RTF 317 Postmodernism KEVIN LUDLOW RTF 317 RESPONSE PAPER POSTMODERNISM A STRANGE BREW OF REALITY FRAN GUILFOYLE MAY 7 1999 As we have gotten closer and closer to the twenty first century the lifestyles of Americans and other cultures for that matter have changed drastically Television has changed drastically as well It has changed to not only fit the times but also to make fun of them Lifestyles that we see in average American households are displayed in realistic but sometimes over exaggerated senses This is especially evident in Pee Wee s Playhouse and the ever so popular primetime show The Simpsons In 1986 Paul Reubens was transformed from being a relatively smalltime actor into a character that children would learn to love Pee Wee Although this was not the first time that Pee Wee was around it was the first time he appeared on network television Pee Wee s Big Adventure had been produced and released the previous year but now a show was in the Saturday morning lineup Each week millions of kids would sit in front of the screen laughing at his goofy suit magical bike and infamous word of the day But there was certainly more to the show then comedy Pee Wee s show was made up of radical sets make believe worlds talking animals even talking furniture It was categorically described as an educational children s comedy Less the comedy I suppose one could almost compare it to Mr Roger s Neighborhood All of the elements were the same Of course anyone s who has ever watched both of those shows would say quite the opposite Characteristically Pee Wee reflected the life of the eighties teenager and young adult Hairstyles were very eccentric and strangely colored a modern house look was always in effect as mentioned previously and women were not shown to be housewives but rather important figures in the world Although all of these things may seem like nothing they were quite a change for the time Single hosted shows before this time were nothing like that of Pee Wee s Playhouse Many times the host would be and older man talking calmly and enunciating his words simply trying to get a message across If the host wanted a guest on his show it would be another person similar to the host explaining their message in the same sense I resort back to Mr Roger Children were often taken on trips to the post office or the bank They would see a postal employee named Mr Smith or a bank clerk named Mrs Morris doing their job and learn what they did The farthest stretch that the show had was Never Never Land which was made up of humans and talking puppets Paul Reuben was far from anything like this His Never Never Land was the entire show The set was not made up of nice furniture and fishbowls but rather of magic windows and furniture that talked to the audience Even the character names were made up There was Conky Knucklehead Captain Carl and of course Pee Wee The entire show was a display of the post modernism cinema and television style that had emerged People of the era were tired of being normal and individualism was a key Children teens and even young adults wanted to be different then the regular guy This could be seen through the way that people dressed and did their hair to the way that they built their homes No more slacks and tucked in collared shirts People wanted to dress in ripped jeans and wear Jean jackets covered in patches They did not want their hair to be blonde or brown with the standard cut but rather for it to be purple or pink with spikes or even a Mohawk Pee Wee s Playhouse catered to this style of life and it certainly became popular because of it As the eighties ended and the nineties began lifestyles began changing yet again and a new display of postmodernism shows would begin Within that realm of shows would emerge one of the most popular animated series of all times The Simpsons The Simpsons did not necessarily look at individuals differently but rather at the family To understand how this works we must look at each family member separately We begin with the children As we have seen in shows in the past children were generally well behaved polite and listened to their parents Take for example Leave it to Beaver Wally and the Beaver were always civil to one another they were courteous to their parents and when they wronged their parents the apologized and learned how not to make the same mistake again The Simpsons is much different from this model Bart Simpson is the epitome of the nineties child He is misbehaved crude to others disrespectful to authority and makes the same mistakes over and over again Lisa Simpson is not quite like Bart but her ideas are very eccentric as well Although she is supposed to be extremely educated she often causes problems for others by means of protest even against her parent s wishes She is simply another reflection of the nineties child Children nowadays tend to form their own radical opinions about matters and do not usually take into consideration what their parents feel about it The legalization of drugs and especially marijuana can is a perfect example of this Parents realize the dangers of drugs but children believe them to be perfectly safe or are ignorant to their dangers Because of this we have the rebel child that goes out and does exactly what his or her parents would not approve of in this case doing drugs As we look at the mother of the family Marge we can see yet another perfect reflection of today