25/02/2010

Transports en commun : Si j'avais des ailes


Jack Butler Yeats - Singing "Oh had I the Wings of a Swallow", 1925
Via Bert Christensen

Jack Butler Yeats, né en 1871, est le frère du poète. C'est aussi le grand peintre irlandais du début du XXème siècle. En 1925, au moment même où son style évolue vers l'expressionnisme, il peint cette jeune fille vue dans un train qui traversait au soleil couchant le comté de Kildare. Elle faisait la manche de wagon en wagon en chantant If I had the wings of a swallow - Si j'avais les ailes de l'hirondelle, une chanson de Richard W. Pasco dont le vrai titre est Little Town In The Old County Down.



John McCormack, le grand ténor irlandais de l'époque, chante Little Town In The Old County Down
Mis en ligne par patriot4913


If I had the wings of a swallow,
I would travel far over the sea;
And a rocky old road I would follow,
To a spot that is heaven to me.

When the sun goes to rest way down in the west,
Then I'll build such a nest in the place I love best.

In the dear little town in the old County Down,
It will linger way down in my heart;
Though it never was grand it is my fairyland,
Just a wonderful world set apart.
Oh, my Ireland of dreams you are with me it seems,
And I care not for fame or renown;
Like the black sheep of old I'll come back to the fold,
Little town in the old County Down.

In the evening when shadows are falling,
'Round the old door without any key;
There's a voice in my dreams ever calling,
Ever watching and praying for me.

There is someone I bless with true tenderness,
And her lips I'll caress when I bring happiness.

To that dear little town in the old County Down,
It will linger way down in my heart;
Though it never was grand it was my fairyland,
Just a wonderful world set apart.
Oh, my Ireland of dreams you are with me it seems,
And I care not for fame or renown;
Like the black sheep of old I'll come back to the fold,
Little town in the old County Down.

24/02/2010

Le bar du coin : Béraud


Jean Béraud - Au café (ca 1880 ?)

23/02/2010

Ciel... Hammershøi


Wilhelm Hammershøi - Gentofter See, 1903

19/02/2010

Ronde de nuit : Frantisek Simon


Frantisek Simon - Nocturne à Auray, Bretagne

17/02/2010

Société du spectacle : Riggs


Robert Riggs - Tumblers, lithographie, ca 1934

16/02/2010

14/02/2010

The cat's meow : Chien, mon chat




Norma Tanega - Walkin' my cat named Dog, 1966
Mis en ligne par clotho98


I'm walkin' all around the town
Singin' all the people down
Talkin' around, talkin' around

Me and my cat named Dog
Are walkin' high against the fog
Singin' the sun
Singin' the sun

Happy, sad and crazy wonder
Chokin' up my mind
With perpetual dreamin'

Driftin' up and down the street
Searchin' for the sound of people
Swingin' their feet, swingin' their feet

Dog is a good old cat
People what you think of that
That's where I'm at, that's where I'm at

Happy, sad and crazy wonder
Chokin' up my mind
With perpetual dreamin'


Norma Tanega, Filipina née en 1939 à Vallejo, Californie, artiste plasticienne et guitariste autodidacte, s'installe au début des années 60 à New-York où elle fait partie du petit cercle des folksingers comme Tom Paxton et Bob Dylan. Walkin' fut son seul vrai succès. Voir son site.

12/02/2010

Transports en commun : Commuters


Jack Delano - Commuters, who have just come off the train, waiting for the bus to go home, Lowell, Mass. (1941 Farm Security Administration)
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection

11/02/2010

Le bar du coin : Descente de police


Gustave Doré - Taverne à Whitechapel, 1869


"Stick close together, gentlemen; this is a very rough part," our careful guides tell us - some walking before, others behind - the local superintendent or the Scotland Yard sergeant accosting each policeman on his beat, and now and then collecting two or three, and planting them at strategical points or openings, that cover our advance, and keep the country open behind us.
We plunge into a maze of courts and narrow streets of low houses --nearly all the doors of which are open, showing kitchen fires blazing far in the interior, and strange figures moving about. Whistles, shouts, oaths, growls, and the brazen laughter of tipsy women; sullen "goodnights" to the police escort; frequent recognition of notorious rogues by the superintendent and his men; black pools of water under our feet only a ribbon of violet-gray sky overhead! We come to a halt at a low black door. The superintendent's knock means immediate opening. An old man in curduroy breeches and gray stockings, unbuttoned waistcoat, and dirty shirt sleeves, with low muffin cap over his eyes, is about to growl, when the "Good-night, Ben," of the force, brings him to attention and respect at once.
We advance into a low, long, dark room parted into boxes, in which are packed the most rascally company any great city could show. They stare, leer, dig each other in the ribs, fold their black hands over the cards, and grunt and growl sotto voce as the superintendent reviews them with a firm and placid look of command. The place is clean, compared with the guests, thanks to the Common Lodging-house Act; but it is charged with the unmistakable, overpowering damp and mouldy odor that is in every thieves' kitchen, in every common lodging-house, every ragged hotel."
William Blanchard Jerrold, ill. Gustave Doré - London, a pilgrimage, 1872, chap. XVIII, Whitechapel and thereabouts.

09/02/2010

Là-haut, dans le grand champ de seigle au bord de cette saleté de falaise





Florence Easton - Comin' thro' the rye
Mis en ligne par
Tim Gracyk









Bon, à un moment elle est allée aux toilettes; celles des dames c'est là-bas au diable







Robert Burns - Comin' thro' the rye - Julian Jamison, The Real McKenzies
Mis en ligne par
FatAndy133






et D.B. en a profité pour me demander ce que je pensais de tous ces trucs que je viens de vous raconter.







Je savais vraiment pas quoi dire. La vérité c'est que je ne sais pas quoi en penser.








Comin' thro' the rye - Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Clark Gable,
dans Mogambo, dir. John Ford, 1953

Mis en ligne par
eunsojo








Je regrette d'en avoir tellement parlé. Les gens dont j'ai parlé, ça fait comme s'ils me manquaient à présent, c'est tout ce que je sais.







Même le gars Stradlater par exemple, et Ackley.









Comin' thro' the rye - Natasha Holt, Farewell concert
Mis en ligne par belcantoaustralia








Et même, je crois bien, ce foutu Maurice.





C'est drôle. Faut jamais rien raconter à personne.






Si on le fait, tout le monde se met à vous manquer.




Jerome David Salinger, 1/1/1919 - 27/1/2010 - (les dix dernières lignes de)
The catcher in the rye, 1951 - L'attrape-coeurs, traduction Annie Saumont.








08/02/2010

Duos : Garber

Daniel Garber - Mother and son

06/02/2010

Les occupations solitaires : Le patinage


Henry Raeburn - The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, dit The skating minister, ca 1790

L'attribution à Raeburn est contestée. L'auteur pourrait être Danloux.

05/02/2010

Ciel... Mershimer


Frederick Mershimer - Rooftops, manière noire

04/02/2010

L'art de la fenêtre : Van Hoogstraten/Frith



William Powell Frith - At my window, Boulogne, 1872

Samuel van Hoogstraten - Autoportrait, ca 1647