Click to enlarge.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Click to enlarge.
1. Richard Wright won this year's Turner prize. Works made with gold leaf.
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8399111.stm
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
1. I hadn't heard that the US uses mercenaries until recently. The biggest contractor is Xe, or Blackwater.
In 2006, Blackwater won the remunerative contract to protect diplomats for the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the largest American embassy in the world. It is estimated by the Pentagon and company representatives that there are 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, and some estimates are as high as 100,000, though no official figures exist. Of the State Department's dependence on private contractors like Blackwater for security purposes, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told the U.S. Senate: "There is simply no way at all that the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts."
They seem to be quite brutal and perhaps linked with the Christian right.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Mercenaries
In 2006, Blackwater won the remunerative contract to protect diplomats for the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the largest American embassy in the world. It is estimated by the Pentagon and company representatives that there are 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, and some estimates are as high as 100,000, though no official figures exist. Of the State Department's dependence on private contractors like Blackwater for security purposes, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told the U.S. Senate: "There is simply no way at all that the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts."
They seem to be quite brutal and perhaps linked with the Christian right.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Mercenaries
Monday, November 2, 2009
1. It's been a while since I've updated. With the Olympic torch relay beginning, I did a little research.
The Olympic Flame from the ancient games was reintroduced during the 1928 Games. [...] The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Olympia to the Olympic venue began with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. The relay, captured in Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia, was part of the Nazi propaganda machine’s attempt to add myth and mystique to Adolf Hitler’s regime. Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_torch
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Closely related, regarding the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany (some of the comments sound strangely contemporary):
Those who voiced their opinions on the debate included Americans Ernest Lee Jahncke, Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, and future IOC President Avery Brundage. The United States considered boycotting the Games, as to participate in the festivity might be considered a sign of support for the Nazi regime and its anti-Semitic policies. However, others argued that the Olympic Games should not reflect political views, but rather be strictly a contest of the greatest athletes.
Avery Brundage of the United States Olympic Committee opposed the boycott, stating that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the Games should continue. Brundage believed that politics played no role in sports, and that they should never be entwined. He stated, “The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race.”
[...] Avery Brundage became a main supporter of the Games being held in Germany, arguing that "politics has no place in sport", despite having initial doubts.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics#Boycott_debate_in_the_United_States_of_America
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. On a lighter and funny note, also regarding the 1936 Olympics:
Basketball was added to the Olympic program. In the final game, the United States beat Canada 19-8. The contest was played outdoors on a dirt court in driving rain. Because of the quagmire, the teams could not dribble, thus the score was held to a minimum. Joe Fortenbury was the high scorer for the U.S. with 7 points. Spectators did not have seats, and the people (approximately 1000) in attendance had to stand in the rain.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics#Sporting_innovations
The Olympic Flame from the ancient games was reintroduced during the 1928 Games. [...] The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Olympia to the Olympic venue began with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. The relay, captured in Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia, was part of the Nazi propaganda machine’s attempt to add myth and mystique to Adolf Hitler’s regime. Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_torch
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Closely related, regarding the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany (some of the comments sound strangely contemporary):
Those who voiced their opinions on the debate included Americans Ernest Lee Jahncke, Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, and future IOC President Avery Brundage. The United States considered boycotting the Games, as to participate in the festivity might be considered a sign of support for the Nazi regime and its anti-Semitic policies. However, others argued that the Olympic Games should not reflect political views, but rather be strictly a contest of the greatest athletes.
Avery Brundage of the United States Olympic Committee opposed the boycott, stating that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the Games should continue. Brundage believed that politics played no role in sports, and that they should never be entwined. He stated, “The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race.”
[...] Avery Brundage became a main supporter of the Games being held in Germany, arguing that "politics has no place in sport", despite having initial doubts.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics#Boycott_debate_in_the_United_States_of_America
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. On a lighter and funny note, also regarding the 1936 Olympics:
Basketball was added to the Olympic program. In the final game, the United States beat Canada 19-8. The contest was played outdoors on a dirt court in driving rain. Because of the quagmire, the teams could not dribble, thus the score was held to a minimum. Joe Fortenbury was the high scorer for the U.S. with 7 points. Spectators did not have seats, and the people (approximately 1000) in attendance had to stand in the rain.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics#Sporting_innovations
Monday, October 12, 2009
1. A long paragraph from a book I am currently working through by Jacques Rancière:
The legitimacy of state power is thereby reinforced by the very affirmation of its impotence, of its lack of choice faced with the world-wide necessity it is dominated by. The theme of the common will is replaced by that of the lack of personal will, of capacity for autonomous action that is anything more than just management of necessity. From an allegedly defunct Marxism, the supposedly reigning liberalism borrows the theme of objective necessity. Marx's once-scandalous thesis that governments are simple business agents for international capital is today obvious fact on which "liberals" and "socialists" agree. The absolute identification of politics with the management of capital is no longer the shameful secret hidden behind the "forms" of democracy; it is the openly declared truth by which our governments acquire legitimacy. In this process of legitimization, any demonstration of capability needs to be based on a demonstration of powerlessness. The dreams of politically astute housewives at the stove or of simple laborers rising up against fate are opposed by the theme of a reverse Marxism: optimizing the pleasures of the individuals is only possible on the basis of their acknowledged inability to manage the conditions of this optimization. The state then establishes its authority based on its ability to internalize common powerlessness, to determine the thin ground, the "almost nothing" of a possible on which everyone's prosperity as well as the maintenance of the community bond depends. On the one hand, this almost nothing is posited as so little it is not worth the trouble of fighting over with the managers of the state machine. But, on the other hand, it is posited as the decisive minute difference that separates the prosperity to come from the misery hanging over us, the social bond from looming chaos, a minute difference too decisive and too sustained not to be left to the experts, to those who know how, by placing 0.5 percent of the Gross National Product on one side rather than on the other, we pass over to the good or the bad side of the line, from prosperity to the brink of ruin, from social peace to a general coming apart at the seams. Management of abundance thus becomes identical with crisis management. It is management of the sole possible necessity that must be incessantly anticipated, followed, planned, put off, day in, day out. The management of this "almost nothing" is also an uninterrupted demonstration of the identity between the legitimate state and the expert state, of the identity between the power of this state and its powerlessness, a power that internalizes the identity of the great power of enterprising and contracting individuals and groups with the powerlessness of the demos as a political force.
- from Jacques Rancière, Dis-agreement, p113-114 (emphases added)
The legitimacy of state power is thereby reinforced by the very affirmation of its impotence, of its lack of choice faced with the world-wide necessity it is dominated by. The theme of the common will is replaced by that of the lack of personal will, of capacity for autonomous action that is anything more than just management of necessity. From an allegedly defunct Marxism, the supposedly reigning liberalism borrows the theme of objective necessity. Marx's once-scandalous thesis that governments are simple business agents for international capital is today obvious fact on which "liberals" and "socialists" agree. The absolute identification of politics with the management of capital is no longer the shameful secret hidden behind the "forms" of democracy; it is the openly declared truth by which our governments acquire legitimacy. In this process of legitimization, any demonstration of capability needs to be based on a demonstration of powerlessness. The dreams of politically astute housewives at the stove or of simple laborers rising up against fate are opposed by the theme of a reverse Marxism: optimizing the pleasures of the individuals is only possible on the basis of their acknowledged inability to manage the conditions of this optimization. The state then establishes its authority based on its ability to internalize common powerlessness, to determine the thin ground, the "almost nothing" of a possible on which everyone's prosperity as well as the maintenance of the community bond depends. On the one hand, this almost nothing is posited as so little it is not worth the trouble of fighting over with the managers of the state machine. But, on the other hand, it is posited as the decisive minute difference that separates the prosperity to come from the misery hanging over us, the social bond from looming chaos, a minute difference too decisive and too sustained not to be left to the experts, to those who know how, by placing 0.5 percent of the Gross National Product on one side rather than on the other, we pass over to the good or the bad side of the line, from prosperity to the brink of ruin, from social peace to a general coming apart at the seams. Management of abundance thus becomes identical with crisis management. It is management of the sole possible necessity that must be incessantly anticipated, followed, planned, put off, day in, day out. The management of this "almost nothing" is also an uninterrupted demonstration of the identity between the legitimate state and the expert state, of the identity between the power of this state and its powerlessness, a power that internalizes the identity of the great power of enterprising and contracting individuals and groups with the powerlessness of the demos as a political force.
- from Jacques Rancière, Dis-agreement, p113-114 (emphases added)
Sunday, October 4, 2009
1. That these numbers are so high is terrifying to me:
A 2002 literature review of elective abortion rates found that 91–93% of pregnancies in the United States with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were terminated. Data from the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register in the United Kingdom indicates that from 1989 to 2006 the proportion of women choosing to terminate a pregnancy following prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome has remained constant at around 92%.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down%27s_Syndrome#Screening
A 2002 literature review of elective abortion rates found that 91–93% of pregnancies in the United States with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were terminated. Data from the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register in the United Kingdom indicates that from 1989 to 2006 the proportion of women choosing to terminate a pregnancy following prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome has remained constant at around 92%.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down%27s_Syndrome#Screening
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
When I walk in the room throw your hands in the sky.
1. The following is from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (note: Kilgore Trout is a science-fiction writer, and Mushari is a (scheming) lawyer, trying to get his hands on the fortune of Eliot Rosewater):
Mushari dutifully went looking for a copy of the book for his dossier on Eliot. No reputable bookseller had ever heard of Trout. Mushari made his last try at a smut-dealer's hole in the wall. There, amidst the rawest pornography, he found tattered copies of every book Trout had ever written. 2BR02B, which had been published at twenty-five cents, cost him five dollars, which was what The Kama Sutra of Vitsayana cost, too.
