ByGD
There is a sort of magic to walking through an aquarium tunnel. I think it fills a sort of human need. Like shaking an Etch-a-Sketch, our brains need the clearing effect of cognitive reversals. Watching sea creatures soar above our heads like birds in the sky forces us to reconsider our place in the world. Sometimes even hanging upside down is enough. But aquarium tunnels are the best.
ByGD
A couple years ago I attended Seattle’s Decibel Festival (the local electronic music festival, not the traveling heavy metal one sponsored by the magazine of the same name). In the EMP (now MoPop) Sky Church, giant visual displays moved on the wall behind the performers. I took a picture of this one, which reminded me of the Papago (now Tohono O’
In the actual myth, I think the man, I’itoi, created humans and later retired, hidden from men in a cave hidden by the maze. But he is usually placed at the entrance to the maze, and so looks to me like any other human – a person with a long journey ahead and no idea what they’re doing or what they’re in for.
This modern, electronic man is already in the thick of it. For each of the last two years, the American consensus seems to have been, “Well that sucked, I hope the next one is better.” But each year gives birth to the one that follows, so we can expect 2018 to be a tangled maze we must navigate if we’re going to repair the damage of the last two years. We can count on this year to be “amazing.” I hope some of the good connotation applies as well.
ByGD
To better understand this political system we have inherited, I’m making a careful study of the Constitution. I’m sharing here in case others similarly engaged might want to discuss it. At the very least, making my study public holds me accountable to stick with it. After all, in a functioning democracy we should all be Constitutional scholars. Read More
ByGD
Whether it makes all the difference or none, the path you’ve chosen is better than the path passively followed.
ByGD
Seattle Opera Panelists
“Asian Leaders Respond to Madame Butterfly”
I was excited to hear that Seattle Opera was performing Madame Butterfly because I love Puccini’s music and Butterfly is one of the most famous operas ever written. I didn’t know the opera was controversial for its racist depiction of the Japanese – especially its promulgation of the stereotype that Japanese women are suicidal, subservient sex puppets – until I heard about Seattle Opera’s free community panel discussion “Asian Arts Leaders Respond to Madame Butterfly,” moderated by Frank Abe, co-founder of Seattle’s Asian American Journalists Association. Read More