I Want You Back
Protests Continue
Video from today’s march:
Follow #iranelection on Twitter for live coverage direct from those on the ground.
#CNNFail
I had the very same thoughts as Blogger Interrupted this morning before work:
Today, as global geopolitics is shaken to its core by events in Iran, I turned on cable news this morning, and saw endless ads for a Larry King Jonas Brothers “interview”, Morning Joe yukking it up discussing Kuwaiti massage therapists, a video of a tomato throwing contest on CNN, talk radio blowhard Bill Bennett…and occasionally a phone call from Christiane Amanpour in Tehran. I can’t even bring myself to turn on the network morning programs, I might vomit.
Fucking shameful.
Tehran
The BBC, which has had extraordinary coverage of the Tehran uprisings, today provides links to some of the best citizen journalism on the internet covering the drama of the last few days.
Additionally, Andrew Sullivan has had perhaps the best blog coverage of the events as they’ve unfolded. If you’re trying to stay atop of things as they’re happening, his blog is a terrific read right now.
This video that he linked to in particular, was deeply moving. It’s the sound of rooftop chants, organized via Twitter. The Sound of Freedom, he titled his post:
This video too, from the BBC, gives you a feeling of what’s happening on the ground. (The first 12 seconds is black, so just skip ahead a bit to see it start):
And last night, amidst shouts of “Death to the dictator!” and ”I will fight, I will fight, I will take back my vote!”, Tehran is united against tyranny as the mullahs attempt to shut down all communication with the outside world:
Tank Man Revisited
A new angle on history:
Terril Jones had only shown the photograph to friends.
While working as a reporter in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he shot many photographs and recorded several hours of video. It wasn’t until weeks afterwards, when he had returned to Japan, that he discovered the magnitude of what he had captured — an iconic moment in history from an entirely unique angle.
NYC: Aspiring to Fashionable Cycling
Reuters has a piece today on New York City’s embrace of all things bicycle:
Promoting bicycling is part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s agenda to create a greener, bike friendly and car-free New York.
Following the examples of cycling cities such as Amsterdam and Beijing, New York has built 200 miles of bike lanes in the past three years. An estimated 185,000 New Yorkers cycled to work in 2008, an increase of 35 percent from the previous year.
But as any self-respecting article on cycling in the Big Apple must do, it quickly devolves into a fashion puff-piece:
“New York should have not only the most bicyclists, but the most stylish ones as well,” Patti Harris, the first deputy mayor of New York, told a news conference.
…
“Having functioning, attractive gear so you can arrive at work looking stylish should be very encouraging,” she said. “No one wants to show up at work looking like bike messengers.”
Horror of horrors! Not a dirty bike messenger!
A sleek jacket, designed by Jessica Velasques, made of nylon mesh with an iPod pocket, an opening for earphones, adjustable waist and a hidden hood was the winning design.
Velasques also created a poncho with a removable hood, magnetic closures and sleek pockets with bolt button details, which was accompanied by a strap bag that zips open into a large garment bag and holds an extra bag to stack a pair of shoes inside.
Sheesh.
I’ve Got Some Explaining To Do
So postings here have been slow for a very common reason. I’m too busy.
Work has been crazy lately (I know, believe me we’re not complaining), but I’m also learning some new software and it’s taken me a week to get 80 pages in to the 700 page book.
So that’s the story, busy at work, busy outside of work with training. Oh, and busy on the bike.
Anyway, I’ll try and keep posting occassionally, but bear with me. When things slow down, I’ll get back to posting at the regular rate. 
BooneOakley
This is one way to get people talking about your company’s website. Great idea (though I’d still want a real website).
Huntington Park Review
Made my first trip down to Huntington Park tonight, and I was really impressed.
I biked over from my downtown office around 5PM, and grabbed a drink at O’Shaughnessy’s, finally heading over to the ballpark about 20 minutes before the game started. My friend and I didn’t have to wait long for tickets, though a longer line quickly formed behind us.
If you’re going to head to the ballpark without stubs, get there 20-30 minutes early, you’ll save yourself a lot of time.
Initially, after not seeing any bike parking, I locked my bicycle to one of the perimeter gates, but I quickly realized there was ample parking right next to the ticket window. Well done. It was nice to see such prominent and secure bike racks at the new park. I should have snapped a picture.
