6/18/06
Better productivity through television
Sounds backwards, I know. In a not very scientific experiment known as the 2006 FIFA World Cup on ABC and ESPN2, I've learned that when I sit down to watch tv I get a lot accomplished. Once I sit down in the living room, it's obvious that I won't be able to concentrate unless I vacuum the carpet. Then there are the Vonage and Progressive commercials that run continuously, it seems, before, after, and in the middle of games. Those prompt me to grab the laundry basket and start folding. Just sitting is something I do best on a bus or train, not at home, so I've done the ironing with Japan and Croatia this morning. Did the mending with Trinidad and Tobago. Now it's time for paying the bills with Ronaldinho and the Aussies. If they show the Master of Champions ad with the jump roping car again, I'm going to start cleaning toilets!
6/17/06
Pen Pals
Got a letter from Al Gore in the mail today. It didn't include an autographed 8x10 glossy from "An Inconvenient Truth".
Al wanted me to send money to the Democratic National Committee to gird up its loins and rattle its sabres against an "Administration that has abused its power and shown breathtaking disrespect for the law."
I hearby send Al a backatcha notice that the Democratic Party can't do the job. The best it can do is pathetic cariacature of a Ghost Dance from the 1890's Sioux. No amount of warpaint and feathers on Hillary will change that.
Dear Al,
You need someone with a vision. Someone with a plan. Someone who can tell lobbyists to put their bribes where the sun don't shine. You need to read yesterday's op-ed by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN in the New York Times, "Seeds for a Geo-Green Party":
The recent focus of the Republican-led Congress on divisive diversions, like gay marriage and flag burning, coupled with the unveiling of Unity '08, an Internet-based third party that plans to select its presidential candidate through online voting, has intensified the chatter that a third party, and maybe even a fourth, will emerge in the 2008 election.
Up to now, though, most of that talk has been about how a third party might galvanize voters, using the Web, rather than what it would actually galvanize them to do. I'd like to toss out an idea in the hopes that some enterprising politician or group of citizens — or Unity '08 — will develop it. It's the concept I call "Geo-Green."
What might a Geo-Green third party platform look like? Its centerpiece would be a $1 a gallon gasoline tax, called "The Patriot Tax," which would be phased in over a year. People earning less than $50,000 a year, and those with unusual driving needs, would get a reduction on their payroll taxes as an offset.
The billions of dollars raised by the Patriot Tax would go first to shore up Social Security, second to subsidize clean mass transit in and between every major American city, third to reduce the deficit, and fourth to massively increase energy research by the National Science Foundation and the Energy and Defense Departments' research arms.
Most important, though, the Patriot Tax would increase the price of gasoline to a level that would ensure that many of the most promising alternatives — ethanol, biodiesel, coal gasification, solar energy, nuclear energy and wind — would all be economically competitive with oil and thereby reduce both our dependence on crude and our emissions of greenhouse gases.
In short: the Geo-Green party could claim that it has a plan for shoring up America's energy security, environmental security, economic security and Social Security with one move.
It could also claim that — however the Iraq war ends — the Geo-Green party has a strategy for advancing political and economic reform in the Arab-Muslim world, without another war. By stimulating all these alternatives to oil, we would gradually bring down the price, possibly as low as $25 to $30 a barrel. That, better than anything else, would force regimes like those in Iran, Sudan, Egypt, Angola, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to open up. Countries don't reform when you tell them they should. They reform when they tell themselves they must — and only when the price of oil goes down will they tell themselves they must.
Moreover, by making America the leader in promoting clean power, the Geo-Greens would be offering a credible plan for recouping a lot of America's lost prestige in the world — prestige it lost when the Bush team trashed Kyoto. This would put America in a much better position to galvanize allies to combat jihadism.
Last, Geo-Greenism could be the foundation of a new American patriotism and educational renaissance. Under the banner "Green is the New Red, White and Blue," the Geo-Green party would seek to inspire young Americans to study math, science and engineering to help make America not only energy independent but also the dominant player in what will be the dominant industry of the 21st century: clean power and green technology.
Frankly, I wish we did not need a third party. I wish the Democrats would adopt a Geo-Green agenda as their own. (Republicans never would.) But if not, I hope it will become the soul of a third party.
Historically, third parties arise in America when they seize a neglected issue and demonstrate that there is a real constituency for it," said Micah Sifry, author of "Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America." "They win by forcing that issue into the mainstream — even if the party itself is later forgotten. Conditions certainly seem ripe for such a third-party bid today."
But rather than artificially splitting the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, Mr. Sifry added, "a successful third party has to get in front of both — with an agenda that inspires hope and with leadership that inspires trust. Fear of a dark future isn't the best motivator; hope for a better one is."
That's Geo-Greenism. To be sure, Geo-Greenism is not a complete philosophy on par with liberalism or conservatism. But it can be paired with either of them to make them more relevant to the biggest challenges of our time. Even if Geo-Greenism couldn't attract enough voters to win an election, it might attract a big enough following to frighten both Democrats and Republicans into finally doing the right things.
Al! You movie star hunk-o-burning, burning, melting-Greenland-ice! Al, baby! Get real, kiss Tipper, and dive decisively off the Democratic raft. It's time to steer a new ship!
Al wanted me to send money to the Democratic National Committee to gird up its loins and rattle its sabres against an "Administration that has abused its power and shown breathtaking disrespect for the law."
I hearby send Al a backatcha notice that the Democratic Party can't do the job. The best it can do is pathetic cariacature of a Ghost Dance from the 1890's Sioux. No amount of warpaint and feathers on Hillary will change that.
Dear Al,
You need someone with a vision. Someone with a plan. Someone who can tell lobbyists to put their bribes where the sun don't shine. You need to read yesterday's op-ed by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN in the New York Times, "Seeds for a Geo-Green Party":
The recent focus of the Republican-led Congress on divisive diversions, like gay marriage and flag burning, coupled with the unveiling of Unity '08, an Internet-based third party that plans to select its presidential candidate through online voting, has intensified the chatter that a third party, and maybe even a fourth, will emerge in the 2008 election.
Up to now, though, most of that talk has been about how a third party might galvanize voters, using the Web, rather than what it would actually galvanize them to do. I'd like to toss out an idea in the hopes that some enterprising politician or group of citizens — or Unity '08 — will develop it. It's the concept I call "Geo-Green."
What might a Geo-Green third party platform look like? Its centerpiece would be a $1 a gallon gasoline tax, called "The Patriot Tax," which would be phased in over a year. People earning less than $50,000 a year, and those with unusual driving needs, would get a reduction on their payroll taxes as an offset.
The billions of dollars raised by the Patriot Tax would go first to shore up Social Security, second to subsidize clean mass transit in and between every major American city, third to reduce the deficit, and fourth to massively increase energy research by the National Science Foundation and the Energy and Defense Departments' research arms.
Most important, though, the Patriot Tax would increase the price of gasoline to a level that would ensure that many of the most promising alternatives — ethanol, biodiesel, coal gasification, solar energy, nuclear energy and wind — would all be economically competitive with oil and thereby reduce both our dependence on crude and our emissions of greenhouse gases.
In short: the Geo-Green party could claim that it has a plan for shoring up America's energy security, environmental security, economic security and Social Security with one move.
It could also claim that — however the Iraq war ends — the Geo-Green party has a strategy for advancing political and economic reform in the Arab-Muslim world, without another war. By stimulating all these alternatives to oil, we would gradually bring down the price, possibly as low as $25 to $30 a barrel. That, better than anything else, would force regimes like those in Iran, Sudan, Egypt, Angola, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to open up. Countries don't reform when you tell them they should. They reform when they tell themselves they must — and only when the price of oil goes down will they tell themselves they must.
Moreover, by making America the leader in promoting clean power, the Geo-Greens would be offering a credible plan for recouping a lot of America's lost prestige in the world — prestige it lost when the Bush team trashed Kyoto. This would put America in a much better position to galvanize allies to combat jihadism.
Last, Geo-Greenism could be the foundation of a new American patriotism and educational renaissance. Under the banner "Green is the New Red, White and Blue," the Geo-Green party would seek to inspire young Americans to study math, science and engineering to help make America not only energy independent but also the dominant player in what will be the dominant industry of the 21st century: clean power and green technology.
Frankly, I wish we did not need a third party. I wish the Democrats would adopt a Geo-Green agenda as their own. (Republicans never would.) But if not, I hope it will become the soul of a third party.
Historically, third parties arise in America when they seize a neglected issue and demonstrate that there is a real constituency for it," said Micah Sifry, author of "Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America." "They win by forcing that issue into the mainstream — even if the party itself is later forgotten. Conditions certainly seem ripe for such a third-party bid today."
But rather than artificially splitting the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, Mr. Sifry added, "a successful third party has to get in front of both — with an agenda that inspires hope and with leadership that inspires trust. Fear of a dark future isn't the best motivator; hope for a better one is."
That's Geo-Greenism. To be sure, Geo-Greenism is not a complete philosophy on par with liberalism or conservatism. But it can be paired with either of them to make them more relevant to the biggest challenges of our time. Even if Geo-Greenism couldn't attract enough voters to win an election, it might attract a big enough following to frighten both Democrats and Republicans into finally doing the right things.
Al! You movie star hunk-o-burning, burning, melting-Greenland-ice! Al, baby! Get real, kiss Tipper, and dive decisively off the Democratic raft. It's time to steer a new ship!
Maybe the final Weber weekend
Plano had the itty-bittiest spritz of rain today. It probably won't count as measurable precipitation, so that brings the string of days without to thirty-nine. The City's water use prohibitions go into effect Monday. Voluntary compliance with the restrictions was requested a month ago because water levels are so low at Lake Lavon and other sources for the North Texas Municipal Water District. Outdoor cooking bans are expected next.On Wednesday our Collin County commissioners banned the discharge of all fireworks except for professional shows. Unfortunately, they didn't ban the sale of fireworks to law-ignoring nitwits. With conditions so dry, it only takes one or two yahoos to set the county on fire. The fireworks industry is threatening to sue the county, naturally, in this litigious, self-centered age.
"All we're trying to do, plain and simple, is prevent fires from breaking out," said Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland. "What's going to happen? People are going to go ahead and buy them, and go ahead and fire them off, but if they get caught they can be fined."
I'm not litigious. Heck, I don't much like beans at all, and I really despise limas. What? Legumes? Oh. I thought those were the elected officials down in Austin trying to figure out the state school finances for Governor Goodhair. My mistake.
Yahoos? That's what you get when Chevy Tahoes and GMC Yukons have unprotected SUV encounters. Jonathan Swift will back me up on that. Webers are a far more civilized race, but I'm still keeping the lid on. I don't want to set the county on fire, but I do want to savor these marinaded chix boobs wrapped in bacon and fresh pineapple, plus the garlic asparagus!
6/16/06
The Weight of Your Conscience
This DARTing about has an unexpected side effect. In less than one week of mass transit commuting, I lost three pounds!
My walks to the bus stop and across the parking lots at the Parker Road light rail station aren't really very long.
My walks to the bus stop and across the parking lots at the Parker Road light rail station aren't really very long.
Such a bargain, and the poem is free!
For less than the cost of a gallon of gas, I can take the train in the morning and work the crossword puzzle during the trip. This is so cool! [The bus and train are deliciously air conditioned for women of a certain age.] I get off the train and immediately board a bus for a ride nearly to my place of employment. The ride is so short there's barely time to read the "Poetry in Motion" poem posted on the bus. I walk from the bus stop around a lovely duck pond, and look at a heron and all the turtles. Life is good!
After work I stroll back to the bus stop, and sit on the bench for a few minutes. Three different bus routes cross this corner, maybe more. Any of them will take me back to the rail station. I like wondering who lives in the apartments across the street. I imagine characters based on the items on each unit's balcony. I'm decompressing.
My dad would call it "unlaxing". Dad was a long-time bus commuter. Waiting for the bus, and then riding the train, is a mental transfer point from doing to being. On the way home I realize I'm focused on my breathing, just the way my counselor used to recommend. This costs way less than therapy! I become aware of tension points in my body, and consciously relax each one in turn.
Everybody's doin' a brand new dance now,
(Come on baby, do the locomotion)
I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now,
(Come on baby, do the locomotion)
My little baby sister can do it with ease,
It's easier than learning your A B Cs,
So come on, come on, do the locomotion with me.
Come on, come on, do the DART mass transit with me. $2.50 for the whole day, and the poem is free.
After work I stroll back to the bus stop, and sit on the bench for a few minutes. Three different bus routes cross this corner, maybe more. Any of them will take me back to the rail station. I like wondering who lives in the apartments across the street. I imagine characters based on the items on each unit's balcony. I'm decompressing.
My dad would call it "unlaxing". Dad was a long-time bus commuter. Waiting for the bus, and then riding the train, is a mental transfer point from doing to being. On the way home I realize I'm focused on my breathing, just the way my counselor used to recommend. This costs way less than therapy! I become aware of tension points in my body, and consciously relax each one in turn.
Everybody's doin' a brand new dance now,
(Come on baby, do the locomotion)
I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now,
(Come on baby, do the locomotion)
My little baby sister can do it with ease,
It's easier than learning your A B Cs,
So come on, come on, do the locomotion with me.
Come on, come on, do the DART mass transit with me. $2.50 for the whole day, and the poem is free.
DART doesn't rhyme with "thwart"
Riding mass transit gives me time to ponder such oddities of the English language. After my car repair DART day, I decided to try it again. Since I wanted to park the Buick at the Parker Road Station (currently the final north stop on the Red Line), I was surprised to find that hundreds of other people are already in that habit. They get to the station early, and fill up all the parking lots. Clearly, I am not on the cutting edge charting a new frontier of DART exploration! I'm slow to convert, but enthusiastic. I didn't have enough time to figure out a Plan B for that morning, so I drove to work. Now, though, I'm challenged. Mass transit is a puzzle I want to solve. If I solve it, I'll have time for Sudoku and the NY Times crossword on the train.
6/15/06
Hot Carnauba! Ay Carumba!
One morning last week I awoke straight out of a vivid dream with the realization that a broken side mirror held onto the Buick with packing tape on a hundred+ degree day might have SCARY BAD CONSEQUENCES. What would happen if the tape melted and baked onto the finish of the poor little Skylark? Would it pull the paint right off the car when the tape was removed later? Remember that childhood fear of having a Band-aid removed, and how we gradually learned that one fast rip is better than tiny slow pulls? Admit it. You sometimes experience irrational adultfear of eyebrow waxing. Maybe your skin will rip right off your bones like a Spielberg special effect in an Indiana Jones movie? No wonder I was having crazy dreams!
Rushed the Buick to the dealership to have the side mirror repaired (Rat$! Had to be replaced!). I would have to get to work by DART-ing while the mirror work was done. This summer is the tenth anniversary of DART Light Rail in Dallas and surrounding suburbs. I'd ridden DART trains occasionally to attend Dallas Symphony concerts downtown, or movies at the Angelika Theatre at Mockingbird Station. Aside from that, I had ridden a DART bus to work one time, and my coworkers gasped. They insisted on driving me back to my Plano dealership. What would it be like to use DART to get to work?
Riding the train and transferring to a bus was surprisingly easy and convenient. Taking a bus back to the Buick dealership went smoothly. I was so relaxed that I didn't even fret about the cost of replacing the mirror. Could riding DART be good for my blood pressure?
To be continued...
