Fun Jobs in New York City?

Okay, I decided a long time ago that I would work to live, not live to work. It's cliche but its true. I used to take creative positions where I could design and photo edit all day. The problem was that I never wanted to work on my own creative endeavors when the day was over. I made a conscious decision to take boring jobs that pay well in order to buy art and photo supplies, pay the bills, save for a family, an apartment, probably a minivan and retirement.

Well, that's not working out either. While I am by no means a slacker at work, I am by no means an overachiever. I just go, do my job well and leave.

This leads me to my next question: Where are the fun jobs in New York City? A search on Google turned up nothing but Craigslist positions for the first five or so hits. I eventually found my way onto a site promising fun positions. Click on the link: Sales jobs, accounting positions, office managers. What's worse? The were everywhere but New York City: NJ, Long Island, Westchester.

So is it this bad? Is the greatest city in the world, the top destination for fun, completely devoid of fun jobs? Do I need to become a fun sales person or a fun accountant or a fun office manager and NJ Transit it or LI Railroad it or Metro North it?

I'll do anything, I just want to work in a fun place or in a fun industry and have a fun time. It must be in New York City.

Seriously, contact me if you have anything.

Thank you, Dick!

Thank you, Dick Cheney! Your tireless xenophobia and might-makes-right philosophy have made it possible for a minority to become President in my lifetime. I shudder to think that, had your divisive tactics in the 2004 election not worked to divide this nation, John Kerry would have won and we would have had to choose between him and John McCain. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, we owe them so much. Gay Rights ballots, thank you, thank you. Losing the 2004 election was the greatest blessing this country has seen in my lifetime. It's just too bad for all the innocent people who died because of eight years of your policy.

Brooklyn Dances in the Streets for Obama

Brooklyn Dances in the Streets for Obama
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

Most of the big moments I remember are negatives moments: The Challenger Disaster, the Tsunami, September 11. Tonight was a positive one: The election of the first minority to the Presidency of the United States. We went crazy in my boro tonight, literally dancing in the streets. I have no doubt that the long nightmare is not over, but I do hope that we have turned the page and are moving toward something better.

Wow. Just... Wow...

Count me as an elitist. A proud, proud, elitist.

Week 3

tadium or [Shea S]tadium
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

Well, I guess it is no longer "Shea Stadium". It is now simply "tadium". The "Shea S" have been removed. I expect more changes next week. I know the scoreboard came down last Saturday (missed it by a few hours).

In other news, brooklynmetfan.com has picked up a bunch of my photos and is running them this week. It is exciting to be getting some exposure. It would be great to publish these photos as a documentation of the end of Shea at some point.

Not So Bad

You know, it doesn't really seem that bad. Oil prices have come down, the Euro is trading at $1.30, not $2.00 and I still have food. I understand that real estate and construction are hard hit but it just seems like a market correction, not the end of times. I know that retirement accounts are taking a hit but if we can bail out banks, we will bail out retirees.

Wait until all the boomers leave their homes for nursing homes and cemeteries. That's going to leave a huge glut of housing on the market. You think we have real estate deflation now? I'm going to buy a brownstone and two McMansions in twenty years.

Leonard Cohen Christmas Album

I wish Leonard Cohen had recorded a Christmas album. I understand that there would probably be an inherent conflict of interests considering his last name, but I'm sure it would have been an interesting melancholy take on some holiday classics.

Week 2

IMGP8765BW
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

Not much changed between week 1 and week 2 at Shea. It does feel more desolate. Perhaps that is because things are disappearing that I am not noticing: Small promenade trees, signposts, etc. I watched some workers unceremoniously remove the sign for Gate E. That was sort of the stand-by place where I would meet people when going to a game. I’m happy to say the light was better this week, so photos are crisper.

I Think the Money Just Got All Used up

I think we just used up all of the money. All of it. It's not coming back. I'm pretty sure I just heard that sucking sound that you get from a straw when you reach the bottom of a drink. Did anyone else notice it?

In the meantime, I'm going to propose to Jess that we eat our cat. That will give us two savings: 1) We won't need to buy cat food anymore 2) We will be full for one more day.

