Cultivated Weeds

Cultivated Weeds
[Photo by KPA]

The house next door had owners who tended a pretty flower garden in the front. They sold the house a couple of years ago, and it was on the market for up to a year. The new owners have never restored the garden. Instead they left it to grow weeds and other wild flowers.

I took the photo above a couple of days ago. I think the flowers are from the "hidden" seeds of the original garden. It looks pretty and colorful, and the "garden" spills onto the sidewalk, but it would be better if we got the original garden back.

The Chinification of Karlie Kloss

The Chinification of Karlie Kloss

Karlie Kloss, an American fashion model who is highly in demand these days, is transformed from a fresh-faced mid-western girl with a genial smile into an anorexic Vogue fashion face who looks Chinese. Her blue eyes have morphed into dark slits, her wavy reddish-blond hair has darkened into a black mop, and even her complexion has changed ("yellowed"?).

Admittedly, she is a bit of a chameleon. Here she looks like Lauren Bacall, and here a charmless Brigitte Bardot. But better Bacall or Bardot than a Bing Bing.

Karlie Kloss at the Eve NY garment factory in China
wearing a $2,570 Miu Miu double-faced wool coat
(From Sept 2011 Vogue)

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The September 2011 issue of Vogue (curiously silent about September 2001, it is after all the tenth anniversary) has this on its cover:

"Made in China: The explosive rise of a style superpower"

I was genuinely interested to see what fashion designers and models there are in China. But it turns out there are none, at least according to this Vogue issue.

There are 22 pages dedicated to fashion in China, with nineteen of those in images (here is a blog which has posted all the images). But "fashion in China" turns out to be an elusive term. The model (there is only one) is the American blue-eyed, blonde-haired Karlie Kloss, who has been given the "Asian" look with dark straight hair (it looks like a wig, but that may be the point), her high cheek bones emphasized with careful coats of blush, and her eyes slanted with the help of eye-liner and other make-up tricks. And all the designers are Western, from the American Michael Kors to the British Stella McCartney (but Vera Wang doesn't figure amongst this illustrious group).

There is a parade of Chinese "cultural icons," such as film director Lu Chuan, actors Daniel Wu and Bing Bing, "novelist, race-car driver and renowned blogger" Han Han, and jeweler Bao Bao Wan, who are photographed alongside Kloss. Even the diminutive workers at the Eve NY sweat shop are presented as iconic figures, despite the 5"11 Kloss looming beside them. And her Miu Miu "double-faced wool coat (at $2,570)" resembles their white-collared uniforms. All of Karlie's clothes take reference (in color or in concept) from these "iconic" Chinese.

The locations for these photo shoots are also iconic landmarks : the Great Wall, the Pangu Plaza in Beijing, a sweat shop, in the Forbidden City.

Kloss has already appeared in the August 2010 and May 2011 issues of Chinese Vogue, so it is apt that American Vogue should solicit her help with their China-based article. After all, she is now the Western expert on all things Eastern.

The title of the Vogue article says it all: Go East. This is of course after the famous quote "Go West, Young Man," where going West meant adventure, discoveries, and even wealth (gold, land, etc.). But what does going East do for us now, and especially if it is a young woman (a fashion model at that) who is leading the way?

Western cultural guardians better be careful. The Chinese are not admiring our culture as much as finding ways to take from it, and there is more to take from us than they are able to give. They take our elaborate and sophisticated ideas and throw back at us their cheap and inferior "Made in China" versions. Before we know it, we will all be Chinese.

Pei in the Sky

- Building on the left: I. M. Pei white CIBC building
- Building on the right: Mies Van der Rohe's TD Centre 
(a single building from the complex)
[Photo by KPA]

I. M. Pei's 1973 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building (left in the above photo) stands next to Mies Van der Rohe's Toronto Dominion Centre complex (only one of these buildings is visible in the above photo). Here is a comprehensive description of the TD complex, including photographs, and here is information on Pei's CIBC building.

Van der Rohe's building above is part of a carefully designed complex of buildings that project up into the air, and expand outwards on the ground. The Pie building is a single highrise, although it is part of Toronto's downtown skyscrapers.

- Building at the back: The original 1931 CIBC building by
architects Darling and Pearson /York and Sawyer
- Building at the front: I. M. Pei's 1979 CIBC building
[Photo by KPA]

The above image is Pei's 1973 CIBC building next to the original 1931 CIBC skyscraper, which was built by Canadian architects Darling and Pearson with the American York and Sawyer acting as consulting architects.

Below is the ceiling inside the Pei bank building with its banal structure and built-in ceiling lights. And below that is the ceiling of the original 1931 CIBC structure with turquoise and gold moldings which were influenced by the Baths of Caracalla in Rome ( I discuss this further here), and one of many chandeliers hanging from an elaborate medallion.

Ceiling and lights from the Pei CIBC building
[Photo by KPA]

Darling and Pearson /York and Sawyer's original 1931
CIBC ceiling and chandelier
[Photo by KPA]

My point is that Pei is an inferior architect. He seems to be able to convince people of his buildings' importance through some architectural concept such as minimalism, and overbearing size. Minimalism can also be the philosophy behind bathroom tiles, and that is what the ceiling in Pei's CIBC building looks like. The exterior doesn't look much better. The glass in the building's windows reflect its surroundings (whether it is the sky or the looming skyscrapers), and merge the building with its environment, further adding to its banality.

Van der Rohe also used minimalism and overbearing size, but he also worked with form and color to infuse his structures with power, giving us his grand TD Centre complex. For example: The dark steel structures set the complex apart from the surroundings, making it stand out; The windows are bronze tinted, adding unexpected bursts of color that contrast with the dark steel frames; The grouping of six buildings, of varying heights, adds spatial complexity.

One way to judge a building is to stand next to it. Van der Rohe's complex feels grand and imposing. Pei's looks like another, hurriedly constructed, highrise (the rage all over downtown Toronto these days). One hardly notices it passing by, or even standing beneath it.

Van der Rohe's Toronto Dominion Centre
wraps around the art deco building of the Design
Exchange in an interesting way. The gold-covered
Royal Bank building is in the background.
[ Photo by KPA]

Pei is the architect behind the glass pyramid that stands next to the centuries-old Louvre palace. There is a jolt of interest, an avant-garde technique of shock factor, seeing these two structures juxtaposed, and it is clever to have the glass structure act as some kind of prism through which one can view the palace. But nothing much remains after the cleverness has worn out. This is perhaps the strategy of minimalism, to pull us in (to seduce us) with clever ideas. The Pei pyramid is itself the epitome of an empty shape, an empty idea. It is not a building as much as a skeleton, an incomplete structure, which gains some of its strength by parasitically swallowing the external world around it.

