Happy New Year!

Here's to a more thoughtful 2010

Here is a description of the new book on wine by Roger Scruton: I drink therefore I am: A philosopher's guide to wine.

While wine is an excellent accompaniment to food, it is even better with philosophy. By thinking with wine, you can learn to drink in thoughts and think in draughts...In vino veritas.

I cannot think of anyone writing a similar treatise on other mind-altering substances. Even the mild marijuana is evaded in polite conversation.

It is a mystery how wine acquired an entry into almost every facet life, where it is associated with mostly the good: pleasure, social cohesion (it was wine that Jesus had to make from water to keep the wedding party going), elitism, gastronomy, taste (often good), aesthetics (those beautiful deep red colors), poetry, class (a wino is better tolerated than a drunk), medicine, and of course the Eucharist.

Champagne reserves the best of occasions for its consumption. Despite its elitism, there is a bottle for everyone. Probably most people don't really spend too much time ruminating on the taste, as long as it is bubbly, pale yellow in color, and that it opens with a bang.

But, here is research that shows that those glasses of bubbly might actually be good for the brain:

Champagne On The Brain - The Benefits Of A Glass Of Bubbly

There is much work to be done in 2010, so let's start it with good cheer and a determined spirit. We can also take Scruton's advice, and use the fermented drink of the grape with more thoughtful ends, hoping it gives us the insights and knowledge to tackle our difficult world.

Happy New Year!

The Architecture of Death

The ROM as the ugliest building of the decade

Two major art and social critics have written substantial articles on contemporary architecture.

Theodore Dalrymple has written about the concrete vision that Le Corbusier had for his cities, including erasing existing ones (Paris was on his list!) to make room for his bleak designs. And Roger Scruton in his article "The High Cost of Ignoring Beauty" writes how contemporary architects aim to stand out with their eccentric and outrageous designs, sacrificing beauty for their attention grabbing structures.

I observed this phenomenon a few years ago when Daniel Libeskind descended upon Toronto with his model for the Royal Ontario Museum extension. I have blogged about him and the demise of architecture almost since the beginning of my blog. Many other new buildings have been cropping up, including the Opera House, which reminded me of a Le Corbusier structure.

Later on, I tried to explain this phenomenon in an article "Conquering the Architecture of Death" that I wrote for ChronWatch.com, where said:

Our war is a war on culture, that we seem to be losing. Our transgression is that we no longer believe in our common sense, and our common heritage, and cannot project our cultural legacy into the future. We opt instead for titillating horrors and mediocre and dangerous structures.

I think architecture is the last frontier for narcissistic, attention-seeking "artists." Modern painting has become a closed-door affair, with exorbitant sales going on for only a select (wealthy) few, independent of the general public. Only architecture forces itself on the public and demands that it be noticed and appreciated for its “art.” This is how Libeskind got to build his structure on popular Bloor Street, fooling the public, the city planners and his funders. And his structure gets to be seen by thousands of people on a regular basis.

Washington Post's architecture critique Philip Kennicott has written that the ROM "surpasses the ugliness of bland functional buildings by being both ugly and useless," and called it the worst building of the decade. I said this even before the building was up.

"Obama, Wow!" Moments

My version

Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henniger titled "Obama, Wow!" I think it is a sardonic title, where Henniger is contrasting Obama's burst into the political scene, and his adoration by many (and their Wow! moments), with Obama's current dwindling popularity, and saying: "Wow, look at "Wow Obama" now!"

I wrote of a "Wow!" moment when Obama was talking to Oprah during her White House Christmas Special about his good deeds, saying how good it feels to do good, even if others don't see you doing so.

I actually thought this was worse than the B+ grade he gave himself. My reasoning is that Obama always feels that he's doing good (as judged by him, and he will never say he does bad, and we know how he takes criticism - he ignores it), and all those critics and nay-sayers just don't see his good deeds and all.

Vdare Is Off My List

After a nasty Christmas surprise

I took an interest in Vdare, the immigration reform website, partly because its editor and founder, Peter Brimelow, had lived and worked in Canada, and I thought that his insights would clarify the immigration situation here also. Yes, it did do that. But then, over time, so have many other blogs, including Numbers USA, Immigration Watch Canada, the Canadian Immigration Reform Blog, and the Center for Immigration Studies, to name a few.

But, as I continued to follow Vdare, it was never clear what Brimelow wanted for his site. Was it an advocacy site, an activist site, an intellectual/philosophical site, a site to redefine conservatism? I don't know. Many times, it just appears to be a kvetching site, with endless stories by various entertaining writers. But, nothing clear has evolved, for me at least.

Last week, just before Christmas, as Vdare was doing its fundraising drive, I happened to glance at the left-hand column near the bottom (something I hardly ever do, since the current articles and news are near the top) and saw this:

12/13/09 - For Palestinians, Every Day Is Kristallnacht, by Paul Craig Roberts

This just before Christmas, and in full view of readers supposedly donating generously for Vdare's existence during a Christmas fundraising drive.

