I finally got my great-grandmother’s watercolor paintings that she made years ago cleaned up and in new frames and hung, and now I have a conspicuous blank space above my television that needs something:
And then I thought we hadn’t had an Artists in our Midst post in a long, long time. So here it is- if you have an art or craft, an etsy shop, a musical talent, whatever it is, put a link to whatever in the comments below and share it with the rest of us.
In other news, I received a couch from Fed Ex today, which sounds like it would be great news, because who doesn’t like a new couch? However, there is a slight hitch. I did not order a new couch, but for some reason Fed Ex decided to deliver a Mr. Chang Liu of Rockville, MD’s couch to me. I was supposed to receive a raised bed garden for the back yard, and the tracking from Fed Ex says it was delivered, but it has not. Were I a betting man, I would make a guess that it is in Rockville, Md.
How this happened is beyond me, but I dutifully called Fed Ex and reported there was a rogue couch on my porch, and would they please come retrieve it and perhaps try to locate my package. Initially, they wanted to argue with me and tell me that the package could not be on my porch, as it was listed in their system as in transit until I asked the woman “How the hell would I, John Cole in West Virginia, know that Chang Liu from Rockville ordered a god damned couch AND provide you with the tracking number unless it was on my front porch and just get your manager on the line.” I always try to be nice to customer service unless they want to argue with me, and then I just find it best to get a manager on the phone before I hurt someone’s feelings.
At any rate, they are allegedly coming to pick it up tomorrow morning, but have no idea where my package is. I called Mr. Liu (his number was on the package) and we had a nice chat, and he asked me if it was nice and I said it was very nice and I liked the leather he picked out and that it should be picked up tomorrow and he was a little bummed because he had been waiting for it to be delivered. When he gets home from work he is going to text me if my package is there.
Meanwhile, if Fed Ex randomly delivers my raised beds to any of you or your friends, please email me so we can call these idiots and get it shipped here. Last week, a replacement charger for my toothbrush was allegedly delivered here but never showed up, but all I had to do with that was tell Amazon and they refunded my money and sent another one.
Never use anything but UPS or the USPS.
Frankensteinbeck
Writing is art. My publisher is trying for an April 10th release date on the final Penny Akk book. This relieves so many emotional concerns, I can’t even describe them. I’m able to write again, and indeed will go do more of that now.
JPL
hahaha This is why I love you.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
Finally! Did they ever say what the hold-up was, or was it some kind of internal machinations they didn’t tell you about?
satby
@Frankensteinbeck: congrats!
Pretty much everyone here knows I have an etsy shop. I’m starting to paint with different media, but I would never inflict that on you.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck: Excellent.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
I’m debating how much it’s professionally appropriate to say. A split among the top management nearly bankrupted the company. They’re still struggling to climb out of that and get normal business operating again. I was under the aegis of the manager no longer working with the publishing half, and that made things much worse, because my messages and anything I sent her might as well have not existed.
eclare
I’d go with either a nice mobile or some kind of metal sculpture to hang on the wall, to me having a picture above a picture is jarring. YMMV.
Good luck! Would love to see a picture of your great-grandmother’s paintings.
Fair Economist
This was funnier than most sitcom episodes.
kindness
Are you going to try and tell us that you have no awesome rock posters from concerts you went to? They belong to be seen John.
sarah iwritesometimes
you aren’t kidding – fedex lost me one (1) brand new phone, which took months and multiple calls to get a refund from the phone carrier for; and one (1) whole 30-inch television, which amazon helpfully and immediately refunded, after which i swore Never Again.
here’s hoping you don’t end up with a freakin subaru on your porch tomorrow.
Baud
It would be cool if Chang Liu were a Juicer.
zhena gogolia
Are you watching The Old Man and the Sea starring Donald Sutherland’s less famous brother?
trollhattan
Hilarious, free furniture! I once had a carton of music boxes(?!?) delivered (pre internet) and never figured that mystery out, so some folks got unexpected music box gifts. I’m certain they were surprised.
Two invisible Amazon items were “delivered” one day and Amazon sent replacements when I inquired as to the actual whereabouts. Half a year later the original order was delivered. I wonder where they were all that time?
Baud
@zhena gogolia: He really should have negotiated better billing.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: I’d watch that.
peej01
Fed Ex e-mailed me that they had delivered a package to me the other day. I went to look for it and it wasn’t there. It showed up later. It was probably delivered to someone in the neighborhood who brought it over. Amazon did a weird thing as well. They e-mailed me that they had managed to lose one of my packages, but they had actually delivered it. That was easily resolved.
jeffreyw
You just need a bigger tv. What’s the blue hue behind the set, some kind of easy on the eyes kind of lights like I see on Boing Boing alla time?
p.a.
one word: jackalope.
schrodingers_cat
Where is the Grateful Dead artwork by the infamous Balloon Juice troll?
zhena gogolia
I just have to stop watching Jesus Christ Superstar over and over and over and over
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh, God, I forgot all about him. I hope he’s alive and well.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: I have it recorded. Going to watch it tomorrow.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: That was one ugly painting. (Sorry, Cole, it’s true.)
Annette M York
I am an historic textile conservator in Portland, Oregon. I clean, repair, restore, and generally aim to be a Cole to cushions, flags, quilts, samplers, you-name-its that need TLC to shine bright and happy. http://www.chetwyndconservation.com
dmsilev
At work (thankfully), the Pump Fairy once delivered to me a “free” $6K vacuum pump. That was the vendor’s fault, not FedEx/UPS/etc.; they put the wrong recipient name on the package. And yes, I did make sure that the actual purchaser of the thing got their expensive and heavy widget.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
It is remarkable.
TaMara (HFG)
Oh I have FedEx stories. But for another time. I have a similar space above my tv and I’m going to add a shelf for plants (I can’t have any where a cat can reach them because they don’t survive). So that’s my suggestion for above your TV
Baud
@zhena gogolia: No spoilers.
Bill
Fedex is just the worst. I’ve had packages that track as being ‘out for delivery’ and then sometime in the evening they go back to being ‘in transit’. It becomes apparent that, although the drivers are contracted to deliver all the packages on their truck for the day, at some point they just go home, and all the people still waiting for packages can go F themselves.
This has happened to me more than a few times. Always with fedex, never once with UPS.
schrodingers_cat
Wasn’t Fedex CEO was being floated as the Orange One’s VP. Whatever happened to that idea?
Shana
Maybe some sort of hanging rug or other fabric-y thing? I get that you don’t want a picture above the TV but the space does need something….
Mary G
I finally got my new computer unpacked and plugged in and it keeps wanting me to plug in the Ethernet cable. It doesn’t seem to see the wifi.
Duane
You’re nicer than me. By now I’d be sitting on my new couch, toasting Mr. Liu’s good taste and my good fortune.;-)
Frankensteinbeck
@Mary G:
Do you have a wifi adapter? I was used to having this computer plugged into the modem with an ethernet cord, and when I moved it I didn’t realize there was no built in wifi adapter. I had to go buy one.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
You kid, but I taught it last year and my students were pretty much clueless about the story until I made them read some of the Gospel.
EBT
I continue to crack away at backgrounds for my interactive fiction. I would post a picture or two but you don’t allow user posted images.
Jpostelwait
Hi there. I’m a painter. Here’s my page. https://www.etsy.com/shop/Cascadiart
jeffreyw
@Mary G: Check to make sure wifi is enabled.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
I was watching the Amazon guy deliver a package to my apt building and asked if it was for me. No and he had nothing else on the truck. About an hr later doorbell rings, fellow has my package, btw he was my city councilman. He lives about 5 miles from me, on a street which neither sounds nor is spelled anything like my street…… I don’t think that everyone Amazon hires is up to the task of, well possibly just breathing.
TenguPhule
You can just feel that onion skin curling nicely.
Gvg
eBay did something so now their tracking just says sent with no further info except a predicted delivery which have all been wrong. It was great before. No idea why they screwed themselves up. I liked the old way. Is that too get off my porch?
Nicole
We have watched many, many clips from Sunday’s JCS (totally forgot about it when it was actually on so I haven’t watched the whole thing yet). The 7-year-old requested to see Alice Cooper doing King Herod’s Song again, so I hit the search bar, pressed the microphone button and said, “Alice Cooper Jesus Christ Superstar” and the iPad dutifully typed out “Alice Cooper Jesus Christ oyster.” And then I guess the iPad realized that made no sense and self-corrected to “Alice Cooper Jesus Christ Forrester.”
We saw Brandon Victor Dixon, who played Judas, last year, as Aaron Burr in Hamilton. He’s getting quite a career out of being the guy who does in the other guy whose name is in the title. ;)
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
Well I don’t think it’s because of his talent.
TenguPhule
@Bill:
Its known that Fedex treats its delivery workers like shit.
zhena gogolia
@Nicole:
He’s so fantastic in this. But John Legend’s performance has really grown on me.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mary G:
You might have to turn on the computer’s wi-fi reception. It might not be on by default. Look under Settings | Network, etc.
Michael Cain
I am fortunate enough to live in a metro area that has grown large enough (and is isolated enough) to get first its own Amazon sorting center and then its own Amazon fulfillment center. Delivery is by Amazon these days, which doesn’t seem as error prone as UPS and FedEx were.
Gin & Tonic
@kindness: He’s got that awful Grateful Dead painting from a former troll.
Steeplejack (phone)
@EBT:
You could do what everybody else does and post a link to your pictures.
This blog would descend into chaos if everybody could insert pictures and graphics at random. It would be almost as terrible as nested comments. [shudder]
Mnemosyne
Through our procurement system at work, I once ordered sheet protectors from a large office supply chain and received certificate frames.
The best part was that the person who received my sheet protectors also worked for the GEC, but on the opposite side of the country. I think she ended up having to put them into internal mail to get them to me, because the office supply chain couldn’t find their ass with both hands and a flashlight.
Schlemazel
I had a package delivered by Amazon delivery. I know it was delivered because they emailed me a picture of the package sitting on my doorstep . . . except it was not my door & I didn’t recognize whose door it was. A couple of hours later a neighbor from several doors down was kind enough to bring me the package.
Despite all the whining about them I have never had a problem with USPS and always choose it over others when offered the choice.
Gin & Tonic
One of these days I will learn to read all the comments before adding mine.
donnah
I had finished a rug for my mom before I started making the Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh rug. So it’s here:
https://i.imgur.com/bICnaIB.jpg
I found an old slide my dad had taken and I converted the color to a monochromatic lilac scheme. I was six months old when it was taken. I hooked the rug as a gift for Mom.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Lowest bidder!
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
Vulture had a fun (and IMO) accurate list of the show’s highs and lows. They were won over by Legend at the same time I was.
TenguPhule
@Steeplejack (phone):
How could we tell the difference from the goddamn ads the site has now?
EBT
@Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, but if I am going to link off site, I would rather link to my AD twitter stories, as those have cash.me and ko-fi links at the end.
BruceFromOhio
Truly this is Cole’s world, and everyone else just happens to live in it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): On my older laptops there was a physical WiFi switch.
