OMegg – IT IN Place http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace Fri, 30 Jan 2015 18:02:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.15 Map of The World http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2008/11/09/map_of_the_world/ Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:47:23 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2008/11/map_of_the_world.html mapoftheworld.jpgglobeturn.gif
Much of my plotting and planing on Hub seems to relate to this map my father drew. To understand it, watch this. My mom dug it up for me and I thought I’d share it with you.

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Other Green Worlds http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2008/10/20/other_green_worlds/ Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:04:16 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2008/10/other_green_worlds.html parisballs.jpgWhen I came back from Paris in 1998, I brought with me a stack of drawings and paintings and two gifts for Sylvie; an antique green glass fishing net float and and an antique green boule ball. I told her they were new green worlds, but of course they were also a joke about potency and my balls. She said to me, “You go to Paris and bring me back green balls? Why couldn’t you have gotten me a hand bag?” It’s just like a woman. You offer her a metaphor for your manhood and she demands a metaphor for the womb. You can’t win. But it’s fall again and the Osage oranges are falling in the park. I saw them yesterday on a long run, but everything had been smashed by a mower, or malevolent children. I ran back this afternoon on way to the vet for more dog drugs. I could only find two and it put me in mind of Paris.parisballs2a.jpg

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Hanging Myself http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2008/09/23/me_hanging_myself_right_now/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:52:25 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2008/09/me_hanging_myself_right_now.html studyinjoyce.jpg
Not funny really in this time of Infinite Jests, but maybe it is really exactly how I feel. I mean in the sense of eternal return, or Metampsychosis, or however you spell it and whatever Joyce was talking about…. I’m hanging the show. I feel like a worker… in the Marxist sense of that word: working on the ladders with the back into it. I mean to say that hanging a book is a physical act. I’ve been training for it like a boxer at the gym.. but my fucking thumbs are still weak for the push pins and the map pins and the pins and needles and needles and pins…..feel like a carpenter… feel like Christ crucified… stigmata on my thumb. LOL. music here is some odd Brian Wilson post Smile mid mad period song. Fucking lovely and perfect fit for my raw time lapse. More to come…

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Pax Perspective Quilt http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/28/pax_perspective_quilt/ Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:20:59 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/pax_perspective_quilt.html brooklypax.jpg
Been sewing canvas and steatching canvas and editing vids and contemplating peace and perspective… now I’m turning my thoughts to cogs and cog repair.
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Brooklyn Thermodynamics http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/28/brooklyn_thermodynamics/ Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:16:05 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/brooklyn_thermodynamics.html dadmorphine.jpg

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More drawings of dear old dad on a morphine nod. I went down to the Storage locker yesterday to find my staple gun to streatch some canvases I’ve been stitching together from a sample book and fell on old drawings and storm clouds.

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You Don't Have To Smile, Just Play http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/23/you_dont_have_to_smile_just_play/ Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:23:22 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/you_dont_have_to_smile_just_play.html
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Notes on a busy social New York Week (in other words the crap left on my memory chip). THe paintings are front and back on a cigar box lid (mmm cedar and paint smell good). The face below was done while drinking Fra Angelico and listening to John Farrell sing…. Oh what a vineous night.
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Pill Grim Progress http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/22/pill_grim_progress/ Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:04:35 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/pill_grim_progress.html greenwoodpyramid.jpg
More rushes from the OMegg improv weekend, where in I visted Basquiat’s grave the day after the Let it Bleed roof improv. Not sure this will find it’s way into the finished product, but it was interestingly cathartic and went towards my notion of filming everything on the off chance I spontaneously ignited. See here for more rushes, etc. of this project.

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Brown Ain't No Place For White Shoes http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/19/brown_aint_no_place_for_white_shoes/ Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:13:33 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/brown_aint_no_place_for_white_shoes.html
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Been on some sort of reunion vibe these last few months… some sort of black sheep returneth trip or what have you. So in keeping with that mode, I went for a little dumpling picknick with one of my favorite Alums of old Camp Bruno and we blathered for a long time and drank beer from paper bags in the park while the chinese kids played handball and layed out a pang thud thud pang soundtrack in the summer night.

Earlier, I had a near religious experience (not only was someone sky writing x and y all over brooklyn, but…) when I crossed Manhattan bridge by foot, the light came behind the brooklyn in such a way that it cast a magnificent reverse gothic arch shadow across the flaming sunset water… the key hole arches both cut out in fire on the water. It was only there for about sixty seconds, but good shit it was glorious and luckily I was on a nikon safari. New York is just a magnificent place sometimes and its filled with people that you know and love, but didn’t know were living so close to you. One big urban reunion project.
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Cloudy Thoughts http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/13/cloudy_thoughts/ Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:29:53 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/cloudy_thoughts.html
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I was going up to the Library by way of the park when thunderheads rushed in out of nowhere and ended a mess of kid’s field trip and a giant spike of electricity crashed down against the trees and it felt in the air and in the noise and in the light of it all like the end of the world. It got me thinking about armegeddon and this image of Hoover by Charles Mingus III that I’ve been wanting to share with you (follow the link to see more of his amazing work in various media). It also reminded me of this waking dream I had during the insomnia of La Rienne A Vegas weekend. I wrote it down in a red crayon at dawn.
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Orson Whales is being featured on The Daily Reel and is well passed the 70,000 hits mark on Vimeo. Must try to get it screened somewhere in Hi Def.

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JeZeus Is Gonna Be Here and Be Misunderstood http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/11/jezeus_is_gonna_be_here_and_be_misunderstood/ Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:45:58 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/jezeus_is_gonna_be_here_and_be_misunderstood.html
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remains of the day: filet mignon barbqed on the roof with the crystal hammer 1990 Vouvray (of which we scored two cases for a lot of money, but a bargain at any price). A meal fit for murder and singing soprano simone who waits on Zeus.

And with my Gowanus run and greasey fingers I find that
All the world is an oil slick
which is to say a sort of cracked mirror
by which to reflect our polluted lives,
but my Jeseus gonna be here, he gonna be here soon
with a great golden shot gun
he gonna shoot out the fuckin’ moon
He gonna cover my head in red Poppies
and Blanket of pure yellow sonSUN
and then he’s gonna open up the back
of that gold Chariot Cadillac
And ride me up to the great gig in the sky
Where I’m gonna get God drunk on sweet Irish whiskey
‘Till he pisses on the world so hard
you’d swear that thunder bolt bastard
was the devil
cause he is.
I mean the arrongant fuck claims to be “All Things”
So he should own evil too,
but he wakes up on Sunday and can’t recall a thing
and Ezekial and Noah are whispering in the pews
about the hookers and all that coke
and of course the pissing.

There was a sign on the door that said: “Jesus was here, but sometimes he comes late… like around ten o’clock. But Jesus says not to worry. He will always come to take the trash out.”

I took this sign as a sign, because, of course that’s exactly what it was… you know something to read, telling you about the trash… but still, it’s good to know that Jesus is coming, even if late, and that he’s got the trash covered. So I got that going for me… etc.
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Collective Unconscious http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/02/collective_unconscious/ Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:37:55 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/collective_unconscious.html
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I spent the afternoon with Will Croxton of the Royal Wylds and his beatiful baby and we watched some old vids of the band at Magnetic Fields and talked about scoring the Let It Be Taciturn turn turn movie and the upcoming shoot for Kimbo single and finished off with watching Paul Simon rock Little Surfer Girl from the Brian Wilson Tribute concert at Radio City that Queen Sylvie got moi roi ticks for a past B. Day. The evening turned into a Future Book romp with the Institute gang and entourage going toThe Animal Collective show at South Street Seaport. Let’s face it. Mos Def had it right: Brooklyn Rocks the best and it’s fun when it rocks Manhattan and then you spill into Chinatown and blind delirious laughter.

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Free Cash http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/06/01/free_cash/ Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:57:37 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/06/free_cash.html hellmoney.gif
animated Hell Money essay from the same time as the slide sheet I sent to Dadi Wirz. I just reunited all my hell money. That should be good luck right? Maybe now I should burn it?

The player here is Veho because I burnt most of my megs at vimeo. Nice thing about Veoh is that you can play the vid full screen and it allows you to run longish vids with fairly high rez. I con’t much like the player bar at thebottom, but it’s servicable for todays blog diptyque.

The Video is from today when I dropped the dog off to cut a summer trim (and stop the pant pant) I went walkabout to the park and museum and Library (there to check on possibly showing the Library Project collabs… got to contact the currator). I found the Technology Share Fair for Brooklyn Schools while walking the halls of Brooklyn Museum… I ran into Cash while wanting something to quench my thirst. He offered up lemon ginger ale… it has been the basis of my ever evolving liquids all day (adding coke and lemon juice and wine sorbet and only leaving it for Miller Time).

