 |
|
archives push me to post webmail :: xenii mail the hive :: for trading and raiding polymorph :: a cosmographia universalis chrisnelson.ca :: chiefwagonburner has a blog fortune cookie distro :: x's distro
whew! I just got back from the World's Greatest Street Fair. Okay, okay, I'll readily admit that "World's Greatest Street Fair" isn't such an illustrious title and granted it's not hard to beat out the competition for said title, but this was completely amazing! It was called "In the Streets" and it was just 2 blocks away from my little house. Being the street fair hater that I am, I didn't have high hopes for it other than the fact that it was in the Tenderloin which by default would at least make the people watching interesting. Oh, and it was only 1 block long - so how bad could things get in 1 block? Anyhoo, I went down there this afternoon and it totally blew my mind. When I first got there, there was some woman belly dancing with a snake and a little makeshift stage set up and some people doing some African drumming thing. There were quite a few freaks wandering about. Some guy in tiny short shorts on rollerblades looking pale and tweaked out and another guy sitting at a table with an ancient sewing machine stitching stuff for people. Then there was the Ovum Lady table that a bunch of kids were flocked around, I think they were decorating eggs. Not that many people were there, so I walked down to Josh's and got him and went back. When we came back everyone was crowded around the gates that led down to an alley where some people were playing flutes and 4 people were dressed in newspaper dresses and Butoh dancing. They finished up their thing and then another Butoh troupe started out on the streets, but without music. They were pretty cool. They danced for awhile silently, and then a group of Indian musicians who were sitting on top of folding tables in the playground of the little school on the street started playing and the Butoh dancers danced to their music. After that show, then down at the end of the block were 8 women dancers and a woman reading poetry and another woman singing along with it who performed a piece. That was pretty great, too. And the neat thing was that the whole street fair moved along as one captive audience to watch and listen to each piece as it was performed. There wasn't any vending there, other than buying In the Streets t-shirts, so no hot dogs on sticks, no beer sloshing around, nothing to distract you from all the really great performances. Josh and I went to get something to eat at a diner nearby and then he went home to make film loops for this party tonight, and I went back to the street fair. When i got back there, there were 2 people hanging by harness things off the side of one of the residential hotels. They were both guys, but the one at the top of the building by the roof was in drag, and he was standing on the side of the building striking dramatic tango-like poses, which were even more dramatic because when you looked up at him he was framed by blue sky with white clouds zooming past. At the bottom of the building, slowly sauntering up it was a guy in a very sharp suit. Some sexy music was playing and they did a whole funny saunter dance thing towards one another. At one point an american flag was unfurled from the top of the building, but it was upside down, so the guy at the top flipped upside down so it looked like he was doing a handstand off the side of the building and saluted it. Anyhoo they sauntered and did their thing up and down the building and it was very cool and funny and mocking of all the flag waving that's been going on for the past year. But my very favorite part of the street fair was the last thing that I saw. There was a crane parked at the other end of the street and it had long white pieces of fabric hanging from it and a big metal circle. This group of dancers performed on that. They climbed the pieces of fabric and danced and dangled from them, by wrapping the fabric around their feet or waists or whatever. And while they danced two people sang acapella really slowly and beautifully things like "I've been working on the railroad", and "someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" and other work song things. They had such beautiful voices and the things that the dancers were doing were so amazing and graceful that i kept wanting to cry because it was just so so so so SO.... whew. God damn. It was fucking incredible. One woman performed on the big metal circle and she'd hang by her neck and ankles and flip around, but it was all so graceful and controlled and fluid that you got over the fear that she'd fall and forgot about everything except for what her movements made you feel which was that life is beautiful and people are amazing and that maybe there's hope for the world after all. Quite a lot for a little street fair to deliver.
Miss Speck and the Giant Librarians Is webmail.endore.com acting funny for anyone? Please let me know. It could just be my settings. I'm not sure how many of you even use the xenius.org accounts, but if there's a problem I can get it fixed.
jimmy Yes, boxes, I like. I just spent about 2 hours trying to organize 80 slides into some sort of coherent order. On Wednesday I have to give a 1.5 hour presentation to all of the other fine art grad students about my work. I'm supposed to show slides of other artist's work along side mine and contextualize my stuff in relation to art history and contemporary artmaking, while also addressing the conceptual and formal issues involved. My work is extrememly monochromatic lately, so most of the slides are of black/white/grey work, so I keep feeling like I'll have to keep my verbal narration really spunky in order to keep everyone from just going into a hypnotic daze. Well, I guess that could be okay so long as it's not a bored hypnotic daze. So far I only have about half of the slide tray organized. It takes a really long time because I'll have about 40 slides in order and then realize that the next slide I pick up should be about #10 or something, and then I have to slide the remaining 31 one slot forward to make room for it. I love the way slides look, but it's amazing how clunky and inefficient the technology seems. I'm curious to see how my audience will react to the fact that I shot a lot of the slides by aiming the camera right at my computer monitor with the image I wanted to show open on the screen. My startup bar shows in some of the shots and they'll all be able to see which applications I had open. Some of my work has only been photographed in snapshots and it was quicker for me to just do it this way rather than actually searching for the negatives and having slides made. It's possible they won't mention it, but the instructor has been really hostile to some of the students during their slide presentations, and I really hope I don't get the same humiliating treatment. There's also the issue of some of my work being paintings that are all chromatic black. There are such subtle areas that it's extremely difficult to photograph exactly what is happening on the surface. I guess they'll just have to take my word for it. I'm sorry I haven't been around much. I have so much work to do this semester, it blows huge rocks. All I want to do is play with my new kitten. She won't be this tiny and cuddly forever.fjuvvvvvvvttttttc She just typed that for you. I guess that's how she spells "purrrrrrrrrrrr". I thought of posting a picture of her but I can't figure out how to do it, so you are spared.
Anna I like it. I like boxes. I want my life in a little box like this. I have a chess tournament in the morning, and I'm up at almost midnight watching Mall Rats with a 10 year old kid. This 10 year old is between 10 & 25% of my social life. His mom brings him over, and we play Halo for hours on the xbox. Good for him, maybe good for me, but I'm still single; I should be out partying with my roommate. It's not even really babysitting. I'm not being payed, I just do it for the hell of it. Well ok...she did bring me over a burrito. He's pretty smart, and really damned funny. I used to live with him, and wrote about him in the club once or twice. Anyhow, he's spending the night and I'm not sure I can keep up. My eyelids are getting heavy. I'm about to kick his "up all night" ass out of my room and call it a night. I can see the local newspaper caption about tomorrow..."Ramirez won on a technicality because Olivo fell asleep on table 4." Now my old neighbor with the girls caught on to the whole "Jimmy'll watch the kids for free because he has no social life" bit, and wants to drop her kids off at my house for math lessons. That would be fine with me, but these girls can be brutal, especially when it comes to my imperfections. For example, they turn my thinning hair into a conversation topic each time I run into them. They love puzzles though, and always have some logic puzzle waiting for me when I come over, so that's fun. Their mom puts a bowl of soup in front of me and the girls put the puzzle in front of me and then they all sit with their chins in their hands, saying "look, he's shutting his eyes, that means he can't solve it!". Yes, maybe I can and maybe I can't, but this is how I eat soup with three people sitting in front of me without feeling self-concious. I swear, I feel like I'm the village indigent sometimes. Oh, someone bought a cd-burner today. Want anything? Email me. I've got tons of stuff, cracked executables, music, some Southpark episodes jeffron sent me, etc.. Oh! And records. I can burn my records to cd! Imagine that! *sigh* This love of technology stuff. It isolates us from other human beings, doesn't it? Yet here I am.
