Respect Your Elders

On this historic occasion of the Papal visit to New York, I felt inspired to write about an aspect of our culture so often neglected - listening to and learning from our elders. One of the most wonderful things I saw come out of the Pope's wondrous journey was shown on the Catholic Channel, Telecare: a busload of children reflecting on having seen the Pope and how they'd been deeply touched by him. They were enthusiastically expressing how they'd never forget seeing him for the rest of their lives. I hoped they regarded the elders in their own midst with the same respect and awe.

It's been a long time since I felt any sense of Holy presence in New York, but watching the Pope pleading with God to bring "peace to our violent world," I could feel a great sense of spiritual weather emanating from the sky - like a spring rain cleaning the dirty air. He greatly moved the 9/11 victims' families at Ground Zero at what he called the "scene of incredible violence and pain" - and thus began the long overdue healing process for acute sorrow that just won't subside.

"God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world," the Pope prayed. "Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred."

On TV, at the same time, they were calling him a "Pope of great empathy" who'd known much pain and loss in his own life. The Holy Father is, after all, one of our elders and we all should respect his knowledge and experience and learn from him - no matter what our religion. This is a great Pope whose mission in life is to heal the masses and especially all the pain caused by the criminal priests of his own church. What he's doing is the most important work on Earth - spreading love, healing and peace throughout the world and, this week, thankfully, in America.

The Holy Father is truly an inspiration to all races, creeds, faiths and religions - a real universal symbol of Christ on Earth. He may be the only one who could have brought such hope to the victims' families of 9/11 or of the sexual abuse by degenerate priests; he minced no words, put on no airs - only reflected great sincerity and love, actually apologizing and promising to hold the bishops accountable. He is truly spreading God's light by using his life experience to teach us all about the ways of the world.

If our society valued the advice of our elders and listened to and learned from their wisdom, much in the same way as the Pope's messages are being analyzed and heeded - as well as inspiring - the enrichment of our culture would be immeasurable. But instead, many in America today look up to train-wreck idiots in the media who are pathetic human specimens; they emulate their bad behavior and perpetuate the downward spiral of the condition of our culture.

The older we all get, the more we seem to worship at the altar of youth. The elderly are neglected by those who should love them, bullied and patronized by those who should serve them, and exploited by those who should care for them. Our society has failed to tap the great resource of their wisdom. It doesn't matter how skilled they are or how much knowledge they have to impart; these days if you look old, you're put out to pasture. The average age of the population rises steadily; the older generations have more power at election time, are enjoying better health and are more affluent, yet the worship of youth continues and is reinforced daily by the media's fixation on making us all feel desperate to be younger, thinner and more attractive.

We used to venerate old age and experience. Winston Churchill didn't pack it in as Prime Minister until he was in his 80s. You will recollect that President Reagan took over as President - aged almost 70 - and stayed in office for two terms. He was popular and robust, even surviving an assassination attempt.

As vital members of our community, our elders deserve respect and honor, not neglect or humiliation. They possess life experience (both positive and negative) that can help others. "How far you go in life," taught George Washington Carver, "depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong - because someday in life, you will have been all of these."

Making fun of aging has always been a source of entertainment in comedy. Bob Hope, born in 1903 and still a star in the '80s, said, "I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon, and then it's time for my nap."

"I was always taught to respect my elders and I've now reached the age when I don't have anybody to respect," said comedian George Burns a few days short of his 100th birthday.

But what of the rest of us? Who do we have to respect? Respect is the idea that a person or idea deserves to be treated well. For example, treating one's elders with respect - as envisioned by the Ten Commandments - involves honoring those with more experience and wisdom. Respecting elders is a component of the teachings of almost every culture through the ages. And elder wisdom was the thread that held everyone together.

Today it's seen as a joke ... yet it's an untapped resource we should all consume in abundance.

The Golden Age of Comedy

I've always loved comedy. I remember when I was a kid laughing myself silly to the wonderful skits on The Carol Burnett Show - with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway - especially when Harvey could not contain himself and inevitably always burst into laughter watching his wonderful costar, Tim Conway playing the old man, the dentist and many other hilarious characters. I always loved him as the boss opposite Carol Burnett's dim-witted secretary who could never stop filing her nails long enough (pun! ha!) to figure out the intercom system from office to office. Or Carol's nagging Zelda with her husband George... how many times my brother and I put on skits imitating them to entertain our parents!

Tim Conway recently did an interview for a show on Telecare - the Catholic Channel - where he described his feelings about the Golden Age of Comedy versus today's comedy, which, as we know, is like day and night. He expressed the anxiety he experiences watching TV today with his grandkids and how embarrassing it is for him because of all the profanity, sexuality, etc. He said he just doesn't watch TV most of the time because you never know how far they'll go.

