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A portrait of the artist as an old man

I highly recommend The Cats of Mirikitani, a deeply moving documentary on homeless New York artist Jimmy Mirikitani.


I highly recommend The Cats of Mirikitani, a deeply moving documentary on homeless New York artist Jimmy Mirikitani. At first the film is an engaging and often humorous story of friendship between the filmmaker and her eccentric subject, but as the life of this eighty-year-old painter comes into focus, so does his tragic place at the center of world events: the Japanese American internment, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the September 11 terrorist attacks. (The burning Twin Towers, clearly visible from Mirikitani's patch of sidewalk, provide a grim backdrop to the film's middle portion.) Like Mirikitani's own childlike sketches, The Cats of Mirikitani begins simply and intimately, and yet gradually reveals the harrowing themes at the heart of its artist — the pain of memory, the responsibility of governments to their citizens, and the collateral damage of war, measured in ruined lives and ruined ambitions. The film is playing internationally in select cities and should air in condensed form on PBS later this year.

The Cats of Mirikitani

Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

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Use it and lose it


Capris, flats, a new bag? Perhaps it was the outdoors, a trip to the local nursery to spruce up your neglected greenery. Maybe you are the traveling type, with spring, bringing on thoughts of water, sand, passports, and airport security lines.

Remember when spring used to mean putting on last season's jeans, getting out the broom and finally facing all of that stuff you had somehow accumulated during your hibernation? What happens when you simply can't let go of the Mickey Mouse towels Aunt Madge gave you (she thinks you are still her darling 12-year-old) or the bags of too-small designer clothes given to you by your best friend after helping her clean out her closets?

Taking a tip from the House & Home section of Thursday's New York Times, how about a storage unit? Yes, we have all seen them, pseudo-garages lining our nation's highways, their signs advertising their specialties: climate-controlled, secured premises with 24-hour access, all for less than $59 per month. Blooming like mushrooms after a spring rain, storage units provide us with yet another means of hanging onto "stuff."

The benefits of storage units are many. We can streamline our living space, giving the appearance of simplicity. The increased space provides us with the opportunity to purchase a few more of life's necessities. The proverbial "quick fix," storage units remind me of the latest dieting fads. Regardless of its name, Atkins, South Beach (remember when it was a destination?), or promises, one pill a day is all you need to burn your stubborn fat; diets, like storage units, are temporary solutions.

Unfortunately for those of us unwilling to give up the ghost, diet plans and storage units both require the outlay of some bucks. The first step is to determine what it is that you will be storing. Perhaps it will be your high-end valuables; think grandma's Chippendales. Will it be stuff that can actually be used again, like the king-sized mattress you are tired of crawling over? How about all that stuff that your mom finally got tired of holding onto?Your costs will depend on a couple of factors: how much stuff, its value (monetary/sentimental), and your needs (can you really maneuver that king-sized mattress into an elevator and down a hall?). A quick trip on the Internet will locate any number of storage facilities ready to do your bidding. A 5 x 5, upstairs by the elevator, will run you about $47 a month. If drive-up access is more your style, you can rent a 10 x 10 for $143 per month. Okay, it is cheaper than buying a larger house; however, at $564 and $1,716 annually, is it really a solution?

Storage units and diets. Quick fixes. What are we avoiding? Sure, it's tough to admit that you made a mistake when you bought a king-sized bed knowing that a move was in your future. It is most definitely easier to swallow a pill (and the hype) than parking your car at the end of the lot and walking a bit more. Who has the time to go through those boxes mom has been saving from the minute the stick turned blue? Why do you have to read the label of yet another box of cereal? Why shouldn't your life, body, home, be adulation-worthy?

Like a liposuction gone bad, our homes, storage units, lives can expand only so far. Filled with stuff, we lose our newfound tidiness. Why are we so willing to settle for the temporary? What it is that prevents us from tackling life head on? If we can spend the time and energy locating and following the latest diet plan, if we are willing to gather our goods for the journey to the storage unit, could it be possible to take the next step? Let go of the "what ifs" and go ahead and display the Chippendales, tell your best friend that her clothes are too small, take the stairs, accept yourself.

Trite and true, life is a journey. No matter how many ways we try to turn it into a destination, like the blood flowing through our veins, life continues until it stops. And that storage facility? I wear a size 6.

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Every girl deserves a happy ending


A Reuters article announced that the Walt Disney Company will welcome its first black animated heroine to join the ranks of Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, and the other Disney Princesses. “The Frog Princess” will be released in 2009, starring Maddy, a girl from the French Quarter in New Orleans. 

The Disney Princesses, in total, have raised over $3 billion dollars in retail sales across the country since 1999. That doesn’t include data from the individual princesses, as they were marketed to young girls. Effectively, this number recognizes the willingness of our society to buy into the happy endings that Disney films promise.

