September 26, 2002
Secret Hotel Room Behavior

An Ohio man filed a $1.5 million lawsuit Tuesday against the Knoxville Marriott hotel after finding a hidden camera in a bathroom light fixture in July.
News-Sentinel story here

i travel a lot for my job, and this is my worst nightmare. and don't think i haven't thought of it before. there have been plenty of times i have been doing something weird in my room, and suddenly i stopped, horrified that someone might be secretly watching me somewhere in the hotel. (as if *i* would be the deviant in that circumstance.)

in the article, it says that the guy is demanding the return of every copy of the tape. and that he wanted to be allowed to watch it. i wonder what he was afraid they saw? i know how tempting it is to do naked sit-ups when you are all alone in a hotel room. or to take your room service shrimp into the bath with you. while you are talking on the phone. hey, i'd be worried, too. does anyone else go mad when they are alone in hotel rooms?

Posted by ash at 06:33 PM

September 24, 2002
Who Would Have Thought?

i never dreamed that i'd get so much pleasure from a mattress web site, but serta really knows how to lay down quite a spread. you can view the famous counting sheep commercials, buy your very own counting sheep--numbers 1, 13, and 29 are available--and best of all, you can win a trip to New Zealand to get your hands on about a billion sheep up close and in person! and there's no place i'd rather be than new zealand, not even in bed. not in bed with sheep, though. just in new zealand.

Posted by ash at 03:17 PM

Sense of Life

hey, it's a sunshine day. this morning as i drove in to work fraser called to let me know he was taping a special on the independent film channel about the life of ayn rand. and then, a USA Today article claims that corporate types are reading Atlas Shrugged like nobody's business these days. why? well, it's simple:

CEOs put the book down knowing in their hearts that they are not the greedy crooks they are portrayed to be in today's business headlines but are heroes like the characters in Rand's novel. They strive to be real-life achievers who do far more to lift the world's standard of living, cure disease and end starvation than Mother Teresa and altruists who believe a full life requires self-sacrifice and serving the needs of others.

the article lists atlas shrugged as the second most influential book next to the bible. how different the world would be if those were reversed, and each man had the courage to live his highest possible life, with no fear or guilt, and no sense of obligation.

Posted by ash at 01:02 PM

September 20, 2002
Postmodernism Revealed

Michael Newberry responds:

If one understands the foundations of postmodern art to be destruction as means (painting and sculpture) and "shock" for ends then one can understand how 9/11 can be viewed as postmodern art. Prophetically, I saw the connection immediately after the event.

In December 200, issue #49, of the Free Radical, I state: " It is a sick irony of massive proportions that America, through its network of museums, dealers, intelligentsia, and funding, is the world's leading exponent of postmodern art...The symbol for this aspect of her culture and equally well for the terrorists is the bloody formless waste that was the World Trade Center and its people. A symbolic and literal marking of the decline of a civilization." Terrorism and Postmodern Art. In a follow up essay in June 2002, also in the Free Radical, I go on to state: "The destruction of the World Trade Center is the most brilliant example of the furthest reaches of what is possible to a postmodernist…Beyond obliteration the consequential absence of the Twin Towers is the crowning glory of postmodern art." Pandora's Box Part I

I am hoping that society and its cultural leaders can remove the veil that disguises the nature of postmodern art and that they will begin to see that postmodern art does not lead to a flourishing and vital culture.

Michael's crusade to establish representational art as an alternative to postmodernism is alive at The Foundation for the Advancement of Art and Romantic Realism.net.

Posted by ash at 09:44 PM

It's Not Art

Controversial artist Damien Hirst told the BBC yesterday that the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were a work of art. "The thing about 9/11 is that it's kind of an artwork in its own right. It was wicked, but it was devised in this way for this kind of impact. It was devised visually." Describing the image of the hijacked planes crashing into the twin towers as "visually stunning", he added: "You've got to hand it to them on some level because they've achieved something which nobody would have ever have thought possible, especially to a country as big as America." Guardian - UK

meanwhile, in new york, a statue was removed from display yesterday after visitors complained. Eric Fischl's bronze, "Tumbling Woman," depicts a naked woman with arms and legs flailing. It went on view about a week ago in the lower concourse at Rockfeller Center and was supposed to remain on display through Monday.

