Motiveless Crime
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- Artist Review: Beth Hart
Beth Hart isn’t a household name, nor does she strike a fan as the type of person who would want to be one. Four studio albums and a landslide of gumption have lead the songstress into new territory on the most recent album, 37 Days, which was released in Born in 1972, Hart has yet to reach her 40’s yet each successive album betrays an old-soul who some believe could be a reincarnated Janis Joplin (who died in 1970) or the unknown descendent of Joan Armatrading. The story that led to such passionate and raw talent is what drives and influences every chord in Hart’s work. Hart dropped out of high school in order to focus on her songwriting in the 80s and later became a contestant on Ed McMahon’s Star Search, winning the grand prize of $100,000. A few short years after her success on the popular talent show Hart released her first album, Immortal, which revealed that Hart had grown from her earlier performances and emerged stronger, addicted and dangerous.
Immortal, a collaboration between Hart and her band, was recorded during a particularly dark time in the singer’s life. Hart, at the time, was heavily addicted to a variety of drugs which created an album saturated in anger, imbalance and confusion over where her life was headed. The second song on the album, “Spiders in My Bed” sounds about as creepy and menacing as the title suggests. Hart’s inspiration was clearly a bad trip, overdose or both yet as a listener you can’t help but listen, wide-eyed and mouth-agape at the cries and howls that emerge from Hart’s gut. It’s enough to make your skin crawl.Her 1996 debut wasn’t that well received as many found her hard-edged vocals and controversial lyrics to be before their time. Yet any listener who has heard “Am I the One” would know without question that Hart understood how to pull in the reigns. “Am I the One” helps to round off the album with a dark, sultry and smoky blues ballad that you might expect a bar chanteuse to sing on top of a piano while smoking a cigar. Of course other gems, such as the title track, stand-out as power rock at its best. It was clear, from the beginning of Hart’s career, that her gospel was that of the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and the Faces.
After the tepid-warm response to Immortal, Hart’s band quickly broke apart and even Hart herself seemed to believe her career was finished. Three years later she reemerged with a new album, Screamin’ for My Supper, that showcased a more astute self-awareness, a touch of cockiness and is arguably her first completely mature and fully realized album. Hart was heavily influenced by the likes of Etta James and other blues-gospel singers of a similar period. The album plays like a dark campfire tale full of ghosts and past addictions that still rattle Hart’s cages whenever she sings a note.Screamin’ for My Supper his the airwaves with its first single, “L.A. Song” which showcased Hart’s vocal prowess and range in a tightly packed radio-ready single. “L.A. Song” reveals Hart’s inner torment regarding
Four years after Screamin’ for My Supper, Hart managed to trump her last album by releasing Leave the Light On which amped up her former efforts at describing addiction recovery and love loss. The title track quickly became a radio smash in certain parts of the 
Recovery and redemption are the main themes of the album which reflects Hart’s tendency to pour every grain of her soul into her songs. “Lifts You Up” starts off the album in somewhat of an optimistic direction, a song about life’s ups-and-downs. “Bottle of Jesus” returns Hart to her addiction concentration as she cries out for “somebody waiting to save me.” The most appealing and telling song on the album is the rocking “Monkey Back” which is figuratively about getting clean with a screaming animal on your back. Where other artists might sing of such serious topics with fear or timidness, Hart belts out at her demons with each chord even while singing the humorous line “God wouldn’t save me/so now its just me and my rotten friends/the drugs ain’t working/no, they’re just jacking me off again.”
Most recently Hart has released 37 Days, yet only to the European market where she spends a large amount of time touring in
Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:40:00 +0000 - Book Review: Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrell now has eight novels, the majority of which are set in the Missouri Ozarks, where the author resides. His most recent work, Winter’s Bone, presents the reader with a horrifyingly primal set of characters who live on the fringe of society. The book shines as an easily readable tragedy that has much in common with Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina (Allison endorses Winter’s Bone in its long list of PR snippets). Where Allison creates a compellingly torn character (Bone) whose main goal seems to be surviving and escaping her own hell, Woodrell creates Ree, a character who is comparable but lacking any real control of her own world.
Winter’s Bone follows the tale of a young girl named Ree Dolly whose father, a “crank” cooker, disappears, leaving behind a debt that threatens to take the family home. Aside from Ree, the other characters are broadly drawn and Woodrell’s descriptions seem more focused on propelling action than explaining the motive behind such actions. This choice creates a constantly moving novel that is easy enough to read in a few short hours. The story itself is heavy-handed (such as the entire chapter where Ree spends a night in a cave, which is described in religiously stilted and overly flourished prose.) Yet at times the language of the characters that Ree comes into contact with on her search for her father seem like they are distant relatives of the psychotic mountain people of James Dickey’s Deliverance.
Woodrell does a nice job of showing the inner mentality of a depraved and oddly animalistic young girl who seemingly has the world forced on her shoulders. These are people who live outside of the reach of shopping malls and interstates. Because of this isolation it seems that only the moral code abides and they unlawfully set their own rules and practices. Character descriptions are rather lacking in weight yet always tend to elaborate on a specific distinctive physical attribute (such as Teardrop’s prison tattoos.) For example, the simple exchange between Ree and her younger brothers on how to skin a squirrel is revealed to be about describing the ritual of carving up meat for sustenance.
Family and survival are the key elements to Winter’s Bone. Ree is a character who is loved by those close to her, yet her story makes her appear to be alone in the world. Ree’s background is hardly detailed in the book but from the first paragraph Woodrell sets the tone that the heroine of this story is really just a victim of circumstance. She lives in an old mountain home with her psychologically unstable mother and her two younger brothers, whom she mothers and feeds as if they were her own. When her father runs off she becomes responsible for the family’s survival and takes quite a beating in her quest to find her father and save her family.
Woodrell’s prose can get reach out of grasp at times such as when describing homes covered in snow he likens the image to blankets wrapping the habitats in warmth. While authors such as Steinbeck or even Dorothy Allison might be able to get away with such heavy-handed imagery, Woodrell fails at such description. Within the first paragraph alone he manages to off-put simplicity for weighted prose describing, “Three halt haggard houses formed a kneeling rank on the far creekside…”
It can be argued that Winter’s Bone is a story devoid of the typical descriptive elements found in a character novel. Novels that revolve around a character’s choices and actions rarely leave much detail out. This is where Woodrell somewhat looses his footing. He creates a story that is enticing and compelling yet many of the characters blend together, despite his use of nicknames and special physical characteristics.
Many writers have a tendency to begin their works and continually edit them repeatedly, which causes the upper part of the story to be leaner and more detailed. This tendency works both as a plus and minus to novels like Winter’s Bone. While the beginning of the novel is well-crafted and worded, it is questionable whether the same attention was paid to later parts of the novel. The heavy-handed imagery that plagues parts of the novel fall off later on, leaving bare bone action sequences. Oddly enough the barer the story, the better Woodrell’s writing shines.
At certain moments the story veers off course and describes ancient Ozark religious practices that make little or no sense. A bit of attention is paid to explaining how family, heredity and the importance of family name are somehow tied to this mythology, one has to hope that Ree is simply hallucinating. In fact this pseudo-religion is mentioned multiple times later in the novel yet understanding its importance is nearly impossible.
While books such as Bastard Out of Carolina and Deliverance create stories around similar locations or characters, Woodrell seemingly tries to make use of both novels. The story comes out as well developed but the plot holds little for readers looking for surprise twists and turns. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of Winter’s Bone is that the characters almost seem like actors on a stage without the benefit of the imaginary fourth-wall. Somehow reading about survival in such an absurdly isolated world causes the reader to feel some agency in Ree’s actions. One can almost predict what she’ll do next because the instinct to protect one’s own family and kin is inherent in mankind.
By the end of Winter’s Bone you can’t help but shake your head and the absurdity of having to deal with such a situation. The Ozarks are as much a character in Winter’s Bone as Ree, and its inhabitants respond to challenges with primal grittiness that reflect their surroundings. Woodrell manages to create a memorable novel, despite its flaws. His biggest achievement is creating a central character that almost any audience can feel connected with.
Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:18:00 +0000 - Movie Review: Across the Universe
Very few modern day movies manage to combine the best of American and British culture in the past and present. Even fewer (if any) manage to do it while reworking an entire collection of Beatles’ songs and encapsulating the history of the 60’s in flashes of imagery. Across the Universe attempts to bring all of these slices of apple-pie together in a tightly wrapped package complete with psychedelic ribbon. While some consider the result to be an utter failure (“A yawn and most unforgivably features some appalling arrangements of the Beatles' best-loved songs.” –Washington Post), others believe Across the Universe is a complete ode to Americana with a modern twist (“Here is a bold, beautiful, visually enchanting musical where we walk INTO the theater humming the songs.” – Chicago Sun Times.)
Early on the film declares itself as taking two different vantage points, one of which attempts to cover the generational conflicts of the 60’s, the other being a more personal level concerned with the characters on personal torments and triumphs. Across the Universe is not only built around such context it also relies on the timelines to generalize the characters’ progression.
Directed by Julie Taymor, Across the Universe reflects her avant-garde approach to directing, which seemingly has no limits. For instance a wonderfully choreographed water ballet somehow fits into Across the Universe without coming off as fruity or overdone. This fearless tenacity gained Taymor mass popularity by turning Disney’s The Lion King into a major success on Broadway (as well as silver screen success with Titus and Frida). Of course it is important to note that this is by far Taymor’s most ambitious venture yet, not only due to her eye for her cast but also puppetry, 3-D animation and 60’s Americana (all of which she makes ample use of) but also because of everything she attempts to fit into a mere 133 minutes.
Some might expect such a grand compilation of subjects to be attacked by a directing Giant, such as Baz Luhrmann who proved his commercial appeal with a similarly tailored Moulin Rouge. While a 60’s rendition of Moulin Rouge would certainly be interesting, but Taymor’s attention to detail manages to mesh the Vietnam War, the Columbia student riots and 33 Beatles songs all into one constantly moving epic. Managing to condense so much popular culture and real-world history (albeit a bit altered) into such a small scope is worthy of praise alone.
The story, as with most musicals, revolves around a couple of young lovers thrown together by circumstance. Jude, played by Jim Sturgess, is a Liverpool dockworker who travels to America in search of his long lost father. While state-side he meets a young man, Max (played by the amusing Joe Anderson), who in turn ends up introducing him to Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max’s younger sister. From there the story throws the characters into a world of war, sex, drugs and rock n’ roll in a winding and sometimes sickening path through 1960s New York City.
“I Want You/She’s So Heavy” is perhaps the best (if not the most literal) example of Across the Universe’s more demented moments. Max, after being drafted, enters into basic training before being sent away to Vietnam. The first thing that greats him is a giant poster of Uncle Sam which comes to life and begins singing a cover of the Beatles song, “I want you, I want you so bad…” while pointing his large finger directly at Max. What follows is a brilliantly choreographed military dance complete with new recruits stripped to their skivvies and medically examined by G.I. Joe like figures wearing massive Expressionist masks.
Other feats include the early favorite, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” sung by Prudence (T.V. Carpio), a closeted small-town lesbian in love with a fellow cheerleader. Such a seemingly happy song is transformed into a somber and longing ballad. Dana Fuchs, who plays Sadie, portrays a larger than life character that whose inspiration is blatantly Janis Joplin. When she sings “Helter Skelter” the walls practically crumble beneath her vocal power.
