Bookshot #45: Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson seems to be very good at confusing his readers, then intriguing them and before you know it, you're off on a crazy, cyber-punkish, near future thrill ride that by the end convinces you that Stephenson is pretty much AWESOME and can do very little in the way of anything wrong.

Snow Crash is one such book. It took me a little bit of work to get into this book- like The Diamond Age, it takes a couple of chapters to wrap your head around the ins and outs of the world that Stephenson is dropping his characters into but once you do, you're good to go. In this case, Snow Crash takes place in 21st Century LA, where the federal government has ceded control of pretty much everything to private enterprise and the country is dotted with burbclaves (suburban enclaves) and small franchise micro-states that protect their 'citizens' that are willing to pay membership/citizenship fees. Into this are flung our hero, appropriately (and wittily enough) named Hiro Protagonist, hacker, sword fighter and all around bad ass. And YT a young Skateboard courier.

When Hiro (who was delivering pizza for the Mafia, a successful franchise in this world) finds himself in a jam, YT bails him out and although he loses his job, the two of them partner up to gather intelligence and track down the mysterious virus known as Snow Crash- something that's threatening the survival of the Metaverse (the full immersion internet hacker playground a la TRON where Hiro is a 'warrior prince') but the world itself.

And that's where this book takes a random left turn and dumps you straight into Sumerian mythology. Near as I can understand it, the Snow Crash is an ancient neuro-linguistic virus (the original Sumerian language being presented as firmware for the brain) and Snow Crash is trying to spread that virus throughout the world again. It's complicated, needless to say- perhaps overly so. But needless to say, Hiro and YT are in a race against time preventing this virus from causing the infocalypse- the end of all information as we know it.

Not withstanding the lengthy diversions into Sumerian mythology (interesting but totally not my thing), this is another great yarn from Stephenson. The ideas of the Metaverse- a sort of virtual reality, possible future internet that sounds a lot like either TRON or the Matrix not to mention the idea of a virus that can not only mess up your computer to a fare-thee-well but actually infect your brain as well? It turns into an exciting, thought-provoking mish-mash of technology, religion, culture slapped onto a 21st Century Los Angeles that has just enough ties with the present day to be believable.

If I've got a bone to pick, it's with the extensive discussion of Sumerian mythology. I mean, I get it- I understand why it's important to the story and all that jazz and it was interesting it just seemed to take an extensive amount of time away from the story itself. (Which I found to be a lot more interesting.) But having said that, I doubt that Mr. Stephenson writes these books to be easy reads. They can be difficult to read but challenging yourself now and again isn't something that I consider to be a bad thing.

Overall: It's Neal Stephenson-- so in general, it kicks ass. This one wobbles a bit here and there but it was still an engrossing, enjoyable read.

Summer Movie Fest: One For The Money

A new summer tradition here at The Cigar, I'm going to take these lazy, dog days of summer and watch a few movies...

I remember seeing previews for 'One For The Money' and remember being slightly intrigued by it. It didn't look horrible. Katharine Heigl looked pretty appealing and to be totally honest, it looked like the kind of movie that the Missus and I might enjoy going to together so I made a mental note to check it out when it came out.

Only, it never did.

Seriously, it was the oddest thing. There was preview after preview and then there was... no movie. I saw release dates, I saw television promos and then it didn't show up here in Iowa City at all. That struck me as unusual. Normally it's the semi-interesting looking arts-indy films that you actually want to see that don't show up not mainstream rom-com potboiler types. Yet it didn't show up, so I was curious about it.

So the Missus snagged it from a Redbox and I sat down at watched it and you know what, I'm not sure what's wrong with this film. Seriously. Weirdest experience ever. There were known names in this movie. Debbie Reynolds as the crazy Grandma. Jason O'Mara showing flashes of a young Mel Gibson. Fisher Stevens and John Leguizamo showed up as well. I couldn't help thinking that if this movie had been made in 1995 it might have been a box office smash. Or at least shown up in a theater nearby. It had flashes of 'Stakeout' and a spicy bouquet of 'Kindergarten Cop' about it and it should have worked. Yet curiously, it didn't...

Based off the series of best selling Stephanie Plum novels by mystery writer Janet Evanovich, 'One For The Money' introduces us to Stephanie Plum (Heigl) who's out of a job, out of money and needs cash fast. Pointed to towards her Bail Bondsman cousin Vinnie (Patrick Fischler) for a job, Plum enlists the help of Ranger (Daniel Sunjata) to teach her how to be a good bounty hunter so she can bring in ex-crush Joe Morelli (Jason O'Mara) a cop whose on the lam for shooting someone. Plum, is of course, in over her head and still nurses a crush on her old flame Morelli and the usual hijinx ensue.

Maybe that was it- the 'usual hijinx' the movie was formulaic but not bad by any stretch of the imagination- but neither did it show up with anything new. Plum just seems kind of clueless and seems to achieve her successes through blind luck more than anything else. As a bounty hunter it seems like kind of a stretch for most of the movie but by the end she seems at least believable in the role.

Overall: A curious enigma of a movie, it feels slightly underdone. I think it would have made a fantastic made for television movie or been an excellent box office draw. In 1995. Rotten Tomatoes gave this 2% and said that 49% of the audience liked what they saw. That seems about right to me.

Bookshot #44: Cyber War

I decided to do some reading about cyber warfare after I had written 160,000 words of a draft novel and realized that one of my main characters was a hacker and I knew nothing about either hacking or any concepts of cyber war. So being a good wannabe writer, I did some searching, found a book on the subject and did my homework.

Noted policy wonk, counter-terrorism expert, noted detractor of Bush The Younger Richard Clarke joins forces with a younger hipper colleague Robert K Knake to deliver a slim, readable volume that pretty much encompasses everything you ever wanted to know about cyber warfare but were afraid to ask- and manages to do so without boring you to death. The first and most interesting way they manage to do this is with real world examples of how cyberwarfare has already been used. It's very 'inside baseball' and very cool. Case in point: right off the bat they lead with Israel's raid into Syria in 2007. The media reported it as a strike on a possible nuclear facility- what they didn't report was how it was that Israel penetrated into Syria so deeply- through the use of cyber warfare, according to Clarke.

(Personally, although Clarke has several decades of Washington experience with this stuff which makes him a credible and most likely knowledgable source, I tend to take stories about Israeli military operations with a grain of salt- not because I don't believe them, but because I doubt anyone actually knows the ENTIRE truth about them.)

What I was startled to remember were Russia's attacks against Estonia (in 2007) and their use of cyber warfare during the brief war with Georgia in 2008. Of course, I remember hearing about the latter- everybody does. I think the war in Georgia got it's fifteen minutes of fame during the 2008 Presidential Campaign as Americans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief when they realized Senator McCain was talking about Tblisi and not Atlanta. What I didn't realize was how Russia integrated cyber tactics in with their military operations, hackers effectively crippling Georgia's banking industry and governmental websites- that meant that Georgia's ability to communicate with it's military forces not to mention the outside world was severely compromised.

The attacks against Estonia were somewhat more subtle. When Estonians began to object to the presence of a large bronze statue commemorating the Soviet forces that fought there in World War II (to the Estonians it brought up less pleasant memories. Like the decades of Russian occupation) what Moscow insisted on calling 'patriotic' Russian Hackers went after Estonia's banking industry and websites a plenty, essentially shutting the country down. (I wonder how many equally patriotic hackers find themselves running afoul of Putin's new goons?)

All in all, the first half of the book contained quite a few 'Whoa, I didn't know that' moments which I enjoy immensely. Knowledge being power and all that jazz. The second half of the book threatened on more than one occasion to dip down into the realm of the dry, dusty and policy wonkish but Clarke keeps the readers' head well above water, pointing out that we have serious vunerabilities in our infrastructure that other countries (like North Korea or China) do not- so that if it came to an out and out fight, we might be kind of screwed. Banking, utilities, maybe (although I hope not) even air traffic control could all be easily attacked and severely damaged if someone wanted to- and with things like logic bombs, botnets or malware all too easily planted we could be a ticking time bomb right now and not even know it.

It's a powerful wake-up call for the American people and for our policymakers. They're a pretty sorry bunch of people right now but maybe some of them will stop promoting things like SOPA or PIPA and actually start contributing useful ways to deal with this issue- because Clarke has one thing dead to rights: this is going to be a HUGE issue. And we need to start planning for it- right now.

OVERALL: Awesome little read. Informative, lively and hums right along without drowning the reader in policy minutia. Provides a good wake-up call for policymakers. Will they listen? The sad part is, given how wonderfully Washington is working right now, probably not.

Bookshot #43: The Sky Road

The Sky Road is one of my favorite books. It may not scrape the top of my all-time list, if assembling such a list would be possible but it ranks right up there. First of all, it's Ken Macleod. Talk about a great writer- I just posted a review of The Cassini Division that pretty much detailed some of the many reasons why he's awesome. I'm not going to bother repeating myself again here. (Just to say again: for serious sci-fi fans, this guy is a MUST read at some point... for people who just like interesting, well-written books- he's worth checking out.)

But back to the book: What Macleod did with his original 'Fall Revolution' series of 'The Star Fraction' (review forthcoming) 'The Stone Canal' (also forthcoming) and 'The Cassini Division' was to add a fourth novel, 'The Sky Road' which posits an alternate future based on one of the protagonists making a slightly different choice in 'The Stone Canal.' (I know I'm reading this books in a random, truly effed up order and for that I apologize. It's my own personal summer reading festival and I'm just grabbing and going!) That concept alone is kind of cool to me. Change one little thing and spin off a whole other book from it? Very 'Sound of Thunder.' I like it.

And the resulting book is excellent as well: roughly half is set in the far future, where a young scholar by the name of Clovis is working on humanity's first space ship in centuries when he meets his mysterious new lover Merrial who convinces him that in order to protect the ship, they need to seek answers in the past... where we find the other half of the book- Myra Godwin is facing the collapse of civilization as we know it, her rockets are redundant, her borders defenceeless and the West is too decadent and weak to help her as she confronts the terrible decisions she has to make. Decisions that Clovis and Merrial must work to uncover centuries later as Merrial's mysterious people 'the tinkers' know what Myra left behind in her files... (DUM-DUM-DUM!!!!!!!)

No more spoilers... you'll just have to read it for yourselves. I liked the structure of this novel. Alternating chapters between Myra's past and Clovis and Merrial's future keeps each side of the plot clear and easy to understand. Plus, it makes understanding the connections between them easier as well. But to me, the past makes for a much more compelling read than the future in this book. Myra Godwin is a tough, strong, powerful woman haunted by her past and forced into making a terrible decision- but it's the world that Macleod builds around her that I find to be all too believable somehow. Almost post-apocalyptic with the United States balkanized and torn asunder, Europe weak and powerless and a Sino-Soviet Union plowing eastward with nobody powerful enough to stop it. And Macleod leaves Myra's fate unknown at the end of the novel, despite the fact that she's hailed in Clovis and Merrial's time as 'The Deliverer'

Overall: Another great read from Ken Macleod... (just as a side note- I find that while it's helpful to read his Fall Revolution series in 'order' it's not necessarily a requirement. 'The Sky Road' stands alone just fine by itself as well as within the larger story of the series.) Characters are well drawn and compelling, the story is one that pulls you in and keeps the pages turning. Excellent stuff!

Bookshot #42: The Cassini Division

To me, the best science fiction is science fiction that makes you think. Not many authors can do that and it's not always what you're in the mood for all the time. Sometimes, you just want an alien-space opera-shoot me up or a fantasy-quest-swordplay type of a read and other times you want to be challenged and you want to find yourself really thinking about what you're reading. Never mind science fiction: not many authors can do that successfully full stop. Ayn Rand was good at idea but to be frank, her ideas were, well, how do I put this? A little nuts. Well written, no doubt, but nuts.

In the world of science fiction, Heinlen, Kim Stanley Robinson and one of my true favorites, Ken Macleod stand out for writing vivid thought provoking fiction that's driven by ideas. Noted sci-fi master Vernor Vinge called 'The Cassini Division' 'a brilliant novel of ideas' and I can say with absolutely certainty that this book more than lives up to that.

The final book in Macleod's Fall Revolution series, The Cassini Division is set far in the future where an utopian communist Solar Union rules Earth and the Cassini Division is the self-defense force holding the line against the mysterious post-humans that vanished centuries before. Ellen May Ngewthu has centuries of experience being a leader and soldier in the front line of the Division's fight against the post-humans and she's stumbled across a plan that could rid humanity of the post-human threat once and for all- she just has to convince the right people to distrust the post-humans as much as she does.

Where to begin with this book? I mean wow... Macleod plays around with ideas that are going to be incredibly important over the next century as technology builds towards an expected 'Singularity' moment sometime in the next century. If, as predicted we will have the ability to upload ourselves into a computer or to extend our life beyond our current imagination, what then will it mean to be human? When it someone sentient and when is someone a machine? This is a theme that runs through 'The Cassini Division' and it's maddeningly thought provoking one because at this point... nobody really knows!

The politics are also interesting- especially with Earth being ruled by the an Utopian Communist state with only a smattering of 'non-cooperators' confined to the ruins of London or on the outskirts of society. By and large, phrases like 'go employ yourself' are considered by the characters to be almost pejorative terms and they literally can't comprehend a return to the capitalist system some of them having been around in the prior two centuries that witnessed its fall. The counterpart to the Utopian Communists of Earth is the extra-solar colony of New Mars. A bit of mystery throughout the book, as they're on the other side of the wormhole that the post-humans vanished through some centures before, when the main characters finally do make it through to New Mars, they find it's at the opposite end of the political spectrum from their Utopian Communist society- it's a free-wheeling anarcho-capitalist society, a nice juxtaposition of the supposed idealized extreme at the other end of the spectrum away from the utopian communism they're used too.

How does it all end? Well, it'd be a spoiler normally but the back of the book makes no secret of the fact that our protagonists kicked some serious post-human ass. Whether the apparently (according to McLeod) never-ending struggle between utopian communism and utopian capitalism ever gets resolved is another question entirely. And as for whose side you find yourself sympathizing with more- in the end, you might surprise yourself...

Overall: It's Ken Mcleod. Serious sci-fi nuts should already know who he is- but in general, if you're looking for thought-provoking writing bristling with ideas about our future, this guy is a must read. And entertaining to boot. I devoured this book in about three days while in Florida.

More Ramblings from The Sunshine State

After my second visit to Florida, I still don't really know what to think of the place. The Missus and I avoided the central Orlando area like the plague, which I think helped a lot- there's nothing like the experience of being stuck in a swarm of tourists/residents on the I-4 to make you really detest a place- which happened last time but despite how beautiful it was, I was left with the nagging verdict that Florida is an awesome place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

First of all, there's the staggering number of people. People, people- everywhere you look- PEOPLE! Maybe it's just a central Florida thing but the roads always seem to clogged with people and the local news seems to be full of stories about people getting shot not to mention what I would consider to be an unhealthy number of commercials for ambulance chasing type lawyers. (Including one enterprising individual who is a JD AND an MD... a Doctor and a Lawyer. What a hellish combination that must be...) While I tend to be charitable and easy-going with my fellow mammalians the sheer number of people combined with the heat and the irritation of how long it seems to take to get anywhere must make people a little crazy. (Interesting factoid: they drive like bats out of hell down there... going from Daytona to back to Sanford the Missus was doing 85 and barely keeping pace with traffic.) (Second interesting factoid: saw a Subaru at the Kennedy Space Center covered with 'Got Granola' type bumper stickers and got up to Daytona Beach the next day only to be greeted by the sight of an overweight Grandmother wearing a t-shirt that loudly proclaimed 'OBAMA SUCKS.' For some reason that seems to be very appropriate for the Sunshine State.)

Second of all, the beaches are beautiful. I'll give Florida that- they've got that going for them. Cocoa Beach/Melbourne Beach was beautiful but the really excellent beach was Daytona Beach. Both the Missus and I agreed that next time, we'll stay there. And I have to admit, spending a day on the beach, safely slathered with sunscreen under an umberella reading a book was totally and utterly relaxing. I could have done without quite so much rain but on balance, one solid day on the beach plus a visit and a beautiful afternoon at Daytona Beach made for just the recharging/rebalancing of chi I was looking for. There's a lot to be said for beaches.

Finally, the 'nerd-alert' highlight of the visit was the Kennedy Space Center. Having spent $32 on Graceland and leaving with the uncomfortable notion that I had just been screwed somehow, the KSC's general admission price of $43 made me nervous. But they give you your money's worth- the main complex had more than enough to keep you busy and going out to view the launch pads and the Saturn V center was awesome. The endless montage of musical scores/inspirational music from every space movie ever made got to be a little much... but it was super cool nonetheless.

But, Florida... I have a feeling I'll be back- with bells on! Perhaps Miami next time...

WMP

The notion of white male privilege is something that I find irritating from time to time. Not because I don't believe it exists but because people tend to boil down to fortune cookie wisdom what tends to be more complex than people realize. Scalzi (as he is apparently wont to do from time to time) posted a piece entitled 'Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is.' He's not wrong. But I don't think his metaphor is as sturdy as he'd like to think it is and I for sure have issues with how little he takes into account socio-economic class. A straight white male born into a middle class family in Iowa, for instance (such as myself) is in a far different position than a straight white male born into a middle class family say in West Virgina, for instance.

But leaving that aside (and Scalzi handles the usual array of comments in this piece) in general, I find it irritating to be categorized and labelled and blamed for the wide array of woes that society grapples with on a day to day basis. It's like the slogan 'Men Can End Rape.' Fantastic. But in my book, real men DON'T rape and I'm irritated by the implication that just because I share the same biological characteristics with the scum-sucking assholes of the world that rape/beat women that it's somehow my fault just because I have a penis. In general, being a straight white male is easier. But everybody else gets to shit on you for it. And maybe that's just the way the cookie crumbles and I'm OK with that. But please don't ask me to join a discussion where my role is to be at the bottom of the Porta-Potty of Oppression where all the finger pointing, victim-blaming shit lands on my head. You want to know where I stand? Fine:

Racism is bad.
Sexism is bad.

And I do my utmost to be neither of those things every single day and if see someone being openly racist or sexist I like to think I treat them with the contempt that they so richly deserve and call 'bullshit' on their 'bullshit.' I could probably do a better job of that from time to time, no doubt, but I try. Which is more than a lot of people do. But understand that it cuts both ways: being, well, an asshole is something that cuts across creed, color and gender. And if you're being a true asshole about something please don't expect me not to call you that. And please don't tell me I'm oppressing you when I do.

What Ever Happened To Ross Perot?

With the stage set for the 2012 election and Mittens essentially the presumptive nominee for the Republicans, the lines are being drawn for the general election campaign and yet I can't shake the feeling that none of it is going to make the slightest bit of difference.

The President is flooding the interwebs and the airwaves with ads and his hip, new t-shirts (some of which, I have to admit do look pretty damn cool) and there's a lot to like about the President. I've already touched on it, but President Obama is one of the few politicians to actually talk to issues that directly affect people my age. It's refreshing and it's well, nice. I may not agree with what he's saying a lot of the time, but wow, someone's actually talking to me and mine. It's refreshing. But he's wrong on pot, wrong on gay marriage, wrong on mandatory minimums, blew a chance to make health care really work and left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed domestically speaking. Foreign policy wise, things are better. Qadaffi, Mubarak and Saleh are all gone, Bin Laden is dead and very quietly, we've shifted our Asia policy in ways that are rippling across the region and will be for years. Although Libya could have been better handled and I wish we would actually shake a leg and do something about Syria, foreign policy wise the President gets a good grade from me.

Is Mittens any better? I don't know... Republicans sat idly by while a Republican President presided over the largest expansion of government since World War II and now scream bloody murder about Democrats and their spendthrift ways? I don't think so. It's going to be a long time before I trust Republicans to govern again.

But the bigger problem is that no one is levelling with the American people. There's harsh truths that need to be spoken out loud and not one politician out there seems to have the courage to do it. Instead of asking what a 21st Century Welfare state should look like and how we can get there, the Left insists on trying to defend a status quo that's beyond unsustainable at this point and the Right's answer to everything is to privatize it. It's symptomatic of a political process that's paralyzed by rhetoric and politicians that gain too much from protecting the status quo than challenging it.

The President came to town last week to talk about student loans. And for sure, keeping interest rates low would help a lot of people, but what's the real problem here? Administrative bloat, frankly useless fad majors that do nobody any good and what did they do to afford all of this? Pass the buck onto consumers. Nobody's saying anything about that.

Mittens and company coyly flirt with privatizing Social Security now and again and yet none of them seem to want to come right out and say it: we can means test Social Security, we can raise the retirement age- we can do a million things before we have to privatize it. And nobody's saying anything about that.

No one is telling the truth. Am I crazy or is this a job for Ross Perot?

I know the guy's ancient and more than a little crazy but he exploded onto the political scene in 1992 with his pie charts and his folksy attitude and laid it out, point by point for the American people. He came damn close to blowing up the whole damn duopoly sky high (coincidentally winning my first entirely fake KidsVotes in 4th and 8th grade in the process) and in doing so put the fear of God herself into both parties.

Sure, he didn't win. Yes, he was probably a little, I don't know, kooky. But neither party is going to step up to the plate and make the hard choices until someone comes along with money enough to scare the shit out of them.

Call me crazy: but isn't this a job for Ross Perot?

Bookshot #41: The Diamond Age

Neal Stephenson rocks my face clean off.

There. I said it. And with The Diamond Age, he does what he does so well which is creating an absolutely fantastic world and telling an absolutely fantastic story to go right along with it. Set in a futuristic Shanghai of the 21st Century, The Diamond Age is the story of Nell, a young street urchin that accidentally finds a piece of advanced technology called The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer which functions as sort of a storybook/educational tool over the course of Nell's childhood and her growth into adulthood. Nell's many adventures in and out of the Primer eventually lead her to discover her true destination and the explosive development of new technology that might well change the future of humanity as they know it...

(That's about as light on the spoilers as I can go- and I want to go light on spoilers because this is an AWESOME book that you should go and read.)

Anyway, Stephenson does his usual amazing job of building a world that might seem confusing at first but gradually begins to make more and more sense as the story moves along. In his future, nanotechnology is everywhere- matter compilers can pretty much create whatever people want and economics runs off nanotechnology. The idea of the nation state has fallen away to smaller phyles- groups of people that cluster together around shared values whose interactions are governed by a set of rules called the Common Economic Protocol and whose nanotechnology is something called The Feed a very hierarchical, centrally planned kind of thing. What they're bounced off against is the chaotic, anarchic technology that's mysteriously called 'The Seed' and how Nell is tied into these conflicts is something I'm not going to tell you because you should go read the book yourself.

This book is awesome. It's compelling, intresting, the story is amazing- and it's a thought provoking blend of science fiction with touches of cyberpunk, steampunk and flashes of speculation about the emerging power and potential of nanotechnology that makes this science fiction of the best kind- the kind that makes you think as well as good literature. I loved Cryptonomicon when I read that- I plunged into Quicksilver but for some reason didn't persevere (something I'll have to remedy at some point) and I have yet to read Anathem, Reamde or Snow Crash- but reading this just gives me extra motiviation to get on that at some point. (My reading schedule is pretty booked for the summer.)

Overall: Awesomeness personified. Read this book. Love this book. Pick this book up and let it rock your face clean off. Further confirmation that along with Ken Macleod, Kim Stanley Robinson and John Scalzi, Neal Stephenson ranks right up there with the best science fiction authors out there.

Douchery at The Union Bar

An interesting story broke over the weekend-- namely that a UI Student was considering filing a complaint with the Iowa City Human Rights Commission because the Union Bar had prevented her from going out on the dance floor with her friends because of her weight:

When she asked the security guards why they wouldn’t allow her onto the platform after her friends and others had been permitted, Ramos said they told her it was because she “was not pretty enough” and because she was “obviously pregnant.”

I'm a little torn on this one... while I think society has some truly fucked up notions about what should be considered beautiful and people shouldn't be made to feel like shit or be denied opportunities because they don't conform to society's fucked up notions about what's beautiful or what's not I'm not sure 'weight' should be a protected status either in Iowa City or in Iowa itself. (Skin color or sexuality isn't really something I think people have much of a choice over- weight... that question becomes a little more debatable...)

But happily, I don't think that's the issue at stake here. Rather, it's the question of who gets to decide who dances on the dance floor or not- especially after this young woman undoubtedly paid what I'm sure was an obscene amount of cover for the privilege of entering the magnificent establishment that is The Union Bar. Yeah, I'm going to come down on the side of good old fashioned business/free market capitalism here: if I pay money to come into your festering shithole of a bar, you don't get to tell me where I can and cannot dance.

Whether Ms. Ramos files a formal complaint or not, I at least hope she can rally enough support (as apparently there's been multiple instances of douchey behavior on the part of the Union Bar, according to the P-C article) to get enough of a boycott going to cut into their business in a big way. I've never set foot in the place- even as an undergraduate, the place had a skeevy reputation for embracing all the worst stereotypes of Iowa City's drinking culture. It was a shithole hook-up warehouse for undergrads back then and happily it's now added a healthy dollop of douchey misogyny to only confirm that my initial refusal to set foot in the place was the right call.

The Union is one of the few bars that Iowa City could definately do without. It confirms every Townie/old person stereotype about the college drinking culture at the University and to me, stretches the definition of what a bar actually is to begin with. Bars are indeed places where you can drink and yes, dance- but if your establishment is set up to pour cheap, shitty beer down the throat of naive undergraduates who, sadly are all too willing to surrender their money to such a shithole for the hope of getting wasted and having random sex with somebody they don't know, then you're not a bar. There's no subtance to places like the Union. There's no style, no panache, no quality... they're just festering shitholes.

I didn't weep salt tears when Jake's closed down and I doubt I'll cry if the Union goes under. Sooner the better, I say.

(P.S. Seriously though- if you're 21 the only reason you should be going into bars like that is if your friends are underage. There are SO MANY BETTER BARS out there. Dublin, Deadwood, Foxhead, Sanctuary... go exploring!)

UPDATED: Protest is planned for the weekend...

Oh, Townies...

The Townie War on Students continues-- surprisingly finding a voice in the latest issue of the Little Village which caught me off guard. In 'Zoning Out: One Resident’s Take on Crime, Capital & On-Campus Housing' the LV interviewed Nancy Carlson, resident of the College Green neighborhood, longtime townie and one of many bemoaning the state of off campus housing in Iowa City.

Yes, that's right, I'm going to say it: people need to quit their bitching. Especially townies. You know for such a supposedly tolerant, progressive, liberal town it's full of grumpy, old, reactionaries that want to freeze everything into some kind of neo-sixties paradise of some kind and I find that annoying. Townies can bitch about the lack of parking, bitch about the snotty suburbanites that drive Lincoln Navigators like they're Panzers down Jefferson Street and yes, I suppose they can bitch about drunk kids pissing on their lawns... but to bitch about the existence of the University without which this town would be little more than a hole in the ground? Come on now, townies...

Today's townie complaint centers around the explosion of 'high density housing' in the areas near downtown. 821 E Jefferson, 911 Governor and 521 E Washington St have all been targeted by developers for transformation into high density, apartment style buildings- especially the latter building helped fuel community outrage that lead to the pushing of an ordinance for neighborhoods near downtown designed to:

...to limit the number of unrelated people who can live together to three, to limit new developments to three-bedroom maximums and to require new developments to provide a parking space for each bedroom.

Developers of course, try and pitch these as being for 'young professionals' but the Townies are up in arms because they're convinced beyond all reason that these are little more than dorms being planted in their neighborhoods- and do students know the dangers?

“I worry about what the students are getting for their money. Do these apartments have nice amenities or are developers just forcing bodies in just to make money? … Do students realize the safety issues of living off campus?”