Shea Stadium: 1964 - 2008 - October 4, 2008

Shea Stadium: 1964 - 2008
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

I’ve decided to do a photo series on the dismantling of Shea Stadium. I plan to go once a week to the place where I spent so many summer days and so many autumn heartbreaks where I will document the razing of the field. I’m sad to see it go. I find some irony in the fact that it is 44 years old, the same age that Ebbets Field was when they tore down that stadium. At the same time, the Citi Field’s (the new Shea) look is based upon the old field from Brooklyn. I guess we can expect to see a new field in 2052 based upon the look of Shea. Hopefully it will be back in Brooklyn.

Things I don't Care about:

Digital broadcasting and the end of analog television - my TV went dark years ago and my life has been all the better ever since.

War in Pakistan

Has anyone noticed that we are at war in Pakistan?


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/world/asia/09pstan.html?hp

More Political Silliness

Things to Keep in Mind When on Vacation: OOTO

Typing OOTO instead of Out of the Office on your vacation auto-reply does not increase your productivity. It just messes with your recipients' heads as they try to figure out what OOTO means.

It probably also decreases their productivity as they scratch their heads.

Twilight in Greenpoint

IMGP7045
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

Awesome. Just freakin' Awesome.

The only thing missing is a sound file of the music when the dog pops up:

Source: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/08/duck_hunt_lamp.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

Somewhere between Anchorage and Denali

Alaska photos are up!

IMGP5414
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

X-Files Sequel

There's a new X-Files movie out this weekend? Shoot, I'm still trying to get tickets to Batman.

$4 Gallon Gas

Soooo... With a gallon of gas at $4, a car that gets 24 miles to the gallon goes a whopping 6 miles per dollar.

I love my Metro Card.

The Work Week

I don't hate my job, I hate Mondays and Tuesdays. By Wednesday I'm numb and resigned to working. Wednesday is also not not Monday or Tuesday. Thursday is nice because it's a weekend's worth of days away from the weekend. Friday is fine and gets better as the day wears on.

Sunday nights can be downright depressing.

Barack Obama

Let me be the first to ask: Can we get this guy on a coin or a bill or Mt. Rushmore or something? I know he hasn't been elected yet but we may as well put him up there.

Check this out: www.fightthesmears.com.

Who is "Everyone"?

From NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/us/politics/10cnd-campaign.html?hp):

In his speech to the small business group, Mr. McCain denounced Mr. Obama’s plan to pay for his economic stimulus plan by increasing taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year, arguing it would harm businesses, as well. “Under Senator Obama’s tax plan, Americans of every background would see their taxes rise,” he said, “seniors, parents, small business owners, and just about everyone who has even a modest investment in the market.”

I'm not making $250,000 with or without investments and I make above the US average. I know some people who are far better off than I am at this point, but I assume they are not making $250,000 either.

So who is this "everyone who has even a modest investment in the market.”? Rich Republicans are not everyone. International arms dealers are not everyone. Oil companies are not everyone. Certainly the soldiers that Senator McCain has asked to stay in Iraq for a hundred years are not everyone.

Tuesday Mornings

So I’m sitting in a meeting about internal and external questions and how we capture the data for those programs. All I can think is:

God I want to work on a spaceship.

I Wanted to Like this Movie

I wanted to like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I really did. But, like so many Lucas properties of late, it got too cutsie. I would review the film, but I can't bring myself to go over its tedious childishness. Perhaps I have grown up since eighth grade, when Indy was last on the screen. I guess nothing could match what I had hoped for.

All I want to say about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is that I think Spielberg and Lucas had a conversation that went something like this:

Lucas: I want Jar Jar Binks.
Spielberg: I'll give you gophers.
Lucas: I want Ewoks.
Spielberg: I'll give you monkeys.
Lucas: I want a tiny extra terrestrial duck named Howard.
Spielberg: I'll hit Shia LaBeouf in the balls with cacti and we can name him Mutt.
Lucas: I want a Death Star.
Spielberg: I'll give you a nuclear blast for no reason. But it will look really cool.
Lucas: I want X-wings.
Spielberg: You'll get a fridge.

I would also like to point out that James bond movies started getting bad around the fourth installment, Thunderball. While Thunderball was an excellent spy movie and among my favorite action films of all-time, it was the first where the gadgets, girls and grandeur started to get out of hand. Connery went on to do two more Bond films which each grew more tedious. The series then quickly slid into self-parody with the soft, bereft-looking, wide-eyed layabout Roger Moore taking over the part.

