so...

left my phone at the axiom

good thing

otherwise
I'd be
making calls
I have no business
making...

as it is blogging
to avoid
e-mails
I shouldn't send

coming home
instead of going to notsuoh
to avoid saying things
I shouldn't say...

this was not
the night
I had planned.

it never is.

I take this as evidence
that plans are bad
not that mine are faulty...

best laid
aft gang agley
all that.

g'night.

Spacetaker.org | Culture when you want it.

Spacetaker.org | Culture when you want it.:

"Yes, we love Speeding Motorcycle too but it can't go on forever! So come on down to Axiom this Saturday, Sept. 2nd and say goodbye to happiest sad show in Houston theater history. The play is sold out but afterwards (round 9:30pm) we'll reopen the doors to the public and you can see the Speeding Motorcycle band rock out with some good old Daniel Johnston tunes. Stick around to catch the inspiration of it all playing with his new band, Danny and the Nightmares!

It's fun! It's free! And there's beer! Yay!"

C'mon by for the celebration!

hey liittle girl...

would you like to buy some candy?

listening to the oldies station
on satellite radio
makes me a little freaked
out
about how many songs from
the 50's are about dead teenagers
or inappropriate relationships
with young girls...
what is the world coming to?

Daily Kos: The difference between Progressives and Liberals

Daily Kos: The difference between Progressives and Liberals:
"While liberalism emerged in the Northeast and among the more enlightened industrialists (who believed they were building a better world), a second political movement emerged in the Midwest. There were a number of individuals involved in the birth of the Progressive movement, but I will attempt to explain through the activities of John Dewey and Jane Addams because I know them best and it is easiest for me. Dewey was also a Pragmatist but his perspective was a little different from the one that developed in New England (even though he was originally from Vermont). Dewey developed an approach that has been called Instrumental Pragmatism. He concentrated on the actual problem solving and the way humans lives could be improved by improving their problem solving. The idea that Dewey believed human lives could be improved as a whole, and not just problem to problem, is critical. Dewey also believed that there was no line to be drawn between the philosophical, the political, and education. "

Recently had someone tell me we needed to reclaim the word liberal...
didn't like it when I called myself a progressive.

Copyfight: the politics of IP

Copyfight: the politics of IP: "According to a December 2005 entry in the blog Alas, there are translators and publishers who would love to re-do the translation and, presumably, correct these and other errors. However, the current publisher (Knopf) has the exclusive English-language rights locked up until the book goes into the public domain - in 2056. They are also supposedly refusing both to do an updated transation themselves, and to allow anyone else to publish one."

Once again intellectual property rights protects the actual "property" itself.
This is pretty disgusting.

Blood on the tracks - The Boston Globe

Blood on the tracks - The Boston Globe:

"Greene and his colleagues described the finding as a partial victory for David Hume, the British philosopher who wrote that reason was a ``slave to the emotions.' But more precisely, they described moral decision-making as a process in which reason and emotion duke it out within the mind. The finding, they added, was also a blow to older theories of human development, which held that as we become adults, we stop making moral decisions with our emotions, as children do."

All you people who do mean things because they are rational. Well, yr just mean.

aynart.com --- kid ornery presents the adding machine

Ayn's got her page up from "the adding machine"!!!

aynart.com --- kid ornery presents the adding machine

go check out all the great pics!!

dialogue - influences obvious

A: Suspicion?

B: No.
Confirmation.

A: Type?

B: Visual.
Saw them.

A: Saw them what.

B: Together.
Saw them together.

A: You?

B: No.
Ben.

A: Motive?

B: Motive?

A: Ben's? Motive for seeing? telling? describing?

B: Truth?

A: Truth. Truth's no motive.

B: Motive?

A: Motive?

B: Yours. Yours in questioning - implying his.

A: Questioning yes.
Implying no.
Must alway question.

B: Thus, questioning yours -
Motive?



Study questions:


1. There are at least 4 (possibly 5) people in this story.
Who is the most fucked?
The least?

2. Is there always a motive for speech? always a motive for action?
when are these motive suspect? and when are they not?

3. Do you trust the advice of others in regards to decisions most dear?
if so, do you examine their motives? their reasons for you to live your life
a certain way?

4. Do you think Ben really saw what he says he saw?
if not why not?
what possible motives could he have for relaying what he did or did not see to B?

5. What motive could A have for impugning Ben's integrity? for making B wonder if Ben had an ulterior motive?

6. There are no wrong answers, which makes it unlikely that there are any right answers...
which pretty much mean we're fucked...
this isn't really a question is it?
well, comes to terms with this idea, in language - that sounds like you couuld get an essay out of it...
so there.
:P

Kid Ornery

what are you gonna do when the ax falls?

today
work
then
speeding motorcycle
made my worst screw up yet
(yes, worse than falling off the stage)
walked out with my horn,
when I should have been empty handed...
("startling facts" for those what know the show...)
got through it

then the last misfires gig (till the next one)
and then rudz
and then notsuoh

lots of whiskey

and tomorrow (or is that today?)
Stanford Meisner studies
no TDU (bass player burgled again)
and hopefully early to bed...

best thing to come from tonight
is maybe a new addition
to the playtime sessions...

we'll see.

M

light blogging

working in candy store
searching for bike tubes
and fighting off the lizard men
seem to be taking
all my time

sorry

had a long post
about alienation
tribes
music
branding
isolation
entertainment
and aging...

but it got lost
somewhere
between
the blow-pops
and the tootsie rolls.

tonight

#'s

I am neither the oldest
nor the squarest
person in the room.

At first lots of folks
I recognize
but nobody I know...

one girl -
blonde bob,
long legs,
short skirt,
dancing early
nobody else
on the floor
I wouldn't say
all eyes on her,
but a certain number
for sure.
anyway,
once the floor begins to fill
she goes and sits down -
in one of the only permanent spots
of light in the whole club.
Once the club really
got crowded -
she disappeared completely.

Later - a brunette
"did you just direct a play?
have a fundraiser at your house?
I was there.
I'm a friend of Julie's.
Loved the show."
chat for a bit -
pleasant enough.

Then run into
Jim TDU
and his friend -
big surprise

in the meantime
danced to
or at least heard -
New Order
T. Rex
Devo
Joy Division
Le Tigre
James Brown
David Bowie
Siouxsie and the Banshees
LCD Soundsystem
E.L.O.
The Smiths
The Cure
Depeche Mode
Prince
and more...

dancing
is a celebration -
helps a lot
more than whiskey
although
whiskey helps too

bike ride there
and back
both great.

gonna have to sleep
eventually
i guess

Full Contact Concert

Full Contact Concert:

"Two performers are equipped with microphones. One microphone, connected to a stethoscope underneath the scapula of the performer’s back, records the repercussion of the beats hitting his chest. The other microphone, glued to the performer’s chin, records his breath."

Finally, an instrument I don't want...

The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly:

"Sometimes, you see, even the most outlandish conspiracy theories turn out to be true."

I'm on a couple of conspiracy theory mailing lists...
and often the media lags it about 4-6 months.
Many of the stories I read on the list contain
the germs of real news - facts being uncovered -
even if they aren't being put together in
completely conventional ways...

listen to the man in the tin-foil hat!

meanwhile...the skies turn red

birds just falling out of trees
two in our yard
one down the street
tom calls the city
they say
"we need to test their brains
but they need to be fresh
so get one as soon as they fall
out of the tree and put it
in a ziplock in the freezer
and call us back."
and we'll just hope
whatever made them
fall out of the tree
isn't something you can
catch from picking them
up and putting them
in a ziplock bag in your freezer.
pretty sure I don't want
mysterious dead bird
next to my frozen pizzas...
maybe in a styrofoam cooler,
on the porch.

Daily Kos: The Right Not to Pray In School

Daily Kos: The Right Not to Pray In School:
"But how far does the right not to pray go, and what does it require? Is the onus upon the students choosing not to participate? If the voluntary, student-led prayer is allowed, then the non-participating students have two options: stay and just don't listen, or leave the room until the prayer is finished. I know from experience that neither option is all that comfortable for the non-participating students, in part because both options make them stand out for their non-participation. And the second option almost seems like the classroom, and the even the school itself, belongs less to them than it does to the religious majority.

Should they have to leave the room or sit there and 'not listen'? The only other option would be not to allow the prayer at all, and that would likely incense the religious majority, which could mean more negative consequences for those in the religious minority, if they are identified as such and associated with the prohibition in the minds of the religious minority. You only have to look at the what happened to the Dobrich to see that.

In a way, the stories of both families are kind of a reflection of the situation faced by religious minorities (including the non-religious) right about now. Just like with the school situation, if America is a 'Christian nation,' what's the status of non-christians and non-believers? To what degree is this our country too? Or does it primarily belong to the religious majority? And does that mean that in order to keep some semblance of peace, the rest of us must 'not look' and 'not listen'? And as religion becomes more and more a part of public life, and increasingly informs policy, what does that mean for the citizenship of the non-religious and religious minorities?"

It means as a humanist parent you teach kids to why you are a humanist and what that means. You make sure they understand they have freedom of belief and action.
You explain that when people pray around you it doesn't bother you, but you don't pretend to participate. You quietly go about your business and let them pray. You can listen. Listening to a prayer and saying a prayer are two different things. When someone leads a prayer if you are praying with them it is as if you are saying those words too. Just listening to someone say a prayer is not praying. If it is appropriate to have kids singing songs about Jesus, it is certainly appropriate to teach them agnosticism, atheism, or humanism.

We had just a few Jehovah's Witnesses in our school system growing up. They never had a problem not saying the pledge, or not participating in holiday parties, at least no problem that they showed. They knew and understood what they believed,
and what they believed didn't seem any crazier to me than any other story that starts with a virgin birth and ends with a resurrection.

Anyway, what I'd have to say is that non-Christian kids just have to toughen up - there is no excuse for what happened in this case. Nobody should be thrown out of a public school activity because they won't pray. But kids who don't wanna pray or pray a different way should just do their thing knowing that living your beliefs is important.

The Austin Chronicle Music: The B-Side

The Austin Chronicle Music: The B-Side:

"'We've gotten a tremendously great response from audiences – ones who are very familiar with Daniel's stuff and ones who didn't know who he was when they walked in the door,' Nodler says. 'And Daniel just loves it. After he saw it the first time … one of the company members walked up to him and said, 'What did you think, Daniel?' And he said, 'That was great! I loved it! We should make a video tape of it and sell it, so we can remember it forever.'' There's hope for an Austin production of the original opera sometime next year, but for now the play shows Thursday through Saturday, 8pm, through Sept. 2. 'This is a departure for me,' Nodler adds. 'It's the most uplifting thing that I've ever worked on. Everyone is having this reaction to the show. It's like vitamins for the soul.' For tickets, call 713/522-8443."

have you made yr reservation yet?

Grotowski Statement of Principles

Grotowski Statement of Principles:

"IV

An actor can only be guided and inspired by someone who is whole-hearted in his creative activity. The producer, while guiding and inspiring the actor, must at the same time allow himself to be guided and inspired by him- it is a question of freedom, partnership, and this does not imply a lack of discipline but a respect for the autonomy of others. Respect for the actor's autonomy does not mean lawlessness, lack of demands, never ending discussions and the replacement of action by continuous streams of words. On the contrary, respect for autonomy means enormous demands, the expectation of a maximum creative effort and the most personal revelation. Understood thus, solicitude for the actor's freedom can only be born from the plenitude of the guide and not from his lack of plenitude. Such a lack implies imposition, dictatorship, superficial dressage."

yeah, what he said.

What is Left? What is Right?

What is Left? What is Right?:
"Skeptical conservatives—one of the Right’s less celebrated subcultures—are conservatives because of their skepticism, not in spite of it. They ground their ideas in rational thinking and (nonreligious) moral argument. And the conservative movement is crippling itself by leaning too heavily on religion to the exclusion of these temperamentally compatible allies."

I know there is a lot of talk of getting the Godfolk on the left more active and organized, but I'd be a lot more comfortable if the humanists on the right would stand up and get involved too...
then maybe we could look across the aisle and have a rational discussion with folks we disagree with...

Original moon landing film lost�-�World�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Original moon landing film lost�-�World�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper:
" The footage could transform our view of the moon landings, offering images far sharper than the blurred, grainy video shown around the world. It also could lay to rest the conspiracy theory that the landings were faked on a Hollywood soundstage. "

or it could give ammo to the conspiracy theorists,
or it might show the alien structures on the surface of the moon...
lost? how about hidden...

Warrenellis.com � Human Echolocation

Warrenellis.com � Human Echolocation:
"Scientists have discovered that in the brains of the blind, the visual cortex has not become useless, as they once believed. When blind people use another sense — touch or hearing, for example — to substitute for sight, the brain’s visual cortex becomes active, even though no images reach it from the optic nerve. Echolocation creates its own images."

If this is true why aren't there more blind lawyer/vigilantes?

Jessa Crispin Goes Bookstore Speed-Dating

Jessa Crispin Goes Bookstore Speed-Dating:
"Another gentleman said he was reading Catcher in the Rye at the moment. “Oh, that’s a good book,” I told him. “Have you read it before?”

“I heard the guy that shot Ronald Reagan was carrying it on him and had to check it out!” says he. “It's a crazy book!'

This event was not going to help readers meet readers. It was going to cause women who read to go home, take a bubble bath, and contemplate running off to a nunnery."

The New Atlantis - The Age of Female Computers - David Skinner

The New Atlantis - The Age of Female Computers - David Skinner:
"In the history of computing, the humbler levels of scientific work were open, even welcoming, to women. Indeed, by the early twentieth century computing was thought of as women’s work and computers were assumed to be female. Respected mathematicians would blithely approximate the problem-solving horsepower of computing machines in “girl-years” and describe a unit of machine labor as equal to one “kilo-girl.” In this light, one can surely understand the desire to correct past orthodoxies about the female mind with new ones. But even as we rightly decry a past when even the most talented women were prevented from pursuing math and science in the most prestigious posts, we should remember—and honor—the crucial role of women in advancing mathematical and scientific knowledge one detailed calculation at a time."

A view of the truth: Spinoza's faith in reason - Print Version - International Herald Tribune

A view of the truth: Spinoza's faith in reason - Print Version - International Herald Tribune:
"The exact reasons for the excommunication of the 23-year-old Spinoza remain murky, but the reasons he came to be vilified throughout all of Europe are not. Spinoza argued that no group or religion could rightly claim infallible knowledge of the creator's partiality to its beliefs and ways. After the excommunication, he spent the rest of his life - he died in 1677 at the age of 44 - studying the varieties of religious intolerance. The conclusions he drew are still of dismaying relevance."

Apparently I should've payed more attention to Spinoza back when I was in school...
Fanatic agnosticism is the answer!

all kinds of stuff: Milt Gray on cartoon timing past and present

all kinds of stuff: Milt Gray on cartoon timing past and present:
"Instead of simply cutting from one scene to the next, Bob would
sometimes move the characters and the props around, at the same time
as doing an iris wipe from one scene to the next, all with a very
specific rhythm, sometimes to suggest increasing tension in the
plot. Bob told me that on occasion, when he had a specific
syncopated rhythm in mind that didn't adhere strictly to a regular
beat, he would run blank film through a movieola at full (normal)
film speed, and tap on the film with a grease pencil the syncopated
rhythm he had in mind, and then take the film off the movieola and
count the frames between the marks. He would time his actions to
those numbers of frames, and then give that information to Carl
Stalling, who would compose music to fit that timing. I should have
asked Bob which films he did that in, but I didn't so I can only
guess, but a very likely candidate is the scene in Wagon Heels, about
5 minutes and 15 seconds into the cartoon:

Injun Joe has just fired (out of his mouth) a giant gun shell at the
circled wagon train, which blows everything off the screen (including
distant mountains). Then, in rapid succession, the wagon train's
wheels fall down to the ground, then the wagon train itself, then a
large foreground cactus, then the distant mountains, then there is a
quick iris wipe to the next scene (which is almost just empty
ground), then a white settler zips into scene, then Injun Joe zips
into scene to confront the settler, all in the space of about five
seconds. This is just a 'quick transition' from one scene to the
next, but the timing and sense of energy is thrilling."

the ghost in yr genes - the martian manhunter #1

� The Ghost In Your Genes

� The Ghost In Your Genes:

"At the heart of this new field is a simple but contentious idea – that genes have a ‘memory’. That the lives of your grandparents – the air they breathed, the food they ate, even the things they saw – can directly affect you, decades later, despite your never experiencing these things yourself. And that what you do in your lifetime could in turn affect your grandchildren."

Perseids - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Perseids - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"To experience the shower in its full, one should observe from a point far outside any large cities, where stars are not dimmed by light pollution."

Peak should be just before dawn...
wonder how far outside the big city I can get on my bike before dawn...

tonight

speeding motorcycle
whiskey
karaoke
(because it is fun!!!)
and now
to bed
and dreams
of burlap...

M

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Bones of contention

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Bones of contention:
"Our other account comes from those who attended Paine. Dying in ulcerated agony, he was imposed upon by two Presbyterian ministers who pushed past his housekeeper and urged him to avoid damnation by accepting Jesus Christ. 'Let me have none of your Popish stuff,' Paine responded. 'Get away with you, good morning, good morning.' The same demand was made of him as his eyes were closing. 'Do you wish to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God?' He answered quite distinctly: 'I have no wish to believe on that subject.' Thus he expired with his reason, and his rights, both still staunchly defended until the very last."

Elmer Rice started a play about Thomas Paine but eventually abandoned it...
damn shame.
damn shame.
I'd do a play on Paine for sure...
only founding father worth a damn if ya ask me...

new order

been listening to lots of New Order covers tonight...
damn, I love New Order.
Great melodies, great dance music...
and the lyrics ain't too bad either...


Bizarre Love Triangle


Every time i think of you
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue
It's no problem of mine but it's a problem I find
Living a life that I can't leave behind
There's no sense in telling me
The wisdom of a fool won't set you free
But that's the way that it goes
And it's what nobody knows
While every day my confusion grows
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say

I feel fine and I feel good
I'm feeling like I never should
Whenever I get this way, I just don't know what to say
Why can't we be ourselves like we were yesterday
I'm not sure what this could mean
I don't think you're what you seem
I do admit to myself
That if I hurt someone else
Then I'll never see just what we're meant to be
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say

Michael Dirda

Michael Dirda:
"Perhaps the closest we come to understanding the young Spinoza's intellectual restlessness lies in the practically confessional opening to one of his early treatises, On the Improvement of the Understanding . 'After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire . . . whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.' What a dreamer! Who expects 'continuous, supreme and unending happiness' in life? But in his Ethics , Spinoza ends with just such a vision of earthly serenity."

Outlandish theories: Kings of the (hollow) world - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

Outlandish theories: Kings of the (hollow) world - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune:

"One of the first Hollow Earth theories was proposed in 1692 by English astronomer Edmund Halley (he who discovered the comet), who suggested that the Earth was composed of four spheres, each embedded in the other like so many matrioshka dolls, illuminated by a luminous atmosphere and perhaps inhabitable."

I love the hollow Earth.
I'm pretty sure it's where the reptilians are from.
Not from space.
Not at all...

The Sunkist Utopian

The Sunkist Utopian:
"Sinclair is also the man who, with Jack London, founded the Intercollegiate Socialist Society and, later, the Southern California branch of the ACLU; who met both President Roosevelts, corresponded with Harry Truman and called H.L. Mencken, Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin his friends; who backed Sergei Eisenstein's effort to make an epic film in Mexico and then betrayed him; who ran for governor of California in 1934 (as a Democrat), promising to end poverty in the state; and who dabbled in spiritualism, all varieties of vegetarianism and never met a fad he didn't like."

Sinclair's book on his run for governor is great.

