From a strange planet - 52

Young Circle Park - a webcam in Hollywood

This is a dead webcam. From the comments I conclude it stopped working in 2017:

Rain Shadow 09/09/17 23:15 - Just to add to the Irma misery, there are now tornadoes being reported in some areas. MD 09/09/17 23:27 - What a position to be in - Irma to the south and tornadoes to the north.

The indeterminacy of the picture reminds me of Ed Ruscha, once again.

And imagine, somewhere on a server is a file, containing a five year old, forgotten picture from a dead webcam. The webcam is gone, but its memories remain visible.

These are the coordinates - Facility:Young Circle Park, City:Hollywood, State/Region:Florida, Country:United States, Coordinates:25.736300 / -80.404400, Local time:05:46

But entering the coordinates in Google points us to a wrong place:

When it should point us here:

A strange country

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

 L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

I was again reminded of the truth of this wisdom (or platitude, or both) when I prepared to clean out this book I got from the second-hand market. This is 1966, but it looks different, ancient and also strangely modern. It looks like a parallel timeline that never really happened. But it did happen. And now it's gone more completely than the Middle Ages.

At the municipal graveyard

This is from Toon, Foto's van Robby Pauwels, 1966, by Toon Hermans, Robby Pauwels, Andries Blitz, (De erven de wed. J. van Nelle N.V., Rotterdam). A book about a well known and talented Dutch entertainer (he called himself a clown). He died not too long ago. But how different it all looks!

Innsbruck, just before we would start decorating the Christmas tree

It might have been in the depths of the Cold War, with the hippies, student revolts and the invasion of Czechoslovakia a few years into the future. Charles de Gaulle and Harold Wilson were in power. How calm and peaceful this time looks, compared with today.

Wall flowers

Guidebook from 1979

I'm making space for new books and I have to discard some of my old books. But I want to share their beauty and weirdness with you. For 4 euro I bought this guidebook from 1979. There was this one page that absolutely blew me away:

The type, the spacing and the modernism ... everything was perfect. This was the most beautiful page from the book. Another page was similarly beautiful, including the contrast between nature and cityscape:

And then there was this introductory text. I have removed the specifics of the place, because this is the archetypical psychogeographic text. It might fit any place. It could be Damascus, Sarajevo, Berlin, Rotterdam, Dresden or Nanjing. It sounds like a chapter from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities:

Of the many towns and cities that lie scattered across the vast expanse of the _____ there are some that, like a mirror, have reflected the fate of the country and the whole nation and have revealed the character of the _____ people. Among them the heroic city of _____ is something of a legend. From all over the world people come to _____ to see the city, for which one of the greatest battles of the _____ war was fought, the battle of _____. Here, on the banks of the _____ began the death-throes of _____.

But victory was bought at a high price: thousands of young lives destroyed, thousands of hopes shattered, thousands of books unread and unwritten, thousands of tasks undone. Instead of a town stood mile after mile of charred ruins, a grotesque tableau of gutted windows, burned out squares and blackened facades, a desert of rubble and bombed-out buildings.

More than thirty years have gone by. _____ is now a beautiful new town. Wide tree lined boulevards cross its spacious squares; tall poplars and fragrant limes stir in the breeze; the sun flashes from the windows of the modern houses, shimmers in the puddles left by the heavy rain and catches the port-holes of passing ships.

We invite you to this city, full of sun and light, this new town on the _____. _____, like any other _____ town, is a hive of noise and activity, from the laughter of children at school to the rumble of machinery on the building sites. Its eyes are firmly fixed on the future, but its memory remains in the past, memory of those heroic sacrifices that were made in the name of the present.

As anyone who has ever been to _____ will tell you, there is no aspect of the daily life of that city which does not reflect the great tribute which the citizens of today owe to the defenders of yesterday. Our guide, then, will take you into two worlds - the world of the present and the world of the past, for the past determines the present as the present determines the future.

Now ... would you have guessed?

