more wintry mix on the way

Perhaps that's what we should call the 2008 primaries. Wintry mix. The Democratic Presidential primaries are beginning to resemble the advent of spring in the Midwest. Just when you think it's here, it's not. Two days of spring-like 60-degree temps followed by forecasts of more wintry mix to arrive soon: rain, sleet, and snow. Just when HRC seems to be frozen out, she comes back with money, ads, SNL skits, and a warm embrace for the populace. And two weeks ago Obama seemed to have it in the bag only to be followed by "hold that pillow if you please". Just when Obama seems ready to spring eternal, the winter of his discontent shows up in the form of the trial of Tony Rezko, and attacks right and center. There is no left anymore, at least not remaining in Presidential politics.

The pundits are saying that HRC must win convincingly on Tuesday to stay in the race, but I don't think so. Regardless of what happens, her fundraising efforts have begun to pay off as have the Republican attacks against Obama. McCain stands an easier chance against HRC than Obama and the Republicans would also love to see the Dems slug it out for another 3 months, or even end up at the convention divided, because divided, the Republicans will conquer come November.

Dems are better off not getting too far ahead of themselves. The vernal equinox isn't for another 3 weeks.

coming on strong

Besides frequently sporting one of the bitchest fro's in the biz, Eryka Badu, also uses some of the strongest print graphics around in promoting her work. With nods to 60's psychedelia, black power, and R. Crumb, each work is strong at its core yet tinged with a light touch around the edges to make the work more accessible. Nicely nice.

some kind of blue river

Now that the awards season is over, we've decided to make our own films. Here's a short film we made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Blue River Watershed Association. It's a field portrait of people who either live, work, or play in the watershed.



Film notes.
The picture frame that everyone holds was found buried in the river bed while looking for benthic invertebrates, which are aquatic insects. Although it looks like wood, the frame is plastic from the late 50's or early 60's and it had been in the river long enough to acquire a nice patina, but not long enough to be destroyed by high water. We cleaned the mud from the frame and immediately began to take portraits of out-standing-in-their-field colleagues.

We then took the picture frame to various community events being held in the watershed over the course of about 3 months. The events ran the gamut from community gardens, to river clean-ups, to educational events, to bike helmets-for-children giveaways, to city celebrations.

At the community events, the frame was handed to folks with the instruction, "I'm taking field portraits of people in the watershed". Instructions on how to frame themselves or how to pose were not given to participants. This approach allowed them to focus on constructing their own self-portrait and not on the camera. Some were staid, some were clownish; most were not shy.

We were only turned away once. That was by Pro-Football Hall of Famer Bobby Bell, dressed in a ceremonial kilt, and who after seeking the advice of counsel (his attorney just happened to be at his side), said NO! Bell's big. I argued politely, then said, OK.

Some of my favorites where art students who had a knowledge of the history of portraiture and wanted to play around with that notion. Another was a former county executive, who was under federal criminal indictment at the time and came up to me at an event and literally grabbed the frame from my hands, saying to me and her friends standing nearby, "take my picture, I was framed." She was subsequently acquitted of the criminal charge. There's a young brother and sister who are charming together - the awe of the older sibling apparent in the younger one's eyes, the mayor and his wife playing along, and many, many others. You may find your own favorite among the images.

-----------------------

Special thanks to the Wilders who contributed the music, Pedro @ T2 for editing and special effects, and Bill @ mfarm for post-processing.

they don't tell me anything

"Wait. What did you say? Gas at 4 dollars a gallon by the summer! No, I hadn't heard that." President Bush responding during a press conference about reports that the price of a gallon of gasoline might reach $4 this summer in the US.

pouty face

Bummer. Hillary Rodham Clinton had an extra day this month to raise money and boy did she ever. Thirty-five million dollars!. That will certainly buy a lot of television ads in Ohio and Texas.




Only problem. Barack Obama, who seems to always be able to word up the girl, announced that 1 million people have pledged to his campaign.

And, Oh my! The Obama campaign has raised something approaching 60 million dollars during this short month. That will buy even more television ads in Ohio and Texas.


All this money being spent is not a good thing. Nearly 100 million dollars raised by 2 candidates in one month. Folks must really, really hate George Bush. Maybe that Nader guy has something after all.

camo up! soldier

Hey it's Leap Day. We get an extra day this year to do whatever we want. Unfortunately I'm using my leap day to work for the Man, who never sleeps and who has his foot firmly planted on my neck!

decided to be unhappy

The Decider isn't very happy these days. It appears that very few folks are listening to him. His approval ratings have sunk below 20 percent for the first time in his administration and the ratings aren't likely to rise much in the coming months, especially with the economy tanking and the dollar's slide deepening by the day. One could almost feel sorry for him it he weren't almost single-handedly responsible for the start of Armageddon. Or is that Dick "the Dick" Cheney? OK, perhaps I over speak. Things are that bad.

For one, the Decider is unhappy that Barack Obama would like to open up discussions with the new Fidel known as Raul Castro. The reason that Bush gives is because it would send a bad message. Now we've been trying to get Cuba to come around for 40 years and the whole embargo thing doesn't to appear to have worked very well. They had the same dictator for 40 years and now they have his brother. Perhaps, perhaps, we might try something else for a change,see if that works.

We did a little bit of research and discovered why Hillary Rodham Clinton likely doesn't think it's a good idea to talk to Raul. It has to do with the Libertad Act, which was signed into law by Hubby Bill, and since she's taking credit for those years, might not look good to go against it.

"On February 24, 1996, further worsening relations, the Cuban military shot down two U.S. registered civil aircraft in international airspace, killing three U.S. citizens and one U.S. resident. The unlawful and unwarranted attack on two unarmed U.S. civilian aircrafts resulted in the deaths of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Alberto Costa, Mario M. de la Peña, and Pablo Morales. Immediately after this brutal act, and in response to this violation of international aviation law, Congress and former President Clinton passed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also known as the Libertad Act. The legislation, among other provisions, codified the U.S. trade embargo into law and imposed additional sanctions on the Cuban regime. " Fact sheet on US Cuba relations, U.S. State Dept., May, 2001

The fact sheet also indicates that support for the Cuban people is the central theme of our current policy. Since the trade embargo doesn't seem to be working, perhaps we should open up trade and the borders with Cuba and go down there and talk to the people. They need our products a lot more than we need theirs. What better way to get the people of Cuba to view a different way of life than to go down there and demonstrate it to them first hand.

nader to greens

obama to greens

"Hey, I think I'm the idealist in this campaign."

mccain to greens

"My friends, you're barking up the wrong tree."

hrc to greens

Ask Al Gore, "Nader's shit is brown and it stinks."

bloomberg to greens

In an editorial in today's NYTimes Mayor Mike Bloomberg states that he would support an Obama/Nader ticket for the Presidency. Or something like that.

bloomberg to greens

pie-throwing contest

The Democractic debates have become a pie-throwing contest. And a cream pie contest at that. All whipped cream, little substance; no one hurt seriously, no serious questions asked, or answered.

After 20 debates, we should hopefully have enough information to make the 'tough decision' about who should be the nominee. Now it's left to the ads, to the spin doctors, the pundits, the polls and yes, don't forget the voters.

Tuesday will tell...or not.

david versus goliath

The 3rd Annual Tour of California and the 80th Annual Academy Awards ended yesterday within a few hours and few miles of each other. These two, seemingly unrelated events, have more in common than might appear from a first, casual glance.

Both events are vying to recover from hard times - Pro Tour bicycle racing from what has amounted to about 4 straight years of doping scandals and the movie industry from the 4-month long Writers Guild of America strike. Just as there were signs yesterday that things are slowly being righted in both industries, there were also lingering signs of the confusion that exists among die-hard fans of mobbing enthusiasm.

Although as expected, Levi Leipheimer, the pre-race favorite ended up Sunday in the yellow jersey and at the top of the podium, and his team Astana was workman-like in their defense of the jersey for much of the race, riders from Sliptream-Chilpolte who herald themselves, like their flagship burrito as drug- and synthetic,hormone- free, placed 2nd, 3rd, and 6th in the overall general classification and won the team competition. However, unless Amaury Sports Organisation, the governing body for a number of the big European races, most notable being the biggest race of all, Le Tour de France, have refused to allow Astana to ride in ASO races this year.

This means, Alberto Contador, the defending Tour champion, won't be allowed to race, which is about like barring the Super Bowl NY Giants from competing in next year's NFL season. This will really hurt the sport this year. Americans, who don't usually pay attention in the Grand Tour events unless an America is doing well (i.e. Lemond, Lance, Flance, Leipheimer) likely won't tune in this year unless they have a competitive team. The newbie Sliptream-Chilpolte, despite having world-class riders, has yet to earn the right to even race in Le Tour.