The movie also manages to pull in cameos including Joe Cocker, Salma Hayek and even more recent music icons such as Bono, who plays an LSD driven New-Age doctor who takes our main characters on a magic bus tour of America. Most notable though is Eddie Izzard who makes a brief, though very impressionable, appearance as a white-faced Circus ring leader singing “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
By far the two stars of the movie are Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood who not only carry the bulk of the vocal weight but also manage to make every song its own individual piece of the story. Sturgess, a newcomer to the big screen, not only looks like a young Paul McCartney but also sings with the soul of John Lennon. Wood, as always (Thirteen, Running With Scissors), shines without seeming to try very hard even when singing the lamenting and painful “If I Fell”.
The most striking and memorable moment in the movie comes to fruition when Sturgess breaks into the pin-ultimate 60’s Beatles song, “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Jude, a struggling artist, begins to sing following a fight with his girlfriend. Jude, while working with fresh strawberries on blank canvasses smokes a joint and somberly begins to sing. What begins simply enough eventually breaks through its own barriers as Sturgess flexes his vocal muscle while pinning strawberries to a white canvas while they slowly bleed bright red down the screen. The strawberries soon become metaphors as he throws them around the room, destroying his own work while background images transform the fruit into bombs reigning down on Southeast Asia.
This is the heavy-handed imagery that Across the Universe makes use of liberally. While the allusions and songs pull at every baby-boomer’s heart, the story and context come out of their period and manage to mirror current issues which readily avail themselves to the younger audience. The messages hidden within every Beatles song can sometimes be lost among the redundancy of such golden classicism. Across the Universe takes these messages, changes their tone and beat, throws in a storyline and the end result is a magically trippy neo-Hippie escape that is sure to entertain and keep you singing “I Am the Walrus” in your sleep.
Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:20:00 +0000 - Midwest Marijuana Trade: Local is Always Better
“I’m just the middle-man. Correction: middle-woman.” Alice, a senior from
“We don’t really call ahead because that makes our source too nervous about phone taps. Instead we just drive up there and hope he is in stock.”
“Danny normally does this, but the last time he went, he disappeared for over a week and never answered his cell,”
“It isn’t that we don’t trust him to get it done. It’s just that this is our busiest time. Every term when finals roll around, we get a bulk amount and within two days it’s all gone. Kids just need to decompress after cramming all night.”
Danny reportedly called earlier in the day to give
“Looks like we have to drop by his place. He sounds funny.”
Danny is actually a ____ student as well but chose to live off campus in an apartment complex. Ironically his home is less than a block away from Galesburg Police headquarters. He claims that his family actually emigrated from
“Welcome to my humble abode, man.” Gesturing around the room like it’s a palace, he laughs and introduces the two other people in the room as friends.
“Okay, here is the deal. The guy wants to make it clear that only you go in his house.”
“You got your half?” Danny asks while reaching into his pocket and extracting a large wad of cash.
“Yeah. I just want to get going, Danny.”
Once outside of the building,
“The way this is all setup is sexist. Danny always has the hookup, and in order to get the weed to everyone we have to always go through him. For once it would be nice not to answer to a guy.” She lights a cigarette and starts the car.
The trip to
“Normally when Danny picks it up he calls us back to his place to break it up. The bulk dealers never break it up into baggies. So we have to sit there and weigh it out while Danny rambles on and on…”
“After that we send out word that campus is flush and the calls start pouring in.” She smiles when she says this, as if this final part of the process is the most satisfying.
When asked how much Alice herself makes off each sale, she shakes her head and laughs.
“I don’t actually make a dime. All of my profit goes toward my own share of the green, and by green I mean pot. Of course when I have to drive to pick it up, we split some of the profit for gas money.”
Once we arrive in a non-descript suburb of
“His damn kids were there again. I hate screaming babies.”
“We got what we came for though.”
Back in
“This is all I could get. He said the rest of his stock had already been bought yesterday,” she calls out from the kitchen. The group on the couch, including Danny, eye the bags without touching them.
A girl who identifies herself as Jaime is the first to speak.
“Well as long as my house can get what its paid for, I don’t care.” Jaime laughs, Danny does not. He grabs one of the ounces and weighs it in his palm.
“All you got was two ounces, man? Shit. Once Jaime gets her cut, we will only have like a dozen bags to sell. Wasn’t even worth the damn gas.” He drops the bag on the table and motions to the youngest looking couch-dweller.
Without a word the young man gets down on his knees in front of the coffee table and opens the bag, dumping an entire ounce of marijuana onto the table. He begins breaking it apart in large chunks. Seeming to notice that he is being watched, he identifies himself.
“I’m Shane. Sophomore.” Shane and Jaime appear to have come together and she shortly joins him on the floor to help break up the product.
“Let’s get this shit bagged. I want to go home.” She joins the other two on the floor and then helps them methodically break large “buds”, as they describe them, into smaller chunks before she begins to separate them into small piles.
“
“Danny, you going to help or just stand there and scratch your balls?”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m gonna get a beer. Any of you want one?” The rest of the room responds with shrugs and a few “yeah, sure”. He returns a few minutes later, passing honey beer to everyone in the room, whether they wanted one or not. Finally he joins
An hour later, both ounces have been broken into sixteen separate bags of low-end marijuana which the group calls “schwag”, a street term for marijuana that can typically be bought for $20 an eighth. Surprisingly enough, Jaime seems the most enthusiastic by the completion of their task.
“Okay, my house wants a half.” Jaime explains that she has come to help break the weed down so that she can make a multiple bag purchase for the on-campus house where she resides. Apparently a half an ounce equates four bags which she pays for with a wad of twenties.
“Shouldn’t I get a cut of that for gas?” She asks Danny while looking at the ground, picking at the shag carpeting.
“Oh yeah, sorry, man.” Danny pulls a few bills out and passes them to her. She smiles and grabs a bag for herself. Danny, too, grabs a bag of pot, perhaps two. Shane reaches into his pants and produces a twenty which grants him the right to choose the next bag. What had originally started as sixteen bags has now been reduced to nine. Danny seems to do this calculation in his head.
