ASSORTED MEMORIAL DAY REFLECTIONS, LFAQs ETC.

IMAGE OF THE DAY:

(Note: The bowing on the right side of this image does not exist in the original and is a function of my having photographed it with the page slightly curled--and my being too lazy to shoot and scan it again. Ditto for the apparently wrinkled surface.)

MEMORIAL OBJECT AND OBSERVATION OF THE DAY:

In the untitled image, we see a pattern of vertical bars-with the rough proportions of a flag rotated 90 degrees. There is a color shift at the exact center of the composition so that the bars are clearly perceived as constituting two separate but equal rectilinear entities. Just to the right of center, we see an indistinct black and grey shape obscuring the geometrical design and violating its elegant symmetry.

While the image is untitled, it is effectively titled by context. It appears in the New York Times book review besides Frank Rich's review of Don Delillo's 9/11 novel "Falling Man."

Seen through this prism, we now see a smudge of death on the abstracted twin towers. At first, we see it as a falling body, mercifully blurred. But as we examine it for traces of an identifiably human form, we notice that the indistinct shape has a black hole at its center and an unmistakably smoky periphery. It has ceased to be a falling man and has suddenly become the entry wound where the hijacked plane punctured the tower and blew a hole through our collective innocence.

When we look again, it is both a falling man and a gaping fiery hole. And it is neither.

It is a shadow. It is a stain. It is a terrible terrible mistake.

Much like the Maya Lin Vietnam memorial, this work achieves a powerfully elegant economy of expression. As if obeying the logic of dreams, discreet elements of a traumatic event are condensed and abstracted into a composite --and less viscerally disturbing--form.

It is the still falling figure forever falling still. It is the flume of deathly smoke eternally pouring out of the still standing towers. It is the enduring stain on our collective consciousness.

And it is the strange boundary where the horrifyingly literal is transformed into the hauntingly symbolic.

Before our very eyes.

--

There is another, presumably inadvertent associative overtone to the piece. At the bottom of the page, just to the left of this striking work, we see a bar code--whose constitutive elements instantly evoke the bars in the image. In looking at these contiguous patterns, I could not help but interpret the piece by Ji Lee as a comment on the serial representation and shameless commercialization of the catastrophe--with the blur or smudge functioning as a defiant attempt to jam the code and with it the system by which everything (including our most primal collective traumas) is scanned, ordered, processed and consumed.

AFTERTHOUGHT OF THE DAY:

How is this meditation in any way relevant to Memorial Day--with its themes of death, loss, honor and memory? Well, superficially, because it is obviously a piece of memorial art. And a piece commemorating the very event used to justify our current military misadventure in Iraq (which, in turn, is the engine that has produced the war dead we commemorate on this day.) But more fundamentally, if more abstractly, there is something about that fascinating process by which the actual events get transformed into their symbolic representation (by which the literal become the abstract) that seems to have something essential to do with death, loss and memory.

At least it was a way of focusing on Memorial Day in a way that didn't devolve into a rant against Bush. Oops, too late.

SUITABLY SOLEMN AND RESTRAINED RANT OF THE DAY:

In that self same Book Review, I read a quote by Deepak Chopra about Bush's smile. Granted I'm not a big Deepak Chopra fan (in fact, I much prefer his brother Sixpack Chopra--who, I hear, will soon be coming out with a book on building firmer abs) but I liked the quote a lot and will reprint it here in its entirety:

"Bush is smirking to put you on warning. In a moment, he might blow his top. Bush's smile also tells us, almost guilelessly, that he isn't suffering inside. This fact maddens his critics the most. Lincoln suffered terribly during the Civil War, as Churchill did in World War II. Bush has to remind himself to put on a sad face when he talks about his war. Have we seen a more inappropriate smile from any politician since Nixon? I doubt it."

Arggg.

The lack of intelligence, dignity and gravitas. The lack of grace, honesty and humility. The lack of good old fashioned, healthy human doubt. And that infuriatingly entitled, provocatively petulant little smirk!!

The tragedy of having in these profoundly troubling times a leader so profoundly unequal to the challenges we all face is a tragedy that rivals--in its scope and enduring consequences-- that of 9/11 itself. And I don't just mean that the number of Americans killed in Iraq has now passed the number of Americans killed on 9/11.

When he spoke at Arlington this morning, I really half expected him to ask us to honor our fallen heroes by going out to our local malls in one of our troop-supporting SUVs and buying something at one of the terrific Memorial Day sales.

I'll wind up this little rant with a quote from Al Gore's new book "The Assault on Reason."

And speaking of tragic. If only Gore had been this passionate and combative in December 2000 when he was having the election stolen from him by Bush and Co. instead of getting all "Don't get snippy." If he had fought back against that petulant emperor chimp instead of abandoning the fight in the name of high mindedness and collective national healing. Wow. It just hurts to much to think about.

Anyhow, back to the quote.

"President Bush has used a counterfeit combination of misdirected vengeance and misguided dogma to dominate the national discussion, bypass reason, silence dissent and intimidate those who questioned his logic both inside and outside the administration....Reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions”

Oh and one more thing:

Argggg...

But enough, I will channel the moral high-mindedness of the 2000/2001 version Al Gore and stop the divisive commentary. But before I do, I will name...

MY HERO OF THE DAY:

The bird who shat on Bush last week.

LFAQs of the DAY:

Who has the Bush administration benefitted most: Osama Bin Laden, Al Gore or Halliburton?

Did the unholy Cheney granddaugher spring fully formed from Cheney's undisclosed location?

Which are we most inured to: Sports-related crimes, political scandals, corporate malfeasance, journalistic abdication, presidential untruths, governmental incompetence, the degradation of public discourse or Donald Trump's hair?

Why has it taken so long for a book like Gore's "Assault on Reason" to come out when its claims are so obviously true and have been for so long?

COUPLET OF THE DAY:

Terminal sincerity is something of a curse.
But terminal insincerity is, alas, even worse.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"The war on terror is a bumper sticker, not a plan."

-John Edwards.

IRONY OF THE DAY:

The above quote would make a good bumper sticker.

RANDOM POLITICAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE DAY:

Edwards saying all kinds of intelligent, serious things about crucial national issues and all anyone wants to talk about is his haircut.

Dem Democrats caved in again. Like Gore did in 2000. And they wonder why no one respects them. We hate them for their freedom. From conviction. From courage. From spine.

HEADLINE TRYPTICH OF THE DAY:

Blind sailors circumnavigate the globe
Condemned man given bathroom break in the middle of botched execution.
60 year old woman gives birth to twins.

Read any three headlines and you will know the madness of the world and the folly of writing fiction.

MOVIE COMMENT OF THE DAY:

Saw Se7en again. Love those kinds of scenes where the entire apparatus of the state is mobilized in an attempt to prevent an event which turns out to have already happened. Or is happening entirely outside their realm of control or relevance. Like the Imaginary's relationship to the Real.

It's not about inadequate force. It's about inappropriate means. And inadequate understanding.

And sometimes it's about plain old impossibility.

I did take it as a sign of increased compassion and diminished bitterness that watching it this time I took no pleasure in seeing Gwyneth's head end up in a box.

NEOLOGISM OF THE DAY:

Mundacity. This describes the act of making something appear to be banal, trivial and pedestrian when it is in fact, mind blowingly profound. Usage: People who hang out with Teddy Vegas are vey familiar with the concept of mundacity. That dude is veritably mundacious!!

E-MAIL EXCERPT OF THE DAY: (From a friend currently living in Venezuela.)

"Thought you might like to know that Chavez here has come up with the brilliant idea of making all military men add the phrase "Homeland, socialism or death" to any remarks they make. Can you imagine? "Hi, Juan- homeland, socialism or death." It reminds me of the time that my gestalt therapist made me say to every single person I spoke to during the course of one day "I am afraid of living and I am afraid of dying." I did it: no one seemed to notice."

Also reminds me of that silly game where you have to add the words "in the bedroom" to any fortune cookie you read.

AMBIVALENCE OF THE DAY:

I don't know which I am alienated by more: Really driven people or total slackers.

CURIOUS FACTOIDS OF THE DAY:

Zebras kill more zookeepers than lions or tigers do.

America's health care system was recently rated as being just below Costa Rica's and just above of Slovenia's.

REMINDER OF THE DAY:

Almost three years ago, I predicted a (winning) Gore-Obama ticket. I'm just reminding people I said that. No reason. Not that I still think it's gonna happen. Not that I think he's thinking of running. Not that I think Obama would even consider running as a Veep. Not that I think he's finally hit his stride or that he's come a long way from "Don't get snippy." Not that I think it offers us a redemptive chance to return to 2001 and do things right this time. And certainly not that I think what America needs is a moral, intelligent courageous leader who is comfortable in his own skin. It was just something i remembered, that's all. And since it's Memorial Day and that has something to do with remembering, well...I figured I'd mention it. That's all.

SPORTS AND DRUGS UPDATE OF THE DAY:

In one of my recent postings, I think I wrote about sports history being rewritten by drug revelations. Or maybe I just intended to. Well anyhow, now the 1996 Tour De France winner just admitted to steroid use and offered to give up his title. Soon it will transcend the realm of sports. What will we discover next, that the Sermon on the Mount and The Gettysburg address were stimulant-aided texts and drug-enhanced performances that now need to be erased from the historical record or at least have an asterisk next to them? It's starting to feel like in Blade Runner when the replicant woman realizes that all of her most intimate, precious childhood memories--the very cornerstones of her sense of self--never really happened but were rather implanted by a biotech corporation. Oh innocence...you torn and tattered thing.

RANDOM SINGLE SENTENCE PORTRAIT OF THE DAY: (With thanks to P.G.)

One day he's gonna have to be Med-Vacked out of the cookie aisle.

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Posted on 5/29/2007 ( Permanent Link )
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