Matt Damon's Speech Backing Teachers, Blasting Standardized Testing

Matt Damon spoke at yesterday's "Save Our Schools March" in Washington, part of a four-day event in which working teachers protested the current tilt in education policy toward increased standardized testing, business management perspectives, and other "reforms."

The concise, articulate speech notes the actor's public education background, his gratitude to his instructors, and his belief that American public schools aren't the intellectual and developmental desert "reformers" relentlessly assert they are. Damon's address is brief and worth reading. "The Answer Sheet," a blog by the Washington Post reporter Valerie Strauss, has the transcript of Damon's remarks. It takes about two minutes to read, and will leave one thinking about the issues he raises for far longer than that.

The photo, by Tracy A. Woodward, originally appeared in the Washington Post.

ATT Announces Plan to Slow Data Speeds for "Top 5%" of Data Users On its "Unlimited" Access Plan

Earlier this week, ATT released a statement which declared that its "top 5%" of data users in its unlimited mobile data access plan would slow those customers' broadband speeds. The duopolist characterized this corporate policy as a way to manage what ATT claimed was "exploding demand for mobile data." The story has appeared in many major news outlets; the LA Times link is reasonably succinct version of the announcement and its implications.

For some time, it has been evident that rationing of broadband access, via tiered access plans, was in the works. ATT is hardly the only interested party in this scenario. The other member of America's unloved mobile telephone duopoly, Verizon, has skin in this game. So does Sprint, which ATT wants to gobble up. The cast of usual suspects expands if one counts the cable TV distributors.

The financial stakes for consumers, distributors, and content providers are profound. Consumers are being set up to swallow the notion of eye-popping mobile phone service bills. For example, some users who send infinite numbers of stupid "Here We Are" mobile phone photos to their friends will soon pay extra for the privilege. Small businesses advertising via YouTube videos will be pegged in the 5% crowd, and be compelled to move into expensive, often annoying enterprise plans. Institutions such as K-12 schools, which have regarded the Internet and mobile phones as their panacea for the so-called "education crisis," will be made-to-order for captive, high rate schedules. Meanwhile, the duopolists, through its management of an allegedly finite spectrum, can charge "market rates". And why would a duopolist stop at a mere 5% of "heavy" data users? Why not 10%? Or 20%? Also, by not establishing a line in the data sand (say, 100 GB), the telephone companies establish a moving, monthly target left undefined for consumers, until the unlucky user crosses an invisible line of violation.

ATT' s announcement notes how the firm would send usage warnings to those nearing the undefined area of "too much." Would you feel any comfort from that arrangement?

Finally, ATT's statement does note one goal of this initiative. It plainly asserts the company currently lacks sufficient spectrum to manage its customers' anticipated demand. For that reason, ATT reiterated its desire for the federal government to approve its merger with Sprint and its valuable spectrum range.

Whether or not ATT gets its way with the Sprint deal, this week's announcement casts a bit of a dark cloud over the euphoria regarding mobile phones, endless applications for them (and tablets), and seemingly unlimited access. We may soon see a class system developing in the mobile data world, and it may very well resemble the financial one that has ironically diminished our citizens' social mobility.

Search for Women-Run Venture Capital Firms In the US Nets A Grand Total of One

Venture capital is a realm where typically those with big ideas in technology roam. In many ways, VC is America's leading incubator for putting remarkable ideas into practice. When they hit big, VC investors make a fortune. However, at its highest reaches, venture capital is a man's world, something the with-it tech crowd doesn't really like to publicize. (The movie The Social Network hints at tech's rampant, aggressive sexism.) For every Meg Whitman, there are hundreds of "cool" guys blessed with ideas, ego, and drive (both professional and sexual).

Therefore, I was intrigued when a story in today's San Jose Mercury News focused on what is most likely the only female-run VC firm in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. The article, by the interesting journalist Peter Delevett, interviewed the firm's two managing partners. Their business acumen convinced them to invest in Pandora, which turned out to be a winner. The two women -- Cynthia Ringo (photo) and Nancy Pfund -- also believe in taking environmental and social issues into account in their business decisions.

Vator.tv includes a thumbnail biography of Ringo. The website was founded by Bambi Francisco Roizen, a Silicon Valley journalist who knows just about everyone involved in the area's tech and VC communities. She still runs Vator and retains a strong interest in emerging enterprises.

It's refreshing and important that women such as Roizen, Ringo, and Pfund (sounds like a law firm) are marking their territory in tech's boy's club. However, they only have a toehold in the merciless commercial and entrepreneurial jungle known as Silicon Valley. More women are needed in impact positions in VC and innovation. Men don't have a monopoly on brains; in fact, they let the wrong head do their thinking. It's time for greater gender balance, for everyone's benefit.

