Nudity can also represent Stupidity

Earlier this year, I took an on-line Beginning Japanese Manga class at How to Draw Manga. It was a month-long course with a lesson every week. After lesson 3, we were supposed to send in an example of our work which would be critiqued and redrawn by a real Manga artist. In my case her name was Chihiro Hattori. The drawing above is her version of my homework assignment. But here’s where it gets good. Also in lesson 4, the instructor included two drawings done by students in previous classes.

But these were FULLY developed and realized characters! They looked like they had just come out of a magazine! OH GREAT! I had only sent in a basic, NUDE drawing of my character. Why? BECAUSE WE NEVER HAD ANY LESSONS ON DRAWING CLOTHING!! These other student’s drawings had clothes and even attitude!

Of course, I felt really stupid. I took the class to learn to draw characters – characters wearing clothes in fact. My character wasn’t supposed to be sword fighting while also being naked! I thought the instructor just wanted to make sure our basics, like proportions, face, and style, were progressing. Chihiro made many kind comments but she also noted that, because my character carried a sword, it symbolized strength and her nudity represented purity. Well – no, it doesn’t. It represents a beginning artist who was following the lessons and now feels like an idiot/pervert. I didn’t have to go on-line to Japan to do that - I could have done that here! For free!

All joking aside, if you are interested in drawing Manga this is still a very cool on-line class to take and I really enjoyed it. The people running it, like Kanta Oyama, are also really nice, patient, and encouraging. And as it happens, you do get a certificate at the end of the course - even if your character has no clothes. Plus, it is kind of fun to have a real Manga artist evaluate and comment on your work.

But make sure you send in a character with clothes on it. Hey - I'm just saying!

- Just a peasant

Who am I?

The question was, "If you could use only one word to describe yourself, what would it be?"

TOTORO!

My Memories of Being Homeless – Of Hope

We all fall down once in awhile especially those who try to fly a bit too often. The important thing is to get up again, dust yourself off, and take another run at it. You only live once.

In this civilization that we have created and, of which we are caught in its momentum, can we ever completely do away with homelessness? I doubt it, because who must we actually blame for the conditions leading to homelessness?

Ultimately, both society and the transient individual bear responsibility for homelessness. No society can claim to be so perfect, that none of its citizens are omitted from its success. On the other hand, and with the exception of children, no mentally-sound individual can escape the reality that they also play a crucial role in controlling their own aspirations and indulgences. There is no such thing in this world as a utopia and no such thing as a saint.

We cannot always rely on the kindness of people, such as to alleviate the pains of homelessness. What we can do, is to be comfortable demanding, and paying, a livable wage to people so that they remain a viable economic unit in our society. Additionally, having strong federal programs to aid homeless shelters, along with their affiliated medical programs, is just as important. You understand, of course, that a federal program is our way of expressing compassion. It is our way of acknowledging that not all members of society benefit from our economic endeavors but, we will certainly provide them sustenance, if only they will remain hopeful of, and strive for, a better future.

Is this just wishful thinking? Perhaps – but I think I’ve earned it.

-Just a peasant

Previous posts on homelessness: The Predators - Of Food - Of Life - Of Despair

Soup kitchen line in the US, during the Great Depression, 1932. From the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Collective Punishment

"To kill the big rats, you have to kill the little rats." - Political commentator on the radio in Rwanda - 1994.

Collective punishment is not self-defense. Collective punishment is an act of violence propagated against an entire local population for the acts of a few of its members. Collective punishment is also the automatic dismissal of due process of law which requires that the individuals responsible for an act of violence are actually the ones prosecuted for the said act. Collective punishment allows destroying the property of people and/or killing them, even though they may have had absolutely no knowledge of the crime.

Collective punishment is certainly not new as ancient religious texts are decorated with stories of mass punishments and, sadly, modern examples are also quite plentiful. The Germans collectively punished Jewish people, as seen in the Warsaw Ghetto pictured above, on a massive scale during the years of World War II. The Germans also collectively punished the civilians of Oradour-sur-Glane for the actions of the French resistance in 1944. In the 1950s, the British used collective punishment against civilians in Cyprus and Malaysia. Economic sanctions are also a form of collective punishment since it is the civilians that will suffer for the transgressions of those in power who inevitably remain secure by force of arms.

