Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Press 1 Publishes This Guy You Might Know

I’m happy to report that Press 1 published two pieces of mine in its latest issue.


In the Press 1 Practicum section: “The Calmest Place You Know
In the Poetry section: “Observations from the Pine Barrens 1

After you’re done reading my work, check out the rest of the issue. The creative team behind Press 1 has built an impressive online journal here, and I’m honored to have my work accepted. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention Robert Anthony Watts’s hilariously dark satirical article “Break-away Faction of the Ku Klux Klan Endorses Obama for Re-election.” Seriously. That's just the title.

New Life for Forgotten Books at the Reanimation Library

This Library is such a cool idea. When in Brooklyn, schedule a visit to the Reanimation Library. This small but growing collection is the home for books that have been roundly forgotten and discarded by the world. There’s something sad and nostalgic about it (or a group of emotions cousin to these), something perfect for writers and artists to draw on as they create new works.

At the website, read the Overview and Philosophy on the About page, and read the latest entry from their blog “Word Processor.” Each entry is a highlight of a text in the collection written by a guest author. The latest entry by Corina Bardoff is a clever response to The Observer's Book of Weather with a creative reading approach inspired by the OuLiPo workshop. Madly informative--I loved it.

Some snapshots from my visit to the collection. Note the curse placed upon book thieves. Damn.





Thursday, July 26, 2012

Chlorophyll Songwriter: An update to an earlier post about Sam Cusumano's music-playing philodendron

Back in late April, the < fidget > gallery in Philadelphia hosted Sam Cusumano and his latest project born out of the incubator that is Electricity for Progress. It was part of Philly Tech Week. There was excitement in the air. Enough excitement that his Philodendron seemed to respond to it! It was a cool exhibit.

 

The < fidget > gallery was noisy when I visited--Cusumano's exhibit was one of several sound related exhibits in the gallery that night. The lighting was also low, but that helped our brains to focus on auditory stimulus rather than visual. I still managed to record a few seconds of usable footage.  I titled the video Chlorophyl Songwriter--if that sounds stupid, blame me, not Cusumano.
 
This was actually the second time that Cusumano was displaying plants that could play music. The first time was a week earlier at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Megawords, the experimental media project organized by Anthony Smyrski and Dan Murphy, invited Data Garden to be part of a joint exhibit. Data Garden was a quartet of plants. You can listen to the music from the exhibit here, and Sam explains things here.

What I saw seemed simple enough: sensors measuring conductivity on the leaves of the Philodendron were connected to a tablet computer and synthesizer.  The tablet computer displayed the data coming in from the sensors. The synthesizer translated this data into sound. The complicated stuff--programming, recording, testing--probably had taken the past few weeks or months. Impressive.

The wild part was listening to the plant "at rest" for a few seconds, and then listening to the plant "responding." It was clear that simply standing very close to the plant (perhaps breathing on the leaves, or causing a gust of air to momentarily increase evaporation on the leaf surface) was enough to change the leaf conductivity and therefore the music. Two guys caused a dramatic effect when they ran their hands through the leaves for several seconds.

It was something pretty magical--music from the interaction of two very different species--and I hope Cusumano finds a way to create a more permanent exhibit somewhere I can visit. If not, I'll have to commission him to make one for me.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Poetry!


Leslie Anne McIlroy's 2008 book, Liquid Like This, arrived today. Can't wait to read it.

And. . .you're welcome, bn.com. Make sure that you divert some of those dollars I spent online to my local store, because--and call me old fashioned--I do actually shop there.


Repairing My Favorite Coffee Mug

A few months ago, the handle of my favorite coffee mug broke--for the third time. I love this mug. It keeps me company for almost all of my writing projects--certainly the ones I really care about.  This was the third break for the handle in nine years, and feeling a little depressed (and concerned with more important projects at the time), I put off repairing it until I had the time to do it right. That was January.


Friday afternoon, with a little time, a little sandpaper, and some krazy glue, I repaired the handle. I let it dry for twenty-four hours just to be safe. Sunday saw the first pour of coffee in that mug in over six months. I've been writing like a fiend ever since.








Thanks, PBS. You Reminded Me Why I Watch You

Last week, PBS had a good week. Frontline covered a team at West Philadelphia High School competing in an international contest to build an extremely fuel efficient automobile. Another great episode of many from Frontline that covers the state of education in the U.S. Try not to cry, I dare you.

History Detectives finds Bob Dylan's Electric Guitar from Newport, and (and this one is going out to friend and artist, Chuck Schneider) the show reminds us that Frank Zappa was more visually creative than we realize by researching a possible collage made by Zappa. From the way people discuss his composition style, I wonder if he wasn't a synesthete. Great show. Fans of music and contemporary history must watch.

Thanks, PBS. You, an internet connection, and a video cable from a computer to a television can allow many to remain cable free. Okay, I'm done advertising.

Fringe-ology on Radiolab

I read Fringe-ology last summer and loved it. From a google search, I saw that Amazon had it filed in New-age>Mysticism. Ugh. Steve Volk is a journalist, and the book is not something I would categorize as new-agey. I hit the Amazon site and wrote a review quickly. Although I couldn't change Amazon's wrong-headed category assignment, I could try to set the record straight in my review.  Here's an excerpt:

"Volk writes in the best tradition of journalists who, in tracking down a story, wind-up creating a captivating book. Less than a chapter in, I was all too happy to realize that Volk's work reminds me of Lee Gutkind, Mary Roach, Jon Ronson, and David Gann--authors for whom an initial question leads to a book full of answers (and more questions)."

Imagine how pleased I was to hear him on a recent episode of Radiolab that also featured Mary Roach.

Volk's book is also available in paper and electronically.



My current favorite literary magazine is twenty cards in an envelope.

Literally. It's called Kindling. It just had its fifth issue. You can find out more at their cool website. I recommend this issue because it includes a very funny (and gross) poem by my friend Lydia Pyne.


I love this format for a literary magazine. It opens up novel possibilities for collection and storage--and trading! Pieces appear on one side of the card, author bios on the flip-side. The table of contents is printed on the envelope in which the cards are shipped.

Judicial Decisions

The supreme court had an exciting year, and reflecting on it made me think of this article in Drexel University's research magazine, Exel. In the article, Mike Unger discusses research conducted by Adam Benforado and Geoffrey Goodwin. According to Unger their work looks at the intersection of law--especially justice--at the intersection of "cognition, moral psychology and implicit social cognition." I was most distressed by the following:

Consider our common sense assumptions about judges. We have an idea that there are two kinds of judges in the world: umpires, who just call balls and strikes, and activists, people with agendas. In the book, I unpack evidence from the mind sciences to see if this
conception is accurate. And it turns out, it’s not.”

“All judges are susceptive to various cognitive biases and processes operating beyond their conscious awareness that may sway them one way or another. Little things like the time of day when a judge hears a parole case may have a huge influence,” Benforado adds. “Researchers, for example, recently looked at over a thousand parole decisions and found that first thing in the morning the chance of parole was around 65 percent, but that it dropped to around 0 percent right before a break for a meal. After the break, it shot back up to about 67 percent. That’s not the idea of how our legal system works. No one thinks it happens, or should happen, but when you actually look at the evidence it turns out that these sources of unfairness are having a big impact.”

Scary stuff, huh? I am comforted that, at the least, we now have data upon which to start construcing a solution.


Remembering Bailey Adams

Drexel's student-run paper, the Triangle, ran a nice article in early June that records the depth and breadth to which Bailey Adams touched those around her. Her death on May 22, rocked--I think it's safe to say--everyone who knew her. A memorial at World Cafe Live hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, where Bailey worked, was attended by family and friends from across the country. While the largest digital record of Bailey's life resides on her Facebook page (a huge thank-you to her friends and family for that), I write this piece here to add one more place where someone, even a stranger, might stumble across her name and encounter a reflection on how special Bailey was--how much her life meant and will mean.

The first time I had a long conversation with Bailey was the summer of 2011. I was promoting an art exhibit I was working on; I wanted to keep the Dean's office informed. Bailey listened to my long-winded description with smiles and questions, and a few weeks later we even had lunch together. She made me laugh. She made me feel relaxed. She simply helped me to have fun at work. At Drexel events we would always chat, and I was honored when she asked me to help think of her roller derby name (One sleepless Saturday night, I finally completed the project. I write about that experience here and here). I would have done anything Bailey asked--simultaneously she could make me feel valued, charming, and disarmed all within moments of seeing her.

Bailey improved the world around her. She made life better for me, and I saw how she made it better for others (the triangle article does a good job of showing this). This past Saturday the 21st, I attended a roller derby event in her memory. A squadron of fleet-footed individuals not participating in the matches manned several tables raising money for various causes Bailey had supported. It was wonderful to see her spirit live on in this activity. She was important. Look, yes, part of me recoils at the idea of judging a life, but part of me knows that's why I responded to Bailey. She made the world a better place. She added to the sum total of positive energy in the world. When a life like that ends, a sense of cosmic measurement appears for me--injustice even. Then Regret comes knocking. So does Melancholy.

I'm mostly over the sense of injustice these days, and the other feelings also fade. What remains is this: the warm feelings. The roller derby match helped me to see that she inspired the better nature in everyone around her. I was one of many who loved my time with Bailey, and thoughts of her will continue to comfort and inspire me for years to come.

Thanks to Stephanie Zepkowski for posting the above photo on Bailey's Facebook wall.


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Progress

Yes, I read my alma mater's alumni magazine. And, every now and then, I encounter something that makes me proud. July's "Last Word" column was written by Timothy Haggerty, and it is a moving reflection on one person's academic relationship to the struggles in the LGBT community over the last two decades. From the column:

Greyer and older and now on the faculty, I am occasionally reminded that my first-year students were born at the same time I began researching sexual orientation and military service. According to recent polling data, approximately three-quarters of college students support gay marriage and an even higher proportion support gay and lesbian rights more generally. The final indicator of transformation might very well be irrelevance: my students readily discount assumptions regarding sexual orientation and judge their classmates by their characters. For me, it’s satisfying enough to think that these issues may soon become history.

As someone with a few friends in the LGBT community, do I think we're almost there? Not quite. I may be a progressive, but I can also be a pessimist sometimes. But, Haggerty reminds me that we're making progress.

News about the Best Monthly Comic Book Series Ever

I knew that I read Phantsmaphile for a reason! I didn't get a chance to follow the goings-on at Comic-Con as much as I wanted to, but thankfully there's phantsmaphile to keep me informed. Phansmaphile reports on the next Sandman book coming out and reminds readers of an interview it conducted last year with the artist for this up-coming project, JH Williams III. (Neil Gaiman's--Sandman's creator--is writing it.)

I started collecting Sandman comics as a hyperactive fourteen-year-old at the recommendation of my friend Chris Wieman--best recommendation ever. Drawing on a wide range of knowledge about literature, and themes religious, spiritual, and mythic, Gaiman created complex characters and stories--every month--for years. I tried to buy every issue the day it came out. My young brain didn't always understand the complexities in each issue on the first read, but I knew enough to respect a comic book I had to read two or three times to understand. It influenced the way I wrote--the way I constructed stories and poems.


Truth be told, I purchased a lot of comic books every month in my teenage years, and as a young man when I needed some funds, I decided to sell that comic-book collection. Sold the whole thing. Except for Sandman. The title is a milestone in comic history, lauded by those who read comics regularly--and those who don't.

The monthly series ended years over fifteen years ago, but it remains in publication as graphic novel volumes that span story arcs. I came into Sandman at issue 21, the beginning of the "Season of Mists" eight-issue story-line. You can purchase it at amazon.com (Sandman Volume 4). After "Season of Mists," I started working my way backward and forward through the series. With this prequel to the series coming out next year, it seems Gaiman is too.




Monday, July 23, 2012

If money can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it.

Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, has been in the news recently for her work on happiness. In a recent opinion piece in the New York Times, she reminds her readers of research that connects greater feelings of satisfaction from the purchase of experiences rather than things--and from helping others. I've always felt this. It's nice to see research specifics. I hope these ideas continue to get press--Daniel Gilbert's great book, Stumbling on Happiness didn't get nearly the press it deserved. That said, I did hear him on the Ted Radio Hour episode "Our Buggy Brain." While you're there, be sure to look up the other relevant episode, "The Pursuit of Happiness."

Even Vanguard touts her work (not too surprising actually, when one realizes that founder and retired CEO, John C. Bogle's recent book is titled Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life). I like "Five Ways to Enjoy Your Money More" for its straightforward advice.

That said, Dunn, Gilbert and Schwartz are not "self-help" gurus offering mantras to make people feel better. These are researchers whose experiments may actually reveal fairly depressing things about the ways we think and behave--but at least we'll understand why we're miserable.

The title of this post comes from a Weird Al Yankovic song, "This is the Life."

Just thought you should know.

Marketing a Feeling of the Genuine

I think too much about marketing. I shouldn't, but when it's in my face so often, my only defense is a critical mind. I am forced to--and I'm thinking about the Greek root krit/crit here--separate, choose. So, in one corner we have the marketing efforts of a health care organization encouraging me to sign-up for its online portal. The advantages for them being that if I can check my own records, the organization may not have to employ as many people. Nothing new there--companies have been downsizing customer service departments for years--helping us service ourselves. Our time. Their money. What is new (at least to me) is that one might be thrilled--look at the huge smile on her face--thrilled to examine one's medical records. "Well, shucks!" She seems to be saying, "I guess it wasn't that serious!" There are at a least a dozen other dispositions that a human could wear that would encourage me to see the benefits of signing up for this program. Reserved-amusement (that's what I would call her look) is not one of them. I think I've seen this same photo used to sell a hundred other online experiences.

The other corner harbors our champ for the day: Dollar Shave Club. This company already struck marketing gold with its hilarious, low-budget commercial that mixes equal parts sincerity, weirdness, and punch-lines ("Looking good, Pop-pop!").  So, yes, I'm now a member of DSC (the deal was good, and the blades work for me). I wasn't alone in joining. Over the past few months, the company was swamped with new clients and orders were delayed. Apologies and explanations went out. That was good. What was even better was my latest shipment. In my latest package of razors, DSC included a postcard that put a human-touch on the business. See the graphic below. Look, I know the angle the organization is playing: "See customer? We're just a bunch a folks working hard to keep you happy." But it feels genuine. It's difficult to create that feeling in marketing. It's rare to see it work, but for me--here--it does. The marketing helps me to feel more satisfaction and loyalty to the product. All it took was a well-designed postcard. I would even go so far as to suggest that, in making up for earlier delays, given the option between sending additional razors or including this postcards, the postcard would create stronger feelings of feelings of satisfaction and loyalty for customers than extra product. I wonder if there's research on this.

















Nothing is more real than fake wood paneling.