Obama Messiah Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0drwfnGlF_E

A friend just forwarded this YouTube video to me. If you're at all into politics, it's a must-see!

San Diego Visit

I just got back from a trip out to San Diego to visit friends and family. Had a great time. I left Thursday on US Airways out of Charlotte on a direct flight to Sandy Ego. (US Air was having a very bad day that day. They changed our plane to a smaller one, but the flight was fully booked, so a lot of us were on the "bump" list. I managed to get on, but EVERY US Air flight in our area of the terminal was cancelled or late.) Spent Friday through Sunday with Rick, Julie, and Jackson. Came home yesterday (Monday). This US Airways flight was also fully booked, but it left and arrived exactly on time. Here's some memory-joggers from the trip:

Jackson and I played a game of "red ball" ... the only rule to this game was that we had to use the red ball.

A little grampaw/grandson bonding over the jet skis ...

On Sunday, we went to visit the USS Midway, which is now a museum.  I used to work with the Midway back in '79 and '80, when it was homeported in Japan.  Now it's a museum.  (Damn, I'm old.)  But it's a really well-done museum with lots of interactive stuff.  Really cool.

Another of Jacks and me.  He did not want to stand still for this picture!

News from Serbia

News today out of Serbia is that Radovan Karadzic has been arrested. (See the CNN report here). Most Americans are probably skimming right over that bit of news and going on to the latest on Angelina Jolie's twins. But to me, this is important stuff. I was part of the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia in 1996, right after the conflict ended. It was an extremely tenuous period. All three sides (Bosnian, Croat, and Serb) were ready, even eager, to go after each other again. But international pressure, lack of resources, and their own people's disenchantment with war finally led them to halt the violence. Still, there were occasional attacks across the boundary lines during my time in Sarajevo.

One time, I inadvertently crashed a working lunch for negotiations between the Bosnian and Serbian sides. I've seen friendlier faces at an Appalacian family feud. It was a damn good thing their weapons were checked at the door.

The whole peace process almost came unglued one night when a Serbian general took a wrong turn and wound up at a NATO checkpoint at the border between Serb and Bosnian sides. The NATO soldiers arrested him, as they were supposed to do under the accords signed by all sides. Holy moly, you'd have thought we launched an unprovoked attack on the Serbian Motherland! Things were hot and testy for quite a while, and the Serbs were a millimeter away from pulling out of the agreement. But eventually everybody understood that the Serb general really did take a wrong turn, nothing more, and relations returned to their "Appalacian family feud" normality.

What's this got to do with Karadzic? Well, at the time, there was a huge push in Western countries for NATO forces to arrest Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the senior Serb general in Bosnia. It was a thirst for blood masquerading as "justice". However, the NATO commander at the time, Admiral Smith, didn't want to do it. His rationale was that NATO was there to bring peace to the country. Once peace was established, then you could bring about justice. But if you wanted "justice" first, then there would be no peace.

Admiral Smith was right. Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia have been at peace now for twelve years. It's not the greatest peace, and they're certainly not bosom buddies, but there has been no large-scale violence. And rather than NATO military forces shooting their way into some Serbian stronghold to bring Karazic to "justice", it was Serbian forces themselves who arrested him. They finally got tired of dealing with economic sanctions from the European community. And they're better prepared to deal with disgruntled Serbians than NATO is.

Let's hope this experience is not lost on those negotiating in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

More Pictures of Jackson

I'm going to San Diego on Thursday to see Rick, Julie, and Jackson. This'll be my first time in SD since Rick and Julie were married and the first time I'll get to see Jackson. Yes, I'm really excited. Expect more pictures!

More Courtroom Drawings

I spent Tuesday sitting in court again. The state of North Carolina is suing the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) over pollution from its coal-fired power plants. The trial is being held in the federal court here in Asheville. Our local TV station, WLOS, asked me to give them some images of the principal characters, which in this case are the attorneys. So here they are:

Judge Lacy Thornburg is presiding over the case. He's been a legal heavyweight in NC for many years, including a stint as the Attorney General.

