CassandraLanger culture chats

Video- Rabbi Shaul Praver sings Hebrew prayer at Newtown vigil

2012-12-17T17:22:00.001-08:00

Video- Rabbi Shaul Praver sings Hebrew prayer at Newtown vigil

Contact Senator Sanders: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont)

2012-11-23T10:34:00.001-08:00

Contact Senator Sanders: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont) check this out. This guy is a true progressive. We need to get together and reform our democratic government.

Lionel Barrymore: A Crusty Curmugdeon...But Only On-Screen!MovieFanFare

2012-11-13T16:28:00.001-08:00

Lionel Barrymore: A Crusty Curmugdeon...But Only On-Screen!MovieFanFare Terrific I've seen almost everything he has appeared in. I think they deserve the label royalty of the American theater and film industry. I can't think of actors who had their range and ability to deliver performances that were consistently good and emotionally compelling no matter what they were in.

Read and follow the money

2012-11-02T13:15:00.001-07:00

SUPER PAC CONTRIBUTIONS FROM TOP 10 CITIES:

This is who is running your so-called democracy. If you want real voting by real people-one vote one person try to push for campaign reform. The debt is not the real problem-the crooked elections are.

CITY/DISTRICT

STATE

TOTAL

% OF TOTAL

RANK

WASHINGTON

DC

$71,626,888

14.02%

1

LAS VEGAS

NV

$48,663,867

9.53%

2

NEW YORK CITY

NY

$40,775,313

7.98%

3

HOUSTON

TX

$36,414,642

7.13%

4

DALLAS

TX

$32,038,260

6.27%

5

CHICAGO

IL

$16,622,147

3.25%

6

LOS ANGELES

CA

$13,676,592

2.68%

7

LITTLE JACKSON HOLE

WY

$12,250,000

2.40%

8

DETROIT

MI

$10,880,684

2.13%

9

SAN FRANCISCO

CA

$ 9,155,113

1.79%

10

57.18%

METHODOLOGY: MapLight analysis of contributions to independent expenditure-only committees (super PACs). Contribution data source: Federal Election Commission, Jan. 1, 2011-Sept. 30, 2012, as of Oct. 29, 2012. Super PAC positions data source: Center for Responsive Politics.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you use MapLight data, please cite us accordingly ("A MapLight analysis of FEC data ...").

History's Magic Mirror: America’s Economic Crisis and the Weimar Republic of Pre-Nazi Germany

2012-11-01T16:08:00.001-07:00

History's Magic Mirror: America’s Economic Crisis and the Weimar Republic of Pre-Nazi Germany
We have a lot to be afraid of depending on next weeks outcome. All the voter manipulation going on with the GOP and the hurricane. Will we be able to get through this election cycle believing that our elections are not being screwed up by immoral operatives? We'll see about voter fraud Fla. style next week. I hope the democrats will not be so spineless this time around if irregularities by GOP are found and won't back down when challenged.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott Says PS 195 5th Grader Kameron Slade Will Be Allowed To Deliver Speech Supporting Same-Sex Marriage « CBS New York

2012-06-16T10:06:00.001-07:00

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott Says PS 195 5th Grader Kameron Slade Will Be Allowed To Deliver Speech Supporting Same-Sex Marriage « CBS New York Learning about discrimination and hate at school! What's wrong with this picture. Fire the principal. This individual does not belong in an educational capacity. Teaching hate politics and censorship is not an education mandate unless you are a KKK or GOP hate monger. Scapegoating a population is not the American way despite the fascists in our society who like the Nazis of the 1930s would like to make it so. It could happen here if we are not alert.

Dissent Magazine - Online Features - The Genderless War on Women’s Health -

2012-06-04T12:30:00.001-07:00

Dissent Magazine - Online Features - The Genderless War on Women’s Health - The inherent dangers of a genderless approach are that women's concerns tend to disappear. Recently on the upper floors of a Manhattan based gay center--the distinction Woman's room disappeared but MEN's rooms still are labeled as such. What's wrong with this picture!!!

Boy, 4, sings anti-gay hymn in Indiana church

2012-05-30T21:05:00.001-07:00

Boy, 4, sings anti-gay hymn in Indiana church
It is happening here, it has happened here. Tomorrow belongs to me from Cabaret is something that is now. You have to be carefully taught as the song from South Pacific reminds us and this is a horrible example of filling toddler minds with hate and reinforcing adult agendas. From the Klan to these people the extremes are alive and well in the US of A. We need to be alert and vote these representatives out of congress and our government or we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

Winnaretta Singer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2012-05-16T09:33:00.001-07:00

Winnaretta Singer Polignac was one of the strangest lovers Romaine Brooks ever encountered. Their affair began in 1905 when Romaine first moved to Paris. The laison effectively ended Winnaretta's affair with Olga de Meyer, who was married at the time and whose godfather (and purported biological father) was Edward VII. Princess Winnie then bedded composer and conductor Ethel Smyth. In the early 1920s Polignac became involved with pianist Renata Borgatti who Romaine also had an affair with. The princesses most famous affair was with the British socialite and novelist Violet Trefusis, with whom she had a loving but often turbulent and sadistic relationship.That lasted for over a decade. Her last lover was Alvilde Chaplin, future wife of the author James Lees-Milne, was involved with Singer from 1938 to 1943; the two women were living together in London at the time of Winnaretta's death.

CassandraLanger culture chats: Preview "Romaine Brooks Happy Birthday"

2012-05-01T15:36:00.001-07:00

CassandraLanger culture chats: Preview "Romaine Brooks Happy Birthday"

Mary Beth Edelson: A long over due tribute

2012-04-06T10:48:00.001-07:00

First disclaimers, as an art historian/working critic I have known Mary Beth Edelson and her work since the feminist revolution of the 1970s. This being said I have to say I was knocked out by how au current the content of her art is now. The escalating war on women's rights being forwarded by the most extreme politicians and their puppet masters on the planet and in the US of A only serves to make us realize how very revolutionary her art was then and how radical it is today.
"The most intimate works included in the exhibition are a series of unique 10” x 12” black and white photographs with oil and collage that picture the artist’s early 1970’s ritual performances. This initial exploration of the possibilities of feminist “body art” has been widely reproduced and influential for subsequent generations of artists." The publicity blurb hardly covers the ground of what Edelson has done since her famous president setting appropriation of Leonardo's Last Supper in which she replaced his supporters with great women heroes of the past and then recent history. The original which was bought by the Museum of Modern art is on view in working form at the gallery (547 West 27th St. 6th Floor).
Not only is Mary Beth a cutting edge with it now artist but she also has a wicked sense of humor. I was highly amused by her women with guns series that included Bride of Frankenstein, Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, and assorted other pistol packing mamas drawn from grade B film noir.
In this telling exhibition, Edelson now age 80 has let fly her imagination covering one wall with cut-outs embodying her most radical images. This is a virtual collage of her inspirations and a wonderful homage to all that inspired the feminist revolution of the 1970s and beyond.
If you have any political leanings, if you desire to be an activist and part of the solution not the on-going problem do not miss this Edelson's exhibition nor the excellent essay by Eleanor Hartney that accompanies it in the catalogue. Your mind will be opened, your spirit inspired and your activism ignited.

n 1: On the Market

2012-03-10T16:52:00.001-08:00

n 1: On the Market Love this. A moment of truth in the great hype that surrounds art and the darkly shadowed dealings of the delivery system. What this has to do with art? EVERYTHING! If you can't sell it, get it in a New York, Paris, Berlin etc. gallery you aren't an artist or so the corporate money machine wants you to believe. What would they have done with Rembrandt? Forget Nevelson and even Cindy Sherman who has made it knows how much the facade counts and how expensive the truly artificial is. Why do they do it--BECAUSE they can!

Cindy Sherman at the MOMA NYC

2012-03-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

On my second go around of the show I overheard a young woman remark to her boy friend as she stood in front to one of Sherman's untitled pieces, Ugh! I don't like this--to which he replied --me neither and they both veered off toward less threatening pieces. What was this art that so repulsed these twenty somethings. A reprise of Courbet's Source which had been shoved off into a specially created closet for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's show a few years ago. Sherman's however, was a delightful riff on the whole idea of the gender/sex/identity theories floating around. It showed a dual torso with a pink ribbon bisecting it's middle. On one side a ruby red vagina directed your eye to the orchid like opening and on the other side of the divide a penis adorned with a cock ring and rising greeted your unbelieving eyes.
Why this was so off-putting to most of the audience in the MOMA the day we went is beyond me. Perhaps it is the on-going puritanicalism that has so frozen any possibility of comfort when it comes to discussing, indulging and experiencing the truly erotic in America? It's an area, as Sherman so rightly and pointedly suggests, we need to revisit again and again instead of shying away closing our eyes to what is in front of us.

Most viewers are drawn to images like these which are spectacular and rightly so. Only a really risk taking viewer would dare to linger in front of the Sherman I described. Go see the show and see for yourself. It is worth a first, second and third look because it is packed with provocative images by one of the best artists working today.

Tell the Park Service to phase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone Na: Thank You - Take Action!: NRDC's Save BioGems

2012-03-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

Tell the Park Service to phase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone Na: Thank You - Take Action!: NRDC's Save BioGems Creeps on wheels indulging their infantile addictions at the expense of our environment, national treasures and the habitats that remain.

Save Idaho's Wolves From Aerial Gunning

2012-02-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

Save Idaho's Wolves From Aerial Gunning Here we go again slaughter by cowards who don't even have the decency to hunt fair. Afraid of the wolves actually excaping or beating them in the wilderness! Not in my name. Not one more tax dollar for this cowardly murder project.

Florentine painting and more

2012-02-04T10:54:00.000-08:00

Finally had a moment to catch the show at the Met. I was enchanted as always by the aesthetic considerations of these portraits but this time around more impressed by Ghirlandaio and Bellini. Why? Because of their ability to access the most moving of human emotions with such simplicity and insight. First the wonderful portrait of an old man and little boy thought to be a grandfather and his grandson. Despite the old man's ugly face due to a chronic condition that distorted hin nose the angelic child looks up at him with adoring eyes. The gaze between these two is so touching in conveying the intimate connection, heartfelt connection that it takes your breath away. This is especially true in times like our own where true emotional connection and intimacy seem to be so rarely, authentically available for a variety of reasons too complex to get into in a blog. The Bellini is entirely a different matter. I remembered it vividly because a very talented painter friend of mine had based a painting of his lover on the Bellini. The original was a perfect blend of decorative motifs of lillies and various other symbols surrounding an old priest. The contrast of the super sized flowers with their brunished bronzed leaves, white flowers and upright stalks made a perfect setting for the realistically rendered head of this old man. The beauty of the composition, understanding of scale and color balance is damn near perfect. I would be hard put to find a better portrait in the entire history of art. The ability of Bellini to render character too is telling. He shows us a character that is resolute, inwardly focused and other worldly. The face is a map of this man's life, ambiitons and adaptations. In these two portraits each artist has been able to reveal the deepest human emotions before our eyes. What we do with what they have presented is part of how great art lives and transcends its time.

De Kooning and spaces in the brain

2011-12-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

Recently saw the de Kooning show at the Modern. It is a beautiful and sensitive installation. I was impressed with what a master he was and how tragic his increasing Alzheimers was. He seemed to have it all together until about the mid-1960s when he faltered. I do not know if this was due to the early on-set or what. The impressive thing about the work prior to that was just how integrated his art was in terms of structure, drawing, color, form and space. He inherited all the best of Dutch and European traditions and married them with his own brand of abstraction. His use of color was eccentric and all his own and the way his line cut into space suggested layered dimensionsa and parallel universes.
Much has been made of his Divas but those Goddesses were embodiments of his own emotions concerning women and they were complex. I never saw them as women hating perse but rather his complex feelings about the women in his life and women in general as powerful and unpredictable figures.
The shocking part of the exhibition is the visual representations of his increasing disability. He was at the end a painting machine that went on cranking out paintings that reflected the spaces in his brain as his brush tried to encompass what was no longer there; the focused energy and emotions of a master artist.

Check out our new site: How the GOP Stole Christmas

2011-12-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Check out our new site: How the GOP Stole Christmas: Check out our new site: How the GOP Stole Christmas: https://www.dccc.org/pages/gopstolechristmas Yep you can bet deep pocket Koch brother-type Santa's are making sure he has a merry xmas at your expense. Vote them all out next year.

Healthcare for all a cultural issue

2011-10-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

You betcha! Artists are cultural workers and as such often have no way to pay over $600.00 a month for healthcare. This group is trying to highlight the issue at a time when the flat-landers and know/no nothings are busy killing off what little safety net we have left in their version/vision of the American future they envision. The House just passed a murder woman bill that boggles the mind when it is wrapped in what they style 'Christian" compassion. Any hospital can refuse to perform a life-saving abortion. Human cell tissue is more alive than the woman carrying it-by their lights-out brains. And, Obama just jettisoned the long term part of the health plan as too expensive when it might have allowed family care givers to be paid rather than insurance companies squeezing the last pennies out of distressed working families. Is this the America we wanted to see. No, I don't think the 99% ever envisioned Eric Cantor and company's utopia. Great for the elites like the artistocrats of old and the peasants be damned. Fight the wars and die so the rich can play on. Well you know what the French did with that. They got carried away but had a point and delivered it sharply to the heads that oppressed them. Yes Artists need healthcare.

Twitter / Tweet Button

2011-06-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Twitter / Tweet Button So now new information on Van Gogh's portraits. Play it by ear seems to be the watch word at the Van Gogh foundation. They have discovered that portraits they thought were of Van Gogh himself actually are of his brother Theo. How--by ear--the one that isn't cut off is thought to be the clue to who is who!

Price to restore The Triumph of Civic Virtue marble statue in Queens is high

2011-05-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Price to restore The Triumph of Civic Virtue marble statue in Queens is high
Well here I am on my soap box trying to finds culture in Queens and folks who care enough to sign on to a grassroots group effort to rally the troops to save this American master's work. Contact me for a meet up if you have any interest in keeping this treasure in Queens.

The Agenda Project: America The Beautiful

2011-05-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

This says it all. If you vote GOP or think you are a Christian when you sign on to the stupid and misleading policies that the extreme right supports-the only result is before your eyes. Is this what you really want American to be about? I don't think so. Gertrude Stein summed it up pretty well. What's in a name--if you call medicare "socialism" to scare people then you can cheat them out of just about everything they've worked for--social security and medicare. We have a broken system and the people who have broken it are getting fatter and greedier as the moments pass. Civil virtue is almost on a resporator and if people don't wise up the visual we just saw could become reality.

PEN American Center - 2011 PEN World Voices Festival

2011-04-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

PEN American Center - 2011 PEN World Voices Festival For those of us who believe that if they don't pay you-you don't have to be jerked around by them. If you were wondering about alternatives and haven't quit you day job you can have your say--find out ways and means for independents.

The Secret Life of Poets: Two Sides of Emily Dickinson - She Writes

2011-04-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Secret Life of Poets: Two Sides of Emily Dickinson - She Writes: "Wild Nights -- Wild Nights!

Were I with thee

Wild Nights should be

Our luxury!

Futile -- the Winds –

To a Heart in port –

Done with the Compass –

Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden –

Ah, the Sea!

Might I but moor – Tonight –

In Thee!"

A John Ascroft moment in Kew Gardens-is public sculpture doomed!

2011-04-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Power and its Abuses

I have lately lost faith in the power of reason. I think the time has come for those of us who call ourselves art critics to fish or cut bait.

Recently the College Art Association, to which I have belonged since the 1960s, has opted to take a pass on writing a letter of support regarding saving a public work of art by the sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, entitled Civic Virtue (something sorely needed in these times). The work crumbles in Kew Gardens, while politicians--including my democratic populist representative--exploit it as a political football to advance their own ambitions. Killing two birds with one stone, Anthony Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) contends that the work is an eye sore and sexist--that the City of New York should sell it off on Craigslist rather than conserve it. His statements would be laughable were it not that he follows John Ashcroft, Pied-Piper like, in his efforts to rid the country of works of art he deems valueless. And his precedent is encouraging others in turn. [This sort of hypocrisy recalls the disingenuous cant of the Nazi party concerning decadent art during the 1930s--cut???.] In Maine, for example, the governor’s recent efforts to remove a 2007 public mural devoted to the subject of laborers represent the same self-serving politics as those of Weiner (and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall). Yet their opinions decidedly do not reflect the sentiments of the local community. Add to this the efforts to relocate Charles Alston and Hale Woodruff's murals from their public perch in an historically important Los Angeles building to the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History, and the signals are clear. Together these events underscore the fragility of an idea that we tend to take for granted: that public art is designed as "site-specific," contributes to a sense of place, and serves as an economic engine for localities that aren't necessarily in the metropolitan center.

Queens, in fact boasts only the residues of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs and the MacMonnies monument as cultural artifacts. People (mostly politicians), as art historian Michele Bogart has noted, seem to believe that if they don't like the work of public art, that it should just be moved out of sight (sorry for pun) and out of mind.

Politicians knee-jerk reactions are not acceptable when they have the power to act upon them. We who have thought long and hard about art know much better, and it behooves us to stand up for what we know is right. Pastor Martin Niemöllers much-cited statement comes immediately to mind:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.

The CAA elects not to speak out against irresponsible political statements and actions (which have potentially disasterous implications for all public art) because “its members might have some considerable differences of opinion” about these works of art. In making this decision, the organization has abdicated of one of its central responsibilities as a professional arts organization. The CAA should be establishing mechanisms for members to mobilize quickly to fire back when politicians behave as did the governor of Maine, or, as was the case with Congressman Weiner, cavelierely disregard the fact that the municipality has a long-standing, charter-mandated process in place for the removal and relocation of works of art. The CAA should be looking out for the interests of its public artist members and actively supporting the idea of conserving works that have been selected for a city’s permanent collection. Civic Virtue is but one example. If we allow it to disintegrate, then any public work that fails to capture the heart of political representatives is potentially in jeopardy.

To ignore the corruption of basic values that we know to be true in both art and life is to collude in our own corruption. Niemöller’s statement affirms that we must all stay vigilant and go against the current if we hope to preserve the creative freedoms we value.