May 25, 2009
Yesterday, Today: in which Times Square becomes even more pedestrian
Today I rode through Times Square. vs. The difference is not palpable, surprisingly: the sight of people lazing in deck chairs, of throngs passing through each intersection, all still blends with the oversized open-top tour buses and the yellow taxicabs. Everything is in its right place.... Read more
April 21, 2009
On fried chicken and waffles
vs. The first, from the cafeteria at work; the latter, from the chic restaurant down the fashionable street. Neither matches Roscoe's House of Chicken and W., a luminary institution just down the freeway.... Read more
April 8, 2009
In which we go out on a high note
"Folks, brace yourselves; hold on to something. Here's Sonic Youth. Yeah!" vs and, although I cannot embed the video for Do You Believe in Rapture?, it gets me all worked up every time I watch it. The McCarren Pool show (from '06, not '08) had a nice version: This next song is called, I'm sorry, I forgot to tune my guitar before we went on-stage:... Read more
January 27, 2009
In which there's no crime here at all
(01-26) 21:17 PST San Francisco -- A pedestrian was struck and killed in a crosswalk at the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Santiago St. in San Francisco tonight. The woman was walking westbound across Sunset when a man driving a Toyota Corolla south on Sunset struck her at about 6:15 p.m. The woman was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where she died. Her name was withheld, pending notification of her family. The driver had no stoplight or stop sign and stopped after hitting the pedestrian, and police said the incident was just a tragic accident. "It doesn't look like he was speeding or under the influence or anything like that," said Sgt. Renee Pagano. "There's no crime here at all." 21950. (a) The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except as otherwise provided in this chapter. (b) The provisions of this section shall not relieve a pedestrian from the duty of using due care for his or her safety. No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. No pedestrian shall unnecessarily stop or delay traffic while in a marked or unmarked crosswalk. (c) The provisions of subdivision (b) shall not relieve a driver of a vehicle from the duty of exercising due care for the safety of any pedestrian within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. One could ask WalkSF whether there's no crime in failing to stop at a marked intersection, striking a pedestrian, and killing that person, but at this point any reasonable person would realise the exercise is rhetorical. The intersection of Sunset and Santiago has clearly-marked crosswalks, with lights to illuminate.... Read more
January 14, 2009
Facebook, phones, and genius
How to use a mobile telephone* vs. How not to use the cellular telephone. * well, Facebook. But the 'phone figures into the analogy. The first describes use of Facebook as inevitable; the second describes the use of a mobile telephone as the act of an enslaved man. What's the social utility to Facebook—why should you join? Like with e-mail and cell phones, there are many, and as you begin to use it, you'll notice more and different situations in which it proves helpful. In general, Facebook is a lubricant of social connections. With so many people on it, it's now the best, fastest place online to find and connect with a specific person—think of it as a worldwide directory, or a Wikipedia of people. As a result, people now expect to find you on Facebook—whether they're contacting you for a job or scouting you out for a genius grant. Ken Vandermark is not on Facebook. QED. (but he is on twitter)... Read more
January 12, 2009
In which we have a new bicycle
Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama is your new bicycle.... Read more
January 4, 2009
In which the picture is worth a word
The Photographic Dictionary project entry for growth, nervous, queue. compare garbage and trash.... Read more
June 10, 2008
Tom Sachs vs. Tom Sachs
Although I have not seen Tom Sachs's massive bronzes at Lever House, I did walk through the Animals exhibition at Sperone Westwater. The title of the exhibition might as easily have been Sounds, rather than Animals: the sounds of an absent cat, of tools on their racks, or deadened (or amplified) pianos, and especially of animals becoming extinct -- all these sounds played an important role in the pieces. The Waffle Bicycle broadcast the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, from loudspeakers mounted to a massive modified bicycle. The bicycle has all of the necessary ingredients for making waffles, from the live chickens for producing the eggs to the refrigerated whipped cream for topping the end product. I first encountered Tom Sachs's work in the infamous Barney's Nativity display, and more recently on the cover of Dana Thomas's Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. I am still uncertain about my grasp on the intersection of consumer culture and art as Tom represents it, but I enjoy the very visceral presentation of his work in the gallery setting. Tom brings a lot of surprisingly frank and violent ideas to his outwardly-calm pieces, such as the wood block with King Heroin burned onto gold leaf.... Read more
June 8, 2008
In which the web is our foley
Instant Rimshot vs Sad Trombone. If only the iPhone supported Flash ... well, that can be fixed: I recorded these into .mp3 files and made them easily accessible for my own nefarious purposes.... Read more
May 7, 2008
In which I found that essence rare(r)
Aram pointed out, via the excellent Brooklyn Vegan, that stalwart Gang of Four rockers Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham are leaving the band (again). Did I write stalwart? I meant totally awesome. I could hope to fit all of that cool and kickass into my whole lifetime — they stuck it into each of their records. I got a copy of their first record from a girl at my high school who was moving to California (to attend Berkeley, if I remember correctly); I was a couple of years younger than she, and received a stack of her hand-me-down records (Psychic TV amongst them) when she cleaned house. I was not prepared for what came over the speakers when I first put the needle down: the rhythm! the energy! the anger! Give me punk rock! Give me funk! The first video is from The Old Grey Whistle Test television programme twenty-five years ago, the second from the Electric Picnic festival recently.... Read more
April 19, 2008
Crazy
Since seeing Bryan Louie's video for Gnarls Barkley's Crazy in an exhibition about innovative electronic media, I cannot get the song ("Best Song of 2006!") out of my head (where have I been?). The band's televised performance of this same song is equally hypnotic. Why do large insects and bug-spray invariably call to mind my friend Wm. S. Burroughs?... Read more
April 14, 2008
Is it not art? We are artists!
Consider Levi van Veluw; consider The Enigma. Art? performance? photograph? Does a specific application of technology equal art? Does art require the skillful and expressive match of technique to technology? Pete Goldlust's carved crayon series may be the result of advanced industrial automation, but the skill, vision, and execution are artistic. Finally, keeping it old-school: this morning's New York Times reported on Leonardo's having illustrated a chess book: The book, “De Ludo Scachorum,” or “The Game of Chess,” is by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar and Renaissance mathematician who was a friend and collaborator of Leonardo. One of the earliest chess books, it contains 114 diagrams of chess problems drawn in red and black. Long thought to be lost or destroyed, it was discovered in 2006 in a 22,000-volume library in northeastern Italy that belonged to Count Guglielmo Coronini, who died in 1990. The last part amuses me greatly: the book was long thought lost. With the instantaneous (well, hundredths-of-a-second) speed of information retrieval, the thought of something being lost in a library charms me.... Read more
April 3, 2008
vs (This is a public-service announcement, with guitar)
vs The former has amazing footage of a breathtaking band at its best; the latter is delightfully perverted. Neither is artful, but both make a point.... Read more
April 1, 2008
vs (slack and tight)
vs shout out to Aden and to Mark Athitakis, and to the Hillel House concert where the former played this song with the name of the latter cleverly substituted into the chorus. I never especially enjoyed Superchunk, but the familiar name made the melody so much more appealing. Now, these fifteen years later, I find myself humming the refrain at all sorts of odd places (killing time on trains, for one).... Read more
