Dolce and Gabanna, Islam, Disco Churches in NYC, the van Eycks, the German Woman and the Puerto Rican Man (a work in progress)

As my sistah, la Koester, an icon in the old capital of the Carolingian Empire, said, "Dolce and Gabanna know where the money is." And then she questioned (my own paraphrasing), if this is where rigid Islam's dogma is going, then there is hope for the future. And as usual, our brilliant, well informed, no hostages hold, incisive discussion and questioning moved into the role of art, literature and popular culture in transforming religion, society. Lots of questions provoked by Dolce and Gabanna's exquisite dresses and head scarfs, with references to sources as varied as the 1950's French actress, Capucine; the work of late Middle Ages painters who moved religious icons from the realm of the sacred into the salons of the nascent bourgeoisie (thru Oppenheimer, Gingsburg and Huizinga's treatises); Catholic Churches becoming discos in 1970's New York City, and of course, plans to continue reading, visiting museums and talking, lots of talking. On the dresses and scarfs, we will appreciate them from afar as we do with the van Eyck's (too poor to afford them) but we can talk, we still can talk. We hope.