Meta-Tangentialism And The Perils Of Hosting
To those of you for whom "look and feel" is a concept as inviolate as "bread and water", I apologize for the coming week. I am making quick and intermittent changes to the front page of tangentialism to bring more of a "photoblog" feel to the place without sacrificing the words. So far, I am failing, and we're back to normal until my next five hours of free time.
My most recent attempt had some juxtaposition issues, with this picture appearing to illustrate an entry titled, "Once Again, Someone Jerks Off In Front Of Stacey". Not exactly what I was looking for, but an interesting look into my subconscious, nonetheless.
Complicating matters this morning was the sudden loss of power at the datacenter where tangentialism is hosted -- tough for me to wrap my head around, because the catalyst for the power loss appears to have been the two redundant power backup systems that ensure I never lose power to begin with.
So, barring further inexplicable outages, and time permitting, we're looking at possibly rolling with the photoblog crew in, say, five to twenty days. Tentatively.
meta-ish by tangentialist at 04:10 PM on 31 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Once Again, Someone Jerks Off In Front Of Stacey
I didn't really figure this happened much anymore, but my friend's semi-biographical persona Stacey Nightmare actually managed to find herself on a near-empty F train with a public masturbator last week and has, as usual, dealt with her trauma by writing a really hilarious and obscene blog entry. It's hard to find acceptable quotes; this is as close as it gets:
I went over there and said: “Sir, they just mopped in here.”
Just go read it.
Stacey's my Language Games Friend. When she needed a reference once, we pulled that "you answer the phone as my boss when the landlord calls" scheme. My fake name for that week was Nat Israel. For months afterwards, we kept giggling, "Nat Israel... Nat 'is real name".
How can you hate a writer who comes up with this line:
IS IT WRONG IF I THOUGHT THE BILL O’REILLY DEPOSITION WAS KIND OF HOT?
Don’t answer that.
stacey nightmare-ish by tangentialist at 03:49 PM on 31 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Exhibitions I've Seen Lately That I Recommend, In Order Of Their Importance
1. Whitney Museum - Tim Hawkinson's mid-career retrospective makes you wonder what the hell you're doing with your life, since you're clearly not designing primitive machines that continually reproduce your signature or mops that speak. You have until May 29th. Do not miss this. Also, catch Florian Maier-Aichen's series in the wonderful Political Nature exhibition, and make sure to skip the Cy Twombly -- make sure.
2. Metropolitan Museum of Art - Diane Arbus, Revelations is like being punched in the face repeatedly by the hottest girl you've ever met. If you walk out of this show and don't feel disoriented, you haven't gotten the full effect. There are over ten galleries of Arbus' best work, equal parts famous images and totally obscure brilliance, and every one of the rooms is worth an hour of your time. This is a multiple-visit show (you may have to wait for a while for the crowds to die down -- it's like waiting in line for communion right now). This show closes on May 30th, which gives you plenty of time, but that's no excuse not to hop over there.
4. Eyebeam - Remapped Realities is an excellent collection of (mostly) video installation produced by their artists-in-residence. While every gallery is far better than your average video art, I was particularly drawn to Caspar Stracke's Points of Presence, a screen, rotating clockwise, with four cityscapes (Mexico City, New York City, Berlin, and Shanghai), rotating counter-clockwise, that cut into each other as sudden, blurred swatches and passing transparent buses. It's hard to describe, which is why we spent about half an hour staring at it. Remapped Realities closes April 30th.
4. PS1 - Greater New York, PS1's massive group show of emerging New York artists (well, they've emerged now) is better than I expected. Basically, think "Whitney Biennial, but cheaper, and with better drawing". Greater New York is the only museum exhibition I've ever been to where I felt strongly that people cared about the brand of my jeans. L tossed out all my notes on which pieces were good, but I remember a train, some swaying speakers, and a massive drawing that depicted America's history from the last fifty years. Now I'll have to go back, but that's fine.
art-ish , museums-ish by tangentialist at 10:47 PM on 26 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link
Best Sign, March 2005: UPS Store
This was just too precious. I don't know why I don't just open one of these stores myself. Either that, or start a flower shop with a UPS drop-off desk.
signs-ish , ups-ish by tangentialist at 09:09 PM on 25 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (1)
4' 33" Revisited
John Cage's 4' 33" is the kind of work that pretty much defines a composer to the general public, who have, for the most part, never heard the piece performed.
Today, L pointed me at this cool televised BBC Symphony performance of 4' 33". The editing and camera work is just what I hoped for; most of the shots are standard symphonic close-ups of the different sections, and medium shots of the conductor, but the camera takes in just enough of the audience to help make sense of what Cage was really trying to achieve with the piece (contrary to how it is typically described, as "four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence", 4' 33" is really about the audience's experience of sound in the absence of performance). I think it's great documentation, and a great performance; if you've kind of skipped over 4' 33", take some time to watch the video. The piece is more enjoyable than you might think.
The week I started college at Bard was the week John Cage died; as a result of that lucky chance (which would have delighted Cage, I imagine), the first week or so of my orientation to college life was filled with performances, readings, and quotes by John Cage. My professor in those first few days, Catherine Schieve, was part of Bard's controversial Music Program Zero, and really took Cage's death as a starting point for our Language and Thinking class. One of the first things she did was type out his quotes onto a sheaf of notecards and leave them on a music stand in front of MPZ's cottage in the woods. We were all asked to go to the woods to pick up a quote after class one day and meditate on it (mine was "Refuse value judgments", which is a great quote. Har, har).
All that exposure to Cage in my impressionable college-in-the-woods years has made me pretty tolerant to minimalism. Take with you this famous quote, and live by it (along with my value judgment mantra):
"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." - John Cage, 1912-1992
bard-ish , john cage-ish , music-ish by tangentialist at 02:04 PM on 23 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link
On The Other Hand...
There's always Skype's New voicemail feature to keep me amused.
I love the Middle East.
Like a lot of patient late-to-market schemes, Skype appears to have nailed their market. I signed up for SkypeIn last week, and it's been a worthy substitute for my cell phone, which costs and radiates too much for me to want to use it during the day. Thanks to Keith for the heads-up, and for enticing me to spend ten euros on a yet another new phone number.
middle east-ish , skype-ish , voicemail-ish by tangentialist at 12:04 AM on 22 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Social Security: Yet Another Foul Reminder
I never keep my Social Security "statements". It's depressing to get these annual reminders of how little I earn, so I normally toss them and get on with the business of pretending I will never grow old.
Since the government has been bothering me for money lately, though, and since the demands have been coming in official government envelopes, I've been opening all their mail. "It's just a Social Security statement," I figured. What, besides the paltry payment figures, could possibly make my day worse?
Well, this year, the Social Security Administration has enlisted the statement's front page as a soapbox for the "Private Accounts" platform the White House is pushing. It's always encouraging to see the following note on the front of your Social Security statement:
It is important to remember that Social Security was never intended to be your only source of income when you retire. Social Security can't do it all. You also will need other savings, investments, pensions or retirement accounts to make sure you have enough money to live comfortably when you retire.
Well, I guess I can't say they didn't warn me.
politics-ish , social security-ish , social studies-ish by tangentialist at 11:50 PM on 21 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Jose Canseco Needs To Stay On Message
In today's Capitol Hill hearings on steroid use in baseball (shocking!), a suddenly-meek José Canseco ("I did not know that my revelations would reverberate in the halls of this chamber."), whose ghost-penned Juiced appears to have prompted a sort of Congressional intervention, issued the following warning:
"Steroids were a part of the game and no one wanted to take a stance on it ... Hopefully this book I wrote educates people about how widespread use steroids is in major league sports, and that people say, look, you've got to stopthis. The owners have to stop this. They have all got to stop this, period."
But Ben McGrath's New Yorker article about a recent Canseco book signing shows Canseco's softer side when it comes to steroids:
"If you stick with a program of good nutrition and a consistent approach to fitness, and know the right mix of steroids and growth hormone to take, you should be the same at fifty years old as you are at thirty.”
I don't know if I expect the guy to be contrite, but at least be consistent.
steroids-ish by tangentialist at 07:37 PM on 17 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Stickers and My First Apartment
Today, I stumbled on this post, a collection of stickers peeled carefully from the Lower East Side between 1992 and 1995. I'm a big fan of these things, having placed stickers all over the Lower East Side in my time, and this guy has more than a few classics.
This particular scan, though, is my favorite:
There, on the flexible polymer cover of his 1995 monthly planner, is the kingpin sticker that I found on the bathroom mirror of my first apartment in Brooklyn, a studio in Park Slope formerly occupied by an FIT student and her boyfriend, who left behind only ferret droppings and this sticker (dated "nineteen9Dfo"). Every morning, worried about whatever I went to sleep worrying about, I would stare at that sticker as I washed my face, reciting to myself its simple mantra: "Schmoova Than The Head of Telly Savalas". It was an effective calming technique, and I quickly abandoned any notion of trying to remove Telly's sympathetic noggin from my morning routine. I left it behind when I moved out, two and a half years later, and totally forgot my morning discussions with Doctor Savalas -- until today, when Telly and his floating crown popped up in my RSS feeds and reminded me what it means to be thoroughly in control of my situation.
Who Loves Ya Baby?
brooklyn-ish , personal history-ish , sticker-ish , telly savalas-ish by tangentialist at 05:32 PM on 03 Mar 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)