The Finale

Painting by Theodore Gericault.

I always find it so surprising and frustrating when I have to deal with people who cannot make decisions. Making decisions are always fairly easy for me, so I have a tendency to expect all people to be able to make sound decisions in a reasonable amount of time. I made a decision last week which a week previous I could not imagine I would have.

Sometimes we think we cannot live without certain things. We sometimes make that which is quite trivial into something of mountainous importance. Then when we step back we begin to see that which we put so much value on and time in can be lived without for a time, season, or even forever. The decision I made last week was to put this blog on hiatus, permanently. My life is in transition. I even took a personality test the other day that said so.

Three years ago I did not even know the definition of a blog or weblog. I kept hearing the term on CNN. Moving from there I Googled it, and then after happening upon the blog Baghdad Burning, I decided to start my own since my family was in the midst of a crisis period. Both my uncle and my grandmother were dying. I did not write regularly in that blog which was on MSN until 2007. Later in one of my overly temperamental moments, I deleted it and the first blog I started on Blogger. Strangely, I did not feel any regret. In February, my blogs were hacked and deleted. I really suffered when that happened, and debated whether to ever return to the blogger community. I returned and since then I have had two published writers comment here and two published writers add me as their friend on Blog Catalog and one of them added me as a Facebook friend. I think one of the most noble of professions is to be a writer. Words can have the power to heal or to hurt. Words can change an individual or a nation for better or for worst. I have to constantly remind myself to use them carefully, and I have so much gnawing guilt when I do not.

I have been advised to maybe post here once a month, to not just jettison this blog and my others, but the time has come when I know this phrase of my life has past. My regular writing is not over since I will probably go back to the traditional private journal, but my life as a blogger here has to end. Life should never be stagnant. I could have continued here since I had a lot of ideas, but I just knew heading into the sunset was the right thing to do for a number of reasons. I have to devote my attention to a number of things and wait for new possible chapters in my life. I want to learn how to play that guitar I bought at Christmas time two years ago, etc.

In moving toward the end here, I wanted to mention last Friday when I went to a party given by a friend I made last year at the public library’s annual foreign affairs discussion group. Her name is Ruthie, and her husband Howard is a retired diplomat. They spent a number of years in Africa and they also have an interest in the Middle East and Turkey. Their religion, like mine, originated in the Middle East, Persia (Iran), in fact. They are Baha’is. The founder of their religion, Baha’u’llah, was actually sent into exile from Persia to Istanbul and then on to Edirne where someone I love very much lives. Last Friday was a special day for the Baha’i religion. I was a little reluctant to go to the party at first, but I am glad I did because no one tried to convert me. It was just a friendly gathering of an eclectic group of people who were mostly in their 50s and 60s. At 46, I was one of the youngest, but there was one even younger than me. I didn’t get his name, but he is a student from Iran who is also a Baha’i. He attends The University of Georgia. Ruthie’s husband Howard told us that in Iran, Baha’is are so oppressed that they are not allowed to go to school. The Iranian Baha’is have beaten the system and have created underground schools and universities.

I love Ruthie and Howard’s home. It is like a museum of their travel experiences with hand-woven baskets, statues, and elephant tusks from Africa, paintings from China, and ceramics and porcelains from Iran.

Two remarkable women gravitated towards me at Ruthie’s. One is named Nasrin, and she is Baha’i and also from Iran. She is a retired nurse who was born in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran. She is the third Iranian I have met, and like the other two, I really like her. She is warm and lively. Throughout most of the evening she sat very close to me, reminding me of the camaraderie I have had with some of my Turkish female friends in the past. After learning about my interest in Turkey, Iran and the Middle East in general, she insisted that I visit her and see a wonderful book she has with photos of places all over Iran. I told her about my interest in perhaps visiting Iran one day. Though she cannot go back to her native land because as she bluntly put it, “They’d kill me,” she encouraged me to go because just like my friend Lee (Ali) told me once, she said that since I'm brown they would have no problem with you.

Lee is an Iranian-American who taught English as a second language at a school with me in Istanbul last year. He is also an artist. His website can be seen here. When I e-mailed him back in March or early April, he told me that he was still hanging out in Istanbul mostly painting. I thought he had accepted a job he told me he was to be interviewed for in Nashville. Both Lee and I are wanderers. We keep searching and trying to find our place. Searching is hard, but it is never boring. When Lee wrote me, he said that some of his work was going to be in an exhibition in Istanbul and that he also was going to have to attend another exhibition of his work in Germany. Lee is a great guy, and I think it is good that he has the courage and determination to pursue his passion despite the poverty and hardship he may have to face sometimes. As for myself, I am moving more towards what my purpose is in life and the pursuit of the passion portion (writing, the arts, and helping people) is steadily evolving.

Getting back to Nasrin, I am glad a climate is slowly evolving in America where “race” is being spoken of in a positive way. America is never very stagnant like a lot of places. We slowly but surely start learning from our mistakes, one way or the other. We don’t waste a lot of time blaming others for their and our own shortcomings. I think the fact that Barack Obama has done so well is because we always see at various times a need for his favorite word, “Change.” Well, Nasrin just blurted out when I asked her if I would have any problems traveling to Iran because I am a single woman, “No, they like black people there.” She was not afraid to say this even though most of Ruthie’s guests were white. Many were Baha’is, and the color of one’s skin is not a problem with Baha’is. I think that mature and reasonable people can face up to the issues of their country’s past and present and their own personal issues past and present and will strive to solve them.

The second remarkable person at Ruthie’s get together was a lady named Judy. Judy is of Norwegian descent and is from Minnesota. Her passion is singing and opera, and boy did she burst out in song for us. She sang several arias after Howard made a comment about the late Luciano Pavarotti. She later ended with a lovely rendition of Danny Boy which while listening, I could almost just feel elements of the Emerald Isle flowing from her words. Here is a video I just found of Danny Boy.



Co-incidentally Barack Obama may have Irish roots too. See the second video and the one below it called O’bama Boy which I think is very cute.






I went to Ruthie’s party feeling down, but I left feeling warm and wonderful. I had hesitated to go because I felt so burdened Friday evening, but like one gentleman named George said to me, “It’s a good thing you came and got out of yourself.” I certainly did not expect or want to be the center of attention, but Nasrin, Judy, and I were at the center. People wanted to hear about my recent life experiences. In the end, Nasrin, Judy, and I exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses. When learning that I write, Nasrin said she would like for us to write together. Judy not only sings opera, but she is also the head of the Athens chapter of the
National League of Pen Women . She is interested in me coming to their next meeting which will be sometime later this year. I had even more to feel better about when I got home Friday night. I heard from the person I love very much who lives in the Turkish city of Edirne near the Greek and Bulgarian border.

So with my life transitioning, I have to think about the things that matter. Blogging was not so much a hobby for me. I was an English major, but I went through a multitude of years where I rarely wrote, but the passion to write was always dormant. Blogging stimulated me to write regularly and make it a habit. I did not start blogging to make friends or to get attention because I doubted that I would get any. The few quality friends and attention I have gotten happened completely by accident. What I have enjoyed most about blogging is seeing my quickly thought out offerings online where some reader or blogger might happen upon it.

My life is moving into a new dimension now. I have been encouraged to not stop blogging completely, but here and on my Saddam Hussein blog, I have no plans to post again. I have decided that I will continue with my Christian blog and develop it to a higher and more useful level for Christians and other non-Christians who might be interested.

Blogging is a powerful medium with great potential for those who do it wisely. The first blogs I encountered I found only through Google. Later I encountered some of the better laid out and more positive blogs through Blog Catalog. I think a lot of bloggers believe their blogs are just harmless hobbies, but what you blog about and the nature and audience of your blog tells a lot about the kind of person you are. Yes, the internet may be anonymous to a degree, but think about if you are presenting a negative, vulgar, depressing, angry, raging, confused, raunchy image of yourself. Blogs can say a lot, so be careful. Also if you blog, make your blog a welcoming place. Respond to the people who comment there with at least a “Thank You” on a regular basis. Also I found this little piece of advice I would like to share called Blogging Without Obligation.

So in closing I leave some blogs worthy of attention.

Proof Positivity

Curious Expeditions

Scandalous Women

BibliOdyssey

Byzantium's Shores

Light-skinned-ed Girl

Note this positive post from When Least Expected. Manchild who writes this blog lives in Atlanta and is an author along side with other talents.

Sharon is a Nigerian blogger who writes uplifting posts for Christians and non-Christians alike. Read this short post: In Need of Encouragement from her blog Reservoir.

The Blog Stops Here. This is the finale of A Very Fine Romance Redux.

Take care and do what you can in your little space on the planet to make the world a better place.

On Christos's Blog About Barack Obama

A few months back I received an e-mail of introduction from a young gentleman in his early 30s who lives in Patras which is a small city in the northern Peloponnese of Greece. Patras is equal in population to my town of Athens. When I visited Greece in 2003 and our tour group traveled from Athens to Corinth we were only 83 miles from Patras. I did not know this until I checked a map to see the exact location of Patras.

Christos Moissidis is a Greek blogger whose family’s roots lie in Turkey. His family had enjoyed a good life under the Ottomans until Mustafa Kemal, later Ataturk, started consolidating his hold over the crashing and burning remnant of the Ottoman Empire. It was time for the Greeks and others to go. Christos grandfather’s stepfather was a Turkish bey whose brother was an officer in the Sultan’s guard. The Greek nationalist army that invaded did not help either in the plight of Greeks who had for centuries lived side by side with the Turks and were there before the first Turks set foot on the peninsula.

Louis de Bernieres’ terribly beautiful and sad novel Birds Without Wings was about a community of Turks, Greeks, and Armenians who lived and loved in a small town in Turkey until politics and war severed everything they held dear. It was the fault of the Turkish and Greek politicians and nationalists which in the end caused the Turkish people of that town to see first their Armenian neighbors sent on a death march to the Syrian Desert and then to later see their Greek neighbors told to get their belongings so they could head on to a land their did not know or want to go to, Greece.

When I was in Turkey last summer, I actually visited a beautiful abandoned village near Fethiye where Greeks lived nearly a century ago. All the common Turkish people who lived in de Bernieres’ fictional town feel the Greeks and Armenians were their best friends and without them, their lives would be less beautiful and colorful. The “smart guys,” the politicians and nationalists, laid the first bricks and mortar which caused people to start categorizing people by ethnicity and religion.

Perhaps de Berniere’s novel mirrors some of the experiences of Christos’ family once they were forced to leave Turkey. He has only given me a very brief summary of his family’s story, and he is not bitter about what happened. He understands why politicians and leaders feel they have to sometimes take draconian measures. He has also lived and worked in Istanbul.

Like I keep drumming into my reader's heads, I am not a political blogger. I would define myself as an observer, among other things. Those like me who have a strong dislike for politics need not worry that I am changing anything here. I am only being eclectic. After this post I am going to give politics a rest for awhile.

Christos asked me a little over a week ago to write a post for his political blog which is in Greek and on my blogroll. He respects my decision to not get too political, so therefore, I was willing to write for him because I feel he is a nice person. We have the highest respect for one another, so I was delighted to write for him on the daunting subject of what Barack Obama’s slogan “Change” means. Christos is a huge admirer of Barack Obama. Here is my unwieldy post, Barack Obama's "Change".

I found an excellent Greek to English translator this morning, and I encourage you to use it read what Christos has to say. It can be accessed here. Christos has a blog with poems written by him also in Greek, but he has removed public access to it to prevent anyone from using the poems without his permission. Its’ location is also on my blogroll.

In a political ending here, one of the two most recent controversies about Barack Obama has involved once again accusations that he would try to appease America’s enemies if he were elected. But we have heard this early on. The more intriguingly ludicrous one has been “sweetiegate.” I learned about this from American Dreams’ blog Shallow Nation last Friday. Read about “sweetiegate” here.

I was astonished that the word “sweetie” can now be perceived as negative. Maybe I am just too much of an old fogey for my own good, but I am often called “sweetie” by both men and women I do not even know. I do not see the men as chauvinistic, sexist, or paternalistic. I don’t see the women as being lesbian or my mother or grandmother. I am a positive person and hope to continue to be. Instead of taking a paranoid outlook on why they call me sweetie, I just think, “Hey! Maybe I am sweet!” :)

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights

Today is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights, an event presented by Blog Catalog. Even though my blog is not political in nature, I do discuss current events here occasionally. Also the following issue has been close to my heart for 5 years. This post will concern Iraq.

Sixty years ago the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The following words of Thomas Jefferson can be applied as an apt definition of human rights, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Today in Iraq, the majority of the people do not have basic human rights because in such a viciously chaotic environment it is almost impossible to have a good life or liberty or to pursue happiness. Ironic that my country that started this war for whatever reason or reasons has not brought freedom to the citizens of that country as the reasonings for war were so much about 5 years ago.

Over 2 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their country and live in exile in neighboring countries like Jordan and Syria where often they cannot get legal status to even find jobs. Two million more are homeless inside the country. Last year the US allowed less than 1000 Iraqis asylum here at home. Some who had applied for asylum had worked with US forces as translators. Now they are seen as collaborators with the enemy by assorted groups there who continue to fight it out.

Though the war is spoken of less and less now in the US media, Iraqi bloggers continue to write about a country in peril and a situation which they though there cannot come to grips with. They just try to somehow live through it somehow, someway unscathed. Some express their perplexity about the surreal brutality of this unjust war that has been imposed on them. I believe this war was started in order to oust a man who was adamant that no one except him and his government would have control over the destiny of the world’s second largest oil reserves in the world. Saddam Hussein was a fervent nationalist among other things. Until this day no weapons of mass destruction have ever been found nor will be because they never existed.