The dangers? Is anywhere off-campus somewhat akin to South Central or Cabrini Green? Think the so called 'dangers' are a little overblown- and probably the same as students are going to face in the big wide world anyhow- but then the article poses the question: Just who is responsible for providing housing for undergraduate anyway?

I think that statement was what ticked me off the most. I think a year in the dorms is by and large good for people but after that, college students are adults and can do and live whereever they damn well please. It's THEIR responsiblity to figure that out- not anyone elses. I don't know what it is about Baby Boomers and their constant need to infantilize the younger generation but for cryin' out loud- enough already! They're more than capable of making their own decisions on where to live.

Where this argument rolls back to saner ground is the issue of neighborhood stability and preservation- here, I'm actually somewhat sympathetic to Carlson's ideas. A lot of those neighborhoods are old, classy neighborhoods that shouldn't be treated as cavalierly as a lot of developers do- preserving the character of these neighborhoods is a fair argument to make and one I think that's worth making, but there's a fundamental disconnect that we have to address: I'm all for preserving the character of neighborhoods near downtown but Townies across Iowa City have been failing the City they claim to love so much for years. Instead of bemoaning the destruction of the past we need to fight to make the place better- not necessarily like Coralville but our own unique, prosperous place to live. That fact that the Townies haven't demanded more of that is the reason that a lot of these big, slumlord/gentrificator type developers have gotten their feet in the door to begin with.

I Love My Job

Last night, I got off at Midnight, got home by 1220 and was in bed by 1240 so I could wake up at 0530 and get back here for briefing at 0730 after dropping the Missus off at Clinicals- and I'll be working again. All the way to midnight.

Why the long day, you ask? Well (and this is one of those rare posts where I dish a little about my job, so pay attention) the President was in town and they called my number. I was sent to 'The Sweatbox' which was, I think, the Coach's Office right off the old Fieldhouse Pool and was doubling as sort of a Communications room for the day. It was the sweatiest room on campus, they didn't feed us breakfast and I soon developed a splitting headache which only just now starting to ease. It was a super long day but the experience and getting to take a wee little peek behind the scenes of a Presidential visit and all the trappings that go along with it was certainly a unique one.

I'm totally fried, my brain is scrambled and I'm going to collapse in a heap when I get home and you know what? It was all worth it. Changes in pace are good and a Presidential visit is a HUGE change in pace... and listening to the crowd cheer and hearing him dimly speaking through the walls while sitting in a pool of my own moisture almost made me like him again. He's the only politician in my lifetime to actually reach out and engage young people- people my age. And while it may be a self-serving calculated way to shore up votes for November, it's nice to know that at least one person in Washington D.C. wants to hear what people my age (and younger) have to say. It's nice. I disagree with the President about a lot of things but at least he's listening to me and mine. That fact alone almost makes me want to vote for him again. Almost.

(Though there's still time. I might...)

There are days when my job makes me want to throw things, there are days when my job is crazy and I rise to the occasion and kick some ass and there are days like today- which are just pretty damn cool. And remind me why I really do love this job.

The Tyranny of Grumpy Old Men

What is it with this ongoing prejudice against men in shorts? I mean- I can understand and even approve of the whole ban on socks and sandals thing and ugly shorts should be avoided at all costs lest one be mistaken for a weirdo or even worse, a hipster. But in general, why do old people consistently bemoan men and shorts?

(I originally thought it was a European thing- you know, 'how to spot the American' kind of snobbiness, and all apologies to Europe, but I won't wear skinny jeans that tight. It just isn't a good look for me- we're talking Perkins Jumbo Muffin top. Not pretty.)

Today's culprit is PJ O'Rourke who usually makes a lot sense. In Forbes, he tees off on a rant about it that just left me feeling more than a little peeved. So to retort:

1. I don't own a suit. If I'm doing things right, I hope NEVER to own a suit.

2. I certainly don't want to be buried in a suit.

3. I could give a damn what society thinks of what I wear- I really don't care. The fact that people DO care says a lot about the country we live in today. I have a full time job that I LOVE, a house, a mortgage and a wife and if people want to be prejudicial when I choose to wear comfortable clothing on my days off and assume I'm some kind of vagabond of bum, well then, fuck 'em. Don't need their approval and nor do I want it.

4. I'm not going to judge on people who choose to dress like their 75 because they want to seem 'manly.' I'm comfortable enough in my own skin to say that I honestly don't give a damn.

So you know what I'm going to do on my days off? Put on a t-shirt and some shorts and enjoy life. Because I've earned it.

School Fights Brewing

The P-C is reporting that the Iowa City School District, if they haven't reached their 'enrollment triggers' to start building a third comprehensive high school in the area are on track to do so in a couple of years if not sooner. This, of course, has re-ignited (I don't actually know if it's ever been extinguished) the debate over just how, if and where a third high school should be built.

Whether this is an actual debate or just something that consumes the comment trolls on the P-C website, it seems to have evolved into two 'camps.'

The first would like a new eastside elementary and to divert money that's supposed to be saved for a new high school towards capital improvements at eastside elementaries. (Change.org petition: here.)

The second would like a third high school somewhere in the North Coridoor as soon as possible. (Change.org petition: here.)

And there are a variety of opinions floating around that go from making City High a 'magnet' school to boost voluntary enrollment to just making the new Kirkwood Center (coming to Oakdale, I guess) a kind of technical 'third' high school and going from there.

Problem is, from what I can see, both sides have a lot of merit and there are some interesting ideas floating around out there that are definately worth exploring. I am in favor of a new Eastside Elementary. I think it would help enrollment over here and spur development either to the east of Scott Boulevard or to the north of Rochester Avenue along Scott. Either place would be an awesome site for a new elementary and preserve the tradition of neighborhood schools in the east side.

But, I also think we're rapidly reaching the point where a third high school is inevitable if not desirable. West High is bursting at the seams and it would take much in the way boundary tweaking (at least I think so) to get City High up to much the same level, percentage wise. The growth is accelerating along the North Coridoor so a new high school either between North Liberty and Coralville (along Dubuque St) or perhaps balanced between Coralville, North Liberty and Tiffin (along Forevergreen Road or Jones Boulevard) seems to be the right direction to move in.

I'm a big fan of the Kirkwood Center becoming a sort of 'technical high school' if you like over time- I think the School District should start to be proactive in giving it's students robust technical educations- especially since a hefty chunk of them either aren't bound for college or probably shouldn't go to college. Let's be a leader in technical and vocational education- I'm a fan of that.

Making City High a 'magnet school' to boost voluntary enrollment? Hmmm... a magnet school for what, though? I know Des Moines has an International Baccalureate School which, given Iowa City's international community thanks to the University would make sense to explore but by and large, I think City High should be left alone.

In the meantime, everyone needs to take a breath and realize that there's no such thing as one right answer to these questions. To me, it's a question of what to tackle first and right now, I would come down towards tackling a new eastside elementary now and ramping up preparation (including land planning, etc) for a third high school to get going by 2015-2017 or so- since we sort of need both.

So the comment trolls on the P-C should take a breath and start actually building the consensus they claim to represent instead of tearing it down.