It was shocking. I couldn't reconcile the ugliness of its analogy with the "Saving Christmas" articles and blogs inundating Vdare during those few weeks. It was not only hypocritical, it was, in my view, downright evil.

So, after a while of trying to figure out what Brimelow wants for his site, and what he and his team have done to advance their immigration reform views, I concluded that there is no focus, and no goal (unlike the very active Numbers USA).

I have removed Vdare from my blog list, and I will certainly not be donating anything for its upkeep (though, my small confession is that I never have, thankfully).

Merry Christmas!

How Much Influence Did Orientalism Have on Western Art?

Henri Matisse, Purple Robe and Anemones; 1937

Matisse's interior takes on a flat,
extended dimension, where the woman's
fabric, the wallpaper, the carpet and
even the patterned table blend together
to eliminate three-dimensional space.

Ibn Warraq, from The New English Review has an article about the influence of Orientalism on Western art. He does this while reviewing a biography of Mozart: Mozart The Dramatist, by Brigid Brophy.

One small quibble I have with his review (which is of course the theme of the writer who penned the biography): Western artists may have been leaning on Oriental themes to find the subjects for their works (paintings, music, literature), but the structure and composition of the works ended up being very much the creations of these artists.

I have been interested in the attraction towards exoticism that induced painters to study Arab culture, and even travel to and live in Arab lands. One such painter was Matisse. The evolution of his paintings is a complex topic, where he goes from three-dimensional depictions to two-dimensional ones so that his paintings look like layers of flat textile on canvass.

One of his interests, which stemmed from his family's textile business, was Arab interior decoration, where the homes were draped with endless carpets and textiles, hiding three-dimensional space behind a plethora of cloth. Rooms look flat and extensive. And colorful too.

Matisse used these experiences and examples to create his own two-dimensional canvasses. His development from three dimensions to two was part of Western art's questions and queries at the time, and not Eastern art edging in on those ideas. I think it was just fortuitous that Western artists traveled to the Orient and found what they were looking for; at least Matisse did. But even then, he brought it back and incorporated it into his own artistic/philosophical ideas, and never ventured to make Oriental art.

In the end, whether it is Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte or Matisses’s Purple Robe and Anemones the works are decidedly Western. I will also venture to say that any influences that occurred were superficial, like the Oriental table or the kaftan-clothed woman in Matisse's Purple Robe and Anemones. Matisse could have executed his ideas without putting either of these objects in his painting.

The Last of the Muses

Edward Weston's photographic inspiration

Charis Wilson, by Edward Weston, 1934

Edward Weston's muse and one-time wife, Charis Wilson, died at 95 in mid-November. Recollecting her younger days, Charis said: "I knew I really didn’t look that good, and that Edward had glorified me, but it was a very pleasant thing to be glorified and I couldn’t wait to go back for more."

Although in later years she must have changed her mind, as her daughter recounts: "She didn't really think of herself as a muse, or an icon. She thought all that stuff was nonsense. They had a good, collaborative, working relationship. They both gained so much from that union."

Of course, the modern Charis doesn't call herself Weston's muse. That's an old-fashioned word that oppresses women, after all. She would rather be known as his collaborator, having participated in his 1937-38 Guggenheim Fellowship - the first given to a photographer - both in writing it and in fulfilling it during his photographic expedition around California and the west. To be fair, she did receive a stipend/salary during the fellowship.

Such public muses are rare these days. If "art" is going anywhere in that direction, perhaps it is towards fashion and clothing, which are draped around endless rows of girls in endless fashion shows. But, there is nothing of the unique, inspiring muse that Weston, and even Charis, would recognize in these linear displays of models. Will this glorification of woman, that Weston captured when he found Charis, ever return?

Feel Good Art Scholarships

And Hollywood actors

Alec Baldwin in recent
happier times with the
daughter to whom he sent
the infamous voice mail.

Alec Baldwin, Hollywood actor and now sitcom comedian, has set up a $1 million scholarship fund for "needy" students at the Tisch School of the Art in New York University. He is an alumni of that institution. Baldwin stresses that some of the criteria for acceptance include:

An unwavering work ethic, development of leadership skills, willingness to collaborate, the ability to tolerate risk and the capacity to work with constructive criticism.

Of course, there must be a roster of other technical and skill-related requirements (although maybe not that long). But, true to modern art schools, with emphasis on expression and "personal" narration, who cares about skill and tradition. Teamwork, tolerance, diversity, and leaders of the right "ethno-cultural" mix are what is required. And Western and white art should be made to prostrate itself at the feet of this new world order of art, filled with examples of downtrodden humanity.

Plus, Baldwin's "constructive criticism" criteria gives it away. Art training is a vigorous work of criticism, starting from teachers all the way to relentless art critiques. "Constructive criticism" looks to me like the group-hug, feel-good type of interaction so common now in art schools. After all, I don't want to insult your personal expression and heart-felt narration.

