Arts
Strange serendipity
Aug 14th
We’re driving to Atlanta tomorrow to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. The following photo was taken at a birthday party for that daughter, when she was about three years old. I don’t remember the boy, but he probably was a pre-school classmate of our daughter’s.
But here’s the major serendipity. First, the child’s “zombie” looking eyes. All I did was scan a close to 40 year old slide. Granted, it was back-lit and consequently the main subject was underexposed. I did compensate for that, I admit, which may have combined with “red-eye” to create the gray effect. Point is, that I didn’t deliberately create it.
Second, the ceramic Buddha behind the child’s head. Having retired, I’m in process of cleaning up the parts of our house that my boss allows me to mess with. While working on that today, I barely saved that Buddha from falling and being shattered.
My grandmother painted that plaster-of-paris ceramic and had it glazed at a craft shop when I was a little boy. Is it great art? Not by the usual standards. But I have very few mementos of my grandmother (who at times was a surrogate mother), and that ceramic means a great deal to me. Strange then, to have saved it this morning and then seen it this afternoon in sharp color and focus … the head of the innocent boy with zombie-looking eyes.
Hold on, though, as the late Ron Popeil or Billy Mays would say, “Wait! There’s more.”
While working with graphics or routine housekeeping on my computer, I often listen to documentaries on the television or to audiobooks. This morning, before saving that ceramic Buddha, I had listened carefully and for a third time to a lecture comparing the ethics of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism. (Random order by choice.)
Billo instructs men on honor and responsibility
Aug 11th
I found this on Huff-Po, and wrote the following response. Because it was Huff-Po I reined in my impulses!
Billo was married and a father at the time he lost his infamous sexual harassment suit to a Fox producer he had been pursuing. In this video segment he presumes to tell other husbands/ consorts/ fathers how a “real man” behaves. Sorry, Billo. You are totally unqualified to preach morality about marriage, fatherhood, or honoring vows and responsibilities.
The one I’m worried about is Margaret Hoover. Much of what she says is intelligent, compassionate, and rational. Most places that would be great. At Fox it has to be career-threatening.
Ms Hoover, you have to learn to play the “Fox Babe” game. Regardless of what the Pox Alpha Male says, bat your eyelashes, resist for a moment if honor demands … but then yield with maidenly lowering of eyes and batting of eyelashes, looking up finally with embarrassment, a flush of surrender suffusing your face.
Recommended book
Aug 11th
Douglas Perry, The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired Chicago (Viking, 2010).
Here’s how the pros describe it:From Publishers Weekly
This jaunty retrospective of two Jazz Age trials introduces us to the real-life originals of the killer ladies of the musical Chicago—and to the society that adored them. Journalist Perry (The Sixteenth Minute: Life in the Aftermath of Fame) revisits the 1924 cases of Belva Gaertner, a swanky divorcée, and Beulah Annan, a beautiful married woman, both accused of shooting their lovers to death. They were the most photogenic on Cook County jail’s Murderess’ Row of defendants in a spate of woman-on-man killings that inflamed the press and captivated a public grown bored with gangland murders. (Perry’s third heroine is skeptical female reporter Maurine Watkins, who bemoaned the inability of all-male Chicago juries to convict killers with pretty faces.) The author gives an entertaining, wised-up rundown of the cases and the surrounding media hoopla, which the defendants and their lawyers cannily manipulated. (Annan hired a fashion consultant for court appearances and falsely declared herself pregnant to win sympathy.) Beneath the sensationalism, Perry finds anxieties about changing sex roles as feisty flappers and aggressive career women barged into public consciousness; his savvy, flamboyant social history illuminates a dawning age of celebrity culture. Photos. (Aug. 9)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Doug—
Sorry for the delayed response. Life got complicated. Anyhoo, I finished the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not sure where I’d catalog it in my library: Historical novel? “New Journalism” (a la In Cold Blood)? Regardless, solidly researched and documented, with direct quotes to anchor in reality imagined reflection and dialogue.
And, above all, very well written. I’m tempted to say that in your narrative voice you’ve almost become a period crime-beat reporter. And, yes, occasionally naughty. For example, I loved your comment about the baked clay look of the equestrienne’s tookus and thighs. Reminded me of one of Boucher’s paintings of a Louis XV mistress: say this one:
(Diderot absolutely hated this painting, considering it pornographic. The model is thought to be Boucher’s own wife, and Diderot claimed Boucher was prostituting her.)Glad to have learned about you and your work, Doug. I’m expecting great things of you.
—wayne
Support for Anne Feeney
Aug 8th
Singer-songwriter Anne Feeney has had to interrupt her touring plans temporarily in order to deal with a tumor in her lung. She’s a terrific lady, and an indefatigable supporter of organized labor; of workers, organized or not; and of progressive values and causes in general.
Anne’s friends and family have set her up on Caring Bridge . That’s good. Basically Caring Bridge is a positive organization. But the instructions are tricky. It’s good to contribute to Anne to help her with medical expenses. It’s OK to contribute to Caring Bridge to support their program. But make sure you know where your money is going.
Until I get clarification, I’m going to recommend that if you want to send Anne a message, find links or purchase her music, do it here:
If you want to contribute to Anne’s medical expenses, follow these instructions: “Send donations through PayPal or by clicking on the Donate button at her blogsite.” I plan to do so. Anne is not a wealthy rock star. She’s a hard-working singer-songwriter committed to working men and women, and to promoting positive values.
The following is a digital tribute I created for Anne, inspired by her cover of the song Dump the Bosses Off Your Backs. Listen to her music, and you’ll know what she’s about. Wonderful lady.
Republican seamanship
Aug 1st
In two recent interviews Alan Greenspan—yes! THAT Alan Greenspan!—has said on national television that the Republican plan to continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest fraction of Americans would be “disastrous.”
Sam Stein wrote about it on Huffington-Post :
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the push by congressional Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the costs elsewhere could end up being “disastrous” for the economy.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Greenspan expressed his disagreement with the conservative argument that tax cuts essentially pay for themselves by generating revenue and productivity among recipients.
“They do not,” said Greenspan.
I couldn’t help thinking of a Stephen Crane poem (as I often do). My apologies for the alterations, Mr. Crane:
The founders of the nation
fashioned the ship of democracy carefully.
With the infinite skill of an All-Master
Made they the hull and the sails,
Held they the rudder
Ready for adjustment.
Erect stood they, scanning their work proudly.
Then — at fateful time — shameful civic discord arose,
And the founders turned, heeding.
Lo, the ship, at this opportunity, slipped slyly,
Making cunning noiseless travel down the ways.
So that, forever rudderless, it went upon the seas
Going ridiculous voyages,
Making quaint progress,
Turning as with serious purpose
Before stupid winds.
Meanwhile Republicans on the ship began to pass the opium pipe.
Heedless of the looming rocks,
they dreamed of free lunch, voodoo economics,
huffing and puffing and seeing our enemies cower.
And there were many among our enemies
Who laughed at this thing.
