Life...as it relates to Technology. » Art

Death Valley Hike – Amargosa Opera House – Marta Becket

scott — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 05:57:52 +0000

Every once in awhile you just gotta blow out of town and spend some quality time in the desert. I love Death Valley. It is my favorite spot on the earth. More on this to come.

Anyway, I have always heard about Marta Becket – the eccentric woman who bought an opera house in Death Valley and has been putting on performances since the late 1960’s – sometimes all by herself. Check out the Amargosa Opera House if you don’t believe me. Besides dancing, she is an incredible visual artist who painted an audience on the walls inside the opera – for those times when no one showed up to watch.

I stayed in haunted room in the hotel (it was the only remaining room) but I was dead tired from hiking so I didn’t notice the ghosts.

www.annbrice.com

scott — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 05:57:00 +0000

I work with a gentleman who is unbelievably smart. He is a math grad and an oracle database wizard.

blah blah – so he is indirectly linked via marriage to this woman: www.annbrice.com. (Those are high quality images in the “exhibition” so be patient – they take awhile to load.)

Her paintings have two qualities that I really like: (1) deep “van gogh-esque” brushstrokes, and (2) shocking contrast between colors. I am not a huge fan of ~women profile stuff, but I would like to have one of these on my wall (although, judging by where she is exhibiting, that won’t be any time soon).

jacasso.com, DOW Near Record

scott — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:48:11 +0000

I woke up early today. Very Early. Like 3 a.m. early. I woke up either because I was excited at the prospect of the DOW breaking the Year 2000 all time high, or because my son was screaming, “BLANKEEZ ON!” at the top of his lungs. After tucking him back in, I was still wired. I did a little leftover work and headed to the gym to watch the NYSE opening bell from a treadmill.

The DOW is comprised of some 30 stocks, almost all of which are actually lower than year 2000. The current DOW darling is ALTRIA (up about 215% since 2000). Of course, I don’t own ALTRIA. I own INTEL. The DOW’s biggest loser since 2000…

Anyway, as I was leaving I noticed a grey SUV that proudly displayed jacasso.com in faux cursive writing on the back window. I thought briefly about snapping a picture with my camera phone, not realizing the battery was dead. It didn’t matter, I couldn’t find the camera.

When I got to work, I checked jacasso.com. Although there is no pronunciation guide listed on the site, I decided to call it JACK-ASS-OH DOT COM. JACK-ASS-OH DOT COM is an art site (hmm? Picasso meets jackass.) The actual artist is named “Jack Janis.” Go figure.

His abstract stuff is great and the prices are incredibly reasonable.

Anyway, back to year 2000. It was a great year. A year I’d gladly do over. I spent two weeks in Maui to celebrate Christmas and begin the new year. Somebody married me. I could not be reached by cell phone. My first book was published. The Sooners went undefeated. Life was good.

As of 10:34 a.m. Pacific time, the DOW has not set a new record…(To be continued.)