Wednesday, June 30, 2010

It turns out smoking is bad for you




Well, Christopher Hitchens is undergoing chemotherapy. Announced on the Vanity Fair website:

I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.


From a recent interview in USA Today:

Q: We're here outside on a sidewalk because you needed a cigarette. Have you tried to stop smoking?
A: I gave it up for two years, but I think it's a boring subject. I went back when I was trying to finish this book. I figured one cigarette isn't going to kill me, which is stupid.


I hope to heck he pulls through.

I understand what he means when he says it's a boring subject. There have been movies made about drug addiction, alcoholism, and none of them have ever interested me. Individuals go through terrible struggles with addiction--it's a life and death battle--but it doesn't make for compelling viewing or reading.

The thing that always got me was the image of the hipsters. There were radicals, beatniks and so forth. There was Serge Gainsbourg always smoking a cigarette. Then you look at the rich, conservative scum running the tobacco companies. Which image fits better with the product?

In the '60s, I remember William Talsman's public service announcements made as he lost his fight with lung cancer. Perry Mason had an original cast of five of whom three died of smoking-related illness. And at least two were gay.

There were lots more. I had a "funny" calender someone gave me. For each day of the year, it gave the anniversary of a celebrity death. Gave the cause of death for each. I don't remember who gave it to me and why they thought I would be amused by it. I don't know what the precise numbers were, but looking through it, it was shocking how many died from smoking-related illness. Seemed like it probably a third of them.

Ayn Rand dooms her followers to death


There were William Talsman and Yul Brenner who tried to warn people.

And then there was Ayn Rand. She smoked like a chimney. She had an interest in architecture and visited Frank Lloyd Wright in his studio. Wright found her so offensive that he banned smoking in his studio which was unusual back then.

Rand believed that health warnings about smoking were all part of an anti-capitalist conspiracy, so she smoked all the more. Stupid bitch. Her followers smoked, too. It was part of their thing. They said something about the light of the cigarette symbolizing the light of....I don't know, enlightenment or something. She was leader of an organized cult in which her followers tried to imitate her in every way.

Rand got lung cancer. She was successfully treated for it, apparently. People close to her asked her to let people know about it. It could save the lives of her idiot followers who started smoking to be like her. She refused. Which, I suppose, was in keeping with her "philosophy".

Rand's "philosophy"

The title of one of her "philosophical" works was The Virtue of Selfishness. She thought that being rational was good and being irrational was "evil". And only selfishness was rational, so "altruism" was, therefore, "evil".

Her first novel was about an architect who blows up the building he designs because he doesn't like how it looks.

But before that she was working on a novel she was going to call The Little Street, based on child killer William Edward Hickman. Hickman kidnapped a girl, demanded a ransom for her. The family paid the ransom and Hickman delivered the girl's dismembered, butchered body. I won't go into it, but the mutilation was actually worse than the Black Dahlia case. Rand regarded Hickman as a Nietzschean ubermensch. She described the character in her novel as having "the true, innate psychology of a Superman".

Rand said, "The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal..."

Um. Worse sins and crimes? Like what?

Rand couldn't stand the idea of "average" people judging her Superman Hickman. She discussed the jury in her journal:

Average, everyday, rather stupid looking citizens. Shabbily dressed, dried, worn looking little men. Fat, overdressed, very average, 'dignified' housewives. How can they decide the fate of that boy? Or anyone's fate?


Look at Rand's philosophy. The worst, most vile interpretation of it turns out to be the correct one.

Are teenagers Nietzschean by nature?


Here's one thing I found interesting. Rand's followers were all people who read her books as teenagers.

Adults who read her books usually just wonder what the hell her problem was, why she despised ordinary people. But apparently teenagers really go for that sort of thing.

Look at Harry Potter. You'd think it would have been enough for a kid to discover that he was a wizard. But no. He had to be king of the wizards. He had to find out he was a celebrity wizard and he was locked in a battle of good against evil.

I heard on This American Life on public radio, some Zionist idiot. He kept a diary as a teenager. As he wrote it, he imagined that someday his diary would be read by Jewish youth everywhere who would see him as an inspiration after he became leader of Israel. He said he couldn't understand how his parents could stand living ordinary lives without power over other people.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Indian Printed Designer Saree

Indian Printed Designer SareePhotoshop art of Indian Model posing in Printed Designer Saree

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
~ Victor Hugo

Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.
~ Jean Cocteau

...where music dwells
Lingering - and wandering on as loth to die...
~ William Wordsworth, "Within King's College Chapel, Cambridge

Any great work of art... revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world - the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.
~ Leonard Bernstein, What Makes Opera Grand?

Game Wallpaper - Soulcalibur 3

Game Wallpaper - Soulcalibur 3Game Wallpaper - Soulcalibur 3

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

All photos are accurate. None of them is the truth.
~ Richard Avedon

The camera cannot lie, but it can be an accessory to untruth.
~ Harold Evans, "Pictures on a Page"

You don't take a photograph, you make it.
~ Ansel Adams

Art is when you hear a knocking from your soul - and you answer.
~ Star Rich?s

Phil Spector


Kenneth Anger, Martin Scorsese, and all that pop music in movies

Kenneth Anger brags that he was the one to blame for all the pop music in movies these days. He would put pop songs on the soundtracks to his art movies. I'm not sure---I think he even paid to use them. He started the trend. I can see how a devil-worshiper would be proud of that.

Martin Scorsese said that, in film school, they were repeatedly warned not to use pop music in their movies. You can't do it! You can't get the rights! Then he saw Kenneth Anger's art movies and realized that was crap and started using pop music, I guess in student films.

Well, some new details are emerging.

There's new a documentary about that repellent little puke, Phil Spector, now rotting in prison for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

In 1973, John Lennon phoned Spector and told him to come to the studio. "Someone's ripped you off, Phil."

At the studio, they showed him Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, which apparently contained a song called "Be My Baby" that Spector owned.

Spector called his lawyers and told them to "kill it."

Scorsese had inexplicably used the music without permission.

For some reason, John Lennon convinced Spector not to seek an injunction to pull the movie from theaters.