“That should last a day, maybe two. Lets hope Emily and Lauren bring something back when they come to visit.” It is then explained that prior to this year, a couple of roommates who lived in the same apartment building had been a major source for campus marijuana distribution. Both girls graduated from ____ but were planning a trip to see friends on campus shortly.
“Emily used to drive all the way to
“You know that smell when you are out on the highway? That skunk smell? That might not always be skunk, man! The only thing that gives farmers away is the smell of green growing in their backyards, but most people just think its Pepe Le Pew turned into road kill!”
“Looks like this might all sell tonight. My roommate’s been taking calls all day and she says over a dozen people want to buy already.” Danny is pleased by this.
“That’s good man. That’s real good.”
“No, Danny, it isn’t. What the hell am I supposed to tell the other kids who want to buy?”
“Just tell them that we couldn’t find any.”
“I’m headed back to sleep. Later.” The door slams behind her and the room falls silent as the sound of her footsteps echo down the carpeted stairs. Once her motion can no longer be heard Danny quietly says “bitch” under his breath.
“What is wrong with her?” Jaime asks, while fingering the bags that are still left on the table. Shane puts his arm around her and tilts his head, suggesting that he too would like an explanation.
“Word has it that the Dean called her in his office to talk about dealing on campus. I guess she doesn’t like the administration knowin’ her shit.” Danny scratches his head absentmindedly.
“Oh that sucks. Didn’t they do that to you already?” Shane regards Danny with interest.
“Yeah man, they do every year. I’ve heard they do it with all the dealers. All that happens is Dean Romano tells us to keep a low profile and not sell anything harder than weed.”
A bong appears, signaling the end of a serious conversation. As the night progresses the door is knocked on repeatedly and by midnight, a few short hours after its arrival, all of the bags of marijuana are now sold and on their way to practically each residential campus building.
Shortly after the last bag is sold,
“We need to talk Danny.” Alice and her roommate gesture to another room and tell their friends to keep Jaime and Shane company.
“Word has it you’ve already sold every bag, even though I told you that we had orders placed for each bag.”
“Man, you never said I couldn’t sell it off. You left it here anyway.” Danny responds, obviously aggravated.
“This isn’t working anymore. I think we are going to take a break from dealing on campus for you.” Alice looks confident but it is unclear whether she is bluffing or serious. Danny, looking bewildered for a second, hardens his face.
“Do what you want. You two bitches can find your own hookup from now on.”
On their way back to their own campus housing,
“Last year Danny answered to Emily and Lauren, which was fine by us because at least women were on top of the game around here. But after they graduated, we didn’t have any choice but to deal through that dickhead. We’re moving on to a different deal.”
When asked to explain further what this new “deal” meant, Alice simply responded, “I don’t want to jinx it, but it would mean I wouldn’t have to mess with that wetback anymore and our source would be local: no more driving to Chicago for ditch weed.”
Her roommate, a very quiet and reserved girl, nods in agreement. For years the marijuana trade at
Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:15:00 +0000 - Modern Art: Hitler's Other Genocide
Adolph Hitler and his legion of followers, better known as the Third Reich, are best known for the scores of bodies they accumulated on their path for what they considered to be Aryan supremacy. What most don’t know is that Hitler not only believed in racial supremacy, he also believed that culture, in its many forms, should also follow a certain guideline and norm. Starting While Hitler was certainly the driving force behind the attempts to purge degenerate art from
Under the new Nazi regime,
All works of a modern nature were not the only victims of this purge. While any work deemed un-German or Jewish in nature was collected, the artists who produced the works were subjected to sanctions that included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to sell or exhibit their art and in some cases, artists were forbidden to create any new art whatsoever.[3] In the most extreme cases, artists were beaten, tortured and even killed for their works.
During this period of history, Nazis promoted paintings and sculptures that were narrowly focused on traditionalist ideals. Works that exalted the “blood and soil” values of racial purity, obedience and militarism were touted as the only true art. During this time all forms of artistic expression, including music and cinema, were also restricted in nature. Music was expected to be tonal and completely lacking in jazz influence and any film or play that was considered in the least bit un-German was censored or banned entirely.