Boneheaded Move

I tend not to be that much of an ideologue when you get right down to it. I'm pragmatic and prefer results over foaming at the mouth and finger-pointing over issues that are probably utterly unsolvable. (Unless, you know, it's for sport or fun.) But what does irritate me is when people insist on shooting themselves in the foot. Case in point: the Republicans and this idiocy over birth control. Stop TALKING ABOUT IT already... (though after some thought, if pro-choicers want the government out of their pants- and rightfully so, then they can't reasonably ask the government to pay for their birth control- a matter very much tied up with what goes in their pants.)

Today's case, Hilary Rosen, Democratic Strategist (also, according to several Conservative blogs, pro-SOPA lobbyist and RIAA Henchwoman who shutdown Napster. If anyone else needed a reason to dislike her...) She said this:

Ann’s first tweet came just moments after Democratic strategist and DNC adviser Hilary Rosen lobbed an insult at Ann Romney, suggesting that the 64-year-old mother of five and grandmother of 16 had never held a job.

“Guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” said Rosen, who was being interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the “war on women.”

Ooops... as the 'graph noted, she's a 64 year old mother of 5, grandmother to 16, she's survived breast cancer and has MS (which I didn't know until recently.) Saying she's never worked a day in her life is probably the most boneheaded move the Left has made thus far in the electoral cycle. Romney had been working hard with limited success to undo the damage of Rick Santorum and companies birth control idiocy and instead the Left just gift-wraps this and hands it to them on a silver platter.

Never mind that Ann Romney seems to be a perfectly nice women who gets social media far more than most candidates or their wives seem to (she's on Pinterest and debuted on Twitter moments after this exchange. Very hip to the new cool things on the Interwebs the kids are playing with.)- the Democrats had momentum with this war on women meme they were playing with. Momentum which has just exploded into a million tiny pieces.

To me, it comes back to the old problem with pro-choice feminism: they only respect choices they agree with. Which pretty much sums up most of the Left in general- you can disagree with them, provided you agree with everything they say to begin with. This was a slap in the face to stay-at-home Moms everywhere and I don't care how rich or poor you are. 5 kids? 5 boys? That's got to be the definition of hard work.

My Mom was a stay-at-home Mom and she worked. Hard. It's one of the many reasons I'm gainfully employed and not running amuck or in jail right now. Stay-at-home parents of either gender should be celebrated not denigrated and it's time the Left showed a little more respect for the choices people make.

You know, what with them being pro-choice and all.

What's In A Name?

So, the powers that be have apparently decided to give some consideration to the idea of renaming Broadway Street to 'change its image.' What do they want to rename it? Redwood St.

I don't even know where to start with this. I mean, sarcastic racially-tinged commentary aside: 'It should be 'White Oak St' since that's the State Tree of Illinois' says one P-C Troll... what's it going to do? Is it going to stop crime? Is it going to raise to socio-economic status of the neighborhood? Of course not... what it will do, apparently is give some money to Southgate Development who's trying to re-furbish/polish up the infamous apartments down there and apparently want to try re-branding them as well.

This is a titanic waste of time- not that unusual for Iowa City, but a waste of time nonetheless. You want to do something useful for the south side? Clean up Highway 6 and put some decent sidewalks in. It looks like shit. Maybe break up the zoning down there so you can encourage a tiny bit of commercial activity, since it's pretty much an ocean of residential neighborhoods that's blocked in by the Highway. Changing the name is a purely cosmetic move that will just serve to taint the name 'Redwood' in the eyes of the community. And I like Redwoods. They're a perfectly nice tree that have done nothing to deserve such a fate.

Help those neighborhoods out. Don't waste time with window dressing.

Random Mysteries of The Deep South

Clarence Cannon...

(This dude)

Driving through Missouri there seemed to be a rash of things named for Clarence Cannon. Clarence Cannon Dam, Clarence Cannon State Park, Clarence Cannon this- there was enough stuff out there with his name on it that I thought it was worth checking out and lo and behold he was a pugnacious, boisterous Congressman from Missouri from 1922 to his death in 1964. His money 'graph (courtesy of Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge):

Always outspoken, sometimes irascible, Cannon earned a reputation for pugnacity. He once lampooned a fellow House member, "Of all the 'piddlin' politicians that ever piddled 'piddlin' politics on this floor, my esteemed friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin, is the greatest piddler that ever piddled." During an argument in 1945 Cannon punched in the face Representative John Taber of New York, the ranking Republican member of the House AppropriationsCommittee. Cannon noted gleefully that Taber ran out of the room with a bleeding lip. In 1962 Cannon engaged in an unseemly and well-publicized dispute with Senator Carl Hayden of Arizona, another octogenarian Democrat, over obscure matters of parliamentary precedent.

Sounds like a cranky old dude worth of naming a dam after... or it could be that he was just a cranky old parliamentarian that was good at bringing home the Congressional Bacon.

2nd Mystery: Daniel Boone...

(Y'all know this dude.)

That was another thing that I was curious about- there was a lot of Daniel Boone references around good old Missouri. Turns out in 1799 he moved there (it was still Spanish) and eventually died there. So he spent a good chunk of time there. Easy explanation.

3rd Mystery: Just what exactly is going on here...

This was also somewhat intriguing... a little bit of checking around revealed that both the Memphis Grizzlies and the University of Memphis play basketball at the FedEx Forum now, so what exactly is the Pyramid Arena being used for?

Well, right now, not much of anything at all... Bass Pro Shops of all people are going to take it over and convert it to a superstore of some kind. But people out there are concerned about the stability of the area- I guess the land up there might be suspect to liquefaction in event of an Earthquake.

So there we are... mysteries solved.

9: Visit All 50 States

Not there yet- but I added to my count:

Arkansas...

We drove through a chunk of Arkansas on the way to Memphis, stopping ever so briefly to give thanks we were out of the insanely long and flat stretch of southern Missouri (after Cape Girardeau, the place goes full Nebraska on you- flat as a pancake and not much else to look at.) Arkansas was more of the same, but what did stand out was their frankly insane looking on and off ramps. They seemed to be insanely short and always either dumped you onto the Interstate in short order or flung you out into the right hand lane of a two lane frontage road. Weirdness...

Then there was Mississippi...

We nudged into Mississippi and immediately came to a stop for what we assumed was construction- but we were astonished to suddenly see a tree topple over ahead of us. Not that you can see it in the above picture. Then we drove to Corinth and kept going until we hit Alabama:

...and then turned around and went right back into Mississippi:

So the count officially stands at 38! (I had a conversation with my mother about where we might have gone in my far distant youth when I lived in New Hampshire- she confirmed ME and CT but alas, not Rhode Island.) Now I need an excuse to drive through Kansas and Oklahoma and visit the Pacific Northwest... (not to mention the little dinky states out East I still need to visit.)

21: Attend 150th Anniversary Celebrations of the Civil War

Shiloh was beautiful. I thought the place was ironic enough to begin with, as in Hebrew Shiloh means 'place of peace' and it had been anything but, a century and a half ago. We pulled in around 3 or so at the height of the afternoon, the place packed with cars. We got out and began to walk around, the monuments and markers scattered across the place giving it added weight. I realized with a start, looking at the map that we had arrived at this pond, where the Confederates had tried desperately to push back the Union advance on the second day of the battle. They had lasted until about 2PM before being forced back. 2PM. An hour before we arrived.

That thought blew my mind a little bit. We went down to Shiloh Church itself and I was somewhat surprised to find an actual church there- a Methodist one, just like the original had been.

Then we went up to the Hornet's Nest, where Iowans and other Union forces had held the line on that first furious day of fighting- I stared at the markers and stared out into the woods, trying to imagine what that would be like. Firing desperately at oncoming waves of grey, the trees so thick, the vegetation almost choking everything.

Then down the Sunken Road (not actually sunken... not sure why it's called that) and out into The Peach Orchard.

The Peach Orchard was unbelievably beautiful. So peaceful and yet you could see the battle in your mind's eye all too easily, the Blue and the Grey charging across the wide, green field. There was a lone tree standing at the edge of the field- I have no idea what, if any significance it had, but it was a big, huge old tree and it looked beautiful. So we went to check it out.

Then we went up to The Bloody Pond...

...before we headed up to the Visitor's Center to look at the Iowa Monument, the National Cemetary and Pittsburg's Landing itself.

It was amazing to see the battle put into perspective. You can read all the books you want about it, but actually seeing where they fought and understanding how desperate the struggle was and how close the Confederates came to victory that first day almost makes it come alive, in a way. But the main event was the Grand Illumination that night. A small army of volunteers had spread out throughout the park setting up 23,000+ luminaries- one for each casualty of the battle. I shudder to think just how long it took to light them all but the weather held up and they pulled it off. Although they had a set route that once you were on you couldn't get off (which was sort of annoying) there's no denying it was a powerful tribute to the fallen of Shiloh.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. It would have been cool to see a re-enactment of some kind but just going there and seeing the place up close was amazing enough- the Grand Illumination was just the icing on the cake really. The site was amazingly well-preserved and to be honest, I'd like to see more Civil War Battlefields- they're important parts of our history that should never be overlooked.

Hooch, Man #6: Caipirinhas

I've been curious about caipirinhas for years now. I took and almost double-majored in Portuguese when I was an undergraduate and my parents purchased Master Bartender's Dale DeGroff's masterpiece The Craft Of The Cocktail which features plenty of recipes for caipirinhas and various permutations of them that looked plain delicious. When the Missus came back from Florida in January with a new found love of pina coladas, I thought it'd be nice to offer up another special tropical cocktail for her golden birthday...

First thing I needed:

(No, it's not a mini baseball bat. Or a sex toy, you perverts. It's a muddler! A perfect tool for the wannabe bartender which allows you to mash up ingredients... which we'll get to later.) Then came... the cachaça! Brazil's sugarcane rum and the primary ingredient in making the perfect caipirinha. (Available locally at Dirty John's...)

Next, we get a lime. Quarter it and then place the lime in a either a shaker or something that you can shake- in this case, a very tall glass. Add a teaspoon of brown sugar and then fill your glass with ice. Muddle! (Until you get all the juice and sugar dissolved.)

Pour ice into shaker and shake vigorously before pouring it all back into your glass.

Drink and enjoy!

Food Adventures #12: Bad Meat

So this past weekend the Missus celebrated her golden birthday in fine style: she ended up spraining her wrist after tripping on a pet gate. The roomie chucked a bunch of lawn chairs all over the front yard and promptly forgot about them which was all kinds of fun to piece together the next day. Somebody got drunk and just helped themselves to my razor- who does that? Seriously now. And I attempted to grill the worst quality meat I've ever seen in my entire life.

We're not exactly cash happy people, so, when prepping for the party, we just grabbed a cheap roll of ground beef from Wal-Mart and said, 'this'll work just fine.' We got it home, I squeezed out the whole damn tube, made my burgers (being a fan of the Food Network's Restaurant Impossible, I can always hear Chef Robert Irvine admonishing people to 'mould, not pat' their burgers) got them on the grill and then I put the lid on the grill, went back inside to get a clean plate to put the done ones on and headed back out to maybe press 'em a bit and then flip to get 'em going on the other side.

I want that part made clear: I didn't touch these burgers. Not at all. Not even one little bit. I placed them evenly on the grill- didn't cluster them together at all- just put the lid on, went back inside for maybe a minute and came back to the grill, lifted the lid off and was greeted by... THE FLAMES OF HELL.

No seriously. I'm honestly wondering if they seasoned this meat with unleaded fuel- though I have a sneaking suspicion some of that 'pink slime' shit that everyone is talking about might have been involved as well. These mothers were practically poaching themselves in their own grease there was so much of it- try to press down on 'em? Flames. Try to flip 'em? They'd either come apart or get stuck to the grill. Now, I'm not going to claim that I'm a master griller by any stretch of the imagination- my Old Man throw pork chops, ribs, pizzas- damn near everything on his while I merely aim for cooking the food properly and not killing anyone. But this was a little much- even for me.

So anyway- these resulted:

Lessons learned from this debacle- first, I'm inclined to agree with The Quiet Man on this one. In a perfect world, I'd be using natural, grass fed beef all the time. First of all, it's better for you- and you can taste the difference in the quality of the meat and second of all, I think it's just more responsible food consumption in general. Something I try to be in favor of whenever I can. However if your Good Ship Locavore runs aground on the rocks of cold, hard fiscal reality, then I will say this: fat content matters. Whatever this chum actually had in it, it was 73-27 for fat content- and it was that high because it was cheap. I guess 27% fat content is the equivalent of running your burgers down to the local Conaco Station for a spritzing before you throw them on the grill. No more bargain bin meat for THIS guy, that's for sure.

(More agreement with The Quiet Man: in a perfect world, I'd also be a fan of 'glass abbatoirs'- producers should never be afraid to show people how the process works. And the fact that the State Legislature in Des Moines with the full support of Our Glorious Leader, the Moustache passed a bill that would restrict attempts to film industrial farming practices only speaks to the importance of transparency. I forget when it was, but some pompous ass from the Pork Producers Association ran a guest op-ed in the DI saying how awesome the bill was because producers don't need people to take practices they use 'out of context.' To me, animal abuse is animal abuse and if you have to put your practices 'in context' then you're not doing it right.)

The Republicans, They're Running Amuck!

UI Republicans have launched their annual Conservative Coming Out Week- and so far, there have been no reports of faculty members responding with a hearty 'Fuck You, Republicans' as a certain member of the professoriate did last year... however, last years profanity might well be giving way to a nice juicy piece of litigation that's been swirling quietly throughout the legal realms of the interwebs.

Basically, a former grad of the UI Law School Teresa Wagner is suing a Dean at the Law School alleging that she was passed over for several teaching positions due to her Conservative activism and beliefs, bringing once again into the forefront the tiresome Conservative saw about overly liberal academia.

While I'll concede that diversity of thought is something that you should want to foster in a place of education, higher, lower or anywhere in between, it's worth noting that the ongoing idiotic levels of liberalism in academia have been a boon to the Right- because the more liberal they are, the higher the amount of people who find themselves convinced that it's bullshit will be. Now this doesn't necessarily mean they're going to wind up Republican (a passing glance at what passes for modern Conservative thought convinced me that they were full of shit as well) but the supposed spoon feeding is becoming a lot less effective than it used to be. (And does anyone else find it ironic that Conservatives want affirmative action for themselves but have a problem with affirmative action for minorities? Hmmmmm...)

Look, it's no secret the professoriate at this University is cloyingly liberal. It's no secret that a lot of the suburbanites happily eat up the bullshit that they spoon out. And at the end of the day, from where I'm sitting it shouldn't matter what people believe as long as they know why they believe what they believe and can defend what they believe. It's the 'why' that's most important of all...

Trouble at the VA?

There's trouble brewing at the Iowa City VA: Senator Grassley has requested an investigation into reports of a hostile working environment and deficiencies in patient care.

To be honest, I don't know all that much about the VA. I know the VA Police/Security have always been extremely professional and competent (unlike other hospitals I know of- just sayin') and I know a couple of people that work there but not really having any military connections or knowing any veterans that have had medical treatment there, it's hard to say if there's any substance to this or not. I think transparency is always good- doubly or quadruple-y so when it comes to the care of our veterans- and if Senator Grassley can get the Inspector General to poke in every corner possible to see what, if any substance there is to these complaints, then that's good.

I hate to use the comment section of the P-C as a barometer for anything but the comments (there were 4 when I started writing this, there might be more now) seem to indicate that there's been a lot of problems that have been endemic for what seems like awhile. I really hope for the sake of the veterans that work and receive treatment there that's not true and I hope that an investigation results that gets all the way to the bottom of this.

(A weird factoid: it was bizarre when I started at Dispatch, b/c I kept hearing ambulances being sent to the VA for heart attacks and things of that nature and when I asked about it- I was told that the VA didn't have it's own ER- so they transferred a lot of critical cases over to the, thankfully close by, UIHC. That was 2 years ago though, so that might not be true anymore.)

UPDATED: The Inspector General has weighed in and wants data- so they're gonna survey their employees...

Mauricio Lasansky, 1914-2012

Famed Printmaker Mauricio Lasansky has died at the age of 97. Hailing from Argentina, Lasansky is best known for his pioneering of large-scale intaglio printmaking. He was recruited to come to the University of Iowa in 1943 by then UI President Virgil Hancher and then spent the next 39 years as a Professor in the Art Department, helping make the University's Print School one of the best in the country.

Lasansky was best known for his series of prints known as 'The Nazi Drawings'- a series of 30 prints and one triptych that he created to examine the brutality of Nazi Germany. He has an unmistakeable style that (and keep in mind that I'm no art historian) I would describe as oddly surrealist and abstract.

I spent five years working as a student guard down at the Art Museum and I have to say that I had a sort of love-hate relationship with Lasansky's work. It was all so... dark- and if your masterpiece is a series of prints known as 'The Nazi Drawings' you probably shouldn't expect sunshine and daisies. So a lot of his work is dark- but it's powerful. Very powerful stuff and you have to respect his technique and his vision as an artist. Of 'The Nazi Drawings' Lasansky said this:

"Dignity is not a symbol bestowed on man, nor does the word itself possess force. Man’s dignity is a force and the only modus vivendi by which man and his history survive.”

But what was really mind-blowing was his pioneering of intaglio printing. It revolutionized the medium and changed it forever- before people like Lasansky came along, print-making had been confined to a fairly small space. Lasansky made it big- he figured out how to do it and changed the dimensions of printing in a way that will impact the artform from now on. And he came to the University of Iowa to do it. For all that budget-minded legislators and people who find art to be boring can complain, the fact remains that Lasansky was a world-class print maker that help make the University's Art School one of the best in the entire country. His legacy should be celebrated and his contributions to the state (which won him the state's highest honor, the Iowa Award in 2007) deserve to be known and celebrated by every Iowan.

He will be missed.

Bookshot #40: Shah of Shahs

Ryszard Kapuscinski is a writer that I need to get better acquainted with- a Polish Journalist who seemed to have the best career of all time, drifting from war to war and revolution to revolution writing books about them- Shah of Shahs is his story of the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran and although it's a slim little volume, it packs one helluva punch.

This book was not at all what I was expecting. Kapuscinski could have tossed out an up-to-the-minute blow by blow account of the final days of the Shahs regime. The guy was actually in Iran watching it all which would have given such an account a certain fascinating sense of immediacy- put it also would have been pedestrian and somewhat humdrum, I think. After all, the Islamic Revolution of 1979 was a fairly important event in 20th Century History- people have written on the subject almost ad naseum.

Kapuscinski takes a different approach however, angling the book towards getting into the nuts and bolts of what actually makes a revolution tick and how the long, tragic history of Iran and the Shah's frankly silly insistence on trying to catapult Iran into modernity overnight. The majority of the book is Kapuscinski telling the story of the Iranian Revolution by describing a series of photographs which confused me at first but had me thinking: 'damn, this guy's got game' very quickly. From the rise of the Pahlavi Dynasty right through to the end in 1979, Kapuscinski tells the story of the major events of the Iran through photographs, an elegant, creative and interesting way to tell a story that's been told a thousand times before.

Kapuscinski's style has been described as 'literary journalism' or 'magic journalism' setting his style as a non-fiction counterpart to 'magic realism' which goes along way towards explaining to why I enjoyed this book so much- I've always been a major fan of Marquez, Allende, Amado and all the magic realists and you can tell than Kapuscinski if he doesn't deliberately draw from this school of literature certainly can be claimed as a distant Polish relative.

Overall: This is a short, powerful volume chronicling the fall of the last Shah of Iran. Kapuscinski is a master of literary journalism that relies on sparse and powerful language to tell a story that students of history might have heard dozens of times before- but never like this. (There's not a wasted word in this book- there's no room for them!) He's a crusading Polish journalist that spent most of his career drifting from Revolution to Revolution- and he's just shot up my list of 'authors I need to read more of- and fast!'

Chickens Are Back

The Chickens are back, baby- local urban chicken proponents are launching a fresh push to relax ordinances in both Iowa City and Cedar Rapids to allow urban chickens. Not sure how well they're going to do with it, but they're pushing for it.

Personally, I think the Iowa City Council will probably defer this for awhile. I think Champion has been on the record saying she didn't want to consider it until the Animal Shelter gets relocated and the funding gets figured out, which makes a certain amount of sense to me and I'm not sure how the rest of them are going to feel about it either. I have no earthly idea how Cedar Rapids is going to deal with it- from the articles I've read on the matter, it seems like CR might be more receptive to it right now than Iowa City- but I could be wrong on that score as well.

Personally, I'd be intrigued at the possibility. Building a coop and cleaning up more shit doesn't really appeal- but a constant source of fresh eggs? That does appeal. Though come to think of it, I don't actually eat/use that many eggs- but maybe having a couple of chickens in the backyard might change that. There's also the tiny, tiny, but not at all insignificant issue of the dogs. I'm not sure how either of them would handle chickens- but a co-worker of mine who lives near Riverside just got a pair of chickens and she has a dog, so I'll have to ask her how things are working out...

But the chickens are back, kids- stay tuned and update your omelet recipes!