Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

1) So, had a visit with my visiting physician, today. (For those who're not in-the-know, I'm functionally, if not technically, house-bound), and part of the visit was him filling out a questionnaire to petition Medicare to help pay for a new motor chair. According to the official rules, you're not allowed a new chair until the one you have is five years old and this one turned five this past July, The joystick/controller is being held up with string, there are over 1,000 miles on the odometer, and without a wheelchair I could not get up off the floor to dress myself, eat, or go to the bathroom. I also don't have the balance or strength to use a manual chair.

Still, the doctor said Medicare might still turn me down because motorized chairs (especially the tilt-in-space kind like I have) are really expensive, and they might deny my request for that reason alone, regardless of how much I need it. And why is it so expensive? Private Insurance Companies jack up the price, because they know their customers can't just do without.

The American Health "Care" System, Boys and Girls! (And of course, when I got this chair, Obama was president, now, it's Trump, and the Republicans want to make Medicare more stingy)

2) So, after my recent falling-in-love with Spongebob Squarepants: the Musical, I realized that I really missed living in NYC's cultural circle in general. Through YouTube's recommendation chain, I discovered the channel for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS a charity of the acting/theater community raising money for anyone living with HIV/AIDS and their families, plus other emergencies as approved on an ad-hoc basis, raising money at the theater where performances are held, and auctioning off paraphernalia from shows, etc. And eight times a year, they put on shows and competitions for theater folk, themselves. And then, they put the highlights on YouTube.

So that's another one I've subscribed to, so I can get periodic reminders of current theater culture.

3) One last thing re: Spongebob -- here's the cast doing their performance for the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids spring show from last year ("The Easter Bonnet Competition"), where they answer the cynicism of "high Art" gatekeepers, with a number from another musical that just happens to be based on a cartoon:



As far as I can tell from an Internet Search, the young woman who sings the bridge in this song (Jai'len Christine Li Josey) also had her debut on Broadway with this show, along with Ethan Slater (Spongebob and Annie, here). And she'd better see her name in lights.

(For those who think visually, each step is also written in captions, and I'm putting those same, word-for word instructions below the cut:


[Image description: Disability Pride Flag How-To, steps 1 - 5. Description ends]


[Image description: Disability Pride Flag How-To, steps 6 - 10. Description ends]

( Disability Pride Flag steps written out )

[Image description: A hand-drawn/computer colored picture of a small gremlin-like creature sitting on an hourglass as the sand runs out, and waving toward the viewer. The grains of sand transform from gray to rainbow hearts as they fall through the glass. On the wall behind the creature is a clock with its hands nearing midnight, and a heart-shaped wreath. On the left side of the image is the message: “Season’s Greetings & a Happy New Year!” And along the bottom of the image is a row of hearts of various sizes. Description ends[

[Image description: “The Unicorn is Found” or “The Unicorn at the Fountain”. The second tapestry in The Hunt of the Unicorn series, from circa 1495 -1505.

A tall ornamental fountain with lion-mask spigots is spilling water into a forest stream, where animals (a lion and lioness, a leopard, a weasel, a wolf, a stag, a pair of pheasants, a pair of goldfinches, and a pair of rabbits) have gathered to drink, while a pair of ducks swim past in the stream itself.

A unicorn is kneeling on the far side of the stream from the viewer, dipping the very tip of its horn into the water (a cure for all poisons), which makes the water safe to drink.

Behind the bushes surrounding the fountain are a dozen hunters with long pikes over their shoulders, along with their hunting dogs. They are talking and gesturing to each other, discussing exactly how to kill the unicorn, so they can bring it back to the king and queen.

The towers of the royal castle can be glimpsed in through the trees in the far distance (in the upper left corner of the tapestry). Description ends.]



When I was a tiny thing (maybe I was still in kindergarten/infant school) my parents took me to see the original Unicorn tapestries in the museum, and I got to see them ultra up close (like less than a couple feet away) -- and this one is nearly 12 and a half feet (3.78 meters) tall ... almost life sized (!).

Naturally, the experience made an impression. And the tapestry I posted here made the biggest impression of all: this is what “unicorn” means to me. Throughout the rest of my childhood, I was bitter and salty about all the “rainbow-sparkle/magic glitter” unicorns with Kewpie doll eyes that were absolutely everywhere (and well-meaning friends kept giving me, "’Cause she loves unicorns!”). ...And frankly, I still am.

Why I Wish This Tapestry Were the “Famous One”:

(Rant follows -- wherein I absolutely do spoil the story [plot wise] that these tapestries tell, and where I hope to spoil [popularity-wise] the most famous medieval tapestry of them all)

(The links behind the cut lead to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's online display of each of the Tapestries)

( The story of 'The Hunt of The Unicorn' narrated -- warning: there is violence, gore, and more than one animal death )

Like I said at the beginning, “The Unicorn at the Fountain” is what “unicorn” means to me. Unicorns are wild and fierce -- able to kill you as easily as slice through butter (if they must, in self-defense). But the unicorn’s first impulse is to use their magic for the good of others -- to protect all the creatures of the forest, even though doing so makes them vulnerable to attack -- even though the powers of the State polluted the stream in the first place -- even though the powers of the State wanted to steal all that magic, and keep it for itself. Unicorns still take that risk.

With great power, comes great responsibility.

And then, with great responsibility, comes great kindness.

How is that not the most radical thing of all?

It's a Big image, so I'm going to give you the image description up top (which is long enough, but easy to scroll past), and put the image itself below the cut:

Image description: A black and white tabloid sized poster in the style of an educational diagram, showing a tree and its root system, combined with text to explain the relationship between Bigotry, Ableism, Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia.

At the bedrock level: "BIGOTRY: Beliefs and policies which work to exclude people from full membership in human society."

Above, in the root system: "ABLEISM: Judging the value of a person's humanity on the basis of ability."

Above ground, the tree's trunk has two main forks; the left-hand fork is labeled "RACISM:" and leads to an example racist belief in its cluster of leaves: "Blacks are Less Intelligent than Whites, but they are More Athletic"

The tree's right-hand fork is labeled "SEXISM:" and leads to two clusters of leaves. The main cluster reads: "Women are Weaker, & Less Rational than Men;" the secondary cluster, branching off from the first, reads: "Gays are effeminate. Lesbians are emasculating."

At the very top of the tree, in a cluster of leaves centered between these two branches, with a freely curving arrow pointing down to each half, is the explanation: "Claims about Ability used to Pass Judgment on People's Humanity (This is ABLEISM)"

Description ends.



It's all black and white, now. ...I'm debating whether to add color here and there (like outlining the tree's leaves, and maybe coloring the words). It would be easier to color the entire thing if I had the option of saving a scanned image as a .gif or .png file instead of only .jpg or .pdf.

Ya know?

[Image description: a block of text, divided into four sections. The base of this box is bright yellow, with black text that reads: “Ableism: The belief that the value of a human life is best judged by a Measure of Ability.”

Above that, reading left to right, are three blocks titled “Racism:”, “Sexism:”, and “Homophobia:”.

The “Racism:” block is brick red, and reads (in white text): “Blacks are natural thugs because they’re not as smart as Whites, and they can’t control their emotions.” A yellow arrow points to this from the box defining “Ableism,” and yellow text reads: “That’s ABLEISM.”

The “Sexism:” block is dark teal, and reads (in white text): “Women are better off married to men, because they are weaker, and are less rational.” A yellow arrow points to this from the box defining “Ableism,” and yellow text reads: “and that’s ABLEISM, too.”

The “Homophobia:” box is lavender, and embedded in the upper right corner of the sexism block; it reads (in white text): “Gay men are corrupting our culture by being effeminate and undermining healthy Masculine Values.” An arrow with a teal point and yellow shaft points to this from the box defining “Ableism,” and text (in teal and yellow) reads: “That’s SEXISM, which is ABLEISM.”

Description ends.]

Created in response to this article, by Mel Baggs: There is Ableism Somewhere at the Heart of Your Oppression, no Matter What that Oppression Might Be (published May 1, 2016)

---

Now that I have working scanner/printer again, I want to illustrate it with something more organic and hand drawn; I'm thinking each of the -isms as trees, with their roots in in "Ableism" (maybe with homophobia growing as an epiphyte on a branch of sexism?).

And I really want to rewrite that definition of ableism, to echo, paraphrase, and draw on this definition from Jay Timothy Dolmage:

Ableism, on the other hand, positively values and makes compulsory able-bodiedness.

Disability Rhetoric, Syracuse University Press, first paperback edition 2016, page 22.

And I'm trying to decide where the balance lies between my ideas and my ability.

[Image description: Word art that reads (quote): “You know what? I’m Glad I’m Disabled rather than Dead.” (end quote). The letters are colored with radiating bands of contrasting hues against a black field; ‘I’m Glad I’m Disabled’ is in bright, floral colors, and ‘rather than Dead’ fades to muddy shades of gray. Description ends]

Because it should be obvious that it's better to be disabled than dead. But all the rhetoric around that movie Me Before You shows that it's not obvious.

And I got tired of that, so decided to make something loud and bold saying what shouldn't need to be said.

The other day, I wrote something along the lines of: My favorite thing about Valentine's Day is the graphic design of the "valentines heart."

So today, I decided to act on that conviction, and made this:


Description: A primarily magenta "valentine heart" with highlights in yellow and green, featuring a stylized design of flowers and spirals that is symmetrical along the vertical axis.

... Making cut paper, five-pointed, stars from squares of paper.

Five folds, one straight cut. A video is here: https://youtu.be/iraWBwcOfU8 (haven't found a text, or diagram, or still picture, set of instructions yet). It really is ingenious. I wondered who figured out the math, 'cause drawing a pentagram by Euclid's method, using straight edge and compass, is mind-numbingly complicated.

I wanted to draw a monster with a bird-like beak, facing the viewer. But I couldn't get a handle on what a beak looks like, head-on. So I did an image search, and found this.

Clearly, the caption for this is: "Whut?"

And yes, btw, I think I've got the idea for how to draw a cartoon beak head-on.