Von Trapper Keeper

Spreading Spreading Santorum

2012-01-06T10:12:00.003-05:00

What? What's this? A Lazarus sighting in the blogosphere? Is VTK back? No, sorry. VTK is pretty much dead and perhaps I'll do a proper eulogy at some point, but as I predicted somewheresometime down below, microblogging killed the radio star. I just post everything on Facebook and twitter now.

But. (or Butt, I should say.) I just want to do my part in keeping this link at or near the top of a "Rick Santorum" google search. Linking is loving, folks. So, that's done.

And like the wind ... vtk was gone again ...

The Invisible Man

2010-11-18T16:23:00.007-05:00

As an expectant father, I've been thinking a lot about genes these days - what I may be passing on to Spaghetti Rocket, good and bad. In preparation for the arrival of our first child, Beth and I bought a fancy new camera with which to document the new tot. I fooled around with it to teach myself about all the functions and the above photo is one of the zoomed in pictures that I captured. It is of my multi-colored beard. I was well aware of the "reds", the dark browns, and the whites in my calico jaw-warmer. What I was not aware of was the clear, jelly-like, invisible whiskers (inside the green rectangle). Am I part Invisible Man? Is it possible that Spaghetti Rocket will be an invisible baby? While there are clear advantages, it would seem that there would be more disadvantages. Think of all the money I could have saved on philosophy classes searching for my existential void. All along, the emptiness was right under my chin. I hope Spaghetti Rocket gets his/her transparency traits from Beth and not me.

Boston ARTchives - Ready to roll (for real this time)

2010-11-11T08:27:00.012-05:00

Sorry about the confusion a few months ago, when I said that we were ready to roll, but in fact, we were not ready to roll. Now, we really are ready to roll! At present, we have 9 artists lending 10 pieces each, so our collection is at a robust and diverse 90. Check it out. We are now accepting subscribers for 2011. Read more about us here and how to join us here. Here's a few samples of the art you can borrow and hang on your very own walls:

Dan Nolan's art

Bea Modisett's art

Ellen Crenshaw's art

David Sturtevant's art

Catalina Viejo Lopez de Roda's art

Karl Stevens' art

Anthony Apeso's art

Sean Flood's art

And our first non-2-D artist, Jeremy Ogusky's art

Experience the thrill of being a collector without the prohibitive expense and storage concerns. Experience the satisfaction of being a supporter of local arts in a new and exciting way. Become a member today!

The Vaccine Wars

2010-11-06T23:01:00.005-04:00

This is what's on my mind lately.

If you have a comment, keep it civil.

Note to media

2010-09-09T14:41:00.001-04:00

Note to media: at least one person is going to die because you're covering this koran-burning cult crackpot 24-7. Afterwards, that person will no longer be alive. Just because Freedom of Press entitles you to be reckless if the market dictates it, doesn't mean you should be reckless. Just don't cover it. Here's the model: crackpot runs on the field at a ballgame and you turn the cameras away and don't cover it. Everyone begins to think it's less amusing and more of a game-delaying nuisance, he doesn't get as much attention/adulation = less crackpots run on the field. Then you can stroke yourself about how you took the high road and people feel better about themselves for choosing you over your media competition.

Like Father Like Daughter

2010-08-30T13:07:00.004-04:00

It's a proud moment for the Cash family. Years ago, the father became a subject of Dan Nolan art. This week, the daughter joined him, when artist Dan Nolan did a portrait commission for The Progressive magazine.

Johnny Cash painting:

Rosanne Cash painting:

(and thank you, dear VTKountry, for indulging my web-search, word-placement, shameless self-promotion, marketing post)

Boston ARTchives - Ready to roll!

2010-07-29T10:33:00.003-04:00

Experience the thrill of being a collector without the prohibitive expense and storage concerns. Experience the satisfaction of being a supporter of local arts in a new and exciting way. Become a member of Boston ARTchives today

Here's how to join:

Boston ARTchives subscribers select art from our diverse 100 piece collection and hang it on their very own walls. Every four months, there is an art exchange where subscribers return the art to the collection and take home fresh art. At each exchange, subscribers have the opportunity to meet ARTchive's artists (ARTchivists) and discuss the work, the community, the future, etc.

Base Pricing

Boston ARTchives offers two membership levels - single and double, for borrowing one or two pieces of art each four month lending period:

* SINGLE MEMBERSHIP - Borrow 1 piece of art per lending period - $250 a year (3 lending periods - 3 pieces a year)

* DOUBLE MEMBERSHIP - Borrow 2 pieces of art per lending period - $400 a year (3 lending periods - 6 pieces a year)

Insurance

One of the innovative components of the CSA model is the idea of shared risk. The fate of the crops is shouldered by both farmers and CSA members alike. Damage to art is obviously a concern for artists and subscribers. In order to keep the subscription price low, we've set up the base ARTchives memberships as a you-break-it-you-buy-it model. As long as you don't damage the art, there's no cost beyond the membership price. If the art is damaged while in your possession then you're charged. Some subscribers favor this model.

However, we realize that some people may be uncomfortable with this and would prefer to have insurance coverage. With this in mind, ARTchives offers an optional insurance buy-in for each yearly membership. Subscribers can insure the art they borrow on the single piece membership for $75; double piece members can buy insurance for $150. If none of the borrowed art comes back damaged, the insurance would continue coverage into future years. If art is damaged, an additional insurance payment would be required for membership renewal. We recognize that this sounds like a cumbersome system, but we think it's a fair compromise for members who don't feel the need for insurance, for those that would prefer it, and for artists who are risking their work.

Art purchases

Boston ARTchives is operated by artists, for artists. It's not like gallery representation. Our artists can continue to market and sell their art outside of ARTchives, in addition to selling through ARTchives. However, since subscribers are helping us make a living, we feel you should be rewarded for this patronage. While you are borrowing a piece, you have the right to match the purchase price offered to the artist by any buyer. This way, you can feel free to get comfortable with your borrowed art and take your time deciding if you'd like to make it a permanent part of your collection. Let it breathe on your wall without anyone breathing down your neck.

Group C Scenarios

2010-06-18T23:11:00.004-04:00

Here's the ESPN breakdown of the scenarios in which the US can advance in the World Cup:

USA advances with:
(a) Win versus Algeria on Wednesday
(b) Tie and Slovenia-England tie IF England does not outscore USA by 2+ goals
(c) Tie and England loss

Slovenia advances with:
(a) Win or tie versus England
(b) Loss AND USA tie vs Algeria
(c) Loss and Algeria win as long as Algeria doesn't make up tiebreakers*

England advances with:
(a) Win versus Slovenia
(b) Tie AND USA-Algeria tie AND outscore USA by 3 goals

Algeria advances with:
(a) Win versus USA AND Slovenia win/tie versus England
(b) Win versus USA AND Slovenia loss versus England AND makes up tiebreakers on Slovenia

Note: If the U.S. draws with Algeria and England draws with Slovenia, and England scores exactly two more goals than the U.S., the U.S. and England would be even on all tiebreakers for second place. The tie would be broken by drawing lots ... aka, a coin flip.

* Tiebreaker order: (1) Goal differential in all group matches (Algeria is -1, Slovenia is +1); (2) greatest number of goals scored (Slovenia has 3 goals, Algeria none); (3) greatest number of points obtained in group matches between the teams concerned; (4) goal differential resulting from group matches between the teams concerned; (5) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned.

(Only way both USA and England advance is if both win.)

If USA finishes atop the group, they will face the 2nd place team from group D. If they finish 2nd, they will face the 1st place team from group D. Two of Germany, Ghana, and Serbia will likely advance, but the order is up in the air.

Rondo is the man.

2010-06-08T12:21:00.001-04:00

ARTchives!!

2010-05-22T13:02:00.003-04:00

You may remember a few posts ago, I laid out a fairly rough idea about a CSA-style Local Art Library. Well, I've been working feverishly to shape, shave, and shove the idea into a form that will work for both artists and subscribers. And believe you me, it WILL work. And not just because I'm a belligerent dreamer. This idea works. People just need to see it in action. Ah, yes, the action. So, the action. After a feverish search, I've pulled together 10 local Boston artists who are going to participate, making 10 pieces available for lending to subscribers, giving us a massive, diverse, and beautiful 100 piece collection. The website is under construction, as are the legal details of it all. We're now in the process of rolling out the idea to potential subscribers. Please consider doing us the solid of checking out the succinct version of the idea and of taking the succinct survey (5 quick questions) to help us gauge what potential subscribers think of our crazy, crazy-like-a-fox, so-crazy-it-just-might-work, scrappy-yet-exceedingly-professional idea. Thanks VTKountry!

You got Rondoed!

2010-05-14T13:55:00.000-04:00

Free Comic Book Day on WOWIO

2010-05-01T16:11:00.003-04:00

Oh don't mind him. He's harmless. It's Free Comic Book Day on WOWIO

Posted using ShareThis

Help yourself to a free download of Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy to celebrate Free Comic Book Day.

Out to Lunch...

2010-04-10T11:49:00.002-04:00

Hey VTKountry - my deepest apologies for the extended absence. VTK will be back after tax season. Coming soon: Notes From a 1040 Factory.

RIP David Levine

2009-12-30T23:07:00.002-05:00

In Steve Brodner's words, political cartoonist David Levine was "a hard working artist who understood the truth of our lives: that nothing matters but the relationship between you and the piece of paper. Any analysis is, at its worst, bullshit, and at best, a benign distraction because it never really catches the plasticity and dynamism of a living artist’s process. He knew what was important. The discoveries you make as an artist. The connections between the pictures and people. This was in him and in his work."

Lieberman Socks.

2009-12-18T11:36:00.001-05:00

CSART - A Local Art Library

2009-11-11T11:25:00.006-05:00

.

The Problem

Artists contribute much to their communities yet struggle to survive in those same communities. Making a living as a visual artist is nearly impossible. I’ve been self-employed as a full time artist for three and a half years and despite a steady stream of commissions, I could not have survived this long without spending all my savings. The commissions I receive don’t pay what the time of an adult professional is worth. Now, maybe that’s just my art, but I rarely meet an artist who is not either struggling to make a living or too busy working some other job to work on their art as much as they’d like. People value having art and artists in their communities, but the current model of selling/sharing art has failed all parties involved. The artists can’t survive. The people don’t have enough access to the art that the artists produce.

The CSA Model

Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs have created mutually beneficial relationships between consumers and local farmers. The farmers sell “shares” or “subscriptions” to the consumers at the beginning of the season. This allows the farmers to earn money early in the season, pay for seeds, etc., while also allowing them to grow different types of crops, as opposed to whatever the market dictates. The buyers then receive a box of fresh local vegetables every week for the duration of the season. Farmers and consumers meet each other, develop relationships, and foster a sense of community. The sense of community is further developed through the consumers’ shared risk in the endeavor – the fate of the farmer’s crops becomes the fate of the community’s produce. Tens of thousands of families have joined CSA’s in the last couple decades and the model’s popularity continues to rise. The model has been so successful that it’s been adopted by fishermen, who provide fresh fish weekly to their members in a version of the model that protects the fishermen from treacherous weather and protects fish and ocean ecology from over-fishing of any given species. There have also been Community Supported Bakeries developed recently. Clearly, the movement is growing.

Product sharing models

In addition to the popular CSA model, there has been tremendous growth in non-consumable product sharing models over the last decade. The most successful of these is probably Netflix, where members rent a movie online, receive the dvd in the mail, and return it with the outgoing mail at their leisure. Netflix was the natural offspring of its prototype sharing model – the video rental store – and the internet. The rental store, of course, was the child of the library, the oldest of old school sharing institutions. Another highly creative and successful product sharing company is Zipcar. Members of Zipcar share rental cars parked conveniently around the cities in which they live. They too can manage their rentals online. Communities have also worked together to establish tool banks, from which members can borrow tools for home improvement and other projects. There is even a company that rents high fashion dresses online using a model similar to Netflix. Product sharing models make expensive items affordable and accessible. If you can’t buy, borrow. If you can’t own, share.

The CSA & product sharing Models Applied to Art

Could these popular and effective models be applied to floundering local art industries?

As far as the CSA model goes, art isn’t seasonal like agriculture or fishing, so it’s not a direct fit to a traditional CSA model. Secondly, art requires more time to produce and is not a consumable like food. A model in which subscribers got a piece of art each week for a season would be too demanding on the artists and too expensive for the subscribers – not to mention more art than they’d want. So that doesn’t quite fit either. But what if we kept the spirit of the CSA model (support local industry, foster sense of community) and altered the structure a bit. Could it provide the same benefits to both the buyers and sellers of local art that a CSA does? What if we incorporated product sharing ideas?

One model that might accomplish this is a CSA style local art library. It’s not uncommon for artists to accumulate pieces that end up hanging all over their own walls or stacked in the corner of their apartment or studio, when they’re not displayed in shows. If artists pooled these paintings together and lent them out, this might create a new stream of revenue for them.

Let’s say we start with 10 artists, each of whom puts 10 pieces of art into the library’s collection. Then we sign up 20 subscribers who pay $200 a year for a subscription to the library. Each subscriber chooses 2 pieces of art to bring home with them for 3 months. Every 3 months, they’ll return the pieces to the collection and select 2 more rental pieces to take home. If multiple subscribers want the same piece in the same 3 month period, it could be settled by a coin flip or something similar (rock-paper-scissors tournament, drawing of names, ping pong ball lottery, etc.). Then, those who don’t get the desired piece would pick another one and would be in the queue for the desired piece at the next 3 month period. If it were a ping pong ball lottery drawing, each time someone didn’t win, they would get an extra ping pong ball in the next drawing. Or subscribers could set up a queue similar to Netflix to rank their preferences. It could be a raffle scene at the quarterly art exchange which might create excitement and even a competitive desire for the art.

Competition to what end? Part two of the library system would be the subscribers‘ opportunity to buy the paintings in the collection. If there were some competitive desire for certain pieces, that would encourage sales. To stick with the community concept, the proceeds from the sales could be distributed amongst the artists, with the biggest share going to the artist of the sold piece. For example, the artist could get 50% of any of their art sold and the other artists would split the other 50%. Artists routinely give up 30% of sales of their art at galleries, so this wouldn’t be too much of a stretch beyond that, especially considering they’d earn money on other artists‘ sales too. This model would create three revenue streams for the artists: their share of the subscription fees, sales of their own work, and sales of the other artists‘ work - all real money for art that otherwise would have been sitting around the house or studio. When an artist’s piece sells out of the collection, the artist would be responsible for adding another piece to keep up the size of the collection. We’d want a decent sized collection to account for differences in taste and turnover of borrowed pieces.

There wouldn’t be a physical library per se for the art but the collection could be viewed online and there could be a rotating show at a local coffee shop, restaurant, or bar, that would feature one piece from each artist, rotating every three months along with the rest of the borrowed paintings. The establishment that hangs the art on its walls wouldn’t get a percentage of the profits but they would get free advertising, free local art on their walls, and business from hosting the tri-monthly exchange of art. All the subscribers would come in with their old piece, pick up their new piece, and would be encouraged to meet the artists. Each exchange could feature one or two of the artists talking about their artwork, their history, influences, plans, etc and/or doing some sort of live demonstration of their work. Alternatively, all this could take place at a gallery or some other arts institution.

The numbers are completely variable depending on a few factors, but here’s a general idea of how it might work. If we started with 10 artists and 20 subscribers at $200 per subscription per year, that’d be $4000 in subscription revenue, which would come to $400 per artist per year. Then, if each subscriber ended up buying one piece at let’s say $200 on average, and we used the 50-50 split, the least an artist would earn that year would be about $620 (if none of their pieces sold); the most an artist would make would be $2400 (if all 20 sales were their pieces). If three of twenty sales were an artist’s pieces, that artist would make $900. If ten of twenty sales were an artist’s pieces, that artist would make $1510. And so on. The numbers would change based on how many pieces sold and for how much they sold. But the minimum income with these numbers – if nothing sold - would be $400 a year for an artist. That’s not exactly a huge revenue stream, but it’s something for art that would be making nothing sitting around the house. Now imagine if the idea caught on and we got 100 subscribers and they paid $300 a year. That’s $30,000 in subscription revenue plus whatever is made on sales. We could be talking about $4000 or $5000 a year per artist - for artwork that wasn’t previously earning any money. If you got 200 subscribers, double that. If the average price of the paintings sold was $400 instead of $200, double the sales revenue. Double one win and you get two. Subscribers get a rotation of local art in their home and artists get previously unaccessed revenue = win win.

Possible concerns

• What about damage to art? – It’d probably have to be a you break it, you buy it contract. This might deter some subscribers, but it would also bring in the shared risk aspect of the CSA model. We could give everyone instructions on care, places to avoid hanging (kitchen, bathroom, direct sunlight), and packaging for transportation of the art. Or maybe we could work some variation of you break it, you buy it. The subscriber could buy it at 75% cost, with the 25% swallowed by the CSART, or return it and pay a 50% of cost penalty, with the 50% swallowed by the CSART. This might diffuse any disputes between artists and subscribers over what constitutes damage. Or we could build some sort of damage insurance into the membership fee.

• What if some artists sell, and some don’t. Isn’t this unfair to the sellers? – As compared to what people would make at a gallery that took 30% of profits, artists will still come out ahead if 50% of all sales were their pieces. We could easily incorporate an adjustable percentage beyond that. For example, if your art accounted for over 50% of the total art sold, your share of your sales could go up to 66%. Using the above numbers, this would ensure that you’d come out ahead of the gallery scenario even if 100% of the total art sold was yours.

• If subscription numbers rise, more artists would need to be added, and then the profits would be split more ways. – This is a good problem to have. If subscription numbers balloon, media outlets will be interested in the story and this will mean more advertising/marketing for the artists. That’s beyond the regular free advertising/marketing that you’d already be enjoying by having your art hanging in the houses of art appreciators around town.

• Isn’t exclusivity in picking artists counter to the CSA collective spirit? – The CSART Local Art Library model is completely open source – If you like the idea and aren’t included in a particular library, then start your own. Quality is an integral part of any CSA. People want fresh vegetables, fresh fish, etc. And people will want to hang quality art on their walls, so it’s natural for library organizers to want to pick what they consider to be a diverse collection of good artists. Also, diversity of art style in the collection will make the CSART more attractive to subscribers.

