john ringhofer's robot arm toll payment.

my brother gave john a robot arm for his birthday. he gave it to him when john came through chattanooga on tour with the band lake. john made a comment about using it during toll booth payments, and we thought he was joking. looks like he wasn't. this footage was filmed on a camera phone and posted by ashley.

david hasselhoff with some wrinkly puppies...shew.

i was looking up the word "hassle" to see if it, in fact, refers to a dog panting. (my wife's family uses it in this way, and i had never heard it before).. so, according to the online etymology dictionary it does. so, then i couldn't help but make a joke and say, "i wonder if this is where "hasselhoff" comes from?" so, a quick google search got me this image. shew.

vbs tv goes to north korea.

i ended up watching all 14 episodes from vbs.tv's series on north korea. (vbs.tv is vice magazine's web interactive outlet.) it's kinda like this one guy sets out to see what's up with north korea and just goes there. his bizarre journey is recorded over 14 episodes. i don't know anything about vice magazine, but this guy seems to be pretty gutsy to do this type of travel/journalism.

update!

check below the photos on the post "old school photo technique" for an update and a few more links! do it now, i say!

check out this post from bill's blog.

there's a post of a guy playing johnny cash (on an accordion) to people of afghanistan on bill's blog (click this sentence to see).

old school photo technique

thanks to the early film/lumiere brothers discussion in a video class back in iowa, i learned of a camera operator who used to stand out-of-shot and cover the lens with his black-gloved hand (usually in a circular motion to give that circular dissolve to black into the middle of the frame. i suppose it was the only solution for a gradual fade-to-black on film. well, i keep messing around with shots through my (now old) sony 5mp camera with my hand blocking out portions of the frame. these two came out kind of like wide angle shots - due to my hand placement. the first is of my dad and the second is of my brother and sister-in-law.
if anyone knows the name of this early camera operator who was called "the glove" then let me know.
UPDATE! jon winet has given me the name of the person who i referred to as "the glove." evidently, i assumed this was his name, but i was wrong. he didn't go by "the glove" afterall. i had the info mixed up with chris "the glove" taylor whose work can be seen on the movie breakin'. he was ice-t's DJ back in the day. so, the new name that jon winet, head of uiowa's school of art and art history's intermedia department, has furnished me with is none other than (drumroll please), billy bitzer (best known for his work with D.W. Griffith). thanks a ton to jon for this info.

bands in chattanooga.

wendy and i went to sonny's place last night and saw some musical rock and roll bands. (i love it when people try to say "classic rock" and say "classical rock"). we walked in the door and saw tommy cass and didn't realize that he'd be performing w/ jane starship before timlee3 (from knoxville) and lastly, heaven's basement. i spoke w/ matt and he mentioned that heaven's basement's name may change b/c someone in the U.K. already has the name. so, it was nice to catch up w/ people in bands who i haven't seen in a while. it's so nice to know people are still willing to get out and play some rock music for whoever happens to show up.
john (half-handed cloud) will be at the barking legs theater this monday (and he's gonna be paired up w/ a band called lake - who are also worth the venture down dodd's ave.) i believe charles allison (or his new band land camera) will be accompanying as well. barking legs' website is here.

what's up with all the "green" stuff?

seems a bit out of hand. i mean, it still has the clorox logo on it which makes me think, "is bleach natural?" i just wonder if so many companys slap the word "green" on things to get an extra 5-10 bucks out of it. i mean, i'm all for trying to reduce the amount of waste into the environment. natural toilet bowl cleaner? hasn't simplegreen been out there for years?
i remember hearing a story (i'll look for it to verify it) about how all of these new longer-lasting/energy efficient light bulbs that everyone is pushing (walmart being a major one) can do a lot of damage in the environment if they are not disposed of properly.. there's some chemical in there (like argon or something)... like i said, i'll try to find a link to the exact specs on this.
recycling these are downplayed. i don't hear too much about recycling these CFL (compact fluorescent bulbs), but just always hear about how we should be replacing every bulb in the house with them.

