Friday, January 22, 2010

College or Bust



Eye Spy

Imagine what a delight to inadvertently stumble into a treasure trove of student artists works strewn all over the floor at this giant lobby in the Design District. The much anticipated Portfolio Review Day at Design and Architecture Senior High was a sight for sore eyes for any overexposed visual person. The works on display were refreshing and raw.




Prepped and Proactive

In the most part the kids at this magnet school for the arts are average teenagers. Awkward, hormonally driven and eager to take the college dragons by the horns and make of themselves the best young adults this culture can expect. Many will leave the swamp in search of quality higher education and some distance from their parents. Some will return to 'give back' to the community.




Seriousness of Purpose

Most liberal arts colleges send representatives to this annual event with the hope of identifying and recruiting the best of the best of the next crop of artists, musicians, photographers, architects, and so on. Tomorrows creative community is being pruned right here amidst the lethargy and apathy the arts that South Florida is famous for.




Critical Connect

The interactions at this event is critical for all involved. The kids have an opportunity to better gauge where the will want to go and the college reps get first pick at the top talent available today to mold the next generation.




Who's Who

In these changing times it is difficult to know at first glance who is the adult and who is the kid.
Conventional lines of division and identity are not so clearcut. But one thing is certain, the generation gap has been bridged by a passion for the creative process.




Really Big Show

Sometimes it's obvious who the adult is.




Roscher Tested

Something happened when the public school system created magnet schools. Suddenly kids that would otherwise not have the impetus to excel are now immersed in a pier group that is self-propelled and fast-tracked for success. I know of no child at DASH that is sullen, sunken, and dreamless. Congrats to them and the staff of dedicated teachers working quietly for a better society, a world inspired by art appreciation.

One need only look beneath the nubile veil of naivety to discover that the cultivation of the arts that begins here will yield an army of future progressive thinkers.

Trouble is I don't have the heart to say that we currently have a glut of MFA's and could really use more nurses and doctors.


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Monday, January 18, 2010

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'


Shame on High Seas

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum...."

from the Guardian UK



Fun on Standby

Port of Myopia - Cruise ships sit idle waiting for "better weather" in the Caribbean.


Bombs or Butter?

Sharp words from Greg Palast:

Send in the Marines. That’s America’s response. That’s what we’re good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed — without any emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19 helicopters.

There’s no such thing as a ‘natural’ disaster. 200,000 Haitians have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF “austerity” plans.


We report, you decide.


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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Why Not Fight



Swampsters

...have asked for a gawk at my first shiner.

Mouse-Trap

Here it is in all it's meat-tenderized gory glory.
The result of an enforcement altercation turned ugly at my daughter's annual teen dance party.

While convalescing I wondered about the nature fighting.

Stellar

You got your iconic battle between good and evil in all it's transparent manifest polarize kind of fighting.

Gymstinks

You got your boy wrestling, boy playing killer vids and growing up in a winner-take-all culture of violence.

Art of War

You got your basic man-on-man pummel brawling that goes back to the stone age fighting.



A Tribe Called Tribe

You got your spectator sport gladiator chest thumping super tribal ritual fighting.



What doesn't Kill You.

You got your dawg poverty-is-the-mother-of-the-boxer-hero fighting.


Naughty By Nature

Hell, you even got girls fighting.

The blood-sport of fighting permeates our mass culture.
It is a sure sign of a civilization in decline.


Self-Deference

So the attack on me was not surprising. The assailant kept calling me a '40 year old bitch' as I bounced him out the door. So I ( actually a 50 year old whore) should have seen the sucker-punch coming but what i saw was stars. Soon after cooler heads prevailed as the punk and his chums were 86'd from the party that was then a huge happy crush groove. I got tons of sympathy for at least a week after, while punchy the kid was practically ostracized from the teen party scene.

Curious how girls dig a guy with a black eye but somehow they look really bad on girls.



Sewer Mouth Spoiler

Here is one of several incriminating photos from facebook of the thug-kid that gave me a black eye. That's a bottle Jack in hand and his bar mizvah portrait backdrop. I would sue the chump but Joshua Wise Rauner is already morally bankrupt.


you should see the other guy

Here is the vulgar Josh wearing his new screw-on neck brace.

We live to fight another day.



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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Haiti Relief

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature,

but by our institutions, great is our sin.


~Charles Darwin



The Physical World

We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them. ~Charles C. West



The Material World

Affluence creates poverty. ~Marshall McLuhan


Throw Money at the Problem

Bad is never good until worse happens. ~Danish Proverb



Obama's World


You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far. ~Uncle Remus



The Human Condition

Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit. ~ Eli Khamarov



The Look of Love

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. ~Mother Teresa



Words for the Child

The darkest hour has only sixty minutes. ~Morris Mandel

Many Hearts Beat as One

I have woven a parachute out of everything broken. ~William Stafford



Eternal Beauty

“I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots.
Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.” Zora Neale Hurston





Shakeable but Unbreakable

When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. ~Barbara Bloom



Parting Words

Life didn't promise to be wonderful.

rip ~Teddy Pendergrass




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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Tea with Rubio


Coffee, Tea or Kool Aid?

No doubt since Obama moved in to the White House, the American Insurgent Party is in decaffeinated hissyfit mode.
Be on the look-out for angry white people with zero gray matter and lot's of chatter.

They want our president to fail while flying colored.



Rudi, Did You Love Me?

The Cuban-Americans have hated Castro for 50 years, fair enough. But why get in bed with devious Bush Family Evil Empire just because it mirrored their sentiments. Jeb did nothing to change the impasse. It's become painfully clear that conservative cube-ams are all dressed up with nowhere to go.



Who's Their Papi?

The driver of this car is obviously handicapped.



Deal with the Jevil

Marco Rubio is ushered into the halls of maniacal men.
What's up with the "red-meat-state roses"?


No Palin, No Pain.

Where have I seen that mug?
That foggie in Little Havana peddling propaganda tee's looks so familiar.



Little Havana Nostalgia.

Is it not polite to frown when a clown is in town?



Baboon with Baton

MasterBlunder Jeb anoints his cuban-mini-me with the golden republican magic shish-ka-bob wand that is known to sever taxes for the very wealthy corporations that give them lots of blood money. Obey.



Half a Nice Day

No words are necessary here... just never forget Cheney/Bush legacy of 911.



Rock-em, Sock-em Reps

The Rubionator with contender Dan Gelber.

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Swampy Openings

Swampspace Gallery

is pleased to present the first show of 2010

Something Near, Somewhere Far

by
Azura WĆ„nnman and Walter Latimer



Opening Reception Saturday January 16, 2010 6-11pm

Cool Nights at Miami Design District Hot Spots.

Also same night openings at Locust Projects, Spinnelo Gallery, Dimensions Variable, Bass-Fisher International, and more.




Seek and You Shall Find.

All these two DASH luminaries did to get a show at swampspace was ask.

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Brrrrr in the Swamp

Jackass Frost

Anyone who has been to Niagara Falls knows that it takes a hell of allot of mother nature to bring that relentless cascade of H2O to a frozen halt.

Blue States

It is generally accepted that Canada and anything north of the Mason-Dixon is bound to ice up in February... but 45 degrees in the swamp is downright un-american.


Old is New Again

We may turn blue like those people from the block-buster film Avatar.
Ice is nice in your drink but to live in a world without heat is so un-american.



The Sky is Frozen

The day a chunk of iceberg can survive the blistering South Florida sun is the day I move to Bora Bora.

Cuddle Pooch

Please make certain your lovables are all sweatered up and there are plenty of scooby snacks for everyone in your tropical igloo.

Joe the Homeless

Don't forget to check outside before bedtime, just in case someone has been left out in the cold.


Blankets-R-Us

Is that the cutest picture or what! Warms my heart just looking at those bundles of joy.
Even though they run hot, children are particularly vulnerable to hypothermia and dehydration.



Brrrr Essential

Thank the Lawd somethings just get better when iced.


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