alightinthelantern

[alightinthelantern]

Years ago, over a decade ago now in fact, I was riding Amtrak's "The Vermonter", southbound toward NYC for a very rare personal trip. The train limits passengers to two carryon pieces, and additional luggage costs an additional fee. As we rode over the rattling rails the conductors went through the coaches checking tickets. A few rows ahead of me in my car was seated a tall young woman, very beautiful and evidently pampered, wearing a cream dress suit with her long dark hair in fashionable loose waves, and my car's conductor, a tall, handsome young African-American man, slender and broad-shouldered, stopped to make conversation with her. She told him in a blasé voice, in that specific tone halfway between complaining and philosophical "What can you do?" so typical of rich people, that she was coming back from a skiing trip in Vermont, and that she'd brought four bags of luggage with her which she'd had to pay a fee for; one of her luggage cases was filled entirely with pairs of shoes. The conductor seemed awed, guilelessly impressed with her wealth, self-command, and physical beauty, and he stayed to talk with her for another five minutes before passing on, but I was disgusted with her gluttonous extravagance, and I tuned her out after that initial exchange so I didn't hear the rest of whatever they talked about. An entire suitcase full of shoes; who truly needs such overkill?

#personal

[alightinthelantern]

Nina Simone - Ain't Got No/I Got Life

Ain't got no home, ain't got no shoes Ain't got no money, ain't got no class Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schooling Ain't got no wear, ain't got no job Ain't got no money, no place to stay

Ain't got no father, ain't got no mother Ain't got no children, ain't got no sisters above Ain't got no earth, ain't got no faith Ain't got no touch, ain't got no god Ain't got no love

Ain't got no wine, no cigarettes Ain't got no clothes, no country No class, no schooling No friends, no nothing Ain't got no god Ain't got one more

Ain't got no earth, no ? No food, no home I said I ain't got no clothes No job, no nothing Ain't got long to live And I ain't got no love

But what have I got? Let me tell ya what I've got That nobody's gonna take away

I got my hair on my head I got my brains, I got my ears I got my eyes, I got my nose I dot my mouth, I got my smile

I got my tongue, I got my chin I got my neck, I got my boobies I got my heart, I got my soul I got my back, I got my sex

I got my arms, I got my hands I got my fingers, got my legs I got my feet, I got my toes I got my liver, got my blood

Got life, I got my life

#Nina Simone #Ain't Got No #I Got Life #Ain't Got No I Got Life #music #oldies #jazz #1950s #classic pop #Youtube

[alightinthelantern]

The Evening Show    -   Jeanne Rosier Smith

American, b. 1966  -

Pastel , 16 x 20 in.

#art

[alightinthelantern]

[untitled poem] (1856)

Don’t believe it, my friend, don’t believe it When in a fit of grief I say that I stopped loving you— Don't trust the low tide, don't trust the betrayal of the sea, It returns to the earth, loving. I'm already sad, full of the same passion, I will give you my freedom again— And the waves are already running, with their opposite noise, From afar to your favorite shores. Don't believe it, my friend, don't believe it, Don't believe it, my friend, don't believe it When in a fit of grief I say that I stopped loving you— Don't trust the low tide, don't trust the betrayal of the sea, It returns to the earth, loving.

— Aleksey Tolstoy, adapted by Pyotr Tchaikovsky in his 6 Romances, Op. 6 (source)

[alightinthelantern]

Princess Mononoke (1997) background art

#Princess Mononoke #Studio Ghibli #art

[alightinthelantern]

personal work | oil and wax, powdered lead glass, 24k gold, rough opal, cut and polished opal, crushed fire opal, gilded porcelain

The Pale Horse is done! \0/

i am REALLY happy with how this turned out. and the original has a shimmer i wasn't able to get in the photo.

enjoy!

#art

[alightinthelantern]

Rallarros - Carin Ax

Swedish , b. 1915 -

Colour lithograph , 31 x 18.5 cm. Ed. 61/250.

#art

[alightinthelantern]

POV: you’re at an underground gay bar in 1987 Yugoslavia

#Yugoslavia #gay bar #1980s #videos #fave

[alightinthelantern]

Infrasculpture, concrete abandoned 11, Eric Tabuchi. 

#architecture

[alightinthelantern]

Pines ,  Summer Sky  -   Inari Krohn ,1974.

Finnish,b.1945-

Watercolour and gouache ,  79.5 × 107.5 × 1.5 cm

#art #Inari Krohn

[alightinthelantern]

Suicide’s Note

The calm, Cool face of the river Asked me for a kiss.

— Langston Hughes, Collected Poems (1994)

[alightinthelantern]

#memes

[alightinthelantern]

(not the sun. but the fuzzy glint of former light captured briefly in boot leather mid-tample

— from "American Sonnet 81", by Wanda Coleman, Bathwater Wine (1998)

[alightinthelantern]

Treasures , Strawberries   -   Karoliina Hellberg , 2023.

Finnish, b. 1987 -

Oil on canvas with handcrafted oak frame , 22 x 22 cm. 8 5/8 x 8 5/8 in

#art

[alightinthelantern]

anyway I'm not arguing about this, I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail, yes I would, and I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, yes I would. if I only could, I surely would. like it is literally not up for debate, I'd rather sail away, like a swan that's here and gone. a man gets tied up to the ground, he gives the world its saddest sound, its saddest sound. couldn't be any easier to understand

[alightinthelantern]

Sliman Mansour, The Village Awakens, 1987.

[alightinthelantern]

California Zephyr by Howard Fogg