But these happy endings became multicultural only recently. Before Jasmine, the first Disney character of color, was introduced in 1992, all of the princesses Disney marketed to global youth were white: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle, and Ariel were familiar faces.

Disney has been heralded as a corporation dedicated to family entertainment and the wishes and dreams of all children. But without representatives from diverse ethnic groups, how can there be happy endings for all?

Furthermore, the company’s animated films, for a great deal of its history, showed only frail women. Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel all needed saving. So did Jasmine, but to a much lesser extent. Her frailty was far less pronounced. Until Mulan and Pocahontas were marketed, women seemed resigned to have their fairytale ending with a man tied to their hip, or at least predominantly responsible.

Hopefully, with the introduction of Maddy from New Orleans, all that will change. Dreams of a future free of hate and intolerance, the embodiment of the so-called villains that Disney constructs, have no color. Every girl deserves a chance for a happy ending, or at least a dream of one.

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Another Russian journalist dead


From Yahoo news: "A journalist [Ivan Safronov] who fell to his death from a fifth-story window had received threats while gathering material for a report claiming Russia planned to provide sophisticated weapons to Syria and Iran, his newspaper said Tuesday."

Maybe the Russian government doesn't even consider journalists worth the bullets anymore.

When in France, hide your cameraphone: "The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists."

This next piece happened here in America, in my own backyard, and it's disgusting: "Children stranded after immigration raid." I'm sure the same Republicans who endorse this kind of action against immigrants are the same ones who believe in family values and children having two parents. Well, now 100 children, including some infants, in New Bedford, Mass., do not. If one of the arrested happened to be the sole guardian of a child, he or she was released. The others could either place their children in foster care or with a friend or relative. Well, how accomodating and thoughtful. Wait, there's more — the company charged with employing (and treating inhumanely) these immigrants is Michael Bianco Inc., which manufactured "high-end leather goods for retailers including Coach Inc. and Timberland Co. before landing a $9.4 million military contract in 2003 to make survival vests." Do I really need to say more?

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Progress and pizza


CNN.com reports that Pizza Hut's Book It program is being "denounced" by critics for encouraging unhealthy eating habits. I was once a well-read and well-fed child on that program. Although I don't remember the specifics, basically you read a book, get a gold star, and with enough gold stars, you earn pizza. It's win-win.
Pizza Hut and their plump, calorie-laden slices are not the problem. Food like that never hurt anyone, big or small — if it's occasional and a reward for feeding the mind with a book. Give kids normal, healthy food otherwise and send them outside to play like we did back in my day (now I feel old. But when was the last time you saw kids on skateboards or building forts?), and there's no problem. Denying a child books and pizza — that's just wrong.

Yahoo News writes about homeschoolers having easier access to higher education, specifially private colleges and universities. Apparently, public schools are still difficult to get into if you were homeschooled (tell me about it), but there are just too many such students. Accommodations have to be made in the admissions office. I wish this had been the case back in the dark ages of homeschooling that was the 90s when I started. But I'm thrilled that the best opportunities are being offered now.

I've just learned that I. Lewis Libby has been found guilty of "obstruction, perjury, and lying to the FBI." I'm going to go jump up and down now.

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Flashbacks


Moving on. We all do at some point, often reluctantly. In this issue of InTheFray, we offer four perspectives on the timelessness of age, four flashbacks of a world that was and insights on the world that is.

ITF Travel Editor Michelle Caswell begins with advice on where not to spend your 30th birthday — unless, of course, you need A bad day in Cambodia to realize that aging isn’t half bad compared to living under the Khmer Rouge’s brutal regime. Speaking of getting older, ITF Contributing Writer Rhian Kohashi O’Rourke discovers that a woman with a head of white hair is not nearly as obsolete as young women fretting over that dreaded First gray hair seem to think.

We then turn to ITF Copy Chief Erin Marie Daly, who finds what has been lost in the world of digital music and, in the process, uncovers relics of the past in one of New York’s newest treasures, The Vintage DJ. And in Guatemala, James Rodriguez captures the pain and closure felt by families who lost relatives in the country’s 36-year internal conflict when they finally receive the deceased’s remains after a two-year wait.

Rounding out this month’s issue, Terry Lowenstein waxes poetic about the past and present while perusing a family photo album, observing fashion trends, and making the daily commute.

Coming next month: ITF’s take on the changing shape of language in the 21st century.

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

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Dirty words


"This could be the beginning of a movement. I forgive those young people who do not know their history, and I blame myself and my generation for not preparing you. But today we are going to know our history. We are not going to refer to ourselves by anything negative, the way the slave master referred to black people, using the n-word."
—New York City councilman Albert Vann, referring to the ban of the racial slur in New York City, which won the unanimous backing of the city council on February 28th.

The ban, however, is symbolic, and use of the slur will not incur punishment.

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