An Arty Farty Visit

We visited this exhibition last week:

Oklahoma City Museum of Art to be sole North American venue for exhibit:
'Matisse in His Time' from Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Matisse was well represented, but I enjoyed the work of several of his peers more, Matisse isn't really to my taste. Fortunately an equal number of works from Matisse's contemporaries were on show: Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Morreau, Rubens, Henri Laurens (one of his sculptures was my favourite of all), André Derain, Victor Vasarely and several others. In another area of the museum were examples of abstract art, and Dale Chihuly's lovely art glass installations, which we'd visited in the past. It was good to have the opportunity to see some paintings, and sculptures, by a gaggle of legendary artists "in the flesh".

Notes: an old post of mine on Victor Vaserely is HERE; and on Modigliani HERE; and on Braque and Picasso HERE. Two posts on Dale Chihuly are HERE and HERE.

Here's a link to another blogger's report on their visit to the exhibition (at a much busier time, from the sound of it). More photographs of exhibits are included there too.

Photographs below were taken by my husband, using his pocket camera.

This was my favourite of the whole exhibition - sculpture "Femme a l'Eventail" (woman with fan). Back home I Googled Henri Laurens and found that his natal Sun was at 0 Pisces, but he had Venus, Mercury and Mars all in Aquarius - his Venus 5 degrees from my natal Sun, his natal Sun 6 degrees from my natal Jupiter. There must be some inner astro-dar goin' on!

 by Victor Vaserely

 Matisse

 Modigliani

Frank Stella's Wiki page is HERE. His huge sculpture(above) is described below:

OCCUPY OKLAHOMA CITY (no astrology today)

We spent a couple of days in Oklahoma City, 90 miles north of our hometown, this week. Timing, as it happened, was a bit off - or rather a lot off!

During Wednesday night, after we'd arrived, the temperature dropped around 20 degrees, it started to rain and storm - heavy constant rain - and it didn't stop until well into Thursday afternoon, even then starting again after a brief respite. It remained bitterly cold - unusually so for OKC in October.


I wanted to donate something to the Occupy Oklahoma City group and had, stashed in the closet, an unworn warm padded coat I'd brought from England and never had need of in south-western Oklahoma. I decided it would be useful for someone camping out or protest marching during the coming cold weather, if not in OKC, then it could be passed on to more Northern cousins; I felt certain there'd be some co-ordinating activity going on.

First problem on Thursday, early afternoon, was finding a place to park the car reasonably near to Kerr Park in the heart of the city, where the Occupiers are camped. We spied the encampment from the road, saw a guy with a tripod and camera heading that way, but no other warm bodies were to be seen. It took around 20 minutes to find a place to park, and another ten to walk back to the encampment. Fortunately we'd hit a space between heavy showers. The guy with the tripod had gone on his way by the time we arrived, and two young guys were boiling some water, they generously offered us coffee, which we declined having only recently drunk some. I handed the coat, covered in a big plastic bag, to one of the guys with an explanation. He was obviously unused to hearing English-type-English, for he looked completely blankly at me as though I were speaking Swahili. The other young guy stepped in, took the bag from me with profuse thanks and put it in one of the tents, which appeared to hold supplies.







We chatted for a short time about how wet and cold it had been during the night and all morning. They agreed it had not been fun. Nobody else showed up, other Occupiers were either inside the twenty or so tents, or had repaired to warmer, drier places. A young woman passed by and was asked "Are you joining us today?" She shook her head, "Not today, sorry!".

My husband took a few shots of the tents, and any signs not obliterated by the rain. Young guy number two posed in the opening of the supply/donation tent, raised his arm in the clenched fist salute, so I joined him. There was little time left on our parking meter so we had to rush off, and as we walked back it began to rain - again.



So, due to such awkward circumstances our visit wasn't a resounding success. It was very bad timing and bad luck that after months and months of heat and drought in the region, the one time we needed a bit of dry weather it decided to pour down with very cold rain!

A young journalist, Zac Smith, whose timing had been better than ours, visited Kerr Park earlier in the week. He posted a report online SEE HERE.
Snips ~~~

Occupy Oklahoma City, the largest Occupy Wall Street solidarity group in the state, has staged an around-the-clock occupation for the past 15 days in Kerr Park.

About 40 demonstrators are occupying Kerr Park on a continuous basis, sleeping in portable tents. Their numbers are supplemented to varying degrees during the day.
Since the commencement of the occupation, protesters have staged marches through the streets surrounding Kerr Park at least twice a day or more. Local media coverage of these activities has been shallow and police surveillance casual to nonexistent.

In the words of union organizer Nicholas Klein, “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”

While the New York occupation currently exists somewhere between the second and third phases of this process, Occupy Oklahoma City is stuck firmly in the first.
Despite this, the mood among protesters is buoyant. Given Oklahoma’s enormous political conservatism, simply gathering to acknowledge there is a fundamental problem with the American economic and political system is a great stride forward...........Though conversation and debate at Kerr Park is generally congenial and relaxed, some protesters seem increasingly conscious of the existence of conflicting political philosophies within the movement.