But Pei's cleverness quickly disintegrates into ugliness. Here are examples of his structures. Here is Pei's addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C (and as the linked article asks: "Guess which one is falling apart?"). Pei's addition reminds me of Louis Kahn's buildings. Kahn is an American architect who made his name with a fort-like building he designed for the Bangladesh National Assembly. Here is what I wrote about Kahn:

[The]...ultimate conceit of these modern architects...means of forcefully interjecting into society their inner drives and inconclusive ideas.

I think that is why they are such globe-trotters. They cannot commit to a local style, where eventually the inhabitants will demand a building they can relate to.

By shifting geography constantly, they can dot the world's landscape with their inner musings, until they either get rejected, or find another location and move on.

This was how Louis Kahn lived.

There is no-one to call out Pei's odd, and often ugly, designs. So far at least. Like Kahn, he might be hiding behind his foreignness to sell us his ideas: "This is the work of a minimalist, Chinese intellect," might be his argument, or one that his Western spokesmen might make for him. Using fancy words such as "minimalism" and "conceptual art" also allows these elitist, but ignorant, sophisticates to advance such projects. But, ordinary people will someday catch on when we've had enough of living with such edifices.

Multi-Culti Homosexuals and Lesbians

Here is an image, via View From the Right (from The Thinking Housewife, under the title "Portrait of a Family") which shows a black/white lesbian couple, with an Asian homosexual sperm donor, and the Asian-looking offspring.

Of course, there is a lot that is horribly wrong with this, as both writers have shown.

What struck me about this "portrait" is the expressions of the three adults.

The black woman looks uncomfortable, as though she's listening to, and following, some command which she does not want to obey, but has no choice in the matter. Why? Can't she delve into some inner morality of hers, dig out those sermons and Bible quotes that she surely must know, and act accordingly? Why are people having such a hard time following moral codes? I think the modern Church, society, culture, civilization, have failed such people, who have only pop culture and T.V. shows to turn to, and which makes them susceptible to aggressively immoral beliefs which they cannot tackle with their deficient systems. Of course, an obvious question would be why she couldn't find a black man, a black husband, to make a normal family with. I think black women have beaten down (or spoilt - just the other side of the coin) black men so much that even a few good black men are hard to find. Instead of being bitter, and turning lesbian, this is the time to rebuild that culture, not to destroy it further.

The white, butch-looking woman looks strangely satisfied with this menage she's acquired. She has no qualms about her "situation." Her protective hand over the Asian man shows she will be there to defend it all. She stands tall and proud, guarding her "family."

The Asian man looks shell-shocked but happy. He is the center of attention, along with the baby which he's "fathered." It is ironic that this lesbian couple would put a man as their focal point (in this picture, at least). But, he's not really a man, being a deviant homosexual. He seems less certain than the butch woman, but a little more stubborn (in his thoughts and ideas) than the black woman. The women have conceded to him holding the baby (because he's the "father," because he'll have to give it up soon anyway?). It makes sense aesthetically (photographers have a tendency to think in those terms), since it looks more (just) like him.

There was a time when we would run away, no, cast out, such freaks from our societies. Now, they get to pose for national newspapers.

And the baby's name is significant. For one, it is the name of a slave girl in a Turkish Sultan's harem in Mozart's unfinished opera of the same name. Here is a synopsis of the opera:

In Turkey, the Sultan Soliman has European slaves in his seraglio (Das Serail, the alternative title); two of them, Zaide and Gomatz, are in love, but the complication is that Soliman also has his eye on Zaide. The lovers ask their overseer Allazim (who is also a slave) to help them escape, and he eventually agrees to provide a boat for them. In Act 2 the runaways are brought back to face the Sultan's wrath. Allazim is also put in chains, but he tells Soliman that he once saved his life: as the commander of a Venetian ship he rescued Soliman from pirates, but he himself was taken into slavery. Allazim is pardoned immediately, but the Sultan is deaf to his plea for the escapees. And that is where it ends! However, an ending is provided on the recording I have (Orfeo 1983): Allazim inspires Soliman to show compassion, and the Sultan releases them, saying, "not only Europe, but also Asia can produce virtuous souls".

But I doubt that this mother has any love for Western culture, and least of all for a classical Western composer like Mozart. And would she even know about this relatively unknown opera? She'd rather give the baby a foreign-sounding, exotic name, burdening it with one more oddity it has to grow up with: A name which she believes has no real resemblance to the British culture it was born into. But at the rate things are going there, such "oriental" sounding names will be the norm, and "families" like this are making sure it will happen sooner than later.

But did Mozart get it wrong? Is the name for a female or a male? Searching on the web, I found several sources that translate Zaide as a Yiddish grandfather. Here is one:

Zayde/zaide (n.)
Grandfather: My zayde taught me how to throw a baseball.

But there are others which translate the name as Jewish for male or female elder. Other sources give the name Arabic origins (surplus, to grow), so it could be both male or female in Arabic also. Mozart's Zaide, which one would assume is a Turkish slave, is actually a European slave according to various write-ups of the opera, and this must be a euphemism for a European Jew in Mozart's era. So much for naming a baby.

How Liberals Start Young

Jonathan Knight (1789–1864)
Artist unidentified
Connecticut
c. 1797
Oil on paperboard, mounted on Masonite
34 x 24 in.
American Folk Art Museum, gift of Ralph Esmerian, 2005.8.1

I've written several posts about the young boy across the street. I've already mentioned his loud and boisterous activities on the front lawn of his house. I've talked to the father telling him to watch out for the dangers of letting him run around loudly, even though it is his home, since he can attract unsavory characters.

He must be really spoilt. I mentioned meeting him and his babysitter at the crowded Eaton Centre mall, where he was strapped to his stroller, but kept quiet with candy and pop. Then, he's allowed to run around, at times literally screaming, during his "play time" in the front yard. Young children don't need to scream, or yell loudly, when they're playing. He does this throughout his "play" period, which can last for a couple of hours (how utterly exhausted that must be at the end - and is that the point?!). It is a sign, I'm sure, of his rebelliousness, and the laxness of his guilty parents, who let him do whatever he wants, at least during those "play" periods. I say "guilty parents" because he is clearly spends the good part of the day with his Filipino babysitter or at the neighborhood day care center, while his parents are away. I've passed the mother in the street all dressed up in business attire, so she must leave him for the better part of the day to go to some office. So, they overcompensate with play and candy, all empty treats for a growing boy.

I've compared him to the Norwegian murderer, the blond and blue-eyed Anders Breivik, who it appears now is a product of a dysfunctional family (of course, much more so than this boy, but it is all in degrees). I'm not saying this kid will grow up to be a murder, but I'm pretty sure he'll grow up to be a liberal, and a Canadian one at that. And probably one of those elite liberals who run to their luxurious hills, and let the battles rage in the fields below to get their liberal ideologies in place (not for them, of course, but for everyone else).

I've said before that we need to prepare ourselves for the Götterdämmerung, the destruction, that liberals are working towards (whether they do it consciously or as a result of their ideology) in order to build their utopia. I wrote: "Our task is to prevent this destruction of our world."

