... is it really this bleak?
7 अगस्त 2021
"Jay-Z and Beyoncé were still in, as of Friday. David Axelrod and Larry David were out...."
"The party, the uninvited were told, had been scaled back because of growing concerns about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.... [Larry David] was uninvited. So were the majority of former Obama administration officials... The late-night talk show hosts David Letterman and Conan O’Brien were also cut from the guest list.... Celebrity couples Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, as well as Dwayne Wayde and Gabrielle Union, were photographed arriving on the island ahead of the party, alongside actor Don Cheadle and comedian Steven Colbert. Even a 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' star, Kim Fields, was photographed flying into the island. It was possible that some of the famous new arrivals decided to come to the Vineyard despite being cut from the party list.... Steven Spielberg was on the guest list.... along with Bruce Springsteen... and George Clooney..... Tom Hanks.... was also still invited.... Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay had pulled out of the party earlier...."
Boldface provided to help you find the funniest part.
"Smell goes directly to your emotions, you are crying, you don’t know why... Smelling has a power that none of the other senses have..."
"... and I must tell you now, it is molecular, it goes to the essence of the essence.... When I smell him, in reality I am entering into a level of intimacy more intense than if we slept in bed together.... We have never had so many fragrances around us.... But at the same time, we have no idea of what life really smells like.... [Smell has been] absolutely denigrated through centuries because smell reminds us that we are just animals.... There came this sudden obsession with sterilizing and disinfecting... now everyone must smell absolutely neutral.... [T]here is nothing more complex than nature.... We should be complex, but we have a problem with accepting our complexity and contradiction in ourselves."
"Most filmgoers under the age of sixty are puzzled by the scene in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles in which Black Bart attempts to persuade the craven townspeople of Rock Ridge..."
"... to stand up to the evil Hedley Lamarr by telling them, 'You’d do it for Randolph Scott.' To this they respond in unison, 'Randolph Scott!' then doff their hats reverently—an accurate indication of how closely identified Scott was with the Western genre. He always played the same character, a lanky, dryly amusing cowboy with a Virginia accent who spoke only when spoken to and shot only when shot at, and you could take it for granted that he’d do the right thing in any given situation. If he’d been younger and prettier, he would have been too good to be true, but Scott was no dresser’s dummy: he had a thin-lipped mouth and a hawk-like profile, and wasn’t afraid to act his age on screen. Nobody in Hollywood, not even John Wayne, looked more believable in a Stetson."
I'm reading "What Randolph Scott Knew/It was in a string of westerns late in his career that the actor came to embody an ethic that was the essence of the genre" — a Terry Teachout essay published in American Cowboy in 2005.
I'm reading the old Teachout essay because — as I mentioned a couple days ago — Meade and I are watching that "string of westerns" — the "Ranown Westerns" at my favorite streaming service, The Criterion Channel. These are all directed by Budd Boetticher and written — or in the case of "Decision at Sundown," doctored — by Burt Kennedy.
These are low-budget films that are short — about 70 minutes — and — except for "Decision at Sundown" — shot almost entirely — or in the case of "Ride Lonesome," entirely — outdoors amongst the rock formations of Lone Pine, California. The plots are alike. As Teachout puts it:
"Angel argues that, unlike the drives of hunger or thirst, desire does not operate on a deprivation model for either gender."
"She does, however, support the idea that male desire is 'spontaneous' and female desire 'responsive' to explain why women are perceived as suffering from a lack of overt sexual interest. The intention to have sex doesn’t 'just happen' for women as often as it does for men; it may, however, be elicited. She quotes contemporary work by Rosemary Basson, the director of the Sexual Medicine Program at the University of British Columbia, that describes a kind of loop in which the sexual setting, 'the relationship, the power dynamics, the safety and trust…are all critical in enabling or impeding the virtuous circle of arousal and desire.' So men can persuade women into bed by supplying context first ('love,' perhaps) and then by arousing them. This also feels a little transactional. No matter where we start from, we are always back in the same place.... It is not clear to me, in the discussion of the 'circularity' of female desire, what 'linear' male desire might look like (apart from the obvious)."
From "The Burden of ‘Yes’/Katherine Angel is part of a new generation of female writers who are revisiting ideas of female submission" by Anne Enright (NYRB).
Just imagine.
Just imagine being a journalist and then regularly using your keyboard to lavish praise on the nobility, compassion and goodness of the person whose job it is to deceive the media and propagandize the public. How does basic levels of dignity and self-worth not prevent this?
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 6, 2021
"As a police officer turned Roy Thorne around to cuff his hands behind his back, the 45-year-old father saw the same happening to his 15-year-old son."
"Feelings came quickly then to Thorne, who’s Black: rage that his son was being arrested. Humiliation that the teenager had to watch his dad get handcuffed while the whole neighborhood looked on. Confusion about how viewing a house with his real estate agent on a Sunday afternoon could lead to a half-dozen police officers pointing guns at them.... Thorne and his son were touring a home Sunday with real estate agent Eric Brown, who’s also Black, in Wyoming, Mich., when police suddenly surrounded the house with guns drawn. The officers were responding to a neighbor’s 911 call about a break in. They ordered the three out of the house, handcuffed them and put them in separate vehicles."
From "A Black Army vet toured a house with his real estate agent and teen. Police surrounded the home and handcuffed them" (WaPo).
"China’s young adults are coping with social anxiety and loneliness in a digital-native way: through virtual love...."
"AI chatbots are now a $420 million market in China.... 'Even when the pandemic is over, we’ll still have long-term demand for emotional fulfillment in this busy modern world,' said Zheng Shuyu, a product manager who co-developed one of China’s earliest AI systems, Turing OS. 'Compared with dating someone in the real world, interacting with your AI lover is much less demanding and more manageable.'... 'Boys never learn, but Qimat does'” said Milly Zhang [who is 20]... Qimat 'listens to me, calms my insecurity and encourages me to open up.... When he talks gibberish, I sometimes ignore him. And when we talk art or philosophy, the conversation can flow for hours.... I won’t judge if someone dates their Replika and a human being simultaneously, but for Qimat and me, it’s always been mutually ... exclusive.... For 20 years, I didn’t really know what I wanted....'"
From "China’s lonely hearts reboot online romance with artificial intelligence" (WaPo).
6 अगस्त 2021
At the Sunrise Café...
... the sun rises on the first café since Easter.
Easter began a new approach to comments for reasons discussed in this post and in the comments there.
Today, I began what I called "A new era of comments on this blog." Everything is still moderated and I'm maintaining the stricter standards, but you can write the comments in the comments box. With that change, I'm able to do an open thread at the end of the day again — a "café" post.
I'm continuing the tradition of putting up a photograph of the sunrise, part of my ritual of running to witness the arrival of the new day.
Today, is also the arrival of a new season, as I mark the seasons. I put the solstice/equinox in the center of the season and count out 6.5 weeks in either direction. Today, we begin the approach to the fall equinox. I love the seasons of more equal balance between light and darkness, and that's what's starting today.
Enjoy the café. You can talk about anything, but to make it through moderation, it will need to be something I think readers will enjoy.
"Climb aboard the Almost Heaven, which is somewhere between a trawler and a yacht, big and boxy."
"Step inside the cabin and marvel at the creature comforts: a semicircular, plush-leather couch with a matching ottoman, glass cabinets trimmed with dark wood, a marble dining-room table with thick white candles... Below deck, the master bedroom is cozy but well-appointed.... There's a guest room.... Up on the party deck, amid the wrought-iron chairs and tables with umbrellas, you might see Trump-allied Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), just months removed from objecting to President Biden’s election, talking college football with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 'Pete’s from Notre Dame,' said Tuberville.... On one evening cruise, some years back, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was so moved by the picturesque Washington skyline that she began singing 'God Bless America.'.... Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), an Almost Heaven regular, has regaled fellow passengers with 'American Pie.'... 'All I’m saying is I don’t think our Founding Fathers anticipated the survival of this democratic experiment to rest in the hands of a man who lives in a house boat,' Jenna Valle-Riestra, a press secretary for the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a now-deleted tweet... [The boat is] a place where deals can be floated and bills can get watered down. Where trust can live, if fleetingly, among people whose constituents don’t trust each other at all.... For some that sounds like Almost Heaven. For other’s that’s just a nice way to describe living in limbo."
From "Washington’s hottest club is Joe Manchin’s houseboat" (WaPo).
The name of the boat is the first 2 words of John Denver's beloved song about Joe Manchin's state.
Does Manchin actually live on the boat? Yes, it is his residence when he is in Washington, The Washingtonian reported back in February: "Manchin lives on a boat because he doesn’t like living here." Republicans attacked him for owning an expensive boat, but it was cheap compared to the price of land-based housing in Washington.
And John Denver didn't write that song, and the song wasn't really written about West Virginia! It's about Gaithersburg, Maryland or maybe Massachusetts:
"You know who doesn’t need a plus-one? The married, engaged, or cohabitating. They live together. They see each other constantly."
"There could be no greater gift than allowing the coupled up a chance to flirt with strangers, watch bad hotel TV and order weird room service, and wake up blissfully alone in a king-size hotel bed. Oh God, and the person who’s left at home? They get the bigger gift (assuming there are no children, of course), which is that they are alone at home. They are standing in the kitchen topless eating a rotisserie chicken with their bare hands. For 48 hours, the person at home is feral.... And think of the joyous reunion!... They realize they’ve missed each other. Look at that. You’ve saved their marriage."
From "Here’s an Idea: Rewrite the Plus-one Rule at Weddings" by Leah Beckmann (NY Magazine). The current rule, in case you didn't know, is that the married, engaged, or cohabitating get a plus-one invitation, and that other people don't. Beckmann is trying to completely flip the rule.
A new era of comments on this blog.
Instead of taking emailed comments and cutting and pasting them into the comments section, I've set it up so you can write comments by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of any post (including old posts). That will cause the comment to be emailed to me and then I can publish the comment by clicking a button in my email instead of needing to cut and paste the comment into a comments box.
This will be easier for me, and it will also display the comments under the commenter's name, rather than requiring me to write "X writes:" and then put quote marks around the comment — quote marks or the dreaded italics. I've resorted to italics when the comments have a lot of paragraphs, and I don't like how they look. They're harder to read.
Anyway, I've greatly appreciated the willingness of some commenters to email comments, and I'm not changing my standard for publication, just trying to make things look better and work more fluidly. The wait time for publication will vary depending on where I am and what I'm doing.
ADDED: What is my standard for publication, you may wonder. I tried to sum it up in the message that appears under "Leave your comments" and above the compose window: "things that I think readers will find rewarding" and "I encourage brevity and substance and discourage personal attacks and repetition."
This is a standard I impose on myself, and I don't want my efforts undermined. I only post when I've found something new and different, so I don't want comments that repeat whatever it is you'd like to say about the general topic. The post is a prompt, and you can go in many different creative directions, but make it new. Think of the reader. I go for brevity and humor and surprise. Make it fun to read.
"Throughout the history of the Jewish people, Jews have held an ideal standard for Jewish family life that is manifested in the term shalom bayit."
"Shalom bayit signifies completeness, wholeness, and fulfillment. Hence, the traditional Jewish marriage is characterized by peace, nurturing, respect, and chesed (roughly meaning kindness, more accurately loving-kindness), through which a married couple becomes complete. It is believed that God's presence dwells in a pure and loving home."
That's from the Wikipedia article "Shalom bayit," which I'm reading this morning after receiving an emailed comment from impresaria:
Removing the rock exemplifies the Jewish value of "shalom babayit," peace in the house. You give in in something even though you are in the right, to avoid unpleasantness with those you care about.
Here's my post from last night about the removal of a 70-ton rock from the scenic high point of the University of Wisconsin campus. Some students insisted on the removal of the rock — because at least once, long ago, a newspaper referred to it as a "[n-word]head" — and the university acceded.
Is a university like a marriage?
5 अगस्त 2021
"UW-Madison will remove a 70-ton boulder from the heart of campus Friday morning following calls over the past year from students of color who view the rock as a symbol of the university's racist past."
UPDATE: I just went over to see the set up for removing the rock. This is my photograph, taken at 6:01 p.m.
ORIGINAL POST:
"Chamberlin Rock, located on top of Observatory Hill, is named in honor of Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, a geologist and former university president. But for some students of color on campus, the rock represents a painful history of discrimination. The boulder was referred to as a 'n-----head' — a commonly used expression in the 1920s to describe any large dark rock — at least once in a 1925 Wisconsin State Journal headline. University historians have not found any other time that the term was used but said the Ku Klux Klan was active on campus at that time. UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca approved the removal of Chamberlin Rock in January but the Wisconsin Historical Society needed to sign off on the rock’s removal because it was located within 15 feet of a Native American burial site. The university announced Thursday that the rock will be removed at 6:30 a.m. Friday."
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