St James Park, London

St James is my favourite of London's Royal Parks. It's quite small at 57 acres and forms part of a green link from Westminster in the east to Kensington Gardens in the west. King Charles II wanted to be able to walk across London from Westminster without leaving Royal greenery. It is named after James the less, one of the twelve Apostles.

London is 40% green open space - the highest for a city of it's size and the sixth highest of any city. 

One of the features of St James is the exotic wildlife, with many species of water-fowl including a small group of pelicans first given by the Russian Ambassador in 1664.

"A remarkable bird is the pelican.

It's mouth can hold more than its belican."

Pelicans in St James Park waiting for lunch!

On Sunday we saw Ruddy Shellducks, Egyptian Geese, Pochard, Red-Crested Pochard, Mute Swan, a black Swan, Mandarin Ducks, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Smew, Coots, Grey Heron and many others which I couldn't identify. At dusk one can see Pipistrelle Bats.

Although the park is very pretty and associated with Royalty it has a dubious history particularly at night-time. John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester (born 1647) was considered by many to be the greatest poet of the age. The reason that you probably have not heard of him is that much of his output was eye-wateringly pornographic. His most famous poem is "A Ramble in St James Park". I'm afraid that I can't quote any here but you can look it up online (which I have done in the interests of research!)

A magical view of London from the bridge across the lake in St James Park
Looking in the other direction with Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial with the golden angel in view.

The Welsh Guard of the Household Cavalry in the park

These red geraniums exactly match the colour of the Guards uniforms.

A view in the park with Buckingham Palace in the background.

Flower beds with Horse Guards Parade in the background

Listening to Etta James version of Stormy Weather. I think her version is as good as Ella Fitzgerald's. Listen here.

Painting of the Month (61) April 2016: Wliiliam Hogarth

This painting is a part of William Hogarth's The Humours of an Election series. His paintings are still very popular today because many of the iniquities he portrayed can still be seen and felt around us.

Canvassing for Votes, William Hogarth, 1754, The Sir John Soane Museum, London

The series of four oil paintings and some etchings is based on an election in Oxfordshire, England in 1754. The three characters in the central foreground represent the two candidates covertly trying to bribe the innkeeper. Only property-owners could vote at that time. 
Peering out from the doorway on the left is a soldier whose purpose is to represent uncorrupted patriotism. In front of him the British lion is devouring the fleur-de-lis of France. At the table on the right two old men, possibly sailors, are arguing about the Battle of Portobello in which the British fought the Spanish in Panama.
In the background a violent mob from one party are trying to destroy the headquarters of their rivals. A humorous note is the man sawing off the pub-sign unaware that he will fall when it does! Hogarth was an adequate and competent artist but this painting was made for satirical purposes exposing bribery & corruption and mob violence.
This series of oil paintings are on a massive scale, measuring five by seven feet; this really elevates them to the genre of 'History Painting'.

Listening to the British folk-singing duo, the formerly married couple, Richard and Linda Thompson's I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. Listen here.

Answers to the self-portrait quiz.

Here are the results of the Self-Portrait quiz from my previous post.I have tried to show two self portraits or one plus two photographs, if possible, in each case.
Clearly, the winner was David in a difficult quiz buts there were many good answers as well.

Bazza's Self-portraits Quiz

Here are twenty self-portraits; they are all made by people from 'the arts' in general, not necessarily known as painters and one answer appears twice. How many can you name? Answers in about a week's time. No prizes other than the kudos of winning one of Bazza's quizzes! Come on, have a go!

I'm listening to Matching Mole; (Robert Wyatt will shortly feature in a post). 
This is a sad story from real life: 
Listen to O'Caroline here.

Painting of the Month (60): John Yardley

John Yardley is a British watercolour painter born in 1933. 
I really like his work for it's economy and expressions of sunlight on streets and buildings.

"The Terrace", John Yardley, watercolour on paper, 14 x 20 inches

For me this painting is all about "less is more". At first glance it appears to be a quick sketch but it is masterly in it's use of paint with economy - it's certainly not overpainted. It conveys a very pleasant evocation of sunlight and a little piece of a private domestic space. Yardley often uses the white of the paper to convey sunlight, but not here. The dark shadows also help to point to brightness.
Who wouldn't like to come home to this scene? It's on sale at £1,900 and, believe me, I would if I could!

I'm listening to Small Town Talk by Bobby Charles. You can listen here.

