With a Cross at the Helm

Crusaders attacking Muslims
From a fourteenth-century manuscript
(Bibliothèque Boulogne-sur-Mer)

I didn't write anything on September 11, the morbid anniversary of the 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York by Muslims. What is there to say? Now, twelve years later, it looks like we have learnt nothing from those attacks, and are meekly waiting for another (or blithely going about our own ways).

Laura Wood at The Thinking Housewife writes:

In a 2006 post at Gates Of Vienna, Baron Bodissey described the Battle of Vienna on September 11, 1683, when the Christian army under Jan Sobieski, the King of Poland, ended the Muslim siege of the city.

A commentator at her site writes:

It is good to be reminded of what should have been Christendom’s conclusive triumph over Islam, in the persons of the Ottoman besiegers of Vienna in 1683

[...]

So while we should lament that, through our moral weakness, Vienna was not the last word in the struggle between Islam and the West, we can draw hope from its example that the West can endure if we can only summon the will to prevail.

I think we are at a more difficult juncture than ever before. The Christian spirituality of the world, and especially the Western world, has diminished. Are we ever going to get those armies which march forward with the cross at their helm?

I think it is still possible, but it will be a difficult undertaking. The boldness of the Muslim world has occurred now because of our spiritual weakness. Muslims are not weak. They know they come in the name of Allah. We have to counter that by marching in the name of God.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Translations of the Pslam 42: Like As the Hart

The Wilton Diptych: Exterior [showing the white deer]
Painted in England or northern France
Around the time of Richard's second marriage in 1396

The Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery takes its name from Wilton House, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, where it was housed between 1705 and 1929. The name of the artist and the place where it was made are unknown. It has been suggested that the painter came from Italy or Bohemia, but it is probable that the diptych was made on behalf of Richard II himself and that it was painted in England or northern France around the time of Richard's second marriage in 1396. Surviving panel paintings from northern Europe dating from the late fourteenth century are very rare.

[...]

On the other panel is a white hart, Richard II's badge. Around its neck is a crown with a chain attached. The antlers stand out from the gold ground through the effect of light and shadow created in pointillé. The hart lies in a grassy meadow strewn with flowers and mingled with rosemary thought to be in remembrance of Richard's first wife, Anne of Bohemia. The green pigment has discoloured with age.
[Source: Richard II's Treasure]

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In my post: Like as the Hart and a Cacophony of Cicadas, I posted Psalm 42 where the phrase "Like as the hart" (or more precisely in the King James version "As the hart") occurs. Howell, who wrote the psalm to choral music, and whose version the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral performs, uses Like as the Hart for his composition:

The blogger A Clerk at Oxford analyzes various translations of the psalm. It is worth spending the time reading his analyses, albeit a little difficult at times.

Here is his post: Psalm Translations: Like as the hart
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Debussy's Golliwogg's Cakewalk

A YouTube video, more or less, featuring what’s purported
to be a live performance of “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” with the
composer himself at the keyboard, circa 1912. It’s billed
as a selection from the “Welte-Mignon Piano Roll #2733
Children’s Corner No. 6

’Golliwogg’s Cakewalk.’” We haven’t had the time to confirm
its authenticity, but it does reveal a performance that,
in many ways, varies considerably from contemporary
performances of the same popular piece.
[Source: In Series' evocative Debussy salon. Washington Times,
December 8, 2012. By Terry Ponick]

I heard the piece above recently on the radio.

Below is an article by a musician writing about how he explained the piece to his student. I think he gets too dramatic, and sanctimonious. Golliwoggs may have been caricatures of blacks, but Debussy's piece is a fun, playful and also musically sophisticated piece. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see what others say about those difficult racial works, and many resort to a confused lecturing, while at the same time praising those artistic endeavors.

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The original cover of Debussy's suite: Children's Corner

Golliwog's Cakewalk
By Charles T. Downey

One of my piano students has recently begun to work on Claude Debussy's rag-inspired piece "Golliwog's Cakewalk," the last movement in his petite suite pour piano called Children's Corner (1906–1908)...I had not practiced this piece myself since I was in high school, and I now have the chance to remember how much fun it was for me to learn as my student works on it.

When this student expressed an interest in the piece, I felt that I had to explain what it was about: in other words, I had to show him what golliwog and cakewalk meant. An excellent online essay on the history of this disgusting racist image (The Golliwog Caricature, by Ferris State University sociology professor David Pilgrim, who is the curator of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia there) gives a detailed history of the golliwog and shows numerous images. Artists have been fascinated with the golliwog image, such as Damali Ayo...and Kara Walker. The Golliwog character was made into a very popular children's doll, owned by the young Nabokov and by Debussy's daughter, which was the inspiration for the composer's drawing on the original cover and for the piece itself.

The cakewalk was a sort of dance or stepping competition for a prize of cake, sponsored by a plantation owner and featuring his own slaves who were allowed to mock the airs of their masters. This entertainment was often reproduced in minstrel shows, those horrible sentimentalizing idealizations of plantation life, featuring white actors in blackface, which were one very important influence on the creation of American musical theater...