Rushed the Buick to the dealership to have the side mirror repaired (Rat$! Had to be replaced!). I would have to get to work by DART-ing while the mirror work was done. This summer is the tenth anniversary of DART Light Rail in Dallas and surrounding suburbs. I'd ridden DART trains occasionally to attend Dallas Symphony concerts downtown, or movies at the Angelika Theatre at Mockingbird Station. Aside from that, I had ridden a DART bus to work one time, and my coworkers gasped. They insisted on driving me back to my Plano dealership. What would it be like to use DART to get to work?
Riding the train and transferring to a bus was surprisingly easy and convenient. Taking a bus back to the Buick dealership went smoothly. I was so relaxed that I didn't even fret about the cost of replacing the mirror. Could riding DART be good for my blood pressure?
To be continued...
6/12/06
Up, up, and away, way out there
Extra! Extra! Read all about it.
Wagnerian divas escape Santa Fe Opera for three-hour tour in Albuquerque hot air balloons. We are having a fabulous time creating stories and art about improbable vacations and expeditions. Today we finished our Viking hot air balloons.
If you've ever had the great good fortune to watch the 1965 movie, "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines," you are well aware of the dangers inherent in wearing a pointy helmet for hot air ballooning. If you were absent the day that fabulous treat was passed out, why, my heavens, you must do that make-up work immediately!
If you've ever owned a 1963 Pontiac Catalina, you know a bit about vacations going awry! Ours was a white 4-door Catalina with a light-blue interior. Amongst "The Pontiac's" travel-oddities were losing its cool in Colorado (Ft. Morgan), and losing its chrome on I-80 (which makes a very bizarre whistling sound) near Grand Island. It got totally slimed and encrusted on a mud detour through Beaver Crossing, Nebraska, back when we were still building the Eisenhower Interstate System. "The Pontiac's" greatest claim to fame was the failure of its transmission during a drive down Pike's Peak.
"The Pontiac" never transported Brunhilde or the Rhine Maidens to a mass ascension at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Still, you can imagine the fun. I hear them singing! Or maybe that's my Heavy Classix cd playing in the art classroom.
Looks like she could hold her own with Ginger and Mary Ann! Why isn't there an opera version of Gillligan's Island?! We'll always have the Fifth Dimension! Up, up, and away!
Wagnerian divas escape Santa Fe Opera for three-hour tour in Albuquerque hot air balloons. We are having a fabulous time creating stories and art about improbable vacations and expeditions. Today we finished our Viking hot air balloons.
If you've ever had the great good fortune to watch the 1965 movie, "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines," you are well aware of the dangers inherent in wearing a pointy helmet for hot air ballooning. If you were absent the day that fabulous treat was passed out, why, my heavens, you must do that make-up work immediately!
If you've ever owned a 1963 Pontiac Catalina, you know a bit about vacations going awry! Ours was a white 4-door Catalina with a light-blue interior. Amongst "The Pontiac's" travel-oddities were losing its cool in Colorado (Ft. Morgan), and losing its chrome on I-80 (which makes a very bizarre whistling sound) near Grand Island. It got totally slimed and encrusted on a mud detour through Beaver Crossing, Nebraska, back when we were still building the Eisenhower Interstate System. "The Pontiac's" greatest claim to fame was the failure of its transmission during a drive down Pike's Peak.
"The Pontiac" never transported Brunhilde or the Rhine Maidens to a mass ascension at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Still, you can imagine the fun. I hear them singing! Or maybe that's my Heavy Classix cd playing in the art classroom.
Looks like she could hold her own with Ginger and Mary Ann! Why isn't there an opera version of Gillligan's Island?! We'll always have the Fifth Dimension! Up, up, and away!
6/10/06
Stages of Parenthood
My oldest has reached a stage in life that I'd almost forgotten. He entered the grad student potluck dinner phase. This is a challenging mental exercise as he strives to create edible food items related to themes and school spirit, adaptable for vegans, sugar- and caffeine-free folks, and seasoned with fermented Birkenstocks. All entries must cost under 25 cents/serving, and require a maximum of one saucepan for preparation.
These are my very unscientific categories of parenthood:
These are my very unscientific categories of parenthood:
- You'll never sleep again. You have an infant.