The Strange, Tawdry Life of Tiger Woods

And his ultimate role model

Bronze statue of Woods and his father
at the Learning Center in Anaheim California.
The caption reads: "I challenge you to make a
difference in the world, to reach higher and
farther than you ever imagined" - Earl Woods

Tiger's father was apparently a serial cheater himself. He cheated on his first wife to get together with his second (Tiger's mother), and cheated on Tiger's mother while still married to her. Like father, like son. Yes, maybe. But what is worse is the cosy and close family life the Woods portrayed all along. And the strong and supportive father Woods Sr. we saw in public, while he apparently didn't live up to that image in private. A couple of Tiger's mistresses (one dating him as far back as high school) have said that he would be tortured by his father's cheating ways.

A Woman Scorned?

Is Sarah Palin stable?

I'm beginning to wonder about Sarah Palin. She is acting a little like a woman scorned (yes, by McCain himself), who is rampaging around trying to cool down her hot temper.

She was recently on a late-night talk show, a place which really doesn't belong to serious political personalities (in my modest opinion), where she was confronting - all a joke, of course - a former Star Trek star (William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk) who read an excerpt of her book in a previous show. Palin responded by reading and excerpt from his book, replete with elephants and underwear. Good for her, some might say, but I wonder what she's really doing to herself.

In another incident during her Hawaii holiday, she was seen wearing a visor with the words "McCain for President" covered up. She says this was to avoid being recognized. But, why wear that visor in the first place? A little odd, if you ask me.

Finally, more from a potential candidate. Well, a potential candidate who twitters (tweats? Twits?):

Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think we can change nature's ways.MUST b good stewards of God's earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature

Earth saw clmate chnge4 ions;will cont 2 c chnges.R duty2responsbly devlop resorces4humankind/not pollute&destroy;but cant alter naturl chng

Doing Good for an Audience of One (Maybe Two)

Obama gives himself the highest possible rating

I've said before that I would never comment
on Michelle Obama's sartorial choices.
Well, I'm not. You decide (more video footage here).
I'm just posting a photo of her
giving a tour of the White House
Christmas decorations with Oprah.

Oprah's ratings may have suffered, and she may be at the last ropes of her talk show (scheduled to be off the air in about a year and a half), but she keeps nailing those big interviews.

I finally caught a re-run of her Christmas special with the Obamas. Of course, this is a dream come true for Oprah, who publicly endorsed Obama during his campaign, put Michelle on the cover of her magazine which has until now only allowed the supreme Oprah as its sole cover shoot, and even traveled to Copenhagen with the Obamas to try and tie together an Olympic presence in her Chicago town.

So, now she made it into the White House with her presidential candidate sitting at the helm. She was giggly and elated during this interview, but she did ask the relevant questions (and the Oprah ones) since her viewers would require it of her.

She asked the grade question (what grade would Obama give himself for these first eleven months in office, to which he answered: "a good solid B-plus"). Obama was really sincere about this answer. He's doing what he set out to do, and at least on American soil, he's succeeding handsomely.

Later on, Oprah asks Michelle what she feels about her husband's falling approval ratings. Michelle answers that people won't see the results immediately, and if you do good, people will eventually see those good results, and appreciate them.

This is where Obama's answer to the same question gave me some additional insight into how he thinks. He said something to the effect:

"Even if people don't see the good you've done, you feel good about it because you were doing good."

Wow! Anything he does warrants his own, highest possible approval rating. No modesty or joking around, here. Nor any exaggerated confidence for the sake of the camera or for Oprah. This is his real, simple belief system.

Not Such a Grumpy Old Man, After All

Architect Oscar Niemeyer at 102

Niemeyer's UFO-like Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói

Brazil's architecture giant, Oscar Niemeyer, celebrated his 102nd birthday Tuesday, and spent it in typical grumpy old man fashion decrying the inconvenience of old age. But I wouldn't pay too much attention to what he says, but what he does. At 102 years of age, he is still planning what seem like extensive architectural projects.

I've always said that society forces the elderly to be listless and mindless. I don't see why a 75 to 80-year-old cannot work in a productive and positive way. Many feel that after the arbitrary "retirement" age, all that is left is sitting around behaving "old." Not so.

Niemeyer remarried at the ripe old age of 98 (after he was widowed) to a younger woman, a mature 60-year-old.

Compare and Contrast

Immigrants then, and immigrants now

I am reposting my earlier post on Scandinavian immigrant Thor Hansen, who came to Canada from Denmark in 1928, and later became a pioneer in Canadian textile design.

Immigrants in his era invested and contributed their skills and knowledge much more readily. Perhaps it is because they had no option since there were no multi-culti government organizations to encourage them to stay apart from the main society. I think also they simply wanted to, because the differences they saw here were not that great from the countries they left behind.

