The Will to Power Grab...

Listen up America, it's a jungle out there and you don't want your kids to be devoured by wolves or left hiding in the underbrush, do you? Time to man up your sons and daughters and teach them to be shit-kicking assholes. And the sooner the better, cuz we know what happens to other people don't we people?

Look around you, assholes are in charge because they are willing to take on the behaviors that beget power, fame, and wealth. They're willing to look beyond the dainty filagree of the human soul, the mangy minefield of emotions, and those pathetic expressions of curiosity and compassion for your fellow non-achiever. Either your kids are going to be making money or making nothing. All humans are created equal, but what's a human? The asshole is Nietzsche's Superman without the naval-gazing and mountain climbing (or the Clark Kent). The asshole wins. Get that into Junior's mellon today. Your legacy depends on it!

(Illustration by ric stultz)

Slick...

Two items:

1) How the g*dd@m f*ck did this happen!!??

2) If you drive a car or live in a house or like pointing fingers at corporate bad guys, please disregard item 1.

Defining/divining your extremes...

"Forget America, just move to Brazil and bring your synthesizer."

- Advice to Sarah and I from artist/musician Sara Glaxia, while wrapped in beef and cellophane at the MAK Center garage party. Such a devilishly simple and indulgent scenario delivered to us with total sincerity and conviction does provide one extreme to bounce all other plans off of from here on out. Once you realize how much of the world's coveted "sense" is obviously crazy, it's remarkable how sensible something "crazy" can sound.

("Tilly Losch" by unkonwn)

Portable brains...

I'd like to thank my laptop for making work on the road possible.

WARHOL IS OVER!

Come on art world. Really. It's time...

Suspension bridges of meat...

I have a friend who went through a period where he could only see animated skeletons instead of living human beings. We all process mortality in our own ways, particularly when we're young, and almost convinced of our immortality.

Lately, when I look at four-legged animals, I see suspension bridges from which hang various forms of furry meatloaf. This illusion became especially pronounced at the Page Museum with this weirdly Disney-fied Smilodon exhibit. Meat is murder, but (some) meat is also delicious/nutritious... what to do?

Self-taught...

Much of the world's anxiety comes from worrying if you're doing it right... like you're supposed to... Remove that factor from the equation and magic can happen.

Come on baby...

If we're going to get anywhere on this planet, if it's new ground we seek, if we're going to illuminate the shadows, well then the time to hesitate is through...

("Light's Edge 6" by Kevin Cooley)

Now you're moving...

So fast, so far. Your swooping lines of action. Helicopters have enormous urgency, even if they're just dropping off a sandwich.

Permission to move...

Last night I bumped into one of the two people who simultaneously recommended that I "go start a blog" about five years ago. As dismissive as it sounds, it wasn't. Just wanted to thank him again for an off the cuff remark that stuck and grew. Somehow I needed the permission to do this thing (still embarrassing, slapdash, and therapeutic in ways I don't fully understand). Above all, it exists.

Typically, all of life's possibilities get wound into a spinning ball of spaghetti in my melon. It's a hypnotic blur that inspires a kind of drool-faced arrest. The art of non-actualization is practiced.

However, when someone I respect articulates a single strand from that pasta of potentialities, the hypnosis snaps away, clarity and energy arrive, and a way forward usually storms the agenda. Then, (maybe) lookout! From here it's just a matter of choice... "Will I" or "Won't I" are meaningless questions until there's a clear challenge.

("Deep End" by Mark Mann)

Mobile White House...

I don't need Obama to go stand knee-deep in crude oil and wail to the gods to know that he's concerned about what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico. However, I do think it would make lots of us feel better if he would set up shop down there for a while, be a little more available to the people. Which is why I would like to propose a design competition for a mobile White House. Who's in?