FOR THE BROTHAS: CULTURE AND INTELLECTUALISM: June 2014

FOR THE BROTHAS: AN INTRODUCTION

It must have been about 20 years ago when I first began thinking about creating a "Cultural Salon" as a reaction to the mundane social circles In Washington D.C. The richness of intellectual and artistic interchange had died, college friends had moved, the internet had not yet become the phenomenon it now is... I romanticised about the Salons of the mid to late 1800's in Paris, London and Berlin and the cultural dynamo of the Harlem Rennaisance. I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman, an artist who lived and traveled with James Baldwin... Jimmy he affectionately called him, and he spoke often of their small cottage in southern France and of the many Artists, Poets and Luminaries that dropped in to chat and relax. Well, the impressionists, cubists, modernists, etc. all hung out together famously in those days and shared their ideas with one another creating a creative greenhouse in a world that was rapidly changing. I longed to have lived in those times, to have met Cassat, Rodin, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Baker, Balwin, well I did finally meet Baldwin and others purely for the joy of intellection upon the arts. This was in the late 1980's and by the mid 2000's I happened to run into a friend of mine from Hampton University who had been living in New York since he graduated in the early 90s. Well, I was surprised to hear him comment that in all of the wonder that is New York he never met anyone who ever really had anything interesting to say about art, literature, architecture, science, fashion or anything... I was so surprised to hear this since it had also been my experience. Well here I am in 2011 attempting the Virtual Salon...

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

SIMPLE VS COMPLEX

THE PANTHEON IN PARIS

THE PARADOX BETWEEN THE INTELLECTUAL AND THE SIMPLE LIFE…

“THE GREAT IRONY THAT SHADOWS KNOWLEDGE AGAINST THE UNLEARNED IS THAT ONCE WE BECOME EDUCATED NOTHING IS SIMPLE ANYMORE. THOSE WHO ASPIRE TO LIVE THE SIMPLE LIFE LOOK WITH DISTRUST AT THE ASSUMED MACHINATIONS OF INTELLECTUALS OPTING TO FOREGO THE WAY OF OVERWORKED MINDS. THOSE WHO HOLD SACRED A PURSUIT OF THE UNKNOWN FEAR THE RUT OF COMPLACENCY BUT APPEAR NEVER TO BE TRULY HAPPY UNLESS THEY ARE ENGAGED IN A CONTINUAL PURSUIT OF TRUTH. I BELIEVE VOLTAIRE COINED THIS CONTRADICTION IN THE PERSONA OF A BRAHMAN… EXISTENCE IS QUITE PUZZLING IN THIS WAY, THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO THINK BEYOND THE PURELY MUNDANE ARE SUDDENLY LAUNCHED INTO A REALM SO VERY FAR FROM THE REST OF HUMANITY AND YET THEY ARE CHALLENGED TO LIVE IN THE SAME WORLD AT THE SAME TIME… TO THE ORDINARY MAN THE INTELLECTUAL IS ESOTERIC, EVEN OBSOLETE BECAUSE THE SIMPLER MAN UNDERSTANDS HOW TO GET FROM POINT “A” TO POINT “B” WITH FEWER CARES.

VOLTAIRE'S GRAVE IN THE PANTHEON, PARIS

THE INTELLECTUAL UNDERSTANDS THAT IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT GETTING FROM ONE POINT TO ANOTHER; IT IS ABOUT THE JOURNEY ONE TAKES ON THE WAY. WHO CAN TRUTHFULLY COMPARE THE QUALITY OF THESE TWO UNIQUE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, NO ONE CAN? THE SIMPLE MAN IS HAPPY THAT HE HAS GOT TO WHERE HE WAS HEADED AT ALL, HAVING TO BALANCE HIS JOURNEY WITH A HOST OF OTHER MUNDANE CONCERNS. THE INTELLECTUAL HAS WRITTEN SONNETS, PAINTED, SCULPTED, AND REVELED AT THE MANY WONDROUS HISTORICAL ELEMENTS ALONG HIS WAY, HE HAS TARRIED TO EXPLORE AND CULTIVATE, TO EXTRAPOLATE, TO INTELLECTUALIZE EVERY CUBIC CENTIMETER OF HIS CONSCIOUSNESS… IF THE TASK WAS MERELY TO SEE WHO COULD GET FROM POINT “A” TO POINT “B” THEN THEY ARE EQUALLY VICTORIOUS BUT IF THE TASK WERE TO USE THAT JOURNEY AS A VEHICLE TO EXPOUND ON THE VERY ESSENCE OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE THEN AGAIN, BOTH JOURNEYS MIGHT WEIGH-OUT THE SAME. WHO IS TO SAY THAT INTELLECTUALISM OUTWEIGHS PRAGMATISM? PERHAPS THE SIMPLE MAN DETERMINED TO FOREGO THE SCENIC ROUTE IN ORDER TO GET TO HIS DESTINATION QUICKER WHEREUPON HE WOULD BE FREE TO PROPOUND THE NATURE OF EXISTENCE ITSELF AGAINST THE VICISSITUDES OF HIS JOURNEY! THAT IS WHY KNOWLEDGE IS SO STRANGE, THE MORE OF IT WE GATHER THE EASIER IT IS TO THINK AND UNDERSTAND YET THE MORE COMPLEX EVERYTHING SUDDENLY BECOMES IN ITS WAKE…”

FIN

WRITTEN BY BIGDADDY BLUES

6-24-14

THE PANTHEON, PARIS AT NIGHT

A GALLERY OF RELATED IMAGES: