October 21, 2011 in Arts and Literature, Civil Resistance
Visit the Labor Arts Collection of photographs, paintings, banners, songs, poems, etc. It is a wonderful collection. Following are a few examples from their labor cartoons.
So this is progress:
July 24, 2011 in Arts and Literature, Media
Life in a Day is a documentary film project born out of a partnership between YouTube, Ridley Scott Associates and LG electronics, announced on July 6, 2010. Users sent in videos of themselves on July 24, 2010, and then Ridley Scott produced the film and edited the videos into a film with director Kevin MacDonald and film editor Joe Walker, consisting of footage from some of the contributors. All chosen footage authors are credited as co-directors.
The completed film is 94 minutes 57 seconds long and includes scenes from 4,500 hours of footage in 80,000 submissions from 140 nations. The completed film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2011 and the premiere was streamed live on YouTube. The film’s music was written by British composer and producer Harry Gregson-Williams, along with Matthew Herbert. The film’s opening song, written by Herbert, was performed by British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding. ] On January 24, 2011, National Geographic Films announced that it had received the distribution rights for the film.
According to http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday a sneak preview of the film opens today July 24, 2011 and in select theaters July 29.
June 26, 2011 in Arts and Literature
Shirley Jackson- Photo credit Wiki Commons
On June 26, 1948, Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” was published in The New Yorker. It has been ranked as one of the most famous short stories in American literature. Response to the story was outstandingly negative. Subscribers to The New Yorker canceled their subscriptions and hate mail poured in all summer. The story was banned in the Union of South Africa.*
In her story Jackson contrasted the details of contemporary small town American life with an annual ritual known as “the lottery.” It takes place a small village of about 300 residents. Children gather stones as the adult townsfolk assemble for their annual event, that in the local tradition has been practiced to ensure a good harvest. In the first round of the lottery, the head of each family draws a small slip of paper; Bill Hutchinson gets the one slip with a black spot, meaning that his family has been chosen. In the next round, each Hutchinson family member draws a slip, and Bill’s wife Tessie—who had arrived late—gets the marked slip. In keeping with tradition, which has been abandoned in at least some other neighboring communities, Tessie is then stoned to death by everyone present as a sacrifice.
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*Union of South Africa
The politicking behind the scenes for the formation of the Union of South Africa allowed the foundations of Apartheid to be laid. On May 31, 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed under British dominion. It was exactly eight years after the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging, which had brought the Second Anglo-Boer War to an end. Each of the four unified states was allowed to keep its existing franchise qualifications. Cape Colony was the only one which permitted voting by (property owning) non-whites.
Whilst is it argued that Britain hoped that the ‘non-racial’ franchise contained in the constitution courtesy of the Cape would eventually be extended to the whole of the Union, it is hardly likely that this was truly believed possible.
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In the San Francisco Chronicle on July 22, 1948 Shirley Jackson offered the following explanation to persistent queries from her readers about her intentions:
Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story’s readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives. [Note from iflizwerequeen: even this brief explanation of her writing is out of character for Jackson.]
Jackson’s husband, literary critic Stanley Hyman, wrote of her work that ”she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years.” He insisted that the darker aspects of Jackson’s works were fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb and that they mirror humanity’s Cold War-era fears.
Hyman said that his wife “was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned ‘The Lottery’ and she was satisfied that they at least understood the story.”
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Shirley Jackson knew that people don’t like it when you pull back the curtain or disturb the dust of their myths. Apparently she didn’t give a damn. The world needs a lot more Shirley Jacksons.
June 9, 2011 in Arts and Literature
The Wise Little Hen is a Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies cartoon, based on the fairy tale The Little Red Hen. This cartoon marked the debut of Donald Duck. Donald and his friend Peter Pig try to avoid work by faking stomach aches until Mrs. Hen teaches them the value of labor. This cartoon was released on June 9, 1934. It was animated by Art Babbitt, Dick Huemer, Dick Lundy, and Ward Kimball and directed by Wilfred Jackson. It was also adapted as a Sunday comic strip by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro. [SOURCE: WIKI]
May 20, 2011 in Arts and Literature
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Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.
Luke Shepard, a student at the American University of Paris, American began working on Le Flaneur as part of a project for school, but it quickly took on a life of its own. He used a Nikon D90 DSLR camera to take over 2,000 photos of Paris at night, and then used Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro to produce this impressive tour of a world that most of us rarely see – Paris without Parisians. In English, “flaneur” translates roughly as “stroller,” “loafer,” or perhaps “aimless walker,” and, in an interview with National Geographic Traveler, Shepard explained that he was inspired to shoot these images in part by late-night pleasure rides on his bicycle.
(Note: Some viewers may prefer to watch with the volume off, as the chase scene-ready soundtrack detracts a bit from the eerie sense of a virtually deserted city. For more time-lapse photography, check out these videos of Mecca, New York City, and the Milky Way.)
SOURCE
May 19, 2011 in Arts and Literature
The two remind me of a tale that was written by Saki over 100 years ago. Saki is the pseudonym for English writer Hector Hugh Munro who is known for his satirical political sketches collected as “The Westminster Alice” in 1902.
The particular tale that I reference is titled “The Saint and the Goblin”.
It is the story of a conversation that the statue of a saint and the statue of a goblin have in a garden.
One day a silver coin accidentally falls out of the mouth of a crow flying overhead and lands on the base of the statue of the Saint.
It was an answer to his prayers because he had been worried about the church mice who were so poor. He told the goblin that he was going to appear in a dream of the vergeress who sweeps the floors of the cathedral showing her where the money is and instructing her in the dream to find the coin and use it to purchase some corn to put at his feet. Then the mice could come and eat the corn.
The goblin protested, claiming that it was the function of church mice to be poor.
The saint statue thought about it more. “Perhaps it would be better if I ordered candles to be place on my shrine.”
“Candles would be more orthodox,” said the Goblin.
“More orthodox, certainly,” agreed the Saint, “and the mice could have the ends to eat; candle-ends are most fattening.”
Instead of buying corn or using the money for herself, the vergeress looped a string around it and hung it on the neck of the statue.
The church mice were as poor as ever. But that was their function.
Ah to have the conscience of a goblin–perhaps that’s the solution to peace and happiness.
May 16, 2011 in Arts and Literature
May 16, 2011 in Arts and Literature
April 26, 2011 in Arts and Literature
The following Shakespearean Sonnet is number 10. I’ve always called it “Shame on You from Shakespeare.” It is somewhat like the ninth sonnet–Be not wilfully selfish and cruel to mankind, but replace and repair your decaying mansion by procreation. In that way you live on, and I myself and others will think the better of you.’
For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any,
Who for thy self art so unprovident.
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
But that thou none lov’st is most evident:
For thou art so possessed with murderous hate,
That ‘gainst thy self thou stick’st not to conspire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
O! change thy thought, that I may change my mind:
Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?
Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove:
Make thee another self for love of me,
That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
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QUEEN’S EDITED VERSION OF THE SONNET FOR LEPAGE
For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any,
Who for thy self art so unprovident.
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
But that thou none lov’st is most evident: 1)
For thou art so possessed with murderous hate,
That ‘gainst thy self thou seeks that beauteous roof to ruinate 2)
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
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1 [not even yourself, much less others]
2 [the roof is symbolic of a house. In our case it could be government or it could be the mural that LePage had removed ]