update: (it's mercury, not argon).
here's a quote from the washington post.
"· Cautionary tale: CFLs contain very small amounts of mercury sealed within the glass tubing -- an average of 5 milligrams, roughly the amount of ink on the tip of a ballpoint pen. Mercury enables the CFL to be an efficient light source; there is currently no substitute for it, but manufacturers have been trying to reduce the amount used. CFLs are safe to use in the home, according to the Energy Department: No mercury is released when the bulbs are in use, and they pose no danger if used properly, though care should be taken when handling because the tubing is glass."
"· Disposal issues: Don't throw CFLs away with the household trash if better disposal options exist. Check Earth911.org, which locates disposal options by Zip code, call the Environmental Recycling Hotline at 877-327-8491, or contact your local waste-management agency for community guidelines. Additional information is available at Lamprecycle.org. Ikea stores accept used CFLs, and other retailers are considering it. If no other disposal options are available except the trash can, place CFLs in a plastic bag and seal it. Never send a CFL or other mercury-containing product to an incinerator."

post to phil part deux/interesting link to a interesting site.

i didn't mean to be so down and out about chattanooga in my last post. i think people are really trying to turn things around here. and judging by the turn out for the four-bridges art festival, people here have an interest in the arts. (it was packed out on sunday). i also have to recant on pushing blame on the lack of a graduate studies program in the arts. asheville, nc is a good community of artists w/o a grad division at any of the areas' universities. (WNC just started a program not too long ago, but it's still young). the strength in asheville seems to be the interconnectivity among artists and low-key outlets for exhibitions (without artists having to feel too uptight about what is being presented - i'm thinking of a venue that is also a bar that has regular exhibitions and music... oh, and also harvest records (a record store) which has regular changing exhibitions. chattanooga needs these types of outlets. it helps to have a foot-traffic friendly gallery scene, which chattanooga is struggling with - unless you don't mind walking from south broad to northshore to main to etc... nothing is close enough without having to drive. iowa city, chicago, and asheville have a hand up on this. also, in asheville, there's a series of open studios (phil mechanic building) where it feels like a party or something w/ some interesting spaces to see work.


on another note: a friend of mine (who recently re-visited chattanooga), sent a link for wendy and i to check out. it is hilarious.
http://colorwar2008.com/submissions/youngnow
people are remaking their photos from when they were young. it's pretty neat to see some of the attempts. especially the three guys (seen as kids, then adults) in superman under-roos.

i just deleted a post that had a comment! duh.

sorry goes out to phil (who may be moving to chattanooga). i didn't realize (until afterwards) that once i remove a link/post, the comments associated with that post are deleted also. so, i was about to respond to a question about chattanooga's art scene. i'll do so here:
phil was wondering if, as a printmaker, chattanooga would be a viable place to live and make art and enjoy himself (to summarize). i believe that there are many outlets for artists here if you know a thing or two about graphic design or commercial printing. National is a print company, located off of Holzclaw Ave., that produces work for clients all over the place... and not mom/pop type clients, but the big ones - like BMW or Coca-Cola or Target, etc. so, that's just one lame example of a printmaker's fate. i worked in digital printing in chicago for a year and tried to look into it here and realized it was a bit of a rat-race. there's other places doing screenprint work and such and a plethora of graphic/ad agencies that have popped up. (i have yet to see a place like yee-haw in knoxville or bluebarn in asheville, nc. pop up anywhere here for band posters and retro-type imagery). let's hope that changes. as far as sale of prints go, there's lots of art fair type things around this time of the year - like the four-bridges festival that just happened this weekend. for a general summation of the town (i grew up here and moved off and have come back - so excuse any cynicism that may abound): chattanooga is the most conservative place i've ever lived... and without a contemporary arts center close by (the hunter museum has changed it's look and is accepting newer ideas for shows than ever before) or a art department's graduate student presence (there's not a grad program in the art department at UTC), I feel the town is unable to push towards certain terrain i have seen elsewhere. as mentioned, i have been away for some time, so things like art shows in garages or events outside the walls of the places i frequent (places of work mostly) are fairly sporadic. i want the city to prove me wrong, but it seems -as it once was- people just don't stick up flyers and spread the word enough when things happen in chattanooga. rent is affordable, and it's not too awfully difficult to find work, so it's easy to settle in here. i can't bad mouth my hometown too much.

forwarded on to you the viewer.

this video of a ten-year old piano fiend was emailed to me from melissa whose blog can be seen here. props to melissa for such a great link. when wendy and i moved to iowa, we were hearing this song every time we were in the car driving around. i thought of it as a "welcome to the midwest" kind of song from a band appropriately named ''kansas." i've already noticed that wendy's walking around the house humming this after hearing it through once.