Category Archives: art and music

The Bullying Society

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Diane Ravitch has this up.

As I said in my comment there, bullying from children is just a reflection of the adults and culture around them.  We have shows like “Survivor” that encourage groups to pick apart others and zero in on a target.  My Boomer generation didn’t have violent video games which desensitizes one to violence.

I think these all feed into the bullying mentality. Pick on those that are different or weaker. Keep at it until they disappear–either through suicide or crushing their soul until their light goes out…the effect is still the same.

It has even broader implications than “just” bullying–creativity comes from thinking differently.  Bullying will crush the ones that think differently, limiting the greater impact they might have had on the world.

I don’t think the solutions are campaigns telling kids to stop bullying.  It’s too complicated a problem.  And it’s not the kids fault as much as it is society’s.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps…

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…I was flipping through the channels this morning, and happened upon Paul McCartney singing George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”…then the camera pans to Eric Clapton taking over singing lead and playing guitar. …later the camera focuses on the drummer, and you guessed it–it’s Ringo playing with passion.  And I think, but I’m not sure, one of the younger guitar player  might have been George’s son….or else he just bore a remarkable resemblance to him.

A poignant moment because Clapton and George were friends when Clapton had an affair with George’s wife.  Which led George to have an affair with Ringo’s wife…it’s wonderful they were able to get past it and reconnect.  And a wonderful tribute to George.

(We’re in something of a heat wave here…and the power has gone out three times while trying to post this.  I think the “hamster” overheated. haha)

A post script

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A post script to this blog…what I meant when I referred to Katrina is that I told them I thought the George W. Bush administrations’ slow response to the emergency was racist.  It was September, 2005, so it was only a month after the storm hit, but it was apparent to me.  What really shocked me was how only the one black woman agreed with me, again, subtly, but she saw it, too.    This why I probably began to think that Daniels was dismantling or weakening the Civil Rights Commission and blurted that out.

When I think about that interview and how I missed such a fabulous opportunity–a  life changer- because it would have been a career I would have enjoyed with its daily change, using the creative along with the analytical, and fighting for the underdog—and all the misery that mercury has caused me, I want to cry in despair.   This poison has taken so much more than can be neasured…

I give myself 24 hours to feel sorry for myself, and then move on…

A positive image of women

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Emme, the woman-as-a-model, had some positive words to say about being….well…a normal size woman….she loathes the term “plus size” and I do, too.

From the article:

“I think the word ‘plus-sized’ is really a derogatory term for anyone that just happens to have a curve,” Emme told Billy Bush and guest co-host Holly Robinson Peete on Friday’s Access Hollywood Live.

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As I’ve said in previous blogs, the pressure put on women to be super skinny is unhealthy.  It’s not realistic.

Truly, looking at the women called “sexeee” by men’s magazines….with no hips and fake boobs…their body shape more closely resembles a man’s….hmmmm….

Or it seems that mature women’s bodies are the objection—i.e., after childbirth.  When I think of some of the biggest stars…I see the women as more popular when they had young girl figures…really creepy when you think about it.

Sophia Loren would be called fat nowadays….

…and it’s not just the U.S. where women are affected.  Be forewarned–this video shows the progression of the disease and it is very difficult to watch:

Peace be with you, Anna in Russia, and all the women of the world.

Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines

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I heard about this song last month, and was shocked and disgusted by the lyrics.

“you know you want it”  (shows she’s resisting his advances)

“you’re an animal baby”  “let me liberate you”

“I’ll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two” (no explanation needed)

“Do it like it hurt”

“you’re a good girl” (but you want the “nasty”–he categorizes women into good and bad…bad being those that like sex and willingly come to bed with him….the good girls, however, he wants them — he alludes to wanting to break them–to make them into “bad girls” who like sex.  )

It’s just another reinforcement of domination instead of consensual sex.  He sees her and wants her and she has no say in the matter. He’ll be “pimping” her…

Also, there is a subtext of comparing her to the other women…she being the best looking “bitch” there and better than the “bitch” he had before….

