So since 9/17/11 a group of people is gathering at Zucotti Park, now renamed Liberty Park, near Wall street, New York. They are planning to stay as long as possible - or until visible attempts to change our worldwide economical system are made. Who does not get the notion, that something is going really wrong here?
The gathering is completely peaceful. It does not have a specific sender behind it other than "us, the people, as one voice". I urge you, to support this.
Take an hour or so, when you are not working, and join them. It's nearly impossible, that you have no reason to do this. Do it out of love for yourself and your friends!
Let me tell you about my friends. I love them all. I am participating for myself, for them, and for one humanity:
Some of my friends are in high debt from school that got them advanced degrees, with no idea of how to pay them back. They are not losers.
Some of my friends have high mortgages that provide housing for their children, foreclosure always on their backs. They deserve solidarity.
Some of my friends have up to 3 jobs to simply sustain living, no extras. They need room to breathe.
Some of my friends live of trust funds their parents provide while keeping quiet about that their "work" is not generating any profit but rather loss. They are not winners.
Some of my friends are building companies with money from their personal savings, hoping for the best. They need real encouragement and a fair start.
Some of my friends are working in "adult-jobs", that they actually don't want to work in, that eat away from their self-worth. They need new perspectives.
Some of my friends are scared to speak up, because they could get on a "list". They need to feel save on planet earth.
Some of my friends have no worries and disconnect themselves from those who do, as a self-preserving strategy, while experiencing the loneliness. They need their ability to feel and the sense of community back.
Some of my friends (only) party like there is no tomorrow, because they either don't or don't want to see their future. They are the homeless at heart.
Some of my friends are acting completely shallow without exception. They need room for self-expression and help finding their identity.
Some of my friends are taking large amounts of prescription drugs against anxiety, insomnia, under-performance, stress, pain and other avoidable issues. They need a healthy environment and peace.
Some of my friends are playing the existing game really well, not because they feel that it's right, but because they don't want to draw the short end. They need freedom of choice.
Some of my friends are rebels, who are vigorously working for greater causes than themselves. They deserve support.
Some of my friends gave up, and aren't aware that they did. They need a second chance to get back into the boat.
Some of my friends did not give up and are ridiculed for that. They deserve to feel like heroes.
Some of my friends have much more than they need, but nothing to spare - out of fear or confusion and not out of lack of ability to share and love. They need a mirror that shows them how beautiful they truly are.
What are your friends looking like? The people you care for, the people who care for you?
They all deserve love, respect, acceptance and One voice. It could be yours.
(I'm leaving for wall street now :))
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure - that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
Ee day da - that's o.k.
It's the terror of knowing
What the world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher
Pressure on people - people on streets
O.k.
Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor
These are the days it never rains but it pours
People on streets - ee da de da de
People on streets - ee da de da de da de da
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher high high
Pressure on people - people on streets
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love
but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - why ?
Love love love love love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love give love give love give love
give love give love give love give love give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And loves dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
To be democracy, or not to be.
I'm going by Churchill that democracy isn't that great, but the best form of society we have found so far.
In that sense I love democracy with its flaws, however, I am strongly looking for something better.
Follow me through some thoughts about democracy to the apocalypse now and beyond. :)
According to Plato when a democracy decays, chaos of the extraordinary will follow, he calls it anarchy. His terminology of anarchy has nothing to do with modern theories of anarchy, but it gives the term the bad taste. Just saying, most people don't know this.
The democracies worldwide are decaying, we've had them for so long. It became apparent to leaders of democratic states, that in order to rule one needs the majority of votes, so it is no longer about representing what the majority wants, but about getting their vote on election day.
For that reason, the individual is not asked anymore what he or she wants, but it is told what they should want. This is called manipulation. If manipulation is done with enough money behind it, so to say efficiently, the manipulated individual finds herself more and more in the situation that they are wondering: "wait a second, but that's really not what I wanted." It happens over night. Hidden so to say.
Manipulation tactics became so very tricky, even the most educated and smart person can hardly detect them. So many fall into conspiracy theories. It's a mess. Did the UK police let the rioters loot in the beginning without doing much, so that they would grab their opportunity nationwide, and then have the folk come up with the voice "we want more police and more laws"? Common, England knows about their criminals, they've had them under control for a long time, longer than a lot of British expected.
A democracy is certainly not based on the smartness of people, because it evaluates an average. It is based on the average smartness of a country. In a way that's rightfully so, because democracy wants to guarantee some sort of equality, and an unsophisticated person did not chose to be born that way, neither did a person with an IQ of 140+. let's meet in the middle. Education? Oh well, it gets tricky with that. Of course one could educate everybody, but is that really wanted?
It is unfortunately much easier to make a dumb person believe, that an outcome is exactly what they wanted (while it was not) than it is to convince an independent smart thinker. Independent smart thinkers are hence a threat to democracy and not encouraged. In a dumb democracy, that is. A smart democracy would recognize that exactly those people are needed to protect and further it.
But that makes a party potentially lose power. Yes, they are originally supposed to loose power periodically for the better, that's why we have election periods of 4 years. We need to change up our rulers. We know, that if somebody is in office for too long, his or her own power starts eating them up. This traditional democratic concept has decayed however.
There is a concerning correlation between the amount of money a candidate was able to raise for his campaign and the result of the election. You can look it up, the dude with the most campaign spending money wins. So what does this tell us? As a person running for president, you need to make those happy, who give you the most money. If money would be somewhat equally distributed, this would be O.K. but it is not.
If the average person could decide, fine, I'll give candidate x 10% of my income, and all my pals are going to do that as well, this way we are having a chance to outdo a big corp, who spends 1% of their income to support a candidate. We can't do that, because we don't have the bucks, even if we throw them together.
So we need to hope, that the big corps have the same interest that we do. They however don't by default. They never wanted to represent the folks, they want to increase their profit. That's what they do, it doesn't make them bad, it just makes them companies and not politicians.
It is not democratic though, because a few money givers are deciding who allegedly represents the folk, while the latter does not even remotely have anything to do with the primal purpose and motivation of a corp. He's a politician and not a sales man.
The politicians are maneuvering themselves into a very silly position now. They have to pretend to represent the folk, while they know they are depending on "the few". This is called oligarchy - a hidden form, and Plato also provides great theories about what happens to oligarchies. They decay in a very nasty way, because the few are not controlled by anybody other than themselves, and sooner or later the best amongst them turn bad. It is not healthy to live with a continuous power high and no equal opposition. We do not periodically change a corp after 4 years.
In the meanwhile the politicians have to "sell" their folks, that they are! represented. They need to tell them, what their opinion is. How do you do that? You manipulate people.
There is a fine line when it comes to manipulation. One can be ethical, and help people find their own opinion by providing information and education. In "good" advertising, that is how it is done. You list the facts and stress the positive ones. If you don't have facts or your product is neither better nor worse than another, then you create an image and sell a brand that represents a certain dream. For products this is working well.
There might not be a difference between a Toyota and a Volkswagen of the same size, but one makes you exotic and believe in the myths of German engineering, while the other provides you a cheapo safe car that doesn't support the American economy, but hey, advertisers know what they are doing, you will be happily driving it. For politics it's unfortunately not that easy.
I stated earlier, that education logically is not in the best interest of a democracy and its stability, if one wants to be on the safe side. The independent thinker might indeed come up with a better alternative eventually. That change is not wanted. What do you do as a politician? You sell change. Keep them all quiet, and then you do what you need to do to feed your oligarchs. That must in deed suck for a politician.
It sucks big time for the folks. Eventually it will dawn on them, that it became their job to increase the profits of the big corps.
One simple solution would be to have all politicians and parties start out with an equal budget for their campaigns. But that is not happening. Even if it did happen, free market hits again, and corp x could go ahead and say "Print your flyers with me, market price for a flyer is 10 Cent, but I'll give it to you for 0.0001 cent."It's their free choice to do so, and it's a type of hidden monetary support. The question of transparency becomes value.
So what could be a solution? Convincing the big corps that they need to change? How do you do that? You decrease their profits, if you don't agree with their opinions. You stop buying from them. Now that is a seriously big step, and very hard to explain to the folks. Why should I buy a TV for 1000 dollars, if I can get it for 500? Plus I don't even know what opinion my chosen corp is having. It becomes really messy.
One hint can be, that companies are acting politically, but they don't have any need to convey their actions like a politician at least should, even if they don't. Transparency is the key. Us, the people need to step in for transparency. If a big corp supports let's say a racist organization or movement, we need to have the right to see that, so that we can deduct, if corp x supports racism and candidate x, let's not vote for candidate x (given we are not racists) and lets not buy the product any longer.
It is very complicated, and it is not. Right now, there is a big movement going on against transparency. Of course there is, it changes the system. And though "change" was sold to us as Americans, we can hardly see it and most of us feel betrayed. We can assume that it was actually never really wanted by the oligarchs, but only by us. We have been outnumbered, not by the amount of people but by the amount of money. We start calling it corrupt, like a recent Rasmussen study proves with 46% saying our government is corrupt - and I have not heard anybody say anything to this harsh evaluation. It's not necessarily corrupt, it could be, it's certainly not what we trusted in: democracy.
The worldwide incidences are used to make people believe that we should be against transparency. Transparent channels of communication are used by looters and terrorists. Let's close that down. People who want to make things transparent are criminals, they are hackers, they are enemies of the country like the wikileaks. There is a huge machinery starting to roll up, that is called: Let's tie our own chains a bit tighter. Let's hide.
I do have criticism for the pro-transparency wing too. It's called privacy. Of course I am a defender of privacy, individual, and within reason for States. The argument of privacy however is used against the good cause. Patents are private and you can't steal them, while we already know, that open source politics provide better solutions. See Linux.
We want privacy on facebook, we want to stay non-transparent for corps, so that they can't use our data for advertising and offer us products we might like better than others... If we want them to see and hear our wishes and dreams, why not all the way? If the pro-transparency wing pulls the privacy argument, it's not going to go well. I'm predicting. There is a non-sequitur in the equation, if it's not illogical all together. That needs solving or a straightening out regarding coherence. I can't want x and non-x at the same time. Mess.
The unveiling of it all has a Greek word for it and it is called apocalypse (apo-calypsein=lifting the veil).
So then, let's decide what kind of apocalypse we want. The religious one? Final battle and that stuff? The back to the stone age one? Maybe we can just lift all veils equally. I'm not having a 1984 paranoia. Big brother won long ago when it comes to knowing us. I want to know big brother and make friends with big brother. I want to know it all, and I'm willing to not hide myself.
Big brother oppressing is not going to change a thing, if he doesn't have to, but he needs little brother. Yup, big jump here from democracy to lovy dovy brother reunion... I want you to think, and act, yourself, together with all :)
Cheers.
In that sense I love democracy with its flaws, however, I am strongly looking for something better.
Follow me through some thoughts about democracy to the apocalypse now and beyond. :)
According to Plato when a democracy decays, chaos of the extraordinary will follow, he calls it anarchy. His terminology of anarchy has nothing to do with modern theories of anarchy, but it gives the term the bad taste. Just saying, most people don't know this.
The democracies worldwide are decaying, we've had them for so long. It became apparent to leaders of democratic states, that in order to rule one needs the majority of votes, so it is no longer about representing what the majority wants, but about getting their vote on election day.
For that reason, the individual is not asked anymore what he or she wants, but it is told what they should want. This is called manipulation. If manipulation is done with enough money behind it, so to say efficiently, the manipulated individual finds herself more and more in the situation that they are wondering: "wait a second, but that's really not what I wanted." It happens over night. Hidden so to say.
Manipulation tactics became so very tricky, even the most educated and smart person can hardly detect them. So many fall into conspiracy theories. It's a mess. Did the UK police let the rioters loot in the beginning without doing much, so that they would grab their opportunity nationwide, and then have the folk come up with the voice "we want more police and more laws"? Common, England knows about their criminals, they've had them under control for a long time, longer than a lot of British expected.
A democracy is certainly not based on the smartness of people, because it evaluates an average. It is based on the average smartness of a country. In a way that's rightfully so, because democracy wants to guarantee some sort of equality, and an unsophisticated person did not chose to be born that way, neither did a person with an IQ of 140+. let's meet in the middle. Education? Oh well, it gets tricky with that. Of course one could educate everybody, but is that really wanted?
It is unfortunately much easier to make a dumb person believe, that an outcome is exactly what they wanted (while it was not) than it is to convince an independent smart thinker. Independent smart thinkers are hence a threat to democracy and not encouraged. In a dumb democracy, that is. A smart democracy would recognize that exactly those people are needed to protect and further it.
But that makes a party potentially lose power. Yes, they are originally supposed to loose power periodically for the better, that's why we have election periods of 4 years. We need to change up our rulers. We know, that if somebody is in office for too long, his or her own power starts eating them up. This traditional democratic concept has decayed however.
There is a concerning correlation between the amount of money a candidate was able to raise for his campaign and the result of the election. You can look it up, the dude with the most campaign spending money wins. So what does this tell us? As a person running for president, you need to make those happy, who give you the most money. If money would be somewhat equally distributed, this would be O.K. but it is not.
If the average person could decide, fine, I'll give candidate x 10% of my income, and all my pals are going to do that as well, this way we are having a chance to outdo a big corp, who spends 1% of their income to support a candidate. We can't do that, because we don't have the bucks, even if we throw them together.
So we need to hope, that the big corps have the same interest that we do. They however don't by default. They never wanted to represent the folks, they want to increase their profit. That's what they do, it doesn't make them bad, it just makes them companies and not politicians.
It is not democratic though, because a few money givers are deciding who allegedly represents the folk, while the latter does not even remotely have anything to do with the primal purpose and motivation of a corp. He's a politician and not a sales man.
The politicians are maneuvering themselves into a very silly position now. They have to pretend to represent the folk, while they know they are depending on "the few". This is called oligarchy - a hidden form, and Plato also provides great theories about what happens to oligarchies. They decay in a very nasty way, because the few are not controlled by anybody other than themselves, and sooner or later the best amongst them turn bad. It is not healthy to live with a continuous power high and no equal opposition. We do not periodically change a corp after 4 years.
In the meanwhile the politicians have to "sell" their folks, that they are! represented. They need to tell them, what their opinion is. How do you do that? You manipulate people.
There is a fine line when it comes to manipulation. One can be ethical, and help people find their own opinion by providing information and education. In "good" advertising, that is how it is done. You list the facts and stress the positive ones. If you don't have facts or your product is neither better nor worse than another, then you create an image and sell a brand that represents a certain dream. For products this is working well.
There might not be a difference between a Toyota and a Volkswagen of the same size, but one makes you exotic and believe in the myths of German engineering, while the other provides you a cheapo safe car that doesn't support the American economy, but hey, advertisers know what they are doing, you will be happily driving it. For politics it's unfortunately not that easy.
I stated earlier, that education logically is not in the best interest of a democracy and its stability, if one wants to be on the safe side. The independent thinker might indeed come up with a better alternative eventually. That change is not wanted. What do you do as a politician? You sell change. Keep them all quiet, and then you do what you need to do to feed your oligarchs. That must in deed suck for a politician.
It sucks big time for the folks. Eventually it will dawn on them, that it became their job to increase the profits of the big corps.
One simple solution would be to have all politicians and parties start out with an equal budget for their campaigns. But that is not happening. Even if it did happen, free market hits again, and corp x could go ahead and say "Print your flyers with me, market price for a flyer is 10 Cent, but I'll give it to you for 0.0001 cent."It's their free choice to do so, and it's a type of hidden monetary support. The question of transparency becomes value.
So what could be a solution? Convincing the big corps that they need to change? How do you do that? You decrease their profits, if you don't agree with their opinions. You stop buying from them. Now that is a seriously big step, and very hard to explain to the folks. Why should I buy a TV for 1000 dollars, if I can get it for 500? Plus I don't even know what opinion my chosen corp is having. It becomes really messy.
One hint can be, that companies are acting politically, but they don't have any need to convey their actions like a politician at least should, even if they don't. Transparency is the key. Us, the people need to step in for transparency. If a big corp supports let's say a racist organization or movement, we need to have the right to see that, so that we can deduct, if corp x supports racism and candidate x, let's not vote for candidate x (given we are not racists) and lets not buy the product any longer.
It is very complicated, and it is not. Right now, there is a big movement going on against transparency. Of course there is, it changes the system. And though "change" was sold to us as Americans, we can hardly see it and most of us feel betrayed. We can assume that it was actually never really wanted by the oligarchs, but only by us. We have been outnumbered, not by the amount of people but by the amount of money. We start calling it corrupt, like a recent Rasmussen study proves with 46% saying our government is corrupt - and I have not heard anybody say anything to this harsh evaluation. It's not necessarily corrupt, it could be, it's certainly not what we trusted in: democracy.
