In ancient times, Hundreds of years before the dawn of history Lived a strange race of people, the Druids No one knows who they were or what they were doing Spinal Tap, Stonehenge
I saw a news report about the summer solstice gathering at Stonehenge, as people watched the rising sun shining through the ancient monument.
It is a powerful sight. And so funny. Funny because of the movie Spinal Tap. In it, the band is playing smaller venues to smaller crowds. They devised a spectacular production for their song Stonehenge (video clip below). It goes wrong.
From first viewing of the movie, I cannot see or hear about Stonehenge without thinking about the scene and the song. And laughing a lot.
We need to laugh. Always but especially now. Don’t forget to laugh. Happy summer.
You may be right I may be crazy But it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for Billy Joel, You May Be Right
It is not surprising to conclude that Trump has mental health issues. Experts have weighed in. Years ago, I posted excerpts from the DSM-5 defining the pertinent personality disorders. It remains the most popular post on this blog.
What may be surprising is that Trump’s craziness is precisely what millions—tens of millions—of his fans want from him. They want someone who is crazy enough to “break some shit.” Trump promises to do just that, without conscience or compunction.
What that means for the election is that whatever Trump says or does, however ridiculous, however duplicitous, it is not only okay, it is what is expected. Anything less, anything more conventional or normal, would be disappointing. Trump is just the lunatic they’re looking for.
It is not easy being a creative personality, particularly one who is popular and commercially successful, and taking a position on controversial and divisive issues. The war in Gaza is such an issue.
Below is the message from Artists for Ceasefire along with the list of those who have signed on, 464 so far. Some of my favorites are there, probably some of yours too. Some of my favorites are missing, probably some of yours too.
What intrigues me is that this list of 464 includes some of the most famous and respected names in entertainment and the arts. Yet while Justin Timberlake’s DWI arrest is a top news item, this receives hardly any coverage.
Dear President Biden,
We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.
We ask that, as President of the United States, you and the US Congress call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 36,000 people have been killed over the last 8 months, and over 83,000 injured* – numbers that any person of conscience knows are catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
We urge your administration, Congress, and all world leaders, to honor all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages. Half of Gaza’s two million residents are children, and more than two thirds are refugees and their descendants being forced to flee their homes. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach them.
We believe that the United States can play a vital diplomatic role in ending the suffering and we are adding our voices to those from the US Congress, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, The International Committee of The Red Cross, and so many others. Saving lives is a moral imperative. To echo UNICEF, “Compassion — and international law — must prevail.”
Since Oct 7th, more than 45,000* bombs and missiles have been dropped on Gaza – resulting in one child being killed every 10 minutes.
“Children and families in Gaza have practically run out of food, water, electricity, medicine and safe access to hospitals, following days of air strikes and cuts to all supply routes. Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, shutting down electricity, water and wastewater treatment. Most residents can no longer get drinking water from service providers or household water through pipelines…. The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion — and international law — must prevail.” – UNICEF spokesperson James Elder
Beyond our pain and mourning for all of the people there and their loved ones around the world we are motivated by an unbending will to stand for our common humanity. We stand for freedom, justice, dignity and peace for all people – and a deep desire to stop more bloodshed.
We refuse to tell future generations the story of our silence, that we stood by and did nothing. As Emergency Relief Chief Martin Griffiths told UN News, “History is watching.”