The music here is from Dave Chapelle’s Block Party CD (from Brooklyn Public Library) and is Mos Def and posse. Bill Batson gave me Mos Def shirt years ago when the Queen kicked me out of the Kingdom and had me Siddhartha sleeping on couches without clothes or money. I always wore it with pride… but am only learning why now. Mos Def is most def…. Busy Bee me. No sleep in Brooklyn.

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Pull The Last Key Sky Ways Ichiban http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/05/31/pull_the_last_key_sky_ways_ichiban/ Thu, 31 May 2007 05:15:36 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/05/pull_the_last_key_sky_ways_ichiban.html roihenriv.jpg
travlog on going to see Dave Conrad Eat the stage as Henry V at New Jersey Shakespear THeater. We got lost and ticketed and came back to brooklyn for Blue Ribbon Sushi and laughs and always thoughts on music:

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Zarathustra's Secret Garden http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/05/23/zarathustras_secret_garden/ Wed, 23 May 2007 08:29:03 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/05/zarathustras_secret_garden.html zarathustrasgarden.jpg
A vlog fooling with painting and Lou Reed and Bowie and thoughts on upcoming Royal Wylds music Video for Kimbo and some documentationof my work next to Crista Grauer’s at Artflux last week and just, you know, loving spring in Beautiful Sugar Mountain Brooklyn.

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Pittsburgh Going Ashore – Pittsburgh Coming Aboard http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/05/22/pittsburgh_coming_ashore_-_pittsburgh_coming_aboard/ Tue, 22 May 2007 14:15:53 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/05/pittsburgh_coming_ashore_-_pittsburgh_coming_aboard.html stellapit.jpgrelativityonion.jpg
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ABC is as easy as 1 2 3 as easy as Do Ray Me, you see?

Once I saw the changing of command on the USS Pittsburgh at Grotton, CT with my brother from a Bolex mother. When The Captain leaves the ship they blow a dog whistle and say: “Pittsburgh going Ashore.” It is as if the soul of the boat has left the boat. When The new Captain walks the gangplank, the dog whistle is blown in opposite progression and the Ensign speaks these magic jazz hand words: “Pittsburgh Coming Aboard!” and it is as if the boat is born again.

Me and Pat call melady Young Pas (or green onion in Korean, or Sly to the Midwesterners or Sylvie to you… etc.): Pittsburgh. She is the Captain my Captain. She is the queen of that little steel Swiss, but rusting Town in the middle of the Eastern Sea Board. I was throwing out all my old clothes yesterday and getting rid of all the wire and plastic hangers… nothing but wood is good quoath Pittsburgh and I concurred while wearing the buddhist Stettson and the silk guns and the Star Wars blasters still in the a tiny casket to be burried by the IRA somwhere beside the river Liffey. I tripped and fell upon a Bazooka shell full of old memories of Pittsburgh’s youth and there were steller shots of her as Stella amongst the stars and my street car named desire and some calling cards from old beaux and a shot of her leaning away from a dire wolf… him stealling kisses and trying to eat her heart out and I realize it is good to walk with pax but always have silk guns in a silk casket somewhere… the silent big stick as the Church on the Hill said, or was it The Mac daddy Author, or Ike? Yes Ike who I like if only because he said, “Beware the military industrial complex”… The king can speak the truth, but the wolves are still there… stealing kisses, and hearts, and gold, and souls.

I became quite green with jealousy looking at the explosive contents of the shell… and then I found a receipt for the first futon we ever shared and a letter I wrote to fair Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh when I was in the Tower of Pain and hats and song. It was not the most regal of things… a manic all night scrawl on yellow legal paper… but you know what? It was really a very romantic letter. It brought a single tear to my eye that dropped into the vast Atlantic… How can a shell hold such wealth I thought? For in that moment I realized that this was a contract signed thirteen years ago… So Why has it taken me so long to honor it and honor fair Pittsburgh?

