Computer Programs and Recommendations

Both my desktop and laptop were experiencing problems recently. Trend Micro, a combination firewall and anti-virus program, was slowing down each computer considerably. It seemed as though the file for Trend Micro had gotten so large with its various updates that it was taking up much of the gig of Ram on my desktop. When I had about six Word documents opened up and attempted to save one, after altering the margins, the process of saving that file caused the computer to come to a virtual standstill for up to a minute. I have since deleted Trend Micro (its subscription was about to expire) and added PC Tools Firewall Plus, which is freeware available at Major Geeks , and I have found the performance of each computer has improved tremendously. It’s now evident that I have gotten Turbo (10mbps) added to Road Runner (7mbps), which can be acquired for about ten additional dollars a month. The extra speed is worth the expense. I have also added the PC Tools Anti-Virus Free Edition, which is freeware available at Major Geeks as well.

I found it unfortunate that Ad Aware updated its programming in 2007. The previous version worked without any problems. Once I discovered that updates were no longer available for the previous version, I installed the 2007 version and experienced a lot of problems, such as the program not loading, despite repeated efforts, when I wanted to delete cookies, malware, and spyware. In an effort to find a replacement, I went through several different programs before I discovered Super AntiSpyware, the free edition, which is also available at Major Geeks .

Super AntiSpyware, PC Tools Firewall Plus, and PC Tools Anti-Virus get my recommendation.

Myself as a Tree

My spring semester finally came to a close last Wednesday. I was thinking the other day about how wonderful it would be cultivating the life of a graduate student this summer, this is, taking lengthy bike rides through the city and engaging in a regular habit of writing. Unfortunately, I will be teaching four sections of college English this summer, beginning in a week’s time. Nearly all of my classes are already full and have been for about a month. Sometimes I feel as weary as the box elder in the picture I’m enclosing; it’s located in a park about a couple of miles from where I live.



***************

I’m hoping to submit my poetry manuscript to yet another chapbook contest before the end of the month. I’ve been thinking of changing the title and reexamining the poems. It has been a year since I last submitted any of my poems. Unlike Jilly Dybka , I haven’t yet sworn off all poetry contests even though I know that my manuscript hasn’t been given much if any attention at some of the contests I’ve entered. I had considered entering a recent chapbook contest that a friend from graduate school oversees, but such an action would have been unethical. A blogger named Anne Haines has her chapbook coming out from Finishing Line. My chapbook was accepted by Finishing Line, too, almost two years ago. I declined the offer because I couldn’t see myself getting the necessary sales prior to publication. My wife and agree that I probably should have bought those copies myself and then sold them at readings after my chapbook came out, assuming, of course, that we could have come up with the money. But I would prefer having my book accepted without stipulations. Wish me luck.

The Wounded Cavalier

Although the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood can be conceived as an apolitical art in which painters like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne Jones present their romantic views of women, William Shakespeare Burton's The Wounded Cavalier exhibits a more political view of the world. The Puritan in this painting reveals in his seeming indifference to the cavalier's wounds and possible death the hypocrisy of Christianity, a faith which, according to scripture, is supposed to exhibit love and concern for others.



Clicking on the painting will enlarge it so that it can be examined more closely. This link has a detailed explanation of the painting.

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping

BBC News reports that Lucian Freud’s painting Benefits Supervisor Sleeping has been sold at auction in New York for $33.6 million, which is the most a work by a living artist has fetched at auction. A reclining nude, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping depicts a woman asleep on a sofa. This particular pose alludes to those classic images, such as Giorgione's Sleeping Venus , Titan’s Venus of Urbino , and Manet’s Olympia . Each subsequent artist attempts to alter the traditional pose depicted by Georgione. The woman staring directly toward the viewer, seemingly unconcerned at her nudity but for having her hand placed over her pubic mound, breaks with tradition in Manet’s painting because Manet has chosen to depict a woman without the softness more typical of an idealized view. Freud has altered the tradition, too, in his painting of this large woman. The sleeping model seemingly alludes to Georgione; this sleeper, however, seems more self-absorbed, with her face pushed into the arm of the sofa signifying a deep sleep in which she is unaware of anyone else. The woman’s hand on her right breast asks the viewer to think of the woman erotically, causing the viewer to wrestle with his/her conception of feminine beauty and eroticism. It would seem as though the money spent on this painting represents a change in how Americans perceive feminine beauty.

In an Artist's Studio

Unable to update this blog because of the pressure of grading essays and the upcoming end of the semester, I am adding, in the meantime, an Italian sonnet by Christina Rossetti. For an example of the art she refers to, see the paintings of Jane Morris by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Thanks to the following link for this poem.

In an Artist's Studio
Christina Rossetti

One face looks out from all his canvasses,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans;
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer greens,
A saint, an angel; — every canvass means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.


Christina Rossetti is a better poet than her brother. Gabriel Rossetti is known primarily as a painter and a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of English painters who attempted to capture nature as honestly and as exactly as possible. Gabriel Rossetti's relationship with Jane Morris is one of the famous romances in literary history. I think he actually preferred that she remain married to William Morris because it meant that his love for her only had to go so far and was not stained by the hassles of everyday life. It didn't help that Rossetti struggled for money more than William Morris. Rossetti's biography is chock full of his pleas for lucre, something that we poets know intimately. Some of us, unfortunately, devote whatever time and energy that could go toward the writing to that need for money.