Building A Better Mouse Trap, German Style

When we were in Vienna, I was listening to my podcasts of, "This American Life" (TAL). It's one of my favorite shows. It's both funny and full of crazy, interesting information. You know, the stuff that makes the you ponder the world and everyone in it. I couldn't believe what I heard that night listening to a segment called, "Building a Better Mouse Trap".

The host, Ira Glass, talks with Andy Woolworth, an executive vice president in charge of new product development at the world's largest manufacturer of mousetraps, Woodstream Corporation, in Lititz, Pennsylvania. About once a month, Andy is contacted by someone who thinks he's invented a better mousetrap. He and Ira review some of the ideas that seemed particularly bad. The one that caught my attention is especially bizarre. I clipped it out of the program - this is an MP3 of it (1.2MB give it a minute to download into your browser). Get your head around that one!

Let The Video Podcasting Begin!

"I can't be everywhere, all the time! Or, can I?"

I'm going to immerse myself into online education. Not as a student, but as a teacher. I have this (brilliant?) idea to teach Wet Plate Collodion via video podcasts. And it's not only to educate, but to also build community.

I've fallen big-time for audio podcasts over the last few years. I have a whole heap of them that I listen to almost daily. Ira Glass, "This American Life", Joe Frank's radio show, Bill Moyers, Bill Maher's HBO piece, NPR bits and pieces, etc. I'm amazed at the amount of information we take in. Sometimes, I think my head is going to explode. There's never a dull moment in the 21st century, is there? Remind me to tell you about the Ira Glass story about building a better mouse trap - OMG! You'll freak!! I digress.

My theory is that if we use this technology the right way, everyone wins. Not to get off into politics, but look at the presidential election. It was all about Barack's presence online and especially the email campaigns his staff organized and executed. I for one, am very happy they could reach so many and that so many responded, as I said in a previous post, we have a chance! I digress, again.

I'm home for a while now and will be finishing up my new book and completing the video workshop series on Wet Plate Collodion. I'm being quite anal about the text and information in these publications. I'm trying real hard to listen to what people want to learn and write about it in an articulate, "easy" way. The last book (2006) was "sky-blue" stuff... nothing to go off of but instinct and my own experience, it was just the basics. This time, I have a lot to say about the history of the process as it applies to my work and, moreover, all kinds of new, modern gadgets and tricks to use in the process to make it easier. I'm psyched about it.

On January 1, 2009 (or a few days before), I'm going to allow access to a large amount of video data on the Wet Plate Collodion process. This will be the very first complete workshop online. It will be a series of "on demand" videos broken down into chapters. Subscribers will be able to view them anytime they login, jump to any part and watch them as much as they want. It's going to be uber cool!

It's about time, really. I get at least 4 -5 emails a week, sometimes more, asking about resources to learn the process. I hope to accomplish several things by doing this. One of the big ones is to quickly and easily point people to a high-quality, cost effective way to learn the process. This will be so sweet.

There are a few places in the United States where you can learn the process, but more and more, people are using the web to gather information and communicate about it. There are a lot of people that learn it on their own now. This is in large part due to the massive amount of information online now. My Wet Plate Collodion forum board has over 500 members and almost 15,000 posts. It's posted to daily. My point is that it's about time I do this. I know that it will be successful and fulfill a huge need out there. Not to mention, it will be fun as hell to do.

So, if you are interested in learning the Wet Plate Collodion photographic process and have $99 bucks, on January 1, 2009 go to The Contemporary Wet Plate Collodion School and signup! Within a couple of minutes you'll be watching videos and learning the process! See you in class!

German Lawmakers & Anti-Semitism

I ran across this piece today. These are the kinds of questions and the issues I wonder about. I would answer the question asked at the end by saying, come and live here for a while, you'll know.

"Two weeks ago was the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. German society, now expert at such commemorations, gestured in all the appropriate ways. Angela Merkel visited the newly renovated Rykestrasse synagogue. Mozart’s Requiem was performed at the Gendarmenmarkt. All the newspapers featured reviews of a new exhibit about the burning and pillaging that augured worse to come. The public centerpiece of all this memorializing was to be a standard resolution, a statement of concern, really—unanimously supported by all the members of the Bundestag—decrying anti-Semitism and calling for renewed vigilance. It almost didn’t happen. When a vote finally took place on November 5, it was only after the ruling coalition of Christian and Social Democrats and the extreme left party had engaged in a brutal round of accusatory historical regurgitation. Der Spiegel said everyone concerned in the episode “should be red in the face with shame.” In the end, to avoid what would have been a full-blown fiasco, two separate statements for the dueling factions were produced and passed.

Why did this no-brainer of a resolution create such problems for German lawmakers?"

By Gal Beckerman

A Week In Glasgow & Edinburgh, Scotland

The Jacobsons in Edinburgh! After spending a few days in Glasgow and Edinburgh, it makes me long to live a creative, free life. Not bound by conventional standards that include the "9 to 5 grind" and all of the meaningless motions that we go through everyday for money. It's not that Glasgow or Edinburgh brought this out in me, they just made me very present to the fact that there is life beyond the monotony most people live, day in and day out.

Glasgow is a beautiful city. It's our second time here. However, it was our first visit to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. There is a big difference between the two cities. Edinburgh draws a lot more tourists. Glasgow, not so much. While Edinburgh is worth a visit, we prefer Glasgow. We are not, and I repeat, not, fans of doing the "touristy" things. They are actually embarrassing to me. I know that sounds elitist, but that's how I feel. They are gross money traps that have very little or no cultural or human value. We avoid them like the plague. However, we found ourselves walking the "Royal Mile" yesterday, all the way to the castle. Every other store was full of plaid and kilts. Cheap, touristy plaid and kilts. It was gross. It reminded me people getting suckered into a "shell game" in a big city, only worse, they don't even have the illusion of winning anything, just dumping their quid.