Depending upon which side of the fence you sit, you either view the Oscars as a vastly entertaining, important cultural event for 80 million people or a blase, self-rightegous night of blather by pretentious stars. Folks more erudite than I have discussed this in detail (see below) so you can decide for yourself what it means.

Moi? Actually, I'm a centrist when not busy being trying to pound you into submission with my feeble opinions, and on this issue I'm a fence straddler. I love films AND aliens; so movie stars, being from another planet would appear to fit both categories. I do believe celebrities should have their own set of laws. But I also think John Tierney is onto something with the notion that just because a lot of people agree that something is a good idea doesn't mean it's bad, but it's decent working hypothesis.

elsewhere:
david versus goliath audiomp3 audio

or read david

or read goliath

enjoy it while it lasts

In about 2 weeks you're likely to see the HRC train begin to head back to New York, resigned to the life of a U.S. Senator. Not a bad place to be, but not Pennsylvania Avenue. The Clintons will still be a major force to be reckoned with, and they'll have considerable leverage in the party convention and platform, but the days of Clinton(s) being the dominant, Democrat party, force are nearing an end.

I base this on a couple of things. Foremost are the percentages by which she's been losing in the last 11 primaries. The numbers are rising and of late, they have running close to 60 percent Obama versus 40 percent HRC. The party insiders, read super-delegates, take these numbers to heart and the only thing that really matters to them is getting a Dem in the Big House painted White come November.

Secondly, the blogosphere has seen a noticeable shift away from HRC in the last few weeks as more and more folks resign themselves that we will wait again before a woman becomes President in this country. Check out the comments section in any political blog and you can see how the respondents in her favor have been tracking down. Every since the campaigns realized that the blogosphere is just another way to hijack public opinion, candidate trolls have been hammering constantly for word up. McCain supporters launched a SURGE against the NYTimes expose about McCain's cronyism, pounding the paper with over 2400 comments, about 10 times the normal. Conservatives, like Rush Limbaugh, hate the NYTimes even more, and they were quickly able to get the retirees to do some besides listen to vitriolic screeds and play cribbage on-line.

All of this brings us to Obama and why his campaign has done so well. Howard Dean, who may have been the first candidate to effectively use the internet, has nothing on the Obama organization. They have been masterful in a number of different ways.

First to get into an Obama concert, people are meet with volunteers telling them that they need to fill out this form in order to get into the hall. They don't really, but the crush of the crowds tends to make people mad to fill in the forms. And on the form is a request for an email address. They probably get a lot of bogus emails, but they also get a lot of live ones and through those they been able to get about 1 million people to donate to their campaign. Of those, the majority have been small contributions of $100 or less. And that's been adding up as Obama continues to break funding raising numbers every quarter.

Unlike the HRC machine, the Obama campaign has not set on its laurels. It's used those campaign contributions to drive new ways to get the word out, and to use a no-cost grassroots organization to do the work that used to be done by staffers in offices. Examples, setting up the ability of people to make calls from their own home to anyone in the country on behalf of the candidate. Benefits are many. People respond best to phone calls from other folks, not from robo-machines. The callers are busy people, they have lives, they have family, but now they can work for the campaign from home and feel as though they are part of the populism.

Other examples. Why spend a lot of money printing campaign materials that are mostly wasted when you can get volunteers to print them on demand? Then they can hand them to their friends and neighbors and this is how opinions are really changed. The television spots just affirm what you've already heard from someone else.

The campaign has put out approximately 500 YouTube videos and these get spread around at essentially no cost to the candidate. Many young voters don't watch debates, or if they do, not for long, but they will watch a vid. And sometimes those vids go viral, like the will i am piece. This was was done unsolicited by the campaign. Will saw a speech and decided to make a video. A million hits later, you've got landslides in key states. Young folks - and people have been saying this to them for years - can make a difference in an election. Seems like the message is finally getting out.

It remains to be seen if the Obama campaign can carry forth this kind of energy for the many, many more months left in this election cycle. But if they can continue to spread out the work between many people, they'll stand a fighting chance.

Image from The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.

tour of california

Today's the day when the Tour of California likely gets settled, and it is by no means a lock for the favorite, and defending champ Levi Leipheimer. Although Levi's team Astana has pretty much controlled this race from the start, and he's got great support from domestiques like Grand Tour battled-hardened Chris Horner, there are major threats on the coastal highway to Pasadena come Sunday and the final podium.

