Angel

….by Massive Attack

Watch here

VANOC Censorship

image by Pink Sherbert Photography

Today’s story: where is it? There was a story online today about some poor artist getting VANOC money being censored by VANOC. Now I can’t find it anywhere. That’s probably the bigger story, for some other time.

God, where do I start with this idiocy?

1. We’ve got an agreement between VANOC and VOA. Just read through it (again). No such clause.

2. VANOC sponsorship is a business deal. Don’t like the terms, get better ones or walk away.

3. VANOC might be quasi-governmental, but has little judicial power to compel censorship. I suppose that remains to be seen, eh?

4. VANOC sponsorship is not mandatory, nor enforced on general population. I’d like to wear a t-shirt during the olympics that says “not available for sponsorship”.

5. Censorship generally applies as a term only to actions taken by a government against a person. It does not apply to commercial relationships, nor personal ones. Embargoes, blacklisting, boycotts, are all legitimate (to one extent or another) tools. It is my humble opinion that only a government can “censor”. All other players can coerce, intimidate, etc, but cannot “censor” in a strict sense.

And if you’ve been following along, you’ll recall I have a rather narrow opinion on definitions.

Why Should We Support The Opera?

Karita Mattila by Richard Avedon

Good question put to the folks of Australia regarding support for AO:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/should-we-be-funding-opera-20091123-itdn.html#comments#comments

“the convenient illusion that there is a great army of potential opera fans simply awaiting conversion is unrealistic.”

My studies convince me that no more than 3% of a local populace will attend the opera in a given year. That is the extent of the appeal of this art form in the broadest generality.

Criticising opera companies for catering to audiences that are overwhelmingly white, affluent and drawn from the corporate social set is like criticising athletes for their athleticism. It has long been opera’s unique strength that it is the subculture of the elite and influential.

I think that’s more wishful thinking and residue of the pre-1970’s boom in opera companies in North America. And I don’t think it is entirely true in the European houses in general.

Rather than ask how to make the Australian community more interested in opera, we should perhaps ask the unaskable about the cultural traditions Australians actually value and how we might best support and resource them.

This is the best point of the entire article. Rather than trying to convince ourselves that if we just try harder and tell them that ‘really, you’ll like it”, perhaps we should look at the art form and ask why it does not naturally attract more attention than it does.

It seems to me that we can position the opera as the superior artform of dance, song, drama and music. It is where you go when words are not enough, when dance alone cannot tell the story, when the song must be sung to show your grief, longing, hope, desperation, lust, love.

Zombie-wear

What is the well-dressed zombiephile wearing this Christmas?

Why a $9 t-shirt from Threadless of course! Just In Time for the Holidays!

One even comes with a handy instruction sheet built right in!

thanks to @girllightning for the fashion tip

Zombie Outbreak Simulator

For those who have been following along, you know my fascination with zombies.

Now you and I have a place to try out all our theories:

Zombie Outbreak Simulator

The simulator is set in DC and allows you to change a number of variables to test various theories of zombie virulence, public response, and accuracy of weapons. Oh and, you can move around the US capitol to see different scenarios play out.

It is a MAJOR time killer, but oh, so fun. I was able to defeat a zombie outbreak in 2 minutes with a not unrealistic edit to the number of armed civilians in DC.

An excellent addition to your zombie survial training.

New SOS Video!

Symphony of Science Videos! I love these! I am such a geek!

Catch up post

Catching up on a few things:

There is a goddamned difference between “stifled” and “stymied” and twice in the last week on CBC I have heard them used interchangeably and incorrectly.

Stifle: 2 a : to cut off (as the voice or breath) b : to withhold from circulation or expression : repress c : deter, discourage

Stymied: 1. to hinder or thwart

In my opinion, you stifle something that has started to happen. You stymy something that has intent to occur before it occurs.

But that’s just my opinion as a non-native speaker.

And another thing: someone recently used as a counter example to proactive affirmative action that when the house is on fire they’d prefer to have the most qualified person saving them, not someon who had been promoted on the basis of preferred status rather than skill.

I have to say this a nice rhetorical trick. However, in context one could argue that while the sex or race of the person in the fire fighter example probably adds no inherent advantage to their ability to execute their fire fighting duties, in the social, advisory, and business world (in which this rhetorical trick was used), these same attributes could contribute positively to performance. Weak analogy, I think.

I love rhetoric and wish I could find the rhetoric book my mother gave me.

I am blessedly almost devoid of interesting qualities. I went to a big public event today and had to “work the room”. I hated it because; I cannot hear very well anymore in large rooms with lots of ambient sound, I have little interest in who these people were or what they had to say, and I found I had little of interest to offer to the conversation. That last bit is a killer because it is a character flaw I think and is sort of damaging to one’s career in the arts.

But Jesus, today I just didn’t care who they were or what they had to say really. And I just cannot believe that anyene gives a shit about what I’m reading or the latest analysis I did, or my worries about the arts business.

It’s so curious to me to find myself so self-involved in a person lacking so much with which to be involved.

The irony of claiming there’s nothing interesting about me in a blog is not lost on me.

What if you look deep within yourself only to find emptiness?

Perhaps I am unwittingly a Buddhist?

Oh, I recentlly studied what I think is a well-written pamphlet on the tenants of Islam, and must admit I found it enlightening. There was much I did not know about the religion. While it has deep commonalities with Judaism and Christianity, I must say I find myself philosophically opposed to its main tenents. I had to ask myself if that was a result of being raised Christian, but I think it is a reaction to the elements that appeal to me in Taoism.

Wow, I am so unqualified to do a compare/contrast on Islam and Taoism. I will say from my point of view I find the Islamic notion of “god” too distant and separate from humanity, compared to a Taoist notion of the Tao flowing through all things. I also am not intellectually comfortable with the Islamic notion of predestination or divine decree/justice.

I just think the creator/creative force does not interact in a conscious way with humanity. I think we are on our own, but not alone. Only in extraordinary circumstances is this force manifest in our reality or daily lives, yet it is inherent in every action we take.

I do agree with the Muslims in some things: the original books of Judaism and Christianity have been corrupted over the years both as a natural occurence and with personal intent to mold the religion to human will and custom.

Oh yeah, this reminds me of an ongoing debate I wandered into, which asked, “Does Jesus save aliens?” Fabulously orthodox and off the wall comments ensued. Link? I’ll have to go search for it, but type in that phrase for yourself if you want to search it. Found it!

I was amused by the argument that christians were in for a hard time if we discover alien races. Do they have souls? If Jesus came to earth to save humans, does that mean we are the chosen species? What if the aliens appear sentient in a different way than us? What if they have a relationship to creation different than ours? Are they heathens? What if they are somewhat closer to earth animals? Do dolphins have souls?

All laughable in my mind. First the Jews thought they were the chosen people, then the Christians, then the Catholics, then the Europeans, then the white people, now humans. We have this childish tendency to think that if something is special about us, that means nobody else can possess it.

My response to the question is “of course he does”. Jesus saves all creation. Now all you have to do is define Jesus and what “saves” means. It’s a fun little intellectual exercise. Jus to fuck with them, I might ask, “Who says the aliens need saving? Original sin was a human experience.”

I’d prefer to believe that if the creator chose to intervene to correct the flow of creation, it would be done universally.

My Favorite Quote Ever

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“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematicks and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, musick, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelaine.” John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1780.

My grandfather was a truck driver and WWII veteran.
My father was a teacher and a peacetime sailor.
I am an opera manager.

Each generation honours those that come before them and after them. My grandfather fought to defend our liberty, my father taught to educate a people, now I strive to inspire them to further achievements.

On this Rememberance Day, Nov. 11th, thank those that came before for their sacrifice, and honour those who now live out their promise to make the world a better place.

Dance me to the end of love

If I make it to my 25th wedding anniversary (just celebrated 15), I should dance to this:

Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love”

Geekhouse

There’s a new musical genre developing: Geekhouse. Check it out:

And this makes me happy too. The musicalization and valuation of the erudite and enthralling Carl Sagan.

Cheers!

(courtesy of Symphony oF Science)