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...

Monday, October 22, 2012

BAYONNETTES AND HORSES


 
President Obama wore a blue foulard at tonights 10-22-12 debate.

 

President Obama has never been so lucid and caustic to the Romney presidential campaign than he was tonight.  It was almost as if Romney and Obama had agreed beforehand that they were going to completely embarrass the character and intelligence of Romney in an all-out effort to make a decisive blow to all republican hopes of a presidential tomorrow… One of the classic hallmarks of Romney’s lack of knowledge and Obamas unforeseen tenacity and wit was when Romney created a fancifully anachronistic metaphor referencing antique battle ships and aircraft only to be reminded that new technological advances have largely rendered these traditional twentieth-century weapons obsolete.  I happened to be dining at Hill Country, a large Texas Barbecue Restaurant full of people all focused not on the luscious authentic southwestern styled barbecue and side dishes that have won them fame in the first year of their existence within a bow shot of the capitol building but on the enormous flat screen television broadcasting the debate… The volume was turned way up so the noisy banter of the large dining  room would not drown out the fine points of the debate, we all watched while Romney was literally flogged on international television.  The crowd of people actually clapped at the end of Obamas closing speech but remained silent at Romney’s close.  Consistent with Obamas claims that the policies of the Republican Party are out dated and obsolete, tonight’s debate culminated with Obama likening it to bayonets and horses, weapons of the distant past.  Obama mentioned several times that While America clearly has a responsibility to world politics it must begin to focus more on domestic issues.  Obama zoomed into the American family and workplace, for those few minutes he was our close friend, our coworker, our President Elect 2013…  Tonight I liked the nature of my president, he was strong, confident, witty and decisive.  Romney really was all over the place never truly able to focus on any one thing... he was lost... So once again I have taken sides with our august president Obama... and to Romney I have only to say with disgust... "Bayonnettes and Horses indeed"!
 
FIN

 

Written by David Vollin
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