Now there is talk of the soft, bereft-looking, wide-eyed layabout Shia LaBeouf inheriting the part of Indiana Jones. Think about it.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I am thoroughly prepared to enjoy Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So prepared, in fact, that Jessica and I have tickets to tonight’s Ziegfeld premiere at midnight. A lot of friends and people on the net have prejudged an aging Indy who fights Stalinists instead of Nazis. Be that as it may, it is a natural progression. It is also a chance to break out of the mold of two of the other three Indy films. I see an opportunity to update a character without updating a character. It’s a chance to look in on an old friend and find what he has been up to since his AARP card was issued. Consider all the updates James Bond have gone through or the upcoming Star Trek and you will understand why this film will actually feel fresh in its acknowledgement of aging and mortality. In the end, I’m not writing the movie off until I have seen it and if it is as good as Temple of Doom, my least favorite, I will be ecstatic.

And the biggest thing I am most looking forward to: No onscreen advertising. In a day when we are so used to seeing Burger King, Nike, Windows etc., I am excited to see a film set when none of these franchises existed and can not possibly show up in the movie. Even if the movie sucks, at least I won’t have to watch Mr. Ford drinking a Grande Mocachino while eating a Gordito and complaining about Simon Cowell.

A Supposedly Christian Nation

If you call yourself a Christian then you have to know in your supposedly Christian heart that immigrants who are trying to build a better life should be let into our country. Anything other than completely open immigration is unChristian. It does not take a whole lot of research in the New Testament to verify that this is what Jesus would want.

A Funny Thing...

A funny thing happened shortly after my last entry. I was hired by WebMD. Since that event, I have had little time... okay, let's be truthful, little motivation to update this blog.

But, as usual, politics weighs upon me as much as the two Old Fashions that I just drank and I feel compelled to talk about my disillusionment with the whole thing.

We were promised that Iraq would be a cakewalk, the war would pay for itself, that gas would be almost free because of our adventure and Iraq would quickly blossom into a liberal democracy. All this was supposed to happen before Bush's unelected term ended. Here we are at the end of Bush's elected term and we are still in Iraq, three-trillion plus in debt, gas will be $4.00 per gallon by Labor Day and Sadr controls Iraq. (Despite the fact that Iraq has a Parliament, Sadr controls the country. Expect Sadr to march into Iraq's parliament the day after we leave, liquidate the lawmakers and give himself a title equivalent to president while becoming the latest tyrant whose ascension the US facilitated. [I hope we all remember the Shah or Fulgencio Batista.])

I almost want to vote for McCain just to force his party to clean up the mess.

New Project - meh

I started a new photo project last weekend. It is in the vein of Doctor Beef's Storm Troopin set on Flickr. I fear that it lacks the fun and ingenuity of the former. I Think I did it because I was bored and trapped at my parents' house for Easter:

I'd take a cruiser as well...

I'm sorry but if I were one of the bank robbers, I would have to steal a police car as well. I hope this was not real:

Job Hunt Report: World Access Marketing

I had an interesting, if not intense, interview last Friday with World Access Marketing. http://www.worldaccessmarketing.com. I urge you to check out their website which is mediocre at being long-winded and high-impact while stating nothing. I also urge you to check out the bad things people are writing about them at http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/097/RipOff0097045.htm. That link is the number two hit on Google when you search for “World Access Marketing.” Also, searching for “World Access Marketing scam” on Google leads to this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=HF4&q=world+access+marketing+scam&btnG=Search .

Anyhow, this is how the entertaining day went: It starts the afternoon before the interview on Thursday, March 6. I was bored with the job search, sick and frustrated with spinning my wheels when I opted to post a less than professional resume on a job search site under the name Tommy Kirchmeier. (I use Tom Kirchmeier professionally the way that Bill Shatner uses William Shatner.) The resume read as follows:

Where I have worked is not important, short of dropping the name Pfizer (Management, 2004-2008). Anyone can manage but can they interact? If you want specialization, there are a thousand resumes on this site. If you want someone intelligent and adventurous who can grow, adapt and react in a changing situation, get to know me:

Career Highlights:
• Wilderness firefighter - National Parks Fire Service
• Tutor, mentor, teacher, social worker – Washington DC School District
• Published photographer
• Video artist with shows in Soho and Provence France
• Published writer
(Examples of my work can be found on tommykirchmeier.com)

