connoisseur series500

For you historians out there: Do you know the event which apparently inspired Friedrich to paint this scene?

Awesome, Couw! Sounds like it would make a great vacation. Too bad I cannot afford any traveling right now.

OK, Guys, your points are well taken. I guess my annoyance comes from the fact that why alert me when it doesn't offer any advantages? It would be different if you offered Buy-it-now prices; then there is a definite advantage in being forewarned. I guess I can see Moose's point about trustworthiness and so on. Continuez s'ilvous plais! (Spelling?) Still, Shrugs, continue to offer here first if you like, I'll jump on something when I need it.

If you're so concerned about the low prices you might get, why don't you just offer them here for the price that you want? I mean, I try not to get upset whenever I see you guys pimpin your auctions, but I've got my ebay search engines pretty well refined already. Promoting the stuff doesn't help (at least with me.) Hopefully, you can find others who are more susceptible to your marketing. Personally, I offer my stuff here first, then I will go to ebay if nothing sells; but then that's just my way.

Thanks for the heads up, Mny. I may just turn off Ike Quebec here and turn on TCM.

Mny, the problem I have discovered in reading some of the lesser known Russian masterpieces lies with inconsistent translations. The Complete prose tales of Pushkin could be badly done depending on the translator. I learned in school to avoid Constance Garnett translations. My Russian lit teacher even claimed that she didn't know Russian, but depended upon a non-literary Russian speaker to translate for her. I find that one a bit farfetched, but that's what he claimed. Obviously, Tolstoy, Checkov, and Dostoyevesky are so well known that you can easily find good translations. Maude is an excellent translator for Tolstoy's work. That Complete Pushkin Tales could be the Modern Library version. Might not be the best translation. I generally like most of the Russian literature that I've read, and I've read much. Solzhenitsyn is wonderful. I particularly like "First Circle." Of course, Mny, knowing your education and drive, I wouldn't be surprised if you're not reading this stuff in its original Russian!

I would also add later Charles Lloyd to the list as well. Almost forgot!

It's an idiom, Jim. An idiom.

I love Friedrich's work so much that I bought a couple of books so I could look at his pictures. Penguin books used a Friedrich painting on the cover of Neitzche's "Ecce Homo." Great Romantic painter. I'm surprised that his work isn't found in many of the great museums of the world. Is most of his stuff in German museums? Perhaps the curators and trust committees just dropped the ball when his paintings were on sale. Interesting to know.

Which jazz artist or cd do you find very spiritual? John Coltrane's music would be an obvious example, but what of others? I found Salim Washington's "Love in Exile" to be a beautiful spiritual experience. I also think that much of Andrew Hill's music is very spiritual. Any other ideas?

I don't drink any soft drinks nor any liquid with sugar in it. Sugar is all over the solid foods I eat, so I put my foot down when it comes to liquids! Just hot tea without sugar, and plain old water. I do, however, eat bad things, so I'm not a gastronomic saint by any means.

Sorry to hear about your mishaps, Alex. Seems like you handled it the best you could. You obviously didn't take advantage of his drunken state to level him, but that was probably wise. Hmm, maybe better keep away from the proletariat masses next time, Alex Good news that your daughter will be fine.

sorry for getting this off topic. I should check out the reading thread. Good stuff you're reading.

And I'm focusing on my chess studies. Sorry, Joe. Wish I could. Mny, what Russians you reading? I've read a lot of Russian literature though it has been a long time.

How much you pay for a gig like that? $8

Can't improve much on GOM's comments. I highly recommend "Confessions of Nat Turner" (riveting) and his book of essays which I've forgotten the name of. Sounds like GOM has read more of Styron than I have.

Well, I got my own little party going on here accompanied by Jimmy Smith on the organ and Kenny Burrell on guitar and Grady Tate on drums. We're having a high old time!

Looks like you and I are the only two who are awake right now, Mny! Maybe everyone else is drunk or something.

Happy July 4th, everyone! :rsmile: B)

Okay, I managed to dig up a few books. Here is a good quote from "Wild Palms:" "I found out some time back that it's idleness breeds all our virtues, our most bearable qualities-contemplation, equableness, laziness, letting other people alone; good digestion mental and physical: the wisdom to concentrate on fleshly pleasures--eating and evacuating and fornication and sitting in the sun--than which there is nothing better, nothing to match, nothing else in all this world but to live for the short time you are loaned breath, to be alive and know it--oh, yes, she taught me that; she has marked me too for ever--nothing, nothing. But it was only recently I have clearly seen, followed out the logical conclusion, that is is one of what we call the prime virtues--thrift, industry, independence--that breeds all the vices--fanaticism, smugness, meddling, rear, and worst of all, respectability. Us, for instance. Because of the fact that for the first we were solvent, knew for certain where tomorrow's food was coming from (the damned money, too much of it; at night we would lie awake and plan how to get it spent..."

She's a big name, but somehow I missed her in my readings. Tell us more, Moose.

Flannery O' Connor is a brilliant writer. Her sense of humor is amazing, but there is always a very dark side to her stories. Her work is also deeply disturbing. The critics like to talk about her Christian view of life. In the end, Faulkner is the greater writer. He probed deeper into the mysteries of life, I think, and in such beautiful prose. I still have to dig up my copies of his novels... Another Southern writer who couldn't quite escape the Faulkner influence is William Styron. It's hard for any Southern writer to escape the Faulkner shadow.

Also, speaking of Hemingway; this also from Blotner's bio: "Poor bloke, to have to marry three times to find out that marriage is a failure, and the only way to get any peace out of it is (if you are fool enough to marry at all) keep the first one and stay as far away from her as much as you can, with the hope of some day outliving her. At least you will be safe then from any other one marrying you--which is bound to happen if you ever divorce her."

The Blotner bio is very good. As a famous man after winning the Nobel Prize, he once said to a class of students at a University: "I'm inclined to think that the only peace man knows is--he says, Why good gracious yesterday I was happy...That maybe peace is only a condition in retrospect, when the subconscious had got rid of the gnats and the tacks and the broken glass in experience and has left only the peaceful pleasant things--that was peace. Maybe peace is not is, but was." Beautiful!

An excellent first one to read, in my opinion. "Light in August" is very readable. Another good one to start with, which no one seems to mention is "Wild Palms/Old Man." Beautiful story. I'll see if I can search my boxes to find it and offer a few beautiful quotes.