Zen

h/t Sadly No!

From what I can gather, this is a Japanese version of Disney's child star factory and American Idol.

Actually, Mini Moni reminds me of The Killer Japanese Seizure Robots (bookmarked for years on my computer).


Once at work, in an effort to entertain her, I played the robots for a friend's 2 year old—it made her cry...

Poetry

A friend at work is a poetry reader/writer(?), Seidel, Larkin, etc. I confessed to him that I am not a big reader of poetry. From reading, I do get the occasional blast of recognition or imaginative journey, but I regret I don't understand poetry like other forms of expression—I am unfamiliar with poetry's politics and traditions. Maybe I'm a lazy reader...maybe I'm trying too hard.

Yet, I do enjoy hearing it read—the cadence and emphasis of the author's voice is always engaging. (Although, I don't think this is Lowell's voice.)

Bob Mould—Sugar

Sugar, short-lived but fantastic.








Note: I realize my posts are increasingly disconnected—zigging, zagging. But, it reminds me that the only real purpose of this blog is to nail things down (digitally) before I forget or stop caring.

1968—Louisville

I have never forgotten this ridiculous song.

I first heard it when I was 10-11 years old. A friend's older brother—the perfect hippie, who had just returned from study in Heidelberg, Germany—played it for us on an old reel to reel tape player/recorder. I've always thought that it was an obscure Frank Zappa song.

I know now that Zappa only produced the record.

Painting #11 (continued)

States #1 and 2 (from September)

State #3 (December)

This one has moved along without a record of individual states. As I've looked at previous paintings (#7, 8, 9, and 10) there is some good and bad—again, it has always been the case that I would need to paint up to the present—to work out (and through) past hooks, etc.

I'd like to push this next group ahead by using paint differently—more liquid and less controlled application of paint, alongside the scraping and drawn marks. I should also figure out how to work 2 canvases simultaneously. More of a studio space issue.

Updated: Painting #11 (final)

Cheery Prose

"...Senators, as a class are insufferable cretins whose self-regard and pomposity and belief that they are not horrible loathsome shitheaded troglodytes stand in precisely inverse proportion to the fact that they are, often enough, James Inhofe."

                                            ...

"Angry, pointless, non-constructive, antiquated, incomprehensible, malevolent, inane, crazed, and douchey: John McCain is the US Senate."

I thought these were such entertaining and caustic quotes, I couldn't just let them languish on a widely read and popular blog. 

h/t Thers

Home

Plants aren't a substitute for my cats—still, something to do.

                                                                                                                 

RIP Captain Beefheart

...and of course Frank Zappa.



Bongo Fury!

A nice memorial.

Another Soundtrack: 1981-86

WLOU (Louisville) and WBLS (New York).
Painting studio music.

WLOU played gospel in the morning and proto hip hop the rest of the day. WBLS had marathon hip hop mixes that went on for hours—perfect for studio all-nighters in New Brunswick, NJ.








Also...



Update:
If I recall correctly, the studio music was pretty diverse. Included a lot of Velvet Underground and The Clash (didn't play on the radio in Louisville). But WRSU at Rutgers had a pretty good play list.

A Work-life Soundtrack

This has been my work-life soundtrack for the past 20 years or more. It must have something to do with my relationship to both "work" and "life."

Curious...

Political Metaphor...

The Third Way knocks out Progressive Politics!  Down goes Progressive Politics!


I think the middle class is screwed.

(I saw this fight on tv when I was 14. I wasn't a big fan of Frazier. I preferred Ali (which riled up the racist elements in family).

Independently Wealthy or on SSI Disability?

Probably packed up his van to follow Olivia Newton-John's Long Live Love tour of the midwest in 1974.

My Boys

Walter (on right) 11-29-09. Truman (on left) 12-10-09.

These guys were the best.
They are with me, and in my thoughts daily. They're regularly in my dreams, walking on me as I sleep, pushing against my hand, laying on my chest.

Sometimes I think about adopting a couple of shelter kitties, but the more I think about moving on, the more I miss them. I need more time.

Why is this true?

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em...

How is it possible, that in 1969 I was hiding cigarettes in the woods to have a smoke on my walk to elementary school? Good times...



As a young woman, my Mom smoked Pall Mall's because..."Fine tobacco is its own best filter."



As she matured, her tastes favored the luxurious—and of course—"smooth, pleasing flavor."



My Father, on the other hand, was always a straight shooter, so I guess "the honest taste of a Lucky Strike" made sense to him.



Maybe his chronic depression was eased at Christmastime by Lucky Strikes..."Merry Christmas and Happy Smoking 200 times..."

And also...

I highly recommend this book.

In this political/economic climate, it's comparable to the phone calls I used to make to friends the day after getting trashed at a party—many years ago. It effectively tracks the arc of the US from its status quo politics (relative sobriety) to the full on venal, billionaire funded, know nothingness that has been mainstreamed today (topsy-turvy, scotch fueled delirium).

"Your're kidding me...I said that...I threw-up where...?! I'm really, really sorry."

 UPDATED:

Women

Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Kim Gordon, Marnie Greenholz...and on and on.







The original Live Skull line-up at the now shuttered CBGBs.



The music I drop on this blog is too often from the guys (Iggy, etc.). The artists above, and many more, contribute as much (or more) to the architecture of this decidedly subjective blog.

UPDATED:
I hadn't seen this...wow, Bjork!

Have a Nice Day!

For me, Bukowski, unlike Burroughs, has always been too dark to entertain with regularity.
Burroughs' darkness carries a thrill, a kick, within its artifice and craft.
Bukowski's genius rests in his visceral accessibility—crystal clear accounts of failure, loss, and oblivion. Not a whistle or whisper as the graveyard passes.

The Best Laid Plans

This accurately depicts 15 minutes of my work-life yesterday.



I love this video.

For me, the tower magically righted itself...sometimes that happens...

h/t Attaturk

When Life Gives You Lemons, it’s Time for a Lemon Party

By: Attaturk Monday November 8, 2010 1:30 am

photo by uoɹɐɐ at flickr.com

Last week David Broder declared the idea of beating the Iran War drum a most awesome idea, because it will produce those jobs that Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t. And really, it’s an idea he once ran by the Kaiser with approval. Now, rejoining the Chorus Morte of old aspiring murderers is the very definition of “reasonable war criminal” Lindsey Graham:

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who sits on the Armed Services Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, said Saturday the U.S. should consider sinking the Iranian navy, destroying its air force and delivering a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard.
He says they should neuter the regime, destroy its ability to fight back and hope Iranians will take a chance to take back their government.

Yes, because we all know people NEVER think of being more angry at the people who are bombing them than their own government. That’s why the 8th Air Force TOTALLY brought down Hitler all by itself rather than strengthening the Fuhrer’s hand…no matter what all those historical facts say. Nothing will make the Iranians love ‘Murica more than our awesome bombs killing their relatives.

From FDL.

UPDATE: This is interesting now, in light of the recent Wikileaks dump. David Broder, Lindsey Graham and the Saudi royal family are of the same mind when it comes to Iran...that's grand.

This hits the bullseye.

After the morning after

I find it difficult to find a flaw in Athenae's analysis:

You had majorities, and you had Harry Reid, refusing to be mean to Republicans by shoving stuff through. You had majorities, and you had Barack Obama acting like he was already an ex-president and could be gracious and social with these pricks. You had majorities, used them to do some stuff, and then sat back and acted like we should be grateful when we can fucking count.

We can fucking count, out here. We know what 51 means. We know what 257 means. We're not morons. And all the procedural whatsit you argue today, about ConservaDems and Blue Dogs, doesn't mean shit. You had it, and we worked hard to give it to you, and we see you calling things impossible which are just very hard, and we get fucking annoyed, because we don't get to get away with that shit. Not at our jobs and not in our lives.

And there it is: "It's hard" appears to have meant, "So let's not try."

Well, you know, I'm sure we can find a few hundred other people who would be happy to take a job for a few hundred thousand bucks a year (plus a rather attractive pension and health insurance package) where all you do is offer excuses for why you "can't" do your job.

Signed,
Not Atrios

-Avedon 07:58

The Democratic House of Representatives

One consolation—my home state of Massachusetts gave the Teatards and Brownbots a sad.

Republicans’ revolution fades in Massachusetts

While in line at my polling place Tuesday morning, I had the pleasure of listening to the proud citizens (above/right) relish the opportunity to vote against Barney Frank, who is NOT on the ballot in my district.

Pale Lunacy

One might place this phenomenon in the context of insecurity. A group or a demographic that feels anxiety about its future—political or economic. Yet, as an argument, it fails in light of all the other demographic groups who are indisputably vulnerable—but not insane.

Actually, I think the crazy segments of white culture are manufacturing this crisis. Narcissistically and dramatically projecting what their loss of power might look like. Projecting an environment of victim-hood because it feels good.

What's missing from most media analysis is the fact that only a powerful and privileged demographic group can afford to stage its own decline. To subtly threaten this country's well being by foreshadowing how shitty it will be if their power is diminished. And as stated below, the message is being crafted by its most powerful members—its millionaires and billionaires—and delivered by its least powerful—the working poor and the elderly.

If the teabaggers ever grasp how they're being manipulated...watch out

h/t Cogitamus

Great agitprop.
Finally people (Matt Taibbi) are beginning to point out that the Tea Party is really a billionaire's revolt.
Cocksuckers, heh...oops.

Put this in a time capsule...

to explain to your grandchildren why they're living in a Cormac McCarthy novel written collaboratively with Margaret Atwood.

Mandatory Comedy Break

This is making the rounds...and it's funny.

Seizing power for the few by dividing the masses.

With the thousands of re-purposed Hitler rants out there, today, this one is the best.



h/t weekendnazi

We're not rich...but we might be someday.

Knowing dupes.

Painting #11

I've been working on #11 in the background as I've slowly resolved my computer issues. I am also trying to reorganize my studio/work space—I think by the weekend I should be able to push this one toward more regular working states.

State #1

State #2

Mostly...

One of my favorite bits of cinema...it's in my head every time things go south at work—or currently, when I watch the news about the mid-term elections.

Swans (aka Skin)

Great cover.
I was just in NYC for work...this played in my head as I scuffed around Chelsea.

Time stamp:
I was there the same afternoon/evening as the tornadoes that hit Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. I didn't realize until the next morning that we just missed a Penn Station sleep-over (trains in every direction down).

Also went to a hilarious garden party under the High Line to celebrate the Pace Gallery's 50th anniversary. We stopped in briefly on the way to the train.

Secret Service style security only hinted at the high-powered guest list (not me or SS). GQ models offered up attitude, despair...and oeur d'oeuvres.

An empty lot was transformed into a spectacular picnic area, complete with a field of sunflowers and plenty of boldfaced names. I mean dozens; such as: Muffie Potter Aston, Alec Baldwin, Larry Bell, Eli Broad,Chuck Close, Tom Campbell (Director, Metropolitan Museum), Jim Dine, Tara Donovan, Rosalyn Drexler, Somers Farkas, Casey Fremont (Director, Art Production Fund), Diane Von Furstenberg, Arne Glimcher (the founder and host), Andrea Glimcher, Kim Heirston, Chrissie Iles (Curator, Whitney), Bob Irwin, Mort Janklow, Leonard Lauder, David Lauren, Glenn Lowry (Director, MoMA), Robert Mangold, Thomas Nozkowski, Claes Oldenburg, Michael Ovitz, Thakoon Panichgul, Robert Ryman, Lucas Samaras, Joel Shapiro, Ann Temkin (Chief Curator, MoMA), James Turrell, Keith Tyson, Corban Walker, Fred Wilson, Beth Rudin de Woody, and Charlie Scheips, to name only a few.

We were too early to catch a glimpse of the luminaries.

Okay, less dirge.

No words can describe...

the joy of my work-life.
 
 

9 hours of this...I should pay them.

Restoring Honor

Image by dengre

Sad and ironic.

The mind-numbing dissonance of today's right-wing politics is by design...it frustrates critics and hoodwinks followers.

Media outlets amplify and mainstream these reactionary and xenophobic political operatives. Glenn Beck cynically maneuvers himself to stand alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and the media puts him there—Beck is elevated and MLK is reduced. It is a slick game.

Update: Throw in a little "christ is the best" shtick and you're good to go. 

Oh look...Gohmert Pyle is back on TV.

What can one really say about this? Good job at reinforcing at least 3 or 4 negative stereotypes.

Painting #10 (final...done)

Painting #10 of 10       (30" x 31 1/4")

Details:

I'm not necessarily happy with this one. There are a lot of things about it that I now like, some having to do with it being—almost—a lost cause. I think the ground was too uniformly dark from the start. This limited the pictorial depth I could work with, incidental or intentional...it closed up too fast.
The tension between gesture and painted form is there and I like the different types of painting used—impulsive and considered (fast and slow).

Some of the difficulties I encountered with this painting go back a long way for me. They revolve around abstraction and its translation, flirting with the literal (space, color, object) and accepting the importance of a mark, shape or painted field without it feeling decorative.

Update: I struggle to make it not feel decorative, but know that it fundamentally is.

View preliminary states and comments below the break.

Frank Black and the Catholics

Bonus track:
David Bowie and Frank Black
Scary Monsters/Super Creeps

Watch for the great Tony Oursler piece at the front of the stage. 

"It will give you a pony that shits $20 dollar bills."

 Your stupidity has killed me...I'm no longer alive.

Quick...must...make...knuckles drag harder

Kepler spacecraft with 95 megapixel camera

Hundreds of new planets have been discovered by Nasa's new space probe, sparking new hope of life outside our solar system.
Up to 140 of the newly-found planets are rocky and Earth-like containing both land and water, conditions which could allow simple lifeforms to develop.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1297499/Deep-space-probe-finds-hundreds-new-planets.html#ixzz0uis2BgFl

This is pretty cool.
Yet, ironically, Know Nothing(ness), Teabaggery and fundamentalism (of every stripe) expands as the world shrinks.

Science has been their enemy all along.

UPDATE:
Apparently the scientist should have said Earth-sized planets instead of "Earth-like" planets.

Painting #9 (final)

Painting #9 of 9        (30" x 31 1/4")

Details:

I continue to figure things out. They are entirely situational (and self-seducing). The process boils down to chasing a series of subjective visual hooks that I eventually blunt, obscure or eliminate..

While each painting has illuminated an aspect of what I want to do, I really am beginning to like doing them. I enjoy it as a practice, something I can do daily with the simple goal of moving on to the next one...and finally...to have a completed painting require the next one.

View preliminary states and comments below the break.

The Pixies

One of the best alternative bands of the late 80s, early 90s.

Complex, loud, and beautiful music.



One more.

Painting #8 (final)

Painting #8 of 8           (30" x 31 1/4")

Details:

My approach is changing as I do these...certainly more thoughtful. Or at least doing more deliberate work alongside the direct and impulsive. I am learning (possibly again) that there are more places I can go as I work...more mindsets. It has been so long since I painted regularly, I honestly don't remember if I was conscious of "wearing different hats" as I painted.

 View preliminary states and comments below the break.

Well done (and bleak)

Animation and Direction by BLU
Produced and Distributed by ARTSH.it
Soundtrack by Andrea Martignoni


Very ambitious on-site painting and animation (check out their equally creative website at blublu.org).
I like how the painting/drawing seeps through and incorporates pre-existing graffiti and urban/industrial decay.

Happy Fourth of July!

Welcome to the 21st century where, politically, we will live out the 20th century in reverse...sort of. Or better yet, to conduct politics as a vaudeville review of the 20th century's low points...to gradually unwind real progress, cultural or scientific, because it's too hard to lie and bamboozle in the face of an enlightened population.
Post-modern empowerment...yay!


Sound familiar?


You can make horseshit look glitzy and informed.


Don't mess with Texas (as it cranks out stupid kids).

For fun, and greater effect, play all the video clips at the same time.

Painting #7 (final)

Painting # 7 of 7              (30" x 31 1/4")


Details:

This one was interesting to work. Even though it required more effort (revisions and re-thinks), I felt more confident that I could get the thing to go in a better direction when it had crashed.
I was able to approach it in different ways as well...not just with "rough-handed" brushwork, but also, at times, a calmer hand.

View preliminary states and comments below the break.

Riding a tiger

When I was doing this years ago, there was always a point where I couldn't work a painting any further without it seizing up, becoming mannered or just tickled (and it showed). With this painting, I was able to keep it suspended longer, make critical changes and course corrections along the way...persist.

Painting #6 of 6       (30" x 31 1/4")

Details:

View preliminary states of the final painting below the break.

This guy is a pitch-perfect political assassin

A couple of things:
The political and media theater that this clip represents is rather disgusting...okay...especially that it followed the Biden's "Super Soaker" picnic that many of these journalists attended.

But...the political instincts of this sharp elbowed Democratic veteran "reluctantly" taking on another tone deaf Republican talking point is brilliant. When finally "coaxed" by the White House Press Corps to address Joe Barton's undemocratic apology to BP, he destroys Barton and the Republican's position on the oil spill. He makes it clear that the corporatist, big business loving, free-market wanking Republicans don't give a shit about the "real americans" they always claim to represent.

Great-grandparents

 

Butler County, Ohio 1918

This photograph of my great-grandparents and their children (my grandfather is standing on left) has always intrigued me. My grandfather's sisters are rather frightening. He regularly gave accounts of his sisters' cruelty toward him (with the exception of Ruth, far right). 

 

His father was born in Canada of Scottish parents, who migrated to Connecticut. My great-grandfather was a farmer like his father before him.

 

His mother was born in New Jersey and in the 1880s moved with her family to southwest Ohio. My great-grandmother was a member of the United Methodist Church and regularly taught and performed music and musicals for her church and the local Grange.

 

I have no accounting of my great-grandparents age or the circumstances around their meeting and marriage. 

My grandfather.

He learned farming as a boy, but initially worked at the Ford manufacturing plant in Hamilton, Ohio. Just before the stock market crash of 1929, he became a policeman in Hamilton and later a motorcycle patrolman. His time as a cop was notorious and mythic (largely as a result of his alcoholism). Around the beginning of WWII, he retired from the force (was asked to leave) following an off-duty motorcycle accident (that nearly took his left leg). He returned to the work of his father, farming and farm management, which he did well around his alcoholism. He would regularly make arrangements to move to another farm job just ahead of going on a binge. Consequently my grandmother and mother lived in many different parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Boy needs a haircut...

I almost passed out from laughing when I saw this 30 years ago. Eugene Levy's Floyd the Barber is the best.

I apologize for not being high-minded today...

Given the current situation, this is in bad form. But I hadn't heard of the Uzbeks until I saw this bit on SCTV.

Another painting...

(#5 of 5)    30" x 31 1/4"

(Painting #5, details)

I think this one is finished. The marks, lines, shapes and palette are starting to move beyond a phantom-like recall...slowly becoming current, more now than mere physical memories of having once painted.

The Right is always wrong

I've posted some version of this before, but it's worth a look every  month or so. One might listen to this and think..."Why so harsh Mr. Burroughs? After all you're dead, and certainly things have improved in the past 24 years"
Just read a Sarah Palin Facebook post. Listen to Rand Paul talk about how mountain top removal is okay if the mountain belongs to you or your company. Watch anything uttered by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Think about the politics of South Carolina and Arizona.
Oh, let us not forget the Gulf of Mexico.

You can never be too harsh when discussing the American right wing.




UPDATED: American politics have become a zero sum game. Let's face it, some of the right wing, libertarian and fiscal conservative bullshit is attractive to a lot of Americans. Processed within a life of work, debt, fear and hassles of every proportion, the "I've got mine, screw you!" mentality hits a chord.

Whether the issue is guns, re-segregating private businesses, illegal immigration or the deficit, a moderately clever right wing strategist can appeal to a large number of Americans who struggle enough on a daily basis to have long ago walked away from the idea of citizenship; the concept that the real founders folded into both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (and yes, they were wealthy and white, but philosophically visionary). The challenge that the founders faced (and well meaning Democrats/liberals still face today), is convincing the population to take the bet that helping the least among us, and advocating for the middle class over corporate power, will benefit the whole and preserve a modicum of social stability and harmony. The more rightward politics move, the less anyone really benefits.

Come on...reasonable federal gun laws, the EPA, Social Security, Medicare...state sponsored law enforcement, fire protection and local social services for the poor, the addicted and the crazy...does anyone really think that eliminating these things will make life better?

Really? Come on.

A Painting

(#4 of 4)    30" x 31 1/4"

Reaching back to my own painterly abstraction from the early 80s. I have been trying to work through "not painting:" many years of not painting. Consequently, I thought it was necessary to mine old ways to see if I can cycle up to the present. To keep it going, it seemed that tapping into "pleasure principle" work of my past might help me want to work.

Who knows, maybe in a few months I'll be (re)doing the disconnected image and text anchored work of the "late capitalist" period (late 80s-90s)...you know...images of a smiling Ronald Reagan, barking dogs and a mushroom cloud.

Memorial Day, 1994

My mother when she was a teenager.

She died on May 30th...16 years ago. I still miss her.