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The Compulsory Blog
Honorable Mention
April 5, 2006
Happy Birthday, Brother! See you Memorial Day. And a shout out to DJ Paul Dailey
of Hardwired on XM (and others) for sending me an awesome mix! I can't stop
listening to it! Congratulations to Dustin on aquiring a bouncing baby Nikon D200. My condoloences to your wife.
Sorry for the DeLay
April 4, 2006
I haven't posted in a while, but I actually had an interesting weekend. Well, interesting to me anyway, this is my
vanity blog after all. It started Friday night at a private party, but more on that later.
Saturday I went to downtown Phoenix to drop off a CD of images from Carolina Escobar's installation at MADE
and took the opportunity to visit the Phoenix Art Museum. I've been to PAM many, many times but it appears they
may have refreshed their permanent collection, because I saw pieces that I don't think I've seen before.
Whenever I go, I always check out a piece by David Kessler: "Sonoran Silver" a creation of acrylic on burnished
aluminum and canvas. A nearly photo realistic riparian desert scene, two pieces of aluminum flank the canvas,
the colors blending into the burnished aluminum.
A new installation by Yayoi Kusama is a must see! Titled "You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies" it
is a darkened room of mirrors with hundreds of LEDs hanging from the ceiling, pulsating and changing color. A really
amazing visual, it's in a temporary space now, but thankfully will become part of the permanent collection when the
museum renovation is complete.
Sunday was the Tempe Arts Festival where I picked up a couple of pieces by
artist Nelson De La Nuez. Incredibly
funny and irreverent plays on religion, corporate culture and mass marketing, I haven't seen them before, although
he says he's been coming here for years. I didn't spend too much time at the TAF, came home in the afternoon to
obliterate a couple of bouganvia in the back yard. Or maybe they obliterated me, the allergies flared up with a vengeance.
Ok, back to that private party. I crashed my first party, and it was quite a party to crash! Little did I know,
there is a convention in Phoenix every year for content and billing providers of adult web sites. This year it was
held at the Mission Palms in downtown Tempe. Somehow, via a friend-of-a-friend, who knows a guy, who has a
brother that did a thing I managed to get an all-access 3-day pass!
It really wasn't any sleazier than any other sales convention I've been to in the past. Seminars, panel
discussions and the normal stuff. And oh, yeah... a naked girl here and there. Who knew? Lots of money
getting thrown around. Literally. I actually saw a guy throwing cash at a crowd. Hosted bars and buffet
tables at every turn, well into the early morning. And did I mention naked girls? It was an interesting experience;
it's a whole 'nother world. I have some pictures, but for obvious reasons I'm not going to post them.
And did you hear? Tom DeLay is resigning from Congress and he's not going to run again. Amazing how
in the recent past the conservative talkers were saying that there was no corruption attached to DeLay. How
it was all trumped up. Now they are saying that DeLay's departure will take the corruption scandals with him. Who knew?
Random Quotes
March 27, 2006
Regular visitors (now that's funny) may notice the title of the blog changes periodically.
These are random quips, usually taken from songs and the like. Adding to the long list of
enhancements for this site, I’d like to create a random-quip generator, so that each time
you visit a new one appears. Actually, it's an extremely simple mechanism to create but
alas the mystical money tree must exist in the same grove as the time tree, because I haven’t found either.
The Art Detour album is updated with
images from Carolina Escobar’s installation at MADE art boutique. Thank you, Carolina!
I'm pleased to announce that the mountain biking on Sunday went really well! I managed
to stay upright the whole time, and even better, I actually completed a circuit! Okay, so it was
an easy trail, about eight or nine miles total. I had to stop several times to catch my breath, but
I lasted three, maybe four times longer than the previous attempt. Surprisingly, I’m not
feeling much pain today which tells me that I’ve probably got enough muscle built (for this particular
route anyway), but I definitely need to work on my aerobic endurance.
Rube Goldberg is My Hero
March 26, 2006
I made it to the opening at Mesa Contemporary Arts, it's a smallish gallery, but there were some nice exhibits.
I was inspired by Michael Eastman's "Havana Interiors", amazing large format images of vibrantly colored interiors.
Also inspiring was Darrell Tousley’s "First Sighting" which included a wonderful machine made of gears, rods and
apparently the axle from his truck. I remember as a child regularly going to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry)
where one of my favorite exhibits was an elaborate ten foot high machine that took small steel balls thru a maze of elevators,
wire roller coasters and shutes. I think I’ve always been interested in these Rube Goldberg contraptions,
maybe something I’d like to try and build someday.
Darrell is an artist in residence and an instructor at the Mesa Arts complex. I had wanted to
take a class or two on their spring schedule, including metal sculpture classes taught by Darrell, but I kinda
ran out of cash after buying the fancy camera. I’ll definitely organize the budget to make sure
I’m ready for their summer and/or fall schedule.
Unfortunately, I got a late start to Art Detour, so I only visited a fraction of the 150+ galleries
open for the weekend. I have just a handful of photos from the Detour posted to the album. I did
spend some time at the showing of Carolina Escobar, where she graciously allowed me to bring
in an umbrella and off-camera flash to do studies of her work. Her pieces are striking interpretations
of body organs and flowers made from steel, wax, flocking, graphite and gold leaf. Striking and a
little disturbing perhaps, it is truly original art. Pending her approval, I’ll post the shots of her work.
Gallery Update and Busy Weekend
March 24, 2006
Added a couple more photos in Nature, Wildlife and Kitty:
some black and white renditions from a recent trip up Peralta trail in the Superstition Mountains.
Looking forward to
a full weekend: I think I'll go to the opening reception at
Mesa Arts Center featuring two exhibits I'm interested in: Darrell Tousley’s First Sighting and Cuba-Havana Interiors by Michael Eastman.
I hope I can get there early enough to hear Eastman speak. After a BBQ on Saturday, I'm going to head downtown for
Art Detour and check out the burgeoning art scene in Phoenix.
And then Sunday, I'm going to try some more mountain biking at Usery Park. I haven't
had much success my first couple of tries. Fell over into rocks last time, I couldn't get out of the pedal clips quick enough. Just glad
I didn't fall into a cholla cactus! I've had the clips adjusted now, so I should be able to get out them fast enough next time I fall.
Quick Politics
March 22, 2006
I haven’t really been following politics much recently. I still watch the NewsHour every night, read Talking Points Memo daily and I recently subscribed to The New Yorker, but lately I’ve been skimming past most of the Sunday talk shows and I haven’t visited The Nation in quite some time.
But every once in a while I see something that piques my interest enough to make a comment. Today it was an article by Ezra Klein in The American Prospect Online. Titled “The New New Gore” it details the rise, the fall and the rise again of Al Gore.
I’ve always liked Al Gore, I’ve never actually found him too boorish as the media and the conventional memes suggest. I didn’t realize until recently the depth of his intellectualism and his devotion to both the environment and technology.
I immediately saw the value and promise of his Current Television venture, and while my politics are undeniably liberal, I’m glad Current isn’t purely the antivenin to Fox News. It’s easy to get sucked into watching Current’s “pods” one after the other, these short vignettes produced by real people, elevated to the airwaves by a democratic process instead of at the whim of faceless media executives.
I was elated when Gore announced his endorsement of presidential candidate Howard Dean, eschewing conventional wisdom and the beltway establishment. And seeing Gore now, the timbre and breadth of his speeches railing against the incompetence of the current administration, I wish he would have been “that guy” back in 2000.
Joe Trippi is correct when he predicts that the next groundswell candidate “is going to be as exponential as Dean was to McCain.” Might this be Al Gore? Probably not. Gore hasn’t made any signals that he's interested in running again.
