Nude Dog

Winter seems to be moving on out finally. I can not write in Winter. More on that another time.

Odd week in New York. At the grass roots level as well as in the state house. You know the goings on at the state house so let me fill you in on some local tidbits.

I entered a contest. Sponsored jointly by the Columbia County Council on the Arts and the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce. Both these organizations are housed in Hudson, NY...a little town on the Hudson River and have more to do with that town than with the county...or so it seems.

The contest is entitled BEST OF SHOW. Artists in the area submit designs for sitting or standing dogs. I choose sitting. The designs, if selected will be painted (or whatevered) onto sitting or standing dog sculptures and these then are placed along the main street (Warren Street) of Hudson or around the village for the summer of '08. To attract tourism. Sponsors pay a minimum of $500 to sponsor a dog. A map/brochure is created with info. about the artists and the dog locations and the sponsor. It's a win-win situation...except, well, the artist is doing a lot of free work and the town is the main benefactor of their labor. Sameolesameole.

All selected artists receive $50 for supplies. The sculptures are top coated in a auto-supply joint before sitting outside all summer. In October the sculptures are then auctioned off to highest bidder and the profits ear-marked for supporting the ARTS in Columbia County. The artist receives 25% of the auctioned price (not bad if there are some high rollers at the bidding).

My entry is called Canaan Canine. Canaan NY is where I hang out as most know. My studio view of deer ridge is what's designed to be painted on the dog, with unnamed creek at the dogs feet and an enormous (well how enormous can a tree be on a 31 inch high sculpture?) Norwegian Spruce with a couple of cardinals sitting in it at about belly to chest height. My artist's statement is about being a dog person in feline clothing and has something to do with Keeping Canaan Green. I thought I might be rejected since this dog is definitely a political statement but these days being green seems to slide on through. I expect to tattoo the dog's butt with www.saveCanaanCountry.com but that's on the reverse — so I didn't feel the need to divulge this to the "jury." It's doubtful that the dog will find a sponsor. It is, after all, not a Hudson dog but a country cousin. But that's only part of my dilemma.

But this isn't the COWS (those artist's got- still get, new cows are still being made - a $1,000 honorarium) that traveled around the country and began this craze, or the MOOSE (one wants to saw Meese so badly) that stood around in Bennington Vermont or the SHEEP (Sheeptacular) of Pittsfield, MA or the BEARS that hung out in Northern Conn. last season or even the CATS of Catskill NY of last summer. Catskill is just across the Hudson River from Hudson so it makes sense that Hudson would go for the dogs. Otherwise there is no historical or rational reason except perhaps the somewhat vaguely practical fact that dogs have legs and can stand or sit...whereas, fish which might be a better selection for a river town...have no legs and would be difficult to display by the imaginatively challenged.  So DOGS it is.  One supposes the colorful cacophony of canines will make their way through the streets of Hudson this summer. Hudson is simply, as they say,  going to the dogs.






Hudson was founded in the 18th century and grew to be a whaling ship town and later a town for stops of cargo ships that had traversed the Erie Canal back in the days before pollution and manifest destiny had nearly killed the river. Our favorite son and local hero, Pete Seeger had a lot to do with cleaning up the Hudson River by building a sailing sloop, the Clearwater, and sailing it up and down the river to promote awareness of the pollution in the river. As Pete says, "people are swimming in the river again." Well, not me but braver hearts than mine (like Pete's - you can help the grass roots group who are trying to nominate Pete for a nobel peace prize - the man who wrote "Turn, Turn, Turn" and has preceded us if not led us all by example on our jouney deserves no less). I am not sure if the people who swim in the river can eat fish out of the river yet...or if any fish have returned or are surviving these days. But the Hudson River revival is a happy story of determination and spirit and fighting individuals who have helped to clean up the river and stop further contamination despite politics and corporate greed.