• Aren't you worried that "CSART" will be read as "Seize Art" or "Cease Art"? – Yes. Yes I am. While it's a clever tie in to the CSA name and it could be read as "Sees Art", it's probably not the best name. This is probably not the final name.

Feedback

I'm workshopping/brainstorming/testing the whole CSART Local Art Library idea right now and would love any feedback anyone has to give - artist feedback, potential subscriber feedback, business/marketing feedback, community organizer feedback, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Empire State of Mind

2009-11-05T09:56:00.003-05:00

MAINE IS LAIME

2009-11-04T10:53:00.002-05:00

Shaime on Maine for voting to ban gay marriage. Extra Shaime on everyone who organized to push this vote through. Extra extra shaime on the Catholic Church. You're an embarrassment to Jesus.

The good news, as DailyKos points out, is that it's just a matter of time before the bigots will die out and be replaced by people who can't understand why they would think they should have any say over two grown adults' decision to get married.

Hitler reacts to Ohio State's loss to Purdue

2009-10-28T15:45:00.004-04:00

Yankees Win The Pennant!

2009-10-26T09:40:00.002-04:00

Light's Out, Metrodome!

2009-10-12T09:44:00.002-04:00

Bastardo!

2009-10-09T00:40:00.003-04:00

The Phillies have a pitcher named Bastardo. I mean, c'mon. That's just too fantastic. He struck out Jason Giambi on 4 pitches today. Of course he did. Because he's Bastardo! And it's Giambi.

Yankees' Playoff Preview

2009-10-04T17:45:00.006-04:00

A 10 run 6th inning capped the Yankees' 103rd win this afternoon. I was optimistic about their chances in the regular season after the acquisitions of Sabathia and Texiera, and the returns of Posada (from injury), Pettitte (from free agency), and Cano (from bad form). But 103 wins well exceeded those optimistic expectations. CC and Tex have been worth every penny, Jeter's been fantastic, Mariano's been Mariano, and pretty much everyone's contributed substantially. And there's that A-Rod guy. Thanks to the prankster principal for this link.

Questions remain for the playoffs. How will their starting pitching fare beyond CC? Will Joba and Burnett be effective? And who will catch Burnett? Will their offense suffer if Molina's in the line-up? Will their bats stay hot?

But there are questions every playoffs. I'm just glad that October matters again. I'm not going to get into saying I'd rather have one team over another because I've been wrong about that the last few times. It'll either be the Tigers (and Verlander on short rest) or the Twins. Bring em on. The playoffs have a knack for sorting out who the best team is, so we'll have to beat all comers. Go Yanks!

Art Returned, Case Closed.

2009-09-20T15:42:00.005-04:00

The painting arrived in the mail yesterday in good condition, so that's the end of that. The return address was that of the Lower Depths, the bar from which the painting was stolen - clever. But the postmark was from Brooklyn - shocker. Looks like our art thief moved on to hipper pastures. In any case, it's a relief. Now I don't have to give up one of the other paintings that will be hanging in Ula Cafe in Jamaica Plain for the next month, which is both the last month of the baseball season and a month that includes next weekend's JP Open Studios. If you're in the area, stop by and check it out. I'll be manning a small table out front. This will allow me to market the paintings and keep an eye on sketchy potential thieves like the shifty characters pictured below.

Any one of them could be a thief.

Art Thief Fesses Up!

2009-09-08T22:40:00.003-04:00

Believe it or not, the great stolen art caper of 2009 has been solved. This weekend, I was working on the dannolan.com and took the opportunity to rename the stolen painting to "Stolen By Scum". Apparently, the thief had the good sense to take my card along with the painting off the wall, because he or she emailed me today with the subject line "Stolen By Scum". Here's the body of that email:

Hello,

I am that scum. You may or may not want to hear the story of how I took your painting, but here it is anyway. It was my last night in Boston and I was out celebrating with some friends. We ended up at The Lower Depths and after drinking a little too much, I was egged on to take your painting. It was not out of maliciousness of any kind, but out of admiration for your work. We had spent time discussing which piece of the series that we liked the best. Your painting is still in the same condition, and is on my wall.

HOWEVER, I feel particularly bad about what I have done. (I wouldn't be writing if I didn't.) I completely understand that you are upset, as I would be myself. So here are three suggestions I have to amend the situation. The first is that I pay for the painting. The second is that I send it back to either you or The Lower Depths. And the third is that I create some original art and send it to you, within two weeks time.

I am sincerely sorry for this whole ordeal. I have learned my lesson and will not under any circumstances do it again.

What is this, Let's Make A Deal? Art Door Number 3? When I posted this on facebook, I got an avalanche of comments telling me to go for the money and to go big. I would have been inclined to do so, since ultimately a compensated stolen painting pays the bills as well as a sold one does, but the stolen painting was already sold and hanging in the show as a favor from the buyer. So, I chose the send-it-back amends option. And I was pretty polite, if curt. I thanked him/her for having the decency to contact me and make amends. I told him/her to send the painting to my home address and I said I'd spare him/her any further commentary since he/she already felt bad, had learned a lesson and wouldn't do it again. Conscience is the cruelest of bounty hunters.

Art Stolen From The Lower Depths Tap Room

2009-09-01T11:02:00.015-04:00

If you're an artist and you don't want your art to be stolen, then don't hang it at the Lower Depths Tap Room on Commonwealth Ave near Fenway Park in Boston.

I hate to hit my dear readers over the head with such a vengeful and self-serving statement, but I want to ensure that I include as many searchable terms here as possible, such as: "art theft", "painting stolen", "not safe for an art show", "manager of the Lower Depths is an oily troll scumbag". And in case you're better with pictures than words, this is the place:

Faithful VTKids may remember that I had a showing of my baseball paintings at Bukowski Tavern in Inman Square earlier this summer. That show went quite well - I sold four paintings, the manager couldn't have been better to deal with, and the owner had a message conveyed to me to contact her other bar, The Lower Depths Tap Room, about having a show of the baseball paintings there. It sounded like an ideal situation, since it's a couple blocks from Fenway in Kenmore Square. Earlier this year, I'd been frustrated to find out that that neighborhood is off-limits to street vendors - a fact that derailed my plans to walk around and sell the very same baseball paintings to the roving Fenway Faithful. As for the bar, I was concerned about possible drunk college kid theft, but it seemed like a decent gamble considering the potential sales to suburban, spendy, day-in-the-city, drunk, impulse buyers. If one got stolen, it would hopefully only be after a few sales and then I'd simply take the show down and cut my losses, as they say.

Now, if I were to come up with a comic book caricature of the worst person for an artist to deal with, I could not have done better than the oily incompetent troll that bears the title of manager of the Lower Depths. And I couldn't have conjured a better wanker of a sidekick than his smarmy bartender. Maybe they resented the show being pushed on them by ownership and responded by doing the bare minimum in working with me. Maybe they don't like artists and wish they were a more standard sports bar. Dunno. What I du no is that it was clear that they were not going to do one percent more than necessary in the arrangement or management of this show. Despite the show being solicited by the owner, I had to call repeatedly, week after week, and bike out of my way to the place twice to meet with them, before even getting a time frame and confirmation of the show. This is a pain in the ass under normal circumstances, but becomes a real pain in the ass when you have to postpone other shows in order to wait on the coveted baseball season Fenway show. I inquired about the theft issue and Oily Troll and Wank McWankerstein both told me that the place was patronized by more grad students than undergrads and they'd never had a painting stolen. They made it sound like the atmosphere found in both Bukowski Taverns, which are inhabited by a mostly non-thieving crowd.

On the day of the show, I dropped the paintings off in a rush since I was illegally parked and needed to get the zipcar back. When I told this to the bartender, whom I'd met twice before, and said I'd be right back, he motioned for me to hold up while he finished his phone call. He talked for two minutes and then waved me on, without hanging up, talking to me, or moving from behind the bar. When I returned on bike to hang the paintings and put up the price/info tags, he told me that I couldn't hang the tags, that the owner "didn't want it to seem like a gallery". This almost certainly allowed the thief to think they were stealing from the bar, rather than stealing from the artist. He told me he'd keep a price list behind the bar.

When the painting (pictured here) did get stolen, the Oily Troll couldn't have cared less. Really. I'm trying to envision a scenario in which it could be said that they cared less. I can't. They didn't even contact me to let me know. I happened to drop by because I found out that they were not telling people the prices and instead telling them to email me (not great if you're going for that day-at-the-game, drunk, impulse sales). When I asked him about the missing painting, the oily troll acted aggressive/defensive, like I was being a primadonna, and like it was just one of those things. He said he was going to contact me at some point. He seemed to be trying to manage my reaction and to convey that I had no right to be upset about it. When I asked him if there was somewhere we could store them until I got back later, he asked why. Because my art was stolen, dickhead, and I'm not hanging them here anymore. He refused to store them and said I would have to leave them on the wall until I got back.

Oddly, the real salt in the wound is the fact that I acted like a consummate professional throughout the whole experience. I mean, you want to be an unprofessional, obnoxious dickhead? I can do that. I'm really fucking good at that. But I held back. This anger management stuff is bullshit. *Walking away from bar, fuming, thinking about how I'm going to update my facebook status*

Enough Of The Fish Already.

2009-07-29T11:30:00.009-04:00

That picture of my cod (not to be confused with my codpiece) has been headlining VTK for far too long. I was preparing to do a post on how stupidly the Cambridge police acted, but what's there to say? The Cambridge police acted stupidly. Barack Obama may be forced to backtrack from that statement, but I'm happy to give it a new home here. I've been living in Cambridge for 9 years and I have no reservations saying they acted stupidly, because I've seen them act stupidly - and lie about it - on more than one occasion. I'd be happy to discuss this with anyone who disagrees in the comments, but that's all there is to say on the post itself. [update: said discussion did ensue in the comments.] Now on to some pictures of the insane trail BV and I hiked in New Hampshire's White Mountains this weekend:

That's not us in the pictures (and the rocks weren't that dry). I found these on google images and borrowed them since we were too busy being exhausted, discouraged, terrified, and disoriented to take any pictures when we were on the "trail". What you see there is the Flume Slide Trail up to the top of Mt. Flume, elevation 4300 feet. According to this hiker/blogger who gives a good account of the hike, it's about 3000 ft of total elevation gain up Flume Slide, to the peak, and over/up to the adjacent Mt. Liberty. 1800 of that is on the 0.7 miles of Flume Slide rock wall that somehow qualified for the name "trail". We got some advice from a couple hikers who had just climbed down "suicide hill" and suggested that we pull ourselves up using the trees along the side of it and climb through the forest where possible. Somehow, that description didn't deter us. The Appalachian Mountain Club tries to stop people from climbing through the forest next to the wet rock trail by laying trees across the paths that people bushwhack. So, while climbing up the wet rock wall is practically impossible, climbing up through the dense and obstacled forest with a big 45 pound backpack is merely almost impossible. I couldn't figure out how the AMC expected us to climb up the wet rock walls without dying. There were no warnings or anything. The only way we could do it was to crisscross the face of the trail, burrowing through the side trails. Eventually we stopped seeing the blue blazes that marked the trail. We were lost in a dense, steep thicket of trees and rocks. Every 25 feet or so, it would look like we had no option of where to go. We would pick the most tenable passageway and go up another 25 feet. While we were demoralized and starting to get concerned about light and water, we were heartened to see that other people had clearly gotten lost and passed through this way too. It wasn't a marked or approved trail, but it had become a trail of some sort. We also knew that it couldn't go up forever. Eventually, we'd get to a top, if not the top of Mt. Flume. We'd be able to put the tent down somewhere, if not on an approved campground platform. After a couple hours, the incline decreased and I came over a small ridge to see an AMC sign! I chucked my poles and screamed in triumph. Here's the sign (obviously without the snow):

It doesn't say anything about the "Flume Slide Trail" and we didn't see it on our 0.1 hike to the peak of Mt. Flume and beyond. That unmarked bushwhacky madness might have actually been the trail the whole time. When we finally got to the campsite, the ranger dude who supervises the site said he'd never climb the Flume Slide Trail in these wet conditions. So, that answered my question as to how the AMC expected people to climb the trail: it didn't. Not unless it was bone dry, anyway.

What's really funny to me - in retrospect - is that when we chose the trail, it did not occur to us at all that we were about to climb a trail NAMED AFTER A FUCKING WATER SLIDE. This only occurred to me when I was doing a google image search for "flume slide".

Something's Fishy

2009-07-07T23:48:00.003-04:00

Not this fish. Not fishy in that rotting old fish fishy smell sort of way. This bad boy's straight off the boat.

I joined a local Community Supported Fish program this summer with BV and the roommates. For $45 a person, we're getting more fish than we can fit in our bellies for 12 weeks.

Those fillets don't look that great because I hadn't filleted a fish in years, I hacked it up a bit, and the photo makes it look grayish, but trust me - it was as fresh as fresh gets and delicious. In addition to these 2 big fillets, I was left with the head and bones:

I used the head and bones to make a big pot of fish stock, which I then used to make New England Fish Chowdah.

A little white wine to cook the fish, a little for the stock, and a little for the cook. I love the CSF.

Green Balloons Over Tehran

2009-06-27T21:26:00.003-04:00

Long live creative dissent. As the government cracks down on protests in the streets of Iran, some creative protesters take to the roofs to launch green balloons over those streets. Adapt!

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

2009-06-25T14:03:00.005-04:00

When the US State Department asks you to hold off on scheduled maintenance because the fate of a critically important nation is at stake ... you've arrived. Just a short couple months ago, I was confessing to not really grasping the obsession with Twitter. Well, suffice it to say that the role Twitter has played in the dissemination of information in an otherwise media-blacked-out Iran over the last couple weeks has fully dispelled any doubts I had about the power of the tweet.

Now that the only news coming out of Iran is coming from citizen journalists - protesters and bystanders alike - using their cellphones and twitter feeds, the importance of microblogging should be obvious. But even a week and a half ago, after the election but before the government moved to total media lockdown, the tweets were making themselves heard. Here's an article from stodgy old media stalwarts, The Wall Street Journal, talking about how twitterers were able to push fellow media dinosaurs CNN into better/more coverage of the protests in Iran. Not only did CNN step up their coverage after the online public shaming, they published a stroke job of an article about the emergence of twitter as a news source. This made me wonder what the media landscape will look like in the future if major media felt compelled to respond to trends and popular demands on twitter. Will our news be dictated by those savvy enough to manipulate and mobilize microblogging? The obvious concern for critical consumers of media is the legitimacy and reliability of this potentially massive stream of information. How do we know what's True and what's unverified, unreliable, or even false, manipulated, or engineered?

The picture at the top of the post is from twitterer Iridium24 via The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Daily Dish. Sullivan is a credible journalist and has been compiling what he considers to be legitimate tweets. Is this the model of the future? Will the modern journalist essentially be a credible librarian, collator, and dispatcher of the data collected and broadcast by the people on the streets? The journalist becomes the editor and the reader becomes the journalist? If you consider journalism to be a skill at all, then there are ramifications from this transformation that extend beyond the idea that it's good to have more people reporting and disseminating news.

Rachel Maddow talked to another tweet gatherer,
Nico Pitney from the Huffington Post, on her show last week about his role in gathering information from the streets of Iran, while in his office in New York:

Since that interview, the media situation in Iran has devolved to the point where these twitter feeds, flickr and youtube images, and other transmissions are literally the only news coming out of Iran other than the obvious propaganda of the government. This type of proletariat micromedia may literally be the last hope of the people. But unfortunately, it might also spell their doom.

Check out this fascinating lecture that technology expert Clay Shirky gave last month, before the Iranian election. It's 17 minutes but I highly recommend you watch it because I can't quote it all:

In discussing the phones, cameras, blackberries and other tools being used by people on the streets to record and report elections in first Nigeria and then the United States, Shirky notes that "these tools don't get technologically interesting until they get technologically boring. It isn't when the shiny new tools show up that their uses start permeating society. It's when everybody is able to take them for granted... Now that media is increasingly social, innovation can happen anywhere that people can take for granted the idea that we're all in this together. And so we're starting to see a media landscape in which innovation is happening everywhere and is moving from one spot to another. That is a huge transformation."

Huge indeed. That got me thinking: could the technology era create a sort of reverse Big Brother situation? In a totalitarian regime, everyone assumes that the government is always watching and awareness of that dictates their behavior. Could the proliferation of cell phones capturing video and the transmission of information via text, twitter, etc., create an environment in which the police, the military, the media, the government, assume they're being watched and have their behavior dictated by the cameras being turned on them? Of course, this phenomenon must compete with governmental secrecy, spying, torture, executive privilege, etc. (and that's just in the US), so it might not be a net gain. But at least it might not be a net loss for the people. Power to the people, 140 characters at a time?

Later in the lecture, Shirky tells the story of how the BBC found out about the massive earthquake in China via twitter, before the US Geological Survey had anything up online about it. He points out that "the last time China had a quake of this magnitude, it took them three months to admit that it had happened. Now, they might have liked to have done that here, rather than seeing these pictures go up online, but they weren't given that choice, because their own citizens beat them to the punch. Even the government learned of the earthquake from their own citizens rather than the news agency." And remarkably, China allowed this reporting of the people to go on. But then the people pushed it further and successfully shamed the corrupt local government officials who had let the collapsed school buildings be built under code, which had resulted in the deaths of the children. This sort of bottom-up power dynamic was happening in China. As in Tiananmen Square China. So, eventually China shut the protests down and arrested the people. And after analysis of the transformation of the technology and media landscapes, they recently decided to shut twitter down (on the 20 year anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre). They could police the internet with The Great Firewall of China, the best in the world, but they couldn't handle Twitter, so they had to shut it down entirely. "The transformation to amateur media [was] so enormous that they can't deal with it any other way", says Shirky.

But short of Chinese level censorship, how does a government control the message in this modern media environment? It's near impossible - which brings us to Iran's dilemma. My guess is that Iran will be forced to make a decision: whether to follow China's lead or not. And the decision they make will determine the outcome of this revolution. I'm guessing that they're going to choose lockdown and that the situation is going to get worse. But it's also the case that Iran doesn't have the same type of infrastructure, the massive firewall management that China does. This would prevent them from shutting down parts of the internet effectively or immediately. It may end up having a devastating effect on their economy, as well as eliminating any remaining pretense of democracy, both of which would further fuel revolutionary sentiment. Twitter could bring down the whole Iranian government.