Former world time-trailing champion David Millar, once banned, and now a pretty-boy for clean living, with the backing of teammates Christian Vandevelde and David Zabriskie who stand 3rd and 5th in the GC rankings, will be looking to stamp the first tour victory for the newly christened Chilpolte-Slipstream. Chilpolte-Slipstream has hopes of becoming America's team, but with their best rider a Scot, that's a stretch.

Challenge will also come in the form of reigning world time-trial champion and young Swiss phenom Fabian Cancellara, riding for CSC, and always ready to launch attacks as he did last year taking stage 3 in Le Tour and wearing the Maillot Jaune for the first third of the race.

The only hope for someone other than Levi to end up in yellow come Sunday are to mount repeated attacks and hope for a sustained break as the end of today's 170 km ride from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita ends with 3 circuits around town. Such a finish favors the sprinters, and Levi's 49 seconds over Millar can't be lost in a field sprint. That means tons of action during today's stage which you can watch live via the link below.

Coverage begins @ 11 AM PST.

Image captured from the ATOC-Adobe tour tracker, courtesy of Richard Masoner

elsewhere:
tour of california

drive for show

Who watches golf on TV? Who calls eight friends over and gets a keg of beer? Landscapers, I guess. They sit around the TV, yelling, "Will you look at that golf path? Pure pea gravel." ~Jeff Cesario

The National Golf Federation has sheepishly announced that the number of hard-core golfers has been declining just at a time, when after years of building courses to keep up with demand, the number of courses is at an all-time high.

Contrary to the overall decline are some interesting notes, including that the number of women, children, and minorities are increasing, as are the number of automatic defibrillators on courses. The latter being the only increase not attributable to Tiger. The upshot of which is that should you ever want to shock a Hispanic teenage woman back to life, you'll be able to do so without having to pull the sand wedge from the bag. Just remember to have your HeartSmart card handy in case the victim dies before the para-medics arrive.

As someone, with deference to my Scots-Irish (among others) heritage, who used to play the game decently, and who once, yes true, defeated Payne Stewart in a putting tournament, I can say unequivocally why I stopped playing the game called by Twain, "a fine walk spoiled."

*Golf courses are environmental disasters.

*Golf courses are a huge waste of water.

*Golfing is expensive, time-consuming, and full of club members. I'm not good with clubs, or more typically, not invited to join them, which suits me. Groucho said it best, "any club that would have me, I wouldn't want to join."

*Golf, even when walking 18 holes, requires other forms of exercise to keep in shape, which is one reason I used to cycle to the club, which never endeared me to members who drove sports cars, especially after they lost the Nassau.

50 years of symbolism

I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it. Gerald Holtom, conscientious objector and creator of the peace symbol.


The peace symbol, originally created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is 50 years old. Unveiled at a march against nuclear weapons proliferation in Britain on Easter weekend, 1958, the symbol, created by professional designer and artist, Gerald Holtom, was a transliteration of the semaphore letters for N(uclear) D(isarmament).

Unlike the smiley face logo of Harvey Ball, it quickly became an iconic symbol, but like the smiley face, the peace symbol was not copyrighted. Holtom's intent was always to encourage free distribution for the cause of peace. Ball just didn't know better, although Walmart has successfully copyrighted a rip-off of the smiley face that it uses to promote price reductions on goods imported from China.

Although Mr. Holtom never received financial compensation for his work, he may have considered worldwide acceptance gratitude enough. Now if we could only get folks to stop building nuclear weapons and shooting down satellites to prove it can be done we might have a chance. Let's at least give ourselves that as my old friend John used to say.

sources:
history of the peace symbol

the sky is falling, the sky is falling

Or maybe it was just an eclipse.

Here's something funny. Now that the Pentagon has apparently hit the spy satellite which will now fall back to earth in pieces, it's telling us that the danger from space debris is very, very small. Hunhh?! wasn't that the reason they gave - danger from falling space debris - for shooting down the thing in the first place?

July 2000 total lunar eclipse by Noel Munford (Palmerston North Astronomical Society, New Zealand)

launch the missles....NOW!

The Hillary Rodham Clinton camp is undergoing an internal struggle as to whether or not it's appropriate to fire missles to try and take down the high flying satelitte known as Barack Obama and bring it back to earth. Some campaign staff believe that the action is needed in order to "save America from itself", while others warn the cost of the venture, estimated to be 60 million dollars is overpriced. Critics warn that it's just another wag the dog manuveur that will have little impact on the primary outcome.