GOODBYE, MY COUNTRY . . .

Today is the fall of Saigon....Caring people throughout the world share mourning for a culture and country with all Vietnamese, outside or inside Viet Nam, and trust they will finally have the freedom to choose a government that cares about all its people.

Trinh Cong Son, greatest Vietnamese composer,

and Khanh Ly, best interpreter of his songs,

during the American War until after the loss of South Viet Nam

BALANCE

CLOUD GATE

Beautiful photo by Liu Chen-hsiang

Lin Hwai-min to Receive the 2013 American Dance Festival Lifetime Achievement Award

The American Dance Festival, one of the most prestigious institutions for modern dance in the world, announced that the 2013 Samuel H. Scripps / American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to the renowned Taiwanese choreographer, Lin Hwai-min. The award celebrates choreographers who have made distinguished contribution to modern dance.

Previous awardees include Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Trisha Brown, Pina Bausch and William Forsythe.

AMERICAN BEDROOM

A BOULDER OF MUSIC

George Jones died.  He did not pass away.  Anyone who has ever been emotionally moved by carefully-crafted modern country pop music, should listen to his old-fashioned truthful albums.  His songs are shot from his heart into your ears, without dilution by producers, managers, marketeers, or public image ego.

George Jones lived a tortured self-destructive life, but instead of physically killing others or himself, he turned his love and pain into intimate art that he shared courageously with anyone who would listen.  His singing style was not manufactured to win screaming concert fans, or to sell 100 albums he recorded.....Everything in George Jones' songs - his traumatic voice, unequaled precise phrasing, brilliant succinct poetry lyrics - was straight from his soul.  It was not entertainment.  A life was at stake.

MORALITY

ETHICAL QUESTION:  Assad is a killer who gasses his people and bombs villagers....Should America destroy Syria's Assad, who is pro-American (when its suits his purpose) and allows other religious to exist, knowing that an anti-American religious fundamentalist government will take over?  Or should we keep his brutal dictatorship in power?

NOT EXTINCT

"Lullaby" (1997)-Frank Moore

DARK ALLEYS OF THE BRAIN

Art by Guillard Emmanuel

Another valid scientific research project: "X" numbers of priests molest children. "Y" numbers of priests become archbishops. All Popes were archbishops. Therefore, it is statistically logical that "Z" number of Popes have molested children. Yet Popes set the official doctrine, and enforcement of that doctrine, in the Catholic Church....Another study would be: "Do a larger percentage of priests molest children than do the leaders of each other religion, than teachers, doctors, Boy Scout leaders, and parents?"

AMERICA

Non-Americans must understand that America is not culturally insulated, cloistered, monolithic, evil, or good. America consists of people from every other country, culture, religion, race, and language in the world....including Americans who are brilliant, stupid, open-hearted, prejudiced, terrified, brave, creative, boring, super-rich, homeless, nationalistic, internationalist, fundamentalist, atheist, power-mad, immoral, amoral, moral, greedy, charitable, humanists, environmentalists, and people who hate people, nature, and the Earth.....America gives wrong and even insane people the freedom to be wrong and insane, but not to legally kill, rape, or abuse each other.... America is full of lofty philosophical ideals and destructive hypocritical reality, because America is not Heaven, and Americans are not gods...only human, and very flawed.

HAPPINESS

SADNESS

LOVE

SEARCHING

WALL ART

THRILLING / MESSY / SCRIBBLE / ART

BEAUTY

ARE WE MOVING TOO FAST?

THE WHITE HOUSE

Holland Is., Chesapeake Bay

NO GLOBAL WARMING

Kolmanskop, Namibian Desert

TRAIN STATION

Czestochowa, Poland

PERFECTLY BRILLIANT FACEBOOK SITES

THESE ARE THE GREATEST SITES

I've discovered on Facebook so far..

They are so powerful, creative, sublime,

often sad, absurd, moving, and visionary.

Nearly every post is stunning.

Your life can be inspired and changed:

Hamza Nesrate

Chung-Ting Huang

台灣行道樹 (Community)

StreetArt in Germany

Creativity & Life

TwistedShifter

Al Jazeera English

The Guardian

ANOTHER ARTIST GONE

LES BLANK, one of the greatest documentary film directors, just died....We are losing so many heroes of cinema !

Born 1935 in Florida, Les Blank graduated Tulane University (BA, English literature; MFA, theatre), Ph.D. film program at USC, and five years freelancing in Los Angeles. To finance his own films, Blank made industrial films from 1967-1972.

MRS. THATCHER

On one hand, we have so few leaders who have strong convictions, who look stunning and unforgettable, who are women in power.... On the other hand, she did so many things that hurt her country, her citizens, Argentina, and ultimately, indirectly, America....       It is not nice to speak ill of those recently deceased, because     their loved ones and many strangers grieve for them, and     because we know we will soon be next. Yet some leaders, consciously, whether misguided or not, made wrong decisions,

NOT YOUR USUAL POLE DANCING

SHAOLIN TEMPLE "pole dancing" (male) acrobats. Fantastic!.......Who can match China? On the other hand, who wants to give up their parents, childhoods, school, friends, and freedom, in order to be the super-human best in the world, for nationalistic goals. They can't all be given jobs as coaches when they age, but what else have they ever known?....So why doesn't China win every event they enter? Maybe the human spirit can be as vital as regimented glory.  [Thanks to Jack Chien for the site. Comments by Ron.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=QZXYOo_qk2E

DARKENED SCREEN

ROGER EBERT...the passionate, sensitive writer who inspired an army of young film directors to care about cinema as art, and have the courage to make their own personal creative films, has died of cancer. He leaves a gigantic unfillable hole in non-academic serious film criticism, cinema history, and critical awareness....Roger did not inspire me to direct films - Kurosawa, Bergman, and Fellini did - and I didn't always agree with his critical opinions (who cares), but Roger was the eyes and perception that kept me making films, despite the socializing politics and cold greed of Hollywood. Every director I ever talked with, from English-speaking countries, all cited Roger as their "guiding light". He was especially caring of film students and first-time directors who had talent but had no network of support. Now we all must continue to struggle forward, without a kind mentor, but with his powerful spirit by our side.

"LIKE"

Sometimes I "LIKE" a photo but not the words, sometimes the sentiments but not the illustration, sometimes the larger ideas but not the actual post. Sometimes I like the person who posted it, or want to offer my morale support to someone I don't know. Sometimes my finger slips.....There is no way to know what "LIKE" means on Facebook, so it is only a quickie massage of the ego, not a fulfilling meal. Facebook promises communication, but only offers the thinnest surface image of communication, and actually prevents real communication....Facebook is a potentially great concept and invention to soothe loneliness, but it's still in its most primitive stage, leaving the human spirit feel even lonelier.

[Painting by 黃安祖Andrew詩畫家, on Facebook]

FACEBOOK

The Facebook that I see has a flood of streaming photos with cute girls and boys of all ages and persuasions, stunning CUs of flowers and nature, thousands of smiling classmates posing with V-fingers or horror movie faces, a few soft-core effective body photos, political pro-human/anti-evil protests, serious truthful international news from the Colonialist BBC and Muslim TV station, pro-Obama public relations that I want to believe (with the instinctive hateful anti-Obama comments), lots of YouTube videos interesting and not, really funny sites with all levels of humor and social satire, delicious food food food, photos of patterns and of nothing that are real art, graffiti and official museum art, insightful film reviews, a few ads for things I don't use or don't like or can't afford, endless good-feeling sayings and advice that no one who is human can ever follow.

This is my Facebook....hundreds of friends I never meet, and cannot touch with my hands, brain, heart, or spirit. This is Communication in the 21st Century. I prefer the 20th Century, or 18th, or 15th..... except I probably would have died of plague, starvation, war, or torture by now, and wouldn't have been an artist or teacher creating in relative freedom and security.

I'm naively and deeply disappointed in the Facebook God, but not in the Facebook users.

[Painting by artist Andrew, on Facebook]

BIRTHDAY WISHES

"Hyvää Syntymäpäivää!"                                Happy 56th Birthday                                                 to great Finnish                                             film director   

Aki Kaurismäki

Le Havre

Dogs Have No Hell

The Man Without a Past

Tavern Man

and 27 others.....

TEDDY WATCHES SEA

ABUSE

From New York Times

Payment for Afghan Debt: Daughter, Age 6

If a man at a refugee camp who borrowed $2,500 for medical care for his family cannot repay his debt, his daughter will have to marry the lender's 17-year-old son.

Comment

Immediate response: Pay the father's debt. Long-term solution: Birth control, sexual and moral education..... The physical, sexual, and psychological abuse of children, girls, wives, women, and non-married lovers has been going on in every tribe, every culture, every country, every religion, for as long as human history. Because of improved media and the internet, we now know about some of it.....Our response must be immediate, unyielding, ethical, practical, effective, and long-term. This can only be done, for more than a handful of abuse cases, at a national and global level. Yet the moral and political corruption at that level is endemic.... "Think Tanks" abound in the civilized world, yet nothing seems to change.  Are there any realistic solutions?