Throwback Thursday: Thinking Like A Curmudgeon

I read somewhere that a blog entry should be no longer than 400 words. Says who?

Someone once said that we should be like children. What if we discovered that the reason children are the way they are is that they were trying to be like old people.*

Who says New York has to be the cultural Capitol of the World? Why can't it be Superior, Wisconsin? Didn't Arnold Schwarzenegger go to school here? Besides, when you read the two names, it's self-evident which one is Superior.

Who says haiku poems have to be seventeen syllables? Why can't we make a haiku with nine syllables? Or twenty-three?

And what's the point of...

I'd best just stop right here lest I start to sound like a cranky old man.

Speaking of crankiness... here are a few cantankerous quotes from an entertaining diversion, The Portable Curmudgeon, compiled and edited by Jon Winokur.

"Golf is a good walk spoiled." ~Mark Twain

"She got her good looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon." ~Groucho Marx

"I don't drink; I don't like it--it makes me feel good." ~Oscar Levant

"An optimist is a man who has never had much experience." ~Don Marquis

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." ~Oscar Wilde

"The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." ~Andy Rooney

"You can fool too many of the people too much of the time." ~James Thurber

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable." ~John Kenneth Galbraith

* Cool website of the day: Aging and Creativity.

Literacy Matters -- Including Quotes by Mark Twain, Groucho Marx and Two Presidents

“The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy, and unacceptable for our children, and we cannot afford to let it continue.”
--President Barack Obama

“All skills begin with the basics of reading and math, which are supposed to be learned in the early grades of our schools. Yet for too long, for too many children, those skills were never mastered.”
--President George W. Bush

* * * *
My career as a marketing professional commenced three decades ago, though there's a sense in which even before that I was marketing as a self-employed entrepreneur. There's no question that over the past thirty years there has been sea change due to the emerging Internet that has left few untouched.

One of the changes I've noticed (as a marketing person) is the burgeoning belief that visual media (specifically YouTube and Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest) is an increasingly essential vehicle for reaching people. As a writer I myself have attempted to dismiss this, barricading myself against the encroachment of non-literary communication. Over time, however, I have had to accept to a certain degree that things have not only been changing in how we communicate (face-to-face vs. texting) but also in how we use language. That is, evidence seems to support the notion that our literary skills -- ability to read and write -- have been in decline. 

Reading, writing and 'rithmetic have historically been the essential foundations necessary to an educated citizenry. What happens when people cease from obtaining these basic foundation stones?

When I began to look into it I quickly found the following, repeated on several websites: "2/3 of children who cannot read with proficiency by end of the 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare."

No, this lack of basic reading proficiency does not guarantee failure, but it does suggest that there is a basis for alarming concern.

Here is just one of the many such articles I stumbled upon:

Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters
A KIDS COUNT Special Report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation

Reading proficiently by the end of third grade (as measured by NAEP at the beginning of fourth grade) can be a make-or-break benchmark in a child’s educational development. Up until the end of third grade, most children are learning to read. Beginning in fourth grade, however, they are reading to learn, using their skills to gain more information in subjects such as math and science, to solve problems, to think critically about what they are learning, and to act upon and share that knowledge in the world around them.

I don't recall when the book was written but Why Johnny Can't Read (Rudolph Flesch) was another powerful indictment of our public education system and an alternate approach to teaching literacy.

Here's yet another article about the Top Ten Reasons Kids Can't Read. What's apparent is that this is not solely a U.S. problem. Canada, England and elsewhere have experienced similar declines in reading proficiency.

Can this decline in literacy be one of the reasons we see marketers push branding so heavily? The Nike "swoosh" has become an international symbol of the brand that needs no language whatsoever. The sad thing is that civilization has been progressing century after century, from cave man to modern times. The driving force behind the Reformation was to place the Word of God (Bible) into the hands of the people in their own language, which meant that the people would learn to read so they could have direct access to the holy words of their sacred texts. But now, in the Internet age, we see a shift away from words, from written communication, to images, videos, Instagram and symbols.

This can't be good. And as a writer, and a believer in the power of the written word, I revolt.

* * * *

One government report on this matter made this statement: Low achievement in reading has important long-term consequences in terms of individual earning potential, global competitiveness, and general productivity.

And here's another:

“[C]urrently, most children experience a wide range of disparate experiences that jumble together and end up requiring our youngest learners to figure them out on their own. Our children are not failing to learn. Our schools are failing to teach them effectively. To reverse this trend and provide children with the skills necessary for life-long learning, all Americans must take responsibility for guaranteeing a high-quality PreK–3rd education to this and future generations.” FROM “America’s Vanishing Potential: The Case for PreK–3rd Education,” by the Foundation for Child Development (2008).

Marketers are making the observation that fewer people are reading. My question is this... Is the problem today that people don't read, won't Read or can't read?

