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Object de art - 1/21/2011 3:01:33 PM

Termyn8or

Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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A simple depiction of a machinist's micrometer on a dollar bill backdrop. Now if they can call that thing downtown art and pay all this (our) money for something that looks like it came out of my garbage disposal after it jammed, but bigger, this certainly has more to say.

In the old days when I grew up, Men worked. None of us sat there at a PC managing websites, shit like that. Our worth was defined by what we could build. How we could take a piece of metal and shape it in our own image, to make things fit, and work together. To boldly go into the engineer's office and tell him what no Man had told him before - that his design is called a pipe dream. Sometimes because it was simply impossible to build. My Father was such a person, and as much of an asshole he was sometimes, he was very serious about his work.

What he did with his life is his own business, he was in a situation where he could have an eight month vacation every year. (details on request) I do it differently, working part time and commanding rates that make it possible to live. We both have/had a work ethic you rarely see these days. I, as he did, always tried to be cognizant of what money the company made for our work, and made goddamn sure we were worth the money. That's why he could take a month off and his time card was still there, and that's why I can show up at work to get weed and tell the boss I took off because I did some coke the other day. I have what you need, piss me off and your competiton gets it. I can go back to almost any place I ever worked for a job, and so could he. I don't mean to brag but it's the truth and there is not much in the way of options to express it otherwise.

Therefore, last night with too much time on my hands I combined two things into an expression. I took some wood glue and did it, and this will soon hang in my kitchen among the nooses, the Confederate flag, the calendars from the last millenium and of course the potholders.

This piece depicts a micrometer, once owned by the olman, not a Starett, just a Craftsman. Any of you who think Craftsman tools are top of the line have alot to learn. My micrometer is a Mitutoyo, and it reads down to the tenthousands of an inch. That's why I picked this one to glue to that FRN. But in essence, the FRN depicts the money made, back when we used to build things here. The micrometer depicts one of the tools necessary to do it. That is the statement it makes. Nothing more, nothing less.

The olman was part of a team that built machines. In fact they built the prototype for the machines that made the old style floppy disks. It automatically heated, folded and heat sealed the jacket around the actual media. Though he knew nothing at the time about computers, the engineers of course explained that nothing magnetic could come near the actual media. They worked together and got the job done. He had the background for it, he was a dropout like me, but not like others. We persued real knowledge rather than the rote and writ of the school system. I doubt that we collectivley filled out a dozen job applications in our lives. It got so bad I forgot how to write. (details on request) We take work seriously.

The whole family does, we believe that real work is the backbone of any viable economy, and we have not been proven wrong. He was and I am welcome back at former jobs, because they know, when I work for you, I REALLY work for you. He got blacklisted because he took out revenge on a company that cost them millions, and that was in the 1970s. That was a bit of money back then. But he came back and made it again. He realized later that what he had done was stupid, but so what ?

Enough caucus.