So I left the house early this morning to catch the Magritte show at the Museum of Modern Art—as if it’s insufficiently surrealistic around here, as I tweeted before departing. I’m glad I went, the man combined great painterly ability with a unique imagination, and I realized that the works I was looking at were the visual (and distinctly European) equivalent of zen koans.
I’d always liked this image, and it was nice to see the real thing:
“This is not a pipe.”
Right. And I enjoyed looking at it, and reading the explanations of what the artist was getting at. But I don’t think that would have prompted me to hurry home and blog about it. It took the subway to make that happen.
The E train, as it happens, and one whole side of my car was given over to a single ad campaign, placed by the people from Microsoft. And thus I saw this visual, everywhere I looked:
Okay. Thanks, guys.
LB
That is truly bizarre. *grins*
*chuckles*
Thank you for reminding us that normal, everyday, mundane, boring old life can sometimes be funny (in both senses of the word).
Yesterday I was poking around Facebook and saw a post from the progressive rock band Yes, with a link to one of their older songs, “Astral Traveler” (http://youtu.be/q0aXTN_AeKw). I hadn’t heard the song for a while, and never had watched the video before, so I gave it a go. Throughout the video, a man in a trench coat and hat is walking away from the camera. At the very end, he turns around and he has a large apple with leaves in front of his face. I realize I am missing the point because I don’t know what that means.
Since I am writing this here, you probably know where this is going. I read this blog and searched “ceci n’est pas une pipe”, since I don’t know of René Magritte or his artwork. What pops up in Google? Images of other René Magritte artwork, including “The Son of Man” – a man wearing a trench coat and hat, with an apple and leaves covering his face!
Awesome!
See what I mean,Wayne? Synchronicity just keeps us putting one foot instead of the other.
To Mr Block.
Could Lisa and myself have a prize for being first to post to one of your blogs for two consecutive mornings? It is 3.55 in the morning down under so I must be a pretty good fan (or obsessive stalker) to achieve this goal. I am thinking of a free book but you are probably thinking of either calling the police or some heavy duty sleeping tablets. I don’t mind either way as long as I know the police or the drugs came from you. 🙂
Lisa deserves something because she typed more words than I did.
I had better go away now. 🙂
You should send Gregg Orio a cookie.
Good one! 🙂
Do you think that attorney who represents the estates of all the dead actors, authors, and artists will be contacting Microsoft?
I’d guess this falls under fair use.
Dear Lawrence,
You might like to know that la pipe in French is street talk for a man’s penis, and to faire la pipe is to perform a blow job.
I’m certain you could make some sport of that in your inimitable way.
Rowan Hodge
Ps. I dusted off a copy of Chip Harrison’s omnibus the other day. What a delight.