RIP Neda

2009-06-22T03:06:00.001-04:00

Shame! Shame! Shame!

2009-06-20T16:20:00.007-04:00

Shame on the murderers in Iran.

Will this be the face of change in Iran? If you can stomach it, Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic is hosting some serious coverage of the events unfolding on the streets of Iran on his blog, The Daily Dish. Saturday's death toll is between 19 and 150, according to dinosaur media outlet, cnn.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, at least 67 people killed in a suicide bombing. Not a good day for peace in the Middle East.

OK Go Animation Video

2009-06-10T10:30:00.004-04:00

I'm in the process of handing out my resume in an effort to find some supplemental employment, and it occurred to me that I hadn't posted this animation on which I did some graphic design work. Some work. Robin's the real genius behind this stuff. (and yes, I'm starting my job search the same week that US Unemployment hit a 25 year high.)

update: the embedded video is not working, so here's a link.

Bacon Paper Pig

2009-06-06T17:34:00.002-04:00

So, you see, it's a pig made out of paper. And that paper has bacon printed on it.

Dan Nolan Art @ Bukowsi Tavern (Inman)

2009-06-02T13:59:00.006-04:00

Should you find yourself in the Inman Square neighborhood of Cambridge and were interested in seeing the new baseball paintings, feel free to stop by Bukowski Tavern, centrally located on Cambridge Street.

If you're a buyer, get there quick. The one at the top of this post sold in less than a day and a half. They're cheap. Here's what they look like hanging:

You can also visit old friends, Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy, Den and Maggie:

Sonia Sotomayor- SCOTUS Nominee, Yankee Fan.

2009-05-27T12:18:00.005-04:00

Finally, a proper Yankees fan on The Bench. For years, we've been represented only by that despicable, if hilarious, arch-conservative, Antonin Scalia. Not only is he conservative, but he's from Queens! What kind of Yankee fan comes from Queens?!? The newest nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, grew up in public housing in the South Bronx. Now that's a Yankees fan we can trust. Her confirmation will secure our passage out of a nightmare era in which political representation of Yankees fans was limited to Scalia, Rudy Giuliani, and Ari Fleischer on the right, and Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton on the ... well, on the right. Sotomayor will now be the true face of the Yankees. And it's pretty clear that anyone who opposes her confirmation to the Supreme Court, or who roots against the Yankees, is a racist, misogynist, neo-con.

"Welcome to New Orleans", said the black hooker shoe.

2009-05-20T18:58:00.002-04:00

That's the shoe that's black, not the hooker. I don't know whether or not the hooker was black. It was this black shoe in the corner of our hotel room that welcomed us back to wonderful New Orleans for Jazzfest 2009. And it is this shoe that welcomes you back to your VTK New Orleans Jazzfest photo diary. We left it there all weekend. I suggest you leave it in your heart for the remainder of this post.

On the other side of that curtain was Bourbon Street itself. Talk about your centrally located hotel rooms! The trick to being able to sleep when you're located right on Bourbon Street? Stay up later than anyone who might wake you up.

Another view (check out all the beads on the roof):

And this was our local corner establishment right downstairs, where we kicked off our first day of Jazzfest with a nice spicy bean bloody mary. (note MC Smackdown's outfit (right))

And this is literally 20 seconds and 20 feet later - my first spilled drink. First sip = first spill. Nice. Relax a minute. Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy seemed to think it was pretty funny.

It was fantastic to return to the Fairgrounds for this year's Fest after a year's absence. We were welcomed by New Orleans native and goodtime trumpet player Kermit Ruffins. I always try to catch Kermit when in town.

As usual, we saw tons of great music by bands we had never heard of and whose names we could not possibly remember, including these dudes who pumped out some great old timey jazz:

And a good interview with this guy, whose name I know for sure: Allen Toussaint.

A definite musical highlight was Neil Young playing on the main stage. Click on this panoramic stitch-up for a sense of how many people were there. We were about a football field away and the crowd spilled out well to the side of what my camera could capture in three photos.

And a definite musical highlight of the musical highlight was hearing Neil end the show with a cover of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life".

And in the Heritage display, there was this:

which really needs no further explanation.

What might require further explanation is this:

which was a shrine to one of the "stars" of this year's Jazzfest, Jon Bon Jovi. I tried to explain to Dd that it was sarcastic, but she didn't believe me and was sure that the woman was just a crazy Bon Jovi fan. She herself is a Bon Jovi fan and attended that particular show, which, I'm told, was good.

Beignets at Cafe Du Monde in a black dress. Before first bite (above) and after first bite (below).

Irishing up the Cafe du Monde coffee. Tip to the uninitiated: don't wait in the obscene line in the morning/day. Go at night when you need a little juice to get you going for the evening round.

Dice.

Tip # 2 for the uninitiated: save $ by buying beers at the local market and drink them outside of The Apple Barrel on Frenchmens Street in the middle of the night. Tip 2.2: do not attempt to do this while sober. Tip 2.3: tip 2 + tip 2.2 may = oxymoronic.

Note MC Smackdown's outfit again. 4 nights later, still rocking it.

Rocky rocking it. Jazzfest is a heavyweight fight. If you've made it to the end, you've got enough points to win and you just need to make sure you stay on your feet.

The day after we won the fight, Mac-D and Dd headed home and MC Smackdown and I stuck around for a day to relax a minute. I took advantage of the free day to take a lazy, hungover stroll around the French Quarter to snap some photos of the buildings that I always seem unable to find time to photograph. Enjoy:

I will now field any questions and will be unable to provide answers to any of them.

VTK Hits Local Cable Access

2009-05-17T18:51:00.004-04:00

Many VTK readers may have already seen these videos on my microblogging endeavors, facebook and twitter. But for those of you who haven't, please enjoy parts one and two of this odd interview of me by a local art show host on CCTV, Cambridge Cable Television:

Obama at the White House Correspondents Din Din

2009-05-10T04:08:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-07T12:28:00.005-04:00

From the Department of Mind-boggling Stupidity, the Napa Post Office had only one stamp available to customers 4 days before Mother's Day - A sad old lady above the word "Alzheimer's". My mind is still boggled.

Going Back To New Orleans

2009-04-30T09:43:00.003-04:00

When the clock strikes midnight Central time, I'll be back in the Big Sleazy cracking a cold one at Molly's At The Market!

Molly's - where, depending on the time of day/night, the crowd can range from this:

To this:

Our long national nightmare of me not going to Jazzfest and returning with a comical picture diary is over. Thanks to some commission work from MCSmackdown, I'll be frolicking at the Fairgrounds and queasy in the Quarter once again. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

The Super Depressing NBA Playoffs Preview

2009-04-18T00:02:00.014-04:00

Alright. It's just basketball. "Super Depressing" is relative. But I'm still wearing green shoelaces in my Stan Smiths to celebrate last year's championship. So I'm sticking with "Super Depressing". We'll have to use a different adverb for things that are really really super depressing. "Superer Depressing"?

Wednesday night, I was thinking about this post and how I was going to break down the Finals against the Lakers. I was hoping that it wasn't going to be a repeat of the 1987 title defense. I was confident of a 5 game beatdown of the Chicago No Defenses, an impressive 6 game series win over the Orlando Paper Tigers, and a hard fought series-for-the-ages 6 game squeaker over the Cleveland LeBrons.

Thursday morning: KG's out for the playoffs. Fuck.

Eastern Conference Preview

1 Cavs v 8 De Troit Bas Ket Ball - Cavs in a sweep. Detroit wasn't going to do anything this year with Chauncey Billups. They'll do less without him. I've always been an Iverson fan and have never been a Pistons fan. It's over for both.

2 C's v 7 Bulls - C's in 5. I don't want to hear it. Chicago is not going to score at will against the Celtics' playoff D. KG or no KG. They'll gut out one win.

3 Paper Tigers v Six Sixers - O in 5. Dwight Howard's a force. Several other Orlando players can shoot three pointers. Philly is scrappy and has traces of talent here and there. The last three sentences will be completely irrelevant after Orlando wins this series.

4 Atlanta Hacks v 5 Miami Dwayne Wade - I love this series. I joke about the Hawks being hacks. They're chock full of grit, talent, and heart. Nothing but respect for these guys. Dwayne Wade is a monster talent playing at the peak of monsternosity. He'll win 3 but home court advantage gets the ATL the WIN. Sorry, NBA fans. No Wade v Lebron.

Eastern Conference Semifinals

1 Cavs v 4 Hawks - I watched a great Hawks-Cavs game this year in which the birds got jobbed by the refs on a LeBron go-ahead basket in the final seconds... and then jobbed by a Joe Johnson last second miss. That's your preview. Add in Cleveland's home court start and 3 games worth of rest, and the Cavs will sweep the Hawks.

2 The World Champion Boston Celtics v 3 The Orlando Magic Kingdom Make Believe Contenders - KG's absence will hurt them in this series, but I'm still not buying what Orlando's selling. Don't be fooled by power rankings or those meaningless last 2 wins by Orlando in the season series. The Celtics are better. But without KG, this might go 7. I'll say 7.

Eastern Conference Finals

Fuck. This sucks. The Cavs really needed to get a karmic adjustment for their regular season hubrisistic celebrations during their victory over the Celtics last week. A healthy KG would have been enough - barely. But now, I just don't see it. I think the C's will make a series out of it, but the Cavs' rest and their home court advantage will likely be enough. And LeBron, which I think is French for The Candy. He's good. Cleveland in 7.

Western Conference Preview

Ah, who fucking cares. Lakers are going to win. They'll beat the Jazz in Round 1, they'll beat Portland or Houston in Round 2, and they'll beat Denver, New Orleans, San Antonio, or Dallas in the Conference Finals. Those other series should be entertaining, but the Lakers will be playing the Cavs in the Finals.

The NBA Finals

I think it's going to be the Cavs. I wouldn't bet a lot on it, but that's my call. The Lakers are great, but LeBron, home court advantage, and that Eastern Conference defense are a little bit greater. Cleveland in 6.

But who cares.

UPDATE

Damn it. He's pulling me back in. I was out and he's pulling me back in. 1% chance that he's coming back ...

Opening Day 2009

2009-04-06T14:10:00.004-04:00

I'm still working on that promised documentary recommendations post, but Opening Day dictates that I leapfrog it with a tip of the cap to the return of baseball. Here's a Yankees video primer from our buddies at NoMaas.org:

Opening Day 2009 from nomaas on Vimeo.

I'm warming up with a nice scoreless Mets-Reds game right now. The first pitch of the Yankees season gets chucked in a little less than 2 hours. The Bronx Bombers had a healthy offseason of purging dead weight and signing big money power players. I'm looking forward to checking out the Big Two - and I mean Big - this afternoon when CC Sabathia throws his first pitch and Mark Teixeira takes his first swing as Yankees. Let's go Yanks! Let's go blue skies in Baltimore!

@VTKountry - State of The Blogging

2009-04-02T12:02:00.007-04:00

Looks like it's been nearly two months since I've written a legitimate blog post - one that wasn't a self- promoting repost from Obe Lincoln or a cop-out video post. No wonder my numbers are dwindling. That or maybe the blogosphere is just slipping into obsolescence with the rise of microblogging. I've done the twitter. I do the twitter. But I'm still not really grasping what it is that people love about it. Which is fine. I don't really "get" acrylics either. Why wouldn't you just use oils. But, whatever. Different strokes for different folks. Microblogging probably doesn't really appeal to me because I'm a rambler at heart and 140 characters is just not long enough for me. I understand how sometimes things require only brief mention and not a full blog post. For instance, today I was flipping through this month's Esquire magazine, which I get courtesy of my father's yearly Christmas subscription gift, and I noticed that a full page ad for viagra was opposite an article entitled "The Golden Age of American Meat". Kinda funny. A chuckle. A giggle. Maybe worthy of a brief mention to my efriends, but at 247 characters, it's nearly double the maximum character limit of a twitter tweet. Yet, it also might not be worthy of a whole blog post. If this were a three times daily blog it might fit, but for a 6.5 posts per month blog, it's less fitting. I think microblogging makes sense when it's part of a larger whole, like the facebook status update, or if it's a tool for people to get updates about the progress of a wildfire or something; but twitter on its own - for random webtainment or webformation - just doesn't do much for me. Or maybe I just need to get a cellphone and experience it that way. Maybe it's a side phenomenon of the texting world from which I've abstained. For now, it's back to old-school blogging for me. And it's about time for rusty old VTK. What'll it be, VTKountry? Sports? Politics? A mid-season LOST review? A frank discussion about how much Jimmy Fallon's new show sucks? How about some documentary recommendations? Alright, I'll be back in a bit with some doc recs. Stand by for my next bleet...

[UPDATE: I just microblogged about this blog about microblogging. But you already knew that. You've always known it. Eternal recurrence of the same?]

Timmy Takes on Wall Street

2009-03-24T22:52:00.004-04:00

In the latest Obe Lincoln political cartoon, Obe satirizes Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

There are some great faces to caricature in politics right now.

Also, check out this song about Paul Krugman:

Ricky Gervais and Elmo

2009-03-13T15:02:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Gerard for the tip to this video on Receive Bacon:

Can you DIG it?

2009-03-10T18:29:00.007-04:00

Dig my painting on the cover of the new edition of Boston's weekly entertainment magazine, the Weekly Dig.

UPDATE: If anyone's interested in a Dig framed print of the cover, you can get them through the site for $20 (Artist gets half). If you're interested in a limited edition print of the actual painting (sans cover text etc), contact me and I can get you sizes/pricing on that. (artist gets 75%).

Happy Saint Paddy's Day.

The Obe Keeps Rolling - Hillary Goes To China

2009-02-27T19:20:00.000-05:00

Her first trip as Secretary of State:

What is copyright infringement?

2009-02-20T02:30:00.008-05:00

[UPDATED WITH NEW LINKS] In the newest edition of Obe Lincoln, I take on the hot topic of copyright infringement as it pertains to the Shepard Fairey Obama HOPE poster.

I drew the above picture freehand, obviously copying the Shepard Fairey Obama HOPE poster, which copied Mannie Garcia's (or the AP's) photo. I changed the image to add Baxter Orr's SARS mask. I used ink pens that weren't the same color as the Fairey poster, so I put it on Photoshop to adjust the colors to be closer to Fairey's colors (and to deal with the shortcomings of my crappy scanner). Any difference between this image and Fairey's image is a result of my failure to draw it perfectly freehand, not a result of a conscious attempt to make a significant transformation.

So, am I guilty of copyright infringement?

If you haven't been following the AP/Garcia v Fairey copyright lawsuit(s?), then you're missing out. I'm not a lawyer, but it's pretty fascinating stuff in terms of the questions that arise about art, photography, copyright, ownership, access, appropriation, theft, hypocrisy, consistency, ethics, greed, and creation. Not a bad list, eh? Check it out:

AP threatens to sue Fairey.
Fairey sues the AP.
Fairey's Obey Giant website.
Fairey on Charlie Rose.
Hypocrisy? Fairey threatens to sue Orr.
Orr had appropriated and changed Obey Giant with a SARS mask.
A discussion on copyright and fair use law.
The law.
More discussion on the law.
A blogging copyright lawyer weighs in.
Another blogging copyright lawyer weighs in.
The debate is on,
And on,
And on,
And on,
And on.
And then there's parody. One of the landmark cases about parody is Leibovitz v Paramount Pictures, in which the Naked Gun 33&1/3 parody of the pregnant Demi Moore Vanity Fair cover was upheld as fair use.
Here are a few other interesting cases.
And if all that doesn't have you confused yet, check out this article that points out that parody is protected, but satire is not. I hope the writer of that article, Jesse Walker, won't mind if I quote this insightful analysis:

"In the press or the academy, it's considered normal for more than one interpretation of a piece of art to coexist. In a courtroom, only one interpretation will enjoy the blessing of the law, and there's no guarantee that a judge playing critic for a day will agree with [the defendant's] subtle analysis."

VTK's White Whale: Put Herman Melville's House On A US Quarter

2009-02-11T13:20:00.008-05:00

Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke- look you, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!

Forget the gold ounce, boys and girls. I've seen the White Whale of the Blogosphere. And it's reward will take the form of a silvery fifth of an ounce, no less valuable to ye sailors of the internet. How so? It is no mere American 25 cent piece; it is a quarter dollar of legal tender that can finally pay proper homage to the author of Moby Dick and the house in which he penned the whale tale - the Arrowhead estate in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Pay homage to the house and pay dividends for your VTK captain.

You may know that I'm from Pittsfield. Some have suggested I'm obsessed with my hometown. What you may not know is that one of my more impressive skills is my ability to get from any statement to a Herman Melville reference in three sentences. Go ahead, try me. As you can imagine, having Arrowhead on the tail side of a US quarter would be invaluable to a word hunter like myself - infinitely more valuable than its stated worth of 25 cents. Whosoever of ye joins with me to flip the white head of the American quarter to put Arrowhead on its tail, he or she shall have that silvery fifth of an ounce, my boys and girls. Doubt me not - I'd strike the sun if it insulted me.

Here's the deal from the mass.gov website: In a successor to the 50 States Quarters Program, the U.S. Mint, in a nationwide program, has asked Governor Patrick to select one preferred and three alternate Massachusetts national sites to be featured on the reverse of a quarter. Beginning in 2010, the Mint will release five new quarter designs annually based on the order in which the selected sites gained federal designation. Governor Patrick is calling on the people of Massachusetts to help with this decision. It's right there in black and white, VTKids. The white head of Washington beckons you to determine the destiny of his tail. Go to the site to vote for "Herman Melville House, Pittsfield", which is under Berkshire County. You can vote as many times as you want. It's going to take more than one harpoon to fell this White Whale.

And if Deval Patrick denies the democratic voice of VTKountry, which will surely be heard in this vote, if he doesn't put Arrowhead on a US quarter, well, God help him. I'll follow him around the Horn, and around the Norway maelstrom, and around perdition's flames before I give him up.

Tommy Dasche Raphael

2009-02-04T11:56:00.002-05:00

I like Tom Daschle and I think he would have been a great Secretary of Health and Human Services and all, but perhaps it's for the best. There are legitimate questions about his judgment.

Adios Muchachos

2009-02-03T15:24:00.003-05:00

New cartoon up on Obe Lincoln:
_

I'm still playing around with the style, direction, etc. of this political cartooning idea, but I know one thing for sure: I'm ecstatic that this is my first and last cartoon featuring Captain Conflict and the Duke of Discord.

Two Title Town

2009-02-02T12:41:00.004-05:00

Thanks to an epic last minute drive culminating in this catch, the Steelers are world champs again! And VTK is a two title town. Three cheers for the three rivers of Pittsburgh.

terrible towel time!

2009-01-29T12:24:00.006-05:00

There are all sorts of scarves and foam fingers. There are countless thundersticks and pom poms. There are even a handful of clackers and cowbells. But there's only one towel: the terrible towel™. The pride of Pittsburgh will be out in full force this weekend as the Steelers try to win their 6th Lombardi trophy. I was unaware of the history of the towel until I read Greg Garber's article on ESPN today. It turns out that what started as a ratings gimmick is now a 2.5 million dollar boon for a home for mentally disabled and autistic people. I'm pretty sure that trumps Kurt Warner's "faith". Sorry, Kurt. God's going with the Steelers in this one. And so is Obama, apparently.

In my June 18th post-Celtics-championship post, I noted how extraordinary it is to watch your favorite team win a title and how the Steelers had made me wait 26 years for a Super Bowl win. Sunday evening brings another chance for glory for the towel-waving, faithful fans of the Black and Gold. Go Steelers! Let's make VTK a two title blog!

Inaugurama v.Obama

2009-01-23T00:58:00.006-05:00

DC, meet VTK. The last time I was in the nation's capitol was exactly 4 years ago, several months short of the advent of VTK, for the same event - the Presidential Inauguration. Of course, that trip was in a protest organizer capacity (the Turn Your Back On Bush action), and this one was in more of a celebratory capacity (my cartoons and flipping birds at federal agencies notwithstanding). BV has a close friend in Arlington VA, so we carpooled down with a few friends and crashed just over the river for a few days. The hospitality was great and I've been assured that my paranoid certainty that the 8 year old son of the hosts had stolen my toiletry bag was unfounded. I'm still not convinced, but I'm letting it go. This is me, letting it go.

Moving on. We made our way into DC for the Inaugural concert mid-afternoon on Sunday, with a brief stop to greet the new Department of Interior.

Unfortunately, security stopped letting people into the concert area at the beginning of the show so we milled around the Washington Memorial, trying to get a good view of one of the jumbotrons. We made it in time for Stevie Wonder and Obama, which was good enough for me. Apparently, I am too cynical, snobbish, whatever, to enjoy Pete Seeger singing This Land is Your Land like everyone else. Just didn't do it for me. We walked around DC after the show and ran into Obama in a CVS. We discussed our eyeglasses.

The evening was spent feasting on Ethiopian food (everyone) and sneaking peeks at the Steelers' score on BV's blackberry (me).

Monday was pretty chill as we met friends at the Native American Museum for lunch (I had the buffalo steak mid-rare, with brussel sprouts and wild rice) and dinner (roasted chicken with date stuffing on a bed of sauteed chard). We topped it off with some vodka gimlets at VTK reader lc's "Eat My Balls" Inauguration Party, which featured cheese balls, popcorn balls, meatballs, etc. It was a good night for city roaming.

We got up before the crack of dawn to head into the city on Tuesday to meet up with everyone and make our way onto the Mall to watch the Inauguration. That plan fell by the wayside immediately as we realized that we were in trouble after standing still in line for 20 minutes with 1000 other people trying to get into the Subway station in Arlington. We decided to walk the 3 miles to the Washington Monument. It was 10 degrees, but at least we weren't trapped underground for 3 hours.

We crossed the Memorial Bridge into DC and were excited to find that we were at the Lincoln Memorial and that while we weren't likely to meet up with our friends, we had thousands of port-a-potties at our disposal, plenty of time, and our pick of Jumbotrons. In other words, I was unlikely to have the claustrophobic panic attack that I had been predicting. Best. Case. Scenario. I took this photo of what I called the Inaugural Layer Cake (sky, federal building, trees, buses, port-a-potties, people):

The ceremony itself was great, with ubercreep Rick Warren being the only downside. Fortunately, his hypocritic blather was followed immediately by Aretha Franklin's transcendent rendition of My Country Tis Of Thee. I'm not so cynical/snobbish/whatever that I couldn't appreciate this:

And then, of course, there was this:

And Dick Cheney was in a wheelchair. Great day. And traffic was a total non-issue on the ride home. Great trip. And BV's new New Yorker was waiting for us when we got home. Great fun:

Go Steelers!

Obe Lincoln - new political cartoon

2009-01-15T13:07:00.005-05:00

I just launched a new blog for what I hope to be a monthly political cartoon: Obe Lincoln. You may remember my rant about Obama's Lincoln Complex in the 2008 Review Post. He's taken it one step further - he'll be arriving in DC via train from Philly, ala ... Abe Lincoln. C'mon. As VTK reader lc put it: "kind of a niche thing to be perturbed about". Yes. But it's my niche, dammit! Here's the first one (click for larger view):

Below the Rim

2009-01-13T16:33:00.004-05:00

A friend called yesterday afternoon and offered me a free ticket to the Celtic's game. So instead of watching on the tube while working and eating leftovers, I watched the champs from center court, third row - actually below the rim. And exactly on the half court line. My feet were on the hockey boards track. It has ruined me for basketball. I'll never be able to watch it the same again. It's crazy to me that people pay $195 for a midseason midweek game, but it's almost worth it. You really get a whole different sense of the mood and dynamics of the game down there. The players are bigger, better, and more graceful than you think (except for Rondo, who is smaller than I thought, which makes his play even more impressive). Garnett is completely insane - really - the cosmos shakes when he enters into it. He's on a totally different plane than everyone else. I was also entertained by Patrick O'Bryant during every time out. He's the biggest man on the court and he knows he's not going in so he just wanders around. hilarious. Conversely, Bill Walker, who also knows he's not going in, is completely zoned in during every time out. He's like a hoop junkie. Get this guy some minutes, Doc. As for the game, Pierce went off for 39 and the Celtics won in OT. Not bad.

Obama Cabinet Report Card - Part One

2009-01-07T12:59:00.007-05:00

Thought I was going to bag it, didn't you? Honestly, I considered it. I've been putting it off because, as I said in the last post, there are over 30 cabinet selections and I'm really not that familiar with many of them. For some reason, I felt like this had to be an exhaustive, definitive statement on Obama's cabinet - one that would lead to a specific conclusion about his political orientation at this moment in time and a prediction of what we can expect from his first four years. I guess I thought that would be the sexy vtkesque thing to do. But the reality is that I don't have a degree in economics, I don't work in public policy, foreign policy, environmental or constitutional law. I don't have a highly educated understanding of health care, education, or transportation or energy policy. And I really don't know anything about Agriculture, the GAO, or Small Business Administration (Except what I know about the administration of my small business, which is so small that it can hardly be classified as a business. I'm a step above a Junior Achievement corporation selling knick knacks door to door). Another thing I'm not: a journalist. (ah, the amateur blogger's journalism complex...)

Further weighing down the anticipated (by some, at least) report card post is the fact that the term hasn't started yet so we can't really judge the performances of the cabinet. Beyond being a rhetorical point, this is significant because we don't know what impact the players will have on the team captain and the team's performance. We don't know who will have the ear of the president, who will drive policy, in what direction, or what events will happen that will force changes or realignments of policy. Elucidating these points, Harvard University's Stephen Walt presents a reasonable case for witholding judgement on Obama's foreign policy picks. The question before us is this - if we can't yet judge the individuals' performance, can we judge the individual who chose the individuals?

In answering this, I'm casting aside a few arguments: Forget about the beltway etiquette that says that a president should be afforded the courtesy of his cabinet selections; that etiquette saw the Democrats approve Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Bolton, etc, each of which was a shameful confirmation with regrettable consequences (understatement). Forget about the benefit of the doubt - these are the big leagues and I doubt everyone who has risen to this level of political power. Forget about the politics of the picks which explain that certain selections were token picks to allow the Administration to present a diverse face, and forget about the politics of picking people in order to guard against future political attacks. At what point do we move beyond the politics? ever?

So discarding these obstructions to judgment on cabinet selections, I see no reason why we shouldn't look at all Barack Obama's selections and criticize or praise him for them. He may not have been sworn in yet, but his presidency is well under way, and therefore open to debate - open even to lefty, hack bloggers like me who haven't done enough research. I'm inspired by John Nichols' article for The Progressive, How to Push Obama, which reviews Obama's progressive roots and his migration to the center, and suggests a strategy for pushing him leftward through reasoned, proactive opposition:

The way to influence Obama and his Administration is to speak not so much to him as to America. Get out ahead of the new President, and of his spin-drive communications team. Highlight the right appointees and the right responses to deal with the challenges that matter most. Don’t just critique, but rather propose. Advance big ideas and organize on their behalf; identify allies in federal agencies, especially in Congress, and work with them to dial up the pressure for progress. Don’t expect Obama or his aides to do the left thing. Indeed, take a lesson from rightwing pressure groups in their dealings with Republican administrations and recognize that it is always better to build the bandwagon than to jump on board one that is crafted with the tools of compromise.

I may not live up to this (particularly in the proposing alternatives department), but I reserve my right to hack away (and hopefully open a forum for the readers of this blog).

OK, let's get going. This is a long one. Keep in mind that this is a report card of Obama's cabinet selection choices, not a report card on the performances of the cabinet members - they all get incompletes so far. This also shouldn't be read as a prediction about how Obama is going to rate as a president; it's just an honest taking-to-task of the team with whom he has chosen to surround himself, and unless he turns out to be the greatest micro-manager of all time, they're going to have a big impact. To start you out, here is a mostly-commentary-free biographical breakdown of the team from Huffington Post. And without further ado, here's your VTK Team of Rivals Report Card:

VP: Joe Biden - B+ - (not sure if VP is cabinet or cabinet-level, but Huff puts him here so I'll follow suit) - clearly a good pick by Obama insofar as Biden helped him to get elected (which is a good thing). Joe had more Joe Sixpack cred than the Hockey Mom or the Joe the Plumber in the end. Am I the biggest Joe fan in the world? No, but I'm not a hater either. It was a smart, effective pick by Obama and I think Biden will sensibly scale back the role of the VP in US governance, which will further highlight Cheney's criminal power usurpation. I wish he were a little less hawkish.

Sec. of State: Hillary Clinton - C- - readers of this blog know where I stand on Hillary. I think she's a hawk, I think her foreign policy experience has been greatly exaggerated, and I think there were better people for this prestigious post. How about the junior senator from MA, John Kerry? This is a purely political pick and as such, it's irritating to me. But she's far from incompetent. Time will tell how she does.

Sec. of the Treasury: Timothy Geithner - C? - Here's where my ignorance comes into play. I don't really know anything about Geithner. I know even less about what the right diagnosis for what the country's economic illness is. So I'm about to hit the internet and search my favorite radical lefty sites for an unbiased assessment that will surely leave me outraged. Please hold [insert elevator music]. Ok, I'm back. And still unsure what to think. I found an informative discussion on DemocracyNow!, in which Naomi Klein calls the selections of Geithner and Larry Summers (director of National Economic Council) "a profound disappointment". She calls Obama hypocritical for picking them after all his campaign criticism of deregulation: they "played key roles during very important economic crises in other countries, in Russia, during the Asian financial crisis, during the Mexican peso crisis. And when these countries were suffering a profound economic crisis created by deregulation, they preached more deregulation, more privatization and—this is key—they preached economic austerity to disastrous results."

The American Prospect's Robert Kuttner agrees but is less pessimistic: "I can point to a couple of silver linings here. Number one, in Obama’s own speeches on the subject, he’s been very much on the side of stringent re-regulation of financial institutions as the price of recapitalizing them and also as the necessary policy. There’s a very good person who is going to be in charge of the specifics of what banking regulation should be going forward. That’s Dan Tarullo, who’s one of the two or three real progressives at fairly senior levels inside the Obama administration ... I do think Geithner is a competent technocrat. He’s not an investment banker himself. He’s been a civil servant for almost all of his career. And secondly, when he was pursuing these failed policies, he was doing so as part of a threesome that included Bernanke and Paulson. And of the three, Geithner was the most inclined to tough regulation as the price of bailout."

Amy Goodman hedges Kuttner's optimism by reading a piece from William Greider in The Nation, with which Kuttner agrees: "Geithner was busy executing the government’s massive rescue of Citicorp--the very banking behemoth that Geithner and Summers helped to create back in the Clinton years, along with Federal Reserve [chairman] Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin, Clinton’s economics guru. Now Rubin is himself a Citicorp executive and his bank is now being saved by his old protégé (Geithner) with the taxpayers’ money ... Geithner has been a central player in the deal-making, from Bear Stearns to AIG to Citi. The strategy has not only failed, it has arguably made things worse as savvy market players saw through the contradictions and rushed out to dump more bank stocks.”

Read (or listen to) the whole discussion here, but it seems that they're more concerned about Summers than Geithner. Lastly, is it notable that stocks soared when the news broke about his appointment as Treasury Secretary? Should we trust the market? Fuck if I know. William Greider provides his opinion in the aforementioned article: "[Geithner has] been seen as a weak and compliant regulator of Wall Street firms, someone who did not seem [sic] the storm coming. Occasionally, Geithner would anguish publicly about the accumulating time bombs like credit derivatives and urge bankers to do something, but he did not use his supervisory powers to compel action. In bailout negotiations with Wall Street titans, Geithner and the Federal Reserve were spun around like a top more than once. No wonder the stock markets rallied explosively when they heard Geithner would be their new boss in Washington. They think he is their guy." So, what should we expect? As I said - fuck if I know.

Sec. of Defense: Robert Gates - D+ - My biggest problem here is that Obama ran as the change candidate on a consistent message of opposition to the Iraq War and consistent criticism of Bush and his foreign policy, and then he decides to invite the Republican (served under both Bushes) Secretary of War (of two wars) to continue on as the head of the Pentagon. I don't want to hear about the politics of this pick, the wisdom of ensuring a smooth transition, the success of the surge, or the relative moderation of Gates compared to his predecessor. The change here shouldn't have been the decision not to change. There must have been capable, qualified candidates who would have signaled a decisive change in the bellicose direction of this country. I don't accept that this is a "defensive" move to prevent Republicans from criticising whatever happens in Iraq while waxing nostalgic about the success of the surge. Frankly, I'm a little sick of hearing about the success of the Surge. So too, I imagine, are the friends and family of the 40 people killed in a suicide bomb in Iraq on Sunday or the friends and family of the 23 people killed in a suicide bomb in Iraq on Friday. So too, I imagine, is former US-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi who recently described the Bush Administration's policies as an "utter failure".

Attorney General: Eric Holder - B - Let's not let the fact that the Republicans have chosen him to be the subject of their token nomination fight define him as a leftist. He may be, but the fight in the Senate is about the GOP fighting Obama, not Holder. And it's on. Holder's a former Clintonista. On the basis of that alone, I'm tempted to label him a centrist, but I'm wary of assigning guilt by association. The conservative US News and World Report calls him part of the cabinet's liberal core and writes that Democratic officials are saying that he will "serve as a liberal advocate on social issues important to minorities, feminists, abortion-rights advocates, organized labor, and gay-rights activists." Clearly, it's relative, but let's hope they're right. Was there a better pick available? Don't know.

Sec. of the Interior: Ken Salazar - F - In case you didn't know what the Secretary of Interior did, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, "As the overseer of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Services, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior is [the] most important position in the protection of America's lands, waters, and endangered species." Here are a few bullets from the CBD about Salazar:

- voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet.
- voted to allow offshore oil drilling along Florida's coast.
- voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects.
- voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil.
- voted to support subsidies to ranchers and other users of public forest and range lands.
- threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered.
- fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill.

Some would describe the Environmental community's response as mixed. DemocracyNow! hosted a debate between CBD's Kieran Suckling and the National Audubon Society's Brian Moore. Salazar sounds like a fox in the henhouse to me. As far as Obama picking him? Politics - "thanks for voting for me, Colorado; thanks for your support, West." Crappy pick for a crappy reason.

Sec. of Agriculture: Tom Vilsack - D+ - I don't know much about Agriculture or Vilsack, so I'm going back to the internet. Ronnie Cummins writes for Counterpunch that this pick "sent a chill through the sustainable food and farming community" DemocracyNow! hosted a debate between Cummins and Moore. You decide. Counterpunch points out that this is part of larger divisions within the environmental community. The Vilsack pick also notably drew the criticism of food writer/activist Michael Pollan. I dislike Pollan. But only because he's usually right. And I want to eat cheeseburgers all day.

Sec. of Commerce: Bill Richardson - INC - He recently withdrew himself from nomination due to untimely questions about some of his contributors. Too bad. This may have gotten a decent grade from me.

Sec. of Labor: Hilda Solis - A - This from John Nichols of the Nation in his 2008 superlatives list: MOST VALUABLE CABINET PICK Hilda Solis: It has been a long time since the United States had a Secretary of Labor who had a record of walking picket lines. That's what makes California Congresswoman Hilda Solis, Obama's pick to fill this Cabinet post, so remarkable. ... She is the right person for this job, and her selection serves as the single best signal from Obama that he intends to serve as a pro-worker president. Let's hope that Solis is allowed to renew a Labor Department that has been neglected – and disempowered -- by Democratic and Republican presidents.

