THE NEST IS ROCKING

The pictures may be gothic, but musically it's still soul & funk revival time here at The Dodo's Nest. Right now The Dodologist and The Itsy Bitsy Dodolinga In Pink is rocking to Laura Vane & The Vipertones. It's highly recommended:




_____

VINES

A new attempt at an old favourite; trying to get to the essence of those vines. Lotsa photoshopping obviously.

_____

GIRL AND BULL

An old picture I always knew could work, but that I've never been satisfied with, though I've tried many times. So I decided to give it real hell i Photoshop. And finally I'm satisfied.

_____

WINTER NIGHT

Sometime in December. Only minor curve adjustments in Photoshop.
_____

EARS

After a couple of months of little or no photographic experimentation, The Dodologist is slowly picking up camera and Photoshop again. Examples will be posted here, and first out is the picture Ears. Actually, it's not photshopped at all, except from being cropped.

_____

“THE LEVELLED CHURCHYARD", BY THOMAS HARDY

“O passenger, pray list and catch
Our sighs and piteous groans,
Half stifled in this jumbled patch
Of wrenched memorial stones!

“We late-lamented, resting here,
Are mixed to human jam,
And each to each exclaims in fear,
‘I know not which I am!’

“The wicked people have annexed
The verses on the good;
A roaring drunkard sports the text
Teetotal Tommy should!

“Where we are huddled none can trace,
And if our names remain,
They pave some path or p-ing place
Where we have never lain!

“There’s not a modest maiden elf
But dreads the final Trumpet,
Lest half of her should rise herself,
And half some local strumpet!

“From restorations of Thy fane,
From smoothings of Thy sward,
From zealous Churchmen’s pick and plane
Deliver us O Lord! Amen!”

_____

ARTHUR HUGHES' OPHELIA

It’s not as well known as Millais’ Ophelia, but personally I'm of the opinion that Arthur Hughes' depiction of the tragic girl is the best Ophelia to come from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and its followers. It was first shown in the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1852, the same year at Millais’ Ophelia and the year Hughes turned twenty.

It hangs in the Manchester City Art Galley, where I saw it the first time. I believe I spent half an hour just staring at it.

Years later Hughes painted another Ophelia, but it is not as good by far.
_____

BILLIE DAVIS BONANZA

The Dodologist has a weakness for British female pop singers of the 60s. None more so than Billie Davis. Thus, ladies and gentlemen, a Billie Davis Bonanza:














_____

"AH, ARE YOU DIGGING ON MY GRAVE?", BY THOMAS HARDY

"Ah, are you digging on my grave,
My loved one? - planting rue?"
- "No: yesterday he went to wed
One of the brightest wealth has bred.
'It cannot hurt her now,' he said,
'That I should not be true.'"

"Then who is digging on my grave,
My nearest dearest kin?"
- "Ah, no: they sit and think, 'What use!
What good will planting flowers produce?
No tendance of her mound can loose
Her spirit from Death's gin.'"

"But someone digs upon my grave?
My enemy? - prodding sly?"
- "Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate
That shuts on all flesh soon or late,
She thought you no more worth her hate,
And cares not where you lie.

"Then, who is digging on my grave?
Say - since I have not guessed!"
- "O it is I, my mistress dear,
Your little dog , who still lives near,
And much I hope my movements here
Have not disturbed your rest?"

"Ah yes! You dig upon my grave...
Why flashed it not to me
That one true heart was left behind!
What feeling do we ever find
To equal among human kind
A dog's fidelity!"

"Mistress, I dug upon your grave
To bury a bone, in case
I should be hungry near this spot
When passing on my daily trot.
I am sorry, but I quite forgot
It was your resting place."

_____

THE MEN WHO STARE

The Dodologist and The Wife saw The Men Who Stare At Goats the other day. I rather enjoyed the book, as I mostly do with Jon Ronson’s writings, but the movie isn’t that much to brag about. The fiction plot is never more than OK and great acting by Jeff Bridges and George Clooney seems rather wasted. (The goats are cute though.)

But it does have one really, really great moment – and a very, very meta one at that: When George Clooney explains to Ewan McGregor what it means to be a Jedi …
_____

GHOSTS OF AUTUMN PAST

Early last autumn I was forced to spend a couple of days at a hotel outside of Oslo (it’s called “work”, I believe). It was, as is to be expected of this work thingy, rather dreadful. But I did get to spend a morning at the beautiful Tyrifjorden, taking lots of pictures (with a tri pod, which was a first).

The soundtrack to that morning was the record Ghosts, by The Triple Tree. Ghosts is a homage to M.R. James, perhaps the greatest writer of horror stories ever.

