My Mini Art Blog, April - September
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The New Naturalists
Carson Ellis, Brook Caballero and Kelly Lynn Jones at Giant Robot SF
October 15 - November 16
Reception: Saturday, October 15, 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Giant Robot SF
622 Shrader St
SF, CA 94117
grsf.com
415.876.GRSF
Giant Robot San Francisco presents, The New Naturalists, featuring works by Carson Ellis, Brook Caballero, and Kelly Lynn Jones. The central theme inherent to all three of these artists work is how we coexist with nature. Carson Ellis renders images of trees and plants thriving in a world devoid of humans. The image of a tree growing out of a house could represent nature's natural progression of taking back space. Brook Caballero integrates images of figures and architecture against vibrant watercolor landscapes. In these works, Caballero wants to depict moments of discovery and pure bliss. Kelly Lynn Jones is interested in the process which allows us to adapt so quickly to our ever-changing environment. A painting of a squadron of helicopters flying over a pair of schoolgirls expresses how we as humans can be conditioned to the absurd.
Carson Ellis was born in Vancouver, B.C. and raised in suburban New York. Her art education includes a BFA in painting from the University of Montana and a semester's stint at the Lacoste School of Art in Lacoste, France. Currently she lives and works in Portland, Oregon as both a fine artist and illustrator. She is best known for her illustration work with the band the Decemberists and, in partnership with songwriter Colin Meloy, just landed her first picture book deal with Harper Collins.
Brook Caballero attended the CCA in San Francisco where he earned his BFA in 2003. He currently resides in Grass Valley, California and has shown a various exhibitions throughout Northern California.
Kelly Lynn Jones lives and works in Los Angeles. She earned her BFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She has shown in San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles, Texas, Kentucky, Portland, Boston, Detroit, and Bristol, England. Aside from painting, Kelly runs an online store, www.littlepaperplanes.com, where she sells handmade items.
(Permalink to New Naturalists at Giant Robot)
Money Mark will be playing with Tommy Guerrero at Cafe du Nord
October 21st.
Money Mark's name isn't on the bill, but was announced on the
Tommy Guerrero website.
This show is a Katrina Relief Benefit. Door at 8pm, show at 9pm, 2170 Market St. SF.
(Permalink to Tommy Guerrero with Money Mark)
Martin McMurray: Bloodshot and Glowing
Jeff Bailey Gallery
511 West 25th Street, Chelsea
Through Oct. 8
New York Times, 9/30/05, by Roberta Smith
In the hands of many of today's younger practitioners, painting is by definition a many-sourced thing. The small, fraught painted panels with which Martin McMurray, a San Francisco artist, is making his New York debut, are beholden to Philip Guston, Goya, Forrest Bess and George Catlin, as well as the comics, early American portraiture and African sculpture. Despite such widespread debts, or possibly because of their span, Mr. McMurray's works manage to be promising.
In each image we see one or two crabbed, crudely rendered figures, or sometimes an animal against a fairly solid ground of color or in a minimally evoked landscape. An enigmatic, possibly tragic vignette is suggested. Some with human-headed horses tend toward myth, although one of these is titled "Lorca." More often America and its racial history are invoked.
This is most overt in "An Unlived Life," in which a hang-dog Abraham Lincoln in overalls bends over a wheelbarrow - the Great Emancipator in need of emancipation. In "What is Illuminated After the Storm," two brown figures - an alert infant and a dead or sleeping man - occupy a sodden plain of brushwork. In "From the Sea," another dark-skinned man perches above a vividly turquoise sea behind a vividly pink fish with a monstrous face. "Versickeltes Tier (A Complicated Beast)" shows a small, naked figure kneeling before an enormous if rather benign-looking buffalo.
Literate without being literary and painterly in a tortured sort of way that could become affected, these works are ambitious in several directions at once, and arresting.
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(Permalink to Martin Mcmurray Reviewed In New York Times)
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9/29/05 Would you like to help someone directly affected by Hurricane Katrina?
The Band
Truckstop Honeymoon lost most of their home
and its contents in the Ninth Ward, in New Orleans.
They have kids.
They play banjos and washtubs.
Please send donations to help them rebuild to
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Mike West and Katie Euliss
314 N Volutsia St
Wichita KS 67214
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Checks can be made out to Michael West. I'm sure even $5 dollars would make a big difference.
9/29/05
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
This is a FREE EVENT (NO TICKETS NEEDED)
When: Fri, Sep 30th (10:30am - Noon) & Sat Oct 1 - Sun Oct 2nd, 2005 (11am - 7pm).
Where: Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.
Schedule
Artists
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(Permalink to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass)
9/29/05
Indigenous peoples say, "Stop the shrinking ice, you idiots!"
quote: "Yefimenko said shrinking ice was threatening traditional lifestyles. Hunters of polar bears or seals risk falling through thinning ice. Reindeer herders often find reindeer struggling in mud on what was once permafrost."
...not to mention that sickly ice is the sign of an
"Arctic thaw that could portend worldwide disruptions including stronger hurricanes, desertification and rising sea levels."
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(Permalink to Shrinking Ice)
9/29/05 Groovy! Funky! Old Elementary! New Kewl! Motownish! Car Radio, Windows Down, Stargazing! Neil Young on Kinks! Marvin With Air in His Tires! Bee Gees with Fresh Treads! AM Radio Broadcast Clean Stream! Skin Boarding on Last Year's Three Ring Binder on the First Decade of Summer! "Whooooo!" "Ah-haaah!"
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(Permalink to 9/29/2005 My Morning Jacket)
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9/29/2005 The Court and Spark Newsletter
Happy Autumn to you all! In response to the many inquiries we've received regarding our October tour, so diligently booked by our friend Ryan Craven and the Kork Agency, it has been cancelled for a myriad of reasons which we can't/won't reveal. We are sorry to all the venues and audiences that were looking forward to seeing us- we were looking forward to seeing you too. Rest assured that we'll be traveling through your town, village, or hamlet within the year, on the back of our most recently finished record. Ah, and speaking of our most recently finished record...
...it has a name. It will be called "I Want To Be A Gallant Rider Like My Father Was Before Me". You can refer to it as "Gallant Rider" if you're the tongue-tied-type. It was shepherded along by an honorable cast of characters, most notably St. Sean Coleman, Justin Phelps, and our own Scott Hirsch. We're extremely pleased with the outcome of the record, and are looking forward to its (as of now) March release on Absolutely Kosher Records.
Remember the dub/ambient record that we keep mentioning here? We've been instructed to make it priority number one. Perhaps it will be called "Calling All Souls" and perhaps it will be called "How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Bomb The Love". I don't know. It'll be done in October.
Also, there is or will be some C&S musik featured on a few compilations: "For A Decade Of Sin- 11 Years Of Bloodshot Records" just came out, and it features The C&S performing a tune called "Berliners", alongside other people like Sixteen Horsepower, Graham Parker, and My Morning Jacket.
Also, The C&S will be contributing a version of Will Oldham's "The Sun Highlights The Lack In Each" to a tribute to selfsame man called "I Am A Cold Rock. I Am Dull Grass", being released by Tract Records. Mark Kozelek, Jolie Holland, Iron & Wine, and Calexico also make appearances.
"Witch Season" is just now coming out in Europe to great reaction. It just got 4 out of 5 stars in the UK's biggest selling tabloid, The Sun, where Anna Nicole Smith has recently revealed she is now happy with her breasts.
Peacefully,
Captain Cat, San Francisco, CA
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(Permalink to 9/29/2005 Court and Spark Newsletter)
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Soft Skull Press's Neighborhood Story Project
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9/26/05 Soft Skull is defying odds by publishing the results of their New Orleans book project, The Neighborhood Story Project. Support the true indy publishing world and check out these titles, The Combination, Where Would the World Be Without Women , Between Piety and Desire, Palmyra Street, and Before and After North Dorgenois.
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(Permalink to Soft Skull's Neighborhood Story Project)
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9/26/05
Here are two of my favorite pieces in
Martin McMurray's
show at
Jeff Bailey Gallery.
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(Permalink to Martin McMurray Paintings)
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9/26/05
I'm swimming in this painting by
Mugi Takei, the raw blue glow around the eye and the circles of color in the hair are spreading pools of feeling.
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9/26/05 I can now accept Pay Pal payments for paintings and drawings. If you and I negotiate a good price for the art you wish to purchase, and you would like to pay with Pay Pal's secure service, using a credit card, or your Pay Pal account, I simply email you an invoice from Pay Pal for the amount, and when you receive the email, you can instantly pay on-line. I'll also continue to accept checks and cash.
9/26/05 I'm now accepting Pay Pal donations. The donations will be used to help pay for art supplies, to maintain my website, to pay off remaining debt from art school, and to replace my broken computer. If you'd like to make a donation, click here
Thank you!
9/22/05 Bob Mould likes this band, wesafari on Opamp Records
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Husker Du
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9/22/05 The Onion A.V. Club interviews Bob Mould, formerly of Husker Du, and man behind the great album "Workbook."
9/22/05 Mono is playing on Friday at the Bottom of the Hill in SF.
Fri, September 23, 10 : 00 pm (doors at 8:30), $10, Mono, Bellini, and The Drift.
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By the way, Mono has some of my art up on their website, in the gallery section. Go to the gallery, to the slide for "artwork collection", then click "close and go" on the bottom right corner. Look for a button over California. Go to: Berkeley, CA(US) and you'll see two slides. If you scroll right, you'll see two more, in the same window. Enjoy! Thank you Mono!
9/22/05 My friend Ken is now living in Tokyo. He has a music blog that focuses on the Japanese music scene called Japan live.
9/22/05 Jia Zhangke's movie, "Shijie" (2004), "The World," left a strong stamp on my heartache, particularly when the main character, Tao, snapped up her transparent vinyl raincoat in bed. The two characters who communicate most effectively, Tao and her Russian friend, didn't speak the same language, or know at all what they were saying to each other. The film, the audience, and the film's Chinese government sponsors also were not necessarily speaking the same language, but attempted to communicate through hidden symbols. The animation sequences reminded me of Linklater's "Waking Life."
Let's compare movie posters
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Here's a review written by an IMDB user named "uwmasianfilm". ----
"While this film is radically different from Jia's earlier films it still packs the same cultural criticism wallop. A commentary on the urbanization of modern day China, Jia has moved into the slick world of government approved film-making without losing touch with the direction of his earlier films. It is tempting to watch the film superficially and dismiss it as a glossy state approved image. However, from my perspective, what is happening in the film is much more subtle; it is form of art-making that is particular to China and its authoritarian governing systems through history.
Practically speaking China has never enjoyed freedom of expression for its artists and writers. In order to get around censorship that came from absolute monarchies or dictatorships artists and writers would use subtle inter-textual messages. For instance, a line or radical would be left out a character to slightly change the meaning within the text. The head radical might be left out of a character describing the emperor to indicate the writers desire that the emperor be beheaded, or something along those lines. They were small enough messages that sympathizers would pick up on them, but a censor (censors usually not being the brightest or most creative people around) would miss it.
It is my opinion that Jia Zhangke is doing something along these lines with this film. It may not be as subtle as the messages have historically been, but a close reading clearly conveys something the government wouldn't be happy with. The Chinese government would like for the world to see them as metropolitan, glitzy, shiny, and new, so Jia, in this first film of his with government backing, uses cinema-scope, modern techno beats, computer animation and up-to-date electronics. But under the glitz is the reality screaming to get through the World Park facade. It is dirty and personal. There is prostitution, crime, and pirate copiers (maybe the theme here is modern Chinese society, as promoted by the government and big business, that is the pirated copy of the rest of the world). The subsistence living youth can all have cell phones, but for all their text messaging they don't seem to be able to communicate. Basically Jia seems to say that the Chinese youth are headed for a future of oblivion under the current direction of their country. It is hard to disagree with him. But at least he he leaves a morsel of hope in the end of it all."
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Here's Samantha Culp's review of Shijie (The World)
9/21/05 Branch Gallery , a terrific gallery in North Carolina, is showing an interest in my work. Yay!
9/21/05 I've successfully completed and delivered my first commission. The clients are happy!
9/19/05 Paul Weller needs to lose the new Rod Stewart haircut. Even though his show was remniscient of the Faces and early Steve Winwood, he can't get away with the mullet. I have loads of respect for Paul. He's one of my all time favorite musicians, songwriters, and guitarists. So, I was triply offended when the sound person turned up his mic so loud during one set of songs that I couldn't hear his singing over the horrible reverberations made by his microphone. The show at the Warfield was about halfway tolerable. I'm lucky to have heard Wild Wood from the stage, but my recording at home in this case is more satisfying. What ever happened to sound checks, and sound engineers with sensitive ears? Maybe they've all gone deaf from the trauma they inflict on themselves and others.
9/13/05 This Thursday night, Sept 15th, starting at 9pm:
Annie's Cocktail Lounge is having a benefit for 5 tattoo artists from New Orleans. They came to the Bay Area for the Tattoo convention (the weekend of the storm) and now have to stay in San Francisco. Donations will be going directly to them. No cover charge, but Annie will be accepting donations for the Five New Orleans Tattoo artists all week. 21 and over please.
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The following are two entries posted after Hurricane Katrina, one by a friend, and another by the editor of a political magazine. Both were eyewitnesses to some of what happened before, during and after the storm.
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9/8/05 After Katrina
By: Andy Young
September 5, 2005
What can I say that could encompass this? Nothing, nothing. More and more I feel the inadequacy of words, of explanations, of metaphor. But because I am too lost and exhausted to contact everyone and want to tell some of you where and how I am, I thought I'd give some account of what has happened for me over this past week.
Hurricane Katrina ripped through our city and Gulf Coast a week ago, a natural disaster that many are saying is the worst in our country's history. But most of the death toll will end up being, after all is told, attributed to the man-made disaster in its wake.
I have been watching my city drown on national television. I have watched, along with the world, people die of starvation, dehydration and exposure in boiling heat on the streets of what is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world. There is no explanation, no rationale, that could ever explain or justify why food and water was not dropped to these people while they waited for rescue. Right now there are bodies floating in the streets and alligators, rats, poisonous snakes and dogs vying for the space we used to inhabit.
The Friday before the hurricane, it was barely mentioned at my workplace, on the streets, on the news. The hurricane had hit Florida as a barely certifiable hurricane and appeared to be headed far to the east of New Orleans. We deal with hurricanes every year. I have been through at least five now. Last year, my friend Khaled and I, along with my cat Calliope, evacuated for the first time. One reason we did this was because Hurricane Ivan was projected to be a Category Four storm (there are only five levels) and was taking the dreaded projected path up the mouth of the Mississippi River, threatening our city which sits precariously below sea level. The other, most important reason, we left was because it was possible: I had a car. But we ended up spending nine hours on a piece of road that normally takes 45 minutes to drive. There was no sign of help in sight should we break down. I began to realize that if the storm hit, we'd be in the worst possible place for it: exposed on the road. And Ivan did not turn out to be terrible at all. The few deaths from it were the old and infirm who died on the road in the traffic jam.
When Katrina started to look like a bigger threat on Saturday, Khaled and I decided to weather the storm at home. We made this decision based on our previous experience of trying to get out of the city and on the fact that Limby, my car, is far from reliable. Billows of smoke pour out of it every time I drive. We also did not feel that threatened by the storm at this point. To give you a glimpse of the mood: Khaled's shop was open and I met some fellow teachers to wine taste at a local store in between getting supplies for the storm. I tell you all this because I am sick of hearing the people demonized for staying behind. It is not easy to leave the city and there are very few options to leave if one does not have reliable transportation.
Around midnight Saturday night, I met some friends at a bar, and we planned to host a gathering at my apartment the next day before the storm hit. I live on the third floor in an old apartment, so it seemed safest. Khaled and I went back and watched movies and moved the house around so that the living space would be set up in the safest part of the house. We were still up at 4:30 AM when my friend Ena called. "It's really bad," she said. The storm had gone to a Category Five and was headed right at us. "We have to get out," she said. But now that we were closer to the time of the storm, it seemed even more dangerous to leave in Limby. She called back and said she had an extra car. We watched the map of the storm, the huge red eye swirling toward us at 160 miles per hour. In fifteen minutes, we packed our things to go, assuming we'd be back on a couple of days. I taped the keys for my house in a hidden place for my friends and off we went.
After a long, very sleepy drive (we left at dawn after having no sleep) we got to Vicksburg, Mississippi, which seemed just out of the storm's path, and decided to stop before I fell asleep at the wheel. We were told that there were no hotel rooms until Dallas. But miraculously, we found a fleabag room at a cheap motel and went to sleep, waking to watch the storm on the television. It turns out that the Mayor announced a mandatory evacuation at 11 AM Sunday, less than 12 hours before the storm would begin hitting the city. It has been determined that it takes 72 hours to evacuate the city. No buses, no trains, no form of transportation whatsoever were provided to get people out.
After a tense night of watching the wind whip our city (the storm had at least gone down to a Four) it seemed New Orleans had, for the most part, weathered the storm. The Gulf Coast of Mississippi had taken the brunt. We even got through to our friends in the Quarter, who said our neighborhood was dry and safe. We buckled down for the edge of the hurricane in Vicksburg, which hit us the next day in the form of tree-breaking wind and heavy rain.
The power was off in Vicksburg. There was no food in sight, so we ate what was left of the canned fish, bread, and – much to Khaled's dismay – pungent cheese I had bought at the wine shop. Intermittently getting phone service, I was able to reach my parents in North Carolina and learn the roads to New Orleans were open. We packed our few belongings and my cat into the car and headed out. When we got to Jackson, we found that there was no gas in all of Mississippi. As my half of a tank would not make it to New Orleans, we turned around and slipped back into the motel room (it was still before dawn) and called my folks. They told me they had just learned that the levees had broken and the water was rising in New Orleans. We could not get images on the television, only a screen of snow and voices giving the bad news. Three levee breaks were pouring water into the streets and flooding our city.
My parents got through to our friend Peter in Natchez, Misssissippi, and he offered us refuge. He had power and an extra room. We got here – where we are now – to see the first images of our city underwater. I guess the first reaction was some kind of shock. I could not speak or stop crying. We reached our friends in the Quarter, who were not getting any news, to see if they were getting out. We told them the water was rising. For the next two days, we watched the news of the natural disaster's effects: houses crushed to toothpicks, major highways turned to rubble. But the days that followed showed the man-made disaster which, I think we will find, killed even more. At least 15,000 people waited in vain outside the convention center for rescue or at least for food and water in 95 degree heat. We stood, with the rest of the country (world?) watching in shock as people began to die in the streets. Tell me, someone, how we can organize relief efforts in other nations and elaborate wars which kill by the thousands in faraway lands and we cannot drop bottles of water to the people in our own streets?
Much is being said about the racial and class issues associated with this tragedy. I can say, from my humble viewpoint, that if this would have happened in a rich white area – say Martha's Vineyard or Palm Springs – I can't believe it would have gotten to this point.
Rays of hope are beginning to break through. I am hearing of friends who were airlifted out, stole cars and buses to leave or are finding other means to survive. Friday was my birthday, and it was one of the darkest days of my life. Since then, more lifelines have been sent to the city and more news of life and survival are coming through. The kindness of our friend Peter who shelters us, as well as the offers from all over the country and even from strangers to help, is overwhelming and hugely comforting. My family sent us some clothes, and sweet Maria even sent us Arabic coffee and tobacco for the sheesha (which we did think to bring as it is a necessity, along with food). Khaled is cooking amazing meals for us and Peter's family. The one pair of shoes I have were given to me from off of Eman's feet in Egypt this summer. So I am surrounded by love. This morning we saw a shot on CNN of the Quarter which gave a glimpse of Khaled's store and it looks unscathed. Thank God. We are waiting for news that we can go home to at least get our things until we can go back and rebuild.
People from the city often joke that New Orleans is "third world and proud of it." It is a warm, poor, friendly, unique city full of culture and dark faces and a slow pace of life out of synch with the rest of the country. It is why we live there, and it is why we will return. For those of us working on Meena, remember that the next issue was going to be on "water and the city." I think we'll have a lot to say.
Love, Andy Young
9/8/05 Notes From Inside New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty
Friday, September 2, 2005
I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.
In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp.
I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these questions, and all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox affiliates complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told me "as someone who’s been here in this camp for two days, the only information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don’t want to be here at night."
There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members, special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.
To understand this tragedy, its important to look at New Orleans itself.
For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremecy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.
It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state and federal goverments that have abdicated their responsibilty for the public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.
It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300 murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don’t need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.
There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months, officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to theft. In seperate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several months.
The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per child’s education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy.
Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence. Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment of the refugees to the the media portayal of the victims, this disaster is shaped by race.
Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane, we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv stations, hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.
While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.
No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but thats just what the media did over and over again. Sherrifs and politicians talked of having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations. Images of New Orleans’ hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.
City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week’s events, was more about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black, city. While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.
The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of Huey Long.
In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools, cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.
Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism, disinvestment, de-industrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.
Now that the money is flowing in, and the world’s eyes are focused on Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and we need to fight for its rebirth.
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Jordan Flaherty is an editor of Left Turn Magazine (www.leftturn.org).
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9/7/05 Habitat for Humanity is going to be building modular housing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Donate here. "Habitat volunteers will build the housing frames around the country, then ship them to the Gulf Coast. From there, up to 30 volunteers per house will do a "blitz build," allowing houses to be constructed in about a week."
9/7/05 Martin Mcmurray's opening is at
Jeff Bailey Gallery
511 W 25TH ST / NO. 207
NY, NY 10001
tomorrow night,
September 8 - October 8, 2005
Opening Reception:
Thursday, September 8
6-8 pm
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Storms, sea
creatures, bulls and satyrs
encroach upon the everyday. In two paintings of bullfighters,
one male
and
one female, each holds their cape, ready for the next charge.
What happens next is
anybody’s guess." -- from the Press Release
9/7/05
Hurricane Benefit Reading: Monday, September 19th.
Proceeds will go to the
Louisiana Disaster Recovery Fund.
Where: The Makeout Room, 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco, (415) 647 2888,
Price: $10 - $20 sliding scale,
Lineup: Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Firoozeh Dumas, Julie Orringer, Peter Orner, Daphne Gottlieb, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Truong Tran, Anne Marino, Micheline Marcom, and Michelle Tea
8/23/05 The Mission Art Walk is coming up on Saturday, Sept. 17th, 3-9PM.
Participants: Adobe Books, Artist-Xchange, Black and Blue Tattoo, Balazo Gallery, Dalva, Hallway Bathroom Gallery, Jack Handley Gallery, Low Gallery, Lo-Fi Customs, Michelle O’Conner Gallery, Mission 17, Needles & Pens, Record Collector, Woodward Flats, 14th St. Mural Project, 66 Balmy Gallery.
8/17/05 Surprise! Surprise! There was a secret surprise guest last night at the Hemlock Tavern. First, I thoroughly enjoyed the opening act, Truckstop Honeymoon from New Orleans. This was their first trip ever to San Francisco. They sang an IWW song, Rebel Girl, a communist, anarchist swamp stomp call for more rebel girls to join the working classes in their fight for equality and respect along with the industrial workers of the world, old-fashioned or perhaps post-cynical in its hopeful delivery. Rebel Girl was written by Joe Hill, and was the only cover song played by Truckstop Honeymoon. Billy Brag would have felt right at home, or Woody Guthrie. They're a washtub bass and a banjo. Katie sported some bad-ass attitude while she was kicking that bucket. From the Truckstop Honeymoon website, "Katie Euliss learned guitar, piano and bucket bass in the streets of New Orleans. She scammed enough money from tourists to buy Lucky Strikes and smoked oysters for six years." My favorite song was the Magnolia Tree featuring the vocals of Mike West, which will be out on their new album.
Then, came the surprise, Jolie Holland. She did three short numbers, each one more misty. The club couldn't have held more than 40 or 50 people. I hear that her first album Catalpa is a cult classic. I've heard her on the radio a few times, but the live performance had me smitten. Although she's been criticized for sounding too much like Billy Holiday, in person her own sound comes through. From the Amazon review, "Among the most stunning debuts of 2003, Catalpa was initially self-released by Ms. Holland in January, but word quickly spread beyond her San Francisco home of this strikingly talented singer who sounds like Billie Holiday covering Cat Power versions of Appalachian folk songs. After a bidding war, the album was re-released on Anti- worth noting because it makes her the first up-and-comer to sign with the same label as Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Solomon Burke."
The main act blew me away as well, David Dondero. He's a legendary singer songwriter, on the Future Farmer label (as well as Ghostmeat), who's been imitated by many others (or more positively, who has inspired). From a review of the album, The Transient, "It was hearing his voice that made me comfortable with my own.” So says Conor Oberst of David Dondero. Bright Eyes wouldn't have been so bright if it hadn't been for DD. DD blew Bright Eyes out of the water. Elliot Smith's ghost was hanging around. Daniel Johnston would have felt a kinship with DD too. What a night. David Dondero made a cutting remark about meeting arrogant musicians on the road, saying, "Stop being arrogant. Just because you play music doesn't mean you're shit." Well, that's true, but all of the acts last night were the shit! I'm so glad I dragged my tired self across the bridge in my weary Cutter. Thank you Jolie! Thanks DD! and Thanks to Truckstop Honeymoon! I've never felt happier after a night of songs about hopelessly lost loves, friends who've died, double murders, and suicides, digging graves, the Sisyphean task of endlessly painting bridges, and the proper naming of the color of the Golden Gate Bridge (industrial orange, or orange vermillion?).
Dondero on mortality, "Burn my body, turn the radio up and let my ashes fly from the window." I'm reminded of the scene from Broken Flowers, when Bill Murray's character, Don Johnston, aka "the stalker in a Taurus" is asked by his temporary, imaginary son if he is a Buddhist.
8/18/05 Thanks to Ed for this link to the culture-jamming activities of the Ministry of Reshelving. Ed's blog headline is killer, "If Only They Can Reshelve Certain Goons From 1600 Penn to Penn Block 1600"
8/17/05 While in NYC, I hopped on a downtown train to catch McCoy Tyner giving a free concert at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. While standing in line for the free tix we conversed with other hot and sweaty jazz lovers about naming children. The oddest name one young surfer recalled (yes, I came across a surfer in NYC -- side note: to surf in NYC, one must watch the waves on a live video cam from the office to ascertain whether it's worth skipping out for a round of curls in the Atlantic) was.... "Hallelujah Cocoabread." Apparently a smitten gourmand named their baby this after eating too much red meat. One man in line threatened to name his child, if he ever has one (and the chances are slim based on his looks), "Mary Queen of Scots." After waiting about 45 minutes for the tickets, we were seated 20 minutes later, 12 rows back from McCoy and his band, an experimental bassist (he combined picking with nutty pizzicatto, bowing like a cello, and drum beats made with the tip of his bow handle) and a hot drummer. This concert was worth the heat and the wait, and could have cost somewhere around 300 greenheads. NYC is choice when it comes to free once-in-a-lifetime musical experiences. By the way, Battery Park has a new fountain that is lovely after dusk.
8/16/05 Matt Calcavecchia has completed some new watercolors of sacred apes, inspired by the religious icons he visited in Italy.
8/16/05 While traveling I read Moravia's The Woman of Rome. His characters act duplicitous, confused, pummeled by complex moral upheavals both internally and socially. They're challenging to love and yet somehow invoke empathy, despite their many flaws. None of them are two dimensional. I wanted to wring the neck of the main character, and then realized this was the feeling Moravia wanted me to have, to know what it's like to wish to wring someone's neck. This is a tale as much about love as about fascism and domination, not only of one person over another, but of a country wishing to maintain hope, grace, and optimism in the face of brutality, twisted forcefulness and extreme violence. It reminded me of Vollman, and motivated me to finish reading Europe Central, which I also lugged all over the East Coast. I bought a book of Joni Mitchell's poems and Lyrics, as well as Flaubert's Sentimental Education, which I've just started. So far, it's not lacking in style, which is what I was told Flaubert wished to play down.
8/16/05 I'm back from NYC, Boston, and Cape Cod, covered with Greenhead bites and still itching! The surfer boys in Cape Cod sport large plastic fly swatters, not because it makes them look sexier. These are salt water marsh flies with green heads that can bite through clothing, even denim! The itchiness of the bites increases in intensity over a number of days. My ankles and the backs of my knees were the hardest hit.
7/29/05 I'll be on vacation in the Big Apple until August 15th. I'll report from borrowed computers or telepathically until then. My in flight reading will be the latest issue of Mojo, if I can find one...
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Gabriela, from Rome, posted a good review and synopsis on IMDB. QUOTE: "There are almost as many opportunites to develop plot and characters as in a novel, and one leaves the cinema with a feeling of having gotten to know and grown to love the characters over a period of time. The story begins in Rome in 1966 and ends in the present day. Watching it is a wonderful way of getting a feel for Italian history in the last 40 years, though without ever feeling like you're watching a dense, academic "historic" film. Though it encompasses many historic events and nods towards innumerable themes, it is first and foremost about people."
Let's compare the Italian version of the movie poster with the American one.
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| American | Italian |
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| Paul Weller |
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| photo of Scott H. of C&S by Joe Raaen |
Here's more information about the album, scroll down past the German language portion to see the text in English
QUOTE: (from Glitterhouse Records) "Among those involved were Scott Hirsch, Tom Heyman and Wendy Allen of The Court and Spark, Patrick Main of The Paula Frazer Band and Oranger, and Pat Campbell of the Oranj Symphonette. Over a period of several months, the Boxharp project was fleshed out. Without being bound by the confines of a band, Taylor and Solter were able to construct a wholly unique set of songs (written by Taylor) and vignettes (written by Solter, with help from Wendy Allen). Added to the project were field recordings from a trainyard in Wyoming and small mariners’ church in the beach town of Bolinas, California.
Also, The C&S will be playing a show with their friend Kelley Stoltz on Saturday, August 13th, at the Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco. The cost is $10, and the doors open at 8:30 PM. It is recommended that you purchase your tickets in advance, either by visiting Cafe du Nord, or calling the box office directly at 415.861.5016.
7/26/05 The 48 Hour Film Project results will be screened Wed. and Thurs. at the Roxie. This is similar to Austin's Make a Film in a Weekend festival. This format is mini DV, DVD, and VHS. Austin's was Super 8 only. They both feature secret props revealed to film-makers at the start of the contest.
7/25/05 Listen to this bongwater-on-bamboo version of "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Pajo (David Pajo).
7/25/05 SF Opera Costume Sale this weekend. QUOTE (from Ggreg's Event List -- good for discount Opera tickets, Opera events, Burning Man News, and San Francisco Queer Events, particularly of the "Bear" variety...):"This puppy's not to be missed. San Francisco Opera's Costume Shop is having one of it's relatively rare costume sales this weekend, and if you're a fan of fancy dress, I recommend setting aside some time to hit this avalanche of finery. The sale is Saturday and Sunday, and prices range from $5 to $1,000. In addition to a variety of costumes covering many styles and periods, including some warn by the principal artists of San Francisco Opera, we will be selling wigs, bolts of fabric and props. WHAT: SF Opera Costume Shop Sale WHEN: Sat. & Sun., July 30 & 31, 11 am – 5 pm Saturday, 10:30 am – 4 pm Sunday WHERE: 2400 Chavez Street (directions on their site) HOW MUCH: $5–$1,000 per item
7/25/05 I enjoyed meeting Ed from Return of the Reluctant at Scott's (Conversational Reading) house-warming party. What did we talk about? Vollman, of course, and Ed's famous Sam Tanenhaus Brownie Watch in which Ed decides "...will editor Sam Tanenhaus demonstrate yet again that the NYTBR is irrelevant to today's needs? If the former, a tasty brownie will be sent to Mr. Tanenhaus' office. If the latter, the brownie will be denied." Apparently, Sam has received about two brownies so far... and has not sent a "Thank you."
Also, here's Ed's report from the Paul Reubens Day procession.
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7/25/05 Rake's Progress asks writers of short stories the most critical questions.
7/21/05 There's a new podcast up at Absolutely Kosher Records, Podcast #5.
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7/21/05 Charles Chibitty, Last of WWII Comanche Code Talkers Dies. Charles attended Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas. There's a great book, They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School, about a similar boarding school, a good introduction to the Native American experience with forced boarding schools. I highly recommend it. |
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7/21/05A Tale of Two Readings by Tito of Black Market Kidneys, in which he compares a reading by Jonathan Ames at Booksmith in San Francisco, to a reading by Rebecca Solnit at Cody's in Berkeley.
7/20/05 I've added a link to a reliable and succinct music-review blog The Shins Will Change Your Life. 8/17/05 This blog has vanished. Music bloggers are perplexed.
7/20/05 Tito reports on Leah Garchik (of The Chronic) reporting film news from my hood.
7/20/05 I made it out to see the Nathan Cordero show at Low Gallery last night, just as it was being dismantled. I got to meet Nathan and talk to him breifly about his process, painting by peeling/cutting away layers of wood. I also met John Trippe, the owner of Low, and the guy behind Fecal Face. I purchased a small carved painting and got to take it right off the wall. I bought the one of the couple (one of them wearing a hooded sweater). Trippe bought the one with the microphone, from the same photo.
7/19/05 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is screening a film about the Minutemen, By Tim Irwin (2005, 90 MIN, DV) called We Jam Econo. Event Info Here's Mike Watt.
7/18/05 I'm back from two different vacations.
I've been grandma-hugging and waterskiing in Houston --
Water Skiing should always be done in a standing position! Racing across the surface of the water at about 30 mph (in a narrow slalom-course lake, designed for pros) should never be attempted from a knees bent, arms straight, water skiis in front, position... especially when the bouey arrives between yonder skiis. When failing to fully use the skiis as a vehicle, the skier will be extremely motivated to walk on water. I did, briefly, on the fourth try, before I jumped a wake and had another spill, mysteriously hypnotized by the rush of water, and unable to let go of the handle. In honor of this snafu, I quote the babelfish translation of
Gaston Miron's poem, L'homme agonique,
"I did not close the sweetened eyes
in spite of the giddinesses of the euphorias
even when my eyes felt turned russet
or ridges some with the rising gusts of sorrows"
My arms were happy to lead the way forward, while my body was rotating and flying towards the approaching shallow shore line. In the meantime my ski didn't pop off from my left foot, resulting in, not only a very unhappy posterior, but a sore ankle as well. Grandma watched from the dock, smiling.
More recently, I spent 4 days on an organic farm with an apple-swallowing ostrich and swimming holes for eels, cool and deep. Both places were h-o-t, 104 degrees max. The organic farm adventure was the more restful of the two trips, to say the least. The Eel river features sunbaked boulders, perfect for leaping into deep, moonlit pools with mild, velvety currents.
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painting by: Peter Doig, Canoe Lake, 1997/98, oil on canvas
7/13/05 Bjork returns to film with her partner Matthew Barney, in Drawing Restraint 9, which premiered in Kanazawa, Japan at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. She not only appears in the print, but she wrote the score, inspired by Wagner, who she says invented the idea of cinematic music, by hiding the musicians behind a barrier. Her and Matthew marry on a resonating ship, turn into whales, and plunge towards the Antarctic. The experience has inspired them both to make the decision to live on a house boat. I'm sure they'll make beautiful sea shanty music together. If anyone's going to bed a resonating boat and reincarnate as a whale, humpback or otherwise it's Bjork.
7/13/05 Wascally wabbit live! The SF Symphony will accompany large projections of Bugs Bunny Toons on Fri 07/22/05 at 8:00PM and Sat 07/23/05 at 2:00PM. There will also be Chuck Jones art on display in the lobby.
7/11/05 I've finished some more paintings and posted them -- Bicycle Tattoo, Zazu and Yoo, Kovich's Glasses, and Trench Blossoms.
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7/11/05 I've posted a review of a great film, Designed for Living (1956) , on IMDB, The Internet Movie Database. This flick was picked to be part of the Pre-Code Hollywood series at the Pacific Film Archive. |
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7/7/05 Writing Myths discussed on Conversational Reading, Scott's literature blog, and the original post, Myths We Live By, But Shouldn’t on Poets and Writers.
QUOTE By David Galef:
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As writing is one of the desperate professions,” writes the copyright lawyer Richard Wincor in the opening of his book Literary Property, “it has universal appeal, especially for those who are not engaged in it.” To put it more cynically, as W. H. Auden does in The Prolific and the Devourer: “How often one hears a young man with no talent say when asked what he intends to do, ‘I want to write.’ What he really means is, ‘I don’t want to work.’” Those committed to the craft realize that it does take work. And perhaps because many writers and their adherents are poorly paid and often go unrecognized, they cultivate a variety of myths—some about the creative process, others about the profession itself—to justify what they do, to cheer themselves up, to inhabit a mystique. Like certain well-traveled epigrams, many of the myths are half-true at best. Professional writers get tired of hearing them, even though some pay lip service to these bromides throughout long careers."
another QUOTE
Here's one of the myths the article wants to debunk. ----
"Rely solely on inspiration. Great art originates from some unknowable source: The idea will come to you if you wait for it. In practice, this belief is hard to keep if you’re writing anything over two pages long. An idea for a character or the opening line of a poem may indeed come to you, but sustained writing requires what the Germans call sitzfleisch, literally sit-flesh, the persistence to stay in the chair. A work of art is 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration. (Adjust the ratio to suit your own methods.)
I once took an informal poll at an artists colony and found that most of the people there believed persistence to be almost as important as talent. Writers need a daily regimen—waiting for the thunderbolt is too uncertain. Good writers know how to cultivate in-the-zone concentration. They also know how to arrange their lives to enable them to write. Where does inspiration come in? Novelist Peter DeVries once noted that he wrote only when he was inspired, but that he made sure he was inspired at nine o’clock every morning."
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I like the word sitzfleisch, and the idea.
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7/7/05 daily KOS presents some graphs in his posting the counterspin to illustrate that the war in Iraq may have fueled an increase in terrorism.
7/7/05
BBC coverage of the London bombings.
London locals are posting their
photos from the ground here on
Beta Flick'r.
7/6/05 Good coverage (and comments thread) on the daily
daily KOS on journalists (Mathew Cooper and Judy Miller) revealing sources
Cooper to Testify in Plame Case
QUOTE from the comments:
Question:
"So when does he spill the beans...and more importantly, when do we get to know the source?"
by JasonRoth on Wed Jul 6th, 2005 at 11:47:16 PDT
Answer: "maybe when Rove finally freaks, rips off clothes
and starts running through downtown DC screaming obscenities at Democrats.
Listen to this, very strange indeed, from Bloomberg's article on this:
"Cooper told the judge that today he received ``in somewhat dramatic fashion'' a communication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep the source's identity secret," AP said.
"dramatic fashion" as in freaking out?"
by The Gnostic on Wed Jul 6th, 2005 at 12:30:20 PDT
...and, an interesting point here:
"I'm Sorry
But I don't care if the information is advantageous to our side or not. I have a real difficult time thinking that it is a good thing when our government starts putting reporters in jail."
by sloanman on Wed Jul 6th, 2005 at 12:36:55 PDT
And more.....
"Meanwhile...
Drudge is reporting that BUSH CRASHED HIS BIKE AGAIN!!!!
He must have heard the news about Cooper & Miller!"
by mrCurmudgeon on Wed Jul 6th, 2005 at 12:52:42 PDT
"Good God.
I didn't crash my bike as many times as Bush when I was LEARNING to ride a bike. What the hell is wrong with him?"
by SairaLV on Wed Jul 6th, 2005 at 13:02:25 PDT
...and here ends the ripping off of quotes from kos comments thread
7/6/05 Why
Babelfish should never be used for translating poetry Here is a poem in French by Gaston Miron (1928 - 1996), a well known Québécoise poet, a political activist, organizer, publisher of journals, and a teacher at the School of Theatre of Montreal, and the Mallarmé Academy. The babelfish translation follows the French original.
L'homme agonique
Jamais je n'ai fermé les yeux
Car je trempe jusqu'à la moelle des os
Tapi au fond de moi tel le fin renard
Et je m'écris sous la loi d'émeute
Mais je ne peux me déprendre du conglomérat
Un jour de grande détresse à son comble
MIRON, Gaston, L'Homme rapaillé, Montréal, l'Hexagone, 1994
Here is the babelfish version Jamais I did not close the sweetened eyes
Because I soak to the marrow of the bones
Tapi at the bottom of me such it fine fox
And I am written under the law of riot
But I cannot déprendre of the conglomerate
One day of great distress to his roof
MIRON, Gaston, the rapaillé Man, Montreal, the Hexagon, 1994
Lovely.
7/5/05 Handsome Family News: They'll be playing with David Coulter, 16 July, Salisbury, UK:
Larmer Tree Festival, +44 (023) 8071 1820
7/1/05
Lester Bangs oft cited article from 1979 on Van Morrison's
Astral Weeks, one of the best albums of all time. Here's
Van's official site.
7/1/05
Good posts and discussions happening on
daily KOS today. SCOTUS means the Supreme Court of the United States.
6/30/05
Jeff Hanson sings in an Elliot Smith falsetto. He grew up avoiding singing in a boy's choir in Waukesha, Wisconsin. QUOTE from his bio:
"Jeff says, "I'm stuck in the past· the way I was raised. I was raised on Beach Boys, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel - my parents took me to see the Everly Brothers when I was in fourth grade. I've kind of grown up with bands that are big into melody and harmony and that's what I've liked the most."
6/30/05 I'm wrapping up a new set of Cherry Blossom type paintings, about three. Once I find a geek to fix my computer I'll post 'em. Next up is a portrait of Mugi, a portrait of a guy with a bicycle gear tattoo (nearly finished), and some commissioned work of a French bulldog named Zazu. After those are complete I'll be shifting gears and rolling in with my set of Native American cyclists, track cycling riders wearing protective fur hoods, or with questionable shamanic gear and/or a newer set of the lost paintings I made of my dad with an arctic suit on his head, on his old Yamaha, which, when rendered by me, looks more like a bike. I don't know what it all means, so don't ask.
malgré les vertiges sucrés des euphories
même quand mes yeux sentaient le roussi
ou en butte aux rafales montantes des chagrins
jusqu'aux états d'osmose incandescents
dans la plus noire transparence de nos sommeils
alors je me résorbe en jeux, je mime et parade
ma vérité, le mal d'amour, et douleurs et joies
je veux saigner sur vous par toute l'affection
j'écris, j'écris, à faire un fou de moi
à me faire le fou du roi de chacun
volontaire aux enchères de la dérision
mon rire en volées de grelots par vos têtes
en chavirées de pluie dans vos jambes
je suis le rouge-gorge de la forge
le mégot de survie, l'homme agonique
je franchirai les tonnerres des désespoirs
je déposerai ma tête exsangue sur un meuble
ma tête grenade et déflagration
sans plus de vue je continuerai, j'irai
vers ma mort peuplée de rumeurs et d'éboulis
je retrouverai ma nue propriété
The man agonic
in spite of the giddinesses of the euphorias
even when my eyes felt turned russet
or ridges some with the rising gusts of sorrows
until the incandescent states of osmosis
in the blackest transparency of our sleeps
then I reabsorb in plays, I mime and parade
my truth, the evil of love, and pains and joys
I want to bleed on you by all the affection
I write, I write, to make insane ego
make me the insane one of the king
of each one voluntary with the biddings of derision
my laughter in flights of grelots by your heads
in capsized of rain in your legs
I am the robin of the forging mill
the cigarette end of survival, the man agonic
I will cross the thunders of despairs
I will deposit my bloodless head on a piece of furniture
my head grenade and deflagration
without more sight I will continue, I will go
towards my populated death of rumours and of fall
I will find my naked property
and
21 July, UK,
The 100 Club – London
Also, they're billed with Giant Sand,
23, July, IRELAND--The Savoy, Patrick Street, Cork. Tickets from the Savoy Theatre, the Bodega Bar and from the
Cork Opera House at 021.4270022
and... more
from the Handsome Family Newsletter, film news --
"JESUS! - Look for the release of
"Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" in select U.S. theatres this July as well as on DVD in October and on the Sundance Channel by late 2005/early 2006. Lots of great musicians appear in this film plus you can see us (the Handsome Family) performing on a house boat whilst trying not to get electrocuted."
There are some nice sample tracks available
here, from the
Onion A.V. club. His latest release is on
Kill Rock Stars
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| Wilhelm Sasnal, Girl Smoking (Dominika) 2001, Oil on Canvas |
| 6/29/05 There's a nice list of artists showing in this exhibition, The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi gallery. The first part of the show is already coming down. The second part is going up now. Here's the catalog. |
6/29/05 Cat Scratch Febre, Dave Bidini's essay about writing his latest book (from Powell's Books Newsletter). QUOTE: "I had a terrible time writing Baseballissimo , but it's not what you think. The hardest part about constructing this tale of spending six months bird-dogging the Nettuno Peones — a B-Division Italian baseball team — up and down the Boot was trying to make sure that I didn't come across like I was having too good a time. The last thing a writer wants to do is make his reader jealous, so I was forced to pepper long rhapsodic passages concerning the art, beauty, and romance of Italy with thoughts like "the succulent, freshly-netted polipo that arrived drizzled with olive oil was, alas, slightly under-portioned."
6/29/05 Richard Tuttle at SFMOMA
6/29/05 I'll be out of town for this one, but I have no doubt that it'll be cacophanous. "The Brainwash film festival, like so many Cacophony events, has taken on a life of its own. The original "Cacophony Drive-In Movie Festival" in 1995 has morphed into the "Brainwash Drive-In/Bike In Movie Festival".
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The 11th annual festival is on Friday and Saturday, July 8 and 9, starting at 9 pm. It will take place at the Alliance for West Oakland Development parking lot at 1357 Fifth Street. The line-up of movies is different for each night, so you will see 9 odd, interesting and/or refreshing shorts on both nights, plus one that sucks. If you bike in, you may want to bring a radio in order to receive the sound. If you drive in, you might want to wait until the following week to hock your car radio. If you sneak in, you might want to wear a crash helmet and Kevlar. The cost is $8, but all patrons in the trunk of a full car get in for free! See www.brainwashM.com. (Yes, that's an "M" at the end of brainwash. Don't ask.) Please come out and support a good thing. I am posting this for long-time cacophonist Shelby Toland. I don't have any more info than what's on the web site, so if you have questions, direct them to the contacts on the web site." -- from SF Caco |
6/29/05 From Metafilter, a link to the new flash interface of front pages from around the world, "436 front pages from 45 countries."
6/24/05 Here's a quote from Vollman's Europe Central , page 195, a prelude to Vollman's use of musical metaphors in the Shostakovich passages. The narrator is talking about Shostakovich during the time he was composing his Seventh Symphony, Leningrad, as bombs are beginning to fall "He had never before seen any, let's call it a, you know, exercise involving aerial explosives. Did you know that under ideal conditions bombs can express all eight degrees of the diatonic scale as they whistle down? Sometimes even the full chromatic scale can, well, anyhow it distracts me from the fear. Nina was still preparing earth walls, antitank ditches, barbed wire emplacements, pillboxes. Every morning he said goodbye to her forever."
6/24/05a self-deprecating farce by Neal Pollack (Eggers?) about getting involved with McSweeney's and assembling what he refers to as his "ego-carnival," beginning with trying on a writer slash rock-star persona and ending up in a smelly puddle of self-hatred. Quote "Yet for a while, it looked like I'd pulled the wool over the world's collective gaze. I opened for They Might Be Giants at the Bowery Ballroom. One night, I performed my fake poetry in an opera house in Amsterdam, in front of 800 people, while David Byrne played the bongos behind me. Ah, literature." Neal is currently working on his memoir. Here's Egger's response and corrections to Neal's article. Both of these links were taken from Rake's Progress. Here's Scott's take on the feud -- "as interesting as a pissing match between Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd."
6/21/05 This is a flighty article about the heavyweight topic of sports in art (one I love to explore -- there's an undocumented series of baseball field drawings sitting in a dusty portfolio I shake out once in a while) that you can read if you have a free NYT log-in. It skirts most of the history of the depiction of athletes in figurative art, giving a brief nod to discus-thrower-worship and renderings of bicycles in motion (one of my projects in development is a series of cycling paintings), and overemphasizes nostalgiac media based works, or sculptures made for pure fun. I have a feeling that being a "jock artist" is not necessarily an oxymoron. We're not all chubby Schnabels. I think this thread may still be something to untangle, at least in my own attempt at fleshing out a set of wrestlers.
| 6/20/05 Here's a nice example of my grandpa, Chief Terry Saul's work (title unknown). These are Choctaw stickball players, dancing. I think the symmetry was calming to him, after his experiences in the war, but that's just my own interpretation of why he painted people the way he did. |
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6/17/05 Mono posted my work in their art gallery. Click on the slide that says "artwork collection", then "close and go", then click on the dot that looks like it hovers over L.A., then click on the pop up words that say "Berkeley, CA" Thanks Mono!! "Gusty Winds Kiss" and "February Gusts" are the titles that'll come up in the pretty brown frames. If you scroll over you can also see "Ireland Dawned on Berkeley" and "Landscape with Reflection".
6/17/05 Last night I saw my friend Cas Lucas at the Boom Boom Room. At first, there were only three of us in the audience, and I was asked to man (woman) the Merch table. No one knew he was playing, because he was filling in at the last minute for a cancelled act. Soon enough, some other people showed and it turned out to be an amazing set of blues and slide guitar, closed by a very faithful rendition of Castles Made of Sand by Jimmy Hendrix. The audience, mostly other musicians, let fly many moans, hoots, and sighs... I got a bunch of people to sign the mailing list, but didn't sell any CDs. Why? Because everyone I asked already had one (or so they said)! Great show Cas! I'll post a video of it, photos, and links, later. I also got to meet and chat with Brad Wolfe, who just sold out at the Great American Music Hall. We worked on getting him a useable capo, since he forgot his. The audience members were apparently all expert capo users, with all kinds of capo related advice and ancedotes about the misuse of capos. Who knew! I'm sorry Brad. I didn't get to stay and hear you play. I had to help Cas haul his gear out of there and then dash home for an early night. Some of us still have to work day jobs. You can hear some of Brad Wolfe's music here. Pop Warning! It's very pop, straightup, with a dash of Cat Stevens.
6/17/05 It's my birthday today! Send me some art! I love getting art in the mail.
6/14/05 The Court and Spark's "Witch Season" (their latest CD) is growing on me. I recommend it. It is dimly lit throughout, no bright spots, but subtle, round, and soothing. Wendy Allen provides and nourishes with her milky harmony vocals. M.C. Taylor is really consistent. Wendy Allen and M.C. Taylor get a little Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris on "Denver Annie", Track #3 when they sing the line about the apple tree. It also has Marc Capelle, who used to play flugelhorn and keyboards for Virgil Shaw. He's my favorite fugel horn player, and a showy keyboardlicker who lifts his hands high up over his head (like in the cartoons) at the end of a pounding run up the oxbows of the pentatonic scale. But, there's no Gene Parsons, who, if I remember correctly, was on slide and/or pedal steel on "Bless You". Transcendent Tom Heyman kicks ass on Track #6, "St. John the Evangelist". Steve Adams upright bass playing, combined with Zach Gill's Organ thumping on track #4, "Steeplechasing", makes me want to curl up in a fetal position and jaw drop. Too bad the Court had so many sound problems at the Wilco show. I actually missed most of the opening songs, but did note a heartbreaking problem with the bass being too loud and some kind of static. On the last two tracks the sound issues subsided, and it was clear the Court was ringing a bit more truly. They got to join in on the encore of "California Stars", all of them on tamborines, and M.C. on guitar. Wilco was phenomenal, under a perfect weather sky, in the Greek soul-fire pit, topped by feral Eucalyptus.
By the way, I haven't heard word or news of Virgil since he left for New York City. If anyone has Virgil Shaw news, please fill me in. I'd love to know when he's playing the Western line again.
6/13/05 Thank you to Greg for this... "This is to an mp3 of Tweedy doing a Jandek cover with his 9 year old son, Spencer, on the set." Scroll down to Sunday, May 22nd. The Jandek cover posting is from a music blog called Radiocures written by a 19 year old guy named Richard, from Santa Cruz. There's no permalink, so this will only be up temporarily. Jeff Tweedy (speaking here about copyright law and music) is the leadsinger of Wilco. Here's an inexact quote from the audio of the interview about copyright law and music, Tweedy speaking, "...to me, the people that are complaining are the people who are so rich, they'd never need to get paid again." The interview is a conversation between Jeff Tweedy, Lawrence Lessig (Creative Commons)and Steve Johnson at the New York Public Library.
6/10/05 Three new paintings posted to PaintingsTwo more to come on Sunday night.
6/9/05 Zeitgeist International Film Festival next Monday, 06/13/05 (9pm-11pm), 199 Valencia St (at Duboce), San Francisco. Films by: Skye Thorstenson, Jamie Clennett, Patrick Smith, Margarita Benitez, Rene H. Hernandez, Michael Ruf, Jeremy Newman, Thomas Schuster, Tom McElroy, and more...
6/8/05 The Secret Way to War, a Mark Danner (NYRB) article on the Downing Street Memo. QUOTES: "After the session with Blair, Bush later recounts to Woodward, he walked into a conference room and told the British officials gathered there that "your man has got cojones." ("And of course these Brits don't know what cojones are," Bush tells Woodward.) Henceforth this particular conference with Blair would be known, Bush declares, as "the cojones meeting."
"That September the attempt to sell the war began in earnest, for, as White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card had told The New York Times in an unusually candid moment, "You don't roll out a new product in August."
"Though "the UN route" would be styled as an attempt to avoid war, its essence, as the Downing Street memo makes clear, was a strategy to make the war possible, partly by making it politically palatable."
6/7/05 Epic arts will feature Space Invaders, a saxophone based quartet that plays dissonant (yet abundant with harmony) John Lurie-esque fresh arrangments of Mingus and Bach, as well as CageZornian originals, and the Crafty Apples (chamber musicians textural improv), located at 1923 Ashby Ave at Adeline, in Berkeley, on Friday June 24th. Doors open at 8pm, show at 8:30, $5-10 donation at the door.
6/7/05 Read this post: How The Iraq Debacle Happened And Where We Are Now on the daily KOS today. Also check this post by Tom Tomorrow,and this article From Watergate to Downing Street -- Lying for War an excerpt from "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," which will be out in June.
6/7/05 Ken Fandell shoots multiple photographs of the sky over a period of months and then creates manipulated photomontages. He spent his undergraduate coins at UCSB, then attended the Art Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, used to be a curator at New Works Gallery, Gallery 400, Gallery 37, Gallery 312 (for a time only worked at Galleries with numbers in their names) and has shown at Howard House, Traywick (...here in Berkeley! Whatever happened to Traywick?), Revolution, and Gallery 16 among other places.
6/3/05 Cory Brown put together this Absolutely Kosher podcast #3 right down here on 10th St. in Berkeley, California. Reap your local grit, turn off the effeme, and croon in to a Westcoast podcast. No, it's not fishing for peas. But, it goes well with a little oceanic ink.
6/3/05 Good news. My former Bay Area Video Coalition coworkers, The Court and Spark, are going to be opening for Wilco at the Greek in Berkeley on June 11th, and I already have the tickets. Mike (M.C.) Taylor and Scott Hirsch both spark sweet and dirty slow-terrain vocals, and James Kim is an Haute Hat drummer. The other band members are Dan Carr roping in the bass, and Tom Heyman surfing Oklahomah dust storms on pedal steel, all pictured in the link. Think sweethearts stompdancing on a.m. rodeo. They're on absolutely kosher records. Kurt Wolff fired off eight graphs about them in No Depression.
6/2/05 I'm currently listening to an unreleased EP by my friend Rahsaan's (4th street's best loved bookseller's) band "Sleeper Waves". It features some pedicular gazey, Bauhausian rock, that could be the roots rounding out, booming soon perhaps. What stands alone is the last track on the EP, a hesitating legato tonic of a waltz, simple, precisely rhythmic, and nakedly poetic, with nods to literate bands such as
"The Weakerthans". I admire unknown ensembles who are willing to risk it all to include the word "shanty" in their lyrics. I think pirate words should appear at least once in every musicians repetoire of freshly written songs for virginal Pro Tools Suites everywhere. I'd say that to my post-punk ears this mysterious Harpsichordian sound mixed by Rahsaan (who used to be the sound engineer for
"Grandaddy", of Modesto) is entirely spoiling my tremolo lobes.
On another note, my friend Randall's band
Solid State Logic will be playing their last show for a few months next Sat. June 4th. They'll be finishing up their album in Sept. They're playing at
The Tongue & Groove on Van Ness. Doors are at 7:00 pm, it's $7, and this is also the CD release party for their friends
The Real.
5/26/05
The Rock Lexicon by Chuck Klosterman (thanks to
Black Market Kidneys for the link) Chuck wants your help -- Quote from the article (links added by moi),
"GRIME: Almost two years ago, I asked two learned people at
Spin to explain to me what
grime is. They both said, “Don’t worry about it. You will never need to know. It’s completely unnecessary knowledge.” Then, over the next few weeks, grime came up in conversation on three separate occasions. And it would always come up in the same manner: Someone would mention either
Dizzee Rascal or
the Streets, refer to them as grime artists, and immediately be told, “Those aren’t real grime artists. That’s not real grime.” As such, this is all I know about grime—it’s British rap (but not really) that is kind of “like garage and 2-step” (but the word garage is pronounced like marriage), and it’s supposedly a reflection of life in
lower-class London neighborhoods like
Brixton. If anyone out there knows what grime is, e-mail me at cklosterman@spin.com. But make sure you write “This is about grime” in the subject line so I will know to ignore it completely."
Another Quote from the article,
"If you are in a
Tejano quartet and all four of you start taking
mescaline (and if all the kids who come to your shows drop acid in the parking lot before entering the venue), you now play “psych Tejano.” That’s the whole equation."
One last Quote from the article (Ok, I'm quotitious today),
"MUSK OX ROCK: Combining woolly ’90s grunge with the ephemeral elasticity of Icelandic artists like Björk and Sigur Rós, so-called
oxenheads deliver thick,
nurturing power riffs that replicate the experience of
melting glaciers,
troll attacks, and
political alienation. The genre includes bands such as Switchfoot, Radiohead, and Bettie Serveert."
5/26/05
Martin McMurray
is in a group show at
Gallery 16 with
Deborah Oropallo,
Kara Maria,
Gay Outlaw,
Elliot Anderson,
Rex Ray,
Bill Laven, and
Inez Storer.
Opening Reception: Friday June 10, 2005 6-9,
June 10 - July 2005,
"Recent Editions",
Gallery 16,
1616 Sixteenth Street 3rd Floor,
San Francisco CA 94103,
415-626-7495
Martin
is also in an show with
Kim Krans at
Wendy Cooper Gallery "Martin McMurray: The Unfolding Degenerate"
"Kim Krans: The Carpenter’s Forest"
Wendy Cooper Gallery
119 North Peoria Street 2D
Chicago, IL 60607
312-455-1195
Opening Reception: Friday, June 3, 6-9
Show: June 3 - July 9, 2005
5/25/05 Martin McMurray is in a group show, Fresh Direct, at Jeff Bailey Gallery. His painting was chosen for the splash page. Artists in the show include -- Paolo Arao, Franklin Evans, Matt Connors, Jenny Laden, Martin McMurray, and Jon Rappleye. June 29 - August 5, 2005 ,Opening Reception: Thursday, June 30, 6-8pm
5/24/05 Wish Weller is new and up with some more recent work in the painting section
5/23/05 Two events of note at
Anno Domini --
Ink, Sweat and Tears -Event: Tuesday, May 24, 2005,
Doors open: 7:30 p.m.,
Performance: 8 p.m,
Admission: free, featuring: Eric Drooker, Keith Knight
and John Longhi,
Gorsky Press hijacks the Perpetual Motion Roadshow – Event: Thursday, May 26, Sean Carswell, Todd Taylor,
and James Jay, doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Anno Domini gallery,
150 So. Montgomery Street Unit B,
(btwn Park & San Fernando),
San Jose, CA 95110,
t: 408.271.5151 / f: 408.271.5152
5/23/05 I'm not really into Burning Man, but I admire the do-it-yourself craftspeople who make art for the communities who are. Lot's of it involves pyrotechnics, not my cup of gasoline. For those of you who are curious, there's the Borg, and the Borg2, the alterna borg. Decide for yourself, and donate funds to the Rebellious Borg2 if you wish to back the UnderBorg. For those of you following Blogging Quixote, check out the Quixotic Windmill Project. This one blows.
5/18/05 This is directly from Fecal Face: There will be a "...one night art show to celebrate the release of Jeremy Fish's new book entitled "I'm With Stupid" at the Low Gallery, Friday, May 20th, 2005. The show will run from 3pm till 10pm. Recent paintings, books, posters, skateboards are all being sold to help raise money for Jeremy's hospital bills. Jeremy destroyed his ankle while skating in NYC at the Autumn Bowl."
5/17/05 Here's a good essay on the Siutationist International in English, "The Boy Scout's Guide to the Situationist International: The Effect The S.I. Had On Paris '68 And All That, Through The Angry Brigade And King Mob To The Sex Pistols"
5/16/05 Loudon Wainwright III (Rufus Wainwright's dad) is playing at the Freight on May 22nd. David Lindley will be there, also at the Freight, on June 30th and July 1st.
5/16/05 Kelly Joe Phelps is living in my headphones today. I've never heard any other musician match what Kelly Joe does. I'm currently hooked on a borrowed copy of "Shine Eyed Mister Zen". I used to hear "Lead Me On" quite a bit, and a double CD I can't find anywhere on-line.
5/16/05 Instead of the "Red Dot Preview" page, which was awkward to update, I've just written "SOLD" under the paintings that have sold, on the Paintings page and added newer work to the mix. If you want to get an update on what is still available, feel free to call or email me.
5/16/05 It's a hard font life. Join the Anti comic sans propaganda movement.
5/13/05 The Rude Mechanicals are going to be performing "Cherrywood" in the Ensemble Theater Festival in Blue Lake, CA on Friday, June 24 at 9 pm, and Saturday, June 25 at 7 pm in the Carlo Mazzone-Clementi Theatre, Dell Arte. The nearest campground is Patrick's Point State Park.
5/11/05 The Avant-Garde, from Conversational Reading and Cahiers de Corey
5/11/05 Another link to Boldtype, "On Bullshit". Quote from the article -- "According to Frankfurt, bullshit is more potentially treacherous than its closest relative, the lie. While the lie necessarily gives a nod to the truth in the very act of denying it, bullshit doesn't bother with the truth at all. It's beside the bullshitter's point whether her statements are true or false. It is this "indifference to how things really are" that defines bullshit, making its prevalence in popular and political arenas so very frightening."
5/11/05 Boldtype interview with Jonathan Lethem talks about how being asked to write the intro for an NYRB book, Malcolm Braly's On the Yard, influenced his choices during the writing of the final prison scene in Fortress of Solitude. In the interview, when asked about whether or not he enjoys being obsessive he says, "JL: Yeah, you might as well let yourself obsess. You don't need to somehow be ashamed of this emotional urgency that drives you to the things you love, because they're worth loving."
5/11/05 My art trading buddy Nathan Cordero (he's part of a group called the ultramega) made the latest splash page for Fecal Face. Good job Nathan!
5/11/05 Postal Labels Against Bush Quicktime Movie
5/10/05 I finally listened to my friend Randall's music. He's in a hard rock band, which is just about making it on the stage and in the recording studio. The new album is being recorded now. They just had a packed show at Slims. If you like teenage-angst post-industrial heavy metal, you'll love it. They have a driven, hardcore but pop-edged sound. You can hear two of their songs here Solid State Logic.
5/9/05 Build your own shopping cart bicycle Thanks to Jason Pettus for the link
5/9/05 Thanks to Fecal Face for the link to
the
work of Kiersten Essenpreis I'm adding her to my favorite links section. Her work is twisted and pointed and lovely.
I went to an opening at the
Balazo Badlands Gallery. A couple of the sculptures were impressive and interesting, especially the cardboard dioramas scenes, a large rubberband installation, and a sound and light bit installed in the ceiling beams. The performance art (your typical naked man with banana slugs and slime) was not. The music was inane, although I admit to only staying for five minutes of sophomoric jamming. The new space is shabby-grandiose, in transition, and hopefully will flourish in the near future.
After the opening, it was time for some good old fashioned pogo-dancing to the
Groovy Ghoulies
and the
Phenomenauts. This was an outstanding show. I highly recommend seeing either of them live. The Phenomenauts really pull out all the stoppers with live action stunts, catching and throwing intriguing retro-futuristic rube goldberg devices while delivering rock-solid-punk-sock-abilly-smoke-and-mirrors-moshtastic-revelry without missing a beat!
5/9/04 See the winner of Move On's Social Security Scam Flash Ad contest, "Bush in 30 Years."
5/4/05 I checked out a link that was next to mine in Scott's blog and what do I see, but a story, today's entry, right at the top about my old acquaintance, and dancing partner, Shappy. Small world. This is the Shappy of Shappy and Shag from the only wedding I've ever attended that took place in a taco shack, Lazo's tacos in Chicago to be precise. Well, he's a character I'd never forget. I'm glad to hear that Shappy has been doing very well with his slam poetry and other writing assignments. Congratulations Shappy!
5/3/05 So this guy Zak Smith illustrated Gravity's Rainbow, every friggin page. Thanks to Scott and the Millions for the link. Here's how it appeared in the gallery space, up close. Thanks to Mad Ink Beard for the link.
5/2/05 My friend Joe has had an article, "She Came Undone What's tying us to this life?" published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
4/28/05 I have inherited a set of paintings by my grandfather Chief Terry Saul. He was a well known Native American artist, but even the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington has no funds at the moment for acquisitions or preservation.
I need to be pointed in the right direction for help with preserving them. Some of them may need to be remounted. I'm also looking for information on obtaining grant money, or getting someone like the Harry Ransom Center at UT to archive his drawings and notes.
Perhaps, after I've straightened out what I have in all my boxes, I can provide more detailed information about what is available to trade. I currently have no funds available for this project. But, I could share/barter something, like dinner or art.
If you know anyone who cares about Native American Art, or the peyote movement, the American Indian Movement, the Art Students League NYC, or people who studied and worked closely with the likes of Woody Crumbo, etc… I'll talk to them and show them what I have.
4/27/05
My favorite acting troupe,
The Rude Mechanicals
, is producing a stage production of
"Get Your War On". You Austinites out there should go see it. For the rest of us, let's hope they take this show on the road!
Kitchen Sink is having an
art auction
and music show this coming Saturday
4/21/05
I had some fried plantains and a taste of blood sausage (not as gross as it sounds) at a Salvadorean-slash-Colombian restaurant in the Mission, and was introduced to the Latin American Club. They rotated Uncle Tupelo and Beck on the playtrack. Another place that may have been called the Art bar was playing an entire set of tunes I've never heard, all loungy, Tim Buckleyesque and SoulMotownish all at once. Being unfamiliar with the Mission (unlike most people here in the Bay Area), I felt like a tourist and a bystander. A friend and I were nearly run down by a couple of guys carrying a large stick, and an empty arrowhead water-jug, chasing another fellow who managed to escape the seemingly ineffective and awkward weapon of choice in the plastic-jug-handlers possession.
I'm going to write a short series of poems based on letter writing, by simply taking notes I've written to others and rearranging them into found poems, found in my own spontaneous dribble. Art should be easy, and an everyday event. The borrowing of my own natural correspondences should allow me to produce poems without overlaboring the work, without treating it like it's serious work.
Scott reports back
from the Vollman reading.
4/13/05
I've been to the Winds Café in Logan Square, a green-lit basement in Portage-Park, Chicago, the only espresso bar in Bartlesville, and a ranch in Okeesa, OK, with three distant relatives I'd never met, including a bull rider, a new cousin, an aunt named Fawn, a bunch of cows, goats, dogs, cats, guinea hens, deer, mountain lions, snakes, and rescued and pregnant horses just about to give birth. I saw a newborn calf, two newborn goats, and an Australian dingo.
We spanned time at Grandma's Cherokee-Episcopalian memorial, with live drums, flutes, ancient singing, chanting, prayers and easy tears. I saw the remains of the Denver blizzard that had caused the overnight detour to Chicago. I haven't slept much in the last 48 hours and I've flown standby twice. It was a tornado of a trip and I'm looking forward to a long nap.
4/8/05 Benefit for Dax : OAKLAND: Why? and his full band!; Bat Rays; The Bomarr Monk and Yet!;NewAgeyNoFriends!; DJ sets from odd nosdam, shaun koplow & more, Friday, April 8, 9:30pm, $8-$10 suggested donation (pay what you can), BYOB - NO ALCOHOL WILL BE SERVED AT THIS EVENT; @ piedmorow / The Sawmill Building, 3403 Piedmont Ave (@ Broadway, #402 (4th floor, PLEASE USE THE STAIRS), Oakland CA 94611, PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE PARKING LOT. PARKING LOT IS FOR TENANTS ONLY.
4/6/05 Dan Witz went to Cooper Union, Skowhegan, and RISD. He paints night scenes of corner delis, drugstores and taxi stands in Williamsburg. He's having a show at DFN gallery next week.
4/6/05 Conversational Reading (Scott's blog) links to a juicy Village Voice article on Vollman's new novel.
4/6/05 Thursday, April 7, 7:30 pm Black Oak will host a reading event for the fiction anthology Lost on Purpose: Women in the City. These stories take place all over the world: Bombay, Beijing, Sydney, Glasgow, and Tijuana, as well as Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Editor Amy Prior (who lives in London) will be joined by these local contributors: writer and filmmaker Anna Sophie Loewenberg , writer and musician Sara Jaffe, and writer Calla Devlin.(*blurb written by Black Oak, links added by Terri)
4/5/05 Lupine are blooming in Tilden Park, and some lavender sweet peas. I spotted a heron , and a large owl up close on an unusually quiet night, windless in fact. A gaggle of astronomers were heard chattering.
4/4/05 Please help Dax pay for his wheelchair. He's a local musician, and buyer at Amoeba, who was in a terrible car accident about a month ago. His friends are trying to raise money to help fund his recovery.