Sec. of Health & Human Services: Tom Daschle - A - I'm hopeful about this pick and Daschle's desire and ability to push progressive change in American health care. Perhaps the best way to highlight Daschle's liberal credibility is to point out the vitriolic reaction of the Christian Conservative Right: Daschle has a consistent pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-judicial activist voting record. While in the Senate, Daschle voted against schools requiring voluntary prayer; voted no on banning human cloning; voted no to prohibit flag burning; voted no on school vouchers in Washington, DC; voted no on permitting drilling in ANWR and much more ... Daschle was a key leader in blocking Bush’s judicial nominees. During the 2003-2004 session, Daschle and his liberal cronies blocked 10 of Bush’s nominees from getting up or down votes in the Senate ... Daschle was honored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) for being the “architect of the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment” in the Senate ... “Daschle can be expected to gut any pro-life, pro-family policies in HHS and will aggressively push his pro-abortion, pro-homosexual agenda,” said TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty.

Sec. of Housing & Urban Development: Shaun Donovan - B? - I haven't found much reaction online worth quoting. I don't know anything about him, but he hasn't sparked any outrage so far as I can tell and there are a lot of people on the internet looking to be outraged at something. I'll give it an ignorant "B".

Sec. of Transportation: Ray LaHood - C - WTF do I know (or care) about Transportation or Ray LaHood. Well I do take the subway frequently and drive on the Pike and I95 occasionally. And I do know that LaHood is a Republican from Illinois - from the same district Lincoln was from. Sounds like Obama killed two birds with one stone: a political pick (allowing him to present himself as bi-partisan) and another Lincoln connection to remind people that he's the next Lincoln. Didn't you hear? Obama's the next Lincoln. Anyways, environmental advocates Friends of the Earth had this to say: While his overall record on energy and environment issues is poor, LaHood has in recent years broken with many in his party to support crucial investments in passenger rail and public transportation, and he is a member of the Congressional Bike Caucus. These are reasons to hope that he may be open to the visionary transportation policy that is needed to move our country forward.

Sec. of Energy: Steven Chu - A - Alright, I'll give Obama one benefit of the doubt pick. I don't know Chu but he sounds alright. He won the Nobel Prize in physics. Andrew Revkin, award-winning science reporter with the New York Times, had this to say on DemocracyNow!: [Chu] knows the science, and he knows it pretty deeply, and he knows how hard it is to get sometimes an idea from a laboratory and to become the new norm for energy ... in the last five years or so, Dr. Chu went to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create—and he came there with this—his mandate for that lab was that energy is our new frontier. And he started to develop programs there that are very much aimed at trying to sort of have big breakthroughs on non-polluting forms of energy that we’ll need as the world heads toward nine billion people, more or less, with everyone wanting a decent life. We need more energy than we have now, even if you set aside the climate problem. But when you add the climate challenge with these building greenhouse gases, that creates this even bigger imperative. So he’s got the—he clearly has the grounding in both the science and how the science has to translate into products. You know, how do you interface with private sector? How do you make this all happen? So I think the combination shows some possibility of breaking through.

Sec. of Education: Arne Duncan - C+? - I don't have kids and haven't been involved in any type of organized education for about 14 years. I don't know who Arne Duncan is. Here's another DemocracyNow! debate (which seems more like a tepid conversation really). Lefty Fireballer Greg Palast "slams" the pick.

Sec. of Veterans' Affairs: Eric Shinseki - A - because he was right. From DemocracyNow!: Shinseki made headlines in February 2003 when he testified before Congress that the US would need several hundred thousand soldiers to stabilize Iraq after the invasion. At the time, Shinseki was Army chief of staff. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking Pentagon officials publicly rebuked him, while insisting that Iraqis would welcome the Americans as liberators.

Sec. of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano - C - Napolitano appears to be drawing an array of reviews from all sides. This liberal calls it a "terrific choice" and this conservative rag doesn't like it. This liberal academic is concerned about her, saying "on the state level, she pushed some of the most right-wing agendas on immigration enforcement. She went full speed ahead with the Bush agenda to move immigration enforcement from federal to local hands." And this conservative Arizona blogger finds a silver lining in that her nomination virtually assures that AZ's 2 senators will remain Republican for another 7 years (not to mention that her replacement as governor will be chosen by AZ GOP Secretary of State). And of course, centrist PA governor Ed Rendell said she'd be perfect for the job because she has no life. So, is she a hawk? Relativity strikes again. I'm thinking I would have preferred a less hawkish person - with a life - to head security of my homeland. But then again, do we even know what Obama has in store for the Homeland Security Department?

United Nations Ambassador: Susan Rice - C - According to DN!: She opposed the US invasion of Iraq but has advocated for military action in case of humanitarian crisis. Two years ago, Rice co-authored an article advocating for US attacks against Sudan. She wrote that the United States should consider unilaterally striking Sudanese airfields, aircraft and other military assets. Rice wrote, “If the United States fails to gain U.N. support, we should act without it.” Is that really the best Obama could have done in selecting his ambassador to the UN? Really? Maybe not as bad as Bush picking Bolton, but not great.

Environmental Protection Agency: Lisa P. Jackson - C? - I know nothing about Jackson but it appears that she's getting mixed reviews from "the left" - mixed between wary and negative. This isn't exactly a glowing report from the Huffington Post. Nor is this from dailykos.

And roughly 3200 words later, there's your report card, Part One. Coming soon: Part Two - Cabinet Rank Members & Top Officials. Find out the VTK take on such fantastic/outrageous selections as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, National Security Adviser James Jones, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, and National Economic Council Larry Summers.

Teaser: Dennis Blair aided the perpetrators of 1999 church killings in East Timor. (part 2 of that report)

The VTK Year In Review

2008-12-29T15:30:00.012-05:00

.

It's been an eventful year, an historic year, a year deserving of a review. It's an overused convention - the end-of-year review - but that's no reason to completely avoid it. Among other newsworthy developments, I published my graphic novel (and schlepped it shamelessly), the Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship, and Obama won the US presidency. Here are some highlights from the 82 VTK posts in 2008:

January 04 Post - The new year kicked off in frigid fashion on Von Trapper Keeper with a scientific discussion in the comment section about the temperature/water saturation point in my room - a discussion that soon grew to include references to Herman Melville, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Father Geoghan, and Brutus the Barber Beefcake. Only in VTKountry.

Update - Thanks to my free Massachusetts health insurance, my respiratory condition is now properly medicated.

January 22 Post - The year quickly intensified for this sedentary blogger when I went down South for one of the weirder bachelor parties I've ever been a part of (or heard of). A bizarre practical joke gone awry set the tone for a bone bruising physical challenge weekend that required weeks of recovery. In a portent of things to come in 2008, the good guys won.

Update: the story of the practical joke became legendary amongst the NYC contingent, with the description of my reaction to it being the punchline element. Several of them introduced their friends and parents to me at the wedding two months later.

March 07 Post - 2008 announced its intention to be a riveting electoral year early, with the Democratic Primary dominating the news deep into the first half of the year. It didn't take long for my dislike of Hillary Clinton to turn to disgust. This post came after the OH/TX primaries/caucus when Hillary was essentially mathematically done but was clearly going to drag it out until the bitter end. And it did get bitter. It wasn't clear at the time, but the protracted battle turned out to be the best thing for Obama. This post reprints the analysis from dailykos.org, which was probably my most visited website of the year (it also morphs into an interesting debate about wikipedia in the comment section).

Update: Clinton lost, Obama won, Clinton parlayed her strong primary challenge into a Secretary of State post. So much for change. More on the Obama Cabinet later.

March 19 Post - The original video was removed by youtube, but here's an abbreviated clip of my favorite musical interlude of the vtk year:

Update: This fella's been taking time out to get close to the lady in 08. Thanks for the tip, Trouble Funk.

June 13 Post - "game four aka fucking awesome" - This wasn't the post after the Celtics won the title, but it was the post that recapped the moment that the Celtics grabbed the title by the balls and refused to let go. Ray Allen's layup in game 4 gave the C's a 3-1 lead in the series and set the table for their 17th championship. It was a thrilling year for the Celtics and beating the Lakers in the Finals was a dream ending.

Update: I've been wearing green laces in my Stan Smith sneakers since June to celebrate the C's title.

July 10 Post - The Obama Bubble burst rather quickly for progressives. After the Left, "the base", the grassroots progressives got him the nomination, he promptly turned his back on them (us). Not 24 hours after he officially got the nomination, he was waving the zionist flag in front of AIPAC. A month later, he made the shameful flip-flop on the FISA vote written about in this post. A heated debate on the significance of this vote followed in the comment section.

Update: Anyone who was troubled by this vote back then (and many who were untroubled), has not been surprised by his cabinet selections (and the Rick Warren face-slap) since Election Day. Obama's no liberal. More later.

September 23 Post - The long, long, awaited publication and release of my graphic novel, Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy.

Update: If you read this blog, you're sick of me talking about it. As am I.

November 4 Post

The story of the year obviously, and deservedly, was the election of Barack Obama as president of the US of A. It dominated the news, our attention, and this blog. I was on dailykos all day long for months - tracking polls, analyzing trends, stories, factors, Effects, etc. Despite my problems with Obama's post-nomination flip-flopping and my prediction that there would be more to come in that regard were he to be elected, I voted for him and urged everyone I knew to do so too. And would do so again. A McCain Palin Administration would have been a nightmare. I poured all my anxieties (rational and irrational) into a pre-election paranoid top ten post. Then, on November 4th, I began a long and nervous 12 hour live-blog of Election Day at noon. It turned out to be a great day. We elected a black man as president of the US, just 44 years after the Civil Rights Legislation was signed by LBJ. Amazing. Some of us felt an unfamiliar wave of pride in our country and, even if we knew he'd be governing from the center, we allowed ourselves to savor the feelings of hope and change. The day after the election, I wrote an op/edy victory post in which I said that, while I'd often suggested that the work for progressives to hold Obama accountable started the day after the election, I'd make an exception and postpone that work because it truly was a day to celebrate.

November 5 to December 31 - Obamamania. The Cult of Barack grew and grew as he cast aside the Left and kissed the ass of the Center Right. I'm Abe Lincoln! I'm Abe Lincoln, screamed Obama. Say it with me. I'm Abe Lincoln. I'm assembling a team of rivals. I'm "from" Illinois. I'm going to be sworn in on Lincoln's bible. I'm practically a Republican. I'm Abe Lincoln! Your favorite president ever? Just think of him when you think of me. And if it's not Abe Lincoln, then listen to how I channel JFK in my speeches. Or listen to how I praise Ronald Reagan. I'm a great president already and I haven't even stepped foot in the Oval Office yet.

If you're sensing anger and disillusionment in my typing tone, you're on to something. The post-election day of celebration is long over and the holding accountable is on. As expected, Obama made his intention to govern from the Center clear shortly after he became president-elect. But the degree to which he planned to shut out the Left was a little surprising. The Change President stocked his Cabinet with Washington veterans from the Clinton Administration. The Peace President selected someone more hawkish than himself for his Secretary of State, and kept the Republican Secretary of Defense, currently presiding over two wars, on for another tour of duty. Cabinet selection after Cabinet selection we waited for our token liberal appointments - the scraps that would be tossed to us in gratitude for our support, to appease us. But pick after pick went to the Center or even to the Right. Behold: Obama and his Team of Rivals! Usually, a candidate will choose some representation for the sizable base that got him elected. But Barack Obama promised Change and that's what we're getting. Wait, what am I talking about. He selected Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor. Thanks, Barack. America, here's your Team of Rivals:

Update: Ok, well, so I didn't quite get around to it. I was going to include a comprehensive report card of Obama's Cabinet selections, but when I laid out all 30 of them, I found that it was going to require more time and research than I currently have for this post (it takes a long time to write a post this long). The Report Card Post will have to be forthcoming. So, for the time being, feel free to consider me full of shit (if you didn't already). My major bitches are with the selection of Clinton and retention of Gates (noted above), the total bullshit selection of Salazar for the Interior, and the fact (read: my half-educated belief) that the most significant token liberal was Solis for Labor. The sum of these cabinet selections left me with unsurprised irritation. The real ire came when he chose Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration. This is nothing short of a completely unnecessary, completely political, completely insulting slap in the face of the gay community and all those supportive of gay rights. And if the selection was not insulting enough, he piled it on with his defense of it, in which he claimed to be trying to represent the diversity of the nation and beseeched us to disagree without being disagreeable. Fuck you. How's that for disagreeable. How about representing the diversity of those who got you elected rather than spitting in their faces while trying to represent the already-well-represented part of the electorate that didn't vote for you. Just politics? Yeah, I get it. I understand. Doesn't make it any less offensive. Why aren't more liberals outraged? They don't want to let go of that feeling of hope/change/pride that they've been floating on since November 4th? They don't want to leave the Cult of Obama?

There it is - the long-brewing bitch session. I'm not completely giving up on the Obama Administration before it even begins, but I'm not psyched. I'm going to the Inauguration again this year, and it would have been nice to be in a more celebratory mood about it. At least Obama/Biden is not Bush/Cheney or McCain/Palin. I guess I'll focus my celebration on the end of Bush/Cheney. For that reason alone, 2009, or at least 19/20ths of it, is going to be a great year. It's been a long eight years. And 2008 has been one of the best of them for VTK.

December 12 Post - On another positive note, the Celtics are still playing awesome. They started the season with the best record ever for a team with two losses and won a team record 19 games in a row.

Update: Am I worried that they promptly lost two games in a row on the West Coast, one to the Lakers? No. The Celtics aren't going to win them all, but they're going to win most of them in 2009. Happy New Year, VTKountry.

shameless

2008-12-19T00:09:00.002-05:00

Looking for a gift for your disgruntled office-dwelling friend or relative?

Celtic's Start Strong - 1st Quarter Report

2008-12-12T11:31:00.008-05:00

The World Champion Boston Celtics destroyed the Wizards last night for their 21st win - in their 23rd game. The 21-2 start is the best in the franchise's illustrious history. I think we can put to rest any concern about a post-championship letdown. The intensity is clearly still there - just ask Big Baby Davis (actual nickname) who was overwhelmed to tears during a timeout this week. The C's aren't lacking for emotion or drive. As Paul Pierce pointed out, you don't get remembered as a great Celtic if you only win one championship - even if you do set the record for best start to a season. These guys are hungry for # 2.

But they lost uber-sub James Posey! How could they continue to win? Last night, the usually insightful and entertaining commentator Reggie Miller said that Posey was the reason the Celtics won the Championship last year. With all due respect (always a preface for a statement of disrespect), that's complete bullshit. That's like saying that a good 8th inning set-up reliever on a baseball team is responsible for that team's success. Bullshit. Posey was a great sub, clutch shooter, staunch defender, good energy guy, character guy, etc, etc. But the reasons the Celtics won the Larry O'Brien trophy were named Pierce, Garnett, Allen, Rondo, Perkins (yes, Perkins), and the bench as a whole. And they're all still on the team, and all still playing well. Pierce, Garnett, Perk, and the bench have been very good, and great at times, but the specific reasons the Celtics are 21-2 and the best team in the NBA right now are in the backcourt - Rondo and Ray. Both players have elevated their games beyond last year's level of play and I'd put them up against any backcourt in the league, including Fisher/Bryant, Iverson/Hamilton, Williams/West, Paul/Peterson, etc. There are better guards in the league, but there is not a better starting tandem. Rondo's triple double last Friday put him in rarified Boston air: only Pierce and Bird have had games with stats that high in points/assists/rebounds. [here's a great breakdown of his skills from truehoop, making the case for Rondo as an all-star] And Ray's been the team MVP so far, shooting over 50% from the field for 20 points a game. He credits the continuing healing of his ankles for his success. If his ankles, and the other key body parts of the team, stay healthy, I think we'll be attending another parade this spring, and I'll be getting another Tommy Point for my flourescent green wig / geriatric sunglasses look.

Barring any big news developments or new creepy VTK photos, this'll probably be the last post until after Christmas. I'm sure I'll cook up a good year in review, which hopefully will be more interesting than "Celtics Win! Obama Wins!". For those, and other reasons (yes you, BVM), it's been a good year. Happy Holidays, VTKountry.

Colbert Report Blatantly Plagiarizes From Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy

2008-12-05T01:59:00.009-05:00

UPDATE -- Video evidence added to the bottom of this post

Some say imitation is the highest form of flattery. I say fuck that. Not until I'm getting paid as well as the imitator. As Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy (©!™!) struggles in Boston area comic book stores to get me my printing cost back, its images are being ripped off by the multi-mega-millionaire comedy writers over at Comedy Central's Colbert Report! Too lazy to come up with their own material, they, or perhaps Stephen Colbert himself, decided to just steal an image from my underground cult classic - and completely destitute - graphic novel. Paranoid? Usually. But not in this case. Check out the evidence. Page 49 of Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy, released earlier this year, conceived a couple years before that:

It's one of Glenn Caperton's many dream sequences. So imagine my surprise tonight when I heard the following come out of Stephen Colbert's mouth:

Folks, if this Anything Goes attitude catches on, we won’t just be saying yes to learning guitar and Korean, we’ll be saying yes to socialized medicine, primate voting rights, and freaky three ways with the mailman and a mountain lion. So I guess it won’t all be bad.

This was accompanied by a picture of Colbert, in bed, between a mailman and a mountain lion! Not only did he steal my mailman/mountain lion image, but he took a few liberties with it. Who does Colbert see himself as in this fantastical tangent? Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy? Paula The Pretend Punk Hottie? The Bubble? There's no pictorial or video evidence of his brazen plagiarism online yet, but I'll update this post as it becomes available. Kanye! Call me. I got your back. Let's take this Colbert chump down! He can't handle two wars at once.

-- UPDATE -- VIDEO EVIDENCE -- UPDATE --

Aha! Big mistake by Colbert: he posted it on his website. He really is trying to start a war with BCSDDB. Doesn't he know? Doesn't he get it? See the video evidence starting at about the 11:45 mark of this video. Here are the screenshots:

Who the fuck does Stephen Colbert think he is? I'm with you Kanye: Who the fuck is Stephen Colbert.

End of a Sloppyass Era

2008-11-24T21:10:00.011-05:00

.

A bar can die but once: all bars owe God a death. Especially the Abbey.
- Shakespeare

Wednesday night, the famed Abbey Lounge will close its doors after a local rock show for the last time. One of the finest dive bars in the Cambridge/Somerville area (in fact, exactly on the Cambridge/Somerville line) will soon close those doors for good - 75 years after they opened.

