What’s Up, Doc? (1972)
Too Close For Comfort
Tag: satire
Rod Stewart in the “Rear Window”
I was only something to fall back on
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Please Mr. Postman
cf. Horace Bundy, Vermont Lawyer (1841)
Study our manuscripts, those myriads
Of letters, which have past twixt thee and me,
Thence write our annals, and in them will be
To all whom love’s subliming fire invades,
Rule and example found;
There, the faith of any ground
No schismatic will dare to wound,
That sees, how Love this grace to us affords,
To make, to keep, to use, to be these his records.
— John Donne, A Valediction of the Book (excerpt)
Please Mr. Postman by Carpenters
Who Goes with Fergus?
cf. London Stereoscopic Company, “Jeames at Home!” (ca. 1860-1870)
Who will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood’s woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fear no more.And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love’s bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all dishevelled wandering stars.
— W. B. Yeats, Who Goes with Fergus?
Return Of The Mack (C&J Extended Mix) by Mark Morrison
Memory
Business Screen magazine, 1973
The evening, blue, voluptuous, of June
Settled slowly on the beach with pulsating wings,
Like a sea-gull come to rest: far, far-off twinkled
Gold lights from the towers of a city and a passing ship.
The dark sea rolled its body at the end of the beach,
The warm soft beach which it was too tired to climb,
And we two walked together there
Arm in arm, having nothing in our souls but love.
— John Gould Fletcher, Memory: The Walk on the Beach (excerpt)
Julie, Do Ya Love Me by Bobby Sherman
There’s a hammer in my heart pounding out your name.
Modern Love
Ladies’ Home Journal, 1948
And what is love? It is a doll dress’d up
For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle;
A thing of soft misnomers, so divine
That silly youth doth think to make itself
Divine by loving, and so goes on
Yawning and doting a whole summer long…
— Keats, Modern Love (excerpt)
Oedipus at Colonus
Business Screen magazine, 1971
Scan the shape of this dim shadow, once a man
And Oedipus . . . but I was different then.
— Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus (Tr. Murray)
Enough; no more. ‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
Unhappy verse, the witness of my unhappy state,
Make thy self flutt’ring wings of thy fast flying
Thought, and fly forth unto my love, wheresoever she be:
Whether lying restless in heavy bed, or else
Sitting so cheerless at the cheerful board, or else
Playing alone careless on her heavenly virginals.
If in bed, tell her, that my eyes can take no rest:
If at board, tell her, that my mouth can eat no meat:
If at her virginals, tell her, I can hear no mirth.
Asked why? say: waking love suffereth no sleep:
Say that raging love doth appal the weak stomach:
Say, that lamenting love marreth the musical.
— Edmund Spenser, Iambicum Trimetrum (excerpt)
I said, Lord, take me downtown
Fame
Cameo Appearance
cf. John Sapiro, Wedge Of Cheese (2018) and Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (detail) (1942)
At the barbershop all day. Beth, what can I do?
SCENE V: A hall in Capulet’s house.
cf. John Vanderlyn, Study for “The Landing of Columbus…” (ca. 1840–43)
JULIET:
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much.
Walketh this way…
“Walk This Way” (Live Version) — Aerosmith
Astrophil and Stella 71: Bad Time
LIFE, 1970
Who will in fairest book of nature know
How virtue may best lodg’d in beauty be,
Let him but learn of love to read in thee,
Stella, those fair lines which true goodness show.
There shall he find all vices’ overthrow,
Not by rude force, but sweetest sovereignty
Of reason, from whose light those night-birds fly;
That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so.
And, not content to be perfection’s heir
Thyself, dost strive all minds that way to move,
Who mark in thee what is in thee most fair.
So while thy beauty draws thy heart to love,
As fast thy virtue bends that love to good:
But “Ah,” Desire still cries, “Give me some food!”
— Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 71: “Who will in fairest book of nature know”
I come in last night about half past ten…
cf. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, “Man sitting with dog on front porch as woman looks through door…” (between 1860 and 1930)
“Move It On Over” — George Thorogood and the Destroyers
But, soft! what light through yonder trolley tunnel breaks?
ROMEO:
[To A Serving man] What lady is that, which doth enrich the paw
Of yonder Daniel Striped Tiger?SERVANT:
I know not, sir.ROMEO:
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear—
Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows and X the Owl,
As yonder lady o’er her fellows and Lady Elaine Fairchilde shows…
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this episode aired on PBS.
