Cowboy Who?

Until his untimely death in 2007, Robin Utterback was an integral part of the Houston art scene and was very successful as an exhibiting artist. In fact, he had solo shows in Houston or New York nearly every year dating back to 1975. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, first acquired one of his pieces in 1978, and eventually purchased three major paintings, as well as numerous works on paper and a suite of etchings. Utterback’s work, however, has rarely been seen since, with only three posthumous exhibitions at Meredith Long Gallery. Now, more than 40 works of art from the artist’s estate, which have long been in storage are on display at Foltz Fine Art through December 3, 2022.

The show is a loosely chronological retrospective spanning more than three decades. Paintings and works on paper and cardboard, as well as an assemblage and etching, provide insight into Utterback’s creative journey from his beginnings as an artist. He remained committed to abstraction for most of his career, and the two earliest paintings in the show from 1974 are narrow rectangles of color arranged diagonally in an all-over pattern. The following year, Utterback reduced those rectangles to a handful floating on a field of blue. Then, over the next two years, he continued to pare away these elements, and Momento, a piece from this period, is simply a black form suggesting the head of a cat, presented on a gray background. In 1978, an untitled acrylic, cloth, and charcoal painting on canvas signaled a change. Pattern and texture became more visible, and by 1981, the abstract shapes have disappeared into a painterly display of seductive color and light. 

Utterback did not restrict his work to any particular style or visual language. His ongoing experimentation with various materials and techniques led him to work with various mediums. Untitled (#167), from 1986, is an assemblage of scraps of wood that serve as a “canvas” on which he applied a pattern of calligraphic black marks. His early fascination with the line reasserted itself in the late 1980s, when he drew and painted lozenge and cellular shapes swimming across the surface like a virus. Utterback continued this direction as his picture planes became dense with increasingly complex shapes and patterns. By 1991, these configurations had yielded two bulbous figurative forms facing one other amidst a swirl of broad brushstrokes in Untitled (#437). 

That same year, Utterback introduced the color blue in a small untitled drawing. His use of blue continued in Untitled (#584), a large, lyrical painting suggesting a waterfall or a swirling pool of line and color. Soon after, he began creating large collages of cloth and acrylic on canvas. The stunning Untitled (#789) is a kaleidoscope of pinwheels and interlocking geometric forms embellished with a cascade of dripping paint. 

The exhibition includes two cardboard masks created in 2004 and 2005 after a residency in Strasbourg, a French city near the German border. Alison de Lima Greene, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, believes Utterback may have been inspired to create them to ward off AIDS, just as the people of Strasbourg used demons and masks to scare away the pernicious black plague that ravaged the city during the fourteenth century.

Everything Shows reveals Utterback’s evolution from monochromatic paintings to dense gestural abstractions to a loose, exhilarating lyricism. He is often referred to as a “painter’s painter” in that he followed where his work took him in terms of imagery, technique, and theme. In an essay for the Threepenny Review in 1986 titled “The Experience of Painting,” Utterback wrote: “It [painting] embodies the individual experience of the extended moment of its making, an experience of which its maker is only partly in control. In its full extension this moment includes the entire experience of the painter. The painting is the manifestation of this experience in all its particularity, and as such is directly accessible to the experience, momentary and extended, of others. We only have to look. Everything shows.”

Utterback’s career was cut short at the age of 58, and any works of art that were in his studio at the time were destroyed by fire. This surviving body of work reveals an accomplished painter’s evolution as he pursued his aesthetic and cerebral journey.

 

Robin Utterback: Everything Shows is on view at Foltz Fine Art in Houston through December 3, 2022.

The post Robin Utterback’s “Everything Shows” at Foltz Fine Art, Houston appeared first on Glasstire.

In anticipation of its new Grapevine iteration opening in 2023, Meow Wolf has hosted multiple community listening events across the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. 

Community Conversations are a part of Meow Wolf’s standard practice prior to opening new locations. The Santa Fe-based arts and entertainment company hosted similar events in Las Vegas, Nevada and Denver, Colorado prior to opening installations in those communities. These types of events have helped the organization better understand community histories and needs, ways to support local residents and artists, and potential partner organizations.

As early as July 2022 and as recent as October 2022, Meow Wolf held Community Conversations in Grapevine, Fort Worth, and Denton. According to the organization, all of the events have had large attendance numbers, totaling more than 200 participants across the three meetings. 

Elena Greer, Communications Manager at Arts Fort Worth, which hosted one of the listening sessions last month, told Glasstire, “It was a great turn out! A little over 60 artists and community members asked thoughtful questions and shared concerns as well as important insight. Meow Wolf sent a large team and each spoke to the organization’s commitment to being a positive force in not only the arts but the community at large.”

A representative from Meow Wolf told Glasstire that during these sessions, some main takeaways for the organization were:

– Grapevine is not Dallas or Fort Worth, each area is unique and different
– The area is full of families and we need to ensure family friendly access
– People generally do not travel across the metro area on a consistent basis, unless for work
– There are a lot of competing attractions, concerts, museums etc, Meow Wolf will need to stand out
– The racial and ethnic diversity of the area is vast, but you have to tap into it and not all areas have the same diversity
– There are many young and emerging artists throughout the area who want opportunities to grow their practice
– Giving back to the community is important – through volunteerism, partnerships and funding – don’t pick just one area
– Focus on hiring local people and local vendors for economic opportunities

The organization says it is taking action based on these insights. While Meow Wolf is constructing the Grapevine Mills site it is working with a Texas-based accessibility consultant to ensure the new exhibitions are wheelchair accessible. Additionally, the company is currently building its team and seeking food and beverage vendors for its café. 

Meow Wolf will hold three virtual information sessions for potential vendors to learn more about the organization’s vision for the café. Click the links below to register for an information session. Interested vendors can fill out the vendor application here. 

Monday, December 5, 10:00 am – 11:00 am CST
Monday, December 5, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm CST
Tuesday, December 6, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm CST

The post Meow Wolf Receives Community Feedback from North Texas-Area Conversations appeared first on Glasstire.

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

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Money can't buy happiness, just autonomy, status, and the ability to protect loved ones. Buncha random shit.

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This post, the Thanksgiving tyrant, the very special salad, and other stories of potlucks at work , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

All this week to get us in the holiday spirit, I’m going to be featuring holiday stories readers have shared here in the past … and then updates season will start next week!

To kick us off, here are 12 of my favorite stories you shared about potlucks and other food gatherings at work earlier this month. (There were so many great stories from that post that I’m splitting this into two parts, with the second part coming tomorrow.)

1. The tyrant

“Currently employed at a very dysfunctional medical office (and seeking other employment), and this is just the cherry on top. The following is from an email about Thanksgiving potluck at the main office (our satellite office is an afterthought).

Greetings Staff,

Can you believe Thanksgiving is literally around the corner? In the past 3 years [COMPANY] has weathered all kinds of storms and with two years and ongoing with COVID we are extremely thankful and grateful. Please join [COMPANY] in our Thanksgiving Celebration family style luncheon this year at the office on November 18 from 12pm-2pm.

To be prepare for the luncheon, I need everyone to do the following:

1. RSVP no later than Wednesday, 11/9 at 12 noon.

2. Along with your RSVP, start thinking of a dish that you can prepare and share.

3. If you are not a good cook OR have cats or dogs that shed, please opt out of food preparation. I recommend you bring drinks, napkins or a purchased dessert.

4. Note on drinks- NO off brand sodas allowed. That is Food Lion, Walmart, store brand sodas, etc. We want the type you see in Soda Vending Machines.

5. Note on desserts. If you are not baking yourself, then do us the favor of NOT purchasing store brand cookies or cakes. Please go to a bakery. This is meant to be a special event.

6. Finally, I will have final say on if a dish is approved or not. Please don’t take offense, I just have a vision of the types of dishes I would prefer. Isn’t Thanksgiving all about good food and communion?

7. Just to remind you, [COMPANY] will provide all the meats – Honey baked Ham, and Turkey. We will need the following categories of food contributed by you:

We will have a limit on the number of dish categories so sign up fast with your favorite dish or contribution.”

2. The jazz casserole

“I worked with a very sweet older lady who always hyped up her special casserole for potlucks in this same way. She called it ‘Jazz!!’ casserole and always made jazz-hands when she said the name, which she pronounced with a drawn out A sound, like she was in the cast of Chicago doing a musical number. It was basically pasta and cream of mushroom soup, super boring and not jazzy at all. She was so sweet that everyone took a little bit to be mannerly and told her it was good, which meant that she kept on bringing it to every potluck until she retired.”

3. Magic

“I once worked at a small nonprofit with a lot of team spirit — people truly seemed to love staff gatherings, staff outings, etc. We voluntarily did all-staff potlucks 2 or 3 times per year, people often brought in treats for each other’s birthdays, etc. Except for a coworker who I will refer to ask Magic Mike. Magic Mike was an enthusiastic participant in all of these gatherings but insisted he didn’t know how to cook or bake at all. Instead of doing the logical thing and just bringing store-bought treats or beverages, on multiple occasions he brought … magic. To the potluck. As in, after everyone had their plates and was enjoying the food and socializing, he would call for everyone’s attention and perform magic tricks as his contribution. So all of us who had taken the time to buy groceries, cook something special, and shlep it into the office had to stop enjoying the party to watch Magic Mike perform.”

