Originally from Detroit, now living in NY. Designer by day, exorcising commentary demons on to the masses by night. Chronic insomniac, overworker. Lives by music, wine and People's Court.
Being a graphic designer, there is probably nothing that raises my hackles more than the idea of crowdsourcing. For me, it is yet another thing helping to monetarily and creatively devalue my career in this time where no one has any budget for anything. Yes, I admit it, I’m bitter and this may or may not be sort of a rant. I went to school for design and have spent many years trying to get people to understand that it is not about drawing nice pictures but helping a client communicate his or her mission the most effective way possible. Now, with lack of budgets and people continuing to undervalue my service profession, I am getting more and more squeezed out. Rather than a lawyer, a doctor, or an accountant whose service people seek out, I am becoming no different from someone whose job has been shipped overseas. So how is it possible to make peace with something that threatens my very livelihood? Whether I like it or not, this is not a new phenomenon nor will it go away and how should I learn to make it work for me?
After an interminable wait, America’s Best Dance Crew is finally back! I have been on the lookout for what seems like years (ok, months) but premiere night has finally come! As always, the invisible “Randy Jackson” was pulled out to do an introduction only to be put away in the American Idol drawer until the final episode where he will present the trophy and everyone can wonder “Who is that?” again.
In any case, some of the changes this season include focusing on a particular artist per week. This week was Lil Wayne and we’ve been promised Ke$ha (thankfully, that is the the first time I’m ever typing that), Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber among others. This year’s guest judge is Dominick Sandoval from Quest Crew (and So You Think You Can Dance), one of my personal favorites. Now, I’m not going to profess to be a dance expert or anything but I sure enjoy the hell out of this show as well as SYTYCD. And, I’ve been known to take a class or two myself, just enough to know that I suck but can appreciate how hard it is to do any of that stuff.
This episode focused on the first five crews: I aM Me (Houston, TX), Eclectic Gentlemen (North Hollywood, CA), Request Dance Crew (Auckland, New Zealand), Phunk Phenomenon (Boston, MA), and Street Kingdom (Los Angeles, CA).
First up was I aM Me crew, which stands for Inspire, Motivate and Energize. Watching the intro, I noticed one guy who looked familiar and holy crap, is that Phillip Chbeeb from SYTYCD season 5? Awesome! I always love it when I see familiar faces. This guy was amazing in his popping and he was able to stick it out for quite a bit on that show through many styles until the ill-fated Russian folk dancing experiment in week 5 where they just kinda whirled around a lot. But, Phillip is a much better dancer than that and this group did a really great performance to “Right Above It” to kick off the season. Sharp, inventive, and their strength was in their intricate hand movements. One of the highlights was a tutting section that felt very kaleidoscope-like. Dominick said that this was the way to open the season.
Next up was Phunk Phenomenon, a group whose style is self-described “organized chaos”. One of the defining points of this group is that there are three brothers who ended up losing their father before they were able to be on the show which as everyone knows in reality tv, this means that they might go home. Cute group. I thought they were sharp and danced their asses off. The song was “A Milli”.
On to the group from New Zealand, Request Crew. Nice to see that ABDC is opening itself up to the world. These girls are all of Polynesian background and have nicknamed their style “Polyswag” which was out in full force during the song “Knockout”. They were ok. They’ll probably stick around for a bit and I’m looking forward to seeing more although for some reason they made me nostalgic for Beat Freaks from season 3.
Now for some elegance from the sexy guys in bow ties, Eclectic Gentlemen from North Hollywood, CA dancing to “Fireman”. They also got on my watch list for ones who might go home since more crying was involved during the intro. During the critique, the first words that came out from D-trix were “Ya’ll making this waaaaaayyyy tooo hard” and I was like uh oh, that doesn’t sound promising. I also thought he was gonna call them out for dressing like Quest Crew during one of their final performances. It didn’t get any better with L’il Mama’s observation that they went from smooth to hard-hitting and that by being on the show they already knew what it is and that they should just “keep pressing forward and not let anyone stop them from being what they want to be”. Okay,…got it. Trying to say something without really saying anything, gotcha. JC Chasez did get into some choreo critique and said that they seemed stiff. Ok, I bet it’s them that go.