The Listeners by Walter de la Mare

I learnt this poem at school, probably aged about 12, and it has stayed with me for all my life. It was first published in London in 1912. I only recently began to ask myself why but now I can see that it must have fired my imagination. It paints a picture of a singular incident in a moment of time. As a child I imagined the traveller to be a knight in armour and the building to be a ruined castle - now I can see that the great success of this poem is that one could make many varied interpretations of it. I will discuss it further after you have read it!

THE LISTENERS by Walter de la Mare

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,   

   Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses   

   Of the forest’s ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,   

   Above the Traveller’s head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;   

   ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;   

   No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,   

   Where he stood perplexed and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners   

   That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight   

   To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,   

   That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken   

   By the lonely Traveller’s call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,   

   Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,   

   ’Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even   

   Louder, and lifted his head:—

‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,   

   That I kept my word,’ he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,   

   Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house   

   From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,   

   And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,   

   When the plunging hoofs were gone.

   I like the air of mystery that the poem creates. Who was the rider? Why was he knocking on the door of a seemingly abandoned building?  Who were ‘they’ who should be told that he had arrived?  And, more than anything, who were the ‘phantom listeners’?  Were they the ghosts of those the traveller had come to meet?

    I wonder why Walter de la Mare called this poem The Listeners and not The Traveller. The initial focus is upon the traveller although it switches back and forth. Apparently, toward the end of his life, in the 1950s, the poet told a friend that it was about a man’s encounter with a universe.

  This opens a new path of enquiry for us.  The poem may be seen as a metaphor for man’s ‘perplexed’ (line 12) place in the universe and non-comprehension of the supernatural world. Does ‘the world of men’ (line 16) intrude upon that of nature. The traveller says ‘tell them I came’, but who is he speaking to?  The house?  The ‘phantoms’?  I am afraid there are more questions than answers in this analysis but that is part of the poem’s beauty and intrigue!

Listening to the fabulous Madeleine Peyroux singing Careless Love. Listen here!

Painting of the Month (59): Feb 2016, Michelangelo

God Creating Adam, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, painted 1508-1512

Pope Julius II had persuaded Michaelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel although he initially resisted because he was primarily a sculptor. Now it would be difficult to deny that he produced one of the most iconic images ever created. The Sistine Chapel is in the Vatican Palace and is named for Pope Sixtus IV, who was responsible for it's restoration shortly before this masterpiece was made.

Michelangelo's painting is without precedent and changed the course of Western Art for ever; his technical genius was outstanding. The painting is a fresco (literally fresh in Italian) because the artist applies water-colour paints directly to freshly laid plaster so that the paint soaks into the plaster as it dries and the painting becomes an integral part of the wall.

It is interesting to compare this mural with Leonardo's Last Supper which was not a fresco and the paint of which began to peel after about sixty years and is now in a desperately poor condition. When God Creating Adam was cleaned a few years ago there were some who refused to believe it was the same painting because the colours were so vibrant!

God Creating Adam is one of six ceiling panels in the chapel which is constantly packed solid with crowds wanting to see the work. When I saw it some years ago a group of priests were ushering people through so one only got about five minutes viewing time!

What is remarkable about Michelangelo's depiction of God is that he is shown in a very human form, not aloof or wearing fine robes but, instead, with a muscular body and wearing a light tunic. He is seen in an intimate and accessible 

way which becomes moving and full of meaning. God and the angels are depicted inside a human brain (I bet you didn't notice that before!). The implication is that God is not only creating the physical form of Adam but imbuing him with intellect at the same time. The position of Adam's hand is relaxed and limp - he appears to not yet have been given life, whereas Gods hand is alert and active. We are witnessing the critical moment. 

Listening to British folk-singer Kathryn Williams covering a couple of sad songs. Firstly, Velvet Underground's Candy Says

followed by Jackson Browne's These Days. 

You can listen here

Bazza's 'Numbers Quiz' for Christmas

This year my traditional Christmas Quiz is not about Christmas but, instead, it's about numbers!

Q1 Add the total number of dots on a standard die to the number of dominoes in a standard double-six set.   

Q2  ‘A bronze desk’ is an anagram for a slang expression for which number? Subtract that number from the number of carats in pure gold.

Q3 Take the lowest number on a standard dart board that cannot be scored with a single dart and multiply it by the prime number that is nearest to ten.

Q4  What are you left with if you take the Meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything from the binary number 101010?

Q5  How many points do you score if you start a game of Scrabble with the word ZOO? Now take what oil does not do with water and turn that Roman number into an Arabic one and add it.

Q6 How long is a piece of string? I found some mixed length of string in a drawer. One piece was the same length, in feet, as a tennis court and another was the same number of feet in length as the number for a hurricane on the Beaufort scale. Add those numbers together.

Q7 Take the number of days of rain after The Flood and subtract the usual number of lines in a sonnet.

Q8 The Plieades star cluster has a much more common name which contains a number. Multiply that number by the number of stars in the Solar System!

Q9 Multiply the number of members of the UN Security Council with powers of veto by the number of the Apollo mission that first landed on the moon.

Q10 How many apples would you have if you took 15 apples out of a barrel of 200?

BONUS QUESTION: In case that wasn't hard enough for you here is a teaser to think about:

What numbers should replace the question marks in this sequence?
1, 50, 6, 45, 11, 40, 16, 35, 21, ? ?

THE ANSWERS ARE NOW 
POSTED IN THE COMMENTS! 

Painting of the Month (58): Dec. 2015, Edward Hopper

Night Windows, 1928.Oil on canvas, 29 x 34 inches. 

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 

Edward Hopper, (1882-1967), specialised in painting night scenes of New York City. He showed views of bars, cafes, offices and domestic scenes. They evoked a real 'feel' of New York and frequently portrayed lonely individuals in unremarkable situations. At the time of this picture he was resident in Greenwich Village and this is a view into a neighbouring apartment. The woman is in an inelegant pose and seems to be oblivious of the viewer; the viewer becomes a voyeur. The way in which the woman is half out of view is something adapted from the work of Degas, someone whom Hopper admired, (see below). 

We get a glimpse of someone's private space in the same way that one might do when looking out of a train window. The curtain blowing out of an open window suggests a summer evening and this scene is really more redolent of 1920's New York than views of skyscrapers; the isolation and urban loneliness of individuals who are actually crowded together is suggested. Hopper was always interested in the effects of light and this painting is almost a triptych with the three windows. Here are some other pictures by Hopper. 

To me, each one of these paintings strongly suggests a narrative and a back-story :

Listening to Dissatisfied Blues by Brownie McGhee from the album Back Country Blues

New World, Second Movement

I have always enjoyed Dvorak's beautiful and moving New World Symphony. I was listening to it a few months ago when a part of the second movement suddenly started sounding familiar. Listen to the part I am talking about here. The melody begins at the 45 second point. A bit of research on the internet revealed that it is the basis for the melody of a song called Going Home which you can hear being sung by the extremely talented Norwegian soprano Sissel by clicking here.

             Sissel Kyrkjebø

However, I knew that wasn't really what was ticking a box in my memory and last Saturday on the very popular BBC radio Saturday morning programme Sounds of the Sixties my search was finally over. Before they had their big hits Sailing (later covered by Rod Stewart) and The Arms of Mary, The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver were known as A New Generation and they had a minor hit with a song that I had always liked at the time called Smokey Blues Away. Take a listen here and you will understand why I liked this poignant, sad song. 
This song, as far as I can tell, is not available on any CD or digital source and vinyl copies are hard to get. So You Tube is one of the only ways to hear it!

Wreckless Eric

When the punk rock explosion in the USA, the UK and Australia subsided in the late 1970s a second wave of so-called 'post-punk' or 'new wave' acts emerged.

Wreckless Eric in the 1970s

Among these was the English singer Eric Goulden, known as Wreckless Eric. He made a few interesting albums and singles but for me two singles are outstanding.

Released on Stiff Records, they are, the much-acclaimed:

(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World (1977) 

and Hit and Miss Judy (1979)

Click the titles to hear the songs (best played loudly!)

A little more recently!
And if you would like to hear it sung in a Scottish accent, listen to the Proclaimers

Painting of the Month (57): Sept 2015 Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mona Lisa c1503 - 1507. The Louvre, Paris.
No photograph could do it justice.

Probably the most famous painting of all time Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic painting of The Mona Lisa is a relatively small picture measuring only 30 x 21 inches. Why is it so famous? Well it’s not for nothing! Let’s start with some history; Madonna Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini was the wife of the silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo (in Italian the painting is known as La Gioconda). We know her as Mona Lisa, of course. ‘Mona’ being an archaic Italian word for ‘Lady’.

Leonardo was the true Renaissance man with interests in invention, painting, sculpture, music, mathematics, anatomy, geology, astronomy and much more; a real polymath. He started the painting in 1503 and worked on it, on and off, for four years and did not really stop working on it until shortly before he died in 1519.

There are very many innovative and unusual elements of this painting which, today, are taken for granted. The subject is not a famous person, she is shown sitting in what is known as a three-quarter pose – something never done before and is still a preferred angle. It’s also a half-length portrait rather than head-and-shoulders or full-length. The Italian term sfumato, meaning ‘smokey’ is translated into English as ‘feathered, shaded, fuzzy or blurred’. It is a technique brought into prominence by Leonardo based on the subtle use of layers of translucent paint. The glowing skin around the eyes is a good example of this. It was also extremely unusual to show an imaginary landscape, (which is clearly unfinished). If you look at the landscape on the left of the painting and compare it with that on the right you can see that the two halves don’t match properly – the view is impossible. The realism of the fading detail of the distance was also new. Before then artists showed as much detail in the distance as in the foreground. His deep knowledge of anatomy is seen in the masterful painting of her hands - always a difficulty.

The clever pyramid composition always draws the viewer toward her eyes. See left.

Mona wasn’t always an international celebrity until, in 1911, she was stolen from the Louvre by a workman who thought she should be kept in Italy. No one noticed for a day, thinking it had been removed for publicity photographs! She was returned there in 1913 and, since several attempts at vandalism, has been kept behind bullet-proof glass.

Her ‘about-to-smile’ expression and ‘eyes that follow you around the room’ are world renowned and there have been countless pastiches and interpretations of the original.

Mona Lisa has become embedded in modern popular culture

Listening to Joan Baez singing Love Song to a Stranger (click the title to hear it).This is a live performance of one of the saddest songs I know.

Romford Garden Suburb

I led my Sunday morning walking group on a tour around Romford Garden Suburb today. After Hampstead Garden Suburb was built in north-west London in 1907 some of the investors wanted to build another project in north-east London. Sir Herbert Raphael had the idea of a competition for the best house designs in order to generate publicity for the project.

The Garden City movement had begun with the building of the world's first Garden City in Letchworth in 1903.

Sir Herbert owned a large estate with a mansion (Gidea Hall) and grounds all around it. He donated 90 acres on the western flank as a public park and founded a golf club to the east. This had the effect of preserving the surroundings and stopping encroachment into the area. Although I live only about seven miles from this area, until researching local places, I had never heard of it; as it turned out nor had any of my friends! It seems to be an incredible local secret although it was the talk of London when it opened in 1911. Around 122 of the leading architects of the era designed 159 homes for the exhibition. A great variety of English architectural styles were on display and there was plenty of reference to local styles as known in the surrounding County of Essex. The influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the time is very evident. In the map below I have outlined the local Conservation Area in red and if you find UK postcode RM2 5JB on Google Maps you can go down to street level and see many of the interesting house designs. I have shown a selection of photos that my wife took below.

The area of The Exhibition Estate (as it is known) shown bordered in red.

There were two classes of homes for the competition: Four bedroom 'Family homes' to sell at £500, well above average for the time, and also three bedroom 'Cottages' to sell at £375.

Many of the houses are now valued at between one and two million pounds.

I particularly like this style with herring-bone brickwork set in the Tudor oak beams.
Designed by Michael Bunney and Clifford Makins.

Most of the homes have retained their chimney stacks as an architectural feature

This Philip Tilden designed property is Grade II listed.

In the UK that means one can't make external changes but as the property is in a 

conservation area anyway it's doubly protected.

This house has, unusually, had its two tall chimneys removed. It was designed by
Clough Williams-Ellis who later designed Portmeirion in Wales where the  cult TV series
The Prisoner was filmed in the 1960s.

This picture, taken from Google Maps, is of  the Class 1 Family Home first-prize winner in 1911. It was designed by Geoffrey Lucas. Don't forget that these buildings were not judged on their prettiness but rather their utility, ease and economy of management and maintenance.

In 1934 a second competition was held to help sell the few vacant plots that were available. All of those new homes were in the Art Deco style that was dominant at that time.

A graceful Art Deco door and window

Another of the successful 1934 designs (some of them are disappointing).

