Political thing. (Personal opinions ahead.)

((I guess I’d better post this before we lose power for a week. Anticipatory anxiety is my favorite!))

I don’t usually post about particular politicians. I usually just go off on a “feminazi” or “crazy libby” rant. This time, though, I’m going to share a mailing from the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.

They seem to be focusing a lot of attention on our local state representative seat. I think that’s a good sign because maybe that means they’re worried about losing this seat. I’ve gotten so many incredibly negative junk mailers from them.

This one, though… oh my lord.

Look, I’m a pretty reasonable person. My dad and I even agree on some things despite being political opposites.

Look, there’s nothing “extreme” about supporting equal rights for all people — because gays and lesbians are people too. They deserve every right I have as a heterosexual. Including the right to be legally married. (And no, this does not impose upon religious beliefs because, guess what, churches don’t HAVE to marry anyone.) So heaven forbid Equality PA or Victory Fund support you. Gay rights are a civil rights issue. If you don’t agree with gay marriage, then don’t engage in one.

Side note: If you really want to save marriage, make it illegal for people who engage in domestic violence to get married. Or teach love, acceptance, tolerance and forgiveness. He asks, “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

But supporting LGBT rights is so extreme that it’s something I’ve supported since I was at least 5 without even thinking about it. Treat others as you’d like to be treated. Simple and not extreme!

Progessive Majority supports things like:

• Economic Justice: Prosperity should be accessible to everyone, not merely the few.
• Civil Rights: Every individual’s civil rights must be protected; discrimination and harassment based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or physical and developmental ability should be banned.
• Health Care: Every individual should have affordable, quality health care.
• Education: It is essential that we invest in quality public education for all.
• Environment: We must commit to restoring and protecting our environment.
• Reproductive Freedom: Women and men – not politicians – deserve the right to make personal decisions about their reproductive health in accordance with their own personal and moral beliefs.

The right to make decisions about when to have children? HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE? AN EDUCATION? EQUALITY?

*sarcasm* Oh it’s just so horrible! Women should be baby machines! People need to die more often. Ignorance is bliss. And if there are no second class citizens, we’d actually have to respect one another. How terrible!

Planned Parenthood also likes to provide health care, sex education, and reproductive services to people. Lately, Planned Parenthood has been under attack because they provide women with medical services that are important to their reproductive lives. (Yes, sometimes this is abortion — which turns out isn’t an issue that is black and white.) I guess it’s forgotten that even men use their services.

Planned Parenthood is not extreme. They do want to protect women’s (and general) health issues by preventing interference by politicians who think women have a special way to shut down pregnancies in cases of rape. They don’t go around poking holes in condoms or anything. They provide cancer screenings and annual exams that prevent disease, pregnancies and even deaths. They want to keep medical decisions between a patient and their doctor.

And why, WHY are unions considered soooo evil? They’ve fought to give us 40 hour work weeks/overtime pay, safer working conditions, time off to care for sick children and parents, and time off to mourn a death. That’s just a few of the “perks” labor unions have gotten us. You think most corporations care to improve their working conditions if their workers all just roll over and do everything they say for low pay and no benefits? No one could make a living that way… We owe a lot to hard fought union battles, even if we’re not unionized.

On the flip side of the mailer, they cite calls for gun control laws from a paper written about domestic violence victims. (I think we can all agree that abusive jerks shouldn’t have guns and there should be better protections in place for domestic abuse victims.)

Bah! So extreme.

Lamassu (A winged man-headed bull.)

Lamassu (winged, human headed bull), from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin, Assyria (modern Khorsabad, Iraq), 720-705 BCE.

Someday, I hope I have enough money and time to go to Europe. I want to go to the Louvre to see these bad boys.

First, a little background on the lamassu. Lamassu are Mesopotamian protective deities or spirits. They were winged, man-bulls who were placed at city gates to protect the city. In some cases, they were carved into clay tablets to be buried at home entryways to protect individual households. They aren’t demons, they are simply creatures your would want on your side if you were being attacked or invaded.

This particular lamassu was created during the rule of the Assyrians; they were in charge after the Babylonians and Hittites fell from power. These guys were placed at the gates of Sargon II’s palace. They were suppose to ward off the king’s enemies (mortal and immortal). They’re huge — they measure in at 13′ 10″ high. The feat of getting the lamassu into place was so incredible that Sargon’s successors created reliefs in their palace showing men dragging the lamassu into place using ropes and sledges.

They are carved partially in the round, but the artist created them as high reliefs. From the front, you see the animal at rest with both hooves firmly on the ground. From the side, you see the animal in motion. This means that the lamassu, when viewed in totality, has five legs. This provided the popular and descriptive composite view so popular with ancient man.

My opinion? Just how cool are these guys? They’re intimidating, but not grotesque. I mean, they could simply step on you if they wanted to stop you. They’re so detailed too. I love how intricate they are, especially the beard. Oh, and I think the wrap around horns are awesome. It’s smart that they kept them inline with the rest of the head, if they had protruded, they probably would have gotten broken off by vandals or just due to time passing. Keeping everything compact made it possible for the entire sculpture to stay relatively intact over the course of thousands of years. Dear Winged Bullman, I think you’re rad. (I also think Pegasus from the Disney version of Hercules is rad. I like mystical winged creatures, I guess.)

Stele with law code of Hammurabi

Stele with law code of Hammurabi, Susa, Iran, approximately 1780 BCE

This is the law code of Hammurabi. It wasn’t the first set of laws ever recorded, but it was one of the most comprehensive lists of laws, court happening and punishments. It even addresses fair wages for services rendered, almost like a government endorsed minimum wage.

At the top of the stele, you see Hammurabi receiving the law codes from Shamash, the sun god. In a religious sense, it is similar to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God/Yahweh. Both were leaders receiving their laws from god.

The stele is divided into three parts. First, we’re introduced to Hammurabi and a champion to the little guy, the weak and oppressed. Then there’s a section about his past legal work and how it will continue. Finally, there are almost 300 laws listed as well as the punishments for committing such offenses. It also contains the names of towns and territories annexed into Babylon.

I’m going to be honest, this is an obligatory post. The law code of Hammurabi is a pretty big deal. It’s a very comprehensive list and it has interesting religious parallels. However, I don’t think it is all that interesting beyond that. It was likely phallic in nature because Hammurabi was a man and men like their penises because Hammurabi is a very masculine figure and the phallic shape reinforces that. (Phallus = Power, which is silly if you ask this feminist… Besides, it’s easy to make a man become a crumpled ball of mess by kicking him in his ‘nads.) That is relatively interesting and I’m sure it would be cool to look at the male-female dynamics of this time in more depth, but that’s a whole other post entirely.

Basalt, which is what this stele was carved from, is a fairly hard rock, so I’m sure a great deal of time and energy is expended in carving it. Obviously a basalt record would have been ideal for lasting records of King Hammurabi’s great legal works because it was likely to last through the years. Good choice, Babylon. Good choice. This was a nation that planned on being legendary, I suppose. They are pretty legendary, obviously, they ended up being portrayed as overconfident heathens in the Bible and we are still discussing their culture many years later.

There are older recordings of this law code on baked clay tablets, but they haven’t withstood the test of time quite as well as this stele has.

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin

Victory stele of Naram-Sin, Susa, Iran, 2254-2218 BCE

As I type this, I’m waiting for an “AirShield” (CVS version of AirBourne) to dissolve in a glass of water. I have to be honest, it looks really disgusting. I am not looking forward to drinking it.

That’s not the point. This is the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin. I’m showing this to you because it’s something new and innovative in art, at least at the time it was created back in the 2200s BCE. It was created by the Akkadians, who introduced a new concept to mankind that’s still around today — unquestioned loyalty to their king rather than their city-state.

Ugh, I think my AirShield is dissolved.