s mom Marge is depicted in a number of episodes as the working mom She has held down jobs such as a teacher a policewoman and even a spokesperson for the community She is often afraid of where her path may take her but is not afraid to try Quite opposite of what we would expect from Mrs Cleaver who could be seen cooking and cleaning the house at all times On the flip side however this is the way that it was back in the fifties and sixties That was what moms did It only makes sense that we would see it would be on television like that Finally as we look at the father of the family the infamous Homer Simpson we can only laugh As in other postmodernism shows Homer is known as the buffoonish father Recalling on the Cleaver family we would expect nothing more from Mr Cleaver then for him to come home from a hard days work pay the bills tell his children goodnight put himself to bed and do it all over again Homer is a little different In his average thirty minutes we see Homer skip work drink himself into a stupor watch hours of television and ignore most of the bad things that his children do not to mention ignoring his wife This is obviously a harsh way to look at the nineties father but there is some truth to it The father of today does not always run the show and is not always the one on top in the family In the past the father held the family together but nowadays we see different and random bonds form between family members We do not see fathers throwing a ball around with their son as much anymore Not to mention slacking off from hard work is more evident now then in the past So as we have gotten closer and closer to the twenty first century we can see that the postmodernism television shows are changing to fit the lifestyles of Americans As we have scene in Pee Wee s Playhouse and The Simpsons television follows the time but it reflects it in some ways and mocks it in others I can not wait to see how television reflects the twenty first century and I especially can not wait to see how it mocks it
NYU SNL Script 1 Comedy Writing Workshop D B Gilles INT HOSPITAL LOOKING ROOM DAY A man named JIM dressed in a nice looking sweater is sitting with his legs crossed on the hospital bed His hair is neatly combed as he sits there a moment waiting for his cue There is no one else around He looks up Soft classical music is playing in the background JIM Phil Hartman like voice Today s world can be rough on children With so many bad things that they can get into discipline these days is a must Of course with so many new child abuse laws around these days maybe it s time to lay off of the belts and call your friends at BEAT Don t let the acronym fool you it doesn t mean a damn thing at all whispers in fact it s just so that we can be recognized as an official agency You can simply refer to us as the company that Beat s the hell out of your kids for you The man stands up and walks in front of the bed still facing us DR JACK KEVORKIAN comes into the room and shakes hands with Jim He faces us and begins to speak JACK KEVORKIAN Hi my name is Jack Kevorkian You may have heard my name used in conjunction with oh I don t know Charles Manson or perhaps even Satan but that s not really important is it We work for a side of the government that was actually outlawed 35 years ago but I ll be damned if we re going to listen to what the courts say Hey Jim let s say we take a brief look at what our customers can expect out of our three step program JIM I thought you d never ask The classical music fades out INT MUSKY PRISON LOOKING ROOM The two of them open a large steel door and walk into another room that is dark and dingy with water dripping from the ceiling There are leather whips chains and paddles all around A table carved from stone is in the middle of the room with restraints on every corner Jim grabs the doctor s ass JACK KEVORKIAN whispers Wrong program Jim JIM Of course it is Now where were we JACK KEVORKIAN As you can see right from the start the child is petrified simply by the sight of this hideous room It s so frightening in fact that every now and then the child will pass out before the therapy can begin JIM But not to worry doctor we have the finest line of smelling salts to ensure a quality visit The door to the room flings open two large men are carrying in a small boy BILLIE that is kicking and squirming to break free from their grip JIM Oh isn t this a treat We ve got a patient this very moment How about that JACK KEVORKIAN Very nice my friend JIM Step one is to grab the little ones chart to see just what he s in for JACK KEVORKIAN You got it Jim Jack takes the slate from one of the guards who is busy tying down the boy to the table He turns back to speak with Jim JACK KEVORKIAN Well this is very interesting BILLIE in a loud and shaky voice I m going to sue the hell out of you someday Billie begins to cry Jim walks over to Billie and gently pets his head JIM laughing a bit Silly Billy Government agencies get sued all of the time We just use the taxpayers money down to the last penny to defend ourselves But you can think about that while your being cured The guards finish strapping Billie down to the table on his stomach Jim gestures to the guard to shut Billy up The guard reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gag ball He precedes to place it in Billie s mouth JIM We got a little ahead of ourselves on this one but the gag ball is just part of step two You can also choose to have nature sounds playing for your child at this time We find that the sounds of the whales work the best Their calls tend to sound just like any screaming that may occur JACK KEVORKIAN Like I was saying it says right here that Billie is a fatherless child who is hard of hearing blind in the left eye and occasionally experiences muscle related spasms in his legs The guards exit the room and the door slams Billie is still crying JIM Wow it looks like we ve got a winner here You poor little bastard pauses And I really mean that Lets find out why he s in here shall we Jack JACK KEVORKIAN Sure thing Jim Jack Kevorkian flips the page over on the chart and periodically nods his head JACK KEVORKIAN Well it appears that Little Billie has refused to sit still when his reading tutor comes over on to the house JIM Oh now Billie JACK KEVORKIAN His mother has also left us a note saying that she finds it more beneficial for her to spend money on his tutor then surgically correcting Billie s vision JIM What a mom JACK KEVORIKAN She adds I want him to learn how important it is to read but teachers do not want to teach a child that is always jumping out of his seat JIM Very understandable indeed Most teachers don t even want to teach Well Billie it looks like your about to get the My ass is gonna be sore as hell treatment Billie starts squirming in his restraints with failed attempts to scream through the gag Jim walks back over to Billie and places a hand on his shoulder JIM Don t worry about a thing Billie your with a professional doctor now he begins to laugh a bit In fact with any luck your tailbone will probably crack in three different places before round two even begins You ll be slowly just fine Jack Kevorkian pulls some surgical gloves out of his pocket and snaps them onto his hands He walks over to the wall and grabs a large wooden paddle off of its hanger Billy begins to attempt screaming some more JIM Happy thoughts Billie happy thoughts Jim walks out of the cell room and back into the white hospital looking room He slams the steel door behind him and locks it He walks over to the white bed in the center of the room and leans against it INT HOSPITAL LOOKING ROOM DAY JIM Unfortunately due to our friends over at the FCC child therapy of this nature is not allowed to be aired on national television sorry You might try searching the web for similar video clips from out office in Pakistan but I didn t tell you that We can hear a smack followed by a muffled scream every so often Jim puts a smile on his face JIM Oh my It sounds like step three just began As you can probably tell our program is not only effective it s therapeutic I guarantee that once your child is admitted to our clinic he ll never come back in fact he might not ever go home again Either way you come out a winner Jim stops talking and a large smile appears on his face END 7 1 1999
American Healthcare Part IV An Unpredictable Event On the evening of April 8th 2009 I was in a motorcycle accident just a few miles from my home When I awoke I was laying on my side in the middle of a four lane road surrounded by people The next sixteen hours provided me with a first hand glance of how our emergency care system purports itself to work as well as how it actually works At a time when I legitimately needed to ensure my own well being the events following the crash tested my principles far more than my pain tolerance The background of the accident is fairly a straightforward story As I traveled northbound on a local arterial road the driver of a vehicle three cars ahead of me slammed on the brakes and made an unexpected illegal left turn through a median at the bottom of a hill The two cars in front of me were forced to slam on their brakes as well narrowly avoiding one another in the process I was later told that pedestrians in the vicinity heard the screeching of their tires saw smoke rising from the burning rubber and witnessed a red motorcycle crash into the back of a Ford Explorer and its passenger launched through the air Although I had seen the entire chain of events unfold before me and took every evasive action I could the brakes on my motorcycle locked and threw me into a skid Unable to control my motorcycle I veered directly towards the back of the SUV I turned the bike sharply to the left as a last ditch effort to avoid the car but evidently did not come to the decision quickly enough My motorcycle slammed into the vehicle instantly throwing me forward As I flew forward through the air my legs clipped the handlebars and the right side of my body forcefully slammed into the back of the Explorer I wound up landing headfirst several feet away on the hard asphalt below Had I not been wearing a helmet and minimum safety gear I suspect the impact would have killed me or at least left me with a severe brain injury To those immediately on the scene I appeared as nothing but a lifeless body laying in the fetal position It is still unclear whether I fell temporarily unconscious but I certainly was not moving yet After some unaccounted period of time I found myself peacefully gazing up through my helmet s visor at a growing crowd of people Some sounded emotional others as if they were trying to control the space around me but to the best of my recollection all sounded legitimately concerned about my well being I could hear several speaking with emergency