Oh hope!

"Metal prices fall further than during the Great Depression"

Present day view of 1929 to 1933: dust, horses and the longing for gold.

Present day view of 2007-2009: flat screens, SUV's and the longing for old Hollywood drug binges.

Our society just can't seem to figure out what this headline means.

The Author's Chair

The 25th anniversary of Graves and Hansen's article, "The Author's Chair" falls upon us in the mist of economic turmoil and crumbling hopes. But this idea still holds merit. In the classroom, the author's chair is the essential link between reading and writing - a place for one student, or should I say one writer, to sit and discuss his ideas with his peers and teacher alike. He is the author of what will become a work of writing, and he is the to be writer of this same work. It gives power and ownership. It shows students that they are what matters when writing. It offers a place to vent ideas and receive instant, immediate feedback.

News

No posts in quite some time. One man's election, an economic landslide, quite a few to do's in the making.

Instead of making excuses, here is an idea:

Bored with a toothache.

A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it, says Hemingway.

Freegans!

In an attempt to stay out of the increasing wave of consumerism swarming our country, these young folk try to buy as little as possible. Finding their goods in dumpsters, grocery store trash and other such places, freegans are protesting in a strong, but silent way. If Americans keep needing and needing, consuming and consuming, when will we run dry?

I Want to Believe

Everybody must go see the current Cai Guo-Qiang exhibit at The Guggenheim. This multimedia presentation of his work is both shocking and intriguing. From The Guggenheim website, "Drawing freely from ancient mythology, military history, Taoist cosmology, extraterrestrial observations, Maoist revolutionary tactics, Buddhist philosophy, gunpowder-related technology, Chinese medicine, and methods of terrorist violence, Cai’s art is a form of social energy, constantly mutable, linking what he refers to as 'the seen and unseen worlds.'"

His philosophy of art seems to mirror and comment on aspects of Communism - everything new that is created must come from something that was forcefully destroyed.

Us Golgos were moved, not only by the 99 wolves that slowly ascended upwards only to hit a glass wall (mimicking the Berlin Wall) and fall frustratingly to their death to the big screen display depicting "explosion" events in a fierce and aggressive manner. Supposedly, according to the Times, his next "explosion" event is set for the upcoming Olympic games in China.

In case you forgot - The Guggenheim is located on 5th Avenue and 88th Street.

Letter from Gilmore

SEPTEMBER 11,1976

"I've told you I haven't slept lately - the ghosts have descended and set upon me with a force I didn't believe they possessed. I smack 'em down but they sneak back and climb in my ear and demons that they are tell me foul jokes, they want to sap my will, drink my strength, drain my hope leave me derelict bereft of hope lost empty alone foul demon motherfuckers with dirty furry bodies whispering vile things in the nite chortling and laughing with a hideous glee to see me toss sleepless in durance truly vile they plan to pounce on me in a shrieking mad fury when I leave with their hideous yellow long toe and finger claws teeth dripping with rank saliva and mucous thick yellow green. Dirty inhuman beasts jackals hyena rumor monger plague ridden unhappy lost ghostly foul ungodly things unacceptable creeping crawling red eyed bat eared soulless beasts.

They won't let the ol' boy have a nites sleep. God-damned lost motherfuckers.
I need our silver sword against them. They're slippery motherfuckers.
The demon ghosts
trick tease tantalize
bite and claw scratch and screech
weave a web of oldness pull in harness
like oxen a wood creaking tumbrel a gray wood
tumbrel through the cobbled streets of my
ancient mind... "

Excerpt of a letter written from jail by Gary Gilmore to Nicole Barret...

Miller on New York

A Vow of Silence

Our friend Tony Bonilla has endeavored to stay silent for the month of February - limited exceptions apply. Check out his video blog chronicling his progress.

livingmovie.blogspot.com

Sockeroo

a notable success!

The Dole

The dole was a governmental policy in Ancient Rome which provided a fixed amount of grain (or bread) to a substantial portion of male Roman citizens, initially at a low fixed cost and later for free.

Today known as welfare.

You Better Be Quick

"It isn't age which makes us wise. Nor even experience, as people pretend. It's the quickness of the spirit. The quick and the dead...You, of all people, should know what I mean. There are only two classes in the world - and in every world - the quick and the dead." - Henry Miller

We wonder when everyday becomes a quick day and not just every other.

It's Personal

In 1939, Clement Greenberg, an American art critic associated with Abstract Expressionism (think: Pollock, the mind spilled on paper, unabashed revelary) said, "The arts came to be regarded as nothing more or less than so many powers of the personality." There is quite truth in this statement: YOU can't hide beneath any moss...you may as well know it now.

Willem de Kooning pictured above. 1957.

Faces

Black and White. Cigarettes. Gena Rowlands. A Cassavetes one night stand. Watch it.

A French Wedding

Updater: Sarkozy and Bruni plan to wed - "It's serious." How exciting!

The Amused Reader

The great Marcel Proust describes his ideal relationship with his readers: "It seemed to me, that they would not be 'my' readers but readers of their own selves, my book being merely a sort of magnifying glance like those which the optician at Combray used to offer his customers - it would be my book but with it I would furnish them the means of reading what lay inside themselves. So that I would not ask them to praise me or to censure me, but simply to tell me whether 'it really is like that.' I should ask whether or not the words that they read within themselves are the same as those which I have written" (In Search of Lost Time).

We are all meaning makers, creators, fabricators. It's the job of the writer to recognize this and play with the notion.

"One must be an inventor to read well" (Emerson). With a clout on the head, the writer lets the reader invent and make the words his own.

The New Year

Merry merry!