Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What are you reading Chapter 4
- Thread starter slobake
- Start date
Tangential image comment:
Two images taken about 20 years apart.
Ryoanji in Kyoto and the southern Oregon coast.
I only noticed the recurrence of the pattern years later.
The Japanese gardens are brilliant.
Very quiet when I was there, though I think Kyoto is much more visited now.
Belltower - Sogenji Temple in Okayama.
No fasteners in the structures under the eaves, the pieces interlock.
About 400 years old.
Storage building housing sutra books.
The design of the building makes it essentially breathe, to exchange atmospheres, moderating temperature and humidity, which run to extremes on Honshu.
Early morning in February, the light only hits like that briefly.
In temple structures, the orientation of the wood is marked when the trees are harvested, and the direction is preserved when it is used in the building. The tree cell growth responds to the prevailing stresses, such as the wind, and as a result the tree is stronger when oriented in directions that correspond to that. This is then used to orient the timber in a way that is best for load bearing in the building.
Excellent!
I have never been to Japan or anywhere of of this continent, but I'd love to go and visit all my favortite places from the dozens of books in my library on all thing Japanese (and some Chinese and Korean).
I visited Kyoto about 20 years ago. I sent an email to the woman I was starting to date "If I don't come back, I've taken up the Shakuhachi and become a temple musician here." There is indeed something magical about their architecture and garden design.
I've since taken up the Shak (I play badly) but did come back and married that woman.
Yes, all three places have incredible cultures and arts (growing out of rthe root of China). I briefly went to Pusan (it's required to go out of the Japan to renew visas). A beautiful city, and the Koreans have a whole different vibe - sometimes described as "The Irish of Asia".
I was actually just thinking yesterday how much I'd like to experience China: the incredible contrast between the rural, more traditional areas and the state of the art megacities.
All three are absolutely modern but retain their distinct ways, and cultural richness.
A French guy, Domyo, at the temple in the photographs. Lived on the streets of his Paris , took care of his little brother, when he was a kid. An incredible gardener, he loved his plants like children, I got to be his assistant gardener a few times. We were walking on fire check once (traditional last round of the temple in the evening to make sure everything is okay) and he started doing a shakuhachi song, just by half whistling and the way he held his mouth open. It is was astonishing how close he got to the sound.
Last edited:
Jazzdogg
Less barking, more wagging!
Thanks for the suggestion. We've toured a few Wright homes, and would love to see Falling Water.
If you tour Fallingwater, you should also tour the Wright house on Kentuck Knob. It's only a few miles away. Built later in his career and for a different purpose. It's interesting to see how he designed for a long-term residence vs. a summer home. There are also a ton of modern sculptures on the grounds to see as well.
Edgar was a relative on my father's side of the family. We went to Fallingwater in '90 or '91 long before its restiration work. We need to get back there.
"Little" yes...but not young.
I spent my first 10 years living in Pittsburgh PA not too far from Falling Water, and whenever my family had guests from out-of-town Mom & Dad would take the guests to see Falling Water.
But they have (had?) a very strict No One Under 12 Years Old admission policy...so despite the fact that my parents have been through Falling Water dozens of times, I've still never seen it!!!
Interesting! I can't remember how old I was when I went with my parents to see it. That may have been a later rule change? I'm pretty sure we went in the early 80s, so I would have been around that age.
If given the chance, all y'all should do the whole Darwin Martin experience, both the main complex in Buffalo, and the "summer home", Graycliff, not too far south of Buffalo, on the lake shore.
My gramps was a pattern maker for iron foundries and later built himself an aluminum foundry in an old mule barn, so I grew up being run out of his shop when I was kid. He offered to teach me how to do what he did but I had to go to church every Sunday as part of the deal, so I worked on motorcycles instead. I'm passable at sharpening but my experience was in machining and was mostly putting a radius on endmills and sharpening drill bits, etc. nowhere near the level required to be a fine woodworker.
Essays on Nationalism by Eric Hobsbawm.
I not sure where Dewey Decimal puts it, but from what I'm reading, it shouldn't be in the 300s (Social Science) but rather the 500s (Natural Sciences). In the section of bad design flaws.
Not many people know it, but Dewey Decimal had a band.
Dewey and the Slick Chicks. Had a big hit in the 20s, "Got Your Number".
Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks covered it on one of his early albums.
I not sure where Dewey Decimal puts it, but from what I'm reading, it shouldn't be in the 300s (Social Science) but rather the 500s (Natural Sciences). In the section of bad design flaws.
Not many people know it, but Dewey Decimal had a band.
Dewey and the Slick Chicks. Had a big hit in the 20s, "Got Your Number".
Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks covered it on one of his early albums.
"Bad design flaws" in Hobsbawm's method, or in nations?
Funny, and not like it will stoke controversy or anything, so for the record - no political discussion. But I just finished Roger Griffin's Fascism: A Quick Immersion. Griffin is an advocate for a "generic" concept of fascism, meaning that it's a genus that encompasses a variety of species of political movements, as opposed to "specific" concepts of it that limit the term to only a particular historical entity. But he takes an interesting approach to it; most ideologies, we tend to define intellectually, by the ideas of a political theorist like John Locke for liberalism or Karl Marx for communism. Fascism doesn't really have such a theorist, which is why there's so much wrangling over how to define it.
Griffin doesn't treat fascism as a ideological theory so much as an ideological narrative. The mouthful phrase he uses is "revolutionary palingenetic ultranationalism." What that means is that the "ultranation" is the protagonist in the story; it's the nation conceived of as a kind of organism that can be born, grow strong, sicken or die. The "revolutionary palingenetic myth" is that the once-heroic ultranation has gotten weak, sick, and decayed, and needs to be reborn through a radical purge of corrupting impurities in its institutions, culture, and population, so that it can enter a renewed heroic future. By that measure, there are lots of parties and movements that may be variously populist, authoritarian, or right-wing, but they aren't necessarily "fascist" unless they are driven by such a narrative. Meanwhile the narrative itself is very flexible and can incorporate or discard all kinds of contradictory ideas and agendas.
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
