- Verb: To act as an Uncle
I stumbled on this word today; I happen to find it intriguing. Inasmuch as Mary and I stopped counting when the neice, nephew and grand-neice/nephew count for us passed the 55 mark, I really like the fact that there is actually a term for the act of uncling. I have failed to find a similar designation for the act of being an Aunt - so I am thinking Mary is just going to have to make her own way known, ala avauntulize.
With all the manuals there are out there in the art of Parenting, I scrutinized Amazon.com to determine what there might be on the arts of Avuculization. Alas, there is nothing to be found. Could it be that this is a lost-funtionality? It just seems to me that in a world where parents are increasingly busy-what with two working parents now the norm as well as the ever-increasing pull of children being called into after-school activities that allow for no down-time, that perhaps a little active avunculization and avauntulization might be called into play. Surely this untapped resource shouldf not be overlooked! At the very least, there should be a manual on the do's and don'ts of avuncling your way through a school play or a friendly lecture at the dinner table. We uncles and aunts are just as good as anybody at finding fault. The gross advantage to it is that we don't get the bill for the bashed car fender or the bad-mouthing at school (since no-one at school would know who we were anyway.) This is a real win-win! Lecture without responsibility or recourse!
It is good to be an Uncle.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like
applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... now you tell me what you know. - Groucho Marx
I am glad that Art is in the eye of the beholder. I am reading a book Mary gave me for Christmas that pertains to the recovery of art confiscated by the Nazis in WWII, and the way it was treated by Hitler and his cronies. Anything created by Germanic artists in a Realist style was considered good, whereas anything modern or experimental was derided. He put together a traveling show of all the modern art pieces which included the Impressionists and labeled them "degenerate art," clu
mping them on walls with captions pointing out their "flaws." He considered Van Gogh among the worst, - after all, anyone that saw a sky as green and a meadow as blue had to be a degenerate. The Degenerate Art show was far more popular, it seems, with the public than the "finer" show he put together featuring only approved artists - in fact the crowds were about five to one. So of course he closed the Degenerate show and put the works up for sale as "garbage". In that auction, hundreds of 19th and 20th century masterpieces were sold for a total of $171,000; the only piece fetching anything appreciable was the Van Gogh self portrait at $40,000. Thousands more were burned.
Which all goes to prove that one man's view of art is never more important than another's. I have commented before that there is art in everythig, that it just takes a thoughtful eye to see it; that does not mean that anything slapped together qualifies as good - even in the eyes of its creator, but it is art, and if one man sees it as such then it is accomplished. It is a shame that the art world is occasionally overrun by snobbery, since by its very essence a piece that has been created in the heart and hands is deeply personal to someone. Snobbery - although I am as guilty of it at times as anyone - is nothing more than passing judgement on someone else's brain activity; the Snob himself is the one who is not thinking clearly.
Which brings me to my own work. I know that many of the pieces I have been making recently would be considered peculiar by some. Actually, in my warped sense I hope they are. I try to put some humor in my work, even when the underlying theme is dark. I like to use double entendre - which is just a nicer way of saying I enjoy a good pun. My preference is to have a piece look serious at first, humorous on closer inspection, and telling a story that makes a stiff comment about modern life. I hate being too serious, but I also feel a need to give my opinions. I wish that Groucho was still around; I think he'd get it.
I am glad that Art is in the eye of the beholder. I am reading a book Mary gave me for Christmas that pertains to the recovery of art confiscated by the Nazis in WWII, and the way it was treated by Hitler and his cronies. Anything created by Germanic artists in a Realist style was considered good, whereas anything modern or experimental was derided. He put together a traveling show of all the modern art pieces which included the Impressionists and labeled them "degenerate art," clu
mping them on walls with captions pointing out their "flaws." He considered Van Gogh among the worst, - after all, anyone that saw a sky as green and a meadow as blue had to be a degenerate. The Degenerate Art show was far more popular, it seems, with the public than the "finer" show he put together featuring only approved artists - in fact the crowds were about five to one. So of course he closed the Degenerate show and put the works up for sale as "garbage". In that auction, hundreds of 19th and 20th century masterpieces were sold for a total of $171,000; the only piece fetching anything appreciable was the Van Gogh self portrait at $40,000. Thousands more were burned.Which all goes to prove that one man's view of art is never more important than another's. I have commented before that there is art in everythig, that it just takes a thoughtful eye to see it; that does not mean that anything slapped together qualifies as good - even in the eyes of its creator, but it is art, and if one man sees it as such then it is accomplished. It is a shame that the art world is occasionally overrun by snobbery, since by its very essence a piece that has been created in the heart and hands is deeply personal to someone. Snobbery - although I am as guilty of it at times as anyone - is nothing more than passing judgement on someone else's brain activity; the Snob himself is the one who is not thinking clearly.
Which brings me to my own work. I know that many of the pieces I have been making recently would be considered peculiar by some. Actually, in my warped sense I hope they are. I try to put some humor in my work, even when the underlying theme is dark. I like to use double entendre - which is just a nicer way of saying I enjoy a good pun. My preference is to have a piece look serious at first, humorous on closer inspection, and telling a story that makes a stiff comment about modern life. I hate being too serious, but I also feel a need to give my opinions. I wish that Groucho was still around; I think he'd get it.
Friday, January 04, 2008
"I'm pretty sure there will be duck-hunting in heaven and I can't wait!"
- Mike Huckabee
Hopefully Huck won't be met at the Pearly Gate by Dick Cheney.
Mary and I were quite involved with the Iowa Caucus last evening, but really for very different reasons. Mary, ever the Political Science major was into it for its historic positioning in the Electoral Process. I on the other hand expressed a feeling that the Caucus process may have seen its day, and that it does not translate well into the modern system where results are calculated moment by moment. We got into a rather lively debate on this topic, neither of us getting a good deal of satisfaction since we both left it pretty much as we had entered. Nevertheless, there was real joy in our ability to tear into the process from different aspects; after all these years together we still do not always agree. I think we are very lucky for that; it must be very boring to spend your life with someone with whom you have everything in common. Healthy debate is the foundation of Democracy - and I think too many people in recent years have forgotten that principle. To stand up and say something is wrong, whether it is the outcome of a pie-eating contest that looked rigged to you, or the nation's export of hundreds of thousands of our youths to land on foreign soil for the sole purpose of forcing principles that are neither understood nor desired, to speak up about that is the very essence of the Constitution.
Debate, even if it involves name-calling and foot stomping, is good. It means we are thinking. And for all that I personally think the Caucus system is outdated, I am quietly glad it remains as a tie to a time before the news media took it over. It gives us something to discuss, and it doesn't have to mean that we will all agree.
Hopefully Huck won't be met at the Pearly Gate by Dick Cheney.
Mary and I were quite involved with the Iowa Caucus last evening, but really for very different reasons. Mary, ever the Political Science major was into it for its historic positioning in the Electoral Process. I on the other hand expressed a feeling that the Caucus process may have seen its day, and that it does not translate well into the modern system where results are calculated moment by moment. We got into a rather lively debate on this topic, neither of us getting a good deal of satisfaction since we both left it pretty much as we had entered. Nevertheless, there was real joy in our ability to tear into the process from different aspects; after all these years together we still do not always agree. I think we are very lucky for that; it must be very boring to spend your life with someone with whom you have everything in common. Healthy debate is the foundation of Democracy - and I think too many people in recent years have forgotten that principle. To stand up and say something is wrong, whether it is the outcome of a pie-eating contest that looked rigged to you, or the nation's export of hundreds of thousands of our youths to land on foreign soil for the sole purpose of forcing principles that are neither understood nor desired, to speak up about that is the very essence of the Constitution.
Debate, even if it involves name-calling and foot stomping, is good. It means we are thinking. And for all that I personally think the Caucus system is outdated, I am quietly glad it remains as a tie to a time before the news media took it over. It gives us something to discuss, and it doesn't have to mean that we will all agree.
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