Art Theft

In a case of slight exaggeration-

Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, which operates a database to help recover lost and stolen art equated art thieves with murders and child slavers.

Whoever took “Russian Schoolroom” from the suburban St. Louis gallery in 1973, or the masterpieces from the Boston museum 1980, or the works lifted in Zurich this week, shouldn’t be mistaken for a high-society, tuxedo-wearing, “Thomas Crown Affair” kind of thief, Radcliffe said.”These people are the worst sort of criminal. They are just like the criminals who traffic individuals or sell children, or murder.

Now, I am all for art, but to equate people who are basically fancy shoplifters with murders…that is a grand exaggeration. I think it is another case of someone whose vision has become so myopic, so involved in one’s field that s/he has lost perspective.

United Charging for 2nd Bag

This is just nuts. United Airlines is now charging people $25 to check a 2nd bag. They say that it is because of the cost of fuel. Extra bags use more fuel as they add weight.

Well, what about fat people? Following the extra cost for extra weight logic, fat people should have to pay more also. Why should I at 185 lbs. pay the same as someone who weighs 250lbs.? How about pregnant women? Extra weight extra cost… Should I get a discount if I void my bowels and bladder before getting on the plane? How much does the collective amount of fecal matter weigh on a plane? Maybe I can get a discount if I promise to never use the bathroom while flying. If no one uses it, no need to clean it…think of the savings there. Maybe airlines could start charging people to use the bathroom.

Toilet paper will be extra.

Magnets

First Fridays took place or is taking place right now in Oakland. Saw a bunch of work. Most of it didn’t hit me. But liked some paintings and sculptures by Michael Meyers in the Johansson Projects gallery. The paintings were of trucks, reminded me of a video I made a while ago, part of the Half Breed series. Hmm…thought it was on my site but guess not. What was the point of this entry? Not sure. Well after seeing a lot of work, I think 5 galleries, and didn’t recognize anyone. Funny how the dance world and “visual” art world don’t seem to be connected. Dance is a visual art. Kinda useless to the audience if they are blind. But after seeing work and not liking most of it, made me want to put more of an effort into getting my video work out there. Packing it well and sending it out.

Packaging I thought of involves climbing rope, magnets and Fritos. Looking for magnets online led me to a cool page. I’ve got 8 magnets coming my way.

Hungry

Cragganmore

If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap. But in this case it is Scottish and it is crap.

After performing at a benefit for Million Fishes in San Francisco last night, K and I went to the Chieftain, a nice Irish pub on the corner of 5th and Howard. Tried Cragganmore as I have never had it before and had a dream about. Did not like it one bit.

Pulley tendon poppage

Well, yesterday as I was bouldering at the gym as I pulled on a hold with my left finger, I heard a nice popping sound. Didn’t really hurt that much, but after talking to a doctor who is also a climber, he said that I popped a pulley tendon. The A2 or something like that. I forget exactly. Based upon where the stiffness is between my hand and the first knuckle of my left ring finger. I think I did this several years ago in ’95 when I was climbing in a gym in Austria. 12 years later and the same injury. And the lame thing is it was not a very hard climb. Not that I can do anything really hard anyways, but still.

So while icing, more time to play Hordes of Orcs. After remembering how to take a picture of my desktop – caps lock, shift+commad+4, click drag crosshairs – took a picture of the impossible level of cross something. Forget the name of the level. But have already completed that level, but wanted to try out the LVL. 5 lighting tower. (Warning!! Approaching geekdom) Here is a photo of it- 16 arrow towers, radiation, ice and lighting at max. After learning the bait trick, this game just becomes a waiting game. Symmetry…you gotta love it! Hit them with some radiation as they enter, ice to slow them down, lighting to fry them…

Over 30

(If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!)

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious
diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with
walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…uphill BOTH ways
yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in
hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I
had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that…

I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice
the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy!
I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a dang Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today you don’t know how good you’ve got
it!

1. When I was a kid we didn’t have The Internet. If we wanted to know
something, we had to go to the freakin’ library and look it up ourselves – – – in the
card catalog!!

2. There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter…with a
pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the
mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! Never mind the ‘send’ key…

3. There were no MP3’s or Napster! You wanted to steal music, you had
to walk to the “record” store and shoplift it yourself! *Or you had to wait
around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over
the beginning and @#*% it all up! *

4. We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and
somebody else called they got a busy signal, that’s it!

5. And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you
had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your
bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn’t know!!! You
had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

6. We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘ Space
Invaders ‘ and ‘asteroids’ and the graphics were horrible! Your guy was a
little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no
multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could
never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and
faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

7. When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium
seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad
with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn’t see, you were just screwed! Nowadays
you can buy a dvd of a movie 4 months after you saw in the theater—back then you waited
almost 5 years before they showed it, edited for television, as the Movie of the Week.

8. Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15
channels and there was no on screen menu! You had to use a little book
called a TV Guide to find out what was on!
And there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on
Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I’m saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for
cartoons!

9. And we didn’t have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up, we had
to use the stove or go build a fire … imagine that! If we wanted popcorn,
we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing or a pan with HOT oil and Real
popcorn kernels and shake it all over the stove forever like an idiot.

10. When we were on the phone with our friends and our parents walked-in, we
were stuck to the wall with a cord, a 7 foot cord that ran to the phone –
not the phone base, the actual phone. We barely had enough length to sit on
the floor and still be able to twirl the phone cord in our fingers. If you
suddenly had to go to the bathroom – guess what we had to do…..hang up and
talk to them later.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy.
You’re spoiled.

You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd