Weight Wars #2

I published a previous post about my weight and being half way to not being obese, down from 298 to 248.  I can now say I am down another 5 lbs but still only half way.  The difference is an adjustment in my height.  I guess I am shrinking, which means I have another 10 pounds to lose before escaping the obesity line.  So down 55 pounds with a goal of 55 pounds more.  I hope this sharing will motivate me, as my life is at stake.

In Theaters: Unplanned

I must admit, no recent movie has made me think like this movie about abortion.  A sub theme of this movie is the power of prayer.  Unplanned is about a Planned Parenthood worker, in fact she is a manager of a clinic.  However slowly, after lots of prayer by her family, her heart begins to change.  The day she participates in an abortion, and sees the baby shrinking from the needle, is the day she decides working for Planned Parenthood is not for her.  The film makes a point of explaining that Planned Parenthood stands for abortion, and other health services they offer are mostly a side business.
Now the thought I am having is how active should I be in the fight against abortion.  I prayed for a week or so after watching the movie; but never have I gone to an abortion clinic  to pray.  Even those prayers at home have slackened.  There are such better options in a modern society than the sacrifice of our unborn children.  Seals and Croft stood for the unborn child.  Many people put their reputations out there.  The question I have is can I?

Art: Book Review: African American Art: The Long Struggle

African American Art: The Long Struggle by Crystal A. Britton, Smithmark, New York, 1996.

This book is unique, as the artwork of the African Americans reflect the political situation in their lives.  Early art represented the African style, and then followed by neoclassical type work.  Edmonia Wildfire Lewis represented this style.  Lewis, a sculpture was the first African woman to achieve international success.  Her work, “Forever Free” is full of emotion.  Two freed slaves, she kneeling in prayer, and he with a hand raised showing a  broken chain.  Henry Ossawa Tanner, a post-Civil War painter provides a look into African culture.  “The Banjo Lesson” has an older kind gentleman teaching an enthusiastic boy on the banjo.  Religious themes abound and I really enjoy “The Burning Bush” by Beauford Delaney.  “The Flight Into Egypt” by James Lesesne Wells also presents this theme beautifully, using a myriad of colors.  From here the painting represents race relationships, with a nailed boot crushing and African American’s head to bloody riots.  More recently “The Struggle Continue” and other works based on this theme.

Book Review: Shut Up and Sing

Shut Up and Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN are Subverting America by Laura Ingraham, Regnery Publishing, Washington D.C., 2003.
I read this originally in 2004.  At that time I said "Very good exploration of how the elite are  not necessarily in touch with people.  They are not any better than others outside their own particular fields--although they often think they are."  I think Ingraham's message is perhaps more important today when those who support our current president, or support that America is great, or any other ideas considered naive or ignorant or misguided.  It is enough to make you sick.
Of course Laura Ingraham is now on Fox News.  She was a radio host when she wrote this book. 

Weight Wars

I came across something really scary: a record of my weight from 2001 through 2003.  I started at 292 in December of 2001.  However I was down to 285 by mid January; only to blossom back up by the end of the year.  My last recorded weight in 2002, early December, was 292.  Then I became my heaviest.  I started 2003 at 298.  That is just gross.  That is the most I have weighed my entire life.  That is 100 pounds above the obese line.  I recorded that by the end of 2003 I was back to 285.  I have continued a mostly downward spiral, with significance periods of getting stuck.  I am half of the way to the obese line--in other words I am 50 pounds lighter than my heaviest with another 50 to go.
What have been the consequences.  I have diabetes and tinnitus, and sleep apnea and high blood pressure.  Weight is a contributing factor in all these areas.  I hope when I am no longer obese--some of these health issues will be resolved.  I would be grateful if just one or two  would improve and I not have to take so many medications.

Federick Remington: Art for Children by Ernest Raboff, J.B. Lippincott, New York, 1973.

This book gives a brief history of Frederick Remington, who was born in Canton, New York in 1861 and died and died in 1909.  He is credited with almost 3000 drawing and paintings.  He also created bronze sculptures and wrote eight books.  He was famous because of his art by the time he thirty.  His most common theme was the West, mountain men, cowboys and Native Americans.  In his drawings he documented the changes which took place in the West and the changing native American economy.  The book mentions the material is copyrighted so I have borrowed a couple pictures from the internet which are representative of the illustrations in the book.

Book Review: Nasa/Art: 50 Years of Exploration

NASA/Art: 50 Years of Exploration, by James Dean and Bertram Ulrich, NASA, Abrams, New York, 2008.

This book is where science and art meet.  This book provides a history of the NASA space program, as told through the eyes of several artists.  From early on different artists were invited to NASA to interpret history through the eyes of an artists.  There is a very mixed bag.  In talks about NASA failures, three flights that ended in tragedy, two Space Shuttles and Apollo 1.  There are some very brilliant pictures; three for Norman Rockwell, Nathan Greene contributes several, John Solie and Ken Wicks. Jaune Quick-To-See Smith provides a Native American interpretation of the space program which is very telling.  A woman’s robe represents the earth.  There are several artworks of the plume of smoke left after take-off.  These include symbolic representations.  This book is divided into four chapters: Blazing the Trail, On to the Moon, Soaring to the Skies and the Heavens, New Worlds.  I have enjoyed browsing the pictures.