Spanish Bank Uses Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka Contracts as Financial Collateral

When most entrepreneurs start or expand a business, they apply for loans. The bank reasonably requests collateral, including firm assets, such as property or (heaven help us) cash. A Spanish bank has offered a unique form of collateral in its loan request. According to presseurop, the Bankia group of savings banks has posted the contracts of Real Madrid soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo (photo, left side) and Kaka (photo, right side) as collateral. That's right: human beings are now the stuff of loan guarantees. While the use of human collateral has a long, unpleasant history, one doesn't expect its acceptance in contemporary, sophisticated business transactions. There are exceptions, notably in the entertainment business. However, perhaps bankers could start a new business trend and put themselves up as collateral. Then one could learn their true "free market" value. Then again, the bankers might not want to know.

PS. Thanks to the financial blog Zero Hedge for posting this item.

Netflix, Hulu Viewers' Device, Programming Choices; Apple's TV Strategy

A recent Nielsen survey of Netflix and Hulu customers revealed some interesting consumer choices. The AP story, picked up by the San Jose Mercury News, found that "more Netflix users are watching video on the TVs rather than their computers," often using game box consoles as their connection.

Hulu clients skew heavily toward computer use. They also tend to watch TV programs. That contrasts with the Netflix crowd, which tends to prefer viewing movies. (The image shows Hulu's icon for its desktop application.)

Now, if Apple acquires Hulu, that act would imply a major Apple push into the television distribution market. A computer-driven audience would play into the Apple plan. TV also happens to play better on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, including the iPhone. Apple's bete noire in this hypothetical strategy would be the cost of bandwidth, which would be controlled by the phone duopoly and cable providers such as Comcast (which happens to own NBC).

Netflix-Style Streaming Video, Brought to You By Wal-Mart

The least likely Hollywood entry, Wal-Mart, has just taken the plunge into providing streaming video to the masses. The Bentonville, Arkansas firm, courtesy of its website, offers the service on a rental or purchase basis. It is hard to fathom obtaining, say, Rules of the Game or Boogie Nights from Wal-Mart. However, what was once inconceivable is now the norm.

The story appeared in today's LA Times.

Man Wakes After Long Snooze in Morgue Fridge

A brief AP story included in today's San Jose Mercury News tells the story of a Johannesburg, South Africa man who found himself in a perplexing situation.

Apparently, the man had been given up for dead and, reasonably enough, an undertaker sent the corpse to the city's morgue. The only problem was that he wasn't dead.

Around 21 hours later, the "dead man" pulled a Lazarus. According to the AP story, he "started yelling, prompting morgue workers to run away in fear." Eventually, the shouter was removed from the fridge and discharged by medical officials "who deemed (the man) stable."

The bureaucrats had the final word on the matter. A Johannesburg health official, presumably with a straight face, "urged South Africans to call on health officials to confirm their relatives are really dead."

The poster promotes the 1943 Jacques Tourneur film I Walked With a Zombie.

Vacation Getaways for Horses

My wife and I occasionally drive past a local estate where the owners keep some horses. There are a pair that are nearly always together, sometimes literally touching one another. We don't know anything else about them. We call them the "love horses," because they really seem to show a tenderness for each other.

We haven't seen the love horses lately. My wife and I speculated about this situation. One thought was that the horses have a second home, and they had the good sense to get away from the recent, stifling heat and humidity. It seemed like a far fetched idea, so we performed some web searching to determine if there are equine getaways.

Well, there are. One is located in Illinois, near the Mississippi River. It appears to be more relaxing for the humans than for the animals, but it's a change of pace for the horses, so we'll count that in the "vacation for horses" column. The photo shows what looks like equine nirvana in Montana's high plains. Maybe that's where our love horses are now.

Walter Reed Army hospital to close in September

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that Walter Reed Army hospital will close in September 2011. The facility, which is over a century old, will be turned over to the State Department and the District of Columbia. The medical staff will be transferred to military hospitals in Bethesda, Maryland and northern Virginia.

Walter Reed, until recently, was considered one of the military's crown jewels. Presidents, foreign dignitaries, and domestic political hotshots were treated there. Of course, the idea was to care for rank-and-file soldiers wounded in the line of duty. Walter Reed's staff, over the years, performed that duty with pride. That's why it was shocking, regardless of political or ideological perspective, when a 2007 Washington Post report by Dana Priest and Anne Hull exposed revolting housing conditions at the hospital. It was a national black eye. The episode was also a source of deep shame for the Bush Administration, which had relentlessly promoted a public message of its unstinting support to the armed services.

Walter Reed is part of American history. It's with sadness that one notes its closing.

Heat Wave

NYC Restaurateur Armando Orsini -- RIP

Armando Orsini, co-owner of a once-famous, eponymous New York restaurant, died recently at age 88.

The New York Times' obit on the restaurateur is a delight to read. Orsini's life would make an interesting, light biographical study. His childhood background is murky. The record of his early adult years is a jumble of half-truths, total fabrications, urban myth, and barroom recollections. What's known is that he became involved with and married Lili St. Cyr (photo), whom the Times characterized as "the most famous stage stripper of her time." The occupational category seems almost quaint today, but St. Cyr was something of a celebrity at the time. She also made a pretty good living in the flesh business, and it was rumored she provided funding for the restaurant Orsini and his brother opened under their family's name.

Orsini's in some ways was the polar opposite of today's big-time restaurant world, in which egotistical, telegenic chefs attempt to build commercial empires. One went to Orsini's for the scene. The food was secondary to the theatrical atmosphere and cafe society crowd that filled the house. Armando Orsini understood that need and provided a comfortable venue for it. He wouldn't have worried about the venal attorney-aggregators who dominate today's New York restaurant scene by cynically leveraging mass opinion for profit. Orsini had fun, and like 'Ol Blue Eyes, he did it his way. And you can be sure Orsini would have told those attorneys where to go.

SEC Docs Reveal Zynga Deals with Facebook, Investments by Google and Peter Thiel

Zynga, an 800-pound gorilla in the online gaming room, recently submitted a revised SEC filing for its planned IPO. While Zynga's relationship with Facebook has been common knowledge, the SEC documents reveal the depth of the corporate coziness with Mark Zuckerberg's firm, as well as with other major Silicon Valley players. The San Jose Mercury News covered the story, and the article is a good one.

Why would one care? Well, Zynga, according to Peter Delevett's Mercury News piece, is "the largest maker of games played on Facebook," among them the popular "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars."

What adds spice to the Delevett's article are the other VIPs at the Zynga ownership party. The SEC documents confirm rumors (such as those reported on Tech Crunch earlier this month) that Google has a piece of Zynga's action. So does former Pay Pal and current venture capital zillionaire Peter Thiel, whose depiction in The Social Network took some tarnish off his well-burnished, calculated public image.

The Zynga IPO story is a little complicated, and one should take the time to read Delevett's piece.

Green Bay Democrat Wins Wisconsin State Senate Recall Election

In the undercard to Wisconsin's State Senate's August recall elections, Green Bay's incumbent state senator, Dave Hansen, retained his seat against a Republican challenger. This result, while not entirely surprising, may be a harbinger of things to come. The recall score, after one inning: Democrats 1, GOP nil. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the details.

Hansen was one of fourteen Democratic state senators who fled the Badger State during this winter's tumult over the collective bargaining rights of state public employees. The photograph shows Hansen during his March 2011 return to Wisconsin's state capital, Madison.

Rooftop Volleyball

I had a dream last week in which I was playing rooftop volleyball. Now, volleyball is a wonderful sport, but it's not my sport. Still, upon reflection, I wondered if there were rooftop volleyball venues. It seemed like a good idea for warm weather locales, such as Miami Beach.

Some quick searching on the Web turned up a grand total of one rooftop volleyball site. It's at a Vancouver hotel. The court and the rooftop views look just fine, as one can see in the image to the right, but no one would conflate Vancouver's weather with South Beach's.

Patent Chase Resembles Napoleonic-Era Alliances and Conflict Scale

The Financial Times posted an interesting overview of big-time tech's current, high-stakes bidding for patents. Major players, such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft, recently concluded an auction for a substantial portion Nortel's intellectual property covered under U.S. patent law. To prevent Google from obtaining this rich vein of tech gold, a commercial alliance that resembled a Napoleonic Era-style alliance was formed to outbid the Mountain View, California search monolith. Among the friends of convenience were presumed adversaries Microsoft, Apple, and Research in Motion. Notably, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt complained after the fact about the investment in patent acquisition versus ponying up for (shades of Bill Gates) "innovation."

Why would the alliance be so desperate to stop Google? The FT article provides a startlingly simple answer: Google has a thin patent collection compared to its principal competitors. The financial implications of patent control have escalated as mobile computing and smartphone popularity dramatically increase on an annual basis. Microsoft, for example, is now charging a per-unit fee for each Android-capable unit made by selected handset manufacturers. It's a gold mine for Microsoft, which really doesn't have to do much of anything except litigate and collect. Apple, for its part, a story originally reported by Bloomberg News noted a recent FTC ruling in favor of Steve Jobs' firm against an Android handset maker for patent infringement.

As for these extra costs, expect a product price bump, so that these payments are embedded in the overall retail or wholesale rates.

When Yahoo's Jerry Yang stupidly torpedoed Microsoft's bid to acquire his firm, he opened the door to Google's continued drive to effectively become a search monopoly. We are now at the point where "google" is unthinkingly used as a transitive verb to generically identify online search technique. Once Google entered the smartphone business, its affected major competitors realized they were in for a fight. Ironically, the FT piece characterized the latest Nortel patent battle as Google's "Waterloo." What wasn't said was that it took a grand alliance to take on the Napoleon from Mountain View.