The EPA, our federal environmental watchdog (not related to the Hudson dogs to my knowledge), has as yet had little if anything to do with the clean-up of the Hudson River. They have dragged their feet for nearly a decade to force GE (General Electric) to clean up the most toxic contaminants they dumped for years way, way north toward the start of the river and which traveled all the way down to Troy, New York which is just above Hudson by about 30 miles as the crow (or eagle) flies along the water front. The contaminant in question is one of the biggest and most dangerous of those to currently to have infected our planet...PCBs. The river has to be dredged and the residents and citizens all up and down the river have had meeting after meetings for years to convince the EPA to take action. Finally the EPA pronounced that GE did in fact bear financial responsibility for cleaning up the river about 5 or more years ago. And so...not a drop of silt or PCBs has been dredged up since that decision was made as far as I know. It will cost millions of dollars to accomplish the clean up and by the time it is done, GE will have had the time to save the money needed to do the job simply from the interest garnered over the long wait while GE held everything up in court case after court case. One of the biggest corporations in the world, on the planet who is now making big bucks on "green" paraphernalia like wind generators is still one of the biggest and horrific polluters in terms of past actions. And knowing GE is a global corporation, I'd suspect they were NOT doing their fair share of keeping the planet green in other more exotic corners of the world where close observers of their maneuverings have as yet felt the tang of regret over the results of pollution. But that's a different story.

Back to Hudson village and the dogs.

One dog of over 100+ designs was eliminated. It happens to be a nude dog. The rules were strict. Rule 8 states: "Designs must be appropriate for public display. Designs that are religious, political or sexual in nature will not be accepted. Corporate logos and advertising are not permitted. A review panel will evaluate all designs. This review panel has the sole discretion to accept or reject any design."  OK.  (This language, by the way, is right out of Cow Parade...from the Moo-Museum site.)

Is a nude dog...I'm told it was a retro pin-up nude dog...well is that considered "sexual?" Or is a nude dog "political?" Or, I've got it, a nude dog must be "religious" right? No, that'd be Madoga and pup.

I'm stumped. Why reject a nude dog? When did a nude public sculpture become an issue? And as a friend said to me....AREN'T ALL DOGS NUDE? So what gives?

Did I mention that Hudson until well after the 1930s had a pretty strong RED LIGHT district. The town was one of those biggest little brothel places that sprung up to service seamen and river men and (I suppose) farmers. The main red light street was Diamond Street (the bling of the old fashioned brothels was blinding...thus Diamond Street). Apparently the street was very heavily trafficked. The name was changed to Columbia Street for some reason in the century just past or maybe the one before that. There have been books and articles and lots of press about Hudson's spicy history and it has been embraced for years as an interesting bit of whatnot making the area a little bit more than a hick farm town.

Hudson itself is lovely with wonderful brick and wood townhouses, most restored now and pricey, great ART galleries and antique shops and lovely restaurants. Warren Street and Columbia Street go right down to the quaint river train station that fronts the Hudson River just over the tracks. And since all my readers might not be locals...the Hudson River is a big, beautiful vista with dramatic sunsets and historic bridges and ladders of hills that flank the water with mansions tucked in the side that have been in attendance since before the Roosevelt's moved up river. The Hudson is a wonderful river and any town named Hudson has lots to be proud of.

So would a nude dog be inappropriate? You be the judge. And why reject just one nude dog out of a 100+ dog designs? Is this censorship of the good intentions and probably great workmanship of a local artist? (There are plenty of other nude related dog issues - but none so compelling as a simple nude dog; I found one reference that involves homeland security...as in the nude dogs who search bomb debris to find remains - that's a bit frightening.)

Is this sort of petty censorship the rightful job of an arts council?

Maybe painted dogs on village streets are just decoration as another colleague points out and more good fun and more the art of commerce than the art of ART...but still. I'd love to see a spicy nude dog in Hudson. Far superior to anything I can do.

And again and finally....

“ Art is about breaking down barriers.  It gets people to feel, to think, to react.  So when you come across life-sized cow sculptures that have been covered in mirrors or gumdrops, cows that have been painted with elaborate themes or transformed into something else entirely, you can't help but stop and think about what it means.  All your preconceived ideas go out the window.  Suddenly people see that art can be fun and that art can be interesting to everyone, not just people who frequent museums.” 

