Continuum Film Blog

"looks like me!"

When I saw Obama's tour of Tomb of Qar (with the same man who showed our family around on our trip so many years ago) I immediately thought of Lorraine O'Grady's work Miscegenated Family Album a sample of which is pictured above.

Victory!

Great news about the Obama vegetable garden! But can the average city gardener like myself really triumph over the mites, building shadows and opportunistic squirrels?

Here is a little film from the Prelinger Collection; a garden full of the most unusual of archival flowers where you can harvest cultural food for thought!   

It's Time!

"Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning."

I’m reminded of a little incident about 20 years or so ago—Mom and I were sitting on a little beach in New Rochelle—which was odd, we didn’t really go to the beach in NR and I think we had on street clothes—maybe we were coming from Bloomingdale's or something…and it just didn’t seem like a real beach day. Anyway, there was a really straggly young family sitting on the sand.  They had a messy, white blond daughter who was gangly and dirty in that crazy little kid way.  She had an extremely scraggly and naked blond, almost bald Barbie doll, all covered with paint and crayon marks that she clearly adored.  She came over and danced the doll in front of us singing a la la la song 1/2 showing off and 1/2 preoccupied with the doll.   “What’s your dolly’s name?” my mother asked her. The girl stopped, surprised and pleased, I think to be asked, held up the doll Liberty torch style and announced proudly; “Martin Luther CRAYON”!

I’ve always treasured this memory—this little girl linking MLK and something colorful and familiar to a kid and a tool for expression.  When I was little, I used to think of King as Martin Luther Kitty because he reminded me of a Siamese cat.

(this image was @ reidreporeidreport.comrt.com)

But this image reminds me of a striking part of King's speech which they showed in it's entirety on CNN today. King is not merely redemptive, a hopeful dreamer. He also takes us to task and though the threat is not violent he warns:

"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning.

Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges."

 

a short hiatus but will soon be back on track...