Sal, do you know Hillman’s “Alchemical Blue” and “The Azur Vault”? both now in the Alchemical Studies volume of his collected essays. Everyone loving this might be interested.
Loved “Bluets”. It’s fresh and subversive and made me see the world differently. It’s a gray day here so currently the only blue I see is the canvas on my husband’s boat.
have you read sheila heti's pure color? another book that made me think a lot about color, green in particular. it's a bit looser than your standard novel but i really liked it.
After reading your post I set off on my way to Hildegard (the garden project place here in Berlin where we all recited your spell in December) and I paid special attention to blue on my way to the train station, taking photos with my phone as I went. I wondered if I could just post the pictures, which I can't see a way of doing here, and maybe it's more fun to try to describe them:
The first thing I saw was a blue bicycle parked next to one of those little blue plastic bags dog owners often discard in the street. Then I saw a steel hydrant cover, painted blue, surrounded by lush green weed growth. Up ahead of me now was the bluest vision, a house being renovated, its scaffolding all draped in blue netting, out front a blue chemical toilet cabin, with an electric blue car parked across the street. As I was snapping this, the reddest van I've ever seen photobombed the scene. Next there was the blue wrapper of an FFP2 mask, the blue plastic lid of a box of tobacco, and the flattened blue tin can of a Red Bull special edition. On the railway bridge, the big concrete post anchoring the balustrade was spray-painted bright blue, with LOSS OF LAND added in black and GAZA in white. As I crossed the road to the station, a very pleasing tableau with two blue pedestrian crossing signs standing out against the green foliage of trees. Then the freshly repainted sign in the shape of an arrow pointing to the outdoor swimming pool in a nearby park, with an ocean blue wave representing the water. And finally, on the platform, the navy blue digital display with thin white lettering telling me my train was coming in two minutes ...
Nick! This brought to mind so many of our psychographic adventures. Do you know about William Burroughs’s color walks (I’ve written about them from time to time). Yours is a perfect example.
Here’s Burroughs walking blue:
“For example, I was taking a color walk around Paris the other day…doing something I picked up from your pictures in which the colors shoot out all through the canvas like they do in the street. I was walking town the boulevard when I suddenly felt this cool wind on a warm day and when I looked out all through the canvas like they do in the street. I was walking down the boulevard when I looked out I was seeing all the blues in the street in front of me, blue on a foulard…blue on a young workman's ass…his blue jeans…a girl's blue sweater…blue neon…the sky…all the blues.“
I agree, the colour walk has its place in the grand tradition of constraint-based walking as aesthetic practice, which somehow bleeds into (or is bled into by) the grand tradition of walking as a practice of meditation and/or prayer, like those mazes on the floors of medieval cathedrals (Chartres again!) or Thich Nhat Hanh's "A Pact With A Staircase".
Sal, do you know Hillman’s “Alchemical Blue” and “The Azur Vault”? both now in the Alchemical Studies volume of his collected essays. Everyone loving this might be interested.
Tom, I’d love to see those! Thanks for pointing me that way.
I found both of these essays online, for anyone who is curious.
Alchemical Blue: http://www.pantheatre.com/pdf/6-reading-list-JH-blue.pdf
The Azure Vault (downloads as a .doc file): https://www.vilaserenarj.com.br/personals/Hillman_The_Azure_Vault.doc
seriously everyone - read these.
Loved “Bluets”. It’s fresh and subversive and made me see the world differently. It’s a gray day here so currently the only blue I see is the canvas on my husband’s boat.
Does he have a blue sail? Or perhaps more likely, a blue cover?
The dodger and bimini are blue. So is the hull. ☺️
The book I’m reading right now:
Gorgeous! This reminds me -- Rebecca Solnit writes beautifully about blue in "The Faraway Nearby." I'll have to dig that up . . .
Oh, yes, I'd forgotten that. What a pleasure to collect as many blues as possible.
have you read sheila heti's pure color? another book that made me think a lot about color, green in particular. it's a bit looser than your standard novel but i really liked it.
Yes, I loved it. I’m a Sheila Heti fan. As I was posting this, I was just thinking I should read it again.
Hey Sal!
After reading your post I set off on my way to Hildegard (the garden project place here in Berlin where we all recited your spell in December) and I paid special attention to blue on my way to the train station, taking photos with my phone as I went. I wondered if I could just post the pictures, which I can't see a way of doing here, and maybe it's more fun to try to describe them:
The first thing I saw was a blue bicycle parked next to one of those little blue plastic bags dog owners often discard in the street. Then I saw a steel hydrant cover, painted blue, surrounded by lush green weed growth. Up ahead of me now was the bluest vision, a house being renovated, its scaffolding all draped in blue netting, out front a blue chemical toilet cabin, with an electric blue car parked across the street. As I was snapping this, the reddest van I've ever seen photobombed the scene. Next there was the blue wrapper of an FFP2 mask, the blue plastic lid of a box of tobacco, and the flattened blue tin can of a Red Bull special edition. On the railway bridge, the big concrete post anchoring the balustrade was spray-painted bright blue, with LOSS OF LAND added in black and GAZA in white. As I crossed the road to the station, a very pleasing tableau with two blue pedestrian crossing signs standing out against the green foliage of trees. Then the freshly repainted sign in the shape of an arrow pointing to the outdoor swimming pool in a nearby park, with an ocean blue wave representing the water. And finally, on the platform, the navy blue digital display with thin white lettering telling me my train was coming in two minutes ...
Nick! This brought to mind so many of our psychographic adventures. Do you know about William Burroughs’s color walks (I’ve written about them from time to time). Yours is a perfect example.
Here’s Burroughs walking blue:
“For example, I was taking a color walk around Paris the other day…doing something I picked up from your pictures in which the colors shoot out all through the canvas like they do in the street. I was walking town the boulevard when I suddenly felt this cool wind on a warm day and when I looked out all through the canvas like they do in the street. I was walking down the boulevard when I looked out I was seeing all the blues in the street in front of me, blue on a foulard…blue on a young workman's ass…his blue jeans…a girl's blue sweater…blue neon…the sky…all the blues.“
https://www.pwf.cz/en/archives/interviews/453.html?rocnik=2007
But what I love best is your descriptions!
I agree, the colour walk has its place in the grand tradition of constraint-based walking as aesthetic practice, which somehow bleeds into (or is bled into by) the grand tradition of walking as a practice of meditation and/or prayer, like those mazes on the floors of medieval cathedrals (Chartres again!) or Thich Nhat Hanh's "A Pact With A Staircase".
I’m always drawn to these ‘useless’ practices — aesthetic, spiritual, and freshly, newly drawn to them right now.