Getting to the point of this post, Klein suggests:
[…] it could be Gore, if he wants it. Here’s the scenario: Hillary Clinton continues rolling forward, amassing establishment support and locking down the large donors. Anti-Hillary voters prove unable to coalesce around a single champion, so Clinton is able to suck up all the oxygen but, as with most faits accomplis, attracts little genuine enthusiasm. At the same time, her hawkishness and ostentatious moderation sparks widespread disillusionment among the online activist community. Inevitably, the liberal wing of the party begins calling for a Bigfoot of its own to enter the primary, and the obvious prospect is Gore. DraftGore.com, which already exists, amplifies the drumbeat, collecting pledges and holding events. The press corps, sensing a Godzilla vs. King Kong battle, begins covering the events.
Everyone assumes Hillary Clinton will cinch the nomination, which is probably true. But she is unelectable. Her “negatives” are too high with conservatives, and her “positives” aren’t high enough among liberals. In addition to de-motivating the “liberal wing” of the Democratic party, she will have the effect of rallying the conservative base, pulling them in droves to the polls. I’m not “anti-Hillary” by any stretch, she’s a fine politician and would probably make an excellent president, I just believe her campaign is doomed.
A common theme with Dean in 2004 and the New Gore is that they are angry and hence unstable. I never thought Dean was unstable, but I concede that he was angry. That’s okay though, because I was angry too. His campaign call to arms was “I want my country back!”, and his populist speeches filled with revolutionary imagery made the hair on my neck stand up. Here was someone who was actually upset with the direction George W. Bush was taking the country.
As much as I’d love to see a Gore/Dean ticket in 2008, I wonder how much traction a pair of “angry” candidates will have. I don’t believe there will be a sufficient level of angst since George Bush will finally be leaving the presidency for good. An angry campaign against John McCain or George Allen won’t make any sense and would only serve to divide Democrats and rally Republicans.
Gallery Update
March 22, 2006
I've updated the galleries with some scans of old slides and film. Grey and cloudy here
in the Valley of the Sunstroke, reminds me of Portland, maybe that's why the updates are mostly old stuff from when
I lived in Oregon.
In other news, trying to get the motorcycle running again. I let it sit idle too long, so I need to change the oil,
clean out the carbs and give it some fresh gas! It's a bit of a chore getting the fairings off to get at the engine, but it's going
to be that magic time here in Arizona, we have about three weeks of "Spring" before the summer hits. It would be nice to
get back on two wheels!
Honorable Mention
March 21, 2006
Congratulations to Maja and Mihai on their recent engagement! Prator just had heart surgery, got rid
of that old tin one, I think. Our thoughts are with him and hope he has a speedy recovery. And I'm sure
my lovely muse Emily would like a shout-out for her new MySpace page!
Get Serious
March 21, 2006
Time to get serious about some life goals. I decided to give Meetup a shot
and joined a hiking club, a photography club and a dining out group. I'm not quite ready to do online personals yet, I've
done it before: it's a humbling, sometimes degrading experience and you have to treat it as a part-time job. I'm all about
casual friends and chance meetings, we'll see how this goes. "Stomp" is
coming to town, and while I've seen it several times before, I'd like to go again, it's a fun show... just not alone!
Personal Website Installed
March 18, 2006
I downloaded and installed the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Personal
Website Starter Kit for use on Tempe.Net. I had
been playing around with a variety of shareware photo galleries including Community Server and nGallery but was never
happy with the interface (CS) or had too many installation problems (nG). I acquired a copy of VS2005 at an MSDN event last fall,
so I finally decided to install it. It took all of about 15 minutes to get the basic site running and a few hours of research to
figure out the new ASP.NET 2.0 authorization and authentication schema.
As I mention on the gallery splash page, I'd like to add some features to the photo albums.
One of the main issues I need to resolve is that all the images are stored as BLOBs in the database.
While this is an interesting and elegant design, I have a limited allocation of database storage at my host.
Fortunately, Matt Gieselman has modified the base Starter Kit to provide most of the
features I'd like to add, including storage of images on the file system and has generously provided his source code for free!
Now, if I could just find some time to integrate his modifications without bringing down my site.