The culture of the
Hitler’s personal taste in art was truly the defining factor in his war against modern culture. Never before had history seen law used as a tool for controlling cultural expression, except perhaps in Stalin’s
It was this hatred of Jewish influence that led any art considered to be distorted, unrealistic or representational of “depraved” subject matter to be inferior to German works that reflected Hitler’s personal taste. By combining Nazi anti-Semitism and their need to control culture, Hitler therefore created an umbrella term (entartete Kunst) that enabled them to garner more public support for the atrocities that they had only begun to make.[9]
While the term entartete Kunst was first made popular by the Nazi regime, its origins actually began in the late 19th century when Max Nordau, a noted author and critic, devised a theory that he later published in his book Entartung (1892).[10] Beyond that, Nordau developed his theory with the works of Cesare Lombroso who, in his 1876 book entitled The Criminal Man, tried to prove that certain people were “born criminals” whose ability to break from social norm could be predicted by the measuring of abnormal physical characteristics. Nordau used this as a premise for his critique of modern art, explaining that artists who produced distorted visions of the world were feeble-minded and therefore unable to produce a coherent vision of the world. Nordau went on to attack the mysticism that pervaded the Symbolist movement, the Aestheticism in English literature. Perhaps his most fervent attack was aimed at Impressionism which he attributed to a diseased visual cortex. Ironically Nordau and Lombroso’s work would become the rallying point during the
Hitler’s own personal taste in Greek and Roman art stemmed from the works of Paul Schultze-Naumburg’s influential writings. His works established what can best be termed as Germanic spirit which is understood as a mystical, moral, rural and ancient wisdom in the face of a tragic destiny.[11] Schultze-Naumburg, during his time, was a well-regarded architect and painter who wrote racial theories that condemned modern art and culture. Schultze-Naumburg wrote two books that Hitler himself held in high regard.[12] Die Kunst der Deutschen. Ihr Wesen und ihre Werke (The art of the Germans. Its nature and its works) and Kunst und Rasse (Art and Race) both argued that only artists with a racially pure lineage could produce “healthy” art which could uphold the classical beauty developed by the old traditionalists. In his own physical art, Schultze-Naumburg always represented other races in ways that made them look sickly and deformed in order to reinforce the idea that modernism was a sickness.[13] This theory was later developed by Alfred Rosenberg whose book Der Mythose des 20. Jahrhunders (Myth of the Twentieth Century) (1933) was a best-seller in
While Hitler’s rise to power began the purge of degenerate art, other actions by the Third Reich immediately began to try to cleanse
Oddly enough certain artists who were the vanguard of Expressionism remained in a grey area for the Reich. Within the Party the Expressionist movement was heralded by some, including Goebbels himself, who believed that the works of artists such as Emil Nolde, Ernst Barlach and Erich Heckel were reflective of Nordic spirit. Goebbels defended this position stating that "We National Socialists are not unmodern; we are the carrier of a new modernity, not only in politics and in social matters, but also in art and intellectual matters."[17] Certain party members, led by
The Art of the Third Reich was strictly monitored and contained. In order to create pieces of Nazi art, from 1933 to 1945, the artist had to refrain from any experimentation. Most works created in
While the Nazi’s spent a large amount of manpower purging modern art works from German museums, they were also developing a reputation for stealing art pieces that they believed reflected Aryan ideology. As the occupiers of
In March of 1938 Hitler marched the German army across the Austrian border and began the same hunt for degenerate artwork in his native land. As his power grew, the focus of what was considered “degenerate art” was even more generalized. In
Before the annexation of
The Entartete Kunst exhibit premiered on The first three rooms of the exhibit were grouped thematically. The first room contained works that were exclusively considered denigrating to religion (hence the giant Jesus at the entrance). The second room only featured Jewish works while the third contained works that were insulting to soldiers, women and farmers of
Over 5,000 works were seized in a matter of weeks with 1,052 by Nolde, 759 by Heckel, 639 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and 508 by Max Beckham. Smaller numbers of works were amassed by artists such as Alexander Archipenko, Marc Chagall, James Ensor, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh.[22] The exhibit itself featured over 650 paintings, books, prints, and sculptures that were taken from over thirty German museums. Accompanying the works were slogans and symbols painted on the walls such as:
· Insolent mockery of the Divine under Centrist rule
· Revelation of the Jewish racial soul
· An insult to German womanhood
· The ideal--cretin and whore
· Deliberate sabotage of national defense
· German farmers--a Yiddish view
· The Jewish longing for the wilderness reveals itself - in
· Madness becomes method
· Nature as seen by sick minds
· Even museum bigwigs called this the "art of the German people"[23]
Next to the majority of the paintings were labels that indicated how much the painting had been purchased for by the museum it had been taken from. Like most Nazi propaganda, even these figures were inflated and hyperbolized. Since the exhibit was intended to promote the idea that modernism was a conspiracy against German decency, most works were identified as Jewish-Bolshevist, yet of the 112 artists (Appendix A) works featured, only six were in fact Jewish.[24] The exhibit remained in
A short period of time after the opening of the exhibit, Goebbels ordered a second scouring of German art collections. Inventory lists indicate that in total approximately 16,558 works were seized during the purge.[25] Following this second round of seizures,
The artists whose work had been halted or seized by the Party themselves faced many challenges during Hitler’s reign. Most had been branded enemies of the state and were considered to be a threat to German culture. Many of these artists fled
A large number of so-called degenerate artists remained in exile under Hitler’s rule. Artists such as Edgar Ende and Emil Nolde were forbid to purchase painting materials. Nolde continued to paint in secret but only with watercolors so as to avoid the tell-tale smell of oil paint. Otto Dix moved to the countryside and spent his time painting landscapes in a traditional style so as to avoid aggravating the authorities.[28] Other artists who chose to remain in The broad term of entartete Kunst was used by Hitler and the Third Reich not only as a means for cultural control but also as a tool for gaining public support for their goal of Aryan supremacy. What art and artists managed to survive the tyranny of the Nazi regime is now regarded as the vanguard of modern art. Hitler’s need to purify the world of what he believed was inferior art and race was perhaps the most well-known genocide in modern history. His attempts at halting the progress of art succeeded for only a short period of time. Like most tragedies, the perpetrator commits some of the worst deeds imaginable but in the end what goes around comes around. Hitler died on
[1] Adam, 1992, p. 29
[2]
[3] Adam, 1992, p.52
[4] Adam, 1992, p.110
[5] Barron, 1991, p.54
[6] Barron, 1991, p. 10
[7] Grosshans, 1983, p. 87
[8] Grosshans, 1983, p. 86
[9] Barron, 1991, p.83
[10] Barron, 1991, p.26
[11] Adam, 1992, pp. 23-24
[12] Adam, 1992 pp. 29-32
[13] Grosshans, 1983, p.9
[14] Adam, 1992, p. 33
[15] Adam, 1992, p. 53
[16] Adam, 1992, p. 53
[17] Adam, 1992, p. 56
[18] Grosshans, 1983, p. 73-74
[19] Conducting Research at the National Archives into Art Looting, Recovery, and Restitution by Ernest Latham, US National Archives
[20]
[21] Adam, 1992, p. 123 quoting Goebbels, November 26, 1937, in Von der Grossmacht zur Weltmacht
[22] Adam, 1992, pp. 121-122
[23] Barron, 1991, p. 46
[24] Barron, 1991, p.9
[25] Barron, 1991, pp. 47-48
[26]
[27] Schulz-Hoffmann and Weiss, 1984, p. 461
[28] Karcher, 1988, p. 206
[29] Petropoulos, 2000, p. 217
[30] Bullock, A. Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, 799-800
Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:00:00 +0000 - Boxcar Charlie: Man of the Rails
Charlie has been riding the rails off and on for nearly twenty years and has no intention of stopping anytime soon. An educated man full of secrets, Charlie looks like he was lifted straight out of a Kerouac novel. He can be seen wandering the streets of small towns and hamlets wearing a dark brown tweed jacket, slightly oil-stained jeans and a dark blue button-up shirt. The only reason one would suspect he has no home is because of the graying beard that hangs long and ragged off of his chin, which he calls his “soup catcher”.
“I’m not sure how many years I have left,” he responds when asked about his time on the rails, “The winters are long but the summers are bliss.” Charlie pauses in thought and glances at the multi-colored leaves that mark the end of his seasonal bliss.
“Thought I’d missed the leaves changing ‘round here. Looks like that global warming stalled it for me.” He laughs, slapping his right knee with glee before quickly falling into deep and guttural coughs. Once he overcomes the spell he looks around himself, taking in the scenery as if it were a new environment.
When asked if he has ever been to
While Charlie is happy to talk about his present, he tends to avoid the past.
“What’s in the past? Things we forget or wish we could. My son loved the past, always had his nose in one history book or another,” he snorts contemptuously. His son is a sore topic for Charlie, who hasn’t seen him in “nearly ten years, which is ten too few.”
Charlie, whose last name seems to have fallen off somewhere along the line, doesn’t travel alone. Currently he keeps two travel companions at his side for most of his journeys. Donny, who prefers to be called “Rat”, has been under Charlie’s wing for the past few years.
“Charlie taught me how to ride. I owe him my life.” He says while shaking slightly. Rat doesn’t appear to be as polished as Charlie. Around his mid-twenties, he gives off an air of anger that seems reflected in his dark and tattered clothing--a constant point of argument between the two. Charlie believes being a freight hopper doesn’t mean you have to look shabby.
Beth is a sweet girl whose cheeks are rosy, despite the temperature outside. Her accent alludes to a mid-Western origin but she claims she has no home now that she is with Charlie and Donny. Unlike the other two she has only been on the rails slightly over six months.
“I met Charlie a few weeks after I hopped my first car. He was lingering around the train yard in LA when he found me hiding in a helper engine.” A common hiding place for people riding without a ticket is in the back engines that bring up the rear of the train. “At first I was scared that I’d been caught. Charlie just looked at me and said ‘You’re in my seat.’ We laughed for a few minutes before he introduced himself as Charlie from
But according to Charlie he isn’t from
Outside of earshot Charlie seems more secretive, as if his past is of great importance. Rat and Beth don’t strain to listen but seem to understand that the past is a tense topic with their companion.
“They’re young. You’re young, but ask questions with an obvious aim. I like that.” he says, patting me on the back. “Rat and Beth, they got a thing goin’ on now. They tell you that?” He winks in an attempt to betray some kind of inside joke.
“Charlie brought Donny and me together. That’s just the charm of him. He pulls people in.” Beth says while smoothing her wrinkled blouse with her hand. She blushes slightly but goes on, “It’s because of him that we met and I guess it’s because of him that I’m pregnant too.”
Rat, who sits at her side, smiles for the first time. He wraps his arms around Beth’s shoulders and gestures to Charlie who is humming a tune and watching traffic, “That old fart…I don’t know much about him really but he brought the best thing in the world to me. We’re thinking about naming the kid after him, but don’t tell him that.”
“Charlie has been like a father to me…more than my own dad was anyway.” Rat looks away, distantly surveying a memory he would rather soon forget. “He’s always pushing some book or rag my way. Says I’m stubborn…”
Charlie is currently reading two books, neither of which he will elaborate on. “I don’t like discussing my books before I’ve finished them. Its like talking about the food on your plate before you’ve eaten it.” He grins broadly, apparently happy with his comparison.
While he might not be that forthcoming about his past, Charlie is all too happy to discuss riding the trains that have shown him “each coast and everything in between.” If asked to explain why he rides trains in such a dangerous and illegal fashion he simply responds, “Why pay for freedom? This is
Bringing up the topic of country seems to darken Charlie’s eyes somewhat. He shakes his head, “I got a few words of wisdom for ya. Don’t get drafted.” His warm eyes now stare at the ground, recalling something.
“I got drafted in ’68. [They] sent me to
Rat appears and pulls a small bottle of brown liquor out of his trench coat and passes it to Charlie. Patting the man on the back he says, “The winter is hard on the rails. Charlie risks it and rides passenger-side. He’s got more balls than me.”
When Charlie finishes his nip he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a loose grouping of multi-colored pieces of paper, each blank. “AMTRAK thinks they are so smart! If you can just get in the car and hide in the bathroom until tickets are checked and then put one of these little scraps up over your seat, they think you’ve paid!” He once again breaks into laughter, this time both Beth and Rat laugh along.
“He disappears for weeks sometimes. We never know where he goes but he always finds us when he’s done.” Beth rubs her stomach, eyeing Charlie with a look of bewilderment. “When he’s around though, the things you need somehow appear.”
Charlie ignores this and looks back at Beth asking, “Remember when I taught you how to tuck and roll?” With devilish grins the two giggle. “You can’t be doin’ that now that you have that kid on the way.”
“I know, Charlie. I know…” Beth glances up at Rat who returns to his seat beside her on the bench. “Don’t act like you know everything you old hobo.”
“You know I don’t like that name baby bird.” Charlie wags his finger at her. “It says I don’t have a home.”
Charlie walks away from the other two. “Those two are about to settle down. They really love each other and riding trains all over isn’t goin’ to work with the kid comin’.”
The old freight hopper denies ever having been caught riding on premise, “Getting ‘caught’ means to say that I woulda been doin’ something wrong. I’m not hurting anyone. I may be breaking some laws but that don’t mean a thing. Some men feel the call of the sea, others want to fly airplanes in the sky. What’s so wrong with an old man who wants to ride trains until his dying day?”
Charlie knows his days are numbered on the lines that run from coast to coast. “We are a dying breed. A few of my old runnin’ buddies are locked up now for gettin’ caught on the rails. I guess I’ve been lucky.”
“Hopping out isn’t for everyone. But if you want to see the country for free just avoid bulls,” a reference to railroad police, “Always jump back foot first and keep in mind that the only limits are oceans.”
A nearby train approaches, sounding its whistle repeatedly. Charlie’s ears seemingly perk up. He smiles, rubbing his soup catcher in satisfaction. “That sound…its home.”
Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:40:00 +0000 - September 11th: Six Years Ago, Just Yesterday
Once the TV turned on I knew nothing would ever be the same. Eventually the sound of gasps and news commentary began to filter threw the school and soon everyone was congregated in front of the TV watching in horror as the second plane struck the World Trade Center. I felt myself go numb, as if every drop of blood in my body had suddenly been sucked out. I somehow ended up at the front desk, calling my mother.
“Mom?”
“I’ll be right there.” She semi-croaked and gasped out, obviously aware of what was going on. She had expected me to hear this news at some point but like any parent had probably hoped to break it to me herself. There is a moment in every person’s life where they realize for the first time that the world is not a safe place. Americans know this the most of all because the
My mother arrived quickly; it seemed like only seconds had passed because I don’t really think I moved away from that screen long enough for her to have driven across town. As she led me out of the school I noticed the receptionist at the front desk trying to answer the dozens of lines that were now ringing continuously. Schools would soon begin to shutdown and those that didn’t, barely contained enough students to warrant teaching.
By the time my mother and I arrived home the towers had began to crumble. We watched in horror and my mother seemed too spooked to stand around and watch it. She had to return to work because her job was to handle situations like this for the company she worked for, which was deeply involved with the oil industry. At the time I didn’t understand how her job could be affected by the images of this nightmare on the TV but later, once the events began to unfold, it became clear that this was going to change the world.I spent the next three days home from school, glued to news channels which all seemed to report the same thing at the exact same time. I would change the channel and simply stare at the screen as new home video would appear and pictures of suspected terrorists began to emerge. My mother continued to work but spent half of her day on the phone with me, doing her best to comfort as I relayed what news had broken since the last call. Everyone wanted to know what was going on but no one really wanted to hear it. It was too much and continues to be too much.
A nationalistic fever swept the nation as fingers began to be pointed and old habits began to reemerge. Muslims became pariahs and American hatred of anything that was potentially threatening or different grew exponentially. Fear is the ultimate fuel that Americans run on because it can validate the worst atrocities in the name of vengeance.
I still don’t feel like I’ve woken up from it, and somewhere down the line I realized what it was to be a patriot and what it is to be human.
Motiveless Crime is on the rise.
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:19:00 +0000 - Something Before Bed
After all of the storms, literal and figurative, Motiveless Crime is back in action. Of course I must forewarn all readers that things will remain rocky for the coming weeks as I try to balance the site with course work and having a social life. Segments will change in priority as will the times when they are posted. Motiveless Crime will continue pumping out new material whenever possible. Something Before Bed is rather simple tonight, considering that one video is 9 minutes long and the other is a short and humorous faux-ad:
It is funny because it is true.
Ditto.Motiveless Crime is on the rise.
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:56:00 +0000 - Motiveless Crime News Headlines
Dangerous gun battles have interrupted a major religious festival in Iraq this week which draws hundreds of thousands to the holy city of Karbala. The fighting has left over 50 dead with another 200 reportedly wounded. Troops have been called into Karbala to establish order while worshipers have been ordered to leave the city for their own safety. Miltias loyal to the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr, have been accused of causing the violence while Sadr has denied any involvement and asks for calm. Sadr City in Baghdad has also seen increased violence with reports of five dead.
President George W. Bush warned Tuesday that retreating from Iraq could embolden Iran to develop atomic weapons and therefore begin a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Just hours before his announcement, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad (the President of Iran) stated that his country was ready to fill a "power vacuum" that was being created with the growing U.S. influence within the region. President Bush went on to accuse Tehran of destablishing Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to establish the "shadow of a nuclear holocaust. Bush went on to threaten that "We will confront this danger before it is too late."
The Taliban has agreed to release the South Korean hostages that it has held for more than a month following negotiations with Seoul. The leader of the militant group, Mullah Basheer, said that the group would announce the terms of their agreement on Wednesday. It is currently believed that the group of Christian missionaries are being held in multiple locations and that their release will mark "some time" before they are allowed to return home. A spokesman for the Taliban told press today that the hostages would be released in various groups in the next several days.
The International Association of Fire Fighers have announced that they are officially endorsing Senator Christopher J. Dodd for the 2008 presidential race. The group's choice to throw their weight behind Dodd as opposed to any other top-tier candidates shows an effort to add heft to the Connecticut lawmaker's campaign. Dodd's contributions to John Kerry's 2004 campaign have also been heavily emphasized:
Dodd is expected to accept the endorsement tomorrow.
“The endorsement of America’s firefighters isn’t just a great validation for Senator Dodd’s leadership, but also is going to provide the boots on the ground in the early states that are going to make the difference,” said Hari Sevugan, the campaign’s communication director. “One of the reasons we’re so excited about this endorsement is because firefighters have proven that they know how to win.”
George Hotz, a seventeen-year-old college freshman has officially been the first to unlock the iPhone completely, allowing most of the phone's features to be used on any network. Hotz owned two iPhones which he unlocked and then traded one for a Nissan 350z that he wanted in order to leave for college today. Hotz has been interviewed by most major news outlets his his announcement last week that he had been the first to break into the phone completely, a feat many hackers had been attempting for months since the phone's release.
