Things to do tomorrow

1. I will be the featured speaker at the Women's Caucus Networking Day, which starts at 9:30AM. My yakity yak starts at 10:15AM.

2. "Task" performance by by New York-based artist Oliver Herring (b. 1964, Heidelberg, Germany), in front of the Hirshhorn from Noon to 7PM.

3. Frank Warren discusses his worldwide phenomenom PostSecret (and signs books) at the Fraser Gallery starting at 7PM as part of the Bethesda Literary Festival. We will be serving our world famous Sangria.

The Power of the Web

The Fraser Gallery owes a HUGE thank you to Loudoun photographer Dave Levinson, who managed to help solve our Hotmail struggle with MSN.

Dave Levinson read about our email woes here, and then he sent me a note saying that he happened "to know a few folks at MS that I can ping about your problem." And he volunteered to help us out.

Dave then spent a long time today working the problems, talking to the gallery and to Microsoft and sometime this afternoon our email account was back online! We did lose two whole days of email correspondence, but it could have been a lot worse without his assistance.

And the man is not only a computer technowiz, but also a pretty damned good
photographer and even an art blogger!


See his photographs here and read his blog here.

Thanks Dave!

Duffy Juries The Art League

My most recent visit to the Art League was to see the All Media Show, which although subtitled "Emphasis on Sculpture" was anything but that.

The show was juried by sculptor William Duffy, who according to the Art League, "has neither juried for The Art League before nor been to the Torpedo Factory since the early 1980s. When asked whether he had any expectations, he said he had thought the art would be 'sentimental' and 'crafty' but it was not. Duffy said he was surprised by the level of fine art, and liked the mixture of fine art, academic art, and 'funky' art."

Mr. Duffy’s surprising ignorance of the level of artwork shown at the Art League, and his even more surprising lack of visits in over 20 years is endemic of artists and critics who often have a wrong sense of things in the art scene around our greater area because of their own artistic apathy to what goes on around them. Get out more often, and see things before you say anything about them.

Duffy also said, "I went into the selection process with a very open mind. I was looking for the unique, self-discovery or expression rather than a duplication of other styles, artists, or periods."

This immediately alarms me as well, as (in my mind anyway) it places Mr. Duffy in the immediate camp of "it must be new to be good."

This academic and most traditional belief that "duplication of other styles, artists, or periods" is an immediate bad thing, is these days itself a sign of an artistic mind not in tune with the ebbs and flows of the postmodern art scene, where anything and everything is art.

In fact, one could submit that the most influential artists on the planet today (according to Sotheby’s anyway), Gerhardt Richter, is nothing but an artist who duplicates "other styles, artists, or periods."

Also according to the Art League (and despite this outdated commentary):

"Duffy frequently commented that the artwork reminded him of a particular artist. Emily’s Dilemma (by D. Smith), a collage box was, according to Duffy, reminiscent of Joseph Cornell’s psychological boxes about his psyche. Precarious Positions (by C. Levin) reminded him of Jeff Koon’s ‘kitschiness.’ And the acrylic, My Space (by G. Murrill), had a crudeness and symbolism reminiscent of the work of French artist, Odion Redon."

Also according to the Art League:

"Duffy looked for art where he felt the artist saw art as part of them, where there was quite a bit of ‘uniqueness and depth of expression.’ The Newlyweds (by G. Lockhart), a bronze sculpture, was ‘very honest and expressive.’ He liked the ‘simplicity’ of the terra cotta sculpture, The White Dress (by J. Legg). Rhino (by C. Romano), stoneware displayed ‘lots of artistic experience with the medium, drawing, sculpture, and composition.’ Monet’s Garden (by G. Rando) was like ‘stained glass and I suggested it should have a light behind it.’ Configuration I (by A. Becker), a wood sculpture, which on initial touch one is afraid will fall apart, but one can play with it and it holds together. Nested Waves (by N. Falk), a glass sculpture made of two pieces of glass, had ‘interesting shapes’ and reminded him of public art.

But enough on Mr. Duffy, who should get out more often, and more on the show itself.

Having visited nearly every monthly Art League exhibition since the early 90s, and having juried it myself, let me say that it is very, very difficult to select a bad show.

Such is the immense talent pool that is the Art League’s artist membership.

My favorite piece in the show was another stunning watercolor by Jenny Davis. This piece, titled "Hands with Bangles," continues to establish the young Davis (daughter of equally talented watercolorist Tanya Davis) as one of the prime watercolorists in our area. Completely self-taught, the young Davis, who has just finished High School, already masters the most difficult of mediums in her obvious mastery over transparent watercolors. While I was there staring in rapture-like ecstasy at her watercolor, I was informed that Jenny had recently been accepted to the Torpedo Factory as one of its newest (and youngest) artist members and will soon have a studio there.