Upon entering, I was quickly impressed by the views. It seemed no matter where you were standing or sitting, you were treated to a prominent perspective of the action on field.
I’m a big fan of Crew Stadium, but it has a very industrial feel to it. All steel and concrete.
Huntington Park feels much more friendly. Lots of brick, trees, green space, and areas to eat and watch the game even when you’re just walking around. It seemed at every corner there were picnic tables, balconies, and terraces. It has a very accessible, friendly feel to it. Small, walkable, and intimate.
I was also happy to see that all the garbage cans were dual-use. One side for trash, the other side for recycling; with big prominent logos to remind people to separate their disposables.
Next stop was some food.
We made our way to the west end of the ballpark, toward City BBQ. How could we resist?
After grabbing a couple of their famous pulled-pork sandwiches we headed back to the bleachers where we came upon the condiment stand at a hot dog kiosk. Lo and behold, the mark of a truly great ballpark, a giant canister of liquid Cleveland childhood: Stadium Mustard. The best mustard on the planet.
I was beginning to think they did everything right at this place. Heaven.
As you walk along the inside track of the park, you’ll come across some Nationwide-subsidized baseball-fact-walls. (Everything in this place is sold to the highest bidder, even the Columbia Gas-adorned foul-ball poles).
But the murals are beautifully designed, containing truly interesting facts, not to mention glassed-off relics and memorabilia of years past.
All the vendors take plastic, but Huntington ATMS are around every corner (shock, horror).
I must add though, every single vendor asked if I wanted a receipt, which of course I didn’t, so transactions were extremely fast.
No muss, no fuss, no wasted paper. Nice!
There’s a great view around every corner. Really.
I’m going to have to go back with my D-SLR. I managed to snap all these with my iPhone, but this is a seriously well thought out ballpark. Stunning, really.
…until the rain came.
Yeah, it poured. But the field crew was crazy fast with the tarp.
Pouring, pouring rain.I know you can’t see it, but trust me, it was a deluge for about 20 minutes.
More rain.
Honestly though? They even got this right.
Immediately after the shower started, the guy on the PA began to give the weather report, assuring everyone that it was a short passing torrent (it was) and that we’d be playing ball again shortly (we were).
The delay didn’t last long.
They even paint little ads on the brick, which actually feels kind of quaint and sweet.
Rain tapering off, the fans venture back out, at least as far as the overhang of the burger stand.
It really is just a beautiful ballpark. They got everything right, from the local beer (Elevator), to the local BBQ (City), to the mustard (Stadium), to the merch (Clippers hats, shirts, jerseys, but Indians stuff too), to the atmosphere (intimate and urban, all at once).
Final verdict? Home run. They knocked it out of the park.
Memorial Day
Very good essay in Esquire from a soldier returning home from war:
A few months ago, I found a Web site loaded with pictures and videos from Iraq, the sort that usually aren’t seen on the news. I watched insurgent snipers shoot American soldiers and car bombs disintegrate markets, accompanied by tinny music and loud, rhythmic chanting, the soundtrack of the propaganda campaigns. Video cameras focused on empty stretches of road, building anticipation. Humvees rolled into view and the explosions brought mushroom clouds of dirt and smoke and chunks of metal spinning through the air. Other videos and pictures showed insurgents shot dead while planting roadside bombs or killed in firefights and the remains of suicide bombers, people how they’re not meant to be seen, no longer whole. The images sickened me, but their familiarity pulled me in, giving comfort, and I couldn’t stop. I clicked through more frames, hungry for it. This must be what a shot of dope feels like after a long stretch of sobriety. Soothing and nauseating and colored by everything that has come before. My body tingled and my stomach ached, hollow. I stood on weak legs and walked into the kitchen to make dinner. I sliced half an onion before putting the knife down and watching slight tremors run through my hand. The shakiness lingered. I drank a beer. And as I leaned against this kitchen counter, in this house, in America, my life felt very foreign.
I’ve been home from Iraq for more than a year, long enough for my time there to become a memory best forgotten for those who worried every day that I was gone. I could see their relief when I returned. Life could continue, with futures not so uncertain. But in quiet moments, their relief brought me guilt. Maybe they assume I was as overjoyed to be home as they were to have me home. Maybe they assume if I could do it over, I never would have gone. And maybe I wouldn’t have. But I miss Iraq. I miss the war. I miss war. And I have a very hard time understanding why.
