| Sunday in the city |
[Jun. 8th, 2009|10:44 am] |
It was an absolutely gorgeous day - sunny but with a hint of wind so it wasn't too hot. I got up early and spent a lovely morning at SF MOMA - got there early so as to miss the crowds. I think that the Robert Frank exhibit is not particularly interesting or gutsy. I didn't see how it was supposed to reveal US racism, poverty, etc. etc etc. He liked to photograph with the emotion of the moment and there are some nice photos but they are shown out of his intended order. The book, originally published in 1955, had photos in a certain sequence and cropped in such a way so as to form a loose narrative. Well, good old SF MOMA had them up, totally out of order so that there was no sequence or emotional build up. They did have a tiny glass case with several European photographers who influenced Frank and whose work I thought was probably a lot more intense and interesting. Frank's had a fascinating career and I guess he's the flavor of the moment but the exhibit left me cold.
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| An American Hero |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|11:35 am] |
I needed to wait a while and calm down before commenting on the tragic murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kan. on Sunday. Dr. Tiller was one of the few American doctors who still perform late-term abortions. He (and his co-workers) have long been exposed to continuing violence and harassment by so-called "pro-life" advocates who oppose women's right to have an abortion. Now there is one less doctor who will perform them and scores of doctors who are frightened away from even thinking about standing up to these terrorists to provide health care for women.
I have always been disgusted by the hypocrisy of these alleged protectors of "life" who have tormented women who want to choose to have an abortion. No pregnant woman casually decides to have an abortion. It is a traumatic decision invariably based on personal tragic circumstances. And in the case of late-term abortions, these are very rarely performed and only because of critical medical factors that threaten the mother's health or the viability of the fetus. But their philosophy holds that the "life" of a piece of protoplam is sacred, even if it takes the life of the mother or forces her to give birth to a dead infant or a severely deformed one. Their real purpose is clear - control women, control them completely unto death.
I am unimpressed by the leaders of the anti-abortion organizations who have denounced Dr. Tiller's murder. It is their hysterical, extremist efforts to block a woman's right to choose to have an abortion that emboldened a fanatical crackpot like Dr. Tiller's murderer.They created an atmosphere with the hateful rhetoric that encouraged this so-called "pro-lifer" to take another man's life.
Dr. Tiller was murdered during religious services in a Christian church. It is an extraordinary irony that anti-abortionists base their opposition to abortion on their own religious beliefs.
A good organization to donate to is Medical Students For Choice (http://www.ms4c.org/). These are the future doctors that will take the place of Dr. Tiller and continue his work. They need our support, and they need to know Americans support physicians who choose to provide *comprehensive* reproductive health care, even when it's hard--and even when their lives are on the line.
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2009/05/jesuss-jihadis.html
http://octogenarian.blogspot.com/
and for a bit of history:
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| Marilyn French, RIP |
[May. 25th, 2009|11:22 am] |
I just found out that Marilyn French died this month (May 2, 2009). When I was a budding feminist, her book, The Women’s Room, “ was an important, if ultimately depressing, picture of what I thought my future would be. In some ways, she was right. In other, equally significant ways, she was wrong.
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| Immature young males |
[May. 22nd, 2009|02:58 pm] |
I'm not a Catholic but this certainly sounds right to me. For two years, I've been dealing up close and personal with two immature rich boys. They live above me and party on six nights out of seven. In between, they refuse to take out their garbage cans, clean the common space or play their "music" at a reasonable level. I see no sighs of maturity in them because they are rich, entitled, arrogant and stupid.
A rather listless and irresponsible, shallow sense of maleness pervaded the US tribe. .Life is consumed in emotionally immature, driven, acquisitive, and ultimately irresponsible behaviour.
Man and Superman with Richard Rohr
http://bishopalan.blogspot.com/2009/05/man-and-superman-with-richard-rohr.html
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| Opening Tonight |
[May. 1st, 2009|04:17 pm] |
Curated by Thacher Hurd, this is the second in a series of children's book exhibitions. This show explores the creative process in the work of six critically acclaimed illustrators: Elisa Kleven, Remy Charlip, Maira Kalman, David Macaulay, Chris Raschka and Brian Selznick.
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| Taxes |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|10:04 am] |
[EDITORIAL NOTE: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Saul Friedman (bio) writes the bi-weekly Reflections column for Time Goes By in which he comments on news, politics and social issues from his perspective as one of the younger members of the greatest generation. He also publishes a weekly column, Gray Matters, on aging for Newsday.
from the blog: As Time Goes By
Category_bug_reflections The late and unlamented foolishness called Tea Bagging for Tax Day on the ides of April, reminds me of one of the earliest lessons I learned in Washington journalism: Beware of the “cheap shot.”
