Hunter’s Moon (Over The Weisman), Minneapolis, Minnesota,
October 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights
reserved.
I watched October’s moon all month long. The Full Hunter’s Moon rose over the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art after a soft rain. The museum winds upward along the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. That night we were there to see a one of a kind video performance by R. Luke DuBois, along with his exhibit Hindsight is Always 20/20 .
The Weisman, designed by acclaimed architect Frank O. Gehry, spirals high above the Mississippi River. Moonlight reflects off her curves, and the city beams in ripples that echo off sweeping balconies. Every time I see the building, I think of Sydney Pollack’s Sketches of Frank Gehry and the way the two men were playful, yet articulate, when they bantered back and forth about their craft; they each shot for the moon.
Last night, while Liz was finishing up last minute details on Rendering & Return, an Intermedia video performance she created and will be showing this weekend, I grabbed The Synonym Finder she had just put down on the couch, and looked up the word moonstruck. That led to another word, and another, until I was knee-deep in moons.
I learned about The Synonym Finder from Natalie at one of her workshops. We are the proud owners of two. It was compiled by Jerome Irving (J.I.) Rodale in 1978 and contains more than 1,500,000 words on 1,376 pages.
It might weigh in at over 5 pounds, but writers — don’t leave home without it.
I’m tired tonight and only have enough steam for a short post. Circling back to moonwriting, these are a few expressions I have run into in my research, words and phrases to describe the October moon:
Falling Leaves Moon
White Frost On The Grass & Ground Moon
Moon When The Water Begins To Freeze On The Edge Of The Streams
Moon When The Birds Fly South
Leaves Change Color Moon
Bears Hibernate Moon
Month of Long Hair
Moon When The Wind Shakes Off The Leaves
Month of the First Frost
Wilted Moon
Rutting Moon
Hunter’s Moon
Travels In Canoe Moon
Big Wind Moon
Ripples, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis,
Minnesota, October 2008, photo © 2008 by
QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
And from The Synonym Finder, letters moonlighting as words help to explain Autumn’s 10th Moon; October’s waning splendor; the November Full Moon I discovered a moment ago, rising behind me over the oaks.
moon n. 1. satellite, secondary planet, celestial body, Archaic. lamp.
2. new moon, increscent moon, waxing moon, decrescent moon, waning moon, old moon; crescent, lune, meniscus, half-moon, demilune; full moon, hunter’s moon, harvest moon; disk, orb, sphere, globe, ball.
3. month, lunation, lunar month
4. once upon a blue moon rarely, seldom, not very often, hardly ever.
__v. 5. Informal. daydream, dream, fantasize, imagine, indulge in reverie, gaze or look out the window, stargaze, go off into one’s own world; mope, pine, languish, brook; fret, sulk, pout.
6. Informal. (all of time) waste, squander, fritter, spend idly, pass, Sl. blow.
moonlight, n. 1. moonshine, Fr. clair de lune, moonbeams, Fr. rayons de lune.
___v. 2. Informal. work two jobs, work nights.
moon-shaped, adj. crescent, crescentic, crescent-shaped, demilune, half-moon, meniscoid; lunate, lunar, lunular, lunulate, luniform; sickle-shaped, falcate, faliform, bicorn; semiglobular, hemispheric; curved, bow-shaped, convexo-concave, semicircular.
moonshine, n. 1. U.S. Informal. U.S. bootleg, Sl. hootch, smuggled or contraband whiskey, Fr. alcool de contraband; homemade whiskey, corn whiskey.
2. moonlight, Fr. clair de lune, moonbeams, Fr. rayons de lune.
3. nonsense, Sl. hot air, humbug, claptrap, rodomontade, fustian, bombast, rant; idle or foolish talk, Inf. gab, Sl. gas, palaver, chatter, chit-chat, jabber, prate; jargon, gobbledegook, Jabberwocky, gibberish, babble, Fr. bavardage, twaddle, Brit. twattle, blather, drivel; foam, froth, bunkum, Sl. bunk, U.S. Sl. blah; flummery, Inf. hokum, Sl. applesauce, Sl. eyewash; rubbish, Sl. tripe, refuse, Dial. culch, chaff, trash, Inf. garbage, Sl. crap, Sl. crock, Sl. bull; balder-dash, Sl. horsefeathers, hogwash, stuff, stuff and nonsense, Inf. bosh, Brit. Inf. gammon, Brit. Sl. tosh, fudge, foolishness, folly, rigmarole, amphigory; footle, Inf. malarkey, Sl. bushwa, Sl. baloney, Sl. bilge or bilge water, Sl. meshugaas, Scot. and North Eng. haver; poppycock, Inf. fiddle-faddle, Inf. piffle, Inf. hooey, Inf. kibosh, Inf. flapdoodle.
moon-struck adj. 1. crazed, crazy, mad, maddened, lunatic, lunatical, insane, demented, deranged, dazed, moon-stricken, possessed, infatuated; of unsound mind, Latin non compos mentis, mentally ill, daft, Inf. daffy, unbalanced, touched. Inf. unglued. Inf. half-baked, Brit. Sl. bonkers. Brit Sl. barmy, unhinged, distracted; brainsick, Sl. kooky, Sl. meshuga; U.S. Sl. balmy, dippy, batty, bats, cuckoo, buggy, bughouse, bugs, screwy, wacky, wacko, goofy, loony, squirrely, bananas, nuts, nutty, nutty as a fruitcake.