dispatchers from their cell phones As I began hearing sirens in the distance it occured to me what the ensuing medical costs would be for a medical transport and I decided at that moment I would need to take some action Much to the verbal dismay of the onlookers I carefully stood up in a mild stupor brought my motorcycle upright and proceeded to walk it off of the road so the growing traffic jam could pass A number of individuals helped me to the side of the road and sat me down on the grass to wait for the fleet of emergency vehicles to arrive One of the girls helping me was on the phone with EMS and told me an ambulance was on its way Despite the condition I was in I asked her to tell EMS that I did not require their assistance as I was not interested in paying the several hundred dollar price tag that I knew would be associated with it She did relay this message but it was the policy of the emergency crew to show up on the scene anyway When the medical team arrived on the scene they asked me a number of questions related to my condition and performed a very basic examination of my neck and spine Even though they suggested it was in my best interest to go to the hospital with them they were polite and professional as I declined their services The chief police officer on the scene was incredibly considerate throughout the ordeal and ensured that I did not wish for any additional medical services before eventually waving the ambulance off As the ambulance drove off and the traffic flowed regularly those who had stopped to look slowly began to disperse In the end the car that had turned illegally was nowhere to be found and my collision with the Explorer was ruled a no fault accident by the police I managed to get a ride back to my house from the local motorcycle towing company on the scene but my ordeal with American healthcare was just beginning I first attempted to get in touch with my insurance provider to determine if this sort of incident would be covered by my catastrophic plan I ultimately gave up after about forty five minutes as I was unable to get in touch with anyone though I did later find out that any costs would simply have been applied towards my catastrophic deductible With my pain worsening by the minute particularly as the adrenaline from the accident had worn off I was clearly in need of medical attention I relayed the details of the accident to an ex girlfriend and she graciously came to my assistance and took me to the hospital Torn bloodied and unable to move my right arm I hobbled into the emergency waiting room and spoke to a nurse about needing medical attention Seeing the condition I was in she quickly brought me into the admittance room to check my vitals and gather some information from me The check in process itself was very fast and efficient and there was no wait to be assigned to a private trauma room As the nurses concluded the check in process and wrapped the iconic medical bracelet around my left wrist I paused and asked them what I assumed at the time was a very common question I asked them how much the examination was going to cost Both nurses appeared almost startled that I would be asking such a question under the circumstances One of them responded very curtly that she did not know and that it was unimportant given my current condition I felt as if I had asked her something offensive I explained calmly and clearly my understanding of how it would be difficult to provide an exact dollar amount and that I was merely asking for a ballpark figure I even went on to explain that I simply wanted a very basic medical examination to be sure that I did not have any internal bleeding and that my skull was not fractured Anything more would be a huge bonus to me Regardless of this clarification I was again told that it would be impossible to give me any sort of a figure and that I should not be concerning myself with the medical costs After pushing for what seemed like several minutes one of the nurses eventually relented to my increasing agitation and informed me that the medical attention would likely cost between five and seven thousand dollars Although I did plead unsuccessfully for a more reasonable price particularly given the attention I felt I needed I informed the hospital that I could not justify paying such a high fee for the basic care I was seeking and that I did not want to receive medical treatment The stunned expressions on the nurses faces left quite an impression upon me and I was promptly asked to leave the admittance room Literally dripping blood with each step I slowly hobbled back across the waiting room towards the front door and was driven back home My ex girlfriend brother and another dear friend kept their eyes on me throughout the evening as I waited for the local urgent care facility to open Ten hours after the accident I was taken by my brother to an urgent care facility and finally received a full and much needed medical examination Doctors examined my neck and spine checked for signs of head injuries and internal bleeding tended to dozens of lacerations took and interpreted eleven x rays of my arm leg head and neck and provided me with antibiotics and pain medication I paid my bill in full on the spot without any type of insurance for a grand total of 252 almost twenty times cheaper than the lowest figure the emergency room nurse had estimated em continued in a href blog 2129 American_Healthcare__Part_V_Impractical_Expectations Part V Impractical Expectations a em
American Healthcare Part I Introduction As technology continues advancing medical sciences beyond the scope of our imagination humanity s ability to heal is constantly surpassing what science fiction makes us believe possible Despite these continued advances citizens of the United States have witnessed a continual depreciation in the most basic of healthcare services meanwhile watching the costs of those services continue to skyrocket From a political point of view neither side of the coin has showed any particular willingness to compromise nor has either side made any visible attempt to think beyond traditional partisan boxes On the one hand Democrats seem all too willing to empower both the government and multinational conglomerates with impractical and anti consumerist solutions While on the other hand Republicans do not even seem able or willing to acknowledge that the healthcare system is severely flawed If we indulge cynicism it does appear the one success both parties have had is finding yet another outlet in which to further polarize a steadily misinformed and politically divided nation With these divisions driving the country towards civil unrest one might wonder if it is even possible to steer the country back towards some type of realistic and agreeable middle ground That is to suggest is it possible for Americans to control their government the underlying basis of the entire American democracy while still ensuring that the medical needs of an ever growing population are properly met I believe the answer to this question is most definitely yes but not without a very legitimate voluntary and rationally based commitment from individuals of both sides Much like the topics that have already been addressed throughout this text people will need to understand that there is a balance point within the system that we must strive for as a collective society It is simply unrealistic to think that any country can provide the bleeding edge of technology to every person all of the time and without cost it is simply not economically possible But conversely it is nothing short of malignity to believe we cannot or should not implement practical solutions that ensure the basic health and well being of all Americans without creating financial hardships for anyone whether they are rich or poor Proverbial wisdom suggests that sometimes one must take a single step back in order to take two steps forward Given how far the country has moved in both directions away from center it stands to reason that we would need to take a very large step backwards in order to correct our problems But if both liberals and conservatives would be willing to embrace that parable and champion sensible legislative adjustments rather than merely dictating their own far leaning partisan ideologies I believe Americans could enjoy the most functional and efficient healthcare system in the world em continued in a href blog 2135 American_Healthcare__Part_II_The_Healthcare_Divide Part II The Healthcare Divide a em
9 11 Part XI photo 298962 740 200 right The paper from 11 years ago photo It was a year ago today that I posted on my Facebook wall a href https www facebook com kevinludlow posts 10150285040793683 I fucking hate 9 11 and everything about it a It was an honest feeling about the 10th anniversary of the American tragedy Perhaps not surprising I was met with some pretty strong views from both sides A few in agreement appreciated the bluntness but a few in disagreement were furious at my callousness Contrary to what the latter group may have assumed at the time my position was not intended as one of rudeness It was not intended as a lack of sympathy for mourners And it was certainly not intended as a childish outburst of disrespect for the deceased Instead it was an introspective position questioning very sincerely what 9 11 actually does mean to America Not what we d like it to mean but rather the meaning it takes on given our actions as a nation Why can t I fucking hate 9 11 Why is that so wrong In the 11 years since the towers were brought down I would like to think that the United States has progressed in wisdom and maturity I would like to think that the majority of people have become more knowledgeable and less ethnocentric in their ways But I am also very aware that this is far from reality People are becoming more and more divided on a daily basis The United States military is involved in numerous conflicts with sovereign nations around the Middle East and despite what the President claims withdrawing from the region seems very unlikely any time soon The rich continue getting richer and the poor continue getting poorer And worst of all is that with the exception of fringed political dissenters both left and right nobody really seems to care enough to change anything Hell most people probably don t even notice In my eyes the United States is the antiquated representation of a former greatness Where innovation once stood now stands blind corporatism in its place Where soldiers and police once honorably defended philosophical values now stands blind militarism used for defending only value itself Where liberty once stood now stands an army of lobbyists increasingly proficient at penetrating our three branches of government And atop the entire chain is the media always there to remind us that