MAKING A MUSEUM: Materializing Regimes of Value with the NYC Department of Sanitation

I was reading Baseball Prospectus this afternoon, when I came across this:

The Class War Will Be Televised

Realizing that all of the ads in this series have a bit of cruelty in them and that I should probably lighten up about it, there is something particularly disturbing about a rich man abusing someone in one of the least-respected lines of work there is. Being a garbage man is honest work, but let's face it, there isn't much social cachet derived from being in that profession. The fact that the ad takes place in front of a very nice house (not a mansion, really, but a McMansion to be sure), clearly delineating the class lines of the two parties involved. The poorer man's small victory over the rich man is quickly quashed (never mind that if the rich man hadn't been born with the right arm of a god, he'd probably be on the back of that garbage truck himself), clearly sending the message that it's pointless to even try fighting the power. The rich man will always hit you in the head with his garbage in the end.

It was a segment from Jim Baker's September 14th article "Prospectus Matchups: Blowing Hot and Cold," for Baseball Prospectus. I would provide a link to the article but 1. It's a subscription site, so no one else could read it and 2. All the rest of the article is completely about baseball.

Anyway, here's the link to the youtube clip of the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTHksQR1uwk

Any thoughts??

First, a huge thanks to Robin for setting this up for us. The Emerald Society was incredibly hospitable and welcoming to us, despite the fact that they all somehow got the impression that we were Robin's "Staff" and "Assistants." Robin's presentation was truly fascinating and "brief", and was the perfect intro and way to start off the meeting. (I do hope that she will post it or maybe give us access to it somehow - I think there is information in it that would be relevant for everyone to peruse).

The Emerald Society meeting was quite an epxerience! The overall structure (for those that weren't there) is that there is generally some socializing as people are arriving, and then the meeting is called to order to discuss business items; roll is taken and the president of the society then goes through each item of the meeting agenda. Once all the business has been attended to, the meal and more socializing commence. The "business" portion of the meeting took about an hour, though might actually boil down to about 40 minutes if all the comic relief were removed. Then again, it makes the "business" way more fun!

I enjoyed everything about the Emerald Society meeting, and was incredibly touched by several things. I definitely felt first and foremost an incredibly strong sense of community. The Emerald Society is very dedicated to supporting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and I was incredibly impressed with the amount of funds that "Shevy", an officer (forgive my terrible memory but I forget his exact position) of the Society, was able to raise by participating in a cross-country motorcycle ride for the Foudnation. He gave quite a long, but very very touching speech. The Society also has a scholarship fund/competition for children of Emerald Society members who are entering high school. Additionally, I was also struck by how many retirees were both present and actively involved in the Emerald Society. Despite several jokes during Robin's presentation that many of the retirees were probably around in 1909 to use the first sanitation carts, it was clear that the Society deeply respects its proverbial elders. Much of the "business" of the meeting was actually quite interesting: there were reports from several people about things like updates from the Parade commission for the 2008 St. Patty's Day Parade (which we were generously invited to march in) to community events to recognition of new members to even a moment of silence for sick family members. There were probably other important business items I could mention here, but I think the second round of beers potentially wiped that out...

I sat at a table with a couple of the chiefs, who could probably quit their jobs and do stand-up for a living. However, I was able to glean some very interesting information about the nature of these benevolent societies. Though the meeting was physically in Queens, the members present actually come from all five boroughs. Since space rental is at a premium these days, the decision of where to host the meeting often rests on the cheapest place. Still, there was a great turnout given that one can't really get to Maspeth by public transportation. The meetings happen monthly expect for a hiatus during the summer when things are particularly slow. There seems to be many of these societies, and apparently an Islamic group was recently founded. So I am looking forward to seeing how other societies conduct themselves and what "business" they each value most.

Overall, the mood of the evening was very light and I think it was both informative and entertaining for everyone who went. I am very much looking forward to next week's meeting! Everyone, please add many comments to fill in the gaps - I'm sure there are some interesting conversations people had last night that need to be shared!

CFP: Talking Trash: Rethinking the Abandoned, the Recovered, and the Depraved (graduate student conference)

The Graduate Center, City University of New York
English Student Association Annual Conference
Conference Date: Friday, February 29, 2008
Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday, November 30, 2007

The earlier culture will become a heap of rubble and finally a heap of ashes; yet, over the ashes, spirits will hover. -- Ludwig Wittgenstein

What is the fascination of the devalued and discarded? Is it simply the return of the repressed – the object that returns to haunt us? Is it the terror of the void – the space we can never know? From the Christian obsession with the keystone that was once rejected to Alice Walker's rehabilitation of Zora Neale Hurston's reputation to John Waters's gleeful declaration that his work is "trash," there is a certain caché to the recovery of the devalued and discarded. Does the tastemaker need the humiliation of the trash heap from which to rescue the loved object and prove a superior palate, or is the trash heap an accident that the archive is always seeking to encompass? How do speech acts construct value? How does insult designate certain objects and people as "trash" and how do marginalized people talk back? This conference, organized and sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Center's English Student Association, hopes to stimulate a broad field of inquiry ranging from New Historical approaches to Renaissance sewage management to examinations of Lindsay Lohan's inarticulate Blackberry epistle. We seek to bring together students from a wide variety of literary, historical, theoretical, aesthetic, and political perspectives in a rigorous attempt to think trash from every angle. While academic papers are preferred, we also invite participation from practicing artists, filmmakers, and videographers.

Possible topics include, but certainly are not limited to:
Material artefacts as cultural or personal history
Bodies and Bodies in Parts
Hidden histories and Forgotten texts
Non-canonical works of literature
Canon formation
Religion
Literature of AIDS
Intercepted letters in novels and plays
Palimpsests and Textual archaeology
Marginalization of conquered subjects / Resistance by conquered
subjects
Slang and Standard English / Rhetoric of English
Speech Acts and Insults
Scatology
Dirty jokes / Playing the Dozens
Consumer culture and Planned obsolesence
Propoganda / Psychological operations (psyops)
Affluence and Waste
Sanitation Practices / Recycling
Reception histories
Aestheticist collectors
Culture of blackmail / Literature of blackmail
Multiple revisions of texts (Editions, Archives, Genealogical
editions)
Paperback culture / Trash novels
Futureless essays, unpublished works, sketches, and works-in-progress
Incarcerated subjects / War and political refugees / The culture of
dissidence
Genocide
Gossip
Humiliation
The "Dean Scream"
Performance art
Bread & Circus and Entertainment for the masses
Dominatrixes / Drag Queens / Performances of Sexuality
Pornography
Comedy and its recycling of headline news / Vaudeville
Pop Art / Recycled objects and images / "Proposals for Impossible
Monuments"
Toni Morrison's "Rememory"
Searching for the "Zulu Shakespeare"
Utopias
Ephemeral flowers
The Rehabilitation of American Literature (making an "American
Renaissance")
Oral culture/ Written culture
How to think Non-canonical authors outside the lines of influence
Undervalued texts
Always Already
Anthology expectations
Camp's sly refusals
Plagiarism and Quotation across texts
Derek Jarman's celebration of film stock's short shelf life
B-movies / Homemade movies / Movies with a twist
Zine culture and non-traditional forms of publication
The White House
Poltical campaigns
Resurfaced E-mails (Abramoff, Gonzales, etc.)
Global warming / Ecology
Ecofeminism
Cosmetic surgery / Extreme makeovers
Trailer park
Talk shows / Reality TV / Soap operas / E! channel
Decadence v. Trash

Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to Jason Schneiderman and Linda Neiberg at TalkingTrashConference@gmail.com by November 30, 2007.

This article came across my path and I thought I’d share it. This is about an incinerator that transfers solid waste into hydrogen gas and, well, more solid waste. The technology is called a Plasma Converter, which is emission less. The great thing about all of these new ideas to eliminate additional landfills is that the garbage still has to be picked up. Job security is certainly not an issue in this line of work, no matter where you dump it.

HOW IT WORKS
The Plasma Converter
STARTECH'S TRASH converter uses superheated plasma--an electrically conductive mass of charged particles (ions and electrons) generated from ordinary air--to reduce garbage to its molecular components. First the trash is fed into an auger that shreds it into small pieces. Then the mulch is delivered into the plasma chamber, where the superheated plasma converts it into two by-products. One is a syngas composed mostly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is fed into the adjacent Starcell system to be converted into fuel. The other is molten glass that can be sold for use in household tiles or road asphalt.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/873aae7bf86c0110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html