“Whenever You’re On My Mind” – Marshall Crenshaw
Meanwhile across town…
cf. Edward Hopper, “Nighthawks” (detail) (1942) and Paul Gauguin, “The Siesta” (detail) (ca. 1892–94)
Poor Wisdom’s chance
Against a glance
Is now as weak as ever.
— Thomas Moore, “The Time Iʼve Lost in Wooing” (excerpt)
I met her on the strip. It was another lost weekend.
cf. The Denison Limner, “Miss Denison of Stonington, Connecticut” (ca. 1790)
“Talk To Ya Later” – The Tubes
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
LIFE, 1972
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
—T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
A Game of Chess
[Algernon is rather taken aback.]
cf. LIFE, 1972 and Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest”
“Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” – Aretha Franklin
I Want To Be Your Man
cf. The Finnish Museum of Photography, “Kulutusosuuskuntien Keskusliiton kokoelma” and
Grant Wood, “American Gothic” (1930)
“I Want To Be Your Man” by Zapp & Roger
“The Year Of Living Collinsly (1985)”
Photograph by Florian Pérennès via Unsplash
The Year Of Living Collinsly (1985)
there’s a girl that’s been on my mind
all the time
i’ve been sitting here so long
wasting time
just staring at the phone
ooh
you got me inside out
oh yes
they all warned me
they told me don’t lose your heart to her
she’ll never give it back
now i know that i’m too young
my love has just begun
Phil Collins – “Sussudio” (Fatu’s Edit) by Fatu (F82)
Into The Fire
Billy Rose Theatre Division, “Harvest” (1913)
Newman uttered one of the least attenuated imprecations that had ever passed his lips…
—Henry James, The American
Love Won’t Let Me Wait
cf. Pompeo Batoni, “Portrait of a Young Man” (ca. 1760–65) and
image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images via Pixabay and
video by Felix_Broennimann (“Star, Long Exposure”) via Pixabay and
video by InspiredImages (“Lava Lamp”) via Pixabay
“Love Won’t Let Me Wait” by Major Harris
Love For Sale
cf. Advertiser-News, 1977 and John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera
The Beggar’s Opera: “My heart was so free”
Crazy Over You
cf. Picture Story Magazine, 1962
Portrait Of A Woman Painting
cf. Marie Denise Villers, “Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes” (1801) and
video by Electric_Cat via Pixabay
Presence
Take Your Whiskey Home
cf. LIFE, 1964
Hold the line! Love isn’t always on time.
Frances Benjamin Johnston, “2 scenes from Pastoral Plays: Strephon casts off Chloe” (1906)
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” Remix by John Sapiro
Love on the line, it’s now or never.
cf. “Before and After” (Photo-Play World, 1918)
ACT I, SCENE I: Verona. A public place.
cf. LIFE, 1969
He’s A Mover
cf. American Mutoscope and Biograph Co., “Foxy Grandpa and Polly in a little hilarity” (1902)
“He’s A Mover” by Nikki & The Corvettes
Why don’t we steal away into the night?
Everyday I Write The Book
Ten Fingers
cf. Tony Walsh, “Baubles, Bangles and Beads, Beads, Beads” (Cincinnati Magazine, 1983)
“Ten Fingers” – The Pursuit of Happiness
“I refute it THUS.”
cf. Paul Stang, “Group portrait at Lushågen” (ca. 1910)
After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, “I refute it THUS.”
—Boswell’s Life Of Johnson
Kick It Out
Fred G. Korth, “A Good Time In The Office” (ca. 1936)
Curtail far hopes to fit short destiny.
Even while we speak time, grudging time, has fled.
Seize eagerly each day, and trust the morrow’s grace as little as may be.
—Horace, Odes
“I will attend her here, and woo her with some spirit when she comes…”
cf. Michael Caporale, “Real, Live, Wearable Fashions For Fall” (Cincinnati Magazine, 1979)
Love Is Strong
I Feel The Earth Move
All I want to be is by your side
cf. Thomas Gainsborough, “Mr and Mrs Andrews” (ca. 1750)
Louie fell in love overnight
Kenneth W. Williams, “What’s This?” (ca. 1938)
She loves to be in love, she don’t care if you’re not there — she can make it alone
La Belle Dame Sans Merci: A Ballad
cf. Cincinnati Magazine, 1973
No sugar tonight in my tea
Library Company of Philadelphia, “Sugar with your tea Patrick?”
