Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Dante et Jung, revisited

celebrating the birth of Dante... 21 May 1265

some of my thoughts that I have been drafting on Dante to date:

in current reading of Dante I note the "shades" in Dante and "the shadow" in Jung. Always loved Jung's Mysterium on alchemy and noticed Dante cites the "vessel".. writing in that critical gnostic era of the Holy Grail. Havent read Dante in ten years and my first thought was of Walter Benjamin.. connections/references/meanings. poets of history


DANTE:
b 1265, d1321
Dante a Guelf, of Pope, versus Ghibelline, of Emperor


Commedia set Easter 1300 (Jubilee Year, 1300)
-read Nov/Dec, 2000 post Sarfatti-


INFERNO

Canto I: amazing statement in the woods..
savage animals

II with Virgil....start
“Amor mi mosse, che mi fa parlare,” “love has moved me, and makes me speak.” ahh to fall asleep with the universal thoughts of Dante moving in my head.. c'es magnifique 
identity: Paul or Aeneas? Jung personality 1 or personality 2?  
the divided will

Canto III to Hell, met Charon
Canto IV the unbaptised; Monsters @ each circle entry.
pre First  of Hell still light, quiet.
Reading Dante "Comedy" again.. thank you Pope Francis, no doubt those in the first circle of hell should all be in heaven now!


Canto V 2 o yet first, illicit love re: Boethius
Canto VI 3o Gluttons, in cold, rain & snow.

Canto VII 4o Avarice: weights crush down on each other;
Anger -smiting each other dark & marshy;
Fortune.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/11/18/recapping-dante-canto-7-or-hell-by-the-numbers/

Monday, April 21, 2014

Canto 3

Canto 3: Remembrance Day needed for the millions of women and children killed, raped and/or abused from American policy.
I can fall asleep to Harry Potter playing and know good will win.
With American GOPers, I expect another Reichstag fire if they could. Perhaps a tanning machine overheat from Boehner and Virginia Foxx.
Some days visiting agencies, doing placement planning with sites from the White House, UN, VA, OSI, hospitals, shelters, schools wherever the amazing cohort of students aspire to make a difference.
Contacting my fellow socialist communist fagloving athiestic radicals such as Prez Obama, Pelosi, Hoyer, Baldwin, Wasserman-Schutz, Polis, Nadler, Waters.
Still, Where were all the DADT and equality folks in the health care debate?.. well many are GOPers.
my wish lists in the hands of nuns like Network, with compassion.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

good Easter

Blessed to be alive and kicking this good Easter pre sunrise! the light returns. the crucifixtion and death gets filtered from my reading of Dante remembered this song which reminds me of the zeitgeist in a transforming epiphany moment.. so Tibetan Buddhist. played 26years ago April 30, 1988 in the Burgess dj set at the Last Party, the Saint. finding the meaningful is always just being open to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KGiwGn1d8

Sunday, March 30, 2014

dramatic not lucid dream of Newark as zeitgeist of the American city

just awake from a dramatic dream.. explanatory although I hope not lucid (prophecy). a bricolage: the intricacies of families, generations, community ties, networks and individuals here in my building (the ethnography of 562 apartments approaching 60 years in operation). A sweep of American history, sort of a Simon Schama tale in Newark (although Newark has Phillip Roth). Newark is the history of Jews in the United States, as well as Italians, African Americans and today Africans. A milieu of Amiri Baracka and the creative energies and possiblities of hiphop, house, music and art in Newark. Catholics in America. A diversity of lgbt homosexualities both in history and au courant. Beauty, meaning, intrigue, depth, zeitgeist, what a dream!  

Monday, December 30, 2013

Bravest generation

Brilliant David France documentary on first days of ActUp and TAG. The documentary is playing on PBS. It is so emotional to see the faces of so many who I knew those days who died. I will go back to the documentary to freeze frame to sort out more in depth. I was also happy to remember the passion and determination of people who were organizing to stop the genocide.