The image at the top of the post is from Ocean Tomo. According to its corporate website, Ocean Tomo "provides financial services and products related to intellectual property...." In April, 2011, an Ocean Tomo press release discussed in some detail the issues involving Google's conjectured bidding on Nortel patents.

Former "News of the World" Staffers Discuss Their Experiences

Tabloid journalism, by its very nature, ventures into the profession's gray areas and dark corners. If one works that trade, one learns very quickly what the beast is, its voracious appetite, and its unforgiving nature.

A window into this unseemly world has become available, thanks to the UK's collective revulsion over tactics employed by Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloids. Yahoo News provides a link to a Reuters story in which former News of the World staffers discussed their working environment. It tells the truth, unlike the specious, initial claim of Murdoch management that the phone hacking was done by a "rogue" journalist. The Reuters piece talks about editors' control of budgets, the mother's milk of the payoffs at the heart of blackmail journalism. The article also notes how stories are traded (i.e., hushed) in exchange for influence. The Reuters piece effectively counters the notion that senior management, such as Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, had no idea of the extent of its publication's illegal activities.

However, those who feel Murdoch is principally responsible for tabloid excesses ought to consider publications such as Gawker ("Today's gossip is tomorrow's news"), magazines produced by editorial divas such as Tina Brown (a/k/a Lady Evans, CBE), or newspapers such as American Media, Inc.'s National Enquirer. They're in the same game. So is Vanity Fair. It just doesn't put photos of women with ample bosoms on page three. That valuable real estate is reserved for the high fashion industry.

Hustler's Larry Flynt Scores With Opinion Piece on Rupert Murdoch

The major league American media has, for the most part, cautiously approached the uproar engulfing Rupert Murdoch's dominions in the United Kingdom. In an event that speaks volumes about the media's ambivalence over l'affaire Murdoch, the Washington Post opened its Opinion page to none other than Larry Flynt, so that he could present his perspective on the conservative press baron's current crisis.

Using a rogue such as Flynt to do the liberals' dirty work was a cowardly masterstroke. Flynt, by definition and disposition can write whatever he wants. His disconnection from the media establishment (liberal or conservative) gives him a unique freedom to articulate certain uncomfortable realities about journalism. Let's just say one is very unlikely to hear Flynt's views on Meet the Press or Fox News Sunday.

Flynt's opening gambit was to assert both he and Murdoch valued a free press. "We understand," Flynt wrote, "that in this quest to protect this freedom (i.e., a free press), boundaries must be pushed." In short, Flynt has pointed to journalism's dark side as a consideration in any thoughtful person's contemplation of a truly free press. Of course, managing the dark side is a tricky business, and Flynt makes no bones about it.

"I test limits," Flynt noted, "by publishing controversial material and paying people who are willing to step forward and expose political hypocrisy." Murdoch, in Flynt's opinion, went well beyond encouraging the "willing" to speak out. The right-wing darling's minions, if recent allegations are true, routinely used illegal means to obtain damaging information about just about anyone. There were no boundaries to the Murdoch media's relentless search for dirt.

Before the NPR/PBS crowd smugly congratulates itself on being classier (pun intended) than Rupert's tabloid readers, The New York Times properly noted in a story on the Murdoch situation that illegal invasion of privacy was a given in nearly all British journalism, including the "better" papers. The criminality and corruption inherent in blackmail-style journalism wasn't unique to Rebekah Brooks by any means.

Some who believe in journalism's high road are repelled at the notion of the media paying anyone for a story. However, we've become numb to the repeated tales of television programs offering large sums so that morons can relate lurid tales to jaded audiences. Sometimes, "respected" voices demand a fee for "speaking" to the media in venues such as interviews. Payment isn't always in money; favors are often far more valuable currency.

Interestingly, Flynt makes a cogent point about the degradation of the notion of privacy in the Internet era. "On a daily basis, and in ways that the general public does not even recognize," Flynt wrote, "our right to privacy is disappearing rapidly. Our political leaders allow companies such as Google and Facebook to continually infringe on this right. Both of these companies serve as data mines, selling information about their users."

And Google wields power just as ruthlessly as Rupert Murdoch does. An AP article appearing in today's San Jose Mercury News notes allegations from Belgian newspapers complaining that Google has blocked them from appearing in the search engine's results. At issue is a case involving copyright infringement. Other European media outlets have taken Google to court over the same issue. Google spokespeople have denied the allegations, citing court rulings. Many watching the case view Google's denials as hollow.