SAT scores across the US have fallen to the lowest ever since 1999. The College Board, the non-profit agency behind the SAT, explains the fall in scores as a correlation among the demographics and language of the test takers. "A fluctuation of one, two or three points happens probably two out of every three years," said Wayne Camara, vice president of research and analysis at the College Board. Camara went on to explain that long-term trends are more important than short-term ones. He is quick to point out that reading and math scores are rising over the past 20 years.Motiveless Crime is on the rise.
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:14:00 +0000 - Guilty Pleasures
It has been sometime since Motiveless Crime posted anything. Problems arose when a major storm struck my hometown area and left us without power for a period of time. After that personal issues took control. Right now the blog is in a transition period as we try to figure out how it fits in with the rest of my life and the time that can be applied daily. Without further ado, here is today's Guilty Pleasures.
The major story of the week in Hollywood is, of course, Owen Wilson's attempt at suicide. Slightly after noon on Sunday an ambulance was called to Owen's home in Santa Monica. The log for the call has been passed and made public as an attempted suicide. Reports have it that his older brother, of similar fame, Luke found Owen with his wrist slashed after he took multiple pills. Wilson was transported to St. John's Hospital and was later moved to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Wilson released this statement from the hospital:"I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time."
I know this may sound crass, but I've always considered people who "attempt" suicide to be the most pitiful human-beings on the planet. Not only are they so unhappy with their lives but they also can't even end them right. And what does Owen have to complain about?
Apparently if I step away from celebrity gossip for more than a few days, all hell will break loose. Amy Winehouse, the heroin and crack-addicted chanteuse, got into a fight with her husband after her most recent departure from rehab. The two reportedly got into a physical altercation when Amy decided to do some drugs and her husband disapproved:
Winehouse released this statement in response to the incident:
"Amy was in floods of tears. This guy was screaming at her. "She was cowering in the corner and I thought he was going to hit her. When the lift door opened, she took off across the lobby at a real pace. An eyewitness said: "Just after 3am, Amy came sprinting out and down the road. "She was in a real state of panic. Blake was running after her, but couldn't catch up. Amy was so hell-bent on getting away from him that she ran into the middle of the street and flagged down a random car that happened to be full of girls. She was saying, 'Quickly, I have to get in, I have to get away, please help me'. Her voice was breaking, you could tell she was scared. The car drove off at speed and ended up about a mile away at Charing Cross station. Amy got out and went into a 24-hour shop to buy cigarettes. "She was looking completely out of her head. Blake ran after the car for a while. He spent the next half hour or so wandering around in a daze with blood over his face, looking in doorways for her, shouting her name out. "Eventually, he got through to her on the mobile.""Blake is the best man in the world. We would never ever harm each other... I was cutting myself after he found me in our room about to do drugs with a call girl and rightly said I wasn't good enough for him. I lost it and he saved my life. He did not and never has hurt me. He has such a hard time and he so supportive... He is an amazing man who saved my life again and got cut badly for his troubles. All he gets is horrible stories printed about him and he just keeps quiet, but this is too much. She added: "I'll be alright. I need to fight my man's corner for him though."
To complicate matters her family has asked that fans boycott her music in an attempt to show their disapproval wit her drug abuse. Personally all this drama has actually made me listen to her album more. Is that a bad thing? No. Is it ironic? Hell yes.
Britney Spears has managed to get herself into even more trouble. Not only is she a head-shavin', baby shakin', nightmare of a used-to-be pop star, but she is also a bad mother. Of course this is just conjuncture at this point but TMZ is reporting that the pop songstress is under investigation by DCFS for possible child endangerment:
TMZ also has sources that update the situation as:
"An unscheduled hearing was held today at L.A. County Superior Court. Present -- Britney's lawyer, Dennis Wasser, K-Fed's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, and a lawyer from the Los Angeles County Counsel who is assigned to the dependency court. We do not know the specifics of the allegations but we're told the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services is conducting an active investigation. A hearing in the custody case has been scheduled for Sept. 4, which will be a follow up to today's appearance. A rep for Britney did not immediately return our request for comment.""Sources say the complaint lodged with DCFS involves allegations of poor dental hygiene, as well as poor eating and sleeping habits for her kids."
I'm surprised. Britney? A bad mother? This is just startling. I may not be able to sleep because of this. Who would have thought?
After having seen many pictures of Brad Pitt roaming around NYC with three out of four of the Pitt-Jolie children, I began to wonder, where is Angie? Well answers came forward today. It appears that Angelina Jolie, and possible Shiloh Pitt-Jolie, is in Iraq. Angelina is said to be there to speak with Iraqi refugees in their homes and witness some of the devastation for herself. The trip is a part of her service with the United Nations Refugee Agency for which she is an ambassador. Angelina has said:
"I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to the humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners. My sole purpose in both countries is to highlight the plight of those uprooted by the war in Iraq." "It is absolutely essential that the ongoing debate abut Iraq's future includes plans for addressing the enormous humanitarian consequences these people face."Dammit, it would be a lot easier to make fun of her if she wasn't a good person.
Madonna was recently under allegations for bribery when she was accused of paying off a Malawi government official in order to gain full custody of David Banda, the child she is currently in the process of adopting. It turns out that the social worker assigned to the case was barred from traveling to London via Malawi which somehow meant Madge had to pay the bill...? This caused some to believe that she was buying his approval. The man has now been cleared for travel and will spend two weeks in London. He claims the entire situation was just a big misunderstanding. Besides, what child could complain about getting Madonna as a mother? Oh yeah...plenty.
This is probably utter-b.s. but it is great fodder for some of us. Rumor has it that Jake Gyllenhaal is planning on coming out of the closet by the end of the next month. Jake is said to be considering the major announcement because he and his secret boyfriend of several years are expecting a baby in September (via surrogate):
"Jake Gyllenhaal has been dating the same guy for years. Last year Jake and his bf were arrested and brought into the West Hollywood station after t