"I don't think it dignifies their deaths," said Paul Labb. "It's not art. It is very disrupting when you see it."

Posted by ash at 09:19 PM

September 12, 2002
Want A Coke?

christine asked what we call our carbonated beverages, and for me, the answer is "coke," for all of them. as in: "want a coke? yeah, what kind?" she's already discussed it in much more detail if you don't already know what i'm talking about. i grew up in oklahoma, and it's a pretty typical thing to say for that part of the country. but i don't think saying "coke" is such a weird thing anyway (like some people do.) when a single brand rules the market, it isn't that uncommon for its name to become synonymous with the product. like kleenex or chap stick.

Some common household words—aspirin, cellophane, nylon, thermos, escalator—all started out as names for specific products but gradually became so common that they became generic names.
- infoplease

maybe in some parts of the country they liked coke better than in others. or maybe coke was all they could get. for whatever reason, i know that there are still some small town drugstores in oklahoma that have coca-cola soda fountains, where they will serve you up any kind of fizzy drink you want. and though i have been gone from oklahoma for quite some time, i still ask my friends if they want a coke before i serve them a cold drink.

Posted by ash at 09:53 PM

September 11, 2002
Memorial Service?

i wasn't going to watch, but just for a minute before i go to work...

why are the victim's families who are walking into the ground zero site wearing leis? are they being greeted by hawaiians in new york city? i don't understand.

during the moment of silence when the first plane crashed into the south tower, people were whistling and cheering. what?

oh man, they replayed the actual footage of the crash and audio of someone witnessing it. why?

Posted by ash at 09:25 AM

September 10, 2002
Is That Your Midriff?

received to my inbox yesterday:

-----Original Message-----

From: XXX
Sent: Monday, September 09, 2002 2:54 PM
To: All Staff
Subject: Show your Patriotic Spirit

On Wednesday we will have a relaxed dress code...no that doesn't mean that you can wear shorts more than 2 inches above your knee, or jeans with holes, it means that t-shirts/ sweatshirts with Patriotic graphics will be acceptable...as long as they are pressed of course!

that's right, i work in an office with a dress code.

i asked if shirtless would be acceptable if i rounded up a few co-workers who wanted to get together and paint "U.S.A." on our chests, but no go-ers so far.

Posted by ash at 06:01 PM

September 08, 2002
Weekend Update

we had big plans to go to jim thorpe, pa this weekend but in the end we did what we always do: sleep too late to do anything we had planned. friday night we saw robin williams in "one hour photo" at the ritz 5 in philadelphia and had a steak at geno's so by the time we got home the idea we had to get up at 7am and leave was scratched. no worries, we thought we'd hang out saturday and do the jim thorpe thing on sunday. saturday was supersunny so we got some beers and laid out on the deck all morning then watched football for the rest of the afternoon. pretty much the perfect day. we did manage to get up relatively early this morning, but didn't feel like driving too far, or so we thought. instead, we headed up to reading for some outlet shopping and then over to allentown for some rollercoasters.

we had a good time but it was a little creepy. everyone we saw in both places looked like a character from a stephen king movie. teeth were coming out the sides of their gums and not a single person had two eyes looking in the same direction. the air reeked of body odor and cigarette smoke, which is pretty amazing considering that we were outdoors. this state gets a bit frightening when you leave philadelphia.

Posted by ash at 11:38 PM

September 07, 2002
Limbo

it's september 7, and i am still in chester springs. nothing is packed. mike and i are on the couch with moose, fraser is on the floor, and we are watching football. it's easy to think that things are going to stay this way.

they aren't though. i have already resigned my job. the three of us sift through the paper and search online for apartments, jobs, airfares to places far away...or some combination of those. moose went to the vet yesterday and needs medicine and a foot soak a couple of times a day. we take turns. it's a strange, make-believe, in-between world.

Posted by ash at 07:44 PM