It's a week after Easter and the Catholic Church is in a an explaining or hiding move rather than a celebratory one. The sex scandals that have already played out in the U.S. now are a virtual tsunami in Europe now as more victims come out of the closet and more molesters in church dress have been outed all over Europe. Ireland, Austria and Germany are the latest countries to see thousands of molested adults tell their stories of how the priest or nun, or some other cleric molested them as children and how they had no recourse but to accept it due to the vast cover up the Catholic Church engages in when caught with it's pants down.
Today's Palm Sunday commemorates Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church's Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. But many Catholics would prefer this day to see some of those horrid child molesting priest crucified. Too, they ask their lay political leaders why molesters are free to act out if wearing church garb when those lay perverts are arrested and face criminal charges. The answer is, of course, that politicians have been in bed with the Catholic Church so long they have tended to participate in a cover-up rather than arrest and prosecute church molesters.
Even the Pope is accused of participating in covering up church official sexual predators. The Vatican has been on the defensive amid mounting questions about the pope's handling of sex abuse cases both when he was archbishop of Munich and when he headed the Vatican's doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Pope Benedict apparently practiced the standard church policy when a molester is found in the midst- they simple transfer the pervert to another parish where he molests again and again.
Better that then have news leak out that there is a predator on the pulpit...otherwise those cash donations by parishioners might dry up. Catholic Church members have to ponder some questions. What good has the Catholic Church done in the world? What have they done to exemplify the life of Jesus Christ other than religious ceremonies, which unfortunately have been used to gain the trust of the masses to accumulate wealth and practice sexual misconduct while preaching abstinence.
Is this Pope, when obstructing justice in the endless litany of abuse cases, simply taking care of his own with no thoughts to others, other than keeping the money coming in. This might be a time for Catholics to reflect a little more this coming Easter, including a reflection on the corruption level of the church and whether blindly supporting the Catholic Church is really a "christian" thing to do in honoring the ideals of goodness and purity the church practices but has seemed to lose.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Unpacking The Past
I worked all day again here at the house unpacking all that I had repacked in December when I thought I would sell the house and move everything back to New Orleans. Since I took the house in Portland off the market and plan to stay here at least during next school year, I am spending these weeks in Portland again unpacking. It's not fun.
But today I unloaded some boxes with books and knick knaks my mom had (I took the bookcase and contents after my parents died). It provided me with a flashback to both my youth and that of my ancestors, for within the books were some interesting flashes of family history.
I discovered one of my grandfather's medical books (he was a physician) and wondered why it was in that antique bookcase that I can remember sticking my foot through (It has a glass fronting) when wrestling my brother so long ago. Perhaps someone kept it to remember him after he died. Oh.... I still have the physical scar from that gaping cut on the top of my foot.
And all my high school yearbooks are there. To see myself, yes, un bearded then, in my prime, young, athletic and innocent was euphoric. Now I can be even more delusional! Sadly, I also saw the photos of five of my high school classmates who have died (one, the "pretty and smart" girl of the class was murdered by her ex husband one night a few years ago after he burst on the scene of she and a lover dallying in bed) from everything to an auto accident at 18 years of age to aids just a few years ago.My mother kept her college yearbooks (LSU) from the 30's. Just thumbing through them shows the calmer times of that generation.
It looks serious and comforting, but I am sure college in the 1930's was probably much like it is today. We idealize the past because we can never fully understand it or see the blemishes as clearly as what we view of our lives today.
There also was a very old book of an organization my grandmother belonged to, a kind of Kiwanis group of the type that was popular before World War II. In it was a letter scolding her for not paying her 1941 dues for the year and threatening to kick her out if she didn't pay soon.
My mother loved New Orleans dearly and collected much about the city.
So it figures that I found many books about the city, including one of photographs of the last century of New Orleans life. There was also a book of poetry written by Jack Grapes (a writer, poet, and actor of some prominence today). My mother was his English teacher in high school and in the forward of the book of poems, A Savage Place, that he composed in 1965 and that he sent to my mom. He wrote in the forward of the book to her, "Thank you for turning me loose to explore the tunnel of my imagination. When it is darkest we see the stars," Jack.
