Leaving for Lomita Station, All Aboard!!!

As promised, I'm looking at some of the interesting obscure locations to visit within the Los Angeles area. I'm starting this project with a visit to the Lomita Railroad Museum. It's a small venue hidden within the residential neighborhoods of the community. There are literally private residences next door.

Nevertheless, it's a nice collection. There is a fair amount of locomotive related objects, such as semaphore signals, uniform buttons, and tie date nails. The walls are covered with historic photographs, old railway maps, and vintage advertisements. But the big thrill comes from the trains.

They've got a class M-6 Mogul 2-6-0 engine built for Southern Pacific in 1902. There's quite an interesting view from the cab.

But there are four other cars to check out as well. . .

Friday Flowers: The Crimson Garden

Terrace

(By Honor Moore)

A plane tree, leaves green as if polished,

the reddened tips of fruit trees, a stand

of cypress, and through the blackened green,

a yellow field, slant of roof. Nearer,

the castle gate, pale brick flecked with stone

like cream with nutmeg or cinnamon,

and climbing, vermilion of roses.

As swallows shriek and dive, their shadows

loop to mark the wall, then disappear.

Another week finished. Let's look forward to a funny-filled Friday night and wild, wonderful weekend. ;-)

Weekly Wrap: Wednesday Night

Welcome to the Garden

As promised, here's the New and Improved Weekly Wrap! Hurray!!!

But before getting to our summary of the Week's posts and activities, let's talk about our plans for Paideia. I've been studying a bunch of blogs over the past few months, considering what I like about them and how I can make it work for me in furthering the entertainment and information value of my blog. Here is what I've decided:

First, what is my primary strength? It's as a "culture" critic/reviewer. In what area is my writing most likely to fill a readership need? I think that being an "art" blogger is where I can best meet an underserved demand. Therefore, I'll schedule three art posts per week, Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. As regards my other areas of interest, I'll keep my current free-form style of marking anniversaries or birth dates.

Second, I love ghost stories. It's kind of crazy that I've gone so many months writing on this blog and haven't shared with you all some of my enthusiasm. Therefore, we're putting an end to this oversight and scheduling a Sunday Night Ghost Story, wherein I'll critique and discuss a classic story of the genre.

Third, in addition to my "culture blogging" interests, I can turn my attention to "location" blogging. I'm fortunate enough to live in one of the world's major culture capitals. Looking at my readership, a significant percentage is from outside the USA. It might be cool to offer up an occasional "Better Know a Los Angeles Community"-type post. I'm not going to set a specific schedule. I'll write them up as they come. Perhaps I can create a page to properly index them.

Now, I've got other ideas, but I find it best to set my mind on only three tasks at a time. As I meet these goals then I can add some additional ideas. ;-)

Empty Playground

So, that's for the future. Let's jump to the past!

You're A-Number One

Escape from New York promotional poster (Detail)

Thirty years ago, Escape from New York was released. Starring Kurt Russell and directed by John Carpenter, this movie has become a cult classic. With good reason!!!

Russell plays "Snake" Plissken, an anti-hero who is coerced into a search-and-rescue mission into the post-apocalyptic ruins of New York City, which has become a wall penitentiary city, to find the President of the United States, who crash landed within the city during a terrorist incident. The President must be rescued in time to make a diplomatic meeting to negotiate the end of World War III. Moreover, Plissken has been administered a poison that will kill him at the same time frame. However, the city has been overrun with criminal gangs that rule New York in a perpetual state of violence and anarchy.

Fun stuff!!!



Kurt Russell as "Snake" Plissken


Let's look at some vids.

The Virtue of Temperance

Woman with a Lute (c. 1663) by Johannes Vermeer

From July 8 to September 26, the Norton Simon Museum will be exhibiting Vermeer's Woman with a Lute. This painting is on loan from the Metropolitan Museum and is making its first showing on the West Coast. It is one of Vermeer's "Pearl Pictures" catching a moment frozen in time, luminescent and dream-like.

Vermeer is probably my favorite painter. When the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC had their amazingly comprehensive exhibit back in late '95, I actually took some vacation time and flew out to attend the opening week. It was so very worth the effort and expense. I know that I write this a lot in these posts, but no reproduction can do these painting justice. The layers of glaze and diluted saturated pigments that Vermeer uses captures the light within the paintings. It is as if they have an inner glow.

Of course, I had to attend the opening display of this painting on Thursday night. Yeah, I braved the crowd of over 500 fellow art enthusiasts and rush hour traffic on the Pasadena Freeway to do so, but I would have spent the night in regrets if I didn't. ;-)



Reception in the Garden



Reception in the Entry Hall


I can write all day about the glories of Vermeer's paintings. Over the next few months, I'll be visiting the Norton Simon to view this painting many times. Perhaps I'll write a series of posts on Vermeer and why I so adore his works. Perhaps. . .

Burn Out Every Inch

It's been a while since we had a music post. So, let's take the opportunity to wish a Happy 47th Birthday to Courtney Love!

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that she's made it to 47 years. It seems as if she's been about to fall over the edge for the last twenty years. But I'm happy she's still with us. Her voice has always had a rough appeal to me. The way it goes from growl to groan to shriek over the course of a song may not be beautiful, but it is definitely expressive.

When I first heard her in the early '90s, Courtney's voice had a distinct quality of timbre and annunciation. I didn't like it, but I found it interesting. Likewise, I found her songs crude and blunt, but there was a fascinating self-revelation to her performance, sometimes brazen exhibitionism and sometimes awkward exposure. Over the years, I've grown to appreciate her music.

So, here's hoping for health and prosperity for Courtney. May she continue creating such engaging music for many years to come!

Now, let's listen to some music.

What A Woman Can Do

Detail of Judith Slaying Holofernes (c. 1620) by Artemisia Gentileschi

On this date in 1593, Artemisia Gentileschi was born.

She is one of my favorite painters of the Baroque era. The dramatic realism and intense contrast of shadow and light are filled with intense emotion. Fear, rage, horror, confusion and pain are expressed with an unflinching visceral honesty. Many of her peers of the Italian Baroque adhere to an interesting but artificial mannerism, even Caravaggio gets occasionally caught up in the stylistics. Artemisia works within the same tradition, but maintains a powerful sense of authenticity throughout her career.

Sadly, there is a well-intentioned but misguided reductionist interpretation of her works that dominates both public and academic analysis. As a teen, Artemisia was raped by her tutor and, when pressing charges against her assailant, she was subjected to torture by thumbscrews as a part of her testimony. Obviously, such an experience is going to have a profound effect upon her psychological state, which will then be expressed through her art.

It is true that many of her paintings focus on themes relating to sexual victimization and powerful women. But she has many works that don't deal with such themes. To reduce her creative aesthetic to this "one note" thematic expression is a needless reduction. I feel it is better to study Artemisia just as one would any great artist of the Italian Baroque and then focus on the gender related themes. To do otherwise is to reduce her to a proto-feminist icon.



Lot and His Daughters (c. 1640s) by Artemisia Gentileschi


As a comparison, would we limit our appreciation of Raphael to his "Madonna and Child" works? Is the study of Andy Warhol limited to his "Campbell Soup" works? Do we limit our Rembrandt studies to his self-portraits?

Friday Flowers: Orchid Edition

The Orchid Flower

(By Sam Hamill)

Just as I wonder

whether it's going to die,

the orchid blossoms

and I can't explain why it

moves my heart, why such pleasure

comes from one small bud

on a long spindly stem, one

blood red gold flower

opening at mid-summer,

tiny, perfect in its hour.

Even to a white-

haired craggy poet, it's

purely erotic,

pistil and stamen, pollen,

dew of the world, a spoonful

of earth, and water.

Erotic because there's death

at the heart of birth,

drama in those old sunrise

prisms in wet cedar boughs,

deepest mystery

in washing evening dishes

or teasing my wife,

who grows, yes, more beautiful

because one of us will die.

Yeah, it's about time we got some orchids on this blog. ;-)

In the Likeness of God

Book of Genesis by R. Crumb

While I was on vacation, I had the opportunity to visit the San Jose Museum of Art where the exhibit "The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb's Book of Genesis" was on display. It contained the original drawn pages from which the graphic novel was created. Each page of the comprehensive fifty chapter work was exhibited. I'm not a fan of Crumb's work and I am certainly no fan of the Book of Genesis, but the show was impressive.

As regards Crumb, I've long admired his amazing skills of composition and rendering. Throughout his long career, his ability to structure a panel, within the multi-panel context of a comic book page, is awe-inspiring. However, I have a hard time reading his work because his figures are so egregiously ugly and crass. I definitely respect the skill that he uses in drawing these characters, but I find their odious appearances to be distracting and tiresome. I can only enjoy Crumb in very small doses.

However, within the Book of Genesis, these gnarly homunculi seem appropriate to the subject matter. The world of the biblical Patriarchs is crude and rough-hewn. It is a world where the "Crumb people" seem to belong. Moreover, his attention to detail creates for an immersive experience. Even the infamously tedious "Generations of So-And-So" wherein "Whats-His-Name begat Whos-That, and lived another couple hundred years" is made into an interesting read by creating veristic portraits of people living in the Bronze Age, eating, fighting, farming, dancing, or just looking tired.

That's the key to Crumb's success. The attention to the details of character and setting creates a convincing world in which the reader can easily follow the events being portrayed. The famous stories, like Noah's Flood or the Sacrifice of Isaac, are given superb treatment, but it is the obscure stories, such as Sarah joining Pharaoh's harem or the Massacre of the Shechemites, that really benefit from Crumb's meticulous attention. These are obscure stories that get lost within the rambling biblical narrative, but Crumb's ability to impart drama and significance through his illustrations make them stand out.



Book of Genesis by R. Crumb


As regard the Genesis text, it's still a horrible thing. I've had to read Genesis numerous times while pursuing my theology studies and I really detest it. However, Crumb's rendering of the text smoothed out the incoherency of the text. The images impart an empathic humanity to the characters, as detestable or immoral though they may be. Even the weird things like Lot's daughters conspiring to seduce their father or Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of "red red stuff" feels less absurd or disturbing when portrayed by Crumb's drawings.

My biggest complaint is that Crumb missed the opportunity to express the ideas of the Documentary Hypothesis in this work.

Four Months at Paideia: Considerations

I'm back from my vacation!!!

I've been thinking about what I want from Paideia. How can I improve the quality of this blog? With a few exceptions, I've maintained a decent reliability of posting, but I think it can be improved. I can add more scheduled features, similar to the Friday Flowers. For instance, I can bring back the Weekly Wrap. By having a special feature at least four days out of the week, it'll provide a consistency to the topics.

As Paideia currently reads, you know that I'll discuss certain topics eventually, but precisely when is open to question. To a certain degree, I think that spontaneity is part of this blog's charm. However, I feel that giving a reliable sense of when certain topics will be discussed will be good for the growth of Paideia's readership. I'm still considering what will be the "regularly scheduled program" and what will be improvised postings. I'm hoping to have it settled by next week's Weekly Wrap on Wednesday. ;-)

It's been four months since I started this blogging project. Looking back, I'm happy that I did.

Many thanks for reading. I hope you all enjoy the upcoming posts!

Friday's Flowers Are Fuchsia Again

Angels' Earrings Dainty

Mars Being Red
(By Marvin Bell)

Being red is the color of a white sun where it lingers
on an arm. Color of time lost in sparks, of space lost
inside dance. Red of walks by the railroad in the flush
of youth, while our steps released the squeaks
of shoots reaching for the light. Scarlet of sin, crimson
of fresh blood, ruby and garnet of the jewel bed,
early sunshine, vestiges of the late sun as it turns
green and disappears. Be calm. Do not give in
to the rabid red throat of age. In a red world, imprint
the valentine and blush of romance for the dark.
It has come. You will not be this quick-to-redden
forever. You will be green again, again and again.

Just because I'm away on vacation doesn't mean that I can't give you all a Friday Flower post. ;-)

Takin' a Vacation

Vacation

(By Rita Dove)

  

I love the hour before takeoff,

that stretch of no time, no home

but the gray vinyl seats linked like

unfolding paper dolls. Soon we shall

be summoned to the gate, soon enough

there’ll be the clumsy procedure of row numbers

and perforated stubs—but for now

I can look at these ragtag nuclear families

with their cooing and bickering

or the heeled bachelorette trying

to ignore a baby’s wail and the baby’s

exhausted mother waiting to be called up early

while the athlete, one monstrous hand

asleep on his duffel bag, listens,

perched like a seal trained for the plunge.

Even the lone executive

who has wandered this far into summer

with his lasered itinerary, briefcase

knocking his knees—even he

has worked for the pleasure of bearing

no more than a scrap of himself

into this hall. He’ll dine out, she’ll sleep late,

they’ll let the sun burn them happy all morning

—a little hope, a little whimsy

before the loudspeaker blurts

and we leap up to become

Flight 828, now boarding at Gate 17.

Well, I'm not taking a plane trip, but I will be going on vacation. So, expect posting to be very light until after July 4th. I might be able to pop in now and then for a brief post, but I can't promise it. Anyways, I've got over 160 posts on this blog. Certainly there must be something you'll find of interest in the archives. ;-)