So what exactly is art?

In my art class there are many opinions on what exactly art is. Some of them I agree with and some of them I strongly disagree with. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and just because I disagree with some doesn’t mean they are wrong.

That said, I do believe art can take many shapes and forms. Cooking, baking and eating are great hobbies of mine. I believe chefs [not all of them mind you] are artists in their creations. I like architecture. Not designing or building anything but in actually enjoying and appreciating what has been created by man. So much so that one of the people I admire most is the fictional character Howard Roark. Oh what character. But, Roark is not a real person; he is the figment of someone’s imagination. Like Roark’s creator, anyone that can wield a pen in such a manner and tell us such stories that we forget that their work is pure fiction deserves the title of artist.

It is by no mere coincidence that Central Park looks and functions the way it does in the bustling city. It took great imagination to create such beauty out of a treeless, rocky swampland. Central Park is the way it is by man’s design and vision.Like the painters and photographers chefs, architects and authors deserve to be called artists as well.

Galiano

A cake

A hotel

A vile, pig-ignorant racist bully consumed by envy...

The recent events that took place on Big Brother UK just goes to show that you can take the girl out of the gutter but you can take the gutter out of the girl. Jade Goody is a pig. With her upturned nose she looks like a pig and with every word that came out of her mouth proved herself to be gutter trash.

As the Sun eloquently puts it:

"Jade Goody went into the Big Brother house appearing to be simply a fun-loving working-class girl canny enough to have made millions from her 15 minutes of fame. It was all a meticulously manufactured lie."

"She has left the house with her true personality laid bare - a vile, pig-ignorant, racist bully consumed by envy of a woman of superior intelligence, beauty and class."

I stole the below from the BBC because they did such a good job in providing a summary.

Big Brother controversy in quotes

In the past week, Celebrity Big Brother moved from being TV entertainment to a national race debate and an international diplomatic incident. Here are some of the key quotes - from participants in the show and key figures in the real world.

SUNDAY 14 JANUARY

Shilpa Shetty: "Why do they hate me? Why am I detested? I feel like I'm losing my dignity. I'm the only one they are mean to, I don't know why, nobody is mean to anyone else except me. I'm scared to say anything else. They've pushed me to the brink."

TUESDAY 16 JANUARY

Jade Goody referred to Shilpa Shetty as "Shilpa Poppadom"Jade Goody to Shetty: "You're a liar and a fake. You're a liar. You're not in Neverland here, you're not no princess here you're normal. You are normal. You are normal Shilpa and learn to live with it. You need a day in the slums. Go in your community and go to all those people who look up to you and be real."

Danielle Lloyd: "I think she should f**k off home."

Cleo Rocas to Shetty: "I don't think there's anything racist in it."Shetty: "It is, I'm telling you."
WEDNESDAY 17 JANUARY

Goody: "I couldn't think of her surname. Why would I be talking to someone like that, I don't know what her surname is. What is it? Shilpa Cookamada, Shilpa whatever Rockamada, Shilpa Poppadom. It was like that, literally come out like that.

"There was no fault or no racial anything meant in any of those comments. It's not in me to be racial about somebody or to somebody because I wouldn't. It was just a tongue in cheek, Shilpa Poppadom."

Shetty, referring to her previous opinion that Jade was racist: "I take that back. I thought it was because everybody was having an argument with me...

"You know, people say things in a fit of anger and I stand corrected. I don't feel that there was any racial discrimination happening from Jade's end. I think there are a lot of insecurities from her end but it's definitely not racial."

Shetty to Goody: "I don't think you're racist. But it did come across as kind of racial, what you said even before that. I didn't hear you say it. Your mum used to address me as Indian..."

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair: "I've not seen the particular programme in question and therefore can't comment on it.

"But of course, I would agree entirely with the principle that we should oppose racism in all its forms."

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown: "I understand that in the UK there have already been 10,000 complaints from viewers about these remarks, which people see, rightly, as offensive.

"I want Britain to be seen as a country of fairness and tolerance. Anything detracting from this I condemn."

Indian Minister for External Affairs Anand Sharma: ''It has caused indignation, it is most unfortunate, and any kind of racism - or racist slur - is unacceptable in any civilised society.''

THURSDAY 18 JANUARY

UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell: "I think this is racism being presented as entertainment, and I think it is disgusting. My personal view is that this has caused enormous offence not only abroad but to the Indian community here."

Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in Mumbai's DNA newspaper: "I believe no-one can insult you without your permission. Shilpa Shetty has paid the price for trying to desperately seek the approval of the West.

"It is pathetic how we can go on bended knees and lick the boots of Westerners in an effort to be part of their world."

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone: "Our concern has rapidly mounted about the broadcast behaviour of individuals within the Big Brother house.

"We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behaviour is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse.

"As a result, we feel that as long as this continues, we are unable to associate our brand with the programme."

Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan: "The debate has been heated, the viewing has at times been uncomfortable but, in my view, it is unquestionably a good thing that the programme has raised these issues and provoked such a debate.

"These attitudes, however distasteful, do persist - we need to confront that truth.

"We have reached the view that we cannot with certainty say that the comments directed at Shilpa have been racially motivated or whether they stem from broader cultural and social differences."

FRIDAY 19 JANUARY

Goody after being evicted: "I'm not racist, but I can see why it has had the impact it's had. I can see why it looks like bullying.

"I'm disgusted in myself for saying what I have just seen myself saying. I do not approve of any of my actions and I do not approve of the words that came out of my mouth."

SATURDAY 20 JANUARY

The Sun newspaper editorial: "Jade Goody went into the Big Brother house appearing to be simply a fun-loving working-class girl canny enough to have made millions from her 15 minutes of fame. It was all a meticulously manufactured lie.

“She has left the house with her true personality laid bare - a vile, pig-ignorant, racist bully consumed by envy of a woman of superior intelligence, beauty and class."

Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu: "Sadly ignorance is not in short supply. Racism is real. As the week's events on reality television demonstrate, there is an ugly underbelly in society only too ready to point the finger at the foreigner, or those who might not fit in.

PR guru Max Clifford: "Ironically, the programme that made [Jade] could be the programme that breaks her. "Whoever is responsible for putting her in there obviously is responsible for possibly finishing her career."

The Stank of Skank

Last fall I tuned in diligently to watch the episodes of Season I and II of “Flava of Love.” Some of them I even saw twice and the reunion quite a few times. It was like a train wreck that I had to watch because I couldn’t believe it.

First of all, Flava in all his flayvafullness at 48 by definition of a 20 year old is an old man. The women that were competing for his love were all in their early twenties [as in under 24] – but they all had kids. So there you had the old man with the young girls who were vying for their chance at love and their five minutes of fame.

Secondly, they were all sleeping with him. Well at least not the ones that got kicked off the show early, but the ones that stayed on to the last four [at least.] I must say, the man showed some sense when he decided against the drag queen New York and chose the chick with the burn marks on her shoulders.

Since VH1 found a winner in the format of this show, the channel launched their version of The Bachelorette and we get to watch New York find true love. Unlike the show on ABC TV, this bachelorette has thin ankles, a huge cleavage that is flaunted at every opportunity and skimpy little outfits.

In the first episode New York [and us the viewers] met the men. After much preening she introduced her mother. Oh the men, where do I begin? Some of them were blatantly effeminate, some had a few screws loose and some were just nuts. Did I mention the Pooty the manwhore? And one of them called her his little black girl. Hahahaha.

Instead of this bachelorette asking the men sweetly to leave, she tells them to get the fuck up out of her house. Some of them got mooned a few times. Very charming indeed.

In episode two, we got to see her take one of the guys [yes, the one that called her his little black girl] up to her room to help her into her bikini and then watched her grind on him in the hot tub. Did I mention that there were bleeps over her nudity while he was helping her change? One guy had the right idea though. In a sitting with New York she asked him to kiss her. He kissed her on her cheek and refused to kiss her lips. In his camera time he acknowledged that he refused to kiss her because he had no intention of kissing someone that had kissed he doesn’t know how many guys already that evening. Hoorah for him, even if it got him kicked out of the house.

In a preview of upcoming episodes it seems that it gets raunchier. One would think that with her mother as co-host that the setting and attitudes would be quite sedate. Oooooohhhh, no. Not for a minute since mommy dearest doesn’t seem to care two figs about her daughter’s behaviour.

I bet ABC execs are beating themselves up for not bringing this soft core pornography of a show to their channel. It most certainly would have kept their dating shows on air and their ratings through the roof.

In search of inspiration

In this weblog I’m supposed to write about any I see in the form of art that inspires me. After waiting for it to come to me over the past few days I went in search of inspiration yesterday. I’m disappointed to say that I wasn’t inspired by anything.

The reality is that the last time I was actually inspired was when I broke the side of my trousers. The inspiration was that it was time to join a gym. Don’t laugh, I’m only a size four, and so what that I can no longer fit into a zero or a size two.

The Power of Ex

Let’s face it, by the time you reach your mid twenties you’ve left in your wake a number of people who you refer to as “exes.” Usually, you use this term when referring to the people that you dated for a period of time that lasted more than a week or two. As you move into your thirties, the list of exes expands to include wives, husbands and in-laws. In general, once you decide that they no longer deserve to be recognized as your significant other, you cut the strings. This you can do tactfully by not returning phone calls or making excuses not to see the other person frequently. Eventually you will move on to dating other people and you forget about the previous experience.

However, there are those people who break-up but decide to stay very good friends. Women sometimes hold on to their exes in the event no one else comes along. These exes are used as stand-ins for a number of things including occasional sex, errands, and loans and so on. Sometimes there are unresolved issues or feelings for the other person and as such they cannot bear to part with them. And of course you have the women who just cut the strings and move on, staying in touch with their exes but keeping their distance at the same time.

Men on the other hand don’t seem to know how to stay friendly while maintaining a distance. They either stay closely in touch with their exes or they cut ties with them completely. For those of you that never even considered that there may have been an ex, now you know why. For others, I’m sure you’ve had to deal with the pesky ex-girlfriend/wife at some point or another that seems to have her grubby little fingers on his pulse. He thinks there is nothing wrong with it and he can’t understand why it bothers you.

Don’t misunderstand. He’s a great guy, an upstanding citizen, great sense of humour, your soul mate, never lies to you – except about her – because he knows that it bothers you when he sees or talks to her. So he lies to you so as not to hurt your feelings. But he didn’t always lie to you about her. When she made him muffins and he brought them home he did tell you they were from her. You weren’t too happy about it but you accepted them gracefully and told him to thank her that they were quite delicious. Or that time he went to her house for thanksgiving because she lived on his way home from work – but then you find out that she lives about thirty miles away from him and 40 miles away from his job.

And it continued downhill from there. He decided that whatever he chose to do with her was none of your business and you simply had to trust him. He wasn’t going to pay for the sins committed by another man [that made you lose your trust.] That without trust there was no relationship and so on and so forth. And he stopped telling you everything altogether.

But you always knew when he saw or spoke with her. Like the time when there was six inches of snow on the ground and he asked you to leave his house because he wanted to go see if his ‘friend’ needed help cleaning her driveway. And that other time when he came home with a little bowl of flour in his hand and when you asked where he got it he told you that he’d always had it. Or when you saw the holiday ornament on his counter and asked where it came from and he said one of his friends gave it to him.

The slide downhill got steeper after you found out that he had gotten her a job at his company and not only was he her reference but that he allowed her to put on her resume that she was joint owner and starter of his other company. This was when you broke and asked him when he was going to tell you. And he said never, that it was none of your business. You asked him for her to change her resume and he said no that he rarely spoke to her and he wanted to keep it that way. But then a week later he told you that she was going camping.

You want to trust him and for the most part you do. But you also know and accept that you’re not first but maybe you are second. She is more important to him than you are and because of that you can never fully trust him. She has demonstrated over the years that she has no respect for you and that he is still hers. Decent women once they let a man go they let them go. Women that still want something hold on.

Your feelings are secondary to hers. She is smarter, funnier and more beautiful than you can ever hope to be. You heard the admiration and adulation in voice when he used to speak of her. In his protection of her he has put her on a pedestal and made her into a superwoman, one that you can never measure up to. You don’t do the things you do out of jealousy. It’s just that your confidence is gone and your insecurities have taken over. You don’t hate her, you try to emulate her. After all, any woman that can hold on to a man to the extent where he will do anything for her even at the cost of loosing his relationship with you is worthy of worship.

You are so different; maybe if you are more like her he will stay with you. If you don’t change when he meets someone else like her he’ll leave you.

Why doesn’t he see that his relationship with her is doing this to you? Maybe he does see, but he’d rather let you go than let her go. You’re a filler until he can truly be with her.

You know that he sees her on holidays and birthdays, don’t you? No? It’s none of your business that’s why. Did you think that it was random that you never see him on holidays? Or that there are weekends when you can’t seem to get in touch with him

Did you really think it was his friend’s underwear you found at his house? He never mentioned his friends staying with him. They were hers, if they weren’t why would he lie. Where do you think your clothes that you leave behind disappear to? It is not by accident that after these years there are no sign of you anywhere in his home. Not one picture or a piece of clothing, it is almost like you’ve never been there. Who will say otherwise? His family and friends do not know of your existence.

Why don’t you tell him how much his relationship with her bothers, how much it hurts when he lies about not seeing or talking to her when you know that he does and quite frequently? Why don’t you give him an ultimatum? Because he’ll choose her.

Anything he chooses to do with her is none of your business; you are never to mention her sweet name from your filthy mouth. You have no right to do so even as a partner. Don’t bring it up. Have you forgotten already that he blamed you when she contacted you? Why don’t you tell him how much it hurts when he takes her side over yours? Now why would you want to do that?

Can’t you tell, the signs are all there. She is not his ex, she’s his partner and you’re the other woman.

The Power of the Pen

Earlier today as I was trying to find an appropriate image of Wonder Woman to post on my other blog the old TV series came to mind – hard not to when there are more images of Linda Carter as WW available than the cartoon itself. This is what led me down this train of thought.

As a child I had a stack of comic books starting with Archie Comics and then moved to Marvel Comics in my early teens. The heroes were larger than life and seem to jump off the pages. From fifteen to seventeen I read mostly romance comics and PhotoRomance Kiss and Darling. The comics were in black and white and whenever I found one in colour it was a treat. The PhotoRomance had real people and the stories were told in frames, very similar to a comic. I couldn’t get enough of these and would read them until they became dog eared and the covers fell off.

Today my love for print comics has expanded to include cartoons such as X-Men and Batman Beyond and a few of the movies that have been made based on these characters. When it comes to images such as these, one would expect the camera aught to be mightier than the pen. However, the movies and shows that have been created with real people are sadly lacking. The strokes of the pen that portrays strength, agility and larger than life personas are somehow missed by the camera when these characters are brought to life on screen. Besides Spider I and II, I cannot think of another movie that is as exciting as reading a comic book. Superman in all his comic book glory is lost on both the small and large screen.

Not to say that they are not good movies and TV shows, they are, they are just not as good as the comics and cartoons. This could explain why the comic book industry is still booming and Marvel Comics has such a large following.

Im nin'alu daltei n'divim daltei marom lo nin'alu for Ofra Haza

Im nin'alu daltei n'divim daltei marom lo nin'alu ~ If there be no mercy left in the world, the doors of heaven will never be barred. ~ Poem by Rabbi Shalem Shabazi

Ofra Haza died in 2000 and I’m only just reading about it. I’m very sad today as I have wonderful memories of listening to her music with my dear friend Seth. She was a beautiful woman that sang like an angel. This is one of my favourite songs by her based on a poem by 18th Century Rabbi Shalem Shabazi

Im nin'alu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76eaisDX0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skFqTYt8NQE&mode

Im nin'alu daltei n'divim

Daltei marom lo nin'alu

el Chai, mareimawm al kawruvim

Kulawm b'rucho ya'alu

El Chai

Ki hem elai kis'o kawruvim

Yodu sh'mei weihal'lu

Chayet shehem rotzeh washawvim

Miyom b'ri'aw nichlawlu

El Chai

Uv'shesh kanufayim s'vivim

Awfim b'eit yitjaljelu
Im nin'alu daltei n'divim

Daltei marom lo nin'alu

El Chai, mareimawm al kawruvim

Kulawm b'rucho ya'alu

El Chai

Jaljal wa'ofen ru'ashim

Medim sh'mei u'm'gadehim

Miziv k'veido loveshim

Uv'shesh kanufayim s'vivim

Awfim b'eit yitjaljelu

Ya'anu b'gel shirim areivim

Yachad b'etet nidjalu

Jaljal wa'ofen ru'ashim

Medim sh'mei u'm'gadeshim

Miziv k'veido loveshim

El Chai

If the doors are locked
The following translation appears on the 50 Gates of Wisdom album, by Keren Barak:

If there be no mercy left in the world,

The doors of heaven will never be barred.

The Creator reigns supreme, and is higher

than the angels

All, in His spirit, will rise

By His nearness, His life-giving breath

flows through them.

And they glory in His name

From the moment of genesis,

His creations grow,

Captivating and more beautiful.

The wheel in his circle thunders

Acclaiming His Holy name

Clothed in the glory of His radiance,

The six-winged cherubs surround Him,

Whirling in His honor

And with their free wings sweetly sing,

Together, in unison

R.I.P. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofra_Haza

A Beautiful Princess

I was browsing yesterday and found this superhero link. It seems that I’m Wonder Woman. Damn, I always knew I was special

Your results: You are Wonder Woman: You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character

Wonder Woman: 85%
Green Lantern: 80%
Supergirl: 70%
The Flash: 70%

Which superhero are you? Click here to find out. http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/

Artistic Soul

When I think of art I think of painting, drawings and photographs. Sometimes I expand on that, but unfortunately not too often. I think I have an idea of what art is as well as visual culture. The second of course is quite clearly stated in the word visual. But where does language and accents and music fit into this? Since they are what we hear, is there such a thing as audio culture? If one pays close enough attention they can find such beauty in words.

Take for example Bjork singing “Army of me.” I listened to it today – no, I mean actually listened - and the words are not what I thought they were. Her accent makes it a little difficult to understand what she’s saying but it is her accent that makes the song lovely. Her music, words, voice, everything combined is very artsy. Which makes me wonder, does it take an artistic person, lets say someone with an artistic soul [if there is such a thing] to create art in any form?

If I go by the example that I’ve given, I would say yes, that one does need to be artistic to create art.

Army of Me

Artist: Bjork Album:

Post Stand up

You've got to manage

I won't sympathize

Anymore

And if you complain once more

You’ll meet an army of me

You're alright

There's nothing wrong

Self sufficience please!

And get to work

And if you complain once more

You'll meet an army of me

You're on your own now

We won't save you

Your rescue squad

Is too exhausted

And if you complain once more

You'll meet an army of me

The Young and the Stupid

About six months ago we hired a kid [John] just out of college to work on our team. As it stands John only has two dedicated projects that he works on each week. One project takes about four hours – I know this for a fact since it used to be a part on my job prior to him joining us. He turns this in after two days and usually after 5:00 p.m. The second project has been due for about one month and he still hasn’t turned it in or provided anyone with an update.

When he had just started I worked on part of project one with him and then handed it over to him completely after a few weeks. A month later he was in our manager’s office having a chat about how work was going. I didn’t mean to but I did manage to overhear him saying that he will be more effective if things went back to the way they were and I helped him. I swear I almost fell out of my chair. I think it would have gone over better if he had asked to be ridden. Thankfully our boss said no that the project was his responsibility and not mine.

On Tuesday afternoon he handed in his weekly project, copied in our group president and vice president. The email started with ‘hey.’ Is it just me or is ‘hey’ a little too informal to use in business correspondences especially when addressing senior members of staff? Moving right along I opened the PowerPoint presentation which was attached. On some of the charts there were heavy lines and thin lines. The thin lines were ones that he had added and didn’t bother to standardize them. The bar at the bottom of some slides had dates going in all different directions and what’s worse there were lines with the same colour representing different companies. The whole thing was sloppy.

Here’s the kicker, I get the impression that he believes if he doesn’t do the things that he doesn’t like doing that he won’t have to do them. By handing in his assignment in two days instead of four hours that it will be handed back to me. And that by not even doing project two our boss will believe that he’s extremely busy and not give him anymore work or hand that project off to someone else as well.

To top it off, he’s expecting a big bonus and a nice sized raise. I think someone has to tell him that bonuses and raises are based on performance. Oh if I can be a fly on the wall during his review.

Yaaayhhh to a new camera

In my haste and excitement to take a picture of my cutesy little nephew a few months a go I dropped and broke my camera. My boyfriend just got me a new fantastic one for christmas and I've decided that I'll put it to good use. Here's to fantastic pictures to come.