Bad art, bad design
I keep up with my former colleagues and teachers from time to time. Some, though are producing such predictably substandard (or off-the-wall) work, that I will be spending less time doing so. I don't want to be a perpetually angry (or disappointed) critic; I have too many things to do. And there are others worth my time.
One such that I will leave out of the loop for now is an "associate professor" at the Ontario College of Art and Design - Chung Im Kim, about whom I have written here. She is the head instructor for fabric design and print. But, since textile design is an inferior ambition in her eyes, and since she is an "artist" first and foremost, her teaching and design legacy is abysmal.
She periodically produces "textile art" to be displayed in the various galleries around the city, and here is her latest atrocity, which she calls "Small Wave."
I wrote that she is unable (unwilling) to represent nature, and instead distorts the images she culls from the environment. This piece is no exception. I can see she's trying various textile techniques, including quilting and embroidery (the quilting is what drives her to cut up this "small wave" into segments). Her end result is an incoherent, vaguely recognizable, amalgam of circular shapes. I doubt without the title I would even recognize what they're supposed to be.
I believe it is her inability to recognize and accept the world around her that compels her to make "art" such as this. A type of alienation from this country she has traveled several oceans to inhabit. I always wonder why immigrants make this trek of thousands of miles only to hate where they are? If she cannot do waves in Canada, can she do them in Korea? I suspect she could.
All we get from her is bad teaching (again see the link about her, where I write about the textile works of students she monitors) and incomprehensible landscapes. And an arrogance that she belongs here on her own terms, which simply means a nice life receiving a great salary from one of the prestigious design schools in Canada. She herself has nothing to contribute. Such is the legacy of current immigrants.
Friday, December 11, 2009
The Legacy of Current Immigrants
Obama's Enemy List
Malia Obama
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I think this is funny. A blogger who calls himself IMAO (In My Arrogant Opinion), who generally spoofs liberals, has a post he calls "Obama's Enemy List."
Amongst the expected, capitalism, Rush Limbaugh, America, figures young Malia Obama.
Here is a post I wrote on the official Obama family portrait, where Malia wraps herself around her mother, where I question Michelle's affection towards her daughter. Also, in an earlier post, I write about the Obamas using Malia (not Sasha, yet) when they let her dress up in clearly political gear.
Anyway, like IMAO, I wonder if the obviously clever Malia will see through the Obama couple's beliefs (and lies and manipulations), and later on hold it against them.
All intuitive, of course. But leaders put themselves in our faces, and they better be accountable for everything they do, including how they treat their children.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
How Long Before Libertarianism Implodes?
With its strange theories and premises?
I wonder when libertarianism will self-implode? My slow trajectory through this strange philosophical and political movement shows me only disconnected, unrealistic, premises.
Take for example the antiwar stance that libertarians take. I think it stems from "take care of yourself, and don't do anything to harm others" stand. Which is really a take on "I can do whatever I want unless it harms others." One way libertarians seem to argue against this across the border "aggression" is that it is imperialism. So, no war, under any circumstances. As long as we take care of ourselves within our borders, there is no need for us to go across the shores to fight off anyone.
I discussed this in a post which I titled: "Mercer as the nihilistic Usual (Ultimate) Suspect." In this blog entry, Mercer was questioning the "philosophical basis to wage war on a belligerent Muslim country," i.e. Iran. I argue in my post that Mercer's nihilistic attempt to say we lack religious (that's what she really means by philosophical) convictions to wage wars on the likes of Iran is really her antiwar stance disguised as moral superiority. This is a clever tactic, which libertarians constantly use as strawmen to try to win their arguments.
Yes, at the end of the day, let's just seal off our borders. In the meantime, countries like Iran will gleefully carve out their apocalyptic weapons and wage the ultimate borderless war. How do libertarians argue against that?
How did such a movement survive? How long before it implodes?
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Erasing Elin's Identity
From the Woods family
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German model with no lustre left
after a few years with black musician Seal
Many people are saying that Elin should have known better than to marry Woods. But, black men are very aggressive when pursing white (and light-skinned) women, and many women are naive and easily seduced. Also, the whole world talks about the greatness of black men, and when an athlete is put into the mixture, the decks are stacked.
People wonder why he married at all, if he was to turn to affairs for what amounts to the whole of his marriage. As I've written before, Elin was the trophy wife, the prize to demonstrate his worth to the world. I've tried to show that from the mistresses he chose, he does indeed prefer the types who seem to resemble his mother's background, but they are still all white, and still trophies, in a sense. Plus the number of such women he's been with surpasses any "preference" explanation, and simply makes him pathological.
