White Lady Funerals

The following blog must be partially taken as a joke. It is not written to purposefully offend "White Lady Funerals" and any claims of racial bias or bad taste are purely of the opinion of the blogger.

Some of you bloggers out there may have seen a particular type of funeral ads by the "White Lady Funeral" company that has been circulating the television sphere. Now, perhaps it's because I've been watching a lot of Six Feet Under lately (which is worthy of a blog in itself) but I took particular notice to this one funeral company that was offering it's services.

Their mission statement (as seen on their website, click here to see more) is as follows: "Our aim is to provide excellent funeral service to families of every race and religion. We are a dedicated team of women who offer the assurance of absolute support and professional attention with genuine care. We are committed to the training of our staff in all areas of funeral service with the vision of providing the best service available in this honourable profession. Because our families are our highest priority, our mission is to provide this service with honesty, care and respect."

From their advertisements on television, the services offered are that of white ladies being grief counselors, funeral directors and pallbearer's while wearing all white and disgustingly ugly hats. Now the first thing that comes to my mind when I see this ad is that it is offensive. I understand it is called "White Lady Funerals" because they are women dressed in white. But let's get a little beneath the surface here. While it may have been no intention to be racially prejudicial, (as they claim in their mission statement, they serve "every race and religion") the idea of a black family sending out invitations for a family member's funeral to be held a "White Lady Funerals" seems beyond comical and quite unlikely.

It's interesting when you include colour representation into the mix. It is accepted that most people generally wear black to a funeral. These "White Lady Funeral" staff members are in all white. The colour black usually symbolises darkness, death, unhappiness, evil. White is the colour of purity, peace, innocence and good. So, the idea of "White Lady Funerals" inadvertently says that the colour of their uniform symbolically combats against the evil of death (black) and will bring peace to the grieving process.

The idea of women wearing white may seem innocent enough, as does the point of the business in providing a service that is done best by women (as seen in their view), but how you would feel if you weren't either white nor a woman. It's the name that is the problem here. It goes back to such archaic and racist ideas, mostly segregation. The name implies that it is ONLY white women who can provide this service, and perhaps the only gender and race it will provide for. I'm sure that the services of the "White Lady Funerals" are quite sufficient, but I think they may need to seriously rethink their name if they want to represent and serve a wider base and come into the 21st century, where we have apparently come so far when it comes to civil rights.

So while it may seem like I'm calling "White Lady Funerals" white supremacists, think about the reaction it creates in you, or people you know. Are you offended? Have you been to a "White Lady Funeral"? Is this a fair reaction or an unfair and exaggerated one?

Would the real Jackie O please stand up

Now, I know this may sound condescending to some, but television and radio personality Jackie O (Of the Kyle and Jackie radio program, and host of several horrible shows including Big Brother) did not originate the name "Jackie O".

It is startling, but I do wonder how many people (mainly of the internet savvy generation) are aware of the original Jackie O. That is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. See the picture to your left. Thats here. Widow of one of the most popular American Presidents ever John F. Kennedy. Was with him as he was assassinated. Then 5 years later married billionaire Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

The Jackie O of Australia (born Jacqueline Ellen Last, first married name O'Neill, second married name Henderson) chose to adopt the name that is synonymous with class, grace and very chic fashion for what ever reasons, but the idea stuck. When young whipper snappers are bobbing along to their groovy tunes at the local happening and the name Jackie O pops up, surely the first picture that will pop into their young, wacky, zany heads will be of the host of Australian Princess. And in my humble opinion, that is very sad. Long may the real Jackie O rest in peace.

R.I.P. the REAL Jackie O (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis)
1929-1994

And naturally, of course, I am interested to know how many of you out there had heard of the original Jackie O, or did you think that she was the originator? (like the terminator!)

I want to be an artist...

Well, the truth is that I'm settling down into the idea of being a writer. That seems to be my current calling. Mind you, it's quite hard trying to work out what you want to do for a living. Luckily I have a bit more time to make up my mind, and so until then, I will ponder meaningless ideas, such as....

I want to be a bohemian artist, who is surrounded by nymphs and gypsies. The kind of people who just seem to move around in packs, with a lot of wine, cheese, art, canvasses, smoke, incense, and Spanish music playing in the background. All the while producing art, whether it be on a canvass or a piece of writing, that has depth, beauty, a lot of secret coding, and lots of meaning and is extremely important and influential and will be remembered for all time. Just a few prerequisites.

Perhaps I need to find some website that will inform me on how to be an bohemian artist. Not that I necessarily want to be a painter, or anything like that. It would be cool, but unrealistic. But I would love to be surrounded by other bohemian artists.

This being said, I see the following things as necessary to become apart of a bohemian revolution, and will possibly take them into consideration in my efforts to become one:

• Move to Paris
• Become friends with gypsies, nymphs, artists
  
• Take lots of weird drugs
• Drink a lot of absinthe
• Have a lot of 'high' sexual experiences
• Spend a lot of time in art supply shops and studio lofts
• Change my name to something much more stylish and artsy
  
• Find a cause to fight for, none of this war and climate change bullshit. Let's fight for something a little more original and less pussy-ish. Like the rights for smokers! (Well, something along those lines)
• Let the art flow....
  

