Speaking at the British Consulate in Kendall Square, last week,  Morgan Stanley Chief Market Strategist David Kelly predicted slow (3%) growth for the US economy in 2012–unless  there are no major disruptions  like  last year’s  Arab Spring, the European Debt Crisis,  the Tsunami in Japan or  what he termed a “home grown” crisis like the one created when Congress allowed this country to hover on the brink of default rather than raise the debt ceiling.

While the deficit is cause for concern, he said, a default would have thrown the nation into a true “great depression.” In diminishing its debt,  the US should proceed slowly. Both tax and entitlement reforms are needed, he said, and moving bit by bit can lead to a balanced budget within 7 years (?) whereas trying to change everything all at once could lead to disaster.

Despite the crises of  2011,   he pointed out, the Standard and Poor’s Index ended up  just .003 percent lower than it had been  at the year’s start. The coming year will  be one of uncertainty, but “the US economy can grow through that, ” he said.

According to Kelly,   factors in several areas will  likely lead to growth:

Housing:
-The  current very low level of housing starts, low inventories and  rising rents will lead to greater demand for homes, especially as consumer finances continue to improve.

-With mortgage rates at 3.8 percent, consumers are refinancing their homes, which means that consumers now have 14% disposable income, compared with 11% in 2007.

-This is the most affordable housing market “ever. ” Mortgage payments now account for  just 10 percent of average household income–which means that people have more money to spend elsewhere.

Automobile:  

-The age of the average vehicle in the US has risen from 9.8 several years ago to ten years;  as cars break  down, sales will go up.

Capital Spending
-Companies have held back on capital spending; as confidence rises,  spending will increase.%.

The key to it all, he emphasized, is confidence that the economy will improve.  Still, he said, he wished that  Ben Bernacke and the Federal Reserve Bank would take the year off “to work on their golf game” instead of telling people that interest rates will remain low for the next few years–which encourages people to put off spending.  What is more, he said,  keeping interest rates low will discourage banks from lending–because they do not want to be locked in to low rates for thirty years, when they know that rates are likely to rise a few years from now.

A link to Morgan Stanley’s  Guide to the Markets for Q1 2012     is available at

https://www.jpmorganfunds.com/cm/Satellite?pagename=jpmfVanityWrapper&UserFriendlyURL=insidemarket_browsetheguide

—Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a strategic PR firm specializing in integrated marketing communications, thought leadership,  media relations and social media for companies in health, science, technology and energy, worldwide. 

 Local AFL-CIO Insulators, Tin Kinockers and Pipefitters from Cambridge Local  use a large inflatable rat to make clear how they feel about the use of non-union, non-Cambridge workers by PH Mechanical for work currently underway at 302 Third Street in Kendall Square.  “They don’t conform to community standards; they are unlicensed, and they have no apprentice program,” said one union member who declined to give his name. He said he expects that Cambridge City Council will be discussing the issue at its next meeting, possibly this evening.

Photos C. Anita M. HarrisInsulators, Tin Knocker, & Pipefitters Local AFL-CIO unions protest use of non-union workers at 302 3rd St.

—Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer in Cambridge, MA.  New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group,  a marketing and public relations firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

It’s not that often that I leave an art exhibit with a new way of  seeing the world, but that’s what happened after I visited the ICA’s dance/draw exhibit, last weekend.

As described in an ICA press release, the show, ” organized by  ICA Chief Curator Helen Molesworth,  traces the journey of the line from changes in drawing in the 1960s to its explosion off the page and into three-dimensional space—ultimately finding itself in the realm of dance.  It  features  some 100 works—including video, photography, drawings and sculptural objects and  live performances.”

Based on the ICA Website’s  rather  formal description ( “In both dance and drawing, the line, as an independent means of expression, was liberated from the historical ideal of perfect form, to become a  mobile, open-ended element used to explore history, memory, and the expressive potential of the body”)   I thought the show would  dry and difficult–which is why I managed to avoid seeing it until just before the exhibit closes- on January 16.  And am I sorry!  Because what I found was a  refreshing new way of experiencing both dance and drawing–as well as objects and movement in the real world–that I’d like to go back to again and again.

One section of the exhibit shows how artists used body parts and objects rather than traditional drawing implements to make art. For example,  Janine Antoni used her eyelashes and mascara to make patterns on canvas;  Trisha Brown’s superimposed  tracings of her feet show motion in themselves; John Cage drew with plants and seaweed; David Hammons bounced a basketball covered with dirt onto a white background,  and Mona Hatou, below, drew with her own hair dipped in hair dye.   Photos and the works themselves document the artmaking processes–which often  involved dance-like  movement. 1.

In another room, a section called “The Line in Space” includes works in which  thread, string, or wire were used to form line–off of paper or canvas.  Of this group, I especially liked the mesmorizing simplicity of  Fred Sandback’s “Untitled Sculptural Study”   hung  in space.

If I recall correctly, a thread red  acryllic yarn hung up and down from ceiling to floor to the left, blue from the wall to the red thread, and yellow parallel on the floor–forming a three-dimensional representation of a Mondrian-like grid.

I also got a new perspective on  charcoal drawing  when I encountered Cornelia Parker’s  Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson)  sculpture, which is part of the ICA’s permanent collection. Composed of chunks of charcoal hung from the ceiling on wire mesh, in this new context, the piece becomes a charcoal drawing– in space.

A third section, “Dancing,” explores challenges to traditional modern dance as dance performances were moved off the stage into  the “real world”  of streets, mountains, the subway and such.  “Babette Mangolte’s photographs and films of Judson dancers Trisha Brown and Lucinda Childs show us the dancing body, in its entirety, rigorously defining itself as a line in space…. Juan Capistran’s break dancing in a museum (below) “similarly engages dance to defy protocols of normative behavior. “2.

Finally, in the section “Drawing,”  younger artists demonstrate “how movement, performance, and drawing are ineluctably mixed… ” . 3. For example, Tseng Kwong Chi photographs  Bill T. Jones Body Painting with Keith Haring; Fiona Banner copies  life-drawing manuals, in which the figure often appears to be in flight; Silke Otto Knapp  traces photographic images of dancers  onto luminous silver-painted canvases, and  Helena Almeida has herself photographed while she is drawing.                                                         4.  

I loved these and  many other works in the exhibit–and can’t do justice to them all.   But my favorite was a video in which dancer William Forsythe explains and shows  how he as a dancer moves– over, under and around electronically superimposed lines and shapes –forming new lines, shapes and volume.    5.

The day after seeing the show, I could not help but notice  lines, shapes and volume in relation to individuals’ movement everywhere in my life.

Draw/Dance will be at the ICA through January 16, 2012, with major support  fromThe Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Ronald and Ronni Casty, the HBB Foundation, and Jacqueline Bernat and Adam Hetnarski.

Credits:

1.Janine Antoni (Bahamian, born 1964)
Loving Care, 1992-96
Color video, sound; 35:50 minutes
Performance on January 7, 1996, MATRIX
Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art,
Hartford, CT
Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine,
New York

2.Helena Almeida (Portuguese, born 1934)
O Atelier/The Studio, 1983
Black-and-white photograph
67 3/8 x 48 7/8 in.
Framed: 69 ¼ x 50 ¾ in.
Exhibition copy, courtesy of the artist

3.Juan Capistran (Mexican, born 1976)
The Breaks, 2000
Inkjet print
40 x 40 in.
Collection of the New Museum of Contemporary
Art, New York, The Altoids Curiously Strong
Collection, Gift of Altoids
4.Tseng Kwong Chi (Chinese, 1950-1990)
Bill T. Jones Body Painting with Keith Haring,
1983
Gelatin silver selenium-toned photograph
20 x 16 in.
Muna Tseng Dance Projects / Estate of Tseng
Kwong Chi and Courtesy of Paul Kasmin Galler

5.William Forsythe (American, born 1949)
Lectures from Improvisation Technologies, 2011
Color video, sound; 9:54 min.
The Forsythe Company and ZKM, Karlsruhe,
2011

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a public relations firm located in Cambridge, MA.  Harris, its founder and president, also blogs there.

My friend Bill Lichtenstein is working on what’s certain to be a wonderful nonprofit documentary film about WBCN–a groundbreaking Boston radio station deeply involved in the political and cultural changes of the 1960s.  He’s seeking funding through Kickstarter: an innovative fundraising mechanism that will be of interest to entrepreneurs of all stripes–in order to help change the future.

The film, entitled  “The American Revolution: How a Radio Station, Politics and Rock and Roll Changed Everything”  documents Boston radio station WBCN from 1968 (when Bill, as a 14-year-old high school became the station’s youngest DJ) through 1974.

As reported in the Boston Herald (Dec. 5, 2011), during those years, Bruce Springsteen did his first radio interview ever on WBCN;  Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir,  of the Grateful Dead, and  the Allman Brothers’ Duane Allman stopped into the studio at 2 AM and jammed for an area. When Nixon invaded Cambodia, “BCN got local college kids to strike.

WBCN  “had tremendous national impact both musically and politically,” Lichtenstein told the Herald. “We changed the world one time,” Lichtenstein says.  And, with this film,  “we can do it again.”

Lichenstein, who has produced TV news and documentaries for ABC and PBS, has gathered more than 50,000 documents, photos,  and tapes–which include performances by Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.

He has also garnered some $50,000 in contributions–but needs to double that amount by Dec. 19 to complete the film.

He’s  seeking $104 thousand in donations via Kickstarter–a nonprofit that allows contributors tax deductions–but gives fundraisers just a month to get the entire bundle.That is, Kickstarter takes an all or nothing approach:  Lichtenstein must  bring in all $104K by Dec. 19–or he gets nothing.

After three weeks of fundraising, he’s  now almost at the halfway point, with just a week to go.

More info and the film trailer are available at  www.KickstartWBCN.com.  Lichtenstein and Kickstarter will be featured on Boston’s WCVB-TV  “Chronicle”  on Dec. 13, 2011.

——Anita Harris

Anita M. Harris is president of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations firm located in tyhe Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square,  Cambridge, MA.   Anita  is a former national journalist who got HER start in the alternative press–as a founder of the Harrisburg Independent Press and writer for  the The Real Paper and Phoenix in Boston, MA.

c. AMH 2011

At 1PM, on Friday, September 18, collaborators from MIT, CIC, the Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship, several venture funds, the City of Cambridge, Ernst & Young and others will inaugurate the world’s first “Walk of Fame” for entrepreneurs, according to an email from  Tim Rowe, president of  the Kendall Square Association.

The event, open to the public, will be held at the Kendall Square T stop in front of the Marriott Hotel’s  newly redesigned plaza.

Seven of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time will be honored with granite stars unveiled in the public way, according to Rowe.

While many of these individuals have passed away, one of these seven will be on hand for the ceremony (the identities of the honorees are secret until the event).

In future years, additional stars will be placed, building a kind of
“freedom trail” of innovation through Kendall Square.

“The Entrepreneur Walk of Fame has a mission to inspire young people to
consider careers as entrepreneurs,” Rowe wrote.  “While there are public efforts to
honor great athletes and actors, nowhere today is there a public place
where entrepreneurs are honored for their contributions to society.
Those contributions are significant. Entrepreneurs bring new
innovations to market in ways that improve the human condition, and
entrepreneurs help millions of people become productively employed,
thereby building healthy economies.”

-Anita Harris

###

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and marketing communications firm located in Kendall Square. Cambridge.

After a week of torrential rains,  my friend E and I  felt a huge need for light and color–so took in  two excellent retrospective art exhibits: Dale Chihuli’s  Through the Looking Glass at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and   El Anatsui‘s When I Last Wrote to You about Africa at  Wellesley College’s Davis Museum, in Wellesley, MA.

Through the Looking Glass is a 40-year retrospective of the Washington State artist’s blown glass sculptures–such as a boat containing thousands of  glass flowers, fantastical forests,  sculptures based on South American basketry–which took  us out of our doldrums and got our imaginations flowing and reminded us that we can each create worlds of our own.

In When I Last Wrote to You about Africa ,  the  West African artist El Anatsui  transformed mundane materials into forms and objects that were beautiful and real.

Surveying nearly five decades of the West African artist’s internationally renowned career, the exhibit featured some sixty works in wood, metal ceramic, painting, print and drawing.  E and I especially loved the gorgeous tapestry created from used wine-bottle caps and labels; wooden sculpture made from open boxes meant to remind viewers of the opening of market stalls and paintings of African colors, shapes. More difficult and disturbing was  a stone-carved head–with traditional face but open in back to reveal not much in the brain.

An additional highlight was an exhibit of fashions designed by Wellesley students–meant to interpret the  show.  I particularly liked one showing a long, flowing fancy dress which, on closer glance, turned made of a black garbage bag, with collar and ruffle resembling feathers–but made from cut up magazines–all commenting on the ephemeral nature, I believe, of show business careers.    E was partial to a dress with a bodice composed of typewriter keys…reflecting El Anatsu’si use of everyday objects in creating new ones.

Apologies for waiting so long to see/write about this one–(it closed on June 26) but E says the ICA has acquired one of the works; that will definitely be worth seeing, there.

Chihuly/ Through the Looking Glass will be at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through August 7, 2011.

Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is a journalist, photographer and President of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA.

On my way to a meeting at MIT, I happened to spot some stunning photos through the window of what turned out to be the Philip Alden Russell Gallery of the  David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. I contacted the Institute-which opened in March–and learned that the photos are featured in a gallery designed to connect the community with the Koch’s work.  I happily accepted Curator  Alex Fiorentino’s offer  to show me around.

On my tour,  Fiorentino  explained that the galleries are designed so that visitors can explore current cancer research projects, examine striking biomedical images, hear personal reflections on cancer and cancer research, and learn about the historical, geographic and scientific contects out of which the Institute emerged. The photos, he said, were taken under microscopes by Koch research scientists and collaborators–chosen through a contest,  then blown up, printed on fabric, adhered to stretchers over light sources,  Each has a scientific story to tell. The photo just below for example, is one I took of an EI-fluorescence micrograph by  Christian Kastrup of the Anderson and Langer Labs at the Koch. It shows a new  technique for delivering treatments to a blood vessel (seen in blue) using nanoparticles and microparticles. According to a Koch publication,  the original image was dark, with nanoparticles, microparticles and the blood vessel each stained a different color. But, in this version–to which my photo does not do justice— the original colors are inverted.

Zebrafish Eye

Another beauty is Kara Cerveny’s confocal micrograph–“Sunrise in the Eye: the Making of a Retina.”  Taken by the Koch collaborator at the Steve Wilson Group at University College, London, it is part of Cerveny’s investigations into how stem cells in the zebrafish eye differentiate to become more specialized cells. Her goal is to gain insight into how the normal development process goes awry in cancer and other diseases. There are ten award-winning photos displayed– all viewable any time through the Koch windows or inside during gallery hours–9-5 on weekdays.

Other gallery highlights include exhibits on five new technologies to combat cancer being developed at the Koch;  a “video box” providing 16 presentations by cancer patients, their families and scientists;  wallpaper showing cellular processes, a mosaic floor composed of thousands of tiles laid out to form a map of the Kendall Square area; and  timelines showing the parallel histories of science and engineering at MIT. The timelines converge in the present, with  the Koch’s cross-disciplinary approach to cancer.  And–just inside the lobby there’s an attractive cafe.

16 Personal Stories--Video display

As a journalist, I’d be remiss not to mention that David Koch, an MIT alum–has been the subject of some controversy. According to a 2010 article in  the New Yorker, as a  cofounder  of  Koch Industries,   the nation’s second largest privately-held corporation, he and his brother Charles are major funders of conservative/libertarian causes.  But, Wikipedia reports,  gifts of  $600m  for scientific research and the arts surpass David Koch’s  political donations.

While ordinarily I wouldn’t think that cancer research would be much of a draw, the gallery,  named for  financeer Philip Alden Russell– a mentor of funder Charles B Johnson and his wife Anne Johnson– is well worth a visit. Or several.

–Anita M. Harris

Koch Gallery Interpretation c. Anita M. Harris 2011

Koch Institute Public Galleries 500 Main St. Cambridge, MA Open to the public 9-5 weekdays. Admission Free.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and marketing communications firm located in Cambridge, MA.