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The opening of Cassandra Barney's new show "24 Little Tin Paintings" was last Friday at Kayo Gallery in SLC and I finally got to see in person the first (and probably) only original, unique painting that I have ever purchased. All of her paintings were divine. I am no artist, but with artist sisters I kinda know some terminology like oil paints vs acrylic paints and varnish and lacquer, but that's about the extent of my knowledge so don't make fun of me. :-) Cassi did this thing with all the paintings to make the paint crack and look old that I thought was a wonderful touch. I had two other favorites other than mine, the honeybee and the full length woman dressed in all white with blue and gray accents.

Cassi was such a dear during the show, she (rather Dan Barney) took pictures of all the people who inspired each painting and she explained the meaning and symbolism to everyone. Mine was a bit obvious: achieving a balance between fire and water with me perfectly in the middle of those two elements. The flower in the right corner is a passion flower that represents my true passions in life.

She posted more pics and details on her blog here. If you are in the neighborhood, swing by and check it out. Show and gallery information is below.

"24 Little Tin Paintings" by Cassandra Barney

Kayo Gallery

177 E. 300 S. (Broadway)

Salt Lake City, UT

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11am-7pm

This is not political, so even if you hate KO you can watch it. It is seriously the funniest frickin thing I have seen in a long, long time.

Last fall, I regaled my friend the famous artist, Cassi Barney, with tales of my pyrotechnic exploits from that past summer. (I documented these PITA adventures for posterity in the posts Taylorsville Dayzz 2008: Otherwise Known As..., Tis the Season--Part 1, Tis the Season--Part 1b: Where I Left Off, and Tis the Season: Part 2: Offending the Pyro God.) Cassi was thoroughly entertained.

Shortly thereafter, Cassi posted an entry on her blog saying, in part:





This is "mine". I love it. I cannot wait see it in person, hug Cassi and thank her for such a beautiful blessing.

Talkin' walmart by ~Winged-Evil on deviantART

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I am back from Philadelphia as of 5 hours ago, Dave and Sue are happily married, my dog is thrilled to be back home and my photos are uploaded. I didn't take as many as I normally do, I just wasn't in the mood for much random photography this time around. I was more into wandering around Center City all weekend. Got some good stories to show for it too!

Love Park, my favorite park based on a sculpture.

Random giant board game pieces in the middle of downtown....so random.

By the way, I did finally make it over to Star Trek: The Exhibition at The Franklin Institute of Science. I did have some major issues getting into and out of the exhibit that put me in a sour mood (a couple of the security guards got earfuls from me), but walking onto the actual bridge of the Enterprise D (from Star Trek:The Next Generation for you non-geeks) made me ecstatically happy. I had to touch every panel, sit in every station, walk down the ramp from Worf's station to Data's station and pull The Picard Maneuver (not the Stargazer battle tactic, the other one) and stand in front of the view screen and imagine that it displayed a Borg cube or a wormhole or a paradox. Yes, I fully admit I did that. I was as happy as a kid in a candy shop. (BTW, Wil...they didn't have your Lt Cmdr Crusher video working. I should write a strongly worded letter.) So, the picture below is total contraband but yes, I am sitting in Captain Picard's chair. 'Nuff said.

This is the amazing house where Dave and Sue had the wedding reception. This is their YARD. It's green! Amazing what temperate climates do for plants, eh?

The happy bride (Sue) and groom (Dave)! Both were very excited and well behaved while holding cake. I am so happy they found each other. They are perfect together and Sue can keep him in line!

Me and Dave, 10 years after we first met, him happily married, me happily not. Well, Mr. David Sterling Francis Michael Maynard (that really is his full name, at least that's what he says), congratulations. I am so glad I was able to be there. It really was very Dave-like of you to get married on D-Day to another history geek. Mazal tof!

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Here are some highlights from the transcript:

Finally tonight, our number one story, and the very serious, very unsettling part the Fox News Channel played in the assassination of Dr. George Tiller. The horrifying realization that a television figure can be a facilitator for domestic terrorism. This was under-scored, proved even today, when a man named Frank Schaeffer wrote for the “Huffington Post” that as a former member of the anti-abortion activist far right, he believes he, quote, “shares the blame for the murder of Dr. Tiller.” As we believe here does Fox News Channel.

Schaeffer followed his father, Francis, an Evangelist into the field, each writing books. His father‘s was called “A Christian Manifesto.” “In certain passages, he advocated force if all other methods for rolling back the abortion ruling of Roe v. Wade failed. He compared America and its legalized abortion to Hitler‘s Germany and said that whatever tactics would have been morally justified in removing Hitler would be justified in trying to stop abortion. Like many writers of moral, political and religious theories, my father and I would have been shocked that someone took us at our word, walked into a Lutheran church and pulled the trigger on an abortionist. But even if the murderer never read dad‘s or my words, we helped create the climate that made this murder likely to happen.”

Of course, in this case, the murderer clearly heard the words from Fox News Channel, or in the most benign of constructions, read the words of those who had heard the words from Fox News Channel. There‘s a comment thread from the Operation Rescue website from April and May 2007. I‘m not implying these other posters had a hand in this. These are merely comments from readers about an anti-Tiller prayer event in Wichita.