Another woman, this time who went into this kind of relationship with the full force of her determination, is the German model Heidi Klum. Seal, the black musician to whom she is now married, and with whom she has three children, proposed to her when she was pregnant with another (white) man's wife. Not only that, Klum has said that she first met Seal when he was strutting around in some hotel lobby in his skimpy gym trunks showing off his endowments. This is what I mean by black men's aggressiveness. There is also an odd, feminine component to their seduction method, like Seal’s, who was preening around to get the attention of any (white) woman.
In the end, the women lose tremendously: their beauty, their confidence, and their offspring. Even their immediate family will edge them out, as the photo above of the Woods family shows Elin lost and faded in the background, with the triumphant grandmother holding the child that looks like her and her son.
Monday, December 07, 2009
Pictures at an Exhibition
By Modest Mussorgsky
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by Viktor Hartmann,
which Mussorgsky used for his piece
"The Bogatyr Gates (in the Capital in Kiev)"
It's been several months since I've updated music at my YouTube site Camera Musica.
I've recently uploaded some pieces from Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."
- Promenade No.2
- Il Vecchio Castello
- Promenade No.3
- Tuileries (Children Quarrelling at Play)
- Bydlo
- Promenade No.4
Mussorgsky wrote these pieces after the sudden death of his friend architect and artist Viktor Hartmann. At Hartmann’s death, his many works were displayed at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. These are Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an exhibition."
Libertarian Manifestos
Back by popular demand
I had been meaning to write about Ilana Mercer's reprinting of her book Broad Sides: One Woman's Clash With A Corrupt Culture for a while now. What surprised me about this was that she has clearly abandoned her paleo-libertarian and classical liberal positions, and publicizes this book as her libertarian manifesto.
Of course, libertarians are not evil incarnate, but it is interesting that she had tried to modify her libertarianism before embracing it fully once again.
As I've written before, my brush with Mercer occurred when I emailed her a few times over a span of a year on her articles at WorldNetDaily. Her replies had always been pleasant and thoughtful until in one email, I dared to voice the superiority of the Jews over the Chinese, and the possiblity for collective grief. Taken aback by her unpleasant and impersonal reply, I later figured out that my comments violated the sacrosanct belief in the individual that libertarians hold dear.
Lawrence Auster, at the View from the Right, has a post on Randians, in which he explains some of the positions of libertarians in general, and Randians specifically. It is a real worthwhile read, and actually helped clarify a few points along the way for me.
Interestingly, why is there a popular demand for Mercer's book, which she happily publicizes as:
By popular demand, my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society, is back in print. The Second Edition features bonus material. Get your copy or copies now!Jim Kalb writes here about libertarians:
While such people aren't as numerous as their opponents, they've established an intellectual presence and influence beyond their numbers. Their advantages have been the clarity, force and refinement of their arguments, and the obvious failures of bureaucratic management.I’ve done a small informal survey, and was astonished at the number of "conservatives" who also call themselves libertarians. With this "intellectual presence" that Kalb talks about, there is also certainly their growing numbers. Hence, Mercer's "back by popular demand" book.
By the way, the rest of Kalb's article discusses why it is difficult for traditional conservatives, and conservatives in general, to have "clarity, force and refinement of their arguments." It is not necessarily the failure of conservatives, but the inherent properties of conservatism itself.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
OK, I Understand
Our Girls
Lloyd Marcus over at American Thinker, who signs off as (black) Unhyphenated American, has written a heart-felt ode to conservative women.
He rewrote the words to the Temptations' song "My Girl" and changed the title to "Our Girls." Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham and of course Sarah Palin feature in his song. It is cute and sincere. I think is an American tradition to have such "gung-ho" women, in the mold of Annie Oakely of "Annie get her gun" fame, and many other brave and dare-devil women who are not afraid to shoot (words or bullets).
OK, I understand.
Also, I doubt these same women would mind being called "Our girls." Ideologically leftist women are often die-hard feminists, and would never acquiesce to being mere "girls." But Marcus's phrasing is part endearment, part admiration. It fits perfectly.
Here is the link to the savvy Marcus's version, which he cuts off before the end (the album is for sale. That is also the American spirit). And he has a very good voice too.
And here is the link to the Temptations' original "My Girl."
Why don't black Americans write and sing such lovely melodious songs anymore? Well, as usual, I have my own ideas about that, and will post about it sometime soon.