Thus far, Occupy Wall Street has sought to be entirely inclusive, often treating fundamental political disagreements as superficial and irrelevant..............

“It’s actually beautiful that you can have two people from opposite ends of the spectrum agreeing on something, but we’re agreeing on what’s bad; we’re not necessarily agreeing on how to fix it.”

Try, Try, Try Again....

Heading out later today. This time northward, for a change, into Kansas, my husband's home state. We're hoping this trip, unlike our last two attempts, will prove to be trouble-free.

In other news: the long drawn-out Oklahoma/Texas drought and run of unusually high temperatures came to an end at the weekend. We had two or three days of continuous, heavy rain, with more storms and rain last night. YEEHAW!!

And....

“Whose streets?”

“Our streets!”

And with that chant, the occupation of Oklahoma City began early Monday evening when approximately 150 people gathered at downtown Kerr Park to demand economic justice and fairness in the face of growing wealth disparity dictated by our corporate-controlled political system.

The group, Occupy OKC, a spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, have a three-day permit to camp at the downtown park, which is primarily concrete and decorated with fountains, and it has even brought in bathroom facilities. (See HERE and HERE)

OKC!! Who'd've thunk it? Well done them! Some sources put the numbers present on Tuesday as 300. Three days won't be enough - but they'll at least begin to raise awareness, and perhaps be able to find another location to "occupy".

If they're still around in a few days, when we're on our way home, we'll make a detour and go find them, offer support, stay in the City overnight.

Back in a few.

Cruellest Month

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
(From The Wasteland by T S Eliot)

Revisiting some of the words I wrote last year and the year before in mid-April:

There's something about this time of year that feels a little unsettling. I don't know what astrological factor, if any, might be involved because no two years have the same celestial configurations, other than Sun in the last degrees of Aries and first degrees of Taurus. Was it some perverse "anniversary" syndrome by the perpetrators that directed so many tragedies into the same few days? Or is there a common astrological factor? Perhaps elements of both.

On April 19, 1993 74 men, women and children died in the inferno at Waco, Texas.

On 19 April 1995 the Oklahoma City bombing of a Federal building by home-grown terrorists killed 168 people, including 19 children under the age of 6.

On 20 April 1999 the shootings at Columbine High School, Colorado when 12 students and a teacher were killed by two senior students.

On April 16 2007 the Virginia Tech. massacre when 32 people were killed by a gunman, fellow student of those he murdered.

(On a very personal level, for me:
On 23rd April 1992 my father died.
On 21 April 1996 I and my late partner lost everything we owned, except the few clothes we were wearing, my purse and our car, in a fire which consumed the apartment in which we'd lived for 24 years.)

I'll not attempt to find astrological correlation. There is correlation enough in the devastation wrought upon the lives of so many. Motive, method, and root cause may differ in each case, but results do not. The result was then, and is now, pain and sorrow.

Men die, but sorrow never dies;
The crowding years divide in vain,
And the wide world is knit with ties
Of common brotherhood in pain.(Susan Coolidge).

Part of the Oklahoma City National Memorial The Gates of Time: Monumental twin bronze gates frame the moment of destruction - 9:02 - and mark the formal entrances to the Outdoor Memorial. 9:01, found on the eastern gate, represents the last moments of peace, while its opposite on the western gate, 9:03, represents the first moments of recovery. Both time stamps are inscribed on the interior of the monument, facing each other and the Reflecting Pool.

Dangerous Airhead ~ Sarah Palin

I've been trying to ignore Sarah Palin's recent antics, but an article at Huffington Post last week drew me out of attempted Palin-blockage:Why Sarah Palin Is Not Only an Airhead But a Dangerous One by Mona Gable.

Airhead is a good description of Ms Palin, who has 5 personal planets in Air sign Aquarius. Here's her natal chart with a birthtime recommended by astrologer Chris Brennan at The Political Astrology Blog.






In past posts about Sarah Palin I used a different, and probably inaccurate, birth time. The one used now one could still be an inexact time and rounded-up, as Mr. Brennan points out, but perhaps nearer to the truth. (I suspect she has Leo rising, which would put her birth around half an hour earlier than 6pm.) Looking again at her chart, I notice that natal Venus is at 1* Aries, the point where transiting Uranus (modern ruler of the sign containing her cluster of personal planets: Aquarius) is due to arrive in around a year's time. I'll watch for any news of change for her then, or during the several months before and after.

This woman, in my opinion, gives Aquarius a very bad name! I checked back on the dozen posts of mine where she was mentioned and see that on one occasion I looked at her chart along with that of Dick Cheney, another rogue Aquarius Sun who seems far more Saturnian than Uranian: "Un-Aquarian?" was posted on 4 September 2008. Other posts mentioning Sarah Palin can be accessed from the sidebar Label Cloud. Reading all of these on a full stomach is not recommended!

