A strangeness of sentiment ... a constituent element of all great art

"the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone"

"I was only interrupted by my work on a new painting representing the exterior of a night café. On the terrace there are small figures of people drinking. An immense yellow lantern illuminates the terrace, the facade, the side walk and even casts light on the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone. The gables of the houses, like a fading road below a blue sky studded with stars, are dark blue or violet with a green tree. Here you have a night painting without black, with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green and in this surrounding the illuminated area colours itself sulfur pale yellow and citron green. It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot. Normally, one draws and paints the painting during the daytime after the sketch. But I like to paint the thing immediately. It is true that in the darkness I can take a blue for a green, a blue lilac for a pink lilac, since it is hard to distinguish the quality of the tone. But it is the only way to get away from our conventional night with poor pale whitish light, while even a simple candle already provides us with the richest of yellows and oranges".

           ... Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), Dutch painter. Excerpt from a letter to his sister about his painting  “Cafe Terrace at Night”.

 A recent photo of the same scene in Arles, France
[note: "the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone"
are gone, replaced by dull pavement, sadly]

Popular music in our time

... so modern music sucks eh?

"What does our popular music say about our society? Not much that is admirable, I would venture to suggest. Its aggressive banality, irritating repetitive beat, emphasis on ear-destroying volume, obsession with sexuality and violence, and almost total lack of nobility or intellectual content, creates a pitiful contrast to the music of previous centuries.

It is probably futile to struggle against this phenomenon, for it is only a symptom of the spiritual and moral emptiness of our civilization. Lust for money has ruined the arts, just as it has ruined so many other things. Schubert and Van Gogh poured out their hearts on paper and canvas, displaying an expertise of craftsmanship developed and handed down over centuries expecting - and in their particular cases receiving - little or no remuneration. The new pop stars, on the other hand, have almost no technical abilities - other than what may be supplied by their producers - and are inflated mostly through promotion, gimmicks, manipulation and an unwholesome desire to thrusts themselves before the public and earn obscene amounts of money".

... Anton Kuerti (1938-), Canadian musician and concert pianist