Schlemazel
@Ruckus:
That may not have been his fault but just the shitty way Amazon treats their delivery people. Well, all their employees really but particularly their delivery folks. There will be lawsuits one day when a an overly tired driver, trying to avoid being penalized for not making quota gets killed or kills others. Happened to Dominos, happened to WalMart and it will happen to Amazon.
BruceFromOhio
@Gin & Tonic: Or start at the end and work backwards.
BruceFromOhio
@TenguPhule: Mine are all back to a rotating set of bikinis and bodywear. It’s kind of fascinating how it works.
Bill
@TenguPhule: I’m aware that Fedex drivers are not treated well. You’re aware that they’re contractors, who actively seek the jobs and agree to perform them? I’m a working stiff, and no friend of capital, but I damn well do my job before I pack it in for the day. I waited all day for Fedex to deliver an OVERNIGHT package once, a package that I had paid some 70 dollars to have overnighted. At 7 pm I called the Fedex depot and was told that the driver had attempted delivery, and that the parcel had been returned to the depot. I had been in the house all day, with the door open, and a note on the glass screen door stating that someone was home, etc. Effing driver never even stopped in front of the house, I had eyes on the door all day. Guy just blew off the delivery, an OVERNIGHT delivery, and went home. I got to drive to Trenton at 8pm on a Friday, and I still haven’t recovered, apparently.
Cheryl from Maryland
USPS did something similar to us last week with Amazon. Three of our neighbors and us got each other’s packages; we all made the swap ourselves. As all packages were Amazon, we called Amazon to bring up the issue that their package delivery person couldn’t read house numbers. As for UPS, they lost a shipment of my husband’s medicine, worth over $1000.00. We tracked that package so carefully, the insurance company didn’t give us any problems getting a replacement.
Steeplejack (phone)
@donnah:
Very nice!
donnah
@Steeplejack (phone):
Thanks! She loves it.
Gin & Tonic
@BruceFromOhio: Sometimes the comments make more sense that way.
eclare
@donnah: That is beautiful and moving.
jl
If the woman representative for FedEx knew that you, John Cole in West Virginia, had special powers, she would have continued to argue.
So, it’s a good thing John Cole keeps that info under wraps.
Albatrossity
For those who appreciate photographs of birds (and there may be some folks like that here), framed prints of some of my bird pics are available at our local art gallery (along with a lot of other great art!). Here’s the link to my stuff – http://snwgallery.com/search-works.php?keyword=rintoul
SiubhanDuinne
@TaMara (HFG):
Antecedents, how the fuck do they work? By “they,” do you mean plants, or cats?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (phone):
Almost.
Miss Bianca
So, speaking of “artists in our midst” – a little plea for advice from our jackals…
I have an interview next week for the Executive Director’s position with a group called Articipate, which is an arts enrichment program for K-12 age kids. Part of the interview process is bringing in some creative project that you’ve done that you’re proud of. This was also part of the application process. I submitted some grant proposals and some magazine articles I’d written for the first part, but now I am wondering what else to try to wow them with. CDs from my various old bands? More writing? Photos from the Shakespeare productions? What screams “cool artist/arts administrator type”?
BruceFromOhio
@Baud: Crossing the streams, dude, please don’t do that.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone):
It would look like that horrible movie Eye of the Cat within about an hour.
Mary G
@Frankensteinbeck: @BillinGlendaleCA: @Steeplejack (phone): Thanks everyone for your kind comments. After I posted I read the listing on Amazon and discovered to my amazement that the computer doesn’t have wifi. I had assumed they all do, but no. I bought a gaming computer I have no need for, but all the other desktops seemed designed for business and I wanted MOAR POWER. Anyway, I have ordered an adapter which should be here Friday. The tablet will hold me until then.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Stuff that shows breadth. And mead. Bring them mead.
BruceFromOhio
@Miss Bianca: What screams “cool artist/arts administrator type”?
Anything that you were proud to do and that taught you something. Anything.
ETA: Mead only for the right crowd.
Nicole
@zhena gogolia: I really liked “Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say).” I’ve really liked everything I watched so far, other than Alice Cooper, who was okay, but not a show-stopper. I think he got the part because Andrew Lloyd Webber adored his King Herod on the 1996 album (it is pretty good). I learned today there was a 2001 film with Rik Mayall as King Herod- someone posted the clip in a comment thread. THAT was a show-stopper.
Loved Norm Lewis as Caiphus. And the Exorcist as Pontius Pilate.
jl
I hope this question isn’t rude and provocative. but is Cole using an ‘Artistis in Our Midst’ post as a passive-aggressive bleg for something to put up over his damn TV?
Edit: come to think of it, that wasn’t a question. I guess the blog has to pay for itself one way or the other.
eclare
@Albatrossity: Love that Warbler photo! Have bookmarked the page for future perusal.
Mary G
@donnah: Wow! All your rugs are works of art.
SiubhanDuinne
@donnah:
Oh wow! Just beautiful!
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
That’s amusing.
This is what I keep telling my husband, I need one of those coats!
danielx
Hanging above my television are a black and white photo of the Who playing in Golden Gate Park in 1976 and a woodcut picture titled Blues Cat, with a cat wearing a striped suit, sunglasses and fedora sitting on a chair playing guitar….my predilections are easily discerned.
It’s thirty degrees colder than it was yesterday. Also. Too.
zhena gogolia
@Nicole:
What put the Alice Cooper number over was the dancing girls.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: both “plants” and “they” are plural, whereas “a cat” is singular.
Corner Stone
Sooo…we have the fabulous satby and a couple authors in this artist list thread?
ETA, that was weird. Even though I refreshed I had very few comments displayed on this thread. Then I commented and it jumped by like 50.
Steve in the ATL
@Corner Stone: I am a grammar artist. My art is apparently not popular.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: I’d have thought that most new computer would have WiFi, oh well. I just finished putting together my Hackbook Pro this morning. Got everything working except for the fingerprint reader.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca:
First, congrats on getting so far in the process! It sounds like an awesome job and if you want it, I hope you get it.
On what to submit? I think you might be asking the wrong question. You don’t need to be the cool artist, for an education administration position, what do you have that show you can teach kids how to be cool artists? Did you mix your own band CDs? That’s a great hook for an educator. For the theater productions, did you help others work through design or staging issues? Did you lead creative teams where you bridged the master/novice gap?
They already know how cool and creative you are, or you wouldn’t have made it this far. Now you can wow them with your understanding of how to teach and inspire passionate young people to be cool artists. I think that will be a great narrative for you.
Corner Stone
@Steve in the ATL: We all know your “art” involves a trenchcoat sans undies.
EBT
@BillinGlendaleCA: If it’s specifically a gaming laptop, then wifi is needless latency.
Steve in the ATL
This may or may not be relevant to anything, but UPS voluntarily unionized its workforce, while Fedex remains virulently anti-union.
Anotherlurker
@Bill: I was waiting for a very sizable check to be delivered to me. The fucking attorney specified 2 day delivery, but only weekday delivery. Asshole sent it on late Wed. I checked tracking at FEDEX and found out it was at the depot. This was Saturday. I called customer service and asked if I could pick it up at the depot . They said sure, no problem. I got to the depot, provided the info and proceeded to have the jerk behind the counter lecture me as to how overworked he was and the folks in customer service were morons who didn’t know what they were talking about. He said that if I came back in 2 hours, he would see if he could dig it out.
I’m an ex-NYer and it showed as I left a very unsatisfying experience.
BTW, this was in Fla. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that an asshole company hires assholes.
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
Just thought I’d be a little anti-pedanti
Steve in the ATL
@Corner Stone: hey, I’m a minimalist!
bystander
Just back from seeing Three Tall Women starring Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalfe and Alison Pil. Fantastic acting, very provocative play. First produced in 1995, amazing how well it’s aging. Albee would be thrilled with this cast. I didn’t see the original production even tho I tried not to miss seeing Marian Seldes. But so happy to see Jackson and Metcalfe on stage.
I just realized King George’s solo in Hamilton sort of mirrors Herod’s.
BillinGlendaleCA
@EBT: My gaming desktop came with WiFi PCi mini-card.
ETA: I could see having a switch to disable the WiFi card on a laptop if you needed to avoid any performance issues associated with WiFi. As I said, my two older laptops have a switch to turn off WiFi.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL: I had to read a new version of a long document today. It has disagreements between plurals (I.e. “every faculty member” and “their”) as well as 16th century random capitalization. Oh shit. I had to take a walk.
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL:
Butt yew tawk purdy. Sew their sat.
EBT
@BillinGlendaleCA: Cool, extra heat, latency, and power draw.
Steeplejack
My package delivery anecdata here in Threadkill Lane: USPS and UPS are very reliable. FedEx is less reliable. The no-name, fly-by-night outfits that Amazon uses for its own deliveries (presumably from a local warehouse here in the D.C. area) are awful—so much so that if I’m ordering an item that has a same-day delivery option (or other super-fast option) I will almost always deliberately choose the “whenever you get around to it” shipping option, which seems to trigger some algorithm that still gets it to me in a timely fashion (one or two days) but delivered by USPS.
I also avoid order timing that looks like it would lead to a weekend delivery, because the fly-by-night factor goes up greatly.
Ohio Mom
@Miss Bianca: I think the CDs and the photos of the theater productions — they show that you understand what goes into putting together an entire event, especially working with artists to allow them to be at their best. And that you have experience in a variety of arts disciplines.
Work on your schpiel on art being a language that expresses what words can’t, and that kids need to learn that language. Especially today, when so much gets communicated via means that aren’t primarily verbal. It’s part of being fully literate.
The arts show us how other people live, see the world, what they value — again, understanding other’s viewpoints is essential for citizens in a democracy,
And so on with the philosophical reasons — lots of people are going to think, “Why do kids need that? They need reading, writing and arithmetic, not some fancy-schmany theater show. Waste of time and money.”
You’ll need to be able to argue against that when you are the executive director — show your interviewers that you will be a strong advocate for their program.
Forgive me if you already know all this. Good luck!
NotMax
First of all, on the wall, above and behind the TV is where the soundbar belongs.
Second of all,
JIM: What’s this about the windows?
SIMMS (calmly): I’m afraid there’s a little slip-up. These windows seem to belong to a Mr. Landings in Fishkill, New York. I talked to Mr. Landings this morning.
JIM: Well, has he got mine?
SIMMS: No, he seems to have some windows that belong to a Mr. Blandsworth of Peekskill.
JIM: Where are my windows?!
SIMMS: As near as we can figure out they’ve either been sent to a Mr. Benton in Evanston, Illinois, or a Mr. Bamberger of Phoenix, Arizona.
– Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Lapassionara
@Miss Bianca: Good luck in the interview and just be yourself. I think you are terrific and I only know you on the internet. You will be great in person, so long as you don’t try to be someone other than you.
Flanders' Other Neighbor
I build bicycles. Box of tubes and a torch type stuff. I don’t really consider it art, but quite a few people feel differently.