The Belgian media suit brings into focus another uncomfortable media truth: Google's power is truly alarming. Foreign governments, especially the People's Republic of China, profoundly mistrust Google and view it as an unwelcome arm of American foreign policy. However, the American media is largely silent on the notion that information search and its related data gold mine has nearly become a monopoly. And there is no reason why Google's stated goal of "doing good" is a priori preferable to Rupert Murdoch's conservative political beliefs. Like it or not, both entities like power, and especially like concentrated power.

Finally, the Hustler boss noted why the crisis provoked by the Murdoch empire's uncontrolled disruption of privacy is a big deal for ordinary citizens, not just for pissed off celebrities or embarrassed politicians. The actions of the Murdoch press, almost certainly sanctioned by Rupert himself, "has placed all of us who enjoy freedom of the press at grave risk. Only when our readership trusts us to provide material acquired honestly can a free press continue to be a driving force in preserving our democracy."

The Murdoch affair, with its sinister, STASI-like violation of individual privacy, has illuminated journalism's dark side. It took a marginalized figure such as Larry Flynt to state the issues plainly, and show their connection to the disturbing rise of data monopolists. Do you think Flynt will invite Murdoch to write the Australian-American press magnate's version of the UK phone hacking story?

The image shows a poster from the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Wisconsin Recall Elections Begin in Earnest

The Wisconsin state senate recall elections, sparked by the Republican drive to trim collective bargaining rights of public employees, have slipped into a higher gear. Recently, a primary campaign was held in which fake Democrats ran against legit Dems. The Republican effort to run as Democrats was intended -- and was successful -- to buy time for GOP Governor Scott Walker (photo) and his Republican state senate colleagues.

To keep current with the Wisconsin recall elections, largely viewed as a proxy struggle between national political powers, go the the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The paper reported the results of a recent poll in which 59% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the governor's overall job performance. Mr. Walker's reply was that he didn't govern by poll results. It was not noted whether the reporter kept a straight face when the governor made his remarks.

The recall elections will take place in August.

Michael Wolff Reveals Rupert Murdoch Family's Crisis

A rarely discussed subject is the private life of Rupert Murdoch and his family. The highly secretive senior leadership of the People's Republic of China is better known than the habits and pleasures of the Murdoch clan. For a media magnate whose power is partly based on a relentless invasion and manipulation of others' privacy, the desire to remain out of the public eye is understandable.

That's why the recent Ad Week article by Michael Wolff on the Murdoch family crisis is such compelling reading. The article, among other issues, suggests why Rebekah Brooks has such Rasputin-like grip on the Murdochs. Wolff (photo), a knowledgeable New York-based media writer, has written an excellent piece. It's buried in a trade magazine probably because the subject is just too hot for major media outlets to handle.

Frankly, the competition to the Murdoch empire should not be beating its chest too strongly over its coverage of the UK phone hacking scandal. Most American media, with the exception of The New York Times, has largely downplayed coverage of the appalling scale of Murdoch's blackmail operation. This is hardly a surprise. Historically, most American media outlets have conducted character assassination pieces and distorted journalism similar to the Murdoch style. David Halberstam's The Powers That Be, an excellent history of selected American media from post World War II to Watergate, details some of the more egregious media sins. There are plenty of shameful moments to go around; Fox News is hardly unique in this regard.

What's clear for the time being is that the Murdoch media empire is on the defensive. We'll see how long that lasts, before the empire strikes back.

Russian Prime Minister Putin Characterizes US Monetary Policy as "Hooliganism"

Well, the news isn't just about allegations of cybercriminality at Rupert Murdoch's various media enterprises. Old reliable Vladimir Putin recently emerged from the shadows with some scathing comments about American economic policy.

According to a report in the Russian state news service Rianovosti, and noted in the financial blog Zero Hedge, the former KGB boss indicated disgust with the current situation. "'Thank God, or unfortunately, we do not print a reserve currency, but what are they doing,'" Putin sharply observed. "'They are behaving like hooligans, switching on the printing press and tossing them around the world...'"

The image shows a young woman wearing a "Putin shirt."

Philadelphia Newspapers to Give Away Android to New Digital Subscribers

Philadelphia, which is more of a high-tech area than many realize, will become the site of an interesting experiment in newspaper subscription marketing.

According to an AP story picked up by the San Jose Mercury News, the City of Brotherly Love's two major dailies will throw in a free Android tablet to paid digital subscribers. The web-based digital editions currently cost $155 per year for a subscription. Unsurprisingly, the initiative is aiming at the proverbial "young professional" market. While the reasoning is understandable, the newspapers' marketing teams might consider the number of "older professionals" who either own or are planning to purchase a tablet. These are people who are also accustomed to paying for a subscription and have probably read either or both newspapers over many years.

There are other moving parts to the story, such as the emergence of web-based applications "which can work on any device with a browser. The Financial Times launched a Web app last month," the AP story noted.