Volgograd, A short Guide, N.T. Morozova, N.D. Monakhova, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1979, Translated from the Russian by Barry Costello

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More unique books: allotment garden, non-existent, memory gift, enigmatic 2, dream syntax, topographic poetry, geology, parallel encyclopedia, anti fascist, stones, politics, gilbert and george, burroughs, dark city, derrida, UFO, waves, occult, moon, orbs, Trump, Per Kirkeby, machine generated, ZineCamp2015, geographer, China Mieville, agoraphobia, hidden messages, evil guidebooks, enigmatic books, guilty places, Ruthenbeck, DonDeLillo, ZineCamp2015, ZineCamp2014, ZineCamp2014, detection manual, annotations, Proust, dictionary, Kubin.

Milton Rakove on politics - 8

I'm reading this wonderful book from 1975: Don't make no waves ... don't back no losers by Milton Rakove. The book is a great mirror for our times. It does not give answers but it puts things in perspective. I like its musings on political philosophy and "Realpolitik". Something resonates with our times. See the quotes below. The earlier parts of this series are 1:Voters, 2:Power, 3:Immigration, 4:Religion, 5:Segregation, 6:The Irish, and 7:Political philosophy.

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Communication style

... Daley projects an image at public gatherings of an effective, well-organized speaker who knows where he is going. "His style comes through," according to one observer, "not as inept but as unpretentious."

Community activities, 1968 - on Flickr - by Digital Collections, UIC Library

County board president George Dunne, Daley's possible heir apparent as mayor, recounts Daley's advice to budding candidates for office: "Prepare your talks carefully, and don't go over five minutes. Don't tell off-color stories. If you've had something to drink, stay home."

Daley, in public gatherings, is rather taciturn, conservative, and reserved. "How do you approach the mayor?" the machine guys ask laughingly. On tiptoe," says newspaperman D.J.R. Bruckner. "And when he speaks to the people, most of the time, he uses few and careful words. Sloppy listening habits are very dangerous around this man."

Management style

Central to Daley's political style is his acceptance of responsibility for all matters which fall under his own purview. And he applies the same standards to all those who work for him or with him.If Daley assigns a job to a politician or city employee, he will not tell the person how to do the job. He will spell out the obligations of the position being offered, define the parameters of accountability, make it clear that with the title and the authority goes the responsibility, and define his own role in no uncertain terms.

Richard J. Daley - on Flickr - by gympumpkin

He normally will not give orders to an appointed or elected party or governmental official, give advice to those who come seeking it, or involve himself in a situation which has been brought about by the action of others. Woe to the party or public official who comes to him to ask what should be done about a particular situation. If you are working for the mayor, and you have a problem, and you come to him to ask him what you should do about your problem, chances are excellent that you will have a permanent problem with the mayor.

If you have a problem, and you ask to see him to tell him about your problem, and then tell him what you think you should do about your problem, you are likely to get a monosyllabic grunt or nod, and leave the office, still not having received a yes or no as to what to do about your problem but recognizing that if you have a problem, it is still your problem. And you will know, too, that if you do not resolve that problem satisfactorily, you may be looking for another job in the very near future.

Non decision making

There is a great deal of research and analysis being done today in contemporary political science, psychology, and sociology on how decision makers in positions of responsibility and authority go about making decisions. Most of this research and analysis is irrelevant to professional politicians like Richard J. Daley.

What the students of decision making have overlooked is that most successful politicians who have remained in office for any length of time are not decision makers. They are, rather, skilled practitioners in the art of not making decisions.

Blanik Mountain Knight - on Flickr - by Digital Collections, UIC Library

There is a simple explanation for the behavior of the non-decision makers who have managed to remain in public office for any period of time. They are generally professional politicians who, early in their political careers, learned the relationship between decision making and their chances for staying in office for any length of time. They know that every time a public official makes a political decision, somebody wins, somebody loses. They know, too, that those for whom they made the decision are ungrateful and will soon forget what was done for them. They know, further, that those against whom the decision was made will never forget the decision maker and will do their utmost to remove him from public office at the very first opportunity.