Seeing that made me think all day of my mom and dad, of how much we all loved each other. It was a fortuitous find. And there were other revelatory finds, including my navy boot camp yearbook! Haha Yes, each company that graduated had a yearbook made for it and presented at graduation. I wonder if the navy was as glad to get rid of me as I was to exit it.
Furniture and contents like the old antique bookcase and it's almost forgotten memories are dear to me. They tie me to the best people, places and things of my youth and the youth of loved ones long gone. I worked hard unpacking today, but the rewarding finds in that book case gave me a spiritual renewal I treasure.
But today I unloaded some boxes with books and knick knaks my mom had (I took the bookcase and contents after my parents died). It provided me with a flashback to both my youth and that of my ancestors, for within the books were some interesting flashes of family history.
I discovered one of my grandfather's medical books (he was a physician) and wondered why it was in that antique bookcase that I can remember sticking my foot through (It has a glass fronting) when wrestling my brother so long ago. Perhaps someone kept it to remember him after he died. Oh.... I still have the physical scar from that gaping cut on the top of my foot.
And all my high school yearbooks are there. To see myself, yes, un bearded then, in my prime, young, athletic and innocent was euphoric. Now I can be even more delusional! Sadly, I also saw the photos of five of my high school classmates who have died (one, the "pretty and smart" girl of the class was murdered by her ex husband one night a few years ago after he burst on the scene of she and a lover dallying in bed) from everything to an auto accident at 18 years of age to aids just a few years ago.My mother kept her college yearbooks (LSU) from the 30's. Just thumbing through them shows the calmer times of that generation.
It looks serious and comforting, but I am sure college in the 1930's was probably much like it is today. We idealize the past because we can never fully understand it or see the blemishes as clearly as what we view of our lives today.
There also was a very old book of an organization my grandmother belonged to, a kind of Kiwanis group of the type that was popular before World War II. In it was a letter scolding her for not paying her 1941 dues for the year and threatening to kick her out if she didn't pay soon.
My mother loved New Orleans dearly and collected much about the city.
So it figures that I found many books about the city, including one of photographs of the last century of New Orleans life. There was also a book of poetry written by Jack Grapes (a writer, poet, and actor of some prominence today). My mother was his English teacher in high school and in the forward of the book of poems, A Savage Place, that he composed in 1965 and that he sent to my mom. He wrote in the forward of the book to her, "Thank you for turning me loose to explore the tunnel of my imagination. When it is darkest we see the stars," Jack.
Seeing that made me think all day of my mom and dad, of how much we all loved each other. It was a fortuitous find. And there were other revelatory finds, including my navy boot camp yearbook! Haha Yes, each company that graduated had a yearbook made for it and presented at graduation. I wonder if the navy was as glad to get rid of me as I was to exit it.
Furniture and contents like the old antique bookcase and it's almost forgotten memories are dear to me. They tie me to the best people, places and things of my youth and the youth of loved ones long gone. I worked hard unpacking today, but the rewarding finds in that book case gave me a spiritual renewal I treasure.
More Obamination
More trouble for Barrack Obama. Anxious about high unemployment, a hugely unpopular and nonsensical health care "overhaul", the expansion of the Bush war in Afghanistan and the continued presence of U.S. troops and expensive private contractors in Iraq almost a year after Obama's promises to exit there, and and an economy that President Obama sees as a giant credit card with which to accumulate devastating debt in exchange for more entitlement programs, blame is headed right on Obama's head.
A Gallop poll of voters today showed 50% of those surveyed say he doesn't deserve re-election.That is an astounding negative for a President just a little over one year in office who was given overwhelming support and trust by voters a year ago. I was one who voted for Obama. But never again!
Obama is seen by many as out of step as to the values voters hold dear and in understanding what the U.S. government should and should not do for the citizens. Americans want less government spending and intrusion in their lives, Obama and Congress want more government action and less capitalist free market activity.
Much of the working, tax paying segment of the population, the one that votes more often than does the poorer segment, see Obama as a leader who wants to redistribute wealth, taking away money from those who contribute the most economically and giving them to the people who contribute least or not at all (already half the population here pays no federal income tax).