Travel:
• France - 2 months
• Vietnam - 1 month
• United Kingdom - 1 month
• Italy - 2 weeks
• Spain (2 weeks)
• United States (Several cross-country road trips)

Books Read Recently:
• A History of the World by J. M. Roberts
• State of Denial by Bob Woodward
• Youth without Youth by Mircea Eliade
• Братья Карамазовы (The Brothers Karamazov in English), Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
• The Trial by Franz Kafka

Magazine Subscriptions:
• The Economist
• The New Yorker
• The Nation
• Runner’s World

Skills:
• Photography
• Web design
• Video editing
• Animation
• Long distance running
• Can explain why the 21st Century began in 2001
• Can say “Thank you” in Vietnamese
• Will always speak my mind
• Cooking with eggs
• Can beat Contra on Nintendo
• Can understands the binary language of moisture vaporators
• Can understands the binary language of load lifters which are like vaporators in most respects
• Can speak Bocce
• Name every United States President since Hoover
• Make a convincing case for Libertarianism
• Make a more convincing case for Socialism
• Explain the difference between intelligence and wisdom
• Get you coffee
• Get you copies
• Explain why the Russian Church would reject the return of Christ
• Argue against globalization (having seen it firsthand)
• Argue for globalization (having seen it firsthand)
• Read ten pages a minute
• Comprehend one page in ten minutes
• Spare a rod
• Spoil a child
• Sell gold
• Sell junk
• Sell the Brooklyn Bridge
• Find Iraq on a map of the world
• Find Kansas on a map of the world

Within a half hour of posting the above, I had a phone call from World Access Marketing. I thought, “Great, a place with a sense of humor. I can get on there.” The woman on the other end of the phone stated that they were a marketing company and they needed someone right away. They were moving quickly to hire someone and she asked if I could come in at 1:30 the next day. I agreed and she went on to say that they were in Lodi and asked if I knew where that was.

“LODI,” I said, “Is that a new neighborhood? Long on down Island, perhaps?” I mean let’s face it, in my lifetime NYC has added SOHA, NOHA, NOHO, and LIC . Not to mention, we have started calling New York City “NYC” in that time.

She replied that, no, it was Lodi, New Jersey but that it was only twenty minutes from the City.

Now, before I continue, I must explain a few things:

1) Everyone in ‘Jersey thinks that everything in ‘Jersey is twenty minutes from the city. This might be true but it also assumes that everyone in NYC lives just outside the Lincoln or Holland Tunnels and owns a car.

2) I have all of two friends from Brooklyn who own one car. They are a couple. This effectively indicates that I only ever have one friend, of all the people I know in BK, who is driving her or his own insurable mode of transportation at any given time. The rest of us are lucky if we own bikes. Bikes are not insured. And, come to think of it, that couple moved out onto Long Island last month. So I essentially have no friends in Brooklyn with a car, only friends from Brooklyn.

So I neither live near the tunnel nor own a car which means that twenty minutes from the city automatically turns into a half hour on the train from Penn Station.

I ask her if they have a train station nearby. She tells me, “No, but there is a bus stop right around the corner at a 7-11.” She will send me public transit directions.

Now, before I continue, I must explain a few things:

1) New Yorkers distrust busses. They don’t go on tracks and they remain above-ground in the city. They can take wrong turns, break down, blow a tire. Also, bus stops aren’t labeled nearly as well as train stations.

2) There are a lot of 7-11’s in ‘Jersey.

She sends me directions and, as it is almost 5 PM, I feel committed at this point to take the interview.

I leave my glorious BK apartment/castle at 11:00 on Friday, giving myself two hours to get to Lodi, if this place does exist. I walk fifteen minutes to the G Train. Wait forever. Connect to the 7 Train. Wait a little less. Take the 7 to the eastern end of the Port Authority. Walk to the western end of Port Authority and buy a bus ticket. Walk back to the eastern end of the Port Authority. I wait a really long time for the bus. Board the bus and follow a map I have brought along to the 7-11 in Lodi. Being a bus and not a train, bus stops are not labeled and there are a lot of 7-11’s in NJ, I can’t stress this enough. I pay particular attention to the streets and I do make it to Lodi with time to spare. I hang out in my suit and tie in front of a Pathmark, wishing I at least smoked so that I wouldn’t look like a ne’re-do-well. Finally, it is time to cross the lot and go to my interview.