- Driving with ducks --Raffi soothes your toddler.
- Wheem-O-Whip/The lion sleeps --Your preschooler discovers Classic Rock.
- Here comes the bride--The kindergarten wedding of Q and U.
- Everything I know about math I learned from baseball cards.
- Your control is an illusion: the car radio is not yours.
- Did you see that Ferrari, Mom? Automotive ogling in the school speed zone.
- Don't stand so, don't stand so close to me--giving your middle school student space.
- Nay is dight. Your precious baby becomes nocturnal, and wants the car keys.
- Portage--carrying heavy loads upstream for young impractical explorers.
- Sublet furnishing=Can I take these dishes? I thought you'd never ask!
- Potluck. That perennial grad student entertainment. What to make that is almost edible, but takes no skill and less than seven dollars???
The Jinx of the Truly Dreadful Movie
There are really bad movies, and then there are really bad Kevin Costner movies. My brother-in-law has a graphic visual expression to explain the sensation of being trapped. "I was ready to gnaw off my left arm." A long-winded Sunday sermon can bring on a beartrap moment. So can a high school commencement in the sweltering climate of the Dallas Cowboy's Texas Stadium.
Kevin Costner provoked an epidemic of left arm gnawing a dozen years ago. Any viewer who survived 1994's "Wyatt Earp" without a sympathetic laudanum overdose drowned during 1995's "Waterworld".
The Jinx of the Truly Dreadful Movie began in the winter of 1969. Mom dropped the three of us at the Cooper Lincoln theater on "O" Street on one of those Nebraska winter days when the excrutiating glare off the snow compounded by bickering kids trapped in the house can give anyone a headache ranking 7.8 on the Richter Scale. My brother was anxious to see "Krakatoa, East of Java". I won't expound on that day's bad movie jinx, except to say that it involved Dr. Pepper. The movie was memorable for its bathtub tsunami special effects. The Dr. Pepper became woven into family lore and legend along with the movie's geographically incorrect title.
Krakatoa is still a fascinating subject. Simon Winchester wrote a fascinating book about the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa a few years back. The Twenty-One Balloons is a favorite read-aloud memory from sixth grade. Tomorrow the Discovery Channel will air a Krakatoa docudrama, but I won't be watching. I can't risk it.
I popped a cassette of The 21 Balloons in the tape player for my students yesterday. The tape dis-enwrapped and re-entangled all over the place. The jinx is alive and well, serving up disaster specials on blue plate tectonics.
"Krakatoa, East of Java" may not be the worst movie I've ever seen. That title could belong to the 1990 kid movie, "Shipwrecked". I took my three little boys to see "Shipwrecked" at a downtown Midland theater where we were the entire audience. This hokey movie involved a gorilla on a South Seas island. And that gorilla's zipper was very visable. Within hours my youngest had broken his arm, but I'm not sure if Dr. Pepper was on the scene.
I sent another son to the store for shredded cheddar (not Dr. Pepper) just before we were going to watch a VHS tape of "Krakatoa, East of Java" that I located online for five bucks. I'd been wondering for decades if the movie was as bad as it had become in the family legend. My son ripped the side mirror off the car returning from the store. The jinx continues!
6/9/06
Homeland Insecurity
Somewhere in Europe a cute college student is sitting on the windowsill of his apartment. He's hanging out the window holding his roommate's computer to catch a WiFi connection.
Meanwhile, I'm wearing my headset and trying to Skype him. We are all relieved that I'm not wearing a sequined leotard and riding on an elephant. When our calls don't connect, I feel like I'm performing without a net.
It's a tightrope. When we do connect I feel balanced.
6/8/06
6/6/06
Graph paper
Al Gore's charts must have clicked in on my long-submerged fondness for graph paper. It had been many, many months since I checked in on Blog$hares, the fantasy blog stock market. I've never spent enough time with the game to understand it, but it was mildly upsetting to find my blog had been the subject of a hostile takeover. That sounds like a bad thing. Feels a bit like the time someone swiped my bike out of the open garage.
