Happy New Year! dinner consisted of egg drop, tofu and seaweed soup, then some vegetarian pot stickers. beer to drink. my fortune cookie message reads: Listen these next few days to your friends to get answers you seek. i started reading The Grapes of Wrath (interrupting and putting aside the book on Critical Mass to do so) and i've made an additional New Year's resolution: to stop neglecting my needs.
i expect that ceasing to neglect my needs would lead to harboring fewer secrets, which leads me to my next topic...i've recently enjoyed a book titled Post Secret: Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary Lives, compiled and introduced by Frank Warren. this concerns an ongoing project Frank started, of soliciting, collecting then publishing (in books and on his website, postsecret.com) anonymously sent handmade picture postcards containing confessions and apropriate visual images - usually little drawings, collages or photographs.
Frank Warren reminds me of another confessor type: the late great Allan Bridge, a.k.a. Mr. Apology. before his untimely death in 1995 in a scuba diving mishap, Allan ran something called the Apology Project, consisting of a telephone hotline (the Apology Line, based in New York) wherein participants could leave (recorded and preserved) messages of apology and confession...as well as its print equivalent, Apology Magazine.
currently here in SB we have our annual International Film Festival in progress, so this past Saturday night i saw one of the only 2 movies i want to see this time: Automorphosis, a documentary by Harrod Blank about art cars, heavily decorated, modified and personalized cars which their owners intend as vehicles not only for transport but also for personal and esthetic statements. Harrod has made at least 2 such cars, one of which he came to town in: the Camera Van, a van literally covered in fully functional cameras, all artfully arranged to form such images as a giant camera, an eye, a star, etc. from a panel inside the van, Harrod can activate these cameras to take reaction shots of the people who encounter it!
naturally i had to go photograph this puppy myself...using my flash, of course. i took several photos. hopefully at least one or two of them will come out.
CONTINUED....
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Happy New Year again
well, first of all...happy new moon. for me, an occasion for serious introspection. tomorrow both the Chinese Year of the Earth Ox and the Vietnamese Year of the Water Buffalo begin. the Korean year also begins tomorrow.
today back in 1759 the Scottish poet Robert Burns incarnated. he wrote Auld Lang Syne. it might amuse someone to have a traditional Burns Day feast (which includes haggis) then sing Auld Lang Syne in recognition of Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean New Year...but i won't. i maintain vegetarianism.
more later.
today back in 1759 the Scottish poet Robert Burns incarnated. he wrote Auld Lang Syne. it might amuse someone to have a traditional Burns Day feast (which includes haggis) then sing Auld Lang Syne in recognition of Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean New Year...but i won't. i maintain vegetarianism.
more later.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
other words other worlds part 2, etc.
since my last blog entry, i learned that January 21 marked the one year anniversary of the death of Udach' Kuqax a'a'ch (Marie Smith Jones) the last full-blood Eyak (an indigenous people of Alaska) and with that, the extinction of the Eyak language. this reminded me that a dedicated group of contemporary Chumash people currently work to revive the Barbareno Chumash dialect from the brink of extinction. the prognosis looks good, as anthropologists documented this dialect well.
ran into Joe Woodard today. he hasn't started V yet. i haven't started the Grapes of Wrath yet either.
i feel kind of tired so i'll keep this entry short, but i intend to post more tomorrow and the next day, so good night.
ran into Joe Woodard today. he hasn't started V yet. i haven't started the Grapes of Wrath yet either.
i feel kind of tired so i'll keep this entry short, but i intend to post more tomorrow and the next day, so good night.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
for Leilah, Daniel, Dave, Bryan, Bryson and Emilio: other words other worlds
TODAY'S WORDS
1. Magma: a) molten matter within the earth. b) a French progressive rock band of the 1970s.
2. Kobaian: of or pertaining to Kobaia; for example, the language spoken there.
3. Kobaia: an imaginary world created by Magma, the French progressive rock band. the Kobaian language really exists as a usable language, much like Klingon, a real language created for an imaginary world and its people.
i learned these bits from a highly enjoyable article in the current Fortean Times on outer space and science fiction themes in the work of psychedelic and progressive rock bands. because of their far-reaching influence, the author also mentioned 2 other musicians who weren't rock musicians at all: Sun Ra (avante garde jazz) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (contemporary avante garde classical). i'd like to turn the author on to Lucia Pamela, an outsider musician who made a children's music album about an imaginary trip to the moon titled Into Outer Space. all in all, the article made me want to hitch a ride to the parallel Earth where the band Pink Floyd DIDN'T turn down the offer to do the music for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey...though, for the record, i like what Kubrick ultimately decided to do music-wise; i think it would've tickled Johann Strauss to know that i (and probably a lot of other people) think of the planets orbiting through space when i hear The Blue Danube.
though i certainly can't claim any proficiency in any invented languages (Klingon, Esperanto or what have you) the topic of such languages fascinates me, and some of you who know me know that one of my favorite books, Codex Seraphinianus, an encyclopedia of an imaginary world by the Italian artist Luigi Serafini, presents itself as a work FROM that world, written in one of its languages. i wonder if my Tolkein fan brother Bryan or my Tolkein fan nephew Bryson will ever learn Quenya. well, they will if they want to. likewise my Trekkie nephew Emilio will learn Klingon if he wants to.
buenas noches y bonne nuit! :)
1. Magma: a) molten matter within the earth. b) a French progressive rock band of the 1970s.
2. Kobaian: of or pertaining to Kobaia; for example, the language spoken there.
3. Kobaia: an imaginary world created by Magma, the French progressive rock band. the Kobaian language really exists as a usable language, much like Klingon, a real language created for an imaginary world and its people.
i learned these bits from a highly enjoyable article in the current Fortean Times on outer space and science fiction themes in the work of psychedelic and progressive rock bands. because of their far-reaching influence, the author also mentioned 2 other musicians who weren't rock musicians at all: Sun Ra (avante garde jazz) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (contemporary avante garde classical). i'd like to turn the author on to Lucia Pamela, an outsider musician who made a children's music album about an imaginary trip to the moon titled Into Outer Space. all in all, the article made me want to hitch a ride to the parallel Earth where the band Pink Floyd DIDN'T turn down the offer to do the music for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey...though, for the record, i like what Kubrick ultimately decided to do music-wise; i think it would've tickled Johann Strauss to know that i (and probably a lot of other people) think of the planets orbiting through space when i hear The Blue Danube.
though i certainly can't claim any proficiency in any invented languages (Klingon, Esperanto or what have you) the topic of such languages fascinates me, and some of you who know me know that one of my favorite books, Codex Seraphinianus, an encyclopedia of an imaginary world by the Italian artist Luigi Serafini, presents itself as a work FROM that world, written in one of its languages. i wonder if my Tolkein fan brother Bryan or my Tolkein fan nephew Bryson will ever learn Quenya. well, they will if they want to. likewise my Trekkie nephew Emilio will learn Klingon if he wants to.
buenas noches y bonne nuit! :)
Monday, January 5, 2009
on into January
since my last blog entry a week ago, the aforementioned Isaac Asimov had a birth anniversary...on January 2. though best known for his science fiction, and secondarily for nonfiction popular science writing, his HUNDREDS of books range over other topics as well, including history, literary criticism and humor.
i've gotten an interesting range of responses from people regarding my intention to read The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. one of my favorite responses came from an acquaintance, Joe Woodard, who said that i've inspired him to commit to reading a book he's wanted to read for a while: the novel V by Thomas Pynchon. i mentioned that at some point i'd like to read Gravity's Rainbow but realize it isn't casual reading, as it has multiple sub-plots and other complexities.
today marks the anniversary of the announcement, in an Austrian newspaper, of German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen's discovery of x-rays. on this day in 1933, construction on the Golden Gate Bridge began. birth anniversary: Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian yogi, 1893. death anniversary: Momofuku Ando, Taiwanese-Japanese cook and entepeneur who invented instant noodles, 2007. happy Mungday and Hail Eris to my fellow Discordians!
as some of you know, i have a very serious addiction to photography. my latest batch of photos (which i have close at hand) included 2 rejects: a poorly lit photo of a Christmas tree which i subsequently hid inside a library copy of Richard Brautigan's book The Tokyo-Montana Express on the page facing the beginning of a story titled "What Are You Going To Do With 390 Photographs of Christmas Trees?"; and a badly over-lit photo of my right hand holding a pentagram-shaped cookie, which i subsequently hid inside of a library copy of a biography of the aforementioned Asimov. a real disappointment, that photo, because it took 3 hands to make it: my right hand as the subject, my brother Jorge's hand to press the flash (necessary for this indoor picture) and my left hand to snap the photo. this latest batch of photos includes 3 others of my hands holding various things. these and other hand photos form an ongoing series of what i think of as self-portraits. i also took - no, not 389, but just 3 other photos of Christmas trees. they came out okay. ciao!
i've gotten an interesting range of responses from people regarding my intention to read The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. one of my favorite responses came from an acquaintance, Joe Woodard, who said that i've inspired him to commit to reading a book he's wanted to read for a while: the novel V by Thomas Pynchon. i mentioned that at some point i'd like to read Gravity's Rainbow but realize it isn't casual reading, as it has multiple sub-plots and other complexities.
today marks the anniversary of the announcement, in an Austrian newspaper, of German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen's discovery of x-rays. on this day in 1933, construction on the Golden Gate Bridge began. birth anniversary: Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian yogi, 1893. death anniversary: Momofuku Ando, Taiwanese-Japanese cook and entepeneur who invented instant noodles, 2007. happy Mungday and Hail Eris to my fellow Discordians!
as some of you know, i have a very serious addiction to photography. my latest batch of photos (which i have close at hand) included 2 rejects: a poorly lit photo of a Christmas tree which i subsequently hid inside a library copy of Richard Brautigan's book The Tokyo-Montana Express on the page facing the beginning of a story titled "What Are You Going To Do With 390 Photographs of Christmas Trees?"; and a badly over-lit photo of my right hand holding a pentagram-shaped cookie, which i subsequently hid inside of a library copy of a biography of the aforementioned Asimov. a real disappointment, that photo, because it took 3 hands to make it: my right hand as the subject, my brother Jorge's hand to press the flash (necessary for this indoor picture) and my left hand to snap the photo. this latest batch of photos includes 3 others of my hands holding various things. these and other hand photos form an ongoing series of what i think of as self-portraits. i also took - no, not 389, but just 3 other photos of Christmas trees. they came out okay. ciao!
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