Compare and contrast this to contemporary Korean designer Chung-Im Kim, about whom I posted here.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Thor Hansen, Immigrant

Scandinavian spirit, Canadian vision

There were immigrants who psychologically, culturally and personally invested in Canada. They had some understanding of this complex "landscape" - physical and spiritual - that is Canada, and were able to provide their own lasting legacies.

One such was Danish textile designer, Thor Hansen.

From the Textile Museum of Canada:

Thor Hansen joined the influx of Scandinavian immigrants who spearheaded the craft revival in this country during the first half of the 20th century. Born in a small town outside Copenhagen, his Danish upbringing influenced much of his thinking: folk stories and handicraft were as second nature to him as breathing air. He came to Canada on a whim in 1928 after winning a ticket to Japan, but inspired by Canadian Pacific posters he chose Canada instead.


[H]e believed, "The basement workshop is the greatest blessing of the 20th century." By that he meant, not only is homespun craft good for the soul but it stimulates an appetite for Canadian culture. In 1948, he began a long and fruitful relationship with the newly established Simcoe County Arts and Crafts Association (SCACA), located in Ontario’s Georgian Bay area.


Hansen often remarked that, "Culture is one of the most burning subjects of the day in Canada."


What the Group of Seven did for Canadian painting, Hansen wanted to do for Canadian handicraft. His high regard for the Group of Seven is not surprising given that members of the Group saw parallels between the Canadian and Scandinavian wilderness.


[Hansen] showed a keen eye for repetition and rhythm and favoured a strong art deco style and developed a repertoire of motifs that he would use time and again: silhouettes and profiles of birds in flight, leaping salmon, and horned animals, as well as indigenous wildflowers and plants, especially trillium, lady’s slipper and morning glory.

The Legacy of Current Immigrants

Bad art, bad design

I keep up with my former colleagues and teachers from time to time. Some, though are producing such predictably substandard (or off-the-wall) work, that I will be spending less time doing so. I don't want to be a perpetually angry (or disappointed) critic; I have too many things to do. And there are others worth my time.

One such that I will leave out of the loop for now is an "associate professor" at the Ontario College of Art and Design - Chung Im Kim, about whom I have written here. She is the head instructor for fabric design and print. But, since textile design is an inferior ambition in her eyes, and since she is an "artist" first and foremost, her teaching and design legacy is abysmal.

She periodically produces "textile art" to be displayed in the various galleries around the city, and here is her latest atrocity, which she calls "Small Wave."

I wrote that she is unable (unwilling) to represent nature, and instead distorts the images she culls from the environment. This piece is no exception. I can see she's trying various textile techniques, including quilting and embroidery (the quilting is what drives her to cut up this "small wave" into segments). Her end result is an incoherent, vaguely recognizable, amalgam of circular shapes. I doubt without the title I would even recognize what they're supposed to be.

I believe it is her inability to recognize and accept the world around her that compels her to make "art" such as this. A type of alienation from this country she has traveled several oceans to inhabit. I always wonder why immigrants make this trek of thousands of miles only to hate where they are? If she cannot do waves in Canada, can she do them in Korea? I suspect she could.

All we get from her is bad teaching (again see the link about her, where I write about the textile works of students she monitors) and incomprehensible landscapes. And an arrogance that she belongs here on her own terms, which simply means a nice life receiving a great salary from one of the prestigious design schools in Canada. She herself has nothing to contribute. Such is the legacy of current immigrants.

Obama's Enemy List

Malia Obama


I think this is funny. A blogger who calls himself IMAO (In My Arrogant Opinion), who generally spoofs liberals, has a post he calls "Obama's Enemy List."

Amongst the expected, capitalism, Rush Limbaugh, America, figures young Malia Obama.

Here is a post I wrote on the official Obama family portrait, where Michelle wraps herself around Mailia, and I write about what looks like Michelle's aggressive affection towards her daughter. Also, in an earlier post, I write about the Obamas using Malia (not Sasha, yet) when they let her dress up in clearly political gear.

Anyway, like IMAO, I wonder if the obviously clever Malia will see through the Obama couple's beliefs (and lies and manipulations), and later on hold it against them.

All intuitive, of course. But leaders put themselves in our faces, and they better be accountable for everything they do, including how they treat their children.

How Long Before Libertarianism Implodes?

With its strange theories and premises?

I wonder when libertarianism will self-implode? My slow trajectory through this strange philosophical and political movement shows me only disconnected, unrealistic, premises.

Take for example the antiwar stance that libertarians take. I think it stems from "take care of yourself, and don't do anything to harm others" stand. Which is really a take on "I can do whatever I want unless it harms others." One way libertarians seem to argue against this across the border "aggression" is that it is imperialism. So, no war, under any circumstances. As long as we take care of ourselves within our borders, there is no need for us to go across the shores to fight off anyone.

I discussed this in a post which I titled: "Mercer as the nihilistic Usual (Ultimate) Suspect." In this blog entry, Mercer was questioning the "philosophical basis to wage war on a belligerent Muslim country," i.e. Iran. I argue in my post that Mercer's nihilistic attempt to say we lack religious (that's what she really means by philosophical) convictions to wage wars on the likes of Iran is really her antiwar stance disguised as moral superiority. This is a clever tactic, which libertarians constantly use as strawmen to try to win their arguments.

Yes, at the end of the day, let's just seal off our borders. In the meantime, countries like Iran will gleefully carve out their apocalyptic weapons and wage the ultimate borderless war. How do libertarians argue against that?

How did such a movement survive? How long before it implodes?

Erasing Elin's Identity

From the Woods family

Elin being slowly erased from the Woods family

Heidi Klum, the once radiant
German model with no lustre left
after a few years with black musician Seal

Many people are saying that Elin should have known better than to marry Woods. But, black men are very aggressive when pursing white (and light-skinned) women, and many women are naive and easily seduced. Also, the whole world talks about the greatness of black men, and when an athlete is put into the mixture, the decks are stacked.

People wonder why he married at all, if he was to turn to affairs for what amounts to the whole of his marriage. As I've written before, Elin was the trophy wife, the prize to demonstrate his worth to the world. I've tried to show that from the mistresses he chose, he does indeed prefer the types who seem to resemble his mother's background, but they are still all white, and still trophies, in a sense. Plus the number of such women he's been with surpasses any "preference" explanation, and simply makes him pathological.

Another woman, this time who went into this kind of relationship with the full force of her determination, is the German model Heidi Klum. Seal, the black musician to whom she is now married, and with whom she has three children, proposed to her when she was pregnant with another (white) man's child. Not only that, Klum has said that she first met Seal when he was strutting around in some hotel lobby in his skimpy gym trunks showing off his endowments. This is what I mean by black men's aggressiveness. There is also an odd, feminine component to their seduction method, like Seal’s, who was preening around to get the attention of any (white) woman.

In the end, the women lose tremendously: their beauty, their confidence, and their offspring. Even their immediate family will edge them out, as the photo above of the Woods family shows Elin lost and faded in the background, with the triumphant grandmother holding the child that looks like her and her son.

Pictures at an Exhibition

By Modest Mussorgsky

Project for a city gate in Kiev–main facade,
by Viktor Hartmann,
which Mussorgsky used for his piece
"The Bogatyr Gates (in the Capital in Kiev)"

It's been several months since I've updated music at my YouTube site Camera Musica.

I've recently uploaded some pieces from Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."

- Promenade No.2
- Il Vecchio Castello
- Promenade No.3
- Tuileries (Children Quarrelling at Play)
- Bydlo
- Promenade No.4

Mussorgsky wrote these pieces after the sudden death of his friend architect and artist Viktor Hartmann. At Hartmann’s death, his many works were displayed at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. These are Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an exhibition."

Libertarian Manifestos

Back by popular demand

I had been meaning to write about Ilana Mercer's reprinting of her book Broad Sides: One Woman's Clash With A Corrupt Culture for a while now. What surprised me about this was that she has clearly abandoned her paleo-libertarian and classical liberal positions, and publicizes this book as her libertarian manifesto.

Of course, libertarians are not evil incarnate, but it is interesting that she had tried to modify her libertarianism before embracing it fully once again.

As I've written before, my brush with Mercer occurred when I emailed her a few times over a span of a year on her articles at WorldNetDaily. Her replies had always been pleasant and thoughtful until in one email, I dared to voice the superiority of the Jews over the Chinese, and the possiblity for collective grief. Taken aback by her unpleasant and impersonal reply, I later figured out that my comments violated the sacrosanct belief in the individual that libertarians hold dear.

Lawrence Auster, at the View from the Right, has a post on Randians, in which he explains some of the positions of libertarians in general, and Randians specifically. It is a real worthwhile read, and actually helped clarify a few points along the way for me.

Interestingly, why is there a popular demand for Mercer's book, which she happily publicizes as:

By popular demand, my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society, is back in print. The Second Edition features bonus material. Get your copy or copies now!

Jim Kalb writes here about libertarians:

While such people aren't as numerous as their opponents, they've established an intellectual presence and influence beyond their numbers. Their advantages have been the clarity, force and refinement of their arguments, and the obvious failures of bureaucratic management.

I’ve done a small informal survey, and was astonished at the number of "conservatives" who also call themselves libertarians. With this "intellectual presence" that Kalb talks about, there is also certainly their growing numbers. Hence, Mercer's "back by popular demand" book.

By the way, the rest of Kalb's article discusses why it is difficult for traditional conservatives, and conservatives in general, to have "clarity, force and refinement of their arguments." It is not necessarily the failure of conservatives, but the inherent properties of conservatism itself.

