The Devil's Paintbrush

Still from the BBC Documentary, Somme -From Defeat to Victory

"A steam-harsh noise filled the air. I knew what that was: machine gun bullets, each faster than sound, with its hiss and its air crack arriving almost simultaneously, many scores of thousands of bullets. When men were hit some seem to pause, with bowed heads, and sink carefully to their knees, and roll slowly over, and lie still. Others roll and roll, and scream and grip my legs in utmost fear, and I have to struggle to break away."

--Henry Williamson commenting on his experience at the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916, excerpted from Smithsonian, July/August 2016

An MG08 with wood stock

The machine gun the Germans used to devastating effect, the MG08, was nicknamed the Devil's Paintbrush. It fired up to 500 rounds per minute and could kill a man at 2000 yards and still be effective at 4000 yards.


"The English came walking as though they were going to the theatre or were on a parade ground."

--Paul Scheyet, 109th Reserve Infantry Regiment

While there are many great things that have been created by Western Civilization, it is not without its past sins either. One of the worst things generated by the West's love of technology and nationalism is it's efficient capability of slaughtering its own.

Rancho Sisquoc - Santa Barbara Cab

Rancho Sisquoc 

Cabernet Sauvignon, 2013

Flood Family Vineyards 

Santa Barbara County, California. 

The Rancho Sisquoc Winery is part of a Spanish land grant owned by the James Flood family, and is located on the Sisquoc River east of Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County. 

Their 2013 Cab is full-bodied, tasting of rich, red berries, cacao, and oak while being moderate on the tannins. We enjoyed this bottle while eating grilled tilapia and watching Stranger Things on Netflix. The vibrant, supple flavors of the cab blended well with the suspenseful fantasy land of bully paybacks and alien monsters.

Mrs. Peniston and the House of Mirth

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton is filled with wonderful dry wit and insight into the lives of rich and nervous individuals based in a young New York City. It takes a determined reader to mine their way through Wharton's regal prose and the subtle plot shifts involving rich socialites, philanderers, and aging wealth all conforming to Victorian era social norms and expectations of women. One of the benefits of the novel is to experience numerous well-worded descriptions and wry comments about the characters, just a taste of which I have listed below:


Lily: "There is no one, I mean, to tell me about the republic of the spirit."
Seldon: "There never is -- it's a country one has to find the way to one's self."

"Mrs. Peniston was a small plump woman, with a colourless skin lined with trivial wrinkles. Her grey hair was arranged with precision, and her clothes looked excessively new and yet slightly old-fashioned. They were always black and tightly fitting, with an expensive glitter: she was the kind of woman who wore jet at breakfast. Lily had never seen her when she was not cuirassed in shining black, with small tight boots, and an air of being packed and ready to start; yet she never started."

"Mrs. Peniston always sat on a chair, never in it."

"Did you ever watch Trenor eat? If you did, you'd wonder why he's alive; I suppose he's leather inside too."

"It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness."

"The modern fastness appeared synonymous with immorality, and the mere idea of immorality was as offensive to Mrs. Peniston as a smell of cooking in the drawing-room."

"'Ah,' said Mrs. Peniston, shutting her lips with the snap of a purse closing against a beggar."

The lead protagonist of the novel is Lily Bart, who is desperate to live a lifestyle of opulence even when she is virtually broke. It is an interesting counter-point to Germinal, where the main characters are poor and searching for material gain in a world where they see hardly any wealth first-hand. In Mirth, Lily is surrounded by the lavish class of New York and is driven to personal extremes to make sure she stays there. Both novels give insight into what people will do to improve their personal circumstances, regardless of where their starting point is.

California Gold: South Bay Greek Festival, Redondo Beach

Attended the annual South Bay Greek Festival today with the kids. Wore ourselves out on dancing, beer, lamb chops, and sweets. It's a small but enjoyable event held at St. Katherine's Community Center in Redondo Beach. 

"Open a bottle of Hillas Lager Beer and share the kinship with past Gods, kings, queens and other ordinary people."  -- Hillas Website

The Hillas lager is dry and malty, unique in flavor. It cuts well with oiled vegetables and rich red meats. 

Josh Cellars Session Wine - Cab Sauv 2014

Josh Cellars sources their grapes from all over California so when you're enjoying a glass of their rich Cabernet Sauvignon you are really taking in a wide ranging bounty of what the state has to offer. The 2014 offering we enjoyed over a roast chicken salad but it may be more appropriate with red meat (veal or lamb). The flavor is rich with blackberries, almonds, and currant with strong, tongue-rubbing tannins. 

I refer to it as a session wine because it's not too fancy, not to heavy, and not too expensive, but still quite flavorful. It can be paired well with food or enjoyed on its own.

Pure Larceny Bourbon

Larceny is made with wheat as the secondary grain instead of the traditional rye. The mash-bill calls for one-third more wheat than most others, resulting in a smoother and more mellow-tasting Bourbon.

All Bourbon Whiskey must be distilled from a mash that contains no less than 51% corn. Going heavy on the corn results in a sweeter, more caramel taste. More rye results in a sharper flavor. Adding more wheat (the last of the possible ingredients in Bourbon besides water) generates a smooth, relaxing flavor that I believe is the perfect blend of all Bourbon possibilities.

The Small Batch nature of Larceny makes sure this Bourbon is up to the highest standards. It goes perfect after a long day of work or while watching the sun set slowly on a warm summer evening.

Privilege and Western Civilization

"The Thinker" sculpted by Auguste Rodin

"He heard them abusing him for his large salary, calling him a bloated idler, a bloody beast who stuffed himself to indigestion with good things, while the worker was dying of hunger...Ah! the stinking bourgeois, they  should be  stuffed with champagne and truffles till their guts burst."

Such is the experience of M. Hennebeau in Emile Zola's Germinal as the miners begin their rampant assault on the upper class.

The latest buzzword of choice the Social Justice Warrior (SJW) class is using nowadays to shame their opponents is "privilege." White privilege. Male privilege. Rich privilege. (How long until a "Thin Privilege" meme begins?) If you're a member of the Black Lives Matter crowd then you must complain about White privilege (even though Asians generally make more money and have more educational accomplishments than whites in the US). If you are a white woman then you have to complain about male privilege. If you are poor then you have to complain about rich privilege. If you're a white male then you have nothing to complain about because your life is perfect. Across the board.

It's a game as old as time. People have labeled the strengths of their opposition, often being things that they themselves want, as somehow being scarlet letters or objects of ridicule.

PROTESTER: "You're rich! You wouldn't understand the plight of the working poor!"
EVIL RICH WHITE GUY: "Would you like to be rich?"
PROTESTER: "Of course! Where do I sign up?"

It reminds me of the tactics used by many political groups that claim to be on the side of the poor. They love to rile up hatred and jealousy of those with money, The Other, but what is the one thing these groups always ask for, always beg for, and always need more of in order to implement their plans . . . you guessed it, MONEY.

It's that inner conflict that must get people so worked up. Regardless of race, gender or political affiliation, people love to lash out at what they perceive to be The Other, but what they are actually lashing out in is jealousy and guilt for desiring those same things they hate the others for having. They would love to have that perceived wealth, that perceived power, the perceived good luck, those perceived privileges that may or may not exist.

Black Lives Matter groups often lecture whites that white people don't know what it's like to be black, to be looked at with suspicion everywhere you go, to be treated like second class citizens on a daily basis. I agree. I, as a white male, have no idea what it is like to be black. My heart goes out to those black folks I've seen, whether they are children or adults, who not only go out into White America and make ends meet, but also thrive. Only to be painted with broad brush strokes or eyed curiously when they happen to be in parts of the country where their shade might not be so accepted. I get that. I've seen it. I hate it.

At the same time, black folks don't know what it's like to be white. I'm not saying that whites deal with the same issues as blacks, but life as a run-of-the-mill white person probably isn't as smooth and full of frolic as many blacks think. Just like not all black folks live like Michelle Obama or Will Smith, not all white folks live like Bill Gates or Ben Affleck. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

There are few things in life I love seeing more than people of any racial minority group in the US taking the tools of American or Western culture and using them to greater effect and benefit than anyone else. This happens all the time in the lives of millions across the country in small, subtle ways that don't make the news or garner headlines but do make wonderful contributions to society as a whole. Higher profile examples would be the eloquent writings on human emancipation by Frederick Douglass, the insights gained in astrophysics by Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, and the exquisite playing of the cello by Yo-Yo Ma.

In short, anyone, regardless of race or income or gender, who relies on the fruits of Western Civilization, whether it be the scientific method, free thought, the right to peacefully protest, liberation of women, emancipation, democratic process, gay rights, private property, or freely posting and reading notes on the Interwebs among an ocean of other benefits, is more privileged than they probably realize.

Only Two Plots Matter

Edna O'Brien

"'Tolstoy says there are only two great stories in the world.' I said, 'What are they?' He said, 'A man goes on a journey, like Hamlet -- a man on a personal, philosophical quest.' And 'A stranger comes to town,' like, for instance, The Playboy of the Western World [the classic Irish play by J.M. Synge]."

-- Edna O'Brien, author of  The Little Red Chairs

The quote above was taken from the July/August 2016 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. In it is an interview with Irish author and playwrite Edna O'Brien. The above statement she says was told to her by a film director and it got me thinking, is it possible that all the great stories can be filed away as either "Man/Woman/Group on a mission" or "Man/Woman/Group arrives from the outside"? It certainly is an even more compact model than the Six Emotional Arcs as analyzed recently at the University of Vermont.

Both of the types that O'Brien mentions can also implement one of the six arcs but the six arcs aren't very interesting to list out (Rise-Fall, Rise-Fall-Rise, Steady Decline, yawn). Looking back on one's favorite movies or novels and deciding whether its a Man on a Mission or Stranger Comes to Town story is more intriguing.

Are there exceptions to these two motifs?

Miss Archer's Swift Carriage

Image from Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

"A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can't see -- that's my idea of happiness."