Here's the NC team (left to right): Jim Gulick, Marc Bernstein, Anne Lynch, and lead attorney Mike Goodstein.

This is the TVA team (left to right): lead attorney Frank Lancaster, Maria Gillian, Harriety Cooper, and Thomas Fine.

Since there's no jury in this trial, Judge Thornburg graciously let me sit in the jury box so I could get these drawings.

The day I attended the trial, there was only one witness all day. He was an expert witness for North Carolina. He had two points to make: (1) TVA could have put pollution control measures in place anytime it wanted in the past and still can, and (2) the expert witness for TVA is an idiot. Everything else he said was a variation on those two themes. There. I just saved you 8 hours of listening to expert testimony.

My Friend Bob

I've swapped a couple of notes with my friend Bob over the past couple of days. We've known each other for almost forty years now, since we were in high school. Since then, he's gone on to do quite well and owns a high-powered economics firm in the San Francisco area. Ten years ago, he and his wife Yukari adopted a lovely Chinese baby they named Annike. They took her back to China this past spring to visit her orphanage and see her homeland.

In addition to his other talents, Bob is a helluva good photographer. He put together two exceptionally beautiful online photo books based on the trip. One is basically a record of their trip. The other is about Bob's impressions of China as seen through the faces of the people he encountered there. I recommend taking a look at them both.

Click here for the family travel book.

Click here for the Faces of China book.

A Truly Amazing Product

You really have to check out this amazing product on Amazon. It appears at first glance to be a hideously overpriced computer cable, but read the user reviews: it is, in fact, an item with miraculous powers to heal, comfort, and provide joy in wondrous ways.

Navy Musings

My first ship in the Navy was the USS Worden (CG-18). I was on her from Dec '78 to Dec '81. At first, we were homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, but never spent much time there as we were "the point of the spear", which meant we were usually steaming around in circles during exercises, or going from Yoko to Chinhae (Korea) or Subic Bay (Philippines). We were deployed to the North Arabian Sea during the disastrous hostage rescue attempt. We visited Mombasa (Kenya) and Perth, Australia, during that trip. Later, we changed our homeport to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and went into overhaul there. Basically, they tore the ship completely apart and put it back together again. I left the ship several months before we came out of overhaul.

So what brought these musings on? Well, I stumbled across a couple of videos on YouTube that featured the ol' "Wordenski Maru". Really cool to see the ship operating; brought back a lot of memories. These videos were shot long after I transferred, but they show the ship as I remember it. Well, almost: one video shows a 5" gun turret firing shells, which was from an older destroyer, as the Worden didn't have guns like that.




This video was taken while getting underway from Pearl Harbor ...



Missiles painted blue are training units that can't be fired. Missiles painted white are the real thing. And this video is the real thing!

Jackson At The Lake

Riding a Wave Blaster is damn hard work ...

Aftermath of his first Oreo ...

Future cell phone junkie ...

Kite Runner

We watched The Kite Runner last night. What a powerful movie! It has a deep subject that is just as relevant to contemporary America as it is to contemporary Afghanis. Incredibly well-written, well-directed, and well-acted. Much has been written about the rape scene and how it has offended Muslims throughout the Middle East. In truth, the rape scene is important, but it is not the focus of the movie. It's about violence, bullying, and standing up to thugs. On a scale of one to four, The Kite Runner gets five stars.

Janet Hamlin, Illustrator and Courtroom Artist

I just added a link to Janet Hamlin's blog. Janet is a freelance illustrator and courtroom artist. Notably, she's one of the few to cover the Guantanamo Bay trials, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed's last month. She has a wonderful way with the figure - her drawing style is free, her figures very much alive and individual. Go take a look.

More On Iran

On the heels of the Seymour Hersch article that I wrote about yesterday, ABC News has published a report from a "senior defense official" (my guess is that it's probably Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense) that Israel is likely to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. The attack could come sometime within the next 15 months, possibly even before the end of this year. The Telegraph newspaper in the UK had a similar article, citing our former UN ambassador John Bolton. He said it would probably come after the election, but before the new president is sworn in. Bolton may be an asshole, but he's a well-connected asshole and he's no dummy.

