~~August 18, 2014~~

A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes.

They are usually worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere on the wearer’s body, so in parts of Australia giant totem masks cover the body, whilst Inuit women use finger masks during storytelling and dancing.

~~SOURCE~~

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask

~~Masks in theatre~~

Masks are an important part of many theater forms throughout world cultures, and their usage in theater has often developed from, or continues to be part of old, highly sophisticated, stylized theatrical traditions.

In many cultural traditions the masked performer is a central concept and is highly valued. In the western tradition actors in Ancient Greek theater wore masks, as they do in traditional Japanese Noh drama.

In some Greek masks the…

~~August 18, 2014~~

A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes.

They are usually worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere on the wearer’s body, so in parts of Australia giant totem masks cover the body, whilst Inuit women use finger masks during storytelling and dancing.

~~SOURCE~~

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask

~~Masks in theatre~~

Masks are an important part of many theater forms throughout world cultures, and their usage in theater has often developed from, or continues to be part of old, highly sophisticated, stylized theatrical traditions.

In many cultural traditions the masked performer is a central concept and is highly valued. In the western tradition actors in Ancient Greek theater wore masks, as they do in traditional Japanese Noh drama.

In some Greek masks the…

The Watts Riots in LA in 1965
Picture credit: Wikipedia

I have been watching the News for the past week with a very heavy heart,  as each day, as the events unfold in Ferguson, painful, ugly and difficult memories are brought back.

What is happening there,  is in many ways quite similar to what we in LA and the surrounding areas experienced with Rodney King, in the 1990’s.

And both of these are entirely too much like the LA Riots in Watts in the 1960’s.

Then there was the Trayvon Martin murder, here in Orlando and the Trial and the verdict that once again met with violent public reaction and out cries everywhere.

All of these tragic events, these sad places,  have touched my life, none in a good way.

That  week in  August of 1965 during the Watts Riots,  was a time of total violence and great turmoil and no one liked what was happening.

Few were sure…

Our hotel room with a view, afforded us a splendid vista of the Indian Ocean, and Sunday was a good day for dolphin spotting.

Isn’t it true that the sight of even one dolphin fin, can bring a smile to our faces? Where there is one, there are sure to be more.

Dolphins are very social creatures, and a joy to watch as they frolic in the waves, with not a care in the world.

“Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much … the wheel, New York, wars, and so on … while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man … for precisely the same reason.” ~ Douglas Adams

“The happiness of the bee and the…

FERGUSON – Autopsy Shows Michael Brown Was Shot IN FRONT 6x by Officer

Part of a preliminary private autopsy report by Dr. Baden and Professor Parcells showing wounds on Mr. Brown’s body. Credit Dr. Michael M. Baden

According to a preliminary autopsy performed Sunday by New York City’s former chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Michael Baden, 18 year old Michael Brown was shot six times by Officer Darren Wilson, all IN THE FRONT.

Brown took four shots to the right arm and two in the head. The reason for so many wounds is that some of the bullets entered and exited the body more than once, “including one that left at least five different wounds.”

Baden points out that because there are no smoke burns on the body, the four bullets do not appear to have been fired at very close range.

New York Times

FERGUSON, Mo. — Michael Brown, the…

This video says about itself:

Exhumations, Memory, and the Return of Civil War Ghosts in Spain

21 May 2014

Francisco Ferrandiz, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Since 2000, the exhumation of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War and the Post-War years, mostly involving the largely abandoned graves of civilians killed in the Francoist rearguard by paramilitary groups, has become a central element in contemporary social and political debates in the country about the nature of the armed conflict and the dictatorial regime following it. Although exhumations have become a crucial tool for symbolic reparation and have triggered claims for justice for the crimes committed and now unearthed, the social process unleashed by their opening is way larger, and relates to the emergence of a fragmented and heterogeneous political culture focused on the memory of the defeated in the war. This emergent political culture is expressed in multiple…

It doesn’t matter what anyone else says, you matter.