when the tigers broke free...

Guernica Pablo Picasso, 1937

Guernica is a monumental painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-eight bombers, on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The attack killed between 250 and 1,600 people, and many more were injured. The Spanish government commissioned Pablo Picasso to paint a large mural for the Spanish display at the Paris International Exposition (the 1937 World's Fair in Paris). The Guernica bombing inspired Picasso. Within 15 days of the attack, Pablo Picasso began painting this mural. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely he acclaimed and brought the Spanish civil war to the world's attention. 

In any battleground, innocent people become the victims of the fighting. Long after the hostilities are over and the combatants have gone, there are people left behind to suffer, often for a long time. Guernica epitomizes the tragedies of war and the suffering war inflicts upon individuals. This monumental work has eclipsed the bounds of a single time and place, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace...For a majority of people aware of the painting, and for artists in particular, Guernica represents the apex of politically motivated expression, and at over 15 feet, is imposing in its size. Seeing the painting up close in Madrid (2007), while attending art school brought about a flood of emotions and sparked a drive to create something as historically and contemporarily relevant as Picasso's Guernica sometime during my painting career...

" Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working"

~Pablo Picasso

nelsoncaban.blogspot.com

flight from reality...

Anyone who knows me knows I love planes...planes, planes, planes. Not those damn twin propeller small planes that take you nowhere and let every and any cloud throw it around, but 747s and 777s. Planes that you get on and you know that you are going places because they hold a whole hell of alot of jet fuel for a reason. Over the years, I have been on a bunch of flights and not all of them have been smooth but only once on a flight that had taken off from New York City did I feel like things were going wrong. The planes seemed to be struggling through some storm clouds upon take off and the pilot accelerated while we were being thrown around and the plane seemed to be accelerating DOWNWARDS! 

All of this makes the US Airways Hudson River crash last month in New York City that more astounding. The landing itself is amazing but what impresses me more is how everyone involved-pilot, air traffic control-calmly does their job and does everything right in split second decisions. There was no time to look things up or weigh options. This little video reproduction of the crash that has been floating around the internet puts into perspective how fragile these huge planes are and how many components must go right at all times. Though my airline of choice (well not my choice but rather my bank checking account chose it for me) is American Airlines I hope that if there are any geese ever planning their suicide in front of my flight (and I have seen those damn birds around JFK, Schiphol and Heathrow) that 

1.  there is a body of water around somewhere, and
   
2. i dont have the "D student" type of pilot controlling the whole operation...

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it”

~Henry Ford

la pregunta arts café commercial...

The final version, or damn near the final cut, of a commercial shot for La Pregunta Arts Café out here in New York City, which hopefully should be showing on public television here in New York City! Shot during two consecutive (and really cold) saturdays and over a period of nearly 10 hours, it was a pretty dope experience, especially on the second day when, after several re-takes of the bar scene, I realized that the liquor was all too real and hardly noticed the time pass after that...

the more things change...

The mayor of a small Southern California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year." Chicken, watermelon even ribs are a part of the American diet that's true, and people of all colors enjoy them at picnics. But there was a time when impoverished and enslaved blacks could have only the most meager of provisions, including chicken, watermelons and pork parts such as scrappel, because that's all they got after plantation owners threw scraps at them.

These became stereotypical symbols of black America -- people who could only afford to eat what was left over. That in turn became how many jokingly looked at blacks and was soon tied to images of little black sambo, pickaninnies and others. Couple that with the association of blacks with monkeys, as simian creatures are native to Africa (but not exclusively), and it creates an entirely new level of institutionalized racism: bigotry through mass-mediated culture.

Personally, I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes. I honestly don't understand where the mayor was coming from. Why is it when people use caricatures, cartoons and illustrations of things that are clearly construed as racially insensitive, they sheepishly grin and say they "didn't mean it as anything racial"? Don't get me wrong, if anyone has a sense of humor about their culture it's black folks. But to just use a stereotype as a joke is trite and thoughtless. It is not funny and it NEVER has been...!

"If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it's just a drunk. If a Negro does, 

it's the whole damn Negro race"

~Bill Cosby

two sides of the same glass...

I am always fascinated by people who go through life acquiring everything their heart desires while all the same still seeing their glass as half empty, rather than half full. Nothing ever makes them happy. Not only in regards to the material but more importantly the emotional and spiritual. They may have it all, but all is not enough. All becomes more, and it is still not enough. Their cup runs over, and still it is not enough. They're constantly depressed, like Eeyore in "Winnie the Pooh". 

I certainly don't have all the things that most folks take for granted, even though I have done all the same things everyone else has. I have had losses in my life, both people and love, but so has everyone else. It's called life. And yet for some weird reason which I do not understand, I don't look at my cup as half empty, but rather half full. It's a choice we all make, and it's a choice I have had to make, or I would be filled with anger, resentment and bitterness -- three emotions that will kill anyone's spirit.

Maybe it is the concept of "the glass half empty" that has led to the world's dire economic situation. Everyone wants more, more, more. Fill that glass up; only a full glass will make people happy. Still not happy? Get more things. In part, the world economy is based upon the principle of continuous consumption, a self-defeating, continually perpetuating cycle that is unsustainable. 

I don't know the answer. I'm no economist, and I'm certainly no philosopher. I'm just grateful for the few things I have and for the people in my life who care about me, and that makes my cup more than half full...

"Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force"

~George Bernard Shaw