Philip Poburka on thu 18 jan 01
Well...Wrote this on December 8th., Two-Thousand...
Aniversaries of 'Pearl Harbor' come an' go.
All those fellows...'theirs'...'ours'...
....anyway...
This has been...the 'post-war-tomorrow'...now, for kind of a while.
All these great Peoples of the World,
wonderin' how to be satisfied with themselves, or with one another.
The 'experiment(s)' of which...continue.
I'd expect that a lot of these 'Masters' would be truely fine
people...solid, maybe transcendent of the 'marketplace' telling them
what-to-do...born on what was still the ragged edge of the 'Old World'...or
not.
Maybe they got 'the Star-o'-the-Ruby' lined up just fine, and keep 'er
there, maybe they got the 'view'.
Many have not been given the 'title'...fine people too...and of 'Mastery' I
am most sure...'well known', or not.
Men and Women.
And too, all my life 'people' tell me how 'gullible' I am.
....and I 'am'...sort of...but I DO see genius, and grace, even in odd
places...'beauty'...'Mastery'...'in' artifacts...'in' People...'in'
design...'in work'...'in' engineering.
....sometimes...I learn to 'see' more than I was.
And it goes on forever...'seeing' (of) that.
This gives me plenty of room to 'grow'.
I'd about think I'd gone to Heaven to get to see them at their chores, at
their 'work':
Their
Potters...Blacksmiths...Basket-makers...Carvers...Carpenters...Tool-Makers...Livery
Makers...Bronze and Iron Founders...on and on...'good as it gets'.
Their stuff - in the old days - was SO very...'''perfect'''.
I just get quiet...maybe 'nod'...look-on...misty-eyed.
I noticed that, at a young 'age'...
Seeing the odd Japanese relic...old Tools...Pottery...Iron work...odds and
ends...how they did stuff...some of their Rifles too...'how' they did
things...something...so very nice about 'em.
I used to say:
"These guys are allright!"
As far as eighteenth-nineteenth-early twentieth Century odds and ends...my
favoutite stuff was American, British, Japanese...and I put 'em in
'alphabetical' order 'cause I couldn't tell you who I'd put first.I don't
know.
As good as it gets, or ever could...for many 'things'.
And many of these 'things' are 'obsolete' now...these 'forms'.
....the world, the Culture what born 'em, has kept a-turnin'.
The 'Garden' what grew 'em, is in a different...'phase' now.
Some 'forms' have persisted...or an interest in, 'use' for them, has....most
have not continued...at least, not as they 'were'...as the idiom they
were...those idioms can not readily be enunciated now...are difficult to
'say'...'now'.
Far as these 'modern' 'Masters' in Japan, I haven't seen too much of what
they're up to.
They're 'keepin' the flame a goin'...I expect.
Keepin' on with wonderful things of grace and presence and fun.
But they are in a funny 'spot' now...I would think.
...."now"...the 'innocence'...is (must be)...'different'...
the 'Culture'...is 'different'...the 'World' is 'different
....has moved 'on'.
Once they took off the 'Kimono', ain't so easy just to 'put-it-back-on'
maybe.
Places to 'hang' it...sure.
....no-where to 'wear' it.
....sort of...gotta 'make-a-place' to 'wear-it'...and that place is not
continuous...with the 'World' in quite the same way...as it was.
....'ours' has 'moved on' too...is 'still' m-o-v-i-n-g...'on'...O-yea...
So many old 'Crafts'...'Arts'...'Work'...the things People 'did', 'made',
and 'made' with...a presence that is hard to come bye now...comes with (a
kind of) innocence and humility and quiet pride and time a doin' it...a
(seen as such, or not,a)
joy...as well.
Stuff that had built slow for Centuries...finding new forms to say...allways
moving...
Even 'Factory' things...different yes...and often brilliant, as well...from
those days...they 'worked' on many levels.
The 'context' in which to DO these 'kinds' of 'work'...there is a very
different 'context'...now.
'Culture'...and 'economy'...are like eco-systems maybe...the
conditions...the balences, interplay,
continuity...interdependence...'in'-dependence...
The...broader Cultural continuity...integrity...is not there...NOT in the
'same' way, anyway...
For 'these' things...now...
Guys, Gals what used to make/'tie' Brooms...in Japan, in America...fingers
like a cashew-nut...years-a-tieing...and the Brooms...you would 'sweep' a
different world...if you 'have' one.
Now-a-days...
Are the Brooms...the 'same'?
Yes...No...yes...not the 'same' same.
Nothing can 'be' the 'same'(same)...but it can 'be'.
I'm workin' on an old car for myself...'l930'(more-or-less- a thirties
'hop-up')...a fast one too...when I get 'er 'done'...
In a way:
'Where' is there to 'GO'?
Where will/do all these 'roads' go?
....'now'?
Hideous 'mini-marts'...no 'Filling-Stations'...
Ubiquitous franchises selling unpleasent foods...
teeming ill-clad swarms of people...in-a-hurry.
no more...so much...of what...'was'...
of the 'what-was' that 'I' liked so very much...
The 'forms'...the enunciation of 'idioms' now not spoke.
There is anymore, only the 'how' I get-there.
The 'roads'...for 'me' ain't gonna go...anywhere...there is no longer any
'where' for them TO 'go'.
Self concious 'Route 66' retro-kitch-revisionism...phoney 'diners' you can't
smoke in...
Big Trucks made outta plastic...little 'tires'...
Cops wear polyester...have ugly guns.
Blue serge...Blue Steel,'forgotten'...
so much...so much... 'sigh-oh-nara'...