My favourite type of comedy has always been slapstick. One of the great masters of slapstick comedy is Dick Van Dyke. His wonderful show with Mary Tyler Moore came before my time, but I really enjoyed watching it in reruns when I was a kid and loved the clever, creative humour of that show. He was obviously inspired by the great grandfather of comedy, Charlie Chaplin, whose films are still so fresh and fun to watch today. I never tire of Modern Times (1936), The Gold Rush (1925) or The Kid (1921). I've always loved silent films and especially the silent clowns; they've always been a passion of mine and I studied them for years - from Buster Keaton to the talented Laurel and Hardy.

As a youth, I was passionate about vaudeville and studied the entire history of theatre and the lives of the vaudevillians from the turn of the 20th century through silent pictures to talkies. And, of course, there was the incomparable Mae West - one of the greatest comediennes of the 20th century who wrote all her own material for movies and stage!

I was also a huge Jerry Lewis fan as a kid and watched all of his movies over and over, laughing so hard; I thought I'd die. And, wow! Is laughter good for my soul! One of my favourite movies, other than the original The Nutty Professor (1963) was The Patsy (1964) - an all but forgotten but truly hilarious movie. I stayed up with Jerry all night for years watching his telethon... until it became so obnoxiously commercial that it wasn't fun anymore.

As I matured, I grew to love Woody Allen and his films. He taught me just how beautiful life can really be. When I was a youth, I just wanted to be a character in one of his movies - go to New York and marry him. My dream was to go to Elaine's and sit in that corner table, just like in the movie, Manhattan (1979). The first time I saw the uproarious film, Sleeper (1973) was a real experience for me - I thought I'd never laughed so hard... and I grew to love all of Woody Allen's great movies throughout the years; however, I still laugh out loud at his early comedies, such as Bananas (1971, Play It Again, Sam (1972), Love and Death (1975) and, in the '80s, Broadway Danny Rose (1984).

I'm sure my favourite comedian of recent years, Jim Carrey, learned a thing or two from these greats. Another very versatile actor who truly captured the idea of tragic-comedy and whose slapstick eclipsed just about every comedian who ever walked the earth, Jim Carrey's movies, such as The Mask (1994), Liar Liar (1997), and the characters he made famous on In Living Color were a sight to behold. That show was almost as great as the first Saturday Night Live with the original cast (never to be equaled) - John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, et al.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm no prude. But, as a rule, I'm not too crazy about bathroom humor or off-coloured jokes, but I love AbFab, (Absolutely Fabulous) and watched every episode! I recently saw Doug Stanhope's cable special, which was filled with a lot of political humour, and thought he was very talented and entertaining. And it's a shame about Mitch Hedberg, who died too young. He was such a wonderful talent!  I know they were all influenced by the late great George Carlin who I remember gave me such a laugh as a youth.

I don't care for loudmouth comedians who are so egotistical and full of themselves, such as Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Chris Farley, Kathy Griffin, Andy Kaufman, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, and others who are crass, rude and arrogant. Though I do like the recent works of Ricky Gervais and Russell Brand and find them quite charming.

They could all learn a thing or two from the great Jackie Mason who's currently finishing up his latest run on Broadway, hosts his own radio show and YouTube site, and stays current with the times politically and has never grown stale. He's a friend and a mentor and one of the best in the business! Like him, radio talk show host, actor and comedian, Dennis Miller's political and social commentary remains witty, smart and entertaining.

Jack Lemmon was my favourite actor all the time I was growing up. I remember reading his biography when I was a teenager and being so in love with him. He was a truly versatile actor - skilled at both comedy and drama. But I loved How to Murder Your Wife (1965) the most and wanted to grow up to be the character (Stanley Ford and his cartoon character Bash Brannigan!) in that movie played by Jack Lemmon and I loved the butler played by Terry-Thomas. What a character!

My Dad's generation influenced me to appreciate and admire the sweet clown, Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason and The Honeymooners, the marathons of which I still watch during the holidays. What pros they were and the slapstick was side-splitting. Like Peter Sellers who was so comical in The Pink Panther (1963) and A Shot in the Dark (1964); I still get tickled to death at his pratfalls as though I'm watching them for the first time every time.

In this day and age, we all need to stop and enjoy some good clean humor - it's healthy and invigorating. It makes you feel good and there's nothing like a good laugh.

Mystic-Art Miscellany

Featured Artist:
Bec Stupak - A fun artist to watch - colourful, lively and full of energy! Meet the girl behind the coolest hair you've ever seen. Bec is the epitome of the amazing life that waits for you if you follow your heart. She left a boring corporate job to be an artist full time. Today she leads a very colorful life traveling all over the world and having lots of fun. She says she defines herself as someone who is brave, creative, fierce, and passionate enough to follow her dreams... See her installation Radical Earth Magic Flower and her YouTube video. More...

Recommended Site:
NewYorkCool.com on the Arts

Recommended DVD:
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye (2003) - If you want to study photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson is a good place to start. This documentary is a wonderful, evocative biography of the man considered to be the greatest photographer of the last century. Cartier-Bresson’s life reads like a history of the century – World War II, China, Egypt, Mexico, India, Sartre, Matisse, Gandhi (minutes before he was assassinated) and Cuba all became subjects of his famous "decisive moment" style. Interviews with Cartier-Bresson, Isabelle Huppert, Arthur Miller and other luminaries are woven into this indelible portrait of an icon of both photography and the world.

