tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23795245313064751362024-03-05T22:09:33.620-08:00Stationary NomadElizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-9268999783756699692016-02-04T04:14:00.000-08:002016-02-04T08:07:58.329-08:00An Update from the University of Missouri<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH-z0_nVkE_8yNjd8QswzNkE0sq4ol4DDigBoe8CmUJIUBMP315W3FOIkfojD8Bes7_fF8jNxt7V1r0vVxtNEL4G3doDxK1gPMuCmFu6JaKUhRJshsiCgyaqsfHEbCNpqCpnVfStBiFRg/s1600/20151109_111042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH-z0_nVkE_8yNjd8QswzNkE0sq4ol4DDigBoe8CmUJIUBMP315W3FOIkfojD8Bes7_fF8jNxt7V1r0vVxtNEL4G3doDxK1gPMuCmFu6JaKUhRJshsiCgyaqsfHEbCNpqCpnVfStBiFRg/s320/20151109_111042.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
On Monday, November 9, 2015, Tim Wolfe, the president of the
four-campus University of Missouri system since February 2012, resigned. Later
the same day, the chancellor of the University of Missouri’s main campus in
Columbia, R. Bowen Loftin, also stepped down, less than two years after coming
to Mizzou. Both were responding to months of protests on campus by graduate
students, faculty, local and statewide citizens, and finally black undergraduate
students, including members of the football team. One
courageous graduate student went on a hunger strike demanding the president’s
resignation. These students—grads and undergrads—had formed the group
#ConcernedStudent1950 to call attention to the University’s deeply racist
history; although founded in 1839, MU did not admit black students until 1950.</div>
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The changes brought about by these amazing students are
something we all can and should be proud of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a faculty member, I can say that I and most of my faculty
colleagues—in fact ALL those I’ve spoken to or heard from—feel the changes that
have taken place over the past three months have been very positive and very
beneficial for the campus as a whole. Personally I am so very proud of our
students, and I am so inspired by what they’ve accomplished. And I’m proud of
all the faculty who have stood up for and with those students, and have
suffered unimaginable attacks and threats from a hostile public for doing so.</div>
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To be clear, for those readers who may not be as intimately
familiar with the goings-on here in Columbia, the departure of Wolfe and Loftin
was not all about race; there were so many issues that troubled students, faculty,
staff, and our community (which includes the entire state of Missouri).
Opposition to these two leaders was strong among faculty, staff, and even
high-level administrators—the deans of all of MU’s schools and colleges signed
a letter demanding Loftin’s departure. Two campus departments issued unanimous
letters of “no confidence” in the Chancellor. <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/politics/semester-of-strife-capped-longstanding-issues-with-wolfe-loftin/article_41ee52f7-fe9d-5641-865b-a44fffe6ecc9.html" target="_blank">(See this <i>Columbia Tribune</i> article on Long-Standing Issues at MU.)</a></div>
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The issues that had been brewing on campus for months, even
for years in some cases, were too many to enumerate fully, but included attacks
on graduate student funding and health insurance, attacks on Planned
Parenthood, complete lack of transparency in decision-making, and failure to
act on racist incidents at the University. It was this last issue that finally
brought about the much-needed change on campus, and brought the attention of
the national media to our door. Most specifically, it was the decision by black
football players to strike in support of the demands of #ConcernedStudent1950
and the hunger-striking student, that made folks from all over the country feel
they had a stake in what happened here. After all, what’s more important than
football?</div>
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There were many, many problems on our campus, but it was the
black student protests that finally brought down these two incompetent leaders,
Wolfe and Loftin. Strengthened by the “Black Lives Matter” movement, and in the
same state as Ferguson, black students at Mizzou (including black football
players, who are first and foremost students) felt empowered to demand change
that has long been overdue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the fact
remains, Wolfe and Loftin HAD to go, for a variety of reasons.</div>
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Wolfe and Loftin did the right thing by stepping down. But
the reactions on social media, as well as on a number of bogus-“news”-sites
(like Fox Sports), displayed an outpouring of anger—WHITE anger—from people who
have no familiarity with what has been going on at our campus; and of sympathy
for the two very powerful white men who were apparently perceived as the poor
victims here, giving in to the demands of spoiled children and the so-called
“radical left” (i.e., their MU faculty supporters) who have supposedly trampled
all over free speech and press freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have repeatedly heard comments to the effect, “Poor Tim Wolfe, why is
he being blamed for some idiots shouting racial slurs on campus? What’s he
supposed to do about it? It’s not his fault!” Anyone who thinks this came out
of nowhere, or in response to just a one-week-long student protest, is either completely
ignorant or deliberately obtuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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For some observers outside the University opining via social
media, recent incidents of racism on campus sound annoying but harmless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some ignorant folks have suggested that black
students were overreacting to being called racial slurs on campus. (<a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/12/17/459211924/the-long-necessary-history-of-whiny-black-protestors-at-college?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">See this NPR article on "whiny" protesters.</a>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m astonished that anyone could be so
insensitive and dismissive of these students’ experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The truth of the matter is, these incidents
were NOT isolated, and they were certainly not harmless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone who knows anything about American
history should know that the use of these horrible racial epithets has
frequently been accompanied by racial violence, even lynchings, with no
repercussions for the perpetrators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
even if the jerk yelling the n-word at a group of black students gathered on
campus was not literally threatening to lynch them then and there, the act of
hurling that abusive language is embedded in a historical, entrenched pattern
in which that word has been used to threaten, warn, and intimidate its targets,
who know that physical violence is always percolating beneath that veneer of
“harmless” “free” speech.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I have taught at the University of Missouri since 2003, and
I have been aware of many racist incidents on campus over the years, mainly consisting
of graffiti and vandalism. (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/us/university-of-missouri-protests.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=us&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&pgtype=article&_r=0" target="_blank">See this <i>New York Times</i> article on racism at MU</a>.) One particularly notorious incident happened in 2010 when two
young white men strew cotton balls all over the lawn outside the Gaines/Oldham
Black Student Center, referencing picking cotton under slavery. Subsequent
forums to address the racial climate were very educational; black community
leaders came to campus to talk about the history of the black community in
Columbia and to share their historical perspectives; faculty and students listened,
and marshalled our expertise on holding “Difficult Dialogues” to promote
understanding among members of our campus at various fora. At the Black Studies
Conference (which happens every other year), a student in the room asked a
panel of faculty and grad students, “why do we have Historically Black
Colleges, but there aren’t any Historically White colleges?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my faculty colleagues (who has since
left the University, unfortunately) didn’t miss a beat; he replied “There are.
You’re in one.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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It was surprising to find that some 20-year-olds were
unaware that universities like ours didn’t admit black students for over a
century. But these young people don’t have that historical memory, and if people
around them don’t talk about history and race, they might never know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the students who were on campus at
that time have moved on, leaving today’s crop of undergraduate students to feel
as if these racist incidents have either come out of nowhere, or have been here
all along, with no one trying to do anything about the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, though, the University IS trying to
bring about permanent change, positive change, under our new leadership.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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The educational mission of the University demands that we
keep working to change the campus culture, in order to make the campus a
welcoming place for ALL our students.</div>
</div>
Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-8651440741703350972013-06-23T15:28:00.001-07:002015-11-26T03:56:40.298-08:00My Great-Grandparents' House (Part II in the series "My Louisville")<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqNS3_weAwlgOdC5QEn1T6VEdEVtBsIUwq6vWx99yhjG5b7rLRwFKj2fI54FHj-L6FfBxDkMduIB5quGe3pkDi3njCdbWKv61GrVgvhAMkKt4wkM4zIdIUJ8B2YMXe0x5KBkZgaM0ZO7w/s1600/DSC01722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqNS3_weAwlgOdC5QEn1T6VEdEVtBsIUwq6vWx99yhjG5b7rLRwFKj2fI54FHj-L6FfBxDkMduIB5quGe3pkDi3njCdbWKv61GrVgvhAMkKt4wkM4zIdIUJ8B2YMXe0x5KBkZgaM0ZO7w/s320/DSC01722.JPG" width="320" /></a>On my most recent visit to Louisville I asked my mom to take me to see the house of her grandparents. George Herman Bach (1885?-1943) and Lillian Whitehouse Bach (1899-1954) lived in this brick bungalow on Dixie Highway in Shively; I don't know when they first moved in, but my grandmother, Lillie May Bach (1919-2007), was born here. <br />
<br />
This house is just north of Algonquin Parkway, the third structure from the corner, on the west side of the highway. This is the house in which my grandmother grew up with her younger sister and brother. Their dad was a butcher at a nearby butcher's shop on Dixie Highway.<br />
<br />
The last time we visited this house it was standing empty with a "For Sale" sign; all the windows were boarded up, and the red brick still looked as it always had. On this visit (June 2013), the house had gotten a new lease on life: a new owner had painted the brick a pale yellow, and the interior is in the process of being refurbished. In this photo you can see a fellow standing on the front porch, talking on the phone; he was working on the house, and talking to the owner. He asked me if I wanted to talk to the owner myself, and handed me his phone.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs0F3sSuPMcPGzn8-1lf25EjZP6EV-9CreRjQ4bE3FuzmOA_m2a1mHBU__4DtCxFTHm2xSJxkJQHtiGvXvvU194UuIKP3pVPXhSRR-rZhQBbTxd_NFuHBgXt1UdAYOhHVpOdXdYQqXYLk/s1600/DSC01720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs0F3sSuPMcPGzn8-1lf25EjZP6EV-9CreRjQ4bE3FuzmOA_m2a1mHBU__4DtCxFTHm2xSJxkJQHtiGvXvvU194UuIKP3pVPXhSRR-rZhQBbTxd_NFuHBgXt1UdAYOhHVpOdXdYQqXYLk/s320/DSC01720.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
My great-grandmother (whom, of course, I never met) lived in this house until she died in 1954, but then it passed out of our family. The present owner had never heard of the Bachs, but did know the previous family who lived here, I think he said the woman's name was Alma White.<br />
<br />
The present owner is fixing it up -- the bags of trash on the front porch are stuff they have taken out of this long-unoccupied building -- he says he hopes to have a residential unit on the second floor and commercial on the first floor.<br />
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I love this photo of the front door with its side lights and transom lights. My mom says that her mom would be really happy to see that her parents' house is getting some TLC. For my part I was happy to see that it was no longer standing neglected and empty, and I was relieved to see that it's still standing.<br />
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This type of brick bungalow is quite common in Louisville, and all over the country, in fact. Bungalows date from the early 20th century, when streetcars were common and private cars were not. Bungalows don't have garages, as you can see in this photo. Once the automobile became more common, detached garages were built. Later, houses with carports, and eventually attached garages, were built; the ranch house displaced the bungalow as the most popular vernacular architecture type.<br />
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On Dixie Highway many houses have disappeared to make way for commercial development, but north of the Watterson many remain residential too. Just north of my great-grandparents' house is a large discount store called Save-A-Lot, so it's not inconceivable that this house could have succumbed to the bulldozer at some point like its former neighbors. I'm hoping to see it occupied on my next visit, whenever that happens; and if it's a commercial occupant I might finally get to go inside.</div>
Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-39198072355558594172013-06-23T13:34:00.001-07:002015-11-26T03:56:40.294-08:00Dixie Highway (Part I in the series "My Louisville")<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northbound on Dixie Highway through Shively; notice the two-story house on the right, now Dixie Florist, just past the Pep Boys. Note the above-ground power lines that dominate the view.</td></tr>
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I’m from Louisville, Kentucky, but until now haven’t written
anything about it in my blog, having spent my entire adult life in other places
I liked better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up less than half
a mile from Dixie Highway, in Valley Station, which is in the Southwest part of
Jefferson County, and really quite far from downtown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a good 30 to 45 minutes’ drive to the
downtown waterfront, depending on which route you take and the traffic
conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could have walked to
Valley High School, had I been a student there, but instead I attended Pleasure
Ridge Park High School because I was in the advanced program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For people who are not from Louisville, the
name Pleasure Ridge Park (which is also the name for the part of town it’s in)
elicits amused smiles and sometimes smirks – but that’s another story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People in Louisville know it as PRP, and don’t
think twice about the name’s origins.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dixie Highway in Shively -- six lanes plus a center median</td></tr>
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I always hated Dixie Highway when I was growing up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, I doubt that anyone loves Dixie Highway –
for folks in Southwest Jefferson County it’s a long, traffic-clogged obstacle
between them and getting anywhere fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We lived 6.5 miles from my grandparents’ house in Shively, but that
drive – nearly all of it along Dixie Highway – seemed interminable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Besides Dixie Highway’s congestion, though, it is a real
eyesore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one long hideous stretch
of unregulated commercial development dominated by car dealerships, fast food
outlets, big box stores, strip malls with crummy chain restaurants in their
parking lots, drugstores, gas stations with convenience stores, car washes, grocery
stores, and countless small businesses filling in the remaining nooks and
crannies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is one movie theater,
the only one serving this entire vast part of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, did I mention dive bars, nasty motels, and adult
entertainment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>It has its share of those too in certain
parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The road is lined with above-ground
power lines, telephone lines, and traffic signal wires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There has been no effort to make it
aesthetically pleasing, a direct index of the economic impoverishment of this part
of town.</div>
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I realize that “hate” is a very strong word, and when I
say that I hated Dixie Highway, it’s not only because of the traffic nightmare
or the aesthetic impoverishment it presents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My strong emotional reaction was in part a function of my unhappy
childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lived there from about the
middle of 4th grade until I graduated from high school; these nine years were
about the most unhappy years of my life, though the unhappiness began a few
years earlier when my parents divorced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Growing up I always associated my personal misery with the apparent squalor
of Dixie Highway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My family was poor –
more accurately I should say lower middle class, because we did have all
the economic necessities, and were doing better than many folks in this
community, but that’s not saying a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Louisville it is painfully obvious that the better off you are financially, the
further east you live – and Valley Station was about as far from the East End
as you could get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My boyfriend lived in St.
