bardolatry

In recognition of the upcoming anniversary of the birth (extrapolated, guessed, from his documented baptism) and death some fifty-one years later of William Shakespeare, I would like to point readers to the excellent series of postings, recently concluded, from the Big Think, that not only keep the debate of authorship alive, as well as other aspects of the cult of personality, but go further to explore how prodigy and poetry challenge and strengthen one's own mental capacities and how the timing of the playwright came as the English language was still malleable and under development. These two grammars, Elizabethan and complex, grew together and the body of work culturally crystallized English literary tradition more so than king, country and might. No one wants to entertain that those plays and sonnets germinated as some unsourced leavings and improvisation of the age and the focus on the historical identity of William Shakespeare has never taken away from the genius and richness of his drama, no matter if revised and polished over the years--idealized like the author--or were gifted complete like some religious acheiropoieta, but it strikes me as perfect that Shakespeare identity is really only knowable through his works, just like his characters, who no matter how real or contrived, are fleshed out with just a few lines and stage-directions but each one is much more than some playful but scant vocabulary.

nine ladies dancing and five-hundredth post

Research seems to suggest that there is an inverse relationship between that uncomfortable feeling of cognitive dissonance, trying to prop up, support a framework of opposing ideas against itself--which I believe can also manifest itself as stage-fright or writers' block or being generally uncreative and derivative--and psychological distance. Experiments that could be easily repeated clinically and in one's head and at one's own drawing-board that people, just as they can be freer and more imaginative planning a trip that is in the future rather than one just on the horizon over bothersome worries with logistics or when planning a trip for another person, if people are able to abstract the task at hand somehow, it can become more inspired and productive.

It would be an art to right the balance between fantasy and daydreaming and bother that deadlines and contingencies cause. Of course the most common and potentially negative ways of digging oneself out when there is a clash between practice and expected outcomes are blame and rationalization, and hitting an artistic dry-patch is different than the remorse of hypocrisy, but maybe imagining back one's imagination, overcoming performance-pressures, can led to genuine boost in creative spirits and perhaps even change actions and attitude rather than seeking out reasons not to succeed for the here and now.

eeyore or thanks for noticing me

In the parking lot of the supermarket, I saw this unusual trailer, which I thought I had mis- understood: Eselnothilfe or rather Donkey Rescue, though, to my mind, these sort of compound words can be manipulated to mean other things, like Emergency Donkey or Donkeys to the Rescue.  One can make donations to sponsor a service animal for villages in Africa or India, which I am sure is at least as appreciated as a WiFi router or some of the other charity forced on those communities in the past.  It was rather a service for retiring mules and the like that takes beasts of burden to farms where they are not expected to labour and can life out their days in peace.  It made me think of the dear, sweet animals we met in Ireland. 

The international organization advertised on the trailer canvas does not seem to be found under that website any longer, but searching I learned about similiar charities, which is a nice thought.  After we finished shopping, the caravan was ahead of us on the road and started on the same route as we would take home.  For a moment, I was excited that they might bring us an old donkey to care for.

weebles wobble but they don't fall down

 To commemorate the reunification of East and West Germany, Berlin will install this kinetic monument in an open square on the Spreeinsel, just to the south of Museum Island, near the Berliner Dom and the razed Palace of the Republic: a teeter-totter, a giant see-saw.

This massive design was picked as the winner in the competition for a national testament to peace and unity. "We are the people; we are one people--" I think it would be fun to shift the whole installation with the weight of the crowd, and it delivers a clear, symbolic message, public interaction required, that it is the people that move the country--though sometimes events move more like a carnival ride rather than participatory art.

23 skiddoo

We are avid fans of antiques, and thanks to H's discerning eye and shrewd bargaining skills, we have together amassed a houseful of fine things from the art deco era, though we have not discriminated overly against the inclusion of other styles. We have quite a good beginning collection of clocks. The tintinnabulation of the sychronized chimes is really something quite grand, along with the artistry and craftsmanship of it all, lamps, vases, sliver and statuary. H has entertained the idea authoring a blog about our finds, which I am strongly encouraging.

I do wonder, however, how 3D printing, a technology just over the horizon will affect collectors, revival in style, cottage industry and the post-industrial world as a whole. Is what you wish on, spun out of ticky-tacky, like the backdrop of a stage set, or will it have the heft and detail of the genuine article? If one can design it himself, even if the concept is sort of a let-down compared to Star Trek style replicators--though I never would have believed clones of pets were commercially available as well as any image ever created with the right amount of ink, and given the input of time and material, one should certainly be able to recreate any masterpiece of form and function on any level, from decoy to living replacement.

screed or the bad shepherd

The blog TruthDig has an important, if not too disheartening, article on the disturbing trend and designs on institutionalized education that are compelling teachers and professors to produce faithful cogs fit for the larger corporate state. Inculcated with the means and attitude essential for the modern measure of scrapping by (not even success, since that's still taught to those privileged enough to afford it), the resulting classes would be perfect, receptive consumers, industrious and effective workers and obedient voters, without the bothersome wherewithal and character to question authority, orders or profit motive. That's a rather grim and depressing result of standardized testing, and such uneasy questions about substance and breadth of edification have always inspired debate and discussion as well as students and teacher since before the time of Socrates.

The dull and conformist rhetoric, however, was formerly reserved to despotic chieftains, religious dogmatists, megalomaniacal ideologues, evil headmasters, crooked principals or grumpy deans, and producing unquestioning drones was never before touted as something that could generate revenue, big business found in for-profit schooling, academic management organizations (accreditation boards and quiz-writers) or union-busting for competent teachers. That is a dangerous development and will surely lead to lack of innovation and imagination, if not totally taming and dispiriting learners and instructors. The situation is certainly not uniformly dreadful and there are certainly places where education is celebrated and valued and teachers inspire, but one can hope that this gamboling form of American Exceptionalism does not take root elsewhere.