They know, finally, that while an office holder must be held accountable and responsible for whatever happens in his office, there is no need for him to seek accountability or responsibility in somebody else's sphere of authority. Consequently, most successful politicians avoid making decisions whenever they can and make decisions only if they are forced to do so by a developing crisis or an aroused public opinion. And, even when they are forced to make a decision, they will do it at the lowest level of accountability in order to alienate and offend as few people as possible.

Political technique of non decision making

Richard J. Daley is a master of this political technique. While he accepts his responsibilities as mayor of Chicago and chairman of the Democratic party of Cook County, he will not accept the responsibility for the operation of any ward or political subdivision of the city, nor will he make decisions for those in the city bureaucracy who have been given responsibility or authority over a particular area of public policy.

 

Community activities 1968 - on Flickr - by Digital Collections, UIC Library

If backed against the wall, he will appoint a committee to study the problem or announce that it should be decided in accordance with the principles of Christian justice. In the meantime, he will be looking around for a successor to the unfortunate bureaucrat or politician who failed in his responsibilities at his level in the political or governmental systems that Daley controls.

For example, when Superintendent of Schools James Redmond announced the Redmond Plan for busing black children in the city of Chicago into white schools, Daley was asked at his press conference what he thought of the Redmond Plan. Daley responded, "I'm not familiar with the specifics and details. I am not an educator. This is up to the educators of our country, the educators of our community, the board of education and their staffs to work it out." The reporter then asked if Daley was going to use his power as mayor to implement the Redmond Plan. Daley's response was, "Do you want the schools brought back into politics?" It was clear what the mayor was doing. He was going to run Superintendent Redmond up the flag pole and let him wave up there before he involved himself in such a controversial issue.

Politician versus administrator

It is a fact of human behavior and human psychology that the talents of a successful politician are different from those of a successful administrator, and that men who are capable administrators usually have little feel for the realities of political life.

 

Community activities 1968 - on Flickr - by Digital Collections, UIC Library

Successful politicians are usually gregarious, hail-fellow-well-met types who enjoy shaking hands with the multitude, who revel in publicity, who are inveterate joiners, and who have legions of acquaintances and friends. Capable administrators, in contrast, are usually private men who shun the limelight, who gain satisfaction in working out problems, who are masters at shuffling papers and delegating responsibility, and whose thought processes are normally orderly, circumspect, and undeviating.
Daley is an exception to the rule. A rarity in American politics, he is a first-rate administrator who is also a master politician.

Milton Rakove on politics - 7

I'm reading this wonderful book from 1975: Don't make no waves ... don't back no losers by Milton Rakove. The book is a great mirror for our times. It does not give answers but it puts things in perspective. I like its musings on political philosophy and "Realpolitik". Something resonates with our times. See the quotes below. The earlier parts of this series are 1:Voters, 2:Power, 3:Immigration, 4:Religion, 5:Segregation and 6:The Irish.

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Political philosophy

While he has never been a student of philosophy, there are basic philosophic values and maxims that have guided Daley the politician throughout his political career. Those values and maxims are:

• conservatism,
• parochialism,
• loyalty,
• tolerance,
• uncompromising morality (by his standards),
• acceptance of responsibility,
• attention to details,
• hard work, and
• a cautious skepticism about the trustworthiness of his fellowmen.

Flickr - Digital Collections UIC Library

His conservatism is ... a kind of instinctive, innate cautious approach to his fellowmen and to his society and its problems. "He's like a fellow who peeks in the bag to make sure the lady gave him a dozen of buns," wrote old-time Chicago newspaperman, Ed Lahey, in an article he did on the mayor in the Daily News (July 11, 1966).

Daley's conservatism is the old-line Irish Catholic acceptance of a world in which life is harsh, problems are normal, man is sinful, and struggle and hard work are necessary to obtain a foothold in this world and to improve one's status in society.

Daley's personal political philosophy is ... a kind of pragmatic approach to man and society which recognizes both the goodness and the evil of man, which is tolerant of the evil and cognizant of the good, and which accepts travail as a normal concomitant of man's existence on earth.

Flickr - Digital Collections UIC Library

Self sufficiency

To survive in this world, men have an obligation to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. But they also have a responsibility to help their fellow men who have not been successful in running the race through life but who have tried hard and done their best to make the most of themselves.

