A bunch of “random” pictures, because – well, you should expect that by now…
But first, let’s see, today was Passover, the Full Moon, Maundy Thursday. Spent part of the day at the admitting office for the psych unit at University of Maryland Medical Center. No, I’ve not finally cracked up – a good friend of mine works there and I was checking out a nice Cannondale touring bicycle for sale. Also got a nice light woolen coat for riding and sleeping in the out-of-doors and priced a little tent and tarp. I guess I’m gonna go through with this all after all. Just started seeing the world differently today. It can take a little while for psychological changes to catch up to reality, I guess. It’s a good thing though. The show is going well, only a few weeks left now. I’ve been enjoying myself immensely through it all. Applied for a few more theatre gigs for the fall, once my summer stock obligations are over and done with. Really not sure where I’ll end up, but I’m not too worried about it. There’s that line in Twin Peaks, Hawk says it to Cooper: “You’re on a path. You don’t have to know where it leads, just follow it.”
Some light “explanation” for this image sequence: I grew up right near Walt Whitman’s birthplace on Long Island (though my town was actually named after another author, Herman Melville). Been following this path lately relating to poets and sort of their role in the landscape. Hard to put into words, but the monuments seem to tell that story well. In Baltimore, we have Sydney Lanier and Edgar Allen Poe. Rode by a street sign point to Poe’s house today. Whitman’s birthplace was maybe a mile from mine, and across the street (sort of) from it, was a garish mall named after him.
Following still yesterday’s thread relating to the “Death of Magellan” imagery, which apparently has been a favorite subject for many artists. I like the depictions of the “Indians” fighting back and overwhelming the conquistadors. It’s not something you see very much.
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15 Comments
Hallelujah, I love the “light explanation”. The slight pointers here and there make the pictures way more interpretable. more signal, less noise.
Ian, are you on Twitter?
No, I’d been avoiding it up til now cause I didn’t want yet another online presence to keep track of, but I’ve recently been re-thinking that.
I was actually hoping to have a chance to look into that (and Ruby on Rails) some time this weekend, but I’ve been having a really hard time getting any focused free time lately. It’s been a bit frustrating. Need to learn some bi-location techniques…
I have given a lot of thought to the Indians fighting back, why the Conquistadors won.
Daniel Pinchbeck talked about this in 2012. He thinks it has to do with individual consciousness. The Conquistadors had individual ego consciousness.
It sounds sick and imperialist, but I don’t mean it that way, but I think it was meant to be for the spiritual development of mankind. Its like a yin Yang type thing. It looks like good and evil up close but if you look at the whole picture its all one.
I think the pendulum is swinging the other way now, but I think back then it needed to swing away from tribal group consciousness. The price to pay for Western civilization has been alienation. Alienation from each other and alienation from the land and all the other plants and animals. But it was a price that needed to be paid for the futher development of human consciousness.
I guess I don’t really buy into that view of history, that such and such *needed to happen* in order for blankety-blank to happen – especially when the subject at hand is genocide. It strikes me as rather superstitious. Things, I think, just are what they are – especially when it comes to the behavior of groups, people and the use of technology. I don’t really think we’re advancing as a race. Are dogs advancing? Are mice advancing? Are trees advancing?
Everything is connected. So if anything is advancing then everything is advancing.
Everything might be cyclical. We advance to the point where we decline and start over again. We lose ground and commit genocide/have genocide committed against us then climb back up again.
Well, its a romantic idea to go back in time and root for the Indians. If you are just being romantic and artistic, then its probably better to not argue about it.
The way I came at it originally, is from Buckminster Fuller, talking about Conquistador types establishing Global trade routes and communications networks. These were people just wanting gold, but later these things can be used for good.
Its like bees just wanting nectar, end up pollinizing all the plants.
I’m not a romantic and the Native Americans didn’t need the Europeans to establish trade routes. The Europeans were just a new batch of customers for them when they showed up. During the Beaver Wars the Native Americans showed they could commit genocide against other Native Americans and destroy the environment just for the money just like every other race of people.
I mean a true cycle. Once you’ve hit a zenith you have nowhere else to go but down. At some point lost to history Cherokee history hit a zenith. We just don’t know when it was. If we knew the details we would have convincing theories about how they ended up on the Trail of Tears.
The Algonquin had a great culture but under the influence of the French (John Law Co.) Mississippi economic bubble (inflating the price of Beaver pelts)all the Algonquin (and other tribes)spread to their neighboring tribes was devastation.
The Plains States saw them come and mostly go when the Beavers were depleated. They left virtuallyu nothing but place names. The Illini and others are lost to history because of French fashion and poor political alliances.
We only know about the Algonquin civilization because of the peaceful influence they had on the early settlers, not their military conquests, which were equally impressive.
I suppose it depends on what is considered an “advancement”. Look at it from far enough away and all values of “more advanced” or “less advanced” end up looking kind of meaningless.
When mice had like horns and huge fangs and ate red meat and now they are cute and furry. That’s advancement!
A lot of dogs are more advanced now too.
I mean look at this rodent! Way more advanced now. Cave rodent
Genius dog