I enter the building which appears a little run-down. I assume that the rent is good. Up a flight of stairs, I find a long hallway with lots of sports logos. (They are supposedly a sports-marketing company of some kind. This should have set off an alarm as no sports marketing company should be that close to NYC but not in NYC.) There are also a lot of jackets hung on hooks, grade-school style. No one is in the office but a big fun plasma TV is blaring some cable sports network. I want to watch politics. I call the woman from the day before. She comes running from some dimly lit hallway, past the main office and plasma TV, and meets me. She seats me by the TV. She asks me to fill out paperwork but it does not include tax info. The whole time she is impersonal yet aggressive. I can’t remember ever making eye-contact but I felt obliged to fill out the paperwork or loose my opportunity to interview, similar to how I felt obliged to take a walk, a train, a train, a bus and a walk to get here.

I oblige, and fill out the paperwork.

At this point, I remember the time I walked into the Scientologist headquarters on 82nd St to check them out. I consider using a false name as I did when I visited the Scientologists. By the time I have completed the document, another person has shown up. He begins filling out paperwork as well. I hand in my paperwork and am told someone will be with me shortly. Again, no eye-contact.

At about 1:40, I am greeted by a Napoleonic version of a frat-boy in a tie. He is affable enough but also strangely aggressive. He is about ten years younger than I am. He is meeting with me because the owner of the company, whom I was supposed to meet, had to be off in Dallas. He states this as if Dallas is somewhere exotic. As far as I know, there is no city named Dallas in Asia, so I assume the owner is in that wonderful state, Texas, which I would so love to give back to Mexico.

The kid brings me into his office and we begin the interview. He asks what I have done in the past and I launch into my usual spiel about recently managing at Pfizer and all the great things I have done before that. Within two minutes, he asks what I want to do. Having never received a job description from World Access Marketing, I have no real way of tailoring my answer to his question. I figure they are a marketing company, so I start talking about Photoshop and graphics design. He points to some amateurish color printouts of what appear to be coupons and tells me that they do some graphics design. Great, now I’m getting somewhere. I also know that I will not be taking a job where I wear a tie and need a bus out to Lodi each morning. Knowing that I will not be taking a job where I wear a tie and need a bus out to Lodi each morning, I suggest he look at my website. He loves it. The animations put him into a trance.

Now, chances are very good that you are on my website at this moment. I like my website. It’s artsy. It displays the fun I have with photography, video and animation. I also love the way the baby-head logo sticks in people’s minds. But it is not a professional website in terms of content or execution.

This guy eats it up.

He turns from the site and asks me, “No, but what do you want to do?”

Now, I hate this question. I want to get a job that ends at 5 and pays for my art, my reading, my drinking and my rent, pretty much in that order. I of course can’t state that on an interview. I generally stumble past this question with grand plans about how I like to be a part of Continuing Medical Education and ensure that patients receive proper treatment. I can’t use this either because sick and dieing patients don’t need sports marketing.

I fall flat on my face.

He tells me that I am awarded a second interview.

I will be in business for myself (hence, the lack of tax paperwork) and everyone starts by making phone calls for the first six months.

Those of you who know me, and chances are you know me if you have read this far (after all, I can’t see someone who doesn’t know me reading this far, and I thank you for being my friend and reading this far) know that I hate telephones. They are impersonal and inhuman. I have broken up with women because I could not spend more than ten minutes on the phone. I have never had phone sex. If it were up to me, I would turn all phones into calculators or planters or shoe trees if I could figure out a way to do it.

The guy writes “110” on my resume and tells me that I will receive a call that night around 6:30. I’m not sure what 110 means.

So let me get this straight, I will wake up each morning, don a suit and tie, take a walk, a train, another train, a bus and another walk in order to make phone calls for six months and apparently stay until at least 6:30 on Fridays.

I tell him that I will be at the Knicks game at 6:30. He says he will leave a message and we start talking about the Knicks. I know about as much about the Knicks as I do this new job but somehow, I make it through the conversation. I give him a copy of my real resume, figuring he can show it to the guy in Dallas. He doesn’t seem to care and lets me go. I say he lets me go because he doesn’t walk me to the door. He doesn’t say goodbye. He just kind of says we are done, I will have a second interview and he calls the next person into his office.

