Light Strokes
[Photo By: KPA]
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
What is Writing?
Below is an excerpt from a post I wrote in 2013 about writing:
That is the joy, and agony, of art. It is a ruthless companion. It doesn't suffer laziness. Yet, that is how beauty is born.
"What is Writing?This is the same with all art. Artists will say that once an idea has emerged, one has to fix it until there is nothing more (humanely) possible to fix.
Half, maybe most, of writing is finding faults in one’s own writing, and fixing them, until one finds nothing more to fix. It is an immersion in one’s own flaws, and a constant, unyielding effort to ameliorate them." Lawrence Auster: March 18, 2013
That is the joy, and agony, of art. It is a ruthless companion. It doesn't suffer laziness. Yet, that is how beauty is born.
Monday, February 18, 2019
Friday, February 15, 2019
Dies Irae
I have a theory that Canada's cities will implode. I have written about this in many posts (see my "multiculturalism" and "immigration" categories). Multiculturalism, which was supposed to bring people together and form one happy utopian global family, has alienated people altogether. Offspring of immigrants (those "Canadian-born" hyphenated Canadians) on whom great hopes were bestowed to build that wonderful multicultural utopia, are clinging together, since on personal cultural levels they have nothing to connect them to the "main" culture.
I recently sent bold and frank letters to relatives that they return to their homeland to live authentic and happy lives AS ETHIOPIANS, rather than in this forced cultural hot pot. My message has actually resonated.
So what happens when this stewing war starts to boil over, in five years, thirty years? I bet on sooner than later.
Mississauga and Toronto are now cities of enclaves. People gravitate to neighborhoods of their own ethnic makeup. And those who have settled in some multicultural hub do so because of mortgage commitments, or their children's high school, or simply because the neighborhood appears to be nicer, cleaner, more convenient, with attractive parks and convenient shopping centres.
In our building, there is no cheerful "Good Morning" or "Good Evening" as one enters the slow and often crowded elevator. What occurs is silence broken by some cell phone conversation in Urdu or Cantonese, often loudly, and clearly showing the cell phone converser couldn't care less about the rest of the elevator's riders. They don't understand what he's saying anyway, and he shuts them out of his radar and continues with his uncouth, careless behavior.
And it is the same with actual conversations, when they do occur. Those talking to each other do so in their country of origin's language, loudly and without regard for anyone else. For example, I could be between such two people, and rather than move to get closer to each other, they will talk over me loudly and confidently, as though I don't exist.
And the same with apartments units. The building was built about twenty years ago when Mississauga was erecting high rises to accommodate a greatly increasing immigrant influx and was choosing Mississauga for the much touted "farmland" and open space.
Walls are cardboard thin, which makes these sound insensitive residents' telephone conversations from China or India all the more grating. These calls are often during the evening hours (time difference?) when one would expect one's home to have some peace and quiet in preparation for the long night of sleep ahead.
Air conditioning and heating systems are dated and archaic (and badly constructed) that they churn out air through groaning turbines. Ventilation is ineffective in neutralizing the heavily spiced foods that permeate through the hallways. And structures both superficial (wall paper) and internal (the heating system) are deteriorating, despite the regular maintenance that takes place and which constantly disrupts life in the apartments and the building as a whole.
At one point I blamed the inhuman multicultural system that made Canada (and Mississauga) into this ghettoized Gomorrah.
But the residents are fully to blame.
There is something profoundly opportunistic about people who moved thousands of miles away to come and live in the land of plenty: in Canada. They left relatives, a cultural network, familiar landscapes, their gods and idols to live in a country which gives them much in material goods and benefits. Their children can go to school for free in some of the best educational institutions in the world. They can shop in clean and fully stocked grocery stores where fresh produce is available year round. And if they have monetary problems, and most are likely to, even extending to their "educated" children, there is a generous welfare system to hand out their monthly dollars as it takes the funds from the society's purse.
How long will this last, is the question.
I predict not for long.
Perhaps God's wrath will manifest itself as it periodically has. We might get a flood of Biblical proportions.
Or there might simply be an internecine warfare, slow at the beginning until it explodes into something big and destructive.
We have already started this warfare, if behavior in elevators is any indication. And I think it IS an indication.
And God might be preparing us for that clean slate, a new beginning, to rebuild a city, a land worthy of His name.
We should, we must, prepare.
Zephaniah 1
1 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord.
3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham;
6 And them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him.
7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
11 Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.
13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
14 The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Dies Irae, from Mozart's Requiem in D Minor (Text)
La Chapelle Royale Collegium Vocale
Orchestre Des Champs -Élysées
Philippe Herreweghe
Thursday, February 14, 2019
From the Back-Window '291'
From the Back-Window '291'
1915
Platinum print
Dimensions: 24.5 x 19.4 cm (image) 25.2 x 20.2 cm (paper)
Alfred Stieglitz Collection [more information here]
291 Gallery, Promoter of Modern Art
Stieglitz himself became editor and publisher of Camera Work (1902-17), Photo-Secession's high-quality magazine - which rapidly became an important forum of modern art - and also staged numerous exhibitions in partnership with Steichen, with whom he set up the venue "Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession", in 1905. It soon became known as "291" after its address on Fifth Avenue. Through his writing, exhibitions, and other social networking, Stieglitz became a strong supporter of creative photography, as well as avant-garde art generally, and went to great efforts to inform modern artists in America, about the latest modern art movements, notably Cubism (1908-14), Futurism (c.1909-14), Dada (1916-24), as well as works by modernist 20th century sculptors. Indeed, during the decade 1905-1914, "291" metamorphosed from being an outlet for exhibiting Photo-Secessionist photography, to being the foremost centre for modern European and American artists. With the advice of Steichen, Marius de Zayas, and Max Weber, all of whom had contacts with artists in France, "291" became the first place in America to showcase works by the Fauvist Henri Matisse (1869-1954), the Post-Impressionist Cezanne (1839-1906), the naif painter Henri Rousseau (Le Douanier) (1844-1910), the Cubists Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Francis Picabia (1879-1953), as well as the famous sculptors Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). In addition, he also promoted representational and abstract paintings by modernist American artists including the master watercolourist John Marin (1870-1953), as well as Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Arthur Dove (1880-1946), Alfred H Maurer (1868-1932), Abraham Walkowitz (1878-1965), Charles Demuth (1883-1935), and others. [text source]
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Kodak, The Early Years
The photograph below is from the Ryerson University's Kodak Canada Corporate Archives and Heritage Collection at the Ryerson University Library. The image dates from 1922.
The image is part of the exhibition "Kodak Canada: The Early Years 1899-1939" at the Ryerson Image Centre's Student Gallery, on view from January 23 – February 24, 2019.
Fig. 1 Canadian Kodak Co., [Kodak brings your vacation back], ink on paper, 1922.
The image is part of the exhibition "Kodak Canada: The Early Years 1899-1939" at the Ryerson Image Centre's Student Gallery, on view from January 23 – February 24, 2019.
Fig. 1 Canadian Kodak Co., [Kodak brings your vacation back], ink on paper, 1922.
I used
The End of a Mad Century
September 16, 2010
By Joseph Sobran
ARLINGTON, VA — Well, the Y2K apocalypse has failed to occur. By now we were supposed to be devouring our children (or being devoured by them). The Third Millennium is off to a smooth start.
The Second Millennium ended with a pretty lousy century. Let’s hope we can put it behind us and move on. The three men most often named as “Person of the Century” — Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Albert Einstein — were benefactors, allies, and admirers of one of the bloodiest men of the millennium, Joseph Stalin. It’s as if the three most distinguished men of the Middle Ages had all been pals of Genghis Khan.
Even the phrase “Person of the Century” is a relic of the archaic feminist thinking of the twentieth century. Obviously the most influential individual of any century is likely to be male, but by the late twentieth century it was a breach of etiquette — an ideological code of manners — to acknowledge such things. As recently as this week I read an article arguing for homosexual “marriage” — another example of the outmoded twentieth-century attitudes some people still can’t let go of.
The twentieth century was marked by its smug belief in its superiority to all earlier ages. It decided that the immemorial morals and customs of mankind should be changed — as if that were even possible. The state would be the instrument of “building a new society” by means of force, propaganda, and economic dependence. Tyranny became “liberation,” degeneracy “progress.”
Time to move on
The state’s new mission was to cut all roots in the past that might enable its subjects to resist assimilation to the New Society. Those who managed to maintain their roots were accused of treason, reaction, racism, superstition, and hate. The state claimed to be “scientific.” It acted in the name of “the oppressed”: “the people,” “the proletariat,” “the masses,” “minorities,” “women,” and even sexual deviants (who were “victims” of the traditional moral code).
The twentieth-century state denied God and the existence of any stable human nature, both of which imply immutable standards of right and wrong that might limit the authority and power of the state. It claimed the power to eradicate all old laws and replace them with new ones that suited its purposes. Even written constitutions could be “reinterpreted” in keeping with the demands of the New Society. Plain words whose meaning had never been in doubt became “living documents,” arbitrarily endowed with wholly new meanings by state officials.
Old sins like fornication, sodomy, and abortion became new “rights.” Meanwhile, traditional rights like property ownership were severely curtailed. Through the state, with its boundless taxing power, some people could live off the productive energy of others. This was called “social justice.” The twentieth-century state became obsessed with preserving the natural environment, even as it demolished the moral, spiritual, and cultural environment of Christendom.
Artists, scholars, and philosophers became enthusiasts of the New Society, hostile to the “bourgeoisie” and “the middle class,” as the remnants of traditional society were scornfully called. Obscenity and obscurity, dissonance and ugliness, became hallmarks of twentieth-century art. Popular art, still bound by the market, found obscenity more profitable than obscurity, but rarely challenged the premises of the New Society.
Education, controlled by the state, became propaganda, called “consciousness-raising,” designed to make children submissive units of the New Society. The idea of “evolution” was adapted to teach children that the New Society was the inevitable development of human history. The mass-produced “intellectual” (the opposite of the traditional independent scholar) became a new social type, devoted to the fantasies of the New Society, which were called “ideals.”
Since the aims of the New Society were fundamentally impossible, resistance continued and partly succeeded. God and human nature still existed and asserted themselves through men like Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Pope John Paul II, who struck chords in millions and undermined the legitimacy of the New Society.
By the end of the century, men’s minds were still entangled in the tattered delusions of the New Society. But even “progressive” politicians found it advantageous to pay lip service to Jesus Christ and human freedom. Mankind may yet recover from the twentieth century.
The Reactionary Utopian archives
This column was originally published by Griffin Internet Syndicate on January 4, 2000.
Copyright © 2010 by Joe Sobran and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation. All rights reserved.
The End of a Mad Century
September 16, 2010
By Joseph Sobran
ARLINGTON, VA — Well, the Y2K apocalypse has failed to occur. By now we were supposed to be devouring our children (or being devoured by them). The Third Millennium is off to a smooth start.
The Second Millennium ended with a pretty lousy century. Let’s hope we can put it behind us and move on. The three men most often named as “Person of the Century” — Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Albert Einstein — were benefactors, allies, and admirers of one of the bloodiest men of the millennium, Joseph Stalin. It’s as if the three most distinguished men of the Middle Ages had all been pals of Genghis Khan.
Even the phrase “Person of the Century” is a relic of the archaic feminist thinking of the twentieth century. Obviously the most influential individual of any century is likely to be male, but by the late twentieth century it was a breach of etiquette — an ideological code of manners — to acknowledge such things. As recently as this week I read an article arguing for homosexual “marriage” — another example of the outmoded twentieth-century attitudes some people still can’t let go of.
The twentieth century was marked by its smug belief in its superiority to all earlier ages. It decided that the immemorial morals and customs of mankind should be changed — as if that were even possible. The state would be the instrument of “building a new society” by means of force, propaganda, and economic dependence. Tyranny became “liberation,” degeneracy “progress.”
Time to move on
The state’s new mission was to cut all roots in the past that might enable its subjects to resist assimilation to the New Society. Those who managed to maintain their roots were accused of treason, reaction, racism, superstition, and hate. The state claimed to be “scientific.” It acted in the name of “the oppressed”: “the people,” “the proletariat,” “the masses,” “minorities,” “women,” and even sexual deviants (who were “victims” of the traditional moral code).
The twentieth-century state denied God and the existence of any stable human nature, both of which imply immutable standards of right and wrong that might limit the authority and power of the state. It claimed the power to eradicate all old laws and replace them with new ones that suited its purposes. Even written constitutions could be “reinterpreted” in keeping with the demands of the New Society. Plain words whose meaning had never been in doubt became “living documents,” arbitrarily endowed with wholly new meanings by state officials.
Old sins like fornication, sodomy, and abortion became new “rights.” Meanwhile, traditional rights like property ownership were severely curtailed. Through the state, with its boundless taxing power, some people could live off the productive energy of others. This was called “social justice.” The twentieth-century state became obsessed with preserving the natural environment, even as it demolished the moral, spiritual, and cultural environment of Christendom.
Artists, scholars, and philosophers became enthusiasts of the New Society, hostile to the “bourgeoisie” and “the middle class,” as the remnants of traditional society were scornfully called. Obscenity and obscurity, dissonance and ugliness, became hallmarks of twentieth-century art. Popular art, still bound by the market, found obscenity more profitable than obscurity, but rarely challenged the premises of the New Society.
Education, controlled by the state, became propaganda, called “consciousness-raising,” designed to make children submissive units of the New Society. The idea of “evolution” was adapted to teach children that the New Society was the inevitable development of human history. The mass-produced “intellectual” (the opposite of the traditional independent scholar) became a new social type, devoted to the fantasies of the New Society, which were called “ideals.”
Since the aims of the New Society were fundamentally impossible, resistance continued and partly succeeded. God and human nature still existed and asserted themselves through men like Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Pope John Paul II, who struck chords in millions and undermined the legitimacy of the New Society.
By the end of the century, men’s minds were still entangled in the tattered delusions of the New Society. But even “progressive” politicians found it advantageous to pay lip service to Jesus Christ and human freedom. Mankind may yet recover from the twentieth century.
The Reactionary Utopian archives
This column was originally published by Griffin Internet Syndicate on January 4, 2000.
Copyright © 2010 by Joe Sobran and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Monday, February 11, 2019
Reclaiming Mississauga
[Photo By: KPA]
An early morning shot from my window. Lake Ontario is in the distance.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
"Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer"
Romans 12
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;
8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;
11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;
8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;
11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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