OK, I Understand

Our Girls

Lloyd Marcus over at American Thinker, who signs off as (black) Unhyphenated American, has written a heart-felt ode to conservative women.

He rewrote the words to the Temptations' song "My Girl" and changed the title to "Our Girls." Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham and of course Sarah Palin feature in his song. It is cute and sincere. I think is an American tradition to have such "gung-ho" women, in the mold of Annie Oakely of "Annie get her gun" fame, and many other brave and dare-devil women who are not afraid to shoot (words or bullets).

OK, I understand. 

Also, I doubt these same women would mind being called "Our girls." Ideologically leftist women are often die-hard feminists, and would never acquiesce to being mere "girls." But Marcus's phrasing is part endearment, part admiration. It fits perfectly.

Here is the link to the savvy Marcus's version, which he cuts off before the end (the album is for sale. That is also the American spirit). And he has a very good voice too.

And here is the link to the Temptations' original "My Girl."

Why don't black Americans write and sing such lovely melodious songs anymore? Well, as usual, I have my own ideas about that, and will post about it sometime soon.

Don't Mess with Scandinavian Women

A lesson learned too late by Woods

The three blonde-haired photos
are of the same woman - Jamie Jungers.
The dark-haired woman is Mindy Lawton.

Hmmm. More women coming out of the woodworks^TM. But, my original thought that he's looking for his mother in these women still holds. The blonde Jungers isn't really a blonde (her roots are too dark). And the top two photos of hers don’t resemble much the one on the bottom right. Maybe they are more recent? I wonder which look she presented Woods with?

Despite the terrible consequences of this strange, sad and clearly pathological behavior, the internet has gone "viral" with jokes. I suppose this is one way to tone it down. I think Woods has been incredibly hubristic, not just in his stream of women, but in his carelessness at not covering his tracks. It's as though he was entitled to it all. I wonder if he will ever humble himself (after all this humiliation).

Saturday Night Live has a funny skit. Some musician has set Woods's infamous voicemail to a mushy romantic song (scroll down the page).

And even Elin's golf club rage (I'm sure that was what happened) has made its rounds as comedy.

But, one thing Tiger forgot (or didn't realize) is that those Scandinavian women are the toughest feminists around. They are not going to take anything lying down.

Tiger Woods's Preferences

Where does Elin Nordegren fit in?

Clockwise from top:Tiger Woods's mother,
Jaimmee Grubbs, Kalika Moquin,
Rachel Uchitel

No one, as far as I know, has commented on the women that Tiger Woods took up as mistresses, and compared them to the woman he married. That is what I will attempt to do now, and provide my own explanations.

All three of the (alleged) mistresses who have come out have a hybrid Hispanic/Middle Eastern/Asian look. His wife, on the other hand, is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Nordic Scandinavian.

So what attracted Woods to these brown/yellow-toned, doe-eyed women? My theory starts with that...they look like his mother – or more beautiful versions of his mother.

And why did he marry this Nordic, white woman? My other theory is that she is the trophy wife: blonde, blue-eyed, young slim (ex-model). She also seemed wife material; after all, she was a nanny when Woods met her.

It is no surprise then, that within 21/2 years of marriage, Woods started his affair with Grubbs, the kind of woman whose looks he obviously prefers. This affair went on through the births of both his children with Elin Nordegren.

In line with my theory of a trophy (i.e just-for-show) wife, here is the family photo of Woods, Mrs. Woods Sr. and the young mother of Tiger Woods’s children, at a photo shoot to commemorate a bronze statue unveiling of Woods and his late father.

Family photo at the unveiling of the
bronze statue of Woods and his father
at the Learning Center in
Anaheim California, January 21, 2008

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one surely fits the bill. Elin has been almost erased out of the (family) photo. She is wearing a nondescript black suit and merges easily into the background. She is not holding her daughter, but that role has been given to Woods’s mother, who stands out in her gold and yellow jacket, placed front and center. Tiger leaves his wife alone in the back (the background). The looming confident bronze statues of Woods and his father are more in line with Woods’s and his mother’s postures, rather than with that of the diminutive figure of his wife.

Woods’s daughter - and newborn son - resemble their paternal grandmother, and seem to have nothing in common with their mother.

So, Woods got his trophy wife, kept on the side women whom he preferred to be with, and still gets to pass his lineage more in keeping with his side of the family than with that of his wife’s. He had it all, for a while.

Here are a couple of shots of Woods and Nordegren. In the many photos of them together, I haven’t found a single one where Woods looks at his wife in a loving or adoring manner. It is almost always Elin who does so. Except for this one (below right), which was taken just as they were engaged/married around 2004, but Woods has a more excited and surprised look than an adoring one. The dishevelled Nordegren on the left is at an official golfing ceremony in October 2009. She seems to have lost her lustre and attractiveness. She is wearing little, if no, makeup, similar to her appearance at the unveiling of the bronze statues, and looks like she's being slowly transformed into the nondescript (unloved?) wife.

