Resurging Anglicanism: Signs of Hope

Liturgical worship is coming back (anglicanmom)

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the collapse of British society. There are widespread allegations that the British elites condemn displays of patriotism but look the other way at immigrant grooming gangs and rape culture.

There is reason for hope: there are signs of a resurgent Christianity, led by Anglicanism, that can counter the Islamist wave and beat back the secularism that has dominated British culture in the second half of the 20th century. [bold added]

Across Britain, a wealth of evidence tells of a modest but real Christian revival.

Anglican clergy regularly describe a “steady trickle” of new parishioners seeking to know more about the faith. Some Catholic dioceses note a sharp increase in adults asking to be baptized. In July, the coastal town of Bournemouth witnessed a mass baptism of 92 new Christians in the sea. More than 1,000 attended the service—a striking display in a society where faith tends to be privately nurtured more than it is publicly proclaimed.

Ms. [Jo] Gilbert works for a parish in Brighton and coordinates the Catholic chaplaincy team for the town’s two universities. She has worked with students and young people for two decades. The past few years, she says, have seen a marked change. “A lot of us working in pastoral ministry, and a lot of people in a lot of churches, are saying we’re seeing a renewed interest and spiritual openness, and more new converts.”

...Such stories have been brought into focus by a controversial study from YouGov, one of the U.K.’s most respected polling companies. The study, titled “The Quiet Revival,” claimed that churchgoing surged from 3.7 million in 2018 to 5.8 million in 2024—a 56% increase. The most marked change, according to the data, was among 18- to 24-year-olds, among whom churchgoing was said to have quadrupled.

It's still early days, and indeed some of the enthusiasm with which this trend has been received may be inflated by wishful thinking, but I, for one, prefer to hope than despair.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Antonio Gramsci 

For more than half a century America has been arguably a conservative-majority country. Yet liberals have controlled what and how the country talks about through their capture of academia, entertainment, and mass media. Conservatives have studied leftist political thinkers and begun employing their methods with some success. One such writer was Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937):

Gramsci died in 1937, but he can be seen as the godfather of today’s culture wars. A dedicated opponent of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, he spent most of his last decade in prison, where he developed a highly influential new way of thinking about politics that put culture, rather than economics, at the center of the class struggle...

In particular, Gramsci stressed the importance of universities in shaping culture. That makes him a model for American conservatives in their “fight against critical race theory, against trans ideology, against captured higher education institutions, against DEI,” [conservative Christopher] Rufo believes...

Javier Milei, the right-wing, libertarian president of Argentina, told Tucker Carlson in a 2023 interview that he had to “wage a culture war every single day” because his left-wing opponents “have no problem with getting inside the state and employing Gramsci’s techniques: seducing the artists, seducing the culture, seducing the media or meddling in educational content.”

In the U.S., the Italian thinker’s influence grew more slowly. Gramsci’s name appears in the writing of paleoconservative thinkers Paul Gottfried, Thomas Fleming and Sam Francis, who influenced Pat Buchanan’s Republican presidential bids in the 1990s. One of Gramsci’s biggest proponents in the pre-Trump era was Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Breitbart News, who quoted his axiom that “politics is downstream of culture.”

More recently, far-right writers like Curtis Yarvin, who’s influenced Vice President JD Vance, have talked about how to capture power through a culture war. “This war is not fought with bombs and bullets, or even laws and judges,” Yarvin wrote in 2022. “This war is fought with books and films and plays and poems. It is still a savage war!

Conservatives couldn't make much headway in steering the national discussion until the rise of alternate media (podcasts, blogs, social media). Once they gained a foothold, conservatives could wage counterattacks more successfully by focusing on the Gramscian cultural priority and using leftist tactics, e.g., Saul Alinsky's Rule 5 "Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon".

Leftist institutions, now that their biases have been exposed, are fighting for their lives, because public funding is no longer automatic. In the immediate future American politics will be more competitive, more vicious, and more personal. Your humble blogger will not disengage but will avoid audio and visual content, which tends to rouse emotions at the expense of rational thinking.

Gate Lice

(Image from wheelchair travel)

This airport problem is getting worse: airline passengers crowd the gate and board ahead of their assigned group. [bold added]

American Airlines is piloting a new system aimed at curbing the phenomenon known as “gate lice,” an industry term used to describe passengers who crowd the boarding area ahead of their assigned group.

The initiative comes in response to growing frustration around travelers who often disregard boarding instructions, leading to chaotic scenes at the gate.

While the new technology won’t speed up departures, it seeks to restore order to the boarding process, said the airline, the fourth largest operator out of San Francisco International Airport.

The system involves a warning sound triggered when passengers attempt to board outside their assigned group. When a boarding pass is scanned, an “audible alert” will notify the gate agent, displaying the passenger’s correct group number.

Many passengers rush to the gate out of anxiety or a herd mentality, despite having designated boarding groups, according to psychologists who have studied the “gate lice” phenomenon. But for those who genuinely need early access — such as families or travelers with disabilities — airlines say the prioritization system is essential. They also cite the need to protect the revenue they receive from those who have paid for these privileges.

One of the cultural differences that used to distinguish Americans from some, not all, Asian countries is that Americans would stand in line and wait their turn, while non-Americans would push their way through to get on buses, trains, and elevators. In the U.S. the willingness to wait is still around, but it began eroding a couple of generations ago.

Your humble blogger applauds the enforcement of the old norm, although the term "gate lice" is a bit mean. But I suppose the cultural norm against name-calling has eroded, too.

Santa Cruz Students Don't Know Why It's Popular

John Travolta wears the iconic T-shirt (SFGate/YouTube screenshot)

Most UC-Santa Cruz students don't know why its banana slug T-shirt is a sought-after item. The shirt's popularity is due to Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarentino's greatest film, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

“The Fiat [slug] is like the logo,” said [Jason] Cohen of the UCSC bookstore. “It’s a cartoon banana slug wearing glasses and reading Plato. It’s our best-selling logo, period. We sell it in many different capacities. I put that on academic planners and notebooks and all kinds of stuff.”

Among all the slug merch available, the Fiat Slug T-shirts remain the school’s top seller, by far, Ray Rideout, UCSC’s apparel buyer, told SFGATE. “Everyone gets it,” he said. “Anyone who’s seen the movie, it was the cleaner scene, right? When people — they find out where I work, they always send a picture of Travolta wearing it.”

Last month we noted how the banana slug has been named the official California state slug.

"Politics is downstream of culture" is a well-known saying. 30 years after it entered the culture, politics has recognized the cultural significance of the lowly banana slug.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

(Image from Today show)

Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker gave the commencement address at Benedictine College, a private Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas, on May 11th. He espoused traditional Catholic values in a way that offended America's dominant secular culture. For example, [bold added]

For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.

Thousands called for his firing by the Chiefs from other statements:

Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.

Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the Sign of the Cross during a pro-abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.

Some commentators cited the NFL's apparent hypocrisy in not firing Harrison Butker while it blackballed Colin Kaepernick for kneeling when the National Anthem was being played. For the record, I supported the former 49ers quarterback then, but there is a clear difference between the two: CK expressed his views in full uniform while millions had to watch, but HB was speaking as a private citizen on his own time to a Catholic audience. Most Americans agree that employers have the right to fire employees for workplace behavior that could damage customer relationships.

(To be fair, there were liberal celebrities, like Bill Maher and Whoopi Goldberg, who came to HB's defense while disagreeing with the content of his speech.)

To this humble blogger, what was most interesting about the speech was the importance he placed on the traditional Latin mass:

I've been very vocal in my love and devotion to the TLM and its necessity for our lives. But what I think gets misunderstood is that people who attend the TLM do so out of pride or preference. I can speak to my own experience, but for most people I have come across within these communities this simply is not true. I do not attend the TLM because I think I am better than others, or for the smells and bells, or even for the love of Latin. I attend the TLM because I believe, just as the God of the Old Testament was pretty particular in how he wanted to be worshipped, the same holds true for us today. It is through the TLM that I encountered order, and began to pursue it in my own life. Aside from the TLM itself, too many of our sacred traditions have been relegated to things of the past, when in my parish, things such as ember days, days when we fast and pray for vocations and for our priests, are still adhered to. The TLM is so essential that I would challenge each of you to pick a place to move where it is readily available.

Three years ago Pope Francis gave local bishops the authority to ban the Latin mass. Even this non-Catholic sees the benefit of a tradition that has great meaning to some, so why not keep it optional? Is Pope Francis on "the other side" in the culture wars?

After the break is the text of Harrison Butker's speech from the National Catholic Register:

The Long March Claims the Methodists

Chaplain at UMC convention on May 1st. Crucifixes not
required, just your obeisance to the rainbow. (WSJ photo)

The Methodists are among the last Protestant denominations to bend to the cultural winds: [bold added]

The United Methodist Church at its General Conference last week voted by large margins to lift its ban on practicing homosexual clergy and to eliminate from its “Social Principles” the statement that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. The decision is significant for what has long been one of the nation’s biggest religious groups, with more than five million members.

As with every other mainline Protestant denomination in America, there has been a long struggle over the church’s traditional teaching that homosexuality is wrong and that marriage is between a man and a woman. The UMC stood its ground for longer than many other denominations, even reaffirming its position and strengthening the penalties for breaking the rules in 2019. That, however, was also the year the UMC adopted a policy that allowed congregations to leave the denomination with their property. Traditionalists did so in droves, with more than 7,000 American churches departing in the past five years, preparing the way for the progressives’ triumph.

The recent changes weren’t surprising. Liberal Protestantism has always been a religious reflection of the broader culture. In the 1950s that meant supporting the Cold War, with John Foster Dulles being perhaps the most prominent liberal Protestant in public life. The 1960s, the Vietnam War and the civil-rights movement changed that. Liberal Protestants continued to do what they have always done, adding a pious blessing and an air of divine sanction to the cultural politics of the day, but the politics moved left. As the notion of civil rights fused with the sexual revolution, supporting abortion, homosexuality and then transgenderism became the imperative of divine love.

We saw this phenomenon occur in my Episcopal Church decades ago. When non-chaste homosexuality became approved--not just in congregations but in priests and bishops--the Progressive takeover began, and millions left the Episcopal Church.

Today Progressives' triumph is complete (my retiring Bishop admiringly quotes Marx), with clergy openly lobbying not only for LGBTQ+ causes but for giving illegal immigrants the rights of citizens, free medical care for all, and the forced conversion of fossil-fuel power to wind and solar.

Someday I'd like them to explain why they repudiated nearly everything the Church told us 50 years ago, and why today's principles are the Way, the Truth, and the Light. But I'm not holding my breath. As Marx--the one whose followers didn't kill tens of millions--said, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."

Another Piece of Disappearing Americana

Rare upgrade: the San Francisco Greyhound bus depot is on the
3rd floor of the new $2.3 billion transit center.

In the early '70's I frequently rode the inter-city buses. I'd spend hours waiting to transfer at the bus terminals in New York, Boston, Chicago. Detroit, and small towns in between.

Taking the bus was part of the culture, like joining the military, that is experienced by fewer people nowadays and by hardly anyone in the middle class. It's not a surprise that Bus Stations Across America Are Closing:

The potential closure highlights a plight confronting millions of travelers, many on lower incomes, that attracts far less attention than passenger rail or aviation.

Intercity bus stations are closing throughout the country. At least eight cities have lost their stations so far, including Philadelphia, Ohio’s Columbus and Tampa, Fla. Passengers have had to wait on street corners and parking lots, causing tensions with local officials...Chicago would be the largest city to lose its terminal. It isn’t clear where passengers would wait.

With bus terminals situated in inner-city property, the real estate is worth more to a developer than it is to a bus company, even if the surrounding area is run down.

Regulators cannot reverse the closure of bus terminals, they can only delay it. There will continue to be demand for low cost, if very slow, ground transportation to smaller communities across America, but at this point it's unclear how that demand will be met.

Happy Days of Yore

Alumni Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) and
Henry Winkler (the Fonz) - WSJ photo

WSJ editorialist Matthew Hennessey has a problem with pre-teen TV: [bold added]

like most parents, my wife and I are always on the hunt for “safe” shows for our kids to watch. Tween programming is as vapid as ever, but these days it comes with a distinct woke overlay. Pronoun preaching and climate propaganda have replaced slapstick and potty humor. None of that works for us.

His solution? "Happy Days," currently found on Amazon Prime. Mr. Hennessey's son especially likes the Fonz.

“Happy Days” was a half-hour situation comedy on ABC from 1974-84. Created by Garry Marshall, the show was set in Milwaukee and revolved around the middle-class Cunningham family, Howard and Marion and their children Richie and Joanie. Minor characters, Potsie and Ralph Malph, palled around at Arnold’s Diner, but the star was the Fonz...

It’s impossible to overstate the cultural importance of the Fonz in his time. He was the biggest thing on TV, which was the biggest thing in America...in leather jacket and tight jeans he was as cool as they come. The Fonz was a light caricature of the greaser archetype—slick, tough, a chick magnet. He rode a motorcycle and spoke in an incongruous Brooklynese (the mid-’70s were the height of the “Italian Stallion” phase of American masculinity). His cartoonish catchphrases—“Whoa!” “Sit on it!”—were ubiquitous.

"Happy Days" (1974-84) for me fell in that too-busy-to-watch-TV period after graduation but before kids. I did tune in occasionally to spinoffs Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, notable for the off-script improvisation by Robin Williams, as well as the H-D mother ship, but none of it was must-see programming worthy of being recorded on the new VCR.

"Happy Days" appears to be enjoying a revival. It didn't jump the shark after all.

Marin County Leads the Way

(Tripadvisor photo)

Marin County became (in)famous as the land of hot tubs and peacock feathers in the 1978 NBC documentary, I Want It All Now. In the eyes of many in the national TV audience that documentary confirmed Marin County as the home of wealthy, non-traditional sybarites.

That stereotype only applied to a small number of residents, and Marin County in any event continued to be one of the Bay Area's most desirable places to live during the next four decades. That is, until last year.

from July 2021 to 2022, Marin lost more of its population than any other county in the Bay Area over the same time period, according to estimates recently released by the California Department of Finance. The county’s population dwindled by about 6,600 people — a loss of 15 residents for every 1,000 people that lived there in 2021...

(Chronicle graph)

One reason why Marin County lost population, experts said, is that its residents haven’t had a lot of kids lately — nor are they likely to.

The county’s median age of 46.9 years is the highest of any Bay Area county, and more than nine years higher than the state overall...

All of these factors — older population, low number of jobs relative to nearby counties and high rate of move-outs — are connected to Marin’s lack of housing, [Public Policy Institute's Hans] Johnson said.

Marin built just 5,862 homes from 2010 to 2021, or 32 units per 1,000 residents as of its 2010 population. That number is by far the smallest of any Bay Area county.

When I Want It All Now was shown in 1978, California was much more diverse, culturally and politically. It was the home state of conservative governor Ronald Reagan, who would be elected President two years later, and Richard Nixon, who served as President from 1968 to 1974. Marin County was at the left end of the country's political spectrum, and Orange County was on the right. California could accommodate everyone.

In retrospect Marin values won. The county was at the vanguard of the Progressive takeover of California, and today not a single Republican holds a California State office; the last elected Republican U.S. Senator was Pete Wilson (1988).

In 2023 Marin may be leading California again, this time on a different path.

while Marin may be an extreme instance of the Bay Area-wide trend in population loss, it’s still an example, rather than an outlier. California, after all, lost nearly 500,000 people in just two years, from mid-2020 to mid-2022

Demographic trends, especially regarding birth and death rates, are difficult to reverse. Marin, the Bay Area, and California haven't hit bottom yet.

Closer to the Funny Bone

(Deadline image)

Further proving the Streisand effect (when Barbra Streisand tried to suppress a photo of her Malibu mansion, her action just called more attention to it), the protests surrounding Dave Chappelle's comedy special on Netflix caused me to check it out.

Comedy is very subjective--what one person finds uproarious can elicit alarm, disdain, or indifference in another.

To your humble blogger standup comedy is about the only free-speech zone left in America; people are free to laugh at thoughts that could not be expressed anywhere else. And yes, I do find some humor offensive, especially when targeted at my race, faith, or sex (but not when it's clever, another subjective measure), but that's the price we pay so that we can listen to humor that offends others, a kind of mutually assured suspension of civility.

So I watched The Closer and found most of it humorous. Let me caution at the outset that many black comedians pepper their monologues with the "n" word, the "b" word, and sexual and scatological references that most people have automatically suppressed from their speech.

David Chappelle is no exception, and it took a minute or two for this listener to become desensitized. He was playing to a mainly black live audience, who didn't mind that a black speaker was using the "n" word. After a while I realized that he was calling every guy in his stories, regardless of race, a n*****, and every woman was a b****.

In the best comedic tradition he brought up patterns and contradictions in the way we think. Because liberal and progressive values are dominant, he had riches to choose from.

Just one example: people are angered, or at least bemused, by blackfaced whites pretending to be black, but why aren't people allowed to have a similar negative reaction to men pretending to be women? They aren't real women, a declaration received to much applause.

Of course, we know that one can have a serious discussion about the differences between the two situations, but comedy is built upon often-unfair juxtapositions. Once the thought is expressed, the laugh is generated, and it's off to the next quick take. Yes, it's unfair, just like linking anti-vaxxers with anti-abortionists (so now you want to control your own body?). Tough, conservatives have had to sit there and listen to these quick takes for 20 years on at least five nightly shows, and the oft-heard response is they shouldn't be offended because it's just comedy.

Comedians often close their act on a serious note. Dave Chappelle spoke of a transgender comedian whom he befriended. She rose to his defense when he provoked "T" activists, who turned on her. She committed suicide shortly thereafter, though Dave Chappelle was careful not to attribute the death to the braying Twitter mob.

My standup favorites are old-timers Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Seinfeld, and Dana Carvey. In terms of funniness I place David Chappelle below that group but above the majority of standup comedians currently on Netflix. But IMHO the Closer is worth watching also to see where the ever-moving lines of our culture are drawn today.

Election Equanimity

Turnout across the country appeared to be high before the polls close, and media of all stripes have said that it's the most important election in our lifetime.

But I've been hearing that overheated proclamation for every Presidential election in 30 years, and somehow the country has survived.

Because of Joe Biden's double-digit lead in the polls, I've been mentally preparing for his Presidency. My finances should improve: 1) Better relations with China should pop the stock market; 2) A Blue Wave election would restore unlimited State Tax deductions, which would lower my Federal income taxes by $thousands; 3) A COVID-19 aid package would include aid to profligate States, lessening the chance of California enacting novel schemes like the wealth tax. All of these benefits would come at a long-term price, which may not have to be paid until after I'm dead and gone.

A Trump victory would be more in accord with my philosophical leaning against cancel culture and the elevation of group politics over individual rights. I also expect some restoration of respect for the property of others.

So I'm optimistic about tomorrow---that's my attitude and I'm sticking to it.

The air was cool, and the lagoon shimmered in the sun.

Another Karen Cancelled

As a Hawaiian-born Asian American, I never encountered overt racism until I went to the Mainland for college in the 1970's. (There was plenty of racial consciousness in the Islands; everyone was very aware of and often made disparaging comments about each other's race, culture, foods, hygiene, etc. In many ways the atmosphere was healthier then.)

At first it was surprising to be the target of epithets by people who didn't know me. It was hurtful and rare, but I always fell back on the old "sticks and stones" couplet. If you wanted to be a man like my Dad and his generation who went off to war, words were comparatively nothing and you moved on.

Mt. Tam website states that dogs aren't allowed on trails

Which brings me to a minor incident on the local news last night. A middle-aged white woman encountered a young Asian-American family on the hiking trail at Mount Tamalpais State Park. She reprimanded the family for taking their dog on the trail and uttered the phrase "you can't be in this country."

It was clear from the video that she was upset about the dog, but the father took umbrage about "you can't be in this country." The result was that the woman's face was shown on the news, she was identified as Beth Taska, a Human Resources executive, and she was fired by her employer.

Yes, Ms. Taska let out a seemingly racist remark (she claims it was misheard) and may not be in the right job. In her defense the racial identity of the family didn't seem to be what triggered the encounter. However, the father, Hiroshi, focused on the offending phrase and expanded it to mean "go back to your country." In the TV interview he talked about his resentment about being called "chink" and "gook." None of that history was Ms. Taska's fault.

Further thoughts:
1) We all have the tendency--me, too!--of attributing racial stereotypes to individuals who may not have them at all. Beth Taska may have done this to the family, but Hiroshi definitely did it to her.
2) But go easy on Hiroshi; she is the classic Karen.
3) This is an example of TV and the Internet inflaming a situation far beyond its significance to society.
4) Speaking for myself, I would never react to a personal insult if that reaction would get someone fired. Contra the saying, the words may indeed hurt, but that doesn't mean you have to pick up the sticks and stones.

When It's OK to Steal

Helen Raleigh (Federalist)

Helen Raleigh is fed up, not with cultural appropriation, but with those who complain about it. [bold added]

No one is safe from being accused of “cultural appropriation,” or even “racial identity theft.” Whether you are rich and famous or an average Joe going about your life, culture police are everywhere to make sure that people don’t out of their lane to claim something that’s “not theirs.”

...Based on the social-justice warriors’ logic, people must only function within the ethnic identity and culture they were born into—for life. Authenticity, to them, means each cultural group must embrace its own culture and fiercely defend its unique traits from others.

Hamilton cast in 2016 (Entertainment Tonight)

Cultural appropriation is a sin committed only by whites. In fine dining Chef Gordon Ramsey was excoriated for opening an Asian restaurant when neither he nor his head chef were Asian. Yet here in San Francisco no one says a word when Asian chefs serve Italian or haute cuisine.

In entertainment, productions of the Mikado have been criticized heavily if they don't have Asian actors. On Broadway Hamilton, a musical about the American Founding played by a non-white cast, has been showered with accolades.

Helen Raleigh, who immigrated from China, welcomes Westerners trying to adopt elements of Chinese culture. Similarly, she is enthusiastic about Zumba and yoga classes, and she will snack on nachos on Super Bowl Sunday.

Your humble blogger pays no attention to those who want people to stay within their cultural confines. When they criticize Hamilton for cultural appropriation, I'll start listening.

[Note: just in case it isn't clear, I have no problem with the Mikado played by an all-white cast or Hamilton with non-white actors.]

Jordan and Camille

I missed this conversation the first time around.

Two public intellectuals, Jordan Peterson and Camille Paglia, engage in a wide-ranging discussion about postmodernism, history, culture, radical feminism, and the academy. They level broadsides against the ideology that has dominated American campuses since the late 20th century, and, yes, the conversation is more interesting than I've made it sound.

Seattle Center: MoPOP

Still beautiful after all these years

I have never taken the elevator to the top of the Space Needle. This day wouldn't be any different.

The two-hour wait and the $32.50 price of admission didn't match the imagined benefit of the spectacular view, especially for those who only had a few hours to spend on a Sunday afternoon.

We walked around the rest of Seattle Center, which is built on the grounds of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.

The Space Needle and the Monorail are the most recognizable historical landmarks, while the other buildings have been renovated and repurposed.

Marvel's Black Panther and the Thing

One attraction that we did visit--for about the same cost as the Space Needle--was the Museum of Pop Culture, aka MoPOP.

Popular culture covers such a vast territory--music or film each would deserve large museums of their own--that it was interesting to see what MoPOP would choose to showcase.

I liked their choices: Marvel comics and movies, science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Guitar sculpture near MoPOP's entrance.

Re music, we had to tear ourselves away from the iMAX screen that was playing Michael Jackson's Thriller, which we had seen many times on our 19-inch Zenith during the 1980's.

Otherwise, the music displays somewhat understandably focused on Seattle bands Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

Within 2½ hours we were able to cover all of MoPOP, though we could have spent double the time studying the exhibits in depth.

For Seattle neophytes like us, it was definitely worth a visit.

A Unique Talent

One advantage of being oblivious to pop culture in one's youth is the joy of discovery later in life. During the 1970's I only knew about Aretha Franklin through the radio.

The Blues Brothers (1980) movie was a revelation; it showcased the artistry of Aretha, James Brown, Cab Calloway, and Ray Charles at the top of their game. The Blues Brothers had action, comedy, romance, great music, and choreography. I saw it again and again during that decade and could recite every line. Aretha Franklin's "Think" was one of the highlights of the movie.

When Aretha Franklin died of pancreatic cancer today at the age of 76, the greatest names in music gave tribute. Hers was a life of triumph and tragedy, but above all unique talent. Thanks to the internet it's preserved for posterity. R.I.P.

Skin Color Prejudice - Japanese Version

(Image from blog.gaijinpot.com)

In decades past your humble blogger flew frequently to Japan, and one of the top-five pleasures (after food, cleanliness, public transportation, and absence of crime) was the hot-springs bath. The travel industry has spread the word, and tourists are now a lucrative market for the bath industry. Except...[bold added]

the staff increasingly find themselves turning away tourists, too, [spa manager Yuichi Ohama] laments: “We’re surprised by how many have body art.”

In Japan tattoos are associated with criminals....the mere sight of a tattooed thug is enough to frighten other customers away, so many gyms, pools and onsen (hot springs) ban tattoos or at least insist they be covered up. Japan’s growing army of foreign visitors has inadvertently stumbled into this cultural minefield.

Despite the cultural overtones, it looks like the deciding factor is economics.

Foreign tourists have helped offset the long-term decline of the onsen industry, admits Masao Oyama of the Japan Spa Association. But government pleading cannot remove the deep taboo on tattoos, he says. “There are still many more Japanese customers than foreigners and their feelings must come first,” he says.

Look for the prejudice against skin coloring to change as the customers for traditional bathing decline.