"Í Tokuni" by Eivør

"Í Tokuni" ("Into The Mist") by the Faroese singer-songwriter Eivør.
Wow.

Gangi í tokuni
Eina í djúpu kvirruni
Síggi ongar varðar
Burtur allir garðar
Rópi men ongin svarar

Inn ímillum gloppini
Í mjørkaklæddu náttini
Hómi eg skuggar
Tykist sum okkurt rørir seg har
Rópi men ongin svarar mær

Vinur, vinur sært tú meg
Gangi her í tokuni
Hevur tú reikað líkasum eg
Í deyðadjúpu kvirruni

Sást tú gøtuljósini
Lýsa í bygdini
Sást tú hvat tey gjørdu har
Minnist tú hvussu støðan var
Leitaði nakar eftir mær

Vinur, vinur sært tú meg
Gangi her í tokuni
Hevur tú reikað líkasum eg
Í deyðadjúpu kvirruni

Hevur tú eins og eg
Gingið í tokuni
Burturvilst frá slóðini
Ytst á fjallatromini
Kennir tú hetta einsemi

Vinur, vinur skilir tú meg
Veist tú nakran loyniveg
Hevur tú reikað líkasum eg
Í endaleysu óvissuni

Vinur, vinur skilir tú meg
Veist tú ongan loyniveg
Hevur tú reikað líkasum eg
Í endaleysu tokuni

English translation:
Walking in the mist
Alone in the deep silence
Can´t see any cairns
Gone are all the houses
I call out but no one answers

In between the gaps
In the mist-clad night
I sense shadows
Seems as though something is moving there
I call out but no one answers me

Friend, friend can you see me
Walking here in the mist
Have you wandered as I have
In the silence deep as death

Did you see the street lights
Shining in the village
Did you see what they did there
Do you remember what the state of things were
Was anyone looking for me

Friend, friend can you see me
Walking here in the mist
Have you wandered as I have
In the silence deep as death

Have you as I have
Walked in the mist
Strayed from the beaten path
Near the mountain edge
Do you know this loneliness

Friend, friend do you understand me
Do you know any secret path
Have you wandered as I have
in the endless uncertainty

Friend, friend do you understand me
Don´t you know any secret path
Have you wandered as I have
In the endless mist

http://www.eivor.com/

BEAUTY: Photography--Federico Picci

For his series Filling Spaces, Florentine illustrator, digital artist, and set designer Federico Picci used pink balloons to illustrate how something unseen moves around us. His artist statement is simple but eloquent:

"This concept started as a personal study on the connection between light and space.
I tried to show how something immaterial like music can fill the room with his beauty."

I've often wondered what it would be like to see musical notes floating through the air--to see them issuing forth from an instrument or a speaker and how they would move towards us in space, dissipating as they travel...

https://www.behance.net/gallery/47429375/Filling-Spaces

BEAUTY: Installation--David Spriggs

On view at the Woodstreet Art Gallery in Pittsburgh:

"Gold is the latest in David Spriggs’ chromatic artwork series of Stratachromes that examine contemporary symbolic meanings of color. Spriggs’ monumental installation presents eleven inverted yellow-golden human figures painted on layers of transparent sheets that are hung within an inverted pyramid structure. Initially reminiscent of the pediment of the New York Stock Exchange, Gold, in the spirit of pittura infamante (defaming portrait) turns the glory of capitalism on its apex, revealing its current precarious state. It speaks to the widening inequity within the Global Wealth Pyramid and the concentration of excessive wealth and corresponding power into the hands of a select few.

It is fitting that this provocative art work is on display in the central business district in downtown Pittsburgh, also known as the Golden Triangle. This historic location dates back to the gilded age. It is to that age the nation’s current political leadership seek’s to return, in their quest to remake the current America into some idolized great state. But is that even possible or is such a return an illusion? And if not an illusion, will the result be to repeat that period’s excesses and failures?

The viewer may be unsettled by the mirage-like-forms and suggestively paganic imagery. Is this intensely-saturated golden color representative of fools or of wealth? Yet we note that the figures of the artwork are not engaged in various forms of industry, in service to a central Goddess of Commerce, but rather are subservient, aloof or apart. Such is the relationship of many with today’s economy.

Jan. 20 – April 2, 2017 at Woodstreet Art Galleries Pittsburgh, USA."

http://www.davidspriggs.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Elise Morris

The lovely works of Elise Morris seem a perfect antidote for our weather woes here in Northern California. Morris paints cloudy, amorphous leaves and branches in foggy, sun-dappled locales...

Top to bottom: Dawn's Blush; Expansive Day; Golden Pass; Light's Only Refuge; Muse Restored; Solace Sings; Vanishing Light; Verdant Pull

http://www.elisemorris.net/

A Suggestion From Jenny Holzer

http://projects.jennyholzer.com/

It's Raining

We've had quite a season of rain here in Northern California. Our near-decade long drought is over officially over but there have been mud slides and floods...and it's still raining...

Mr. Simon - Botanico Alchimista

Italian interior and retail design company Visual Display helped to create a magical hidden cocktail bar in the city of Udine in northeastern Italy. Called Mr. Simon - Botanico Alchimista, the invitation-only bar is in a secret location, behind a restaurant and accessed through its bathroom and broom closet. After receiving the invitation, one is given the address and access code (which changes daily). One must find the restaurant and enter the access code into a white vintage telephone on a wall. Once approved, one slips through a secret door in the aforementioned bathroom and broom closet, where one must ring the bell on a door in a cement wall. And that is how to enter the exclusive 25-seat, 540 sq.ft. cocktail lounge that is the dark and dramatic home of one fictitious Mr. Simon, an esteemed botanical alchemist who has traveled the world collecting curiosities, tinctures and recipes for his sizable menu of artisanal cocktails. I love that the entrance vestibule is papered in Piero Fornasetti's cloud wallcovering. And the sparkling bathroom covered in beveled mirror subway tiles is spectacular.

http://www.visualdisplay.it/en

BEAUTY: Photography--Patrick Van Roy

Belgian photographer Patrick Van Roy took photos of commuters on public transportation in countries throughout Europe for his Mises en scène involontaires series. Van Roy says, "The images show the involuntary theatrical scenes in which each person takes part every day...The almost ghostly attitude of the people photographed illustrates a feeling of solitude despite the fact and often because the figures themselves are in a busy public place. There is a feeling of sadness and that they and indeed we all are alone."

http://patrickvanroy.be/works/mises%20en%20sc%C3%A8ne%20involontaires.html

BEAUTY: Photography--Tine Poppe

Norwegian photographer Tine Poppe on her series Botanical Perceptions:

"Imagined botanical perceptions of wildflowers and their environment from an ants point of view."

http://www.tinepoppe.no/