That's an anecdote from The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector.

At least, it's an anecdote from a REVIEW of The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector, a documentary based on long interviews with Spector between murder trials. I haven't seen the movie and I'm not likely to.

Ironically, the documentary itself plays a number of tunes in their entirety without Spector's permission.

Other reviews

The review in Jewish Week, perhaps not surprisingly, dismisses Lana Clarkson as a "fading B movie actress" and portrays Spector as the real victim. "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector," it said, "is a compelling portrait of a Jewish-American artist foundering on the shoals of his own self-willed isolation, which is itself compounded by social realities that have wounded better people than Spector."

On the other hand, Prairie Miller, on News Blaze, wrote:
Sitting beside the white piano where he worked with John Lennon on Imagine, Spector rants against a jury he claims 'all voted for Bush' and viewed him as either guilty or insane, while intimating that he can't get a fair trial because of his outcast status within the music industry...

...whether sitting in court with extravagantly wigged head bowed like a kid berated for being caught stuffing his hand in a cookie jar, or rambling on back home with wild eyed tales, Spector comes across as an immature child stuck long ago in traumatized arrested development (not to mention deeply retro, frozen in time favored mod attire) who doesn't seem to understand the consequences of his acts, and at the same time a conversely wrinkled old gnome....

From a review in Variety:
But the most original contribution to The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector is surely the quasi-Godardian juxtaposition of silent-running trial footage -- complete with diagrams, videotapes, displays of bullet trajectories and blood spatters -- with signature lush orchestrations of Spector's music, as one familiar tune after another, playing out in its entirety, trumpets his artistry. Effusive quotes by Mick Brown, enumerating each song's peculiar brilliancies, are displayed onscreen.


Mick Brown, by the way, wrote another article about Spector during the first trial:

Spector's prevailing mood seemed to be one of indignation that he should be on trial at all. From the moment of his arrest, he had displayed a marked lack of remorse, or even sympathy for the victim. A transcript of Spector's angry and frequerntly incoherent ramblings in the Alhambra police station, which was not heard in court, has him describing Clarkson as "a piece of s---. And I don't know what her f---ing problem was, but she certainly had no right to come my f---ing castle, blow her f---ing head and [indecipherable] a murder."


I'm glad that little bastard is in prison. And I'm glad another inmate knocked a couple of his teeth out in the prison yard.

Patiyala Style Churidar Dress

Patiyala Style Churidar DressIndian Model posing in Patiyala Style Churidar Dress.

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

The question of common sense is always what is it good for? - a question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by the cabbage.
~ James Russell Lowell

The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven't got the joke yet.
~ Oliver Herford

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
~ Aristotle

What we provide is an atmosphere... of orchestrated pulse which works on people in a subliminal way. Under its influence I've seen shy debs and severe dowagers kick off their shoes and raise some wholesome hell.
~ Meyer Davis, about his orchestra

Soulcalibur 3 - Game Wallpaper

Soulcalibur 3 - Game WallpaperSoulcalibur 3 - Game Wallpaper

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop.
~ Usman B. Asif

He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once.
~ Robert Browning

While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies in a reality that is felt.
~ Odilon Redon

You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow.
~ Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket

Saturday, June 26, 2010

"The Potawatomis didn't have a word for global business center"?


I was waiting for my connecting flight at Chicago O'Hare, and spotted this advertisement on the opposite side of our gate. Close up on the text:

It reads:
"Chicago is the Potawatomi word for onion field. Apparently, the Potawatomis didn't have a word for global business center."
This is an example of the use of Indigenous language and imagery that many people wouldn't think twice about, or find any inherent issues with. But let's look at this a little deeper:
  •  The use of past tense. It's not "The Potawatomis don't have a word for..." it's "The Potawatomis didn't..." Implying that the Potawatomi no longer exist or are using their language. 
  • The implication that "Indians" and "Global Business Center" aren't in congruence. Which is assuming that Natives are static, unchanging, and unable to be modern and contemporary. "Potawatomi" and "Onion Field" are fine together, because American society associates Indians with the natural world, plants, animals, etc. But there is definitely not an association between "Potawatomi" and "Global Business". 
But, in reality, of course Potawotomis still exist today, are still speaking their language, and do have a word for Global Business Center (or multiple words...).

Language is constantly evolving, adapting to new technology (remember when google wasn't a verb?) and community changes.  I remember reading a long time ago in one of my Native studies classes about the Navajo Nation convening a committee to discuss how one would say things like "computer" or "ipod" in Navajo language, in an effort to preserve language and culture and promote the use of Navajo language among the younger generation.

In fact, here's an awesome video of a guy describing his ipod in Navajo, complete with concepts like "downloading" (there are subtitles/translations):




To imply that Native peoples wouldn't have the ability to describe a "Global Business Center" reeks of a colonialist perspective (we must "civilize" the savage! show him the ways of capitalism and personal property, for they know not of society!). Native peoples have been trading and communicating "globally" for centuries, long before the arrival of Europeans.

Thanks, Chicago, for giving me one more reason to strongly dislike your airport, because all the canceled flights, lost luggage, overnights in airport hotels, and 10 hour delays (all true stories) weren't enough.


(Thanks to Hillary for taking the picture, since my sidekick pales in comparison to the iphone)

I started to watch War of the Worlds


It was on TV.

But I couldn't stand watching Tom Cruise.

He didn't write it. I assume he's just doing what the script and the director tell him to do. Why is he the same in everything?

He's like Dr. Laura or Judge Judy. I can't stand them for more than about two seconds.

I know I'm not the only one. A USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that he's the celebrity people would least like as a best friend.

Okay, so what celebrity would I want as a best friend?

Probably Alan Hale, Jr.

I don't know if I can think of any current celebrities I'd want as a "best friend".

Michael Jackson Memorabilia Hit Jackpot at Anniversary

Michael Jackson's memorabilia fetched surprising prices at an auction to mark the pop icon's first death anniversary.

The big sale of clothing, documents, and furniture in Las Vegas has only just started and already experts at Julien's Auctions have been left staggered by the huge amounts the items are fetching, reported Contactmusic.

A custom-made jacket, which was expected to go for $8,000, sold for a whopping $120,000, while an autograph the late pop superstar gave to a fan the day before he died fetched $21,000. That was 26 times more than its estimate!

Michael Jackson's signed white fedora hat, which was expected to go for $3,000 was sold for $56,250!

Robert Pattinson Hit By Taxi Cab | Video

'Twilight: Eclipse' star Robert Pattinson was recently grazed by a taxi cab while trying to escape his screaming fans, but the British actor claims that he is not afraid of the attention.

The 23-year-old actor who was named the Sexiest Man on the Planet by Heat magazine said that he was not afraid of the new tag or the increased adulation, reported Ace Showbiz.

I'm not really afraid of it though because I don't really know how to play up that aspect of it. I don't know if I could ever really be cast in a heartthrob role really -- apart from Twilight, which I didn't really know was a heartthrob role. I really don't feel I am one,
he told the magazine.

Check out the video clip below -- Edward takes Bella to Jacob, and notices his lack of a shirt in this scene from "Twilight: Eclipse."

Tattoo - Does it hurt?

Here's someone who should never have gone for a tattoo!!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Cinemania


A documentary about obsessive movie fans in New York

There but for the grace of God go I.

Watched the documentary Cinemania, about a handful of people in New York City with an obsessive interest in film.

They didn't want to make movies. They didn't want to write about movies, either as critics or as theorists. They just wanted to watch them. Several a day.

One was a kindly-looking old woman who became fascinated with movies in 1950. She wanted to see movies from every country. But she was a rather nasty person who would occasionally attack people and try to strangle them. She attacked a ticket taker at the Museum of Modern Art, tried to strangle her and called her "evil" because she tore her ticket in half and gave her the stub. She was barred from that theater. So she put on a wig and make-up and tried to sneak in. Security threw her out. She was shocked that it didn't work.

Another one joined an on-line dating website. For his profile, he wrote an extremely long explanation of what kind of movies he liked.

Bridgitte et Bridgitte

It made me think of Luc Moullet's movie, Brigitte et Brigitte. The two Brigittes take a film class. It becomes sort of a parody of the French New Wave. One Brigitte interviews a cineaste who says his greatest ambition is to "die while watching a movie."

The people in Cinemania were eccentric but not amusing. One wanted a cell phone so he could call the projection booth and tell them when it was out of focus or if he imagined there was some other problem.

These people lived horrible lives. One lived on an inheritance. Others were on disability and one was collecting unemployment which was about to run out.

But then again...

Jon Jost argued that movies were "brutalizing". They're about people who are richer than you, better-looking than you and lead more interesting lives than you. Makes you feel bad about your own life. Jost was probably right to some degree.

Well, this movie is a pretty good antidote to that. You don't walk away feeling inferior to the people on screen.

On the other hand, the eccentrics in it seemed happy enough with their lives. They weren't, as Jost imagined, wishing they could be the characters in the movies.

Now that I think about it, maybe my judgment of them is the result of watching too many movies.

It's like when PBS put on that cinema verite show about the Loud family. Critics viciously attacked the poor family essentally for being actual human beings and not fictional TV characters.

Perhaps I was judging the weirdos in this movie as movie characters, not as people.

Anyway, it should make people who watch a lot of TV feel better about it.

Wisconsin Bans Indian Mascots!


As of this week, schools in Wisconsin using race-based mascots can be fined up to $1,000 a day. This law has been a long time coming, the first form of it was presented to the state over 30 years ago. The way the law works is that parties can submit complaints to the state, and after a hearing, if the school is found to be in violation, they can face fines of up to $1,000 per day if they continue to use the image and name.

This is awesome news, and I can only hope that this is signaling a change that many other states will follow! Yay Wisconsin!

Read the whole article here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127987743

AK Programming note: I thought this was a fitting time to talk about Wisconsin, since I'm actually at the airport, en route to Wisconsin. I'm headed to Lawrence University, which is hosting College Horizons, an incredible program for Native high school students to learn about the college application process. I'm an alum of the program, and this is my third time returning as faculty. If you know of any Native high schoolers, encourage them to apply for next summer! They also host a graduate school version called Graduate Horizons for those of you a bit older. Seriously one of the best programs for Native students out there. 

(Thanks Mom and Katie for sending the article!)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Savage, Farting Maoris and "The Wives of Henry Oades"


As I was scanning the pile of new releases at the local library, my eye caught a line on the back of a book called "The Wives of Henry Oades." The paragraph ended with: "...the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children."

You knew that book was coming home with me.


Quick synopsis (taken from the back and online reviews, I didn't get past page 40 as you'll soon see): Book takes place in the late 1800's. Husband gets a kick ass job in colonial New Zealand, moves wife and kids to Wellington. Maori come and kidnap wife and kids, burn down house, make them slaves. Husband thinks family is dead, eventually moves to San Fran, finds new wife, has more kids. 16 years later, old wife and (remaining) kids show up in SF. Hilarity ensues! Well, a court case for bigamy ensues. THE END.

Awesome plotline, yes? The best part is it's based on a "true" story! well, the author thought it was true, until it got debunked as a load of bull. oops. More on that later.

So. The first 35 pages of the book are filled with the description of the journey over, on a boat, then establishing their life in NZ, ect. Then, out of nowhere, Henry (the patriarch) mentions at dinner that they publicly flogged a Maori boy in the square that day. And, oh eff, they found out he's a royal. "There's bound to be trouble." dun dun duuuun.

And trouble there is. The Maori, out of the blue, decide that this random family, that had nothing to do with the flogging of the kid, but happen to be white and work for the governor, would be a great way to enact revenge. So they attack. Ready? Here's the description of the kidnapping:
"The Maori filled the room, brandishing rifles and whips, a hideous tattooed four, with mouths yawning wide, tongues wagging obscenely" (pg 41)
"Margaret bent and scooped up Mary, in the next instant the baby was snatched from her arms and stuffed inside a flax sack. She fell on the sweating creature, clawing, drawing blood. He shoved her off...Margaret shrieked, searing her throat, "Please God! My baby!" (pg 41)
There's plenty more. But note the vocab: "hideous"? "creature"? and the stereotypical weak white woman at the hands of a blood-thirsty savage crying "Please God! My baby!"? Really original.