*Updated as of 6/6/24
Artists
Aaron Frazer Aasif Mandvi Abbi Jacobson Adam Lambert Adam McKay Adeel Ahmed Afshan Azad Ahamed Weinberg Aida Rodriguez Aimee Lou Wood Aja Monet Alan Cumming Alana Hadid Alena Smith Alfonso Cuarón Ali Adler Alia Shawkat Allison Russell Alyssa Milano Amanda Diaz Amanda Gorman Amanda Seales Amandla Stenberg Amber Tamblyn America Ferrera Aminatou Sow Aminé Amy Herzog Anand Desai-Barochia Andrew Ahn Andrew Garfield Andrew Thomas Huang Anees Angela Dimayuga Ani DiFranco Anna Konkle Annie Lennox Anoushka Shankar Aria Mia Loberti Arian Moayed Ariana Grande Arooj Aftab ASAP Nast Ashley Lukashevsky Asim Chaudhry Atsuko Okatsuka Auliʻi Cravalho Augustus Prew Ava DuVernay Ayo Edebiri Bassam Tariq Bassem Youssef Bella Hadid Belly Ben Affleck Bilal Hasna Billy Bragg BLK ODYSSY Bobbi Salvör Menuez Bonnie Wright Boots Riley Bradley Cooper Brandon Holman Brian Cox Brian Eno Brigitte Lacombe Brittani Nichols Bruce Cohen Bryan Adams Busy Phillipps Cameron Russell Carl Clemons-Hopkins Caroline Polachek Cat Power Cate Blanchett Catherine Van-Davies Celeste Barber Celeste Yim Chani Nicholas Channing Tatum Charithra Chandran Charlotte Riley Charm La’Donna Chase Sui Wonders Chella Man Cherien Dabis Chicano Batman Chioke Nassor Christine Baranski Cindi Leive Clairo Clean Bandit Connie Britton Cora Emmanuel Cree Summer Cynthia Erivo Cynthia Nixon Dan Bucatinsky Dan Cogan Daniel Caesar Daniel Garber Daniel Goldhaber Darius Marder Dave Merheje David Clennon David Cross David Oyelowo Dawn-Lyen Gardner Deb Never Denée Benton Desi Perkins Dev Hynes Devery Jacobs Diany Rodriguez Dina Shihabi Diplo DJ Snake Dominic Cooper Dominique Fishback Dominique Thorne Drake Dua Lipa Durand Jones D.W. Moffett Dylan Mulvaney Ebon Moss-Bachrach Edie Campbell Eisa Davis Elliott Gould El-P Elsa Hosk Elvira Lind Elyanna Emily V. Gordon Emily Meade Emma Seligman Eric André Eugene Lee Yang Ewan McGregor Fai Khadra Farah Bsaiso Farah Nabulsi Farida Khelfa Fatima Farheen Mirza Fawzia Mirza Fayssal Bazzi Florence Pugh Fontaines D.C. Francesca Fiorentini Frank Ocean Fred Hechinger Fredwreck Geena Rocero Geoffrey Arend Gigi Hadid Girl Named Tom Gracie Abrams Hadar Cohen Hannah Ferguson Hari Nef Hasan Minhaj Helado Negro Hend Sabry Howard Rodman Ido Mizrahy Ilana Glazer Imaan Hammam Imad Izemrane Iman Vellani Indya Moore Ivan Jackson Jai Courtney Jalen Noble James Schamus James Wilson Jamila Woods Janelle Monáe Jared Goldstein Jas Lin Jay Hernandez Jay Shetty Jean Smart Jehane Noujaim Jena Malone Jenna Ortega Jenni Konner Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Saunders Jenny Yang Jeremy Allen White Jeremy Strong Jes Tom Jesse Peretz Jesse Williams Jessica Chastain Jessie Buckley Jim Jarmusch Joaquin Phoenix Jodi Balfour Joe Alwyn Joel Edgerton Joel Kim Booster Johan Lindeberg John Cusack John Early Jon Batiste Jon Stewart Josh Gondelman Jordan Peele Joy Sunday JP Saxe Judah Friedlander Judy Reyes Julianne Nicholson Julien Baker Juliet Stevenson Juliette Binoche Julio Torres Kaitlin Olson Kal Penn Kali Uchis Kamie Crawford Karen Sours Albisua Kathryn Grody Kathy Najimy Katie Gavin Kaytranada Kehlani Kendrick Sampson Kenza Fourati K.Flay Khalid Abdulla Kimiko Glenn Kimya Dawson Kirsten Dunst Kristen Stewart Kit Yan Kumail Nanjiani Kylie Sparks Laila Nabulsi Lauren Jauregui Lee Eddy Lena Waithe Leo Sheng Lily Gladstone Lindy West Lionel Boyce LisaGay Hamilton Livia Firth Liz Garbus Lola Kirke Lola Petticrew Lorenza Izzo Louisa Jacobson Lucy Dacus Luis Bordonada Lupita Nyong’o Macklemore Mae Martin Mahershala Ali Majid Jordan Malala Yousafzai Mandy Patinkin Manish Dayal Marcia Cross Margaret Cho Maria Cornejo Marisa Tomei Mark Ruffalo Mark Rylance Martin Starr Mary Harron Mary Elizabeth Winstead Massari Matt McGorry