Observations on the 2012 Election 9.3

The RNC ended Thursday night with Clint Eastwood's return to
stand-up comedy and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) begins Tuesday in Charlotte. President Obama, who speaks on this coming Thursday night, gave his opinion of the RNC during a speech Friday in Iowa.

"It was a rerun, We’ve seen it before. You might as well have watched it on a black-and-white TV."

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Observations

An open letter to the Penn State Board of Trustees as it appeared in the Friday edition of The Centre Daily Times, posted without comment.

Well one slight comment. Talking to people at yesterday's game one constant thread was that it didn't go unnoticed that the Freeh Report release, the NCAA's quick punishment without investigation, and the University's acceptance of both of these happened in the middle of the summer when State College is a sleepy little town and not the third largest city in Pennsylvania.

Dear Penn State Board of Trustees,

It is apparent you want us, the Alumni, to move forward. You implore us to move forward. Here is a simple fact. We can and will move forward, and will join you on a united front, if one of two things occurs. We will move forward if: 1) Indisputable evidence surfaces that clearly shows Joe Paterno knew that Jerry Sandusky was molesting boys since 1998/2001 and did nothing to stop him, (it is evident that the findings of your $6.5 million Freeh report were not factually derived: (EM Foundation)) or 2) You admit your hasty decisions starting back in November 2011, (including firing Joe Paterno, accepting the Freeh Report, and agreeing to the NCAA sanctions) were a mistake, made under pressure and not based on truth, and that, most importantly, you did not act in the best interest of Penn State University.

One day you will have to look in the mirror and admit that you allowed this debacle to spin out of control. In November 2011, Penn State had no crisis management in place, so the media naturally turned to Joe, the face of Penn State, but he was allowed to say very little. The media applied pressure and once you, the Board, fired Joe, that was all the world needed to conclude: He must have been guilty of a cover-up. You, the Trustees, were distancing yourselves from anyone the media labeled as ‘guilty’ so you could come out smelling like roses. Then you hired Freeh to validate your firing of Joe and again to make yourselves look like the good guys. Did it not once occur to you that, by making the icon of your own university take the fall, with no evidence of wrongdoing, you were potentially destroying the university? (NCAA sanctions, economic suicide, lawsuits, accreditation fallout) It seems you were anxious for so long to get rid of Joe that you could not wait to throw the last jab. And here you are reaping what you sowed.

There will never be unity between the Alumni and the Board until you start admitting your mistakes or until all of you who were active in November '11 vacate your positions, which could be years from now. You want to move on because it is too painful for you to live in this mess you made. I wonder how many of you, with the benefit of hindsight, would have done things differently the night of November 9, 2011. I’m sure it is difficult for some of you to look in the mirror or even get out of bed in the morning. We all know when we offend or do wrong to another, there are simply two choices: (wo)man up, admit our mistakes, make amends, and then move on, or sweep it under the rug and never move on. The one who was wronged can never move on until the offense is reconciled. This is why we, the Alumni, cannot and will not move on.

And now you find yourselves desperate to repair and rebuild the image of Penn State, an image which you single-handedly allowed to be torn apart. Perhaps your first course of action should be to repair and rebuild the trust within our family, and then together, we can restore the image of our great university. It is time to fight for what is right. It is time to be the leaders we have entrusted you to be. Please remember this, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Sincerely,
Eileen Morgan, Fellow Concerned Alumni, and Friends of PSU

Observations on the 2012 Election 8.31

You may or may not have seen Clint Eastwood's train wreck of a speech, and I use that word loosely, at the RNC last night. Short version is that Eastwood spent 30 minutes at the heart of prime time talking to an empty chair which represented the 'invisible' President Obama. There are plenty of places to read or watch the wreck, and it is entertaining in its own way, so I wont get into it here. I did want to share the President's short and to the point response which was posted on both Twitter and Facebook earlier today.

"This seat's taken."

Obsevations 8.30

With Saturday's game a new era of Penn State football begins, I'm talking about the post Paterno era not the WiFi at Beaver Stadium one. With other things going on, and in an attempt to put the scandal behind me somewhat, I haven't mentioned it much lately. What I am sharing here seemed a good reason to break that silence. Two days ago a group of past Chairs of the Penn State Faculty Senate released a statement concerning the NCAA and its "sweeping assertion that a culture permeating every level of the Penn State community places the football program "in higher esteem than the values of the NCAA, the values of higher education, and most disturbingly the values of human decency."

For what it's worth some highlights and a link to the complete statement with its 28 signatories.