Yet governments are not the only groups guilty of the tactics of collective punishment. In Rwanda, armed Hutu groups used collective punishment against Tutsi men, women and children. The attacks on the World Trade Center, Madrid, London, and Mumbai are all forms of collective punishment. The point being, that even if every single person killed or maimed, had been guilty of the crimes of which they were accused by Al-Qaeda and others, not a single one of them was given due process of law and therefore, their human rights were violated. Even the Oklahoma City bombing was a collective punishment as it is highly unlikely, that the 19 children killed in the blast, had participated in any FBI enforcement operations that were so offensive to the convicted bombers.

Let us try to move past the obvious point of Israel’s latest aggression which is that, it is a clear violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, specifically forbidding collective punishment. Let us try to move past the fact that suicide bombers, associated with Hamas and Fatah, are guilty of collective punishment when they kill Israeli civilians. And of course, we must move past the fact that Hezbollah is also guilty of collective punishment when they fire missiles into Israeli towns.

All modern warfare is collective punishment. Prior to the 20th century, civilian casualties, related to an actual set-piece battle, were approximately 1 in 10. By World War II, one-half of conflict casualties were civilians, and by the 21st century, 90% of all casualties were civilians. These numbers may or may not include all the civilians adversely affected by ruined infrastructure, latent unexploded ordinance, starvation, and disease. This casualty rate is, of course, influenced by the increased destructive capabilities of weapons and the uniform acceptance of urban centers as valid military targets. Therefore, all modern warfare is collective punishment because, any time a modern weapon is applied for the purpose of inflicting damage, collateral or otherwise, every civilian killed is cheated of the due process of law and of their human rights. They are paying for the transgressions of others.

Ultimately, it is hypocritical to condemn collective punishment against your group when your own group uses collective punishment against others. Plain and simple.

- Just a peasant

Old Dog

In a single remark, without malice, he reminds me
I am no longer young; my words can no longer seduce.
I am an old dog, lying quietly, refusing to chase cars;
and by this I am judged.

For every love he has dreamed, I have lived seven.
But what use are the stars when my eyesight has failed?
My friend’s years are marked by candles in a cake;
mine - by faces of lovers forever gone by.

To potential mates he brings wilting flowers for a vase
or scented candles for their kitchen counter.
He does not know, to their hearts, I once brought fire;
and even recklessly brought despair.

Has he seen them tremble when their trust has been betrayed?
Does he know the pain to see them in another’s embrace?
Will he sacrifice everything for them just to win nothing?
Could he ever know how often this has been me?

To some woman, he will still give lofty speeches
on the proper conduct for her humor and her discontent.
While I myself, have become speechless before her kindness;
as I am speechless before her fury.

Removing her soft dress with a kiss in the dying shadows,
he believes that making love begins in the bedroom.
Yet I have seen, it is in the dancing lights of the other rooms
where her passion for you truly takes root.

To most men, the only important words a woman desires,
will simply and always be - I love you.
But I have learned, the hard way, the most important words
will always be - I’m sorry.

- Just a peasant

Not even a Kiss

I suppose that the corollary is also true:

Just because you have seduced a woman's mind, does not mean that you will kiss her lips.

- Just a peasant

Photo by Said Gimmy

Just a Kiss

Just because you kiss a woman’s lips, does not mean you have seduced her mind.

- Just a peasant

Artwork by Jeffery Scott

When Love Dies

When we are young we seldom realize that, for as many loves we create, just as many will die. We do not reflect on all those things that must come to an end. I am no exception. A single phrase I mentioned to a friend the other day suddenly brought back a long lost memory. It stemmed from a robbery at a sandwich shop I was working at when I was about twenty-five. However, it’s actually not the robbery that I wanted to speak of, but of something more important that happened afterward.

I walked home that night after the robbery and, when I came into the apartment, my girlfriend said a detective had called. I think she was a bit concerned that I had somehow caused some trouble somewhere. That was not the case of course, and it was simply that I was the store manager that night and, besides the one hostage, I was the one who had dealt with the gunman. The call was from the police detective who had questioned me after the robbery and he was just following up on a question. When I got off the phone I went into the room where my girlfriend was sitting on the couch and the conversation went like this:

Girlfriend: “What happened?”

Me: “I got robbed at the store tonight.”

Girlfriend: “Oh.”

And that was it. She turned back to the television and never asked me another thing about that night. It was clear that she was not interested or concerned. I suppose I could have asked her if she wanted to know more, but I didn’t say anything. After a while, I just stared at the floor - and reflected. As is usual for me it seems, during robberies or facing the perils of love, I was not outwardly upset, but I think most people reading this would understand what I must have felt like inside.

