Saturday, December 1, 2012

Day Without Art

Coinciding with today's World AIDS Day was the 24th Day Without Art to raise AIDS awareness. Robert Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and died on March 9, 1989 at the age of 42. Less than a year before his death he took this simple but striking self-portrait that is considered one of his best and most influential works. During that last year of his life he also created the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation which has since raised millions of dollars for AIDS research.

"Robert Mapplethorpe shows himself in a 1988 self portrait withered and dying from AIDS. He grasps a cane topped with a small skull. It is one of the photographs in which every part is not fiercely defined by sharp focus. In stark, silvery black and white, the shiny detail of the skull is chillingly juxtaposed with Mapplethorpe’s haunted face – floating out of focus, receding into darkness." John Ingledew, 2005.

self-portrait, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1988

Observations 12.1

Today is World AIDS Day. On a trip to New York when I was maybe ten I met a friend of my mom's who I now barely remember but I do remember as possibly the funniest person I have ever met. If somebody would ask me to describe him today what comes to mind is the Nathan Lane character in The Birdcage. My mom didn't tell me until later that he had AIDS because she didn't want my reaction to that fact clouding how I reacted to him. I never met him again and he died from the disease a year or so later. I can't even remember his name.

Since HIV/AIDS* was recognized by the CDC in 1981 over 30 million people have died and currently 35 million are HIV positive of which 3.5 million are children born HIV positive. In the United States 50,000 die every year and 150 are diagnosed every day. In comparison in 2009 10,839 people died in alcohol related traffic accidents.

I know comparing AIDS to drunk driving deaths is totally messed up but if you asked the average American what killed more every year, AIDS or drunk driving, I'd be willing to bet a majority would say drunk driving. This country's priorities always seem to be messed up that way. If we as a nation took half the money we spend on war, weapons, and killing and spent that money on AIDS and Cancer research we could probably go a long way towards wiping out both. Never going to happen.

For what it's worth ....









Barack Obama

*A few links if you want to learn more:
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
HIV Law Project
Wikipedia HIV/AIDS

Observations from the Window 12.1

This is one of those totally strange posts I throw in now and than. The kind I come up with, I should say the kind Ash comes up with when I suddenly have no idea what to write about. She just throws something around like "hey, what are your top played songs on iTunes and what the hell does it mean?" So here you have my ten most played songs from iTunes but I have no clue as to what they mean other than I don't seem to have a fav genre of music. Keep in mind I do wipe out the play numbers now and than so Carly Rae Jepsen is pretty much a fluke that I'm going to blame on the Olympics. Also, I removed any Lady Gaga or Britney tunes from the list because I just didn't want to seem weird.

Call Me Maybe (Manhattan Clique Remix), Carly Rae Jepsen
Miss You Paradise (Shogun Remix), Emma Hewitt
Impossible, Anberlin
Pray Tell, Anberlin
Colours (Armin Van Buuren Remix), Emma Hewitt
Drive By, Train
Hypocritical Kiss, Jack White
A Lot of Things Different, Kenny Chesney
Amerika, Rammstein
That's Life, Frank Sinatra

I thought about adding a top Christmas song list to make it seasonal but than I realized too many of the top tunes were Mariah Carey. I dropped that idea because, like I said, I didn't want to seem strange or anything.

So there you have it. My first, and hopefully last, iTunes top ten list. Plan your holiday parties accordingly.