Chasin' the Trane on Yonge Street

John Coltrane's "Blue Train"

Walking down Yonge Street yesterday, I heard from a distance someone on the saxophone. It didn't sound like a particular melody, just someone fiddling around with a lazy improvisation. It sounded good, and the tone was especially good.

I went into the Bay to check for Lancome's latest perfume O de L'Orangerie, and was out in about fifteen minutes (the perfume is not yet here in Canada). The saxophonist was still playing his amorphous piece. I went around the corner, following the sound, and found a young man, standing against the wall, playing on his saxophone.

I interrupted him and told him he had really good tone.

"Thank you."

"Are you Canadian?" I asked him next.

A slight pause: "Are you?" asks this blond-haired, blue-eyed young man, (I thought he might be Polish).

I laughed, and said I detected a slight accent, and yes, I am Canadian.

"I'm from Burlington [a Toronto suburb]."

"Oh, a Burlington accent."

Then I asked him if he knew any Coltrane.

"This?" he asked. And proceeded to play Blue Train.

"Yes. Great." I did a thumbs up, and walked away. I didn't want to stand there listening for every note. The piece is difficult, and I wasn't sure how this young (Yonge) street saxophonist would work out the improvised parts.

I could still hear the music a few blocks up. He was doing a good job.

Nail Polish that's Good for the Economy

From left to right: Fashion Ave Fuchsia, Spring Street, Central Park,
Lincoln Square Lavender, Uptown, Prospect Park, Mulberry Street
[Photo by KPA]

Bright nails are fun for the summer. NYC (for New York Color) is a nail polish brand that I recently found, where the colors are named after streets and places in New York City. My understanding is that these products are made in the U.S.A., and are not imported from China. I'm not sure if that is the reason for the incredible $2.25/bottle. Overhead costs like shipping, taxes, etc. must be reduced when products are manufactured within the country. I keep wearing the peach/pink Central Park, and have had to buy another bottle, on sale at 20% off! The colors are very good, they don't run, or chip off. They stay on the nails for a good four to five days, which is the norm for most (more expensive) nail polish.

These days, cosmetics are often a cheap (or a cheaper) way to change looks, unlike, say, shoes or even a dress. This is nail polish that is good for the economy, and I'm sure Donald Trump would agree with me.

Melanie Moore at So You Think You Can Dance: Beauty vs. Expression

"New Moon: Meadows" was choreographed by Katie Carroll and
Tonya Hughes, faculty at the Rhythm Dance Center in Georgia,
with music by Alexandre Desplat.

This is the dance that Melanie Moore performed at her audition for the television dance competition show So You Think You Can Dance. The actual audition video is full of interruptions by the "judges" who feel compelled to "express themselves" by talking loudly during this quiet performance. They were clearly moved by something, and I think there were some beautiful moments, which I discuss below. The Youtube video above is of Melanie performing at the National Jump Dance Convention in 2010 where she won the National Senior Female VIP scholarship which includes:

- $400 scholarship to a future Break The Floor Productions' Intensive within one year of issue
- One JUMP Tour Scholarship, to be used at any JUMP regional workshop
- One JUMP National Finale Workshop Scholarship.
- Eligibility to compete to be the National JUMP VIP at JUMP's National Finale in NYC.
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I've been watching the dance competition show So You Think You Can Dance almost from the start of its programing, and hardly missed an episode this season. I'm trying to see if dance, classical, artistic, dance can make a comeback. I think it can.

Melanie Moore seemed the likely winner from the start of this season, as she glided through into each consecutive week, until she made the finals. Despite the tension, and her modesty, she made it as the winner.

Her style is a mixture of avant-garde modern and classical ballet. She seems to be channeling a Swan Lake swan, despite the non-aquatic name of the piece, in her audition dance "New Moon: Meadows." She is also very strong, so there is a bit of gymnastic athleticism in her movements. With her ballet movements, she is expansive and extroverted, although she is only 5'4". When she reverts to the modern style, she pulls in and appears even smaller than her already small size.

Her dance "New Moon: Meadows" was choreographed by Katie Carroll and Tonya Hughes, faculty at the Rhythm Dance Center in Georgia, where Melanie studied before she left for Fordahm University in New York. The music to "New Moon: Meadows" is by Alexandre Desplat, a well known composer for film, including The King's Speech and Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer. I review the soundtracks for both films here (The King's Speech, at Camera Lucida) and here (Ghostwriter, at Frontpage Magazine).

Her audition dance (see the above video) appears in many other performances, so I think it is her signature piece.

Using these (slim) pieces of evidence, I think that she loves ballet, the beauty of ballet, yet she gets compelled to put in her "quirky" personality into her pieces. "New Moon: Meadows" was choreographed by her teachers at dance school, and I presume that they created this piece for her, to fit her personality.

This is the modern artist's worship of self-expression and individualism, which becomes "quirky" at its lowest denominator, and when fully expressed is simply ugly. I think the rejection of beauty is a modern phenomenon, and I've written about this in several posts (see the subject "Beauty" on the side panel). Beauty has standards, irrespective of the individual. Not many can attain the rigors of beauty (although beauty is there to be enjoyed by all). Artists are at the forefront of beauty. They create it, they maintain it, and they propagate it. When they have nothing to say about beauty (or with beauty), the world gets that much poorer.

A young dancer (artist) like Melanie is stuck in this world which understands beauty, yet undermines it at the same time. Her instincts, and artistic abilities, tell her to aim for beauty. Yet everyone around her encourages her self-expression, which doesn't have the beauty of ballet (I am reluctant to call her movements ugly, since she is really a very good dancer). Thus, this modern style of dance is advanced by her mentors and teachers.

Perhaps the only recourse for talented and sensitive dancers like Melanie is to break away from these teachers, and to study how dance contributed to history and civilization, and to recreate those traditions and ideas. I don't see a long life for modern dance.

The interesting thing is that Melanie is not studying dance at Fordham, but painting (art). I wonder why she chose this? Could it be that dance, or the dance instruction she received, has left her bereft, and she channeled her talents in the arts into painting and drawing instead?

Perhaps as she gets older, she might construct her own dance method and theory. After all, that is the tradition in America. It is great that she auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance, even as she attends Fordham as a painting student. That means she's still enthusiastic about dance. The national recognition through winning the competition will surely help her to develop independently the dance language and ideas she is searching for.

Last season's winner was also a young woman, Lauren Froderman, and she had a similar style to Melanie's: part athletic, part graceful, part inelegant. Her audition tape again show that her style was formed before she came on the program. And now, a year later, she has started a dance company which tours and teaches young dancers.

Recent Posts

I seem to be posting more than one post/day recently. I've added a new feature under "Recent Posts" where I'm listing my last five or six posts.

Gilded Ceiling Slide Show

Slide show of larger photos from the blog entry:

Gilded Ceiling

Joyless Behar

Joy Behar married Steve Janowitz, her
boyfriend of 26 years, in August (2011)

Here is a commenter (#31) and his observations:

"Who is he? Can't find anything about him except
that he is her boyfriend. No occupation, no history.
Strange. Reminds me of the old lady in
'Young Frankenstein' when she screams out...
"He vas my boyfriend!!'"

