BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:My Questions to BisBiswas of deviantart DTSTAMP:20250905T044033Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:493-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n My Questions to BisBiswas of deviantart\n\n\n\n Bisbiswas \n\n https://www.deviantart.com/bisbiswas\n\n\n\n Save the date: QA with B isBiswas\n\n https://www.deviantart.com/kovowolf/journal/Save-the-date-QA- with-BisBiswas-1236705071\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n MY COMMENT\n\n I looked from the back of your gallery and I noticed many of your landscapes were of nig ht\, I think sacred dragon was your first strong daylight landscape\, as w ell as the first that suggest in artistic style an east asian landscape st ructure... I can be wrong of course  I know that strong contrasts between light and dark\, chiaroscuro when done effectively\, in various ways\,   are always potent to attract viewers and to make inspiring artworks. \n\n The darkness isn't empty. \n\n\n\n Now to my questions. Which I will pro vide a partial answer to\, just to spark thoughts to whomever may read. \ n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n 1. In your experience what differences are near constan t between how viewers react or comment to landscapes with small dark figur es in the light compared to landscapes with small light figures in the dar k? \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n 2. What are your favorite examples of landscape ph otography in film\, animated or live action or claymation or puppetry or o ther?\n\n For mosaic\, a local black artist did something that has been in my family for many years\, i love looking at it. For animated films\, I w ill say the set of landscape scenes in entire studio ghibli films selectio n with my favorite among them Mononoke\, sorry Howl\, Triplettes of Bellev ille\, watership down.  For claymation I will say\, fantastic mr fox\, th e black wolf scene\n\n https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELqdLvz60zA\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n  the underground activities scene with bogus buns an d beans stores above\, and the landscaping art from Mrs. Fox For live acti on\, I select Daughters of the Dust 1991 I still think the only film that covers the geechee lands like that\, Lawrence of Arabia 1962 the desert I have luckily been to the edge of the Sahara\, it is beautiful \, and the P eter JAckson Lord of the Rings trilogy. A commercial entry at the end but they present new zealand brilliantly. \n\n\n\n As a writer I am very inte rested in the next two answers. \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n 3. What is your favor ite literary description of a landscape in any prose style\, no poetry or song\, in any language ? \n\n I love a miracle of rare device from Ray Br adbury\, remember\, I wish I could see Xanadu \n\n Text for those who may not have read\n\n https://thephilosopher.net/bredberi/wp-content/uploads/ sites/429/2025/03/A-Miracle-of-Rare-Device-Ray-Bradbury.pdf\n\n\n\n if not available try this one\n\n\n\n https://1drv.ms/b/c/ea9004809c2729bb/Ef2lE mutxDRNvx0JC3PbvuMBY6S0Dti-SBtdfyMOyq3iXA?e=9q8Mqg\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n TEXT EMBEDDED\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n \nA Miracle of Rare Device\, Ray Bradbury \ n\nA Miracle of Rare Device \n\nOn a day neither too mellow nor too tart\, too hot nor too cold\, the ancient tin lizzie came over the desert hill t raveling at commotion speed. The vibration of the various armored parts of the car caused road-runners to spurt up in floury bursts of dust. \n\nGi la monsters\, lazy displays of Indian jewelry\, took themselves out of the way. Like an infestation\, the Ford clamored and dinned away into the dee ps of the wilderness. \n\nIn the front seat\, squinting back\, Old Will Ba ntlin shouted\, \"Turn off!\" \n\nBob Greenhill spun-swung the lizzie off behind a billboard. Instantly both men turned. Both peered over the crump led top of their car\, praying to the dust they had wheeled up on the air. \"Lay down! Lay low! Please!\" And the dust blew slowly down. Just in tim e. \n\n\"Duck!\" \n\nA motorcycle\, looking as if it had burned through al l nine rings of hell\, thundered by. Hunched over its oily handlebars\, a hurricane figure\, a man with a creased and most unpleasant face\, goggled and sun-deviled\, leaned on the wind. Roaring bike and man flung away dow n the road. \n\nThe two old men sat up in their lizzie\, exhaling. \n\n\" So long\, Ned Hopper\,\" said Bob Greenhill. \n\n\"Why?