Speed of Life

Jimmy Fallon leads the cast of Glee along With Tina Fey, Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Jorge Garcia (Hurley on Lost), Randy Jackson (American Idol) in a "Gleeful" rendition of Springsteen's "Born to Run" in the opening skit from last night's Emmy's.

Sometimes music is the balm that soothes our pain. I am remembering my lost nephew Luke one year after his passing and sending musical empathy to my brother Kent Chadwick and his wife Cathy. Peace

By Gregg Chadwick "All men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion." - President Thomas Jefferson Let's Define Our Terms About the Proposed Islamic Center on Park Place I. Is the Proposed Islamic Center at Ground Zero? No, the new building will not be at the the former site of the World Trade Center and cannot be seen from Ground Zero. II. What is the Proposed Plan for the Building? The Park 51 Group has proposed a thirteen story building which will include: 1. Recreation spaces and fitness facilities (swimming pool, gym, basketball court) 2. 500-seat auditorium 3. Restaurant and Culinary School 4. Cultural amenities: Art exhibitions, Musical Performances 5. Education programs 6. Library, reading room and art studios 7. Childcare services 8. A prayer area ( On the thirteenth floor will be an Islamic prayer room which will be run be run separately from Park 51 but open to the New York Community) 9. September 11th mem...

photo by Richard Perry / New York Times Pictured in this New York Times photo from 2009 is my courageous family member Hannah Johnson tearing up as she applauds a New Jersey Senate committee vote on a bill to legalize gay marriage. The bill passed a committee vote but stalled in the Senate. The struggle continues in New Jersey and in California. (San Francisco, CA, August 16, 2010) — Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Proposition 8 proponents’ motion to stay U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision, which means that same-sex couples in California will not be able to marry while the case is on appeal. However, the Ninth Circuit put the appeal on a fast track and specifically directed that the Prop 8 proponents address "why the appeal should not be dismissed for lack of Article III standing” in their opening brief. ________________________________________ Statement on the from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell ”Every additional day that couples must...

In spite of its brevity, Daoud Hari's "The Translator" is an important book. Daoud's words courageously shed light on the horrors taking place in Darfur. On July 14, 2008 the International Criminal Court in the Hague charged Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, with ten counts of war crimes, three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. The ICC Prosecution charges that President al-Bashir "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part" three tribal groups in Darfur because of their ethnicity. As I write this in August 2010, over two years after the publication of "The Translator", President al-Bashir has not been brought to justice and the situation in the Sudan has become increasingly untenable. After a brief cease fire in February 2010, the killings in Darfur continue. Daoud Hari remains exiled in the United States where his writing and speaking engagements continue to gather international sup...

Airborne Toxic Event's Song for Neda The Call - ندا -Neda , originally uploaded by greggchadwick . Gregg Chadwick The Call - ندا -Neda 36"x48" oil on linen 2009

The evidence presented at trial and the position of the representatives of the State of California show that an injunction against enforcement of Proposition 8 is in the public’s interest. Accordingly, the court concludes that the public interest counsels against entry of the stay proponents seek. None of the factors the court weighs in considering a motion to stay favors granting a stay. Accordingly, proponents’ motion for a stay is DENIED. Doc #705. The clerk is DIRECTED to enter judgment forthwith. That judgment shall be STAYED until August 18, 2010 at 5PMPDT at which time defendants and all persons under their control or supervision shall cease to apply or enforce Proposition 8. IT IS SO ORDERED. VAUGHN R WALKER United States District Chief Judge Full Decision at: Same Sex Marriage Stay Denied

REMEDIES Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates their due process and equal protection rights and that they will continue to suffer these constitutional violations until state officials cease enforcement of Proposition 8. California is able to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, as it has already issued 18,000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples and has not suffered any demonstrated harm as a result,see FF 64-66; moreover, California officials have chosen not to defend Proposition 8 in these proceedings. Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently enjoining its enforcement; prohibiting the official defendants from applying or enforcing Proposition 8 and directing the official defendants that all persons under their control or supervision shall not apply or enforce Proposition 8. The clerk is DIRECTED to enter judgment without bond ...

Kamila Shamsie's novel "Burnt Shadows" uses a cinemascope vision to portray a Japanese woman's struggle to understand her life in a spinning world where historic forces seem to lead her and her family into an inevitable showdown with fate. Hiroko carries the memories and scars imprinted into her skin from the atomic blast in Nagasaki in 1945 from Japan to India to post-partition Pakistan. Her son Raza carries the memories into a politically charged New York where the events of September 11, 2001 still loom in our headlines. Shamsie deftly leads the reader through the haunted landscapes of the last sixty years and by distilling chilling historical events through the vision of one family her words shed light into the shadows of time. An important work that I highly recommend. More on the author: Kamila Shamsie: British Council Contemporary Authors Find "Burnt Shadows"

Christopher Nolan's "Inception" is the box office smash of the summer of 2010 which is indicative of the film's place in the new century. Whether the film will stand alongside "Citizen Kane" or "Taxi Driver" is up to the future to decide. But it can be argued that Nolan's film provides a necessary contemporary conduit for the questions: "What is reality?" and "Who decides what reality is?" The Persistence of Being Gregg Chadwick 36"x24" oil on linen 2010

An August surprise from U2. Listen with the crowd waiting for the Torino show as the band runs through a new song and others during the soundcheck. Rumor has it that Miss Sarajevo will also be played on this leg of the tour ...

Gregg Chadwick Las Piedras del Cielo 16"x20" oil on linen 2010 "From the top they could make out, apart from the canyon, some small boulders which seemed to be as high as a man. Those who went down and who reached them swore that they were taller than the great tower of Seville." - Pedro de Casteneda, notes from the Coronado Expedition "I have heard rumors of visitors who were disappointed. The same people will be disappointed at the Day of Judgment. In fact, the Grand Canyon is a sort of landscape Day of Judgment. It is not a show place, a beauty spot, but a revelation" - J. B. Priestley My latest paintings gather thoughts and images of time, history and place. On a day when a federal judge blocks the imposition of a biased l...

Gregg Chadwick Die Kathedrale Der Bucher (The Cathedral of Books) 20"x16" oil on linen 2010 I am back from Berlin steeped in imagery and inspiration and new work. Today, books are on my mind as my latest painting was inspired by the Selexyz Dominicanen , a bookstore in Maastricht, the Netherlands, located in a deconsecrated Dominican Church. Also, Michael Krasny interviewed Phil Cousineau about his latest book Wordcatcher which includes over twenty images of my artworks inspired by Phil's marvelous word histories. Phil Cousineau Catches Words with Michael Krasny

Gregg Chadwick The Persistence of Being 36"x24" oil on linen 2010

Gregg Chadwick 24"x36" oil on linen 2010

Kent Chadwick in a Saffron Hug Bob Chadwick in Uniform Ralph Heilemann in DC9 Hat The Furrow -WS Merwin Did I think it would abide as it was forever all that time ago the turned earth in the old garden where I stood in spring remembering spring in another place that had ceased to exist and the dug roots kept giving up their black tokens their coins and bone buttons and shoe nails made by hands and bits of plates as the thin clouds of that season slipped past gray branches on which the early white petals were catching their light and I thought I knew something of age then my own age which had conveyed me to there and the ages of the trees and the walls and houses from before my coming and the age of the new seeds as I set each one in the ground to begin to remember what to become and the order in which to return and even the other age into which I was passing all the time while I was thinking...

Remarks by the President to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill Full Transcript of Speech from the Oval Office June 15, 2010 8:01 P.M. EDT Good evening. As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I’ve returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens. On April 20th, an explosion ripped through BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, about 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven workers lost their lives. Seventeen others were injured. And soon, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the ocean, oil began spewing into the water. Because there has never been a leak this size at this depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology. ...

"June 09, 2010 — What if we could make a difference by doing something simple? A bunch of us walked into a bookstore in downtown Washington, DC, sat down and started chanting OM. Here's what happened." BuddhaFest "Om" Flashmob in a Washington DC Bookstore Produced by Cory Wilson DC's First Buddhist Film Festival runs from June 17th until June 20th. SCHEDULE All events at the Katzen Arts Center at American University unless otherwise noted on the schedule. A few events will be held across the street at the Kay Spiritual Life Center. Location 4400 Massachusetts Ave, Washington, DC, 20016 THURSDAY - JUNE 17 6:30 PM | Opening Reception: Featuring contemporary Asian refreshments from Mie N Yu of Georgetown and an opening ceremony led by Tibetan Drupon Tinley Ningpo. 8:00 PM | Opening Film: Cherry Blossoms FRIDAY - JUNE 18 4:30 PM | FREE SCREENING: Fire Under the Snow 7:00 PM | Program: Tara Brach and Lama Surya Das Living Buddha - Awakening in...

From the curator: Murmurs New Paintings By Gregg Chadwick Artwalk Culver City 2010 “In Gregg Chadwick’s paintings there is an elegiac tone, a kind of nostalgia for a manifestation of the purely spiritual that most of us can never hope to attain. The paintings are truly captivating in that they invite us irresistibly into their spaces and hold the attention there in their swirl of light and color, suggesting inexhaustible depths of experience for the eye to explore.” -Peter Clothier It is my pleasure to feature Gregg Chadwick’s artwork to a growing audience at the Artwalk Culver City 2010. Chadwick’s vision is global and inclusive. The paintings in Murmurs encourage viewers to travel into their haunting beauty. Fittingly, within the past year Chadwick’s paintings have entered collections in Tokyo, Rio, Paris, and Amsterdam as well as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. Chadwick is currently at work on paintings for a major exhibition slated to open in October 2010 at the Manifesta M...

The Call - ندا -Neda , originally uploaded by greggchadwick . Gregg Chadwick The Call - ندا -Neda 36"x48" oil on linen 2009

The Call - ندا -Neda , originally uploaded by greggchadwick . Gregg Chadwick The Call - ندا -Neda 36"x48" oil on linen 2009

Louise Bourgeois photographed in 1990 behind her marble sculpture Eye to Eye (1970) Photo Raimon Ramis © Adagp, Paris 2008 "I have been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful." - Louise Bourgeois The artist Louise Bourgeois has died at 98 on Monday at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. It seemed that she would live forever. Her career has been historic. Holland Cotter has just written in the New York Times that "her psychologically charged abstract sculptures, drawings and prints had a galvanizing effect on younger artists, particularly women." I have been inspired by Louise Bourgeois' work for quite some time, having encountered her sculptures for the first time when I was a High School student taking classes at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC. Her life ends but the mystery embodied in her artwork lives on. A recent bio provides the details: "Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 to a family of tapestry restorers...

Gregg Chadwick Murmurs 36"x48" oil on linen 2010

Andy Warhol Portrait of Dennis Hopper silkscreen on canvas 1971 “The American art world often likes to put artists into boxes. You’re an artist, not a filmmaker. You’re a photographer, not a painter. But Dennis shows you can blur those boundaries, which is very current and exciting.” -Jeffrey Deitch Dennis Hopper has died at 74 just weeks before an exhibit of his work will open at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Over the years Hopper has created paintings and photographs along with his films. His photographs are noteworthy because of his unique access to his portrait subjects such as Andy Warhol and because of his romantic, brooding aesthetic. Dennis Hopper Double Standard silver gelatin print 1961 Jori Finkel in the Los Angeles Times noted that " most big museum exhibitions take years to organize, but new director Jeffrey Deitch had the idea for this show just a couple of months ago when visiting Julian Schnabel, a longtime friend of Hopper." “We’re rushing...

by Gregg Chadwick "L.A. is a city where people come to find themselves and explore new ways of thinking and being. They have a longing for an understanding of soul, and find themselves drawn to Jung." -Nancy Furlotti, (co-president of the Philemon Foundation which financed the the translation of The Red Book ) At the Hammer Museum until June 6th is the exhibition The Red Book of C. G. Jung: Creation of a New Cosmology . On display for the first time on the west coast is psychologist Carl Jung’s (1875-1961) Red Book . Many scholars consider Jung's Red Book the most influential unpublished work in psychology. The Hammer Museum explains that "Jung also considered the Red Book to be his most important work, or as Jung described it, the " prima materia for a lifetime’s work ." Jung's massive illuminated volume has spent most of its existence in a Swiss safe deposit box. Only a select group has ever been allowed to view Jung's Red Book . T...

Gregg Chadwick Book of Twilight (Crepusculario ) 16"x16" oil on linen 2010

JMW Turner Regulus 91 x 124 cm. oil on canvas 1828-29, finished 1837 Tate Gallery, London © Tate "I saw that the sun was a lump of white standing out like the boss of a shield." -Sir John Gilbert (after watching Turner paint on Varnishing Day) Last night the final episode of Lost was broadcast on ABC. After a six year run the series ends almost as it began with a close up of Jack's face. Six years ago, Jack opened an eye to the strange new world of the island. Last night his eye closed to the mystery. Satisfyingly, the mystery remains for us. The intersection of quantum physics and myth that seemed to engender the island remains tantalizingly out of reach. Jack's father may have walked offscreen into a heavenly light in the slide sideways/ slide metaphysical finale but on the island the tangible wreckage of a plane remains in the final shot before the credits roll. At the start of this season, Chad W Post on the WSJ's Speakeasy wrote,"So if Lost wraps up ...

by Gregg Chadwick John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925) A Street in Venice 29 5/8 x 20 5/8 in. (75.1 x 52.4 cm) oil on canvas ca. 1880–82 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915” is currently on view at LACMA and unfortunately closes today. The exhibition includes more than eighty paintings which range in date from the Revolutionary War era to just before World War I. The stories are myriad and the paintings are narrative heavy and engaging.The museum is open till 7 pm and if you haven't seen the exhibition already, rush on down today. Barbara Weinberg curated the exhibition “American Stories" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The website that the Metropolitan Museum put together for the exhibit is rich in detail and I enjoyed the audio elements with Barbara Weinberg and guests. The podc...