The whole interview took less than seventeen minutes. That includes the paperwork. At 1:47, I found myself in the parking lot, walking to the bus. In the end, I never received that call during the Knicks game. It was an entertaining Friday until I went to the Garden and watched the Knicks loose a no-contest to Detroit. I also had an entertaining Saturday when I finally had a chance to research World Access Marketing and had my suspicions confirmed that they were in fact, a scam.

Governor Spitzer: Advantage Lost

Eliot Spitzer had a chance to turn his personal, private, non-policy failings, an act not even illegal in parts of the United States, into a media advantage for the Democratic Party. I wish instead of resigning, he had stated the following the following:

"Though what I did in Washington DC was illegal in that jurisdiction, I stress that my acts did not lead to the deaths of thousands of civilians and United States soldiers. I may have played around with a hooker, I did not play around with CIA intelligence. I may have manipulated a pretty, willing, highly paid woman to do my bidding but I did not manipulate multiple scraggly, unemployed, underpaid civilians into the armed forces in order to secure oil profits that never appeared. I may be despicable in the eyes of my wife, my children and some old-fashioned Victorian-principled biddies who believe a woman should not be allowed to make a decent living turning tricks, but I have not hired mercenaries to indiscriminately kill women and babies. Until President Bush and his cabinet step down for the untold misery they have unleashed in the Middle-East and upon working-class United States citizens, I will remain the governor of New York State.

Empire State Building

Empire State Building
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

Happy weekend!

When I was out running on Wednesday, I found this excellent cemetery that overlooks the city from Queens. If there is any space left, I hope I can be buried there. By and large it was a fairly industrial area (I love running through industrial zones, for some reason) and there were a lot of vantage points that would be great to use in gangster films.

More photos from this shoot are available at www.flickr.com/tommykirchmeier.

Marine Throws Puppy off of a Cliff

When I was in Vietnam, I urged my omnivorous friend to try eating cat or dog meat. She refused. I was unable to understand her resistance considering she eats chicken and pig and cow meat.

Fast forward a year and we have this wonderful, funny, heartwarming video of a puppy. So cute. We also see a marine throwing it off of a cliff:



People are outraged. Rightly so. (I'm sure most of those outraged people are omnivores but I will let that hypocrisy slide for today.) It is terrible to see a puppy being tortured. It is horrible to hear it screaming as it sails through the air. I cringe to hear the two marines mockingly joke, "Awww, that's mean," as a wet thud reverberates in the background. People should be outraged.

But at least it was only a puppy and not people... Oh, yeah, Abu Ghraib:

Gary Gygax, RIP

I was sorry to hear this on NPR this afternoon: Gary Gygax, instrumental in the creation of Dungeons and Dragons, has died. I have no idea what I would have done with my pre-teen years if it was not for this game. Obituaries are available through the following links:

Salon.com

Dungeons and Dragons Website

Stop Fawning: Buckley was a Racist and a Homophobe

Just some things to remember about William f. Buckley:

"Mr. Buckley worked as a freelance writer and lecturer and wrote a second book with his brother-in-law L. Brent Bozell. Published in 1954, “McCarthy and His Enemies” was a sturdy defense of the senator from Wisconsin who was then at the height of his campaign against communists, liberals and the Democratic Party. The book made The New York Times best-seller list." (Emphasis mine.) - New York Times

The magazine that William F. Buckley started, The National Review, "[Lined] up squarely behind Southern segregationists, saying Southern whites had the right to impose their ideas on blacks who were as yet culturally and politically inferior to them. After some conservatives objected, Mr. Buckley suggested instead that both uneducated whites and blacks should be denied the vote." - New York Times


For a long time he approved of racial segregation, though later he seems to have come to understand that this would conflict with his stylish image. He continued to write with gross insensitivity about Africans. He was openly homophobic, and when Aids first appeared, he suggested that gay men should be tattooed on the buttocks. The Guardian

On Running and Personal Time

Anyone who knows me knows that I love running. While I can't say I was thrilled to loose my job, I did find some excitement in the fact that I would have more time to get out and run. A funny thing is happening now as I am unemployed. I am running less.