The worldwide incidences are used to make people believe that we should be against transparency. Transparent channels of communication are used by looters and terrorists. Let's close that down. People who want to make things transparent are criminals, they are hackers, they are enemies of the country like the wikileaks. There is a huge machinery starting to roll up, that is called: Let's tie our own chains a bit tighter. Let's hide.
I do have criticism for the pro-transparency wing too. It's called privacy. Of course I am a defender of privacy, individual, and within reason for States. The argument of privacy however is used against the good cause. Patents are private and you can't steal them, while we already know, that open source politics provide better solutions. See Linux.
We want privacy on facebook, we want to stay non-transparent for corps, so that they can't use our data for advertising and offer us products we might like better than others... If we want them to see and hear our wishes and dreams, why not all the way? If the pro-transparency wing pulls the privacy argument, it's not going to go well. I'm predicting. There is a non-sequitur in the equation, if it's not illogical all together. That needs solving or a straightening out regarding coherence. I can't want x and non-x at the same time. Mess.
The unveiling of it all has a Greek word for it and it is called apocalypse (apo-calypsein=lifting the veil).
So then, let's decide what kind of apocalypse we want. The religious one? Final battle and that stuff? The back to the stone age one? Maybe we can just lift all veils equally. I'm not having a 1984 paranoia. Big brother won long ago when it comes to knowing us. I want to know big brother and make friends with big brother. I want to know it all, and I'm willing to not hide myself.
Big brother oppressing is not going to change a thing, if he doesn't have to, but he needs little brother. Yup, big jump here from democracy to lovy dovy brother reunion... I want you to think, and act, yourself, together with all :)
Cheers.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Do we want to be represented like this?
So Venice Biennale is opening tomorrow, one of the most important international art events.
The couple Jennifer Allora (born 20 March 1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (born 10 January 1971) are representing the USA in front of the U.S. pavilion with a monstrous thing. They are a collaborative duo of visual artists (from the US and Cuba) who live and work in Puerto Rico.
Here is a video of their installation:
Now I'm thinking... is this cool?
I'm looking at it from a pure view of sculpture. Is there anything new to that? Not really. It is very noisy and it is massive for sure. It's got a human/performing element to it, which of course is temporary. You can't buy that thing and put it in your back yard with a runner on top of it. So O.K, it's an installation and performance rather.
The little technical finesse, the runner running on the tank tracks, does it make the thing sophisticated?
The concept, is that a sophisticated one - if you take out the aesthetics?
It is controversial for sure. And it's always been a great thing that art can be whatever it wants, including controversial. Is this however pure sensationalism? And can one simply go further and say "yeah, that's exactly what was intended, it reflects the USA?"
I mean, isn't it really easy to find pros for that piece by turning everything negative about it around, and say "yes, that's how it's supposed to be, you don't get it!"?
Like you can always answer "But this is America." The thing is ugly > this is America. The thing is superficial, noisy, rather silly, obnoxious, loud, decadent, unsophisticated, shallow and so on... "so this is America? And that makes it good art? And everybody will talk about it, like I am...
And it will turn American's guts around like mine, because: This is not America.
Or take it further and claim: This is playing with stereotypes, this is not America, this is what people think America is... Geee, why the hell bother? I want to see art.
I'm not embarrassed for America, though of course every more reflective American knows that not everything our nation does is brilliant, that there are things going very wrong and so on. I am embarrassed though, that this is where art stands in America.
Jerry Saltz, my favorite art critic, wrote a great, great article on the piece. He is so subtle:
Jerry Saltz on the Ugly American at the Venice Biennale
I really love Jerry Saltz and I'd wish more people would listen to him. In my opinion he always gets it.
I do understand that artists like Ai WeiWei have something rather serious to complain about their country - and that he reflects that in his work. People mostly don't know, what's going on in China, and if art can tell the world, great.
Does the world not know, that America is this war bully with a bunch of ignorant inhabitants running on a thread mill? Is that really new to anybody? Is it surprising news for the rest of the world, that the more sophisticated American, like an artist mostly is, is aware of the fact? A big confession?
Isn't this completely redundant information? I am walking away from this, like Jerry Saltz.
I do want to offer a suggestion for a solution to what I consider an issue though: Get more involved in arts, culturally interested Americans!
Take it a step further than being into the super hyped street art (that's not fine art, that's street art, and when it comes into a museum it's not street art any longer, and should deliver more... otherwise put it in the museum of natural history, where I think it actually legitimately and seriously belongs into. I like street art of course.)
I understand that DJing and many alternative art forms are more contemporary and likable than contemporary fine art to most. I understand that fine art has never been something for all, and that it was most interesting to the masses when there were no printed texts and people couldn't read.
But: Come on, art is not so terrible to get a bit more into it, so that not only this elite of I don't know what makes the decisions about what is good. And about what America is or at least is to be represented by. Damn it :)
The couple Jennifer Allora (born 20 March 1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (born 10 January 1971) are representing the USA in front of the U.S. pavilion with a monstrous thing. They are a collaborative duo of visual artists (from the US and Cuba) who live and work in Puerto Rico.
Here is a video of their installation:
Now I'm thinking... is this cool?
I'm looking at it from a pure view of sculpture. Is there anything new to that? Not really. It is very noisy and it is massive for sure. It's got a human/performing element to it, which of course is temporary. You can't buy that thing and put it in your back yard with a runner on top of it. So O.K, it's an installation and performance rather.
The little technical finesse, the runner running on the tank tracks, does it make the thing sophisticated?
The concept, is that a sophisticated one - if you take out the aesthetics?
It is controversial for sure. And it's always been a great thing that art can be whatever it wants, including controversial. Is this however pure sensationalism? And can one simply go further and say "yeah, that's exactly what was intended, it reflects the USA?"
I mean, isn't it really easy to find pros for that piece by turning everything negative about it around, and say "yes, that's how it's supposed to be, you don't get it!"?
Like you can always answer "But this is America." The thing is ugly > this is America. The thing is superficial, noisy, rather silly, obnoxious, loud, decadent, unsophisticated, shallow and so on... "so this is America? And that makes it good art? And everybody will talk about it, like I am...
And it will turn American's guts around like mine, because: This is not America.
Or take it further and claim: This is playing with stereotypes, this is not America, this is what people think America is... Geee, why the hell bother? I want to see art.
I'm not embarrassed for America, though of course every more reflective American knows that not everything our nation does is brilliant, that there are things going very wrong and so on. I am embarrassed though, that this is where art stands in America.
Jerry Saltz, my favorite art critic, wrote a great, great article on the piece. He is so subtle:
Jerry Saltz on the Ugly American at the Venice Biennale
I really love Jerry Saltz and I'd wish more people would listen to him. In my opinion he always gets it.
I do understand that artists like Ai WeiWei have something rather serious to complain about their country - and that he reflects that in his work. People mostly don't know, what's going on in China, and if art can tell the world, great.
Does the world not know, that America is this war bully with a bunch of ignorant inhabitants running on a thread mill? Is that really new to anybody? Is it surprising news for the rest of the world, that the more sophisticated American, like an artist mostly is, is aware of the fact? A big confession?
Isn't this completely redundant information? I am walking away from this, like Jerry Saltz.
I do want to offer a suggestion for a solution to what I consider an issue though: Get more involved in arts, culturally interested Americans!
Take it a step further than being into the super hyped street art (that's not fine art, that's street art, and when it comes into a museum it's not street art any longer, and should deliver more... otherwise put it in the museum of natural history, where I think it actually legitimately and seriously belongs into. I like street art of course.)
I understand that DJing and many alternative art forms are more contemporary and likable than contemporary fine art to most. I understand that fine art has never been something for all, and that it was most interesting to the masses when there were no printed texts and people couldn't read.
But: Come on, art is not so terrible to get a bit more into it, so that not only this elite of I don't know what makes the decisions about what is good. And about what America is or at least is to be represented by. Damn it :)
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I'm a vegan's nightmare - a soy story.
Every once in a while I'm trying to do something ethically "good" cooking, so I got this soy chorizo at Trader Joe's. It sat in my fridge for quite a while now. What to do with it?
I did research online and decided I'll do the pure experience and just fry a part of it. Needless to say, there are few other ingredients in the house, and I guess it doesn't mix well with mac'n cheese deluxe.
There would be quinoa there - from another enlightened food shopping spree - but I'm thinking I should not overdo it with health for now.
I could swear one of my hippie friends said it was really great... Really? I'd say it's over spiced crumbs of something, that explode in the pan, if you're not careful. It is edible I admit, unlike some other stuff that vegans claim would be.
To be honest, I am so sorry. I'm feeling terribly bad, that whenever I try to eat animal friendly I don't succeed. In fact, vegetarian convenience food upsets me on a regular basis. Why do they put the crumbs in a plastic foil so that it looks like sausage? One can't even cook it in the sausage-faking wrap. One needs to squeeze it out of there as instructed, messy fingers, hard to dose... just for the sausage feel? I thought vegans or vegetarians don't want a meat feel. Oh well, what do I know? I'm a vegan's nightmare, how can I understand?
I am an O.K. vegan in the sense that I don't keep pets, but occasionally walk my neighbor's under exercised dog. Lots of my shoes are "man made", which I am actually not too proud of either, but having watched the film "earthlings" I should be.
I was about to put the trailer in here, but it doesn't reflect the film well. It's nasty. You can watch the movie on youtube in full length for free. It's done very well, and I recommend watching it. Joaquin Phoenix reads it, and Moby does the music. It documents how humans treat animals: as pets, meat, sports, fur, in laboratories, in the military, it's a very comprehensive overview, and reality is quite terrible. Args.
Reality however is reality and it should absolutely not be like that. I am terribly unproud of myself. I support mass meat production with my actions. How much of a difference does it make, when I buy cosmetics that are not animal tested? I plea guilty, and nobody puts me into jail. Opposite, I'm free to do as much harm as I want. And I am not the only one. What a world.
Let's eradicate the issue completely. Why do I need to eat in the first place? I tried not to at the age of 19 - of course that was an art project - and that's a fail. Any type of fasting later on was, which wasn't an art project, but a sad attempt to be hip like all my other fasting hipster friends.
After 2 days of real and book accompanied fasting, I could not stand up out of bed without my circulation. I had to rob on the floor over to my fasting book for first aid and then to the fridge to squeeze a slice of orange into myself. My unscientific art project that didn't have any instructions other then "don't eat" lasted longer and was more fun than that disaster.
It is pretty much proven to me, that one seriously does need to eat. And I have to say, I actually enjoy it a lot. How much better is there, than a nice lobster (boiled alive, preferably teased to be angry, so that its adrenalin makes it extra tasty... ). What creature am I? Is that human?
I'm rather a weakling. I lived vegetarian for a year and a half for ethical reasons. And then the doctor told me I'd have significant lacks of all sorts of vitamins, though I really tried hard to compensate. Weak! It didn't take me a day to eat meat again though, and the doctor was a welcomed excuse. I can't do this! What is human?
I don't believe in beating oneself up over anything either. So I'm not. And also I can pat myself on the shoulder for doing a bunch of really good things with role model character. Still, there is this painful conflict inside of me. Do other people have that too?
The most common answer I get, when I ask "How do you deal with that?" is strikingly simple: "I don't." And then I get to see the sweetest smiles, most innocent and unaffected. Now how do you not deal with something when it's evidently urgent? Would that be human not to deal with it, and I'm not... human I mean? Am I part of a rare species who is doomed?
I hope you can read out of this, that I don't pity myself here. I don't even judge myself significantly. I'm merely following a coherence theory: I understand what pain is, because I can feel it, and I strongly dislike it. It's neither intrinsically good nor bad, it is just something I don't want by nature. I hence can't knowingly inflict pain onto somebody or something else without contradicting and disrespecting myself. But I do. It is illogical, irrational, incoherent and unethical. Bummer.
What to do with the rest of that soy chorizo? Who wants to deal with that? Not.
I did research online and decided I'll do the pure experience and just fry a part of it. Needless to say, there are few other ingredients in the house, and I guess it doesn't mix well with mac'n cheese deluxe.
There would be quinoa there - from another enlightened food shopping spree - but I'm thinking I should not overdo it with health for now.
I could swear one of my hippie friends said it was really great... Really? I'd say it's over spiced crumbs of something, that explode in the pan, if you're not careful. It is edible I admit, unlike some other stuff that vegans claim would be.
 |
| Soy chorizo: This is what you get! |
To be honest, I am so sorry. I'm feeling terribly bad, that whenever I try to eat animal friendly I don't succeed. In fact, vegetarian convenience food upsets me on a regular basis. Why do they put the crumbs in a plastic foil so that it looks like sausage? One can't even cook it in the sausage-faking wrap. One needs to squeeze it out of there as instructed, messy fingers, hard to dose... just for the sausage feel? I thought vegans or vegetarians don't want a meat feel. Oh well, what do I know? I'm a vegan's nightmare, how can I understand?
I am an O.K. vegan in the sense that I don't keep pets, but occasionally walk my neighbor's under exercised dog. Lots of my shoes are "man made", which I am actually not too proud of either, but having watched the film "earthlings" I should be.
 |
| random youtube screenshot of a girl with nifty interior design |
I was about to put the trailer in here, but it doesn't reflect the film well. It's nasty. You can watch the movie on youtube in full length for free. It's done very well, and I recommend watching it. Joaquin Phoenix reads it, and Moby does the music. It documents how humans treat animals: as pets, meat, sports, fur, in laboratories, in the military, it's a very comprehensive overview, and reality is quite terrible. Args.
Reality however is reality and it should absolutely not be like that. I am terribly unproud of myself. I support mass meat production with my actions. How much of a difference does it make, when I buy cosmetics that are not animal tested? I plea guilty, and nobody puts me into jail. Opposite, I'm free to do as much harm as I want. And I am not the only one. What a world.
Let's eradicate the issue completely. Why do I need to eat in the first place? I tried not to at the age of 19 - of course that was an art project - and that's a fail. Any type of fasting later on was, which wasn't an art project, but a sad attempt to be hip like all my other fasting hipster friends.
After 2 days of real and book accompanied fasting, I could not stand up out of bed without my circulation. I had to rob on the floor over to my fasting book for first aid and then to the fridge to squeeze a slice of orange into myself. My unscientific art project that didn't have any instructions other then "don't eat" lasted longer and was more fun than that disaster.
It is pretty much proven to me, that one seriously does need to eat. And I have to say, I actually enjoy it a lot. How much better is there, than a nice lobster (boiled alive, preferably teased to be angry, so that its adrenalin makes it extra tasty... ). What creature am I? Is that human?
I'm rather a weakling. I lived vegetarian for a year and a half for ethical reasons. And then the doctor told me I'd have significant lacks of all sorts of vitamins, though I really tried hard to compensate. Weak! It didn't take me a day to eat meat again though, and the doctor was a welcomed excuse. I can't do this! What is human?
I don't believe in beating oneself up over anything either. So I'm not. And also I can pat myself on the shoulder for doing a bunch of really good things with role model character. Still, there is this painful conflict inside of me. Do other people have that too?
 |
| Pat the pad. I can't feel a thing. Oh yeah! |
The most common answer I get, when I ask "How do you deal with that?" is strikingly simple: "I don't." And then I get to see the sweetest smiles, most innocent and unaffected. Now how do you not deal with something when it's evidently urgent? Would that be human not to deal with it, and I'm not... human I mean? Am I part of a rare species who is doomed?
I hope you can read out of this, that I don't pity myself here. I don't even judge myself significantly. I'm merely following a coherence theory: I understand what pain is, because I can feel it, and I strongly dislike it. It's neither intrinsically good nor bad, it is just something I don't want by nature. I hence can't knowingly inflict pain onto somebody or something else without contradicting and disrespecting myself. But I do. It is illogical, irrational, incoherent and unethical. Bummer.
What to do with the rest of that soy chorizo? Who wants to deal with that? Not.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Let me torture you, abduct you! How does it feel?
Ai Weiwei. What the hell?
So at the airport the Chinese government just takes him away and for days nobody knows where they keep him.
Think about that. How would you feel, if this happened to you? Or anybody from your family?
I watched swing kids the other day with Daniel. The Nazis, they took people away over night. We were both fighting tears over this movie. The communists, they would have taken away my grandfather, if he wouldn't have fled over night, same day he heard, with 20 bucks in his pocket for a whole family to start a new life in West-Germany.
Ai Weiwei is speaking up. And big time, and what he says is important, and right. Nobody of any political view can doubt that. How can the world remotely tolerate, that he gets put in detention like that? What are they doing to him there? Are they smart enough not to harm him?
This same terror happens to many people every day in all different countries. Unfortunately lots of them are not famous. How is that the hell possible?
Ai Weiwei happens to be a hero - artists and art-lovers know that, but contemporary art is not so present in the main stream. Well in fact, when I stumbled in one of his sunflower-seed piles at Art Basel Miami, and the gallery security stormed at me "Don't touch the art, ahh, ahh, ohh!" They got it really wrong, too.
Ai Weiwei wants people to step on the millions of hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds, that Chinese artisans produced over 3 I think years for a buck fifty a month. Hear it, feel it, step on it! At Tate Modern that's what visitors were supposed to do. How does it feel? How does it feel to discover beauty on top of sweatshop work art exploitation non-democratic hand-crafted mass production?
And you know, from what I see in interviews and videos and performances, Ai Weiwei is a funny man. Humble. He makes billions and billions and rightfully so. He spends them on raising awareness for the bullshit in his country. He gives it back to his folks.
He made that birdsnest for the Chinese Olympics. And he boycotted his own art, because it was abused by propaganda and he hadn't known. Well, he got seriously popular - not in his own country, they don't let him, here in the West. That is great! It hit the right person. A single man making such a big difference, that is great. He's a hero. He really is. And I truly believe in changing the world via art. Why else would I work on social sculpture? Art collectors should give him all their money. I'm all for it.
But for now, just free him. How do you think does it feel? When they take your freedom, when you can't even talk to your family and assure them that it'll be fine, even if you don't know yourself? How do you think does it feel, when you need to fear for days, and a minute becomes eternity? When you need to hold on to your will that nothing and no wrong institution will break you? How do you think is Ai Weiwei feeling for the last 100 hours?
I want to abduct and torture every single one of you! In a nice way, in a consensual way, in a playful and non-harming way. You know, just pushing it a little, just inflicting pain, that doesn't really hurt, just scaring you a tiny bit, just giving you a bit of an impression. This is very doable. This can be done in a safe way. Contact me for your customized experience. I'm dead serious.
How does it feel? If we would know, it would not exist. What do we know and when do we start knowing?
 | |
| China-SS, you suck! (Free Ai Weiwei remix) | Iphone sketch, 2011 |
So at the airport the Chinese government just takes him away and for days nobody knows where they keep him.
Think about that. How would you feel, if this happened to you? Or anybody from your family?
I watched swing kids the other day with Daniel. The Nazis, they took people away over night. We were both fighting tears over this movie. The communists, they would have taken away my grandfather, if he wouldn't have fled over night, same day he heard, with 20 bucks in his pocket for a whole family to start a new life in West-Germany.
Ai Weiwei is speaking up. And big time, and what he says is important, and right. Nobody of any political view can doubt that. How can the world remotely tolerate, that he gets put in detention like that? What are they doing to him there? Are they smart enough not to harm him?
This same terror happens to many people every day in all different countries. Unfortunately lots of them are not famous. How is that the hell possible?
Ai Weiwei happens to be a hero - artists and art-lovers know that, but contemporary art is not so present in the main stream. Well in fact, when I stumbled in one of his sunflower-seed piles at Art Basel Miami, and the gallery security stormed at me "Don't touch the art, ahh, ahh, ohh!" They got it really wrong, too.
Ai Weiwei wants people to step on the millions of hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds, that Chinese artisans produced over 3 I think years for a buck fifty a month. Hear it, feel it, step on it! At Tate Modern that's what visitors were supposed to do. How does it feel? How does it feel to discover beauty on top of sweatshop work art exploitation non-democratic hand-crafted mass production?
And you know, from what I see in interviews and videos and performances, Ai Weiwei is a funny man. Humble. He makes billions and billions and rightfully so. He spends them on raising awareness for the bullshit in his country. He gives it back to his folks.
He made that birdsnest for the Chinese Olympics. And he boycotted his own art, because it was abused by propaganda and he hadn't known. Well, he got seriously popular - not in his own country, they don't let him, here in the West. That is great! It hit the right person. A single man making such a big difference, that is great. He's a hero. He really is. And I truly believe in changing the world via art. Why else would I work on social sculpture? Art collectors should give him all their money. I'm all for it.
But for now, just free him. How do you think does it feel? When they take your freedom, when you can't even talk to your family and assure them that it'll be fine, even if you don't know yourself? How do you think does it feel, when you need to fear for days, and a minute becomes eternity? When you need to hold on to your will that nothing and no wrong institution will break you? How do you think is Ai Weiwei feeling for the last 100 hours?
I want to abduct and torture every single one of you! In a nice way, in a consensual way, in a playful and non-harming way. You know, just pushing it a little, just inflicting pain, that doesn't really hurt, just scaring you a tiny bit, just giving you a bit of an impression. This is very doable. This can be done in a safe way. Contact me for your customized experience. I'm dead serious.
How does it feel? If we would know, it would not exist. What do we know and when do we start knowing?
Monday, March 14, 2011
Useless writing about how great New York is
I just read an article about this writer Jan Morris. She says, she thinks of cities as people. I always did. She says New York is the kindest city of them all.
I wouldn't necessarily say New York is kind, but it is true that I have never experienced so much help anywhere - at least not when somebody is in trouble. I never saw a half dead beggar in the street with nobody around already taking care of him. People in New York care a lot. They don't have time, so they don't care about trivial problems, they do however have an eye for when being nice is appropriate. I don't think I ever had to carry a suitcase up the subway stairs in New York.
I admit that I'm in love with New York, and when I say this, I mean more by that than just saying a sentence like "I love ice cream." I am seriously in love with New York and I truly love her too. I think of her as a woman more than a man. Sometimes she's a man. She's like a mother, but also like a sexy seductress, a constant one-night stand, a buddy to get trashed with, a beauty who looks good without make-up, when she wakes up in the morning next to you... she never fails when it comes to grace and dignity. She even wears her rats like a fur coat, and nonchalantly ignores a roach here and there.
There would be so much to say about New York. Coincidentally I came across a quote of E.B. White this morning as well:
I wouldn't necessarily say New York is kind, but it is true that I have never experienced so much help anywhere - at least not when somebody is in trouble. I never saw a half dead beggar in the street with nobody around already taking care of him. People in New York care a lot. They don't have time, so they don't care about trivial problems, they do however have an eye for when being nice is appropriate. I don't think I ever had to carry a suitcase up the subway stairs in New York.
I admit that I'm in love with New York, and when I say this, I mean more by that than just saying a sentence like "I love ice cream." I am seriously in love with New York and I truly love her too. I think of her as a woman more than a man. Sometimes she's a man. She's like a mother, but also like a sexy seductress, a constant one-night stand, a buddy to get trashed with, a beauty who looks good without make-up, when she wakes up in the morning next to you... she never fails when it comes to grace and dignity. She even wears her rats like a fur coat, and nonchalantly ignores a roach here and there.
There would be so much to say about New York. Coincidentally I came across a quote of E.B. White this morning as well:
"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuters. The city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last — the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company."
"Here is New York" by E.B. White
Oh yeah, what a great observation. I've never met so many dreamers elsewhere. They are not the kind of silly dreamers, who never come through. The New York dreamers are dreamers who sat down and made the scary decision that they would give anything and everything to help their dream become reality. And by everything they mean it, otherwise they are gone back home after a year or two.
These adventurers are on a quest with such enormous power and the will to sacrifice, that not only the outside world can get the notion - in utter ignorance of what these dreamers need to go through - but also each fellow dreamer stands in awe and respect of the other. We silently know. That is why we care.
You, young, 6 foot tall girl with the Slavic cheek bones might have traded your body against dinner with a sleeze, who took pictures of you for your first modeling set card. And you, pretty boy in your flawless dandy outfit might have slept in the corner of a basement in a Midtown office building for a couple of months. If you danced in a strip club, stood in the food line at Tompkins, if you put your grandma's wedding ring in pawn, if you lived through any of these New York stories that are on a regular basis way too absurd to even spell out, none of that matters when the lights go out and the spot light blinds your eyes. You're in the middle of it all, if you make it or not. This city loves you back endlessly every day.
"Here is New York" by E.B. White
Oh yeah, what a great observation. I've never met so many dreamers elsewhere. They are not the kind of silly dreamers, who never come through. The New York dreamers are dreamers who sat down and made the scary decision that they would give anything and everything to help their dream become reality. And by everything they mean it, otherwise they are gone back home after a year or two.