In Defense of Wallpaper

Which makes a splendor out of any home

Bold wallpaper in Coronation Street interior

I hardly watch any series, serials or sitcoms. But, one that I follow is the gritty working class British soap opera (I think the longest standing), Coronation Street, which the CBC obligingly airs six months later than the British schedule. The actors are all excellent, with their Western England accents. All the characters show a resilient cheerfulness, where tragedies never handicap anyone, and a loss is soon forgotten in the pursuit of a possible gain.

One think I've noticed, which I don't think occurs in any other sitcom, is the abundance of wallpapers. From gaudy silvery leaves to delicate poppies, and entangled vines and flowers to modern, monochromatic versions of old-fashioned designs, decorative paper covers the walls of almost all the homes in Corrie Street.

I wonder if wallpaper has been relegated to working class homes in Britain? The fanciful and opulent these days prefer their walls stark and bare, showing off their wealth with "less is more" pretentiousness. Yet, they don't know what they're missing. The abundance of pattern that adorns the homes of these modest people surely influences their charitable spirit and cheerful bearing. An empty and sterile home breeds empty and sterile personalities. Wallpaper converts the poor man’s home (any man’s home) into a rich and warm abode. The intricate repeat pattern splendor of shapes and forms highlights generosity and abundance. How can one remain stingy and dissatisfied when the walls are covered with such glory?

Beauty and the Transcendent

A plea from Pope Benedict XVI

The Sistine Chapel

Pope Benedict XVI recently addressed  a group of invited artists assembled at the Sistine Chapel. He said:

Beauty, whether that of the natural universe or that expressed in art, precisely because it opens up and broadens the horizons of human awareness, pointing us beyond ourselves, bringing us face to face with the abyss of Infinity, can become a path towards the transcendent, towards the ultimate Mystery, towards God. [1]

Through a dogged study of film art, I have tried to show the inevitable relationship between art and the transcendent. I have also demonstrated, I hope successfully, that artists are free to chose their own transcendent, even to make it up to suit their perceived needs, but that deviations from the true transcendent degenerates into chaos, like Bruce Elder's films, or forces the artist to construct his own demise, like Rothko. Clever artists who manage to avoid some of these pratfalls simply end up making mediocre, unambitious works.

But, I kept trying to put beauty into my analyses. Elder's films have moments of illuminating beauty, which I think Pope Benedict correctly calls "a seductive but hypocritical beauty." The sordid chaos in Elders' films is so overwhelming that the predominant imagery that remains is one of ugliness and not of beauty. Rothko couldn't make discernible, understandable imagery; he was the master of illusions. So his work shone because he refrained from adding real elements to his work, and relied on paint: its substance, texture, light and tones. It's like someone trying to make beauty out of fireworks. If he had put real figures into his paintings, I bet they would have taken the forms of the devils of his psyche.

Pope Benedict quotes another pope in his speech, Paul VI, who addressed artists in 1964 pleading with them to join forces with the true transcendental God in their creations. Pope Paul VI says:

We need you. We need your collaboration in order to carry out our ministry, which consists, as you know, in preaching and rendering accessible and comprehensible to the minds and hearts of our people the things of the spirit, the invisible, the ineffable, the things of God himself. And in this activity … you are masters. It is your task, your mission, and your art consists in grasping treasures from the heavenly realm of the spirit and clothing them in words, colours, forms – making them accessible.

This has always been the case. Christianity has always needed its artists, not just to disseminate its teachings in image form, but to capture the essence, the transcendence, of those messages. Even at the level of simple inquiry, Pope Benedict affirms that this journey is "a path of beauty which is at the same time an artistic and aesthetic journey, a journey of faith, of theological enquiry." Faith, inquiry and beauty are intertwined. He continues: "The way of beauty leads us, then, to grasp the Whole in the fragment, the Infinite in the finite, God in the history of humanity." Beauty leads to knowledge, to discernment and revelation, to truth.

Pope Benedict invited this current crop of world-famous artists to join him in this trajectory of art through beauty to the true God. My pessimism in this subject forces me to say that artists will not heed much of what he says, being so focused on their own needs and "visions." But, if one or two listen and respond, then perhaps his speech will not be in vain.

But, Pope Benedict’s efforts to connect with artists at their den of the infamous 2011 Venice Biennale leads to precisely the kind of place where beauty is "seductive but hypocritical…[a beauty] that rekindles desire, the will to power, to possess, and to dominate others… A beauty which soon turns into its opposite, taking on the guise of indecency, transgression or gratuitous provocation."

It is better for him to seek true artists and bring them to him, rather than he compromise and hope to meet them at the biennale lair.

[1] Full Text of Pope Benedict XVI's Address to Artists

Who is the Real Antidote to Sarah?

Could it be Hillary?


The media are abuzz with comparisons of Palin with Obama. I agree with many of them, especially the uncanny mirror-image, least of which are the black male/white female and the ephemeral Barack vs. down-to-earth Palin ones. But the symmetry goes a little askew when we realize that Palin is more liberal than conservative, whereas there is no doubt of Obama's left-leanings. And one would think that true conservatives would go for the real deal - a conservative white male - rather than a neo-connish white female. But, Obama's awful moment saying that small town people bitterly cling to their guns and religion has hit deep and hard. I'm not surprised that Palin's clear, unapologetic embrace of these things that Obama scorned has won her so many followers. That is certainly a great part of her appeal.

But, is Obama her true challenger? If Obama squeaks through to another presidential run, if Palin decides to go for 2012, and if the famously cautious Hillary Clinton tries her luck again (a lot of ifs, I know), I predict that Palin's true nemesis will be Clinton, not Obama.

Clinton has been going through months of grinding work traveling the world as Secretary of State. She shows surprising moments of bluntness, clarity and forthrightness. One of which is when she challenged the Pakistani government of not doing all it can to find bin Laden. This Vanity Fair article on her, albeit very positive and glowing (something I doubt the magazine would acquiesce to for Palin), describes her as a dedicated, focused and hardworking politician, who genuinely wants to do something positive for her country. She also comes across as surprisingly kind and considerate, as well as showing the occasional good-will to party with her (lesser?) colleagues.

I think she will be the formidable foe for Palin. They probably hold similar views on many things, seeing that Palin shifts center right, while Clinton is center-left, and both edging more towards the center as time goes on. Clinton may be the surprise deal coming closer to conservatism than expected.

I think also, despite Obama’s offer of the post of Secreteray of State to Clinton, she has been bounced around and bruised quite a bit by Obama and his entourage. The strange betrayal over her husband’s “racist” remarks in South Carolina during her presidential campaign, her humbling performance of campaigning for Obama after her defeat, and now her almost thankless job of putting American on a positive, if not leadership, role for the rest of the world, is going more-or-less unnoticed. But, this is the kind of work, hard and dedicated, that Palin shunned when she left her governorship. The kind of work which would have seasoned her well for what could be the fight of her life in 2012. Clinton might just be that competitor.

The World Keeps Turning

Even if we stop for a short while

Sorry for the hiatus, dear readers, but there is a lot to report on. Starting with my review of a documentary on the Sherman brothers who wrote some of the most memorable children's musicals, the Pope on beauty, Sarah and Hillary, and Martha on Rachel. And many more to follow in this fascinating world of ours.

Still a No for Palin's Book

After reviewing two more reviews


A couple of days ago, I commented on the shallowness of Sarah Palin's book, where I deduced from reading reviews and articles that it doesn't tell us much about her political ideas, philosophies and future aspirations.

Here is a very good article at Pajamas Media (what kind of name is that!) where Rick Moran voices my concerns.

At another post, I talked about Peter Brimelow of Vdare commenting that he was "impressed," but all he provided was a quote from the book. Recently, he has written a full op-ed (a rambling 1,700 words) on the whole book, and he couldn't convince me of the impressiveness of the book. In fact, he says very little about the book (is that because it has very little content?), and devotes his article to trying to explain the Palin phenomenon.

Some clarification. I mention Brimelow and Vdare because they purport to be some sort of conservative site which is fighting for national integrity (mostly through immigration restriction). So their opinions should have some weight, more so than other sites. I find in this article, that it isn’t necessarily so.

Mainly Brimelow reiterates that Palin’s appeals to the public is her small town, gun-toting, blue-collar, church-attending background, with a son in the military.

Brimelow writes sympathetically about Palin's resignation from Alaska's governorship. I remain skeptical. Politics is a grueling game. If she can't handle the fight up there in Alaska, how does she think she can take on Washington?

Brimelow makes too much of Palin's understanding of the mortgage induced recession. From the quotes Brimelow provides, Palin never connected this with minorities. Whether she's being politically correct or she's unable to see it, it is still an important omission on her part.

Since Vdare is dedicated to immigration restriction, of course Brimelow has to bring up Palin's position on immigration. He writes "The issue is completely unmentioned in Going Rogue." Yet, didn't her presidential candidate team member have a strong position on immigration, going for the "comprehensive immigration reform" platform? How could Palin leave this crucial national issue "completely unmentioned?"

To make up for this, Brimelow resorts to a November 17, 2009 Rush Limbaugh interview of Palin where he asks her about immigration. Palin mentions border security briefly - but doesn't elaborate on "comprehensive immigration reform" that McCain was so adamant about. Either she doesn't want to bring up the controversial issue, which might hurt her book, or she doesn't think it is important enough.

All-in-all, based on Brimelow’s long but insubstantial review, and Rich Moran’s much more lucid one, I will hold my original view that Palin’s book gives us nothing important about her politics, and I will refrain from buying it.