TURQUOISE BOOK KITTY

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE LINK ADDED HERE

Smithsonian magazine is one of my favorites. Here's the link to get a paper-mail subscription OR read a bit online. The article about SLAVERY (presently about 2.3 million citizens of earth live as slaves) is of special interest.

LENI (LENI RIEFENSTAHL) by STEVEN BACH : CHRISTINE TRYZNA BOOK REVIEW

Christine Trzyna quick review... and a quote LENI is C 2007 by Steven Bach and published by Borzoi - Alfred Knopf This book asks the question "Was film-maker Leni a Nazi?" and attempts to answer it fairly. Leni Rifenstahl is known for her films that "glorified" the reign of Adolph Hiter and the Nazi's which today provide us historical footage. But Leni, who lived to be 101 and who, after being out of work for a long time after WWII, got back to work in old age, was an person who self invented all along. And so, are we to believe her protests that she was unaware of the atrocities? Leni went filming in Africa when she was in her 80's. She would have it that she was a rare person - a WOMAN FILM MAKER - at a time when few women made films. She would say that when she got the assignment she was sure to give it her best efforts, to fulfill the job description and advance her career. Who hasn't had a boss they didn't like but they kissed ass on? Leni used her careerism as her reason or excuse for fraternizing with Nazi's. She may have even submitted a faked genealogy to cover her own Jewish bloodline. The feminist me is interested in the issue of a woman having a career in the 1940's, especially a woman who was not of the class to be formally educated, but who had insane energy (to put it in modern terms) and was driven and ambitious, as well as willing to make her love interests useful to her career. Leni's work is controversial but she has her advocates who admire what she has pulled off at a time when film making didn't benefit from the technologies now assumed. There is another reason I took to this book. I have come to believe that the Nazi's came to power in a Germany in which there was great poverty - a horrible economy - and so the people wanted to believe the newest political messiah, even as his message turned ugly. Are we in danger of this in the United States today? The Berlin that Leni grew to adulthood in is described as so poor that entire families commit suicide rather than endure the cold and hunger while homeless... And this is what the author, Steven Bach, had to write on page 18 of the hardback. "The ripples grew larger with the daily struggle for survival. Postwar (WWI) food shortages and influenza hastened a breakdown in prewar morality. The pervasive mood was one of perpetual emergency in which opportunism of every kind flourished until, as one observer put it, "a kind of insanity took hold." In this volatile atmosphere, Alfred Riefenstahls (her father) - still unaware of his daughter's new obsession with dance - decided to sequester her.... no scheme could have been better calculated to provoke resistance in Leni, who thought of domesticity as drudgery is she thought of it at all..." Hilter accession to the office of chancellor in 1933 was thought of as "a seizure of power" though it was "not violent, illegal, or inevitable (page 98)... On February 27th the home of the German Parliament was set ablaze - arson (page 99) and what was called terrorism... It set the stage for what is called a "blueprint for dictatorship"... Page 100... "The decree read, in part, "Curbs on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, of association, and of assembly, surveillance over letters, telegrams and telephone communications, searches of homes and confiscations of as well as restrictions of property, are hereby permissible beyond the limits hitherto established by law." Such measure have found echoes in more recent times as responses to acts of terrorism, though Hitler's dramatic expansion of executive power, restrictions of civil liberties, and surveillance of citizens were openly detailed in the Nazi press." C Christine Trzyna

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER's OBAMA INAUGURATION POEM

"Poet Elizabeth Alexander invoked small moments and great sacrifices leading up to President Barack Obama's Inauguration while delivering her poem at the day's events. Obama had asked the African-American studies professor from Yale to compose and read...." CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE!

EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER FROM THE BEGINNING

"You see it's all clear. You were meant to be here...from the beginning..."

OVERCROWDED YOGA CLASSES, BEGGING TEACHERS, and PLEDGE DRIVES TO FINANCE IT ALL !

OVERCROWDED YOGA CLASSES, BEGGING TEACHERS, LATE STUDENTS

and PLEDGE DRIVES TO FINANCE IT ALL !

East Valley YMCA

by Christine Trzyna

My yoga class has become so popular it is desperately overcrowded and I've lost my sense of humor about this. No one can console me. Certainly not the woman who keeps coming in late, making me and some others move their mats and then strikes advanced poses - her foot fanned out at the end of her long leg, just about at my nose. Show off!

The noise of the mat movement breaks my concentration, my will to make the exercise class that is rooted in Hindu belief systems a spiritual one. No, I don't want to get chatty. I don't even want to talk to anyone before, during, or after class. I want to close my eyes, hear my own breathing, stretch my limbs and gain strength. Not compete. Not feel self-conscious. This hour and a half is supposed to be me stealing some time just for me to connect with my inner being and get away from what is pretty much constant bombardments of noise for the rest of the day and half of the night. Today we even skipped the "Final Relaxation" part, the reward.

