unbillable hours

BLDGBLOG: The Visionary State: An Interview with Erik Davis

BLDGBlog, a blog focused on design and architecture, has a good interview with Erik Davis, the writer who, along with photographer Michael Rauner, captured many of the spiritual or mystic places in California.  I've been tempted by the book in the past, just because of the photos of the area surrounding the Salton Sea, but this goes a long way to justify that temptation. 

Link: BLDGBLOG: The Visionary State: An Interview with Erik Davis.

Objective - Justice: Why you should hire a lawyer

Link: Objective - Justice: Why you should hire a lawyer.

What, we're not supposed write notices of appeal like that?  I usually end with "And you better recognize that your ass is mine,"  but if that's coming on too strong....

Picture Envy for August 10, 2006

Three rather gray shots today. 

• Groundglass, Grid;
• The Streets are Alive, Sunset Blvd. (which gets quite a neat effect from cross-processing; it reminds me of an antique postcard.); and,
• Worksongs, Concrete.

Boing Boing: British aviation bans all hand-luggage

After all, terrorist plots will always exist in potentia (can you prove that no terrorist plots are hatching at this moment?) Until they handcuff us all nude to our seats and dart us with tranquilizers, there will always be the possibility that a passenger will do something naughty on a plane (even then, who knows how much semtex and roofing nails a bad guy could hide in his colon?).

Link: Boing Boing: British aviation bans all hand-luggage.

How do you know you have the cart before the horse?  When your greatest concern after what appears to be a major terrorism-related incident is whether you will be able to bring your damn iPod on board a plane. 

I've been holding off on mention of this, as I want to do a longer essay on writer Vernor Vinge, but I wonder if this is the time for the development of his "security hobbyist" groups.  Perhaps general citizens could do something useful in these times. 

Gateway Pundit: The NY Times Hezbollah Photo Dust Up

Link: Gateway Pundit: The NY Times Hezbollah Photo Dust Up.

Seems like the NY Times is involved in a staged photo controversy. 

A dirge for New Orleans

I stop the car and silence the engine struck for an instant by the deathly silence the motor was hiding but then I hear the light and little sounds of a trumpet coming from the glint in the trees, from a wildlooking park across the street. Sticking my head out the window the music is louder and I can see a lone man standing next to a beat up pickup truck, the only living thing for miles - this was accentuated by the stiff legs out dog carcass on the road ahead of me - and he was standing there looking out into the neighborhood playing the sweetest gentlest version of "When The Saints Go Marching In" I have ever heard to the stoic faces of empty gaping houses.

roamin' and ruminatin', untitled (Aug. 4, 2006), via Ernie the Attorney.

A powerful essay on the debris of New Orleans. 

I wonder if New Orleans should be like Pompeii or Herculaneum. 

Deposition Practice

Evan Schaeffer has post entitled In Depositions, Beware the "Usual Stipulations" that links to Ernest Svenson's post on deposition tips for young lawyers.  Both links have some great ideas for depositions.  In fact, the only tip I'd add is that the two most important words, for me, in depositions, are "Anything else?"

As in,

Q.  Can you tell me what happened on [the date of the incident]?

Witness.  Well, it was dark out, and Ms. Doe came in to buy a soda from me, and we talked about her baby, and then it was pretty much quiet until the accident.

Q.  Anything else?

Witness.  Um, well... let's see.  There was that fellow that came in just before the victim, but he didn't say much. 

In other words, let the witness give you the information.  Don't fight them by asking limited, yes-or-no questions unless you really need to do so. 

Picture Envy for August 8, 2006

• That... was my foot, Spaces Inbetween.
• gotreadgo, Shiner.  I could do without the pro-vegetarian stuff below, but I love the colors in this shot. 
• idogu, Gotham City, via Gothamist

It's a day of moody, atmospheric photos. 

For those angry at art

So the modern art keeps pissing people off, and they've hired people to pass as ordinary museum-goers and try to manage the mood. I'm slightly offended by this ruse, but also charmed that there is a job like this, which I think would be a really nice day job for a struggling artist or actor.

Over on Instapundit, Ann Althouse is shocked - shocked, I say! - that the Guggenheim hires people to explain contemporary art to visitors. I believe the term for these cunning folks is "doyen," and they're just about everywhere I go in the Guggenheim, doing, well, what one expects: explaining what the art means. This is no different than having a teacher along, informally speaking, on a class trip.

Naoshima: Japan's "Art Island" (Flickr Gallery)

A Flickr gallery of Naoshima, an island largely dedicated to contemporary art. 

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