28 May 2006
If I could clone myself...
...my clone's career would use the other side of my brain: costume designer, hair stylist, makeup artist.
I did my sister's hair and make up for prom. Dreadlocks, actually easier to style than straight hair: they've got natural velcro properties.
...my clone's career would use the other side of my brain: costume designer, hair stylist, makeup artist.
I did my sister's hair and make up for prom. Dreadlocks, actually easier to style than straight hair: they've got natural velcro properties.
31 March 2006
The Ivory Tower: thoughts on museums
Why is it that museums look like armories? Look:
Why is it that museums look like armories? Look:
The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT. Thank you, Antiquarian and Landmarks Society.
The Smithsonian, Washington, DC. Thank you, National Library of Medicine.
No wonder they have attendance and funding shortfalls.
From the Courant, a museum expansion in Savannah: "'Museums sometimes look like fortresses, and they look unwelcoming to people who don't know anything about art,' said Diane Lesko, executive director of the Telfair Museum [in Savannah]. 'When you're in Telfair Square, you see the activity, and that makes you want to go in and see what's going on.'"
From DCist: Free culture for the masses!
Also check out the New Britain Museum of American Art, opening after a big expansion project on April 9-- free admission that day!. Not so fortress-like.
Ever since I volunteered/worked at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury centuries ago, I've been concerned about how to get normal people interested and involved and inside museums. The Mattatuck especially bothered me, because it's in downtown Waterbury, on the same block with very low-income families in apartment blocks and multi-family homes. I always thought that the museum could do so much more for the kids who were always running around the neighborhood. They do provide scholarships for their summer art camp, and they are big on field trip tours for the local schools. But what about a free art center where kids can hang out, and stay away from the crack house and weirdos on Central Ave.?
14 March 2006
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Holy cow! I absolutely loved Bill's show. At some point, he disappeared from PBS, and life was a little bleaker. Then I heard he recently got married, which was nice. And now, he has a column on MSN! Hooray for Bill! (I also love his retro-looking website. Too bad the t-shirts are only kids' sizes...)
Holy cow! I absolutely loved Bill's show. At some point, he disappeared from PBS, and life was a little bleaker. Then I heard he recently got married, which was nice. And now, he has a column on MSN! Hooray for Bill! (I also love his retro-looking website. Too bad the t-shirts are only kids' sizes...)
11 November 2005
Note 11/15: Not that anyone will read this, but for my own conscience...
Terrible error on my part! In my fervor to post to my blog after a long absence, I confused the city of Bethlehem with Jerusalem. It was originally proposed that Jerusalem should be internationally administered. I say, why not Bethlehem too? Anyway, Bethlehem is not as much of a contested territory as Jerusalem, though it is suffering badly under occupation.-AM
long time, no blog...
I think this is a fantastic initiative.
Back in the day, when the colonial powers were still losing their grip on Palestine, they proposed that Bethlehem should be an internationally administered city, not part of any one country. It is a majorly significant place for so many cultures and religions, it didn't (and doesn't) seem right to have it under the jurisdiction of one country.
Now Israel is trying to culminate its drive to control Bethlehem by building the separation wall around it, and leaving only two entries open to the city, effectively cutting it off from the West Bank and the rest of the world.
This initiative from the Mayor of Bethlehem is offering honorary Bethlehem passports to people who will invest in the city or make an extended visit. He sees his city being cut off from the rest of the world-- this is a fate totally inappropriate for such a place.
Terrible error on my part! In my fervor to post to my blog after a long absence, I confused the city of Bethlehem with Jerusalem. It was originally proposed that Jerusalem should be internationally administered. I say, why not Bethlehem too? Anyway, Bethlehem is not as much of a contested territory as Jerusalem, though it is suffering badly under occupation.-AM
long time, no blog...
I think this is a fantastic initiative.
Back in the day, when the colonial powers were still losing their grip on Palestine, they proposed that Bethlehem should be an internationally administered city, not part of any one country. It is a majorly significant place for so many cultures and religions, it didn't (and doesn't) seem right to have it under the jurisdiction of one country.
Now Israel is trying to culminate its drive to control Bethlehem by building the separation wall around it, and leaving only two entries open to the city, effectively cutting it off from the West Bank and the rest of the world.
This initiative from the Mayor of Bethlehem is offering honorary Bethlehem passports to people who will invest in the city or make an extended visit. He sees his city being cut off from the rest of the world-- this is a fate totally inappropriate for such a place.
15 August 2005
On Jane Austen's Emma and professions for young women
In Emma, Jane Fairfax is a kind of secondary character, a mirror against which the protagonist compares herself. While Emma is suitably well-off to live a life of leisure, Jane will have to become a governess, unless she can somehow snatch a wealthy husband-- she's an orphan and, though "well-bred," her adoptive family can't afford to support her.
In the novel, people shake their heads and say, "tsk, tsk, poor Jane Fairfax"-- a girl has really come on hard times if she has to work to survive financially, even in the most genteel occupation for women at the time.
Jane describes the prospects of her search for a post with the stoicism of someone volunteering for the Russian army during WWII-- sure, you'll be shot at and maybe freeze to death, but at least it's a job:
"When I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something-- offices for the sale, not quite of human flesh, but of human intellect."
Her listeners are shocked. Comparing the slave trade to the "governess-trade," she says, "… as to the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies."
Then, a woman's merit was measured by the position of her husband or father; now, we are measured by the so-called prestige of our occupation and the long hours we work. It's no more, "those poor girls who have to work for a living," but, "those poor girls who can't find enough work."
This directly relates to my life and that of many friends and acquaintances who are recently graduated from college. When I first read Jane's statement about "the sale of human flesh," I immediately associated it with prostitution (but this being Jane Austen, I knew it could not be so). But, as we've all been advertising our skills around, hoping someone will pay us for the services of our knowledge and training, the whole situation does seem like a form of intellectual prostitution.
We fortunate enough to have a college education are like the upper-echelon courtesans: we cater to the lawyers, financiers, government officials, publishers. Woe betide she sans B.A.-- she's hardly more valued for her intellect than the girl on the corner. But, bottom-line, we're all whoring out our minds, to a certain extent. And it will be so as long as we're working low-level, hourly-wage jobs.
In Emma, Jane Fairfax is a kind of secondary character, a mirror against which the protagonist compares herself. While Emma is suitably well-off to live a life of leisure, Jane will have to become a governess, unless she can somehow snatch a wealthy husband-- she's an orphan and, though "well-bred," her adoptive family can't afford to support her.
In the novel, people shake their heads and say, "tsk, tsk, poor Jane Fairfax"-- a girl has really come on hard times if she has to work to survive financially, even in the most genteel occupation for women at the time.
Jane describes the prospects of her search for a post with the stoicism of someone volunteering for the Russian army during WWII-- sure, you'll be shot at and maybe freeze to death, but at least it's a job:
"When I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something-- offices for the sale, not quite of human flesh, but of human intellect."
Her listeners are shocked. Comparing the slave trade to the "governess-trade," she says, "… as to the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies."
Then, a woman's merit was measured by the position of her husband or father; now, we are measured by the so-called prestige of our occupation and the long hours we work. It's no more, "those poor girls who have to work for a living," but, "those poor girls who can't find enough work."
This directly relates to my life and that of many friends and acquaintances who are recently graduated from college. When I first read Jane's statement about "the sale of human flesh," I immediately associated it with prostitution (but this being Jane Austen, I knew it could not be so). But, as we've all been advertising our skills around, hoping someone will pay us for the services of our knowledge and training, the whole situation does seem like a form of intellectual prostitution.
We fortunate enough to have a college education are like the upper-echelon courtesans: we cater to the lawyers, financiers, government officials, publishers. Woe betide she sans B.A.-- she's hardly more valued for her intellect than the girl on the corner. But, bottom-line, we're all whoring out our minds, to a certain extent. And it will be so as long as we're working low-level, hourly-wage jobs.
26 June 2005
I was going through some old journals, and found these entries from when I worked retail in a discount book store. I thought they were pretty darn funny, so I'll share with you:
"…While I'm at work, people behave as though it's an upscale department store and I'm some kind of [stinking] personal shopper or concierge. No! Don't ask me to find something for you when you haven't even looked yourself, I don't care about your stupid grandson going to camp, and when I say, "no, we don't have that, however we do have this," don't just pretend you didn't hear me and make it such a point that you want [the first thing]. We are not Neiman [Stinking] Marcus, so take your Gianfranco Ferre sunglasses and your disgusting lame-and-pastel jogging suit and get out!…"
{maybe a week later…}
"…At work I messed up a bunch of times in ringing people out, so I would re-ring and mess up something else and then they would come back after leaving and it would have to be voided. [This doesn't make sense to me either.] AARGH! So frustrating. Yesterday was not that bad except that about a million little kids with ADD came in and were running around out of control of their bourgie, flaky, new age young mothers…"
"…While I'm at work, people behave as though it's an upscale department store and I'm some kind of [stinking] personal shopper or concierge. No! Don't ask me to find something for you when you haven't even looked yourself, I don't care about your stupid grandson going to camp, and when I say, "no, we don't have that, however we do have this," don't just pretend you didn't hear me and make it such a point that you want [the first thing]. We are not Neiman [Stinking] Marcus, so take your Gianfranco Ferre sunglasses and your disgusting lame-and-pastel jogging suit and get out!…"
{maybe a week later…}
"…At work I messed up a bunch of times in ringing people out, so I would re-ring and mess up something else and then they would come back after leaving and it would have to be voided. [This doesn't make sense to me either.] AARGH! So frustrating. Yesterday was not that bad except that about a million little kids with ADD came in and were running around out of control of their bourgie, flaky, new age young mothers…"
17 June 2005
Thus insured against aggressive admiration...
Sometimes I totally feel like doing this:
“She reached Chalk-Newton and breakfasted at an inn, where several young men were troublesomely complimentary to her good looks. […] As soon as she got out of the village, she entered a thicket and took from her basket one of the oldest field-gowns, which she had never put on even at the dairy—never since she had worked among the stubble at Marlott. She also, by a felicitous though, took a handkerchief from her bundle and tied it round her face under her bonnet, covering her chin and half her cheeks and temples, as if she were suffering from toothache. Then with her little scissors, by the aid of a pocket looking-glass, she mercilessly nipped her eyebrows off, and thus insured against aggressive admiration, she went on her uneven way.”
--Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
or this:
Sometimes I totally feel like doing this:
“She reached Chalk-Newton and breakfasted at an inn, where several young men were troublesomely complimentary to her good looks. […] As soon as she got out of the village, she entered a thicket and took from her basket one of the oldest field-gowns, which she had never put on even at the dairy—never since she had worked among the stubble at Marlott. She also, by a felicitous though, took a handkerchief from her bundle and tied it round her face under her bonnet, covering her chin and half her cheeks and temples, as if she were suffering from toothache. Then with her little scissors, by the aid of a pocket looking-glass, she mercilessly nipped her eyebrows off, and thus insured against aggressive admiration, she went on her uneven way.”
--Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
or this:
