Nietzsche's fire hounds

digital painting by Lohbado

Before sitting down to a plate of spaghetti Lohbado read Deleuze’s comments (page 196 Quadrige puf) on the fire hound section of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (book II, Of Great Events). Two dogs appear on a volcanic island. One dog nourishes itself on resentment and substances characteristic of the reactive personality, someone with a bad conscience, intense jealousy and self-pity. The other dog affirms life, speaks from the heart of the earth. It’s laugh flies around like colored clouds, or to quote Nietzsche, from the affirmative hound “Laughter flutters out of him like colorful clouds; nor is he well disposed toward your [the resentful hound’s] gurgling and spewing and intestinal rumblings.” (page 244 The Portable Nietzsche, edited and translated by Walter Kaufmann. 

heavy conversation

photos taken in Little Italy Montreal

A heavy conversation... hmmm... what could that be? What were Ed and Bob talking about in the back room? Lohbado heard funny sounds as he walked past the bedroom window facing the lane. Only embark on heavy conversation when it feels safe to do so. If the other person has a quick temper or becomes agitated and aggressive, say as little as possible, or try to steer the conversation into a safe direction. Avoid controversy, especially if the person has strong views and emotional attachment to them. Better to talk about celebrities, your favourite brand of beer or the weather.

loba determinism

click on picture to see video. Biological, economic, social causes and conditions shape one's character or path through life. This means it's pointless to become moralistic and react with strong emotions or habitual opinions. To make a wise decision, become as informed as possible about the multiplicity of factors involved, rather than lashing out. In everyday life, one has the sensation of being free and of making creative decisions. However, one's actions could be traced back to causes and conditions.

Kenneth in Little Italy

Yesterday Lohbado met with Brother Kenneth for a promenade and picnic in Little Italy. They enjoyed rye bread, sardines and cheddar cheese.

Tickledee Pink Castle

digital painting by Lohbado

Sara Bellini and Fukstin Brown fell in love in the boudoir spice pantry of Tickldee Pink Castle. A make belief system, shaped by DNA, sculpted through social economic conditioning and assumptions fell apart. The moment of contact cut through a thousand words. Oompa oompa oompa oompa a whole part of something, part of a part faster and faster the heart beat whee whoopee whee whopee. Shut off intellect. Never. Leave it on. Keep it on. Don't drown in careless impulse heart beat, breathing, restless motion, jitters, jumping, thump bump bang. The cage rattled as the canary leapt from trapeze to post.

surgical painting

click on picture to see video. Lohbado does a video painting of surgical intervention on a cookie encased in acrylic paint on illustration board. With an ink syringe, he injected saffron water then scattered the dust to the four winds. During the ritual Lohbado contemplates the fragile yet robust nature of the human body.

nature in the city

click on picture to see video. Even if one doesn't have the means to take a holiday in the country, one can enjoy nature in the city. Nature is a vibrant infinite force of the elements existing everywhere... trees, water, fire, rock, sky... Lohbado danced through the city. Even during moments of pain and suffering, it is possible to connect with vast and profound nature.

St Josephs Oratory Prayer Garden Montreal

statues from the stations of the cross

Lohbado went to the prayer garden to relax and contemplate the mysteries of existence. St Joseph's Oratory is a landmark in Montreal. The green dome of the basilica can be seen from a great distance. It was a hot sunny day, perfect for a moment of peace and calming the mind. Lohbado is grateful that such quiet places exist in the middle of the city. The prayer garden is a lush green area with statues depicting the stations of the cross, starting with the Garden of Gethsemane to the crucifixion. One walks up stairs and ends up at a beautiful fountain with a gold statue of a lamb, representing Jesus, or the lamb of God.

Lohbado philosophy

click on picture to see video. Philosophy could be approached in many ways, for example, as a scientific discipline of forming concepts or examining ideas. It could be viewed as edification, to stimulate the mind. Philosophy also has a lot to say about the human condition, or confusion and suffering. One could reduce suffering by learning to detect and eliminate falsehood, muddled thinking or mystification which often obscures understanding.

In the video Lohbado referred to a book he borrowed from the library: Qu'est-ce que la philosophie? by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The book opens with a discussion about how philosophy is involved in creating concepts. Philosophy is a rigorous discipline, which could be enjoyed on many levels. On one level, it's the domain of the professional philosopher or philosophy professor. On a more general level, philosophy could be enjoyed by anyone interested in stimulating the mind, or in learning more about how one arrives at knowledge and copes with suffering or challenges of the human condition.

old train building by the canal

An old CN railroad building was left standing as a kind of art object by the bicycle trail along the Lachine Canal. Next to the building is a small park with benches and jets of water shooting from a fountain in a decorative arrangement.