… Because you see, I have been hiding in plain sight, playing the fool on the hill. Now it is time to wear the purple robes and take the crown that is mine. Today Pittsburgh. Tomorrow the world. It is my job to be her knight in shining armor coming to her emotional rescue on a fine Arab charger. It is my job to keep the dire wolves at bay. Hail Pittsburgh hail the Queen.
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I was at Freddy’s the night Sly Fox left for Las Vegas and I gave two guys my moleskin and said, “Make me a drawing, buy me a beer…sort of as a joke…and I went outside to smoke… when I got back they had drawn this and bought me a magic hat #9… it is names of the superbowl champion (two years in a row) Steelers from the seventies when I used to wear the black and gold slicker to protect me from the hard rain…. Coin see dances coincidences…. They were Pittsburgher… friends from many moons ago… reunited in the city on a drunkes Spree… fiddle di di.

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Drunken Boat http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/05/20/drunken_boat/ Sun, 20 May 2007 13:10:45 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/05/drunken_boat.html
freeworld.jpgOh the honey and the wine and women and song did pour fourth from the mouth of a yellow whale, where I crashed upon the shore of some magnificent island populated by circe and her two sisters yin and yang. It was like the crystal noise from Zimmerman’s lyre and moaning of monica. There were the hebrews and the Romans and Celtic tribe as well, but I walked with silk guns and white arab charger to unite the world on one great drunken boat

or: I went eating and wine tasting at Tribecca festival. If you want to be treated well in life, I suggest you roll with beautiful Korean women, you’d be surprised what people will give you for free, just because of those lovely smiling eyes. Then off to the temple on the mount for Noahs Barmitzvah… havanagela and MORE wine and food and dancing of the horah and on and on. You cant make this sort of stuff up. It is just wild eyed JOY…. Be Attitude and Beat Less.
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This is Harry Twep… an Id character that I drew on a retreat when I was maybe thirteen years old, or so… ironic…. My mom scanned it for a my fortieth birthday card. She’s some kind of witch or something… I mean that in a good way.

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Monkey Boy Types and Scribbles http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/05/09/monkey_boy_types_and_scribbles_/ Wed, 09 May 2007 18:29:06 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/05/monkey_boy_types_and_scribbles_.html
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Monkey Book 2 was a rather mind blowing lecture by artist/information engineer and all round great guy, Brad Paley… this is sort of a Mother’s day card meets portrait of the artist as a success story, rant of a lunatic, art history lesson… or something?: you tell me.

Music is a mash up of Animal Collective, some annoying kid kicking the subway seat with glorious train glee, and The one and only John Lennon and his fabulous Beatles, produced by Phil Spector if you can believe it Jackson Pollock.

http://wbpaley.com/brad/biosImagesCvs.html

http://monkeytownhq.com/monkeybook2.html
W. Bradford Paley has been doing visual work on computers since 1973, has been recognized for contributions to the design and art worlds (e.g. at MoMA and the Whitney, by NYSCA and NYFA). He practices in New York City and often teaches at Columbia University. For details see didi.com/brad.

post in progress… tune back later.
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image: Library Project collab of driftwould and Bradley Wind… AKA driftwind (Say I).

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh The French Champagne! http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/03/31/ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh_the_french/ Sat, 31 Mar 2007 10:44:20 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wp-content/archives/2007/03/ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh_the_french.html

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People on Youtube laugh a lot at this clip, but what I noticed is that Orson is on the 102nd set up according to the slate (scene 102 take 3). Clearly they must have muscled through a lot of commercials in one day and probably a sip of wine for each take… we’re talking hundreds of sips. What’s amazing is that Orson is still coherent at all and that he still sounds so wonderful and musical. He even slips in a little Irish brogue in a la Lady from Shanghai. What he had to do for money. I guess it could be worse.

Orson Welles once said that he spent about ninety nine percent of his time in search of money and one percent actually making films. He said, it was a terrible way to spend a life and he should have stayed in the theater where it was easier to put on a show. But after getting to play with the world’s greatest toy train set, how could he go back? Saying I should’ve stayed in the theater is like saying I never should have married that girl. What good does it do? I loved her, I love her still…..but she ruined my life. What kind of a life is it, always chasing money?

Orson figures pretty heavily (no pun intended) in the Moby Dick Animations. Here are some note drawings on what I’m going to animate in the first part of the week.
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]]> Profit http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/01/24/profit/ Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:32:04 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=875 The video below is an old portrait of Mathew Barney from his Guggenheim opening a few years back. I had him sort of fill in for M. Tristan during one of his rants about the coming doom as sung by Roxy Music doing Dylan.