Mushari glanced through the Kama Sutra, the long-suppressed oriental manual on the art and techniques of love, read this:
If a man makes a sort of jelly with the juices of the fruit cassia fistula and eugenie jambolina and mixes the powder of the plants soma, veronia anthelminica, eclipta prostata, lohopa-juihirka, and applies this mixture to the yoni of a woman with whom he is about to have intercourse, he will instantly cease to love her.
Mushari didn't see anything funny in that. He never saw anything funny in anything, so deeply immured was he by the utterly unplayful spirit of the law.
And he was witless enough, too, to imagine that Trout's books were very dirty books, since they were sold for such high prices to such queer people in such a place. He didn't understand that what Trout had in common with pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world.
1. The following is from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (note: Kilgore Trout is a science-fiction writer, and Mushari is a (scheming) lawyer, trying to get his hands on the fortune of Eliot Rosewater):
Mushari dutifully went looking for a copy of the book for his dossier on Eliot. No reputable bookseller had ever heard of Trout. Mushari made his last try at a smut-dealer's hole in the wall. There, amidst the rawest pornography, he found tattered copies of every book Trout had ever written. 2BR02B, which had been published at twenty-five cents, cost him five dollars, which was what The Kama Sutra of Vitsayana cost, too.
Mushari glanced through the Kama Sutra, the long-suppressed oriental manual on the art and techniques of love, read this:
If a man makes a sort of jelly with the juices of the fruit cassia fistula and eugenie jambolina and mixes the powder of the plants soma, veronia anthelminica, eclipta prostata, lohopa-juihirka, and applies this mixture to the yoni of a woman with whom he is about to have intercourse, he will instantly cease to love her.
Mushari didn't see anything funny in that. He never saw anything funny in anything, so deeply immured was he by the utterly unplayful spirit of the law.
And he was witless enough, too, to imagine that Trout's books were very dirty books, since they were sold for such high prices to such queer people in such a place. He didn't understand that what Trout had in common with pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Lead(II) acetate (also known as sugar of lead) was used by the Roman Empire as a sweetener for wine, and some consider this to be the cause of the dementia that affected many of the Roman Emperors.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead#Health_effects
Sunday, July 5, 2009
I like Tune and Eventuality.
(as well as Philoprogenitiveness.)
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology;
from Webster's Academic Dictionary, circa 1895
Thursday, July 2, 2009
1. Happy(?) Canada Day.
On 20 June 1868, then Governor General The Viscount Monck issued a royal proclamation asking for Canadians to "celebrate the anniversary of the confederation." However, the holiday was not established statutorily until 1879, when it was designated as Dominion Day, in reference to the designation of the country as a Dominion in the British North America Act. The holiday was initially not dominant in the national calendar; up to the early 20th century, Canadians thought themselves to be primarily British, being thus less interested in celebrating distinctly Canadian forms of patriotism. No official celebrations were therefore held until 1917 – the golden anniversary of Confederation – and then none again for a further decade.
This trend declined in the post-World War II era; beginning in 1958, the Canadian government began to orchestrate Dominion Day celebrations, usually consisting of Trooping the Colour ceremonies on Parliament Hill in the afternoon and evening, followed by a mass band concert and fireworks display. Canada's centennial in 1967 is often seen as an important milestone in the history of Canadian patriotism, and in Canada's maturing as a distinct, independent country, after which Dominion Day became more popular with average Canadians. Into the late 1960s, nationally televised, multi-cultural concerts held in Ottawa were added, and the fête became known as Festival Canada; after 1980 the Canadian government began to promote the celebrating of Dominion Day beyond the national capital, giving grants and aid to cities across the country to help fund local activities.
With only twelve Members of Parliament present, eight less than a quorum, the private member's bill that proposed to change the name to Canada Day was passed in the House of Commons in five minutes, and without debate. With the granting of Royal Assent, the name was officially changed to Canada Day on 27 October 1982, a move largely inspired by the adoption of the Canada Act, earlier in the year. Although the proposal caused some controversy, many Canadians had already been informally referring to the holiday as Canada Day for a number of years before the official name change occurred. Andrew Cohen, a former Globe and Mail and current Ottawa Citizen columnist, called Canada Day a term of "crushing banality" and criticized the change from Dominion Day "a renunciation of the past, [and] a misreading of history, laden with political correctness and historical ignorance." For Cohen, the change is an example of systemic denial of Canadian history by the Canadian government.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Day
On 20 June 1868, then Governor General The Viscount Monck issued a royal proclamation asking for Canadians to "celebrate the anniversary of the confederation." However, the holiday was not established statutorily until 1879, when it was designated as Dominion Day, in reference to the designation of the country as a Dominion in the British North America Act. The holiday was initially not dominant in the national calendar; up to the early 20th century, Canadians thought themselves to be primarily British, being thus less interested in celebrating distinctly Canadian forms of patriotism. No official celebrations were therefore held until 1917 – the golden anniversary of Confederation – and then none again for a further decade.
This trend declined in the post-World War II era; beginning in 1958, the Canadian government began to orchestrate Dominion Day celebrations, usually consisting of Trooping the Colour ceremonies on Parliament Hill in the afternoon and evening, followed by a mass band concert and fireworks display. Canada's centennial in 1967 is often seen as an important milestone in the history of Canadian patriotism, and in Canada's maturing as a distinct, independent country, after which Dominion Day became more popular with average Canadians. Into the late 1960s, nationally televised, multi-cultural concerts held in Ottawa were added, and the fête became known as Festival Canada; after 1980 the Canadian government began to promote the celebrating of Dominion Day beyond the national capital, giving grants and aid to cities across the country to help fund local activities.
With only twelve Members of Parliament present, eight less than a quorum, the private member's bill that proposed to change the name to Canada Day was passed in the House of Commons in five minutes, and without debate. With the granting of Royal Assent, the name was officially changed to Canada Day on 27 October 1982, a move largely inspired by the adoption of the Canada Act, earlier in the year. Although the proposal caused some controversy, many Canadians had already been informally referring to the holiday as Canada Day for a number of years before the official name change occurred. Andrew Cohen, a former Globe and Mail and current Ottawa Citizen columnist, called Canada Day a term of "crushing banality" and criticized the change from Dominion Day "a renunciation of the past, [and] a misreading of history, laden with political correctness and historical ignorance." For Cohen, the change is an example of systemic denial of Canadian history by the Canadian government.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Day
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
1. We understood time before it happened. After that, it fell to mediocre experiences. The falafel experiences, the cottonwood dreams -- we both fell short from all expectations, all hopes. We dreamed of a union but like a forked branch we only unite before we separated. Now we dowse for water, for under-surface rivers, tears and blood, the veins thrombosis of our rod, shivering in the pale moonlight.
I am hungry for you.
Our love transpires in diamonds; the alchemy reversed. Do you recall the night before it fell?
All the dreams have been dreamt, but you go on dreaming new ones. I am the witch-doctor kicking up a storm, entering myself whether it's cold or it's warm. I kick up the dust so I can better see.
Can you see?
Although I reverse the pain it doesn't feel better -- the opposite of pain is still pain, under different whispered names. I bathe in all sorts of sounds -- they engulf. I bake whatever you bring home. I'm as open as a café. Come, make a latte with me. We drink our beans and then get lost around the waist line. Your eyes are pools for little fish, for little drops like mine -- in I go and out you come, we swim as lovers only can.
I am hungry for you.
Our love transpires in diamonds; the alchemy reversed. Do you recall the night before it fell?
All the dreams have been dreamt, but you go on dreaming new ones. I am the witch-doctor kicking up a storm, entering myself whether it's cold or it's warm. I kick up the dust so I can better see.
Can you see?
Although I reverse the pain it doesn't feel better -- the opposite of pain is still pain, under different whispered names. I bathe in all sorts of sounds -- they engulf. I bake whatever you bring home. I'm as open as a café. Come, make a latte with me. We drink our beans and then get lost around the waist line. Your eyes are pools for little fish, for little drops like mine -- in I go and out you come, we swim as lovers only can.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
1. 'Interview' with Tom Waits (from which I first heard of bikini as per below). Most of it is lists but there are the occasional interesting parts. Excerpt:
Q: What’s hard for you?
A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Tom, at one point in the interview (see above), mentions the use of ping pong balls to raise a ship. See here for an analysis of this claim. It seems that it did originate with a Donald Duck cartoon.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. Two-piece swimsuits without the usual skirt panel and other superfluous material started appearing in the US when the government ordered a 10% reduction in fabric used in woman's swimwear in 1943 as wartime rationing.
In April 2004, a bikini line with images of Buddha printed on it was withdrawn by Victoria's Secret, the manufacturer, in the face of protest by followers of Buddhism.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_bikini
Q: What’s hard for you?
A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Tom, at one point in the interview (see above), mentions the use of ping pong balls to raise a ship. See here for an analysis of this claim. It seems that it did originate with a Donald Duck cartoon.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. Two-piece swimsuits without the usual skirt panel and other superfluous material started appearing in the US when the government ordered a 10% reduction in fabric used in woman's swimwear in 1943 as wartime rationing.
In April 2004, a bikini line with images of Buddha printed on it was withdrawn by Victoria's Secret, the manufacturer, in the face of protest by followers of Buddhism.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_bikini
Monday, June 8, 2009
Welcome to post 200.
1. The modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon test on July 1, 1946. The reasoning was that the burst of excitement created by it would be like a nuclear device. Réard could not find a model to wear his design. He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris.
Bikini Island is well-known for being the subject of nuclear bomb tests, and because the bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946. The two-piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the first nuclear test on the atoll, and the name of the island was in the news. Introduced just weeks after the one-piece "Atome" was widely advertised as the "smallest bathing suit in the world", it was said that the bikini "split the atome".
Click for larger image (quite amazing)
Between 1946 and 1958, twenty-three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. The March 1st, 1954 detonation codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination.
Hired later by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to research and report on the economic damage caused by the testing, Economist and Crisis Consultant Randall Bell writes in his book, Strategy 360, "Bravo had an explosive force equal to nearly 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs. It vaporized the test island, parts of two other islands, and left a mile-wide crater in the lagoon floor. In total, nearly 70 acres of the Bikini Atoll were vaporized by the nuclear testing."
Randall Bell also notes, "Many of the landowners and local people accompanied me back to Rongelap an Rongerik, where much of the nuclear fallout came down. John, an elderly man, stood on his former home site in Rongelap and told me that he had gotten up early to make coffee and the sun had not yet come up. Suddenly, the sky lit up like it was day. He could see the large mushroom cloud rising off the horizon from Bikini and, soon after, he felt the blast of the shock wave. Later, as the entire village gathered, they watched the radiocative gray ash fall on them, their houses and their children. John did not express any anger, only deep sorrow that his one-year-old daughter died from leukemia soon after Bravo."
Among those contaminated were the 23 crewmembers of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5. The ensuing scandal in Japan was enormous, and ended up inspiring the 1954 film Godzilla, in which the 1954 U.S. nuclear test awakens and mutates the monster, who then attacks Japan before finally being vanquished by Japanese ingenuity.
~
Bikini comes from Marshallese "Pik" meaning "surface" and "Ni" meaning "coconut", "Bikini" is a derivation thereof.
~
The Flag of Bikini Atoll
The Flag of Bikini Atoll, a member of the Marshall Islands, is a flag closely resembling the flag of the United States and was adopted in 1987 to remind the people and the government of United States. The flag is symbolic of the islanders' belief that a great debt is still owed to the people of Bikini because in 1954 the United States government detonated a thermonuclear bomb on the island as part of the Bravo test.
The 23 white stars in the canton of the flag represent the 23 islands of Bikini Atoll. The three black stars in the upper right represent the three islands that were disfigured in March 1954 during 15-megaton Bravo test by the United States. The two black stars in the lower right corner represent where the Bikinians live now, Kili Island, 425 miles to the south of Bikini Atoll, and Ejit Island of Majuro Atoll. These two stars are symbolically far away from Bikini's stars on the flag as the islands are in real life (both in distance and quality of life). The Marshallese language words on the bottom of the flag, "MEN OTEMJEJ REJ ILO BEIN ANIJ," reportedly represent the words spoken in 1946 by the Bikinian leader, Juda, to U.S. Commodore Ben Wyatt when the American went to Bikini to ask the islanders to give up their islands for the 'good of all mankind' for nuclear weapons testing. It translates as "Everything is in the hands of God."
WOW.
BIKINIAN ANTHEM
Written by in 1946 Lore Kessibuki (1914-1994)
No longer can I stay; it's true.
No longer can I live in peace and harmony.
No longer can I rest on my sleeping mat and pillow
Because of my island and the life I once knew there.
The thought is overwhelming
Rendering me helpless and in great despair.
My spirit leaves, drifting around and far away
Where it becomes caught in a current of immense power -
And only then do I find tranquility
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_Island; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Bikini_Atoll; http://www.bikiniatoll.com/anthem.html
1. The modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon test on July 1, 1946. The reasoning was that the burst of excitement created by it would be like a nuclear device. Réard could not find a model to wear his design. He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris.
Bikini Island is well-known for being the subject of nuclear bomb tests, and because the bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946. The two-piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the first nuclear test on the atoll, and the name of the island was in the news. Introduced just weeks after the one-piece "Atome" was widely advertised as the "smallest bathing suit in the world", it was said that the bikini "split the atome".
Click for larger image (quite amazing)
Between 1946 and 1958, twenty-three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. The March 1st, 1954 detonation codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination.
Hired later by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to research and report on the economic damage caused by the testing, Economist and Crisis Consultant Randall Bell writes in his book, Strategy 360, "Bravo had an explosive force equal to nearly 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs. It vaporized the test island, parts of two other islands, and left a mile-wide crater in the lagoon floor. In total, nearly 70 acres of the Bikini Atoll were vaporized by the nuclear testing."
Randall Bell also notes, "Many of the landowners and local people accompanied me back to Rongelap an Rongerik, where much of the nuclear fallout came down. John, an elderly man, stood on his former home site in Rongelap and told me that he had gotten up early to make coffee and the sun had not yet come up. Suddenly, the sky lit up like it was day. He could see the large mushroom cloud rising off the horizon from Bikini and, soon after, he felt the blast of the shock wave. Later, as the entire village gathered, they watched the radiocative gray ash fall on them, their houses and their children. John did not express any anger, only deep sorrow that his one-year-old daughter died from leukemia soon after Bravo."
Among those contaminated were the 23 crewmembers of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5. The ensuing scandal in Japan was enormous, and ended up inspiring the 1954 film Godzilla, in which the 1954 U.S. nuclear test awakens and mutates the monster, who then attacks Japan before finally being vanquished by Japanese ingenuity.
~
Bikini comes from Marshallese "Pik" meaning "surface" and "Ni" meaning "coconut", "Bikini" is a derivation thereof.
~
The Flag of Bikini Atoll
The Flag of Bikini Atoll, a member of the Marshall Islands, is a flag closely resembling the flag of the United States and was adopted in 1987 to remind the people and the government of United States. The flag is symbolic of the islanders' belief that a great debt is still owed to the people of Bikini because in 1954 the United States government detonated a thermonuclear bomb on the island as part of the Bravo test.
The 23 white stars in the canton of the flag represent the 23 islands of Bikini Atoll. The three black stars in the upper right represent the three islands that were disfigured in March 1954 during 15-megaton Bravo test by the United States. The two black stars in the lower right corner represent where the Bikinians live now, Kili Island, 425 miles to the south of Bikini Atoll, and Ejit Island of Majuro Atoll. These two stars are symbolically far away from Bikini's stars on the flag as the islands are in real life (both in distance and quality of life). The Marshallese language words on the bottom of the flag, "MEN OTEMJEJ REJ ILO BEIN ANIJ," reportedly represent the words spoken in 1946 by the Bikinian leader, Juda, to U.S. Commodore Ben Wyatt when the American went to Bikini to ask the islanders to give up their islands for the 'good of all mankind' for nuclear weapons testing. It translates as "Everything is in the hands of God."
WOW.
BIKINIAN ANTHEM
Written by in 1946 Lore Kessibuki (1914-1994)
No longer can I stay; it's true.
No longer can I live in peace and harmony.
No longer can I rest on my sleeping mat and pillow
Because of my island and the life I once knew there.
The thought is overwhelming
Rendering me helpless and in great despair.
My spirit leaves, drifting around and far away
Where it becomes caught in a current of immense power -
And only then do I find tranquility
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_Island; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Bikini_Atoll; http://www.bikiniatoll.com/anthem.html
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
1. "This'll be the first time I've ever seen it, but everything I've heard about it I like," said H. Lowe Crosby. "They've got discipline. They've got something you can count on from one year to the next. They don't have the government encouraging everybody to be some kind of original pissant nobody ever heard of before."
"Sir?"
"Christ, back in Chicago, we don't make bicycles any more. It's all human relations now. The eggheads sit around trying to figure out new ways for everybody to be happy. Nobody can get fired, no matter what; and if somebody does accidentally make a bicycle, the union accuses us of cruel and inhuman practices and the government confiscates the bicycle for back taxes and gives it to a blind man in Afghanistan."
- from Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
~
After turning down his original thesis, the University of Chicago, in 1971, awarded Vonnegut his Master's degree in anthropology for Cat's Cradle.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. Kurt Vonnegut talks on the source of his ideas.
"Sir?"
"Christ, back in Chicago, we don't make bicycles any more. It's all human relations now. The eggheads sit around trying to figure out new ways for everybody to be happy. Nobody can get fired, no matter what; and if somebody does accidentally make a bicycle, the union accuses us of cruel and inhuman practices and the government confiscates the bicycle for back taxes and gives it to a blind man in Afghanistan."
- from Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
~
After turning down his original thesis, the University of Chicago, in 1971, awarded Vonnegut his Master's degree in anthropology for Cat's Cradle.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. Kurt Vonnegut talks on the source of his ideas.
Monday, June 1, 2009
1. "Judged in the court of this movement, the single shapes of Spirit do not persist any more than determinate thoughts do, but they are as much positive and necessary moments, as they are negative and evanescent."
- from Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Preface, #45
This is what happens to the reader of the meatgrinder that is the Phenomenology of Spirit.
- from Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Preface, #45
This is what happens to the reader of the meatgrinder that is the Phenomenology of Spirit.
1. From today's paper (Times Colonist):
Bitterness a legitimate illness: psychiatrists
Bitterness should be classified an official brain illness, according to psychiatrists who say people who experience prolonged bitterness over a breakup or conflict at work are "ill" and need treatment.
They are proposing that "post traumatic embitterment disorder" be included in the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatry's official catalogue of mental dysfunction.
Now in its fourth edition, DSM is undergoing its first major revision since 1994. DSM-V is due to be published in 2012, and other possible new contenders for inclusion include Internet addiction, apathy disorder, compulsive buying disorder, compulsive pathological overeating, "premenstrual dysphoric disorder" and "partner relational problem."
