July 2006

A downsizing to ordinary.......

Lets see, the Old Gray Whore, madam to the New York presstitutes is closing a press and reducing the size of the paper from 54” to 48 “ , I presume that is the roll and the width makes two 23 inch high sheets. That is the size of many smaller papers……. As in small towns, as in fly over country papers. That is something of a come down for the madam who sets the tone for the whole liberal world. She has become careworn and sighhh ORDINARY.

Doing the math, 54-48= 6” and 6/54 x 100=11 % . The OGW is going to need 11% less content. The pundits there are discussing reducing or perhaps squeezing content. The reduction has already taken place. No Squeezing is required.One interesting fact is the reduction in adds. Assuming a 1:1 ratio between the add revenue and columnar space, the reduction correlates well with recent catastrophic declines in ad sales.

The cost problem remains however because there is also a big increase in the cost of the paper. The reduction might cover one of the two, but certainly can’t make up for it all.

That brings up the poor Jersey types who got fired. They are the printers of the blank add space. No ads, no need for paper, no need for printers. Imagine the horror of it all…… I am not required any more because Macy’s quit advertising face cream. I was a nothing, a face cream flack.

Artists as Left wingers at Penland

From deep within the belly of the liberal beast......

This note is written from the porch of the Penland School of Crafts coffee shop, the only student internet connection at the school. My thoughts are recordes for the period June 11-23, 2006.

As I write a gray balding, pony tailed.very long skirted hippy walks down the path before me. She wears worn T shirt proclaiming the meeting of the Coalition For World Nuclear Awareness that was held in April of 1980.

We had an orientation where the guy leading the social conscious sessions told of crossing the Missippi River on a ferry with, and as he choked up and began to cry, he described the restrooms for colored and whites.

There was finally some entertainment after his overly long and boring presentation including a description of a wall where writings can be placed. Thw wall was never actually designated and there were no actual postings.

If my car with the Free Republic sticker and the Bush Cheney bumper sticker is here at the end of two week it'll be miracle. This was a prescient statement. A few days after this was written, the right rear tire, the one under the Bush/Cheney sticker and American Flag was flat. I put some air in it before leaving and it is still inflated.

I estimate just shy of 150 people here. 85% women. 75% of those are teachers.

Every day there is a consciousness raising session. The topic for today was “By yourself in your studio listening to NPR.” I wasn’t able to attend but heard about it at dinner. The radio has been removed from the lives of good people and taken over by political radicals intent on destroying the world. The sound of silence is the answer, or perhaps NPR. The message was retreat to your innerself rather than be accosted by Rush.

I think we might have won a small victory if hard core, antiwar button wearing people are talking like this.

The topic of Wednesday breakfast conversation was the wood workshop dealing with bamboo. There was discussion of the properties that made bamboo both useful but different from ordinary wood. One person not in the class contributed the factoid that a designer somewhere designed a bamboo wheel chair for indigenous victims of land mines. It could be made from local materials by native craftsman. The construction of anything was made acceptable by the use of bamboo to counter the terror of land mines.

Today there was a special event on the portico of the dining hall. The women in Black held a vigil for Peace. Apparently there are similar gatherings across thee country by activists. It looked to me like a witches coven The said some poems and held hands as they made a ring around the rosie. Most of these women wear black all the time so it wasn’t really special.

I think the week of social consciousness raising is about completed. The events although held among and for the workshop participants who are genuinely strongly left wing, they seem not to be attending in a volume to suit the leader. By Wednesday he was coming around to every studio to drum up attendees. In a typical liberal manner he appealed to their guilt for not coming. On Saturady he arranged a poetry reading led by a noted poet and invited all to read their own socially conscious work. There appeared to be a handful there. Socially conscious poetry just didn’t have the attraction of beer.

My studio is metals…….nonferrous. We were invited to the new iron studio to watch a demonstration of blown iron. Pancake size sheets of steel were welded around the perimeter except for a small pipe opening. The steel was then heated in the forge until red and compressed air was blown into the opening. The hot steel ballooned slightly making a pillow. So far the artist admitted, there is no practical application even in the world of art. One wonders at the grant money she as a professional artist received. She is a 40 something who is invited to iron studios all over USA and even Europe to demonstrate the technique. She was dressed for the blacksmith shop. Black steel-toed shoes, red socks, black jeans shorts with a black long-sleeved t shirt. Her gloves were soiled tan heavy leather rolled down at the cuffs. Her string of pearls had lost their luster.

I have tempered my fear of CONSTANT drum beat of leftist drivel. There is some at the dinnertable but if begun, the subject is quickly changed. I have come to believe that there is pretty common consensus on issues. This is reflected as guilt that produces an intense desire to do something. This is reflected in the work where some object or line or color becomes a metaphor for something meaningful. It is illusion and perhaps delusion. The making of the mental metaphor is proclaiming nothing to be something.

It also seems that while liberalism is a given, activism is not. The number of bumper stickers is minimal and mild. My conclusion is that while these artists are very, perhaps even extremely liberal, they are not political. To be political requires effort they would rather not expend. That includes voting. I am coming to believe these well educated and liberally conscious artists are part of the 50% that can’t make it to the voting booth.