Getting "Hacked" Is a Heart Wrenching Experience

Well, it has happened, through my negligent stupidity, my long time email account is corrupted and lost to me forever. Last Friday my account was hacked and hijacked. The password and security answers were changed within minutes, and scam/spam was hitting the in-boxes of my friends and relatives. I quickly received a phone call from a friend telling me I had been hacked. These scumbags who steal accounts and corrupt the Internet with spam and scams are certainly thorough in their practice of evil.

I contacted MSN immediately and tried to reclaim my account, but the MSN account retrieval site is useless. No, it is worthless! One must have a photographic memory to supply the information required by the site. Even so, I did give more than sufficient information, email addresses and subject headings to prove that I am the true owner of the account. Not once, but three frustrating times. In fact, I gave an email address and subject line that I had used less than an hour before I was hacked. I don't think the person or machine monitoring the reclamation site could identify an elephant in a police lineup of cats.

I asked, nay, begged them to shut down the account if they were not going to restore it to me, but it is still up and spamming and scamming all my friends. So if you receive a message saying I am in London, don't believe it. I am not there and never have been there. I don't have a cousin there who needs an operation. And while I could use 2700 dollars, don't send any money to the scammer because I will not reimburse you and neither will the scumbag scammer who is pretending to be me. Beware and be smart.

On Tuesday, MSN sent an email to my alternate email address with a survey about their account retrieval site. I am sure that they were looking for a bucket load of praise and satisfaction. They didn't get it from me. I told them exactly how angry and frustrated I am with their worthless site, without profanity or vulgarity, but in no uncertain terms. I also told them a couple of things they could do to actually help victims of these scumbags. They haven't responded. I assume they are ignoring me again as they did all weekend when I needed help.

Be aware and be safe. It can happen to anyone, and there is no help for you when it does.

I Am Glad I Don't Have Turner Classic Movies!

A few years ago, I broke down and bought a basic cable package through Concast. I have no interest in all the other channels offered on the higher paid packages. In fact, there are a whole lot of channels on the basic cable that I don’t want and never watch. I have always wanted to have Turner Classic Movies channel, but I don’t want to pay a lot more money just to have that one channel. I would gladly trade all the basic channels I don’t want or use just to have TCM.

I spent most of the last week up at my family’s time share condo at Snowbird. My parents bought the time share thirty years ago, and for many years they drove up to Salt Lake City from California to spend the week at Snowbird. My wife and I would drive the children up the mountain two or three times during the week to spend time with grandma and grandpa and swim and hike. Now it is just my family that uses the time share if my brother or sister doesn’t make the trip from California.

Anyway, this year I had Tuesday night and Wednesday at the condo alone because everyone else in the family had to work. The condo has TCM, and like the fool that I am, I turned it on. Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), staring Claude Rains and Vivian Leigh had just started so I watched it. Then Dream Wife (1953) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, a pleasant little comedy, came on. This was followed by the non-musical version of Kismet (1944) staring Ronald Colman and Marlene Dietrich. Since I like both of them, I stayed up to watch. (He and his voice were magnificent as the “king of beggars,” and she was silly, but beautiful, as the “queen of the vizier’s harem.” James Craig was totally miscast as the Sultan of Bagdad, but I do like him in The Human Comedy (1943), one of my all-time favorite movies with Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter, and Frank Morgan.) Finally, after midnight, and blurry eyed, I turned off the television and dragged myself to bed.

Wednesday morning, after sleeping in till after eight o’clock, I again tempted fate and turned on the television. I came in just after the beginning of The Green Promise (1949) with Walter Brennan, Natalie Wood, and Marguerite Chapman. It was Natalie Wood’s birthday, so all the films on Wednesday morning had her in them. The next film was Our Very Own (1950) with Jane Wyatt, Ann Blyth, Farley Granger and Natalie, followed by No Sad Songs for Me (1950), a real tearjerker with one of my five favorite actresses, Margaret Sullavan, and Wendell Corey, Viveca Lindfors, and birthday girl, Natalie. The last film I watched was a real turkey as far as I am concerned: The Silver Chalice (1954). I have seen it before, so I didn’t watch every minute of this silly sword and sandal drama with hokey religious trappings. Natalie was a young slave girl near the beginning of the film who grows up to be Simon Magus’s (Jack Palance) girlfriend (Virginia Mayo). I think this was Paul Newman’s first big part as Basil the young sculpture. The sets of this dreadful mess were obviously sound stages with all straight lines, angles and black backgrounds looking more like modernistic stage sets than epic movie scenery. Natalie certainly wasn’t as good as a teenager in this film as she was as a child in the first three.