Of adults with the lowest literacy levels, 43 percent live in poverty, and 70% of adult welfare recipients have low literacy levels. There is a clear correlation between more education and higher earnings, and between higher educational scores and higher earnings.

Many of the problems in our country today are directly related to illiteracy.

Rather than take more surveys to stack up more evidence that there's a problem, it would seem it's time to take action. I like what Groucho Marx said: “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

I wrote my book Writing Exercises out of a conviction that knowing how to write well was an essential skill that young people should master in order to succeed. It's now apparent to me that reading well is even more foundational. I have one more selfish reason for having more readers. People who don't read won't read my books. Alas. 

“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.” -- Mark Twain

Local Arts and a Little Marx

In Europe it is essential for people to have an understanding of Marx. So let's start this blog with a handful of Marx quotes.

• "Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him."

• "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

• "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

• "Alimony is like buying hay for a dead horse."

• "Well, Art is Art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know."

So, if you're wondering what those Groucho Marx quotes are all about, read on. We're talking about upcoming events in the Twin Ports and you'll get it in a minute.

Gallery Celebration: The Space Around You & First Spark
Weather permitting, and at this moment in time the snow appears to be slacking off, from 5-7 pm the Duluth Art Institute will be celebrating two exhibitions: The Space Around You featuring photographs by Kristen Pless & First Spark, the annual K-12 art show featuring the work of regional students. Here's a good place to go for details.

Adam Swanson portrait of Jim C

If you haven't been to the Zeitgeist yet, the Hero/Villain exhibit with images by local artists featuring Mayor Ness and Jim Carlson will be up for a while. It's worth going out of your way for. In fact, you may wish to do the DAI and then jump over to Zeitgeist briefly before dropping in across the street to grab a cocktaiil at Blackwater for the Maxi Childs Trio with John Heino on keyboards. (I'm not trying to push ya, but it's a suggestion.)

Duluth Cracked Walnut Festival Reading 2014
Cracked Walnut is happy to return to Prove Gallery in Duluth for another reading for the 2014 Literary Festival. Featuring Duluth and Twin Cities writers, and a singer.  Ryan Vine, Felicia Schneiderhan, Azure Jayaraj (singer), Satish Jayaraj, Jim Johnson, David Stein, Mary Stein, Peter Stein. Once the Steins are finished, be sure to ask for a re-fill.

OK, time for another Groucho quote: "I intend to live forever, or die trying."

AND THE REASON FOR ALL THESE MARX QUOTES is that Saturday the Rubber Chicken Theater is continuing their popular Live Read Series in which the group performs staged readings of classic movie scripts. Next up is the Marx Brothers classic "A Night at the Opera."

Not familiar with the Marx Brothers?  Hmmm. "I have a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it."

LOOKING AHEAD

Next weekend there is going to be a flurry of art activities kicking off Friday night the 25th with the Goin' Postal 2014 Spring Art Show, followed Saturday by the annual Art for Earth Day Gallery Hop. There will not be trolleys or shuttles this year, but then again the last couple years I didn't see many people on the buses anyways. Be sure to go out of your way to visit the Tweed Student Show.

For more lists of happenings, check out Thursday's WAVE in the Trib, the arts and events section of The Reader and whatever else you can get your hands on. The bulletin boards at Beaners and Pizza Luce are always a big help, especially for the music scene. And BE SURE TO GRAB A HOMEGROWN PROGRAM. They're out there now, and this year's festival promises more than 200 bands plus other events. Drop in to a few, to see what condition your condition is in.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Listen to the music.

Ten Quotes About Faces

As I was paging through a large volume titled Treasures from the National Gallery of Art I came across the quote below by Joseph Addison. Faces are a theme that runs through many of my paintings and drawings, and for some reason I find it fascinating how simply by manipulating shapes and shadows and form and line one can capture an emotion and make a connection, soul to soul, with a viewer who engages it.

Not every work of art connects with its viewers, even those in the National Gallery, but when they do something special happens. Often, it involves a face. So here are ten quotes about faces...

“It is pleasure to look on the Picture of any Face, where the Resemblance is hit, but the Pleasure increases, if it be the Picture of a Face that is beautiful, and is still greater, if the Beauty be softened with an Air of Melancholy or Sorrow.” ~ Joseph Addison (1712)

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." ~Victor Hugo

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” ~Abraham Lincoln
"The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions." ~Cicero

"People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart." ~Bertolt Brecht

“The loveliest faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with fancy.” ~Persian Proverb (EdNote: This might explain why some people like to meet in bars.)

“Clowns wear a face that's painted intentionally on them so they appear to be happy or sad. What kind of mask are you wearing today?” ~Anonymous

“The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.” ~Jack Handy

“I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception.” ~Groucho Marx

Have a nice day and a great week. May your eyes shine and face be bright.