2011 has been a banner year for Ugly and its sidekick Stupid. 

 

And considering the ratio of Ugly to Gorgeous, a person could get depressed.

 

So let’s tell Ugly and Stupid to shove off. Let’s look at some Beauty I’ve found to cling to in the Summer of 2011.

 

This is the happy harmony in heaviest rotation in my head. The son of  Amadou and Mariam put together a group that’s not like music from Mali, not like rap. Produced by Manu Chao, which gives it the ultimate seal of approval. Harmony! In French, yet!

 

An uneducated longshoreman — a laborer by choice — methodically thought his way to some insights about “true believers” that ring true half a century later. Watch the video — rarely has anyone shown so much pleasure in…thinking.

 

Incorrect in so many ways, and yet tender, touching, traditional. You can get a ticket and see the show sometime next year. Or hear it now.

 

Buck Brannaman is “the horse whisperer” — for starters. But his wisdom about horses translates neatly to people. There’s a movie. There’s a book. And this video to seduce you…

 

Softer. Slower. Thich Nhat Hanh reduces Buddhism to this moment, this breath, this step. The video alone is healing.

 

As demons dragged Amy Winehouse down, angels lifted Adele on high. She’s large and bubbly and open-hearted, and when she sings, walls crumble.

 

 

 

“When Jackie Robinson put his foot on a white baseball field, everything moved…There never would have been a Barack Obama without Jackie Robinson’s spiked shoe coming down on the dirt of a baseball field.” Ladies and gents… Jimmy Breslin….

 

White. Swedish. Hip-hop. 1930s Swing. If you can find more fun than this, let me know.

 

The chicest movie of the ‘80s. Empty? Hey, it’s French. But style to burn. And great music. Watch…

 

The DVD is not available until August 30, but Susanne Bier’s movie — winner of the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film — is well worth owning. And thinking about. See for yourself.