So, after wasting all Wednesday morning and the night before watching seven movies onTurner Classic Movie channel, I am glad I don’t have this channel on my basic cable package. If I did, I would be getting even less done by wasting my whole life watching television: BECAUSE I LOVE OLD MOVIES.

Previewing The Help

On Thursday the 14th of July, my wife, daughter, niece and I were able to see a preview showing of the film The Help, based on the best selling novel The Help. I was pleasantly surprised by the adaptation of the many storied novel. I do feel that substance of Mini's "horrible terrible" is revealed maybe a little too soon and made almost the focal point of the film and made to overshadow the more important issues of the story. (It has been a few months since I read the book, but I seem to recall that the full revelation of the "horrible terrible" had a more shocking impact even though many hints were placed along the way.) Of course, revealing it early does give the Hollywood types a chance to giggle and chortle over the multiple use of "four letter words."

Anyway, we all, having read the book, enjoyed the movie. It is a harsh glimpse into the harsh times of racial prejudice. I hope we have come a long way from these attitudes. The actresses did a superb job, and I hope there will be several award nominations in several categories for this film.

On Friday the 15th, my wife and I saw the last Harry Potter film. We both enjoyed it, and thought it was a fine finale to the series. I liked the vindication, somewhat, of poor ol' Snape, who I always thought had more to him than hating Harry. It has been a few years since I read the last book, and I can't remember how it was handled in the book. I will have to read the last book again; I read all the others a second time to prepare for the final volume. I was sad at the end, because it is the end, and there isn't any more.

Saturday evening I watch Great Performances on PBS. It was a movie version of Verdi's Rigoletto, staring Placido Domingo in the staring roll. It was a beautiful, high quality production, but it lacked something that a true opera experience must have: show-stopping thunderous applause, cheers, and bravos after solos, duets, and that fabulous quartet in the last act.

My Ride with the Valkyries

Last Saturday my wife and I went to the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast of Die Walküre at our local multiplex theatre in West Jordan. I had been looking forward to this event all season. I am a big Wagner fan. I have even said that one must love opera to just like Wagner, and I love Wagner. Not his politics, prejudices and life style, but his glorious music. I once heard Jim Swejda on KUSC quote or make his own statement that Wagner used up all his goodness in his music and had nothing left for his "real" life. At lease that is what I remember him saying after these many years. We were at the theatre from 10:45 until about 4:30. There was a thirty minute delay at the beginning because they were having trouble with the set computer.

Anyway, my wife is not as great a fan of opera as I am, but she does go with me to the broadcasts from time to time. She was looking forward to this production as well I, but perhaps, not with the same degree of enthusiasm. We both thought the principle singers were stupendous, the acting well done, the emotional tension tremendous. And we quite enjoyed the set, or the "machine" as the cast and crew call it, especially how it was used in the Walkürenritt "ride of the Valkyries" and the magic fire at the end of the opera.



Deborah Voigt

 Deborah Voigt (Brünnhilde) was quite attractive and delightful in her flowing red wig hefting her spear and shield. We saw her last  in La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) as a blond. Bryn Terfel (Wotan) was imposing and powerful. Jonas Kaufmann (Siegmund) was electrifying. His voice and passion remind me of my favorite Siegmund, Lauritz Melchior, at least in the recording made in 1941 with Astrid Varnay as Sieglinde. I am looking forward to seeing him next year in Faust. Eva-Maria Westbroek (Sieglinde) was lovely, and the passion and tension and acting between her and Kaufmann drove the first act to a wild and emotionally satisfying conclusion. I could watch and listen to the last half of the fist act over and over again.

One of my favorite parts of the HD broadcasts is the backstage interviews, and the live camera shots of the crew changing and preparing the sets for the next act. The Met crew is fantastic as they work against the intermission clock.

My wife wants to go to New York and see a production live just to say we have been there. I like the HD live broadcasts because it fills the theatre screen, you can see their faces close up, and you have fascinating entertainment during the intermissions. But still, it would be fun to see an opera live in the Met.

Artists' Books Show at University of Utah: "Booking a Brouhaha"

When the Artists' Books class ended, the final book project from each student and juried books from earlier assignments were arranged in an exhibition titled "Booking a Brouhaha." The show also displays the collection of "books" made by each student for an assemblage project and the collaborative mail art produced during the class. The exhibition will be in the Special Collections Gallery on the 4th floor of the J. Willard Marriott Library on the campus of the University of Utah. The exhibition will run through May during library hours. In June the collection will be transported to Jackson, Wyoming, for exhibition through the summer.

I was able to spend a little time helping to set up the show, and had the opportunity to arrange the display of my two books that are in the show. Here they are in the display cases.

Eighty Million Dead

RAMdom Memory

Here are some pictures of setting up the books for the displays and some of the finished display cases. There is a wonderful variety of work produced by the members of this Artists' Books class. A few of the students were art majors, but most of the members came from various back grounds. Most were young (20s) university students, but there were a few old timers in the mix. I was one of the oldest, if not the oldest participant. I had to really stretch my creative muscles this semester.



Mary Toscano, Exhibitions and Book Arts Coordinator, arranging a display for the case.



Mary by the display case we just finished.

 This is the book arts studio where Chris McAfee and Marnie Powers-Torrey, the Artists' Books instructors and talented, accomplished artists in their own right, and for   whom I have great admiration, are feverishly working to finish grading. On the tables in the studio are some of the books being arranged for the display cases. I can only remember a few of the artists' names, but those I do remember I will label.



This is Patti Pitts' work. She is a textile artist, who makes beautiful dyed silks. This is a bracelet of small silk bound books.



The following photos are the cases in the exhibit area which were finished before and while I was there to help.

The two photos above show the contents of the assemblage to which each student contributed one "book" item. Each student in the class made an edition of 35 so that all class members have one piece of the other student's work. The book I contributed is the cream-colored book lying in the middle. My favorite in this assemblage is Louise Levergneux's City Shields, photos of manhole covers, which is seen in the top photo, lower right corner. Her work is in several museum and university collections. I felt privileged to work with her in this class.

This book is striking when held and seen up close. It commemorates the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in April 2011. The book behind it and shown in the next two pictures is by Joe Carter, a fine artist with paintings in several local galleries. His realistic paintings are so precise that they can be mistaken for photographs.

This interesting accordion fold book is by Michael Hurst.

This is Louise Levergneux's final book, based on her name and all the songs that have the name "Louise" in the title or the lyrics. Each page is created like an old 45rpm record. The stack of "records" fits in the metal canister.

This is Patti Pitts' final creation containing several books within the larger book and telling a story of the discovery of silk.



Artists' Books, Part 7

This was the final project for the Artists' Books class. My original idea was to publish ten Coptic bound copies of twenty memoir pieces that I have written during the last seven years at a Jordan District Writing Memoir class.  I was planning to title it Random Memory, because the memoirs are not in chronological order. The instructors said it was a good project for a different class, but not for an artists' book class. It wasn't "avant garde" enough. So I had to start over on my idea.

I wanted to keep the memoir idea and the title, but I had to think of a new way to present it. I happened to see an article on Inca quipos, the long knotted strings that were used as memory aids to recall information. This reminded me of the "book mobile" that I made several years ago to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of mount Jordan Middle School. The two ideas combined in my mind as the form for my final book. Long strings of photo cards depicting random events in the last 63 years.

The 50th anniversary book mobile, 2005.

As I progressed, the idea of computer memory, RAM -random accessible memory, came into the picture. I found an old slide set box with two cassette tape containers and some nonfunctioning pieces of computer equipment, and the idea became solid. Our school computer tech gave me some obsolete RAM sticks and I was set to put everything together.

I made 150+ photo tags at random and of various sizes from my photo collection and tied them on the strings attached to the computer pieces. On the backs of some of the tags, I printed exerts of the memoirs I had planned to print. In each of the cassette cases I put a folded blue print: in one a diagram of a computer memory circuit, and in the other a scan of the human brain. I retitled the assemblage: RAMdom Memory.

Postal Art for April

These are some of my postal art cards for April. I sometimes forget to take a picture before I send my cards and letters out. Once they are sent, they are gone forever. I sent out several post cards to Mail Art calls this month. One each to Arizona, Colorado Netherlands, and two to Portugal.

I sent this post card to Portugal.