Another War We Don't Intend To Win

Once again, President Bush is lying to the American people, the people he's supposed to be representing, and trying to persuade us into consenting to another war, whether by actual consent or the consent of silence and inaction. We can't let him pull us into Iran when he's known for months, and now we all know as well, that Iran disabled their nuclear weapons program years ago. This fact (as well as his knowledge of this fact for the last few months) has been acknowledged by his own National Security Adviser. It is not alright that our president continuously lies to us about such consequential things as this. We cannot afford another war, and most in this country do not want it. We have to let our president know that his bid for war will not be supported by us, twist facts as he may. It's imperative that our congress should stand up against the war-mongering duo, since the people have elected them to speak for their constituents, not sit idly by. President Bush has no authority to wage war against Iran, but he will if we say nothing.

A Possible Contributor to the Lack of Respect Shown Elders by Today's Youth

Note that I said A contributor. I don't think this is the only or even the most prominent cause for the marked lack of respect shown by today's 1st World Country youth to their elders and especially their parents.
I was on the bus the other day and I overheard a group of older men and women grumbling about how their children and "the kids today" don't respect them or listen to them. And they all said it wasn't so when they were younger. I wanted to join the conversation with a hypothesis that came to me then.
The hypothesis was this:
The exponential development of and current social dependency on technologies that have been developed during the lifetimes of the current "up and coming" generations influences and contributes to a lack of subordination or reverence in said generation, today's youth. Technological knowledge is almost a birthright now of any child born in a first world country. It used to be that skills and knowledge required to build a career and make a living or even just live well was passed down from the generation above from parents to children or masters to apprentices. Now older people tend to know less about these technologies that rule today's American economy, making kids feel like they know more than or as well as adults, undermining respect that used to be given automatically to those older or more experienced.

Irwin challenged me saying that really it all began to fall apart when T.V.s became a household item, and grew worse once people started having multiple televisions in a home. People used to be closer connected to their family unit, spending time with them at meal times or even gathering around the television to watch the news and discuss it. Now there are many channels and many shows, and people schedule their lives around them. A father in one room watching the football game and a kid in the other room watching whatever crappy reality show came out this season. There's no more real family bonding time thanks to this particular household technology.
I agree. I think this is another major contributor. There's a disconnect fostered by yet another technology.
I also think, however, that with the rise from tertiary to secondary and now to the primary sector of economic activity, people's fates are less intertwined with that of their families to begin with. And while that in itself may not have caused the same vast disconnect, it certainly allowed for it.

Ok, so much for that. I'll now turn the floor over to the people who'd like to challenge or add to it. I enjoyed all the responses I got to my rant on fairy and folktales. Perhaps I should continue this open forum discussion board style while I'm in San Francisco being a good productive little member of society.

An open response to the anonymous commenter on my rant about fairy and folk tales

Indeed, anonymous commenter, it's true the age is a remnant from a time when 16 was considered adult. My problem is that in today's society, where these tales are still being told, now by Disney instead of the old woman on the corner, they haven't adjusted the age to reflect the infantalization of today's youth. No longer are the kids today mature at 16 or equipped to make life decisions such as in regards to marriage and kids.
We've idealized the age of 16 because of leaving it a remnant. Now all our dreams are supposed to come true at that age when most kids are just trying to get through highschool and not get in yet another fight with their parents.
If we treated the kids today in such a way that they grew up MATURE enough to make such decisions I wouldn't have a problem.
Just because todays kids grow up fast, doesn't mean they grow up mature. In fact, I'd argue that the commercialism and the sexuality and violence in the media make them grow up with a lightly warped view that they then turn into reality via emulation.

P.S. Dear god I would HATE to be 16 again.

The kindness of strangers in fairy and folk tales, and the merits of Silver Nose and Blue Beard

Just a fair warning, this is a bit of a rant.

As anyone who knows me knows, I collect fairy and folk tales.

I've long been perturbed by what we might call "The Disney Effect", and the horrible lack of personality displayed by most "Prince Charming"s and the like. Not to mention the age of the main characters (They always seems to be 16. Yes, sure, lets all find "true love" at sixteen, marry the pretty girl with big jugs in the sparkling dress or the handsome loaded prince with no personality who I just met for two seconds as I was crossing some road or running around singing with woodland creatures like a wishy washy idiot, and never have to work at the relationship or anything else for that matter ever again cause it'll all be perfect.).

Ok, I know that makes me sound really cynical, but we feed these completely unrealistic images of "love" to our nation's kids at a very young age and they all grow up thinking that at the first sign of some hormone-induced love coma they have to rush out and be with that person ("how horrible and unreasonable for parents to impose curfews and tell us that it's not the best time to start having sex or staying out with this very cute person I'm all drooly over! Don't they understand? I'm fourteen! I've found true love two years early!"). Is it really any wonder that we have the highest divorce rate in the world? People rush out and get married and then don't realize they have to work to make it last and stay as wonderful as before. Instead when it gets hard they think they made a horrible mistake and married the wrong person and that Prince Charming or Cinderella is still out there somewhere.

I'm not saying arranged marriages are a better system. I'm saying that at least in those countries where parents talk and try to find compatible matches for their children the people getting married don't go into marriage expecting a flawless and effortless fairytale ending. Unfortunately, you also can also then get things like bride burning and unchecked spread of STDs from undiscussed infidelity which as a rule of culture is accepted and/or at least unmentioned. Not like this is an inevitable outcome or anything. It just is a high hazard found in cultures with arranged marriages like Japan and India. (Japan, India, I'm not picking on you! I swear!)

Really I think that the "Marry for Love" concept can work and work well. We just have to go into it realizing that maturity and an expectation of compromise is a must for successfully knowing who you want to stay with and make it work. Most Disney movies don't promote this. Most of their heroines are anorexic sixteen year olds with abnormally large chests for such waif-like bodies and annoying anti-gravity powers that make their hair very big. They also have a tendency to be sheltered and extremely naive about the world. The who should come upon them or at least into their line of sight, but some worldly giant with gleaming teeth and hair just as bouncy as theirs, and oh yea, usually a title and some money to speak of. Gasp and swoon girls! It's the first guy you've seen with such a charming laugh! Or legs. Or maybe the first guy you've ever seen, thanks to some crazy fairy or sorcerer or prediction combined with over-protective parents. And hey guys! Look at that girl who is somehow skinnier and bustier and more naive that all the rest! And doesn't her bouncy hair just compliment your own? Oh wait, does prince charming have enough personality to notice the naiveté? Perhaps not, but the rest is probably pretty accurate. Commence story of someone or other (step-mom, troll, above mentioned fairy, sorcerer, or spell) attempting to come between them, incapacitating little girlie, who invariably loses heart and starts crying if some crone or woodland creature or whatever doesn't help keep her chin up, and allowing the prince to perform some brawny stupid heroic or other to prove his love or whatever and win the girl and then they marry and there's some narrator telling you they lived happily ever after.
I will admit that there have been some more recent and much more evolved stories from Disney, starting in the 90s with tales borrowed from other cultures, like Mulan, or from history (albeit some really twisted hardly recognizable adaptations of history), like Pocahontas, where the girl isn't so obnoxious and helpless and actually gets a chance to do some rescuing, and the guy has a bit more personality and maybe a little less money too! This is their version of girl power. Notice they're still unnaturally thin and still are assisted by their little animal friends who are male. At least it's a step in the right direction...
Honestly Disney's best films were done in conjunction with Pixar, and I give all the credit to the geniuses over at Pixar's ridiculously awesome complex in Emeryville and wherever else they might work from.

Whatever. The actual reason for this post is something else I've decided to take issue with. And this isn't just with Disney's version of stories. This is with the original stories. Although I will say it's an interesting tell on the cultures they came from and their values and beliefs about gender and ability and the like.

I've been reading Italo Calvino's anthology Italian Folk Tales, and after reading up to the end of "Money Can Do Everything", I had to stop and put the book down and glare off into the distance. Has anyone else noticed how often the protagonist gets help from some random old person or animal who comes up with the brilliant plan that they then pull off and somehow never get any credit or real thanks for? Maybe it's not as pronounced in some of the more modern re-tellings of stories. But if you read the old versions that are collected in anthologies of folk-tales or fairy-tales from whatever culture or country, in the versions or close to the versions that were passed along by word of mouth before they were collected, it's painfully common for the protagonist to be super lazy and unthoughtful, or dim-witted, or to just pass the time bemoaning their condition or situation and waiting. Thank goodness for them they all have some wise old wet-nurse or sailor or random old crone to give them advice if not actually plot and work for them so they can get out of their pickle and somehow end up with some beautiful wife and a kingdom or whatever. Then you never hear of the old helper again. Or they get magical gifts from some animal or tiny person they meet, even though often they don't actually do anything to deserve the present.