But before I go further, there are a few things that need to be said in the wake of the vicious and hypocritical and dangerous stupidity of the so-called protests, things that most of my colleagues in the press may have missed. I say dangerous because most of the mob-like threats and name-calling, like “fascist,” “communist,” “socialist,” were directed at the first black President of the United States. And the fanaticism, the results of which could be unthinkable, was encouraged by appeals to lawlessness:
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| All the news that's fit to print? |
[Apr. 24th, 2009|11:02 am] |
From the blog: Paris Parfait
In recent years, the mainstream media - particularly television news - in the US has veered dangerously off course. Gone is the objectivity that's drilled into our heads in journalism school; instead, money, power, influence and politics have corrupted the news agenda. And I'm not talking only about Fox "News," which is known for its right-wing slant. I'm referring to ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, as well as Fox.
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| Heat Wave, Dead Printer and a great article |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|10:05 am] |
At least the jerks were fairly quiet today although one of them was home in the afternoon and blam blam blaming the apartment until around 5 PM. I gritted my teeth, turned my fans on high and put on my headset. One of these days I will say something about the noise during the day and during the week, not to mention the weekends but I guess I don't want to push much harder. They aren't the most considerate or responsible guys around.
My printer died on me last night. I had pushed it really hard this year with all the downloads from class and the huge printouts (40 pages was nothing). The poor thing just died from exhaustion. But I still have several assignments due so I got out early, researched via Consumer's Reports, went to Office Max, Office Depot and ended up buying a printer on sale at the Apple Store. It was a bit more but it has better features, allows me to print on several different types of paper and even scan in images. GO ME! I hailed a taxi, got a nice driver from Brazil who was gentleman enough to carry the box up to the top of the stairs instead of leaving me standing on the sidewalk as so many taxi drivers will do. Setting up anything in 88 degree heat is not fun but I persisted, got it up and running and was able to print out my notes and paper for tomorrow.
GO ME!
A Nasty Little Credit Card Surprise - from the blog: As Time Goes By ...
UPDATE: From The Washington Post this morning:
"The heads of the credit card divisions at 14 major banks are set to meet with the president and his top economic officials at the White House on Thursday, administration aides confirmed yesterday. They are bracing for a warning that the president will join the chorus of condemnation if they resist efforts to protect their credit card customers from unfair practices."
Read more here under the headline, "Card Issuers Brace for Stern Warning."
Crabby Old Lady never carries a balance on her credit cards. They are paid off each month except in extraordinary circumstances.
Ollie the cat's veterinary care for a life-threatening condition over Thanksgiving weekend was one of those extraordinary circumstances - thousands of dollars. Last month, Crabby finally paid the remainder on her Citi credit card - $310.43.
This last payment was made before the due date and Crabby has not used that credit card since Ollie's illness, so she was surprised Saturday morning when an electronic bill from Citi arrived. The balance should be zero and therefore no statement, but to her astonishment, there was a charge for $3.06.
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| Damn Big Spider leaves SF |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|06:26 pm] |
Luis R. Cancel, Director of Cultural Affairs of the San Francisco Arts Commission, announces the removal of Louise Bourgeois’ sculpture, Crouching Spider. On loan to the City since November 2007, the 2 ½ ton monumental bronze arachnid has enjoyed pride of place at the Embarcadero’s Entry Plaza at Pier 14. Louise Bourgeois, at 97, is considered to be one of the world’s most important and influential living artists. The sculpture, which was originally cast in 2003 from the artist’s famous Spider series, was made specifically for display in San Francisco. So, if you've got the energy in this heat, go down to the Embarcadero for one last look.
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| Kindle |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|07:23 pm] |
I do not own a Kindle, and right now I'm grateful, because it seems that Amazon reserves the right to cancel your Kindle account at its discretion. As this blog points out, it underlines the fact that when you "buy" an electronic copy of something, you actually own... the right to read it. And that's all you have. I had no idea that you didn't own the books you'd purchases or that Amazon (or any company for that matter) would do something like this. Sometimes I do feel like a Ludite, looking with suspicion on new technology. But sometimes, being suspicious and cynical protects you from being ripped off. I remember when the first art DVD's came out; I bought several of time and they were expensive at the time. Well, now that various OS have moved on, I have to keep the old System 9 on my external HD in order to read them. Plus, the one with the Barnes Collection - the most expensive one of the lot - won't allow me to save to disc, copy, print or do anything but view the images.
