Middle Season #33-2024

 

Micro-Teachers

Blue Iris, by Nakamura Hōchū, early 19th century

 (from Aug 14, 2024 journal)

I set out to learn something this morning.  The thing I want to copy/adapt/use is Sue Grady's pre-assessment for writing.  Maybe Jim D's "team game" plan, too.

I jot these notes below: "micro" teachers and "anti-" teachers.  Then I write: 100 teachers

I think that I meant that I was considering a project of collecting 100 good idea that I glean from teachers this year.

Now, I'm thinking about the "stance" or "attitude" that you need to have if you're receptive to learning... that you are poised for taking in something.  I'm currently reading Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being.  There's a lot in it about being open and receptive, listening.  There's an image that like a box car of inspiration goes by each day... it's up to you to be available to see that boxcar.  

Since you know the boxcar is coming, but you don't know when, you have to be open and receptive.The idea of "set out to learn something" is similar... 

Two thoughts: one, it's a different take on a "to do" list.  (checkbox) learn something... find your micro teacher.

two, that state of expectant waiting seems to me right now similar to the attitude called for in Christianity... "He could come any minute!"  (along with the idea that He may come in beggar's clothes)

My thanksgiving is perpetual

 I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

- Henry David Thoreau

More on this same quote on Thanksgiving 2020 blog.

Invitation to be fully present

Georgia O'Keeffe - Memory - Late Autumn (1954)

 from JKZ #65

Settle the body and the invitation for the mind to come along; your glide path to meditation.

How is it for you as you settle into this moment?

Now I'm getting ready; now I'm really here.  Can you be here for the getting ready?

Noticing what's happening in this moment

Are you getting ready for something to happen?  There's no show that's starting at the top of the hour.

Invitation to be fully present

Make yourself 100% available - inwardly and outwardly

Simply be fully present with things as they are: pleasant, unpleasant, boring

What is the motivation today? now?

Underneath, in between thoughts

As we rest in awareness; how is it in the body, right now?

How is it in the heart in this moment?

Paul Cezanne - Foliage - 1.b

 

text. From MoMA with a better image.  The image above from Wikimedia.  

From the MOMA website: 

At first glance, this work might strike the viewer as unfinished, given the blank areas left on the paper. But Cezanne meant Foliage to be a study in color and line depicting the rhythms of rustling leaves, which appear to move across the page. His brushstrokes deliver deposits of pigment that create the illusion of light and shadow. Nature is evoked in the lightness and transparency of the medium, in the placement of the subject, and in the inferred movement.

Cezanne's late watercolors, of which this is a superb example, "are acts of construction in color." Here he applied discrete unblended lines and patches of color around lightly sketched pencil contours and built depth from color by translating dark-light gradations into cool-warm ones. In this mosaic, colored lines and planes and overlapping shades together fix the depth of the subject to the surface of the paper—the white surface that is the final arbiter of pictorial coherence. In this way Cezanne redefined modern drawing according to color "modulation," his term for that which enabled him not only to capture the light of southern France, where he lived and worked, but also to approach abstraction.

Publication excerpt from The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, NewYork: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999.

Excellent short interpretative video here highlights how Cezanne was trying to create a representation of a moving tree against the sky:

Paul Cezanne - Study of Trees - Harvard Art Museum #1

 

Paul Cezanne Study of Trees 1904, oil on canvas

Jennie and I visited the Harvard Art Museum.  One of the paintings that attracted my attention was this 1904 painting from Cezanne.  At first it looked just like a pretty, colorful abstract image. I had previously seen the museum's Jackson Pollock and was focused on the application of the paint, the overall balance, the "white space."  But the text below the painting impressed me by the fact that this was a study, an attempt, at trying to capture something -- "the problem of dynamically depicting depth on the flat space of a canvas, which occupied the artist for most of his career."