Recommended TV:
HBO's Miniseries - John Adams Starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney - Giamatti and Linney are sublime! It'll inspire you to learn more about the U.S. and our founding mothers and fathers.
HBO's Series: In Treatment - As they say, addicting! This is an intense show to watch, very emotional and moving. Almost anyone will be able to relate to the doctor and his patients.

Avoid Like the Plague:
TMZ.com - pathetic in its depiction of the daily lives of celebrities. This guy, Harvey Levin, pays paparazzo to follow so-called celebrities and then they all sit around ridiculing them on this show. "Who did more damage to entertainment reporting in 2007 than Harvey Levin?... he and his gutter operation… almost singlehandedly transformed Hollywood entertainment reporting into a gutter-level street battle fueled by self-hatred, jealousy and anger, with no concern for what once determined greatness, excellence or fame…"

CNN Headline News' Showbiz Tonight - The anchors are so self-righteous and holier-than-thou and pretend to be experts on anything and everything in their nightly analysis of the lives of people whom they do not know. Their wild speculation and airing of gossip and rumors are ruining our society and though a lot of the people they talk about bring this kind of thing upon themselves, it's not fair that these talking heads make a living sitting around chit-chatting about personal lives as though they know what's going on and especially the way they act like they're above it all.

For a Laugh: Silliness

The Creative Mind Behind "Possibilities"

March 12, 2008--The Grammy's did an unexpected thing this year. They awarded Album of the Year to a deserving talent. Herbie Hancock won for River: The Joni Letters, a tribute album - homage to Joni Mitchell. He was up against a hard rock record, a country guy, a rapper and a druggie... Thank heavens someone at the Grammy's came to their senses! His 47th album was released on September 25, 2007 by Verve Records; guest vocalists include Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and Luciana Souza.

But Herbie has created such magic all throughout his career. In 2005, an intimate documentary was filmed about POSSIBILITIES - Herbie Hancock and his in-studio collaborations with a dozen formidable pop recording artists, collaborations that explore the unexpected, like jazz improvisations. The film is also about how Herbie’s unique worldview shapes a creative environment that encourages artists to step outside their comfort zones - into a world of creative exploration heretofore unknown.

The documentary opens with Herbie jotting notes on staff paper - the intuitive talent miraculously channeled from paper to fingers to instrument. He states emphatically that to be "pigeon-holed" is the death of creativity. His solution: exploring by collaboration.

POSSIBILITIES follows Herbie Hancock over a year and a half collaborating with musical icons Carlos Santana, Sting, Angelique Kidjo, Annie Lennox and Paul Simon, Christina Aguilera, John Mayer, Trey Anastasio and Jonny Lang as well as Joss Stone, Raul Midon, Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan.

The film also includes rarely seen archival footage of Herbie with the Miles Davis Quintet in 1962; Herbie’s classic video for “Rockit”; and never-before-seen duets of Herbie playing for peace in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2005 on the 60th anniversary of the atomic explosions. Hancock said then that he tried to use his music to spread a message of peace and help humanity, and that he intended to continue his efforts at the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.

His ability to marvel at the talent of those he chose to do this documentary with is amazing. "Each artist brings what they want to the table" - he from jazz. Their youth, their connection to the era in which they were born will bring new light, a new sound. "I feel that many of our systems that worked to encourage creativity are being challenged and there's more of an encouragement to stay where you are - don't make a wave. I think the word that captures the spirit of what I believe in and what I'm really about and what I hope to achieve is POSSIBILITIES."

"As children, we have that sense that anything is possible and we have that kind of openness; we're not jaded. The older we get, the more closed in we get, the more frightened we get, the more set in our ways we get because we're afraid of the unknown; whereas as a child, everything is unknown! What a beautiful place to reside in - in your own being - where you still have the wonder of a child."

In The Mystic Artist I wrote: "...artists, more sensitive than the average person, feel or intuit their way into other dimensions - magnetic fields that remain shut to the 'normal' individual. Artists realized the validity of the acausal factor long before physicists began..."

An artist's natural impulse that does not involve logical reasoning, reacting somewhere beneath the conscious level, allows the truest art to blossom from the seeds of the soul. Such quick and ready insight that is child-like, original and without preconceived notions, prejudice or artifice brings forth the most meaningful creations. Federico Fellini couldn't have said it better: "An artist is a child always and sees things with childlike wonder. That is what makes him an artist." The singer interprets a song effortlessly; the painter designs his canvas without mechanical caginess.

Living child-like by instinct and intuition alone is perhaps the most difficult thing to relearn once the harshness of life robs us of our innocence. But awakened intuition is a powerful force; though the fragile bonds of memory must run its natural course. We must search the silence of who we are; and the inward journey through the World of Chance can't be imagined because all at once, part of us is living in the afterlife... especially during childhood.

Recapturing innocence is the only way to truly understand what lies beneath the prisons of who we are, what we've turned out to be. We may relearn such innocence - lost aspects of ourselves - through children who are the only people truly able to live freely by instinct and intuition. "Dreams, imagination, courage and self-confidence - these are what really nourish us," states Robert Fulghum, a teacher and best-selling author. As we pass into adulthood, we lose our most valuable gift - instinct.

"To draw is to look.
To look is to see.
To see is to have vision.
To have vision is to understand.
To understand is to know.
To know is to become.
To become is to live."

We must, each day of our lives, try to LIVE - the way we did as children, the way we lived before we were not yet old enough to know we CANNOT. We are all unique individuals; yet we limit ourselves more and more as time goes by. We've got to go back to the Kindergarten of our lives to re-enable ourselves to channel through intuition, instinct and emotion.

Remember the image we once had of ourselves before we became aware of and conditioned by our own limitations. We must learn from great creative geniuses like Albert Einstein who made incredible breakthroughs in science simply because he did not accept what he had learned as being the absolute and final truth. In fact, he didn't get along in school too well and mostly refused to be taught. He was obliged to go back to the simple, original basics and reformulate from there. In many ways, he was just returning to "the conceptual world of childhood." It was his powerful intuitive wisdom that nudged him to close in on the new solutions the world was waiting for.

* * *

Herbie Hancock expressed it with such purity: "The strongest thing that any human being has going is their own integrity and their own heart. As soon as you start veering away from that, the solidity that you need in order to be able to stand up for what you believe in and deliver what's really inside, it's just not going to be there. So that's one thing. The other thing is to - and this is the advice I try to give to anyone - is forget about trying to copy someone else. Forget about trying to compete with someone else. Create your own pathway. Create your own new vision. There's an infinite number of ways to look at things, so find one that hasn't been done. Or find a way that something hasn't been done. I made a collaborative record. A lot of collaborative records have been done before, but I don't think they've been done like this."

Foreign Films: An Adventure for the American Movie Lover

March 4, 2008--I'm certainly no expert on foreign films, but I've loved them for a long time and I thought I'd share some of my favourites here with you on my blog. I always consider it to be an adventure to watch a foreign film - a way to exercise my brain, think more, expand my mind. It's like traveling to a foreign country and experiencing a new way of doing things, a new way of life. I've loved many foreign films as much as my favourite American movies and watch them over and over for inspiration.

But for most of us, it's difficult to stray from our 'comfort zone' and we tend to do and watch and eat the same things over and over. So we limit our lives and tend not to experience new things often enough to absorb all that life has to offer. Whenever I watch a foreign film, I feel like I've tasted a new flavor, heard a new song, discovered a new colour, tried a new dish...

The following are my top 20 foreign films... I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Au revoir les enfants (1987) - always moving!

Avventura, L' (1960) - haunting film noir.

Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast) (1987) - The great film from Denmark that is all about the sensual versus the spiritual sides of human nature. It is the story of an exiled French cook/housekeeper, Babette, who serves a pair of devoutly religious, elderly Danish sisters. When she wins a lottery, she asks the sisters if she could spend the money to prepare a Gaelic feast for them and their friends (in honour of their deceased father, the great minister and prophet). She wanted to show her appreciation for them having taken her in after she'd lost her husband and child. All their lives, the two women had worked as humble servants of the Lord, living simple lives, eating simple foods of the earth. On the night the ingredients for the elaborate French dinner arrived, the two humble women had nightmares about overindulgence in food - haunting visions of cows, turtles and wine. They considered the temptation of gluttony to be dangerous, even evil; for they'd been taught that food and drink were only to be taken for nourishment and sustenance.

"The tongue... the tongue, this strange little muscle... has accomplished great and glorious deeds for man... but it is also the source of unleashed evil and deadly poison."

But after the sumptuous meal had been eaten and the two women realized that Babette had spent all her winnings on the feast for them, and was thus doomed to live a life of service in poverty forever, they knew that whatever they had sacrificed in the way of earthly pleasures had been returned to them. Babette tells them, "An artist is never poor." She had, indeed...

"...transformed a dinner into a kind of love affair - a love affair that made no distinction between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite."

Dreams (Akira Kurosawa) (1990) - a rare bird and I love Scorcese as van Gogh!

Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) - enchanting! This is one movie that is so much fun to watch, you just can't get enough of Amelie! And she teaches you to really love life.

Fauteuils d'orchestre (2006) - also known as Avenue Montaigne, I saw this film the other night and truly enjoyed it. Very arty, fun and exhilarating.

Fellini - Satyricon (1969) ...and all the great Fellini films (too numerous to list here) - incredible, colourful adventures. His films of neo-realism (a movement in filmmaking characterized by the simple, direct depiction of lower-class life) are like wonderful dream sequences. Prior to the making of Juliet of the Spirits, he is said to have attended a séance in which he claims to have seen and spoken to the ghost of his dead father. He used his intuition in order to create; he felt ideas were less important than the feelings. "The world of my imagination is always closer to the truth than is the truth."