He's a retired school teacher.

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The heinous Joy Behar of The View takes the prize for heinousness even over Whoopi Goldberg. Every time I hear Behar speak, I cannot believe the venom with which she smears all things beautiful, good and true. I think she is truly a messenger of evil. At first, I thought that Barbara Walters, the show's director, took that lead. But Behar has come into her own.

I had mentioned The View only recently. I had found a couple of episodes of the show with the wedding dress designer Amsale Aberra as a guest, and was surprised at how quiet and non-threatening, and hospitable, Behar and Goldberg were towards her. After all, they are vocally anti-marriage.

Part of it could be that Behar was planning her own wedding (at the tender age of sixty-eight). Or more like a City-Hall-style non-religious-paper-signing (and a party afterwards) with the man she's been living with for more than a quarter of a century.

But so what if Behar is changing her mind getting "married?" She has so infected the institution, and probably influenced many young (and not-so-young) brides-to-be with her hateful and venomous injunctions against marriage over the years, that she is simply exposed as a hypocrite. I've already written about the hypocrisy of the liberal elite, who will mandate all kinds of society destroying injunctions, but will remain in the back as they push the lowly, low class citizens to act as foot soldiers at the front lines.

This late in her life, and having lived with her boyfriend for so long, her "marriage" really means nothing. Plus, her she is not expiating her sin, but is "marrying" for some private, and irrelevant, reasons.

I keep thinking that Barbara Walters is the poison in the group (or Whoopi Goldberg), but whenever I watch the show, I am struck by how terrible (evil) Behar is. Her comedic nature at times shows a lighter side, but even with that, she is hard and unyielding. She is a strange, joyless person.

Gilded Ceiling and Camera Lucida

The ceiling of the Old Head Office of the Canadian Bank of Commerce

[Photo by KPA]

I returned twice to view (and take photos) of the ceiling in the building on 25 King Street West. I think, besides the overwhelming beauty of the ceiling, what attracted me to it was that it mimics the colors of my own blog: pale turquoise with light yellow and gold, and a background that suggests a glow of light.

I got the colors (and the idea of light) from a photograph of the sky with clouds, which I transformed into my masthead. The "light" in yellow and gold followed naturally.

The pale blue within the octagons look like views into the sky, and the gold could be reflections from the sun.

Besides colors, I try to fill my blog with interesting patterns (stories), like the beautiful octagonal shapes that bring this ceiling to life.

So there it is, the roundabout way of creating something.

It's good to know that such places still exist that sharpen our senses, in our cities of careless structures and misshapen forms.




The Heritage Plaque on the building says:

The Canadian Bank of Commerce Building
1929-1931

Upon completion, this 34-storey skyscraper was the tallest building in the British Empire and was praised as the "greatest addition to Toronto's increasing, Manhattan-like skyline." It was designed for The Canadian Bank of Commerce jointly by the Toronto firm Darling and Pearson, and by York & Sawyer, the foremost New York City bank architects of the era. Rising in tiers, the building features richly carved Romanesque Revival detailing and a vaulted Main Banking Hall said to be modelled after Rome's Baths of Caracalla. A popular outdoor observation gallery on the 32nd floor - guarded by great carved heads with flowing beards - gave the public unobstructed city views until even taller office towers were built in the 1960s. After The Commerce merged with the Imperial Bank of Canada in 1961, the building became the head office of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, 1991
Heritage Toronto 2006

Gilded Ceiling

"Commerce, Industry, Integrity, Providence"
(From the medallion at the base of the chandelier)

[Photo collage by KPA]

The above images are of the ceiling of the Old Head Office of the Canadian Bank of Commerce (the bank is now known as the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce -CIBC - through a 1961 merger of the CBC and the Imperial Bank of Canada) on 25 King Street.

Here is what the brochure (given to me by an office worker) says about the building:

The Canadian architectural firm of Darling and Pearson was awarded the design contract by the bank on August 24, 1927...York and Sawyer, an American firm known for its Romanesque style banking buildings in the United States, served as consulting architects.

...An average of 750 workmen worked every day to get the completed in time for the bank's Annual Meeting in January 1931.

Architectural highlights:

- The banking hall was modelled after the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Its coffered ceiling, reaching a height of 65 feet, is painted a pale azure with mouldings covered in gold leaf. Three massive bronze electric chandeliers (then called "electroliers") help illuminate the magnificent hall and bring out the warm tones of the limestone walls.

In 1991, the architectural value and interest of [the building] was recognized by the City of Toronto under the Ontario Heritage Act, and in 2007 received a Heritage Toronto Plaque in honour of its 75th Anniversary.

Here is more detailed information about the bank's history, and some on the building.

"Commerce, Industry, Integrity, Providence"

Take a Walk on the Wildside (Update)

Toronto Eaton Centre

Take a Walk on the Wildside: Update

Yesterday evening, around 5pm, I was at the nearby Eaton Centre - the biggest mall in Toronto - which is walking distance from my home, and walked into a shoe store. Who do I see but little Jackson and, no, not with his mother, but with the nanny, who had him in a stroller. She was trying on shoes. Jackson was busy with some fast-food beverage of sorts, and some "high-carb" snack.

I walked over and said, "Hello Jackson!" I said to the woman that I was his neighbor from across the street. Then I asked if she was his baby sitter: yes. If he goes to the daycare around the corner from our street: yes. If she stayed in the house for the rest of the day, then she picks him up: yes. I asked fast, and confidently, so she had no choice but to answer. Then I said "bye" and walked away. But I came back, and asked for her name - "Mary Lou," she said, this time a little frightened (was I going to report her?). The woman, as I said before, is Asian, but now her accent verified to me what I'd know all along: that she's a Filipino maid. I looked down at Jackson and wished him a happy afternoon, stroked his head to comfort him, and left. The woman turned around and asked for my name, but I ignored her and walked on.

The whole episode was really depressing. This woman is hauling this toddler, strapped in his stroller and lulled with sugar and snacks, into one of the busiest malls in the country. I rarely go to the Eaton Centre, and when I do, I bee-line to the store, and the item, I want, and try hard to make a quick exit maneuvering through rude and aggressive shoppers who would plough through me if I didn't get out of the way. And the center is not really well designed to manage the flow of people, so it always seems crowded. Imagine pushing a stroller through this environment. Imagine how horrible the view must be like from the young boy's stroller, with crowds of people almost walking into him, and an endless row of boring stores? And as I wrote before, this is a precocious toddler. How numbingly boring it must be for him?

Once again, the evil parents of this child have given up his safety, his upbringing, and even his future (what kind of person will he grow up to be, left to wander around the dangerous, aggressive streets of downtown Toronto so they, specifically the mother, can do whatever they want?).

Would the mother take her son to such a place, during prime shopping hours? Would she take him out so late in the day, when he should be home? There are a few lovely parks around, some only a subway ride away, which are not hard to maneuver with a toddler who can walk, where he can spend an hour or two on slides, swings and sand boxes, rather than get wheeled around a noisy and horribly boring mall.

Shame on them.

Take a Walk on the Wildside

[From Google Map]

Gerrard Early Learning Centre, between Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment
and Training and Take a Walk on the Wildside (the gray townhouse), "a business geared to Crossdressers, Transvestites, Drag Queens, Transsexuals, All Transgendered People, Their Spouses, Friends, and Lovers."

[Photo by KPA]

Notice how the child is of some undefined non-white race/ethnicity (is he Chinese/Mexican/Vietnamese). Multicultural in Canada means (and favors) non-whites.


The Gerrard Early Learning Centre is the brick townhouse next to the gray building, which sells transvestite/transsexual paraphernalia. An aboriginal center has taken over the large brick building which extends out onto the left. Imagine the children (toddlers) passing by the transvestite/transsexual store, with the occasional transvestite/transsexual actually passing them by? What are they to make of these creatures?

Early Learning Centre is a euphemism for day care center. I would think this appellation is to distract parents that the institution they are sending their children to for the better part of the day is a place where they can learn many fun things (sing nursery rhymes?), but they're not in the more rigorous school setting preschool implies. And it certainly not some glorified baby sitting center (but it is!).

The center also provides subsidized child care.

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I was right about the daily destination of my young neighbor.

Below is an excerpt what I wrote about him a couple of weeks ago:

The family across the street from my building has done a great job of renovating its home. There is a lovely garden. The house is a pretty duplex, with what looks like a Chinese family living above, which seems very friendly with this family.

Their son is a rambunctious little boy (a toddler), with blond hair and blue eyes, who tears around the small garden when he gets out to play (which is about twice a day).

A few weeks ago, I went to the father while he was in the garden and told him to be careful, that such a lovely boy with such a loud voice, playing outside, is likely to attract attention...

I felt sorry for the father. I couldn't offer him any solutions, but could only point out the dangers. I notice now that the little boy is playing less frequently outside, and there is always someone with him. Most of the time, though, it is the Chinese woman from upstairs [Note: I presumed she was a tenant in the townhouse]. I don't understand this. This goes back to my original concern (observation) that this family doesn't really seem to be thinking about the boy, but about their "needs": to have a nice house, to have a ready baby sitter (I'm not sure if they pay the Chinese woman, but they must since she's almost always with him now)...

Later on I wondered if the child (only a toddler, probably two years old) is being wheeled over to the neighborhood daycare center:

Early this morning, I hear the boisterous screams of my young neighbor which turn into uncontrollable crying. I look out my window, and there he is, with the Chinese/Asian (she might even be Filipino) woman pushing on one of his shoes. The boy then gets hauled up by the woman. He keeps turning back to his watching parents for help, hanging on to the railings of the fence, squirming and writhing. His crying turns into wailing, but to no avail. He's off somewhere. The clever "babysitter" (who is pretty small, but pretty adept at managing crying and struggling toddlers) pulls and turns him away from the parents, and walks across the street. His overweight parents stand watching on the porch, the father, much more concerned than the mother, leaning forward trying hard not to intervene in this necessary step of his son's education. The mother soon gets tired of standing watching, and walks back into the house. The father follows docilely behind.

I was right. He is sent to the day care center around the corner. I walked by it late in the afternoon a couple of days ago (around 5 pm - isn't that a very long day for such young children?), and passed by the multi-child strollers (three with about six in each) that were wheeling the children around (as an outing?!), and recognized his voice. I actually re-traced my steps to have a good look. And there he was, strapped in his seat, looking uncomfortable, but restrained and quiet. He was amidst a whole smörgåsbord of toddlers, Chinese, black, Hispanic, but with a smattering of white kids, and the stroller pushers (the adults, or employees) themselves reflected the multi-culti face of Toronto: one was a hijabed Muslim, another was Chinese, another was black, and one more was white. I looked up information on the day care via Google Map, and eventually found its name and services:

Location (Intersection): Toronto Central (Jarvis St-Gerrard St E.)
Ward: Toronto Centre-Rosedale (Ward 27)
Languages of service: English; other languages may be available
Eligibility: Birth-5 years
Fees: Subsidies may be available
Physical access: Not wheelchair accessible
Service description: Licenced child care centre - capacity 60
Organization type: Non Profit

"Subsidies may be available," and "Non Profit," ring warning bells. Subsidies for whom? Why non profit? I had mentioned earlier that I talked with a black woman (who sounded Nigerian) walking by the center if she had any children there, and she had one child. I asked if it was expensive, and she said that subsidies are available. This woman was running off (to work, I presume, and the government has obligingly provided her with a means to drop off her child while she's out making minimum wage). In fact, one can only be eligible for child care subsidy if one is working. Here the website for the City of Toronto on the eligiblity for subsidized child care:

To qualify for a child care fee subsidy you must meet the following five conditions:

- You must live in Toronto or be an employee of the City of Toronto.

- You must be the parent or guardian of a child under the age of 10 years.

- You must be employed, in school or in an approved training program. Even if you are not yet employed or in school, you may still apply to get on the waiting list. If you or your child has a special need, you may also qualify - learn more.

- You must be looking to place your child in care in a licensed child care program that has a fee subsidy contract.

Note: for some programs, you may have to pay a registration fee and/or a deposit.

- You must be in financial need. Eligibility for child care fee subsidy is based on a family's net income as reported on the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) statement or on the Revenue Canada, Notice of Assessment (NOA). If you are missing this information, call the Canada Revenue Agency. For your CCTB statement, call 1-800-387-1193. For your NOA, call 1-800-959-8281.

- Use the fee subsidy calculator to estimate how much you will pay for child care.

Note: if you are a new immigrant or a new resident to Canada, you can apply before you have to file your first tax return.

Here is some of what the Public Health Agency of Canada, under its Child Health division says:

Public Health Canada has a wide variety of programs and strategies to promote and protect the health of children. Family Health programs address such issues as low birth weight, healthy birth outcomes, postpartum adjustment, breastfeeding, parenting, child development and readiness to learn, and children's mental health. This is done through programs such as Healthy Babies and Children, Healthiest Babies Possible, prenatal education and support, Nobody's Perfect parenting, Preschool Speech and Language Services, and Kids Have Stress Too. Healthy Lifestyle programs address such issues as healthy eating habits, physical activity levels, safety in the home and community, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Healthy Lifestyle programs include Peer Nutrition, Child/School Nutrition, Playground Games, Breathing Spaces and the "Not to Kids" program. Communicable Disease programs aim to reduce the incidence and transmission of infectious diseases through assessment of immunization and response to communicable disease cases and outbreaks, including child care settings. Healthy Environment programs address the issues of food safety, health hazards, tobacco control and injury prevention in community settings. The Dental Health program aims to improve the oral health of children by providing dental treatment to children whose parents cannot afford to pay through private practice.

