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The dataset generation failed

Error code:   DatasetGenerationError
Exception:    ArrowInvalid
Message:      JSON parse error: Missing a closing quotation mark in string. in row 67
Traceback:    Traceback (most recent call last):
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 153, in _generate_tables
                  df = pd.read_json(f, dtype_backend="pyarrow")
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 815, in read_json
                  return json_reader.read()
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1025, in read
                  obj = self._get_object_parser(self.data)
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1051, in _get_object_parser
                  obj = FrameParser(json, **kwargs).parse()
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1187, in parse
                  self._parse()
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1403, in _parse
                  ujson_loads(json, precise_float=self.precise_float), dtype=None
              ValueError: Trailing data
              
              During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
              
              Traceback (most recent call last):
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1997, in _prepare_split_single
                  for _, table in generator:
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 156, in _generate_tables
                  raise e
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 130, in _generate_tables
                  pa_table = paj.read_json(
                File "pyarrow/_json.pyx", line 308, in pyarrow._json.read_json
                File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 154, in pyarrow.lib.pyarrow_internal_check_status
                File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 91, in pyarrow.lib.check_status
              pyarrow.lib.ArrowInvalid: JSON parse error: Missing a closing quotation mark in string. in row 67
              
              The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
              
              Traceback (most recent call last):
                File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1529, in compute_config_parquet_and_info_response
                  parquet_operations = convert_to_parquet(builder)
                File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1154, in convert_to_parquet
                  builder.download_and_prepare(
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1029, in download_and_prepare
                  self._download_and_prepare(
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1124, in _download_and_prepare
                  self._prepare_split(split_generator, **prepare_split_kwargs)
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1884, in _prepare_split
                  for job_id, done, content in self._prepare_split_single(
                File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 2040, in _prepare_split_single
                  raise DatasetGenerationError("An error occurred while generating the dataset") from e
              datasets.exceptions.DatasetGenerationError: An error occurred while generating the dataset

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pred_label string	pred_label_prob float64	wiki_prob float64	text string	source string
__label__wiki	0.614647	0.614647	It turns out the Dykefish is an evolutionary dead-end The Blue Tang fish, which exploded in popularity thanks to Finding Dory, has for the first time been successfully bred in captivity. Hilariously, it turns out that the fish famously voiced by notorious carpet muncher Ellen DeGeneres hasn't been able to reproduce in captivity. Do you think that's maybe connected to the fact the most famous Blue Tang thinks she's a boy and made immoral lifestyle choices? Movies\|Race Religion and Sex\| Labels: Movies, Race Religion and Sex The Turkish military seizes the country every time they make a Fantastic Four movie The UK Independent talks about last week's failed military coup in Turkey with the most misleading headline of all time. "Turkey's coup may have failed – but history shows it won’t be long before another one succeeds". If you can believe it, the article talks about Syria, about Pakistan, about President Monkey, about Armenian genocide...but it doesn't talk about Turkey's insanely common military coups. They went pretty smoothly during Ataturk's reign, but it all went south in 1960 when socialist Prime Minister Adnan Menderes went to Moscow to try to get Communist backing for his regime (which was imprisoning journalists, creating kangaroo courts stacked with far-left judges, and personally controlling the curriculum at universities and sounding an awful lot like Rachel Arab in Alberta come to think of it). A military coup took place and Menderes and his top government officials were imprisoned. Menderes lost his head in the subsequent trial and a mausoleum of his was constructed in Constantinople. Turkey managed an entire decade without a coup, but in 1971 the military again seized power: this time through a memo (no, seriously!) Civil unrest, Marxist protests, and terrorism were occuring throughout the land (and this sounds a lot like President Monkey's final year in office down in America), and the army moved in to force the government's hands. Not much happened though, and it ultimately meant no actual change took place. A technocratic cabinet was created (again, this is eerie...), and ultimately martial law was declared. It took until 1973 before the aftermath was finally settled. And this time they didn't even last the decade. In 1980 Kenan Evren took over after months of official deliberation in senior army ranks which really makes very little sense if you think about it). Martial law was again established, Parliament was abolished, and state secularism took over from the burgeoning Islamic sub-revolution. The end result was economic chaos: triple digit inflation, free foreign exchange, and wage freezes. 650,000 people were arrested over the 2 year instability, ending with Evren being appointed President in 1982. This period of economic strife meant that American movies weren't available to the general populace, and gave us the glorious debacle which is Turkish Star Wars. Another decade later, another (attempted) coup: in 1993, the military (probably) tried to take over the government on the sly, executing President Özal and numerous journalists and orchestrating the infamous PKK Ambush. Half a decade later, another sorta-coup: in 1997 the Turkish military against used the awesome destructive power of a well-written memo, ending the reign of religious PM Necmettin Erbakan and his centre-left government. Again, the secularism of the modern Turkish state was a key factor in the coup. For those keeping their boxscores up-to-date, good ol' Erdogan played a role in this one: he read a pro-Islam poem in his role as mayor of Istanbul and was given a 5 year exile. So that brings us to 2016, and another military coup in Turkey. It seems to have failed, but indications are that we'll see another one eventually. A decade seems to be the typical separation, something tells me you should bet on the "under" this next time around... International politics\| Labels: International politics "America should have picked its own cotton" The far-left British tabloid The Guardian has waded back into the gun control debate, showing "Republicans representing cities with a higher murder rate than Chicago" and their refusal to back tough gun laws. The thing to remember, of course, is that when you see a discussion about "high rates of crime" in the United States, you're really talking about "America has a lot of black people" in it. (You can do a similar evaluation in Canada, though our violent blacks are only out-done by our violent Red Indians) The Guardian won't tell you this, of course: the comfortable lies of the left is their business, and business is good as long as ignorant lefties continue to succumb to their echo chambers. The Guardian wants you to think that the problem in these cities are all guns. But in blue I have indicated the "increased share" of blacks in these cities compared with their proportion of the U.S. population (12.61%) Jackson, Mississippi has a high murder rate. But while Mississippi's black population is 37%, Jackson's black population is a whopping 79.4% black 79.4 is 6.29659 times higher than 12.61, so 6.3 is the "index" for Jackson. Baton Rouge, Louisiana has a black population of 50.4%, for an index of 4.0. Little Rock, Arkansas is 42.3% black for an index of 3.4. Cincinnati has a surprisingly 44.8% black population giving it a 3.6 index. Dayton is 42.9% black, for an index of 3.4. You don't have to stick to the Republican-controlled cities, of course, though I did just to mess with The Guardian's writing team of Lois Beckett, Ryan Felton and Aliza Aufrichtig. The Democrat-controlled cities have their own ridiculous indexes. St. Louis, the murder capital of America, is 49.2% black (3.9 index), Detroit is 82.7% black (6.6 index), and NOLA is 60.2% black (4.8). The poster child for violent American blacks, Chicago, is only 32.9% black (index of only 2.6) befitting its position at the bottom of The Guardian's chart. Of course, the inconvenient truths keep piling on: non-violent blacks are exodusing out of the infamous "black belt" of South Chicago. The city’s violence turned Tierra Winston into a suburbanite. She and her 14-year old son, Tyriek, were constantly worried about their safety in their old neighborhood, Roseland, one of the city’s most economically depressed. American blacks cause crime. Colby Cosh once noted if you removed blacks from the equation, gun-toting America was no less safe than Canada. The answer is that if you account for one obvious cultural difference--the larger black population in the United States--the United States of America's murder rate is pretty much the same as ours, despite the huge disparity in handgun ownership. Black Americans are 13% of the U.S. population and commit over half of America's homicides. Follow that last link and you'll see that, according to the FBI at least, the non-black U.S. population of 244 million committed 5,447 murders in 2001. (That's not counting the statistical outlier of Sept. 11, of course.) The Canadian government doesn't break down its figures by race, but the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics' 2000 figures show 542 homicides in Canada--a typical figure--amongst about 28 million Canadians. Our murder rate for the whole populace is 87% of the rate amongst U.S. non-blacks. If you were to try and establish a non-black Canadian murder rate by removing the negligible number of Canadian blacks from the numerator and the denominator, the resulting rate would certainly be lower than 87%, but not by more than a couple of points. Far-left British newspaper writers should probably get themselves up to speed on that topic before they feel like lecturing American politicians about their opposition to denying citizens their fundamental freedom to own firearms (a freedom that Britain herself should get up to speed on). #tcot\|Race Religion and Sex\| Labels: #tcot, Race Religion and Sex "The Firearms Act of 1920 was just a licensing law; the Harrison Narcotics Act was just a prescription system; and the serpent only asked Eve to eat an apple" In a beautiful essay, Professor Joseph E. Olson and Professor David B. Kopel talk about how a fundamental freedom became an illegal action in a single century. With gun ownership for self-protection now completely illegal (unless one works for the government), Britons have begun switching to other forms of protection. The government considers this an intolerable affront. Having, through administrative interpretation, delegitimized gun ownership for self-defense, the British government has been able to outlaw a variety of defensive items. For example, non-lethal chemical defense sprays, such as Mace, are now illegal in Britain, as are electric stun devices. Some Britons are turning to guard dogs. Unfortunately dogs, unlike guns and knives, have a will of their own and sometimes attack innocent people on their own volition. The number of people injured by dogs has been rising, and the press is calling for bans on Rottweilers, Dobermans, and other "devil dogs." Under 1991 legislation, all pit bulls must be neutered or euthanized. Other citizens choose to protect themselves with knives, but carrying a knife for defensive protection is considered illegal possession of an offensive weapon. One American tourist learned about this Orwellian offensive weapon law the hard way. After she used a pen knife to stab some men who were attacking her, a British court convicted her of carrying an offensive weapon. Her intention to use the pen knife for lawful defensive purposes converted the pen knife, under British legal newspeak, into an illegal "offensive weapon." In 1996, knife-carrying was made presumptively illegal, even without the "offensive" intent to use the weapon defensively. A person accused of the crime is allowed "to prove that he had a good reason or lawful authority for having" the knife when he did. Early one evening in March 1987, Eric Butler, a fifty-six-year-old executive with B.P. Chemicals, was attacked while riding the London subway. Two men came after Butler and, as one witness described, began "strangling him and smashing his head against the door; his face was red and his eyes were popping out." No passenger on the subway moved to help him. "My air supply was being cut off," Butler later testified, "my eyes became blurred and I feared for my life." Concealed inside Butler's walking stick was a three-foot blade. Butler unsheathed the blade; "I lunged at the man wildly with my swordstick. I resorted to it as my last means of defense." He stabbed an attacker's stomach. The attackers were charged with unlawful wounding. Butler was tried and convicted of carrying an offensive weapon. The court gave him a suspended sentence, but denounced the "breach of the law which has become so prevalent in London in recent months that one has to look for a deterrent." Butler's self-defense was the only known instance of use of a swordstick in a "crime." Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, using powers granted under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, immediately outlawed possession of swordsticks. The Act has also been used to ban blowpipes and other exotica which, while hardly a crime problem, were determined by the Home Secretary not be the sorts of things which he thought any Briton could have a good reason to possess. No prosecution for defending oneself is too absurd. While the essay is primarily regarding firearms restrictions, it's worth noting that the slippery slope applies to all rights, even as it appears some are being strengthened. Jury rights (long since lost in Alberta, one notes), speech rights (under constant attack), even freedom of association flies at the merest nudge from SJWs on Supreme and Appellate Courts. It's worth then noting that the first of the "seven key factors" in the loss of British gun rights was... The first factor that undermined the British right to arms was a technological change when revolvers came to be seen by some persons as much more dangerous than previous weapons. This same phenomenon can be seen in the treatment of other technological advances, such as the automobile, which from the 1920s onward, has often been treated by the United States Supreme Court as a "Constitution-free zone", where searches and seizures in contravention of normal Fourth Amendment standards may take place. Indeed, thanks to the web free speech is now considered so "dangerous" that it can be trampled upon (almost) with impunity. Likewise... The shifting of the burden of proof, both at law and in popular discussion, was the fourth factor degrading the British right to arms. Rather than the government having to prove that a particular gun-owner or a particular type of gun was dangerous, the gun-owner began to have to prove his "good reason," and the government began deciding to outlaw weapons that the government did not think anyone outside the government had a good reason to own. One recalls that when "Fuck Her Right in the Pussy" was a major issue, the far-left CBC that has no problem demanding tax dollars to fund its political communication while saying YOURS is "hurtful" and has "no good reason" to exist. And as for the government banning the truth about the sick Sodomite Agenda, look at the sixth factor... Additionally, how many people are there who care to resist infringement of a right? Few politicians seriously propose a total gun ban in the United States because there are seventy million gun-owning households--about half the population. But only about four percent of the British population legally owns guns--a much smaller interest group. If, over the course of generations, the percentage of a population that is interested in a right can be gradually reduced, stricter controls become more politically feasible, and the stricter controls can further reduce the long-term number of people who exercise their rights. This suggests the long-term importance of young people exercising their rights. If high school newspapers have large staffs that fearlessly report the truth, the future of the First Amendment is better protected. If, conversely, laws prevent teenagers from target shooting or hunting, the future of the Second Amendment is endangered. No wonder the huge push for Faggot-Familiar-Alliances in Alberta schools! The essay is particularly vicious on the favourite topic of the left: "balancing" rights. The rhetoric of balancing is dangerous because it tends to give too much weight to the short-term concerns of public safety. Thus, the American right that has been most subject to balancing, the Fourth Amendment, has suffered badly in the United States Supreme Court. More fundamentally, the "balancing" that legislatures or courts sometimes do is not their job, because the balancing has already been done. Whether in the 1689 Bill of Rights, which was to apply "for all time," or in the 1789-91 United States Constitution, a balance was struck. Because of this balance, governments were prohibited from doing certain things since, in the long run, public safety and liberty were both enhanced by preventing short-term considerations from controlling. Thus, when the Blaisdell Court "balanced" its way around the Constitution's absolute ban on the impairment of contracts, and upheld Minnesota's debtor relief law, the Court did not merely err--the Court usurped power and attempted to re-open the question that the Contracts Clause had decided with finality. When rights are protected with bright lines, as the First Amendment usually is, then rights are particularly secure against slippery slopes. When rights are subjected to "balancing" (a/k/a "reasonableness") tests by courts, as the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause often is, then rights are particularly vulnerable. And when a society has lost the theory of constitutional absolutes as Britain has, and replaced this with "balancing," then every right is in danger. In this way, the essay unintentionally but notably takes aim with the NRA. The NRA, one notes, in an implicit "balancing" organization that says strict adherence to existing gun laws should be performed, but oppose (most) new ones...until passed. And then they are to be strictly enforced. In a way, the gun owners' biggest and most effective lobby is also subtly and slowly disenfranchising them. The BASC's stance may appear to be a "reasonable" position, which demonstrates that gun-owners are not bloodthirsty nuts wanting to shoot people. Rather, shooters are harmless sportsmen, and licensed guns belong in the same category as cricket bats or golf clubs. In practice, however, the concession that guns are only for sports undermines defense of the right to bear arms. If guns are not to be owned for defense, then guns make no positive contribution to public safety. If the sovereignty of the central government is absolute, then the people's ownership of arms makes no positive contribution to a sound body politic. Their final paragraph is awfully important. Please read it twice. Slippery slopes are not inevitable, but neither are they imaginary. The British experience demonstrates that many civil liberties, including the right to arms, really can slowly slide all the way to the bottom of the slippery slope. While we have not aimed to convince readers to value any particular civil liberty, such as arms, speech, or protection from warrantless searches, we have attempted to show that it is reasonable for groups that do honor such rights, like the NRA, ACLU, or NACDL, to refuse to acquiesce in "reasonable" infringements of those rights. Even though, as John Maynard Keynes observed, we are all dead in the long run, persons who cherish a particular civil liberty want that liberty to endure not just in their own lifetimes, but in the lives of subsequent generations. In the long run, the best way to protect a given civil liberty from destruction may be to resist even the smallest infringements in short run. #roft\|#tcot\| Labels: #roft, #tcot Dave Beninger: still a liberal coward with horrible opinions Liberal cowards who hide behind their Twitter block button everytime they hear a dissenting opinion don't win. They just slime away... Monkeys can't handle blame The legendary Thomas Sowell: President Monkey is a fascist, not a socialist, because he doesn't broach criticism. #tcot\| Labels: #tcot Comedy\| Labels: Comedy Whither the Saturday afternoon game Last night in a thrilling overtime contest, the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the hated Saskatchewan Roughriders 39-36. It was the second half of a Friday night doubleheader for the CFL, and didn't finish until about 11:20pm local time. It was also played in front of a mere 34,000 fans. It's just the latest data point in what can be charitably called a very disappointing 2016 Edmonton Eskimos schedule. The season opened June 25th with a Grey Cup rematch against the Ottawa REDBLACKS†, and then an immediate bye week‡ before resuming in last night's victory against the Stubble Jumpers (which was also be our Purolator Tackle Hunger® game). Weeks 5, 6, and 8 also feature home games, meaning that Edmonton's schedule is front-loaded with home appearances. This is (mostly) good, considering what the climate is in this neck of the woods. Edmonton is still stuck with that CFL failed-experiment-that-won't-ever-die though: the Thursday night game. This one is especially bad since it's going to be on Thursday July 28th; that means in the middle of Klondike Days the Eskimos are going to have to fight for your entertainment dollar. This shouldn't be entirely difficult: the Klondike Days performers that night are something called "Coleman Hell" and "Andee"§, so it's not like they're up against X-Ambassadors or Moist, but it's still yet another thing that will leave Commonwealth Stadium mostly empty. More people then the best-attended Argonauts home game of the season, most likely, but still disappointingly small. But as I peruse the schedule, I notice that what the 2016 Eskimos season (and the 2015 Eskimos season, for that matter) is missing is the most enjoyable Esks game of the year: the mid-July Saturday afternoon game. The closest we get this season is the Hamilton vs. Eskimos tilt on Saturday July 23rd, which will be at 5pm. It's not bad, but that means the game ends sometime in the 7-8pm range and therefore it might start cooling off and/or be starting to thunderstorm. It isn't going to be like the great day we had out at the stadium on June 29th 2013 (1:30pm Saturday start time, +26°C) where...while the Esks lost (this being the 2013 season we went 4-14 after all) we at least got to enjoy a beautiful day out in shorts and tanktops, and when the game ended and we needed to get far away from the Sister Kisser fanbase, it was still late afternoon and we were able to get in some time at a Whyte Avenue patio while still in the aforementioned shorts and tank-tops. There's definitely a different atmosphere at an early afternoon Esks game. You get a more casual crowd, you don't feel bad about slamming an extra half-dozen beers, and of course the hot dogs and burgers taste extra good when the hot sun is bearing down upon you! When it's all over, the hot sun is still bearing down upon you and then you can go out and enjoy some more wobbly pops before it starts to cool off/cloud over. And for the second consecutive year, we've been robbed of it. I'm not even entirely sure why. The game is against an Eastern Conference opponent (the Tiger-Cats), which means that it's going to start at 7pm Hamilton time and run until about 10pm. It's the only CFL game of the day, so it's not like there's an afternoon matinee in Montreal that an earlier start time would be in competition with. The earliest afternoon game in Edmonton is going to be 2pm all right, but it's in Week 20...and November 5th is highly unlikely to be tank-top weather. Other than that, Esks home games are all evening affairs. It's a lost opportunity, and one that hopefully (along with the end to Thursday night games that only serve to keep the NFL at-bay in the Toronto market) is rectified in the 2017 season. † Remember: by law you have to shout it, even when reading this blogpost on a crowded LRT train. Go ahead, do it. Shout it out. REDBLACKS. ‡ The CFL has to sabotage Edmonton's chances for a repeat, after all. § Andee is a singer-songwriter from Quebec whose websites "tour dates" section only shows her upcoming Edmonton show. I have friends whose bands have bigger tours coming up. #yeg\|Sports\| Labels: #yeg, Sports It turns out the Dykefish is an evolutionary dead-... The Turkish military seizes the country every time... "The Firearms Act of 1920 was just a licensing law... Dave Beninger: still a liberal coward with horribl...	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line1
__label__wiki	0.50373	0.50373	ABDUL SATAR Abdul Satar, 51, is father to four sons; and he proudly remembers his own father, Abdul Samad, as one of the earliest kamra-e-faoree photographers in Kabul. The first he recalls as Afandi (a colleague of Ahmadin Taufiq); and it was Afandi who introduced his father to the kamra-e-faoree. During the time of Zahir Shah (1933-1973), Abdul Samad (on the right) travelled around the provinces taking identity photographs for the national identity card; he remained working in photography all of his life. Indeed Abdul Satar's father had his own photo shop in the Kote Sangi area of Kabul for over fifty years. On the left is a picture of Abdul Satar's grandfather. It's one of the oldest kamra-e-faoree photographs we came across. The photographic paper used was produced by Forte, a Hungarian company which ran out of business a few years ago. As a young boy Abdul Satar learnt his trade from his father in the family shop. Years laters when heavy fighting broke out in the locality during the civil war, he was forced to close down the store and travel to Peshawar in Pakistan to work. Sadly, the shop was destroyed during the conflict, but later he managed to re-open a new one on the same site. The services Abdul Satar now offers are completely digital, and he's disparaging about the new technology (even if he reluctantly excepts there's no reasonable way of earning a living without it). "A computer is not an art, that [kamra-e-faoree photography] was an art," he bemoans. "A computer is not a skill, that was a skill!" He softens his tone to remember the analogue past: how he used to stay up all night penciling in negatives to candlelight. Below is a short video of Abdul Satar searching through the pages of his family album which was kept hidden by his aunt during the Taliban years. He finally comes across a picture (above left) of himself as a young man relaxing at home in the night-time; a pair of candles light the room.	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line2
__label__cc	0.743238	0.256762	AIM Biomedical > News > Medicine > Two big changes at the NIH will affect your research Two big changes at the NIH will affect your research Posted on May 28, 2014 April 28, 2015 by webmaster It has been a busy spring at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Two major changes were made to NIH policies that affect research funding. Here’s an overview of the changes and how to respond to them. The NIH has revised a major policy for resubmitting grant applications. Previously, an applicant could revise and resubmit a grant application once. If the application was unsuccessful after the revision, the applicant couldn’t repackage the same research into a new application. According to the NIH, while the new policy still allows a single resubmission per application, ideas that were unsuccessfully submitted as a resubmission (A1) may now be presented in a new grant application (A0) without having to substantially redesign the content and scope of the project. See the official NIH policy, released on April 17, 2014. The other policy change at the NIH relates to including and balancing male and female models in grant applications for preclinical studies. Many studies have shown the profound difference that males and females experience in health and medicine. Despite this evidence, the majority of animal studies do not include females or do not analyze outcomes for each sex. Beginning in October 2014, the NIH will begin to roll out requirements for investigators to balance male and female models in their studies. The policy change was announced by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the Director of the NIH Office for Research on Women’s Health, Janine Clayton, in a Comment published by Nature. If you conduct biomedical research and are applying for grants from the NIH, you need to be aware of these changes and how they apply to your specific projects. Contact a program officer at the relevant NIH institute if you have questions. Talk to a grants administrator at your institution about new strategies for submitting grant applications. Keep an eye out for upcoming training modules from the NIH about how to balance sex in your animal and cell experiments. Posted in Medicine, ScienceTagged A0, A1, grant application, grant applications, grants, new NIH grant resubmission policy, NIH, NIH resubmission, R01, research funding, sex differences, women's health, women's health research, women's medicine	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line3
__label__wiki	0.949419	0.949419	Asche, Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar (1871–1936) by L. J. Blake Oscar Asche, by C. Vandyk, n.d. National Library of Australia, 23218048 Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Asche (1871-1936), actor-manager, was born on 24 January 1871 at Geelong, Victoria, son of Thomas Asche, land agent and hotelier, and his second wife Harriet Emma (Lily), née Trear. Oscar's father THOMAS was born in August 1826 at Christiania (Oslo), Norway, graduated in law from the University of Christiania in 1851, and arrived at Melbourne in the Gibson Craig on 27 August 1854. Golden-bearded and prodigiously strong, he worked as a goldfields trooper and miner, then as a Ballarat storekeeper; a reef, lead and gully were named after him. On 17 August 1855 at his home at Golden Point he married Jane Wier, by whom he had one surviving son. By August 1860 he had settled as innkeeper at Camperdown; in October he was naturalized. His wife died and on 13 September 1866 at Christ Church, Geelong, he married Harriet Emma, whose father Colonel William Trear owned Mack's Hotel. From 1866 as an all-powerful speculator Asche sometimes managed to arrange and almost to preside over the sale of crown lands, wanted by squatters, at auctions where his men dominated the bidding. In Geelong he became a town councillor in 1870 and acquired Mack's Hotel on 24 March 1871. In November 1876 he moved to the Union Club Hotel, Melbourne, and some ten years later to the Royal Hotel in George Street, Sydney. After heavy financial losses in 1893 he had to sell the Royal but from 1896 ran the Imperial Hotel, Wynyard Square. He died there of chronic kidney disease on 2 November 1898 survived by his wife, one son of his first marriage and two sons and three daughters of the second. Oscar was educated at Laurel Lodge, Dandenong, and from 1884 at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, where his academic progress was aided by a flair for memorizing. He left school at 16 with a deep interest in theatre from his acquaintance with actors who frequented the Royal Hotel; but he was also keen to go on the land. He claimed to have visited China and Fiji, was briefly apprenticed to an architect, learned to box from Larry Foley, and spent a few months 'humping his bluey' through southern New South Wales, accompanied by two dogs and a pocket edition of Shakespeare's plays. In 1890 he decided finally to make his career in the theatre; his father paid his fare to Norway to study under actor-manager Bjørn Bjørnson at Christiania, where he met Ibsen. On advice he went to London where he studied speech with Walter Lacy and Henry Neville and watched the acting of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and others. In March 1893 he had his first London part in Man and Woman at the Opéra Comique Theatre, but that year his father had to stop his £10 weekly allowance. Living precariously at times, Oscar found work with (Sir) F. R. Benson's touring Shakespearian company. In June 1899 at Hindley, Lancashire, he married Lily Brayton who had joined the company in 1896. In 1901 Lily was engaged by Herbert Beerbohm Tree in London. Asche also joined Tree but was released to play Freddy Maldonado in Pinero's Iris, his first prominent part in London. He also played opposite Ellen Terry in Much Ado About Nothing, and appeared in many Shakespearian plays. In 1904 Asche and Lily Brayton formed a company (with Oscar as actor-manager) to play at the Adelphi Theatre. The Taming of the Shrew became a very successful item in their repertoire. They then leased His Majesty's Theatre, opening in 1907 with Attila. This soon made way for Ache's entrancing production of As You Like It; he expounded his unorthodox interpretations of Shakespeare in an arrangement of this play published in 1907. In 1909 Asche took the full company for a triumphal eighteen-months tour of Australia. He opened to packed houses at the Theatre Royal with The Taming of the Shrew, then presented Othello, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, and in the new year, Count Hannibal and The Virgin Goddess. He played two seasons in Sydney and three in Melbourne. Back in London in 1911, Asche began a two-year season of Kismet, a lavish Arabian nights fantasy with Oscar as the beggar Hajj and using original lighting techniques. He took Kismet to Australia and New Zealand from early 1912 until August next year. In Brisbane he met Rider Haggard and discussed with him the stage adaptation of his novel, A Child of the Storm. This was presented as Mameena in London in October 1914, but was not a financial success; Asche yearned for another Kismet. He found the answer in Chu Chin Chow, for which he wrote 'book' and lyrics in two weeks. Opening on 31 August 1916, the show broke all records with a five-year season; as author Asche received £200,000 and as actor-producer £500 weekly. In 1917 he produced The Maid of the Mountains; he also wrote another successful musical, Cairo, which opened in 1921. In July 1922, under contract to J. C. Williamson Ltd, Asche left England for a third tour of Australasia. His wife refused to join him. He included Chu Chin Chow and Cairo as well as Shakespeare in his popular repertoire. Despite quarrelling with Williamson's over production and finance, he managed to recapture some of the pleasures of his earlier visits by staging lavish picnics, attending race meetings and making a camping tour of the coast between Sydney and Melbourne in his chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce. After further disagreement, his contract was abruptly terminated in June 1924; he left Melbourne soon after. In England Asche encountered more trouble. Greyhound-racing, which he had taken up during his 1909 Australian tour, cost him £45,000; he owed over £40,000 in taxes and his £100,000 Sugley Farm in Gloucestershire had to be sold when he became bankrupt. His wife helped him by backing his new but unsuccessful musical, The Good Old Days of England. He wrote his memoirs, Oscar Asche: His Life. By Himself (London, 1929) and two novels (1930). In 1932 he directed his wife in her last stage appearance. Ill and impoverished, he rejoined her at Marlow, Buckinghamshire. He died at near-by Bisham of coronary thrombosis on 23 March 1936, and was buried in the riverside cemetery there. They had no children. A powerfully built, virile figure 'glowing with health' in his early years, Asche became grossly fat in old age. He was a keen sportsman and had been a good cricketer, a wicket-keeper by preference. A man of great gusto, most impressive as an actor, an innovator and perfectionist as a producer, an extravagant generous incurable optimist, Asche was a splendid showman. O. Asche, Oscar Asche: His Life (Lond, 1929) H. Pearson, The Last Actor-Managers (Lond, 1950) W. R. Brownhill, The History of Geelong and Corio Bay (Melb, 1955) M. L. Kiddle, Men of Yesterday (Melb, 1961) H. Porter, Stars of Australian Stage and Screen (Adel, 1965) P. Hartnoll (ed), The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre (Oxford, 1972) Lone Hand, 1 Apr 1909 Home, Dec 1922 Argus (Melbourne), 10, 14, 16 June, 4, 9 July, 15 Nov 1924 Sunday Herald, 19 Oct 1952 Daily Mirror (Sydney), 30 June 1973 Asche family papers (privately held) private information. Trove search Related Entries in NCB Sites Asche, Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Roberts, Stephen Henry (nephew by marriage) Westmacott, Charles Babington (work colleague) Treloar, George Devine (work colleague) Harris, Edgar Charles (work colleague) Foley, Laurence (acquaintance) Thompson, Gerald Marr (acquaintance) Robinson, Kathleen Mary (acquaintance) Bluck, Harry (influenced) L. J. Blake, 'Asche, Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar (1871–1936)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/asche-thomas-stange-heiss-oscar-5063/text8441, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 22 January 2020. Geelong, Victoria, Australia Bisham, Buckinghamshire, England Laurel Lodge (Dandenong, Vic) Melbourne Grammar School actor-manager autobiographer/memoirist	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line10
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__label__wiki	0.537932	0.537932	For the May Art Poll By Bob, I went floral in honor of those great post-April showers May flowers and asked, “Which of these beautiful bouquets would you pick for your garden of earthly delights?” In an Art Poll by Bob first, Gustav Klimt’s Country Garden with Sunflowers (1905-1906) beat out Vincent van Gogh’s Irises, Sait-Rémy (1889) 24 to 21, marking the first time that Vincent's not come out on top. Monet’s Monet's Garden, the Irises (1900) came in third with 16 votes and Frida Kahlo’s Flower of Life (1944) came in fourth with 9. Emil Nolde’s Flower Garden (1908) finished fifth with 7 votes, while Paul Gauguin’s Sunflowers (1901), Paul Klee’s Heroic Roses (1938), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Roses (1890) all tied for sixth with 5 votes each. Eugène Delacroix’s Bouquet of Flowers (1849-1850) brought up the rear with 3 votes. Thanks to all 95 people who stopped to smell the flowers and voted. With June’s arrival, I can’t help but think of Summer, and Summer Blockbusters. In recent years, there’s been no source of blockbuster material as reliable as comic book superheroes such as Batman, fighting a villain named, of course, Blockbuster (created by Carmine Infantino, but the Detective Comics #349 of March 1966 cover art above is by Joe Kubert). I admit that I still haven’t “outgrown” my fascination with superheroes. Part of me is still that little boy coloring in his Batman coloring book, which included Blockbuster smashing through walls, etc., and wishing I could draw like those incredible artists. So, for the June 2009 Art Poll By Bob, I ask, “Which of these great comic artist’s work would you want to see on the big screen?”: Neal Adams. Batman versus Ra’s al Ghul (1971). Dave Cockrum. X-Men (1975). Jack Cole. Plastic Man (1941). Steve Ditko. Doctor Strange (1960s). Frank Frazetta. Conan the Barbarian (1970s). Jack Kirby. Captain America (1976). Joe Kubert. Hawkman. Todd McFarlane. Spider-Man (1990). John Romita, Sr. Spider-Man (1967). Joe Shuster. Superman (1938). I know that not everyone in my audience is a comic book fan such as myself, but I hope that everyone can take a second look at recognize just what kind of draftsmanship and creativity went into these images. Jack Cole’s Plasticman is a study in abstract art all by himself! I could go on and on about each of these artists and what memories they stir up inside me, but I’ll let the works speak for themselves. So, don your capes, put on your masks, get some popcorn, and vote for these blockbusters of the imagination! Posted by Bob at 12:01 AM 1 comment: Links to this post Labels: Adams (Neal), Art Poll By Bob, Cockrum (Dave), Cole (Jack), Comics, Ditko (Steve), Frazetta (Frank), Kirby (Jack), Klimt (Gustav), Kubert (Joe), Shuster (Joe), Van Gogh (Vincent) This year, I’m celebrating Independence Day early. Herewith is my personal Declaration of Independence (minus the crinkly paper, fancy penmanship, and Thomas Jefferson’s inimitable style). Today, after almost twenty years of working in publishing, toiling in cubicles and offices, I’m giving my two weeks of notice and taking the next step forward with my life. I’m going to be a teacher—a high school English teacher, to be specific. For the next year, I’ll be studying towards a Masters in Education that, combined with my MA in English Literature, will allow me to help educate the next generation of leaders. I’ve briefly tried my hand at teaching in the past on the college level, but with the love and support of Annie and Alex, I’m taking the plunge and pursuing a whole new evolutionary stage of self. Teaching and learning are so intertwined that I’m sure that my love of learning will allow me to infect teenagers with the same drive to excel. The texts may be by Melville and Wordsworth, but the subtext will always be learning how to think about the world around us and communicate with the rest of humanity throughout time. Lofty goals, I admit, but after two decades of deadline pressure with little to show for it, I’m ready to tilt at windmills, although I’ll never believe that education’s a lost cause. When I recently saw a picture of Bob Trotman’s installation sculpture titled Business as Usual (Coverup, Chorus, and Committee) (above), it struck me as the perfect symbol of my life in corporate America. For fifteen years, I belonged to a company that was bought and sold like chattel. We used to laugh at how quickly company letterhead had to be discarded to keep up with the latest name change. In 2001, however, we were finally sold down the river. A foreign company that couldn’t get past Clinton’s Department of Justice’s interpretation of a monopoly found the Bush Administration quite accommodating. The day of corporate judgment when the retained and the redundant were to be separated was scheduled for September 12th, 2001—yes, one day after 9/11. Two corporate suits unfortunately had seats on one of the hijacked planes and died. Out of respect, the company waited two whole weeks before axing 75% of my department. I was retained, but vowed never to forget the looks on the faces of my friends as they were labeled redundancies. In Trotman’s installation, I’m one of the Chorus in the middle, flailing my arms in frustration as such inhumanity is covered over and a committee of corporate types weighs the lives of people against the bottom line with all the compassion of a stone wall. Two years after that, with an eye on starting a family with Annie, I made the jump from the for-profit world of publishing to the non-profit world, which was strangely making a better profit than the for-profit sector. Better benefits, especially for healthcare, lured me away despite a cut in pay. We were coming out ahead, at least at the beginning. Sadly, the corporate world seemed to follow me, with new corporate suits bringing their inhumane perspective to what was truly a great situation. The better benefits disappeared. Quality of life became a real issue. I started this blog in search of a way of finding a new creative outlet for all the things that I felt were trapped inside me. The job itself had become such a monotonous bore and the workplace a land of the living dead, ala George Tooker’s Landscape With Figures (above, from 1965-1966), that I needed a new escape plan. After much thought, Annie and I realized that teaching was not just an escape from, but also an escape to. I was escaping to the person that I wanted to be. For the first time in a long time, I feel like my occupation will have real purpose. I’ve never found any real sense of identity in the publishing world. Actually, I’ve felt sorry for some of the people who’ve submerged themselves in their jobs to the exclusion of finding fulfillment in their personal lives. That’s a price I’ve never wanted to pay. The idea of teaching has me bursting with optimism, ala William Blake’s Glad Day (above, from 1796), except, of course, with my clothes on. I’ve always lived the life of the mind as a sideline, a hobby, but as a teacher I will finally be able to bring that part of my life to the front and center. I’m sure this sounds naïve, but I go into teaching clear-eyed. I know there’s drudgery and hierarchies to answer to in the educational world, too, but the final result is something I’m willing to work towards, which is something I just can’t say about publishing. The ethical and moral injustice I’ve witnessed in the field threatens to corrode my soul. Just the promise of teaching even one kid how to think better cleanses my spirit like a warm, summer rain. I invite everyone to visit my “other” blog, a work in progress about my life as a teacher in progress—Disco Doceo, which roughly translates in Latin to “to learn to teach.” It has nothing to do with The Hustle or the Bee Gees, but will trace my progress learning the steps to the pedagogical dance. Art Blog By Bob will continue as before, but this new venture will surely color and, I hope, improve my writing and thinking about art and life. [Infinite thanks to Annie and Alex for inspiring me to take this giant leap. I love you.] Posted by Bob at 12:01 AM 14 comments: Links to this post Labels: Blake (William), Blogging, Tooker (George) Working as a teenager as apprentice to a glass painter and restorer, Georges Rouault came face to face daily with beautiful stained glass windows showing scenes of the life of Christ. Born May 27, 1871 to a poor, pious Parisian family, Rouault’s faith was always strong, but it was his friendship with the philosopher Jacques Maritain that drove Rouault to commit himself to painting primarily religious subjects. Rouault’s The Flagellation (above, from 1915) shows the lingering influence of stained glass window design in the cloisonnist dark lines separating the fields of color. Christ stands at the pillory in the center of the work to take the blows of the soldiers. World War I raged as Rouault painted this scene of suffering, which may allude to Europe’s self-flagellation in the name of nationalism. It is interesting that Rouault’s works concentrate almost exclusively on the passion and death of Christ, with no images that I know of depicting the triumph of the Resurrection. Rouault identified with agony more than ecstacy, saying once, “The conscience of an artist worthy of the name is like an incurable disease which causes him endless torment but occasionally fills him with silent joy.” Perhaps Rouault allowed himself a moment of “silent joy” upon completing The Flagellation, but the emphasis was definitely on the silence. In 1920, Rouault painted The Crucifixion (above) in the same stained-glass style with the same contorted limbs. The Fauves claim Rouault as one of their own for his bold use of color. The Expressionists count him among their ranks for Rouault’s tortured rendition of the human body, usually Christ’s. Certainly Emil Nolde’s 1912 Prophet equals the religious fervor and Expressionist angst of Rouault’s religious works. I find it fascinating that Rouault paints Jesus in The Crucifixion without a beard, whereas other works show the familiar bearded face. Michelangelo chose to paint the Savior of The Last Judgment as a beardless youth to allude to the Greek ideal, casting Christ as a new Apollo bringing light into the world. I’m not sure that Rouault shared Michelangelo’s same faith in humanism, especially in 1920, when the aftershocks of the Great War continued to be felt throughout Europe. Maybe Rouault paints Jesus here as the beardless youth to stand for the whole generation of beardless European youth that met their end in the trenches and fields of wartime folly. Before Rouault turned his attention to Christ-centered paintings, he painted series of works showing clowns, kings, and prostitutes as a way of commenting on the sad state of modern society. In Christ Mocked by Soldiers (above, from 1932) Rouault shows Jesus at the moment he is forced to play the clown king for the amusement of the soldiers, who crown him with thorns and place a reed “scepter” in his hands. In Christ Mocked by Soldiers, Rouault mocks the world itself, which he sees as prostituting itself for material things at the expense of its soul. “The richness of the world, all artificial pleasures,” Rouault lamented, “have the taste of sickness and give off a smell of death in the face of certain spiritual possessions.” By 1932, Rouault may have recognized, as did many others, the degenerating situation in the world that would eventually lead up to World War II. Rouault returns to the image of the bearded Christ here to emphasize the weariness of age rather than the innocence of youth of The Crucifixion. In his sixties himself, Rouault grew weary of the world and its self-destructive ways. Shortly before his death in 1958, Rouault destroyed three hundred of his own paintings, which would be worth a fortune today, as if to place them on his own funeral pyre and out of the reach of the materialists who valued them in currency instead of, as he did, in Christianity. Posted by Bob at 12:01 AM 2 comments: Links to this post Labels: Christianity, Michelangelo, Nolde (Emil), Philosophy and Art, Religion, Rouault (Georges) One of the most befuddling bands of artists for attributers remains the Le Nain brothers—Louis, Antoine, and Matthieu. Louis, who died on May 23, 1648, was born around 1593, followed by Antoine in 1599 and Matthieu in 1607, but even those birth years are partly conjecture. Complicating things even more so, the brothers signed all their works “Le Nain,” making conclusive individual attribution impossible. However, Louis, the eldest brother, usually gets credit for the peasant scenes the Le Nain name is best known for today. In Four Figures at Table (above, from the 1630s), a peasant family readies for a meal. The sepia tones of the painting lend an extra touch of nostalgia. Ironically, this portrait of peasant simplicity began as a portrait of a rich man. X-ray technology revealed the red touch in the boy’s face to be a pentimento, or painted over, portrait of a man wearing a red ruff. Whether the subject of that portrait failed to pay up is unknown, but his prosperous face was covered over much as the Le Nain brothers’ prosperous connections were covered over during a revival of their work in the mid-nineteenth century. Gustave Courbet saw recently installed works by the Le Nains in the Louvre and followed their example in creating such works as A Burial at Ornans. Little did Courbet suspect that a nobleman lurked beneath those peasants’ faces, or even that, as some critics today suspect. During their lifetime, the Le Nain brothers made their fortune through commissions from the church and the upper class. Their Birth of the Virgin (above, from 1645) still hangs in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Such work, and other paintings by the brothers depicting popular mythological subjects, follows the tastes of the period. This conventionality and willingness to play the game well helped all three brothers become members of the French Royal Academy at its inception in 1648, the year that both Louis and Antoine died. Although Matthieu, the youngest, survived until about 1677, the “Le Nain” signature disappears on works after 1648, as if Matthieu let it die with his brothers. Matthieu, the official painter of Paris since 1633, eventually aspired to the nobility that he had served so well beside his brothers. That service, however, disserved the Le Nains during the French Revolution, when angry mobs targeted anything tainted by association with the church or the king. Associated with both blacklists, many of the church-related works of the Le Nain brothers met the flames during the revolution, effectively rewriting who and what they were until their “rediscovery” in the 1840s as painters of peasants. Although much of their work is awkward in composition, dreadfully mainstream, or both, the Le Nain brothers sometimes could create a work as mysterious and compelling as Smokers in an Interior (above, from 1643). Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro clearly influences this painting, as it did so many other works in the seventeenth century. But Smokers in an Interior adds a mysterious (yes, smoky) element in the darkness. We don’t know who these men are or what they are doing together, or even if they are indeed together. Some of the men stare off blankly into space, disconnected from the rest of the pack. Others confront the viewer directly, as if caught performing some secret rite concluded by the conviviality of smoking together. In the balance of darks and lights here, the illuminations only serve to make the shadows rise in importance. Smokers in an Interior serves as the perfect visual emblem of the Le Nain brothers in its ability to generate question after question. Did Louis the eldest turn his attention from peasants to the middle class? Did Matthieu the overachieving baby of the family rise to the top of the class? Did Antoine, the middle brother, finally squeeze out of the obscurity of middledom? The Le Nain brothers keep their silence still. Labels: Caravaggio, Courbet (Gustave), Le Nain Brothers Cutting Session What sets black portraiture apart from the rest of portraiture as a genre? In Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, Richard J. Powell argues that the difference lies “in the artistic contract between the portrayer and the portrayed: conscious or unconscious negotiations that invest black subjects with social capital… invariably linked to the subject’s sense of self—an awareness that through self-adornment, self-composure, and self-imaging upsets the representational paradigm and creates something pictorially exceptional.” What makes black portraits “exceptional,” in other words, is the way that the subjects “clothe” themselves psychologically to produce a “self” to be portrayed and understood by another. Romare Bearden’s collage titled Pittsburgh Memory (above, from 1964) embodies this building up of self from parts that Powell sees at the heart of the “subject-dominated portraits” of black subjects versus the larger history of portraiture in which the artist’s vision dominates. Powell riffs off the idea of collage and makes use of the phrase “cutting a figure” to capture “the sense of pride and exhibitionism implicit in this expression,” which are “often qualified by race, class, and historical circumstances.” What a white audience may view as immodesty, a black audience may view as self-expression. Powell cuts apart the different subgenres of portraiture to reassemble in the end a clearer picture of the power of portraiture to give a voice to the voiceless. In the chapter titled simply, “Interlocutors,” Powell traces how early black portraiture dealt with the issue of slavery and the continued control of the white population over image making. The “thematic current that flows throughout these works, intentional and subconscious,” Powell writes, “is freedom: both personal, bodily emancipation and sovereignty in a more abstract, metaphysical sense.” Nathaniel Jocelyn’s Cinque (above, from 1840) neatly encapsulates this freedom-centered dynamic. When a group of Africans from Sierra Leone faced trial in the Amistad case recounted in the 1997 film, abolitionists commissioned Jocelyn to paint a portrait of the slaves’ leader, Sengbe Pieh, whose name was mispronounced as Joseph Cinque. Jocelyn shows Sengbe with startling humanity. “Looking more like a Greco-Roman divinity than a brutish marauder, and with a staff that invokes the insignia of an ancient shepherd or wanderer,” Powell writes of Cinque, “this representation contradicts the prevailing perception of Cinque and his fellow Africans as savages and instead embraces a republican ideal, an allegorical representation of Christian proselytizing, and a symbol of black activism.” Powell then moves from Sengbe’s passive role in propagandizing against slavery to the active roles of activists such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. Both Douglass and Truth used their personal appearances as weapons in the fight against slavery. Rumors that the exceptionally tall Truth was actually a man compelled her to bare her breasts in public to silence critics, which drew even greater sympathy to her cause as both a black and a woman. In Douglass’ case, Powell notes, the sexual dimension aided his cause differently. “[T]he hypnotic power that [Douglass] and certain other black men had over spectators” created “a potency that combined race, gender, and sexuality to achieve psychological dominion over cultural perception and social stratification,” Powell asserts. Thanks to photography and paintings, Douglass and Truth spread the word of freedom through the power of portraiture. In a fascinating and daring leap, Powell abruptly turns his attention to the case of Donyale Luna, the first internationally acclaimed African-American fashion model. Almost completely forgotten today, Luna’s “Nefertiti-like face” appeared in magazines and on television regularly in the mid to late 1960s. Much of that forgetting comes from how unforgettable Donyale once was in the fashion world. “Contesting the prevailing white/male/artist-dominated production of acquiescent black images,” Powell writes, “Luna’s aggressive figure cuts through the racial and gender hierarchies, imposes its own aesthetic will, and prevails.” American magazines actually banned Richard Avedon’s 1966 photograph of Luna in a dress by Paco Rabanne (above) for this very aggression. In this section, Powell gives convincing weight to the sometimes lightweight world of high fashion modeling as a real barometer of social attitudes and the role of portraiture in revealing those views. Donyale stepped outside the boundaries of modeling to pall around with the likes of Miles Davis and Andy Warhol, write and act in plays, and even appear in films by Warhol, Federico Fellini, and Carmelo Bene. Even Dali doodled on Donyale during an encounter in 1966. Sadly, drug abuse led to Luna’s early death in 1979, just as models such as Iman and Grace Jones began to follow her unconventional path. In tracing the trajectory of Luna’s rise and fall, Powell prepares the ground for a later discussion of how in the 1980s, blacks were suddenly omnipresent in American media, from The Cosby Show to Michael Jordan’s endorsement blitzkrieg. Jean-Michael Basquiat comes to embody the “black bohemia” of the 1980s art scene. After the height of Gatorade’s “Like Mike,” however, comes the low of the 1990s rap generation, who “for better or worse, revealed a nihilism and avarice that, while present within any socioeconomic grouping, had not previously been seen so broadly or explicitly in an African-American context.” Tupak Shakur and others come to represent “the unheralded but irrefutable demise of a representative blackness as it had been known,” Powell laments. The strength and freedom of Douglass, Luna, et al. disappears into the void of materialism and anarchy of “thug culture.” For Powell, the 1970s represent a “golden age” of black portraiture, in which “attention-grabbing hair-styles, along with clothing made of leather, polyester, and cotton with African-style prints, became the primary means by which African-Americans announced themselves anew, challenged the white status quo, and probed the more extroverted sides of their personality.” No artist got as down and funky in a fine arts way as Barkley L. Hendricks. Hendricks recognized that young African-Americans formed a sense of “blackness” from clothing and attitude. In a 1977 self-portrait titled Brilliantly Endowed, Hendricks painted himself nude except for some jewelry, striped socks, Converse sneakers, and an applejack cap perched on his head to emphasize the role in how clothes made the man, even when it was just the accessories. Later travels to Africa impressed on Hendricks the role of a specific black “attitude” via clothing in black cultural survival. During one of those trips, Hendricks encountered the singer and activist Fela, whom he painted posthumously in 2002 in Fela: Amen, Amen, Amen… (above). “Hendricks’ Fela employs his art as a creative offense,” Powell writes, “and his body as a jump-suited defense against moral hypocrisy, political corruption, and, above all, social invisibility.” The decorative background of Hendricks’ portrait of Fela draws immediate comparisons to the iconic hip-hop portraits of Kehinde Wiley. In Wiley’s “Passing/Posing” paintings, however, Powell sees not the subject-centered portraiture of Hendricks but, instead, “Tupac Shakur-like ‘thug fiction’ where macho self-deception and hip-hop ‘fronting’ cut straight into the heart of representational matters.” Sadly, the subject center no longer holds in black portraiture for Powell, one of the many symptoms of a larger identity void that plagues not only African-Americans and America as a whole. “Through self-fashioning, provocative role-play, and other insignia,” Powell concludes, “peoples of African descent and their artistic delineators have slashed away at the fixed boundaries imposed upon black bodies in the public, predominantly Euro-American arena.” Like Jean-Paul Goude’s four-part portrait of Grace Jones (above, from 1978), the idea of the black portrait remains a fluid, ever-changing work in progress. Powell’s approach to the subject mimics that of a great jazz musician taking themes from here and there to create a new, personal composition full of individual flavor. Young jazz musicians looking to challenge the established lions would enter “cutting sessions” in which no mercy was shown. (Charlie Parker recalled having a cymbal thrown at him on his first attempt.) In Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, Richard J. Powell enters the lion’s den of art history to do battle with the long legacy of portraiture and succeeds in emerging with a new vision of the black portrait as a valuable tool for self-fashioning in the past and, hopefully, for the future. [Many thanks to the University of Chicago Press for providing me with a review copy of Richard J. Powell’s Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture.] Posted by Bob at 12:01 AM No comments: Links to this post Labels: African-American Art, Avedon (Richard), Basquiat (Jean-Michel), Bearden (Romare), Book Review by Bob, Dali (Salvador), Hendricks (Barkley L.), Photography, Warhol (Andy), Wiley (Kehinde) Rub a Dub Dub Any parent will tell you that one of the most “interesting” parts of their day is bath time. Thanks to a small armada of toy boats, Mr. Bubble, and assorted other tricks, Alex usually enjoys his bath time. After pulling my slippery three year old from the suds and wrapping him up in a dry towel, I sweep him up in my arms and hold him close to keep him warm. For that brief moment, he’s our little baby again. Although never a parent herself, Mary Cassatt painted many scenes of mothers and children during bath time. Born May 22, 1844, Cassatt met Edgar Degas and worked closely with him. Degas’ interest in the female nude in a bath setting may have spurred Cassatt’s interest in her own bath pictures, which have a more acceptably “female” approach in the motherly relationship between child and parent. Cassatt’s The Bath (above, from 1891-1892) shows the early style of Cassatt, not yet fully Impressionist yet no longer entirely the strict realism of her PAFA training. Around the time of this painting, Cassatt saw an exhibition of Japanese prints as part of the larger Japonisme fad of the age. Elements of Japonisme appear in The Bath in the diagonal of the child’s body crossing against the near diagonals of the mother’s striped dress. The flatness of much of the color also shows the influence of Japanese prints. In addition to all these styles straining against each other simultaneously, Cassatt tenderly depicts the intimacy of the mother and child at the moment that the child is the most vulnerable. In Jules Being Dried by His Mother (above, from 1900), Cassatt depicts the next stage of the process. Degas loved to show women after the bath, especially during that awkward transition from water to dry ground. Little Jules here looks straight ahead while his mother’s eyes lock on his face with affection. In this painting, the intimacy seems almost one-sided. Cassatt paints their disconnect rather than a connection here. Little Jules is not so little anymore. He seems ready to do things for himself. Jules’ expression shows almost a kingly tolerance of his mother drying his limbs. The elaborate dress of Jules’ mother appears almost courtly rather than realistic, adding to the regal indifference of princely Jules. (I personally prefer a t-shirt and running shorts when administering ablutions.) Stylistically, Cassatt begins to turn more Impressionist. Jules Being Dried by His Mother shows an almost Renoir-like softness in the modeling of faces and bodies, an interesting divergence from the influence of Degas. Although unrealistic, the pattern of yellow and white as well as the shimmering highlights of the mother’s dress make it the star of the painting. In After the Bath (above, from 1901), Cassatt copies the gestural pastel technique of Degas in the parallel lines that make the picture almost seem to move. Degas allowed himself to grow bolder and bolder in this technique to the point that the bathers or dancers in the work became almost superfluous to the technique. Cassatt, however, continues to center the image on the relationships of the subjects. In After the Bath, Cassatt returns to the intimacy of mother and child, but with the added twist of a love triangle formed by the presence of an older sibling. Sigmund Freud and his idea of sibling rivalry developing from the Oedipus complex were not yet mainstream ideas, but any student of human nature such as Cassatt instinctively knew that siblings will fight among themselves for more face time with parents. Is the older child’s grip on the baby’s wrist a gesture of affection of an attempt to break the contact between baby and mother? The painting doesn’t offer any clues as to motivations or final outcome but does allow for the possibility of connection or conflict. As a woman, Cassatt felt limited in her range of subjects. Painting in the acceptable genre of bath time, Cassatt could subversively explore avenues in the human heart that exist at every age. Labels: Cassatt (Mary), Degas (Edgar), Japonisme, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Psychology and Art, Renoir (Auguste) Henri Rousseau, better known by some as “Le Douanier” or “The Customs Officer” (his occupation until his retirement in 1893), painted in obscurity during his lifetime but is known well today for his mysterious, almost childlike paintings of wonder such as Sleeping Gypsy and The Snake Charmer. Born May 21, 1844 in the Loire Valley, Rousseau’s most famous works present a strange jungle world, yet he himself inhabited the urban jungle of Paris for most of his career. Rousseau’s Self-Portrait of 1890 (above) shows him situated in a civilized setting, yet still retains the simplicity and unstudied charm of his other works. During his lifetime, Rousseau withstood the ridicule of other artists who couldn’t understand his primitive style. However, Jean-Léon Gérôme, an academic painter himself, gave tips to his friend Rousseau as “Le Douanier” pursued painting past the point of being a hobby into a true outlet for his unique perspective. As much as I love Rousseau’s dark jungles, I find it equally fascinating how he applied his unique vision to the real world around him, spying modern wonders with that same childlike fascination. When Rousseau painted The Eiffel Tower (above, from 1898), Gustave Eiffel’s colossus was less than a decade old. Anyone who has visited Paris has some visual memory of the tower, either from a vantage point in the city or, if you’ve taken the ride up, from above, looking down upon Paris itself. The Eiffel Tower anchors Paris like a lighthouse shining its beacon to guide lost travelers home. With that powerful effect in mind, it’s fascinating that Rousseau chooses to literally cut the Eiffel Tower down to size in a painting named after it. He reduces the landmark to the size of a gift shop replica hanging from a key chain. Instead, the waterways of Paris dominate the scene as the Parisians who work the banks go about their daily jobs. Rousseau flips the idea of importance on its head in this painting. All adults “know” that the Eiffel Tower is the most “important” thing in this painting, but children don’t know such things. Children visually value the waterways and the workings of the people just as much, if not more, as Rousseau tries to show in this painting. Before his death in 1910, Rousseau got to witness the advent of powered flight, which began with the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903. In View of the Bridge at Sevres and the Hills at Clamert, Saint Cloud and Bellevue (above, from 1908), Rousseau paints a Wright Brothers-style plane sputtering across the sky. Nearby, a type of dirigible flies. The early twentieth century saw a “golden age” of blimps and dirigibles. Races were even held above Paris using the Eiffel Tower as a turning stake. In the distance between the plane and the dirigible, a hot air balloon floats. The first manned balloon ride happened in Paris in 1783 in a contraption built by the famous Montgolfier brothers. Rousseau’s arrangement of these three flying machines suggests the advent of the plane and blimp and the decline of the hot air balloon technologically. (Thomas Eakins’ 1871 Max Schmitt in a Single Scull creates a similar hierarchy by showing older, slower watery craft in the distance behind the Schmitt’s sleek racer.) To Rousseau’s old, yet young eyes, these new flying machines must have seemed magical. Critics credit Rousseau for opening up avenues of seeing that paved the way for the Surrealists, but in his more “real” works of wonder, Rousseau showed us more importantly the value of seeing as a child sees and recognizing the magic all around us every day. Labels: Eakins (Thomas), Gerome (Jean-Louis), Rousseau (Henri) The long and often tragic history of Germany is tied up in large part with an identity complex. Like many European countries, the idea of Germany as a country with clear borders is a relatively modern one. Wars and kingships have moved borders back and forth so often that what was German land and what wasn’t remained an enduring question. In the late nineteenth century, Germany tried to fill this identity void by creating truly Germanic heroes. In the world of art, Albrecht Durer was crowned the first and truest German superstar. Born May 21, 1471, Durer brought the Italian Renaissance north, where it became the Northern Renaissance. Yet, just as Germany itself was a work in progress, Durer had to grow into his superstardom. The Self-Portrait of 1493 (above) shows the 22-year-old Durer at the beginning of his career, just starting to travel across Europe to accrue the mixture of influences that would inspire his mature work. Durer painted this self-portrait in Basel and shipped it back to his intended back in Nurermberg, writing “Things with me fare as ordained from above” at the top of the picture. From the very beginning, Durer sensed his fate was in God’s hands. Just five years after painting the awkward Self-Portrait of 1493, Durer paints the self-assured Self-Portrait of 1498. Durer now sits up straighter than before. Whereas the 1493 portrait is isolated, the 1498 portrait includes a window onto the world. Durer had just returned from Venice with the Italian Renaissance still fresh in his mind. The world had literally broken wide open for Durer in the span of just five years. Legend has it that Durer’s dog barked and wagged his tail upon seeing the 1498 portrait for the first time, fooled into thinking it was actually his master. The realism of this portrait as well as the opulence of the clothing Durer wears show that Durer had mastered the techniques of the Renaissance masters and was turning a fine profit for himself. Yet, Durer remains turned slightly away, as if he can’t yet bring himself to face the viewer full on. His mission was not yet complete. In the final painted Self-Portrait of 1500 (above), Durer faces the viewer directly in total confidence of his powers. He wears kingly clothing and his hair cascades down like a lion’s mane, proclaiming him the king of the German cultural jungle. Durer assumes visually the mantle of the King of Kings, Christ himself, in this final self-portrait not out of blasphemous braggadocio but instead to illustrate how the artist imitates God himself in the creative act. If imitation is the sincerest flattery, Durer imitates Christ to praise him as the source of all artistic and creative power. In a 1522 drawing, Durer lent his features to Christ again, but this time as the Man of Sorrows instead of Christ triumphant. As age began to take its toll on Durer, he identified increasingly with the Suffering Servant side of Christ’s story, recognizing that his ascension to the rank of creator had ended. Of all the artists in different media adopted by the Nazis at the apex of German nationalism, Durer and perhaps Beethoven seem to be the two left untainted by that association. As the German Expressionists recognized (especially Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who fashioned himself a modern-day Durer through his own self-portraiture), the stellar light of a superstar such as Durer can never be tarnished by mere mortals. Labels: Christianity, Durer (Albrecht), Kirchner (Ernst), Religion Crowded Out Along with Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens helped make the Antwerp school famous during its day. Born May 19, 1593, Jordaens was younger than Rubens and slightly older than van Dyck, who sandwich him in the minds of art historians today to the point of being crowded out, much as he crowded himself out in his Self-Portrait with Parents, Brothers, and Sisters (above, from 1615). Jordaens forces us to play some Dutch version of Where’s Waldo? to find him among the familial fray, and even squeezes in a pair of cherubs over his head to fill out the last empty space. The individuality of the portraits in this group recalls the touch and technique of van Dyck, whose portrait style took England by storm and continued to influence British artists centuries later. At the same time, the comedy of the crowded room, which reminds me of the “stateroom scene” from The Marx Brothers’ movie A Night at the Opera, follows the line of conventional Dutch genre painting illustrating daily life with all its ups and downs. Rubens and van Dyck walked with royalty, but Jordaens never lost his common touch, which may be why he’s become the Zeppo of the Antwerp School. Rubens actually hired Jordaens to create larger-scale versions of some of his original designs—a common practice in the apprenticeship world of guilds. This outsourcing proves that Rubens recognized Jordaens’ talent as well as his Rubenesque style. Jordaens’ Prometheus (above, from 1640) reinterprets Rubens’ famous Prometheus Bound of 1611. First, Jordaens flips the composition of Prometheus Bound and the vulture, creating a mirror image. Next, he concentrates more on showing Prometheus’ anguish facially rather than through the contortion of his body, thus inserting a van Dyck style portrait into a Rubens. Finally, whereas Rubens left Prometheus alone on the crag to fight the vulture forever, Jordaens shows the moment at which Hermes comes to the rescue. It is almost as if Rubens was comfortable with the idea of eternal torment (perhaps reflecting an idea of man’s inherent sinfulness), whereas Jordaens couldn’t allow the story to not have a happy ending. Jordaens desire to save Prometheus falls in line with his happier view of humanity, flaws and all. Of course, not everything is sunny in Jordaens’ world. The shadow of Caravaggio falls heavily on some of Jordaens more mysterious work, particularly the enigmatic Apparition by Night (above, undated). A young man tosses and turns in his sleep as a ghostly nude female figure walks across the room. Two women open the door to look in on the youth and their candle lights the room just enough for us to see the spectral seductress. Whereas Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro sharpened his scenes with the stark dark and light drama, Jordaens’ brand of chiaroscuro forces us to look as through a glass darkly. The nude ghost seems to walk not only in darkness but also underwater, making her murkier and more apparitional. I can’t help contrast Apparition by Night with Henry Fuseli’s Nightmare and Silence, which also muddy the visual waters to conjure ghosts in the night. Jordaens’ Apparition by Night seems almost Romantic by that association with Fuseli even though he paints a full two centuries before the “Romantic” age. Like the apparition, we see Jordaens only fleetingly in the shadows of his bigger countrymen, but wish we could see him in a stronger, more revealing light. Labels: Caravaggio, Fuseli (Henry), Jordaens (Jacob), Rubens (Peter Paul), Van Dyck (Anthony) Before you even open Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision, edited by Katherine Lochman and Carol Jacobi, you know that this is a different kind of art history book. The faux Victorian exterior design and endpapers transport you back to that time and prepare you to see the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and others through their eyes and not through the distorting lens of a century and a half of critique, including the help (and sometimes harm) of fellow Victorian John Ruskin’s writings. In his 1905 book, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt railed against depictions of Rossetti as the clear leader of the group, calling himself the “true” Pre-Raphaelite adhering to the original tenets of the Brotherhood. “The book ends with an attack on decadence [i.e., French Impressionism and Modernism in general] and an expression of anxiety about the downfall of the noble British artistic tradition,” Carole Silver writes in her essay, “Visions and Revisions.” In a painting such as Hunt’s The Flight of Madeline and Porphyro During the Drunkenness Attending the Revelry on the Eve of Saint Agnes (above, from 1848), taking a scene from Keats’ poem The Eve of Saint Agnes, Hunt rewrites Keats’ lines to emphasize his moralizing mission. In casting the fleeing lovers as moral rather than the drunken partiers, “Dreams are compared with truth, appetite to love, social rules and rituals to personal freedom,” Carol Jacobi writes in “Pre-Raphaelite Rebellion: Brotherly Love.” As Jacobi puts it, the Pre-Raphaelites arose from “[s]tylistic innovation… generated by a shared interest in vision that was part of a timely and sophisticated inquiry into the nature of subjectivity… artists, poets, and critics alike debated the predicament of the individual in modern circumstance and the role of art in a material age.” This collection sets out to show how Hunt and his “brothers” set out to save the world through art by reaching back to the “Pre-Raphaelite,” pre-corrupted age of morality that the materialism of their society had left behind. The most concrete example of Hunt’s personal mission to spread the word remains The Light of the World (above, the second, 1854 version). In “The Light of the World: Mission and Message,” Jonathan Mane-Wheck retraces the steps of the most traveled artwork in history, seen by more than seven million people on a 1905 tour of the British Empire, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. Mane-Wheck sees modern distaste for Hunt’s Light originating in confusion between the work itself and the “kitsch industry” surrounding and, in many ways, stemming from it. Hunt paints Christ holding a lantern and knocking on a door—an embodiment of opportunity knocking, in this case the opportunity to embrace salvation. Hunt himself, however, rejected harsh dogma. “Possessing a more synthetic, universalist concept of religion,” Mane-Wheck asserts, Hunt “was open to Judaism and Islam.” In fact, when Hunt created a smaller version of his Light in 1854, he modified the lamp with a star and crescent as a nod to Islam “to show the breadth of the Christian system, which takes in other systems,” Hunt told an interviewer at the time. Unfortunately, over time, Hunt’s personal intentions have been clouded not only by a religious intolerance he did not practice, but also by political appropriation. “In its journey across the globe,” Mane-Wheck writes, “The Light of the World had become an icon of British Imperial Protestantism.” Hunt certainly believed in the nobility of British art and its power to save, but may have been uneasy in his Christ being “drafted” in the battle for colonization. In “Textile Background: Cloth and Costume,” Linda Parry examines Hunt’s life-long relationship with fabrics and costume and how that experience played out in his painting. Both Hunt’s father and grandfather worked in the London textile industry. Hunt grew up in a home just above the textile works and even worked in the industry for two years before devoting himself to art. The drawings of the clothing designers were among the first artworks Hunt saw firsthand. This world of color and textures easily translated into the opulence of such works as The Finding of the Savior in the Temple (above, from 1860)—Hunt’s retelling of the story of the young Christ found lecturing in the temple. Many of the rich colors in Hunt’s painting copy newly developed dyes of the 1850s. (Joyce H. Townsend and Jennifer Poulin discuss elsewhere Hunt’s painstaking approach to pigments to the point of pointing out defects to the manufacturers.) Photographs of costumes Hunt designed for his models accompanying Parry’s essay as testimony not only to Hunt’s love of fashion, but also of his exacting brand of realism. Thanks to his travels in the Middle East and the Holy Land, Hunt developed a taste for exotic dress that he satisfied with costumes for himself, which allowed him to feel closer to the religious subjects centuries in the past that he painted in the Victorian present. It is Hunt’s relentless search for fidelity in his depiction of matters of faith that truly sets him apart from his Pre-Raphaelite brethren. As a pilgrim in the Holy Land, Hunt identified with the plight of the Jewish people to the point of becoming an outspoken Zionist in support of the founding of a Jewish state. As Nicholas Tromans explains in “Palestine: Picture of Prophecy,” Hunt “saw himself as a kind of avant-garde Christian intellectual, looking confidently (on the whole) to the future of an ever-changing world in which a divine centre nevertheless held steady.” Neither Darwinism nor Zionism could shake Hunt’s faith. In fact, Hunt saw a continuity not only between the symbolic typology of Judaism and of Christianity but also between, as Tromans puts it, “divine revelation and modern science.” Hunt’s humanism spurs him to paint works such as The Shadow of Death (above, from 1871), which combines the realism of Hunt’s research in the Middle East with the symbolism of the cross-like shadow in the rear that horrifies the Virgin Mary. In fact, Hunt’s humanism as played out in the realistic depiction of Christ as carpenter stretching his limbs drew criticism for being too real and ignoring the divine side of the savior. In his religion, his politics, and his art, Hunt refused to draw the same lines of distinction that others did. Tromans paints a picture of Hunt the Zionist as a Victorian Bono. “Like a rock star of today seeking to shame politicians into acting on African poverty,” Tromans writes, not naming names, “Hunt’s credibility to speak [on a Jewish state] lay paradoxically exactly in his political inexperience and overt individualism.” I couldn’t help smiling at Tromans comparison, which cast Hunt, the “stodgy” “pious” Victorian in a whole new light. I almost immediately put amber, wraparound sunglasses on Hunt in my mind’s eye. Carole Silver sums up the whole Hunt (above in his Self-Portrait of 1867) nicely: “Today we see him as a man of his era, replete with its visions and blindnesses, at times a rebel, at others deeply conventional, intensely nationalistic and filled with British imperialist ideology, yet capable of great religious and ethnic tolerance, at times patriarchal, at others somewhat radical in view of relations between the sexes.” As much recent research on the Victorian era suggests, the Victorians were never as “Victorian” as we believe them to be. They were as inconsistent, intolerant, and individualistic as any other age but perhaps slightly more conscious of the modern turn towards materialism and away from the spiritual to the point of wanting to reverse the course. In his 1867 Self-Portrait, Hunt paints himself as painter-prophet adorned in the richly colored dress of a Middle Eastern wise man while holding a palette full of colors with which he could paint his next tale of moral instruction. Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision wipes away much of the false imagery of intervening discourse and takes us back to the source, lighting the path back to The Light of the World and other works to illuminate their original intent, which is invariably more interesting than the conventional wisdom handed down to us. The Victorians stood on the brink of the modern life that we continue to deal with today. William Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood tried to turn back the clock to the fundamentals of life and art that they believed would make the future brighter and better. [Many thanks to Yale University Press for providing me with a review copy of Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision, edited by Katherine Lochman and Carol Jacobi.] Labels: Book Review by Bob, Christianity, Hunt (William Holman), Millais (John Everett), Poetry and Art, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Religion, Rossetti (Dante Gabriel), Ruskin (John) Any adult who has received a Catholic education and survived will have plenty of “interesting” stories to tell of the more mystical or, as we liked to call them, weird aspects of the faith, which were usually remnants of the theology born during the time not so affectionately known as the Dark Ages. (They prefer the Middle Ages now.) Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, better known simply as Il Beccafumi, died on May 18, 1551, as the Dark Ages were giving way to the enlightening humanism of the Renaissance. Born 1486, Beccafumi, whose name translates roughly as “catching smoke,” painted the dark, smoky Self-Portrait above around 1525, at the height of his career. Little did he suspect that he was one of the last of his kind, the last of Mannerist painters of the Sienese School of Il Sodoma and others. For modern art lovers, the Florentine School stretching from Giotto to Michelangelo and Botticelli overshadows the work of their Sienese cousins, but the art of the Sienese Mannerists, particularly that of Beccafumi offers us a glimpse of the medieval Catholic mind. Perhaps the most repulsive of all the torture-centered saints is Saint Lucy (above), painted by Beccafumi in 1521. It was common to portray saints with some token of the method of their martyrdom. Even Michelangelo’s Last Judgment shows several saints in the circle around Christ brandishing the weapons of their own destruction. Because legends has it that Saint Lucy’s eyes were gouged out before her execution, she is often shown holding her eyes. Because she’s holding the eyes, or other times (as here) displaying them on a plate, while the eyes in her head are restored, I was confused as a child as to whose eyes she was actually serving up for our viewing, uh, pleasure. The gruesomeness of this imagery emphasized the physicality of the saint’s suffering to a mostly illiterate church-going population. In an age of plagues and all-around short life expectancy, suffering was the common coin of life, the language people understood easiest. Saint Lucy’s eyes to my modern eyes seemed grotesque, whereas the eyes of a sixteenth-century boy may have recognized them as par for the course. It’s hard for us to step into the shoes of Beccafumi and think like him and the people he worked for because we live in a post-Renaissance, humanist world (or at least like to think we do). We just don’t see ourselves as fallen into sin as Beccafumi’s time did. Beccafumi’s Christ in Limbo (above, from 1530-1535) shows Christ’s Harrowing of Hell during the time between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Today, the idea of Christ’s Harrowing of Hell and his visiting of the good, but unbaptized souls relegated to Limbo seem politically incorrect in our polytheistic world. Beccafumi might have sensed the unfairness of this doctrine of the early church by sympathetically portraying the souls approaching Christ and asking for redemption. Beccafumi unbalances the composition by outweighing Christ on the left with the abundance of dead on the right. Christ’s expression mixes both compassion and almost surprise at how death had undone so many. Yet, in Beccafumi’s world, rules are rules. Christ’s crucifixion opened the gates of Heaven for the Old Testament saints awaiting that redemptive moment, but for the unbaptized remainder, nothing could save them from a life of aimless limbo. My bleeding liberal’s heart would have made me a bad Medieval man, but I really should judge Beccafumi’s theology since I don’t know how I would have acted in his time and place. Beccafumi’s art is truly a glimpse into another worldview at the near the very end of its reign. Labels: Beccafumi, Botticelli (Sandro), Christianity, Giotto, Michelangelo, Religion, Sodoma (aka Giovanni Bazzi) All in the Timing It’s very ironic that it took a comedian—the manic Michael Palin of Monty Python fame—to resurrect the reputation of an artist known for the deathly quiet and stillness of his art—Vilhelm Hammershoi. Of course, Palin’s mind is much more versatile than that of a simple madcap, as his thoughts on Hammershoi prove, just as Hammershoi is much more than a kind of grand claustrophobic of art. Born May 15, 1864, Hammershøi studied painting as a young man and exhibited a portrait of his young sister Anna, titled Portrait of a Young Girl (above, from 1885), as his first public attempt at success. Although many, including reportedly Renoir admired Portrait of a Young Girl, Hammershoi failed to win the prize, just the first of many slights that would drive Hammershoi further and further into himself. Today, Hammershoi has become a “name” in the lexicon of Danish art thanks to several touring exhibitions of his work in the United States and Europe. Although portraits such as that of Anna and even nude studies by Hammershoi exist, the “branding” of Hammershoi as a reclusive, obsessive painter of interiors, almost exclusively the famous apartments he shared with his wife, has taken hold, possibly forever. Like Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh, Hammershoi suffers from an overabundance of psychobiography when critics try to grasp his work and understand the artist himself. Part of the reason why Hammershoi seems to perpetually recline on the art historian’s psychobabble “couch” is the lack of source materials. Hammershoi’s silent works seem even more silent thanks to the lack of words left behind by the artist. Whereas someone such as the recently departed Thomas Chimes surrounded his works with volumes of verbage, Hammershoi deafens us with his quietness. Hammershoi himself seems to have been extremely shy, once famously traveling to England to meet his hero Whistler and then never mustering the courage to knock him up. Regardless, Hammershoi’s paintings, such as Interior with Woman at Piano, Strandgade 30 (above, from 1901), stand for more than agoraphobia. Painting his wife Ida in their home, Hammershoi captures the coziness of his domestic setting while also creating a fascinating composition of shapes. The frames on the wall echo the larger frame of the wall itself. The plates lined up on the table draw us into the picture, as if inviting us to sit down and eat as we listen to the music. The colors are somber, but the mood is not funereal. Hammershoi feels at home here, and wants us to, too. I have no idea if artists such as Andrew Wyeth or Edward Hopper were ever aware of the work of Hammershoi. The plates in Interior with Woman at Piano, Strandgade 30 remind me of the plates in Wyeth’s Groundhog Day. Hammershoi’s Sunbeams, or Sunshine: Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams (above, from 1900) reminds me of Hopper’s quote that all he wanted to do was paint the play of light on a wall. Just like Wyeth made an entire universe out of his Chadds Ford surroundings, Hammershoi created whole galaxies out of a simple set of connecting rooms. Light coming through the window of his parlor served as the doorway to infinite. If William Blake could see infinity in a single grain of sand, Hammershoi could find it in a dust mote dancing in sunlight. If artists’ reputations can be likened to stocks, Hammershoi stock is rising slowly and, characteristically, quietly. Labels: Blake (William), Chimes (Thomas), Hammershoi (Vilhelm), Hopper (Edward), Munch (Edvard), Renoir (Auguste), Van Gogh (Vincent), Whistler (James McNeill), Wyeth (Andrew) The idea of the “maneater” or, as the French would say, femme fatale is one of the oldest tropes in Western civilization, going all the way back to Samson’s Delilah in the Bible and further back into the darkness before recorded time. Much of the look of the modern maneater comes from the brush of the most sensual member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Born May 12, 1828, Rossetti founded the PRB with John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt and followed the religious and moralizing trend of the Brotherhood at the beginning. However, Rossetti drifted more and more to the carnal over the spiritual, especially after the death of his one-time model, fellow-artist, wife, and everlasting muse Elizabeth Siddal. A year after Lizzie’s death, Rossetti began painting Beata Beatrix (above, from 1864-1870), which casts his departed wife as Beatrice Portinari from Dante Alighieri's poem La Vita Nuova. Dante Alighieri held Beatrice up as the epitome of purity, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti seems to follow suit, but there are hints that Siddal as Beatrice isn’t as snow white. The dove that brings flowers isn’t the conventional white of purity but rather the red of passion. Rossetti ostensibly shows the moment when Beatrice dies and experiences the rapture of the divine embrace, but like Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, the difference between an expression of religious thrill and that of sexual orgasm is clearly blurred. As discussed in Jay A. Clarke’s Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth (my review here), Edvard Munch recognized this dual nature in Rossetti’s Beata Beatrix and translated it into his Madonna. Rossetti’s Beata Beatrix perfectly embodies the In Freudian idea of the Madonna-whore complex decades before Freud himself coined the term. After the death of Lizzie Siddal, Rossetti struggled to find firm footing in her personal life, even as his artistic career blossomed. Rossetti careened among a traffic jam of mistresses, experiencing his fair share of total wrecks. One of those mistresses, Fanny Cornforth, served as the model for Lady Lilith (above, from 1868). Mythology paints Lilith as a strong, usually destructive female force and sometimes even as the first wife of the first man, Adam. Rather than mythologize the scene, Rossetti paints his Lilith in contemporary clothing. Fanny’s Lilith lounges in her bedclothes rather than the corseted garb of Victorian days and contemplates her pouty lips in a mirror. Fast forward a century, and Lady Lilith becomes Sharon Stone crossing her legs in Basic Instinct. Rosetti accompanied Lady Lilith with Sonnet LXXVIII, entitled "Body's Beauty," from his book of poetry The House of Life: Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold. And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold. The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent And round his heart one strangling golden hair. The long hair Lilith dithers with in the painting becomes literally a noose that strangles unfortunate men in the poem. Whereas Beata Beatrix was equal parts Madonna and whore, Lady Lilith is pure harlot of the black widow variety. It’s easy to see Rossetti as an embittered chauvinist in his portrayals of his maneaters. Just as the dangerous Lilith is also the strong woman of Lilith Fair fame, Rossetti’s femme fatales are also copies in some respect of the highly accomplished Lizzie Siddal, the supermodel of Pre-Raphaelitism that added a sister to the Brotherhood. With Venus Verticordia (above, from 1863-1868), Rossetti maintains the sense of danger while simultaneously exposing the full power of womanhood. As with Lady Lilith, Rossetti appended a sonnet to Venus Verticordia: She hath the apple in her hand for thee, Yet almost in her heart would hold it back; She muses, with her eyes upon the track Of that which in thy spirit they can see. Haply, 'Behold, he is at peace,' saith she;' Alas! the apple for his lips, - the dart That follows its brief sweetness to his heart, -The wandering of his feet perpetually.' A little space her glance is still and coy; But if she gets the fruit that works her spell, Those eyes shall flame as for her Phrygian boy. Then shall her bird's strained throat woe foretell, And as far seas moan as a single shell, And her grove glow with love-lit fires of Troy. Rossetti mixes the message of menace found in the poem by adding natural touches to the painting. The arrow and apple of doom remain in the painting, but the lack of clothes (hence, all trappings of civilization) and addition of flowers portray Venus as Mother Nature, and you don’t fool with Mother Nature. Rossetti painted the face of Venus from one of his model-mistresses, Alexa Wilding, but he painted the body from a tall nanny that he happened to pass in the street. Only a woman who literally stood head and shoulders above the crowd would fit the bill for this painting. Rossetti painted all three of these maneaters around the same time, showing how he moved back and forth in his view of the subject—a complex and complexing concept that consumed him as he created the most unforgettable images and poems of his career. Labels: Bernini (Gian Lorenzo), Film, Hunt (William Holman), Millais (John Everett), Munch (Edvard), Poetry and Art, Psychology and Art, Rossetti (Dante Gabriel), Siddal (Elizabeth), Women in Art Authority Figures Man on the Street Revealing Photos A Purpose-Driven Life	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line20
__label__cc	0.687665	0.312335	Produced by the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, a new video features Portland’s climate action leaders whose vision has contributed to a notable achievement, according to BPS Director, Susan Anderson. “Total carbon emissions in the U.S. are up 7 percent since 1990. Here, in Portland and Multnomah County, we’ve cut total emissions by 14 percent, with 30 percent more people and over 75,000 more jobs. Clearly we are headed in a different direction," said Anderson. “The investments that have helped us cut energy use and reduce carbon emissions are the same things that make people want to live here: Creating walkable neighborhoods with shopping, restaurants and parks; investing in transit and bike facilities; and making our homes and buildings more efficient and comfortable.” The draft 2015 Climate Action Plan --now out for public comment before consideration by Portland City Council in June -- builds on Portland’s 20+ year legacy of climate action and provides a roadmap for the community to achieve an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, with an interim goal of a 40 percent reduction by 2030. In 1993, Portland was the first U.S. city to create a local action plan for cutting carbon. The 2015 draft plan builds on the accomplishments to date with ambitious new policies, fresh research on consumption choices and engagement with community leaders serving low-income households and communities of color to advance equity through the City and County’s climate action efforts. Following community input and revisions, the draft plan will be considered for adoption by the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission, Multnomah County Board of Commissioners and the Portland City Council in June 2015. As global leaders grapple with the concerns and opportunities the changing climate presents, Portland has become an international destination for planners and decision-makers seeking proven strategies for climate action. Since 2010, more than 160 delegations from around the world have come to Portland to speak with business and government leaders to understand how Portland has lowered emissions while welcoming growth and creating a more livable community. Portland and Multnomah County now have 12,000 clean tech jobs, an increase of 25 percent in the last 15 years. Watch Portland’s climate action leaders talk about bold policy, benefits and the road ahead. Download a copy or individual chapters of the draft 2015 Climate Action Plan at www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/climate	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line23
__label__wiki	0.511236	0.511236	Gay Activist Dan Savage Teams With "Christians" For New Outreach Dan Savage, well known for his pornographic homosexual oriented advice columns and founder of the national "It Gets Better" project has inspired the launch of a new outreach, "Not All Like That"---an outreach to LGBT youth. And others. This outreach has forged an alliance between homosexual advocates and so-called "Christian" leaders. You will recall it was Dan Savage, the featured speaker, who mocked Christian kids and the Bible at a convention for high school journalists last year in Seattle in which 3000 high school kids attended. I wrote a blog about it at the time. His comments were so malicious and offensive that Christian kids in attendance walked out. Now he has joined several so-called "Christian" leaders in the launch of a national outreach and website called, "Not All Like That" (NALT). The site says, "The purpose of the NALT Christian's project is to give LGBT affirming Christians a means of proclaiming to the world---and especially to gay people---their belief and conviction that there is nothing anti-biblical at all or inherently sinful about being gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender." My friend, the late David Wilkerson, would have called this a "soothing seduction." It is aggressively anti-biblical regarding homosexual behavior. The site is using the same tactics they used in the campaign to redefine marriage in Washington State and elsewhere. They are playing people's emotions with lies. The project is asking "Christians" to upload videos of themselves communicating the message that all Christians are not like the ones who say homosexual behavior is sinful. Some of the initial videos include messages from so-called evangelicals who say that homosexual behavior is completely compatible with biblical teaching and Christianity. Dan Savage told the Huffington Post that he got so sick of people coming up to him after talks and TV appearances informing him that not all Christians were bigots and against full equality of LGBT people that he came up with a word for them -- "NALTS" -- for "Not All Like That." The Huffington Post says, "Part of the gay sex columnist and author's frustration was that he wanted these Christians, who were so eager to tell him about their enlightened stance, to focus their efforts on telling that to the Christian leaders who were condemning gay people and telling it to LGBT people, especially young Christians, who need to hear that not all Christians are... well, 'like that'." Now some Christians have taken Savage's challenge -- and even adopted his title. Christian blogger John Shore and Wayne Besen, from Truth Wins Out, with the blessing and full support and participation of Savage, have launched NALT, The Not All Christians Are Like That project. Based on the format of the "It Gets Better" campaign, the website launched on September 4th as a platform, they say, for Christians who want to send a direct message of welcome and acceptance to the LGBT community. Savage told The Huffington Post that he thought the videos were really important. "The It Gets Better Campaign brought LGBT kids who were struggling a message of support. This series of videos will be great for young LGBT kids coming out to their Christians families who can direct their parents to NALT." Savage went on to say that the NALT campaign can also have a political message in that anti-gay Christians appear to speak for all Christians when they condemn gay people. "I know that isn't true. My mom was a Christian," Savage says. He says, "This is an opportunity to harness social media and mass activism online." On its first day online there were messages from Pentecostals, Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists and Evangelicals offering their testimonies both about their Christian faith and how that faith moves them towards welcoming LGBT people. In one video, an African-American pastor named Ray McKinnon tells the story of how he condemned a gay person when he was sixteen and a leader in the youth group and how much his hurtful words haunt him to this day. He ends his video with this message: "Let me say clearly to you, being a homosexual is not a sin. Hear me today, friend, you are loved, you are lovely and you are lovable. Don't hear folks who want you to think that God hates you, God loves you. I love you. God bless you. We're not all like that." In another video, Lisa Salazar, a transgender who claims to be a Christian, records her video at a conference for transgender pastoral care. As she walks along a path, she tells the story of her own faith journey as a transgender person and how the Bible and prayer actually helped her in her transition. She says she hopes her story gives hope to other transgender Christians, saying that in the five years since she transitioned, she has grown even closer to God. Dan Savage has made his own video. This is a link to it on YouTube. Savage is strongly encouraging people to make their own video testimonies and add them to the site. He says, "If you don't take that step, speak up, then know that your silence allows the Tony Perkins and Pat Robertsons to speak for you and to continue to do real harm not just to LGBT young people but to Christianity itself." The message then, is that those who advance homosexuality are courageous, spiritual and biblically correct. Those who hold to what the Bible actually teaches are harming people and harming Christianity itself. John Shore, one of the "Christian" leaders of this new outreach says, "So many Christians are struggling with the idea that they must essentially choose between their faith in God---which in many real ways is to say their belief in the Bible as the word of God---and their natural loving compassion." They are saying that the Bible must be revised to affirm their sexual behavior and passions. "Homosexual rights" activists seem to be defining their mission, at least in part, as redefining Christianity and biblical teaching. And the redefinition they are proposing undermines the very foundations of Christianity and biblical authority. It echos the line from Genesis 4, "Surely you won't die..." the serpent told Eve. "I know God said that but..." There is a narrative in the Old Testament that my friend, the late David Wilkerson called a "Soothing Seduction." The story is in II Chronicles. Chapter 17 verse 10 says, "And the fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, so that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat." They were living in peace and prosperity, with no one daring to come against them. This, of course, provided by the Lord due to their honoring Him and His precepts. But as you continue to read the account of events, you soon learn that Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, creates a social and familial relationship with Ahab, the King of Israel. It was a very ill advised relationship. Scripture says after Jehoshaphat entered into this new relationship with Ahab, Ahab persuaded Jehoshaphat to become involved in a war with him against Ramoth-Gilead. And in chapter 18, they were assuring each other they were alike---they shared the same beliefs---"I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in war," they told one another. This story speaks of prophets who told the King what he wanted to hear and gave assurances that were not based on God's word, but on political expedience and personal agendas. The war was a disaster. Ahab was struck by an arrow in the joint of his armor, "The battle increased that day and the King propped himself up in his chariot facing the Syrians until evening; and about the time the sun set he died" (18:34). Finally there was a moment of truth---straight talk. Jehu went out to the battle and said to King Jehoshaphat, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you" (19:2). God spoke through the transparency of Jehu, Jehoshaphat returned home and "brought the people back to the Lord God of their fathers" (19:4). Deception is Satan's strongest tool: And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. I will be talking more about this on the radio this morning. You may listen from anywhere in the world, live at 9 AM, PDT and re-broadcast at 7:30 PM, PDT. Here's how to listen. Forgiveness and restoration is the only hope for America. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Informed. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed. HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A GRAY AREA IN GOD'S WORD. I AM REMINDED OF THE APOSTLE PAUL'S EXHORTATION IN HIS WRITING TO NOT BE TAKEN IN BY FALSE PROPHETS OF DOOM. THOSE PEOPLE COME AS PEOPLE OF THE CLOTH JUST AS WELL AS THOSE WHO LEAVE NO DOUBT AS TO THEIR EVIL INTENTIONS. WE ARE A NATION UNDER SIEGE AND UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THIS ADMINISTRATION EVIL HAS BEEN EMBOLDENED. GOOD POINT, ANONYMOUS! BUT ALSO: SLAVERY IS NOT A GRAY AREA IN GOD'S WORD (LEV. 25:44-46). NEITHER IS KILLING CHILDREN WHO MOUTH OFF TO THEIR PARENTS (LEV. 20:9). OR KILLING CHILDREN WHO HIT THEIR PARENTS (EXODUS 21:15). OR KILLING DAUGHTERS OF PRIESTS WHO FORNICATE (LEV 21:9). OR KILLING NON-BELIEVERS (2 CHRON. 15:12-13). OR KILLING WOMEN WHO ARE NOT VIRGINS ON THEIR WEDDING NIGHTS (DEUT. 22:20-21). OR KILLING HOMOS FOR THAT MATTER (LEV 20:13). OR KILLING WOMEN WHO ARE RAPED (DEUT. 22:23-24). I AM REMINDED THAT WE CANNOT PICK AND CHOOSE WHICH PHRASES IN THE BIBLE WE MUST TAKE AS THE LITERAL WORD OF GOD. WE MUST FOLLOW ALL OF THEM OR WE HAVE NO MORAL AUTHORITY TO STAND ON. WHO'S WITH ME??? ANYONE? When I read the headline, I thought: Good for Savage. God is transforming him. But as I read further, I realized what he was actually doing with NALT. Well I have my own acronym: NAAC (Not All Actually Christian). Spokane, WA. Christians need to think long and hard about accepting the gay community because they are asking for eternity in hell. Let's stay very clear on the difference between accepting the sin and accepting the sinner. And until the Church starts having significant results in setting the captives of homosexuality (and other addictive behaviors) free, we are only talking, not doing the good works unto which we were saved. Spokane Valley Kind of surprised Dan Savage would be accepted by a organization promoting tolerance and kids . The Freedom of Religion group is a better match for his style . Take away the fact of his pro gay bias , its how he conducted himself . He has a history of going over the line , his video in front of kids mocking and miss representing Christianity shows he is just a bully . Just what gay activists claim to be so concerned about . Quite sad actually . No one should want to bully kids based on their race , religion , or sexual orientation . , Mick, so if I understand you, when dealing with gays it's ok to discriminate against, refuse to do business with, deny equal rights to, label as evil sinners, accuse of wanting to molest children, and accuse of trying to recruit children, etc. But bullying is off limits. It's good to know there are standards. Mick, this is ridiculous. With the way that "Christians" talk about gays here on this site, on the airwaves, in our legislatures, and on TV -- why on earth should Dan Savage treat anti-gay leaders with any kind of respect? You get what you dish out...	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line27
__label__wiki	0.70895	0.70895	U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Bans NATO Expert Over Disparaging Trump Remarks DIPLOMATIC LICENSE Barbie Latza Nadeau Correspondent-At-Large Updated Dec. 08, 2019 11:52AM ET / Published Dec. 08, 2019 11:50AM ET Philip Davali/Reuters Carla Sands, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, reportedly had Stanley Sloan, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and former CIA analyst, removed from a speakers list of NATO experts over his criticism of President Donald Trump. Sands, an influential donor to Trump’s first campaign before she was named ambassador, is now at odds with Lars Bangert Struwe, the head of the Danish Atlantic Council, with whom she organized the event to celebrate NATO’s 70th birthday. According to BuzzFeed, in a letter to Sloan, Struwe wrote that Sands’ actions were in “total disharmony with the way the Danish Atlantic Council want to act.” He wrote that despite the U.S. Embassy stance, he supported Sloan. “Thus knowing that you do criticize the President of the United States, we believe that Freedom of Speech is paramount in every democracy, and we do not see a conflict between the Freedom of Speech and participating as a Speaker at an international conference.” Still, Struwe went on to say that the final decision was not ultimately up to him. “Having said that, the Danish Atlantic Council is not in a position where we can ignore the given instructions by the Embassy of the United States, when the instructions are clear and specific.” Read it at BuzzFeed	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line29
__label__wiki	0.639202	0.639202	First Study on Wood Smoke Effects on COPD in US by Wilberforce » Thu Jul 01, 2010 7:55 pm Jul 01, 2010 08:10 ET First Study Ever on Effect of Wood Smoke in Smokers Conducted by the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute ALBUQUERQUE, NM--(Marketwire - July 1, 2010) - The nation's first scientific study on the effects of wood smoke in smokers shows that wood smoke is associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and has identified a link that increases the risk for reduced lung function in cigarette smokers. That exposure to wood smoke causes COPD was previously found to be common in women in developing countries, but has not been recognized as being a hazard at concentrations generally found in developed countries. The objective was to evaluate the risk of wood smoke for COPD in a population of smokers in the United States, and whether non-hereditary changes of DNA that were detected in sputum samples of these patients were correlated to the disease of COPD as shown by the destruction of lung function. The association between wood smoke and reduced lung function was stronger among current cigarette smokers, non-Hispanic whites and men. Lead investigators at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) in New Mexico, the only dedicated respiratory research center in the US, in collaboration with the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and the University of Colorado at Denver, conducted the study which was financed by the appropriation from the Tobacco Settlement Fund, and from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, a publication by the American Thoracic Society. Yohannes Tesfaigzi, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at LRRI based in ABQ, NM and lead investigator, said, "The findings are significant and timely because it shows that there are many factors that reduce lung function in the world today." Tesfaigzi continued, "Our findings suggest that smokers of cigarettes who are exposed to wood smoke increase their risk of having reduced lung function." For the research, a cross sectional study of 1,827 subjects were drawn from the Lovelace Smokers' Cohort, a predominantly female cohort of smokers that is unique with its high percentage of Mexican Hispanic participants. The wood smoke exposure was self-reported. The research included measuring air entering and leaving the lungs, airflow obstruction and chronic bronchitis. Also explored were modification of wood smoke exposure with current cigarette smokers, ethnicity, sex, and the relationship with lung cancer-related genes on COPD. Robert W. Rubin, Ph.D., CEO of Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, said, "Many people use wood smoke as a major heating source and also smoke cigarettes, and this research proves that it can be a very unhealthy combination." Rubin continued, "With the legitimate concern to find alternative energy and heating methods in the world, we need more research of this kind to make certain that we do not add to the many factors in the air we breathe that will contribute to the destruction of lung function." About Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute The Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) is a private, biomedical research organization dedicated to improving public health through research on the prevention, treatment and cure of respiratory disease. LRRI is committed to curing respiratory diseases through research aimed at understanding their causes and biological mechanisms; assessing and eliminating exposures to respiratory health hazards; and developing improved therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics. LRRI is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, employs 1100 people, and is a $125 million company. www.lrri.org http://www.marketwire.com/press-release ... 284773.htm Another article by Wilberforce » Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:37 pm Wood smoke exposure multiplies damage from smoking, increases risk of COPD Science Centric \| 16 July 2010 11:49 GMT Smokers who are exposed to wood smoke, either through home heating and cooking or through ambient neighbourhood pollution, are not only at increased risk of COPD, but are also more likely to have epigenetic changes in the DNA that further increase their risk of COPD and related pulmonary problems. Together, smoking, wood smoke exposure and these epigenetic changes can increase an individual's risk of COPD fourfold. 'When cigarette smokers are exposed to wood smoke their risk of having reduced lung function increases,' explained lead author Yohannes Tesfaigzi, Ph.D. senior scientist and director of COPD Program at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, where the research was completed. 'Cigarette smokers who have both changes in sputum DNA and are exposed to wood smoke have a synergistically increased risk of having reduced lung function and other indicators of COPD such as chronic mucous hypersecretion. ' The research was published online ahead of the print edition of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Dr Tesfaigzi and colleagues administered questionnaires to more than 1800 current and former smokers between 40 and 75 years old, and obtained demographic and smoke exposure information, as well as sputum samples which were analysed for epigenetic changes to eight genes known to be associated with lung cancer. They found that wood smoke exposure was significantly and independently associated with an increased risk of respiratory disease, especially among current smokers, non-Hispanic whites and men. Furthermore, wood smoke exposure was associated with specific COPD outcomes in people who had aberrantly methylated p16 or GATA4 genes, and both factors together increased the risk more than the additive of the two risk factors together. They also found that people with more than two of the eight genes analysed showing methylation were also significantly more likely to have a lower than predicted FEV1 than those with fewer than two methylated genes. 'Because exposure to wood smoke appears to increase the risk of reducing lung function, cigarette smokers should try to avoid heating their homes or cooking with wood stoves and try to avoid environments where wood smoke is likely (for example, neighbourhoods where wood smoke is common),' said Dr Tesfaigzi. 'Because the same gene changes were associated with increased risk for lung cancer one would assume that wood smoke exposure also increases the risk of developing lung cancer. Future studies may show that it would be appropriate to screen patients for lung cancer if these exposures were present for prolonged periods.' Based on these findings, Dr Tesfaigzi and colleagues established an animal model that will be able to further test whether both wood and tobacco smoke exposure cause more damage to the lung than either one of the exposures alone. 'We observed increased inflammatory response in mice that were exposed to both cigarette smoke and low concentrations of wood smoke compared to those exposed to cigarette smoke only. We would like to use this animal model to determine the mechanisms underlying this exacerbation,' said Dr Tesfaigzi. Because wood smoke exposure was documented by self-report and was not quantified in this study, in the future Dr Tesfaigzi also intends to characterise the type and amount of wood smoke the participants were exposed to. Such studies will help to further refine the analysis and provide intervention strategies. Source: American Thoracic Society http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/1007 ... -copd.html Wood Smoke Risky in COPD by Wilberforce » Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:19 pm By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Reviewed by Adam J. Carinci, MD; Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Exposure to wood smoke may increase the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) -- particularly among current smokers, researchers have found. Breathing in wood smoke, either through home heating, cooking, or ambient outdoor pollution, was associated with a twofold increased risk of airflow obstruction, according to Yohannes Tesfaigzi, PhD, of Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque, N.M., and colleagues. They reported their findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "Because exposure to wood smoke appears to increase the risk of reducing lung function, cigarette smokers should try to avoid heating their homes or cooking with wood stoves and try to avoid environments where wood smoke is likely, for example, neighborhoods where wood smoke is common," Tesfaigzi said in a statement. Wood smoke-associated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is common among women in developing countries, but hasn't been adequately described in developed countries, the researchers said. So to determine whether wood smoke exposure was a risk factor for COPD among smokers in the U.S., the researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of 1,827 patients from the Lovelace Smokers' Cohort, which is predominantly female and maintains records of wood smoke exposure. About 28% of the cohort reported such exposure. The researchers found that breathing wood smoke was independently associated with greater odds of respiratory disease, particularly among current smokers, non-Hispanic whites, and men. Self-reported exposure was independently associated with a significant risk of low percent predicted forced expiratory volume (FEV1) (P<0.001). It was also associated with a higher prevalence of airflow obstruction and chronic bronchitis (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.52 to 2.52 and OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.06, respectively, both significant at P<0.001). The associations were significantly stronger among current cigarette smokers, non-Hispanic whites, and men, the researchers said. And in genetic association analyses, wood smoke exposure also interacted in a dose-dependent manner with aberrant promoter methylation of the p16 or GATA4 genes on lower percent predicted FEV1. Among those exposed, methylation of the p16 gene and of GATA 4 was significantly associated with lower percent predicted FEV1. GATA4 methylation was also associated with higher odds of airflow obstruction. "Because the same gene changes were associated with increased risk for lung cancer, one would assume that wood smoke exposure also increases the risk of developing lung cancer," Tesfaigzi said in a statement. "Future studies may show that it would be appropriate to screen patients for lung cancer if these exposures were present for prolonged periods." The study was limited because it may not be generalizable, the authors wrote. Still, the researchers called for additional studies on associations between wood smoke and COPD in cigarette smokers "with particular emphasis on understanding the characteristics and dose-response relationship of wood smoke exposure." http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonology ... COPD/21236	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line32
__label__wiki	0.521299	0.521299	Master Metaphorist, Owen Robinson at Boots and Sabers, is at it again. And this time he seems to be advocating revolution. His latest column in the West Bend News is titled “The Withering Tree of Liberty,” and he waxes poetic about the demise of everything he believes in (because he and his group of true believers cannot convince others to vote en masse in similar fashion). Well, here’s some of what he says … I can’t recall a good rebellion for the cause of liberty in any of the great Western democracies in the past century or more. I don’t mean a trifling riot here or there that telegraphs a healthy love of liberty. I mean a true insurrection with all of the blood and mayhem that such a societal upheaval entails. We have not seen a 1688 or a 1776 or a 1793 in a great while. This void of revolutionary vigor in the historical timeline exists despite the fact that it could be easily argued and substantiated that the citizens of these democracies enjoy less liberty than they did in the age of Bossuetian Divine Rule. In the United States, we have seen a steady erosion of liberty over the past several decades. For example, oppressive government restrictions on political activity, politely referred to as "campaign finance reform," have become the norm. The government restricts how much and how often you or I can give money to a political candidate whom we support. This is a bit disengenuous. Bi-partisan campaign reform was rammed through, but against the wishes of the most ardently conservative Republicans (like Robinson). Its major provisions had to do mostly with accountability, but they also were a brake on the big corporations who have in the past tried to buy elections and legislation. It is now against federal law for a group of us to get together and run advertisements against an elected official within 60 days of an election. Wisconsin Right to Life went to the Supreme Court when they were forbidden from running a television ad that mentioned Sen. Feingold, and lost. The regulations on why, how, when and what we say during political debates shows that we have abdicated any pretense of freedom when it comes to political speech. Well, we agree here (somewhat, though I wouldn't go so far to say we've abdicated any pretense of freedom, that's really a bit extreme) and surprise, the ACLU does too. The level of taxation in our nation would have brought the serfs of medieval Europe to revolt, yet we endure it - nay, we rejoice in it and christen it "progress." Huh? For a moment there I saw a Shakespearean actor reciting his lines, hand raised to the firmament. A Dohnal moment (ask me another time). Taxation consumes about 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in America today. In Europe, that percentage hovers nearer to 50 percent. As recently as 1900, taxation in America only comprised about 10 percent of the GDP. Even 10 percent would have been intolerable for our colonial forefathers, who rebelled when they paid less than 5 percent. Although taxation is a necessary evil which is collectively paid to protect our individual liberty, every dollar spent in excess of what is necessary for the protection of liberty leads to a reduction of liberty because each dollar is one less dollar that you or I, who earned that dollar, can spend for our own necessities or niceties. I won't even speak about how misleading it is to compare taxation levels 100, 150 and 200 years ago. Currently though, the United States spends more on military than the next nine nations combined plus an additional $100 billion. Since, other than China and Japan, those other nations are European, just who the hell are we defending our liberty against. In fact, the government spends almost seven times more on defense than education. But, according to Robinson and his crew, all in opposition to public education, that would be fine. An uneducated population is less likely to care. And who is going to pay for the upkeep of roads, hospitals, schools, etc.? Guess what, these were all necessary evils to which the public in majority fashion agreed. Robinson can spin it any way he wants, but it’s true. If taxes are deemed too high, the remedy is the ballot box. But therein lies the rub, the public does not agree with Robinson … hence the end around effort called TABOR in which the public was left out of the process. IT STILL failed. He continues … No tyrant is as powerful or as unmerciful as the one who is elected. And yet, that redoubt of democracy, Winston Churchill, laid naked the truth: no matter how repressive a representative government becomes, mankind has not yet devised a better system with which to govern ourselves. It seems that our tree of liberty is withering without the blood of patriots. This is ridiculous drivel from a man who thinks he is the second coming of Thomas Payne. The fact is that in everything Robinson dislikes he sees the evil machinations of government. If his conservatives ran the government, however, Robinson would gleefully goosestep in time to the martial music he so admires. Their disdain for the voting public is spectacular. If words such as these were spouted from the pen of a liberal writer, Robinson and his ilk would loudly proclaim treason. But when one of their own drips poison from his pen, he gets a round of “well dones.” Actually, one can’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Robinson. He and his followers have managed to fool some of the populace through the use of loathsome gimmicks like gay marriage. But the real problem is that Robinson and his group haven’t convinced enough people. Somehow, it reminds me of Vladimir Lenin in exile. One then cannot but be just a little worried over these sentences … But there is a tipping point where a representative government loses its legitimacy and insurrection threatens. It is the point at which the people no longer feel that elections are credible enough to legitimately embody the will of the people. It is the point at which fraud, corruption, suppression, incumbency, gerrymandering and ignorance overwhelm the true will of the people and elect a counterfeit government. At that point, the will of the people no longer rules and the seeds of revolution are rightfully sown. Is Robinson waiting for the Germans to help him and his followers to power, brought to Washington or wherever by shielded carriage? Actually the truth is that the revolution is occurring already and the fraud, corruption, suppression, gerrymandering and ignorance of the Republican party, and of Robinson and his followers, has already sown the seeds. He rightly fears that. "...the Big Corporations who...attempt to buy government...' Such as, say, the Potowatomi? Or WEAC (which IS a corporation)? I am not a supporter of Potowatomi gambling, nor gambling in general, including the lottery, which is just a tease that robs people without much hope (yes, their responsibility) and provides kickbacks to the better off. WEAC, on the other hand, is a "corporation" I support. Their ability to influence elections pales in comparison to the real national and multinational brutes. The National brute behind WEAC is the NEA. They dropped $8Million last year alone on support of 'think tanks.' Haven't yet got figures on electioneering numbers. Trust me, they will not be small. WEAC would be a lot more likeable if they were not tied to their own health-insurance company, which over-charges by a LARGE margin.	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line36
__label__cc	0.516195	0.483805	Archive for April 3rd, 2011 Home » 2011 » April » 03 “Heaven is the third vodka” — Czesław Miłosz Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 So far the events celebrating the Czesław Miłosz centenary have been marked by a special warmth and conviviality, almost like a family reunion – but nowhere was that impression more pronounced than at last Wednesday’s event at Wheeler Hall at the University of California, Berkeley. No surprise. Berkeley was the poet’s home for four decades. Thanks to the notorious Berkeley parking — a university parking lot meter that would not take cards, not take bills, and, once I got about three dozen quarters, wouldn’t take those either (nor return them) – I arrived about 45 minutes late. Adam Zagajewski was saying “Has he grasped the totality? … Well, yes.” “It’s in ruins, because totality is in ruins, but it’s still a totality.” I wasn’t quite sure what the “it” was – the world? the Nobel laureate’s oeuvre? — nor did I get more than the gist of what he was trying to say, having missed the context, but it was vintage Zagajewski, so I pass it on. “The world does not belong to any single poet,” said Adam. Robert Hass was the emcee for the event, and commented on Miłosz’s stunning memory, and also on the unusual and sometimes dark connections it made. A singing of “happy birthday” would remind Miłosz of the crematoria at Auschwitz, and crematoria might remind him of strawberry jam. Berkeley is also the home of the poet’s son, Anthony (or Antoni) Milosz. I met him once before, several years ago at the San Francisco memorial organized by poet Jane Hirshfield, but the resemblance to his father did not strike me nearly so forcefully then. On Wednesday evening, it gobsmacked me. Toni has translated his father’s last poems (Wiersze ostatnie was published by Znak in 2006), to be published with the paperback selected this fall as Selected and Last Poems. The younger Miłosz said that he was aiming at “sound translation,” and felt too often translations of his father’s poems “intellectual content dominates.” He noted the rhythm of his father’s work, and that, among musical instruments, Miłosz favored the bass and drum – “though he claimed to like the harpsichord and more refined instruments.” “My father’s poetry is immensely direct,” he said, adding that directness pits it against current trends. He read his father’s late poem “In Honor of Father Baka,” which he described as “funky, short-lined” poems in the baroque manner. It’s wry and mysterious – and I am looking forward to the November 15 publication. Peter Dale Scott reiterated the claim that Czesław Miłosz was “perhaps the greatest poet of our time,” and called him “a poet of radical hope” in a way “not seen since Schiller and Mickiewicz.” Miłosz saw poetry as “a home for incorrigible hope” — another feature of his work that was “in marked contrast to the times.” Peter ranked Miłosz with poets from Dante to Blake, the poets who were “enlarging human consciousness.” He discussed Miłosz’s poem, “Dante,” which concludes: “The inborn and the perpetual desire Del deiformo regno — for a God-like domain, A realm or a kingdom. There is my home. I cannot help it. I pray for light, For the inside of the eternal pearl, L’eterna margarita.” Miłosz, said Peter, was “obsessed with the need to reach the ‘second space’ – the world of paradise and perfection beyond this world we inhabit.” Peter called Miłosz a “leading visionary of his time, looking into the open space ahead.” Jane Hirshfield noted that for Miłosz, “everything was I and Thou, everything was personal.” Most of the evenings speakers at the front of the room arrived via literature, said journalist Mark Danner. “I come here through real estate.” (That’s not quite true; he was Miłosz’s friend for several years before he bought the poet’s house on Grizzly Peak.) He described the roughstone chimney and the roughstone path of the house that has been compared to a cottage from a Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale. He also remembered “Czesław’s deer.” “The deer populate the place,” even though Miłosz would chase them away from the garden they viewed as a salad bar. Bingo! (But it's not Żubrówka...but would you notice by the third round?) One morning he recalled seeing more deer on the lawn than he had ever seen before – over a dozen, as he recalled. Bob Hass’s voice was on his answerphone – “Mark, I don’t want to leave a message on a machine…” Miłosz had died in Krakow. Mark thumbed through a book Miłosz had inscribed to him, and was startled to read the reference he had apparently forgotten, the inscription “in the name of all generations of deer.” Bob Hass’s wife, the poet Brenda Hillman, recalled the Monday translation sessions Bob shared with Miłosz — sometimes spending the session working on a single line. Bob recalled Miłosz appearing on their doorstep, with the command, “Vodka, Brenda!” A bottle was always in the freezer, waiting. I hope it was Żubrówka. Brenda was, for a time, interested in the knotty issues the Gnostics raised, and asking Miłosz, “What is heaven? What is it like?” To which the poet replied: “Brenda, heaven is the third vodka.” Tags: Adam Zagajewski, Anthony Milosz, Antoni Milosz, Brenda Hillman, Czeslaw Milosz, Jane Hirshfield, Mark Danner, Mickiewicz, Peter Dale Scott, Robert Hass, Schiller, William Blake, Żubrówka Posted in Uncategorized \| Comments Off on “Heaven is the third vodka” — Czesław Miłosz	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line44
__label__cc	0.558025	0.441975	The ongoing demise of the L.A. Times Book Review Home » Uncategorized » The ongoing demise of the L.A. Times Book Review « A Polish poet, an American archivist, and two summer reads Eros as delusion: Poet Helen Pinkerton tips her hat to Thomas Aquinas (and Yvor Winters) » The “Incredible Shrinking Book Review Section,” chapter 464: this news from Publishers Weekly: In a move as significant for its breadth as its implications for the future of book coverage, the Los Angeles Times book review laid off all of its freelance book reviewers and columnists on July 21. Susan Salter Reynolds was with the Times for 23 years as both a staffer and freelancer and wrote the “Discoveries” column that appeared each week in the Sunday book review. She was told that her column was cancelled and will not be replaced by another writer. “I don’t know where these layoffs fit into the long-storied failure at the Times,” she said yesterday, “but these are not smart business decisions. This is shabby treatment.” Four staffers remain in the book review section: David Ulin, Carolyn Kellogg, Nick Owchar, and [Jon] Thurber. In December 2009 the TimesTimes building.” Thurber did make an exception for Reynolds so she could come to the office to pick up the multiple review copies she received daily in order to produce her column. In December 2009 the Times laid off 40 features writers, including Reynolds, but brought many of them back to work part-time. “We were paid about one-third of what we had been making, and lost our health insurance,” Reynolds says. Reynolds nixed Reynolds hadn’t quite finished having her say, and added in the comments section: ‘There are probably ways to cut costs without eliminating a person’s entire income after twenty three years in one phone call. I offered to continue writing for very little money until things got better. Also the quote about continued commitment is insulting to readers’ intelligence. When I was laid off a year and a half ago I was assured by the editor of the book section that it was purely cost cutting and there would be no more hires. Next thing I knew he had become the book critic and then they hired a full time blogger one month later. I understand these are tough times but isn’t publishing a world in which expertise has some value?” I remember writing for the Los Angeles Times Book Review back in the days when it was under the visionary leadership of Steve Wasserman (and Tom Curwen, too, as the deputy book edior). We’re not talking the neolithic period – we’re talking about within the past decade. In my opinion, it was at that time the best book review in the country, with articles that were intelligent, innovative, often reviewing off-the-beaten-track books that were going to influence our era, even if they didn’t make this year’s bestsellers list. What a shame to see that legacy trashed. By limiting itself to four writers, no matter how top-notch they might be, its isolating itself from the expertise that used to be its trademark. Wrote Randy Rogers: “Picking up my paper from the driveway this morning I looked at it and thought “If the LA Times gets any thinner I’m going to have to wait a few days just to have enough to line the bottom of a bird-cage. Why am I still paying for this ghost of a rag?” Tags: Carolyn Kellogg, David Ulin, Jon Thurber, Nick Owchar, Randy Rogers, Steve Wasserman, Susan Salter Reynolds, Tom Curwen This entry was posted on Saturday, July 30th, 2011 at 9:17 am by Cynthia Haven and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. 2 Responses to “The ongoing demise of the L.A. Times Book Review” Jeff Sypeck Says: As I see it, one of the ironies here is that the paper is gutting the section that attracts obsessive readers–not just of book reviews, or books, but potentially the entire rest of the paper. (I’m reminded of your post from earlier this year about how one Washington Post blogger made fun of Donald Hall while the newspaper devoted virtually no coverage to the artists and writers who received the National Arts and Humanities Medals.) I often think that the final obituary for the newspaper business will conclude that, among other causes of death, they chased imaginary audiences of people who otherwise don’t really read instead of catering to the inquisitive, hard-core readers they already had. Cynthia Haven Says: July 31st, 2011 at 2:33 pm What can I say? You’re right. Again.	cc/2020-05/en_head_0024.json.gz/line45

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