Today we moved mats a couple times to accommodate late comers. The teacher, who I generally think very well of, was also late. Parking, traffic; how come I can get up early, take a bus, and walk fifteen minutes and be there before the class starts? A couple times despite all this I got to the studio late and saw that the class had begun. I wouldn't think to feel entitled to take it. I put near an hour to get to my class. Hey, I don't want to put anyone else out ! I guess you could say my manners are archaic. But do any of you manage to likewise keep your jobs and your friends by showing up whenever? One time a woman said "I have two kids." I thought "Too damn bad." Some of these people are driving expensive vehicles and expect a parking spot to open up for them at the last moment. They aren't on the bus or foot. Having children is a privledge these days, so don't expect me to feel sorry for your plight as a mommy! Sorry but chronic late comers are people who want ATTENTION even if they have to get it in a negative way !

As for my teacher, I hate to think it, but he seems to have bought into this idea that rudeness should be accommodated in some silly notion of "tolerance." How come we're all tolerating all the time? This wouldn't have something to do with the latest trends in psychology would it?

Today I realized that I'm pretty much getting what I can afford. Yes, a discount rate. But then photos of crowded classrooms in advertisements for other yoga studios that charge a lot more came into my mind's eye. Wow! How ridiculous that students, wanting to be seen at the most chi-chi studios are willing to pay a hell of a lot more to jam together. I wouldn't. I've never been one to cow-tow to living idols.

What does it mean to jam together? It means that there are a lot of movements that you don't dare reach to the fullest even when you can because you may hit into someone else's body with your body. It means that the teacher chooses postures that can be done in a small area, many repetitions of certain ones, to curb the possibility of body collisions. It means that when you bend over, your ass may be in someone else's face and visa versa. (Hope you showered.) It means that when I cannot hold my balance falling may mean falling on someone. It means I feel crumpled and cramped. It also means that the classroom gets over-hot from body heat for which there seems to be no solution for, no matter how many years this North Hollywood YMCA has been in existence, it seems absolutely no one on staff knows how to work the temperature thermostat and going from freezing to overheat quickly is usual, without the overcrowding making it faint provoking.

After the class is over, our teacher who attracts this kind of crowd, must beg for money. You might say "Just like in India," but that's an excuse too. By now, I've read, there are more people taking yoga in California than all of India. How can the YMCA get away with attracting talented teachers who persevere with cranky students like me in their classes, AND NOT PAY THEM THE GOING RATE? Apparently, because they can. The YMCA thus becomes the training ground for teachers working through certification to be instructors who will move on once they are officially worth more money. I feel embarrassed that I can't afford to also tip the teacher but I think this is some kind of racket.

Why? Because of the pledge drives. It's nice that the YMCA can afford to send so many impoverished children to camps but apparently only by cutting the budget for adult classes. This means that the YMCA, which operates somewhere between a non-profit and a capital enterprise, is not succeeding as a business, at least not at this branch.

Yes, I have a decision to make. Stay and put up, shut up, or Go...

C 2009 Christine Trzyna

CHRISTINE TRZYNA QUICK REVIEW of THE DUMBEST GENERATION

THE DUMBEST GENERATION
by Mark Bauerlein C 2008
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin - New York- Publishers

Is the young generation (just now heading for college) really DUMB or simply ignorant of the ways of the work place? Bauerlein has it that the expectations of this generation are so out of sync with reality as to be unrealistic of what they have to offer the workplace and the world.

page 193...

"The attitude is even more harmful than the knowledge deficiencies we've seen earlier. An ignorant but willing mind can overcome ignorance through steady work and shrewd guidance. Read a few more books, visit a museum, take some classes, and knowledge will come. And unwilling mind, can't, or won't. It already knows enough, and history, civics, philosophy, and literature have too little direct application to satisfy. for many young Americans, that translates into a demoralizing perception problem, a mismatch of expectation and ability..... a national pathology...'

The author seems to believe that NARCISSISM is the key ingredient of the young psyche. And this comes from the education they received in which they are frequently complimented and told they are great. TWIXTERS have a rising statistical propensity to finish college and then go back home to live with their parents. Could the economy be to blame?

page 170...

"Instead of seeking out jobs or graduate studies that help them with long-term career plans - internships, for instance, or starting low in a company in which they plan to rise - they pass through a series of service jobs as waiters, clerks, nannies, and assistants."

Guess which part of the workplace is growing? SERVICE JOBS!

Bauerlein sites the TWIXTERS as most interested in SOCIAL NETWORKING... that means BLOGS and other Internet driven opportunities to reveal the self and make connections.

I think each generation has its ways. Perhaps the Twixters were born to negotiate socially.

EXCERPT from I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR - ANDY WARHOL

Page 167 G: is there a market for your films in colleges? W: Yeah, that's where we get most of our films shown. I think movies are becoming novels and it's terrific that people like Norman mailer and Susan Sontag are doing movies now too. That's the new novel. Nobody's going to read any more. It's easier to make movies. The kind of movies that we're doing are like paperbacks. They're cheaper than big books. The kids at college don't have to read any more. They can look at movies or make them. 

I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews Thirty Seven Conversations with the Pop Master Edited by Kenneth Goldsmith (individual writer-interviews are named in these excerpts). From an interview with Joseph Gelmis in 1970.