Anne Frank’s Response To The Likely Fate She Could Foresee

Letters by Anne Frank’s father will soon be revealed, showing his desperate efforts to get his family out of Europe.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070125/en_afp/usnaziannefrank_070125102207

Different people respond to bad circumstances differently.  I want to highlight that when Anne Frank knew with a high degree of certainty that she may be rounded up like livestock and slaughtered at any time, her response was in part:

1)  If I only have a short time left to live, I will use it to write the most truthful and substantive things I know.

2)  I will love those around me as much as is allowed and be honest with myself about that love.

And those themes in her writings are what continue to inspire us.  It’s amazing that an adolescent girl, who had to live a hidden life, still found ways to so positively effect the world.   While she had aspirations of being a writer, she could not have reasonably thought her words would be published or famous someday.  With those understandings, she did what she could do, and she wrote her intimate thoughts down – at least for her own peace of mind, if not also for the possible benefit of others.

Mere hope.

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Here are 5 related Anne Frank and Rutka Laskier posts (click on thumbnails to see the posts):

  

 

© All rights reserved by the respective artists.

Anne Frank on Wikipedia

Rutka Laskier on Wikipedia 

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Annie Leibovitz’ Perceptions of Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Lindsay Lohan, Patti Smith, & Emma Thompson.

Artworks by Annie Leibovitz:

I have yet to find more beautiful pictures of Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Lindsay Lohan, Patti Smith, or Emma Thompson.  There are other equally beautiful pictures, but Leibovitz sometimes sees people as beautiful as I have ever seen them.

Most people are familiar with this photograph.  What I did not learn until researching this post was, according to Wikipedia, this photo was “taken in 1980 the morning before Lennon’s death.”

(Click on images to view them individually.)

© All rights reserved for all the artworks by Annie Leibovitz.

The following information is from Wikipedia, so as with everything you read, read it with a grain of salt:

“Neither Leibovitz nor (Susan) Sontag had ever previously publicly disclosed whether the relationship was familial, a friendship, or romantic in nature.  However, when Leibovitz was interviewed for her 2006 book A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, she said the book told a number of stories, and that “with Susan, it was a love story.”

In the preface to the new book, she speaks in greater detail about her romantic/intellectual relationship with Sontag, briefly discussing a book they were working on together and describes how assembling her new book was part of the grieving process after Sontag’s death.

In an October 17, 2006 interview with Tom Ashbrook on NPR’s On Point, Leibovitz acknowledged that she and the late Sontag were romantically involved.  Ashbrook asked Leibovitz directly why she kept using vague terms like “companion” to describe Sontag, instead of more specific ones like “partner” or “lover”.  Leibovitz finally said that “lover” was fine with her. She later repeated the assertion in stating to the San Francisco Chronicle: “Call us ‘lovers’.  I like ‘lovers.’ You know, ‘lovers’ sounds romantic.  I mean, I want to be perfectly clear.  I love Susan.”

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And let me be perfectly clear, I love Annie Leibovitz and her artistry.   Regardless of Ms. Leibovitz’ sexual preferences, or maybe in large part because of her ability to see diverse sexuality, she can see others’ uncommon beauties.  And she has made those qualities visible to anyone who is willing to see them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_Smith

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Thompson

If you would like to see more artworks, showing Annie Leibovitz’ perceptions of women, here is one more post:

http://sexualityinart.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/annie-leibovitz-perceptions-of-women/

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Sexuality in Art – New Thumbnail Indices

Thumbnail indices are being added to this blog.   To see the first one, click on the “Thumbnail Index A-D” link in the above toolbar. 

~ a person’s art is their heart on their sleeve.

Humor of the Day – Sexuality in Star Wars. Part 1 of 2.

I only intended this to be a one-shot post, but as I was gathering material, there was just too much material for one post (and there’s probably volumes more material, but I will start with just two posts). 

George Lucas intentionally hid Carrie Fisher’s beautiful figure in the first Star Wars film, wrapping down her breasts and placing them behind layers of clothing. 

Princess Leia’s attire became more sporty and sensual as the series progressed. 

Carrie Fisher commented about her ill-fitting “Return of the Jedi” costume’s inability to cover all her private parts at all times by saying, “If you were standing behind me, you could see all the way to Florida.” 

© All rights reserved for all the artworks by Lucasfilm Ltd, Dark Horse Comics, etc.

Tomorrow:  new post(s), including Sexuality in Star Wars. Part 2 of 2, which includes several bold and brave modern day Princess Leias, Mr. Lucas’ “What were you thinking?” story choices in the original Star Wars movie (don’t act like you don’t know what I’m referring to), and finally a few sincerely lovely images from the classic series. 

The Star Wars Humor Post Trilogy: 1 2 3

May the Force be with you . . . always.

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Humor of the Day – Windows Vista “We can rebuild him. We have the technology.”

If you are old enough, or pop-culturally educated enough, to get the reference in this post’s title, congratulations.  If not, an internet search should get you up to speed.  For anyone that is curious, this blog is created on a PC, using Windows XP Home Edition.  And despite Apple’s inferences that PCs & Windows are not as creative as Apple’s OS & systems, I’ll just say that while that may be true, I’ve yet to run into the creative limits of the Windows/PC environment.

I thought I’d pass on a couple links and suggestions as the new Windows Vista OS is coming soon:

1)  If you upgrade to it now, your software applications will work slower, regardless of how fast your PC is, and regardless of whether you have a single or dual core processor.  http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128305-page,1-c,vistalonghorn/article.html

2)  If you’d like to see some of the new up-front features that Vista is incorporating into its desktop and functionality, here are some of those features and 3rd party software providers who can add the individual simulated features to your current XP operating system, if you think one is particularly cool and you’d like to give it a go (ahead of loading Vista).  I haven’t tried any of them, so I don’t know if they work and I’m not recommending any of them.  http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128537/article.html

To run capably, you’ll need 1 GB of high speed RAM for Vista, and realistically it sounds like you’ll want 2 GBs and more.  On a personal level, I’ll probably wait for about a year for hardware & Vista drivers to continue to improve before moving to Vista.  I say all this because I love technology and I think it gives us a chance to make a better world.  I hope to improve anyone’s ability to get the most out of the technology that is available.