Give me a book any day of the week. That format has been around for 500 years - speaks well for the design.
http://consumerist.com/5213774/amazon-can-ban-you-from-your-kindle-account-whenever-it-likes
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| Selling art on the streets |
[Apr. 16th, 2009|10:39 am] |
If you like chatting up the casual passer by, have somebody to relieve you when you go on breaks and the weather is nice - then, it's fun and a way to make connections and some money. I am always in favor of bypassing the galleries who take huge cuts and don't do much to promote unknown artists (that's assuming you can get your foot in the door in the first place). But the results can be mixed. It's exhausting to stand all day in either the buring sun or the chilly winds, have no place to take a break, watch your work to make sure it's not stolen right out from under you and only come up with $20 for several hours work.
Street Dealers
Shunning the big-time art world has its benefits -- and pitfalls
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| It's about time |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|08:35 pm] |
Phil Spector finally gets convicted. I'm been watching this trial for two (?) years. It was my mildly critical commentary on two astrology posts on Angelius Merlin that got me kicked off the list. My sin was to disclaim- in frustration - about what it would take to get a celebrity conviced of murder in Californa. The woman who rules the list had never particularly liked me so used this excuse to insult me on list and then, ban me from replying. So, I had more than one reason to watch the trial ...slowly unfolding...for FOUR years. I learned more than I want to know about the unethical use of power, both on a personal level and then, by watching the endless parade of slick lawyers, the unethical prevention of judicial justice.
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| Music for Easter |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|10:58 pm] |
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt (born September 11, 1935 in Paide, Estonia) is Estonia's most renowned composer, working in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabulation and hypnotic repetitions that is also influenced by the intellectual counterpoint elements of European jazz, but fits a European-American post-modernism rather than an example of "world music. His music is some of the most moving and powerful that I have ever heard and the only contemporary composer that I really like.
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| Thomas Merton: The Sowing of Meanings |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|10:24 am] |
My vision of God/Goddess is not male-centered as the imagery in this poem but it's still so beautiful that I wanted to share:
Thomas Merton:
The Sowing of Meanings
See the high birds!
Is theirs the song
That dies among the wood-light
Wounding the listener with such bright arrows?
Or do they play in wheeling silences
Defining in the perfect sky
The bounds of (here below) our solitude,
Where spring has generated lights of green
To glow in clouds upon the sombre branches?
Ponds full of sky and stillnesses
What heavy summer songs still sleep
Under the tawny rushes at your brim?
More than a season will be born here, nature,
In your world of gravid mirrors!
The quiet air awaits one note,
One light, one ray and it will be the angels' spring:
One flash, one glance upon the shiny pond, and then
Asperges me! sweet wilderness, and lo! we are redeemed!
For, like a grain of fire
Smouldering in the heart of every living essence
God plants His undivided power --
Buries His thought too vast for worlds
In seed and root and blade and flower,
Until, in the amazing light of April,
Surcharging the religious silence of the spring,
Creation finds the pressure of His everlasting secret
Too terrible to bear.
Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees
Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament
And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light,
While the wild countryside, unknown, unvisited of men,
Bears sheaves of clean, transforming fire.
And then, oh then the written image, schooled in sacrifice,
The deep united threeness printed in our being,
Shot by the brilliant syllable of such an intuition, turns within,
And plants that light far down into the heart of darkness and oblivion,
Dives after, and discovers flame. |
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| Thomas Merton |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|10:24 am] |
My vision of God/Goddess is not male-centered as the imagery in this poem but it's still so beautiful that I wanted to share:
Thomas Merton:
The Sowing of Meanings
See the high birds!
Is theirs the song
That dies among the wood-light
Wounding the listener with such bright arrows?
Or do they play in wheeling silences
Defining in the perfect sky
The bounds of (here below) our solitude,
Where spring has generated lights of green
To glow in clouds upon the sombre branches?
Ponds full of sky and stillnesses
What heavy summer songs still sleep
Under the tawny rushes at your brim?
More than a season will be born here, nature,
In your world of gravid mirrors!
The quiet air awaits one note,
One light, one ray and it will be the angels' spring:
One flash, one glance upon the shiny pond, and then
Asperges me! sweet wilderness, and lo! we are redeemed!
For, like a grain of fire
Smouldering in the heart of every living essence
God plants His undivided power --
Buries His thought too vast for worlds
In seed and root and blade and flower,
Until, in the amazing light of April,
Surcharging the religious silence of the spring,
Creation finds the pressure of His everlasting secret
Too terrible to bear.
Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees
Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament
And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light,
While the wild countryside, unknown, unvisited of men,
Bears sheaves of clean, transforming fire.
