Michelle Obama and the Arts

I celebrate the fact that Michelle Obama is taking a stand for the arts recently (Harpers Interview), together with the President's declaration earlier this month.  You can show your support for their position by sending a message here.  Some excerpts from recent press reports:

Michelle Obama recently said, "The arts aren't somehow an 'extra' part of a community's life but instead, they are the heart of a community's life. It is through music, literature, art, drama and dance that we tell the story of the past and we express hopes for the future."

She wants to bring that same consciousness to American youth. "We want to lift young people up," she said. "The country needs to be mindful that we have all these diamonds out there, and it would be a shame not to invest in those talents." 

 

The first lady is also aware of the international reach of the arts. "That's the beauty of arts and culture, music and dance," she said. "It's a universal voice. 

 

Shine on, you crazy diamond....

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

 

— Pink Floyd

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 A PROCLAMATION

Throughout history, the arts and humanities have helped men and women around the globe grapple with the most challenging questions and come to know the most basic truths.  In our increasingly interconnected world, the arts play an important role in both shaping the character that defines us and reminding us of our shared humanity.  This month, we celebrate our Nation's arts and humanities, and we recommit to ensuring all Americans can access and experience them.

Our strength as a Nation has always come from our ability to recognize ourselves in each other, and American artists, historians, and philosophers have helped enable us to find our common humanity.  Through powerful scenes on pages, canvases, and stages, the arts have spurred our imaginations, lifted
our hearts, and united us all without regard to belief or background.

The arts and humanities have also helped fuel our economy as well as our souls.  Across our country, men and women in the non-profit and for-profit arts industries bring arts and cultural activities to our communities, contributing tens of billions of dollars to our economy each year.  Today, arts workers are revitalizing neighborhoods, attracting new visitors, and fostering growth in places that have gone too long without it.

As we work to bring the power of the arts and humanities to all Americans, my Administration remains committed to providing our children with an education that inspires as it informs.  Exposing our students to disciplines in music, dance, drama, design, writing, and fine art is an important part of that mission.  To promote arts education and pay tribute to America's vibrant culture, First Lady Michelle Obama and I have been proud to host a White House Music Series, Dance Series, and Poetry Jam.  We have been honored to bring students, workshops, and performers to "the People's House;" to highlight jazz, country, Latin, and classical music; and to invite Americans to listen to the music of the civil rights movement, hip-hop, and Broadway.

By supporting the fields that feed our imagination, strengthen our children's education, and contribute to our economy, our country will remain a center of creativity and innovation, and our society will stand as one where dreams can be realized.  As we reflect on the contributions of America's artists, we look forward to hearing their tales still untold, their perspectives still unexplored, and their songs still unwritten.  May they continue to shed light on trials and triumphs of the human spirit, and may their work help ensure that our children's horizons are ever brighter.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2010 as National Arts and Humanities Month.  I call upon the people of the United States to join together in observing this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs to celebrate the arts and the humanities in America.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the
two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA

Bear basics

Woman scares off charging bear – with a courgette.

 ...a what?  That is one of these in the US and at this time of year they can get really hard and heavy!

Cucurbita pepo ovifera (Zucchini)

 Here is the story from the Guardian (UK):

A woman fended off a bear attack on her back porch today by using the first weapon she could reach – a courgette. The woman was stirred by midnight noises in her garden near Frenchtown, Montana. She went to investigate and found a 90kg (14st) black bear attacking her 12-year-old collie. She screamed to divert the bear's attention but it charged her.
"The bear growled and was very aggressive, and tried to come inside her back door," said Sheriff Lieutenant Rich Maricelli of Missoula County. "She was able to stop the pursuing bear by improvising."
The bear took a swipe at her with its paw and tore her jeans. The woman jumped back and grasped the nearest object on her kitchen counter inside the doorway – a 30cm long courgette. She threw the courgette at the bear from a distance she estimated to be about a metre, The vegetable hit the bear on the top of its head and the animal fled, Maricelli said. State wildlife officials started a search for the bear.