Corner Stone
@Steve in the ATL: TWSS
Lyrebird
@Miss Bianca: were there children in any of the Shakesp. productions? Or do you have something you could teach kids to do?
Pdxjmarie
I’m a long-time lurker who knits in my spare time. My store is here https://www.etsy.com/shop/JenaMarieCrafts
Jude
@Miss Bianca
Have a portfolio of ideas you’re willing to flesh out once hired. They are looking for a ready-to-go organizer that will hit the ground running. Don’t give it all away if can help it though. Would be a shame if they stole your ideas but didn’t take the full package. Also maybe showcase your social media savvy? Give ideas of how you can publicize the brand through Instagram. That tends to make employers drool.
I’m a fulltime glass artist specializing in Monarch chrysalis. My Etsy shop has a few pieces because things are slow right now. I usually keep it empty there because my website takes care of things. I posted this once years ago and ended up having a lovely back and forth with a Juicer for quite some time. I wonder if she’s still out there? Hi!
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/juderose?ref=shop_sugg
Website: http://juderose.com/ Now bring on the Russian spam now that I’ve outed myself at a librul site!
Also too: Great paintings, @Jpostelwait
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Yep, USPS and UPS are unionized. Fed Ex, not so much.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jude:
May God have mercy on your soul.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
NotMax
@Mary G
If it is a souped up computer tower designed for hardcore gaming, not really a surprise, as a wired connection will always beat out a wi-fi connection insofar as performance is concerned.
PC chez NotMax is a run of the mill Acer workhorse. Although it is equipped with wifi it is connected to the modem by wire.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: My wifi network is named “NSA Van 17.”
TaMara (HFG)
@SiubhanDuinne: Kind of both – my cats don’t have the sense to stay away from toxic plants and any plants I do have within reach get eaten to the dirt.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Your file has been updated accordingly.
BTW, for owners of Asus routers, there is nice third-party firmware (forget the name off the top of the head) one can download for it that is infinitely more configurable than the factory firmware.
Ohio Mom
@Jude: Your stuff is gorgeous — I especially like the raku earrings.
Also, I think you are right about @Miss Bianca: selling herself someone who could give Articipate a stronger online presence. The kids are all about Snapchat and the like after all.
I could only find one Articipate via google, in the Detroit suburbs. If that is the place, looks like they are primarily visual arts. In that case, I’d goggle Elliot Eisner. I think he does/did (he is probably dead by now) a fabulous job articulating the need and reasons for visual arts education.
Gotta go to sleep now.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: “pretty fly for a WiFi”
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Delete your account.
debit
@Omnes Omnibus: Seconded.
fedupwithhypocrisy
I do fine hand-quilting: check out my photo albums. Thanks, B.J. ;-) https://www.facebook.com/lovecrazyquilts/
Omnes Omnibus
@debit: Especially since that song is now a fucking earworm, Gah!
eclare
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Pissed he was here in Memphis today grandstanding. Correction, beyond pissed.
Barbara
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: So that’s what he said to an assembled audience in Mississippi on the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death — that Obama was “charismatic.” At least he didn’t say Obama was “articulate.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Barbara: At best a tin ear. At best.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@eclare: @Barbara: I hate Bernie Sanders with the heat of a trillion suns.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Barbara: …or clean.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
I presume the name “Flowers By Irene” was already taken.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Yeah, that’s Cole’s.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: I didn’t check.
Nicole
@zhena gogolia: I liked the dancing girls; I thought Alice Cooper seemed tentative. Whether that was because he had nerves or because he’s 70, I don’t know. Either is plausible. I have some friends who have worked sound on several of these NBC live shows and they have some funny stories about how nervous pop stars can be about having to act.
Of course, that’s the challenge with any of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musicals- they’re not easily actable, which is why I think they generally are better to listen to than watch. I don’t think Tim Rice is a bad lyricist, but I don’t think he’s great at musical theater because his songs are more singing about feelings than advancing the action of the story. Again, doesn’t make him bad; there’s a reason he’s the last person to write a show tune that hit the Billboard Top 5 (“One Night in Bangkok”). But it takes a really good actor to be able to sing a Tim Rice song and make it active onstage. So John Legend and Alice Cooper were kind of up against it, acting-wise, because the material wasn’t helping them any. Legend, from what I’ve seen so far, isn’t an actor, but did pretty well, all things considered. And he sounded gorgeous. “Gesthemane” is one of the few Rice songs that I think does take the character on a journey, probably why Legend did better with it.
Speaking of “One Night in Bangkok,” Chess is a great, great album to listen to, but as an actual production, oh boy. Snoozeville. I’ll be curious how the new book helps it- there’s a revival in DC this year, I think.
Baud
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: As if Wilmerism has a history of success to crow about.
Omnes Omnibus
@Nicole: Dear god, some of you take this stuff as seriously as I take Elvis Costello and The Clash.
Lyrebird
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: With “friends” like these…
gah!
apparently blind to the double insult he provided, since the work of Dr. MLK, Jr. and of the people who made his work possible still gets diminished under this “charismatic” label.
Chip Daniels
I do watercolors for fun.
Here’s my Instagram page.
Steeplejack
@Chip Daniels:
Nice. They look like outtakes from Leonardo’s notebooks.
Bill
@Flanders’ Other Neighbor: I’m planning to be in the market about 25 pounds from now. I’d like to treat myself to a Waterford but would be interested to see what y’all are doing.
J R in WV
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m using an Acer laptop that has a Broadcomm wifi card which is not compatible with Linux – evidently Broadcomm doesn’t share their driver data with folks working on Linux wireless compatiblilty. So here at home I have it plugged into Ethernet with a cable. Tethered connectivity.
I also have a little tiny wireless USB gadget that I use when on the road and I don’t have Ethernet available. It cost $19 and doesn’t have the range and speed that some connections have, but it’s OK for surfing Balloon Juice. It’s the size of like a piece of Chiklet chewing gum. Easy to lose, too.
Will never own any kind of BroadComm hardware, ever again, never!
rikyrah
Cole,
These things don’t happen to anyone but you.
I was LMAO at you discussing the conversation.???
rikyrah
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
Phuck that muthaphucka??
rikyrah
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
Come sit by me.
Lyrebird
@Chip Daniels: Wow, didn’t think a turbine mount assembly could be so lovely!
John Cole
@NotMax: I have lathe and plaster walls and I am not mounting the god damned sound bar even though I know good and well where it belongs. I cleaned up my cables for you all and that is as far ad I am going to go.
John Cole
@jeffreyw: Yes. It is backlighting (in my case, just an led strip) that I put there to make the tv less harsh on my eyes and to make the colors more vivid on the tv.
Omnes Omnibus
@John Cole: Does that actually have an effect?
eemom
Ah, those beautiful blue comments signifying that the BlogLord has descended into our midst…. #swoon
eta: I guess they’re more like violet.
Procopius
Fed Ex doesn’t seem to get much business in Thailand. My favorite shopping consortium (dozens of small businesses use the same online portal — now that’s competition without leading to monopoly!) mostly uses DHL, the German company, which seems pretty good.
The Lodger
@Miss Bianca: You’ve already shown them writing samples, I’d recommend the Shakespeare photos because they show you can work in large groups. Besides, Shakespeare is cool.
Omnes Omnibus
@Procopius: You are a so much better person than the rest of us. Do you feel better now? Oh, thanks for the link. It was really helpful.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
It does if you typically watch the TV in a dark room. Based on his photography, Cole does everything in a dark room.
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m not sure I would dare name my WiFi network PDRM Cawangan Khas. The real Royal Malaysian Police Special Branch (national security unit) might not find the humour in it.
Steeplejack
@eemom:
They drive me nuts—one of Tommy/Alain’s stupider ideas.
Aleta
@Pdxjmarie: I’m floored by your exquisite work. (Someone’s getting lucky tonight I bet, what a gift.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Eep!
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack:
That’s the only thing he has in common with his blog commenters. No one really wants to see what he actually gets up to when he’s alone.
Pdxjmarie
@Aleta: Thank you! As long as I keep an eye out for my feline yarn pirates, it’s a nice change of pace from programming.
Steeplejack
@Pdxjmarie:
Nice work!
danielx
This is a lesson in two parts, as the saying goes.
Some of y’all may have heard this story before but if so, bear with me because I watched things on the local news earlier and it took me back to those days, when my accumulated years had barely achieved two digits. I already knew whose side I was on, but I was really young. I know some of the people who were there that evening…rephrase: know them now, didn’t know them then.
To set the scene…it’s April 4th, 1968. Bobby Kennedy is on a plane to Indianapolis for a campaign rally. Before getting on the plane, Kennedy hears King has been shot, and hears upon landing that King is dead. Communications much slower in those days, chilluns. At some point da mayor of our Fair City at the time, one Richard Lugar, tells Kennedy that he should cancel the scheduled rally because the local cops cannot guarantee his safety and things are starting to boil. Kennedy says fuck that and heads directly to 17th and Broadway without stopping at the local campaign headquarters as planned. Goes to the location, which is somewhat gentrified now but was at that time a seriously badass neighborhood (i was in me early teens then but knew my badass neighborhoods). Hops to a podium on the back of a flatbed truck and delivers a more or less extemporaneous speech for five minutes to an angry and horrified crowd. Which ends up being one of the greatest political speeches in American history, and which also – in a lot of peoples’ estimation, mine included – keeps the city from going up in flames as did so many others at the time. DC hasn’t been the same city since then, to name one.
Kennedy King Park is located at 17th and Broadway, and a bunch of people were out there this evening in spite of the cold.
Here endeth the first legend.
AnotherBruce
@Bill: I’ve never heard that the drivers are contractors. My brother has driven for Fed Ex for 30 years. He is an employee, as is his wife. She also used to deliver but now dispatches. The worst thing about working deliveries is the toll it takes on your body. My brother has had two hip replacements. And I can tell you he completes his routes no matter how late, unless it’s a bad Idea to keep driving. Remember that delivery workers are affected by traffic jams and bad weather. Christmas is the busiest time for them by far. They haven’t had a decent holiday season for decades. So I’m kind of defensive about slagging delivery workers, sure there’s some bad ones or just some bad days, but I think that for the most part, most people try to do their jobs. Sometimes it just doesn’t work.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: LOL! Mead may have to be for the second interview!
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: love it!
Mary G
Sorry if it’s been covered already, but Happy 90th Birthday to Maya Angelou.
Miss Bianca
OK, all of youse jackals are the best. Thanks for all your wonderful feedback, and thanks to the blog host, our very own JC Superstar, for opening up this forum! Good night, all!
eemom
omg….that’s right. ?
AnneWith
Several years ago, John did an Artists In Our Midst post, & I fell in love with a painting by a commenter named JackMormon. I purchased it from her & think of her from time to time, as the painting is now hanging in my bedroom. I haven’t seen her around these parts in ages, but I hope she’s doing well.
NotMax
@John Cole
Pish and tosh. If you can hang artwork, you can mount a soundbar.
Mel
@Bill: My most recent FedEx fiasco involved the driver coming to a rolling stop, and casually hurling two packages in the general direction of my porch steps apparently without ever bothering to set foot outside the truck. No doorbell ring, and not even the usual “knock once, throw package, and run like hell” that is the standard FedEx mode for drivers on our neighborhood’s route.
I was inside the house, recovering from some pretty awful surgery on my jaw, and totally oblivious to the fact that the packages (scheduled for delivery the next day) had arrived.
Neighborhood kids saw the “delivery” take place, and photographed the event, then gathered up the goods and rang the doorbell to make sure the items got safely inside. Handing out good Halloween candy and helping to hunt for lost toys has its eventual rewards, it would seem.
The best worst part? The item thrown onto the porch steps was a month’s worth of (breakable, horribly overpriced, have to be quickly placed in fridge for safe storage) injectable immune suppressant meds. The item thrown onto the public sidewalk? A box of blank checks.
Bye bye, Fed Ex. Hello again, USPS!
Mel
@Jude:
Wow!! Gorgeous glass art!! Your work is exquisite.
I make bead embroidered jewelry (cuffs, neckpieces, chokers and drops, etc) and usually use semi-precious cabochons as the focals, but I am picturing a beautiful neckpiece featuring that incredible monarch as a drop pendant centerpiece.
Sister Golden Bear
In addition to my day job, I’m also a burlesque performer.
More “neo-burlesque” than the classic “parade, pose, and peel” style burlesque that people usually think of. For example, my most recent act explored what would happen if a Goth accidentally got booked for a clown show. (With stripping of course….)
SgrAstar
@donnah: that’s just beautiful!
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
I have started a new online business to sell my handicrafts and I’m prepping for a Game of Thrones fan conference at the end of May (Con of Thrones May 25-27 Dallas, TX). You can see my website atdesigned-to-a-t.com. I’m the T in the name. I’m Tina, nice to meet ya.
My products will include scuplture (with a practical aspect, like a Winterfell Tower that is also a desk organizer), mixed media canvases, GOT themed journals, bookmarks, jewelry, etc, etc.
Mel
@AnotherBruce: My brother in law used to deliver for UPS, and a friend delivered for UPS, then Fed Ex, then for a large bakery chain.
It really is physically taxing work, and dealing with some of the customers is a total nightmare.
My concern with FedEx is the resultof experiencing LOTS of issues over several years (including a relative’s undelivered /vanished computer, a delivery put not on our porch, but for some mysterious reason placed on the back door stoop of a gardening shed in the vary back of our backyard, where it sat in pouring rain for 10 hours and was completely ruined, items hurled from the sidewalk onto concrete steps instead of the driver walking 15 feet to set the package on the porch, neighbors’ items misdelivered to addresses 10 houses away, etc).
It makes it hard for the professional drivers who really care about their routes and about good customer care, b/c they are as frustrated with the incompetence of bad drivers as the customers are. Still, when the majority of drivers on the routes covering your address aren’t professional amd the problems keep occurring, it’s extremely frustrating.
evodevo
Whoa! Customer misdelivery tales lol! I am a rural carrier – we get snafus occasionally (two in the last month – one of which was NOT my fault!!11!!! – they guy had a tracking # for a parcel that was not his) but from what I have observed, FedEx gets it wrong far more often. I wonder if it’s not their business model, with contractors, subcontractors, etc. who are WAY underpaid for the hours they put in, getting more and more frantic as time goes by (daily and in life) and not being able to keep up with the load. THIS holiday season was a record-breaker, for ALL of us delivery people. I know it was breaking me. The PO won’t or can’t hire enough people to do the job, and it falls to us old hangers-on to deliver inhuman amounts of stuff , in a bad winter, and them bitching the whole time…
JAFD
Well, if you want to release your inner Hornblower…
Here are some models I made for games at Cold Wars (grand gathering of grown-ups who still play with toy soldiers – last month in Lancaster, Pa)
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=476594
These are download-print-and-assemble kits from WarArtisan.com They have a couple of free sample kits for downloading if you want to try your hand.
Jude
@Mel: I would so love to see that if you ever did it. I miss my stained glass/church window days when all the work was a huge collaboration.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Bill:
UPS isn’t much better.
Back when I had a Federal C&R gun license, I ordered a couple of Russian M91/30 carbines from a wholesaler.
Federal law requires that firearm packages be signed for by an adult.
The UPS driver signed my name and left the guns sitting in the bushes next to the porch.
Needless to say, I was less than amused.
I eventually decided against doing so, but I thought about complaining to the ATF about the violation of Federal law.
daize
@JAFD: Wow, your models are beautiful!! You must have incredible patience to create those intricate sails. Hubby was at Cold Wars last month too, for historical miniature gaming. I usually stop by on the Saturday when he attends the weekend conventions. I love to visit the tables and see the various games and models folks have put together.
TerryC
I do art with trees. I design disc (Frisbee) golf courses and, after Safety and Environmental concerns, my tied-for-third place priorities are Challenge and Beauty. I’m working on several right now for townships or universities, and in one case a bar and grille. I don’t charge a fee, I’m retired and this is fun.
My three private 9-hole courses look like works of art from the air due to creative planting and mowing. Two of the courses utilize a lot of acreage that was farmed until 15 years ago. I’ve planted thousands of trees in there to eventually reforest it with built-in trails and fairways. I also braid and weave growing trees, and embed found objects and stones in crotches.
Every tee area has at least six fruit trees within 30 feet. One green is surrounded by a 300′ long horseshoe of self-seeding Buckwheat, with Pecan trees planted every fifteen feet along the arch.
This year I am implementing guest artists to paint or build art objects at specific locations along the fairways or on the greens or near tees, painting on 6×8′ wooden fences or building on 4×8 cement-fiberboard surfaces.
I’m a pretty lucky guy.
Nicole
@Omnes Omnibus: Very very late to reply to this, but I took a couple years of Music Performance in college- I was NOT a singer (to the point of having been humiliated in 4th Grade Music class by the teacher for being so terrible), and worked harder than I ever worked in anything else in that college class. I was always in the bottom half of the students (no getting back all the time my classmates had singing in show choir and taking lessons and doing musicals in high school), but when I left I could carry a tune, and, occasionally, even sing harmony. And I learned a lot about what makes a good musical, even though it’s not my own go-to for entertainment.
My husband, on the other hand, can sing quite nicely and has done oodles of musicals (way, way, WAY back in the day he was Will Parker to Kristen Chenowith’s Ado Annie in a production of Oklahoma) and has lots of opinions, too. He’s also done JCS, so one of the clips we had to watch right away was Simon the Zealot’s song, since that was his role. :) I thought the guy on the show was very good.
JustRuss
@J R in WV:
Heh, I first read that as “suffering Balloon Juice”. For some reason.
I have one of those USB wifi sticks on my Dell desktop, it works way better than the crappy wifi card that came installed in the machine.
Nate Combs
I’m a big-time lurker, and almost never actually post, but have been a daily reader for years.
My art is building theatrical sets, opera sets, TV sets, museum exhibits and displays, and the occasional specialty architectural fixture. The company I am a Senior Project Manager for is http://www.ravenswoodstudio.com, located in Chicago. We do some pretty cool stuff, but some of my favorite recent projects have been sets for Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and Dollywood. We also built a 95% scale Blackhawk UH-60, along with other exhibits and displays, for the new First Division Museum at Cantigny, in Wheaton, IL.
In my spare time, I also do fine-art watercolor and pencil drawing portraits of family and friends.
Pappy G
Long time, not quite first time (but pretty darn close) – I’m an actor. And paralegal. This is me pretending to be a lawyer on Grimm:
Pappy G
Take two.
J R in WV
People have discussed delivery issues and compared and contrasted UPS, FedEx, and the USPS for deliveries. I have an additional point to share, two actually. It may have been mentioned that the USPS is unionized, as is UPS. FedEx is not, as management at FedEx is anti-union, which also indicates (to me) a rejection of the power of people in a democracy, which is something Mercers and Kochs do, not something loyal Americans do. Just saying.
More importantly, I have come to know through my rock and mineral specimen hobby that only one of the three shippers mentioned here actually stands behind their insurance for shipping valuable items, even with a declared value. While I have never been able to participate in the high-end sector of collectible mineral specimens, first you should know that that high-end is prices in the 6 figures, and even 7 or (very rarely) 8 figures for special one-of-a-kind gemstone crystals.
Obviously only two people with some knowledge of one another would buy/sell a $50,000+ mineral specimen through a shipping arrangement. And even then, insurance would be required by simple prudence, as we all know that even high value items can be subject to running over by a fork-lift sorts of damage. In the Mineralogical Record, a scientific journal dedicated to information about mines, collecting sites, and the rare and sometimes beautiful minerals found in those places, I read about two people who exchanged a rare and valuable mineral specimen, with a terrible outcome. Here is a link to an example of a mid range mineral specimen offered by a well known dealer, the high end are always “Price on Request” specimens, or even auctioned.
They shipped via a non-USPS shipper, and insured the package for the value of the transaction, IIRC it was in the mid-five figure range. It consisted of natural gemstones on matrix, perhaps candle-stick sized tourmalines or something of that sort, and was damaged to the point of being nearly destroyed, in shards. The company refused to stand behind their insurance policy, and offered to refund the cost of shipping only. Leaving both the purchaser and the seller out somewhere in the $50k range.
Just before the civil lawsuit was to begin, the shipping company made an offer, a low-ball offer, and in order to save the costs of the court trial, the plaintiffs decided to accept the settlement offer, and share their loss according to their private negotiations. The purchaser, who wrote the story in Min Rec, also told of different outcomes with the USPS, which does stand behind the insurance their customers purchase. I’m sure that when shipping a 5 or 6 or 7 figure package, the USPS needs to see the item, paperwork, packing material, etc, and who can blame them. I have had a mineral specimen come apart in shipping once, and it was covered no questions asked. I returned the pieces to the dealer, who was probably able to sell the individual bits to collectors of micro-minerals.
I know if I needed to ship a fragile heirloom of some sort who I would choose to ship with. The USPS, good unionized workers with some pride in their work!
Aaron Baker
For whatever it’s worth, here’s one of my more recent poems:
DREAM
The wind that drove the rank dark grass
Was cool, not chilly, and a sky of equal blue
Forever barred the storm.
I dreamt you spoke,
But dreaming like a rotted thread dissunders,
Flies until no snare of thought can catch it.
If I rejoin you on that temperate hill,
I may retrieve some vestige of your voice.
Will you answer my profoundest questions?
Or dilate on the luster of the day?
Will you whisper an amused indulgence
That unbelieving I await the end?
Mel
@Jude: I understand that. There’s something powerful about the collective energy and inspiration that comes from working on a thing of beauty with a group.
I learned to quilt by working with my great-grandmothers, my grandmother, and a group of their friends. They would often have five or six quilts going at once, with each quilt project in a different person’s home. During rural winters, they would take turns each week, one quilt per evening, working on each person’s quilt.
Most of the women have long since passed away; those quilts carry each one’s individual grace and style but also the vibrance and warmth and life of the group as a whole. I treasure those quilts.