Matt Lieb Matt Rogers Maxwell Osborne May Calamawy Maysoon Zayid Maz Jobrani Megan Boone Mekki Leeper Melanie Martinez Melissa Barrera Mica Argañaraz Michael Cerveris Michael Dorman Michael Malarkey Michael Moore Michael Uzowuru Michael Shannon Michael Stipe Michelle Wolf Mickey Sumner Miguel MILCK Milla Jovovich Mimi Kennedy Mira Nair Miranda July Miriam Margolyes Misan Harriman Misha Collins Mishel Prada Mitra Jouhari Mo Amer Mohamed Diab Molly Bernard Mona Chalabi Monet McMichael Morgan Spector Mousa Kraish MUNA Mustafa Ahmed Nabil Elderkin Naomi Scott Natalia Cordova Natalie Merchant Naz Riahi Nelly Furtado Nia DaCosta Nicola Coughlan Nicole Ansari Cox Niki Takesh Nikoo Nooryani Nina Goodheart Noah “40” Shebib Noam Shuster-Eliassi Nori Reed Omar Apollo Omar Metwally Omar Sy Oscar Isaac Padma Lakshmi Paloma Elsesser Patti Smith Paul Elia Paul Walter Hauser Peter Berg Peter Gabriel Peter Rosenberg Phoebe Bridgers Poorna Jagannathan Poppy Delevingne Poppy Liu Priyanka Chopra Jonas Quei Tann Quinta Brunson Rachel McAdams Rachel Sennott Rachel Zegler Rain Phoenix Ramy Youssef Raveena Aurora Rianne Van Rompaey Richa Moorjani Richard Gere River L. Ramirez Riz Ahmed Roberta Colindrez Rolla Selbak Rooney Mara Rosaline Elbay Rosario Dawson Rose Abdoo Rosie O’Donnell Rowan Blanchard Run The Jewels Rupi Kaur Ruth Negga Ryan Coogler Ryan Piers Williams Saagar Shaikh Sabeen Faheem Sabine Getty Saif Mahdi Sam Gold Sam Richardson Sami Zayn Sammy Obeid Samora Pinderhughes Sandra Oh Sara Driver Sara Ramirez Sarah Bahbah Sarah Jones Sarah E. Jones Sarah Snook Sarah Sophie Flicker Sarita Choudhury Sasami Ashworth Sean Miura Sebastián Silva Selena Gomez Sepideh Moafi Shailene Woodley Shaka King Shayla Mitchell Shepard Fairey Sherry Cola Shruti Ganguly Silas Howard SimiHaze Simon Helberg Simon Rex Simone Ashley Simu Liu Sinéad Bovell Sinéad Harnett Smino Snoh Aalegra Sophia Bush Sophia Roe Stella Schnabel Stephanie Suganami Stephen Dillane Steve Way Suleika Jaouad Susan Sarandon Susan Wokoma Sydney Lemmon Tahar Rahim Tala Ashe Tanya Selvaratnam Tara Grammy Tarek Bishara Tavi Gevinson Taylour Paige Tchaiko Omawale Tessa Thompson Thursday Tien Tran Toby Haynes Tom Morello Tom Hardy Tommy Genesis Tony Kushner Tony Shalhoub Tracey Seaward Travon Free Tyler Johnson V (formerly Eve Ensler) Vic Mensa Victoria Monét Viggo Mortensen Vijay Iyer Vivek Shraya Wale Waleed Zuaiter Wallace Shawn Wanda Sykes Yara Shahidi Yasmeen Fletcher Yasmine Aker Yasmine Al Massri Yumi Sakugawa Yusuf Cat Stevens Zach Woods Zayn Malik Ziwe Zoe Chao Zoe Lister Jones 070 Shake
1948 Birmingham Black Barons, Willie Mays age 17 (front left)
It is study hall in a junior high school. A group of guys spend it in the library, seated around a table, newspaper spread out. These are the baseball pages, yesterday’s games, today’s games, player stats.
There is a debate at the table, an argument, as there is many days, about who is the better player, Mays or Mantle. (An argument that still rages, all the years later.) Even if you are a Yankees fan, an unfortunate occurrence, there is nothing to discuss. Willie Mays.
Willie Mays then. Willie Mays now, in the wake of his death at 93 yesterday. Not just better than Mantle. Better than anybody, as you either know because you are a baseball fan, or will see, hear or read today even if you are not.
When I heard the news, appropriately while watching a baseball game, I cried. Not typical for me with celebrity deaths, whether sudden and premature or not surprising. We want to see things we’ve never seen before and are unlikely to see again. For baseball fans, we are not going to see Willie Mays again, though there are plenty of stars we admire. We are happy, blissful, that we had him in the game and in our lives.