It doesn't really matter whether George Bush or Ehud Olmert launches the attack. The end result would be the same. Let's step through it.
- An American or Israeli attack is launched against Iranian nuclear facilities. Some, but not all, of the facilities would be destroyed. The Iranian program would be set back months, if not years, but not ended. (Remember that the US intelligence community issued a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) last December that said the Iranians stopped their program back in 2003, but didn't dismantle it. In other words, the attack would be against a program that isn't doing anything anyway.)
- The Iranians are a proud and nationalistic people, pretty much like us. And like us, they have an idiot in the front office who would love nothing more than to get involved in a war. The Iranian idiot is Ahmadinajad, whose approval ratings are on par with George Bush's. But to the Iranians, Ahmadinajad is their idiot, so any attack on him is an attack on all. So they'll rally around the flag, just like we did after 9/11. An attack on Iran will instantly give Ahmadinajad all the credibility with his own people that he currently doesn't have. And he'll use it.
- The Iranians could lob a few ineffectual missiles at Israel. Some might even hit it somewhere. More importantly, they'll shut off the Straits of Hormuz, through which approximately 20% of the world's oil supply moves. How? By launching a few attacks by aircraft, surface vessels, and surface-to-surface missiles. All they have to do is hit one or two tankers, maybe sink one, and no tanker owner will send his ship through there. Plus, it'll create an ecological disaster that would make the Exxon Valdez look like a kid spilled his Coke.
- Our Navy is permanently operating in the Persian Gulf just for this contingency. So the ships will get underway and try to keep the Straits open. But it will take time to knock out the Iranian capabilities and then convince the oil shippers that it's safe to go back in the pond. Months.
- Meanwhile, what do you think will happen to the price of oil when 20% of the world's supply is suddenly unavailable? We've seen wild price swings on minor things like a militia attack on a Nigerian oil rig. Right now oil is at $143/barrel; it could easily double or triple, meaning gas would be $8-$12 per frickin' gallon.
- Now picture what happens to the US economy with gas prices that high. People quit driving. (Great for the environment, not so good for the pocketbook of your average Joe). Trucking firms don't operate. Airlines scale back their flight schedules to almost nothing, or else go out of business entirely. With transportation costs skyrocketing, everybody else has to raise their prices to pay for it. Wages can't rise nearly as fast, so people will cut back their spending to just the basics. So tourism will come to an abrupt end. Goodbye ski resorts, beach towns, art towns, artists, Disneyworld, and much of the economy of every state in the Union. There are already rumors that GM might go bankrupt due to the drop in demand for its SUV's and trucks; if nobody can even buy their small cars, then they'll definitely go under. There won't be a ripple effect, there will be a tsunami of small, medium, and large companies closing their doors and throwing people out of work. Recession, hell, it sounds like a depression to me.
- And if the US goes into a recession/depression, so will the rest of the world. China's economy is built on providing cheap stuff to US consumers, so if we're not buying, they're in a world of hurt. Europe's economy is closely linked to the US's and is based in large part on oil as well, so their economic troubles will mirror ours. The "developing nations" won't have markets to sell to, so they'll suffer too.
- We've already seen riots around the world recently related to sudden spikes in food prices. What do you think will happen when all prices spike, while income doesn't?

I don' think this is a worst-case scenario. I think it's a realistic one. In fact, it probably understates the consequences, since there are always factors that nobody foresees.

And all this to get the Iranians to stop a program that they already stopped in 2003.

Take action now. Write your senators and congressmen. Letters to the editor. Picket. Whatever. We can't afford for this to happen.

War with Iran?

There's a frightening article in the current New Yorker by Seymour Hersch, entitled "Preparing the Battlefield". It's getting a ton of attention in the national media. I heard an interview with Hersch today on NPR's Fresh Aire show, for example.