Daley has little sympathy for those who do not try to raise themselves up, who are content to live off the sweat of the brows of their fellowmen, and who thus become an unwarranted burden on those who are carrying their fair share of the load. "Look, Sister," he told a Catholic nun who complained to him about the plight of blacks in the ghetto, "you and I come from the same background. We know how tough it was. But we picked ourselves up by our bootstraps.'

The Marxist concept of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" is totally alien to Daley's outlook toward society and its problems. Rather, Daley might say, "To each according to his ability, and to those in need who have striven to help themselves."

Unavoidable hardships

... "Certain ills belong to the hardships of human life. They are natural. They are part of the struggle with Nature for existence. We cannot blame our fellow-men for our share of these. My neighbor and I are both struggling to free ourselves from these ills. The fact that my neighbor has succeeded in this struggle better than I constitutes no grievance for me. Certain other ills are due to the malice of men, and to the imperfections or errors of civil institutions. These ills are an object of agitation, and a subject of discussion. The former class of ills is to be met only by manly effort and energy; the latter may be corrected by associated effort."

The world as a set of neighborhoods

Daley's political style is also affected by his parochialism. He has never left Bridgeport. He conceives his city and world as a series of Bridgeports-communities in which God-fearing, decent, hard-working people strive to keep the community stable, hold onto the values of their fathers, and fulfill their obligations as citizens to the neighborhood, the polis, and the nation. Thus, men in politics should be active in the neighborhood, should concern themselves with those in need 'in the community, and should stay out of other neighborhoods, where the people of those neighborhoods should deal with their own problems in their own way.

The world is a Great Neighborhood made up of diverse peoples, each with their own cultures and customs to be respected, in which peace and prosperity can best be achieved by taking care of one's own problems at home, leaving others to do likewise in their respective neighborhoods. "We are a city of fine neighborhoods" he told a party rally in his first year in office in 1955. Eight years later, he still affirmed his belief in the character of his city. "I have lived in Chicago all my life," he told a press conference, "and I still say we have no ghettos in Chicago."

Loyalty to supporters

Daley's conservatism and parochialism are buttressed by a strong sense of loyalty to the people who are close to him by family ties or blood, to those who have worked for him, and to those who have supported him in times of stress.

Daley's political loyalty, however, transcends rewarding family, friends, and associates. He refuses to criticize or castigate associates and supporters who have become embroiled in' legal or political difficulties. He will always find another spot in government or politics for a loyal supporter who has encountered severe criticism or difficulty in the position he holds. He has an elephant's memory for those who stood up for him or supported him in time of need or stress. But he also has a long memory for those who broke ranks, offered unwarranted criticism, or put their own private interests before the interest of the party or the organization.

Milton Rakove on politics - 6

I'm reading this wonderful book from 1975: Don't make no waves ... don't back no losers by Milton Rakove. The book is a great mirror for our times. It does not give answers but it puts things in perspective. I like its musings on political philosophy and "Realpolitik". Something resonates with our times. See the quotes below. The earlier parts of this series are 1:Voters, 2:Power, 3:Immigration, 4:Religion and 5:Segregation.

Flickr - Kamil Dziedzina - St Patricks Day - Green Chicago

The Role of the Irish

There is an old cliché about the city of Chicago that the Jews own it, the Irish run it, and the blacks live in it. The cliché is only about half true. The Jews do not own Chicago. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant businessmen, who live in suburban communities like Lake Forest and Kenilworth, control the economic life of the city. And the blacks still number less than half the population of the city. But the Irish do run the city. ...

The first two major ethnic groups who came into the city from Europe were the Irish and the Germans. While the Germans were an important segment of the city's body politic, the Irish had several advantages which they parlayed into a dominant political role:

• They spoke and understood English.
• They were familiar with the English local political and governmental institutions on which the American system was based.
• They were neutral outsiders in the traditional ethnic antipathies and hostilities which the Central and East European ethnic groups brought to America from their homelands.

A Lithuanian won't vote for a Pole, and a Pole won't vote for a Lithuanian," according to a Chicago politician. A German won't vote for either of them - but all three will vote for a 'Turkey,' an Irishman."

And, finally, the Irish became the saloonkeepers in cities like Chicago, and the Irish-owned and -run saloons became the centers of social and political activity not only for the Irish but also for the Polish, Lithuanian, Bohemian, and Italian immigrants who poured into the city after the Irish and Germans. For where would an ethnic laborer go for recreation at night after his twelve-hour stint in the steel mills or the stockyards but to the local saloon?

Flickr - Brad Smith - Chicago Irish Pride

The Irish political style

... the social characteristics that most deeply affect the Irish political style are, "A deep and abiding interest in people as distinct individuals; a political morality with distinctive attitudes toward both political means and ends; a near clannish definition of and concern about political loyalty (especially vis-a-vis other Irish politicians); and a predominate interest in political power."

Irish politicians, says Levine,

• remain "of the people";
• are interested in power at least as much as in money;
• decry ostentatious living or overly stylish clothes, maintaining "an inconspicuous residence, social style, style of dress, and a common manner of speech";
• abjure gossip-column publicity;
• "studiously avoid pretension, verboseness, and phraseology not characteristic of the common man";
• are impatient with idealistic social reformers;
• "view government as a source of power to be used for individual, rather than social, ends";
• are "charitably disposed toward most of the moral and situational shortcomings of others" except for "apostates, heretics, and marital infidelity";
• believe that "justice must be tempered with a good deal of mercy, or charity for fallible man";
• " are tolerant of corruption, providing it doesn't get out of hand ("Making a buck is okay, but don't rob the poorhouse");
• "place great emphasis on loyalty to the ethnic group, the party, and to each other ... in highly personal terms ... as related to people more than to something else ... in individualistic and pragmatic terms";
• are fascinated "with the intricacies and subtleties of power struggle

An Irish politician, when asked if it was characteristic of Protestant Republicans to be charitable in politics, replies, "Oh, hell no! They want to take the guy out and slaughter him in the streets. The Irish want to give the guy a break every now and then ... Every guy is entitled to a fall, every dog to a bite."

Milton Rakove on politics - 5

I'm reading this wonderful book from 1975: Don't make no waves ... don't back no losers by Milton Rakove. The book is a great mirror for our times. It does not give answers but it puts things in perspective. I like its musings on political philosophy and "Realpolitik". Something resonates with our times. See the quotes below. The earlier parts of this series are 1:Voters, 2:Power, 3:Immigration and 4:Religion.

Milton Rakove (right) interviewing Vito Marzullo (left)

From: mediaburn.org

Racial tensions and segregation

In the early 1970's race had replaced nationality as the major cultural and political factor in the life of the city, and the ethnic neighborhoods are changing into racial areas of blacks, browns, and whites. 

The Irish succeeded, at least to date, in pacifying the poor blacks in the city with welfare and jobs, in buying off the most politically able among the blacks with public office and patronage, and in fending off the militant civil rights activists by adding enough police and political power to the other techniques to keep a modicum of order, if not peace, in the black ghettos. 

They pacified the predominantly Catholic, strongly conservative, white ethnics by refusing to use governmental and political power to push integration in the city, especially in the area of housing. Public housing units, in particular, are highly segregated and were always placed in black neighborhoods.

As long as the policy worked, the white ethnics were willing to tolerate, if not support, massive welfare programs which help to keep the black community quiescent, if not happy, although the blacks are becoming increasingly restive and militant over their role in the life of the city.

Discrimination and fear of assimilation

In 1963, when a black family moved into Bridgeport, they found their furniture and belongings piled up on the sidewalk by their newly found unfriendly neighbors. They left and have not come back. 

In 1965 black comedian Dick Gregory led a group of black picketers past Daley's house for several nights, nearly precipitating a race riot. They, too, left, and have not come back. 

But the specter of penetration and inundation by the surrounding black community still hangs over beleaguered and encircled Bridgeport, as well as over the nearby communities of New City and McKinley Park.

