Last night TheaterWorks outdid themselves. They must have spent a ton of money on the play Joe Turner Has Come and Gone, but to the audience, it was surely worth every dollar.
We went with the Palsgroves and Gerry, all who agree it was top-notch theater. If you get a chance to see this play, don’t miss it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Turner%27s_Come and Gone and http://www.theatreworkscs.org/Special%20Event/Now%20Playing/JoeTurner.htm
My camera and I just spent an hour with Jason Linear at Colorado College.
My brain is full.
Who is Jason Lanier? Check him out starting at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaron_Lanier
Two things about him intrigue me. He was named one of 100 most influential people on the planet in 2010 by Time Magazine, and he coined the words “virtual reality”. To be sure, there are lots more kudos, awards and accomplishments, but this guy is dynamic.
He, maybe like most geniuses, is a study in contrast. Physically, he is HUGE with flowing dreadlocks down below his ample butt. Intellectually, he is HUGE with a grasp of history and an understanding – I think a REAL understanding – of what history indicates for the future. Yet his voice is soft, he spends most of his hours writing code and playing ancient or obscure musical instruments.
He has CREATED the future multiple times. First, VIRTUALLY like all science fiction thinkers, but then REALLY with his understanding of computers and mathematics and music and how the world works…or doesn’t
…and he came with a message, a message this college crowd didn’t particularly want to hear. He wasn’t preachy or screechy, but he didn’t back down on his central theme – that we have blown it with the Internet, with the creation of optimization for giants like Walmart, Facebook, Google, et al. That, as with other attempts to be cool, fit in, be accepted by the crowd, we’ve received a boatload of unexpected consequences AND we are not aware that the boat has sailed into OUR dock.
(You can see why I was eating up what this guy was serving)
We want cheaper goods. We want them quickly available in our town. We got… Walmart. What it really cost us was our jobs. Jobs manufacturing the products, jobs in the stores that used to compete with Walmart. If our grocery stores go the way of our lumber and hardware stores, we will be left with far fewer choices while seemingly having more for less.
Facebook? While networking with a larger group of friends online, our social interactions and real-time encounters have shrunken and become more difficult. Facebook attempts to optimize the life histories of us individuals, but at the cost of being truly individual lest people don’t “friend” you in large numbers.
BTW, Jaron is very clear that he has been and still is part of the problem. He helped develop the optimization that is at the root. He really IS at the top of the 1%!! However, he’s traveling the country and writing books about what’s REALLY going on, before history records our present civilization as boobs and rubes in the same way it has reported on so many others in the past.
I, also, need to be clear that with my lifestyle and choices, I too am very much part of the problem. Guys like this and writing this blog help me take a close and sometimes painful look at these issues.
Anyhow, I’m going to read Jaron’s new book, You Are Not a Gadget (http://www.jaronlanier.com/gadgetwebresources.html).
We got an invite to the next door neighbors Super Bowl Party complete with good wine, new friends, great food and our first ever football lottery! Needless-to-mention, we did not win the lottery, but were both fascinated about all the random squares and the fun they generated.
I’ve been working on multiple projects, as always. Tax time looms, and that is always a major hassle around here. It’s not like we have all that much money…it’s just that it’s squirreled away in so many pockets that the IRS insists on turning inside/out once a year. To complicate that just a bit more, I switched accounting programs midway into 2011 making double the work chasing squirrels.
I’ve continued working on my 50th high school reunion. I’ve had three new volunteers making 20+ calls each trying to track down current email addresses. They have been amazingly successful, and I must say this compiling of to where they have all scattered is…interesting. One of the more shocking facts is how a number of the classmates have held on to real (or imagined) slights from 50 years ago!!! Comments like, “I hated high school then and I never want to have anything to do with you or any memory of that time?” Haven’t we changed in 50 years? Haven’t you changed? “That doesn’t matter. Don’t ever attempt to contact me again!” Yikes!
The toy pictured above is a “ring light” mostly used for extremely close-up photography. A friend let me know they were on sale, so I pounced – normally $129, but on sale for $27 – I couldn’t resist. Another $7 purchased some close-up rings, and I’m now in business. Lots of fun, so expect to see a lot more like the top image.
One of Louis Cicotello's many resin-coated collages.
