Well, B came out to visit, and we worked out a lot of difficult relationship stuff. We're back together, though not engaged, and we have a new understanding of what we're looking for. I've decided to stay on here for my PhD. A bird in the hand.... you know. I've been offered a decent funding package, and I'll be able to finish much more quickly if I stay here than if I were to go elsewhere. I'm doing capoeira 4 nights a week, and loving it. Teaching tango one night a week- soon to be two. Great fun! Next week is Valentango Festival in Portland. I'm going with my friend/tango student E. We are going to dance until our feet fall off! E has never been to a tango festival before... She's in for a bit of a surprise- but a pleasant one. I hope she's not overwhelmed. ------------------------------------ ... and a thought for today. I glanced at the NYTimes headlines this morning and saw that four paintings had been stolen from a Zurich museum. "The total worth of the paintings by van Gogh, Monet, Degas and Cézanne was estimated at $163 million." What's wrong with this picture? Arbitrarily assigning monetary values to one-of-a-kind artistic works. Who decides these things? How strange! ... and what ever happened to the concept of "pricelessness"? "Priceless" is only good for credit card commercials? ---------------------------------------- I think that Ruskin and Morris need new spokespeople. Modern voices carrying their old message, (shorn of its Victorian dross and close-minded views of the sexual division of labor). "Life without labor is guilt, labor without art is brutality" said Ruskin. They encouraged people to take pleasure and pride in their work. They argued against assembly-line styles of production and the deskilling of labor. They encouraged craftsmanship. Honest work, honest materials, and a simple way of life. They spoke of a moral aesthetic- art that was meant to ennoble us all. To encourage a sense of self and self worth through joy in labor, a happy and healthy home and family life. They must be rolling in their graves, seeing the shopping malls remodeled in "Craftsman style", and fake, some-assembly-required "craftsman" furniture for sale at Wal-Mart. I imagine the poor, unfortunate men in Thailand or wherever who are responsible for creating these bits and pieces. One may see nothing but table legs all day. Another only shelves or bits of molding. Hundreds and hundreds of interchangeable pieces with a hole drilled here and a bolt inserted there. Is it any surprise that these pieces come out of the box full of cracks, scratches, or water damage? That the plastic-feeling veneer peels off of the fiberboard underneath? Wood-grain printed on cardboard?!? That cardboard was once a tree, for heaven's sake! It's just a sad irony to see the craftsman aesthetic so divorced from its original intent, mission, and philosophy. | 
Better luck next year.