Decorating a Ceramic Building

Added a couple more decorative touches to the Boulevard Haussmann.

Firstly, with a permanent marker pen.

Then with a pack of plastic "gems" from a craft shop.

The next step will be to join the walls together.

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Currently listening to:

Not sure what the genre is: bleak  techno/atmospheric?

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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

Artichokes and boiled rice.

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Tango update:

Arrived at the Tango class last night in a state of massive indifference.

What a change of mood then ensued!

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening and found it very interesting from a technical point of view.

If I had to sum up my current progress I would say that, after having looked around the floor at the other male dancers, I'm probably the only one doing the correct Tango foot movements and holding the correct Tango posture. But, I dance with the least verve or panache. I move like a cross between John Redwood (the former British Conservative cabinet minister) and Private Godfrey, the old sweetie-wife in Dad's Army.

I'm hoping that once the Tango steps are deeply embedded in my muscle memory then at that point I'll feel more able to loosen up.

I'd been feeling pretty flat over the preceding few days and so, to celebrate this change of mood and fortunes, stopped at a supermarket on the way home and bought a cheap bottle of Australian fizzy wine and some smoked salmon and brown bread.

So, we had a late and unusual and extremely pleasant supper while watching some comedy on TV.

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Meditation etc:

You will have gathered from the preceding paragraphs that my Lenten observances have not been going very well.

I'm still torn between leading a life of more intense prayer and dabbling in some form of meditation.

Perhaps I should look more closely at what the Bible has to say on the subject.

Some relevant Biblical passages:

These are from memory, so I'm not giving chapter and verse at this stage.

1) Jesus gave us the advice that if we want to pray to God then we can do no better than pray the "Our Father...."

2) He also advised that our attitude to God should be be child-like.

3) Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights to be tempted by the Devil.

4) Another piece of advice that Jesus gave (and was in this morning's Gospel reading at Mass) was "Ask and it shall be given."

In my simple and ignorant state of mind, 1) and 4) seem to suggest the power of straightforward prayer.

2) and 3) hint at the carrying out of some additional practices: 40 days in the wilderness suggests the value of  some kind of retreat which could be interpreted as meditation. Acquiring the attitude of a child might be seen  not as something that one can just will into existence but rather which might only be acquired through some kind of meditational change in consciousness.

Ceramics update

Three topics re last night's ceramics class.

1) I was told that the facade for the St Paul-St Louis church had just been put in the kiln for firing and would be ready for underglazing next week. Took a peek in two of the three kilns but couldn't see it; the third kiln was locked.

2) Was disappointed at how uniformly blackish the row of tenements had turned out. I'd underglazed it last week with a combination of blacks and grays - see below. At some point during the week it had been fired to secure the black and gray underglazes.

Last week's state of play before going in the kiln.

But the grays seem to have vanished from the equation. One has to accept the factor of serendipity (or sheer bad luck) when an underglazed ceramic piece emerges from the kiln. Apparently, the colours turn out unpredictably.

I accept that element of uncertainty: indeed, I welcome it because my own sense of colour is poor and I'm relieved that the kiln, in its wisdom, can influence the outcome.

Nevertheless, I'm disappointed with the resultant emphasis on the black rather than the gray.

The next stage was to brush a satin-finish glaze over the piece. It will go back in the kiln and hopefully return with a  bit of a sheen. Perhaps that will help the situation.

3) Spent the remainder of the evening rolling out slabs of clay for what will probably be my final model building of the year. It will be similar in form to the Boulevard Haussman building (see below) but I'll use the construction techniques used for the blackish tenement row (see above).
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And, talking of the Boulevard Haussmann, the green paper shutters have now been applied to the windows.

A close up.

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Currently listening to:

Deerhoof:

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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

Tomato and gherkin sandwiches

Today's lunch on a shoestring:

Black pudding and poached eggs

For this shoestring campaign to make sense, I will, starting from Monday, count up how much is spent each day on food and food related shopping. At the end of the week, I'll tot  up the spending  figure. That weekly figure will be the one that is reported in this blog.

Restaurant visits and related items like washing up liquid and cooking oil will be included.

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The Aims of Meditation:

I can think of two possible aims:

1) Temporary altered state of consciousness - either pleasurable, revelatory or both.

2) Permanent altered state of consciousness - either pleasurable, revelatory or both.

Presumably, there are other aims.

Little to Report

BUT THAT WON'T STOP ME REPORTING IT:

Spent quite a bit of time looking for a suitably coloured paper or card to make the shutters for the Boulevard Haussmann windows.

In the end, found a label from a recent stationery purchase whose lime green colour goes well against the pink walls of the building.

The fact that parts of the label are red or purple or black and white I find acceptable. I don't like uniformity in these things. In real life the shutters of a building are not likely to all be exactly the same in appearance.

So, with a permanent marker pen, I set about making hundreds of little dashes which I hope, when cut out, will look like shutters.

A pair of shutters in position.

 

Ceramics class tonight. What I do there will depend upon what pieces of mine have been fired during the past 7 days.

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Currently listening to:

Feeling a bit flat and Boards of Canada was about all I felt like listening to.

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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

A boiled leek, black pudding, two poached eggs and mashed sweet potato.

Close up of poached egg.

There was some mashed sweet potato left over and so had that for lunch with a Scotch pie that happened to be in the fridge.

If this shoestring campaign is to have any meaning then I'm going to have to detail the prices of the various constituents.

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Meditation:

Walked to Mass this morning at St Paul's, Whiteinch, but still couldn't be bothered embarking upon this Meditation business.

Encumbered with the contradictory thoughts that it might either lead to nothing or to a daunting realisation that I might not want to have.

FIMO window frames completed

At last, those fiddly FIMO window frames are finished.

All three walls are now window-ed, and a reminder below of how they relate to one another.

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Currently listening to:

Had a beautiful drive through rural Lanarkshire today: not quite at its most deliciously bleak but still pretty muted in its pre-Spring state.

Accompanied by some beautiful but troubling piano playing on the Lunchtime Concert on Radio 3. Turned on a few minutes after the start of the concert and so didn't know who was playing.

But whoever it was, man or woman, their touch was what stood out, transforming what is for me that most familiar of Beethoven's sonatas, the 'Moonlight' into something new and impressive.

No sooner had I expressed this thought to myself than it was followed by another: "I bet you it's Llyr Williams and it would serve me right if  that's who it turns out to be!"

Several years ago when Llyr Williams was one of Radio 3's New Generation Artists, he seemed to be playing every time I switched on the radio. And, he was brilliant.

But, I saw him play Beethoven's last 3 sonatas in Perth a couple of years ago and not only did I think he was terrible but I found his demeanour at the piano to be completely ridiculous. (The recital got rave reviews in the press.)

Well, today it was indeed Llyr Williams playing. And he was sensational as he followed the Beethoven with Scriabin and then some short pieces by Brahms. One could hear every single note and Williams imparted meaning to each one of them.

Llyr Williams by David Griffiths

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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

Pizza topped with artichokes, black olives and anchovies

Spent a full 5 minutes surveying the various basic Margherita pizzas on offer trying to find the cheapest. They varied in price from £2 each to £5. But, the £2 version looked hellish. I want to economise but I don't want to eat sub-standard food.

Clearly, this economical shopping is going to take more time from my day than I'd anticipated. But I suppose one will get better at it with time.

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St Therese of Lisieux:

Continuing my reading of chapter three of:

So far, in my interpretation of this chapter on the value of simplicity in one's faith, I've equated simplicity with single-mindedness.

But now the author has introduced the concept of Truth which I was not expecting.

Let me quote directly from the book.

"St Therese relentlessly tracks down the truth believing that it is always ultimately kind. For her trust and truth are sisters. She trusts ferociously that 'the truth will make you free' (John, 8.32), and that the pain which often accompanies it is the blood rushing back into the veins which have been starved by the tightness of a tourniquet, or the stinging of eyes too long in darkness adjusting to the light." p 20.

Two thoughts:

Firstly,  I never hesitate NOT to tell the truth if the truth will hurt someone's feelings. But the phrase "it is always ultimately kind" gives me pause on that front.

Secondly, "the truth will make you free" instantly reminds me of the character, Mathieu, in volume 1 of Sartre's The Roads to Freedom.

Mathieu wants to be free because one can only be human if one is free.

It troubles me that, much as I love Sartre's work, I have never held freedom to be an important goal. (We're not talking about freedom from incarceration.)

But reading that quotation from John, "the truth will make you free", also gives me pause for thought.

Perhaps my meditational practices (when I actually begin them, that is) should be concentrated on these associated notions of truth and freedom.

Repairing Ceramics with Epoxy Resin

Repairing Ceramics with Epoxy Resin:

One of the surprising facts about ceramics is that objects are almost infinitely repairable.

Remember in 2006 when a visitor to the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge tripped over his shoelaces and smashed two rare and priceless Chinese vases.

Smashed

Repaired.

It has been a constant refrain in my own ceramics class. "Oh, don't worry about that. We can fix that."

Therefore, I have always been confident that the final wall of my Boulevard Haussmann building could be fixed. It cracked in two after its first firing some months ago.

Prior to manufacturing its FIMO window frames it would be necessary to glue it back together. This was done yesterday with quick setting epoxy resin.

The two pieces

Epoxy resin

Applying glue to one of the surfaces.

Compressing the two pieces for a few minutes.

Total success.

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Currently listening to:

A mixture of all the downloads purchased from iTunes since the beginning of the year.

Ranking Trevor

And the latest compilation of tracks provided by the Tango Class I attend.

 

I have to say, that I'm surprised at how parsimonious I've been on the iTunes front in 2013.

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Last night's dinner:

I wish I could kill this tendency, when shopping, to buy the most expensive item of food on display.

Yesterday, as usual, the counter in the fishmongers was a joy to behold and pride of place, and rarely seen, was Turbot.

As I bought it (£23 - including pensioner's discount - for one large fillet) I knew that I was being gripped by greed, But I couldn't help myself.

There were many other species of white fish there; all vastly cheaper. And, frankly, I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart in a blind test.

The offending item - pre the cooking.

Served with a leek and two fennel and potato croquettes

Washed down with draught Italian Merlot from a new shop off Byres Road, Glasgow.

 

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Knee report:

Instead of going to the gym for knee strengthening exercises (which I find very boring), I went for a long walk around the streets of the West End of Glasgow and, for the first time, I was wearing the McDavid knee brace that I have, up until now, and for the past 5 years, only worn when playing squash.

I wanted to test whether the brace, by eliminating the lateral movement in my knee, would make walking a more feasible activity.

The experiment was a great success but after 2 hours, when I removed the brace, my leg was extremely hot to the touch.

An expert friend of mine is requisitioning for me a lighter model of brace.

My current brace

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Currently reading:

Chapter three concentrates on the element of  'simplicity'. One should aspire to a single-mindedness in one's approach to life ie single-mindedly Christian.

I'm a million miles away from achieving that. Looks like I'll be adopting that cross-legged position sooner rather than later.

Mention was also made of the Rhineland mystics, among them John Ruusbroec. I'll find out more about them and him.

Does one need a master?

Window frame update:

Have completed the FIMO window frames for two of the three walls and glued them with PVA to a backing of purple card.

Here is a reminder of how the walls will join together.

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Currently listening to:

The new Eels album, released last week.

All in preparation for seeing them play in Glasgow next month.

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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

Home made lamb Bhuna and boiled rice.

Forgot to take a photograph of it.

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Meditation: where to begin.

When I was in my twenties and again, sporadically, through the next few decades I did dabble in meditational practices and attended a few lectures on the subject.

Never really got beyond sitting on the floor, cross-legged. Tried silence as a background and also various Eastern influenced soundtracks - but, basically, to no avail. Nothing happened.

Textbooks on the subject warn one not to go looking for something to happen and that one should not be discouraged when at first nothing happens. It takes practice and patience.

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Over the last week or so, I have learned that Christian meditation cf Buddhist meditation seeks to make one more acutely aware of the presence of God. Buddhist meditation seeks to make the practitioner one with the universe.  Christian meditation does not aim to make the individual one with God.

From the little I've read about Christian meditation, far from emptying one's mind, one should focus on something God-related eg a religious Icon; a passage from the Bible; a recitation of the Rosary.

The chanting of meaningless syllables eg "Ommm!", which I recall was recommended for Buddhist meditation,  is  all part and parcel of this idea of escaping meaning and emptying one's mind.

Christian chanting, I suspect, would definitely have a meaning - a Christian meaning.

A Christian would not be attempting to escape meaning but to intensify his understanding of meaning: the meaning of the Christian message.

Having said that, speaking in tongues, which is a Christian practice does seek to escape meaning and embrace the Holy Spirit which is presumably beyond human language. Mmmh. Will have to think more about this.

The point is: should I be struggling away on my own with these issues or should I seek a Master or Guru who can lead me in a productive direction and thus avoid wasting a lot of time?

Buddhist meditation

Christian meditation

Apologies all round if I have hopelessly characterised these two positions.