Finally, this house won the 1934 first prize by probably the most famous of the architects, Berthold Lubetkin, co-founder of the influential Tecton Group.

As I am in a good mood I am listening to Jackson Browne's lovely Linda Paloma. Listen here!

Painting of the Month (56) Aug 2015: Velázquez

Diego Velásquez: Las Meninas, 1656, in The Prado, Madrid

This is one of the most analysed paintings of all time and is often described as the most important work by Diego Velásquez, the leading painter of the Spanish Golden Age. It has some incredibly unusual aspects and things that, even today, seem to be remarkable.

The subject is the Infanta (a female daughter of a ruling King & Queen: a princess) of Philip IV of Spain and Queen Mariana. The Infanta is surrounded by her Maids of Honour, Las Meninas of the title, and a dwarf, there for her entertainment. Some of the subjects are looking out of the picture and others are interacting among themselves. The painter himself is on the left of the picture looking at his subject – the King and Queen who are standing where you, the viewer of the painting, are standing.

At the back of the scene their reflections can be seen in the mirror. Also at the rear of the room a mysterious man can be observed in the doorway; it’s not clear if he is coming or going. He helps to create depth in the scene by being placed at the ‘vanishing point’ where the lines of perspective meet.

Notice how the light falls on the Infanta while the two maids are half-lit and form a frame around her.

Incidentally, the red cross on Velasquez's chest is the Order of Santiago, which he did not receive during his lifetime; the King had it added to the painting as a posthumous honour three years after Velasquez had died. I love the way that the long-haired young boy at the lower right is shown trying to rouse the dog from his slumber with his foot. If you click the picture to enlarge it you can see details more clearly.

Listening to Albéniz's Suite española. I seem to be having a Spanish evening!

Famous Last Lines Quiz

I haven't set a quiz for a while so try this one!

Name the famous novels whose last lines are listed here.

If you don't know the answers take a crazy guess!

THE ANSWERS ARE NOW POSTED IN THE COMMENTS!

1) He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.

2) It's funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

3) It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

4) I'm so glad to be at home again!

5) He was soon borne away 
by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.

6) He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance.

Listening to Carole King's original version of I Wasn't Born to Follow This was recorded by The Byrds and featured in Easy Rider but Carole composed it.

Painting of the Month (55) July 2015: Natalie Graham

Natalie Graham is a British watercolour painter and printmaker. I am a bit of a sucker for this loose style of watercolour painting, especially with an imaginative use of colour. Because of the difficulty in controlling the wet paint, the artist needs to utilise great skill in manipulating the image. While the colour seems to be unrealistic, when one spends a little time looking into the picture it seems to become more real; the lion looks vulnerable and like a pussy cat!
I know very little about this low-profile artist but I like her work. More of her work can be seen here.
Listening to:  ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’ by Belle & Sebastian, an old favourite. Listen on You Tube.

Painting of the Month (54) June 2015: L S Lowry

Laurence Stephen (known as "LS") Lowry, 1887 -1976, was an English artist with one of the most recognisable styles of any painter and is often regarded as the most popular of English painters.

Industrial Landscape. L S Lowry 1887- 1976

Because of his distinctive style, where he painted lots of industrial landscapes often populated with large numbers of 'matchstick' people, he was often classed as a naive artist. I think being popular led to him being looked-down-upon by many art critics. I don't accept that his work is second-rate in any way; he really captured the essence of life in northern England and he conveys a real affection for his subjects making the hard grime of living in an industrialised zone appear to be not a bad thing. Here are some more of his works to give a better overview of it:

Listening to something very rare: The Everly Brothers and The Beach Boys together singing 'Don't Worry Baby'. There is a live version on You Tube but I like the studio version at this site.

Painting of the Month (53): April 2015: JMW Turner

Rain, Speed and Steam: The Great Western Railway

JMW Turner, 1844, Oil on Canvas

The French Impressionists acknowledged their debt to Turner and you can see why in this late masterpiece. The newly-laid Great Western Railway line ran from London to Bristol and Exeter. In this painting the train is viewed passing over Maidenhead Viaduct across the River Thames looking back east toward London. In his most famous painting, 'The Fighting Temeraire', Turner seemed to be mourning the passing of the old ways as the new took over. In this one he appears a little more sympathetic to the new technology although I think there is some ambiguity. A tiny hare can just about be seen in the right-hand corner of the painting (with enlargement). This has been cited as a reference to the limits of technology while others believe the animal is running in fear of the new machinery and Turner meant to hint at the danger of man's new technology destroying the inherent sublime elements of nature. A little easier to see is the little boat on the river to the left, which may have the same purpose. Apparently there is a ploughman in the distance, which I cannot see at all, presumably with a similar function.