The two Philadelphia dailies were purchased in September, 2010 by a collection of hedge funds and creditors in a bankruptcy sale. The image, from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project, shows the Inquirer Building (also known as the Elverson Building). It is included in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Legacy and Allure of Drive-In Movies

Today’s online edition of the LA Times includes a relatively brief story about drive-in movies and their legacy in Southern California. The article features a wonderful photograph of the state’s first drive-in theatre, a circa 1930s outpost impossible to conceive in today’s Los Angeles. These largely vanished venues, a part of 20^th Century American popular culture, are worth remembering.

For many Americans, going to a drive-in movie was an appealing, ritualistic activity. Drive-ins offered a unique mix of families looking for inexpensive entertainment, teenagers trying to beat the system by hiding in car trunks, and attempted or consummated sex conducted in the confines of an automobile. The movie often seemed secondary to the drive-ins’ somewhat carny atmosphere.

Some cineastes have generally regarded the drive-in movie phenomenon with distaste. In their opinion, the dreadful rendering of images did movies a disservice. By all accounts, sound quality at drive-ins ranged from bad to hopeless. Meanwhile, the nature of the venues hardly lent themselves to a studied appreciation of a film.

Consequently, there is something of a tug-of-war between advocates of popular culture and spokespeople for film with a capital “F.” Personally, I enjoy drive-ins. There’s one about an hour from where my wife and I live. It shows mostly bad movies, but that’s okay; lousy movies stink just as much indoors as they do outdoors. However, the night sky is ours, and nothing can dim the poetry and power of that show.

Mike Wise Remembers the Late NBA and UNLV Star Armen Gilliam

Mike Wise's column in today's Washington Post offers a reminiscence of Armen Gilliam, the UNLV star and solid NBA pro who died of a heart attack this week. The death stunned many who knew Gilliam, who kept himself fit, had a sharp mind, and avoided the folly and trouble that dogs college and professional star athletes. (If any current or recent Ohio State football players bother to read anything, they should take note of Wise's article.)

It's a fun, funny, and fascinating piece that's as much about the rowdy, dreadful 1994-95 New Jersey Nets as it is about Gilliam. Wise's point is that, amidst the ribald characters on the Jersey Swamp's pro team, Gilliam was the sage. He kept his money, unlike many of his millionaire teammates. He kept his head, in stark contrast with every nearly other guy on the Net roster. Up to his sudden, tragic death, Gilliam kept his health, which some of that star-crossed team's players could not.

Another point of curiosity about Gilliam is that he came from a UNLV collegiate program that had been tarred as "rogue." UNLV's coach Jerry Tarkanian recruited talented players, most of whom were African-American and had game. Racist code words about UNLV bubbled up every so often. Some examples: UNLV's "open" style was criticized, typically by unflattering contrast with the "disciplined" game that often featured Caucasian collegiate stars. UNLV players suffered from the innuendo of being stupid because they played ball in the shadow of The Strip instead of, say, Duke. What do you think the comparative odds were that Armen Gilliam's college major was noted or explored by the media, versus Christian Laettner's area of study? And finally, UNLV was a college program in Sin City itself. How could anyone respect such a program? Weren't the stands filled with fellas, hookers, and deadbeat gamblers? Compare that randy mix to Duke's phony prep school image or Bob Knight's wholesome Hoosiers. The perception of five from the 'hood, backed by a corrupt college administration and a Mob-run city, was not exactly the NCAA's idea of a dream team. The NCAA worked unceasingly to get Tarkanian out of the college game, and that history, unflattering to the NCAA, is definitely worth reading. (The only sports organization more hypocritical than the NCAA is the breathtakingly pompous, profoundly corrupt International Olympic Committee. Dominique Strauss-Kahn would be a perfect fit for the IOC.)

Ironically, when Indiana played UNLV, it was Knight who forthrightly said Tarkanian was an excellent coach and that the Runnin' Rebels (the UNLV team name) were one helluva squad. Knight was right on both counts. Armen Gilliam was a star on that UNLV unit. He eventually made it to the mountaintop known as the NBA, wasn't dazzled by it, and managed his life well. It's sad, as Mike Wise so thoughtfully noted in his Post article, that Gilliam's time on this earth ended so prematurely.

The image shows Gilliam with his son Jeremiah during a 2007 UNLV ceremony celebrating the retirement of Gilliam's jersey and number.

J.P. Morgan, SEC Settle Muni Bond Big Rigging Charges

J.P. Morgan Securities settled SEC charges that the bank fixed municipal bond bids over a period of years. The SEC announced the settlement's terms on Thursday. An article on the subject appears in today's Washington Post.

JPM is the third bank to stand accused of essentially soaking taxpayers, who, after all, are muni bonds' financial and moral backbone. The other two institutions are Bank of America and UBS. One didn't detect corporate remorse over this episode: JPM's stance, according to the Post's story, was that the problem was cleaned up, and life goes on.