It's hard for me to know what to do when I get to the point in a survey class that deals with 19th-century America. Some people think that we should just allow this part of music history to disappear into oblivion: don't let students play "Golliwog's Cakewalk" any more and don't teach them anything about the minstrel show. I admit that it does bother me to teach these subjects and have the students be exposed to these worst expressions of American institutional racism and find them funny. Maybe it really would be better just never to introduce today's students to these parts of the past. Ultimately, however, I value truth too much to edit these things out of our understanding of history.

When I looked through the catalogue of Debussy's works, I discovered that Debussy, perhaps to capitalize on the popularity of "Golliwog's Cakewalk," also composed another cakewalk pour piano in 1909 called Le petit nègre (The little negro), which I have never heard or played.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Response to Emails

I'm getting nasty emails and comments (which I immediately delete) calling me racist, homophobe etc.

I don't mind being called a homophobe. The definition of homophobe (or homophobia) according to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary is:

irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals

The word that best describes my reaction is "aversion to." That is exactly right: I have an aversion to homosexuals and homosexuality.

So, I don't mind, and I even welcome, being called a homophobe. Racist is another thing. It somehow goes to a deeper core. I don't have and aversion to, and irrational fear of, or a hatred of other races.

The online dictionary at Dictionary.com defines racist thus:

The belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others

Yes, there are racial differences. Everyone know that. Even those who cry "racist" at any occasion.

And yes, some races have accomplished more than others. Everyone accepts that. Even those who cry "racist" at any occasion.

But, I don't believe that any race is morally, or spiritually, superior that others.

This is hot button issue, and people like Larry Auster have spent years unraveling the difficult and volatile race-relations in America. But even Larry didn't believe in the superiority of one race over another.

My regular (now irregular) posts on Asians is not so much how inferior they are to whites, but how their accomplishments are inferior to whites.

Probably Asians will feel comfortable and at home in their own homelands. That is why at some point I was advocating a peaceful return of Asians (first, second, tenth generation) back to Korea, China and the Philipines and India. Race and culture is a strong, lingering element of the human psyche. Third generation Asians do not forget their Asian ancestry! They do not feel "at home" in the white culture of America and Canada. They subtly and earnestly maintain aspects of their ancestral culture, even if they have never been in their ancestral lands.

Look at Vera Wang, and her whole array of red wedding dresses - inspired by the red wedding gowns of her Chinese background. Wang was born and brought up in the United States. She is, for all purposes, an American. Yet, these many years on, she still cannot fully and wholeheartedly relate to the American, white culture.


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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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The Deterioration of Tennis

Rafael Nadal in the 2013 US Open. He goes on to win the title.
Serena Williams in the 2012 US Open. She goes on to win the title.

These are the tennis "champions" of our era. This is what they wear, this is how they behave on court, this is what sports aficionados admire (if they didn't, these characters would never be able to play the way they do).

Watching tennis is still a pleasure. There is something mesmerizing about that tiny ball making it back and forth across the court.

But now, not only do we have to put up with the aggressive, and often frightening, behavior of the players, there is a new trend where the players accompany their strokes with loud grunts.

Perhaps the grunts are understandable. Tennis has become a game of muscles, not of finesse. The athletes have become body builders maneuvering themselves around the court. Any smaller-built competitor is already at a disadvantage, not because of lack of talent, but because of his body size.


Nadal (left) with the leaner Djokovic in the 2013 US Open. Nadal won the championship

This is how it played out between Rafael Nadal, the current champion, and Novak Djokovic, who played him in the finals. Djokovic is a much leaner player, at least in muscle mass, and it was visible in his the force of his strokes. His precise and graceful style was over-powered by the forceful shots of Nadal.

And I wont even go into the transvestite-looking Serena Williams. The photograph at the top says it all.

I miss those days when court tantrums were defined by McEnroe. Now we have heavily grunting, testosterone-spiked players, who may actually attack the judges and their opponents.

Thus is our era eradicating civility, even in the most civil of sports.


Left: John McEnroe argues with the umpire during his semi-final match against Jimmy Connors
in 1980 at Wimbledon. McEnroe won the match.
Right: Serena Williams argues with tournament referee (right) in 2009 at the US Open during her match with Kim Clijsters. Williams lost the match.
[Notice the petrified look of the female grand slam supervisor Donna Kelso].

