holaolah

Road Tunes

I'm creating a series of road trip/off-to-see-America mixes for an associate who's doing just that with his family this Summer. I'm pretty overdue on fulfilling this promise and I want to get cracking on it before we enter the abyss of home ownership. If you have any track ideas for the mixes, I'm definitely open to your suggestions. Maybe I'll post images of the final lists for ya'll to gaze upon in wonder. And if they're good enough, I might make a few extra batches to share.

Danger - Travel Advisory

I don't know if you're a comments reader of this blog but I found this one to be quite disturbing. If you're out on the local roads this weekend, take extra caution and keep your eyes peeled for this young man. Just kidding Pete, take it easy out there. You've made it this far so take it easy. Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.

Excuses, excuses

Sorry you couldn't get your holaolah news yesterday. We decided to go back down I-95 for some snaps of the Fort McHenry Tunnel for my razr/flickr series. Actually, the purpose of our visit was to meet our good buds Ashley and David from Colorado who were visiting DC. Fun was had and establishments were visited and TV was watched. That's really what artists do when they get together. Don't be fooled into thinking they're all about saving the world.

Harbor Tunnel

  Harbor Tunnel#1 
  Originally uploaded by holaolah.

I like using my razr to take bad photos. It's kinda like a modern take on pinhole photography.

New York City Bound

SYB and I (RMO aka holaolah) are headed up to NYC tonight to support our boys MWH at The Knitting Factory. Should be phat. Maybe I'll bring back some pics / photographs.
UPDATE: DJG might possibly be tagging along...

I'll Only Turn 30 Once Pt. 2

I got home to find a handful of cash for tolls/coffee, a set of mapquest directions and a note, indicating that I had about 10 minutes to get anything I might want that wasn't already packed and get the show the road to birthday paradise (wherever that might be). Upon further inspection I learned that New Jersey, the state of my birth as well as denial (that's an inside joke for you ma), was to be my final destination. My brother's house to be exact, or at least that's where I thought I was going. I was told to do what I was told, so I did what I was told because that's what I was told.

I looked around the place. She packed everything I could possibly want for the weekend (except a face shaving razor, which I went without for the weekend and eventually converted into a beard. That's the origin of my 30th commemorative beard. Interestingly, I couldn't grow one up until a few years ago. Puberty came late to this youngin. Well, face puberty, that's how I should put it.) I threw a few magazines in my weekend sack, decided it would not be wise to fire up the mac and blog, and took a potty break. Noticeably missing from our coffee table when I went to get the magazines was our copy of the Philly NFT Guide. Could this be a clue? Our NYC Guide was still in its place so I knew something was askew.  I also noticed that the cats were well apportioned for the days ahead and that a note for Sherry, their nanny, was on the table. She still has the key because she warmed the place up for us. We still get her Smithsonian magazine and swing by her place when she's away to feed her cat named Penny. I also grabbed my sneakers when I noticed they were still here. I don't know why I thought I'd need them. I didn't . They stayed in my car until I came home from work last night. The directions on the printout said that it would take about and hour and a half to get to my brother's house. I thought about going the way I'd normally go--through the town of my birth--but alas, I decided that the directions would be better because I could bypass some town type traffic and all the windy backroads. I just wanted to get to the good stuff... wherever that might be. I left the house knowing that I wouldn't be back for a few days and that all I had to do was make it to Brent's asap.

Guest Poster: Father John of PA

Father John gets all economic in this e-mail I just got from him. I think he might need to start a blog of his own before too long. He's got more than a few thoughts to share. His message came at a good time, I've got dishes to do and nothing really deep or shallow on my mind to share. I also didn't have time to check his math. He's the Rock though, so I'm sure it's solid. Oh, and one more thing--if your family is inadvertently pictured in this illustration, let me know and I'll identify you and credit you accordingly for having a Family Disney Adventure this past summer. Or, I guess I can crop you out as well. Whatever you like. If you are in the federal witness protection plan, please let me  know that as well. I doubt your hunters are seeking you under this scale of The Long Tail, but you never know. My bad if I  outed you. OK, heeeeeeeeeeere's JOHNNY!

"Gasoline prices are directly proportional to the temperature outside and fuel oil prices are inversely proportional to the gasoline prices.  More clearly for the non economic majors check this out.  Since oil profit must maintain its current level, notice what happens when it gets warmer outside- gasoline prices go up because people are not using as much fuel oil.  When the temperature gets colder and fuel oil consumption goes up gasoline prices go down and oil prices go up.  This is real SUPPLY and DEMAND. "

Catch Up + Wex n FX

Sorry for my lack of effervescent posts as of late (or perhaps since day one). A lot of that had to do with being away in Columbus, OH at an art symposium that was part of the “Part Object, Part Sculpture” exhibit at The Wexner Center for the Arts. It was an amazing show, and with the help of the Metallos, with a special appearance by Father Michael of Gardenia, it was made even better.

In lieu of posting a mediocre review of the show, I thought I would share my two pages of bulleted steno notes that I took during the symposium. I attempted to do some live blogging at one point but I got the sense that crowd would have passively and aggressively choked me. When you see quotes it’s where I was quoting one of the presenters/panelists. The quotes will go un-attributed because they are not complete. The others are just thought points that I plan on thinking about at some not too distant or far off date. Most were probably generated because of something loosely related to the topics at hand. Perhaps when I find myself incapacitated or laid up in some unforeseen, but not too painful, way. Here’s the list. If you’d like me to elaborate, drop me a comment. I would love to be assigned to elaborate. I live for that stuff. ROCK!

Wexarts.org – part object, part sculpture – an art symposium
•    What can art do to be more exciting / of the people, relevant to commoners. non-art geeks?
•    Hollywood as culture, ministry of
•    Political struggle of “who gets to assign meaning”
•    Mis/disinformation
•    “The function of the joke” – introduced in a …
•    Fragmentation leads to one hand clapping – audience splits and divides and splits and divides again
•    “What I was trying to complicate” – why the hell would you try to complicate something? Is there something I am not understanding about the word?
•    Maybe there are things I understand more now. This works w/theory and Marx and more previously thought complicated items of learning
•    “The way that I understand it to mean”
•    The discourse of reception
•    Something that I’m learning about myself is that I’m usually unwilling to learn or take up something that doesn’t come naturally or stuff I have an immediate take to. I’m learning that there are some things that I need to work on to learn. DUH. I think I’m also learning that I’m willing to learn. So, when will I finally be willing to learn math?
•    The encoding of objects
•    Viral carrier
•    “Duchampian authorial in laudatory terms”
•    Certificates of authenticity
•    Set of quotes makes art. It also makes suckers.
•    Why are we still talking about Duchamp? Because he is the father, he’s rocked the common world art; he’s generated a world of joke tellers.
•    The term publics is brought up + used a lot. Therefore, is art public relations?
•    Concretions – Alan McCollum
•    Do we need curators, theorists, and critics to explain artists and their works? If they’re left to do the job themselves, is it better? Less special? Are the above-mentioned parties mythmakers?
•    You are not a unique flower – beyond 30 we start to make stereotypes, classify, categorize
•    They don’t have a good chemistry
•    Knotty problem … with a “K” knot special
•    Depp in “Charlie…” reminds me of Shelby French
•    Special as in not identical
•    “Not coincidentally perhaps”
•    Does this pen work—it smells like choco mint
•    True reincarnation—passing on of occupational identity/trade/persona –there can’t be a new Dylan or Warhol until the old one is gone. Individuals who replace “greater” individuals are then left to pass on their lesser character roles.
•    Visual culture

Element

 As I was reviewing the day's posts at Jaffe Juice, I came across a link to this little gem of an Element site. Thanks for the tip Joseph! Since this venture is about keeping up with the Olahs, I figured you'd like to know about the kinds of adventures we have while driving in our vehicle of choice. This kind of stuff really happens to us. An interesting thing to note, the voice of the Element in the game has about the same affect/vocal delivery as my brother-in-law Todd.