Turner has very cleverly implied the speed of the train by the use of perspective with a central vanishing point which gives a steep, foreshortened view, drawing the eye strongly towards the centre thus conveying the feeling of high speed.

A further interesting point is the modern theory to why this master inspired the Impressionists with his 'fuzzy skies': towards the end of his life he was suffering with cataracts.

Listening to: Los Cuates De Sinaloa - 'Negro Y Azul: The Ballad of Heisenberg' from Breaking Bad. You can listen here

We Real Cool

We Real Cool is a brilliant short poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, an African-American lady who lived in Chicago and wrote poems about urban life there. This poem, written in 1959, is small and exquisite like a jewel. The piece supports endless worthwhile analysis of its meaning but beware – its simplicity is deceptive!

Gwendolyn Brooks 1917-2000

WE REAL COOL

The Pool Players.

Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike Straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

The sub-title, "The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel" sets the scene just like, say, a Shakespearean stage instruction such as "Outside the Castle. Enter a Servant." It carries a lot of information for the reader and is the only really specific information in the poem. The poet has painted a picture; there are seven young guys playing pool. The number seven is often associated with gambling and the name 'The Golden Shovel' is very ironic. Pool halls are dingy, badly-lit places and 'Golden' implies sunlight, wealth and health - all absent from the scene. A shovel implies manual labour (also absent!) and hints at grave-digging which may be a signal for that punch-in-the-face moment of the last sentence.
The poem only consists of a couple of dozen words, all of a single syllable but it is laden with meaning. The poet is imagining what she thinks the young men are thinking. "We real cool. We left school." speaks volumes and we may infer that if they didn't leave or skip school they may have been saying "We are real cool. "We lurk late" hints at various possibilities of misdemeanour's. "Striking straight" implies a long time spent playing pool.
"Sing sin" hints, again at possible anti-social activities. And "We thin gin" refers to the practice among young guys in the 50s to add water to Gin, the most popular spirit at that time. In the final stanza the word Jazz is used,  like the first word of the previous four lines, as an adjective. There are many differing versions of what that means, some of them unsavoury. The poetess has coyly let people make there own interpretation of it - I will do the same! So we have a bunch of school-age kids, possibly gambling, drinking and getting up to no good but we should be careful of rushing to judgement. It may all be a show of bravado.....
In the final sentence, "We die soon" Gwendolyn Brooks has probably switched to what she thinks they should be thinking or she fears may be their destiny.
The achievement of this poem is to paint a picture as powerful as a realist painting by Edward Hopper (look him up!) but with far less brush-stokes.
Listening to Clean Up Woman by Betty Wright. It has wonderful guitar and bass playing. Just try not tapping you foot to it! Listen here.

The Story of Boris

The Story of Boris

As I have been really busy with other stuff recently I am re-posting this from April 2010.

Boris, left, with his brother.

I had an Uncle who was a rare book dealer. Several years ago, after his father's funeral, my cousin John told me this story.
Uncle Ben was interested in Russian literature and was reading a volume of poetry by Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago. My grandfather came from Russia in 1906 in the wave of Jewish emigration from that place at that time and, although he spoke good enough English, he never learned to read or write it. He saw the book had a photograph of the author on the back.
"That's my cousin Boris!" he said. "No, Dad, that's Boris Pasternak" said Uncle Ben, smiling indulgently.
Granddad (known to our large family as 'Pop') insisted it was his cousin so Uncle Ben set about researching it. Pasternak's father was an artist of renown and his mother a famous concert pianist. While he was growing up Tolstoy, Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Rilke were regular visitors to the house.
His father converted to Christianity and Boris went off to University and Pop never saw him again but he was proved to be right; all of the facts he gave Uncle Ben were verified and it turns out that Bazza's grandfather was Boris Pasternak's first cousin.
I think it means that I share about 1.5% of my genes with a Nobel Prize winner. Explains a lot don't you think?

I'm listening to the Dixie Chick's 'Landslide'. I actually prefer it to Fleetwood Mac's original. You can listen here.