swimming

Last night I left the art building after dark and rolled my bike up the hill toward East Austin. Once I reached the top I decided to cut through the grass hill by the Latin American Studies Dept. I guess I wanted a mini nature walk through the trees instead of looking at the overpowering stadium (ha only used 7 games a year) and its parking garage. I began to feel like a moth flying toward a glowing light. The fountain was on full steam and completely lit its 15 foot plus water spray. Being the only one around I started to wonder who it was lit up for. As I enter earshot I began to go under its hypnotizing trance due to the power of its crashing waves. It brought me back to the Maine Cost for a minute. I then began to think about all the campus folklore stories I have heard about campus fountains. One is that the campus energy plant uses the large fountains for cooling the plant. I have also heard the fountains have electrical shocks to get ride of swimmers. First off you would have to be really crazy to scale the high walls of this fountain though it would feel amazing. Second its seems like an electrical shock coming out of a fountain would be lethal. Next time I have time for a swim I think I will stick with our under utilized country club pool at the Gregory gym. Now to just find the time….anyone want to go for a swim?

Bouncy Balls

Okay so have you guys seen the sony bravia (bouncy balls, bunny ad, foam city, exploding paint ball) videos? Thanks to my TA job in digital design with Peter Tucker I have been exposed to them and a few other silly things out there on the internet. Some really talented artists have sold out big time to Sony Bravia TV. The videos are really stunning and make you think about the possibilities for color applications to the built environment in a whole new way. You Tube videos are out there to even learn how them made the videos. My question is who are the artists because Sony Bravia is the only one that gets credit.
here is a link to one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bb8P7dfjVw

Return to the Green Hills and Blue Skies of Political Art Stimulation

Thirteen years ago I sat for the first time in the green hills of Glover, VT between grasshoppers, freshly cut straw, and fellow spectators on blankets. The warm August afternoon sun felt the same this year as well as the sounds of the live Bread and Puppet band, the dances of the stilt walkers, and lively clown and puppet acts. What has changed in the last 13 years is both myself and the content of the presented political puppet shows. I will not attempt to say all the ways I have changed though Bread and Puppet has been a big influence in my life as a political puppeteer and print maker. One of the first shows I saw 13 years ago was about the flight to save the NYC Community Gardens…. Thanks to Bette Middler and many garden activists over 400+ have been permentely saved. The show that I saw this weekend stared with women and men dancing…. Slowly then men where taken from the dancing womens arms……. and dropped to the ground. This piece was very striking and ended with the this quote:

Iraq War Casualties
Civilian Deaths: More than 1,250,000
US Soldiers Killed: 4,148 wounded: 30,324

The woodfired German sourdough with garlic aioli tasted the same as always and felt like an awaking to my senses similar to the puppet show…and left me thinking… what will it take to waken this country to stop the Iraq war………… I hope we do not have to wait 13 years to find out.

weekend news visit