Department Of Taking A Break For Art
Is it art? Or is it engineering?
Either way, I will appreciate it while I can,
until the next high tide brings its own critique.
* * *
Department Of Making A Java Junkie’s Day
Or, morning at least…
Dateline Tuesday; Manzanita (Oregon), 7:35 AM-ish; walking past Manzanita Coffee Co. A car pulls over driver stays with it as a passenger gets out color. I saw her reading the sign on the door which listed the shop hours – closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays [1] – and her countenance fell, in the way that only other coffee addicts (which I think of to moiself as, Coff-Dicts, which is too easy to mistake for Coff-*dicks, so perhaps another nickname I should create?) can understand.
Coffee Seeking Woman turned around and looked plaintively at the driver in the car. Without breaking my stride I approached CSW, waved hello and pointed up the street, and said, “Manzanita News and Espresso is open.” The beam in her eyes nearly outshone her profusion of gratitude: “Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you!“
* * *
Department Of She Sells Seashells By The Seashore…Oops
I allude to the recent kerfuffle [2] about former FBI director James Comey, whose sharing of a social media post (a picture of the numbers 86 and 47 formed by an arrangement of seashells that he and his wife saw while at a beach) caused an uproar:
“We stood over it and I said, ‘I think it’s some kind of political message.’ She said, ‘86, when I was a server it meant to remove an item from the menu when you ran out of ingredients,’ Comey said. ‘To me, as a kid, it always meant to leave a place, to ditch a place.’
“47″ was also understood to represent Trump’s current term as 47th president of the United States.
Comey added that it was his wife’s idea to post a photo of the message, a decision that sent Trump’s White House allies into a frenzy.
“She said, ‘You should take a picture of that,’ Comey said. ‘And I did, I posted it on my Instagram account and thought nothing more of it.’
Many within Trump’s orbit interpreted the “86” as a threat to the president—with some even suggesting that it was a call for his assassination.
Comey strenuously denied these claims, and said he is “not afraid” of the Trump administration’s retribution. ”
( Excerpts, “James Comey Blames His Wife for Cryptic Post That Set MAGA Off,”
The Daily Beast, 5-20-25 )
I hadn’t heard the term *86* in some time. Like Comey, I grew up with the idea that it meant to ditch, quash, or get rid of something (e.g., “At the cafe we 86’d our plans to go to the movies after dinner.” ). I also sympathize with the *nasty* possible meaning behind the two numbers together, although I try to restrain such thoughts. I keep hoping that #47 will die of natural causes…until I remember what we’re dealing with and remind moiself , Oh yeah, there’s nothing about that man that’s natural….
“If you weren’t an atheist I’d smite him for you.”
* * *
Department Of The New Podcast I’m Not Listening To
That would be Proxy with Yowei Shaw. Shaw is a former host of the podcast Invisibilia, which is in my podcast feed. I enjoy Invisibilia’s use of narrative storytelling to report scientific issues, so I decided to give Proxy a listen when a sample episode of the podcast showed up in my podcast feed.
A description from Proxy’s NPR link:
“ Proxy investigates niche emotional conundrums through conversations with
strangers who have relevant experience.”
The host describes herself as an “emotional investigative journalist.” Okay; I’ll give it a go. The sample episode (original airdate 4-22-25) in my feed was titled “Bisexual Wife Guy.” Preview on the site (which I did not have access to when I began listening to it):
“The case of the bisexual wife guy who got dumped. In this episode, we find a proxy
to stand in for a listener’s ex – another queer woman who left her straight relationship….”
So, the podcast host is talking with “George,” [3] (the bisexual-wife-guy-who-got-dumped). The episode opens with Shaw giving a few specifics about the case, then speaking with George, who says about his decade-plus relationship ending in divorce:
“…it gets really complicated and kind of pricky to talk about, but bottom line, two years ago my partner said, ‘Hey I think I’m bisexual.’….
ultimately, the elephant in the room is…‘Hey, actually, I’m queer and I’m not interested in being with a cis dude anymore.’ “
Then Shaw reads from an email supposedly written by George (which led to her inviting him on the show):
“I’ve not found any support groups or the like for people in my situation, and I’m not saying that should be the priority either. I just want to better understand in what ways I’ve been perpetuating a system that oppresses LGBTQ people and how I can grow and be better in the future, and ultimately be a human who loves everyone, including myself.”
I was turned off immediately – which is why I included the modifier supposedly written by George from the email Shaw read. My gut reaction was, What am I hearing – a pamphlet? Where are the emotions, motivations, and sincere responses of an actual person? At first (and second and third and fourth…) listen I thought it might’ve been AI-generated.
Moiself did listen a bit more, but could not sustain an interest in the podcast episode after the initial setup of some guy claiming he “just wants to understand …” followed by what sounds like phrases he’d get from a cis-dude-reeducation camp. Where is the anguish, the anger, the despair, of being dumped, out of the blue, by the partner you loved, for whatever reason?
It’s not fair to write something off so soon; I know this on an abstract, intellectual level. But, in the here and now, I barely have time to keep up with the podcasts moiself already subscribes to. Although getting through the backlog is quicker than it used to be, what with my post-election policy of deleting episodes with such angst -inducing titles and/or subject matter descriptions as,
* How Our Democracy Is Going Down The Toilet;
* Fear and Fascism: How America Reached a Political Breaking Point; [4]
* The Rise Of American Nazism;
*Why The USA’s (Former) Allies Now Despise Us…
I figure moiself’s incapacitation from a bleeding ulcer is not going to help the cause.
* * *
Department Of One Of My Favorites Ethical Dilemmas…
Favorite because, unlike so many dilemmas, there are more than two or three or five sides to this issue, and no one compelling, *it MUST be this* answer…. Thus, it’s fun (and revealing) to discuss it with others.
This is from a podcast moiself *is* listening to. No Stupid Questions, which ended last year, has been replaying some of their favorite episodes. NSQ’s Should We Separate The Art From The Artist? episode, hosted by Angela Duckworth and Stephen Dubner, is as relevant as it was when it first ran (9-27-20). Certainly, a consensus on the question has not been reached. [5]
Moiself tends to think of the question as an octopus-ical ethical dilemma, in that it has multiple tentacles of interpretation and application.
Do you have the right (or the obligation) to separate the art from the artist?
DUCKWORTH:
“Did you know that the Rhodes Scholarship was founded on blood money?”
DUBNER:
“Did you know that *everything* was founded on blood money,
if you go back far enough?”
“Today on the show: In the era of cancel culture, should we still be able to enjoy the art of
problematic artists?” (excerpt from NSQ episode transcript )
Re historically great works produced by artists [6] whom we later discovered led ethically sketchy (or downright reprehensible) lives: I am comfortable with people making their own decisions as to whether they will honor/enjoy or boycott the work of such artists. This holds true (for moiself ) even if such artists’ work would be judged today as subtly or even openly promoting racism, imperialism, sexism, classism, nihilism, poor dental hygiene….
The past is…wait for the Zen-like profundity…the past. That was then; this is now. I’m not convinced of the value of spending time, money and emotional energy judging the centuries-dead by their descendants’ twenty-first century values.
That said, if you think you should never again read any book by Charles Dickens because you learned that the man who wrote so eloquently about the plight of the poor and downtrodden in Victorian England was a SOB to his own family, then…don’t. Let that conviction float your boat, but don’t try to sell moiself on the notion that I cannot be A Good Person ® if I enjoy re-reading A Christmas Carol during the yuletide season.
When it comes to the art of the present, I am more comfortable drawing harder lines. Some hip-hopper rapping about what he’s going to do to his bitches and hos – nope, sorry, he’s not getting any of my business. [7]
Harry Sanborn:
“Hey, some people see rap as poetry.”
Erica Barry:
“Yeah, but c’mon, how many words can you rhyme with bitch?”
Doobie-drenched rapper Snoop Dogg is now more known for his commercial ventures – e.g., , his unlikely friendship with Martha Stewart and his amusing gig as the USA’s Olympic Games ultimate fan – than for his rap career of decades ago. And he refuses to disavow his earlier work for its sexism and misogyny and violent imagery – he says that the existence of such in his lyrics is evidence of how much he’s changed and grown.
I’ve no idea whether Mr. Dogg is truly repent-ive, or just cannily re-inventive. Since he doesn’t seem to run from the controversy, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. Even if I were not so inclined, it’s not as if moiself boycotting misogynistic and homophobic hip-hop songs would have any influence whatsoever.
Something closer to my intellectual and artistic home is the work of a comedian, writer and filmmaker whose books and movies I read and watched…until I didn’t.
I enjoyed much of Woody Allen’s work in the past, but there were always aspects about his movies that bothered me – recurrent themes and scenes (which were pooh-poohed by two boyfriends of mine, when I brought it up) which came to a stunning, forehead-slapping, AHA moment when Allen’s abuse of his biological daughter and his affair with his de facto stepdaughter were revealed. It was a no brainer – no more, for me.
But…damn.
There was – is – so much I loved about the movie Hannah And Her Sisters, including the fact that when I saw it in the theater [8] for the first time the entire audience gasped – in astonishment, appreciation, and approval – as Allen’s character found love and unexpected joy, with a woman who was his equal on many levels (age, artistic talent, neuroticism…). It’s one of my favorite movie endings ever, and it used to be one of my favorite movies. And occasionally, I do want to watch it, again…. [9]
Many years ago a high school friend confessed to me ( as in, “Don’t tell anybody, but….”) that he liked the Frito-Lay commercials featuring the cartoon mascot, The Frito Bandito, despite having had many of his fellow Chicanos lecture him as to why he shouldn’t. They warned him: if he said anything positive about the bandidto, or any other representation of Latino culture that could be seen as (read: that those self-appointed gatekeepers had interpreted as ) racist, or promoting ethnic stereotypes, that meant he was a coconut. [10]
I’ll leave it to my Jewish friends to decide for themselves whether or not to listen to Ride of the Valkyries (or any works of the German composer Wagner ), or whether or not to enjoy or boycott the entire bibliography of William Shakespeare because among the works of that brilliant poet and playwright is the widely (but not exclusively) held as antisemitic play, The Merchant of Venice.
My feminist sisters are welcome to listen and even sing along to last century’s “Baby It’s Cold Outside,“ despite the fact that when I listen to it with contemporary ears, there’s no way around it, that holiday classic is…uh…kinda rapey. But there are bigger feminist fish to fry, and many people listen to that song because it reminds them of their grandparents’ generation. Now, were a contemporary singer to record a holiday tune about a man insistently inviting (pressuring?) his reluctant date to spend the night with him, to the point of intimating that he was spiking her drink? Yep, that would raise my cancellation hackles.
John Lennon created some of my favorite music on the planet. Lennon was also – by many accounts of those who loved and admired him – prone to bouts of jealous, narcissistic, violent rages (primarily expressed emotionally, but also physically). Knowing this about him, can I still enjoy his great body of work, during and after The Beatles? The same musician who wrote the spiteful, Run For Your Life – with lyrics ( “Well I’d rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man…” ) I recognized as creepy/controlling/stalker-y even when I was a third-grader – later wrote the beautiful/haunting/yearning/evocative songs In My Life, Imagine, Across The Universe….
If moiself demanded total ethical and human rights purity from people working in any art form, I could never again watch any movie or TV show, listen to a song, appreciate live theater, or read a book, because until these art forms have all been taken over/supplanted by AI, they will continue to be produced by flawed human beings. It’s a line I think all people with EQs and IQs greater than their shoe size should endeavor to carefully discern and not write in stone.
Yes, that means constant…vigilance, or maybe, mindfulness? Or maybe just the simple dictum of paying attention to what, by your patronage, you implicitly or explicitly support.
DUBNER:
“…it’s the slippery-slope argument….a philosopher named Janna Thompson….
made an argument against cancel culture: ‘If the character of the artist becomes a criterion for judging art, then the door is open to the exclusion of artists because they belong to a despised group, or because they’ve said or done things that many people do not like.’ So, going back to the Nazis — because all roads seem to lead to the Nazis today — that’s what the labeling of ‘degenerate art’ was all about. Some of it was based on aesthetic principles, but it was also based on the ethnicity or politics of the artists who created it. So, do you want that too?”
…I will make one last argument against canceling, just generally. Let’s go back to politics for a second. So, one thing I personally find suboptimal about the American two-party duopoly is that it essentially forces people to go all in on either the red team or the blue team. If you want to be blue, you’ve gotta be all blue. If you want to be red, you gotta be all red.”
DUCKWORTH:
“No purple.”
DUBNER:
“No mixing and matching of policy—”
DUCKWORTH:
“No plaid.”
DUBNER:
“…Yeah. No plaid….
that’s the kind of doctrinaire cancelation that, in my view, harms the political process more than anything. This deep, deep, deep self-siloing. So I would say that, yes, we probably should learn to separate the politician from the policy and the art from the artist. I would take it as a sign of maturity, a sign of thoughtfulness and consideration. And I’m in favor of all of those things, for the record.”
( transcript excerpts my emphases, Should we separate the art from the artist?
NSQ Episode 20 )
What if you’re self-siloing, but in a purple silo?
* * *
Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week [11]
“What is wanted is not the will to believe but the will to find out,
which is the exact opposite.”
( Bertrand Russell, 1872 – 1970, British pro-pacifism anti-religion philosopher, logician, mathematician, politician, author. )
* * *
May we all, when it comes to politics and art, learn to accept the purple;
May we see art in engineering and engineering in art;
May we express ourselves in ways that do make us not sound lik
AI-produced pamphlets;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] This is often the case with coastal businesses. They are open on the weekends and on Mondays (for the spillover tourist business), but closed Tues & Wed.
[2] What a great word. I’d like to think it’s Irish in origin. Let’s all strive to use it in a sentence today, shall we, class?
[3] The usual disclaimer: not his real name.
[4] Actual title of this Institute For New Economic Thinking podcast.
[5] I’ve blogged about it in the past, and doing so surprisingly (to no one) did not settle the matter.
[6] painters; composers; authors; playwrights…
[7] An I’m sure he’s losing sleep over that. Middle aged white ladies don’t like my shit – I’d better change.
[8] an “arty” cinema in Palo Alto, where everyone in the audience gave off the vibe of being familiar with all of Allen’s movies
[9] If there’s some way to do so without funneling any money to Allen, I mean, not even a 5₵ cent royalty.
[10] Pejorative for a Mexican-American who by not conforming to ethnic stereotypes was also somehow seen as ashamed of their heritage: “brown on the outside, white on the inside.“
[11] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
