With the advent of the 'smartphone' and 'tablet', even more semi-literate individuals have joined the host of internet users and they often use their new capabilities to post comments on Facebook and even launch their own weblogs or join other forums where their views can be and are published regularly.
This is a wonderful social phenomenon actually. It gives every one the potential to be a writer, social commentator, poet or critic of the arts, society, political realities or anything else beneath the Sun or Moon. On the other hand, the ease with which any typed word can be published has brought any sort of standard of perfection in language or communication crashing down. THAT is a tragedy and one that ultimately may have long-term consequences.
Another communication shortcut that is prevalent on the internet is that of copying and pasting the words, artwork or photograph of another. Those who do not feel themselves up to the task of creating a witty epigram or incisive comment upon the state of the world often are able to find that their own views have been described quite aptly by some one else. Another common motivation for publishing the art or words of another is the desire to entertain. An amusing photograph or clever phrase may be shared over and over by various users of Facebook in the same way in what probably is an attempt to scatter sunbeams as widely as possible.
Once upon a time, even though writing required a great deal of effort, whether achieved through the use of an ink pen or typewriter, most writers took some care to improve their initial thoughts and outpourings by editing them. There were first draughts and second draughts and final versions of documents, whether non-fiction, prose fiction or poetry. The 'art of writing' was given serious consideration by most individuals with any aspirations to have their work read by more than one recipient.
Now any one can publish a word or volume with a single click and ironically, although editing could be performed with far less effort than in pre-internet days, few individuals bother to improve their initial messages. It is not simply a matter of spelling errors or poor grammar either. The effects of instant publication are far more grievous in terms of social communication. People often are thoughtless, cruel or nasty and even more often, simply devoid of common courtesy in their internet communications with others. Despite the fact that the technology gives users far more time to improve their messages, most people post in haste to repent (or not) at leisure.
I am as guilty as any one else of carelessness in publishing without taking extra time to improve my posts or messages. I suppose I justify it with a belief that, if I do not publish mu thoughts immediately, especially where this weblog is concerned, I probably never will do so at all. Nonetheless, it is what an old friend of mine called 'diarrhea' writing at its worst: from the brain through the fingers without pausing to consider or weigh each word.
I should make a resolution to craft prose in the same judicious fashion as any serious poet, making every word count and reverberate not only with significance but with eloquent beauty. Perhaps I shall... but then, will I ever publish another word or remain mute forevermore?
N.B. Literacy isn't everything by any means. There are many geniuses who lack the tools to be truly exceptional writers in terms of form or style but whose ideas are exceptional.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The Genius of 'Secretary'
'Secretary' belongs in the same class as 'The Extra Man' and 'Lars and the Real Girl' All three are films about individuals who find a way that differs from the ordinary, who triumph over social alienation by demanding recognition of their own unique vision. All three prove that self-respect can bloom in the most outlandish gardens.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Lord of the Rings and the Achilles' Heel of the Internet
Long ago, when Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' was new and we had made our pilgrimage to the cinema again and again to revel in the marvelous facsimile of Middle Earth he had brought to life, EA Games released both 'Two Towers' and 'Return of the King' to the Playstation 2 and other console systems.
With some games, cheat codes work from the start. With 'Return of the King', the cheat codes only were set to operate IF and ONLY IF one first beat the game. We did so together and saved the results to a Memory Card.
Years later, with the release of 'The Hobbit', one yearned to return to the world of LoTR via the old PS2 games. Much knowledge had been lost... or as Galadriel beautifully declared: 'Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.' My combat skills were rusty and I certainly did not recall any of the codes for the game...
I therefore went to the internet sources, to IGN, Gamespot and even Wikipedia. They ALL gave cheat codes for 'Return of the King', including the code for Invulnerability, aka 'God Mode'.
In every Walkthrough or Cheat site, the code is given as: Square, Circle, Square, Down. One is told to pause the game after loading any level via the Start button and then, after holding down L1, L2, R1 and R2 simultaneously, to press the four buttons in the order given.
