Saturday, July 20, 2019

The Arts and Social Engineering: the Importance of Gender Bending and Race

Last year I went to the annual Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. You may remember me discussing it at the time.

They had a production of The Tempest showcasing Martha Henry as Prospero – the revenge seeking wizard exiled to a remote island. The role of Prospero is considered a plum role and highly sought after by men in their fifties or sixties as it is quite possible they would have a 15-year-old daughter. Given that the director chose to fundamentally transform Prospero’s character from Miranda’s father to her mother it’s a bit more of a stretch for the 80 year old actress. But hey, that’s the magic of theater.

Also part of last year’s Shakespearean offerings was Julius Caesar…where the lead was played by Seana McKenna, Cassius by Irene Poole, and  Michelle Giroux as Mark Antony – women all. Nor were they the only gender bending roles, several other male characters in Julius Caesar were played by women because:

“It makes a lot of sense that in this day and age, a play with so few female characters should have women playing some of the more juicy male roles.” - BWW

It makes a lot of sense to a certain segment of the population. To the rest of us it just appears stupid and manipulative.

Image result for seana mckenna julius caesarSeana McKenna (left) as Julius Caesar and Michelle Giroux as Mark Antony

Yet CBC Radio seemed surprised that all that gender-bending created a bit of blowback.

This year at Stratford, two of Canada's theatre greats will be playing "trouser roles." Seana McKenna will play Julius Caesar and Martha Henry will play Prospero.

Even in the 21st century, it has unsettled some patrons.

Speaking to The Sunday Edition's Michael Enright, Martha Henry says that Stratford has had complaints about the cross-gender casting.

"They've had people who were really incensed about this. Some even said they weren't going to come."

Martha's response?

"Tell them that if they don't come, they can't complain, because they will have nothing on which to stand. Come first, and see what you think."

Um, okay, I’ll not complain about not spending $100+ per ticket to not see the performance. We chose instead to see the Music Man which was a wonderful production. Even then one had to suspend one’s disbelief somewhat to imagine that in 1912 River City, Iowa a black Henry Hill could pull off the con of selling non-existent band instruments and wooing Marion the fair librarian.

Image result for daren a. herbert stratford festival

But then, The Music Man is a bit tongue-in-cheek in the believability department to begin with so casting is less critical than it is in oh, say, a historical Shakespearean play where they pretend to be gender blind. Daren A. Herbert, the actor who portrayed Hill explained why he hates the term “colourblind” casting: 

“I hate the lie it portrays because it insinuates that you’re seeing something that is not unseeable. People come to see this show and they see me — a black guy. There’s no way to pretend that I’m not.”Windsor Star

Image result for daren a. herbert stratford festival

In other words, there is no such thing as “colourblind” casting: nothing is more obvious than the color of one’s skin. It is what it is. And that’s fine. Herbert is a great actor, a great singer and dancer and the musical was a delight. But you know and I know and Daren A. Herbert knows he was chosen for the part because he was black, not despite it. The arts have an agenda. At least The Music Man’s director wasn’t trying to convince us that men and women are interchangeable parts.

Plus they did their homework to ensure that the pluralistic culture of the mythic River City wasn’t a complete pipedream:

Herbert and director Donna Feore did some homework on that period — “and it’s not as though there were no black people there. There was one who was fairly high up in the Republican Party, so we’re not completely out of the bounds of reality.”

Ha ha! A Republican! Now isn’t that a kick in our racist teeth. Anyway, we all know the premise is still a stretch - it’s not a racist thing, it’s a historical thing - but we chose to play along and had a good time.

All of which is a long way around to the lede, allow me to introduce the next Agent 007: Lashana Lynch will play 007 in new James Bond movie.

Lashana Lynch

“It’s a popcorn-dropping moment. Bond is still Bond but he’s been replaced as 007 by this stunning woman,” the source told the Mail.

Either that’s a bad publicity photo of Lashana or I no longer understand the meaning of “stunning.”  For insurance purposes however Danial Craig still plays a retired James Bond although his special number has been reassigned. Good luck social engineers of the arts and letters crowd, sooner or later you hit the wall. I think you may have arrived.

