Ah, Seattle. I lived there long enough to cherish many aspects of the city, but if you want to know about the creative atmosphere of a city, look at this video.
Generally speaking, flashmobs are great. The come, the do something, they disappear. I am so far removed from hip and cool that I would have no clue how these things happen, but what I do know is when any sort of flashmob is choreographed and has its own Michael Jackson impersonator, it is boring by nature.
Which speaks volumes about the art scene in Seattle. I was never bowled over by any art generated in Seattle. I saw a lot and I just can not remember a single mind blowing experience.
Having spent the last few years traveling around the country and interviewing great artists in their studios I am often reminded that to create great art, you have to spend a lot of time working on creating great art. It does not just drop off your brush, it takes skill, time and devotion. What I saw in the Northwest was often sloppy, misguided and boring. This video is a perfect example of Seattle art, not great, now inspired, not original and completely forgettable.
The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft has hired someone to help the monster of bad software find a way to get a grip on Google, they don't say it, but I will, nice move, in 1999. The boneheads who run Microsoft quickly grew fat and slow, in parallel with their terrible software and have yet to go on a diet.
Also in the Times, and this is kind of scary, Freedom Communications preps for bankruptcy. Now, if you are an American, the concept of any company called Freedom Communications going bankrupt sounds like the end of the world as we know it. Don't fret, this is just one of those right wing companies that thrive in places with fake boobs, lavish swimming pools and unnecessary tanning salons.
Democrats win in Japan, beating the Liberal Democrats. Wait, what?
Anyone else notice how newspapers and magazines always have a story on "the next shoe dropping in the recession?" Well, the Wall Street Journal has a story on the next shoe dropping, and this time it is real estate. That's right, the WSJ had to dig deep to find this story. Does anyone still read the WSJ?
The Financial Times reports that the Federal Reserve is making money on the bailout. So, the Fed bailed out badly run banks and insanely run insurance companies to the tune of 700 billion. These companies survive and pay back the bailout and now the government is pocketing some cash? This is good news, yes? Well, kind of. The banks continue to be run by greedy idiots and AIG survives with the worst business practices in history. Next bailout, maybe congress will think of regulating idiocy.
Wild fires in California continue. The states governor, almost finished with the states massive garage sale, declares a state of emergency. For a state almost out of all cash, who is paying the fire fighters?
Pittsburgh was selected to host the G-20 summit last May. This may seem a strange choice, since many people still think of Pittsburgh as an acid rain infested city, troubled by a dying steel culture and decaying industries fleeing to better tax exempt offers. That may have been true in the 80's, but Pittsburgh is knee deep in redesigning itself into a world class intellectual and manufacturing marketplace.
Robert Gibbs, the presidents mouthpiece, had this to say about Pittsburgh, "Pittsburgh today serves as a model for economic and environmental transformation in the United States and abroad. The city has reinvented itself by building a balanced, innovation-driven economy based on its strengths in advanced manufacturing, financial services, information and communications technologies, health care and life sciences, education and research, and energy and environmental solutions."
What the world will see when the news crews and the reporters flock to the city later this month is a city that is beautiful, charming and not just a little bit racist. If you happen to check public comment boards in the city there is ample use of the N word. If you look at divisions in various neighborhoods many are broken up by race and income, which is not unusual in American Cities. I lived for many years in Seattle and you ca not honestly say there is not a serious racial divide in that liberal wasteland.
So, as the world prepares to come to Pittsburgh to talk economics, let us all remember than no city is pure when it comes to race. No city is clean when it comes to environmental pollution and certainly no city is perfect as we all try to move forward in what is an unpredictable time.
Pittsburgh is certain to represent America to the world, warts and all.
I am dedicating September to focusing like a laser on the upcoming G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. I have been hired to shoot video of the summit, so around the 24th or so live, or almost live, video updates will be posted here. Until then, I will be finding some interesting side subjects from the upcoming meeting of the worlds economic leaders to focus on.
I grew up in Southern California, something I am not proud of, nor ashamed of, it just is something. One of the things I remember from my childhood was the fires. It was almost like a seasonal change, end of summer, start of school, beginning of the fire season.
As I got a bit older it became custom to look out the window at the hills of the Los Padres Forest and watch for smoke. The fires would generally come within 10 miles of my little town in the hills, but it never burned anything that was considered civilized.
The above video shows very well what it all looks like. Notice the houses? And the smoke? Nothing changes, the houses will still be there, the trees in the background will burn. A cycle continues, which is why they are cycles and not unique events.
