my gallery show opens this thursday

my first-ever solo gallery show—which i've alluded to in prior posts—opens this thursday (april 2) at 111 arts gallery in downtown muncie.

the show will feature nine databent prints and several poster-sized collages. all art will be priced affordably (nothing higher than $50–$60), because even in these hard times it's nice to have some cool art on your walls.

come on by and say hi! or if you can't make it thursday, my stuff will be up all month.

we has a new kitteh

meet our new kitten. she's a six-month-old blue tabby. we're calling her lily.

we just adopted her last night and she's still a bit shy, but she's also adorable.

still more IMPD embarrassments

seems like hardly a month can go by without at least one IMPD officer getting busted for doing something shady if not outright illegal. first there's this guy:

A Marion County correction officer was in court Friday facing newly filed charges of child molesting, incest and sexual misconduct with a minor.

Richard B. Alsup, 39, faces a dozen counts involving accusations of improper sexual conduct with a female relative younger than 16, lasting as long as two years. Alsup, who also was a reserve officer with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, told a judge he is on administrative leave from the Sheriff's Department.

The Indianapolis Star generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.

Alsup told police he had been having nightmares about having sex with the girl, according to a probable cause affidavit. He told an investigator "he didn't want to believe he could do those things to (the girl), but that he could not say those things didn't happen," the affidavit says.

it's a nightmare all right, but surely much worse for the girl he's allegedly molested.

then today there's this story:

The commander of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's North District is being stripped of his position in the wake of an investigation into moonlighting by off-duty officers, public safety officials said Friday.

Maj. David Allender -- one of 51 officers who worked part-time security jobs for a metal-recycling firm linked to allegations that its workers knowingly purchased stolen metal -- will be busted to his merit rank of captain and reassigned to new duties within a week, public safety officials said in an e-mail to The Indianapolis Star.

[...]

"Having gathered new information about the deployment of precious police resources in the context of competing demands for officer time by private employers," Newman wrote in the e-mail, "we were no longer confident that only (the public's) interests were being served at all times."

Newman said the department expects to soon name Allender's replacement.

Deputy Chief John Conley stressed that Allender's demotion "was not related to any scrap-metal investigation and has no criminal violations or implications."

Rather, Conley wrote, the change came because of "time management and management of resources that should have been designated full-time to the public."

allender's name had come up previously in earlier stories about the omnisource bust. and while he's not being charged for being an accessory to scrap metal theft—at least at this time—the IMPD apparently did find that his moonlighting at omnisource had corrupted him to the point that he scheduled his fellow moonlighters according to what was best at omnisource, not what was best for the city or for the police department.

when will the police scandals end? ¶

shorter post-revolt wrap-up

shorter gary welsh: despite what you may have heard, my speech totally rocked yesterday, and anyone who tells you different is a dishonest sellout.

shorter paul k ogden: i don't understand why reporters and liberal bloggers keep mocking my event, just because it lacked focus and a lot of the people there were fringe types and crackpots. they should thanks me—nay, exalt and praise me!

shorter melyssa donaghy: they laugh at us because they're scared!

bonus shorter indiana barrister comments:

shorter gary welsh: i don't care if abdul mocks me, because his radio show sucks.

shorter abdul hakim shabazz: oh yeah? well gary has bad taste in clothes.

shorter paul k ogden: i admit there were a lot of crazies in attendance, but surely everyone can agree that gary welsh is awesome.

shorter gary welsh: actually, my taste in clothes is impeccable. also, abdul is fat.¶

if they held a protest and nobody knew what it was about, would it make a sound?

so that right-wing protest, "revolt at the state house", was this morning. it warranted a whopping three-paragraph AP story. here's the story in its entirety (and yes, i'm going against my "no quoting the AP" policy):

An eclectic group of nearly 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse today to show lawmakers that they are generally "fed up" with government.

Some at the rally held signs urging lawmakers to retire or be voted out of office. Others wanted to repeal property taxes or stop what they considered eminent domain abuse. Other signs supported a state immigration law and a revolt against socialism.