Where were the ratings agencies in all of this? Of course, the three firms which form the bond rating oligarchy performed their finest "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" routine for these fixed bids as well as unsullied muni offerings. No doubt the trio will claim they had no idea price rigging occurred. It will have as much credence as Claude Rains' declaration in Casablanca that he was shocked to discover gambling in Rick's Cafe Americain.

The larger issue is that the muni bond market has historically been a cash cow for underwriters. They have been more or less at liberty to set the rules, change the game when it suited the banks, and convince retail investors of the bonds' allegedly minimal financial risk. The motivation for institutions to change their corrupt ways seems counterintuitive to the potent aphrodisiacs of power and monetary gain. Meanwhile, the corruption, as we are continuing to discover, runs deep and often silently.

The image from Casablanca shows Captain Renault accepting his gambling winnings from Bogey's croupier.

Illinois Drops Last K-12 Writing Test

The state of Illinois has dropped its last required K-12 writing exam. According to a story in the LA Times that was originally filed by a Chicago Tribune reporter, Illinois public school students no longer have to write anything on a final exam. Insufficient money to conduct and grade the exams was cited as motivating the Illinois decision.

The Land of Lincoln is not the only state to cut back on inconvenient, "expensive" testing. The Times article cites recent decisions in Oregon and Missouri in which written tests were either scaled back or completely eliminated. Remarkably, an effective, essential means of evaluating a student's articulative ability has been cast aside. Testing is now completely in the throes of test manufacturers, compliant education administrators, and others who assert data analysis provides a sufficient window into an individual's "performance." That self-interest may impact this current educational dogma just doesn't enter the dialogue.

Incredibly, the development of clear written expression is disappearing from American public schools. Replacing skillful writing is constant, data-driven assessment, in which children are treated as if they are in K-12 education's equivalent of an intensive care ward. While young students will be "test ready" from a too-early age, they will be barely prepared to articulate any ideas they might have. That this phenomenon is happening in a state with a proud intellectual heritage, a land that spawned John Dewey, Jane Addams, Richard Wright, and Abraham Lincoln himself, is a very dispiriting sign of the times.

Turkish Government Prosecuting "Soft Machine" Publisher

Sometimes publishing is a rough business. That observation gains greater credence when one considers news outside North America and Western Europe. The most recent example comes from Turkey, as reported in the LA Times. The government is taking a publisher to court for printing a Turkish language version of William S. Burroughs' The Soft Machine. According to the Times piece, which cited an account from a major Turkish newspaper, the government alleges that Burroughs' novel promotes "'attitudes that were permissive to crime by concentrating on the banal, vulgar, and weak attributes of humanity...'"

The International Publishers Association made a statement on behalf of the Turkish defendant. The organization also noted other writers, in other countries, who have been legally or illegally bullied, coerced, beaten, or murdered in an effort to silence them or distort their message. The IPA, and similar groups, continue to stand up for writers and publishers. They need our support.

Detroit Chases "The Young, The Entrepreneurial, and The Hip"

When Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino was released in 2008, I suggested to my wife that Detroit was ripe for an influx of cultural players. The feeling was more of an intuition than a reasoned argument. I didn't have any empirical data, think-tank white papers, or information about new, prestigious targeted funding initiatives beyond what film production companies were receiving from the state of Michigan. There was almost nothing in the national zeitgeist to lead one to conclude Detroit was anything but on a civic death watch. When federal politicians, presidential wannabes, or media talkers discussed Detroit, they often used references to the good old days (the auto empire at its apex), the worse old days (the 1968 riots), and the city's current, ominous financial situation as a cautionary tale for post-Lehman America. There was some discussion of white flight, the history of Detroit's African-American community, the automobile unions, and the disintegration of Detroit's business core. That discussion became inconvenient once Detroit became an easy icon for America's current domestic crisis.

Value investors assert that the best time to consider new investments is when the assets in question have been talked down to a low level relative to their actual worth. Detroit fit this profile quite neatly. The city was simply too politically and economically connected to national power structures. Its geographic position and well-developed transportation links gave it useful market access. And, while Michigan has unquestionably declined in economic terms, one had a sense that a bottom had been reached. The state still had a well-educated population that would now be willing to work for lower salaries than in the past. The state government was willing to provide "entrepreneurs" seed money and other financial incentives to locate in Michigan and especially Detroit.

This set the stage for Detroit to consider welcoming cultural pioneers to selected neighborhoods. The civic gambit is a simple formula invoked with almost ritualistic belief. In essence, the notion is to encourage those involved in the arts, software development, and satellite industries such as fashion, to move into distressed neighborhoods. They would form the vanguard of neighborhood transformation. Once they secure an area, presumably restaurants and other middle-class attractions would join the fun. If the formula holds (I have experienced this in New York), land values and rents increase, more prosperous people move in, and a "recovery" is duly celebrated.