So the Maori stuff the twin babies in sacks, kill the family dogs, literally hog-tie the neighbor's son, light the house on fire, burning the neighbor woman to death, and then force Margaret and her two older kids to walk for like a bazillion miles. There are even graphic details of them "wetting" themselves. Thanks, for that.

Along the march, the Maori are only referred to as "savages," or "brutes". "The lead savage," "A savage in the rear," "the brute ahead turned and glared" (pg 45).

When they arrive at the Maori village, the response of the villagers is described as "rapturous barking and shouting" (pg 47, emphasis mine). Barking. like dogs.

And when I decided to stop reading was when Margaret is begging for water, and the old Maori woman who is "guarding" them farts in response. farts. (pg 48)

I flipped through the rest of the book, looking to see if anything changed later on. It doesn't. Eventually the family escapes because they contract smallpox and the village throws them out so they don't infect everyone.

To break up all that text, and before I delve into the analysis, here's a picture of the author who wrote those passages:

Hi Johanna Moran. Thanks for contributing to the continuing stereotypes of Native people!

My analysis:

Initial thoughts: yes, this is historical fiction--so presumably, perhaps, this is the lens through which a colonial white woman would see the Indigenous people, since her society has trained her to see them as "savages" in need of "civilization," or why else would it be okay that she and her family were there? That's the whole argument for colonization.

But, my deepest issues are the one-sidedness of the portrayals of the Maori. The family is "enslaved" by the Maori for a long time, like years and years, yet even until the day they "escape," Margaret never refers to them by name, never uses a positive adjective to describe the village, and continues to see their ways as completely backwards. There is absolutely no nuance in the portrayal. They are savage, through and through. The one act of compassion in the whole ordeal is when the Maori let her run away rather than be shot with the other small pox victims, but it is to their own benefit, because Margaret has been helping with births in the village, and they fear retribution from the gods in the form of harm to their babies.

It's not like there wasn't opportunity to provide an alternate view, the narration in the novel switches several times, from Margaret, to her husband, to the new wife in Berkeley, ect. Moran just chose not to include an additional perspective.

I would still be mad if this were based on the words of the actual Margaret Oades, who this supposedly happened to, but as I mentioned before, the story came out as a complete hoax. So this is the complete and total fabrication of the author, who was not bound by any "fact" in her descriptions and characters.

It wouldn't have taken away from the story, in fact, I think it would have added a little depth. There's no plot-related reason to portray the Indigenous people as solely savage, from what I could see anyway.

This book was published this year. In 2010. And it's still deemed acceptable to have Little House on the Prairie-like  savages. "The Wives of Henry Oades" is touted as a great book club read, and I cringe at the thought of people sitting around discussing the ruthless Maori and how they effed everything up.

Maybe I'll give these fictitious people the benefit of the doubt and picture them talking through the stereotypes and wondering if Moran could have done better. Perhaps they'll use it as a teaching moment? Maybe?

But more than likely people will read the book without a second thought, and tuck those images of blood-thirsty baby-killing Indigenous Peoples away, to be pulled out next time they read an article, encounter an image, or hear about contemporary Native people. I don't see many mainstream book-club novels with accurate, contemporary portrayals of Natives being published lately, so this is all they've got to work with.

So, for her horribly stereotypical "savages" I give Johanna Moran's "The Wives of Henry Oades" two big 'ol thumbs down.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Lord Shiva Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra

Hindu God Lord Shiva - Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra
Lord Shiva Maha Mrityunjaya MantraShiva is one of the Hindu trinity that comprises the creator Brahma, the protector Mahavishnu, and the godhead Shiva whose primary responsibility is maintaining the life cycle. Shiva is the only godhead who is forever in deep meditation, totally absorbed in contemplation in His abode, Kailaasa mountain in the great Himaalaya.

Shiva is an ascetic and several religious stories and dramas portray that all attempts to distract Him from that principal pursuit through temptations always ended up with disaster for those initiating such an effort. Thus Kaama, the Lord of Desires, who tried such a distraction was burned alive through the fire when Shiva opened His third eye.

On the other hand Shiva is all compassion when it came to saving the world from the serpent Vaasuki’s poison during the amritamanthana. Vaasuki, used as a churning rope, was so tired and sick from the repeated action of churning that he vomited the most potent poison into the ocean of milk.

Fearing the destruction of the world through this poisoning, Shiva immediately drank the poison. He Himself would have succumbed to the poison were it not for the timely intervention by Paarvati, His consort. Paarvati held Shiva’s throat tightly preventing entry of the poison into His body.

Shiva Mantra

II Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra II
Om Tryambakam yajamahe
Sugandhim pushti-vardhanam
Urvarukamiva bandhanan
Mrityor mukshiya mamritat

This is a very powerful chant dedicated to Lord Shiva. This mantra is believed to be the death conquering mantra and is found in the Rig Veda. The mantra is sometimes also referred to as the Mrita-Sanjivini mantra as it has the power to restore life in a dying person. In this potent mantra the lord is referred to as the three eyed god. It is a plea to him to restore life in the dying body. Worshipping the lord will liberate one from death just like the ripe cucumber is separated from the binding stalk.

