Another bully story

has been added to the Memoir Class 2009 page. Take a look.

Silver Streakers is alive and well

I have encouraged people in Walt Peterson’s memoir writing class, some of whom wrote wonderful stories, to send them to me for posting on the blog. We were given two assignments, although we were free to write about anything we wished. The first assignment was to write about someone who bullied us; the second about someone who influenced our lives. The fitst submission, about a bully, appears on the new page I’ve created above. I’m expecting lots of submissions, including something from Walt, so check back often.

Blog class #2

Three of my students didn’t show up. I knew about one of them but was disappointed about the other two. They seemed so enthusiastic last week.

I began the class talking about copyright. At least one, and probably several, of my students had no clue. Since I really wanted to talk about image optimization and Picasa during this class I spoke only about violating someone else’s copyright and promised a full explanation about protecting their own work and using links next week. I told them posting someone else’s work on their sites was stealing and I used Napster as an example. Most of them knew something about Napster. I got a few good questions about appropriating stuff, so I’m hoping I got the message across. No one suggested they would do it and probably not get caught. With the use of Google Alerts, I think it will be very easy to catch illegal appropriations. One thing that amazed me: the person whose query originally provoked my thinking about the matter, never bothered to look at the entire presentation she wanted to put on her website; never noticed the copyright statement at the end. That’s an even bigger no-no in my book: I want to know exactly what goes on my blog.

We are using wonderful computers at the University, but they don’t have Picasa on them, and I didn’t think I should download it, even if I were able to do it. I sent simple instructions for downloading, hoping they would all try it before the class. One person tried and failed to download. I have no clue about what happened.

Picasa Download instructions

Open a browser. Go to Google. Click on more and even more in the dropdown menu.

On the next page, click on Picasa.

Click on “Download Picasa.”

An icon “Picasa Setup” will appear on your desktop. Double click on it to install Picasa. You will be asked if you want Picasa to find all of the pictures on your computer. Picasa does not move your pictures; it points to where pictures are saved and creates thumbnails.

I gave a demonstration about using Picasa, both as an image editing tool and for exporting to the web. Then I showed them how to upload photos to their blogs with great success.

Picture this

I’ve been going over the posts on my Japan and China blog for inclusion in an artist book made from the blog, and adding photos in places where I couldn’t post them from China, a whole different subject. I intend to make insertion of images the topic of my second week of teaching. We will all have blogs by then, and I will encourage my students to bring photos to class. I am not happy about the way WordPress is handling photos and am rethinking my use of WordPress for the class. My other choice would be Blogger. I will begin another blog, using Blogger, with some of my garden photos from Japan. I hope I will then feel comfortable about using it.

I intend to cover scanning, screen captures and the use of Picasa and iPhoto during this class. I will briefly touch on the use of cell phone pictures, but this is an area where I am definitely not up to speed. My cell phone only makes phone calls. I have a camera for photos, although I’ve begun to see some virtue in using a cell phone. (Next contract.) That gets me to another issue: pixels per inch. When I worked in publishing this was an important consideration. I don’t think it’s too important in blogging, but I haven’t been able to find out whether blogging software automatically downsizes ppi, or whether having a high ppi will slow down how quickly the images appear on the receiving computer.

I’m using this blog to think out loud, so to speak. At some point I’ll post an outline for the class–after I do all this thinking.

You need a name, or two.

My class description in the Osher catalog includes an instruction to come to the first class with a name for your blog and be prepared to write. When you sign up for a new blog they tell you to select a name that will be descriptive of your content; not something like “My Blog.” The name of your blog should tell something about you, and I think it should be distinctive, preferably unique. I googled the name of my first blog, “fat-old-artist” with quotation marks around the name, and found nothing else using that phrase. I thought I was being funny, but found out the name had a dark side. I neglected to google the words separately, or I would have found out there are a large number of sites that come up, many of them concerned with p*o*r*n*o*g*raphy. Given our obsessions with thin and young this came as a big surprise. By the way, the asterisks are to keep search engines from finding the word, I hope. The spam gets annoying and a little scary.

I changed the name of the blog to Studio Ruthe, which actually solved the problem, but fat-old-artist remains in the URL, the address of the blog. This brings up the second name–the one that appears as part of your URL. From my not so happy experience I recommend that this should not be the same as the blog name. There is actually a third possible name–the domain name that I will not discuss unless one of my students raises the question; I think it can only add another layer of confusion.

One of my favorite pairs of names was created by my artist friend Sandy Blanc. She calls her blog “Color Me Blanc” and her URL is http://sandrab1.wordpress.com/. She got off to a great start with a page of collage techniques and several good posts; I wish she would add to it more often.

I think every elder should have a blog. I see it as a way to fight the cloak of invisibility that envelops us as we age. It is a testament to our enduring curiosity, interests, opinions and activities. More to come.

Travel Writing from the Margins

Sometimes it’s sad to have a class end. I’ve been enjoying Joshua Schriftman’s, Travel Writing from the Margins so much; it’s easily been my most exciting class this term. With readings from James Baldwin to Andrew Lam, Joshua introduced us to another kind of travel writing. Most interesting has been our “text” book, Meeting Faith, by Faith Adiele, a memoir by this exciting woman who teaches at Pitt, about her experiences in Thailand, being ordained as a Buddhist nun and finding herself. Professor Faith came to our third class, answered our questions and let us understand how and why she wrote the book. Fascinating!

Last week, for our fourth session, we discussed readings by Salman Rushdie, Edward Said and Andrew Lam, each one about returning, or not being able to return home. Rushdie and Lam found both bad and good, sadness and pleasure. Edward Said found only bitterness.

Today, for our last session, we each gave a presentation about an unusual travel writer or travel writing topic. John Sayre told us about a non-fiction piece, The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the true story of a sailor who was rescued after ten days on a raft without food or water. John, who is fluent in Spanish, recommended we read it in the original Spanish; he did not wholly approve of the translation. Sorry I can’t do that, but you certainly piqued my interest, John.

Eileen Hastings briefly spoke about Blue Highways: A Journey into America, by William Least Heat Moon, a native American, then told us at length about The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa by Josh Swiller, who wrote about his experiences in the Peace Corps in Zambia. I look forward to reading that book since I’m interested in both the Peace Corps and problems of deafness.

Betty Havryluk wrote a charming piece about American fascination with houses, especially houses in other countries. Briefly mentioning the well-known foreign house fixer-upper writers Peter Mayle and Frances Mayes, she went on to tell us about several others who haven’t made the big time best seller lists but have written some interesting books: Phil Doran, Ann Barry, Daphne Phelps, and several others. Thanks, Betty.

Mary Alice Drusbasky told us about traveling in Mongolia with Julia Roberts, and Diana, whose last name I don’t know, told us about travel writing by and for gay travelers. She recommended Gay Travels in the Muslim World by Michael Luong, another book I’d like to read.

Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham was Marilyn Asimow’s book choice, similar to Andrew Lam, but definitely another view of life after escaping from Viet Nam. I gave a presentation about Emily Carr. You can find out more about her at my blog, here.

Ruthe Karlin

Blogging 101

That’s John Carman, the instructor of my Osher class, Blogging 101. I first met him at an event called Bootcamp Pgh* back in April of last year, downtown at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. John happened to be teaching a class there on–you guessed it–blogging fundamentals, for newbies like me.

Bottom line–sometime afterward, he agreed to teach the blogging course. Anyway, our homework assignment for Wednesday’s class is to post an entry to an instructional blog he created, aptly titled Blogging 101.

Here’s what I wrote:

I like to think there’s a certain synergy in writing the same thing in two different blogs. Others might disagree strongly, citing self aggrandizement or the doubly boring nature of the topic. Whatever.

len z

* Bootcamp Pgh Article

Deep Inside Pittsburgh Jazz

Harrison Hip Boppin’ at the Crawford Grill

Early on in his “Pittsburgh’s Jazz Legacy” class, instructor Dr. Nelson Harrison floated this question: “How many of you discovered jazz later in your life?” A few hands went up. Some wag called out, “Define ‘later’,” to general laughter. Harrison said, “I mean, not as a child.” Someone else said, “Ohhh.” All the hands went up. More laughter. Harrison said, “Alright, I’m going to ask you this question–how did you discover it?” One person said, “On the radio”. Another said, “At a bar.” More laughter. A third said, “I had some fraternity brothers who turned me on to it.”

Harrison paused a beat. He said, “I was born into jazz…that must’ve been how I discovered it. In Homewood, where I grew up, it was everywhere…it was ubiquitous. The music poured out of the doorways of homes; it seemed that every home had a piano. I’ve been playing professional music since I was thirteen years old, and I never went to music school. I went to the legendary Westinghouse High School, which has produced jazz greats like Errol Garner, Ahmad Jamal. They were my predecessors. Seeing that kind of excellence, that’s all I wanted to do. I couldn’t imagine being that good, but if I could only capture a bit of that excellence, it would be worth a whole lifetime of trying.” Point made.

Harrison has been a player in the Pittsburgh jazz scene since the late 50’s, when he began doing gigs at the renowned jazz club, Crawford Grill no.2 in the Hill District. Since then, this multi-tasking composer, arranger and soloist has played with Kenny Clarke, Billy Eckstine and Earl “Fatha” Hines, Jay McShann, Slide Hampton, and with the Count Basie Orchestra (1978-81). He has recorded with Walt Harper, Nathan Davis and Count Basie, and was co-leader of jazz groups featuring singer Andy Bey and drummer Joe Harris.

Harrison’s topics ranged far and wide in this, his first class–some jazz musical theory; the almost unbridgeable difference between classically trained and jazz musicians; the striking similarity between learning to play jazz and learning a martial art; the role of ethnicity and culture in jazz; the troubling story of conflict between the Pittsburgh white and black musicians unions–and lots more.

There is eloquent imagery in his description of what it means to play jazz: “In jazz, you risk your life on every note you play. You play the wrong note, you got to fix it. You got to fix it forward–you can’t fix it backwards. And you have to communicate. You have to make that note say everything that you want it to say. You have to know what everybody else in the band knows, and what they’re supposed to be doing, too, and that’s not what they were supposed to be doing yesterday. It’s what they’re supposed to be doing in the moment. That’s a heck of a challenge. It has a direct effect on the audience, and on the players.” Make no mistake: Harrison is an articulate communicator on the jazz life that is at the very core of his being.

In upcoming classes we’ll be listening to and discussing jazz created by the Pittsburgh masters, and, we hope, hearing more of Dr. Harrison’s riveting anecdotes about his experiences as witness to some of the seminal events in the city’s jazz history.

Len Z

Spring is coming!

Fall sessions are finished, November has only one day remaining and new catalogs for Spring 2008 are available and should be in your mailbox momentarily. There are lots of great classes beginning February 4, and a January mini-session, in case, like me, you can’t wait. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Pittsburgh, there will be lots of offerings about the city. Note that we are being offered a blogging course, Blogging 101. Since I already have 2 active blogs I won’t be taking the class, but I hope it will be filled with people who want to start their own. I’m starting a movement to have older people take over the blogosphere. It’s a great way to communicate with friends and relatives, and to make new friends all over the world. That’s me, in Japan at the Izumo Shrine last month.

Ruthe K.

Crime Course Ends with a Bark, Not a Whimper

Officer Pagane and Angel
The talents of the Baldwin Borough Police Department’s K-9 team, Officer Bob Pagane and Angel, were on display at the final “Close Look at Crime” class, co-taught by ex-Police Officers Dave Shifren and Ron Freeman.
Shifren and Freeman
Pagane, a friend of Shifren’s, described and demonstrated for the class the well-honed skills of his K-9 police dog, Angel*. Angel is a Belgian Malinois (Mal-in-wha), bred in Holland specifically for police work. The Mal is basically a smaller version of the German Shepherd, though with advantages over the breed which has been synonymous with the term, “police dog.” Because of its compact size, the Mal performs better in tight spaces, such as automobile trunks (where they may sniff for hidden drugs); its reduced size translates into longer service life because it is less prone to Hip Displasia, a disease common in larger dogs. And, importantly, a Mal’s “through the roof” energy level makes it virtually tireless. “I often work a twelve hour shift,” Officer Pagane says. “Angel will sit in the squad car, continuously scanning the scene outside the car windows–no lying down, no distractions–during the entire shift. She’s on duty until I tell her otherwise.”

“There are several reasons why I chose this dog,” Pagane states. “First and foremost are her social skills. Anybody can pet this dog. She’s not going to bite you…unless I tell her to.” Angel proved her handler’s claim by sitting patiently as students rubbed her head. “Another reason is, her tremendous drive–her desire to fetch her toy, a tennis ball. We call it ‘ball drive’. She will track human scent for 60 yards–or a mile and a half–hoping that, at the end, as a reward, she’ll get to chase her tennis ball (thrown by her handler). Third is a personal reason. She gets along fine with my other dog, a male Shepherd, and with my two cats.”

The questions came fast and furious, from the thoughtful to the playful. Question: “How can I get my dog to stop barking at the mailman?” Answer: “When dogs bark they are in effect saying, ‘Stay away–this is my master’s house.’ So when the dog barks at the mailman and the mailman leaves, the dog thinks, ‘Wow, this works.’ But if you get him to stop barking at the mailman, he won’t bark at the burglar.”

When Pagane mentioned that he has to take Angel with him when he goes on vacation, my wife offered to board her at our house. Great idea, I thought. Angel probably needs a change of pace, too. Our three pound dog, Cookie, could put her wise on how to have fun, relax, and let the humans know who the leader of the pack really is, without having to chase after a silly tennis ball.

Cookie

Len Z

See Officer Pagane and Angel article in Tribune-Review: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/southwest/s_514526.html