I didn't get in on the Abbey action until I moved to Boston in 2000. They were 67 years into their groove (rut?) at that point, yet I'm guessing my first impression caught me up pretty quickly. It was still a two-sided bar then - the bar was set in the middle of the building and served two separate rooms. You could pay for the show and go back and forth between both rooms, or you could go into the no-cover bar area and, if you angled for the right spot, see the bands between the opening in the bar where the bartenders served both rooms. Acoustics were not an issue - it was loud and non-exclusive. Friends of mine lived across the street and had semi-residency status. They gave me my first taste of the Abbey one night when we hit the non-cover side to hang with the locals. The memory of that first night at the Abbey would have been completely nondescript, were it not for a minor detail of my exit: as I left the Abbey, I had to jump over two separate sets of barf in order to get out of the bar. There was barf, then there was a small non-barf landing pad, then there was more barf. The options were: a) step in barf (twice); b) remain in the bar until physically thrown over the barfs (gamble on a few levels); c) execute the double-drunk-leap over the barf splatches. I dislike barf, so I choose c. My aim was true and I made it out. But it set the bar(f) on the Abbey Experience for the next eight years - anything short of barf-hopping was a sub-Abbey Abbey night. Since that night, I've seen many raucous bands there, been surprised by the lack of toilet paper in the bathroom on at least one occasion, and one time helped drink a twelve pack at the bar with a friend (who brought the twelve pack (as in, my friend brought a twelve pack to the bar, put it on the bar, and we sat at the bar and drank the twelve pack (while hanging out with the bartender (friends of VTK and said-friend will not find this abnormal)))).

So, yeah, the Abbey. Rock and Roll. Here's some rare footage of The Kinks playing the Abbey back in the 60's:

Oh no, wait, that's the Konks, a local band. I love the part in the video where you just see liquid (read: cheap beer) splashing up across the singer. The Konks will be one of the nine bands there Wednesday night for the "last blast" show.

Parting is such stale beer sorrow
- Shakespeare

Palette Cleanser

2008-11-17T23:39:00.002-05:00

It's time to move on from the election obsession. In lieu of a substantive post, here's a little palette cleanser for you:

That's Mogwai's video for The Sun Smells Too Loud. Thanks to wzbc's John Straub for the tip to this video in his promotion for his video night at River Gods in Cambridge (Tues 11/18).

The Aftermath

2008-11-08T18:00:00.004-05:00

Oh no he didn't. Oh yes he did.

2008-11-05T12:31:00.006-05:00

This is an astounding moment in US history, in world history. Is it even possible to overstate the magnitude of this moment? I still can't believe it. The USA elected a black man as its leader. Racism is over! Finally, the scourge of slavery can be wiped from the history books.

Ah, the jokes. But seriously, it's amazing to look at how far this country has come. 150 years ago, slavery was legal in the United States. 112 years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed that racial segregation was constitutional (Plessy v Ferguson). 62 years ago, "negroes" couldn't play baseball with whites. 55 years ago school segregation was legal. Discrimination on the base of race was legal until 44 years ago (when Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act). Barack Obama is 47 years old. And he's the 44th President of the United States.

On this day, four years ago, I was devastated. I'd been getting out the vote in New Hampshire for days, had given the maximum donation to the Kerry campaign, and had really believed that the country would reject the despicable policies of Bush and the neo-cons. When they didn't, it was one of the most depressing days of my life. I remember walking around Cambridge and not being able to look passers-by in the eye because I felt that if I saw anything less than equivalent suffering in their eyes, I'd either cry or fly into a rage. In Cambridge! It was brutal. But I also remember emailing with friends the day after the election about an Obama 08 campaign. Earlier that year, Obama had taken the DNC by storm with his keynote speech. He was the chosen one. But could a black man really win the presidency yet? Surely one day, but was it too soon? Where would he get the electoral votes? Wasn't racism still too strong of an undercurrent for this to happen? Even as recently as yesterday, this same question lingered. And now that question is obsolete. Racism, of course, lives on in the US. But - wow - how far the nation has come.

I've said elsewhere on VTK that, while I support Obama for president, he no longer represents the progressive left, and the work to hold him accountable starts the day after the election. I'm going to flip-flop on that. Today's a day for celebration and reflection. Accountability starts tomorrow.

ELECTION 08 LIVE BLOG

2008-11-04T12:02:00.047-05:00

UPDATED - 11:20 PM

12:00 Noon - It's on! I just voted. Time to do my other civic duty: live blogging!

I'll be updating throughout the day if I find interesting links or vtkworthy news items. I'll pick up the pace around 6 PM EST. I'm sure you'll be reading/watching your favorite news sources, so I'll try not to be redundant to those. This may end up reading like a giant anxious op/ed piece. I know that I have two polar opposite op/eds cooking in my head right now - one of which will make it out, the other of which will be tossed on the scrap heap. It's a weird situation in that there will be exactly one of two outcomes in a scant several hours, and I can't really believe that either one of them is going to happen: I can neither wrap my head around the idea of a black man being elected president of the US, nor can I fathom the US not electing this black man this year. The former is an amazing possibility, the latter a terrifying one (mostly because it will be the result of racism or fraud). Feel free to join in the live blog via the comment section. Yes you can.

2:00 PM - here are some midday links to get you through the countdown until the polls close:

- Exit Polls - In the comments, Joel brought up the uncertainty and unreliability of exit polling data. This is a good primer from dailykos, explaining what to look for, who to listen to, etc. Personally, I'm not giving any exit poll much credence. The false optimism created in 2004 and its subsequent collapse was too brutal. UPDATE: in fact dailykos and nate silver are now suggesting we ignore exit polls (which don't start coming out until later (5 EST) anyway).
- The Final Pollster - speaking of false optimism... who knows how accurate these polls are going to end up being, but Pollster.com's final state polling has Obama winning 273 electoral votes in the strong category - meaning McCain could win every toss up state and "leaning Obama" state and Obama would still win. Also of note, as pointed out by fuge, Karl Rove is predicting an Obama landslide. Though any sports fan will tell you this is a classic jinx move, so I'm not buying what he's selling either.
- Poll Closing Times - The real shit starts at 7 PM EST when the polls close in VA and IN (parts of IN close at 6). If VA goes Obama early (or at all) that's going to be a huge sign as to what we can expect. If IN is too close to call initially, that's another good sign. If IN actually goes Obama, get out the drape-measuring stick. The Gary, IN area (Chicago media market) is in the Central Time Zone though, so by the time the networks call IN, we might have a good idea of what's happening in VA, NC, and possibly FL and OH so it might be moot. FL and OH will probably take a while though.
- Steelers beat Redskins - This is supposed to mean that Obama's going to win. I don't know about that, but I know it's nice to see Pittsburgh beat a team from the NFC East.

2:30 - Wonk out tonight and follow the Presidential election and all the Senate and House races on the awesome kos electoral scoreboard (go to www.scoreboard.dailykos.com to see tricked out version (map below is a limited version)):

Also from kos, check out this election guide that breaks everything down by poll-closing time.

4:00 - This waiting is killing me. 2 hrs before we find out that KY went for McCain and that IN is too close to call. Question: if Obama/Biden win what happens to their Senate seats? Do the state governors select the replacements? The governors of IL and DE are both Dems.

4:20 - Vote yes on 2 in MA.

4:30 - Joe the Plumber: tax-evader, reckless driver, liar, moron, and ... fraudulent voter! End this, God. Please.

6:55 - excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous excited nervous Polls close in VA in 5 minutes and completely in IN in (inINin) 5 minutes. I was watching MSNBC but Chris Matthews was waxing ridiculous and it was a pretty boring panel. I switched to CNN and they've got graphics and gadgets and poll numbers! Woohoo! That's what I'm talking about. Can we get Chuck Todd to switch to CNN?

7:00 - Obama wins VT! McCain wins KY! Polls are closed in GA, IN, SC, and VA. It'll be a while before they call them in the presidential election though. (D) Warner wins the Senate race in VA. A couple of good pundit points: Conservative hack Bill Bennett gives credit to Howard Dean on his previously maligned strategy of trying to compete in traditionally Republican parts of the country; David Gergen says that the Obama campaign was one of the most impressive presidential campaigns ever. I would add that conversely the McCain campaign was one of the worst campaigns, on any level, ever. What a mess. That would be one of the most discouraging things about a McCain win - that they could run this poor of a campaign, in a year when the Republican brand is in the shitter, and the American people would still vote for them. C'mon, America. No way.

7:40 - Well ... uh. well. I like that Indiana is too close to call still. I don't like the numbers from VA so far. Florida's looking good - with 2% of the vote in. Can't really say anything about anything yet. Looks like (R) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's in for a tough fight for his Senate seat in KY. The graphics on CNN are much better than those on MSNBC.

8:00 - tons of CNN projections, none of them significant. MSNBC called Pennsylvania for Obama?!!? Switching channels... This would be huge. CNN hasn't called it yet. Did Gergen say CBS called NC for McCain? searching ...

8:05 - MSNBC not backing off the Penn prediction. NC still too close to call. No Reds switched to Blues yet but the PA serve-hold is huge. Stealing PA was a major piece of the McCain campaign's strategy. VA not looking great, but I don't know if the heavily Democratic areas have reported yet. C'mon VA, c'mon VA!!

8:13 - MSNBC called NH for Obama too. CNN hasn't called PA or NH yet. The MSNBC calls are clearly based on exit polls - troubling. Jeanne Shaheen beats incumbent John Sununu in NH. Good pick up for the Dems. KY McConnell vote not looking great.

8:43 - CNN called PA too, so that seems solid. Dole lost to Hagan in NC to give the Dems another Senate seat (+3 so far). #'s looking decent in the presidential race in NC. I wasn't expecting to win that one. It would be a nice consolation for a VA loss though (not looking great there, but again, I don't know what part of the state is lagging in reporting). Still no reds to blues. And I recall being ecstatic over the Kerry PA win, only to be devastated later on that night. In other news, I'm starting to develop a massive headache.

8:49 - Gergen and Bennett think the PA/NH wins close the door on McCain. they're not dumb and they're not liberals. I still have a headache though.

9:00 - Obama sweeps the upper-midwest blue states - MI, MN, WI. Solid holds. Still no red to blues yet. Can I get a MO? Can I get an NC? Can I get a tylenol? VA still too close to call according to MSNBC - but they said that they're still waiting on Northern VA. That's good. Chris Matthews: "it's a good time to order a pizza. We're not going to be able to call this until well after 11." fuck me. Dems have picked up 4 Senate seats so far.

9:15 - David Gregory just interrupted Chuck Todd to call Arkansas for McCain. You don't fuck with the Chuck Todd. Never interrupt Chuck Todd. Especially not for something that obvious an inconsequential. Todd's not as optimistic for Obama as the CNN gang is. He doesn't think VA's looking good for Obama. But NC's still looking decent. I'll swap that for VA.

9:26 - 0 FUCKING HI O !!!!! MSNBC's calling Ohio for Obama and I think CNN's about to follow suit. Huge huge huge. My headache just went away.

9:43 - CNN called OH, McCain's victory party is focusing on Hank Williams Jr, not the news, John King and his fancy big board "cannot get McCain to 270". It's only my well known paranoia/superstition that's stopping me from giving Obama the coveted VTK call. It's real close though. And my head really does feel better. How bout that.

9:55 - Brian has started a Call The Final Obama Electoral Vote Tally contest in the comments section. He has 364. I have 339. Anyone? (note - this does not constitute an official call from VTK; this is strictly for contest purposes). NM goes Obama. big. Headache's still gone.

10:02 - ** VTK OFFICIAL CALL ** IT'S OVER. BARACK OBAMA WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. CNN just called Iowa. Assuming CA and HI goes Obama, that's game, set, match. Yes!!

10:16 - Also, for those of you not paying attention to the MA election, Prop 2 passed!! Spark it up, Massachusetts!! Possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in MA is now decriminalized. I gave up smoking years ago, but I strongly believe this change in law is long overdue.

11:00 - + CA = USA elects an African American to be the President of the United States of America. Awesome. I'm so proud.

ELECTION REMINDER

2008-11-03T14:53:00.002-05:00

Don't forget to check in to the VTK special Election Day Live Blog tomorrow.

(did you think I was going to remind you to vote? If you forget to vote, you probably don't have the internet.)

Decision 08 – A Paranoid Presidential Top Ten

2008-10-31T11:28:00.011-04:00

Five days from now, barring a two month recount battle, we should know who the next president of the United States will be. If you take the word of the pundits, you probably think we already know. Here are the top ten paranoid anxieties which make me wonder if Tuesday night might be longer and tenser than we expect. Worse yet, could some combination of these factors add up to a stunning disaster (a McCain/Palin win)? I’ll be live-blogging on Tuesday night, possibly throughout the day too, so if you’re not at a bar or an election party, feel free to stop by (in person or on the internet).

10. Karl Rove - What about Karl Rove? I don't know. But he makes the list because he’s Karl Rove and he can do stuff. And there are a lot of hours left before the polls close.

9. Joe Biden – Muzzle thyself, Gaffey McGafferson. There are a lot of hours left before the polls close.

8. November Surprise? Too late? Is it?

[ok - those three were mostly filler. now we get into my real paranoid anxieties:]

7. Malfunctioning Machines – There have been reports of electronic voting machines that have been flipping people’s votes – they choose the Democrat candidate and their selection is switched to another candidate instead. They just need to be recalibrated? What if they still don’t work after recalibration (as happened in West Virginia (see video below))? And isn't it possible that this recalibration bullshit is going to open the door to massive fraud? And what if people are given a paper receipt? Should we be happy then? Not if there’s no way to verify that what’s going on inside the machines is accurate. Am I being paranoid? Why are all the reports of machine vote flipping about flipping away from Democrat selections? Wouldn't the Republicans be raising hell if this was happening to them? It's probably not going to matter for Obama in West Virginia (which will likely go McCain), but it might make a big difference in Pennsylvania where voting machines were breaking down across the state in the primary season. When you vote on Tuesday, bring your camera and video your vote. Raise hell if there's something fishy going on.

6. The Bradley Effect - In 1982, the black mayor of LA, Tom Bradley, ran for governor of California and enjoyed a lead in both the pre-election polls and the exit polls. And he lost. The effect named after him suggests that people didn’t want to appear racist so they told pollsters they voted for him when in reality they had not. I don’t think this is going to be a huge factor in this year’s race, but it’s possible that there will be some effect. I saw one Princeton poli-sci professor who suggested that black politicians factor in 5 points worth of Bradley Effect when looking at their polls. That’s scary. But the Bradley election was 26 years ago. We’ve grown as a nation since then. Haven’t we? Have we?

5. The Undecideds are all going to vote McCain - Some analysts seem to think that all the undecideds are going McCain; others see no reason to think they won’t be split. Paul Begala suggested that it’s not the people who say they’re going to vote for Obama who can’t bring themselves to vote for him (Bradley Effect), but the people who say they’re undecided who would rather say that than that they won’t vote for him.

4. The Fear Factor – Will people be swayed by the desperate and irrational fear-mongering of the McCain Campaign and decide that it’s just too risky, too dangerous, to vote for Obama? This concerns me. If we’ve learned anything from the past 7 years it’s that the American people are very susceptible to fear mongering.

3. The Stupid Factor – Will people fail to understand that we already have a fucking progressive tax structure in the United States and that Obama’s tax plan is in no more socialist/Marxist/communist than George Bush’s or any other non-flat-tax-pushing politician?

2. Republican Electoral Shenanigans – Forget about the bullshit misdirection of the ACORN hubbubabaloo. They haven’t done anything wrong or illegal. The real threat to the very fiber of democracy is the continued, systematic, Republican voter suppression effort – which has ranged from disenfranchisement (voter roll purging) to intimidation to discouragement (disproportionate number of voting booths in white and black neighborhoods). In 2000 it was Florida; in 2004 it was Ohio. What state will it be in 2008? Pennsylvania? Virginia? Nevada? Will it even matter this year?

1. Obsolete Polling Methodology? – Are we all being completely fooled by inaccurate polling information? Here’s an interesting interview with UberStatMonkey Nate Silver about polling this election cycle. Silver is the managing partner of the highly respected baseball stat site, Baseball Prospectus, and the brains behind the popular polling site, fivethirtyeight.com. Of particular interest is this exchange:

NATE SILVER: Well, what I'm worried about is that this reliance is happening at the same time the polling itself is getting more and more difficult to do. You know, it used to be considered good if you could get 40 percent of the people to pick up the phone when you called and responded to your survey. That used to be kind of the benchmark. And now, if you get 20 percent of people actually responding, or even 15 percent, that's considered good to adequate. You know, people screen their phone calls a lot more now. People who have cell phones aren't called, in the first place, by most of the pollsters; there are some exceptions. You know, people have Vonage, these services on the internet, where they don't even have a telephone. So it's hard to reach people who are busy, who are distrustful of a random number coming up on their land line. And so, the non-response problem is becoming, you know, very serious. We might have to move into some kind of a hybrid, where you do try some kind of a survey instrument on the internet, combine that with a telephone sample. But these polls, you know, as we saw numerous times in the primaries this year, are not terribly accurate. It's not because the pollsters are dumb. There are a lot of very smart people in the industry. It's just inherently very hard to do when you're trying to do a survey, and, you know, four out of five or five of six people won't take your phone call. It's kind of very hard to balance everything to kind of make up for that fundamental problem.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And is there any concern and any analysis been done of the people who are refusing to be polled, whether they have any particular political perspective or viewpoint that might end up skewing your—the total results of a poll?

NATE SILVER: There are different kind of groups. Usually older people still pick up the phone more than younger people, women still more than men. You know, there's some thought that maybe people who are quite conservative won't pick up the phone as much as people who are more liberal. So it does depend. In this election, those kind of different kind of things balance out, where you might get too few young people, but maybe too few conservatives. That would kind of balance out. But, you know—but there definitely is what's called non-response bias. What the pollsters try and do is say, you know, if the woman answers the phone, to say, "I want to speak with the person having the next birthday," for example. But you can't always correct for that. Some of these polls use automated scripts; they're so-called robopolls. And so, they won't have a chance. Someone can say they're are a woman, if they're in fact, you know, not a woman, if that's what they feel, if they feel like trying to mess with the polling script and stuff like that. So there are kind of numerous problems with your kind of selection and with your non-response bias.