Matthews (in the East End), about 20 miles from where I lived; one of his
friends told him once that I “didn’t look like a girl from Valley Station.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew what he meant, and I had to take that
as a compliment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I always experienced
my childhood home as a real stigma. </div>
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But on my most recent trip to Louisville I started to see
Dixie Highway from a different perspective, that of a trained architectural
historian, and to think about what it might have looked like once upon a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began to pay attention to the many
buildings along the highway that clearly began their lives as houses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these houses south of the Watterson
Expressway (I-264) appear to date from the late 1940s and the post-war housing
boom that occurred across the nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are modest single-family homes, and look very much like the
housing stock from that era that survives in the surrounding neighborhoods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Before the late 1940s the homes on Dixie Highway were mainly farmhouses, somewhat larger than their later neighbors. </span>South of the expressway, every last one of
them (with one possible exception*) has been converted to commercial use.<br />
</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3siLhfA28CgZKDjVJTz6pg47U9er4Hp9WfilvOvLuQkJxYhR7rnu24RjAkm3N2cPigkvM-mq-8JI2XVjv5sNYgMl74IfMeXEUlS5cHMCsIWpqKqE1tXNem5kQr7iVO5ZdfgjHRji5z4/s1600/DSC01732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3siLhfA28CgZKDjVJTz6pg47U9er4Hp9WfilvOvLuQkJxYhR7rnu24RjAkm3N2cPigkvM-mq-8JI2XVjv5sNYgMl74IfMeXEUlS5cHMCsIWpqKqE1tXNem5kQr7iVO5ZdfgjHRji5z4/s320/DSC01732.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another beautiful old farmhouse converted to commercial use on Dixie Highway.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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Fortunately I have a very good source of historical information: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my mother has lived in Louisville for most of
her life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her parents lived in Louisville
for their entire lives, except for a few years during World War II when as
newlyweds they lived in Virginia, where my grandfather worked at a
shipyard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(He was a welder, and couldn’t
enlist in the services because his eyesight was not good enough.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact my family has lived on or near Dixie
Highway for several generations.</div>
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My mother remembers a time when Dixie Highway wasn’t six
lanes wide with a center median; she says it used to be four lanes, with no
median, and all the buildings on the highway were houses with big front yards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Think Southern Parkway, a well preserved
example of Louisville’s residential thoroughfares.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Dixie Highway was widened it took away
most of those lawns, and miles and miles of trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when those houses became commercial real
estate, much of what remained of those lawns was paved over for parking.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8AZm4vpUSgOqTYrwIK2WWCOMwnnLgu9H5iIR_87PL65-oK420t0upP5tVQLGu4TLIve4tYoceWtK79hL9b-_H-kAd62hSPadTxJkR2MDyhUXZmP8QhP9txnWJ76Ei1t0JzeNL93X2iH4/s1600/DSC01725.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8AZm4vpUSgOqTYrwIK2WWCOMwnnLgu9H5iIR_87PL65-oK420t0upP5tVQLGu4TLIve4tYoceWtK79hL9b-_H-kAd62hSPadTxJkR2MDyhUXZmP8QhP9txnWJ76Ei1t0JzeNL93X2iH4/s200/DSC01725.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtQb3LWTBIuYvRQkzvp6M91OZaTCxneBwheE13kFTVRZYPxRWPMNa6I4AqRvfRllES_RY8Qrjarzf6lnDt2j-99BPs6z-F_iunEFZRMBpMMR2asV0EPa19fbIwTExvNSGoicxs1FEWPCY/s1600/DSC01727.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtQb3LWTBIuYvRQkzvp6M91OZaTCxneBwheE13kFTVRZYPxRWPMNa6I4AqRvfRllES_RY8Qrjarzf6lnDt2j-99BPs6z-F_iunEFZRMBpMMR2asV0EPa19fbIwTExvNSGoicxs1FEWPCY/s200/DSC01727.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Left: Dixie Highway north of the Watterson; right: Some older houses in Shively on Dixie Highway north of the Watterson Expressway.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
North of the expressway you can see what Dixie Highway used
to look like:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>here it is still four
lanes, and there are many houses still standing, and still residential (though
there’s a lot of commercial property here too).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are a lot of old trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
notice there is a narrow center median, and I wonder if this is where the streetcar
used to run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My great grandparents,
George Bach and Lillian Whitehouse Bach, lived in a house on Dixie Highway just
north of Algonquin Parkway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
grandmother, Lillie May Bach, grew up in this house, and she once told me that
when she was little, it was “out in the country.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time she grew up it was in the city,
for Dixie Highway had developed quite a lot during those decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This part of town is called Shively,
sometimes known as “Lively Shively” according to my mom (who grew up there).</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj5nrsoVYbdQCRdDQacMVamigJn2D0BcBwTUr5xY_uoR-urFJ6QKyi3oeKzYfsrTGwss2qjm0ivUUzXaI2K79E6Kt0xb5WGZtIsNkGWoF3IPUA_HElD7qYTBcClS0n7nrmsXZfCYTMj0/s1600/DSC01773.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj5nrsoVYbdQCRdDQacMVamigJn2D0BcBwTUr5xY_uoR-urFJ6QKyi3oeKzYfsrTGwss2qjm0ivUUzXaI2K79E6Kt0xb5WGZtIsNkGWoF3IPUA_HElD7qYTBcClS0n7nrmsXZfCYTMj0/s320/DSC01773.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This old farmhouse is now a law office. It has an old-fashioned port-cochere.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Dixie Highway was (and still is) the road to Fort Knox, and
in my grandmother’s youth it mainly ran through farmland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on the style of housing, as mentioned
earlier, it appears that the post-World War II housing boom brought a new wave
of development and lots of single-family homes to Dixie Highway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the Levittown era, with its modest
spec housing built in large numbers for returning war veterans starting their
families.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhakeGh5pYs9ZrN-XpPRqjo65dsKKOM82-5K6MkoWbT6Q1xW5KWNWzkQndOyLij_TIqvIT66DLnyYjqfmQYBvhUc4MxalELCYd299gXldUEUfEJludQf52UyOlM1jI2v4vkOtGt7yH7W6s/s1600/DSC01772.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhakeGh5pYs9ZrN-XpPRqjo65dsKKOM82-5K6MkoWbT6Q1xW5KWNWzkQndOyLij_TIqvIT66DLnyYjqfmQYBvhUc4MxalELCYd299gXldUEUfEJludQf52UyOlM1jI2v4vkOtGt7yH7W6s/s320/DSC01772.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Post-WWII housing boom: this 1940s house is now an insurance agency.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next era of big changes for Dixie Highway came along
with the development of interstate highways and urban planning of the early
1960s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Watterson Expressway was
built in 1961-62 – my mom’s freshman year at the University of Kentucky – and it
appears to me that this was the catalyst for Dixie Highway’s expansion into six
lanes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not become six lanes
until you reach the Watterson – north of the Watterson it’s still four lanes –
and the six-lane Dixie Highway runs from the Watterson south to Greenwood Road,
a distance of 3.2 miles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>South of
Greenwood Road it returns to four lanes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I was driving through Valley Station a couple days ago I noticed an
advertisement for a local business which boasted “50 years on Dixie Highway.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That would make it 1963 when that business
began – part of that wave of commercial development following the construction
of the Watterson.</div>
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In Valley Station, well south of Greenwood Road, there are long
stretches of Dixie Highway lined with trees – in fact an extensive stretch of
forest lies opposite the mall containing Target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>South of Ponder Lane you can even find a frontage
road with houses and large front yards running next to the highway, again reminiscent of Southern Parkway.<br />
<br />
In this essay I don't mean to recapitulate the "narrative of loss" so common among so many descriptions of historical development. When my mother was growing up in Shively in the 1940s and 50s, "everyone went downtown for everything," as she tells it. It's nice to be able to find the things you need without going downtown, and today Dixie Highway seems to offer a lot of things people need. As a metropolitan area of 1.3 million people, the growth of the city was inevitable; I just wish it could have been implemented in a more aesthetically pleasing and history-conscious manner. Dixie Highway is not a thoroughfare that historic preservationists are likely to champion, but I think some of these old structures deserve some attention and respect.</div>
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*I mentioned above that I think I found ONE house on Dixie
Highway in Shively, south of the Watterson, that has not been converted to
commercial use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a gray stone house
that sits directly opposite Gagel Avenue, minimal traditional in style, one
and a half stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has absolutely no
signage, plus a white picket fence around the back yard, which makes me think
it’s residential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately it is
sandwiched between All America Pool and DT’s Bar and Grill, making it a rather
unpleasant place to live – not to mention the six-lane highway outside its
front door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, I have to hand it to
anyone who can resist the many pressures, both economic and otherwise, to give
in to the commercialization of the landscape.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0x_Op1-8MDtogd1AdLnJrO3kIS3jz9MCBb4QIkhAvJDQAqx5uc_gIKZE5xgj-tnqFAqHbXZ9DNK-YsuCMw5OtP3Bq97q054d3J4kpx0t6qECSJLOHKyO4NBT_IS8-_IardMWgxkVY4Vs/s1600/DSC01776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0x_Op1-8MDtogd1AdLnJrO3kIS3jz9MCBb4QIkhAvJDQAqx5uc_gIKZE5xgj-tnqFAqHbXZ9DNK-YsuCMw5OtP3Bq97q054d3J4kpx0t6qECSJLOHKyO4NBT_IS8-_IardMWgxkVY4Vs/s320/DSC01776.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This little house on Dixie Highway and Gagel Avenue appears to be still residential.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Note:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I say that I hated Dixie Highway, and that I felt stigmatized for growing up in
Southwest Jefferson County, I do not mean to offend anyone who previously or
currently lives in this part of town – i.e., Shively, PRP, and Valley Station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lots of people are proud to come from this
part of Jefferson County, including my mom and my grandparents, all of whom I
love very much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anything I deplore
what I perceive as the snobbery of many Louisvillians who look down on the
Southwest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Again, that’s my subjective
perception.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further, there are many
affluent neighborhoods in the Southwest, though mine wasn’t one of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I have tried to convey in this essay is my
acknowledgment that it was my own unhappy childhood that made me feel bad about
living in this part of town, because at the time the two were closely connected
in my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that I am 49 years old I
am long past those biases formed in childhood. And as an architectural historian I find the history of Louisville's development quite intriguing. I offer my sincere apologies to anyone whom I may inadvertently have offended with my discussion. </i></div>
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Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-60089605187832843532011-08-07T10:17:00.001-07:002011-08-08T13:06:57.484-07:00The City of Shiva -- Varanasi, India<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuaicugwU85ujWurSRbPyWl87KunzhWjoPFjjWMlmMOYtbkQCo4zSqM2YmZT4lZjWFRu9bEZvB_Al5_vwVsRCIATZnq_Y_LgifhHOMMYpQIdDEn4GDHTuO0j2o1pLwPj3oLGWFQitcd0M/s1600/DSC04990.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638174157686529570" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuaicugwU85ujWurSRbPyWl87KunzhWjoPFjjWMlmMOYtbkQCo4zSqM2YmZT4lZjWFRu9bEZvB_Al5_vwVsRCIATZnq_Y_LgifhHOMMYpQIdDEn4GDHTuO0j2o1pLwPj3oLGWFQitcd0M/s400/DSC04990.JPG" border="0" /></a>One of the most memorable experiences while I was in India in July was our visit to Varanasi, the sacred city of Shiva, the most holy of all the Hindu pilgrimage centers (<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">tirthas</span>) in India.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I did not really know what to expect, though I knew it would be full of pilgrims as well as devout Hindus wanting to spend their remaining days in the city from which <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">moksha </span>is guaranteed (but only<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>if you die there).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I knew about the ghats, or stepped platforms and terraces, along the Ganges –some used for devotion, others for the mundane tasks like laundering clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Bathing can occur in either context – sacred or mundane.
<br /><p class="MsoNormal">The trip began in a jarringly memorable way: as we were boarding our plane, two coffins were sitting on the tarmac, waiting to be loaded into the cargo hold. Devout Hindus on their way to be cremated at the place where Lord Shiva would ferry their souls across the river to the great beyond. I realized that their grieving relatives would most likely be on the same flight with us. Having come to India almost directly from my grandmother's memorial service, I was all the more attuned to death and grieving. My grandmother was with me on that trip to India, in the way that people keep telling me she is always with me, in spirit. I kept wanting to share with her my experiences and impressions, and then realizing I couldn't.
<br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQ_GVkXzMyXahLrEbjALojJlbRdHg1iZeORlaQLIk0IpOmp7Pm-Qiqxj4qFsLJ7dx3HSjcbLoYeqxiOmhI2VjfzCJJeZbJ8Cx941Y8OnOMUwt7vPbfWg_EGgCXOXmQJqaq-B9C-6Cgwc/s1600/DSC04868.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 268px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638372292059765938" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQ_GVkXzMyXahLrEbjALojJlbRdHg1iZeORlaQLIk0IpOmp7Pm-Qiqxj4qFsLJ7dx3HSjcbLoYeqxiOmhI2VjfzCJJeZbJ8Cx941Y8OnOMUwt7vPbfWg_EGgCXOXmQJqaq-B9C-6Cgwc/s400/DSC04868.JPG" border="0" /></a>I was not surprised to find in Varanasi extreme contrasts with New Delhi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in India, and Delhi, while several centuries old, is also probably the most modern city as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Delhi’s airport is only one year old, and road-building seems to have kept pace with the boom in population and in automobiles (unlike Hyderabad, for example, where traffic is a total nightmare).
<br /><p class="MsoNormal">Varanasi is intense – old, dirty, with narrow winding streets thronged with market stalls; the crush of pilgrims and tourists making their way to and from the ghats; religious fervor and fervent hawkers; pedestrians, bicycle rickshaws and automobiles all competing for space; very loud music!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All of one’s senses are assaulted, between the fragrant aroma of flowers and the odor of cow dung, the loud music, the visual cacophony of colors and textures, foods both tempting and repellant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The heat, the humidity, the mud, and – once you get to the Ganges – the water (I stepped in up to my ankles) – it all overwhelms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Varanasi is like India itself – intense, larger than life, sometimes too much to handle, but somehow captivating.
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">We were there during a special month devoted to Shiva; in the lunar calendar it occurs only once every three years (or once every 32.5 months, according to Wikipedia). Pilgrims -- almost all of them young men, dressed entirely in orange -- travel on foot to Varanasi to gather water from the Ganges in small pots, and then to travel on foot to other Shiva temples located throughout the country to pour the sacred water on the Shiva lingam. In these photos you can see the decorated poles used by pilgrims to carry the Ganges water:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7GJCdvkW8DDb14POcdRnhIi5lheO3CN0JfHDR8VFq2Knsp72SCcuD1xKVBrHNj1rU5hJ3rWRA4mwGtW4U6KQuxIaiudVMv8ewDQ4NjqMGjUYb6Ok8-fbrFBHWdrXjhhiZuxKD2p9CZA/s1600/DSC05004.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7GJCdvkW8DDb14POcdRnhIi5lheO3CN0JfHDR8VFq2Knsp72SCcuD1xKVBrHNj1rU5hJ3rWRA4mwGtW4U6KQuxIaiudVMv8ewDQ4NjqMGjUYb6Ok8-fbrFBHWdrXjhhiZuxKD2p9CZA/s400/DSC05004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638577852033560562" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyN3-LWuCpHRDIz4tZtZa4EA149XCSIykd8IuowF1_TKXDDvbfHF0VjlbjrOCS_2QvYr-EI-wglwX8pLBFTwolDk-_M5OX0hLAAA3EsKEQmKYNc__yOZZ8DNnzaDQaC4xnEZ4MQv408xw/s1600/DSC05002.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyN3-LWuCpHRDIz4tZtZa4EA149XCSIykd8IuowF1_TKXDDvbfHF0VjlbjrOCS_2QvYr-EI-wglwX8pLBFTwolDk-_M5OX0hLAAA3EsKEQmKYNc__yOZZ8DNnzaDQaC4xnEZ4MQv408xw/s400/DSC05002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638577860456076194" border="0" /></a></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Hl-qd6AxK4pMzmSxoa4YwRzNFOaGz_29suufGdYfmfojiwetzRB8dnEWtz-0gZDMH4fHHtOeQ9FeX_ePGpqRV8hsDDlNcP84zahl0qD5laKSP020286vF_R7bOemF1V5kpbqAEN99JQ/s1600/DSC04995.JPG">
<br /></a><p class="MsoNormal">According to Subhadra Sen Gupta, Kashi may have been a Dravidian center of worship before the arrival of the Aryans in the subcontinent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The cult of Shiva dates to before the Aryans’ arrival, and Kashi is believed to be Shiva’s sacred city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Remains of a city wall dating back to the 9th century B.C. have been found on the northern edge of the city.
<br /></p>The city is known by many names:
<br /><p class="MsoNormal">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Kashi (or Kashika, or Kashi Kshetra for the region of Kashi) is the name used in the oldest literary reference, the epic <span style="font-style: italic;">Mahabharata</span>; it means “the Luminous,” or “the City of Light.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is where Shiva’s <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">jyotirlingam </span>first appeared, a column of light that symbolized Shiva’s presence. </p>2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Varanasi – the city lies between two streams, the Varana (to the north) and the Asi (to the south); together they make the name Varanasi.
<br /><p class="MsoNormal">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Benares – a mis-hearing of the word Varanasi</p>4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Anandavana – “Shiva’s forest of bliss”
<br /><p class="MsoNormal">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Anandakanana – “Shiva’s garden of happiness”</p>6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Rudravasa – the abode of Rudra (because one of the aspects of Shiva is as the Vedic god Rudra)
<br /><p class="MsoNormal">7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mahashmashana – the Great Cremation Ground</p>8. Avimukta: the Never-Forsaken, or the city never forsaken by Lord Shiva
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<br /><div>There are some 80 ghats in Kashi, built mostly from red sandstone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The five most sacred ghats are the Asi, Kedar, Dasaswamedha, Panchganga, and the Manikarnika.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Some pilgrims prefer the Adi Keshava ghat to the Kedar ghat.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These are said to possess the most spiritual power and sanctity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The only ghat we visited was the Dasaswamedha Ghat, where the virtuous King Divodasa was forced by the gods to perform the horse sacrifice, or <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">ashwamedha yajna</span>, not just one but ten times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the Vedic religion, the horse sacrifice was the most elaborate and auspicious ritual, and was performed only by kings because it required so much wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Divodasa performed his ten horse sacrifices here at this ghat, which thus became the most auspicious of all the ghats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Bathing here at this ghat brings you all the blessings of the ten horse sacrifices.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt0PO4c8yePb0fTHRKN_tn01J7zvq_kDYVEvGR-yF41ehUt_eGncbycSx3UfBTC-q4G6TvNwFzOPrW8aLQL2I7sYkEkr2sFhzNOCJTgAQNP28ByrfKVhW7zEzIbtBG_2PzDeioBOKCvT8/s1600/DSC04977.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638174137669524770" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt0PO4c8yePb0fTHRKN_tn01J7zvq_kDYVEvGR-yF41ehUt_eGncbycSx3UfBTC-q4G6TvNwFzOPrW8aLQL2I7sYkEkr2sFhzNOCJTgAQNP28ByrfKVhW7zEzIbtBG_2PzDeioBOKCvT8/s400/DSC04977.JPG" border="0" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvVyOHTLPFmZqya4JNNyw-lUsIUuwbm3kQ57xNVWuAbrkBIJr8mmwf83Di5iOnkIXZlnMlBnaVbEByrkx80QC7o36_a2OjRD632vXpBOhAvxetgD-g6fSy3CHuPpgXQBs7K_7xHpLKyw/s1600/DSC04978.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638174147695036914" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvVyOHTLPFmZqya4JNNyw-lUsIUuwbm3kQ57xNVWuAbrkBIJr8mmwf83Di5iOnkIXZlnMlBnaVbEByrkx80QC7o36_a2OjRD632vXpBOhAvxetgD-g6fSy3CHuPpgXQBs7K_7xHpLKyw/s400/DSC04978.JPG" border="0" /></a>
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<br />The Ganga Aarti is performed at the Dasaswamedha Ghat every morning and every night; this is a worship ceremony (<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">puja</span>) in honor of the goddess Ganga Ma (Mother Ganges):
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<br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-skV7xJEweqn4f0s1XjcIMb6RQYGMoUesFTOBBS4N5IcC7wdJaoCusNuVKOQk41fqPttO-lnuzRQmFFxalVzxbpE9h2XE6YH1tL9mrRg62JqSXz2aFt6qFttCGvF8V8JawwxDYKV-08/s1600/Ganga+Arati+4.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 268px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638205112878773026" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-skV7xJEweqn4f0s1XjcIMb6RQYGMoUesFTOBBS4N5IcC7wdJaoCusNuVKOQk41fqPttO-lnuzRQmFFxalVzxbpE9h2XE6YH1tL9mrRg62JqSXz2aFt6qFttCGvF8V8JawwxDYKV-08/s400/Ganga+Arati+4.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>
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<br />Our group got to watch the evening ceremony while seated in a boat on the Ganges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Several priests performed it in unison, circling fire, water vessels, incense, bells, and the other gifts made to the goddess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The ceremony signifies waking up the goddess in the morning, and putting her to bed at night. For the devout Hindu, the river IS the goddess, the living and energetic form of the divine; as we watched the <span style="font-style: italic;">puja </span>being performed, we floated atop her divine presence, occupying the space between worshipers and worshiped.
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<br />Early on Sunday morning a small group of us went back to the ghat and in pursuit of the main Shiva temple in the city, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not only are you not allowed to bring a camera into the temple, but you aren’t even allowed to bring a camera anywhere near the temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There were two security checkpoints leading up to the temple, and I took a photo of this sign at the first security checkpoint saying that cameras are not allowed (plus I got yelled at for taking this photo as I walked past!):
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<br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJ9IVEaAmsB99NmVkIagiLCYW3t-Ro2lp0gg6bCVRTdho6irqtvEdw1hDE9Gn_ivawXy0VRZ49ToGc7J3R15kInS65u-U5am8Jd0sMRQ9xWLT5b73pR-sBGrzjpEmVmfs5UXWOAUjFG8/s1600/DSC05044.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 268px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638166861955290018" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJ9IVEaAmsB99NmVkIagiLCYW3t-Ro2lp0gg6bCVRTdho6irqtvEdw1hDE9Gn_ivawXy0VRZ49ToGc7J3R15kInS65u-U5am8Jd0sMRQ9xWLT5b73pR-sBGrzjpEmVmfs5UXWOAUjFG8/s400/DSC05044.JPG" border="0" /></a></div>
<br /><div>Foreigners are generally not allowed to enter the temple, either, so not surprisingly we did not get in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was able to look into the two doors leading into and out of the temple, and could only see that it was really crowded with worshipers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We could see the tops of towers rising above the wall (at the point where we had already left our cameras behind). I stood in line hoping to get in, and came temptingly close, but an argument in line right in front of me slowed things down to a halt and I had to leave.
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<br /><div></div>I’m not sure why foreigners are not allowed, but a couple of explanations occur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to one of the leaders of our group, the Brahmins (priests) do not want non-Hindus in the temple, and are very adamant about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For them this is the holiest of the holies, so that attitude is not surprising.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A second explanation offered by an historian in the group is that Kashi is witness to quite a lot of communal violence, so in order to preserve security they are quite strict about controlling who visits important sacred sites.