Cult of impersonality - The Boston Globe

Cult of impersonality - The Boston Globe:
"Critics disagreed about the meaning of Beckett's works, but all agreed that there was something dark and unsettling at their core-and, for that matter, on their surface. Beckett's works are, quite literally, absurdly funny. One laughs and feels suddenly lighter, better, and then, recalling why one laughed in the first place, what dark situation was the occasion for the joke, one is suddenly less sure of the propriety, and even the possibility, of laughing at such a thing-and the laughter fizzles as quickly as it had flared."

The New Yorker: The Critics: Books

The New Yorker: The Critics: Books:
"Beckett was still living at home, lethargic and unhappy, when his father died, in 1933. The next four years were largely divided between the family estate and London, where he submitted to the care of the British psychoanalyst W. R. Bion. In both locations, Beckett suffered from night terrors—he would wake in the dark with a racing heart, in a sort of frozen panic—and from a fearsome array of psychosomatic ailments, including stomach trouble, pleurisy, and recurrent cysts on the neck and anus. The insomniac dread of Beckett’s narrators (“I’m too frightened this evening to listen to myself rot. . . . So I’ll tell myself a story”), as well as their revulsion at the human body, probably owes something to the memory of these afflictions."

Gramophone Recorder

Make yr own records,
and the play them on
yr homemade turntable.

these are both via the Make:Blog.

Music Notation Modernization Association (MNMA)

Music Notation Modernization Association (MNMA)

Welcome to the MNMA!

We are an international nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring ways to make reading, writing, and playing music easier to learn and enjoy. Our members include musicians, teachers, composers, and notation inventors from around the world.

this is very right on! music notation is not impossible to get but it is unnecesarily complex...
I'm all about alternate notation!

Lance Mannion: Independent Man

Lance Mannion: Independent Man:
"In 1998, Joe Lieberman went onto the Senate floor and single-handedly set out to legitmize the Impeachment-Coup."
and he failed.
he then failed at becoming VP.
and now he's failed in the primary.
and soon he'll fail as an independent.

How can he say he's not like G.W.?

BBC NEWS | Health | Drug 'treats depression in hours'

BBC NEWS | Health | Drug 'treats depression in hours':
"Many antidepressants target levels of brain chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine, and, over time, the accumulation of these chemicals can affect a patient's mood. But this can take several weeks.

But the team believes ketamine is having a faster effect because it is targeting a different brain-protein, called the NMDA receptor, which is thought to play a critical role in learning and memory.

The team says ketamine, in its current form, would not be appropriate for medication because of side-effects at higher doses, which include hallucinations and euphoria."

and yet my vet friend refuses to give me any.

peekaboo

When I'm down, really down,
Nothin' matters. Nothin' does.
I close my eyes, go to sleep.
But I can't sleep. I can't sleep.

Please hear my cry for help, and save me from myself.

Junior High I lost my mind.
I don't know why. It's a terrible thing.
Since that day it's been a struggle
Trying to make sense out of scrambled eggs.

Please hear my cry for help, and save me from myself.

I painted a bar and I never got paid,
In a town where everyone was on foot.
I was locked in on Easter day.
All I had to eat was a piece of bread.

When I got home my mother said
"You're a lazy bum and that's how come
You suffer like that and you'll starve
All your life. All your life."

Spoken just like it was a curse,
But it didn't really sound so bad.
I like to make things up,
It's the healthiest thing that I do.

But I'm tired
From being kidnapped
By a dark wolf that would
Do me in.

Please hear my cry for help, and save me from myself.

I'm just saying how I feel.
Maybe you could try to understand.
I'm a man who needs you.

When I'm down, really down
Nothin' matters. Nothin' does.
I close my eyes to go to sleep,
But I can't sleep. I can't sleep.

You can listen to these songs,
Have a good time and walk away.
But for me it's not that easy.
I have to live these songs forever.

Please hear my cry for help, and save me from myself.

- d. johnston

"Speeding Motorcycle" reopens Thursday.
Make yr reservations now.

Conflux, NYc festival for psychogeography

Attn - to my NYC peeps and bright idea folks everywhere:

Conflux, NYc festival for psychogeography:
"Conflux, the annual New York festival for contemporary psychogeography, will take place in Brooklyn, NYC, September 14-17.

At Conflux, participants turn NYc into a playground, a laboratory and a space for the development of new networks and communities. All events are free and open to the public. They include walks and tours, lectures, workshops, street games and tech-enabled expeditions, interactive performance, public art installations, movies, etc."

Niagara Falls Reporter

Niagara Falls Reporter:
"Extensive research (i.e., Web-surfing) has revealed that comic Joey Faye claimed authorship of 'Slowly I Turned' in its many formats. Born Joseph Palladino in 1909 on Manhattan's Lower East Side, he appeared in burlesque and vaudeville shows, usually as a sidekick to the star, often Phil Silvers. He was in 36 Broadway shows, including Man of La Mancha as Sancho Panza, and dozens of movies. He had his own series, The Joey Faye Frolics, in 1950, and appeared as well in other television shows, such as The Real McCoys, Perry Mason and Maude. His most recent claim to fame was as the green grape in the Fruit of the Loom underwear commercials. He continued to work until well into his 80s and died in 1997."

I'm going to have to steal this bit eventually...

This! This I've seen...

The Visit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"In 1988 a TV movie titled 'Bring Me The Head Of Dobie Gillis' was a version of 'The Visit' adapted to the characters and world of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."

impressions

McCarthy
on the left
and
I got
as much nerve
as anybody
I'm on the level
is all
and
the right amount of whiskey
and
a joe jackson song
and
friends
and
inspirations
leaving town
or already gone
and
new inspirations
being found
and
still no damned job
and
a borrowed car
barely running
and
a bike that squeaks
and
a hurt wrist
popping
popping
and
a new book
and
a desire for solitude
and
maybe
just maybe
a nap

words of wisdom

Can You Get To That

{G Clinton, Ernie Harris}

I once had a life, or rather
Life had me
I was one among many
Or at least I seemed to be
Well, I read an old quotation in a book just yesterday
Said "Gonna reap just what you sow,
The debts you make you have to pay."
Can you get to that?

Can you get (I wanna know)
I want to know if you can get to that (hey!) (get to that!)
Can you get (can you get to that)(I wanna know)
I want to know if you can get to that

I recollect with a-mixed emotions
All the good times we used to have
But you were making preparations
For the coming separation
And you blew everything we had

When you base your love on credit
And your loving days are done
Checks you signed with a-love and kisses
Later come back signed "insufficient funds"
Yeah, get to that!

Can you get (I wanna know)
I want to know if you can get to that (hey!) (get to that!)
Can you get (can you get to that)(I wanna know)
I want to know if you can get to that

He's so hot! Lewis Black on theater and the insanity of golf

He's so hot! Lewis Black on theater and the insanity of golf:
"Why does this restaurant hold such a special place in your black heart?

