Connections, art...

[Sandra Dodd]

So...
I'm watching special features from the Fifth Start Trek movie, and
there's a good example of some of the things we've been talking about
here about connections:

"One of the best educations for what we do as art directors is
history. Learning history, and the history of art, the history of
the theatre, politics, sociology, you name it. Because the history
of civilization is the thing that you have to call on—your experience
of that is what you have to call on—to create the environments that
you're going to be asked to create."

Herman Zimmerman
art director for several Star Trek movies and two or three of the
series.

Among many other things, he created the Bajoran sailing ship, that
didn't have an engine or anything. Commander Sisko and Jake go out
in it in one episode. It's beautiful.

I added this to a page that's only small, http://sandradodd.com/arts

The possibility of making a page that covers all of the idea of "art"
is slim to impossible, so I'm hoping for a variety of surprising
things. If any of you have suggestions for links or quotes, send
them on (here or privately).
Thanks!

Sandra
San...@SandraDodd.com (in case it doesn't show on all mail programs...)

[Sandra Dodd]

On May 28, 2006, at 4:23 PM, Sandra Dodd wrote:

Fifth Start Trek 

Start Rek.

Star Trek.

Stark Kreck.

Darn it.

[Heather Woodward]

My son listened to an Audio Book on the science of Star Wars. What is
interesting about it is that some things that seem really futuristic have
similarities to products already being produced and prototyped. Think
communicators vs. cell phones - and now the Nextel Walkie-talkie things. (I
do believe that is Star Trek though). Star Wars has so many political
innuendos that are really interesting to note. I couldn't help but wonder if
George Lucas was trying to make a point with the last movie and the last
election. Emperor Palpatine = George Bush?? Who knows - but the point is
that it gets you thinking about other things far beyond just the movie
itself. I too love to watch the extra features on the DVD's. The making of
the movies is so interesting that no matter what movie it is there is always
something new and interesting that I haven't thought of before.

Heather

[Robyn Coburn]

<<<< communicators vs. cell phones - and now the Nextel Walkie-talkie
things. (I do believe that is Star Trek though). >>>>>

I always thought that they missed a tremendous marketing campaign when the
flip type phones first appeared. Just a visual of Shatner flipping open a
phone and then looking at the camera and smiling. Too late now.

Robyn

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[Joyce Fetteroll]

On May 29, 2006, at 12:31 AM, Robyn Coburn wrote:

I always thought that they missed a tremendous marketing campaign when the

flip type phones first appeared. Just a visual of Shatner flipping open a

phone and then looking at the camera and smiling. Too late now.

In an episode of Boston Legal Denny Crane/Shatner flipped open his cell phone and it made the Star Trek noise. <g>

Joyce

[Sandra Dodd]

On May 29, 2006, at 2:57 AM, Joyce Fetteroll wrote:

> In an episode of Boston Legal Denny Crane/Shatner flipped open his
> cell phone and it made the Star Trek noise. <g>
>

I just love that show. In another reference, when his new wife
wanted to move to Hawaii, he said something like "And I'll just beam
myself to work in Boston?" (If anyone remembers the exact quote that
would be fun.)

Both William Shatner and James Spader are playing caricatures of
their own reputations as sexy ladies' men, but the real focal
attraction of the whole story is their friendship, which is deeper
and more personal than any of their doings with women (even that
short marriage of Denny Crane's). Their talks at the end have
summaries about morality and philosophy I haven't seen done as well
since the first couple of years of Mork and Mindy. Hilarity
ensues, drama, emotion, and then there's a profound quiet moment at
the end.

Sandra

[Sandra Dodd]

So I'm going through three shelves of books on Buddhism, mostly, to donate them to a place in Santa Fe doing Buddhist outreach with prisoners, and for every five I put in the giveaway pile (knowing that someday I will wish I had them all back, I know it) I keep one because I want to read something again, or quote it, or save it.

In a Pema Chodrun book called The Wisdom of No Escape, with my having just been reading here and at Always Learning, something jumped out at me.  Long quote and then comments:

-------------------------------

The first reminder [of four]  is our precious birth.  All of us sitting here have what is traditionally called a good birth, one that is rare and wonderful.  All you have to do is pick up Time magazine and compare yourself to almost anyone on any page to realize that, even though you do have your miseries, your psychological unpleasantnesses, your feelings of being trapped, and so on, they're kind of rarefied compared with how it could be in terms of being run over by tanks, starving to death, being bombed, being in prison, being seriously addicted to alcohol or drugs or anything else that's self-destructive.  The other day I read about a nineteen-year-old girl addicted to crack, nine months pregnant, whose life consists of shooting up and then going out to prostitute herself so she can get enough money to shoot up again.  She was about to give birth to a baby who was going to be addicted to crack.  That was her whole life; she would continue to do that until she died.  On the other hand, living a cushy life in which everything is totally luxurious is also not at all helpful.  You don't have the opportunity to develop much understanding about how people suffer or much sense of an open heart.   You're all caught up in the good feeling of having two or three hundred pairs of shoes in your closet, like Imelda Marcos, or a beautiful home with a swimming pool, or whatever it is you have.

