Category Archives: Americana

A continuum from Stand Up to being president

Americana, Current Affairs, Politics, Psychological Musings

Last week, two guests on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart were especially illuminating. Tony Blair and Tim Kaine. Jon Stewart started out as a Stand Up comic and, from what I read, he still does Stand Up. In Stand Up, the feedback is instant. If a joke is good, he knows, instantly, if it is bad, ditto.

By doing Stand Up, Stewart knows what is happening in the world. Not so much the facts of what is happening, but people's reaction to those facts. He has a direct feel for what is going on. 

I first saw that when I worked for Shapell Homes in the 1970's. When the market crashed – I guess mini-crash would be more accurate when compared to today – the Sales People knew the first weekend. The Sales Manager who was slightly out of it saw the same facts, but didn't quite believe them; but, after two or three weeks, he got the drift. I was Director of Operations and didn't believe it for another couple of weeks but I still couldn't convince Nathan Shapell who thought it was a blip – or something other than a crash.

Our banker, who only got his information from us, was blissfully happy.

Both Tony Blair and Tim Kaine – the head of the Democratic Party – are not only out of the loop, they are  constantly surrounded by sycophants. Every day, they have people giving them good news. So, when they showed up on the Daily Show, they were shocked by Stewart asking them questions that they should have expected but was, really, out of their world view.

Stewart asked Blair something about Iraq that assumed what we all know – that they war was misguided at best, and, more realistically, an epic disaster – and Blair just didn't even get the question. He answered it as if the war had been a huge success. 

When Stewart asked Kaine how he was doing, Kaine answered Great, I'm having a lot of fun. Stewart was surprised and said something like, Really, the Democrats are getting their asses kicked. Kaine tried to brush it off as if Stewart didn't know the real story.

But, of course, Kaine and Blair don't know the real story. And, I am afraid, Obama is even worse informed. Not to the facts, maybe, but to the tenor of what is happening in the country. People are pissed, but I don't think Obama is in a position to see it. 

It is a thin line between madness and art; between madness and riches

Americana, California, Psychological Musings

We went to see the Green Prix in San Jose over the weekend. Why is sort of a long story. Michael Moore sent me several pictures his brother had taken at Burning Man. One of them was of a  '60 Chevy -  '94 Komatsu1 mutant vehicle called Maria del Camino.

'60 chev

Mike also sent along a URL that referenced that the mutant vehicle would be in an artist parade in San Jose.

So we were lead to "Build Your Own World,” ZER01 in San Jose. It was billed as an biannual event that in collaboration with dozens of partners,
will present over the course of 4 days, from September 16-19, hundreds
of artworks, performances, events, and artist talks, which not only
imagine the future of the world but begin to build it. Not including participants but including us, I think there were about twenty six people there.

Green Prix-0201

Many – probably the majority – of the participants were just goofy. Many – probably the minority – required a lot of work and it got me wondering, What is art?

To paraphrase Stalin who once said Quality is important, but quantity has a quality of it own; lots of work is art of it's own. Somehow a goofy project done with sincerity and an investment of work, becomes art. Take Watts Towers

25p1watts
or many of the parade floats – or whatever – at the Green Prix.

I was reminded by the Green Prix that, to create art, we have to be goofy; I know that, to have any chance of creating art, I have to be willing to risk it. I am reminded that the risk may result in my falling flat on my face but being safe only guarantees that I will be safe. There were not many spectators, but there were quite a few participants willing to be unsafe.

Green Prix-0228

Green Prix-0207

Green Prix-0220


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Interestingly enough, the New York Times – that's The Time to the cognoscente – in an article entitled Just Manic Enough: Seeking Perfect Entrepreneurs,  says almost the same thing about guys trying to raise money for new ventures.  

Green Prix-0230 

Probably it's a comment on life.

Disney is in the teaching English biz in China

Americana, China, Current Affairs

Disney-china

According to the Economist, in an article titled Middle Kingdom meets Magic Kingdom, Disney has ten English schools in Shanghai and five in Beijing. At first, I found that pretty surprising because it is such small small potatoes for Disney.Teaching English is like a classic cottage industry.

But I was reminded that we live in a time when nothing is considered too small if it makes money for the Mother Corporation. Maximizing profit is now considered the highest ideal. Banks charge fees for any service they can; including parking. The avowed goal of any company is to make as much money as possible. In 2007, before everything fell apart, General Electric made one and half times more profit in lending than any other GE division.

My childish fantasy is that – when I was young – General Electric made stuff, banks made loans, and Disney made cartoons and had Disneyland. Sure, they all made money, but that was a byproduct of their raison d'etre which was the service they provided. I think that this same childish fantasy was held by Obama, Geithner, et al when they bailed out the banks.

If they just got the banks – who were in trouble over their greed – some money, they would lend it to needy borrowers to get the economy going again. Of course, that is not what happened. The banks took the money and loaned it back to the government – in the form of safe government bonds – and started making even more money. This new, safe, profit was then used to pay themselves nice big bonuses. 


I am stunned, this is so far out of my age group

Americana, Current Affairs, Food and Drink, Travel

Shots 

A couple of years ago, Michele and I were in Greenville Mississippi drinking and listening to blues in a local bar when a wedding rehearsal party sort of wandered in. Soon they started drinking vodka-Jello shots and – of course – offered us a couple. I was underwhelmed. Probably because I was about fifty years past the optimum age for any sweet alcoholic drink, let alone a very, very sweet shot of Vodka.

Now I read that a former Wall Street analyst has started a company that provides the modern equivalent of the old time bargirl. These women sell weak vodka-Jello shots and flirt in bars in New York. I was not a bargirl kind of guy the first time around – even in Korea – and this seems even less appealing, but – it seems – there is something for everybody.

As an aside. In Greenville, they served not only the vodka-Jello shots in teeny-tiny plastic cups; but our "bourbon, straight" the same way. When I asked the bartender why they didn't use glasses, he looked at me like I had just asked him to vote for a black guy for president. A sort of What planet are you from. look. Now it seems that the teeny-tiny plastic cups are catching on in the Big Apple. End aside.  

If you still find this improbable, check out the slide show at The Wall Street Journal. To directly quote from Gawker, you could look at photo number three in the accompanying slideshow, and then maybe turn your computer off and think quietly for a while.