Some of us suspected that Sarah Palin would simply ride off into the sunset and fade from view - or at worst be offered a job presenting some FOX TV show, which we could easily avoid. Wrong. Ms Palin has other fish to fry and her recent efforts to inflame right-wing masses have become impossible to ignore. Here's a snip from the article linked above:

After the landmark health care vote on Sunday, Palin promptly posted a map of the U.S. targeting vulnerable Democratic members of Congress. To highlight their districts, she didn't use something all Alaska and folksy like a smiley face or a grizzly bear. No, she marked them with rifle cross-hairs. But I guess she didn't think the message was explicit enough. So she exhorted her gun-loving followers with this: "Don't Retreat--Reload." Cute.

This week we've seen that words like these have terrifying consequences. In an interview with The National Review John Boehner suggested that Steve Driehaus, a freshman Democrat from Cincinnati, would be a "dead man" if he voted for health care. Driehaus did, and now his family has received death threats. New York Democrat Louise Slaughter received a message saying snipers were going to kill the children of all those who'd voted for health care. Imagine walking outside your house one morning to find a coffin there. That happened to Missouri Democrat Ross Carnahan.

Republican leaders have yet to firmly denounce these threats. I guess they're afraid of looking wimpy or weak and want to keep their jobs. It's no wonder Palin feels emboldened to demean Obama and attack Democrats with no regard for the consequences. It's clear she doesn't care, that she's willing to say anything. Let's not forget: this is the college dropout who couldn't even tell Kate Couric what newspapers she reads. So it's not like she has a regard for language or facts.

With thousands of angry followers on Facebook and Twitter, Palin might no longer hold office, but she's still holding court. And that combined with her almost gleeful ignorance makes her dangerous. It's time to call Palin out and hold her accountable.

Bear in mind there's an anniversary coming up soon to remind us all of the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh on 19 April 1995 - an atrocity fuelled by right-wing hatred. Ms Palin would do well to remember that when you light a fire, sparks caught in a backdraft could easily ignite designer garments and burn their wearer badly.

To the beginning of this quote I'd add the word "Inciting"....

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."(Isaac Asimov)

April's Dark Days

There's something about this time of year that feels a little unsettling. I don't know what astrological factor , if any, might be involved because no two years have the same celestial configurations, other than Sun in the last degrees of Aries and first degrees of Taurus.

On 21 April 1996 I and my late partner lost everything we owned, except the few clothes we were wearing, my purse and our car, in a fire which consumed the apartment in which we'd lived for 24 years. On 23rd April 1992 my father died. Less personal tragedies occurred on 19 April 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing when 168 people, including children, died at the hands of home-grown terrorists, then the shootings at Columbine High School, Colorado on 20 April 1999, and just last year April 16 2007 was the date of the Virginia Tech. massacre when 32 people were killed by a gunman, fellow student of those he murdered.

I'm always glad to get over these few cuspy days, and a little deeper into the zodiac sign of Taurus which holds a much happier anniversary for me and himself - we married on 30 April 2004.

And another cheerful note - the humming birds are back! It's always good to welcome them to the feeder again after the winter. (Photos by the husband).

The Week That Was

A sad week indeed. The same week in recent years also brought tragedy and sorrow to the USA. I don't know if there is an explanation for this. Some perverse "anniversary" syndrome by the perpetrators? A common astrological factor ? Both of those?

The dreadful events at Virginia Tech University on April 16th will stay in our minds for a long time.

We also remember the tragedy at Columbine High School when 12 students and a teacher were killed in a shooting on 20 April 1999, and

The Oklahoma City bombing a terrorist attack on April 19 1995 aimed at a US government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City. The attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 injured.

74 men, women and children died in the inferno at Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993.

And let us not forget - we must never forget - the too many who have died in Iraq this week, and in every week over the past few years.

I'll not attempt to find astrological correlation. There is correlation enough in the devastation wrought upon the lives of so many. Motive, method, and root cause may differ in each case, but results do not. The result was then, and is now, pain and sorrow.

There's a beautiful and peaceful National Memorial in Oklahoma City, for those who died in the bombing. Above one of The Gates of Time (see above): monumental twin gates which frame the moment of destruction, and mark the formal entrances to the Memorial, are these words:

"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity"


A couple of lines from the lyrics of a song currently sung by Martina McBride are particularly apt just now:

This world's gone crazy and it's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today -
BELIEVE IT ANYWAY !!

We have to believe it.

Below are two tiny excerpts from a speech entitled "Spirit and Stardust", made almost five years ago by Dennis Kucinich, a current but oft overlooked presidential candidate:

"When death (not life) becomes inevitable, we are presented with an opportunity for great clarity, for a great awakening, to rescue the human spirit from the arms of Morpheus through love, through compassion and through integrating spiritual vision and active citizenship to restore peace to our world. The moment that one world is about to end, a new world is about to begin. We need to remember where we came from. Because the path home is also the way to the future."

"Violence is not inevitable. War is not inevitable. Nonviolence and peace are inevitable. We can make of this world a gift of peace which will confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives. We can send into the future the gift which will protect our children from fear, from harm, from destruction."