THIS IS NOT A TEST!
This is an actual WAR!
War between Synesthetic Superscam and FAME IS MAGIC a.k.a. "won't get therapy, will talk to computer" a.k.a. ______ _______ (Ok, I'm too discrete for that...).
I need ALL of my fans to go PUKE ALL OVER HER BLOG.
Cheers!
-f
The purpose of this is to think of all the projects that are running through my head and write them out to record what my mental state and plans were BEFORE I started my first semester at Berkeley. I am going to attempt to do this without referring to my EXTENSIVE NOTES on the simple yet unproven theory that any idea bad enough to be forgotten deserves to be forgotten. Which of course nullifies the whole premise of this activity. Well, sort of. I mean, the point being that I remember crying on the first day of kindergarten, but I forget why.
It should be said that artists are often paranoid that if they share their top secret mega ideas that someone will steal them. But in my case I don’t really care. If you can actually understand what the hell I am trying to explain here go the hell ahead and steal away. After doing this and that project about how inaccurately and idiosyncratically people copy things, and after enjoying the products of so much PAKURI I don’t really have any confidence that you will create anything like what I would. If I ever carried these projects out. Which I know through personal experience it is very unlikely that I will. After all, aren’t I going to enter this program that promises to be intense and smart and all that jazz? Aren’t I? And, plus, after all, I stole all my ideas. I rather I stole bits and bits of them.
So…
Now I’m too tired to actually write anything.
Her new blog is going to be about her trip to Peru. We can all live visciously. I mean varicosely.
Unfortunately, the innauguration of this new blog coincides with a huge earthquake in Peru - a terrible disaster... I hope that Lizzy can still go and it would be wonderful if she were able to help out.
Anyway, we must read the blog to find out:
Lizzy's blog about Peru.
I want to write out my thoughts about the future of my art ideas NOW, the week before grad school so that I can see clearly how I have changed when I graduate. The thing is, this is a big project and I have a millyun things to do. But I wonder, is it worth doing? How should it be done? Is it interesting or embarrassing? I remember fameismagic telling me about how a certain DJ friend said that he regretted talking with a reporter about what he was going to be doing in the future because now he can only disappoint. But I guess that I can't disappoint because it's obvious that I will only do a small fraction of the work I say I will, and hopefully I will have better ideas after I graduate with an MFA. Or at least I hope... I am excited about school which really means I am excited about changing. But there are always good parts that get left behind.
PS So stop talking and DO IT.
I am way waaaaaay too dumb to be going to grad school. I'm starting to feel like uh-oh. Oh well. Learn to be friendly. Learn to be friendly and to spell. It doesn't matter. I'm not smart like that. Not like that either. Hum.
I think that now that I am going to be going to grad school that this blog may take a turn for the more concrete. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I live in Berkeley now and I'm going to be going to grad school there. I guess that means that I will be writing about some of the interesting things I learn at school, and what I am doing in and out of my studio. Whereas before I was living in an officially undisclosed location, now I can say exactly where I live. Potentially. I hope that this means I will bump into the real world more often. But also I plan on being really busy. And poor. That's the plan.
This is the final week before school. I have 4 priorities.
1. Register for classes - I have no idea how to do this - there were some emails I was supposed to be smart enough to understand. I better figure out how to be smart soon!
2. Fix my house. This is the most boring I suppose.
3. Work on Howwa We Anna 'cause that's the most exciting secret project right now.
4. Work on stuff for the opening of Artifact-Metafact in NY. They want images and writing. I didn't write about the installation of the work in which I didn't install the work, because that was before my new practical bent.
Actually none of these things are my priorities really. My real priorities don't hover well over a keyboard presently.
One real priority is to cook jasmine rice for breakfast and consider how to flavor it with limited options. That's what I mean when I say that I love cooking.
HERE"S THEE ANSWER TO LAST WEEK"S KWIZZZ!!! (scroll down if you don't get it):
Who was that man?
What does he do that's so cool? (Other than telling FUNNY JOKES?)"
And what SHOULD he be doing?
The answer to that last one is FIXING HIS GODDAMN SITE ALREADY. But I identify with a dude who doesn't always "git er dun." Yes indeedy. So, y'all pizza callers shoulda knowed this one. Member? You member, member? This was posted on the EPN a bit ago, but it just resonates and resonates with me. Like big dub cymbals. Or brontosauruses. But I like his way of thinking - it is details-oriented, about organization of social structures, concerned with the way that images are perceived, looks on humanity in a different way, and completely revolutionary, I think. I know that this is a lil played out, but I think I'm going to be working with some of these ideas.
What have I been doing? Well, it's best to focus on the tiny details. I have insomnia yes I do. And so I will tell you of the books I have been reading. The united themes? 1. They were both FOUND. 2. They are both about horrific, meaningless bodily suffering. 3. They are both about the COLD (perfect for August!). 4. They both have strong people. 5. They are both non-fiction. Oh and they are about amazing.
The first book is The Gulag Archipelego (That's just Amazon, sorr...). It's about he breakdown in justice within the Soviet Union.
The second book is Endurance, which is about the Antarctic Expedition of 1914 that was stuck in the ice and south polar wastelands for 17 months. It is illustrated with photographs taken during the expedition.
Well, Insomnia and all.
Hi there - One of the things I've been doing is preparing for this group show "artifact-metafact" in Queens. More on that later, but now I just wanted to post some images up here (there's someone I promised to get them up for...)
These are all going to be in the show - they are all 7 1/2 inches square, gouache. (That's a hard word to spell yo!)
As always, click to enlarge!
This is one of my favorite thinkers. Who knows who it is?
BTW - I am still alive. Isn't that fascinating? After a month "vacation" I am BACK!
This report, which I read about in the NYTimes, is about whether alien life may be based on chemistry that doesn't rely on carbon, liquid water, etc - all the things we assume it must. It is an example of a report that tries to be very broad-minded, challenging it's own assumptions, and attempts to discover it's unknown unknowns. It also casually throws in some philosophical references that one would not see in a NASA report (such as the claim that the human mind is not skilled at coming up with truly new ideas, or that the the definition of life requires looking at what "definition" means as much as "life.")
I've been writing up a project that involves a skit about aliens, and this report is inspirational.
This dish isn't like 123go superfast, but it's pretty difficult to mess up. The Plantains are like junkfood from a universe where junkfood is all-natural and not unhealthy, and the chutney - well, it has never met Mr. Plantain before - it's sweet and sour and hot and salty. You know - all the tastes. Make the chutney first because it needs to be refrigerated. It keeps pretty well too. These recipes are enough for a generous side-dish for two people.
CHUTNEY:
1 Mango
1/4 small onion
1 jalapen~o
1/4 cup mint (from your garden)
1/4 cup cilantro
1 T olive oil
dash cinamon
1 clove
tiny dash nutmeg
1 lime or lemon
brown sugar
salt
Cut up small and smaller: onion and jalapeno (the trick to reducing the spiciness is to remove all the seeds and perhaps the "veins" - the white bits inside - I remove them when I'm sharing the food with my mother, but it's better with some spice to it...)
Heat oil and spices (not herbs) in pan for 30 sec (don't let oil smoke). I also put in some cardamom and turmeric 'cause I love it.
Put in jalapeno and onion and 2 dashes of salt (1/8 tsp?) - stir fry for 3-5 mins until softened but not caramelized.
Meanwhile, cut mango up pretty small, and the mint and cilantro. Don't skimp on the mint!
Throw the mango in (you might want to find the clove and get it out first)
Stir-fry for 1 min, then add mint, stir-fry for a minute more.
Remove from heat an put in ceramic bowl, add cilantro, a big pinch of brown sugar, and squeeze in the juice of one lime.
Mix it all around, and put it in the fridge to cool. OK!
TWICE-FRIED PLANTAINS:
I used sweet plantains. If you want to try regular ones, tell me how it went - they cook longer and are harder. You will want to deep fry plantains very hot - that's why you can't use vegetable oil - it will end up smoking, and if you turn it down it will end up greasy.
2 plantains
Crisco or high-smoke oil
red chile powder (not the super-hot kind), or chipolte pepper powder (I like the smokey taste of this)
cumin
salt
Peel and cut plantains into 1 inch long bits. Don't cut diagonal, cut strait!
In a fry pan (a wok won't work well) pre-heat crisco until very hot, but not smoking - it should be about 1/2 an inch deep so that when you add the plantains they will be pretty much submerged - if a bit of plantain starts frying as soon as it hits the oil you are ready.
Fry the plantains until light brown on one side, flip, fry 'til other side is brown. Use tongs!
Take them out, put on paper towels to soak up oil.
While still hot, but not burning hot, take a big thick glass cup or something and smoosh them down until they are pretty flat. You know, stand up like cylinders and then flatten them down like thick coins. Don't mash them so hard that they break. This is the fun part.
Put them in the fry pan again and fry until golden brown all over. Don't let them get too dark brown - they have sugar so they can burn easier than potatoes.
Really shake the oil off when removing, and put on paper towels again.
While still hot, shake on chile and a tiny bit cumin and a little salt.
EAT WITH CHUTNEY!!!!
This post is an exploration of some negative emotions, but it is not a crazy or depressed post. I sometimes think too much about politics, or the unappealing side of how humans act, and it makes me angry and frustrated. Sometimes seeing that other people see the same things makes me feel a lot better. But sometimes it makes me feel awful. If it's going to make you feel awful to see a bunch of disturbing videos, then you shouldn't watch the videos in this post, and I'll try to post something a little less one-sided some other day.
For some reason I was thinking about being angry today. I don't know how, but it ended up thinking about how angry the music I used to listen to was. Of course, now I can take a step back and see how even a group like Skinny Puppy is a pop group. I would have never admitted so before. Not that I disrespect them, but just that I can see the pop element in everything. That all content that is purposefully presented to an audience has elements that attempt to make you like it. Even if it works by opposites - for example, trying to make sounds that absolutely nobody will be able to stand is an attempt to appeal to people who absolutely hate appealing sounds (I distinctly remember looking at an avocado while I was thinking this.) Anyway, I still love some of that music - Skinny Puppy is amazing. It seems funny to have a deep nostalgia for something so dark. But I guess that comes part-in-parcel with being a citizen of a nation that worships death and destruction. I was listening to that song "Testure" which is about vivisection (quite a catchy little tune actually). I don't mean to be ironic - I am just thinking back to when I was younger and I would let myself get so angry about these things. But it's interesting - the marketing of anger was so big when I was a kid. What am I trying to do here? Transcend? But I don't want to do so ironically. Focus on my anger? I hear that can be... unhealthy. Whatever - it's a freaking blog.
I didn't have a blog when I was a kid, so I guess this is the kind of post I would have made back then. You know - gym class sucks. But of course, YouTube wasn't around. Too bad - I could have had much more detailed nightmares.
Skinny Puppy songs (selected for song, not video) (Skinny Puppy is... hard to like... but it is good.) Oh - these videos are all super-disturbing, but some of them are also beautiful. I should add that cEvin Key, the singer, is a pretty amazing guy - very positive and intelligent. These songs come from as early as 1983 - the sound might not be as high-tech as it would've been if recorded today, but there is something really powerful about the sampling and drumming, and of course the vocal style.
Testure (this is an absolutely terrifying video about vivisection so you might want to think twice if you want to sleep):
Smothered Hope:
Dig it:
Inquisition:
the choke:
Worlock
tin omen:
Spasmolytic:
Anyway - the song "Testure" begins with a quote - I looked it up, and I found a movie by the guys who made "Watership Down" Here's the first part, and it goes on to have the whole movie. This is an AMAZING movie about dogs and about death:
After you watch it, make sure to go here.
Again, this has been a presentation of the angry young me who doesn't come around much. It's been fun. But angry fun. Actually - what the hell am I doing? When it gets late it's like I'm on autopilot. Feel nutso now. Wonder why? Duhh... But I don't feel DOWN - that's the thing - just like, small you know.
I've done all the work for you.
In the course of making friends for Perceival I have been contacting a lot of different folks on YouTube. There are some quite nice videos there. I have been noticing a trend, a style, or visual aesthetic. It has its roots in all kinds of experimental video, but it is also distinct to YouTube. These videos combine trippy, blinky, colorful, highly processed images with a focus on the abstract body, psychedelic enhanced personalities, post-ironic self-help, and uncanny situational comedy. Plus video feedback. Plus Or something. Actually I don't know what I'm talking about. I put a lot of these videos into a playlist - it's still all kinds of raw and unfinished, but I'm presenting it anyway:
MAX-A-MILLION
What I want to know is - do you see anything in these videos - any similarities or themes? Or am I crackers? (I mean, about this one thing in particular.)
It has blinky lights, sorry. Due to a new leaf that is turning over, they are falling out of favor with me, these strobing things, but for a while I was chasing them. Why I wonder?