This stele commemorates Naram-Sin’s victory over the people of Lullubi. (Yes, Lullubi, they were the people of the mountains in eastern Iran.) It has two inscriptions. One was done during it’s creation to honor Naram-Sin’s conquest and a later inscription was done in 1157 BCE by an Elamite king who had conquered Akkadian Sippar and took the stele as booty.

Heh. Shake your booty! (What? It’s been a long day and my throat itches.)

The stele show’s Naram-Sin leading his army up the slopes of a mountain. His enemies are slain, fleeing for their lives, or begging for mercy.
The king is depicted much larger than his men and walks all over his slain enemies. He’s wearing a horned helmet — a symbol of the gods in Mesopotamian art– and there are stars shining their favor on him from above.

It also appears that, by scaling the mountain, he is climbing his way to the heavens, which was the belief or symbolism of the ziggurats of the day. His troops follow behind him in a single file, orderly way to imply discipline and organization within the forces.

The enemy is, obviously, shown in disarray. some are crouching, hiding, being walked on or even falling off the side of the mountain.

Of course, the troops and Naram-Sin are shown in the typical composite view, but this piece is innovative because –

Anyone want to guess?

Okay, I’ll just tell you — it’s not laid out in friezes. The story is told dynamically, not through horizontal registers. There are diagonal lines and planes being broken (like the poor guy falling off the side of the mountain) but the placement is deliberate, unlike early man’s haphazardly placed figures.

In other words, without artists willing to evolve and try new things, we’d still be making art within horizontal boxes. How boring would that be? (Of course, before the horizontal boxes, placement was dynamic but also not cohesive. Change is a good thing, my friends. You should mix things up every now and again.)

So that’s all for today.

PS: AirShield tastes almost as bad as it looks. Almost. I think I can choke it down, though. Here’s to cold and flu season!

Inanna and the Warka Vase

Left: Female Head (Inanna?), Uruk or modern Warka, Iraq. 3200-3000 BCE
Right: Presentation of offerings to Inanna (Warka Vase), Also Uruk/Warka, Iraq. 3200-3000 BCE

As an example of their devotion to Inanna (aka Ishtar), I’ve included the two images above. On the left, we have a marble sculpture of a face, possibly Inanna or a preistess, that would have likely been attached to a wooden carved body. The head was entirely carved out of stone by human hands and was found in the sacred temple area of the goddess Inanna. The eyes and brow would have been filled with colored shells or stones and a wig, possibly made of gold leaf, was likely attached by the very prominent “part” in her head. She would have been vibrant, to say the least.

On the right is the Warka Vase. It tells a story and, because of this, is “narrative art.” It depicts a festival held in Inanna’s honor. It is divided into three sections, registers or friezes, to make the storytelling easier. On the lowest frieze, you see sheep, rams, barley and flax depicted. This is representative of a year of abundance. Inanna has blessed them with good crops and large herds. The animals are in profile, as they have been portrayed for thousands of years, but they are given a “ground line” to stand on. This is something new to art.Subjects are no longer placed haphazardly around a scene; there is order here.

The second frieze from the bottom shows men carrying baskets overflowing with the bounties bestowed upon them. They will present these to the goddess as a “votive offering.” They present the gifts as a gesture of gratitude, usually in response to the fulfillment of a vow they’ve made to the gods. Like the composite views of men from earlier art, the legs are shown in profile, the torso is shown from a frontal view and the head is shown, again, in profile. The bodies also do not overlap.

In the very top frieze, there is a tall woman wearing a horned helmet. It’s not known whether this is Inanna herself or a priestess, but they are clearly important as they are much taller than any other figure on the vase. The offerings are shown in animal shaped vessels placed all over the interior of the shrine.

My thoughts on these two pieces? The head looks a little rough now, but she is at least 5000 years old, so she really looks good for her age. She must have been beautiful back when she was created. Golden hair (because blondes have more fun, I suppose) and sparkling, colorful brows and eyes. Her body, which was probably made of wood, I’m sure was also adorned quite beautifully.

The vase is pretty interesting if just for the friezes. The Greeks (and other civilizations) would use friezes in various artworks. It was also the forerunner to the comic book! Can you imagine a world without the comic book? (You can? So can I, but we wouldn’t have had those fun Lichtenstein paintings without pop culture and comic books!)

We interrupt this art nerdiness to bring you a real life update.

Guess what? I slept in today! Not exactly world changing, but exciting to me, none the less.

Everyone should read “Sacre Bleu.” It’s a very clever, sometimes dirty book that gives a new, fictional spin on art… Specifically the Impressionists. The book is all about the color blue. Ultramarine blue. The sacred blue. There’s beautiful women and a twisted, broken man and Mr. Toulouse-Lautrec plays a big roll. He is awesome in real life and in fiction.

I was sad when I finished reading it. You guys ever get that feeling where you’re sad when you finish a good book? I finished this book on Thursday, I think. Since Tom tells me I can keep it, I probably will and then I’ll probably reread it.

So, listen Tom, if you want it back so you can reread it, let me know. I’ll mail it back to you. Maybe you never reread books. I have a habit of rereading the ones I really like. I might reread Lamb before it gets too close to Christmas. Something about reading a satirical book about the life of Christ too close to Christmas… I don’t know, it seems like maybe I’m pushing it too much. I don’t want to be smited by Christmas. That would be terrible.

That reminds me. 12/21/12 is approaching quickly. Unless there is an approaching asteroid no one is telling us about or Israel (or Romney, lets face it) decides to start a nuclear with Iran, I think we’re going to make it to 2013. Since the nuclear war thing is always a possibly, though, perhaps I should not reread Lamb at all until the danger’s passed. It would be a bummer to die, go to heaven and be told I’m not allowed in because my bookshelf is full of horrendous books and did I really have to read a book that jokes about the Son of God?

Though I think God has a sense of humor, so maybe he’d ask to borrow the book himself. And if I ever met Jesus, I’d tell him I always thought it was super selfish for people to be like, “I’m saved because Jesus died for ME!” It’s one of my sticking points with Christianity. No personal responsibility for choices made beyond choosing Jesus as The Light and The God. I think Jesus was an incredible man, his life can teach us many things, but I would never want or ask anyone to die for me and I certainly wouldn’t celebrate it. I know he was all, “Hey guys, remember me? I died three days ago, but death couldn’t contain me.” and that’s what we celebrate, but still. He didn’t want to die. He sweated blood over it, guys. I’m fairly certain that sweating blood is indicative of the biggest and scariest panic attack ever. He was, at best, a semi-willing pawn in the sin game. Everyone should be responsible for their choices, so it doesn’t seem right that someone can be a bully for Jesus and still get past the pearly gates, especially considering he wasn’t a big fan of being killed in the first place. (Because you can believe something to your bones and still do wretched things like bully gay teenagers to suicide and whatnot.)

But yeah, that’s always my biggest beef. Just like I think it’s a little nuts that a religion was developed by a man who almost made his son a human sacrifice. I don’t think I’d take spiritual advice from a man who nearly slaughtered his son. But that’s just me. I suppose back in those days other religions regularly made human sacrifices, so it probably didn’t seem so off the wall then.

Good god, this has gone all over the place. Why did I originally come here to type? Slept in, good book, Jesus, hmmm… OH! I’m making mac and cheese today for lunch! I was sooooo hungry for stewed tomatoes. What else can you put stewed tomatoes on? Nothing! Only mac and cheese, duh.

Actually, I’m sure that’s not true, but cheese and pasta are my two favorite food groups and I haven’t cooked in a long time. I borrowed a cookbook and found this recipe inside in and thought, shit… Let’s get back to cooking with a classic! I even shredded the cheese myself last night! I mean business, obviously.

It’s almost 10 am. I’d better get out of bed and showered so I have time to make lunch and then do laundry. Oh, this freakin’ weekend always goes too quickly.

I should probably change my sheets too. It’s probably been a while. Ew.

Art and religion

I think one of my favorite things about art history is the spirituality that exists in so much art. Many of the greatest pieces of art were made because of an immense dedication to a people’s chosen deity or deities.

There were great temples created to try and bring humans closer to the gods, like the ziggurats of Uruk or the pyramids in Egypt.

(White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk, Modern Iraq, 3200-3000 BCE)

There were also devoted statuettes of worshippers, ever ready to serve their god (this example also from what is modern Iraq).

Their varying size often denoted how “important” each of them was, but they’re all forever wide-eyed and praying.

I think my favorite example from the Babylonians is the Ishtar gate, which I will probably explain in more detail at a later date.

During the time of Mesopotamia, the most important gods were Anu (chief deity of the Sumerians), Enlil (Anu’s son, lord of the winds and earth and eventual replacement of Anu), and Inanna or Ishtar (Sumerian goddess of love and war, usually shown with a sacred lion, most important goddess of the Mesopotamian time period).

There were obviously many others, but it was from these beliefs (or from the rejections of these beliefs) that many of our world religions were created. And from those religions, more art was made. Art has been a way for man to show commitment to a higher being, either by creating it or commissioning it. While I think art would have developed without the development of religion, we might not have some of the spectacular works that we do today in a spiritual vacuum.

The Sumerians: Writing

The Sumerians were the first civilization to create written records and therefore the inventors of writing.

The above image was swiped from wikipedia. It shows the progression of “head” as the sumerians developed their writing system over the course of 2000 years.

They used this new concept to record inventory at first. They started off using pictographs (simplified drawings that stand for words). They would scratch their pictographs into soft clay tablets with a stylus and let the tablets harden. Because of these clay tablets, we have thousands of documents from nearly 5000 years ago. These pictographs were written and read from right to left and from the top down.

Over a series of approximately 2000 years, their pictographs developed into cuneiform. By 2600 BCE, these cuneiform characters were developed enough to express complex sentences and ideas.

The language was so well developed, that the Sumerians were able to produce great literature. If you’ve ever taken an English or literature class, or you’ve taken mythology, you’ve probably heard of the Epic of Gilgamesh?

Sumerian. And it’s all thanks to their ancient innovation of writing.

Landscape with volcanic eruption

We’ve moved past paleolithic man and have moved into the Neolithic time period. What you see above is possibly the world’s first landscape! How exciting is that?

It is a “landscape with volcanic eruption” that was painted on a shrine wall in Çatal Hüyük, Turkey around 6150 BCE. In the foreground of the painting, you’ll see a series of rectangles representing the homes built in the city. In the background is a (smoking?) twin peaked mountain named Hasan Dağ.

Oh goodness, I had to crack out the character map to finish that paragraph. That was exhausting.

Scholars believe the volcano might have had some sort of religious connotation, since it was painted in a shrine. We know the Hawaiians have Pele, so I’m sure the locals had beliefs connected to the eruptions of their volcanoes.

But the real reason why this painting is special is because it’s the first example art historians have found where people or animals are not represented in the composition.

Since we’re in Çatal Hüyük, I’ll share another painting with you. This is an painting depicting an organized group of hunters in their hunting process. You’ll see there are two very large deer surrounded by a herd of people. I’m showing this to you because, as you can see, “twisted perspective is still being used more than 7,000 years after the creation of the Hall of Bulls. Of course, put a new spin on twisted perspective and you’ll find the basis for Cubism. (The basis being that an object is viewed and represented from various angles to get a fuller description of its essence, but that won’t happen until the 1900s CE.)

Here is “Deer Hunt” from Çatal Hüyük, Turkey. It was created around 5750 BCE.

See, twisted perspective (or “composite view”)! However, the Neolithic artists used a new technique to paint their pieces. They used brushes to apply pigment to a specially prepared white plaster background, rather than directly to a cave or interior wall.

A reading meme.

I got this from Tom. Who got it from someone else.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

This depends on where I’m reading. In bed, I rarely snack, but if I do snack it’s on dos gummy bears. At work I hardly ever snack because, well, I already get pissed at customers who interrupt my reading time! Haha. If they interrupted snack and reading time, it would be terrible.

In my living room, I snack all the time. Currently I snack on trail mix or cheez its. It really depends on what I have in my apartment… Something un-messy.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

Not unless the book is for writing OR it’s a textbook. Textbooks are make to be written and marked up because they are full of important information. Even if it’s just important enough to remember for a test and then forget immediately after *coughstatisticscough*

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?

Usually, I use whatever paper is near me. So, like Tom, I sometimes use a subscription postcard. Usually I end up with an old work note or scrap paper. My favorite bookmarkers are sticky notes. Right now I’m using a ratty sticky note. If the book is mine forever, used, or a mass market paperback, I will dog-ear pages. I probably shouldn’t. It seems disrespectful to the book gods.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

I almost always read fiction. Every now and then I’ll read a self-help book, a book on feminism, or reread a textbook, apparently. (Art through the Ages: Volume One, for example.) I tend to enjoy books that are light or funny. I don’t read a lot of comedy books, though. I simply refer fictional books with a dose of humor thrown in.

During the winter, though, when my mood is darker, sometimes I will read a Very Serious Book and it will make me want to paint my face white and look sad all the time.

Hard copy or audiobooks?

Oh my god, I just borrowed an audiobook from the library and I haven’t given it a single listen! I will today on my way down to my doctor’s appointment, but I’m pretty confident that I am a hard copy sort of gal. I like the feel of the paper on my skin and I like being able to see my reading progress via bookmark. This is probably why e-readers and I aren’t bestest of pals. No visual progress.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?

I try to read to the end of chapters. Sometimes I get super sleepy, though, and I can’t make it. In these instances I will begrudgingly place my bookmark and pass out.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

I’m not as smart as Tom, so sometimes I come across words I don’t know. If I can’t figure it out via context clues AND I have an Internet device near me, I will “define:” google it. Then I know, no one knows my ignorance and I can finish my book with complete understanding.

What are you currently reading?

I’m bouncing between Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore (Thanks Tom! I promise I’ll send it back when I’m done!) and Art Through the Ages: Volume One. They are related through art but completely different, so it is not confusing one bit. For example, the Venus of Willendorf, Hall of Bulls and Sumerian cuneiform have not been mentioned in Sacre Bleu. At least not so far.

What is the last book you bought?

Um, I don’t even know. I think it was Fragile Things. I think. By Neil Gaiman.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?

I’m reading two books currently. My rule for this is, the books have to be totally and completely different. So I can’t read two chick lit books because I’d probably confuse the story line. I could read a feminist manifesta and a chick lit book because I will not confuse female empowerment and chasing a boy clumsily because you are obsessed with him. Just like I won’t confuse The Code of Hammurabi with a drunken, foul-smelling fictional account of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?

Before bed. Preferably well before bed so I can get 2 or 3 chapters in before my Xanax gets popped and I get sleepyfaced. I also don’t mind reading on my long lunch breaks. If I can read uninterrupted for longer than 20 minutes, I’m happy.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?

This is a silly question. I prefer good books. If they happen to be part of a series, I will read them all from book 1 to the current release. If I buy a series, I must buy from book 1 to the current release as I read through them. All these books must be in the same format (all paperback or all hardcover and all the same size, ok?) or I will look at my bookshelf and cry. Sometimes I get really sad when I finish a good stand alone book because it’s over. Then I stop being sad because I realize I can read it over and over again.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

I really love “Gods Behaving Badly.” The story line is adorable. I also live mythology, so there’s that. Um, all of “The Pirates in an Adventure with…” books are fabulous. (Gideon Defoe, I believe is the author.) Oh, and “Lamb” by Christopher Moore… If you’re not easily offended by heresy and things Ike that. (God has a sense of humor, guys! I mean, why else would he have created penises, am I right?)

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

I put my books wherever they fit. If they are part of a series, I try to keep them clustered. That is the extent of my organizational skills.