4. Pizza games

“We had Pizza Fridays over the summer. It started out fine, but after the first two weeks it became ‘The Hunger Games.’ The pies were put in a common area and you were to get a slice or two. Folks started pushing and shoving and grabbing whole pies. It even got to the point where folks would wait at the service elevator and grab pies off of the delivery guy’s cart.”

5. The shrimp

“At a former job, the division I worked in had an annual holiday potluck. One year a woman brought in shrimp dip for the potluck. Every single person who ate her dip wound up getting ill to some extent; one person got so sick he had to be hospitalized. We later learned she had taken the shrimp out the day before, left them in her sink all day and overnight to thaw, and mixed up the dip in the morning before she came to work. I still get nauseated even thinking about it.”

6. The ganache

“For my last job’s Holiday Potluck, I planned on bringing my favourite brownies to work, but wanted to make them extra special. I decided to add chocolate ganache to the top for some razzle dazzle, but was a procrastinator and did it 45 minutes before I needed to leave for work. I’d never made ganache before and did not make it correctly. It was still hot as I loaded it into my car, then spilled about 90% of the hot chocolate ganache directly onto my car seat. It looked like someone had the worst diarrhea of their life in my back seat for weeks until I got it professionally detailed.

Brownies were still delicious though.”

7. The inequity

“Early on in my career, I was on a team with three assistants and 6-7 middle managers. My team would do potluck holiday parties where they would decide on a theme that would dictate the menu. Unfortunately, they would create the menu and sign-up sheet during the managers’ meeting. So the managers who made 50-90% more than the assistants would sign up for plates, napkins, sparkling cider, etc.

The three assistants would be left to fill in the rest of the sheet which would include charcuterie boards, a gourmet hot chocolate bar, local pastries (from a specific store), and other more expensive options. Some of them really thought we all loved doing the more complicated stuff since one assistant liked cooking and I occasionally used Pinterest on my lunch breaks. It took some of those in middle management YEARS to realize how bad the optics were forcing the assistants to use their own money and personal time to make them charcuterie.”

8. The cook-off

“Our office had a chili cook-off once. The morning of the potluck, it was announced that due to inclement winter weather and some people not being able to make it into the office, the potluck was canceled. Most people took this news with a normal level of disappointment. A colleague of mine, Barb, had a crockpot of chili cooking at the office. Chaos erupted when Barb read the cancellation email. Yelling, punching things at her desk, crying, screaming, etc. She called HR (who had decided to cancel the potluck, the perpetrator in Barb’s mind) and chewed them out abusively over the phone, and then called her husband to blow off steam, and a handful of others. She yelled and cried at the office for 3 or 4 hours. (It was awful and I complained to her boss.) She ended up demanding that HR reimburse her for the chili ingredients, and they did.

At future potlucks, Barb proudly announced to anyone nearby on potluck day that she didn’t bring anything to the potluck. According to her, she had special permission from HR to attend potlucks without contributing to food (as was the office etiquette) as retribution for how they ‘screwed her over.’ We never had a chili cook-off again.”

9. The sliders

“A coworker went to the trouble of getting ~40 McDonald’s dollar-menu hamburgers, unwrapping them all, and trying to pass them off as freshly homemade sliders.”

10. The salad

“Our universally hated lab tech was mulling out loud what he should bring to a company-wide winter holiday potluck. He did not know how to cook, so we offered up many ‘safe’ suggestions (sodas, crackers and cheese, chips, etc.), all of which he nixed. He figured it wouldn’t be too hard to make a tossed salad.

He proceeds to ask everyone in the lab what ingredients everyone would like in this salad he would make for us. Suggestions are made for things like romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, mushrooms, croutons, avocados … wait. Avocados? Well, all right, he’ll get an avocado for the salad. Just for us.

Next day is the potluck. Lab tech comes in with a huge metal bowl, filled to the brim. He removes many of the refrigerated potluck items from the lunchroom refrigerator to accommodate this bowl. Someone discovers this and manages to return everything to the refrigerator, wedging dishes in around this bowl.

Then lab tech starts the day by complaining about this salad.

First, it’s, ‘Okay everyone, I brought a bunch of salad and I expect everyone to eat it. All right? I got most everything you wanted.’

Then he starts grousing about the cost of the ingredients. The mushrooms were omitted because of cost. He almost used CANNED tomatoes instead of fresh because canned was cheaper. Who even thinks of using canned tomatoes in a tossed salad?

Finally, he says he’s very tired, having stayed up ‘all night’ to cut up the salad components. ‘Especially that avocado,’ he griped. ‘That skin was murder to cut up. Almost lost a finger!’

A voice from the next bench asks, ‘You do know that the skin is inedible, right?’

‘Oh, of course, everyone knows that!’

Later that morning someone rushes into the lab to alert everyone to come to the lunchroom.

‘You gotta see this!’

Our lab tech has dumped the entire contents of his salad bowl all over the lunchroom table. Yes, the table from one end to the other is covered in greens. He’s fingering every piece, searching for the avocado, which had been cut into odd-shaped bits smaller than an orange seed. Then trimming off any hint of skin from each itty-bitty piece and returning it to the bowl. He’s so intent on this he doesn’t see the half-dozen faces watching this from the doorway.

We pass the word: Do NOT eat the tossed salad.

So potluck time comes, and no one is touching the salad. A few reach for the tongs, but are stopped and ushered along to the next food items. Later we explain why.

Next day, lab tech chews us out for the expense incurred on this salad. Says we should all reimburse him for what he spent on ‘your salad.'”

11. The bourbon balls

“Many years ago, I worked at the corporate office of a regional retailer. I worked closely with the senior VP, and while he could be a pill at times, I genuinely liked the guy.

One year, I found a recipe for bourbon balls that I decided to make up for the holidays. Knowing that the SVP had a giant sweet tooth and also that he was very fond of bourbon, I brought him a container of several dozen bourbon balls, thinking (foolishly) that he’d enjoy them over the course of several days.

He did not spread them out over several days. He chomped through the entire container in a single afternoon, ingesting a significant amount of bourbon and a whole lot of chocolate in the process.

As it happened, that day turned out to be the day the boss was going through the list of employees to decide how much each of us would get for a year-end bonus. And everyone was quite astounded that year at his unaccustomed generosity in deciding the bonus amounts.

For some reason, every year after that, multiple co-workers would pull me aside in early December to urge me to make up another batch of bourbon balls for the SVP the week before Christmas.”

12. The cake

“We have occasional student externs spend a few weeks’ rotation with us. We usually get a cake or something for everybody on their last day and everybody signs a card.

One student gushed, ‘Oh, wow, you guys! Thank you so much!’ and picked up the entire cake and walked out with it. We all just stood there with our mouths hanging open.

I mean … it’s not like we spelled out that this was a going-away party and these were refreshments to share with everybody, but really. Years later, the only thing anybody remembered about this student was that she was the one that walked out with the cake.”

This post, I saw a coworker’s email complaining about me, delayed written offer, and more , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. My coworker accidentally sent me an email complaining about me

My colleague and I manage two teams that perform the a similar function and effectively have to job share our role to keep the business ticking along effectively. We have sizable teams and the role we manage can be quite stressful, but I have previously thought of this person as a good friend. I always felt that we made the best of the circumstances, operated as a good doubles team, and could be transparent about the challenges of the environment we are in.

I have been quite unwell and unexpectedly was away from work for two weeks, leaving my colleague (C) to shoulder the load in my absence. On my first day back at work, C inadvertently sent me a message intended for a third party, stating that they wished I had not returned to work and that things are easier when I am not there. C noticed straight away what they had done and panicked, apologizing for the message.

On one hand, I get it. The current structure is dysfunctional and I also find it easier to steer the ship alone when C is away. On the other hand, I am terrible at being unwell and I live alone, so two weeks of sick leave for me is two weeks of near total isolation. When I returned to work, I did so before I was really ready because I needed to be back interacting with people and doing something that makes me feel capable. The message really couldn’t have been worse timing.

It’s been several weeks and I just cannot move on from this. Do you have any guidance on how to push past it? I feel C cannot do much more than apologize, which they have already done, so it is on me to get over it but … I find myself holding a grudge in a way that I fear will be detrimental for all. I suspect the only way forward is to pull my socks up and be the adult, but I feel so stuck.

Would you be comfortable talking to C about it? It might help you both to hash out whatever frustration was behind that message — and, frankly, C owes you at least some willingness to do that after misdirecting that message. You could say, “I appreciate the apology, but I’m more concerned about what was behind the message. Is there something I’m doing that’s making your job harder, or other issues we might be able to talk through? If there’s something I can change on my side that would help you, I definitely want to know.”

I know you might worry that diving head-on into an already awkward situation might make it even more so, but you’re already feeling awkward whether you talk about it or not. There’s probably some constructive conversation to be had, and I think you’ll feel better if you take an action that moves you forward rather than staying mired in the bad feelings of it.

If you’re not up for doing that, I’d focus on the fact that you also find it easier when C is gone. It’s okay if C feels the same way. You’re letting that get mixed up with a whole bunch of other things — coming back to work before you were well enough to, feeling lonely when you were at home — but C’s message exists separately from those things.

2. Bringing up a tragedy that’s an important piece of my past

Nearly 10 years ago, when I was in my early 20s, I lost both parents in a double homicide. It altered my whole trajectory. I had to give up pursuing a doctoral-level degree in favor of a post-graduate certificate I could get in one year due to the need for health insurance. Following the trial and conviction of their killer, I started interviewing. At the interview for what became my first job, the interviewers brought it up first when I tried to dance around how I had spent my summer (in a sentencing hearing) and let me know they knew what had happened to my family. It was an incredible relief. I felt a weight lift and I remain grateful to them to this day.

I recently had an interview and was asked why I wanted to work in the department I was interviewing for. I explained that I was partially interested due to the area of work being close to what I studied as an undergrad. The work involves the criminal justice system and I also mentioned my experiences going through the process and that I was passionate about the system and wanted to give back to it. The trial process for me was a major part of my healing. Having 12 strangers declare him guilty and pronounce sentence was extremely cathartic. This seemed like a natural place to bring it up, and I didn’t give gratuitous detail, just a sentence like the one I wrote above about it happening nearly 10 years ago. If they had asked a different question, I wouldn’t have brought it up. But now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have, even though what I said was the truth and I meant it. Every time I find myself in a similar situation, I end up with 1,000 questions in my head: is this the right time? How will they react? Do I really NEED to bring it up? I compare it to a “coming out.”

There’s always the chance that my name will be recognized (the case was semi-high profile in our area) or that someone I’m speaking to is a true crime fan who has seen one of the documentaries I’ve participated in about the case and bring it up before I have to. I’m usually relieved when this happens because it saves me having to address the “elephant in the room,” so to speak.

In this case, do you think I made a mistake bringing it up at my interview? Should I avoid it altogether if I find myself in a new workplace?

I don’t think you made a mistake by bringing it up! It sounds like your answer was relevant to the question being asked and the job you were interviewing for. But if you want a vaguer version, you could say something like, “My family had a tragedy that was addressed through the criminal justice system, and it made me passionate about the system and giving back to it.”

You shouldn’t need to avoid mentioning it in a new workplace, either. It sounds like it’s an additional burden on you to worry about whether it’s okay to share what happened, and you’re entitled to the relief of not feeling you need to hide this enormous thing that happened to you and your family.

I’m so sorry about your parents.

3. Ma’am, not sir

I work in virtual learning. I’m 100% work from home and on a team of 10. We handle certification training and continuous learning for employees. I interact with a lot of people via email for several weeks before we actually speak to/see one another in a virtual meeting.

Many of these people are ex-military or former government employees and refer to me as my last name, which is fine by me. However, other people, more often than not, call me sir. My name is Logan and they assume that I’m a man. I’ve met one other female Logan in my life so I understand why they assume that. Typically I just ignore it and allow them to be surprised when we meet, but lately I’ve had a number of people ask why I didn’t correct them and most recently I had an instructor lose their mind and tell me how unprofessional it is that I allowed them to make a fool of themselves and did not immediately correct them. I tried to tell them it’s a very common occurrence and I took no offense, but they were still quite upset. Is this something I should correct when it happens? How would I even go about doing that without sounding rude? Just today someone responded to an email saying, “Thank you for the assistance, sir.” I thought about responding, “Actually, it’s ma’am but you’re most welcome,” but to me that sounds rude. What do you think?

It’s happened my entire life and it doesn’t bother me, but after the issue with the instructor, I’m second guessing myself.

That instructor had a bizarre overreaction and shouldn’t be a guidepost for your judgment at all. That is someone who is weirdly invested in someone else’s gender.

That said, it does make sense to correct people who make the wrong assumption, just like you would if they accidentally got your name wrong. If you’re never going to speak to them again, it matters less — but if they’re going to figure out their mistake at some point, it makes more sense to just correct them from the get-go so they don’t end up embarrassed that they’ve been repeatedly misgendering you (even if you don’t care).

“It’s ma’am but you’re most welcome” is perfect, not rude.

Another option, if you want to head some of it off entirely, is to add Ms. to your signature:

Ms. Logan Tetrazzini
or
(Ms.) Logan Tetrazzini

But you also might not feel you should have to advertise your gender, particularly if you’re in a field where that tends to invite sexism. In which case, just go with the first option.

4. Telling my boss I’m starting therapy

I am beginning the process of seeking mental health treatment for several non-critical issues I’ve been having for a while — think social anxiety, moderate depression, self-esteem and body image issues, etc. I’m in the very preliminary stages and don’t have a provider or treatment plan lined up yet. I am operating under the assumption that appointments with a therapist will likely need to happen during business hours. This by itself isn’t a concern for me; my company is pretty good about flexibility with working hours. I don’t imagine it will be an issue for me to make the time up by coming early or staying late on other days.

My issue lies with how to communicate this to my bosses. I recently switched teams within the company, and as a result have a new set of supervisors I’m working with. With my old team, I had a good handle on how to approach a conversation about my plans, but with this new group I’m not sure what is appropriate. I feel like telling them I have a recurring, regularly scheduled medical appointment can only mean mental health issues and doesn’t provide context that I would like them to have — that the issues are relatively mild and that while I am struggling a little, my issues should not be a major source of concern or materially change the quality of my work. On the other hand, I’m concerned about the line between giving appropriate information and oversharing when it comes to discussing issues like this.

What would be the best and most appropriate way to communicate my situation? I would also add, I may be WAY overthinking this. My new supervisors are lovely people that genuinely seem to be invested in me and my career, and I just want to make sure I don’t put any of us in an awkward spot.

There are all kinds of recurring, regularly scheduled medical appointments that aren’t for mental health — allergy shots, physical therapy, various types of infusions, all sorts of things. You don’t need to specify what the appointments are for. You can simply say, “I am going to have a recurring weekly medical appointment for the foreseeable future. I’ll need to leave an hour early every Tuesday for it. Could I come in early on those days so my hours balance out?” That’s it.

You definitely shouldn’t get into explaining that the issues are mild/not something that will affect your work quality. That would be a real overshare — and not something a good boss will even be thinking about. Lots and lots of people are in therapy for issues that don’t affect their work; even if your managers guess/assume the recurring appointment is therapy, they’re unlikely to worry it’s something serious, and it’s not context you need to provide.

5. I received a verbal offer but they are dragging their feet with the written offer

After trying multiple times, I’ve finally landed a position with an organization I’m so excited about. The only problem is, I’ve only received a verbal offer from them, and they stated they needed a reference from my current supervisor (it’s an internal transfer since my current org and theirs are under the same “umbrella,” so to speak) before moving forward with an official written offer.

This was told to me on November 8. I have yet to receive anything — and my supervisor, who is a gem and super supportive and someone I thankfully could afford to give a verbal notice to, has said she’s heard nothing from them! When I received my verbal offer, the woman who would be my supervisor gave me her direct line and told me to contact her any time with questions. I finally worked up the courage to do so two days ago (based on advice from you that I was probably over-agonizing about contacting her), and she responded immediately (less than a minute) saying, “I will follow up with them today to see where it is at.” But still, my supervisor has heard nothing, and I’ve heard nothing more since.

I’m anxious because I wanted to give my organization official notice with lots of time … but now it’s turning more into two weeks, even less with holidays! I don’t want to be pushy with my new boss, but I’m also worried. Is there anything else I can do or say? Should I keep pushing and ask again?

Check back early next week, since Thanksgiving will slow everything down this week. But this isn’t terribly unusual — some organizations take a really long time to get written offers out.

Also, you should set your start date based on when you accept the written offer. If you told them earlier that you could start in X weeks, that doesn’t mean the clock has been ticking on those X weeks ever since. It’ll start from whenever they get you the offer and you accept it. So their delay shouldn’t result in you giving less notice than you had intended to give.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—In the hours following a violent rampage in Colorado in which a lone attacker killed at least five individuals and injured 25 others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Sunday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from…

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It's fine. There's nothing suspicious about a random passerby wanting to save their game; every's doing it.

DOHA, QATAR—Pulling dozens of U.K. soccer fans aside for additional questioning, Qatari authorities accused British World Cup attendees of defying the tournament’s total ban on alcohol and smuggling beer into the stadium through their bloodstreams, FIFA officials confirmed Monday. “It’s disappointing to see so many…

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Seven European national soccer teams, including England and Wales, said their team captains would not wear the armbands because they feared on-field punishment by World Cup organizers.

(Image credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

More than a year before he was arrested in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting that left five people dead, the suspect allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb.

(Image credit: Geneva Heffernan/AP)

This week in DistroWatch Weekly: Review: Fedora 37News: Unity desktop running on Arch, Haiku improves USB support, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for five new devicesQuestions and answers: Swap files versus swap partitionsReleased last week: Fedora 37, BackBox 8, EuroLinux 8.7Torrent corner: BackBox, Fedora, SparkyLinux, wattOSOpinion poll:....

The deadly shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub left many people wondering whether the gunman was motivated by hate. Here's what investigators are looking for to make that determination.

(Image credit: Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images)

The shooting, which occurred on the eve of Transgender Remembrance Day, is the latest tragedy in a year that's felt particularly bleak, according to LGBTQ advocates.

(Image credit: Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images)

A gunman killed five people and injured at least 25 others. Prosecutors are planning to file multiple murder and hate crime charges against a 22-year-old man.

(Image credit: Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images)

New Zealand lawmakers will vote on whether to lower the national voting age to 16 after the country's Supreme Court ruled that not allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote amounted to age discrimination.

(Image credit: Andrew Warner/AP)

A new study found that sperm counts and concentration are down all over the world, decreasing by 62% since the 1970s, with some researchers warning that humans could face a reproductive crisis if action is not taken to tackle the drop in male fertility. What do you think?

Read more...

On November 9, Internet Archive participated in a webinar hosted by OCLC that showed librarians how to request articles from our library using OCLC tools.

The Recording and Slides (PDF download) from the event are now available.

How do I request articles from the Internet Archive?

1. To learn how, watch the recording—starting at timestamp 12:25 minutes—and view slides 21- 30 (PDF).
   1. Create/update your custom holdings to include IAILL in the group you use for copy requesting.
      1. Learn more about how to set up custom holding groups and custom holding paths.
      2. Send copy requests to the Custom Holdings Path including IAILL using Automated Request Manager.
   2. If you have Tipasa, add IAILL to your group of Proven Senders.
   3. If you have ILLiad, make IAILL an Odyssey Trusted Sender.
   4. If Internet Archive indicates that they own the year/volume you need, you can simply add IAILL to your lender string.
      1. From the Holdings page, filter to the article date you need, select the custom holdings path including IAILL, and click go to populate the lender string.
2. Have questions about how to set up your custom holdings groups and paths? Please contact OCLC Support.  

Key facts about the Internet Archive

1. Internet Archive’s OCLC symbol: IAILL
2. Internet Archive supplies for FREE
3. Internet Archive is fast—and deliver in an average of 37 minutes
4. Articles delivered electronically through Article Exchange
5. All PDFs are provided with full OCR (Optical Character Recognition) 

Questions?

• Learn more about Internet Archive’s resource sharing activities.
• If you have any questions about how to request articles from Internet Archive through OCLC, feel free to contact OCLC Support.

The post Tips for requesting articles from Internet Archive on OCLC’s resource sharing network appeared first on Internet Archive Blogs.

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

Yep. It's a video!

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Not long after "Batman: The Animated Series" star Kevin Conroy passed away, another icon of the '90s has left us far too soon. Jason David Frank, the actor and martial artist best known for playing Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger and White Ranger in the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" franchise, has passed away. Rumors began circulating on the web Sunday morning after Frank's agent and trainer posted the tragic news, and now the death has been confirmed by his manager, Justine Hunt, according to TMZ. The report also states that "sources with direct knowledge" say Frank died by suicide, though this remains unconfirmed for now.

Jason David Frank became one of the most popular heroes of the 1990s in his role as Tommy Oliver, who began his turn as the villainous Green Ranger. Eventually, the character became a hero, after turning his back on the show's villains, giving children of the '90s one of their favorite characters on television. What began as a 14-episode stint on the popular "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" series turned into something bigger.

It's Morphin Time

Originally, Frank was meant to depart "Power Rangers" and lead "Cybertron," another live-action sci-fi series trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Japanese import, which would eventually be retitled "VR Troopers." The actor even shot a pilot for the series. But when Tommy Oliver proved to be incredibly popular, "Power Rangers" kept Frank in the cast and turned him into the White Ranger, a new leader for the original "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" line-up. After starring in the first "Power Rangers" movie, Frank stuck around when the "Power Rangers" became Zeo Rangers, playing the Red Zeo Ranger, as well as the Red Turbo Ranger in "Power Rangers Turbo."

Though the glory days of the Green Ranger and White Ranger had passed by the late '90s, with Frank leaving the show in 1997, he returned for an anniversary special in 2002, and he became the Black Dino Ranger in "Power Rangers Dino Thunder" in 2004. But Frank's true return to "Power Rangers" glory came when he put on the Green Ranger suit in a cameo appearance in "Power Rangers Super Megaforce" in 2014. 

In addition to his work on "Power Rangers," Frank appeared on other '90s shows like "Sweet Valley High" and "Family Matters," as well as MTV's "Undressed" in 2000. In recent years, he also lent his voice to the animated productions "Transformers: Titans Return" and "We Bare Bears." But Frank's most beloved role was always as Tommy Oliver, and he was always happy to meet fans at yearly pop culture conventions.

Rest In Peace

More recently, Jason David Frank reprised the role of Tommy Oliver in quite a cool fashion. A live-action trailer was created for the comic book event series "Power Rangers: Shattered Grid." In the comic series, the character of Tommy Oliver turned back into a villain known as Lord Drakkon, who hailed from an alternate reality where he reigned over a technologically-advanced, dystopian Angel Grove as an oppressive ruler with and army of his own Ranger Sentries. It's a shame we never got to see that turned into a live-action series, but the trailer was certainly a treat for longtime "Power Rangers" fans.

Frank's on-screen career may have been mostly limited to his work in the "Power Rangers" franchise, but there's a reason he kept returning to the role, and it wasn't just a paychek. Fans never lost their love for Tommy Oliver, no matter what "Power Rangers" suit he had on. Frank was an integral part of the franchise, and his role as an outcast who became a hero resonated with a lot of kids going through tough times in the '90s. Plus, he simply looked cool in the green suit with the gold shield. Was there any Zord that was better than the Dragonzord? Combine his fan favorite TV role with his discipline in martial arts, and it's clear that Jason David Frank was truly a hero to a lot of people. He will be missed.

Read this next: Actors Who Died In 2021

The post Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Star Jason David Frank Has Died at Age 49 appeared first on /Film.

Through 2020 America's professional lives "had taken on the overtones of a secular religion," argues a writer in the Washington Post, with jobs forming "a primary way to find meaning in the world and a crucial part of our identity.... Even precarious, low-paying gigs were valorized as 'hustle culture,' representing freedom to perform labor on our terms." But then... Fast-forward to fall 2022. The number of people quitting, while down from the peak, remains at the highest level since the 1970s. White-collar workers don't want to give up working remotely. Low-paying sectors such as the hospitality industry can't find enough people willing to work for the wages on offer. Union organizing and strikes have been on an upswing.... [W]hat's increasingly clear is that the March 2020 decision to partially close down the American economy shattered Americans' dysfunctional, profoundly unequal relationship with work like nothing in decades. And even if there was great discomfort in a shutdown that severed almost every one of us from assumptions about how we earn a living, we also found an unexpected opportunity: to remake our relationship with the labor that fills our days.... All of it — the lockdowns, the disease, the sudden change in household functioning and how or whether we worked at all — amounted to a massive psychological shock, leading many to ask why labor looms so large in our psyches. "It really was an opportunity — an unwelcome opportunity — to take a look at the mad scramble that many of us have just assumed was normal," said Kate Shindle, who as president of the Actors' Equity Association represents a particularly hard-hit industry. Then, when the economy unexpectedly boomed back, Americans were poised to pivot. As many had recognized, it was one thing to seek meaning in work but another to see our lives subsumed by it — and for what? A less-than-adequate paycheck? A job that could literally kill you? "Maybe the poor safety net really kept people from analyzing the role of work in their lives," David Blustein, author of "The Importance of Work in an Age of Uncertainty" and a professor at Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development, told me. "Maybe the American work ethic was a form of survival...." Over and over, when people spoke to journalists, including me, about why they made changes in their professional lives since March 2020, they told us they liked receiving better wages when they switched employers. But even more, they wanted greater control over the terms of their labor.... An increased level of remote work, likely in a hybrid format, is almost certainly here to stay, says Nick Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, who has studied the topic for decades. Employees want it, technological advances continue to make it easier, and companies that forbid it completely are likely to find themselves at a disadvantage.... The past two and a half years brought immense upheaval, and we'll be struggling to process the resulting changes for years. But it's undeniable that some of these shifts were long overdue. Workers are highly unlikely to forget what we learned: namely, that our jobs are much more flexible than we thought.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Please let Dan have his built-in excuses.

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Sam Bankman-Fried built a reputation as the one reliable crypto bro. But within the span of days, his empire came crashing down. What the rise and fall of crypto's 30-year-old elder statesman says about the story of crypto so far.

Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney

30 years ago, Lou Montulli set out to solve a fundamental problem with the internet, and accidentally created an entirely different one. On today's show, how the cookie went from an obscure piece of code designed to protect anonymity, to an online advertiser's dream, to a privacy advocate's nightmare.

Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney