Lone Star Nation

The author begins his story in the late 80’s; a college student with few job prospects in San Antonio, he drives east, then north. In 2000, he comes back, and it’s booming. Parker illustrates the story of Texas as having internal as well as out-of-state migrations, both in the 80’s, when he left, and present day, when people are moving in. Texas has always attracted migrants, for cattle, oil, and agriculture. Even by the 1970’s, Texas had great cities, like Dallas, which housed Fortune 500 companies. Yet even with the wealthy cities, the state’s record on education, crime, health, and race relations were lousy. He blames it in part on the migrations.

Parker writes that in the 1980’s, former rust belters came to Texas, and strengthened the GOP’s position. Fast forward to 2015 however, and the famous Republican hold on Texas is fading. The new Texans are young, better educated, entrepreneurial, and often non-white, and they’re less dependent on oil, cattle, and agriculture. There are fewer Fortune 500 jobs, but lots of little ones. Not surprising, given that CD stores have closed, Blockbuster is finished, Circuit City and Best Buy have downsized.

One change that the writer explores is how the state’s attitude towards Gay Americans has changed. Houston, for instance, elected Annise Parker as its mayor, and I guarantee that 20 years ago this would not have happened. The first things she dealt with were typical city problems; clearing ditches, unblocking sewers, and though she can’t take credit for the building boom, nobody want to do business in a city that’s filthy. She even proposed a law banning discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace. Her following among women voters, gay voters, and minorities is powerful.

Texas has always had a dependence on large-scale business, like agriculture and oil, to sustain its economy. The problem was that the these industries were somewhat anti-technology, and it’s not surprising, given that solar and wind power would’ve cut into big oil’s market. The 2013 drought hit the agricultural sector hard, and the farmers, certain that they were fool-proof, had no water-savvy irrigation technology that the Israelis use. Corn fields withered, cattle died, deer had to eat oleander leaves to survive and it killed them off, and coyotes were so desperate that they started killing and eating cats. Conservative Texans in the George Bush mold were not into technology and innovation, and they ended up losing.

Parker is not, however, without his criticism of the new Texas. In order not to raise taxes, Texas raised tuition rates for state and local colleges (up to $50,000) which makes it harder for lower-income students, often minorities. There are ways to alleviate the problem, however; tuition can be lowered for majors that the state needs, like nursing, physical therapy, early child education, and criminal justice.

I always imagined Texas the way I saw it on Dallas; a state full of gruff, loud, conservative businessmen, dead set against any kind of change. The state’s death row would be working overtime, executing multiple convicts daily, and the schools, when not paddling the kids, would be checking to make sure nobody was teaching evolution. The change, however, has arrived, not by force, but through the “old guard” dying out.

Call it “intelligent design,” I suppose.

Salafism in Lebanon by Robert Rabil

Salafism is a strict form of Islam, begun in the 1300’s when the Middle East was attacked from both sides; the Crusaders in the West and the Mongols from the East. It stems from the same Muslim philosophies that would, in the 1700’s, become the Wahabi doctrine, now prevalent in Saudi Arabia. The author, Robert Rabil, places Salafism in the context of modern Middle East, where the clash between radical Islam has been much in the news this decade.

Rabil introduces the reader to how “modernity” clashed with Islam from the beginning. Growing French influence in the Levant angered the Muslims, not only because it gave more power to Lebanon’s Maronite Christians, but that it made Islam look weak. In Turkey, Mustapha Kemal’s laws against the religious authority angered the Muslims, and though there was no mass communication to spread the news, it did reverberate.

Another issue discussed here is the Muslims’ distrust of government. Firstly, they felt betrayed by Ataturk, but since Turkey was not Arabic-speaking, there wasn’t much that Arab Muslim radicals could do. Secondly, the idea of Saudi Arabia having a monarch angered a lot of Muslims, leading to the famous Siege of Mecca in the 80’s. In a religious ideology that promotes combat as a means to an end, and has strict rules against idolatry, the idea of everyone following one man will easily anger the people.

Robert Rabil gives excellent historical background for Salafism, and does a great job in explaining why so many are attracted to it in this day and age. Persons unfamiliar with Muslim philosophy may have a hard time however, as many of the names and terms are alien to most. However, he does well in reporting on the histories, so that makes it easier to understand. Though he doesn’t say it expressly, a lot of Salafism’s present day power has to do with mass media. In Ataturk’s time, most Arabic-speakers were illiterate, and few in the Middle East would’ve owned a radio. News didn’t spread as it does today, with Arab radio, television, internet, and the famous Al-Jazera network.

Portraiture and Politics In Revolutionary France

There’s a painting in this book’s introduction, of an old man in a brown coat, book in hand, gazing somberly away from the viewer. The man’s brown coat matches the dark browns of the empty background, and as far as his looks go, the artist makes no attempt to flatter. Gone are the beautiful faces of Georgian era portraits, where everyone has ivory skin and poses with a raised hand. Whoever this man was, he didn’t want to look attractive. He wanted to look serious.

The painting's description has me correct on all points. The man wanted to look serious, but there was another reason for the ruggedness of the portrait; he was a spokesman for the Revolutionary movement, and though a well-known orator, he was also a commoner. He would have viewed the previous styles as much too elitist for his taste; ivory skin and delicate faces were now seen as dainty and unmanly.

As for the style of painting, with wide brushstrokes and no backdrop, it had as much to with economics as it did with attitudes. The artists no longer had royal patronage, so whoever could afford a portrait would’ve offered less money. It made sense for the artist to develop a faster style using fewer colors. As the revolution progresses, we see the portraits getting more and more colorful, with more elaborate costumes. The paintings of Jacques- Louis David (famous for the painting of Marat dead in the bathtub) feature common people, including writers and revolutionary orators, in fine-tailored suits. They sit at desks writing, with furniture getting finer and finer, probably stolen from a recently chased-out aristocrat.

The author, Amy Freund, isn’t entirely convinced of the “revolutionary” attitudes of the time, however. In the 1790’s, many of the portraits were of army officers in the service of the new government, and these men were obviously living well off the public dime. At the same time, though they sat for portraits in splendid uniforms, they don’t seem to have entirely given up their dislike of elitist visages. The painting National Guard Officer and His Wife clearly shows an elderly couple, both look to be about 70 (or older) and no attempt is made to have them look younger. The description says that this man was a peasant, and he was given an honorary officer’s rank as a way to forcibly integrate the classes. The wife, however, doesn’t wear the same splendid clothes as her husband; she still wears the clothes of a peasant, and she has a stern look.

    To sum up, the portraits of Revolutionary France were propaganda. It was the new regime’s way of showing everyone that the old class system was over, and former subjects were now citizens. In some ways it’s sarcastic irony, compared to earlier French artwork. Remember the famous 1767 painting The Swing, where the woman allows her skirt to blow up, to the amusement of the foppish young man hiding in the bushes? This was precisely the frivolous imagery that annoyed the revolutionaries, who viewed the nobility as lazy, wasteful, and amoral, coupled with cowardice and imbecility. Notice the hat the woman wears in the painting? It’s a shepherdess’ hat, ironic in that the shepherdess is usually a symbol of virtue in artwork.

By the 1800’s, the economics of portraiture were back to normal again. The book ends with the Anonymous Family Portrait, featuring what appears to be the father, two grown sons, and two younger children. He must have had money, because the youngest child plays a piano, and the older sons are all well dressed. The father, however, is unshaven, with a double chin and messy hair. His clothing too is unkempt, and the older son has his eyes cast downward. This man still has the embodiment of the revolutionary ideal of manliness in his disdain for delicacy.

In some ways this book reminds me of the USA in the late 60’s and early 70’s, where it became the vogue for the rich to entertain the radical. Those of you who read Tom Wolfe’s Radical Chic know of Leonard Bernstein’s “hip” parties; catered fund-raisers for the Black Panthers, held at their 20-room apartment in Manhattan. Then there was Ted Kennedy’s Lincoln Center fundraiser for an upstate NY “boy’s home,” with a souvenir book featuring a smiling boy on the cover. His name was Willie Bosket.

The wealthy American liberals, once enamored with radical causes, mostly lost interest. By the 1980’s, Reagan’s conservative platform made patriotism hip, and the new generation embraced Wall Street, money, and materialism. However, unlike the American fascination with 60’s radicalism, the French didn’t seem to lose their sense of anti-elitism. It’s true that the Anonymous Family Portrait of 1800 features a return towards gentility, but the middle-aged man in the center still chooses roughness. Perhaps his children, obviously more fastidious in their grooming, are too young to remember the feeling of the revolutionary era?

I bet his sons became the corporate raiders of the era.

Management And The Arts

    Management and the Arts begins each chapter with a short list of terms for the business. Then it lists the types of organizations involved in the arts; museums, theaters, operas, dance schools, etc. Each one has a numerical code to use, and categorized with the specific types of visual or performing arts they promote. The first chapter ends with an introduction to basic management and division of labor.

    The second chapter deals more with the business side of the arts, along with a brief history. When art-related businesses become more competitive, a  stronger management base is needed. For instance, small vaudeville houses didn’t require much in the way of management. All they had to do with have a sign up roster, let the juggler/dancer/comedian/musician go on for 15 minutes, and pay him his $10. Whatever preparation the performers did was at their own expense. An opera, however, needed a greater management structure; rehearsals had to be scheduled, sets had to be built, the wardrobe had to be cared for, makeup artists were needed, musicians had to be hired and rehearsed, and rehearsal time had to be paid for.

    Management and the Arts covers the business strategies that are germane to the different types of organizations for the arts. For instance, a theater is usually open at night, while a museum is open all day long. A theater manager has to take care of a greater amount of scheduling than a museum, because the same artworks sit in the museum all day, and paintings don’t have to be booked the way actors do. However, a museum needs someone to curate the shows if it wants to attract paying visitors. If it needs money from grants, somebody will have to write the proposal.

    Further chapters cover fundraising for different types of arts organization, then the more “retail” points like tickets sales and souvenirs, then comes the advertising, promotion, and public relations. I find this book thorough and informative, but it’s lacking in real-life examples. Each chapter should include a story about an arts organization that either succeeded or failed thanks to its management. I recall back in the mid-1990’s, the Syracuse State in upstate New York was bankrupt, and it bounced back through a successful public relations campaign. Part of the promotion involved allowing ticket buyers to return their tickets within a certain time, as well as a humorous  advertising effort.

   I recommend this book to anyone involved in the business of arts management. With all the museums and theaters in New York City, it might as well be required reading for anyone looking to work at Lincoln Center or any of the numerous museums we have.

Rebel Yell: An Oral History of Southern Rock

Rebel yell: An Oral History of Southern Rock

Michael Buffalo Smith brings together musician, crewmen, and producers of an original American art form; the fusion of country music and hard rock. Those of you that love Lynnrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, and the Allman Brothers will have a field day with this book. Some of the interviews I recognized from Smith’s earlier articles, which you can see on swampland.com, including the ones with The Charlie Daniels Band’s Artimus Pyle. He discusses the (unusual) previous jobs of the band members, the gigs in New Orleans, and the various stories behind their early days. It’s a wild rambling tale, like only a southerner could tell it.

The chapter Filmore East was a bit surprising, in that it doesn’t say much about the city at the time. I expected to hear stories about New York City’s wild days of the 70’s, but there wasn’t much observation on their part. As Dickey Betts describes, if you remember anything of the time, you weren’t having fun. According to members of the Allman Brothers, the 70’s were a decade of free flowing alcohol and wild habits, which would’ve fit right into the city.

Perhaps those wild habits were tolerated more in the pre-MTV days? 

Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy in the United States by Sarah B. Rodriguez

Contrary to popular belief, female circumcision was never isolated to the African continent. It was widely practiced in the USA, but unlike the African origin, female circumcision in the USA had nothing to do with keeping wives from straying or making them submissive. It had more to do with paranoid prudishness and fear of criminality. Rodrigues paints a picture of this divisive issue (even then) as being motivated by several unjust philosophies; sexism, prudish mores, racism, and eugenics.

In the chapter Female Sexual Degeneracy and the Enlarged Clitoris, the author refers to prison doctors and their skewed research on female sexual habits. She describes hoe a NY prison doctor described black women as having oversized clitorises, making them hypersexual lesbians. Sarah Baartman, an enslaved African woman, was used by physicians as a highly inaccurate example of the African woman’s body, and these racist physicians made claims that women in hot climates had larger genitalia. As with most medical research as the time, a lot of it was falsified, and physicians were rarely questions or criticized for their theories. This was the same generation of physicians that researched the infamous Kalikak and Jute families in New Jersey.

Fast forward to the 1940’s. Attitudes towards women, though still unequal, had changed. Doctors were now promoting the idea of orgasms as being perfectly healthy for women (perhaps thanks in part to Dr. Kinsey’s research) and doctors were no longer fanatically against the idea of masturbation. It was at this time that doctors looked into removing the clitoral hood as a way for women to achieve greater sexual pleasure. By the 1970’s more and more women were having the clitoral hood removed to increase sexual pleasure, and it worked.

To see the progress in attitudes towards sex, look at the way the USA changed. WWI left loads of men dead, so women flooded into clerical jobs, and the attitude towards women changed. Then the Great Depression hit, and the once powerful church, an institution that had been the biggest welfare provider, was hit hard. Religion was no longer as dominant as it had been before, and thanks to widespread poverty, birth control, in whatever form existed, became widely accepted. In fact, birth control was so widely practiced in the Depression, that the era is referred to as the “baby bust.” Then came WWII, women entered the workforce, and the role of women changed further.

Sarah Rodriguez’ book is well-researched, fair, balanced, and highly detailed. It uses the idea of female circumcision as an example of the changes going on in US history.

Designs For Living and Learning

Deb Curtis and Maggie Carter explore how you can teach children by setting up the right environment. Anyone who’s read Harry Wong’s First Day of School (a classic how-to guide for teachers) knows that clean classrooms are essential, but what about the layout? What about the color scheme and the furniture?  This book, which I might mention is from New Zealand, shows many examples of daycare and preschools that encourage constructive play for children.

The first, and most obvious things we see, are the water tables and sand tables. I remember these from when I was a kid, we loved playing with the sand. But there was something else that I saw in the photo of the New Zealand preschool, and that was the toolbench. It was at a height the kids could reach, and had lots of small hammers, nails, screw drivers, pliers, etc. We had a tool bench when I was in kindergarten, but few US preschools have them now out of fear of lawsuits. I can’t think of anything better for a 5 year old boy than a toolbench and some nails to pound.

Some of the schools (or afterschool places) build what I can “adventure playgrounds” with lots of apparatus for the kids to climb. You have slides, ladders, swings, ropes, nets, decent poles, and tires to play with, and you’ll keep the kids busy for hours. We used to have these playgrounds all over the USA, but they were all torn down in the 1990’s because of, you guessed, it, lawsuits. Nowadays, the average kids’ playground looks like a Fisher Price playset blown up to life size. Eight year old kids are now spending all their time with TV and electronics, getting into trouble, while 30 years ago they were jumping off wooden forts and landing in nets. There’s a new miniature adventure playground in Washington Square Park, here in NYC, consisting of an artificial valley, covered in rubber and astroturf, spanned by a net. Kids love to play on it, so maybe there is hope.

One way you can encourage healthy physical play is to repurpose materials. Bead curtains are a good way to start; you tell the children that they’re going to learn to make the curtains themselves, then teach children to string beads together, and it becomes the curtain for the classroom. Wooden boards and sawhorses can be used to make slides and see-saws, and if the kids want a sandpit, teach them to sand the boards, drill holes, and screw the boards together. Then let them drag the bags of sand to fill it. The only hazard is that after building their own sandpit, they may be tee weary (or wary) to want to use it. But the younger kids probably will!

It’s fun to see a book like this in an age of paranoia over kids getting hurt. I saw pictures throughout this book of kids playing with old wooden boards, wooden blocks, water, plastic pipes, and mud. There were kids digging holes, getting dirty, and doing all sorts of things that would make the average kid a mess. But this is how kids learn naturally, by doing, not by staring at a screen. There’s one thing, however, that this book left out, and that is passive academic learning. One way to get kid a head start for school is to sneak in letters and words, so I would suggest painting the playground tarmac with letters, to “get them acquainted.” Maybe paint a giant map of the USA on the ground or the school wall?

112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970-1974)

112 Greene Street is where the Soho art scene began. It was the first “artist space” where you could use the rooms to do you artwork and show it, badly needed by artists who couldn’t afford studios. The galleries were still uptown, it would still be a few years before Soho became “galleryland,” but for an artist with zero following, it was great to be able to make AND show your art in the same space. When I say that it was frequented by artists with no following, I mean the artists who did not have a gallery to show their work, nor a loyal group of fans. Much of the art shown at 112 Greene is now gone.

    Jeffrey Lew, the original owner of the building, describes the 1960’s art galleries as being rather kitchy. The art was “doilies and bowls of fruit” and he wanted something a bit more raw. I imagine the art galleries were catering to the decorators, so 112 Greene Street, with its “old crazies in dirty clothes” would’ve been shocking even by modern art standards. Keep in mind that Andy Warhol, the city’s most iconic weirdo-artist, was the darling of the upper classes. His studio wasn’t in Soho either; it was at Union Square, and he and his crowd didn’t appreciate dirty, grungy types. 112 Greene Street would probably not have been on his radar. Lew, along with Gordon Matta-Clark, would also found White Columns to exhibit emerging artists.

   112 Greene Street is full of interviews with the artists of the period, most of whom I’d never heard of. There’s a 1970 photo of George Trakas, with his assemblage called “The Piece That Went Through The Floor” which I bet would NOT have been appreciated by the city’s gallery elite. Gordon Matta-Clark’s painting “Walls Paper” is a repeating silkscreened mural, similar in style to Andy Warhol, and I admit that’s what I thought it was at first. But Unlike Warhol’s celebrity pop culture fascination, Walls Paper appears to depict a beat up doorway. Kind of rough compared to Warhol, just like most of the artwork that survives from the space.

    This book is the result of an exhibit at the David Zwirner Gallery in 2011, which I didn’t know of at the time. I take for granted that I loved going to Soho as a teenager in the early 1990’s, but I never learned about the history of the neighborhood. It was something of a wasteland in the early 70’s, with its shuttered factories and lack of amenities. The one thing it had on its side, which would become an asset to developers, was transportation. The neighborhood was well served by the subway lines, so when real estate values rose, Soho was converted into more expensive loft apartments. Lew’s White Columns gallery would move several times through Soho, eventually relocating to the Meatpacking District.

    The artists depicted in this book are renowned in the art world, but not in the way that the more famous ones are. From the photos and the interviews, you can see the roughness of their world, which was, compared to others, independent. The book portrays them as having none of the financial patronage that other had, but at the same time they are free to do as they like. Kind of like Shirley Chisolm (a politician of the time) calling her platform “unbought and unbossed.” Yeah, she lost the Democratic nomination to George McGovern, but at least she did it her way. I bet she would’ve liked these artists, who were, in a way, homesteaders in a new land. Another factor in 112 Greene Street is that the artists were often self-taught. Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Chuck Close all had formal training, and Warhol had been a commercial artist. These new “baby boom” artists were often self-taught,  

   Another book reviewed on this site, titled “In Love With Art,” explains the way of life in the area at the time. It was relatively safe compared to other areas of the time, because there was nothing to steal. Who would break into a loft if they knew they’d find only art supplies? I bet the most expensive thing you’d have found at 112 Greene Street was a radio, and even radios were becoming cheaper than ever (the area that would be taken over by the World Trade Center was known as Radio Row). There also weren’t any flophouses or SRO’s in the neighborhood, so you didn’t have alcoholics and junkies coming out at night. The Bowery, with its famous flophouses and dive bars, was half a mile away, and the winos and junkies rarely strayed that far from their haunts. Soho may in fact have been a safer neighborhood than the Upper West Side, which was notorious for muggings, thanks to expensive and cheap housing side by side. If Soho was safe, it was a food desert, and the only restaurants in the area were probably diners that catered to working men. The Soho food scene was over a decade away.

    I think that I can sum up 112 Greene Street as an anti-thesis to Warhol and pop art. It’s all about risk takers in a formal industrial area, making art on a micro budget. Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, would become just like Soho by the mid 1990’s, with cheap housing, converted factories, and lousy eateries. Today it’s gentrified, like Soho in the 80’s. Gowanus still has something of an edge to it, and the Gowanus Art Space is open to artists who need studios. Even Gowanus is becoming more and more pricey for artists, so it remains to seen which neighborhood will be on the radar.

Behind The Easel: The Unique Voices of 20 Contemporary Representational Painters

When I saw the Robert Jackson painting of the balloon animal, the very first thing on my mind was “Jeff Koons!” I guess whenever I see or hear of photorealistic painting I think of Koons, Close, and all the other 70’s and 80’s painters who did photorealistic work. This book consists of interviews with representational painters, mostly from the USA, and a photo of their studios, and most of them are surprisingly “normal” compared to the stereotype artist.

I’m writing this review on the heels of a similar book, titled Sanctuary: Britain’s Artists and Their Studios. Compared to the YBA movement, the American painters are actually conservative in their dress and behavior. Robert Jackson, whose original job was electrical engineer, looks like….an electrical engineer! He describes his routine as like that of any other worker; gets up early drinks coffee, comes home by 6pm. The YBA painters, on the other hand, have bizarre lives, sometimes involving drug use. But the artists interviewed for Behind The Easel, they’re all doing figurative painting, and that requires extreme discipline. Unlike Rachel Whiteread and Damien Hirst, the representational painter has to put in careful planning, and attention to detail is not negotiable. You also end up with a messy studio!

Relatively few of these artists have studios in New York, and come to think of it, I’m not sure how many artists still do. Most of them live in small towns where the living cost is cheaper, and as far as their subject matter goes, I’m not sure they’d be as productive in a city. Take Scott Prior’s work, for instance; most of his paintings are of people in gardens or on porches, and these are not urban scenes. One of the pieces which I thought stood out the most was Abandoned Amusement Park. It captures the gaudy candy-colored stalls that circuses are famous for, contrasting the weed-sprouting pavement of abandoned property.

There is one thing missing from the interviews, and that is the location. I would like to know a little more about how their community influences their work and habits, and their relationship with the locals. Are they the only artists in the area? Do they prefer to paint scenes on their block? Do they get any ideas from the surrounding homes and topography? We know that Monet was influenced by what he saw in his hometown, and De Chirico’s paintings are all about the ennui of his native Italy. Is there anything about Robert Jackson’s neighborhood that influenced his painting Target the Artist?

I wonder if Scott Prior will revisit the abandoned amusement park? It would be an experience to see his the paintings develop over time as the property decays.

Signal Transduction: Principles, Pathways, and Processes

    Signal Transduction is all about the role of communication within the body’s cellular structure, and how the cells respond collectively to nerve stimuli. These can be internal (such as with hormones or increased fat consumption) or external (such as inhaled gases) and the cells will all react differently. The book begins by listing and describing the roles of the different cell receptors, with their benefits and drawbacks clearly defined.  The Tyrosine-Kinase receptor, for instance,  stimulates cell proliferation, but if it becomes overactive, it can encourage uncontrolled cell division with is, to the layman, a tumor.

    The next, and probably the most important part of a textbook like this, is the illustration. Take the chapter titled “Signaling and Cell Polarity” as an example; it uses a diagram to show the Hippo Pathway, and the connection between the proteins and other factors. The chapter on Sensory Receptors discusses things like photoreceptors, which play a role in vision. As we can all guess, any interruption between those receptors would result in impaired vision, so the diagrams show the capacity to process, store, and if the signals are not needed, dispose and discard. Another diagram shows the difference in receptor response to plant colors in bees versus primates. It shows how the photoreceptors of these animals respond differently to colors with regard to feeding.

    Signal Transduction goes further into the subject of cellular communication, including reproduction. In this chapter, we learn how hormones can dictate sperm cell count, heart rate, and blood pressure. However, the authors don’t blame the problems entirely on the internal factors alone. They also discuss how external factors effect cell behavior, such as temperature, day and time, nutrition, etc. We know that gland such as the pituitary can be shut down by physical trauma, and if the pituitary gland doesn’t provide hormone, it can cause cells to become idle.

    I give this book an excellent review, with regard to its clear explanations and use of diagramming to illustrate cell communication. I would, however, welcome some case studies of the symptoms of negative effects. The chapter where the photoreceptors are discussed would have been well-served with some photographic examples.

Trauma Therapy Clinical Practice by Miriam Taylor

Miriam Taylor gets right to the point; trauma is a threatening event that a person can’t cope with. The reasons for the inability to cope are wide, but the most prominent one is that it outweighs the patient’s resources. The event is something more powerful than the emotional strength, and when it’s over, it stays with the victim. There are implications with regard to therapy, involving emotional problems, and neuroscientific ones, involving chemicals. The body uses hormones in all functions, and while some can create balance, others can lead to neurosis, elevated heart rates, slow heart rates, and other problems. Persons who’ve suffered emotional trauma are likely to have both.

    Gestalt Therapy is widely discussed in this book, because of its focus on the self. Trauma can lead to a kind of disassociation, a feeling that you’re not all there, and the patient can develop feelings of passivity. The Gestalt approach is used to get the patient to examine their personality, and what they want to be versus what they think they are. Is the patient trying to be something he is not, but unable to see it? Is she creating a persona of being more powerful then she is, like a grandiose delusion? Does she think she’s weaker than she is?

   One of the case studies involves a 48 year old woman, still traumatized by a rape that occurred 30 years earlier. The rapist was her college professor, and she was still in fear that he’d track her down. The goal of the therapy, in this case, was to examine her relation to the abuser in the present. How old would he be now? Would he be capable of hurting her again? By having the patient examine what she is capable of doing now, with regard to defense, she can work towards overcoming the pain. Though not mentioned in this book, comedian Tom Arnold had a similar problem involving sexual abuse. He claims he was sodomized by a teenage babysitter when he was a child, and that it left him with emotional scars. As an adult, he tracked down the babysitter, now a grown man, and not as physically powerful as Arnold was now. He confronted this man, and it helped him to deal with the anger. He also prevented the man from adopting a child, but that’s another story.

    In Chapter 6, Taylor gives a scenario about the response to fear, involving a public melee. She says the following: “imagine you’ve come out of a movie theater, and you see a brawl spill into the street, the mob runs past you, windows get broker, and you duck into a doorway.” Then she proceeds to list the physical symptoms you may have; heart beating fast, sweat, trembling hands, skin feeling hotter or colder. These are all signs of trauma, and as far as “ducking for cover” goes, it would be a decision, or an impulse. Most would rely on impulse, while other would “keep their head” and look for an escape. The one who keeps his head and thinks under pressure is less likely to be traumatized. But not everyone can do this.

   With regard to the Chapter 6 scenario, I am reminded of the 20/20 episode titled “If Only I Had a Gun.” The show featured a mock classroom shooting, and a volunteer is given a paintball gun and told to fire on the gunman. The result is that even the armed students would get killed, and the reason is fine motor control. In a panic, you can lose control of your fine motor skills, which might cause you to fumble with the gun. You can lose your fine cognitive skills as well, which could lead you to panic further. While police (I hope) are trained for these situations, the average person is not. That’s why civilians are likely to be traumatized by single violent encounters. As for the police, perhaps repeated violent encounters can lead to trauma?

    Trauma was not well understood until recently. I’d wager that a sizeable number of WW2 veterans had it when they returned, as we saw in the case of Ira Hayes (immortalized in the Johnny Cash song.) Audie Murphy, the most decorated veteran, definitely had it. In the 1970’s, a lot of the men living on the Bowery in NYC were alcoholic WW2 vets, and they probably had psychological problems from the war that were never treated. Maybe the treatment just didn’t exist? Or perhaps, as we see in the book “Clinical Manual of Cultural Psychiatry,” which I just reviewed, there was a stigma to therapy. A lot of people see therapy as a thing for the less tough, and they refuse to seek help. The results are anybody’s guess.

Sugar Skull by Charles Burns

A boy in a sloppy school uniform enters a port-a-potty and climbs down to an underground cavern. From there, he trespasses into a world of deformed people, one of whom is a girl he’s in love with, in bed about to give birth….I mean lay eggs. Now he’s on the run from green-faced people who don’t want him there, in their world of deformed freaks.

All this is a metaphor of the protagonist’s life; his girlfriend’s mysterious past, her creepy ex-boyfriend, a world inhabited by crazy people on the fringes of society. Her ex doesn’t look tough, but creepy, kind of like a teenage Jeffrey Dahmer. In typical Charles Burns style, he enters a strange world that he can’t escape, only he doesn’t seem to realize how strange it is. Only the reader will say “darn, this place is weird.”

Given the number of marginal freaks in Burns’ work, I always believe that he and Neil Jordan should collaborate. Jordan’s movies are a lot like Burns’ stories, where the protagonist enters a strange world inhabited by outcasts. Take The Crying Game for example; in the Charles Burns version, the terrorist would be a college student, whose professor dies of mysterious causes, and he goes looking for the professor’s widow (for reasons you can guess) and finds that she’s this monstrous creature living in a filthy house inhabited by half human-animal hybrids.

The Charles Burns freak show has done is again, and with a vengeance.

Shoplifter by Michael Cho

Corrina is a copywriter for an advertising firm, five years out of college, and hates her job. She dreams of being a novelist, and shoplifts magazines for fun. I might as well go ahead and give the plot away; she has absolutely no life whatsoever. Perhaps it’s because everyone around her has an iPhone in their hands? Maybe it’s because she’s in a boring city? I couldn’t tell what city it was, from the looks of it, it wasn’t New York. The author is Canadian so it was probably Toronto. Would the protagonist have a better time in New York?

The use of only two colors, pink and black, heightens the sense of anonymity. It looks like there’s absolutely nothing going on, kind of like Chris Ware’s Building Stories. The characters seem to exist inside a machine, with absolutely nothing to amuse themselves. The ending is happy without being sentimental or simply, but I would like to see a sequel. Corrina toys with the idea of waiting tables to support her creative efforts, so that would be a good premise for the next installment.

A bored copywriter makes for a boring story, but struggling artist or writer always has an interesting one. 

Silent Twins by Marjorie Wallace

The story of June and Jennifer Gibbons is a strange one. They were twin sisters, born to parents from Barbados, raised in Britain (Wales to be exact) and never, ever spoke. That is, except to each other. Until age 18, they spent all their time in their room, typing out novels, never leaving at all. At their sister’s wedding they blighted the occasion by standing rigid the entire time, as seen in the photos. Yet their writings reveal that they were both very intelligent. When they were arrested for arson, and confined to a mental hospital, everyone was dying to know. Why didn’t they talk? What was wrong with them? What was the origin of their symbiosis.

A little on their background; their father was in the Royal Air Force, and according to this book, he was incredibly stiff and stoic. He made a point of never having any emotional connection to his wife or kids, no family dinners, no birthdays celebrated. He made it clear that his duty was to provide, and that was it. The author claims that this was typical West Indian behavior, so that might explain it. As for the twins, they probably had typical “twin-talk” between them, and twins often have speech delay. West Indians may expect weird behavior from twins, so perhaps this caused further delay. But their extreme isolation? Their symbiotic relationship? That’s not explained by twin sibling habits.

Years after this book was published, the surviving twin finally came forward and revealed the truth; it was racism that made them this way. They were the only black children in the region, and they were ostracized at school. Because of their father’s stiffness, they couldn’t talk to him about the problem. In addition, I suspect that the twins were autistic. It would’ve explained their self-isolation and speech problems. As for the racism, she says that her siblings are all married to white persons, and I have to wonder if her parents had some self-loathing. Did the father, with his important job, feel class-conscious? Did her regard his daughters as an embarrassment? Was he trying to become the ultimate Englishman? From what I read here, he was more rigid than the average English schoolmaster. If you’re a speech delayed kid, suffering under social isolation, having a parent like that doesn’t help.

Reading this book left me with more questions than answers. The author should interview the surviving twin and bring out a new addition, because it’s only fair to let the accused have her say.

Abandoned America: The Age of Consequence by Matthew Christopher

I’ve been looking at photos like these since 2010, and I must admit, I am fascinated. For some reason I enjoy looking at images of abandoned property, and can’t think why. Even my teenage students love seeing photos of abandoned Detroit, but unlike me, the crabby grownup, they have an idea of why. Their reasons range from “I want to host a dance party in that factory” to “wouldn’t it be great to use one of those morgue tables for a bed?” Morbid on her part, yes, but stupid, definitely not. Both of these kids had an idea for using these abandoned spaces, and I think that’s one reason I think I like looking at them so much; they offer possibilities.

Matthew Christopher goes around the country photographing abandoned factories, schools, hospitals, theaters, and jails (no complaints about the last one.) The first empty vessel is the New Castle Elks Lodge, and I found this almost comical, because so many other Elks and Masons Lodges have shut down. Remember the All In The Family episode where Archie Bunker goes to George Jefferson’s party? Everyone says “sir, I believe you’re looking for the Elks Club down the hall.” It’s almost a running gag that white men would want to belong to the Elks or Masons, but thanks to changing demographics, not any more. The Elks Club doesn’t have much appeal to Bengali men in Queens, or the urbane young whites in Manhattan. Except in Upstate New York, I imagine the Elks have gone the way of the mouse-gnawed moose head that he photographs on the wall.

The beautiful church in Germantown, Pennsylvania? That’s empty too. The residents got old and died off. The Lebow clothing company in Baltimore is a funny place, because the ugly 1980’s suits were still hanging there when Matthew Christopher went in. He blames the closure on loose workplace dress codes, and as I would guess, a loss of jobs in the area. But there may be another reason the company closed, and that has to do with changing styles. The suits in the abandoned factory are ugly, even by 80’s standards. From the looks of it, the owners probably couldn’t transition to modern clothing for younger people.

One of the saddest photos in the book was the Kohl’s motorcycle warehouse, not just an abandoned building, but abandoned goods! The
warehouse was full of beautiful vintage motorcycles, and the owners dumped the building and the contents for tax purposes. The most pathetic thing is that the owner could have sold off the bikes to China and Africa, were low-fuel transport is welcome. At the very worst, the bikes could all have been sold for scrap metal. Instead, they sat there abandoned for years until the building burned.

In the spirit of Camilo Jose Vergara's’ earlier book The New American Ghetto, Christopher captures the decay with an artist’s eye. His photos are just as good as the great architectural photographers, and you almost forget how horrible these places look. He makes rusting hulks and collapsing ceilings look like natural landscapes, which is that they are in a way. Nature is reclaiming these structures, and floors that once had ugly 1970’s carpets are now covered in moss. Unlike Vergara, who photographed abandoned homes, Christopher sticks to factories, churches, hospitals, and occasionally schools. Maybe we feel less depressed because these structures weren’t actually lived in? With no feeling of “they lost their home,” there isn’t much love lost when the factory if torn down.

Fortunately, there is a window of hope. The Lebow Brothers clothing factory, shuttered for almost 30 years, is now a school. As for the abandoned Edison High School in Philadelphia, it’s being torn down and will become a supermarket. The abandoned St. Peter’s church reminds me of another one in Brooklyn that was sold off. Unlike the one in Pennsylvania, however, this one is now expensive condominiums. The only people that object are the old folks in the residence next door, because they used to go to that church, but there’s not much you can do. A building is only as good as the people who can pay for the upkeep.

Most of these building, be they factories or churches, are in the industrial towns, hemorrhaging people as job cuts have gashed the economy. Another common factor is that all these buildings sat unused for years, but the local government made no effort to demolish them. The factories are basically piles of scrap metal, wood, glass, and brick, and all these things can be recycled. Demolition would’ve given jobs to the local residents, and put an end to these eyesores. Perhaps the municipalities have trouble agreeing on how to take care of the problem?

We can blame these abandoned places on outsourcing and job exportation, but human demographics are a factor. No place can stay the same forever, and people move on. Even the city of Rome eventually collapsed, just like the Bell telephone lab, an architectural marvel, outlived its usefulness. No man-made structure will stay the same forever, and no city will look the same 20 years into the future. Maybe instead of calling this book “The Age of Consequence,” it should’ve been called “An Age Of Moving On.”

Cheese and Microbes

There’s a scene in the British TV series Chef where Lenny Henry, disgusted over the law against unpasteurized cheese, says “that’s exactly what cheese is, gone-off milk with bugs and mold, that’s why it tastes so damn good!” This book makes the microbial basis clear, in that cheese requires bacterial (among other) fermentations to achieve its best quality. Given the amount of microorganism in cheese, it seems almost impossible to get sick from cheese that has spoiled.

Cheese and Microbes begins with the basics; an overview of cheeses from hard to soft, and the kind of rinds you can expect. How much fermentation is required, and the kind of bacteria and heat needed, are all covered. In the chapter The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (brilliant title, considering that the greatest cheeses look and smell hideous) we learn that the word “fromage” comes from formos, the baskets that the Greeks used to drain whey from curds. Cheese fermentation, according to this chapter, was a natural development of agriculture, stemming from people eating spoiled milk and eventually coming to like the taste.

Further chapters deal with the development of modern cheese, like Swiss cheese, and the origin of their shape. We learn why they are so popular in their countries of origin, and the need that they serve. A recent book, Bringing Up Bebe (aka French Children Don’t Throw Food) describes how French children are taught to enjoy cheeses from an early age. I remember how people reacted to the book, with “holy cow, you know those disgusting French cheeses, the kids in France actually eat them!” But look at the cheese that American kids eat, like Kraft slices; this so-called “American cheese” is actually a version of Cheddar, and is made with oil and water. It’s full of chemicals that your kid’s body won’t thank him for. Maybe those “disgusting” French cheeses aren’t that bad by comparison?

This is a great book for any cheese aficionado, but there is more that can be done with it. I would welcome a version of this book written specifically for children, with more color illustrations. It would be a great way to introduce gastronomically-ignorant elementary school children to “the joy of cheese.” In today’s foodie-crazed USA, I bet the book would fly off the shelves.

Clinical Manual of Cultural Psychiatry

In the past 20 years, therapists and educators have been encouraged to study the patient’s cultural and ethnic 

background as a way of understanding their problems. Ethnicity and religion can have a major influence on a patient’s habits, and the therapist needs to take it into account. This book is all about treating patients who come from different ethnic groups; African American, Asian, African, Native American, and various religious groups.

One of the great things about this book is that each chapter is illustrated with a video, which you can access online. Using actors, it shows what each session can be like. A most obvious issue discussed in this book is African American lifestyles. A chart is used to show the kinds of questions the therapist needs to ask the patient, particularly with regard to things like family life. Instead of open-ended questions about “what it’s like,” the therapist should read the patient’s body language when he answers, and probe deeper into comparisons. For example, if the patient is an African American man who has lost his job and is a stay-at-home parent, he might be feeling resentful, due to what he was taught about a man’s role. There might also be an underlying fear, inherited from his family, with regard to doctors. Perhaps he might think that going to therapy is a sign of weakness?

Another example in this book is a refugee from Ivory Coast, working as a cab driver, and having family problems. He says that he can’t adjust well to American life. But are there other factors? Are the gender roles rigid in his home country, and if so, would they be seen in the USA as abusive? Another case involves a middle-aged Asian, depressed by his lack of employment, and because his younger brother has taken his place as the favored son. Where he comes from, the oldest child is supposed to be favored, and the reversal of roles has left him confused and unhappy. As per the ethic he learned growing up, he is reluctant to talk to others about his problems.

A friend of mine, who taught English in China and Thailand, wrote a paper on the differences in social attitudes. She stressed, and even warned, that when working in Asia, you must never complain to coworkers about your commute. They will think you’re blaming it on them, and you will leave them feeling uneasy. It will also be seen as weakness. How Americans and foreigners deal with problems can be widely different.

Conquering Incest by Diane Champe

Diane Champe spent years in therapy (and often in psychiatric wards) dealing with the results of her father’s abuse. This book is about the major problems that victims of family violence often face. The first one is that the abusers are in a “respectable” career where nobody wants to think badly of them. The second problem is that the wives of the abusers are trapped. Diane Chape’s father was a naval officer, and her brother also had a strong career in the Navy. She was trapped in her father’s home, and later trapped in an abusive marriage. The abuse from her husband was more emotional than physical, but it was just as bad. As for the years after she left home, the mental strain would last a lifetime, with constant trips to the hospital.

Perhaps a lot of the author’s troubles had to do with the time and place? She was a product of the “baby boom,” and that was an era when authority was never questioned. Parents, teachers, and clergymen were considered “authority” and could not be accused of abusing children. Her father was a Navy officer who worked his way up from the ranks, and even if she’d gone to the police and said “my father has been raping me ever since I was three years old,” who would believe her? As late as the 1980’s, when she finds that her brother is molesting his kids, it was still difficult to prosecute someone for child molestation.

One of the things that the author discovers in her search for closure is that the incest ran in her father’s family. I suspected from the beginning that his family had a history of casual incest and child abuse, and though I don’t mean to stereotype, it may have had a lot to do with the Old South. A lot of southern families came from a culture that was violent, and sexual deviance can be passed down through generations.

The second half of the book is repetitive, because it focuses on the author’s years of therapy. Every year there are trips to the hospital, extended leaves from work, and dealing with her father and brother, both of whom make excuses for their behavior. At least she has a strong career, with the same company for twenty years, because as she says “I was taught to do as I was told.”

But one thing troubles me; at the end she says that her brother became a minister after leaving the Navy and started his own church. I wonder what will happen as a result, will that give him access to children? If so, will he molest those kids as well? His first wife divorced him, and he served a very short sentence for raping his daughter. Will he find a lonely single mom with three kids, win her over, and abuse those kids too?

Kids Gone Wild by Joel Best & Kathleen Bogle

In 1994, when I was 16, you never hear of a teenage girl letting her boyfriend take nude photos or videos of her; she would’ve said “are you crazy, someone might see them!” Today, cameras are so cheap and commonplace that teens use them to post photos all over. It creates a kind of “delusion of grandeur,” making the average teenager think she’s a media star. The problem is, these teens have no idea how others see them, and they’re learning not to safeguard their privacy.

The authors devote a lot of effort to drawing a fine line between fact and sensational rumor; sex bracelets and rainbow parties are just mass hysteria, and anyone who lived through the 1980’s will probably have wised up to these things. Remember the satanic daycare abuse hysteria? What about the Dungeons & Dragons killings? Perhaps you might remember getting the flyer warning you about the temporary tattoos laced with LSD? We’re all wary of these moral panic sensations, so the rainbow parties and sex bracelets we don’t worry about as much. But sexting is real. It happens, and it’s a serious social problem.

In the chapter “Controlling Teen Sexting” it discusses the troubles with stopping kids from sexting each other. The problem is hard to control, the laws regarding it are hard to enforce, and prosecutions can tie up the court’s time. The schools in Kelso, Washington, have this approach; the teachers can confiscate students’ phones, and if there are nude photos on it, the parents are notified, and the student can be suspended or expelled. However, this is not without criticism. Many argue that topless photos of girls are not considered “nude,” because boys can be photographed topless without accusation of lewdness. Do we make the law different for girls because they have breasts? What if a girl has no breasts at all, do we consider topless photos of her to be “nude” because of the way men look at it? And what if a boy has gynecomastia, do we consider topless photos of him “nude” because he has breasts? Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, had a similar problem, and the parents sought help from the ACLU. They claimed that topless photos of their children were not child pornography, and sued for invasion of privacy. According to their lawyers, 12 year old girls in bras might or might not be lewd, but they were not child porn. The case tied up the courts time.

The authors of this book stress education over regulation. But this book came from NYU Press, and college professors and sociologists are usually more liberal. Conservative like Sarah Palin aren’t interested in sex education (I wonder if her daughter Bristol had any) but in abstinence education.  Sexting can be discouraged among young people the same way smoking, drug use, unprotected sex and drunk driving were discouraged. We need to face the fact that the internet is a bigger influence on kids than parents, teachers, doctors, and religious leaders. Get to the kids before the internet does.

I will conclude with a quote from right-wing economist Dr. Thomas Sowell. He says “every generation is a barbarian invasion, we must civilize them before they grow up.” He also says, and I stress this with regard to people who aren’t taking charge, “when life comes down to the wimps versus barbarians, the barbarians always win.”

Behavioral Portfolio Management by Thomas C. Howard

I recall the episode of Rumpole of The Bailey titled Rumpole And The Barrow Boy, where a financier blames a crisis on stockbrokers who think like fruit vendors. An unfair comparison, I believe, as the average stockbroker isn’t much different from a fruit vendor;  he has to weed out the bad apples, advise customers on which ones to buy, take stick if his apples are wormy, and watch out for the regulators. The “barrow boy” approach to finance isn’t that bad, compared to the “cowboy” approach, which carries great risk. When you charge in like the cavalry, you lose focus on your target, and that’s no good.

Thomas C. Howard stresses financial planning over investment, with calm and emotional restraint. Too often the broker/advisor goes for risky stocks rather than slow-growth securities, sometimes for the sheer thrill. He does the $100 bill test, to see if a trainee will wait patiently for $100 or gamble $20. Many of them gamble the smaller amount rather than sit like a hen for the greater.

Behavioral Portfolio Management discusses how the financial advisor can reduce risk by diversifying the account with stocks and/or bonds. One method is called “bubble wrap,” where the majority of the securities are stable, with a minority of riskier ones. He also teaches that risk and volatility are not synonymous; a real estate company can take a loss, but if the buildings are in a secure, proven area, the drop isn’t likely to last. In a place like Detroit, a drop isn’t likely to recover.

This book gives good, conservative advice, and does not promote risky cowboy-like investment.  I recommend it to anyone getting into finance, or looking to invest for their retirement.

Suffered Long Enough by William Rawls MD

Before you dismiss this book as “homeopathy,” keep in mind that most illnesses are aggravated by poor diets, be they genetic, contagious, or acquired. He advises against fad diets or anything that restricts your food intake down to nothing. Instead, he advises you to reevaluate the reasons why you eat. Are you eating certain foods for the taste, or for the benefits? Have you ever tried going a week without a food that you really like? According to Dr. Rawls, most of our unhealthy eating has to do with cravings, so the first thing to do is work on fighting the cravings. It kind of reminds me of the French way of eating; first they do their shopping, then they plan their menu. There’s really no other way of doing it, because you can’t say “I’m in the mood for chicken” if there’s none in the store.

After the discussion of nutrition, he goes into the ways of purifying the home. You need to clean the vents and filters, use a reverse-osmosis filter for water, clean the bathrooms to remove mold, clean away dust that can aggravate your lungs, and use environmentally safe pesticides. In some areas, like Nassau County, NY, there have been high rates of cancer in the last 20 years (possibly from Kennedy Airport) so water filters are critical.

The great thing about Dr. Rawls’ book is that all of the advice is practical. He doesn’t advocate spending thousands on retrofitting a house, or eating overpriced organic foods that’s unavailable in your community. His advice is to follow a simple healthy diet and lifestyle, to avoid making existing conditions worse.

Liszt's Final Decade by Dolores Pesce

Franz Liszt was something of a pop star in his time. His face was well known thanks to innumerable portraits, and his music was known throughout Europe. Unlike today’s pop stars, however, he didn’t try to look like he did at age 30. Nowadays, we have Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart, with their face lifts and dyed hair, and fans who don’t seem to realize that these guys are senior citizens. But Liszt went out of his way to look old. Portraits of him show a man with gray hair, a big nose, and all the warts and jowls of an old man. Liszt wanted to be seen as an “elder statesman” when it came to music.

List’s Final Decade chronicles his later years through his letters. He bared his soul to a pair of women, writing about his fatigue (no wonder, since he was old) and his dwindling composition. He also dwells upon accusations of Anti-Semitism, thanks to a pamphlet in which he allegedly advocated sending the Jews back to the Middle East. In his letter, he says “I’m told that the Jewish aristocracy are ignoring it” and seems grateful. He also aroused outrage when he called Hungarian music “Gypsy in origin” when Hungarian critics claimed it was composed for the nobility and merely performed by Gypsy ensembles. Whether or not Liszt was truly an Anti-Semite we’ll never know, but these accusation might have more to do with paternalistic ignorance than being “anti” anything.

The one thing I find about this book to be a little weak is that fact that the letters were written late in his life. They show a seriousness that he was not known for earlier, and writes as though he were a philosopher contemplating life and death. I often wonder why Liszt’s personal life didn’t ruin his career. He lived with an older divorced noblewoman and had children with her, despite them not being married. This may be the norm nowadays, but in the 1800’s cohabitation was no accepted. Keep in mind that he later joined a clerical order, so he was supposed to be celibate.

Handbook of Cannabis

I had no idea how extensive this book would be. It begins with the history of cannabis, and its use in ancient medicine up to the present day. According to this book, physicians worldwide were discovering healthy uses for cannabis, treating menstrual headaches, arthritis, back pain, and urinary burning, thanks to this inexpensive plant. The next chapters discuss the chemical composition, the laws of cannabis, international regulations,

The Handbook Of Cannabis does, however, list the hazards. In all chapters, whether they discuss legal or natural issues, they go heavily into the dangers. In the chapters on international control and the chapter on dispensaries, we learn that the laws are often unclear. Firstly, the famous Netherlands marijuana cafes are not entirely legal. There are regulations on how much can be sold and to whom, and where they can open. In the USA, cities can make their own laws regarding where marijuana dispensaries or stores can open, and the cities can charge huge annual license fees to open. Another major issue is the source of the drug. Though it may be legal to sell marijuana in the Netherlands, it isn’t legal to import it, so the importation is in the hands of organized crime. In the USA, shipping marijuana from a grower state to one that legalizes the sale creates a Federal issue. If a truck carrying marijuana crosses through a state where it’s not legal, the driver could be charged with a crime. Sending it through US Mail might not be legal either, unless the Federal government comes to an agreement over “peaceable journey,” as it did for interstate transport of firearm.

I recommend this book for anyone who’s considering using marijuana, treating an illness with it, or planning to go into business selling it. The book covers all the issues of US and international laws, and the benefits of cannabis. The only thing missing is the agricultural issue of cannabis. Only a small section is devoted to growing, and that has to do with horticulture. The book doesn’t go into the aspects of mass cannabis farming, so if you want to know what kind of fertilizer to use, and what kind of grow lights to use, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

For anyone researching the medical, legal, and economic aspects of marijuana, this book is perfect. 

The Curatorial Avant-Garde: Surrealism and Exhibition Practice in France, 1925-1941

This book reminds me of Dark Matter, a recent book on the current state of art shows. It seems that in post WWI France, art shows were more of a “guerilla” effort, with art being displayed in storefronts, apartment, or improvised public venues (without permission of the authorities.) Dadaism had come along, and Marcel Duchamp’s found-object pieces were getting him a lot of attention. Man Ray’s minimalist photos were being shown in storefront windows, and in Germany, there were countless art shows in converted factories.

Perhaps the origin of all this is the availability of spaces in post WWI France? So many men were killed that there was a surplus of everything. More women were in the workforce, and old norms and mores were vanishing. The public tolerance was more open to weird behavior, no better illustrated than the name “Dada.” My research shows that the word mean “wooden rocking horse,” and if you’re wondering how the movement got its name, history says that an artist flipped through a dictionary and randomly put his finger in. The word he stopped on was Dada. Another page or so, and the movement might’ve been called “eggplant.”

One of the most interesting chapters was on the aspects of colonialism in the era. There were massive exhibitions of the French colonies in Paris from the 1920’s onward, and they made colonialism look great. Beautiful posters advertising the exhibits in bright colors, and huge halls full of art, weapons, photos, costumes, and souvenirs from the French colonies in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the West Indies. Even the left wing presses were impressed, and few gave any thought to the injustices of colonialism. The French viewed the exotic colonies and their peoples as the “sunshine” to their rainy cities.

In tough economic times, the chance of selling artwork often diminishes, as is occurring now. The result is always the same; artists move to cheaper cities, and they care less about making the artwork “pleasing.” Knowing they won’t be able to sell, they indulge in all manner of unusual (and often silly) activities, arousing controversy and acclaim at the same time. Take for instance the massive attention given to graffiti artists in Brooklyn, New York. It’s far cheaper to paint in spray paint on someone else’ wall than to buy canvas and oils, and you don’t have to worry about fitting a giant canvas into a tiny apartment.

Best of all, you get to have your artwork displayed for all to see. Like it or not, they’ll have no choice but to look at it, at least until someone whitewashes it.

Creating Kosovo by Elton Skendaj

After reading Katherine Bolkovac’s The Whistleblower I had very low expectations of anything to do with the Balkans. According to Elton Skendaj, a professor of political science, things do indeed look pretty bleak. The judicial system is slow and corrupt, richer litigants can bribe judges, so who would bother to take a case to court? The author quotes many of the lawyers, both local and international, who were tasked with codifying the laws of the new state. One of them has an interesting story; the lawyers who know English will start with just one law, copied from the USA or UK, but the non-Anglophones will copy laws from different countries, all based on clashing principals. It appears that the European organizations that are supposed to be helping Kosovo are trying to do too much at once.

One thing that the author cites as “efficient” is the customs service, which seems to a decent job of monitoring imports. But where do the import duties go? From the very beginning of the book, Skendaj discusses how the country’s money, plus the funding from Europe, get lost or stolen. The customs officials, though they are thorough, make their living on bribes. Why would anyone pay hundreds in duties when they can pay a bribe of ten? It doesn’t allow for revenue to pay for police, courts, schools, etc.

Creating Kosovo doesn’t focus much on the ethnic strife which Kosovo is famous for. In the decade since the fall of Milosevic, the worst thing about Kosovo is probably the lack of resources. Food isn’t being grown, infrastructure is bad, the police are unreliable, and I can’t imagine schools are any better. There is an advantage to knowing English (isn’t that the case everywhere?) but those with education will probably leave. That creates a brain drain, leaving the country with a limited talent pool. All you have left is cheap labor.

Perhaps the best way to explain the Kosovo problem is to compare it to Detroit. Whatever investment Kosovo had under Yugoslavia disappeared, just like Detroit lost her industry in the space of a few years. With the jobs gone, people leave, and the ones left behind are left to suffer. The same way Detroit “had the rug pulled out from under her,” Kosovo had the same problem.  Kosovo today has almost no foreign investment, no companies from the USA, Korea, or China looking to set up shop. There isn’t much to gain from being there.

Opting For Elsewhere by Brian Hoey

Professor Brian Hoey gets right to the point; once upon a time, Americans migrated to Detroit for work, and now they leave Detroit to begin their lives.  He uses the Simon and Garfunkel song “America” as an ironic example, and I say ironic, because Saginaw has emptied and the houses sell for a dollar. Cities all over the USA, be they St. Louis, Detroit, or Flint, they’re all emptying out. It seems that Americans aren’t really leaving to find adventure, but fleeing.

In the second chapter, titled “Constructing the Good,” the author delves into the old ideal of small town USA, with its main street, back streets, small homes, affluent parts, boarding houses where the unmarried teachers lived. If you read To Kill A Mockingbird, or a Sinclair Lewis novel, you’ll know what I mean by the small town life, where everyone exists in a mutually beneficial relationship. You had rich and poor, good and bad, young and old, all within a short distance from each other. But that’s been disappearing for years. People wanted big houses and small ones emptied, and now young people have stopped buying houses altogether. Remember Dixon, Illinois, where President Reagan was born in an apartment above a shoe store? I bet that today, such an apartment would be synonymous with “loser.”

Hoey uses case studies of people who migrate far and wide. Some you might call “artists” who want low living costs and peace, others move for work, some travel in camping vans. I recon a lot of Walmart parking lots all over the nation are seeing an influx of campers, some enjoying the experience, others probably aren’t. Greg Brown’s song Boomtown is displayed in its entirety, and he sings about the artists, tourists, and the displacement. You can see a sizeable example of migration in Manhattan; we have many homeless people in the city, and almost none of them are locals. They come from small towns in Upstate New York, fleeing for different reasons. Many of the younger ones have been thrown out by their families, and in small towns the police don’t tolerate vagrancy. New York is the only city where they’ll be accepted. In today’s economy, there’s greater incentive to throw kids out.

Opting For Elsewhere isn’t so much about migration, but the way collapsing cities have sent Americans on a “discovery trail.” May they all find prosperity, and if not, may they all find their peace.

After The Red Army Faction by Charity Scribner

Ronald Reagan said “Communism will end up on the ash heap of history” and his prediction eventually came true. Not only did Communism go down in history as a failure, but a whole lot of countries that were sponsored by communism failed as well. Finally, the terrorist groups that were sponsored by those countries ended up on the ash heap. The German Red Army, in particular, ended up as a big nothing. Some say the members were misguided youth. Others say they were spoiled children of privilege, trying to cover for their Nazi past. But the question remains; why were there so many women involved in the Red Army, while the other “red” terrorists (IRA, ETA, Red Brigade) were mostly male-dominated?

In the introduction, we see many possibilities in the origin of the Red Army Faction. Some blame it on the hierarchies in German society that fostered a rebellion. Others blame it on West Germany’s mad rush to reindustrialize and outrun communism. Did some people get left behind? As the book progresses, the Vietnam was seems to have been a catalyst for German youth in their collective anger, but what did they know about Vietnam? Perhaps they were reacting to the US Army presence in Germany, with the US tanks rolling across German soil, and the arrogant GI’s flooding the clubs and bars, impressing German women with their macho attitudes? I suspect that the Red Army Faction may have been the result of jealousy that bored young Germans felt towards the Americans.

In the chapter Buildings On Fire, the author compares the Watts Riots of 1965 with anti-consumerism in Germany. But the same time, Germany wasn’t anywhere near the type of consumer culture that the USA was. Germany didn’t have the 1950’s “I Love Lucy” ideal of the suburban housewife surrounded by labor-saving machines. Tradition was still a big part of German life, but had these traditions been eroded after WWII and the collapse of Hitler? Maybe these German youths, with nowhere to expand and nothing to rebel against, found destructive ways to unleash their frustration?

Theology For The Church

Theology For The Church consists of essays by different theologians on the various aspects of Christianity. Some of the contributors, like Malcolm Yarnell, discuss the conflict over the acceptance of the Holy Spirit. While some view the idea of speaking in tongues to be perverse and bizarre, others consider it a major sign of devotion.  Yarnell includes evidence from early Chirtians, like Gregory of Nazianzus, who contemplated whether or not the Creator had told us everything about the Holy Spirit. Then he gives evidence from the Old Testament, where we see the word ruach, which literally means “wind,” but is also taken to be the Creator giving someone his presence.

R. Stanton Norman is another contributor to this book, and he uses the film The Village to illustrate his take on sinful nature. The elders succeed in creating a utopia that’s free of outside evils, they can’t free it from internal evils. Try as they might, they can’t suppress human nature in their children. The movie reminded me somewhat of The Giver by Lois Lowry, where a boy in a similar utopia learns about the real world.

Norman also discusses how the word “porno” comes from the Greek “porneria,” meaning corruption or depravity. The bible distinguishes the simple mistakes versus the people that seek to corrupt others and lead them astray, akin to the venial sin versus the mortal sin. He mentions the Hebrew word “shogeg’ which is used to describe an accidental or impulsive transgression. It was originally used to refer to straying sheep, which may account for its use in describing errors. But on the opposite of “shogeg” is the word “mezid,” which the Jewish scholar use to describe deliberate acts, where you know it’s wrong. There is much discussion in the Talmud on which transgressions are shogeg or mezid, and what the penalties are for each one.

Game After: A Cultural Study of Videogame Afterlife

When I saw this book, the first thing I thought of was the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill, where thousands of ET game cartridges are buried. The author does indeed go looking for them, and finds that they’re a major part of local lore. In fact it’s a major part of video game lore for anyone feeling nostalgic about 1980’s video games, which have, thanks to all the mania for everything 1980’s, enjoyed something of a renaissance. As for the author, he sets out to find what happens to old video games, and what he finds is a history of a hype. Video games are, according to this book, a symptom of fads.

Raiford Guins is not a video game expert, but a professor of cultural studies, specializing in technology and culture. He goes throughout the country looking for old arcade games, and the businesses that still supply them. Most of the arcade games are kept by cheap entertainment venues in areas with low rent. Though he doesn’t mention it in this book, you could find 1980’s arcade games in the Coney Island amusement park, most of which were still running by 2009, when I last visited. The old free-standing games appear to have faded out for several reasons, ranging from mechanics to improvement. Firstly, electronics only last a few years before the parts burn out, as often happens with laptops. Secondly, what kind of teenager in 1990’s USA would’ve wanted Pac-Man, when Streetfighter was widely available? Even Streetfighter was eventually outdone by Mortal Combat, and then came Tekken, Area 51, Doom, and Grand Theft Auto. As newer games come out, the old ones take up space.

Guins’ research seems to find that arcade games have more to do with nostalgia than enjoyment. Most of the people he sees playing them are 35 year old, people who grew up in the 80’s. By 1991 I remember how arcades were disappearing, pressured to close by mall operators who didn’t want kids around. In 1995, the local candy/magazine store had two games, Streetfighter and Mortal Combat, and he hated the kids who hung out there to play the games. Was it worth it, to have foul-mouthed kids in the store all day, just to bring in some extra quarters?  I would love to hear what he had to say about it.

One of the things that disappoints me about this book is that he doesn’t research on a personal level. It would have been interesting to hear the individuals tell their stories about their experiences with arcade games, and what it meant to the people who played them. He researches the Alamogordo video game dump extensively, but doesn’t do a lot of interviews with people who ran the old arcades. I wonder what had to say about the arcade phenomena of the 80’s, with all the corny video games that were really just blips on the screen. There’s also the issue of how the games got more violent by the 1990’s, and the Gameboy must have cut into the arcade market. Video games went from being an amusement-venue product to a more solitary one, the way we switched from movie theatres to VHS. Maybe video games tell you a lot about US history?