Naked or Nude? Museum of Modern Art: "The Artist is Present,"

Artist: Marina Abramovic

Exhibition features 38 live totally naked/nude performers intermixed with photographs and videos and other Art forms.

Did you see the Subway Ads for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)? Did you look at the Ad and turn away because it is an Ad and is in the subway and there is so much being put in front of your face when you just want to get to where you want to get to without having to absorb this event, movie, t.v. show concert or Bud or Pepsi or whatever appears from week to week.
If you are like me and want to shut my eyes because I haven't recovered fully from a too short night's sleep and I don't want to go where I am headed then you didn't respond to the Ad the way the MoMA would have wanted. But don't stop there!

Friday nights are free, compliments of Target Stores, their give back to the community through Art at MoMA and I recommend you see the current exhibit.

It is art taken to yet another new level, consistent with the world in which we live where reality and virtual reality mesh into indistinguishable sights and where there is so much stimulation to absorb that we don't interact anymore. We don't touch. We sit across wide tables and stare at one another or reach out to slap one another. We step over the remains, human remains thrown into a pile as in France in the Catacomb and we look not down at the dried out Tibia bones but up at the dancing woman, the man with consternation upon his face both reflective of how we avoid the horror in our world, that we have created albeit often inadvertently.
,
The exhibit has been made possible by the Young museum activists and the viewers were young; the gray hairs or obviously died hair to mask the gray rather than make a statement on hair style were few and far between.

This is an exhibit that shows us how advanced our technological development has come that we can not readily discern the difference between real and not real. We are forced (for art's sake) to walk between two naked women and somehow viewer after viewer does this without physical contact with them and without looking into their faces, seeing their eyes, discerning their feelings towards one another. We become invisible in the process of walking between them because they somehow are invisable to us. How can this be? Two naked women standing almost touching us and we do not see them as we pass between them?


It is the incredible power of this artist that she has made us part of her statement, forced us to be even though we, with the power of foresight, might not want to be part of the problem.


What else can we ask from art than to be included into the work, to force us to see our reality differently yet as an united problem

This is an exhibit with power, with tremendous emotional impact. It has all the ingredients that art should, must have to live on.


Linda Zises

Ladiesfilmclub@blogspot.com
WBAI Radio
Crticalwomen.net

Murder in Times Square: Harbinger of days to come?

Easter Sunday/Monday A.M.
Commentary by

Linda Zises
WBAI Radio

Fact:
"During those "bad old days," annual murder rates (in Times Sqaure) were well into the thousands. In 1975, the city reported 1,631 murders. The rate climbed steadily through the next two decades, reaching 2,007 murders in 1993. Last year, by comparison, the number was 471".

The murder rate isn't in the thousands anymore and culture of fear has been quieted by the overwhelming presence of police seemingly everywhere within the theater district.

Mega glamorous neon signs and moving video cameras larger than the human imagination have replaced the porno shops and sleaze bars and even the smoke filled chess club is gone.

Before the 1990's when the Queen of England still owned/controlled the Times Square Real Estate her absentee ownership became a problem
for the mecca of world culture. But today, all is cleaned up. Sort of............

As with all make overs they are only skin deep at best. And with the increase of anger towards the failing economy where else for the young to vent their spleen, to let out the pressure of their future dreams gone sour than in the heart of the financial/cultural world. The Times Square pedestrian mall seems a perfect place to stage a scene, to make a point, to be heard.

Computer giants hunger for more. This time it's Apple

good article on Apple's latest PR job and greed.


http://www.genjipress.com/2010/04/bad-apple-dept.html

Discussion : The Religious Left: Where is it?

Monday, April 12, 2010
Where's the Religious Left?

By Sikivu Hutchinson

The intersection between the black civil rights movement legacy and religiosity has produced a curious schism in African American communities. While the African American electorate remains politically liberal it is socially conservative on so-called values issues like same sex marriage, government vouchers for private schools and (to a lesser extent) abortion. The 2008 debate over same-sex marriage in California underscored this tension. After the passage of Proposition 8 some same sex marriage advocates scapegoated African Americans. Initial news reports from the Los Angeles Times and CNN touted up to 70 percent African American support for Prop 8. Branded as moral hypocrites, blacks who supported the measure were accused of betraying their commitment to civil rights. After the dust settled from the election season, the oft-cited statistic of overwhelming black support of Prop 8 was refuted by a study by Fernando Guerra from Loyola Marymount University.

Despite this timely corrective, opposition to same-sex marriage among African Americans has remained relatively solid. The religiosity of African Americans and long-standing black hostility towards designating gay rights as a civil right has made same-sex marriage a third rail issue among many straight Christian and Muslim African Americans. During the campaign, progressive political analysts of color often drew parallels between prohibitions of interracial marriage prior to the 1967 Loving vs. the State of Virginia anti-miscegenation ruling and prohibitions of same-sex marriage. For the most part these analogies were rejected because of the belief among African Americans that discrimination against gays and lesbians is not comparable to racial discrimination. Proponents of this view point to the absence of Jim Crow laws expressly barring gays and lesbians from housing, education, employment and other major sectors of public life. Some go even further, arguing that homosexuality is a European “aberration,” imposed upon people of African descent post-diaspora.

Unacknowledged homophobia within African American communities, coupled with biblical literalism, make Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) African Americans largely invisible. Moreover, the perception among some African Americans that white gays have opportunistically appropriated the civil rights mantle exacerbates black suspicion of the LGBT community. In this charged climate it is often difficult to assess the legitimacy of grievances about conflating anti-gay discrimination with racial discrimination.

Yet the fact remains that scores of LGBT worshippers and closeted church officials pack Black Churches every Sunday and worship elbow to elbow with their straight brethren. And these very same congregants see their families, relationships and right to love marginalized if not demeaned in biblical scripture and in the homophobic rhetoric of “fellowship” that some congregations promote. During and after the election season, a few progressive black ministers and church figures—most notably the Reverend Eric Lee, the Southern California head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference—spoke out in opposition to Proposition 8. But their viewpoints were not widely aired, and the general impression of black hostility to same sex marriage solidified in the public mind.

The failure of black religious progressives to critique the destructive role that fundamentalist religiosity plays in contemporary skirmishes around civil rights points to a moral crisis. When it comes to “values” issues in the U.S. the most visible and vocal constituency is the attack dog army of the Religious Right. Unfortunately, national politics has not yet produced a vigorous counterpart to the Religious Right on the Left. According to writer Frederick Clarkson, the Religious Right has been so successful because it has mobilized a broad Christian constituency around electoral politics. Since there is no comparable organized coalition on the “Religious Left” the Religious Right has been able to singlehandedly define, frame, and distort the debate about the role of religion in the so-called “public common.”

This leadership vacuum has allowed the Religious Right to hijack public discourse around “values” issues and fetishize morality from an ultra-conservative stance. The absence of “counter-voices” has eclipsed secular-religious coalitions such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Perhaps the most pernicious Religious Right strategy has been its appropriation of the language of civil rights in its campaigns against choice, church-state separation and gay rights. In this regard, black religious progressives could play a vital role in shifting the terms of debate from the shrill reactionary anti-civil rights agenda of the Religious Right to a more social justice-oriented compass. Proposition 8 backers such as the rightist Mormon Church were able to exploit the absence of moral leadership on the Religious Left by appealing to the most conservative elements of both the black and Latino communities.

In this regard, the absence of high profile national mobilization among the left-leaning faith community is not an insignificant point, because it effectively allows the Religious Right to assume the moral high ground on public policy. Perhaps the only figure with national stature on the “religious left” who has been consistently vocal in his opposition to fundamentalist Christian orthodoxy has been Jimmy Carter. Clearly, if a comparable coalition existed on the Left the Religious Right’s moral and political influence on such issues as abortion, same sex marriage, stem cell research and intelligent design would be balanced by dissenting forces. That such a coalition does not exist underscores the bankruptcy of organized religion’s monopoly on morality and moral principle.

"Where is the Religious Left?": Another point of view


..................In my Opinion...................

The cause of the rise of the religious right is two fold
When G.W. Bush came into office (power) his first and foremost agenda item was the religious right:. to bring religion back into the government and to do it by paying real money for social services to religious groups to be funneled to their members.(Pres. Obama has continued this agenda)

Additionally, the fuel that keeps this fire burning comes from the economy. To not link up the real issue of a looming permanent and ever worsening economy which cries out for "someone" to blame is to take the sails out of a movement that has the fanatical strength of desperate people unable to recognize when their cause is being addressed because they are so caught up in pain they need to be soothed(by an all loving/caring God) and told that once the enemy is removed they will be able to recapture their lost past ie the glories of the Tea Party Movement

But this return to the simple, less government, more God position will never happen and that is the source of the appeal to the emotionally driven religious right that focuses on the here after over what happens in our life times.

And against this strength, any group or people who do not cater to the fanatical will pale in comparison. They can't rise to the occasion because they are impeded by sanity and reality. But that can change. Poverty can do serious damage to the status quo.

The question is, which movement takes over first, the religious right or the revolutionary left,,,,,,,,,both recognize the same enemy. The Capitalist driven Government.

In my opinion Isolating the problem in terms of Black versus non Black is self defeating. We need Identity politics within the mass movement. Right now there is no discernible movement. But the buds are there.

Linda Zises


Linda
I've written a book chapter addressing G.W.Bush's role in the emergence of the Religious Right via his faith-based initiative agenda, etc., but I am also interested in the complicity in and involvement of black religious "leaders" in that agenda.