Hersch's thesis is that the Bush administration is running a clandestine military and CIA operation inside Iran right now, aimed at forcing the Iranians to stop their nuclear weapons program. If they don't get that, then they want regime change. Hersch contends that the Bush administration (primarily Cheney) is trying to run Special Operations missions from the White House while keeping the senior military commanders in the region out of the loop. This, he contends, is what forced Admiral Fallon out of his post as CENTCOM (the guy in overall charge of US military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, the Persian Gulf, and so forth). (See my posts of March 11 and March 17 talking about this issue.) The CIA operations are covered under a Presidential Finding, which is extremely classified. The military operations are covered under Bush's constitutional authority as commander in chief. Both have been conflated into one operation that's being run outside of all the normal chains of command with all their hard-learned checks and balances.

The theme that ran through the input from all of Hersch's sources was that the Administration wants to attack Iran before Bush leaves office. Hersch said as much in his NPR interview today, citing specifically a fear of an "October surprise", or possibly something soon after the election.

You might remember that back in December, there was a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that concluded that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, and hasn't been since 2003. This, of course, is not the answer that Bush wanted to hear. Since then he has been consistently talking up the Iranian threat.

I, personally, have been ignoring him, figuring it's the last gurgles from a turd getting flushed down the drain. Hersch's article says that the turd is still looking to fire some missiles before he goes. And unfortunately, as the Commander in Chief, he still has the constitutional authority to do it.

There are only a few safeguards remaining. One is that Congress can cut off the funds. Not likely, but write your Senators and Congressmen anyway. Another is that more articles like Hersch's will keep the spotlight on Bush/Cheney and prevent them from causing much more damage. A third is that some brave military members will stand up to the President and refuse to carry out an attack, even if that means the end of their careers. I'm not comfortable with this last one. Admiral Fallon is one who was in position to stop Bush, but he was forced out, and replaced by General Petraeus. Now Petraeus is a great soldier, but he's a can-do guy, and not one who bothers to ask the "why" question.

An attack on Iran is the most incredibly stupid action this country could do right now. It's even more stupid than the Iraq invasion. IT MUST BE STOPPED.

Musings about Saturday Night Live

I watched Saturday Night Live this past weekend. Because George Carlin passed away last week, they replayed the very first SNL show ever, since he was the host that night in 1975. It was quite a trip down memory lane. No, I didn't see the very first SNL show, although I've seen an outtake or two from it. But watching it brought back so many memories, thoughts, and feelings from that time. I was in college then, with a big ol' head of hair, wide lapels, and bell-bottom blue jeans. Pretty much like several of the cast and guests.

This may be heresy, but I didn't think this was one of Carlin's better performances. It was kind of a mish-mash of several themes with nothing much to tie them together. It was cool to see John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, and Jane Curtin together, though. Since this was their first show, they didn't have the big personalities that we associate with them now. They were just cast members, all on a level playing field. Even Belushi.

The first musical guest was Billy Preston doing his hit of the time, "Nothing from Nothing". His hair was almost as big as mine was, but with a much better cut. Quite campy. SNL had a second musical guest, Janis Ian. I was a big fan of hers back then. She sang her hit song, "Seventeen". I thought it was an odd choice because "Seventeen" is a real downer, all about hypocrisy and being the odd kid out. It's tremendously strong, but it's not the kind of "get out and have a good time" song that I associate with SNL. (Kinda like my paintings aren't exactly your "good time" wall decorations, either!)

While I was working in the studio today, I dug out my old Janis Ian album, "Between the Lines", which has "Seventeen" on it. It still holds its own after 33 years. The lyrics cut to the chase and are fresh and honest. Janis Ian's voice is clear, there's no posturing, and she's a great storyteller. It was good to hear it again. I need to get it onto my iPod.

Sunday Afternoon

Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone .... ooops, that's not an original line ... actually, it's been a very busy week in Mars Hill. I spent most of the week working on various packages of paperwork for the State Department. Had to go to the doctor for a few tests ... just had a physical not two weeks ago, fortunately, so these were just a few extra items, and I seem to be in pretty good health for an old fart. And I spent a lot of time driving around from one errand to another: pick up paintings from shows in Hendersonville and Marshall, get a haircut, go to meetings here or there. Basically, just go, go, go. Next week should be much quieter.