Back in March, I blogged about Louis Cicotello: http://skip2.me/SkipLog/SkipLog/Entries/2011/3/15_Another_Loss_Another_Gain.html and http://skip2.me/SkipLog/SkipLog/Entries/2011/3/19_Louis_Leaves.html
Last night, at a retrospective of his incredible art, we got to see him come alive again through 140 pieces of his very cerebral art. The Big Something did a nice narrated slide show yesterday, if you have the time and interest: http://radiocoloradocollege.org/2012/02/25454/
Millie Yawn, his wife, and Sarah his daughter were there to announce an endowment through the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to help students of art transition from school into the world. The Gallery of Contemporary Art was packed like in the old days, with people of all ages and persuasions. They wanted to be together with each other and with Louis and what he represented. Although the weather was deteriorating into an icy snowstorm outside, it was an incredible artful experience inside…and inside the gallery, too.
Wow, it’s February already! If you are looking for the previous posts, go to the Archives tab in the sidebar on the right and click on January 2012.
Regarding the previous post about cost and value of the stuff we buy, here is a more balanced view: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57367030-37/wont-buy-apple-products-anymore-then-dont-stop-there/?tag=txt;title
I didn’t have much luck pulling y’all into the discussion, so I will leave the dead horse by the side of the road and move on to other commerce.
I sold another Santa, am counting my nickels and starting to ready the income taxes – one of my great joys of the season.
My latest adventure was joining the Colorado Springs Chinese Cultural Institute as a result of the Year of the Dragon Festival they held at the City Auditorium. Who knows, you might get a future post from the Mundys-as-tourists on the Yangtze River.
The tribute site I (we) built to Gladys Hawley (Cathy’s Mom) is starting to shape up and new material is on the way. I am getting more used to this new software and sure appreciate the 24/7 support I’ve gotten from GoDaddy’s tech people.
Most of my ‘free’ time has been spent trying to organize our 50th high school reunion. We sure have been a mobile bunch, but search engines and skip-tracers seem to have been equally active. One of the committee members confirmed locations of over 300 classmates! Another has taken the laborious route of checking property records and city directories. (You can run, but you cannot hide…). However, even with fast computers, it’s slow business, and then you have to call them to confirm and try and get email addresses so we can save on postage. Often we get an earful as former classmates describe in detail how much they hated high school, hated us, and hate any form of reunion. Jeesshhh….lighten up….that was 50 YEARS AGO!!!
Ice Castle at Silverthorne, CO.
The last four days have been full (seems like I say that a lot).
I have put in lots (maybe 20?) hours on my 50th high school reunion. That’s not as much as one friend from the past who traced and/or called 323 lost or missing classmates from our class which numbered around 400. He used obscure search engines and even resorted to law enforcement connections to trace a few of them. My job was to database all this info from his 19 pages of notes.
Keith Roberts had a lead for someone who wanted dragons that turned out to not be so, but did lead to an antique store down the street who might be interested in some swords. I sold another Santa from the collection, too.
There was an unusual call for a vigil for a “mystery” patient at the hospital. The call went out from No One Dies Alone, and I showed up only to be told that the patient had miraculously recovered. Five hours later I got an email that he had died. I have a feeling I know who he was and why he might have been registered under another name, but without evidence, I’ll not speculate.
On Thursday, Cathy and I went to the Coburn Gallery on the CC campus to see an exhibit on a local collection of molas, which are amazing functional art pieces made by the Kuna natives in Panama. Layers of cloth are basted together then a design is drawn on the top layer. Carefully cutting, tucking and resewing the shapes reveal the colors of the layers below. Some had as many as six layers! We are lucky enough to own an old mola and are fascinated by the art. Cath is going to contact the curator of the exhibit and see if she would give us some more information about our mola. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mola_%28art_form%29
I’m still on the Board of the Mac club, so we had a 2+ hour meeting BFE on Thursday night. The topic for the next meeting is going to be the ‘iPad and Autism’. A 10 year-old, non-communicative lad who has autism will be there with his mother, teacher and therapist and “may” demonstrate on his iPad. We are told it has been an incredible breakthrough for him, both as a solid mechanism as reward as well as a new-found method of communication with the world. Cathy and I are committed to two other events at the same time as the meeting, so I’ll have to wait and hear the results from other members.
