I was recently asked 'What makes a photograph fine art?'

To me, any object that transcends itself in communicating has become fine art. A photograph is just a photograph until it is an outstanding photograph.

Henri Cartier-Bresson arguably took a lot of dull snapshots with his new 35mm camera but many of the shots, at least of the ones we get to see, pull me into them and tell me more about the scene than just what the camera saw; they also tell me what the photographer saw. That is fine art.

Man Ray took photographs without a camera and created imagery through pattern and texture that transcends the paper media on which it is printed. His use of old techniques mixed with new to create modern design was revolutionary. That is fine art.

Edward Weston created photographs that confused the nature of shape and juxtaposed sensuality and mundanity. If it's a fruit that looks like a nude, it's a Weston. If it's a nude that looks like a fruit, it's a Weston. That is fine art.

Fine art tends to be non-commercial, but much commercial artwork rises to the level of fine art. Fine art can be simple or complex; detailed or vague; urban or natural; nude, clothed or devoid humans. It can tell a story, explore shape or form or color or tone, challenge our intellect or remind us of childhood. This list could go on forever.

In the end, the question is completely subjective and one person's fine art is another person's trash. Andres Serrano's 'Piss Christ' was railed against by Christians who felt he was maligning their faith. They were angered that the National Endowment for the Arts rewarded him with a $15,000 prize because they felt it was blasphemous rather than artistic. Ironically, one of the recognized purposes of art is to illicit an emotional response, which this certainly did.

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I'm not much for speechifying and all that stuff. Others have wished FreeDOS a happy birthday better than I. The "benevolent dictator" who created the project has a post at the FreeDOS blog. Greg Laden, from whom I stole the term "benevolent dictator" has a little item at his blog. Stephanie has a character piece on James Hall, the "benevolent dictator" at her blog. I don't mean to leave out The Lousy Canuck and others, but these are the ones that really matter.

I've seen the future and the geeks were right

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You ever notice how some music videos don't really make any sense? Some don't even fit the music that also doesn't really make sense.

I just thought I'd mention that I like Cake.

I also like Morphine.

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Ah, The Crystal Method...

Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan have a new album out now called "Divided By Night." Like the rest of their music, it's very good. I've been told that "Vega"s was a great album to listen to stoned. I suspect "Legion of Boom" and "Divided by Night" come in close seconds. The new album is loaded with collaborations between the Method and other artists, including the nerdcore LMFAO and Justin Warfield of She Wants Revenge fame.

Anyway, I'm not reviewing the album, I'm reviewing the tour. Check The Crystal Method website for tour dates.

If you're a fan in Minneapolis and you missed it, I'm very sorry for you. You should have gone. The light show was great. The performance was great. All during the tour, they were tweeting that people should carpool or take public transportation to "offset the massive light show." A lot of it was done with LEDs so there's already a carbon savings from that.

There were two exceptionally cool things they did with lights. One was the fully gimbaled led light disks that acted as spots and displays at the same time. The other was the multi-colored spots that cut through the smoke in a crazily cool way.
The most challenging was the four giant strobe lights that seem to be getting popular these days. I'm getting very good at changing the settings on my camera very quickly.

Scott Kirkland is always the outgoing one; playing the audience and the songs at the same time. He stands on top of things, sometimes not very stably. He throws out up the devil horns when he has a free hand (he uses both hands when they're both free. He's the one everyone's eyes are on all the time because he's the one who wants it that way.

Ken Jordan is the quiet one. He plays the music and watches Kirkland take the front stage but he rarely hams it up for the audience. He also seems to be the more coherent one, since he was the one who did all the "thank you Minneapolis" stuff. He patiently distracted the crowd when one of Kirkland's keyboards died and had to be replaced during the encore too. This show, he spent quite a wile hamming and smiling. Clearly they were both enjoying the tour.

Buy "Divided By Night" on iTunes.

More photos on my Flickr stream.

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This isn't as bad as what Northwest Airlines did when they were cutting jobs and salaries, but I just got an email this morning suggesting ways to save money.

Set up automatic withdrawal to your savings account. This is the simplest and most effective technique of all. If you set up $100/month to your savings account, you will save $100/month.

All I can say is that I hope Captain Obvious there isn't getting a raise this year either.

Update: I just read farther in and they have another great suggestion:

Check your local library for other learning opportunities that will help you and others in our New Economy.

I love how it's 'our New Economy' and not 'the crappy situation created by greedy capitalists abusing the system.'

 

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94 years ago, on June 28th, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was visiting Bosnia to observe military maneuvers and open the state museum in Sarajevo. Rising against the perceived oppression of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, assassins killed the Archduke and his wife Sophie as they crossed the Latin Bridge. This event is widely regarded as the beginning of World War I or at least the final straw. The war started less than two months later.

Seven years ago, in Glasgow Scotland, the band Franz Ferdinand formed to create a unique mix of electronic, rock, pop, and punk music. This event is widely regarded as the beginning of Franz Ferdinand's musical career. The first single from their first album reached number three on the UK charts less than two years later.

