The Subtle Landscape

Can It Be That Ducks Are Safer?

January 5, 2013

The official NRA reaction to school shootings in general and Sandy Hook in particular, announced on December 21, was that there should be an armed guard in every school. Apparently noting that this proposal was made on the last day of the Mayan calendar, sports team owner Mark Cuban tweeted that the NRA recommendation was what the Mayans had in mind when they predicted the world would come to an end on that day.

A bit oblique, but I wish I’d thought to say that. Why just public schools? How about private schools, day care facilities, uh, movie theaters, churches, malls, factories, businesses, and oh ya post offices? Everyone should have at least a sidearm, no, a brace.

Really, more guns are the answer? According to Tom Diaz of the Violence Policy Center (and a former NRA member) more Americans die every year from gunshot injury (acts of will, emotion, accidents, and self infliction) than have from incidents of terrorism – in total – that have ever been recorded. Every year.

Furthermore, more Americans die from gunshot wounds every year than do citizens of the whole rest of the planet from acts of terrorism. Yet nothing has been done to even attempt attenuation of all this carnage while, since 9/11, the search and seizure and self incrimination protections provided by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments have been reduced to a degree legal scholars would have previously thought not possible.

It is important to acknowledge that there is no short term solution, but helpful to understand the origin and nature of the problem. There would be no gun violence without guns, obviously. Hunting weapons are involved in a small portion of these incidents while handguns comprise the largest. And the industry is on record as having appealed to our “inner soldiers” by making available to the public high capacity semiautomatic pistols and ammunition originally procured by the military.

I have hunted, own a shotgun, and have many friends for whom hunting is an important part of their lives. Tellingly however, “there has been and continues to be a decline in hunting. “Young people are much more interested in electronic games…” Thus, sales of traditional sporting weapons have also been on a decline. The arms industry has rejuvenated their markets by “heavily marketing not just semiautomatic, but military derived semiautomatic guns”. Sales to governments are advertising and loss leaders.

Incredibly, there is abundant data available about what types of guns are used in what types of crimes, but both the ATF and CDC have been precluded from distributing it by acts of Congress which were initiated by the NRA. “The data is in the files of the ATF, but it cannot release it. [They are] forbidden by law from releasing it…. There was … peer-reviewed research about gun death and injury… but there was a funding restriction which essentially says that the CDC cannot do any research related to gun control”.

Like I said, there is no short term solution, but that’s no excuse for not getting started. The magnitude and complexity of issues related to the eradication of smallpox were overcome. No reasonable person will suggest we suspend a similar effort aimed at polio because of the murder of three clinicians in Pakistan by a few misguided backward fanatics.

The Second Amendment was written when a musket was the most lethal firearm of the day and there was in the land taxation without representation. Even Justice Scalia says that there is room for federal gun control regulation, that: “We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons”

If I looked out the window of my home to see a bad guy approaching with a ‘modern sport rifle’, would I wish I was armed? Sure, but is that an answer to the right question? How could it not be a good thing if, a generation from now, there had been a significant decrease in the number of those weapons designed specifically to kill people and lots of them?

In most states it is illegal for duck hunters to use a gun with a magazine holding more than three rounds. Let’s give ourselves a sporting chance. Write your congressman.

*Some of the material above was paraphrased and/or purloined from an interview by Terry Gross of Tom Diaz on the December 20^th edition of NPR’s Fresh Air

*Men and Guns? cf October 9, 2009

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Way Not Complete

December 23, 2012

Maurice Herzog led an expedition of French Alpinists that in 1950 became the first to summit an 8,000 meter peak, Annapurna. His stirring account remains the best selling mountain adventure book to this day – more copies having been sold than even Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. Herzog’s final line: “There are other Annapurna’s in the lives of men” has been an inspiration to many.

Herzog died last week which is why I dug up my copy of the book, the cover of which you see above. Interesting how cartoonish the image appears to us these many years later. Had to be that way, I guess, because the nature of the narrative had not yet entered the common consciousness, hadn’t become part of the zeitgeist. Sir Edmund Hillary, National Geographic, and the likes of Patagonia have changed all that.

Subsequent books, one by Herzog’s daughter, portray him as having been controlling and egocentric. Other members of the team had to sign a pledge not to publish their own accounts of the climb until long after his was on the market. This resulted in the diminution of the heroic efforts of the others, particularly his partner on the summit Louis Lachenal. M Lachenal remained essentially unknown while Herzog was highly decorated and went on to hold important government posts.

Whatever happened, it remains an incredible and famously macabre tale. According to Herzog, Lachenal suggested that conditions were too severe, that they retreat. They of course did go on to make it to the top and back down, but at the cost of terrible frostbite. The attempts by Dr Oudot to minimize the ramifications of exposure to high altitude and low temperature can only be described as horrific. They lost all fingers and toes.

Whatever he may have been, his description of his first time in the Alps sure makes me think about doing something other than stare into a screen: “I believe what I felt that day closely resembles what we call happiness. I also believe that if I felt such happiness in such rigorous circumstances it is because the planned, organized, predigested happiness that the modern world offers is not complete. It leaves certain sides of man’s nature unsatisfied”.

He wrote that in 1953. Jeesh.

*The quote appeared in his NYT obituary – 12/15/12

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Benefits To A Wife For Being Nice To Her Husband

December 15, 2012

This is three steps from being original, but I found it so touching that I could not but pass it on. Not original because I didn’t do the research, haven’t read the book, and did not conduct the interview. Heard Terry Gross discussing Man Booker Prize winning historical novel Bringing Up The Bodies with author Hilary Mantel.

This is the second in a series of three books set during the time of Henry VIII in 16^th century England. The first concluded with the demise of Thomas More because he opposed Henry’s move to split with the Church of Rome in order to facilitate his trading Catherine of Aragon in for a newer model – Anne Boleyn.

As you might know, a relationship with Henry doesn’t turn out all that well for Anne either. But in the interview I learned that it wasn’t because Ms Boleyn wasn’t able to produce a male heir as I’ve long thought and most fiction holds. Author Mantel says: “I think it is a great mistake to regard these women as victims.”

The power that accrued to a Queen of England created a far larger sphere of influence than existed for other women of the era. And both Catherine and Anne were very intelligent, strong, political, and clever. “They are really strong; they are really involved. They’re deeply drawn into the political process, and they’re actors in it…agents of their own fate.”

Henry divorced his first wife for her inability to bear a son, he didn’t kill her. Anne Boleyn didn’t have a son, but her fate was different because her activities led Henry to believe that she had become a diplomatic liability and perhaps involved in a plot on his life. She had to be executed.

The benefit to Anne for apparently not having made ice cold Henry’s heart? Glad you remembered to ask. He ordered for her the most expeditious manner by which to leave this world and enter the next – a horizontal swing of a broadsword through her erect neck as opposed to a chopping block and a grunting axe man. The former was thought to be more humane.

“But she will kneel. She must be informed of this. There is no block, as you see. She must kneel upright and not move. If she is steady, it will be done in a moment; if not, she will be cut to pieces… Between one beat of the heart and the next, it is done. She knows nothing. She is in eternity.”

Ms Boleyn would have been blindfolded and the executioner (of renowned talent and brought all the way from Calais, by the way) approached silently in slippered feet from an unexpected angle. Nice guy that king Henry, really. He could have had her burned or hanged, let alone dispatched with an axe. I’ll admit though that one does wonder what of his qualities most attracted wives three through six.

*Interested in the last thoughts of anther wife’s head? Go to post of May 20, 2011

**Photo above of Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn in “The Other Boleyn Girl” in which she goes to the block for failing to produce a male heir…

Posted in Film, Literature | 3 Comments »

Hope I Get Asked Back

December 8, 2012

Yep, it was time again earlier this week. I had put it off longer than the recommendation and had not been made fearful by a “you’re overdue and consequences may be severe” letter from the office. Well, not fearful till I finally scheduled the dang thing. Started to think about a friend who recently left this world because he’d put it off a bit too long.

You know how your mind works. As the appointment drew near, I began to consider rescheduling because our insurance will soon change and if it was to be that something nasty was lurking within, the transition could prove problematic and/or expensive. Being a college grad I realized that was stupid.

Night before, I opened the prep kit and read the instructions. “Sulfate salts provide sulfate anions, which are poorly absorbed. The osmotic effect of unabsorbed sulfate anions and the associated cations causes water to be retained within the gastrointestinal tract.” You can say that again. I was so squeaky clean that wife, little black angel, and I took a five mile run early in the AM before my 7:00 inspection.

Was soon there, signed voluminous “hold harmless” sorts of documents, changed into one of those gowns that would only flatter a Reef model (www.reef.com/culture/miss-reef), had IV inserted, and was rolled into the chamber where several smiling faces looked down upon me. Very strange sort of perspective. And it got stranger.

There was a big screen and pretty soon we were all watching something that looked exactly like when, in Star Wars, Han Solo piloted the Millennium Falcon through a deep cavern which turned out to be the bowel of a huge beast. Remember that? Anyway, Doc kept making comments in the manor of a geologist following a vein.

He found nothing of interest. Not even one bit to clip off and send to a lab. I was under the influence of something certainly, but just as obviously had some level of awareness and so a quick feeling of relief gave way to a few jokes. I’m not sure, but think that I told a favorite involving mice in a bar, a cat, sex, and the f-bomb.

Doc said, “see you in five years”, but I guess I hope I didn’t offend anyone present, my file doesn’t get “lost”, and I do in fact get asked back. Everything considered, it wasn’t all that bad.

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“Oh the things you can think up if only you try!”*

December 1, 2012

The object you see above, a late 19^th century Nkisi Nkondi power figure from a place now either in Congo or Angola, is one of many objects used in a collaboration between the art museum and medical school of a prominent Ivy League college. (Hint: it is the only one of them not in a slum)

The program, “The Art of Clinical Observation”, endeavors to exhort med students to “learn to look”, and employs a five step approach. First, closely observe. What is it made of…? Second, analysis. Without reading the label, think about what you see. What are the nails for?

Third, research. Read the label. Does it reinforce or surprise? Fourth, interpret. What does it tell you about art and culture? Fifth, critical assessment and response. How well do you think it served its purpose and – you’re no more or less human than those for whom it was made, what emotions does it evoke in you?

Evaluations of the program have been very positive and participants found it to have been very useful in their lives more broadly. There are many “Learning to Look” efforts in art museums across the country and this was not the first collaboration with a med school, but is apparently one of few.

A Nkisi is created through a collaboration between a sculptor and a shaman. The first carves and the second adds the spiritual strength. Such objects were possessed of considerable force and power and were used for redress and revenge by victims of crimes ranging from theft to adultery.

A dormant Nikisi would be awakened by verbal harassment and the driving of a nail into its body. Its spiritual power would obtain from materials contained in medicine packs in the head and abdomen which could include such stuff as dirt from a grave, herbs, and minerals.

The victim, with the help of ritual experts, would then be able to direct the Nkisi’s awakened fury to the great dismay of the perp who should expect to have some sort of pestilence visited upon him. Very interesting. Brings to mind thoughts of the evolution of consciousness and religion.

Take away for me though is a reinforced appreciation of the incredible relationship between mind and body. I have little doubt about a Nkisi’s intercessional efficacy and, uh, Lord help me should roommate get her hands on one of those things.

*Dr Seuss/last clue.

**Lesley Wellman, the Curator of Education at this museum and person who developed this program, was named the National Art Educator of the Year for 2912 by the National Art Education Association.

Posted in consciousness/psychology, Religion | Leave a Comment »

… he can’t be any worse.

November 16, 2012

The Palladian style building you see above was designed by Chicago architect William C Jones and built in Rock Island, Illinois in 1915. Its original purpose was to serve as a Christian Science Church, but it now serves as the latest of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums scattered across the country.

These museums, from Santa Barbara to Tacoma to Duluth to Buffalo to Charleston, to Jacksonville (and others – not to mention over 200 mini-museums), house an astounding array of historical drafts, letters, and documents. The Museum brochure mentions stuff by Napoleon, Washington, Lincoln, Henry VIII, Pope Lucius III, Wagner, Martin Luther, and others and more. Whew!

Major restoration is underway on the building in Rock Island (though the main meeting room is closed off, it is interesting to stand in its center, beneath the dome, and imagine the presence of a congregation – especially if your notion of a place of worship is more of the cruciform sort), but the narthex holds a dozen or so fascinating pieces of history.

There is a draft treaty between the USA and the people of Tripoli and the Barbary Coast which inspired the Marine Hymn and is sadly ironic to consider in light of what happened in Benghazi a few weeks ago. Nearby is a model of Lord Nelson’s flagship the HMS Victory and his handwritten battle plan for the Battle of Trafalgar. You know, the naval battle in which his outnumbered fleet defeated Napoleon’s and confirmed British Naval Supremacy.

Ya, pretty dang eclectic. There is though a cohesive group of material by and/or related to Mark Twain including a draft of a document describing the origin of Samuel Clemens’ pseudonym. Perfect. I’d been thinking about Twain during the too many torrid months of the presidential campaign. Can you imagine what he’d have had to say?

Pretty sure I know who he’d have voted for, but am also confident Mr Clemens would have had choice words for him too. “I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being and that is enough for me: he can’t be any worse.”

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Toward The Center Of The Maze

November 3, 2012

The photo above shows a petroglyph that wife found in a remote quarter of the Petrified National Forest during a recent artist-in-residency. The circular maze on the left is an early Native American representation of the nature of existence. Enter, persist, and you will eventually make your way to the center.

How do I know this? Good question. Several days previous to viewing the above, ‘friend’ of my long acquaintance and I visited San Xavier del Bac Mission Church near Tucson, Arizona. It is one of the finest and oldest examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in North America. Among much fascinating else, tour guide pointed out an image very similar to the one above and told of the Jesuit led blending of local and imported religious and architectural iconography.

You’ll agree that any given existential maze is indeed far less than straightforward and that it is comprised of many many dimensions beyond the two in the icon. And that there are infinite paths to the, uh, center and multiple dynamic forces with which one must deal along the way. For example, in the photo below you see same friend hurling the F bomb at me for the very first time earlier this summer.

I’d taken her on a vertical journey and at the time of the picture we were about a thousand feet off the deck. She was tired, thirsty, scared, and had just been informed that we had quite a ways to go and needed to hurry because an afternoon storm was fast approaching and lightning rods we did not hope to become. Needless to say I was shocked and hurt by her fury. Little did I know that the notion of retribution eclipsed all else in her mind.

Naive, I thought nothing of it when recently she suggested a trip across the border to the south. Sure, fine, let’s go. She’s fluent and it sounded like fun. Well, turned out to be the first time I’ve soiled myself in many years. While eating god knows what (she wouldn’t tell me and it was $1.00 for six) I was informed that she was sideways with a gang of local vampires and that the real purpose of our trip was further investigation related thereto.

I’m serious.

Images of Darkness Till Dawn, long teeth, guns, knives, and blood filled my head. I might never see my little black puppy again. Knew that should violent vivisection not be the order of the day, roommate would be able to only scrounge ransom for one of us. Woe was me. Combination of food and fear made for accidental #s 1 and 2.

Saw small silver angel candlestick holder in hand of back alley vendor and thought to summon divine intervention therewith. You will see negotiation in progress below. Also notice policias. Well, you can really only make out the two at left. Why? Because the others wear black ski masks so as to render themselves anonymous to Santanico Pandemonium and all the rest. Hooded one to their right is gripping a 50 caliber machine gun.

Finally back at the border headed north ‘friend’ laughed when immigration official asked her for my papers thinking that I was not a US national (besides being visibly irresolute, I have Moor in my blood) and could tell by our demeanor who was leading the way. ‘Friend’ was in fact carrying my passport and giggled as she fumbled for it. “Shoot, it’s gotta be here somewhere….”

We obviously did make it back to our car. Emotionally spent and dehydrated I was nearly catatonic for the whole ride home. Couldn’t speak until cold beer(s) irrigated my parched throat and unlocked my mind to wonder what in the world the rest of my journey from here to the center of the maze might hold.

Posted in consciousness/psychology, Travel | 1 Comment »

And I Won’t Even Have To Send Her To College

October 19, 2012

You’ll recall that some months ago (4/20/12) my little black angel had her way with our computer. Well, now she’s not so little, wife is away for a spell, and thus the major occupation of my increasingly enfeebled mind is that of her energy management. No small task. She’s now an eighty pound bolt of black lightening.

Raring to go at 5:00 AM every morning, a five or so mile run gets her down to about neutral for a while and it’s fun. Today for example we crossed paths with a young reporter for a local TV station on a live remote. She was cute, but for some reason evinced perturbation when Nellie attempted to wrestle the microphone from her grip. More friendly are the folks at the coffee shop close to home.

Worried sick about the inside of our house, I race home for lunch hoping to beat her full recharge. So far the worst has been the demise of a phone book and package from LL Bean. (Please don’t mention this to wife.) Outside is another story. While I’ve been changing clothes sweet Nellie has torn drain tile out of the ground and shake shingles from side of house.

So, every day at noon I grab a quick bite and then take her for a drive to a hike in the woods and problems of a different sort. There are more than 100 acres of timber where we go and first couple of times out she disappeared. It’s deer season and some years ago old friend Sauger was ahead of wife and son in these woods. They crested a hill to see a deer hunter with bow drawn and aimed at our (then) pup!

We’ve seen (and chased) a few deer, but had no such incident. However, several days ago I found myself, uh, bewildered in the Daniel Boone sense of the word. For a good long while and in the rain. By the time I made it back to our vehicle I had worked up considerable concern, but Nellie was there and I could tell she’d been concerned too because she ran the multiple tight little circles she does when exuberant.

The experience was good for us both, first because an approach to the razor’s edge is always invigorating and second, lesson learned, we now pay attention and pretty much stick together. And finally, for the opportunity to feel such deep connection. Like wise wife said (12/2/11): “Every dog who comes into my life gifts me with a piece of their heart”.

*Interesting. Auto correct wanted me to substitute ‘that’ for the ‘who’ in the last sentence. Take note couch potatoes, there is no heart in your machine.

Posted in couch potato, Family | 1 Comment »

Less is a bore…

October 5, 2012

Spent last week in the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania working on a research project. Found that the investigation of a particular archive is fortunately facilitated by a document called a ‘Finding Aid’ which presents its contents in outline form. Personal papers, professional papers, drawings, photographs, models, etc.

The archive of my interest consists of thirty-one cubic feet of boxed files and I estimate that I examined about a third of the material contained therein and look forward to returning to complete this phase of the my endeavor. It is unbelievably fascinating because of the punctuation of the expected provided by the un-.

My concentration never waned from open to close due to the nature of the subject (details down the road) as well as that of the professional staff and others with whom I met. Nonetheless, I did take a break from time to time and often visited other spaces in the Fisher Fine Arts Library. You see the main reading room above. Isn’t the fall of the early morning light on the wall wonderful?

The brick and terra-cotta building was designed by the acclaimed Philadelphia architect Frank Furness and opened in 1891. Programmatic evolution and misguided modifications took a toll. However, a six year sixteen million dollar renovation (1986-1991) led by Venturi Scott Brown and Associates gave way to renaissance and rave reviews.

Indeed, with its singular amalgam of scale, styles, and materials, this building is Venturi’s seminal Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture made manifest. “I like complexity and contradiction in architecture… [an] architecture based on the richness and ambiguity of modern experience… I am for messy vitality over obvious unity…More is not less…Less is a bore.”

Interestingly, in a footnote sort of way, VSB added a bit of complexity and contradiction to the building through the FF&E (fixtures, furnishings, and equipment) budget. Look at the non period overstuffed chairs at the bottom of the photo above and close up below. Footnote on footnote, the chairs remind me of the columns in their Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London…

*Check out www.airbnb.com. Brother recommended I employ the site to find an apartment for the week. Worked out well. Great location, fine accommodations and arrangements. Facility instructions prohibited tobacco, but marijuana would be ok. Nice touch. Informal conversations in the archives with folks of several different nationalities attested to the widespread use of airbnb. Especially amongst those half my age and younger.

Posted in architecture | 1 Comment »

Money Is People?

September 21, 2012

The pictures above and below were painted by Xiaoze Xie specifically for the lobby of the United States Courthouse in downtown Davenport, Iowa. They are typical of his style, subject matter, and scale – these each being a whopping 72” x 103”!

Xie says: “I see books as a material form of something abstract, such as philosophy and ideology. I have also been fascinated by what people do to books: banning, destroying, glorifying with gold-leaf, or worshiping as ultimate truth.”

The shelves in the one above, The Spirit of Law, hold volumes by Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, and William Blackburn. The books below, Iowa Reports, are nineteenth century Iowa Supreme Court Reports from the library of the US District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Xiaoze Xie was born in Guangdong China in 1966. He was educated in China and the USA and is currently a professor at Stanford. His pictures are held in permanent collections of prominent institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and have been in exhibitions all over the globe.

The Spirit of Law and Iowa Reports convey a deep reverence for both the material and abstract. What perfect pieces for between which a jury to assemble! This sense is, I think, largely absent online and on tablet. I’ll bet a goodly portion of the consideration of opinions like, say, Citizens United was conducted digitally.

Money is people? What? I’m so sure. Well, if money is people, they better not send any more to Texas. They have the death penalty down there and aren’t shy about using it.* Either way the election goes, for distinctly different reasons on the different sides, Ben Franklin’s head will roll many times over between November 6 and the anniversary of Scrooge’s perambulatory revelation that people and money are quite different.

*This paraphrases a comment made by Bill Moyers.

**Go see the paintings, they’re yours! The guards evince pride, but are serious. NB: There’s a metal detector and phones and cameras are not allowed.

***On a plaque just inside are the words of one of America’s first starchitects Cass Gilbert (Woolworth Building…): “Public buildings should encourage just pride in the state, and be an education to oncoming generations to see these things, imponderable elements of life and character, set before the people for their enjoyment and betterment.”

****http://art.stanford.edu/profile/Xiaoze+Xie/ This link will take you to his Stanford bio and statement.

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