Now, I still run about twenty miles a week which is more than most people run in a lifetime. I have also finished four books this year and I am 700 pages into the 1100 page History of the World by J. M. Roberts. One could argue that has cut into my running time the same way that the inconvenience of having to pay rent and stay off of wellfare used to when I had a job.

But there is something else as well. I need the pressure of work in order to have a need to clear my head by running. I have always considered running more of a mental exercise with beneficial physical side-effects. (No doubt, there are competitive runners who feel it is a physical thing that has mental benefits as well.) It has always been more of a contemplative act for me and it has taught me the need to meditate. It has given me a strange window of understanding as to why some people smoke and others perform yoga. We, as sentient beings, need to clear our minds. We need a break be it from email and voicemail, Netflix, the evening news, church, sleeping or whatever else is taking up too much of our time. We need the mental time to clear our heads and be unreachable. Some people take a lot of little breaks throughout the day, stopping for a cigarette every once in a while. Others may find the time to cook, read or even watch television.

This brings me to the following article in the New York Times: I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really. As a runner, I get the chance to break away from the cacophony of electronics that other people who are not running (or finding a break) are activating in order to activate my electronics so that, when I am not running (or finding a break) I can activate their electronics back to them in answer or vis versa if I contacted them first. I'll wait while you parse that last sentence. Ready? Good. Granted, I usually bring my mp3 player and I listen to news podcasts as often as I listen to music. But I do relish that alone time when no one can reach me.

So here I am. No worries. No concerns. No troubles indicative of the rat race... And a diminished desire to get out and race altogether.

Finally Some Sense

Finally people are realizing that the drinking age is way too high in this country and we don't need Sharia law:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080229/twl-drinking-age-1be00ca.html

I've alwayse liked Mike

I've always liked Michael Bloomberg. He sees things in terms of a double-entry ledger and he is straight with his constituents. I've always admired his basic philosophy, "We can raise taxes or cut services. Which do you want?"

Generally I believe there are three ways to pay off credit (at a Federal level): 1) Mint more money 2) Cut benefits 3) Raise taxes. I invariable believe in raising taxes as an investment in our future. Printing more money may pay off the credit debt but it causes inflation, thus putting us all back in the same place in terms of buying power while it devalues the dollar. Any true fiscal conservative should be able to understand this. Cutting benefits leads to cuts in education, healthcare and crime and thus higher crime rates and a lower standards of living. This is a simply poor planning in terms of a long-term solution. How can the US ever move ahead if our education system continues to falter and inner cities are simply holding tanks for people destined for prison? Raising taxes pays off the deficit while keeping the value of the dollar and social standards high and crime low. It hurts upfront but it alleviates the long-term problems of debt and social injustice. This always seemed to me to be the way Mike Bloomberg presented his management of New York Ciy and I believe the city is in a better place now than it was a few years ago.

The following is Mayor Bloomberg's letter to the Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/opinion/28mike.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

WATCHING the 2008 presidential campaign, you sometimes get the feeling that the candidates — smart, all of them — must know better. They must know we can’t fix our economy and create jobs by isolating America from global trade. They must know that we can’t fix our immigration problems with border security alone. They must know that we can’t fix our schools without holding teachers, principals and parents accountable for results. They must know that fighting global warming is not a costless challenge. And they must know that we can’t keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals unless we crack down on the black market for them.

The vast majority of Americans know that all of this is true, but — politics being what it is — the candidates seem afraid to level with them.

Over the past year, I have been working to raise issues that are important to New Yorkers and all Americans — and to speak plainly about common sense solutions. Some of these solutions have traditionally been seen as Republican, while others have been seen as Democratic. As a businessman, I never believed that either party had all the answers and, as mayor, I have seen just how true that is.

In every city I have visited — from Baltimore to New Orleans to Seattle — the message of an independent approach has resonated strongly, and so has the need for a new urban agenda. More than 65 percent of Americans now live in urban areas — our nation’s economic engines. But you would never know that listening to the presidential candidates. At a time when our national economy is sputtering, to say the least, what are we doing to fuel job growth in our cities, and to revive cities that have never fully recovered from the manufacturing losses of recent decades?