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<br /><div>Our final visit was to the cremation grounds, the “burning ghat,” where there were, indeed, a few cremation fires still burning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A yard filled with enormous piles of wood stood next to it; they performed about 100 cremations every day, so lots of wood was needed:</div>
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA8bxv6xSZTqRBJed8IeyFxKMuQ2dgn8J7MUGkU7OIekLthYjz2KkY7Zdj56YRKG3SVwY7TjphJZXUKzgpua3y0oye77MAdEEAE7_ezeCjWuG1bamCImJrUlqm1SaoxqrF4KD41pxxhPY/s1600/DSC05056.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 268px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638174155917534114" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA8bxv6xSZTqRBJed8IeyFxKMuQ2dgn8J7MUGkU7OIekLthYjz2KkY7Zdj56YRKG3SVwY7TjphJZXUKzgpua3y0oye77MAdEEAE7_ezeCjWuG1bamCImJrUlqm1SaoxqrF4KD41pxxhPY/s400/DSC05056.JPG" border="0" /></a>The photo of the cremation grounds was also not allowed, “for privacy,” but I couldn’t resist taking one picture:</div>
<br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JCQBoM3el2C6rooS11QtwD4WkmSWDUJ_wW-b9iR8qaJld0XU9DG9JZ0xSBckTMpEPwcHsNoU2lNFgj-9h-ev_9MJMSdFGbOv01DC_SmoYEyqI6K3P46OqlsOQ-4w_oLVFiFhlej-vQ0/s1600/DSC05062.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 268px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638166865587342418" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JCQBoM3el2C6rooS11QtwD4WkmSWDUJ_wW-b9iR8qaJld0XU9DG9JZ0xSBckTMpEPwcHsNoU2lNFgj-9h-ev_9MJMSdFGbOv01DC_SmoYEyqI6K3P46OqlsOQ-4w_oLVFiFhlej-vQ0/s400/DSC05062.JPG" border="0" /></a></div>
<br /><div>The fires were attended only by the workers whose job was to take all the ashes into the Ganges after the cremation was over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One of them invited me to walk closer to one of the fires, and the heat was really intense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He pointed out where the skull was still burning, and explained that after burning for two hours, they would smash the skull so that the soul could escape; then the fire would be allowed to burn for another hour, so that the cremation was complete. (I thought of my grandmother, whose body was cremated in January -- the Indian method is so much more visible and hence more tangible.) During roughly 24 hours spent in and around Varanasi, we saw numerous cars and trucks traveling with dead bodies, wrapped in shrouds, attached to the roof -- bringing them to be cremated here.
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<br /></div>In my yoga practice, my teacher / guru, Sienna, talks about feeling cosmic vibrations, and reverberating with the universe. The sacred sound "OM" is supposed to help you get in touch with it, but even during practice -- even during shavasana, corpse pose -- one should be able to contact this place that's latent in consciousness. In Varanasi, this feeling came upon me, it snuck up on me unawares. After spending about two hours on foot exploring the oldest and most important areas of this sacred city, my body was shaking involuntarily, microscopically. It was as if every atom of my being was suffused with the energy of Lord Shiva. Maybe it was from the close proximity to death, beginning with the coffins at the Delhi airport and culminating in the corpse burning a few feet away from me. Maybe it was the cumulative energy of religious faith taken to its most extreme form. Maybe it was the opportunity, at last, to see a side of India that had eluded me in my visits to modernized cities -- Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi. I am still struggling to understand why I felt how I did.
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<br />I would have needed to sit for several hours in contemplation to absorb everything I had seen. The experience left me speechless, and I'm still trying to make sense of the emotional intensity I felt on that gray morning on the banks of the Ganges.
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<br />Sources:
<br />Diana L. Eck, <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Banaras City of Light</span> (New York: Columbia U.P., 1999).
<br />Subhadra Sen Gupta, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Tirtha:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Holy Pilgrim Centres of the Hindus</i> (Delhi:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Rupa & Co., 2001).</div>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-85727472387003506412011-07-20T12:41:00.000-07:002015-11-26T03:57:04.089-08:00Eulogy for My Grandmother<span style="font-style: italic;">On Saturday, June 18, 2011, one day after what would have been my grandmother's 100th birthday, we celebrated her life with an event at the Woodstock Community Center. It was a very special day, with music, readings, and spoken tributes. One of her friends, who is a former professional opera singer, led us all in singing Happy Birthday. Some Native American musicians played music (Mescal was interested in Native American culture her entire life). Family members played "The Ashokan Farewell" and other instrumental arrangements. A New Orleans-style jazz band, called the Saints of Swing, began the event with a rousing musical procession, and after all the speeches were over they led a procession of guests down to The Colony for the reception.<br /><br />New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey was the first speaker, and his tribute to her was very thoughtful and engaging. Mescal had been a political activist for the last four decades of her life -- she even served one term on the Woodstock Town Council in the early 1980s. She meant a lot to a lot of people, and really made her mark on the community.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Woodstock Town Council decided to name the Woodstock Community Center after my grandmother because of the instrumental role she had played in acquiring the building for the community while she was on the council. She would have been proud but also embarrassed by the generous gesture in her honor.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Six months after her death, in January 2011, I still miss her all the time. 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font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >Hello, I’m Mescal’s granddaughter, Beth.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I knew Mescal for 46 years – almost 47.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I learned so much from my grandmother.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I have so many wonderful memories of Mescal, but I will try to keep my remarks brief.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mescal was born in a world without television, or cell phones; the radio and the telephone were not used nearly as much as they are today.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There were movie theaters in the world, but not in the rural community where she grew up.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She had a fairly solitary childhood; except for her sister and cousins, there were no other children close by, except for the summer boarders at her grandparents’ boarding house.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She read a lot, and was very close to her father, Fred Toms, and to her maternal grandfather, Mathias Burgher.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even at age 99, she would talk fondly of both of them, and her memories of her childhood were as vivid as if they had happened yesterday.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She always told us stories of growing up in that far-off distant world, trying to teach us modern kids what it was like to live without electricity, or indoor plumbing; and to give us an appreciation for how hard her grandmother had worked to do things we take for granted, like doing laundry.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >Despite – or maybe because of – growing up in this small community, Mescal was curious about the rest of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When I was around 15 or 16 years old she took me to the <a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2008/05/little-bit-of-tibet-here-in-catskills.html">Tibetan Buddhist monastery</a> for a kirtan – a ceremony of meditation and chanting.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Afterwards we stayed to have a meal with the monks.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was a simple evening, really, but to me it meant and still means a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was an experience of learning about people whose views and beliefs were different from ours, through the very simple act of watching and learning and absorbing the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was an experience of accepting and respecting them, without judging their beliefs, AND of being accepted and respected by them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mescal didn’t take me there as some kind of pedagogical exercise, or at least I didn’t experience it that way.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Instead it was something that SHE wanted to do, and she was generous enough to include me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She went because she was curious, and I was curious too.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve always loved her curiosity and her sense of adventure.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And it made me feel really good to be included in her life and the activities that she cared about.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I often didn’t feel like her granddaughter; I felt like her friend.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >Another important memory for me was that, as a young teenager, I was often brought along with my grandmother as she delivered Meals on Wheels.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mescal was one of the founders of this organization in the Woodstock area, and she worked hard as one of the volunteers who brought hot, healthy meals to shut-ins.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I would accompany her to the kitchen in the Dutch Reformed Church where I met the people who prepared the meals.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As we made our rounds, I met the people who received the meals.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As a young person growing up, I only knew of my grandmother as someone who cared very much about helping other people.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She believed in serving others, and she taught me this by her example.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >She always wrote letters to the newspapers, and letters to her elected representatives, about the social issues that concerned her the most, both locally and nationally.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She didn’t just talk about the issues she cared about, she acted on them.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >Throughout my life, Mescal was an inspiration to me, and a role model.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I was always SO proud of her, and proud to be related to such a remarkable lady.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The letters she wrote to me were so interesting and impassioned that I would share them with my friends – her thoughts on universal health care, and other political issues.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She was outspoken, opinionated, and passionate about the causes she believed in.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She was also quite frank and open when talking about her political views, her religious views, and even sexuality and the body.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She didn’t refrain from talking about a subject for fear of embarrassment or of offending someone.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>More than anything else, she wanted to have lively conversations and exchanges with people about things and ideas that really MATTERED.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >Most of all she wanted to make the world a better place.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When I was staying with her here in Woodstock last summer I noticed she was wearing a pair of pants that had lots of holes and tears in them; I wanted to buy her a new pair, but she wouldn’t let me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I wanted to sew up the seams where they were coming apart, but she said no, “it doesn’t matter.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What was important to her was instead giving the money to some organization that needed it because of all the good work they did in helping people.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She didn’t believe in spending money on herself needlessly.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >I want to stop and acknowledge, too, the unfailing support of her children and their spouses and partners, which helped facilitate Mescal’s generosity in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She was so grateful for your love and devotion.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You always made sure she was taken care of, and that she had what she needed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She felt that she was not a good mother, and I believe it was very humbling for her to experience the love and generosity from you all that she didn’t feel she deserved.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Through this, I think, she experienced grace, and she was always, in my view, living in a state of gratitude.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" >I always wanted to be just like my grandmother.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Sometimes I think I am like her, at least personality-wise <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>– with all of her flaws – but at other times I realize I don’t even come close to the generosity and the unselfishness that were so key to who she was.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But I will keep trying to learn from her example.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And when I am 99, I will still remember her like it was yesterday.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in;line-height:normal;mso-pagination:none"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" > </span></p><br /><div></div>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-10947138997727615592011-07-20T12:09:00.000-07:002015-11-26T03:57:04.085-08:00Mescal Hornbeck<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBSQZD2Oo3yBS-Zle0Tr21SK4WWtrPiy-DHIlC2hRZ7CQEUnUPvVOl684lZBH6oRWYEU2yYnbKC0dOL54FC8PBTK1zAPPf8QB4SqsOTElNQzwO18OC5GQB4AM0Du8sAo-hgzEw_SOiT8/s1600/Hornbeck201.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 254px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631520653920617954" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBSQZD2Oo3yBS-Zle0Tr21SK4WWtrPiy-DHIlC2hRZ7CQEUnUPvVOl684lZBH6oRWYEU2yYnbKC0dOL54FC8PBTK1zAPPf8QB4SqsOTElNQzwO18OC5GQB4AM0Du8sAo-hgzEw_SOiT8/s400/Hornbeck201.jpg" /></a> My dearly beloved grandmother, Mescal Hornbeck, died on January 19, 2011, at the age of 99-1/2. I was very close to her, and her death was a major loss for me. I had seen her only about three weeks before she died, and she was in good health. Her death (from congestive heart failure) came as a shock to me, because somewhere in the back of my mind I really believed she would live forever. I was fortunate to spend two months with her in the summer of 2010, along with my son, Eli, and to have seen her frequently during 2010. I miss her so much.<br /><br /><br /><div>One gesture of mourning that I made was to cut off my hair after she died. Sometimes Hindus shave their heads in mourning for a close family member, such as a parent or spouse. I did not go quite that far, but did cut it pretty short, as short as I could stand to. After not having cut it at all for 5 years, this was a radical change. </div><br /><div><br />What was the point of cutting of my hair? It was a number of things. For one, it represents for me the major loss of one of the most important people in my life. For another, it represents my transformation. I can no longer in any way think of myself as a child, because I have no more living grandparents. At age 47, of course, and being a parent, I stopped being a child quite a long time ago, but something about having that amazing matriarch -- the wizened elder, the sage --made me feel like I was in some sense still sitting at her feet, at least figuratively. Now I am one generation older; the elders in my family are my parents and their generation. </div><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>I do feel that 47 is fairly old, but my grandmother was still more than twice my age. Therefore she was always right -- though she would listen to other people's point of view, at least most of the time. She was cantankerous and difficult to get along with sometimes, but she was also an amazing individual who made quite a contribution to the world. </div><br /><br /><div>We held a "celebration of her life" on June 18, in Woodstock, New York, where she had lived for the past 40 years. It was the day after what would have been her 100th birthday. This was a remarkable experience for me, and I will be reflecting on it for quite some time. Maybe some of my reflections will make it onto this blog, but most of them will remain private. Grieving is not really something you can do publicly, I have found.</div>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-59541336809391402862011-06-05T09:22:00.000-07:002011-06-05T09:29:42.553-07:00The Song of the Thirteen-Year Cicadas<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> 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mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;">A Poem for Valerie on Her Birthday</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“Why don’t we do it in the road?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">My bicycle tire</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Passes an inch</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">From a two-headed cicada, </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">As my son calls it.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Are they the rabbits of the insect world?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Multiplying by the billions,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Engaging in a month-long orgy</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Of cicada love.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Then, fulfilling their destinies, they die.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Or are they the cows of the insect world,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Large, slow, gentle creatures,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Grazing for thirteen years,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">On tree roots,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Providing food to fatten the moles?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Then, emerging, they are like babies,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">No worldly experience to prepare them</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">To defend themselves from hungry birds.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Or curious humans.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Or hungry humans.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Cicada ice cream, emergence cookies,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Cicada pizza, spicy cicada stir fry,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Pesto cicada pasta, </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Cicada-portobella quiche,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">“El Chirper” tacos.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">“They’re high in protein,” people say,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">As if our normal diet were somehow deficient.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">It’s best to gather the newly emerged “tenerals,” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">They’re the softest.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Don’t eat the legs and wings.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Like dogs, they have</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">A thirteen-year life span;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">One year for a human</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Is like seven years for a cicada.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">And they have well developed hearing.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">I think of them more like teenagers, though,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">At age thirteen they are just discovering the world </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">And other cicadas.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">It’s a month-long frenzy; the droning hum we hear</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Is the mating call of amorous males.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">“I can’t get enough of your love,” he sings, </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Determined to find a receptive female,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Coyly flicking her wings.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">He defends against male interlopers</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Through acoustic jamming.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">They are so caught up in their teenage hormones – </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Their relentless need for the love embrace – </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">That they are oblivious to</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">The brevity of </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Their remaining days.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">If these were seventeen-year cicadas</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Would they be drinking and driving?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Begging to borrow the car keys?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:normal">“Even going so slowly you can’t fly without bumping into things;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Why on earth would I let you drive my car?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">I tend them like sheep,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Rescuing them from the car windshield,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">The asphalt pavement,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">The screened-in porch</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Where they would be doomed.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Fly, cicadas!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mate!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Find your love!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">Lay your eggs in safe places,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">So we can enjoy your song again</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">In thirteen years.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">by Elizabeth Hornbeck, 6/4/11</p>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-86749999306464430162011-04-01T20:12:00.000-07:002015-11-26T03:57:39.076-08:00My Grandmother at Age 17<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwcjYgIrk_cXAK-Q2x4kUCPJz9Q4iwmO6JweGitCpdcQIOsO3dizBRCaGyDr2IWz8GRLcP1yKZIfj55ggan4artR9lZe5hL6KM0y1lDQhEzrlkI8d-_SftOGZIw26FoDyKgFNIxwE3oY8/s1600/DSC03045.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwcjYgIrk_cXAK-Q2x4kUCPJz9Q4iwmO6JweGitCpdcQIOsO3dizBRCaGyDr2IWz8GRLcP1yKZIfj55ggan4artR9lZe5hL6KM0y1lDQhEzrlkI8d-_SftOGZIw26FoDyKgFNIxwE3oY8/s400/DSC03045.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590831001442959234" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />My beloved grandmother, Mescal Elizabeth Toms Hornbeck, died on January 19 at the age of 99. I have spent that past week (my spring break) at her house in Woodstock, New York, taking stock of the estate -- going through books, photographing the furnishings, and thinking about the disposal of her belongings. She had a lot of them, but she also has a lot of kids (4) and grandkids (7) and even great-grandchildren (2). Among the books I discovered her 1928 senior class high school yearbook, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Maroon</span>, from Kingston High School (New York). Here's what the text says:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Mescal B. Toms </span>[this is a typo, her middle initial was E.]<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">11 Lucas Avenue</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Prospect: Elmira College.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Career: A.A., 1, 2, 3, 4; Interclass athletics, 1, 2, 3, 4; Captain hockey, 1; Captain baseball, 1; Prisma, 3, 4; President Prisma, 4; Hi-Y Auxiliary, 4; Mary Lyon, 4; Varsity debating team, 4; Bankers' Council, 2; Literary Editor MAROON.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Do you remember the Heritage of the Desert, in which Mescal plays so prominent a part? It wasn't our Mescal, but we are sure that she could have played the part to perfection. Both she and Bebe are dark, vivacious , and full of fun. Mescal acts well the part of an efficient executive too, for under her administration Prisma has enjoyed one of the most prosperous years since its organization.</span><br /><br />Also printed in her senior class yearbook was this poem she wrote:<br /><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> 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mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >A Hermit</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >“For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >His few books or his beads, or maple dish,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >Or do his gray hairs any violence.