It is hard to face the dawning realization that the person you hold so dear, does not really care too much about you any more. There is an awful taste, when love dies, that seems to suddenly swell up inside of you – or maybe it’s just the salt in all those tears that you keep inside and refuse to cry. Either way, I still stuck around with her for a couple of months afterwards, trying to convince myself that I was wrong. You have to understand – robberies happen all the time, but Love doesn't.

Nonetheless, I had been correct on the night of the robbery and I should have realized it then. Eventually, I packed up and quietly went my own way.

- Just a peasant

Photo from the galleries of Wade Heninger

To Mumbai

In My Middle Years

In my middle years,
on the air of the fading summer,
I can still smell the immortality
of my shallow adolescence.

In my middle years,
on the air of the fading summer,
I can still hear the whispers
of heroic deeds never performed.

In my middle years,
on the air of the fading summer,
I can still taste honeysuckle leaves,
sweet with raw delusion.

In my middle years,
on the air of the fading summer,
I seek melancholy comfort
in wild blackberries and dusty grapes.

In my middle years,
on the air of the fading summer,
I vainly grope for tomorrow's dewdrops
because I cannot touch yesterday's river.

-Just a peasant

Painting: Wheatstacks (End of Summer) by Claude Monet

I'm Going To Hell

Today, I was thinking about intolerance here in America and in other places. It has so many flavors but where does it come from? During my life, I have been damned to biblical Hell, not once, not twice, but four times. I have been damned to Hell for being a heavy metal musician, a scientist, a humanist, and even a Dungeon Master.

The need to feel unique is what drives people to believe that they are on the cutting edge of civilization’s progress and that they, alone, are capable of understanding and protecting the institutions of their society. It is from this lust for uniqueness that people draw their human identity. Intolerance is born from their efforts to insulate these institutions from change because any people, that are physically or intellectually different, are considered a threat to the survival of the institution. These different people are then dehumanized so that either, they cannot reasonably participate in the institution or, so that they can be more easily isolated and eliminated. Intolerance therefore, is the manifestation of dehumanizing people. We do not tolerate those who are not human.

The first time that I was damned to Hell, I was just sixteen years old. A girl that I had dated, just twice, declared that I was “going to Hell” because I played Dungeons & Dragons. I told her that she must be correct since indeed, I played the advanced version of the game (AD&D) and not just the simpler basic version. The second time I was a heavy metal bass guitarist. There was a preacher in the parking lot of an auditorium protesting our show. He was up on the hood of his car yelling Bible verses at the crowd. On my way into the show that night he pointed his fingers menacingly at me and, even spitting on me, shouted, “You are damned to Hell! You’re a sinner!” All I could think was, “Well, I guess he won’t be buying any of our t-shirts.”

The third time that I was damned to Hell, I was politely informed by an animal rights activist that, because I supported scientific research on animals, I was a heartless human being and going to burn in Hell with all the people that kill whales. I suddenly had a humorous image of a flaming dolphin chasing me with a pitchfork. The fourth time, there was this guy who had decided that he was going to use computers to prove that God existed. When I explained to him that I have never seen any evidence for a God, he asserted strongly, that I was going to Hell. However, he did offer to pray for my poor little soul, but I lost my composure and told him to keep his prayers for himself and to get lost. It was not my best moment to be sure.

But, as you might imagine, I could care less. Judging by the number of times I have been damned to Hell, I know that I have quite a real estate venture going down there already. So if there is a Hell, when I get there and start sub-letting my apartments, I’m going to make a killing when everyone else from this life shows up.

- Just a peasant

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons – BEST GAME EVER!

Stanley Jordan

In my past life, as a hard rock bass guitarist, I had several musical idols. One of them was not a rock bass guitarist but a jazz guitarist – Stanley Jordan. From his style of playing, I learned to incorporate a two-handed technique into my own song writing.

These days, the only time I miss my bass guitars is after watching him play. You can see his David Letterman appearance here.

Simply exquisite.

- Just a peasant

Photo of Stanley Jordan at 38° Montreux Jazz Festival 2004 - Renato Lombardo Management.

Flag Burning on July 4th

" . . . the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

~Herman Goering (Luftwaffe Chief and Nazi Reich Marshall)

Hmmm . . . not a real flag burning but a picture of a burning flag? Patriotic or not patriotic? Pro-Flag or anti-Flag?

In honor of all those millions of Americans that will stand Pro-flag, pro-war, pro-imperialism, and pro-blood today, on July 4th – I choose Anti-flag.

One trillion dollars in the hands of killer thugs - Don't Trust Them.

- Just a peasant

Of War

The greatest tragedy of war - is that it is made up of thousands and thousands of little tragedies.

- Just a peasant

Photo from The Digital Journalist