(Exactly why the 12 year old Collie was in the garden at midnight in bear country is not made clear but now the police are hunting down the bear?) 


On a related note(kind of) here is a photo from Joe Wilson:

Now I dont have to worry if I leave my claw clippers at home.

Arts Funding Today

Arts impact all aspects of our lives.  Art can change attitudes and open eyes. Without art, nations become myopic and insular.  According to my recent issue of Modern Painters, the British government allocates $12.38 per person for arts funding.  Germany, France and Finland are even higher. 

In the United States we allocate 54¢ per person. 

Here is a fun video , titled An Important Message as artists all over Britain fight for not cutting spending on the arts, which the current government is trying to do.  Anglophiles can go here to sign a petition in support of my home country's UK arts funding.

Peace and Chalk

CHALK4PEACE is one great organization!  John Aaron is a artist dedicated to raising consciousness around the planet and getting all of us involved in expressing ourselves through art.   John began CHALK4PEACE in 2003 as a sidewalk event chalk project for children and has grown the movement to encompass four continents.  Anybody can put on an event with some spare sidewalk and some chalk.  All it involves is getting kids and adults together to make art, have fun expressing themselves, and focus on peace in our world.  I like the fact that young minds can make art with one of the oldest drawing mediums—pure, simple fun! This in a time when arts programs are being cut in many of our schools.  I encourage you to visit his website and donate something if you can.  Also, there are many CHALK4PEACE events going on in September, so there may be one near you that you can visit.

There is a blog here and you can also visit them on Facebook.

Oh my! Stephen Fry and Steven Jobs

I recently signed on to receive a feed of Stephen Fry's blog and website, The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry.  He's the guy who some people think of as being the classic English twit.  He is actually a great wit, talented writer and actor (as Oscar Wilde in Wilde and as The Cheshire Cat in Alice).  He is also a stand up guy for artists of all kinds.

Recently, he gave a speech for the Dinner event at The Royal Academy Summer exhibition in London.  He spends most of his speech talking about how embarrassing it is for viewers to look at art because it can lead to so much self-consciousness.   Here are some excerpts:

".... the power to rise above self-consciousness is almost a defining quality of artists. Artists are superb at switching off awareness of self. As you can tell if you watch one eat."

and as he quotes Oscar Wilde:

"...“All art is at once surface and symbol,” Oscar Wilde wrote. “Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.” "

If you like looking at art or making it, the speech is a fun read.

He has also become a sort of spokesman or commentator for Apple and most recently the new iPhone.  I find this a dubious role for him and although I am sure he loves getting all the free stuff from Steve Jobs, I hope he doesn't end up regretting this role.  On the other hand I think he sees what we all know is coming— the fall of Apple's star.  As he writes:

"Why should these iPads and iPhones be front page news when, the frothers froth, there are plenty of other manufacturers out there making products that are as good, if not better, for less money? And isn’t there something creepy about Apple’s cultiness and the closed ecosystem of their apps and stores? The anti-Applers see pretension and folly everywhere and they want the world to know it. The enthusiastic frothers don’t really mind, they just want to get their hands on what they perceive as hugely desirable objects that make them happy. The two sides will never agree, the whole thing has become an ideological stand-off: the anti-Apple side has too much pride invested in their point of view to be able to unbend, while Apple lovers have too much money invested in their toys to back down. It is an absorbing phenomenon and one which seems to get hotter every week."

Me? I'm off to look at a Droid 'cos when the head of one of my favorite companies tells me a real problem is a "non-problem" with a product I am about to invest in— that's a problem.

Are we on our way somewhere?

I finally finished the last book in Stieg Larsson's trilogy.  I am not giving anything away in describing Lisbeth Salander's state of mind at the end of the book, when she finally reunites, in person, with the journalist Mikael Blomkvist.  She reflects on the fact that she hadn't had to deal with her feelings about him for many months as she had only experienced him on the 'net in pixels and electrons.  We are left wondering if she will finally merge into the real world around her and be able to thrive in a life that for her had been so brutally abused for many years. 

