I came for the light.2.

I came for the light.

Eugene Atget

Fontenay

I am the light.

BRICS, and everything that is in-between and goes usually unrecognized

      

for tolerance of differing (and opposing) views on race and racial politics in the U.S.A.

We've heard of the BRICS--Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa--five countries which are neither in the developed nor Third World, but have developing economies poised to become--that is, if they are not already--major players in the global economy of the 21st century and beyond.

In an analogous fashion, there are in the United States Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans, Native Americans, Caribbeans, East Africans, biracials, and others, who are neither white or black but usually (and, unfortunately, in my opinion) lumped together in the category of "People of Color."

This even though many Hispanic-Americans are Caucasian by race, or though members of these racial/ethnic groups may have more in common, at least culturally, with European-Americans than African-Americans.

Of course, there are many Hispanics and, to a lesser extent, Asian-Americans who identify with African-Americans based on "the hip factor," which is dominant particularly among liberals and is filtering, or perhaps I should say, flooding down to the mainstream.

Their total demographic numbers clearly exceed those of African-Americans but by comparison they are rarely discussed in the national consciousness.  In California, for example, Hispanics outnumber blacks by perhaps 6-1, while Asians outnumber blacks by about 2-1.

I am not particularly prescient but I do wonder whether in half a century or even longer whether the above will continue to be "lost" on Americans, their power elite, and the press, i.e., whether the paradigm inaugurated since the late sixties of "white (or mainstream) culture" versus "minority culture" (a very big Tent, indeed) will continue to be operative.

Perhaps the "rainbow" society requires that we not pit one race against the others.  

In Spain, a Family Reunion, Centuries Later (N.Y. Times, April 4, 2014)

In Spain, a Family Reunion, Centuries Later

By DOREEN CARVAJALAPRIL 4, 2014

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An entrance to the Jewish quarter in Segovia, Spain.CreditGianfranco Tripodo for The New York Times

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At twilight, I roamed a honey-colored labyrinth of brick houses in Segovia’s medieval Jewish quarter, walking a cobblestone path in the footsteps of my distant ancestor from 16 generations ago.

In the shadows, I reminded myself that every element in his story is true: a Vatican power struggle; an Inquisition trial that confused our family’s religious identity for generations; and a neighborhood infested with spies, from the queen’s minions to the leather maker and butcher.

I was hunting for documents, landmarks and even medieval recipes that could bring to life the family history of Diego Arias Dávila, a wealthy 15th-century royal treasurer to King Enrique IV who was loved and loathed for the taxes he extracted. Call it ancestral tourism, a quest for roots, branches and a family reunion across centuries. 

My quest was inspired, in part, by the ancient Spanish custom of Holy Week religious processions: brotherhoods of penitents in robes and peaked hoods that for centuries marched through the narrow lanes in different regions in cities like Seville, Málaga and  Segovia. The first time I saw them was in the south of Spain, passing an old Jewish quarter of whitewashed houses where the images plunged me into a medieval era when inquisitors in anonymous hoods confronted suspected heretics, including my own ancestors.

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continued

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/travel/in-spain-a-family-reunion-centuries-later.html?_r=0

Tokyo in the lead (ou les enfants qui ne grandissent pas)

Tokyo's Pet Cafes

Tokyo is a BIG city. A big, crazy city with A LOT of people, many of whom live in teeny tiny flats that don't allow pets. Ergo the boom of the "pet cafe" where you can go to drink a cup of tea in the company of cats, rabbits, goats and even owls. It's kooky and it's totally Japan. I love them!

One thing that struck me about Tokyo, that I wasn't expecting, is the noise. It's SO LOUD! There is noise coming at you from every direction and the visit to this peaceful cat cafe in Shibuya was  a really welcome respite from the bedlam that was raging just outside the window. This place was so quiet it felt more like a church than a cafe...in a good way. Cats are Gods to us crazy cat ladies after all.

The first cat cafe we visit (yes there was more than one) was Hapineko. After a day of wandering around I just wanted to sit, drink some tea and pat some cats. It took us a while to find this place (thanks eventually to Google Maps) but when we did I was in HEAVEN! SO. MANY. CATS!

Our visit to Hapineko cost about $15 for an hour. That includes patting of all the cats can you find plus a hot (or cold) drink and a little snack. A friend of mine worried that the cafe would be kinda dirty and we'd be drinking and snacking amongst dirty little, stinky cats (clearly, she's NOT a cat person) but I can assure you this place was CLEAN! Like a whole new level of clean I've not encountered before. Mr Sheen would feel like a dirty old man here.

Miraculously we left after an hour rolling around on the floor patting cats with not a skerrick of cat hair on us. Not one bit of fluff. There was no "catty" smell at all -- all of the cats went off to a "secret room" to do their business ...I think a lot of them actually snuck in there just to get away from the humans.

Truth be told, most of the cats were asleep - but that makes it all the more easy to pat them. A few were awake and were running around...but mostly it was Zzzzzzzzzzzz for these fur babies.

The second cat cafe we visit is tucked away in Harajuku - it took as over an hour to find this building and we only ended up here as the Bunny Cafe across the corridor was full and there was a 90 minute wait to get in. WHAT!?

I think this place is called Chuumonnnoooi - but it's Japan so in reality I have no idea what this place is called....let's call it "the place across the hallway from the Bunny Cafe that is really hard to find". 

We had a massive Lost in Translation moment at this cafe and ended up having to pay more than we thought for our 30 minute visit, plus there were no drinks/snacks (I think this was extra...but really, who knows)?  Anyway, we're here to pat cats and not eat/drink.  All up we paid about $7.50 for a half an hour (each).

(continued)
http://www.theadventuresofmisspiggy.com/2014/03/tokyos-pet-cafes.html

Inside London's First Cat Cafe

http://m.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2014/03/inside-londons-first-cat-cafe/8758/

Inside London's First Cat Cafe

Updated review of the Seattle Art Museum (15/4/14)

Edouard Vuillard, Salle a manger, Rue de Naples (1935) Seattle Art Museum

April 15, 2014 was the 140th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition that took place in Paris.

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What recently impressed me was the "reconstitution" of the room of 18th/19th century European paintings to house paintings that had been in storage for decades, among which are works by some of the most important names in 19th century art:  Claude Monet (Fishing Boats at Etretat), Edouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Berthe Morrisot, Bourguereau, and Gustave Caillebotte, as well as "lesser" figures such as Guillaumin (who exhibited with the other more famous Impressionists).

Nothing prepared me to actually see a large majestic interior by Vuillard, a woman seated at a table, enveloped by that orange-red characteristic of this post-impressionist painter.  I would have thought this had to on loan from the Musee d'Orsay, but all along it was in the collection of SAM!

Louis-Andre-Gabriel Bouchet, Mere et Enfant, 1815.

One criticism has to do with the labelling of the painting by Bouchet (whose name is pronounced the same as the famous Rocco painter Francois Boucher.  The elegantly dressed woman is seated with her two children in a stylized outdoor setting with a pillar upon which the shadow of a man's face appears.  The painting is in a clearly neo-classical style, the dress and relative severity reflecting the movement that swept over France and Europe as a reaction to the Rocco period associated with Louis XV. and as an aesthetic parallel to the era of the French Revolution and its immediate aftermath, the rise and fall of Napoleon.

The date of the painting is 1815.  It is the year, after 22 years of uninterrupted war on the continent (the so-called Napoleonic wars), in which Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated at Waterloo.
And in  that same year the Congress of Vienna reuniting the victors--France's enemies, all of the rest of Europe--will drastically redraw the boundaries of Europe, which will be the national boundaries for the next half century.  

The ensuing restoration of the ancient regime--the Bourbon dynasty--would last until 1830 when the hereditary monarchy was finally abolished.  Being one of the most important dates in European history, surely this fact should have been mentioned on the label, 

The war in which the lady's husband was fighting was not just any war.  It changed the course of Western history.

Granted this fact would be lost on the vast majority of Americans, who would be more familiar with the history of the Jedi, but still...

In truth, 19th century Western art was overwhelmingly dominated by French artists, from the neoclassicism of David through the Barbizon school, realists, romantics, Symbolists, and the post-impressionist movement, its end book-shelved by Henri Matisse, here represented by a small oil of a snowy winter scene with vibrant gum-drop reds.

One even has a wonderful oil painting belonging to the early-mid19th century Barbizon school, the Henri Joseph Harpignies.  Standing in front of it, the viewer really does feel the thick, heavy pull of the current painted in broad reflective brushstrokes.

Henri Harpignies, Fishing Pond, 1866.

Also striking is the 1882 portrait by Caillebotte of a rather anxious woman engulfed in an immense red sofa that makes one think of the famous 1877 painting by Cezanne of his wife. although the proportions are reversed, in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  

A possible reverse inspiration?

http://www1.seattleartmuseum.org/eMuseum/code/emuseum.asp?collection=27168&collectionname=WEB:European&style=browse&currentrecord=1&page=collection&profile=objects&searchdesc=WEB:European&newvalues=1&newstyle=single&newcurrentrecord=75

The walls of  theexhibiton  room is wonderful,are apa a lavender-gray walls and dim, subdued lighting, sufficient to light the individual works of light.

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Personally I found this one room more interesting than the current Miro exhibition, which goes to show you that the size of a show is not necessarily an indication of its richness or significance.

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/So…
http://www.histoirealacarte.com/demos/tome01/


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The inclusion of a mediocre contemporary painting by a young male African-American in the 17th century European gallery is a nod to political correctness more than aesthetic realization, similar to the feeling of deja vu when one sees an African-American in public, dressed from head to foot only in black.   

The statement "What am I doing here?  I'm black.  I don't care what you think.  And I'm bustin' out, get used to it" is a cliche that no longer shocks but produces ennui.

I came for the light.

I came for the light.