James is in San Francisco for the Native American film festival and his documentary about his life ‘Ghost Riders’.

Today, Mr. ‘I can say what I want but nobody else can’ or ‘I don’t get satire’ had a picture posted on his site of Argus Editor Randell Beck as Darth Vader (Belfrage, you would like Star Wars – NERD!!!!!!!!) So I did one of Belfrage.

 

 

 

I’ll have to put out a ‘hat tip’ to Jay K. at the Argus Leader for following up on the  SculptureWalk juror issue. As you may or may not know I wrote a letter to the editor of the Argus asking why the SculptureWalk juror names were secret and after Jay did a story for the 2007 SculptureWalk, they decided to release them. And of course NOT because I brought it up. They say they only release the names AFTER the jury process is over. Which is peculiar because the names have never been released in past years. They claim their identities are to stay anonymous because they didn’t want the jurors to be bothered by the artists, conflicts, etc. Lame excuse.  Like artists have time for that shit.

Anyway, after reading the list, I’m puzzled how these people are qualified to be on it, here’s my review, and of course opinion on the matter:

Chairwoman: Janet Brown, chairwoman of the Performing and Visual Arts at Augustana College
This one is bizarre. Usually chairs don’t bother with being a juror, do they have time? Usually they are the final say. They’ll look at what a jury picks, then tell the jury if something can’t be shown due to conflicts of interest, etc. But to actually sit on the panel. Very weird. But of course this is a woman who gave her HUSBAND art grants while she ran the SD Arts Council, so no surprise.

Mary Groth, artist
Mary may be the ONLY person qualified to sit on this jury. She is the only full-time artist on the jury, even though she is a painter and not a sculptor. In conversations w/Mary, she seems to be obsessed w/ saleability of art, and this worries me. As someone said to me last night, SW reminds them of the Franklin Mint.

Lynne Byrne, artist, Byrne Companies and VistaComm
Lynne is a photographer and married to a multi-multi-multi-millionaire. I’ll give Lynne credit, she has an amazing eye and her photos are very beautiful, but if you and I had time to travel all over the world and take pictures of exotic places, you would probably have a knack for it to. Lynne sits on the jury because her husband and her give lots O’ money to SW.

Lyle Parks, artist and CCL Label
Lyle is the only sculptor on the jury. Lyle is very talented, and I enjoy his work.

Paul Schiller, artist and co-owner Lawrence & Schiller Inc.
The co-founder of South Dakota’s largest ad agency, and photographer is also very qualified to sit on this jury, but like Groth, he is more concerned about saleability (worked in advertising for uptine years!) then about aesthetics. Ever seen his photo’s? Anne Geddes w/o the kids.

Anne Scherschligt, Howalt-McDowell Insurance
Huh? Besides being related to a wealthy family involved in the Insurance industry, I’m trying to figure out her qualifications. I always call my insurance agent and shoot the shit about art, don’t you?

Chris Schiltz, Koch Hazard Architects
Co-owner of an Architect firm. Again, please explain qualifications? Besides being connected and wealthy.

Michael Bender, Bender Commercial Real Estate
This one makes no sense. You could replace Micheal with a school janitor and be better off.

Mike Hall, city of Sioux Falls
This selection makes sense, but in ways is ironic. Since SW is public art, it is good to have a representative from the city as a juror. But, SW seems to always say they are mostly privately funded, so why would they need Mike on the jury? They don’t care about my opinion, a taxpayer, why should they care about his?

Steve NyHaug, city of Sioux Falls
Steve is the ONLY juror that makes sense. Ok, you ask, what the fuck does a police captain know about art? Well sometimes it’s good to have Joe six-pack sitting on a jury, because they will give a different perspective, but more importantly it’s a public safety issue, you don’t want some sculpture made out of knives in SW, do you?

Jim Clark, Xcel Energy
This one is extremely peculiar. I guess if you are the founder, you deserve the right to sit on the jury. Jim, you are soooooooooooooo modest!
 

Maybe the advertising was slow on Saturday at the Angus Liar, but this cartoon was printed and they gave me a whole quarter page. I was disappointed though, they cut off my byline (which I felt was the funniest part) but you can see it here exclusively.

Oh, BTW, all of my toons are my original ideas. Just wanted to clarify that.

 

 

Just go to my merch site and scroll down. The baseball Jersey’s come in 3 colors, BLK (as shown) RED and Dark Blue.

www.cafepress.com/25dp

 

Ok, so let me understand this, you put up a blog, whether it is political, current events, celebrity gossip, the arts, or what have you. Then you have a comment section, but when some people disagree with you, you make people register to comment on your blog.

Isn’t the purpose of having a blog so that you can debate with people and have an open discussion. Apparently if you disagree with the blog master, they don’t want your comments.

It’s not just conservatives or liberals, it’s happening all over blogosphere. If you don’t want people to disagree with you, or to tell you the TRUTH why not just have a website where you throw out your spittle and have no comment or contact section, I would respect you more. A few bloggers have said my tone is too harsh, but honestly, I rarely swear, but have used interesting adjectives to describe people, and I have NEVER threatened anyone. So why do they get so mad? Because I disagree with them and directly call them on their bullshit, and the last thing these people want is other bloggers to see they are lying, so they make me into the bad guy and confine me to fill out an online form, so they can call my mommy and tell her I have been a bad boy.

Well ladies and gents, on 25dp, I don’t pull that shit. You can write whatever, I don’t care, you know why, because this is a blog, and we live in a free country.

Censorship is Un-American.

