Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[James Clark]

I am disappointed though that the Court House is the only successful modern architecture in Austin...

This is a weird assertion.  If you mean that it’s the only stereotypically modern large commercial building in the immediate downtown core west of Congress St between 3rd and 5th st, well, ok. 

Austin has a massive residential modern scene, with regionally and nationally awarded architects, and the the commercial modernism tends more toward retail and entertainment/restaurant design, as well as public spaces and installations. 

Court house aside, It’s also more informed by a regional vernacular that incorporates western, “hill country” and ranch/mcm materials and design - think Usonian, but updated and slicker.  (The Austin Public Library by Lake Flato is a great example of this.) Heck, even the burger joints have a whimsical Jet Age aesthetic (PTerrys by Michael Hsu), and Ellsworth Kelly’s modernist chapel - his last work -  was just opened up a couple of years ago.

Also, Dallas is the worst.  Houston has 10x the cultural opportunities, San Antonio is sleepy as hell but at least has a distinct character, and Austin is the city everyone wants to be in.

[Alan Klein]

This is a weird assertion.  If you mean that it’s the only stereotypically modern large commercial building in the immediate downtown core west of Congress St between 3rd and 5th st, well, ok. 

Austin has a massive residential modern scene, with regionally and nationally awarded architects, and the the commercial modernism tends more toward retail and entertainment/restaurant design, as well as public spaces and installations. 

Court house aside, It’s also more informed by a regional vernacular that incorporates western, “hill country” and ranch/mcm materials and design - think Usonian, but updated and slicker.  (The Austin Public Library by Lake Flato is a great example of this.) Heck, even the burger joints have a whimsical Jet Age aesthetic (PTerrys by Michael Hsu), and Ellsworth Kelly’s modernist chapel - his last work -  was just opened up a couple of years ago.

Also, Dallas is the worst.  Houston has 10x the cultural opportunities, San Antonio is sleepy as hell but at least has a distinct character, and Austin is the city everyone wants to be in.

San Antonio must have been sleepier in 1963 when I went back to Lackland AFB when I was in the USAF learning crypto.  One of the other air force students, a Mexican-American, lived there as well.  A bunch of us stayed at his house, a small farm, and got really drunk on tequila and worms one weekend.  All I remember about sleeping was being awoken in the morning around 5am by his roosters crowing about the rising of the sun.  What a headache! I imagine Austin was just as sleepy back then.

[LesPalenik]

Warp speed included financing, distribution, and other measures the federal government took that helped speed the process.  The hangup now is the incompetence of the states who were not really prepared to carry the torch to the finish line.  They so convinced themselves that Trump wouldn't get the vaccine out, they sat on their butts for six months not preparing.

Well, it seems that we were watching two different movies, Alan.
The one I saw, was a horror story, difficult to follow and understand, full with unexpected twists and intrigues, and it ended with a cliffhanger. The cast was rather weak, but the main character was a real supervillain, keeeping the audience glued to the screen. Hopefully, the second episode will be less disturbing and it will end better.

[jeremyrh]

Should we judge photos by checking on the color or sex of the photographer?

Maybe it would help if not all the judges were middle-aged white men.

[Alan Klein]

Well, it seems that we were watching two different movies, Alan.
The one I saw, was a horror story, difficult to follow and understand, full with unexpected twists and intrigues, and it ended with a cliffhanger. The cast was rather weak, but the main character was a real supervillain, keeeping the audience glued to the screen. Hopefully, the second episode will be less disturbing and it will end better.

Unfortunately the critics didn't like the star and always panned his performance.  I hope his replacement does well.  But I'm afraid that people like him who worked for the government all their lives, don't execute or manage very well, and their priorities are bureaucratic and government-oriented.  Everything winds up over budget and behind schedule.   

[Alan Klein]

Maybe it would help if not all the judges were middle-aged white men.

Minorities and women vote too.  I would think they are just as fair minded as white men and would judge photos or positions selected of the best.  Or would you prefer we give a 2 point handicap in judging photos to women and minorities?  Is that what you want?

[Robert Roaldi]

Minorities and women vote too.  I would think they are just as fair minded as white men and would judge photos or positions selected of the best.  Or would you prefer we give a 2 point handicap in judging photos to women and minorities?  Is that what you want?

Is that what he said he wanted?

[James Clark]

San Antonio must have been sleepier in 1963 when I went back to Lackland AFB when I was in the USAF learning crypto.  One of the other air force students, a Mexican-American, lived there as well.  A bunch of us stayed at his house, a small farm, and got really drunk on tequila and worms one weekend.  All I remember about sleeping was being awoken in the morning around 5am by his roosters crowing about the rising of the sun.  What a headache! I imagine Austin was just as sleepy back then.

That sounds about right    SA is still a big military town, but as you saw, it also has a very distinct Mexican-American cultural feel to it and that hasn't changed either.  Austin always had the University of Tx and the state capitol, but in recent years it's become a tech hub as well.  Houston was an oil and gas center, and has world class museums and medical research, but has gone on to become a major cultural center that rivals almost anything outside NY if you know where to look.   Dallas, well, as I mentioned above, it has business, but it's sort of a nothing city in terms of character, besides being romanticized as "real Texas" in that TV show a couple decades ago, unfortunately.  There's a great place in Addison (a close in suburb) for cheese fries, though.

[TechTalk]

The Washington Post has created a new video timeline of the insurrection riot inside the Capitol which is very informative. It lays out in detail where and when the terrorists were located inside the Capitol and their movements by combining video footage with a 3-D model of the building.

https://www.youtube.com/Washington Post - Inside the U.S. Capitol at the height of the siege

To reconstruct the pandemonium inside the Capitol, The Washington Post examined text messages, photos and hundreds of videos, some of which were exclusively obtained. By synchronizing the footage and locating some of the camera angles within a digital 3-D model of the building, The Post was able to map the rioters’ movements and assess how close they came to lawmakers — in some cases feet apart or separated only by a handful of vastly outnumbered police officers.

[TechTalk]

The New Yorker has posted video footage from one of their writers that was inside the Capitol at the time of the siege. It shows new footage from inside the Senate Chamber as senators' private papers were being photographed by the insurrectionists.

https://www.youtube.com/A Reporter’s Footage from Inside the Capitol Siege | The New Yorker

Luke Mogelson followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, using his phone’s camera as a reporter’s notebook.

The reporter's article detailing his experience from inside can be found here...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/among-the-insurrectionists

[Alan Klein]

 

That sounds about right    SA is still a big military town, but as you saw, it also has a very distinct Mexican-American cultural feel to it and that hasn't changed either.  Austin always had the University of Tx and the state capitol, but in recent years it's become a tech hub as well.  Houston was an oil and gas center, and has world class museums and medical research, but has gone on to become a major cultural center that rivals almost anything outside NY if you know where to look.   Dallas, well, as I mentioned above, it has business, but it's sort of a nothing city in terms of character, besides being romanticized as "real Texas" in that TV show a couple decades ago, unfortunately.  There's a great place in Addison (a close in suburb) for cheese fries, though.

Well, the whole southwest has a Mexican feel, probably because it's really is part of Mexico.    A little larceny on our part moved California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona north of the Rio Grande politically, if not in cultural ways. I've never been to the other cities during my few months stay in SA other than Padre Island on the Gulf and the border towns on weekends on the other side of the border for a little R&R.  It was dangerous then.  I can't imagine how it is now. 

[TechTalk]

I'm worried that I'll never get my second dose, possibly not even my first shot, at 75,  because Biden released the first dose to practically everyone.

Biden hasn't released anything to anyone. He hasn't taken office yet.

[James Clark]

Well, the whole southwest has a Mexican feel, probably because it's really is part of Mexico.    A little larceny on our part moved California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona north of the Rio Grande politically, if not in cultural ways. I've never been to the other cities during my few months stay in SA other than Padre Island on the Gulf and the border towns on weekends on the other side of the border for a little R&R.  It was dangerous then.  I can't imagine how it is now.

It was fine in the early 90's when I lived in SA, and fine in Baja when I lived in San Diego 15 years ago.  No idea what it's like now in actuality, but the fear machine is turned way up for sure. 