My introduction to the band was playing "Burnout 3", crashing cars and listening to "This Fire." I wasn't quite hooked on the band until I played "Burnout Revenge" a year later and heard that first single "Take Me out." Since then, I have purchased all their albums on iTunes, some more than once as iTunes converted to iTunes Plus (non-DRM music is much easier to deal with.)

It's been a while since I have seen a sold-out show at First Avenue; actually, I think this might have been the first time. I arrived just as the opening band was finishing their last song and the place was already packed. Making my way up to the stage was tricky to do without inadvertently groping people along the way but after several apologies and people moving back to get drinks between bands, I made it up to the barrier. 

I'll skip over the part where I was waiting for the crew to reset the stage for Franz Ferdinand and the woman leaning over the railing telling me to go get the security guy because she had "goodies" for the band. I'll also skip over listening to the stage hands checking the mics in Glaswegian. Oh... Oops.

It turns out that Nicholas McCarthy (first photo) had injured his foot while on tour and had to walk out with crutches. Alex Kapranos (second photo) led him out and made a big show of ushering Nick to his place, surrounded by synthesizers and microphones.

Not only was this the first time I'd seen First Avenue so packed, I'd never seen the front of the barrier so packed. Sharing the cramped space with me were two staff members and four other photographers. We managed to share the space, but I think the other photographers had to be kicked out for staying up there too long. It wasn't surprising since none of them seemed to have remembered to bring real cameras, just plastic toys with lenses on them.

Since I skipped over the Scottish accent part earlier I'll mention that, while I have a terrible time understanding anything that is said with a Glaswegian accent for the first several minutes of exposure, I love listening to anyone with an honest Scottish accent; I think it's because I'm distracted by the pure lyricism of the words. Alex said, in his accent, something about being back to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which immediately endeared him to me; it's one of life's little annoyances for me when people call the place I live "Minneapolis St. Paul."

I have to be honest, I hadn't heard their new album "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" before going to this show. I hadn't realized that, in the three years between "You Could Have It So Much Better" and "Tonight," the band had started playing with their synthesizers more. During the break between sets, the crew brought out a couple extra synths, one of which I recognized from The Faint's musical tool set but couldn't identify. When they started hitting the keyboards hard during "Lucid Dreams," I could have sworn I was listening to a different but just as excellent band.

Franz Ferdinand's music is a great listen, but their live show is a submersive experience. Watching them on stage, it was clear to me that they were there to play the music just as much as the audience was there to hear the music. The show ended with everyone in the band, and some guy from stage right banging on the drums with distorted video from an in-house camera projected onto them and the screen behind them. Once again, First Avenue keeps its place as the best place to hear music in the Twin Cities.

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Back in February, I found out that The Faint would be playing a show at First Avenue at the beginning of April. Some band called Ladytron was going to be opening and they would also be bringing along an act by the name of Telepathe.

Okay, so I've been musically sheltered the last couple years. The best alternative station went away and was replaced with the almost-as-good The Current. I also changed careers about three years ago and don't spend nearly as much time in the car as I used to.

So... Telepathe...

Telepathe is two girls, a couple of keyboards and some drums and sample pads. It took me a little while to warm up to their music, but it grew on me. I thought they could really go somewhere if they were given enough time. On the other hand, once I started to mentally classify their music as "experimental," I really started to enjoy it.

Would I recommend them? Maybe, but I'd recommend listening to a few tracks first. I suspect they are, like many good things, an acquired taste.

Next up was Ladytron. I did some research before the show and thought I wouldn't really be into Ladytron. I was completely wrong about that. From listening to the 30 second samples on iTunes, I got the feeling that all their songs sounded alike. As it turns out, those samples are not representative of their music. Ladytron's music is rich in variety, creativity and presence.

Ladytron's stage show is not so much energetic as it is intense. They all have a look of total concentration on their faces as they work to play their music, sing their lines, and change the settings on their keyboards for the next verse. I didn't feel that they were disengaged from the crowd because Helen Marnie, the lead vocalist, kept energy flowing our way for the whole set. The lighting was a thing of wonder that can only be properly described in photos. 

Like a typical nightclub crowd, most of the people really only knew one song. In this case, that song was Seventeen which, despite having only 29 words, lodges in your head and makes you pay attention to the social commentary it delivers wrapped around a pounding bass line. When Helen said "it's time for seventeen" the crowd unanimously cheered.

When the digitally enhanced electronic lighting of Ladytron gave way to video imagery and their smooth synthpop tones and dissonant vocals gave way to harsher sounds and raised voices it was clear that The Faint was the reason many of those audience members were there and they rocked the house from the moment they stepped on the stage. The Faint projected frenetic energy into the house from the stage; they were all constantly in motion and constantly working the crowd.

Next to The Crystal Method, this is the most active I have ever seen a Minnesota audience. Sure, they were still mostly pogo dancing, but they were really putting something into it. There was even one brave crowd surfer.

Of course, I have to give a lot of credit to First Avenue. Of all the venues I've been to in the area, it remains the finest place to see any show. The staff is always polite and patient and somehow they manage to attract audiences that are there for the music rather than the nightclub scene.

