:: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 ::

RIP Robert Rauschenberg

One of my favorite artists Robert Rauschenberg died of heart failure yesterday. He was 82. Both a painter and a sculptor, he was most famous for his mixed media work. His work always seemed tough, but beautiful. From all appearances, he stayed busy until the end.

Wikipedia entry on Rauschenberg

:: Robert S. 6:45:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Quote for the Day

All your life you live so close to truth,
it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye,
and when something nudges it into outline,
it is like being ambushed by a grotesque.
- Tom Stoppard

Labels: quotations

:: Robert S. 9:31:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Subway Poem 5

She clutches the rail with striated bird hands
Lips pressed together tight to ward off the thrusting crowd
The floral silk of her blouse espouses
A more colorful demeanor than her gray countenance
Good for health, says the white lettering on her crisp, green bag
Her other, seated across from her
Free of fear
Her lipstick has run into her chin
Spittle flies with each other word
As she addresses her seat mate
I'll fly, she says, I'll fly, I'll fly!

Labels: poetry, subway poetry

:: Robert S. 10:06:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Pray the Devil Back to Hell

"Does a bullet know Christian from Muslim?"
- tagline from Pray the Devil Back to Hell, and a paraphrase from one of the interviewees

I had the opportunity this afternoon to see the excellent documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which one best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival. It features several Liberian women, who lead the effort to capture the attention of Charles Taylor and the warlords, who had been terrorizing Liberia. These women banded together and eventually forced Taylor and the warlords to both to dialogue with them and to engage in peace talks with each other. They even played out a real-life version of Lysistrata along the way.

It's a tragic and often harrowing story that also proves extraordinarily inspiring in the end. Watching the film, I wondered what you'd have to do to nominate these incredible women for a Nobel Peace Prize. Because these women certainly went to greater lengths to forge peace than some who have won that prize.

The documentary also focuses on how Christian and Muslim women alike united in their cause, realizing that their common plight as humans had grown far more important to them than their religious differences. So too women from traditionally unfriendly ethnic factions joined together, aligning themselves against the war.

The film-makers have been showing the documentary around the world in similar places that are being torn apart by various factions. And already women are uniting in similar fashion, motivated and empowered by what they've seen.

Now, by the way, with Charles Taylor is on trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity, and Liberia's current President is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa's history.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell just won Tribeca's World Documentary Competition. Last year Taxi to the Dark Side won that award and went on to win the Academy Award for best documentary. One can only hope for similar success for this year's winner.

Labels: documentaries, human rights, Liberia, Tribeca Film Festival

:: Robert S. 10:16:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Separated at Birth?

Have Julian Schnabel and Jeffrey Lebowski ever been seem in the same room - at the same time?

Labels: "separated at birth", justcosicould

:: Robert S. 8:59:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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T-Shirt Slogan

"Thank God for the Devil's Music"

Or would it make a better country song? Maybe both.

Labels: justcosicould, random

:: Robert S. 8:38:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Jihad for Love

I'm trying to determine whether the documentary A Jihad for Love has been released in the United States yet. Apparently not, though it's been released elsewhere and seems to be doing the rounds at college campuses across the country. It's been screened in Turkey and banned in Singapore. Directed by Parvez Sharma and produced by he and Sandi Dubowski, Jihad is a natural companion to Dubowski's excellent documentary Trembling Before G-d about gays within the Orthodox Jewish community. Jihad, of course, concerns the lives of lesbian and gay Muslims. You can follow developments for the film on the director's blog.

Additionally, if you know me and would like to see Trembling Before G-d, I have a copy I'd be happy to loan you. A follow-up documentary Trembling on the Road is also available with the 2-DVD set, which is the one I have.

Update: As noted in the comments, the U.S. release for Jihad for Love is May 21 at IFC here in New York City. Can't wait to see it.

Labels: documentaries, gay rights, human rights, Jihad for Love

:: Robert S. 2:14:00 AM [+ Permalink] ::
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Six Billion Others

Six Billion Others is a project by French photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand, which will tie in with Pangea Day, coming up on May 10th. It features video interviews with thousands of people from around the world on different subjects, such as love, liberty, anger, discrimination--the whole gamut of the human experience.

Attending a Tribeca Film Festival discussion on Pangea Day tonight, I learned more about that event's origins, too. Jehane Noujaim, director of the extraordinary documentary Control Room, provided the idea after winning a TED prize in 2006 for her film. The winner receives $100,000 and "a wish to change the world" and Pangea Day grew out of her wish to bring the world together with film or, as she described it, to create a "World Cup of storytelling."

Premiering this year, Pangea Day will be a four-hour event presenting live music, various speakers and, primarily, specially-commissioned short films from around the world. These films were made with camera phones, which were distributed around the planet. We saw some of the resulting footage tonight, and it was of surprisingly good quality on the big screen.

Noujaim closed out the night by paraphrasing this quote from Longfellow, which summarizes the intent behind Pangea Day:

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each person's life, sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

(I should mention, too, that my employer Avenue A | Razorfish provided the design and marketing for the Pangea Day Web site, though I wasn't involved in the project.)

Labels: film, Jehane Noujaim, Pangea Day

:: Robert S. 7:52:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Support the Global Online Freedom Act

Via Amnesty International, support the Global Online Freedom Act:

Repressive governments are making Internet and technology companies allies in their efforts to censor the Internet. Without any U.S. regulation to specifically prevent this, companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have sacrificed international human rights standards, and their own corporate missions, in pursuit of new and lucrative markets. Ask your Representative to support H.R. 275, the Global Online Freedom Act of 2007, which would prevent U.S. companies from carrying out or facilitating the suppression of online speech in repressive countries.

Labels: censorship, human rights

:: Robert S. 1:15:00 AM [+ Permalink] ::
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Subway Poem 4

Friday riders relax their bearing
Shunted homeward, slim smiles tweak their lips
Their heads turn to address and inquire
Though still isolated by the slender strings
Threading their chosen soundtrack through tender tympani
Still, more aware of the rich, heterogeneity enveloping them

4/25

Labels: poetry, subway poetry

:: Robert S. 7:19:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Subway Poem 3

Her on the subway reading Jung
Eyes aflutter, though, never settling
A permanent smile, dark eyebrow arched
Betraying the flit and flicker of her mind
Copper fingers interlaced, yet trembling
Her heart astir with Spring

4/23

Labels: poetry, subway poetry

:: Robert S. 12:48:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Subway Poem 2

When the doors slid open
He left his seat and looked back
To confirm he'd left nothing behind
Though some years before he left his spirit
But did not pause to confirm its disappearance

4/21

Labels: poetry, subway poetry

:: Robert S. 11:20:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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Subway Poem 1

These skittering people on the train
Avoiding the berth of a huddled man
Fearful of his fear, his dissipation
The most helpless ever receiving the least help

4/20


A while back, I struck on the idea to take photo of a single person on the subway each day and create a year in portraits. Only thing is, I'm not that outgoing. So this weekend, I struck upon a different idea: subway poetry. A single, short poem based upon something or someone I saw on the subway or some thought, which struck me there. It won't be daily, I'm sure, but let's see how far it goes.

Labels: poetry, subway poetry

:: Robert S. 11:15:00 PM [+ Permalink] ::
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