2/10/23

 Friday,  February 10, 2023

In bed after 11, awake at 4:41, up at 4:50.  Random minnows darting around the bait bucket: refrain in 'Take On Me,' wondering about Chrissi and Jim Reck, up so late because of good sleep the night before?  30℉, high of 35℉,  wind NNW at 13, 7 to 15 mph today, gusts up to 25 mph producing wind chills today between 11℉ and 27℉.  Sunrise at 6:56, sunset at 5:15, 10+19.

Middletown: Muncie, Indiana is a 6 part documentary filmed in the late 1970s, and early 1980s deriving from sociological studies by Robert and Helen Lynd resulting in 2 books published in 1929 and 1937, all based on American life in Muncie, Indiana as a small, Midwestern, American city, presumably at least somewhat typical of American life elsewhere.  We have watched the first 3 films in the series: Campaign, The Big Game, and  Community of Faith.  What was notable about the 1980  mayoral race followed in Campaign was the lack of hyperpartisanship that is so prevalent today.  The supporters of the Democratic and Republican opponents had their strong preferences, but there was none of the apocalyptic doom-talking that we see today.  The very different personal and campaign styles of the 2 candidates were also an interesting study: the Democrat a glad-handing professional 'pol', the Republican a younger, 'good government' type, reluctantly involved in politics.  The Big Game focused on a basketball game between 2 rival high schools, the hard-charging style of the 2 coaches, the significance of sports in the lives of the players, the pressure on the players, the comparison of the stars of the 2 teams, one White and bound for college, the other Black and (maybe) squeaking through high school.  The focus was on the great importance of WINNING, on not being a LOSER in sports or in life, and the pressure on the young players was palpable. It reminds me of Vince Lombardi and his celebrated if nonsensical statement that "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."  Huh???  Community of Faith was a somewhat incoherent study of a family of evangelical Pentecostal Christians who were, to me and to Geri, simply delusional, people living in a dream world with an imaginary Friend in the Sky who has a plan for them and who died on a cross to redeem them from their sins.  A lot of driving out demons (some leaving via farts) and Satan, a lot of exorcisms and talking in tongues.  Reminded me of Robert Duvall in The Apostle working on the chain gang and chanting "Victory is mine, victory is mine, victory is mine today.  I told Satan, get thee behind, victory today is mine."  Creepy, and frightening in light of how powerful the evangelical Christian Nationalism movement has become today, giving us Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis and our hyper-polarized culture and society rationally concerned about a new civil war.  Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah!

The Wobblies is another documentary that I watched on OVID, a history of the IWW, International Workers of the World.  I became familiar with the IWW by reading all the books in John Dos Passos' USA trilogy a million years ago.  I remember enjoying the novels immensely and feeling a natural sympathy for the working-class people described by Dos Passos.  I also enjoyed the documentary film which included many interviews with members of the IWW, 'unskilled' workers who suffered oppression at the hands of their employers, including big mining companies and logging companies, and at the hand of the government, especially during WWI.  The A.F. of L existed only for 'skilled' laborers, and craftsmen, not for copper miners, lumberjacks, and hod carriers, who had no organized power except through the IWW.  When the Wobblies struck for an 8-hour workday during the War to Make the World Safe for Democracy, the War to End All Wars, American government turned on them at all levels, federal, state, and local, calling them 'agents of the Kaiser.'  Cops, soldiers, and national guardsmen were freely used to break the union, just as they are always used to defeat any movement that threatens the hegemony of our oligarchs, our plutocrats, our 1%.   Mah nishtanah.  As Kurt Vonnegut would say, 'so it goes.'  He who has the gold makes the rules.

CPP was bad yesterday, and nasty again this morning.  Feeling semi-sick all morning.  5 hours and 39 minutes of sleep last night, but a good mask seal score with my CPAP, 20/20. 

A bit of wisdom from Tennessee Williams  "You have to realize that the vast majority of things attempted in the arts aren't good. They are attended by great hope and ambition and good intentions, but it is very hard to create anything of value in the arts. Accept this. It is also the reason we love so much the great play or the exquisite piece of music or the work of art that speaks to all people. These are big and rare and wonderful things. Most things are bad. Somehow you have to ignore and erase the effects of these bad attempts while also supporting and caring for the well-meaning siblings who did the bad work. Something good may eventually happen; something of merit may appear. Shield yourself while at the same time extending kindness. This is, I think, one of the hardest and noblest acts of the artist."  Tennessee Williams/Interview with James Grissom/1982.  

If I had let my constant failures in drawing and painting deter me from continuing to draw and paint, I would have deprived myself of hundreds of hours and countless days of pleasure.  There is truth to the notion that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.  Worth doing is worth doing.  My Vietnamese girl is something of a disappointment but before I painted it, there was a blank canvas, all white, no colors, no image, nothing suggestive of any human activity, the canvas having surely been constructed and stretched by machine.  So it's a disappointment, but it's MY disappointment and it gave me great pleasure working on it, so it was worth doing despite my failings.