I'm taking a little break from blogging and indeed from normal day to day life. My mission is to check out if Slartibartfast actually deserved his coveted award.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/slartibartfast.shtml
My progress should be followable at either of these sites, where depending on the light available you can also judge his work.
http://www.bt.no/kamera/article313110.ece?lang=en
http://www.hurtigruten.com/en/norway/map/
Something nice
Occasionally I am surprised to find a bargain and today I did. I was wearily hunting and gathering in both Edinburgh and Glasgow shops with no luck in finding any of the three urgent items I was looking for. Although, I have now discovered how close Buchanan Galleries are to Queen Street station and what a pleasant place it is to visit.
These were gifts, so I can't say what, in case the intended recipients are reading!
I was particularly frustrated in M&S Princes St because that is a negligently sign-posted maze clearly designed to draw the unwary in out the rain and keep them there until all money is spent. On the other hand, when I wandered into their cafe I had the pleasant surprise of finding their offer of cake and coffee for two quid! This applies after 2pm and had obviously attracted lots of other weary gatherers.
I had cappuccino cake, which was adequate quality for that price and a really huge slice so that I felt revived enough to return to the hunt and actually succeed in getting what I wanted - eventually.
The downside was getting a bus on or near Princes Street. Terrible! I can only hope that Lothian Transport are subsidising a whole dedicated branch of the Samaritans to talk despairing bus drivers out of ending it all and taking their passengers with them! Or perhaps these bus drivers are made of patience and find tranquility and let the chaos drift by.
These were gifts, so I can't say what, in case the intended recipients are reading!
I was particularly frustrated in M&S Princes St because that is a negligently sign-posted maze clearly designed to draw the unwary in out the rain and keep them there until all money is spent. On the other hand, when I wandered into their cafe I had the pleasant surprise of finding their offer of cake and coffee for two quid! This applies after 2pm and had obviously attracted lots of other weary gatherers.
I had cappuccino cake, which was adequate quality for that price and a really huge slice so that I felt revived enough to return to the hunt and actually succeed in getting what I wanted - eventually.
The downside was getting a bus on or near Princes Street. Terrible! I can only hope that Lothian Transport are subsidising a whole dedicated branch of the Samaritans to talk despairing bus drivers out of ending it all and taking their passengers with them! Or perhaps these bus drivers are made of patience and find tranquility and let the chaos drift by.
General meanderings
Since I am fondly imagining that spring is just around the corner, I took myself off to look at a little nature this weekend. Briefly, as it was still perishing and in fact deteriorated into a drenching smirr* on Saturday.
Up in the Bathgate hills I came across the Korean war memorial. This is a small landscaped area just off the road where there is a little replica pagoda built to commemorate the service people who were killed in the Korean war. I know nothing about this, but it seems like yet another conflict which has taken lives of, no doubt perfectly peaceful Korean women and children for absolutely no good enough reason. However, this is a lovely spot and if service personnel are killed in a war then this is as nice a place as any for their friends and family to come to seek some recognition of their loss.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/11532
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst10318.html
Less contentiously, I found myself in Crammond at 7.30am yesterday because I took a wrong turning and not being minded to just turn back and retrace my steps, I ended up stopping in a parking place in front of the river Almond. Movement on the other side of the river caught my eye and I saw three deer on the path by the river. I jumped out of the car and tried to take some pics with the camera on my phone. These were pretty hopeless as it is a phone not a camera and I don't spend much time getting to know how to use it. Here are a couple of the less blurred examples.
Up in the Bathgate hills I came across the Korean war memorial. This is a small landscaped area just off the road where there is a little replica pagoda built to commemorate the service people who were killed in the Korean war. I know nothing about this, but it seems like yet another conflict which has taken lives of, no doubt perfectly peaceful Korean women and children for absolutely no good enough reason. However, this is a lovely spot and if service personnel are killed in a war then this is as nice a place as any for their friends and family to come to seek some recognition of their loss.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/11532http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst10318.html
Less contentiously, I found myself in Crammond at 7.30am yesterday because I took a wrong turning and not being minded to just turn back and retrace my steps, I ended up stopping in a parking place in front of the river Almond. Movement on the other side of the river caught my eye and I saw three deer on the path by the river. I jumped out of the car and tried to take some pics with the camera on my phone. These were pretty hopeless as it is a phone not a camera and I don't spend much time getting to know how to use it. Here are a couple of the less blurred examples.
You just have to take my word for it that there are three deer in the picture!
No deer, but a weir in the distance.
My camera, which has been temperamental for some months is now officially defunct. I'm temporarily borrowing my daughter's, but that may refuse to work outside parties and nightclubs which are the only places she takes pics.
* http://www.rampantscotland.com/parliamo/blparliamo_weather.htm
Glamour
At the creative group this week we made a collage by flicking through a selection of magazines and tearing out pictures that meant something to us in some way. Then glued them onto white backing paper. When these were complete we did what the tutor calls 'show and tell'. This is about briefly explaining what and why you've created with your collage. And the group members can offer their perceptions on your exhibit.
I found myself in minimalist mood using straight edged pics cut out of one glamorous women's magazine of the type I'd only read in the hairdresser's. This seemed to tap into some unconscious desire for glamour which I can't say I was previously aware of. Anyone who knows how I present myself in day to day life would not use that as a description!
The curious outcome of doing spontaneous acts of creativity is that you find insights rising up from the unconscious. So, I have pinned up my collage, no doubt inviting dubious comments from my daughter when she sees it, but I'm quite happy with it and anticipate more inner discoveries.
Someone asked me what glamour meant to me and I could only think of exotic travel and some limited ideas of glamour located in the power-dressing glossy world of Dynasty and Dallas from the 80's. I think I need to find a C21 version for my next decade. Although, by some ghastly synchronicity, when I engine-searched 'shoulder pads' I find the damn things are returning just like a bad recession. Who knew that my unconscious mind had tapped into the zeitgeist of the fashion world?
Unexpectedly, the Daily Mail had an interesting comment recycling fashions and the need for women to reassert themselves periodically, in society.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/4601936/80s-revival-shoulder-pads-are-a-key-trend-for-springsummer-09.html
Then again, I'd look as cheerless as this if I was starving myself for a career walking around in sticky out shoulders.
I found myself in minimalist mood using straight edged pics cut out of one glamorous women's magazine of the type I'd only read in the hairdresser's. This seemed to tap into some unconscious desire for glamour which I can't say I was previously aware of. Anyone who knows how I present myself in day to day life would not use that as a description!
The curious outcome of doing spontaneous acts of creativity is that you find insights rising up from the unconscious. So, I have pinned up my collage, no doubt inviting dubious comments from my daughter when she sees it, but I'm quite happy with it and anticipate more inner discoveries.
Someone asked me what glamour meant to me and I could only think of exotic travel and some limited ideas of glamour located in the power-dressing glossy world of Dynasty and Dallas from the 80's. I think I need to find a C21 version for my next decade. Although, by some ghastly synchronicity, when I engine-searched 'shoulder pads' I find the damn things are returning just like a bad recession. Who knew that my unconscious mind had tapped into the zeitgeist of the fashion world?
Unexpectedly, the Daily Mail had an interesting comment recycling fashions and the need for women to reassert themselves periodically, in society.
"Whenever women have felt the need to assert themselves, the width of their shoulders has increased exponentially."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-443101/The-return-shoulder-pad.html
While this week the Telegraph contrasts what celebs are dressed up in with fashion advice for the rest of us.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/4601936/80s-revival-shoulder-pads-are-a-key-trend-for-springsummer-09.html
Then again, I'd look as cheerless as this if I was starving myself for a career walking around in sticky out shoulders.
Women’s Evolution
It’s the birthday of one of the blokes who did some thinking on evolution. As is normal in major leaps forward in human thinking, Darwin was just the first or at least the best able to get his name attached to the idea that the earth was old and organisms evolved. Many others were heading towards that conclusion. None of the names I’ve seen mentioned were of women - can’t imagine why.
Avoiding any controversy about creationism and evolution for the moment, I’d rather mention the work of Elaine Morgan and her Aquatic Ape theory which has bubbled around for some time.
She is an interesting person and this link contains an interview with her in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/may/01/academicexperts.highereducation
This link provides more info: http://www.primitivism.com/aquatic-ape.htm
Less well known is the work of Evelyn Reed who in her book Woman’s Evolution takes on the drivel of male anthropologists in their theories of primitive people, which tend to be male-centric and unquestioning of patriarchal norms.
http://www.angelfire.com/pr/red/feminism/challenge_of_the_matriarchy.htm
http://www.word-power.co.uk/books/womans-evolution-I9780873484220/
I am too busy right now to give this the biting rantolicious treatment it deserves so leave it up to anyone interested to look into why evolution is a flawed but inherently scientific theory and the damage leaving it to patriarchal scientists to develop has done to women’s position in society – evolutionary biologists/psychologists and the inexcusable biological determinists anyone??
OK, to return to the creationists in the name of shared airtime or some such pseudo equality nonsense ...
I had a chemistry lecturer who was a creationist long before it became fashionable to spout young earth theory/beliefs/delusions. I'm very annoyed with my non-hoarding tendencies because only a few years ago I threw out copies of his publicity on this subject. From memory, these were information sheets explaining how oil was made in a young earth/creationist scientific way. I think it involved huge amounts of pressure on vegetable matter in a short space of time in comparison to the billions of years of leetle teeny beasties being squashed under layers of rock. I suspect coal got the same treatment, but with pressure on trees in a speeded up timeframe.
My chemistry lecturer was a really nice chap, but a tad earnest in his scientific/creationist views, although he was meticulous in not mentioning these in lectures and chose instead to set out his stall in the foyer at lunch times and spoke only to those who approached him on the subject. That I can respect as he did not force the educational establishment to include his version of science and faithfully taught chemistry as it was intended.
There are some who reject the usual scientific theory of oil creation and the creationists and have found their own ideas. I'm tempted to give them a cheer for their 'plague on all your houses' attitude. Theirs is the abiogenic origin of petroleum deposits.
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1130.html
And what do I believe? I'm certainly not a creationist, so I suppose I go along with the broad outline of evolution as far as my understanding takes me. However, I was exposed at a sensitive age to yet another concept and some of that has remained lodged in the wishful thinking section of my consciousness. Yes, we were seeded on earth by aliens! Well, probably not, but having read my way through early Von Daniken books and far too much science fiction for my own good, I have a wistful hankering for the presence of alien DNA in my mitochondria.
Forty five years of proselytising and only 10,000 acolytes. What's he doing wrong?
http://www.daniken.com/e/index.html
Avoiding any controversy about creationism and evolution for the moment, I’d rather mention the work of Elaine Morgan and her Aquatic Ape theory which has bubbled around for some time.
She is an interesting person and this link contains an interview with her in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/may/01/academicexperts.highereducation
This link provides more info: http://www.primitivism.com/aquatic-ape.htm
Less well known is the work of Evelyn Reed who in her book Woman’s Evolution takes on the drivel of male anthropologists in their theories of primitive people, which tend to be male-centric and unquestioning of patriarchal norms.
http://www.angelfire.com/pr/red/feminism/challenge_of_the_matriarchy.htm
http://www.word-power.co.uk/books/womans-evolution-I9780873484220/
I am too busy right now to give this the biting rantolicious treatment it deserves so leave it up to anyone interested to look into why evolution is a flawed but inherently scientific theory and the damage leaving it to patriarchal scientists to develop has done to women’s position in society – evolutionary biologists/psychologists and the inexcusable biological determinists anyone??
OK, to return to the creationists in the name of shared airtime or some such pseudo equality nonsense ...
I had a chemistry lecturer who was a creationist long before it became fashionable to spout young earth theory/beliefs/delusions. I'm very annoyed with my non-hoarding tendencies because only a few years ago I threw out copies of his publicity on this subject. From memory, these were information sheets explaining how oil was made in a young earth/creationist scientific way. I think it involved huge amounts of pressure on vegetable matter in a short space of time in comparison to the billions of years of leetle teeny beasties being squashed under layers of rock. I suspect coal got the same treatment, but with pressure on trees in a speeded up timeframe.
My chemistry lecturer was a really nice chap, but a tad earnest in his scientific/creationist views, although he was meticulous in not mentioning these in lectures and chose instead to set out his stall in the foyer at lunch times and spoke only to those who approached him on the subject. That I can respect as he did not force the educational establishment to include his version of science and faithfully taught chemistry as it was intended.
There are some who reject the usual scientific theory of oil creation and the creationists and have found their own ideas. I'm tempted to give them a cheer for their 'plague on all your houses' attitude. Theirs is the abiogenic origin of petroleum deposits.
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1130.html
And what do I believe? I'm certainly not a creationist, so I suppose I go along with the broad outline of evolution as far as my understanding takes me. However, I was exposed at a sensitive age to yet another concept and some of that has remained lodged in the wishful thinking section of my consciousness. Yes, we were seeded on earth by aliens! Well, probably not, but having read my way through early Von Daniken books and far too much science fiction for my own good, I have a wistful hankering for the presence of alien DNA in my mitochondria.
Forty five years of proselytising and only 10,000 acolytes. What's he doing wrong?
http://www.daniken.com/e/index.html
Artists Date at Home
I’ve not been keeping up with my Artists Dates for the creative group I attend, so I decided to do an at home, online time directly looking at art.
I’m always dismayed at my lack of knowledge of art history, although, to be fair, this is not a subject I’ve ever studied in any formal way. So when I come across a new name I try to investigate and find out more about the artist. I've looked at three artists in my online artists date today.
A name I discovered recently is Artemisia Gentileschi, who was painting in the seventeenth century, having completed an apprentiship with her artist father. http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/index.shtml
There is lots about her online including a website with a slideshow of most of her work. Her themes were largely biblical with an apparent slant towards showing women in more realistic poses and in rather striking activities such as performing beheadings, than similar themes depicted by contemporary male artists. But then the Old Testament is nothing if not gory at times, and some of the women recorded in it were apt to have to take care of themselves in the face of bog standard male violence and assorted wars.
I’m always dismayed at my lack of knowledge of art history, although, to be fair, this is not a subject I’ve ever studied in any formal way. So when I come across a new name I try to investigate and find out more about the artist. I've looked at three artists in my online artists date today.
A name I discovered recently is Artemisia Gentileschi, who was painting in the seventeenth century, having completed an apprentiship with her artist father. http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/index.shtml
There is lots about her online including a website with a slideshow of most of her work. Her themes were largely biblical with an apparent slant towards showing women in more realistic poses and in rather striking activities such as performing beheadings, than similar themes depicted by contemporary male artists. But then the Old Testament is nothing if not gory at times, and some of the women recorded in it were apt to have to take care of themselves in the face of bog standard male violence and assorted wars.
http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/self.html
Last year I discovered the work of Niki de Saint Phalle in an exhibition at the Liverpool Tate. I spent hours in this exhibition in admiration of the variations in styles and the progress throughout her life as manifested in her art. Her life was not easy and in her own words she says:
“Some of my drawings look like those of mad people. Don’t we all have madness in us? Some of us are able to express it more easily.” N de SP
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/niki-de-saint-phalle/
More info here
http://www.niki-museum.jp/english/frame.htm
I found her ‘shooting paintings’ especially interesting. She’d create art with layers of paint inside, then take it out and shoot it. There was terrific old black and white video of this as she shot her paintings with a rifle in front of assembled guests.
Tirage
The third artist is Elizabeth Peyton who talks about her art in an interview on this site.
http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/400
Hers is again an entirely different style from the above artists, but I especially like the look of her portraits.
Piotr on the Couch
I hope this is considered enough of an Artists Date when I report back to the group next week. But I’ve not made time to go to an art gallery recently and I’m not sure that this is the week to take myself off to view the Titians. Given the conflicting feelings I harbour about all that I might find myself standing there growling at them.
Update Feb 23rd:
Greer writing in today's Guardian talks about the value/devaluing of women artists and the tendency for their work to be subsumed into their father's. One commenter mentions a Gentileschi hanging in the Queen's Gallery in Edinburgh. So another addition to my list of paintings to visit!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/23/women-art-history
Angela Merkel Barbie
Today’s story of the 50th anniversary of Barbie (can I point out here that Barbie is officially older than me), is being celebrated by the launch of the Angela Merkel Barbie.
One the one hand it can be noted that if Mattel are going to insist on producing anatomically improbable dolls, then a nod towards aspiring to political power is a positive message for girls. On the other hand, the message is likely to be drowned out by the overwhelming din of the patriarchy telling girls that only their looks count, especially as the Merkel Barbie has made no concessions to the real life body of a mature woman.
This study is important in making the links between Barbie dolls and girls’ body-image.
http://science.uwe.ac.uk/research/uploads/dittmar,%20halliwell%20&%20ive%20(2006).pdf
I’m going to take a positive view of the Merkel Barbie as an indicator of some progress in Barbie’s 50 year existence as I can’t imagine that their 25th celebrations would have been marked by the production of a Thatcher Barbie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/06/angela-merkel-barbie-doll
One the one hand it can be noted that if Mattel are going to insist on producing anatomically improbable dolls, then a nod towards aspiring to political power is a positive message for girls. On the other hand, the message is likely to be drowned out by the overwhelming din of the patriarchy telling girls that only their looks count, especially as the Merkel Barbie has made no concessions to the real life body of a mature woman.
This study is important in making the links between Barbie dolls and girls’ body-image.
http://science.uwe.ac.uk/research/uploads/dittmar,%20halliwell%20&%20ive%20(2006).pdf
I’m going to take a positive view of the Merkel Barbie as an indicator of some progress in Barbie’s 50 year existence as I can’t imagine that their 25th celebrations would have been marked by the production of a Thatcher Barbie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/06/angela-merkel-barbie-doll
Wee Abused Scottish Beasties
You’ll have noticed the very public row between the SSPCA and the RSPCA over the latter’s alleged appropriation of donations from people residing in Scotland and the lack of awareness that they do not work here.
In terms of fairness, and at times in the charitable sector all is fair in money and fundraising, I think the SSPCA have a valid point when they complain that the RSPCA fail to make it abundantly clear that they do not rescue animals in Scotland, therefore any money raised in Scotland is not spent here. This takes away funds which donors might have expected to go towards helping abused Scottish animals.
I have some, if not conflicting thoughts about this, then a degree of disquiet. I suffer from a knee-jerk reaction of amazed distaste when I hear of people leaving enormous legacies to animal charities. In my view there are other more pressing causes which do not parade cuddly mutts/bunnies/goldfish to wring the heartstrings of the soppy, therefore otherwise deserving causes fail to attract the money they need to provide services which are not popular or are completely misunderstood. For example, lots of agencies seeking to help adult women are hideously underfunded, but crucially, the ethical ones do not try to raise money by trotting out ‘victims’. They know that this is demeaning to women who have suffered whatever problem their service is needed for and is ultimately counter-productive, as there is a perception that over-use of ‘victims’ leads to potential donor-fatigue.
Some well known children’s charities have spent years and an advertising budget possibly well in excess of the total available to ethical women’s charities in portraying helpless children at the mercy of known adults. Sadly there can be an unhelpful patriarchal message in there which encourages mother-blaming. That is contrary to a sound feminist analysis of the nuclear family and the coping strategies employed by many struggling mothers.
And that brings me to another aspect of my disquiet which is that given these large charities are using similar advertising strategies to the RSPCA, and there is frequently a separate but similar Scottish version, are they also poaching funds that people in Scotland are assuming are going to help Scottish children?
Some of the articles reporting on the SSPCA/RSPCA issue are trying to recommend that these Scottish agencies join their English/Welsh counterparts in an exercise to maximise their efforts. This as usual displays ignorance of the separate English/Welsh legal system and the completely different social/welfare structures in those two nations from the Scottish systems.
So, parts of my political world-view are negotiating some kind of reaction to this with other parts of my political world-view. I think this is a peculiar personal form of intersectionality. Damn, nothing is straightforward, is it?
Typically, the Guardian finds the most bizarre commentator to do a comment is free piece on this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/04/animalwelfare-animals
The comments below this article are priceless! But they demonstrate another issue which is that many people have no concept of how charitable agencies operate and complain about misuse of donations. Sigh, such dimwittedness and possibly from the same mindset that would be all for unrestrained capitalism.
Disclaimer:
I don’t advocate neglecting abused animals and I personally frown upon kitten-drowning, eating flesh and all such nastiness, I merely prefer to direct my charitable impulses elsewhere.
In terms of fairness, and at times in the charitable sector all is fair in money and fundraising, I think the SSPCA have a valid point when they complain that the RSPCA fail to make it abundantly clear that they do not rescue animals in Scotland, therefore any money raised in Scotland is not spent here. This takes away funds which donors might have expected to go towards helping abused Scottish animals.
I have some, if not conflicting thoughts about this, then a degree of disquiet. I suffer from a knee-jerk reaction of amazed distaste when I hear of people leaving enormous legacies to animal charities. In my view there are other more pressing causes which do not parade cuddly mutts/bunnies/goldfish to wring the heartstrings of the soppy, therefore otherwise deserving causes fail to attract the money they need to provide services which are not popular or are completely misunderstood. For example, lots of agencies seeking to help adult women are hideously underfunded, but crucially, the ethical ones do not try to raise money by trotting out ‘victims’. They know that this is demeaning to women who have suffered whatever problem their service is needed for and is ultimately counter-productive, as there is a perception that over-use of ‘victims’ leads to potential donor-fatigue.
Some well known children’s charities have spent years and an advertising budget possibly well in excess of the total available to ethical women’s charities in portraying helpless children at the mercy of known adults. Sadly there can be an unhelpful patriarchal message in there which encourages mother-blaming. That is contrary to a sound feminist analysis of the nuclear family and the coping strategies employed by many struggling mothers.
And that brings me to another aspect of my disquiet which is that given these large charities are using similar advertising strategies to the RSPCA, and there is frequently a separate but similar Scottish version, are they also poaching funds that people in Scotland are assuming are going to help Scottish children?
Some of the articles reporting on the SSPCA/RSPCA issue are trying to recommend that these Scottish agencies join their English/Welsh counterparts in an exercise to maximise their efforts. This as usual displays ignorance of the separate English/Welsh legal system and the completely different social/welfare structures in those two nations from the Scottish systems.
So, parts of my political world-view are negotiating some kind of reaction to this with other parts of my political world-view. I think this is a peculiar personal form of intersectionality. Damn, nothing is straightforward, is it?
Typically, the Guardian finds the most bizarre commentator to do a comment is free piece on this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/04/animalwelfare-animals
The comments below this article are priceless! But they demonstrate another issue which is that many people have no concept of how charitable agencies operate and complain about misuse of donations. Sigh, such dimwittedness and possibly from the same mindset that would be all for unrestrained capitalism.
Disclaimer:
I don’t advocate neglecting abused animals and I personally frown upon kitten-drowning, eating flesh and all such nastiness, I merely prefer to direct my charitable impulses elsewhere.
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