September is the beginning of the art season in both the US and Europe. Last night I went to the major gallery openings in Miami Design District. It was an adventure. I took the new digital camera to take some pics for the web site. My photo editor was there too. He’s been using the same model camera but, he’s got it figured out and takes much better digital pics than me. There are so many settings it’s crazy matching them with what you want to do. Anyway, some images are posted (mine). He took many more and will get them to me in a couple of days after he sorts, adjusts, and resizes them.
Changes
LJ has changed, giving us some different options and making it easier to make selections. How ya like me now?
Busy…
Well, my second week of teaching has been crazy. The Univ. has an add/drop policy for 2 weeks that seems silly to me. I’ve had at least 2 students per class per session either drop or add in my 3 courses. It’s insane trying to remember students names in that situation. Things should settle down now.
All these students that have added late all have to try and catch up. I have probably been too generous with my time and working with a few on an individual basis to get them up to speed. Since it’s a photo course, going thru the assignment, developing film and making a contact print is time consuming. But, I feel it’s okay so far.
I have several students from previous courses this semester. That’s an honor that they wanted to have a class with me again when I’ve gotten teacher evaluations on the community college level that used curse words to describe my teaching abilities (in relationship to their learning). Having the support of other professors is a big help though.
It looks to be another rainy weekend however, I do plan to take some pics at a couple of the gallery openings in different parts of town. MAeX has had some server problems (from my and several viewers perspectives). I’ve had some onging dialogue with my new hosting company about correcting them which they seem to have done. At any rate, the move to a new host has caused my old calendar to need perl, cgi work, which I don’t know. I’ve purchased software for a new calendar and once I secure a person to install it, the calendar duties will go back to the volunteers. I’ve had galleries that have NEVER had listings requesting to be listed now. The site has “blown up” is Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and soon in W. Palm Beach, like crazy. I’m still amazed at how important a resource my site has become in Miami. It’s an awful lot of work for one person too! But, sponsorships generating a bit of income eases some of the burden. Now, if I can get that calendar install and pass some duties along…
And you thought we were humans…?
“The headline…is not a metaphor. This story is about slaves. Not people living like slaves, working hard for lousy pay. Not people 200 years ago. It’s about 27 million people worldwide who are bought and sold, held captive, brutalized, exploited for profit.”
Written by Andrew Cockburn, with photos by Jodi Cobb, “21st Century Slaves,” appears in the September issue of National Geographic. It will blow your mind and break your heart. An excerpt is available online.