Saturday, January 31, 2009

Art shanties in Minneapolis -- Frozen. Funky. Art.

FROM: http://3minuteegg.org/

"Six winters ago, Minneapolis artist and art activist Peter Haakon Thompson teamed with David Pitman and other artist friends to construct ice houses and place them for a few freaky, frigid weeks on Medicine Lake, west of Minneapolis. The Art Shanty Projects has since become a January tradition — 20 teams of artists, designers and architects to turn their whimsy into three weeks of reality on the tundra. 3-Minute Egg poked around Saturday’s opening festivities, braving gthe Arctic winds so you don’t have to. Of course, if you care to, the Shanties remain up through February 14."

Layoffs hit the Pioneer Press, Star Tribune newsrooms

Well, the STRIB has declared bankruptcy but is still printing. Seven people were laid off from the Star Tribune newsroom Friday, with the possibility of six being hired back if anyone else in the newsroom reconsiders and takes the buyout offer, the gossip train calls a pretty meager package. Fat chance.

Layoffs hit the Pioneer Press on Friday, as well. This is the first time my sources can recall the PiPress laying off full-time newsroom staffers. In the past, they've offered voluntary contract buy-outs, reduced their part-time and on-call staff. This is new.

Here's the memo that circulated Friday from the top brass:


Fellow staffers:
We've taken steps this week in reaction to the severe economic downturn and in anticipation of a very challenging 2009 -- including Friday's layoff of four newsroom colleagues.

The layoffs included:

--- Picture editor Randy Johnson

--- Clerk Tom Morley

--- Web producer John Vincent

--- Sports copy editor Tim Whitecotton

Additionally, Cindy Larson, one of our newsroom clerks, and Dick Klitsch, who worked on our sports copy desk, will be moving to the ad production department.

We also eliminated the budget for on-call help on the sports copy desk, most directly affecting five regular on-call contributors: Kyle Anway, Brad Perlich, Travis Petschl, Alexandra Pluym and Val Reichel.

I thank them all. We will miss them and their daily contributions to the work we all do.

I made these moves reluctantly -- but also knowing that I had to, given the immediate and near-future outlook for the economy. My overriding goal was to protect our reporting power. Our ability to continue to produce distinctive journalism that can't be found anywhere else is more important now than it has ever been. And we must produce that work for our online operations, daily newspaper and niche publications.

Towards that end, we're making some other changes. We'll be merging the operations of the news and sports copy desks, to more widely share the load and increase how efficiently we move copy. To help do so, we'll be rearranging desks and asking lots of people to move, including photo and the hub and sports desk staffers on the 6th floor. We'll be moving desks on Monday morning.

What can we all be doing, right here and right now, to help? Journalism. Break exclusive news online and in print. Tell stories that can't be found anywhere else. Find photos that jump off the page and videos that must be watched. Design dynamic illustrations and pages. Write headlines that demand to be read.

Thanks. As always, I'm here for questions. --

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Cloud Cult and auto insurance

The local band "Cloud Cult" has a song on an E-surance (auto insurance) commercial.

Cloud Cult is pretty good and extremely creative. They're definitely an acquired taste. If you listen to their lyrics, you'll find repeated themes in their albums...


The lead singer, Craig Minowa... his son died a while back so the music has a bit of a sing-song quality to it sometimes, with references to toys, and childhood, and then to something more meta-physical... from Jesus to his dead grandfather to the hereafter... thereby connecting death, the afterlife and infancy... Anyway, that's my take on it...

Check out this Advertising Age article about the band's decision to go with Esurance after rejecting other companies because of their "extreme" environmental beliefs

Monday, January 5, 2009

A true Christmas story

A true story:

When the Scooby Doo gang’s Rube Goldberg trap misfires, the feet of the Mayan Gods land in large metal springs. Suddenly vulnerable, they bounce pogo-like into a nearby pond. Their masks fall away. These are no vengeful, angry gods. It’s the archaeologist and his wife, in disguise!

My youngest nephew’s eyes are small moons of surprise. “They’re just people!” the cute little chub-bucket explains to my older sister, his high-pitched, three-year-old voice an octave higher, his tiny finger crooked toward the television. “The monsters are just people!”

This is what it means to be a kid. On Christmas morning, I come downstairs in a t-shirt and bath towel, an accusatory finger pointed at the wrapped packages under the tree. “Santa brought you all presents,” I shout at my three namesakes. “But he stole my pants!”

They giggle at the thought of a mischievous, thieving Santa. But hours later, at dinner, the cute little chub-bucket recalls a dream he’d had during his nap.

“There was the mummy from Scooby Doo in the closet,” he tells us, in a voice absent humor or irony. “And a really creepy hand. And Santa Claus on the roof. And then he came down into my room. And he stole my pants.”

I am beginning to think my nephew is too impressionable, even for age three.