World Series ManPile

I'm sitting here at a coffee shop attempting to put together my final paper of the semester and there is someone sitting behind me who is hearing voices in her head, I'm sure.  She's sitting by herself but she keeps yelling "Shut up!" and "Get Out!" then hitting herself in the head and muttering profanities.  She almost knocked herself out of her chair several times.  She's yelling loud enough that everyone in this crowded cafe is looking, but no one is doing anything.  

How do you react to this? 

Time, heal this wound.

Decoder

Encoder

Penumbra

Source material - Steal from the Best

Project I've been working on for awhile is coming together.  I think these two images might be called either "Aura 1 & 2" or "Corona 1 and 2" 

Bank of Knowledge, The Book Depository

I know I have a tendency towards sweeping generalizations, but I do believe a book in hand is better than a high speed connection.  A vinyl record is better than an mp3, and a film in a movie theater is better than a movie on your computer.  

The more I study contemporary video art, the more I like feature films, cinema and the art of movies rather than the dry, cerebral, theoretical, conceptual stuff I see in the art world version of the moving image.

Yes, I know I haven't seen much of it in the gallery setting, just on youtube, in books, and rented videos or DVDs.  But their concepts don't seem to relate to me much in the way that the best of cinema does.  Though I've never been a street hood, I saw myself and my friends in Mean Streets.  Though I've never been a traveling circus performer, I empathized with both Zampano and Gelsomina from La Strada.  I just don't see myself in Mathew Barney's cremaster cycle or Bruce Nauman walking around a square.   

I probably need to see more contemporary stuff.  

I'm following a thread that I picked up when I read an article on Rear Window in the latest Aperture.  I've been having fun going to the library and looking through the card catalogue to find books, search and rescue.  You look for one book, maybe find it, maybe not, maybe find something else just as good.  There is something old fashioned and satisfying in doing actual hands on research after looking at so much crap on the web for so long.

When the damn program uploads my pictures I'll delete this sentence and call it an entry.

Complex Systems Analysis and the Photoelectric Effect

You might see more stuff from me shot from a video screen.  There are interesting effects that can happen with longer exposures.  I found out closed captioning makes for good repeating text while watching the Fellowship of the Ring at a bar last night. 

Storied Alaska redux

I have a gallery opening this thursday, Oct 16 at the Arc Gallery in the Consortium Library building on the University of Alaska Anchorage.  This show runs 10-16 to 12-6.  This exhibition is being done in conjunction with the conference, Alaska Visionaries: Seekers, Leaders and Dreamers (Oct 16-18) at UAA hosted by the Alaska Historical Society and the University of Alaska as part of Alaska's 50 year celebration of statehood.  

I also have 5 of my videos playing continuously in the Kimura Gallery, which is on the second floor of the Arts Building on the UAA Campus, as part of the Faculty Biannual Show.  The videos play for the rest of October.

Carry on,

Mike

OK, just one weather rant . . .

the first snow of the season, and now it looks like this.  zero degrees with a foot of snow.  In October.  No shit.  Really.   

OK, not really.  its like 50 and all the snow melted.  

OK, just one political rant

In case anyone is interested, I just sent this to letters to the editor in the Anchorage Daily News. 

Dear governor Palin,

you say that you are fighting against "Politics as usual" and "the Good Old Boy Network", yet your pick to be VP candidate was completely political (even ask Karl Rove) and you are now being controlled and fed words by the very network you claim to combat.  You came on to the scene fighting for ethics, but you are accused of abuse of power and nepotism.  Do you care to stand and be judged or doesn't it matter now that you have money and power to block the case?   Your excessive use of the word "Maverick" makes me think you are branding a product.  Are you a product now Sarah?  Can I buy you with a vote and get your glasses and your lipstick too?   We  here in Alaska felt you were doing a good job as governor, but now many deplore what the McCain campaign has turned you into.  Or were you this person all along, only needing the opportunity.  I wonder what your political life will be like when you lose and have to come back to our state and try to just be governor again.  Have you burnt any bridges?  Do you feel good about who you've become?  It will be interesting to see.

end.

Since being picked for VP candidate a lot of stuff has come out that we didn't know.  the book banning thing wasn't public before, and lot of her alleged abuses of power.  I didn't know she was so much the bible thumper.  Those things just didn't come up at election time.  The last gubernatorial election was really about who can get the gas line through and bring home more bacon (we get a lot of oil money from the state).  (When Alaskans bang the drum to open ANWR, we are really just after another oil boom.  Big $$$$$ Don't let em fool you!)   

She ran against a former two term gov. Tony Knowles, who I voted for.  But many people were just sick of his face and wanted someone new.  And we all must admit, her face is easy to look at.  She did take on a party boss here or there, she was a thorn in their side, outing some corruption that was going on.  But that's what makes who she seems to be now so hard to take.  Now she's so full of shit, which really means, she was full of shit all along.  

carry on,   (and vote Obama!)

Mike  

PS, this is a real cover for Alaska Magazine (owned by Morris Communications of Tennessee or somewhere like that.)

One of my favorite things

 is the steam bath in Hippy cove, Cordova, Alaska.  It was one of the first places I loved when I first arrived, maybe it's the reason I stayed. I look at this picture and can smell the wood smoke, taste the cedar and the sweat, feel the burn of the steam on my ears.  It was built in the temperate rain forest back in the 60's by locals, a six sided structure designed to have "mystical" dimensions.  It's situated in an area known for being a squatters camp, and it's open to anyone who is willing to chop up a pallet and start a fire.  Outside of the sauna is a creek fed by snow melt that used to run into an old bathtub, now it fills a fish tote.  When you run steaming out of the sauna and jump into the tub, freezing your genitals and filling your ears with cold, cold water, you are pretty damn sure you're alive.  Then hustle back into the heat to drink more beer.  

carry on,

mike

timeline

timeline and music map for Alaska Demolition video, probably never to be seen by the hungry public.  No worries, who wants to watch a building coming down anyway?  

The Grand Wazoo

Glad you liked "Cooksie" Eliza!  thanks for the feedback.  I put a soundtrack to it, check it out here.  It's now called "The Grand Wazoo"  named after the Frank Zappa song.