Read the whole thing here.
Sad, Sad, Sad…
Jay Bennett’s dead…
Today’s GOP
Everyone’s talking about this week’s Gallup poll which shows the Republican Party losing popularity in nearly every single demographic subgroup.
The Economist sees some potential hope for the GOP in the numbers:
The party’s 7-point drop with voters who make more than $75,000 per year must be reversible, if the Democrats raise taxes on them. That’s not happening with the speed that it did in the 1990s (Bill Clinton did it in his first budget), but it will happen. The party’s collapse in the Midwest and Northeast had a lot to do with anti-Iraq War anger, which can only disappate, and might one day be replaced by frustration with Afghanistan. These marginal issues and groups might keep the party in the game even if the country at large keeps on trusting Barack Obama.
But it’s hard to deny the fact that the GOP is quickly becoming the party of old, uneducated, Southern, religious whites.
Gladwell-Simmons
The must-read sports conversation right now is that between Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell:
SIMMONS:
…And how can you explain a system that relies on officials in their 50s and 60s — well past their physical peak, with undeniable deterioration (however slight) in motor reactions and eyesight — to successfully perform in a profession that hinges solely on motor reactions and eyesight? Shouldn’t this job be performed by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s? You’re telling me Dick Bavetta (69), Bennett Salvatore (59) or Joey Crawford (57) can run around for 150 minutes, then remain at peak physical capacity to make a game-changing call on a split-second reaction? My father is two years older than Salvatore and we won’t let him push a baby stroller for three blocks. I don’t get it. How would you revamp this moronic system? A little birdie told me the NBA’s crew chiefs (the lead official for each game) consist of referees who were hired at least 10 years ago. In other words, the league hasn’t hired an official competent enough to run a game in more than a decade. How is this possible? You grew up in a country that figured out health care; figure out the NBA’s officiating crisis for us.
GLADWELL:
Before I answer that, can I lodge a complaint? I don’t know if readers realize how this has gone. You e-mail me something. I fret and agonize and worry and send something back a day and a half later. Then half an hour passes and a 1,000-word e-mail pops up in my inbox, with the taunting subject line “Back at you.” You are basically one of those Doug Moe Denver Nuggets teams from the 1970s, which would put up 85 points in the first half. (By the way, if you’re the Nuggets you have to run, right? Just as the team with the most reason to play the no-huddle in football is the Broncos. If you’re the team accustomed to playing at altitude, you’re crazy not to press that advantage by speeding up the pace of play). Anyway, I’m exhausted. Plus, I’m in the middle of reading the galleys of your new book, which is a quarter of a million words long. I already know how I’d blurb it: “Simmons can score in bunches.”
Much, much, much, more here.
Transparency
As far as I know, this is pretty uncommon. The White House recorded a protester’s remarks in the official transcript of President Obama’s Notre Dame speech:
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 17, 2009REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Indiana3:06 P.M. EDT
(this is excerpted from below the third paragraph in the speech)
THE PRESIDENT: I also want to congratulate the Class of 2009 for all your accomplishments. And since this is Notre Dame –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Abortion is murder! Stop killing children!
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: That’s all right. And since –
AUDIENCE: We are ND! We are ND!
AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
THE PRESIDENT: We’re fine, everybody. We’re following Brennan’s adage that we don’t do things easily. (Laughter.) We’re not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable sometimes. (Applause.)
Nice to see.
A War No More Continued
Radley Balko over at Reason thinks Kerlikowske’s statement yesterday is significant:
The change in rhetoric obviously isn’t an end to the federal prohibition on drugs. But it isn’t mere symbolism, either. Rhetoric matters.
The drug war imagery started by Nixon, subdued by Carter, then ratcheted up again in the Reagan administration (and remaining basically level since) has had significant repercussions on the way drug policy is enforced, from policymakers on down to street-level cops. It’s war rhetoric that gave us the Pentagon giveaway program, where millions of pieces of surplus military equipment (such as tanks) have been transferred to local police departments. War imagery set the stage for the approximately 1,200 percent rise in the use of SWAT teams since the early 1980s, and has fostered the militaristic, “us vs. them” mentality too prevalent in too many police departments today.
Bike To Work Day!
It’s May 14th, Bike to Work Day!