Last week I found this three part documentary by an Iraqi journalist who went inside Baghdad to expose the suffering and human rights abuses that continue to flourish in that country.

For more information about the situation in Iraq go to the Iraq Amnesty International USA page here.

Baghdad Five Years On, Part 1 (City of Walls)




Part Two (Killing Fields)



Part 3 (Iraq's Lost Generation)

Bloggers Unite Tomorrow

If your blog is listed on Blog Catalog like mine, tomorrow is the writing event Bloggers Unite. The objective of Bloggers Unite is for bloggers to write and post an article about an human rights issue which is of intense personal concern. For more information and ideas on what to post tomorrow go to Bloggers Unite: Blogging for Hope.

If a few bad apples on the world stage can make such an impact, think what good those who are decent and believe in the Golden Rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” can do.

I leave you here with singer Ben Harper, another “exotic” like Mariah Carey and Barack Obama. He is of African-American and Jewish parentage, and one of his videos is above.

No matter how the world goes, "don’t let them take the fight outta you." I have to go now and start on a post I will be contributing to a friend’s blog.

Peace:)

The Hazards of Teaching

I feel that to be a teacher one has to be something of a masochist. Or maybe it is that many like me, who entered teaching, were overly idealistic, expecting to mold minds, thus impacting society and the world in our own small way. Teachers can face a host of hazards as the following tongue and cheek letter to the editor of a newspaper in Botswana shows. Read Teaching is a Scarce Skill.

I guess one of the biggest hazards teachers face in many countries is low pay. Certainly here in America, teachers are over worked and under paid. Plus teachers may be faced with plots to assassinate them by third graders as was the case early last month in the town of Waycross in southern Georgia.

By the way, I taught English as a second language in Botswana through Peace Corps in the early 1990s. Many of the secondary (high school) level students I taught there had a maturity and work ethic that you do not often see in a lot of students here in the states. That was over 15 years ago, so times may have changed in Botswana for the worse too. I hope not though.

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Wedding Photos

Would people just stop being cynical for once and try to be Romantics if only for a day and believe that someone can genuinely be in love in Hollywood and somewhere elsewhere on the planet?

On Monday I saw the latest issue of People magazine with Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon on the cover. The wedding photos of the couple can be seen here along with an interview. Sadly, the photos cannot be enlarged.

Mariah is my kind of person. She is a philanthropist, focusing especially on helping kids. She has her own camp for children. Even though I am poor, I have done my share of volunteer work in the past. I have supported a boy and a girl in Uganda and Ethiopia respectively for several years now. My mother and I teamed together to send money for poor children in India so they could have mosquito netting to protect them from malaria. I have mailed money for school kids on a Lakota Sioux Indian reservation. Plus, I have sent money to help Christians who are persecuted in other countries. Like Mariah, I love to give. I am sure that Mariah knows the wonderful feeling one gets when one gets outside of him or her self and desire to help others. If you don't have money or a lot of time, just saying a kind word or helping an old person get around helps. Just try it once, and notice the feeling you will get. Helping may become a habit, and a useful and beautiful one at that. Mariah obviously has not forgotten where she came from, and that she was once poor. And just like me, Mariah is also a supporter of Barack Obama.

Mariah has shown by her actions and wishing others well even when things were not going so great for her that kindness to others, giving instead of always receiving, patience, and optimism can get you further along in life than doing otherwise.

Mariah, you go girl! I really hope the naysayers have to eat their words years from now. I, for one, wish you and Nick all the best.

Mariah and Nick can also be seen here and here.

Survived!

As my previous post shows, I survived the long night of severe weather this past weekend. The weather got rather frightening here for awhile between 2 AM and 5:30 AM on Sunday morning, but there were no tornadoes. Once the thunder rumbled without an interval it seemed for nearly two minutes. Our house vibrated one time as if there were an earthquake even though the thunder was in the distance. I did my best to stay calm, but overall it was a frightening night just waiting for what might happen next.

This same storm system which passed through here on Sunday morning has left at least 44 people dead, some here in Georgia. Last Friday in Leighton, Alabama a security camera captured the video above of the power and fury of a tornado up close and eerily personal. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed in this particular storm which was actually a small one. But look at the power of one this weak!

My World, My Athens

Athens, Georgia, USA, circa 1840

You might be wondering about my world. I write a lot about the far away, historical, and the exotic. But what about Sincerae’s world? Well, my world began in the city of Athens, Georgia. Athens is a city of close to 200,000 inhabitants. Good things do come in small packages. Note the following about Athens.

