New Paintings

My wife, Peggy, and I each have a painting in the Fiesta Sonoran 2008 now showing at the Desert Museum near Tucson. It is a wonderful show, well worth seeing. Mine is called Salt River Soliloquy and hers is titled Sonoran Moonrise. Check them out. The Salt River is a little stream north of Mesa, Arizona. The moon rise was over our back fence in Oro Valley.

We will have paintings in the Southern Arizona Watercolor Society annual show at the Jewish Community mid October. The show theme is Explorations in color.

My book on alternative energy is coming along well. I hope to have it finished sometime next month.

Doppelganger
www.greenestudiosoftucson.com

T. Boone Pickens and wind energy

OK, so I haven't been very active as a blogger of late. It's T. Boone Pickens fault. He has these ads on TV about how he's going to build a bunch of wind farms. It got my juices flowing and I decided to investigate alternative energy sources. That got me to thinking about writing a book about my findings. So I've been spending my time writing a book on alternative energy. Maybe I'll start posting it on this site. People need to wake up to what the current administration and the oil companies have done to this country by keeping us addicted to cheap oil, not to mention getting us into the quagmire of Iraq. The only ones who have won the war in Iraq are the oil companies. They are gobbling up leases there like crazy.

Any way, stay tuned and maybe my book will start showing up here. It might even be a downloadable e-book.

T.Boone Pickens

Is it T. Boone or Tee Bone Pickens? By financing the Swift Boat attackers of John Kerry, Pickens did a great disservice to this country, promoting Dubya for President, a prime candidate for our worst President ever. His stance on more issues than I care to iterate here, including torture, loss of privacy, stem cell research, etc., etc., etc., makes me shudder every time I think about him.

But wait. Tee Boone is finally doing something good for this country. Maybe he'll end up, not just a fat cat who doesn't give a damn about the country or anything else besides his enormous wealth, but as someone who did love his country after all. He is an oil man, you know. Cut from the same cloth as "Haliburton Darth" Cheney and Dubya. Surely he isn't just thinking of cornering the wind market, is he?

What he is doing is investing large sums in wind energy in Texas and that part of the country called the wind belt. That has to be good for the country. He proposes to turn Texas into the wind generating capital of the world. Has our fearless leader ever done anything as significant? People who are richer than God got their money from selling things to us schmucks like gasoline (T. Boone), software (Bill Gates) or insurance (Warren Buffet). It's completely appropriate that they give a little back. How many fancy mansions or huge yachts can one truly enjoy in a lifetime? The philanthropic endeavrs of the three men mentioned above are refreshing to say the least.

Keep it up guys.

Swift Boat B.S.

It's with some pleasure that I read in this morning's paper that the people who served with John Kerry are going after T.Boone Pickens. As you may recall he is the Billionaire Texan who financed the Swift Boat attacks against Kerry in the 2004 attack advertisements alleging he made up all the stuff for which he received a medal.

Pickins, which I shall refer to Slim, as in slim to none, regarding intelligence, morals and integrity, offered a million bucks to anyone that could prove his nefarious accusations wrong. Then men who served with Kerry offered their versions of events and Kerr offered to meet slim. Slim keept upping the ante saying that Kerry would have to submit his military record, the journal he kept in Vietnam, and movies and tapes made during his tour of duty. Then upping the ante again, Slim stated Kerry, if unable to disprove his Slim's lies, would have to donate a million bucks to the Medal of Honor Foundation. He added the condition that he referred only to disproving the ads.

Kerry's comrades put together a 42 page document in support of Kerry demanding that Slim apologize to Kerry and the American public. Slim said that he suddenly would not participate in partisan politics this presidential cycle. He could not be reached for comment. The presumption is he is hiding in a bunker somewhere with "Dead eye Darth" Cheney who is hiding out to avoid impeachment for all of his misdeeds.

It's a good thing, Slim's not participating in the political process, because he is a big mouth, destroyer of corporations and robber baron who has no business in mucking about the Democratic process of electing a president. For God's sake look what he got us, the village idiot of Crawford, Texas. One can't help but wonder what the world would look like without Dubya.

Hillary out? Well not exactly.

Hillary may not be out of the game just yet. It was reported today that she made Obama's short list for VP. She could still be a force in the administration and personally I feel that Obama needs her. The other names I've heard mentioned don't have anywhere near the name recognition and probably couldn't pull the women like Hillary can. I think it would be a strong ticket. The Dems need to pull together and that would be a solid way to do it.