\" said Will Bant lin. \"Why's he always tailing us?\" \n\n\"Willy-William\, talk sense\,\" said Greenhill. \"We're his luck\, his Judas goats. Why should he let us g o\, when trailing us around the land makes him rich and happy and us poor and wise?\" \n\nThe two men looked at each other\, half in\, half out thei r smiles. What the world hadn't done to them\, thinking about it had. They had enjoyed \nthirty years of nonviolence together\, in their case meanin g non-work. \"I feel a harve’s coming on\,\" Will would say\, and they'd clear out of town \nbefore the wheat ripened. Or\, \"Those apples are rea dy to fall!\" So they'd stand back about three hundred miles so as not to get hit on the head. \n\nNow Bob Greenhill slowly let the car\, in a magni ficent controlled detonation\, drift back out on the road. \n\n\"Willy\, friend\, don't be discouraged.\" \n\n\"I've been through 'discouraged\,' \ "said Will. \"I'm knee deep in 'accepting.\" \n\n\"Accepting what?\" \n\ n\"Finding a treasure chest of canned fish one day and no can opener. Find ing a thousand can openers next day and no fish.\" \n\nBob Greenhill liste ned to the motor talking to itself like an old man under the hood\, soundi ng like sleepless nights and rusty bones and well-worn dreams. \"Our bad l uck can't last forever\, Willy.\" \n\n\"No\, but it sure tries. You and me sell ties and who's across the street ten cents cheaper?\" \n\n\"Ned Hopp er.\" \n\n\"We strike gold in Tonopah and who registers the claim first?\" \n\n\"Old Ned.\" \n\n\"Haven't we done him a lifetime of favors? Aren't we overdue for something just ours\, that never winds up his?\" \n\n\"Pru ne's ripe\, Willy\,\" said Robert\, driving calmly. \"Trouble is\, you\, m e\, Ned never really decided what we wanted. We've run through all the gho st towns\, see something\, grab. Ned sees and grabs\, too. He don't want i t\, he just wants it because we want it. \n\nHe keeps it 'till we're out of sight\, then tears it up and hang-dogs after us for more litter. The da y we really know what we want is the day Ned \ngets scared of us and runs off forever. Ah\, hell.\" Bob Greenhill breathed the clear fresh-water ai r running in morning stream over the windshield. \"It's good anyway. That sky. Those hills. The desert and ... His voice faded. Will Bantlin glanced over. \"What's wrong?\" \n\n\"For some reason ...\" Bob Greenhill's eyes rolled\, his tanned hands turned the wheel slow\, \"we got to ... pull off ... the road.\" \n\nThe lizzie bumped on the dirt shoulder. They drove do wn in a dusty wash and up out and suddenly along a dry pen of land overloo king the desert. Bob Greenhill\, looking hypnotized\, put out his hand to turn the ignition key. The old man under the hood stopped complaining abou t the insomnia\, and slept. \n\n\"Now\, why did you do that?\" asked Will Bantlin. \n\nBob Greenhill gazed at the wheel in his suddenly intuitive h ands. \n\n\"Seemed as if I had to. Why?\" He blinked up. He let his bones settle and his eyes grow lazy. \"Maybe only to look at the land out there. Good. All of it been here a billion of years. \n\n\"Except for that city \,\" said Will Bantlin. \n\n\"City?\" said Bob. He turned to look and th e desert was there and the distant hills the color of lions\, and far out beyond\, suspended in a sea of warm morning sand and light\, was a kind of floating image\, a hasty sketch of a city. \"That can't be Phoenix\,\" sa id Bob Greenhill \"Phoenix is ninety miles off. No other big place around. \" \n\nWill Bantlin rumpled the map on his knees\, searching. \"No. No oth er town.\" \n\n\"It's coming clearer!\" cried Bob Greenhill\, suddenly. \n \nThey both stood absolutely straight up in the car and stared over the du sty windshield\, the wind whining softly over their craggy faces. \n\n\"Wh y\, you know what that is\, Bob? A mirage! Sure\, that's t it! Light ray s just right\, atmosphere\, sky\, temperature. City's the other side of th e horizon somewhere. Look how it jumps\, fades in and out. It's reflected against that sky up there like a mirror and comes down here where we can s ee it! A mirage\, by Gosh!\" \n\n\"That big\,-\" Bob Greenhill measured t he city as it grew taller\, clearer in a shift of wind\, a soft far whirla bout of sand. \"The granddaddy of them all! That's not Phoenix. Not Santa Fe or Alamogordo\, no. Let's see. It's not Kansas City.