Category Archives: Arts & culture

Not paying attention

Julius Lester, one of my favorite bloggers, published a post with an email message from me on his blog. Lester has been wondering why there are no big protests against the Iraq War, and thinking back to the big protests against the Vietnam War. A first post by Lester (link) prompted a response from a reader named Nancy Ewalt (link) which led to my thoughts about why there isn’t any organized protest against the Iraq War. (I guess I wasn’t paying attention, and didn’t notice when he posted this back on August 1.)

Even if you aren’t interested in the topic, you should still check out Lester’s blog. His thoughts about political issues from racism to war to media manipulation are worth reading, and his photos are pretty cool. Link to his blog.

Art on the highway, part 2

On the way back from Maine, I stopped at the southbound rest area at Kennebunk to look at another of the William Wegman murals installed by the Maine Turnpike Authority. The mural is most definitely not what you’d expect to see in a highway rest area. At the end of this short (1:32) video, I ask myself a question that was implicit in a comment on the previous post on the Wegman highway murals….

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

The Tatler

Before there were blogs, there were other periodicals with writing that ranged from the profound to the distinctly ephemeral. In 1709, Sir Richard Steele brought out the Tatler. According the Lewish Gibb, his motives were far from idealistic, which led him to create something new in literature:

Steele brought out the Tatler because he wanted money, and the result was something new in literature. Not that a periodical publication was in itself a new thing, but this one had unusual qualities. In accordance with its motto it took the whole range of social activity — quincquid agunt homines — for its province. [The Tatler, Richard Steele, ed. Lewis Gibbs. London: J. M. Dent (Everyman’s Library), 1953, p. vi.]

I’m reading through Gibbs’s selection from the Tatler. It sounds surprisingly contemporary. There’s a short piece on what will happen to the news-writers if the war with France should end. Speaking of a news-writer named Boyer (who sounds as if he could be a pundit on Fox News), Steele says, “Where Prince Eugene has slain his thousands, Boyer has slain his ten thousands….He has laid about him with an inexpressible fury; and made such havoc among his countrymen as must be the work of two or three ages to repair.” And so the war must continue in order to give the news-writers and pundits worthy subjects. Perhaps this is why on July 5th, 2007, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press didn’t question George Bush’s unsubstantiated claim that the Al Qaeda operating in Iraq today is the same Al Qaeda that leveled the World Trade Centers, as reported in Media Matters, for if the Iraq War should end, consumption of the news media would drop. Updating Steele for today’s world: “It being therefore visible that our society will be greater sufferers by the peace than the soldiery itself, insomuch that the New York Times is in danger of being broken, and the very best of the whole band of journalists of being reduced to half-pay; I would humbly move that proper apartments, furnished with laptops, Internet connections, and other necessaries of life, should be added to the Veterans Administration hospitals, for the relief of such decayed journalists and pundits as have served their country by reporting and commenting on the war.”

Of particular interest to the readers of this blog, the Tatler commented on the clergy of the day. Steele commented on a certain clergyman who spoke a little too harshly and gesticulated a little too wildly in the pulpit: “As harsh and irregular sound is not harmony, so neither is banging on a cushion, oratory; and therefore, in my humble opinion, a certain divine of the first order, would do well to leave this off; for I think his sermons would be more persuasive if he gave his auditory less disturbance.” Such sweet viciousness! Would that Steele were still alive to comment on early 21st C. preaching, which has sunk to lower levels than even early 18th C. preaching. But Steele commented on more than preaching, he also commented on the sloppy prayers offered by a certain vicar — “In reading prayers, he has such a careless loll, that people are justly offended at his irreverent posture; besides the extraordinary charge they are put to in sending their children to dance, to bring them off of those ill gestures.” What would Steele have said about some of the Unitarian Universalist prayers I have heard uttered? –to think of it makes me shiver with delicious imaginings.

Art on the highway

The Maine Turnpike Authority decided to install works of art by William Wegman in several rest areas. When I was driving north today, I stopped at the Kennebunk rest area to check out one of those artworks. (0:42)

Press reports on the murals: The Portland Press-Herald reports that some turnpike authorities would have preferred “a picture of a lighthouse or Mount Katahadin” — whereas the Bangor Daily News offers a quote from a maintenance worker who likes the mural.

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

A rockin book of poems

My favorite living Unitarian Universalist poet is Everett Hoagland. Everett’s poetry was featured in our denominational magazine in the March/April, 2000, and Spring, 2004 (with interview), issues. His poems have been published in magazines ranging from poetry journals like The American Poetry Review and The Iowa Review, to the general interest magazine Essence, to political publications like The Progressive and People’s Weekly World. Everett also does worship services based on his poetry.

Everett has just published a new book of poetry, and he’s donating all proceeds from its sale to Treatment on Demand, a non-profit here in New Bedford that does fantastic work in the areas of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. So for ten bucks, you can get a rockin book of poetry, perfect for reading out loud, poems that will in turn make your blood boil and serve as a balm for your soul in these crazed times of war and injustice.

