Monthly Archives: August 2011

Beekeeper Dodges Lightning Bolts

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Clearing pigeon heads from the drain and dodging lightning bolts; all in a day’s work for Bromo-Seltzer Arts Tower facility manager, Joe Wall. Joe has been the facilities manager for the Baltimore Office of Promotion and Arts Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower and School 33 Arts Center since 2009. Wall wears many hats, facilities manager, writer, performance artist, beekeeper, storyteller, and self professed “raconteur electronique.” Jack-of-All-Trades or Renaissance man, you be the judge.

Tower Stories

“Facility management is really story fodder”, says Joe, because there is always some insane story.” For various reasons, many of the stories go untold, for now. When asked about story he cars to share, Joe quips, “This is the only job where I would call my boss and say, the Peregrine falcons broke the elevator. The falcons catch pigeons and eat them on the top of the tower. The pigeon parts clog the roof drain causing the roof to leak into the elevator controls. Joe redesigned the drain so it wouldn’t clog, but not before getting caught on the roof alone in an electrical storm. With lightning bouncing across the downtown sky, he was up on the roof cleaning out the drain. With the last scoop of pigeon heads in his hand the jam clears. When the drain cleared it created a vacuum that sucked his arm into the drain up to his shoulder.

Sound stories

Joe describes raconteur electronique as “big narratives with electronic music and sound design behind them. His last big piece, “My Fairy God Mother Smoked Too Much” landed Joe a Maryland State Arts Council grant. Joe’s other electronic interest is ambient music which he considers telling a story with sound.


Joe Wall making music with his iPod Touch. (Video by Greg Cundiff)

An iPod Touch is the centerpiece of his current “live rig”. A live rig according to Joe is his box of toys for creating sound. “The iPod Touch has got a really nice physical interaction to it, it is kind of like pushing rocks around a Zen garden.” Last fall Joe had some time to show me his rig and how it works. In the video he mixes up some sound.

Road Stories

Downsizing his rig was a must after his car broke down on a bridge outside of the Philadelphia Naval Yard. The car was filled with hundreds of pounds of sound equipment when it broke down on the bridge. The bridge had no walkway or shoulder. After shuttling the equipment an item or two at time, Joes finds himself in a swamp at the end of the bridge. He then has to explain to a puzzled gate guard why he needs help and how he got there. The live rig is now downsized to a “box that is tightly designed to my ergonomic specifications.”

Just Joe

Before coming to the Baltimore Office of Promotion and Arts, Joe was the facility director at the American Visionary Art Museum. While there he oversaw the installation of the giant mosaic on the outside of the building. To get away from it all, Joe is an avid beekeeper, and maintains a retreat cabin in West Virginia. For a closer look, check out Joe’s website, joewall.com.

Is the Oil Worth the Risk?

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President Obama will render a decision on permission to extend the Keystone tar sands pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico by early September. He should deny permission for the pipeline known as the Keystone XL.

Map of Keystone XL Pipeline ( http://bit.ly/pvXY8i)(image source: US Department of State)

Pipeline Safety Disputed

TransCanada the pipeline’s owner predicts, “no more than one spill every seven years” according to Grist: A Beacon in the Smog. In the same article Grist reports “oil has spilled 11 times in the last year.”

The National Resources Defense Council in a position paper notes that tar sands bitumen is heavier and more corrosive than traditional oil. The position paper also says, “Leaks and spills are common occurrences from such pipelines. Between 2000 and 2009, pipeline accidents were responsible for 2,794 significant incidents and 161 fatalities in the United States.”

Opposition from Indigenous Groups

According to Indian Country Today Media Network, both the Association of First Nations of Canada and the National Congress of American Indians oppose the extension.  ICTMN also reports that an “NCAI resolution says that ‘based on the relatively poor environmental record of the first Keystone pipeline, which includes numerous spills, U.S. regulators shut the pipeline down in late May, 2011″ and concludes that “it is probable that further environmental disasters will occur in Indian country if the new pipeline is allowed to be constructed.”’

Climate Scientists Weigh In

Twenty notable climate and earth scientists sent a letter to the president saying that “As scientists, speaking for ourselves and not for any of our institutions, we can say categorically that it’s not only not in the national interest, it’s also not in the planet’s best interest.” In the letter they urge that others join in opposition to approval of a pipeline that is insure exploitation of a resource that poses such risk to the environment.

Is it worth the risk?

The U.S. needs energy. There is no argument on this point. Carbon based fuel is for all practical purposed a finite resource. We will run out of it. Tar sands oil is corrosive; it takes high heat and pressure to push it through a pipe. Look at the proposed pipeline’s path on the map. The pipeline transverses America’s breadbasket, and the aquifers that supply agricultural and drinking water. It is not worth the risk, and is certainly not in the national interest.