29 May 2007. Gray and cool, clouds along the coast. Single line of metal flashing along roof of the 7-eleven, same color and value as the sky. Figure on bicycle, ragged longish beard, dark beret, buttoned wool sweater and nubbly jacket--comes in to make color copies. He's smiling as he explains the order. "That's four fifty seven..."
JMW Turner, sturm und drang--had himself tied to the mast of a ship so that he could fully experience a storm at sea. All the sailors below deck, just the painter and the waves. Back and forth about Keifer, Wagner--a certain human need for drama, perhaps? But what about "the poetry of blandness"--François Julien, who mastered Chinese, both the literary and the artistic traditions--in a lifelong examination of quiet. "To better understand the origins of our own classical civilization..."
The poverty of theory; experience is all. It doesn't have to be a storm...
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