Texas, NM, AZ and SoCal are vastly different in terms of the impact the Mexican influence has on the people and the culture.   In my experience (anecdotal or course, but I do still travel and work extensively in each state/region, except AZ), San Antonio and South Texas are the most "Mexican," San Diego and  Baja California share more of a coastal feel than a Mexican feel (relatively speaking), and NM, at least north of ABQ, really leans much more pueblo/First Nations that "Mexican."  Way off topic - I've just lived in the southwest for the better part of 30 years now, and I find the regional subtleties and the way the communities are changeing very interesting.

[LesPalenik]

In other news, I was able to photograph the Austin Federal Courthouse last night and today without any US Marshals running me down, like what usually happens when I've photographed other federal buildings.  With that said, there was an armed protest at the Capital building a mile away, so perhaps this was well timed. 

I am disappointed though that the Court House is the only successful modern architecture in Austin, which is why I am now in Dallas.

If you are still in the Austin area, it would be interesting to take some documentary photographs of the new Tesla Giga factory while it is still in the early building phase. Due to the type of and size of buildings, aerial shots might be the best.

[Alan Klein]

It was fine in the early 90's when I lived in SA, and fine in Baja when I lived in San Diego 15 years ago.  No idea what it's like now in actuality, but the fear machine is turned way up for sure. 

Texas, NM, AZ and SoCal are vastly different in terms of the impact the Mexican influence has on the people and the culture.   In my experience (anecdotal or course, but I do still travel and work extensively in each state/region, except AZ), San Antonio and South Texas are the most "Mexican," San Diego and  Baja California share more of a coastal feel than a Mexican feel (relatively speaking), and NM, at least north of ABQ, really leans much more pueblo/First Nations that "Mexican."  Way off topic - I've just lived in the southwest for the better part of 30 years now, and I find the regional subtleties and the way the communities are changeing very interesting.

As someone who has only visited the southwest for around 16 days and southern  Calforonis recently for about two weeks, I get the same feel.  San Diego up through LA has a Beach Boys feel although everything has Spanish names.  Las Vegas is well Las Vegas.  But it gets very Spanish in North LV where I suppose most of the Mexican supporter service people for the gambling establishments live.  I didn't realize just how hot and deserty southern California is until I drove through that area. You actually go through the Mohave Desert from LA to LV.   I agree that north of Albuquerque is Indian like.  But Santa Fe seems very cultural at least in the city with all the art there.  But again, everything has Spanish names, pueblos, and Mexican architecture, which I like probably because of my love of American western film genre. Sedona Arizona seems like Santa Fe in attitude if not reached the same level in art.  But everything seems Mexican or vaquero and if we returned these four states to Mexico, I wonder if anyone would notice? 

[TechTalk]

The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists / Scientific American - January 11, 2021

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists

Forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee explains the outgoing president’s pathological appeal and how to wean people from it

The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building last week, incited by President Donald Trump, serves as the grimmest moment in one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history. Yet the rioters’ actions—and Trump’s own role in, and response to, them—come as little surprise to many, particularly those who have been studying the president’s mental fitness and the psychology of his most ardent followers since he took office.

Scientific American asked Lee to comment on the psychology behind Trump’s destructive behavior, what drives some of his followers—and how to free people from his grip when this damaging presidency ends.

[Peter McLennan]

The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists / Scientific American - January 11, 2021

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists

Forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee explains the outgoing president’s pathological appeal and how to wean people from it

The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building last week, incited by President Donald Trump, serves as the grimmest moment in one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history. Yet the rioters’ actions—and Trump’s own role in, and response to, them—come as little surprise to many, particularly those who have been studying the president’s mental fitness and the psychology of his most ardent followers since he took office.

Scientific American asked Lee to comment on the psychology behind Trump’s destructive behavior, what drives some of his followers—and how to free people from his grip when this damaging presidency ends.

Yah, but everyone knows that academics are a bunch of commies who universally hate Trump and will do and say anything to protect their tenured positions.
/s

[John Camp]

It was fine in the early 90's when I lived in SA, and fine in Baja when I lived in San Diego 15 years ago.  No idea what it's like now in actuality, but the fear machine is turned way up for sure. 

Texas, NM, AZ and SoCal are vastly different in terms of the impact the Mexican influence has on the people and the culture.   In my experience (anecdotal or course, but I do still travel and work extensively in each state/region, except AZ), San Antonio and South Texas are the most "Mexican," San Diego and  Baja California share more of a coastal feel than a Mexican feel (relatively speaking), and NM, at least north of ABQ, really leans much more pueblo/First Nations that "Mexican."  Way off topic - I've just lived in the southwest for the better part of 30 years now, and I find the regional subtleties and the way the communities are changeing very interesting.

We've had a somewhat nasty clash going in Santa Fe for a couple of years between local Native American activists and Latinos over statues and festivals commemorating the clash between Spanish conquistadors and the Native American tribes they met with. Weird when people start getting physical over things that happened 400 years ago. At least, it seems that way from my confused Anglo point of view. Also, some of the Pueblo people still have a thing about the Navajo (and Apaches, who are closely related to the Navajo) who are relatively late-comers here, having arrived only about a hundred years before the Spanish. The Athabaskans (Navajo and Apaches) came from Northern Canada and Alaska, and kicked Pueblo butt. Then, of course, there was last summer a free-newspaper spat between Hispanics who supported the word Latinx as a non-sexist replacement for Latino and Latina, versus the Hispanics who think that devalues the Spanish language and that there is nothing inherently unequal about the gender endings. Then there was a recent battle over an obelisk in the Santa Fe plaza commemorating Union victories over the Confederates in New Mexico. It seems that many years ago, the obelisk was appended with a plaque that added a celebration of American troops' victories over "savage Indians." Then, some many years later, but still many years back, somebody used a chisel to cut out the savage Indians part, so that disappeared, but some local Native Americans were still unhappy about the remnants of the plaque. So, last fall, some people got together and pulled the obelisk down, destroying a monument to Union victories over the slave states just as Black Lives Matters were trying to get confederate statues taken down. I'm  not sure, but I don't think any of the people who pulled down the obelisk were Native Americans; I know for sure that most weren't. They were the usual "pull it down" sort of people you find everywhere. Shortly afterwards, the closest big Pueblo sent a letter to the Santa Fe New Mexican saying they had nothing to do with the action, and disapproved of it. So, there we are, all one big happy human family.

[Robert Roaldi]

Only a couple of days left for Presidential pardons. Will Steve Bannon make the last minute cut? Dark net bookies must be taking bets, I figure.

[Alan Klein]

We've had a somewhat nasty clash going in Santa Fe for a couple of years between local Native American activists and Latinos over statues and festivals commemorating the clash between Spanish conquistadors and the Native American tribes they met with. Weird when people start getting physical over things that happened 400 years ago. At least, it seems that way from my confused Anglo point of view. Also, some of the Pueblo people still have a thing about the Navajo (and Apaches, who are closely related to the Navajo) who are relatively late-comers here, having arrived only about a hundred years before the Spanish. The Athabaskans (Navajo and Apaches) came from Northern Canada and Alaska, and kicked Pueblo butt. Then, of course, there was last summer a free-newspaper spat between Hispanics who supported the word Latinx as a non-sexist replacement for Latino and Latina, versus the Hispanics who think that devalues the Spanish language and that there is nothing inherently unequal about the gender endings. Then there was a recent battle over an obelisk in the Santa Fe plaza commemorating Union victories over the Confederates in New Mexico. It seems that many years ago, the obelisk was appended with a plaque that added a celebration of American troops' victories over "savage Indians." Then, some many years later, but still many years back, somebody used a chisel to cut out the savage Indians part, so that disappeared, but some local Native Americans were still unhappy about the remnants of the plaque. So, last fall, some people got together and pulled the obelisk down, destroying a monument to Union victories over the slave states just as Black Lives Matters were trying to get confederate statues taken down. I'm  not sure, but I don't think any of the people who pulled down the obelisk were Native Americans; I know for sure that most weren't. They were the usual "pull it down" sort of people you find everywhere. Shortly afterwards, the closest big Pueblo sent a letter to the Santa Fe New Mexican saying they had nothing to do with the action, and disapproved of it. So, there we are, all one big happy human family.

This is why we must have a single national public language and no discrimination for any reason regardless of past sins.  As long as we continue to claim it's fair to use historical prejudice between groups to provide advantages to one group over another, the longer we're going to continue fighting about these things today and remain disunited.