Gallery Text:

Cézanne’s fascination with the complexities of human perception and his desire to transcribe the abstract properties of vision established him as the central figure linking nineteenth-century impressionism with early twentieth-century cubism. Study of Trees exemplifies the problem of dynamically depicting depth on the flat space of a canvas, which occupied the artist for most of his career. Energetically applied diagonal brushstrokes slice the space of the picture, producing the suggestion of movement in and out of depth, and dashed lines define the tree trunks on either side of a winding country road. Remarkably, the rough, unpainted areas of the canvas seem as animated as the daubs of paint flickering across the picture’s surface like leaves in shifting sunlight. At the time of its making, Study of Trees was at the vanguard of intellectualized, abstract painting.

Caretaker

 From Jan 2024 journal:

"care-taker" - double meaning.  The practices of being a care-taker.

• doing regular practices that help me "care for" things like:
• relationships
• house
• garden
• body - injury, tightness, weakness
• (I would now add) finances, meals/planning, pantry

According to Longman's Dictionary: (interesting that it means janitor in British English and somone who looks after people in American English... the more common word is 'caregiver' in American, I think)

1 British English someone whose job is to look after a building, especially a school SYN janitor American English2 someone who looks after a house or land while the person who owns it is not there3 → caretaker manager/government/boss etc4 American English someone who looks after other people, especially a teacher, parent, nurse etc SYN carer British English
Webster's Provides this:

1.     : one that gives physical or emotional care and support

served as caretaker to the younger children

2

: one that takes care of the house or land of an owner who may be absent

3

: one temporarily fulfilling the function of office

a caretaker government

First seeing the gaze, the attracted attention

 From Jan 2024 Journal:

Follow my curiosity in directions that bring me to mystery, joy, fascination

Be attentive to moments of peace, joy, "things as they should be," micro-pleasures

Things that "attract my attention" 

(The image of my head of watching what attracts the attention of a dinosaur (first seeing the gaze, then looking to see what is causing the gaze), or a cat that's prowling... animal at the zoo who is looking out of the cage, eyes dilating, focusing... as though the attraction is at an animal level... maybe even watching a weather vane... )

Ghazal - Poetry Study #2

Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia (from Flashbak)

 

From ChatGPT:

A ghazal is a poetic form originating in ancient Arabic poetry, later developed in Persian and other languages, including Urdu and eventually English. It traditionally explores themes of love, loss, longing, and sometimes mystical or spiritual ideas. Ghazals have a unique structure that sets them apart from other forms:

1. Couplet Structure: A ghazal is made up of a series of couplets, known as shers. Each couplet is an independent, self-contained poem that can stand alone in meaning, which is unusual compared to other poems where lines build on each other.

2. Rhyme and Refrain: In a traditional ghazal, the second line of each couplet ends with the same rhyme and refrain. This repetition is called the radif (refrain) and the qaafiyaa (rhyme). The rhyme and refrain provide continuity throughout the poem, even as each couplet introduces a new thought.

3. Unity of Theme: Though each couplet stands on its own, they are often loosely connected by themes of love, loss, or longing. There’s an emotional or thematic thread that ties them together, even if the images or ideas in each couplet vary.

4. Signature/Personal Mark: In the final couplet, the poet often includes their own name or a pseudonym (called a takhallus). This is like a personal sign-off and traditionally adds a reflective or self-referential twist to the poem.

5. Meter: Classical ghazals have a set meter that each line must follow, though in contemporary ghazals (especially in English), strict meter is often less of a focus.

For example, here’s a simplified structure of how the rhyme and refrain might look in a ghazal:

• Couplets 1: (aa) … sea / … heart pain
• Couplets 2: (ba) … tree / … start pain
• Couplets 3: (ca) … be / … part pain

This form creates a musical and meditative quality, ideal for expressing complex emotions through lyrical beauty.

I asked it to write one for me:

Ghazal on Turning Points

In youth, we lived as though time was endless, unbending,
but life moves forward—each moment, unbending.

The nights once hummed with laughter, wild and free,
yet dawn comes quietly now, arms unbending.

I chased bright stars, believing in paths unbound—
now dreams reshape in silences, unbending.

Friends drift away like whispers in morning’s light,
echoes in empty rooms, gently unbending.

Years turn the heart; there’s weight in each breath I take,
old wounds start to heal but stay, unbending.

In every change, I feel myself slowly form,
like clay beneath soft hands—pliable, unbending.

I questioned whether it had followed the correct rhyme scheme.... it replied:

You’re right to question that—it actually doesn’t follow the traditional rhyme scheme precisely. While I did maintain the refrain ("unbending") at the end of each couplet, I didn’t include the internal rhyme (qaafiyaa) that would appear before it in each second line.

In a fully traditional ghazal, the rhyme scheme might look more like this:

1. First couplet (matla): The first couplet introduces both the rhyme and the refrain, like this:
   "In youth, we lived as though time would wait, unbending /
   dreams spread their wings, beyond fate, unbending."

2. Following couplets: Each second line uses that same rhyme and refrain:
   "I chased bright stars, believing in paths elate, unbending /
   now dreams reshape in silences sedate, unbending."

It rewrote it as follows:

Ghazal on Turning Points

In youth, we lived as though time held no weight, unbending—
chasing bright stars, our paths free from fate, unbending.

The nights hummed low with laughter’s deep weight, unbending,
but dawn brings quiet, as years start to state, unbending.

Friends drift away like whispers with weight, unbending,
echoes in empty rooms left to wait, unbending.

Years turn the heart, and each breath holds its weight, unbending,
old wounds start to heal but still state, unbending.

In every change, I feel myself hold weight, unbending,
shaped by soft hands, to clay I relate—unbending.

Ghazal by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Titus Kaphar - 

Behind the Myth of Benevolence, 2014

 GHAZAL

Name a song that tells a man what to expect after prison;

Explains Occam’s razor: you’re still a suspect after prison.

Titus Kaphar painted my portrait, then dipped it in black tar.

He knows redaction is a dialect after prison.

[br][br]

From inside a cell, the night sky isn’t the measure—

that’s why it’s prison’s vastness your eyes reflect after prison.

[br][br]

My lover don’t believe in my sadness. She says whisky,

not time, is what left me wrecked after prison.

[br][br]

Ruth, Papermaker, take these tattered gray sweats.

Make paper of my bid: a past I won’t reject after prison.

[br][br]

The state murdered Kalief with a single high bail.

Always innocent. Did he fear time’s effect after prison?

[br][br]

Dear Warden, my time been served, let me go,

Promise that some of this I won’t recollect—after prison.

[br][br]

My mother has died. My father, a brother & two cousins.

There is no G-d; no reason to genuflect, after prison.

[br][br]

Jeremy and Forest rejected the template, said for

it to be funky, the font must redact after prison.

[br][br]

He came home saying righteous, coochie, & jive turkey.

All them lost years, his slang’s architect after prison.

[br][br]

The Printer silkscreens a world onto black paper.

With ink, Erik reveals what we neglect after prison.

[br][br]

My homeboy say he’s done with all that prison shit.

His wife & baby girl gave him love to protect after prison.

[br][br]

Them fools say you can become anything when it’s over.

Told ’em straight up, ain’t nothing to resurrect after prison.

[br][br]

You have come so far, Beloved, & for what, another song?

Then sing. Shahid you’re loved, not shipwrecked, after prison.

[br][br]

©2019 by Reginald Dwayne Betts, from Felon, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY

Middle Season #32 - 2024

 

5 good minutes

 James clear

5 good minutes of:

-pushups is a solid workout

-sprints will leave you winded

-writing can deliver 1 good page

-reading can finish an insightful article

-meditation can reset your mood

You don’t need more time—just a little focused action.

The experience of going through the process of having made it.

