Man, Bolzies making press everywhere, huh?

Marty found this surfing the internet tonight. Maybe I'm just late to the game, but I was impressed by our big time collective member! I'ma hafta post it for my students at Point.

Neal's new project

He done gone and turned his car into a vehicle for public art.

The geochalker.

That was fast

The tenure of the new director at the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra lasted three months.

"He thought that things could move forward in one way, and the culture is very tough to change and turn around sometimes. So a decent person making suggestions that probably are good suggestions in some ways didn't seem to fit with the culture we've got in the Edmonton Symphony," said the board chair.

Organizational culture and how to change it ... that would be a good thesis topic.

Why weren't they hiring for this six months ago?

The Sphinx Organization seeks qualified candidates for its Director of Education & Youth Development. School outreach and arts education programs are core responsibilities to this position. Successful candidate will be comfortable managing details while operating at a rapid pace. The position demands expertise with both computers and people while offering the satisfaction of helping youths and promoting diversity in classical music.

The Sphinx Organization is based in Detroit, serving a local population while maintaining a national reputation. Their ED just won a MacArthur "Genius" prize. Sigh...

Don't you all like Hello Kitty?

Not so nice Hello Kitty.

I just got back from an Edward Tufte class

And found a link to this while browsing ET's website

The two maps I really like are 185 (the patients per doctor map of the world) and 183 (Map of the USA, Made in Japan). Michigan is on the East Coast!

The Tufte class satisfied my nerdly science cravings for a while. There are constant references to Richard Feynman in his books, which makes me feel like I have to go buy some more physics books, although I can just put them on my shelf and put off reading them for a while!

Notice how much I hated being in pictures even back then?

My mother sent me this picture the other day. This is from a Korean dance performance from sixth grade or so. Now I just have to find a picture of me in blue knickers when I was at Interlochen to be completely embarrassed...

wow for inappropriate!

http://www.donorpowerblog.com/donor_power_blog/2007/02/more_stupid_non.html

I found this while reading this blog (scroll to the bottom of the post to find links to several other horrible ad compaigns - my favorite might be the theater that let the red cross put a fake dead woman at the bottom of the stairs without telling their patrons what it was. or maybe the ketchup packet landmine ad. hard to tell):

http://www.donorpowerblog.com/donor_power_blog/

Wow, I'm looking forward to tomorrow

Dirty Bob indictment just came out. All right.

In other news, Mags and I went to seminar today! It was fun, mainly: a fellow talking about experience design. Things are as you'd expect - after he showed the group an animated architectural rendering to explain a proposal he had worked on, one particular person asked, "Excuse me, which rendering software package was used to create that?"
His response: "I don't know. And to tell you the truth, I don't care!"

Speaking of jobs

"Why I Didn't Hire You" - a blog from a jaded recruiter-type, who happens to be based in Madison, WI. No way I could ignore the first entry, re: "fill my hot opening."

and 10 years is WAY too long...

I just read in GuideStar today that there's a new federal student loan forgiveness program. You have to work in public service somehow (for the government or a 501(c)3) while making loan payments for 120 months. here's the article:

http://www.guidestar.org/DisplayArticle.do?articleId=1161#1

Because five years is too long to wait...

The Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture website debuted this week...five years before the physical building is scheduled to be finished (they haven't even started construction). There's a cool "thread map" that maps different articles and topics, which I think will look really interesting once more content gets developed and added. Programs and "exhibits" include a StoryCorps project and a section featuring relevant Folkways recordings.

NMAAHC Home Page

Director of Cultural Affairs - San Francisco Arts Commission

Full job description here

The Director of Cultural Affairs oversees and promotes cultural affairs on a citywide basis for art, music and related programs with support from a talented and highly motivated staff of 28. The Arts Commission currently has programs in eight key areas: civic art, community arts and education, public art, civic design review, cultural equity, the Arts Commission gallery, the street artist program, and the Summer in the City concert series.

Qualifications: A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in arts or closely related field and five years of progressively responsible experience in the field of art administration; or an equivalent combination of training and experience.

Seriously, though, what do you think the actual qualifications are? You would need a fair amount of public art experience and I would guess an urban planning background would be the next important...

Found your halloween costume yet?

http://www.themishmash.com/2007/10/five-halloween-.html

My weird little addiction - job hunting

HandMade in America is looking to hire an Executive Director to succeed founder Becky Anderson. Begun in 1993 and based in Asheville, North Carolina, HiA works to promote the creation of traditional and contemporary craft through the development of craft trails and guidebooks, workshops, registries, education, and a whole lot of other things too numerous to list here. The organization is nationally recognized and often cited as a model of community development and economic revitalization. The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors (of course) and supervises a staff of four full-time and three part-time staff.

For a job description go here

Accountability optional?

Can I use this forum to discuss a vexing professional issue?
Autonomy is a good thing. But I am finding it hard to continue holding myself accountable to myself, when my boss seems generally pleased with whatever I happen to decide to do. I don't have a shortage of work, but there is no accountability if I let something slide for a week or month. Some days I find myself bored and demotivated. This is especially bad because half of my job is to hold other people accountable for things.
Does anyone have any resources to suggest, like a good article, kick in the pants or anything?

Second Life Law and Order SVU!!!

Cailin and I are watching a Law and Order SVU episode with a plot that includes a virtual world just like Second Life! This college girl has an avatar that's a 14 year sex club performer. She disappears and the cops think she's been kidnapped by one of her fans. Bridget, just make sure your Second Life sex club screens out these stalker losers. Or just stick to selling drugs in Second Life.