it s the fault of someone else we are every bit as good to the world as we think we are We now live in a country where it s borderline treason to question anything that lead to the events of 9 11 Never mind questioning the conspiracy theories but even the underlying motives of the hijackers remains a socially condemned topic in most discussions The population remains willfully oblivious to the fact that we ve been dropping bombs on the Middle East for decades without consequence And of course to most people it s impossible to believe that we are directly responsible for arming and using the Taliban to stifle the Russians now one of the very groups we re allegedly seeking to destroy Still my personal favorite is that while we continue to wage wars and conflicts with Iraq Afghanistan Pakistan Libya Egypt Syria and soon to be Iran we still enjoy relative peace with Saudi Arabia ignoring the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers actually em were em citizens of the country My effort is not to denigrate the lives of 2 977 innocent Americans killed by such evil intentions but to force the issue of why we should ignore the more than 120 000 equally innocent that we have killed in reckless retaliation since The United States is a land of opportunity and there is no tragedy too great for this mantra We sell t shirts stickers cigarette lighters pins coffee mugs patches plates and truckloads of other petty memorabilia embroidered with this notorious day We can buy 9 11 in a dozen different colors we just can t talk about it quite as colorfully This is how we choose to honor the memories of those who died because this truly em is em the character of the United States We re materialistic in every way imaginable and it couldn t be illustrated any better than on a day such as this People were literally blown to pieces in the sky Rescue workers were literally crushed to death by falling steel concrete and debris Innocent men and women literally jumped to their untimely deaths to escape the horrors of being burned alive by jet fuel And so to memorialize these people we find it in good taste to purchase tiny plastic replicas of the buildings bearing the words Never Forget across the front and Made in China underneath We are truly surreal So when I wrote a href https www facebook com kevinludlow posts 10150285040793683 I fucking hate 9 11 and everything about it a on the 10 year anniversary of the tragedy I genuinely meant it And one year later I still do If we truly honored the deceased as we pretend to do we would ALL fucking hate 9 11 This is the natural human response towards any tragedy especially one of such magnitude Instead we re taught to embrace the moment as some kind of half time pep rally while we continue to sign the rights of the country away to the highest bidder I suspect very sincerely that before this chapter in history is all over we ll learn to fucking hate 9 11
Canyon Lake Gorge Private Tour There is a geological formation in Central Texas unlike any other place in the world or so I m told Thanks to some wonderful connections I was able to go on a private tour of this geological wonderland over the weekend Over the July 4th weekend of 2002 two massive storms collided over Central Texas and dumped rain for days The results were cataclysmic New Braunfels and Canyon Lake were two of the greater causalities in the state with Canyon Lake filling to one and a half times its capacity When the pressure built up enough and the spillway didn t hold a massive rush of water began to flow destroying everything in its path including the Earth itself The very fact that this is possible fascinates me but a new canyon was carved into the Earth in a long weekend Think of a very small version of the Grand Canyon This is what is known as the Canyon Lake Gorge My friend Mark knows one of the caretakers and naturists and was able to get us on a private tour of the canyon It was only about a 1 80 mile hike but we experienced an elevation decline of about 220 feet and traveled back through time about 1 5 million years between the beginning and end of the hike The canyon is full of fault lines fossils and incredibly well preserved dinosaur tracks photo 311230 311520 0 center A view of the canyon The water has that milky blue look due to the limestone deposits in it photo photo 311208 311520 0 center Pretty incredible fossils photo photo 311169 311520 0 center Evidently one of the most visible fault lines in the entire world photo photo 311540 311520 0 center Posing inside one of the caves along the way photo
The James Turrell Skyspace Today I had the pleasure of being invited to one of the most amazing visual art installments I have ever seen anywhere in the world The piece was created by a href http jamesturrell com James Turrell a and sits atop the Student Activity Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus I most certainly cannot do the piece justice in words but I will try to describe it objectively Atop the student building is an oval shaped concrete dome There is a single entrance on the east side Inside are polished concrete seats wrapping the edges save for the entrance The seats are angled so that the viewer can more comfortably gaze up at the ceiling All of the walls and ceiling are painted white the seats are a darker gray In the middle of the white ceiling is an oval shaped hole The viewer sits on the seat and stares into