Dennis Hollingsworth

Admin/MailCall/Season's Greetings & Condolences

The boilerplate:

The Comments are still out of commission for the meantime, that's alright by me. I don't miss the insidiously neccessary despamming chores. People chime in via email (the address is to your left in the margin), and that's been working out fine.

The comment function will be restored soon enough, reliant as I am for the help of a good friend for this fix. I told him no worries, to do it as his own pace, and I meant it.

Tranquilo, hombre. No pasa nada.

In terms of blogging, this is an ideal blogger's summer vacation -not having to clean spam drek every day.

***

Let's start with a look at the mail from the turn of the new year:

John from Tossa sends us this pic which is either a photoshop, or some sharp photographer had his gear ready once back twenty five years or so ago. Tossa is much balmier than this, but temps last year were the coldest in twenty five years and the thermometer dropped below freezing once or twice.

However, this is a good evocation of how Tossa felt for us last Winter. Our next project: califac?on (a heating system).

Thanks, John! John is from Utrecht and he has made annual treks to Tossa for over twenty years now. Enterprising, he has a web design business. He also keeps a site which functions as a love letter for his second home.

***

Piet and Monique send good wishes:

We are very sorry to read about the bad luck of Stephanie.

Hope that things will not turn out too serious.

They too are from the Maastricht, taking a long break between projects in Tossa. Monique, a beautician, has family in town. Piet used to produce/direct programs for the BBC. An engaging and probing personality, I enjoyed (and enjoy) our talks a great deal. His house there reminded me of California architecture with its' broad window walls facing the sea, blurring the interior and exterior of patios and pools and gardens, very Case Study. Dinners at his place always made me a little homesick for Cali.

Cheers to you guys! All the best in '06!

***

A new reader tuned in:

Dear Dennis Hollingsworth

Just to say I came across your weblog via Brent Hallard?s site.

Just to say that it is a fascinating blog,a great insight into your artistic working process, life and the evolution of your paintings.

Best wishes and good luck for 2006

Mick Finch

Very nice to make your acquanitance, sir!

It's nice to know that people are taking notice. It's much appreciated to be sure.

...ok. I couldn't help myself. I googled for Mick's stuff. I usually feel funny when I find out that people whom I 've first met have googled my name immediately after our handshake. Is "creepy" he right word? No, it's too strong, but you might get my point.

Anyways.

Nice stuff, Mick!

***

Robert Sweedler sent a bear hug:

Hi Dennis,

Read your blog this morning. Woe, poor Stephanie. Wish her my best. Ou, ouch. Sometimes it's better to wait a while for surgery. There's so much inflammation right after the original trauma that it can make a good surgical procedure more difficult. This of course requires me to issue my standard disclaimer that I am not actually a surgeon or even an M.D. for that matter.

- Paintings look beautiful. Would like to come see them

Rob and his partner Howard own the best art store in Los Angeles, Roark. A longtime merchant located in the center of the inner city core, the increasing number of homeless folk in the neighborhood have forced them to move to the edge of the downetown core, closer to USC (another powerful future blogpost, I promise). Pics of their new store to come soon!

***

Bill Gusky sends a recipie/remedy to the rescue:

2 things:
-- Egg Drop Soup from any Chinese restaurant will take the edge off. Get a pint.

-- go to your nearest vegetable juice joint and get a 12 or 16-oz of this:

wheat grass
green apple
spinach
cucumber
garlic
ginger
broccoli

Keep some water nearby to chase it down - it's disgusting. But it will help you feel better, sooner.

Hope everyone's feeling better soonest -
B

Yes, thanks so much for that. We soldiered through in good shape (Stephanie has a bit to undergo yet). It was humbling, though. Normal sentience is a prized possession.

***

Doug Henders says hello:

Hello Dennis

Poking around the net a few weeks back, I peeked into your blog when you
so eloquently painted the picture of the artistes bellied up to the bar in
Chinatown. You laid out each character in such a novelistic fashion that I
was beginning to feel thirsty for such comradery, then the 911 phone call
came in with the broken wrist and all the drama. Good show, your blog.
(Godspeed to your wife).

And you have an exhibition at Nicole's this spring. I finally get to see the
alchemists confabs in the real.

Then the topic gets personal, so I edit for discretion's sake.

Resuming:

I enclosed a pic of recent paintings (and my wife) from Art Cologne.

All the best,

Doug Henders

I'm looking forward to meeting him and seeing more paintings in the flesh. Thanks, Doug!

***

Mick Finch wrote that he found this blog from Brent Hallard's site (link in the soup to the left colophon). Thanks, Brent!

Brent says hello;

Hey Dennis Happy New Year. Right it's a bit late. Happy new day!
Been offline for a while (still am but cruising the harmonic spheres at the pay-job--seeing what folks are up to on blog). It's great your planning a show here. Tomio's new place is cavernous. I mean cavern, really-!! I'm sure you seen it via jpg.

Anyway, best for 2006.

Again, the topic gets personal, so I edit for discretion's sake.

Resuming:

:)
b

I'm a bit late, too! Happy New Year to you too. I'm looking forward to meeting up once I get to Tokyo again!

***

Steve LaRose, an old friend and school mate at grad school, sends his best:

d
If it isn't one thing its another.
I keep checkin' in and hearing about these barriers/hurdles/ and curve balls in your life.
I hope you're rollin' with everything, re-directing the flow.
b/t/w thanks for putting me in your link soup. I average a couple hits a day from your link.
s

Thanks, Steve. Good stuff in your blog, great work there!

***

Chris Ashley sends some consumer intelligence over inthe wake of my broke back iBook adventure:

Dennis,

You wrote today, " I wanted to wait a bit before
replacing my aged iBook with the yet to be unveiled
new powerbook G5 line that might come out this year. I
guess it wasn't meant to be."

I've pulled the following from a weblog that was
following Job's presentation
(http://engadget.com/2006/01/10/steve-jobs-keynote-live-from-macworld-2006/),
and it looks to me, unless you're talking about
something else, that your wish could some true quite
soon:

1:28 PM - "You know, there's been this pesky little
problem with PowerBooks..."

1:29 PM - "We've been trying to shoehorn a G5 into a
PowerBook. We've tried everything. We've consulted
every [slide of the pope, huge laughs] ..." Steve's
going to explain the enigmatic Performance per Watt
metric.

1:30 PM - PowerPC: 0.23 rating for performance per
watt. Core Duo: 1.05, more than four times better.
"Today we are introducing ... the MacBook Pro"

1:31 PM - "It's a new name because we're kinda done
with power, and we want the Mac name in our products."
The same dual-processor as the (new) iMac in every
model. "This is hard to believe: 4-5x faster than the
PowerBook G5. These things are screamers."

1:38 PM - $1999 1.67 Code Duo, 512 MB RAM, 80GB, 4x
superdrive, Aiprort Extreme. $2499 for the fully
loaded model.

1:38 PM - Shipping in February. "If you want one I
suggest you get your order in early."

Good luck with your data.

Chris

This, characteristic analytical depth from the great Mr. Ashley. Thanks so much for that. It seems that my machine busted down on the very week the prospective replacements were unveiled. The consolation: at least I won't be the early adopter Beta Tester for the new MacBookPro. I'll have to wait for the subcutaneously injected nanoMac G10, the first Apple computer ever to break the blood-brain barrier! I'll beta test that puppy, no problem!

***

Steve sent a postscript:

d
Oh yeah, I also forgot to point you towards a brief zardoz riff at Third Factory Notebook, a poetry blog. (from Jan 7).
s

Thanks, Steve! But I don't care what anyone says, Sean Connery is the man and if Sean nodded to Boorman's flight of fancy (admittedly a coughing bong hit of an idea -yet no less visionary), then it's alright by me.

Zardoz! Zardoz!

"Zed! Where are you?"

***

And now, an inspired note from Jimmy from Hog Heaven:
(Warning: If you can't dance, you might have trouble reading this.)

Robert Penn Warren

happ??b-lated Christmas...and new ?ear..
sorr??!!2 hear about ur wifes calamity!..pains a touchahell..healing a
touchaheaven.. Hope shes doing better

If snakes were blue, it was the kind of day
That would uncoil in a luxurious ease
As each mica-bright scale exposed a flange of gold,
And slowly, slowly, the golden eyes blinked.