Federico Fellini's films are perfect examples of an artist creating scenes that work like dreams "in which some random comment made during the day can set off a resonant and haunting episode while one sleeps." He never dismissed dreams as mere fantasies; instead he allowed the dreamscapes he created to cut to our very souls. Sleepwalking headlong into dream-scenes, landscapes of the mind, our visionary hallucinations may show us a new reality. We become magical realists, surrealists "encouraging our imaginations to romp among the absurd allowing colorful, extravagant, inappropriate elements to invade the flatness of ordinary life."

Laberinto del fauno, El (Pan's Labyrinth) (2006) - I found this film to be so imaginative and creative; I was in awe throughout. It's about the forces of good and evil and life's choices. It was, however, very graphic and violent. A lot of bloodshed, gore, and slime... but really quite beautiful with its balancing contrasts. Hope, faith, trust and the search for truth bring lasting memories. It reminded me of my love for my mother, which was particularly touching. Contrasting beauty: the darkest darks and the lightest lights.

Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (1948) - great classic!

Moskva slezam ne verit (Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears) (1980)

Nóz w wodzie (Knife in the Water) (1962) - one of the masterful film noir works.

Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) - one of the greatest vampire movies - filming on location in Germany, Herzog uses dreamlike camera angles, mixing them with a rich color palette and masterful lighting.

Postino, Il (1994) - positively poetic!

The Tango Lesson (1997) - Sally Potter's wonderfully romantic dance film.

Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings of the World) (1991) - every musician must see this one!

Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (1974) - the ORIGINAL 'Swept Away' - funny, wild, relentless...

Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) - Brando's unforgettable 'Last Tango in Paris.'

Un homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman) (1966) - darkly romantic.

Vita è bella, La (1997) - the great award-winning 'Life is Beautiful.'

Volver took me back to a time long ago... to the days of Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, but with much deeper more genuine acting by the multidimensional Penelope Cruz. At times I was 'lost in translation,' however, it was easy to catch on via the wonderful acting skills of the cast and I was captivated every minute. What a gorgeous film! I haven't enjoyed a movie this much since Frida.

These are some of my favourite films set in foreign countries:

Artemisia (1997)
Chocolat (2000)
Frida (2002)
Lost In Translation (2003)
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Mystery of Picasso, The (1956)
Red Violin, The (1998)
Sophie's Choice (1982)
Stealing Beauty (1996)
Unbearable Lightness of Being, The (1988)

For lots of great movies, check out: My Recommended Films, IFC, and Sundance Channel.

At Oscar Time, Let Us Remember What Started It All

Feb. 21, 2008--Art is about externalizing internal patterns such as a stored memorization of times we once knew. To make the dream come true and show it as great as it appeared in the artist's mind, with all its charm, exciting vagueness and mystery is a feat in itself. "...with what real feeling, and anxiety, and suffering do we experience joy, and sorrow and alarm in our dreams!"

Few understood this and lived a life of preserving memories better than D.W. Griffith, the Father of Film.

"What a grand invention it would be if someone could make a magic box in which we could store the precious moments of our lives and keep them with us, and later on, in dark hours, could open this box and receive for at least a few moments, a breath of its stored memory."

...They did, of course, and the "magic box" allowed him to make his dream come true. We all have such a magic box where every element that makes us dream is stored. For the mystic artist, it is a treasure trove of discoveries from which to create.

When I first came to New York City in 1991, I read a story about D.W. Griffith (the Father of Film). It was about the time when he first came to New York City in 1906 as a starving actor. Just newly wed, he worked odd jobs (to eat) like scraping rust from the iron supports in the new subway for $2.25 per day! When I first got here, myself, it was much the same for me. I was full of creative energy, always writing something new - always new projects on the burner.

That particular story led me to walk through Manhattan, retracing the footsteps of Griffith in order to understand my own destiny. That particular story - with D.W.'s words, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford and the somewhat removed Chaplin - I sensed a familiar connection. It was no coincidence that upon my arrival in New York, I found myself wandering about between Fifth Avenue and Union Square quite often - Eleven East (a brownstone between 5th Avenue and Union Square) was where the "American Mutoscope and Biography Company" had been. That's the place where it all began.

Then I proceeded on to the big library where the paintings of the Astors are hung, only to discover later that had been the next place D.W. Griffith went when he began researching The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance - his two greatest films. He and his wife studied the history of America and even copied soldiers' diaries and letters. So, all his life to that point was preparing him to become a great storyteller in film - one of the first. And every morning, he awoke feeling that he was a "failure." In his early thirties, he was poor and married. "The writer in him clung to his craft, but the mature man knew that other action was necessary." I thought it must have been an exciting illumination to D.W. when he finally realized he was destined to be a pioneer and was doing things that had not ever been done before.

Paparazzi - For Good or Evil

Feb. 6, 2008--You'd have to have been living under a rock for the past few years to be unaware of the crazed lifestyle of the rich and famous and the ruthless pursuit of them by the ever-growing swarms of paparazzi. Most clear thinking individuals are dismayed by the behavior of both celebrities and their so-called photographers; however, what they do has become a big part of our culture and it's worth a moment or two to consider possible solutions to this ever-growing problem - that is, a heightened public awareness and consumption of 'a whole lotta nothin' worth mentioning.'

