From the bedtime reading:
"Under the biggest cypress tree was an ornate bench. Between the cast-iron bench and a nearby oak stood a rain-streaked statue slightly taller than Raf. The statue showed a rudimentary metal tree with a naked girl falling headlong between its stark branches.
'Pike sverer mellom grenene,' said the General. '1907. Gustav Vigeland. You know what it represents?'
Eyes wide, mouth open, small fists clenched. Raf could take a reasonable guess. But the General got there first, answering his own question as if he'd been the one asked.
'Whatever you want it to represent . . . So the next question,' said the General, 'is who decides exactly what we represent . . . ?'
He didn't wait for the answer to that either."
I don't know what the quote means. Yet.
 Vigeland was just a name I thought I'd heard before. But the brief passage -- lifted from an important exchange in Jon Courtenay Grimwood's unsleeping El Iskandryia, setting of the second part of his Arabesk trilogy, intrigued me sufficiently to wake up the computer.
"The combination of human beings and trees in two meter high sculptures is one of Vigeland's most original concepts. The tree groups represent a romantic expression of Man's relationship to nature. The also form the setting for life's evolving stages, stretching from childhood and adolescence through adulthood to old age and death."
Well, perhaps not when one of the statues, or a similar Vigeland work, ends up in a garden in the alternative modern Alexandria of 'Effendi' (see book list).
The Vigeland Sculpture Park page and its links kept me up long past midnight. You might enjoy a visit too. It's not clear who takes the credit for this admirable work, though mail should apparently be addressed to one "ckau" at earthlink.
zzz
I'm asked whether I've stopped writing music entries. Of course not. But during the bout of the blues that preceded the recent return of the Condition, I wasn't in the mood for exploring.
I fell back on old standard favourites, ranging from the Joshua Redman Quartet, for instance "live at the Village Vanguard" on the marvellous double album 'Spirit of the Moment', to the pre-celebrity Norah Jones of 'New York City' -- "a radio-friendly blend of country and pop, with just a tinge of jazz" from the Peter Malick group. Both relatively easy listening, far more demanding of the musicians than of the audience.
Some 'Early Classics' from Pentangle changed the gears and also helped to snap me out of it. I'm now back mining the exploratory vein and the voices of women. More on that some other time.
11:03:24 AM link 
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