Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

James Mitchell

@plainfeather.bsky.social

140 followers 150 following 290 posts

Retired book publisher and author, medievalist, photographer, Soto Zen student, early musician, San Francisco resident since 1967, unrepentant hippie. Like Bluesky, life is plenitudinous.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 14h

I would definitely think about a trip to Newfie if I could be sure of siting a Newfoundland Pine Marten (Martes americana atrata).
#critters

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 1d

"Diejenigen, die man tanzen sah, wurden für verrückt gehalten von jenen, welche die Musik nicht hörten" / Nietzsche.

"Those who were dancing were considered crazy by those who didn't hear the music."

#Nietzsche

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 1d

Big party tomorrow night at Tam O'Shanter's house!

1 1

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 2d

The gentleman on the right at the dinner table who has eaten too many oysters is presumably the new prime minister, while the guy next to him falling backwards has been struck by a brick, and the guy next to him on the floor has his head wound addressed.

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 2d

Great moments in modern democracy - William Hogarth, "An Election Entertainment," 1754-55, Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Debauched Tories celebrate an election victory while demonstrators heave bricks through the window.
#art #oilpainting

1 1

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 3d

The Dog with the Pearl Earring.
Thx Tim Mitchell.
#art #Vermeer

1 8

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 4d

In the Distance, Andrea Kowch, 2022.
#art #oilpainting

1 10

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 5d

Art Nouveau house in Paris, 29 Avenue Rapp in the 7th arrondissement, designed by Jean-Baptiste Larrive, 1901. Imagine returning home from work every night and walking through the doorway.
#architecture

3 11

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 6d

Thx Sailing Rose.
#SailawaySunday

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 7d

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold:
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
#bikes

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 9d

Thx Flora Smyth Zahra, who sent me a photo in which the MFA placed two similar vases in front of the painting at an MFA gallery. This was a trick I'll bet they learned from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 9d

Later I learned that giant vases were popular in Boston homes. The way two of the girls stare out from the shadows and seem to be hiding something reminds me of Henry James' spooky "Turn of the Screw" novel, and of course the whole configuration might have been filched from Velazquez' "Las Meninas."

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 9d

I first saw John Singer Sargent's "Daughters of Edward Darley Doit" (1882) when they frog-marched us school kids through the Boston MFA on a class tour. The giant vases make the girls in playroom pinafores look like miniaturized inhabitants of an outsized adult world.
#oilpainting

3 3

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 10d

Robert Nathan was an American poet and novelist 1894-1985. His beautifully composed October poem is written in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, complete with a rhymed couplet and a gnomic pronouncement or "moral"at the end.
#poems

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 10d

1 1

Reposted by James Mitchell

John Harvey @johnbharveywriter.bsky.social · 11d

Art work of the week - William Scott, 'The Harbour', Oil on canvas, 1952

1 6

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 11d

Must be Artificial Intelligence.

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 11d

Lady Writing in an Armchair, oil on canvas, Gabriele Münter, founder of the Blaue Reiter, 1929, Münter-Eichner-Stiftung, Munich.
#oilpainting

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 12d

It's truly not medieval, but a fine example of medievalism, the reception of the Middle Ages by subsequent generations, or influence thereupon. That's a nice Italian Renaissance bell tower as well. Thanks for the tip.

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 12d

You can tell prisons are dangerous when you see bow and arrow slots over the entryway. don't know the date or provenance of the monochrome photo above, in which a row of arriving prisoners are apparently being marched into their new residence.

1 1

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 12d

MEDIEVAL SAN FRANCISCO #1. A prison picture in Melbourne Australia reminded me of San Quentin locally. Both date to an era when jailhouses often took the shape of medieval castles with towers and battlements to emphasize the power and authority of the state.
#medievalsky #SanFrancisco #medievalism

2 1 4

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 13d

#SailawaySunday

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 14d

The construction of Woman. Atelier des Sculpteurs - France 1900.
#Feminism

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 15d

Must be difficult having to walk around backwards all the time. Barbara La Marr, The Heart of a Siren, 1925.
#Hollywood

James Mitchell @plainfeather.bsky.social · 16d

James is feeling artsy today.
#kitsch