My home town began as a trading settlement in the late 18th century along the Oconee River. Oconee is a Creek Indian word which means people, place, or nation. On January 27, 1785, the Georgia General Assembly established a charter which was written by one of the nation’s Founding Fathers and signer of The Declaration of Independence, Abraham Baldwin, to found The University of Georgia which is the country’s first state-supported or public university. The first students were the sons of wealthy white plantation owners. Exactly two centuries later in March 1985, I, a descendant of African slaves and a female would proudly receive my bachelor degree at this institution.

During the 1800s, Athens was given the nickname "the Manchester of the South." Like its' counterpart, Manchester, England, Athens was a mill town specializing in the processing of cotton.

For such a small place, Athens, Georgia has a rich history. After the US Civil War, freed slaves came to Athens in search of new educational opportunities provided by the Freedman’s Bureau which was an agency which aided refugees of the war. By the turn of the last century, this little southern town had a significant black professional and middle class. I have been told that shortly after this period in which blacks did not have civil rights, some distant cousins in my father’s family were quite well off by the standards of their day, owning significant amounts of land right outside the city limits.

For such a small town, Athens has a highly creative music, artistic, and intellectual environment which is situated mainly downtown in proximity to The University of Georgia. An eclectic range of individuals and musical groups had their origins here. R.E.M. and the B-52's are bands that were formed in Athens. My father did some upholstery work for one of the members several years ago. White rapper Bubba Sparxxx began his journey as a southern hip hopster (sic) whose genre is called Country Rap or Dirty South. A number of other alternative music bands had their origins here. When I was a university student, the now defunct Athens Observer newspaper and the still existent Flagpole Magazine constantly contained advertisements by university students and other youngsters seeking members to help them establish or augment their bands.

Athens also has a literary scene which includes former residents and Pulitzer Prize winners Deborah Blum and Edward Larson. Acclaimed writer and poetess Judith Ortiz Cofer. Ms. Cofer was born in Puerto Rico and is a professor at the university. Poet Coleman Barks, who is one of the foremost translators into English of the poetry of Mevlana Jelaluddin Balkhi or Rumi the 13th century Afghan poet, Islamic jurist and theologian who died in Turkey, also resides here. I was a student of both Cofer and Barks at the university.

Emmy Award winning journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault was one of two African-American students who courageously helped desegregate The University of Georgia in the early 1960s. Her attendance there even sparked a race riot. Most people do not attend a university where their lives are under attack by intimidation and threats, but Hunter did. The racist jibes and threats against her did not deter her. She graduated, and her later achievements prove that the experience did not embitter her but apparently made her strong and determined and an inspiration for not only African-American females but to anyone to never, ever give up.

Academy Award winning actress Kim Basinger was born here. As a graduate student, I saw her mother come several times into the large pharmacy where I worked. Long before Paris Hilton and others made it popular, Basinger’s mom carried her toy dog around with her safely tucked in her arms. My dad even saw Basinger’s dad a few times when they were both young men. Her father was a loan office manager.

My Athens, though in the south or as some call it “The Bible Belt,” is considered a liberal town because of the intellectual currents that flow from The University of Georgia. Over the years, downtown Athens has been the home to many interesting shops selling everything from vintage and ethnic clothing to antiques and used and rare books. There is a newsstand with more than your usual magazine and comic fare. There have been shops selling used cassettes and records and gourmet candy. Stores selling fine jewelry, shoes, clothing, musical instruments, art supplies, health food, and unique gift items are there. There are and there were interesting and fine restaurants sometimes catering to the vegetarian palate and the yogurt and soul food lover. Then there are innovative bars where most of the recording artists and bands that were formed here got their start.

Wikipedia lists Athens, Greece as the sister city of my Athens. Perhaps it is, but Wikipedia though a good encyclopedic source has its’ shortcomings. Unless it has changed, Cortona, Italy in Tuscany is the sister city of Athens, Georgia. Every year art students from The University of Georgia go to Cortona as exchange students to soak up the artistic and historical atmosphere of the town to enhance their artistic perceptions and abilities.

Other areas of attraction are The Georgia Museum of Art, The Georgia Botanical Gardens, and The Athens Creative Theater. The Healing Arts Center offers regular classes in bellydance/oriental dance.

Below I have posted some photos of my town. These are not my own but were taken from various sources. A promotional video on Athens can also be seen here.

The Morton Theater of Athens (below). A historic building centering on African-American arts and entertainment.

Stegeman Coliseum on The University of Georgia campus. My high school graduation ceremony was held here.

