They're Getting Warmer
We'll, just to keep torturing myself, I bought a copy of today's newspaper on my way home from dinner. You can imagine my surprise when, on the top of page two, they published this article:
City's tree plan just a sprout
Fri, Jul 21, 2006By KEITH LAING
The Brunswick News
The city of Brunswick wants someone else to pick up the bill for resurrecting one of its fallen oak trees.
Mayor Bryan Thompson said the city will seek assistance from several sources to raise the $35,000 it is expected to cost to have a professional sculptor carve a fully grown tree felled during the K Street sewer repair project into a community landmark celebrating the lives of prominent Georgians.
If the proposal comes to fruition, the 180,000-pound tree, which had once shaded K Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Amherst Street, would be transformed into a piece of artwork commemorating Georgia founder James Oglethorpe, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and poet Sidney Lanier.
"There could be a variety of sources, such as the area arts organization and private sector donations," Thompson said.
He added while the city has selected Pennslyvania-based artist Joe King to create the sculpture, it has not arranged to finance the project.
"It was never our intention that the city was going to drop $35,000 on this," he said.
"We were talking to this guy to get a ballpark range of what something like this would require in terms of cash" We are fully planning on seeing what kinds of partnerships might be formed throughout the community to help pull this together."
Thompson also said the project has not been finalized yet.
"We're at the stage where we are looking at the possibility of this," he said.
"We were trying to find someone very qualified to take on in a masterful way this large, complex project."
I'll give the Newspaper a B+ for their effort, after allowing the story to flounder and fester in the critical public eye for almost two weeks.
Notice that as is typical with newspapers, mistakes made in stories printed in large print, above the fold, on the front page are later corrected somewhere else inside in fine print, if they are corrected at all.
The interesting thing is the number of letters to the editor that have been published addressing the initial story...a total of five to date, including this positive one in today's issue:
Backlash about old oak sculpture saddens artist
In regards to having the old oak tree carved by a sculptor, I understand the reasoning about the money being used for humanitarian needs, and the other options mentioned are okay. Still, as an artist myself, it makes me sad that once again, as always, art is considered unimportant, or the very, very least important.
Artists have to earn a living, too. A plastic surgeon "carves" someone's body and reshapes it for the sake of egotism and makes that much money, I'm sure. How important is that?
Jackie Strickland
Then there is this one that's the third negative one to date:
BrunswickMayor may be risking re-election due to idea
Mr. Mayor, while your moves to improve our city, (ie: tearing down the eyesores) are to be commended, I have to stop and think about the idea of spending $35,000 to sculpt what is left of a tree.
Are you out of your mind? Don't you think that the monies could be spent better elsewhere in the community?
Do you want to risk re-election because of a tree? If you want to help preserve the city of Brunswick's history, then look around and find a cause that will benefit the members of the community, perhaps even garner some profits for Brunswick. Sculpt a tree? Mr. Mayor! It's firewood!
MJ Bragg
And finally, much to my surprise, blog reader and frequent commenter here at this blog, Ed Drew, wrote a letter without my prior knowledge and finally managed to get my name mentioned in the newspaper in association with the project I originated.
Ed wrote this:
BrunswickInformation regarding tree appears wrong
I am very disappointed at the recent reporting of the events surrounding the carving of the remains of the oak tree from K Street. I was well aware of the plans that had been put together with great effort by Virgil Rogers of St. Simons Island. He put considerable time and effort into saving the tree stump and the plans included having it done with private donations, not tax dollars as you imply in your editorial.
I am very disappointed in your inability to correctly write a story and editorial of an event right there in your city. Neither of these even mentioned Mr. Rogers, who, had it not been for him, there would not even have even been a project. If you can't get a local story correct, with proper credit to local individuals, how in the world can you get anything correct?
I formerly lived in Brunswick, that's why I am familiar with the situation.
Kenneth Drew
Deridder, LA
All I can say is...THANKS ED, and hopefully with a little luck we can turn this thing around and get it done after all.
What still bugs the heck out of me was why it had to be such a mess in the first place?
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
And Now…A Final Word From Your Sponsor
Unintended Consequences
Those that follow this blog know that for a little over a week now I’ve been on the verge of having a heart attack. I’ve written more profanity in this blog in that period of time than I’ve written in the previous 23 months, and to anyone that I’ve offended, I offer my sincerest apology.
In the interest of continuity and for archive purposes I’m leaving the postings up, so just like a TV show or movie I ask that you just avert your eyes from the offending postings or stop coming here as punishment. Heck, write me a comment and tell me how immature I am.
That said, I’d like to summarize my position on the K-Street Tree Project, and then get on with life here on the internet because there are much more important things in the world than my 50 ton tree trunk worth writing about.
Back in February when I originally came up with the idea of saving the old tree from the landfill, I had only two things in mind: “Saving the old tree from the landfill and erecting a really nice piece of art in an inner city minority community that doesn’t get much attention from artists and the public.”
In fact, about the only thing ever written about the K-Street area is the reporting of the latest robbery, murder, or break in, with the occasional “puff piece” about the nearby Girls & Boys Club thrown in once every few years for good measure.
It was just that simple.
When I took the project to the Mayor and the City, all I asked was that they honor my idea of putting the tree back home where it came from, or at least nearby. It would be easy enough to take it, have it carved, and toss it in the swanky already revitalized historic district adjacent to some half million dollar mansions and have a big black tie party as an unveiling, but that’s not what the City promised to do.
The other important thing, in my mind, was to keep the story under wraps until we could develop the project and knew the details before we went to the media and let the general public know what we were doing.
Yes, we wanted to control the story in a way, but I thought that the story is what it is, and I knew that publicity was a powerful tool and it had value in supporting our fundraising efforts.
Unfortunately, all of that is out the window now, because, to put it bluntly, I didn’t realize that I was surrounded by a newspaper company and a community full of Neanderthals.
They just don’t get it and, the more I say, the worse things get.
There’s a combination of racism, politics, and just plain stupidity at work here, and one slightly balding, slightly graying, slightly overweight man sitting on one little island cannot overcome forces that have had years if not centuries to build up and gain strength.
It’s not just blacks against whites or Democrats versus Republicans, you have the additional dynamic of Island residents versus Mainlanders, and Newcomers versus life long residents—and I greatly underestimated those issues when this all got started.
The bottom line is, like it or not, this thing has taken on a life of it’s own in the media, and nothing I can say or do now with change that or possibly undo the damage caused by the way the local newspaper as spun this story.
They (the newspaper) actually believe their own inept coverage, they’ve come out on the editorial page against it, published letters to the editor against it, and the public that actually reads the newspaper and listens to the radio is firmly against what really was an honest, sincere, altruistic effort on my part and that of the City.
In the end, the problem for me is, that this same negative publicity is causing potential donors to avoid getting involved in the project, and even potential team members and contractors are leery of getting involved. I had actually asked for price discounts or even free work from the concrete footing contractor and professional structural engineer designing the footing, but now I expect the best I can do is pay full price and keep their name out of it.
Finally, in losing my temper, I’ve looked like an immature teenager here on the blog and alienated both the newspaper editor and the political reporter that started the furor in the first place, and any day now I expect my name to come up in a newspaper article with a picture of a rabid dog or Charles Manson attached to the story.
Would someone please tell me why everything I touch these days seems to turn upside down?
Why does the “establishment” have so much inertia so as to prevent anything new and different from happening every once in a while?
I’ve donated thousands of hours of my time over the past two and one half years to non-profit theaters and other charitable organizations here in the Golden Isles, and with only two exceptions, each and every time a project with my name on it has come up for public scrutiny, they either gave someone else credit, left my name out entirely, or bitched at me behind the scenes for stealing the spotlight and not letting someone else take credit for my efforts when I did complain.
I know that it’s the thought that counts and everything, but once and a while, toss ME a bone too when I'm busting my hump on Saturday night and everyone else on the marquee is out drinking and toasting their success.
For the time being, I’m done with Glynn County and the people of Glynn County, Georgia. I’m going to finish my part of my beloved K-Street Tree Project, then step back and if it gets funded and installed fine, and if not…YOU know I did my best and what actually happened by reading the past week and one half here on the blog.
And, in closing this issue, I have one final thought for your consideration:
Imagine, if you will, what else the Brunswick News has done over the past one hundred plus years, if they are capable of doing this to a story about someone “A Wantin’ To Spend Thirty Five Thousand Dollars A Carvin’ On A Big Ole’ Tree Stump”?
Scary, isn’t it…
Those that follow this blog know that for a little over a week now I’ve been on the verge of having a heart attack. I’ve written more profanity in this blog in that period of time than I’ve written in the previous 23 months, and to anyone that I’ve offended, I offer my sincerest apology.
In the interest of continuity and for archive purposes I’m leaving the postings up, so just like a TV show or movie I ask that you just avert your eyes from the offending postings or stop coming here as punishment. Heck, write me a comment and tell me how immature I am.
That said, I’d like to summarize my position on the K-Street Tree Project, and then get on with life here on the internet because there are much more important things in the world than my 50 ton tree trunk worth writing about.
Back in February when I originally came up with the idea of saving the old tree from the landfill, I had only two things in mind: “Saving the old tree from the landfill and erecting a really nice piece of art in an inner city minority community that doesn’t get much attention from artists and the public.”
In fact, about the only thing ever written about the K-Street area is the reporting of the latest robbery, murder, or break in, with the occasional “puff piece” about the nearby Girls & Boys Club thrown in once every few years for good measure.
It was just that simple.
When I took the project to the Mayor and the City, all I asked was that they honor my idea of putting the tree back home where it came from, or at least nearby. It would be easy enough to take it, have it carved, and toss it in the swanky already revitalized historic district adjacent to some half million dollar mansions and have a big black tie party as an unveiling, but that’s not what the City promised to do.
The other important thing, in my mind, was to keep the story under wraps until we could develop the project and knew the details before we went to the media and let the general public know what we were doing.
Yes, we wanted to control the story in a way, but I thought that the story is what it is, and I knew that publicity was a powerful tool and it had value in supporting our fundraising efforts.
Unfortunately, all of that is out the window now, because, to put it bluntly, I didn’t realize that I was surrounded by a newspaper company and a community full of Neanderthals.
They just don’t get it and, the more I say, the worse things get.
There’s a combination of racism, politics, and just plain stupidity at work here, and one slightly balding, slightly graying, slightly overweight man sitting on one little island cannot overcome forces that have had years if not centuries to build up and gain strength.
It’s not just blacks against whites or Democrats versus Republicans, you have the additional dynamic of Island residents versus Mainlanders, and Newcomers versus life long residents—and I greatly underestimated those issues when this all got started.
The bottom line is, like it or not, this thing has taken on a life of it’s own in the media, and nothing I can say or do now with change that or possibly undo the damage caused by the way the local newspaper as spun this story.
They (the newspaper) actually believe their own inept coverage, they’ve come out on the editorial page against it, published letters to the editor against it, and the public that actually reads the newspaper and listens to the radio is firmly against what really was an honest, sincere, altruistic effort on my part and that of the City.
In the end, the problem for me is, that this same negative publicity is causing potential donors to avoid getting involved in the project, and even potential team members and contractors are leery of getting involved. I had actually asked for price discounts or even free work from the concrete footing contractor and professional structural engineer designing the footing, but now I expect the best I can do is pay full price and keep their name out of it.
Finally, in losing my temper, I’ve looked like an immature teenager here on the blog and alienated both the newspaper editor and the political reporter that started the furor in the first place, and any day now I expect my name to come up in a newspaper article with a picture of a rabid dog or Charles Manson attached to the story.
