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Archive for the ‘Rant’ Category

When does someone go so far left they end up on the right?

So, when does a person go so far left they complete the circle to the right? Neil Carpenter, a fellow creative writer brought this topic up in a class Monday night. I go to a very leftist school, where the common thought of non-students is, “I don’t know what they do over there but it must be art.” We have a very energetic if a bit patronizing professor who we both feel falls into the militant hippie category.

Militant Hippie, in this context, is a person that believes so much in the individual right to freedom that they become militant about insuring these rights to everyone. Even if it means, “forcing” those rights on to those who don’t desire them. These types of freedom fighters become so rigid in their desire to make everyone match their personal definition of free that they loose site of the fact that every one has the right to not want that same level of freedom. Which ironically destroys their idea of everyone being free, but they don’t’ see it that way. They see your lack of desire for their level of freedom as ignorance and therefore you must be educated.

Lets define the average American’s idea of liberal and conservative or left and right views(please remember that we are discussing mostly Democratic views, but the overall idea between liberal and conservative is the same). The leftist or Liberal ideology is that every individual deserves the right to freedom, freedom of their own choices, actions, thoughts, and words. While the conservative view is more that the “individual” is incapable of making choices that fit with the “moral Majority” and as such that the “masses” need to make the choices for the “individual.”

So, the militant hippie, varies from the freedom loving person, who wants peace and harmony among all mankind, to the person who seeks social justice and reform in every aspect of human life. Now, social justice is all good and well, and maybe a class or two on the topic in a college setting is great maybe even highly recommended. Every aspect of every degree in a college, however, should not be tainted with this militant outlook, no matter how liberal the school. Forcing a particular political slant down the throat of college students for four years or more is excessive for even the most rigid right winged colleges.

College is a place of learning, of higher education, of soul searching and of social growth. Militant hippies can be found in just about every college campus in the US. After all college is all about the freedom to think and learn. Colleges around the US are great places to learn about the varying ideas of conservative and liberal thought.

When we talk about the left and right views, just about everyone should be able to find someone they know that they consider to be conservative and someone they know that they consider liberal. In general we tend to surround ourselves with people that have at least similar views as ourselves, though even among friends and loved ones you will find variances in opinions.

Often the areas that individuals live in taint their points of view. For example, individuals living in say, Killeen Texas, are likely to have more conservative views than those living in San Francisco California. Their over all conservative natures will be different regardless of their choice of label. When Rich and I moved to Nashville Tennesse, we were what was considered conservative individuals, with a few liberal ideas. Yet when we arrived there we were considered so liberal that we ended up having to come up with a phrase that would remove us from political conversations. Quite often all we had to say was, “I am Californian.” which was often responded to with, “oh, that explains a lot!” I am sure that many conservative Californians are considered Militant Hippies is more conservative states and areas when in fact that is not the case when they are in their own locale.

So as a closing note, it is important to realize that while liberals can be far over the deep end to some people, they are not in their own minds and quite often in their own circles. However… no matter how liberal or conservative we/you are it is important to realize that to avoid the term “Militant” you have to remember that your opinion is yours. And while telling others your opinion is healthy and good for everyone involved, pushing your agenda and onions on others repeatedly is what turns you into the one thing you are claiming to be fighting against in the first place. You go from being the liberal open minded person, to the conservative closed minded person your working so hard to stop. So, use caution and ask yourself how you feel about someone pushing their agenda on you before you push it on another.

Gotta love Jessie!!!! Thanks for fixing the iMac!!!

I am blogging from my phone. Expect more from me more often. Assuming anyone even bothers to read it in the first place.

Who loves kitty????

Assuming anyone actually checks this regularly there are more pics up for the new house. I am evidently seriously allergic to corn though I (and my doctor evidently)am pretty sure it’s in my head and evidently so are my severe chest pains that I have been getting since I was a kid. Oh and there is nothing at all wrong with the severely swollen ankle that occasionally turns a purple color, according to my orthopedic surgeon and I don’t need to keep coming back complaining about it.

I give up on doctor’s or at the very least I am done with doctors for myself. According to my doctor there is nothing at all wrong with me, I have a perfect heart and there is nothing wrong with my stomach and the allergy is in my head. So I don’t plan to go back to any doctor until I am dying… or I get like a serious ear infection again, but then it will be urgent care for my antibiotics and that’s it.

But the point of this post was to tell my non existent reader base (even my husband doesn’t read this unless I tell him to) that the new pics are up of the house. Whatever, enjoy.

It sucks watching that pot boil, especially when you know the process is going to take weeks and even months. However, that is where I am… sitting here, watching the pot boil, ever so slowly. Though I will admit it’s kind of lending its self to an interesting project. Assuming I can grimace my way through it and force myself to go to the site and take the photo’s regardless of the pain. I had managed some phone camera shots, but then there was issues getting the shots on to this computer then to the site, finally I just gave up and went to the site with the pro camera today.

If your interested in seeing the rest of the shots from the site hop over to the Homeward Bound page. You can find the link to the left and up top. Stay tuned folks, there will be plenty more to see as the weeks grind on.

Pictorialism is an interesting term. One defiantly designed to be tied to pictures. Whether those are pictures done by machine or hand was very much the point of this particular term. During the time, which was later dubbed Pictorialist, the photographers were very much beginning to see themselves as more than just the typical housewife snapping images for posterity. Real photographers had begun to realize that in order to stand out among the common person with a camera they had to find something that made them unique. Mozart, Rembrandt, Machiavelli and Michelangelo all had unique pieces that would allow them to be remembered throughout time. Since photography can’t create wings no could it mimic words of wisdom, which left it the only truly logical next choice, paintings and drawings.

It was not a far reach for the new field of art attempting to prove it’s self to find methods to mimic the method of creating pictures that had come before it. A simple softening of the image through the use of “soft lenses” or in the post production where they could alter the image through the use of various chemicals.

In the digital world, unlike in the 1900′s, it is much easier to work with post processing via some program such as photoshop etc… to turn our already beautiful (or sometimes only mediocre) images into amazingly complicated works of art. While the photographers in history had to fight tooth and nail to prove that their images, or pictures, were indeed works of art, we in modern times have a slightly less difficult job. I would like to stress though that the idea that photography is not actually art is FAR from a dead argument.

I would like to ask though.. where does something cease to become art and instead just become a bad or ugly image?

For an example, lets look at the above images. Are they art, or is one just horribly out of focus? Most people will say that they are art (least you’d better ;-P). I think the idea of art is subjective, though pretty much any art critic will tell you that it is not. However, lets assume for a brief second that they are right. Lets say that art has to meet a certain preset list of values to be defined as art. Why then may I ask, does the style of art change? I mean, think about it. Van Gosh, his art did not match the style at the time (I am not an art major I am not 100% on this particular fact), yet today his art is just that, art.

Throughout time art has changed and adapted. Critics are renowned for denouncing something as art then having that particular type of art explode and become the predominate style for that time, which in turn forces critics to change their tune and suddenly say that the works they had denounced before are now spectacular works in of themselves.

So I ask a again… What is art?

“Of all things the measure is man, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not.” – Protagoras

no, no let me skip it all… I will bitch later.

Ricky’s keyboard… tell me that’s not bitchin, I dare you!

Okay it is the next day now, I should probably bitch here… This technical class is kicking my butt… I mean I can get decent pictures, but I will admit I barely pay attention to the numbers when I do it. I am a hobbyist trying to get my masters in a technical field… I am seriously regretting my decision. Rich, true to form though is holding me up nicely. allowing me to vent at him and just taking it all in and offering up suggestions when he can. I will admit he has convinced me to keep trying and even to put more time and thought towards the class. He is right though, the are graduate level classes, not the easy gimmie classes like my undergrad work. It is just rough and topping it all off with everything else going on in my life right now and I am barely treading water. I just hope this is the last harshly technical class I have to worry about. I keep telling myself that the rest should be more of composition and such and hopefully less technical crap.

I love nighttime photography. The warm colors and gentle lighting… I think it is probably my favorite.

Well, as anyone versed in historical myth’s knows, the phoenix is the symbol (mythical bird) know for it’s death and rebirth. And know that hey zeus character does not have the monopoly on that myth. In fact it was around for millennia or two before him. Hell, his EXACT story was around in Babylonian times…. which for you historically challenged people… take a history class at a community college that does NOT have to do with the US of A. And the story happened twelve times throughout history before his version that is so etched in modern theological rhetoric. okay, where was I? Oh yeah, the phoenix.

The mythical phoenix has several different versions (which anyone who has ever played the telephone came can understand) basic idea is death in a fiery wrath and then rebirth. So… hence…. my web page was brought to a crash due to a potential compromise to it’s security and everything was wiped. Even the databases. Will everything come back up? eh… who knows. I have a lot of crap piled up here on my desk, so we will have to see. For now though… the site is up and I am kinda dorking around with my scanner and adobe illustrator. Feel free to poke around and see what’s there. I am moderating posts from previous bad experiences, but feel free to make an account and post if you like.

Sincerely,

Wee