 

Peter Hanig 

CowParade Event Organizer

Election Day Blahs

Over the past three weeks all the local temporary electioneering signs have gone up along the country roads were I live. The signs are all of the professionally printed kind which hang between two wire legs. They are inserted into the front lawns and/or along the sides of the roads. "ELECT Lou Hatch" or "For Town Board- Brenda Adams" and so on.*

I am uncertain if the signs which appear at the fronts of different mom and pop businesses signify the political leanings of the owners or if they are simply accessible areas for signage. Sometimes as many as a dozen signs are lined up in a dense row along the roadway - each for a different town or country office and/or person in shades of red white and blue. Very boring. Very ugly. Very invasive. Very stupid.

I am reminded of the old Burma Shave signs that one used to come across in the most out of the way places along the roadways when I was a child. I loved them...everyone did. They were clever, intelligent, silly and fun to find. My first (and nearly my last...I continue to enjoy "I love LA" billboards in Hollywood) positive encounter with outdoor advertising. The "hit you over the head" approach of unsightly enormous billboards is nothing to compare with the finesse of the old Burma Shave adverts. For those who don't know - the Burma Shave ads were in the form of poems, a word or short phrase on each sequential sign...spaced out along the side of the road so that you read the short message as you drove by ending with a Burma Shave logo. These were small highway signs, low to the ground, wood, painted nicely, not more than a foot and a half wide....wonderful little rhyming ditties. Here's one featured on wikipedia.org.

"Her chariot
Raced 80 per
They hauled away
what had
Ben Hur -
Burma Shave"

Ahhhh....that one is really good folks. Many of the little messages were about driving safely. And others were about the product....a shaving creme. Here's one of the personal hygiene slogans:

"Henry the Eighth
sure had trouble
short-term wives
long-term stubble -
Burma-Shave"

All were quirky and funny.

And so...what's wrong with local (and regional and national) political signage? Well yes, it stinks. The content is as boring as, dare I say it, the folks running for office. As election days approach the public is bombarded with stupid messages and horrible design...and we are supposed to entrust our government into the hands of these people who can't even create an engaging, intelligent or funny sign?

Haven't we learned
what you see
is what you get ?

Can you imagine if what we saw along the roadway was something like:

Hatchs have been here
for quite awhile
200 plus years
in Canaanite style.
Good law and order
with nary a smile
Lou be the judge
the other guy's vile.
Lou Hatch - town justice.

or

You know her
she's real bright-

she'll hammer
the board
with all her might.

Brenda Adams -
is town Board right!

And, more important we need to use creative signage and adverts to get the bad eggs out of the basket...so, how about:

BE REAL WARY
of tricky Gary
He can't count
the budget amount
Best tide the flow
of Canaan's dough
We gotta' take measure
and let Gary go.

I'd rather smile at the candidates' slogans than grimace at them. On a national scale...the only difference is the amount of money being spent. The messages are all equally lame. Why are these people so dull? Remember.....

Be real wary / of tricky Gary !

Four or was it six years ago, both parties approached me about helping them graphically - with their "message". For a designer that means doing free work. It's a thankless job. Someone always ends up being angry or hurt or slighted. Usually that's me. There are no credits rolled at the end of an event or an election. The organizers, the politicians take in the accolades for themselves and keep them. Nonetheless I attempted to help both groups with what I considered were the issues at hand by discussing local perceptions with the major candidates. I didn't want to foolishly alienate my local government. But over the years I've learned to not expect much from them. I'll write about my $75,000 culvert another time.

But sadly or realistically, over time, I've learned our local politicians, just as our national ones, don't usually represent a common interest for the good of the community. In local politics as in national politics...only the vested interest of the politician's personal objectives is what will actually be realized during their tenure. In reaction, these days I represent my own vested interests. I promote what I think is important. I do the labor myself. I promote the cause myself. I ask the questions which have to be asked and assemble the issues which have to be reviewed in my community. I put my opinions in the face of other local residents in the way I know best. I don't run for office and put out stupid red, white and blue signs on the country highways for 5 weeks a year in compliance with the town's signage rules. I use the 24/7 electronic highway instead. Take a look at SaveCanaanCountry.com sometime to see what I mean.

So Susan's savvy /
although she's unseen /
neither town hack /
nor local queen /
stoppin' stupid strip malls /
and keepin' Canaan green/
for flora and fauna/
and everyone in between!**

What would you rather read?
Don't forget to vote...

* I'm not sure who's running for what exactly....I'll know before I vote and you can be damn sure I'm going to vote.

** I would love to print and erect my own Burma-Shave type signage along the highway if it was affordable. I think one could really communicate effectively along the roadways of our towns and villages, cities and counties, states and countries and bring back free creative speech to our roads. However, thus far, the Internet superhighway is the only pathway affordable.

Dream forth to
a ride to come
where speech is free
along asphalt's run

BOO!

leaf peeping

I met friends in Great Barrington over the past weekend for a movie with George Clooney and dinner with Koi. Good film. good food, good friends.

The drive was spectacular...the hills were alive with vibrating color. It was our collective opinion that we were dead center in Fall's prime leaf peeping weekend.

Although locals don't consider themselves in league with the peepers, I have to admit to not being able to keep my eyes on the road while I drove. I found myself drifting over the center dotted and solid lines more than once as I kept the hills in sight instead of the road. Luckily, very little traffic impeded me. Unless one was driving blind ...one could not help but do a little overdosing in the cornucopia of tantalizing colors through which the roads tunneled.

the first gas buy

Before I left home I had to pull out the Prius "manual. " It was time to figure out what sort of gasoline the car takes. I hadn't reason to fill up the tank since I brought the car home about a month ago. In fact, I still had about a quarter of a tank of gas in the car. The car's trip information computer tells me I am averaging about 45 mpg. Not bad. I stopped and put in $10 worth of medium grade gasoline which filled the tank half full. I figure this will last quite a long time at my rate of consumption (or the Prius'). I drive only 3-4 times a week, mostly short trips in the countryside. However a short trip in the mountains, when nothing is close by is always 15 minutes to a half hour before you reach a destination. So, $10 for gasoline every 3 weeks won't be too difficult to digest for the Prius or me. I expect to save about $25 a month on gasoline...the more I drive, the more I'll save. Not to mention the $700 tax deduction for buying a hybrid vehicle.

Pretty easy to figure out that the initial cost of the automobile will be offset by the dollars NOT spent in gasoline and federal taxes...making the car actually even less expensive to own and use on a monthly and annual basis.

Almost too good to be true, isn't it? Eat your heart out you non-hybrid drivers. I hear the price of gas just jumped again yesterday too. O.K., so maybe I'll be spending $13 a month for gasoline instead of $10. And you'll be spending what?

By the way, I am not driving a Prius for the gasoline dollars I'm not going to spend (although damn, it's a wonderful plus)...I'm driving a hybrid for the carbon emissions I'm not going to be responsible for creating.

Tipping Points on the Environment

Many people will be blogging about saving the environment and its many inhabitants, global warming, steps we can take to reverse our carbon emissions and other green issues today in a collective effort to create Internet buzz.

I've recently purchased a hybrid vehicle. I hesitated about liking the new car for about a week. I didn't want to give up my Subaru Forester but I saw that I could easily reduce my own carbon emissions by trading in the Forester on a hybrid Prius. And I went ahead but I dragged my feet about really liking the new car. I felt it was medicinal.

But I love it. It's a pleasure to drive. I see many more hybrids on the roads around me this year than ever before.

So more and more people are reaching the tipping point and doing one and then another and another thing to reverse Global Warming. Hopefully this will help other people to jump on board.

I love the hybrid car and feel very good about driving it...not a bad trade up.

How to save the planet

The non-environmental world's reaction to Al Gore's being honored as a Nobel Peace Prize winner is disturbing.

photo credit: Al Gore Speaking this morning at the Alliance for Climate Protection, LiveEarth. org

I thought Americans would simply be proud of him.

Is it a stretch to see creating awareness of the effects of over energy use and how to make simple and difficult corrections – would be a healthy planet? And a healthy planet is as important as a peaceful planet.

And isn't politicizing the science of global warming needed to get governments as well as people to understand the repercussions of over energy usage?

And isn't the media reaction to a pretty good Oscar award winning documentary part of what's needed to create the right sort of buzz, get people thinking, talking, taking action?

The negative comments about Al Gore only thinly veil the greed of too many Americans and their excessive consumption, the excuses they postulate, their condemnation of someone who is making a positive difference in a crisis of global proportions. It's appalling.

