mousehead

frailer than the flowers that keep us so tightly bound

2006-09-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

I just got Bob Dylan's new album, "Modern Times," and I have to say, it's very very good! Much more laid-back than "Time Out of Mind". There are slow, lullaby-like folk songs with nothing more than a piano and his voice, which add up to pure Dylan beauty. sigh, so romantic...

On another note, I just got back from my 10-day camping trip across the usa from la to chicago about a week ago and I still have yet to get my 400 plus photos off my camera. School's starting up again, so we'll see how long it takes to get around to that.

it's gettin' hot in here...so watch control room.

2006-08-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

This is a photo I took this evening during the continuous lightning-storm that has descended upon the city of Chicago, bringing us: a) a cancelled baseball game with lots of strange filler-material before they called it, and b: some rain relief, but not enough. I'm watching Control Room right now, all about Al Jazeera's coverage of the war (I can't really even believe it's been 3 years now). I think it is very good. I think everyone should watch it. It's scary, by which I mean information is scary. There isn't very much that I didn't already surmise or suspect, but the most shocking thing is how convinced most American press/American military in Iraq were that Al Jazeera was completely biased and CBS/FOX/CNN could never, ever be. The main press contact they focus on reminds me of Steve Carrell's character in The Office. See what I mean by scary? Anyway, as if America could ever be objective over the effects of their mighty wrath, past or present. Of course, the movie was made before it came out that Bush and his friends completely lied to us about the reason for the war even starting. But that's a different topic for a different day. It's all just scary. Kind of like lightning, but much, much worse. That's all.

homestead of long ago

2006-08-01T10:58:00.001-07:00

This is my grandmother (Leona) and mom (seated on lap, obviously) circa 1948 in Jacksonville, Florida, my mom's first home. I like their neighborhood in the background, freshly-built and nearly treeless. The reason for this photo is that I am in the middle of a project called scanning all the photos I have of my entire family. Leona was kind enough to give me 5 photo albums spanning 1944 - 1999, and I am now tackling the first of these albums. They're on Flickr, so if you know me and want to look at them, go ahead!

2006-07-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Last week, Champ and I went to Tennessee on a little road-trip/home-coming. This is Kentucky. It's pretty. There were many deer. We barbecued unsupervised (first time for me), and this was the result. Delicious, nonetheless. We also fed some giant fish. Then I took some close-ups with my newfound Macro function. And there were some onions.
It also rained a lot, sometimes. But luckily, we had Inspector Lynley to keep us company.

cicada?

2006-07-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Champ and I found this little guy at her parents' house. Any clues as to what it is? We though it was a mix between a moth and a cicada. Pretty, anyway.

they don't call me scooter for nothin'

2006-06-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

this is from a month ago, in seattle visiting my brother - i rode around on that scooter like a champ! as my summer class has finished, and paper grading has met its end, I will be updating much more frequently.

2006-05-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

So, I'm on a John Prine kick, and I couldn't resist mentioning my favorite lyrics that he's ever written, from the song "Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard":

Selling bibles at the airports
Buying quayludes on the phone
Hey, you talk about
A paper route
Shes a shut in without a home
God save her, please
Shes nailed her knees
To some drugstore parking lot
Hey, mr. brown
Turn the volume down
I believe this evenings shot

prime prine

2006-05-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

Last night, the Midwest's own John Prine was on Austin City Limits, and it was quite excellent. He's still got it in him after all these years. His recent album, which I highly recommend (due to his performance on ACL), is called "Fair and Square," which won a Grammy for best folk album. If there are any of you who haven't heard of him, I recommend listening first to the following sons: Illegal Smile, Sweet Revenge, and Christmas in Prison. There's almost nothing better...also, if anyone in Chicago wants, I will make a Prine cd for you. But, in terms of the new album, you shouldn't miss his new anti-Bush song "Some Humans Ain't Human," with lyrics that only the great J.P. could get away with.

Ectocarpus crinitus

2006-05-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

as summer begins, I find I have more time to search around the Internet. One of the best sites I've found so far is the NY Public Library Digital Archive. They have an AMAZING and enormously daunting collection of images which could take a lifetime to sort through. For instance, you want to see an arctic snow fox depicted on a cigarette card from 1925? You got it! What about a 1906 menu from Haim's Quick Lunch in New York? If your interests lie on the literary side, perhaps you'd like to see a smokingJohn Steinbeck? Accounts from colonial expeditions to West Africa, 19th century depictions of Yoruba religious ceremonies, downtown Chicago after the fire, a striking rendering of badger hunting, and the list goes on and on and on.

2006-05-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

This is Portia Simpson-Miller, the female head of state of Jamaica. Here are some other women who are in charge of countries.

Michelle Bachelet of Chile
Helen Clark of New Zealand
Luisa Diogo of Mozambique
Tarja Halonen of Finland
Myeong Sook Han of South Korea
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines
Mary McAleese of Ireland
Angela Merkel of Germany
Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia
Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh

2006-05-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

i might even believe it.

2006-05-06T02:20:00.000-07:00

it's four a.m. and i'm starting to think moisturizing MIGHT be the answer to all my problems. i think this is sylvie fleury, but i could be wrong. i'm also thinking about eating something called a "Tiger Pop." it's three different colors, one of which is white, and I don't know if that's good. working on papers is for babies. and i'm one of 'em.

grand idol

2006-05-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

I added some links to galleries I like down at the side-bottom there. Also it's beautiful and I'm having a hard time concentrating.

it was THIS good!

