Ending a tradition, the Art Institute of Chicago aims to require visitors to start paying a fixed admission fee beginning June 3, though it wants to slash prices for younger kids and expand some summer evening hours.

After countless years (I would like to know exactly how many) of offering the wonderful option of paying what you can instead of the full 12$ admission fee the Institute givith and the Institute taketh away by trying to make the 12$ a mandatory voluntary fee, in return they are planing on not just having bankers hours now.

Most of these changes in my opinion are great, not only great but a earthquake to the arts in Chicago and LONG LONG overdue. Having the doors open at a realistic time for working people to view the art is a simple decision. Who can sprint from work grab a friend or family member, see some art before the doors close at 4:30pm (or get harassed by guards at 4:10-4:15) and actually be relaxed enough to enjoy the process?

Apparently the bulk of the visitors were “found to be disproportionately white, educated and affluent.” How can that be a surprise when the hours of operation are so tight and the details of the voluntary fee are in the smallest type possible and if you dare to offer less you are met with attitude and snide looks of disdain. What non affluent, educated, white would be able to or care to jump though those hoops. You want to open the doors to people who don’t come to the Institute? Simple.

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Wal-Mart is willing to do anything to get in your cities, it loves you and wants it bad. It see’s all the money goodwill and hope that it can bring to your life if you would only let it open its door and let you walk into its warm gooey goodness.

Like a abusive spouse Wal-Mart is droping all its bad habbits (like beating you) so that you will let it back into the home.

Over the past few years when it was trying to get into major metropoliton city limits and got MASSIVE resistance it spent money repainting its facade and getting rid of its garish 1980’s blue/white colors for warm and rich browns and vanilla. It spent money reflooring and bringing new fixtures into its worst stores. Places where money hasn’t been spent on looks since it was initially built. Oh and they gave some money to local school districts agian. All in order for you to like them and let them in………….it didnt work.

Phase 3 (really more then that this has been a planned growth for over a decade) is now in the works and you have seen it in your news just might not have noticed all the little things they are doing as a whole (like I said they want you‘re money in a bad way). The following is just the start.

Wal-Mart will scale back sales of guns : see bad PR especially in major cities

Wal-Mart to build in depressed urban areas : lose money in hopes of wooing voters and inter-city officials by showing that they can revitalize an area as opposed to being a parasitic drain.

Walmart Upgrades Health Benefits for Employees : Read close the wording of those agreements

Walmart Plans to Start its Own Bank : The original idea years ago was brick and mortar buildings now its small, only to do instore transactions.

I have watched Wal-Mart fight this fight for almost a decade to no avail but I know that they will get what they want. I know that one city will bend under the bribes pressure and let them in, then the next city and so on each city falling faster and faster. The thing is that whatever they offer will be phased out asap once they get what they want. So please whatever you do if you work for any metro municipality get it all in advance. Don’t alow a fiscal quarter at a time payment or investment. Don’t fall for a based on profit returns donation. Get the money fast and first and by the love of God don’t give them a tax break to build them. PLEASE.

“To be honest, what kept us from doing it before was Isaac Hayes. We knew he was a Scientologist and he’s an awesome guy. We’re like, ‘Let’s just avoid that for now. Finally, we just had to tell Isaac, ‘Dude, we totally love working with you, and this is nothing personal, it’s just we’re South Park, and if we don’t do this, we’re belittling everything else we’ve ripped on.’”

After 9 seasons as the lovable, centered & wise Chef on the always sly, controversial, and humorous show that is South Park the two have departed ways. The first thing you would figure is that Isaac Hays would be leaving over money but that is not the case as he is currently locked in a established contract and just wants out of it. No it seems his sudden need to get out of the animated lime light of South Park is largely and possible entirely due to the “Trapped in the Closet” episode that aired back in November in which Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote a scathing satire of the Scientology faith and the personal quirks of three celebrities who cant seems to leave the plush closet in a child’s room.

The fact that Mr. Hayes leaves after this episode is both sad considering the kind of pressure the Scientology community can exert over him and personally more insulting over the fact that the “Trapped in the Closet” is a stylistic copy of the even funnier and more scathing episode ” All About the Mormons?” and no one quit or was up in arms about that episode. In fact when Isaac Hays quit he had to following to say about it:

“Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored,” he continued. “As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices.”

Where did Civil Rights come into play at all? How does the equal application of parody equate to the undermining of the following definition of Civil Rights?

The rights belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship, especially the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by subsequent acts of Congress, including civil liberties, due process, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from discrimination.

If your going to quit over image problems and community pressure then quit but don’t cloak it as some kind of minority or black protection issue saying things like that is pure fiction but so is Dianetics so I guess we can let it slide.

The Weapons of Tomorrow Today?

Click image to play movie. 19mb takes time to load.

Be in any industry long enough and you have to sit through a film crudely produced by a company in hopes of selling you some product, idea, or entirely new paradigm (or even the use of the new word paradigm). They often have graphics produced by preschoolers with clip art books and Elmers glue. Then add music ripped from a movie theater pre-show trivia soundtrack. One of the more interesting a friend sent me was for the “new” Dread Gun that is being produced in hopes of eliminating the need for chemical ammunition. Watch, enjoy and see the future of tomorrow just as the previous generation did when they saw the Jetsons.

[audio:http://ihudgens.com/images/news/Green_Day-Un-American_Idiot.mp3]
Not having worked on and accomplished as many side projects as I wanted for this year. In all the ones that I have completed none have gotten the kind of attention as a remix of Green Day’s American Idiot that I did back in October of 2004. I did it originally as more of a exasperated reflection then a vengeful attack of any person or policy. Having enjoyed the song when it first came out and thinking (later I found out that I was one of many) that this would “compliment” the many audio quotes I had of Pres. Bush I mixed it together thinking nothing would come about with it but it would give people a laugh. I showed it to friends and had laughs about it, later more versions came out but I was always slightly proud of the quotes I got to work. Many were just the Greatest Hits of Dubya and I enjoyed the fact that no one I heard got the more obscure and funny. I moved on from it and did other side projects (and mostly worked) only to check on my sites bandwidth months later to find out that it was moving Gigs a day.

After inspecting the sites, links and domains that were hitting it I came to find out that I was really hot in Europe, South East Asia and later Brazil. Weeks later I got an email from a DJ in London saying that he played the remix on the radio there and it was the top requested song of the day. Another London blogger wanted to do an interview on my “outrage” and opinion of the Bush Administration and their Dealings with Blair (needless to say I politely turned down the opportunity). Months rolled by and the bandwidth kept climbing, after a while I was curious how high it could get. Now it has gotten to the point that the bandwidth has hit my allotted maximum a month of 100 Gigs so its time for one last hurrah before we retire the old song to the pits of obscurity. I honestly thought that after a while why would anyone copy it from the source. It would die off and be forgotten, those that wanted it would grab it from a secondary site and the traffic would thin.

So we load the CD onto the Viking raft, set it adrift and light it on fire with a torch song, ending its long run here and going out to terra incognita.

The bandwidth is dead long live the bandwidth