Omari's Blog

MCA Denver is exhibiting the art of Matthew Buckingham. I was touched by something he wrote which appeared in a pamphlet accompanying the exhibition:

My favorite definition of science is "the search for new forms of ignorance." Each piece of new information, pleasing as it may be, also points to the gaping holes in our understanding that surround it--to an endless chain of unknowing. The architect and architectural historian, Mark Wigley, similarly defines an architect as "a person who does not know what architecture is." I think it is useful to extend this sense of intelligent unknowing to the context of art, a field that has become infinitely flexible, constantly defined and redefined by those who use it. If artists and viewers are not exactly sure what art is, we all have to evaluate what we see more closely and carefully. When bringing methods and strategies from other disciplines such as history and sociology, or photojournalism and documentary film into the art context, we have the chance to rethink the capacity and role of both art and the other disciplines. By examining ways that the past appears in the present, I hope to scrutinize how historical representations affect our definition of the present moment. I work with space, real and imaginary, to try to create physical and social contexts that encourage viewers to question received ideas--often the things that are most familiar to us. I don't think of artists as people "who create" but instead, as the artist Jimmie Durham says, as people who change things. When an artist "makes" something "...the amount of matter in the universe remains the same." The important questions are: why did the artist make those changes and what does it have to do with me?

posted at: 16:09 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

I am home in Denver for Christmas.

While in DC, occasionally there are items I want from supermarkets that are somewhat obscure. For instance, I like popcorn. I make it on the stove in a pot, just like my dad used to do (apparently my mom has now assumed the popcorn-making duties from my dad.) Popcorn is perfect with popcorn salt--just finely ground salt, which sticks to the kernels. Ordinary table salt is too coarse; instead of sticking to the popcorn, it bounces around it and sinks to the bottom of the bowl.

I could not find popcorn salt in any DC supermarket.

Another thing I needed recently was malted milk powder. "Cook's Country" magazine had an interesting recipe for homemade pancake mix--I almost never buy boxed mixes from any store, as buying them makes me feel like a failure. I will admit, however, that there are some boxed products that I cannot (yet) replicate in my kitchen. My chocolate cake is much better than anything that comes from a box, but my yellow cake can't quite match the Duncan Hines stuff.

Previously this was true for pancakes--my homemade pancakes turned out just a bit heavy and flavorless. Then I found this recipe in Cook's Country. Its secrets include cake flour (to lighten them up) and malted milk powder (to add tangy sweetness.) Yep, malted milk powder. Cook's Country helpfully had a photo of the stuff--their specimen was from Carnation, in a curvy bottle resembling dairy creamer.

I could not find malted milk powder anywhere in DC.

The solution for me was the Internet, where I have ordered both popcorn salt and malted milk powder. For both, it was so worth it: my pancakes were the best ever (better than any box!) and when eating popcorn I always keep my popcorn salt shaker at hand.

Now here I am, in Denver, and I was at Albertsons. While in the snack aisle I saw popcorn salt in a small shaker. My face lit up. "Wow! Right here on the shelf!" They also had white popcorn, which I never see in DC (this I cared less about, as I don't really like white popcorn all that much. I always pop yellow.)

So then I went over to the coffee and tea aisle. I found the chocolate milk mix. Sure enough, nearby was malted milk powder! It was Carnation, in the nice shapely bottle.

I am starting to think that DC supermarkets are just smaller than your typical new supermarket. Something's gotta go so that everything can fit. I guess a lot of people would miss something if the store decided to carry 7 kinds of Oreo cookies rather than 8...or, maybe the store would miss all the slotting fees that Nabisco pays for all those Oreos...so, out goes the malted milk mix, white popcorn, and popcorn salt.

posted at: 17:00 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

I am proud to rely mostly on my own two feet, my gluteus maximus, and chauffeured vehicles for nearly all my urban transportation needs, so for me the rare need for a car necessitates a trip to the rental car counters at National Airport or Union Station.* The Hertz line was awful today, but I marched right past it to walk up to the self check-in kiosk. Then people started to realize they could use them, so they started lining up behind me. Good thing they didn't realize that before I got there.

I am one of those rare freaks who actually likes to read the rental car contracts. They are full of fun things--for instance, You agree that You will not operate the Vehicle on unpaved roads.

One of the things from the Hertz contract sticks out in my head. It says that the "Loss Damage Waiver - is not insurance." Of course they will be happy to sell you actual insurance.

I'm a bit of a daredevil, so I don't get the insurance, even though I have no car insurance of my own. By law they have to cover me for a minimal amount. Certainly it isn't much, but I figure that for me to incur really big damages would require that I be negligent. I pay attention when I'm driving.

My credit card covers me if the car is damaged or stolen.

Unfortunately most folks do not understand all this stuff. They didn't go to law school, after all, and who really likes reading those contracts? Well, I do.

* Don't tell me about Zipcar. They suck.

posted at: 18:00 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

I'm reading this great article about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, Rose, who perhaps really authored a lot of those famous books. Apparently the books originally had a line like this: "There were no people on the prairie. Only Indians lived there." Kind of reminds me of a bit from Seinfeld:

• George: I wonder how Susan's father's going to react to this. Alright, what- what's the worst he could do? So you burn a house down.
• Jerry: C'mon. It's not even a house. It's like, a cabin.
• George: We could build a cabin like [snaps] that.
• Jerry: Well, maybe not us, but two men could.

I have wondered if there is a term for this sort of rhetorical device. I like fancy words, like "antimetabole". Ask not what your country can do for you...

posted at: 18:00 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

The Internet is great. You can find things that are of no productive value whatsoever, but that make life better nonetheless. Remember this from Seinfeld?

posted at: 16:00 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

Call the grammar police.

"Nobody" is singular, right? So says this page, anyway; many other sources say the same thing.

So I cringe a bit when I see sentences such as "Nobody in America should be fired because they're gay." Who said that? The President of the United States. For the sentence to be consistent, shouldn't it read "Nobody in America should be fired because she is gay"?

However, the introductory sections of most dictionaries will tell you that the dictionary attempts to reflect the usage patterns of educated speakers of English. So what happens when a president who is widely renowned for being a masterful speaker uses botched grammar such as this? Perhaps it finally becomes acceptable?

Could this sentence be modified to make the subject plural, thus avoiding the touchy issue of gender-specific pronouns? "People in America shouldn't be fired because they are gay"? This raises the question of whether "people" is singular or plural! I thought it is plural...but then again, most people seem to think "nobody" is plural...

posted at: 19:00 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

Playing now on my MythTV is Modern Marvels, the wonderful documentary series on cable television.

This particular episode is titled simply Camouflauge. My favorite thing about Modern Marvels is how the program extracts over forty minutes of interesting material from seemingly minor topics such as camouflage, or carbon, or insulation. I had no idea that entire factory complexes were camouflaged during World War II, or that water filters are made of activated carbon.

Of course, putting together all these programs can't be easy. The producers do an exceptional job at taking the material and presenting it in an engaging way. There's always a history segment, during which you can learn about the way ancient cultures did (or did not!) use camouflage. Interviews are also abundant, during which the viewer learns from the experts. The program also makes great use of computer graphics to illustrate industrial processes. There are little touches that work well too, such as the frequent use of short on-screen titles to show hard-to-pronounce words or to give little snippets of supplemental information. They make the program more informative without making the narrator's script too dense.

All this is wrapped together in a well-edited package that moves along very quickly, complete with background music to add an appropriate flavor (staccato drums during segments about World War I camouflage, for instance) and perfect segues. A competing cable network has a program called How Stuff Works that is an obvious Modern Marvels knockoff, but it just isn't produced with the same panache.

Each Modern Marvels episode always concludes with a tidy couple of sentences--maybe something like "on subjects ranging from the momentous to the seemingly arcane, Modern Marvels always entertains and informs."

posted at: 18:21 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

Today I ate about 110 grams of peanut butter M&Ms. With the help of my Pantry nutrient analysis program, I saw that this is 600 calories and an entire day's worth of saturated fat! Yikes.

It's interesting to keep track of exactly what I eat, because little things like this surprise me. I learn that some foods that are not particularly good or satisfying are dietary disasters. Take the peanut butter M&Ms as an example. 110 grams is a couple of handfuls of these things. They are tasty--a nice blend of sweet and salty. But after eating them, I don't say "ooh, wow, that was wonderful." Instead I just keep devouring them.

I figure that if I am going to eat 600 unhealthy calories, I might as well make it worth my while. Give me some really good ice cream, or a brownie, or a Chocolove chocolate bar. The peanut butter M&Ms just are not worth it. Let me exchange those 600 calories.

posted at: 14:59 | path: / | permanent link to this entry