Shakespeare's Garage Doors

#5

01.05.10

Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

- Shakespeare, ‘The Life of Tymon of Athens’, ~1623

I am aware of this relatively obscure play by Shakespeare due to this single phrase alone.  The play features a wealthy man, Tymon, hosting a banquet at which he lavishes expensive gifts on all of his guests.  The guests in turn lavish Tymon with praise, adoration and sworn loyalty.  Only Apermantus, a philosopher who is present at the banquet, sees the act for what it is: an attempt to buy the friendship and loyalty of parasitic sycophants.  So he makes his feelings known, analogizing the life of Tymon to the cycle of the Sun.  Tymon rises like the Sun in the esteem of his peers when he is able to provide them with expensive gifts.  However, when the expensive gifts dry up, the leased friendships and loyalties disappear like the setting Sun.  Nice work, Bill!

So by now you’ve associated Shakespeare's quote about doors with the photo of a door, but are likely confused at their relationship in this blog.  Sorry to disappoint you, but there is no deep or cryptic association.  I’m neither Tymon of Anchorage, nor Apemantus for that matter.  It’s just me breaking my promise from yesterday to stop blathering.  What can I say?  I'm a born blatherer. 

What really happened is that I left work well after the sun set (which is unavoidable, because it sets around 4:00 p.m. this time of year), and I needed to get a photo pronto.  As I was nearing home and passed my neighbors house, I realized I’ve always loved their garage doors.  Meanwhile, I've had the line about 'shut doors' from Tymon circling my mind for days, and for reasons unknown.  (Incidentally, I have also had the phrase "Stand back, or I'll shoot!" circling my mind for days... but I think I know the "why" on that one.)  So I decided that since my neighbors had “shut their doors against a setting sun”, both the quote and the pic would be fair game.  The problem is that tonight it is dark-dark, and the only light on the garage doors was from an exterior light fixture.  I got the photo anyway, and hoped that I’d be able to Photogene-it at home.  I would have taken another few photos to work with in case the first one didn't turn out, but I had spontaneously pressed my flattened form up to the door for a warm embrace when I heard sirens, so I had to rush home. 

Well, the results in the photo are admittedly mixed.  I had to increase the exposure, increase the color temperature to “warmer”, and then increase the contrast.  It definitely left the photo rather grainy, though I don't ever expect to eliminate that in such low lighting.  I was still impressed with the improved color and definition using such simple digital processing techniques.  I had to 'straighten' it out too; you know how I obsess over my verticals.  I don't think I got it totally straight, either.  The vertical seems true; but the horizontal seems off.  I’ll tinker with the photo bit more over the coming days to see if I can improve upon it.  Maybe I'll even try photoshopping, aperturing or iphotoing it just for kicks to see how much better they can resolve the photo, if at all.

I really like these doors, and maybe I'll post a daytime pic down the line under better lighting.  They have an almost medieval look to them.  You probably cannot tell from the photo, but the hardware is hand-hammered.

Here is the original “dark and crooked” photo so you can see what I had to work with:

Talk about a fixer-upper, right?!  (Clarification: the photo is the fixer-upper... not the beautiful doors!)

Finally, the musical selection is 'Crosses' by José González.  You know, because, Hello?! There is a cross in the picture.  On the doors.  In the picture.  Sheesh, I'd have thought that more obvious!  González is interesting because he was born in Sweden to Argentinean parents, he sings in English, he began his musical career in a punk rock band, now he performs almost exclusively solo with his acoustic guitar, and he is working toward a PhD in biochemistry.  Yo!  That is one diverse cat.  His vocals belie his punk rock past, I'm sure you'll agree.  Like every other musical selection I've chosen to date in this young blog; he has a very quiet vocal delivery, but with some perceptibly increased intensity over Nick Drake and the Kings of Convenience.  The only singer with whom I can compare his "quiet intensity" is one of my very most absolute favorite musicians... Elliott Smith (r.i.p.).  This song came off González's first EP, 'Crosses', back in 2003, but you can get it on his first LP 'Veneer', too.  I hope you like it. 

Until tomorrow... thanks for looking, reading and listening.

CCE