This is my third-ever blog entry. It is strange to be writing without knowing whether these words will ever be read by anyone. Why would they be?
My two previous blogs have engendered no responses, and I do not think this site allows me to know whether anyone is even reading the entries, although I can discover that 17 people have checked our my profile here.
So, the question remains: Is anyone listening? Is writing blog entries worthwhile? Let me know?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
RELIGION & WAR
My agnostic friend enjoys pointing out that religion fuels many wars and much violence. Currently Muslims, Jews and Christians are in opposition in many places, and as I understand it, sects within Islam are killing each other as the result of a disagreement over which line of believers are the true successors of their founding prophet.
My own church has a history of popes literally leading armies into battle, as well as the murderous tortures of the Inquisition. Today its sins of violence are more along the line of scandalous predations on the young and attacks on the rights of gay people.
In my small home town I recall one intersection with churches on three of the four corners. I seriously doubt that many of the parishioners really understood clearly the long-past theological disputes which had severed these Christian worshipers from each other. Socially amiable, these congregations were divided by a kind of violence of the mind.
To my mind, ou greates human qualities - whether gifts from God as I believe them to be, or the result of evolution as my agnostic friend might hold, are free will and conscience. Thus to enslave another in body or mind, or to harm another physically or intangibly because of what he or she believes, are atrocious acts.
I read once, scrawled on a wall at Jesuit Georgetown University in Washington, DC: "If you truly believe there is no God, it is your moral duty to be an atheist."
Still, in many parts of the world, people of differing faiths live together in peace. I think today we need great Gandhi-like leaders who can heal the antagonisms between warring creeds and angry factions. In the meantime, each of us can try to choose harmony over anger, and peace over contention, at every opportunity.
My own church has a history of popes literally leading armies into battle, as well as the murderous tortures of the Inquisition. Today its sins of violence are more along the line of scandalous predations on the young and attacks on the rights of gay people.
In my small home town I recall one intersection with churches on three of the four corners. I seriously doubt that many of the parishioners really understood clearly the long-past theological disputes which had severed these Christian worshipers from each other. Socially amiable, these congregations were divided by a kind of violence of the mind.
To my mind, ou greates human qualities - whether gifts from God as I believe them to be, or the result of evolution as my agnostic friend might hold, are free will and conscience. Thus to enslave another in body or mind, or to harm another physically or intangibly because of what he or she believes, are atrocious acts.
I read once, scrawled on a wall at Jesuit Georgetown University in Washington, DC: "If you truly believe there is no God, it is your moral duty to be an atheist."
Still, in many parts of the world, people of differing faiths live together in peace. I think today we need great Gandhi-like leaders who can heal the antagonisms between warring creeds and angry factions. In the meantime, each of us can try to choose harmony over anger, and peace over contention, at every opportunity.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
EXPEDITION EVEREST EYESORE
EXPEDITION EVEREST EYESORE
Kenneth Dresser, a talented artist friend of mine, worked for many years on contract for various Disney projects. He enthused over the care taken in planning the original parks. Ways were found to insure that "no matter where guests stood, or in what direction they looked" they would see something of intriguing interest, if not beguiling beauty. Designers would imagine themselves standing at myriad points on a blue-print or model, contemplating sight lines. Competing infrastructure, mechanics and utilities competing with the desired atmosphere were carefully hidden or disguised to preserve design integrity.
A triumph of this principle, I think, is the positioning of the Rockin’ Roller Coaster within surrounding structures in the Disney MGM Studios in Florida. Aerial views of the park show this ride to be housed in an enormous white building at the perimeter of the property. From street level, however, I believe the building is invisible from all directions. Aerial views of the park also show an arterial roadway running quite near, but masked from the Studio Tour area by berms and trees.
The offending Swan and Dolphin hotels represent, of course, a signal disregard for this sage planning procedure. Given our contemporary willingness to demolish even recently built structures, however, one can hope that the offending upper floors of these gigantic (monstrous?) edifices will be removed one day. Robert Iger, make your reputation...
Expedition Everest represents a particularly egregious, but more easily corrected, lapse. Viewing the Potemkin bare backside of a partial fake snow-capped mountain peak – outfitted with gray emergency stairways – is unacceptable by classic Disney standards. The "suspension of disbelief" is violated from the Animal Kingdom parking lot, forfeiting the imagination game before one even enters the park.
This literal short-cut destroys the perspective artistry which gives the peak its height, authority and grandeur, voids its claim to reality, and is a real "spoiler" before guests even enter the park. Were Walt Disney alive today, he might well be mortgaging his home yet one more time to hide or disguise the offending exit stairs. In his absence (and memory) let’s hope the Imagineers are budgeted soon to rectify this cheapskate monumental blunder.
Kenneth Dresser, a talented artist friend of mine, worked for many years on contract for various Disney projects. He enthused over the care taken in planning the original parks. Ways were found to insure that "no matter where guests stood, or in what direction they looked" they would see something of intriguing interest, if not beguiling beauty. Designers would imagine themselves standing at myriad points on a blue-print or model, contemplating sight lines. Competing infrastructure, mechanics and utilities competing with the desired atmosphere were carefully hidden or disguised to preserve design integrity.
A triumph of this principle, I think, is the positioning of the Rockin’ Roller Coaster within surrounding structures in the Disney MGM Studios in Florida. Aerial views of the park show this ride to be housed in an enormous white building at the perimeter of the property. From street level, however, I believe the building is invisible from all directions. Aerial views of the park also show an arterial roadway running quite near, but masked from the Studio Tour area by berms and trees.
The offending Swan and Dolphin hotels represent, of course, a signal disregard for this sage planning procedure. Given our contemporary willingness to demolish even recently built structures, however, one can hope that the offending upper floors of these gigantic (monstrous?) edifices will be removed one day. Robert Iger, make your reputation...
Expedition Everest represents a particularly egregious, but more easily corrected, lapse. Viewing the Potemkin bare backside of a partial fake snow-capped mountain peak – outfitted with gray emergency stairways – is unacceptable by classic Disney standards. The "suspension of disbelief" is violated from the Animal Kingdom parking lot, forfeiting the imagination game before one even enters the park.
This literal short-cut destroys the perspective artistry which gives the peak its height, authority and grandeur, voids its claim to reality, and is a real "spoiler" before guests even enter the park. Were Walt Disney alive today, he might well be mortgaging his home yet one more time to hide or disguise the offending exit stairs. In his absence (and memory) let’s hope the Imagineers are budgeted soon to rectify this cheapskate monumental blunder.
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