Right Truth

Seersucker. Seriously.

Susan North

 

What is it with Democrats?  Thanks to The Daily Caller (4/26/2013), I just learned that Missouri state senator Ryan McKenna has submitted a handwritten (how quaint) amendment to a higher education bill which would ban Missourians over the age of 8 from wearing seersucker suits.  Seersucker.  Seriously. What business is it of the government to ban a type of fabric?  Who does Ryan McKenna think he is, Senator Patty Murray from  Washington State perhaps? (Ann Coulter once devoted an entire column to her called the “Stupidest Woman in America.”)

 

Now for whose lacking textile expertise seersucker is staple of the Southern wardrobe. It is generally made in two colors by a slack-tension weave, i.e. the stripes of one color are woven slackly, while those of the other color are woven tightly (the variables are endless, for example only one color might be used). When removed from the loom some of the warp (lengthwise) yarns crinkle while others do not due to the tension they received in the weaving.  It is a low profit, high cost fabric due to the slow weaving process.  This thin, cotton fabric is ideal for spring and summer wear. It is easily confused with pelisse fabric which is created by a chemical, not a woven method, but looks very similar.  Both men and women wear seersucker. 

 

It seems according to McKenna that about half of the Missouri state senate wear seersucker suits and not infrequently wear them on Wednesday due to some coordinated effort.  According to McKenna children are cute wearing the crinkly fabric while adults look ridiculous, hence his efforts to ban it.  He now has claimed that it was not ‘germaine” (sic) to the bill on higher education and was done as a joke.  A “joke?”  If this is a joke it is one that only little boys under the age of 8 would find funny.   

 

How did this lame brain get elected to anything?  Well, I checked his website and his biography explains it all. His father and his grandfather were both elected to the Massachusetts Missouri legislature.  His biography also explains that he has a degree in education (everywhere the easiest possible subject to study, for example Patty Murray studied education) at a Missouri university where, if he took English composition he didn’t learn very much.  Not only is his biography grammatically incorrect, but we are now at the end of April 2013 and his “goals for the 2010 legislative session” are included so it clearly hasn’t been updated in a while.

 

McKenna may think that adults look ridiculous in seersucker, but to my way of thinking Democrats look ridiculous, perhaps not for what they wear but for what they do and say.  While I oppose banning Democrats, the voters ought to ban voting for someone so completely silly as to wish to ban seersucker. The last time I checked state legislatures were elected to deal with real problems, not issues of style. Now excuse me, it is time to get out my summer wardrobe – I think I’ll wear a seersucker suit this week. 

 

Thomas Kinkade – America’s beloved ‘Painter of Light’

By Karen Holt, The Historic Examiner

April 6, 2012 was a sad day in America as she said goodbye to the beloved ‘Painter of Light.’  At the age of 54, Kinkade died in his Los Gatos, California home on Good Friday. 

Known for his magnificent paintings, Thomas Kinkade was born in Sacramento, California on January 19, 1958.  He grew up near the former gold fields located in the Sierra foothills.  When Thomas was five, his parents divorced.  His father left and his mother worked as a secretary to support her three children. Theirs was the most run-down home on the street and the living standards were impoverished. 

Though times were tough, Kinkade remembered his formative years as “rich in the greatest form of wealth; a nurturing and affirming love.”  His family recognized in him a talent for art and strongly encouraged him to pursue it.  Thomas dreamed of one day making his living utilizing this talent; earning enough money so he would never worry about bills and could provide his family a comfortable home.

The citizens of Placerville knew two sides of Thomas during his youth – the boy with crayons and the paperboy.  He was also an avid swimmer and a loyal friend.  Kinkade was continuously seen with the biography of a famous artist in his hand, normally a painter the likes of Norman Rockwell or Howard Pyle. 

When Thomas was 11, he began his first apprenticeship.  A local painter by the name of Charles Bell introduced his young novice to the basic techniques Thomas needed to master in order to become the painter he sought to be.  That same year, Kinkade sold his first painting, for which he received $7.50.  The woman he sold it to wisely realized this was a picture she should hold on to.     

Artist to have her baby in art gallery while audience watches

Some ask the question, is giving birth in public a form of art?  I ask what kind of person would want to give birth in front of a bunch of gawking strangers and what kind of people would watch a public live birth?

New York – A Brooklyn artist invites spectators to observe her baby's arrival. But does giving birth in a gallery make it art?