On Friday, I took our car in for a miraculous transformation of it’s exterior. Over the years there have been numerous rock chips, scratches, small parking lot dent and scrapes – even an encounter or two from the edges of the old narrow opening to our garage. While at an oil change at the Toyota dealer, I asked my service guy who he’d recommend to repaint the car. He told me about a magician up the street at the top of Motor City named Ken. One visit to see this guy in motion convinced me he was the dude. Friday, he worked his magic on our Prius. It wasn’t a paint job in the traditional sense – no spray guns were used. He matched the paint formula/color exactly from the hundreds of cans on his shelves, then took a fine brush (after buffing the area) and filled in each scratch and chip and scrape. He then covered it with a clear coat and buffed it out again. Two hours later the result was astounding! It looks like a new car! Total charge…are you sitting down?….$95!!!
That evening, Cathy and I went to the PPCC Student Art Show. Mango fan Django, who you might suspect is a Django Rinehardt derivative group, served up the fast-paced music and the show was very well done as always. We talked to Taffy Mulligan who used to head the art dept. there, but who is now up in higher administration. We also saw a bunch of other friends from the art community. Even though I had my camera, I didn’t take it out because so many of the photo students from PPCC were having a great time documenting the event. It was a kick to see them rolling on the floor of the crowded gallery trying to frame the perfect shot. My camera wanted to get down and roll with them, but I restrained her.
Saturday we headed to Silverthorne where we’d heard of a young man who built (is still building) an ice castle. The traffic was so bad that it took us nearly 3 hours to reach the Eisenhower Tunnel…stop and go all the way on I-70. The results of the trip still have my camera wagging it’s tail as you can see above (and not doubt will have to suffer through the next several posts). After the shooting experience, Cathy slipped on the ice and landed hard on her butt again, but seems to have no lasting injury. We then drove to Denver to see Chelsea, Neal and the grandbabies for a short time before racing home in time for the Philharmonic performance of Berlioz, Bernstein and Beethoven. I thought it amazing; Cath not so much. She is not into the atonal.
Yesterday, we treated Gerry to his Christmas present – a meal at the Swiss Chalet in Woodland Park. We started by sampling the 6 small flights of wine at home from the Tasting Room which was his Christmas present to us. Cath whipped up some yummy ‘pigs-in-the-blanket’ soaked in brown sugar and all sorts of delights before we left. Except for getting lost on the way up the Pass, the evening was jolly fun, good company, great conversation and superb food.
There…..that catches you up!
This is not China. Actually, it’s Wisconsin and the closest image I’ve got to what I think rural China might look like.
I stumbled upon another article about Apple and Foxconn that might amplify what Mike Daisey said in the This American Life episode #454. It’s from yesterday’s New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw
It brings up a slightly different bit of investigative journalism in a 7-page article with an attached video. And, for me, it brought up a concept I GOT to the core in the est Training in 1976: “You can live your life taking responsibility for everything by choosing it or you can take responsibility for nothing and live your life being the victim.” Applying that to the Foxconn/Apple issue, as an iPad user, I’ve got a couple of choices: I chose the coolest device on the planet AND I’m also choosing to face the ‘human costs’ associated with it as well as the monetary costs. Put another way, I’m responsible for buying it (paying off my credit card bill) AND I’m responsible for the man who lost his life in the explosion. The criticism in the Daisey piece and the NYT piece is really against those who either choose to buy it but not acknowledge the human costs or those who design and manufacture it but do not acknowledge the human cost.
What came out loud and clear to me in both pieces is that Apple (first Steve Jobs and now Tim Rice) are taking responsibility for ALL of it. They could have so easily looked the other way and hired mega PR people to spin the story, rationalize the loses, etc.
Think this is a black and white issue? Imagine being in business and designing a new product, going to someone who is capable of manufacturing that product. Your stockholders expect you to deliver a killer product on time and for a price that will cause it to sell like hot cakes and still deliver a profit. The manufacturer gets your money, buy the supplies, hires the skilled and unskilled labor to produce it which necessarily includes managers and foremen who are in charge of the laborers. The manufacturer also has owners (stockholders) who expect a profit and a good reputation which will drive more business their way. The workers want to do well so they can keep their jobs, improve their families, etc. Sometimes the only way they can do that is to work harder, faster, longer.
I did a rambling response to the NYT article, but by waiting a few days, I deleted most of that because CNET’s professional wordsmiths and journalists did a better job at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57367320-37/apple-foxconn-tale-goes-well-beyond-apple-and-tech/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 if you are interested in following the story.
Without talking about brand names so much, I’d be interested in your discussion of the larger issues involved, like:
What is a bargain?
What does ‘Buy American’ really mean?
What’s the difference between the words ‘cost’, ‘value’ and ‘price’?
I certainly didn’t plan to revisit China so soon, but an email from Meredith prompted me to listen to the following: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
Truth be told, I didn’t need much prompting. I have the This American Life App. It has links to all 400+ shows, and I have started with number 1 and am now up to number 92 which is only Feb. 1998. Obviously, my plan is to listen to all 400+ hours, but I’ve made a dent in this goal already. Did you suspect that I REALLY LIKE this show??
Anyhow, number 454 is an excerpt from a one-man-show done by a fellow named Mike Daisey called “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”. This episode uses Apple as the vehicle, but exposes a much bigger question of global economics, basic human values, corporate regulation, unintended consequences and more.
I’d love to discuss different aspects of this show with you, my family and friends, but rather than describe the show through my set of filters, I’d like you to listen to it first, if you can carve out 56 minutes and then post some comments here.
The article from the paper on the left prompted me to take the green dragon (by Michael Whelen) on the right with me to the City Auditorium along with $5 to celebrate with hundreds of my Chinese brothers and sisters (to whom I didn’t know I was related.)
What?? You can’t read the small print on the article?? Did you click on it? Ha! I thought so. Did you double-click and see that it was the same size as in the newspaper? Oh, you clicked on it; it is huge and readable, but now you can’t get back to the post? Ha, Ha! (Use the back arrow…you’re in a browser). See what I mean about this being a more sophisticated blog?
Anyhow, my dragon – Guardian of the Raging Waters (or is it the Guardian of the Icy Castle?) and I sauntered into the City Aud. and were assaulted by ‘real’ dragons (O.K., silk dragons over the top of muscular Chinese teenagers) with a ‘musical’ accompaniment of near jet-engine decibels and 4′ diameter drums that threatened to stop your heart. I knew we were out-classed and in trouble.
We hid between the stiff Chinese wafers of the Jade Dragon Restaurant booth and the Universal Kempo Karate muscular dudes. I whipped out my iPhone and attempted to record the over-anxious dancers trying to feed the over-anxious dragons some glittery paper pieces from lantern-like IV props. (Not a worthy photo…)
The raucous, athletic performance came to an end, and I roamed the main floor looking for dragon displays…or at least someone I could talk to about selling my dragons. (Is there anyone reading this blog who doesn’t know about the 100 dragons I inherited from my cousin who was eaten by 100 cats?)
Alas, there were no dragon displays/booths. I had, once again, missed the perfect opportunity.
Soon, I was besieged by young and old wondering where I’d gotten my dragon. Youngsters brought their moms and asked them if they would buy one for them like mine. Octogenarians stopped to tell me of their dragon collections. This was a goldmine!
I started asking at each booth if they knew who was in charge, and finally I met her. She turned out to be Mali Hsu, and she was enchanted by my dragon. I was enchanted by the possibility of unloading 80+ dragons.
A year late and a lot more than a dollar short, I am joining the Chinese Cultural Institute and reserving a booth for next year’s Chinese New Year’s Celebration (The Year of the Snake…hmmmmm.)
When things go south, it seems they go in pairs or trips. My faithful inkjet printer with the continuous ink system packed up a second time, and I just didn’t have the heart to take it back to Voelker’s. On the same day, my laserprinter decided to have terminal vertical lines which were close enough together to make copy near invisible. Then, to make a nice round three, the amplifier for the sound system in the TV room developed a growl.
I love a good puzzle, but these devoured nearly three whole days.
Epson’s engineers had locked up my printer in the name of ‘protecting me from failure.’ I paid once to have their wicked software reset. Now, I had to have another printer.
Just by accident, I found one which was being sold for parts by a fellow on Craigslist. His baby sitter had jammed it printing her wedding invitations, and he felt he destroyed it trying to unjam it. We settled on $20 – he thinking I was quite the fool buying a destroyed printer; I thinking if Voelker had two broken printers, he just might combine to make one of them work.
Instead of Plan One, I spent two days, got ink all over the place, cursed a blue streak, but finally have a color printer that just works like it was brand new.
In addition, the new drum for the laserprinter arrived in record time. Now, I have two printers. Cathy’s printer stopped working so since I was in ‘printer mode’ I fixed her’s AND fixed the amplifier tonight.
Was it worth it?
You bet.