everyone is the other

i do believe that fear of the 'other' is genetically encoded in each of us, presumably to build strong families and communities, as these are the modes of survival. particularly when you're nomads, wandering in the desert.

i wonder what our genes think of cyberspace. or is our growing likelihood to spend a fair percentage of our socializing while sitting alone at a desk also genetically determined as a response to overpopulation.

but in the current climate of world-wide community, is this genetic imperative as out of date as dragging women around by their hair? in a word... YES!

this train of thought began first thing in the morning when i heard a commentator on the radio announce that the TLC program, 'All-American Muslims" would be cancelled due to advertisers, under pressure from a right fringe group complaining that the evil side of muslims was being hidden & that the whole show was propaganda, pulled out of the show.

he had it wrong. in fact the network is hoping that all the uproar will help the show's ratings. but i still cringe at the mention of that much hatred, that much fear. and it started me thinking about how i usually saw this kind of hatred when it had been encouraged by someone for political reasons. and in this country it's the right that's pretty much the sole contender for the role.

so as i say, i started wondering about how that old genetic drive would come out now, if it were never aroused because someone thought they could benefit in terms of money and power by doing it. and i can barely conceive of it.

if we were never told, well, let's let the song from South Pacific say it best:

YOU'VE GOT TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's
too late,
Before you are six or seven
or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

we have learned much, in our 'modern' times, about how we no longer have a need to brainlessly act on every genetic imperative. we have been thrown together in shared experiences. is it possible for us to embrace those experiences, those people?

or is this actually something we can never accomplish? if we had the drive to create all these religions (which are all the same at base), all these empowered entities, maybe there is something integral to our very fiber about those boundaries, those fences, those tightly closed gates.

but then, when have you hated the most beautiful girl in the room, or the neighbor whose yard wasn't kept as you liked it? when have you behaved as primitively as a carefully taught being, and can you, could anyone, just not ever be taught?

i once saw in a shop that had a strong anti-ivory stance a postcard that said 'we are all elephants.'

today, we are all muslims.

title

i have to go into the hospital tomorrow and i'm scared.

i had a heart attack ten years ago, and apparently the stents need to be replaced.

i have recently been feeling poorly, so they did these big fancy tests on me and that's what they found.

i had this best friend for about 25 years, but a couple of years ago we drifted apart. but amazingly, we just became friends again, and she's going to drive me to and pick me up from the hospital. strange how these things happen.

i have to go in tomorrow, monday, at noon, for a procedure at 2:30pm. they don't put you completely asleep so you're aware of what's going on, and will remember it.

supposedly, if they turn out not to need replacing anything (they won't), i can go home later that same day, tomorrow night. as deeply as i wish to do that, i guess i more hope that they can fix me.

but this is the first night i will not sleep with ruby since we've been together, almost 5 years.

it's no accident that my anniversaries with both ruby and this blog are so close to the same amount of time. some part of my beginning it at about that time was because robert -- my cat before ruby -- had begun to die. and ruby came very shortly after he did.

but the hardest part of ten years ago was being away from home, from my garden, from my cat.

if i come back from this time feeling better,
maybe it will be a healing experience.

knowing & knowing

i'm always surprised when an artist who has come to occupy the realms of greatness in my mind is so difficult to find any information about. forgotten, but for their work. i suppose any of them would prefer that than the opposite?

Rene Vincent (1879-1936) is best known for a number of posters displaying art deco luxury goods. Often large-scale, they delivered high-impact deluxe inducements. But Vincent was not only a child of the Belle Epoque but also one of its graphic practitioners, and that factor accounts for the dramatic wit of his vignettes, which were also elegant, lighthearted, stylish and sophisticated. 1



pseudonym: Rageot
Born in 1879 in Paris. Died in 1936 in Paris.
XXe century. French. Painter with the gouache, painter in watercolours, draughtsman, poster artist.

Brother of the painter Henri Vincent-Anglade. He initially studied architecture at the School of the Arts in Paris. He travelled to the United States.

Vincent's drawings included delicate watercolours, illustrating various modes of society life, from 1900 until the style “Arts Déco 1925”, at which time he became one of its best known practitioners. He worked with many parisian magazines. He is especially known for his posters advertising the first cars: Bugatti, Peugeot. In this field, he illustrated and Henry Kistemaeckers wrote the text. He also was an illustrator of books; in 1908 the Marriage of Rag of Gyp; in 1909 Aéropolis, comic novel of the air life of Henry Kistemaeckers; in 1912 Small girls of the last time of Joseph Jacquin; in 1934 historical Evils XI: Around fifty (an evil which spreads Ja terror) of Henri Duvernois. He created posters for Balto cigarettes, the department store Au Bon Marche, and the source Évian-Cachat He had many imitateurs, especially in the field of the advertising poster. 2

(this i edited from a babel fish translation from the dutch. still not sure it makes sense....)

René Vincent (1879 - 1936) was the son of a writer and he began his career as an architect. A short time after this experience he entered into advertising and publishing. He was also an illustrator for some famous French newspapers (Le Rire, Fantasio, La Baïonnette, l’Illustration, Paris-Magazine, Lectures pour tous, Fémina, Nos Loisirs…etc)

In the beginning of the 20’s, René Vincent created many posters particularly for the automotive market (Bugatti, Peugeot, Georges Irat …etc). He also worked for “Le Bon Marché” Parisian store and the printer Draeger. He was a major actor of the Art Déco period. 3









a clear beneficiary of the japonisme legacy, with his outlines, flat solid color, and wonderful prints, and even the kimono-like costumes, vincent carried through doing this work as it began to take the shapes of the thirties when he apparently worked until the day he died.