 I am in the background of the film at one of the innumerable ActUp meetings at the lgbt center. The meetings were amazing... hours, packed attendance, anyone could and did speak. Democracy in action. And out of the process people changed our world. It was a fight but it was to save lives. The center was in my neighborhood.. the NYC that no longer remains due to gentrification and Bloomberg.

Looking at the documentary I remember that we really are the bravest generation when I think of the overwhelming hostility, the deaths and fighting for our lives, being a survivor. Phoned and emailed friends, one of whom lived with David France in the East Village in the early 1980s, and another who worked with him at Newsweek. Such a small world but the advocacy world of NYC. Pointed out the documentary to neighbors none of who. m have much experience with the demonstrations of those times.. Bravo to David France for his dynamic history, and thank you for bringing back memories of a time, the love, the people, part of the zeitgeist of my youth.

My love and thoughts again to all of those I loved, the people who loved them, the heroic people who provided care. AIDS is also a story about compassion

http://surviveaplague.com/ on PBS tonight.


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Methods 27/28

 One of the measurements given to students in my Methods course. I am blown away by the brilliance of students always.      

     Videos of any nature may be analyzed in the lens of the following measurements.
1/  Identify theories involved. They may not be expressed, so think about the ideas being presented. Journalism, making documentary, is not science as it does not have the organizing principles of paradigms, so identify appropriate theories of a paradigm. Remember, -“In the absence of a paradigm ….all of the facts that could possibly pertain to the development of a given science are likely to seem equally relevant. As a result, early fact-gathering is a far more nearly random activity than the one that subsequent scientific development makes familiar”. –Kuhn, p.15.
2/ Discuss the effectiveness of the work in meeting its purpose (think “variables:). Please refer to my wheel schema.  From Walter Benjamin “fragments of messianic time scattered in the profane” in thinking of the epistemological and methodological questions in doing research. Now that is creative critical thinking!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Wxn1L9Er0&feature=relmfu

You can use videos from my bibliography:
video on my Mom:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQppEXGoSOk

This was submitted November 2013. 

Qualitative research attempts to explain the reasons for certain behaviors, attitudes, and motivations, Qualitative research uses unsystematic data collection methods such as, observations or documents that give meaning to our understanding of things. This ethnographic study gave insight into the life of Rita Ann Bernadette Harding Wright. Through visual sociology the use of photos told a story without words. It fulfills needs of the participants to express to others their gratitude and profound affections for their mother.   Pictures from her early childhood until her demise delivered a good description to the eyes of a person who might not have known her. With the exception of one (the funeral photos) all other images portrayed happy times which included celebration of her participation as an advocacy on mental health issues. The texture of the black and white photos captured and symbolized her important roles and lifestyle. For the researcher visual information is a very natural and reliable source of evidence, because the event(s) are moments which are frozen. Furthermore these photographs can be repeatedly reviewed. The letter she wrote to her Aunt Agnes and Uncle Ed sparked me to look up typewriters in the era of 1932. I managed to find this Vintage 1932 Remington Portable Standard Manual Typewriter:  [Inline image 1]
Death of a loved one is never a happy occasion. However through the amazing art of film the Wright family will always be able to keep Mrs. Wright’s memory alive with images to recall forever.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

charity requires courage but it is what makes us human

End of the day giving thanks to understand that charity and compassion is what makes us all human. The idea of caregiving I learned particularly in reading Ann Burack-Weiss. "True charity requires courage: let us overcome the fear of getting our hands dirty so as to help those in need" -Pope Francis

My Mom would so love Pope Francis. She was born on the birthdate of her favorite Pope, John XXIII. I have the mass card she kept of his papacy.  What more can I say about a Mom who was the first person ever thanked by her County and the State of New Jersey for just listening to people with special needs, those most of us run away from. 

This past year I have been blessed to see the love between my Dad and a brother with special needs as they slowly said goodbye in our Dad's fight with Alzheimers. I asked over 200 people to get a ride and finally wonderful journeys. 


Thank you for parents that I witnessed rally to show love, charity and compassion for others. Proud that they loved me.

Thinking of the son of a neighbor who died about a year ago. He was so crippled but he was the biggest help in her eyes. Thank you universe that I knew him and always have that memory of their family.

carpe diem in la manana