Consortium of Seven

Grassy crown green guitar head on straight full of star footstep light in the bar strong left hand artistry nostril flares beautifully other things also true only knew part of you

Drawing is a powerful form of communication. It’s a way to understand the world. It’s a foundation, a keystone. It’s amazing how much art requires drawing compared with how little some people seem to think it’s required. Of course, it’s not all that’s involved but like writing, there’s more to drawing than mere mark-making. I do love to doodle though, especially in the middle of an apparently endless meeting. Sometimes drawing keeps us occupied yet present, whether we consider ourselves artists or not. Drawing makes the impossible possible, it helps us make sense of what we see in & outside our heads. Aside from its functions in design, science & maths, I love to see an artist that knows the value of being able to draw & utilise its subset of various skills. Just because I prefer drawing in itself to other ways of expressing myself doesn’t mean that drawing doesn’t matter when it comes to painting or sculpture. In two dimensions at least, drawing brings me closer t...

 Two this week. A drama involving mysteries and a conspiracy, and the other a sci-fi comedy. One I've watched and am recommending, and other that's debuting today (May 29th), and which I'm at least intending to give a look. The first is on Amazon Prime , the latter two on Netflix . I wanted to lead with that info, in case you don't subscribe to either service and have no immediate intention to change that.   I'm not drawn toward most 21st century shows that have a strong anchor in service in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. (I've just snipped three paragraphs of unnecessary explanation for that.) Oh, it's standard character background everywhere, there no avoiding that. A military background is such an easy character building block, and writers draw on the wars recent history provides.  So, when in late 2018 I saw that Amazon Prime was launching the new series called Homecoming , the promos didn't grab me. The story is built around ...

   There are consummate writers, and there is me.  I am not trained in the finer, correct points of writing.  My eduction is of public school caliber, which I no longer recall.  I consider myself a “poet” but, not of the scholarly/literary caliber.  But, my mentor, nudger, reminder, inspirer on this journey encourages me regardless.     I was discouraged to be part of such an illustrious collection of fellow writers, and with tail between legs, suggested I be let go.  Negative, mentor said.  So here I put this out there.  Challenge accepted. Content to come that is from the heart, and hopefully will surpass my recent “best of my abilities.”     I thought my topic “music” would be easier for me since it is in my top three of favorite things in my life.  But conveying aspects of music was proving daunting, to be honest.  I am a work in progress in the writing arena, so bear with me.      I have ge...

Rest is a Sacred Act* I am heartsick and soul weary today. The news is too much, by which I mean the racist cops, the “leaders” who are deranged with greed for money and power, the folks who “need” to drink in a bar or play on a beach so badly that they endanger us all… you get the picture. It is time to take action, to write my congress people (and I use the term “my” quite loosely), to speak out and act out against racism (mine and others’), to Do Something. Last night I made a lot of phone calls to help get out the vote in Texas. I thought I’d feel a little better. I didn’t. I still don’t. What now? My teachers in the 12-Step world are always with me. Since 1985 their voices call out to me or whisper in my ear. I hear their laughter, their desperation for healing, their wisdom. They – all those women and men in all those rooms over the years – saved me from myself. I turn to them again today, in my grief for this sorry world I can remember what they have taught me and s...

"Among the yeomen and peasantry of the west of England, where Christianity in its most rigid and dogmatic form flourishes ... there still lingers a genuine and practical belief in witches and black and white magic, presumably a relic of a much earlier cult." If you've ever read Saki's short story  The Peace of Mowsle Barton , you might "remember" the quote which opens this post as perhaps something one of the story's characters said to a fellow train passenger, but no.  The passage is actually from a work of nonfiction written by H. H. Munro before he took the pen name Saki.  Some years before Saki went on to write the  pieces of short fiction for which he's best known, the author spent three years researching and writing a history of Russia. The quote about England's pagan roots is actually meant to be a connection to ancient Russian beliefs.  Or something. Saki didn't exactly shake up the world with his historical analysis, and...