To be honest, everything I know about stocks I learned in Mr. Troester's eighth grade American Studies class in the spring of 1969. Mike Troester was a wonderful, kind, funny, inspiring teacher, who did not need to be the object of cult-worship or a fan club. It wasn't about personality or ego for him. He just liked history and teaching junior high kids. I was pleased to find the Lincoln Public School System honors outstanding educators with a Mike Troester Spirit of Teaching Award these days.
Mr. Troester knew that junior high girls tended to graph their fantasy NYSE stocks* with turquoise ink or magenta felt pens, and accented the graphs with sea-green Hi-Liters. He knew we would doodle during the filmstrips, but he also knew we could learn about the experience of the French in Indochina. Can you say Dien Bien Phu? I wish that Dubya could, too.
* My fantasy stocks were ITT, Pepsi, and Western Union. Good grief! I think I "bought" Western Union stock because of the song by the Five Americans. The lyrics were catchy:
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
Sad, but that might be a better justification than for most purchases in my life. (Except for the Petula Clark 45s!).
To be honest, everything I know about stocks I learned in Mr. Troester's eighth grade American Studies class in the spring of 1969. Mike Troester was a wonderful, kind, funny, inspiring teacher, who did not need to be the object of cult-worship or a fan club. It wasn't about personality or ego for him. He just liked history and teaching junior high kids. I was pleased to find the Lincoln Public School System honors outstanding educators with a Mike Troester Spirit of Teaching Award these days.
Mr. Troester knew that junior high girls tended to graph their fantasy NYSE stocks* with turquoise ink or magenta felt pens, and accented the graphs with sea-green Hi-Liters. He knew we would doodle during the filmstrips, but he also knew we could learn about the experience of the French in Indochina. Can you say Dien Bien Phu? I wish that Dubya could, too.
* My fantasy stocks were ITT, Pepsi, and Western Union. Good grief! I think I "bought" Western Union stock because of the song by the Five Americans. The lyrics were catchy:
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
Sad, but that might be a better justification than for most purchases in my life. (Except for the Petula Clark 45s!).
6/2/06
Not since Ross Perot, Jr.
...ran for president in 1992 and 1996 have I seen so many charts. Ross was a piechart kind of guy. Al Gore, in the new film "An Inconvenient Truth", is more of a line graph and bar graph dude. This is not nearly as sleep-inducing as you might expect. Compared to Gore's book,Earth In the Balance, the movie is a jolt of java. The film is very viewable, and Gore is not the nerdy wooden politician you remember. I did not feel like I was trapped watching a filmstrip in an over-heated junior high science classroom while wearing pantyhose that kept slipping down until the crotch saddle was level with the hem of my polyester plaid miniskirt. True, it also did not make me want to write notes in backhand on ruled paper with a turquoise pen about how dreamy/neato/keen/groovy Al is looking these days.
If you've forgotten the "giant sucking sound," you can listen to the 1992 presidential debates. Paul Krugman's op ed,"Swift Boating the Planet", reminds us that those benefitting from the current energy habits of Americans do not play fair. And speaking of giant sucking sounds, don't miss the Dallas Morning News editorial, "This Deal Tanks", about Ford and GM gas rebates for dinosaur buyers.
If you've forgotten the "giant sucking sound," you can listen to the 1992 presidential debates. Paul Krugman's op ed,"Swift Boating the Planet", reminds us that those benefitting from the current energy habits of Americans do not play fair. And speaking of giant sucking sounds, don't miss the Dallas Morning News editorial, "This Deal Tanks", about Ford and GM gas rebates for dinosaur buyers.
6/1/06
Transparent Society
Seems like just yesterday I was writing about glass houses and privacy. Well, maybe just last weekend! Now the President has announced that we live in a "transparent society". Maybe there's no point to either drapes or vertical blinds in the impending condo-pocalypse.
My day began with transparent glass, and will probably end the same way. No, I haven't been out on the street picking up the shards of broken auto windshields for mosaics. Haven't done that since my oldest finished his mosaic of the Alamo for middle school Texas History class ten years ago.
The right way to begin a day is with a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice at the Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque, but that wasn't the start for this day. I was actually reading about Dale Chihuly suing two former glass-blowers from his studio. He accuses them of imitating his glass designs inspired by the sea. Timothy Egan, writing for the New York Times, reports:
The glass blowers say that Mr. Chihuly is trying to control entire forms, shapes and colors and that his brand does not extend to ancient and evolving techniques derived from the natural world... Andrew Page, editor of Glass: The Urban Glass Art Quarterly, which is published in New York, said that Mr. Chihuly deserved a high place in the pantheon of glass artists, but that the suit could hurt his reputation by igniting countercharges and opening a window into how a celebrity artist works on a mass scale. "I think Dale Chihuly is a pure original," Mr. Page said. "He has a tremendous sense of color and composition. And he has done a tremendous amount for the field. But this lawsuit may have been the worst thing he could have done."
Egan reports that Chihuly, Inc. has ninety-three employees, and that Dale Chihuly has not actually blown glass himself for twenty-seven years. "Still, Mr. Chihuly said, he works with sketches, faxes and through exhortation. Nothing with his name on it ever came from anyone but himself, he said." I don't know how many employees another famous glass artist had. Louis Comfort Tiffany is the subject of the current exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Together with his studios of artists, glassmakers, stonemasons, mosaicists, modelers, metalworkers, wood-carvers, potters, and textileworkers, Tiffany heralded in America the notion of continuity of design, orchestrating pattern, texture, color, and light to produce a single aesthetic expression.
The Tiffany exhibit is much more varied than I expected. The DMA has done a nice job of arranging it with lots of room for visitors to move around the display cases. Changed viewpoints let light reveal new aspects of each piece. It didn't take long for me to overcome my notion of Tiffany as lamps over pool tables in rec rooms of the Seventies. I was particularly impressed with the natural forms in the glass and ceramic pieces--lily pad, milkweed pod, morning glory, pansies, ferns, shells, and seaweed. Tiffany was combining a reverence, or at least an appreciation, of the natural world with numerous chemical processes to create his signature effects. I wouldn't want to sit on the chairs he designed, but his fireplace screens and stair balustrades are very groovy.
Many of my favorites in the Tiffany show were inspired by the sea. The same sea that inspired Chihuly. Nature's influences are beyond counting. We artists must bring our own ideas and skills to a project. I am fond of the Chihuly works at the DMA and at the Joslyn in Omaha even though I know they were created by a studio of craftspersons. A Metropolitan Museum online source is useful for learning about Louis Comfort Tiffany:
Tiffany combined his talents as a colorist, naturalist, and designer with the technology that he had developed for his windows to produce blown glass with surfaces, hues, and forms that were totally new. After manipulating the varicolored glass, the final form was often fumed with metallic oxides to achieve rainbow iridescence.
I get bogged down wondering if Jacqueline du Pre performing Elgar's composition is an artist interpreting an artist, or the musical equivalent of a glass-blower working from sketches, faxes and exhortations. Is the actor an artist, or only the playwright's gaffer?
Thank heaven and His Vader Darthness Dick Cheney that real life is such a dewy iridescent spectrum. Bush's label, "transparent society", doesn't refer to the Saran Wrap over the rainbow marshmallow Jello salad at a church social. "Transparent Society" refers to the choice between privacy and freedom created by new technology. The NSA wants to know if you happen to call Domino's for a sausage/green pepper/black olive. Bushie's lips were moving today, so it's a safe bet varicolored glass, smoke, and mirrors were used to create a utopian over-the-rainbow bubble over our critical thinking skills. I'm sure this administration will see a clear explanation for Haditha:
President Bush reiterated his pledge today that the results of the inquiries would be disclosed. "One of the things that happens in a transparent society like ours is that there will be a full a complete investigation," he said. "The world will see the full and complete investigation."
Ah, yes. That would be opening a window into how a celebrity con artist works on a mass scale.
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