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Fall http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/01/24/fall/ Wed, 24 Jan 2007 19:49:36 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=874
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Dusting off some of the early first draft videos from OMegg. The footage here was shot around October of 2001 during some of my scouting for Arc Along The Watchtower. This Was Dylan’s latest single, which really echoed in the months after the Trade Center Fell.

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A Muse Ings http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/01/12/a_muse_ings/ Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:17:37 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=863 amuse3.jpg
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Drawings here are my finishes of Brian Raszka starts from The Library

It is important that M. Tristan not just be a didactic boor. Although that is part of his personality. He also has the charm and authority of a man who has run a major coroporation for years. He is quick with a bright compliment, “You wear a knot in your hair… It is a hair du knot, but with you it is a Hair do.”

Granted that’s a stupid compliment, but is sounds good from a European gentleman in a seven thouand pound bespoke suit. And there is something about the fragility of his progressing illness that makes him vulnerable and sympathetic to the a couple in the feeling the immortality of new love.

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The Equasion of Empire http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/01/11/the_equasion_of_empire/ Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:12:10 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=862 astrology.jpg
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They sit in a triangle around the table, sipping the wine. They are skirting the inevitable European conversation when there are Americans around: The War. Somehow, M. Tristan gets on tangential rant:

“The Jew, you see, is the equal sign in the equasion of Empire, you see? He is enslaved by physics… snatched by the great empire of physics: Egypt. There he helps to build the pyramids. He is the mason for the Egyptions and so learns the mathematics and the physics and when the jew escapes back to Zion, he builds his temple with this knowledge, but then the next empire of engineers, Rome, snatches Zion from him. The first great victory arch in Rome commemorates the taking of Israel from the jews. The arch, the very symbol of Roman technology and physics, you see and the the Jew? He is sent wandering the empire… not a slave, but a free agent… with his own mathematics and morality… able to lend money and invent the merchant class in Europe… untill in a final chess move here in Switzerland, the jew snatches the fire from the gods… Einstein.. the superior physics and he gives it like a gift to the Americans and so the Americans in turn give him back Israel and thus the Americans become the next great Empire. That is the equation and it balances on the fate of the jew…. or the fate of physics, but this seems the same thing almost… knowledge built from laying stones of pyramids and reaching towards the stars.”

She says, “It’s vaguely disturbing to hear anyone with a German accent refer to The Jew, but I can’t quite tell if what you’re saying is actually Zionist, or anit-semetic, or both…”

“None, really,” M. Tristan said. “Just an observation on the fate of man as it connects to physics… I am interested in history and books, you see and the first and greatest book is nothing, but a history of the Jews. So it always seems a good place to start a discussion of history… though in reality, like all humanity, the story starts in Africa, but the people who wrote books forgot how to read hieroglyphics for so long… untill the Rosetta stone.”

“The wine is delicious,” Pat says. “Such good wine. I guess I CAN taste the difference now with the new bottle.”

“Now if we want to talk about wine we have to talk about Persia and….”

“The Jew,” she said finishing the sentence.

“Certainly they were involved in the trade and after all it is Jesus’ first miracle…”

“LeChaim,” Pat said raising his glass.
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Prometheous' Cookies http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/01/10/prometheous_cookies/ Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:15:17 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=861 illness.jpg
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The Butterfly Mask http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/01/03/the_butterfly_mask/ Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:56:22 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=854 press play for one of M. Tristan’s theories:
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Angel Fire http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2007/01/02/angel_fire/ Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:54:22 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=851 butterflytext.jpg
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She gets up to use the restroom and says, “I’ll be right back. Order the wine.”
He is silent and closes his eyes and has a strange vision of the end of the world. It involves Asian angels, the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, fire, water, and Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten. He sees the wold dissolve at a subatomic level and opens his eyes to find himself in eye contact with the mysterious old stranger: M. Tristan.
“Is she your first Oriental?” the old man asks.
“Excuse Me?” Pat says.
“Is she your first Oriental?”
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The top is digollage I made from something by Bellah at the Library. The rest are my starts for same.