Thank goodness for the heroine of "Silver Nose" (also known as "How The Devil Married Three Sisters") who tricked the devil into taking her two older and less clever sisters and eventually herself out of his hell closet and taking them back to their mother. She at least used her own cunning to bale them out. On a side (and hopefully somewhat explanatory) note, "Silver Nose" is an Italian tale that has a more well known French counterpart in "Blue Beard", though the two tales are not really the same. Also, I wonder if anyone has read or heard the Russian "Masha's Tale"? It's actually very much like that. Except instead of a Bear it's the Devil dressed like a gentleman with a silver nose. But the method of escape is very similar. Think laundry instead of cakes and pies.

I'm all for Happily Ever After, I just don't think we should be teaching our children that they come easily.

This had made me realize what an incredible geek I am. I doubt anyone reading this entry is understanding my references.
Oh well. I got it off my chest. This is the purpose of a blog after all.

New Job, New Passport, New Smile

So for those of you who don't know, yes, I'm in SF.
And will be here for a while. With the exception of course of a few days in February that I'll be on some cruise ship with the rest of the numerous family on my dad's side.
Which reminds me, I have to make sure that I tell my teachers and my NEW JOB that I'll need four days in february.
Yes, I just got a job at Bay Bread! I'm so freaking giddy.
Ok, I'm off to go get passport photos done.

A Forray into Fire Land and the Safe Return

First of all, I'd like to say a big Thank You to my cousin Gwen and her awesome boyfriend Matt for the ride down to San Diego. Cheers!

Secondly, I'd like to say: Oh yeah, by the way, I went to San Diego!
It wasn't a long visit. And if I could have I'd have stayed longer. But I have a passport issue to attend to, so I had to come back.

To all the people in LA who I wanted to visit and haven't gotten to this time around: I'm sorry! I miss you! I'll try to get down there again soon, but I really do have to work to make sure I have the money for school books and stuff for the upcoming semester...
Yes, I can be responsible too.

So anyway, I did have fun in the land of crazy and horribly constant fires. My family had been evacuated a few weeks ago when the fires came ridiculously close to burning down their houses. Luckily they're back at home now and safe to boot. (Others weren't so lucky. A few people were burned in their cars as they tried to flee. The fire was faster. One couple survived by staying in their pool as the fire burned their house to the ground and reduced their yard to ashes. I feel bad for the animals. There are a lot of horse ranches down there, and the fires are too fast and too unpredictable for most of the animals to be saved... But I've digressed, and this is depressing.)

Back to the having fun bit. I did. I got to see a lot of my dad's side of the family that I also hadn't seen in years. It's funny having your entire family remember you as a pre-teen when you're 22. I got a lot of shocked looks and gasps when I pulled out my ID to get a wrist-band allowing me to order alcoholic beverages if I so chose (which I didn't).





My Aunt Marcy threw my Uncle Peter a surprise party which was awesome.





It was the first time I'd met a few of my younger cousins too. I have to say, Jenna is ADORABLE. There's no getting around it. And she's crazy smart too.

Home again Home again

jiggitty jig.
Well, I ended up coming home a lot sooner than I'd planned originally.
It's ok though. My adventures are far from over.

Nashville again

So I stayed in Florida a bit shorter than originally anticipated, but I made it to Nashville, Tennessee alright. Oleg picked me up at the Greyhound station.
By the way, Gremlin is adorable. And very soft.

Made it to Florida

So I'm now in the Public Library in Jacksonvile.
It's nice and warm down here, and sunny. Looks like I just barely stayed ahead of the weather.
There was a freeze in South Calorina last night. It ended their crop season early.
But it looks like it's still warm enough to go swimming here.
Anyways, I'll post more later. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm alright.

The Lion Museum Continued (Bringing more of The Met Museum To You)

This is a detail from Claude Lorraine's painting The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet. I liked the expression, the movement, the detail... The ships were also well done, very detailed... But the painting is huge, and everything in it is small. Small and intricate. It would have been a stronger composition if Lorraine (who's real last name was apparently Gellee.) had chosen part of his painting and made it bigger. And some of my friends are going to laugh that I'm talking about the composition, cause they think that's just what people comment on when they have nothing better to say, but I'm serious. The composition was seriously lacking. But hey, who am I to criticize? The guy painted better than I ever will.

