Alan Moore Is Right And Everyone Else Is Wrong

(Who did this poster?

I would gladly credit & linkback.

Located it here at Achtung Baby!)

I honestly got obsessed with the whole Watchmen thing yesterday. Couldn't help it, had deadlines (which I still have, since I spent hours becoming a Watchmen Prequel Scholar by default).

The Daryl Cooke ones look like they will be good, kind of by accident, almost like just casting a perfect actor for a role instead of teaching someone what the role is about.

The others will likely just embody all the stupid xeroxing of "grim comics" that we have seen for the last zillion years. Grim, gritty Archie & Veronica etc etc.

Moore might be a curmudgeon, but he & Gibbons created something special and for that, I don't care what DC or anyone's legal rights are, they should just make some new comics and leave Watchmen alone as Something Good. (tm).

I kind of love Moore's Swamp Thing & Superman more. Swampy in particular had more of a freewheeling character to it. The ones where he's exiled into space and meets Adam Strange and has his own plant life Green Lantern adventure are just perfect.

God, he pretty much issued the perfect critique to the 80's Byrne Superman IN ADVANCE by doing those last 2 Silver Age Supermans. For that alone, DC & all of Warner "Communications" should do whatever he wants forever.

Fuck it all, the history of comics is the history of people getting to do weird stuff when no one's looking.

The Hernanadez Bros were right to get indie & stay indie.

That is all.

This Blog Has Officially Gone Fishing

Tweeted this today:

Going on a social media break til after 5771/Rosh Hashanah. Reach out to me via email/ /www.stevensolo.com

Of course, I haven't used this blog in months. Social media killed it. The whole notion of documenting my responses to art and life here seemed so long-winded and archaic--and the immediacy of Twitter seemed to enbolden me to carry on in some less artificial voice. At first, at least.

This blog is a pretty solid archive/catalogue of my obsessive interests. Perhaps in 5771, post Rosh Hashanah it will make sense to continue it in this or another form.

For now, there's more than enough to last through the end of 5770.

Here's one of my first entries to go out on:

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Rant on Rebuilding my Studio

I want to be like Hokusai, who changed his name & moved to a fresh new studio & took up a new artistic identity at the same time. Instead I would buy cats (if I weren't so allergic) so that the police could find something living in my apt. among the newspaper clippings when I die here.

I am engaged in a project I call "rebuilding my studio". Once I named it, the physical difficulties all seemed to make sense. I am supposedly purging my supplies, reference material, decoration and equipment. Each category of CRAP has its own box with a LARGE BLACK MARKERED description so I can wrap my head around it. Like "DRAWING MATERIALS" "BIKE STUFF".

Considering that after 8 years of living here, I can't find the kind of erasers I use in a shelf containing boxes of bicycle supplies that I fantasized using, mixed with a kind ofpaint I used for a project 5 years ago this is probably a good idea.

Most of what I need I can fit into a decent sized backpack. What IS all this STUFF?

Anyway the "desired outcome" is "A functional studio workspace I enjoy working in with adequate and clear storage for supplies I need, archive completed work, accessible storage for related and front burner work-in-progress." (My mission statement on this motherfucker.)

This is all a delusion. At some point I will just get fed up with interior decorating my soul and just flail out and make new stuff again until I find myself backed up against the wall of all the old crap (some of which is the stuff I have been making) and, gasping for air, begin to repeat the whole activity again.

Bukowski Stealth Tribute Header

I think Buk wd like the idea of a tribute page in a bar. Whether Terroir|Tribeca is too fancy to have earned his appreciation we will never know. We do know that when he died, the last bar at which he was a regular cancelled/reduced their riesling order since it was his constant consumption of the stuff that kept inventory moving.

Twitter Ate My Blog, Then Had My Mind For Dessert

Twitter is reenacting the development of tech & communication but at jump cut speed. We, the participants, are experiencing this meta evolution in dizzying fashion. Even Google and Facebook's respective arcs of development seem normal and measured by comparison.

The history of film was an accelerated version of the history of painting--and with painting as a model that medium accelerated pretty wildly. But even with Eisenstein, Riefenstal and other formal innovators it still took a few decades to get to Godard. There may have been other formalists I am not thinking of but JL Godard seems to represent the meta-moment, when narrative conventions are well enough understood to be truncated. The editing form also becomes part of the content. Literally "cut to the chase".

The evolution from the days of your Geocities site to your carefully designed & manicured Home page to a blog like this one to, to, to: 140 characters and being at a benzedrine fueled cocktail party 24/7 seems to have happened in the space between the frames.

I haven't posted to this blog for awhile and honestly it seemed like a kind of (outmoded)scrapbooking activity which might or might not address the question of "what am I looking at or thinking about" but it was never clear if I was really communicating or just writing a Dear Diary in public.

The nutty-as-a-fruitcake feedback loop of Twitter lets me know my ideas were heard in some fashion. Perhaps closer to brainstorming at a fun party with a lot of slightly drunk & hyped up smart people. I also think years of working in restaurants prepared me for the multithreaded bullshit sessions, sparring, goofing off and, lately, pretty interesting moments of connection with others.

At the same time, is it intoxication that leads to further insight or am I just turning into a drunk? #Infohaulism. Hrrm.

The metaphor of alcohol seems appropriate in many ways. Infohaulism is much like alcholism. As an occasional purveyor of webstuff for clients I have felt like an Alcoholic Sommelier of Information (tm). It's the hard stuff and I not only give out a tasting glass of the latest toys, tools and concepts. I am hitting my own private stock but my vices are not limited to boutiques. Infowise, I gleefully devour Sterno as well as Burgundy for breakfast often side by side. Twitter gave me a place to put all of that monkey-minded surfing, reading, clicking. Even worse, I got sugar pellets of approval at irregular intervals to reinforce my shitty habits. (Not my insight, I will attribute when I remember)

Am I preparing a yummy meal that will also sustain or (as Merlin The Mann said recently) am I just manufacturing potato chips all day and all night? Not even the cool kind, it often feels like we are mechanically, obsessively forcefeeding one another car trunkfuls of rotten Pringles.

The "We Were Promised Jetpacks" side of this: all the cool toys have been appropriated by businessman douchebag types. Is the ecology of Twitter somehow resistant to being digested this way b/c it empowers Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions graduates of Al Jaffee University? Or are we doing Satan's work for him by developing such advanced Weapons Of Mass Distraction?

Enough for the moment.

Why? Why? WHY?

Random bike basket in my neighborhood:


Random public trashcan in my neighborhood (about 2 yards away):

I have used a folding basket on my own bikes to prevent this particular petty cruelty from being inflicted on my trusty steed. Should the city invest in a bike basket shaped trashcan design to encourage litterbugs to reform?

Buzz Buzz

1 more interview: Grant Morrison explains the hive-mind here

One bee is not particularly smart but group a number of bees together and at a critical threshold something interesting happens - a 'hive' emerges. That is to say, from the aggregation of a number of not very intelligent units, a mass intelligence emerges. The same thing happens everywhere in nature; a single sponge cell is a fairly aimless, hopeless animal but gather enough of them together and a colony intelligence is seen to develop which drives each individual along as part of a group endeavor.

So, now that we have the idea in our heads that 'intelligence' appears when systems become increasingly complex, we can approach my notion of 'living comics.'

SoloPhotostream: Accidents Will Happen

Google creates photo albums by default as a byproduct of posting to Blogger. I stumbled on this by chance. It forms a curious mindmap of postings:

No Wonder I Have The Munchies All The Time

This article is a treasure trove of pronouncements on our current predicament. Oh shit, I mean MY predicament, who's kidding who here?

He sees our distraction as a full-blown epidemic—a cognitive plague that has the potential to wipe out an entire generation of focused and productive thought. He compares it, in fact, to smoking. “People aren’t aware what’s happening to their mental processes,” he says, “in the same way that people years ago couldn’t look into their lungs and see the residual deposits.”

And:

People who frequently check their e-mail have tested as less intelligent than people who are actually high on marijuana.

And, And:

The Internet is basically a Skinner box engineered to tap right into our deepest mechanisms of addiction.

Sam Anderson, NY Mag

A Rosé is a...

Leo Barrera is to Rosé as Paul Grieco is to ------------------ (for 15 points)

I unabashedly love rosé, following in the path blazed by Leo Barrera and others. Friend and co-Terroirist, David Flaherty, at Grapes and Grains has provocatively posted on the current numbnuts EU debate. Here's my comment, which has grown into a posting somehow as well:

Some thoughts. I generally get out my bullshit detector when I hear a supposed opposition of values, usually suspecting a dialectic in the making or outright irrelevant hairsplitting.

The problem is larger than winemaking, it's that traditional culture has some great, time tested truths that must be respected. But at the same time, if not kept fresh by irreverent experimentalists all culture will stagnate and die.

I don't think that codifying winemaking and categorizing creative activity means shit. Vino da Tavola or IGT? The name of the producer is what counts.

The relevant Star Trek clip is this one from The Omega Glory:

James Hillman wrote about the connection between the radical (who looks to the root, literally) and the traditionalist somewhere. My version of what we are doing at the wine bar is breathing life into moribund forms but always returning to the root in terms of content.

