Recent Painting

Today I completed a painting that was inspired by the works of Rita Angus.

I'm happy with the results and keeping this one for my own collection.

Also, two of my bird paintings are currently on display and for sale at a charming shop in Lyttelton called "Sweet Thursday" after Steinbeck's novel of the same name.

Progressive Parenting

I'm always going on about not making toys and colors gendered but when it came to buying my son a winter coat, I was cowardly.

I went to The Tannery to buy a hard-to-come-by book on Rita Angus and, as I always suspected I would, got lured in to buying other things.

The shops are some of the best in Christchurch and they're all right next to each other.

I tried not to be seduced but I failed.

I got my RA book and then noticed a flower shop with a large cactus that I immediately fell in love with.

If you are the type of person who keeps what you would call a "prized cactus," just know that I get you. Totally.

I wandered into a store with a selection of reindeer hides and found one that was white with a few grey spots. I gazed lovingly at it for a few minutes before images of Alex spilling things on it and tramping dirt into it filled my mind.

For the first time in New Zealand I found what looked like jadeite and the lady who owned the store told me they call it "milk glass" over here (which explains why nobody knows what I'm talking about when I ask for jadeite). It wasn't Fire King so I guess another company has started making replicas. I bought some lavender soap instead.

I bought some fancifully-scented melts at another shop ("Asian moon" was the name of one) and almost made it out alive but for the children's clothing shop right at the exit.

Alex needed a new winter coat and I found a beautiful red number right by the register. The only thing that gave me pause was the lining which contained little sprays of roses.

"That's a girl's coat," my sub-conscience said. "Nuh uh," my conscience answered.

I needed validation. It was so pathetic of me. I wanted the saleslady to tell me it was okay to buy the coat for my son and as it cost $140, she was happy to oblige.

I bought it and immediately started imagining the conversations I would have with Nick and Alex's daycare:

"Look, it keeps the boy warm. He's not going to care."

At not-quite-four, Alex has already started coming home and telling me certain things are "boy things" and others are "girl things" which I always tell him is nonsense. I say those things are for whoever wants and likes them.

But conversations at home aren't the same as public displays of non-traditional "gender specific" items.

I took the coat to Nick at his work site. I told him not to get all red-blooded West Coaster on me.

"Our son's going to look like Paddington," he said.

I'm fine with that. The bear was a snazzy dresser.

Anyway, here's the coat:

Jordan B. Peterson: Brave Defender of the Status Quo

Recently, Canadian psychologist Jordan B. Peterson has been popping up in media all over the world.

Who is Peterson?

He's a clinical psychologist and a much cited expert in creativity in individuals.

He got his first taste of fame after he pitched a tantrum over Canadian legislation meant to promote the use of preferred pronouns with trans people.

The legislation apparently failed to take into account Jordan Peterson's God-given right to pretend that trans people are fakes who are only seeking attention.

Later, Peterson said he might consider using a preferred pronoun if a trans person were to ask him nicely (preferably on bended knee with a hand across their heart and using the term "my liege.")

He's a hero to frustrated young white men who are afraid women and minorities are going to take away the privileges they've never had to work for.

He once called Disney's Frozen "propaganda" because it dared to have a strong female lead who isn't married off at the end.

He denies the experiences of women and trans individuals so he can redirect the conversation to the true victims; white dudes.

He claims great bogeymen known as postmodernist neo Marxists are trying to undermine Western Civilization and the "natural order" of things. The natural order of things is men being manly men who control everything while women stay silent and home bound.

The kind of masculinity he promotes requires a femininity that is nonthreatening and easily dominated. In order for men to succeed, women must fail.

He recently wrote a little folksy tome called "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos" (Alternative title:"Chicken Soup for the Soul, eh?") In it he extols the virtue of "standing up straight with your shoulders back" and petting street cats.

It may seem like harmless life coach stuff but it's so much more than that.

The book basically erases structural violence and the existence of the patriarchy and puts the onus on individuals to fix themselves. It smacks of the bootstraps argument well off people use to throw shade at the poor.

His view on posture also brings out his odd admiration of lobsters.

Zack Beauchamp of Vox writes:

"This is classic Peterson: He loves to take stylized facts about the animal kingdom and draw a one-to-one analogy to human behavior. It also has political implications: He argues that because we evolved from lower creatures like lobsters, we inherited dominance structures from them. Inequalities of various kinds aren't wrong; they're natural."

As we've seen time and again on National Geographic Explorer, the humble lobster often rises up from the muck of the seabed, straightens its arthropodic exoskeleton, adjusts its tiny fedora and marches off to exert its terrible will on the lesser lobsters.

Tapping into the outrage of young men who feel they've been robbed of their dues has been profitable for Peterson. People on the internet give him money to keep posting You Tube videos about how feminists and Social Justice Warriors are ruining the world.

Like Trump, he's attracted followers who admire him for his overt misogyny and Islamophobia. Unlike Trump, Peterson has impressive degrees and academic titles. This makes certain people view his theories as legitimate and has led to several fawning profiles.

Others aren't fooled.

A writer for the Los Angeles Review of Books referred to Peterson as, "A Messiah-cum-Surrogate-Dad for Gormless Dimwits" while journalist Tabatha Southey called him the "stupid man's smart person."

Pankaj Mishra of the New York Times wrote:

Closer examination, however, reveals Peterson's ageless insights as a typical, if not archetypal product of our own times: right-wing pieties seductively mythologized for our current lost generations."

When Peterson discovered Mishra's criticism he responded calmly and rationally by calling him a "sanctimonious prick" and saying he would slap him if they were in the same room.

Real men slap other men when words fail them.

Alpha lobsters bitch slap each other all the time to settle disputes. It's science.

Like the great edgelord Milo Yiannopoulos before him, Peterson days in the public eye are likely numbered. 

I'm betting his fragile ego and tendency to weigh in when he's out of his depth will eventually lead to a spectacular public meltdown. 

Maybe then someone will send him a copy of "12 Rules for Life." 

Doctor, heal thyself, etc.

New Zealand Out My Window

Art

Last year I sold several paintings on Trademe. 

I photographed a few of them before they were sold:

Huia

Goldfinch

Profile With Pounamu

 Here is a painting I did of the neighbors' dog (it was given as a Christmas present):

Blue

Here is a recent painting I hope to sell soon:

Playtime For Kea

And finally, here is my favorite painting at the Christchurch Art Museum. It's called "Cass Station" and is painted by Rita Angus. I love the dreamy Narnian trees and whimsical cloud shapes. She's managed to catch to dry gold colors of the tussock grass and the blue gray of the mountains. The sole man contentedly smoking his pipe gives the setting a sense of tranquility:

"Cass Station" by Rita Angus

 The museum recently reopened after quake repairs were complete. It is a fantastic place to go and I adore the beautiful museum store filled with sparkly arty things. 

I bought a set of gouache paints there and started experimenting with them. They're a type of watercolor but they dry opaque. I like their bold colors but they can be difficult to mix for color gradations. I've made several small paintings and tucked them around the house. I may post some pics of those a little later.

Bets & Regrets

Yesterday I returned to the uni to buy a hideously overpriced parking decal. My righteous indignation was compounded by the fact that the place was crawling with bright eyed and optimistic soon-to-be first years touring the campus for orientation week.

Damn them with their youth and promise and... youth.

Our uni vice chancellor is an out-of-touch former tech company CEO who decsended from on high to take over the management of our little institute of higher learning after the quakes.

What I first learned of him was detestable to me; he tried to stop my friend from speaking out on rape culture because he said some people with ovaries had already talked about women stuff earlier that year and that was enough.

He also decided to jack up the student parking fees to $400 a year.

He said it was to encourage us to use alternative means of transportation.

Some of us have children to deal with and can't just load them all up on a bike.

Some of us also live more 30 minutes away from campus with said children.

He also claimed the hike was to improve the current parking situation.

I call bullshit.

I've been at the uni for three years and there has been no work to improve or add to the current parking offerings.

The decal doesn't give you the right to park it merely gives you the "right to hunt" for a place with hundreds of other stressed out students who have all arrived at the same time.

And woe betide you if you should visit the uni without this decal. Your vehicle will clamped by our overzealous security staff, a large infraction notice will be taped to your driver's side window and you will be required to pay an immediate  ransom of $50 to have it removed.

 This will involve a walk of shame back to your car and a short wait while the security staff disembarks from their golf cart and fumbles with the clamp.

It's bad enough when it happens to students but it has also happened to several distinguished resident scholars and visitors who were never informed of parking protocol or provided with any visitor parking. It's a very bad look for our school.

But none of this bothers VC Rod Carr.

He doesn't have to worry about such things and he earns far and away more than anyone at the school so even if he did...he wouldn't.

A huge poke in the eye was an article in The Press the other day where they interviewed Rod and he mused over the lack of radical action from his students nowadays.

At the beginning of summer I met with a professor who challenged me to research Rod's authority and write a letter of complaint to him about the price hike of the fees. I was to request a lowering of the fee and if that didn't work, the professor and I would seek a judicial review.

I spent hours pouring over city statutes and ordinances. I came to the realization that Rod was pulling rules out of his ass and betting that no one would challenge him on it. The fees the uni is allowed to charge the students for levies and tuition are legislated, the fees for parking are not. The control of such things rests with the University Council of which Rod is a member.

The fees that Christchurch City charges for the most egregious parking violations are $10 less than the get-out-of-clamp fee charged by the uni. Also, the city penalty is payable in various methods over a period of time unlike the uni where you must pay then and there or have no access to your own vehicle. I seethe when I think of all the emergencies and health and safety issues this might raise.

Most of all I resent having to take this on by myself.

I'm already trying to fight against a wrongful conviction that a friend of mine is dealing with and researching parking issues and running the risk of pissing off the man who controls your school is emotionally exhausting.