I would presume that day care centers can apply for numerous grants from the many programs slotted for subsidies. This is set up so that poor, single mothers can go out working some minimum wage job that cannot pay for private childcare.

(Of course, the issue is bigger than "poor, single mothers" in a culture that encourages households without fathers, who are usually better and more consistent wage earners than mothers or single mothers, a society with a liberal divorce system that encourages women to "do it alone," and a taxation system that funnels money into programs like these. But that is for another discussion.)

Two-career, wealthier families can also send their children to this day care, but, fairly, pay their share of the costs based on a fair sliding scale fee. The richer mingle with the poorer. The cultures mingle with each other. The smart kids sing songs with the more intellectually challenged ones. "We are all equal" starts early in the education of a child in liberal Canada.

This leaves the parents of this young child all day to do whatever they wish to do during the day. I had walked past the mother recently one evening, dressed in business attire. I presume that she was out at work. So, this family looks like the typical two-income family, with a new house, a young toddler, and a full time baby sitter.

Vera Wang vs. Amsale Aberra

The above image is Vera Wang's black wedding dress from Fall 2010. It is not on her website, but it is posted on Brides.com. In fact, Wang has removed all black wedding dresses from her website. I speculate that it's because they don't sell well. What bride wants to be in black? But Wang still cannot help adding black bows and ribbons to her multi-colored gowns, which come in whites, beiges, lime greens and yellows (no reds, so far).

Most brides still prefer their dresses in white (or ivory), so I wonder how Wang even makes good profit off her bridal designs? Not surprisingly, she has branched out into "regular" fashion design (I'm getting tired of shoddy dresses thrown at us by mediocre and irresponsible designers), as well as standard home decor, which other designers have done better. I don't see any particularly stand-out products from any of her departments.

Amsale Aberra, another wedding dress designer, has simply kept to her bridal background. She smartly designs bridesmaid's dresses also, and adds color and versatile styles to her bridesmaids collections, with dresses that that can be worn at other formal occasions.

Wang also of course designs bridesmaids dresses, but her women are those postmodern, beauty-hating women, who have no qualms about wearing a dress with irregular and uneven cuts.

I compare and contrast these two designers below.

In yesterday's blog, I posted a photo of a wedding dress by Vera Wang, calling it "Mounds of Chiffon." I should call the image above, "Mounds of Black Chiffon."

I wrote:

I think what's happening is that [Chinese in the West] cannot quite come up to par with the Western world and its civilization...

Here's my comment on Vera Wang's black wedding dresses in a blog post from last year, And the Bride Wore Black:

Wang's flashing bride in black is a negative statement on weddings, and life, in general. In our culture, white is for purity, whereas black is often for death, the mysterious (and evil?) underworld, darkness and obfuscation. And if the bride wears black, it is as though the she went to her own funeral. Or is a widow executing a vengeful act...And what real-life bride wants to be dressed in black, even with the modern woman's dearth of cultural knowledge and sensitivity?

I wrote about Amsale, another wedding dress designer, for the first time in a 2006 post: The Global Runway, 2: Formality and Culture

One of the most formal events of anyone's life is one's wedding. So, it seems hardly surprising that (Ethiopian) American fashion designer Amsale chose to design wedding dresses.

Amsale's Christian, formalized background, I would argue, led her to pursue one of the most formal clothings of all.

The rest of the post is here.

Amsale was on The View this summer, where she showed her designs in her friendly and charming manner, unfazed by those four threatening women.

Videos of Amsale on The View (Part 1 and Part 2).

Gown by Amsale

Compare and contrast: Vera Wang vs. Amsale.

"Cosmopolitan justice and global egalitarianism, regardless of nationality and citizenship."

This might just be the Chinese era: Vera Wang is designing Kim Kardashian's wedding dress (she already did Chelsea Clinton's wedding dress, which I describe with incredulity as "mounds of chiffon"); Chinese/white couples are one in three along busy Yonge Street, although Chinese/black couples are getting more frequent; Offspring of these mixed couples often identify more with their Chinese background; Chinese (well 1/2 Chinese) families appear to lead the way in child upbringing, but read the fine print here.

China has become a world lender, and is now a critique of American financial institutions, yet it stockpiled through cheap "Made in China" products.

But, I've seen fissures in this "dominance" for a while now.
Vera Wang's "Mounds of Chiffon"

Part of it is that well-to-do Chinese in the West see themselves as victims rather than as successful members of a society. Many in the group behave as though they have grievances that will never go away. They behave as though they're losing. I think what's happening is that they cannot quite come up to par with the Western world and its civilization they're trying to usurp, so they whine instead. And the most effective way to whine is by latching on to the already established minority grievance systems in the U.S. and Canada, such as discrimination, human rights, social justice, etc.

Here is a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, who has made his academic career working on such issues. I found his name on Mark Richardson's site, where Richardson posts a quote by him on national identity. Here is Richardson's short post:

Anthony D. Smith is Professor Emeritus of Nationalism and Ethnicity at the London School of Economics. This is his account of national identity:

National identity ... is felt by many people to satisfy their needs for cultural fulfilment, rootedness, security and fraternity ... Nations are linked by the chains of memory, myth and symbol to that widespread and enduring type of community, the ethnie, and this is what gives them their unique character and their profound hold over the feelings and imaginations of so many people.

(quoted in Kok-Chor Tan, Toleration, Diversity and Global Justice, kindle location 1276)

I got suspicious by the title of the book which the post came from: Toleration, Diversity and Global Justice. These are words associated with victimology and the culture of grievance. So I googled Kok-Chor Tan, and below is what I found.

Here is Tan's profile at the University of Pennsylvania's website:

Kok-Chor Tan
Associate Professor of Philosophy
University of Pennsylvania

My area of specialization is in political philosophy, and I am especially interested in problems of global justice, nationalism and human rights. Currently, I am thinking of a book-length project with the working title “Globalization and Culture: The Problems of Global Justice". At Penn, my teaching, which reflects these interests, includes courses on global justice, political philosophy, introductory ethics, and specialized courses on topics such multiculturalism and human rights. I have also taught courses in philosophy of law, biomedical ethics, and introduction to philosophy (freshman seminar).

Selected Publications:

1. Institutions, Luck, and Justice: the site, ground and scope of equality (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

2. Justice Without Borders (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

3. Toleration, Diversity and Global Justice (Penn State Press, 2000)

So there you have it: "Justice," "Diversity," Toleration," "Equality." It looks like Tan is critiquing these modern concepts, but here is an Amazon.com synopsis on his book: Justice without Borders: Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Patriotism (Contemporary Political Theory):

Tan believes that cosmopolitan justice need not deny the worth of the ordinary non-impartial values even as it defends a vision of global egalitarianism. Properly understood, it can set the limits for nationalist and patriotic efforts without denying the moral independence of these partial pursuits.

And here is quote from a review of the same book in the Journal of Moral Philosophy (page 1, [pdf file]):

This clear and highly convincing book articulates and defends a plausible version of cosmopolitanism while providing an excellent overview of recent debates. ‘Cosmopolitanism’, Tan begins, ‘takes the individual to be the ultimate unit of moral concern and to be entitled
to equal consideration regardless of nationality and citizenship’(p. 1). A major problem cosmopolitanism must face, particularly a strong cosmopolitanism such as Tan’s that is not content to seek a global economic minimum but wishes to address global inequality as well, is how to take account of special ties and commitments, particularly to one’s nation.

"Tan believes in cosmopolitan justice and global egalitarianism, regardless of nationality and citizenship." (Please excuse my reconstructed sentence using Tan's words from his writings.) How large and wonderful the world has suddenly become!

Tan is referred to as Malay. But a small and prominent population of Malaysia is of Chinese ethnicity, which is what Tan looks like (and his name demonstrates that). The Chinese Malaysians fiercely guard their ethnicity (and power) from the Indian and native Malay population. And these very same Chinese bring their politics when they immigrate to Canada or the U.S. (i.e. the West) in order to have their hand in the power play that will put them as high up in the diversity hierarchy as possible (which is the only power play in town), and which places them above blacks (and Indians, and Malay), and lower than whites.

On a side note (perhaps it is more important than that), one of Tan's forthcoming books is titled: Institutions, Luck, and Justice: the site, ground and scope of equality. I suspect that Tan's use of "luck" is not just some Chinese superstitious concept, but is his underhanded way of saying that a small group (whites) has all the trump cards (is lucky), but is unwilling to share equally these spoils with (the unlucky) majority. All this latter gets is what's left over, which isn't much. How is anyone to trust a "researcher" who capitulates to some fanciful concept as "luck" when his task as a professor, in a renowned research university, is to prove things right or wrong?

In terms of art and design, the angle I often use when looking at non-Western and Third World encroachment into the West, what we're getting is a facade of competence which on closer scrutiny discloses shabby standards. Unless we want to become like China and Malaysia (and even Japan, which makes its mark copying American and European technology and design), then we had better pay attention to this trend.

But back to the whining (which then leads to serious issues like Tan's research topics): I'm telling immigrants to go back to their countries of origin (all immigrants, second, third, fourth etc. generations, have "countries of origin"), if this particular country provokes their ire.

Lake Huron Contrasts

Lake Huron Contrasts
[Photo by KPA]

I tried to get the lines of blue in the distance to contrast with the wilder vegetation in the foreground.

Immigration and the English Language

I wrote recently about a couple of elevator incidents. In this one, I describe the strange Asian language that a family was speaking. (I can usually distinguish between the Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese and recognize when it is neither, and Vietnamese, since I spent some years teaching English as a Second Language at a Chinese immigration center.) The family is clearly new to the country, since even the children were speaking the language to each other. And children pick up English relatively quickly, school requirements and all.

But these children will most likely retain their strange accent. We can no longer go back to those charming quirks where Robert De Niro's "You talkin' to me?" can only sound effective in his Italianized American English. These accents are more alien, more persistent, and more widespread. I've already noticed that Chinese who look from a distance like they are "assimilated" Chinese Canadians speak a strange accented English with what I presume are Chinese grammatical influences, such as dropping the "s" at the end of plural words, or when speaking in the third person, as in "he speak."

This is deeper than an accent. It is a re-writing of the English language and creating a new idiom. Something like the pidgin English spoken by Caribbeans, which an Englishman would be hard pressed to understand.

Yet another colorful addition to our multi-culti smörgåsbord, which will quietly and efficiently do away with the beautiful English language.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe.



"This is not a (black) riot."

Portraits of Two Men: One a Gentleman, the Other Not

I post this photo of Fjordman along with Breivik's with some trepidation. But here is what I see.

The photo that most frequently appears on Google Image search for Breivik is the one I've posted above.

So far, there is only one photo of Fjordman online.

I cropped Fjordman's photo to show more of his upper body, so it is a better fit next to Breivik's photo.

Fjordman's background appears more expansive, more free. Part of this is because he is outside and free. And the green grass adds to this feeling of freedom in the open air.

Breivik is confined in the dark interior of a car. He is a relatively large man, so he appears more restrained, as though he is in a cage.

Both Breivik and Fjordman have half smiles. Breivik's is a little more pronounced. His expression is less friendly, and a little chilling. His eyes are distant, as though he's smiling at a private, macabre thought. Fjordman looks at the camera, and his smile is straightforward. But his eyes are more thoughtful, and challenge the viewer to look at more than his friendly demeanor.

Although Fjordman looks cerebral, with his round glasses, his arms suggest that he has built up strength and muscle, and can combat both physically and intellectually. Breivik's round stocky face looks like a wrestler's.

Breivik is wearing a red sweater, a symbol of his bloody actions. A larger photograph shows that his sweater has the Lacoste designer logo, usually a conservative attire. Fjordman has opted for a simple white t-shirt. But his uncropped photograph shows that he's wearing dark canvas pants and comfortable walking shoes, a contemporary, anonymous look which doesn't set him apart from the crowd, unlike Breivik's red Lacoste ensemble.

Homosexual Twitchings

I'm watching people carefully these days. Toronto proudly claims that it is the most multicultural city in the world. Just simple empirical observation shows that this is probably true. And my apartment building reflects that. I wrote recently about a conversation between two people in an Indian language that interrupted my work, which took place in the small courtyard beneath my window. For some reason, and I think it is because a couple of people started doing this so more are following, that small area has become a "watering hole" for people to talk (loudly) to each other. So, I've decided to make these incidents a way to observe people, their movements, the way they communicate to each other, their dress and presentation, etc.

This new incident, which really lasted no more than twenty minutes (but that is still twenty minutes of mindless, careless, inconsiderate interruption by two men speaking in loud voices) provided me with insights on homosexual behavior. The one talking the loudest and in the most self conscious manner was clearly a homosexual. He had an agitated air about him. He was twitching throughout the conversation, and especially when the other man was speaking. He kept moving his hands around, scratching his shin, stretching his neck, balancing back and forth on his heels, flexing his back muscles, rolling his shoulders. When he spoke, his body movements (such as prodding the air with his index finger) were more pronounced than those of the other man, who hardly moved at all. If I were to make an assessment, he looked infatuated with the other man. At the end of the conversation, the quieter man gave the homosexual a goodbye hug and rode off on his bicycle, a hug which the homosexual extended just a little longer. I'm not sure about this hug, although it could be a way for this man to say that homosexuals are huggable people, and he's not afraid to be associated with one (or even get called one), and that he's in solidarity with them all. The usual "we are all equal" mantra of the elite whites of liberal society.

As for the constant nervous twitching, I can surmise that homosexuals are generally more agitated and less at peace with themselves.

A diverse culture isn't simply about race. It also incorporates all cultural varieties, including homosexuals. Such is the "equality" set up of liberal governments: immigration is good (even Muslim immigration), homosexuals can get "married," multiculturalism makes us better people, etc.

Of course, this equality is for others, and especially the other, the non-white. The white liberal elite is above everyone else, and the common whites are at the lowest echelon. Neither are "equal." Homosexuals, and others like the disabled, belong with the "equal" group of the non-whites, but probably at a lower level. The white liberal elite calls the shots, and this hierarchy gives it the manpower to restructure society based on multiculturalism and (everyone else's) more-or-less equality.

Allah is not God

In a recent post about a barbecue bash at a Mississauga apartment complex,  Strictly Halal: Coming to your neighborhood, I wrote:

[In] the elevator this week-end, I saw a sign up for a barbecue party with this: "Food will be strictly halal." Not just halal, but strictly halal.

Slowly, incrementally, stealthily, our Muslim co-citizens are changing our landscape. "What's wrong with eating halal food?" you may ask. Well, the animals which the meat for this delicious barbecue comes from are killed IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, i.e. HALAL. So, these friendly Muslim neighbors are in effect forcing us to acknowledge this Allah, and by extension Islam. There is no tolerance in Islam, contrary to the beliefs of our multi-culti elites. It is Islam (or death).

I understood immediately that all this religious proclamation (halal food, etc.) has nothing to do with our God, but with a very different god. I don't think I've ever called Allah God. I've always referred to him as Allah.

Here's the View From the Right's Lawrence Auster elaborating on that point on his post, Why we should call the god of the Muslims "Allah," not "God":

My own usage, and that of many others, is not to use the word "God" when referring to the god of the Muslims, but Allah. The reason is that Allah is not the same as the God of the Bible, but fundamentally different. He is a God of unceasing hate and murder, a god of pure will, not a god who can be known and loved (as the Pope explained in his Regensburg lecture). Indeed, he is a god who commands death to people who believe in the God of the Bible in biblical terms rather than in Islamic terms. Therefore he should be referred to by his distinct Muslim name of Allah. He should not be given the dignity and legitimacy of the God of the Bible.

The rest of the entry describes how the Catholic Church goes through convoluted arguments saying that Allah is God, and therefore has no way to counter Islam that would so readily do away the Church. I'm sure, though, that this myopia is not confined to the Catholic Church, and the Protestant Churches (but surprisingly less so the Orthodox Churches) believe the same. Auster continues:

[T]he Catholic Church has got itself permanently screwed up by its official description of Muslims--in a Church document of the 1960s called Nostra Aetate and in the Catholic Catechism itself--as "fellow adorers of the One God." This articulation makes it impossible for the Church hierarchy to stand against Islam...

As long as the Church officially speaks of Muslims as "fellow adorers of the one God," it is impossible for the Church truly to reject Islam or oppose the Islamization of the West.

Purple Flowers by a Chain Link Fence

Purple Flowers by a Chain Link Fence
[Photo by KPA]

I've been trying to find out what this purple (city) wild flower is. I asked a woman walking by who looked like she might know about gardening. "It's from the mint family," she said right away, and confidently.

Searching online, it looks like it might be a spearmint.


Above is a sample of a leaf and a stalk I took. The leaf does have that strong minty scent.

"He who seeks beauty will find it"

I got a chance to watch the documentary on New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham once again (here are my two previous posts on him: Bill Cunningham, New York and "I'll Be Your Mirror"). My fascination with the film (and with Cunningham) is partly because it is about fashion, which Cunningham describes (in his Bostonian accent) as "the ahmor to survive the reality of everyday life," and that removing fashion "would be like doing away with civilization."

Watching the film this time around, I was able to catch a few more things. For example, the sound track to the film is by jazz musician John Lurie (here are samples of his music), whose raw music somehow fits with Cunningham's cut throat maneuvers through NYC traffic, exposed (and raw) on his bicycle.

But it was a phrase that caught my attention during Cunningham's acceptance speech while receiving the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. He bravely starts off in broken French (even his Boston accent cannot save it), and he says in English: "He who seeks beauty will find it." It is a wonder how this eighty three-year-old battles through life camera in hand. Because he knows he has to fight to find that beauty.

I scoured the web to see if "he who seeks beauty will find it" is part of a depository of famous quotes. But no, it is simply a Bill Cunningham quote, soon to be famous. Perhaps he said it with "he who seeks finds" in mind, from Matthew 7:8. Not everything he photographs is beautiful, but one can see his intent is to capture the beautiful, however clumsily it is presented to him. Our century is the least beautiful of the centuries. But, we are lucky that we have a Bill Cunningham, who through his ferociously persistent personality, will never tire to search for, and capture, that illusive beauty.

More Elevator News

I wrote in a previous blog about a sign in an elevator for a residents' barbecue which said that the meat would be "strictly halal." I should specify that I was only visiting that building, which is in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto. Mississauga is fast becoming the Muslim center for southern Ontario (and I wouldn't be surprised for Canada in general). For example, the city holds a three-day long Muslim festival every summer. Even multi-culti Toronto prefers to "celebrate" its diversity with more, well, multi-culti groups.

The building I myself live in is in downtown Toronto, where the diversity pie is more fairly doled out to as many diverse groups as possible. Here is an elevator story from my building.

As I was entering my elevator the other day, a couple of young children came out of their suite, and upon seeing me started to giggle playfully and talk in a language I had never heard of before. They really sounded alien, a little like the extra-terrestrial E.T. Their parents came along and continued in their language in voices which sounded more natural, and less helium-induced.

The elevator came, and there was one person (a youngish white man) already in there. I was in a hurry, the elevator couldn't possibly hold six people comfortably, and I was in no mood to stand in a confined space with people chattering "happily" in a language alien and strange to me.

So, I quickly pressed the "close" button, which threw them off. No more chattering, and funnily enough, no attempt to hold the door open. They saw what I was doing. But, wouldn't more considerate people wait for the other elevator (there are two elevators) instead of cramming into the confined space of one? Is this the kind of Third World over-population mentality we're going to have to put up with in mulit-culti Toronto?

I said to the man: "We are turning into Babylon! What language are they speaking! It sounds like some kind of Nepalese, or some Chinese dialect! Why don't they at least learn English before coming here!"

He looked relieved and started to laugh, which surprised me since I had already regretted saying that to him. Multi-culti defense stands high amongst liberal white Canadians.

"I think they should at least learn French and English," he compromised. "Fair enough," I replied. "Have a good day," he called out as I hurriedly left the elevator. I think the reality is beginning to horrify even the likes of him.

One battle at a time. Quebeckers makes no bones about requiring French proficiency from their immigrating aliens - English is a personal choice (or a business reality - how can they communicate with the behemoth that is English-speaking Canada otherwise?). The "inclusive" English-speaking provinces go out of their way to turn their lands into Babylon. Or worse, Muslim outposts which can easily turn into Muslim territory.

As I wrote before, the battle is long, and the war is surely imminent.