kara walker

it's constantly interesting to hear about how other people justify their existence while making art. listening to my friends talk about forms of expression, yesterday, before, after and during a reading in the west village, i was confronted with the enormity, irresponsibility and absurdity of it all. we all fee like we are called to it: forced somehow spiritually to make art, whether it be painting or music or writing. but what then is it for? why must we express ourselves is the greater question?
kara walker said in an interview i saw today, "how do you make representations of your world given what you are given?" which seemed to reverberate with me. whatever you (one) is given are both the physical tools and the mental ability to see and express.
but the why it matters i can't justify. i know that when i read something that says something to me, or see a piece of art that makes something about life more meaningful if only for it's acknowledgement of life, or hear a song that makes me dance or cry, i feel better about being alive, but why?
how can i not contribute anything useful to society, no food, clothing, work, even, these days, and exonerate myself from not making the world worse by my behaving like a spoiled child.
why is art important?
i still don't know.
i guess what i'm asking is not why Kara Walker's statement got me, but why is it that we're trying to make representations of our world, when we already live in an un-derivative version of it.

man am i a quote dork today.

this is from the preamble to Leaves of Grass.
sometimes i need to remember why i write, even if i don't write poetry.


"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals,despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for thestupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hatetyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towardthe people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to anyman or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons andwith the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves inthe open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine allyou have been told at school or church or in any book, dismisswhatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a greatpoem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in thesilent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyesand in every motion and joint of your body."--Walt Whitman

i am the walrus

would you buy wine from this dude?

someone at the subway bar stole my arm-warmer

Tiberon Greatness

this is the sign on the deli on my corner. what do you think the hatch marks on the bottom are for? is the credit talking like archie?

chinese new years

yes, it happens. only under duress did i leave red hook on a sunday. apparently scott had read about a pig race that would happen in the chinese new years parade.
chris came and interrupted my quiet drinking of coffee at the diner while i read the times book review.

we had pho, not chinese. but i think they all have the same new years and it could be called pan-asian new years if that weren't too dumb.










the a for effort went to verizon's float. with hot chicks singing.

and a giant pig shaped ballon.











these are grapefriuts as big as watermelons.

merch buying fireworks to explode on st.john's last night bartending at the b&t

as if the 99 cents store was highway robbery, here is a store in chinatown for the rest of us.

strong sentiments?

or just hungry?

was it neckface? or is it a neckface knockoff?






it started to snow that night, during ryan and heidi's going away party at the hope and anchor.









later, scott exploded those fireworks at an unsuspecting driver, racing away from fairway while the germans attacked with snowballs from pioneer street. was a good time.

ah

forget it.

Best American Short Stories

Dude. McMillian got a Honorable Mention Best American Short Stories!



Along with the Pushcart prize Scott Geiger got last year, and Jon McMillian winning the very prestigious "Chapbook Contest" at the New School, maybe the One Sentence Challenge is the best writing group ever. Geoff published a bunch too. Now if only Jesse and I would get our novels finished we can be a whole literary scene.

We may need a few more scandals under our belt.

NO MORE WHISKEY!

rock and roll

reminder never to drink whiskey ever again
there was a really good art thing at Glasslands, which is kind of a cool spot, although the place was packed with belter-tucker duchebags, which was this, that you can barely see. it's a collage made up of really awful headshots. it made me smile. then i stole the elephant and got in a cab and left. but still good art piece.

2003!

Ross just sent me some flickr pics from 2003.

san francisco used to rule.





this is at that bar on bryant in the back yard. the idea of scrotox (botox for your balls) has just been invented.

i have no idea what the deuce is doing on the floor.

about five seconds later we went to pick up larry from SFO. on our way to meet the kids at a bar off of Grant (for some reason i think that it was Postrio, but I KNOW i'm wrong) ross, larry, and whoever the fourth in the car was stopped at Walgreens and bought leapard print SF zip fleeces, which started a weekendlong fashion theme.




this is in the back room at Zach's place on Balboa. I suspect there is some grinding carnitas nachos in front of us.


ah. Jim and Bridge at Zeitgeist.


"I foresee that I will become a father to a bouncing baby boy in January 2007. By that time I will stop doing baby arms, stop nuding up at public functions, and own a home. Really. Just four years from now, I foresee me being a grown up."


hmm. that sounds like a good idea. i foresee that in 2007 i'll elope and suddenly become a "private" person.

don't worry. none of that "Growing up" BS for me...

New York New York it's a hell of a town

So tonight I had a fantastic New York moment.

I took the F train uptown to see the Sleepwalkers show at the MoMA. Tonight was the last night and so, as is my MO, I had to catch it at the last possible moment.



The exit on 50th at Rockefeller center was closed, and I told a woman, Chinese I think but reminded me of Delphine anyway.



When I got to 53, there were tons of people, leaning on the building and on the New York Public Library across the street. My friend from the subway was one of them. (Delphine would have been there. Maybe that's why she reminded me.)





The video was actually really good. At first mundane, Fight Club like, repetition of boring life, but the repetition through several different characters (played by Tilda Swinton, Donald Sutherland, Chan Marshall and other very watchable types) actually hits home after a while.

But the best part was watching all the watchers watching.



Even cooler and New Yorkyier, when a woman and friend walked up and stood next to me, it was Ellen Barkin, there like the rest of us, to see the sleepwalkers.



this makes me wish i still did more New York things.

but still, after this, i am back at the penthouse with the kitty, watching tv on itunes.


i look like little red riding hood in that cape.

Good Show.

Mattie and I happened upon a great gallery opening at White Box tonight. We'd gone to see a show on 27th. Which turned out to be Tim Doud, which was funny, because i didn't know it was Tim from the shop. Guitar Matt had told me that Tim was famous or successful or something, but they were having a talk and there were all those self portraits i've seen in the shop. I'm not explaining this well.
What happened is: I got an invite to a gallery talk. Mattie and I decided to go. We showed up late so didn't go in, but it turned out to be someone I knew.

We left and walked by White Box where they were doing an Archeology bit for Impulse Magazine, a literary journal out of canada in the 80s. The show ruled.

and they were serving Biggie Grolsches. yeay! Even if that means Grolsch, which we drank because it was cheap at Trader Joe's, when we were in college, must be on a big marketing push.

monday night at the B&T

as usual, norbert and scott were at the bar, drinking pints in green workpants. norbert informed me he has not one but two (!) of those uni-alls he wears everyday.


mattie is still not drinking, so he joined and drank club soda.



danny is working the bar now. rumor has is that while i was in paris a certain brunette got fired for talking trash about a certain manager. this could be true...then again i could be starting rumors.


is it dark or is it that i'm deaf now so that my pictures are blurry?

keep that to yourself