Archive for September, 2009
Studio 85 artists exhibit works that relate to the poetry of Walt Whitman. Live performance by Studio 85 artist and jazz musician Vernon McAuley. Poetry readings by George Wallace, Mark Karwoski and others.Complimentary Wine and cheese will be served at opening reception.
Walt Whitman Birthplace Museum in Huntington, New York. October 3, 2009, 6pm – 10pm. $10.00 will be collected at the door, 20% of all sales will be donated to Island Harvest.
I hope you’ll join me in observing a kind of milestone in my film project. As of tonight, I feel I have a complex sequence almost good enough to be projected on digital cinema (2048×858).
Two men, two horses, a rocking omnibus, and a period street scene slipping backwards. Bold color design, involving murky green to convey nighttime. Everything as rendered directly in iClone, except for color correction.
I hope that I am now getting character design, modeling, background, acting, and color grading closer to the standards of professional storytelling. It will never be Disney-quality, but I’m shooting for not too many notches below.
Here is a thumbnail of a shot I now imagine near to the opening. It is an historical fact that Walt enjoyed acting out dramatic scenes while seated on the box of the stagecoach. So I decided to move his appearance to the very beginning of my production.
Governor Paterson recited the Calamus poem “I dreamed in a dream” today, possibly to pacify citizens who suspect 911 was the result of the Project for a New American Century’s express plan for a “new Pearl Habor.”
When Patterson read, “I dreamed in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth,” he was taking Whitman’s words entirely out of context.
Whitman was actually imagining “a new City of Friends”–a community of liberal people of faith, inspired by the Quaker testimonies on equality and dignity–who could withstand rightwing hysteria over “the robust love” “of the men of that city.” Men like himself.
Calamus 34
I DREAMED in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the
attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth,
I dreamed that was the new City of Friends,
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust
love—it led the rest,
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of
that city,
And in all their looks and words.
The demand for the truth of 9/11 is not going away just because one of the elites spouts fancy words written by one his betters.
Walt asked me to give the Governor the following message:
To a Certain Civilian.
DID you ask dulcet rhymes from me?
Did you seek the civilian’s peaceful and languishing rhymes?
Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow?
Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now;
(I have been born of the same as the war was born;
The drum-corps’ harsh rattle is to me sweet music—I love well the martial dirge,
With slow wail, and convulsive throb, leading the officer’s funeral:)
—What to such as you, anyhow, such a poet as I?—therefore leave my works,
And go lull yourself with what you can understand—and with piano-tunes;
For I lull nobody—and you will never understand me.
DID you ask dulcet rhymes from me? Did you seek the civilian’s peaceful and languishing rhymes? Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow? Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now; (I have been born of the same as the war was born; The drum-corps’ harsh rattle is to me sweet music—I love well the martial dirge, With slow wail, and convulsive throb, leading the officer’s funeral:) —What to such as you, anyhow, such a poet as I?—therefore leave my works, And go lull yourself with what you can understand—and with piano-tunes; For I lull nobody—and you will never understand me. |
Allison Brophy Champion has written a fine account of Whitman in Culpeper, Virginia, during the Civil War. She calls Whitman a Quaker poet, which I believe to be justified. Unfortunately, she neglected to draw attention to the consistency between Whitman’s Quaker faith and his pacifist response to the war, which was to act as a nurse to black and white, Northern and Southern soldiers.
“The Good Grey Poet in Culpeper.” Allison Brophy Champion. Culpeper Star Exponent.
September 4, 2009.
New York’s South Street Seaport hosts two Whitman events in September, 2009.
CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY
Saturday, September 5, 2009
1-3pm Pier 16
Revel in the recitation of Whitman’s great harbor poem while sailing the East River along the historic Brooklyn waterfront aboard Schooner Pioneer. $30 adults /$25 students & seniors / $20 children 12 and under / Museum member receive a $5 discount.
WHITMAN MARATHON
Sunday, September 6, 2009
3pm Pier 16
Shout joyously from the deck of the barque Peking for the 6th annual reading of “Song of Myself.” Guest Curator Karen Karbiener leads a team of guest and volunteer readers. Volunteer readers must register in advance through reservations@southstseaport.org. Free to Museum Members / $5 to Non-Members
For information call 212-748-8786 or e-mail reservations@southstseaport.org.