\" \n\n\"That's to o far off\, anyway.\" \n\n\"Yeah\, but look at those buildings. Big! Tall est in the country. Only one place like that in the world.\" \n\n\"You don 't mean-New York?\" \n\nWill Bantlin nodded slowly and they both stood in the silence looking out at the mirage. And the city was tall and shining n ow and almost perfect in the early-morning light. \n\n\"Oh\, my\,\" said B ob\, after a long while. \"That's fine.\" \n\n\"It is\,\" said Will. \n\n \"But\,\" said Will\, a moment later\, whispering\, as if afraid the city might hear\, \"what's it doing three thousand miles from home\, here in th e middle of Nowhere\, Arizona?\" \n\nBob Greenhill gazed and spoke. \"Will y\, friend\, never question nature. It just sits there and minds its knitt ing. Radio waves\, rainbows\, northern lights\, all that\, heck\, let's ju st say a great big picture got took of New York City and is being develope d here\, three thousand miles away on a mom when we need cheering\, just f or us.\" \n\n\"Not just us.\" Will peered over the side of the car. \"Look !\" There in the floury dust lay innumerable crosshatchings\, diagonals\, fascinating symbols printed out in a quiet tapestry. \"Tire marks\,\" sai d Bob Greenhill. \"Hundreds of them. Thousands. Lots of cars pulled off he re.\" \n\n\"For what\, Bob?\" Will Bantlin leaped from the car\, landed on the earth\, tromped it\, turned on it\, knelt to touch it with a swift an d suddenly trembling hand. \"For what\, for what? To see the mirage?\" \n \n\"Yes\, sir! To see the mirage!\" \n\n\"Boy\, howdy!\" Will stood up\, thrummed his voice like a motor. \n\n\"Brrrummm!\" He turned an imaginar y wheel. He ran along a tire track.\"Brrrumm! Eeeee! Brakes on! Robert\, B ob\, you know what we got here? Look east! Look west. This is the only po int in miles you can pull off the highway and sit and stare your eyes out! \" \n\n\"Sure\, it's nice people have an eye for beauty-\" \n\n\"Beauty\, my socks! Who owns this land?\" \n\n\"The state\, I reckon.\" \n\n\"You r eckon wrong! You and me! We set up camp\, register a claim\, improve the property\, and the law reads it’s ours. Right?\" \n\n\"Hold on!\" Bob G reenhill was staring out at the desert and the strange city there. \"You m ean you want to homestead a mirage?\" \n\n\"Right\, by zingo! Homestead a mirage!\" \n\nRobert Greenhill stood down and wandered around the car look ing at the tire-treaded earth. \"Can we do that?\" \"Do it? Excuse my dust !\" In an instant Will Bantlin was pounding tent pegs into the soil\, stri nging twine. \"From here to here\, and here to here\, it's a gold mine\, w e pan it\, it's a cow we milk\, it's a lakeful of money\, we swim in it!\" \n\nRummaging in the car\, he heaved out cases and brought forth a large cardboard which had once advertised cheap cravats. This\, reversed\, he p ainted over with a brush and began lettering. \n\n\"Willy\,\" said his fr iend\, \"nobody's going to pay to see any darned old-\" \n\n\"Mirage? Put up a fence\, tell folks they can't see a thing\, and that's just their it ch. There!\" He held up the sign. \n\nSECRET VIEW MIRAGE-THE MYSTERIOUS C ITY \n25 cents per car. \nMotorbikes a dime. \n\n\"Here comes a car. Watc h!\" \n\n\"William!\" \n\nBut Will\, running\, lifted the sign. \n\n\"Hey ! Look! Hey!\" The car roared past\, a buff ignoring the matador. \n\nBo b shut his eyes so as not to see Will's smile wiped away. \n\nBut then-a m arvelous sound. The squeal of brakes. The car was backing up. Will was lea ping forward\, waving\, pointing. \"Yes\, sir! Yes\, ma'am! Secret View M irage! The Mysterious City! Drive right here!\" \n\nThe treadmarks in t he simple dust became numerous\, and then\, quite suddenly\, innumerable. \n\nA great ball of heat-wafted dust hung over the dry peninsula where in a vast sound of arrivals\, with braked tires\, slammed doors\, stilled en gines\, the cars of many kinds from many places came and took their places in a line. \n\nAnd the people in the cars were as different as people ca n be who come from four directions but are drawn in a single moment by a s ingle thing\, all talking at first\, but growing still at last at what the y saw out in the desert. \n\nThe wind blew softly about their faces\, flu ttering the hair of the women\, the open shirt collars of the men. They sa t in their cars for a long time or they stood out on the rim of the earth\ , saying nothing\, and at last one by one turned to go. \n\nAs the first c ar drove back out past Bob and Will\, the woman in it nodded happily. \"Th anks! Why\, it is just like Rome!\" \"Did she say Rome or home?\" asked Will. \n\nAnother car wheeled toward the exit. \"Yes\, sir!\" The driver reached out to shake Bob's hand. \"Just looking made me feel I could speak French!\" \"French!\" cried Bob. Both stepped forward swiftly as the thi rd car made to leave. An old man sat at the wheel\, shaking his head. \"Ne ver seen the like. I mean to say\, fog and all\, Westminster Bridge\, bett er than a postcard\, and Big Ben off there in the distance. How do you do it? God bless. Much obliged.\" \n\nBoth men\, disquieted\, let the old ma n drive away\, then slowly wheeled to look out along their small thrust of land toward the growing simmer of noon. \"Big Ben?\" said Will Bantlin. \"Westminster Bridge? Fog?\" \n\nFaintly\, faintly\, they thought they he ard\, they could not be sure\, they cupped their ears\, wasn't that a vast clock striking three times off there beyond land's rim? Weren't foghorns calling after boats and boat horns calling down on some lost river? \n\ n\"Almost speak French?\" whispered Robert. \"Big Ben? Home? Rome? Is that Rome out there\, Will?\" \n\nThe wind shifted. A broiling surge of wa rm air tumbled up\, plucking changes on an invisible harp. The fog almost solidified into gray stone monuments. The sun almost built a golden statue on top of a breasted mount of fresh-cut snow marble. \n\n\"How----\" sai d William Bantlin\, \"how could it change? How could it be four\, five ci ties? Did we tell anyone what city they'd see? No. Well\, then\, Bob\, w ell!\" \n\nNow they fixed their gaze on their last customer\, who stood a lone at the rim of the dry peninsula. Gesturing his friend to silence\, Ro bert moved silently to stand to one side and behind their paying visitor. \n\nHe was a man in his late forties with a vital\, sunburned face\, good\ , warm\, clear-water eyes\, fine cheekbones\, a receptive mouth. He looked as if he had traveled a long way around in his life\, over many deserts\, in search of a particular oasis. \n\nHe resembled those architects found wandering the rubbled streets below their buildings as the iron\, steel a nd glass go soaring up to block out\, fill in an empty piece of the sky. H is face was that of such builders who suddenly see reared up before them o n the instant\, from horizon to horizon\, the perfect implementation of an old\, old dream. Now\, only half aware of William and Robert beside him\, the stranger spoke at last in a quiet\, an easy\, a wondrous voice\, sayi ng what he saw\, telling what he felt: \n\n\"In Xanadu ... \" \n\n\"What ?\" asked William. \n\nThe stranger half smiled\, kept his eyes on the mi rage and quietly\, from memory\, recited. \n\n\"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan \nA stately pleasure-dome decree \nWhere Alph\, the sacred river\, ran \ nThrough caverns measureless to man\, \nDown to a sunless sea.\" \n\nHis voice spelled the weather and the weather blew about the other two men and made them more still. \n\n\"So twice five miles of fertile ground \nWith walls and towers were girdled round \nAnd here were gardens bright with s inuous rills\, \nWhere blossomed many an incense-bearing tree. \nAnd her e were forests ancient as the hills\, \nEnfolding sunny spots of greenery .\" \n\nWilliam and Robert looked off at the mirage\, and what the strange r said was there\, in the golden dust\, some fabled Middle East or Far Eas t clustering of minarets\, domes\, frail towers risen up in a magnificent sift of pollen from the Gobi\, a spread of river stone baked bright by the fertile Euphrates\, Palmyra not yet ruins\, only just begun\, newly minte d\, then abandoned by the departing years\, now shimmered by heat\, now th reatening to blow away forever. \n\nThe stranger\, his face transformed\, beautified by his vision\, finished it out: \n\n\"It was a miracle of rar e device\, \nA sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice\" \n\nAnd the strang er grew silent. \n\nWhich made the silence in Bob and Will all the deeper. \n\nThe stranger fumbled with his wallet\, his eyes wet. \n\n\"Thank you \, thank you.\" \n\n\"You already paid us\,\" said William. \n\n\"If I had more\, you'd get it all.