Morgan Freeman is upset.

It has always seemed to me that black history month was a way to celebrate (or at least acknowledge) the achievements of an under-appreciated group.  But after listening to Morgan Freeman and how he so vehemently opposes even the idea of a black history month, I begin to wonder if this is maybe a more harmful designation than it was intended (thank goodness we have people like him to challenge these things publicly by the way, even if he almost gave Mike Wallace a heart attack).  It seems to me that his read on the label is that it is something of a cultural prison.  I mean, when he asks “which month is white history month” it becomes clear that “white history” is assumed to be relevant, legitimate, etc.  But blacks, because they are in some way “inferior” require legitimation by whites (and kinda everybody else) and thus the authentication of black history – we have to make black history “official.”  And the way we have chosen to do it is to give the topic a single month in the spotlight so we can all reflect on the achievements of blacks throughout history – which clearly EVERYONE does – and so that all the children in schools around the country can learn about what blacks have labored through, and what they have accomplished.  But doesn’t this really underscore the “otherness” of blacks?  I mean, we’re saying – hey, these people are trying really hard to be relevant here, so we whites are going to help them by giving them a month of “glory” and then after that it’s business as usual.  And I think for Morgan – and he is a very optimistic man by the way – that’s really the issue here.  He wants (and I think most of us would LOVE for this to happen *hopeless optimism*) for black history to be ”assumed” in the same way that it is for whites.  And we can make this same argument for any other marginalized culture, but doesn’t the fact remain that these cultures ARE marginalized, and probably will be for at least the foreseeable future?  I’ve been meaning to get around to Gramsci….  Any thoughts?

Unemployment

I’ve been unemployed for about 2 weeks now and no leads as of yet; however, I have taken the opportunity to start up a fun new blog I’ve been toying with.  Getting it all set up over on Squarespace, it should be ready soon.  I’ll be looking for writers so let me know if you like writing interesting things about the stuff you think about.  In the meantime, follow me on Twitter @ hnmhmn.

Making eating less expensive, more lazy

Lunds calls them “conventional bananas.”  This is of course the opposite of “organic bananas.”  Get it?  They currently sell for $0.75/pound, or $0.30 for just the peel without the actual banana part.  Look, I’m trying to save some money on groceries.  And yes, a good first step would be to stop shopping at Lunds.  Okay so the average American spends something like $61 per week on groceries.  I currently spend about $32.  I still feel like that’s too much.  So, the way I see it I have too options – don’t eat so much, or eat cheaper food.  According to the USDA, the average American eats exactly 4.7 pounds of food per day.  I’m a little smaller than the average American so I’ll just even that off to 4 pounds for myself.  So all I need are 28 pounds of bananas each week to survive.  That calculates out to $21.00 per week for food.  That’s a savings of $11.00!  That’s a 34% savings, all by eating the same thing every day in massive quantities!

Days of Seasons Passed

Six inches of snow,

and a two hour,

ten mile,

five mile per hour

commute

from the University at 1:30 PM.

Just one day after I post about hanging up the old winter coat no less.  It’s too late to back out now.  The doors have closed and winter has set in again.

The Seduction of Spring

It’s been warming up around here lately; right now it’s something like 36 outside (it’ll probably hit 40).  I have a brand new coat that is a bit heavier than say – a “spring coat” – but definitely lighter than a winter coat.  I guess it’s a fall coat, but around here there really is no distinction between spring and fall as far as temperature is concerned.  My question is I suppose twofold – when is it okay to hang up the winter coat, and if I do hang up the winter coat, is it okay to do so momentarily, knowing full well that I will have to start wearing it again a few days later?   Yes it’s warm, and I’m fine if I wear my winter coat in this balmy 40 degree weather, but I feel like I look foolish in the midst of my colleagues who have done away with winter wear for the time being, and donned hooded sweatshirts and blazers.  Of course there are people wearing shorts and sandals today, and obviously that is on a whole different side of “foolish,” so I want to fall somewhere in between, but still land in a “safe” place.  All the same, I feel like if I take that step forward to Spring, that step out of the cold, that I am doing so in bad faith.

Time Capsule: Unseen 2008 Artwork

Found a couple of my pieces that I haven’t yet posted, so do enjoy.

“Roots” (2008 Marc Hannum)

 

“Nico and the Rose” (2008 Marc Hannum)

Thanks for the Free Advice, Bank of America!

Yes, spend smart this holiday season by giving your loved ones a stack of junk that you haven’t paid for/can’t pay for.  Oh and also get cash back.  We’re all so lucky to have banks around – they’re just overflowing with good advice.  Spend, spend. Spend, spend. Spend. Merry Christmas!

Minnesota Nice

Someone gave me the finger today in traffic.  Since hearing Tom Vanderbilt talk about late-merging on NPR, I’ve been practicing it as a matter of principle.  After all, engineering is on my side, even though human nature is not.  So I drove in the less congested lane to where the highway merges into a single onramp, and moved in front of another car.  This car let me in, there was no struggle.  But for some reason the dude in the green Volkswagen in front of me decides to veer in front of me (keep in mind that again, I am comfortably situated in traffic with no intent to pass him, giving no indication that I might maneuver to do so).  Still, he veers like it’s his moral responsibility to block my passage around him – a passage that even if he had veered in the completely opposite direction, would still have not allowed me through by manner of its design.  He then lifts his middle finger up to where his rear-view mirror is for a moment and then continues driving.  Being the quick-witted individual I am, I took my right hand off the shifter and got ready to return the gesture, but realized that I was wearing convertible mittens. So I awkwardly attempted to pull back the mitten part of my right hand using just that hand but my finger got caught and I had to put it back on, and then lift it off completely with my other hand, thus exposing my fingers in their individual glory.  Finally then, I was able to extend my middle finger over the steering wheel, a full 30 seconds later, in the most awkwardly forced way imaginable.  I still don’t know what I was supposed to do.

Wedding Crashers

I’m in the midst of writing my final projects so I haven’t written for a while, not that anyone has noticed. Anyway, I keep the TV tuned to TBS in the background while I work and Wedding Crashers has been on for what I swear has been over 2 hours. Granted I’m not paying particular attention to the movie, and the sound is off, but this movie is TEDIOUS.

Mr. Sketch

Our Monday meetings at work have recently moved to a new – more heavily used – room.  As such, there are often any manner of curiosities left behind.  Today it was a whole box of Mr. Sketch markers.  You know, the ones that have vaguely familiar artificial scents such as “grape” and “orange.”  

So I’m staring at this box and recalling how when I was a child I would become very frustrated by the lack of scent labels on these markers.  I though it was a ridiculous omission.  I mean, Crayola in their infinite wisdom printed the name of the color on each corresponding marker, even though it was fairly self-evident to any child that bothered to identify color outside the abstract visual.  So why not scent?  There’s really no artifice on behalf of Crayola when it comes to a standard box of 10 color markers.  Green is green, orange is orange, and if it’s got the wrong cap then just check out the tip (although I guess Mr. Sketch gets a leg up here because you could just sniff it).  So for not labeling the color, Mr. Sketch is off the hook.  But the vast majority of these scents do NOT in any way resemble the “food items” that they’re said to represent.  So long story short – a little labeling would have been nice.

That’s why looking at this package for the first time was such an eye opener.  There they are.  There’s all the different foods with little faces and their corresponding colors.  Pink is watermelon, great – I could never tell!  Green is mint.  Yellow is lemon.  Magenta is raspberry.  Black is black licorice.  Brown is….bear?  What?  I smelled it.  It’s cinnamon.  Is that what bears are supposed to smell like?

Even the stupid fragrance guide shows a bear and then says “Brown is Cinnamon.”  And wait a minute… Turquoise is mango???  Right.