Is it just me? This advertisement on Facebook says "Free Obama." When was he incarcerated?

I've felt for a while that MoveOn.org may not be what it purports to be. Who said that line about "making even the people who agree with you cringe?" Seems to me that an organization with such impressive resources would be sophisticated; if they are, they certainly aren't working for the people. They're working for the man.

Get the Show Catalog

Art Students League of New York
215 West 57th Street
New York, NY

Opening Reception Thursday, May 8, 6:00PM - 8:00PM

abject
accessible
affect
ambiguous, ambiguity
angst
banal, banality
bricolage
celebrity
collage
conceptual
contemporary
conventional
dissipate
facile
high art
impecunious
market, marketing
media
metaphor
mortality
naivete
objects
personality
profane
radical
replicas, reproduction
sacred
sublime
simulacrum
talismanic
vacuity, vacuousness
work as logo
works

I made this list while reading a critique of the young British Artist movement in general and Damien Hirst in particular. What I found astonishing about the book (whose author and title escapes me at the moment) was how vociferously he derided Mr. Hirst's art, so much so that I dare say he may have been touched by it.

"When is it done?" is an issue that most artists struggle with. Two major elements of the artistic temperment - flow and what could be described as its oposite - a compulsion torwards perfection - are so often at odds. While inspiration may come in an instant, an eloquent expression of that inspired moment generally requires considerably more time to make. Often times I work on something and decide it's finished, only to come back days later seeing nothing but flaws. Other times I see something close to perfection when I revisit a rough sketch I set aside early in the process.

I learned from using my camera is that the first shot is often the best; once you establish that you are taking a picture, you and your subject (if they are aware that you are taking a picture), often change into a self-aware pose of less interest than the moment you were trying to capture.

Something similar can happen with painting. You have an idea, you start to design your composition, and you realize that you are really a clever little bugger and that you are unbearably insightful of the absurdity of the human condition. If you're lucky, at this point someone will come along and poke a hole in your head to ease the swelling so that you can get on with the business of gessoing your canvas and applying pigments. If your not lucky, well, you're kinda stuck, things being as they are -- you being so brilliant and everyone else being such phillistines or flinstones or whatever it is you call those things with faces that are not you. Alas, they will never understand you.

I just completed a series of changes to the bike club web page. Some of the changes you might notice include:

• Menus: new CSS rollovers, bolder colors.
• Ride Schedule: changed to a CSS based formatting. Added a direct link to the cue sheet for the ride. Added "Web-Only" feature.
• Events: the events page now pulls events listing out of My WCC. Members with permission can post events to the web page.
• Newsletter: added a direct link to the current newsletter issue.
• Photos: added Gallery2 photo album application. Members that would like to post photos should contact me for a login ID. We plan to integrate the photo album with the rest of the web site so members only have to sign in once. Some web pages display photos pulled from the photo album.
• Login page: restyled and simplified.
• My WCC Newsletter page (archive): new CSS based styling, reformatted structure.
• Club Roster and Find A Member feature: new CSS based styling.

Some of the changes you might not notice – they involve restructuring code and changing the way that information is presented. Our goal is to get out of the webmaster business and turn the power over to our volunteers and Ride Leaders so that our members get only the latest information directly from the source – automatically.

• Drupal 5.1
• Graphics
• Migrate content from Moveable Type
• Edit copy

Father Gawain is a friend of mine from town. He has been very active in using his blog to promote his church and his activities in the community. When he saw the White Plains Guide page, he asked me to help him with his. I set up a Drupal 5.1 site, customized the template, migrated his Moveable Type blog entries, set up static pages for church information and added some graphics. I also migrated the content of another page he had set up for their after school program.

Website: stbartswp.dioceseny.org

• 1 oz. olive oil
• 1 large Vidalia onion or 2 small ones
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 package fresh basil
• 2 oz. balsamic vinegar
• ground thyme, ground sage, ground cayenne, salt, et. cetera to taste
• 1 package fresh mushrooms
• 2 small zuchinis
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes

Pour oil into large saucepan and heat. Chop onions into small pieces and heat in pan. Mince garlic or use press and add to onions. Break up meat and add to mixtures. Brown. Wash basil, remove stems, chop and add to mixture. Add balsamic vinegar. Add spices. Stir thoroughly. Chop mushrooms into 3/16" slices, add. Dice zucchini, add. Add crushed tomatoes. Drain diced tomatoes, add. Simmer for 30 minutes. Serves 6.