And then, oh then the written image, schooled in sacrifice,
The deep united threeness printed in our being,
Shot by the brilliant syllable of such an intuition, turns within, And plants that light far down into the heart of darkness and oblivion,
Dives after, and discovers flame. |
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| Friday Follies |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|09:00 pm] |
I saw the SF Film Festival calendar on line but haven't had time to down load it and look it over. Now that I have Netflix, I'm less interested in paying top dollar, sitting in noisy dirty theatres and trying to work around their sometimes impossible schedules! I've had a really busy week with tests and papers and the next month looks equally busy. The final review for the class on Black Art comes on the afternoon before our Spring Show but I will just drink some extra strong coffee and struggle on - I don't want to miss the review as the class is chock full of details and information. I've got a ton more to do for my Women's Art class - a weekly journal where we are supposed to report on all the things she discusses each week, a class presentation and two more tests! Thank heavens I've got A's going into the final stretch but I doubt if I will take two classes per semester ever again. However, only six more units and I can petition for my degree - funny how my ambitions have changed as my blogging and painting become much more important than my school. Besides, when I started back to college, I sort of hoped that I would find a way that the extra degree could help me in my "career" - either contacts or information or leads to the SF art world. None of that has panned out so I am pulling back and thinking about a less hectic schedule for the rest of the year.
I had a bit of an adventure yesterday. I got out to State early and decided to try and find the library annex. Our main library is undergoing construction and it's going to be closed for several years. They've set up a "temporary" library on campus and I've never been there. I had an hour and more to kill and thought -well, why not? Maybe it's quiet and convenient?
Well, IT'S NOT! I walked and walked and walked to the end of the campus, getting thoroughly turned around. After 30 minutes of slogging, I saw what looked like a huge building across several roads and in back of a huge sports field which didn't seem to have any easy access other than more walking. I turned around to go back to State, took a wrong turn or two and ended up wandering around Park Merced for about an hour completely lost and getting more and more exhausted. I stopped everybody I saw, asking them directions to State and several (who didn't seem to speak English) didn't even know where State was. So, it was slog, slog, slog, slog getting wetter and more tired by the minute. Finally, I ran into a couple of young kids who probably went to state that gave me decent directions. More walking and more walking and more walking. I made it to the class barely in time, hot, frazzled and completely exhausted. I was on my feet for over an hour and a half and never actually made it to the library. NEVER AGAIN! I will limit myself to picking up books that I order at the annex desk in the HSS building. One good thing though - I did find a few cafes tucked away from the main cafeteria which seemed a lot quieter than that space which is full of the boom boom music. It was too wet to sit outside but when we have nice weather again, I'm gong to check them out. The other thing that impressed me is how gorgeous the campus is. Each of the dorms was built around a huge, landscaped courtyard and surrounded by tree lined walks and banks of flowers. Each dorm had a cafe on the ground floor and I saw a Farmer's Market, two or three gyms, a child care center and a landscaped pond. Amazing! I had no idea all this was in back of the Creative Arts Building. It's like a small, beautifully kept village. What a bunch of lucky kids to live in such beautiful surroundings - it's a lot nicer than most of us have in SF. |
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| Art and Copyright |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|10:38 am] |
Art and copyright: what’s at stake
By Simon Stokes
For a long time artistic copyright has been a rather quiet backwater of copyright law, eclipsed by the protection given to literary works, software and music. But recently there has been a much greater interest in how copyright law protects visual art and the rights of artists to prevent others from copying their works. This reflects an increasingly advertising-led visual culture and also a greater awareness by rights holders that they have legal rights they can try to enforce. Cases where artists have sued or threatened to sue infringers are increasingly common, the case discussed in this issue concerning the works of the US artist Richard Prince being only one of a number of such cases. There have also been cases where corporate copyright owners have threatened action against artists—for example Graham Dolphin’s work which reuses magazine covers and in particular Vogue.
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| Layoffs at SFAI |
[Apr. 8th, 2009|10:01 am] |
The San Francisco Art Institute is the oldest and one of the most prestigious art schools in the bay area, so this news is sad but not totally unexpected. But as a former buyer and numbers cruncher for UC, I'd love to look at their budgets to see where the money is going. I remember back when I worked at UC - there was a lot of money spent for things that could have been foregone to make money for the important things. I also remember when that huge "modern" addition to SFAI was built back in the late 60's and early 70's ; the school took on a huge debt load and tuition starting going up by leaps and bounds. Tuition now is sky high and since all levels of society are suffering from the economic downturn, I wouldn't be surprised if the kids (or their families) decided that taking on a huge loan or paying beaucoup bucks from the trust fund is not a wise idea in these times. If you've got that kind of money, a degree from Berkeley or Stanford or Harvard is better value. I also think that if they'd stayed art focused and humble as they did in the "good old days," there would be plenty of students because they'd be able to pay the tuition. But now - every school has to have high-paid administrators, fancy state of the art electronics and all sorts of expensive play toys. Whatever happened to making art? In these days, even the rich can't afford that - plus there ARE NO JOBS when they finish their expensive degree.
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