That which is not art
Brushing into people is now art?
Moving trees and treehouses? Why is it so difficult to assert any sort of objective standard so that every interpretive moment doesn't become "art" in some ridiculously abstract sense.
Labels: art, beauty, society, truth
What beauty is and what it isn't: Dyan Cannon
Watching some netflix movies, I ran across this actress: Dyan Cannon. I cannot believe for the life of me that a woman this unattractive could become an actress.
Now, the temptation is to treat all women as inherently beautiful in their own right, but certainly we can be mature enough to admit certain aesthetic truths. Her entire face is structured oddly, her eyes are even unattractive. Later in life, she becomes
even more unattractive. I suppose this all makes me quite a hater among women reading this. Thankfully there are probably no women reading this.
Labels: beauty, cinema, film, truth
Shameless post: female beauty
I've had such a strange aesthetic in the past that friends have asked what do I consistently find beautiful. My friend Emily asked this about fabric and wardrobe, and it led me to try and define it a bit better, an ongoing process. However, when it comes to physical beauty, many of the same definition challenges come up. I've long said that tall brunettes and redheads were the most beautiful in my eye of the beholder estimation. I'm not exactly sure why that is, or where it comes from.
In particular, lately I've run across both
Katy Perry and
Christina Hendricks who are both very attractive. Both seem tall from the pictures, and also have large eyes, green or blue eyes, and a slender nose that isn't a button but is graceful and elegant. Both also seem to have a very nice complexion overall. So, in order to better rationalize my peculiar proclivities in beauty, I'm still trying to define what I think is consistency.
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Katie Perry: Provocative and yet, quite attractive |
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The simply stunning Christina Hendricks |
Labels: beauty
No movies will be made about the causes of the credit crisis
So, the credit crisis might start reaching people as serious
now that Deutsche Bank is backing out of $450 million worth of Paramount's film financing. However, with any crisis, as Morton's Youth Leadership School teaches us, comes both danger and opportunity. And so, what is the opportunity here? Well, when one considers what I consider a general dissatisfaction with Hollywood, a recognition that their movies have for years been substandard and wanting, along with the writer's strike, a possible actor's strike, and skyrocketing costs and salaries: conservatives ought to capitalize on this chaos by producing truly great movies, such as
Bella. Several years ago, I heard various conservative schemes to make Dallas the conservative Hollywood, and I met a fellow in Louisiana who was going to try and spur conservative, Christian and good movies in the Bayou, but both schemes seem to have lost traction. There will never be a better time to give Americans what they really want: great, wholesome movies about real issues, topics, leaders and heroes. If there are any billionaires reading, please contact me and I'll spend your money wisely.
Labels: art, beauty, cinema, conservativism, culture, film, truth
Liturgical Design Oppression
We ought to end the Protestant Occupation of our sacred Catholic places, namely in the design and architecture of our churches. Michael Rose wrote a wonderful book called "
Ugly as Sin" which I would highly recommend to anyone. It seems as though the constant theme is that Vatican II misinterpretations have given rise to liturgical anarchy.
This quote was very telling, from a liturgical design consultant Fr. Vosko, part of
this article from
Catholic Culture which is actually taken from
the Wanderer.
During his lecture, Fr. Vosko expressed his preference for the church-in-the-round model, saying circles — citing Stonehenge, Indian tepees, and mandalas as examples — are powerful symbols, as is the labyrinth. He also defended Corpus Christi Chapel's movable bare wooden cross, which he described as a "powerful totem that puts us in touch with that which can be."
He told his audience that when he is retained as a consultant for a parish renovation, that "sometimes you have to strip away things ... that get in the way, things that are just habits."
That which is being stripped away, obviously, is any tradition or Catholicism. And I was also somewhat shocked to see that Michael Rose was offering no exaggeration in his "Ugly as Sin" book that many of the Catholic design consultants are really Protestant ones as well. You can see that for yourself
here, and even the ones that tend to be more "Catholic" are still
falling short of the majesty of the house of God. The tendency to make them meeting places rather than sacred spaces seems too tempting for the designers.
I'd like to further flesh out Rose's thesis, compare some local churches which are both good and bad, and really define what I'm referring to here. Perhaps in some small way the way to a beautiful future is through future beautiful churches. And as Lauren Conner once quoted to me, "beauty will save the world."
Labels: architecture, beauty, Catholicism, Church, design, truth
