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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">On being "old"</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I don't fell much older than I did at 20. But tell that to a 25 year old when they are telling me</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">how things are today, that the culture has changed and I just don't see what has happened.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I'm working with a group of young people, all less than 25, that find my contributions to</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">system analysis and strategy developments, as well as risk management approach</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">really boring and irrelevant.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Wait until their thoughts catch up with 61 years of experience! </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">They will understand when reality bites them in the butt.</div><div><br></div>
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On Friday, September 27, 2019, 07:10:43 PM PDT, Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com> wrote:
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<div><div dir="ltr">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br clear="none"><br clear="none">I just have a few comments to make; at the age of 76 I should be entitled <br clear="none">to! :-) Aging, in the U.S., is the last refuge of violent caricaturing, <br clear="none">laughter, and ignorance in the mainstream media. Almost every episode, for <br clear="none">example, of Saturday Night Life, a comedy/political show, mocks the <br clear="none">"elderly" qua elderly, bumbling fools forgetting everything. There have <br clear="none">been similar skits on Samantha Bee (for all her astute analysis of <br clear="none">gender issues, she doesn't hesitate to mock older Americans), Stephen <br clear="none">Colbert, and the like. In advertising, "grandparents" seem to have one <br clear="none">role, taking care of grandchildren and occasionally taking walks by <br clear="none">themselves into a sunset. It's violent, disgusting, and reflects <br clear="none">attitudes that are taken for granted here. When I bring the issue up, it's <br clear="none">considered a non-issue. But it's deeply prevalent with real world <br clear="none">consequences.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">My highschool has a magazine, and I wrote as part of my bio a few months <br clear="none">ago, "Alan Sondheim, Looking forward to not retiring." We're expected to <br clear="none">retire. We're considered outdated, in need of constant tech help, and <br clear="none">unable to comprehend the world we're in. I don't curate any more (I <br clear="none">started things like the Atlanta Biennale), but if I did, I'd want to <br clear="none">organize an angry show, not "images of aging" but a show of pushback, an <br clear="none">exhibition of fury. An exhibition to start a conversation, not about art <br clear="none">or aesthetics, but about what's happening and what can we do about it. And <br clear="none">a show created by older people, a show about ugly caricatures. And <br clear="none">pushback in the media as well. (I know there are exceptions - but they're <br clear="none">exceptions btw.)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">There's more; if we're not working within an (academic for example) <br clear="none">institution, we're forgotten for the most part. I have to constantly push <br clear="none">myself, legitimize myself as someone with something to offer. I constantly <br clear="none">write reminder letters, which a friend of mine calls "begging letters," <br clear="none">etc. This is the result of another split, those within and without <br clear="none">academic and other institutions. The divides have a complex relationship. <br clear="none">Sooner or later almost everyone is "let go."<br clear="none"><br clear="none">But the real problem, the fundamental problem, is one of disappearance, as <br clear="none">if there is nothing "we" have to offer. It's true that there are <br clear="none">conditions and diseases associated with aging - death of course being <br clear="none">fundamental - but it's also true that we don't have to live _as if that <br clear="none">were the only case._ (Recently I put out a cd called Future Speed Future, <br clear="none">which is composed largely of furiously fast instrument playing - in a way <br clear="none">ugly-edgy, showing-off: look what I can do, forget the age. I'm inspired <br clear="none">by Hokusai's "Old man mad about painting" - that one can do things at any <br clear="none">age that one never thought was possible before.) And I'd like to see that, <br clear="none">as well as protest, as the substance for an exhibition - a show that in <br clear="none">other words would leave no one behind. A show that protests, a furious <br clear="none">show.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">(Btw this isn't directed at anyone or any show proposal etc. here - this <br clear="none">has been on my mind for at least a decade.)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Best, Alan<div class="ydp95de28f9yqt1624307408" id="ydp95de28f9yqtfd47100"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">empyre forum<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a><br clear="none"></div></div></div>
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