Thackrey is not in opposition to typicity and sense of place, he delivers a critique of unthinking jargon/marketing lingo.

Anyway, that's my take right now.

PS: As always, the EU is wasting time codifying Rosé when they could be feeding people, man!

What does Norway Actually Produce?

"Norway trade union: Boycott Israel if peace process fails"

Well, good luck without cellphones, computer chips or medical advances. But what in the world do those hypocrites actually contribute so that they can be boycotted in return?

OH, Norwegian SALMON? You mean fancy LOX? Bring it on, Norwegian trade union. Who the fuck do you think is eating all that smoked fish? Hint: probably not our Palestinian brothers and sisters!

THANKS for your support, fun ride, now back to work damnit.

Jeremy: THANKS FOR THE SHOES! They killed last night.

There's alot to be written about being a Beardie nominee, sitting in that audience waiting to hear the winners announced for hours is a roller coaster ride that I would not have missed. And, for all my skepticism about awards in general there were many moments that were meaningful. The tribute to Totonno's pizza was cool. Feeding America infomercial and the hands down best speaker of the night: Jack Arnold, who just owned the room with dry drawling wit.

Eating, like 4 pounds of octopus carpaccio and uni cuban sandwiches was cool. Minor disappointment: the Illy capsule espresso maker doesn't offer Nespresso a challenge at ALL. I want Illy to do better as they are way cooler.

Drinking at events like this is more a matter of avoiding drinking too much for me. Champagne at the Terroir afterparty was delicious, that was the real moment. (With Rocket To Russia blasting.) The Terroir afterparty was so blissfully fucked up that it's hard to imagine it being better if I were wearing a medallion with Lex Luthor on it! What would have happened if I won? A nuclear explosion on East 12th Street?

Paul Grieco, human fireball. David Flaherty, criminal mastermind.

The amazing support of all my friends was a bit overwhelming

Seeing so many people from my restaurant life was surreal. Note to self: go OUT in Boston & get to Myers and Chang already.

In retrospect, being a dark horse for the nomination suits me just fine. Kudos to The Korn Group.

The sneakers were a loaner from friend Jeremy and changed my life. They were real Nikes so they were not only sick shiny but actually bouncy and sneaker-y. Awesome.



OH, and it's Sampanthavivat!

Born To Anti Rock, Rock, Rock

Further note on questioning one's convictions...

"Anti-rockist", anti hyperbolic comics. These are subject to the usual, perhaps shallow paradox that they are phrases which mean something only to those who not-so-secretly want to _really_ rock.

Post meaningless spectacle, post shoegazing, dust off that glittery jumpsuit and those Kirby ink dots, embrace the fact of performance, of the humility of the entertainer, the storyteller, cartoonist.

Johnny Marr:
"There's an interesting mythology about the pop music I grew up with in the 70s. Everyone wants to demystify themselves now and say "I'm just a regular guy". Well, I don't mind of not being thought regular... Pop music should be for people who don't buy into that ideology!!!!"

Attack One's Own Convictions

"A very popular error -- having the courage of your convictions. Rather, it is a matter of having the courage for an attack upon one's convictions." Nietzche

It's going to be interesting to see a critic of the cultural/commercial uses of the term "terroir" at Terroir on Wed.

"In short, billions of dollars depend on acceptance of the concept of
terroir, whose most important mineral component is therefore a very large
grain of salt."- Sean Thackrey

This all brings to mind Ben Shahn and Karl Shapiro's writings about the use of art as "culture". That culture is the social, political and economic use of art; exchange value rather than inherent kicks.

While I don't think that a wine bar called "Typicity" would be as sexy, I see Thackrey's critique as refreshing. As with much spicy/salty/mineral and nutritional laden language, the word "terroir" may have a shitload of baggage, but that's the shadow side of it also possessing historical/cultural/associative power.

Never Mind The Baggage, We're Going With Fucked Up Declarative Language, Undeterred By The Nattering Nabobs! BUT: A good sharp kick at the wheels of this bike will keep us awake on this ride.

Awards... Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering, Pinky?

"I don't wanna be a poet
'Cuz I don't wanna blow it
I don't care 2 win awards "

D.M.S.R. Prince
I usually quote Prince, I don't care to win awards... but let's be real here. My nomination from the James Beard House for Best Restaurant Graphics is cool.

My Mom has something nice to tell her friends for a change & this is a good thing.

A friend had a good point: an award from your client base is more meaningful in design than one from your design peers in that one is being acknowledged for the utility and relevance of the design. Rationalizations abound.