The basic thing is to realize that we have everything going for us.  We don't have extreme pain that's inescapable.  We don't have total pleasure that lulls us into ignorance.  When we start feeling depressed, it's helpful to reflect on that.  Maybe this is a good time to read the newspapers a lot and remember how terrifying life can be.  We're always in a position where something might happen to us.  We don't know.  We're Jews living in France or Germany or Holland in 19367, we're just leading our ordinary lives, getting up in the morning, having our two or three meals a day, having our routines, and then one day the Gestapo comes and takes us away. Or maybe we're living in Pompeii and all of a sudden a volcano erupts and we're under a lot of lava.  Anything could happen. Now is a very uncertain time.  We don't know.  Even at the personal level, tomorrow, any one of us might find that we have an incurable disease or that someone we love very much does.

In other words, life can just turn upside down.  Anything can happen. . . .  Beginning to realize how precious life is becomes one of your most powerful tools.  It's like gratitude. . . .

---------------------------------------------------------------------

So here are my comments.  Lots of connections there.

#1, She's talking to people who have chosen to study Buddhism.  They gave up the swimming pools, probably, some of them to live in a monastery in Nova Scotia.  And she's talking to people who buy books from Shambhala books.  Those two groups are QUITE a self-chosen sampling of the world, and a focussed one too.  So that's not necessarily "good birth."  

The young crack mom is living in the moment, and she might NOT do that for her whole life.  That baby might not live, and it might inspire the mom to become the greatest rehabilitation counsellor the world has ever seen, and maybe eventually the head of a Buddhist monastery in... Newfoundland or somewhere.

Imelda Marcos (although the comment was probably  made just in passing, for the effect) didn't have two or three hundred pairs of shoes.  Imelda Marcos, WAY worse than Tammy Faye Baker, was living an expensive life of luxury in the midst of, and directly because of, the deprivation and sacrifice and suffering of those around her.  People who had no shoes at all were giving up salary and potential salary to maintain the upper echelons of a corrupt government in ways that NObody needs to live.  Imelda Marcos had servants to take care of her shoes.  Her shoes lived in better places than most people in her country lived.  

There are some amusing Imelda Marcos quotes here: http://www.thewilyfilipino.com/imelda.htm

-=-"I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty." -- 1987-=-

I found it when I went looking for the final shoe count.  She was a proven liar, so 3000 is more likely right.  

But anyway...

Shoes, a swimming pool and servants didn't keep her from being spiritual.  She was too busy to think about spiritual matters.  The Reagans liked her, so she must not be TOTALLY crazy.

Where was I?

Pompeii.

It was ash, not lava.  Just a technical point, but important in the long run.

-=-When we start feeling depressed, it's helpful to reflect on that.  Maybe this is a good time to read the newspapers a lot and remember how terrifying life can be.-=-

I would like to suggest VERY strongly that when one is starting to feel depressed it is maybe NOT a good time to read the newspapers at all.  Life sucks, and immersing yourself for a long wallow in those thoughts is really not a way to lift your spirits.

Now I want to go to the Bata show museum in Toronto.  It's kind of new, as museums go.  They have some of Imelda Marcos's shoes, and way better stuff too:

The museum's permanent exhibition - All About Shoes - examines 4,500 years of footwear history: early methods of manufacture, how footwear developed and its place in society. The exhibit includes an impressive selection of Chinese silk shoes, haute couture pumps as well as an animated display of celebrity shoes in the "Star Turns" miniature theatre.

-=-The hands-on exhibition is popular with all visitors, young and old alike. Interactive displays explore the history of shoe and boot making, including a comprehensive feature on the role of shoes in weddings, funerals and religious ceremonies from virtually every culture in the world.-=-

I didn't think sorting through Buddhism books to give away would lead me to know about a newish Show Museum in Toronto.  It doesn't surprise me, though.    And if Pompeii had been covered in lava instead of in ash, we wouldn't know as much about what kind of shoes they wore.  

And this:  "Beginning to realize how precious life is becomes one of your most powerful tools.  It's like gratitude. . . ."

It's not LIKE gratitude.  It IS gratitude.  It's appreciation of the moment.  Some people have no children in their lives on whom they can focus their warmth and goodness and generosity.   We're lucky!  We DO!

Sandra