A pregnant New York City performance artist has arranged to have her baby in an art gallery, while an audience watches. The artist, Marni Kotak, plans to spend every day over the next six weeks at the Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn — which has been transformed into a "birthing room," complete with inflatable birthing tub — until the baby comes. Kotak, who will be attended by a midwife and doula, says the performance, "The Birth of Baby X," will show that "giving birth, the greatest expression of life, is the highest form of art." Is childbirth really art? (continue reading at Yahoo News, The Week)

The idea of this sickens me -- not from the physical aspect (child birth is messy business), but the idea that a mother refers to her unborn baby as Baby X and that she cares more about herself than she does the safety of her unborn child.   But, as the article says, performance art is all about pushing boundaries.  We've heard of other performance art and I'm inclined to think performance art has no boundaries. 

By definition, performance art can happen any where, any time, and involves the body of the performer and interaction with the audience.  So, anything, even public childbirth, can be called performance art -- but that doesn't make it right.

This is child abuse, not art: Kotak should be ashamed of the way she's putting her artistic vision ahead of the health and safety of her baby, says L.S. Carbonell at Lez Get Real. Baby X deserves to be born into a warm, safe place, not a public environment full of germs, and the midwife and doula "should have their licenses revoked" for enabling this "self-centered" jerk. "This is as much a case of child abuse as beating a kid with a stick."
"Childbirth as performance art"

Your thoughts?

The Doom of Modern Art

By Robert F. Beaudine
Originally posted at the Statesman Sentinel

“By their fruits you shall know them.”

In 2004, a group of five hundred artists, critics, curators, and dealers got together in England before the Turner Prize was awarded. They voted on what they thought was the most influential modern artwork of all time.

The winning work has been unfortunately lost. Only photographs and replicas remain. In 1917, this conceptual work of art had been rejected from its first and only exhibition in New York City and was most likely thrown out as garbage not long thereafter. Sponsored by the Society of Independent Artists, this open exhibition rejected no other work.

This special display has become a source of irony that has lead to countless  discussions on its meaning and relevance. The center of discussion, the most influential award-winning artwork was a mass-produced urinal titled, “Fountain,” submitted by Marcel Duchamp under an alias.

Righting this wrong of the past gives us a sense of sophistication today and betrays much about our spirituality.

In the olden days, art was crafted to glorify the heroic – kings, their noblemen and women, warriors, and their gods. Some cultures thought nature divine; others elevated humanity. Every culture that flourished produced artwork that expressed their cultural beliefs, desires, attitudes, and spiritual development.

When the Assyriologists unearthed the ruins and artifacts of ancient Assyria, they brought to life an empire that relied on continuous warfare to terrorize their neighboring nations. The Assyrians rose to power through plunder and tribute. Their artwork was reflective and instilled terror in their foes.

Their nation originally followed tradition and crafted steles – commemorative reliefs typically sculptured on stone – for their temples. But as they gained prosperity, they sculpted steles primarily for the king’s palace and those of  their conquered nations. A few depict royal lion hunts, but the majority portray battle scenes.  The most terrifying show the impalements of entire villages or royal scribes counting the decapitated heads of their enemies.

 A rare statue – that of King Ashurnasirpal the second – was discovered in the Temple of Ishtar presumably to show the piety of the king. With a sickle in his right hand and a mace in his left, his features are arrogant, as cold as the stone it was made of.

Hundreds of years later, another type of art flourished in another land, ancient Athens, a culture both ingenious and competitive in all aspects of life. Even their dramatic arts were developed for competition. They produced epic and lyric poetry, tragic drama, and sculptures renowned for their beauty, craftsmanship, and emotive ability.

Their pantheistic religion was a dominating feature. Their temples were their largest and most beautiful buildings. The magnificence of the Parthenon – a temple to Athena – still retains some of its grandeur from over two millennia ago.

The dramatic art of Plato was innovative and has inspired some of the greatest thinkers throughout history. He wrote narrative dialogues that examined the fundamentals of a broad range of lofty subjects, including the arts, education, philosophy, and politics.

Plato was also a heretic who wanted to censor their poets. Even with Homer, he wanted to strike out whole passages to protect the undeveloped young minds of their children. He thought it logical that children should not be exposed through their arts to any despicable behavior, especially those of their gods.

This culture was the flowering seed that blossomed time and again throughout the best of our Western civilization’s heritage. It’s a shame so few of us enjoy its sustenance.

The art of Ancient Israel, a nation called in antiquity “the People of the Book,” reveals a culture rooted in a radically different religion that gave them a strange perspective on life. Their Book was also unique. Besides their histories – and humanity’s beginnings – this Book contained psalms of praise and thanksgiving to their Creator, proverbs of wisdom, hymns of joy, poetic supplications for blessings, grace, and divine protection. Even their prophecies were many times written in a poetic style and used poetic imagery.

This society didn’t rely upon intellect or physical strength to sustain their lives and freedom. They didn’t worship idols crafted by men. Instead, they relied on a higher authority for their protection and well-being – the unseen God of heaven and earth. And they produced art that glorified their deity.

(continue reading below the fold...)