The furor against the health care bill Obama steered through congress is a good illustration of that redistribution of wealth that has also killed Europe economically. Non working, non contributing citizens get far more benefits than any other group here. This includes free health care at the expense of the tax paying group. Most taxpayers receive nothing for the almost 1 trillion dollar cost of that health care bill.
Obama can't blame George Bush anymore for the sorry mess in which the U.S. has been led. More than one year after his election the country looks as sick as it did when Bush left office and Obama continues to borrow and spend whenever he can.
I like to refer to Obama as "Bush II"(too), and what a great irony it has turned out to be that our Presidency is still an inept, rudderless guide. But the good news is that the U.S. Congress is even more unpopular than Obama. Approximately 75% of Americans disapprove of their Congressmen, the way it is working and want new Representatives and Senators.
I wonder which will be the greater catalyst to the continued down slide of America, Obama or Congress.
A Gallop poll of voters today showed 50% of those surveyed say he doesn't deserve re-election.That is an astounding negative for a President just a little over one year in office who was given overwhelming support and trust by voters a year ago. I was one who voted for Obama. But never again!
Obama is seen by many as out of step as to the values voters hold dear and in understanding what the U.S. government should and should not do for the citizens. Americans want less government spending and intrusion in their lives, Obama and Congress want more government action and less capitalist free market activity.
Much of the working, tax paying segment of the population, the one that votes more often than does the poorer segment, see Obama as a leader who wants to redistribute wealth, taking away money from those who contribute the most economically and giving them to the people who contribute least or not at all (already half the population here pays no federal income tax).
The furor against the health care bill Obama steered through congress is a good illustration of that redistribution of wealth that has also killed Europe economically. Non working, non contributing citizens get far more benefits than any other group here. This includes free health care at the expense of the tax paying group. Most taxpayers receive nothing for the almost 1 trillion dollar cost of that health care bill.
Obama can't blame George Bush anymore for the sorry mess in which the U.S. has been led. More than one year after his election the country looks as sick as it did when Bush left office and Obama continues to borrow and spend whenever he can.
I like to refer to Obama as "Bush II"(too), and what a great irony it has turned out to be that our Presidency is still an inept, rudderless guide. But the good news is that the U.S. Congress is even more unpopular than Obama. Approximately 75% of Americans disapprove of their Congressmen, the way it is working and want new Representatives and Senators.
I wonder which will be the greater catalyst to the continued down slide of America, Obama or Congress.
The Meaning Of Painting
I took a painting of some value to a restorer in Portland. Last week I asked a framer here in Portland of he could clean it and re frame the picture (It has pulled from the frame and started to wrinkle at the top). The painting by artist A.J. Drysdale was given to my grandfather by the artist during the depression in the early 1930's. The story I have from my mother is that he paid my physician grandfather for treating him with the painting.
Drysdale was from Georgia but as a boy of 15 came to New Orleans with his family to live. He learned to paint here and became enchanted with the swamps around New Orleans. To enhance the swamp look, Drysdale mixed kerosene into his paints, giving a blurred appearance to the scenes.
My painting is of a swamp north of Louisiana and features a huge cypress tree (they grow in water and are a favored wood for homes because of their resistance to flooding) and is huge, making the value greater than most of Drysdale's paintings.The restorer said the painting is in good shape but needs cleaning varnishing and remounting in the frame. It will cost $300 dollars but the painting is more than 80 years old and has never been attended to. My mom and dad hung it in their house an after their deaths I also did the same in mine. Moving the picture caused some of the problems to it.
Having a piece of art that has value and has been passed from the artist to one's family, and continues to be handed down, from my grandfather to my parents to me, is a nice tie that binds me to my family in an abstract way. Of course art or any material object is not what is important in life, but a material thing like this painting reminds me of my family, now all departed.
I am a sentimental type and have a number of "reminders" of loved ones who are gone from my life. Do you have any familial objects you treasure because of an identification of it with them?
Drysdale was from Georgia but as a boy of 15 came to New Orleans with his family to live. He learned to paint here and became enchanted with the swamps around New Orleans. To enhance the swamp look, Drysdale mixed kerosene into his paints, giving a blurred appearance to the scenes.
