05
February 2000
Last
night we went to The
Nuyorican. I felt like I'd left Manhattan. I didn't
realize how exhausting is the uber-cool world of the Village
and Soho until I felt my jaw unclench over the course of
the evening. I fell into a sleepy sort of reverie and just
let the words wash over me as I occasionally met the quiet
gaze of the woman facing me. She was tall and thin and her
limbs moved relative to one another in an arresting syncopation...
I had momentarily forgotten how much I miss the other places:
the bar on Burnet where we danced while the seven old men
drank beer in cans and said nothing; Juan in a Million,
where Victor once let me ask for two tacos just to see the
look on my face when Juan and the waitress came back with
my 6-inch high tacos, each on its own plate; El Nopalito,
where we used to escape from first hour Theology class in
high school...
I
finally got around to shopping for and making some winter
clothes. I'm having a nice time buying sweaters with super-long
sleeves and making things that look like fishing nets to
wear. I am satisfying a questionable, but longstanding need
for Concept clothes. That is, they are fascinating and beautiful
and way too artistic to condescend to flatter my figure.
So, I cheerfully go around looking like a paper bag with
streaks of latex paint on it (sometimes I modify them a
bit-- that's where the latex paint comes in), but boy do
I look like a Concept.
Sharon
Wauchob is making some lovely Concepty clothes... that
I can't and / or won't afford.
Original
content is not optional for commerce sites:
First:
original content is one of the primary manners in which
online companies attract new customers. In general, people
use the Internet to search for specific information. Free
information. The more educational and informative
a site, the greater number of potential customers frequent
the site in search of free information.
Secondly, content is one manner in which existing companies
doing business primarily (or entirely) online can begin
to externally define their corporate culture and offer
a community to their present customers. This type of content
is generally more entertainment-oriented
than strictly "informational."
Neither
is the model unidirectional. It is questionable whether
content only sites can exist solely on advertising revenue.
In
general, the subscription-based content model is successful
(profitable) only for: marketing and demographic data,
pornography, and (to some degree) infomediaries.
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27
January 2000
I
haven't written anything but documentations of precarious
interactions for so long that I don't think I can write
or speak anymore. I am creaky. I have a list of Stuff to
be researched that I have been writing on my hand every
day. First: the
Mole People and company... Do I really have to say,
who cares if it's true? Next-- must find more of Roberto
Burle Marx's (or EB)
pencil drawings... But I had to settle for Niemeyer
images... Which isn't so bad.
Nothing
to be said.
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12
January 2000
...He
just told me I remind him of Snow White's stepmother. Are
my feelings hurt?
My father
says I should recall even more of Ryan's
Fancy.
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10
January 2000
"We'll
drink and drink and drink to Lily the Pink, the Pink,
the Pink,
The savior of of the human race.
"She invented Medicinal Compound, most efficacious
in every case"
When I
was five, I used to lie on my tummy in front of the stereo
with both the speakers turned in on either side of my head
and listen to the Irish Rovers. It turns out that I still
remember all the words to Lily
the Pink and Nancy
Whiskey and Finnegan's
Wake. However, I just lately figured out what was meant
by "my father, he was orange and my mother, she was green."
I recall taking it quite literally as a kindergartner... But
all that is nothing compared to the songs
of my birthplace. I was beside myself with glee to find mention
of The
Kelligrews Soiree (scroll down) in E.Annie Proulx's novel,
The
Shipping News... We
used to bound around the house shrilly piping, " There'll
be pig’s feet, cat’s meat, dumplings boiled up in a sheet."
Not to mention, Jack (who was every inch a sailor) and Lizer
(who was up to her knees in gravel).
Daniel
Kunitz's article
in Salon on the discussion of beauty. Also, the article
on the CD Universe mess.
Fantastic
Prayers sounds interesting. In fact, it sounds exactly
like what I wish I had time to make...
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09
January 2000
Oh,
I sat up all Friday night sketching and reading the book
Victor gave me for my birthday. It is an exhaustive catalogue
of the work of the Eames
office. It was a perfect gift. I have been feeling a
bit creatively sluggish lately (working too much), and this
made me happy. I read about making plywood gliders and radio
boxes and slide shows and the organization of the circus.
I sketched modular shelving and image layouts and bathtubs
and information systems and my own feet... And now I'm looking
for images of Harry
Bertoia's jewelry. Apparently he did jewelry only for
family and friends so none of it was ever commercially produced,
hence the difficulty in finding images. However, I did find
a CD
of his sound sculpture music... Anyhow, I decided it's time
to make some stuff that involves risk of physical injury
other than chronic-tennis-elbow-carpal-getting-fat-syndrome
or any of those epicene afflictions associated with sitting
in front of the computer too much. So, I spent several hours
yesterday salaciously ogling materials. I visited some Portland
cement, beeswax, pigments, oil paints, plaster of Paris,
paraffin, resin, clear resin, and Baltic Birch plywood...
However, I made my way home in the evening with only a roll
of newsprint. I anticlimactically decided it might be a
good idea to plan one project at a time-- for purely financial
considerations... We are still fantasizing about winning
the lottery, but with much less anxiety. I used to be quite
concerned that it was an unrealistic dream because we've
never actually bought tickets. Upon consideration, I realized
that buying the tickets doesn't perceptibly increase one's
chances of winning, so I've stopped worrying about that
and just spend my time planning how we will spend the money.
I
was talking to an acquaintance today about the political
legacy of modernism. We chatted a bit about the Eamses.
She said she finds them and their work disturbingly apolitical.
I demurred and said that there are a number of strong political
statements inherent in their work. It turns out that's just
what bothers her-- the statements are inherent in their
work rather than the work being the product of an explicitly
defined political agenda. Additionally, the very ideas of
efficiency in mass production, humble materiality, and broad
accommodation which make (or made) their design work so
broadly accessible (both literally and aesthetically) are
inherently associated with a problematic socio-economic
model...However, I have rarely seen design for living (elegant
problem-solving) successfully done as a political statement
first. That sort of explicit messaging is often exactly
what renders design (or art) inaccessible to those with
whom it is most concerned... Another problem with the very
admirable idea of accessibility of high design is the immediate
dilution of concept-- both as the details that make the
solution great are cut for production reasons and as a complex
suite of ideas is reduced to recognizable gesture (i.e.
fashion). Eventually only the gestures are readable (collectable),
and boy does that make for something dreadful (e.g. "neomodernism"
= a lot of asterisks and flat roofs). C'est out.
I
still don't have my laundry.
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07
January 2000
The
word of the day is:
an·thro·poph·a·gous:
feeding on human flesh
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05
January 2000
The
first day back to work after the boundless joy of a week
and a half sick in bed. I don't have much of a voice left,
but somehow I had to sit through two conference calls and
walk a copy writer through 48 pages of schematics. I saved
what was left of my voice (but doubtlessly compromised the
entire project) by just nodding into the phone and croaking
"sure" when the client made suggestions. I didn't
fare as well with the copy writer. She's a nice girl adn
I didn't think it would be polite to make her guess the
actual content that is suposed to be represented by the
blocks of Catullus
in my schematics. So I talked. Every few minutes my voice
stopped functioning altogether and I had to clasp my hands
and roll my eyes expressively like Sarah
Berhardt to make my points.
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