It's clear to me that Terroir is a unique project, and that Paul Grieco, David Flaherty and Jared Friedman are each respectively responsible for being part of the band--using Stephen Levy's comparison of the iPod team to a rock band in The Perfect Thing as a jumping off point. You can't be a shredding guitarist or turntablist without an ensemble.

No matter what, we will pimp the tshirts at the event. Stickers! Too!

Jared modelling the pink number.

Matt Stinton, male model

Sample misprints are cool

"When you're done talking, stop"

Fallows is worth reading.

I have been in sales a number of different times in my career. Silence is an especially valuable tool when selling , for pretty much the same reason.

Clients are uncomfortable with the quiet and want to fill the air. We always said, "Whoever talks first loses" but it isn't quite as simple as that. People will tell you things (if you just shut up!) when given the chance. Silence is the best way to handle it.

When Do My Tweets Eat My Blog?

Worse than a new format eating my blog bit by bit, it's a different persona in some respects.

http://twitter.com/terroirNY

Perhaps having a clearly defined identity (secret ID, if you will) is part of it. The 140 character limit and the built in social networking are sticky aspects as well. Hmmm.

Perhaps a guilty pleasure is that I like clearly defined (cartoony even) avatars. Stan Lee is not exactly Stanley Lieber, nor Joey Ramone, Jeffery Hyman. From this place in history, Philip Guston just seems like a joke name and Goldstein seems to be the painter whose forms and contradictions I love. "Guston" is almost a Jewish joke, and the salami on rye quality of his late work's multiple ironies partly turn on that moniker.

The name Kirby, on the other hand, is sharp like a pickle. Maybe the level of assimilation that Jack Kirby was headed for was so modest -- and so transparent -- that it doesn't rankle as in authentic.

Digressions aside... ah, what is there besides digression and regression anyway? Productivity porn just seems to stem partly from urgent failure, but also from a lack of self acceptance. You get all dressed up in a shiny font and the next thing you know you can't tolerate the squalor that your soul effortlessly exudes.

Look Ma! A shiny To Do list!

That's all for now. Looks like I'm gonna Tweet, Blog, Tumble, Fumble, Grumble.

HRRRM.

What About "Market Forces"? OR Socialism for Duchebags

Bankers can't possibly afford NYC on a mere $500K/year
(Boingboing/NYT).

When it comes to creative people we hear all about market forces. Hey, I never expected a free lunch (although I get lots of free appetizers). The gov't should issue these bums a used bike, some milk crates and some futons off of Craigslist and call it a day. Get a real job, mac!

The alternative could be to arm their children with bamboo rods and go for an old fashioned Cultural Revolution.

Mao was a hypocritical asshole (like these incompetent capitalists) , but let's not throw out all of his ideas. Some of them might work very well when it comes to these 500k a year wonderboys.

Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom. And then, as usual, cut them down for fertilizer.

One More Link: Gaza & Michael Totten

This is the most pragmatic, interesting interview I have read on Gaza & the Palestinians.

Khaled Abu Toameh is not your typical Palestinian journalist. He began his career at one of Yasser Arafat’s newspapers and today he writes for the Jerusalem Post.

Read it all. Among the many points he makes is that the tunnels in Gaza are not only for weapons, they are for EVERYTHING.

Smuggling is a business. We're doing Hamas an injustice by saying they're the ones who established the tunnels. These tunnels have been there since 1967. In the 1970s I visited some of the tunnels. In the 1980s I visited the tunnels. When Arafat was there I visited the tunnels. These tunnels are part of the culture. It's a cultural thing over there. If you have your own tunnel it's like you have your own business. Hamas now takes taxes and gives people a license to build their tunnel.

This is also explored in this article from Sarah A. Topol in The New Republic. Of course, one always identifies with bootleggers who are distributing potato chips and chocolates. The Iranian rocket parts are, alas, part of the package.

When I am reading about the Net as The New Human Network half the time and then reading about this stuff, a kind of cognitive dissonance sets in. Like the tribesmen in The Ape Within who immediately seize upon the introduction of an airplane as a method of dropping boulders on their rivals, the new tools will not automatically lead us to The Age Of Aquarius.

No Madonna, Boy George or The Rolling Stones in 2009

What fucking year is this, anyway? Joey, Dee Dee and Joe Strummer are dead and these people are still in my morning news.

"Newsflash: Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie!" (at about 3:00 in).

My Favorite Doppelganger

I had to become Stevensolo because www.stevensolomon.com was taken. The good news is, that he's one of the neatest Steven Solomons out there. He is an 18 year old professional pianist in the Chicago area. Happy New Year, Steven and everybody else.