To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing.
—     Pablo Picasso
[To get the kind of society you want, you have to begin by voting for the kind of government which will support and promote it.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Looking Up
	Shiny
2020	#45: Or All-Consuming Greed
	You Could Have Told Me Yourself
2019	Not Personal
2018	Preference For Irrationality
2017	All At Once
2016	One Of My Vices
2015	The War Lord
2014	Orange October (II) – Giants Win NLDS Game 2 In 18 Innings (2 to 1)!!
	Acknowledging Doubt
2013	Fulfilled Acceptance
2012	Error Is Tolerated Here (So Far)
2011	In Defense Of Pain

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True For All Arts

 

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.
—    Ralph Waldo Emerson
[…And blog sites.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Driving To Your Destiny
	Angels
2020	It Almost Certainly Will If #45 Is Re-elected
	Sssshhhh
2019	Deciding, Doing, Done
	Day 5: Getting Easier
2018	Thought Experiments
	Day 38: Going Crazy
2017	Which Did You Learn?
2016	Shape And Limit
2015	Me Either
2014	Just Business
2013	Beautiful Adventure
2012	Precedence
2011	Ya Think?

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“Tends To” Is Not Always

I don’t know that art can be understood in any final way, but a search for understanding tends to open one’s eyes rather than close them.
—    Jasper Johns
From the interview:  “15 Questions“
Written by:  Belinda Luscombe
Appearing in:  Time Magazine;  dtd:  11/18 Oct. 2021
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On This Day In:
2021	The Beauty Of Life
	Seeds
2020	Better Sooner Than Later
2019	Possibilities And Challenges
	And Miles To Go Before She Sleeps
2018	What I Tell You Three Times Is True
2017	And So On
2016	Kept
2015	Envy * 2
2014	Destiny For The Talented
2013	I Do Not Fear It
2012	Until Found
2011	Reducing Goods To Data
	The Fog Of Civilization Building

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A Loss Of Happiness

My mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years…  Poetry of many kinds… gave me great pleasure…  Pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight…  But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry…  Music generally sets me thinking too energetically on what I have been at work on, instead of giving me pleasure.  I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did.
…
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive.  A man with a mind more highly organised or better constituted than mine, would not, I suppose, have thus suffered;  and if I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week;  for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use.  The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.
—     Charles Darwin
From:  “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin: 1809-1882“
[Originally found at one of the blogs / websites I follow:  https://www.themarginalian.org/
The specific post is:  https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/11/28/darwin-life/
Please visit the original site if you have a some time…    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	A Loss Of Happiness
	Early Boy Band Choreography
2020	Wear A Damn Mask!
	I Can’t Stay For Long
	Boxing (#2): First Lessons
2019	A Surprisingly Good Way
	It’s Official X-mas (Tree) At Home
2018	Weight / Health Update
	What’s Happening With You?
2017	The Great Leveler
	Conservative Depressions
2016	Election + 1 Month
2015	Dance And Sing
2014	A Measuring Stick For Progress
2013	Courtly Love Or Victory Over Habit
2012	Have We Met?
2011	Efficiently Useless

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Seeking Emergence

Simplicity is the final achievement.  After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
—     Frederic Chopin
[After barely 200 hours of practice, I can not claim to say I’ve played “a vast quantity of notes”.  But, in seeking my own “voice”, I believe I am already seeking simplicity.  I can (already) see why some become obsessed with playing an instrument and making the music in their head come out.  It is very much like the first time you get a computer program to run successfully and then successively pare the program until it feels elegant (to you).    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Seeking Emergence
	Walking Alone
2020	51 Days Until The Moron (#45) Is Out Of Office
	Tearing The Roof Off It
2019	#Impeach45: Once A Buffoon, Now A Bad Joke
2018	Good Sense
2017	E Pluribus Unum
2016	Lacking
2015	Chip, Chip, Chip
2014	nom de plume
2013	The Real Reason
	From The Book
2012	When Young
2011	14 Ways To A Better Judgement

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Does Blogging Count?

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
Seriously!  I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives.
—     Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
From a letter to students at Xavier High School in New York City in response to an invitation to visit their school.
The quote is part of a larger response which was found on one of the blogs I follow:  https://news.lettersofnote.com/
The specific post can be found at:  https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/make-your-soul-grow
[Please visit the original site if you have a spare minute.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Does Blogging Count?
	Another Notch
2020	Even Being President For Almost Four Years
	#45: Crying About The American Voters
	Dying Isn’t Much Of A Way To Make A Living Boy
2019	And Autumnal Foliage
2018	Up Hill, Both Ways
2017	Trump Carnivores – The Revolution So Far
2016	Election Results
2015	Speak Louder
2014	Why I Frequently Give In
2013	Am Remembering
2012	Sustained Fear
2011	Commitment

 

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It Cannot Be A Science

Obviously historiography cannot be a science.  It can only be an industry, an art, and a philosophy by seeking perspective and enlightenment.
—     Will and Ariel Durant
From their book:  “The Lessons Of History“
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On This Day In:
2020	What’s Inside You?
	Think Of Me And Smile
2019	Impeaching The Idiot In The Oval Office
2018	My Religion
	Day 22: Step And Hang
2017	Adrift In The Oval Office
	Regrets – The Donald Failed The Test
2016	Just Ask “The Donald”
2015	Did You Pass On It?
2014	Even When It Ain’t, It Is
2013	Still Happens
2012	Possessing Eternity
2011	I Thought We Were Talking About Afghanistan

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Living At The Edge

Both the man of science and the man of art live always at the edge of mystery.
—     J. Robert Oppenheimer
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On This Day In:
2020	Poor Proof
	Right From The Start
	You Voted For An Incompetent And Corrupt Business Person To Drain A Political Swamp
2019	I Wish This Were More True
2018	Used To Rejection
	Day 16: Looking Ahead (Just A Little)
2017	Tonight
	I Rejoice
2016	Conscientious Courage
	Speaking Of Which…
2015	The Beautiful Snow
2014	Nurtured By The Voices
2013	Précis
2012	Fear And Understanding
2011	Just Being Human

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Spending A Lifetime Learning To Draw

All of life is a constant education.
—    Eleanor Roosevelt
Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
—    John W. Gardner
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On This Day In:
2022	Map Or GPS?
2021	Spending A Lifetime Learning To Draw
	Go A Little Slower
2020	Light And Dark
2019	My Dog Scratches At The Bedroom Door
2018	One Person Can
2017	Been There, Thought That
2016	Diligent Students
2015	Unanswered Prayers
2014	Pray, v.
2013	As I…
2012	But We Need Room
2011	A Definition Of Leadership

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Or Faith In A Creator…

Everyone wants to understand art.  Why not try to understand the song of a bird?
—    Pablo Picasso
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On This Day In:
2022	8 And 9 (40)
	Prescient (Or Not?)
2021	Or Faith In A Creator…
	It Seemed The Taste Was Not So Sweet
2020	Nearer My God To Thee, By George
	I’ve Got To Keep Working On It
2019	Laugh With Me
2018	Both Sides, Mr. President?
2017	Republicans Better Wake Up
2016	Truth Telling
2015	To Be Effective In The Modern World
2014	A Little Cover
2013	Binding
2012	Lift
2011	Another Good Movie, Another Excellent Book
	miSFits
	I’m Just Not Sure

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Art Work

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
—    Anonymous
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On This Day In:
2022	Do People Know What You Stand For?
2021	The Republican Party Can Survive Trumpism (If It Wants To)
	Don’t You Ever Ask Them Why
2020	Art Work
	One Person (Republican) Can Make A Majority
2019	Hopefully, Closer To Noon
	Can You See The Bottom?
2018	Stock Market Sets Another Record Under #DumbDonald
	#LyingDonald: About That Special Prosecutor Testimony
2017	We Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
2016	But You Have To Learn It Feels Good
2015	Never Stop
2014	Caution
2013	Treat Her Like A Lady
2012	Build New Worlds
2011	I Grok Elegance
	Standing Relish

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