And finally Street Kingdom from LA. Now THIS was getting amazing. Raised on the inner streets of South Central and being from quite difficult backgrounds, this group has found fellowship in the church. Ceasare “Tight-Eyez” Willis is one of the original members of krumping which is an aggressive style of dance and was born out of trying to channel negative circumstances into positive expression. If you haven’t, definitely go and Netflix “Rize”, which Willis is in and was shot by David LaChapelle. It’s a very interesting look at the origins of krump and clowning – its predecessor – and what role it has played in its community. Some of the visuals are just stunning. So, of course they are my favorites and I am very curious to see how they do. I impress easily but I’m so impressed that they are on this show. They have more members than life itself anyways – 10 at last count. Obviously they are not in this for the prize money.
So in the end, of course Street Kingdom just aced through to the next week, followed by Phunk Phenomenon. I aM Me made it which brought it down to the girls and the Gentlemen. In the end, it was the Gentlemen that had to go home, as expected. Overall, it looks like an extremely promising season. There was no group that I could just say that I hated or just visibly sucked, so that was a relief. Who are your favorites? Anything stand out to you?
Like many, when I stumble upon good music, I feel that the divine order of life would not continue would I not be able to proselytize my current loves to everyone I see. Thank GOD for the internet. Makes indoctrination so much easier (and more annoying) to reach the masses. So for the past couple of years I have been exploring the world that has opened up to me through Latin artists who would’ve ordinarily escaped my radar (and my radar is pretty international). In any case, I thought it might be fun to make a small introductory post so maybe there might be someone you discover too.
Manu Chao / Mano Negra
Along with his brother and cousin, Manu Chao was a co-founder of Mano Negra, one of the most influential alternative bands to come out of France in the 80s and one that I will forever and ever and ever regret not seeing when they came to my small town when I was studying in France. Mixing rock, ska, punk, reggae, flamenco and raï influences along with singing in Spanish (mostly), French, English and even Arabic, they became legends in Europe and Latin America. Today Manu Chao carries the torch in his solo work, focusing on social and political themes in the Latin world. He is involved with many side projects and happily, continues to play Mano Negra’s music and still incorporates it in his work now.
Cerati is an artist that I have been recently introduced to and is a huge legend in his homeland, Argentina. He was a founder of the 80s alternative group Soda Stereo and were the first Latin group to become successful throughout Central and South America have influenced numerous groups. Since the band broke up in 1997, Cerati has gone on to do much successful solo work. Last year in May, he collapsed on stage due to a stroke during a gig in Venezuela and has remained in a coma ever since.
Another South American legend from Colombia. Juanes started out his career in a heavy metal band named Ekhymosis, eventually moving on to rock and pop music. Much of his music is influenced from traditional Colombian folk songs and although fluent in English, insists on singing in his native Spanish since he says it is the language that he thinks and feels in. Juanes is also extremely dedicated to charity work and has taken on the cause of eradicating land mines from his homeland. Also, I am going to see him next week in concert and am so freaking excited about it.
An extremely popular Mexican-American singer from Long Beach, California but grew up in Tijuana, Mexico. Having collaborated with the legendary producer Gustavo Santaolalla who also gave Juanes his start , Julieta sings in Spanish and her music is heavily nuanced with classical Mexican accordion and is very melodic. In concert she also does a mean cover of “Love Cats” by the Cure. She has done a myriad of collaborations including and is a friend of…
Ok, this girl…. I have not had her off of my iPod since her second album came out last spring. A Chilean rapper originally born in France, her family moved back to Chile after Pinochet had left power. Much of her music deals with personal themes, is inspired by classic hip-hop and first got much attention with her collaboration with Julieta Venegas on “Eres Para Mi”. She has received much critical acclaim for her work and was the second Chilean artist ever to be nominated for a Grammy in the Best Latin Rock, Alternative, or Urban Album category. Personally, I can’t say enough about her and have been disappointed that I’ve missed a few opportunities to see her last year when she came around promoting the album. (Soon…..)
Lastly, in our little tour of Latin music, I’d like to mention Mala Rodriguez. I got introduced to her thanks to Pandora last year and is also another one of the artists that I can’t get off my iPod. I don’t know a ton about her but she is a rapper from Cádiz, Spain and incorporates flamenco influences into her music which includes themes of poverty, racism, domestic violence, and female empowerment. She won a Latin Grammy this year in the category of Best Urban Song and was nominated for Best Urban Album.
I know that I am missing just volumes of information on some of these artists but I deliberately tried to keep it light with an aim of whetting your appetite, not become an encylopedia (which Wikipedia does so much better). Hopefully you will enjoy discovering these Latin artists (if you already haven’t) and are influenced to seek out more. I’m hoping that with the rise of more Spanish language music making it in the American mainstream, we will see more and more artists continue to break through and enjoy much success in our traditionally English-dominated market.
I confess, the reason why I wanted to do this post was because I thought the idea of a game about congressional redistricting is pretty funny and because it felt like such an odd subject to make a game out of. But, on further thought, I realized that for the layperson, it is an opportunity to get reacquainted with how districts are drawn in the good ol’ US of A. Ok, for me. It was a good chance for me to get reacquainted with it because I totally hated government in high school and tried to spend most of the class asleep. In fact, I really don’t even remember taking it. So, I thought I’d share my findings with you in case you find it useful, what with the census results coming out, 2012 coming up and the Republicans finally starting to get their act together and finding some people who are willing to run.
Anyways, why don’t we start with looking at what redistricting is again. It is the practice where a state government can divide up areas into legislative districts to reflect the density of population and determine how many of the 435 representatives it sends to Congress. Districts are usually redrawn every 10 years after the census is taken, which is why people get really uptight over whether or not you fill a damn form out with something other than the name “Mickey Mouse”.
However, redistricting can also be known by its evil twin name, gerrymandering. That is when districts are divided up in favor of a particular incumbent or political party and can be drawn along voting lines or racial groupings. For example, one way to do this is if you have an area that has a lot of Republicans surrounded by a lot of Democratic voters, the area could be redrawn so that it splits the Republican voters and restricts them to a minority in the two districts. This is legal until someone gets pissed off and brings a lawsuit against it as in the case of Tom Delay and his money-funneling-mid-census-term redistricting spree. Interesting side note: The term was coined when in 1812 the governor of Massachusetts, Eldbridge Gerry, had signed a bill that redistricted it to benefit his party (confusingly named the Democratic-Republic party). One of the districts was said to look like a salamander because of how it was drawn. Someone made a hybrid of the two names resulting in the term gerrymander. For more on redistricting, it is worth taking a listen to this episode of the Diane Rehm show that first sparked my interest.
But, it is pretty common to gerrymander and seems to help shape the country into being even more partisan. So, a game was born. Is it possible to redistrict the US along non-partisan lines? Some people think so. Professor Nathaniel Persily, a guest on the show, has got his students at Columbia Law School trying their hand at it. So, I thought I would too. After clicking past the opening screen, I was presented with quite a few options. I chose the basic fundamental level which is where I’m at anyways.
After the game loaded, I had to choose my party. Now, for someone who is a little anti-party, I bristled a bit but whatever. It’s all in the name of science. The head of my party is Libby Raul. Well, hello there, Libby! Nice Hillary hair and Nancy Pelosi suit.
Next I got my mission. I needed to look at my district representatives to find out their concerns. The first time I went through this, I blindly didn’t care and just went to the redrawing, which is what I’m good at – drawing. I thought I’d try an early period Baroque-esque theme. Apparently all of the reps in my districts are Democrats which is probably because of the basic level.
When redrawing the districts, I had to balance out the populations to be 650K-ish each. But this is the first time around when I did not know I had to look at my representatives’ concerns nor did I realize that all those dots were Republicans or Democrats. I was concentrating more on balancing out the populations, kinda like on Sim City.
Then I had to submit my masterpiece for approval.
Luckily everyone enjoyed my conceptual sense of space and balance and approved my plan. Ultimately there were no court challenges to my artistic awesomeness.
So that’s the game! Besides the artistic factor, I found it a fun and an engaging way to visualize and learn about a subject which has always escaped me up until now.
What could be result of all of this? It could spur more public interest in redistricting law reform to restrict the practice of gerrymandering. And if we are able to redraw lines to reflect a population change rather than favor a particular side, according to Matthew Frankel at the Brookings Institution, it might go a way in encouraging Congress to work across the aisle. At the very least it can help create a better-informed public about our political process and that is always extremely valuable.
As Japan races against time to get its Fukushima nuclear reactor under control, questions are being raised about quality of leadership in this time of crisis. As of this writing, the alert level of the reactor has been raised to 5 point (out of 7, on par with the Three-Mile Island incident), there are about 15,000 people dead or missing and another 440,000 people in evacuation centers. From the regions north to those surrounding Tokyo, residents are trying to go about their lives while worrying about their relatives, fearing dire radiation poisoning, trying to find non-existent food in stores, hastily planned rolling blackouts that have been implemented by the government to save energy, limited train service, limited bank service, no fuel for heat and transport, and an ever-present fear of aftershocks. Cities located further out like Osaka, Kobe, and beyond are trying to deal with a sudden influx of people trying to escape the areas deemed affected by the radiation
Prime Minister Naoto Kan
Clearly, this is a time when people are looking to strong leadership to help them find strength and hope. Prime Minister Naoto Kan doesn’t seem to be that person. Up until this earthquake, popular opinion of Kan was in the 20-percentile range and it looked likely that he was going to resign despite statements to the contrary. Kan came into power by a historical defeat in 2009 of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) by the Democratic Party (DPJ) to take the leadership. There were high expectations and the defeat was in answer to the recent economic crash. Up until then, the LDP had controlled the government for 54 years with the exception of a short time in 1993. The defeat was momentous.
When the earthquake struck, Kan quickly sent troops into the worst affected areas and shut down reactors that posed a risk. However throughout this crisis, the general public sentiment, and indeed, that of the world has been that Nagata-chou has not been forthcoming with critical information regarding nuclear safety. For starters, there has been a striking lack of frequent, direct communications from the Prime Minister, allowing the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano to be the face of the government. He has been the link for people who are grieving and has grown so popular (and thus reinforcing the unpopularity of Kan) that there has been concern on the part of the public that he has been “too much” the face of the crisis. Twitter channels have popped up with hashtags such as #Edano_nero (Edano, go to sleep) and #Kan_okiro (Kan_wake up). Part of the reason for the huge connection he has stirred within people is because he has not been the standard politician, favoring instead to speak directly and not with a script. Kan has yet to go to the affected area, saying that he is considering going next week, almost two weeks after the tragedy.
But despite that, are they giving enough information? One of the main reasons being considered is that there is a possibility that the government has been withholding information because it has not wanted to induce mass panic. The average Japanese in Tokyo has now been required to go back to work and is trying to resume life as usual. However, countries like the US, France, Hong Kong, and Germany have been sending in charter flights for people wishing to go to Osaka or leave the country entirely. When the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions, Gregory Jaczko commented on the danger level due to the lack of water in the cooling pools of the number 3 and 4 reactors, Edano, avoided comment. According to the New York Times on March 17th,
Japanese officials did not flatly deny Mr. Jaczko’s comments but hedged. Asked about the level of water in the No. 4 reactor, Yoshitaka Nagayama, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said: “Because we have been unable to go to the scene, we cannot confirm whether there is water left or not in the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4.
The technical nature of the issue perhaps compounded the Japanese news media’s tendency to shield the government. Reporters who cover agencies and ministries are organized in press clubs that have cozy ties with officials and decide what to report — and what not to. The lack of attention received by Mr. Jaczko’s comments was consistent in the news media.
The position of the government is that they’ve been honestly conveying information despite an admission that they might’ve gotten it out more effectively earlier on. Kan had blown up at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the plant’s operator for not providing sufficient information.
In all, the government reaction has been seen as a crisis in lack of forethought and mismanagement. While, the double hit of earthquake and tsunami might have seemed impossible, it is baffling that no one had the forethought to make a causal connection and make plans accordingly. Hopefully, the government will use this as a wakeup call and step up to become one that the people want so desperately to believe in.
Last Wednesday, Michigan’s Senate passed a bill that would allow the state treasurer to appoint emergency financial managers to municipalities and school districts that are in danger of failing. The bill was passed with a 26-12 vote and would permit them to fire local officials, dissolve union contracts, seize and sell assets, and eliminate services such as police and fire departments. The bill is now being handed over to a conference committee which will reconcile differences with the one passed by the House in February and then is expected to be signed by Gov. Rick Snyder.
While the debate for this bill has been linked in the media to Wisconsin’s fight to keep union collective bargaining rights, the real issue here is the fact that Michigan can appoint these managers who, while able to undermine the role of unions, are not elected and can wield powers normally given to elected officials, effectively nullifying their role.
The emergency manager must have at least five years experience. They also must have experience in business, finance, and local or state issues. State Democrats tried to add amendments requiring that managers must have at least some background in education and whose salary must be capped at the rate of the governor, about $159,000. The Republicans struck it down.
The emergency manager’s contract, salary, and financial plan must be publicly posted as well as expenditures of $5000 or more. They would have the power to take over public services such as utilities like water and electricity. Furthermore, they would also be able to dissolve entire municipal governments as they see fit, dismiss public officials as well as destroy union contracts. By appointing these officials, they are effectively handing “taxpayer money, services and powers to private companies”.
An illustration of the role emergency managers can play is the Detroit’s public school district, which has an emergency manager, Robert Bobb, already in place. The district is projecting a $327 million budget deficit and several proposals have been made including closing half of the district’s 147 schools which would push classroom sizes up to possibly 60 kids per class. It would replace individual school principals with regional ones and would cut all general bus service. Personally, I would wager that it would NOT push class sizes up to 60 kids because given the economic situation in Detroit, I doubt most school kids are going to be walking the vast under-populated blocks to get to a school by themselves, if they don’t get picked up first.
“It takes every decision in a city or school district and puts it in the hands of the manager, from when the streets get plowed to who plows them and how much they are paid,” said Michigan State AFL-CIO president Mark Gaffney. “In schools, the manager would decide academics or if you have athletics.”
Source: Flikr
The takeover of local services has already begun. Recently the emergency financial manager of Pontiac, one of three other cities with appointed managers, has fired the local police chief and liquidated its union contract. It is now being served by the larger Oakland County Sheriff Department which will begin May 1. Previously, due to layoffs, the city had been underserved with less than 40 officers.
So, not only is this bad for unions it’s bad for our entire electoral system. Our governments are handing our voice over to a few people that we did not elect which is what one can define as a “government takeover”. It is electing a governor to elect people for us. It also gives elected officials a huge disincentive to do the job they are paid to do. Where does it stop? Who determines if these emergency managers will ever go away? If a municipality became financially solvent, it is hardly unreasonable to expect that these people will be asked to stay on to “insure” that things keep running well, increasing more people on the tax payrolls.
Rick Snyder, a Republican, was elected last year succeeding the outgoing governor, Jennifer Granholm and has been billed as a “nerd”. He has taken a page out of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s playbook, by being a multimillionaire and then foregoing the standard gubernatorial salary for $1 a year. He has declined to participate in debates with opponents opting to go directly to the people with his message. He is a former executive at Coopers and Lybrand and was CEO of Gateway computers, which went from 21,000 workers in 2000 to 7,400 workers in 2003, some of which were shipped overseas. After Gateway, he subsequently moved on to found two investment firms, Avalon Investments and then Ardesta.
There has been some controversy over the upcoming budget proposals for the state in that he has divided the entire $45.9 billion budget into two bills: one designated for education and one for “everything else”.
The fact that there are few specifics of how the budget will be allotted has been worrying since it doesn’t aid in the transparency of government finances. If the state is not held to task for defining where its money is going, it can be assumed that it is a forewarning of what we can expect from these emergency financial managers.
The governor said he isn’t trying to make the state’s spending plans murkier or take away lawmakers’ budget oversight. But he wants to be held accountable on whether his administration is able to improve Michigan residents’ health, education, safety and quality of life as measured by the Michigan Dashboard he has set up rather than whether he has spent money on programs lawmakers favor. “You’re still held accountable,” Snyder told The Associated Press.
It seems that to Snyder, this is more of a global approach. In reality, it just signals that anyone can do anything they want with taxpayer money.
