happy John Steinbeck's birthday! the start of Tibetan New Year happened a couple days ago, so i'll say Happy New Year again too. have put down The Grapes of Wrath for the time being, stopping at chapter 5 (of course i'll continue it and finish it later!) to read Daniel Tammet's memoir Born on a Blue Day.
the blog entry previous to this one ends in thunder. Daniel experiences the number 5 as loud like thunder. William Carlos Williams and Charles Demuth saw the figure 5 in gold accompanied by gong clangs, siren howls and wheels rumbling. in a still undeveloped photo, the 5 digits of my hand curve to hold an edible ball, an orange with a large patch of green mold. on a recent day when i got thrown a curve ball (unexpectedly finding the post office, the library and the bank all closed for President's Day) at home i put 6 of my hand self-portraits on a bulletin board along with other things;...
....(TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW 'CAUSE IT's LATE & I'M SLEEPY)...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
"tomorrow", huh?
....more like a week later! sheesh. St. Valentine recently won big points with me because i read in a local newspaper that (according to legend) he got executed for helping men avoid military conscription by getting them married.
oh and speaking of saints...Joshua Norton (Emperor Norton I) - peace to him - incarnated on this day in 1819. Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!
on this day in 1876, both Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray - independently of and unbeknownst to eachother - applied for patents for the telephone, a device which truly has no single inventor. in fact, even before either of them, an Italian named Antonio Meucci invented a telephone.
oh and speaking of inventors...on this day in 1744, John Hadley died. he invented the octant, a measuring device...and so did someone named Thomas Godfrey!
TODAY'S WORDS
1. Manti
2. kellokult
3. i'll keep you in suspense about the third one.
i've recently learned about, and become enthused about, an English mathematician and linguist named Daniel Tammet. a savant blessed-cursed with Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning autism spectrum condition, and clearly blessed with synesthesia (perception of things in one sense modality accompanied by impressions in other sense modalities, such that to a synesthete, a sound may have a corresponding color and shape, etc.) Daniel has invented a language called Manti. in this language, the word "kellokult" means lateness (literally, "clock debt"). i have a long standing tendency to accrue clock debt, as the lateness of this blog entry demonstrates.
for Daniel, even abstractions such as numbers and days of the week have corresponding colors, shapes, textures and sounds. he experiences Pi as a majestic, rolling landscape and once famously recited the first 22,514 digits of Pi at a charity event for epilepsy.
i'd like to shift attention now to someone else who, like Daniel Tammet, also had all kinds of inventive fun with words: the writer James Joyce, whose birth anniversary occured this past February 2...when i had intended to post this present blog entry (see, i told you i drag my butt)! in his novel Finnegans Wake, Joyce uses the third of today's words that i wanted to introduce...this onomotopoeic neologism representing a thunderclap....
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!
oh and speaking of saints...Joshua Norton (Emperor Norton I) - peace to him - incarnated on this day in 1819. Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!
on this day in 1876, both Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray - independently of and unbeknownst to eachother - applied for patents for the telephone, a device which truly has no single inventor. in fact, even before either of them, an Italian named Antonio Meucci invented a telephone.
oh and speaking of inventors...on this day in 1744, John Hadley died. he invented the octant, a measuring device...and so did someone named Thomas Godfrey!
TODAY'S WORDS
1. Manti
2. kellokult
3. i'll keep you in suspense about the third one.
i've recently learned about, and become enthused about, an English mathematician and linguist named Daniel Tammet. a savant blessed-cursed with Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning autism spectrum condition, and clearly blessed with synesthesia (perception of things in one sense modality accompanied by impressions in other sense modalities, such that to a synesthete, a sound may have a corresponding color and shape, etc.) Daniel has invented a language called Manti. in this language, the word "kellokult" means lateness (literally, "clock debt"). i have a long standing tendency to accrue clock debt, as the lateness of this blog entry demonstrates.
for Daniel, even abstractions such as numbers and days of the week have corresponding colors, shapes, textures and sounds. he experiences Pi as a majestic, rolling landscape and once famously recited the first 22,514 digits of Pi at a charity event for epilepsy.
i'd like to shift attention now to someone else who, like Daniel Tammet, also had all kinds of inventive fun with words: the writer James Joyce, whose birth anniversary occured this past February 2...when i had intended to post this present blog entry (see, i told you i drag my butt)! in his novel Finnegans Wake, Joyce uses the third of today's words that i wanted to introduce...this onomotopoeic neologism representing a thunderclap....
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
CONTINUED
of the 5 photos i took of the Camera Van, 3 came out well. better than i expected! the Film Festival came and went. i didn't manage to see the other film i intended to see, a clay animation feature from Australia about some characters in an apartment complex titled $9.99.
i've reached chapter 5 of The Grapes of Wrath. saw Joe Woodard recently and he still hadn't started V.
today my brother Memo and expat Chilean film maker, theater director, cartoonist etc. Alejandro Jodorowsky have their birthday. i called Memo to wish him a happy birthday.
i'll have to continue this tomorrow because i must go to bed. good night.
i've reached chapter 5 of The Grapes of Wrath. saw Joe Woodard recently and he still hadn't started V.
today my brother Memo and expat Chilean film maker, theater director, cartoonist etc. Alejandro Jodorowsky have their birthday. i called Memo to wish him a happy birthday.
i'll have to continue this tomorrow because i must go to bed. good night.
Monday, January 26, 2009
more
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....
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....
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! :)
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