This bike-share thing in Boulder is great - sponsored by some realty company, there are apparently stations where you can pick up the bikes all around town, including at the two hotels for this year’s CALI Conference. So since I got here early this afternoon, I biked all around and after exploring downtown on foot promptly got turned around and forgot where I had locked the bike up. Luckily it was near the farmer’s market (which has more German sausage and beer than the farmer’s market back home) and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (which has some great exhibits as well as free admission on farmer’s market days!).
And, belatedly, I saw the Twitter hash tag for the CALI Conference. Call me clueless/newly clued - I see how that can be useful for things likes this - someone tweeted that there is another farmer’s market on Saturday, and noteworthy stuff going on tonight around town. Excellent! I still think its over-rated as a news tool, but it can be worth using at times.
Full blog post...
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Bill Hemmerling, R.I.P.
All who loved his art learned a few weeks ago he was at home under hospice care, but it was still sad to learn that Bill Hemmerling finally succumbed to cancer and died Monday.
Like the Times-Picayune obituary described (and the video further below documents him accounting first-hand), he had a significant spiritual experience years ago when he had coffee at the Café du Monde in the French Quarter with a man who looked like, and who Bill believed was, Jesus. His simple explanation for coming late in life to creating his unique and often very spiritual art was
My wife and mother-in-law found his gallery in Ponchatoula several Strawberry Festivals ago and with her near-impeccable artistic instincts she (my wife, not mother-in-law) insisted we buy what eventually became our own mini-Hemmerling gallery. This being his pre-Jazz Fest poster period, we could both afford them and get a few of his more early, unique pieces, one of which we bought at a festival in Lafayette. That was a hot, swampy day, and I was in my Greg Allman phase but a few years later when the Ogden Museum feted Bill in honor of his aforementioned poster and I stopped by right after work and recently shorn, I waited in line and when I talked to him briefly I described the piece we had bought in Lafayette and he looked at my coat, tie, and buzzcut and said “yes, I remember - you weren’t dressed up and you had longer hair”.
We’re just two among many Hemmerling fans and he was like that with everyone he met, but that’s the special memory of him that came to mind when I learned he was finally at peace and having that second cup of coffee with Jesus...
Full blog post...
Like the Times-Picayune obituary described (and the video further below documents him accounting first-hand), he had a significant spiritual experience years ago when he had coffee at the Café du Monde in the French Quarter with a man who looked like, and who Bill believed was, Jesus. His simple explanation for coming late in life to creating his unique and often very spiritual art was
“One day when I let God out of the box I built, he danced with me.”(Endure a sporadic 15 second commercial at the link below and watch the WWL news profile of Bill from a while back: http://www.wwltv.com/video/?z=y&nvid=371820&shu=1)
My wife and mother-in-law found his gallery in Ponchatoula several Strawberry Festivals ago and with her near-impeccable artistic instincts she (my wife, not mother-in-law) insisted we buy what eventually became our own mini-Hemmerling gallery. This being his pre-Jazz Fest poster period, we could both afford them and get a few of his more early, unique pieces, one of which we bought at a festival in Lafayette. That was a hot, swampy day, and I was in my Greg Allman phase but a few years later when the Ogden Museum feted Bill in honor of his aforementioned poster and I stopped by right after work and recently shorn, I waited in line and when I talked to him briefly I described the piece we had bought in Lafayette and he looked at my coat, tie, and buzzcut and said “yes, I remember - you weren’t dressed up and you had longer hair”.
We’re just two among many Hemmerling fans and he was like that with everyone he met, but that’s the special memory of him that came to mind when I learned he was finally at peace and having that second cup of coffee with Jesus...
Full blog post...
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Swiss Lawyer Hot-Tubbing Nude with Female Clients!!!
(NSFW image below the jump...)
Well, its just a medieval wood cut, but being a lawyer back in 16th century Switzerland sure looks like it was a lot more fun that it is today:
Bailiffs back in 16th-century Switzerland were, apparently, some sort of municipal legal officer. But the husband seems to be upset because of the legal matters the wife is pursuing, and not because of the whole nude bathing thing since the tub looks like its on a porch or something else semi-exposed to the passersby with the cart and donkeys.
This was one of many great illustrations in the excellent book by Katherine Ashenburg, The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History. There was no further explanation of whether Swiss bailiffs (who were, apparently, municipal legal officers and not private attorneys) regularly conducted business nude in a giant tub, and the notes didn't have any more information about the "Schweizer Chronik", but this is definitely a subject for further research.
Full blog post...
Well, its just a medieval wood cut, but being a lawyer back in 16th century Switzerland sure looks like it was a lot more fun that it is today:
Bailiffs back in 16th-century Switzerland were, apparently, some sort of municipal legal officer. But the husband seems to be upset because of the legal matters the wife is pursuing, and not because of the whole nude bathing thing since the tub looks like its on a porch or something else semi-exposed to the passersby with the cart and donkeys.
This was one of many great illustrations in the excellent book by Katherine Ashenburg, The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History. There was no further explanation of whether Swiss bailiffs (who were, apparently, municipal legal officers and not private attorneys) regularly conducted business nude in a giant tub, and the notes didn't have any more information about the "Schweizer Chronik", but this is definitely a subject for further research.
Full blog post...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
May 2009 Netflix Summary
Everybody tracks their Netflix rentals with a spreadsheet, right? That makes it easy to measure the average time at home for all your movies in a given month and determine the per-movie breakdown of the membership fee. :)
Irreversible and Atlantic City were probably the best two out of this bunch. Frozen River was also very good. I was just curious to finally watch Da Vinci Code since I saw Angels and Demons the other day but had never seen Da Vinci Code. The original Last House on the Left is probably pretty deserving of its reputation, but like a lot of notable movies its hard to tell how ground-breaking it was way back then. It made for a good double-feature when I watched it and Irreversible, and luckily I had no grisly nightmares than night.
Full blog post...
| May 2009 Netflix Summary | Arrived at Home | Received at Netflix | Days at Home | Monthly Average Days at Home | Cost Per Movie |
| Atlantic City | 05/05 | 05/20 | 15 | ||
| Factory Girl | 05/05 | 05/11 | 6 | ||
| Frozen River | 05/05 | 05/20 | 15 | ||
| Wendy and Lucy | 05/12 | 05/20 | 8 | ||
| The Da Vinci Code | 05/21 | 05/27 | 6 | ||
| Steal This Movie | 05/21 | 05/27 | 6 | ||
| Time of the Wolf | 05/21 | 05/27 | 6 | ||
| Last House on the Left (1972) | 05/28 | 06/01 | 4 | ||
| Irreversible | 05/28 | 06/01 | 4 | ||
| Sunshine State | 05/28 | 06/02 | 5 | ||
| 7.5 | $1.85 |
Irreversible and Atlantic City were probably the best two out of this bunch. Frozen River was also very good. I was just curious to finally watch Da Vinci Code since I saw Angels and Demons the other day but had never seen Da Vinci Code. The original Last House on the Left is probably pretty deserving of its reputation, but like a lot of notable movies its hard to tell how ground-breaking it was way back then. It made for a good double-feature when I watched it and Irreversible, and luckily I had no grisly nightmares than night.
Full blog post...
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