Are we chained to the floor in Plato's Cave, taking the puppet shadows for reality?

Verdict: I think Obama's going to win. But these ten things will keep me anxious and uncomfortable until he reaches 344 electoral college votes. I need a solid 74 ECV comfort zone this year.

Paul Pierce is a Big Crybaby

2008-10-28T20:59:00.009-04:00

.

Paul Pierce humiliated himself, his teammates, and the city of Boston tonight by opening up the waterworks at the TD Banknorth Garden when he received his championship ring and raised the Celtics' 17th World Championship banner to the rafters. After he stopped bawling like a kindergarten bitch, he went on to further shame his family and friends by scoring a piddly 11 points in the first quarter to "set the tone" and finished with a pathetic 27 points, "leading" his team to an season-opening win. What a pussy.

And we're done with Bizarro World. I admit it: I got a little chill seeing the oft-stabbed warrior-captain (-) of the C's crying and raising the long-awaited 17th Banner to its place next to the 1986 banner. Trivmaster John and the Practical Slacker were watching the ceremony with me and they had the decency not to scrutinize my moist eyes. Perhaps they were busy concealing their own.

In the midst of a World Series freeze-frame and a month of obsessive political poll-monitoring, it's a joy to welcome the Celtics back into my life. It was nice to see the pomp and ceremony celebrating last season's title, but it was great to watch Pierce, Powe, Rondo, and the gang grind their way to a solid win against a very good Cavs team. The first half of the game was not the most impressive performance, but the sloppiness could easily be explained away as an emotional hiccup after the pre-game ceremony. Their defense locked down in the second half, limited LeBron and the Cavs to 35 points, and closed it out. Good win. I like the C's chances to make it back to the NBA Finals this year. The loss of James Posey will be felt, but I feel good about those minutes being redistributed between Powe, Tony Allen, and super-rookie Bill Walker. If Rondo, Perk, Powe, and Big Baby all continue their improvement this year, we're going to be in good shape.

In addition to the Celtics, I'm excited about the whole NBA this year. The Lakers, Hornets, and Cavs are all better, the Spurs, Mavs, and Suns are all older, and the Sixers, Jazz, Rockets, Pistons, Raptors, and Blazers are all intriguing. I was looking forward to watching the debut of the Blazer's "Glass" Greg Oden in the 2nd game of the doubleheader tonight against "Glass" Andrew Bynum and the Lakers. Oden looked like the man-child he is in the first 13 minutes, pulling down 5 boards and awkwardly missing 4 shots. Then he sprained something in the foot-ankle range of his right leg. Not the knee though. He was held out for the rest of the game and the MRI is forthcoming. I really hope he's alright because he seems like a great kid and a monster talent. I hope he's not going to end up on the long list of of NBA disappointments.

Random trivia question: who started their NBA career by getting their first points on a goaltending call and finished their career in the top 20 all-time for points and steals?

Obama v McCain - The Dance-Off

2008-10-23T11:49:00.003-04:00

Lousy Literature - (lousy like a fox. A fox infested by louses)

2008-10-19T01:38:00.016-04:00

While in the San Francisco Mystery Books store last year, I picked up a couple garbage pulp non-classics. One was Plugged Nickel - a train mystery about a stranger who appeared to have been split in two on the tracks - but wait! The bottom belonged to a woman and the top half belonged to a man - whaa??? It was horribly written and fantastically so. The other book was Henry Kane's Death Is The Last Lover, which promised to be both crappily entertaining and mildly pornographic. Plus it had what looks like a large rat bite out of the side. (or a large louse bite)

Sold. It is quite possibly the worst piece of writing I've ever read. And I love it. It has yielded such masterful constructions of the English language as:

and:

Awesome. Why has it taken me 35 years to discover the joy of crappy mysteries? I'm hooked. Hooked like a fish on a hook. Like a sardine that's going to be crammed into a can of sardines. Here's another sample for your reading pleasure/pain:

Mousie Lawrence, born Morris Lawrence, was a fifty-year-old man with all the moral scruples of a despondent rodent. He was small, wiry, rough, tough, and heartless. Fifteen years ago he was still groping, clawing for his niche in the world of his peers - that was when he was apprehended and jugged for armed robbery. But Mousie was not stupid and he had come a long way since then. Ten years ago, he had hooked up with a major narcotics outfit operating out of Mexico City and he had been paired off with Kiddy Malone. They had fitted together like a screw and a bolt, they had complemented one another: they were a rousing success in the nefarious traffic which was their milieu. They were front men, advance men, salesmen. Operating out of Mexico City, with enormous funds at ther [sic] disposal, they descended upon various points in the United States where they set up depots, organized intricate personnel, managed and stayed with an operation until it was meshed, geared, flawless, and self-performing. Then they retreated to home base, where minds concentrated on the next site of burgeoning business for this enterprising duo. Mousie was a sour little man, dry and humorless, and a teetotaler both of alcohol and drugs. Kiddy Malone was an addict, a small man like Mousie, but outgoing, robust, twinkling-eyed and happy-natured when he was on the stuff - and since he was in the business, he was always on the stuff. Kiddy's Christian name was Kenneth and I was much more intimately acquainted with Kiddy than I was with Mousie Lawrence. Kiddy was an Irishman out of Dublin. Sixteen years ago, he had been a seaman who had jumped ship and had remained, without benefit of quota or citizenship, in the United States. Kiddy was a woman's man, and I had first met him when he had got into trouble with his first woman in this country (or second or third or thereabouts). He had been effusively appreciative of my efforts in his behalf - which was no more than fair since he could not afford to pay for such efforts at that time in his career - and a casual acquaintanceship had ripened into a rather ribald and entertaining friendship, until Kiddy had commenced to sin with the syndicate, and I had commenced to disapprove of the new ways and habits of one Kiddy Malone. Before long, Kiddy's papers were straightened out, a forged citizenship was forged for him, and he began to patronize the correct tailors, the correct haberdashers, the correct barbers, the correct booters, and he began to flash bankrolls as thick as salami sandwiches.

That's just a taste (see what I did there!?!?). I'm sure there'll be more entries to come (just as their will be more sandwiches to come)...

UPDATE: Thanks to commenter Duffless for pointing me to the winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest and to commenter Sandy for tipping me to the trashy fiction review blog, Pop Sensation, written by 2008 M5K Dorkfest winner, Rex Parker (that's more prestigious than you think - I was extremely remiss in not getting my credentials in on time (can one be extremely remiss?)). Nice work, Rex.

O'Bama vs. McCain

2008-10-15T16:33:00.002-04:00

Here's a little ditty to get you pumped up for the third presidential debate:

I'll be semi-live-blogging in the comment section if anything interesting happens. Feel free to stop by.

I'm a dork.

2008-10-14T14:39:00.007-04:00

I love this new pollster graph with all the breakdowns and tools to manipulate it. I suspect that I would hate it if the blue and red were reversed.

UPDATE - I had to switch from the interactive graph to a picture because it was causing VTK loading delays. Go to pollster.com to see the interactive graph and dork out on manipulating the tools function. Or enjoy the state-by-state, updated-daily, color-coded electoral breakdown from electoral-vote.com. I put a link to this one in the right margin. And if you're a total addict, check out the data from the links underneath the chart. But I guess I don't need to tell you all this if you're a total addict. I like the cartogram myself.

Welcome to the Bill Walker Era

2008-10-11T23:54:00.009-04:00

Welcome to the next generation of Boston Celtics basketball hero/crazyman: rookie Bill Walker, monster dunker, uninhibited urinater. He was rumored to have been a good pick, if not a steal, in the NBA draft when the Celtics picked him up after several teams passed on him, presumably because of his recent knee surgery. He looked pretty good in his first NBA preseason game, throwing down back-to-back, athletic, monster dunks. Here is the second one, which sent the crowd and the Celtics bench into a tizzy:

Then the other day I read an article about him and his dunks which sent me to youtube to check out some more of his jams. I was clicking through the related videos on the right margin when I noticed one that was titled "Bill Walker pees on a towel" or something. Not being interested in the watersports, I passed and clicked on another dunk highlight video. Then I saw another similar title. And another. The images all looked like they were on the court, so I had to check it out. There's no way he pissed himself in a game and I missed it. Could it be? All of the videos were shot from the stands without zoom or commentary so you couldn't really tell what was going on. So I googled "Bill Walker pees" and checked out the deadspin link (they're all over this sort of weird sports news) Amazingly, it appears that with seconds left in a close college game, Bill Walker decided that he couldn't hold it, shoved some towels down his shorts, in front of 15,000 people, and drained the weasel. No stagefright there. Wow. How did I miss this story?

And now today, youtube is buzzing with this video about him in their most recent preseason game against the Houston Rockets. Not as outlandish as pissing on some towels in front of a packed house, but some pretty punchy play against the new team of Ron Artest. (keep in mind that this is a Rockets' broadcast)

There's not going to be any shortage of intensity in the Celtics' quest to repeat.

That One v.2

2008-10-08T12:45:00.004-04:00

A VTK and TPS Collaboration:

I've been bested:

"that one"

2008-10-07T22:56:00.004-04:00

My favorite part of tonight's debate:

David Brent.

from kos:

Presidential Debate II - It's The Economy, Stupid Keating Five Guy

2008-10-07T15:55:00.004-04:00

For the full story on The Maverick, see www.keatingeconomics.com.

Johnny McCain loves him a good townhall. Wonder what the carefully selected and screened regular folks will ask about tonight. The economy? Are we still on about that?

(no live blog tonight, but I'll be online if anyone cares to comment)

Live Blogging the VP Debate

2008-10-02T12:49:00.059-04:00

12:50 - Tune in tonight as VTK live blogs the most anticipated VP debate in decades.

6:00 - 3 hours til showtime. I'm warming up the oil and getting the popcorn kernels out for pregame. This is like Superbowl Sunday. Several of my friends around the country have told me they're throwing or attending debate parties. lc in DC is serving milk (with kahlua (sp?)) and cookies and playing Palin Bingo. It turns out that her beverage choice is a partisan one: milk is the official state beverage of Joe Biden's Delaware. I suggested that she balance things out by also serving the state beverage of Alaska: moose blood. Speaking of "the horror", here's Talking Points Memo's greatest hits of the recent interviews with the woman who actuarial tables say would have a 1 in 6.5 chance of becoming president if 72 year old McCain wins (1 in 3 over 2 terms):

"so committed". We should be so lucky.

And for your further pre-debate entertainment, check out some "hot pics" from Biden's debate camp with Jennifer Granholm, where he's learning not to make girls cry. That's Jennifer Granholm, governor of Michigan, where McCain decided to concede the state today (wow).

7:00 - 120 minutes until kickoff. Let the fumbling begin. For your 8 PM EST pregame viewing pleasure, I recommend either PBS's "Debating Our Destiny II" (in which Jim Lehrer will be interviewing past and present candidates about their debate performances), the reruns of yesterday's Daily Show and Colbert Report on Comedy Central, or MyTV's highlights of Wrestlemania XXIV, featuring Triple H, Undertaker, Ric Flair, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Snoop Dogg.

8:55 - 5 minutes! 5 minutes! What's going to happen? Could be anything. Probably the scariest possibility is that it will be boring. That would be quite a disappointment, considering the candidates involved. Ultimately, something really major, a really major gaffe, would have to happen to have a significant effect on the race. My prediction is that Palin comes off much better than she has in the Gibson and Couric interviews. And that it doesn't matter.

8:59 - I'm looking at the set right now. No table. I thought there was going to be a table. 30 seconds...

9:02 - "The audience has promised to be polite" what? Here they come.

9:04 - Very cordial. "can I call you Joe?", she asks. People will like that. Not that significant though. I'm nitpicking.

9:08 - hold serve. hold serve.

9:10 - Sean and Becky are playing Palin Bingo right now and I hear lots of X's already.

9:12 - She's doing well. Drat. The staring into the camera is getting a little creepy though. Joe's staying on message. Even keel, Joe, even keel.

9:15 - Her voice is shaky. I am nitpicking again? She's nervous, but people will probably identify with that. Be careful not to pick on the nervous girl, Joe.

9:18 - "health care taken over by the feds"?, says Sarah. the "feds"? is this how "small town" folks talk?

9:20 - "I call that the ultimate Bridge to Nowhere". Nice shot, Joe. Bait bait bait. He's spraying numbers right now. Will she be able to respond to them specifically?

9:24 - Sean needs 2 more for a bingo, in three rows. Becky needs 3.

9:27 - ooh, another "rear the head" reference from Palin. Who was rearing and where? What? Was it in our airspace? This debate is really fast paced. Both are doing well. Not much drama.

postscript - Palin: "We need to look back, even two years ago, and we need to be appreciative of John McCain's call for reform with Fannie Mae, with Freddie Mac, with the mortgage-lenders, too, who were starting to really kind of rear that head of abuse."

9:29 - Palin back to "Energy". Surprise surprise. "East coast politicians" are the enemy? I think Hawaii is farther away from the East Coast than Alaska and Arizona. Perhaps their governor is the most qualified to run the world.

9:38 - Am I the only one surprised and confused by their answers to the gay rights gay marriage questions?

9:47 - Sean points out: she keeps saying "nuculer". She's obviously speaking to people who say "nuculer" not "nuclear". So much for trying to convince people she's smart.

9:52 - Still fast paced. This is not the farce I expected.

9:55 - Joe's getting angry. Settle down, Joe. Settle down.

9:58 - Joe's starting to get a little condescending. "let me say it again" twice in the last minute. Annunciating slowly. settle down, Joe. Was that a sigh? I think I just heard a sigh. Joe's fuming right now. Playing into her hands, Joe. This is how they get you.

10:01 - smug, Joe. Not good. Nobody likes a smug hot-head. He's practically yelling now.

10:06 - or people are going to identify with his anger. what do I know.

10:09 - Gwen brings up the Heartbeat Away question. oooh. She phrased it as a question about "A Biden Administration" but we know what this is about. Palin "Whattaya expect from a team full of mavericks? We're a team full of mavericks!" Insanity. "Gov't, just get out of my way" You mean like on Wall Street?

10:13 - "say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again", and "aw, doggone it", in 10 seconds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? She is so full of shit. She's like a trained seal with her talking points and the lingo. Except seals can't talk. And maybe she shouldn't either.

postscript - (it's tough to transcript this stuff on the fly):
PALIN: Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.

10:14 - Bingo on "Special Needs"! Sean wins!

10:16 - is it crass or sexist of me to recognize that she keeps saying that John McCain "tapped" her? It's not just her. Katie Couric said it. Should we be using that word? I'm sorry, but it's such a sexual reference ("tap that ass").

10:18 - she just said it again. Maybe I'm being a little overly Freudian here, but part of the whole point of her selection is to add some virility to McOldie.

10:22 - powerful powerful "I understand what it's like to raise two kids as a single parent" line (or something like that) from Biden, followed by him collecting himself for a second. change in tone in the debate.

10:23 - and Palin misses it. right back to the talking points with the smug smile.

cold, Sarah. cold.

10:26 - here's the [experience] difference folks: [fighting] the confirmation of Bork vs. [dealing with] the budget of a 5000 person town. There's your experience difference.

10:29 - Palin's closing statement - she mentions how much she enjoys this and prefers it to the "filter" of the mainstream media. classic. trying to erase the interviews with Gibson and Couric. Not going to work. Overly dramatic ending by her. will it play in Peoria? dunno. Indiana's a swing state. She didn't bomb tonight.

10:32 - Biden's closing statement - standard. good. He didn't fuck up. Got a little heated there for a bit, but pulled it back together.

End of debate. Let the punditry and spin begin!

Post-debate analysis: I thought it was an interesting debate, but not in that crazy circus way that was definitely possible. Ultimately, it was a wash, which might be considered a "win" for Palin. But Ultimately Part Two, it doesn't matter that much - it's a VP debate. I think she stopped the hemorrhaging, but not all the bleeding. She's less of a problem for McCain now (ie less than a huge problem), but I'm not sure she helped him at all. She appealed to the people who already like her, the conservative base, but I don't know how many independents show won over (or back). A lot of "darn right", "you betcha", "I'm not from Washington", etc. It's going to play with some people for sure. We'll see.

This was a good line from Biden: "I haven't heard anything yet. I haven't heard ... It may be. But so far, his policies are the same as George Bush's." He also did well with the pushback on the maverick label.

And what about Palin's suggestion that the Vice President should have more power? Constitution gave her extra power? Is this a talking point, a mutilated talking point, or her brazen power hunger? (has she even read the Constitution?) Is it not clear how the only aim of this person is power?

here's the quote (and see video below): I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.

Howard Fineman: Sarah Palin was "a wolverine attacking the pant leg of a passer-by" (wasn't meant as a compliment, but aren't wolverines bad asses? or am I just a U of Michigan fan? I guess a human could just kick a wolverine away if it came down to it) "but she in no way distanced her ticket from the Bush Administration, which was the Biden goal ... a rapid pace, a frantic pace, but she didn't defend or distance her ticket from Bush"

Interesting analysis from right-of-center Harvard professor David Gergen.

cbs poll: (Uncommitted Voters who watched the debate)
46% of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Joe Biden was the winner. 21% thought Sarah Palin won, 33% thought it was a draw… 98% after the debate saw [Biden] as knowledgeable (79% before the debate).

cnn poll: A national poll of people who watched the vice presidential debate suggests that Democratic Sen. Joe Biden won but also hints that Republican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeded expectations ... 51% of those polled thought Biden did the best job in Thursday night's debate, while 36% thought Palin did the best job ... But respondents said the folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54% to Biden's 36% ... But on the question of the candidates' qualifications to assume the presidency, 87% of the people polled said Biden is qualified while only 42% said Palin is qualified.

It was, as billed, an interesting debate.

Just what are "the fundamentals" of the American economy?

2008-10-01T10:37:00.005-04:00

Obama should be running away with this. The national polls are looking good right now (as are the swing state polls), but it shouldn't even be this close. McCain is an opportunistic liar (ie. he's a politician) and his running mate is a frozen hayseed. Get your popcorn ready for tomorrow night. Palin v Biden? Literally anything could come out of their mouths. It's going to be entertaining.

Take a break. You deserve it.