 

Eno  https://www.bostonreview.net/forum_response/ais-walking-dog/

In my own experience as an artist, experimenting with AI has mixed results. I’ve used several “songwriting” AIs and similar “picture-making” AIs. I’m intrigued and bored at the same time: I find it quickly becomes quite tedious. I have a sort of inner dissatisfaction when I play with it, a little like the feeling I get from eating a lot of confectionery when I’m hungry. I suspect this is because the joy of art isn’t only the pleasure of an end result but also the experience of going through the process of having made it. When you go out for a walk it isn’t just (or even primarily) for the pleasure of reaching a destination, but for the process of doing the walking. For me, using AI all too often feels like I’m engaging in a socially useless process, in which I learn almost nothing and then pass on my non-learning to others. It’s like getting the postcard instead of the holiday. Of course, it is possible that people find beauty and value in the Weisswurst, but that says more about the power of the human imagination than the cleverness of AI.

All that said, I do believe that AI tools can be very useful to an artist in making it possible to devise systems that see patterns in what you are making and drawing them to your attention, being able to nudge you into territory that is unfamiliar and yet interestingly connected. I say this having had some good experiences in my own (pre-AI) experiments with Markov chain generators and various crude randomizing procedures. Any reservations about AI get you dismissed as a Luddite—though it’s worth remembering that it was the Luddites, not the mill owners, who understood more holistically what the impact of the new mill machinery would be.

To make anything surprising and beautiful using AI you need to prepare your prompts extremely carefully, studiously closing off all the yawning, magnetic chasms of Hallmark mediocrity. If you don’t want to get moon rhyming with June, you have to give explicit instructions like, “Don’t rhyme moon with June!” And then, at the other end of the process, you need to rigorously filter the results. Now and again, something unexpected emerges. But even with that effort, why would a system whose primary programming is telling it to take the next most probable step produce surprising results? The surprise is primarily the speed and the volume, not the content. 

In an era when “cultivated” people purport to care so much about the origins of the stuff they put into their mouths, will they be as cautious with the stuff they put into their minds? Will they be able to resist the information sausage meat that AI is about to serve them?

Mr. Lange's Accelerators of Learning

 From Journal of Nov 1, 2014.

Mr. Lange's 10 "Accelerators of Learning"

1. If a taks isn't challening -- at least a little bit --if kids arent' stretching themselves, they'll be bored.
2. Students need to hear - every day - that this is a challenging task - and that you know that they can do it; and at the end of class need to hear that they've worked hard and impressed you.  
3. I do it - we do it - you do it:  modelling is essential
4. Everyone does everything important. What's the key question for your lesson?  Don't be satisfied if 2 kids riase their hand and respond.
5. Do live discussions.  They're more engaging than prepared discussions.  Instead of HW questions kids prepare for, post a Q, do a write-pair-share, lead a student discussion; post a 2nd Q.
6. Pairs are better than groups in most cases. Planned pairs are better than random pairs.
7. Pairs are heterogenous: put the "lower" student in the position to sound smart ot the whole class; if student paris are writing, put the pen in the "lower" students' hand.
8. Don't accept "half right" - demand full answers
9. Personal connections matter.  "The Beth Bannon" (speak to each kid is some way of every class)

Mr. Lange's Non-Negotiables in Class

 From Nov 1, 2014 in Journal:

Mr. Lange's 10 Non-negotiables

1. When the teacher is talking, no one else is; wait for quiet
2. When any student is sharing, no one else is;  ask sharer to hold on, ask for quiet
3. When teaching a skill, do the following: I do it, WE do it, you do it (in pairs), all y'all do it
4. No heads down. If kid puts head down, give them the choice to sit up or go to the nurse. 
5. When you're giving instructions, all eyes on you.
6. Avoid Shushing
7. At some point in class, preferably in beginning of class, tell students directly what your goals are for the class in kid-friendly language
8. When you ask students to take out assignment notebooks or clear your desks or brainstorm, makes sure that everyone is doing it.

MadLib Objective Maker

 From Nov 1, 2014 Journal:

Teachers should have a MadLib-like objective maker:

By the end of this unit/week, students will be able to _____common core standard or unit objective.

To that end, students in class today will practice/critique ____

In the last attempt at this goal, I found that _______.

If perfectly successful, lesson will look like this _______.

I anticipate that students will have this problem _____ and will need guidance with ________.

My way of knowing (and formative data collection) that students are on their way to success is ______.

$1 will be extracted each hour

 

Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background, 1888

After my run yesterday, I was thinking about complainy people at work and retiring person at work who hasn't thought about next steps in life (all options seem pretty dull and unfilled with possibility).

The idea about "paying" for each hour life, knowing that you have limited amount to pay with.

Let's say I have 9300 days left... and I have 11 hours per day that are not filled with sleeping and other necessaries of living.... then I have about 100,000 hours left.  If that's so, you can think of each hour as a "dollar" in the bank... and, like it or not, $1 will be extracted each hour. Thinking in this way, does it make us choose different things to put in our hours? Was that last hour worth one of the exact few left? (what should I plan to do in this next hour?  what IS worthy? what is not?). 

[This makes me think of the seinfeld episode on Sponge-worthy)

Doubt opens

 

New Harmony by Paul Klee

(from Mandy Brown) In The Middle Passage, James Hollis writes:

Grief, for example, is the occasion for acknowledging the value of that which has been experienced. Because it has been experienced, it cannot be wholly lost. It is retained in the bones and in the memory, to serve and guide the life to come. Or take doubt. Necessity has been called the mother of invention, but doubt is. Doubt may be threatening in its openness, but doubt nonetheless opens. All great advances in human understanding have come out of doubt. Even depression carries a useful message, that something vital has been “pressed down.”    (Hollis, The Middle Passage, page 107)

(And Brown responds). I think also of nostalgia, which indicates an unrequited longing for something. As with grief, it signals a loss, but when acknowledged it becomes less an absence than a foundation from which to build. Like a layer of sediment, studded with fossils, no longer accessible but serving as solid ground. If we try to dig it up, we threaten the stability of the future; if we let it be, it will decay and nurture us for years to come.

I'm not sure what I think of Brown's advice to "let it be" and not "dig it up."  But I love the metaphor of sediment, studded with fossils.  

I also am intrigued by Hollis' idea of doubt.  "Doubt opens."  In general, I get the sense that typically negative emotions - grief, doubt, depression - have important roles.  I get the image of a pressed flower, and etching, when he writes of depression having "pressed down" something.

At home in body, heart, mind

 JKZ 53 (notes taken in Jan 2024)

Every in breath, a new beginning; every out breath a letting go

next breath arrives unbidden, life sustains itself (for now)

radical act to dwell in this domain of being

act of love bc a delight of interconnectedness of all aspects of manifestation

pure awareness embodied

choiceless awareness - being the sky - birds flit through the weather patterns, seasons, clouds

mind has carried you off to emotional whirlpool

You are at home in body, heart, mind, in the timeless moment

this breath, moment, emotion,

Parking Lot, Too by Reginald Dwane Betts

Titus Kaphar - State number 2 (Dwayne Betts), 2019

Parking Lot, Too by Reginald Dwayne Betts

 

A confession began when I walked out of that parking lot.

A confession began when I walked Black out of that parking lot.

A confession began when I, without combing my hair, dressed

For a day that would find me walking out of that parking lot.

There is so much to be said of a Black man with unkempt hair:

He meets the description of the suspect; suspect is running.

I ran away from things far less frightening than the police.

A confession began when I robed myself in black. A confession

Began when I walked out of that parking lot wearing a black

Hoodie. Things get exponentially worse when a hoodie is pulled

Over my unkempt air. A confession began when I walked out

Of that parking lot Black. A confession began when I walked

Out of that parking lot a Negro. A confession begins when

That nigga walked into the parking lot. A confession begins

When that nigga & the pistol he carries like a dick walked

Into that parking lot. A confession begins when everything you

See him doing is seen as sex. A confession begins when

That nigga walked into a parking lot & drove away with everything

Belonging to that white man. A confession begins when

My mother laid up with a man the complexion of that nigga's

Daddy. A confession begins when my mother births a child

In a city close enough to make me & that nigga almost related.

A confession begins when the police perceive us as one. We must

Be one. He could not have walked in & driven out & I walked

In & walked out on the same night & whatever gaps in the story

& slight differences in the features of our faces was just

More evidence that niggers will lie. A confession begins even if

I didn't have the fucking car. A confession begins, my confession

Began, with a woman stitching stars and stripes into a flag.

 

—From Felon, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.

Middle Season #31 - 2024

 

A quick painting to document the last 31 tomatoes of the season

 

From Art of Noticing.  

Rob Walker introduces guest post by Hero of Noticing and all-around A+ human Kate Bingaman-Burt. (link takes you to her newsletter where I got the following paragraph and image)

I love a routine, and one of my favorite routines is going and looking at and picking my backyard tomatoes. It’s the end of October, and it will get cold soon, so I decided to say goodbye to my plants this weekend with one last pick and a quick painting to document the last 31 tomatoes of the season. I don’t love this painting, but I am glad I jammed it out this afternoon while Hank is hanging out next door at Grandma’s house. And I painted during the DAY vs. hunched over my painting table late at night. I am not thrilled with the final piece. Still, I am glad to have documented my tomato-gathering ritual and enjoyed the process of paying attention, gathering, thinking, recording, and making.

On Rob Walker's newsletter, there's this advice from Kate Bingaman-Burt: 

Write down all of the things you do in one day. Make a simple list. Document your daily events. Note the weather. Note what you eat. Note what you buy. Note who you talk with. Note what you do. Don’t try to make it exciting. Just notice it, write it down, and then stash it away. You will be glad that you did.

Color Walk

 

Two things on color walks, one from a Pittsburgh Museum, and one from Rob Walker.  

Walker in a post called "Collecting Colors" first notes William S. Burrough's directions on doing a color walk:

Probably the most famous advocate of the color walk—and certainly the most poetic about it—is William Burroughs. In fact, he used the lovely term “walking on colors” to describe the practice. As he once wrote:

“Another exercise that is very effective is walking on colors. Pick out all the reds on a street, focusing only on red objects—brick, lights, sweaters, signs. Shift to green, blue, orange, yellow. Notice how the colors begin to stand out more sharply of their own accord.”

And elsewhere1:

“I was walking down the boulevard, when I looked out I was seeing all the blues in the street in front of me, blue on a foulard…blue on a young workman’s ass…his blue jeans…a girl’s blue sweater…blue neon…the sky…all the blues. When I looked again I saw nothing but all the reds of traffic lights…car lights…a café sign…a man’s nose.”

Then he begins to collect "color swaths"...

A few days later, while biking, I started really noticing the variety of colors to choose from. This gave a surprising jolt to the way I was seeing. It reminded me, kind of randomly, of the Pantone Colors Tumblr — just pure blocks of color that I always found weirdly compelling. I ended up stopping my ride a few times to “collect” pure-color samples. You (or at least I) can’t really get pure captures on real-life surfaces, but I settled for what I could. 

Pittsburgh's Nature Challenge

City Nature Challenge (April 29-May 2, 2022) is coming soon! Going for a “color walk” is one fun and easy way to participate no matter where you live.

What is a color walk you might ask? Each time you go for a walk, pick a single color—maybe green, white, red, pink, yellow. As you are out, keep your color in mind and look for it in the wild, noting plants, animals, and fungi that you see. When you find one (or evidence of one that you can’t see!), take a picture, and upload it to iNaturalist.

You’ll start to notice patterns among things you see in the color you’ve chosen, and you can make some hypotheses about the observations for each color, like what species you are likely to see in certain areas. Lots of plants are green, so a green color walk might help us to notice all of the plants that are around us, even in places like cracks in the sidewalk.