I've written a few times about our dog Indy, who has Addison's syndrome and has to take a steroid every day. She developed a problem with incontinence. Or rather, we had the problem, since she always seemed to have it when she was taking her afternoon nap on our bed. After yet another visit to the vet, we've cut her dosage of prednizone down to 1/8 of a pill in the morning and another 1/8 pill in the afternoon. We're talking dosages about the size of a grain of sand. But it seems to be about the right level, since she hasn't had any accidents in over a week now. Knock on wood.

Rick, Julie, and Jackson are out on Lake Powell right now. Here's a picture of the Jacks getting ready for the trip. The little guy loves Wave Runners!

This next week, I want to spend a good bit of time in the studio. There are three paintings that I want to get done before heading out on my year-long Mideast vacation. Will post more about them when I've got something to show.

Baghdad Bound

Yes, you read that right. I've been conditionally offered a job with the State Department to work on reconstruction projects in Baghdad. "Conditionally" means it's pending the normal security, medical, and other checks. They're telling me that these checks might take 6-8 weeks. Then there will be 2-3 weeks of training in the DC area before moving on to Iraq. I'll be there for a year, working and living in the Embassy compound.

I started applying for State jobs in Iraq back in November. You can read my entry for Nov 19 for more information about the whys and wherefors. In March, they suddenly called me and said I was eligible for one particular job and I needed to get lots of information in within 48 hours. So I did. And then heard nothing. For weeks. When I called the "information" number listed, I got a recording that basically said "we're too busy to talk to you". Eventually I decided that I wasn't going to get the job and so I was moving on to other things. I was lined up to teach a workshop, I was on the Board of Directors at the Asheville Area Arts Council, had a couple of grant proposals in the works, was developing some promo materials for courtroom artist gigs, that sort of thing. And then the phone call came that I'd been selected for the job. "You know everything you're working on? Drop it! You're going to Baghdad, buddy!"

I'm really excited about it. I like the idea of working to rebuild the place, of making a contribution, of gathering material for future paintings. It goes back many years: I finagled my way into Desert Shield/Storm and Bosnia for much the same reason. If something big is going on, I want to be a part of it. Only this time, I won't be a military guy doing combat support, I'll be a civilian doing reconstruction. That's cool. And in the background I'll be storing up images (in my head, on camera, or on paper) for future artworks.

So for the past week, I've been filling out State Department forms for security investigations, W4's, and insurance designations. And creating never-ending lists of things to do (and occasionally getting one of them crossed off). The ball is rolling.

And I'm stoked!

The Purple Ball

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. I haven't painted nor drawn anything in ages, and have been running from one project to another. So there are a lotta things to get caught up on. (If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you've probably noticed that's a fairly consistent state of affairs for me ... except I normally get a lot more art done).

Last weekend, the Asheville Area Arts Council had its Purple Ball. This is an annual event. Every year they change the color, but it's a big social to-do in this town. I'd never gone to it, though. While I was in the Navy, I went to tons of Balls. Every year, there was the Navy Day Ball, the Marine Corps Ball, the Army Ball, and the Air Force Ball, plus any other civilian events that popped up. I did a lot of dressing up in fancy uniforms, polishing my shoes, and buying new gowns for the wife. Since leaving the service, I've never been the least bit interested in doing it again. But now that I'm on the board of the Council, it was made pretty clear that I was expected to at least show my face at one of the pre-Ball parties. It was called the Patron Party. I was under the impression that it would be a schmooze-fest with key donors to the Arts Council, and that it would be a stuffy affair that I could escape from fairly quickly.

Oh, how wrong I was.

When a 6-foot guy with big, broad shoulders comes walking in wearing a purple off-the-shoulders gown with purple bustier, big falsies, 6" stilleto heels, a huge platinum-blonde wig, expertly applied makeup, and still sporting his goatee and chest hair, you know this ain't the Navy Day Ball. The guy behind him looked like an Evil Purple Fu Manchu from the Captain Marvel comic book, sporting a sequined jock strap over his purple leotards. Women wore, well, anything, everything, and nearly nothing. Some were stunningly beautiful in elegant gowns. One young lady decided that the only thing she had that was purple was her underwear, so she sewed some embellishments on the front and back and just wore that. (She really should've worn something a bit more modest. Trust me.)

