Grizzlypear Weekly • Aug. 5, 2023 • Buttondown

This week's written snapshots.

<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/nosy-nabobs-needlessly-nattered-nasty-negatives-about-nanas-nasturtium-necklace/">Nosy nabobs needlessly nattered nasty negatives about Nana’s nasturtium necklace.</a></h2>
<p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="An outline handsketch of a hand shaping the ASL American manual letter “N”, in red ink on a yellow spiral bound steno notebook. " class="wp-image-51990" height="1024" src="https://www.grizzlypear.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/N-1k-716x1024.jpg" width="716"/></figure>

The boy’s craft table had a ribbon of markers in holders of toilet paper rolls. Mama glued them together in groups of four and six. It’s a nice modular system that the kids decorated with markers.

05 Aug 2023

<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/opm-51-do-what/">OPM.51 Do what?</a></h2>
<p><p>Describing my job as an OPM is easy and hard — I’m the ultimate middleman.</p>

The architects, contractors, and users bring specific expertise to the project. I take take care of the weird stuff so they can focus on the work.

I navigate the peculiarities of my institution towards a successful outcome.

Guide the team through the process and the timeline.
Provide extra feedback during design.
Chase information the architects can’t find.
Watch the big picture so let the field guys focus on construction.
Manage expectations with the user groups.
Advise the team sidestep mistakes.
Encourage them towards their best work.
Celebrate the end.

I don’t bring obvious value, but done right, project succeeds naturally.

I’ve been subscribed to Grant Snider for years. His Incidental Comics always brighten the day.

The Daily Overview posts an aerial photo (almost) every day. It’s a regular reminder about the greatness of our world — and our intrusions upon it.

I just stumbled across this brilliant 24 hour comic, The Gaeneviad by Boulet, about an old woman who rescues Zeus, who is thus in her debt. Do yourself a favor and read it!

Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA

04 Aug 2023

<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/the-many-adventures-of-winnie-the-pooh-lounsbery-eritherman-sharpsteen-1977/">The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Lounsbery, Eritherman, Sharpsteen, 1977</a></h2>
<p><p>A great movie, and one of the few feature films that stayed in the ads-free kids section in Disney+; I’d happily watch it again.</p>

Loved their use of a physical book as a frame throughout the movie; the animators used the page transitions in fun creative ways.

Also loved the imperfections of the animated lines; it breathes life into the movie that is often missing in modern projects.

And of course, I enjoyed the surreal song Heffalump and dance number; the boy seemed a little disturbed by the sequence.

03 Aug 2023

<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/at-some-point-clothing-optional-wont-be-so-cute/">At some point, clothing optional won’t be so cute.</a></h2>
<p><p>he ran into the kitchen without underwear<br/>Mama told me to grab one from the dryer</p>

he ran to the laundry
Mama told me to watch him

Make sure he doesn’t pull out all the clothes!
M-A-M-A 我每天是 careful 的!

(M-A-M-A I’m careful every day!)

䷱䷠

yellow ears
gold handles
happy tripod

02 Aug 2023

<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/san-diego-z-to-a/">San Diego, Z to A</a></h2>
<p><ol>

Zoo is the truth. Visit it. Get a membership. Visit it a few times.

Yes! The carousel started running again that week at Balboa Park after a six month rehabilitation. What a gem! Gorgeous carvings. It has character, which the carousel at Legoland lacks.

unfortunately, the miniature train at Balboa Park, is uneXceptional.

We’ll be back next March and with another set of 2-day passes to Legoland. (They charge almost nothing for the second day, aside from the $30 parking charge.)

Visit the ships at the Maritime Museum. It’s awesome. We spent all day (without even taking the harbour tour). I could not imagine packing myself with a bunch of dudes to explore the world. I hope to return ten years later when they’ll be old enough to savor the exhibits. They also enjoyed the park across the street.

Unimaginably bigger is the Midway Aircraft Carrier. After the Maritime Museum closed, we walked to this ship and holy hell, that thing is massive. We’ll visit in five years when both kids are old to understand its enormity.

The years as a project manager of large construction projects taught me the value of money. What we saw ain’t cheap, forty or four hundred years ago.

Several active warships were docked across the bay. Super-empire!

Regrettably, the kids (five and nine) aren’t old enough to enjoy art museums. But that’s not so disappointing when it’s a small free jewel box like the Timken Museum of Art.

Quirky Spanish Village Art Center was also fun, but nerve-wracking while manhandling a five year old to keep him from touching everything.

Preferably, art should be touched, but that’s not my call in someone else’s studio.

On the other hand, you can touch the art at the New Children’s Museum. Not cheap ($76 for the four of us), but the Whammock! by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam is worth every penny. My daughter is aging out of the museum, so it was a bittersweet visit.

Nighttime festivities at the zoo freed me to wander Balboa Park on my own for two nights (we only bought one adult membership for my wife since it came for coupons for my entries).

Mingei International Museum was cool. High craft meets high art. Next time I’ll pay to peruse the second floor gallery.

Lovely to hang out at the May S. Marcy Sculpture Court and Garden. I sketched a few sculptures, eavesdropped on a couple of conversations, and enjoyed the evening as the sun set.

Kicking it on the the stairs in front of the Timken Museum was a joy as a group of youngsters danced to a bluetooth speaker. I miss living in a real city.

Jump! One young fellow was lying on the ground. As a middle aged fool, I assumed he was stretching his back. He suddenly twisted himself upside down in a flash.

I enjoyed a couple of hours at the Natural History museum. I wasn’t into the taxidermy, but stared for a while at bones and hand-drawn botanical illustrations.

How did he grow up so fast? After the zoo closed, we checked out a moth event outside the Natural History museum. The boy asked great questions for the entomologist. I didn’t realize he was so fluent in English.

Go to the Fleet Science Center. (According to my coworker who grew up in San Diego)

For $229, the Balboa Park annual pass (2 adults and 4 kids) is a no-brainer in future visits.

Even though the AirBNB was in a great location, it was a little grimy. But we had a place to sleep and cook for a week at a reasonable price. It came with fleas.

Dogs! But the landlord’s dogs were super cute. Our boy Drew During our waits for Dinner. I also started watching Bluey with the kids. It’s Dang great!

Cute library alert! Vegas libraries are big community centers, so it fun to check out the little University Heights public library. I found a Mutts alphabet book and an illustrated copy of Kipling’s Just So Stories.

Bordertown Primm has a dead Outlet Mall on the way home. There are only two stores still open with the rest filled with murals. The only reason it hasn’t been abandoned is because it’s attached to a casino. I hope it stays alive, it’s the best rest stop, clean, unused, and air conditioned. Especially since the claw machine gave us a Pickachu for $1!

A week away from podcasts and writing, though I sketched a little. Before the trip, I suspected that I needed a break. In retrospect I sorely needed it. If you’re not sure, take one.

02 Aug 2023

<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/mythologies-roland-barthes-1957/">Mythologies, Roland Barthes, 1957</a></h2>
<p><p>I bought this book for freshman rhetoric (or art history?) to fulfill one of my English requirements at Berkeley.  I kept the book because loved his essay about professional wrestling and I finally read it over the pandemic.</p>

The book has a surprisingly contemporary feel, since it’s a series of short essays with a deep analysis at the end of the book. In our contemporary era, this would be a collection of posts with an extended coda.

Then again Barthes was French so the essays are deeper than your typical tweet-storm and the closing discussion on semiology was an absolute ass whupping since I haven’t tussled with high theory since 2006.

I’m fortunate to have taken those grad school theory courses before reading that last essay. I don’t remember much from Houston, but I knew just enough to roughly grok his game.

Barthe posits that “mythology” is a second order semiological effect. The “full” Sign of language becomes the “empty” Signifier for myth which is paired with an unspoken Signified to create a new Sign.

The main effect of myth is to distort knowledge in the service of power by making dominant values invisible. Myth makes ideology natural.

In contemporary parlance, mythology hides privilege.

The duty of the mythologist to untangle the web of obfuscation and expose such rhetoric for analysis.

I might be 23 years late to the game, but it was totally worth lugging across the continent and back again.

Two years later, my current reading obsession is “ancient wisdom”. Editing this draft reminds me that I need to re-read of this book — the ancients were no less susceptible to corruption than we are today. And if I’m gonna keep writing these notes, I should grab his baton to question today’s mythologies.

31 Jul 2023

Thanks for reading!
Justus

Aug. 5, 2023, 6:22 p.m.

Grizzlypear Weekly • Aug. 5, 2023

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