2. out of one’s head or mind or senses or wits. Scot. redwood, Sl. loco, mad as a hatter, mad as a March hare, far-gone, stark raving mad; not all there, not quite right, not right upstairs; Inf. out in left field, Sl. in outer space, Sl. in orbit, Inf. off the wall; Inf. Cracked, Inf. mental, Sl. off one’s rocker, Sl. out of one’s tree, Sl. off one’s trolley, Brit. Sl. off one’s chump.
3. hysterical, delirious, maniacal, madding, Archaic. wood; frantic, frenzied, frenetic; ranting, raving, storming, foaming at the mouth; beside oneself, at wit’s end; out of control, uncontrollable, corybantic, Inf. haywire, berserk, rabid, wild.
Nightlight Downtown, Weisman Art Museum,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2008, photo
© 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
-posted on red Ravine, Thursday, November 13th, 2008,
rabid and wild on the inside, in need of sleep on the outside,
basking in the light of November’s Full Moon
-related to posts: PRACTICE – September Harvest Moon – 15 min, Against The Grain (August Moon), The Many Moons Of July (Digging Deeper), winter haiku trilogy, PRACTICE – Wolf Moon – 10min
Driving home tonight from a meeting, heading east, I turned into our driveway and I could see the moon, shining through the bare tree branches, in and out of gossamer-clouds…so beautiful…here is the outcome:
bare branches reach up
black against sky, moon and clouds
soft light lets me see
Then I turned on my computer and there was your wonderful post, which I am going to have to delve into this weekend…there is so much there! Thank you for this feast; I am moonstruck!
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I love that moon photo of yours. Very mysterious. The full moon was pretty cool from here too.
Gehry is a genius QM. The Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles is one of the most breathtaking structures I’ve ever seen. They had to take the sheen down on it because when the sunlight hit at certain times of the day, it created car accidents, but it’s still quite shiny and beautiful.
Unrelated, the Disney Hall has a very famous Modern Cathedral just up the street (Our lady of the Angels) with the most magnificent tapestries by Artist John Nava. He’s from a small art community (Ojai I think) and he used all his neighbors for models and made them all into modern Saints. They made the story into a PBS documentary that’s facinating. He’s actually a painter that was commissioned but had to learn all about tapestry making when their art budget changed to something that would absorb sound within all the stone walls. He took it on and the result is amazing.
if you or any of your readers ever venture to LA, both are well worth a look…and China Town, Alvera Street, Little Tokeo and even the restaurant who invented the French dip (Phillipe’s) are a stones throw away.
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The full moon post was beautiful as was the full moon last night. I saw it on Wednesday night as I walked home down the dark street to my street. I kept looking behind me for something or someone. When I started the walk up my driveway (easier on my knees than the stairs), I saw the moon glowing over the tops of the trees in the backyard. No matter how many times I see it, the magic of it always surprises me.
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I was also strangely aware of the full moon in October, and now. Wed night I was driving home at 5:30pm, had dialed a colleague in Oregon to close on some work stuff, and I gasped outloud at the moon. Its beauty and presence is at times startling.
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When I was finishing up this post last night, I didn’t know it was the November Full Moon. It’s been cloudy a lot of the past week and I haven’t been able to see the moon. I took a break last night and saw a hugely bright light out the bedroom window — it was the Full Moon rising over the back hill. I felt instantly connected.
oliverowl, a beautiful haiku. So wonderful to hear from you, too. I miss you. This post started pretty small with just the photographs and definitions. But then I realized I wanted to give a little background and it took a wider berth. Wish you were in town to see Liz’s video. We’ll tape it but it will be a little different than being in the room. 8)
Heather, I like Gehry’s energy and outlook on life. And watching the way he works with sketches and materials is fascinating. I haven’t been to LA but once and it was a long, long time ago. I didn’t get into the city but more on the outskirts. I hope I get to see all the places you mention someday. John Nava’s work with the Saints and tapestries sounds wonderful. I’ll have to watch for the documentary. Oh, and the restaurant who invented the French dip, Phillipe’s — I’m there. I love French dips!
Bob, moon magic — YES. I feel the same way.
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ybonesy, October’s relationship between Earth and Skies seems to make anything connected to light, sun, and moon over the top glorious. It’s a month when I often feel like I’m standing in horizontal slants of cosmic light, beaming around our part of the planet.
BTW, I thought of your Words post (and linked to it) when I wrote up the items for moonstruck from The Synonym Finder. Also important to note, I only listed about 1/2 of all the words in The Synonym Finder for Moonstruck. I wanted to end on haywire, berserk, rabid, wild. 8)
When I read through all these words and phrases again, I realized that you could pick any one of them and do a Writing Practice on it. Maybe I should list this post under Writing Topics, too.
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I too agree with anuvuestudio. The photo of the moon is very mysterious, but I like it.
It’s kinda interesting to note how we are more aware of the moon in the fall than in any other season (or at least that’s what I think). Maybe it’s because the night sky is much clearer? I’m enjoying all the views of the moon these past couple of weeks myself. 🙂
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a~lotus, thank you. Yeah, I know I’m definitely more aware of the moon in the Fall. It seems lower in the sky to me this time of year. I’ve been really noticing it in November as much as October. All the leaves are gone off the trees, too, which makes it easier to spot the whole moon.
Later in the winter, we have a lot of gray days which sometimes hide the moon. But I have clear memories of it the most on the coldest days of January. Because the clearer the skies, the colder it gets in winter here.
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