Some iconography from travels in London and Paris. Here, the Battersea Power Station, some will recognize from the Beatles, Pink Floyd, James Bond or general cultural osmosis. I used to cross the Thames here between Clapham and Chelsea, volunteering for a while to be a guide at the Carlyle House, much as I did later at the John Coltrane House in Philadelphia. In the USA, Thomas Carlyle is not as well known as he once was. But he made a lot of pithy contributions to the study of history and literature. He's the guy who called economics "the Dismal Science," for example, and he studied cultural change via fashion and biography. He coined the phrase, "Captains of Industry" (1843). "The true University of these days is a Collection of Books," he quipped in 1840. Or, in 1834-1835: "Man is a tool-using animal . . . Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all." "History a distillation of rumor" (1837). In 1840: "One life -- a little gleam of time between two Eternities." Cool multi-story house, too, with an enclosed garden in the back.
Jim Morrison's grave mentioned in earlier posts, Père Lachaise cemetery. Seen it three times: once with a complete bust, once with nose chipped off, and once with no bust at all. But always with graffiti on neighboring graves.
Connecting tunnel, tube station, London. What I've loved about the London Underground is the mix of subways or metros, some a hundred years old and some much newer. Catacombs of mystery, multiple labyrinths. The Kinks, the Jam, the Clash, and more.
Earls Court SW5 London, where I stayed among a bunch of rowdy Australians. Home of the Troubadour, where Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello ("I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea") and others have played at one time or another.
Today's Rune: Growth.
6 comments:
Maybe Morrison is doing that graffiti himself.
Wow! Never thought I'd say, "There goes the neighborhood," --all because of one rocker's burial plot.
For some reason or another i have always found older power station architecture a fine sight to sit and ponder. I think it has to do with all of that windowless brick running 12 floors from ground to gutter.
AH,TO BE ABLE TO RETURN TO LONDON AND PARIS AND VISIT THOSE PLACES I MISSED THE FIRST GO ROUND. THERE IS SO MUCH TO SEE, SO MUCH TO DO. I CAN DREAM CAN'T I.
Ah, that I get to Paris before I die.....
I think I would like to visit Paris one day. If only to see Morrison's grave.
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