I know the deeply disturbed, or religious, like to put more into the meaning of things like great floods or disturbing fires than truly exist, but then that is why they are deeply religious and disturbed, often in the same brain. Fires happen naturally, sometimes, and sometimes they happen because someone is irresponsible, or something else altogether. Fires happen, that much is safe to say.
Now as many people know, California is broke. The state is bordering on bankruptcy. Everyone wants to find blame, there is a fascinating story at NPR about the high cost of prisons, but that is just one problem. Back when I was a child the greedy and stupid ran a initiative that would limit the amount people would pay in property taxes. Nothing gets the electorate as hot and horny as the idea of cutting taxes, even if it meant ruining schools and damaging roads. People love to cut their taxes. People can be retarded, even on a statewide level.
So the proposition passed, of course, they always do. What were once the best schools and best public college system in the country fell on its face, so to speak. The colleges remain a joke and the public schools are damaged beyond repair. How did this happen? First, you can not get top notch anything in America without paying for it, hell it's what we always say to one another, "you get what you pay for." That is true, and it is especially true in education.
California taxpayers wanted to pay less and keep a high level of services. They also wanted those pesky criminals off the streets for a good long time. Of course, they did not want to pay for that either, they just wanted them off the streets, which were crumbling anyway because, again, cut taxes, lose services. Simple.
So, the schools falter, the prisons fill, the infrastructure crumbles and no one wants to pay more in taxes.
So, if you do not want to pay for anything, it takes a genius to figure out how to spend the money you do have. It is called priorities and everyone with a family knows how you must learn about priorities in budgeting. California pays an average of 40 thousand dollars a year per prisoner. California pays an average of 5 thousand dollars a year per student. This is called priorities. For the good people of California, it is more important to pay to keep criminals off the streets than it is to educate possible future criminals on the best way to stay out of jail. Brilliant.
I am going to get back to this point in a future blog, because there is something wrong that is deeper than greed taxpayers, locking up criminals for extended times, choking public education until it is worthless and paying for healthcare for the elderly, while letting children suffer.
In the meantime, the beautiful state of California is burning, again. I wonder if fire is like government waste. The priority is always to fight todays fire and never to prepare for tomorrows. Or possibly, and this would take brilliance, find the reason that these fires return season after season and find out a way to avoid the majority of them. In the past, when I was a child, the worst of the fires always seemed to be started by three things, someone have some sort of accident, causing sparks to ignite dry brush, a hayseed throwing a lit cigarette into the dry weeds and a dimwit leaving a camp fire burning. I am sure there were fires started by mother nature, but my memory is that accidental human failings started the majority of the fires when I was a child. Seems like there might be a solution right there. Possibly limit human contact with fire danger areas during the driest time of the year.
I am just a guy with a computer, what do I know. What I do remember, and what the above video shows, it sometimes these fires can be sexy, beautiful and inspiring in ways that seem almost pornographic.
A friend recently explained to me why he had such a crappy TV. He said, and I quote, "I can't afford a new one."
He is the problem, right there and if you email me, I will forward you all his contact information. This sort of irresponsibility must be stopped, pronto.
"Wait, you are not spending money on a new TV because you don't have the cash?" I asked.
"No, I bought a new bike and I am strapped."
And so it went. Excuses excuses, one right after the other, mortgage payments, car repair, a gift for his wife. Jesus I kept thinking, he is the reason and should I tell him? Well, should I god?
Dammit, this country has been built on people spending money they did not have and for the first time in recent memory I was talking to one of the people ruining America. He might as well have been a financial terrorist.
What a unique idea, not spending money that you don't have.
When anyone asks me why the recession will linger, I am going to point to my friend and tell them, people are not spending money they do not have. It sounds so simple. In fact, it is.
During the filming of Deregulating Greed I spent a day at the FDR museum and library in Hyde Park. The curator there was walking me through some of the amazing historical photos and documents and one of the things he pointed out was how people relied on actual banks because that was where their money was stored. Again, kick me in the face, actual cash money was actually stored someplace. And in 1929 through 1933 these "banks" were failing faster than a Ben Silverman sitcom. People did not trust the banks because when the closed, the money was gone. No FDIC, no insurance program of any sort.
When FDR got into office one of the first things he did was close banks and take a quick accounting of options. He and congress created the FDIC as a way to bolster support for the ailing banking systems. As the countries finances began to gain trust, people would return, investing money. Keep in mind, back in those days, there was not an industry giving people credit cards to use whenever they wants on purchases of want, not need.