These flash-bulb-fests, after all, take the focus away from the art and artist and place it squarely on minutiae. The result: our airwaves are increasingly disseminating every petty detail of the lives of celebrities, most of whom are only 'famous for being famous,' and actually contribute nothing of any value to our culture. So, little by little, our standards as a society are lowered and we end up further degrading our values while lacking a sense of priorities in the way we live. (Remember that great line in "Broadcast News" speaking of the devil: '...he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important. Just coax along flash over substance... Just a tiny bit.') It's not the paparazzo's fault; it's up to us not to dip into the dumpster for our entertainment.

Paparazzi - celebrity photographers - have been around ever since there have been movie stars. But the word itself originated from the surname of such a photographer in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita (1960), after the name of a hotelkeeper in George Gissing's By the Ionian Sea (1901), read by Fellini. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Paparazzo. In his book Word and Phrase Origins, author Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian dialect word for a particularly noisy, buzzing mosquito. The character, Paparazzo, the news photographer, is the origin of the word used in many languages (normally in the plural, paparazzi) to describe intrusive photographers.

Since WWII, celebrity photographers have been helping to exacerbate the limelight of movie stars and the like; however, in modern times, their presence has become a double-edged sword for the stars. A small minority of them are able to use the publicity they know they're going to get in productive ways and learn to become masters at manipulating the press for their own good or for a cause in which they believe; but most remain clueless and misguided and, poorly advised by their publicists, end up becoming victims of the press. And, of course, there are the shameless red carpet poseurs and shady characters with less than fifteen minutes of fame (or imagined fame) that court the cameras to feed their own egomania - no matter how ridiculous it makes them appear.

Being photographed is the price one pays for celebrity, but some tabloids take things too far. The new paparazzo has become pushy and dangerous. Some observers blamed them for the death of Princess Diana who was killed in 1997 in a high-speed car accident in France, while being pursued by paparazzi. Actress Reese Witherspoon said she first noticed the aggressive shooters in 2001. "I have no less than six photographers every day on me," Witherspoon said. "They are in rapid pursuit. We've had to move houses, we moved schools and we sell our vehicles every two months," she said. "Even then, they seem to get the car information from the dealership. They have networks that are like spider webs."

There was a time when photographing important people and events was a respectable art. In the "golden age" of photojournalism (1930s-1950s), some magazines and newspapers built their huge readerships and reputations largely on their use of photography, and some photographers achieved celebrity status. Their photographs became respectable works of art; since the late 1970s, photojournalism and documentary photography have increasingly been accorded a place in art galleries alongside fine art photography. (Life, one of America's most popular weekly magazines from 1936 through the early 1970s, was filled with photographs reproduced beautifully on oversize 11×14-inch pages, using fine engraving screens, high-quality inks, and glossy paper.) Of course, back then, they took pictures of important events and people and I doubt that anyone of that era could fathom how much a paparazzo in the 21st century would be paid for a photograph of a celebrity slurping a frappaccino at Starbuck's.

But what about celebrities finding creative ways to use their fame for productive purposes? A great example comes to mind: when John Lennon and Yoko Ono used their celebrity and the paparazzi to publicize their bed-ins for peace during the Vietnam War. When they were married, they knew the press would follow them everywhere, so rather than honeymooning on a tropical isle, they decided to use their fame for a good cause. Naïve as it may have been, Lennon truly believed he was following a Gandhian philosophy of nonviolent protest and was only too happy to make an ass of himself and his wife in public by inviting the press in their room to photograph them in their pajamas in bed to broadcast their campaign to help stop the war. Their simple message: "Give Peace a Chance." Nevermind the dirty-minded spoilers who falsely reported that John and Yoko were having sex in front of the cameras. They were sincere, young, fresh and driven. All told, it had a positive effect on the public and opened up a new dialogue about the war; and they felt it was time well spent.

I'd like to imagine that one day some of the attention hungry spoiled brat celebrities will follow Lennon's example and use their fame for a good cause. I can only hope some of the clueless selfish celebrities who are hounded by paparazzi will become as creative and begin to use their fame for something other than the continual self-aggrandizing and perpetuating of the myth of their own greatness.

The Self-Taught Artist

Jan. 30, 2008--There is a lot to be said for the self-taught artist, the self-invented person - more today than ever. I, myself, am self-taught, self-made; everything I know, I learned on my own - not because I didn't WANT to go to college, but because I found myself left alone on my own as a teenager with no survival skills to speak of. So I had to be bound and determined from Day One in order to learn all that I wanted to. I was hungry for knowledge and spent half my life in libraries in those early days in order to educate myself and for that determination and dedication to re-create myself from a poor uneducated young girl into an intelligent woman, I am proud.

However, I have concluded that the art world of today is dominated and run mostly by scholars with impressive degrees who offer literally no opportunities for the self-made artist. One would have to live in a cardboard box in Thompkins Square Park, like Jean-Michel Basquiat, and camp out in front of Soho galleries to ever be noticed.