Apparently, I’m not the only one objecting to this song and what it represents. (I would quibble at the “kind of rapey”–it IS about rape–very subtle, but it’s there.)

…and it doesn’t surprise me that NPR “thinks it’s fun”.  Good grief.

I haven’t seen the video, but by the description, all the men are clothed while the women are pseudo naked in skin colored thongs.  And this is not degrading them?

From the article:

Thicke has insisted, a bit guilelessly, that by having the women naked, he was pushing the boundaries. “We pretty much wanted to take all the taboos of what you’re not supposed to do—bestiality, you know, injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe—I just wanted to break every rule of things you’re not supposed to do and make people realize how silly some of these rules are.”

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Oh.My.God.  My head is spinning.  Injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe…yeah, that’s not rape.  It’s just sex with violence….

And finally, the “robin thicke has a big dick”.  Seriously?

Rick Ross

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I edited the previous blog on the Webb story.  I can’t stop thinking about it–it is so compelling.  So…

I went looking for more of the story with Rick Ross. 

I wondered about his background.  I started with wiki, but there wasn’t much there.  Next I found the above site and it seems that it was the inability to read that sent him down the drug road.  It must have been devastating to him to have the talent of playing tennis well, especially in the time of doors being opened by Arthur Ashe,  (a side note~ how ironic that there is a picture of Ashe shaking Reagan’s hand, when Reagan’s ignoring the AIDS epidemic unfolding around him could be blamed for Ashe’s demise)  and not be able to see that through.  He is probably an undiagnosed dyslexic…possibly toxic (yeah, I know, some of you are groaning, but seriously…people are more affected by toxins than even they can recognize…and black folk who live in poor sections of town are more likely to be exposed to toxins dumped.  And don’t forget poor whites, too.)

This doesn’t mean that I excuse the behavior, because many who are dyslexic struggle but somehow compensate and overcome it.  ( I know that I had to read something two or three times while in school and college in order to understand and remember it.  )

–Rick Ross could have been affected while in school, and this in turn perhaps affected his ability to read and do well in school Just sayin’

It’s also important to note that without customers, Rick Ross had no busine$$.  It wasn’t just the poor blacks, as this article states, but the wealthy customers, too.  They’re just as guilty.

As I read the article on Ross, I began to think of all the devastation of cocaine.

David Crosby has said that cocaine was responsible for the end of the 60s.  Well, the love and peace and Light of it, anyway…

<sigh>

Making a silk purse…

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…out of a sow’s ear is an old saying, but applicable here to describe the continued damage of No Child Left a Mind…which has not improved the public schools, and in my opinion, made them worse.

You cannot test potential.

You cannot eliminate arts and music from education.  Arts and music teach creative expression.  It’s with creativity that one can imagine solutions to problems that one might not have otherwise thought of.  Teaching to the test only teaches children to memorize answers, not think creatively or outside the box.

Politicians have no business setting education standards.  It’s obvious by continuing the failed policy of No Child Left Behind that they don’t have a clue.

 

Vision for the Blind

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NBC has this up on re-thinking vision.  (hat tip to val kilmer’s retweet .)

“We’re not going to hit you with our cane….

…well, not unless you deserve it…”

 

bwahahaha. Best line ever.  :p

In our “perfectionist” society, we are so judgmental and disappointed if things aren’t perfect.  This piece is so inspiring in that it highlights the need to back away from that thinking and enjoy and relish the not so perfect.

And once again it reinforces the idea that everyone has something to contribute to life on Earth….that we all have our hidden gifts to bring forth, if we could only recognize that the jocks and beauty queens and privileged are not the only worthy people…

…and that people are not the only worthy things on Earth…that everything–the plants, the animals, the birds–everything has a purpose and a gift to give.