Some travel
Luke got married in Bulgaria, then I hit the road.
Still to come: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro.
What It Is
I've been wanting to play around with some kind of written/audio performance for a while. The opportunity came when invited to submit for Ear/Theater, a gallery show at the Tandem Co-op. It turned out to be a nice winefed, candlelit feast for the ears, with pieces from all kinds of audio artists including Bob's new band, Through a Rebel Heart. Those of you that didn't venture out to Lakeview on that bitter evening can stream the show online. Thanks to Chris Martiniano for the music and Luke for help getting myself situated with my machines.
Something to see: The Atom Smashers
When CERN opened the Large Hadron Collider in August, some people were concerned it might create a teeny tiny black hole that would tear the world to pieces or thrust us into a parallel universe. Tthey're trying to find the Higgs boson particle, also called the "God particle" because it would essentially explain of all subatomic science to date, like how it's possible for anything to have mass and exist, which apparently doesn't make any sense.
Until recently, the much smaller particle accelerator at Fermilab in Illinois has been the place for pure research and particle physics. Now, Fermilab is the underdog in the race to find the Higgs, and, though threatened by budget cutbacks, they're still going for it. My friends and aquaintences at 137 Films got unprecedented access to Fermilab and made a documentary about all of this interesting nonsense. I saw it at CUFF, and while you may have missed your chance to see the full 90 minute edit, you can still see a short version they cut for Independent Lens on PBS. Be sure to watch for the cutest atom-smashing animations ever made, courtesy of my boy Luke.
> Find out more or check your local listings.
Something to read: Bowling Across America
The best business trip of all time didn't take me to New York or San Francisco or Paris. It found me and the notorious Mike Walsh in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on a dancefloor flooded with bubbles next to the mechanical bull in a danceclub attached to a bowling alley. Little did I know that a few short months later Mike would quit his job, steal his mom's car, and hit the road on a mission. I better be in the acknowledgements at least.
> Bowling Across America: 50 States in Rented Shoes
Getting jpeggy wid it
The notorious HKO is at it again. He's launched a new project called jpgaday. The concept is simple enough. Seven designers he respects/invites are each responsible for some good jpg loving on their respective day of the week however they feel like providing it. As the project develops, it promises to be a nice collection of playful graphic experimentation. You may even see a bit of the old HKO/Kripp collaborative brainmash here and there, from time to time, if you watch closely.
> Set your RSS for everyday joy
Moonless in Appalachia
Nathan and I finally freaked out and put our boots were our minds have been. We fled Chicago for the Appalachian Trail, hiking halfway through the beautiful Smoky Mountains just in time for the trees to start throwing their fireworks.
Six days in Savannah, a (G-rated) film
Ben got a grant from Rand McNally to make a Spring Break road video for the web or some such, so Macho D, Sleep Mate, Sweet Meat, and myself hit the road, knocking off Indianapolis, Springfield, Nashville, Asheville, Louisville, Chattanooga and Savannah...not necessarily in that order.
> Spring Break mini-documentary.
Some items, for whatever purpose
The best art show I've seen in a while was at OhNo!Doom gallery. An 80-panel exquisite corpse. Get in and see it if it's still up.
The best new development from one of my heroes, Lawrence Lessig,is called Fix Congress First. Please, heed. Here's hoping it will get a little traction. Creative Commons has become a kind of success, as far as that goes, for what it's worth, so I'm hopeful.
If you haven't already let Tunng's _Good Arrows_ seep into your spine for a while, go now. Get it. You might also have missed Thurston's latest solo whoopdie, the perfect jangly overcoat for a long winter. And Sam Phillips and Tim Fite, not for everyone, and so on. The rest you know. And, for the love of god, see My Bloody Valentine while you still have a chance and some earjuice to blow.
You also might want to watch this or this, or read this, or listen to this.
Now tell me something.
Let's make some meanings
Being invited to take part in this seemed a good opportunity to explore my interest in wisdomisms with some avant-playfulness. Nathan was up to the challenge of designing within random constraints involving common aphorisms, dice, a hat, a coin toss, eleven typefaces, and randomly generated RGB values. (Site dead. We might do an online archive sometime, but we'll see. -ed)
{frontispiece}
We were still young but our hearts were wanting
The moths returned but not the enchantment they had once brought
When we were the shame of the world, everything was our disaster
Now we are motheaten and own nothing
> sans (photos by jeff economy)
Nippon redux via null
In 2007, null* organized the first in what promises to be a series of "dual city sessions." In the dark trunks, Tokyo. In the light trunks, Singapore. Hideki was invited to participate again and invited me to collaborate again. He's nice like that. The exhibition theme was Japan and nature. Since we're both stateside again in our own respective cities, we revisited our time together in Japan during ohanami and my crappy journals for some source material. There isn't much of an online archive, but you can see what they're up to now.