This is Georges de La Tour's The Fortune Teller. I liked the old gypsy's wrinkly face, and how the young gypsies were picking his pockets. I don't know, I guess it was just done well.

This glassy eyed Madonna by Caravaggio was interesting to me because of the expression on her face and how she seems a bit... I don't know... tired of the whole thing. Like she wished someone had asked her if she wanted the whole deal. And also cause the toddler Jesus is in a kind of bratty show off superior pose as if he's lording it over his cousin John how he's the center of attention (really, no horribly inappropriate pun intended, I promise). It's not that I'm dissing any of the religion or any of the people in the pictures. I'm really not. I'm just saying that you hardly ever see such a human looking portrayal. And I'm sure it wasn't intentional...

I thought this girl was a riot. She had binoculars to counter my camera. It was great.




Ok, I know, it's a chair. But if you look closely, it looks like someone drew a chair and it sprang into being. Like Athena from Zeus's head. I mean... Look at it!










German made ivory portable diptych sundials. are they awesome or what? Mid 1500s to very early 1600s.


A table clock and it's guts. I thought it was so cool how they had removed all the inner workings of these clocks and watches so you could see how they worked. I want to make one...









Roemer. Isn't that a cool name? I dunno. It's a map on a chalice. Why would you use a diamond engraving tip to put a map on a glass chalice? Because you're that bad-ass a cartographer, that's why. Dutch mid-17th century.







Padlock and Key. The card is actually quite legible if you look at this picture in full size. Just click on it!


The gate in the middle of the Medieval Statuary was pretty cool. I liked walking through it, so I did a few times more than was strictly necessary. The museum guard raised an eyebrow at me, but what does he know? He gets to walk through it all the time! How often am I in there?

A statue of the Virgin Mary of the Annunciation.














The two Marys. The one facing the camera is Mary Magdalene and the other is the Virgin.













A Statue of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.















This is a leaf from a Psalter. It's from an English court school around the mid 1200s. It's tempera and gold leaf on vellum.











This is enamel on copper-gilt. There were a lot of little scenes like this that were apparently affixed to the front of books and stuff.


A Super old Mahzor (Prayer Book). This thing is from the 1400s. It's Italian. Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment. And sooooooo pretty.....












These little reliquary things freaked me out. People used to carry around little pieces of saints and stuff in these... yeaaah....



A Japanese mask. There were a lot of really cool Japanese things. Unfortunately, my camera was on the blink at that point... Yea.... I think it's cool that they put the beard on the mask, and kinds think it's creepy cause some guy probably cut off the lower half of his beard and stuck it there...




A really awesome lock and key. There were actually several of these locks and keys around this part of the museum. It was awesome.












A Siren statue. I thought the tentacles were interesting. And I'm not sure if it was intentional or if one of the spikes fell off cause I'm not tall enough to really examine it, but I also like the asymmetrical nature of her crown.

Here's the tiny little gallery they made for the Byzantine Egyptian exhibit. It's under the Grand Staircase. I kind of think they just knocked down the janitorial alcove and put in the brick to make it look cool. I giggle cause I keep imagining the janitor from SCRUBS and this facial expression if they knocked down the little room where he and his posse hang out. I'm giggling now! And I'm pretty sure the people behind me in that gallery thought I was loopy. Because after all, the Byzantine Egyptian exhibit is a very serious place! hehehe!

I liked this little Madonna and baby Jesus statue cause it was the only one in this whole gallery where she looked happy and he looked adoring, not judging, and she wasn't holding her bare breast. It just looks so much happier than the others did.






This is a gondola bow. I particularly like the little sea monster on the top. It makes me think of the monster impression my mom used to do when I was little. I know she'd really like this one too. So would Irwin.

This is a room that was just taken out of a Palazzo in Venezia. Yea. Just taken. Original Floor boards and all. Crazy huh? I wonder what they did in the palace. Did they build another room there or is it just a giant hole where a room used to be?

There were a lot of people painting in the European Paintings Gallery while I was there. You have to apply for a permit to be allowed to paint with anything but watercolors in there, so it's kinda cool that people do it. They had their easels set up with their drop clothes and their wooden cases of oil paints. Most of them were listening to music on their headphones so they could ignore the docents and tour guides and the gawking museum goers such as myself who might otherwise have been tempted to try engaging them in conversation. There was this one girl who was a ridiculously good copycat (It looked more like the original than the original did! Just kidding). I think she might be practicing to become a master con-artist. Or maybe that's just my overactive imagination and she's learning the way the old masters did, copying other masters' works to develop technique.
Unfortunately, my camera battery died while I was in the armory. Which is unfortunate. But really, you can't go through that place in one day. So I'm going to go back. And also you can't get a real picture of the place from my crummy snapshots anyway. So if you're ever in New York, go visit the Met Museum!!! Even if you've been before their exhibits are always changing, as with any good museum.

The Lion Museum (Bringing The Met Museum To You)

Ok, so it's not really called "the lion museum", and I'm not talking about the Zoo. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today! I call it the Lion Museum because every exhibit I saw had a lion somewhere in it.
It was wonderful!
I walked there from the 33rd Street PATH train station. It's a great walk, past the zoo and all these really cool playgrounds. Why are the playgrounds in Central Park so much cooler than the playgrounds in Golden Gate Park? It's really not fair. (By the way, anyone not in the know, if you're in the Bay Area and you're wanting to go down a giant concrete slide similar to this one only longer, there's one in the park connected via tunnel to the Berkley Rose Garden! But you have to navigate there through Narnia. I'd highly recommend it, especially if you bring your own cardboard. The sand is already there. You throw the sand down the slide right before you, who should be seated on the cardboard big enough that you can hold on without scraping your fingers, start sliding. It'll make you go faster and keep you from wearing out your cardboard as quickly.)
Anyways, I got there and went in. I'm apparently not supposed to use the pictures I'm allowed to take in their galleries except for personal use. But their rules strictly prohibit the distribution of those pictures or the public showing of them... So if it's a blog, and that's KIND OF like a journal, does that count? It's not like these are professional grade pictures. In fact they're pretty crappy because of the lighting (which I know is supposedly to preserve the paintings, but I also think is to discourage photography). And if I say they're in the Met and this is to encourage anyone who DOES happen to read this to go and see the real ones since the pictures don't do them justice? Whatever. They can come yell at me if they find me.

There were a LOT of lions in that museum. All kinds of lions. In all kinds of contexts. It was pretty sweet.
















There were a lot of other things too though.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes's Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuniga. An art history note (that most readers of this blog probably won't need): Christian art often uses birds to symbolize the soul, and Baroque art used caged birds to show innocence. The card by this painting speculated that "Goya may have intended this portrait as an illustration of the frail boundaries that separate the child's world from the forces of evil or as a commentary on the fleeting nature of innocence and youth." It goes on to say that this painting "may have been executed after the child's death in 1792, since the imagery and sinister undertone seem more characteristic of Goya's works of the 1790s."

Soap Bubbles, by Jean Simeon Chardin. I love this one. Apparently soap bubbles used to allude to the transience of life when used in paintings. Did anyone know that? I didn't. I guess that's something I'd know if I took an art history class...

Jean Marc Nattier did a bunch of paintings in the European Painting Gallery wing, a few of which I found interesting. Or at least parts of them. Like his portrait Madame Marsollier and Her Daughter. Apparently the woman was a well known beauty of the court born and bred and known as The Velvet Duchess for her pretensions. But what I liked were her daughter's eyes. The daughter was the only thing that seemed alive in the whole painting. The duchess was far to posed and glassy eyed.

Nattier's portrait of some courtier I forgot to make note of posed as Diana. I think it's funny cause Diana would never have worn so hindering a gettup, so the fur masks nothing. And Diana's recurve bow would have been strung with a usable string. The one the model was using had a string tied around the nocks and was ridiculously long. Did they think it dangerous to have a woman hold a usable bow? That she'd hurt herself or accidentally shoot someone with it? I bet she was amused too. She looks amused by something. Am I too critical of these paintings? I know they were all vanity portraits. Done in a very stuffy prude era none the less, so she would never have been allowed to pose in any sort of dress that Diana really would have worn...

Nattier's Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, Later Duchesse d'Orleans. From the late 1600s to early 1700s. I liked how she was waist deep in water that was spilling out of the jar. Like the Mississippi river was flowing out of her water jug.





This incredible landscape was done by "El Greco" (Domenikos Theoto- kopoulos) sometime in the late 1500s or early 1600s. It shows Toledo from the north. Apparently the artist took some liberties with the placement of the buildings so that you could see the cathedral which would have been blocked from view from that angle.

Just a Little More Halloween