\" He gripped William's hand\, left a five dollar bill in it\, jumped into his car\, looked for a last time out at the mira ge\, then sat down\, started the car\, idled it with wonderful case at fac e glowing\, eyes peaceful\, drove away. \n\nRobert walked a few steps afte r the car\, stunned. Then William suddenly exploded\, flung his arms up\, whooped\, kicked his feet\, wheeled around. \n\n\"Hallelujah! Fat of the land! Full dinner plate! New squeaky shoes! Look at my fistfuls!\" \n\n But Robert said\, \"I don't think we should take it.\" \n\nWilliam stopp ed dancing. \"What?\" \n\nRobert looked steadily at the desert. \"We can 't ever really own it. It's way out there. Sure\, we can homestead the lan d\, but ... We don’t even know what that thing is.\" \n\n\"Why\, it's Ne w York and-\" \"Ever been to New York?\" \"Always wanted. Never did.\" \n\ n\"Always wanted\, never did.\" Robert nodded slowly. \"Same as them. You heard: Paris. Rome. London. And this last mate Xanadu. Willy\, Willy\, we got hold of something strange an big here. I'm scared we don't do right by it.\" \n\n\"Well\, we're not keeping anyone out\, are we?\"\, \"Who knows ? Might be a quarter's too much for some. It don't seem right\, a natural thing handled by unnatural rules. Look and tell me I'm wrong.\" \n\nWilli am looked. And the city was there like the first city he had seen as a boy when his mother took him on a train across a long meadow of heath early o ne morning and the city rose up head by head\, tower by tower to look at h im\, to watch him co near. It was that fresh\, that new\, that old\, that frightening\, that wonderful. \n\n\"I think\,\" said Robert\, \"we should take just enough to buy gas for a week\, put the rest of the money in the first poor-box we come to. That mirage is a clear river running\, and peo ple coming by thirsty. If we're wise\, we dip one cup\, drink it cool in t he heat of the day and go. If we stop\, build dams\, try to own the whole river ...\" \n\nWilliam\, peering out through the whispering dust wind\, t ried to relax\, accept. \"If you say so.\" \n\n\"I don't. The wilderness a ll around says.\" \n\n\"Well\, I say different!\" \n\nBoth men jumped and spun about. Half up the slope stood a motorcycle. Sitting it\, rainbowed with oil\, eyes goggled\, grease masking his stubbly cheeks\, was a man of familiar arrogance and free-running contempt. \n\n\"Ned Hopper!\" \n\n Ned Hopper smiled his most evilly benevolent smile\, unbraked the cycle an d glided the rest of the way down to halt by his old friends. \"You----\,' said Robert. \n\n\"Me! Me! Me!\" Ned Hopper honked his cycle horn four times\, laughing loud\, head back. \"Me!\" \n\n\"Shut up!\" cried Robert. \"Bust it like a mirror.\" \n\n\"Bust what like a mirror?\" William\, cat ching Robert's concern\, glanced apprehensively out beyond at the desert. \n\nThe mirage flurried\, trembled\, misted away\, then hung itself like a tapestry once more on the air. \n\n\"Nothing out there! What you guys up to?\" Ned peered down at the treadmarked earth. \"I was twenty miles on t oday when I realized you boys was hiding back behind. Says to myself\, tha t ain't like my buddies who led me to that goldmine in forty-seven\, lent me this cycle with a dice roll in fifty-five. All those years we help each other and now you got secrets from friend Ned. So I come back. Been up on that hill half the day\, spying.\" Ned lifted binoculars from his greasy jacket front. \"You know I can read lips. Sure!\" Saw all the cars run i n here\, the cash. Quite a show you’re running!\" \n\n\"Keep your voice down\,\" warned Robert. \"So long.\" \n\nNed smiled sweetly. \"Sorry to se e you go. But I surely do respect your getting off my property.\" \n\n\"Yo urs!\" Robert and William caught themselves and said in a trembling whispe r\, \"Yours?\" \n\nNed laughed. \"When I saw what you was up to\, I just c ycled into Phoenix. See this little bitty governmen’ paper sticking out my back pocket?\" \n\nThe paper was there\, neatly folded. \n\nWilliam put out his hand. \"Don't give him the pleasure\,\" said Robert. \n\nWilliam pulled his hand back. \"You want us to believe you filed a homestead claim ?\" \n\nNed shut up the smile inside his eyes. \"I do. I don't. Even if I was lying\, I could still make Phoenix on my bike quicker'n your jalopy.\" \n\nNed surveyed the land with his binoculars. \"So just put down all the money you earned from two this afternoon\, when I filed my claim\, from \ nwhich time on you was trespassing my land.\" \n\nRobert flung the coins i nto the dust. Ned Hopper glanced casually at the bright litter. \"The U.S. Government Mind. Hot dog\, nothing out there\, but dumb bunnies willing t o pay for it!