It scares me to think that George W. McCain could cast doubt on Obama because of his inexperience. My God, what experience do Lil' Bush have coming in in 2000. He was way, way over his head. It will be an interesting election, to say the least.

Hillary Out

Hillary is out of the race. I have mixed feelings. This is a special time in this country when both a woman and a black...come on, he isn't really black...more on that later...running for president of this country. I think it is a great thing. We've come a long way since the days of slavery. Obama has gotten a lot of people excited about voting that never thought they could make a difference. And it has been a long time for women, too. Bless those ladies. Todays women are smart as a whip and can do just about anything a man can do, even more. They are fighting and dieing in Iraq and I've seen them in every walk of life doing it all.



Barak is a black? Well half black. But that describes many of our blacks. Slave owners...how about Thomas Jefferson... impregnated many black slaves. It was only our biggoted society that decreed that a person with only a few drops of black blood were black. Enought already. Lets move on. If you believe scientists, and I do, we pretty much all came from Africa. And what a magnificent continent that is. OK, they have lots of problems. We all do. Let's hope Mr. Obama can get us out of the horrific corruption and ineptitude that was the Bush administration.

ore power to him and his supporters.

Bush Addresses College Grads

Here's a news flash that sets my hair on fire. Dubya urged the grads at Furman University to 'Be responsible and accountable to both themselves and the nation."


He needs to explain how his administration was being responsible and accountable when he took us to war on false pretenses, resulting in over 4,000 American soldiers being killed or sending them to Iraq with sub-standard equipment? Is it being responsible when everytime a new bill is passed by Congress he writes a "signing paper" saying he reserves the right to ignore it? Was he being accountable when his Vice President and his aids, Karl Rove and Scooter Libbey outed a secret agent for political reasons saying that whom ever was involved would be sumarily fired, then raising the bar to "whom ever was indighted"? Was it being responsible to put incompetents in charge of FEMA and largely ignore the people of New Orleans, or by putting them in trailers that make them sick. Is it being responsible largely ignoring our dependency on foreign oil and not developing an energy policy that would alieviate the problem. Was it respsonsible ignoring global warming and not signing the Kyoto treaty. How about not joining the ban on cluster bombs or land mines that kill many civilians in many countries every day.


Please, Mr. President, don't lecture us or our graduates on being responsible or accountable.

Scott McClellan

All of the right wing pundits are dissing former White House press secretary Scott McClellan for his book about Dubya's selling of the Iraq war. When it was at it's height of hype, I was living in South Africa. From that distant viewpoint it was obvious what Dub was trying to do and why. It had to do with Saddam trying to kill Big Daddy and, of course the oil. It had nothing to do with WMD or 911. That was obvious to me and anyone that I talked to in South Africa. Darth Cheney and his henchmen had decided (The real "Decider") to go to war with Iraq long before it became a hot button issue. Was McClellan kept in the dark? Of course he was. How else can you get someone of principle to lie as he did to the public week after week. Treat him like a mushroom. Keep him in the dark and feed him BS.

Want to live Forever?

Raymond Kursweil believes that if we can just manage to live until 2015 we can probably live indefinitely, if not forever. That's his assessment of how fast medicine is moving and discovering ways to cure diseases. He also believes that we'll solve the problems of fossil fuel dependency, global warming and virtually all the many modern day problems.

If you aren't familiar with Raymond Kursweil you should be. The best description I can think of for him is a futurist. His view of the future isn't gloomy, but quite optimistic. He is a strong believer in technology. I attended a lecture he presented by hologram at the University of Arizona a short time back. He wasn't there, but a hologram of him hovered over the podium on stage and he actually took questions from the audience after his presentation. Shades of Star Trek. Beam me up, Scotty.

Mr. Kursweil also has a website that is about cutting edge high tech discoveries and inventions in all, and I mean all, scientific fields of endeavor, from nano technology to space exploration to biotechnology to artificial inteligence. He believes that by the year 2020 we will have developed computers that equal or surpass human intelligence. In fact his website is called KursweilAI.net. I signed up for a daily feed from his site and get the most amazing information daily. I look forward to each morning to see what new and amazing thing is coming down the pike.


Want to be amazed? Sign up to get the feed from his site at http://www.kursweilai.net/ and be prepared to be amazed.

Thoughts on Mother's day and the stimulous package

My daughter and I took the wife out for lunch today and then out for dinner too. It was surprising that there were so few people dining out at both places. It was curious.

We got our stimulous package this week. I can personally say that it won't stimulate much. It went into our checking account to pay bills. It was already spent. The lack of diners could be that the snow birds here in Tucson have gone back to Wisconsin, Michigan, Chicago and other northern tier states. Or perhaps people are afraid that we really are in a recession, or depression, or whatever the hell you want to call it. I think it was the latter.

I was born at the depths of the Great Depression and it scarred my mother for life. She never really could enjoy having money when it was finally over.

Anyway, take your stimulous package and go crazy. Buy yourself a few tanks of gas and a half dozen McDonalds. And if we have the gas tax holiday this summer, take your $0.18 per gallon and go to Disney World. Just be carefull about those axel breaking pot holes. That money was for fixing the roads.

Happy Mother's Day

My mother has been gone for many years.

I rarely presented my wife with a mother's day card. I reasoned that she wasn't my mother. She always takes great umbrage with that, but she's gotten used to it over the years. She is a great sport to have put up with my antics for 51 years. She was and is a great mother. I know because my two kids (48 and 50 years old) still call her frequently for advice.

So here's to all mothers everywhere.

Happy Mother's Day!

Buying art on line

If you've read my previous blogs you know a little about how I feel about art. Buying art at a brick and mortar gallery is comfortable because you can see the piece of art on the wall and get up close to it. You can compare it to other pieces and check out the prices. What you may not know is that the gallery gets 50% of each sale. They have to charge that much because people don't buy art every day, even if they are collectors. The gallery has to pay the light bill for the times when no one comes in and buys something.

My gallery is totally on line, so I can be a little more generous about my work. I live in my gallery (Home) so the light bill gets paid regardless. I like to be able to see at night too. If you live in Tucson you can make an appointment and come see any painting that you have an interest in in person. If you live in North Dakota just select a painting you'd like to see and I'll send it to you. If you don't like it simply send it back and I will refund your money, no questions asked.

Some people buy for investment and some buy because they like the painting or what ever it happens to be. They like horses, so they buy a painting with horses in it. Some of the work that I see I haven't a clue why people would buy it. Some is downright butt ugly. I don't care if it's from a famous, well respected artist. I just don't get it.

I paint things I would like to see on my wall. There are a wide variety of subjects that I've painted and you can't say that I paint them in my "Style". I don't really have a style. I don't care.

My wife also makes some beautiful necklaces at very reasonable prices and you can see them on the site too. Come see us and look around. We're at www.greenestudiosoftucson.com. It doesn't cost anything to look around and kick our tires. Oh yes, we just posted a downloadable e-book on hand knotting your own necklace that neeeds a new lease on life.

John Adams Today

I just finished watching the eight part series on John Adams, one of the most influential founders of our great country. It was wonderfully produced by Tom Hanks, of all people. I hated to see it end. The last episode was sad as it portrayed the death of John and his wife, Abigale. John lived to the ripe old age of 90, which was unusual for those times when the average age at death was in the forties.

I wonder what John Adams would think of our country today. He was distrustful of politics and political parties, professing them to be devisive. He would likely deplore the unending presidential race on going now. He was right. They are devisive, but a necessary part of the political process.

The electoral college and the process by which presidents are elected needs to be changed. In Adams day they feared the uneducated masses which gave birth to the strange electoral college system. The number two vote getter then automatically became vice president, regardless of party. Wouldn't that be interesting if Al Gore became vice president under George W. Bush? What fun that would be.

What is Art?

I am an artist. I paint in watercolor, acrylic and oil occasionally. Most of my work is realistic, although I have experimented with abstract forms in the past. A lot of the stuff that passes for "Modern Art" today leaves me wondering what were they thinking? A recent exhibit opened here in Tucson at the museum of moderen art featured some really unfathomable work. A group of artists were invited to come to Tucson and let the desert suggest their theme for artistic expression.

One artist built a concrete block wall with pink mortar oozing out of the joints. The work was explained by a bunch of artistic gobblegook, in my opinion. The pink mortar didn't do a thing for me. Another copied a bunch of squiggly lines on a wall. Another twisted a bunch of neon together to suggest the neon he saw around town. Heavy, man. That took a lot of chutspah to pass off as art.

I'm a retired architect and I have to admit that architects have their own line of gobblygook. Famed architect, Paul Rudolph spewed a line way back in my youth that left me wondering what the hell he was talking about. He was referring to one of his designs when he said "It has the abstract quality inherent in the new concept of space." I never did find out what the new concept of space was. I theorized that it referred to the concept in which spaces in buildings flowed from one to another without walls or doors, in lieu of the old practice of building structures containing boxes unconnected from one another except by doors. Why didn't he say that?