On the Chicago River a Poseidon Adventure

There are so many things with these photos from this morning that I observe. 

• This view from the Randolph Street Bridge shows Chicago’s bustling growth.  Check out the three cranes each attached to a new building project.
• The Poseidon Barge. It’s made with Legos. Note the sections of it. They must have brought it down the river in pieces then connected them together.
• The Poseidon Barge.   What a mess. It’s not likely that stuff is not bar coded or RFID tagged to be easily found. I bet they sent someone up to where I’m standing to see if theysee what they can’t find.
• The Poseidon Barge. It’s huge! It takes up more than half the river.
• The Poseidon Barge. I know it’s a Greek god but don’t they remember the iconic swim by Shelly Winters?
• The Poseidon Barge Men Working Please Slow Down. Who wrote that? Their boss. Their investor. Their lover? No, no, maybe.  
• The Poseidon Barge. What a mess. It’s not likely that stuff is not bar coded or RFID tagged to be easily found. I bet they sent someone up to where I’m standing to see if they can see what they can’t find
• The Poseidon Barge Men Working Please Slow Down. Who wrote that? Their boss. Their investor. Their lover? No, no, maybe.  

Pinterest - Pinning towards Dystopia - At What Point Does "Picked For You" or "Found In" Homogenize Thinking and Kill Creativity?

Do you use Pinterest? I do, I access it from my phone once or twice a day. I scroll to get Paleo ideas and I follow “Boards” where others have “pinned” artists and topics that appeal to me. Sometimes, I click on the "everything" feed of pins where I get a peek into what I think are all other users pinned interests.... it's a cultural arts study. Actually, this is where the black hole of time begins for me.... Who knew that people were making home offices out of sheds with sliding doors? I saw an etched moonshine bottle being used to hold corks people signed instead of a guest book at a wedding… it gave me an idea (completely different) about something we could do at an upcoming event at a winery for hospital executives. 

Last year, my friend invited me to participate in a private board to plan a wedding shower. Since it took a village spread across the country to plan it, the board offered a useful idea repository for food, centerpieces, invitations, games and place cards. I showed it to another friend who helped me find the centerpiece supplies – a picture was worth a thousand words – I’d still be trying to explain it.  I’m pleased too that I haven't seen much porn or inappropriate postings. Pinterest isn't Craigslist.

Pinterest is more like an Amazon or Google for visuals. Over the last few months, it’s evolved to be more sophisticated in its ability to select and push items under a heading "Picked for You". It’s apparent that behind the scenes they have built algorithms to make automated selections of things in themes I like. And, I’d say at least 85% of the time they are right.

If Pinterest was a man, I’d buy him.

This is amazing, annoying and distressing.  I get a rush of finding the stuff I like. I use Pinterest to get ideas not to have them fed to me. I liked the chaos of art, food, crafts barging in with different ideas, angles, media. Now however, someone who wrote a program is sending me things to discover. They are no longer my discoveries.

You know all the sci-fi dystopian futures that fill the shelves book lists on Barnes and Noble?  This feels like the early phase of innovation of non democracy. Most companies with a web presence are using a light version of this under the egis of automated marketing software with names such as Pardot, Marketo, HubSpot. The programs score levels of a prospective buyer’s interest in a product by how many actions that take to know more. Browsed the webpage- 1 point, clicked on a section- 2 points, spent 22 seconds on it -3 points. Bingo, they hit 6 points send them an article. They clicked on it- Ding! Ding! Ding! It’s the bobber with a bell announcing we have a live one on the line.

It appears that in the last few months Pinterest's pushes have increased. Now I am seeing "Found In" in my feeds. I have found instructions on Google to get rid of "Picked for You" but not "Found In." I'm guessing it's new and someone will post the anti-Foundin, and Pinterest will create another algorithm and so it will go. 

At this point, Amazon, we basically ignore, it’s so much apart of our shopping process. Google, I used twice in writing this and it offered up exactly the word (dystopia) I wanted. Since I search about writing frequently, what I wanted topped the list. Pinterest is just one more program/service going down the same path. The thing is, I am really afraid that in the wrong hands, offerings chosen for me may have a bias from the owner.

Do the Koch’s or Fox news have a piece of Pinterest? Not that I particularly want to see it, but who made the decision that we don’t see porn? Should I be worried, should we all be worried about who is writing the algorithms and homogenizing our thinking?

Oh, and I probably wouldn't buy the man. I'd expect him  and his cows for free.

Where's Bruno? The Children Return, a book beginning reviewed

I couldn't wait for my first ever pre-ordered book, The Children Return, the new Bruno Chef of Police book by Martin Walker.

I looked forward to the little vacation in France l get with Bruno's horse rides in the hills, his serendipitous picnics on a hill top, caving or mushroom hunts. He takes time to smell the herbs, feed the dog and pull a hunk of meat that he hunted from the freezer. Bruno feeds me and my whole soul with his wide-world view, small town purview and personal connections and earned respect. His home was built by his neighbors. His food and drink are frequently from rugby team mates, neighbors with larger gardens, vendors in the local farmers market or a thank you from a towns-person. I picture him a man who has to be about sixty for all his life events and wisdom but is decades younger and still wants kids. He ages more like Ground Hog Day.