Basically, wah wah, why does it have to be me?

I know I could do it but it's so much work. I need to start a Facebook movement but I hate Facebook, Twitter and all the rest, refuse to use them and so I'm cut off from potential support.

I just wish I could sit this one out while someone else takes the wheel but in this respect Rod seems correct- there aren't a lot of students ready to take radical action (or any other kind) against the wrongs of the uni.

Can't someone else have an epiphany that the school is there to serve us and not the other way around?

Damn it!

Why don't some of these damned youthful kids get in there and let an old timer like me take a knee?

Also, get off my lawn, in my day we did thing better, the kids today don't know, etc.

Tiny House Anger

Each month I look forward to the new issue of NZ House and Garden. I love getting lost in the sumptuous interiors of other people's houses.

Occasionally, the homeowners will say something mildly pretentious but mostly the magazine is enjoyable from cover to cover.

I don't know why I got so worked up over this month's issue but I have a theory that I've actually transferred my ire from the "Me Too" backlash onto an unrelated subject.

I think I've reached a point where I can't handle one more French second wave feminist saying women should do more to defend themselves and that in their day it was all just harmless flirting and sexy fun. The fact that Bardot and Deneuve want to construct an alternative reality where all the groping and objectifying that happened to them was flattering doesn't mean the rest of us have to go along with it. If we did, the same behavior would be allowed to continue unchecked and that's simply not an option anymore.

And I'm over a certain type of man who whines that he won't be able to go anywhere near women anymore because he won't feel safe. As if we are the problem- a nest of pit vipers waiting to strike over the slightest glance. In fact, the problem is with the men who have for far too long been able to touch without consent, physically and verbally abuse, leer at and demean women with no consequences. Many of these actions have taken place in the office where there is a distinct power imbalance. To stand up for oneself is to risk retaliation.

What these men are moaning about is a social change that will require them to quit acting like creeps.

Fucking boo hoo.

The February issue started out solid. The first featured home was filled with mid century modern furniture imported from Denmark and had some clever use of Orla Kiely's stem print.

Then I noticed the wall art. There's a print by JH Lynch hanging in the dining room. It features a topless woman with bouffant hair lounging in the crotch of a tree. It has a sickly green blue tint to it and appears faded, as if it were left in the sun too long.

Why? Why would someone ruin the beauty of their home with a print that looks like it was first used in a Bordello in the 70s to "class up the joint?"

But the real outrage came on page 34 where I discovered the uber pretentious Guittenit family. They were notable for building a tiny house and squeezing five people into it.

The words "minimalist aesthetics" and "harmonious interactions" are used by the writer.

Paterfamilias and native of France, Francois said "It's a pleasure to have constant connections with each other, always showing an interest in each other's lives. It works really well."

Noticeably absent from this conversation are the voices of the Guittenit's three children Poppy, Francis and LouLou.

No one asked them how they liked being stacked into three tiered bunk beds next to the tiny bathroom where the place reeks every time pa Francois does le shit.

Francis' bed is partially covered by one of his sisters so it's like a little coffin.

Directly above the children is a loft where their parents sleep. I wonder if the poor children "take pleasure" in the interactions of their dad rocking the mattress above and muttering, "Oh oui, oui! Tu aimes ca?" to their mother.

I'm struck by the fact that the potted plant in the living room/kitchen/creative hub has more personal space than the three human children.

On the same plot of land which was perfectly able to support a larger home, Francois and Sarah have an ample workshop where they can pursue whatever crafty white person wellness activity takes their fancy.

Both Sarah and Francois describe their spaces as "honest." Francois says of the house, "It's an honest space that is just as much the children's as it is ours." Sarah says of that the workshop is, "busy, honest and slightly chaotic."

I suppose the house does have a sort of honesty. From the outside it looks like it's too small for five people and the interior photographs confirm this. Honesty!

The workshop tells an honest story about two people who selfishly crammed their entire family into a tiny joke of a house and then made sure they had plenty of personal space to escape to. Honesty!

If you hadn't yet realized that the Guittenit family is better than you there is the helpful Q and A box where Sarah says, "In the next ten years I'd like to reflect on the meaningful and enriching season of balance; embrace our children's home-based education with our work/life balance."

What she should really be thinking about is what will happen when her two daughters hit growth spurts, get their periods and still have to sleep in shoe box-sized beds in a room they share with their brother.

There's limited storage space in the tiny house but I'm betting that in one of the drawers Sarah keeps a jade yoni egg that she ordered off of Gwyneth Paltrow's website "Goop."

A photo caption informs us that the house has a hidden television screen so the children can watch documentaries on line.

The young Guittenits require a carefully curated upbringing where any stray thoughts such as "is living this way normal?" and "are my parents batshit?" are kept at bay.

So my question is this: Am I really angry at these smug bastards and their minuscule homestead or am I projecting my rage stirred up by a long overdue movement?

It's so hard to tell.