Speakers at the "Revolt at the Statehouse" event included taxpayer group leaders and community activists. Organizers said the focus of the rally was the frustration average citizens feel with government at all levels.

well, that sounds like a ragtag bunch. of course, saying the event's "focus" was "the frustration average citizens feel with government at all levels" is a nice way of saying what jim shella said: the event lacked focus.

shella's report is amusing: he plays it for laughs, finding a few fringe types and letting them embarrass themselves on camera. gary welsh, as is his nature, takes shella's criticism personally.

abdul, on the other hand, has no qualms about mocking gary by name, saying that when gary "screams" into a microphone, "he sounds like Godzilla on helium." abdul also writes that "At times it was hard to follow where it all was going. For the next rally, I'd try to stay a little more focused and have a more tangible universal theme that is easy for people to grasp."

compare shella and abdul's complaints with what i wrote a month ago:

i don't see this protest attracting a lot of protesters nor much media attention. the whole thing is too vague and ephemeral for tv reporters, who won't have a clue how to cover the thing. and in today's economy, i don't see the typical taxpayer getting too riled up about "the executive and legislative revolving door"—these days, people are more worried about just finding jobs and making ends meet. if this were a focused protest centered around, say, the mess at the CIB, i could see it being a moderate success. but a kitchen-sink protest of complaining about "corporate welfare" is doomed to failure.

of course, as melyssa loves to remind me, nobody reads this blog, so who cares what i have to say? ¶

the nerve of some people is better than others

shorter abdul hakim-shabazz: how dare the city's poor complain about being treated like second-class citizens?!? the city rightfully treats them like crap because they are crap. now shut up, you stupid poor people! ¶

zot

here's my latest databent illustration. like the arsonist, this is a computer illustration that uses glitched JPEGs for the textures.

both works, as well as many other pieces, will be part of my upcoming gallery show at 111 arts gallery in muncie. opening reception for the show will be april 2.

a study of presidential rankings

shorter gary welsh: obama is a worse president than bush, because making an inappropriate joke about the special olympics is clearly worse than dragging the country into an unjust war or indefinitely detaining innocent people. ¶

hey big spender

mayor greg ballard likes to portray himself—and by extension his administration—as being extremely frugal, as almost pathologically obsessed with cutting the budget. i've mocked him many times (and likely will many more) for his statements on the campaign trail that he would cut $70 million of "fluff" from the budget. and it's only going to get worse, as property tax caps will cause revenues to shrink substantially in coming years. not to mention that whole recession thing.

so it's puzzling to say the least that this guy has been chosen as our new airport CEO:

Airport Chief Executive John D. Clark III earned a reputation in Jacksonville, Fla., for being an anti-union spendthrift, cutting jobs while treating himself lavishly as he traveled the world.

He made separate business trips to Paris, London, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Cairo -- four continents, all paid for by the airport and all within one year.

He once authorized $10,000 for a limousine in Paris for an airport board member and a lawyer, and ended up apologizing for it.

in addition to his lavish spending habits, clark also has a reputation for being hostile to unions and treating employees unfairly. he's also known for his battles with the jacksonville city council and neighborhood residents.

to be clear, clark wasn't chosen by ballard, but by airport authority head randall tobias. tobias himself is no stranger to scandal, having resigned from a federal post in 2007 after the revelation that he'd been paying for high-priced "massages" from prostitutes. perhaps the controversy surrounding clark seems like small potatoes to tobias, who has been shamed at a national level. but ballard loves to talk about leadership (and he'll talk anywhere they'll listen), and part of being in charge is taking the heat for those under you.

what we know about clark suggests he's everything that the ballard administration insists it isn't: wasteful, extravagant, arrogant, hostile toward the public, and a foe of transparency. so why is he being hired?

there is one bit of good news regarding his hiring, though: the people of jacksonville are ecstatic that he's leaving. ¶

journalists need their beauty sleep

shorter post-tribune ed board: there's a bill in the state house to extend indiana's voting hours to 8pm. while this would allow more people with day jobs to vote, overall it would be a horrible mistake, because then journalists like us would have to stay up two hours earlier on election night! ¶

motion to hold our horses on this liberal stuff

shorter senator evan bayh: i know my party controls the white house and both houses of congress, but that's no reason for us to move forward on our economic or environmental agenda. ¶

one county executive to rule them all

shorter star ed board: how dare the democrats in the state house defy us by not passing township consolidation?!? the only possible explanation is that they are evil, despicable people!

shorter gary welsh: i've been saying that all along! ¶

rage, rage against the saving of the daylight

shorter norman cox:

the fact that people are still arguing about daylight saving time pisses me off. i don't care if it doesn't save energy; i just want to be like everyone else! DST is the law now so DISCUSSION IS OVER.

update:
alternate shorter norman cox: if everyone else jumped off a bridge, you're damn right i'd jump too! now get out of my way and let me jump, whiners! ¶

update: tonight at big car

just a quick note about tonight's event at big car gallery:

turns out there won't be a stage at the top of the stairs after all, so i will instead be playing at short set in the main gallery (suite 215 i believe) sometime between 7 and 9 pm. the event is free, with lots of intriguing music, art, and video, so come check it out:

Listen: A Music and Video Experiment
Featuring video art and experimental music throughout the Murphy Art Center -- including Alchemy in Suite 3, Suite 4 next door and multiple spaces upstairs near Big Car.