Interesting posts

Krishna Mantras | Lord Krishna Wallpapers Pictures
Hanuman Mantra | Lord Hanuman Wallpapers Pictures
Lord Brahma photo | Hindu God Brahma
Kali Mantra | Ma Kaali Mantra | Goddess Kali Maa Wallpapers Pictures
Lord Shiva - Shankar Bhagawan
Vishnu Mantra | Lord Vishnu Wallpapers Pictures
Goddess Durga Mantras
Lord Brahma Mantras
Mantra of Goddess Sarasvati, Maa Saraswati Mantras, Goddess Saraswathi Mantras
Diwali (Deepawali) Festival of Light
History of Sabarimala Temple
Navratri Festival, Navratri Greetings, Navratri Wallpapers
Lord Kubera Mantras | Mantra of Hindu God of Wealth Kuber
Lord Rama avatar photo

Indian Model in Designer Saree Digital Sketch

Indian Model in Designer Saree Digital SketchIndian Model in Designer Saree Digital Sketch

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.
~ Claes Oldenburg

Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music.
~ Ezra Pound

Science is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon eternal truths. Art is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon things beautiful and immortal and ever-changing. To morals belong the lower and less intellectual spheres.
~ Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist, 1891

There will be times when you will be in the field without a camera. And, you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed. Don't be bitter because you can't record it. Sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is!
~ DeGriff

Monday, June 21, 2010

Between Pageantry and Poverty: Representing Ourselves

"It often seems as if America has only two frames through which to view its Native culture: ceremony and pageantry or poverty and addiction."

The New York Times has an incredible slide show on the web of photographs by Adam Sings In The Timber, a member of the Crow Nation in Montana. The above quote is so powerful and so true, and Adam says that his work seeks to fill in the space between the extremes, to show that the members of his Nation are so much more than the stereotypes that abound. He says,
“The rhythm of life on the reservation isn’t that much different from the rest of the country, just on a smaller scale.We have those who live in poverty and those who are upper middle class. The real difference is that we also have our identities as Crows. Those identities stem from our tribe’s culture, language and history.”
The article points out that people just want to see dramatic images, not the "common bonds of normalcy." Sings In The Timber does an amazing job at striking the balance. Here are some of the images, definitely check out the whole slide show here, and his website here.


(all images (c) Adam Sings In The Timber and can be found here)

I actually really struggled with putting up my post on Thursday about the sexualization of Native women, with the heartbreaking statistics and the film from Current TV. I struggled, because clearly those issues are so incredibly important and need to be brought to the forefront, but at the same time, it continues the process of otherization and helplessness that are so often associated with images of Indigenous Peoples from around the world and in the US.

I worry about feeding those stereotypes and creating a cycle that has been discussed at length by scholars studying the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa--how powerful images of suffering meant to stir viewers to action actually create the opposite affect:
[This type of photography] hinges on the assumption that images of suffering can invoke compassion in viewers, and that this compassion can become a catalyst for positive change. By examining a widely circulated iconic photograph of a Ugandan woman and her child affected by AIDS-related illnesses, we show that such representations can nevertheless feed into stereotypical portrayals of African people as nameless and passive victims, removed from the everyday realities of the western world.
That quote comes from a great academic article called "Representing HIV/AIDS in Africa: Pluralist Photography and Local Empowerment" by Amy Kay. Her solution to the representation issues? Put the cameras in the hands of the local people and create a more nuanced dialog--exactly what Adam Sings In the Timber is doing with his work.

So this is me attempting to bring a balanced portrayal to the table--our tribes and communities are not all about powwow feathers and beads, nor are we completely and totally consumed by poverty, abuse, and addiction. There is truth at both ends of the spectrum, but there is a whole lot in between.  



NYtimes--Familial Bonds Among the Crow: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/showcase-174/

Adam Sings In The Timber's webpage: http://www.singsinthetimber.com/index.html

"Representing HIV/AIDS in Africa: Pluralist Photography and Local Empowerment": http://www.ericgottesman.net/isqarticle.pdf

Earlier:

Nudie Neon Indians and the Sexualization of Native Women: http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2010/06/nudie-neon-indian-stage-crashers-and.html

(Thanks so much Katie!)

Sunday, June 20, 2010

M Night Shyamalan's new movie

I don't really know anything about it. I just saw a commercial for it.

Well, everyone was picking on M. Night Shyamalan after the last couple of movies. I haven't seen them. I saw that dead people movie and the one about the space aliens. Signs.

I saw Signs on TV and didn't quite understand it. Mel Gibson plays an ex-priest who was married with a few children. I figured he wasn't Catholic. But everyone wanted him to hear their confessions. Do Anglicans do that? Or Episcopalians. Whatever they call themselves. And isn't it strange that he lived in a community that was just brimming with Episcopalians? Everyone seemed to know who he was and wanted guidance from him. And, in the end, he expressed a depth, or at least a breadth, of religiosity that you don't generally get from a mainline denomination.

Some one did point out a weakness in Shyanalan's work. His movies tend to have twist endings. Once you've seen it, you know what the twist is. There's no need to see it again on DVD or pay-per-view.

Maybe I should watch his other movies. Seems like they would be sort of creepy.

Oh, and now he's made a new one. Kind of a kung fu-looking movie, judging from the commercial.

And on TV...

They're resurrecting two old TV series, Hawaii Five-O and The Rockford Files.

Can they live up to the originals?

I don't like the new Firebirds, and it doesn't make sense, Jim Rockford driving a new car if he lives in a run down trailer illegally parked at the beach.

And what will the Hawaii Five-O people drive? What could equal those big giant black Ford LTDs?

I didn't like the old Jim Rockford's wardrobe. I hope the new Jim Rockford will wear natural fibers. But James Garner did take kung fu lessons from Bruce Lee and driving lessons from Steve McQueen. Can the new Jim Rockford match that?

I hope Steve McGarrett and the new Five-O team will wear proper two-piece suits.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Jim Thompson, The Killer Inside Me


A new version of Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me is coming out. I did see the old version with Stacey Keach and it was okay. I don't remember it well. I've only read one of Thompson's books, Pop. 1280, which was made into the French movie, Coup de Torchon. Which was a pretty good movie.

Movies based on Thompson's work:

The Getaway (Two versions)

The Killer Inside Me (Now two versions)

Coup de Torchon (Based on Pop.1280.)

Série noire (based on A Hell of a Woman.)

The Kill-Off

After Dark, My Sweet

The Grifters

Hit Me (Based on a A Swell-Looking Babe.)

This World, Then the Fireworks


I liked the movies I've seen based on his work. I like the one novel of his I read. I hate to admit it, but I have a hard time getting into novels. I've started reading several of Thompson's books but didn't get far. I'm not sure what I think about his work as a writer.

Genre fiction and movies

I read a book on writing genre fiction, and around the same time I read a book on writing movie scripts. And much of the advice was the same.

Genre novels have to have a strong plot. Character development should be limited. Characters should have straight-forward motives--greed, revenge--rather than psychological reasons for their actions.

Probably part of the reason that genre novels make better movies. The other is that filmmakers can adapt them freely. They don't have to worry about adhering too closely to the plot.

Badge of Evil


There was a claim made by Orson Welles (who knows if it was true) that he needed money for a stage production he was doing. He got it by calling someone and asking for money to buy the movie rights for a great novel that would be perfect for a movie. The great novel a paperback the girl at the ticket counter happened to be reading called Badge of Evil. Welles hadn't read it---didn't know what it was about. But it became the movie, A Touch of Evil.

The opening scene in the original script had the murder victim lounging by his backyard pool with his stripper girlfriend. The girlfriend climbs on top of him. Someone throws a bomb. The man sees the bomb and panics but the stripper thinks he's responding to her. "Oh, Rudy!" She prevents him from escaping and they both die.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Disney Appropriation--"Injun Donald"


One of these things is not like the others, one of these things doesn't belong...let's see: Minnie Mouse, Tom Sawyer's Island, Fantasmic Logo...In'jun Donald?!

Reader Audra sent over this image, taken at Disneyland, of the side of the penny-stretching machine (remember those? you stick a penny and like 50 cents in, and get a smooshed penny with a souvenir design in it?). Here's the penny itself (the middle one):



It's a little hard to see, but the image is of Donald Duck, looking angry, and wearing a headdress. Here's another image of Donald in a headdress I found on an antiques website, it's a puzzle from 1955:

He looks remarkably more happy in that one, though is still brandishing a tomahawk and surrounded by stereotypical "Indian" gear.

Audra actually went to City Hall at Disney to inquire more (you go!) and said the cast member was shocked they still used that term on the penny machine.

Of course, Disney is on my worst offenders list for Native cultural appropriation and straight-up racism. They're no strangers to blatantly offensive, ignorant, and insensitive portrayals of Indigenous peoples in their movies, marketing, and parks. Some of my first posts on this blog were inspired by a trip to Disney World. The posts can be found here:

Disneyworld Part I: Magic Kingdom

Disneyworld Part II: Epcot and Animal Kingdom

Disneyworld Part III: Disney Wilderness Lodge (this one's crazy--an entire hotel based on appropriations of Native culture)

If you'd like to submit a complaint to Disney (I'm not promising they'll listen, but feel free to link to the blog), Audra pointed me to this site: https://secure-disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/help/contactUs?name=ContactUsPage&bhcp=1

Enjoy?

(Thanks Audra!)

Indian Model posing in Fancy Designer Saree

Indian Model posing in Fancy Designer SareeIndian Model posing in Fancy Designer Saree with big border

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

Music's the medicine of the mind.
~ John A. Logan

A great artist is always before his time or behind it.
~ George Moore

You are the music while the music lasts.
~ T.S. Eliot

A man and his art are like a fool and his king.
~ Corri Alius

Music is the universal language of mankind.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Breaking Bad again


Okay, so HERE'S the thing about Breaking Bad.

I had contrasted Walt's slide in violence and amorality with Ray Milland as a mild mannered father turned homicidal survivalist in Panic In The Year Zero.

Here's what more knowledgeable persons say about Walt White.

That he's arrogant, jealous and consumed with rage over unspecified things that happened to him in the past. He had started a business but walked away from it in a snit, then was enraged when his former business partner got rich on work that Walt had done for the company. He feels threatened by and mistreats poor Jesse even though the kid is no threat to anyone in any way.

See, that's what they needed with Ray Milland.

When his wife wants to go back to L.A. to find her mother who was there in the nuclear blast, Milland should have said something about how her mother never respected him because of his humble origins, even though he had to work harder than anyone else, and the fact that he worked for all he had rather than inheriting it somehow made people question his right to it. And he should have had some hostility toward his own children who reminded him of the upper-class teens who tormented him in high school.

If you want to see how that might have worked, look at Marjoe Gortner's performance in Earthquake. He's a mild-mannered grocery store clerk, harassed by his neighbors. And now he's in charge, in his National Guard uniform, carrying his M-16. He catches his neighbors looting and...

Nudie Neon Indians and the Sexualization of Native Women


Neon Indian is a hipster-indie band that has been gaining some notoriety as of late. They performed on Jimmy Fallon, and have been making the music festival circuit as well. Though the name annoys me, I hadn't actually associated them with any cultural appropriation, since nothing I've read about the band references anything Native. I figured maybe they were talking about the other kind of Indian. Their name actually comes from (if you believe teh blogz) a make-believe band front man Alan Palomo (who is Latino) had in high school

So, even if the name wasn't a direct reference, and the band has avoided Native stereotypes (send me images if you find otherwise), you can't control your fans (Clearly, as we saw with the Blackhawks and Flyers fans last week).

The fans in that picture above crashed the Neon Indian stage at the music festival Bonaroo (more music festivals and headdresses, of course), wearing headdresses, feathers, and pasties on their bare breasts. According to hipster runoff, this is how it went down:
And it got even stranger during a riveting, bulked-up version of “Deadbeat Summer,” when a crew of scantily-clad ladies wearing homemade feather headdresses (two of whom were fully topless with colorfully painted boobs) bounded onto the stage, seemingly by design, and cavorted around aimlessly, jiggling to the wistful musings about sunlit streets and a starlit abyss. Depending on your vantage point, it was either hilarious or pathetic, but Palomo just laughed and shrugged.
Apparently the girls jumped up there on their own, and it wasn't actually part of the set at all.

Here's another image of the girls:

 (image source)

Yes, the headdresses are wrong. But what gets me even more is the topless/feather pasties part. There's a legacy and history there that many people don't know or understand.

Native women have been highly sexualized throughout history and in pop culture. There are any number of examples I can pull from, the "Indian Princess" stereotype is everwhere--think the story of Pocahontas, or Tiger Lily in Peter Pan, or Cher in her "half breed" video, or the land 'o' lakes girl, seriously almost any image of a Native woman that you've seen in popular culture. We're either sexy squaws (the most offensive term out there), wise grandmas, or overweight ogres. But the pervasive "sexy squaw" is the most dangerous, especially when you know the basic facts about sexual violence against Native women:
  • 1 in 3 Native women will be raped in their lifetime 
  • 70% of sexual violence against Native women is committed by non-Natives
This Amnesty International study details, at great length, the gruesome truth about sexual violence in Indian Country.  Also, recently, Vanguard (a show on current TV) did a special called "Rape on the Reservation". The show is about 45 minutes long, but so powerful, and so heartbreaking. Please watch it if you have time, even the intro is enough to shock you back to reality:


Now can you see why my heart breaks and I feel sick every time I see an image of a naked or scantily clad woman in a headdress? This is not just about cultural appropriation. This is about a serious, scary, and continuing legacy of violence against women in Indian Country. These girls probably thought they were just being "counter-culture" or "edgy," but by perpetuating the stereotypes of Native women as sexual objects, they are aiding and continuing the cycle of violence.

Earlier:

But Why Can't I Wear a Hipster Headdress?

Educating non-Natives at Lightning in a Bottle

The Hipster Headdress Abounds at Coachella

Headdresses and Music Festivals go together like PB and...Racism?

"The Sexiest Rain Dance Ever" 


(Thanks Ben and Virtue for sending me the pics)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Robert Pattinson On The Tonight Show With Jay Leno

Last night, Tuesday, June 15, 2010, the world's favorite vampire, Robert Pattinson made a guest appearance On Jay Leno's show. Pattinson's proud parents were in the audience. I really enjoyed this interview because I could understand just about everything he said. He seems to have a habit of trailing off in interviews. This time Pattinson stayed on top and came across as quite articulate. Also, check out his surprising response to Emma Roberts... ouch!!!

Robert Pattinson - 1/3


Robert Pattinson - 2/3



Robert Pattinson - 3/3

Megan Fox and Josh Brolln Bring Jonah Hex To Life | Trailer

Super popular and sexy Megan Fox might have been dropped from returning in the 3rd Transformers movie, but the in-demand actress has launched another franchise ready to hit the big screen.
Hollywood News joined journalists in Beverly Hills, Calif., for the Jonah Hex press day, where Fox and her leading man Josh Brolin fielded questions about starting their own franchise. In addition to talking about the challenges of taking on her tough role, the actress reflected on fulfilling the desires and demands of fan boy audiences, and offered some hints about what’s in store for her next.~source

Megan Fox New Tattoo inspired by Mickey Rourke

Megan Fox has revealed that she got a new tattoo. The actress recently added to her tattoo collection, saying it's a special piece of work inspired by fellow actor Mickey Rourke.

She claimed it's actually in honor of her Passion Play co-star Mickey Rourke.

She got the new tattoo in honor of him as she thinks he's a very special person. The tattoo is a quote in English on her ribs and has been attributed to the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche : "Those who danced were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Lovely!





Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Educating non-Natives at Lightning in a Bottle


My friend Ricky (who made this awesome graphic I've posted before) headed out to the Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) music festival a few weeks ago, and was prepared to approach the concert-goers in headdresses and other forms of cultural appropriation in the mindset of an educator. He encountered many headdresses, and more. I'll let him tell the story himself:

I went to Lightning in a Bottle a few weeks ago. As a Native who is considered pretty 'alternative' (ie goes to festivals frequently and likes Electro House music, although I also love Swing Dancing, Break Dancing, and Freestyle MC-ing) I knew that this trip would be wrought with challenges of Fashion Identity, Racial Politics, and overt appropriation of Native American Cultures, Symbols and Practices... It was very difficult to be amongst so many people of the new age belief, and to constantly stay silent so as not to be rude. Speaking out then would be akin to quantifying the Pope as the Anti-Christ in a Catholic church in Boston. That's the kinda heat I was around.

In this journey which i prepare for by sweating, I also needed feathers from my Eagle which I had recently cleaned. I prayed for a whole day on these two feathers so that i would have the A) Strength to continue educating non-native, as i predicted it would be very fatiguing to do so, and B) Patience so that i would not get frustrated by their lack of perspective, respect or recognition of Native Symbols. While I had some good conversations and even had people offer to take off their feathers, i also had people viciously defending their 'right' to expression. Its' a very American concept, this right to act however you please. Its also this kind of thinking that lead to the genocide 100+ million original natives from the America's over 500 years.

I went as an educator of expression that is too often undeserved, and more than not, ignored. By being a Native presence at this kind of festival I attract a lot of attention to my self, especially when i wear my feathers, for the purposes listed above. When I offer cleansing I make sure to be in sober spirit. More then I can say for many of the Plastic Shaman that I saw out there. I was also fasting for about 30 hours and with dancing and constant walking in the mix, I did not need to partake of other medicines to be enlightened. At that point it was pretty full on.

May we have greater recognition amongst Non-Natives so that we are not merely known about, but understood. If you live in America then you benefit from our subjugation, please do not perpetuate the actions of the past, by staying ignorant and blind from our shared History.
I can only imagine the strength it took to remain calm and collected in that environment. Here are the pictures that Ricky sent over of other concert goers:



and here's Ricky (he shaded out his eyes):


The other interesting part about LIB is that they bill themselves to be a progressive, environmental, save-the-rainforest type event. If you go to their website here, and look under the tab that says "environment" you can see more about their mission. This page caught my attention as well: http://lightninginabottle.org/environment/critical-beats/ which includes two images of Indigenous men from the Amazon and information about the "critical beats" organization, which uses indigenous songs, music, stories, and spoken word combined with western artists' music to create new songs that they sell to raise money and awareness on Indigenous issues. Interesting stuff, but I don't know enough about it to formulate a total opinion.

Anyway, my point is that I always find it hard to believe when people who are "aware" and "tuned in" still think it's ok to don a headdress or offer "Native" ceremonies. I'm sure they would use the "honoring" argument, which we know is just as offensive as wearing the headdress itself.

So, thanks to Ricky for the story and images, and I'm so glad he was there to talk to the participants, though I know it must have been exhausting and frustrating. Keep fighting!

Earlier:

But Why Can't I Wear a Hipster Headdress?: http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2010/04/but-why-cant-i-wear-hipster-headdress.html

The Hipster Headdress Abounds at Coachella: http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2010/04/hipster-headdress-abounds-at-coachella.html

Headdresses and Music Festivals go together like PB and...Racism?: http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2010/06/headdresses-and-music-festivals-go.html

Monday, June 14, 2010

Random Appropriation of the Day ("Navajo Bronze" Hair Dye)

Apparently Clairol has a color of their "Natural Instincts" line called "Navajo Bronze"--a "light caramel brown". Of course, since Clariol wants you to think that this line of hair dye is "natural" and stuff, they have to use Natives for marketing, since we're all tied to nature and pure and whatever else they think. Frustrating.

Amazon listing: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E5EC4A/?tag=botkrajai-20

(Thanks Scott!)

TLC's Extreme Poodles includes some Extreme Stereotyping


TLC is not exactly known for its normal, run of the mill programming. While I'm sure we can all admit to paying rapt attention to "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" at one point or another, the network's stunts for ratings have gotten weirder and weirder lately. I think the topper might be their recent special "Extreme Poodles," a show that chronicled participants in an "Extreme" poodle grooming contest.

As I might have mentioned before, I (sadly) don't have cable. I know, I'm crazy. So I haven't actually seen the episode, and am just going off of the links and descriptions around the internets. But apparently, this is how it went down.

Contestants were allowed to "pre-dye" their poodles (with non-toxic veggie dye), but all cutting, trimming, and styling was done on a stage, in front of an audience and judges. Each poodle had a theme, and when the groomers presented the final product, they dressed up and had music relating to their dog's "theme". Other themes? Lion king, Roller Derby, Garden of Eden....and then the family you see above, with their entry titled "Cherokee Heritage".


If you can't tell from the image, that's a poodle, shaved to look like a buffalo, with an Indian head carved on his side, complete with a headdress. The family are dressed as "Indians" with wigs, turkey feathers, and fake buckskin.

here's another image of the dog:

According to this blog, written from the point of view of a poodle (?) here's how the Cherokee Heritage team presented themselves:
Her companion Josh is groomed as a buffalo at the head, and with the face and headdress at one of the rear legs. Apparently, Angela is part Cherokee, so she is celebrating her own heritage which Poodle Bitch supposes makes the whole idea less offensive...

In addition to the actual groom of the dog, there is a presentation period, in which the groomers display the dog in a tableau meant to illustrate the theme of the groom. For Angela’s part, she has conscripted her father and nephew into wearing Cherokee headdresses and bird costumes to stand and prance around the dog, while Angela herself beats a drum (Poodle Bitch is unsure if the proper term for such a drum is “tomtom”).
 Wow. I can only imagine how that looked. If you can see from the first image, her son is wearing a bird costume with wings, so I'm sure he was busy flapping around the table. And beating a "tomtom" (you can see it on the edge of the second picture)? That's not totally stereotypical or anything.

There are many cringe-inducing and anger-inducing parts of this, but the one that is bothering me more than anything is that she says she's "honoring her Cherokee heritage" through this display.

We can debate the finer points of tradition and whether or not Cherokees hunted buffalo (there were definitely some bison/buffalo running through the Eastern Woodlands way back in the day, but Cherokee aren't considered a buffalo culture like the Lakota/Dakota), but my point is that the stereotypes this woman drew on were Plains Indian stereotypes--the Hollywood Indian. Not anything close to Cherokee culture.

The write-ups I'm reading seem to be giving her a free pass because of her claims of "honoring," but me, not so much. If you really want to honor your supposed heritage, do some research. Talk to your elders. Learn. I bet about 5 minutes into your education you'll realize how terribly messed up it is to "honor" your heritage by shaving a poodle, dressing up in turkey feathers, and beating a stereotypical drum.

Why all the crazies gotta be Cherokee? That, my friends, is a whole post in itself.


Here's the only video I can find, a "teaser" from TLC, but it does show the groomer in action "I'm trying to color in this Indian face in right here" (at about the 1:05 mark):



Oh, and I forgot to mention, "Cherokee Heritage" won third place.



(Thanks Bree and Rachel!)

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The musical Annie and the shattered lives in its wake


There've been a few documentaries about Annie. Even the ones that are pro-Annie reveal the dark underbelly of this grotesque musical.

Annie has left a trail of shattered lives, lost childhoods and broken homes.

First of all, they fire children right and left. One girl had the lead in Annie, she got bronchitis. She wanted to keep performing anyway, but the doctor told her mother he would call Child Protective Services if she did. It turns out the girl was right to be worried. She stayed home from work. Became suspicious when she learned that her understudy wasn't the one taking her place. And a fax arrived in the middle of the night. (This may have been before email was in general use.) The rotten bastards fired her by fax.

They would bring the girls out every week and weigh them and measure them. If they grew or gained weight, they were fired.

There were the broken families. One parent had to go on tour with the roadshow production of the play. This meant that parents were separated for long periods. There were several cases where this ended in divorce.

In one case, a mother was sleeping around while on the road. Another mother had to help her secure an abortion.

In another case, a girl from a single-parent home was in the production. Her mother traveled with her, meaning her brother had to be left with his aunt. The brother was essentially turned into an orphan so that his sister could play an orphan on stage.

There was a girl fired from the production. Her mother told her the news. She was fired for having grown a couple of inches. The girl threw an 8 x 10 glossy of herself on the floor, began stomping on it yelling, "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" at her own picture.

You watch video of the children working hard, rehearsing over and over as they sing about being forced to work.

But, of course, it's those of us who can't stand crap like Annie who are denounced for being cold-hearted and cynical.

The most hideously exploited child star in the movies or television is at least treated as a recognizable individual. With this disgusting musical, they just bring out another girl, put the wig on her, and the rubes in the audience don't know the difference.