I also liked "Mother Sara" by Nancy Reinke, which has a slight dark attraction to the piece, and "Sunset" by Peter Ulrich, which is a most traditional watercolor of boats and ocean, etc., and yet proves that in the hands of a talented artist, sometimes the subject matter doesn’t really "matter" and we are seduced by the skill and facility of the artist.

The exhibition goes through May 1, 2006.

MSN versus Fraser Gallery Update One

Our struggle for online email survival has gone from the ridiculous to the stupifying. As reported here, we have lost access to our Hotmail account and MSN's "help" process has been incredibly lacking.

Today I received two emails from them. The first one left me speechless:

From : MSN Hotmail Support
Sent : Friday, April 28, 2006 12:13 PM
To :
Subject : RE: SRX1013084219ID - MSN Hotmail:I need something fixed

Hello F. Lennox,

Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail Technical Support.

My name is Erwin. I am responding to your Hotmail concern.

I apologize for the delayed response and I understand how inconvenient it is for you to experience these issues. Please let me assist you on this matter.

F. Lennox, in order for us to understand and investigate your issue properly, kindly reword the issue you are experiencing and answer the questions below.

1. What is the detailed step-by-step procedure you did and where did the process failed?
2. Have you tried accessing your Hotmail account in a different computer with a different Internet connection? if yes, what happened?
3. Did you encounter any error message? If yes, kindly provide us with the exact error message you received.

You are a valuable customer to MSN and we are glad to give you consistent and effective service. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Erwin P.
MSN Hotmail Technical Support

Three things:
(a) The problem was already reported in gruesome detail to them over 48 hours ago.
(b) Good thing Erwin didn't call me "Fraser"
(c) I didn't know anyone in India was named "Erwin."

And then I get the below email from the managers at Microsoft:

From : Customer Feedback for PSS Customers managers@microsoft.com
Sent : Friday, April 28, 2006 4:14 AM
To : "F. Lennox Campello"
Subject : RE:'RTCProd=011-778-339' For Biji Balan: 1013078543

Hello Lenny,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I regret that your issue is not resolved.
To contact the Hotmail team, please fill the e-mail form located in the following page:
http://support.msn.com/contactus_emailsupport.aspx?productkey=hotmail&ct=eformts

After filling that form, you will receive a reply from the Hotmail team within 24 hours.

If you wish to report a Hotmail site outage, you can also call at (650) 964-7200 Monday - Friday, 10:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. Pacific Time.

In the meantime, if you are able to access your Hotmail account and would like to view self-help resources like FAQs, please use these steps:

1. Sign in to Hotmail, and then click Help in the upper-right corner of the web page.
2. Click on either “Find” or “All topics” option.

Lenny, I hope your issue gets resolved soon and appreciate your patience in this regard.

Thank you for using Microsoft products and services.

Senthil
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please e-mail my manager, Biji Balan, at managers@microsoft.com

So, they're essentially telling me to report the problem... again. Senthil clearly did not read my email detailing all the issues, nor did Senthil read the email from the "Hotmail team" that was part of the email trail sent to Senthil.

Capps on Compelled by Content II

Kriston Capps has a good look at our current Compelled by Content II exhibition in the new issue of the Washington City Paper. Read that review here.

Also a reminder: Several of the artists in the exhibition will be discussing their work at an artists' talk, sponsored by the James Renwick Alliance which will take place at the gallery on Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 2PM. The talk is free and open to the public and will also offer an opportunity to learn more about the Renwick Alliance.

---

Metcalfe on Edwards

And the CP's John Metcalfe has a good profile on roboticist Thomas Edwards. Read that profile here.

MSN versus The Fraser Gallery

Our gallery is suddenly battling Microsoft for our survival, and I am at a loss as to what to do next.

Yesterday, out of the blue, and in the middle of responding to emails, our computer screen suddenly declared that our Hotmail account had been closed and access was denied.

"So why are you still using Hotmail," some of you technogeeks must be asking?

When we first opened The Fraser Gallery in 1996, we literally funded it through our credit cards, and yet, one of the first things that we did was to create a website (a free one back then via Geocities) and used Hotmail as a free email account service.

As the gallery did better and better, the website grew larger and larger and we migrated from a free online website service to a paid one (it's one of the largest gallery online sites in the world now by the way... nearly 3,000 pages).

And as the website grew larger and larger, the Hotmail email address became so closely attached to our business, that it became impractical to replace it with a more formal one. So we continued to use frasergallery@hotmail.com as our main email address, while trying to "switch" slowly to "info@thefrasergallery.com"

When Microsoft bought Hotmail a few years ago, we immediately upgraded to their paid service (Hotmail Plus), which costs $19.95 a year.

Since 1996 the business has grown tremendously, and now we probably do about a third of our business strictly online. We receive anywhere from 100 to 200 emails a day, as well as a few hundred spams, which the Hotmail filter is pretty adept at catching.

So that's why, in 2006 we are still using Hotmail. Too many people, too many collectors, too many webpages, etc. already have it listed as our email address. A couple of years ago we began developing the use of info@thefrasegallery.com, but the vast bulk of email stuff still comes to frasergallery@hotmail.com

Also, since 1996 we've been using email to send out our press releases and also invitations to our openings to people who have signed up and given us their email address for that specific purpose.

We've also kept a pretty good record of electronic correspondence with museums, collectors, etc. online through the use of Hotmail folders, etc.

Again...So that's why, in 2006 we are still using Hotmail.

And then yesterday, our account was unilaterally and without warning closed! And then people started calling us telling us that emails to us were being bounced back as "undeliverable."

Now, even though this is a paid service to MSN, there's no phone support to Hotmail, and so I sent them an email asking them "what's the problem?"

About 30 hours later I received a message back from their Technical Support people (clearly in India) with the following:

From : MSN Hotmail Technical Support
Sent : Thursday, April 27, 2006 8:03 PM
To : frasergallery@hotmail.com
CC : lennycampello@hotmail.com
Subject : RE: SRX1013082496ID - MSN Hotmail Plus:I need something fixed:My Mail:Others

Hello Fraser,

Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail Technical Support.

I apologize for the delay in answering your e-mail. We appreciate your patience as we handle every customer request as quickly as possible.

This is Shamy and I gather that you have been having issues accessing your frasergallery@hotmail.com account and getting the message that it has been closed.

I realize how important this account is to you since you are using it in business purposes. I appreciate that you have written to us regarding this.

Fraser, I have verified that your frasergallery@hotmail.com account was closed in accordance with the Hotmail Terms of Use (TOU). It is a strict violation of the TOU for our members to send objectionable material of any kind or nature using our service.

To read our Terms of Use, visit http://privacy2.msn.com/tou/en-us/default.aspx

Additional information about MSN Hotmail's anti-spam policy can be found here: http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/anti-spam.aspx

We appreciate your understanding and continued support of MSN Hotmail.

Sincerely,

Shamy B.
MSN Hotmail Technical Support

"Objectionable material of any kind or nature" Come again? (And by the way, the next person who calls me "Fraser" is getting his ass kicked!)

And so I began to frantically try to call and contact every possible telephone number and email associated with Microsoft, only to be told that Hotmail only deals with any issues via email.

Several emails to managers@microsoft.com nonetheless have resulted in this one response:

From : Customer Feedback for PSS Customers managers@microsoft.com
Sent : Thursday, April 27, 2006 5:18 AM
To : "F. Lennox Campello"
Subject : RE:'RTCProd=011-770-387' Why is my account closed? I can't get any answers! 1013078543

Hello Lenny,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I understand from your message that you are unable to log on to your Hotmail account. I realize the importance of your issue.

As your issue persists to Hotmail, I request you to contact Hotmail support team. They will be able to assist you better in this regard. You may contact them at;
http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/dasp/ua_info.asp

Lenny, I hope the above information can help you. If you have further questions or concerns regarding Microsoft Products and Services, please write back to us. We will be glad to assist you.

Thank you for using Microsoft products and services.

Arun
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please send an e-mail to my manager, Biji Balan, at: managers@microsoft.com

So I am taking deep breaths, and realizing that this is not Shamy B's or Arun's or even Biji Balan's fault... and yet.

We are losing business everyday, as online inquiries about our art and artists get returned as "undeliverable." This can really hurt the gallery, as we have just laid out a ton of money to pay for the various art fairs that we're doing this year.

What can we do? How does a small, independently owned business get heard from a giant like Microsoft?

Here's what I think happened:

1. I doubt that it is any "objectionable materials," unless email invites to the Bethesda Literary Festival talks are deemed objectionable by MSN.

2. I think that Hotmail has recently implemented some sort of fuzzy logic threshold to catch spammers; they probably did this a few days ago.

3. This "catch" is probably simply based on the number of emails sent over a certain time period. It doesn't take into account (a) that we've been doing business with them for over 10 years (most spammers I suspect get a free account, send out a ton of spams and then go away) and (b) Our "usual" email pattern has these monthly hikes, when we pump out a few hundred emails all in one day for invites to openings, etc. But on a daily basis, we just respond and/or send 30-50 emails a day.

4. When we sent the Literary Festival invites to our subscription list, it tripped that arbitrary number, and without even checking with their customer (us), their software killed our account.

5. And now I cannot get Shamy B or Arun or even Biji Balan to understand that they may be killing an independently owned small business' online presence and a lot of its business.

I am at a loss as to what to do, immensely pissed off and in dire need of some advice.

Microsoft started in a garage somewhere near Seattle; even in its current incarnation, I am hoping that a human being will still be able to do something to fix this issue.

Help!!!!

He who owns the walls

Decides what goes up and when it comes down.

The CP's Rachel Beckman has an interesting story about Jefferson Pinder and an early take-down. Read it here