Indeterminacy

The last few weeks I’ve been going to see some Clas­si­cal on Sun­day morn­ings. Sort of. The group who puts it on, Sun­day Chat­ter, fea­tures a poet, and at the start of the month, my boy J.W. Basillo fea­tured. And wouldn’t you know it: they’re doing a Steve Reich cel­e­bra­tion. I love Steve Reich; I’ve been jam­ming to “Proverb” and “Piano Phase” for years. “Marimba Phase” live was sick. So what an awe­some sur­prise last Sun­day to see a hand­ful of John Cage pieces in the mix. If you know any­thing about Cage, it’s prob­a­bly that he’s the lov­able ass­hole who gave us 4’33″. If you’re not famil­iar, the piece was first per­formed like this: pianist…

Something We Can Get Behind

My friend Jamie’s a remark­able clas­si­cal gui­tarist. He’s in two-​​man band, in fact, called Duo Orfeo. Not a self-​​professed lover of clas­si­cal, I lis­ten to their first album all the time. And they’re try­ing to do some­thing that may never have been done before, if you can look past that Ralph Macchio/​Ry Cooder thing in the 80s.

For later contemplation

Sabbatical

Y’know, it’s been a treat, the last few months. I credit two big changes. First, I quit face­book, glo­ri­ously and grace­lessly. Sec­ond, I slowed my North­east­ern Over­per­former Instinct to a man­age­able, self-​​​​respecting flow. Much of this free time I’ve been hap­pily putting into a fresh, excit­ing, promis­ing rela­tion­ship. (With Mary, the whips­mart con­trar­ian in the com­ments.) I’ve been learn­ing web design. Work­ing a morn­ing job where I write these posts when there’s no bill­able job, and another in the after­noon which isn’t too tax­ing, either. Read­ing and clean­ing house (and car), for health, and in antic­i­pa­tion of the move in May. Exer­cis­ing again, even lift­ing. And after my roommate’s exact­ing and ter­ri­ble insight, I now…

Fabulous Tuesday Procrastination

Clearly, you share either my pro­cliv­ity for free time or con­tempt for con­sumer wor­ship. So here’s a lit­tle treat for you  –  yup, you  –  whether you’ve been proac­tive, pro­cras­ti­nat­ing, or unim­pressed with shop­ping this year. The Quan­tum Biol­o­gist offers his annual Mistle­toe Rant, con­densed, and notably low-​​​​venom. Packed with the myth­i­cal, bio­log­i­cal, and of course, appro­pri­ated ori­gins of the lit­tle par­a­site, it’s a Christ­mas week essen­tial. A ter­rific Tom Waits inter­view in the Onion AV Club, from around the time Alice was released. Still not sure what to get your sweetie? What if you made a stack of redeemable house­hold favor cards? What if they looked as smart as you? Pour your heart some nog and curl up with My Parents…

Inspiration

Oh, it’s that time of the week again! One of my most trea­sured cor­ners of the Inter­net: the jan­drew edits. Pri­mar­ily, Star Trek TNG episodes, hys­ter­i­cally re-​​​​edited and com­pressed to around a minute each. Some gor­geous wine labels, includ­ing designs in braille, Hebrew, and a wax-​​​​dipped bot­tle­neck with hang­ing tag, named Return of the Liv­ing Red. The best out­door McDonald’s adver­tis­ing ever hatched. The music video for Hayzee’s “Press Start.” Essen­tial view­ing for every 8-​​​​bit nos­tal­gia artist. Aaaaand, in Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase,” two pianists simul­ta­né­ously play the same sequence, and begin to phase with each other, mak­ing pat­terns. Here, it’s played by one guy:

Inspiration!

First, some badass play­ing cards by Dutch deign stu­dent Felix Blom­mestijn, which from appear­ance could be wood­block prints. They’re still being drawn and printed. Book­mark and return for updates. Then clever, some­times sweet, some­times sad street instal­la­tions by Mark Jenk­ins. I sus­pect he con­tributed to the 516 ARTS Street Art show in Albu­querque, and I was had for a good 20 min­utes by one of his sleep­ing bod­ies in the gallery. “Flamethrower v. Fire Extin­guisher at 1000 Frames Per Sec­ond.” For my early-​​​​90s prim­i­tive hyper­text nerds. (If any­one has a copy of Cos­mic Osmo, I’m so buy­ing.) Last, a non-​​​​profit, open-​​​​to-​​​​the-​​​​public, end­lessly hyper­linked online Art His­tory text­book. Enjoy, my friends. See you tomorrow.

Inspiration!

I’m writ­ing from a teth­ered phone at PHX, so today’s Inspi­ra­tion is gonna be an all-​​​​text edi­tion. Let’s get to: This speaker cable costs $6800. But the reviews at Ama­zon are val­ued beyond mea­sure. (via my girl­friend) Orson Welles doesn’t fuck around, period. But in his weekly 1946 radio addresses on the state of Amer­ica, he’s like Edward R. Murrow’s invis­i­ble, fear­fully awe­some side­kick. (via my super-​​​​awesome friend Anders) I know this has made the rounds, but it’s still so frig­gin’ cool, I can’t stop pok­ing it. Besides, maybe you haven’t seen this glo­ri­ously anachro­nis­tic take on the iPod, cell phone, and Aster­oids. How many of these Stephen King titles do you rec­og­nize by the design/​​illustration alone?…

Inspiration Roundup (now with naked lady)!

Last week I vowed to begin a new under­tak­ing here, list­ing for you, loyal read­er­ship, a few of my favorite inspi­ra­tions of the week, and from the archives. Well, here you go. A spread of five things I find very enjoy­able, well-​​​​done, and sur­pris­ingly thought­ful to look at. Phở­tos are linked to orig­i­nal sources. Be sure to tell the orig­i­na­tors what you think, and post your own inspi­ra­tions in the com­ments. Update: Full Jay-​​​​Z/​​Cornell West at the NYPL video right here. FAS­CI­NAT­ING. Steam­punk Work­shop. Vic­to­rian all-​​​​in-​​​​one PC. steampunkworkshop.com Debra Folz. The Whole Story. Rein­forced, pull-​​​​apart-​​​​able photo albums. debrafolz.com Lynn Maciver. Dalkeith Road 2. Mono­prints on paper. lynnemaciver.com Jacob Dahlstrup Jensen. Banana Boats. jacobdahlstrup.com And, as…

Ch-ch-ch-changes

With the over­due death of my face­book account, I’m start­ing to won­der about a lot of my inter­net expe­ri­ence. Face­book (among many oth­ers) is a broad­cast ser­vice for your details. Lately, I’d rather talk in para­graphs. I just opened shop at Twit­ter, but its only func­tion is to pro­mote this space, fol­low a few friends, and amuse myself with pseudo-​​​​punditry (Sarah Palin will undoubt­edly deliver the larfs.) But some­times you find things on this world wide doohickey worth pass­ing on. For exam­ple, NIETO­press does gor­geous work, which you should be aware of. So I’m adding a weekly Inspi­ra­tion Roundup. I don’t think of myself as more a con­nois­seur of the Inter­webs than any­one else, but there’s so much…