This is a letter I was GOING to send to the councilors and mayor, and I chickened out (I even have a ceiling!):

 

April 27, 2006

Dear:
Vernon Brown
Gerald Beninga
De Knudson
Darrin Smith
Bob Jamison
Dave Munson
Pat Costello,

I would like to personally thank you for not stopping by my home before the
last city election. It is refreshing to know that at least one of my local
representatives doesn’t really care about my vote or my opinion even though I
have rarely missed an election in the 14+ years I have lived in Sioux Falls.

Honestly though, I can’t see why you would want to stop by my place anyway. I
don’t have a lot of money or influence, and I refuse to give money to any
politician. I guess I’m old fashioned like that, I actually think politicians
should talk to their constituents in person instead filling their mailboxes
with junk mail.

Maybe you blew me off because I live in councilman Staggers district, and what
does that curmudgeon know? He actually believes municipalities should serve
the public. Where does he get these crazy notions? Must be from teaching
Political Science or something. Kermit doesn’t really count anyway, because if
he did he would of had someone challenging him in the last election.

I try to do a lot of research before I vote, since most of my representatives
are so inaccessible. I really enjoy the guessing game though, makes me feel
like I’m on the Wheel of Fortune.  This election I researched your contributor
list.  It was like the Who’s Who of Sioux Falls. I doubt you have to pay any
of them back with favors, let’s say with like a $400,000 interest free loan. I
hope you have the honesty and integrity not to do something so selfish.

I know I did a lot of generalizing and stereotyping in this letter, but I’m
too busy to type you each a personal letter. I wanted to know what it was like
to be a politician for a day.

Good luck in your future decision making, do as you please, I now know my
opinion doesn’t count.

I’ll be sure to remember you in the next election, even if you don’t know me.

Invisible voter,
Scott L. Ehrisman

PS – Don’t bother sending me a letter of apology, I still haven’t found time
to read all those postcards you sent me.

 

Well I was doing a little end of the year email cleanup and I came across these 2 emails I sent to Argus Leader entertainment columnist, Robert Morast.

I’m in a better mood now.

 ————————————

June 22, 2006

Robbajazfestbert-

Your column today was funny, was that a humourous piece, like the one you
wrote about pyramids and arcades?

Um, I don’t recall Sumlin playing in Dylan’s or Joni Mitchell’s band. Did I
miss something? As far as I remember he was Howlin Wolf’s guitar player and
had a short stint with Muddy Waters. Every guitar player from Clapton to
Richards have said they were influenced by him. But folk? Come on Bob! You
read to many comic books!

Also, I love the cleanup job your fellow under-paid co-workers had to do with
Laurel at Food and Ferm, making a cute little video about her cooking skills.
How did that make you feel? I felt bad for you. I mean, really, how can you be
a ‘cutting edge’ reporter when your co-workers are constantly apologizing for
your inaccurate and editorialized style of reporting? Makes you wonder why
readership is down?

Maybe you should start a couple more meaningless magazines. Here’s some ideas:

KUPCAKES
Jana’s guide to successful kid’s birthday parties

SANDWICHES
Eric’s magazine about nothing

BOBBALISCIOUS
Everything you need to know about grunge bands and some other made up stuff.

It’s been fun,
Scott

———————————————–

July 1, 2006

Boberta-

I was a little upset you didn’t write me back last time, maybe your email
wasn’t working, you were in the middle of the Star Wars Triology or you were
giving Nick Simon a backrub, who knows, who cares? We both know neither one of
us have time for the truth.

Your two articles this week got me laughing once again (U shur ar’ pro-lific).
I’m not going to comment on the downtown one even though I will give you
credit on the drug reference, very clever, I never knew you had it in you.

Though many things were factually wrong with your Joan Jett article (which
we’ve come to expect out of you) I want to instead focus on your comment about
Courtney Love being the Queen of Rock. I had to go home early for lunch today
because I pissed my pants laughing after reading that. Courtney Love has
contributed only one thing in her life, she had Kurt Cobain’s child, that’s
it! (oh, and she keeps a lot of farmers in Afghanistan in business).

Though Joan is a contender for the position of Queen of Rock, I would probably
give the title to Patti Smith or Etta James. Blobby, it is really time you
stopped wearing diapers and threw away your ‘Nevermind’ CD.

Tube Socks and Stocking Caps forever!
Scott

PS- I think I’m going to start emailing Jana from now on instead of you. Her
three stars to the Pizza Ranch contributed partially to my soiled pants.
Maybe ‘I’ should start wearing diapers.

There has been some questions lately about the how the editing of the movie has been going. First I want to say Chris has put a lot of time and effort into it so far and these things take time. You have to realize that Chris is the only one doing the editing. There was four cameras with 5 hours of footage each or more. That is over 20 hours to sift through. After the best footage is found it has to be organized into folders then into scene folders, then the editing begins. This is a long process. From start to final cut Chris could have 500-1000 hours into editing it. A VERY big project for one person to undertake. What I am trying to clarify is, these things take time.

All the video equipment used was professional and so was the audio, this wasn’t some handycam Blair Witch rinky-dink project. I want people to know when finished it will be a full-length, professional feature film.

Before we can even sell the final cut, we first have to enter it into over 100 film festivals that vary from docudrama to music and art. This is also considered a ‘feature’ so it has to be at least 80 minutes long.

The long term goals for the movie vary, but are all exciting just the same. If the film wins some ‘promising’ awards. It could get picked up by a production company, which could mean good things for all of us, and yes, Fred, some money. It could also develop into a stage show, which is also exciting. I can’t promise you anything at this point accept we are working on trying to make it the best we possibly can with the resources we have. I have a lot of confidence that the final product will be very creative and different then most music films.

This is a long process, and hopefully a year from now we will have some positive feedback.

PATIENCE EVERYONE! Good things come to those who wait.