Log24

"A sequel lies beyond." — Emily Dickinson —

For example:

Thomas N. Armstrong III, a former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, died at 78 on Monday in Manhattan.

William Grimes in this morning's New York Times—

"… Mr. Armstrong set about strengthening the museum’s permanent collection, buying Frank Stella’s 1959 black painting “Die Fahne Hoch!” for $75,000 in 1977…."

See also "Fahne Hoch" in this journal and the following from the date of Armstrong's death—

"Sunrise — Hast thou a Flag for me?" — Emily Dickinson

Related material: Piracy Project and, from Flag Day,
"Dawn's Early Light" and "Expressionistic Depth."

An Exclamation for Jenny.

The "Jenny" here refers to both Tuesday's Log24 post Page Mark and to a post from Dec. 29, 2005 …

Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell, SciFi channel, 7 PM tonight

Jenny O’Hara

“This world is not conclusion;
a sequel stands beyond.”
— Emily Dickinson

See the Dickinson poem quoted here on May 15 (the date, as it happens, of Dickinson’s death) in the entry “A Flag for Sunrise.”  See also Zen and Language Games and a discussion of a detail in a Robert Stone novel.

A Flag for Sunrise

The title of the Robert Stone
novel comes from Emily Dickinson:

A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be --
Sunrise -- Hast thou a Flag for me?
At Midnight, I am but a Maid,
How short it takes to make a Bride --
Then -- Midnight, I have passed from thee
Unto the East, and Victory --

Midnight -- Good Night! I hear them call,
The Angels bustle in the Hall --
Softly my Future climbs the Stair,
I fumble at my Childhood's prayer
So soon to be a Child no more --
Eternity, I'm coming -- Sire,
Savior -- I've seen the face -- before!

Express

You've got to make him
Express himself
Hey, hey, hey, hey
— Madonna  

Humboldt's Gift:

Related material on trains:

Davenport's Express
and End of Days.

Related material on 162:

Dogma Part II: Amores Perros,
The Matthias Defense,
The Still Point and the Wheel,
  Mark, and Confession.

Related material on
self-expression:

Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell,   SciFi channel, 7 PM tonight

Jenny O'Hara

"This world is not conclusion;
a sequel stands beyond."
— Emily Dickinson

State of Grace
On this date in 1929,
Grace Kelly was born.

New Page for Harvard’s President

From today’s Harvard Crimson:

“University President Lawrence H. Summers said yesterday that he will marry his longtime partner, Professor of English Elisa New.”

“I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose”

— Emily Dickinson, quoted in
    The Regenerate Lyric:
    Theology and Innovation
    in American Poetry, by
    Elisa New, page 162

Related material:
Log24 entries for Jan. 24 and 25, 2005.

State of Grace

“Only through time time is conquered.”
— T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Sequel

From an obituary of a biographer of Emily Dickinson, Richard B. Sewall, who died on Wednesday, April 16, 2003:

"Descended from a line of Congregational ministers dating back to the Salem of the witch trial era, Mr. Sewall was known for infusing his lectures with an almost religious fervor."

Riddle

What is the hardest thing to keep?

For one answer, see my entry of April 16, 2003.   For commentary on that answer, see the description of a poetry party that took place last April at Sleepy Hollow, New York.

See, too, the story that contains the following passages:

"As to the books and furniture of the schoolhouse, they belonged to the community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witchcraft, a New England Almanac, and book of dreams and fortune-telling….

The schoolhouse being deserted soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue, and the plough-boy, loitering homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow."

— Washington Irving

Update of 11:55 PM April 21, 2003,

in memory of
Nina Simone:

See also the last paragraph of this news story,
this website, and this essay,
or see all three combined.

From the entry of midnight, October 25-26, 2002:

Make my bed and light the light,
I'll arrive late tonight,
Blackbird, Bye-bye.

Nina Simone

For more on the eight-point star of Venus,
see "Bright Star," my note of October 23, 2002.

Sequel

“This world is not conclusion;
A sequel stands beyond….”

— Emily Dickinson (See yesterday’s notes.)

And the hair of my flesh stood up (Job 4:15).
The emotional quality of the moment is
The religious experience of the atheist.
This is Day Three.
Ezra Pound makes me sit
Under the gold painted equestrian statue
At Central Park South and 5th.

— Stan Rice, “Doing Being” (See yesterday’s notes.)

Stan Rice died on Monday.
Today is Wednesday. 
This is Day Three. 

Great Dream of Heaven

The title is that of Sam Shepard’s new book of short stories.  It is relevant to several of my recent journal entries.

This author’s own title also seems relevant.  Here is an excerpt from a web page on The Church of the Good Shepherd:

“This is the oldest church in Beverly Hills, and over the years, this small house of worship has been the local parish church for most of the Catholic movie stars who live in Beverly Hills…. It has seen numerous celebrity weddings and funerals. Although the church’s interior is modest (it seats just 600), and its decor surprisingly simple, the Church of the Good Shepherd has been featured in several Hollywood films: most notably, it was the location for the funeral scene in the 1954 version of ‘A Star is Born.'”

Today’s Birthday: Emily Dickinson

Complete Poems, 1924 

Part Four: Time and Eternity

LXXXIII

This world is not conclusion;
A sequel stands beyond….

Born Yesterday: Kirk Douglas 

From Douglas’s Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning (Simon & Schuster, 1997) —

“Selling artwork, devoting time to charitable causes, writing novels, are all worthwhile means of occupying your time when good scripts aren’t coming your way.  But then, in the spring of 1993, one did.

It was called Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, a story of a growing friendship betwen two old men dealing with the twilight of their lives…. It was brilliant….

I called my agent… “So make the deal.”

A long pause.  “But the director wants to meet you.” ….

…. My agent called the next day. “She really likes you, Kirk… but… ah,” he started to stutter.

“What?”

“She wants Richard Harris.”

In the film of
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway 
as finally made,
Richard Harris dies on
Hemingway’s birthday.

Dead on October 25, 2002,
Picasso’s Birthday:

Actor Richard Harris  

A journal entry of October 25, 2002:

Wrestling Pablo Picasso

The old men know when an old man dies.
— Ogden Nash

A description of the title story
in Sam Shepard’s Great Dream of Heaven:

“Two old men who share a house are as close as a married couple until a competition to wake up first in the morning and a mutual fascination with a Denny’s waitress drive them apart.”