the sky through this hole of course only able to see a small bit of the sky at any given time Less than an hour from sundown and sunrise the light show begins As the lights very slowly rotate through a series of vivid colors the viewer gets entirely lost in the color shifting effects in the sky As the surrounding light changes it contrasts the sky so vividly that the juxtaposed images appear to shift the color of the sky Of course that is not actually the case at all and instead our eyes simply perceive this to be happening The color differential also creates an illusion that the opening in the ceiling is a floating egg or similar physical entity It s incredibly surreal peaceful and amazing photo 315866 315900 0 center A view of the dusky sky surrounded by yellow lighting This was my favorite color sequence When I would let the scene take over my eyes I thought the scene looked like a giant sunflower photo photo 315867 315900 0 center Another photo just to show how significant the color difference makes to the sky photo br style clear both Although I wasn t previously familiar with Turrell by name I actually had the pleasure of seeing one of his private light installments on a daily basis for over a year I worked as a contractor for Dimensional Fund Advisors in their Austin office near Bee Caves If you re not familiar with them DFA is an incredibly successful mutual fund company that was started by David Booth in Santa Monica California They moved their headquarters to Austin about five years ago and built one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen As it happens David s wife Suzanna Booth is a huge proponent of the arts The entire building is essentially a private art museum and the Turrell piece is just one of many amazing elements within it So although I already really enjoyed the artist this was the first time I had the pleasure of actually learning about him I would highly recommend it to anyone especially those interested in the visual arts
Packing Everything Up After an 8 day long visit with my dear old friend DaveG in Kansas City Missouri I am finally ready for my trip I leave for Chicago at 7 43 in the morning via Amtrak am meeting up with some friends in Chicago for lunch and then head to Chicago O Hare Airport in the evening for the first leg of my trip a flight to Bangkok Thailand by way of Taipei Taiwan photo 631697 632097 0 center Everything laid out and getting ready to be packed up photo br style clear both Being quite the world traveler himself Dave had a number of little bags that he was able to let me borrow to make my trip considerably more organized A little bag for socks and underwear another one for pills and medicine another for electronics etc photo 631638 632097 0 center Condensed down into the smaller packing bags photo br style clear both Ultimately I am bringing two bags with me One of them is my actual backpacking pack a beautiful new Osprey X 58 that I got from REI It s considerably larger than I actually need for all of my stuff but there is a reason for this that I will come to The other bag is a smaller CamelBak that Dave actually traded me for the Timbuk2 that I was originally planning to bring The smaller one is intended to hold my food computer and electronics the items that I never check in The larger Osprey holds all of my clothes medicine toiletries except for my toothbrush as you never know when you ll need it Once I clear customs in Thailand my plan is to pack the CamelBak inside of the Osprey That s why I got one that has extra space in it Once I am situated in my hostile in Bangkok I will reduce the CamelBak to just the bare necessities that I want to have while exploring the city photo 631700 632097 0 center and finally down into just these two bags photo br style clear both This will mostly be limited to my water camera wallet and copies of my identification just in case something should happen I am sure that I ll wind up purging a few items a long the way but after experimenting with all sorts of configurations and having done this many times in the past I m pretty sure that I have a good setup I guess I will find out tomorrow on my way photo 631688 632097 0 center And for my final trick the smaller bag goes into the larger bag photo br style clear both
Building the Tyligo Another one of my many project for people was a picnic table that I made for one of Tisa's brothers, Kert. The Tyligo, as I dubbed it on account of the Greek roots, was a picnic table that sat on hinges and thus allowed for the table tops to fold down into two benches. The original idea for this type of bench was actually something that my friend Blake Ledet had found in high school (he actually made a bunch of them and I helped him to sell them). Though I originally had this as three albums, I went ahead and combined them all into one. Dave was specifically used in some of the pictures as my 'comfort' subject. I think he agreed that the benches were just at the right angle for comfort. I'll have to find out what happened to this project some day.
Arriving in San Francisco Our first few hours in San Francisco were filled with fun on the beach overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. I tried to give Nick and Ruth some time alone to hang out there and so wound up trying to take a number of self pictures. One of them (the one featured as my gallery front) happens to be one of my more favorite ones.