Empire State Building (above) and plane engine (below) from same vantage point about two hours apart.
catching light
02 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in photography
Tag Archives: State
Cityscapes and Landscapes
27 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in photography
Tags
beach, building, chennai, chicago, cityscapes, empire, enoshima, indian, landscapes, madras, manhattan, ocean, san francisco, sears, State, tower, yokohama
added some cityscapes of Chicago,
Manhattan,
San Francisco,
Yokohama and Enoshima
and some images of beaches in Kamakura and Chennai
a
nd elsewhere, all in the landscapes tab.
Murray State Racers Zigga Zigga 2010 REPOST
30 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in college hoops
Tags
basketball, hoops, Isaiah Canaan, Karthik, mtk, Murray, NCAA, Racers, State, Yesterdays
Two years ago, I saw the unit that the Murray State Racers have become begin to form.
Led by Isaiah Canaan (pronounced “cannon”), the team thrills.
If you google “zigga zigga zoot zoot” you’ll find my piece about them, written then, but here’s a repost:
Zigga, Zigga, Zoot, Zoot Spinback: Why We Picked the Racers [2010]
Now headed by their assistant coach promoted to head, who has been through this ride with the players, men not much younger than himself, the cohesiveness has grown rather than faded in the absence of their head coach from last year.
For several years now, I predicted and then witnessed the rise of the mid-major programs in the NCAA Division One, based almost solely on the fact that the major programs lose their players to the NBA sooner and often have to introduce rookie point guards to lead a team through the minefield of March.
While mid-major, and even smaller programs, often keep players who end up playing together longer and who get tighter, more cohesive, play as a unit.
Steve Fisher and John Calipari notwithstanding, it was inevitable.
I was pretty excited when I decided to blog the 2010 NCAA March Madness on Yesterday’s Hoops
Away from San Antone (Oakland)
25 Tuesday Jan 2011
Stephen Curry NBA Debut
29 Thursday Oct 2009
Posted in journalism, nba, Oakland, SF Bay
The Election of Barack Obama
04 Tuesday Nov 2008
Posted in elections, press clips, S.F.
Tags
barack, black, Brown, country, dangle, election, first, Francisco, Karthik, lloyd, Mayor, mtk, obama, Palin, president, proud, San, Sarah, sfsu, State, Stevens, Ted, university, Willie
I began Election day having a cocktail with former SF Mayor Willie Brown at the St. Regis hotel in downtown SF. We discussed in detail then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s plans concerning the vacating of Alaska’s Senior Senator’s seat due to the trial of Senator Ted Stevens.
Mayor Brown agreed with me that Palin seemed to be attempting to leverage herself into the Senate with her pull as Governor. (Thanks, Mayor Brown for the kind attention over the years).
Lloyd Dangle hosted an Election Night/20th Anniversary party for his Troubletown comic strip at the Riptide in San Francisco the night Obama beat McCain for the Presidency.
Some students from SFSU were there and produced this video:
Proud of Their Country with Lloyd Dangle
It was an interesting night and I am glad I was with Lloyd Dangle – an outspoken critic of Republicans and Democrats alike for more than twenty years.
The Judge Who Holds the President-Elect in the Balance, 2000
13 Monday Nov 2000
Posted in clips, elections, journalism, NYC, press clips, social media
The Voting Chamber, installation, 2000
01 Wednesday Mar 2000
Posted in Austin, collage, elections, installations, journalism, MTKinstalls, protest
Tags
1st, 2000, austin, Barnes, Bush, canvas, chamber.movements, currency, death, gallery, George, John, Karthik, killed, logo, m.t., March, McCain, mtk, No, Odell, painting, party, Penalty, primaries, Primary, real, Republican, rights, State, super, texas, the, thyagarajan, timeline, Tuesday, voter, voting, W., wrongly
The Voting Chamber was an art installation at Movements Gallery in Austin, TX, six blocks from Governor George Bush’s Mansion, and the exhibition was open during the Super Tuesday Presidential Primaries of Election 2000 and the South x Southwest (SXSW) Arts and Music Festival of that year.
COMPONENTS:
No Real Choice [2000], 5’ x 3’8”, acrylic, currency on canvas
The Voting Chamber (metal rods, fabric curtain, tabletop, audio component
Civic Dimension (acrylic on stairwell walls; chalk on pavement
Internet Component, including data from State Website and Death Penalty Opponents
I flew into Austin from Brooklyn and immediately went to a local chapter meeting of an anti-death penalty group and introduced myself publicly as an artist planning to do an installation at Movements Gallery on 6th Street:
installed for about ten days:
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OPENING RECEPTION: FEBRUARY 22, 2000
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY
6-8 P.M.
MOVEMENTS GALLERY
SIXTH STREET
AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA
“THE VOTING CHAMBER”
FEBRUARY 22-APRIL 22, 2000
A MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION IN PROXIMITY TO THE TEXAS GOVERNOR’S MANSION
THE STATE OF TEXAS EXECUTES MORE PEOPLE THAN ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN THE WESTERN WORLD. THE CURRENT GOVERNOR OF TEXAS (1994-2000) HAS OVERSEEN THE EXECUTION OF MORE PEOPLE THAN ALL FIVE PREVIOUS GOVERNORS TAKEN TOGETHER. HE IS CURRENTLY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND EXECUTING AT LEAST 18 MORE PEOPLE.
ACCORDING TO A TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY STUDY, MOST TEXANS FAVOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY OR ARE UNDECIDED:
47.5% FAVOR LIFE SENTENCE
39.5% FAVOR EXECUTIONS
13% ARE UNSURE
Source: http://www.lonestar.texas.net/~acohen/tcadp
“THE VOTING CHAMBER” HAS BEEN DESIGNED BY NEW YORK-BASED FORMER TEXAS RESIDENT AND UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS GRADUATE M.T. KARTHIK, TO PROVIDE A PLACE TO REHEARSE FOR THE UPCOMING PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES AND ELECTIONS.
The State posts the Execution Schedule online
Texas State Execution Schedule: 23 Feb – 27 APR 2000
23 FEB 2000 Cornelius Goss, born May 25, 1961
24 FEB 2000 Betty Beets, born March 12, 1937
01 MAR 2000 Odell Barnes,Jr., born, March 22, 1968
15 MAR 2000 Timothy Gribble born, August 27, 1963
22 MAR 2000 Dennis Bagwell born, December 27, 1963
12 APR 2000 Orien Joiner, born, October 27, 1949
18 APR 2000 Victor Saldano, born October 22, 1971
26 APR 2000 Robert Carter, born March 7, 1966
27 APR 2000 Robert Neville, born October 5, 1974
27 APR 2000 Ricky McGinn, born March 11, 1957
Source: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/statistics/stats-home.htm
OUTLINE FOR INSTALLATION
COMPONENTS:
“No Real Choice 2000” (5’ x 3’8”, acrylic, water, American currency on canvas)
“The Voting Chamber” (metal rods, fabric curtain, tabletop, agit-propaganda, and audio component)
“Civic Dimension” (acrylic on stairwell walls and sheetrock; chalk on pavement)
4. “Internet Component”
THE INSTALLATION:
“No Real Choice 2000” was installed on the wall opposite top of the stairs to Gallery space. The 33’ wall was painted sympathetic to currently existing artwork in gallery while extending the theme of the canvas, including:
“The Voting Chamber,” a simulated voting booth: U-shaped curtain rod with a red curtain. This curtain is to be drawn around individual viewers to simulate a voting booth and allow a private viewing space of the canvas and of specific propaganda material. A looped, repeating audio component of the attorney of one of those on Death Row was played next to an empty chair.
The stairwell from the street to the Gallery floor and the sidewalks from the Governor’s Mansion to the gallery door (as practicable) were marked to point to the booth and to present statistics (see Statistics that follow) regarding the death penalty in Texas.
The Internet component contained elements: from http://www.georgewbush.com, the “Calendar of Events” describing the Governor’s current itinerary, and from http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us, the “Calendar of Executions.” and etc
CONCLUSION, 2008
It’s taken me more than eight years to write anything of what happened in Austin in the Spring of 2000. I installed The Voting Chamber and came to find out that Odell Barnes, Jr., was scheduled to die though likely innocent of the murder of which he was convicted.
The installation included an empty chair with the name “Mr. Bush” taped to the back, sitting beside a cassette player that continuously played a ten-minute audio loop of Mr. Barnes’ lawyer explaining that he needed more time to present the strong evidence of a frame-up he had discovered in Odell’s case.
The installation inspired a march of hundreds in Austin who chanted as they marched around the Governor’s Mansion against the Death Penalty:
This all occurred during the Super Tuesday Presidential Primaries as George W. Bush, the Governor of Texas, fought Arizona Senator John McCain for the Republican nomination, Spring 2000. The installation was up during the SXSW music festival, and the venue was a site for the Austin festival so thousands saw it.
George W. Bush and The State of Texas murdered the innocent 22-year-old, Odell Barnes, Jr. on March 1st of the year 2000. The message was clear as Bush ran for President on an active record of becoming the single individual Governing the execution of more people in U.S. history.
Odell Barnes, Jr.s’ last meal request was for “justice, equality and world peace,”
and his last words were:
“I thank you for proving my innocence although it has not been acknowledged in the courts. May you continue in the struggle and may you change all that’s been done here today and in the past.”
Nine months later, George W. Bush was appointed President of the United States by the Supreme Court – contravening democracy at the most basic level – thanks to massive problems with vote counting and issues of voter suppression in the State of Florida, where Bush’s own brother, Jeb, was Governor.
The canvas “No Real Choice 2000,” finished two months before the election, was startlingly prophetic.
M.T. Karthik 