Nonetheless, I love reading the life stories of self-made self-taught artists that know who they are and fulfill their life purpose at all cost. The painters, writers and musicians I've learned about, some of whom I've met, along the way have given me little pieces of themselves via their art and energy and I thank them for teaching me.

Charles Bukowski was a self-educated writer/poet who taught me that I could express myself exactly the way I want to and I don't have to be ashamed of myself and who I am. His own writing was so clear and lucid - especially for someone so consistently drunk and sick. He suffered for his art, so to speak, but mostly needlessly. However, Hank remembered the details about his childhood that made his future writings radiate with such realism - pain and humor. I could truly relate to him, being someone who got her education from the library, and what he wrote about reading when in my bleakest most hopeless moments, a book rescued me from the abyss:

"To me, these men who had come into my life from nowhere were my only chance. They were the only voices that spoke to me," he said of the authors he came to know so passionately.

No one else in my world could understand me like Tolstoy, Dylan Thomas or Mahatma Gandhi. And reading the biographies of great artists like Matisse, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Picasso helped me to understand not only technique and the history of art, but the humanity of the artist and what it takes to create from the core of one's being.

Bukowski wrote: "Words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you." He found a way out of his loneliness and into a world of creative release, which sustained him for life; and he did it all on his own with no support from anyone. I know what that's like.

The most prolific prodigy, Pablo Picasso, was, for all intents and purposes, self-taught, though his father, a mediocre painter, did attempt to school his son and he was admitted to the advanced classes at the Royal Academy of Art in Barcelona at 15. But his schooling didn't last; Picasso was too anxious to learn by doing - to go to Paris and live the Bohemian life and let experience educate him.

Vincent Van Gogh, perhaps the most popular and arguably most beloved painter of all time, began his brief art "career" (though he never sold many paintings) relatively late in life. Though he came from a family of art dealers and artists, he never remained in any art class long enough to get a real education but instead struck out on his own learning to draw and paint by obsessive practice... through trial and error. The most recent exhibit of his drawings at the Metropolitan in NYC was a sight to behold - one can see firsthand how this self-taught artist labored intensively to become a great master - all on his own armed with nothing but determination and discipline.

Truman Capote knew as a teenager that his formal education was over and that he wanted to go straight to New York City and get to work as the great writer he knew he was capable of being. This self-taught, self-made southern boy who came from worse than a broken home landed his first job at 17 at The New Yorker where he made his mark and wrote for periodicals and women's magazines; and he attended the writers' colony - Yaddo in Syracuse, NY - and learned from the older men in his life who became his lovers. The recent film, "Capote," based in part on the great biography by Gerald Clarke, is a true American tragedy about a young man searching for the American dream and doing it all himself.

Frida Kahlo was a well-known self-made artist who, because of her illnesses and a terrible trolley accident, which left her severely injured, painted much of the time from her bed. Every artist should read the illustrated Diary of Frida Kahlo. Frida absorbed all that she knew from her immediate surroundings and all the pain she felt and reflected it back into her brilliant emotional paintings.

More Self-Made Artists

Read the story of this wonderful self-taught artist: www.paulaart.com who risked everything to break free from an unsatisfying career and, like Paul Gauguin, seek out her dream as an artist.

I met this wonderful R&B subway singer, Alice Tan Ridley, at Penn Station in Manhattan - a self-taught singer, she is one of the best I've ever heard... so I posted her on MySpace for all the world to enjoy.

Mississippi Delta artist, Joe Moorman shares some of his thoughts on the term "self-taught artist": I think it's impossible to be described as self-taught if you have access to illustrated media or computers. If you have that, then it's possible to observe and listen to many artists, often without ever meeting or speaking to them. 'Self-directed artist' might be a better term, but that is lacking too because sooner or later you find yourself in a dialogue, often competitive and technical, usually with someone who was dead before you were born." Check out his site and, especially his Fauves.

Carol Es is another self-taught artist who used her art to escape pain and find herself. "She uses past experience as the fuel for subject matter, transforming a broken past into a positive and hopeful present and future."

Search the Internet and you'll find all kinds of wonderful self-taught artists of every discipline on every corner of the Earth. It's so wonderful how the world is burgeoning with creativity in the 21st century!

Film's Lazy Language

Jan. 10, 2008--Over the past 35 years or so, American movies have really taken a turn for the worst in the creative language department. Screenwriters are resorting to the use of foul language, with a Capital "F," like never before as a way of expressing everything from anger to surprise, pain, fear, disgust, disappointment, or a sense of extreme elation. Indeed, the "F" word is quite diverse; it is used not only as a verb, but also as a noun, interjection, and, occasionally, as an expletive infix.

The word has a long history, but is basically a 20th Century phenomenon as far as its widespread usage goes. Its first appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1972. In popular music, John Lennon's 1971 release, "Working Class Hero," featured the use of the word, which was rare in music at the time and caused it to, at most, be played only in segments on the radio. When TV characters let it slip, as in the early cases on BBC TV and Saturday Night Live, they were usually fired on the spot.

Comedian George Carlin once jokingly commented that the the "F" word ought to be considered more appropriate, because of its implications of love and reproduction, than the violence exhibited in many movies. More popularly published is his famous "Filthy Words" routine, better known as "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television," which, of course, includes the "F" word and its parent.

One of the earliest mainstream Hollywood movies to use the "F" word was director Robert Altman's antiwar film, "M*A*S*H," released in 1970 at the height of the Vietnam War. Since then, the use of the "F" word in R-rated movies has become so commonplace in American films, no one seems to bat an eye at its excessive usage; and some movies are actually known and raved about because of their overkill of the word.

But I say it's part of a growing trend of film's lazy, rather than creative, language habits. In Martin Scorcese's movie "The Departed," there are more than 195 uses of the "F" word in all its various manifestations from "f---ing firemen" to "Abracaf---indabra!" Yet in the great Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon," where Humphrey Bogart plays tough-guy dick Sam Spade, there is NO use of the "F" word at all - not even once - no matter how tough, angry or pushy the characters got! Same deal with "Casablanca." In fact, in "Falcon," he doesn't even utter the word "damn" but rather requests: "Will you get the bundle and bring it to me P.D.Q...."

On the softer more romantic side of films, when we think of a Woody Allen movie, we don't usually associate him with profanity, but rather skillfully crafted, romantic ways of communicating. I remember loving all the Woody Allen films as they were released over the years - one enchanting moment after another... that is, until "Deconstructing Harry," which is a good film; however, all the sickeningly foul language - especially uttered atypically by Allen's lead character - ruined it for me. Every character in that movie had a severe mental problem and the curse of lazy language.

In the movie, "Fargo," a teenager blurts out the "F" word in front of his parents and the father, who is a criminal, liar and all at once plotting the kidnapping of his wife, actually reprimands him! And Steve Buscemi, as in almost every film in which he appears, says the word so many times in so many situations, who could count?

I'd like to see some fresh ideas presented in film allowing characters to express themselves as intensely as if they were using foul language, but with more creative and subtle phrasing. The great film noir movies of the '40s and '50s come to mind, or some of the TV shows of the '50s and '60s. The late great Rod Serling was famous for his inventive stories; and the characters in "The Twilight Zone" acted out their parts with all the heartfelt intensity and drama of any "Sopranos" character - without the "F" word.

The amount of words and phrases in the English language are limitless, yet most of us are guilty of utilizing but a small percentage and never increasing our vocabulary by learning new words and new ways of expressing ourselves. So let's all get out our thesauruses and blog new and exciting phraseology that will dazzle future generations to come!

The Artist's Fall

Dec. 31, 2007-- Many artists fall into the deceptive seduction of drugs and alcohol. It is not to pay our dues, for we only end up further in debt. We seek the euphoria and illusory confidence we believe it provides. It sometimes fools us into believing we can't create without it. But to create with it brings forth many demons of the damned that thrive on our weaknesses. Then we're tortured by the constant sinner inside tearing at our higher pride; so we try really hard to be normal and moderate. Yet we are extremists and thrive on tragedy and drama, and sometimes we live in the illusion that the passions in our lives become muted as we moderate.

In New York City, I met musicians who were considered to be some of the best in the business - the cream of the crop. They were talented and brilliant players, loved and admired for their gifts. But they were also drug-addicted, reckless, inconsiderate derelicts, many of whom ended up losing in life in a big way. After awhile, my admiration of their talents waned. I'd changed my mind about them. I decided that I had no respect for these people who, on one hand, were stubborn nonconformists and would never compromise their artistic integrity for any reason; yet, on the other quite opposite hand, had no sense of humanity, loyalty, conscience... I didn't care if they were known and respected as the best musicians in New York City or the world; they were still human beings. I'd seen the side of them that cancels out any "good" they could ever do to inspire people around them. I don't think a talent excuses someone from accepting the responsibility of being a decent human being.

Someone like Vincent van Gogh probably couldn't help the way he was. He had serious physiological/mental illnesses that plagued him and eventually caused him to take his own life. For his productivity and creativity in spite of such debilitating handicaps, we must applaud him. Vincent started out in life with an attitude on the same lines as Mahatma Gandhi; he sincerely wanted to be a useful, productive and helpful member of society. He just didn't know how to go about it. Thus, the reason for him starting to paint so late in his life. He had a purpose to fulfill and it wasn't, as he originally thought - to be an evangelist and live amongst the lowly, aiding and comforting the weak and suffering. He was meant to be a mirror of his times, to create a record of all that we may otherwise never have known.

The artist's life may be a tragedy, but this should not be celebrated. It is to overcome these tragedies the mystic artist must strive for daily. The tragic element lurks deep within and we may let it destroy us, as have so many Hendrix's, Cobains and Presleys... or we may rise above it all and reinvent time.

--Excerpt from The Mystic Artist by Sandra Frazier

Recommended Reading: When Walls Become Doorways by Tobi Zausner