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style=""> </span>–- Milton<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >A hermit sits in meditative bliss,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >His thoughts removed from common things like this.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >His mind is on the infinite</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >And spurns the signs of human fellowship.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >His books, his beads, his weeds, and maple dish,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >The only tokens of his lost kinship</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >With us, his fellow mortals here below.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >But scorn him not!<span style=""> </span>With noble strength and aim</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >He left this world of sordid sin and gain </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >To seek for wisdom and for Wisdom’s Source.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style=""> </span>--Mescal E. Toms</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" > </span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;font-family:";font-size:12pt;" > </span></p>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-84283936011545850032010-03-26T21:17:00.000-07:002015-11-26T03:57:39.069-08:00My Endorsement for Tracy Greever-Rice, 4th Ward City Council CandidateI’ve spent the last month or so volunteering on my friend’s city council campaign, and I’d like to share with you, my friends, my endorsement of <a href="http://tracy-4ward.com/">Tracy Greever-Rice</a> for the 4th Ward seat on the Columbia City Council.<span style=""> </span>I’m not endorsing Tracy because she’s my friend, though indeed I feel very lucky to have her friendship.<span style=""> </span>Rather, I’m endorsing her because she is an incredibly impressive candidate – knowledgeable, experienced, smart, dependable, hard-working, and – most importantly – her values and her vision for the city are ones I embrace whole-heartedly.<p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I attended a <a href="http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/03/22/candidates-debate-development-economy-issues/">mayoral debate</a> last Monday, an event hosted by the <span style="font-style: italic;">Missourian </span>newspaper, and couldn’t help thinking that Tracy could debate circles around all of the mayoral candidates.<span style=""> </span>I didn’t get to stay for the Fourth Ward debate, but I’ve seen Tracy in action, and I’ve seen video footage of a forum for the four candidates, as well as video clips of the other candidates put up online by the <span style="font-style: italic;">Missourian</span>.<span style=""> </span>My overall impression is that Tracy is more knowledgeable than anyone else about the details, intricacies and complexities of city government and public policy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Here’s one example:<span style=""> </span>In the mayoral debate, candidates were asked about whether under the current and future economic constraints, Columbia should continue to fund social services.<span style=""> </span>I had heard Tracy address the same question the previous day, and she pointed out that the money that the city spends on social services is used to leverage funding from state and national sources, and without the city’s allocation, we would not have access to the outside funding that provides three or four times as much funding, ultimately, for the city’s most vulnerable members.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The depth and breadth of Tracy’s grasp of complex questions have impressed just about everyone who has met her.<span style=""> </span>Her knowledge is in large part a function of her educational and professional background.<span style=""> </span>She has a PhD in rural sociology, and is the Associate Director for Community and Economic Development-related initiatives at OSEDA (the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis at the University of Missouri).<span style=""> </span>In this capacity, Tracy has worked with dozens of communities throughout the state of Missouri, including Columbia.<span style=""> </span>She has analyzed the data on funding of social services, which is why she knows so much about it.<span style=""> </span>The local Chamber of Commerce often call Tracy’s office (including Tracy herself) to get needed information about the city.<span style=""> </span>(I think it’s utterly ridiculous that the Chamber endorsed a candidate, Daryl Dudley, who has none of the sorts of skills that Tracy brings to the table.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Although I have described Tracy as a progressive, Tracy makes a point of saying that she takes seriously her responsibility (should she be elected) to represent and work for ALL members of the community.<span style=""> </span>Although one of her opponents is running on the claim of being able to facilitate communication and help people on different sides of an issue to reach agreement, I am confident that Tracy has all of these skills too.<span style=""> </span>She has served on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission as well as other boards and commissions, all of which require the ability to communicate and work well with others.<span style=""> </span>She is highly professional, respectful of others and able to command their respect.<span style=""> </span>She is a kind, understanding, and empathetic person, which I think goes a long way towards being able to work with people whose viewpoints are different from hers.</p><p class="MsoNormal">This election is critical to Columbia's future, because the city council will soon begin work on a new long-range comprehensive land use plan for the city, the impact of which will be felt for the next 10 or 20 years. It's important to elect a council that will stand up for the welfare of all members of the community, with council members who understand the complexities of public policy and its impacts on people.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">What I want to say to all of my friends who are voters in Columbia’s 4th ward is this:<span style=""> </span>to vote for anyone other than Tracy would be a mistake; and if Tracy does not win this election on April 6, it would be a real loss for the city of Columbia.<span style=""> </span>It would be a lost opportunity to have a council member who brings to the table an incredible skill set, and a vast background in the kind of community involvement that will make for a highly effective council member. This is an issue of fundamental importance to us all; the election is not a popularity contest, it's about real issues and will have profound and lasting effects on what happens in our community. You owe it to us all to vote for the most qualified candidate for the job.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tracy has been endorsed by the <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/mar/25/sierra-club-gives-triple-council-endorsement/">Sierra Club</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I was interviewed for and quoted in this <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/mar/17/tracy-greever-rice/">Profile </a>on Tracy for the Columbia Daily Tribune.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;">Update, March 28, 2010:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tracy has just picked up another endorsement, this one from the <a href="http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/03/27/letter-smart-growth-coalition-endorses-candidates/">Boone County Smart Growth Coalition.</a><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-44685431557887618302010-03-20T00:28:00.000-07:002015-11-26T03:57:39.051-08:00Hiding Behind Anonymity<span style="font-size:100%;">In earlier times, such as 18th-century England, political censorship forced many writers to publish anonymously for fear of imprisonment.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">In the absence of freedom of speech, anyone who spoke out against the government was taking a dangerous risk, as were their publishers. Well, today, “Anonymous” is making a come-back, but for the most part these are not courageous political activists and revolutionaries.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Anonymous comments have become the stock-in-trade of the ignorant, petty, and just plain vicious – people who are ashamed to be associated with their own stupid or hateful comments.<br /><br />All you have to do is read the “Comments” section online on your local newspaper, on blogs, or other websites.<span style=""> </span>I never worried too much about this until recently, when I was targeted through this blog by a couple of losers who are unwilling to own up to their own comments by using their real names.<br /><br />Initially they were just taunting me for a comment I made at a film screening; these comments were posted on my February 27 blog post on <a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2010/02/truefalse-film-festival-2010.html">“True/False Film Festival 2010.”</a><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size:100%;">I responded to their comments in my March 2 post on the film </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Colony </span><span style="font-size:100%;">(<a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-i-didnt-like-colony.html">“Why I Didn’t Like Colony”</a>), and received more negative comments which are posted there.<br /><br />But what is not visible on my blog is additional comments that I received from “partoftheprecipitate” and “doublewordscore.”<span style=""> </span>After those obnoxious comments that got posted, I had to take the unprecedented (for me) step of moderating comments.<span style=""> </span>I received two more messages from “doublewordscore” and one from “partoftheprecipitate,” all highly insulting, and attacking my work as an educator.<br /><br />Now this harassment wouldn’t be so alarming if, A, the cyber-attacks hadn’t continued over a period of several days rather than just a one-off incident; and, B, if these people weren’t hiding their identities.<span style=""> </span>Someone suggested to me they were former students of mine.<span style=""> </span>As far as I’m concerned this is no trivial matter.<span style=""> </span>You really have to wonder about the psychological and emotional stability of someone who carries a grudge against a professor years after having taken a class in which the student got a grade he or she didn’t like. Given all the violence on college, university and high school campuses, from Columbine to Virginia Tech, our so-called “ivory tower” is anything but.<br /><br />When folks are leaving anonymous comments on websites, it’s impossible for readers to know if they are just idiots blowing off steam, or if there’s actually a violent intent.<span style=""> </span>Here’s an example:<span style=""> </span>a wonderful woman, whom I knew personally, was murdered by her ex-husband over Thanksgiving; her two teen-age daughters and her grandmother were also slain by this misogynistic lunatic.<br /><br />The husband / murderer, Kraig Kahler, was fired from his job with the City of Columbia in September, less than three months before he killed four members of his family. You should read the comments that were posted on the <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/sep/08/city-water-and-light-director-asked-resign/">Columbia Daily Tribune’s website</a> when the story of his firing was published – but you’d better have a strong stomach.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The vast majority of comments are verbally abusive to his wife and overly sympathetic to husband, seeing him as persecuted.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Comments degenerated into wild and unfounded speculation about Karen Kahler’s character and behavior – comments posted by</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">people who never even met her.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Here are some examples:</span><p></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Someone named “taylor100” wrote,<br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Yes, we are still ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room due to the censorship our our comments. Let's see, she was well taken care of, had three great well adjusted kids, happily married for 25 years, and then she decides to try something new. Yes, this whole situation has been brought on due to her selfishness.<br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Mr. Kahler was trying to save the marriage and the family and now they are all going to suffer for years to come. Eventually the truth will come out and everyone will understand. I will probably be censored again just like RationalThought.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:100%;" >Then “detoito” responded with this:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“You spend your whole life building this career, and your angry wife claims you touched her against her will (Her words, not mine), and you are fired. It is going to be hard enough for Mr. Kahler to find anything in his field of expertise as it is, but to add being fired to the list would make it next to impossible.<br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“I think he chose the lesser of two evils.”</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Someone named “crighton” wrote:</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Oh and by the way, the original arrest was just a setup. She was playing hardball with her attorney so she could get the most out of the divorce. Happens all of the time to good people.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Then there’s “fay_mccollom” who wrote:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“it was a bearhug and not a 'hit'. Its women like her that lose credibility for all true victims.”</span><br /><br />All told there were 70 reader comments on this article (about a dozen of which were actually deleted by <span style="font-style: italic;">Tribune</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>staff for being over-the-top offensive), the majority of them supporting Kraig – the eventual mass-murderer.<span style=""> </span>Rumors I’ve heard (and suggested in the <span>Tribune</span>’s Comments section) suggest that Kraig himself was the author of many of those comments bashing his wife. After the murders happened, the <span>Tribune </span>reported on <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/dec/01/slain-woman-was-target-of-online-stalker/">Kraig’s internet stalking of his wife</a>.<br /><br />I wonder, if people leaving comments on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Tribune</span>’s page were required to give their real names, would there be even one-tenth of the irresponsible posting that we see nowadays?</span></p>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-53161263846813676422010-03-02T04:58:00.000-08:002010-03-02T13:05:41.093-08:00Final True/False ReportLet me begin by saying this is my one hundredth blog post. That's #100, yippee! There should be some kind of celebration; it will be a long time before I reach the next big milestone. I started my blog with the 2008 True/False Film Festival, so it's appropriate to be discussing the 2010 Festival at #100.<br /><br />The Festival was great this year. After sitting through 13 films, I can report one more poultry slaughter (a turkey, in <span style="font-style: italic;">Those Who Remain</span>) and a sheep slaughter (<span style="font-style: italic;">On the Other Side of Life</span>). Combine that with the 16 bear paws (four bears worth) found in a Chinese dumpster (<span style="font-style: italic;">Disorder</span>), and the two chicken slaughters I reported earlier, and the animals didn’t fare too well in this year’s documentary film selections.<br /><br />But it was a great weekend. I packed in as much as I could, yet there is still a long list of films that my friends raved about that I didn’t get a chance to see. At a debriefing with friends on Sunday night, about 20 people talked about their two top films from the festival, and there was a wide variety of opinion. Here are the ones I missed but want to see:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Red Chapel</span> (dir. Mads Brügger, 87 min.), about two Korean-Danish comedians visiting North Korea, got rave reviews from everyone who saw it.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Holy Wars</span> (dir. Stephen Marshall, 81 min.) followed a Muslim extremist and a Christian extremist in their proselytizing efforts; the filmmaker set up a debate between them, and the outcome was remarkable.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">GasLand</span> (dir. Josh Fox, 86 min.) – everyone who saw this film said it was unbelievable and disturbing; one of my students said she cried through half of it. It’s about natural gas, Halliburton, and groundwater pollution.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Cowboys in India</span> (dir. Simon Chambers, 78 min.), the plot of which I still haven’t figured out, sounds great and got lots of thumbs up.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Mirror</span> (dir. David Christensen, 85 min.) is set in the Italian Alps and explores the attempts by a small-town mayor to build a giant mirror to bring sunlight to his village. Some monkish Germans are also involved.<br /><br />My husband liked <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Circo </span>(dir. Aaron Schock, 78 min.) a lot, which was one of two Mexican circus films, the other being <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Tightrope</span> (dir. Núria Ibáñez, 80 min.) (which neither of us saw).<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Waste Land </span>(dir. Lucy Walker, 98 min.) is about artist Vik Muniz, whose art uses trash from the Rio de Janeiro landfill. People loved it.<br /><br />Clearly, the True/False Film Festival needs to be about two days longer if a person's going to get to see everything they're interested in seeing.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-35984362940001193262010-03-02T04:57:00.000-08:002015-11-26T03:57:39.042-08:00Why I Didn't Like Colony<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Colony</span><span style="font-size:130%;">, dir. Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell</span><br /><br />When my friend’s son leaned over to me and sternly warned me “<span style="font-style: italic;">Colony </span>is bad, don’t see it,” I should have known something was up; but earlier that day a colleague had told me he thought it was good. I decided to take my chances and judge for myself. After all, I’m interested in and concerned about Colony Collapse Disorder, a thus-far unexplained phenomenon in which whole colonies of bees are dying and/or disappearing. I heard about this on NPR a couple years ago. It’s very alarming, because for one thing noone knows why it’s happening, and for another thing – most importantly – if there are no bees, there’s no food, right?<br /><br />Directors Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell add to that another big concern: the demise of the beekeepers – small, independent business owners whose livelihoods are being devastated by the loss of their colonies. Let me add, too, that I’m a big fan of documentaries about American agriculture, like <span style="font-style: italic;">Food Inc.</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">King Corn</span> (see my post on <a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2008/08/age-of-plenty-review-of-documentary.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Corn</span></a> on August 20, 2008). Early on in my viewing of <span style="font-style: italic;">Colony </span>I was feeling confident about this being another film in that vein; beautiful cinematography of golden fields and gray-green almond trees; authoritative-sounding “experts,” and a concern for public interest all seemed to be at the heart of this film. But then things began to go terribly wrong...<br /><br />You see, it’s not just a film about bees and beekeepers and Colony Collapse Disorder. The film’s “split personality,” as I would call it, takes us on an intimate exploration of family dynamics among the Seppi family, new to the beekeeping business, whose economic situation seems very dire. But these directors, Gunn and McDonnell, focus a great deal of attention on the religious beliefs of this family, in a way that I found quite puzzling. Were they holding up the Seppis to be admired? to be ridiculed? I really don’t think the film made that clear, which is why I asked McDonnell in the Q&A “how do you position yourself with regard to the religious aspect of the film?" and "What do the Ten Commandments have to do with beekeeping?”<br /><br />Let me explain what I mean. <span style="font-style: italic;"> Colony </span>begins with a clip from an old documentary on bee colonies, which describes the colonies as perfectly operating systems in which “there is no individualism,” and “the state controls everything.” The colony operates as one brain, this old film tells us; it is ruthless. Bees practice population control based on environmental conditions. The colony is completely efficient. The voice-over narration goes on and one, inviting comparison to human societies in which humans don’t look very successful after all.<br /><br />Then we meet the Seppi family, beginning with the two sons, a pair of entrepreneurial young men who lead the family’s farming and beekeeping efforts. They are by far the youngest beekeepers in this industry, and their involvement is promising to those who recognize that the beekeepers are sort of a dying breed. (The average age of beekeepers is around 60 years old, according to McDonnell.) So far, so good, they totally have my support.<br /><br />But then we meet the rest of the family, and learn (primarily from the mother) about how the parents have structured their family and have decided to pour all of their resources into this business for the benefit of the two sons’ beekeeping operation. All of the kids – there are seven of them, from what I could tell – have to work in the beekeeping business; and in the film it becomes apparent that the family is organized like a hive. All nine people in the family have to work towards this same goal. At their head is the real “queen bee,” Mom, who habitually berates her eldest son for his poor decisions and poor financial acumen. She beats him up (figuratively) with verbal attacks like “how are you going to support your wife and your kids?” (a frequent harangue). The son is like 19 or 20 years old, mind you, and is not even married, let alone with kids.<br /><br />At the source of the family’s dysfunction is a religious mania which loosely passes as Christianity, but it’s no Christian sect that I’m familiar with. It advocates an extreme form of patriarchy, in which the interests and the futures of the female children are neglected, and women have no place in public life at all (except to go to church. The mom is always telling her son how to negotiate with the farmers, but when he says to her, “Why don’t YOU tell them?” she replies “That’s not my job, that’s your job.” As if only men are supposed to transact business? I don’t get it.<br /><br />One of the daughters is interviewed, and she tells us, “I didn’t really want to be a beekeeper, but ‘honor thy father,’ right? If it’s what Dad wants to do, I should go along with it to honor him.” When the same girl describes bee society she explains that it’s a matriarchy, “but they couldn’t do it without the males. Feminists need to be reminded of that.” Poor child, I suspect she’s never even met a feminist; and she’s incapable of seeing that the patriarchy in which she lives (through no fault of her own) does not have her interests at heart.<br /><br />Their religion lulls them into a certain naivete, too; at one mealtime prayer, one of the daughters asks God “to give John Boy a business education this year.” God doesn’t give a business education, business schools give a business education. And after a tough telephone negotiation over price, the young man indignantly exclaims, “and he’s a Christian!,” as if he expects Christians somehow to behave differently with regard to their economic interests than other people do.<br /><br />Somehow I suspect that the filmmakers have set these people up to look like a freak show; but when I asked McDonnell about that, he of course completely disavowed anything but admiration and respect for the Seppis. Predictably, he proudly asserted that “these people deserve to have their story told!,” but he did not answer my question, “what do the Ten Commandments have to do with beekeeping?” (At a certain point in the film we see a video lecture on the Ten Commandments play on the television while John Boy is asleep on the sofa. What I gather from the Q&A is that McDonnell and Gunn did set up that scene, which was part of a videotape they found at the Seppis’ church; it didn't belong to the Seppis and wasn’t their normal viewing material.)<br /><br />At this point in reading my blog post, can you still remember what the film ostensibly set out to do? Colony Collapse Disorder? The expert talking heads? I can barely remember it myself, I’m so wearied by slogging through the Seppis’ religious ideology. This is the problem with the film: these two halves don’t really work well together, in my opinion. I signed up to see a documentary about bees, not a documentary about religious fanatics. And further, if I HAD signed up to see a documentary about religious fanatics like the Seppis, there are a lot more questions I would have, that the filmmakers failed to address, such as what planet are they from, anyway? What cult do they belong to? And what kind of future do they envision for their daughters, the ones who seem to be completely neglected in this whole family enterprise? The parents lose $20,000 per year on the business, so why don’t they use that money to send John Boy and the other kids to college instead?