My name is Will.
I am pansexual.
I am quixotic.
I am a geek.
I am a gentleman.
I am a Ravenclaw.
I am an eclectic witch.
I am an archaeologist.
I support sustainability.
I support independence.
I support human rights.
I support animal rights.
I support equality.
I support love.
While Obama was announcing his support for gay marriage, Argentina was formalizing rights for transgender
edadults to get publicly-funded sex change operations and ID changes. Top that, America. (photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP)oh shit. big thumbs up to Argentina.
(via pantherahugs)
Humans Are Neat …
… because of the Ramayana Monkey Chant.
This chant, more prominently known as “Kecak,” is a form of dance and song from Bali. It depicts a story out of the sacred Hindu text, Ramayana, where ape-like humanoids (called Vanara) assist the hero of the story, Prince Rama, in an epic fight against the story’s central antagonist, King Ravana. The theatrical and spiritual performance first began in the 1930s, but has its roots in ancient Balinese rituals, such as the sanghyang.
The Ramayana Monkey Chant has been adapted the world-over in a variety of mediums, largely through popular culture. For example, it inspires the ending credits of the popular animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it was utilized in at least one popular video game (The Secret of Mana). These adaptions can be heard in the Resources, below.
Humans are neat because of their ability to cooperate in choreographing performances like the one above, and because of their ability to adapt localized, ancient traditions to worldwide cultural consciousness.
Resources:
Check out the closing theme of Avatar: The Last Airbender, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmqDdXbSLjYCheck out the Kecak’s adaption in Secret of Mana, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJX-s41D3Dc
(via filsdelalune)
Humans Are Neat …
… because of Ran.
Ran was Akira Kurosawa’s last epic film, released in 1985. Kurosawa (1910-1998), an acclaimed and historically significant Japanese filmmaker, produced numerous great works over the course of his career, but many consider Ran to be his greatest masterpiece.
Adapted from Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear, and making heavy use of the Japanese legends surrounding Mōri Motonari and his sons, the film tells the following tale (synopsis off IMDb):
A story of greed, a lust for power, and ultimate revenge. The Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji has decided to step aside to make room for the younger blood of his three sons, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, the Lord’s only wish now being to live out his years as an honored guest in the castle of each of his sons in turn. While the older two sons flatter their father, the youngest son attempts to warn him of the folly of expecting the three sons to remain united; enraged at the younger son’s attempt to point out the danger, the father banishes him. True to the younger son’s warning, however, the oldest son soon conspires with the second son to strip The Great Lord of everything, even his title. (IMDb)
One well-known scene from the film involves Hidetora handing his three sons each a single arrow, and asking them to break it. They all are able to do this. He then hands them a bundle of three arrows to break, and as they attempt to break the bundle and fail, Hidetora explains that while a single arrow is easily broken, three arrows — like the three brothers — bound together cannot be broken.
This is adapted from a legend surrounding Mōri Motonari, called the “Lesson of the Three Arrows,” and is taught even today in Japanese elementary schools. This film alters the normal ending by having the youngest brother successfully break the three arrows, by bending them over his knee. But the imagery of cooperation and unity is, of course, powerful all the same.
The film is filled with philosophy and symbolism — ultimately ringing with that special sense of existential nihilism common to tragedies — and, of course, excellent quotations. One of my favorites went, “Hey. Don’t just stand there. Say something. Blabber your nonsense, and I’ll speak my truth … and we’ll have a good laugh comparing the two.”
In any event, humans are neat because of their ability to tell a story with art and emotion, filled with symbolism and meaning. I’d highly recommend renting or purchasing this film, if you have a free evening to sit through it (it runs nearly three hours), with the proviso that it can be gory during some of the battle scenes, and is rated R.
References:
Albers, Bill. “Storyline.” Ran (1985). The Internet Movie Database webside, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/, accessed 08 September 2011.
Humans Are Neat …
… because of Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) was a prolific American writer best known for her poetry. Although she is sometimes panned as a “bad poet” by literary critics (and is not included at all in The Oxford Book of American Poetry), she was popular in her own day, with light, optimistic rhyming verse and a generally cheerful message.
Here, I’m showcasing Wilcox’s most famous poem, “Solitude.” Enjoy!:
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all;
There are none to decline your nectar’d wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
Humans Are Neat …
… because of poetry.
Language is the dominant form of expression that we humans rely upon for communication, and poetry is one way in which we use language not only to convey information and ideas, but aesthetic qualities and feelings as well.
An ancient form of expression, poetry can be found “in the Bible’s ‘Song of Songs,’ the love poems of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), [and] the nature poetry of 8th-century Chinese masters Du Fu and Li Bo.” (Winston, 334)
Poetry is also used for storytelling, as in the epics of Homer, and in the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf. All in all, it is an impressive form of expression, and many poems will be showcased on this blog.
We’ll start off with a poem by John Boyle O’Reilly, a 19th-century Irish-born poet. Said to be U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s favorite poet, O’Reilly’s poems were very popular in his own day. A handful of his poems are still well-known by those who study poetry, but he has since fallen out of popularity with the lay reader.
“What Is Good?” highlighted below, is a personal favorite of mine, and expresses optimism in the human condition. Enjoy.
WHAT IS GOOD?
John Boyle O’Reilly
“What is the real good?”
I ask in musing mood.
“Order,” said the law court;
“Knowledge,” said the school;
“Truth,” said the wise man;
“Pleasure,” said the fool;
“Love,” said the maiden;
“Beauty,” said the page;
“Freedom,” said the dreamer;
“Home,” said the sage;
“Fame,” said the soldier;
“Equity,” said the seer.
Spake my heart fully sad:
“The answer is not here.”
Then within my bosom
Softly this I heard:
“Each heart holds the secret:
‘Kindness’ is the word.”References:
Winston, Robert and Don E. Wilson, editorial consultants. Human. New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2004.
A boy sows a wild oat or two, the whole world winks. A girl does the same - scandal.
Sure you do. We all do.
(via princesschodestool)
(via princesschodestool)
Feminist Bolin:
Who ever started this meme, God bless you.
Feminist Bolin / Perfect Man Bolin [x]
I guess I am the best man.
Greece’s Jewish community on Monday sent its members a laconic, factual e-mail. Without any interpretive adornment, the message conveyed a few dry facts. In elections staged on Sunday, the Golden Dawn neo-Nazi party won 7 percent of the country’s popular vote - a tally twice the minimum threshold level required to send representatives to parliament.
Far-right leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos speaking during a press conference in Athens on Sunday.
The update also included information about districts in which Jews live, and also biographies of the delegates that the far-right party will send to parliament. All told, Golden Dawn will have 21 parliament seats out of 300.
The day after the elections, Greece’s Jewish community is still trying to make sense of the results and new facts, and is cautious about drawing conclusions about the stunning gains notched by the militant, ultra-nationalist party which seeks to restore Greece’s national pride and expel foreigners. Asked about the first, postelection step to be taken by his party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos - Golden Dawn’s founder and chairman - responded: “All illegal immigration will be stopped. They [foreigners] will have to leave - they must leave.”
The explosion of rage following the elections has left members of Greece’s Jewish community - and many others - confused. It is not difficult to read signs of concern about the rise of extremism in the country. While fascist parties are not new on Greece’s political landscape, the country’s current economic crisis has stirred an unprecedented number of outraged citizens to turn to extremist politics.
Some 750,000 voters in Greece cast ballots for a party that expressly articulates neo-Nazi sentiments, and which publicly sings Nazi songs and openly bandies about Nazi symbols. David Saltiel, president of Greece’s Central Board of Jewish Communities, issued a careful statement after the elections, saying that “the Jewish community is examining the situation.”
Speaking from Salonika in a telephone conversation, Saltiel added that he was surprised by the number of votes Golden Dawn received. “In the last national elections, they didn’t pass the threshold level, but in this election, voters banded together in protest against the country’s two large parties, and that helped the small parties.”
In the aftermath of the elections, it will be difficult for any of the parties to cobble together a coalition, and so a second round of balloting is likely. Saltiel does not find that scenario daunting. “Should there be another ballot, we hope the Greeks will think things through, and that the level of support for Dawn will decrease. In any event, I think the parliament will isolate the extreme right. We are examining the situation; the Greeks are not afraid, and democracy will continue.”
Saltiel added: “Right now, Golden Dawn is not coming out against Jews; instead, it attacks immigrants. Still, there are right-wing extremists, and we need to assess the situation and see how Greece’s democracy will deal with this. There is no reason for worry.”
Greece’s Jewish community is comprised of 5,000 people. Most are secular or traditional, and only a few go out in public with visible Jewish symbols. One who does is the Chabad emissary in Salonika, Yoel Kaplan. “As one who wears Hasidic clothing in the street I encounter some unpleasant words, but not acts,” Kaplan says.
Verbal violence
When exit poll results were announced on Sunday, he says, “Golden Dawn supporters in Salonika took to the streets, and it was a mess. I don’t flee the streets - when I need to go out, I go out. Mainly, the threat is dealing with verbal violence; that has no meaning, for me.”
Kaplan insists that Golden Dawn’s presence has been limited recently to street rallies, though he acknowledges that in the past two years, there have been arson incidents against synagogues in Corfu and elsewhere.
“Now, Golden Dawn members feel emboldened,” he says, “and you can’t ignore the neo-Nazi atmosphere that is heating up here. At one of their street rallies, somebody said to me something like, ‘You Jews control everything here.’ Yet, on the other hand, what they’ve taken on as their main agenda is attacking immigrants who come to Greece from African and Balkan states, and this is happening because the borders are open. They don’t seem to have any current grudge against the Jews.”
Nelly Kapon, a prominent figure in Salonika’s Jewish community, believes the rise of the extreme right derives from rage felt by many citizens in Greece against illegal immigrants. Still, she is wary of Golden Dawn’s intentions regarding the country’s Jewish population. “The party is not against Jews now, but this is a Nazi party, and they don’t try to hide that,” she says.
Discussing the past activities and agendas of other right-wing parties in Greece, Kapon notes that Golden Dawn has a much more extremist, violent-sounding platform. “Golden Dawn is much more extremist, and now it has won 21 seats in the parliament,” she says.