\" \n\nRobert turned slowly to look at the desert. \"You do n't see nothing?\" \n\nNed snorted. \"Nothing\, and you know it!\" \n\n\ "But we do!\"\" cried William. \"We--\" \"William\,\" said Robert. \"But\, Bob!\" \n\n\"Nothing out there. Like he said.\" More cars were driving u p now in a great thrum of engines. \"Excuse\, gents\, got to mind the box office!\" \n\nNed strode off\, waving. \"Yes\, sir\, ma'am! This way! Cas h in advance!\" \n\n\"Why?\" William watched Ned Hopper run off yelling. \"Why are we letting him do this?\" \n\n\"Wait\,\" said Robert\, almost se renely. \"You'll see.\" \n\nThey got out of the way as a Ford\, a Buick an d an ancient Moon motored in. \n\nTwilight. On a hill about two hundred ya rds above the Mysterious City Mirage viewpoint\, William Bantlin and Rober t Greenhill fried and picked at a small supper\, hardly bacon\, mostly bea ns. From time to time\, Robert used some battered opera glasses on the sce ne below. \n\n\"Had thirty customers since we left this afternoon\,\" he observed. \"Got to shut down soon\, though. Only ten minutes of sun left.\ " \n\nWilliam stared at a single bean on the end of his fork. \"Tell me ag ain: Why? Why every time our luck is good\, Ned Hopper jumps out of the \ nearth.\" \n\nRobert sighed on the opera-glass lenses and wiped them on hi s cuff. \n\n\"Because\, friend Will\, we are the pure in heart. We shine w ith a light. And the villains of the world\, they see that light beyond th e hills and say\, \"Why\, now\, there's some innocent\, some sweet all-day sucker.\" And the villains come to warm their hands at us. I don't know what we can do about it\, except maybe put out the light.\" \n\n\"I wouldn 't want to do that.\" William brooded gently\, his palms to the fire. \"It 's just I was hoping this time was comeuppance time. A man like Ned Hopper \, living his white underbelly life\, ain't he about due for a bolt of lig htning?\" \n\n\"Due?\" Robert screwed the opera glasses tighter into his e yes. \"Why\, it just struck! Oh\, ye of little faith!\" William jumped u p beside him. They shared the glasses\, one lens each\, peering down. \"Lo ok!\" And William\, looking\, cried\, \"Peduncle Q. Mackinaw!\" \n\n\"Als o\, Gullable M. Crackers!\" \n\nFor\, far below\, Ned Hopper was stompin g around outside a car. People gesticulated at him. He handed them some mo ney. The car drove off. Faintly you could hear Ned's anguished cries. \n\n William gasped. \"He's giving money back! Now he almost hit that man ther e. The man shook his fist at him! Ned’s paid him back\, too! Look more fond farewells!\" \n\n\"Yah-hee!\" whooped Robert\, happy with his half of the glasses. Below\, all the cars were dusting away now. Old Ned did a vi olent kicking dance\, threw his goggles into the dust\, tore down the sign \, let forth a terrible oath. \n\n\"Dear me\,\" mused Robert. \"I'm glad I can't hear them words. Come on\, Willy!\" \n\nAs William Bantlin and Ro bert Greenhill drove back up to the Mysterious City turn-off\, Ned Hopper rocketed out in a screaming fury. \n\nBraying\, roaring on his cycle\, he hurled the painted cardboard through the air. The sign whistled up\, a boo merang. \n\nIt hissed\, narrowly missing Bob. Long after Ned was gone in his banging thunder\, the sign sank down and lay on the earth\, where Will iam picked \nit up and brushed it off. \n\nIt was twilight indeed now and the sun touching the far hills and the land quiet and hushed and Ned Hoppe r gone away\, and the two men alone in the abandoned territory in the thou sand-treaded dust\, looking out at the sand and the strange air. \n\n\"Oh\ , no...\" \n\n\"Yes\,\" said Robert. \n\nThe desert was empty in the pink -gold light of the set ting sun. The mirage was gone. A few dust devils wh irled and fell apart\, way out on the horizon\, but that was all. \n\nWill iam let out a huge groan of bereavement. \"He did it! Ned! Ned Hopper\, c ome back\, you! Oh\, damn it\, Ned\, you spoiled it all! Blast you to pe rdition!\" He stopped. \"Bob\, how can you stand there!\" \n\nRobert smil ed sadly. \"Right now I'm feeling sorry for Ned Hopper. He never saw what we saw. He never saw what anybody saw. He never believed for one second. A nd you know what? Disbelief is catching. It rubs off on people.\" \n\nWil liam searched the disinhabited land. \"Is that what happened?\" \n\n\"Who knows?\" Robert shook his head. \"One thing sure: when folks drove in here \, the city\, the cities\, the mirage\, whatever\, was there. But it's awf ul hard to see when people stand in your way. Without so much as moving\, Ned Hopper put his big hand across the sun. First thing you know\, theater 's closed for good.\" \n\n\"Can't we--\" William hesitated. \"Can't we ope n it up again?\" \n\n\"How? How do you bring a thing like that back?\" \n \nThey let their eyes play over the sand\, the hills\, the few long clouds \, the sky emptied of wind and very still. \"Maybe if we just look out the sides of our eyes\, not direct at it\, relax\, take it easy...\" \n\nThey both looked down at their shoes\, their hands\, the rocks at their feet\, anything. But at last William mourned\, \"Are we? Are we the pure in hea rt?\" \n\nRobert laughed just a little bit. \"Oh\, not like the kids who c ame through here today and saw anything they wanted to see\, and not like the big simple people born in the wheat fields and by God's grace wanderin g the world and will never grow up. We're neither the little children nor the big children of the world\, Willy\, but we are one thing: glad to be a live. We know the air mornings on the road\, how the stars go up and then down the sky. That villain\, he stopped being glad a long time ago. I hat e to think of him driving his cycle on the road the rest of the night\, th e rest of the year.\" \n\nAs he finished this\, Robert noticed that Willia m was sliding his eyes carefully to one side\, toward the desert. \n\nRobe rt whispered carefully\, \"See anything?\" \n\nA single car came down th e highway. The two men glanced at each other. A wild look of hope flashed in their eyes. But they could not quite bring themselves to fling up their hands and yell. They simply stood with the painted sign held in their arm s. \n\nThe car roared by. The two men followed it with their wistful eyes. \n\nThe car braked. It backed up. In it were a man\, a woman\, a boy\, a girl. \n\nThe man called out\, \"You closed for the night?\" William said\ , \"It's no use--\" Robert cut in \"He means\, no use giving us money! Las t customer of the day\, and family\, free! On the house!\" \"Thank you\, neighbor\, thank you!\" \n\nThe car roared out onto the viewpoint. William seized Robert's elbow. \n\n\"Bob\, what offs you? Disappoint those kids\ , that nice family?\" \"Hush up\,\" said Robert gently. \"Come on.\" \n\nT he kids piled out of the car. The man and his wife climbed slowly out into the sunset. The sky was gold and blue now\, and a bird sang somewhere in the fields of send and bon-pollen. \"Watch\,\" said Robert. \n\nAnd they m oved up to stand behind the family where it was lined up now to look out o ver the desert. \n\nWilliam held his breath. The man and wife squinted int o the twilight uneasily. The kids said nothing. Their eyes flexed and fill ed with a distillation of late sunlight. \n\nWilliam cleared his throat\, \"It's late. Uh--can't see too--\" The man was going to reply\, when the b oy said\, \"Oh\, we can see fine!\" \n\n\"Sure!\" The girl pointed. \"Ther e!\" The mother and father followed her gesture\, as if it might help\, an d it did. \n\n\"Lord\,\" said the woman\, \"for a moment I thought ... But now.. Yes\, there it is!\" The man read his wife's face\, saw a thing the re\, borrowed it and placed it on the land and in the air. \n\n\"Yes\,\" h e said\, at last \"Oh\, yes.\" William stared at them\, at the desert and then at Robert\, who smiled and nodded. \n\nThe faces of the father\, the mother\, the daughter\, the son were glowing now\, looking off at the des ert. \"Oh\,\" murmured the girl\, \"is it really there?\" \n\nAnd the fath er nodded\, his face bright with what he saw that was just within seeing a nd just beyond knowing. He spoke as if he stood alone in a great forest ch urch. \"Yes. And\, Lord\, it's beautiful.\" \n\nWilliam started to lift hi s head\, but Robert whispered\, \"Easy. It's coming. Don’t try. Easy\, W ill.\" And then William knew what to do. \n\n\"I..\" he said\, \"I am goi ng to go stand with the kids.