2008-09-26T14:35:00.002-04:00

And now a break from our regularly scheduled shameless self-promotion. Here are two very different, but equally enjoyable, musical selections for your listening/viewing pleasure:

The Book. She Lives. BCSDDB. In Print.

2008-09-23T13:35:00.009-04:00

I'm happy to finally announce that you can now order your real live, perfect bound, paperback, print version of Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy online at comiXpress. It's $17.99 plus shipping.

If you live in the Cambridge/Boston area, you can pick up a copy at Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square, Pandemonium Books in Central Square, or *update* in Hub Comics in Union Square (it's soon to be in New England Comics and Brookline Booksmith too). It's a few dollars more, but I would consider it a "solid" if you helped me get a foothold in the stores and I will buy you a reasonably priced "liquid" sometime. (Also, all 3 of those stores are owned by righteous dudes, so giving them money is righteous. QED.)

It was a medium-large sized hit at the Boston Zinefair this weekend. People are talking. I don't want to call it a "buzz" yet, but it's definitely a murmur. Well, a warble. It's at least a warble.

[UNINTENTIONAL COMEDY UPDATE - I was just checking out the wowio link for the free online preview of BCSDDB, and it turns out that Talbots is the sponsored link for the page. Talk about your business casual!]

[UPDATE TWO - And thanks to the unsolicited and favorable props and promotion on their sites from two people I met at the zinefair: yunchtime and alternating current. For the record, I did eventually finish that peanut butter sandwich.]

Lebowskifest 2008 - San Francisco

2008-09-19T02:55:00.011-04:00

Your Venerable Typing Krafwerker is safely back on the East Coast after two great weeks in Northern California. I went to work on some art projects and hang out with friends MCSmackdown and AKBoognish, and let me tell you: it's good work if you can get it! What the fuck do I care about the market crashing? I live below the federal poverty level and I'm jetsetting (jetbluesetting (love that direct tv for 6 hours)) all over the country. The majority of the time was spent up in Napa working on the art projects, hanging with MCSmackdown and his heart-melting 4 year old daughter, and eating like a king from his garden, his 15 chickens' fresh eggs, his tasty wine, and his phenomenal cooking. (Also, the weather in Napa? It's like completely cloudy and 60 every morning (got up around 8), then completely "not-a-cloud-in-the-sky" blue sky and 85 by 10:30. Then clear starry nights and 55 by 10 PM. Every day was like that. Great climate this time of year.) Sandwiching my great and productive time up in Napa were a few nights in San Francisco with Mr. and Mrs. AKBoognish and friends, their hospitality and good times. I've been debating whether to blog about the art and shenanigans of the predominant Napa time or what I think you'll find most entertaining, what happened to be going down the weekend I flew out there: The San Francisco Lebowskifest.

I think it's a fairly safe assumption that most of the readership of this blog will have seen The Big Lebowski, the now cult classic Coen Brother's movie. Most of you can probably quote it like an old Monty Python movie at this stage. The Cult of the Dude is alive and well ten years in. In fact, it was alive and well four years after the movie came out, when the first Lebowskifest occurred in Louisville KY, and the Star-Trek-Conventiony, Rocky-Horror-Picture-Showy, White-Russian-soaked event has exploded over the last 5 years and is now staging fests all around the country. There is usually a movie viewing, bands, a bowling event, trivia, and costume contests. There are special celebrity guests from time to time (including one appearance from Jeff Bridges which he later called his "Beatles Moment"). A common "celebrity" is the original Dude, the inspiration for the character, Jeff "The Dude" Dowd. Just imagine the rock-star status he enjoys at these fests. Here he is, flanked by two of the Dudes we were hanging out with:

I got into San Francisco too late for the first night's concert/movie viewing, so we settled for the costume bowling party on the second night. We fashioned "Jesus" inspired bowling outfits out of some jumpsuits that AKBoognish had, met up with his friend (above left) who had a good "Dude" look going (complete with rug to tie the room together), mixed up 2 thermoses of white russian mix, and headed off to the alley. As we waited in line, we met some guys who were dressed up as Jackie Trehorn's party guests (complete with a blanket that they used to hoist up their full inflated and sexy blow up doll), some nihilists, and a top notch "dude" who said his name was "Dog" (above right). We ended up bowling with Dog and a couple other TBL enthusiasts (one who had an official "Achiever" t-shirt and one who had an official Tampa Bay Devil Rays jersey that had "The Dude" stitched on the back (this was no costume - he actually purchased this. I was impressed)). It was a great crew and both Dog and the Devil Rays Dude have their photosites/blogs linked to from the official Lebowskifest recap of the SF event.

The evening was general madness. There were two bars devoted strictly to serving white russians. The human body is not designed to have double digits of the caucasian cocktails. It's just not. (it's definitely not designed to have a few glasses of wine on top of that) But it was a blast. I don't have any of the AKBoognish photos or videos on my laptop, but here are some I culled from the websites linked from the main site. Be sure to check out the Devil Rays Dude's blog entry, which includes a video that has AKBoognish and I doing our Hotel California Bowling Ball shining impersonation.

yeah. And a few more I found online of us in our costumes:

and some other costumes that you might recognize:

and finally:

"You see? You see little Larry? This is what happens when you ..."

The First (and hopefully last) Comment on Sarah Palin

2008-09-13T12:27:00.002-04:00

I hadn't wanted to risk fueling the absurd palinmania by adding another palin google link to the world wide web, but it does warrant some mention considering that there's a reasonable chance that she'll be sitting in the White House some day (*shudder*). So, for my first and hopefully last comment on the 5 college, book banning, creationist, zealot, I'm going to regurgitate today's editorial from the paper of record, which says it all:

As we watched Sarah Palin on TV the last couple of days, we kept wondering what on earth John McCain was thinking.

If he seriously thought this first-term governor — with less than two years in office — was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raises profound questions about his judgment. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.

It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness.

What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications.

The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls “the mission” that they won’t even pause for reflection — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country.

One of the many bizarre moments in the questioning by ABC News’s Charles Gibson was when Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, excused her lack of international experience by sneering that Americans don’t want “somebody’s big fat résumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.”

We know we were all supposed to think of Joe Biden. But it sure sounded like a good description of Mr. McCain. Those decades of experience earned the Arizona senator the admiration of people in both parties. They are why he was our preferred candidate in the Republican primaries.

The interviews made clear why Americans should worry about Ms. Palin’s thin résumé and lack of experience. Consider her befuddlement when Mr. Gibson referred to President Bush’s “doctrine” and her remark about having insight into Russia because she can see it from her state.

But that is not what troubled us most about her remarks — and, remember, if they were scripted, that just means that they reflect Mr. McCain’s views all the more closely. Rather, it was the sense that thoughtfulness, knowledge and experience are handicaps for a president in a world populated by Al Qaeda terrorists, a rising China, epidemics of AIDS, poverty and fratricidal war in the developing world and deep economic distress at home.

Ms. Palin talked repeatedly about never blinking. When Mr. McCain asked her to run for vice president? “You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission,” she said, that “you can’t blink.”

Fighting terrorism? “We must do whatever it takes, and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.”

Her answers about why she had told her church that President Bush’s failed policy in Iraq was “God’s plan” did nothing to dispel our concerns about her confusion between faith and policy. Her claim that she was quoting a completely unrelated comment by Lincoln was absurd.

This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn’t pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s profound economic crisis.

In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation.

Well, it was a good run, Pittsfield. Toodle Pip, 1791.

2008-09-11T21:47:00.005-04:00

Fifty two months. For fifty two glorious months we were on top of the American sports world. On May 11 of 2004, it was reported that Pittsfield MA was the true home of baseball (go shit in your hat, Cooperstown), by virtue of a document uncovered in the Berkshire Athenaeum library referencing baseball in 1791, a full 48 years before Abner Doubleday, that despicable fraud, supposedly invented the sport. I, of course, took great pride in the fact that America's pastime came from hometown, my "scruffy little burgh", as Henry Fool would put it. I even bought a hat that proudly displayed "1791". And I've been using my newfound pedigree in lieu of actual knowledge for the last 52 months. Well, no more. ESPN is reporting today that there is a new reference to baseball, one that predates the Pittsfield document by an additional 36 years. It would now seem that America's pastime actually came from England, not Pittsfield, and was being played in some form as early as 1755. So, alongside Cooperstown, I guess I can now go shit in my hat.

Not a great baseball year for VTK.

The Big Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy Update

2008-09-03T18:25:00.007-04:00

The world of Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy is flooded with new developments these days. There's a new website, there's an online merchandise store, there are online presences on youtube, facebook, flickr, wowio, comicspace, and soon comiXpress. There are personalized BCSDDB portraits going on. What else. Oh, and there's the real live, printed, non-digital, hard-copy graphic novel.

The Hard Copy

I got the proof copy of the final book in the mail yesterday and was relieved and ecstatic to see that it looks great. It really takes on another character when it's laid out on paper, perfect bound in a 6.5 x 10 inch book. The coloring, alignment, and quality of printing were spot on. The first printing of the books will arrive here on September 19th, at which point I'll start sales and distribution. If you live in the Boston/Cambridge, Rochester NH, Chicago, Detroit, or Dallas areas you'll be able to pick up a copy at your local indy-friendly comic book store. If not, you can order the book online via print-on-demand through comiXpress or you can just contact me.

The Website

I registered the domain names bcsddb.com and businesscasualstagdevildeathboy.com and, for fairly obvious reasons, I decided to house the main website on the bcsddb page, pictured above. It's a thoroughly unmemorable url, but so is the title, so I already have that strike against me. I like the title Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy enough to roll with it. The blogspot page is still up and linked to through the website, but I thought it would be more professional to have a "real" site. I'll probably publish news and updates on the blog, but use the website as the main online presence.

The Store

Oh shit. Here he goes. First his big pitch to sell the book, and now he's pushing the merch on us? I know. Tacky. But first let it be said that I'm taking a loss on every book sold. I'm not making my first million on BCSDDB. The store's just for fun. I don't actually expect you to buy a Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy Skateboard. Anyways, I'll be putting up some more images for the shirts, mugs, ties, aprons, etc soon.

The Personalized Portrait

Since, I've already crossed the threshold into shameless self-promotion, let me ask you this: Have you ever wanted to try your own luck peering into the sunglasses of Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy? Longtime VTK reader lc did and, with her permission granted, here's what Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy reflected back to her. In addition to personalized oil painting cartoon portraits, paintings of individual pages or panels will be on sale on the website.

Alright, I just hit the promotion wall. It's new territory for me. I've always been comfortable with the creative side, but I had no idea how big the other side would be. For that matter, I had no idea I'd stumble into an industry less lucrative than portrait painting. I have to admit that I do relish the underground angle of it all. I'm sure I'd enjoy it less making a few bucks more, but cowtowing to a publisher's demands (and power to take my product out of print). Self-publish, kids. Fuck it. You made it this far and then you're going to give it all (all being practically nothing in profit) over to someone else? Fuck that. And maybe I'm just dedicated to my own poverty, but why would you make it this far, then resist giving it all over to a publisher, and then give it over to a distributor. Any way you slice it, that's an industry taking care of its own, paying the middle man and ostracizing the direct market creator. Write it, draw it, print it, sell it. And eat a lot of rice and beans.

Must be in the front row!

2008-08-23T16:01:00.015-04:00

VTK would like to congratulate self-deprecating baseball funny man Bob Uecker on his promotion to the front row of the Obama presidential ticket -- what's that? not him?

My bad. Congratulations to the anything-but-self-deprecating regular joe, Joe Biden on getting the VP nod. All things considered, I think this is a good pick. Whether I'm right about that remains to be seen (after all, I thought John Edwards was a good pick and he failed miserably in what I thought his main job was - destroying the loathesome Cheney in the VP debate). But it seems like a smart pick by Barry O.

Just Joe, Regular Joe, Joe Six Pack. According to CNN, Biden is the poorest member of the Senate, putting him in prime, non-elitist position to criticize sept-home-owner John McCain as being out of touch with non-wealthy Americans. He did just that in his first speech on the ticket when he deftly identified himself with the American people who talk about issues and problems around the kitchen table - something that he said would be difficult for McCain because he'd first have to pick one of his seven kitchen tables. Good shot. Biden likes to accentuate his Irish-Catholic Scranton background, talks like a "regular guy", fights for the common man. He may not actually be "the common man" (he went from law school to practicing law to being a county councilor to joining the US Senate), but he pulls it off successfully. Biden's a guy who appeals to moderate Republican, "regular", beer drinking, white guys in addition to "regular", beer drinking, blue collar, union white guys, both demographics that aren't exactly in Obama's wheelhouse. So, beer-drinking white guys - yes. Clinton voting women (beer-drinking or otherwise) who are still angry over the primary? Remains to be seen. Could be a problem.

Biden's also the quintessential attack dog vice presidential candidate.

Time and again, and to the distaste of some, he's shown his willingness to go after people across the aisle. He's also not been shy with witnesses and nominees in his time on Senate Committees. He's currently the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will shore up Obama's supposed weak spot in his lack of foreign policy experience (don't recall W having much - any - experience). He also spent several years as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He remained on the committee after his chairmanship and during his questioning of Chief Justice Roberts, he referred to him as "man". As in "C'mon man, are we supposed to believe that?" There's your regular guy attack dog right there.

On the downside, he's on recent record as saying that Obama was unfit to lead. He also voted for the Iraq War and has been a Washington guy for thirty five years - both things that don't mesh with Obama's anti-Iraq-War and change messages. And then there's the allegations of plagiarism (in law school and again later in a political speech). Republicans will remind us of this and the phrasings that Deval Patrick lent to Obama.

According to this breakdown from the National Journal, Biden's long voting record ranks him in the center of the liberal-conservative spectrum amongst Democrats:

Joe Biden's voting record has generally placed him among the center of Senate Democrats ideologically in National Journal's annual congressional vote ratings, with some decided peaks and valleys. Biden entered a strong liberal phase between 1986 and 1992, when he was among the 11 most-liberal senators three times. Not coincidentally, perhaps, Biden ran for president in 1988, and he presided as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during some epic showdowns with Republican presidents. Biden's most liberal year in the ratings was 2007, when he again ran in the Democratic presidential primary. His composite liberal score of 94.2 placed him as the 3rd most-liberal senator in 2007, two ticks behind Barack Obama, who was the most liberal senator last year with a score of 95.5. In other years, Biden has been more of a centrist. Four times from 1993 to 1998 his composite liberal score fell to the 60s--most notably in 1997, when only three of the 45 Democratic senators had a more conservative rating. More recently, Biden has generally fit near the center of Senate Democrats.

(I'd give you McCain's score, but apparently he didn't vote enough to receive a composite score.)

And now on to the convention. I'm going to consider this an open thread for the week's political goings-on. Enjoy the show and comment if you like.

Deano's Double

2008-08-18T18:29:00.005-04:00

Ten minutes into the Premier League season, Dean Ashton had made his presence felt - twice. West Ham United's 24 year old striker pumped up the bubble-blowing faithful at Upton Park 3 minutes into the season by scoring the Hammers' first goal, and then sent them into a frenzy 7 minutes later by scoring their second. What a start. I can only imagine what it must have felt like in the stadium when the lofty optimism he'd launched was abruptly grounded by the sight of him limping off the field in the second half. With Ljundberg having been released (probably because of age and recurring injuries) and Bellamy and Dyer sidelined with injuries, much of East London's hopes rest on the performance of Deano and Julien Faubert. Both have been injured for the majority of their brief tenures at West Ham, so to see Ashton limp out of a season opener that was still 2-1 at the time must have been pretty brutal. (On a personal level, the exit cost him a chance to get another cap with the England national team.) Fortunately, an MRI scan has confirmed that it was just a cramp and not something more serious. He'll be back in action Sunday at Manchester City. If there's any hope for the Hammer's season, we'll need Deano to stay on his feet.

Here's a look at the healthy Deano in action:

I don't have much for you in terms of a West Ham season preview. In addition to the aforementioned names, the roster will include most of the same names from last year, Zamora and Pantsil excluded, a few rookies and a couple international signings included. Look for solid play from youngsters Kyel Reid, Fred Sears, and James Tomkins and from Swiss defender Behrami, freshly signed from Lazio. Management is intent on cutting payroll so there may be a couple transfers out and probably won't be much coming in, intriguing Saha rumors notwithstanding. My hope is that a healthy Hammers squad will challenge to remain in the top half of the table.

Nor do I have much of an EPL season preview. (Can you throw down a "nor" clause to start a paragraph, referencing the first sentence of the previous paragraph? Doubtful.) I expect the Big Four to finish 1-2-3-4, probably Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal. Sorry Fuge, but the other 3 made themselves better, while the Gunners gave up my boy Hleb, Flamini, and Gilberto, and haven't replaced them with equal talent (to my knowledge).

Harringtons Rule Detroit

2008-08-10T21:46:00.005-04:00

Atta Boy Paddy Boy! VTK relative Padraig Harrington became the first ever Irishman to win the PGA Championship (first European in 78 years) He did it in dramatic fashion by nailing 3 consecutive +10 foot putts to punctuate a back-nine 32 for a 66, two strokes better than the leader on the 16th hole, Sergio Garcia. Spain's won enough this year. Plus, Garcia's a prick. Erin go bragh! I tuned in in time to watch him knock down a wicked bender of a 12 foot putt to pull even with Sergio Segundo on the 16th. Then he followed up a great drive on the 17th with a 10 foot birdie to put the pressure on the Spitting Spaniard who dutifully choked. Then he closed it out by coolly dropping a 15 footer on 18 to win his second consecutive major, third in a little over a year, and first PGA Championship. And he did it on a golf course near Detroit, where his Harrington relatives have been ruling for nearly a century. Just look at how much we ruled at a recent Harrington wedding:

Get Your War On - Animated

2008-08-01T13:46:00.004-04:00

Everyone probably remembers Get Your War On, the (scurrilous?) minimalist, satirical cartoons from David Rees. Well, now he's gone animated. Thanks to The Practical Slacker for the heads-up. Check it out:

shit. I tried to embed the video from 23/6 but it took up much of the vtk screen. I'm nothing if not a stickler for aesthetics. You'll just have to go to the site to see it.

For additional giggles, check out his older cartoon, My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable.