Just when it seems that I am running out of friends to support, I stumble upon some new bloggers whose work I admire. Such is the case with this Friday’s featured “friend.”
While I don’t know her personally—and, thus, “friend” might be a bit bold of a claim—I’ve come to enjoy Joyce Jacobo‘s charming literature blog, The Literary Serenity Archives.
It’s been a lazy weekend here at Portly Manor, as I’ve been recovering from a very long week of Fine Arts Festival-related activities. It’s been pretty glorious being in bed by 9:30 PM and sleeping in until approximately whenever Murphy barks me awake to the use the bathroom, which is roughly around 6:30 AM. I still need to file my taxes, so I’ll be working on that annual ritual of tedium later today.
For this week’s Lazy Sunday, however, it made sense to look back at this past week’s Fine Arts Festival, and to celebrate the achievements of the students involved. I’ve also worked in a post about Son of Sonnet’s new Locals page:
Now to break the fast with my chubby dog, drink some coffee, and lazily get ready for church… and taxes.
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
In a move sure to incite riots akin to those that accompanied the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, I’m dedicating today’s post to the bizarre German Expressionist music of Arnold Schoenberg’s atonal vocal work Pierrot Lunaire.
Before my musically conservative readers begin rioting in the comments section, let me hasten to add that, as a rule, I do not like German Expressionism outside of film. The art movement has its moments, and I appreciate weird absurdity, but the movement is, at its core, nihilistic and anti-Beauty. It seems to be the bitter wellspring of postmodern art, much of which is meaningless trash. But at least the German Expressionists had technique; they knew how to make good art, but chose not to, largely as a reaction to the absurdity of the First World War.
I’m also not much of a fan of Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone composing system, and the organized atonality it represents. I just love a good chord progression too much, and generally think there is more fun (and musicality) to be had tinkering with music inside the limits of traditional tonality, rather than abandoning them entirely.
In spite of all of that, I kind of like Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.
After releasing Péchés d’âge moyen, my short collection of twelve original piano miniatures, I took a short break from composing to take care of some other items. Now that my insane two-or-three weeks of work have subsided into what is (hopefully) a quieter week—the eye of the storm—I’ve jumped back into composing by hand.
At the time of writing, I’ve composed six more short miniatures 11-14 March 2022. In order of composition they are as follows: “Diminished Minuet,” “Another L’il Divertimento in G major,” Three Rhapsodies in G major and Bb minor (consisting of “Largo in G minor,” “Poco allegretto in Bb major,” and “Adagio for a Rainy Day”), and “Pi Day.” To match Péchés d’âge moyen, I’ll compose at least six more pieces, with a goal of releasing more lo-fi recordings by the next Bandcamp Friday (1 April 2022—a fitting date, indeed!).
With Son of Sonnet launching his Locals page tomorrow, I thought it’d be a great time to look back at some of his recent poetry in this edition of Lazy Sunday:
There you have it! A bit more lighthearted fare from my favorite current poet.
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
My good buddy and regular poetry contributor Son of Sonnet has some exciting news: this Monday, 14 March 2022, he is launching his new Locals page at https://sonofsonnet.locals.com/.
Locals is a bit like SubscribeStar, but it’s more robust in terms of features, and the focus is on building up a sense of community between subscribers and the content creator. SubscribeStar allows comments, for example, but Locals has built-in incentives to encourage more engagement, such as certain users gaining additional posting privileges and the like.
Son is going full-in with Locals, hoping to build up a community of supporters who appreciate good poetry and the culture-renewing possibilities it offers (you can read all about his mission on his “About” page; appropriately, it’s presented in the form of a poem!).
Son is setting his sights high, as he should: he’s kicking off his foray into Locals with a special promotion he’s dubbed Race to 1000K.
I took a bit of a break from painting last week to finish up Péchés d’âge moyen, my short collection of twelve original piano miniatures, but by the time “More Little Paintings: Hearts and an Octopus” posted last week, I’d already churned out a total of fifteen of these little guys.
Rather than subject you to week after week of bizarre paintings, I figured I’d dump them all into one post:
I’ve kept plugging away at my little paintings, and have a slate of new paintings. This post does not feature all of them, but some of the highlights from my recent forays into primitivist doodle-painting.
I really do paint the way that I draw—poorly. But my distinctly grotesque style seems to hold a certain charm, as I’ve already sold and/or committed to gift two of the three paintings in this little post.
Like last week’s paintings, these are done on small, 5″x7″ canvasses. They’re very thin canvasses, but of a good quality, and they hold the acrylic paints I’m using well. All of the materials are very basic, including the cheap brushes and paints (which are leftover from the TJC Spring Jam), but they work perfectly for what I am doing.
Son of Sonnet is back with another bit of light-hearted fare, which I think is particularly appropriate for February, the month of both Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras.
Today’s poem, “Laughter,” is quite fun, and it’s about something we could all do with a bit more.
Also, The Gemini Sonnets are complete; I recommend you read them if you haven’t already: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6.
Your generous subscriptions to my SubscribeStar page have made it possible to patronize Son’s work. As a community of artists, readers, and pundits, we should work together as much as possible to cultivate and support one another’s talents. I can’t pay Son much—yet—but I’m able to offer him something for his talents because of your generosity.
Every artist as dedicated to his craft as Son deserves both recognition and support. I would encourage you to consider a subscription to Son of Sonnet’s SubscribeStar page as a way to encourage the growth and development of an eloquent voice on our side of this long culture war. Conservatives often complain about not holding any ground culturally; now is the time to support the culture that is being created.
You can read Son of Sonnet’s poetry on his Telegram channel, on Gab, and on Minds.
As last Tuesday’s post suggests, I’ve really been getting into small forms of art: miniatures. Short musical pieces are fun to compose, and can be dashed off (and, hopefully, recorded) in mere minutes.
I’ve also always been a lover of bric-a-brac—little tiny figurines and collectibles and the like—and am drawn to them in part because of their tiny size. I have a random assortment of such bric-a-brac on my desk at this very moment—an R2-D2 figurine; a little pumpkin finger puppet; a LEGO Han Solo; a little ghost—and have other little figurines in various places in my home.
Not surprisingly, I’ve also come to really enjoy small paintings.
The Portly Politico 