Inside the nightclub, the party was jammed, noisy, and hopping. The Terpsicorps dance troupe performed some of their numbers from their upcoming show. A batch of Asheville city cops in uniform roamed the crowds. In my younger days, this would've been a sign of trouble. But the crowd took it as a good sign and the police seemed to enjoy it as much as anybody else. I helped work the front door for a long while, checking wristbands for admittance, mostly because that's where I could people-watch the best. And the people-watching here was the best I've seen in a long, long time.

Forget the military balls. I'm going to the Arts Council balls!

Studio Stroll

This past weekend, the River District Artists (to which I belong) had our semi-annual Studio Stroll. We have over 90 artists in the group, and twice a year we open our studios to the public. It's always a popular event - we get people from all over the country who come in to see what we're doing. This weekend, I spoke with people from as far away as Boston, Ohio, and Oregon. I always try to have different stuff up on the walls every time, and this year I featured my courtroom drawings. Talking with visitors, both local and out-of-towners, is always fun.

The big issue this year, though, was that the number of visitors was way down. Artists in one studio in my building were counting, and it seems that our foot traffic was less than half that of last June. Sales were down even more. Now, I usually don't sell much during these Strolls, since my work is edgy, but there are several artists who normally sell a bunch, and this year they didn't. There are several possible reasons: weather (it rained most of Saturday), the Robert Plant/Allison Krauss concert Saturday night, and the Purple Ball for the Asheville Area Arts Council on Saturday night, all of which might have siphoned off visitors. Actually, I think the concert and the ball should've added visitors. I think the big culprit is the economy. High gas prices, skyrocketing food prices, declining stock market, the housing slump, and a tight job market are affecting what people do. And since art is a luxury item, it's one of the first things to get axed from people's budgets, and the last to come back. I saw it first-hand in the aftermath of 9/11, and it's much worse this year. Ouch!

Jackson

Jackson, my grandson, got his first haircut recently. He took it like the trooper he is. But then, he seems to have grown accustomed to having pretty women paying close attention to him.

Jacks and his mom, Julie.

Death, Trauma, and Art

Boy, that's a cheerful title for a post, isn't it? My line of thought today came about from another artist. I've swapped notes with her on the Art Calendar networking site recently. I saw that her art had gone through a fundamental change in the last few months and is now much stronger in composition, color, and, well, everything. Turns out that her mother passed away about four months ago, which has changed her whole approach to art. Essentially, she's working through the grieving process through paint.


Coming face-to-face with some of life's more brutal realities certainly does affect art. It did mine. My art is figurative and realistic - meaning I paint people so that you can recognize them. But that changed on 9/11. Suddenly what I was doing seemed so pointless, like piddling away my life when people were dying. I went in the studio that afternoon and literally threw paint at a canvas. The next day I started two abstract paintings. One was violent, the other peaceful.

Response 1

Response 2

Of course, you know that I didn't stay with this line of work. It's not my natural voice. But it was appropriate for my own personal response to 9/11. (As an aside, I've since noticed that I periodically come back to working in a yin/yang way like this ... I'll have one canvas going that has one feeling, and another canvas going that has an opposite feeling). Subsequent to these two paintings, I got more concerned with technical and formal art issues than with my initial gut reaction to the planes flying into buildings, and the abstract works petered out into pure junk. Eventually I worked my way back into figurative realistic painting. But many of the lessons I learned on these two canvases have stayed with me ... there are things in Warrior that I could never have painted if it wasn't for Response 1 and Response 2.

So now I'm wondering, for you artists out there in ALL media (not just visual arts, either), how has your work been affected by your own brush with death and trauma? Was there a big shift in what you do? If so, was it permanent or temporary? I'm really curious about this.