Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Tone Poem...

Maybe it's the spartan tree, or the odd lamp, or the dark window and all those shadows ... but this lovely and noticeably hip nocturnal setting on Mission Street reminded me of a rather bleak passage from Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Either I'm incredibly astute, or I need to get more sleep and stop staying up so late taking pictures.

"angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz..."

Yeah, I know it's just a commercial building closed for the evening. Then again, poetry lurks in unexpected places.

14 comments:

Judy Williams said...

Stellar. That chartreuse green in the light and the perfect symmetry of those windows. The tree lit from below adds an air of spookiness. WOW - I REALLY love your night shots, Laurie.

Jean Spitzer said...

This is a knockout.

Anonymous said...

Incredibly astute.

Jane Hards Photography said...

My fav. Night Owl, I have been so neglectful of my blogging duties. I'm selfish. Prop those eyes open with matchsticks and snap away. The low light is just superb.

Linda Dove said...

Do you know this blog? http://chatoyance.blogspot.com

It reminds me of this, a bit.

Incredibly moody shot!

Patrizzi Intergarlictica said...

It is my death rattle of the future.

Patrizzi Intergarlictica said...

Actually, that's creepy of me to say. My favorite isn't Howl, it is the Sunflower Sutra. A friend of mine on Myspace has a lovely selection on his page. It is a nice tribute to Allen, if you love him as I do.

http://www.myspace.com/irwinallenginsbergAnother favorite is the Cottage in Berkeley which is impossible to find online. A beautiful recording.

Mister Earl said...

Don't know that I agree that the photo and Howl go together. The photo looks fun and Christmasy to me - almost magical. Howl is mean ugly streets, the kind you won't find in South Pas.

A few Ginsberg comments:

My grandmother's best friend, Tillie Levy, a communist from New Jersey who lived in Riverside, was Allen Ginsberg's aunt. My grandmother said that one time he came to speak at UC Riverside and for a visit and Tillie said, "Allen, why don't you cut your hair?"

One night in 1966, as I was leaving the original Fillmore Auditorium in SF, I noticed that Allen and a friend were walking up the street right next to me.

Ginsberg is supposedly featured heavily in many of Dylan's most cryptic songs. "Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, fighting in the captain's tower..." is said to be about Ginsberg and someone he was feuding with.

Anonymous said...

Earl definitely has some of the best stories. And he's right -- if you want, the globes of light can be christmas ornaments. Lower left and lower right are a bit sinister, however.

San Diego Farmgirl said...

The colors and transparent glass make me feel like Ginsberg and I were over at William S. Burroughs' pad and he dosed us without our consent.

Ya see, we Kansans have our Ginsberg stories, too ...

Laurie Allee said...

Hi kids,

Thanks for so many kind words and cool comments!

Linda, that is such a wonderful blog. Thanks for the link. (ANd she's from my old hometown!)

Miss H, a friend let me borrow some recordings of Ginsberg reading Howl. He had to pry them out of my hands to get them back! I remembered the line in this post from listening to it. THanks for posting the link to your friend's myspace page.

Mister E, another cool story. (And Farmgirl, well, you ALWAYS have a cool story!)

I really appreciate your comments, everyone. Until tomorrow.

Double "D" said...

Well, well. roaming the streets at night again I see.
Lovely pic. Here's what it reminded me of. I can't think of the movie title, but it ran in the 50's. It was based on giant ants taking over the world. As I look at the two lights on the building they look like bulging eyes of a giant ant. Just below the tree there are three lights. One is blurred and looks like the mandible. EEEEk. I know, I've lost touch with the real world.

Tash said...

Amazing photo & I just love that last line "poetry lurks in unexpected places". It's going in my best of blog lines.

Anonymous said...

Really amazing blog...amazing photo....


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