These adventurers are on a quest with such enormous power and the will to sacrifice, that not only the outside world can get the notion - in utter ignorance of what these dreamers need to go through - but also each fellow dreamer stands in awe and respect of the other. We silently know. That is why we care.
You, young, 6 foot tall girl with the Slavic cheek bones might have traded your body against dinner with a sleeze, who took pictures of you for your first modeling set card. And you, pretty boy in your flawless dandy outfit might have slept in the corner of a basement in a Midtown office building for a couple of months. If you danced in a strip club, stood in the food line at Tompkins, if you put your grandma's wedding ring in pawn, if you lived through any of these New York stories that are on a regular basis way too absurd to even spell out, none of that matters when the lights go out and the spot light blinds your eyes. You're in the middle of it all, if you make it or not. This city loves you back endlessly every day.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Absolutely Really!
This is crazy great! I made it in New York, the best city to live in. All right, I'm not a bilionaire, but let me explain.
I finally have everything I need: time, love, inspiration, work space, freedom... and all these other things: great friends, health, beauty, sex, youth... no end to that list.
Number 1 great achievement: As of latest I'm working with Daniel out the "laboratorium" and it's working out really nicely. It's in Harlem... that still counts as Manhattan, yeah :). And for what it's worth, I still have the car and might not even sell it, so there is no problem with transporting materials. It's great!!! Love it. (sure, it could all be bigger and nicer, but to be real, it is so much better than my former "situation", and it's free, and it has a kitchen, which might not seem essential, but I wouldn't eat, if there wasn't. I know, I'm silly, I forget :)).
I'm so much more productive since, and damn is that something I need (more than food). Thank you, thank you. And thank you, Daniel.
Number 2 great achievement (no ranking here): That love thing is so solved. Apparently I can't make that boyfriend/girlfriend thing happen, which of course is the reason, why I haven't been in any such relation for (oopsi) 10 years now. And no, I'm not gay or asexual, just stubborn and picky ;).
Now I got it so much better. It's biglove and madlove and has nothing of the stupid or disqualifying stuff to it. A completely rational thing, evolved and evolving, trust and honesty, supply and demand. Totally beautiful and inspiration in itself. A lucky accident. And again thank you, thank you. And thank you, Daniel.
So that's the status. There is nothing limiting me anymore. My situation has never been this ideal since I moved to New York. I am in awe. Still haven't got anything to give other than myself/love/my ideas and whatever comes out of it - working on it. Foundation laid however to surpass making ends meet. I love growing the easy way... and it's going to be spring. Incredible! Absolutely Really!
I finally have everything I need: time, love, inspiration, work space, freedom... and all these other things: great friends, health, beauty, sex, youth... no end to that list.
 |
| For the sake of putting in a picture. And this is funny. |
Number 1 great achievement: As of latest I'm working with Daniel out the "laboratorium" and it's working out really nicely. It's in Harlem... that still counts as Manhattan, yeah :). And for what it's worth, I still have the car and might not even sell it, so there is no problem with transporting materials. It's great!!! Love it. (sure, it could all be bigger and nicer, but to be real, it is so much better than my former "situation", and it's free, and it has a kitchen, which might not seem essential, but I wouldn't eat, if there wasn't. I know, I'm silly, I forget :)).
I'm so much more productive since, and damn is that something I need (more than food). Thank you, thank you. And thank you, Daniel.
Number 2 great achievement (no ranking here): That love thing is so solved. Apparently I can't make that boyfriend/girlfriend thing happen, which of course is the reason, why I haven't been in any such relation for (oopsi) 10 years now. And no, I'm not gay or asexual, just stubborn and picky ;).
Now I got it so much better. It's biglove and madlove and has nothing of the stupid or disqualifying stuff to it. A completely rational thing, evolved and evolving, trust and honesty, supply and demand. Totally beautiful and inspiration in itself. A lucky accident. And again thank you, thank you. And thank you, Daniel.
So that's the status. There is nothing limiting me anymore. My situation has never been this ideal since I moved to New York. I am in awe. Still haven't got anything to give other than myself/love/my ideas and whatever comes out of it - working on it. Foundation laid however to surpass making ends meet. I love growing the easy way... and it's going to be spring. Incredible! Absolutely Really!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
If my paintings were Toyotas I would kill myself.
So here we go again. I can't decide whether I'm euphoric, angry and upset or just totally right.
I think I finished another painting and potentially I did something great. Did I do it? Did I?
O.K. the photo is going to suck like always. It would need somebody with a real camera to take an appropriate photograph. I'll find somebody who can do this. For now, this has to do.
So yeah. It should look like an open air show scene, burning man, if you so want - Crystal Method. And it's about light of course, mainly. It does have a classical composition, and in fact it picks up on the iconography of... well basically medieval judgment day scenarios. Apocalypse.
It's the right side of those, the hell side. In the left bottom corner is "Mary", bowing in front of the new Jesus (who of course is the real DJ ;)) to save the "sinners" who are all crowded up in hell. Left hand corner is satan, I mostly covered him up though. Too cheesy, because it's not anything Christian or moral here. It's a crowd of people in the light, in the dark.
Also, archangel Michael's sword on the horizon, with which he judges, the darkened sun, center of the sky, ship analogy for death... but what it is is people partying. That just as a background story. I'm thinking, how would this be nowadays, what do we have to do with all our (cultural) history? This is kinda like how it should look like today. Glow sticks, rave.
So then there is the feel. Is the feel there? I'm thinking yes. Technique... well, it doesn't have mistakes in there, so that's good. It got more impressionist which surprises me. I rather stick in the expressionist corner, but if that's what it takes, I'm fine with it. It also has an edge, because it's weird. If it wouldn't be weird, I'd be completely unhappy and disappointed.
Here is the point I want to make though. I want it to be nothing. I do need the poetry of nothingness in there. A beautiful nothing. Not weak, no, no, or even fragile and sentimental, forget about that. Power. There does need to be power. Some sort of romantic power which I know, is kind of an oxymoron. I want that.
When I look at Peter Doig, Daniel Richter... oh beware Neo Rauch. Of course they are intensely great painters. But for some reason I want less in there. There is just too much going on. Don't get me wrong, I love their work. But why would I want to do, what they are already doing?
What they achieve, they to quite some extend achieve, because there is something going on. Like a red guitar playing cowboy, which of course is really cool... Kai Althoff, also a great example and a great painter. Too much though in a way. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm so totally wrong. God, let me not be wrong. I don't feel like having to repent.
I mean, especially in Doig I can see, that he wants less going on. How much can you take away though and it still catches you? Does it turn all stupid when you take away everything, while doing something, and not falling into designy crap?
On the other hand I can just go with Luc Tuymans and then there is nothing, but there is cold, and geometry and distance. For what it's worth, I could go minimal or monochromatic... yeah, nothing I want to deal with. It's pretty, but it's not painting, it's concept, head. Can there be a distance with a heart? Can the light do that? And is it enough? How few is too much?
It's not a quiet painting for sure. In that sense there is a lot going on, as in "brrr". But one doesn't see anything. It's abstract in that sense, though figurative. Guess that's the impressionist part in a way. I fragmented the light for the sake of having the viewer want to see something. Like, is that a hat? An arm? What's going on? Oh, nothing? More lasers!
I mean, if people say at the end of the day, that I did a shit painting. All right. At least I tried. Of course it needs to look good. Of course it needs to be done well. How much nonchalance can there be and still allow charm? Man, if my paintings were Toyotas I would kill myself.
Haha, there is a goofy part to it too. I worked with the reds (which I barely ever do, unless it's blood). It's gesso-ed red, and brown for the sky. Honestly, I'm thinking that was a good choice, because I'm scaring myself with it. Like ehh. Nobody would do that. Works, totally works. It's a darn pissy color combination that is actually very pretty and doesn't cause eye herpes (totally dancing on the line though, haha).
Yeah, I did the nothing. When I look at it, that's the first thing I'm thinking. There's nothing on there. No war, no hell, no boobs and no disaster, no fun, no people, no noise, no distance, no hope, and no desire. Utterly boring. And the twisted part is: But there is. And it still is homy and it has very pretty details and stainings. Not so bad.
I wonder which couch style that would fit with. Can somebody love this? I don't know, if it's easy to love... as I said, no boobs, just light :).
