My friend Alyssa
I have had a long-running dislike of so-called "Ayn Rand" and her silly theories and writings. Though she's got kernels of truth in some of them, overall she's just an empty woman.
So, I made this graphic to express my thoughts on the matter and thought you might enjoy it:
Labels: Ayn Rand, imagery, objectivism, truth
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
Angry Atheists
I accidentally ran across
this blog, Leviticus 19:19, which displays about the same level of anger and hostility that I've seen from other atheists. It's amazing to read the posts, and see the pain and wounds this person obviously carries with them. They obviously have been let down in the past, been hurt, and had reason to question their faith and have fallen away from it. Having been through the same journey myself, I hope their road leads back to Rome, as so many others have.
Labels: atheists, God, society, truth
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
