Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[lukeottevanger]

No, you don't. What every guy sees first in that picture is, of course, a t-i-t, nothing else.

Hadn't even occurred to me, but then, in context, coming from the brush of this boy - and look at that enlightened visage, btw - it wasn't likely to. I suppose, though, that in a deeper sense the female breast is indeed the centre and fount of existence, the spiritual home of the childlike Self, so maybe you have a point here .... 

[karlhenning]

A charmer!

[karlhenning]

Is your in-box prepared for inundation, Luke?

[lukeottevanger]

PMs made need a little clearout, but if you mean my hotmail account, then please fire away!

[karlhenning]

Hotmail ahoy!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Hadn't even occurred to me, but then, in context, coming from the brush of this boy - and look at that enlightened visage, btw - it wasn't likely to. I suppose, though, that in a deeper sense the female breast is indeed the centre and fount of existence, the spiritual home of the childlike Self, so maybe you have a point here .... 

Lovely boy. I could be seeing things, but is there something Slavonic in his traits? Does he, for example, look like someone on the Czech side of your family?

[Guido]

Like the new avatar. What was the old one?

[karlhenning]

Some mountain or other.

[lukeottevanger]

Lovely boy. I could be seeing things, but is there something Slavonic in his traits? Does he, for example, look like someone on the Czech side of your family?

No. He doesn't look like anyone else in the family, IMO. Though some say he looks a bit like me, where my daughter looks quite a lot like my wife. The latter is true, but I find it hard to see the former. In fact I'm not sure Felix is related to anyone. I think he just self-germinated, parthenogenetically.  It would explain a lot....

However, he's the funkiest, most adorable little boy you'll ever meet, like a wind-up bath toy (says his swimming teacher) or like a cartoon character which has escaped into real life (complete with feet that run frantically on the spot before his body moves off; he even provides his own Batman-like KAPOW!! sound effects to punctuate everyday conversation - 'Daddy, are we going to .....SHAZAMM!!! - Tesco!?')

[lukeottevanger]

What was your old avatar anyways?

Like the new avatar. What was the old one?

Was it that intruiging? I loved it, and might well swap back at some point. It's a thangka of a Tibetan mountain which has obsessed me, for a variety of reasons, for quite a few years (I have a whole shelf of books devoted to it at home, and a folder on the PC groaning with thousands of photos and films of it  ). The mountain is a 6000+ metre peak called Kailash, and it's an extreme place in all respects - the most holy place on earth by some measures (as it's sacred to no less than four religions); the most inaccessible and the highest major place of pilgrimage; part of a sacred landscape which also includes the highest large lake in the world, a place equally sacred; traditionally it's also seen as the source of four of the continent's major rivers. It's a stunningly beautiful place whose geography is characterised in all sorts of ways by unearthly symmetries and resemblances - maybe I'll share my most striking photos with you at some point (if you do a Google search you'll likely come up with some good ones, but patient delving unearths the real treasures IMO) - and every square inch of it is redolent with religious, spiritual or mythical connotations. I've visited it so many times in my thoughts and through countless photos of even the least inspiring parts that I feel I now know most stretches of the long circumabulation 'kora' circuit which the pilgrim undergoes, sometimes prostrating the whole way round, through snow, rock, ice, up steep gradients at extreme altitudes. Climbing the mountain, naturally, is forbidden, though at one or two places off the main circuit the most intrepid vistor can get close enough to touch the mountain wall.

All that just makes the very thought of the place hum with powerful resonances, but as I'm not really a religious person I was always somewhat mystified as to what it is about this place that enthralls me so much. At some point I realised that the roots of this obsession, though not easy to define quickly are something to do with the more archetypal qualities of Kailash - shape, symmetry, scale, symbolism - that chime perfectly with some of my more philosophical, psychological and omphaloskeptic concerns.

The second part of my orchestral piece is written very much and very specifically with Kailash in mind, even though it's resolutely not important that anyone else is aware of that fact. I'm sure I'll be talking more about that nearer the time, if anyone can bear to read any more of this tosh! 

Perhaps you can see why I always quietly left unanswered previous questions about my avatar - not something I can easily mention just as an aside, even though it may not seem terrifically interesting to anyone else.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

No. He doesn't look like anyone else in the family, IMO. Though some say he looks a bit like me, where my daughter looks quite a lot like my wife. The latter is true, but I find it hard to see the former. In fact I'm not sure Felix is related to anyone. I think he just self-germinated, parthenogenetically.  It would explain a lot....

However, he's the funkiest, most adorable little boy you'll ever meet, like a wind-up bath toy (says his swimming teacher) or like a cartoon character which has escaped into real life (complete with feet that run frantically on the spot before his body moves off; he even provides his own Batman-like KAPOW!! sound effects to punctuate everyday conversation - 'Daddy, are we going to .....SHAZAMM!!! - Tesco!?')

[karlhenning]

Thank you for all that, Luke.

I meant no disrespect, BTW:

Some mountain or other.

But, I think you would take it in the right spirit.

[lukeottevanger]

Thank you for all that, Luke.

I meant no disrespect, BTW:

But, I think you would take it in the right spirit.

Yes, of course! I hope and expect everyone else finds my peculiar interest in this thing as ridiculous as it clearly is.

[karlhenning]

Yes, of course! I hope and expect everyone else findspeculiar interest in this thing as ridiculous as it clearly is.

You're offering that as ridiculous?

Clearly, mon ami, you don't know from ridiculous! 

[lukeottevanger]

For those interested...


I'm not at home, so I can't get to my folder of Kailash photos, but here are some pretty classic views which actually did crop up on page one of a Google image search! Some of these are among the images most often lifted for use on pages which mention Kailash, so they are pretty well-known.


From the south-west, the Kailash range rises suddenly out of the Tibetan plain:


And similarly from the south, here by Chiu Gompa (monastery) on the shores of Lake Manasarovar


North face, one day into the kora. Not the best photo around, this....


And again...



One of the most famous shots of Kailash, but a rare viewpoint, from above the Inner or Nandi parikrama (=kora). We see the 'Arhat' or Nandi rock (Nandi is Shiva's bull) which kneels before Shiva's mountain (for Hindus Kailash is the abode of Shiva and Parvati). The inner kora is reserved for those who've done the outer one 13 times (except in the year of the horse, when you only need to have done the outer one once  ) and it's actually pretty dangerous and terrifying by all accounts. It takes you right under the sheer face of the mountain, from where falling (atmalinga) rocks rain down upon you (a gift of the gods!).


This photo of Kailash's south face is taken from the beginning of the inner kora route, as you can see. The triangular shape you see rising at the foot of the mountain is the high point of the inner kora – IIRC it's the highest point you can reach around the mountain, including the more famous Dolma La high point of the outer kora

Well, you get the gist.

[karlhenning]

Stunning.

[lukeottevanger]

Felix now tells me, mischievously, that his picture is actually an aerial view of a bonfire with a circle of sticks lying around it. I get the feeling he just made that up....

[karlhenning]

Felix now tells me, mischievously, that his picture is actually an aerial view of a bonfire with a circle of sticks lying around it. I get the feeling he just made that up....

We like a creative lad what thinks on his feet.

[lukeottevanger]

It's obvious, though, isn't it, now he's said?

[M forever]

No. He doesn't look like anyone else in the family, IMO.

Does he look like the mailman?