It begins with a post from April 6, asking, “has Bill O‘Reilly been invited to any of the Tiller events? If so, what has been his reply? Has Fox News covered any of the events?”

There are two subsequent answers echoing the invitation. Then there is the ninth post from May 19, 2007, which reads “bleass,” misspelled, “everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp.” That was posted by Scott Roeder. Scott Roeder is the name of the suspected terrorist arrested yesterday for assassinating Dr. George Tiller.

For four years, on at least 28 occasions, that‘s what was said on Fox News Channel. Nazism, al Qaeda, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Stalin, baby killing pedophilia, Tiller the baby killer, again and again and again. And tonight, confronted with the inevitable result of the instigation, the principal perpetrator at Fox News Channel made no acknowledgement of culpability, nor even regret.

He said, “no back pedaling here. I report honesty. Everything we said about Tiller was true and my analysis was based on those facts. It is clear that the far left is exploiting the death of the doctor. Those vicious individuals want to stifle any criticism of people like Tiller. That and hating Fox News is the real agenda here. If these people were so compassionate, so very compassionate, so concerned for the rights and welfare of others, maybe they might have written something on things about the 60,000 fetuses who will never become American citizens.”

It is useless to urge restraint on men who believe self-editing of freedom of speech should apply only to others, that they are flawless and blameless and righteous. It is useless to make Frank Schaeffer‘s argument to them, even though they have made parallel ones about how liberal television degrades children, about how liberal television hypnotizes voters, about liberal entertainment destroys American values.

When they reply not in this case, bad apple, TV can‘t make that happen, it is useless to say, if TV can‘t make something happen, why do people advertise on it with the same commercial again and again and again, in hopes of making buzzwords sink in? Like Geico Gecko, Viva Viagra, FreeCreditReport.com, Tiller the Baby Killer.

So what to do? Viewer boycotts mean little. You are already here. You are not watching Fox News Channel. Advertiser boycotts are also of limited value. Most make barely a dent in a company. Besides which, in this economy, an advertiser that found its sales boosted by association with malaria would start breeding mosquitoes.

If there is a solution, it is perhaps an indirect boycott. It is probably your experience, as it has been mine, that stores, bars, restaurants, waiting rooms often show Fox News on their televisions. Don‘t write a letter, don‘t make a threat, just get up and explain, if they will not change the channel, leave the place and say calmly why it is you are taking your business elsewhere. If you know a viewer of that channel, show them this tape, or just the tape of the attacks on Dr. Tiller that set the stage for his assassination.

Fox News Channel will never restrain itself from incitement to murder and terrorism, not until its profits begin to decline, when its growth stops. So not so much a boycott here as a quarantine, because this has got to stop.

That I have a commercial conflict of interest here is obvious. So I‘ll make the first symbolic contribution to this quarantine. One of my pleasures, obviously, is constantly criticizing him in that Ted Baxter voice. It is the idea of laughter as a social sanction against inflexible behavior.

But this is no time for laughter. This is serious. Serious as death. As serious as George Tiller‘s death. So as of this show‘s end, I will retire the name, the photograph, and the caricature. The words may still be quoted in the future as developments dictate. The goal here is to get this blindly irresponsible man and his ilk off the air.

We‘re only in the television news business, a profession that is at times about two inches up from carnival barking. We must again separate it, television from terrorism. And we must again make the world safe for people condemned by the Fox News Channel. --Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann

(The first being Jackson)

On Thursday I head to Philadelphia for the long-anticipated wedding of one of my former college roommates and best friends. Dave is a good guy, he was the rock of our apartments and the one who held us all together when the shit hit the proverbial fan. I fell in love with Philly the first time I went there to visit him after we graduated. It has all the charm of a big eastern city but none of that New York City smell (ew), plus totally random sculptures of random things thrown randomly throughout the city to boot! (They are random.) I knew I liked this city when I came up the escalator from the subway and saw this:

Hellllllooo random. There are also huge Monopoly and Sorry pieces, a broken button and mosaic walls everywhere, but my favorite is still the classic LOVE statue.

Random True Fact: That is the last picture I took with a non-digital camera...after this pic, we visited Washington Square (which was built on top of a graveyard of victims of yellow fever) and my camera spazzed out (took 4 or 5 pics by itself, rewound, took more pictures, started smoking.) Personally, I think it was the pissed off spirits.

The wedding is on Saturday, so I will have a good 2.5 days of wandering around The City of Brotherly Love by myself (which is my favorite way to travel and experience things...kamikaze adventuring, hence the title of this blog.) I definitely have to hit my favorites: Pat's King of Steaks (wit Whiz yo), the Rodin Museum and The Mutter Museum (which is the Greatest. Museum. Ever.) I also have to add Star Trek: The Exhibition to my itinerary as it is currently at the Franklin Institute of Science (they have a lifesize model of the bridge of the Enterprise D!) *Insert geeked out digression here*

I could definitely live in Philly. Graduate school, maybe? Hmmmmm...