jimmy Thanks Speck, boxes also agree with my routine-loving Taurusness. Plus, some people were complaining they couldn't tell which post was which. Heh. This evening, I was supposed to be folding, like, 8 loads of laundry, but instead I was dyeing a pair of cotton tights bright blue, so I could wear them on my head at Halloween. And watching Iron Chef. To hell with being grown up. Ashok, the braid is a vivid analogy, thank you. Here's to catching the golden goose in the corner of our eyes, and looking at it just long enough to keep from scaring it away.
coop i like boxes. boxes are nice. they appeal to my implicit virgo-ness. i hate it when people say "number A" when giving an address. Like, "I live at 100 Main st., Number A" I also hate it when people spell country with a K. Hey, I'm reading another good book right now. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. most bizarre, I love it! read more about it in the upcoming book review section of my speck page... er, whenever that comes up that is..... I'm fulfilling my slack potential, folks. oh, by the way jimmy - I'm coming to your fair city in the beginning of december. neat, eh?
Miss Speck and the Giant Librarians Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. about the new design, holler. ...No, I don't know what those little W's are!
coop You may notice some slight, ah, chaos in the chair for the next little while, I am tinkering with templates. Zap! Zap!! Heh. Anyway, I'll put it back the way I found it, and/or improved, soon. Ideally I would like to put each post in its own little neat table-cell, while sticking with the same 'look & feel' we had before. Jeez, I hate it when people use 'look & feel' to describe a website. Not until it comes with plushy buttons like Pat the Bunny. Onward!
coop ont he = on the
Ashok What am I saying? Of course I've seen a golden egg and recently too. And there was no chance of killing the goose as I saw neither hair nor hide of it. It's was too well hidden. But who cares as long as the eggs keep coming in. But the egg factory as been so slow these last few years. And the golden egg... Well there was this sword asked for and given that has the potential to destroy the whole universe. This potential is based ont he fact that Time is female. Don't ask - it's a long story. Have a nice weekend all.
Ashok Re: All things reducible but one Been under the weather somewhat this last week. And if you know British weather that is saying something! Back at work today just in time for the weekend (now that’s what I call timing). Flus that used to take years to travel from far away exotic places now hit London in 12 hours. The world really is getting to be a smaller place or maybe the bugs are getting technologically advanced and are travelling faster. In my limited experience there is only one thing that can be ‘damaged’ by looking at it closely and trying to get at the individual components – creativity. Some time back I became aware of three strands of thought at the back of my mind somewhere that were somehow being braided together. I perceived that new things came from the edges of this braiding. At that time I was in a temporarily enhanced state. Wanting bigger and more and wanting to control this source of newness I focused on it. Basically I wanted all the golden eggs right then. The result was that the braiding went away or receded somewhere where I can no longer see nor feel it and the gifts it brought, the newness, while that is not totally gone there is a lot less of it. I think I understand what you said there Coop. That was about 3 years ago. I hope I come across a golden egg sometime soon. If I do will I have the strength of will not to kill the goose again?
Ashok I have happy news today; I am now an official therapy graduate. Bring on the dancing Freuds. I've been on the psychiatry bus for about two years now, and it feels damn good to be off of it. Maybe now I can start acting like myself again - not like I really stopped, but I feel like a lot of my drop in creativity was due to being too "good." Whenever I had the kind of thoughts that drove me desperately to my notebook, I'd get all proactive & do yoga, where five years ago I would have rode them out. It seems like I can't write well without being furious, or frustrated, or both. My good stuff is driven by the kind of intensity that gets washed out of you when you spend an hour every couple weeks listening to somebody tell you how to calm down. I hope I find it again someday, and that I don't have to be stark raving mad to get there. I would hate to turn into a fuzzy bunny. Mzilla stomps on fuzzy bunnies. Anyway, I'm happy. Learning how to be both myself, and happy, at the same time is going to take some work.
coop The Doozers and the Fraggles and the Gorgs are all symbiotic. The Gorgs plant the radishes, the Doozers process the radishes into pretty shiny radish towers that look like rock candy, and the Fraggles chow down on the radish towers. You could get way into the farmer-processor-consumer thing if you had time, and had taken too much poly sci. (despite my job, I have taken none!) There is a pretty sad episode where one of the Fraggles decides nobody should eat Doozer towers anymore, and the whole system collapses for about 22 minutes. I think the wise old trash heap has something to do with the solution. Gotta love a kids' TV show where a trash heap is the deus ex machina. Thanks Vicki :) <--- return of the dreaded smiley
coop I love the Doozers! It's been awhile since I saw the show, so for the past few yeas I've been referring to them as "Dozers". Anyhow, they're excellent, but I still don't know their relationship to the fraggles. I remember thinking it was pretty tragic, whatever it was. Can you enlighten me, Mary? This weekend I'm making a couple of tech pages for the hive. Not really technical, but it'll explain how to do ftp stuff as well as setup mail clients just in case you want or need one. I've gotten a lot of questions about this stuff. Anyone will be able to drop info onto this page for reference. I'm thinking of making a password protected page for the distribution of files between xenii...i.e., mp3's, apps both cracked and gnu gpl, and othere heartwarming stuff. It's nice to have a group to trade files and info with. I'm still thinking about truth and beauty too. I have to finish that post! Still around, Ashok?
jimmy Song of the day: Workin'
coop ooooh, the baby! what a wonderful photo! that makes me smile all over my face. see? a dreaded smiley: :)
Vicki You're not spamming Jimmy, you just have something to say. (Side-kickly, heh!) Spam would be scalping World Series tickets, which nobody outside of California would want anyway. I haven't yet gotten a chance to download the new tunes yet. Our IT director finally figured out how to block specific file types from being downloaded, which I suppose is cool for network security and all, but did he have to include MP3s? Here is a picture of me & my younger nephew Kollin. Remarkable in that it is a good shot of both me, and the kid!
coop [I feel like I'm spamming to the forum.] This was a chaotic experiment based on a couple of poems and meant to fall apart and come together cyclically. Is that spelled right? "Cyclically"? I'm almost more comfortable with "psychically". Or "side-kickly" as my life would have it. I noticed some of my links in the other post are misbehaving. What's that all about? More luck, folks. I got a letter from the IRS today (I know it's Sunday, my ex-roommate brought it over from the old house.) It appears they overcharged me $235 and they want to give me my money. What the fu?? Um sure. Ok? There was a mention of fourteen angels in that beautiful Blake poem, and I remembered this crap from my mortuary poems. I know I was referring to something specific when I mentioned fourteen angels, but I can't remember what. O' to be able to visit my head on that day. fourteen dead angels [705kb] a baby is born and in the camera flash fourteen dead angels floating upon a column of everything caught between the spaces counting is meaningless counting is meaningless counting is meaningless (I dont see anything) twenty four symbols on a page twenty four symbols then add four counting is meaningless counting is meaningless counting is meaningless (I dont see anything) (picture perfect heart constricted, fork the blood fish. What gruesome fish entangled, dangles senselessly? -little boys are empty cups in which nothing occurs, and little girls would eat such garbage) 5 4 3 2 1...
jimmy I put the velvet underground song mentioned later in this post up. It's not very loud, so if you turn it up please be careful that none of your system sounds come on for some other program so that you don't blast your ears out. It's headphone food. The constant hum are the fans which are on constantly to keep the chip cool. I wish there was something I could do about that. Anyhow, the song is rare and I haven't heard it in a couple of years, so I did it from memory, but I think it's accurate.velvet underground cover [1.51Mb] Once, I stood in a music store and cried softly. why. [2.67 mb] I think it happened at exactly 50 seconds into the piece, when a note seems to fall from nowhere, lightly inserting itself just below the solar plexus, giving that feeling that you are falling, though not to your demise. I walked out of the store with the cd, which was my first purchase with a credit card, ever, and when I did, I saw everything through a peculiar mask, as though the world was more beautiful and heavier than ever, and I had no skin with which to protect myself from it. It's Bach's Largo, and it only behaves this way when filtered through Glenn Gould, who I suspect, broke the rules a little bit. I've heard it done completely with strings, and it seemed to lack any flavor at all, through no fault of Bach's to be sure. I became obsessed with the piece, literally haunted by it, especially if I was running a fever. I eventually exsorcised the beast by learning it on the piano by ear (I simply can't read music...but after the 23rd when my lessons begin, who knows?). I lent the cd to a friend with the warning that the recording seemed to be rare and that I loved it dearly, "please take care of it!". Of course, I never saw the cd again. I don't blame my friend for that, actually. I know also, that I have things I've borrowed form people and never returned. I'd like to return them badly, but I kept them too long and these persons have disappeared from my life, off to find happiness as performed by such fine play actors as "Canada" and "New York". Anyhow, I pass it on to you. Also, for those of you with dial-up connections there is a program in the hive called Internet Download Manager. It allows you to download items a piece at a time, just in case you have to hang-up, or get tired of how it slows your connection while you're trying to do other things. It's here [1, 093 kb]. I didn't read the distribution agreement, but we're harmless lil' slacker folk. They can blow it out their ass. Anyhow, it makes it much easier for us to share large files knowing we can finish off the download later, like from midnight to early morning PST, when America hangs up the fucking phone and goes to friggin' bed.. Also, please don't be afraid to upload large files for whatever purposes you have, public or private. There is plenty of room on the xenius server, and I will make polite noises should the danger of going over the limit ever occur. Oh yeah...and I found this while digging around for Blade Runner files. It's a poem by William Blake, considered a "dangerous thinker", and whose dark and disturbing paintings seem to be filled with something wild. This particular poem was quoted in "Blade Runner", by Roy Batty, a replicant, who altered it a bit by saying "fiery the angels fell, deep thunder rolled around their shores....burning with the fires of Orc." The actual poem has it as "Fiery the Angels rose, & as they rose deep thunder roll'd Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc". I believe this is a metaphysical statement on Roy Batty's part, somehow taking sides. I haven't finished reading the poem, so I am not yet sure with whom. I first heard a line from Blake's work in the song "Love's Secret Domain" by Coil, an experimental band emerging from the band Throbbing Gristle which fell apart and became Psychic T.V., Chris and Cozy, Coil and perhaps a few others. I'll upload the Coil song too, it's interesting, the lyrics are a single poem composed of a Blake poem, a Roy Orbison song and something I forget... It's English Prime (and is the reason I wrote "ov" and not "of") once spanked me with a wooden paddle at the Museum of Death in San Diego. He was displaying his art work there, which consisted of tiny doll houses whose inhabitants were actually soiled and bloodied tampons; these are sent to him as vigils by (hopefully) female members of TOPY. Gnosis, frontman for Coil (though the term "frontman" is slightly inappropriate for the case) was also a graphic designer. His design for the cover of Pink Floyd's Darkside of the Moon made him rich enough to maintain Coil's heavy technological aspect as well as finance his "gay paradise" in New York, which is apparently a giant condo filled with Greek columns, jaccuzzis and naked men. "O Rose, thou art sick. In dreams, I'll walk with you, In dreams I'll talk with you, in dreams you are mine, all of the time." This is the lyric from Coil's title song from the album "Love Secret Domain". The first half comes from Blake, the second half Orbison. The Orbison song "Crying", it's source, is my favorite Orbison song of all time. I believe Orbison was a major influence on Lou Reed, though I've not read that in any interviews with Reed. Reed is a great influence on ME. I'll be covering the Velvet Underground's "Jesus" tonight as a test of my new computer's multi-tracking ability. The link will probably go right in this post somewhere. ciao! -jimmy
jimmy 
|