My painting is of a swamp north of Louisiana and features a huge cypress tree (they grow in water and are a favored wood for homes because of their resistance to flooding) and is huge, making the value greater than most of Drysdale's paintings.The restorer said the painting is in good shape but needs cleaning varnishing and remounting in the frame. It will cost $300 dollars but the painting is more than 80 years old and has never been attended to. My mom and dad hung it in their house an after their deaths I also did the same in mine. Moving the picture caused some of the problems to it.
Having a piece of art that has value and has been passed from the artist to one's family, and continues to be handed down, from my grandfather to my parents to me, is a nice tie that binds me to my family in an abstract way. Of course art or any material object is not what is important in life, but a material thing like this painting reminds me of my family, now all departed.
I am a sentimental type and have a number of "reminders" of loved ones who are gone from my life. Do you have any familial objects you treasure because of an identification of it with them?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Casting Calls
Since I like to work in films I have been to a few casting calls and receive phone invitations to work in various scenes of films. But the open casting call announcement is a common way to seek extra work. Most are straightforward calls, looking for specific types for whatever the film needs. Some times they can be amusing. Here is one I read the other day.
'Need: Older gentleman for partial nudity shot. Buttocks only, no face. Production guarantees only essential crew members will be present. ---The script calls for an "Old and wrinkly butt"...
Serious submissions only, please do not waste my time or the office's time with funny comments...we do not have the time!
Either send an email to jay@gloriosocasting.com or call the office at 318-751-9140...ASAP'
Haha I know you will write that I fit the part perfectly. But I swear my butt is smooth and unwrinkled. Anyway, how does one who gets the part list that as a credit on his resume? I guess "Butt displayed in major motion picture". Still, that kind of butt experience isn't again likely to be again requested.
Sometimes casting needs change completely from the time they hire the extra to the beginning or end of the film. Once I was called by a casting company to play Santa Claus. They said my face was right and they would give me extra padding with the Santa suit. I accepted, but when the film was shot they moved me form the front of the scene to a blurry background because the director said " It's too crowded up front. Let's move Santa." Later I wrote to the real Santa telling him to not give that director any presents for Christmas.
Another time I was asked to portray a German cafe owner for a TV film. I was to just stand behind a counter of a Bavarian cafe shop and serve customers, then at the end of the scene in pantomime in the background I would wag my finger and scream at the waitress for shirking her duty (How German! )because instead she was interviewed by detectives in the film about a murder.
"You look German. The director picked you out as looking right for that role," the casting company told me when they called and offered me the part. I accepted, reported to the set, put on the German cafe wardrobe, was prominently featured in the long scene....but when I watched the movie on TV later I saw that my entire scene had been edited out.
Hmmmmmmm Maybe I should have applied for the wrinkle butt role after all. Who would dare edit my butt out of a scene?
'Need: Older gentleman for partial nudity shot. Buttocks only, no face. Production guarantees only essential crew members will be present. ---The script calls for an "Old and wrinkly butt"...
Serious submissions only, please do not waste my time or the office's time with funny comments...we do not have the time!
Either send an email to jay@gloriosocasting.com or call the office at 318-751-9140...ASAP'
Haha I know you will write that I fit the part perfectly. But I swear my butt is smooth and unwrinkled. Anyway, how does one who gets the part list that as a credit on his resume? I guess "Butt displayed in major motion picture". Still, that kind of butt experience isn't again likely to be again requested.
Sometimes casting needs change completely from the time they hire the extra to the beginning or end of the film. Once I was called by a casting company to play Santa Claus. They said my face was right and they would give me extra padding with the Santa suit. I accepted, but when the film was shot they moved me form the front of the scene to a blurry background because the director said " It's too crowded up front. Let's move Santa." Later I wrote to the real Santa telling him to not give that director any presents for Christmas.
Another time I was asked to portray a German cafe owner for a TV film. I was to just stand behind a counter of a Bavarian cafe shop and serve customers, then at the end of the scene in pantomime in the background I would wag my finger and scream at the waitress for shirking her duty (How German! )because instead she was interviewed by detectives in the film about a murder.
"You look German. The director picked you out as looking right for that role," the casting company told me when they called and offered me the part. I accepted, reported to the set, put on the German cafe wardrobe, was prominently featured in the long scene....but when I watched the movie on TV later I saw that my entire scene had been edited out.
Hmmmmmmm Maybe I should have applied for the wrinkle butt role after all. Who would dare edit my butt out of a scene?
Foxfire Wins
Other than being a little tired from working the TV series the day before I left for Portland and the long plane ride to it I am fine. I had so many errands to run today and tomorrow I will start unpacking what I repacked last time.
Jane is in New Orleans now, in school. She won't come here until next school year. And I am in Portland just about 2 1/2 weeks to work on getting the house ready and also enjoying myself a little. Then I will head back to New Orleans.
Interesting comparison to make as to browsers. I am using Jane's old computer (it has only 1 /2 gig of memory and is slower as a result) which had explorer on ti as the browser. because that runs so slow I downloaded Firefox last time I was here. Now when run together Firefox is twice as fast as Explorer. Explorer seems like an old dinosaur and Firefox an eager pup. Anther thing to note in its favor is that firefox uses spell check at every site the user visits.
I never liked Explorer because it is filled with problems, too large and ambitious, and susceptible to viruses. Score a victory for Firefox. No doubt most of the other more commonly used browsers run faster and better than Explorer too.
Still I wish Netscape were alive and updating It always was the best browser and the most user friendly. Since Netscape ended about a year ago the lack of updates makes it, apart from the mail program (which is not dependent on updates due to the technical simplicity of sending and receiving E mail) almost impossible to use.
Jane is in New Orleans now, in school. She won't come here until next school year. And I am in Portland just about 2 1/2 weeks to work on getting the house ready and also enjoying myself a little. Then I will head back to New Orleans.
Interesting comparison to make as to browsers. I am using Jane's old computer (it has only 1 /2 gig of memory and is slower as a result) which had explorer on ti as the browser. because that runs so slow I downloaded Firefox last time I was here. Now when run together Firefox is twice as fast as Explorer. Explorer seems like an old dinosaur and Firefox an eager pup. Anther thing to note in its favor is that firefox uses spell check at every site the user visits.
I never liked Explorer because it is filled with problems, too large and ambitious, and susceptible to viruses. Score a victory for Firefox. No doubt most of the other more commonly used browsers run faster and better than Explorer too.
Still I wish Netscape were alive and updating It always was the best browser and the most user friendly. Since Netscape ended about a year ago the lack of updates makes it, apart from the mail program (which is not dependent on updates due to the technical simplicity of sending and receiving E mail) almost impossible to use.
No Easter Candy
Easter's over, but the politically correct crowd that has just begun is on a kids must always eat "healthy food" rampage (this cause could be the illegitimate son of the phony "Global Warming" crusade). They want to take candy out of Easter! How insane. That's like Dolly Parton with out boobs, President Obama without deficit spending, me without ranting. It's just not right.
Too many kids this Easter got their Easter basket filled with small toys, sidewalk chalk, plastic eggs with change inside...but no Chocolate rabbits, jelly beans, marshmallow eggs or even those nasty peep candies with which all kids like to sicken themselves.
I think the Michelle Obama "obesity campaign" that tries to curtail the kiddies from eating too much, has taken a misstep in assaulting the Easter candy bunny.
Just as they want to serve only "healthy food" in school cafeterias, they want to take away the kids' sweets on holidays. Easter is the second (behind Halloween) biggest day of sweet consumption in the United States. It perplexes me that parents would want to stop kids from pigging out once in a awhile. Isn't eating candy a joy of being a child? After all, a 5 year old can't go out and get drunk on weekends like mom and dad do.
The same parents who gorge on rich or heart artery clogging foei gras, cheesecake, and buttery croissants act not as reasonable guardians of nutrition but rather as the food police for their kids. Perhaps if the parents also stopped their cigarette smoking and drinking and exercised more, they would set a better example an have less time to take away a fun tradition that their kids will long remember.
I will never forget the fun of the childhood Easter candy basket. But I doubt I would have ever remembered, had I been given it, a politically correct Easter basket like the food gestapo advocates today. I think these parents should be forced to eat nothing but carrots all Easter week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)