My ride in was a rainy, wet one today, but it still beats driving into downtown traffic and paying to park!
Biking to work is practical no matter where you live.
If you think you live too far from work, then bike some of the way, either by getting a rack for your car, or better yet, using the bike racks on most buses.
If you think it’ll take too long, remember that for shorter commutes, especially in urban areas, it’s often faster to commute by bike. If you take an hour out of your day to work out, think how nice it would be to get that work out in while you’re normally sitting in your car in traffic. When you get home, you can relax instead of suiting up for the gym.
Cycling saves you money, it’s great for your health, it’s great for the earth, and it lets you experience your city in a way driving around in a car never can.
If you’re overweight, even obese, cycling is probably the best way to get back in shape, as it’s low-impact and doesn’t stress your joints and bones the way walking and running can. The average bicycle commuter loses 13 lbs. in their first year.
In my first year commuting, I’ve lost 17 lbs.
According to the California Dept. of Health Services, the leading cause of death among adults, other than smoking, is inactive, sedentary lifestyles.
Think it’s unsafe? According to Johns Hopkins University, cyclists who ride sober, with the flow of traffic, using lights at night, are 99.999% likely to survive their rides (click here for a lot more enlightening facts about bicycling, health, and safety).
I’ve been cycling to work for over a year now and the only time I’ve crashed was on a bike path in the woods, because I was busy pointing out a house across the river to a friend and not paying attention. In other words, I was being stupid. I ride on heavily trafficked urban streets everyday and never have any trouble. If you ride defensively, follow traffic laws, and wear a helmet, you’ll be fine.
If you’re interested, there’s a lot of great resources on the web to get you started.
Here’s a great list of Bike Commuting 101 articles for the beginner as well.
A War No More
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske yesterday:
“Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,” he said. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”
[...]
The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment’s role growing relative to incarceration, Mr. Kerlikowske said.
Already, the administration has called for an end to the disparity in how crimes involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine are dealt with. Critics of the law say it unfairly targeted African-American communities, where crack is more prevalent.
The administration also said federal authorities would no longer raid medical-marijuana dispensaries in the 13 states where voters have made medical marijuana legal. Agents had previously done so under federal law, which doesn’t provide for any exceptions to its marijuana prohibition.
Here’s to a more sane drug policy. Though we’ve a long way to go.
More here.
Wexner Center: 3D
The Wexner Center for the Arts (a Columbus gem both within and without), has a great post on their blog about creating a 3D model of their building for Google Earth.
Replicating a built project for Google Earth is a process that provides a breadth of learning experiences. To create a model in Google SketchUp (which is primarily used for concept sketching) is a test, especially for a building like the Wexner Center. Diagonal axes, broken forms, and exposed scaffolding, just to name a few, provide enormous challenges.
The project began with research into precedent models that were successfully submitted into the Google 3D Warehouse. Having little experience with Google SketchUp, I had to evaluate and understand the methods in which previous submittals were constructed. Sticking with the theme, I choose two of Peter Eisenman’s projects that were already archived within the 3D Warehouse. The projects are the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and a concept model of Eisenman’s House II. These projects became a constant reference point for the base model of the Wexner Center.
Interesting stuff, and the end result speaks for itself.
Sinking Lower and Lower
According to Roger Simon over at Politico:
A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”
When I asked if such a resolution would force RNC Chairman Michael Steele to use that label when talking about Democrats in all his speeches and press releases, the RNC member replied: “Who cares?”
I could understand this more if Obama had nationalized the banks or the auto industry, but maybe it’s time to come to terms with the fact that most Republicans do not seem to know what Socialism actually means.
All Systems Go
I am, despite all evidence to the contrary, still alive. Katie and I spent all last week in the Dominican Republic, and then I came back and immediately went into the studio as we’ve just moved to our new location downtown on 3rd St.
On top of that, I’ve had a client edit for the last two straight days, so I’ve had no time to post. But I’m hoping things are starting to settle back into normal routine.
I’m hoping to get back to regular posting today. We’ll see how the day unfolds.
Apart from that, it’s great to be back home!
Holidays
image from Flickr user siderean
Katie and I are off to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for a much-needed holiday. I might post a little something while we’re there, probably some tweets (@m_beaumont), but if not, I’ll be back on May 11th, ready to jump back into things.
See you soon!
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