One person writes about how Al Gore uses too much energy himself. That he heats a pool, that his house uses more energy in a month than a normal family uses in a year. And that buying some sort of energy shares to offset his consumption is more a statement of how rich people can screw up the planet but the rest of us can't. Well actually buying the carbon shares does offset energy consumption. But something about this observation saddens me. Partly because it's true...that wealth does buy privileges, even about global warming. And that the pursuit of wealth might actually be part of the global warming problem.

The vehemence with which some people write about Al Gore seems to be about more than his winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The divisions among Americans can not be allowed to color issues about the environment. Red states and blue states need to become GREEN states.

Global Warming isn't a Democrat or Republican or Independent issue; it's a planet Earth issue. Al Gore gets it.

Yesterday I was very happy for Al Gore. Today I am concerned for about half the Americans in the country. What are you thinking people?

Wondering how bad the Winter will be...

photo credit: PD Photo

We all make projections. Some are based on scientific information, others on weatherlore. We might see many totally brown (no center band) woolly bear fuzzy caterpillars and think..."ah, it's going to be a fair Winter." Or we might notice the birds migrating sooner than normal or hear the honks of the Canada (it's really not Canadian as friends constantly remind me) Geese as they fly in V's over head and think...soon...Winter is coming soon.

You might attempt to stave off the snow with a spell or two accompanied by visualizations of warmer weather. I'm not a weather spell sort, but apparently they are quite common (rain dancing for instance – Hopi, Zuni, Cherokee not Gene Kelly.)

Beginning with ancient civilizations – weather has fallen under the umbrella of the supernatural within the domain of those individuals who presumed to wield some control over sun, rain, snow, hail, thunder, lightening and everything in between. Power has always fallen into the hands of the rain makers and only more recently been usurped by the hate mongers, fear preachers and others who, for some reason, have more contemporary credibility. Just a little too SciFi– flim flam– inside the belt way for me. However, it's pretty clear we'd be better off taking our chances with a good Witch doctor than FEMA.

Snow removal woes before it arrives

Today the snow plow man called and said (in a rehearsed speech) that his "insurance rates on his truck for plowing were going to be too high and so he was canceling his plowing business." The man bought a much bigger gas guzzling truck a couple years ago specifically to plow and bought a new bigger plow to haul around in Winter. These things aren't cheap and now...he isn't going to plow? His excuse seemed too pat, too easy. Why not find a work around? He was already defeated; a local country man knocking out a subsistence living mowing lawns and raking and doing a little gardening and snow plowing in Winter. I asked "if he'd called any other insurance company since NY allows for quite competitive rates these days." He hadn't. I asked "what would happen if he had an accident plowing his own driveway...his insurance wouldn't cover repairs?" He said, "he was allowed to plow his own driveway." I asked, "what about plowing your mother's driveway? Is that allowed?" He didn't answer. I said, "it seemed highly unlikely that his normal truck insurance wouldn't cover him for casual (non income generating) plowing" a statement he found particularly frustrating. He began ranting about losing his house if he was sued and saying the same thing over and over, clearly upset about this potential added insurance (he said it was over a thousand dollars). I told him "I could easily pay him for doing something else instead of snow plowing so that money didn't change hands"....but he seemed ready to just quit. Defeated and tired. I called the man who used to plow and left a message. His wife called; he doesn't plow in my area anymore. Another pre-Winter worry.

photo credit: www.public-domain-photos.com

I didn't put my polertec jacket away last Spring...the cold of that season lasted into the heat of the Summer. I never put my outer parka (that the polertec zips into) away either. My gloves lie in wait in the basket by the door. Yesterday I removed all the sandals and garden clogs and brought all the boots to the top of the pile. And now to see the jackets awaiting the climate to match makes the leap into cold appear to have come without the relief of warmth in the Summer. Having cold weather gear always hanging by the door is a mistake.

Life lies in wait for a long list of tasks to be accomplished before one can sink into the comfort of toasty evenings of late Fall and early Winter.

The shorter days and the chill of damp air is mood altering...for me depressing, for others a time to give up, for others...resignation and still others – hope.

Personally I don't care for weather predictions. I prefer the surprise. Why fret over the future when we barely know the present? Except, of course...in terms of killing the planet...by not thinking ahead. We've all become experts on that sort of surprise haven't we?