In those days, I had yet to publish any game guides. I had sent a number of hints, corrections and tips for the GBA LoTR games to Gamespot when I discovered that no one had published them, but that was the extent of my strategy input to the internet pool of knowledge.
I therefore did not have my own game guide at hand. I thought that, as all sites gave the same directions, they would be accurate. Well, the code for Invulnerability DOES NOT WORK!!! How on earth could people submit guides or information to Wikipedia without testing the codes first??? It is this sort of outrageous lack of responsibility that inspired me originally to begin to write my own strategy guides.
Never mind that 'Return of the King' now is an old game made for a system that has been superceded by a newer one. It remains a wonderful game and certainly one of the few that actually makes the player feel he/she has stepped into the world of Middle Earth as made manifest by Peter Jackson. It was for that reason that I wished to play the game again but I did not wish to be burdened with the stress of risking death constantly. I wished to walk through the levels with my health intact in order simply to experience them. I had thought that existing internet guides would allow this, especially as we had beat the game years ago and saved the result.
At first I thought it might be a problem with the controller... I then thought it might be a problem with the manner in which I had input the code. An hour later, I began to try different variations on the given code and finally discovered that it had been copied again and again with one inaccurate direction.
The real code for God Mode or Invulnerability is:
Square, Circle, Square, UP.
Press the Start Button to pause the game after loading any level, then press down L1, L2, R1 and R2 simultaneously. While those buttons remain depressed, enter: Square, Circle, Square, UP.
Your character will be invulnerable.
I always realised that 'facts' given solely on the internet were only as good as the person who submitted them. It disturbs me when students, whether at school or university, use internet sources as their sole sources for research. Too much is inaccurate, whether due to negligence or outright duplicity.
When I was a child, i wrote essays at school frequently that cited 'original sources' that I had invented. I used Old English, Middle English, Old Norse and Medieval French as well as the spelling popular in every bigone era in the English language to create these so-called original sources. They ranged from inscriptions carved on stones by Vikings to a private journal kept by Jean Lafitte. I was astounded by the fact that not one teacher ever asked for any evidence whatsoever as to the actual existence of any of these 'sources'. I certainly would have done so had I been in charge...
Well, the world is lazy or gullible. How many people believed in George Bush's spurious claim of 'weapons of mass destruction' in the hands of Iraq prior to his invasion despite the fact that no such weapons existed? How many people still swallow the 'official' version of the events that occurred on 11 September and that were the ostensible reason for the creation of the vague 'war on terror'?
Those lies and half-lies have been responsible for the deaths and suffering of millions. The inaccurate code given for the PS2 'Return of the King' game may be responsible only for the frustration of an unspecified number of players who wished to achieve Invulnerability and were unable to do so. Nevertheless, I cry 'Shame' upon all the sites that are willing to publish guides that are inaccurate as well as the writers of said guides who obviously take information from other sources and copy and paste it into their own work without ever troubling to discover if it is correct or not.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The Corruption of American Practices in Medical Insurance
Some one I know who only has begun to acquire significant medical bills since he had a heart attack a few years ago now is involved constantly in absurd battles with the hospitals and doctors over the costs of every procedure. He only discovered the truth after he questioned a bill related to the heart attack that seemed utterly exorbitant, and it required hours on the telephone with many different agents both of the hospital and of the insurance carriers before he was able to uncover the mechanisms that control the cost of any procedure or hospital visit. Now he questions all the bills he receives but the cost in time and energy is tremendous. How many other patients even realise how corrupt the system is?
Here is an example of the way HMOs and insurance companies operate in tandem with the hospitals and big medical practices in the States:
The patient had a regularly scheduled 'stress test' in October. Now, months later, he received a bill from the Hospital demanding $105.00 as HIS financial responsibility.
On the bill, the total cost of the procedure was given as $2100.00. Of this, Medicare was the first insurance company/carrier to pay and Aetna the second. The actual amounts paid by each respectively were not shown on the bill.
The patient rang the hospital to discover why he was being charged $105.00 when evidently, his two insurance carriers had paid over two thousand dollars for a simple stress test.
The first hospital agent gave him no specifics whatsoever, telling him he would have to ring Aetna for information. He insisted that she should tell him the actual figures as the bill was from the hospital where she worked. She first asked: 'Is there some one else in the house to whom I could speak?'
He retorted: 'You mean some one more intelligent?'
Ultimately, she fetched a supervisor who was more forthcoming. Here are the actual facts:
Although the purported cost of the procedure was given as $2100.00, Medicare and the hospital worked out a different total that was about $510.00. Of this, Medicare paid almost $400.00. The bill of the remainder of $110.00 was then sent to Aetna as the secondary insurance carrier. Aetna paid a princely total of $5.00. The patient pays $300.00 per month to Aetna, incidentally. As Aetna was unwilling to pay more than $5.00, a bill for the balance of $105.00 was sent to the patient.
This is not unusual at all. Hospital procedures and visits are given outrageous costs officially THAT NEVER ARE PAID BY ANY ONE. When Medicare receives the bill, a new total is negotiated or accepted by both parties. The patient, however, never sees the TRUE cost of the procedure but receives a bill that declares the original outrageous cost to be the actual cost. The percentages paid by his/her insurance carriers never are itemised either. Only the balance due AFTER all insurance payments have been made is shown to the patient.
This is only one small example of the way an entire Nation is being held hostage by the medical profession, insurance companies and HMOs.
A wonderful book was written on the subject of 'Formularies' and how corrupt the HMOs are with respect to the pharmaceuticals actually covered... The agents often make deals with one pharmaceutical company accepting ALL the drugs made by that firm and rejecting those made by competitors. This is why one insurance carrier or HMO may cover a product like the Lidoderm patch, for example, and another will not cover it. The book was fiction in the form of a murder mystery by John Lescroart but the information with respect to the common practices of the HMOs in the States was factual in nature.
'The Oath' by John Lescroart is a book that any one in the States with any desire to know how his/her insurance works would do well to read:
The Oath by John Lescroart
Once upon a time, doctors charged reasonable fees for their services and hospitals were not huge corporations. Now the patient seldom ever even knows the actual cost of services rendered or prescriptions filled. There are so many layers of deceit and so many negotiations between third parties involved in even the most simple office visit that it is almost impossible for an individual to discover what anything will cost in advance.
It is past time for this corrupt system to be overturned. Sweeping reforms need to be made in the field of medicine.
Here is an example of the way HMOs and insurance companies operate in tandem with the hospitals and big medical practices in the States:
The patient had a regularly scheduled 'stress test' in October. Now, months later, he received a bill from the Hospital demanding $105.00 as HIS financial responsibility.
On the bill, the total cost of the procedure was given as $2100.00. Of this, Medicare was the first insurance company/carrier to pay and Aetna the second. The actual amounts paid by each respectively were not shown on the bill.
The patient rang the hospital to discover why he was being charged $105.00 when evidently, his two insurance carriers had paid over two thousand dollars for a simple stress test.
The first hospital agent gave him no specifics whatsoever, telling him he would have to ring Aetna for information. He insisted that she should tell him the actual figures as the bill was from the hospital where she worked. She first asked: 'Is there some one else in the house to whom I could speak?'
He retorted: 'You mean some one more intelligent?'
Ultimately, she fetched a supervisor who was more forthcoming. Here are the actual facts:
Although the purported cost of the procedure was given as $2100.00, Medicare and the hospital worked out a different total that was about $510.00. Of this, Medicare paid almost $400.00. The bill of the remainder of $110.00 was then sent to Aetna as the secondary insurance carrier. Aetna paid a princely total of $5.00. The patient pays $300.00 per month to Aetna, incidentally. As Aetna was unwilling to pay more than $5.00, a bill for the balance of $105.00 was sent to the patient.
This is not unusual at all. Hospital procedures and visits are given outrageous costs officially THAT NEVER ARE PAID BY ANY ONE. When Medicare receives the bill, a new total is negotiated or accepted by both parties. The patient, however, never sees the TRUE cost of the procedure but receives a bill that declares the original outrageous cost to be the actual cost. The percentages paid by his/her insurance carriers never are itemised either. Only the balance due AFTER all insurance payments have been made is shown to the patient.
This is only one small example of the way an entire Nation is being held hostage by the medical profession, insurance companies and HMOs.
A wonderful book was written on the subject of 'Formularies' and how corrupt the HMOs are with respect to the pharmaceuticals actually covered... The agents often make deals with one pharmaceutical company accepting ALL the drugs made by that firm and rejecting those made by competitors. This is why one insurance carrier or HMO may cover a product like the Lidoderm patch, for example, and another will not cover it. The book was fiction in the form of a murder mystery by John Lescroart but the information with respect to the common practices of the HMOs in the States was factual in nature.
'The Oath' by John Lescroart is a book that any one in the States with any desire to know how his/her insurance works would do well to read:
The Oath by John Lescroart
Once upon a time, doctors charged reasonable fees for their services and hospitals were not huge corporations. Now the patient seldom ever even knows the actual cost of services rendered or prescriptions filled. There are so many layers of deceit and so many negotiations between third parties involved in even the most simple office visit that it is almost impossible for an individual to discover what anything will cost in advance.
It is past time for this corrupt system to be overturned. Sweeping reforms need to be made in the field of medicine.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
The Pickle and the Evergreen
Perhaps my fascination with this topic has some deep psychological roots, but I rather suspect it is part and parcel of a lifelong obsession with magic and folklore. As a young girl, I read every book about magic that I could find and performed all the rituals that had been pieced together by modern Wiccans and other 'practitioners' of magic. Most of them were NOT effective, but my soul thrills to beautiful rituals and ancient mysteries and the study therefore was kind of an end in itself.
The more I read about the ancient mystery religions, the more convinced I become that the tradition of the Evergreen at the time of the Winter Solstice may be one of the most ancient. Joseph Campbell is known for his work in comparative mythology but his fame spread because of his use of contemporary technology and his television series as much as for the books that he wrote. In fact, he simply republished the work of other comparative mythologists for the most part, although his own particular brand of faith gave his own work a vibrancy and almost missionary quality that some one like Sir James Frazer lacked. Robert Graves in 'The White Goddess' demonstrated a similar fervour, but his stemmed more from his passion for the 'muse' for whom he wrote the book than any spiritual roots. He adored words and 'The White Goddess' is a bizarre but fascinating exercise in words and an effort to relate letters and sounds from various ancient languages to a universal mystical alphabet and dictionary of his own creation. Joseph Campbell attempted to divide religion into those embraced by nomadic/hunter societies and those of agrarian/settled societies. His work was brilliant and resulted into a number of gorgeous 'coffee table' books but ultimately was too simplistic to have any true application to the religions and traditions that have survived into the contemporary world. When it comes right down to it, in ancient eras, many of the nomadic/hunter societies invaded and conquered the settled agrarian people and their own traditions and beliefs intermingled and resulted in a fusion of both.
The tradition of the Yule Tree is an excellent example of the marriage of a number of diverse beliefs and religions. Western Christianity with the symbolism of Christ hanging on the Cross is one of the most potent but this partly is due to the fact that it represents one of the most ancient cycles of sacrifice, death and rebirth.
In the myths of ancient Egypt, Osiris was murdered (or sacrificed) and his body was cut into a ritual number of pieces and fed to the waters. All pieces except for his phallus were recovered and placed in a coffin that floated up to Lebanon where it was embraced by a Tree, becoming part of the Tree.
In the old Canaanite myth cycle of Baal and Mot, the God Mot is cut into pieces and placed in a winnowing fan. He is winnowed like grain and planted in the soil ultimately in the same way that the human sacrificial victims in ancient India were cut into a specific number of pieces, consumed partly by the village and then planted in the field to bring fertility to the land.
In ancient Egypt, the grain would be reaped, cut with sickles, then placed into large nets and carried between two poles to the threshing floor. Cattle then would trample the stalks to separate the ears from the straw (or grain from the chaff). The workers then would scoop the grain, throw it into the air, allowing the husks or chaff to be blown away by winds generated by winnowing fans.
