small pictures

Maddow vs. Buchanan

2009-07-17T15:20:00.002-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and

follow

2009-06-08T11:12:00.001-04:00

lose

2009-02-25T11:28:00.004-05:00

This is a news story from KCET in Southern California about businesses that do trashouts - the gathering of remaining belongings from foreclosed homes. This video includes sound. It is part of a larger news story.

I was struck by the sentiments of the workers. They are remorseful and respectful of the objects left behind. After all, the workers are reaping the rewards of someone else's misfortune, at least in the short run. In our consumer-driven economy, stuff has been imbued with meaning because we are taught that the accumulation of goods is an expression of our individual sense of self. Pocketbooks, sofas, cars, cell phones, laptops, mp3 players, and shoes are all expensive consumer goods that come in a variety of colors and styles so that we can live with things that truly are an extension of us. Or is it that we are an extension of the stuff?

hypnotize

2009-01-01T11:54:00.002-05:00

I took this at Baltimore Science Center. I captured a little child hypnosis going on in this tiny video. I took the sound out because it was just murmuring children.

By the way, the Baltimore Science Center totally blows. It's the worst science museum ever. First, it's too new to have developed a relationship with the universities, few as they are, in the area. Hopkins really needs to get on board there and DONATE SOME SHIT. Second, they seem to have a fear of presenting written material. It's all interactive game-type stuff for kids. They focus way too much on kids. I don't have a problem with children in museums as long as there are some other interested adults as well. But it's hard to make a case that someone should spend $14.50 to get into this place when there ISN'T EVEN A SKELETON IN THE SECTION ABOUT THE BODY. Third, I have a sneaking suspicion that the whole museum is an excuse for an iMax theater. I could be wrong about this. But please notice that when you start a science museum and fail to develop a relationship with the surrounding academic community, your corporate sponsorship is going to have a lot of say in how the museum presents itself. A substantial scientific base is important so that the museum can set up its expectations for quality, it's patronship, and morality. Starting out with corporate sponsorship at the get-go is a bad idea (the lobby is sponsored by Lockheed Martin) because profit will always be on the brain. Science has never been about profit.

traverse

2008-12-28T23:24:00.004-05:00

I love Boston's Science Museum. The Mathematica exhibit was designed by Charles and Ray Eames. This is a mobius strip.

write

2008-12-02T15:45:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to write another essay for Smile Hon. It's for their transportation issue.

I don't currently have a car so it has forced me to depend on other modes of transportation to get around the city. A lot of the time, this dependence is on my partner, J, who has a car. But I'm afraid of driving stick shift in the city so I find myself interacting with a lot of strangers when I have to get from point A to point B. It makes for some interesting stories.

1. There are varied reactions to my habit of biking to work when it's not too cold or wet outside. It's a very pleasant, mostly safe two mile ride and I have a nice bike, thanks to a friend. All last year, one of my colleagues asked if I wanted a ride home, as if I would prefer it. My chair thinks it's "just great" that I ride my bike because I'm being environmentally conscious. I guess I am but her comment usually makes me feel like a little kid. Other co-workers think it's cute. I guess either I'm crazy or they are. Is biking something little kids or hippies do, not adults with jobs?

Anyway, when I bike to work, I take the same route every day. I'm pretty religious about it even though it sometimes drives me crazy. Since everyone is slammed up against each other in the city, the ride passes through a different social class just about every time I change gears. There are the maintenance guys across the street as I fasten my helmet, the up and comers at Hopkins, trying to get to class at Homewood or to the hospital for their rotation on the number 3. I pass by the mentally challenged guy, Eddie, always waiting at the same stop at the corner of 39th and Charles. I wave and then try to avoid getting doored while I pass by a high rise of condos built by some famous person I've never heard of and people waiting on the other side of the street to get downtown. Until I get to Guilford. Guilford is chock full of mansions. There's the dog that barks so consistently at me that I'm disappointed if he breaks up the routine. He's held by an electric fence, I gather, but he hates me so much that it feels good. The people in Guilford are always having work done on their property. Watering, weeding, mulching, roofing, painting, siding. The occupants must be so content in their little islands that the maintenance guys are the only ones I ever see outside in this neighborhood. Finally, I pass by Loyola - always the same conversation at that bus stop about wages and schedules of the cafeteria workers. And then, finally, I get to school.

2. The MTA bus situation is a total mess. With Baltimore's extensive trolly system now gone except for a single, lonely light rail line, the city was left with buses to transport its people. The bus system is still costly and time consuming as they compete for space with the other cars on the road. It is vastly underfunded and when a driver doesn't show up to work, that bus doesn't run, leaving people stranded for hours at a time.

The most interesting time is when the bus does finally arrive. Usually the passengers are in a foul mood anyway because waiting for the bus, even if it is on time, is cold and excrutiatingly boring. But when people have been waiting for over an hour, they get downright hostile when they finally get on the bus. In society it is incredibly rare that people actually see a system at fault instead of individuals. Usually we take out our frustration on the first person we see when something goes awry. But blame placement is crystal clear on a late bus. The face of the organization, the driver, just saved your ass! If you ever want to engage in a conversation about the dysfunction of the city, get on a late bus. You are guaranteed to see a lot of pissed off people ready to talk, if not mouthing off about the corruption and misplaced funding of public services. Indeed, a city that can't transport its people is headed for disaster.

The best time I ever took the bus, though, was election night, 2008. I had taken the #27 to a party on Paca and then needed to take it back but up to Hampden. It came early on the way there and 30 minutes late on the way back. Knowing that Obama could win the election, I desperately wanted to get back to the tube and see if he had won Ohio and drink some more. As I waited on Howard by another old, abandoned theater, a homeless guy slept on the bus stop bench. The rats stayed out of my way and the leaves danced with anticipation of the night's finale. When the #27 finally showed up, the bus driver was filling out some sort of report - there had been an incident but I couldn't figure out what, exactly. So we parked several times to get the paperwork done. We then had to give her directions because she didn't know the route. But no one cared because our man could win, and we finally got to the Avenue. A couple $2 Yuenglings made everything all right. The election was called about 30 minutes later to huge roars at the Hon Bar.

3. A consortium of colleges in Baltimore fronts the money for the Collegetown bus. It runs up and down Charles Street several times a day stopping at the different campuses, usually in an old yellow school bus. It's the least glamorous form of transportation I take, but it's free, so I could care less about the aethetics. I pick it up at Hopkins, near where I live, and take it north to my campus or to the mall in Towson when I need some work clothes. There are very few stops so it's faster than the MTA.

The only drawback to the Collegetown bus is that there are, well, college students on it. Which would be fine if they never drank alcohol or talked. But they do both and if it's late at night - any night - they're really yapping it up. This usually makes me feel sort of embarassed and old. But sometimes there's some good material in there. Recently, three girlfriends discussed a night of casual sex. One of them, after a tryst, had shooed her suitor with the reminder that they both had an Italian class early the next day. Got him out by the skin of her teeth! Ciao, baby. I need to spend more time at the mall.

4. I rented a car to travel to North Carolina. I returned the car and was offered a ride. I needed to get to work so one of the employees drove me the two miles up Charles. We talked about the city and its (mostly poor) economy. As I was going on about unemployment rates and the service industry, he summed it up quite easily, "there's no love." He's right.

Okay, that's all I have for now.

celebrate

2008-11-07T17:22:00.006-05:00

An essay of mine (not previously on the blog) has been published in Smile Hon! You're in Baltimore, a local zine that publishes non-fiction stories about Baltimore. Come celebrate the issue's release!

experiment

2008-11-07T15:39:00.013-05:00

I have begun an experiment: I have banned myself from Facebook. It's been a month since I last logged on. It feels great.

I created a profile on Facebook in Spring of 2007. Initially it was just to socialize with my students and faculty friends. That went well because I knew the level of interaction I wanted, I had a very clear idea of how much privacy I wanted: just about all of it. I enjoyed getting to know my students on-line and staying in touch with former students. I liked the Facebook groups feature a lot.

Then the applications came. Soon, everyone jumped ship from MySpace and hopped on board with Facebook. I was poked so much that it got old. And then Facebook was opened up to non-college affiliated people. I had even more fun getting reacquainted with old friends and reinvigorating relationships with my cousins who live in the midwest. When we moved to Baltimore, Facebook became a way to stay in touch with NC people. And then with the run up to the election, everyone was posting all of these hilarious graphics and great satire and news articles. And everyone started using Facebook email instead of regular email. Plus, I just HAD to know what everyone's status was. I would even refresh the screen. "My name is I Zimbra." "I have a Facebook problem."

In the end, I had to face the facts: Facebook was killing too much of my time. It was my gateway drug to the internet. A meta party that never stopped. I knew that if I quit doing Facebook, I'd still be on the internet and email but a lot less. I wouldn't be directed to read long news stories by Naomi Klein and blog posts by John Hodgman and opinion pieces by Maureen Dowd every single fucking day. (Who I love.) Never in my life have I participated in something that is such a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME as Facebook.

So, I banned myself. I knew it was a good idea because I wasn't happy when I was on Facebook anymore anyway. It was way too much stimulation for me.

Basically, nothing changed when banned myself. But here are the things that did:

1. A week later, one of my students comes to my office. She's got an incredulous look on her face: "Why did you ban yourself from Facebook???" I just laughed. She wasn't fucking kidding.
I didn't know what to say. What came out was: "I needed to get some work done."
This was not a good enough excuse for her, apparently. She reported that there had been sixteen - no - THIRTY replies to my status update about the ban. I said, "yeah right". The next week, she brought to class a print out of the comments - all six of them. I decided she trying to tempt the junkie.

2. I missed a good friend's birthday. When I wrote him the next day, I apologized and asked how he was doing, CC-ing his girlfriend, also a good friend. She wrote back, "well, if you were on Facebook, you'd know it was his birthday!" She was joking, I'm pretty sure, but it's true. Facebook has a good birthday feature but the truth is that getting that information is dependent on checking the site. Whatever, bitch! (just kidding, of course)

3. I have started to write people more, both on email and in letter form. I think Facebook gave me a false sense of being in touch with people. Now that it is gone, I've also noticed that I enjoy personal interaction more, even if it's only on email. When I want to have some human interaction, I don't log into Facebook any more. I do something else - anything else. It makes me a lot happier and I think that's really weird.

4. I feel retardedly guilty about not "confirming friendships" on Facebook. I think this is bizarre. About 5 people have tried to "friend me" in the past month. I can tell because Facebook notifies me via email when somebody tries to add me but I can't confirm without logging in. I'd been toying with the idea of getting J. to log in as me and do it but I'm pretty sure that that's cheating. So I've told the people that friended me about the ban, too. "Sorry I can't friend you back - I've banned myself!" either in person or via email doesn't go over so well, let me tell you. They react with surprise and if in person, a weird look. "Look at the addict!" Ah, maybe I am. This further cements a sort of outsider status for me. A self-proclaimed outcast. It makes me want to go all the way and only communicate by telegram for the rest of my life.

But that's about it. The world has continued to turn. Facebook is one weird animal. I visited with an old friend from high school recently and we talked about it for about an hour. It really is a good thing, I think, because friendships are a type of social history. They help to contextualize yourself, as long as the interaction is genuine (which it is in my opinion). But it is the only time that I have started to really wonder if on-line interaction can be substitutive for me. And then one of the comments from my student's print out made me think I was not the only one. Christina P. had written, "noooooooooo, one defects and the whole system crumbles." And I wonder if there is some truth to that. By virtue of Facebook's great success of getting just about everyone on board, it requires that its members invest in its reality for it to be sustained. This could be a semi-powerful form of social control. The social incentives to stay interacting and updating on Facebook sure are something. By not confirming those new friendships, it tapped an old feeling in me that I hadn't experienced in a while. How dare I ignore someone who wants to be friends with me? I've known how that feels since junior high. But I think that in a larger sense, all of this friendmaking does sort of up the ante. In order to Facebook to be sustained, we have to keep logging in, reading those status updates, and consuming their fucking ads. It's all a little too crazy for me right now. Now that I'm safe on my Facebook-free island, I breathe a nice big sigh of relief.

compare

2008-08-23T19:25:00.005-04:00

Here are the things that are particularly different from Chapel Hill:
Baltimore has...
1. more smokers
2. more swearing
3. more labor union members
4. garbage and rats
5. more running red lights
6. less people dressing up
7. a lot more cash only places
8. beer in weird places (not at the grocery store but in the Rite Aid on Howard St? Plus the unforgettable cash and carry + bar combo. I'm still a little confused by that.)
9. little to no basketball (yay!)
10. lacrosse, baseball, and crazed Ravens fans
11. the obvious ones: more drug dealing, Catholics, prostitution, seafood, murders, empty houses, cops, public drunkenness, neighborhood identity, larceny.
12. LAKE TROUT
13. real diners where they don't want you to linger. I love you, Pete's Grill.
14. those wire basket thingies on wheels - freaking awesome
15. alleys!
16. the Maryland state flag is very common
17. heavy metal and Q92!
18. plexiglass at the counter
19. art students! from MICA - yay
20. YELLING
21. smearcase, Natty Boh, Utz, crabcakes (with mustard and crackers), Bergers cookies, and pit beef.

settle

2008-08-14T09:20:00.001-04:00

We lower the bar so you don't have to!

Listen, I know the Examiner is supposed to be this paper you glimpse at while on public transportation and nothing else. And it may be better than not reading anything at all...

The question remains as to whether the feeling of accomplishment should override the availability of information.

intervene

2008-07-07T00:56:00.023-04:00

In case you had any remaining doubts, I watch television. I enjoy most of the obvious shows and hate all of the bad ones. I do not pay for cable so at least I can pretend to dislike TV and do quite often. But in reality, that is a bit of a lie. I crave the quick fix that it supplies. In the summer, I watch more TV than usual because I don’t have as many responsibilities, I get a little bored, and I like the alternative reality that it provides. Unfortunately, the idea of watching any TV show at all is, like most things that are not my dissertation, quite moronic.

My confession is that unless I’m watching something humorous, I like to pretend that I’m learning something important from TV. I think this is because it cushions the blow of time wasting. In this way, sociology can be a little like crack for me. When I blow off some of its basics (like having a “methodology” or “theoretical framework”) analysis is much faster and easier. Plus, instead of feeling lazy and sedentary, I feel like an intellectual giant, alone but authoritative right in my own living room. Who needs publications when you can spout off during the commercial breaks? One show that satisfies my fix is “Intervention”, a reality show on A & E which I watch consistently. It has become my friend.

Each episode of Intervention is an hour long portrayal of a person addicted to a substance or lifestyle (like gambling). Unlike other reality TV shows where the manifest or latent goal is to win fame (American Idol, Real World, Survivor), Intervention offers no big chance to move on to the final round. If you’re on Intervention, this is the end game. The protagonist has hit rock bottom and they are controlled by their drug of choice. We see them shoot up, throw up, and fuck up - repeatedly. True to its name, the protagonist faces a family meeting towards the end of the show where they are offered 90 days of rehab that the family could not otherwise afford. There’s a reason why the show airs on Monday nights: it’s not for fun. And for this reason, it is all the more conducive to analysis.

There are obvious psychological conclusions to be drawn during Intervention. Father and/or mother figures disappear, people are sexually and emotionally abused, and bad coping strategies are learned left and right. But sociology is where it’s at with me, so I pay attention to job histories, birth order, experiences with discrimination or institutional racism, educational attainment, and with women especially: marital status. All predict income and employment status which says a lot about one’s feelings of control. Low income predicts external locus of control which is the idea that fate, not personal action is what really makes the world go round. Higher income people tend to have internal locus of control. They assume that it is their hard work, not their family legacy or racial privilege, for example, that has brought them success. I would also imagine that external locus of control correlates with substance abuse but I don’t know for sure. The causality could go either way.

At any rate, I like to put Intervention on a pedestal because it may help others to understand the structural conditions under which people become addicts (as opposed to emotional weakness or biological reasons), but it mirrors every other reality TV show out there. Even though it is shot in cinema verite style and thus appears to be an intellectual endeavor, the producers of the show are not saints. Intervention has commercial value, otherwise it would not be on cable TV. The show offers a prize at the end, rehab, and the counseling centers get free advertising in exchange. It’s hard to argue that this is a bad thing but the reality is that addicts have consented to be on the show because their ability to make good decisions has been greatly compromised. They are told that they are the subject of a documentary on addiction and never the title of the show. This, in and of itself, is not criminal per se, but that would not get approved by any institutional review board. There are even moments of dramatic suspense built in, just like the reveal on Love Connection or American Idol. Will the addict agree to go to rehab? And: will they stop using as a result?

Maybe I need an intervention. Hardly anything can be explained in a 60 minute time slot so I get to feel like an intellectual detective, trying to put the pieces of the story together. Besides, addiction is personally foreign to me so I become entranced by my lack of understanding. In combination, these two elements create a situation in which I endlessly analyze because there is only biased, insufficient data. In my little game, it doesn’t matter if I draw valid conclusions, only that I have any analysis at all. I realize now that this is all a bit silly. Perhaps if we change our scope and move past the individual episodes to see the show as a whole, we can see its place in society.

What seems closer to the truth is that if the show really wanted to help addicts, it would donate its profits to rehabilitative services or lobby for changes in drug law. Intervention allows A & E to sell ads for lots of cars, Flomax, and toilet paper. But only one organization that provides rehabilitation services can apparently afford to buy a single 15 second ad on the nights that Intervention airs in two back to back episodes.

The only thing we really learn from Intervention is that being on TV is now the new low of hitting rock bottom. The show may make its consumers feel important, as if we are an extended family intervening on their behalf. We should be critical of this position because it is a lazy way of feeling something about others. Instead of focusing on ourselves and fostering our own relationships, we sit on our couches and veg out with voyeurism. On the other hand, Intervention is informative because it shows that people very similar to us can spiral out of control. The reality is that we have a substance abuse problem in America. I think we use TV, meth and money to escape the depression of underemployment in the new knowledge economy - the system in which independent thoughts are a commodity and those without them are supposed to be losers. We have devalued all other forms of work. Physical labor and carework, the very tasks for which humans are best suited, are the hardest hit.

In the end, I'm glad that Intervention exists. While the subject of some exploitation, substance abusers are getting help that they would not otherwise. But we really need a different type of intervention all together.

sell

2008-05-16T08:33:00.003-04:00

Turn up the volume!

Easterns is a car dealership in the Baltimore area. They just won't quit with the commercials. I think this pretty much summarizes everything that's good about this town.

connect

2008-04-21T20:47:00.005-04:00

Late breaking news: we identified the song that our ice cream truck plays. It is Turkey in the Straw. Whew, what a relief that is.

The second piece of news is that the other night I wished, very hard, that all of the rats in the city would be replaced by blue crabs. Little, skittering blue crabs. J mentioned that this is a little far fetched, given that the crabs would have no where to hide. Do they cluster together for warmth? They certainly cannot dig holes like rats do. I agreed. But think of the possibilities. Grabbing a free dinner would only mean going as far as one's backyard and tackling some crabs, throwing them in a pot of boiling water, and tossing some Old Bay on those suckers. The rat problem would be solved within a matter of weeks. I am disgusted by our rats but, in a way, I wish I wasn't. They are pretty huge and are probably not hard to catch. Even the cats avoid them. They're pretty furry though - they would be brutal to try. In Louisiana, they tried to deal with their nutria problem by advertising them as good eatin'. Dispelling stigma is pretty darn hard though when it comes to ratties. In a city with a lot of hungry people, I'm sure someone is getting past that.

The last thing I'll say, which isn't really a newsy item at all, is that if you didn't know that the MTA buses take pennies, well, now you do.

test

2008-03-26T11:20:00.006-04:00

I got a new digital point and shoot from some friends of mine (thanks L & K!). I'm mostly testing it out here. This one has sound and is kind of PG.

The Charm City Roller Girls put out a mean calendar. I'm trying to figure out my take on the resurgence of the roller derby... What do you think of all that?

Anyway, conclusions of the camera test:
1. The camera works. It is fancy!
2. Three minute movies! That's 6 times as long as my previous camera allowed.
3. There is audio!
4. I can't figure out how to make the camera zoom but who cares.
5. Low light conditions make the camera really grainy but whatever.
6. It is much better than my last camera. I'm psyched.

hate

2008-03-23T21:31:00.006-04:00

Wicker: Ruining a thrift store near you. I thought we'd have a wicker free week at the thrifts in anticipation of Easter but, wow, I was wrong. At least the thrift down the street from me has the right idea: corral it in its own little wicker prison. It doesn't deserve to mix with the rest of the merchandise! Then, when it's cold, you can save on the store's heat bill by just throwing a match in there. I swear, it's like a plague upon an otherwise perfectly decent junk fest at the thrift. Wicker: the junk that kills.

review

2008-03-18T13:44:00.004-04:00

In my lifetime, a variety of dating shows have presented themselves. “The Dating Game” emphasized the comically random aspects of picking a date and encouraged bizarre, seductive, and creative answers from the 3 bachelors or bachelorettes behind the curtain. “The Newlywed Game”, hosted by Bob Eubanks, made getting to know your spouse a fun, or not so fun opportunity to win a new refrigerator. “Love Connection” got more personal, aiming to match a single gal or guy with three possible people based on their preferences towards physical characteristics, hobbies, and personality. Following a short interview, the audience was shown video excerpts of the three potential dates (of which the contestant had screened in their entirety). The audience was then asked to vote on which date they believe was the right match for the bachelor(ette). If the bachelor’s choice ended up matching the audience’s choice after the quality of the date was revealed, the show would pay for an additional date between the two. If you actually liked the person you dated even though the audience disapproved, you were still left with your new found love, perhaps a not-so-terrible consolation prize.

Since reality television has bombarded the dating landscape with its “Blind Date”, “Elimidate”, “Flavor of Love”, and many others (with often slutty consequences), the emphasis placed on authenticity and the quality of the match has overshadowed the competitive frontier that Americans crave. Finding a true, authentic love based on a match of individuals has replaced the ancient tradition of just going out with whatever Schmoe came your way just to kill time. As viewers of the reality television shit fest, we’ve been manipulated into thinking that finding true love is not just a project, it’s an entire era of our adult lives which may have to be revisited over and over because it’s “so hard to find a match.” Bullshit! What happened to going out for the sake of getting out of the house? Whatever happened to the strategizing of weighing Matt over Pete and hedging one’s bet over who would put out? What happened to the obvious manipulation of the contestants? Enter "Hell Date".

“Hell Date” is a show on BET. It starts with one unsuspecting dater telling the viewers who his/her ideal mate is. This individual thinks that he/she is on a standard reality dating show, such as "Blind Date", where both daters have gone on a TV show to look for love. However, in this case the second dater is actually an actor or actress portraying an annoying character they’ve made up. Sometimes friends of the unsuspecting dater are included in the show, relaying information about what would really get the dater’s goat.

Each 30 minute episode features two “Hell Date”’s in three stages of ever increasing annoying behavior from the confederate. Picture a Stanley Milgram experiment but in date land and you’ve just about got it. The actors have different levels of expertise but generally they just keep cranking up whatever annoying behavior they’ve chosen as the date progresses. If the dater hasn’t realized they’ve been had by the end, they are notified, get this, by a little person dressed in a devil suit holding a plastic pitch fork. Frankly, this is the best part of the show for me and I collapse in a fit of giggles every time I see it.

“Hell Date” is a prankster’s fantasy. But is it a dating show? Absolutely. Just because the show will never produce an authentic date (or an intended one anyway – the Hell Date crew seem pretty attractive to me) doesn’t mean that it has nothing to do with dating. The audience – this time the dater’s friends and family – get to recommend what would work best and the producers stage a date. The interaction between the dater and the confederate is a spontaneous production, just with different intentions from each party. It’s even possible that the dater gains something from the experience after they’ve wiped the egg from their face. And isn’t dating a series of trial and error experiences anyway? Why shouldn’t “Hell Date” help the single people of America in their own small way to learn about their limits? Meanwhile, I’ll still giggle with delight at their misfortune.

Don’t get me wrong, dating sucks. It sucks big time. “Hell Date” is another way that we are endorsing a type of torture on these poor souls. But, on the other hand, Hell Date is an awesome show because it doesn’t take the quest for authenticity seriously. It reminds us that life is one big joke. And this time the cherry on top is a red devil.

prank

2007-10-30T19:05:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we covered "Why I Love Trash" by Josh Gamson in Social Problems (SOC 222). It is an argument about the ways in which talk shows construct social problems. Gamson argues that while talk shows may be exploitative in that they profit from their guests' misfortunes, they are also useful in that they tell us the ways that the producers draw boundaries between the deviant and normal. In class we had a discussion about this and then watched a "reality" type show,The Springer Hustle (2006), which depicts the production of the Jerry Springer Show. It follows producers in their search for stories, their pitches to the head honcho producers, and the somewhat involved "briefings" in which guests are coached to argue, scream, and fight on camera.

Aside from depicting the many ways in which guest's stories are distorted for the benefit of viewership and advertisers, "The Springer Hustle" also brings to light the tenuous grip the Jerry Springer Show has on reality. Reality, remember, is simply an agreement (implicit or not) between two or more people about the definition of the situation (Goffman). If you and I agree that we are married but hate each other because one is cheating on the other, we can begin to construct a scene, real or fabricated, which has the potential to be convincing. Most dramatic performers know that the ability to be convincing is only a matter of a few things:

1. embracement the characters' motives and emotions in the scene. Belief in one's identity. (The more you believe you are Colonel Mustard in the boudoir with a candlestick, the fewer steps away you are from legally being him.)
2. the norms of the scene and how well known they are. Plot points are particularly useful.
3. skill. The "Yes, and..." philosophy in improvisational comedy is such that actors in the scene agree beforehand to believe in the scene and to go with anything the other character says, building its reality as necessary. This also works for "actual" scenes in our daily life but it is implicit because we generally believe that scene participants have legitimacy... unless they prove incompetent. Fortunately, the "Yes, and..." philosophy and technique can be learned and honed.

I would guess that most consumers of the Jerry Springer Show (myself included) believe that the dramas depicted on stage are not fabricated by its guests for our amusement. Incidentally, it is far easier to do a scene on stage if you already have a history with the other guests, feel personally invested in the outcome of the conflict, and have a bone (the bigger the better) to pick. In the extremely small amount of times that I have had the occasion to be someone besides myself on stage, it would have been much easier to enact my assigned character had I convinced myself that I was actually them. But while participants in the show feel that they need their scenes to be played out (in order to actually resolve their conflict and, perhaps, to please the producers), the producers of the show could probably care less, as long as one key element is present: physical fighting. And why should producers care if plots are fabricated? Their needs are that the advertisers keep paying and the audience keep cheering the fights. Even if the producers could be legally responsible in some way should it turn out that their scenes were fabricated and entirely fictional, it is this author's opinion that short of some temporary embarrassment, this is the extent of their investment in actual reality.

In this way, the Jerry Springer Show has a true weakness: it does not need to be real. For those who want the opportunity to get a little acting exposure, this would be a nice setting. A free flight to Chicago, an included hotel stay, who could beat it? The reveal could take place in a behind-the-scenes amateur video documentation of the manufactured reality. But why stop there?

The Jerry Springer Show is the most popular TV show in its time slot. It is broadcast around the world and the host, Jerry Springer, has a 30 million dollar contract. On May 12, 2006, Springer celebrated his show's 3,000th episode. It is highly influential and has caused other shows such as Ricki Lake and Maury Povitch to change its format to be sensational. Now YouTube and TiVo make the show accessible to anyone who wants to take the time to see it. If one had a message and a dream, a little engineering, time and organization would be all it took for you to get on international TV. Stephen Duncombe has a new book which proposes that public enactments of visionary realities can help us define and make possible a new political future. Groups like Billionaires for Bush and the Cacophony Society perform scenes and pranks that say what they want in playful ways. The Springer Show could be another venue for such performances.

Some things to know about constructing your plot:
1. As I indicated above, the key element of the show is physical fighting. Some may lament that the show has devolved to this level. But there's a reason why people watch fake wrestling - it's fun. The show has hired security guards (sometimes reveling in this element. On September 24, 2007, for the episode "Rockin' Reverend", Joe Corvo, defenseman for the NHL team Ottawa Senators, served as a guest security guard.) It is imperative that they be used.
2. The conflict between the characters tends to be infidelity. Don't panic - there are variations. For example, I saw an episode last season which had young man who thought he was a vampire and the conflict was that he was literally cutting his wife's friend and sucking her blood. Still infidelity, but totally out there. Get creative, people!

The Jerry Springer Show has profited from real reality since 1991. It is fun, bizarre, and in bad taste. Some have even called it pornography. It's time to remind these folks that "the media" is more than just selling. It's consuming, too.

Be on the Jerry Springer show.

ask

2007-10-15T12:34:00.000-04:00

Significant* life changes since moving to Baltimore:
1. Learning when, exactly, to hire people to do services for you (like moving your stuff)
2. Getting rid of almost all of my wire hangers
3. Buying more adult-looking clothes. I am also avoiding the t-shirt and jeans combo. But I still wear a lot of jeans but now I try to wear button down shirts or nicer knit tops with them.
4. Dinner parties
5. Buying a hair dryer and using it (I never have before). I do this to generally avoid looking like a rat.

* to me.

Ok, I've been thinking a lot about fear lately so I made up these questions. I'm tagging Elrond, Durham Love, and Jamy to answer them. I have a theory about it but I'm not tellin' yet.

The questions are completely optional. But this is an open thing, too. Let me know if you do it or just throw it in the comments. I'm really interested.

Part A (do these in order):
What images scare you enough to make you want to physically run away? (Open-ended question)

for me:
wrapped fireworks in a bag
a mushroom cloud
guns
a certain faculty member who shall remain unnamed
and many unknowns (probably Shining-style waves of blood!)

for J:
neufatel cheese (cream cheese substitute)

Part B:
Which of the following acts of deviance have you experienced? (Close-ended question - check off and then explain)

Have you EYE-witnessed...
1. someone being killed by another person.
2. a dead stranger in a public place? (not in a coffin)
3. a pedestrian being hit by an automobile.
4. a dog or cat being run over by an automobile.
5. a car crash.
6. a physical fight
7. a person faint
8. a bridge or other public structure being destroyed due to a flood, earthquake or other natural occurrence, etc.
9. a mugging or other assault of the person
10. someone being caught stealing someone else's property

1. someone being killed by another person.
Not an individual. I saw 9/11 on TV and Faces of Death but that's it.

2. a dead stranger in a public place? (not in a coffin)
In the Atlanta airport I saw a guy die of a heart attack or something.

3. a pedestrian being hit by an automobile.
Never. Though I know several people that have been hit by cars.

4. a dog or cat being run over by an automobile.
Yes. As a kid, I didn't understand dogs. I was waiting in a car once for my parents, made eye contact with a dog across the street. It crossed a busy street and got hit.

5. a car crash.
My own (see below, in April). Also, I saw the back of a crash once - the glass flying. Didn't really see the contact.

6. a physical fight
Yes. One with kids (one banging the other kid's head against the glass right where we were eating on the other side in a restaurant), and one with adults throwing punches in a street in the middle of a rainstorm. Both in New Orleans, separate trips.

7. a person faint
No.

8. a bridge or other public structure being destroyed due to a flood, earthquake or other natural occurrence, etc.
No.

9. a mugging or other assault of the person
Sort of. When I was 18, I witnessed a car of guys trying to pull women into their car one night in Northampton, MA. It was scary at the time (they tried to get me, too) and we called the cops. But now that I think about it, it was super lame of them. It would still anger me today but now I think I would yell at them, maybe try to turn the tables somehow. I might call the cops too now but I'm not as sure.

10. someone being caught stealing someone else's property
Sort of. A cop witnessed someone trying to steal my bicycle once but it was lame.

I think there should be points assigned to the various occurrences. I feel like I've lived such a sheltered life, living mostly in suburbs and college towns.

roof

2007-07-03T12:06:00.000-04:00

Click To Play

My spying continues. They are having workers replace the flat roofing in a section of the library. The other day I noticed that they had this flaming torch out there and I got excited. Unfortunately, the only shot I could really get was through this terrible foggy glass.

So here's a little bit about torch roofing from what I can gather on the internet. (I'm not completely clear on all of this stuff - feel free to comment and correct me!) When you have a flat roof, you have the option to use rolls of roofing material made of fiberglass and other material. Yesterday, I saw the workers laying down some very thick plywood with glue. They had a guy using this huge thing of glue with thick beads of the stuff coming out. Today they are laying down the rolls of fiberglass material on top. I think that the torch is used to seal the seams of the material so that it doesn't leak. At one point in the little movie above, you might catch him using the torch to heat up his trowel. That must be used to help seal the seams. I think it's about 80 degrees out there today but it was 95 last week. Hot stuff!

Roofing is best done in the summer so when you have a tool up there which is basically on fire, you've got a potentially dangerous situation. The person working the torcher has to be licensed (at least in some states) and there are regulations about having fire extinguishers and water hoses when it is being done. Last summer, the Learning Center's roof was being redone and it caught on fire. I realize now that it is probably due to torch roofing.

Incidentally, training programs are really important for safety in the skilled manufacturing occupations (which greatly overlap with the construction industries). It is also a necessity for contractors to have the proper certifications on hand for their workers in order to comply with state and Federal laws. So the question of who does training gets a little interesting because it is in high demand. If there is a strong union presence, they can require apprenticeships. This benefits the union organization's reputation, keeps their workers safe, and helps them build relationships with employers. Contractor organizations may sponsor training as well. Union apprenticeships are often much more comprehensive and, in my opinion, they are better in the long run for both contractors and the safety of the workers. Of course, some people will argue that the nature of these occupations have changed somewhat in that apprenticeships are only appropriate for people who wish to have a career in the building trades. This is not always the case.

The worksite at the library. The guy in the little movie was working in the far right hand corner which you really can't see in this photo - sorry!

breakdance

2007-07-03T10:55:00.000-04:00

Click To Play

Sorry this is so short - my batteries died. (As a side note, I'm looking into buying a real video camera so hopefully someday these will be less crappy.) I came out of the library yesterday and was unlocking my bicycle when I saw about 6 guys dancing to music. Campus is a little dead in the summer so it was a real treat to see them.

listen

2007-07-02T12:58:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the recordings from Patty in captivity. If it doesn't play right away, try moving the indicator a bit to the right - it may need to be jump started.

I just love it when she says, "Mom? Dad? I'm OK." I guess I really like the way she talks.

smoke

2007-06-06T12:39:00.000-04:00

My friend smoked this cigar Friday night. I think his wife said that he got it off the internet.

(I tried to get the background of this graphic to be transparent but I screwed it up somehow.)

I know that lately this blog has a fascist tone. I feel guilty about that. But whatever. I'm insane! Watch out!

Okay, so I've been kind of obsessed with Patty Hearst lately. It's really fun. She was the 19-year-old granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst when she was kidnapped by a 10-15 member, leftist radical organization in Berkeley, California in 1974. The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a real product of the times but they were really hard core. They were generally Marxist, believed that all African Americans in jail were political prisoners, and felt that poverty was unacceptable. They stockpiled weapons and shot people who they thought were part of the conspiracy. An escaped Black convict led the group and the rest of the members were young White people. From many accounts, it was militaritistic in organization.

Anyway, they kidnapped Patty Hearst in February, 1974. It was a huge deal and no one really knew what to do. The SLA set the ransom to be that her father had to donate millions of dollars in food to the poor people of California! He tried to meet their demands but it got somewhat botched and there was a riot at one of the distribution centers. A lot of people think that Patty Hearst developed Stockholm Syndrome (started identifying with her kidnappers) and she robbed a bank with the SLA as a sort of Robin Hood mission 2 months later. She was on the run from the cops for about a year. The film, Patty Hearst is a guilty pleasure-type of re-enactment of her autobiography, Every Secret Thing. I sort of recommend seeing that first before you see Guerilla which is a newish documentary about the SLA. Patty Hearst seems like she was kind of fucked up by the experience. She's okay now but it was an immensely confusing time. The way she describes it, the SLA loved the idea that they had made a convert out of her - an idea that was propagated by the press after the bank robbery. But in reality, Patty Hearst was really in a spot. Isolated in a closet for several months, she started to lose her identity and felt things slip away from her. She also feared that if she didn't at least pretend to go along with goals of the SLA, she would be killed. Meanwhile, she had a fiance, family, and friends back home who only knew her as a wealthy, UC-Berkeley junior and were calling for her immediate release. So she was simultaneously a symbol for the left and for the rich. She was completely cognizant of this in the end and I think that really made her think about what it means to simply be human instead of being boxed as this thing or that. I really like the ambiguity of her situation and it's story that is hard to tell because there are so many grays.

Patricia Hearst Shaw is now 53 years old and lives in Connecticut.

In retrospect, the Hearst kidnapping seems somewhat remarkable to me for a couple of different reasons. First, we don't have many truly radical lefty groups anymore in the states. Even back then, the SLA was being called terrorists. Part of the reason why we don't have many radical lefty groups is that all violent means of protest are completely out of fashion which is interesting in its own right. Second, the SLA were such a small group (10-12 at any one time it appears) but they definitely got a lot of attention and went down in history. This is very attractive, I feel, for the left today which feels so unwieldy, is easily ignored, and is immensely boring.

(Just to be clear, I am not an advocate for emotionally harming people or for killing anyone.)

grade

2007-05-31T12:41:00.000-04:00

Click To Play

I'm not sure what to title this one. But that's what the bulldozer dude appears to be doing here. I like how he goes out of the shot. Good blocking, bulldozer dude!

Some new ideas, theories, and demands:
1. I'm trying to finish my dissertation. Someone recently suggested that I wasn't as stressed out as I need to be. As usual, anything is possible when it comes to my mental state. And... I HAVE been sleeping well. TOO well... I think I will try to get more stressed out somehow. I have too much malaise mixed in - that's probably fucking everything up. Caffeine might do it. I go a little bonkers on caffeine.

2. To everyone: please stop buying and drinking bottled water. It wastes plastic, is stupidly expensive, is possibly harmful as the plastic breaks down into the water itself, and commodifies a natural resource. It's driving me insane. For the love of god, people, stop the madness! Update: here's an article about the production of Fiji water.

3. In a regular day, how often do you actually see people produce things? We may come in contact with people in retail establishments but their work is consumed as soon as it is produced (a service). This hidden nature of work has consequences for the way we think of work, value, and effort. Consider the objects around you. Which of them were made by hand? (For many mass produced items, it does not require a human to touch them at all.) About two years ago, Old Navy put out a commercial which showed happy young people trouncing through a field and literally picking clothes as if they had been grown like fruit. This scared me. All stitched clothing needs to be touched by human hands. The hands of the worker may belong to someone you do not know and may never meet, but they do exist. How many other examples of this phenomenon can you think of? What else obscures the manufacturing from public view?

4. Check this out: did Goodling slip? Get to know what caging is.

5. When you watch TV, and see an ad for a show that is "next", what does that mean? Clue: it is different from "right now".

6. There's a lot of competition out there these days. Note the instances in which people work together for intrinsic motivations. Remember the good of the commons.
Examples of the commons:
a. natural resources (air, water, land, seeds)
b. things that are manufactured which we all need (food, medicine, housing, clothing)
c. information
d. human rights

What isn't "the commons" though? Urgh.

spool

2007-04-16T16:44:00.001-04:00

Click To Play

I helped in the projection booth at Full Frame again this year. This is A. breaking down a 35mm print of.... urgh, I don't remember. At the Carolina Theatre, they have a platter system which allows for enough space for all of the reels of a film to be spliced together in one giant reel. That way, you don't have to use a two-projector system. But, after the film, you have to break it down and get all of the reels back together in their metal cases to send back to the distributor. A. was trying to avoid having to do that at the end of the festival so he did a few each day when there was a break. I love talking to A., the projectionist that was there. He's a really cool dude and I don't have to do hardly anything when he's in there doing his thing because I only do the video stuff. We watched Crazy Love (Dan Klores 2007) on the monitors in the booth and we were totally floored when story twists. We even talked about it the next day. I noticed that none of the other tech people talked about any of the films they saw unless they were totally knocked out by them. So it seemed extra surprising that A. liked Crazy Love just as much as I did.

If you attended Full Frame this year, I'd love to hear about the film(s) you saw. I saw a bunch.

Here is more about what I did this past weekend, in case you are interested. They have two of us in the Fletcher auditorium booth handling video stuff in addition to any projectionist that may need to be there. Everything is already set up physically and mentally by the tech crew, so for volunteers like me, I do very simple things like putting in the tape for the little trailer before the movie, getting the screen to black, playing the movie on tape, and opening the projector shutter again to let the film show on the screen. We do sound tests before the show, too. I guess it helps to know a bit about the engineering of the set up, but that was much easier this year than last because the switcher was programmed to do everything - even setting the ratios for the high definition formats. I had fun because I felt more confident than last year, my first year doing tech. The best part was when I got to tell the venue manager on the walkie-talkie that they could "open the house". That's a pretty big power trip, quite honestly. If I got a chance to do it more than once this weekend, my head would be very big right now.

review

2007-04-11T18:06:00.000-04:00

When I walk into Bodies: The Exhibition, I am transported to another place and time. Organs wait anxiously behind glass to be viewed by curious strangers. Entire plastinated bodies are frozen, holding tennis rackets and kicking new, shiny soccer balls as if I just walked into the middle of a really good game. In another room, red lights make calcium-dyes shimmer as if they are from another planet, or in a hip bar where they sell overpriced cocktails with adventurous names. It’s one big party in here. The staff don white lab coats. I order a metacarpus on the rocks.

But it’s not a party. Perhaps I am reminded of this by the exhibit of the alienated nervous system, its strands divorced from all other bodily elements except a brain and eyeballs, looking absolutely stunned. It sort of looks like a freaked out tadpole.

“Where am I?”

It can’t hear the answer which I learned from one of its attendants but I whisper it anyway: “You used to live in China. Do you remember?”

“What?” its eyes say. “What the hell happened?”

Maybe I need a drink after all. My friend the nervous system and everyone else here didn’t always have the Latin names they do now. When you die and are unclaimed in China, the government does not require consent before you are placed on the market to be sold to others. Cadavers aren’t cheap and private companies don’t have an easy time of acquiring them. But, if a plastination company buys you, Dr. Gunther von Hagens or one of his proteges will soak you in acetone and then, in a vacuum, liquid polymer will replace the acetone. You will feel like a pencil eraser and smell like one, too. You are posed, cured, and shipped. Now you are here, in a mall next to Urban Outfitters and a short walk from Cinnabon and the Gap. You are a specimen, a learning tool, a scientific marvel. You have been transformed into something valuable now and the Premier Exhibition company of Atlanta, Georgia knows it. They are the owners of the Bodies: The Exhibition and they take in $24 a head. Leisurely scientific inquiry isn’t cheap these days.

More people enter the exhibit so I move into the next room. I contemplate another skinless plastic body. It is beautiful. It might even be art. The polymer shows off the muscles best, sinewy and textured. As my eyes move toward the face, I see that the eyes are glass but the teeth are real. Finally, an artifact of this person’s (former) life to inspect. Excitedly, I get close as there is no barrier to prevent it. The teeth that remain in the mouth appear to be original, dark and chipped. Where were the doctors and dentists when this person was alive? I smooth my tongue over my own white, shiny, immaculate set. Welcome to global stratification.

I head for the exit.

collide

2007-04-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

Durham, NC. Corner of Morgan and Morris- My first car crash occurred last night. I am in the car with the dotted lines. The blue car was stolen and being chased by a cop. As I was attempting to pull into the RBC Centura lot, I got side swiped and did a 180. It was a "drive by" type of thing.

Some notes:
1. Thank you Christa, DATA bus driver who was in the parked car by Centura bank. She saw everything, got out of her car, called 911 immediately on her cell, and hugged me because I was freaked out and upset. I hit my head on my window and the car got smooshed in pretty good on the drivers side. I wouldn't have known what to do AT ALL if she had not been there as I don't have a cell phone and I was facing the opposite way all of a sudden for no apparent reason.

2. This is not the best drawing of the accident (Morgan is three lanes, I think, etc. etc.).

3. For once, something besides grad school caused me to freak out! Hooray. After everything got reported to the police, I drove home and danced around with the cat. My priorities? Realigned, yo. Not world shifting or anything but it really helps to get out of my little bubble.

4. Cars suck. We shouldn't have set things up this way. I crashed into a pedestrian on my bicycle once and aside from the embarrassment, we were completely unscathed. Transportation is key to meeting the needs of large populations but the car option is too expensive and unhealthy. The use of automobiles promotes individualism to the detriment of community bonds, generates false symbols of wealth that help to separate and stratify people, and reinforces a culture of spontaneity which, although not inherently problematic, hurts our ability to think in the long term about how our actions affect others despite good intentions.

5. My car still drives quite well. I will file an insurance claim and everything but body work is the only thing that is needed. Last night J. declared that I would "drive my car into the ground". And to think that I used to be a bit proud of my Toyota. When I first got it, I gave it baths and attempted to wax it and stuff. If the insurance won't cover the body work (quite possible) I'm going to be tempted to enter demo derbys. Seriously. If you're going to drive a beater, go all the way.

list

2007-03-26T16:28:00.000-04:00

1. I recently discovered that with the aid of a plush animal or puppet as a prop campanion, that I would be theoretically willing to do a routine on stage. This realization came about after a discussion of some of the extended scenes of For Your Consideration in which Nina Conti does her routine with a monkey puppet. For the record, I'm really against monkeys but Nina Conti is awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I think her little monkey is actually very cute. Please note: I would not do ventriloquism because I don't have the skills or "skilz" if you will. I could probably come up with a character and then I would try to interact with them though. If you haven't figured this out already, it would be pretty lame but the point is that even though I am a shy person, I think this sounds like a funny thing to do. I would rather do stand up than some stinky routine with a puppet but I think my skills (and lack there of) are probably better suited for ridiculous interactions rather than monologues and the like.

2. I am totally freaked out by the following photograph:

The photo is a still from the new film version (2007) of the Broadway version (2002) of Hairspray (which is a version of the original film from 1988, mind you). It depicts John Travolta as Edna Turnblad and Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad. It makes me want to stab myself.

3. I can't hold it in any longer: I am totally against Evite. I don't necessarily fault anyone for using this service. And I certainly like being invited to events. But, like many things in society, it's the system that sucks. If I was visiting Earth from outer space and I figured out how Evite works and what it is for, I would get the impression that everyone who uses it is a total control freak jerk that needs to know every little detail anonymously about my guests. The reason why Evite gives us this impression, I suspect, is that SOME people would like to know the number of attendees and WHY the HELL they aren't coming and everything. But most people probably do not feel this way and they just like Evite because it streamlines the whole process. It just sucks, I tell you. Not all online interaction is substitutive of real interaction (and lord knows that there's enough hysteria about this already) but I think that this is a fairly good example of it, actually. I think it plays a substitutive role in social interaction in that it replaces formerly totally fun, soulful aspects of party inviting with excrutiatingly boring typing, browser refreshing, and logging in as one's self. I'm nostalgic. Sue me.

4. Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is coming up. Please consider attending. It's one of my favorite things in the whole world.

That is all.

clean

2007-02-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

Watch the Video

This may be my strangest post. The other day I had this odd histamine situation where I was sneezing, had a runny nose, and my eyes watered for no apparent reason. I took some Benadril and then used a neti cleansing pot. I was cured! Anyway, I thought this a good time to finally come through on my promise to include something with the neti. I blocked myself out the best I could.

drink

2007-02-18T15:34:00.000-05:00

Here is Blueberry, one of the neighborhood cats. I realize that there are many social risks that I take when I admit to you that I really like this cat. I don't live alone and I don't own any cats. But, like most cats, she's not just some random animal that I have chosen to like. There are varying characteristics that I find particularly "cute" about her, if you will. But I will not go into them here. Because I AM NOT A CRAZY PERSON. She's not even that special. But, let it be known that she does have a white spot at the end of her tail, she has blue eyes, and she responds to her name. I think these are objectively good traits that just about anyone would think attractive in a cat. Thus, this still makes me 100% sane. And she also has a white belly. And she rolls around in the dirt sometimes. Okay, see? That's it.

Another topic I would like to address is Asia Cafe on Franklin Street. I visit this establishment at least once a month for lunch. Sometimes once a week. I find it is particularly fascinating for a few different reasons. First, the food is not very good. I think they have specials, sometimes, on the weekend which must be good because, otherwise, I have no idea why anyone would frequent this establishment. However, despite the poor food quality, I go. Secondly, I've noticed that I have never gone with anyone to this establishment. Like, I never, ever would suggest that a friend or acquaintance join me on any visits to Asia Cafe. I mean, that would be embarrassing because of the first reason alone but also because people tend eat alone there. It's just this thing that you DON'T DO at Asia Cafe. I've noticed that companionship is frowned upon there. Not by the administration, necessarily, but by other clientele. And by "noticing" I mean, "I have noticed other people frowning when people bring friends there."

Third, I find that my visits to Asia Cafe have an urgent air to them. I never "choose" to go to Asia Cafe, for example. I just find myself bending over the same styrofoam slop and then later notice that I am no longer hungry. This is not to say that I don't NOT enjoy going to Asia Cafe. I do, actually, enjoy Asia Cafe. But it is definitely not for any of the normal reasons to like an eating establishment. Usually people like particular restaurants because they serve good food, have good service, and have a reasonable sense of ambiance. Asia Cafe has none of these characteristics. None whatsoever. In fact, if it is wintertime, you will often find yourself quite cold in Asia Cafe. They don't seem to have any heat. And the trays, should you decide to use one, are incredibly sticky. So I guess you can't even say that it is comfortable eating in Asia Cafe. It is, in fact, kind of a chore. Still, I go. I must go to Asia Cafe.

generate

2006-12-30T17:14:00.000-05:00

Reporting from Palm Springs, California, my sister took this movie.

I love that you can see the windmills up close in the movie. There are several hundred windmills at this site in Palm Springs as shown by this photo which I can't figure out how to display here. (I think it may be because Flickr does not allow All Rights Reserved photos to be embedded though I'm not sure.)

As you may have guessed, these windmills exist to generate electricity. The first time I saw a windmill like this was in Western Massachusetts and it took my breath away because it was so beautiful. Some people feel that the windmills pollute the views of the area. I've never been to Palm Springs and I don't know what this area looked like before the windmill farm, but I'm hesitant to diss their existence. Not only do they have a zen-like, synchronous magic to them, but they were erected in the hopes of a minimalist, peaceful form of energy.

(As a side note, one of my students called me a "non-drug hippie" recently. To another faculty member. I guess I can't blame her.)

In other news, it has come to my attention that "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood may be about god loving. You know, about "worship" or whatever, in a Christian sense. And it's freaking me out. I received the Talking Back to the Night cassette as a gift in junior high from a girlfriend. Although I enjoyed listening to the radio and knew the words to many songs back then (I was in full 1980s pop mode) I was sort of behind in the whole music-ownership thing. The Hooters' One Way Home was my own first purchase, made after an incredible amount of internal debate. But then Bonnie Huggins gave me Talking Back to the Night and Invisible Touch by Genesis for my birthday. I enjoyed both albums a lot and was very grateful for the gift because I really liked both of them and plus, she tripled my collection. Anyway, I got into Higher Love, like a lot of people did. I liked the percussion solo part, I liked the horns, and, even now, I think it's a decent song. I really do. But J and I were listening to the lyrics today while eating tacos and I grew horrified.

Here are the lyrics - I'll take out the refrain:
Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is a wasted time
Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

Worlds are turning and we're just hanging on
Facing our fear and standing out there alone
A yearning, and it's real to me
There must be someone who's feeling for me [note that this is left ambiguous]
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

I will wait for it
I'm not too late for it
Until then, I'll sing my song
To cheer the night along
Bring it...Oh bring it...

I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me [!!!]
Let me feel how strong it could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Dude, it's totally about god and shit. Don't you think? Ugh. I am notoriously bad about actually thinking about the lyrics I sing, when I know them (I hardly ever do) and this serves me right. I can just see all of the Christians standing together with their arms high and palms spread, swaying and crying now. Maybe Steve's "someone" is a real person. Maybe. But probably not.

Okay, I'm over it.

parade

2006-12-09T13:13:00.000-05:00

Watch the Video

Wow - thanks for checking in. I know it's been a while. (Stay tuned for some experimentation with a nasal cleansing pot.)

I just came from our town's holiday parade. Actually, it may officially be called the Christmas parade. Yeah, I'm one of those pinko commies who likes a nice multi-religious/secular parade actually.

This year, the chicken man and Shriners were absent. I never thought I'd get into parades as much as this but, like, what's up with that? Seriously, did the chicken man have something better to do this morning? I guess so. Hm.

This year, kids dressed as presents was my favorite. They looked really quite pleasantly goofy. J's favorite was the 3-legged dog. Watch for it as it is the SECOND dog that goes by. I have to say that that is pretty good and I'm glad he pointed it out.

Parades are really nice footage for weird movie mashups so PLEASE steal this and make something out of it. My camera is sucking more than ever though so I won't harass anyone to do it.

All right, I hope to be back soon.

admit

2006-11-08T09:40:00.000-05:00

Actress Adrienne Shelly was found dead on November 1st in Manhattan. Initially it appeared to be a suicide but Diego Pillco just confessed to her murder.

Shelly co-starred in Trust (1990), a film by Hal Hartley, which is one of my favorite movies. It's a very tender, sometimes awkward story about a relationship and is, admittedly, "artsy".

I'm sad that she is gone.

edit

2006-10-30T17:29:00.000-05:00

I've been a fan of the Prelinger archive for a long time. They have oodles of public domain films, mostly of the 16mm educational variety. This one was made in 1941 and is called the Door to Heaven. This is my special creepy edit.

This has sound!

bradyfy

2006-10-06T15:46:00.000-04:00

I've wanted to do some tiling for a long time but iMovie wouldn't let me do it. Yay for Final Cut Pro and the library's lab. I was afraid that I was going to stumble around the software when I went to do this but it went fine. I remembered, for the most part.

P.S. I sped up the donut production line for some reason. It just looked better. It's going twice the rate that the line usually goes. It takes time to fry that dough.

P.P.S. The pumpkin spice donuts are out AND they sell KK on campus now.

position

2006-09-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

Georges Rousse is a French artist who installs perspective art in buildings that are in transition. Ellen Cassilly and Frank Konhaus of Durham raised the money to bring him to Durham and install art in some of the unused buildings around town. This blue square is in the Chesterfield building on the corner of Duke Street and Main. The art itself is minimalist, in my view, but the significance is great due to its placement. On the way to the installation, we all discovered a long-abandoned work environment. Linoleum floors, long, narrow hallways, gigantic metal desks, fluorescent lights, and frozen, oversized industrial clocks told us that it used to be a floor of administrative offices. I love that a photocopier was incorporated. (I *think* it is a photocopier...)

The circle one was my favorite. It was as if it appeared overnight, leaving scraps of another era intact:

The Chesterfield will be demolished someday soon because it is cheaper to use its foundation than to renovate the existing floor plans, electrical capacity, and plumbing. Durham is growing and its population doesn't desire a building like this. I would prefer that this be preserved in some way and I think it's more than nostalgia. We should remember our old work environments because they tell us where we used to be and where we are going.

The Independent's David Fellerath had an excellent article about it this week. The official site for the project can be found here.

convey

2006-09-21T15:41:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally did it. I managed to make it over to Krispy Kreme when they were actually making donuts. In case you're not in the know, this particular branch is special because they supply all of the supermarkets, gas stations, and what have you, PLUS any other Krispy Kreme locations in the area. So they're making a lot of donuts. If you see a Krispy Kreme truck somewhere in the Triangle, in all likelihood it is carrying donuts that originated in this one production line.

These particular donuts were of the jelly variety. I spied some sort of red goo being squirted in by assistants. (They were too far away for my poor camera.)

This movie looks particularly crappy because it is shot through glass. (I've heard that they don't want people taking pictures so I went incognito.) The first part is the worst quality, but it's the most important: when the donuts, happily floating and cooking in hot oil, are flipped so that their other side can be fried as well. For some reason, seeing raw, limp dough puff into a beautiful treat is incredibly satisfying.

P.S. I am eagerly awaiting their pumpkin spice donut. It comes out sometime in the Fall and is very, very good.

P.P.S. Jeez - I sound like such a donut freak in this post. I'm not really.

roast

2006-09-16T10:58:00.000-04:00

Ever since Montreal, my new thing is to eat a soft boiled egg in the morning. I have a new hi-tech egg timer and it works really well so I can get it just right. But you have to eat it with good bread or else it's not worth it. You gotta dip, man.

We didn't have any bread at all so I biked over to the local farmers market which is still going strong this time of year. There were a lot of tomatoes, herbs, eggplant and some squash is starting to come in now. And peppers. Here's Alex from Peregrine Farm roasting some peppers. Buy 2 pounds and the roasting is free(!) Then you put them in a paper bag, wait for them to cool down, and peel off the skins. Not pictured: butane tank.

recycle

2006-08-27T11:33:00.000-04:00

The ReCYCLEry started back in 2000 with the help of Rich Giorgi, Andrea Richards, and Seth Elliott. The idea was to encourage donations of old/used/broken bicycles and get knowledgable volunteers to fix them up and teach others, especially kids, to do the same. In exchange for putting in some hours at the ReCYCLEry, even if it was fixing up another person's bike, you could earn a bike of your own. The ReCYCLEry has since moved twice from its original location on North Greensboro Street and changed leaders several times, but it's still basically the same idea. A gang of sleepy-eyed but enthusiastic bike mechanics of varying skills, some of quite a lot of expertise, show up on weekend mornings, greet others with coffee, work on the donated bikes, and help anyone that wheels in for repairs. I have volunteered there off and on myself. I love the low-key, amorphous group and I especially like the opportunity to show off my ratchet and wrench set from Sears.

The ReCYCLEry still works the same way but now they are starting a new lending program. You pay $10 to become a member and then they set you up with a key that accesses any one of their blue bicycles at various hubs around town. I think the town of Carrboro is helping them out as well as a way to encourage green transport. Anyway, here is some video of some public sprucing up that was going on this morning as a way of publicizing the new program.

drive

2006-08-19T17:41:00.000-04:00

On the way to and from Montreal, I took some little movies of the road. I'm one of those people that is impressed by bridges and monstrous highways. They dwarf the cars and it ends up being sort of beautiful.

There is a place near Atlanta where the roads snake together like some of these roads do. Do they have names for these like they do for bridges? They must.

Both of the movies posted today have sound and they take a tad longer to load than the others. The soundtrack for this one is a song by Antonio Carlos Jobim entitled, "Insentiez". It's a little over the top for this but oh well. I think the pacing works anyway.

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fiddle

2006-08-19T12:05:00.000-04:00

As I wrote above, I drove to Montreal last weekend. We got there on Friday evening, hit the conference, and then went to dinner in Chinatown. Montreal is a very big place and almost everything is in French. People knew English but I don't know French so I was a bit lost when ordering or trying to find a parking space. That's fine and it made things more exciting.

The next day, I had breakfast with Jamy of Grateful Dating (see link to the right) and afterwards we trolled around the old part of town. It was touristy but only in the sense that it was expensive and a little crowded. As we walked around, I didn't quite feel like a foreigner even though technically, I was. I felt like I was peeking in on a different type of diversity. Canada's concept of diversity has been described as a mosaic rather than a melting pot which implies assimilation. For example, it's very rare to find a place in the United States where everyone speaks something else other than English, and when we do, we put borders around it and consider it different, the "other". Chinatown, little Mexico, K-town. "That's for them. Not us." In Montreal, being bilingual was the norm. My lack of understanding for French wasn't penalized - it was merely an inconvenience. I was missing out on all of the different interpretations, and of course, the ability to readily read street signs, and I honestly felt encouraged to do better rather than feel excluded.

Anyway, here is a guy that was playing in the old part of town. (I should note that he was not actually playing the Revolting Cocks. That is my addition.) I tipped him.

Watch the Video

descend

2006-08-14T08:57:00.000-04:00

This is my friend peeking.

Can you see this movie? I changed hosting sites so let me know if you used to be able to watch these (when I was on YouTube) but now you can't. For example, Jerry, can you still not see this?

twirl

2006-08-01T15:09:00.000-04:00

Things got a little kooky at another Durham yard sale on Saturday. This is E. who won state champion in baton twirling back in the day. Thanks so much for letting me post this footage, E. You know who you are. We here at Small Pictures are truly honored.

Watch the Video

incubate

2006-08-01T12:31:00.000-04:00

We went to a pet store briefly yesterday because, well, that's what you do when you're in mall, wandering aimlessly due to the euphoric nature of the air conditioning. They had a bird room which included, among other things, a cage of two parrots that were incubating eggs. After watching this video a few times, and staying up late thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that these birds desperately, desperately need a nest. I would go mad with all of those wobbly eggs underneath me. A little dried grass and sticks or whatever and they'd at least STAY PUT so that I could sit upon them quite calmly.

However, I don't want to speak for the parrots.

Watch the Video

march

2006-07-22T13:17:00.000-04:00

Introducing the Scene of the Crime Rovers! We had our first performance last night at the Culture Crawl in Durham.

Special thanks to J for shooting this video footage. P.S. This is an extended version from yesterday - a new version actually.

Here are some still photos:

microwave

2006-07-19T10:53:00.000-04:00

Hi and thanks for visiting.

I bought this toy this past weekend at Z and R and C's yardsale. They had a lot of awesome stuff. I bought a dress, this toy, and handfuls of tea packets. They had all of this tea that included flavors like plum cinnamon, ginger mango, and peppermint. I got all of the stuff for a dollar. They also had this dinette table that was spectacular but, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where we would put it. It was only $20. Anyway, afterwards, we went to breakfast with B. I love B more than anything.

Anyway, enjoy. And just know that we here at Small Pictures just love comments. It makes us feel like comfy little blue-eyed kittens taking a nap. Or something.

whirl

2006-07-10T23:08:00.000-04:00

This is a whirligig at Farrington Village. It sort of looks like something Vollis Simpson may have made. Does anyone know?

spark

2006-07-05T01:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Independence Day.

Also, I saw this today at dinner. I want to meet this Stephanie chick. I think she's got something to say.

compare

2006-06-29T10:49:00.000-04:00

I'm obsessed with electricity meters and Greenland melting. Is stealing electricity beneath me? I can only think of a few friends of mine that would not steal electricity if they were given the chance and they were really struggling to pay the bill. I want to talk to more people who went through the oil crises of the 1970s. Was gas syphoning really a myth? Who did it? I want to know more. Write a comment!

This one is dedicated to the luscious Duke Power Company, you mysterious monopoly, you...

Watch the Video

ascend

2006-06-13T14:11:00.000-04:00

Providence to DC yesterday.

jump

2006-06-06T12:41:00.000-04:00

Fun on the trampoline. Stay tuned for a collage-type movie of different people on the trampoline. I need clearance from one more person.

race

2006-05-26T10:23:00.000-04:00

A race between ketchup, mustard, and hotdog in between innings at the Durham Bulls Stadium. Place your bet and then hit play.

practice

2006-05-22T01:39:00.000-04:00

Coming back from break during practice. If you play a brass or wind instrument and you live in the area, write to let me know if you want to be in an unusual marching band. I'll pass your info on to the organizer.

dance

2006-05-12T23:15:00.000-04:00

David K. Rose and Casey Porn were showing their paintings at Wootini tonight.

I must admit that my poor dancing looks rather shabby compared to these guys. This really seems like the only way to dance.

A better shot of the robot-ed dude:

Burrito Bunker update: I'm still freaking out. They remain closed.

rap

2006-05-08T12:46:00.000-04:00

All right, I give in. It's just too cool not to mention.

Billy Sugarfix wrote a rap about Carrboro and Jason Meeks and Brian Risk shot a video for it in which much of the town's businesses and people are featured (including the mayor). I had no idea that people loved Carrboro this much. (I do, too.) You can see the video tonight at the Cat's Cradle. Come at 8:30, pay $3.

You should really check out the lyrics at their website. Sort of Lazy Sunday-ish but you know, more Carrboro-y.

Here's an article about the shoot as well. That's where I stole these photos.

More of my own videos soon. But I trust that you saw the Stephen Colbert one?

plea

2006-04-20T15:11:00.000-04:00

The Burrito Bunker has been closed for three weeks. I'm suffering from withdrawal.

bury

2006-04-17T15:34:00.000-04:00

Satanic ceremony? Superstitious ritual? Or just some fun on a sunny day? Guess. Just guess!

project

2006-04-07T11:01:00.000-04:00

During the Full Frame Film Festival yesterday I worked in the booth at Carolina Theater's Fletcher Hall. It was the first time that I got to see 35 mm projected. This was a shadow on the floor during the screening of THE HEART OF THE GAME.

flutter

2006-04-04T21:16:00.000-04:00

I won't say exactly why I found myself in the parking lot of Wendy's just now. But I did. It happened, yes, I admit it. Anyway, something caught my eye as I was in the parking lot. Something getting all excited about their big streetlight, way, way, way up there in the air. But it wasn't any ordinary moth. It was a huge Mothra moth! Or butterfly? Am I confused?

To be clear, I'm not sure why the creature suddenly got tired and was laying down and being all still for me while I took its picture. I hope it is not sick. I'm thinking that it's okay because it was flying just seconds before it started hanging out on the ground. But still, why would it do this unless it was sick? Anyway, I hope my poking does not look too menacing. I feel bad that I poked it. But I did.

Sorry.

seethe

2006-04-02T21:20:00.000-04:00

This installment is from one of my best friends who was gracious enough to let me post this. This is footage from the Kilauea volcano in the Volcano National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. This movie has sound. It is mostly the wind.

Kilauea has been erupting slowly since 1983. From some Googling, I think she must have been standing in the caldera which is a crater. Most of this volano is under sea level.

I especially like the last few seconds of this video when the cooled lava crust is shown up close. She said that the surface was sharper than glass which made for a treacherous hike. Boiling rock, man. It's serious stuff.

Special thanks for this.

twist

2006-03-26T13:06:00.000-05:00

Archer Graphics in Carrboro has these two gigantic fishing poles. They both appear to have been successful in catching fish.

type

2006-03-19T12:59:00.000-05:00

Thrift score yesterday. This is a fun Valentine typewriter made by Olivetti.

draw

2006-03-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

On Friday Gary Baseman was in town for a few hours. He does amazing artwork, works on the animated series, "Teacher's Pet", and is probably best known for the look of the Cranium board game. Here's a little movie of him drawing in my friend's book.

And here's a still photo of the finished little guy that he drew.

lie

2006-03-01T23:10:00.000-05:00

The smoking gun on Katrina. This movie has sound.

swim

2006-02-28T14:31:00.000-05:00

My boyfriend's fish!

fly

2006-02-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is a music box. The birds move with the inside mechanism because they have magnets on their backsides. Magnets on your butt!

drive

2006-02-09T11:32:00.000-05:00

There is a train that runs alongside the bike path I take to school every day.

drink

2006-02-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

Okay so the bedroom is the bird room now. I've got 6 framed drawings of birds, birds at the birdfeeder curtains that I made, and some big fake crows up on a shelf. I want more bird stuff but it has to be representational - I think it's more weird that way. (Yeah, I know it's weird to want a weird bedroom but it's the only room that's totally mine and I wanted to try out this idea that birds, en masse, are creepy. Just one bird? Cute! But a lot of birds? Get outta here!)

Anyway, the drinking bird (below) is the star of the bedroom even though she is not representational. But she's allowed because she's got chutzpah! She's the life of the party. But she's always thirsty! We cater to her every need. We are slaves to the drinking bird, we are.

mnftiu

2006-01-26T11:53:00.000-05:00

David Rees is awesome.

choose

2006-01-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

The following video documents a phenomenon which happens to be the very best thing about the town where I live. It is. I don't care what anybody says.

like a band-aid

2006-01-21T15:38:00.000-05:00

I love you but you need to remove the John Kerry sticker from your car.

We all failed to mobilize more people around John Kerry and the Democrats. Obviously, this is one of the reasons we lost. This nostalgia for a different course of events in 2004, while understandable, is not helpful because it prevents us from seeking clarity about who we are and what we want. And, by the way, what we want is more than "not Bush" or "not the neo-Cons". What in the heck is our vision?

Here are some instructions on how to remove a bumper sticker from your car.

Make your own bumper sticker to inspire change. If it applies to the 2006 elections, great. But it certainly doesn't have to.

Buy sheets of vinyl that you can use in just about any printer. Use Word to make your stickers (make the font big) if you want or go for Adobe Illustrator if you are fancy. Know that colors tend to fade on home made stickers unless you use a sealant. (Just plain old black and white will do fine for a while without sealant though.) Then load up your printer, print them out, cut them out, and put them on your car.

walk

2006-01-19T13:33:00.000-05:00

flip

2006-01-18T14:34:00.000-05:00

Seasons Greetings

2006-01-17T16:31:00.001-05:00

John designed this graphic using stuff he found on the internet, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Some of our friends got a holiday card from us with this printed on the front. Some had blue glitter. It was fun to put the glitter on them but I noticed it was all coming off when I put them in the envelopes. Sorry about that, glitter!

It's Byron Allen of "Kickin' it With Byron Allen" which is "Fast... Fresh... Funny... And always entertaining." Oh god. Shoot me. That's just insane because obviously he is a squid in real life! I thought everyone knew that!