When you yawn, I yawn...

On some (rare) mornings I just make the coffee and never drink it. It's as if the simple act of wanting coffee, of having it there, is enough to generate a Pavlovian response of wakefulness. On a separate note, I'm shocked and saddened to find that lala.com is being shuttered.

Things fall apart...

Will Europe fall this summer? Can the continent survive the non-flying PIIGS? After S&P downgraded Greece's debt to "junk" status and moved Portugal and Spain's credit rating down a notch this week, are Ireland and Italy next? Will the EU's promised Greek bailout be enough to stabilize the faltering markets? Glad to know that my favorite newspaper, the New York Times, is seeing the silver lining in all of this - they are broadcasting far and wide that it's a great time for American tourists to descend upon these struggling countries and start haggling for vacation bargains. What a colossal headache.

(1899 Map of Europe found at BibliOdyssey)

English...

"Oh these Americans... we gave them a language, why don't they use it!"

- by way of Chris Abani's mum.

Undressmaker...

"To undress before a camera or an easel is to don the garments of representation: to take off one dress or costume, and put on another known as the nude."

- Victor Tupitsyn

("Kristine, 20, poses for a lingerie shoot..." by Lauren Greenfield)

Haptic vibrations...

"The sensibility of the individual to the world adjacent to his body by use of his body" - J.J. Gibson

(photo by Myjeil)

I'm afraid of academics...

Specialized minds churning and flailing in strong soporific vortices that resign homemade psyches to fields of scattering chattel. Moo!!

(photo: Iceland farmers during volcano, photographer unknown)

2009 was a very good year...

...for French Bordeaux... I'm told.

Fruition...

(photo by Yoshihiko Ueda)

When entropy loves you...

Enough with the precariousness of everything already! Who'd have guessed that this persistent fade out, this pernicious loss of momentum, these redundant doldrums would be the trick candle on the cake. I fight!

Lately...

click to enlarge

("Party Cat" by Anthony Clark)

For kids of all ages...

Just because one figures out a way to hide or justify personal flaws and/or misdeeds to their satisfaction doesn't guarantee that others are equally convinced.

Remove the remove...

Is there a time to fill in the moat that separates you from the rest of the world?

Process of elimination...

If Lee Marvin successfully killed everyone, would he have finally been able to put down his machine gun and relax?

Devil's in the doing...

Politically I stay away from systems where a supposed elite class rules over the dirty masses. Trouble. But I do believe in creative dictatorships. Pure at heart but warrior-like in drive. My hero Jimi Hendrix had enough heart and vision to last a thousand years, but I would guess he lacked the ferocity and the thick skin to actualize his creativity over time. He was devoured and depressed by the middling, greedy machine all around him and so he checked out.

A great vision comes from a single source. Depending on the nature of the creative initiative, i.e. the execution, there may or may not be a need for "committees" down the line. When people are brought into the creative process, it's critical that they remain in service of the original vision. Until a vision can stand on its own two feet, it does often need support and collaboration and a genuinely shared sense of nurturing. And yes, it also needs a strong and sometimes fierce leader, the so-called visionary. But let's not get all supplicating and sycophantish about that word. The hub of a wheel is important, but so are the spokes, the tire, the engine behind it, and the road it travels.

Clark Nova or the Krupp Donimator?

Time to align. Time to stop consuming. Time to start producing. Time to stop the cute. Time to act. Time to meet. Time to move. Time to bypass emotional quagmires. Time to stop swallowing and start chewing. Time to stay fit and sharp and on top of affairs. Time to do best. Time to avoid drags. Time to make a noise. Time to use time wisely. Time to engage.

(Groma Gromina Ultraflat - East Germany, 1954)

Save the dust bunnies...

Dust if you must.
But wouldn't it be better,
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed?
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must.
But bear in mind,
Old age will come and it's not kind.
And when you go, and go you must,
You, yourself, will make more dust.

- Rose Milligan

Solid Potato Salad...

When your belly is distended and your socks are too tight and you just can't move after eating that third bowl of potato salad, there's nothing like this little exercise regimen to pep you up and keep your systems regular. Stick with it...

Living letter office...

Post offices are very important places, just as letters are very important things. I don't use either much, but I would never want to see them go.

I mean really, can anyone argue against the notion that letters are wishes and that post offices are magic portals between the present and the rest of the universe? Is anyone unclear on the fact that postal workers are the guardians of human fate? It's a tough job and so yeah, it makes them a little grumpy sometimes.

All of this came rushing back to me today at the Santa Monica post office, a shabby little room with long lines and short tempers. It's all pretty depressing on the surface. Don't fall for it. The nice lady behind the counter was so nonchalant about the way she weighed my very important envelope, so matter of fact about the different stamp options, one would hardly notice all the magic levers and incantations that were being worked into the fine grain of time and space.

This just doesn't happen with email people.

(Indian Peacock, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, stamp issued 1990)

Join Zero DB...

Music torture. Something we and other nations have been doing to "detainees" for a while now. Bad songs played over broken speakers at unfathomable volumes for extended periods. It's got to stop. You don't play around with music. It's a gift from higher forces. (Ask Fela).

Without getting into the larger issue of interrogations, it's crystal clear to me that this particular form of torture should not be allowed. Period. If you agree, then please join the silent protest at Zero DB.

("Saturday Come Slow" by Massive Attack, film by Adam and Olly)

Ploys for tots...

The problem with kids' attention and the internet is the same as the problem with viruses and vaccinations. What worked yesterday is underpowered and ineffective today.

It's too easy to be distracted on the web, it offers the constant promise of new amusements that might be a million times more wow than, say, this tired old blog entry. Audiences escape. Marketers know this, and like vaccination manufacturers, they put enormous pressure on themselves to create the most super-attention-controlling content. They know your kids' attention needs to be held captive in order to get their important messages across. So we get a system in which our kids are forever chased by advertisers and their deftly engineered eye-popping, hair-raising, mind-mesmerizing hooks. What could possibly go wrong?