Dec 30, 2004

 


THE PERSIAN


Observe as my bristles re-hue under
the moon of the theory of the moon.


A million demerits for misuse of the field, a beady
look around the mouth. The directrix requires you
worship her yellow hair.


At last, duckling, I've no use for you & no
stomach to concur the whiteness of the snow,


You must say "palm frond"
when referring to the palm fronds, we have
a word for that pose & we think you know what
it is.


even in light of the lashes of the fraction's big
radium divider, the fury of the demon denominator:


I, Rasputin, thinker of substandard thoughts
beseech you varied narrators:


Nothing's quite as real as how you
remember the dream, eh, mon chere?


I am the Green Man and my ideas
are green. I will learn to go slower,


The purpose has pretty
legs if you watch it dance.


Porpoise, remonstrance: everything


depends of the lapels of that orgy
& the colorful speech of professional
sports.


Forget all about the extra fingers &
the wan fragments of time, tied to the chicken
you push me out of the tree.



Well, Xmas was, well, Xmas. Not an awful lot to report about that. Saw my mom and my aunt and my cousin, which was nice. Hung out in Tolland, CT which was for the most part boring. On Satuday I went to visit my father and the evening culminated in a shouting match about our beloved President and how dad, a devout atheist, can support a man who's religious beliefs color his every decision and who is eroding the division between church and state faster than you can say "Spanish Inquision."

The 26th was a big improvement, however, as Rachel, Xtina, mom and I stopped in at the inimitable Shady Glen for a post-holiday repast.







And then came back to CT where I more or less sat on my ass until Tues PM when at long last the blog coasts united and I was able to hang out in person at long last with bloggy soul-sister Cat Meng for nourishing BBQ and McNeill's Oatmeal Stout to bring me back to my days in VT.

Rachel's parents in town yesterday and we all went to the MFA. Was underwhelmed by the Josef Sudek show which was poorly curated and even more poorly documented. The MFA continues to be my least favorite museum in Boston, if not anywhere. It's fun to see their Asian collections, lovingly pilfered from Asia for the enjoyment of white Bostonians, but they do a really poor job for the most part with contemporary work.

Soon we are off to New York City until the end of the vacation. If any of you New Yorkers want to hang out over the next few days, give me a ring. Especially if you know of something exciting going on tomorrow night. We will be at the Po Project marathon on Saturday, but apart from that, it's anyone's guess...

Dec 28, 2004

Some a**hole in South Carolina thinks I'm boring. Lest anyone think that the "a**shole" part is sour grapes, that valuation comes more from the "cold-hearted, Neanderthalic murder of one million helpless babies every year" from the former piece than the "boring and stodgy" critique of me in the latter. Criticism from some quarters is as good as a compliment...

I will post a synopsis (and pictures) of my holiday later...

Dec 16, 2004

December 16 , Thursday, 7:30PM, 2004
Director's Eye with Paul Chan
COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE

BAGHDAD IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER Pt.1 51min, 16mm, 1990
Director: Paul Chan


B.I.N.P.O. is an ambient video essay of life in Baghdad before the invasion and occupation. Men dance, women draw and sufis sing as they await the coming of another war. In seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish). Subtitled in English. World Premiere at the 2003 MOMA Documentary Fortnight. Part II, website, online at www.nationalphilistine.com/baghdad Notes, gifts, promises, paintings, trash, and other ephemera from the city which is now hardly a city. What if Walter Benjamin didn't kill himself, learned html, bought a camera, and thought himself useful enough to work in an impending war zone?

Paul Chan is an artist and director of National Philistine, an online aesthetic think tank. Chan is a 2003 Rockefeller Foundation new media arts fellow. He is represented by the Greene Naftali Gallery in New York. His video work is distributed by Video Data Bank and his new media work can be seen at www.nationalphilistine.com Chan spent one month (Dec 2002-Jan 2003) in Baghdad as a member of the Iraq peace team, a project of Voices in the Wilderness, the Nobel Peace prize nominated group working to end the sanctions against Iraq. The goals of IPT are to rally support for resisting the war (and now occupation) on Iraq and publicize the effects of the ongoing US assault on Iraqi civilians.

Dec 15, 2004

Hallmarks of Geezerhood



"Since the 25 age, our physical structure tardily halts makes
a weighty internal secretion known as Individual Increase Hormone.
The reduction of it, which regulates levels of another internal secretions
in the body is directly responsible for all of the most
prevalent hallmarks of geezerhood, such as wrinkles, white hair,
subsided power, and lessened intimate role."

Dec 3, 2004

At last know the real me.

GAMERS Release reading at the Bowery Poetry Club



Saturday, December 4 at 9:00 p.m.
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery (at Bleecker, across from CBGBs)
Manhattan
$7

Featuring contributors Daniel Nester, Luis Jaramillo, Shannon Holman, Maureen Thorson, K. Thor Jensen, Mark Lamoureux & Katie Degentesh, plus original video-game sound-effect music by Drew Gardner and video-game themed cover tunes by Daniel Nester & Gene Cawley. Classic Atari tournament for GAMERS t-shirts and signed copies, plus an Atari 2600 console doorprize. Limited edition video-game themed art on display by GAMERS cover artist Charles Orr. Hosted by editor Shanna Compton.

Dec 2, 2004

Have been a lazybones blogger these days. Mired in work and not-work and overall malaise. I guess I am depressed, as befits the month of Saturn, I suppose...