Something about a beard
I recently grew one while reading The Brothers Karamazov. Seemed like the thing to do. Along the way I found this fantastic thing called the internet, which is really helpful if you're looking for a brainiac like Hubert Dreyfus to help you get through a dense text without feeling like dummy. His is just one of the interesting classes from MIT, Berkeley, etc. available as podcasts or audio (search iTunes for more). I'd also recommend syncing yourself for On The Media every week, as it's the best series on NPR no matter what your dirty stinking liberal soy latte friends say.
Water, water, everywhere
My brother has been named (what the press is calling) the state of Wisconsin's first "Water Czar." We're proud of him.
Cue the groupies
I've joined the band, i.e., contributed a piece to the first issue of Book Band. It's an independent venture curated by Ryan Maconochie and a great example of a truly genre-neutral periodical format. Is it an art book? Scrapbook? Zine? Lunacy? It's "publishing on demand," a model I expect to see a whole lot more of in the very near future. Exciting stuff.
Concerning work of the paying variety
I have samples and case studies available, if you like. Just email. In the meantime, you can check out a project I did recently with my friend and collaborator Hideki. It's kind of an animated fashion spread for thousand-dollar flip flops.
The fine line between charity and stupidity
Ever had the burning desire to help some idiot accomplish something completely insane? If so, my boys Nathan and Anthony are your boys, too. Nathan is the guy I traveled with in Turkey, and Anthony and I used to work together on the magazine. They're about to race (against each other) through 2000 miles of uncultivated Indian terrain in motorized rickshaws. For charity, of course. And they need our help.
> Here's the Rickshaw Run website.
Donate some gas money, buy a Rock Shaw 2006 t-shirt with devilhand logo, or just follow the madness and pray, as I will be, for their safe return to these shores and their senses.
Update!!!
They're back! And only one flipped tuk tuk and broken nose between them. Nathan and Jake, intense mf idiots they are, were first to arrive in Darjeeling and will likely end up in Guiness for getting there in 8 days. Anthony and the Good Korma crew took their time getting to know the people and culture and taking pictures instead. These guys are heroes of mine, and I'm glad to have them back.
"A Trip of Ruins"
The Greeks, Trojans, Seljuks, Mongols, Ottomans, Children's Crusade, and all other conquering hordes that have trampled the Turkish nation over the years have nothing on the bearded madman NateDhamma and myself. Yes, friends. My monthlong campaign on the Turkish nation is over. These hewn-rock cave phalluses are known to the hippies that have adopted the central Anatolian region as "fairy chimneys." Click them to see some crappy pictures I took when my camera wasn't broken.
The illusion of progress
Took a workshop at StoryStudio Chicago and thought I'd spread the word. It's independently run by writers for writers, which is admirable and catching on. The makeup of the human animals you'll find here is more of a crapshoot than at any university-run shop, but the price is worth the gamble. Classes range from long-term to one day, including some designed for lazybones slackers looking for a quick kick in the pants to generate ideas and/or exercise their mettle.
Real Simple Real Simple Syndication?
I'm currently looking for some RSS resources that a digitally challenged writer like myself might be able to manage. Namely, I'd like to set up an open (preferably anonymous) blog to load directly into an RSS-fed screen saver. Email ideas and check back in a while to see if I've done anything with them.
Tokyo, March 2005
Here are some photos from my trip, you vultures.
Chicago, April-May 2005
As promised, some photos of my home city for my new friends.
Ta no shii
Back from Tokyo
Photo galleries will be available soon enough for the people I've promised. I took over two thousand, so bear with me as I edit. If you're so hot for a taste of my trip, you can download my own personal Lost in Translation soundtrack--a mix of stuff I was listening to, heard around Tokyo, or picked up along the way. Click to download:
Karoshi Curve Vol. 1: Ronery Gaijin (99MB zip file)
Karoshi Curve Vol. 2: Tea for Otaku (76MB zip file)
Karoshi Curve Vol. 3: Shibuya Lost & Found (92MB zip file)