<br /><br />My question to the director was not well received by the audience, who seemed to expect the festival’s usual worshipful attitude towards visiting directors. When I left the theater, I overheard a young woman talking about me, complaining to her friends about “this woman”; so I went and talked to her. She was outraged – indignant – about my question to the director. She said that just because the film was badly edited was no reason for me to be angry. So I asked her, “what do the Ten Commandments have to do with beekeeping?” and she said “probably nothing,” but that I shouldn’t have to asked the director a question like that “in front of the whole documentary audience.” I admit that my comments went on a little too long, but I never said I was angry, I said I was “uncomfortable.” I also find it somewhat amusing that young people in Missouri (the age of our students) are themselves so embarrassed by any kind of conflict or public disagreement that they “feel sorry” for the director! Like I said to this young woman, “he can handle it.” People don’t become film directors and put their work “out there” if they can’t handle criticism from one measly film viewer.<br /><br />Then there was a comment on my blog from an anonymous individual, as follows:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Word on the street is that one of your questions at a post-movie debriefing made Twitter: http://twitter.com/doowttam/status/9755188050</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If you're reluctant to click through, I'll ctrl+v it:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Why would you film them? I don't like them. You must like them." Worst question I've heard at a q&a. Have you never seen a doc film?</span><br /><br />Since the item reported on Twitter has nothing to do with my actual question, and the person who posted it on my blog evidently wasn’t even present at the screening (probably doesn’t even know which film it was!), I can only conclude that Twitter is the last refuge of people unable to listen, think, or analyze information. (Other evidence further suggests it’s also the last refuge of people unable to spell or to write.) There’s no point in expecting they will read my side of the story, because this blog post probably exceeds their attention span capabilities.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-72015912536052929462010-03-02T04:16:00.000-08:002010-03-02T08:18:35.191-08:00True/False Films from China and Mexico<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Disorder</span>, dir. Huang Weikai, China, 66 min.<br /></span><br />Another one of my favorite films from this year’s festival was the Chinese film <span style="font-style: italic;">Disorder</span>. Director Huang Weikai weaves together 26 “little stories,” themselves the works of amateur videographers, which Weikai collected during 2007 and 2008.<span style=""> </span>Together they provide a glimpse of everyday life in China’s overcrowded cities.<span style=""> </span>The initial montage combines films shot at night, and the second part of the film (the majority of it) are scenes shot in the daytime.<span style=""> </span>All were shot in grainy black-and-white digital media, and all capture the chaos to which the film’s title refers.<br /><br />In the Q&A following the film, the director talked about China’s rapid urban growth at the expense of the environment, and “all the ridiculous things that are happening,” which the film captures.<span style=""> </span>He said that Chinese viewers of the film find its images very familiar, because “these are things that happen in everyday life that you see all around you” – scenes like an abandoned baby, which the camera spends a great deal of time on, but whom none of the bystanders pick up and rescue from its surroundings, which are covered with litter. The baby is regarded as so much trash – a human being abandoned in a throw-away world.<br /><br />Not much less disturbing is the man lying in the middle of a busy road at night, while the driver and passenger of a car that ostensibly hit him alternately berate him and offer him money to leave. They insist his “injuries” are an act, that they didn’t hit him, and that they’ve seen this scam before. We don’t know the truth – the camera didn’t capture the initial incident – and like the crowd that eventually gathers, we have to decide whom to believe. For an American viewer, the driver seems callous and heartless; but in the later montage we see an apparently homeless man wandering through traffic, as if waiting to get hit by a car so he can, perhaps, extort money from some unfortunate driver.<br /><br />Human interaction with nature (such as it is) – with the river, with animals – struck me as odd and jarring much of the time. The spectacle of a truckload of pigs that have escaped onto a highway, with truckers and police trying to capture them and reload them, would surely create a major traffic disturbance anywhere in the world. Bear paws in a dumpster, a pangolin in a cage, are both quite puzzling. A man trying to fish in a sewage ditch seems to have a futile task, but eventually he does catch some fish. The poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation have created extremely dire circumstances for many, like the people whose entire neighborhood (both houses and streets) has flooded because of poor drainage, so that they have to walk down the street in knee-deep water. A crocodile has been found in the city, and it attracts a large crowd as men capture and remove it; it attracts much more attention than the abandoned infant.<br /><br />Many scenes represent interactions with the police; initially the police seem like a benign, though often ineffective, force; they feed the homeless man who’s been wandering on the highway, they advocate for better treatment for the pigs; they try to negotiate a fair resolution to a dispute over money. But at the end of the film we see a demonstration of police brutality towards an individual, which leads to a near-riot as onlookers get involved and object to the police’s actions. What amazed me the most was the courage of those bystanders willing to get involved, which must be especially difficult under an authoritarian regime. Add to that the courage of the amateur videographers to capture these events on film; and the courage of Huang Weikai to put his name to it and take it around China to film festivals and universities.<br /><br />Like <span style="font-style: italic;">It Felt Like a Kiss</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Disorder </span>involved some pretty amazing film editing work.<span style=""> </span>If anything, <span style="font-style: italic;">Disorder </span>is even more experimental and avant-garde than <span style="font-style: italic;">It Felt Like a Kiss</span> because there is no overarching narrative – no voice-over and no subtitles – to tie it together.<span style=""> </span>The audience has no help from the director in making sense of this seemingly random “found footage.”<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Last Train Home</span>, dir. Lixin Fan, China, 87 min.<br /></span><br />Also from China, <span style="font-style: italic;">Last Train Home</span> focuses on the economic desperation of families separated by the parents’ need to earn money working in urban factories, while their children stay home in the country with their grandmother.<span style=""> </span>I missed the first half hour of this film, so I’m not in a position to write a review of it, but what I did see was pretty amazing.<span style=""> </span>The train ride home is a nightmarish ordeal, in which seemingly hundreds of thousands of people crowd into a train station where they wait for days to board the train.<span style=""> </span>The children of these poor uneducated workers suffer emotionally from the absence of their parents, and the parents suffer too, but are willing to sacrifice so much so that their children can have a better life.<span style=""> </span>Yet the parents’ constant pressure takes its toll on the children; the older one rebels and quits school; the younger one brings home his school report and the parents say “Fifth in the class?<span style=""> </span>That’s not good enough; last year you were third.”<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Those Who Remain</span>, dir. Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman, Mexico, 96 min.</span><br /><br />Poverty’s devastating effect on families is also seen in <span style="font-style: italic;">Those Who Remain</span>, a sweet and poignant film about the families left behind by husbands and fathers who leave Mexico to work in the United States, often for years at a time.<span style=""> </span>The film interweaves the stories of 11 families from all over Mexico.<span style=""> </span>Some men have benefitted substantially from their economic gains, while others have paid with their lives.<span style=""> </span>But in nearly all cases, the fathers’ absences leave the children very sad.<span style=""> </span>We get to know these families, all of whom the filmmakers treat with compassion and respect. The film takes its time, and as American viewers we see a very different aspect of Mexican culture that undermines all the anti-immigrant rhetoric that we are unfortunately bombarded with in our own political climate.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-81076895776690610162010-03-02T01:17:00.000-08:002010-03-02T02:57:56.187-08:00My Favorite True/False Films<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">It Felt Like a Kiss</span>, dir. Adam Curtis, 67 min.<br /></span><br />Adam Curtis, whose earlier True/False Film Festival entry was <span style="font-style: italic;">The Power of Nightmares</span> (2005), this time has brought a film he describes as much more experimental than his usual style: <span style="font-style: italic;">It Felt Like a Kiss</span> is a frenetic, hour-long nonstop montage of historical footage, pop music, and social, cultural and political critique of America and its role in the world in the 1950s and ‘60s. Rock Hudson and Doris Day frame this story of America’s national psychosis: at home, misogyny, domestic violence, homophobia; abroad, CIA-sponsored coups, the effects of which have been felt most strongly decades later. Curtis’ premise is that every day, thousands of events happen to thousands of people; at the time they may appear meaningless, but later we tell the stories. History looks very different in retrospect.<br /><br />The film has no voice-over narration; instead there are some (very crucial) subtitles, but the images mainly stand on their own. Curtis uses the montage technique to great effect, with radical juxtapositions: shocking footage of a child receiving electroshock therapy, followed by footage of Andy Warhol joking with a cameraman. The child receiving electroshock was one of the most horrific images I’ve seen in a film – it’s practically like watching a snuff film. The idea that parents would subject their child to such treatment – which was prescribed to him as a cure for “homosexual feelings” – is unimaginable. That American society was so barbaric as to permit this treatment is tragic. This is part of the meaning behind Rock Hudson appearing so prominently in the film, à la <span style="font-style: italic;">Rock Hudson’s Home Movies</span> (the queer reading of Rock). We are then told that Lou Reed, future lead singer of the Velvet Undergrounds, received electroshock therapy at age 17 for just such a “sickness;” he reported that it left him unable to feel empathy.<br /><br />Here’s another shocking secret about American culture: the title of Curtis’ film is taken from the title of a song by Carole King, which was written about her babysitter Eva who was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend. “He hit me…and it felt like a kiss.” The song is about domestic violence as an expression of love. Eva became “Little Eva” and had her own hit song, “The Locomotion.” And Tina Turner wanted to have a hit song so she could have a solo career and escape being beaten by her husband. The film is interspersed with scenes from the Miss America pageant, cosmetics ads, a woman talking about “sex appeal,” women reacting to simulated violence, and repeated imagery of a little girl (4 or 5 years old) strutting back and forth as if practicing for a beauty pageant while Mom smiles on (and Dad is presumably behind the camera).<br /><br />The Manson family, Richard Nixon, and Enos the Chimp – the first chimp to orbit the earth – are all tied in as well. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys admitted to hearing “loud shrieking screams” in his head, which he could only drown out by writing happy songs; and Nixon admitted to seeking psycho therapy to treat “feelings of doom.” The director of CIA’s covert operations went mad and killed himself. All the stigma against mental illness and those who seek help was, perhaps, a contributing factor in America’s insane foreign policy of the Vietnam years. I felt a great deal of empathy for Nixon, believe it or not, as I watched this film.<br /><br />All this montage is held together with an upbeat soundtrack of rock, folk, and pop music, including songs from Motown, Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground, Frank Sinatra, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys, and Peggy Lee. As strange as the song "It Felt Like a Kiss" is, Peggy Lee's song "Is That All There Is?" is even more bizarre; it captures the extreme psychological detachment of this period "right before the hippies came in," as Curtis likes to say. This was one of my favorite films at this year’s True/False Film Festival, and I liked it so much that I watched it twice. But don’t look for this film to get distributed; Curtis made is as part of an enormous art installation that was put on in Manchester, England, where it was at the center of an interactive art exhibition / “experience” that sounds pretty wild.<span style=""> </span>(Curtis described it to the audience before each screening here in Columbia.)<span style=""> </span>The installation belonged to the genre he calls “immersive theater.”<span style=""> </span>He also said that he made the film “for his own amusement,” and I heard that he has not sought permission to use any of the music.<span style=""> </span>It’s a shame, but this probably won’t be shown much in the U.S.; in fact, this festival appearance was the first time it’s been shown outside of Manchester.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">And Everything Is Going Fine</span>, dir. Steven Soderbergh, 89 min.</span><br /><br />My favorite film at the festival was <span style="font-style: italic;">And Everything Is Going Fine</span>, the documentary about monologist and actor Spalding Gray, who committed suicide in January 2004, two years after a serious car accident left him in a state of permanent physical and mental pain. According to his wife, Kathy Russo, he had attempted suicide 8 times in those two years. The film does not focus on the tragedy of his life’s end, but rather on the brilliant life and career of this amazing individual.<br /><br />If you are a Spalding Gray fan, you have to see this film; it’s amazing. We see Spalding Gray “up close and personal,” as they say, telling us the story of his life, in his own words and in his own inimitable style. The film combines clips from his performances as well as interviews conducted for the film. We learn about this shy, awkward kid, middle son of a loving but repressed family, and the mother’s tragic struggle with mental illness. For that reason the film resonated for me with <span style="font-style: italic;">It Felt Like a Kiss</span>; the tragedy of our culture’s inability to understand and care for depression and mental illness has had such tragic effects. For Spalding Gray, this meant he spent the rest of his life trying to make sense of his mother’s emotional detachment and suicide; we see his obsession with suicide in these interviews. Gray made a career based on revealing and exploring his own neuroses, which he succeeds in making compelling to others, primarily through his humor.<br /><br />For me, <span style="font-style: italic;">And Everything Is Going Fine</span> also resonated with other films at the festival, particularly <span style="font-style: italic;">Enemies of the People</span>, the Cambodian documentary about the genocide of 1975-1979, because Gray acted in the film <span style="font-style: italic;">The Killing Fields</span> (dir. Roland Joffe, 1984), and in one of his monologues, <span style="font-style: italic;">Swimming to Cambodia</span> (dir. Jonathan Demme, 1987), Gray described his experiences making the film.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-11293938225020935512010-02-27T22:43:00.000-08:002010-03-02T02:30:25.646-08:00True/False Film Festival 2010It’s here again, the 7th annual True/False Festival of documentary filmmaking, which is surely the highlight of life in Columbia, Missouri.<span style=""> </span>It may be the one event that draws people from out of town and out of state who are NOT Mizzou alumni coming to watch a football game.<span style=""> </span>Every year I think about how I should try to convince my out-of-town friends to come next time, but then I never remember to do so; so if you’re reading this blog entry, consider yourself invited for 2011.<br /><br />The first two films I saw in the festival included scenes of chickens being slaughtered – first in Cambodia, and then in Iraq.<span style=""> </span>Coincidence? <span style=""> </span>I have now sat through nine films so far, and there haven’t been any more chicken slaughters.<span style=""> </span>Tomorrow I’m going to see four more films, and I’ll let you know what happens.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Enemies of the People</span>, dir. Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin, 93 min.<br /></span><br />One common theme among documentary films is heroism.<span style=""> </span>Filmmakers choose a heroic subject – or are themselves heroic – and reveal to us over an hour and a half or two hours what this person has done that is extraordinary.<span style=""> </span>The first such film I saw was <span style="font-style: italic;">Enemies of the People</span>, which documented the one-man peace-and-reconciliation program that Thet Sambath has undertaken in Cambodia.<span style=""> </span>Sambath, a Cambodian journalist, has devoted some 10 years of his life to finding the killers from Cambodia’s “Killing Fields” under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime.<span style=""> </span>His own father died in the Killing Fields; his mother was then forced to marry a Khmer Rouge soldier, and his brother was taken away by them and never seen again.<span style=""> </span>Sambath befriended these men, gained their trust by treating them with respect, and elicited their stories in their own words.<span style=""> </span>He poured all his weekends and all his resources into this project; at one point he said, “my wife has no money for food this week because it’s all going into the project.”<br /><br />Sambath became friends with Nuon Chea, the top surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge; Pol Pot was known as “Brother Number One,” and Nuon Chea as “Brother Number Two.”<span style=""> </span>From this man, as well as from Communist party members at the bottom of the chain of authority, the audience gets confessions, expressions of remorse, and apologies.<span style=""> </span>It is very moving.<br /><br />Rob Lemkin is a British journalist who went to Cambodia to cover the U.N. trial of Nuon Chea; he discovered Sambath and his project, and became involved in it himself.<span style=""> </span>The crowd on Thursday night gave Sambath a standing ovation for the important work he’s been conducting.<span style=""> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Enemies of the People </span>is the True/Life Fund Film for this year’s True/False Film Festival, meaning that the festival collects money from festival-goers to donate to the subject of the film.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">My Country, My Country</span>, dir. Laura Poitras, 90 min.<br /></span><br />The next film on my festival agenda was <span style="font-style: italic;">My Country, My Country</span>, the 2007 film directed by Laura Poitras, winner of this year’s True Vision Award from the True/False gang.<span style=""> </span>Her new film, The Oath, I got to see on Saturday night, but on Friday I got to go to the much more intimate screening of the first film in her trilogy about “America after 9/11.”<span style=""> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">My Country, My Country</span> is set in Baghdad and chronicles the life of Dr. Riyadh and his family in the time leading up to the January 2005 Iraqi elections (two years after the U.S. invasion).<span style=""> </span>As Poitras describes it, the film is about “civilians paying the price for the United States occupation.”<span style=""> </span>But Dr. Riyadh is not just an ordinary person; he’s a medical doctor who volunteers at a free clinic, and he was on the ballot in those elections.<br /><br />Laura Poitras herself is also a hero in my eyes.<span style=""> </span>She was an embedded reporter in Iraq, but spent a lot of time “unembedded,” outside the American “Green Zone” following the story of Dr. Riyadh.<span style=""> </span>She lived at the Riyadh’s home, and became close to the family – Mrs. Riyadh and their six children – and was able to film intimate family life.<br /><br />I loved this film. It’s too bad there was only one screening at the festival, because more people should have seen it, but the festival’s focus is on showing new documentaries.<span style=""> </span>Each year, the festival shows one older film by the winner of the True Vision Award in addition to that person’s new work.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Oath</span>, dir. Laura Poitras, 95 min.<br /></span><br />Unlike <span style="font-style: italic;">My Country, My Country</span>, the second film in Poitras’ trilogy, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Oath</span>, does not feature a hero, but rather one of America’s enemies. Abu Jandal is the former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, now living in Yemen with his family and driving a taxi. He recruited his brother in-law to join Al Qaeda, and his brother in-law spent seven years in Guatanamo Bay prison, after Abu Jandal named him in FBI interrogation conducted at the Yemeni prison where Abu Jandal was imprisoned for two years on suspicion of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole.<br /><br />Poitras said she set out to make a film about Guantanamo, but this film is shot primarily in Yemen. It is an exceptional film – as Poitras said in the Q&A, we are living in complicated times, and we need to have more complex conversations. In <span style="font-style: italic;">The Oath</span>, Poitras really does a remarkable job of recording this man’s vast knowledge of the Al Qaeda operation as well as his thoughts on terrorism – which he rejects. He says he does not believe in taking innocent life, and did not participate in any terrorist operations, though he clearly sympathizes with their political views. In Yemen’s prison system, Abu Jandal participated in a program called The Dialogue Project, which was intended to reprogram Islamic jihadist. Using dialogue and talking about the Koran, workers in The Dialogue Project convince these men – apparently successfully – that violent political acts committed in the name of religion are, in fact, NOT condoned under Islam. I was surprised to learn that Yemen has such a program. In fact, the program helps these men find jobs after prison, and they gave Abu Jandal the money he needed to buy a taxi.<br /><br />The film also followed the trial of Abu Jandal’s brother in-law, who won a landmark Supreme Court case, and who was eventually returned to Yemen. He refused to be interviewed for the film, and we never meet him, but we do meet his heroic attorney, and it is good to see the efforts of some Americans to preserve justice in a period in history when there’s so much injustice. Now I’m eager for Laura Poitras’ next film; if it's as good at <span style="font-style: italic;">My Country, My Country</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Oath</span>, we're going to learn a lot from it.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-65121600319505620462010-02-14T14:06:00.000-08:002010-02-14T14:38:54.574-08:00Battle Between Lent and Mardi Gras<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2WJQlbnpMAa_Fy-1p7drSWCtoDWoojp4fpqLQA0OxCIfAMcOovZM8lUMpH9bmWj93TDFDsep3EYxns-ibzmjpbq8zVMuNUjZCMlOUhMX_pYN1SfRG_7hJ-iYZkfEvBjZ5nb3pG_B2ts/s1600-h/DSC09085.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2WJQlbnpMAa_Fy-1p7drSWCtoDWoojp4fpqLQA0OxCIfAMcOovZM8lUMpH9bmWj93TDFDsep3EYxns-ibzmjpbq8zVMuNUjZCMlOUhMX_pYN1SfRG_7hJ-iYZkfEvBjZ5nb3pG_B2ts/s400/DSC09085.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438224532861178386" border="0" /></a>
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1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style><span style="font-style: italic;">The battle between Carême (Lent) and Mardi Gras (from a 17th-century print).</span>
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Source: Larousse Gastronomique, 1961</span>
<br />
<br />I found a copy of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Larousse Gastronomique</span> at my grandmother's house in Woodstock when I was visiting last month, and she generously gave it to me. I am in love with this book! My favorite genre of books (one of them, anyway) is books pertaining to food, which includes cookbooks and reference books on the subject. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Larousse Gastronomique</span> is one of the most wide-ranging encyclopedias on food, food history, and food preparation ever published. I love it because reading about food is really reading about culture. Imagine 20 encyclopedia pages on "Offal" -- every type of "variety meats" and how to prepare them.
<br />
<br />Since Mardi Gras is almost upon us, I bring you this entry on Lent from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Larousse Gastronomique</span>:
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Forty days fast imposed by the Catholic religion, from Ash Wednesday till Easter. This period of fasting in the early Church had excellent physical effects by imposing on the digestive system, worn out by gastronomic excess during the winter season, a salutary rest.</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Brillat-Savarin tells us that towards the middle of the eighteenth century the normal regime in bourgeois families consisted of four meals:</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Breakfast, taking place before nine in the morning, consisting of bread, cheese, fruit, sometimes a</span><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link style="font-style: italic;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CHORNBE%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link style="font-style: italic;" rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CHORNBE%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link style="font-style: italic;" rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CHORNBE%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> 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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-style: italic;"> pâté or cold meat. (The habit of drinking coffee had not yet penetrated into provincial life.)</span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Dinner, which took place between twelve and one, with soup, the boiled meat of the pot-au-feu, with vegetable accompaniments according to the season.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Around four o'clock there was a light meal enjoyed as a rule by the ladies of the household and the children.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Supper was at eight o'clock, with entree, roast, side dishes, salad and dessert.</span>
<br />
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The real test of culinary art was, according to this genial gastronome, to create a rigorously apostolic meal which had all the appearance of an excellent supper.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Little by little, the Church relaxed its original severity and permitted the use of butter and eggs and, later, the flesh of 'cold-blooded' animals, such as fish and, still later, certain aquatic game considered to be cold-blooded , such as the spoon-bill, scoter-duck, moorhen, coot, teal, water-rail, curlew, heron, godwit and sand-piper.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A Lenten meal could also include an impressive list of sumptuous removes, entrees, and roasts.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Understood in these terms the Lenten diet does not differ from normal diet, from the health point of view.</span>
<br />Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-74175182645489792772009-11-29T23:11:00.000-08:002009-12-05T19:30:26.489-08:00Kiss Me and Smile For Me<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK3cUuuBMtxAHJ4FEkxQy1WaM7cR5g-qwykhcncJwJnuPuFy7w10w6CZ-ptWfpb1sf0qmI3CUpgtqNGpQ-QjdMhgfAWTRU0qtqEq2zs9Rgf5lm2W9_FQ7DDiAb-Ie7EJwj5ac8tJheGo/s1600/Peter+Paul+and+Mary.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 325px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK3cUuuBMtxAHJ4FEkxQy1WaM7cR5g-qwykhcncJwJnuPuFy7w10w6CZ-ptWfpb1sf0qmI3CUpgtqNGpQ-QjdMhgfAWTRU0qtqEq2zs9Rgf5lm2W9_FQ7DDiAb-Ie7EJwj5ac8tJheGo/s400/Peter+Paul+and+Mary.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409799941958272802" border="0" /></a>Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary died on September 16, 2009, at the age of 72. She was born in 1936 in Louisville, Kentucky, which is also my hometown. Driving home from Louisville today after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with my family, we listened to a Peter, Paul and Mary "greatest hits" tape, and the song "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" brought back some memories. "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" was the first pop song I remember hearing and loving, and wanting to hear over and over, and learning the words so I could sing along. Surely I must have heard other songs on the radio (remember "If you want it, here it is, come and get it" - my brother and I kept asking my mom what "it" was), but 40 years later this one still stands out as my "first."<br /><br />Peter, Paul and Mary's version of "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" (written by John Denver) became a radio hit in 1969; that was the year my parents divorced. I didn't realize until much later that the song's blend of heartache, remorse, and desire resonated with me because of my own loss.<br /><br />My parents' divorce was the end of my childhood. I was five years old when they split up, maybe six, I don't remember exactly. I remember my life before the divorce in idealized terms - I know it wasn't a happy time for my parents, but for me it was the happiest time of my life, when I had no problems, no cares. My family was my universe, and when it fell apart, I knew real pain for the first time in my life.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwzgpymG3VJilOlMVRvnQoj3IKbrZGExPE9FRWB2dICmlzvmu-qA2Qny1ZJ-7XcmMMk4HGrdUSchHEDmnAOEyi4tpufGkDm8GRGCl3Jpg-IA2hNV5BFsp6fYPntA45g8WuLIemiJzC3o/s1600/Mary+Travers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 147px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwzgpymG3VJilOlMVRvnQoj3IKbrZGExPE9FRWB2dICmlzvmu-qA2Qny1ZJ-7XcmMMk4HGrdUSchHEDmnAOEyi4tpufGkDm8GRGCl3Jpg-IA2hNV5BFsp6fYPntA45g8WuLIemiJzC3o/s400/Mary+Travers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409800560848547506" border="0" /></a>Mary Travers gave a voice to my pain and longing. If the divorce was the end of my childhood, then pop music was the beginning of my adulthood. I'm not sure that was a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I love pop music - it's fun, and it can create beauty out of the banal or even the ugly. At the same time, though, it provides formulas. For me, this formula meant that a romantic relationship (preferably heterosexual, definitely monogamous) defined the ultimate terms of love, desire, and loss. Never mind that it was my parents' divorce that created my tragedy; finding a husband became the prescription to cure it. (Or at least, finding a boyfriend.) To make myself perfectly clear, I don't feel that this is a positive benefit of pop music; it may even be harmful. But I still love "Leavin' on a Jet Plane."<br /><br />I don't mean to make too much out of this. One song is not going to have that much influence on anyone's life, it's part of a much larger and much more complex culture. It's just funny to me, when I hear that song, to think back on my 6-year-old self (in 1970) and my 4-year-old brother being so moved by it at such a young age that it could almost make us cry. Where <span style="font-style: italic;">did </span>that impulse come from? It had to come from something outside the music -- the emotional devastation of having our family broken apart. When I say pop music was the beginning of adulthood for me, I guess what I mean is the ability to find some hidden meaning to a song.<br /><br />My four-year-old son still thinks that "Bungle in the Jungle" is just about animals; I hope it stays that way for a long time.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Now the time has come to leave you,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One more time, let me kiss you,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Then close your eyes, I'll be on my way...</span>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-38518226084752764242009-10-23T13:23:00.000-07:002016-02-04T07:16:38.519-08:00University of Missouri Homecoming Weekend<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRETJ7Y3ESHDXA2t0yqJ_I09RAAeMnWlOJvDrQHFL31ObihjMbg5mfjVRU-VZPx_VDb8B8XQizC8tEs2riHG-0WlHErtN8UQgp8AWZmnTqF7ZqQDcBH1FVVgUWF126QpDA0jZpSW8sYM/s1600-h/DSC08385.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395894602543797666" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGRETJ7Y3ESHDXA2t0yqJ_I09RAAeMnWlOJvDrQHFL31ObihjMbg5mfjVRU-VZPx_VDb8B8XQizC8tEs2riHG-0WlHErtN8UQgp8AWZmnTqF7ZqQDcBH1FVVgUWF126QpDA0jZpSW8sYM/s400/DSC08385.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>"Great! They have MU Snuggies! Let's get some!"</div><div> </div><div>"Uh, what are Snuggies?"</div><div> </div><div>"Does it matter? They have MU logos on them, that's all that matters!"</div><div> </div><div>Happy Homecoming Weekend, Columbia! </div><div> </div><div>(I will be out of town this weekend, thank goodness!)</div>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-48921060597799996912009-08-19T04:45:00.000-07:002009-08-19T06:53:28.339-07:00More Complaints about "Living in Misery"I have a bone to pick with the blog entitled “<a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com/">Living in Misery</a>.” For those who don’t live in Columbia, Missouri, the blog’s name refers to that lovely town (technically it’s a city) that I have called home for the past six years. (My husband has lived here for 11 years, so I’ve been acquainted with it for that long myself.) In case you don’t get the joke, “Misery” is a pun on “Missouri.” (Original, no? No.) Columbia is locally referred to as COMO for short.<br /><br />I’ve written about this before, beginning in <a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-i-like-columbia-missouri.html">March 2008 </a>and with a couple of follow-up posts in May (<a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2008/05/living-in-misery-needs-to-get-new-name.html">May 5</a> and <a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-on-why-i-like-columbia-missouri.html">May 9</a>). I received lots of positive comments on those posts (via Facebook and verbally as well as on this blog) from folks in Columbia who are also annoyed by the blog’s persistent negativism. My position is that Columbia is a pretty darn good community in which to live. It’s not perfect, but no place is perfect. (Though if you read the “Living in Misery” blog you’d be told that Columbus, Ohio, IS perfect – it sounds like some sort of utopia, where there are no stupid politicians, no bad drivers, no evil police officers, no stupid people who don't know how to spell. I won’t dare to challenge THOSE sacred beliefs.)<br /><br />Since I’ve given plenty of reasons in the past why I think COMO is a good place to live, I won’t recapitulate them here. Instead, I will point out the things that annoy me about the "Living in Misery" blog. Chiefly, there is something seriously wrong with his logic, which goes something like this:<br /><br />A) Columbia, Missouri, sucks because there’s nothing good here.<br />B) Columbia, Missouri, sucks because there’s something great here but the local people are clueless and unable or unwilling to appreciate it.<br />C) Columbia, Missouri, sucks because there is something really great here, but I can’t get access to it because it’s so popular and everyone wants it.<br /><br />Examples:<br /><br />A) First, the name of the blog implies “Columbia, Missouri, sucks because there’s nothing good here.” That attitude pervades the blog, even when he’s trying to say something nice about Columbia. Like this sentence from <a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com/2008/05/best-spot-in-town-ragtag-complex.html">March 2008</a>: “Since moving to COMO, we have struggled to find a place that made it just a little less miserable. The new Ragtag/Uprise/Ninth Street Video complex has done that for us.”<br /><br />B) In his end-of-the-year post on “<a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com/2008/12/best-of-2008-homegrown-in-como.html">Best of 2008: Homegrown in COMO</a>,” he asserts that “most COMO-ians don’t know what they’ve got” (actually the quote comes from a Facebook exchange about the post, but same author). The quote illustrates my pet peeve about the blog, which is the supposition that, really, most of the rest of us are ignoramuses. As if noone knew about the RagTag and Sparky’s before he came to town and enlightened us. His bloggings and rants are a subterfuge, because in fact HE is the one who believes “Walmart owns this town. Literally.” Those of us who thought all along that Columbia is a great place (and who didn't shop at Walmart) were evidently oblivious to Walmart’s dominance. NOW, it turns out, we were oblivious to the great local, non-corporate businesses. But I’m glad to see that the author has finally come around to my point of view.<br /><br />C) In another "Living in Misery" post, he was complaining about how hard it was to get tickets to the True/False Film Festival screenings, even as a pass-holder. I'm afraid I can't provide a link to that post, I haven't been able to locate it on his blog. (He's a very prolific blogger and there are way too many posts for me to go back through all of them!) But he compared it to his experience in Columbus, Ohio, when a new Trader Joe's opened and very few people knew about it, so shopping there was a pleasant experience. Then the word got out, and in a matter of months it was mobbed (like all the other TJ's in the country!), so shopping there meant battling crowds in the parking lot and in the aisles. He likened the True/False Film Festival to that experience -- it's so popular now that even us longtime supporters can't get tickets to the films we want to see.<br /><br />Here's my second major point: he does not always know whereof he speaks. In one of our exhanges in May 2008, he complained (on my blog) that "the gay community is rather invisible. We were here for several weeks before we saw any signs of a LGBT community. The only gay bars in town are nowhere near the supposedly progressive downtown." But in June 2009, he posted an essay called "<a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-of-como.html">The Gay of COMO</a>," in which he reversed his previous position, writing the following:<br /><br /><em>"It's hard to believe that R and I moved here nearly four years ago. One of the things we felt was absent was the gay scene. There was (and still is) no gay bar downtown. No stores flew rainbow flags. We couldn't find the gay community anywhere. The place from which we came - Columbus, OH - is a gay mecca of sorts. So, this was a bit of culture shock for us.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>"Then, R walked into </em><a href="http://main-squeeze.com/about_us"><em>Main Squeeze</em></a><em> and things began to become clearer. I joined the Prism board. New friends came out to us and invited us to </em><a href="http://www.sococlub.com/"><em>SoCo</em></a><em>. The world regained its balance.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>"There is a strong gay community in this town. Support it."</em><br /><br />There's something to be said for being open-minded and willing to admit when you were wrong. But there's also something to be said for reserving judgment, and maybe waiting more than A WEEK to get to know a place before you pass judgment on it and declare yourself an ardent and vocal detractor of it.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-68325857950635693162009-07-27T13:50:00.000-07:002009-07-27T14:04:13.784-07:00Ian McEwanI came late to Ian McEwan’s writing, but I finally have to admit that I’m a big fan. I’ve just read my third McEwan novel – I devoured it in about 24 hours – the short, concisely plotted <em>Amsterdam</em> (1998), and have been filled with admiration for McEwan’s ingenuity at creating the perfect blend of satire, surprise, and keen observation of the human psyche. Previously I read <em>Enduring Love</em> (1997) and <em>Atonement</em> (2001), and have found all his novels equally compelling. <br /><br />It’s also rather breathtaking to consider how many of his novels have been translated into film – <em>Atonement, Enduring Love, The Comfort of Strangers,</em> and <em>The Cement Garden</em> – in addition to his authorship of original screenplays (<em>The Good Son</em> and others). Taken together, his novels and screenplays represent a world that is, to use my friend Amy’s word, unnerving. In some – <em>The Comfort of Strangers</em> comes to mind immediately – “unnerving” is an understatement.<br /><br />On reading <em>Enduring Love</em> last month I recognized what is not exactly a formula for McEwan’s novel, but may be more accurately described as a trope, or a technique for developing the plot: he throws together a group of people (mostly strangers), subjects them to an intense emotional experience, and then explores what happens to them (as individuals and in relationship to each other) as a result of the traumatic incident. He devotes lavish attention to setting up the situation, the emotional crucible, which is most fully developed in <em>Atonement</em>: the climactic event – the rape of a visiting young cousin – is preceded by the description of one day’s events which takes up practically the first half of this novel. In <em>Enduring Love</em>, the first chapter was described by one critic as the best first chapter of any novel he’d ever read.<br /><br />The characters McEwan throws together are either complete strangers or a mix of strangers and intimates. In <em>The Comfort of Strangers</em> they are two couples; in <em>Amsterdam</em> they are four men whose connection is that they all loved the same woman (the glamorous Molly, whom we never meet – the story begins with her funeral). Two are best friends, but all four are rivals.<br /><br />McEwan explores consequences, the effects of events upon individuals’ emotional and psychological states. He’s interested in perceptions: the differences among different people’s perceptions of an event, the subjectivity (and hence unreliability) of perceptions, and the way our perceptions color our responses and reactions. Perception may be unreliable and sometimes completely wrong, but we are trapped within our own perceptual boundaries; perception is all we have for understanding our world, our relationships, our lives.<br /><br />Another common feature of McEwan’s novels is that they always end up being about something completely different from what the reader initially thinks they’re going to be about. By the end of the novel, the main character is doing something that would have been wholly unthinkable at the beginning of the novel, yet McEwan takes them (and us) there in a convincing manner.<br /><br />McEwan is interested in the darker sides of the human psyche. Sometimes this takes the form of extreme sexual perversity, but more often it’s an exploration of jealousy, obsession, delusions of grandeur, rationalization, selfishness, malice. He presents moral and ethical dilemmas, and his characters’ failure to act nobly. My, how they rationalize their behavior! Only in <em>Atonement</em> does the main character display remorse over her action and its dire, irreversible consequences.<br /><br />As it happens, one of my first posts on this blog was a review of <em><a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2008/03/atonement.html">Atonement</a></em>; here I will say a few words about the other two McEwan novels I’ve read recently:<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;">Enduring Love<br /></span></em><br />This novel is about something called “de Clérambault’s syndrome,” or erotomania, and includes as an appendix an article on the syndrome published in the <em>British Review of Psychiatry</em>. It’s very well researched, and in fact is based on the true story described in BRP. Initially I thought it might turn out to be like the film <em>Notes on a Scandal</em> (based on the novel <em>What Was She Thinking?</em> By Zoe Heller), with an unreliable narrator, but it wasn’t at all.<br /><br />Coincidentally, erotomania is the subject of the French film <em>He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not</em>, starring Audrey Tautou, which is one of my favorite films. (<a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2008/12/film-bookends-part-ii-amelie-and-he.html">See my review of <em>He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not</em> elsewhere on this blog</a>.)<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;">Amsterdam</span></em><br /><br />This is the shortest and funniest of the three McEwan novels I’ve read, and it won the Booker Prize in 1998. It’s a work of biting satire in which McEwan ridicules politicians, journalists, and bohemian artsy types. The rivalry among four men involved with one woman reminded me too of <em>The Fountainhead</em>, Ayn Rand’s 1943 novel about four men, three of whom are involved (successively) with one woman. <em>The Fountainhead</em> is not a work of satire by any means – it’s more like an allegory of capitalism in which each of the men represents a different political ideology. Like <em>Amsterdam</em>, <em>The Fountainhead’s</em> cast of characters includes a publisher and an artist (the architect Howard Roarke). Other than that, <em>Amsterdam</em> and <em>The Fountainhead</em> have nothing in common; Ayn Rand has virtually no sense of humor, but she does write a compelling tale.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-81365038581088802352009-07-12T09:01:00.000-07:002011-04-03T19:57:35.315-07:00"Rambling" - a poem by Mescal Hornbeck(This poem was written by my grandmother, Mescal Hornbeck, who turned 98 last month. Mescal is an active writer of poetry, essays, and letters to the editor of the local papers. She lives in Woodstock, New York. When I asked her if I could publish this poem on my blog, she agreed, and commented on what a funny word "blog" is. Then she said "I'd rather be blogged than flogged!")<br /><br /> <strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Rambling</span></strong><br /><br />If God created the universe <br /> Who created God?<br />If the world BEGAN with those<br /> Wee microscopic elements<br />Where did they come from?<br /> Must we know<br />What and where the things<br /> We see came to be?<br />Pain and futility<br /> Are what we’ll get<br />And little joy if<br /> We can’t be content<br />Just to be, feel, and see.<br /> Aha, I know<br />Where God came from!!!<br /> Because man has always<br />Thought that there just has to be<br /> A cause for everything<br />He believed there had to be<br /> A cause for you and me.<br />And so man invented God.<br /> In Man’s own image<br />Invented he Him.<br /> Unable to see that<br />Some things that be are<br /> Quite inexplicable<br />For instance, do you really know<br /> What makes the things<br />We do happen?<br /> Can you possibly explain<br />What invisible force<br /> Causes a man and woman<br />To Suddenly feel a strong<br /> Magnetic pulling together?<br />And this does happen to<br /> Any couple of people.<br />And none can say they just know<br /> When the two happen to be<br />The same gender it is<br /> Because they decided it<br />It should be that way,<br /> As if their minds<br />Made the decision.<br /> Not believing some things are mysteries.Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-30687330215636999862009-07-10T05:12:00.001-07:002009-07-11T13:32:07.361-07:00Don Giovanni at the Komische Oper in Berlin<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BZ6JdvvUtnncePt9WAaGjnrgt6yu4VBU8q-S6D44oSbh-MziVrSoVUatX1vCSv-GpkovEJBk9cAl0mUqak96TiZrwwCHDL5nG8gy0fFTaY7HtXDVkM5fOy7OQQgfXTQTUnqvPvT0pXQ/s1600-h/DSC07900.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804968240302306" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 274px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BZ6JdvvUtnncePt9WAaGjnrgt6yu4VBU8q-S6D44oSbh-MziVrSoVUatX1vCSv-GpkovEJBk9cAl0mUqak96TiZrwwCHDL5nG8gy0fFTaY7HtXDVkM5fOy7OQQgfXTQTUnqvPvT0pXQ/s400/DSC07900.JPG" border="0" /></a> On Monday night I had the pleasure of attending the most unusual opera production I’ve ever seen: <em>Don Giovanni</em> at Berlin’s Komische Oper. Berlin is famous for experimental opera productions, and this is the first one I’ve been to. I was blown away.<br /><br />As a disclaimer, let me say that I have never written an opera review before. I’m no expert on opera, but I do enjoy the medium, and <em>Don Giovanni</em> is my favorite opera of all. This was my fourth time to see <em>Don Giovanni</em>, which is one of the few operas I’ve seen more than once (and the only one I’ve seen more than twice). I used to listen to it all the time on CD, back when I lived in Southern California and spent a LOT of time in my car. In other words, I know this opera extremely well, which is why I feel qualified to write about it. At least, that is, I know the version with the Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte; I can even sing along with some of the arias. If you are not so familiar with the plot of <em>Don Giovanni</em>, you can go to this Wikipedia link to read a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Giovanni">synopsis of the plot</a>.<br /><br />I realize that saying <em>Don Giovanni</em> is your favorite opera is sort of like saying the Mona Lisa is your favorite painting; noone can really question its excellence, but it’s not a very unique or original preference, either. Mozart is my favorite composer – also not an original preference at all, but by no means universal. My mother’s favorite opera composer is Puccini, but I find his stuff too melodramatic. One thing I like about Mozart’s operas is the humor. But above all, I love the music.<br /><br />The Berlin <em>Don Giovanni</em> was not like any other production I’ve seen. Even though it used Mozart’s music, it had a different libretto which gave the plot a significantly different nuance – enough to really question the moral implications of the plot as it’s been traditionally understood.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1VkR1mhEUSEznx8ZA33Yz6Ujm4yIqrpzxWhTesol0FwyTFHcZJS4_rA4Keb_NtRUkpH33ejyDzhuE8yZMgRMxd3HWGDIadpWaVYZ3HPM-WsmWopROMHyEWQYiwfQM8mMFCrIyPQxyNM/s1600-h/DSC07906.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804192235722194" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 289px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1VkR1mhEUSEznx8ZA33Yz6Ujm4yIqrpzxWhTesol0FwyTFHcZJS4_rA4Keb_NtRUkpH33ejyDzhuE8yZMgRMxd3HWGDIadpWaVYZ3HPM-WsmWopROMHyEWQYiwfQM8mMFCrIyPQxyNM/s400/DSC07906.JPG" border="0" /></a>Most importantly, the singing was fabulous. Carsten Sabrowski as Leporello was magnificent; in fact, all of the cast were fantastic. Dietrich Henschel as Don Giovanni brought an amazing amount of energy to the stage. The women were fantastic too, especially Erika Roos (Donna Anna) and Elisabeth Starzinger (Donna Elvira). I loved every minute of it.<br /><div>Where do I begin to describe this production? I think a list might be the best approach:<br /><br />1. The Berlin production was not sung in Italian, much to my initial dismay. It was sung in German, and this was the first occasion on which I really, really wished I could understand German. The German text was written by Bettina Bartz and Werner Hintze.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijD-UGglbEaBW6c-5Shm4W19w3UovlEhkJrn1q7J3CyH3zgAH9m-oohoQMbY48h9lhgNkPaTMR2EmJ16FaKdJQRp5kavZDHbuUNz89n-jfMGowBdhcUIfZGiJFFePAdbiChrGx5efsiOA/s1600-h/DSC07902.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804199265385522" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijD-UGglbEaBW6c-5Shm4W19w3UovlEhkJrn1q7J3CyH3zgAH9m-oohoQMbY48h9lhgNkPaTMR2EmJ16FaKdJQRp5kavZDHbuUNz89n-jfMGowBdhcUIfZGiJFFePAdbiChrGx5efsiOA/s400/DSC07902.JPG" border="0" /></a>2. This was NOT a period piece. Most opera productions I’ve seen use period costumes (18th century in Mozart’s case) and at least minimal furniture and props to resemble rooms, streets, etc. Here the costumes were all late-20th-century suits and dresses, and there were hardly any sets at all. Most of the characters wore black or varying shades of gray, except for Don Giovanni, who wore all white with a saffron-yellow cape. He was also barefoot. The suits, I guess, were supposed to make the characters resemble mobsters; there were also a lot of guns. The characters all had sunglasses too.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMct5J6NOzUmMR8BrDn7oAWhSZVVdNiTpTv48Tuwrp4lBJxpuxudmo_Kd6HKtmQdjpEKwB_FbWxGQefrN0B0wn45CgF3unaAwEhU-tlJ5BddmyLd1qiFYK_KgxJ0xHGSVYvGiddm-wiU/s1600-h/Image005.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356805754082913202" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMct5J6NOzUmMR8BrDn7oAWhSZVVdNiTpTv48Tuwrp4lBJxpuxudmo_Kd6HKtmQdjpEKwB_FbWxGQefrN0B0wn45CgF3unaAwEhU-tlJ5BddmyLd1qiFYK_KgxJ0xHGSVYvGiddm-wiU/s400/Image005.jpg" border="0" /></a>3. There was a giant revolving stage, with two sort of triangular “walls” that moved constantly to obscure and reveal different scenes and characters. Above was an enormous circular contraption with all the lights, which moved; I can’t really describe it, but I took some photos with my cell phone that give you an idea of how big this thing was and how it worked. It reminded me of the spaceship in <em>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</em>.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDj5G598a9jdfBmZEIzYhAyxCZ1T5flI-G1zlyiN3zVDdAHGowJENRNwrq08bGNr_eue7jg13XJ53foOepJaYsRpkJrk9Va1CoiimzT_v5AXorP-2E5LRBmHBkvMvrS0oB88pL9TGv_Y/s1600-h/Image016.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356805772273624306" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDj5G598a9jdfBmZEIzYhAyxCZ1T5flI-G1zlyiN3zVDdAHGowJENRNwrq08bGNr_eue7jg13XJ53foOepJaYsRpkJrk9Va1CoiimzT_v5AXorP-2E5LRBmHBkvMvrS0oB88pL9TGv_Y/s400/Image016.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />(Note on the photos: many of these – the good ones, where you can see the performers close up – are photos from the program; others are from my cell phone, and I’m sure you can tell which ones those are, i.e., the small and poor-quality photos.)<br /><br />4. There was an interesting and unconventional framing device, in which three actors appeared onstage during the overture. These were NOT part of the opera’s singing cast, and their performance was done completely in pantomime. Their scene was the only part of the opera with period costumes. First there were just two actors: a boy (the young Mozart) seated at the harpsichord and banging silently away on it; and the tyrannical father standing over him at his lesson. Their interaction begins before the overture begins; then the father suddenly turns on the boy very aggressively, and that’s when the overture begins with its super-dramatic opening chords. The boy then throws open the harpsichord case, and a woman in a white sleeping gown, her head wrapped in a white turban, emerges from the instrument as if from a coffin and protectively takes the boy away from his violent father.<br /><br />Critics have often remarked that the unforgiving character of the Commendatore in <em>Don Giovanni</em>, whose role in the opera is to punish the wayward young man, represented Mozart’s father; but this is the first time I’ve actually seen <em>Don Giovanni</em> staged in such a way as to foreground that Freudian reading.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGMUPldVf6XhNxlPbE_3N_RsPOLbWM5Aqz2Cth42B4LKy3n20_Ua9ktMemY_0R76iyuWzl31r2qlzMOvfTkBqRKD3HgtN82RJ85k03Wcr4BSD5Z6UVGbDf0mcKv-Pfdget5VEw-JJAodA/s1600-h/DSC07903.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804973280597106" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 275px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGMUPldVf6XhNxlPbE_3N_RsPOLbWM5Aqz2Cth42B4LKy3n20_Ua9ktMemY_0R76iyuWzl31r2qlzMOvfTkBqRKD3HgtN82RJ85k03Wcr4BSD5Z6UVGbDf0mcKv-Pfdget5VEw-JJAodA/s400/DSC07903.JPG" border="0" /></a>5. The opera’s opening scene is quite dramatic – while Don Giovanni’s servant Leporello is standing guard, Don Giovanni himself (better known by his Spanish name, Don Juan) is seducing Donna Anna.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJRs4iyFOpcjXYu4ejWnOkgJPqcb7Q5cFo7HscI8s2OWuXMc0MzyVOvTvavOLxXJISWVSU_7OuCrnKnA9_B1YcAGhFxNiQz47IgLGu366hfvGSV3NxlyB6qeHJ1xrQP2cywGxsyacS7Ws/s1600-h/DSC07907.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804207323404002" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 340px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJRs4iyFOpcjXYu4ejWnOkgJPqcb7Q5cFo7HscI8s2OWuXMc0MzyVOvTvavOLxXJISWVSU_7OuCrnKnA9_B1YcAGhFxNiQz47IgLGu366hfvGSV3NxlyB6qeHJ1xrQP2cywGxsyacS7Ws/s400/DSC07907.JPG" border="0" /></a>According to Mozart and Da Ponte, Don Giovanni is pretending to be her fiancé, Don Ottavio, and since it’s a dark room she supposedly can’t tell the difference. When Donna Anna discovers that it’s not Don Ottavio, she shouts (i.e., sings), and her father, the Commendatore, comes to her rescue. As he defends his daughter’s honor in a sword fight with the intruder and would-be rapist, he is killed by Don Giovanni, thus setting in motion the revenge plot in which Donna Anna and Don Ottavio pursue her father’s murderer.<br /><br />In the Berlin production, however, Donna Anna clearly KNOWS this is not Don Ottavio, yet she is sleeping with the seducer anyway. And the father, rather than trying to kill Don Giovanni, is about to beat his daughter with his cane. Don Giovanni kills him in order to protect Donna Anna. Thus the moral implications of the original plot are turned on their heads – Don Giovanni is not such a cad, Donna Anna is not so pure, and the Commendatore isn’t such a great guy either. </div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQvg8Mw38LrEIK-1Ks88y8SKsF5QypbJJ4tK87YnD2FxOBYTIhoDjI8IPr35mhq11mp0P44J0N6apAroDBFpXINUZCNO0_MP2_sdFbupWJB9-V4JiuEY4ITKY37OzM7Gx8YPYaVB2X30U/s1600-h/DSC07909.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804182304925538" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 277px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQvg8Mw38LrEIK-1Ks88y8SKsF5QypbJJ4tK87YnD2FxOBYTIhoDjI8IPr35mhq11mp0P44J0N6apAroDBFpXINUZCNO0_MP2_sdFbupWJB9-V4JiuEY4ITKY37OzM7Gx8YPYaVB2X30U/s400/DSC07909.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Really, this makes a lot more sense; I’ve always wondered about the strict moral tone of the original opera – its judgmental and moralistic aspects have always seemed incongruous with Mozart’s own personality and his life.<br /><br />6. There’s a lot of skin in this production of <em>Don Giovanni</em>. And a lot of stripping. In fact, taking clothes off, then putting clothes back on so you can later take them off again, is one of the main onstange activities after singing. Clothes are the primary props in this staging of the opera. </div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWs-zEtvXpgTaopFxLshNmDxqYHff5o0n_CD4gLj_-lNEcDlb6hS43q5e-T2MQrYbMT7jWrWwrfRV4qn0fRtugFoM7WbE_1slbKCE5ofyoFCAhTgEdPkbdkX6UocZZaRWoXwA6DILvBF0/s1600-h/Image014.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356811238000991138" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWs-zEtvXpgTaopFxLshNmDxqYHff5o0n_CD4gLj_-lNEcDlb6hS43q5e-T2MQrYbMT7jWrWwrfRV4qn0fRtugFoM7WbE_1slbKCE5ofyoFCAhTgEdPkbdkX6UocZZaRWoXwA6DILvBF0/s400/Image014.jpg" border="0" /></a><em>Left: Donna Elvira in a black lace teddy</em></div><div><br />This version of <em>Don Giovanni</em> is, overall, much more sensual than any traditional opera. The sexuality that is at the core of the Don Juan story is made much more explicit and more believable in this production. In fact, Da Ponte’s “wedding party” is, in the Berlin production, an orgy. There’s even a pole for pole-dancing in the Don’s living room. </div><div> </div><div>Don Giovanni himself, played/sung by Dietrich Henschel, exudes a writhing sexuality and animal magnetism that the women in the story can’t resist. His appeal is necessary for a legendary seducer who has, according to the so-called <a href="http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/catalogaria.htm">“Catalogue Aria,” </a>bedded 2065 women (plus a few more by the end of the opera).<br /> </div><div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjexe-HfjnNS6tJ96T83JWbX1RVs4oMyI4IU-l9nas7NIYYFkk35OArBSJJeFDbUuuredi9Vu-2fm_CqUOjIAC2yiTTPFVfCKo8LEK6PLvGIXGrvPnnCl3POPNFv5dn2KjjWGKJnylWM/s1600-h/Image009.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356805760133514098" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjexe-HfjnNS6tJ96T83JWbX1RVs4oMyI4IU-l9nas7NIYYFkk35OArBSJJeFDbUuuredi9Vu-2fm_CqUOjIAC2yiTTPFVfCKo8LEK6PLvGIXGrvPnnCl3POPNFv5dn2KjjWGKJnylWM/s400/Image009.jpg" border="0" /></a><em></em></div><div><em></em> </div><div><em></em> </div><div><em></em> </div><div><em></em> </div><div><em></em> </div><div><em></em> </div><div><em></em> </div><div><em></em> </div><div><em>Above: At the wedding party / orgy, Masetto (the bridegroom) is being dressed in a black bra by Leporello. </em></div><div><em></em> </div><div><em>Below: Don Giovanni coming between the bride and groom (Zerlina and Masetto).</em></div><em></em><br /><em><div><br /></em></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wCmK5ZMCKAO9G_THt2uSZRdeImiFrJJs3-9xPYI0NsmlwGTzNhx0igEv3KwcSnCOMYx2mtW7bjHRSpLFs2EIUJ_eeHZYT7lrWePSVFI78_Kng8pScE892dyz6lCeuVrjR-IaLrW4rqc/s1600-h/DSC07905.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804978633331154" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wCmK5ZMCKAO9G_THt2uSZRdeImiFrJJs3-9xPYI0NsmlwGTzNhx0igEv3KwcSnCOMYx2mtW7bjHRSpLFs2EIUJ_eeHZYT7lrWePSVFI78_Kng8pScE892dyz6lCeuVrjR-IaLrW4rqc/s400/DSC07905.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />7. Then there are the guns. In the second act, the performance takes a major departure from tradition; five characters get shot, beginning with Masetto (the bridegroom). His bride, Zerlina, sings her love song to his corpse. In traditional stagings of the opera, it always seemed a bit awkward to have Masetto on stage being sung to, not singing anything himself, and serving as a living prop in Zerlina’s performance. In this production, his role is a whole lot easier – lying there dead while she sings to him. It makes sense, in a way; if he’s not actually doing anything or singing anything, he might as well be dead, right?<br /><br />In another dramatic departure, Don Ottavio is singing his climactic aria when Donna Anna shoots him in the back. (In this production she never really seems to like him very much anyway.) He doesn’t fall down, he just stops singing and launches into a lengthy spoken monologue. Unfortunately it was in German, so I had no idea what he was going on about; I’m sure it shed some light onto the strange interpretation of the opera that we were witnessing. Then he finishes singing the aria.<br /><br />Need I point out that there are no guns in the Mozart / Da Ponte version of <em>Don Giovanni</em>? Especially not handguns. And these characters – Masetto, Zerlina, Leporello, and Don Ottavio – do NOT get killed in the original opera. (I know there was a fifth one, but now can’t recall which character it was.)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6CGtvvEfpLXSbitGd1bLrRIlMLCzAIHfxaugZvUfBLgbilIMqOQ7ZyTs_2LWWmWqvTMCVbP5obyTDVDY-5d0TtbGi_CicBTJSVqCXy-faxvXNh1H0EcWmtmHogZWq1iKbFIdMk4aeznM/s1600-h/DSC07908.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356804186501448098" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 286px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6CGtvvEfpLXSbitGd1bLrRIlMLCzAIHfxaugZvUfBLgbilIMqOQ7ZyTs_2LWWmWqvTMCVbP5obyTDVDY-5d0TtbGi_CicBTJSVqCXy-faxvXNh1H0EcWmtmHogZWq1iKbFIdMk4aeznM/s400/DSC07908.JPG" border="0" /></a>8. And THEN, all those characters who got shot and killed REAPPEAR onstage to perform their roles. But it’s not as if nothing had happened. In fact, when Don Giovanni brings the Commendatore home (somehow not realizing it’s a ghost sent to punish him), the rest of the cast (including the large chorus) reappear onstage wearing light gray suits; instead of Don Giovanni being pulled down into hell, he is dressed in light gray suit by the rest of the cast, who, we can safely assume, are themselves dead and residing in the underworld to which Don Giovanni is being brought.<br /><br />ALL of the cast are in that underworld of punishment – Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, etc. etc. It’s not just Don Giovanni who is condemned for his crimes, his sins, and punished; it seems that everyone is in for some share of blame. But it also seems more like a party than a punishment. Donna Elvira pulls a camera out of her backpack and takes photos of people posing with Don Giovanni and each other.<br /><br />It’s all a bit crazy. But then, isn’t opera already a bit crazy? I think Mozart himself would have approved of this production.<br /><br />Cast:<br /><br />Musical Director -- Kimbo Ishii-Eto<br />Don Giovanni -- Dietrich Henschel<br />Donna Anna -- Erika Roos<br />Don Ottavio -- Adrian Strooper<br />Il Commendatore -- Hans-Peter Scheidegger<br />Donna Elvira -- Elisabeth Starzinger<br />Leporello -- Carsten Sabrowski<br />Masetto -- Ingo Witzke<br />Zerlina -- Olivia Vermeulen<br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1wku8FCs2DMWXqWOY76QKIzxkTO35j9bG2zT0EEzlHr1hdTjoT-6iNKxU4u_L1B1xgQxL52vC94D50bJH8y7MgvFvWRAlR0Ispsv-9DKSTbo3-aO1sG0OzANucMYdEwXmsX5qg1tHLqA/s1600-h/Image013.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356805765935062082" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 120px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1wku8FCs2DMWXqWOY76QKIzxkTO35j9bG2zT0EEzlHr1hdTjoT-6iNKxU4u_L1B1xgQxL52vC94D50bJH8y7MgvFvWRAlR0Ispsv-9DKSTbo3-aO1sG0OzANucMYdEwXmsX5qg1tHLqA/s400/Image013.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div><em>Left: Don Giovanni in - what? - opera underwear? I didn't know there was such a thing.</em></div><div></div><div> </div><div>Final Note: I attended <em>Don Giovanni</em> with our friend John Evelev who was visiting from Missouri. I have to thank my wonderful husband who made the whole evening possible, because he stayed home with our son because we couldn't get a babysitter. He even paid for my ticket!</div>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-13452534397819876622009-07-09T16:28:00.001-07:002009-07-10T05:12:13.759-07:00Living in a WindmillDuring our week in Brittany, we drove numerous times along the coast between Cancale and about halfway to Mont-St.-Michel before heading away from the coast towards our tiny village of Bazouge-la-Perouse, east of Combourg. On this rocky, windy coastline were countless windmills, or I should say former windmills, most of which had been successfully transformed into houses or other useful purposes. According to our guidebook, <em>The Rough Guide to Brittany and Normandy</em>, a century ago Brittany had five thousand working windmills. That's right, <em>five thousand</em>. So it's not surprising that some of them have survived into the age of nuclear power in France and have been refunctioned.<br /><br />It makes complete sense that these buildings should continue to have a useful life. I mean, they are solidly built stone structures that could endure indefinitely. It's nice to see that they haven't been allowed to turn into ruins (though I <em>do</em> like ruins).<br /><br />Driving past them day after day I began to appreciate the myriad ways in which they had been transformed. Most simply have had a conical roof applied to them, as below:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixMADwEyXnJ8lkzVWHiTrNcOxM-ZAKgTNC8P3KpbYBkBj9uRG5FvQkRjBQFR6BHBf0TvmKGxXP59dlpOvH5AqupCyj1v8c01Y6teq_VUmKQcma9KUu-OVAEBT9RoPItf9oxfWZtpA2wuY/s1600-h/DSC03720.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356607496428417826" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixMADwEyXnJ8lkzVWHiTrNcOxM-ZAKgTNC8P3KpbYBkBj9uRG5FvQkRjBQFR6BHBf0TvmKGxXP59dlpOvH5AqupCyj1v8c01Y6teq_VUmKQcma9KUu-OVAEBT9RoPItf9oxfWZtpA2wuY/s400/DSC03720.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />In this photo notice the miniature windmill standing in front of the house. It's not a mailbox, just a lawn ornament of a sort: [ha ha! as if the French would have anything so tacky as a lawn ornament!]<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3NXhr8tqfUZRUCw2T6IOL7I_gsbMvSt-jmRX6r61CS82K8bJuJmtM1h3K3Xtw2TQcBI0iafVla2RymSGhZ-wBEgl8ExOlxhxvATgIEJGWJRGwJ-MFBrQW3tfAo4Kdy_IiBCgwVHBhs8/s1600-h/DSC03719.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356607490097796402" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3NXhr8tqfUZRUCw2T6IOL7I_gsbMvSt-jmRX6r61CS82K8bJuJmtM1h3K3Xtw2TQcBI0iafVla2RymSGhZ-wBEgl8ExOlxhxvATgIEJGWJRGwJ-MFBrQW3tfAo4Kdy_IiBCgwVHBhs8/s400/DSC03719.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7VonpEJjzcv05Hfnuyt3TjzyrXZK9x0FBXqebzBq4WRVEwfDSa-LvM2qqyRTIxZZdDrNuWkKiomYKYnTjD7ybpyR7PHb5bzViISwiEYY7YWEwekqD90486NOPjkiwLneTwrqlW2cbQKQ/s1600-h/DSC03718.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356741319897462242" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 214px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7VonpEJjzcv05Hfnuyt3TjzyrXZK9x0FBXqebzBq4WRVEwfDSa-LvM2qqyRTIxZZdDrNuWkKiomYKYnTjD7ybpyR7PHb5bzViISwiEYY7YWEwekqD90486NOPjkiwLneTwrqlW2cbQKQ/s320/DSC03718.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjslmZkRTGz1BrRaH5L318ifk56BPv6KTdhUQGA-UMbMVToTc3fNaoszYE2rYRWk_LIJDbsWDH6zdIClGtTUPOx8TsSpG4xRSbNjEDKo3rShCq8jb8NAV4puDYfecm0vNu1WAz_D6h8j8/s1600-h/DSC03718.JPG"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Other windmills have had rooms added onto them; here you can see the addition in the rear:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOaWCi35e1lYZwtnh0LxpUi5Wk4PdPtV_OpPNLhGNT79MCpuD7blkA0NDr2XZNLULJh6v5PiwZTUl7i1YpoAIFLVX-O-9PoBpuTO70jjBPNzvEemtV0gLIt9YARn44tggLTubZI7JBUfc/s1600-h/DSC03714.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356607485741028514" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOaWCi35e1lYZwtnh0LxpUi5Wk4PdPtV_OpPNLhGNT79MCpuD7blkA0NDr2XZNLULJh6v5PiwZTUl7i1YpoAIFLVX-O-9PoBpuTO70jjBPNzvEemtV0gLIt9YARn44tggLTubZI7JBUfc/s400/DSC03714.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />This one is my favorite: made to look really grand (for a former windmill), it has symmetrical exterior staircases on either side of the enlarged entryway; an enormous addition on one side; and even a balustrade around the roof so to create another level of usable space:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GN_keKlKyF8Co2mYrRHAvX_glX-tk3ccilCmPGwuw_wpbLPz9KkuoqtTJBEyqIc4wpa4U3YYkISJmLVosvMPQiAiQYKn8060lURUck00kU9JvuhBtAoN1mGbc5uO1d6rP-y4t-_lD3w/s1600-h/DSC03732.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356607791338223122" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GN_keKlKyF8Co2mYrRHAvX_glX-tk3ccilCmPGwuw_wpbLPz9KkuoqtTJBEyqIc4wpa4U3YYkISJmLVosvMPQiAiQYKn8060lURUck00kU9JvuhBtAoN1mGbc5uO1d6rP-y4t-_lD3w/s400/DSC03732.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356742845888404146" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu7vGG8D_IY5Yh8Ym9QL3exVO7jxgVocU-aSqaLHTZIMutmqTmZAFqhNC0PZms8eLxvyxLoK1BHSjB3edcFkdhkh6tsi003BStsltCGXd5UOm7_5HiFwT1suL8-rSJxjFNzWbMvhIcnjg/s400/DSC03736.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Now if only I could figure out how to get invited <em>inside</em> one of these fantastic structures...Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-15598579253747693832009-07-09T15:45:00.000-07:002009-07-09T16:21:01.791-07:00Roches Sculptées (Sculpted Rocks) in Brittany<div><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgkm6Dkz4NDXcUQeQzaCIIlSszBNoebQvXbXwB-v0FM4bCHASBpBhF64ijUECby4ZqLJ4YVnjBGhDSgng2a-6dp5LXWd4CS5TM0w4Mjj8cUMDNIUq80cwfs90rswHrmV_uk0IpboQe1o/s1600-h/DSC03762.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356603525100072818" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgkm6Dkz4NDXcUQeQzaCIIlSszBNoebQvXbXwB-v0FM4bCHASBpBhF64ijUECby4ZqLJ4YVnjBGhDSgng2a-6dp5LXWd4CS5TM0w4Mjj8cUMDNIUq80cwfs90rswHrmV_uk0IpboQe1o/s400/DSC03762.JPG" border="0" /></a>Why do people make art? With so many kinds of art having been produced for practically all of human history and prehistory, there clearly have been a variety of reasons to explain the evidently universal human urge towards creative expression. I’m always intrigued by these sort of crackpot artists who work in relative isolation for years or even decades to realize a vision that is neither financially profitable nor tied in with the artistic trends and movements of the day; I think of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Rodia">Simon Rodia </a>with his Watts Towers, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Fite">Harvey Fite </a>with his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_40">Opus 40</a>. (I use the word “crackpot” as a term of endearment, not in any pejorative sense.) The most recent example I’ve found is the site known as Roches Sculptées (Sculpted Rocks) on the north coast of Brittany.<br /><br />The three of us spent a week in Brittany in April, but I haven’t had the opportunity until now to blog about our experiences there. So in a way this is sort of a “backblog,” since we were there three months ago, but better late than never.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMX_pboG8g0WWT1kGrHU7gl_YlW3UR31iH5xZIJuJJwy4OvA9cc4_25zpIbf14R6QacEsGgJ2etcJ5ihViXzPd9x0Q659v_lw0Gea4x1dle3wM_hyw7wAZKeLgPGxcDDdkdFDxqWBH-AE/s1600-h/DSC03767.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356600695962990946" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMX_pboG8g0WWT1kGrHU7gl_YlW3UR31iH5xZIJuJJwy4OvA9cc4_25zpIbf14R6QacEsGgJ2etcJ5ihViXzPd9x0Q659v_lw0Gea4x1dle3wM_hyw7wAZKeLgPGxcDDdkdFDxqWBH-AE/s400/DSC03767.JPG" border="0" /></a>The Sculpted Rocks are located just inside the eastern end of St.-Malo’s city limits as you’re driving east towards Pointe du Grouin and Cancale. The Breton coast is famously austere, rocky, and forbidding; the views both of the coast and from the coast are breathtakingly sublime. It's not like it needs any human intervention to be of interest; however, the sculpting of the existing landscape could actually be the only kind of artistic intervention that belongs in such an environment.</div><div><div><div><div></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEtTLeLqT700nYY4fqtuYifiJIo4JOy3QeGuuAzNeB9VP73bW2WL-OaE7OYXFP1cJskO0E41kndHXnmtm-fRQwZkqldrcyMG29eumrVLYz9avupiE4m2DKAGKQHLB0-ej_v2xTl0vMxE/s1600-h/DSC03742.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356603517979463762" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEtTLeLqT700nYY4fqtuYifiJIo4JOy3QeGuuAzNeB9VP73bW2WL-OaE7OYXFP1cJskO0E41kndHXnmtm-fRQwZkqldrcyMG29eumrVLYz9avupiE4m2DKAGKQHLB0-ej_v2xTl0vMxE/s400/DSC03742.JPG" border="0" /></a> <div>According to <em>The Rough Guide to Brittany and Normandy</em>, </div><br /><div></div><div>“<em>The hermit priest Abbé Fouré spent 25 years, from the 1870s onwards, carving these jumbled boulders into the forms of dragons, giants and assorted sea monsters. Perched on a rocky promontory high above the water line, they’re quite weathered now, and not all compelling in themselves, but with the town well out of sight this makes an appealing spot to stop and admire the coastline</em>.”</div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdkkTD_w5oAHQ5omo1WNd6pwg5_GZxWH7yp0dbuPGJSOPXIh0u7ctKKgabE-Qd4y6pUT1VDFmSgb7j4x79tzu5gxo4EDC1ftnyN8urpEN_MEVdFhYn25atZZQ01EAnmeSjVt78lW8EXA/s1600-h/DSC03743.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356600689210706866" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdkkTD_w5oAHQ5omo1WNd6pwg5_GZxWH7yp0dbuPGJSOPXIh0u7ctKKgabE-Qd4y6pUT1VDFmSgb7j4x79tzu5gxo4EDC1ftnyN8urpEN_MEVdFhYn25atZZQ01EAnmeSjVt78lW8EXA/s400/DSC03743.JPG" border="0" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ZXsy4wmbRKli7bf_8uX1QfwenlT-8ziYQeJ3TjGnxFwkLkG3W_8FmB5FpdNGfUyFK2Wep_pHq73P_ON7Kww8ZCV2wbEzALqSa6-8fpKPe0V_e9EN7eOhl5j8UCdR2GLaVMHM9-qauck/s1600-h/DSC03764.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356603534623804946" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 268px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ZXsy4wmbRKli7bf_8uX1QfwenlT-8ziYQeJ3TjGnxFwkLkG3W_8FmB5FpdNGfUyFK2Wep_pHq73P_ON7Kww8ZCV2wbEzALqSa6-8fpKPe0V_e9EN7eOhl5j8UCdR2GLaVMHM9-qauck/s400/DSC03764.JPG" border="0" /></a> <div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-mtZHq7EkI_HnkqKgSkNd3I17lTm8U_t1dErvxQO0Gyl2VL17iQvDplGSOAVo0FpqOdaxOHkOjveMDO_a8B1XufvjDkJdCP76irGSOndJcxDGwYeXe3a59o2OUcV7JZ57YYm45FvP4k/s1600-h/DSC03739.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356599259195786546" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-mtZHq7EkI_HnkqKgSkNd3I17lTm8U_t1dErvxQO0Gyl2VL17iQvDplGSOAVo0FpqOdaxOHkOjveMDO_a8B1XufvjDkJdCP76irGSOndJcxDGwYeXe3a59o2OUcV7JZ57YYm45FvP4k/s400/DSC03739.JPG" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQuFQWxZ3FoQ02Sketw6fGHiMUenEQHzLIZz1ySSECO4L-PkZz7KsRbhoW76yuq77xhaF24XfAdfdoKIRL1e3G9QQKqbvsPeAUYOzrkuDB-r_r2tkSDJTwOIY6nhfjwT2TqKK2tBMwas/s1600-h/DSC03741.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356600680956442706" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQuFQWxZ3FoQ02Sketw6fGHiMUenEQHzLIZz1ySSECO4L-PkZz7KsRbhoW76yuq77xhaF24XfAdfdoKIRL1e3G9QQKqbvsPeAUYOzrkuDB-r_r2tkSDJTwOIY6nhfjwT2TqKK2tBMwas/s400/DSC03741.JPG" border="0" /></a></div></div></div></div></div></div>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2379524531306475136.post-39558751335739549742009-07-09T02:02:00.001-07:002009-07-09T14:46:57.219-07:00Dodo LoveDodos are making a big comeback. I'm not talking about attempts to clone or to breed an extinct species; but I am noticing that they play a big role in the public imagination. Their images are everywhere. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo">Wikipedia</a>, it has been extinct since the mid- to late-17th century. They were also popular in the Victorian period, as suggested by the Dodo being a fictional character in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo_(Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland)">Lewis Carroll's <em>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</em></a>.<br /><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>I love dodos; I guess that makes me a big dodohead. What other animal is so patently ridiculous-looking, so awkward, so improbable? A close relative of the modern pigeon, the dodo weighed up to 50 pounds! Thank goodness pigeons don't take after them in that respect. However, our image of the dodo as a fat clumsy bird are based on those specimens that became obese in captivity because they were overfed; in the wild, scientists think they were probably not as rolly-polly.</div><br /><div></div><div>Dodos lived exclusively on the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. Their extinction came about as a result of European exploration -- not just from hunting, but from destruction of habitat and the introduction of non-native predatory animals.<br /></div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz441pfQdtp_K33ZeSM0d_rrJRmmEwA69wUmDZPdQFN4nOg_qffQoCKDTaTxiXqJ4szKzcVMYZVIx9IYltA1DBfTRYjSWLDNMygtd7g_QHBp8PsyZrJgz2_-UhE69zSdRVZPU7FZw4kZ0/s1600-h/DSC02175.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356386225636192114" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz441pfQdtp_K33ZeSM0d_rrJRmmEwA69wUmDZPdQFN4nOg_qffQoCKDTaTxiXqJ4szKzcVMYZVIx9IYltA1DBfTRYjSWLDNMygtd7g_QHBp8PsyZrJgz2_-UhE69zSdRVZPU7FZw4kZ0/s400/DSC02175.JPG" border="0" /></a>Above: Museum of Natural History, Berlin (part of the exhibit on taxidermy) </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRlKivYnzdtJN-FbmOcyz-8bO_uw8PYEeQSS8Vd7gZlnKc3w6jIrjMgBmnwDOlVwOaTfEfnxJtjwLKIsxiv-ZkPGLHD0DZNJO1Q9_53CXpYD5J4Wtb2_p4NRQoMoYsGg5XLSH1KfGr0s/s1600-h/DSC02028.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356384768314683026" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRlKivYnzdtJN-FbmOcyz-8bO_uw8PYEeQSS8Vd7gZlnKc3w6jIrjMgBmnwDOlVwOaTfEfnxJtjwLKIsxiv-ZkPGLHD0DZNJO1Q9_53CXpYD5J4Wtb2_p4NRQoMoYsGg5XLSH1KfGr0s/s400/DSC02028.JPG" border="0" /></a>Above: Eli's drawing of a dodo bird, February 16, 2009<br /><br /><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuADaBJcuDzREcbKgP3Cvb9AUdZd1_gXu-gh3xd6WtZWOkNcmQVTGrPk5WDWK6vsO8Cj18iy1gjI7xXvBFrInEtxKx5SQUGCIKSn68jsENnqZwOTSa0y_UTTDYRdemOqM-JwamLsoMFo/s1600-h/DSC06652.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356384277190333378" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuADaBJcuDzREcbKgP3Cvb9AUdZd1_gXu-gh3xd6WtZWOkNcmQVTGrPk5WDWK6vsO8Cj18iy1gjI7xXvBFrInEtxKx5SQUGCIKSn68jsENnqZwOTSa0y_UTTDYRdemOqM-JwamLsoMFo/s400/DSC06652.JPG" border="0" /></a>Above: Dodo drawing at the "Dodo Manege" carousel in Paris </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtC-BQO0yVd9UXmGtCAsYU0lPh4xi96lvqU4ezV1l-ySBtKuK8is3XdB_ZZVORaNnS9bPc2bTnz0N7W4KJwesMK8qfFMaame-r4tmCalNq-iH1ZXi9I0_-rn8f_r5XKTeCXddBUCsahMw/s1600-h/DSC06661.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356384272915632546" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtC-BQO0yVd9UXmGtCAsYU0lPh4xi96lvqU4ezV1l-ySBtKuK8is3XdB_ZZVORaNnS9bPc2bTnz0N7W4KJwesMK8qfFMaame-r4tmCalNq-iH1ZXi9I0_-rn8f_r5XKTeCXddBUCsahMw/s400/DSC06661.JPG" border="0" /></a>Above: Dodo on the "Dodo Manege" carousel of extinct animals in Paris at the Jardin des Plantes (<a href="http://itinerantprofessor.blogspot.com/2009/06/dodo-manege-in-paris.html">see my blog entry about the carousel</a>) </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjledE467YJ6gtv6CPkydm87G0RYi7w8_cLZR02_Ja9NkFyyA1lWiXZeL-_K5AiMq0_-svqK5KNoC7UOpx9uhW7pLFQoen8pJz27SJQIFJOeaOABtMXpDo8xDpG0vmctSf5lsLV4z4oQAA/s1600-h/DSC07706.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356383615605040002" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjledE467YJ6gtv6CPkydm87G0RYi7w8_cLZR02_Ja9NkFyyA1lWiXZeL-_K5AiMq0_-svqK5KNoC7UOpx9uhW7pLFQoen8pJz27SJQIFJOeaOABtMXpDo8xDpG0vmctSf5lsLV4z4oQAA/s400/DSC07706.JPG" border="0" /></a>Above: Drawing of a dodo by Roelandt Savery, 1626<br /></div><div></div><div><em><br /></em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRe_iuFlsZRddQWjfqHxpKlG_BF9e2PCPBGTz4E5E5F9NQhYEwDEsXQWcNpUbT3w-BckVma3gno0ukssQQO7n1MTnYjana2OdFdTCd0gojo-ubG10sa4NWgMcUHFDn0UzaAwJkeh67EA/s1600-h/dodo-2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356576073941223730" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRe_iuFlsZRddQWjfqHxpKlG_BF9e2PCPBGTz4E5E5F9NQhYEwDEsXQWcNpUbT3w-BckVma3gno0ukssQQO7n1MTnYjana2OdFdTCd0gojo-ubG10sa4NWgMcUHFDn0UzaAwJkeh67EA/s400/dodo-2.jpg" border="0" /></a>Above: The Dodo in the Disney version of <em>Alice in Wonderland</em> </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Below: Edward Lear's drawing of the Dodo for <em>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</em> </div><div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy5BeJudFDV6UMhab2WqFYd5J0b-XDh8r-V0fk8xNcMexNUXRi5pHBYAvth6ssR3P4WCpzqifUfCq9xIAl-4qZ1C1yGqYMrx9_HyFjb1CMKniG48jt_T2KMfpCJskUTbQMaXDFB4DVvKs/s1600-h/alice09a.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356575136878067922" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 356px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy5BeJudFDV6UMhab2WqFYd5J0b-XDh8r-V0fk8xNcMexNUXRi5pHBYAvth6ssR3P4WCpzqifUfCq9xIAl-4qZ1C1yGqYMrx9_HyFjb1CMKniG48jt_T2KMfpCJskUTbQMaXDFB4DVvKs/s400/alice09a.gif" border="0" /></a></div>Elizabeth Hornbeckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16079257362666121607noreply@blogger.com0