There is a dispute about how many Palestinians, including children, were killed in the Israeli rescue of four hostages in Gaza. Gaza says 274. Israel says less than 100.
We have to step back and consider that dispute. Is it about numbers? To put it another way, are there moral metrics?
The answer to that last question is: of course. We have forever attached different judgments when bad or questionable acts are done in volume. Mass shootings and massacres have a different character than those with one or a few victims.
In recent and pertinent history, the massacre by Hamas is regularly characterized as the greatest Jewish catastrophe since the Holocaust, which stands as a modern standard for horror. If it had not been six million, but “only” five million or four million, would its character be in any way changed?
In the same recent history, the numbers of Palestinians killed in Gaza has captured the attention of the world. Maybe it is 35,000, maybe more, maybe less, maybe (almost certainly) thousands were children. Does the exact number matter? Is there a line at which “unfortunate but justified and necessary” crosses over? Or, as some in Israel and in America still say, no number is too high, no suffering is too much.
Which brings us back to this particular operation. I am disappointed in Jewish people for a very specific reason. We are the people of the Talmud, one of the greatest disputational records in world history. No detail was too small or arcane to discuss.
Jewish people are free to support any positions and policies they want. But my Talmudic hope is that the discussion goes beyond and beneath reflexive response, exemplified by “right to defend” or “right to exist.” There are questions that should be discussed, openly and without accusation. Earnest questions such as: Is collateral death of 100 different than 274? The Talmudists would have a field day with that one. The fact that we—heirs to those Talmudists—are not having those discussions would make them laugh and cry.
E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) was one of the most innovative and beloved twentieth century lyric poets. The poems are uniquely and unmistakably his, with an idiosyncratic use of words, punctuation and form that served his love of language, life and love.
One of his most quoted lines, one that I’ve repeated often is not from a poem. It is from the Introduction to his book New Poems (1938):
“Always a beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question”
It is rarely quoted in context (see the complete Introduction below).
Cummings did not live to see AI. Though he did experience World War I firsthand, as a medic in France (he was a pacifist) and as a prisoner. Since World War I was as significant as AI in changing the world forever, he and other artists of his time were profoundly affected and incorporated the experience into their art.
Generative AI operates by instructions and queries. But what does that have to do with beautiful questions leading to beautiful answers?
First we should determine exactly what a beautiful question is. Not surprisingly, and very meta, I turned to my preferred AI partner Claude:
Q: What is a beautiful question?
A: A beautiful question is a thought-provoking inquiry that encourages deep reflection, challenges assumptions, and opens up new possibilities for understanding and exploration…. Ultimately, a beautiful question is one that engages our minds, touches our hearts, and inspires us to explore the depths of our own understanding and the world around us.
If you do ask that sort of question of AI, then yes, there is a chance that the answer will approach the depth, engagement and inspiration intended. To put this in extreme perspective, the reported prank question to Google AI “How many rocks should I eat?” is not a beautiful question, nor is the advice to eat one small rock a day a beautiful answer.
Do ask AI to do things for you or to increase your knowledge. Always keep in mind the possibility and opportunity for beauty.
Leading up to the famous quote in the Introduction, Cummings wrote this:
“We can never be born enough. We are human beings;for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery,the mystery of growing:which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves.”
E. E. Cummings Introduction to New Poems (1938)
The poems to come are for you and for me and are not for mostpeople– it’s no use trying to pretend that mostpeople and ourselves are alike. Mostpeople have less in common with ourselves than the squarerootofminusone. You and I are human beings;mostpeople are snobs. Take the matter of being born. What does being born mean to mostpeople? Catastrophe unmitigated. Socialrevolution. The cultured aristocrat yanked out of his hyperexclusively ultravoluptuous superpalazzo,and dumped into an incredibly vulgar detentioncamp swarming with every conceivable species of undesirable organism. Mostpeople fancy a guaranteed birthproof safetysuit of nondestructible selflessness. If mostpeople were to be born twice they’d improbably call it dying–
you and I are not snobs. We can never be born enough. We are human beings;for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery,the mystery of growing:which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves. You and I wear the dangerous looseness of doom and find it becoming. Life,for eternal us,is now’and now is much to busy being a little more than everything to seem anything,catastrophic included.
Life,for mostpeople,simply isn’t. Take the socalled standardofliving. What do mostpeople mean by “living”? They don’t mean living. They mean the latest and closest plural approximation to singular prenatal passivity which science,in its finite but unbounded wisdom,has succeeded in selling their wives. If science could fail,a mountain’s a mammal. Mostpeople’s wives could spot a genuine delusion of embryonic omnipotence immediately and will accept no substitutes.
-luckily for us,a mountain is a mammal. The plusorminus movie to end moving,the strictly scientific parlourgame of real unreality,the tyranny conceived in misconception and dedicated to the proposition that every man is a woman and any woman is a king,hasn’t a wheel to stand on. What their synthetic not to mention transparent majesty, mrsandmr collective foetus,would improbably call a ghost is walking. He isn’t a undream of anaesthetized impersons, or a cosmic comfortstation,or a transcedentally sterilized lookiesoundiefeelietastiesmellie. He is a healthily complex,a naturally homogenous,citizen of immorality. The now of his each pitying free imperfect gesture,his any birth of breathing,insults perfected inframortally milleniums of slavishness. He is a little more than everything,he is democracy;he is alive:he is ourselves.
Miracles are to come. With you I leave a remembrance of miracles: they are somebody who can love and who shall be continually reborn,a human being;somebody who said to those near him,when his fingers would not hold a brush “tie it to my hand”–
nothing proving or sick or partial. Nothing false,nothing difficult or easy or small or colossal. Nothing ordinary or extraordinary,nothing emptied or filled,real or unreal;nothing feeble and known or clumsy and guessed. Everywhere tints childrening,innocent spontaneaous,true. Nowhere possibly what flesh and impossibly such a garden,but actually flowers which breasts are amoung the very mouths of light. Nothing believed or doubted;brain over heart, surface:nowhere hating or to fear;shadow,mind without soul. Only how measureless cool flames of making;only each other building always distinct selves of mutual entirely opening;only alive. Never the murdered finalities of wherewhen and yesno,impotent nongames of wrongright and rightwrong;never to gain or pause,never the soft adventure of undoom,greedy anguishes and cringing ecstasies of inexistence;never to rest and never to have;only to grow.
Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question
Tzedahah is a Hebrew word often translated as charity, but in the Bible means righteous behavior. It is a requirement of Jewish life. On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, tzedakah, along with tefilla (prayer) and teshuvah (repentance), is how we are written in the Book of Life.
The famine in Gaza is at the highest level on the scale: Catastrophic food insecurity.
The International Rescue Committee explains:
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale is how hunger crises are measured. Famines are only declared if and when certain criteria defined by this system are met.
More than 1.1 million people in Gaza are already experiencing Level 5 catastrophic food insecurity, and the entire population is facing some level of hunger.
As it stands, children and families don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and they are already going hungry.
The entire population in Gaza is at imminent risk of famine. Without immediate assistance, thousands are likely to face starvation that leads to death.
This crisis is entirely man-made. Once famine is classified, people are already dying. Stopping famine from taking hold is a race against time.
As an act of simple charity, of tzedakah, donating to the International Rescue Committee would be a good thing. It does seem that Jewish people like me have a special responsibility in this case. Whatever your view is of the current war and how it is being conducted, this is exactly the sort of suffering that tzedakah is meant to relieve. Righteous behavior.
Any public life that includes Trump—so obsessively—would be. Having a disordered personality in such a prominent role would naturally lead to chaos and a dark downward spiral. (Reminder, no matter your feelings about Biden, do vote for him to defeat Trump.)
Biden, however, has added to the shambles. His Gaza “policy” has been at least equivocal and incoherent and at most destructive and duplicitous. Which is why some traditionally Democratic voters are wondering about supporting him, and why a very small but courageous number of people in his administration have left. To counteract the disaffection and loss of confidence, Biden could have long ago injected brave straight talk and active engagement into the situation, instead of toothless rhetoric, which only made him look weak when Netanyahu ignored him.
That didn’t happen. And if the latest peace plan, which may or may not go anywhere, is meant to erase all that’s gone on, that’s just one more miscalculation.
Israel is committed to standing alone in the world. In fact, it is part of its character and a point of pride. If Biden wants to also stand alone in the world, which on Gaza he is now doing, he has his own price to pay. He seems to be calculating that being too hard on Israel is politically worse than going easy. That is proving to be a risky bet.
Bob Schwartz 