Category: Post

     I’d read a few times that bringing the temperature of a failing drive down will increase its reliability long enough to salvage important files. When the drive in my trusty Powerbook decided one day last week to stop booting and make horrible clicking sounds, I decided to test the theory.

     Not feeling particularly motivated to dissect the powerbook, since that would void the warranty I planned to invoke to get the drive replaced, I set it on a relatively uncluttered shelf of the fridge when I got home from work. Ten minutes later, I took it out, and the drive booted like new. I copied my iphoto libraries to an external drive and once that was successful, begun the copying of the only other important file on the drive: a giant iMovie project (~ 30 GB). About halfway through, the drive had warmed up, the copy progress bar had stalled and the clicking was back.

     Fair enough. Back in the fridge, for 20 minutes this time. I took it out, booted up (painlessly), hooked it up to the external drive and started the copy again. This time it made it to 75% before the clicking took hold. At this point I considered going after the video clips that made up the iMovie project in small batches, but decided I didn’t feel like doing that if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. I also didn’t want to play guess and check to discover the ideal length of time to chill a powerbook, so I devised a devious plot.

     This plot consisted of cooling the powerbook down again, carting my external drive to the kitchen, booting the laptop in the fridge, beginning the copy, and closing the door. Success! I share this experience with you, the internet, in the hopes that it is useful.

     I saw a link to this series of photographs, depicting a group of monks working on a sand mandala, on the Kircher Society blog last week. While I’m not a huge fan of monks or sand-painting, I am a fan of large-scale, glacially-paced art projects and behind-the-scenes documentation. Clearly, the fusion of the two via stop-motion animation is among my favorite things ever (see here).

     These photographs were practically SCREAMING to be turned into an animation of some sort, so I felt it was my duty to download them and whip up a stop-motion animated gif.

     Here it is (2.8 Megs, takes a while to load).

     Shortly after doing this, I found that the creation of a strikingly similar Mandala had been animated here. This one is available as a quicktime movie, and features significantly more frames, at a significantly lower resolution. Compromises!

     Shortly after finding that video, I found another one, from Rutgers University. This one is the best of the bunch – lots of frames AND lots of resolution (wmv here). Skip about ten minutes in to get to the construction.

     If you just CAN’T get enough Monk-made-mandala action, here are some nice detail photos of yet another mandala-in-progress.

     If you’ve watched any of these through to the end, you:ll have noticed that after finishing, the monks waste no time in wiping away their work. What’s the point? I wondered too, so I consulted the wikipedia entry on Mandalas, which offers the following:

“To symbolize impermanence (a central teaching of Buddhism), after days or weeks of creating the intricate pattern, the sand is brushed together and is usually placed in a body of running water to spread the blessings of the Mandala.”

Awesome.

     Those thirsting for even more detail on the process of sand-mandala construction can consult this site, which is teeming with procedural detail. On the construction:

     “Before a monk is permitted to work on constructing a mandala he must undergo a long period of technical artistic training and memorization, learning how to draw all the various symbols and studying related philosophical concepts. At the Namgyal monastery (the personal monastery of the Dalai lama), for example, this period is three years.”

     “In the early stages of painting, the monks sit on the outer part of the unpainted mandala base, always facing the center. For larger sized Mandalas, when the mandala is about halfway completed, the monks then stand on the floor, bending forward to apply the colors.”

     “Traditionally, the mandala is divided into four quadrants and one monk is assigned to each. At the point where the monks stand to apply the colors, an assistant joins each of the four. Working co- operatively, the assistants help by filling in areas of color while the primary four monks outline the other details.”

     “The monks memorize each detail of the mandala as part of their monastery’s training program. It is important to note that the mandala is explicitly based on the Scriptural texts. At the end of each work session, the monks dedicate any artistic or spiritual merit accumulated from this activity to the benefit of others. This practice prevails in the execution of all ritual arts.”

     “There is good reason for the extreme degree of care and attention that the monks put into their work: they are actually imparting the Buddha’s teachings. Since the mandala contains instructions by the Buddha for attaining enlightenment, the purity of their motivation and the perfection of their work allows viewers the maximum benefit.”

     “Generally, each monk keeps to his quadrant while painting the square palace. When they are painting the concentric circles, they work in tandem, moving all around the mandala. They wait until an entire cyclic phase or layer is completed before moving outward together. This ensures that balance is maintained, and that no quadrant of the mandala grows faster than another.”

     “The preparation of a mandala is an artistic endeavor, but at the same time it is an act of worship. In this form of worship concepts and form are created in which the deepest intuitions are crystallized and expressed as spiritual art. The design, which is usually meditated upon, is a continuum of spatial experiences, the essence of which precedes its existence, which means that the concept precedes the form.”

     I posted this clip to my youtube account a few weeks ago and subsequently forgot to post it here. Here’s the description I wrote for it:

     “I noticed this weirdly predictive MST3K quip the other day. It comes from a 1991 episode – “Fugitive Alien,” and consists of a now familiar death / kenny / those bastards sequence. Struck me as weird since South Park premiered in 1997. No idea if Trey Parker & Matt stone have ever discussed the source of the recurring catchphrase — and this probably isn’t it — but it seemed oddly coincidental.”

     Someone in the comments has already accused me of dubbing in the ‘bastards’ bit myself, but I assure you it’s unaltered.