2006-04-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

Last night L. and I headed to the "PUBLIC GRAND OPENING RECEPTION" for the Hyde Park Art Center. We volunteered (I at the registration desk, she in the galleries, "guarding" the art), but it was really just an excuse to see what was going on and get a free T-shirt. It was very impressive, I have to say. Not only was the art good, but more importantly, the whole sense of a unified and diverse community was really obvious. The Center has been around since the 30's and have a huge number and range of Chicago-based artists at their disposal. Among the 39 artists included in the show (called Takeover) are SAIC's own Adelheid Mers, Kay Rosen, Kerry James Marshall (It's the black Larry Bird piece), and Candida Alvarez, to name a few. Head over there if you get a chance. The HUGE digital screen overlooking the street can also be seen from inside and is pretty amazing. Last night the artist (I can't remember his name) set up a weather station on the roof and translated the info into a constantly changing range of blueish-white vertical stripes. There were also "weather noises" which sounded like whales. I also ate a lot of crab rangoon, but that's beside the point. The point IS: Not to be missed. Get on the bus and get to Hyde Park.

jfiej0je

2006-04-28T02:24:00.000-07:00

I've been writing my eyes out lately, mainly on Susan Vogel and..um....dog food? I can't remember what...oh yeah, divination rituals in Africa. a lot. I even made a Wikipedia post about the Museum for African Art. Sheesh. I've also enjoyed taking long afternoon naps so that I can watch the sunrise with bleary, computer-stained eyes. Last but not least, Demetrius Oliver is my current (and last) project o' the semester (pictured above). Then I also get to make a powerpoint with the Ken Burns effect for co-op and grade papers. but that will mostly be done out of doors. outside here i come! I also made the best pasta sauce ever with the least amount of ingredients ever. and ted made great coffee, and took me to Old Timers for a hamburger today (he had a monte cristo, which was actually just a sandwich with french toast for bread). then we walked in the semi-warm, mostly cold windy strip that is michigan avenue before ted made me stop so we could catch the bus home. I want to walk allll the way home from the loop along the lake one day. while not reading or writing or thinking.

a spark o' controversy

2006-04-23T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is a mask from the 20th cent. from the Calabar region of Nigeria. It represents a girl wearing a hairstyle that is worn for a sort of "coming-out" ceremony. People associated with this region wear this mask for initation and funereal ceremonies. It's made of antelope skin, wood, and fiber. The Disney Co. gave this to the National Museum of African Art.

In my head I think about things that I find terribly fascinating. I guess that's why I think about them. Most of the time I keep them to myself (unless you are with me when I drink a few Old Fashions, but that's a different issue). This time, I thought I'd let "the people" have their say. Mainly to get your opinions, but also to see if anyone cares besides me. Okay, so the issue (which some people say is over, but whatever) is: African Objects: Art or Artifact? See how interesting that is?!! I know, it really is quite amazing. Should we call African art a "masterpiece", even though it's a Western term designated usually for Vermeer paintings and the like? Or does it help to put everyone on the same, universalizing level? Should all art aspire to be considered on the same level as Western art? I think no. But there are some who say, "museums are western. deal with it or get out." and to those people I say, "No, I'll get out! Wait! No, you get out!" There's a lot more to say. My vote is: Neither! Everyone should just stop being afraid to talk about African art (and I'm talking about masks, stools, jewellry, etc) and start reading instead of being lazy and making everyone choose Art or Artifact. Art is supposed to be hard!

And another thing is that instead of focusing on "Art or Artifact" we should start talking about how messed up museums have been about acquiring African object illegally and how we still "fetishize" and commodify African art just like the Belgians did when they raped the Kongo. Just an example. Give me your vote!

new

2006-04-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

I've added to my list of links some sites that are good for learning what's going on in the "art world" around the world. check them out.

nothing (well, a little) to do with art

2006-04-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I dragged myself out of bed at 8 in the a.m. after a bash at m.lady's and l.lady's place, and went to a Hindu temple. And not just any Hindu temple, but The Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago. I traveled with a professor and another student from art & ritual class to experience the inner workings of the highly decorated yet austere complex of the two temples on a hill on a typical Sunday morning. It was really very beautiful despite my headache and general grogginess. There were priests moving around, performing rites on various deities, pouring yogurt, milk, water, and dyed powders ons culpted representations of said deities. The constant sound of people chanting and singing the story of Rama echoed through the temple. By the way, Lord Rama, pictured above, is an important manifestation of God in the Hindu religion, who was being celebrated this particular weekend. There were many altars throughout the temples with delicious looking apples, bananas, and coconuts presented as offerings before them. After walking around for some time, we ate lunch in the temple cafeteria, which consisted on nan and a few sauces. My favorite part of the temple: walking around barefoot for 3 hours. This is me outside the temple.
For those of you who don't know, one service the temple provides is called vahana puja, which is a blessing ritual performed on cars. This practice is also performed by Buddhists, and is done whenever someone buys a new car to avoid any negative results that the car may bring with it. You can also pray that you will not hit any animals with your new car. Various activities are associated with the vahana puja. Limes are placed under the wheels, and are then rolled over, the car is anointed with sandalwood, rice is sprinkled in front of the car, etc. etc.

mm...dog meat.

2006-04-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

maybe it's because lately i've been thinkin' about "idears" and not looking at any art, but i've become fascinated with painting on a slightly disturbing, strange level. i wish i could say "fascinated again", but I've never really liked this kind of painting before. ever. So, what is it with Renoir and the creepy eyes on his people? they're all the same and they all look like human-alien hybrid children of rhino eyes. who thinks this is what people look like? i feel like i'm in a creepy nightmare where everyone's eyes are black and the hamburgers are trying to eat ME. this is what i'm fascinated with in this instance. i can't stop looking at it. Is this what people are supposed to like about painting? cause i'm not sure if I like what I'm looking at it. I just can't stop!

2006-04-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is Frederic Bruly Bouabre's work. He is around 80 years old, is from Cote d'Ivoire, and on March 11, 1948, had a revelatory experience that transformed him into Cheik Nadro. Since then, he is invented his own alphabet and has gathered an encyclopedic amount of knowledge so that he can work to unite mankind and promote the knowledge of his people, the Bete (I don't know how to do accents here.). He makes these postcard-size drawings with pencil crayon in a group of 40-70 drawings. This drawing comes from a series about geomantic divination (in this case, reading the signs on the skin of a rotting orange). More to come on Frederic later.

2006-04-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

I recently watched, "be here to love me", a documentary-like film about Townes Van Zandt. Although I'd listened to his music an average amount before I saw the movie, it somehow made me much more convinced of his musical (dare I say it?) genius. i hate that word. but i said it already, so too bad.

I think he's up there with the best of them. and he was one charming s.o.b. on top of it. and also addicted to many things. all in one package. his voice is clear and low and nice. I recommend "Maria", "Rex's Blues", and "Snowin' on Raton". his music is very beautiful, and it's too bad that he died.

cross-cultural studies have been undertaken

2006-04-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

I just discovered a really good resource right here in the greater Chicago area. Northwestern University has an excellent library for African studies, including the Herskovitz Library of African Studies. In addition to a really great library, they have a great collection of African posters which you can view online, including the one you see above. They also have a collection of photographs from East Africa ranging from 1860-1960. Check 'em out.

learning by osmosis, or, how the internet taught me to love

2006-03-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

I'm back in action after a semi-long hiatus from having internet beaming into my apartment. i'm pretty glad that's over. the SAIC block-party/dance-party/Spring Break 2006 party at our place last night went well. we couldn't get the boys out of the kitchen and us girls had a spitting contest out the window. it was crazy, so this morning T. and i took a long walk north, ending up somehow at loyola university. I wanted to walk clear to Evanston, but t. insisted we turned around, this time hitting the lake and following it for as long as we could. i almost stepped on a dog at the "beach", but generally enjoyed the spacious vistas over Lac du Michigan.

There was no way to know that the most enlightening part of my day was JUST around the corner. as you may or may not know, due to Mr. T's influence I've become interested in cooking programs, their respective plusses and minuses, how to enjoy a good chop of the knife or skim of the bowl, etc. etc. Today, however, I branched out, and, on my own and fully watched around 3 hours of (mostly public access) cooking shows.
"Christina Cooks" is probably the richest source of, well, anything, when it comes to cooking shows. There's a singing adult-contemporary guitar player-man who pops up to sing inspirational songs that may or may not have to do with food. His awkward interactions with Christina are just priceless. Christina herself is charming, but the food lacks any visceral attraction in my opinion. It's painfully awkward, it's cheap, and it's on every Saturday.

odilon redon

2006-02-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

the art institute has a lot of these odilon redon prints/drawings/whatever they are. I'm trying to occupy myself while waiting for word on whether we can move or not today. we're in a damn hurry and it pretty much is up to some doof-ball named steve whose purpose is to make our lives living hell. sheesh.

watson et le requin

2006-02-24T07:19:00.000-08:00

This is John Singleton Copley's "Watson and the Shark" from 1778. It tells the story of Brooke Watson (who ended up living but who lost part of a leg), a young, elite rum smuggler who was swimming in Havana Harbor in Cuba (nude, apparently), and got roughed up by some sharks. There's a lot going on in this painting, and I won't go into it right now. Most of it has to do with the artist and Brooke Watson (who commissioned Copley to do the painting) and their view on abolition and black people in general. It's interesting, I promise. I just have to go read something.

2006-02-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

and now, to depart completely from the realm of pseudo-intellectualism, I would like to make a book recommendation. "Ice Cream Dreams" is about Spongebob getting drunk on ice cream after he finds out he didn't get employee of the month. I have it. If anyone wants to borrow it, just let me know. also, i found my wallet.

ole man barr

2006-02-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

Alfred Barr founded the Museum of Modern Art in the 30s. When he first started teaching art history at Wellesley in the 20s, there wasn't a contemporary art course, and "modern" art was looked down upon. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister from Baltimore and a pretty decent writer, although his tone becomes preacher-like in its morality. This image is his conception of how all the "isms" were related to eachother. The book about his life is entitled, "Missionary for the Modern", and it is by Alice Goldfarb Marquis. It's quite a hefty tome, which seems appropriate for the biography of the godfather of American Modernism.

2006-02-18T16:25:00.000-08:00

this is called "A Whore's Lament' or something like that. It's by William Hogarth and is scandalous because there are (sharp intake of breath here!) servants of the opposite sex dealing with the "mistress"!! it's all about the downfall that sexuality will cause you. okay. i got a flat tire today and we spent two hours trying to find a place on a saturday evening that would fix it. no dice. oh well. also i lost my wallet and my phone is acting funny, so i'm wondering if the stars have conspired against me. i think i need to be careful these days. who knows what could happen. on the postiive side, i ate some delicious food last night at penny's noodles during ted and my substitute valentine's day night. much wine was drunk. it was fun. so it all turned out for the best - i mean, things could be worse. also, i renamed my blog. kinda cutesy, but just deal with it.

let's look for racism!

2006-02-16T16:45:00.000-08:00

This is "The Babylonian Marriage Market" of 1882, by Edwin Long. I found out about it in Sander Gilman's essay, "The Hottentot and the Prostitute". It seems like I've been reading a lot about prostitutes lately - and not all of it has been against my will. Anyway, I thought this was an amazingly revelatory painting. At first it just looks like your average Orientalist painting with a bit of objectification tacked on to it. However, it is actually about Victorian beauty standards for both white and non-white women. It is taken from a story in Heredotus, about women who were auctioned off and ranked in order of their beauty. You can see the women to the left are glowingly white, and they get progressively less-Anglicized towards the right. Black women aren't even included as auctionable objects, as they would never be depicted as an accesible sexual partner outright (they are only used to project the sexuality of white women). The only black woman’s role is to signal availability of white woman currently on show. We only see her non-virgin white clothes and her buttocks, which represent the perceived perversity of black women internalized through their relationship to white women. Incidentally, this painting was the highest-priced painting to sell in the 19th century. Sheesh.

the saddest ghost who ever lived.

2006-02-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

Everyone should know about Marcel Dzama. Dzama is a former member of the one-time Royal Art Lodge, and he is from Winnepeg. Despite this fact, he (in my opinion) is one of the most imaginative, unique, (might I mention hilarious) artists I know of. Another former member, Neil Farber, isn't too shabby either. I met him last year under his life-size cardboard piano that he suspended from the ceiling. I was on my way to sneak into the closet where I knew they kept their sock animals. He thrwarted this attempt, but I snuck in later to take some illicit sock-shots. So, sock animals, drawings, and more. What more could you want out of some wussy Canadians? In the former Royal Art Lodge there were some Italians, and maybe even some good ol' fashioned Americans in the "R.A.L", as I like to call it. Marcel Dzama has ventured into designing lamps, salt and pepper shakers, books, and various commercially-oriented objects. I don't care. Anyone who draws a tree smoking a cigarette is alright in my book.

what d'you know

2006-02-11T22:15:00.000-08:00

well, it seems like it's time to start talking about art again. This is a detail from a piece I saw in Skestos Gabriele Gallery's show "Family First?" here in Chicago. The most startling and demanding work in the show was that of Francine Spiegel. In a gallery adjacent to the main space, Spiegel’s “pelts” are disturbing assemblages of found images from the Internet, Scratch-n-Sniff stickers of cartoons, unsettling Polaroid photographs of nude women, and goopy paint reminiscent of bodily fluids. Her “pelts” each serve as a complex yet flattened biographical interplay of paradoxical female identities; the naïve becomes sexualized, and the sexualized becomes naive. The contradictory meanings imbued by these images sit uneasily against one another, betraying a sticky sordid truth about women’s perception of themselves. A pelt is something you carry around with you, and this is exactly what Spiegel wants you to acknowledge. She is digging out the dusty corners of your memory; these are images you had forgotten or images you wished you’d never seen. The shiny remnants of girlhood are the miscellany you would expect to find in an old box of cheap items you once treasured. In small doses, Mylar balloons, laminated stickers and washed-out photographs of childbirth and sex are all put on the same level in Spiegel’s work. These brightly colored assemblages are at once attractive and repellant, which is, interestingly enough, a treatment that women represented in art have received for quite some time.

you know i'm not afraid to kick some ass.

2006-01-31T21:58:00.000-08:00

Your walk is:
Pimp/Thug Styles

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

avoidance. and some dead ladies.

2006-01-31T11:38:00.000-08:00

this artist is my current source of procrastination. His name is John Wilde, he is 87 years old, and lives in Cooksville, Wisconsin. As a research assistant for an un-named curator/dean at SAIC, I travelled to Wisconsin to meet with him and interview him for an upcoming exhibition at the University of Madison. This is where I really come in: a two hour interview was recorded on a shoddy tape-machine and it is now my duty to transcribe the fuzzy voices on this tape. I don't want to do it. I've had two weeks and now it has come to this. Tonight, it is me and the tape and whatever I can get out of it. I don't even want to get into what his work means. I will tell you that there is a lot of violence, dogs as death symbols, and occasionally some lesbian action. Wish me luck.

Oh, and we're moving. So we need to find new tenants. Anybody want to move into our apartment? Anybody?

good times

2006-01-29T09:21:00.000-08:00

this is a photo of my parents during a party that was held on a boat cruising around the southern tip of chile in the early 80's. any guesses on what they're dressed up as? i'm thinking: crazy old man and chilean cowboy..

heads of state.

2006-01-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

In the past couple of weeks, both Chile and Liberia elected their first-ever female presidents. Chile's new president, Michelle Bachelet (who is a left-center Socialist) was held prisoner and tortured under the Pinochet regime in the early 80s until she fled to the United States. Her father was accused of treason and tortured to death by his own military.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, "The Iron Lady of Liberia", has a similiar background as a survivor of Liberia's civil war. She ran against Charles Taylor, one of the most feared dictators/warlords of the 20th century, who was ousted from power in 2003. Yay for women being elected as president!

gobo, s & c

2006-01-16T23:39:00.000-08:00

this is my brother and me in 1986 at disneyworld. this is what i particularly liked at that time in my life: gobo from fragglerock.

penguins kiss

2006-01-14T17:16:00.000-08:00

no, this is not a post raving about how cute those little penguins are. i think they're creepy and indicative of how foreign animals can actually be compared to our understanding of them. With that said, I'm watching the March of the Penguins right now. Did you know that penguins can actually kiss eachother with their beaks? Or at least that's what Morgan Freeman said. As much as I really want to believe that penguins' emotions are just like ours (they love, they miss eachother, they get mad and jealous), a deep suspicion wells up when this type of anthropomorphism takes place. What seems more likely, and frankly, more fun to believe, is that they have a secret, bafflingly mysterious method of understanding eachother completely remote from how we experience reality. I imagine it's a much less cuddly and much more alien penguin culture than Morgan Freeman would like to admit. I do like that the males have to carry their egg around between their legs. Also, this is my favorite quote from the movie so far: "The lone penguin has no chance against the winter's cold; he will simply fade away, absorbed by the great whiteness all around him." I wonder what kind of surface lies under the ice? Because Antarctica was a tropical forest once, there must be something under there. someone should find out, and if they already have, someone should let me know about it.

dear dear santa fe

2005-12-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

just got back from a 12 hour car ride through new mexico and west texas. have good photos i want to post, but they'll have to wait til tomorrow. i like adobe. i like dust, enchiladas, posole, and i like tumbleweeds. but i don't like santa fe's art galleries. oh well.

there are two dogs

2005-12-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

at the dog place where I work, there are two new dogs. They are Hungarian sheepdogs. Their names are..(get ready): Arpod and Zoltan. At first I thought these were robot names. Then I found out, to my dissapointment, that they are in fact Hungarian names. I think Arpod was the founder of Hungary, perhaps a prince. And Zoltan...well, I don't think he did anything that great. Prove me wrong, Zoltan.

2005-12-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

this was a sunset taken from the gallery I worked in. You can see the New Orleans Po Boy shop there. It's been there for a long time, and hasn't changed a bit since it was built. Frequented by cops, homeless people (who get free meals) and portly Houstonites venturing out from downtown, Po-Boys opens at 10, closes at 3, and rightfully worships the gods of Coca-Cola. Once after a really strong storm the face of the building just fell off and was dangling precariously over customers who didn't seem to notice the destruction. It stayed that way for a few days, and I wondered if Po-Boys was biting the dust. One morning, though, some dudes get up on ladders and just tack the building back together as if the storm had never happened! It just bounced back. It's the kind of place where you go in smelling like your own self, and you leave with the smell of fried oysters emanating from your entire being. Also the sign is shaped like a hobo. Unfortunately, the photo only shows his cane and the bottom of his pants.
I spent many a work day staring at the face of this humble little sandwich shop. A lot of people think Houston's Midtown is a wasteland compared to other cities. This may be true in part, but a little gem like po-boys would never make it in a "real" city!

karen hughes is an idiot

2005-12-10T22:50:00.000-08:00

Just watched an interview with Karen Hughes on the Charlie Rose Show. Although he tried to actually have a conversation, Hughes deftly evaded answering any questions with the insulting tactlessness characteristic of most members of the Bush administration. Infuriating. My favorite part was when she made the hand gesture for quotation marks when saying the word, "occupation" and said it in a strangely low voice, a sad attempt at making light of something she clearly doesn't come close to comprehending. Who are you, Karen Hughes? Maybe we should all read her short book, "10 Minutes from Normal" to gain more insight into how someone so clearly ignorant of foreign policy (or foreign countries) could hold the position equivalent to that of an ambassador. Her job is to change the minds of people abroad who disagree with the war and our country's general demeanor. I think she should start working on the 60% of us right here in the U.S. who are deeply unsettled before tromping off to embarass herself more than she already has.

anti-sane

2005-12-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

I've been immersed of late in the world of Des Esseintes, the sole character and protaganist of Joris-Karl (known as J.K. to his friends) Huysmans' "Against Nature" (or "Against the Grain"). The novel, written in 1884, is an attack on the Naturalism of the time, and a tribute to the Decadent movement. Duc Jean Des Esseintes is himself a relic as the only surviving member of an ancient line of feudal lords. A do-nothing, at thirty he forsakes the outside world and consciously plunges into an isolated world devoted to his senses. We follow his flights of fancy and are subjected to his musings on how to decorate every room in his home. Miniscule decisions become over-blown symbols for his personal righteousness: what to drink, what to read, what to eat, what to smell are life-altering decisions for Des Esseintes. No joke. Unfortunately, he is anemic, frail, and prone to neuroses. In Chapter 14, he buys a "digester", as he can no longer tolerate solid foods. His bodily deterioration is countered with an intense focus on what others have produced in the past. These ruminations become the central plot(s), as he is able to transport himself in thought to considerations on certain novels, inventions, or poetry, from the Greeks to his present day. This is the duty he sets for himself.
Raised by Jesuits, he has conflicted Catholic notions of morality as he longs for sensuous interactions with young men and women who look like young men. He decorates his bedroom in a monastic theme to imitate the life of a monk but without the hard beds or dirty floors. Des Esseintes can have anything he wants, but he refuses everything, or so he thinks. By nature he is conditioned to luxury and excess. This novel was highly influential to Oscar Wilde, who called it, "the strangest book that he had ever read." He also described it aptly as , "a psychological study of a young Parisian who spent his life trying to realize in the 19th century all the passions and modes of thought that belonged to every century except his own, and to sum up in himself the various moods through which the world-spirit had ever passed."
The willfull turning inwards is not a selfish act - he believes he is doing the world more good by wholly projecting his theories of the outside world onto his body and mind, leaving no distractions to taint its effects. Despite this utopian and naive vision which permeates the novel, Huysmans proposes a pessimistic view of the results of such an activity. You will die alone, ill, and corrupted, no matter how much you keep worldly sin and excess out of your life. Human nature always creeps back in. The author worked as a bureaucrat much of his life, in the office of the Ministry of the Interior. When he retired, he kept his letterhead, but changed it to read, "Ministry of the Interior [Life]".

dark day

2005-12-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

this desolate convenience store hot dog-rotisserie-machine sums up how i feel today. on the bright side, for the first time ever i spent the entire day watching football by myself. college football is more fun because more stuff happens. i saw the army-navy game. The Navy Midshipmen won (mainly because their fans have spiffier uniforms). Lamar Owens was amazing to watch. This is a photo of him running and a levitating mannequin in the background.

2005-11-30T04:58:00.000-08:00

this is a photo of a car exploding in the alley next to my house. everyone came out to watch it burn.

alabama train

2005-11-28T00:08:00.000-08:00

this is what a train in alabama looks like when you've gotten lost in smithsville or jonesboro or pawtucketville looking for a cracker barrel and have to turn around and the train cuts you off so you have to wait and ted makes fun of you for thinking you know where the c.b. is. and this is what it looks like in pigeon forge, tennessee, home of dolly parton (and dollywood). you can see they have a convenient trolley stop right outside the "sundries" shop, for all your bear-driven trolley needs. pigeon forge is a wonderland not to be missed.

2005-11-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

i've decided to dissociate from winter and spend all my time thinking about past moments of warmth. this was one of them, this summer in the great smokies. making rock piles on a log. it was nice. we also:

went to a minor league ballgame near charleston, sc. it was also pretty nice. until the guy behind us caused a full-on scene, swearing at his wife/girlfriend about scarlet, her no-good daughter. then it was awkward.

and though sock was soused all summer on the road, he was okay to hang around with too.

Lombard, city of lights.

2005-11-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

Today we traveled to the Village of Lombard, Illinois, where we were lucky to have an AMAZING meal care of my pal Paul's parents Terry & Sally Jackson. Rebecca came, and brought quite a heavy pie with her. I googled the village of lombard and got this little gem of an image. It seriously was a great meal. seriously. besides the stuffing, highlights included the green bean casserole. Those french onion things were sprinkled on top, which elude any imaginable category of flavor. Probably because they're made of some substance designed to elicit unusually strong and pleasureable chemical reactions in your brain. anyway, that's how it felt. So, I got to see the vast and illustrious Western Suburbs of Chicago. It was very relaxing and refreshing, reminding me of my own partial suburban upbringing. Although I wasn't raised in or near the Midwest, I think suburbs have a universal appeal that brings you back to your old, sulky, angsty, teenage self again. but only for a few hours. Thank you again to the Jackson family. You made us feel welcome and happy on this cold, blustery Chicago day.

no thinking!

2005-11-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

this is called, "they don't have arms" and was done by natalie dee. i think it's pretty funny.

2005-11-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

this is georges adeagbo buying books for his installation piece, la colonisation belge en afrique noir. to learn more about georges, go to this comprehensive site about almost every piece that's ever been shown (in the past 12 years).

it's really good to start a blank snake.

2005-11-15T22:02:00.000-08:00

not much time to write actual sentences, so i'm just sticking to photos. first off, what do you think this is supposed to be?
when i got home today, i spotted this clownish burglar who eluded me, and i was only able to capture this likeness before they quickly shuffled out the door and out of my life forever.

as I sit bundled in blankets so that I don't have to turn on the heat, and the wind violently whips around outside, I think it would be good to remember what it feels like to exist in the world as a human being should.

2005-11-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

above is an alex katz painting, which I can't find the title of. Below is a painting by peter doig.

my old friend

2005-11-10T20:19:00.000-08:00

well, i guess i've come full circle with the whole muffler idea. look at my first post if this doesn't make sense.
this was my car in houston. it was a vintage '91 mazda mx-6. i miss it, although i don't miss that the sunroof leaked. for some reason, owning a car, the act of owning it, feels really good. it was my first car. I know I should want to ride a bike for the rest of my life for the environment, but I prefer to have a traveling nook. It stayed its same average self no matter what weird dwellings I had procured for myself or what bizarre situation I stumbled into. Hell, I got hit by a drunk driver, then chased the bastard down with that car, for god sakes! it did smell a little, and occasional puffs of black smoke sputtered out the back. but i loved that little guy anyway. carmax only gave me $150 for it. sheesh.

2005-11-08T23:11:00.000-08:00

I was just reading an interview with Philip Guston, who said an unremarkable thing. It was that, "One of the problems that always bothers me is sustaining a feeling." It made me think of a feeling I would like to sustain. This was in Egypt this summer, at a lonely restaurant named The Virginian, where I ate a snack with Walid, my taxi driver and companion for three entire days of hanging out constantly around Cairo. On the Muqattam plateau a city of garbage leads to a Coptic church. Up there we ate chick peas and drank beer and looked out over dusty, smoggy Cairo talking about the benefits/ drawbacks of monogamy.

pirate

2005-11-08T21:28:00.000-08:00

my pirate name is Red Charity Rackham.

have i toad you lately that i love you?

2005-11-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

In 1764 Voltaire wrote, "Ask a toad what is beauty, the greatly beautiful. He will reply that it is a female toad with two big round eyes coming out of its little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown back. Ask the devil and he will tell you that the beautiful is a pair of horns, four claws and a tail."

beast-man cheney

2005-11-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

My latent interest in "beast-man Cheney" has recently been revived, and with this fresh interest, I feel that some pertinent questions must be answered. You may be wondering about some of these very same issues, so I have taken the liberty to reflect on them for you and answer them to my liking.
Q-1) Is Dick Cheney in fact a "beast-man"?
A) Well, we just don't know for sure. But do take a look at his photo. Do you see that beast-man-ness hiding between the cocked right eyebrow and that lop-sided grimace-sneer combo? I do. I think if we all just listen to our intuition for just one moment we'll know......that's right, BEAST MAN!
Q-2) Caroline, what is a beast-man, exactly?
A) I'm not quite sure why you're asking, since you can see Cheney is one, plain as day. The precise defintion, found on Wikipedia, is this: "Beast Man is a character in the popular toy line and cartoon series 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'. He is a member of the Evil Warriors and Skeletor's main henchman. He is a savage and feral man of the wild covered in deep red fur, and wears tribal warpaint on his face. He possesses power over all wild animals and can control them at will. He is constantly being bossed around by Skeletor and feeling the evil warlord's wrath and is always the first person to take the blame when one of Skeletor's schemes goes wrong." The important words here are "feral" and "savage"!
Well, to round off my point, I would like to share with you an intriguing political couplet all about Cheney and his beast-man status.

2005-11-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

this summer, on my way to Cairo, I stopped in London for a 12-hour layover. although i was jet-lagged to the point of delirium, i ventured on an early sunday morning to the saatchi gallery on the thames, which was hosting the first part of a series of exhibitions titled THE TRIUMPH OF PAINTING. sheesh, what a name. it was, however, a very good show filled with all of charles saatchi's new favorites. I particularly liked Peter Doig. Also, Hermann Nitsch, who has been accused of belonging to a cult, for staging events where people would roll around naked with meat, blood, and eachother. This is a photo of what I call his blood paintings (for obvious reasons).

if saatchi's name is new to anybody, he was the progenitor of the YBA's (young british artists) in the 80's, and has continued to wield his heavy hammer of influence on many artists' careers (positively and negatively), past and present. he's an ad-man. and he supported margaret thatcher by creating an advertising campaign that some say led her to become prime minister. he has pretty good taste and a lot of money. i stumbled around his gallery and enjoyed it, but due to my semi-inebriated state (thanks to a large starbucks that set my nerves on edge), i had to leave after seeing marlene dumas' scary naked children.

me in a box

2005-11-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

This was taken while moving out of the apartment on Berthea Street in Houston to the big, cold, dark city of Chicago. Here's a photo of what our apartment looked like in its heyday. That's basically all of it right there, which, as any of my new friends in Chicago will tell you, pales in comparison to our cavernous alley-shack in good ole Humboldt Park. I have to say, I do miss the smallness.

scrap metal + zoo = sunday

2005-10-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

today was a great day. we decided to leave our books at home for a day walking around. first, we ate greasy mexican breakfast at taqueria moran. then, we walked down armitage and over the chicago river, where we took in this gorgeous site. it's all of our scrap metal! firstly, it's hard to believe there are still barges floating around with trash on them. I guess I sort of assumed we had come up with a better idea. what about burying it or sending it to space? Secondly, I've never seen such an industrial scene so close to the pet boutiques and children's clothing stores of a fine city such as Chicago. But I soon learned this was a concerted effort on the part of Chicago's citizens to keep industry alive, hence, "The Corridor".

With that out of our way, we ambled towards the lake as throngs of children in various types of costumed attire swarmed the streets, trick or treat-ing, I guess. It doesn't seem as much fun during the day, though. We arrived at the zoo, where there was a larger percentage of regularly dressed children. we saw: an angry ostrich and: a sleeping lion in the sunset. We also saw giraffes galloping, but I only have a video of that. Does anybody know how to post videos? It was a great day.

baseball is fun

2005-10-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

well, it's all over, folks, and the astros didn't get it this time. it was an amazing season and i had a great time watching them all season in both houston and chicago. it does add a little sting to be in the winning team's home town, though. but i'm proud of us for getting there. now it's time for me to settle in for a long, cold, sports-less winter...

2005-10-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

i just went out on the balcony and spotted my neighbor in the dark lurking ominously. He was shining a very bright light on the ground and my first thought went something like this- "he's digging a grave so he can bury a dead body!! run!" i cringed with fear and hid behind our texas flag, but, as it turns out, he's just working on a car. whew! besides scaring myself silly, i found out today what's wrong with a lot of criticism on west africa. it may seem very obvious to other people, but not to me. nobody's looking at where it's made. Cotonou, Benin's largest city, is crumbling, mostly grey, and disharmonious for two main reasons: 1) buildings in cotonou can only be taxed if they have been plastered and painted, and 2) cement is mixed with two parts sand, which obviously makes for a poor building material. As art and ideas are exported from west africa, it is re-contextualized through western eyes. people forget that it was not made in, or for, the western world. I have found only one description or analysis of the urban sites in direct relation to West African art, unless it is referring to outsider (the ultra-naive, acceptable form) art of "untrained" artists. But, back to the context of the city. You might be thinking, well, a dumpy city in Africa can't be THAT interesting or inspiring. but, I disagree. if you read any art history about America, they're always talking about New York, or LA, or (in Pollock's case) Wyoming. Well, Wyoming might not be interesting to me, but it did produce an unique outlook for one of our most revered painters. A city (and any community, really) is a bustling, crazy, productive place, highly indicative of the subtleties of both history and the present in relation to that place. Place and time are clearly linked. This is a different angle on what I was just mentioning, but I think it's still relevant.
It is important for artists to reconcile with their (owned or unowned) histories. During the 18th-19th centuries, many of the African elites of Dahoumey (Benin) were profiting from the slave trade. The paradoxes resulting from colonialism result in a lack of ability to judge history in black or white. Many people in Benin are still iliterate to the colonial language, French - it is this oppresive, mediating culture that Georges Adeagbo addresses so well in his work. In terms of bringing the impact of his artwork back to his home, Georges Adeagbo said, "I know that Jean and Marcellin (two servants who can't read French) look at my installations while I am away from home, and think about them. And they know that I know. We would never mention it, but it's as if I am talking to them and they are listening."

this is art...sort of.

2005-10-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

inspired by champ's blog, meals i have eaten, i have decided to document a dramatic baking moment here. you see in the middle image the cookie in its formative state, easily discernible as individual units. at the top, you see the final result, a uniform blob of pure sugar cookie-ness. but alas! out of this crass example of culinary ineptitude, a symbol of love and happiness has emerged. there is a lesson to be learned here..make of it what you will.

to relieve the tedium..

2005-10-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

this is a drawing done by steve reich, a minimalist musician from the 60s (he's still alive though) who i'm interested in. it ties in with a fascination i have with pre-decided systems and rules that some artists use to control (somewhat) the output of their work. if i wasn't watching the world series and nearly dying from anticipation, i would be reading about steve instead, i'm watching fat bobby jenks pitch and wishing we could get a hit.

paint the town

2005-10-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

Carolyn Swiszcz had a show this fall in Chicago at Wendy Cooper. Ted wrote the following review of her work.
Newspaper dispensers, lotto posters and beer advertisements speckle Chicago's street side scapes. With a nod towards the walk to work and the walk home, painter Carolyn Swiszcz advances these urban outcasts and orphans to the forefront in her paint and collage works at Wendy Cooper Gallery through October 15. Swiszcz casts a momentary spell with her electrical eye for color and disarmingly innocent brushstroke, and for that moment her remembered scraps of media and popular culture glow. The painting above is "Cafe Victoria," 2005, Acrylic, trace monoprint, ink on paper, 26"x36"

when two heads of state meet...it's a party!

2005-10-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

I found out about President Mathieu Kerekou today. He's pretty interesting, mainly because he seized control in a military coup in 1972, then forced Benin into a Marxist-Leninist ideology (they actually were called "The People's Republic of Benin" for some time). He stayed in power until 1990, when Benin quickly called to reverse all of the silly notions that Mathieu put into place. For instance, they asked for (among other things):

- the release of all political detainees and prisoners.
- the respect of all Human Rights.

Mathieu Kerekou was re-elected in 1996 and is on his last allowable elected five-year term. But come on, with a face like that, how could you not want him around? I also found a great site with headshots of almost all of West Africa's heads of state.

look who's going to the big time

2005-10-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

after a nerve-wracking few days, i was glad to be surrounded by friends as the astros won the right to step up to the chicago white sox during the world series. thanks for all who attended wednesday's night's exchequer-stravaganza!

baseball creates anxiety...and more!

2005-10-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

In a last-ditch attempt to avoid doing some reading before the astros-cardinals game, I decided to add more links to my list. Included will be the CORE program at the Glassell School of Art in Houston, which always includes a healthy array of post-MFA artists that I enjoyed during my time there, personally and artistically. Also, Jason Salavon's website, a fellow Chicago-dweller and all-around nice guy. Also, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, which is free and rocks at the same time. More to come if the Astros make it tonight...

fourth

2005-10-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

Last fall in Houston, the Menil Collection held a small one-room show of Romuald Hazoume's work, an installation made of sound, plastic, glass, pearls, tobacco, fabrics, mirrors, cauris, and calabashes. Like Georges Adeagbo, Hazoume is also an artist from Benin (born 1962 in Porto Novo) dealing with political/economic questions manifested in found objects. Hazoume is best known for selecting a specific type of object; namely gasoline canisters, which he transforms into the well-known colonialized, conquered West African tribal mask. In addition to making these sculptures, he is also a film-maker and photographer. All of these media are combined in room-sized installations.

A central theme in Hazoume's work is the effects and cultural impact/meaning of objects involved in the highly dangerous gas-smuggling rings that operate between Nigeria and Benin. By appropriating, re-forming, and thus re-presenting the containers used in the highly lucrative and highly (socially) destructive oil industry , Hazoume is exposing economic injustices, and through his work, subsequently exerting control over an otherwise overwhelmingly powerful economic system based on foreign oil and the governments the oil industry controls. One more interesting thing about Hazoume is that his work is difficult to commodify in the Western art world, as his installations are difficult to take apart and sell. The more museums who are able to show the work, and the less they stay in private homes, the better. The experience of walking into his work is a challenging thing - I think more Western institutions should allow the public the opportunity to confront the contradictions and falsities that exist as a result of the oil industry's strong presence in West Africa.

Hazoume's work is currently on view at October Gallery in London, entitled, loosely translated, "Look out for yourself, because no one else will."

third

2005-10-16T07:49:00.000-07:00

Georges Adeagbo was born in 1942 in Cotonou, Benin. He studied law in Cote d'Ivoire and France, then taught for some time in France until his father died in 1971. As he was the eldest son, his family expected him to stay in Benin to assume responsibility as head of the household. Many confusing things happened at this point. His cousins stole the documents needed for him to return to France. Also, he became very depressed and lonely. So he started to take walks to a nearby lagoon to meditate on his life. On the way, he would pick up objects, and by the time he got home, he wanted to spread them out in the front yard in a sort of ritualistic manner. His relatives had a problem with this. They thought he was nuts. But I think he was working out some important issues, for example, about identity in relation to his country, and to colonialism, which had recently ended at that time. "I walk, I think, I see, I pass, I come back, I pick up the objects that attract me, I go home, I read things, I make notes, I learn." This is similar to Richard Serra's making process, where the verb, the action is important. For Adeagbo, the emphasis is on the act of collection; whereas Serra wants to collect space, Adeagbo wants to collect histories. Discarded objects hold small pieces of humanity, pieces of knowledge imbued with their own geography, language, history, and culture. Through these objects, Georges Adeagbo addresses seriously complex and difficult issues within his own culture and abroad, rescuing these clues, which could provide answers, so that others may meditate as he does. The laying-out of objects is reminiscent of the history of trade. Roman soldiers, when arriving in foreign locales, would lay out the goods they desired to trade. The native people of whatever land, would come, replace an object of theirs for the Roman object, in an attempt at fair trade. It was an exchange and leveling-out between cultures foreign to eachother. Also, illegal vendors on big city streets lay out their wares in the same manner. Adeagbo does not see the act of bringing these bits of knowledge to light as an artistic practice. Although his work entered the "art market" in the 1990s, and he has been shown abroad many times, he says this of being an artist, "Artist? That means nothing to me. I didn't learn things in an art school, I am only a witness of history...I go for walks as befits a philosopher, who does so in order to relate what is happening in nature and in the world." In 2004-2005, Adeagbo had his first solo show in the UK at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, entitled, "Le Socialisme Africain".

second

2005-10-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

behold the power of the bean. i must say, although i just moved to chicago, it remains my absolute favorite part of the city. i get to experience it every day, right across the street from my school. a begrudging thanks to chicago's mayor, richard daley, to the artist, anish kapoor, and to the gods of public art. have faith in the bean. it will never let you down.

first

2005-10-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

this is basically a podium to promote the work of artists i find interesting, and to get in touch with like-minded people (as well as the un-liked-minded). i'm trying to figure out how my thesis will incorporate the issues approached in the work you'll see here, so let me know what you think. the image you see here is by calixte dakpogan, an artist from Benin who was recently included in the exhibition, "African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection" at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. He makes sculptures out of car parts, hence the namesake of this post. I like found objects in art. Many of the artists I am interested in right now were included in the show, including Georges Adeagbo and Romuald Hazoume.