Bloggapalooza: Good Food, Good Friends, Good Tunes, and Whatever the Hell Happened Between Vessels and Naugle.

The Good

Went to Bloggapalooza yesterday and had a fine time. Apparently the downstaters who attended are having a Rashomon moment over one incident, which I will get to. Whoever's at faulth, that's an unfortunate harshing of the mellow.

Speaking of harshing, I got there well late because my five-year-old pitched a screaming meemie about me leaving and it took some time to calm her down. As a result I missed the alt/emo band about which, Oh well. But I also missed Chucklef*ckers which was a real loss. I heard they had a good set and, according the George, Carrie Callahan killed. This is as good a time as any to mention that Carrie's blog started a mite slow but I've been enjoying the hell out of lately. So much so that I'll probably add it to my blogroll the next time I'm doing that sort of thing.

Frankly, I went mostly for the company. My schedule doesn't allow me to make it to meetups any more and I haven't attended a MTB in maybe nine months. So the great joy was f2f convos with folks there. I recall seeing Jeff Hess, Bill Callahan, Wendell Robinson, Tim and Gloria Ferris, Scott Bakalar and Anthony Fossaceca (who was here but now is here). Jerid Kurtz and Eric and Joseph from the Plundercrew showed up about mid-afternoon and Jill showed up a bit later than that. At some point we ran into, I believe, Chas Rich and someone introduced us.

George was there pretty the whole time, of course.

In addition to enjoying music from The Elderly Brothers, I picked up an excellent pulled pork sandwich from Wild Bill's BBQ and roamed the booths at the arts festival. I had a long talk with Anastasia Pantsios of the Free Times while I rummaged through the used CDs she was selling at the rock flea market. We talked about the MedMart/Convo Center controversy which is Topic A in Cleveland these days. (And I bought discs by Duke Robillard, Dar Williams and Pavement from her.)

Best of all I bought a pot from a woman whose work I saw in one gallery once but didn't pull the trigger and had seen nowhere since. Few pottery styles have felt like the one that got away like this, so it was great serendipity to have another chance. She makes coil pots and indents the coil about every 3/4 inch, then glazes only the inside. The effect looks from a distance like a basket made of rope fiber.

The Bad

Oh, you wanted to hear about the Naugle thing. Well, some time during my street wanderings -- I think during the Elderly Brothers set -- I saw the unmistakable figure of Matt Naugle talking to Tim and plodding through the front door of the Beachland Tavern. This was not, frankly, a welcome site. After Matt's last excursion to way on the other side of The Line -- publishing Jerid Kurtz's father's twenty-year-old arrest record -- I mentally crossed him off The List of People for Whom I Have Any Use Whatsoever.

Still, it was a time for celebration. And I can be civil to people I dislike. What's more, there has been -- hmmm -- call it offline tension between myself and some other liberal bloggers. So I showed up mentally prepared for the possibility of Working Things Out. So I did the civil thing. I walked back into the Tavern and up to the pod of Bill, Anthony and Matt, and introduced myself to the latter. Conversation continued and all was perfectly civilized.

At one point I asked Bill about the aftermath of S.B. 117 which got us talking about community wi-fi which led Matt to interject his objections to it. For about two minutes I tried to talk to Matt about community based wi-fi but alas I was out of my depth. It didn't strike me that Matt knows significantly more than I about the subject, so we briefly exchanged general talking points about markets and government. Bill arrived shortly and bailed me out. At just about that time, the Columbus folks showed up, so I disengaged to greet Eric and company.


Matt and Bill talked. And talked. Ghetto Wisdom went through sound check and started their set. The GW was only two dudes, by the way: Rapper E&J and the keyboardist. I didn't quite get why, but the result was a set a little more mellow than last year's. Yes, I personally put my hands in the air, etc. And I got my own picture of the PlunderShuffle. But all in all, not the barnburner of Bloggapalooza 1.

Oh yeah, the Naugle thing. So early in the Ghetto Wisdom set, he and Bill went outside to continue their conversation. I didn't keep a clock on it, but conservatively it lasted an hour an a half. Maybe as much as two. Bill seemed to be having an OK time and we were all happy not to have to pretend to be nice to Matt.

Fast forward a bit. I'm talking on the street and look back at the Tavern. Eric and Matt are having an apparently intense conversation. The expression on Eric's face is one of Deep Concern, but it could well have been the sort of "I don't want to have to kick your ass" Deep Concern you see when people who don't like each other talk at a gathering like this. Anyway, I didn't see pointing or yelling and didn't see any angry expressions. I also didn't see much of it, just enough to know something of significance was being discussed.

And a bit later I heard that Matt had left after the conversation.

The Ugly.

So this morning Jerid posted that Matt had "provoked an altercation:" "After personally attacking virtually every blogger in attendance at the non-partisan blogapalooza, Matt Naugle surprised all tonight by injecting partisan politics into Meet-the-Bloggers second birthday." What I gather he means is that Matt has personally attacked people on his blog, then showed up at a party to hang with them. Which, as Jerid says, is a form of provocation.

I actually haven't yet been personally attacked by Matt (unless you count being called reasonable by Naugle which in context, yeah that's close), but friends have including some really ugly backchannel stuff that truly shocks me. My instinct was, as I said, to be civil. But if Matt had attacked me through my family, I wouldn't have even made that effort.

And it did piss me off that after hurling feces for these many months he showed up an put us all in the uncomfortable position of having to deal with him. And he is the only guy blogging on the right I'd say that about. Mr. Boring and I agree on nearly nothing, but when we see each other it's not an effort to get along. He's a genuinely nice guy who understands the difference between political differences and personal animosity. Ben Keeler has thrown his lot in with the three libs Paul tapped to take over the Carnival and we haven't had a single problem yet. This isn't difficult.

For most people. But Naugle is just a nasty piece of work. Feminists say "The personal is political;" for Matt the political is personal. And just so I don't have to go all False Equivalency Police on y'all, I agree with anyone who objects to making fun of Matt's speech impediment. He stutters. OK. I have friends who stutter, and most of them are smarter than me. But Matt has gone so farther, deeper and nastier, he's long given up any claim of just desserts.

Matt gives his own version of the event and I can't say much to contradict what he says. Still, it's hard for me to fault Eric for going into his grille. And frankly, Matt is probably lucky that Eric took the point instead of Jerid who, by the Code of Manliness Matt pretends to subscribe to is utterly within his rights to administer an ass-kicking.

And I have to say that Matt saying he could take either guy is simply uproarious.

The sad coda to Matt's post reads:

So I hope Jerid got the type of rise out of me he was hoping for. And nothing that silly Jerid and Eric post about this situation will change the fact that: I won. Not only was I the bigger man for not fighting, but my blogging has paid off. I get under their skin and the left HATES me. . . Liberal bloggers can’t stand that there is a conservative blogger in Ohio who has a loud mouth and is willing to use the left’s tactics against them. And believe me- As we get closer to the 2008 elections, my work on RAB will only become uglier, harsher, and tougher as I work to defeat Democrats. And I will continue to enjoy every minute of it, without a single regret.

Well as far as "winning," I say simply: Scoreboard! Last I checked, the far right that Matt represents had its head handed to it last fall.

As to the rest, see above. There are plenty of conservative bloggers who are tough and smart and loudmouthed and even harsh. There is only one who provokes an emotion close to hate -- though a mixture of pity and contempt more accurately describes my response. My response in it all is to ignore Matt, regardless of what ugliness he coughs up on RAB. If it weren't for some quality posters on RAB, I'd delete it from my roll.

And frankly, if Matt insists on showing up at an event I'm attending, next time I'll probably ignore him there as well.

Notes from the Art Museum Ribbon Cutting.

I dragged my children to the Art Museum ribbon cutting gave my children a once in a lifetime chance to see the opening of a building of international import. I won’t give you the full tragicomic rundown of my equipment issues, but suffice it to say that the photo here is not from today. The fact that it is only slightly blurry should have tipped you off.

Anyway. Here’s the highlights of what I saw.

Ø The crowd was pretty good for a Tuesday morning. Over a hundred crowded around the entrance.

Ø Among the VIPs there were Mayor Don Plusquellec, Council President Marco Sommerville, Newly appointed County Executive Russ Pry, former County Executive Jim McCarty, State Sen. Coughlin and Jeril Klue from Rep. Betty Sutton’s office.

Ø In his remarks, Mayor Plusquellec made a point of mentioning the “beautiful parking garage” across the street. Wonder what that was about?

Ø Couglin spoke for a while. Apparently he was instrumental in getting the money that the State chipped in. Money for an art museum seems like the sort of thing that a hardcore fiscal conservative like Coughlin would object to on the Statehouse floor. But in this venue he was more than happy to take credit for it.

Ø It made me wonder about the other lawmakers. After all, the Art Museum isn’t even in Coughlin’s district. So did other lawmakers get elbowed out when Coughlin got out front or did they just not jump on this.

Ø Bill Dyer was walking around when I overheard some Museum guy greet him. He replied “I like the inside better.”

Ø I disagree with the NYT critic about the gallery space. No it’s not very imaginative, but that’s the point. What you get is huge spaces that give the outsized modern pieces by Warhol and Stella and Close room to breathe. You don’t notice much about the galleries, but that’s the point. The space is about the art.

Ø We joined up and got keychains where are limited edition scale models of the zigzag elevator shaft in the lobby. I told the folks at the desk they could do a whole charm bracelet based on components of the two buildings.

The Art Museum, Pt. 2: Insuffrable NYT Weenie Gets His Facts Wrong

New York Times architecture critic Nicholai Ouroussoff doesn’t much like the interior of the addition to the Akron Art Museum. But he really doesn’t like Akron. More to the point, he doesn’t like his pre-conceived notion of what a city like Akron would be and he certainly didn’t allow any actual facts to disrupt that notion.
Here’s what he has to say about the immediate environs of the Museum:

The old museum, housed in a 19th-century Renaissance Revival building that once served as a post office, stands on a commercial strip facing an ugly brick-clad parking structure in downtown Akron. This is the dark side of the America recalled by Robert Venturi: a haunted Main Street U.S.A. of decrepit brick buildings, vacant windows and empty storefronts.

If I had moved out of town six years ago and read that in the Times, I'd have wondered -- did they move the whole museum onto South Main? It's as if Ouroussoff traveled to the museum blindfolded, then pulled out notes from a visit to Akron twenty years ago to set the scene. Not only does he traffic in a hoary and wildly overstated view of Akron's plight, he gets basic facts wrong.

Let’s break that paragraph down.

"The old museum . . .stands on a commercial strip" No, it doesn’t. It stands between the new main library and the Summit Art Space which is housed in an old schools. There isn’t any commercial space on that street for blocks in either direction. “. . . facing an ugly brick-clad parking structure . . .” Not to put to fine a point on it, but the old museum faces another old building across Market which was the former art museum before it moved into the building which will now confusingly be called the old art museum. The “ugly brick-clad parking structure” is to the side of the old building, though it faces the new entrance. It’s the new parking deck for the new Main Library not the old, run down parking deck the description makes it sound like.


Parking decks by their nature are hard to make pretty, but this one is about as nice as they come, with a modern façade and glassed-in spiral staircase. I understand why a New Yorker might be weirded out by the idea of being able to park, but we like to take advantage of the little pleasures Midwest life offers. The photo to the left is taken approaching the Museum on High Street, walking beside the Knight Center. The library and parking deck that offended Ouroussoff's sensibilities is there on the left.

I’d have been able to forgive the misstatements about the locale of the Museum without that last sentence. But when he talks about "the dark side of the America recalled by Robert Venturi: a haunted Main Street U.S.A. of decrepit brick buildings, vacant windows and empty storefronts he moves from simply not paying attention to altering facts to fit preconceived notions.

Akron possesses its share of haunted neighborhoods -- as does New York, for that matter. But no observer walking through the area around the Museum could honestly invoke haunted Main Street. The museum is surrounded by new and renovated buildings. The Knight Convention Center is less than 15 years old. The Library less than five. Tony Troppe's Historic District is just down the street. Across the street to the north the Akron Bar Association is renovating an old fire station for their new headquarters.

By the way, the beginning of the next paragraph is bull as well: "Coop Himmelb(l)au treats this history with just the right amount of respect, neither trying too hard to fit in with it nor begrudging its importance."

No, the new wing of the Museum ignores the history of the place around it. That’s pretty much the point. And frankly if the architects had done otherwise, no one from the Times would have been writing about it.

If anyone doubts that Ouroussoff’s cartoonishly cosmopolitan condescension informs his error-riddled description of the area, this passage from further in the review should quell those doubts:

At street level, a section of the glass wall pops open to create the main entrance, Above, the lobby’s glass enclosure tilts back violently and then lurches out again over the roof of the brick building, as if it were cracking under some invisible strain.

The sense of compression is more than a visual game. It is a deliberate tactic for injecting a fragment of urbanity — a hint of the social, ethnic and creative frictions that defined the 20th-century metropolis — into an otherwise lifeless Midwestern strip. Coop Himmelb(l)au clearly views the city as a place of intellectual freedom and creative ferment, and an antidote to the supposed repressive conformity of small-town America.

Well gosh-all-darnit when I read that I puttinear coughed mah RC Cola up through m’nose.

Don’t east-coast sophisticates despise cliché and vulgarity above all else? Yet they still cling to their vulgar, clichéd view of Midwestern life.

By the way, I've forged a couple new labels for these posts. Since I hit art-related topics at least occasionally, I lifted "Artsy but not Fartsy" from the author Lorrie Moore. And Phlyover Country will label any post about all things Midwest and/or coastal contempt for the same. Yes I'm using that cloying "ph" for "f" trope, but what do you expect from a hick from Akron?

The Art Museum Pt. 1: Reaction Round-Up

The ribbon cutting for the new Akron Art Museum will happen this Tuesday whether Akronites are ready or not. Over the weekend the architecture critics who got a preview look published their mostly positive reviews. If you are just joining us, the Museum addition is a big deal because it represents Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au's first American commission. This is exciting because, well because it is, dammit.

Months before completion, the museum won an American Architecture Award. It's been getting good reviews for some time before now as well.

Of course, it's not been universally embraced. Bob Dyer included a bunch of negative reaction from Akronites as part of his predictable "Ah just a reg'lar guy" take. Mr. Boring predicts that it will look dated in five years. The News Night Akron crew took on the issue on their July 13 broadcast (which you can still catch online.) The exchange between Jody Miller (for) and Ed Esposito is nothing if not entertaining in a "Jane you ignorant slut" sort of way. The site also includes a video tour of the museum guided by Miller.

The recent national reviews include the Washington Post which includes some thoughtful musing about why a town like Akron -- not the center of the arts universe -- ends up with the first building by radical European firm. LA Times goes one better, wondering why they didn't get the first building, given lead architect Wolf Prix's ties to that city.
The WaPo piece offers a nice background on the atavistic ideology at the firm. the LAT background is more about the architecture itself. According to LAT, the firm is known for combining old and new structures, as witnessed by roof-top addition to a 19th century Vienna building pictured at right -- one of the firm's "best-known" buildings.

While WaPo and LAT liked the building throughout, the New York Times balks at the gallery space. Reading the review as a whole, one wonders if the main problem the writer has is that the museum is in Akron instead of, say, New York. In fact that review has enough problems as to be worth its own post.

Closer to home, the Louisville Courier-Journal wonders if Akron will benefit from a "Bilbao" effect, and whether there is a lesson for Louiville there as well. Finally the Beacon Journal runs a well-composed editorial arguing that the wildly incongruous building perfectly sums up the success Akron has had relative to its rust belt neighbors.