This Culturally, and maybe metaphysically, as well.
So with 'some' of this...these 'forms' which...have become
'obsolete'...it/they no longer have a world to 'say' them, or...to
'be'...'in'...in quite the same way...
It -one- has to 'make-a-place' to do it...
And one can 'do' that.
There is the 'timeless' IN the temporal...The universal 'in' the
local/immediate...(it may be)somewhat 'out-of-context'...in the post
modern...entropic...decadant...
whacky...'science-fiction-future' Present...we call 'home'.
Or...in a different 'context'...(implicit).
It is a different deal.
And some of 'em,('Masters') maybe I wouldn't like so much if I did get to
meet 'em.
Maybe they wouldn't like 'me'!
Hard to say...
There was/is one - a 'Potter' who was quite interested in the Carbide
Tools...especially the 'Loops'...he'd been saying "it couldn't be done" -
guess he'd heard of 'em somewhere...said it was 'impossible'...
I heard he was okay with using some 'modern' stuff...Figured he trimmed with
Sea-shells and Bamboo...maybe the odd Laminated Iron/Steel 'Tool'...made the
Old way...He did 'trim' I was told...and was fascinated with 'Carbide'.
Okay...
So...I write a nice little letter, send him a couple with 'presentation'
handles in swirley Walnut...had an intermediary - some respected aquaintence
of his, who I knew some little bit - make the presentation.
"Here-you-go"
A token of regard from me, and a 'howdy-do' to
boot...'across-the-waves'...'Formal', and also 'Careful'...humble.
I allways heard the Japanese were a 'polite' bunch...and...mostly, they
'are', I expect.
Anyhow...never heard a peep.
I guess that shut him up.
Well...maybe the 'middle-man' goofed it up...I don't know...
I felt disappointed a mite.
I heard later...(he makes 'tea-bowls', or his 'apprentises' do)
that with his millions...has bowling alleys (or was it 'basket-ball
courts'?)installed...next to his five or seven hundred year old studio...has
several 'rolls royces'...etc...lots of 'rolexes'...
I didn't know he had 'millions'...or 'bowls' sellin' for five-grand...I
thought he was some old guy...who had the torch to carry a ways...thought
I'd like him, for keepin' on...a liniage...continuity...'presence' IN the
'present'...
Heard he was maybe not happy an 'American' had made the Tools...pouted.
So, a kind of boor who happens to make killer 'tea-bowls'?
And perhaps a major player in the 'Label' racket.
.....a 'success' story, perhaps.
....which 'traditions' is he 'keepin'?
....what is their (integrity of)'continuity'?
Does it 'matter'?
And in what way?
....and to whom?
Well...I guess it 'mattered'...to me.
Woops! - well, so I say.."OK"...should a known more about him first...
I took for granted..."Master" would mean 'Gentleman'.
My friends are 'right'.
O-well.
So, maybe his 'tea-bowls' are majorly
esoteric...atavistic...arcane...magical...an epitome of the genre.
Maybe they inaudibly 'humm' with resonance from the songs Celestial, just a
sittin' there...
Maybe not.
Or...maybe they (he) just got the happenin' 'label' on 'em.
I don't know.
It depressed me.
Do I care?
Yes...but...
Not as much, or in the same kind of way, as if I respected the 'Man' as
well.
I never seen his 'work'...I'm sure it is swell...yet...'now'...I couldn't
'see' his 'work'...the same...
I could 'try' to...
'as-if'...
But too, I got plenty else to do.
So...like I 'do' sometimes...
I 'turned-away'.
Not saying the guy ain't a 'Master'...
Just say'n...It wasn't makin' it with me.
I'd most likely get a lot more outta watchin' some guy 'dolly-in' the eyes
of a reverse 'Elliot' front axel, to ream and fit new king pins for some old
car.
He...maybe a 'Master' too...I seen some who were...and...it was honest
'work'...no 'woo-woo' gettin' everybody worked up...no proppin' up a dead
horse.
Seen it where that axel was like a puppy gettin' petted...just eager to
please...happy...magic!
Some folks do that with Clay.
or...Iron...
or...Timbers...
Some with making 'Brooms'...
Some with...Cooking...
Some with...parts of life that they are happy in...'real' in.
No big Dollar signs dancin' in the air.
No 'Charlie-the-Tuna' charm school of...'taste'.
Just some guy, maybe needs a shave, squintin' at his work, and knowing what
he's about.
Or some Gal, wipin' her brow with her sleeve...doing something where the
Stars are lined up in Heaven...just 'cause She is doin' it.
I'm pretty happy with that.
'Masters'
They are where you find 'em.
And...in many ways...with the 'Manual-Arts'...they become fewer and farther
between.
The 'World' has moved on...
Ain't too many gettin' grow'd anymore.
The 'garden' don't want 'em.
If you can,'bum-a-light'...
I do...and...
....work on your own stuff...
Look:
Look for it where nobody else sees it.
Cup you hands around any little flame you see...take it in...
....keep it goin'...see by it's light...
Sometimes it is there where the 'work' has no artifact...product...in the
'how', and the mood of the 'how'...
Everybody...has 'some'...and some, have more than 'some'...in 'some' way...
Hardly anybody...'whole'.
It can be one of the disguises...of Joy...(of Love)...I suppose?
It's there...or, over 'there'...(there)...('often'...un-noticed)
One day it's 'gone'...'relatives' sweepin' out the shed.
Afterall,
...."All God's Chil'ns gots Wings"
No?
Phil
in
lvnev
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