11:49 by Chipka
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Description
Have you ever had one of those nights when you’re exhausted from work and truly driven to post a photo? I’m in that particular mood, right now, and though I like this image immensely, I have no idea what to call it. As I’m also listening to a delicious (and deliciously obscure) piece of music, I’ve cheated a bit and decided to refer directly to the piece of music I’m listening to. “11:49” is not the title of the piece, but rather it’s length on CD.
I’ve been a long-time admirer of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. In many ways, his compositions dating from his famous “Silent Period” have defined much of what I have written and experienced in the past few years. “Fratres,” a brilliant and stirring piece of musical genius stands as one of my all-time favorite compositions. It features little more than a violin and a piano, riotously grinding against one another in ways that recall poisonous snakes, mating. The CD I purchased (then re-purchased, as my music collection didn’t survive my journey to Prague) is graced with two versions of the composition. The original piano/violin-based rendition is 11 minutes and 24 seconds long. The more haunting version, performed by the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, is more fitting to my overall temperament—well, more fitting to my overall literary temperament. It’s brooding, it’s wistful, it’s downright spooky if you hear it under very particular circumstances…and, like many of Pärt’s musical compositions from the depths of his Silent Period, it is strange in its measured precision.
In many ways, image and sound are a perfect fusion in my mind, and though you’re not hearing the music as I describe it, these windows—taken in downtown Chicago—are a physical manifestation of that music. There is regularity, there is deception. What you see is precisely what’s there…but it takes more than a casual glance to actually comprehend what confronts you. Of course you can notice the architecture and even note how it seems strangely holographic. This single visual fragment of Chicago resembles Chicago. The city is one giant grid, after all, though its fringes do manage to achieve a bit of irregularity. This building, with its grid of masonry and windows IS Chicago. And that’s what makes it holographic…it’s a fragment of the city that is (at least subjectively) a map of the entire city.
It is also like the music of Arvo Pärt: deceptively repetitive…and only on closer scrutiny might you notice variations within the captured windows.
I can think of little else to say, and as I’m in something of an Arvo Pärt mood, as I write this, I’m going to stop, cue up “Fratres” (the 12 Cello version) and just savor the taste of my beloved Vltava River as presented in this week’s last-remaining bottle of Pilsner Urquell. Ah…good music and Czech beer! Though my week is pinched, things don’t get too much better than that!
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and hopefully you’re all having a great week. I still have a ton of catching up to do, and hopefully I get to do so when this week’s hell schedule ends.
Comments (26)
bmac62
A great line to recall..., "Ah...good music and Czech beer!" As I am about to fall out of my chair from sleepiness, I wonder if I have any beer whatsoever in my fridge? Upon checking, I have one bottle of "Tecate"...Hecho en Mexico, and one rather mundane bottle of Bud Light, brewed and canned it says in St. Louis. I thought you bottled bottles? You are welcome to either bottle Chip. Anyway...to your photo. This is a real Wow. It looks like what I picture the Soviets would have called grand in the 1930s. A standard pattern repeated monotonously over and over but not stretching any architectural genius or the skills of any original thinking builder. But you say this is Chicago and it is similar to Arvo Pärt's music. OK, so now I know more about both your hometown and your favorite musician than I did before. What an enlightening piece...here, let me pass you the bottle opener:-) Thanks Chip...I've enjoyed myself immensely...both via your written word and your photographic image. Cheers.
Kaartijer
Yep, it's kinda hard to name it... I'd say "Can you see me? I can't either!" Excellent shot, well seen!
beachzz
Music and beer and words and fotos---I can do that, though all I have in my fridge is some horrible stuff called "Old Milwaukee" someone left here. I can't even GIVE it away!! Ahhh--maybe I can use it to drown the fricken snails and slugs that eat my flowers!! I love this shot, all those windows lined up and ready for something!!
romanceworks
A fascinating photo. Makes me wonder who is behind all those windows ... who is looking back. CC
whaleman
I too enjoyed my last beer for some time to come. It was called 'Grasshopper' and was brewed by an Alberta brewery called Big Rock Breweries, so named because of the nearness to some of Alberta's 'big rocks' more properly called 'erratic' rocks. In earlier times in Alberta, before it was Alberta, we had glaciers and the glaciers moved, frequently carrying enormous rocks to far away destinations where they remained, quite out of place, when the glacier melted. Their origins were eventually discovered by comparing thicknesses of various rock strata. It's a good beer, and your post is a good shot!
helanker
WOW ! What a building. Excellently captured. Impossible to point out a particular office from outside LOL! Lovely music, Arvo Pärt created. Found a Youtube video. The one I heard was very peaceful. Beer is not my cup of tea, though. LOL !
Meisiekind
WOW - it almost looks like the cover of a drain! I love the crop Chip and the almost abstract feel of the image! Great work again!! :))
durleybeachbum
The perfect comparison! I have just spent quite a few minutes moving this image up and down the screen fascinated by an apparent swelling and shrinking effect...wierd. Your talk of beer has brought ought a certain chattiness among the men here!
Alex_Antonov
Remarkable work!
tamburro
Great work!!!!!!!
MrsRatbag
The repetition of lines is really mesmerizing; fantastic crop, and your musings are worth sharing, as always!
auntietk
Heaphones on, listening to Fratres as I type, looking back at the image again and yet again. Ahhhhhhh ... If I liked beer, I would join you. Perhaps a scotch, instead, which is my favorite sipping-while-hanging-out beverage. Lovely post. Just right!
kgb224
I nearly got dizzy when i browsed up and down on your upload. Outstanding capture my friend.
marybelgium
such a great find and capture !
zulaan
Beautiful, very graphic image !
witch_1612
Wonderful Work!!!
watapki66
Very cool image!
KatesFriend
"This single visual fragment of Chicago resembles Chicago", a very insightful metaphor considering the nature of holograms. I took the time to listen to “Fratres". I found a production on YouTube (I know, blasphemy). My first impression is that of a terrible restless energy, like that of someone who can not sleep or must complete a task no matter how exhausted they may be. And you are right, there is a sense of repetition, like the wall, there is also very fine detail. Alas though, I do not like beer so I will always be missing something. And I call myself a Canadian. I am a heretic.
blondeblurr
I am just getting dizzy, scrolling up & down, like a few of us here... even without a beer or any other alcoholic beveridge. Can't say, I've ever heard of this composer, but must check @ Google ! Enjoy a well deserved Easter-break, BB
minos_6
I love shots like this, that show more than just the architecture. You really have an eye for opportunity! Windows are always fascinating, in this picture each hiding its own mystery - transparent, but revealing nothing....
danapommet
The different settings of the shades caught my eye, except for that one floor that doesn't have any. Great narrative Chip and you did prompt others to type a little more than usual. Dana
flavia49
marvelous picture and superb text!! and the Czech beer... sublime!!
SIGMAWORLD
Interesting.
sandra46
outstanding shot...and yeas, I often feel like being exhausted and going to post something. The image is a bit like a panopticon...I can't feel very well at looking at it!
CoreyBlack
I like this! I remember seeing it on your camera. It looks so much better at full size rather than cramped on a little, tiny LED screen with a "Low Battery" icon flashing in orange. It's very massive and monolithic: there's a kind of an old-school Borg quality to this, as if a giant wall is coming at you, declaring "Resistance if futile. You will be assimilated." Actually it looks like a bunch of very nicely-appointed and expensive hamster cages! It captures that imposing Downtown Chicago feel...or that city with a big chip on its shoulder sort of thing too. I have to go and find that musical composition you talked about now, but all of the stores are closed, so I won't be getting any Czech beer tonight. And I do have to say, it's funny how you got so many people to talk about beer while showing them a picture of windows. Very nice work!
FriedaFelicia
One could get lost in this image! Interesting repetitive patterns and lines. It just seems to go on and on and on... and on and on.