The Blues Bashers Friday at Latitude 44
l3wis 
June 2011
Warhol goes on display tomorrow at the Washington Pavilion
While I am very excited about seeing this exhibit (and paying an entrance fee). I doubt I will see anything new. But for those of you that are not familiar with Andy’s work, I encourage you to go, and take the kids. The exhibit comes from Andy’s official museum in Pittsburgh and Augustana will also have some of his polaroids on display. I have often said Andy’s biggest contributions were in music and film and his art was how he made a living. Don’t get me wrong, I love his art and am heavily influenced by him.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESGrKwIdb8A&NR=1[/youtube]
If you are intrigued or inspired after viewing the exhibit I recommend some light reading 🙂 DIARIES • KILL ME
I was fortunate enough to meet and have dinner with Richard Weisman who was personal friends with Andy and commissioned Warhol’s Sports Series that came to the Pavilion a few years back. He befriended my friend Paige Turner that night and she was invited to his Seattle home. She said in the guest bedroom where she stayed a Rothko hung above her head. Still mad she didn’t invite me to come along, I could have pretended to be gay for a couple of days.
Kermit has been freed!
Just kidding. Kermit finally got a half-ass letter from the city that he was not unethical.
Former Sioux Falls city council member Kermit Staggers says he’s won a year-long battle with the city’s Board of Ethics.
Staggers says the board sent him a letter retracting their reprimand from last May. The board had reprimanded him on charges of holding another office while on the city council.
You can read the PRESS CONFERENCE and the documents here: kermit-ethics
That letter was shorter then the one I got about my library card being cancelled.
BREAKING: SDN Communications accountant under investigation was Chairman of the City’s Audit committee
As you may or may not know an accountant for SDN Communications is under investigation;
SIOUX FALLS, SD – Officials with SDN Communications in Sioux Falls say they are the victims of embezzlement, and the person who is at the center of the case is their former chief accountant.
SDN Communications, the largest fiber-optic network in the region, says former accountant Brad Whitsell has been charged in federal court for employee misconduct that involved a “significant” amount of money.
But this is only half of the story;
As early as April of this year, Mr. Whitsell served as Chairman of the audit committee. I am having trouble finding his name on siouxfalls.org after that date. He started serving on the board as early as 2006 from what I can find. His term seemed to have ran out last month.
I thought his named sounded familiar to me, so I dug a little after a tip. While I’m sure this is not a good thing for SDN and can hardly say this is a good thing for the people of Sioux Falls. Remember the SE Fair debacle? How can we trust government when we have people like this serving on their boards? People who are supposed to be watching out for how taxpayer money is being spent? Wonder when the MSM will break this story? Not only do we need to have a full scale audit of the water department, we need to have a full scale audit of the audit committee. The other thing I find troubling is this tidbit of information;
The CEO of SDN says officials started noticing “financial irregularities” connected to Whitsell last year, and he was put on administrative leave so they could conduct a forensic audit and internal investigation. But, Whitsell resigned before the investigation even began.
Did SDN contact the city and let them know they were investigating him? Or that he resigned? He resigned last year but still sat on the committee until May of this year? This is all suspect. What did Brad tell the city in regards to the resignation? It’s not like the city doesn’t have a direct contact with SDN. Councilor Vernon Brown is marketing manager of SDN. He certainly had to know about the investigation or AT LEAST the resignation. Didn’t he think it would be wise to alert the Audit Committee?
Interesting stuff.
Rant-a-Bit, Episode 8 ‘The Water Show’
We talked about all things ‘Water’ in SF. Water Rates, Snowgates, Swimming, and how the SF taxpayer’s head will be under water with funding the new Events Center with citizen advocates Theresa Stehly and Cheryl Rath.