Historically there has been this misperception that Afr-Am religious leaders are progressive/civil rights aligned, when many of their positions on so-called values issues are actually closer to the fundamentalist Religious Right (RR) (as evidenced by the same-sex marriage debate, equating abortion with/genocide, the status of black women in the church, separation of church/state, school prayer, etc.

Hence, the overriding issue is the absence of a visible national progressive moral "vanguard" that could counter the moralistic propaganda and activism of the RR on the high octane "values" issues which they've used to hijack public discourse.

Sikivu Hutchinson

City of Your Final Destination: 2008 Opens April 16 in New York City: Cinemas Paris Theatre.

Directed by: James Ivory

Women Rock!

Plot: Based on Peter Cameron's 2002 novel and adapted by Ruth Jhabvala, the story follows a young American academic, who attempts to persuade the reluctant heirs of a celebrated Uruguayan novelist to allow him to write an authorized biography of the writer.

Excellent Acting! Well worth seeing this film twice to appreciate the skill, the extraordinary talent of:
Anthony Hopkins who portrays the writer's brother and Laura Linney who plays the writer's widow. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Omar Metwally, Alexandra Maria Lara, Norma Aleandro and Hiroyuki Sanada

In this world of state of the art productions the City of Your Final Destination falls into the category of perfect. It is brilliantly photographed, with studied perfection of scenes and execution of perfected film techniques. The acting is compelling, magnificent at times with every jester, every word, every nuances just right.

It isn't just Anthony Hopkins who is the king of acting in this film. The women are really strong in their ability to perform which highlights the rolls of strength that they bring to the screen. They are hard to forget even after the film has ended

What this film captures is the intellectual mind but the content, the plot is weak. I really didn't connect with anyone emotionally. There wasn't a character on the screen that I cared about as a person, as someone I would want to know more about.
I think F. Scott Fitzgerald's' The Great Gatsby did it better but that is in line with the film itself. Siting an intellectual reference to review and critique a film is not ordinarily something I would do.
But here I am in the spirit of the film itself, not appealing to an emotional reaction but to an intellectual one

if you want to see a film that excels in every aspect except in achieving emotional connections I recommend, City of You Final Destination. This is one film where women triumph over men.

Linda Zises
WBAI Radio
Criticalwomen.net

Madison Square Garden Job Fair: Outside looking In

New York Career Fair in Partnership with AARP April 12, 2010

Offers four hours to be seen, to give your card to whomever(if you have one) and learn first
hand the paucity of jobs for mostly middle aged BLACK Americans.
What a horror!

The real unemployment scene unfolds with the wrap around the block lines that don't let up and upbeat music blasting to escort the hopefuls into the huge sport's arena.
Resumes in tow and dressed to impressed these men and women form the bedrock of what is wrong with America

We are on the downward spiral of financial disaster; the disappearance of the middle class, with no cure in sight for what ails this country and many countries worldwide.

Today it is a job fair that brings hopeful/desperate people together. Tomorrow it will be bread lines.

Recruiters of Note
Army,
Navy
Air force
National Guard

They didn't include Prison Guards. Not this time

Keep the upbeat music blasting ............
Even though,
No Game today
at Madison Square Gardens.

Linda Zises
WBAI Radio
criticalwomen.net

UPTOWN: join the converstation

UPTWON
Brian Ackley

Stars:
Chris Riquinha, Meissa Hampton, Derek MAllister, Deirdre Herlihy

Uptown feels like a conversation, a long drawn out story between an husband and wife at the point where the honeymoon is over and reality sets in. In this case it is the husband who has grown estranged from his wife and poses the question to her, what to do now.

In the process of their exploration and decision making the husband and wife bring to light the preciousness of intimacy; how difficult it is to establish, and how difficult to maintain. This conversation is a necessary component of any meaningful relationship due to the onslaught of too much outside stimulation and devices for communication that don't require human face to face or voice to voice contact.

It isn't just the new devices , this computer included, and the cell phones and ipod and ipad's but the wealth of information that keeps growing is so time consuming that we just don't have time. Even if we are among the many without daily employment time seems to be shrinking rather than expanding in this modern technologically driven ever expanding world. Simply stated there is no room to just be. And the effort to be with someone else is getting to be close to impossible. Watching children with their parent's while the parent is on the cell phone is one of the most painful sights that gives credence to the importance of this film


Watching Uptown brings us all back to what it means to be human; to feel, to think, to interact in a direct meaningful way without props, without all that noise, a way of being with one another that if lost renders us dramatically less than human

This is a film that reaffirms who we are and what we need from one another..........A subject well worth focusing on.

Linda Zises
WBAI Radio


Uptown will have its East Coast Premiere on Wednesday night, June 2nd, 2010, at 8:15pm, at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC as part of the 2010 NewFilmmakers NY Spring Series.