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Wine Line http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2006/12/30/wine_line/ Sat, 30 Dec 2006 19:21:06 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=848 lickher.jpg
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When the dead look down at us we are as harpoon heads at the end of time’s arrow. They can see the line of our live’s, tethered to the umbellical chord of our conception – ending in a thud at the target. The target is the dirt under ground. This image reminds me of the characters… their harpoons have tangled tight while on the rivers of New York and togther they have traveled the Atlantic Ocean into the mountains of Switzerland. The Target they seek is indeed in the dirt, underground. It is not the grave. Nor is it Dante’s inferno. It is the tiny inferno of the Cern Large Hadron Collider. That is the end of their tragectory. This is the concentric circle target they are aimed at. This the White Whale they will pierce. We can see that, because we, like the dead, can see the characters as harpoon heads at the end of time’s arrow. We are above them, like the dead.

I started thinking about timelines and characters in time and space over the holliday, when I went with my brothers and nephews to the Bridgeport (there’s bridges and ports in that name, funny) Science center and we all got facinated with a Einsteinian gravity model, similar to the penny spinner video below. I didn’t bother to shoot it, as I knew there are tons of similar videos on vimeo. I regret it a little now as Ithink I could have made something rather pretty in the editing and music, but it is sort of fun to just pull stuff of the web like a readymade (I did make the rubbing and the pendulum orbits drawing, however, and they seem very related and part of my thinking). Anyway, seeing the dangerous orbits of the ballbearings (instead of pennies as shown here) reminded me of individual characters traveling with and colliding into eachother as they arc down into the deep dark hole of time.
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Spinning Pennies on Vimeo

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Awake The Whale Willoughby http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2006/12/13/awake_the_whale_willoughby/ Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:47:18 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=832 moby1.gif
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Willoughby wakes up and Willoughby says, “Call me Willoughby.”
I’ve decided that Ishmael is Phil Willoughby, the star of Arc Along The Watchtower and OMegg is about his brother Patrick.

I’m playing around with the notion of the narrator (which is I suppose me as I’m narrating now). This little scene is Ishmael, or Phil Willoughbe having a sleeples dream night with all the world rushing buy as he openes and closes his eyes. Guess he’s got a lot on his mind. Guess he’s got a lot to get off his shoulders. He alone is left to tell the tale.

I stumbled onto anew video player (as I’m always running out of room on Vimeo). This one is called Veoh and it’s a beta. Pretty, I think and it allows me to abutt video with stills and gifs like vimeo does and all the others don’t. So My new back up player, I think.

In ego news, a music video of mine is on the Daily Reel Top Ten and last but certainly not least, here is a beautiful deadly daisy/ collageoscope collab from the Library where Sonja actually wrote some dialog for the characters (which I’ve been remiss in doing)… it may be hard to read, so I might transcribe later.
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Imagine Image Engine http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2006/12/08/imagine_image_engine/ Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:40:12 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=826 imagineimage.jpgHadrionsalps.jpg
Here am I standing in a tin can, far below the ground…planet earth is red – everyone is dead.
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Now originally, the Cafe Potemkin would have been in Brooklyn and they would meet M. Tristan there while sharing a bottle of Grand Cru Bordeaux… offering the old man in the corner a glass because he is old and alone and they are young and feeling the buzz of earlier beer and new love and lust and M. Tristan accepts their offer and asks them, “How long have you been married.”
“We just met,” says she.
“No,” says M. Tristan.
“Yes,” Says Pat.
“No,” Tristan repeats.
“Not but a few hours ago.”
“Well you must marry,” says M. Tristan. “I can see it is your fate.”
And with that, Tristan takes charge of their life, they being drunk and impressed by the Rolls Royce and the King Leer jet and Switzerland, let him. He lives in Chateau called Egg.
But wherever the cafe is in time and space, I like to think that a John Lennnon song is heard drifting by from a car radio, or boom box, or whatever and they drift into a conversation about the Tragedy of John.
“Does it strike anyone as odd,” asks M. Tristan, in a pedagogical mode. “That Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7th A Day That Shall Live In Infamy and Lennnon was Shot on December 8th? Now didn’t Mark David Chapman live in Hawaii? Didn’t Lennon live with the most famous Japanese in the history of the world? Are these things accidents do you suppose?”
“I don’t know,” Patty said. “I’m Korean.”
“Of course you are,” M. Tristan said. “Of course you are, but that’s not the question.”
“What is the question?” Pat says.
“It’s just something no one ever mentions and it seems significant.”
“Sean thinks his father was assasinated,” Patty says.
“He’s nuts,”Pat scoffs.
“Is he?” M. Tristan asked.
“Isn’t he?” Pat says.
“I don’t know.” M. Tristan answers. “You are the Americans. You have the Mr. Burning Bush. What is possible do you suppose?”
“It’s possible to raise a toast to John Lennon,” says Patty.
“To the crew of U.S.S. Arizona,” says Pat.
“To Yoko,” says M. Tristan.
They drink … let’s say a 1944 Chateau Margaux (I know it’s pushing it, but Imagine….)
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The Elephant’s Memory image above is a collab finished by Bellah from a Brian Raszka start. The rest are my starts – all for The Library Project.

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Cash IT IN for X-mas Gifts (or Loading in Lumber Under Dumbo) http://futureofthebook.org/itinplace/2006/11/29/cash_it_in_for_x_mas_gifts_or_loading_in_lumber_under_dumbo/ Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:22:52 +0000 http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/?p=814

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The map face is by Brian Raszka. The books for The Library are coolabs started by Sonja and finished by Brian.

The drawing on a map page that came in the mail yesterday (a barter that Brian and I threw into our cover swap deal) is something that has shot me into a sort of sad nostalgia (sadstalgia) as it is almost a self portrait – only done by someone else. It reminds me so much of the map drawings I did in Italy after putting the ashes of my father under the Stone in Basel, that I just needed to have it. It is small in size, but enormous in weight like Uranium, or maybe Gold.

I went down to Dumbo again yesterday to help S’aint Necessarily So Thomas Aquinas load in lumber for building more walls- the better to seperate his tennants (good walls making good neighbors as t’were). It is always interesting to go down to the wharfs and engage in the sort of physical labor that reminds you that the waters used to be for working men and not luxury condos. You can still see the trucks loading and unloading and the men with gruff voices and cigarettes and the tug boats and the barges that really make you miss the New York that was and dread the New York that’s coming… still the N.Y. that’s coming probably buys more art, so … I have to keep my perspective …. Regardless, Johnny Cash singing The Beatles sums up my nostalgic mood about the city. These days,it lays before me like an enormous text to read and I can sort of understand how Joyce felt about Dublin. Every block I walk echoes with memory and meaning of lovers and friends and the places and things I’ve done… some still standing and some vanished as smoke. It’s coming on Christmas and they’re chopping down trees and we were waiting for the lumber to come and so walked by the river to skate away on old memories and watch the birds.

Acutally, whenever I go to Tom’s place, all the old paintings he has of mine make me read through my back pages. Major Tom has many of the early New York work from my mad days – haunted by ghost – when I tore out of Connecticut trying to run from all the ideas that came rushing into my head like a crystaline bullet and I was talking and drawing and talking and drawing and drinking to try and stop talking and drawing so much and all the world and all the art seemed clear and spinning before my eyes and Tom, having been a rock and roll drummer in the Lower East Side of the Cocaine 80’s was about the only person who could put up with me; I think because people bouncing off the walls just made him nostalgic for the snow drifts of those Peruvianuevo York nights…. everyone else just thought I was nuts… and of course, I was a little, but I took a lot of notes and they still are the map for whatever it is that I’m trying to create now.

Which brings us back to the characers and since I’m in a nostalgic mood, I’m thinking we go back to the beginnning in a sort of flash back. It is 2001 and the towers are down and it’s November and they hook up at this opening (Arc Along the
Watchtower) and take the water Taxi to the Empire State Building the next morning…Like tourists. The viewing deck has just reopened and it is now the tallest spot in New York and they go up and look downtown at the wound and they are nothing like eachother, but that they are romantics and have a soft spot for “An Affair to Remember” and of course the world is upside down and through a looking glass, so love is an issue of carpe diem. Yes I think that’s how they should meet, or how they should fall in love after fucking at any rate. Maybe the Swiss part is five years later and they are married, or living together in the spring of Brooklyn real estate five years on. WIth a nod to Ziggy Stardust’s “Five Years” and my lucky number (5/5/67). Five years… all that Bush, all that war, all that … and now they are on a vacation, or a sabbatical of sorts.

When Orson Welles was allowed to make a movie at RKO, he fealt like a kid who’d been given the world’s largest train set. I sort of feel that way about computers and the internet… It’s like a great train set and so much cheaper than RKO’s.
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