[reall??liked ur response @ color last time I blipped u..like music..or
specificall??interpretting jazz standards..musical perfection is
mathamatical..but musical inspiration is divine.....not 2 diss the dead but
it is like the difference of ole joe albers yahhh das is un
complementar??colores....??hh....ok blu and orange alwa?s do this....but
look at his wifes exquisite throw rugs with all the openhearted chips of
fragmentar??colors whipping a gu?s retina into an emotional , delightful
swirl..which takes the chords of standard color and enriches them...]

It was the kind of day that takes forever?
As though minutes, minutes, could never be counted?to slide
Among the clouds like pink lily-pads floating
In a crystal liquid pure enough to drink.

[it seems that to scientifically reduce the potential of color to
poettalk 2 ones eyes , reduces painting to {oftentimes } geometrics....not
that some of carl benjamines..or early al held..or novaros 70s stuff or
majical ms martins grids...(I can feel the rich sexy?scudging across the
canvas at coentiss slip on a gre??winter da?....)....but let color have some
potential to delight in its naked chords descriptions...like a sharp
fiorentine window of the late clothes designer enrico coveri..sweet palletes
that get messed up by the wearing...]

And there was no distinction now between
Light and shadow except the mystic and faint
Sense of adaptation of the iris,
As light diminished and the first star shone,

[glad u got to michigan for winter colors...i thought the photoes of the
cartiledge exrays reminded me of some of ur "clusters"..]

And the last very, hidden in a thicket of alder,
Thought it would break its heart perhaps?or yours.
Let it be yours, then. For such gentle breaking
In that ambiguous moment could not be

[ annie albers throw rugs..make me recollect walking the streets in
turke??and seeing the women run those ragrug looms , each woodenrackety
heave-pull making a row of chromatic congruity willed or other..then again,
then again...all rightly AND mostly?"going together"..colors for the
foot---priced by the centimeter HA]

Less than a blessing, or the king of promise
We give ourselves in childhood when first dawn
Makes curtains go gold, and all night's dreams flood back.
They had guaranteed our happiness forever.

['spose one can sort of learn the facts....then 4get em and paint
or some.getting it "by ear"..OR "by eye"..never read the music ..but can
reall??pla?]

And in such a way promises come true
In spite of all our evil days and ways.
True, few fulfillments?but look! In the distance lift peaks
Of glittering white above the wrath-torn land.

been busy..im grading right now..for me big job..btw..3 of
my?kids got awards at the count??contest..and one , inna klimenchuk had hers
sent to state...whoooo ahh go kids go...love those kids artworks...thats
good cuz yo?co?ld make more mone??panhandling in a walmart parking lot than
u can teaching iniowa HA>.(@ 26 g's a year)..
keep u pthe great stuff...talk to u later..owner of my farmhouse
sent me a notice that he is gonna doze the buildings so I gotta bolt before
march yikes my wife is in a flurr? ...me too I guess..seems like im always
moving in winter with short notice..pilgrims and sojo?rners I am reminded

ur friend in hog heaven....jimm??murray

Yes, music, of course. Closer to the category of light, music can aggregate opinions into communities of appreciation. Less elemental, there are more modalities to connect with in the music sphere.
I like reading is prosepoetry swordwordplay.

A postscript:

Something like this..(one of m??favorite experiments HA!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nist_stone_test_wall.jpg

Absurd ..but in terms...of..frail human curiosity..kinda kool
Like bentley and his thousands of phots of snowflakes...perhaps

And then a postpostscript:

One of my fav architects said..(dig the museum for glaciers)

Fehn said, Anytime you write a poem, you need to find the balance
between your thoughts and your language. Whoever cannot put his poetic
ideas into a built structure has no architecture basics. Structure is the
core of architecture, and it cannot be expressed in numbers. It is the
original part of the story an architect can tell about life and people.

(Unfortunately, I don't know yet how to cut and paste while maintaining the tabs and indentations of the original. So thi sreproduction mauls Jimmy's concrete poetry a lot. Sorry Jimmy.)

Good stuff.
All the best to you!

Posted by Dennis at January 17, 2006 9:37 PM