Milton Rakove on politics - 4

I'm reading this wonderful book from 1975: Don't make no waves ... don't back no losers by Milton Rakove. The book does not give answers about our current situation, but it puts some things in perspective. I like its musings on political philosophy. Something resonates with our times. See the quotes below. The earlier parts of this series are here-1, here-2 and here-3.

Religion

In the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in North America, containing approximately 1,750,000 of the faithful, no decision can be made without due consideration for the. feelings and aspirations of the majority Catholic population of the city. It is with good reason that the state of Illinois annually awarded license plate number one, not to the governor, but to the Roman Catholic cardinal of Chicago. The influence of the hierarchy and the many parishioners of the Church of Rome is always present in decision making in the politics, law, educational policy, and cultural life of the city.

Flickr - DonHall16 - Paper Cathedral

If, as Christ told his people, his Father's house has many rooms, so does his Roman Catholic church in Chicago have many factions. Some of the most liberal, as well as some of the most conservative, proposals and pressures in the life of Chicago have emanated from the many-splendored, broad-based, variegated Roman Catholic clergy and laity of the city.

In contrast to the dominant Catholic religious community, the Protestant and Jewish communities, with the exception of powerful business leaders, are weak. They are not ignored, they are consulted, but their influence is nowhere near so great as that of the Roman Catholic community. Since most of the Protestants in the city are now the blacks, they can be dealt with on the basis of race rather than religion.

And since most of the Jews have fled the city for the suburbs, except for those residing in a few fringe areas, they can be easily ignored, although recognized and tolerated in decision making in the city.

Religion and politics
Daley's political morality epitomizes the Irish Catholic sense of morality ... He is "charitably disposed toward most of the moral and situational shortcomings of others except for apostates, heretics, and marital infidelity." He believes that "justice must be tempered with a good deal of mercy, or charity for fallible man." He recognizes that, inevitably, a certain degree of corruption exists in politics, as it does in all areas of human endeavor. But it should be kept within reasonable bounds.

While Daley may be a puritan in his social behavior, there is little sympathy for or understanding of the Protestant religious mentality which attempts to apply absolute moral standards to political behavior.

Daley's political morality is, rather, rooted in the Irish Catholic attitude toward politics which reflects the Gelasian doctrine of rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's.

Flickr - redisant - Fourth Presbyterian Church

In other words, while man, the fallen creation, is commanded to be moral by his religious precepts, being sinful, he cannot follow his religious precepts in his daily life. In dealing with other men in a political milieu, it is necessary to follow the precepts of Caesar rather than God.

It is not that God has no place at all in politics but that God's primary concerns are with the soul and salvation rather than with the mundane, everyday dealings of human beings with each other. Daley would agree with the German nineteenth-century theologian who wrote, "We do not consult Jesus when we are concerned with things which belong to the domain of the construction of the state and -political economy."

This is not to say that men should not try to be as moral as they can in politics and follow God's law as much as they can, but that they often cannot because they are sinful creatures in an imperfect world. The purpose of politics, then, is to try to make men behave as morally as possible but also to recognize that they probably will not and cannot.

"Look at our Lord's Disciples," Daley said, in answer to a charge that there had been corruption in city government, during his campaign for his fourth mayoral term in 1967. "One denied Him, one doubted Him, one betrayed Him. If our Lord couldn't have perfection, how are you going to have it in city government?"

Per Kirkeby - Overpaintings

Last weekend I fond a wonderful old book in the Rotterdam library: Per Kirkeby: Übermalungen, 1964-1984. The book contains deliberate overpaintings (Overmalinger, Übermalungen) of second-hand kitsch paintings. The interventions reveal or enhance the landscapes that hide under the surface.

There is almost no information on the internet so I decided to post a few scans on my weblog. I'm also surprised how much these overpainting resemble the work of Neo Rauch.

... I just stand there and see. See with my X-ray eyes that -reality- is pervaded by strange lines, that there is a structure which lies hidden beneath the real motif in a frightful way.

Die blaue Stunde, 1975

... I understand my paintings as the summation of structures. A sedimentation of very thin layers. Only in extreme despair does a thick layer emerge. In principle an endless sedimentation. But it is conspicuous that the underlying structure always shines through, even when a new layer has a completely different motif and a totally different color.