The "home" and playing field of the Georgia Bulldogs football team, Sanford Stadium, on The University of Georgia campus. The favorite hangout of local football fans.


The conservatory at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia (above). To take the virtual tour of the gardens, you must download Quicktime. See the small red help on the right hand side of the map of the Botanical Garden map. The download may be slow, but seeing the tour of the garden is worth the wait.

The oldest house in Athens the Church-Waddel-Brumby House (above), circa 1820. It is also the Athens Welcome Center.

Athens' Stonehenge monument at the entrance to Stonehenge Subdivision, a housing area.

City Hall where decisions for Athens-Clarke County are made (above & below).

The world's only double-barreled cannon is in Athens on display just outside City Hall.

East Broad Street, downtown Athens.

The annual Twilight Criterium bike race for professional bikers.

The Georgia Theater, a downtown Athens landmark hosting good less than mainstream bands and films.

The T. R. R. Cobb House (above). A antebellum (pre-Civil War) mansion in the Greek Revival architectural style. A story about it can be read in this 2006 Christian Science Monitor.

I walked this same path for years as an undergraduate student on East Broad Street crossing from The University of Georgia north campus.

The University of Georgia arch at the entrance to the campus (below). It faces the street and the crosswalk in the above photo. There is an old wives' tale about the arch. The warning is to never walk underneath it because if you do, you will become sterile. I was told this when I took my orientation tour of the campus prior to transferring there as a sophomore. I never walked under it, neither does the majority of students who come that way.

Clock tower at the fire station in Five Points on Milledge Avenue (below). The clock tower is one of several symbols of Athens on logos.

These homages (below) to the Georgia Bulldog football team started appearing around town a few years ago. Some have criticized them as eyesores. I once agreed with them somewhat, but now I think they are cute in a campy sort of way. One sits beside the public library. Children love to play on it, and some parents take photographs of their toddlers that they perch on its' back.

In what is called the Greek Revival style, The Taylor-Grady House, circa 1844.

Hopefully Until Later

All of this evening, I have been helping my brother with a project of his. Before that I was out shopping for most of the afternoon. It is the first of the month, and many have been paid. The traffic and loaded parking lots was an indication of the fact today.

Later tonight, we may be faced with tornadoes or at least severe thunderstorms. Mom and I have decided to stay dressed in our day clothes because if anything happens, like our home being swept apart by a storm, we will not have to pick through the rubble in embarrassingly thin night gowns. That is, if we survive. We haven’t done this in years, but we feel it is good to keep alert for the men of the house too in case we have to all flee to the basement. They usually go to bed no matter what the weather is threatening.

The rough weather is expected to arrive in the middle of the night. Most of the southeastern United States is currently under a tornado watch. That includes where I am. At least 11 people were killed by tornadoes today in Missouri and Oklahoma. The numbers may rise, officials say.
If we make it through the night, my next post will be about a subject close to home. I will not say what the topic is because I do not give previews.

In closing, I leave you with the video above which is by Mercan Dede. Dede was born in the Turkish city of Bursa. Bursa was at the western end of The Silk Road. It was basically the first capital of the Ottoman Turks prior to their conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul) a little over a century later.

As for Turkey, sometimes I think a few of us foreigners love the country more than some of the locals who do their part to sabotage or just neglect it. If we critique the place we are seen as interlopers. You can critique America all you want, I know my country has its' faults. I love my country and Turkey too. There is too much nationalism in various forms over there which only causes the country to make two steps forward and a hundred back. Well, I do not know. In many ways I hate political arguments. It is just against my nature. I do know there are some people there who will always have my heart, and will not be forgotten by me. That is what is important to me, not tiresome political theory and debate.

Two Sundays ago, a long-time friend of mine, who lives in Istanbul, and I put our moms in front of our webcams, and the two women who gave birth to us liked each other immediately. They are just two moms with their own special hopes for their daughters. One Turkish, the other African-American.

What matters in the end are not the sophisticated or the crude arguments about Turkey's present and its' destiny. They all ring very hollow. What will happen to the people of that country if business as usual Turkish style continues? What will happen to my friends? What will happen to those who can't help themselves...? Waiting...

The video above is called Istanbul.

Now to mom and I keeping one eye open and one eye closed for the remainder of the night…

Peace:)

Not Tonight Josephine

Though I had no plans to present a post here until this weekend or shortly thereafter, I felt compelled to post because of the beauty of this video and its’ song. It is about the other half of my favorite Romantic, historical couple. See also The Original French Romance: Napoleon and Josephine which I posted on my old blog.

Lyrics to Josephine by Tori Amos

Not tonight Josephine.
In an army's strength
therein lies the denouement.