Image result for james bond hits the wall

Friday, July 19, 2019

FLOTUS FRIDAY: Defrocked Beauty Queen Edition

Have you seen this? Beauty queen stripped of her title for political opinions.

Apparently Kathy Zhu, who was born in China and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was five, was dumped for holding what pageant organizers consider to be out-of-the-mainstream opinions about hijabs, black on black crime and other “insensitive” statistics.

Laurie DeJack, Miss World America Michigan state director, notified Kathy of her defrocking for behavior unbefitting a beauty queen; i.e., having an opinion:

"It has been brought to the attention of Miss World America that your social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content, and in violation of MWA's Rules and Conditions, specifically the contestant requirement of 'being of good character and whose background is not likely to bring into disrepute Miss World America or any person associated with the organisation'."

Submitted without comment, further evidence of Ms. Zhu’s racism:

Image result for kathy zhu michiganFunny, she doesn’t look like a White Supremacist.

Only in America could an émigré from a real totalitarian regime be stripped of a title she earned for the sole crime of exercising her First Amendment rights.

Meanwhile, our other beauty queen eschewed her usual frocks in protest of Ms. Zhu’s plight and donned a pant suit instead to greet members of the U.S. Special Olympic team at the White House.

En route: Melania later arrived in the East Room of the White House with Vice President Mike Pence to attend the ceremony

Meet and greet: the first lady joined the president in the Oval Office to meet members of the American Special Olympics team

VSGPDJT and V.P. Pence look pretty snappy too, but nobody hits a navy blue suit out of the park quite like our FLOTUS.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

THE FABLE OF KINTSUKUROI

“We’re not having him set the agenda, we’re setting our own agenda.” – Speaker Pelosi, yesterday, speaking of President Trump

open-borders

Wasn’t it just last Friday that I tried to warn the Dems?

“I’m afraid you own the racist slur, the “patriarchy,” feminist backlash, gender confusion and soon…you’ll hold exclusive rights to Russian collusion as well. Expect it all to be used against you because President Trump pushes back.”

They didn’t listen, so the Pottery Barn rule - “You break it, you own it” – has been deployed. When you create chaos, you own the fallout and eventually the fallout can no longer be ignored. We’re there.

So have fun Dems, “setting your own agenda,” even though it looks like it’s already fairly well set.

“Take a look around, their party is afflicted with an ideological sickness that protects foreign borders but refuses to protect our own borders.” – President Trump, yesterday, speaking of the Democrats

You certainly can’t blame President Trump if he wants to help them set their agenda, in stone, by making them own it. They own it, our President has vowed to fix it; the choice is yours. Choose wisely, weedhopper.

The Fable of Kintsukuroi

Related image

“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.” 

When PDJT says “Make America Great Again” that is what he means.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Remember That Time Abraham Lincoln Was a Racist?

Did you catch any of the chaos in the House chambers yesterday as the Dems moved to condemn President Trump’s tweets? Pelosi was banned from speaking for the day for breaking House rules, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver dropped the gavel.

He issued the following statement, which reads in part:

“I want to thank Leader Hoyer for assuming the chair and reading the parliamentarian’s ruling following my abdication. Like the vast majority of Americans, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with the childish rancor of our public discourse. Our inability to conduct ourselves in a civil and respectable fashion has paralyzed the most powerful government in the history of the world, and for what? A 10-second soundbite on prime time news and a few thousand twitter followers?

Mind you, Rep. Cleaver used to be considered one of the more radical progressive members of the Democratic party. Before the Broad Squad showed up on scene. What a difference a bray makes.

The Dems are moving us dangerously closer to joining the pantheon of countries that routinely break out in parliamentary fisticuffs

And all because the President put Tweet to the long held sentiment of “America: love it or leave it.”

I guess ‘da Squad insists that his tweet was racist. Of course they also insisted there was collusion with Russia! Russia! Russia!  Or obstruction. Or something.

I should point out that “go back to where you came from” could mean “get out of the way,” a phrase President Obama was never shy about using, whether he was talking about the Republicans who “drove the car off the cliff” getting out of the way so he could “clean up the mess,” or the Republican Congress “getting out of his way” so he could shut down Gitmo. “Get out of the way” only sounds racist if you see everything through a racist lens.

Oh, and remember that time when Abraham Lincoln was a racist?

H/T Cripes Suzette – still my favorite of her many awesome photoshops

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

The Broad Squad Expiration Date

The Broad Squad took to the podium yesterday to call President Trump a white nationalist, demand his impeachment, denounce the holding of illegal aliens at our border (presumably because President Trump is a white nationalist), demand the children be let “out of their cages,” and - did I mention - President Trump’s impeachment? Otherwise they seemed to be there simply to display their individual and collective awesomeness.

Image result for the squad press conference

Presumptuously speaking for the United States of America the 4 women of color (although only 2 of them technically are), 2 Muslims (one head-wrapped, 1 not), 1 social media star from Westchester by way of Queens and one angry black Bostonian used the presser to audition for the future presidential sweepstake. Their credentials? They all harbor a degree of anti-Semitism, a hatred for America as it was founded and a fascination with socialism/communism. Aside from that the only thing they have in common is the fact that they all have big mouths. And that’s all it takes to be a star in Democrat politics these days, since we’ve leveled the playing field.

To paraphrase Rep. Pressley, “I will always refer to them as “occupants…they do not embody the grace, the empathy, the compassion, the integrity that their office requires and that the American people deserve.”

So rock on Broad Squad, fame is fleeting. And your charm has a distinct expiration date.

Expiration Date: No Soon Enough

Monday, July 15, 2019

Common Sense Trumps Idiocracy

We refuse to enforce our own immigration laws, because law makers don’t “see the point.”

Antifa thugs are allowed to run amok, beating up people they disagree with, with little to no push police pushback.

Manhattan shuts down on a Saturday night because, well, we don’t exactly know why.

Section of Midtown And Upper West Side Of Manhattan Loses Power

Maybe because power companies have done little to harden the grid against technological and terrorist attacks in the past 30 years. Maybe because most electric companies have done little to expand their real power capacity because they’re concentrating on “alternative energy sources” favored by our government overlords. Or maybe it’s because we’ve done virtually nothing to replace the coal fired and nuclear plants that they keep shutting down. Or maybe it’s simply due to the poor-boy maintenance policies Public Service Commissions allow to happen in the interest of “keeping rates low.”

Con Edison says Manhattan’s black out was not due to a cyber attack or a terrorist attack - and that’s supposed to make us feel better?

Third world diseases are making a comeback in America.

Transgender rights are deemed more important than parental rights.

Major tech companies decide who gets de-platformed on major social media platforms, and it’s always conservatives.

And yet Democrats still claim they don’t know what we mean when we say “Make America Great Again.” Really? It’s not rocket science.

Related imageScientists With Their Board of Calculations in 1961…pre-PCs and Powerpoint

In fact many people consider it nothing more than common sense. And common sense will Trump idiocracy every. single. time.

Trump 2020, our mane man

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Better Put Some ICE On That

And so it begins…

Ice ice baby
Too cold
Ice ice baby
Too cold too cold
Ice ice baby
Too cold too cold
Ice ice baby
Too cold too cold

Or if you prefer, here’s the Game of Thrones cast singing Vanilla Ice’s biggest hit:

Either way you have a prima facie case of melatonin challenged actors using white privilege to culturally appropriate black rap music.

But while Ice Ice Baby was the subject of a landmark music copyright suit, oddly enough the suit was brought by two other white artists, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. Since it was an obvious rip off of their song (Under Pressure) the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum and their inclusion of songwriting credits on the track. Once again, white privilege; once again the black man gets screwed. Or something.

Anyway, the ICE raids commence today, as promised. More cultural appropriation and deportation. It’s just not right, or something.

Image result for ice raids today

What passes for rational argument these days: How dare they? These illegals have as much right to be here as you do!

Meanwhile, since we are speaking of ICE and white privilege…

Image result for you better put some ice on that