". . . I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply . . evil."

Dr. Loomis Halloween (1978)


Hello, I am ahead of schedule for the next update, but so many silly, stupid things have been happening in the news that my list has grown too large, thus a commentary at this point. I shall start with a new blog feature, the "Hail, Prince of the Obvious!" mention in each update. This time the mention goes to Kevin Corriveau of CNN Int'l Weather, who breathlessly reported that "24 heat-related deaths in India were due to" (-- wait for it --) "the heat." Devastating insight, Kevin. CNN also ran a feature on how social networking is lowering morality, that people are becoming socially retarded due to the lack of real interaction rather than virtual interaction. The last part of that statement may actually be true. It reminds me of a science fiction book I read decades ago about a future world where one's entire life was lived in a small steel room and all interaction was done virtually. The novel went on to describe the utter chaos that resulted from a breakdown in the system and the necessity for people to leave their chambers and search for real food, real things and the utter bafflement and fear of having to actually interact with other living beings. The novel may even have been written by J.G. Ballard, who died this week at the age of 87 in his London home. He was also the author of the critically acclaimed autobiographical Empire of the Sun, another tale of foundering morality set in war-torn China. I think it is rather specious to blame social networking for our society's failing moral quality although it may certainly contribute. Overpopulation, capitalism run rampant, the alarmingly deep-seated roots of crypto-fascism, the willingness to abandon personal responsibility for State oversight, greed in all its forms, the failure of the concept of the Divine because by and large humanity can find none in itself, all of these and more contribute to the vast, inexorable and painfully slow-motion implosion of all of our societies, not just the Western version. E.E. Gibbon is shaking his head in his grave. We are not the only falling monolith. Islam was never meant to become what it is becoming thanks to radicalism and intolerance. This month the Taliban "executed" a couple for trying to elope and openly espoused the death of a young woman because she was seen dancing on television and we are not talking Pakistani pole-dancing here, people. She was just moving across a stage while she sang in a talent contest. The Saudi Arabian courts upheld a man's divorce from his wife, a divorce he accomplished by sending her a text message, "I divorce you." For those of you who do not know, a Muslim man may traditionally divorce his wife by saying to her, in front of three witnesses, "I divorce you" three times. Needless to say, women do not have this right. In another case, an 8 year old Saudi girl's marriage to a 47 year old man was upheld, even after two appeals (not the same case I have previously mentioned). The girl's mother had not even been apprised of the marriage, it had been arranged by other family members and the mother was threatened with flogging if she complained further. Iran has sentenced a female American journalist of Iranian descent to eight years in prison in a trial that lasted less than one day in a closed courtroom. The charges started as the buying of cigarettes, progressed to the buying of wine and finally became full-blown espionage. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened an United Nations Geneva conference on racism with a vitriolic attack on Israel and the "lie of the Holocaust" on the anniversary of Hitler's birthday this week. European delegates streamed out of the hall while the speech was wildly applauded by the Arab representatives. Pakistan continues to regress to a medieval warlord state and one can only surmise the colossal amount of corruption that must be present, while their nuclear capability remains intact and waiting as the Taliban edge closer and closer to control. It all just keeps on going and the heart, head and soul reel from the pre-apocalyptic vision of our world rushing toward the abyss. If Jesus, Mohammad (pbuh) and the Buddha are not weeping in unison, it is only because they have abandoned hope and are busily at work trying to save a planet more worthy of their efforts.

It is not just the Middle East that is insane. The 41 year old CFO of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, committed suicide this week, just ahead of the revelation of a Securities & Exchange Commission investigation findings. Hang on to your hats, American mortgage holders. The president of Paraguay, a former Roman Catholic bishop, has acknowledged paternity of at least three illegitimate children during his years in the church and asks for understanding as he continues to hold power. Mexico continues its slide into full-blown barbarism along with the quaint reports that the peculiar slant on Christianity in that nation has produced two new narco-saints, Saint Death and Saint Jesus Malverde. The former is actually the Grim Reaper dressed up in the trappings of a saint and the latter is a fairly recent highway bandit know for his good looks and utter cruelty. People at large, drug cartel members in particular, pray to these two in scattered shrines across the country, making offerings of cigarettes, tequila and cocaine (it is conveniently placed in the Grim Reaper's nasal cavities). Castro of Cuba and Chavez of Venezuela are trying to chum up to Barack Obama, offering open discussions and paperback books, even though Mr. Chavez continues to blast America as an imperialistic power. He is right, of course, but not for the reasons he imagines, The United Fruit Co. is no longer a first-line policy arbiter. Wake up and quit dreaming of Carmen Miranda's hat, Mr. Chavez. A front row seat at the new Yankee Stadium now costs $2,625.00 USD. The last baseball game I attended I believe I paid $5 for a front row seat. Carrie Prejean, Miss California in the Miss America pageant, supposedly gaffed a question on gay marriage when she replied, "I don't want to dictate for other people, but I believe marriage is between a man and a woman." Well, I find nothing wrong with that answer because she is certainly entitled to her opinion. What I DO take exception to is her "clarification" of her answer on a talk show that her answer was "biblically correct." Perhaps, but tell me, Miss Prejean, is it "biblically correct" to walk across a stage in front of thousands, televised to millions, wearing a genitally-molded bikini and a pair of towering white high-heeled shoes, exhibiting your charms in such a way that would make even Salome or Delilah blush with shame? Hypocrisy has a golden mane and a perfect tan. Texas is talking of leaving the Union, it seems. Even the governor of Texas is batting around the idea. Hmmm, aside from one really decent human being in El Paso (do not worry, my dear, we will relocate you), I say let them leave. They can throw open their border with Mexico while they are at it. While the idea of leaving the Union is patently ludicrous, it does throw light, if more is needed, on Texan mentality, akin to Alaskan mentality which supported the idea during a petrol crunch a few years ago (they had plenty) of "Let the bastards freeze in the dark!", a popular Alaskan bumper sticker of the time. What they are saying to the Union is, "What have you done for me lately?", helping bear the burden of hard times is the farthest thing from their minds.

In India, a month-long election is under way. Why so long? They have 714 million registered voters is why, more than twice the entire population of the USA, handwritten ballots and a list of political parties and candidates that is mind-numbing. Giving credit where it is due, they are still electing to try a democratic form of government with direct representation of, by and for the people. India's Maoist rebels are trying to disrupt the voting, of course, principally by means of transportation hijackings, but I do not think it possible to stop all 714 million, do you? By comparison, the USA had it easy in 2008. There are 25 political parties in South Africa, where the recent vote has (probably) elected Jacob Zuma, head of the African National Congress, a man suspected of vast bribery and corruption charges. His rallies typically consist of him dancing onstage to a Zulu beat while pumping his right fist in the air. I wonder if Nelson Mandela is weeping as his country slides away and continues to deny entry to the Dalai Lama because of Chinese economic pressure? Perhaps I shall form my own political party in the near future, the Crypto-Christian Islamic Solidarity Movement for Youth, the Aged and the Sexually Subversive, or CCISMYASS for short. I shall keep you informed when I develop the party platform.

This month the Conspicuous Consumption Cup goes to Alexander Amosu, a fashion designer who unveiled his new $100K business suit. It has 22kt gold lining and diamond and gold buttons. It was immediately purchased by someone from the Middle East (surprise, surprise). Perhaps the purchaser is the same man who bought an Airbus A380, the world's largest new plane, to have outfitted as personal transportation - normally it carries 550+ people. They have come a long way from the days when Prince Faisal, fighting for Arab independence during the first World War, declared, "We Arabs do not like the desert, we long only for green spaces and running water." Perhaps he meant most of England. One is faintly reminded, in mirror image, of a remark made by Gen. George S. Patton, who said, when asked his opinion of Morocco, "I love it. It's a combination of the Bible and Hollywood."

To end at the beginning, I shall make a final double-barreled blast at CNN. They have been shamelessly promoting Twitter© as the hot!hot!hot! new social networking tool (this despite their piece on failing morality of the masses). I checked it out and after an initial trial, can unhesitatingly say it is utter rubbish, useless to the nth degree. What is the point? What is wrong with already existing methods of communication such as e-mails, blogging, a telephone call or, God forbid, even a letter? Can everything worth saying be reduced to an 140 character squib? Failing marks on this one, both to CNN and Twitter©. A final failing mark to CNN for continuing to broadcast MainSail, their half hour presentation on a regular basis of everything going on in the world of yachting (very little sailing, mainly yachting). They inevitably piggyback the presentation on a news piece on the millions who cannot find drinkable water or a piece on the billions suffering during the economic collapse - but here, folks, let's all look at the glamorous world of multimillion dollar boats and their glittering jet-set ports of call. It is such an egregious slap in the face to their audience.
Remember, friends, when in doubt, aim for the nerve stem. Until the next,
Leducdor

"Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!"

Henry Frankenstein, Frankenstein (1931)

"Be afraid. Be very afraid." Yes, I am back. The DHOSF has lain fallow for the winter, like a field in repose, like a bear in hibernation. But now it is back with the Spring and ready to roar in the wild woods once again. Winter was rather dreary here in the DHOSF, no spectacularly bad weather, no local heart crushing disasters, nothing very jubilatory, either, but one notes that was not the case in most of the rest of the world. The dreary drum roll of death and disaster continued and continues to roll relentlessly around the planet, with the shining moment of the election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States of America thus glittering even more brightly. Fires, floods, wars and revolutions, murders and mayhem continue their ceaseless cacophony round the globe and, sad to say, it all becomes rather numbing, like a pain that one has suffered far too long that eventually becomes a kind of warped and malign companion. The world is frankly insane, perhaps more insane than it has been for many a century and its citizens are simply weary with fatigue. The stress is so constant, so all-pervasive that, if one can, one retreats into the private space of one's home and pulls the curtains and locks the door, or if one cannot, it is back to trudging the streets, carrying that invisible cement block on one's back, "Tote that barge, lift that bale."
Devi and I have not been particularly divine in our daily lives recently. You will remember Devi, of course, my wife, who in her many incarnations has spread good cheer to the countless millions who pray to her as the goddess of Compassion. We remained rather palace-bound the greater part of the winter, but as Spring continues its steady inroad into the DHOSF I imagine that we shall recommence our sorties into the greater world at large to partake of the simple festivities of the woad-daubed hordes.

In keeping with my previous habit of noting some of the greater inanities in this our world, I shall remark on a few that caught my eye in the past few months and some that are still in development. One I particularly enjoyed was a story of elephants in a Kenyan game preserve texting park rangers. The elephants have been fitted with devices that notify the rangers when they are agitated, i.e. being hunted, chased, or dead. It seems rather redundant to receive a text message stating, "Hello, it is Jumbo, and I have been killed by ivory poachers," especially when the carcass is found minus its tusks, but there you have it. Still in the animal kingdom, from China came this news service highlight: "BEIJING (AP) -- A college student in southern China was bitten by a panda after he broke into the bear's enclosure hoping to get a hug, state media and a park employee said Saturday." Well, he got one, did he not? There is also a heartening tidbit from Germany this week; a woman jumped into the pool in the polar bear habitat at the Berlin zoo during feeding time. She was rescued by zoo employees but not until she had been decently mauled by one of the bears, upset that this rude woman would crash his dinner party. She was given a citation by the police for trespassing, as well. The Darwin Awards never lack for nominees and it is a shame that the animals were not allowed to finish the job of removing these fools from the gene pool. I was intrigued to read that when Moses returned to Egypt to free the Jewish people, he left his hounds, Tophah and Ketaph, behind in Canaan. I imagine he did so fearing that they would be ridiculed by the sleek and elegant Egyptian hunting dogs, torn apart by jackals or, even worse, seduced and then savaged by the merciless Egyptian cats. He should have known better than to have orthodox shepherd dogs.

In the sphere of the upright, I-walk-on-two-legs genre of animal, I note that the top Saudi cleric has reiterated the appropriateness of child brides in Islam, this despite a recent (nonreligious) appeal ruling in Saudi Arabia granting a divorce to an eight-year old girl who was horrified to find herself married (without her knowledge or consent, of course) to a fifty-six year old man. And they find that appropriate - Mohammad would weep (I think). On the plus side for the Saudis, a recent royal visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota had an actual, visible impact on the local economy. I imagine it did, considering that the royal entourage is two or three Boeing 747s, they book entire luxury hotels "for privacy" and their shopping jags are legendary, wiping out entire malls in private, late night visits. The Pakistani government has all but ceded the northeast of its country to the rule of the Taliban, hoping that "diplomacy and dialogue" will bridge the gap and that they will be content with that. Umm hmm, sure, right, whatever you say. What unbelievable fools. In Malaysia, the Fatwa Council has officially banned yoga and tomboys, under the enlightened viewpoint that both "contradict the spirit of Islam." A $60 million dollar replica of the Taj Mahal has been built in Bangladesh. Why?? The one and only original is not enough? Leaving aside the other idiocies of this idea, it strikes me that perhaps Bangladesh has better things to do with sixty million dollars, ummm, perhaps feed its starving millions? When you really think about it, you know that $60M could not even come close to replicating the Taj Mahal, so one wonders, is it papier-mâché? "Marbleized" contact paper on plywood? It certainly cannot be even remotely real or life-sized. Perhaps Sudan is "clearing" Darfour in order to build a replica of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, complete with mortuary temples, Solar Barque and a miniature Nile running past its feet. They already have a good stretch of the real Nile, but what the hell . . . . I note that the Somali pirates took a high hard one right up the trunk this weekend in a meeting with some US Navy SEALs. Good for the SEALs and good for Obama to have authorized that. Score: one rescued American captain, three dead Somali pirates and one captured pirate. The French pulled off a similar feat last week with an hijacked French yacht - unfortunately, they killed one of the French hostages, but rescued the rest and made a croque-monsieur out of the pirates. Knowing that this is going on, why do companies continue to send their ships down/up the Suez Canal? (Yes, it is more expensive to re-route them, but so what?) If the international shipping community were to simply stop doing it, I imagine the Egyptian government would look at the loss of revenue and quickly decide to have a very serious talk with Somalia. The Egyptian armed forces are not powerless nor do they suffer from the "Italian High Command Syndrome." They have not intervened thus far because continental Islamic politics weigh more heavily, for the moment, than international opprobrium. Let the dollar speak for itself; they had to do something serious with their own insurgencies when tourism in Egypt almost died a few years ago.
Mass shootings (again) in America and Germany, Belgium continues to produce the most psychotic child molesters anywhere in the world, Italy suffers a massive earthquake and people are outraged the buildings fell over (they are medieval, you fool), Sarkozy makes France rejoin NATO (DeGaulle could be heard twirling in his grave), the Queen of England grazingly hugs Michelle Obama and the British are aghast ("the Queen does NOT do that!") or delighted ("A charming and natural show of affection! Bloody marvelous!"), take your pick, the Swiss are forced to cough up some of their banking secrets, the Czech Republic welcomes Obama like an homeboy, Russia and the Ukraine throw punches over who gets to gouge Europe the deepest, China tries to jilt the US dollar as THE international currency and is laughed out of the room (thus forcing them to save face by buying billions more of the American debt), Zimbabwe continues to be simply unreal, South Africa denies a visa to the Dalai Lama, the headliner for an international peace conference there and thus the conference is cancelled, Col. Qaddafi storms out of an African League summit because some Arab countries are "too conciliatory" with the West, which is hilarious considering that he is the recently elected president of the African League, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is considering nationalizing himself, etc., etc., etc. The tragicomedy never ends, folks.

I have spent the latter part of the winter (and am still continuing) carefully, slowly and painstakingly reading a glorious edition of The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day trans. by Dr. Raymond O. Faulkner, Dr. Ogden Goelet, Jr., based on the original color illustrations of E. A. Wallis Budge and produced by James Wasserman. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1998. For anyone with a love of Egyptology it is irreplaceable, an absolute must-have. It is a full-color reproduction of the entire Papyrus of Ani with an up-to-date translation by Drs. Faulkner and Goelet. Many of the constructs of an Egyptian papyrus are strange for a modern reader, such as the idea that chapters exist but not necessarily in order. Thus, you might start with chapter 33, then follow on to chapter 16 and not actually find chapter 1 until halfway into the papyrus. Also, the Book of the Dead is not a religious text, not theological philosophy, nor is it a book of "Egyptian magic," so to speak. It is, for lack of a better term, an instruction manual on how to transit from mortality to immortality for the recently deceased. I have decided that from time to time I will end my blog entries with excerpts from the papyrus, the better to let you know that you must prepare yourself for your inevitable journey, and that the best way to do so is to be at least fleetingly familiar with the Book of the Dead. These excerpts will be at random and shall not be excessive (or at least so I hope). Wherever you read the name of Ani, I suggest you replace it with your own. With that in mind:

Excerpt from Chapter 30B: Chapter for not letting Ani's heart create opposition against him in the God's Domain

O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart of my different ages! Do not stand up as a witness against me, do not be opposed to me in the tribunal, do not be hostile to me in the presence of the Keeper of the Balance, for you are my Ka which was in my body, the protector who made my members hale. Go forth to the happy place whereto we speed; do not make my name stink to Entourage who make men. Do not tell lies about me in the presence of the god; it is indeed well that you should hear!
Thus says Thoth, judge of truth, to the Great Ennead which is in the presence of Osiris: Hear this word of very truth. I have judged the heart of the deceased, and his soul stands as a witness for him. His deeds are righteous in the great balance, and no sin has been found in him. He did not diminish the offerings in the temples, he did not destroy what had been made, he did not go about with deceitful speech while he was on earth.
Thus says the Great Ennead to Thoth who is in Hermopolis: This utterance of yours is true. The vindicated Osiris Ani is straightforward, he has no sin, there is no accusation against him before us, Ammit shall not be permitted to have power over him. Let there be given to him the offerings which are issued in the presence of Osiris, and may a grant of land be established in the Field of Offerings as for the Followers of Horus.
Thus says Horus son if Isis: I have come to you, O Wennefer, and I bring Ani to you. His heart is true, having gone forth from the balance, and he has not sinned against any god or any goddess. Thoth has judged him in writing which has been told to the Ennead, and Maat the great has witnessed. Let there be given to him bread and beer which have been issued in the presence of Osiris, and he will be forever like the followers of Horus.
Thus says Ani: Here I am in your presence, O Lord of the West. There is no wrongdoing in my body, I have not wittingly told lies, there has been no second fault. Grant that I may be like the favored ones who are in your suite, O Osiris, one greatly favored by the good god, one loved of the Lord of the Two Lands, Ani, vindicated before Osiris.
Here is hoping that your heart does not lie about you in the great beyond. Until the next,
Leducdor

"No, I never loved you, Walter. Not you, or anybody else. I'm rotten to the heart." [linked]

Phyllis: "I used you, just as you said. That's all you ever meant to me -- until a minute ago. I didn't think anything like that could ever happen to me.

Neff: "I'm sorry, baby. I'm not buying.

Phyllis: "I'm not asking you to buy. Just hold me close.

Neff: "Goodbye, baby."

[The gun explodes once, twice.]
Double Indemnity (1944)

Femmes fatales have been on my mind for some time now. I could not really tell you why. In search of femmes fatales after this idée fixe arrived, I downloaded and watched several classics of the genre, including the venomous Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity. After some little while, it occurred to me that perhaps one of the reasons, or even THE reason, that the femme fatale imagery is occupying my thoughts is that I am keeping myself well-informed on the American election which simply abounds with knockoffs of the genre. To be sure, none of the women present in the electoral process can even begin to hold a candle to Phyllis, or Gilda, or any of the brilliantly bad girls from film noir in the 1940s and 1950s, yet they do manage to sow destruction all the same. The classic definition of a femme fatale is: "an irresistibly attractive woman... especially one who leads men into danger or disaster" (unknown). If there is a woman in the campaign who has managed to accomplish that, it is surely Sarah Palin. Not that I find Gov. Palin "irresistibly attractive," mind you, but I am told that many do. Certainly Sen. McCain did, to his everlasting regret. She cannot interview, she cannot hold her own without intensive coaching, she cannot be trusted to take two steps without a phalanx of minders and aides, she can abuse power, she can be petty and vindictive in state politics, she can sling racial mud and fearmongering, in short, she is an ambulant catastrophe. If he was going to pick a woman who would bring down his campaign in a fearsome blaze, I would have much more respect and admiration for him if he had searched for, and picked, a real femme fatale, someone in the corridors of power or influence who could carry the same weight as a Phyllis Dietrichson or a Gilda. Someone who radiated evil and glamor in equal measure, someone whose stiletto heels you could imagine buried in the heart of anyone standing in her way. The pitbull-with-lipstick soccer mom just does not have the gravitas to fill that role. And to top it all off, she is disturbingly stupid to the point of being an auto-caricature.
Auto-caricatures are very much the name of the game these days. As anyone not living on the Antarctic ice cap knows (and perhaps even there), there is an HBO program titled "Sex and the City." After viewing an episode of this travesty, I have steadfastly refused to watch it ever again. I found the women vulgar, cruel, shallow and without any redeeming value at all. They did not even have the depth to be evil, no femme fatales there, just amoral wanna-be vampires stalking the streets of Manhattan in search of expensive shoes and stupid men, all in abundant supply. So imagine my own surprise when I decided to watch their movie. There was, of course, no surprise, it was no better than their television show, just longer. Forty and fifty year old women still practicing valueless lifestyles with the false insouciance of younger people, still buying the shoes, still finding and abandoning the men when their criteria of "What have you done for me TODAY?" is not immediately met and fulfilled. Even the movie itself, or rather the production company, seemed to sense that the trope had been played out. The film premiered everywhere else in the world first before it even appeared in Manhattan, its natural home and showcase. They called it clever marketing, I call it dodging the bullet until the last minute. Here is an interesting aside - a typical American movie will release in a pattern something like this: USA, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Taiwan, UK, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Israel, Finland, Iceland, Panama, South Africa, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, and France. You will notice the placement of France; this is due to the everlasting jealousy that France suffers due to the American film industry. Priding themselves on being the inventors of cinema and home to the "real" auteurs, France simply cannot bear that American cinema is so successful on French home soil. They feel the same way about the wheel, electricity and insufferable arrogance (every civilization in antiquity thought they had that market cornered), so it is nothing new. There are many things for which I admire France and the French, but it amuses me that their greatest criticism of the USA, hubris, is exactly their own greatest fault as well.
Hubris is a grand failing and one that carries some of the heaviest prices in history. I recently took a quiz somewhere on the Internet, I do not remember where, that through a series of questions placed you as one of the Chinese emperors according to personality. I came out as Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty (a.d.712 to a.d.756). The summary was thus: "Personality Traits: Hardworking and diligent, reformist, employed capable ministers, internationalist, patron of the arts, obsessed with pleasure-seeking, delegated too much power to underlings History: The early half of his reign (A.D. 712-730s) saw Tang China reach the height of its powers. At the beginning, Xuanzong was a hardworking and diligent emperor. He made sweeping reforms to the bureaucracy, employed capable ministers, made contacts with foreign ambassadors as far west as the Middle East and greatly expanded China's borders. Xuanzong also greatly improved the empire's taxation system and transportation network. Arts and literature flourished as a result of his patronage. His administration began to deteriorate after his infamous love affair with Yang Guifei [apparently a classic femme fatale!]— the young wife of his son, Prince Shou. As Xuanzong became obsessed with pleasure-seeking with Yang, he paid less attention to the running of his empire, and much of his power fell into the hands of corrupt court officials and eunuchs. Compounding his problems, warlords from outlying provinces (many of which had been recently reconquered) took more regional power into their own hands. One of these — a Turkish/Sogdian named An Lushan — started the An Lushan Rebellion in Fanyang in 755. The rebels captured the city of Luoyang and the capital Chang'an six months later. Xuanzong fled to Sichuan during the war, and Yang Guifei was killed by the imperial army for her perceived role in the emperor's weakness and loss of control. Xuanzong then abdicated his position to Suzong, the heir apparent, in 756 and died in 762 shortly before the rebellion was finally quashed. His rule would be the longest of the Tang dynasty, lasting nearly 44 years. The strength that Xuanzong had allowed the warlords in the border provinces led to a period of increasing conflict and instability, which set the stage for the end of the Tang dynasty and the ensuing Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period." I enjoyed "my" summary until it reached the point of "my" affair with my daughter-in-law and the ensuing problems with those pesky warlords.
That oriental typecasting brings to mind another femme fatale of long-ago Hollywood, Anna May Wong. Her story is incredible, one of those strange but true tales that really only come out of America. Her mini-biography, by Jon C. Hopwood, is at the same time instructive, sad and fascinating. It is a somewhat lengthy read in a blog entry, but well worth the effort; a story not only of an incredible woman, but of the USA during a time of continuing prejudice as well as a short historical tract on how the oriental prejudice arrived in America. I include here an edited version (to read it in full, please visit - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0938923/bio). "Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California, to laundryman Wong Sam Sing and his wife, Lee Gon Toy. A third-generation American, she managed to have a substantial acting career during a deeply racist time when the taboo against miscegenation meant that Caucasian actresses were cast as "Oriental" women in lead parts opposite Caucasian leading men. Even when the role called for playing opposite a Caucasian in Asian drag, as with Paul Muni's appearance as the Chinese peasant Wang Lung in "The Good Earth," Wong was rejected as she did not fit a Caucasian's imagined ideal look for an Asian woman. The discrimination she faced in the domestic industry caused her to go to Europe for work in English and German films. Her name, which she also spelled Wong Lew Song, translates literally as "Second-Daughter Yellow Butterfly" but has been interpreted as "Frosted Yellow Willows." Her family gave her the English-language name Anna May. She was born in Flower Street in Los Angeles in an integrated neighborhood dominated by Irish and Germans, one block from Chinatown, where her father ran the Sam Kee Laundry.Located near a noxious gas plant and the L.A. River, Chinatown had been built on private property, so there were no sewers or running water. In 1900, the population of 2,111 was 90% male, since U.S. immigration law of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would not allow a Chinese woman to immigrate unless she was already married to a U.S. citizen. Nineteen Chinese had been lynched in a Los Angeles race riot instigated by Caucasians in 1871, and there were later, lesser riots in 1886 and 1887. Until the Chinese emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-19th century, they had never encountered a people who considered them racially and culturally inferior, nor been forced to deal with overt hostility by a people who considered themselves their racial superiors. Discriminated against in a way exceeded only by the racism directed towards African-Americans, their assimilation was impossible, so the Chinese in America bought property to create their own communities. Boxed out of the American culture, their ties to China remained important and, forbidden by law to intermarry with whites, there was little chance of assimilation in the world Wong Liu Tsong was born into. She was destined to be one of the people who helped change that, at a terrible psychological cost exacted upon her by both the oppressors and their victims. The Wong family moved back to Chinatown two years after Liu Tsong's birth, but in 1910 they uprooted themselves, moving to a nearby Figueroa Street neighborhood where they had Mexican and East European neighbors. There were two steep hills between the Wong's new home and Chinatown, but as her biographer, Colgate University history professor Graham Russell Gao Hodges points out, those hills put a psychological as well as physical distance between Liu Tsong and Chinatown. Los Angeles's Chinatown already was teeming with movie shoots when she was a girl. Liu Tsong would haunt the neighborhood nickelodeons, having become enraptured with the early "flickers." Though her traditional father strongly disapproved of his daughter's cinephilia, as it deflected her from scholastic pursuits, there was little he could do about it, as Liu Tsong was determined to be an actress. The film industry was in the midst of relocating from the East Coast to the West, and Hollywood was booming. Liu Tsong would haunt movie shoots as she had earlier haunted the nickelodeons. . . . Educated at a Chinese-language school in Chinatown, she would skip school to watch movie shoots in her neighborhood. She made tip money from delivering laundry for her father, which she spent on going to the movies. Her father, if he discovered she had gone to the movies during school hours, would spank her with a bamboo stick. Around the time she was nine years old, she began begging filmmakers for parts, behavior that got her dubbed "C.C.C." for "curious Chinese child." Liu Tsong's first film role was as an uncredited extra in Metro Pictures' "The Red Lantern" (1919) starring Alla Nazimova as a Eurasian woman who falls in love with an American missionary. The film included scenes shot in Chinatown. . . . Liu Tsong Americanized herself as "Anna May Wong" for the movie industry, though she would not receive an on-screen credit for another two years. . . . Due to her father's demands, she had an adult guardian at the studio, and she would be locked in her dressing room between scenes if she was the only Asian in the cast. . . . Wong played Toy Ling, the abused wife of Lon Chaney's character Chin Gow, which the Man of a Thousand Faces played in Chinese drag. . . . being cast in her first major role at the age of 17, the lead in "The Toll of the Sea" (1922). She played Lotus Flower in this adaptation of the opera "Madame Butterfly," which moved the action from Japan to China. . . . Most portrayals of Asian women were done by Caucasian actresses in "yellow-face," such as the 1915 movie version of "Madame Butterfly" starring "America's Sweetheart," Toronto, Canada-born Mary Pickford in the title role. In "The Toll of the Sea," Anna May Wong's character perpetuates the stereotype of the Asian "lotus blossom," a self-sacrificial woman who surrenders her life for the love of a Caucasian man. The film was a hit, and it showcased Wong in a preternaturally mature and restrained performance. This breakthrough should have launched Anna May Wong as a star, but for one thing: She was an ethnic Chinese in a country that excluded Chinese by law from immigrating to the U.S., that excluded Chinese from inter-marrying with Caucasians, and that generally excluded Chinese from the culture at large, except for bit roles as heavies in the national consciousness. . . . The 170-cm-tall (5'7", although other sources cite her height as 5'4½") beauty was known as the world's best-dressed woman and widely considered to have the loveliest hands in the cinema. Her big breakthrough after her auspicious start with "The Toll of the Sea" finally came when Douglas Fairbanks cast her in a supporting role as a treacherous Mongol slave in his Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights extravaganza "The Thief of Bagdad" (1924). The $2 million blockbuster production made her known to critics and the moviegoing public. For better or worse, a star, albeit of the stereotypical "Dragon Lady" type, was born. Despite her waxing fame, she was limited to supporting roles, as Caucasian actresses, including most improbably Myrna Loy, continued to be cast as Asian women in lead roles in the 1920s through the 1940s, despite the ready availability of Anna May Wong. She was unable to attract lead parts despite her beauty and proven acting talent, even in films featuring Asian women, but she did carve out a career as a supporting player in everything from A-list movies to two-reel comedies and serials. The characters she played typically were duplicitous or murderous vamps who often reaped the wages of their sin by being raped. . . . she told journalist Doris Mackie, "I was so tired of the parts I had to play. Why is it that the screen Chinese is aways the villain? And so crude a villain--murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass." The extent of anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S. was so deep that Hollywood usually typecast Wong, typically wearing form-fitting Chinese gowns, not specifically as an Asian but as an "exotic" foreigner. "American" hostility to the Chinese in America had existed almost from the start of their entry into the continental United States, with California targeting the Chinese in 1850 with a Foreign Miners' License Act that put a $20 tax on each "foreign" miner. (The Act was repealed a year later, as it had a deleterious effect on the mining industry by creating labor shortages.) As when the gold mines started sputtering out in California in the mid-1850s, when there was a general economic recession, opportunistic, racist politicians managed to divert the blame towards the Chinese. Chinese were blamed for taking away jobs from "Americans," immigrants from Europe who were as "foreign" as the Chinese they derided, but who had been enfranchised with the vote by political machines. Targeted by crowds of the working poor who were buffeted by the boom-and-bust business cycle of capitalist America, the Chinese were the victims of riots in California and in other western states and territories. The 1871 Los Angeles riot had left 19 Chinese dead, lynched in their own neighborhood, while crowds of Caucasians looted Chinatown of tens of thousands of dollars worth of their belongings and business assets. Most of the Chinese in America were located in San Francisco, and local and state authorities passed ordinances to harass them, many of which were subsequently declared unconstitutional by the courts. However, the California Supreme Court extended a statute that prohibited "negroes and Indians" from testifying against Caucasians in court to the Chinese, for the "logical" reason that in Christopher Columbus's time, Oriental countries were called "Indian." The U.S. and China signed a treaty in Burlingame, California, in 1868 that mandated that every Chinese citizen in the United States should enjoy the privileges enjoyed by American citizens in China, naturalization exempted. The Burlingame Treaty was met with a storm of protest in the western states and territories, with agitators denouncing it as a sellout of the American laborer. The U.S. subsequently entered into a treaty with China in 1880 that allowed it to exclude Chinese laborers, a treaty backed up by Congress when it passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. In this period, Mark Twain and Bret Harte created the genre known as "Chinatown fiction," full of a sing-song patois they created to approximate the pidgin English spoken by the Chinese in America. . . .Anna May Wong died of a massive heart attack on February 3, 1961, in Santa Monica, California, after a long struggle against Laennec's cirrhosis, a disease of the liver. She was 56 years old. (IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood) The full biography is much longer and fascinating as well. I urge you to visit the site and read it in full.
I recently watched a 1932 Charlie Chan movie, Charlie Chan at the Opera and it is as full of the racial stereotype as one could fear or wish. Yet the interesting thing in the movie is a 1932 early version of a fax-scanner, which is absolutely fascinating. If you can see this film, do not miss this "invention of the future."
Well, perhaps that is enough for now. I can think of many more observations on femmes fatales and the modern world, but I have already taxed my limit for one blog entry. I hope to return again in a special blog entry for Halloween. Please visit the poll at the bottom of the page. Until the next,
Leducdor

"Really? Is that what you are going to do?" [linked]

Akasha, Queen of the Damned (2002)

One is reminded that the Internecine Vampire Wars are in full swing out there in real life, not just in the movies, especially in the political and financial arenas. That all the participants are vampires is a given, that they are all hell-bent on destroying each other while maintaining a facade of cooperation for the cowlike masses is a tad less obvious. An example in point is the McCain/Palin team-up; I am betting that Sen. McCain is kicking himself in his quasi-republican ass just about now for listening to his advisers and picking Gov. Palin as his running mate. The lady is revealing herself, every day in every way, as a political land mine full of dangerous, even deadly, contradictions and extremist, zany zig-zags across the political landscape. It is pointless to repeat any of the many items cited about her, but it is revelatory to actually inform oneself about exactly who she is (NOT whom she presents herself to be) and what her stances are on various issues. Here are two sites that are quite informative, especially the second for an unbiased look at her POV: 1) Sarah Palin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin , and 2) Issues - http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm . There is also a very thoughtful article by Jay Rosen in the Huffington Post on the "Culture Wars", the GOPs strategy in backing the candidacy of Gov. Palin: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/the-culture-war-option-fo_b_123483.html . Take a look at all three, connect the information to what you may know about John McCain and decide if you really like the idea of this duo ruling the U.S.A. for the next four years. I certainly do not, but then that is already common knowledge if you have read this blog before now. The latest Palin manoeuvre, that of she, her husband and her staff simply deciding to ignore and not cooperate with subpoenas issued in conjunction with the Alaskan political snowstorm of her firing a state trooper (her ex-brother-in-law, by the way) is simply jaw-droppingly incredible. A state governor (governess is not quite right, implying care for children) and candidate for the Vice-Presidency simply ignoring the rule of law - what a concept! Elect this woman to the 2nd highest office in the country? I think not. She is not only staking her party, her running-mate and the rule of law through their hearts, but the voting electorate as well.
On the financial vampire front, there is the now-infamous $700 billion dollar bailout that the government wants the people to pay to the largest, most corrupt group of institutions and individuals in the entire world. I heard a wonderful quote from Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D-Montana : " This is the powerful giving money to the rich." I am perfectly aware that the idea of letting all of these corporate vampires go down in flames (see the video linked to the title bar) is an horrendous idea to the public at large, not because the public has any sympathy for them but because the spectre of worldwide financial chaos and depression looms behind it like an horrible repetition of 1929. On top of which, if letting things crash and sort themselves out, for which I believe the big boys should take responsibility, were to be the outcome, the rich and the super-rich would not really be that affected, they would continue to live in a shimmering sphere of privilege and decadence just as the remaining rich did post-1929. Think of the 1930 nightclub image and you have the picture exactly - Apple Annie outside the door of the Stork Club, huddled in rags, as the tuxedoed and begowned vampires pass to and fro. Jesus wept, but I sincerely hope that the people will do more than weep, that they will protest and howl to such a degree of fervor that the politicians will have to think twice. I decided to try and reduce that $700 billion figure to a concept that is more understandable - if you spent $1000 dollars an hour, 24 hrs a day, it would take you 79,908.67 years to spend $700B. Eighty thousand years to spend that amount of money - again, what a concept. And they blithely toss out figures in the TRILLIONS for the American national debt. From where do these ideas come, that such sums and figures make sense, that they can be grasped, that they can be PAID? Living on the very last millimeter of the brink of the abyss, people, the very last millimeter.
In a small update to the Zimbabwean financial situation, I see that Zimbabwe (where the vampire Robert Mugabe reigns in becoffined splendor) has replaced the $10 Trillion dollar note (the picture is of a much smaller note, only $10 million) with a $10 note, simply knocking off the zeros. With a rate of inflation of 11.5 Million %, I suppose they do not have much choice - you can only put so many zeros on a banknote before you have no more room. In that same spirit, why doesn't G.W. Bush simply announce that from now on, the USA is going to knock off zeros as well, and the national debt will grow from $7.50 to $14.00 in the immediate future due to his bailout plan? Oh yes, indeed, the insane are waltzing in the marbled halls of Washington, D.C. to the strains of "Night on Bald Mountain." In the same diabolical vein, I read this: "KINSHASA, Congo (AP) -- Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a U.N.-funded radio station reported Monday." Now, cultural differences aside, does anyone really wonder why the terms "backward" and "ignorant" are used in reference to some African situations? Not that religious snake-handling, polygamist cults and the superstitious awe of money on Rodeo Drive are any better, mind you, it is simply that it seems bizarre to read of witch riots in the Congo and witch burnings in Kenya (yes, still happening), all of which makes one think that there has actually been no progress at all since the Humanist days of the Renaissance. Which, of course, was tossed out the window when the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition and all the rest sprang into malodorous bloom, extinguishing the brief flare of Light in the eternal human darkness.
Spending money is something of a concern for me lately as I am finally having my teeth extracted in preparation for dentures. I am lisping these days like a FOX news anchorperson and, speaking French, it does not help a great deal. I find speaking English to be less lisp-prone than French but that option is very limited here in the DHOSF. To be truthful, our dentist is a highly capable and gentle man and I have experienced no pain during the extractions - but afterwards, when the anaesthetic wears off, well, let me say I am very glad for the pharmacy next door to our apartment building. Once again I shall beat the drum for the French healthcare system (#1 in the world) where, even though I am not a French citizen, I am fully covered because my wife is French, therefore my prescriptions are free and all of this dental care will cost me a mere fraction of what it would cost in the USA. Yes, yes, there are many problems with a socialized state medical system, but when you are paying the bills, you are indeed very glad that it is there. On the subject of personal health, I recently recovered from something very odd - fat feet. For whatever reason, my feet had swollen with oedema until they resembled Alsatian sausages. As I stated in a previous blog, Fang Wong, our upstairs neighbor, concocted a homeopathic remedy, hamamelis composé, an extract of witch hazel, to help with the problem which it did, to a certain degree, but not entirely. I suspected it was an onset of that peculiar Tudoresque condition of gout, but there was no pain. Then, when the extractions began, the condition entirely disappeared overnight, leaving me to bemused meditation on the connection between decaying and genetically insufficient teeth and podiatric health. I suppose that the connection is in the same vein (horrible pun) as the connection between earlobes and other bodily parts and in general the art of acupuncture. I tried a course of acupuncture once at a Chinese clinic in the USA and was quite dubious about its efficacy when the diagnosis of my general state of health was conducted entirely by looking at my tongue. Those of my readers who actually know me may imagine my mental comments on that form of diagnostics. There followed several sessions of laying on a table, stuck full of long, gaily decorated needles looking like some exotic form of porcupine for twenty to thirty minutes at a time. After several rather pricey sessions of this "guess what I'm going to stick next?" treatment, apparently my tongue was looking much better but, sad to say, I felt no appreciable difference, so I stopped treatment and took up again with the invasive, cruel and barbaric practices of Western medical techniques, for which I am endlessly thankful.
Constructing a link between Western medicine and Western science, I notice that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, (Geneva, Switzerland) raised itself up in much publicity and ballyhoo for its trial run a short time ago, and like one of the Acme gadgets in a Wiley E. Coyote & Roadrunner cartoon, promptly fizzled out. This was explained as being due to a "broken part." What leading light of the particle physics community came up with that brilliant, succinct explanation? This was later clarified to state that the broken part had resulted in a hydrogen leak. Again - ??? Apparently they are looking for the Higgs-Boson particle, sometimes called the God particle, a mysterious subatomic entity that gives mass to every other particle in the universe. At any rate, it seemed God did not want His particle to be revealed before a gaping crowd of the scientifically vampiric prurient, thus the "broken part." You have to love His sense of humor - disabling the scientific paparazzi by pulling out a few wires on their giant Vespa scooter. The latest update is that the LHC will not be ready to try again until the late spring of 2009. Um hmm, we shall see.
Remaining in the realm of the metaphysical, divine, what-have-you, I have received several visits from the SpiderWoman spirit in the last month or so, much to my surprise. If you are unfamiliar with the SpiderWoman spirit, look her up on the Web (ahaha - my unintended puns are worse than usual this time around). She is a figure from Southwestern American Indian mythology, a mother goddess, a creatrix of all that is and her emissaries are, naturally, spiders. I noticed this one day when in the course of normal web-browsing, I was startled, but not fearfully so, by the sudden image of a small troupe of small black spiders scurrying over my desktop, the keyboard and my hand. I was not frightened as I knew they were not there yet the image was quite distinct and in general I am not used to visits from female deities, other than Devi. Why SpiderWoman chose to visit is still a mystery, and as she has visited twice since that original apparition, I presume she has something to tell me that I have as yet to grasp. She is, of course, welcome in our home, and I shall continue to pay particular attention to her visitations (that sounds a bit like the Virgin's image on a tortilla, but I cannot help that).
Writing of female deities, Devi and I are enjoying a particular period of harmony and calm in our marriage. We normally do, of course, both of us being averse to drama, upset and contention in our marriage, but recently it has been more harmonious even than usual. For an unfathomable reason, Devi enjoys it when I sing to her - I say unfathomable because I am not noted for my singing skills, although my voice has improved with age and I myself am a bit pleased that I can carry a tune and follow a lyric. We continue in our normal, habitual way together and I do not share the opinion of many who declare that habit is the death of a relationship, I find it to be quite the opposite. That, of course, has a great deal to do with the fact that we are satisfied with what we have with each other and are not restless, dismayed or unfulfilled, writhing in the grip of dissatisfaction and disaffection. After 50-odd years of bachelorhood, having a woman who enjoys cooking on a daily basis and thoughtfully considering my needs and desires as well as her own continues to be a delight (as I do for her, I devoutly hope). She calls her cooking "simple French country cuisine," which it is, but for me it is a gesture of love as well as a healthy regime. Perhaps once a month she may order a pizza but that is simply to gratify my Americanism, as she does not enjoy it very much. If I want the exotic, I generally do that myself, such as Camelhump Roast, a Moroccan speciality that is quite tasty. Take one camel hump (Arabian racing camel is preferred, although one can use mid-Asian Bactrian two-hump if necessary, which can be handy if you are feeding a larger party) and secure with cooking twine as if securing a pork roast. Set hump on a large piece of aluminum foil, and proceed to shove as many deseeded dates as possible under the twine, next to the depelted flesh of the hump. Bring the foil up to cup the hump, and cover any remaining open areas with more dates. Cup the foil even closer and pour in a generous amount of honey, being sure to coat the entire hump. Sprinkle 1 tsp of ground cardamom over the honey, then 1 tsp of Ras-el-Hanout, a pinch of salt, then close the foil envelope being sure to seal quite tightly. Place in a roasting pan and cook for one hr at setting 7 (220C° - 425F°), no longer. Remove from oven, vent foil VERY slightly, let sit 15 minutes. Transfer to platter, sprinkle with blanched, crushed almonds, surround with the roasted dates and serve, preferably with French green beans and Moroccan bread. If camel hump is unavailable where you reside (which is a shame, speak to your butcher), then substitute a large-ish pork roast, but it is just not the same. I have it on good authority that the Czech ambassador who died in the recent bombing of the Islamabad Marriott was eating Camelhump Roast just before the tragedy. As in all such bombings, this was another exercise in cruelty, barbarism and hate that serves no good purpose other than to fan the flames of racial and religious bigotry and extremism. I simply cannot enter the mindset of someone who straps on a 40 kg vest of explosives, or sits in a car carrying hundreds of pounds of it, and proceeds to suicide/murder in the hope that this act will somehow further eventual peace and tranquility after the "foreign devils" are driven away, on top of which they generally end up killing their own population rather than said foreign devils. On a side note, if I were the Marriott people, I would certainly consider simply writing off Islamabad and not rebuilding - whatever for, after all, when it will just be a target once more?
My Tarot card for today's meditation is the High Priestess. Here is the rundown as given on a typical Tarot site or in a book: "Dont do anything impulsive. Drawing the High Priestess encourages you to put reflection ahead of action, to look within yourself to identify your deep-seated motives. There's no better time to see things clearly and take good decisions, for your mental health as well as in practical terms. What fuel does your engine need to run most efficiently, dear friend? What emotional input do you need to get the best from your love life? Take the time to ask yourself such vital questions this Thursday, even if you can't answer them at once. Its important to stop for a while to take stock of whats going on inside." So thus shall I do for the remainder of the day, as it is a good time to reflect and consider exactly the things I am counseled to consider. I counsel you to do the same. Please visit the poll at the bottom of the page, and until the next,
Leducdor