Friday, March 6, 2009 at 7 p.m.- Midnight.

Big Car's First Friday show for March will feature a bevy of local, regional, national and international video and sound artists. All of the music will accompany video art projections. The night will include a show of Herron video artists in Suite 214 next door to Big Car (see artist statements below), a program of experimental videos from other local artists in Suite 3 and 4 on street level (J. Andrew Salyer, Laura Salyer, Jim Walker, Flounder Lee) and a Microcinema screening (FATELESS, Color + Modulation, SLIDE, Hub Culture Retrospectives: Antarctica, Independent Exposure: Asthmatic Kitty Records Edition 2008, The Collected Films of Ryan Jeffery) also in Suite 214.

The night's musical offerings in Suite 215 (Big Car's regular space) and in other nearby spaces include performances by Butler University's Ensemble 48 (playing a soundtrack to the silent film "Man with the Movie Camera"), Marck Ferrari, Ben Ishmael Revival, Shiny Black Shirt, Sea Krowns, Ensemble 48, Actuel, Playboy Psychonauts, Stallio, Sky Thing and Tonos Triad.

Also in the street level space that night, Big Car also hosts the installation "Unified Fields" that features the interactive music and art of duo Mana2 (Jordan Munson, Michael Drews). This installation is a collaborative composition combining elements from the works Unified Fields (Munson) and Deconstructions (Drews). Themes and gestures from each work interact both with each other and sonic and video material emanating from several interactive stations positioned in the room. These stations will involve both motion and color tracking technologies. During the event, live musical textures will be weaved into the sonic environment being generated.

The event is sponsored by Microcinema and is a partnership with the Toby at the IMA.¶

this friday at big car gallery

i will be performing at an interesting-sounding event this friday at big car in fountain square:

Listen: A Music and Video Experiment
Featuring video art and experimental music throughout the Murphy Art Center -- including Alchemy in Suite 3, Suite 4 next door and multiple spaces upstairs near Big Car.

Friday, March 6, 2009 at 7 p.m.- Midnight.

Big Car's First Friday show for March will feature a bevy of local, regional, national and international video and sound artists. All of the music will accompany video art projections. The night will include a show of Herron video artists in Suite 214 next door to Big Car (see artist statements below), a program of experimental videos from other local artists in Suite 3 and 4 on street level (J. Andrew Salyer, Laura Salyer, Jim Walker, Flounder Lee) and a Microcinema screening (FATELESS, Color + Modulation, SLIDE, Hub Culture Retrospectives: Antarctica, Independent Exposure: Asthmatic Kitty Records Edition 2008, The Collected Films of Ryan Jeffery) also in Suite 214.

The night's musical offerings in Suite 215 (Big Car's regular space) and in other nearby spaces include performances by Butler University's Ensemble 48 (playing a soundtrack to the silent film "Man with the Movie Camera"), Marck Ferrari, Ben Ishmael Revival, Shiny Black Shirt, Sea Krowns, Ensemble 48, Actuel, Playboy Psychonauts, Stallio, Sky Thing and Tonos Triad.

Also in the street level space that night, Big Car also hosts the installation "Unified Fields" that features the interactive music and art of duo Mana2 (Jordan Munson, Michael Drews). This installation is a collaborative composition combining elements from the works Unified Fields (Munson) and Deconstructions (Drews). Themes and gestures from each work interact both with each other and sonic and video material emanating from several interactive stations positioned in the room. These stations will involve both motion and color tracking technologies. During the event, live musical textures will be weaved into the sonic environment being generated.