Have Mercy
Big black car, long cigar — he’s twice your age
One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl.
Switchin’ To Glide
LIFE, 1972
“Ho-Ho! my valiant page!
Bring hither Pegasus, and let me ride;
Smooth the winged-charger’s ruffled mane,
Tighten the curb, and let the loosen’d rein
Hang loose no more!
Bring hither Pegasus, and I will soar,
With my proud courser well in hand,
Into the presence of that fairyland
Wherein the far hills brood in the still mist
And the laughter-ripple of the mere is kissed
By the bright-eyed orb of day:
Now make good speed, my page…”
—William Wilson, “Pegasus in Lakeland”
“Switchin’ To Glide” by The Kings
Young man, there’s no need to feel down. (MAOI)
“And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus?”
cf. Cincinnati Magazine, 1971
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay, say nay, for shame,
To save thee from the blame
Of all my grief and grame;
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay, say nay!And wilt thou leave me thus,
That hath loved thee so long
In wealth and woe among?
And is thy heart so strong
As for to leave me thus?
Say nay, say nay!And wilt thou leave me thus,
That hath given thee my heart
Never for to depart,
Nother for pain nor smart;
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay, say nay!And wilt thou leave me thus
And have no more pity
Of him that loveth thee?
Hélas, thy cruelty!
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay, say nay!
—Sir Thomas Wyatt
My Baby Loves Lovin’
“Barbie And Ken At The Lapin Agile”
Do you love the monkey or do you love me?
King Kong (1976)
The Nose
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, “N.Y.C. – Bridges – Brooklyn” (1895)
As he returned, he met Madame Podtotchina with her daughter. He accosted them, and they responded very graciously. The conversation lasted a long time, during which he took more than one pinch of snuff, saying to himself, “No, you haven’t caught me yet, coquettes that you are! And as to the daughter, I shan’t marry her at all.”
After that, the Major resumed his walks on the Neffsky Avenue and his visits to the theatre as if nothing had happened. His nose also remained in its place as if it had never quitted it. From that time he was always to be seen smiling, in a good humour, and paying attentions to pretty girls…
—Nikolai Gogol, The Nose
Better forget him, him with his nose in the air…
Tuesday: Beef Macaroni Casserole
Summertime Blues
New York Magazine, 1969
Summer’s joys are spoilt by use,
And the enjoying of the Spring
Fades as does its blossoming…
–John Keats, Fancy
“Summertime Blues” (Remixed Live At Leeds Version) by The Who
Something’s burning and I think it’s love
cf. William Gropper, “Wake up alone and like it!” (1936)
Suffragette City
Hey, hey you got me rocking now
cf. Whistler, “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1”, also called “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother” (1871) and
Maxell advertisement (1980)
Call out the volunteers ’cause my heart’s a flambé
Harry Wayne McMahan, “The Television Commercial” (1954)
I gotta time it right so it’s warm when you get it
Turn up the heat just a little bit higher
It was a good idea but I think I overdid it
I can’t reach the oven and the kitchen’s on fire…
SCENE III: The disco near Polonius’ house
I get these suspicions…
State Library of New South Wales, “Snapshot at fern tree near Hobart prior to departure south” (1911)
Doctor’s Orders
cf. Ladies’ Home Journal, 1953
Walk right in, sit right down. Daddy, let your mind roll on.
cf. John Smibert, “Francis Brinley” (1729)
“While our hero lies comfortably in his bed at home…”
Illustration by H. J. Ford from “The Book Of Romance” (1902)
Thus they drive on the day with such doings while our hero lies comfortably in his bed at home in clothes full rich of hue. The lady did not forget; she came to greet him; full early she was by him to change his mind. She comes to the curtain and peeps at the knight. Sir Gawain at once welcomes her worthily, and she returns his greeting right promptly, seats herself softly by his side, laughs openly, and with a lovely look addresses these words to him: “Sir, if ye be Gawain, it seems to me a very strange thing that a man of such quality should not follow the conventions of good society; and should after making acquaintance with a person cast him utterly from his mind. Thou hast already forgotten what I taught you yesterday in the best language that I knew.” “What is that?” quoth the hero. “Forsooth I know not. If what ye say be true, I am to blame.” “Yet I taught you about kissing,” replied the fair lady; “wherever a countenance is known, quickly to claim a kiss; that becomes every knight who practices courtesy…”
—Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
She’s turnin’ on the heat
And it’s a little too much
She’s turnin’ on the heat
And it’s a hundred above, yeah…
Satin Doll
“A hand-bag?”
“Who woo’d in haste and means to wed at leisure…”
Zaida Ben-Yusuf, “Don’t you see that you are making me a great deal of trouble?” (1902)
No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forced
To give my hand opposed against my heart
Unto a mad-brain rudesby full of spleen;
Who woo’d in haste and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior:
And, to be noted for a merry man,
He’ll woo a thousand, ‘point the day of marriage,
Make feasts, invite friends, and proclaim the banns;
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo’d.
Now must the world point at poor Katharina,
And say, “Lo, there is mad Petruchio’s wife,
If it would please him come and marry her!”
—The Taming of the Shrew
Afternoon Delight
Gold Bell Catalog, 1963
My baby takes the morning train
William B., “Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Construction…” (detail) (1900)
You can’t get off this wheel of karma
cf. D.A. Sigerist, “Two men and a woman dancing three hand reel” (ca. 1905)
LAVINIA: Stop! I want you to explain the telegram.
JULIA: Explain the telegram? What do you think, Alex?
ALEX: No, Julia, we can’t explain the telegram.
LAVINIA: I am sure that you could explain the telegram.
I don’t know why. But it seems to me that yesterday
I started some machine, that goes on working,
And I cannot stop it; no, it’s not like a machine—
Or if it’s a machine, someone else is running it.
But who? Somebody is always interfering …
I don’t feel free … and yet I started it …
–T. S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party
CHAPTER XXXIX: Mr. Samuel Weller, being entrusted with a mission of love, proceeds to execute it; with what success will hereinafter appear…
Carol M. Highsmith, “Melodrama performance…” (detail)
CHAPTER XXXIX: Mr. Samuel Weller, being entrusted with a mission of love, proceeds to execute it; with what success will hereinafter appear…
–Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers
I Know A Little (Album Version) by Lynyrd Skynyrd
To His Coy Mistress
cf. Heinrich Krenes, Vor dem Pantheon (1908)
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime…
–Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress
The Day I Ran The Projector
Anna Curtis Chandler & Irene F. Cypher, “Audio-visual techniques for enrichment of the curriculum” (1948)
Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old time, and regulate the sun…
—Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
“No, we are all as old as we feel, but no older…”
cf. LIFE, 1968
…the sight of his own sharp features and grey hair plunged him in hopeless mortification; he made desperate efforts to recover the appearance and freshness of his youth and began paying frequent visits to the hotel barber. Enveloped in the white sheet, beneath the hands of that garrulous personage, he would lean back in the chair and look at himself in the glass with misgiving.
“Grey,” he said, with a grimace.
“Slightly,” answered the man. “Entirely due to neglect, to a lack of regard for appearances. Very natural, of course, in men of affairs, but, after all, not very sensible, for it is just such people who ought to be above vulgar prejudice in matters like these. Some folk have very strict ideas about the use of cosmetics; but they never extend them to the teeth, as they logically should. And very disgusted other people would be if they did. No, we are all as old as we feel, but no older, and grey hair can misrepresent a man worse than dyed. You, for instance, signore, have a right to your natural colour. Surely you will permit me to restore what belongs to you?”
“How?” asked Aschenbach.
For answer the talker washed his client’s hair in two waters, one clear and one dark, and lo, it was as black as in the days of his youth. He waved it with the tongs in wide, flat undulations, and stepped back to admire the effect…
—Thomas Mann, Death In Venice
Out On The Tiles
cf. Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, “Four Ladies Sitting around a Table…” (detail) (1758)
and Eugène Atget, “Bar de Cabaret” (ca. 1900)
Pokey’s ancestor
Left: “Horse figurine” (Terracotta, hand-made; Cypriot) (ca. 600–480 B.C.)
Right: Pokey (ca. 1960s)
Don’t it seem like kicks just keep gettin’ harder to find?
cf. Detroit Publishing Co., “Young couple on rock holding hands, full-length portrait” (ca. 1910)
and Suit (wool, gilt metal; British) (ca. 1760)
“Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight”
cf. Jean Raoux, Couple Dancing in a Park (1725)
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
–Sonnet CXXIX
“Yet see in the uncertain sky above your uncertain station– the sign she left you…”
Eastman Kodak Company, “How to make good movies…” (1938)
The many faces of defeat
Invite you home:
They offer you such silence
As has no truck with time.
The face of horrid purpose,
The train of circumstance
There, the door is closed upon;
They shall no more advance.
Yet see in the uncertain sky
Above your uncertain station–
The sign she left you, passing,
Persists in affirmation.
—Ray Smith, The Sign
Not The One
Eastman Kodak Company, “How to make good movies…” (1938)
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Television Commercials (1950s-1960s)
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
–T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (excerpt)
Well, I’m a bum in the sun and I’m having fun
And I know you know I got no special plans
All the bills are paid
I got it made in the shade
And all I need is the woman…
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
—Hamlet
Do you love me now that I can dance?
cf. Winslow Homer, “A Parisian Ball-Dancing At The Mabille, Paris”
You Shook Me All Night Long
cf. John Singer Sargent, Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes (1897)
and Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930)
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?
Don’t let my glad expression give you the wrong impression
cf. LIFE, 1966
and John Singer Sargent, Madame X (1883–84)
and Jean-Antoine Watteau, Pierrot, formerly known as Gilles (ca. 1718-19)
“Johnny, give up women and study mathematics.”
Esther Bubley, A geometry teacher…using a model to explain a figure (1943)
…she at last blushed, adjusted her dress, got up, and, without saying a word, went and seated herself at the window. I went to sit by her side, but she moved, sat down on a couch, got up immediately afterwards, and fanning herself as she walked about the chamber, said to me in a cold and disdainful tone of voice, “Zanetto, lascia le donne, e studia la matematica.” (“Johnny, give up women and study mathematics.”)
—Rousseau, Confessions
Go Go Godzilla
Drawing And Animation By John Sapiro
The Importance of Being Earnest
cf. U.S. National Archives, Photograph of Guests at Refreshment Table… (detail) (1963)
Jack: You really love me, Gwendolen?
Gwendolen: Passionately!
Jack: Darling! You don’t know how happy you’ve made me.
Gwendolen: My own Ernest!
Jack: But you don’t really mean to say that you couldn’t love me if my name wasn’t Ernest?
Gwendolen: But your name is Ernest.
Jack: Yes, I know it is. But supposing it was something else? Do you mean to say you couldn’t love me then?
Gwendolen: [Glibly.] Ah! that is clearly a metaphysical speculation, and like most metaphysical speculations has very little reference at all to the actual facts of real life, as we know them.
Jack: Personally, darling, to speak quite candidly, I don’t much care about the name of Ernest… I don’t think the name suits me at all.
Gwendolen: It suits you perfectly. It is a divine name. It has a music of its own. It produces vibrations.
Jack: Well, really, Gwendolen, I must say that I think there are lots of other much nicer names. I think Jack, for instance, a charming name.
Gwendolen: Jack?… No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations… I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! And I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment’s solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.
Jack: Gwendolen, I must get christened at once—I mean we must get married at once. There is no time to be lost…
–Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
“…And ever changing, like a joyless eye that finds no object worth its constancy?”
cf. Orange Coast Magazine (1978)
Hot love if you want it
cf. Jakub Schikaneder, Company on the Terrace (1887)
“Milly drew the feet of water and…her companion floated off with the sense of rocking violently at her side.”
Popular Mechanics (1960)
Her situation, as such things were called, was on the grand scale; but it still was not that. It was her nature, once for all—a nature that reminded Mrs. Stringham of the term always used in the newspapers about the great new steamers, the inordinate number of “feet of water” they drew; so that if, in your little boat, you had chosen to hover and approach, you had but yourself to thank, when once motion was started, for the way the draught pulled you. Milly drew the feet of water, and odd though it might seem that a lonely girl, who was not robust and who hated sound and show, should stir the stream like a leviathan, her companion floated off with the sense of rocking violently at her side.
—Henry James, The Wings of the Dove
So I’d like to know where you got the notion
Said I’d like to know where you got the notion
To rock the boat,
Don’t rock the boat baby!
Gonna be a dental floss tycoon
cf. Frans Hals, The Laughing Cavalier (1624)
You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and you shake it all about.