John McEnroe arguing with an umpire at Wimbeldon in 1980:
- Notice the safe height at which the judge is positioned.
- Notice McEnroe's unobtrusive tennis clothes
- Notice how the judge brushes off McEnroe, even reprimanding him
- Notice how McEnroe, since he cannot get close enough to act out his tantrum, resolves to arguing his point rather than attacking the judge

Serena Williams arguing with referee at the US Open in 2009:
- Notice how close Williams gets to the referee, frightening the female line judge who looks petrified at Williams' aggression and violent posture.
- The referee looks cautious and conciliatory (notice his outreached hand, as if to say that the decision is beyond his control: i.e. it is correct).
- Notice how there is nothing protecting the referee from a potential violent physical attack by Williams. In an age of more aggressive playing, safety measures are actually removed from the tennis court, compared to 1980.
- Notice Williams' pumped up, muscular physique against the tall and lean referee. She could throw him down with one swoop of her tennis racket.
- Her non-conforming attire, black and menacing, adds to her aggressive attitude.


1930s tennis outfits for men and women
Elegant and white
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Arms Akimbo

This is an image posted at Laura Wood's The Thinking Housewife, on a post about a mother who lets (or wishes that) the inner gayness of her child manifest itself. In fact, the story is about how this mother was so disappointed that her heterosexual son revealed to her that he is indeed heterosexual.

The photograph is from the Huffington Post, with this title: My Son Wore a Dress for Halloween.

There are many evils that emanate from this image:

- What young boy makes an independent decision to "do" anything? The ultimate arbitrators and judges are the parents. "No, you cannot wear that costume for Halloween." "You will eat your porridge, or no breakfast." "I'm not paying for that toy/DVD/popsicle/school trip. When you earn your own salary, you can buy whatever you want."

- What mother will plaster photos of her children on the internet, for all to see, judge, and even plan a trip to her home to find this fairy child?

- What mother (and father, because the father is presumably in agreement, even if his wife didn't initially consult him, since everyone will tell him about that photograph) wants her son to be a daughter (or a boy-child to be a girl-child?)

One other strange and disturbing aspect of this image is that this mother doesn't want her son to be any kind of girl (although she's playing around with the theme of a "fairy").

She has her son standing with his arms akimbo, in a sexualized pose.

What young girl stands with her arms perched on her (non-existent, immature) waist?

I suppose the falseness of the scenario manifests itself in that exaggeratedly sexualized pose. This boy reconstructed as a girl by the evil mother has to exaggerate, and corrupt, femininity in order for his transformation to be credible.

All children like to play dress-up. Somehow, this evil mother convinced her young son that it was ok to dress as a fairy girl. And as with all children, he used his imagination to play that role to its fullest. Where did he learn to use his imagination to that fullest?

Of course, it is not just the evil mother who builds these scenarios for her son: she has a whole army of complicits, from the school teachers, television personalities, politicians, and really almost everyone else that is now in our liberal world.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Penn Station

Here is a lovely, delicate illustration of Penn Station in 1906.


Pennsylvania Station Interior, 1906
Jules Crow
Watercolor, Ink and Graphite on Paper
New-York Historical Society, Mckim, Mead & White Collection

I found the image at the webiste for the New York Historical Society, in an article titled: McKim, Mead & White’s Glorious Old Penn Station Turns 103. The New York Historical Society is on Central Park West, on 77th Street, a grand and beautiful location.

The original Penn Station (now demolished) was designed and built by McKim, Mead & White, who also built the Morgan Library, which I've visited and written about here.

The original architects for the New York Historical Society's building are York and Sawyer. According to Wikipedia:

The partners Edward York (1863–1928) and Philip Sawyer (1868–1949) had both trained in the office of McKim, Mead, and White. In 1898, they established their independent firm, based in New York City.

The building was later extended in 1938 by Walker & Gillette. And it went further renovations and extensions, by a third team of architects - Platt Byard Dovell White - which were completed in 2011.

Platt Byard Dovell White Architects make post-modern, ugly buildings, dominated by glass, so I was worried what they could have done to the Beaux-Arts and Roman Eclectic architectural styles of the New York Historical Society. Fortunately, they mostly "renovated" the building rather than restructure it.

Here is the list of renovations they made, none affecting the aesthetic structure of the building:

On the basis of a Master Plan developed early in the process, we reconfigured the following areas:

Entrances & Façade Improvements:
The building was made more visible, more inviting, and more accessible by reconfiguring the entrances on Central Park West and 77th Street and adding doors, ramps, and generous front steps as well as enlarged windows, new signage, and colorful exterior lighting. Exterior changes to the designated landmark required approval of the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Gallery Improvements:
The ground floor, formerly a warren of cloakroom spaces, has been transformed into a single gallery that puts the most popular elements of the collection next to the front door. We upgraded other galleries in a similar fashion with new wall and ceiling finishes, lighting, and climate control.

Auditorium:
Halfway through construction the Society asked us to renovate their neoclassical auditorium into a space that would support a variety of media productions and live performances. We completely reconfigured the plan and added a balcony to bring the capacity to 418, with excellent sight lines from every seat. New finishes, new lighting, and an 80’ wide screen make the auditorium the setting for a dazzling 18-minute introductory video and the centerpiece of a robust slate of public programs.

I had the NYHS on my list to visit during my last trip to the city. I didn't make it. It is a priority on my list for my next visit, especially as a place I can photograph as an illustrative image for my book.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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