Peter Clothier's Blog, page 189

Too Much... and a Tooting of the Horn

Too much to write, to much to say, too much to do today. I'm in the middle of a report on our trip to Riverside, last Saturday, with the Laguna Art Museum Contemporary Collectors Council, to visit the highlights of the art community there. I'm not done with it yet, and I need to find some decent pictures, so bear with me. It may take a couple of days yet, but it will be posted. It was a great day, and I think worth reading about.
Speaking of the Laguna Art Museum, I had a speaking gig...

A Lazy Day

Today I have hardly the stamina or the inner resources required to brave the opinion pages of the New York Times. The times are indeed dispiriting. One wishes for a sign of some gumption, somewhere in the country, either in Washington or out here, among the thinking electorate. The only gumption I see is of the misguided, philistine, boorish kind. We did spend an excellent day, yesterday, with fellow members of the Art Council at the Laguna Art Museum, exploring the cultural highlights...

Obama: A Stellar Performance

Did you catch any of the broadcasts of Obama at that gathering of Republican congressional representatives yesterday? It was a masterful performance. One hundred and forty of them, many with distinctly hostile questions about his policy and his handling of the Presidency, and he took them all on with extraordinary grace, ease, and good humor. For two full hours. Above all, he demonstrated an amazing grasp of the issues, often much broader and deeper than his questioners. So much, too, fo...

A Covey...

... of art writers at our Laguna Beach cottage last night. The occasion was an Orange County visit from my friend Bill Lasarow, who has for many years now published Artscene magazine, in which a number of the essays in "Persist" originally appeared. A couple of years back, Bill started Artscene Visual Radio, the host for my podcast series, "The Art of Outrage"; and his recent merger with Visual Art Source has created an art resource network that covers the western states. It's an impressiv...

Obama Persists!

And good for him! I am amazed, how he manages to hold up with apparent good humor and good spirits, even optimism, in the face of the political obstacles that continue to confront him--indeed, seem to multiply by the hour and day. I thought his speech last night was excellent. He went head-on for the major issues, was not afraid to accept responsibility, nor to hold others accountable where appropriate. I was at once astounded and gratified to hear him publicly scold the Supreme Court for...

Dear Readers...

... of The Buddha Diaries,
This morning I thought I might just take a few minutes to bring you an update on the progress of my promotional efforts on "Persist." It happens to be what is taking up most of my time these days, and I have to say that I'm rather enjoying it.
I sometimes stop to ask myself why I'm spending so much time and energy on work that, after all, is now completed. The book is written, published. It has started a journey of its own. What I myself can do seems puny...

Sophie Scholl

We watched a rented version of Sophie Scholl: The Final Days last night. It's the story of the young woman who, as one of the small group of German students who resisted the Nazi regime, was executed in 1943 for the crime of distributing pamphlets condemning Hitler and denouncing his war as a lost cause. As Sophie's brother, Hans, said during their kangaroo court trial, even in 1943 you had only to look at a map to understand that the German military stood no chance against the combined for...

Buddhism: A Book Review

This might be a good time, for those who have not already done so, to consider Buddhism. I am no proselytizer of religion, but there is a great deal to be learned from the teachings. If, as I do, you look around in dismay at the hierarchies that seem to dominate our planet and our nation, you may stand to benefit from the non-attachment and the equanimity these teachings invite us to consider. You, as I, may have watched in sadness and bewilderment the stalemate of what purports to be our...

The US Supreme Court

I'll be brief, and here's my brief: until this week's Supreme Court ruling on corporate election funding, we could all choose to close our eyes and pretend that our country was not for sale to the highest bidder. Now, though, it's legal.

By what stretch of the judicial imagination vast corporations wielding billions of dollars become "people" I am unable to say. But what I have been saying for years now, first in "The Bush Diaries" and now in "The Buddha Diaries" is official and surely unde...

Tickled Pink

Yes, I'm tickled pink. I'm on YouTube! Here's the link to ">a video of my event at the Inside Edge. I'm planning on having more to say on another topic later in the day...