Nicolas Poussin, A Dance to the Music of Time (detail) (ca.1634-1636)
Fièvre du Samedi soir au Moulin de la Galette
cf. Auguste Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876)
And that sweet city woman,
She moves through the light…
“They resolved to persevere in dissipation for the rest of the day…”
cf. LIFE (1967)
One night when Beauclerk and Langton had supped at a tavern in London, and sat till about three in the morning, it came into their heads to go and knock up Johnson, and see if they could prevail on him to join them in a ramble. They rapped violently at the door of his chambers in the Temple, till at last he appeared in his shirt, with his little black wig on the top of his head, instead of a nightcap, and a poker in his hand, imagining, probably, that some ruffians were coming to attack him. When he discovered who they were, and was told their errand, he smiled, and with great good humour agreed to their proposal: ‘What, is it you, you dogs! I’ll have a frisk with you.’ He was soon drest, and they sallied forth together into Covent-Garden…They then repaired to one of the neighbouring taverns, and made a bowl of that liquor called Bishop, which Johnson had always liked; while in joyous contempt of sleep, from which he had been roused, he repeated the festive lines,
‘Short, O short then be thy reign,
And give us to the world again!’
They did not stay long, but walked down to the Thames, took a boat, and rowed to Billingsgate. Beauclerk and Johnson were so well pleased with their amusement, that they resolved to persevere in dissipation for the rest of the day…
—Boswell’s Life Of Johnson
A Modern Odyssey: Book XII
cf. Paul Stang, “Out rowing” (ca. 1910)
Barracuda
cf. Gerard ter Borch the Younger, A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier (ca. 1658)
She Blinded Me With Science
cf. Jacques Louis David, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and His Wife Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze (1788)
Two divided by love can only be one and one is a lonely number
cf. Giuseppe De Nittis, Elegant Young Woman Seen From Behind (ca. 1875)
Shake a hand if you have to
cf. Jean-Germain Drouais, Marius At Minturnae (1786)
I don’t know why sometimes I get frightened
cf. from “The Book Of Photography, Practical, Theoretic And Applied”, Paul N. Hasluck, Ed. (1907)
“Rather, it represented his normal condition…”
cf. Julian Alden Weir, Man Reclining on a Beach (1879) and photograph by Markus Spiske via Unsplash
With Oblomov, lying in bed was neither a necessity (as in the case of an invalid or of a man who stands badly in need of sleep) nor an accident (as in the case of a man who is feeling worn out) nor a gratification (as in the case of a man who is purely lazy). Rather, it represented his normal condition. Whenever he was at home–and almost always he was at home–he would spend his time in lying on his back. Likewise he used but the one room–which was combined to serve both as bedroom, as study, and as reception-room–in which we have just discovered him. True, two other rooms lay at his disposal, but seldom did he look into them save on mornings (which did not comprise by any means every morning) when his old valet happened to be sweeping out the study. The furniture in them stood perennially covered over, and never were the blinds drawn up.
—Ivan Goncharov, Oblomov
I’m so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you…
Ain’t that peculiar?!
Le Déjeuner Sur La Crème Fouettée
cf. Édouard Manet, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1832-1883)
Morning, just another day…
cf. Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (1942)
Aquarius
cf. Melvin Sokolsky, “Fashion Free Fall” (Ladies’ Home Journal, 1966) and Photograph via nasa.gov
I Woke Up In Love This Morning
Cincinnati Magazine (1971)
“meanwhile my self etcetera lay quietly…”
LIFE (1966)
…meanwhile my
self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et
cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)
—e.e.cummings, my sweet old etcetera (excerpt)
More and more I’m thinkin’ ’bout love…
Leave It
cf. image from “St. Nicholas book of plays & operettas” (1900)
She’s my best friend’s girl but she used to be mine
Ladies’ Home Journal (1959)
H-E-A-R-T breaker look what you done!
Paul-Narcisse Salières, The Faïence Restorer (Oil on canvas) (1848)
I’m saving my prime time for you
LIFE (1966)
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
“Palindrome” (A Poem)
“A man, a plan, a potato pan – Otis!”
–John Sapiro, “Palindrome”
Take it out to Pomona and let ’em know that I’m the coolest thing around
cf. Cincinnati Magazine (1976)
Sweet Child O’ Mine
cf. Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait (1434)
Last night I had a crazy dream…
Communication Breakdown
cf. Frances Benjamin Johnston, Unidentified friend of Frances Benjamin Johnston (ca. 1890) and LIFE (1960)
Who Loves You?
