Art and Life

This is an interseting tilt from the forward thinkers in San Antonio on art education in schools. As I have said before, not only does art education and the apprenticeship of creativity prepare you for art but also for life. The capacity to think creatively and to improvise efficiently is an important part of any business person's tool box. Thanks to Dan Pink for the heads up. Enjoy

AUSTIN — Ben Chacon-Torres, a junior at San Antonio's Brackenridge High School, has no idea where his life would be headed if Texas schools didn't teach music, dance and theater.

For him, the fine arts make his life go around, giving him a good idea where he might land some day.

"I'm going to be famous," Chacon-Torres said last week while waiting to perform in the Capitol rotunda with his school's Razzle Dazzle Concert Choir and Show Choir.

Hundreds of students from around Texas performed in the rotunda and on the Capitol steps Thursday to draw attention to Arts Education Day.

A new study by the Texas Coalition for Quality Arts Education shows both students and schools with robust fine arts programs do better academically. Schools rated "exemplary" had 61 percent of their students enrolled in fine arts courses, compared with 54 percent for "recognized," 51 percent for "acceptable" and 44 percent at "low-performing" schools.

"We're not claiming that those statistics by themselves prove that having fine arts makes students smarter or are more likely to make them stay in school," said Robert Floyd, executive director of the Texas Music Educators Association.

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The Brackenridge High School choir speak out for continued funding of arts electives.

"But these statistics show that a high level of student participation in fine arts is one of the characteristics of outstanding high schools and middle schools in our state."

For Chacon-Torres, who said he ranks in the top 5 percent of his class academically, dance and song "help me express myself."

"It helps me get out of that zone to spring out," he said, adding he plans to pursue the arts in college but has not decided where.

Though the arts face no immediate funding crisis in Texas schools, supporters worry that increasing demands for more academic courses will put elective classes at risk. Last year, legislators increased the number of math and science classes that high school students must take.

"When you add a number of subjects to a student's already crowded load, in essence, it is ruling out fine arts. They don't do it on purpose. It's just one of those aftermaths," said Joyce Brannon, director of the Razzle Dazzle choir.

About 1.2 million of the 4.5 million children in Texas public schools participate in fine arts.

 

"It adds enrichment to a child's life," Brannon said. "It gives them ready-made friends. It gives them a reason to come to school. It gives them creative thinking ability and (teaches students) how to analyze."

The state of Texas requires high school students to take at least one fine arts credit to graduate under the recommended and distinguished achievement graduation plans. The fine arts include music, art, theater and dance.

Arts advocates have at least one influential ally in Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, chairman of the House Public Education Committee.

A fine arts education is imperative "for our culture to survive," Eissler said, adding Texas schools develop "amazing talent."

"Left brain is logic, right brain is creativity," he said. "We don't want our kids to compete internationally with half of their brain tied behind their backs."

Democracy

The gloves are off here... 

The Americans and the French have diametrically opposite views on the relationship between quality and quantity. To a Frenchman, anything that is worth savouring must, of necessity, be available only in limited quantities. To an American, anything that's any good must be made available to everyone. Ford, Coke and McDonalds are archetypal American brands just as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Chateau Petrus are archetypal French ones.

The French would never try to bring democracy to anyone else, as obviously these foreigners would be incapable of appreciating it.

Me, I prefer the American approach. Indeed I am much taken with an Andy Warhol quotation along the lines of "what I like about Coke is that the President of the United States can't get a better Coke than the bum on the street." Really great brands should be universal. (When you think about it, the huge explosion in the value of luxury goods brands is evidence of a social malaise).
Though France is sporadically wonderful, it suffers from a terrible lack of scalability. A good cuisine remains trapped within its region. A great cafe or restaurant remains a great cafe or restaurant - with a single outlet. Part of the reason for this is that the French see the principal purpose of a job as supplying status, not money. So your typical Frog restaurateur would rather operate a single restaurant in Paris patronised by a few cabinet ministers than operate a vast chain of eateries serving the general public. This explains why the great majority of French Schoolchildren aspire to be civil servants when they grow up. And why it is no co-incidence that succès d’estime is a French phrase.

I once asked a Frenchman why, given that they had "the best food in the world" they had not attempted to compete with McDonalds. "Why not," I wondered "a nationwide chain of restaurants selling cider and galettes?". "But that is a Breton cuisine," he replied.

It is fashionable to despise popularist brands in Britain, too. And so a particular brand of British middle class twat regards Brie as healthy and burgers as dodgy. And I am so glad they do.

You see, one of the great things about McDonalds is this: that the people who "don't go to McDonalds" don't go there. If you live in the South East of England this is wonderful - it means you can go there with your kids and be guaranteed that you won't be exposed to any of the hand-wringing tossers who say things like "Jolyon's allergic to chips, actually".

I like brands like easyJet, IKEA, etc which are actually anti-snobbish and act as snob-repellents. When not American, these brands are often Scandinavian, Australian or Dutch. They are gloriously non pretentious, and attract a similar clientele.

And of course this works the other way round. There are plenty of brands which, while appealing in themselves, attract a peculiarly revolting class of user. BMW above all (I was once upgraded at Avis to a BMW 5-series and refused it) or the Apple laptop. My aversion to British Airways is similar - anything the airline does is counterbalanced by the need to share a plane with a lot of lower-middle class ugly people with an unusual penchant for doilies.

The Art of Getting Recognized

 

Straight out of eBay. This is a marketing gem, I even want to bid just to be part of the story. Crap car with no options and the guy is making himself a star. Enjoy... 

Is this the World's Worst Car?

Of course, I'm kidding. After all, this isn't a Lada, a Trabi (Trabant), or even a Holden Camira.

It's my trusty 1989 (AE92) Toyota Corolla. And it's got nearly 300,000km on the clock.

Although it looks tired (OK, very tired), and everybody enjoys making fun of how shitty it looks, it does have some benefits.

Seriously! There are some reasons why you might want to buy this car. Don't believe me?

Well for a start, it's been driven for the last three years by a guaranteed future A-list celebrity: Steven Pam, host of Hound TV.

Would Anna Nicole Smith, Prince, or Seth Godin drive a car like this? I don't know.

But I did, and you might.... here's why:

• It never breaks. Seriously! In the ten years that this car has been in our family, the only things we've ever had to fix have been normal consumable/wear and tear/maintenance items, like tyres, clutch, battery. And even those don't need replacing very often. Yep, these babies are bulletproof - ask any mechanic.
• Unlikely to get stolen or broken into. I mean, if you were a crook, would you be looking for valuables in a car that looks like this?
  
• No car park paranoia. Some grotty nine year-old slams the door of his Mum's SUV into your car? No problem. You can even park 'by ear' yourself, if that's your style.
  

OK, so what do you get for your money?

• Engine. Toyota's stonkin' 1.6 litre, twin cam, carburetted beauty, straight from the factory. Less than 300,000km covered
• Body. Keeps the rain out. Well mostly. It does tend to pool around the driver's footwell area. But you'll be garaging it, right? I mean, it's worth it.
• Seats. Surprisingly comfortable. And very worn - especially the driver's seat
• Stereo. Well, it outputs a stereo signal, but three of the four speakers are pretty much stuffed. So I guess it's more of a 'mono' than a stereo. But anyway, it picks up both AM and FM radio, and even plays tapes (compact cassettes). Oh, and mp3s and podcasts! (You just need an iPod and one of those tape adapter thingies. Works a treat.)
  

• Air conditioning. Actually, it doesn't have air conditioning. I lied. Sorry. Try winding the window down... it's better for our planet anyway.

• Cup holders. OK, it doesn't have cup holders either. But who needs them? You shouldn't be drinking and driving anyway, you slob. I mean, look at you!

• Steering wheel. For going around corners (left or right)

• Brakes. Man, this thing can stop on a dime! Especially if you position the dime a couple of hundred meters down the road. No, seriously, the brakes work fine. Discs at the front, drums at the rear. One (or both?) of the rear drums feels a bit 'grabby' when the car hasn't been driven for a few days. New shoes would probably do the trick.
• Racing tyres. Yeah, they're like, slicks. Bald, in other words. I suggest you get new ones if you're planning on driving this thing. If you just want it for parts, or you're planning on mounting it at the top of a pole outside your business (or house!), then the current tyres should be just fine. I mean, they hold air and everything.
• Sporty 6-speed manual transmission. Well, it actually only has five forward gears, but reverse works, too, so that's six, isn't it?
  
• Lucky numbers. I will paint your lucky number (stencil or freehand) on the doors in your choice of colour, for free. Vinyl cut lettering available at extra cost.
• Celebrity photo & autograph. When you collect the car, get a photo with me handing the keys over. I'll also autograph the car's manual - or any other part you nominate.
  It's not just any autograph... I'm a genuine A-list celebrity! "How so", I hear you ask, "when I have never frickin' heard of you"?
  Look, I host Hound TV, the world's first video podcast for dogs and their owners. Podcasting is hot now, you know that. It's only a matter of time before I make my way from Z-list, to Y, and so on, until I'm a household name. Just imagine how impressed your friends will be when you tell them that your car was once owned by THE Steven Pam. It'll be just like the Seinfeld episode where George buys a car once owned by Jon Voight. Only better, because it will be YOU, not George Costanza.
• Roadworthy Certificate. Just kidding, you don't really get one. The car is sold strictly 'as is' - what you see is what you get. So if you want to register the car, you'll need to organise a RWC yourself. Of course if you just want the bits off it, want to use it as a paddock bomb, or mount it at the top of a pole... no problem!