Althouse: At the Wisconsin Log Café...

February 20, 2010

At the Wisconsin Log Café...

... maybe this is the particular one you are interested in.

13 comments:

Meade said...: What, no "egg salad challenge?"; 2/20/10, 5:53 PM
Unknown said...: Such a scene as Robert Rogers or George Rogers Clark might have encountered, as they tried to make it to nightfall, one jump ahead of the Indians and their allies. Interesting that we don't think of the Great Lakes as the Wild West, but it was, once.

Meade said...

What, no "egg salad challenge?"

Hey, man, what you guys do is your own thing.; 2/20/10, 6:00 PM
kentuckyliz said...: It was the next inevitable step after this.

The tree lost all hope.; 2/20/10, 6:20 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: We're back to pictures of dead trees. Sigh.

Well, at least it isn't the captain's log cafe.; 2/20/10, 6:33 PM
traditionalguy said...: Eureka, that's it.; 2/20/10, 7:01 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I'm not looking forward to Titus's entry in this Café.; 2/20/10, 7:02 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: My comment can be summed up with the words:

You Guys Make It Really Hard Not To Hate You.

Thank you - and hey, TG!; 2/20/10, 7:04 PM
traditionalguy said...: Hey Crack. How is life treating you, my friend.; 2/20/10, 9:00 PM
Penny said...: Dead wood? Damn that's tough.

Have you tried Viagra?; 2/20/10, 9:03 PM
Penny said...: Anyway, on to logs!

I just got a Barnes and Noble membership card. This weekend they have a free shipping special, so I set about looking for a new watercolor book. The choices are mind boggling, so I Google to find people's favorites. One of the books that came up was "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron. I checked out the reviews on Amazon, and there 310, which I found mind boggling, just for starters. 229 people gave it five stars, so I started reading the reviews, and then her website.

It seems that the KEY to people embracing this book, is that you begin each morning with a half hour three page, stream of consciousness, mind dump...a LOG, of sorts, that helps you get rid of all the dead wood you have up there in your head that gets in the way of your creativity.

My question is this. Do any Althouse readers keep such a log, or journal, and how has that worked out for you?

Titus and Crack? Well aware of your logs, so if you could let some others respond please?; 2/20/10, 9:24 PM
Caroline said...: RE: Dead trees as art

There is a dead tree standing in the front yard of a house about 5 miles from where I live. What is unusual about it, is that the owners have not chopped it down. Instead they had it pruned to just the trunk and the two large lateral branches. They also appear to have sanded off the bark, so that the tree looks relatively smooth. It's been like this for many years.

I'm guessing they left it standing because they see in it, what I see in it- in its present state, it looks like a person who is flailing its arms. It is leaning slightly, with one "arm" outstretched forward and to the side, covering its "face"; while the other arm is flung back and to the side. It appears frozen in a paroxysm of grief. Another interpretation could be of a person braving a storm, protecting their face against a gale force wind. Or of an entian dancer, inspired by the Carl Sandburg poem "Isadora Duncan" , to offer up its own interpretation: "I am a tree. I dance what I am!"

I refer to it as "the dramatic tree", or "the drama tree". I don't know if it qualifies as art, but every time I drive by the drama tree, I certainly do appreciate it.; 2/21/10, 8:18 AM
Anonymous said...: Where others see art, I see firewood. Cutting, splitting, and stacking that could work up an honest sweat.

The tree looks like it was felled, not blown over or dead. Wonder what's keeping the woodsman?

Why do I visit this blog?; 2/21/10, 10:00 AM
Michael said...: The guy needs to cut it in pieces and send it to Japan where it can be recreated by artisans who will ship it back and the guy then becomes an artist.; 2/21/10, 10:21 AM