Crazy On You
cf. Vermeer, The Guitar Player (1672)
Y.M.C.A.
Stop! In The Name Of Love
Flip Schulke, Female Road Worker Directs Traffic… (ca. 1975)
“Star Trek: The Beat Generation”
It took me so long to find out, and I found out
cf. Alfred-Émile-Léopold Stevens, Departing for the Promenade (Oil on panel) (1859) and photograph by Josh Wilburne via Unsplash
You got me workin’ day and night
Cincinnati Magazine (1971)
“You allowed some Chapeaux to measure the calves of your legs…”
“…So I call on you once more to think and reflect about the cause of this unfortunate incident, namely the fact that I voiced my disapproval that you had been so impudent and inconsiderate as to tell your sisters—Nota bene, in my presence—that you allowed some Chapeaux to measure the calves of your legs…But it’s over now—and a mere acknowledgment of this unwise exhibition would have been enough to make everything all right and—if you don’t take it amiss, dearest friend—would still make it all right.—You can see from this how much I love you…”
Letter from Mozart to Constanze Weber (April 29, 1782)
Dancing In The Moonlight
cf. Henri-Julien-Félix Rousseau, Carnival Evening (1886)
Hey there, Georgy girl
cf. LIFE (1966)
Yes, I’m ready
cf. LIFE (1966)
Creature from the sea with the looks to me like she like to fool around
cf. Botticelli, Birth of Venus and photograph via ShadesDaddy.com
You make me feel brand new
cf. LIFE (1960)
Suddenly the day turns into night, far away from the city…
cf. Antoine Watteau, Mezzetin (ca. 1718–20)
How can I be sure?
Calling Dr. Love
“The Teenage Waste Land”
“You Say Picasso And I Say Pimento” (To Be Sung To The Tune Of “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”)
“You Say Picasso And I Say Pimento”
(To be sung to the tune of “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”)Things have come to a pretty pass
Our romance is growing flat,
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that,Goodness knows what the end will be
Oh I don’t know where I’m at
It looks as if we two will never be one
Something must be done:You say Albert Einstein and I say Dianne Feinstein,
You say Phil Niekro and I say George Knightley
Einstein, Feinstein, Niekro, Knightley
Let’s call the whole thing off.You like Polanski and I like Pizarro
You like Ptolemy and I like Palladio
Polanski, Pizarro, Ptolemy, Palladio
Let’s call the whole thing offBut oh, if we call the whole thing off
Then we must part
And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heartSo if you like Polybius and I like Pythagoras
I’ll read Polybius not theorem Pythagoras
For we know we need each other so we
Better call the whole thing off
Let’s call the whole thing off.You say Hedy Lamarr and I say Dorothy Lamour
You say Bella Abzug and I say Dan Aykroyd
Lamarr, Lamour, Abzug, Aykroyd
Let’s call the whole thing off,You like Velázquez and I like Herve Villachaize
You Marquis deSade and I Sade
Velázquez, Villachaize, Claus Von Bulow, Abe Vigoda
Let’s call the whole thing offBut oh if we call the whole thing of then we must part
And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heartSo if you go for Frederick Law Olmsted and I go for Edward James Olmos
I’ll garden Olmsted no Netflix James Olmos
For we know we need each other so we
Better call the calling off off,
Let’s call the whole thing off.I say Jose Feliciano, and you say Annette Funicello,
I say Chuck Mangioni and you say Guglielmo Marconi
Pavarotti, Pocahontas, Leslie Uggams, that’s my auntie — let’s call the whole thing off!I like Barbara Bel Geddes and you like Jean Paul Belmondo
I say Herodotus and I get Humperdinck
Bel Geddes, Belmondo, Herodotus, Humperdinck
Go your way, I’ll go mineSo if I go for Schopenhauer and you go for Bill Shoemaker,
So all right no contest we’ll wager Shoemaker
For we know we need each other so we
Better call the calling off off,
Let’s call the whole thing off.
Rockin’ into the night
I could be good for you
Quaker Oats advertisement and photograph by Brooke Cagle via Unsplash
Dance Little Sister
Here I am – stuck in the middle with you
Heartbeat, It’s A Lovebeat