Is anything sacred?

(full story here)

Poor Bill. At least that's what they're calling him. The Google car caught him at his most vulnerable. Bill attended the funeral of his friend, got pissed and passed out in the gutter. And Google cam caught the results.

Privacy? It's almost like CCTV, broadcast on the internet. I know of people who are in these Google images, including my own grandmother. (For anyone who doesn't know, Google went around taking 360 degree angle photographs of every street and then uploaded these photos to Google maps. I bet you want to check out your street now.)

Everything is out there now. I bet you'll catch a lot of cars in places where they aren't supposed to be...and possibly more scandalous things. What rights to we have as citizens now in this new technological age? I start to wonder.... It's a mad, mad, mad world!

Provocative Prize

What you see to your left is an entry/nominee by Sydney photographer Dean Sewell for this year's Blake prize, the prestigious award for religious art.

I have to say that I fell in love with this picture as soon as I saw it. It just so beautifully captures and articulates the modern day savior that the media turned party boy Corey into. I say savior in only a Christ-like-imagery type of way, leaving all moral and ethical judgments aside. This is not about whether Corey is Christ or the devil.

For those who don't know about Corey...well, there's not much to say. A 15-year-old Victorian threw a big party, got on the news, and the media decided to make a huge deal out of it that only ended up providing too much time and money for one hardly interesting, party throwing teen. It is interesting to wonder why Corey did become such a sensation. Were all of the interviews just another type of freak show in which we (the audience) look at society's outcasts to generally feel better about ourselves?

The picture speaks to the current zeitgeist of celebrity, showing how the media, and I guess how society too, ends up inadvertently holding a celebrity to such a Christ like position by simply looking too long. Not that I am saying that every person saw Corey as a modern day Jesus Christ (in fact, quite the opposite), but the picture encapsulates how the "15 minutes of fame" can so vehemently tune in a public's gaze.

I just love it. But perhaps you disagree. Let me know what you think...

Lost in Translation

*Picked up from an article written for USA Today (read more here)

Movies that have an interesting foreign title (if not hilarious)

THE DARK KNIGHT

• The Knight of the Night (Mexico)
  

GET SMART

• Max the Menace (France)
• Agent Smart: Casino Totale (Italy)
• Is the Spy Capable or Not? (Taiwan)
• Confused Spy (China)
• Super Agent 86 (Mexico)

KNOCKED UP

• Slightly Pregnant (Roman Catholic Peru)
• One Night, Big Belly (China)
  

Miley and Billy Ray, sitting in a tree...

I shall make a clear disclaimer before I proceed. I have not really watched any of the television shows that I may mention, and have only seen Miley Cyrus in limited interviews and such. I do not fall into the demographic of what her fan base is. What I shall say may be offensive to some, but is purely opinion, not fact.

The photos surrounding this blog show the bucktoothed teenage sensation Miley Cyrus. Don't know her? Perhaps the name Billy Ray Cyrus rings a bell. If not, then Acky-Breaky-Heart and the mullet of the 90s should ring some bells (look left). Well, as everyone seems to know, Billy Ray has a bucktoothed singing teenage superstar of a daughter, star of the Disney hit show Hannah Montana.

Now there has been much controversy over several things with Miley, but most famously has been the photo shoot with legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz. What I found so interesting was that there was such a hubbub about a 15-year-old with a sheet wrapped around what seems to be her tiny bony frame, and yet hardly any mention of what I would call a controversial photo. Of course I understand where the cries of concern come from regarding the "topless-sheet" photograph, but enough has been said about that. Let's check out the one with her father (look below). Now, how many girls would you see posing in their father's groin. EWWWWW!!!!!!!!!

Not I'm not suggesting anything incestuous (a la 60 minutes' father daughter couple from Adelaide style) but I see this as a highly sexualized photograph. Perhaps I am looking too far, but I find that if such a cry is made over the first picture, then why ignore the sexualized second picture. It's also interesting that the Billy Ray/Miley picture has not been as criticized. For some reason the media went with the scoop that they went with. Adding to the controversy and pandemonium was the Cyrus family claiming to be unaware that they were conscious during the photo shoot. They were not happy with the results. This prompted several questions such as "Well, why did you let the photo be taken?"

Regardless, I find neither offensive. But plenty did, and especially Disney. Can't be overtly sexual at Disney, which many applaud as affirmative action in regards to positive female role models. But what was the point of these photographs, I wonder. Was it Leibovitz's intention to be overtly sexual (at least with the first picture, the second is just a dirty mystery to me) or to show something else, perhaps the opposite; innocence, or a conundrum or paradox of both? I do not know, and by suggesting what is sexual or non sexual really just gets into the philosophical debate over what art is and the whole "art is in the eye of the beholder" and "it's all relative" arguments.

However, let's just closely look at the Billy Ray/Miley photo, and ask most daughters and most fathers if they would be keen to reenact this photo. I can imagine the answer.