biking along the Lachine Canal

views from a bike trail along Lachine Canal

Lohbado went for an evening ride along Lachine Canal in Montreal and paused to admire an old water tower sticking up from among old brick warehouses, slowly being turned into condos or office space. It's a long ride from Cote des Neiges to the canal, but well worth the effort. Access to the canal is a bit limited. If one rides the bike trails down to Place des Arts, or down Avenue du Parc, the access is the bike trail along Rue Berri. It's a nice detour, but adds kilometers on to the ride. Lohbado most often rides the Decairie Service road, follows the bike trail around the new hospital then ends up on Rue de Courcelle and on to the canal. The third approach is farther west, via Rue Saint-Jacques and 5th Avenue.

what happens when you die?

digital painting by Lohbado

Interesting question, what happens when you die? Loba answer: no idea. Lots of speculation, theories, religious beliefs, fantasies. Whatever one's conception about what happens, death is there as a gaping hole in reality. Without warning, one's body could suddenly become a corpse. Death happens every minute on this planet of seven billion people. The point of contemplating death is not to be maudlin or morbid, it's to sober up a minute and ponder the nature of existence.

What exactly does it mean to be alive? Loba answer: all one can say is one is alive because one happened to have been born. The world was here before one was born and will continue after one dies. So what is going on between birth and death? How could one live life to the full? How could one live in a meaningful fashion, with the least amount of confusion?

click on picture to see video. Range focusing is useful for those who have trouble seeing object clearly in the viewfinder. Put the dslr in aperture priority mode. Focus on an object, then stand near the object and it should be in focus. Another method for closeups is to reach to the camera and press the focus button. As for lighting, Lohbado uses mostly sunlight. For indoor work, use whatever lamps are available.

Moronovian Tabernacle

image by Lohbado

The Moronovian Tabernacle is a place where people could relax and contemplate the mysteries of existence. Meditation is a way to calm the mind. There's also plenty of opportunity for playing with images, dancing, singing and composing texts. Actually, there's no such thing. It's all a figment of the imagination.

unicorn accident

digital painting by Lohbado

With so many bicycle accidents in Montreal, not to mention motorcycle and motor vehicle accidents, Lohbado dreamed something exploded in his head. Cracked pavement flew at his face. Unicorns leapt out of the cracks. He saw the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden.

dream page

digital painting by Lohbado

Well, this is a blog, where one could write informally. Lohbado has been so involved in visual projects, writing has dwindled to an afterthought. Plus, as Lohbado gets older, he tires easily. However, slow but steady wins the race. Things get done, but at a much slower pace. As for words, maybe they're not always necessary. As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words. Of course, words could also be viewed as pictures. The alphabet is a series of 26 sophisticated forms which evolved over a few thousand years. Words often relate to mental pictures. The above image is a dream page from the ongoing Book of Oogah, a multi-media manuscript Lohbado has been working on at the tabernacle since 1987.

sunrise Montreal

click on picture to see video. Lohbado woke at 4  AM due to heat and humidity. He had porridge for breakfast then enjoyed sunrise in the park. After a friendly good morning to other people in the park, Lohbado thought of symbolism. His favourite bedtime book is Finnegans Wake. It's a cheerful, life affirming book with mystical or religious sensibility.

Lohbado thought of how 1132 occurs often in Finnegans Wake. A description of 1132 and one interpretation of what it meant as described in the commentary of Anthony Burgess. 11 could refer to a cyclic vision of society, birth, maturity, decay and the fall, then birth again. One counts to ten, then at eleven begins again. 32 means the fall, how bodies fall at 32 feet per second. The cosmic cycle proposed by Giambattista Vico structures the book. Chapter one opens with the fall. Bricklayer Tim Finnegan falls off a ladder and dies. The wake begins. The last chapter ends at sunrise, when the sleeper begins to wake up. The last sentence of the book flows into the first sentence of chapter one. Here's another interesting interpretation of 1132.

sacred ground

cemetery statues

statues in Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery, Montreal

Sacred ground could be understood as a place of respect and tranquility where a person could go who wishes to relax or contemplate the mysteries of existence, mortality, the human condition. Such a place is especially useful for someone who experienced death of family member or loved one. Death has a way of poking holes in the psyche. It involves heartache and sorrow. Lohbado often went to the cemetery to quiet his mind and reflect on the experience of being alive.

what is your name?

click on picture to see video. Lobhado had a coffee in a park, super noisy morning. The decibels were so high, he was unable to record with the field recorder. What is your name?

Montreal outing with Maggy and Seth

The days are a bit shorter, but it's still sunny weather in Montreal, a perfect day for an outing. The above photos were taken by the trail near the tracks north of Mile End.

a fun afternoon

click on picture to see video. Lohbado met up with Seth, Maggy and Christina on a sunny afternoon. There was some talk about reptilians, or space aliens.

self as process or dynamic

click on picture to see video. Lohbado contemplates self as process or dynamic. Self is not a tangible, physical thing. It's a conceptual object. An analogy is motion. Motion is not a thing. One could observe an object on a trajectory from A to B, but one won't see an object that could be isolated and presented as the thing "motion". Similarly, with self, one undergoes a trajectory from birth to death. An individual undergoes changes. The process of change is not a thing. One can't isolate and present the thing "change". One could observe how a person changes over time.