Would someone please tell me why everything I touch these days seems to turn upside down?
Why does the “establishment” have so much inertia so as to prevent anything new and different from happening every once in a while?
I’ve donated thousands of hours of my time over the past two and one half years to non-profit theaters and other charitable organizations here in the Golden Isles, and with only two exceptions, each and every time a project with my name on it has come up for public scrutiny, they either gave someone else credit, left my name out entirely, or bitched at me behind the scenes for stealing the spotlight and not letting someone else take credit for my efforts when I did complain.
I know that it’s the thought that counts and everything, but once and a while, toss ME a bone too when I'm busting my hump on Saturday night and everyone else on the marquee is out drinking and toasting their success.
For the time being, I’m done with Glynn County and the people of Glynn County, Georgia. I’m going to finish my part of my beloved K-Street Tree Project, then step back and if it gets funded and installed fine, and if not…YOU know I did my best and what actually happened by reading the past week and one half here on the blog.
And, in closing this issue, I have one final thought for your consideration:
Imagine, if you will, what else the Brunswick News has done over the past one hundred plus years, if they are capable of doing this to a story about someone “A Wantin’ To Spend Thirty Five Thousand Dollars A Carvin’ On A Big Ole’ Tree Stump”?
Scary, isn’t it…
Thursday, July 20, 2006
And In Local News…
What Would You Think Of Me Trying This?
If I had an extra couple of thousand dollars lying around, here is how the headlines would read later this week in ourlocal fishwrapper The Brunswick News:
Citizen Files Suit Against City
Art versus Firewood
The Brunswick News has learned that the city of Brunswick’s recent public arts efforts could actually end up costing the city money in court.
As partially (yet inaccurately) reported here in the pages of this paper, the city has recently been planning to restore the giagantic trunk of a tree that was removed to make way for extension of a large sewer line on K-street in downtown Brunswick.
Back in 2005, when the city was determining the fate of the magnificent 200 year old tree, this same newspaper came out against then Mayor Brad Brown and the decision to save money by removing the tree rather than rerouting the pipeline around its roots.
Now that the tree has been uprooted and killed, and after about three seconds of consideration, the Brunswick News believes that we should all just let “bygones be bygones” and let the old tree fade into history.
You know…”out of sight…out of mind”
Well, something like that…
Any hoooooooo….St. Simons island resident Virgil Rogers was so inspired by this paper’s coverage of Mayor Bryan Thompson’s efforts to resurrect the tree and have it carved into a piece of art funded by private donations and Arts Grants, that he IS ABANDONING HIS OWN PROJECT AND SUING THE CITY FOR THE FUNDING AS YET TO BE RAISED, and donating the proceeds to charity.
“We got to have more textbooks ‘cause I know that little chirren are wandering around trying to learn Spanish from video tapes and cassettes” said Rogers.
“We got to be a spending more money on food for the needie, and all them crack heads down on Wolfe street need a new shelter when the temperature falls down to 70 degrees in January. You know where blue gums come from don’t you?”
“I want to have that tree sawed up and split into kindlin’, then we’ll use the money left over to buy everyone in Newtown Brunswick that a wants one a bright shiny new fireplace.”
“After all, them mean old white folks out there on St. Simons Island have fireplaces, and 70 degrees is cold.”
“That’l teach them, trying to do that high browed art when people are freezing and starving and don’t have rocks to smoke.”
More as this story develops, If we can keep our reporters awake and sober.
If I had an extra couple of thousand dollars lying around, here is how the headlines would read later this week in our
Citizen Files Suit Against City
Art versus Firewood
The Brunswick News has learned that the city of Brunswick’s recent public arts efforts could actually end up costing the city money in court.
As partially (yet inaccurately) reported here in the pages of this paper, the city has recently been planning to restore the giagantic trunk of a tree that was removed to make way for extension of a large sewer line on K-street in downtown Brunswick.
Back in 2005, when the city was determining the fate of the magnificent 200 year old tree, this same newspaper came out against then Mayor Brad Brown and the decision to save money by removing the tree rather than rerouting the pipeline around its roots.
Now that the tree has been uprooted and killed, and after about three seconds of consideration, the Brunswick News believes that we should all just let “bygones be bygones” and let the old tree fade into history.
You know…”out of sight…out of mind”
Well, something like that…
Any hoooooooo….St. Simons island resident Virgil Rogers was so inspired by this paper’s coverage of Mayor Bryan Thompson’s efforts to resurrect the tree and have it carved into a piece of art funded by private donations and Arts Grants, that he IS ABANDONING HIS OWN PROJECT AND SUING THE CITY FOR THE FUNDING AS YET TO BE RAISED, and donating the proceeds to charity.
“We got to have more textbooks ‘cause I know that little chirren are wandering around trying to learn Spanish from video tapes and cassettes” said Rogers.
“We got to be a spending more money on food for the needie, and all them crack heads down on Wolfe street need a new shelter when the temperature falls down to 70 degrees in January. You know where blue gums come from don’t you?”
“I want to have that tree sawed up and split into kindlin’, then we’ll use the money left over to buy everyone in Newtown Brunswick that a wants one a bright shiny new fireplace.”
“After all, them mean old white folks out there on St. Simons Island have fireplaces, and 70 degrees is cold.”
“That’l teach them, trying to do that high browed art when people are freezing and starving and don’t have rocks to smoke.”
More as this story develops, If we can keep our reporters awake and sober.
Words of the Day
OK Chirren' Get Out Your Dictionarys...
Feckless ___________________________________________________
Obtuse _____________________________________________________
Feckless ___________________________________________________
Obtuse _____________________________________________________
I Got A Good Edumication
But It Weren't Free...And It Still Be Going On
What About YOU?
(testing testing testing....thump thump thump...Is This Thing ON?)
What About YOU?
(testing testing testing....thump thump thump...Is This Thing ON?)
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Our Newspaper Is Absolutely, Positively, Full Of Shit
And once they screw up a given issue, they obviously won't give up...
For your consideration, I present today's "Letter to the Editor" headline in the Brunswick News:
"PUT THE MONEY TO BETTER USE"
Instead of paying an out-of-towner to do the oak sculpture, why not use local talent to utilize high school art students. This would mean a whole lot more to our community for generations to come, plus save $35,000 today.
Brent Nichols"
And...if that wasn't ignorant and obviously misinformed enough, one of today's other letters to the editor headline was this:
"Brunswick Money for tree carving should go to the needy"
What in the world are you people thinking?
$35,000 to carve a tree stump?
There are shelters, soup kitchens and other charities that could put that money to use for a tangible benefit in our city. Do you know how much clothes, blankets or food $35,000 could provide? How about text books in school?
At my daughters' middle school last year, five out of seven classes did not assign homework because there were not enough text books for each child to have one. But you can spend $35,000 on a tree stump sculpture? Nice one, Mr. Mayor, nice one. Reminds me of another sculpture the city thought we needed many years ago – "Figures Reclining in the Marsh" if I remember correctly. Another waste of public funding there as well.
Michael Vinson
Brunswick
You see ladies and gentlemen...here is a perfect example of the newspaper (emphasis on the "Paper"), a so-called professional staff of so-called journalists, jumping on a story with few if any facts, and then still proceeding through the process of executing their agenda .
Dammit, I'm pissed off...and I'm not letting this thing go until somebody bleeds ink, if not blood.
UPDATE:
Now that I've calmed down a little...let me add, to be honest and accurate, that the newspaper finally did try to call me late yesterday, nine days after this story first hit the presses. I didn't manage to haul my lumbering ass out of the swimming pool in time to call theasshole reporter back, however.
That would have involved effort, and right now the last thing that I'm expending is additional effort on this issue, except for possibly when I have nothing else to do except fart and belch.
What I do want to do here is try to impress on those of you out there that actually believe everything that you see and hear on the TV news and in the newspaper that most of the time what you are being fed is TOTAL SHIT, regurgitated by some moron that can't find their way to work every day without a map and an extra half hour to make the journey.
I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, that the Brunswick News has, for whatever reason or lack thereof, totally screwed up this project that was tendered by ME to the city with the best of intentions, and I actually don't know if I have the energy to finish it because of having to deal with the public furror that their inept reporting has generated.
After all, there is no money to spend on the tree right now.
There is no money to divert to feeding the homeless.
There is no money to use to buy textbooks.
I haven't made one thin damn dime on this project, and never expected to.
All I wanted to do is save the remains of a two hundred year old tree from the indignity of the landfill or the woodpile, and the semi-professional journalistic idiots down at the Brunswick News screwed all of that up.
I sure hope that they got their money's worth and sold a bunch of newspapers.
No...I'm lieing...I actually don't.
For your consideration, I present today's "Letter to the Editor" headline in the Brunswick News:
"PUT THE MONEY TO BETTER USE"
Instead of paying an out-of-towner to do the oak sculpture, why not use local talent to utilize high school art students. This would mean a whole lot more to our community for generations to come, plus save $35,000 today.
Brent Nichols"
And...if that wasn't ignorant and obviously misinformed enough, one of today's other letters to the editor headline was this:
"Brunswick Money for tree carving should go to the needy"
What in the world are you people thinking?
$35,000 to carve a tree stump?
There are shelters, soup kitchens and other charities that could put that money to use for a tangible benefit in our city. Do you know how much clothes, blankets or food $35,000 could provide? How about text books in school?
At my daughters' middle school last year, five out of seven classes did not assign homework because there were not enough text books for each child to have one. But you can spend $35,000 on a tree stump sculpture? Nice one, Mr. Mayor, nice one. Reminds me of another sculpture the city thought we needed many years ago – "Figures Reclining in the Marsh" if I remember correctly. Another waste of public funding there as well.
Michael Vinson
Brunswick
You see ladies and gentlemen...here is a perfect example of the newspaper (emphasis on the "Paper"), a so-called professional staff of so-called journalists, jumping on a story with few if any facts, and then still proceeding through the process of executing their agenda .
Dammit, I'm pissed off...and I'm not letting this thing go until somebody bleeds ink, if not blood.
UPDATE:
Now that I've calmed down a little...let me add, to be honest and accurate, that the newspaper finally did try to call me late yesterday, nine days after this story first hit the presses. I didn't manage to haul my lumbering ass out of the swimming pool in time to call the
That would have involved effort, and right now the last thing that I'm expending is additional effort on this issue, except for possibly when I have nothing else to do except fart and belch.
What I do want to do here is try to impress on those of you out there that actually believe everything that you see and hear on the TV news and in the newspaper that most of the time what you are being fed is TOTAL SHIT, regurgitated by some moron that can't find their way to work every day without a map and an extra half hour to make the journey.
I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, that the Brunswick News has, for whatever reason or lack thereof, totally screwed up this project that was tendered by ME to the city with the best of intentions, and I actually don't know if I have the energy to finish it because of having to deal with the public furror that their inept reporting has generated.
After all, there is no money to spend on the tree right now.
There is no money to divert to feeding the homeless.
There is no money to use to buy textbooks.
I haven't made one thin damn dime on this project, and never expected to.
All I wanted to do is save the remains of a two hundred year old tree from the indignity of the landfill or the woodpile, and the semi-professional journalistic idiots down at the Brunswick News screwed all of that up.
I sure hope that they got their money's worth and sold a bunch of newspapers.
No...I'm lieing...I actually don't.
The Text Of My Original Proposal
As Promised...Here's What I Originally Took To The City...
The
K Street
Tree Sculpture
Project
By Virgil R. Rogers, III
February 27, 2006
In late 2005 the City of Brunswick and the Norwich/K Street community witnessed the loss of one of their oldest citizens—a gigantic old Live Oak tree that had stood watch over it’s fellow residents since the late 18th century. The tree was the unfortunate victim of a sewer trunk line construction project.
The “K-Street” tree is considered to possibly be old enough to have witnessed the founding of the City of Brunswick and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but it is most definitely old enough to have lived through the battles of the War of 1812, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the seen the arrival of the airplane and the automobile in Glynn County.
The purpose and goals of what I call “The K Street Tree Sculpture Project” is not to lament the loss and second guess the reasons behind its demise, but rather to celebrate the life of this glorious old tree and to acknowledge the importance of all of these ancient leafed monoliths to our local citizens and the Golden Isles community.
To this end, I am considering several possible levels of project development, each with unique meaning, design requirements, and costs.
My initial single purpose and core goal is to save the remaining trunk from the K Street Tree from the Landfill, the Sawmill, or someone’s fireplace. That said, I propose that the tree’s trunk be salvaged, stored, and processed into some meaningful artistic symbol. Ideally it would afterward be returned to a location as close to its original location as possible. This would allow the local community to regain their familiar old resident in a dignified, yet revised appearance.
I am working on a number of variations on this theme:
1. Relocating, up-righting, and carving various portions of the trunk into images of well known individuals of historical regional and state significance. Those which initially come to mind include British General Oglethorpe, Poet Sidney Lanier, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Other more recent persons could also be considered.
2. Relocating, up-righting, and including the tree trunk in the middle of a new playground and play structure dedicated to the K Street children, including those at the adjacent Boys and Girls Club.
3. Relocating and including the tree trunk inside of or adjacent to some as yet unidentified facility—possibly a community or visitors center.
The involvement of the City of Brunswick and Glynn County would be encouraged and appreciated, but I would like to minimize the use of taxpayer funds for the purely “artistic” portion of the project. Depending on the final configuration and actual scope, assistance of the local government(s) in providing a display site and appropriate foundation could be critical to the success of the project.
Regarding the final design theme, something as simple as a contest held within the local schools, allowing the children to suggest the appearance is one possibility. Other options could be considered when and if they are presented.
I would like to elicit the ideas, opinions, and assistance from any and all members of the local government in formulating the project scope and direction, as well as in completing its implementation. Of course all local, state, and national Building Codes and Zoning Regulations would be strictly adhered to.
As an experienced engineer and project manager, I offer my services to manage and coordinate the K-Street Tree Sculpture Project to a successful conclusion. Local and nationally recognized artists, each familiar with the techniques of carving large scale sculpture out of trees would also be included on the project team.
In addition to local artist Keith Jennings—creator of the “Tree Spirit” carvings on St. Simons Island—I have made preliminary contact with several other national artists including Voss Finn and Joe King and I am awaiting their expression of interest in competing for the project.
Mr. Kings work includes projects for Pittsburgh’s Carnege Museum and the Smithsonian Institute. Some of his work includes:
I believe that the project completion timeframe would be between three months and one year, depending on the final scope and details undertaken. I have had a preliminary conversation with Mr. Gragg at Gragg Cabinets located on ML King Boulevard about using his property for temporary storage if necessary. As secure site is also required for use during construction to ensure public safety and to prevent vandalism.
A basic cost of between $3,000 and $10,000 could be expected, although this estimate is very preliminary and is again affected by the final project scope. Funding could be raised through donations from local individuals and businesses, including services to support the artist/craftsman’s per diem costs (hotel rooms, meals, etc.)
I look forward to working with the City of Brunswick government personnel and our local business community in facilitating the successful completion of this project, producing a result of which we can all be proud.
(all of the photographs and some of the formatting is missing because of limitations of HTML coding, but the text is verbatum)
The
K Street
Tree Sculpture
Project
By Virgil R. Rogers, III
February 27, 2006
In late 2005 the City of Brunswick and the Norwich/K Street community witnessed the loss of one of their oldest citizens—a gigantic old Live Oak tree that had stood watch over it’s fellow residents since the late 18th century. The tree was the unfortunate victim of a sewer trunk line construction project.
The “K-Street” tree is considered to possibly be old enough to have witnessed the founding of the City of Brunswick and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but it is most definitely old enough to have lived through the battles of the War of 1812, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the seen the arrival of the airplane and the automobile in Glynn County.
The purpose and goals of what I call “The K Street Tree Sculpture Project” is not to lament the loss and second guess the reasons behind its demise, but rather to celebrate the life of this glorious old tree and to acknowledge the importance of all of these ancient leafed monoliths to our local citizens and the Golden Isles community.
To this end, I am considering several possible levels of project development, each with unique meaning, design requirements, and costs.
My initial single purpose and core goal is to save the remaining trunk from the K Street Tree from the Landfill, the Sawmill, or someone’s fireplace. That said, I propose that the tree’s trunk be salvaged, stored, and processed into some meaningful artistic symbol. Ideally it would afterward be returned to a location as close to its original location as possible. This would allow the local community to regain their familiar old resident in a dignified, yet revised appearance.
I am working on a number of variations on this theme:
1. Relocating, up-righting, and carving various portions of the trunk into images of well known individuals of historical regional and state significance. Those which initially come to mind include British General Oglethorpe, Poet Sidney Lanier, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Other more recent persons could also be considered.
2. Relocating, up-righting, and including the tree trunk in the middle of a new playground and play structure dedicated to the K Street children, including those at the adjacent Boys and Girls Club.
3. Relocating and including the tree trunk inside of or adjacent to some as yet unidentified facility—possibly a community or visitors center.
The involvement of the City of Brunswick and Glynn County would be encouraged and appreciated, but I would like to minimize the use of taxpayer funds for the purely “artistic” portion of the project. Depending on the final configuration and actual scope, assistance of the local government(s) in providing a display site and appropriate foundation could be critical to the success of the project.
Regarding the final design theme, something as simple as a contest held within the local schools, allowing the children to suggest the appearance is one possibility. Other options could be considered when and if they are presented.
I would like to elicit the ideas, opinions, and assistance from any and all members of the local government in formulating the project scope and direction, as well as in completing its implementation. Of course all local, state, and national Building Codes and Zoning Regulations would be strictly adhered to.
As an experienced engineer and project manager, I offer my services to manage and coordinate the K-Street Tree Sculpture Project to a successful conclusion. Local and nationally recognized artists, each familiar with the techniques of carving large scale sculpture out of trees would also be included on the project team.
In addition to local artist Keith Jennings—creator of the “Tree Spirit” carvings on St. Simons Island—I have made preliminary contact with several other national artists including Voss Finn and Joe King and I am awaiting their expression of interest in competing for the project.
Mr. Kings work includes projects for Pittsburgh’s Carnege Museum and the Smithsonian Institute. Some of his work includes:
I believe that the project completion timeframe would be between three months and one year, depending on the final scope and details undertaken. I have had a preliminary conversation with Mr. Gragg at Gragg Cabinets located on ML King Boulevard about using his property for temporary storage if necessary. As secure site is also required for use during construction to ensure public safety and to prevent vandalism.
A basic cost of between $3,000 and $10,000 could be expected, although this estimate is very preliminary and is again affected by the final project scope. Funding could be raised through donations from local individuals and businesses, including services to support the artist/craftsman’s per diem costs (hotel rooms, meals, etc.)
I look forward to working with the City of Brunswick government personnel and our local business community in facilitating the successful completion of this project, producing a result of which we can all be proud.
(all of the photographs and some of the formatting is missing because of limitations of HTML coding, but the text is verbatum)
Letter To The Editor
I really sent this out this morning...
Dear Kerry,
I’m writing to personally thank you and your newspaper for, in less than eight days, essentially killing the results of my efforts spent over the past five months working on what I call the “K Street Tree Project.”
It was actually Tuesday’s thoughtful, insightful, yet totally incorrect editorial that probably drove the last stake into our fundraising efforts.
Last week I managed to quell the firestorm you created on the local morning radio talk show with your incomplete article of July 10th by explaining to the listeners that the $35,000 cost figure was just an estimate, that the project was still in the preliminary stages, and that most if not all of the funding would be coming from private donors and federal/state grants for the Arts.
Now this week it is apparent that you not only believe your own shoddy reporting, but that it is worth your while to come out and devote editorial space to deride my efforts without even asking any further questions.
Having spent an additional two hours on the phone Tuesday morning with structural engineers and concrete contractors soliciting pricing and guarantees of discounts in return for recognition and publicity, when I saw your ill-informed editorial I realized that I was fighting a losing battle.
After all, who in their right mind would want to get involved in the project now that the Brunswick News has single handedly turned the public against the effort to resurrect the old tree?
Never mind that, from the very outset, when I PERSONALLY conceived of and presented this project to the Mayor and the City, I emphatically stated that:
“I would like to minimize the use of taxpayer funds for the purely “artistic” portion of the project…Funding could be raised through donations from local individuals and businesses, including services to support the artist/craftsman’s per diem costs (hotel rooms, meals, etc.)”
The only thing I wanted from the city was a place to put the tree once it was carved and help moving it—something they were already obligated to do once they ripped it out of the ground to make way for the sewer project.
Remember that the city saved tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars by killing the tree rather than routing the sewer line around its roots?
The only difference I asked for was carving the tree and putting it back in the neighborhood where it came from for public viewing rather than hauling it to the dump for disposal.
Yet you, in your infinite wisdom, with your building filled with so-called “professional” journalists, have seriously damaged my efforts.
Not one single person at 3011 Altama Avenue has managed to pick up the phone and ask me where the funding was coming from, even after I hand delivered a package of material describing our project last Tuesday to Keith Laing, the author of the original article.
For all you and your staff of “professional journalists” know, I PERSONALLY might be giving the city the money to do this project.
For all you and your staff of “professional journalists” know, the Mayor might be donating some of his recent, very publicized, game show winnings to the project.
What you and your editorial staff apparently don’t know or didn’t bother to mention in either the published article or your editorial is that we spent at least half of the last meeting at city hall (conducted on July 6th) talking about fundraising and applying for state and federal Art Grants.
Why was that fact omitted?
After all, the Brunswick News had a reporter and a photographer present in our meeting.
I assume that Mr. Keith Laing was that reporter.
Is Keith deaf, stupid, a partisan hack, or just forgetful?
I forgot to mention Attention Deficit Disorder…but I digress…
Tell Keith that I really admire his journalist skills. By the way, you might also consider buying Mr. Laing a new tape recorder because his pens and pencils obviously don’t provide enough information gathering technology to enable him to actually REPORT a story accurately.
You see, Mr. Laing forgot to mention or failed to remember a number of other things that came up in our meeting.
Things like that the actual carving of the tree was only going to cost ten or twelve thousand dollars.
Things like that we were going to ask for local artists to submit ideas and even be involved in the carving if they could do so safely and competently.
Things like that, even if we took the Brunswick News’ advice and handed your newsroom a truck load of chainsaws so that “local artists and volunteers” could do the carving, we’d still need cranes to lift the massive trunk and a concrete foundation to rest it on once it was finished. The last time I checked, cranes and concrete cost money, something that it’s apparently easy for “professional journalists” and uninformed amateurs to overlook when considering the viability of projects like this. (By the way, the trunk weighs somewhere between 80 and 100 thousand pounds, not 180,000 pounds as your band of “professional journalists” has incorrectly reported not once, but twice now.)
Things like that we were going to ask the children in the local neighborhoods for suggestions for what they would like to see in the artwork. We might possibly have a competition in the middle schools looking for ideas. I personally came up with the names of General James Oglethorpe, Poet Sidney Lanier, and Civil Rights leader the Reverend Martin Luther King in my initial proposal, but those names are not fixed in stone (excuse the unintended pun.)
For all I care, we can put your newspaper’s owner’s visage up there along with commissioner’s Cap Fendig and Tony Thaw, throw in a bunch of Arabs, camels, and add 72 naked, dancing Virgins up and down the tree trunk—all I’m trying to do here is save a giant 200 year old tree from a landfill, and get some positive PR for the city of Brunswick, Georgia in the process.
Why the hell do you have to go off half cocked and tear this thing apart before you know all of the facts?
Why do you and your newspaper seek to have it both ways?
I seem to recall numerous articles lamenting the political process leading to the removal of the tree in 2005. I seem to recall that public opinion was AGAINST the city taking the tree out, but now that the City wants to put it back, you’re against that too. And by the way, you need to leave the city council out of your editorializing because thus far, to my knowledge, the council is only involved by default.
The bottom line here is, until you received this letter, that you and the Brunswick News knew less about what you were writing and editorializing about than you should have—and that’s a crying shame because you’re in the reporting business…I think.
Or are you just in the editorializing business?
The ultimate irony in all of this is that liberals and the liberal media are constantly lamenting the plight of minority inner city neighborhoods and demanding that the government increase taxes in order to steal some of the wealth to be transferred to the “needy” and “downtrodden” in our society.
Thanks to the Brunswick News, funds from a bunch of mean old wealthy white men and women from St. Simons Island most definitely won’t be used to donate a world class piece of art to the citizens of the city of Brunswick.
And as to all you “professional journalists” down there at the Brunswick News—thanks for not hiring me for your recent position, because I refuse to work around and tolerate incompetents like Keith Laing.
You keep writing, and I’ll keep holding your feet to the fire.
Best Regards,
Virgil Raymond Rogers, III
That aught to get my message across...
Dear Kerry,
I’m writing to personally thank you and your newspaper for, in less than eight days, essentially killing the results of my efforts spent over the past five months working on what I call the “K Street Tree Project.”
It was actually Tuesday’s thoughtful, insightful, yet totally incorrect editorial that probably drove the last stake into our fundraising efforts.
Last week I managed to quell the firestorm you created on the local morning radio talk show with your incomplete article of July 10th by explaining to the listeners that the $35,000 cost figure was just an estimate, that the project was still in the preliminary stages, and that most if not all of the funding would be coming from private donors and federal/state grants for the Arts.
Now this week it is apparent that you not only believe your own shoddy reporting, but that it is worth your while to come out and devote editorial space to deride my efforts without even asking any further questions.
Having spent an additional two hours on the phone Tuesday morning with structural engineers and concrete contractors soliciting pricing and guarantees of discounts in return for recognition and publicity, when I saw your ill-informed editorial I realized that I was fighting a losing battle.
After all, who in their right mind would want to get involved in the project now that the Brunswick News has single handedly turned the public against the effort to resurrect the old tree?
Never mind that, from the very outset, when I PERSONALLY conceived of and presented this project to the Mayor and the City, I emphatically stated that:
“I would like to minimize the use of taxpayer funds for the purely “artistic” portion of the project…Funding could be raised through donations from local individuals and businesses, including services to support the artist/craftsman’s per diem costs (hotel rooms, meals, etc.)”
The only thing I wanted from the city was a place to put the tree once it was carved and help moving it—something they were already obligated to do once they ripped it out of the ground to make way for the sewer project.
Remember that the city saved tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars by killing the tree rather than routing the sewer line around its roots?
The only difference I asked for was carving the tree and putting it back in the neighborhood where it came from for public viewing rather than hauling it to the dump for disposal.
Yet you, in your infinite wisdom, with your building filled with so-called “professional” journalists, have seriously damaged my efforts.
Not one single person at 3011 Altama Avenue has managed to pick up the phone and ask me where the funding was coming from, even after I hand delivered a package of material describing our project last Tuesday to Keith Laing, the author of the original article.
For all you and your staff of “professional journalists” know, I PERSONALLY might be giving the city the money to do this project.
For all you and your staff of “professional journalists” know, the Mayor might be donating some of his recent, very publicized, game show winnings to the project.
What you and your editorial staff apparently don’t know or didn’t bother to mention in either the published article or your editorial is that we spent at least half of the last meeting at city hall (conducted on July 6th) talking about fundraising and applying for state and federal Art Grants.
Why was that fact omitted?
After all, the Brunswick News had a reporter and a photographer present in our meeting.
I assume that Mr. Keith Laing was that reporter.
Is Keith deaf, stupid, a partisan hack, or just forgetful?
I forgot to mention Attention Deficit Disorder…but I digress…
Tell Keith that I really admire his journalist skills. By the way, you might also consider buying Mr. Laing a new tape recorder because his pens and pencils obviously don’t provide enough information gathering technology to enable him to actually REPORT a story accurately.
You see, Mr. Laing forgot to mention or failed to remember a number of other things that came up in our meeting.
Things like that the actual carving of the tree was only going to cost ten or twelve thousand dollars.
Things like that we were going to ask for local artists to submit ideas and even be involved in the carving if they could do so safely and competently.
Things like that, even if we took the Brunswick News’ advice and handed your newsroom a truck load of chainsaws so that “local artists and volunteers” could do the carving, we’d still need cranes to lift the massive trunk and a concrete foundation to rest it on once it was finished. The last time I checked, cranes and concrete cost money, something that it’s apparently easy for “professional journalists” and uninformed amateurs to overlook when considering the viability of projects like this. (By the way, the trunk weighs somewhere between 80 and 100 thousand pounds, not 180,000 pounds as your band of “professional journalists” has incorrectly reported not once, but twice now.)
Things like that we were going to ask the children in the local neighborhoods for suggestions for what they would like to see in the artwork. We might possibly have a competition in the middle schools looking for ideas. I personally came up with the names of General James Oglethorpe, Poet Sidney Lanier, and Civil Rights leader the Reverend Martin Luther King in my initial proposal, but those names are not fixed in stone (excuse the unintended pun.)
For all I care, we can put your newspaper’s owner’s visage up there along with commissioner’s Cap Fendig and Tony Thaw, throw in a bunch of Arabs, camels, and add 72 naked, dancing Virgins up and down the tree trunk—all I’m trying to do here is save a giant 200 year old tree from a landfill, and get some positive PR for the city of Brunswick, Georgia in the process.
Why the hell do you have to go off half cocked and tear this thing apart before you know all of the facts?
Why do you and your newspaper seek to have it both ways?
I seem to recall numerous articles lamenting the political process leading to the removal of the tree in 2005. I seem to recall that public opinion was AGAINST the city taking the tree out, but now that the City wants to put it back, you’re against that too. And by the way, you need to leave the city council out of your editorializing because thus far, to my knowledge, the council is only involved by default.
The bottom line here is, until you received this letter, that you and the Brunswick News knew less about what you were writing and editorializing about than you should have—and that’s a crying shame because you’re in the reporting business…I think.
Or are you just in the editorializing business?
The ultimate irony in all of this is that liberals and the liberal media are constantly lamenting the plight of minority inner city neighborhoods and demanding that the government increase taxes in order to steal some of the wealth to be transferred to the “needy” and “downtrodden” in our society.
Thanks to the Brunswick News, funds from a bunch of mean old wealthy white men and women from St. Simons Island most definitely won’t be used to donate a world class piece of art to the citizens of the city of Brunswick.
And as to all you “professional journalists” down there at the Brunswick News—thanks for not hiring me for your recent position, because I refuse to work around and tolerate incompetents like Keith Laing.
You keep writing, and I’ll keep holding your feet to the fire.
Best Regards,
Virgil Raymond Rogers, III
That aught to get my message across...
Monday, July 17, 2006
Kiss My Jewish Ass...
If I Lived In Israel, That's What I would Be Saying Right Now
Liberal panties are wet the world over.
Notice that I don't say "boxers" or "briefs" here, because I personally believe that even liberal men wear panties?
Most likely some of those big old, giant, Sears & Roebuck panties or pantie girdles that all of you girls had to worry about back in the days before Fredericks ofHooterville Hollywood started delivering free pictures to your doorstep of young women walking around in their underwear. (By the way, looking at all of the belts, buckles, straps, and laces...now in retrospect, I can't help but wonder if those things were actually designed to keep something from getting out...or something from getting in...oh...well...never mind...)
Any way, this world wide assortment of moistened undergarmets of whatever description are wet because 99% of the liberals are peeing on themselves as a result of Israeli Prime Minister Elhud Olmert electing to actually DEFEND the country he was elected to DEFEND.
All I have to say is THIS about THAT:
To HISbolla and HEZbolla and HERbolla and Hammas and HAMas and HamASS and whatever the islamofaschistic-dune-goon-towel-headed-mo-fos out there choose to call themselves...Keep on lobbing your tiny little chicken shit rockets at Israel.
Next, to the United Nations and Kofi Annon...BITE ME.
And Finally, if things get further out of hand, to the world community and President Bush, I say...
NUKE 'EM...
I'll get off the sofa and limp all the way to the Middle East, at my own expense, to help... and I think that there would be a few thousand middle aged Rednecks from Georgia and Alabama on their way right behind me too.
When are they all gonna learn?
Dammit
Liberal panties are wet the world over.
Notice that I don't say "boxers" or "briefs" here, because I personally believe that even liberal men wear panties?
Most likely some of those big old, giant, Sears & Roebuck panties or pantie girdles that all of you girls had to worry about back in the days before Fredericks of
Any way, this world wide assortment of moistened undergarmets of whatever description are wet because 99% of the liberals are peeing on themselves as a result of Israeli Prime Minister Elhud Olmert electing to actually DEFEND the country he was elected to DEFEND.
All I have to say is THIS about THAT:
To HISbolla and HEZbolla and HERbolla and Hammas and HAMas and HamASS and whatever the islamofaschistic-dune-goon-towel-headed-mo-fos out there choose to call themselves...Keep on lobbing your tiny little chicken shit rockets at Israel.
Next, to the United Nations and Kofi Annon...BITE ME.
And Finally, if things get further out of hand, to the world community and President Bush, I say...
NUKE 'EM...
I'll get off the sofa and limp all the way to the Middle East, at my own expense, to help... and I think that there would be a few thousand middle aged Rednecks from Georgia and Alabama on their way right behind me too.
When are they all gonna learn?
Dammit
Sunday, July 16, 2006
I'm A Bit Short On Words Right Now
Here...Go Read This...
I'm distracted, I'm pissed off, and I'm having trouble writing anything worthwhile this morning, but my fellow bloggers have a bunch of commentary going on.
Take for instance Hugh Hewitt over at Townhall.com.
Read that piece, if you will, then if you have the time take a look at this discussion of what the islamofascist Arab bastards have done to contribute to history.
OK, I want a three page, single spaced report on my desk by Monday morning telling me what you learned.
Dammit
I'm distracted, I'm pissed off, and I'm having trouble writing anything worthwhile this morning, but my fellow bloggers have a bunch of commentary going on.
Take for instance Hugh Hewitt over at Townhall.com.
Read that piece, if you will, then if you have the time take a look at this discussion of what the islamofascist Arab bastards have done to contribute to history.
OK, I want a three page, single spaced report on my desk by Monday morning telling me what you learned.
Dammit
