Fish as art

First in a series of two 

I write this post a year before it will appear (18.11.20).  This comes as a result of nearing the end of the strangest of years 2020, not the most difficult, but distinctly odd  –  a year in which you hesitate to go for a walk because you might be caught and fined, a year in which I can count on one hand with fingers to spare the times I have gone further than my immediate neighbourhood, times when I greeted people with my elbow.  Thus, in this time, I went back, sifting through my archive of photographs.  I came across my visit to the Aquarium at the Waterfront in Cape Town.  Most of my pics were an out-of-focus mess, but some, I think, were reasonable.  I share them.

 

 

 

 

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

December, 2021

 

My photographs, published by RotsWolk Publishers, Cape Town

 

 

“Summertime”

Time magazine did not rate Summertime as the greatest song of the 20th-century, but they might have.  It was written in 1934 with the music by George Gershwin.  It is said that Ira Gershwin also contributed to the melody.  The lyrics were written by DuBose Heyward on whose novel the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess was based and where Summertime is sung.  Since that time the cover versions of the song have multiplied and the statistics have reached the Guinness Book of Records.  Many jazz musicians have performed and recorded the song and for my taste the version that culminates this history is that of the rock group Big Brother and the Holding Company with the singer Janis Joplin.  If music has ever been vein-splitting in intensity, then this is it.

The music most appropriately suggests blues structures, specifically southern folk spiritual lullabies, with the gentle bass vamp.  The lyrics are in my opinion profound.  With lines suffused by seering irony, the mother finds comfort somewhere and sings her baby to sleep

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy

Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high 

Yo’ daddy’s rich, and yo’ mama’s good-looking

So hush, little baby, don’t you cry

 

One of these mornin’s you gonna rise up singing

spread yo’ wings and reach for the sky

but until that mornin’ nothing’s gonna harm you

With Daddy and Mammy standin’ by

 

And the melody climbs through the gentle vamp as if it is spreading wings.  It is a song of hope amidst abject poverty and hopelessness.  It is my number one.

 

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

November, 2021

 

Source

Wikipedia “Summertime”

 

My graphics, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ste Jeanne d’Arc Cathedral, Nice

Third in a series of three

The Cathedral with its deep historical roots was also a masterpiece of deco design.

 

 

 

 

There must be very few buildings in the world that have a design with this depth of vision.  The woman at the tourist office told me that the building is not popular amongst the Nicoise  –  they call it meringue on account of its colour and the cupolas.  Perhaps she doesn’t know much of the history of architecture.  As I have said, this is a monument in the history of the architecture of the sacred with implications for contemporary spirituality.

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

November, 2021

 

My photographs, published by RotsWolk Publishers

Ste Jeanne d’Arc Cathedral, Nice

Second in a series of three

Despite the modernist minimalism in the art work of the cathedral, there was much to see.  In 1934, Eugene Klementoff painted the Stations of the Cross as murals, another departure from tradition.  This work was influenced, they say, by Russian cubism, the Italian quattrocento and by Byzantine icons.  I found these paintings as novel as they were moving.

 

 

 

 

There were a number of sculptures, also in an entirely uncluttered mileiu.

Three angels

 

Figure of Christ

 

Christ in blessing

 

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

November, 2021

 

My photographs, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

Ethiopian art in the church