Oah, and then the worst, the cheese factory. I hate it. And old-style. Hate that one too. These two are always sitting in the corner, wanting to creep up on me. And I gotta make that point. Kitsch without kitsch, classic without old fart dust. This is where poetry needs to kick in, if there is any. If there is no true poetry, I failed again. It's driving me nuts.
So many times I'm thinking, all right, I could dress this up. Smear some stuff on there - right out of the tube, make it fancy artsy, give it another layer, but I don't want that. I really don't. I can't stand the overworked stuff... it's just so easy and I see way too much of it. It's a freedom I'm passing down.
Then I'm thinking, yeah, I could hipster it up. Give some dude a hipster clothing, or you know, work with cliche hipster attributes, whatever, give somebody a puma stripe somewhere. But I don't really want that either. Unless it needs it for some reason. Forced new-schooling. I'm very much liking, that I see Elizabeth Peyton going away from this (she's in a way one of my favorite painters, but she became big with the hipstering).
Same with all these painters who get some sort of technique down and claim it. Like put paint on, sand it off, put paint on, sand it off, maybe use some newly developed high tech pigment... there are nice effects coming out of that. But damn it. Decorating walls is one thing. I might as well be a designer, if I wanted to create a great show down with my awesomely invented paint process.
I mean, more or less everybody has that, and it's what you do. But you know what I'm saying? Some stuff is only and solely a pretttey technique, repeated over and over again, in green, blue, and yellow. Fine, fine. It bores me though.
(So "This is my church" is an easy painting, very straight forward good old icon style. Looks great over anybodies couch, hits well like four to the floor, also based on the apocalypse... aww, look at all the angels in the background, and the little lamb :). I like it, I like it a lot. Still. Done. I never had a problem with it. I don't think anybody else will. I'd buy it, if somebody would take the smudge off of the hell's corner... yes, let me do that.)
So yeah, I'm in troubles, like always. I must love that masochism, because I'm sticking with it. I love it so much, that I exchange a whole comfy life for it. The thing is, I swear to god, I'll figure it out. I might already row in a territory that I'm cool with. Things can surely get better. It would be dramatic, if they wouldn't. Is it good enough yet? Can I chill? I wonder. I'm too close to myself to know.
If I could only be all by myself in total nothingness without getting bored. Thanks for letting me bore you - I need you more than anything to bore the hell out of. It's true. I hope it was exciting... enough.
I think I finished another painting and potentially I did something great. Did I do it? Did I?
O.K. the photo is going to suck like always. It would need somebody with a real camera to take an appropriate photograph. I'll find somebody who can do this. For now, this has to do.
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| Nikki York, Crystal Method, acrylics on canvas, 40x18", 2011 |
So yeah. It should look like an open air show scene, burning man, if you so want - Crystal Method. And it's about light of course, mainly. It does have a classical composition, and in fact it picks up on the iconography of... well basically medieval judgment day scenarios. Apocalypse.
It's the right side of those, the hell side. In the left bottom corner is "Mary", bowing in front of the new Jesus (who of course is the real DJ ;)) to save the "sinners" who are all crowded up in hell. Left hand corner is satan, I mostly covered him up though. Too cheesy, because it's not anything Christian or moral here. It's a crowd of people in the light, in the dark.
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| Detail "Crystal Method" |
Also, archangel Michael's sword on the horizon, with which he judges, the darkened sun, center of the sky, ship analogy for death... but what it is is people partying. That just as a background story. I'm thinking, how would this be nowadays, what do we have to do with all our (cultural) history? This is kinda like how it should look like today. Glow sticks, rave.
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| Detail "Crystal Method" |
So then there is the feel. Is the feel there? I'm thinking yes. Technique... well, it doesn't have mistakes in there, so that's good. It got more impressionist which surprises me. I rather stick in the expressionist corner, but if that's what it takes, I'm fine with it. It also has an edge, because it's weird. If it wouldn't be weird, I'd be completely unhappy and disappointed.
Here is the point I want to make though. I want it to be nothing. I do need the poetry of nothingness in there. A beautiful nothing. Not weak, no, no, or even fragile and sentimental, forget about that. Power. There does need to be power. Some sort of romantic power which I know, is kind of an oxymoron. I want that.
When I look at Peter Doig, Daniel Richter... oh beware Neo Rauch. Of course they are intensely great painters. But for some reason I want less in there. There is just too much going on. Don't get me wrong, I love their work. But why would I want to do, what they are already doing?
What they achieve, they to quite some extend achieve, because there is something going on. Like a red guitar playing cowboy, which of course is really cool... Kai Althoff, also a great example and a great painter. Too much though in a way. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm so totally wrong. God, let me not be wrong. I don't feel like having to repent.
I mean, especially in Doig I can see, that he wants less going on. How much can you take away though and it still catches you? Does it turn all stupid when you take away everything, while doing something, and not falling into designy crap?
On the other hand I can just go with Luc Tuymans and then there is nothing, but there is cold, and geometry and distance. For what it's worth, I could go minimal or monochromatic... yeah, nothing I want to deal with. It's pretty, but it's not painting, it's concept, head. Can there be a distance with a heart? Can the light do that? And is it enough? How few is too much?
It's not a quiet painting for sure. In that sense there is a lot going on, as in "brrr". But one doesn't see anything. It's abstract in that sense, though figurative. Guess that's the impressionist part in a way. I fragmented the light for the sake of having the viewer want to see something. Like, is that a hat? An arm? What's going on? Oh, nothing? More lasers!
I mean, if people say at the end of the day, that I did a shit painting. All right. At least I tried. Of course it needs to look good. Of course it needs to be done well. How much nonchalance can there be and still allow charm? Man, if my paintings were Toyotas I would kill myself.
Haha, there is a goofy part to it too. I worked with the reds (which I barely ever do, unless it's blood). It's gesso-ed red, and brown for the sky. Honestly, I'm thinking that was a good choice, because I'm scaring myself with it. Like ehh. Nobody would do that. Works, totally works. It's a darn pissy color combination that is actually very pretty and doesn't cause eye herpes (totally dancing on the line though, haha).
Yeah, I did the nothing. When I look at it, that's the first thing I'm thinking. There's nothing on there. No war, no hell, no boobs and no disaster, no fun, no people, no noise, no distance, no hope, and no desire. Utterly boring. And the twisted part is: But there is. And it still is homy and it has very pretty details and stainings. Not so bad.
I wonder which couch style that would fit with. Can somebody love this? I don't know, if it's easy to love... as I said, no boobs, just light :).
Oah, and then the worst, the cheese factory. I hate it. And old-style. Hate that one too. These two are always sitting in the corner, wanting to creep up on me. And I gotta make that point. Kitsch without kitsch, classic without old fart dust. This is where poetry needs to kick in, if there is any. If there is no true poetry, I failed again. It's driving me nuts.
So many times I'm thinking, all right, I could dress this up. Smear some stuff on there - right out of the tube, make it fancy artsy, give it another layer, but I don't want that. I really don't. I can't stand the overworked stuff... it's just so easy and I see way too much of it. It's a freedom I'm passing down.
Then I'm thinking, yeah, I could hipster it up. Give some dude a hipster clothing, or you know, work with cliche hipster attributes, whatever, give somebody a puma stripe somewhere. But I don't really want that either. Unless it needs it for some reason. Forced new-schooling. I'm very much liking, that I see Elizabeth Peyton going away from this (she's in a way one of my favorite painters, but she became big with the hipstering).
Same with all these painters who get some sort of technique down and claim it. Like put paint on, sand it off, put paint on, sand it off, maybe use some newly developed high tech pigment... there are nice effects coming out of that. But damn it. Decorating walls is one thing. I might as well be a designer, if I wanted to create a great show down with my awesomely invented paint process.
I mean, more or less everybody has that, and it's what you do. But you know what I'm saying? Some stuff is only and solely a pretttey technique, repeated over and over again, in green, blue, and yellow. Fine, fine. It bores me though.
 |
| Nikki York, This is my church, acrylics on canvas, 18x22", 2011 |
So yeah, I'm in troubles, like always. I must love that masochism, because I'm sticking with it. I love it so much, that I exchange a whole comfy life for it. The thing is, I swear to god, I'll figure it out. I might already row in a territory that I'm cool with. Things can surely get better. It would be dramatic, if they wouldn't. Is it good enough yet? Can I chill? I wonder. I'm too close to myself to know.
If I could only be all by myself in total nothingness without getting bored. Thanks for letting me bore you - I need you more than anything to bore the hell out of. It's true. I hope it was exciting... enough.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Sharpie's the law!
For a while I've been wanting to introduce Daniel Macchio on this blog as part of my life. Because Daniel Macchio is god! ...amongst other things, but mainly because I really haven't had such fantastic inspiration since Martin Hoefermann, who I had a band with right after high school.
Daniel is a totally awesome artist with main focus on music (aren't we all multidisciplinary these days). He composes and sings and plays such nice songs - by himself and with his friend Josh, who is also super cool, but we haven't met in person yet. I can just tell from the few communication we had, that Josh has the spark. I automatically love him hence. Deal with it, Josh!
So anyways, when I called Daniel, to ask if I should link somewhere, he at the same time left me a voice mail, asking, if he could use one or two pics from me for their new website. I think Josh's and Daniel's photos kick ass, so I'm feeling double honored.
Here it is:
polaroidsinnegativ f/ Nikki York/Nikki York f/ polaroidsinnegativ
Check it out! The site's not finished yet, so check it out again later... and new albums are coming up too. Did I make this clear? :) I want you to listen to this. It's good for you. And if you put these fellas on your list to follow, you can one day say to your friends "I was cooler before you were."
In the meantime - if you're too lazy clicking - here are three of my current favorite songs.
So yeah, graffiti is great. I'm not sure, I might like sharpying most. Stenciling is great too. Writing and drawing on bodies is probably one of the most intimate things I know, in fact, it basically equals the intimacy of sex in my book.
I usually only write onto my own body. Coolest story: Back in Germany Jehova's witnesses couldn't stop trying to explain to me, how I could become one of the chosen few to live forever. They visited me once a week and couldn't be convinced to stop doing that.
Ha, up until that day when I wrote "Gott" (god) on my forehead in mirrored letters. I had thought about how god tattooed my brain, took a blue pen, wrote onto myself and then I forgot about it. Jehova's witnesses came the same day. After about 10 minutes of talking and staring at my forehead, the older of the two women asked, what I had there. I said "Oh, nothing". They never returned.
P.S.: I made those 3 babies today. Ready to start the next painting :), triptych I should say.
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| "I so much like it, when you call me baby" Nikki York, 2011 |
Daniel is a totally awesome artist with main focus on music (aren't we all multidisciplinary these days). He composes and sings and plays such nice songs - by himself and with his friend Josh, who is also super cool, but we haven't met in person yet. I can just tell from the few communication we had, that Josh has the spark. I automatically love him hence. Deal with it, Josh!
So anyways, when I called Daniel, to ask if I should link somewhere, he at the same time left me a voice mail, asking, if he could use one or two pics from me for their new website. I think Josh's and Daniel's photos kick ass, so I'm feeling double honored.
Here it is:
polaroidsinnegativ f/ Nikki York/Nikki York f/ polaroidsinnegativ
 |
| Click here! So much prettier with music N. York, 2011 |
Check it out! The site's not finished yet, so check it out again later... and new albums are coming up too. Did I make this clear? :) I want you to listen to this. It's good for you. And if you put these fellas on your list to follow, you can one day say to your friends "I was cooler before you were."
In the meantime - if you're too lazy clicking - here are three of my current favorite songs.
So yeah, graffiti is great. I'm not sure, I might like sharpying most. Stenciling is great too. Writing and drawing on bodies is probably one of the most intimate things I know, in fact, it basically equals the intimacy of sex in my book.
 |
| poem by Daniel Macchio after 5 days, 2011 |
I usually only write onto my own body. Coolest story: Back in Germany Jehova's witnesses couldn't stop trying to explain to me, how I could become one of the chosen few to live forever. They visited me once a week and couldn't be convinced to stop doing that.
Ha, up until that day when I wrote "Gott" (god) on my forehead in mirrored letters. I had thought about how god tattooed my brain, took a blue pen, wrote onto myself and then I forgot about it. Jehova's witnesses came the same day. After about 10 minutes of talking and staring at my forehead, the older of the two women asked, what I had there. I said "Oh, nothing". They never returned.
 |
| "Be illegal" Nikki York, 2011 |
 |
| Nikki York, 2011 |
P.S.: I made those 3 babies today. Ready to start the next painting :), triptych I should say.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
After 6 weeks of nausea...
... it's done and I'm happy.
I just finished a new painting. Since all the photographs turn out weird, I can only show you a sneak preview. You gotta come visit me to see it. Looks way better than the photo.
I couldn't tell you for how many hours I've been staring at it, before I could finish it. I got stuck in this terrible stage when it looked like Alice in Wonderland. Not totally awful, but also not what I wanted.
About 2 hours ago I was biting the final bullet. I was thinking: "All right, all or nothing, I might fuck up 6 weeks of work and 200 bucks in material in a minute, but I have to do this," and I grabbed the spray can. It probably doesn't make much sense to anybody, but my biochemistry goes nuts when I paint. From serotonin to total lack thereof and most nauseating: the adrenalin.
Couldn't have done it any better. Exactly what it needed.
And sometimes I need a cross country drive with a huge full moon over the desert to understand another bit about light and the eyes that see it.
I just finished a new painting. Since all the photographs turn out weird, I can only show you a sneak preview. You gotta come visit me to see it. Looks way better than the photo.
 |
| "Under flowers" Nikki York, 2011, acrylics on canvas, 72x84" |
I couldn't tell you for how many hours I've been staring at it, before I could finish it. I got stuck in this terrible stage when it looked like Alice in Wonderland. Not totally awful, but also not what I wanted.
About 2 hours ago I was biting the final bullet. I was thinking: "All right, all or nothing, I might fuck up 6 weeks of work and 200 bucks in material in a minute, but I have to do this," and I grabbed the spray can. It probably doesn't make much sense to anybody, but my biochemistry goes nuts when I paint. From serotonin to total lack thereof and most nauseating: the adrenalin.
 |
| My most evil and most loved tool: White light in a can. |
Couldn't have done it any better. Exactly what it needed.
And sometimes I need a cross country drive with a huge full moon over the desert to understand another bit about light and the eyes that see it.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Flowers gone bad
I always have to paint flowers, it's like a curse, an unfinished business. I love flowers, but I hate flower paintings. Oh well, how can I say I hate them. I don't. I just, I don't know what. It varies from anger to admiration to all sorts of things, while the actual motive is so cliche, so bland and suburban, spiessig, so simple and again so fragile or rude or twisted, or whatever the painting is.
Real flowers are so beautiful. I could look at flowers forever. I could smell them forever. And then again - when they're cut - it sometimes disgusts me to be attracted to a body. They're dead already fading away. People keep them around when they should long be trashed. I've done that too and I'll do it again.
I will never forget how my parents and other adults over and over told me: "why don't you paint flowers?" Yeah why don't I? Because I didn't want to, it made no sense. We are talking about me between 8 and 14 - ehh, and actually later on too. As little kid I drew things like atom bombs and war, monsters and blind men in labyrinths, starving Africans and dying woods, death and scary pigs.
The psychological story is easy, my disappointment about the grown up world thankfully these days is understandable. I think back then children weren't taken as seriously in their needs, thoughts, abilities, and fears. "why don't you paint flowers?" Why don't you stab me once more with your elaborately forged over the years torture device. Why don't you like my monsters?
Flowers to be painted became my proto-enemy. How in this world could I ever paint flowers? The pathetic narcissist whiner me swore up and down never to do it. So many times. I remember at least three flower discussions with other artists in which I made an angry fool out of myself harvesting forgiving headshakes.
I'm calling myself pathetic - in a friendly way for sure - because I repeatedly did. Flowers of all sorts and contexts are probably my overall most often treated subject. Oh darn. They're hunting me. I've been fighting with them. They storm my brain again and again. I made them patterns, I studied them in meticulously stupid water colors. I tried to make them pretty. I tried to get rid of them, I tried to just use them and ignore them. I tried to appease the offended who never even cared in the first place with them. Love me, love me, love me. What the hell?
And I hear them again, this time it's those who do care. "Why don't you just chill, Nikki?" Yeah, why don't I when the unchill are such obnoxious rowdies who deserve a sock in their mouth. I wish my "because I don't want to" would be a truth with an embedded option.
There'll be a day. Till then trash your old flowers, I'll paint you new ones. For what it's worth, they're holding up pretty well.
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