Keep reading for Everett’s words on where the money is going, and how to order this book. (Hey, why not buy an extra copy of this book for your church’s youth group.) Continue reading →

Appreciations of Richard Rorty

Philosopher Richard Rorty died on June 8.

Jurgen Habermas writes an appreciation of Richard Rorty: Link. Not much of substance, but a nice appreciation by the man who is now arguably the greatest living philosopher.

Daniel Dennett’s appreciation is here — scroll down half way to find it. Dennett said that a difference between Rorty and himself was that he wanted the approbation of scientists, while Rorty wanted the approbation of poets.

Stop whining.

While stupid alter ego Dan is prostrated by the heat (actually, it’s a combination of his allergies, the heat and stupidity), Mr. Crankypants is back for a moment to berate all the idiots who are mad at the New York Slime for publishing a review of the latest Harry Potter doorstop-sized book before the official release date of the book. The horror!

The people who write in to the public editor of the N. Y. Slime say how “disappointed” and “upset” they are with the newspaper’s editors. Wait, isn’t this the newspaper that published George W. Bush’s false accusations that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Is this is the newspaper that you would trust with a review of a book that you really care about? Apparently, the answer to this second question is “yes”:

“I am shocked that The New York Times didn’t consider how upsetting this review would be to fans, like me, who have taken this journey with J.K. Rowling for many years and desperately just want to enjoy the final book without knowledge or hint of what is coming,” said Karl Hinze in a typical e-mail to Times editors.

Mr. Crankypants has advice for Mr. Hinze, and all the other Harry Potter fans who read the reviews before they read the book: Don’t read book reviews of books you care about, before you read the book. Especially not in the Times.

Completely shameless promotion

It finally arrived. Carol finally got a copy of the book she has been working on for the past year or so. The book, titled Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling, was published by the small non-profit she runs, Ecowaters — in other words, Carol co-wrote the book, edited it (with lots of assistance from her mother), and laid it out. The book has also been the cause of a certain amount of angst in our household, as it slipped farther and farther behind schedule over the past six months.

But at last the book has finally arrived, fresh from the printers. I got to leaf through a copy this afternoon, and I can tell you that it’s an attractive book, beautifully designed, chock full of solid information about reusing wastewater. I particularly like the fact that there are fifty short profiles of people and companies that have already built wastewater recycling into their homes, businesses, and skyscrapers — which makes you realize that recycling wastewater is not some hippy-dippy pipe dream, but financially viable reality. There are even a few illustrations by me (my only contribution to this project).

And if you really want to buy a copy, please buy it directly from Ecowaters. Amazon and other online booksellers force Ecowaters to cut their profits in half, and those profits are what fund their presentations, tours, and the rest of their educational mission. Available online using Paypal here. (I warned you that this was a completely shameless promotion.)

My stupid alter ego, Dan, is still away visiting his aunt and uncle. Another glorious day of ranting and raving on this otherwise tedious and uninteresting blog! And here’s what’s on the mind of Mr. Crankypants today….

What’s with all the overly loud music these days? You know what I mean. Like the New Bedford Whaling Musuem sponsoring monthly gatherings called After Hours, with the stated purpose “to socialize with old friends and meet new ones,” except the music is so loud you can’t socialize. Mr. Crankypants went to “After Hours” a few months ago, and tried to have a conversation with an old friend, but the music was so loud we gave up trying to yell at each other over it. Then an attractive young woman started eyeing Mr. Crankypants, and wandered over to say something, but alas whatever she had to say was completely unintelligible due to the loud music. Mr. Crankypants’s Significant Other said that the pretty young woman wasn’t eyeing anyone, she just had indigestion, and all she was saying was, “Got any antacid?” Which just proves the point — the music was so loud that Significant Other couldn’t hear anything at all.

It’s not just the Whaling Museum, of course. There’s the restaurant up the street that has live music on Mondays and Thursdays. It’s pretty good music, but there is no way you can carry on conversation over your dinner, unless you ask to be seated in the very back room, and even then you have to shout.

At least that restaurant has good music. Down the street from Mr. Crankypants’s apartment is another restaurant that has bad outdoor music on summer evenings. This particular restaurant aims at attracting the over-55 crowd, so the music is a banal mix of insipid 1950’s rock-n-roll and arthritic easy-listening hits (originated by dinosaurs like Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan), sung by middle-aged crooners with potbellies accompanied by karaoke machines. They crank up the volume so loud that Mr. Crankypants can hear the middle-aged crooners two blocks away. When you go down to look at the restaurant, you see a few lost souls huddled at the tables farthest away from the speakers, their hair blowing back from the volume. There’s no way anyone could be carrying on a conversation over that music. Clearly, it’s the sort of restaurant you go to when you don’t want to talk with your date, or when you have to take your unpleasant relatives out to dinner — you surely don’t go there for the high quality of the music.

The Baby Boomers started this trend of overly loud music. They ruined their ears when they were young by listening to too much loud music. Now that they’ve gone deaf, they keep turning up the volume. Which will make everyone in the succeeding generations deaf. It’s probably a good time to invest in companies that make amplifiers and speakers, for theirs is going to be a growth industry.