It's where my two best friends Rand Foerster and the late Rusty Magee ran a theater that did full-length one-act plays, and we did probably more theater during one period of time than any theater has ever done. Eight years, two plays a week. We were doing minimal sets, so everyone was trying to get as close to what was on the page, and everyone was moving around and being directed. And I was doing intros for every show, so that's where I became comfortable on stage."

news from me - ARCHIVES

If you didn't catch this when it was on you should go watch it now...

news from me - ARCHIVES:

"Today's Video Link

Don't be too quick to click on this one. It runs 27 minutes so you might want to wait 'til you have the time to watch a long interview with comedian Lewis Black. This is an episode of the PBS series, InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse. It's a serious chat and a good one."

I can't wait for the InnverVIEWS with Ernie Manouse interview with Leopard Boy...

Media Matters - O'Reilly blasts "smear merchants" and "vampires" criticizing Mel Gibson; Rivera smears Olbermann, Stewart, and Colbert

Media Matters - O'Reilly blasts "smear merchants" and "vampires" criticizing Mel Gibson; Rivera smears Olbermann, Stewart, and Colbert:
"O'REILLY: It's like going after the rappers. You don't go after the rappers. You go after the masters."

and now just to stir some shit up,
I'll quote public enemy:

if you don't own the masters
the masters own you
who you trust
with this swindler's lust

news from me - ARCHIVES

news from me - ARCHIVES:
"Technically, that was the last Harold Lloyd movie to be released apart from some compilation films. But next month, that changes. On September 15, the silent version of Welcome Danger will be rescued from the vault and screened (with musical accompaniment) at the Motion Picture Academy in Beverly Hills. Only a few film scholars have seen it so it is, in effect, a 'new' release. If it gets a few more screenings before the end of the year, it might even be eligible for an Oscar...not that I'd bet real money on its winning one."

Hopefully it'll make it to DVD soon, or maybe the MFA...

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.: "As MAYAN DOOMSDAY PROPHECY describes, in Mayan cosmology, there are five great cycles, each lasting about 5,125 years, and four have already passed. According to Alten, “The four prior cycles all ended in destruction. So when we talk about the Mayan doomsday prophecy, we’re talking about the end of the fifth cycle, the very last day of which equates to December 21st in the year 2012.”"

Literary Encyclopedia: It Can’t Happen Here

Literary Encyclopedia: It Can’t Happen Here:
"It Can’t Happen Here (1935), while artistically inferior to Sinclair Lewis’s great novels of the 1920s, proved that Lewis’s skilful satire was still able to capture the attention of the American public. In this dystopian work, Lewis effectively pointed out the dangers of German and Italian Fascism by transplanting the movement to the USA. In addition to its influence on the body politic as a book, the novel inspired a play that was widely performed all across the nation under the auspices of the Federal Theater Project."

blogroll

cleaned up a little over there...
and added "aynart" the site of my very talented
friend (and set designer for "The Adding Machine"),
Ayn Morgan. Go take a look at all the coolness!!!

I'll be adding a few more later today...
or tomorrow...

A Second Look at 'Bartleby'

A Second Look at 'Bartleby':
"But Bartleby has his way. He does not choose to help verify copy. Others must do his work, the work which normally would be expected of him. Thoreau lived on Emerson's land by Walden Pond. He borrowed Alcott's ax. Someone else paid his tax to keep him out of prison. 'In fact,' Thoreau wrote in his essay, 'I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases.' Melville was so fond of good food, good drink, and good fellowship that the vagaries in Thoreau's diet offered themselves as subject for jest. Bartleby remained in his 'hermitage,' his little corner of the office, even at mealtime. He was in the office first in the morning and last at night. In fact, he--like the camel which thrust its nose in the tent--took up quarters in the office. If he were to make his withdrawal effective, it must depend on someone else. He did not go out for food. Food must be brought to him. Ginger Nut, the office boy, is regularly sent out to return with a bag of ginger nuts, a dry, hard cookie."

I love "bartleby" and have found at least 3 adaptations are already available...
hmmmm...

lotsa posts...

just some links so that when I hit the library looking for scripts I can remember some of the things I wanted to look for...

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.:
"THE STORY: Tells of a woman whose physical and spiritual wants are disarmingly normal-a sort of anomaly in our modern, complex city life. This woman finds herself between a dentist who is unhappily married, and an old gentleman who has everything to offer her except youth. Of plot in the ordinary sense, there is very little, but with characters such as Mr. Odets draws, there is no necessity for a story in the conventional sense. The play is brilliantly written and offers and extraordinary opportunity for the depiction of human beings at odd with themselves and their environments."

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.:
"THE STORY: The play shows, in a series of trenchant scenes in a small Vermont town, how a fascist movement begins, spreads and captures our free American institutions, and drives the few courageous and intelligent members of the community into a revolt which in the end we feel will prove successful. This is a fresh, forthright document, indignant, theatrical, human, occasionally humorous, setting forth clearly the idea that if the members of a democracy really care about liberty, they will guard it at the cost of their lives."

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.:
"I CAN'T IMAGINE TOMORROW. There are only two characters, a man and a woman. She is ill, perhaps mortally so, and living alone in her dark house. The man, her only friend and equally solitary, dreads returning to the airless hotel room that has become his home. He tries to reach out to her, to help her, but it is too difficult, perhaps too late, for her to respond. Their confrontation, sometimes gentle, sometimes tense, becomes a revealing and moving emotional experience as they accept the need to face alone the terrors that might be more easily met together. "

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.:
"THE STORY: A woman, while preparing breakfast for her husband (heard off-stage), complains of her struggles to make ends meet. The husband, once considered a desirable catch, has steadily degenerated until he is no longer good for anything. When his wife has said everything hateful and bitter that is in her, she subsides into silence. A moment later we know that the desperate man in the next room has just cut his throat."

let's hear it for public domain!

Tesla Motors

The electric car has arrived.

Tesla Motors

tonight - remants of a conversation - nothing but love

the ignorant are as guilty if not more guilty than the informed,
and I'm sorry you disagree...
anybody who didn't see the evil, the disaster, that a Bush administration would be, but enabled it, is just as guilty as the folks who welcome the evil, the disaster... bottom line.
It ain't like the "a to b to c" wasn't there for anyone who fuckin' took the time to look, and if ya didn't bother to fuckin' look then stay the fuck home on election day...and if you looked (and you saw) and then stayed home on election day you're even guiltier...

I say I'm a lefty, a liberal, a progressive, an anarchist, whatever...
more and more I think I'm really a nihilist,
and if that's true then I'm an enemy to all of you...
look, if there's something out there that isn't me,
then it's a limit and a threat to me...
the other option is that it's all me...
that we're all one...
aspects of the one -
electrons of the same atom -
cells of the same body -
whatever...
(new agey? post-modern? just what it is?)

Is it a weakness that I can't hate people I know,
or is that a trait that if we all shared maybe we'd all
be a little less fucked?
I'm an empathic muthafucka sometimes,
it's a gift and a curse...

mistaking folks you'd hang with
with folks that you'd vote for
is what got us G.W. in the first place...

please don't consider this me trying to get the last word...
or as my final thoughts...
just some drunk ass shit I had to get out...

and though he wouldn't have my vote,
if Lieberman showed up at my door
to smoke out and make some art
I reckon I'd welcome him...
warily at first, sure, but as long
as he didn't start trying to convince
me that Israel has the right to exist
(no nation does) maybe we'd find
some common ground...
Do I hate Leiberman as a person?
I don't know him as a person,
but I do know that it is important to
get him out of the senate.

How do civil rights move forward?
Some are convinced they are right,
and eventually most of the others are
convinced change is inevitable,
and some folks just lose...
they are on the wrong side of history,
and although our team has had some setbacks
eventually we will win
Believing this I also believe that sometimes we can afford to be generous
and then when the battles are over it will be the little bits generosity that
we can spare that will allow us to still work together, to still recognize each other as people...

Actually I had the thought a while back,
and whether I believe it or not I'm not sure,
but maybe, I thought it is better to spend time with people
who entertain you than it is with people you admire...
that's just a thought mind you,
and it's one of the more wrong-headed thoughts
that entertains me.

grrr...
and good night.

IMAGE

IMAGE

Port of Houston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Port of Houston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"History:

The citizens of Harris County, Texas approved creation of the Port in 1909, believing that an inland port would better serve the region after the destructive Galveston Hurricane of 1900. The Port was officially opened to traffic on November 10, 1914. Early supporters would prove to be correct; the Port has grown to be one of the world's largest, while the nearby Port of Galveston has dwindled in significance."

Charles W. Morgan (naval officer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles W. Morgan (naval officer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Commodore Charles W. Morgan (1790 – 1853) was an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812.

Born in Virginia, Morgan served in Franklin, commanded North Carolina and served as the Commodore of the Mediterranean Squadron.

Morgan died in Washington, D.C. He was survived by his wife, Julia."

What are you gonna do when the bomb drops?

Houston's History 1900-1999: "Houstonians wear costumes for the Notsuoh — Houston spelled backwards — celebration in the early 1900s. The annual event, designed to rival Mardi Gras, didn't last past World War I."

Historic Houston: The Gay Nineties

Historic Houston: The Gay Nineties:

"Houston, by 1890, was recognized as the railroad center of Texas. The Port of Houston was opened to the world after the federal government reimbursed Commodore Morgan's estate for the cost of the channel he had cut across Morgan's Point, and the toll-chain was lowered for the last time. During 1891, Houston started operating its first electric street cars, and the 12 railroads hauled increasing tonnages of freight into and out of the city each day."

Triptych - pay what you will tonight!!

I'll most likely be there...
and I can't think of any reason
you shouldn't be too...
really.

Shrike's Passion in the Luncheonette

Shrike's Passion in the Luncheonette:

"ADDING MACHINE USED
IN RITUAL OF WESTERN SECT
Figures Will Be Used for Prayers for
Condemned Slayer of Aged Recluse

DENVER, COLO., Feb. 2 (A. P.) Frank H. Rice, Supreme Pontiff of the Liberal Church of America has announced he will carry out his plan for a 'goat and adding machine' ritual for William Moya, condemned slayer, despite objection to his program by a Cardinal of the sect. Rice declared the goat would be used as part of a 'sack cloth and ashes' service shortly before and after Moya's execution, set for the week of June 20. Prayers for the condemned man's soul will be offered on an adding machine. Numbers, he explained, constitute the only universal language. Moya killed Joseph Zemp, an aged recluse, in an argument over a small amount of money."

Chron.com | Sexy and juicy Triptych transcends soap opera fluff

See, what'd I tell ya?

Chron.com | Sexy and juicy Triptych transcends soap opera fluff:
"Patricia Duran brings intensity and fervor to Clarissa. At first, she's boldly challenging to Pauline. Outfoxed, she's increasingly vulnerable and confused.

Michelle Edwards makes a cunning, cruel Pauline. Briefly self-pitying and distraught, she's soon back to her old self, taking cool delight in her vindictive streak.

Christie Guidry exerts explosive energy as the precocious, unstable Brandy, flavored with the disdainful sarcasm of youth."

It's a showcase for everyone,
and if you've seen "The Adding Machine"
then you should go see it tonight!!
if you haven't seen "The Adding Machine"
come to our closing night...
and after either head over to Sippora
(W. Gray and Taft) for the Two Star
fundraiser (Danny & the Nitemares, J.W. Americana,
and more...)
there, I have planned yr whole night for you...
you can thank me later.

Keith Schofield / Wintergreen

it really was the worst atari game ever.

Keith Schofield / Wintergreen

Damned to fame: the moral rights of the Beckett estate

Damned to fame: the moral rights of the Beckett estate:

"So how long will the Beckett estate be able to control the productions of Samuel Beckett? In Australia, the term of copyright protection for dramatic works is for the life of the author plus fifty years. Given that Samuel Beckett died in 1989, the copyright in his works will expire in 2039 in Australia. However, in Europe and the United States, the term of copyright protection for dramatic works has been extended to the life of the author plus seventy years. The copyright in his works will finish in 2059."

good thing copyright protects artists...
grrr.

Closing Weekend

Last two chances to see "The Adding Machine"

I expect to see you there.

Kid Ornery

EDMOND || OFFICIAL MOVIE SITE

EDMOND || OFFICIAL MOVIE SITE

YES!

I'm the leader of the show - keepin' you on the go and you know I can't live without my radio

Mark and I were interviewed up at KUHF earlier today for "the Front Row"
It's On at 3pm.
We talked about the show.

Listen in and hear me try to make with the smart.
88.7fm - KUHF - 3pm

http://kuhf.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=main_listenlive

Theatre and such...

Got to see a sneak of "Triptych" tonight...

My advice is to see it as soon as you've seen
"the adding machine".

It'll be yr last chance
to see Michelle Edwards
perform in Houston
for a good long while,
and she, and everyone else
are spot on...

The show looks and feels
like a Mildred's show -
it's a real showcase for everyone involved.
Don't miss it.

New Podcast

Here's a brief sampler of the work of "The Adding Machine Band".
They are under the direction of Charlie Naked and feature:
Charlie Naked - Guitar
Ken Watkins - Guitar
Jeff Miller - Bass
Ruthie Langston - Cello
Pete Sullivan - Saxophones
Phil Krieg - Theremin
Tom Zermeno - Percussion

They are providing all the music and sound effects for my production of Elmer Rice's "The Adding Machine". They are also providing all the pre-show music - and here's a sample of them practicing for that...

I'll have info on a "The Adding Machine Band" CD soon...

enjoy this brief sampling, and come see one of the last two performances if yr in Houston...

Http://kidornery.podomatic.com
Http://kidornery.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
http://www.myspace.com/theaddingmachine

Kid Ornery

Linus Pauling Quartet Blog: The Adding Machine - A Layman's review

Ramon reviews the show:

Linus Pauling Quartet Blog: The Adding Machine - A Layman's review:
"Two scenes stand outs in the first act. Played beautifully is the bit where Mr. Zero imagines a conversation in which his boss (Stephen Foulard) tells Mr. Zero 'Mr. Zero, I've had my eye on you' and rewards his 25 years of labor with a raise and a promotion - hilarious. Foulard plays this scene brilliantly like some cliched cuddly well-to-do boss out of a Frank Capra movie coming in to reward the hard working noble hero. Mr. Zero's vision is as pathetic as it is funny and, of course, Mr. Zero's reality is far from what he imagines; while he does the receive the visit from his boss (who can't even recall Mr. Zero's name) the visit is to inform him of his being fired which results in Mr. Zero snapping with the murder of the boss.

The following scene, in which the Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, and Sixes join the Zeros for a dinner party, is also quite funny and the cast clearly has fun with the silly manner in which the characters all go down the line completing a thought. The banter is inane and cliched but that is the point and the cast plays it with a vaudeville verve that carries the scene. The first act closes with Mr. Zero fate sealed by a jury leaving the second act which, despite the death of the main character, is where the play comes to life."

Amazon.com: Adding Machine: A Play in Seven Acts: Books: E. Rice

Amazon.com: Adding Machine: A Play in Seven Acts: Books: E. Rice:
"When properly rendered, Rice's 'The Adding Machine' is a powerful, weird, surreal experience. But notice that this edition is subtitled 'A Play in Seven Acts'. In the original script, there were eight acts (or 'scenes', really), but the original Scene V was cut to streamline the production (in 1923). When they revived the play in 1956, Rice revised and restored Scene V, and this is, in my opinion, the way it should be read. You'll find the complete 8-scene script in 'Elmer Rice: Three Plays: The Adding Machine, Street Scene and Dream Girl', which is also here on Amazon (ISBN 0809007355). But, really, you need to see the play before you read the text, if you possibly can. They filmed a movie version of it in 1969 (which I haven't seen), starring the inimitable Phyllis Diller playing Mrs. Zero. Leonard Maltin described this effort as 'flawed but interesting,' giving it two and a half stars out of four. So keep your eyes open for a dramatic or cinematic revival. Etaoin Shrdlu will thank you!"

I was wondering where the other scene came from...
now I need to get that version of the script...
hmmm...

SDCC '06: ONI PRESS SPOTLIGHT PANEL - NEWSARAMA

SDCC '06: ONI PRESS SPOTLIGHT PANEL - NEWSARAMA:

"The next image on the screen had the audience in question. All it said was 'A great comic book…. Or the greatest comic book?'

Jones then introduced a video clip that would make it all clear. A November clip from the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, featuring the faux-news pundit talking about his fiction novel Stephen Colbert’s Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure. A re-occurring staple of Colbert's daily television show, its first appearance on the show in November set the Oni offices abuzz, and they set out to bring it to comics."

can't wait!

The Enquirer - Camp: "It's Beyond Belief"

The Enquirer - Camp: "It's Beyond Belief":
"This week, 31 atheist and agnostic youths from Ohio, Kentucky, New York and other states have gathered in Butler County for Camp Quest, one of a handful of summer camps nationwide where children are taught there is no God."

This is what we need.
More humanist organizations...

POWERS & KABUKI TO BE REPRINTED FREE/DAILY AT NEWSARAMA.COM - NEWSARAMA

You should read these -

POWERS & KABUKI TO BE REPRINTED FREE/DAILY AT NEWSARAMA.COM - NEWSARAMA: "NEWSARAMA.COM and the comic book creators collectively known as “MOB” – David Mack, Mike Avon Oeming and Brian Michael Bendis – are pleased to jointly announce that Bendis and Oeming’s Eisner Award-winning creator-owned series POWERS, and Mack’s creator-owned KABUKI, will both be reprinted in their entirety as daily, serial, FREE comic book strips on Newsarama.com. POWERS will debut Monday, July 24th, KABUKI in the following weeks."

At their peak these books are as good anything comicdom has to offer. Powers is like "Homicide" with superheroes, and Kabuki really plays to the medium's strengths creating beautiful, bold, and often dreamlike stories.

And now, over time, you can read them all for free...
lucky bastards...

DOOM PATROL, DEADMAN TO THE BIG SCREEN; HULK GETS DIRECTOR - NEWSARAMA

DOOM PATROL, DEADMAN TO THE BIG SCREEN; HULK GETS DIRECTOR - NEWSARAMA:

This could be very good:

"On the Deadman front, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) is in negotiations to develop the comics-to-film adaptation, teaming up with Don Murphy's Angry Films."

This will be better than the Ang Lee mess:

"Finally, action director Louis Leterrier (Transporter, Transporter 2) has signed on to direct The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Studios. which according to the trade, will return the character to his comic book roots."

It's not that the Ang Lee hulk movie was an awful movie,
it was just an awful hulk movie.
There are some very distinct issues that The Hulk deals with, and none of them are father issues. Issues of identity, control, society, alienation, rage, the beast within - all kinds of good stuff to play with, but Ang Lee came in with a different agenda and made a movie about a character who turned big and green but was not, in fundamental ways, the character I wanted to see a movie about...you know, The Hulk?

OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster DNS

OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster DNS

Cool stuff.
I just switched and the difference is noticeable right away.

BLP Movie Night

Variety.com - Warner making room for 'Doom'

Ran across this on AICN too this a.m. and since we been talkin' Doom Patrol here thought I'd just give it a mention -

Variety.com - Warner making room for 'Doom':
"Warner Bros. Pictures is giving new life to DC Comics cult favorite 'Doom Patrol,' about a band of superheroes with freakish powers, with Akiva Goldsman producing the bigscreen adaptation through his Warners-based Weed Road Pictures."

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

So Frank Miller is directing "The Spirit."
Could be good, could be bad...
but this quote from AICN is funny!

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.:

"I saw Frank on the set of SIN CITY and saw the way he worked with the actors to steer them right with their characters. Rodriguez did most of the technical directing (camera placement, etc), but you could also argue that Miller did a lot of that work with his original art for the SIN CITY graphic novels."

The acting in "Sin City" was awful. Only Mickey Rourke, and maybe the hobbit, made their roles actually "work" - everyone else looked pretty uncomfortable with the awful dialogue.

Just a reminder - We open Friday

And we're in the new Houston Press.
(even if they do call it a Freneticore play...)

A Kid Ornery Production

In association with the Federal Entertainment Authority

Under special arrangement with the Samuel French Company

http://www.myspace.com/theaddingmachine

call 832-725-4109 for reservations or more information.

WHEN: 8pm Fridays and Saturdays, July 21,22,28,29, 2006, with a special ‘pay what you will’ performance Monday July 24.

WHERE: FrenetiCore Theater, located at 5102 Navigation, in Houston’s hyperfunky East End.

HOW MUCH: $10 all seats, all shows, except for Monday July 24, when your conscience decides the price.

Negativland takes on Disney and SST (Greg Ginn)

Boing Boing: Indie band sticks free CDRs of its music on its gig posters

Sheesh...

Boing Boing: Indie band sticks free CDRs of its music on its gig posters

Guess I should have taken a pic of "Mathletes CD-R Flier #1" that went under windshields all over Houston promoting a couple of shows and giving folks a few free mathletes tunes...

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Happiness is always a delusion

Via Bookslut:

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Happiness is always a delusion

here's a few quotes:

I don't want happiness to be part of the currency," he sighs, "but by that I don't mean that I want people to be miserable, but I do think that if you have a sense of reality you are going to be really troubled. Anybody in this culture who watches the news and can be happy - there's something wrong with them.



You're supposed to go: 'Happiness! Yes, that's all I want!' But what about justice or reality or ruthlessness - or whatever my preferred thing is?"


There is a presumption that there is a weakness in the people who are depressed or a weakness on the part of scientific research and one of these two groups has got to pull its socks up. Scientists have got to get better and find us a drug and the depressed have got to stop malingering. The ethos is: 'Actually life is wonderful, great - get out there!' That's totally unrealistic and it's bound to fail."


"Sanity involves learning to enjoy conflict, and giving up on all myths of harmony, consistency and redemption."


"Freudian psychoanalysis suggests that there is something over and above this. These are parts of ourselves - that don't want to live, that hate our children, that want ourselves to fail. Freud is saying there is something strange about humans: they are recalcitrant to what is supposed to be their project. That seems to me to be persuasive." It also, you might notice, suggests humans have a design flaw.

Santa Barbara IMC: TRANCE-Formation of America

Here's a link to a .pdf of an amazing book:

Santa Barbara IMC: TRANCE-Formation of America

seriously worth your time...
whether you believe it or not.

KERBLOG: still alive and well and living in beirut

The Blog of a young trumpet player in Beirut...
via Dave Dove

KERBLOG: still alive and well and living in beirut:

"'anyways, music and drawing are the only things keeping me going these days.
i recorded two hours of bombs trumpet from my balcony yesterday night.
some bombs were really close (what kind of mouthpiece do the israeli pilots use to have this sound?). the tension you get in your playing is incredible. also, i draw all time.
i always said that i regret not being adult during the war to see if you can
do something in these situations. now i feel bad to draw or play music while
people are burning. i convince myself by saying it is my only way to resist. that i have to witness. that it is very important.
but i am not really convinced. i try to be a fucking witness. to show a
little bit what's happening here. in my own way. but having regards for what
is a good drawing or a good music track drives me crazy. i cannot stop
saying after a bomb: 'yeah, this one was huge. i'll leave a long silence
then make a small sound to balance the track.' this is totally crazy!'
"

Doom Patrol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doom Patrol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"In Morrison's final storyline, it was revealed that the Chief had caused the 'accidents' which turned Cliff, Larry Trainor and Rita Farr into freaks with the express intention of creating the Doom Patrol. He also unleashed nanobots into the world, hoping to create a catastrophe which would make the world a stranger and more wonderful place. However, Caulder did not anticipate being decapitated by the Candlemaker."

Here's what I don't understand...
at the end of this new teen titans issue, the doom patrol learns the chief created them, intentionally caused the "accidents" which made them into tortured heroes, and they don't kill him, imprison him, or even beat the crap out of him... They make him not the boss anymore, and Changeling says something like, "I think he means well." - fuck that. Man's a super-villian plain and simple and he needs to be stopped before he makes more self-pitying monsters, right? Somebody makes me a robot against my will they're getting their head bashed in... that's all I'm sayin'.

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | HP Lovecraft by Michel Houellebecq

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | HP Lovecraft by Michel Houellebecq:

Why read Lovecraft?

"Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new, realistic novels. We generally know where we stand in relation to reality and don't care to know any more. Humanity, such as it is, inspires only an attenuated curiosity in us. All those prodigiously refined notations, situations, anecdotes ... All they do, once a book has been set aside, is reinforce the slight revulsion that is already adequately nourished by any one of our 'real life' days."

competition

the fact
that competition
is the model
is fucked

cooperation
gets us
all farther.

The Seattle Times: Living: Curses! We seem to be turning into a pack of potty-mouths

The Seattle Times: Living: Curses! We seem to be turning into a pack of potty-mouths:

"'People are using [profanity] in completely neutral and surprising situations,' said John Singler, a professor of linguistics at New York University. 'There's no taboo there.'"

Profanity shifts...
there were times when words like, "Swell!" were considered indecent for mixed company... I would argue if "there's no taboo there" then it ain't profanity.


"'The English language isn't used to its full extent and purpose," she said. "There are plenty of explanatory words that can be used instead of swearing. So why not use those?'"

uhm, why use those? why not use either, or both? why not say what you mean? even if it is just, "shut your fuckin' mouth before I shove my fist down your fuckin' throat." - tell me how to express that idea with the same intensity without the swears...

anyone who watches "Deadwood" will grow to understand the poetry of "cocksucker"...

that is all.

The chickens coming home to roost where they're told

REAL ART (and politics and culture):

"Kids spend, if you include kindergarten, thirteen years in an artificially created social situation that is utterly heirarchical and authority laden before they are unleashed on the greater society. Their entire days are strictly structured and organized; there are rules out the wazoo, and rigid consequences for their violation. There are punishments and rewards, in the form of grades and institutional acceptance or rejection, for the often meaningless tasks known more popularly as 'assignments.' Bullying and social elitism among students is not only tolerated but often actively encouraged by teachers, administrators, and coaches. Keep in mind that children are immersed in this environment for thirteen of the most formative years of their lives. They may know their multiplication tables and the preamble to the Constitution when they graduate, but they know much better that there are rewards for people who get with the system, and punishments for people who don't."

maybe home schooling isn't such a bad idea...
or you could just join VHEMT!

BLP Movie Night

Looks like you can make "The Adding Machine" and still catch everything at BLP movie night...
which is good.
it's funny stuff.