More of the same won’t do, on the economy or any other issue. We need innovative ideas, bold action and courageous leadership. That’s not just empty rhetoric, and the idea that we have the ability to solve our toughest problems isn’t some pie-in-the-sky dream. In New York, working with leaders from both parties and mayors and governors from across the country, we’ve demonstrated that an independent approach really can produce progress on the most critical issues, including the economy, education, the environment, energy, infrastructure and crime.

I believe that an independent approach to these issues is essential to governing our nation — and that an independent can win the presidency. I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president. I have watched this campaign unfold, and I am hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership. The most productive role that I can serve is to push them forward, by using the means at my disposal to promote a real and honest debate.

In the weeks and months ahead, I will continue to work to steer the national conversation away from partisanship and toward unity; away from ideology and toward common sense; away from sound bites and toward substance. And while I have always said I am not running for president, the race is too important to sit on the sidelines, and so I have changed my mind in one area. If a candidate takes an independent, nonpartisan approach — and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy — I’ll join others in helping that candidate win the White House.

The changes needed in this country are straightforward enough, but there are always partisan reasons to take an easy way out. There are always special interests that will fight against any challenge to the status quo. And there are always those who will worry more about their next election than the health of our country.

These forces that prevent meaningful progress are powerful, and they exist in both parties. I believe that the candidate who recognizes that the party is over — and begins enlisting all of us to clean up the mess — will be the winner this November, and will lead our country to a great and boundless future.

These made me laugh:

I'm glad George Lucas has developed a sense of humor about Star Wars in the past few years.

Just a thought: John McCain's Diet

This week's New Yorker (25 Feb,2008) describes John McCain's campaign bus as
"stocked with Dunkin’ Donuts and Coke, the staples of the McCain diet." (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_lizza)

The same issue states, Barack Obama, "took up running (three miles a day), stopped hanging out in bars, and started keeping a journal," in his sophomore year of college at Columbia. (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/02/25/ 080225taco_talk_hertzberg)

Interseting. I'm definitely from what is considered the liberal side of the spectrum. I would probably be a Social Democrat in Europe (I'm not a fan of government owning the means of production or I would probably actually be a Socialist). I also haven't had a donut or cola in years, except perhaps to cure a hangover. I do run five to fifteen miles several times a week. This fascinates me because I have no common experience with McCain. I'm simply lost to the kind of processed food, industrialized cookie-cuter product style of thinking. Listening to McCain is like watching Super Bowl commercials. I don't eat fast food, drink beer, drive a car or shop at Wal Mart so the ads, and the candidate, just go straight over my head. I'm not saying one lifestyle is better than another [who am I kidding, it's my blog and I am saying that] but there is a complete disconnect of cultures.

(I assume it is the same disconnect Roger Clemens has from vegans.)

VRML: Virtual Reality Modelling Language

I have continued to burn through the weekend on a creative/catalogical kick. I have added a VRML archive. VRML is an archaic web technology that I spent my senior year of college studying. More info is available at wikipedia.

I don't usually spend this kind of time in front of the computer (if I'm not working). I swear I'm not geeking out.

I'm going to go watch Star Trek II now.

New Video Archive

I spent Friday and Saturday uploading videos to YouTube and putting together my new video archive. I've been shooting photos my entire life and making videos since college. I think it should be fairly self-evident that I approach video-making as a photographer. My interest is rarely in telling a story so much as it is in examining a subject. Video gives me a chance to make what are essentially moving photos.

US Shoots Down Satellite

If there is no air in space, why was this such a big explosion?

These are the thoughts that forced me to go to a liberal arts college.

My videos

Adding the video this morning made me realize that I should be showing off my own experimental pieces. I've started uploading them to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/tommykirchmeier. I also expect to host some on this site soon. In the meantime, here is a piece of a much longer film I made a while back:

Four Eyed Monster

Here is the best video I have ever seen on YouTube. Come to think of it, this video is better than most narratives produced by Hollywood.

jess copy

jess copy
Originally uploaded by TommyKirchmeier

I posted this image of Jessica over the weekend and it went straight into Flickr's "Explored" section. An image found in Explore means that the photo is among the top 500 of roughly 4 million images posted that day. So I'm pretty happy about that.

Another blog

I started this blog today while I am out of work. Apparently, as a semi-real artist/photographer/writer, I am supposed to have one. I assume it will end up being fairly political and heavily photographical without a side of Brit-wit. We'll see what happens.