Ohne titel, 1976

By the synchronous I mean all those pictures where all the layers aim at the same picture, where the underpainting and following layers - glazed or not - fall on top of each other. The unsynchronous are the ones where each new layer is a new picture.

Byzantinische spiegelung nach der Heimkehr / Landschaft, 1977

It is wrong and unscientific, to remodel the real thing. It is the only reality there is, those overgrown heaps mid between nature and art, belonging half to one and half to the other world, in transit between states.

Ohne titel, 1977

... I myself never found the pictures I overpainted. This would have been impossible: in such a case the searching would have been the effort. I have also never overpainted a picture I considered »valuable« in an acutal artistic sense. Almost always only those pictures on the brink of the garbage pail.

Tiefe, 1979

I also always saw it in such a way that, in continuing to paint, I was searching for the real essence of the picture I was overworking. It is indeed as if I were painting one of my »own« pictures. My »argument« was that there was no difference here and that I wasn't making fun of the kitsch. In this respect a lot of history, Pop Art, Jorn's intimate banalities of the forties, Dada, etc. could be brought in here.

Ohne Titel, 1979

It deals with the relationship between what I call: motif, form, structure. The motif is the beginning, the provocation and the possibility of correction. The motif is the memory. Without memory one cannot paint a picture, I believe. One begins with it, without a motif not even blotches get on the canvas in the beginning.

Ohne Titel, 1982

Ohne Titel, Zustand II, 1984

Source:
Per Kirkeby : Übermalungen, 1964-1984 - Author: Per Kirkeby; Luise Horn; Christine Tacke - Hypo Kulturstiftung, Spendhaus Reutlingen, Paperback, Publisher: München : Der Kunstraum, 1984.
Per Kirkeby - OVERPAINTINGS - Luise Horn - In transit between states

See also - with much better colours:
1st4youde-frank-mfischer/6854994736/in/album-72157629631461223/
1st4youde-frank-mfischer/6854994830/in/album-72157629631461223/
1st4youde-frank-mfischer/6854994922/in/album-72157629631461223/

Milton Rakove on politics - 3

Recently I found this wonderful book from 1975: Don't make no waves ... don't back no losers by Milton Rakove. It was mentioned in another wonderful book from 2012: The Wrong Answer Faster: The Inside Story of Making the Machine that Trades Trillions by Michael Goodkin.

The author, professor and politician Milton Rakove.

His pragmatic sense of humour is also evident in his book.

The book does not give answers about our current situation, but it puts some things in perspective. I like its musings on political philosophy. Something resonates with our times. See the quotes below. The earlier parts of this series are here-1 and here-2.

Chicago diversity on a McDonalds mural - photo by Daniel X. O'Neil.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/juggernautco/1010490803/

Early immigration and minor divisions
By 1920, Chicago had more Poles than any city in Poland except Warsaw, more Bohemians than any city in Czechoslovakia except Prague, and more Lithuanians than any city in Lithuania except Vilna.

New immigrants almost always moved into old neighborhoods, usually close to the terminus of whatever form of transportation they used to get to the city, the bus or train station. Since those terminal points were usually located in or near the central core of the city, those were the areas in which the new immigrants settled.

The reasons for the tendency of new immigrants to settle near the terminals were quite simple. A new immigrant arriving in a strange environment was not likely to take a taxi or even public transportation with which he was unfamiliar into the distant reaches of the city. His natural inclination was to take his suitcase (if he had one) or his bag or box of belongings, walk around the corner from the terminal, and find a room. His next step was to find a job, preferably as close as possible to where he lived.

Once firmly rooted economically, he sent for his family (if he had one) and looked for a larger flat, possibly two or three rooms. Then the brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents began to arrive. They almost automatically went to the area where the enterprising pioneer immigrants were living and moved in with the relatives until they could afford a room or a couple of rooms of their own. Within a short period of time, shops stocking native foods appeared, restaurants serving native delicacies opened, taverns or wine houses dispensing native alcoholic spirits blossomed, recreational facilities endemic to the native culture were built, and churches or temples serving the religious needs of the local population were established. Thus, island oases of native culture were created in the heart of the city.

The process repeated itself with each ethnic group moving into the city. Chicago became a city of ethnic neighborhoods with almost fixed boundary lines dividing the various nationality groups.

Later immigration and more significant divisions
The more than 1,000,000 blacks from the South who have emigrated to Chicago, and approximately 350,000-500,000 Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, are the last of the great wave of immigrants, and are following the traditional patterns of movement which characterize the behavior of immigrant groups moving into a new environment. Like the ethnic immigrants before them, southern blacks and Spanish-speaking Latins moving into Chicago settled in the old neighborhoods. As is traditional in such situations, the ethnic old settlers in these communities began to flee from the new immigrants.

The influx of 1,000,000 blacks and 350,000 Latins into the city has fragmented the population even more deeply than the ethnic divisions. The division between ethnic whites, and the Latins and blacks has added another dimension to the ethnically separated city.

In one sense, it has unified the ethnic whites on a single issue-blocking the movement of the blacks and Latins into white neighborhoods. But, at another level, the rapid growth of the black and Latin populations and the steady spread of the black and Latin ghettos have opened a wide chasm within the city's body politic between the black and Latin, and the white populations of the city.

Sources:
http://mediaburn.org/video/bernard-epton-interview/
www.goodreads.com/ Don_t_Make_No_Waves_Don_t_Back_No_Losers

Milton Rakove on politics - 2

Recently I found this wonderful book from 1975: Don't make no waves ... don't back no losers by Milton Rakove. It was mentioned in another wonderful book from 2012: The Wrong Answer Faster: The Inside Story of Making the Machine that Trades Trillions by Michael Goodkin.

It does not give answers about our current situation, but it puts some things in perspective. I like its musings on political philosophy. Something resonates with our times. See the quotes below:

Practical politics

They [the city officials] have little concept of broad social problems and social movements. They deal with each other, and with the problems of the community, on a person-to-person, individual basis. They shrink from striking out in new directions, have no interest in blazing new trails, abhor radical solutions to problems, and, in general, resist activism of any sort about anything.

"I got two rules," 29th Ward Committeeman Bernard Neistein confided when asked how he had operated so successfully in politics in Chicago for most of his adult life.

• The first one is: Don't make no waves.
• The second one is: Don't back no losers.

[...] Behind those principles is a profound understanding of the relationship between those who hold political power in a society and who operate on a professional level, and those for whom politics is an avocation and a means to a different end.

Those who hold power - those who seek power

[...] Those who hold political power are primarily interested in keeping it, while those professionals who are out of office and interested in office are primarily concerned with taking power from those who hold it. Outside these two groups of activists stands the great mass of the population, which has neither the interest, the ability, nor the intestinal fortitude to engage in what Frank Kent called "the great game of politics." But in a democracy they must be wooed by those who seek political power.

The two groups of activists, those who hold power and those who seek it, traditionally employ different tactics in dealing with the electorate.

Those who seek power must make waves, must raise issues, and must arouse the electorate in order to remove from office those who hold political power. Those in office must keep the electorate quiescent, passive, and disinterested, since an aroused, interested electorate will usually react unfavorably toward those in office. How to keep the electorate quiet? Don't make no waves.

When power seekers get power - they become power holders

[...] when wavemakers and nonprofessionals become officeholders, they soon discover the elemental truth that the best and surest way to stay in office is to adopt the behavior patterns and philosophies of the non-wavemakers and professionals. For they, too, soon discover the truth that the professionals and non-wavemakers always knew - that there is no such thing as the public interest insofar as the electorate is concerned; that the private, self-interests of the various groups that compose the electorate must be appeased; and that this can best be done by appealing to those groups on a personal basis and by concerning oneself with those private interests rather than with broad social problems.

They also discover, after assuming office, that there is no such thing as "new politics" or "old politics," that if they want to stay in office there is something called "politics," a game that has been played since time immemorial by men called "politicians," and that it behooves them to join the ranks and play the game if they wish to survive.

Sources:
The book
Milton Rakove obituary
Milton Rakove obituary