Memories | Wandering in Multi Universes of Mind and Life

Tag: Memories
- Reading Always Reading
  
  Posted at 6:25 pm by A M Zénon, on November 20, 2014
  
  I have always been reading. As long as I can remember. So I suppose at least from the moment, that I learned the alphabet. I got many books in my youth, took them from my brothers bookshelves, and from the, forbidden, parents bookshelves, borrowed them from the library. So I read all the books, that I could get.
  
  It has been all my life a pleasure to wander through the bookshops. As it is nowadays through the wider world of the online bookshops. And I welcomed the ereaders and the likes from the moment they were there. Physical books or ebooks, I don’t mind, all are good, if I can read.
  
  I read because I love the words, the language, the stories, the discoveries, the memories, the familiar and the unknown.
  I only need my mind and the letters of the alphabet.
  
  I read all kinds of books, novels, study books, art books, you name it. They all have 2 things in common. They show me familiar situations, to keep me reading. And they show me unknown situations, to keep me reading.
  
  I write about my thoughts and feelings. Perhaps a short description. But do not expect any expertise here. And certainly no good or bad judgement or more or less stars. You will never hear me tell you, that you should read this or that book, or just not.
  
  You will hear only some more or less loose, incoherent, coincidental thoughts and feelings. About books I feel close to.
  Well, if I succeed to put them into words.
  
  Will be continued…
  
  Posted in Amzenon, Lifelong Love, Literature, Reading | 0 Comments | Tagged Literature, Memories, Reading
- The Woman I recognized at Champmol.
  
  Posted at 1:59 pm by A M Zénon, on March 8, 2011
  
  Some years ago, I visited Champmol in Dijon, the grounds of the old monastery of Chartreuse de Champmol, today a psychiatric hospital. I made the journey just for visiting the sculptures of Claus Sluter. After some rather heavy traffic, I drove onto the site. At my surprise, there was a small parking for visitors under beautiful trees. Walking across the site, I met only a few friendly patients and nurses. It was a hot day, but thanks to the trees, it was very pleasant.
  
  Of course, I went straight to the Well of Moses, in a backyard with some scattered construction material. I could walk around the sculpture group as many times as I wanted to. Nobody disturbed me. It is always nice to be alone with a work of art. It is as if you are alone with the artist. It is exciting to stand in front of a sculpture and realizing that ages ago an artist has touched it with his hands.
  
  The second sculpture group was in the chapel. After a short walk under beautiful trees, I went into the portal of the chapel. It was there in the portal that the beautiful statue of Maria struck me. I have seen many beautiful medieval sculptures. Mostly, they were more static and serious. This time however, I saw a very lively Maria. She was moving, turning and smiling, with the child on her arm. It was as if I was seeing my grandmother, my mother, and many other women, washing, cleaning and caring for their child. There was something human between the mother and her child. Maria seemed almost real. I loved it. Never before I saw such a lovely statue of Maria, of any woman. It was worth the trip. Go see it when you are in the neighborhood. Claus Sluter has made a beautiful image in favor of women.
  
  Posted in Art, Sculpture | 0 Comments | Tagged Art, Champmol, Claus Sluter, Looking, Memories, Northern Renaissance
- What are Great Moments ?
  
  Posted at 3:12 pm by A M Zénon, on February 12, 2011
  
  Berthe Morisot
  
  When I am listening to music, looking at a painting or a sculpture or reading a book, I know instantaneously that something is happening to me, a kind of flash. Sometimes a memory of an event in the past, sometimes a memory of a friend, but often an indistinct feeling of happiness, of “je ne sais quoi” or even of melancholy. These moments make a deep impression, I never forget. I don’t know if they are influencing my daily life. But I do know they are remaining in my memory and in my thoughts. They can change with time, mood, ageing or personal development. They never fall out of favour.
  
  For instance, when at the age of twelve first reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace, I looked at Pierre and Andrei as grown-up men. Young, my greatest admiration was for Pierre with his more deviating way of life. Older, I appreciated more Andrei’s social attitude. Yet each time I reread the novel, I feel involved with both and with Natasha of course.
  
  The same, in some other way, is happening with music like the first time I heard Beethoven’s Eroica on a small recorder or the Violin Concerto by Yehudi Menuhin live.
  
  Wilhelm Lehmbruck
  
  Or when I am looking at a sculpture by Lehmbruck or a painting by Malevich or a .
  Earlier I always tried to understand why some works had such an effect on me. Nowadays, I am just happy with the old familiar memories and the future, not yet known, events. They are like old and new friends. They are part of me.
  
  In this blog I’ll write about my favorite music, art and books.
  What I hear, see, read, feel, think and love.
  
  Posted in Classical Music, Literature, Paintings | 0 Comments | Tagged Art, Classical Music, Listening, Literature, Looking, Memories, Reading
- Dichter und Bauer
  
  Posted at 9:50 am by A M Zénon, on November 9, 2010
  
  A little child, six years old, I was going to a fair. My mother told me about a kind of water organ with music. Full of expectations I was sitting at the front row inside a very large tent. Suddenly the organ was spraying water streams in all sorts of color. The fountains were waving from left to right and up and down. All in harmony with the music.
  
  I liked the show with all these magnificent colors. But moving me most was the music. I never liked the usual children songs. Now I was sitting upright, absorbed by the music.
  
  The slow beginning, the tempi, the waltz. The mildness and then the unexpected loudness of the orchestra. The violins, the flutes, the brass. The melancholy of the violoncello. Sounds I never sensed before.
  
  Life got a new and heavenly dimension. I have never forgotten this first conscious hearing of music. This enchantment of music.
  
  Posted in Classical Music, Classical Playlists, Joy, Nostalgia | 0 Comments | Tagged Childhood, Classical Music, Franz von Suppé, Listening, Memories