Having read several of Martin Walker's previous books, I plan my read when it's time to drink wine. I know that in every few scenes there will be a description of a meal, prep of a dish, or a scene in a cafe that will slow even my reading so I can savor my time in France. Like days when I can't remember if someone told me something or I heard it on NPR, I think of his friends as mine... though I'm waiting to come across a Fabiola in my life.

His super-cop powers come from being a street smart, sensible, caring normal man. He solves international crimes pretty much locally. He respects women who have their own agendas, enjoys sex and continues to search for the one who wants to have his children.

I couldn't wait for the next opportunity to talk about St. Denis and dream of the next trip to France. I ordered the book and waited till the appointed day. I poured a white bordeaux rather than my usual New Zealand sauvignon blanc, made a little charcuterie plate, sans the cheese (the cave people near St. Denis didn't have cheese) and opened the Kindle.

I can't get into this book.

I'll admit right now that I don't have much tolerance for wasting time if I don't like a story. It's been years since I made myself read a book all the way through when I didn't like it. By years, I mean never. Assigned by a teacher, suggested by a mentor, recommended by Oprah, at best, I've skimmed. It's not worth minutes of my life to waste on words-in-a-row that don't connect for me. I can count on the fact that there are another 300,000 plus titles to choose from published in the last year, let alone all the stuff on the internet I could possibly peruse. I have gone back to the book several times, I read a few more paragraphs and get discouraged. I just don't care, kinda like I feel about my ex-husband.

No more mister bucolic policeman in Martin Walker's new book. Well, Bruno still might be that, but he seems more like a vapid international thriller character this time out.  I imagine that Walker's publisher, probably a guy who loves Patterson told him to be more like James and start with the torture. That's the ticket, burn some guys feet and stick a cattle prod up his ass.

In my opinion, Martin Walker needs a writing group. I bet he had one once. Seeing that he is backed up on coming titles, I can only imagine he's abbreviated or stopped his original writing practice that got him to be a best selling author, closed the door to his den and sits by himself to pump out his novels. I am imagining all this. For all I know Martin Walker is a woman. I've never taken the time to research him, I've just enjoyed his writing... till now.

A writing group would tell him to get to what Bruno cares about sooner, so we can want what he wants. They'd be brutally honest and remind him to show, don't tell, to stay away from Wikipedia and stop trying to educate. If he was in my writing group someone would count the number of times the same term is used, remind him that some repetition of words or ideas is good, it builds a perception of style but too much is boring. I suspect, Walker's departure from previous books might be his own balancing act of keeping what works and creating something new. I don't envy him this task. I'm struggling with how difficult it is for him. If he had cookie-cuttered his last book, I'd be making snide remarks about that too. At least he has multi-title book deals to get it right.

Martin Walker doesn't need to replace Maeve Binchy and tell nice, cover your smile with your hand, sweet Christian lady stories, but geez, one graphic description of a cattle prod up the anus is enough.  I now need the wine to make reading palatable rather than participate in the story.

Maybe it's the publisher who needs a focus group. I would encourage the Walker team to gather a group of people like me, so we'd get what we want.

I am going to keep reading in hopes that Bruno and I finally engage, but Amazon, don't bank on me pre-ordering a fiction book again.

Handsome Global Jetsetters

Watercolors have become an important part of my creative life. I continue to learn by doing, by taking classes and by emulating other artists. Today on a Sketchbook Skool posting I saw another student's watercolor that I admired. I decided to try her technique which included layers of color. Today, she posted www.MargaretMcCarthyHunt.com her 301st daily painting. I admire that too.

Here is my first painting which I like, and I used her technique. The male subject told me what to call the sketch, Hansome Global Jetsetters. 

Here is the sketch I did yesterday of the flowering cherry blossom tree across the driveway. I spent about ten minutes on it, had it shaped and the background sketched, when my neighbor pulled up in his truck and blocked my view. I stopped at that point, waved at him and said, f*it.

Though not in a obsessive compulsive way, I too have been painting and sketching daily. I have great faith and conviction that one day I will be able to see growth in my work. Right now, not so much.  I do feel more confident however, as I approach paper, pull out a brush and take my first strokes.


I am going to post a few I've done at Fort Sheridan over the last year. It's not really the most interesting scene, but I've gotten to know it in a way that allows me appreciate it and pay attention to how I render it. 

I would like to get to a more impressionistic style, but, I find myself wanting to realistically observe it. I am working to include other media and bought a couple pens. It's funny, when I start in pen, my watercolors feel sullied, like all I'm doing is coloring in a sketch.

I painted the next two on winter days. The top one was done on a snowy day in January. The temp must have been close to 32 degrees, so not blistery, just wet. The problem wasn't that the paints froze, it was that the snow fell so fast and furious,  that it melted as it hit the pigment, pooled and diluted the paints. I couldn't keep a consistent color.

I liked painting in the winter and though, I don't want it to hurry back, it gave me a new view and appreciation of my scene. There are few things that I have so deliberately looked at so many times. This is a zen sort of exercise. 

The sky is so blue and the lake is bluer in the next one. Fall 2014 turned the grasses brown and swept away most of the leaves. 

Everytime I go out, part of the pleasure is seeing what color the Lake and sky will be. During the summer when there are leaves, I can't see the Lake as I turn the corner into the parking lot but once the trees are bare, I come around the corner and it's like seeing an old friend and I am refreshed immediately.