Coming to the end of a long hard week and I just wanted to share what I’ve been up to this week. This week I’ve been listening to a few varied audio books. I’ve spent lots of hours in the car and I’ve been soaking up some Ernest Hemingway, namely a Movable Feast, a memoir about his years in Paris as part of the American expat circle of writers in the 1920s. I listened to a reading of The Old Man and the Sea last week which made me pick up this memoir and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
I followed that up with Moby Dick which is a huge piece of work and not at all what I expected. I was of the understanding that it was a book about a madman chasing a whale: Well, it is, but it is SO much more. For example, Chapter 32 is entitled Cetology. Now, is the branch of marine mammal science that studies whales, dolphins, and porpoise in the scientific order Cetacea. In Moby Dick Herman Melville describes his belief is that all members of the Whale family are, in fact, Fish. Or more accurately `Spouting Fish`. He goes on to describe a wide variety of the Whales and Dolphin specifically the ones that could be caught by whalers in the mid 19th century and how much oil each species could yield. It was published in 1851 which was 8 years before Darwin let loose with the origin of species but it still shocked me for some reason. As I write I am only 45 chapters into it but I am engrossed. I have a habit of reading a classic novel and then following that up by reading the authors biography. Herman’s biography is now on my book list. He got marooned with Cannibals for three months and didn’t end up on the menu. How cool is that! Strange that I should be so entranced by a book about Whaling when I am in fact a staunch Whale conservationist. I suppose the more you understand about an issue both negative and positive the more you can help to improve the situation. You only have to look at the moving and distrubing film SharkWater by Rob Stewart.
I’ve not had a great deal of time for `real` or `paper` books this week but I’ve squeezed in a look at a couple of art related books. One showing the paintings of Norman Rockwell and the other a brief biography of Dali. I’ve managed to catch a couple of films namely Sexy Beast, The Goonies and Coraline at the Cinema (Amazing film!)
What have I been drawing and modeling? Err...very little actually. I’ve worked on one creature for the Wii title I’m working on and I’ve managed a few scribbles in my Moleskine but that is pretty much it. My Kong sculpt is now fully dry and I’m planning a new clay project which I am hoping will be a Rhino of some type.
No comments:
Post a Comment