boondoggle quixotically

Some words are so curious they're almost human, make you want to chuckle to yourself about both their truth and their absurdity. I give you two which made my day;

Boondoggle (n): work of little or no value done merely to look busy
(v): to do useless, wasteful or trivial work

Quixotically (adv): in a quixotic manner
Quixotic (adj): not sensible about practival matters; idealistic and unrealistic
eg, He pursues his political ambitions quixotically

dancer

In another life, I would've been a dancer. I would've allowed myself to experience microcosms of life every time I took to the stage. I would've allowed the dance to speak for me and the movements to take the glory for me.

I envy the thrill that they get in the performance. It's like being an athlete, only more fun; all the discipline plus the creativity. But what I love most about dance is its timelessness. We can evolve with the music of our times. So that even when our feet fail, we're still dancing.

art and protest

True to their vanguard method of protests, PETA does it again, staging demonstrations against the killing of fish for food or sport.


It's a thin line they play between erotica and the intent to shock in order to convey a message. How much of it is art if it can be considered art?


Or maybe the point is that we are so indifferent to animal rights that their cause warrants this ferocity of protest...


More recently, Lady Gaga at the MTV VMA awards last night dressed in meat (much to PETA's fury). The irony is that perhaps this is a toast to tasting their own medicine. And funnily enough, I actually quite liked the cut of the dress, lol.

word of the day : to covet

Perhaps the train of thought is coming from the previous post, Beauty Pains... The word, first became prominent for me following the film, The Silence of the Lambs. And thereafterward I was conscious that "we covet... we covet what we see everyday."

–verb (used with object)

1.

to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others: to covet another's property.

2.

to wish for, esp. eagerly: He won the prize they all coveted.

–verb (used without object)

3.

to have an inordinate or wrongful desire.

[C13: from Old French coveitier, from coveitié eager desire, ultimately from Latin cupiditā cupidity ]

I then looked up the Latin derivations and found cupide (eagerly), cupiditas (desire, longing), cupido (lust, greed), cupidus (eager, longing for, greedy, passionate), cupio (to desire) all of which suggest an untamed passion if not greed, a wrongful desire if you must.

Why do we covet? Why aren't we content? Why is it wrong?

Beauty pains

It's true. Beauty can pain. Because it's exactly then that you realise that something else isn't beautiful. You aren't beautiful, your life isn't beautiful, no man's love for you has ever been beautiful enough. It's then that the contrast bites. And for some of us, we find ourselves feeling like miss Celie does in Alice Walker's, The Color Purple;

Tell me the truth, she say, do you mind if [your husband] sleep with me?
I think, I don’t care who [he] sleep with. But I don’t say that. I say, You might get big again... You like to sleep with him? I ast.
Yeah,.. she say,.. I just love it. Don’t you?
Naw, I say. I don’t like it at all. What is it like? He git up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist, plunge in. Most times I pretend I ain’t there. He never know the difference. Never ast me how I feel, nothing. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep.
She start to laugh. Do his business, she say. Do his business. Why, Miss Celie. You make it sound like he going to the toilet on you.
That what it feel like, I say.
She stop laughing...


....But when I hear them together all I can do is pull the quilt over my head and finger my little button and titties and cry.

Graffiti

I just LOVED this photo! My friend on the corner of Houston and Bowery, NYC.

le battement d'ailes du papillon

Le Battement d'ailes du Papillon (2000) muses about the interconnectedness of things; the six degrees of separation between people and the butterfly effect of our actions.

A series of events as miniscule as the travelling of bugs, the blowing of sand or the deliberate chase of a thief conspire to create fate or destiny, as predicted by the horoscope or tarot card reader.

At once a play with light, idiosyncrasies and chance, Le Battement d'ailes du Papillon entertains while conveying a cause and effect theory albeit machinated.

Genre: comedy, drama, romance
Director: Laurent Firode
Starring: Audrey Tatou, Faudel

Marie-Antoinette

Marie-Antoinette (2006) written and directed by Sofia Coppola follows the life of Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria and later Queen of France. Historically, it is relatively accurate, Marie-Antoinette was married by proxy and later handed over to the French court, she did not have children until her brother visited the king, she tended to her garden in the Petit Trianon, enjoyed parties and dresses and performed at her own theatre (in dance however and not in song as the movie depicts).

Coppola gives the film an ethereal quality, tending towards showing a positive and down-to-earth Marie-Antoinette; showing for example her committment to Louis XVI by keeping at his side despite her having an affair, showing her often in the garden, and preferring the more simple dresses (as was true in real life). Coppola however attributes little to Marie-Antoinette's political contribution to French politics (be it ironically minimal) nor to the difficulty of the position in which she had to straddle French and Austrian interests. The film thus maintains its delicacy and particularly so with an ending that avoids her beheading.

Coppola achieves a visual feast in Marie-Antoinette, profiting not only on the detail but also on the panoramic shots. It is this that keeps the viewer as the pace never quite picks up. Marie-Antoinette's character itself is affable and Dunst effects this without much trouble having played a similar role in Elizabethtown (2005). None of the other characters are of much note as the script intends to consider Marie-Antoinette alone.

Genre: Historical Drama
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman
Written & Directed by Sofia Ford Coppola

Escape in Nabulus

On the subject of art for healing. Tomorrow's Youth Organisation, Core Child Program offers chidren aged 4-8 non-formal education activities in art, health, IT, music, English and sport in the most disadvantaged cities of Nabulus, West Bank, Palestine. All activities are designed to teach children self-expression, practical skills, and recreational coping strategies in a safe environment.

Activities include mosaic making, documentary filmmaking, photography, theatre, arts and crafts among others.

Sample Mahmood's winning photo below in their photography competition and then visit their blog and their public art and photography project site.

Noah in Rwanda

it shrinks your hair, the next thing you know...
you can't stop coughing, ough, ough, ough
hey let's altogher as brothers and sisters...
hand in hand fight of HIV/AIDS

Mushimiyimana Noah appeared on the Tyra Show last year with Alicia Keys as Keys talked about her NGO, Keep A Child Alive which provides life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support services to children and families whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa) and India by directly engaging the global public in the fight against AIDS.

Noah is 15 years old and HIV positive. His dream is to produce an album to take care of his family in Rwanda.

Art is a means of expression (whether protest or praise) but it is also a means of livelihood and a method of healing (see janjaweed post). The balance between authenticity and commercial viability is a difficult one. I hope he remains true but I also hope that we appreciate his music enough to make it a livelihood for him. I hope that he rises to that occasion.

Click the link to see him perform on the Tyra Show. Noah.