(I remember at one point some were trying to get anger into the manual.)
Bitterness a legitimate illness: psychiatrists
Bitterness should be classified an official brain illness, according to psychiatrists who say people who experience prolonged bitterness over a breakup or conflict at work are "ill" and need treatment.
They are proposing that "post traumatic embitterment disorder" be included in the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatry's official catalogue of mental dysfunction.
Now in its fourth edition, DSM is undergoing its first major revision since 1994. DSM-V is due to be published in 2012, and other possible new contenders for inclusion include Internet addiction, apathy disorder, compulsive buying disorder, compulsive pathological overeating, "premenstrual dysphoric disorder" and "partner relational problem."
(I remember at one point some were trying to get anger into the manual.)
Monday, May 25, 2009
"Sovereignty cannot be represented."
"The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during the election of Members of Parliament; as soon as the Members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moments of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it."
- from The Social Contract (1762), Book III, Chapter 15
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
1. QWERTY, the basis of what we use now.
The QWERTY keyboard layout was devised and created in the early 1870s by Christopher Sholes. ... Sholes struggled for the next six years to perfect his invention, making many trial-and-error rearrangements of the original machine's alphabetical key arrangement in an effort to reduce the frequency of typebar clashes. Eventually he arrived at a four-row, upper case keyboard approaching the modern QWERTY standard.
...enabling salesmen to impress customers by pecking out the brand name "TYPE WRITER" from one keyboard row.
In the QWERTY layout many more words can be spelled using only the left hand than the right hand. In fact, thousands of English words can be spelled using only the left hand, while only a couple of hundred words can be typed using only the right hand. This is helpful for left-handed people.
Sholes typewriter, 1873
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwerty
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. The Dvorak layout [patented 1936] was designed to address the problems of inefficiency and fatigue which characterized the QWERTY keyboard layout. The QWERTY layout was introduced in the 1860s [or 70s?], being used on the first commercially-successful typewriter, the machine invented by Christopher Sholes. The QWERTY layout was designed so that successive keystrokes would alternate between sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams.
Dvorak studied letter frequencies and the physiology of people's hands and created a layout to adhere to these principles:
Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
* Letters should be typed by alternating between hands.
* For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and digraphs should be the easiest to type. This means that they should be on the home row, which is where the fingers rest, and under the strongest fingers.
* The least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
* The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
* Digraphs should not be typed with adjacent fingers.
* Stroking should generally move from the edges of the board to the middle. An observation of this principle is that, for many people, when tapping fingers on a table, it is easier going from little finger to index than vice versa. This motion on a keyboard is called inboard stroke flow.
The Dvorak layout was intended for the English language. In other European languages, letter frequencies, letter sequences, and digraphs differ from English. Also, many languages have letters that do not occur in English. For non-English use, these differences lessen the supposed advantages of the original Dvorak keyboard. However, the Dvorak principles have been applied to the design of keyboards for these other languages.
(Several alternatives to QWERTY have been developed over the years, claimed by their designers and users to be more efficient, intuitive and ergonomic. Nevertheless, none has seen widespread adoption, due partly to the sheer dominance of available keyboards and training. Studies are inconclusive as to whether they actually offer any real benefits.)
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwerty
The QWERTY keyboard layout was devised and created in the early 1870s by Christopher Sholes. ... Sholes struggled for the next six years to perfect his invention, making many trial-and-error rearrangements of the original machine's alphabetical key arrangement in an effort to reduce the frequency of typebar clashes. Eventually he arrived at a four-row, upper case keyboard approaching the modern QWERTY standard.
...enabling salesmen to impress customers by pecking out the brand name "TYPE WRITER" from one keyboard row.
In the QWERTY layout many more words can be spelled using only the left hand than the right hand. In fact, thousands of English words can be spelled using only the left hand, while only a couple of hundred words can be typed using only the right hand. This is helpful for left-handed people.
Sholes typewriter, 1873
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwerty
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. The Dvorak layout [patented 1936] was designed to address the problems of inefficiency and fatigue which characterized the QWERTY keyboard layout. The QWERTY layout was introduced in the 1860s [or 70s?], being used on the first commercially-successful typewriter, the machine invented by Christopher Sholes. The QWERTY layout was designed so that successive keystrokes would alternate between sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams.
Dvorak studied letter frequencies and the physiology of people's hands and created a layout to adhere to these principles:
Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
* Letters should be typed by alternating between hands.
* For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and digraphs should be the easiest to type. This means that they should be on the home row, which is where the fingers rest, and under the strongest fingers.
* The least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
* The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
* Digraphs should not be typed with adjacent fingers.
* Stroking should generally move from the edges of the board to the middle. An observation of this principle is that, for many people, when tapping fingers on a table, it is easier going from little finger to index than vice versa. This motion on a keyboard is called inboard stroke flow.
The Dvorak layout was intended for the English language. In other European languages, letter frequencies, letter sequences, and digraphs differ from English. Also, many languages have letters that do not occur in English. For non-English use, these differences lessen the supposed advantages of the original Dvorak keyboard. However, the Dvorak principles have been applied to the design of keyboards for these other languages.
(Several alternatives to QWERTY have been developed over the years, claimed by their designers and users to be more efficient, intuitive and ergonomic. Nevertheless, none has seen widespread adoption, due partly to the sheer dominance of available keyboards and training. Studies are inconclusive as to whether they actually offer any real benefits.)
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwerty
Saturday, May 2, 2009
1. Baseball pitcher, Dock Ellis:
June 12, 1970 no-hitter
No-hitting the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970 despite being, as he would claim in 1984, under the influence of LSD throughout the course of the game. Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis claims catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman Bill Mazeroski and center fielder Matty Alou. During the game, Ellis is reported to have commented to his teammates on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.
As Ellis recounted it:
"I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher's) glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_Ellis
June 12, 1970 no-hitter
No-hitting the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970 despite being, as he would claim in 1984, under the influence of LSD throughout the course of the game. Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis claims catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman Bill Mazeroski and center fielder Matty Alou. During the game, Ellis is reported to have commented to his teammates on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.
As Ellis recounted it:
"I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher's) glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_Ellis
Monday, April 27, 2009
1. Bob Dylan interview, some more
When you think back to the Civil War, one thing you forget is that no battles, except Gettysburg, were fought in the North.
Yeah. That’s what probably makes the Southern part of the country so different.
There is a certain sensibility, but I’m not sure how that connects?
It must be the Southern air. It’s filled with rambling ghosts and disturbed spirits. They’re all screaming and forlorning. It’s like they are caught in some weird web - some purgatory between heaven and hell and they can’t rest. They can’t live, and they can’t die. It’s like they were cut off in their prime, wanting to tell somebody something. It’s all over the place. There are war fields everywhere. . . a lot of times even in people’s backyards.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
What do you think of the Stones?
What do I think of them? They’re pretty much finished, aren’t they?
They had a gigantic tour last year. You call that finished?
Oh yeah, you mean Steel Wheels. I’m not saying they don’t keep going, but they need Bill. Without him they’re a funk band. They’ll be the real Rolling Stones when they get Bill back.
Bob, you’re stuck in the 80’s.
I know. I’m trying to break free.
Do you really think the Stones are finished?
Of course not, They’re far from finished. The Rolling Stones are truly the greatest rock and roll band in the world and always will be. The last too. Everything that came after them, metal, rap, punk, new wave, pop-rock, you name it . . . you can trace it all back to the Rolling Stones. They were the first and the last and no one’s ever done it better.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The character in the song reminds me a lot of the guy who is in the song ACROSS THE BORDERLINE.
I know what you’re saying, but it’s not a character like in a book or a movie. He’s not a bus driver. He doesn’t drive a forklift. He’s not a serial killer. It’s me who’s singing that, plain and simple. We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, “My character this, and my character that.” Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me.
Well can’t a singer act out a song?
Yeah sure, a lot of them do. But the more you act the further you get away from the truth. And a lot of those singers lose who they are after a while. You sing, “I’m a lineman for the county,” enough times and you start to scamper up poles.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Back then I guess most of my influences could be thought of as eccentric. Mass media had no overwhelming reach so I was drawn to the traveling performers passing through. The side show performers - bluegrass singers, the black cowboy with chaps and a lariat doing rope tricks. Miss Europe, Quasimodo, the Bearded Lady, the half-man half-woman, the deformed and the bent, Atlas the Dwarf, the fire-eaters, the teachers and preachers, the blues singers. I remember it like it was yesterday. I got close to some of these people. I learned about dignity from them. Freedom too. Civil rights, human rights. How to stay within yourself. Most others were into the rides like the tilt-a-whirl and the rollercoaster. To me that was the nightmare. All the giddiness. The artificiality of it. The sledge hammer of life. It didn’t make sense or seem real. The stuff off the main road was where force of reality was. At least it struck me that way. When I left home those feelings didn’t change.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the song I FEEL A CHANGE COMING ON the character says. . .
Wait a minute Bill. I’m not a playwright. The people in my songs are all me. I thought we talked about that?
What exactly makes it you?
It’s in the way you say things. It’s not necessarily the things you say that make you who you are.
When you think back to the Civil War, one thing you forget is that no battles, except Gettysburg, were fought in the North.
Yeah. That’s what probably makes the Southern part of the country so different.
There is a certain sensibility, but I’m not sure how that connects?
It must be the Southern air. It’s filled with rambling ghosts and disturbed spirits. They’re all screaming and forlorning. It’s like they are caught in some weird web - some purgatory between heaven and hell and they can’t rest. They can’t live, and they can’t die. It’s like they were cut off in their prime, wanting to tell somebody something. It’s all over the place. There are war fields everywhere. . . a lot of times even in people’s backyards.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
What do you think of the Stones?