Checking the news after finishing the book made me wonder if perhaps we are all headed toward an as yet, unknown virtual life to avoid the real one we are faced with.  I noted the fact that the oil leak in the Gulf disappeared from the front page on the very same day that Apple's introduction of its new phone grabbed the headlines.  It is a smart, sexy gadget and tool and I will probably be buying one soon. I just hope that in our enthusiasm to engage in new technologies, fun communications devices and a virtual world, there are some people out there who are willing to question the road we are marching down. Increasingly disturbing, is that this rush to embrace an electronic world is now being driven by giant technology corporations who proclaim that this technology can create new freedoms for us.   The best result will be that technology can can help us thrive in our real world to know and understand it better, rather than hide from it.

(The photo above is of a recent painting called The March, which will be available for sale soon. )

Art as music and Laurie Anderson

 
I have been listening to the new and innovative Laurie Anderson CD/Album/Digital Download  (what are we supposed to call these now?) titled Homeland.  It is a fascinating collection of songs— inventive, witty and intelligent music and lyrics that deal with many aspects of the current state of our nation.  I find it one of the most  interesting albums to come out since Radiohead's In Rainbows and Portishead's 3.  It's her first studio album in 10 years and I hope Homeland gets the acclaim those albums did.  There is an NPR interview here and a way to listen to the album for free.
I also like that she once did a concert for several thousand dogs.

Lisbeth, Walter and the Ape

 I have been rapidly reading (there is no other way) the misdeeds of Lisbeth Salander in Stieg Larssen's brilliant novels and I have been interspersing that with a commitment to see every Fringe episode on Blu-Ray (currently it looks like Walter is going over to the other side).  Overwhelmed in a torrent of mystery and sci-fi suspense I decided to take a break and started watching the recently purchased Life series from the makers of BBC's Planet Earth— WOW!  I had an idea for a painting in the first five minutes and the stories and photography are so fascinating— I highly recommend it.  The photography, editing and narrations are even better than Planet Earth.  If you who have cable TV, I believe it is showing on the Discovery Channel.

The Tree of Life

 Terence Malick

The Tree of Life will be Terence Malick's fifth feature film in four decades of film-making.  He's been making it for several years now and it will feature Sean Penn and Brad Pitt with a story set in the 1950's, although we know very little about the plot.  Due later this year. 

I like writers and directors who spend a lot of time making their films and for Malick that time is spent in meticulous story crafting and attention to every detail.  He makes beautiful, meditative films about our lives, our distortions and the natural world around us.  I especially like that he weaves images of animals, birds and insects into his narratives as metaphors for the things we experience in our human lives.  This is a kind of re-enchantment that is missing in our modern culture and of which I intend to write a lot more about in the future.  He always uses a narrator who is one of his characters in his films which give them another perspective and eliminates the need for dialogue that would take away from the photography.  I watched Days of Heaven again last night with Sam Shepard, Richard Gere and Brooke Adams set at the start of the century, before the Great War.  I found myself wishing for a simpler life without complications, as do those portrayed in the film.  The characters find the best they can hope for is to continue the life they have and accept the way things are.

The other feature films Malick has crafted are Badlands,  The Thin Red Line and  The New World.

I caused the oil spill.

 

I can't post another picture of a dead pelican— we have all seen too many.  But this is something close to the color of the oil that washes up on beaches all over the world, most especially on the southern United States coast at the present time.  

I remember camping along the Mediterranean many years ago and hitch-hiking back to England with oil sludge still sticking to me and my camping gear— it probably came from a ship discharging or leaking.  It is truly horrible, nasty, life-suffocating stuff.  It makes me self conscious and remorseful for the how and why I caused this to happen.  I understand the argument that there are a number of companies who may have cut some corners in the interests of themselves or their shareholders, and that needs to be addressed.   But I also understand the actual, long-term problem to be me— the one who wants cheap gas and all these other things that derive and are manufactured from crude oil.  We are the motivators for the oil companies' activities.  I am going to resolve to try and use less of these things and I am prepared to pay a lot more for them so the oil can be extracted safely and that we look after the planet and our animals and birds first.  (Wouldn't we all want to pay more?)

I wish the government would help.   Here's a partial list of those items that we need the oil for:

• plastic gadgets, tools, bags, toys
• candles
• clothing (polyester, nylon)
• hand lotions
• petroleum jelly
• perfume
• dishwashing liquids
• ink
• bubble gums
• car tires
• ammonia
• heart valves
• Ethane and other short-chain alkanes which are used as fuel
• Diesel
• Fuel oils
• Petrol
• Jet fuel
• Kerosene
• Liquid petroleum gas (LPG)
• Natural gas
• Alkenes (olefins) which can be manufactured into plastics or other compounds
• Lubricants (produces light machine oils, motor oils, and greases, adding viscosity stabilizers as required).
• Wax, used in the packaging of frozen foods, among others.
• Sulfur or Sulfuric acid. These are a useful industrial materials. Sulfuric acid is usually prepared as the acid precursor oleum, a byproduct of sulfur removal from fuels.
• Bulk tar.
• Asphalt
• Petroleum coke, used in speciality carbon products or as solid fuel.
• Paraffin wax
• Aromatic petrochemicals to be used as precursors in other chemical production.

The Edge of Tech

 Music at the WWDC

 I happened to be in downtown San Francisco last night and bumped into about 10,000 people, mostly male, mostly wearing black and everybody looking at little devices in their hands.  Yes you got it.  It's the Apple World Wide Developers Conference and those are iPhones that everybody was looking at.  These young people are on the cutting edge of cool tech and boy were they an excited bunch as they lined up around 4 blocks to get to the Thursday night party! 

It all made me think that it is really difficult these days to understand what "connected" means.  These guys are very connected to their friends and industry colleagues and they use technology to keep those connections alive with Tweets and IM and texts.  All the conference go-ers in San Francisco are figuring out more and more ways to keep us online, connected to friends and marketers.  Above all there seems to be an increasing thirst for this way of communicating with each other among humans.  What on earth is it that we are doing to ourselves, I wonder? Are we happier to live and spend all this time online?  Do we avoid what is real?  Perhaps it's no different that watching a movie or a sunset, but we do seem to be captivated (and we are being cashed-in on it in a huge way). 

I think our notions about reality are going to be really challenged in the not too distant future and, as a person who likes little gadgets and reality, I am looking forward to that discussion.

Decentralizing the web with Diaspora

Many people are becoming concerned about a lack of privacy as they use the internet to communicate directly with others or pass information to the general public.  The model that has emerged to provide these services consists of a central distribution "hub" or disseminating station that processes information before it reaches its selected receiver.  That way the company providing the service is able to use or skim off that information to resell to their advertisers.  As users, we agree to these conditions because we want or need the service to interact with others.  The only alternative for many is to not engage in social interaction on the net and return or limit ourselves to more traditional ways of communicating.

Now, a group of students in New York are developing a way to decentralize the way knowledge and information is passed between us.  This summer they will be writing the code and building up a launch for Diaspora. They are developing a way where we all can have our own servers and control how the information we wish to provide to others is distributed and seen, without a centralized hub.  I am not a techie but what they explain about their work is really cool and interesting stuff!  Read the April 21st bog entry here.  Another site that helps fund projects such as these and explains more about Diaspora is at Kickstarter.  And, by the way, if you are wondering if these guys are on to something good, consider this.  They have asked for donations of $10,000 by June 1st—so far they have $134,000!

To me, this seems to bring the internet back to where many of it's initial developers intended— a free and unencumbered flow of information between all the peoples of the world.  Congratulations and thank you Maxwell, Daniel, Raphael and Ilya!

31 Days

On April 6th, 2010 the Prime Minister of Britain dissolved the governing parliament and the British people began the process of electing a new government. Today, 31 days later, it will be over.  People there vote for a representative, in their district, of a party which represents a platform and manifesto.  Provided there is a majority winning party, they elect the leader (the prime minister), and they will begin governing the following day.  Some people there believe this all happens just a little too fast and they would prefer something like 45 days. But from where I now live in California, and I believe for most Americans this rather neat and quick process must seem like a dream come true.

(A footnote:  It is quite possible that it wont be quite this simple this time and it is possible that no party (there are three main ones) will have a clear majority, meaning a coalition will have to be made or do the whole thing over.)

Zoofest Gala!

Last weekend saw the main event for San Francisco's Zoofest 2010.  I was lucky enough to attend the big Gala event and auction, to raise funds for repairs and renovations to the Tropical Aviary.  The event was covered by 7X7 and you can read about all the people and see photos of many animal patterned clothing (all artificial— we trust) worn by the guests.  For our part, we donated a print of The Embrace and the lucky bidder and friends gets to spend the afternoon we me and the Grizzly Bears making art and keeping our distance!

The Baseline Scenario

Following up on my blog regarding Bill Moyers yesterday.  One of his most recent interviews was with James Kwak and Simon Johnson from The Baseline Scenario  these are 2 economists who are not afraid to tell us exactly what is going on in the world of finance, which, whether we like it or not, affects us all on a daily basis.  I have been following their writing for 2 years now and have found that they can explain things in a way that is plain, understandable and transparent.  If you follow them you will understand the import of a headline such as appeared in the USA Today yesterday:

Senate blocks financial regulation bill

Bill Moyers

Stay In Touch

Bill Moyers ends his regular PBS show, this week, so I thought this would be a good time for someone to remind others that he will still be active and his website at PBS is a great resource to find out what he is up to, listen/watch previous shows, subscribe to his blog and keep up with his great journalism.  In my opinion he is and always has been one of the good guys of journalism in his relentless pursuit of transparency by United States government, corporations, religious institutions and others that often want to shield the truth from us all.  He is a democrat in the true sense of the word.

The Morning Benders

I'd like to give my thumbs up to this local, Berkeley music group who have just released their new album Big Echo. These guys have a great big wall of sound that I like to play loud in the car with the all the windows open as I drive around San Francisco.  It's like Phil Spector meets Indie Pop.  Check it out.

The heart of the United States

This weekend we will see the outcome of the health care reform debate. 

Some friends and family in England have told me they do not understand why it is so difficult for the United States to enact a national health care program that covers everybody— they simply don't get it.  To them and others in Europe, the premise that a nation of people would not want to provide care for all their fellow country women and men that are unable to help themselves, is inconceivable.

Whatever is decided and whatever form the result takes, this is a debate for the heart of the United States. The choice is whether we will continue to endorse individual responsibility or will we start to move in the direction of collective responsibility for each other.  Most developed countries have already chosen. The choice hasn't been easy.

This painting was done a couple of years ago.

It is called The Learner.

Tea Party news

 

From The Ladies Home Journal 1907

There is a lot of talk about tea parties these days.  I don't really know what they are about or what goes on at them, but I do remember vaguely having a tea party, or at least seeing one, like this shown above when I was young.  The teddy bears were the guests.  These of course came about because of the popularity of the Teddy Bears Picnic song which I am sure most of you know about and was loved by kids in England:

If you go down in the woods today

You're sure of a big surprise.

If you go down in the woods today

You'd better go in disguise.

For ev'ry bear that ever there was

Will gather there for certain, because

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Curiously enough this song as sung by Henry Hall was the test that the BBC used for radio transmitting towers in the UK and was the last transmission played at a tower next to where I was brought up in SW England.  This was real news, and I for one would like to see more Teddy Bears at all Tea Parties! 

Here is how The Ladies Home Journal described one such party.