With that history in mind, I read a recent, prominently played New York Times piece on Detroit's efforts with more than casual interest. The paper was pretty shameless about its positioning of the piece. It ended up in the "Fashion & Style" section. The article clearly took dead aim at the 21-35-year-old readership for which the Times lusts. The writer made the stakes clear: Detroit was after the "young, the entrepreneurial, and the hip." (So is the Times.) A caption in the lead photograph asserted "An influx of young creative types in turning Detroit into a Midwestern TriBeCa." The caption had almost no connection to what was in the photograph, except for one essential element: both subjects in the photo were young Caucasian men. There they were: the "new" Detroit.

The article made quite deliberate reference to other "cultural" cities, such as Seattle and 21st Century Berlin. The story implied Detroit would follow a similar path to cultural glory as did rainy Seattle and the German capital. Whether Detroit would succeed is another matter. I hope it does, but I don't trust naked civic boosterism from a nationally important media platform.

One indirect benefit of the Times story is that it raised my interest in the African-American singer Monica Blaire. (She is quoted in the Times article.) I explored her music and enjoyed much,though not all, of what I heard. Her music has a contemporary, soulful sound, and I like that. Ironically, Blaire's musical style connects her to Detroit's African-American musical heritage, something the "young, the entrepreneurial, and the hip" (to quote the Times piece) have little organic relation to.

The photo (top) is titled Downtown Detroit. Image credit: Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, from the "Ruins of Detroit" 2010 exhibits and book of the same title.

Miami's "Sketchy Party"

Two Miami bloggers recently promoted an event with the tongue-in-cheek goal of creating a sketch of every Miami resident. Approximately 400 people attended the project, called "Sketchy Miami." That's a lot of drawings for one night. The brief blog entry appears in today's Miami Herald, and the story includes a link to BeachedMiami.com, which initiated the event. The link includes sketches, but not necessarily only those related to "Sketchy Miami."

I liked what I inferred about the event's playful spirit and everyday sensibility. It didn't try to create art with a capital "A." The project drew people (no pun intended) to local, little-known artists and created a "way in" to grasp how art is made. That the sketch is a simple, somewhat primitive piece does not necessarily mitigate the understanding and appreciation of its creation.

Another point in the event's favor is its avoidance of official imprimatur. This spirit is in keeping with how America's singular art forms -- movies and jazz -- were spawned entirely outside respectable, established cultural institutions. I hope more events connected to this promotional style emerge in other areas. They're a sorely needed breath of fresh air.

"Soul Train" Arrives at Smithsonian

The TV show Soul Train, a platform for popular music performers for decades, will contribute artifacts from the program to the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture. The donations were featured in a June 30th celebratory event on the museum grounds. (One of them, an "applause" sign, is a curious choice for an exhibit extolling the skills, drive, and chutzpah of the show's staff and guest talent.) The Washington Post covered the story. The article is fun to read, and I'll let the characters in the Post article speak for themselves.

There are a number of Soul Train segments available on YouTube. Here are three I enjoy:

1. Michael Jackson with The Jackson 5 singing "I Want You Back."

2. Marvin Gaye lip-synching "Let's Get It On". The Q&A preceding his song includes a moving reference to Tammi Terrell.

3. Soul Train Line Dance to Curtis Mayfield's "Get Down".

The image shows a Soul Train dance segment.

Projected Warmer Weather Trends Threaten California Vineyards

A recently released Stanford University study asserts that higher temperatures associated with global warming trends could negatively impact "high value" California vineyards. According to an LA Times story about the research, the hotter weather could cut approximately one-half of current wine production. The areas most likely to be affected would be Napa and Santa Barbara counties.

If the projected temperatures become an everyday fact, then the wine most severely challenged would most likely be Pinot Noir. This particular variety of grape is notoriously finicky about climate and soil. It typically grows best in cooler regions, with Burgundy being the paradigm. It's challenging for Napa wine producers to manage conditions for optimal Pinot Noir growth. A temperature increase would raise the odds of Pinot Noir wines being successfully cultivated in that region.

The hotter weather would also impact flagship Cabernet Sauvignon vintners that shape Napa's reputation for quality.

All this doom and gloom doesn't mean wine can't be produced in Napa or Santa Barbara. On the contrary. Wine does grow in hot weather climates, with Sicily, Spain, and Portugal being three prime examples. They do demonstrate a different character than their Burgundian competition. Reds from the Mediterranean's warmest regions are typically heavier and stronger than Pinot Noir. However, the financially daunting implications for vineyards would certainly cast a shadow over Napa's and Santa Barbara's wine business. New vines would have to be planted and nurtured over a number of years. Wines would require appropriate branding and acceptance from consumers. Some high-end vineyards would not be able to continue producing limited runs for an exclusive clientele.

I suppose the moral of the story is "get it while you can."