Down Payment Now, Apocolypse Later

“There’s Someone living in all those cottages – the Silent Partner in Thomas Kincade’s business empire, and a cheap source of inexaustable light to boot. Together, they cut an irresistable deal for the discriminating art consumer: down payment now, apocolypse later.”
(Larry Cosentino, “The lights are on, but nobody’s home,” Lansing City Pulse, June 12, 2002)

For a long time now, I have loathed Thomas Kinkade. I never understood why he inspired such devotion in his fans. I’d met someone once who worked at one of his gallery stores, and she told me that there was a woman there that took her hand and told her that she thought that Kincade was a blessing from God. Honestly.
I usually try to cut people some slack for their artistic tastes. I know stuff I like some other folks don’t, and vice versa. A good chunk of art is audience reception. When I like a piece of art, I usually like it right away – I just get it. When I don’t, it’s usually because I either don’t think that the artist was able to get his/her “message” across, or because I think the particular piece of art is a cynical ploy (I feel this way about Jeff Koons, except for his shiny 60’s vacuum). With Kincade, it was more than that – there was an almost predatory feeling in his work. He knew who his market was, and he pandered to their every whim, exploiting their beliefs and their lack of connection to nature so that he could unload some chintzy canvas. He didn’t even paint a lot of his works, but had assistants who did the touch ups.
On reading this story on Tuesday, all my suspicions about Mr. Painter of Dreck were bourne out, plus more. Allegedly, his company is being investigated by the FBI for bamboozling his Signature Gallery owners out of their money. According to some of the former owners, Kincade and his associates would use the “God hook” in order to get people to sign on to their big scheme. Not only is he a hack artist, he might also be guilty of trading on his religion to make a buck.

The French Kicks are toe-tapping

I’m not much into new music. I hardly ever listen to the radio at all. I’m more likely to turn on NPR than the local popular music station. I haven’t even listened to the Impact in a long time, and that used to be my station-du-jour back in my student days. Which is why it’s so strange that I’m really loving this new French Kicks song, “So Far We Are.” What a great song! I’m not quite as wild about the video (what’s with the fruit?), but it’s still pretty cool.

So...Very....Tired

Work has been kicking my butt lately. It seems like all the editors collude to all catch up on their huge backlogs at the same time. Which means that I get an avalanche of email. It makes me think of that Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns goes to the Mayo Clinic and his doctor is trying to stuff those stuffed germs through a miniature doorway. Very little gets through. Then to top it off, I had some irritating email. It was a really nitpicky request, and I haven’t answered it yet, lest I tell the offender that I don’t have time for that crap at the moment, and that s/he is a cobag and can eat it! (Thanks a lot, Pinko Punko.)

Even better, on the ride home after work, the buses were packed. I was lucky enough to get on the third one that came, and it was packed shortly after that. I know I shouldn’t complain, as increased ridership is a good thing. But they’re either going to have to get either more or bigger buses. Or better still, light rail transit between campus and the capitol. That’d be so sweet! But for now, I’m stuck riding home crammed in like a sardine.

I felt better after I got home and went to check on my garden. There’s something very calming about sniffing basil. No, really. I’d rub it on my wrists and wear it as perfume if it lasted long enough.

Fun with CSS Templates

Apologies for the lack of posts. Yes, I am indeed a slug. Though not quite as sluggish as usual. I have been working on the blog's template. After trying to re-invent the wheel, and realizing that wasn’t going to work, I decided to try to alter an existing template. I chose the “Compute” template from the Blogger templates site.

I’d forgotten what a pain in the butt CSS is to work with. It’s been a while since I played hack and crack, so I’ve unfortunately forgotten a lot of stuff. I was impressed that I remembered how to download a .css file from a website. (Woohoo!) I do like this one better than the other one I had –this one seems more functional. It will take me quite a while before I get this in the shape I want it to be though. Wish me luck!

Ready or not, here comes the fall

Today was the last peaceful day I’ll have at work for awhile. Not that my job will change much, but everything surrounding me will. I walked campus, already noticing a slight increase in traffic. Tomorrow is the day the students come back. I’ll be surrounded by all sorts of people: bored returning students looking for a welcome back party, fresh-faced kids leaving home for the first time, harried parents dropping off their pride and joy, and even more harried professors typing up a syllabus at the last minute. I always enjoy the quietness and solitude of the summer months. It’s nice to wander through campus in full bloom. It’s almost like sleeping – there’s a dormancy happening, and we’re taking a rest. Then fall comes in with a rush of energy. There’s always something happening. The sidewalks are full of students rushing off to somewhere. It’s time to get back to the business of teaching and learning.

Things that make me mad

Conspiracy talk: The three men arrested earlier in Caro were apparently remanded to federal custody today. However, the terrorism charges they were initially held on didn’t hold up. They apparently are being charged with fraud and conspiracy, in connection with the van full of cell phones.

Live free or die: Meanwhile, On Point’s first show today asked the question, “Should the FBI be structured more like MI-5?” I couldn’t stand listening to Richard Posner. As a federal judge (7th Circuit) and a guy who might someday write a legal opinion that affects me personally, it really bugged me that he’s so willing to give up everybody’s civil rights. Unfortunately, there were a few callers who were willing to do that too (provided that they didn’t get busted for not paying child support). Fortunately, they were outweighed by the number of callers expressing their strong opinion on keeping them.

Happy anniversary, Katrina: We're quickly approaching the one year mark since Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the South. Here we are wasting money on b.s. cases (see first story above), yet people in southern Louisiana and Mississippi are struggling to put their lives back together. Wasn't it Trent Lott who had the house in Pascagoola, MS, that was blown over? I'm sure at least he has a house again.

This is your brain on music

One of the best parts of my job is that I get to interact with some interesting researchers. Occasionally, I even get to hear them on the radio. The most interesting so far has been Daniel Levitin. He’s an associate professor in three departments (psychology, music, and neuroscience) at McGill University. He also used to be a record producer and sound engineer. He was plugging his new book on the NPR show On Point. It was a surprisingly accessible hour. Where else could you hear Stevie Wonder, Rolling Stones combined with the mention of neuro-oscillators and basal ganglia?

Terrorists on a Bridge?

Now we have our own little fake “terrorism” scare here in Michigan. Over the weekend, three Texans were arrested in Caro with a van full of TracPhones and a digital camera with Mackinac Bridge photos. Supposedly, the phones were to detonate bombs, and the pics were the target shots. However, I have several problems with this scenario:

1. The Mackinac Bridge is not really a strategic target. Okay, we here in Michigan love our “Mighty Mac,” but there are certainly more important targets (oh, say the two international bridges or the Detroit-Windsor tunnel). The bridge does get quite a bit of traffic, but much of it is tourist traffic between the two penninsulas. Even if there was an attack and the bridge was damaged, there are still the Mackinaw/St. Ignace-Mackinac Island ferries that could take on the traffic.

2. The structural integrity of the bridge. If you ask most state residents, they do find it a little unnerving to drive across. However, in the nearly fifty years since the bridge has been opened, there has only been one high-profile accident. This involved a Yugo flipping over the safety rails and into the straits during a bad winter storm. (It was nearly quite literally blown over!) Being the convergence between two of the big lakes (Michigan and Huron), the weather there can be quite severe, particularly in the winter. The bridge is built to withstand snow, sleet, hail, freak marine storms, and high winds.

3. The Bridge Authority. The MBA has always done a stellar job taking care of the bridge. They monitor the weather, traffic, and the bridge conditions very carefully, and will not let anyone cross if they perceive that something is wrong.

4. If they were going to Mackinaw City, they were headed the wrong way. As you'll see from the .pdf map, Caro is a little out of the way.

Actually, the area around Caro is the home of terrorists. But they’re homegrown. Just one county away is the Nichols family farm (in Decker).

Why Quisp Conspiracy?

I don’t know what made me think of it. I hadn’t thought of it in years. But a couple of summers ago, I thought of Quisp. My mom used to buy it for me. It was my favorite cereal when I was a really small kid. Okay, I wasn’t so crazy about the actual product, but I was crazy for the cute little alien mascot. Quaker had taken it off the market in the late 70’s, and I never saw my purply-pink pal again.
I asked my sweetie, Scott, if he remembered the cereal. I figured he would. Not only is he the same age as I am, but I figured if my mom could buy it in our podunk grocery store, he would have at least seen a box of it on his hometown shelves. However, not only had he not heard of Quisp, but he thought it sounded phony. Until he found the website.
Not more than a couple of weeks after that, we were watching tv, and they showed Quisp! They not only showed the box of cereal, but also a stuffed Quisp.
“See,” I said, pointing triumphantly at the television, “I’m not making this up.”
“I think you’re behind this. It’s all part of a conspiracy,” Scott poked fun at me.
“Yeah,” I said, “not only did I go back in time to get Jay Ward to draw him, but I also had him invent Quake too.”
Since then, it’s become sort of an injoke between us. He says now that he can’t admit the cereal exists, because then he’ll enter some sort of crazy Matrix-like world. We’ve seen it on a couple different programs since (including as a prominent backdrop on a sitcom). He even made the snazzy box of Quisp for my Sims 2 game. Nice, eh?

Greetings!

Welcome to my untriumphant return to blogging. Some of you might remember me from my previous blog (Synaesthesia). When I was last blogging, it was in the heady days before the 2004 election, and I was hopeful that my fellow citizens would turn over a new leaf and vote Kerry/Edwards into office. No such luck. We’re still stuck with that other guy.
I’ve missed having a blog. There were several times during the last couple of years that things have happened and I thought to myself, “Damn, that would have made a great blog entry!” Not to mention, I could always use the writing practice.
I believe that my mistake during my original blog was that I worked on it nearly every day. It became quite an obsession. Of course, I was paying for that one, and wanted to make sure I was getting my money’s worth. With a free one, I won’t feel that kind of pressure. But I have decided to update it at least once a week for sure. I also hope that I can do some more longer-form kind of things on here. So I hope that you come on back! (At least for the explanation of the name. :)