From here you're haunting me.
By the Seine so beautiful,
only not to be of use-- impossible.

So strange, victory- 1200 spires
the only sound, Moscow burning.
Empty like the Tuileries.
Like a dream Vienna seems,
only not to be of use- impossible.

In the last extremity --
to advance or not to advance.
I hear you laughing
even still you're calling me.

Not tonight,
Not tonight
Not tonight, Josephine.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Self-portrait of William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I accept and respect all schools of painting which have as their basis the sincere study of nature, the search for the true and the beautiful. As for the mystics, the impressionists, the pointillists, etc., I don't see the way they see. That is my only reason for not liking them.
---William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in 1825 in La Rochelle, France. He was the member of a family of wine and olive oil merchants. It was expected that Bouguereau would carry on the business, but the intervening education of an uncle who was a curate was instrumental in beginning Bouguereau’s journey into becoming one of the greatest artists of all time. William-Adolphe Bouguereau was the last in a line of great western artists beginning with Raphael. Raphael also happened to be one of Bouguereau’s favorite painters.

Under the tutorage of his uncle Bouguereau immersed himself in the study of Biblical and classical subjects. Early on he showed great promise as an artist, so he was sent to school to study the subject first in Bordeaux, then in Paris, and later in Rome. During this time he was a diligent and attentive student, winning prizes, earning pocket money designing labels for jams and preserves, and doing bookkeeping for a wine merchant. He studied anatomy, historical costuming, and archaeology. The knowledge gained from his observations and study is evident in his work which is Romantic and has an almost photographic quality. Bouguereau's world is one of youth, beauty, history, refinement, a celebration of femininity, and a tasteful eroticism.

Throughout his life time William-Adolphe Bourguereau was never the stereotypical “starving artist.” He made a great deal of money being patronized especially by American millionaires of the day who loved investing in fine art. Bourguereau’s art was placed on exhibit almost annually throughout his lifetime in the Salon. The Salon was the largest art exhibition worldwide for nearly 2 centuries in France. Bourguereau painted over 700 paintings, most of which were life sized. His themes were mainly based of stories from classical and Biblical antiquity. He also painted portraits of the rich and created a Romanticized image of the peasantry with lovely fresh faced girls and beautiful children with rosy cheeks.

Near the end of his life when Impressionism and the avant-garde were coming into vogue, he was the victim of relentless attacks on his work and his character. A staunch traditionalist, the young generation like Edgar Degas and his friends and fellow artists coined the word "Bougeuereauté" which was a derogatory term for any artistic work that is “slick with artificial surfaces.” Bourguereau was slandered as being stingy, self-centered, and a lecher, accusations that were not true. Bourguereau was very liberal in his financial and moral support for young up and coming artists. In fact, his second wife Elizabeth Jane Gardner was an American and had been his student while struggling as a penniless artist in Paris. Because of his sympathy for her, Bourguereau became an advocate of women artists, helping to open up doors for them in the art world of Paris. The accusation of lechery was also not true. His critics pointed to the many nudes he painted of women as evidence of a man with a lewd nature. Of over 700 works, only 10% of Bourguereau’s art was of the nude female form.

After William-Adolphe Bourguereau’s death in 1905, knowledge of his work was wiped from art history’s records. He was not studied in art history classes. No references were made to him in art encyclopedias. It was like he never existed. Throughout his long and fruitful career as an artist, Bourguereau focused on the refined and beautiful. His tastes were not in accord with the art world that emerged prior to and especially after the first World War. What he stood for became an embarrassment in the modern age. His paintings were kept hidden out of sight in the basements of museums. Only the wealthy who owned private pieces of his works kept their Bouguereaus on display in their homes.

It was not until 1974 that some of his art was displayed in a show at the New York Cultural Center. Today a Bourguereau can command high prices at art auctions. His work is on permanent display in over 100 museums worldwide. Once maligned, forgotten, and now rediscovered, stores selling artistic prints often have Bourguereaus.

I have prints of these two paintings.
The Little Shepherdess, 1891
The Virgin With Angels, 1900

Here are two videos of some of his work. The song in the first is sung by the great Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. The second is by Bryan Adams from the film Don Juan DeMarco




More paintings by William-Adolphe Bourguereau can be seen here.

The Possible Romance of Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon

No, my blog is not being lowered in caliber. This is not a prelude to less refined offerings. My next post promises to be on a refined subject once again.

This post does deal with Romance, however. I wanted to comment on Mariah’s Carey’s recent marriage to Nick Cannon because she was one of the last American singers whom I loved and whose work I avidly patronized as a purchaser.Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon

Mariah and I sort of grew up together. She came on the scene when I was finishing up graduate school. One day I and a few others heard her singing her first hit Vision of Love over the intercom system of the big pharmacy where we worked and mistook her for Whitney Houston. I was a slight fan of Houston, but I never developed devotion for her like I later did for Mariah. Mariah’s voice had a beauty, a kind of soft romanticism that Whitney Houston’s lacked. I had grown up with and passed all the screaming notes of Chaka Khan whom I had loved in middle school. Houston just screamed a little bit too much at times for my matured tastes. I look back, and I think Chaka Khan’s exotic name may have appealed to me more than her singing. Still two of my all time favorite songs of her’s were Sweet Thing and Through the Fire. To my ear, Mariah’s voice bore a resemblance to Whitney Houston’s and she was also influenced by gospel music, one of her favorite singers being Aretha Franklin who happened to be Whitney Houston’s godmother. Nonetheless, I loved more restrained and less earthy sounding R&B. Mariah Carey’s songs spoke to me at that time in my life of my own longings for love.

Like some Elvis fans did when he changed his style in the early 70s, I dropped my devotion for Mariah Carey when she changed not so much her style, but changed whom she was allowing to back up her singing. Where was she getting all of these obscure rappers and an occasional obnoxious well unknown like Snoop Dog? I felt the only reason she was cluttering up her sound was to grab the attention of a new generation. What about we “old folks” whose purchases helped her to be the first artist to top Billboard’s Hot 100 list 5 times? I only listened to her album 2005 The Emancipation of Mimi once before I got rid of it. I have all of her albums prior to Emancipation. Yes she was emancipated all right, on to the fickle teen and 20 something set. I was disappointed and bewildered even more when the album was a hit even though I doubted if the younger crowd even knew that Mariah was over 30, geriatric by their standards for singers and other entertainers.

Even though I felt betrayed and left behind in the dust by Mariah Carey, I am very happy for her about her marriage last week to rapper and actor Nick Cannon. I have thought Nick Cannon was a cutie pie since I first glimpsed him, and he is funny to boot. Mostly I have seen him in passing, but even in passing I thought he rather resembled a cousin of mine who is about his age.

Mariah Carey has had a stormy personal life. She wed music mogul Tommy Mottola in 1993. Mottola was 20 years her senior and some say and Mariah has hinted as well that he was her Svengali. She has dated baseball player Derek Jeter and Latin crooner Luis Miguel. She herself is of Irish, African-American, and Venezuelan parentage. When photos of her were published after Vision of Love was a hit, some in the African-American community wrote her off as “just another white girl trying to sing black.” Mariah went on to counter this and explained her heritage. I was intrigued.

Now Mariah might have some explaining to do about this marriage, but not to me. I support her wholeheartedly in her quest for love. I hope the arguments of some do not break her spirit and ruin a possibly good thing.

Arguments I have heard in the media:

(1) The marriage is a publicity stunt.
(2) I hope she signed a good pre-nup.
(3) I am scared for her because she apparently did not sign a pre-nup. She just scribbled something on a napkin.
(4) Nick Cannon will benefit more from this marriage than she does.
(5) There is an 11 year age difference. (Cannon is 27, and Mariah is 38.)
(6) The marriage was too quick.

Arguments for:
(1) Nick Cannon is not exactly poor.
(2) Nick Cannon is a good actor in his own right.

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon met when he was directing a video for a song on her latest album E=MC2. Cannon is said to be something of a romantic by friends and family because of his always “falling in love.”

I really hope this is not temporary. I think Mariah may have been alone for quite some time. Nick Cannon has shown himself to be an aesthete where beautiful women are concerned. He has dated exotics like Selita Ebanks who is a Victoria’s Secret model from the Cayman Islands, R&B and pop singer Christina Milian who is of Afro-Cuban descent, and socialite of Armenian extraction Kim Kardashian whose father, the late Robert Kardashian was an attorney on O.J. Simpsons’s dream team. Ebanks and Cannon were briefly engaged. Kim Kardashian currently makes appearances on the reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Carey and Cannon were married at her estate in the Bahamas last week.

I support you Mariah. I don’t relish your music anymore, but I supported you when your movie debut Glitter was savaged by the media and the critics and had the terrible misfortune to premiere on September 11, 2001. I thought the movie was touching, and even today I have it on video.

It is said the couple is very happy, Mariah is blissful, and that they feel they have much in common. I hope the cynics will hold their tongues and try to develop a less cynical, less critical, and more Romantic spirit.

The video at the top of the post is "old school" Mariah, as the youngsters would say.