The Triple Tree is Andrew King and a certain Tony Wakeford, and skadoodling around on YouTube, I came across this fascinating and beautiful video to the song The Ghosts of England:





Here are some of the pictures, by the way (click'em for larger versions):









_____

"THE SECOND COMING", BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

_____

CAN'T REALLY ARGUE WITH THAT

Totally Looks Like, specialists in finding the doppelgangers of the celebrities, has revealed that super celebrity Falkor, the luckdragon from The Neverending Story, has a lookalike in a faded pop singer these days mostly known for her marriage to a guy who plays football.

Can't really argue with that.
_____

BACK TO BLACK

The Dodologist has been listening to neofolk (with small excursions into neoprog and classical) for more than a month. It’s a great way to make January even bleaker. Nothing like a bit of jolly misanthropy to light up the post yule Norwegian winter.

But it was time for Change, so it's Detroit revival-time here at The Dodo's Nest: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Great fun:





And yes, the recording and video is from 2007. And if the backing band sounds familiar, it might be because they backed a certain heavily tattooed, Jewish dopehead a few years back (to black). You might have heard about her. Beerhouse or something.
_____

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERY OF THE SCHIZOPHRENIC DETECTIVE

It is not often that I would call His Lordship, the most excellent Lord Bassington-Bassington silly (he does, after all, have a nasty bite), but here I will make an exception: His recent post on Sherlock Holmes is just plain silly, insisting as it does on Jeremy Brett’s interpretation of Holmes to be the canonical one.

I am myself a fan of Jeremy Brett. Though after seeing quite a few episodes again recently, I must admit that they are not as good as I remember them. Brett’s portrayal of Holmes is of course grounded in the books, but he tends to exaggerate wildly parts of Holmes’ personality, while overlooking others.

Conan Doyle’s Holmes is a far more complicated figure than Brett’s. If he wasn’t, he would not be as good at gaining people’s confidence as he is.

If anyone were to choose only one portrayal of Mr. Holmes as canonical, the obvious one would be the canonical one: Sherlock as he comes across in the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Every other portrayal of him must be seen in the light of them.

I’m still a fan of Brett, though. It’s mainly the production that is dated, not Brett. He is as cool as ever. But his is still an interpretation.

To deny oneself the pleasure of other interpretations, as Bassy does in refusing to see the new Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr as the great detective, seems to me a silly thing.

The fact is that Robert Downey Jr’s interpretation of Holmes is quite a good one, partly even rather obviously moulded on Brent’s. And he is coupled with a surprisingly good Jude Law as Watson. They are in themselves reasons enough to see the movie. As is Mark Strong as a rather wonderfully villainous villain.

But the real stars of the movie are London and CGI. The entire movie has the feeling of watching a real life cartoon. I rather expected it to turn into steam punk at any moment. It simply looks so damn good – way too good to be real.

Downey Jr’s Holmes is more of an action figure, as was to be expected, but he is still one of the better Holmes-actors I have seen. The inclusion of Irene Adler opens up for a little romance – she is after all The Woman – but fortunately not too much.

The plot is far fetched in the extreme, seemingly supernatural, though rationalist at heart. But it is great fun, in the same way as Pirates of the Caribbean was fun: Silly, absurd and over the top, but loveable and good hearted.

But the most important difference between the Brett series and the new movie, is that this is not based on a Conan Doyle story. As far as I remember all the Brett episodes are.

This is a pastiche on Holmes, standing in the long and proud, if often incredibly silly, tradition of Holmes pastiches.

As pastiches go, it is one of the more extravagant. The mixture of secret societies, peculiar science and strong indications of supernatural influence, makes it something entirely different from Conan Doyle’s stories. Though I am not at all sure the old Conan Doyle wouldn’t believe most of it.

Another rather obvious difference is that the Brent series has high and rather serious artistic ambitions – ambitions it to a large extent lives up to – whereas the new movie is a piece of cartoonish popcorn entertainment. It is a good cartoon, in a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen kind of way, but it’s still rather camp. It is fun though, something the Brent series seldom is. The two are, in other words, two entirely different species. And they are both prime specimen.

My simple point is this: There is no reason why a fan of the great detective should not be able to enjoy different Sherlocks. Homes is an ingrained part of our popular culture, someone who can and should be played around with. There is no true Sherlock Holmes outside of the Conan Doyle's stories.

Which interpretation we prefer is of course a matter of taste, but there is no reason to fear that Holmes will be contaminated by a silly romp like the new movie.The stories are strong enough in themselves to survive any kind of tomfoolery.

But of course the real mystery of the movie is this one: Guy Ritchie made a couple of decent movies. Then he married Madonna and became The Worst Director On Earth. No sooner has he parted company with the lady, than he makes his best (or possibly second best) movie so far.

Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Cursed Madonna. Now that is a movie someone ought to make – the sooner the better. I wouldn’t mind Robert Downey Jr playing Holmes.
_____