Potpourri

Rather than focus on just one single issue this week, there are several miscellaneous items in my "out basket" that have been in the news recently, some of which have been subjects of past blogs, on which I would like to throw out some random thoughts for general comment and reaction.
STILL DIGGING FOR DOLLARS:  As the Little Rock Board of Directors begins focusing on the 2011 budget, even though over four months remain in 2010, I suggest they dust off their copies of the audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the period ended December 31, 2009, and scour it with a fine tooth comb for areas in which savings can be achieved by reducing or eliminating city subsidies and contributions to losing operations and non-essential agencies.
WATER BILL CONFUSION:  While Central Arkansas Water is to be commended for promoting water conservation by assessing a 30% surcharge for those who over-consume and applying a 15% discount for those who under-consume.  Apparently, the former is based on cubic feet and the latter on gallons, which is confusing in itself.  Regardless, I challenge anyone to discern from his/her monthly water bill the specific water consumption in gallons on which the credit is based.  Rather, there is an unexplained conversion formula that must be applied to the cubic foot unit factor printed on the bill.  Anyone know what that number is?
LOTTERY SCHOLARSHIP SURPRISE:  Congratulations to the 47% of the applicant pool who received some lottery money for their college education.  To the 53% who were left out of these awards thinking that any applicant who met the threshold criteria would receive one, and voted for the much ballyhooed lottery with that expectation, keep trying.  Now, we'll see if these scholarships translate into raising the overall college graduation rate higher than the current abysmal 38%, as nationally we rank 12th among developed nations with college degrees in the 25-34 year old demographic, according to New York Times OP-ED columnist Bob Herbert.
CONVENIENT TRUTH:  The breaking off a chunk of the Greenland glacier the size of Manhattan does not bode well for those who still insist that global warming is a fantasy.  If that doesn't get your attention, then maybe the 100+ degree weather we've been experiencing all across the U.S., even beginning back in June here in Arkansas, should.  At this rate we may well beat the 47 days of 100+ heat back in 1980.
DRILL BABY DRILL AGAIN?  Now that the oil disaster in the gulf seems to be under control, is now the appropriate time to begin the conversation as to how and when deep water drilling will resume and under what guidelines and oversight?  I just hope they don't punch another hole down below the existing cap as they seek to complete one of two proposed relief wells, or rupture the well bore that may already have cement in it from the static kill operation of a few weeks ago as they pursue the bottom up method of sealing it.  Already, there is talk of some risk to proceeding with that alternative, so keep your fingers crossed. 
HOMELESSNESS STILL ABOUNDS:  While the announcement of an expansion at one of our local homeless shelters was great news, it still does not solve the long term problem which is growing daily nation-wide, and I suspect locally, too, due to the economy.  Referencing the money crisis above, I hope a homeless resource center does not get abandoned in the City Board's budget study for next year, as the need is too great.  Their just needs to be a shift some municipal priorities.
NEW REVENUE STREAM:  Again referencing our money woes above, after all of the expense side items have been thoroughly examined, and if a shortfall to meet the city's essential commitments still exists, then new revenue sources have to be explored to preserve not only those basic services we all expect, but to also honor the obligations made to our city employees who have twice agreed to defer that which was promised them last year.
THE CLOCK KEEPS ON TICKING:  Just so you won't forget, the national debt clock  is still ticking away with reckless abandon.  See for yourself at http://usdebtclock.org.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CALIFORNIA GIRLS!  To my oldest granddaughter, Georgia, who will be celebrating her 9th birthday next week on the same day as her mother, Kelly, my heartfelt Happy Birthday wishes to you both.   

RESUMPTION OF ARTISTS & GALLERIES:  After a couple of weeks of absence, you will find the list of local artists and venues which has been expanded to include some new ones.  If there are  others of which you are aware that might be included, please let me know.

ARTISTS
Laura Raborn at http://paintingsofhome.com and http://claygifts.com 
Jim Johnson at http://yessy.com/jimjohnson/gallery.html 
Russ Powell at http://powellphotos.com 
Linda Flake at http://lindaflake.com 
Tom Herrin at http://tommysart.blogspot.com 
Matt McLeod at http://matt@mattmcleod.com 
Artists Registry at http://www.arkansasarts.org/programs/registry/default.aspx
Sandy Hubler Fine Art at http://sandyhublerfineart.com
George Wittenberg at http://postcard-art-gallery.com 

GALLERIES
Local Colour Gallery at http://localcolourgallery.com
Chroma Gallery at http://chromagallery.com
Cantrell Gallery at http://cantrellgallery.com
Greg Thompson Fine Art at http://gregthompsonfineart.com
Red Door Gallery at http://reddoorgalleryonline.com 
M2 Gallery at http://m2lr.com
UALR Gallery Program at http://ualr.edu/art
Gallery 26 at http://gallery26.com 
    

Political Static Kill

Unlike previous posts, this one will invoke personal privilege to set the record straight regarding a recent political pursuit of mine.  This past week I had planned to file for the Little Rock Board of Directors-Ward 3, a position I formerly held from January 1, 1999, through December 31, 2002.  The decision to do so was based on my belief that the current incumbent was not going to run again.  Accordingly, I obtained the necessary papers at City Hall on Tuesday, which was immediately picked up by the press, and began seeking the necessary signatures of friends and neighbors on the required petitions to file with the City Clerk.     

However, the situation took a significant turn two days later when I learned that she was, in fact, running for re-election, a fact that I then personally confirmed with her.  Obviously, had I made that call in the very beginning, an oversight for which I apologized directly, none of this would have happened.  Subsequent conversations with my wife and others whose judgment I value and trust prompted me to then reconsider my decision to seek this office.  In addition to all of the known challenges of running against an incumbent, there was the added risk that such a campaign might create an awkward dilemma for many of our mutual friends who live in the same neighborhood.  Those situations benefit no one.  

Therefore, I am today formally announcing my personal version of "static kill" (which we all know is the method used to finally seal the blown-out oil well in the gulf) to plug my effort to run for the City Board, and thereby stem the flow of any rumor, speculation and misinformation regarding my intentions.  In so doing I want to sincerely thank my friends and neighbors who signed those petitions and offered words of encouragement for this brief adventure, but now is definitely not the time.  No doubt there will be many other opportunities in the future for me to engage in my passion for public service. 

In the meantime I've got this blog to keep me busy.

Made in America

Thirty years ago owners and managers of domestic corporations used to pride themselves on selling products "Made in America" by displaying American flags and donning baseball caps with USA emblazoned on the front.  As the world's premier manufacturer we were not bashful in boasting about our status.  A few may still hold on to that tradition, but recent news articles in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette seem to suggest a reversal in storyline.
  

As an example, we learned this past week that the catfish industry which was born in the south with the mass production of a fish indigenous to this part of the country was downsizing due to increasing competition from foreign sources.  No longer are catfish farmers able to make a living raising and selling that beloved product that we here in Arkansas have always recognized as being a culinary delight.  When discovered by the rest of humanity, domestically raised catfish was elevated from the conventional battered and fried form we all grew up loving to all sorts of fancy dishes served in restaurants around the world, including ceviche, a raw delicacy ordinarily reserved to being concocted with just the finest and most expensive specie of aquatic life.  It even spawned its own national organization known as the Catfish Farmers of America.  But no more, thanks to China and Vietnam.


Then, we read that one of China's manufacturing companies has just constructed the largest solar-panel installation at a U.S. college at Rutgers University in New Jersey.  This is just the latest example of how China is taking the lead in developing green energy to not only address their domestic need for more energy, but to also export their large scale solar-panel manufacturing expertise worldwide, aided handsomely by significant government subsidies.  And this specialized construction does not even consider the multitude of consumer products which we import not only from China but from all over the world.  For example, just look at the labels on your clothing as I did recently and see if your experience compares with mine: socks from El Salvador; underwear from Cambodia, China and India; T-shirts from Bangladesh; shorts from Thailand, Bangladesh and Dominican Republic; baseball cap from Sri Lanka; running shoes from China; golf shirts from Malaysia, Nepal and Thailand; dress shirts from the Philippines, Turkey and Hong Kong; swimsuits from Cambodia; khakis from India; windbreaker from Ukraine; suits from Mexico, Portugal and Chile; raincoat from Indonesia; ties from USA; bathrobe from Turkey; sweaters from Singapore and Hong Kong; outdoor wear from Bangladesh; tennis shorts from Thailand and the USA; and luggage with "American" in the name from China.  And this list doesn't even touch on consumer and electronic items, and we all know where they come from.    


But then an odd thing has happened in China's pursuit of world-wide manufacturing dominance.   In a culture where gift giving is deemed very important, Chinese returning from America are now finding it increasingly difficult to buy goods here to take back to friends and relatives that do not have "Made in China" labels on them, an identification which can be insulting to the recipient.  In fact it has become such a problem for the Chinese that one person has even set up a website at ChineseInLA.com to help visiting Chinese choose from a dwindling list of American made products.  So, this got me thinking about how we might reverse our ever decreasing manufacturing base to not only help our own domestic job situation, but also solve this uniquely Chinese problem.  


Recent ads for Chrysler's new Jeep Grand Cherokee, which is billed as being "Imagined, drawn, carved, stamped, hewn and forged here in America" which "was once a country where people made things", may just hold the key for recapturing our former prominence.  Forgetting about the politics of the situation and the anger it has created in the minds of some, the multi-billion dollar government bailout of the automotive industry appears to be paying real dividends for not only Chrysler but General Motors as well.  Not only did those funds create jobs, they re-energized the notion that we really can still make things in America.  To quote a tag line from that same Jeep ad, "THE THINGS WE MAKE, MAKE US.  Going forward what needs to happen in my view is for corporate America to let loose of some of those two trillion dollars it has accumulated over the past two years as a direct result of additional taxpayer generosity, and re-kindle that same "Made in America" pride and spirit of three decades ago by funding new start-up companies itself, rather than waiting on the government to do it.  Alan Greenspan and Mayor Michael Bloomberg seem to agree.      

"INCEPTION" - A deception instead?

Let's try something new this week, the guilty pleasure of being a movie critic.  As an act of full disclosure, other than being an avid movie fan, I have absolutely no formal qualification for critiquing movies.  However, I do know what I like and what I dislike in movies and movie venues, so here goes.

First, a little history.  One of my family's businesses was owning a movie theater, so I had unlimited access to movies growing up watching almost every Saturday's matinee which more times than not consisted of Johnny Mack Brown, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, Gene Autry or Roy Rogers westerns, with a Zorro (the original) or Lash LaRue serial thrown in for good measure.  Add to that a mid-week feature show or two of whatever was popular at the time along with the ever present Movietone Newsreel of that week's headline stories, and you can see that movies became an important part of my entertainment, not to mention shaping my early view of the world.  One amenity that the old Rex Theater had which I have never seen since was a crying room.  It was a separate glass-encased, totally sound proof room in the balcony where mothers could take their babies whenever they became upset or their children when they misbehaved, and still watch the movie while not disturbing the other patrons.  A modern day use for such a room might be for cell phone users who, despite all of the notices and requests to the contrary, still insist on viewing their e-mails, twits, tweets or whatever throughout a movie.  Nothing can be more distracting in a darkened theater, unless it is a crying baby or a couple who chatters endlessly throughout a movie, but I digress.

For my inaugural review I have chosen the movie INCEPTION, which at least one reviewer has already labeled "the best of 2010 so far".  I knew going in that it was a complicated story mixing dreams with reality, so I purposely waited for my wife to return from an out of town trip to go with me thinking that two minds would be better than one in keeping track of the plot.  Unfortunately, that idea was quickly challenged at a venue where the production volume was the worst of both worlds in that it was so faint one could not hear the dialog (definitely not a good idea in a movie like this) but, strangely, was deafening whenever the background music came on.  Appeals to the theater staff by not only us but another couple went unheeded and they finally left in frustration.  Add to this distraction the intermittent rattle of an air conditioning fan and an inside temperature that approximated a meat locker, and you can appreciate the obstacles to concentration we were up against.  But we persevered.

The basic premise, as I understand it, was that dreams which can become reality seldom have a beginning, so what if a person could design one (hence the definition of its title), control the thoughts and actions of others in that dream and thus alter an outcome in life?  Add to that the concept of a dream within a dream carried to the next level of a dream within a dream within a dream involving six people simultaneously and you've got yourself a real doozy of a plot.  However, it all began to fall apart for me about half way through the movie when all of the participants' dreams began to collide into each other much like cars in the proforma car crashes; multiple shootings with splattered blood made their repeated and gratuitous appearance; people started floating in mid air; and buildings started exploding.   Just to make sure we got it, these sequences were then repeated over and over and over and over.  Add to that a ski scene that seemed like it came straight out of the 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and it became full of what I call filler which created a real disjointed mixed up mess of a movie that went on way too long.  Sometimes being quiet and reflective are much more effective in getting points across in movies, which begs the question of why did those involved with the production of INCEPTION feel the need to default to old worn out gimmicks which for me distracted from the otherwise thought-provoking theme of this one?  MOMENTO it isn't in my view, so go see CYRUS instead.        


ARTISTS
Laura Raborn at http://paintingsofhome.com and http://claygifts.com 
Jim Johnson at http://yessy.com/jimjohnson/gallery.html 
Russ Powell at http://powellphotos.com 
Linda Flake at http://lindaflake.com 
Tom Herrin at http://tommysart.blogspot.com 
Matt McLeod at http://matt@mattmcleod.com 
Artists Registry at http://www.arkansasarts.org/programs/registry/default.aspx
Barry Thomas exclusively at Ellen Golden French Antiques in the Heights


GALLERIES
Local Colour Gallery at http://localcolourgallery.com
Chroma Gallery at http://chromagallery.com
Cantrell Gallery at http://cantrellgallery.com
Greg Thompson Fine Art at http://gregthompsonfineart.com