--Isabel Archer, The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

Times, They Aren't A-Changin'

Boys Eating Melon and Grapes (1646) Bartolomé Esteban Murillo [Spanish Baroque]

"Ah, there's too much of that sending to school in these days! It only does harm. Every gatepost and barn's door you come to is sure to have some bad word or other chalked upon it by the young rascals: a woman can hardly pass for shame sometimes. If they'd never been taught how to write they wouldn't have been able to scribble such villainy. Their fathers couldn't dot it, and the country was all the better for it."

--The Return of the Native (1878), Thomas Hardy

Reading older novels such as The Return of the Native, one finds lines like this and realizes that while some things change, other things never do. Older generations have always complained about the new habits of the younger. They have always thought them to be spoiled, undisciplined, vulgar, and not appreciative of what came before them. These are not new complaints unique to the 21st century. It won't be much longer until today's Millennials are complaining about the next generation's sense of self-entitlement, lack of context, and other general villainy. 

Constantine Levin and Continuous Learning

The Stone Breakers (1850) Gustave Courbet

"[Levin] was continually watching and getting to know people of all sorts, and among them peasants, whom he regarded as good and interesting people, and he was continually observing new points in them, altering his former views of them and forming new ones."

--Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

I like this idea of continuous learning, continuous evolution of personal knowledge and understanding. Not being afraid to recognize what you thought was correct yesterday was actually wrong and you have replaced it with an improved understanding today. It takes humility to admit to that at times but its a liberating experience when it happens.

Something Cheery from Germinal

"There was wretchedness everywhere. For weeks since they had had nothing to eat. Even the odor of onion had gone, that strong odor which revealed the settlement from afar across the country; now there was nothing by the smell of old vaults, the dampness of holes in which nothing lives. Vague sounds were dying out, stifled tears, lost oaths; and in the silence which slowly grew heavier one could hear the sleep of hunger coming on, the collapse of bodies thrown across beds in the nightmares of empty bellies."

-- Germinal, Emile Zola

The Little Port That Could

Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny is a smooth, rich Port wine highly rated by The Wine Advocate. I had a small glass of it tonight after an equally rich supper of veal parmesan while watching Orphan Black. 

This port is mellow, comforting, and reminds me of warm summer evenings, but like most ports, with a 20%  alcohol content, it can get away from you if you're not careful.   Halfway through the glass I swear I almost cracked Orphan Black's labyrinthine plot.

Lives That Matter

"Well, but explain to me. What is your aim?"
"To destroy everything. No more nations, no more governments, no more property, no more God nor worship."

Micah Johnson

Such was the response by the anarchist Souvarine to the more placid Marxist Etienne Lantier's question in the novel Germinal by Emile Zola. I was reminded of the Bakunin-esque response by Souvarine while following the news coverage of the sniper shootings in Dallas today. The murder of five police officers by Micah Johnson apparently stemmed from his distrust and outright hatred of white law enforcement officials.

The antagonistic a now violent expressions by the #BlackLivesMatter crowd and their off-shoots doesn't appear to be headed for anywhere but tragedy. Its lack of leadership, true purpose, and well-defined attainable goals will only lead to chaos and something similar to the world envisioned by Souvarine where not only do black lives not matter, but neither does anyone else's.

The Biggest Nothing in History

“When you ask me why you want to stay here…we want to stay here because it’s ours. It belongs to us. It keeps our family together. I mean, we fight for that. While you Americans—you are fighting for the biggest nothing in history.”

So says the French rubber plantation owner Hubert de Marais (played by Christian Marquand) to Captain Ben Willard (Martin Sheen). While taking a day off from work I took the 3+ hours to watch Apocalypse Now Redux after recently reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

This one line in the movie, taken from a scene not included in the original cut of the film, made me think about what makes a just war and at what point “defense of possession” become a legitimate rationale for using deadly force.

The French colonials claimed they had moved to an area of Indochina where no one was living when they first arrived several generations earlier. They then brought rubber trees from Brazil and began their plantations. The de Marais family then had to fight off several different enemies (including VC and Americans at different points in time) to protect their land.

One could say the VC (or other Vietnamese groups) had a greater claim to that land than the French…but Hubert would vehemently disagree. His family took what was nothing and had brought forth products used the world over. This story parallels similar actions taken by immigrants to other countries. They move into land that is unoccupied, create something new and useful to others, then for a variety of reasons are encroached upon by native populations (relatively speaking) who want those means of production or that land or simply to destroy what’s beautiful.

It’s a heavy scene that can spawn a lot of discussion. I hope to riff more on this topic in future posts.

Side Notes:

•  I believe every white woman in Apocalypse Now bares their breasts. At least a majority. But, hey! It was the 70s!
• After watching a steady diet of movies made post 2000, to turn on something like ANR reminds one how mesmerizing, creative, and enriching the cinema can be. It also reminds one how supremely talented (and somewhat crazy) Francis Coppola was in his glory days.
• "It smelled like slow death in there." -Capt. Willard
• Marlon Brando as Kurtz first appears on screen at the 2'37" point in a 3'15" movie.