Photo notes: The photos are, of course, Telepathe, Ladytron and The Faint in that order. No, not all the pictures I took are backlit, I just liked the way these looked together.

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Gizmodo pointed out that there's a Google map of the swine flu pandemic. It's a little spooky.

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

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Way back in the American Colonial days, Great Brittan passed a law that allowed the East India Tea company to export tea directly to America. This act reduced taxes on tea in Brittan to provide economic advantage to the East India Tea Company and caused taxes in America, including those on tea, to be raised. We Americans felt that we had a right to have a say in the taxes we paid and rebelled by putting on Indian costumes and throwing an entire shipload of tea into Boston Harbor. As the catchy chant of "no taxation without representation" allegedly took hold, several economic escalations meant that this act eventually resulted in the American Revolution.

In response to President Obama's plan to raise the income tax on individuals making over $250,000 and the billions of dollars in economic stimulus going to private industry and local governments, there has been a lot of noise about taxation. Michelle Bachman asks "If our founders thought taxation without representation was bad, what would they think of representation with taxation?" On April 15th, there are always people who picket the US Postal Service and boycott taxes. This year, there was a small movement called "tea bagging" where people who didn't like the taxes their representatives would be voting on waved tea bags in the air and tried to make a connection between their actions and the Boston Tea Party.

These tax boycotters say that taxes are unconstitutional and that there is no requirement to pay them. Article I, section 8 of the constitution gives that argument a hard time:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;

The tea baggers claim that representation with taxation is bad, but taxation with representation is one of many things the Revolution was fighting for.

Incitement of treason aside, there are some problems with arguing against taxation. Lets contemplate some alternate funding mechanisms.

Taxes build roads. Without taxes, all roads would have to be toll roads. That doesn't seem so bad for interstate highways and local through ways when toll roads are miles apart; high speed limits would get you to your destination rapidly despite stopping to toss your change in the hopper. But if the entire downtown street system is toll-based, there would either have to be a tollbooth at every corner or at every entrance to the city street system. If you think rush-hour traffic is bad, just wait until the 10 drivers ahead of you have to dig for change to get to the next red light.

Taxes build bridges. I'll admit that this is closely related to roads, but there are some different hurdles to jump with bridges. Right now it costs $6 for a car to get from San Francisco to Sausalito. If you want to make that trip without taking a bridge, well... I just checked, and you can't. There are some bridges in the area that are not toll bridges, but they're miles out of the way. Many large cities, ironically with majority liberal populations, have gotten used to the idea of paying for the privilege to enter and leave the city, but people across the country would grumble loudly if they had to pay to go to work every day.

Taxes provide public safety. Remember that guy who was driving erratically and you had to swerve suddenly to avoid him, almost hitting a car in the next lane? Remember he got pulled over for drunk driving a few miles later and you were glad to be a little safer? Without taxes, there are three options I can think of for road safety. Either nobody would be on the roads to protect you from that guy or you'd be dealing with private security companies who would not be held to the same standards as the State Troopers, or their salaries would have to be paid by fines and tolls. Many people believe that the police have ticket quotas that need to be met every month and I'm not going to speak directly to that but just imagine if your salary depended directly on the number of tickets you wrote every day.

Taxes provide public education. Let's ignore the complete lack of public schools for the time being. Anyone who has a college degree can tell you that they are expensive and college degrees from private institutions doubly so. The University of Minnesota currently charges about $400 per credit. That tuition money is directly matched by the State of Minnesota because the state, through the elected representatives of its population, has determined that college education is good for the general welfare of that population. In addition to tuition-matching, the University also receives $125M from the State. Without these public funds from taxes, tuition at this state university would have to more than double, placing a college education out of reach for many Minnesotans. There would also be a distinct lack of Federal grants and student loans regardless of the institution in question, making that education more expensive for all citizens.

Taxes provide law enforcement. When I was a kid, my house was broken into while we were out of town for the weekend. Threat of jail is what keeps most people from stealing from other people. Without centralized law enforcement, we would have to rely on private industry to provide local officers, judges, and prisons. Those people would have to be paid through some billing mechanism, much like a tax, and you can bet that people who were able to pay more would get more patrol officers and fewer complaints against them.

Taxes provide laws. Law enforcement is irrelevant without laws to enforce. The representation in national government that this country fought so long and so hard to obtain is built by the people, for the people and on the backs of the people. Our taxes pay for enforcement and protection of the constitution, our nation, and our way of life. Private industry providing constitutional protection would lead directly to representation of wealth and land because there is no profit in representing the poor and homeless.

In short, a country without taxes would look a lot like the old American West. Roads would be build at random, justice would be served at random, infrastructure would be built at random, education would take place at random. If you hadn't already died of polio or smallpox, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog, or any blog, because the Internet would never have been funded by DARPA and you may never have learned to read. As Oliver Wendell Holmes once said "I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization."

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I recently ran across an article on hongkiat.com titled 50 Great Photographers You Should Know. With a list that long i'm a little disapointed I didn't make the cut, but there's a lot of good stuff in there.

Go look but be aware that they're not all safe for work.

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