".... as a document in which evidence, facts, and logical argument are marshaled to support conclusions and recommendations, the Freeh Report fails badly. On a foundation of scant evidence, the report adds layers of conjecture and supposition to create a portrait of fault, complicity, and malfeasance that could well be at odds with the truth. We make no judgment of the culpability of those individuals directly surrounding the Sandusky crimes. We lack sufficient knowledge to do so, and we are content to wait until guilt or innocence is adjudicated by the courts. But as scientists and scholars, we can say with conviction that the Freeh Report fails on its own merits as the indictment of the University that some have taken it to be. Evidence that would compel such an indictment is simply not there.

More central to our concerns are the recent sanctions levied against Penn State by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and, more importantly, the rationale for those actions and their negative impact on the academic well-being of the University. The NCAA did not conduct its own investigation of the Penn State situation, but rather drew its conclusions from the findings of the Freeh Report. The NCAA Consent Decree, which substantially embellishes the initial Freeh findings in both tone and substance, claimed no standard of proof for its conclusions but nonetheless required Penn State to accept the Freeh Group’s assertions as fact. The NCAA actions were not predicated on any rulebook violations by members of the football team, the crimes committed by a former assistant coach, or even the alleged concealment of those crimes by University officials. Rather, the NCAA based its actions on the  sweeping assertion that a culture permeating every level of the Penn State community places  the football program “in higher esteem than the values of the institution, the values of the NCAA, the values of higher education, and most disturbingly the values of human decency.” The NCAA further alleges that “the culture exhibited at Penn State is an extraordinary affront to the values all members of the Association have pledged to uphold and calls for extraordinary action,” and it states that the sanctions are intended to change this culture.

As faculty members with a cumulative tenure at Penn State in the hundreds of years, and as former Faculty Senate chairs with intimate knowledge of the University stretching back for decades, these assertions do not describe the culture with which we are so very familiar. None of us has ever been pressured or even asked to change a grade for an athlete, nor have we heard of any cases where that has occurred. We know that there are no phantom courses or bogus majors for athletes at Penn State. Some of us have privately witnessed swift and unyielding administrative actions against small transgressions, actions taken expressly to preserve academic and institutional integrity. We have performed our duties secure in the knowledge that academic funds do not subsidize the athletic program. We have been proud of the excellent academic record of our student-athletes, and of the fact that Penn State has never before had a major NCAA sanction. And we have taken pride in an institutional culture that values honesty, decency, integrity, and fairness.

It is disturbing in the extreme to have that culture’s very existence denied by the NCAA. The NCAA has used its assertion of collective guilt to justify its collective punishment of the entire University community, almost all of whom had absolutely no involvement in or knowledge of the underlying crimes or the administration’s allegedly insufficient response."

Complete statement.

Also this is a good column by Walter Uhler who graduated from Penn State in 1976 with an MPA in Russian Studies. It's a little eye opening about being both a scholar and a football fan.

Observations on the 2012 Election 8.30

I don't even know how to begin to describe the final hour of last night's Republican convention. It began with a speech by Condoleezza Rice who honestly did a very good job of speaking to all Americans whether or not they agree with her. She was followed by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez who seemed to channel both Steve Martin and Clint Eastwood with her 'I was born a poor girl with a .357 magnum in my hand' speech. The night ended with an admittedly very good but totally scary performance by vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

Condoleezza Rice gave a brilliant speech and what a friend said later is very true, to bad she isn't one of ours. After the speech one of the commentators said that if Pete Wilson had appointed Rice to the Senate seat from California, which he vacated to become Governor of the state, Rice and not Willard might be accepting the nomination for President tonight. Instead Wilson appointed John Seymour who was defeated by Diane Feinstein two years later. Her best; "On a personal note, a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham. The segregated city of the south where her parents cannot take her to a movie theater or to restaurants, but they have convinced that even if she cannot have it hamburger at Woolworths, she can be the president of the United States if she wanted to be, and she becomes the secretary of state."

Paul Ryan is something different entirely. He also harkens back to a dark time of the American soul. He is good, very good, but also a classic demagogue in the style of Huey Long or George Wallace. I'm in no way comparing Ryan to Hitler but looking at the faces in the audience during his speech I was reminded of the films of Hitler's early speeches at Nuremberg. Ryan is that scary good. When he said "sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government," my remote literally hit the wall yet I couldn't stop watching.

After two nights of very little actual ideas I come away with two predominate thoughts about the Republican Party. Noblesse oblige, a French term which implies that people of noble birth, or wealthy in our case, are obligated by that birth to be honorable and generous. The Repubes think they are being just that but all one most do is look at the smug face of Paul Ryan to realize they are actually being the polar opposite. That fact plays along with my second term which is manifest destiny. For the most part the speakers and their audience honestly believe all the rhetoric. They believe the country is in ruins, that Obama is the devil incarnate, and most of all they believe they are right and destined to save this country from itself while leading it into a second American 'century of greatness.'

As I said, scary good. More later.

Observations on the 2012 Election 8.29

This would be all too funny if it wasn't such a serious subject, still one must always laugh. I found it on of all places the Le Monde website, via Talking Points Memo, and even though it's originally from an American site it gives you a good idea what the Euros think of our political conventions. If I had only known such a video was going to exist I wouldn't have bothered watching last night but alas I did. Sadly in the end this may the only good thing to come out of the first night of the Republican convention.

La première journée de la convention en 100 secondes ....

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Observations from the Window 8.28

After a day or two of much needed decompression I'm finally getting back to normal. Yes, what passes for normal in my world. I was totally wiped due to the flight back, my inability to sleep when I fly, and the fact that I didn't sleep at all my last night in Paris. Why? Better question is why the hell would I?

While I was catching up with laundry and such today I was watching the Weather Channel, keeping up with news about hurricane Isaac, as a more entertaining alternative to the GOP convention. In my new capacity as style maven, more on that at some later date, I have to say there was something very wrong in the network's coverage. Picture two women in the studio, one wearing a red dress and the other an orange one, both sitting in front of a wall size screening of the Isaac radar. If the dresses didn't clash enough on their own sitting in front of the radar, which is predominately red and orange, did the trick. I just wanted to scream every time the network switched back to the studio.

In all seriousness before I move on I should mention that Isaac,
currently a Category 1 hurricane, is due to make landfall just south of New Orleans as early as tonight. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer to whatever god/gods you pray to for the people down there as Isaac is probably going to track directly over the city itself and twenty inches of rain is predicted.

Finally, there seems to be some kind of political event going on in the wake of Isaac. Yes that would be the convention I mentioned earlier. Morning Joe is live from Tampa all week and yesterday Chris Matthews and GOP Chairman Reince Priebus got into a bit of a shouting match. About 3 minutes in Tom Brokaw says it all explaining why Americans are about fed up with politics, except for us political junkies. Just after that Priebus again accuses President Obama of looking to Europe for ideas, principally he is talking healthcare reforms. So if the President based his health reforms on Willard's in Massachusetts doesn't it just follow that Willard also looked to Europe? Again I'll remind you where Willard spent the Vietnam War years.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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late update - After some thought I'd like to add this. If Willard really thinks his birther joke was just that, a joke, and didn't realize how it would be taken, well I don't want to think about what that says about his judgement.

Observations from le Voyage 8.26.1, mobile update

I may have mentioned last week how stunning it was flying into the sunrise. A week later chasing the endless sunset isn't quite the same thing. When your body thinks it is about 1AM and the sun refuses to set you start to feel like some human version of the British Empire. Than to taught you the sun finally sets just an hour out of JFK. To make matters worse we were delayed in the air over JFK for 20 minutes because of TS Issac related delays and airport closings to the south.

I'm not a big fan of baggage claim so when my bags were the last out all I could think was that my best two leather jackets had been lost over the Atlantic. It was not the case however and all my leather arrived safe and sound.

So I'm back, a bit sad maybe, most assuredly exhausted,
but back just the same.

Observations from le Voyage 8.26

Sitting outside at a cafe across from my one time hotel, sipping iced coffee, while my bags are all packed and stacked in the hotel lobby waiting to go home. Sadly I don't think I'm as ready for that trip as they seem to be. The inside of the cafe was decorated by Catherine Deneuve and though it looks good I'm not at all sure what she was after. It has the feel of a large living room but I mean seriously, a glass coffee table? It has a nice terrace to sit outside and ponder life so I wont complain about it. Actually I haven't found anything to complain about since I'm here other than the fact that I wont be here much longer. One thing I do miss is my Sunday New York Times, the IHT is basically the same thing but yet it isn't, something about it just seems off. It makes no matter as my cab is here to take me to Charles de Gaul, meh ....

When I was still at the cafe my brother called to ask when my flight landed at JFK and he got a bit confused when I answered. He wasn't the first to be confused by my schedule as it wasn't all that easy explaining to Ash that she should be at the airport just two hours after I left. It goes like this, my flight leaves CDG at 7PM Paris time and arrives at JFK at 9PM New York time which is six hours behind Paris. All this means is that my eight hour flight only takes two hours off the clock and my mind, not to mention my comps, will think it's 3AM which it will be in Paris. Got it? Well Sean came up with something more, in its day the Concorde made the same Paris/New York flight in three hours so in a way you would arrive in New York before you ever left Paris. Just try and figure that one out.

One thing I learned this week is that I truly do love this city and I really do want it to be mine one day. I also learned that I've changed drastically in the past few years. Thing is I may have changed just as much in the past week but than I suppose dreams will do that to you.

It's about time to board so I want to get this posted quick. It's not going to be my last post about this trip or my last about Paris but it will be my last post from Paris, for now anyway. I plan on being back soon one way or another.

Before I go, my sis moved yesterday and starts classes tomorrow morning. There is a little known secret that says she may even play field hockey but I didn't tell. No, no, not me. Good luck gurl!

Observations from le Voyage 8.25

One exciting thing about my trip is how many times I have been wandering and found a spot where I could just sit and paint which is something tat never happens in New York. There are even some spots in Paris that I wouldn't mind painting, this is something I never do, I just don't paint scenes, landscapes. There really are some exciting possibilities in my mind at the moment, I just hope it doesn't overheat.

Yesterday I mentioned the Sennelier store but I didn't really explain what it was. Sennelier is one of my favorite paint or 'color' merchants. Their paints are thick, almost buttery, but easy to mix on the canvas. Sennilier produces 145 colors and over 100 oil pastels, the later have the consistency of lipstick and were first produced for Picasso in 1949. Below is some background on Sennilier from their website.

"1887, Gustave Sennelier, a devoted chemist and exceptional colorist, established himself as a purveyor of fine-Artists' paints Quia Voltaire in Paris. Surrounded by artists, he developed the first range of colours : Sennelier Artist oil. These quality oil paints have been used for paintings nowdays exhibited in the world's greatest museums. In fact, Sennelier offers a wide range of quality colors that have attracted great painters such as Cezanne, Picasso, Bonnard, Soutine. The Sennelier shop is a meeting place for artists, they maintain creative exchanges that leads to the development of new techniques and unique colours.

Colours that have forged Sennelier's reputation have been retained, such as Madder Lake Deep and Genuine Cobalt Blue, the industry benchmark. Signature transparent colours, such as Chinese Orange and Cinnabar Green, invented by Gustave Sennelier in conjunction with the Impressionists, have contributed significantly to the evolution of art styles through the Fauves, Cubists, and beyond. From Bonnard's blues to Mogdigliani's favorite flesh tones, Sennelier colours have been inspired by the masters and have been an inspiration to them.

2012, the Sennelier products' range has expanded : soft pastel "à l'Ecu", oil pastel and oilstick, watercolor, acrylic, tempera, gouache, ink, with an unchanged regard for quality that allows Sennelier to stay a brand recognized and appreciated by painters. For its 125^th aniversary, Sennelier goes on with increasing fervor to combine the traditions of the Old Masters with the innovations of modern chemistry, to please today and tomorow's Artists asking for vibrant and eternal colours."

Observations from le Voyage 8.24.1

This short has a lot of good shots in it but what makes it totally special is the fact that it was made entirely with an iPhone. I really can't see myself doing anything like this with a phone.

Gabriela Mudado is a Comunication and Arts graduate of PUC Minas, Brazil who wrote her final paper on the films of Tim Burton. A music fanatic she has been working as a DJ for the last 8 years and also has two websites dedicated to French music in Portuguese and in English.


PARIS LA FETE from Gabriela Mudado on Vimeo.
"Many thanks to: Henrique Fares, Kyle Balda, Jackie Jirka, Mariana Berutto, Mateus Berutto, Camila Cortielha, Maíra Fares, Fernanda Fonseca, Lina Hauteville, Brice Michelini and Carla Mudado.
Made entirely with the iPhone 4S."

Observations from le Voyage 8.24

I'm sitting in a cafe just off the Luxembourg Gardens, eating breakfast, pondering what to do with my last 48 hours in Paris. Funny how fast a week can go by. I've been to the Louvre, Montmartre where Christopher Moore's novel Sacre Bleu takes place, walked till my feet are sore, worked some, met some fun people, and did enough shopping to fill that empty bag I brought along. I went to the Père Lachaise Cemetery yesterday and unlike most I didn't visit Jim Morrison's grave but stopped by Oscar Wilde's which was a strange, surreal, moment. It was one of those times where you feel like you had been there before even though you know you hadn't.

Still its been just been a taste, a taste that makes me want to be here even more. I thought I would write much more while I was here but haven't taken the time. I have tons of notes so I'm sure more will follow and I've taken hundreds of photos but looked at so few, posted some I liked on flickr. I'm sure once I'm back in the Village I'll be posting more both here and there unless politics gets in the way.

But for now it's time to keep moving.

Just keep moving.

afternoon update - So I guess I was getting just a little sad about the week nearing its end but something snapped me out of it quick. I decided to take a walk because shouldn't a girl visiting Paris be able to say she took a walk on the Left Bank and saw the Eiffel Tower? But that sight isn't what did it. About halfway to the Eiffel I looked up and saw something that all but bought tears to my eyes, the Sennelier store, which just happens to be celebrating its 125^th anniversary. About $200 in paints and shipping later I was in an awesome mood. 

Observations from le Voyage 8.22

The Palais du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Musée Napoléon, the Louvre Museum or the Louvre, it has gone by many names over the years. Its history goes back to a 12^th century fortress still visible in the basement and the Lower Hall where the vaulted ceiling is all that remains of the complex's origins. On August 10, 1793, in the midst of the French Revolution and by decree of the revolutionary National Assembly the Louvre first opened as a museum. The Holy Grail of art historians was born.

Currently the Louvre is home to almost 400,000 works of art of which it shows 35,000 at any given time in its 750,000 square feet of public displays. The museum is divided into eight curatorial departments; Egyptian antiquities, Near Eastern antiquities, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities, Islamic art, Sculpture, Decorative arts, Prints and drawings, and Painting. The Painting department alone has twelve curators and 7,500 works.

I could spend weeks in the Louvre and never leave but I have probably have one or two visits so I have a must see list. In no particular order it includes The Aphrodite of Milos (Venus de Milo), Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, Michelangelo's Dying Slave, Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat (Marat Assassiné), Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, and as much of the Italian Renaissance collection as I can possibly see. Yes the Italian collection would include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Today I visit my Holy Grail.

A little bit of mind boggling trivia before I finish. Admittedly it is from a mind easily boggled by art and history trivia. As large as the museum complex is it could be so much larger. The Tuileries Palace once closed the west end of the Louvre courtyard which now is open to the Tuileries Gardens. Eventually a wing of the Louvre connected the two and both the Tuileries and the Louvre were to be included in the museum. The Tuileries Palace was destroyed in 1871 by a fire set by anarchists during the rise of the Paris Commune after France's loss in the Franco-Prussian War. The fire also destroyed the Louvre Library. Recently there has actually been talk of rebuilding the Tuileries at an estimated cost of $380 million.

Observations from le Voyage 8.21

It may say just a little too much about the sad state of American education but I have actually met a person who thought Paris was named for Paris Hilton. It fact it is in all likelihood named for the Gaulic Parisii tribe who inhabited the area when it was conquered by Julius Caesar. Another version has Caesar naming it after the Trojan Prince who fell in love with Helen precipitating the Trojan War. Caesar was fond of thinking he was Paris reincarnated, presumably after too much wine. Than there is Paris' nickname, The City of Lights. This has nothing to do with real lights but to Paris being the main center of learning during the Age of Enlightenment.

One of my favorite times of day is early morning starting just before dawn. It makes no difference if I was up or night or not. It may be the only time of day that I love color, the play between the last ebbs of the night and the first rays of the sunrise making a seamless transition. On the flight over I tried to get some sleep because I had been up all day, driving, and knew once I arrived there would be no sleeping. I did manage to doze off but about four hours into the flight (about 2AM New York time) I opened my eyes to one of the most stunning sunrises I have ever seen, including on Kauai. The same play of light and color I just mentioned with the added effect of being 30,000 feet above the Atlantic. It was gorgeous but I totally should have closed the blind because that was about it for sleeping, time for those free drinks the Air France stewardesses were kind enough to supply.

I'm staying in a small hotel on the Rue Cujas in the Latin Quarter, between the Sorbonne and the the Luxembourg Gardens.  Being used to New York I find it so cute that because the hotel is small they lock the door at night and you have to wait for the concierge to unlock the door, something he than apologizes for twenty times. Two other sweet things about the hotel are that the bed has lots of pillows and the wireless internet surprisingly is fast as hell.

When I got into my room one of the first things I did, after I connected my comp, was turn on the TV because it's just what I always do. Thing is I flew over 3,000 and the first thing I see on said TV was effing Paul Ryan and his mom. I could rationalize seeing Willard here because he hid from the Vietnam War in his family's chateau in France but Petey Ryan? The Repubes' head gym rat? To purge that from my mind I watched the first episode of Weeds in French. I always wanted to watch Weeds and I own the first and second season DVDs but somehow southern California women selling weed in French doesn't cut it. I'm going to have to watch episode one in English as soon as I get back.

And why the hell is it 90° here? I packed leather jackets!