Lee.org

Megan and I are back from the northlands of Minnesota feeling much refreshed! We’ll have pictures and stories soon!

Here is a hint… Our home for almost two weeks:

and click to view it in 3D wigglevision!

If you like machine performance, Kal’s shows are always cool. Join me?

https://www.facebook.com/events/517752421649461/

Industrial ROBOTICS art PERFORMANCE in San Francisco

Friday, August, 23, 2011
8:00PM until Midnight
1043 Marin St.,
S.F., Ca. 94124
cross street Illinois St.

General Admission: $10 or what u can pay…
Students and Seniors: $7

Live Audience Experiments with Machines and Robots

WITH! Dj Big Daddy, tip him!

YOU VOLUNTARILY ASSUME THE RISK OF SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH BY ATTENDING THIS PERFORMANCE!

Here is some discussion about my work: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/artists-on-artists-chris-johanson-on-the-apocalyptic-machines-of-kal-spelletich/?_r=1

and;
http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=4525

My dad has had his 1951 Packard 250 Convertible with Ultramatic transmission since 1986. It was an amazing luxury car then and it has only gotten more spectacular as the years pass by.

As times change, he is selling the car. The last few years, it has mostly sat in a garage waiting for him to come up to New Jersey, something he doesn’t do as often as he used to. So, here it goes, back into the universe. You can find the most beautiful car in the world for sale on Hemmings

The Hemmings listing reads like so:
1951 Packard 250 Convertible
Location: Hackettstown, New Jersey 07840
Mileage: 36000
Trans: Auto
Condition: Excellent
Exterior: Packard Cream (yellow)
Interior: Red
Description: Original 1951 Packard 250 Convertible

Solid car, Excellent condition, Packard Cream (pale yellow) with Red interior, All Power, Ultramatic, Boot and Tonnheau Cover, Radials
Second owner (purchased and restored in 1986)
Voted Most Beautiful Car of 1951
Price: $32,000

Melissa took this little Vine.co video of Dad driving the car in August 2013

We can be quite handy at the Crucible!

I’ve been teaching several classes in the last few weeks. Above is one project from a kid in my Radical Robots class. It works quite well for a prototype! And Thank you to  Peter Moore for the photo!

Other recent teaching:

• A very successful Workshop Weekend: Arduino. 7 teachers, 30 students, 1 intense weekend! See my bio.
• Flame Effects Intensive at the Crucible last weekend. 7 students: lots of propane!
• Arduino class at the Crucible. Ongoing for the next few Tuesdays. I asked if they wanted to go meticulously or burn their brains. From their slight deer-in-headlights expressions they are often wearing, sometimes I think they chose poorly ;-). They’re enjoying it and learning a lot though!
• Electromechanics for Everything at the Crucible
• Several rounds of Radical Robots at the Crucible

From WW:A in July 2013!

Groupme is a group-texting app for smartphones and dumbphones. I use it all the time to chat with Megan because it’s faster and more reliable than texting with my Virgin Mobile phone (ugh, I know).

I just sent a message to Groupme support with my biggest gripe:

Since the promise of Groupme is (from the homepage) “the best way to chat with everyone you know”… “works on every device”… It would be great if the emoji were similar on the 3 main platforms me and my friends use it on: iphone, android, website. It is frustrating when the emoji I send isn’t the emoji they receive.

Keep rockin

This video comes from a student of mine that was in my Flame Effects class last year. I’d say that was a win :-)

Firefly Dragon Bike by Justin Lebrun Works

I’m not directly involved with this but it looks very cool. https://workshopweekend.net/video/catalog July 20 & 21 in Oakland, they’ve got a gazillion experts gathered to teach video production. Pre-production, camera work, lighting, interviewing skills, post-production… the list is a freaking mile long. All jammed into your brain in one weekend!

Check it out! Go! Make a movie!

I’ve long cursed Ticketmaster for gouging customers with their service fees. They have exclusive contracts with almost every large performance venue in the US. Here is a good article that explains how this came to be.

This article written by Steve Knopper was in Rolling Stone Magazine July 2009 and was found on the author’s website. I’d summarize it by saying the business is complicated by it’s long history and it’s convoluted evolution.

RSTicketmaster2009

Oh shit. I just got this email from City College:

We have received the decision from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The Commission has decided to terminate City College of San Francisco s accreditation effective July 31, 2014, approximately one year from now…

I have come to appreciate City College tremendously. It’s a good place and fine place.

I hope the college survives this meat grinder!

Read this article by Nanette Asimon at SFGate for the full story.
This is an excellent accounting of a complex issue. Thank you Nanette. Find @NanetteAsimov on Twitter.

(local archive)

(07-03) 15:01 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Beset by mismanagement and unable to persuade overseers that it had repaired extensive problems, City College of San Francisco will lose its accreditation a year from now and its elected Board of Trustees will be stripped of decision-making powers, the college learned Wednesday.

The decision by an accrediting commission allows the college of 85,000 students – one of the largest in the nation – to stay open until at least July 31, 2014.

City College is expected to appeal the decision. State law prohibits taxpayer funds from going to unaccredited institutions, so if the commission’s decision stands, the college would likely be forced to shut its doors.

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges is expected to install a state-appointed special trustee as head of the community college. The trustee, Robert Agrella, has been advising City College during its yearlong struggle to remain accredited and in business.

“It’s shocking and outrageous, given the massive changes we’ve made,” said John Rizzo, president of the City College Board of Trustees. “We’ve reorganized every level of the management structure, in every department. We’ve cut pay. We’ve funded the reserve for nine years.

“This is really bad for San Francisco.”

The stunning verdict makes City College only the second public community college in California ever to lose its accreditation. The first, Compton College, had its accreditation revoked in 2006. It was then absorbed into a neighboring community college district.

Students who attend an unaccredited institution are ineligible to receive federal or state financial aid, and their diplomas often mean little to employers seeking skilled employees.

The accrediting commission is a private, nonprofit agency, and one of six regional accrediting bodies overseen by the U.S. Department of Education. The commission that accredits community colleges in California has 19 voting members, mostly college chancellors, faculty and education experts, and is supported by dues from member colleges.

The commission placed City College on the most severe sanction a year ago and warned that it could lose its stamp of approval.

It cited a broken system of governance and fiscal planning in which a skeletal crew of administrators and bickering employees failed to make necessary budget cuts, even as state funding dried up. Over the years, the college constructed sparkling buildings while neglecting such basic needs as computers and campus maintenance, the commission said.

The commission gave City College eight months to show why it should remain accredited, a deadline that expired in March. The commission then spent the spring deciding whether the college had made significant steps toward fixing its problems.

So for a long, nail-biting year, college faculty, staff, administrators and even students worked to attack and repair every deficiency.

Thousands of people depend on City College for a leg up into the middle class. The school produces hundreds of paramedics, phlebotomists, restaurant workers, nurses, firefighters, police and more each year that keep the Bay Area’s economy humming.

Hundreds of other students earn credits for transfer to university, often the only way they can afford to attend college. The college is also a essential location for immigrants to learn English and for senior citizens to find intellectual stimulation through music and art, memoir-writing and useful classes like nutrition education.

With City College nearly bankrupt last fall, college officials persuaded voters to approve a parcel tax for the school that, combined with tax money from Proposition 30, put the school back in the game.

But money alone wasn’t the college’s problem.

College officials likened their repair efforts to changing tires on a speeding car.

They unilaterally cut pay and entered into battle with angry faculty in a labor dispute that has yet to be resolved.

They reorganized the management structure in every department, also in opposition to department chairs, many of whom would be required to give up leadership duties and return to the classroom. The dispute with the chairs’ union settled this spring.

To fix the college’s tangled decision-making structure, college trustees dismantled a decades-long system of faculty leadership over the strong objections of employees.

They eliminated a multi-headed hydra of 46 committees that, instead of facilitating decisions, often served to obstruct and control them, and replaced it with a more streamlined approach to “shared decision-making,” more like the concept embraced by colleges and universities nationwide.

They pumped up their reserves and established a nine-year fiscal plan.

But in the end, it wasn’t enough.