     This headline makes me FURIOUS:

     It’s attached to this NPR piece, featuring a brief realaudio file, which I’ve made available as an MP3 below for people who hate realplayer. True, this is not the studio, or even the ‘first’ Motown building in Detroit (That’s here). BUT it is the building that was still housing Motown’s archives. Before demolishing the building, the city couldn’t be bothered to remove these artifacts. All sorts of historically important ephemera, knowingly demolished. Listening to the audio makes me even more angry. Randy Wilcox, of detroitfunk.com shares:

     “I was lucky enough to save a couple of months worth of hand-written documents by the producers recording each session — who they were recording, the musicians, what they did that day, what songs they were working on…”

     Included in this sheaf are the handwritten production notes for Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ Album, bearing working titles, session dates, musician credits, and other significant details. For people like me who obsess about behind-the-scenes minutuae, this is literally heartbreaking. Multiple books have been written around similar documentation of Elvis / Beatles / Who / Rolling Stones sessions. Superbowl parking has eliminated the possibility for such a Motown book.

     Not surprisingly, the NPR piece stirred up some intense archivist controversy (Scroll down to #43 — Also: note the title of an archivist listserv’s archive page: ‘Archives Archives’. Pleasantly redundant!). The highlights, in fluid, readable form:

     Tanya Elder says:

     I grew up in Detroit. I visit regularly. My parents still live there. I
had not idea that there were documents still in that building. I just
called the Mayor’s office and was told that I should call Motown to
complain and not the City of Detroit, who ‘once again is getting blamed’
for something going ‘wrong’ in the city.

     I was also told that scholarly or neighborhood groups should have gone
through the building to search for historic materials. I don’t know if
anyone knew that items were still left in the building.

It’s all so incredibly tragic.

     Alison Stankrauff, Archivist and Assistant Librarian at Indiana University South Bend says:

     I’m a transplanted Detroiter – I went to Wayne State University, and
worked at the labor archives there… While I was a student, and was
thinking of jobs, I got to talk with Berry Gordy’s sister, Esther Gordy,
who runs the Motown Historical Museum when I was going through the
museum… She told me at that time that there were lots of documents
down at the building on Woodward that needed going through, and that
they didn’t have anyone to do it – and if their budget allowed, etc.,
they’d be hiring, etc. This was probably 2001…

Obviously it never got done, and yet more vital Detroit history is lost.
So sad!!

     Jim A. Beardsley says:

     Thanks very much Chris for the headsup and link–that was a thought provoking report on NPR. It’s no surprise that there are many ex-Michiganders around the country who may take an interest in the story. What is surprising is the apparent lack of interest from those closer to the source. Does the Motown matter represent standard archival management in Detroit? Should this be a wake-up call for Detroit archivists and historians? Are they all hibernating permanently? Maybe the “exers” should come back to help exhibit the value of taking a proactive role in local history appreciation and preservation. Let’s hear some good news on Detroit archives from the locals, please.

     Deborah Rice, Society of Women Engineers Archivist at Wayne State University in Detroit says:

     You have to
remember that the Motown Museum (the original recording studio) is
still around and I’m sure most people, including area archivists,
assumed all of their records were there. I also had no idea that
records were left in the building they occupied from 1968-72 until I
heard the NPR story. I was as shocked as a lot of you were.
Obviously it was not common knowledge and I think it’s uncollegial to
point a finger at area archivists and accuse us of not caring. I
deplore not only the loss of records, but of the building itself,
for what it stood for historically in terms of Motown Records, but
also because it was a piece of architectural history as it was an
Albert Kahn building. I assumed, as did most others, that the
building was an empty shell like so many abandoned buildings in
Detroit that are constantly being torn down despite protests from
local preservationists. It’s unrealistic to assume that archivists or
local historians should have “known” to go through the building
before it was torn down. Most people don’t just go exploring through
an abandoned building in Detroit – not exactly a safe endeavor. The
situation is perhaps a sad comment on our city, but one that should
not necessarily extend to the entire archival community.

     Tanya Elder added:

     The NPR story reported that Hitsville on Grand Blvd, which is the Motown
Museum, knew about the documents but could not get the funding to get
them out of the building. Other than that, I wonder what other routes
did they or the gentleman in the piece go about to advertise the need to
get them out of the building. Wayne State has a library school with an
archives component, I wonder if they were contacted?

     The gentleman in the piece reports that he had been in the building
several years ago and took some of the documents out of the building.
The link to the NPR story has additional photographs of the interior of
the building.

     Anyway, it’s too late, and as I said before, very very tragic. I wish I
had paid more attention, I live in NY and only go back once or twice a
year. Makes me feel a bit guilty myself.

     To which Allison responded:

     I second your feelings of guilt – transplanted as I have been for a few
years now… I still feel that I personally could have done something
about this…

     So yeah, I guess that’s the point of all this: to point out the weird cocktail of guilt and anger that this story inspires. An encouraging ending to the documents rescued by Mr. Wilcox:

     “I was transferring the Motown documents that I rescued after and during the demolition of the Donovan Building to the possession of the Detroit Public Library Special Collections director, Mark. He was as happy to recieve them as I was to donate them. They are now officially part of the DPL, here in Detroit, where they belong. Needless to say I was contacted by a wide variety of institutions, but never in my mind for one second did I consider putting these documents in any other collection. They are now happy and safe and will be cared for with love and expertise.”

     Be sure to visit detroitfunk.com for the best local coverage of this week’s madness.

NPR – ‘Motown Building Razed for Super Bowl Parking’ (Download)