The event is sponsored by Microcinema and is a partnership with the Toby at the IMA.

it should be a lot of fun—and it's free! i'm currently scheduled to play around 8:30-9:30 near the top of the stairs.

more information at bigcar.org. ¶

sunset over tax city

i finished this last night: another collage landscape similar to the one i posted last week. this one is also for the april show at 111 arts gallery and tattoo studio in muncie.

the right-wingers are revolting!

one of the drawbacks of doing most of my blog-reading using a feed reader is that i seldom read blog comments anymore, unless those comments have a feed of their own. in particular, this means i rarely read comments on blogger blogs (other than my own). and since blogger is the platform of choice for most of the local right-wing bloggers, that means i rarely read the comments on those blogs... and the comments are often where the wackiest stuff goes on.

because of this, i hadn't realized just how bad things had gotten on the local right-wing blogs. they are cracking up over the inept leadership of mayor ballard and the republican-controlled city council. i knew that gary welsh had turned on mayor ballard not long after the election, and i knew that paul ogden—a former commenter who now has his own blog—was also critical of the ballard administration. but i didn't know that melyssa donaghy—once one of the mayor's most vocal supporters—had finally turned on him as well. (i knew it would happen, and predicted it here more than once, but didn't know when. though i had noticed she wasn't coming around here and defending the mayor in the comments anymore.)

melyssa and paul are planning a protest at the statehouse for next month, calling it "revolt at the statehouse". apparently they hope to recapture some of the attention they got for the property tax protests of 2007. but while those protests were narrowly focused on an issue that had upset a lot of people, their new protest is vague and hard to grasp, spilling over a number of right-wing grievances:

The rally will focus chiefly on issues relating to corporate welfare, Indiana style "pay to play" politics, property tax reform, and the need for transparency and ethics reform. Particular topics are likely to include: "The Colts, Pacers & the Capital Improvement Board, "Pay to Play Politics, Indiana Style: Campaign Contributions & Government Contracts," "The Executive and Legislative Revolving Door," "Corporate Welfare – How Politicians Have Used Our Tax Money to Make the Rich Richer."

if you even know what all that means, you're probably one of the event's organizers. i don't see this protest attracting a lot of protesters nor much media attention. the whole thing is too vague and ephemeral for tv reporters, who won't have a clue how to cover the thing. and in today's economy, i don't see the typical taxpayer getting too riled up about "the executive and legislative revolving door"—these days, people are more worried about just finding jobs and making ends meet. if this were a focused protest centered around, say, the mess at the CIB, i could see it being a moderate success. but a kitchen-sink protest of complaining about "corporate welfare" is doomed to failure.

the press release for the protest is posted on paul ogden's blog, and while i was there reading it, i noticed a link in the blogroll to an anti-ogen blog. now, i must give ogden kudos for blogrolling his own haters. that takes confidence. the "ogden truth squad" is a ballard apologist blog devoted to attacking ogden (and by extension, gary, melyssa, and others). in other words, it's a pure drama blog: right-wingers attacking other right-wingers in defense of republican politicians. the drama itself is not as exciting as you might have hoped, but the fact that such a blog even exists is evidence of how much things have changed in recent months. not that long ago, greg ballard was a hero to all these people. now, he's hated by many, and the source of much bickering among his former followers. ¶

moonlighters

the indystar.com feeds seem to be busted today—clicking the links leads to a database error instead of a story—but if you can get around that, you might have read the story "IMPD supporters caution don't rush to judgment in OmniSource scrap metal case".

omnisource deals in metal recycling. monday, the company was raided for buying stolen scrap. it's no secret that thieves all over the city have been stealing any metal they can get their hands on and selling it for scrap. apparently they've been selling it to omnisource.

the surprise is that omnisource has hired 51 off-duty IMPD cops to work security. this is only the latest in a slew of stories that make IMPD look bad—corrupt, inept, or both—and the "supporters" story is a plea that we shouldn't rush to the judgment that those 51 cops were in on the scam. none of those cops have been charged with anything, supporters say. there's even a quote from the local FOP president stating that he's "confident" that none of those cops were involved in law-breaking.

common sense suggests that at least one of those fifty-one police officers running around the place should have noticed that some shady stuff was going on. so the idea that none of these cops were in on it fails the sniff test.

but it gets worse. i first read these details in today's star editorial:

The list of off-duty IMPD officers that OmniSource employed includes Detective Jason Prendergast, the department's lead investigator of scrap metal thefts. His employment by a company working in a field directly related to his on-duty responsibilities is an obvious conflict of interest.

Two years ago, Prendergast and Maj. David Allender, a district commander also employed by OmniSource, led an investigation into one of the company's top competitors in the city.

the top guy in charge of scrap metal thefts was moonlighting as a security guard at a company that was buying stolen scrap metal. why would prendergast even want to work security there? even giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming he didn't know about the crimes there, how could he have thought it was a good idea? and even worse, why would his bosses agree to let him do it?

the investigation into omnisource has been going on for a year. top brass (including, we must assume, mayor ballard's office) have known about the investigation all this time. yet prendergast and others were allowed to continue moonlighting there. clearly something screwy has been going on.

mayor ballard, who eagerly seized control of the police department last year, steadfastly refused to comment on the story during a video chat yesterday with the star ed board. the ed board valiantly tried to get him to comment, but he refused. today's editorial takes him to task for being invisible on this issue, as he is on so many others. ballard's defenders will surely try to blame former mayor peterson and sheriff anderson, as they do whenever ballard is in trouble. (no doubt abdul is already working on his post blaming the prior administration.) but ballard is mayor now, and it would be nice for him to show some leadership on this issue (and a number of others). the man likes to talk about leadership. he wrote a book about it, and even teaches leadership classes to IMPD officers. but when it comes to actually stepping up and exhibiting leadership, he's nowhere to be found.

as tully wrote in today's column, ballard has no political instinct. he says he hates lame photo ops, but he doesn't seem to understand that one of the main ways politicians lead is by getting in front of a tv camera and showing people you're in control. and since ballard made it a point to take personal control over the IMPD, that only makes it more important that he get up there and say, "we're investigating, we hope none of our officers were involved in wrongdoing, but if they were they'll be punished." his unwillingness to do so is troubling.

we haven't heard the last of this story. this is shaping up to be yet another black eye for a police department that has had a lot of bruises lately. ¶

too little too late

i noticed that IHOP is trying to duplicate denny's' success by offering people a free short stack of pancakes today. it might even work—to a degree, but it surely won't be as successful as the denny's promotion for a few reasons:

1. they're offering less. denny's gave away free grand slams, which include eggs, sausage, and bacon. IHOP is merely giving away the pancakes.
2. they're getting less ad exposure. denny's advertised their offer during the super bowl to be sure everyone knew about it.
3. this won't be true for every market, but... i don't know where there is an open IHOP anymore! the one in castleton has been shuttered for months, and the one in downtown indy was recently demolished in order to build a CVS even though there's a walgreen's right across the street! (looks like there's one in avon, one near lawrence, and one near greenwood if you're really itching for a short stack.)

my wife loves free food—just yesterday we got free coffees at einstien brothers, and tomorrow we're going to denny's because we have coupons—but i'm not driving to avon just for a free short stack. ¶

the city reacts to ballard's bold vision of livability

a day has now passed since mayor ballard gave his state of the city speech (on a saturday morning, when the fewest number of people possible would be paying attention). so how are people responding?

"The biggest complaint I have as a resident is that livable isn't a goal," said Adam Kirsch, executive director of the Marion County Democratic Party. "It is the bare minimum the city should expect.

"The speech didn't provide a bold vision. It was just filled with a litany of minor accomplishments during his first year."

Republican City-County Council member Michael McQuillen disagreed, saying, "Livability is a big issue that will put Indianapolis a step above other big cities in this nation."

imagine... a city that's livable! it sounds far-fetched, i know—like something out of a grant morrisson comic book—but just try to picture it: a city where you can actually live! if ballard can somehow pull it off, then that would really put indianapolis a step above other big cities!

Ballard was asked after the speech if he thought he'd provided the vision his critics had found lacking.

"What I said today is not much different than what I've said the last eight to 10 months," he said.

in other words, no, not even ballard thinks he articulated a vision in this speech.

even the mayor's top apologist, abdul hakim shabazz, concedes that the mayor has no vision, but tries to spin it as a positive. "I think this city has enough of that 'vision' for a while," he writes. and for those of you who think abdul's opinion on ballard, who he has literally never criticized for any reason whatsoever, isn't worth the pixels it's printed on, abdul has this to say: you should listen to him because he was actually in the room during the speech. so there!

gary welsh has, in recent weeks, found something to write about other than his distrust of president obama: the troubles at the CIB. he was hoping for the mayor to say something of substance on the subject, and was naturally left empty-handed. paul ogden concurs, and promptly takes the opportunity for a shot at former mayor bart peterson.

amazingly, matt tully, who just the other day wrote a column begging the mayor to show some vision for god's sake, gave the speech a B. why? because ballard's delivery wasn't as embarrassing as at past speeches. apparently ballard's decision to skip meeting the president in order to practice his speech helped after all. perhaps tully's next column will explain why the speech was actually good despite not delivering on the stuff tully said he wanted. (to be fair, in today's tully's corner feature, tully takes ballard to task for skipping the obama meeting, so he's not completely soft on the mayor.)

at her latest blog, envision indy, jen wagner has been offering a detailed response to the speech, including fact checks, detailed rebuttals, and the full text of the speech. let's hope that envision indy sticks around longer than some of her previous blogs.¶