Living In The Material World

Sam says she should have the money to buy our house by the middle of next week. That'd be good. Most of the time I don't think- or worry- about being in homeowner limbo, but it would be nice to be clear of it altogether. For one thing we're paying council tax on a house we're not using.

Last time we were up there we shifted a lot of stuff. On our next visit- which starts in just over a week- we should be able to shift a whole lot more. Odi has things earmarked, so do Alice and Joe.  Ailz has been talking with Matthew about getting him to transport things down here. My preference would be for getting a junk shop owner to clear the house of everything we can't move by car, but Ailz has one or two pieces of furniture she wants to keep.

Witches, Demons And Hooded Monks

Ansel Adams' idea of photography was man meets mountain and their love is pure;  he thought it wicked to manipulate an image.  William Mortensen's idea of photography was man meets bare-naked lady in a studio and scribbles all over the resulting image until it looks like one of those etchings you might invite a date upstairs to examine. Adams hated Mortensen and Mortensen's success with the vulgar (who included Hollywood folk) and got Mortensen kicked out of the history books. At least, that's what it says here. In their time Adams passed for a modernist but- now- with the manipulation of digital images being not only easy but respectable- it's Mortensen who looks like the prophet. And he did it the hard way. God only knows how he achieved some of his results.

I have some sympathy with Adams. Mortensen's sabbats and torture chambers are hokey but compelling. You see one of his pictures, you want to rifle through the whole portfolio. They're like sweeties. They won't do you any good but...