Monday Open Thread

Posted on October 3, 2016 by rikyrah

Happy Monday, Everyone. Not quite back from vacation YET.

I visited the Smithsonian African American History Museum Saturday night. Photos to come!

ICYMI

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20 Responses to Monday Open Thread

  5. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    October 3, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    Just found two 1963 video clips, one of Bob Dylan, the other of Pete Seeger, in Greenwood, Mississippi:

    https://youtu.be/I-R0vE3LXNI&rel=0

    https://youtu.be/9tbuQSmAafI&rel=0

    Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    October 3, 2016 at 1:53 pm

    Happy Anniversary to our First Couple.

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      October 3, 2016 at 9:09 pm

      May God continue to bless, guide, protect and fulfill our historic First Couple on this their 24th year anniversary and for always…Many, many, many more joyous, God-filled, Grace-filled, love-filled, fulfilling and glorious years ahead together…

      May their impenetrable and unshakeable bond, commitment and devotion to each other only grow deeper and stronger as they fall ever deeper and more passionately in love with and infinitely appreciative of each other with each passing moment..

      May their respect for and awe of each other only grow…and may they continue to cherish each other and be fiercely protective of and attentive to each other – and their love and union…and never allow anything or anyone to distract or come between them..

      May they grow old together in good health and joy …and live to enjoy each other and their many blessings – especially the blessing of wonderful grand and great-grand children who will bring them even more joy…

      May God continue to abundantly bless, protect, guide, safeguard and keep them safe from all harm…physical, spiritual, emotional, psychological ..

      Reply
  7. rikyrah says:
    October 3, 2016 at 1:44 pm

    City of Chicago
    Suburban Cook County voters:

    EARLY VOTING IS HERE!!

    You can Early Vote at 69 W. Washington

    8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

    City of Chicago Voters – the Pedway
    Suburban Cook County Voters – 5th Floor

    Early voting has begun!!

    Early Voting at Multiple Sites begins October 24th.

    But, for now, you CAN VOTE EARLY at 69 W. Washington.

    Reply
  8. Liza says:
    October 3, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    David Adjaye on Designing a Museum That Speaks a Different Language
    By MICHAEL KIMMELMANSEPT. 21, 2016
    …
    The building was designed by the Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup, a consortium of firms, led by David Adjaye, the London-based, Ghanaian-British architect, working with Philip Freelon and the engineer Guy Nordenson. Mr. Adjaye, whose American commissions include an art museum in Denver and a subsidized housing project in Manhattan, sat down recently to talk about the project, its structure, setbacks and symbolism. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

    Looking back, are you happy?

    Fundamentally, really happy, yeah. There have been many trials and mutations. I’m really happy we didn’t lose the key form of the building.

    Which is?

    I wanted to see if we could make the silhouette of the building the beginning of the narrative.

    You’re talking about the three-tier facade of bronzed, canted panels, which become a sort of inverted triple pyramid. It draws on the shape of a Yoruban caryatid, a traditional West African column with a corona at the top.

    I was completely moved by the corona motif. It seemed like a way to start to tell a story that moves from one continent, where people were taken, along with their cultures, and used as labor, then contributed towards making another country and new cultures. That history then continues in the decorative patterning of those panels.

    The patterns riff on the ironwork of a former African-American slave from Charleston, South Carolina. Am I right?

    People keep thinking that the slave trade was about cotton picking. It was also about bridge building, canals, house making. Labor in all its forms. So, I suddenly went, ‘Oh my God, well, let’s really talk about architecture and African-American history, let’s go back and look at Georgia and Charleston, you know, all these places, through a different lens. There, the history is right in front of you — this incredible tradition of metalsmithing by freed slaves. There were no molds. They learned all this by hand. It is part of the history of American architecture.

    You are not American. You’re British-Ghanaian, the son of a diplomat, raised in Britain. How do you relate to this history?

    In Africa and throughout the black diaspora, we all sort of see the American experience as the modernity of black culture.

    Modernity?

    I’m talking about the emancipation that happened through the civil rights movement, which stirred independence movements elsewhere. We forget that that is a new phenomenon, a modern phenomenon.

    When you said “modernity” I thought you were talking about contemporary African-American culture.

    Absolutely. That too. I think many people don’t realize how much the popularity of Obama is not just simply because he’s black, but also because he’s part of this modernity.

    So how did this notion of modernity enter into the design of the building?

    The building is classical in its inspiration, with a base and capital, but it’s also not a classical building. It’s a very modern building in how contemporary thinking has been applied to material science and circulation. We wanted a building that wasn’t just about itself, but about its context and about the experience of consuming information in the museum.

    You’re talking about the layout of the building, the ways you move through it?

    I think about the building in three parts. There are the historical galleries, which make a kind of crypt, in an underground space. Then a second part deals with migration from the South to urban centers and the beginning of the professional classes. I wanted the journey from that crypt up into the corona to be analogous to history, as a kind of migratory process, toward the light. Then you go up to the uppermost level; I call it “Now.” It’s about the arts. So this tripartite structure relates to the corona’s three tiers. It’s meant to suggest the link between symbolic form and the museum’s content.

    You also orchestrate views, through the facade, with cutouts, and through windows in the galleries, onto the National Mall.

    You’re looking at the Jefferson Memorial, you’re looking at the Washington Monument, you’re looking at the Lincoln Memorial. You’re looking at Congress. You’re looking at the National Archives and the White House. History is played out in front of your eyes.

    And you wanted all this to be visible from within, as you move through the museum.

    From within, yeah, through what can sometimes look like strange apertures on the outside. People say to me, “Is that your idea of stylish architecture?” This is not a project about intuitive whimsy. Everything here is driven by research, which creates its own kind of poetry, I hope. Most museums on the Mall are closed to the outside in the sense that they take you to another world. They function a bit like cinema: You go into a different world and then you come back out. I didn’t want that. The experience of being black is not a fiction. There’s something important about always coming back to the light of day.
    …

    You know the Mall is set up for the people of the country to understand the fundamental nature of the country. There is already a museum that talks about space and exploration. Another museum talks about natural history. Another, about the founding of the nation, another showing portraits of the people. It became very clear at the end of the 20th century that there were still missing chapters, about peoples displaced by early settlers, whose lands were taken from them, and about peoples brought here as slaves. Their stories are fundamental to the DNA of this country. Creating museums for their stories is not about serving special interests. It’s about celebrating the true diversity of the country, showing how people, even people who moved here under the most traumatic conditions, ultimately thrived.

    Read more…
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/arts/design/david-adjaye-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture.html?_r=0

    Reply
  9. Liza says:
    October 3, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    I was thinking about the new museum. “They” are going to have to produce some kind of in-depth documentary on this museum because there are a lot of folks who are never going to be able to make the trip to DC and see it. Now, apparently with the way this museum has been done, a documentary won’t capture the experience of being there, but it would still be a good thing and a powerful teaching tool.

    Reply
  10. Tyren M. says:
    October 3, 2016 at 9:28 am

    Good morning 3Chics and readers. I look forward to your Museum photos! Have a great day all.

    Reply
  11. rikyrah says:
    October 3, 2016 at 8:31 am

    Trump Doesn’t Propose Closing the Loopholes He Exploited
    It’s a major flaw in his ‘only someone who games the system can fix it’ argument.
    by Steven Waldman
    October 2, 2016

    Donald Trump often says that because he’s gamed the system he knows how to fix it. We make fun of that argument but it’s actually a pretty good line. If you want to shore up the security problems in your computer system, you might well hire a former hacker.

    There’s one small problem: Trump never actually says how he would deploy this insider knowledge to fix the problems.

    Let’s start with taxes. Trump’s response to the New York Times revelations that he may not have paid taxes for 18 years was to tweet:

    I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them. #failing@nytimes

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2016

    Chris Chritie agreed: “What it shows is what an absolute mess the federal tax code is and that’s why Donald Trump is the best person to fix it.”

    But taxes are one area where Trump has actually put out a detailed plan. Get this: He does not touch the carried losses provision that allowed him to use massive business losses to eliminate his personal tax liability. According to the Times piece, Trump took advantage of a part of the code that allows investment losses to wipe out personal tax liabilities, not just for that year but for future years.

    Hillary Clinton’s plan would appear to eliminate the practice, indirectly, by establishing a larger minimum tax on people with substantial income (a.k.a. the Buffett Rule).

    Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    October 3, 2016 at 8:07 am

    Ametia, you got to go?

    EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!

    Tell us everything!!!

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    October 3, 2016 at 8:06 am

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

    Reply

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