I did link to my blog from my site under "rant" to continue the EXPERIMENT. There is alot of in vivo desensitization goodness and potential shittiness in going that public.
Writing is one thing, throwing the paintings out into the work, that requires some more testiculartudinous!! "YES, it must be done! Pinky, come, there's work to do!!"
Online portfolio of paintings: http://www.stevensolo.com/cbb.html
My response to good friend Paul's query over at otherthanbooks:
"What if we decided to really wage a culture war, and instead of sending
explosive bombs that destroy infrastructure, we waged the war on the front
our enemies most fear? How much would it cost to drop a 100,000 iPod
shuffles, preloaded with music and a message about our desire to promote
freedom?" Link
There is a "modest proposal" of this kind in Reading Myself and Others by
Philip Roth where he proposes dropping new kitchen appliances on the
Vietnamese.
I would like to believe that if Iranian President Ahmadinejad could just
hang out and listen to Jonathan Richman he would renounce his repugnant
ways...! But even a Shuffle loaded with work of great Jewish comedians
might not work on him.
People are capable of all sorts of interpretations and uses of culture.
For example, Serbians could listen to Nirvana while rounding up & killing
civilians in the '90's. Osama is into Whitney Houston. The web intensifies
this strangeness. Our culture doesn't automatically look like "freedom" to
everyone either.
On the other hand, The Velvet Underground and Allen Ginsberg inspired
Havel and the Velvet Revolution. (I know, Joan Baez too).
Snarky answer: Or, do you mean by "our enemies" the RIAA and Microsoft?
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Online portfolio of paintings: http://www.stevensolo.com/cbb.html
No, that would be stupid. But here is a discussion thread that got out of
hand.
"Simplify, simplify" Not: go buy a Simplificator and have it custom
adjusted to your shoe size, Distracted One.
Friends visiting NYC and making me stop thinking about home improvement and "get out the house"!
Clip/Stamp/Fold: The radical architecture of little magazines 196x-197x at The Storefront for Art and Architecture (plus the friendly director Yasmeen, who talked to us about this cool show).
Ettore Sotsass' red Olivetti typewriter design.
The way that show overlapped with the independent book fair at the Dia Chelsea 2 weekends ago. Yummy fonts, crude typesetting, rotting pulp paper... mmmmm...
Plus I got to meet and fanboy out on Julie Doucet. I gave her my card, why didn't I try to get her to go out for drinks? (It was Sunday afternoon & I had to be at work in minutes is why. Plus I pussied out.)
David McQueen's great installation show at Cinders Gallery, 103 Havemeyer St. in Williamsburg. (He is a friend, but the work speaks for itself).
"Beer versus Wine with Cheese" at Murray's Cheese 2 weeks ago with Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery versus Paul Grieco of Hearth. 6 great cheeses, 6 great beers, 6 great wines... we got shitfaced. In style. They jousted in medieval style... "Surely we all acknowledge that these wines are magnificent even though they are inferior to beer, gentlemen..."
The "turn at Green Arrow" sign on Allen and Delancey that always makes me think of Neal Adams.
Ugly buildings like that Blue one on the Lower East Side (L.E.S.) that look like they came from Thanagar and Rann. Where is Adam Strange when you need him?
Gus, The Ice Cream Man (memoir for 49 cents at Amazon, go get it today) visiting and observing NYC.
Gus' notion that the doorman concept in fancy-schmancy restaurants be extended to whole streets. Just make the fucking "meatpacking district" a gated community. With a "big, big Monkey Man" (Specials) at the gate.
Gus' idea of Zagat guides for human beings in NYC. ("15 points out of 30 for hospitality, but a '28' for nice shoes.")
My friend Paul visiting and staying at the Chelsea so we could use the elevator and fire escape.
$4.95 Pho Do Bien at the Vietnamese restaurant around the corner while on the TV the singer (Kokei Tatsumi?) does a note for note cover of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You" in an unidentified Asian language, possibly Vietnamese.
David Allen and Merlin Mann at top speed talking about STUFF.
Finally for today: Ian Dury singing "Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part 3)".
Another friend writes:
"I looked over the postings, and some things are not obvious to
outsiders (e.g., LES, which i had to pause to decode as lower east
side). But it's a good forum to capture things that you want to
share."
"What's interesting is seeing all the interests in one place."
The benefit of posting semi-publically may be simply to "tell the joke one time each day, rather than repeating it all day." Or it may reveal something about seemingly disparate activities and interests.
Part of the value seems to be in being relatively shameless in posting.(See Albert Ellis' "Shame attacking exercises") I have opinions about iPod vs. Zune, for example, that seem as important as clipping my toenails yet I obsessively read all the news about this idiocy so it might be a "style search" ala Barbara Scher, where she advises people to inspect their own rooms as if they were looking at a stranger's house for clues.
One presents oneself as a seamless, unified human being, but in front of oneself the beehive aspect is most apparent. Who the fuck am I? Why not lay out these entrails in order to at least reflect...
This is an experiment in blogging. I never have anything to say when I decide to blog, but I do write emails and even comments on blogs and sites. So, as an experimental journal I am going to post that stuff via email whenever it strikes that I am actually writing about my concerns, however high or low those concerns are.
Sex, Death, Comic Books and Gadgets have all made an appearance already in one form or another. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Online portfolio of paintings: http://www.stevensolo.com/cbb.html
Subject: Re: Happy Birthday!
Dear (Old Friend Who Remembered My G-ddamn bday),
THANKS for remembering. It was off to another funeral today, I shit you not. The father of my cousin who died 2 mo. ago. He was dying for years, but his daughter going in a year from cancer did it for him.
I was in Boston, planning on chilling out for my bday/Thanksgiving & instead rushed back to NYC with my brother to represent our side of the family. Well, he took me out for lunch and we bonded abit over the madness.
This uncle bought me Charlton comics when I was growing up, the B-line of comics. His slightly off gifts remain very endearing to me (even as a kid I somehow got it that getting this detail wrong was getting it right).
Merlin meets Super Dave! World's Finest: Your Two Favorite Superheroes Together!
The ones you want are called "Productive Talk" 1-8. Merlin Mann is going to be making one multichapter file out of them, but you might be curious to check them out sooner than that.
Update: it's here.
Galactus is Coming! is a mash-up of the classic Jack Chick religious
comic tract and the Marvel Comics Galactus Devourer of Worlds mythos.
(BoingBoing)
This is just great. Whenever I hear religious stories, I always wonder why not just study the first 38 issues of Spider-Man instead, they would be more meaningful and humane.
Ed, it's not me, it's you. Get your act together before it's too late, if
it isn't already.
I am a Palm codependent. They are Netscaping their existence away, no one even understands what name the OS, hardware co. etc. is this week. I want
a small modern clamshell running the Palm OS, not a brick. The Samsung i500 is great, but I want something slimmer and less precious.
Hint: pay someone to put one of your phones in their pocket (not cargopants) and see what it looks like.
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Online portfolio of paintings: http://www.stevensolo.com/cbb.html
Breakup yesterday at Barnes and Noble.
There is a mural which features IB Singer.
Somehow he caught my eye while ___ & I were talking.
His presence amused and sanctified in some screwy way the goings on. It was like he was officiating the mishegas. Who better?
"It is explained that all relationships require a little give and take. This is untrue. Any partnership demands that we give and give and give and at the last, as we flop into our graves exhausted, we are told that we didn't give enough." -Quentin Crisp
(edited for clarity)
gtdfastspliced David Allen
MacBreak Weekly 15:
Spliced-Mated Albert Ellis
greatesthitsv2Bob Dylan
The Obliterati Mission of Burma
bmovie playlist (OK, this is cryptic, but it's a bunch of single songs)
Head Over Heels Go Gos rule!
Fat Bottomed Girls --Queen is a guilty pleasure for this ascetic
Mack the Knife -- Lou Miami
Anthrax -- Gang of Four
Trapped Again -- Southside Johnny
Teenage Kicks -- Undertones
Wig-Wam Bam -- SWEET! (All other tracks are set on "don't shuffle"
currently so that when I "shuffle" I am actually repeating this single
track.
Your "mission statement" to recreate The Bronx School of Science strikes me as heartfelt and direct. I would encourage you to formulate that as your new logo. This wish, to create and operate in a like-minded community, underlies your efforts in blogging, podcasting, etc.
In some ways Talmud study is a model for this. I am not suggesting that you get yourself to a yeshiva, but the constant study, conversation and interpretation are an interesting model.
To apartmenttherapy.com:
The portable radiator would be good in a tent. As it is, I am going to buy
the Vornado TouchStone Vortex Heat 500 unless I get some new information.
The DeLongi I have is just not cutting it.
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Online portfolio of paintings: http://www.stevensolo.com/cbb.html