What do I think of them? They’re pretty much finished, aren’t they?
They had a gigantic tour last year. You call that finished?
Oh yeah, you mean Steel Wheels. I’m not saying they don’t keep going, but they need Bill. Without him they’re a funk band. They’ll be the real Rolling Stones when they get Bill back.
Bob, you’re stuck in the 80’s.
I know. I’m trying to break free.
Do you really think the Stones are finished?
Of course not, They’re far from finished. The Rolling Stones are truly the greatest rock and roll band in the world and always will be. The last too. Everything that came after them, metal, rap, punk, new wave, pop-rock, you name it . . . you can trace it all back to the Rolling Stones. They were the first and the last and no one’s ever done it better.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The character in the song reminds me a lot of the guy who is in the song ACROSS THE BORDERLINE.
I know what you’re saying, but it’s not a character like in a book or a movie. He’s not a bus driver. He doesn’t drive a forklift. He’s not a serial killer. It’s me who’s singing that, plain and simple. We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, “My character this, and my character that.” Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me.
Well can’t a singer act out a song?
Yeah sure, a lot of them do. But the more you act the further you get away from the truth. And a lot of those singers lose who they are after a while. You sing, “I’m a lineman for the county,” enough times and you start to scamper up poles.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Back then I guess most of my influences could be thought of as eccentric. Mass media had no overwhelming reach so I was drawn to the traveling performers passing through. The side show performers - bluegrass singers, the black cowboy with chaps and a lariat doing rope tricks. Miss Europe, Quasimodo, the Bearded Lady, the half-man half-woman, the deformed and the bent, Atlas the Dwarf, the fire-eaters, the teachers and preachers, the blues singers. I remember it like it was yesterday. I got close to some of these people. I learned about dignity from them. Freedom too. Civil rights, human rights. How to stay within yourself. Most others were into the rides like the tilt-a-whirl and the rollercoaster. To me that was the nightmare. All the giddiness. The artificiality of it. The sledge hammer of life. It didn’t make sense or seem real. The stuff off the main road was where force of reality was. At least it struck me that way. When I left home those feelings didn’t change.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the song I FEEL A CHANGE COMING ON the character says. . .
Wait a minute Bill. I’m not a playwright. The people in my songs are all me. I thought we talked about that?
What exactly makes it you?
It’s in the way you say things. It’s not necessarily the things you say that make you who you are.
Friday, April 17, 2009
+-+New+Mexico+1982+-+by+Joel-Peter+Witkin.jpg)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
1. I recently posted about the goldfish in blenders for art. Here's another controversial one (by Guillermo Vargas):
In August, 2007, Vargas displayed his "Exposición N° 1" in the Códice Gallery in Managua, Nicaragua. The exposition included the burning of 175 pieces of crack cocaine and an ounce of marijuana while the Sandinista anthem played backwards. The work also included an emaciated dog tied to a wall by a length of rope with "Eres Lo Que Lees" ("You Are What You Read") written on the wall in dog food. The work attracted controversy when it was reported that the dog had starved to death as part of Vargas's work. [...] The outrage triggered by the photos and the allegations that the dog had been left to starve to death quickly spread internationally via blogs, e-mails, and other unconfirmed sources, including internet petitions to prevent Vargas from participating in the 2008 Bienal Centroamericana in Honduras that received over four million signatures. Vargas has endorsed the petition, saying that he, too, has signed it.
Juanita Bermúdez, the director of the Códice Gallery, stated that the animal was fed regularly and was only tied up for three hours on one day before it escaped. Vargas himself refused to comment on the fate of the dog, but noted that no one tried to free the dog, give it food, call the police, or do anything for the dog. Vargas stated that the exhibit and the surrounding controversy highlight people's hypocrisy because no one cares about a dog that starves to death in the street. In an interview with El Tiempo, Vargas explained that he was inspired by the death of Natividad Canda, an indigent Nicaraguan addict, who was killed by two Rottweilers in Cartago Province, Costa Rica, while being filmed by the news media in the presence of police, firefighters, and security guards.
Upon conducting a probe, the Humane Society of the United States was informed that the dog was in a state of starvation when it was captured and escaped after one day of captivity; however, the organization also categorically condemned "the use of live animals in exhibits such as this."
from http://nomoremisternicepoet.blogspot.com/2008/05/pagan-fire-art.html, and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Habacuc_Vargas.
His(?) blog is here: http://artehabacuc.blogspot.com/. Unfortunately it's in Spanish: looks like there are some interesting interviews, but alas I cannot read it.
An interesting work he did is as follows (translated by Yahoo's Babelfish):
It is a photography of an video-installation, “Installation No.1 ", of 2004, in which real plants were supposedly watered by a subject, that is an actor as well, in this case I am I. After the days, the plants were dried by the incapacity of being watered, beyond the illusion that produced the video.
(Sorry, the Chuggo video below is extremely out of place.)
In August, 2007, Vargas displayed his "Exposición N° 1" in the Códice Gallery in Managua, Nicaragua. The exposition included the burning of 175 pieces of crack cocaine and an ounce of marijuana while the Sandinista anthem played backwards. The work also included an emaciated dog tied to a wall by a length of rope with "Eres Lo Que Lees" ("You Are What You Read") written on the wall in dog food. The work attracted controversy when it was reported that the dog had starved to death as part of Vargas's work. [...] The outrage triggered by the photos and the allegations that the dog had been left to starve to death quickly spread internationally via blogs, e-mails, and other unconfirmed sources, including internet petitions to prevent Vargas from participating in the 2008 Bienal Centroamericana in Honduras that received over four million signatures. Vargas has endorsed the petition, saying that he, too, has signed it.
Juanita Bermúdez, the director of the Códice Gallery, stated that the animal was fed regularly and was only tied up for three hours on one day before it escaped. Vargas himself refused to comment on the fate of the dog, but noted that no one tried to free the dog, give it food, call the police, or do anything for the dog. Vargas stated that the exhibit and the surrounding controversy highlight people's hypocrisy because no one cares about a dog that starves to death in the street. In an interview with El Tiempo, Vargas explained that he was inspired by the death of Natividad Canda, an indigent Nicaraguan addict, who was killed by two Rottweilers in Cartago Province, Costa Rica, while being filmed by the news media in the presence of police, firefighters, and security guards.
Upon conducting a probe, the Humane Society of the United States was informed that the dog was in a state of starvation when it was captured and escaped after one day of captivity; however, the organization also categorically condemned "the use of live animals in exhibits such as this."
from http://nomoremisternicepoet.blogspot.com/2008/05/pagan-fire-art.html, and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Habacuc_Vargas.
His(?) blog is here: http://artehabacuc.blogspot.com/. Unfortunately it's in Spanish: looks like there are some interesting interviews, but alas I cannot read it.
An interesting work he did is as follows (translated by Yahoo's Babelfish):
It is a photography of an video-installation, “Installation No.1 ", of 2004, in which real plants were supposedly watered by a subject, that is an actor as well, in this case I am I. After the days, the plants were dried by the incapacity of being watered, beyond the illusion that produced the video.
(Sorry, the Chuggo video below is extremely out of place.)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
1. Artist Marco Evaristti, several years ago, had put goldfish into blenders and invited gallery goers to hit "on" if they did so choose. The following article outlines the court case that ensued, and is quite the thing to read.
"It was a protest against what is going on in the world, against this cynicism, this brutality that impregnates the world in which we live," he said.
Hmmm...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3040891.stm
"It was a protest against what is going on in the world, against this cynicism, this brutality that impregnates the world in which we live," he said.
Hmmm...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3040891.stm
Friday, April 3, 2009
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3954847.stm
Wow, that was funny.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. The Tomatina festival. This is also funny!
At around 10 a.m., the first event of the Tomatina begins. The first feat is for the crowd to figure out how to get someone to climb up a greased pole with a ham at the top. Whilst this is happening, the group works up a frenzy singing and dancing whilst being showered from hoses. Once someone is able to release the ham from the pole, several trucks haul the bounty of tomatoes into the center of the town, Plaza del Pueblo. The tomatoes come from Extremadura, where they are less expensive and are grown specifically for the festival as they are not of good taste for consumption. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of water cannons, and the chaos begins. Once it begins, the battle is generally every man for himself. Those who partake in this event are strongly encouraged to wear protective safety goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squish the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions. Another rule is that no one is allowed to bring into this fight anything that may provoke someone into a more serious brawl, such as a glass bottle. Although it is forbidden to tear someone else's clothing, the crowd tends to ignore this and invariably will rip the shirt of any clothed person, man or woman. Typically, foreigners are often targeted by this, not to mention are prized targets of tomatoes as well, including any cameras happening to cover the event. After exactly one hour, the fighting ends when the water cannons are fired once more to signal the end. At this point, no more tomatoes can be thrown. The cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks to spray down the streets, with water provided from a Roman aqueduct. The authorities seem more concerned with cleaning the town than cleaning the visitors, so some people find water at the Buñol River to wash themselves, although some kind residents will hose passers-by down. Once the tomato pulp is flushed, the ground is clean due to the acidity of the tomato.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina
Wow, that was funny.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. The Tomatina festival. This is also funny!
At around 10 a.m., the first event of the Tomatina begins. The first feat is for the crowd to figure out how to get someone to climb up a greased pole with a ham at the top. Whilst this is happening, the group works up a frenzy singing and dancing whilst being showered from hoses. Once someone is able to release the ham from the pole, several trucks haul the bounty of tomatoes into the center of the town, Plaza del Pueblo. The tomatoes come from Extremadura, where they are less expensive and are grown specifically for the festival as they are not of good taste for consumption. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of water cannons, and the chaos begins. Once it begins, the battle is generally every man for himself. Those who partake in this event are strongly encouraged to wear protective safety goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squish the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions. Another rule is that no one is allowed to bring into this fight anything that may provoke someone into a more serious brawl, such as a glass bottle. Although it is forbidden to tear someone else's clothing, the crowd tends to ignore this and invariably will rip the shirt of any clothed person, man or woman. Typically, foreigners are often targeted by this, not to mention are prized targets of tomatoes as well, including any cameras happening to cover the event. After exactly one hour, the fighting ends when the water cannons are fired once more to signal the end. At this point, no more tomatoes can be thrown. The cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks to spray down the streets, with water provided from a Roman aqueduct. The authorities seem more concerned with cleaning the town than cleaning the visitors, so some people find water at the Buñol River to wash themselves, although some kind residents will hose passers-by down. Once the tomato pulp is flushed, the ground is clean due to the acidity of the tomato.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
1. Even the archaic artist, who had an uncanny virtuosity found it necessary to create a group of intermediaries, monsters, hybrids, gods and demigods. The difference is that, since the archaic artist was living in a more practical society than ours, the urgency for transcendental experience was understood, and given an official status. As a consequence the human figure and other elements from the familiar world could be combined with, or participate as a whole in the enactment of the excesses which characterize this improbable hierarchy. With us the disguise must be complete. The familiar identity of things has to be pulverized in order to destroy the finite associations with which our society increasingly enshrouds every aspect of our environment.
Without monsters or gods, art cannot enact our drama: art's most profound moments express this frustration. When they were abandoned as untenable superstitions, art sank into melancholy. It became fond of the dark, and enveloped its objects in the nostalgic intimations of a half-lit world. For me the greatest achievements of the centuries in which the artist accepted the probable and familiar as his subjects were the pictures of the single human figure - alone in a moment of utter immobility.
But the solitary figure could not raise its limbs in a single gesture that might indicate its concern with the fact of mortality and an insatiable appetite for ubiquitous experience in face of this fact. Nor could the solitude be overcome. It could gather on beaches and streets and in parks only through confidence, and, with its companions, form a tableau vivant of human incommunicability.
I do not believe that there was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again.
(from Mark Rothko's The Romantics Were Prompted)
Without monsters or gods, art cannot enact our drama: art's most profound moments express this frustration. When they were abandoned as untenable superstitions, art sank into melancholy. It became fond of the dark, and enveloped its objects in the nostalgic intimations of a half-lit world. For me the greatest achievements of the centuries in which the artist accepted the probable and familiar as his subjects were the pictures of the single human figure - alone in a moment of utter immobility.
But the solitary figure could not raise its limbs in a single gesture that might indicate its concern with the fact of mortality and an insatiable appetite for ubiquitous experience in face of this fact. Nor could the solitude be overcome. It could gather on beaches and streets and in parks only through confidence, and, with its companions, form a tableau vivant of human incommunicability.
I do not believe that there was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again.
(from Mark Rothko's The Romantics Were Prompted)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
1. Bob Dylan interview continued
If a young man considering a career in the arts wanted to meet a lot of women, would he be better off learning to paint or to play guitar?
Probably neither. If he had women on his mind, he might think about becoming a lawyer or a doctor.
Seriously?
Yeah, seriously. Maybe a private detective, but that would be the wrong motivation for any career.
If a young man considering a career in the arts wanted to meet a lot of women, would he be better off learning to paint or to play guitar?
Probably neither. If he had women on his mind, he might think about becoming a lawyer or a doctor.
Seriously?
Yeah, seriously. Maybe a private detective, but that would be the wrong motivation for any career.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
1. define:
[ME., a. Anglo-F. and OF. define-r to end, terminate, determine = Pr. definar; a Romanic parallel form to L. definire to end, terminate, bound (f. DE- I. 3 + finire to end, FINISH), whence It. definire, Sp. definir, Pr. and OF. defenir, definir. Definer, the common form in OF., is the only form given by Cotgr. 1611, and survives in Picard, but has been superseded in F. by définir, with adoption of the transferred senses of L. definire. In mod. English also define is in sense the representative of L. definire. A parallel form diffinire, with dis- (see DE- I. 6) is also found in Latin texts, and the forms diffiner, desfinir, diffinir (14-17th c.) in F.; thence the Eng. variants in deff-, diff-, dyff-.]
1. a. trans. To bring to an end. Also intr. To come to an end. Obs. rare.
b. To bring to an end (a controversy, etc.); to determine, decide, settle. Obs.
de- (I. 3):
3. Down to the bottom, completely; hence thoroughly on and on, away; also methodically, formally: as declamare to shout away, DECLAIM; declarare to make quite clear, DECLARE; denudare to strip quite bare, DENUDE; deplorare to weep as lost, DEPLORE; derelinquere to abandon completely, DERELICT; despoliare to spoil utterly, DESPOIL. b. To exhaustion, to the dregs: as decoquere to boil down or away, DECOCT; deliquescere to melt away, DELIQUESCE.
finite:
[ad. L. finit-us, pa. pple. of finire to put an end to, bound, limit, f. finis end, limit.]
Both define and finite tie back to 'to finish'.
[ME., a. Anglo-F. and OF. define-r to end, terminate, determine = Pr. definar; a Romanic parallel form to L. definire to end, terminate, bound (f. DE- I. 3 + finire to end, FINISH), whence It. definire, Sp. definir, Pr. and OF. defenir, definir. Definer, the common form in OF., is the only form given by Cotgr. 1611, and survives in Picard, but has been superseded in F. by définir, with adoption of the transferred senses of L. definire. In mod. English also define is in sense the representative of L. definire. A parallel form diffinire, with dis- (see DE- I. 6) is also found in Latin texts, and the forms diffiner, desfinir, diffinir (14-17th c.) in F.; thence the Eng. variants in deff-, diff-, dyff-.]
1. a. trans. To bring to an end. Also intr. To come to an end. Obs. rare.
b. To bring to an end (a controversy, etc.); to determine, decide, settle. Obs.
de- (I. 3):
3. Down to the bottom, completely; hence thoroughly on and on, away; also methodically, formally: as declamare to shout away, DECLAIM; declarare to make quite clear, DECLARE; denudare to strip quite bare, DENUDE; deplorare to weep as lost, DEPLORE; derelinquere to abandon completely, DERELICT; despoliare to spoil utterly, DESPOIL. b. To exhaustion, to the dregs: as decoquere to boil down or away, DECOCT; deliquescere to melt away, DELIQUESCE.
finite:
[ad. L. finit-us, pa. pple. of finire to put an end to, bound, limit, f. finis end, limit.]
Both define and finite tie back to 'to finish'.
1. desire:
[ME. a. OF. desire-r (earlier desidrer, desirrer) = Pr. desirar, It. desiare, disirare, Rom. type desirare:--L. desiderare to miss, long for, desire: see DESIDERATE v.]
desiderate:
trans. To desire with a sense of want or regret; to feel a desire or longing for; to feel the want of; to desire, want, miss.
[f. L. desiderat-, ppl. stem of desiderare to miss, long for, desire, f. de- (DE- I. 1, 2) + a radical also found in con-siderare, perhaps connected with sidus, sider- star, constellation; but the sense-history is unknown: cf. CONSIDER.]
consider:
[a. F. considérer (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. considerare to look at closely, examine, contemplate, f. con- + a radical (found also in de-siderare to miss, desire), according to Festus, derived from sidus, sider- star, constellation. The vb. might thus be originally a term of astrology or augury, but such a use is not known in the Lat. writers.]
de- (I. 1, 2):
I. As an etymological element. In the senses:
1. Down, down from, down to: as dependere to hang down, DEPEND (DEPENDENT, -ENCE, etc.); deponere to lay down, DEPONE, DEPOSE; deprimere to press down, DEPRESS; descendere to climb down, DESCEND; devorare to gulp down, DEVOUR. So of English formation, DEBREAK.
2. Off, away, aside: as declinare to turn aside, DECLINE; deducere to lead away, DEDUCE; defendere to ward off, DEFEND; deportare to carry off, DEPORT; designare to mark off, DESIGNATE; desistere to stand off, DESIST. b. Away from oneself: as delegare to make over, DELEGATE; deprecari to pray away, DEPRECATE.
(from OED)
To desire is, possibly, to come down from, off of, away from, or aside from the stars or constellation! - It's also related to 'to consider.'
[ME. a. OF. desire-r (earlier desidrer, desirrer) = Pr. desirar, It. desiare, disirare, Rom. type desirare:--L. desiderare to miss, long for, desire: see DESIDERATE v.]
desiderate:
trans. To desire with a sense of want or regret; to feel a desire or longing for; to feel the want of; to desire, want, miss.
[f. L. desiderat-, ppl. stem of desiderare to miss, long for, desire, f. de- (DE- I. 1, 2) + a radical also found in con-siderare, perhaps connected with sidus, sider- star, constellation; but the sense-history is unknown: cf. CONSIDER.]
consider:
[a. F. considérer (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. considerare to look at closely, examine, contemplate, f. con- + a radical (found also in de-siderare to miss, desire), according to Festus, derived from sidus, sider- star, constellation. The vb. might thus be originally a term of astrology or augury, but such a use is not known in the Lat. writers.]
de- (I. 1, 2):
I. As an etymological element. In the senses:
1. Down, down from, down to: as dependere to hang down, DEPEND (DEPENDENT, -ENCE, etc.); deponere to lay down, DEPONE, DEPOSE; deprimere to press down, DEPRESS; descendere to climb down, DESCEND; devorare to gulp down, DEVOUR. So of English formation, DEBREAK.
2. Off, away, aside: as declinare to turn aside, DECLINE; deducere to lead away, DEDUCE; defendere to ward off, DEFEND; deportare to carry off, DEPORT; designare to mark off, DESIGNATE; desistere to stand off, DESIST. b. Away from oneself: as delegare to make over, DELEGATE; deprecari to pray away, DEPRECATE.
(from OED)
To desire is, possibly, to come down from, off of, away from, or aside from the stars or constellation! - It's also related to 'to consider.'
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
1. Complete and utter madness fell upon him [Nietzsche] in 1888, but that his mind was crumbling when he wrote Ecce Homo is shown by the chapter-headings of this extraordinary autobiography: Why I am so Wise; Why I am so Clever; Why I write such Good Books; Why I am Destiny. Or the title of the book itself, in which he challenges comparison with Christ. It ends on a prophetic note, announcing the doom of Christian civilization. In the last blaze of an expiring mind he predicts that the comfortable belief in steady progress and the very structure of bourgeois society will crumble in a fury of ideological war.
"I contradict as has never been done before, and am nevertheless the opposite of a denying spirit. . . . I am a messenger of joy, such as there never was, I am conscious of a task so lofty that the very idea of it was lacking until now: only from my time onwards do hopes arise again. In every way I am necessarily also the man of destiny. For when truth enters into conflict with the lies of thousands of years, we shall have commotions, a convulsion of earthquakes, a confounding of mountain and valley, the like of which has never been dreamed of. The conception of politics then goes over wholly into a spiritual war, all the organizations of power in the old society are blown into the air---they all rest on lies: there will be wars such as there have never been on earth. . . . Have you understood me? Dionysus against the Crucified."
In December, 1888, Nietzsche wrote a series of letters to various friends which very naturally alarmed them. To Strindberg he wrote: "I have summoned a Council of Princes at Rome, I shall have the young Kaiser shot. . . . Nietzsche Caesar." To Jacob Burckhardt: "That was only a little joke, on account of which I overtook the tedium of having created a world. Now you are---thou art---our greatest teacher; for I, together with Ariadne, have only to be the golden balance of all things, we have in every part those who are above us. Dionysus." And to Cosima Wagner: "Ariadne, I love Thee. Dionysus."
Disorientation, euphoria, and delirium led to a dreadful climax in which he danced about the room and improvised on the piano, screaming that he was the successor of the dead God. A doctor attending him noted in his report: "The patient is generally excited, eats a great deal and is continually asking for food . . . maintains he is a famous man, is constantly asking for women."
From then on he ceased to be a person, he became a mere entry in a clinical case-book. At the mental hospital in Jena he declared: "My wife Cosima Wagner brought me here." He had reached the point-of-no-return.
In the last decade of his life he was no unhappy---except perhaps during occasional maniacal outbursts---but his mind vegetated in a vacancy which was like a ghastly travesty of the Nirvana he had once repudiated.
- from The Feast of Unreason, by Hector Hawton, pp 91-92
"I contradict as has never been done before, and am nevertheless the opposite of a denying spirit. . . . I am a messenger of joy, such as there never was, I am conscious of a task so lofty that the very idea of it was lacking until now: only from my time onwards do hopes arise again. In every way I am necessarily also the man of destiny. For when truth enters into conflict with the lies of thousands of years, we shall have commotions, a convulsion of earthquakes, a confounding of mountain and valley, the like of which has never been dreamed of. The conception of politics then goes over wholly into a spiritual war, all the organizations of power in the old society are blown into the air---they all rest on lies: there will be wars such as there have never been on earth. . . . Have you understood me? Dionysus against the Crucified."
In December, 1888, Nietzsche wrote a series of letters to various friends which very naturally alarmed them. To Strindberg he wrote: "I have summoned a Council of Princes at Rome, I shall have the young Kaiser shot. . . . Nietzsche Caesar." To Jacob Burckhardt: "That was only a little joke, on account of which I overtook the tedium of having created a world. Now you are---thou art---our greatest teacher; for I, together with Ariadne, have only to be the golden balance of all things, we have in every part those who are above us. Dionysus." And to Cosima Wagner: "Ariadne, I love Thee. Dionysus."
Disorientation, euphoria, and delirium led to a dreadful climax in which he danced about the room and improvised on the piano, screaming that he was the successor of the dead God. A doctor attending him noted in his report: "The patient is generally excited, eats a great deal and is continually asking for food . . . maintains he is a famous man, is constantly asking for women."
From then on he ceased to be a person, he became a mere entry in a clinical case-book. At the mental hospital in Jena he declared: "My wife Cosima Wagner brought me here." He had reached the point-of-no-return.
In the last decade of his life he was no unhappy---except perhaps during occasional maniacal outbursts---but his mind vegetated in a vacancy which was like a ghastly travesty of the Nirvana he had once repudiated.
- from The Feast of Unreason, by Hector Hawton, pp 91-92
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
1. Denis Rancourt article
A strange prof (physics!) from the University of Ottawa who may be fired for his strange teaching methods and his decision to give all of his students A's. He's an anarchist, environmental studies, physics prof.
His faculty website.
Wikipedia article.
Rancourt describes his approach of "academic squatting" in which he took an existing course and changed the curriculum, using student input, without the approval of the university. In the fall of 2005 Rancourt squatted a first year course entitled Physics and Environment (PHY 1703).
Following the conclusion of PHY 1703 at the end of 2005, Rancourt and student supporters campaigned to have the university approve a new Science faculty course that would be officially advertised as a pass/fail, student-directed course. This was, it seems, an Activism Course.
In reference to the 'climate change myth', and specifically Al Gore's film, Denis, on one of his blogs, writes:
One cannot control a monster by asking it not to shit as much. The monster is the problem, not the fact that it shits, no matter what colour the shit is.
A strange prof (physics!) from the University of Ottawa who may be fired for his strange teaching methods and his decision to give all of his students A's. He's an anarchist, environmental studies, physics prof.
His faculty website.
Wikipedia article.
Rancourt describes his approach of "academic squatting" in which he took an existing course and changed the curriculum, using student input, without the approval of the university. In the fall of 2005 Rancourt squatted a first year course entitled Physics and Environment (PHY 1703).
Following the conclusion of PHY 1703 at the end of 2005, Rancourt and student supporters campaigned to have the university approve a new Science faculty course that would be officially advertised as a pass/fail, student-directed course. This was, it seems, an Activism Course.
In reference to the 'climate change myth', and specifically Al Gore's film, Denis, on one of his blogs, writes:
One cannot control a monster by asking it not to shit as much. The monster is the problem, not the fact that it shits, no matter what colour the shit is.
Monday, March 16, 2009
1. New Dylan album coming out this year:
Bob Dylan interview
What do you mean by that?
There didn’t seem to be any general consensus among my listeners. Some people preferred my first period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post Colombian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up.
In what way?
Well for instance, if there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that’s what they are in their essence. There’s no mystification. That’s one way I can explain it.
Like a locomotive, a pair of boots, a kiss or the rain?
Right. All those things are what they are. Or pieces of what they are. It’s the way you move them around that makes it work.
Bob Dylan interview
What do you mean by that?
There didn’t seem to be any general consensus among my listeners. Some people preferred my first period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post Colombian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up.
In what way?
Well for instance, if there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that’s what they are in their essence. There’s no mystification. That’s one way I can explain it.
Like a locomotive, a pair of boots, a kiss or the rain?
Right. All those things are what they are. Or pieces of what they are. It’s the way you move them around that makes it work.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
1. What could I mean except that from this intellectual world in which we are swimming there must body forth a new world; but this new world can only be bodied forth in so far as it is conceived. And to conceive there must first be desire,... Desire is instinctual and holy: it is only through desire that we bring about the immaculate conception.
- Henry Miller's Hamlet, as quoted in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Psychoanalysis by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
- Henry Miller's Hamlet, as quoted in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Psychoanalysis by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
Thursday, March 5, 2009
1. Linguistically, the author is never more than the instance writing, just as I is nothing other than the instance saying I: language knows a 'subject', not a 'person', and this subject, empty outside of the very enunciation which defines it, suffices to make language 'hold together', suffices, that is to say, to exhaust it.
- Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author
- Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
1. Someone said that Brecht wanted everybody to think alike. I want everybody to think alike. But Brecht wanted to do it through Communism, in a way. Russia is doing it under government. It's happening here all by itself without being under a strict government: so if it's working without trying, why can't it work without being Communist? Everybody looks alike and acts alike, and we're getting more and more that way.
I think everybody should be a machine.
- Andy Warhol, Art News interview, 1963
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Unleashing a national offensive, spearheaded by the slogan "You Auto Buy," President Eisenhower in 1958 transformed consumer buying into an American duty.
- from Made In USA: An Americanization in Modern Art, The '50s & '60s, by Sidra Stitch
I think everybody should be a machine.
- Andy Warhol, Art News interview, 1963
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Unleashing a national offensive, spearheaded by the slogan "You Auto Buy," President Eisenhower in 1958 transformed consumer buying into an American duty.
- from Made In USA: An Americanization in Modern Art, The '50s & '60s, by Sidra Stitch
Monday, March 2, 2009
1. I promised to post some art works by the crazy artist Yves Klein (1928-1962).
In this video (from a great site called Ubuweb - to which I've previously linked but never outright mentioned), you can see the process for his anthropometry. First, you'll see naked women models cover themselves in Klein blue (patented). Then, under his direction - as he wears his suit - they will rub themselves up against the canvas on the wall to create paintings as 'living paintbrushes'. All the while, the audible rendition of Klein's blue monochrome is performed by well-dressed musicians (though unfortunately this video has no sound). This rendition was one note, sustained for exactly 20 minutes, to be followed by 20 minutes of silence. You can watch a shorter version of the sound only subsequently performed in the video below.
Klein (from what little I know), a Rosicrucian, believed that blue was the gateway between the immaterial and material realms. His quest was proclaimed a spiritual one. Calling himself the Messenger of the Blue Void, he sought to surprise and uplift his audience.
Along with his paint anthropometry paintings (described above), he created anthropometries involving fire. This is also shown in the video. The naked women models are wet with water (and/or with paint), and pose against the canvas. They leave and then Klein, in suit, and with firefighter nearby spraying water, blasts a flamethrower at the canvas! The below is an example of one of these works. Note the 'aura' around the figure.
From here, the Yves Klein archives, you can see all sorts of his works.
In this video (from a great site called Ubuweb - to which I've previously linked but never outright mentioned), you can see the process for his anthropometry. First, you'll see naked women models cover themselves in Klein blue (patented). Then, under his direction - as he wears his suit - they will rub themselves up against the canvas on the wall to create paintings as 'living paintbrushes'. All the while, the audible rendition of Klein's blue monochrome is performed by well-dressed musicians (though unfortunately this video has no sound). This rendition was one note, sustained for exactly 20 minutes, to be followed by 20 minutes of silence. You can watch a shorter version of the sound only subsequently performed in the video below.
Klein (from what little I know), a Rosicrucian, believed that blue was the gateway between the immaterial and material realms. His quest was proclaimed a spiritual one. Calling himself the Messenger of the Blue Void, he sought to surprise and uplift his audience.
Along with his paint anthropometry paintings (described above), he created anthropometries involving fire. This is also shown in the video. The naked women models are wet with water (and/or with paint), and pose against the canvas. They leave and then Klein, in suit, and with firefighter nearby spraying water, blasts a flamethrower at the canvas! The below is an example of one of these works. Note the 'aura' around the figure.
From here, the Yves Klein archives, you can see all sorts of his works.
1. This post is merely to preserve the intro from the left frame, the intro that has been around for quite some time. It has shed from the left, and drifts like the rest of the wood on this web.
I don't argue what I believe - so I'm told - cloak & dagger, hiding hidden, eben. This blog seems that way, together with the other one (what we see as we spin past): a split of mind: one science, one silence?...hemispheres of thought trickling, what's left, what's right?.
I don't know where this'll go yet, like any disjointed scenery on the way past, like any yellow line.
Take it this way (if the missing is too much missed): this is a site of my stained glass, broken. This is the spider web of memories forming. These are my tears and these are my joys. Small parcels, each, but present nonetheless. I am the host introducing the guests.
Welcome.
I don't argue what I believe - so I'm told - cloak & dagger, hiding hidden, eben. This blog seems that way, together with the other one (what we see as we spin past): a split of mind: one science, one silence?...hemispheres of thought trickling, what's left, what's right?.
I don't know where this'll go yet, like any disjointed scenery on the way past, like any yellow line.
Take it this way (if the missing is too much missed): this is a site of my stained glass, broken. This is the spider web of memories forming. These are my tears and these are my joys. Small parcels, each, but present nonetheless. I am the host introducing the guests.
Welcome.
1. "The clear sense that you know you're in the homeward stretch is a very compelling component in writing," he says. "A lot of other things fall away that you hope would satisfy you like human life, and your work becomes a kind of haven, and you want to go there, and you're grateful when the time opens in such a way that you can actually sit down and work at your own work, because everything else somehow has failed.
"I'm speaking not just for myself," he continues. "Somehow, just in the nature of things, you know, the disappointments accumulate, and the obstacles multiply and you sense the destruction of your body, and your mind, and you feel here is the last arena — 'arena' is too big, the last boxing ring, or the last Ouija board, where you can examine some of the ideas that have intrigued you. That have seized you, really.
- Leonard Cohen, Globe and Mail interview, Feb 27, 2009
"I'm speaking not just for myself," he continues. "Somehow, just in the nature of things, you know, the disappointments accumulate, and the obstacles multiply and you sense the destruction of your body, and your mind, and you feel here is the last arena — 'arena' is too big, the last boxing ring, or the last Ouija board, where you can examine some of the ideas that have intrigued you. That have seized you, really.
- Leonard Cohen, Globe and Mail interview, Feb 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
1. Flicking Off George Stroumboulopoulos
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Here there is a sort of question, call it historical, of which we are only glimpsing today the conception, the formation, the gestation, the labor. I employ these words, I admit, with a glance toward the business of childbearing -- but also with a glance toward those who, in a company from which I do not exclude myself, turn their eyes away in the face of the as yet unnameable which is proclaiming itself and which can do so, as is necessary whenever a birth is in the offing, only under the species of the non-species, in the formless, mute, infant, and terrifying form of monstrosity.
- Derrida, the ending of Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. Il n'y a pas d'hors text. - Derrida
(Il n'y a pas d'hors d'oeuvres.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Here there is a sort of question, call it historical, of which we are only glimpsing today the conception, the formation, the gestation, the labor. I employ these words, I admit, with a glance toward the business of childbearing -- but also with a glance toward those who, in a company from which I do not exclude myself, turn their eyes away in the face of the as yet unnameable which is proclaiming itself and which can do so, as is necessary whenever a birth is in the offing, only under the species of the non-species, in the formless, mute, infant, and terrifying form of monstrosity.
- Derrida, the ending of Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. Il n'y a pas d'hors text. - Derrida
(Il n'y a pas d'hors d'oeuvres.)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
1. Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given, and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.
- Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
- Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
1. The 1000 Journals Project
I've always been fascinated by what people scrawl on bathroom walls and in public spaces. I had been taking photographs of this writing for years, and wanted to put together a book. It seemed appropriate to encourage readers to become contributors, and join the conversation by writing in the actual book. From there, I decided that a blank book might be more fun... especially one that traveled around, to gather a variety of thoughts and opinions. And then, why not 1000 of them? It's such an absurd number.
The project officially launched in August of 2000, with the release of the first 100 journals in San Francisco. I gave them to friends, and left them at bars, cafes, and on park benches. Shortly thereafter, people began emailing me, asking if they could participate. So I started sending journals to folks, allowing them to share with friends, or strangers. It's been a roller coaster ever since.
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2. 1001 Journals - seems there are 2391 more journals here...
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3. This page is particularly neat:
1000words.net
I've always been fascinated by what people scrawl on bathroom walls and in public spaces. I had been taking photographs of this writing for years, and wanted to put together a book. It seemed appropriate to encourage readers to become contributors, and join the conversation by writing in the actual book. From there, I decided that a blank book might be more fun... especially one that traveled around, to gather a variety of thoughts and opinions. And then, why not 1000 of them? It's such an absurd number.
The project officially launched in August of 2000, with the release of the first 100 journals in San Francisco. I gave them to friends, and left them at bars, cafes, and on park benches. Shortly thereafter, people began emailing me, asking if they could participate. So I started sending journals to folks, allowing them to share with friends, or strangers. It's been a roller coaster ever since.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. 1001 Journals - seems there are 2391 more journals here...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
3. This page is particularly neat:
1000words.net
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
1. Canada's Stonehenge: scientist says Alberta sun temple has 5,000-year-old calendar
An academic maverick is challenging conventional wisdom on Canada's prehistory by claiming an archeological site in southern Alberta is really a vast, open-air sun temple with a precise 5,000-year-old calendar predating England's Stonehenge and Egypt's pyramids.
Canada's Stonehenge website
An academic maverick is challenging conventional wisdom on Canada's prehistory by claiming an archeological site in southern Alberta is really a vast, open-air sun temple with a precise 5,000-year-old calendar predating England's Stonehenge and Egypt's pyramids.
Canada's Stonehenge website
Friday, January 30, 2009
1. Apparently I've missed the future.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001Q3KR8A/
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2. This is hilarious.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.shoe.monument/index.html
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001Q3KR8A/
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2. This is hilarious.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.shoe.monument/index.html
Monday, January 19, 2009
But at Webster Hall on Sunday night, where Ms. Tagaq, who is Inuit, performed as part of the world music showcase Globalfest, she made it sound fiercely contemporary, futuristic even. Recalling animal noises and various other nature sounds, she was a dynamo, delivering a sort of gothic sound art while she stalked the small basement stage with feral energy.
This festival, now in its sixth year, presents a casually touristic view of a handful of the world’s musical cultures, though true strangeness is rarely prized. Instead, many of the groups here verged on genre originalism — the night was often a streamlined, somewhat homogenized representation of the world’s music — even if many are themselves carpetbaggers, style revivers and nostalgists.
Watcha Clan, at least, seemed mindful of the past decade’s worth of popular music, highlighting one of the weaknesses of this iteration of Globalfest: it felt like a look backward. More than ever, world music is becoming aggressively hybridized with hip-hop and electronic music — Brazilian baile funk, Angolan kuduro, South African kwaito — but these sounds were nowhere to be found. Even Globalfest’s traditionalism is selective. While many groups wielded accordions, there was no regional Mexican music — banda, Norteño — to be heard. Even in its breadth Globalfest can feel narrow.
from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/arts/music/13fest.html?_r=1
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
1. Well this makes me feel sick.
A cheese from Sardinia, Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_Marzu
A cheese from Sardinia, Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_Marzu
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