In the religion of Attis, the male member of the God was cut off and nailed to a Pine Tree where it was worshipped and adored. The Tree was cut down and carried in processions. Devoted worshippers would castrate themselves and fling their male parts into the lap of the Goddess Mother who had given birth to the God Attis. The Tree would be taken underground into a cave where it reposed for three days. On the third day, a procession would go to the cave where they would cry: 'He is risen!' and bring forth the God's image, nailed to the trunk of the Tree.
In the sacred mysteries of the Great Goddess Demeter, the essential Mystery resided in a basket and would be shown to worshippers in a secret ceremony. What lay within the liknon or basket? It had to be the male member of the God which would have been prepared in a special fashion so that it never would decay. What is a Pickle but a green cucumber that has been preserved in a special way with Salt, a symbol of Life itself? Moreover, Green is the colour of Life and thus, the cucumber is found in many cultures and civilisations as an object of special significance.
In Japan, the traditional offering to the Kappa, a spirit of the waters, is a cucumber on which a wish or wishes have been engraved. Thus, from East to West, a 'perfect offering has been made' in the form of a cucumber or other green vegetable as a substitute for the actual male member.
The mythological significance of the coloured glass balls that have been traditional Christmas Tree ornaments throughout the modern era and indeed as long as Christmas Trees have been a part of Western civilisation is obvious. They are the vessels in which the 'seed' of the God reposed. The mistletoe is another Christmas tradition that speaks eloquently of the male contribution to the act of creation.
Fundamentalists love to point to the 'pagan' roots of many holiday traditions with horror, denouncing them as evil or somehow alien to Christianity and yet, it is more than possible that Christ was a follower of Dionysus and that his mother was a priestess of the cult. Whether or not this was the case (and the entire life of Christ is shrouded in mystery), the fact of the matter is that ancient rituals are part of the collective unconscious and when a religion embraces them rather than repudiating them, that religion gains in validity. There are reasons why traditions survive from age to age and culture to culture. Some symbols are fundamental to the psyche and the power within them cannot be denied.
The birth of the God at the time of the Winter Solstice affirms the cycle of life, death and rebirth and is a symbol of Hope. The Crucifixion is the Sacrifice that is necessary ultimately to allow the God to be reborn at Christmas. Jesus himself declared: 'Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple' and spoke more than once of the need to die in order to be reborn. It is the way of Nature that many plants must die in order to be reborn at another season. The fact though that Christ spoke of a 'cross' which is the Tree upon which the ancient religions of Attis and Adonis were centred is another compelling piece of evidence in the theory that he was himself a follower of one of those ancient mystery religions.
Last year, after Freya and her best friend Kait made a series of references in jest to a Christmas Tree that would be trimmed with phallic symbols, I found some glass pickles and added one to our Tree. This year, when I placed the glass pickle in the very centre of the Tree, close to the Trunk, I thought about the ancient mystery religions as I did so. A green glass pickle may not be the most beautiful of ornaments but it possesses a potent significance and I have every intention of making it an integral permanent part of the Yuletide celebrations.
The more I read about the ancient mystery religions, the more convinced I become that the tradition of the Evergreen at the time of the Winter Solstice may be one of the most ancient. Joseph Campbell is known for his work in comparative mythology but his fame spread because of his use of contemporary technology and his television series as much as for the books that he wrote. In fact, he simply republished the work of other comparative mythologists for the most part, although his own particular brand of faith gave his own work a vibrancy and almost missionary quality that some one like Sir James Frazer lacked. Robert Graves in 'The White Goddess' demonstrated a similar fervour, but his stemmed more from his passion for the 'muse' for whom he wrote the book than any spiritual roots. He adored words and 'The White Goddess' is a bizarre but fascinating exercise in words and an effort to relate letters and sounds from various ancient languages to a universal mystical alphabet and dictionary of his own creation. Joseph Campbell attempted to divide religion into those embraced by nomadic/hunter societies and those of agrarian/settled societies. His work was brilliant and resulted into a number of gorgeous 'coffee table' books but ultimately was too simplistic to have any true application to the religions and traditions that have survived into the contemporary world. When it comes right down to it, in ancient eras, many of the nomadic/hunter societies invaded and conquered the settled agrarian people and their own traditions and beliefs intermingled and resulted in a fusion of both.
The tradition of the Yule Tree is an excellent example of the marriage of a number of diverse beliefs and religions. Western Christianity with the symbolism of Christ hanging on the Cross is one of the most potent but this partly is due to the fact that it represents one of the most ancient cycles of sacrifice, death and rebirth.
In the myths of ancient Egypt, Osiris was murdered (or sacrificed) and his body was cut into a ritual number of pieces and fed to the waters. All pieces except for his phallus were recovered and placed in a coffin that floated up to Lebanon where it was embraced by a Tree, becoming part of the Tree.
In the old Canaanite myth cycle of Baal and Mot, the God Mot is cut into pieces and placed in a winnowing fan. He is winnowed like grain and planted in the soil ultimately in the same way that the human sacrificial victims in ancient India were cut into a specific number of pieces, consumed partly by the village and then planted in the field to bring fertility to the land.
In ancient Egypt, the grain would be reaped, cut with sickles, then placed into large nets and carried between two poles to the threshing floor. Cattle then would trample the stalks to separate the ears from the straw (or grain from the chaff). The workers then would scoop the grain, throw it into the air, allowing the husks or chaff to be blown away by winds generated by winnowing fans.
In the religion of Attis, the male member of the God was cut off and nailed to a Pine Tree where it was worshipped and adored. The Tree was cut down and carried in processions. Devoted worshippers would castrate themselves and fling their male parts into the lap of the Goddess Mother who had given birth to the God Attis. The Tree would be taken underground into a cave where it reposed for three days. On the third day, a procession would go to the cave where they would cry: 'He is risen!' and bring forth the God's image, nailed to the trunk of the Tree.
In the sacred mysteries of the Great Goddess Demeter, the essential Mystery resided in a basket and would be shown to worshippers in a secret ceremony. What lay within the liknon or basket? It had to be the male member of the God which would have been prepared in a special fashion so that it never would decay. What is a Pickle but a green cucumber that has been preserved in a special way with Salt, a symbol of Life itself? Moreover, Green is the colour of Life and thus, the cucumber is found in many cultures and civilisations as an object of special significance.
In Japan, the traditional offering to the Kappa, a spirit of the waters, is a cucumber on which a wish or wishes have been engraved. Thus, from East to West, a 'perfect offering has been made' in the form of a cucumber or other green vegetable as a substitute for the actual male member.
The mythological significance of the coloured glass balls that have been traditional Christmas Tree ornaments throughout the modern era and indeed as long as Christmas Trees have been a part of Western civilisation is obvious. They are the vessels in which the 'seed' of the God reposed. The mistletoe is another Christmas tradition that speaks eloquently of the male contribution to the act of creation.
Fundamentalists love to point to the 'pagan' roots of many holiday traditions with horror, denouncing them as evil or somehow alien to Christianity and yet, it is more than possible that Christ was a follower of Dionysus and that his mother was a priestess of the cult. Whether or not this was the case (and the entire life of Christ is shrouded in mystery), the fact of the matter is that ancient rituals are part of the collective unconscious and when a religion embraces them rather than repudiating them, that religion gains in validity. There are reasons why traditions survive from age to age and culture to culture. Some symbols are fundamental to the psyche and the power within them cannot be denied.
The birth of the God at the time of the Winter Solstice affirms the cycle of life, death and rebirth and is a symbol of Hope. The Crucifixion is the Sacrifice that is necessary ultimately to allow the God to be reborn at Christmas. Jesus himself declared: 'Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple' and spoke more than once of the need to die in order to be reborn. It is the way of Nature that many plants must die in order to be reborn at another season. The fact though that Christ spoke of a 'cross' which is the Tree upon which the ancient religions of Attis and Adonis were centred is another compelling piece of evidence in the theory that he was himself a follower of one of those ancient mystery religions.
Last year, after Freya and her best friend Kait made a series of references in jest to a Christmas Tree that would be trimmed with phallic symbols, I found some glass pickles and added one to our Tree. This year, when I placed the glass pickle in the very centre of the Tree, close to the Trunk, I thought about the ancient mystery religions as I did so. A green glass pickle may not be the most beautiful of ornaments but it possesses a potent significance and I have every intention of making it an integral permanent part of the Yuletide celebrations.
Monday, January 7, 2013
'I'm Your Man' by Leonard Cohen, poetry in song
It is interesting that Lou Reed recognised Cohen to be one of the most influential poets and musicians of the late 20th century. I was very taken with Lou Reed in the days of 'Berlin' and retroactively, became very much a fan of the Velvet Underground. I think Lou Reed lost his edge long ago. I follow him on Facebook only because of some nostalgic urge but frankly feel that David Bowie endured the passage of time far better. I love Bowie in Ricky Gervais' 'Extras' for example. He appears to have a fundamental sense of humour that Lou Reed lacks, at least where his own iconography is concerned.
Mind you, listening to a live performance of 'Heroin' by Lou Reed, performed in 1974 in Paris, I remember all the reasons why I thought him one of the most brilliant popular performers of his time.
In the wee hours of the morning a day or two ago, I happened to watch the last hour of 'Barney's Version' again. Based on a story by Mordecai Richter, it is a very curious film that ends essentially with the protagonist in the throes of Alzheimer's disease. The main character is a bit of a prick, in all honesty and the onset of Alzheimer's actually humanises him a little... at least in my eyes. Be that as it may, his favourite song is 'I'm Your Man' which he requests from a local radio station on a daily basis, using a false name and equally bogus Canadian location.
It is a brilliant song, brilliant piece of tormented poetry... on the surface, it thrills but ultimately, it is the cri de coeur of a slightly masochistic male who wants to be everything to a woman but knows that, in reality, he can be very little of what she desires or needs. In that sense, it is the ultimate althem of the Romantic. From a woman's point of view, who is this man but every man whom we have outfited as a White Knight briefly and rather unsurprisingly found to be too weak to bear the weight of the armour or, once the armour has been stripped from him, has demonstrated that he is nothing more than some one who is not very satisfied with his true self... otherwise, why agree to the pretense?
In contemporary Western civilisation, we have created unhealthy and unrealistic expectations where relationships are concerned. Arranged marriages actually have more chance of success than the marriages we undertake in our blind arrogance, looking for everything in a partner but never feeling that we need to be anything more than what we bring to the table initially.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
New Year Resolution, Catalogue of Dolls
I love dolls as much as I love gems, jewelry and edged weapons. I probably always would have liked to have had a good collection of dolls but I was placed in a position to make the dream a reality when I briefly had my own doll business. It did not last long but in the process of attending doll shows and involving myself in Ebay in its early days, I found some wonderful vintage dolls. Very few of them are 'mint' or complete with box or even all of their accessories. In some cases, I had to find clothing for them and fix their hair. In most cases, they lacked their original shoes. (Shoes appear to be the first thing to go. Even when the owner or collector is an adult, some shoes can be elusive in their behaviour. The creators and designers of dolls often do not exhibit the same care with footwear as they do with other items of clothing. Madame Alexander is one of the worst offenders in this respect. In the late 1990s, many of the shoes for her dolls did not even FIT properly. Sandals were loose and shoes with a strap when fastened showed clearly that the strap had not been measured properly to the rest of the shoe.
Although 'The Golden Age of Hard Plastics' is probably closer to my mother's era than mine, I became enamoured with those dolls at an early age when my sister and I discovered three hard plastic 'Sweet Sue' dolls in a local Woolworth. They reposed in their original boxes still and evidently had been 'lost' in storage until some one came upon them and set them out for sale at least twenty years after their creation. They were not antiques at that point, but they definitely were vintage. I bought one, my sister bought another and my mother bought the third. They all were 'walkers' and absolutely stunning. I believe that my sister bought the doll I wanted and gave it to me that Christmas and I gave her the doll she liked best in return. We did not buy them, therefore, for ourselves. My mother gave me the third doll although she kept it for years.
The Sweet Sue that was given to me wore a rose lace ballgown and had auburn hair. I took her with me everywhere, from continent to continent. Unfortunately, she developed a skin ailment that is not uncommon in the hard plastics from the 1950s and 1960s. A blotch appeared on one cheek, marring her perfection. I still have her though.
As a young girl, I felt that Sweet Sue was perfection. As a girl who loved 'Gone with the Wind', when I saw Cissette in the role of Scarlett, I thought she was the prettiest doll in the world and bought her for my sister. I do not think my sister ever really appreciated her as I did. She was not a great fan of the book or the film. At that stage in my life, however, to purchase that doll for myself would have been unthinkable. The last time I saw the doll I gave my sister, her head had become separated from her body. I did manage to find another Cissette Scarlett from the same year when I had my doll business.
Although 'The Golden Age of Hard Plastics' is probably closer to my mother's era than mine, I became enamoured with those dolls at an early age when my sister and I discovered three hard plastic 'Sweet Sue' dolls in a local Woolworth. They reposed in their original boxes still and evidently had been 'lost' in storage until some one came upon them and set them out for sale at least twenty years after their creation. They were not antiques at that point, but they definitely were vintage. I bought one, my sister bought another and my mother bought the third. They all were 'walkers' and absolutely stunning. I believe that my sister bought the doll I wanted and gave it to me that Christmas and I gave her the doll she liked best in return. We did not buy them, therefore, for ourselves. My mother gave me the third doll although she kept it for years.
The Sweet Sue that was given to me wore a rose lace ballgown and had auburn hair. I took her with me everywhere, from continent to continent. Unfortunately, she developed a skin ailment that is not uncommon in the hard plastics from the 1950s and 1960s. A blotch appeared on one cheek, marring her perfection. I still have her though.
As a young girl, I felt that Sweet Sue was perfection. As a girl who loved 'Gone with the Wind', when I saw Cissette in the role of Scarlett, I thought she was the prettiest doll in the world and bought her for my sister. I do not think my sister ever really appreciated her as I did. She was not a great fan of the book or the film. At that stage in my life, however, to purchase that doll for myself would have been unthinkable. The last time I saw the doll I gave my sister, her head had become separated from her body. I did manage to find another Cissette Scarlett from the same year when I had my doll business.
Here are a few of the dolls from the 'Golden Age of Hard Plastics' as well as two contemporary Madame Alexander dolls and one beautiful cloth doll made by the incomparable Chad Valley of England. My New Year's Resolution is to catalogue my doll collection, partly in order to dust each and every one of them and partly because one only truly enjoys a doll by interacting with him or her a little. It is a great pity that most of my dolls have existed in a state of neglect for the past few years. As with silver, dolls require maintenance which is one reason why the idea of collecting dolls for investment was truly foolish. Dolls require space and attention. Even if one never opens the box in which the doll was sealed originally, there is a possibility that the doll will be ruined or at least damaged by constant contact with tissue paper, the box itself or the doll's own clothing. Unlike bars of pure gold that probably could be left untouched in a chest for hundreds of years, dolls and edged weapons require service and love.
From top to bottom, the dolls are:
'Princess' doll by Madame Alexander with the beautiful 'Margaret' face, so named for Princess Margaret. 'Bride' by Madame Alexander with the 'Margaraet' face. 'Riviera by Night' by Madame Alexander (late 1990s, 16" vinyl). 'Suzanne' by Effanbee, redressed in a Betsy McCall outfit designed by Robert Tonner. 'Alice and the Jabberwocky' by Madame Alexandar with the lovely Lissy face, one of the last dolls to be made using the original mould, now retired forever. Alexander made a number of dolls with the Lissy face in 1993. 'Toni' doll by Ideal. The platinum blonde doll was so-named for the hair colouring and was extremely popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This one is in excellent condition but redressed by another collector who was a wonderful seamstress and based the outfit on an original. 'Jenny Lind' by Madame Alexander with the Cissette face and body. Jenny Lind was a famous singer known as the 'Swedish Nightingale' Last but not least, a cloth doll made by Chad Valley, all original apart from her shoes.
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