Friday, April 29, 2011




18 comments:

Oldfool said...

"Of all the things I have lost in my life I miss my mind the most" is something I say often these days but back when I had a mind I loved being read to. In my youth I was a radio listener and there were plenty of dramas on that I would get completely wrapped up in.
Somewhere, sometime I stopped being able to concentrate on the stories in audio books. I seem to catch a phrase or an idea and wander off in my own story.
The last time I was so completely captured it was by Oscar Wilde and the reading of "The Ballad of Reading Gaul". It drove me to the depths of depression so much that I was actually weeping but I couldn't stop listening. I have not been capture so much since. I want to listen to it again but to tell you the truth I am afraid.
I have been hooked on Oscar Wilde since.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Thank you. OF, This will be absolutely next on my listening list... if you wept, I know I will for sure..
funny how language can twist us up in emotional conflicts in our minds..

...funny how Our eyes upon seeing particular things without the sound/language makes us feel differently than when Our ears hear things without the pictures.

Valerianna said...

Wise.... definitely.

Ruth said...

I saw Lady Windemere's Fan performed on stage at the Abbey Theater in Dublin. It was such a treat! I do love that quote of Wilde's from the play. I am not sure I can get my head around it, you know? I love to read your posts and look at your art.

Acornmoon said...

rather like the saying, "be careful what you wish for, for wishes sometimes come true".

Owen said...

Oh joy, you've opened up the comment box again; so nice to be able to leave a thought or two for you here. Absolutely love the lettering you've done here in your homage to Oscar Wilde, harmoniously beautiful.

Made me think of work by a calligrapher I've enjoyed over the years, Sheila Waters :

http://www.calligraphersguild.org/SheilaWaters.html

And speaking of Oscar, I don't know if you might have seen this a few months ago :

http://magiclanternshowen.blogspot.com/2010/11/earnest-mans-grave-30-november-1900.html

Be well

A Heron's View said...

Our nightly pleasure is to listen to the radio BBC 4x via the internet, especially for the stories and plays.
So very soothing before sleep.

helen said...

...and to think ~ today he would not have been persecuted so horribly.

Your calligraphy is gorgeous Gwen.

Guillaume said...

Ah Oscar Wilde, master of aphorisms. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a revelation to me.

Morna Crites-Moore said...

I have tried on several occasions to listen to a book while I work but I don't seem able. Either I get too focused on the work and the next thing I know I've missed all kinds of stuff, or I leave the room to get something and forget to pause the CD. But, I'll probably keep trying. :-)

Gwen Buchanan said...

Valerianna, ahhh.

Ruth, I guess people living very different lives would see that quote in very different ways.

Valerie, ...exactly... in a melancholic manner.

Thank you Owen, The post you did on Wilde is gorgeous.. I loved the kisses on the stone... That would have been an experience. so much emotion...

Heron's View, I love rituals...BBC 4x ... Thank you for the recommendation... I am going to love this!

Helen, Thank you so much.. it is sad to see how humans behave sometimes. how we react and respond...and why.

Guillaume, I remember when I met John , he had just finished reading Dorian Gray and he felt the same way.

Morna, I wonder if it depends on the readers... I have noticed how some keep me enraptured and others without that special quality just drift away and I find myself thinking up my own story..

sandy said...

lovely sketchbook drawing and i like the quote.

BumbleVee said...

....ain't it the truth.....

Gwen Buchanan said...

Thanks Sandy, send over some of that California sunshine...

Ah yes, BumbleVee.

herhimnbryn said...

He was right, wasn't he? Such a life he had...

Have you seen the film 'Wilde' with Stephen Fry as Oscar? It broke my heart.

Gwen Buchanan said...

No I have never seen it... Thanks so much for the recommendation.

...seems life was meant for people tougher than humans.

Deborah Carr said...

The real question...the hard question...is 'what do you really want?' It is harder to answer than we might think...

Gwen Buchanan said...

That is so true, Deborah, with every day, every minute and every changing moment that offers itself to us.