Category: Arts and Culture

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Informal Debate Society

Walking the gauntlet of ideological booths and stands that line the main footpath through UC Berkeley and passed a card table draped with a painted sign reading “Informal Debate Society.” The woman behind the card table was holding up a piece of looseleaf notebook paper, on which was scrawled in crude ballpoint ink: “Debate Me Now!” No indication what topics she might be prepared to debate, which made the prospect all the more intriguing. If I had had more time I might have taken her up on the offer. Another day.

Music: Lawrence Ferlinghetti :: Moscow in the Wilderness, Segovia in the Snow
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James Nachtwey, War Photographer

Watched an amazing DVD last night – James Nachtwey, War Photographer. Nachtwey is one of a kind – has been on the front lines and in close with the people in Kosovo, Rwanda, Jakarta, and all over the world photographing the human face of war, poverty, and famine. He’s calm, centered, serious, and deeply compassionate. Much of this disc is difficult to watch, but don’t hesitate — his images (jamesnachtwey.com seems to be malfunctioning) raise something up in the soul, something non-political and yet profoundly anti-war (famine is usually a result of war, he points out).

Went to bed with his images in my head. When I woke up they were still there. There are few examples of a life better spent. It’s too rare to see documentaries made of people who are still alive, but Nachtwey’s life demands it. If he continues this line of work, his number will come up sooner than later; all the more reason to document while he’s still alive.

Music: Brian Eno :: Brian Eno – My Squelchy Life
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Post Written While On Hold (I Hate Our Health Care System)

I need to see a dermatologist about a funny dot of skin under my eye. My doctor tries to expedite a referral. But I have to wait two weeks for it to arrive. The number on the sheet that arrives yields a busy signal every day for a week. I call back my primary and am told that my doctor isn’t authorized to make a referral to a dermatologist and I need to call my insurance and get temporarily assigned a new primary care physician in order to get a working referral. Call my insurance (wade through interminable voice-activated phone tree, which of course does not transmit any of the information I’ve entered over to the worker who ultimately responds), who has no idea what I’m talking about. I give them number of my doctor’s office, he puts me on hold, calls them, I wait on hold for 11th time today. He gets back to me, then says my doctor doesn’t exist. He names a doctor I had two years ago, not my current. Everyone totally confused. Finally it’s (presumably) straightened out. Now I just have to wait another week for a replacement referral sheet and then make the appointment.

Seems like this kind of stuff happens every time I need to do anything in our medical system beyond having my blood pressure taken. And yet people continually refer to our health care system as “the best in the world.” I don’t get it.

Music: Sunny Ade :: Ja Fun Mi
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WPA Posters

see_america.jpgMonths ago, Amy and I discovered this immense graphical treasure trove — digital archives of posters created during the Works Progress Administration. Hosted by the Library of Congress, more than 900 posters of the 2,000 known to exist are online both as thumbnails and as 50MB TIFFs ready for printing. Because we the people paid for all creations of the WPA, no copyright baggage is attached.

It took a week of evenings to sift through most of the collection to find a pair to have framed for Amy’s birthday. Finally settled on this subterranean “See America” cave scene, plus a less stark wildlife image. (Warning: Many URLs at the library of congress have the string “temp” somewhere in them — these will break after a few days, rendering your bookmarks useless. Amazingly clueless and frustrating when dealing with a collection of that size).

Had them archivally printed with a process called “color span,” then framed in 1930s-style cherry frames. They came out amazing. But I should have known better than to try and select art for an artist. Amy’s eye is so fine; of course she wished she had been part of the selection process. Bumbling husband means well.

Music: Pere Ubu :: Nonalignment Pact
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Diane Arbus

Amy’s birthday today, went to SF MOMA to see the Diane Arbus exhibition. One of the largest collections of her work ever assembled, and they’ve done an amazing job with the supporting material – her cameras, journals and letters, works in progress, bracketed frames, etc. all on display, with running commentary from multiple sources. I’ve seen a lot of those images over time, but never the original prints, and never all at once like that. Inspiring.

Music: Planet Gong :: No More Sages
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Fluoride

Every now and then you hear some inkling that everything you thought you knew about fluoride in drinking water is wrong. And then some reassuring voice of authority reminds you of all of fluoride’s benefits. But I’m reading this account of how sample communities in rural China living with and without fluoride end up with differing IQ levels.

The study, published in the May 2003 journal Fluoride, found that as fluoride levels in drinking water increased, IQs fell and the incidence of mental retardation and borderline intelligence increased.

What’s more, according to the article, fluoride doesn’t even have the dental benefits it purports to have, especially not when ingested rather than applied topically to the teeth. In fact, it may have harmful non-dental, non-mental health effects as well.

So why is fluoride on track to be even more widely deployed in our water supplies over the next ten years? Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.

Aside: It occurs to me that writer Cory Doctorow and seminal punker Klaus Fluoride may have been separated at birth.

Thanks rinchen.

Update: Tons of great info at the Fluoride Action Network.

Music: Rufus Thomas :: I Think I Made A Boo Boo
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Elbow Room

SF Chron: Thanksgiving week draws 40 million Americans into theaters — the same number of weekly moviegoers as in 1920, when the U.S. population was 1/3 what it is today. Possible because in 1920, we had no media choices. Radio probably, but no TV. In addition to being almost the sole source of audio-visual entertainment, the movie theater was also where people went for newsreels – the only moving images people got of the world outside.

That aside, it’s a trip just to think of the U.S. — or of the world — with 1/3 of its current population. Imagine any crowded scene, and visually remove 2/3 of the people from it. All those non-existent persons. All that elbow room. You don’t have to go that far back to be weirded out by population trends, either. There were 4 billion people on earth when I was born in the mid-60s. Today, 6 billion+ — the world’s population has expanded by 50% since I’ve been alive. Visualize 8.5 billion, which will be the world population by the time Miles is my age. Try 100 years ahead, or 200.

Music: Wild Tchoupitoulas :: Big Chief Got A Golden Crown
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iPod Jack

Person wearing iPod spies passerby wearing iPod. Walks up to stranger, unplugs own headphone jack, motions for stranger to do same. Both plug into each other’s iPod’s and dig 30 seconds of what a total stranger is listening to. Smile, unplug, continue on with their respective days. Apparently iPod jacking is a rising meme on college campuses, small communities, etc. Or maybe not so much a meme as a two-person happening.

Tell-tale white headphone cords mean iPod users are easy to spot, and I admit to sometimes doing that “biker nod” thing back at other iPod users, but so far I haven’t jacked anyone, nor have I been jacked. But I’m open to it.

If you see me, jack me.

Music: Court Music :: Chongmyo-jeryeak
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Buy Nothing Day

November 28th is Buy Nothing Day. Protest the impact of globalism by ducking out of capital structures for 24 hours… if you can (or maybe Amy and I will buy our new car that day). In the U.K., BND is on the 29th, I guess so the time zones sync up.

Music: Chumbawamba :: give the anarchist a cigarette
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Racism Makes You Stupid

The general case is that racists are stupid. But according to studies at Dartmouth, racism makes you stupid. The more racist you are, the more your brain power is taxed when in proximity to someone from another race. One of the researchers characterized the findings as a quantification of awkwardness, where people consume so many cycles trying to act natural that they can’t just be natural.

I think everyone needs to just chill the heck out.

Music: Minutemen :: No Parade