December, 2009

Mile 106.3 – Utah State Capitol ~ 1916 ~ Richard Kletting architect

July 9, 2009 – Nielsen Media Research reported today that an estimated 31.1 million people watched Michael Jackson’s televised memorial on July 7^th. By way of comparison Nielsen reported that 38 million people watched President Obama’s inauguration in January.

July 2009 map

Mile 102.7 – Today Allstate Insurance Company released a rather sobering report. The report ranked Salt Lake City as the 99^th safest large U.S. city for driving. The report ranked 200 U.S. cities and apparently 101 of them have larger moronic driving populations than Salt Lake City.

July 8, 2009 – Oscar G. Mayer, the third Oscar Mayer to chair the meat processing company that bears his name died this week.

Mile 99.3 –  The first 100 down 900 more to go.

July 7, 2009 – After eight months of political and legal wrangling Al Franken was sworn in today as the junior senator from Minnesota.  Franken’s presence gives the Democrats 60 members in the US Senate; enough to thwart Republican filibusters assuming the Democrats can proceed in a unified manner.

July 2009 Map

Mile 95.0 – From its founding our fair city has been the namesake of the desert lake known as The Great Salt Lake. If you’ve never visited the shores of this mighty lake, I highly recommend you do so. Millions of birds can’t be wrong.

July 2009 Map

Mile 91.1 – I don’t know, maybe it’s to commemorate the touchdown of Salt Lake City’s 1999 tornado or perhaps it is a bronze protest against alien abductions……Then again it may just be a mother playfully swinging her child. That’s the problem with art, I just never get it.

July 2, 2009 – Forbes.com published a list this week that puts Salt Lake City in its top ten most family-friendly cities in America. This may seem like quite an impressive honor; however Baltimore Maryland and Detroit Michigan also made the list of top ten most family-friendly cities. Having spent a bit of time in both Baltimore and Detroit I can’t help but think that Forbes might want to reconsider its metric for measuring family-friendliness.

July 2009 Map

Mile 86.5 – Washington Square, upon which the City County building sits, is a spot where political and social theater often takes place.   From parades to protests, rallies to Rocky Anderson, Washington Square has hosted them all.

This summer there has been a bit of daily drama to behold as Salt Lake City police officers make their mid-morning rounds through Washington Square and wake the vagrants who are sleeping there.

July 1, 2009 – The highly publicized and hotly debated Immigration Bill SB81 goes into effect today. One of the bill’s more contentious points is the provision that allows local law enforcement agencies to be involved in immigration enforcement. Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank has publicly made it known on several occasions that the Salt Lake City Police Department will not enforce SB81.

July 2009 Map

Mile 82.3 – One thing, and perhaps only one thing, is certain about the human condition; “No one here gets out alive.” – J. Morrison

June 2009 Map

Day 5 of The Salt Lake City Sphere – a five day, five image work set to the words of Neil Peart’s Hemispheres

Mile 75.1 – Unfortunately at this point our tale must diverge from Peart’s Hemispheres. For there is no Cygnus upon the land.

June 29, 2009 – Bernie Madoff was sentenced today to 150 years in prison for operating what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in Wall Street history. Madoff’s scheme defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars.

June 2009 Map

Day 4 of The Salt Lake City Sphere – a five day, five image work set to the words of Neil Peart’s Hemispheres

73.9 Miles – III. Armageddon

The universe divided
As the heart and mind collided
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years
In a cloud of doubts and fears
Their world was torn asunder into hollow
Hemispheres

Some fought themselves, some fought each other
Most just followed one another
Lost and aimless like their brothers
For their hearts were so unclear
And the truth could not appear
Their spirits were divided into blinded
Hemispheres

Some who did not fight
Brought tales of old to light
My Rocinante sailed by night
On her final flight’
To the heart of Cygnus’ fearsome force
We set our course
Spiraled through that timeless space
To this immortal place
(Peart, Hemispheres, 1978)

June 2009 Map

Day 3 of The Salt Lake City Sphere – a five day, five image work set to the words of Neil Peart’s Hemispheres

71.4 miles – IIb Dionysus
I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night
In the Heart’s eternal light
You need only trust your feelings
Only love can steer you right
I bring laughter, I bring music
I bring joy and I bring tears
I will soothe your primal fears
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears’

The cities were abandoned
And the forests echoed song
They danced and lived as brothers
They knew love could not be wrong
Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars
The people were contented
And the gods watched from afar
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared
Bringing wolves and cold starvation
And the hearts of men despaired

(Peart, Hemispheres, 1978)

June 27, 2009 – Today in a radio and internet address House Minority Leader John Boehner criticized the Obama administration stating “The president and Democrats in Congress claim this spending binge is necessary to put Americans back to work. They promised unemployment would not rise above 8 percent if their trillion-dollar stimulus was passed.”  The administration was wrong Boehner said.  “Unemployment has soared above 9 percent. And now the president admits that unemployment will soon reach double digits.”

June 2009 Map