Elvis/ Sugarcanes, Richmond, VA Apr 24 '10

[Ypsilanti]

[always did like the ying/yang of the black/white though far from my favorite record]

I felt the same way until I recently heard the Rhino bonus disk--now I can't get enough of Spike. The whole record is reborn for me. The songs seem totally brilliant with much of the production folderol stripped away. "Coal-Train Robberies" in particular has gotten under my skin.

I have to say...having a giant, dis-embodied Elvis head on the wall brings exactly the right touch of creepy hilarity to the room--just what we were looking for.

I am color blind to reds and greens but it seems like a very soothing green tone-probably very stimulating for musical, or any other form of contemplation.

I am so sorry about your color blindness--that must be very annoying at times. What do you see instead of red & green? Do you see literally gray? Or is it more like muted versions of red and green? The wall is, by the way, the most aggressive bright lime color I could find at the paint store. How does it look to you?

[Jack of All Parades]

Ice Nine-I could be flip and respond like Jeff Bridges in "Starman"- red stop, green go and yellow 'drive like hell' but truthfully I have just learned that if I see the top light lit, I stop. The bottom light means proceed[and it looks white to me, sort of like the sun]-the middle one is probably closer to the movie for me- as I generally do speed up. Stupid on my part I know!

Sulky-that would be me in that Chemistry Class-and yet another strong EC reference on your part. Which is probably why I avoided taking Chemistry and stuck to poetry and fiction and political philosophy and history with the non-challenging black and white pages. Though I must admit to a strong interest in Astronomy where I am equally challenged with the colour spectrums of stars. God, Newton[oh! I forgot he is God], has made optics an adventure for me.

Ypsilanti-thank you for the concern. I do not particularly find it a problem as I have known nothing different in my visual life. It is not an absence of color that I see, just different shades. I can say what I see to anyone but I cannot tell that person it is differrent as I have seen nothing else but the colors I see all my life. As conditions go it is a very mild one compared to what a lot of people have to deal with in their lives. To give you an example, the grass around me is the same color as pumpkins in the fall.

You ask what color the wall in your room under renovation appears to me?-I answer a soothing beige. Your couch is a neat shade of pink and I like the blood red tone of the chair. I forgot to mention that I like the way the storage boxes on the shelves mirror the contrast within the poster-they also mirror the visual pun within the poster with their harlequin pattern; something I am sure you did consciously[given your strong affinity to design and EC] to mirror the effect as found on back of the "Imperial Bedroom" album jacket. You have even taken it into the pillow on the couch.

All my life I have been drawn to purple as a color[which I take to be a deep blue or French blue] so I have a closet full of dress shirts that are in reality some variation of purple or lavender. Ah! such is life but it does give a newer meaning for me to seeing life through 'rose colored glasses'.

[Top balcony]

Hi Christopher

Thanks for finding the time to share your perspective, very interesting account.

Sorry I can't agree with you re God being Newton, Sulky set out my religion above.God is clearly William Ralph Dean - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Dean for details of the "most prolific goal-scorer in English football history"

Best wishes

Colin Top Balcony

[sulky lad]

Hi Christopher,
I loved your answer in that it's all a question of perception but the points you raised make me consider how much we take for granted that what we see is identical to what other people "see". Not sure I have the vocabulary to describe what I mean but the easiest example I can think of is in the comedy show where Father Ted is trying to explain perspective to Dougal by saying "this is small and this is far away "!!

[Jack of All Parades]

Colin, thank you for the link about your 'god' Dixie 'Digsy' Dean- do not know much about football, though my brother in law is Dutch and is always trying to explain the fine points of the game to me. Now I get the Everton reference and the importance of the color blue. Where is Everton? This man must have been a tough nut-if he played that hard in childhood tag, digging his fist into the back of young women. The closest reference I have in my favorite sport, Baseball, is one Ty Cobb- he wanted to win so bad and was known to sharpen his spikes so that he would cut an opponent as he slid into the bag when running the bases spikes flashing forward. That and the fact that Cobb hailed from Georgia in the deep American South and it would seem 'Digsy' earned his nickname due to the physical appearance of his hair mirroring that of some residents of our southern states.

Sulky-you are very much on to something with your comments regarding perspective. I have a very good friend who is always telling me the only way you can successfully counter someone else's argument as an attorney is if you can visualize yourself within their argument-occupy it and know it's perspectives inside and out. Only then can you counter with plausible counter arguments. As you say it is perspective and it is a very difficult trick to master. I am not certain I will ever master that skill. My 'ego' too often gets in the way. However I have a daughter who I think is well on her way towards mastering the skill. Hope for the next generation in my family!

[Ypsilanti]

To give you an example, the grass around me is the same color as pumpkins in the fall.

Is all vegetation pumpkin-colored to you? So if you order a delicious Caesar Salad in a restaurant, the waiter brings you a big bowl of bright orange romaine? Not trying to be voyeuristic about your affliction--don't wish to offend or annoy, but I'm fascinated. Probably because of my Autism, colors are massively important to me--they're very alive to me--and function almost like a language--full of information, emotion, history, cultural significance, etc. I hadn't really considered it much, but I guess there are widely varying dialects within that language. Thanks. Very "eye-opening" for me.

I forgot to mention that I like the way the storage boxes on the shelves mirror the contrast within the poster-they also mirror the visual pun within the poster with their harlequin pattern; something I am sure you did consciously[given your strong affinity to design and EC] to mirror the effect as found on back of the "Imperial Bedroom" album jacket. You have even taken it into the pillow on the couch.

Thanks for your nice comments about the room. We've worked hard on it. The previous owners of the house had literally painted it the color of dirty walls and it had some sad wallpaper with duck decoys on it. It was extremely depressing, so the change is most welcome. The huge Elvis head is definitely the "mascot" of the room.

[Top balcony]

Christopher

Thanks for the reply, Everton is a district in Liverpool about 1.5 miles out of the town centre.Our home is Goodison Park and I sit in the Top Balcony. If you have no football allegiance why don't you support your mate's Dutch national team and join me and Elvis' Dad in supporting the Blues? Believe me we need all the support we can get.

EC of course was taken to see us play,but is now misguided. Dean must have had a fantastic will to win, but had a reputation for taking all the knocks and just getting back up again. He was never booked or sent off despite horrendous treatment from his opponents. ( those of a nervous disposition look away now...) One particularly nasty incident left him missing part of his wedding tackle.

As for your sport Dean was fond of baseball and apparently turned out for the Liverpool Caledonians club. Elvis also claims that his dad played baseball for the "Bidston Indian" this sounds plausible to anyone who has never been formally acquainted with Bidston, a suburb of Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences with your vision. It is truly shocking the assumptions we can make so easily .

Best wishes

Colin Top Balcony

[Jack of All Parades]

Top Balcony- now I can mentally picture the area. Best of luck with your team. Appreciated the baseball references as they relate to EC-will now be trying to scan the stands at Yankee Stadium to see if he is occupying a seat like his pal McCartney does on occasion. Maybe as his boys grow and being that they do live in NY sometime of the year they will develop a love for the sport.

Ypsilanti- hope you get much enjoyment out of your 'new' room. As to color, I can not really say all vegetation is 'orange' in appearance to me. I am not even sure what I see as 'orange' is what you, or others, see. I have known no different my conscious life so I have no reference point. I agree color has a language and that it speaks to us; perhaps not as emphatically as it does to you with your Autism. I can never push enough for a small essay from back in the early 70's by the philosopher/novelist William Gass titled On Being Blue. It is the most inventive, intelligent, funny piece on color and how it 'speaks' to us I have ever read. When I couple it with the delicious essays by John Updike found in Just Looking and Still Looking, I have very good guides for taking in the visual world around me.

I am going to end this now as I have strayed too far in conversation about me on a thread that should be about EC and within a conversation that began over a person's joy in having her photo taken with 'The Beloved Entertainer'.

[sweetest punch]

Lucky Dog/Complicated Shadows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlHYP1Smv38