The castle in Edinburgh Our visit was three-fold. First, we wanted a family holiday (vacation). It had been a while since we had a day or two to hang out and explore.

Secondly, we visited the "uni" or university with Summer. She wants to try to go to University of Glasgow. It's a beautiful campus/school. It's 550 years-old! It's amazing to walk on the campus and see all of the old buildings and grounds. Amazing. We were able to meet with an advisor and ask questions and get information about it. It went very well. The people in the UK, and all over Europe for that matter, are very lucky, they pay very little for higher education, if anything at all. We are looking at £9,400 per year, do the math.

And last, but not least, I was invited as a guest speaker/demonstrator by our friend, and fellow wet plate aficionado, Carl Radford. Carl is a great bloke! He and his wife, Liz (see earlier blog, May 2008) hosted the event. Carl invited several wet plate artists from all over the UK to attend this two-day get together. There were eight of us, talking, pouring plates, drinking tea and simply enjoying one another's company.  Jeanne, Summer and I were able to meet some great people on this trip. John Brewer from Manchester, Jo Gain from Coventry (or near there), Katie from Edinburgh, Claire from Wales, Chavonne (sp?) and Craig from Edinburgh or Glasgow, I can't remember.

The book store To say we got a lot out of this trip is an understatement. It was both productive and very, very enjoyable. The wet plate Collodion gathering was terrific. We also enjoyed the galleries and bookstores both in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We went to the GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) with John and Jo in Glasgow. We met at a little place called, "The Social" and had an espresso. We just missed a Jo Spence show at the GOMA and wanted to see some photography. We ended up wandering into a place called, "Street Level Photography". They had a nice show of emerging artists/photographers there. There was some literature on the table and I found a card for a camera shop nearby. After the gallery, we walked to the camera store and started asking about old lenses. The owners said, "give us an hour and come back, we have some in the basement". So we went next door for some soup and a sandwich (and more espresso of course). An hour later, we went back and both John and Jo scored some nice wet plate lenses for a great deal. It was really cool.

Carl told us about a bookstore in Edinburgh called, "Beyond Words", nothing but photography books. It's small, but very much worth a visit. I saw some classic books as well as some new and interesting ones. I was thinking, "Mine should be in here... a taste of the wet plate world!" There was a little Phaidon book about Joel-Peter Witkin I almost picked up, but didn't. I will probably regret it.

Summer enjoying "Trainspotting" Summer picked up Irvine Welsh's book, "Trainspotting" (yes, like the movie - brilliant). She's almost finished it. A lot of it is in Scottish too! Here's an example, "Way tae fuck ya radge, ah say, shakin ma heid." Very difficult to read, huh?! And, yes, every other word in Scottish is the f-bomb. It's an adjective/modifier here.

I can't express how wonderful it is to walk into a bookstore and see all of the books in English, a language I'm (semi) fluent in! Brilliant!! We spent a lot of time doing things that we miss or don't have access to in Germany. Most people would think we're crazy, but we enjoy it.

This is our last trip for a wee bit.

Jewish Cemetery Vandalised With Pig's Head & Blood

Gotha, Germany Jewish Cemetery
Pictures of a shocking Nazi hate attack on a Jewish cemetery in the town of Gotha have horrified Germany.

A bloody pig’s head was found stuck to the middle of a Star of David on the graveyard gate at 5.30am yesterday. A sheet next to it, smeared with blood, held a chilling message: "6 million lies".

Nazism and hatred toward Jews (and people that are "different") is alive and well here in Germany. For those that think otherwise, you are completely misinformed. As this Bild article says, there were over 17,000 of these kinds of crimes committed last year here, 18 involving cemeteries. To desecrate cemeteries and disrespect the dead like this, speaks volumes to me. In a way, I feel sorry for these uneducated, misinformed souls. I would relish the opportunity to teach them about the history of the Jewish people - that would be wonderful.  

These kinds of things motivate me to "turn up the volume" on my project. I want to read about people that are trying show the truth and create discourse to help people learn the truth. The other side doesn't seem to get fair play on this topic. We'll see if we can change that.

This is a link to the Bild article (in English). Thank you Caron.
Credit: By OLIVER LÖHR and JAN MEYER

It just never stops....

Former E. German Synagogue Defaced
November 19, 2008

BERLIN (JTA) -- A newly renovated synagogue in the former East Germany was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, police reported.

It was the third act of vandalism against a Jewish site reported in the former East Germany in the last  two days.

According to reports, perpetrators painted anti-Semitic statements and illegal symbols in yellow on the front door of a synagogue in Goerlitz covering more than a square yard. The vandalism was discovered Monday.

Reached in Vienna, Alex Jacobowitz, the chairman of Goerlitz’s small Jewish community, said he would comment after seeing the police report.

The synagogue in Goerlitz, originally dedicated in 1909, was the only synagogue in the state of Saxony to survive the Kristallnacht pogrom of 70 years ago. It was reopened to the public following extensive renovations on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nov. 9.

Also Monday, two Jewish cemeteries in the former East German state of Thuringia were found defaced with red paint. In one case, the bloody head of a pig was hung on the cemetery’s iron gates. Police reportedly were able to retrieve evidence at the cemeteries in Gotha and Erfurt.