\" \n\nAnd he walked slowly over and stood right behind the boy and the girl. \n\nHe stood for a long time there\, li ke a man between two warm fires on a cool evening\, and they warmed him an d he breathed easy and at last let his eyes drift up\, let his attention w ander easy out toward the twilight desert and the hoped-for city in the du sk. \n\nAnd there in the dust softly blown high from the land\, reassemble d on the wind into half-shapes of towers and spires and minarets\, was the mirage. \n\nHe felt Robert's breath on his neck\, close\, whispering\, ha lf talking to himself. \n\n\"It was a miracle of rare device\, \nA sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice \n\nAnd the city was there. And the sun se t and the first stars came out. \n\nAnd the city was very clear\, as Willi am heard himself repeat\, aloud or perhaps for only his secret pleasure\, \"It was a miracle of rare device...\" \n\nAnd they stood in the dark unti l they could not see. \n\n1962 \n\nThe end \n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n Video fro m the show\n\n https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkNGJiNkKJY\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\ n Kublai khan from Samuel Taylor Coleridge\n\n\n\n Kubla Khan\n\nBy Samuel Taylor Coleridge\nOr\, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.\n\nIn Xanadu did Kubla Khan\nA stately pleasure-dome decree:\nWhere Alph\, the sacred river \, ran\nThrough caverns measureless to man\n Down to a sunless sea.\nSo twice five miles of fertile ground\nWith walls and towers were girdled rou nd\;\nAnd there were gardens bright with sinuous rills\,\nWhere blossomed many an incense-bearing tree\;\nAnd here were forests ancient as the hills \,\nEnfolding sunny spots of greenery.\n\nBut oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted\nDown the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!\nA savage plac e! as holy and enchanted\nAs e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted\nBy woman wailing for her demon-lover!\nAnd from this chasm\, with ceaseless t urmoil seething\,\nAs if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing\,\n A mighty fountain momently was forced:\nAmid whose swift half-intermitted burst\nHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail\,\nOr chaffy grain bene ath the thresher’s flail:\nAnd mid these dancing rocks at once and ever\ nIt flung up momently the sacred river.\nFive miles meandering with a mazy motion\nThrough wood and dale the sacred river ran\,\nThen reached the ca verns measureless to man\,\nAnd sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean\;\nAnd ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far\nAncestral voices prophesying war! \n The shadow of the dome of pleasure\n Floated midway on the waves\;\ n Where was heard the mingled measure\n From the fountain and the cave s.\nIt was a miracle of rare device\,\nA sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!\n\n A damsel with a dulcimer\n In a vision once I saw:\n It wa s an Abyssinian maid\n And on her dulcimer she played\,\n Singing of M ount Abora.\n Could I revive within me\n Her symphony and song\,\n T o such a deep delight ’twould win me\,\nThat with music loud and long\,\ nI would build that dome in air\,\nThat sunny dome! those caves of ice!\nA nd all who heard should see them there\,\nAnd all should cry\, Beware! Bew are!\nHis flashing eyes\, his floating hair!\nWeave a circle round him thr ice\,\nAnd close your eyes with holy dread\nFor he on honey-dew hath fed\, \nAnd drunk the milk of Paradise.\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n 4. What is your fav orite literary description of a landscape in any poetic style\, songs are poetry? \n\n I admit I wish I knew better but America the beautiful from katharine lee bates is a really good one. \n\n for those who may not know \n\n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\ n 5. A two part question\, first\, you can only pick one work of yours for the future to know about\, now pick the work\, please please link or stat e it\, Second name the person [thespian/elected official/ someone you know personally/ or other] you want to describe the work in audio recordings?  \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n 6. Name a landscape artists you adore\, adore define d as inspired you as a landscape artist\,  that is the least known\, can be alive or dead\, or from before the 1900s or on deviantart?\n\n\n\n  \n \n\n\n https://www.deviantart.com/bisbiswas/art/Sacred-Dragon-751336918\n\ n \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n COMMENT REFERRAL\n\n https://www.deviantart.com/comm ents/1/1236705071/5233061725\n\n\n\n \n\n  \n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250905 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR