Weaponized children

It would seem natural that you have children to love them and discipline them into healthy adulthood. But in America, too many children are saddled with the baggage of divorce, drug addiction, poverty, alcoholism, sexual dysfunction, violence and more as a fact of their growing up. These kinds of circumstances create burdens for children that can take a lifetime to undo.

These children then, in reality, become too easily “weaponized” into bullies, criminals, sexual predators, addicts before they have the support necessary to become productive members of their society. We then spend our resources trying to save them, reform them rehabilitate them, incarcerate them.

Is there a better way, a more astute way to meet the problem at its root?

MLS

I’m glad MLS has welcomed in Cincinnati. I like soccer and attend FC Cincinnati games.

People praise the now three professional sports teams we have in Cincinnati, but pass over the arts organizations of international stature. The Reds and the Bengals get lots of TV coverage, no matter how mediocre their performance. The symphony always has a winning season, but how many people know it? A new stadium is demanded by MLS and is quickly approved. Adequate affordable housing, that can wait.

Priorities.

CEW

Selections from the CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women) 2018 Beauty Awards

Purity Made Simple Pore Extractor
Water Sleeping Mask
Ointment Body Spray
Exfoliating Clay Mask
Waso Soft + Cushy Polisher
Voluminous Lash Paradise
Naked Heat Eyeshadow Palette
Gold Lust Pre-shampoo Treatment
Swept Up Volume Powder Spray
Scalp Revival Charcoal + Coconut Oil
Sugar Lip Caramel Hydrating Balm
Glow Face Palette
Beauty Chocolates
Aromacore Hardcore Happy

When I see a young black man

When I see a young black man, I’m going to think that this could be another James Shaw, Jr. His spontaneously heroic act got national attention for a short while, then faded. But not for me.

Heroes of this sort don’t linger in the news because we are much more interested in being entertained than being challenged to live better lives. So I’m going to stay on the lookout for the overlooked heroes who can teach me something.

Evening local news

What’ news on the local evening news?
Rapes and murders, but not a word about the arts.
Pedophiles and crooks, but not a word about theater or ballet.
Child abuse and corruption, but not a word about poetry.
The wins and losses of a mediocre football team, but not a word about the symphony that always gets it right.
Interviews of high school athletes, but not one face of a visual artist.
The squabbles in government, but not one word about the arts organizations making a difference in people’s lives.
Time for mindless chit-chat, but not a word about the arts.

Fame

The reality is that most serious artists will never achieve widespread fame. But that’s okay because fame should not be the primary mover. Fame is fickle, often transient, dependent on the openness of the culture and not a very reliable measure of artistic excellence.

Rather, the artist should discover some fragment of the complexity or mystery in the world and its humanity and commit to bringing it to light and working to unravel it.

Frightening

There were times when America was not great, especially as it expanded across the continent, accepted slavery as legal and turned its back on bigotry of all kinds. But America always aimed to right itself as its people and government affirmed a belief in honesty, liberty, truth, equality and freedom.

But now Donald Trump is claiming to make America great again. Distressingly, he acts based on none of these traditional values that America believes and seeks to live by. Dishonesty, ego, power, lack of compassion, class warfare, bullying and duplicity are all personal qualities that he wears like a badge of honor.

What’s disheartening is that his values are being embraced by his cronies, his followers and those who hold him in twisted esteem. He can blatantly espouse values that are the antithesis of those that do actually make America great, but they will still hang with him in frightening numbers.

I'm bored

I’m bored. So I decided to enroll in a 5 week course in broadcasting school. The curriculum sounds exciting.

Week 1, Empathy Faces: News programming is fast paced, so we learn how to quickly change our empathy face from sad to happy to tragic to distressed smoothly and convincingly.

Week 2, Broadcast Hands: When to have palms up, when to have palms down. When to use one hand, when to use both hands. How to point effectively to disasters in the distance while still calling attention to yourself.

Week 3, Broadcast Fashion: When to be overdressed and when to be casual. How to select body contoured clothing. When to unbutton the top button. How to look sexy in disaster zones. Whether to get chest hair implants. How to select a personal trainer.

Week 4, Disaster Reporting: How to convince others to stay safely at home while you are reporting from the middle of a tornado, hurricane, wildfire or volcanic eruption.

Week 5, The Total Package: How to seamlessly coordinate “broadcast speak” with hand movements and body gestures. Emphasis on emphasis. How to look more knowledgeable than the person who was actually experienced the event.

This should be fun. I’ll report back on how it went.

Start this way

Start this way. Let the art be buck naked. No artsy jargon. No high falutin language. No text panels. No reviews. No art criticism. No historical context. Just buck naked. Just gut reaction. You can be naked, too. Of prejudice, of expectations, of misconceptions, of feeling dumb. That makes the whole encounter intimate.

Let the art work try to seduce you. To insinuate itself into your brain and eye. Look at its flesh, its curves and its muscle. Don’t let it get dressed up too soon with all the fancy this and that.

If you’re going to love it, love it just as it is. If you’re going to live with it, keep the conversations going.