Queer MoMA

With many thanks to Mary Nemetz, who alerted me to the fact that National Coming Out day is today,* I offer these screenshots that I think are from an exploration of queer images in the MoMA collection led by Andrew Lear. I didn't get a screenshot of the opening slide, and can't get to the Oscar Wilde tours website to check for some reason today. Andrew Lear covers artists Marsden Hartley, Keith Haring, Paul Cadmus, and others, and points out how many of the images in their works are drawn from/influenced by things they saw every day and/or were significant symbols of people they loved (cf the military imagery in Marsley's Painting no. 5, and the military medals of a man he loved).

* Don't know why the date of the second march is commemorated. I was at that march, and the first march on Washington on Oct. 14, 1979, held shortly after Harvey Milk was assassinated. Can't remember how we got from Stony Brook to there. I remember I broke away from the crowd on the Mall to make my way to the East Building of the National Gallery, which had only recently opened and marveled at the amazing point the building came to on one of its sides. Can't remember if I went in or if it was closed due to the march. What I remember most from the 2nd one is the AIDS quilt. It was its first display.

John Brennan

 Former CIA director lays out short-, middle-, and long term challenges facing the U.S.

Porfirio's presentation

 Porfirio Gutiérrez, a rug-making artist from Oaxaca, recently held an online presentation where he shared his biography, as well as the background of the art* of rug making in Mexico. He started the talk by greeting us in his native language. He talks about the bug, seen in a couple of images that, when crushed, makes the red, and shades thereof, that is so important to the culture. He also mentions his early days as an immigrant to California, where he saw echoes of ancient Mexican structures in the modern houses to which he hauled bags of construction cement. You can see this in the two images of buildings. And he included several shots of rugs he and his family have made. It's easy to see why the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian has bought some of his work for its collection.

 Here are some screen shots of the talk. 

 I have to say he inspired me (again, since I felt the same after his Harvard U program several years ago). So when he mentioned his having to mount an online trunk show having had to cancel all his in-person ones, and was thus was having trouble making ends meet, I tried to help him by getting another of his wonderful pieces.

* Or is it a craft? They talked about that.

Soothing sounds

 This from Boston Harbor Now via Malcolm Hamilton, of HURA fame.*

* Havard University Retiree Association.

I love Alan Bennett

 He's recently had a wonderful series of vignettes on the telly. This 40-min. video will give you an idea of their flavour (spelling since he's British).

Oh, Donald

 A new video from Randy Rainbow, this one with the incomparable Patti LuPone:

Here's the original:

Believe it or not, that's Natalie Wood really singing.

Ponder points

Does the lack of substantive debate and civil discourse reflect a broader phenomenon in American society? Two distinguished political scientists, Harvard University’s Danielle Allen and Pepperdine University’s Pete Peterson share their views.

I've heard the argument that term limits are the solution to the current political gridlock. My question is, if we continue to elect the same kind of candidates, what will that solve? Esp. these days, with Facebook, Twitter and other such platforms and their business model designed to elicit outrage and thus traffic, wouldn't non-partisan redistricting help? That way candidates would have to play to the middle rather than the extreme, and might bring together folks who would be more likely to seek consensus rather than political point scoring.