Quick Quotes 7

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
- E. B. White

Foolish writers and readers are created for each other.
- Horace Walpole

Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it... It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more.
- Erica Jong

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
- Aldous Huxley

On cultivating intellect

For all practical purposes, perception of reality by the majority is more important than reality itself. What does anyone know of anything but through his senses and what he is told? Certainly, a concrete world may exists but to control perception of this world is to control the world and the future. To also control interpretation of this input through religion and cultural influence is doubly influential. Revenge becomes justice, theft becomes benevolence, and we find ourselves in our current situation, levels below the truth with muddied minds and misinformation. We enter the postmodern era in which a reliance upon intuition pieced together from specks of assumed truth is the only way to live respectably.

Tipping: Why cabbies and not pilots?

After an abnormally cheerful take-off announcement and a smooth landing on an early morning flight from Knoxville to Chicago, I couldn’t help but wonder: why do we tip certain professions and not others? Why hairdressers and not auto mechanics? Why appliance delivery and not UPS? Why tour guides, bellhops, valet parking, bathroom attendants, and not grocery baggers, librarians, bank tellers, or movie store clerks? Why taxi drivers and waiters but not pilots and flight attendants? [Read the rest here]

Every message found in river is like a story in a bottle

Volunteers cleaning up the nation's rivers find amazing messages inside bottles tossed into the water [story here].

Mowing on a Saturday

As a child, the backyard seemed like a huge place. My family never lived on more than half an acre, but it always seemed so much larger. We filled the space with hide-and-seek, football, tree climbing, and fort building; leaf piles in the summer, igloos in the winter, super-soakers in the summer and despite its name, freeze tag all year round. We'd play heroes in our superhero pajamas, monkey-in-the-middle, and capture the flag. We'd harass the wildlife, plant gardens, and exchange first kisses behind the tool shed. The yard was our domain.

Then as now, the adults stuck to the house, at most, they'd venture onto the deck. Whoever's yard we played in, that's who was in charge. That's who was king. Disputes over rules or who wouldn't be "it" were resolved by king's decree: "Well, this is my yard, go home if you don't like it!". At which point the dissenter would either stage a coup by trying to get everyone to take the game to his yard or make a rude face and say something smart like,"It's not your yard, it's your parents' yard," even though as far as everyone was concerned it was the king's yard as much as the yards they lived on were theirs and not their parents' or as much as their parents felt the houses they lived in were their own and not the bank's.

This is what I thought about today as I mowed the yard. Even though I still live on the same size yard I did growing up, it seems smaller, the surrounding houses and roads closer. The yard has become little more than an undersized buffer between me (in the house) and the surrounding world. After traveling across oceans, and exploring mountains and wilderness, I suppose it makes sense that the yard has lost some of its appeal, but the magic is still there somewhere even if I only notice it during reminiscence or while straining behind a push-mower for hours on an overgrown lawn.

How to get superpowers!!!

The mere act of kindness, or one of evil, can boost willpower and physical strength, a new study suggests....
[Full article here]

Michal Gregg art write-up (rough)

Recent write up for M. Gregg--

From inside a car on Main Street, downtown Johnson City, it's hard to miss the deer-headed mannequin in the display window of Nelson Fine Art. The one-armed manniquin wears a black and red striped knee high sock and black leather studded belt. Sharp-toothed aliens and nude cutouts adorn the white canvas-like torso which is topped by nothing less than a full antlered trophy deer head. This is the art of Michael Gregg who creates using things he finds-- comic strips, newspaper clippings, doll parts, animal parts, and parts from a broken machine purchased at a flea market.

Gregg's art doesn't shy from including what is frequently hidden or discarded. His work has been denied and censored at multiple shows and festivals, When talking about a recent censorship issue at Art On The Lake Festival in Alabama involving nudity in his art Gregg shrugs," what do you expect in the bible belt? Some guy a few booths down writing on wooden crosses with a sharpie had more visitors than I did." Gregg grew up in Chucky, TN, he's used to the occasional angry glance or uncomfortable response. With no art degree or formal training, he uses this to his advantage.

Offensive? Potentially. Controversial? It appears he's working on it. Decide for yourself. Gregg's art is currently on display at Nelson Fine Art Gallery in Johnson CIty, On the Verge Gallery in downtown Greeneville, and on MichaelGreggArt.com.

Every message found in river is like a story in a bottle

Article on messages in bottles found in the Mississippi.

"There's something romantic about the fate that led you to find it. It's as if all of the mysteries of the world conspired. It's one of those things that you know happens to other people, and now it happens to you."

Quick Quotes 6

Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.
- Hector Berlioz

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow

A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.
- Edmond de Goncourt

Still here, still writing

The beach wanted to tell the old woman and her
sandals left on top its dune
of nakedness and moving a million
years under the stars and water.
But, so brief the time,
it remained silent and felt her
toes through receding waves; the
shells she rest on old railway ties to dry.

Battery is out, new plastic to store power

Voicemail: Stop leaving it

The following is inspired by the slight annoyance I feel every time someone leaves me a voicemail saying, "Hello, just calling to talk, call me back". I had fun writing it. Hopefully I don't offend any of my voicemail leaving friends anymore than they offend me with their messages.

To anyone who stumbles self-consciously through voice messaging: relax, voicemail is dying along with the home landline. To everyone else: let’s not prolong its suffering. [Read the rest of my post here]

Movie and book summary 2009

Last year around this time I made a goal to read at least one book or more for every movie watched. The goal was to be more discerning with movies. I definitely watched less movies than the previous year but as you can see from the list I watched a lot of garbage. Resident Evil? Taken? Not so good. Keeping Mum and Everything is Illuminated, however were excellent.

I read a lot of Cormac Mccarthy and glad of it. Not so proud of the Last Lecture. I apologize if whoever gave it to me is reading this! Pygmy? Very disappointing, I'll be approaching future Chuck Palahniuk books with care. Here is the list, books I wrote about or posted excerpts from are linked to the post.

Books:

1. Kundera, Milan
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
2. Robbins, Tom
Skinny Legs and All
3. Strauss, Erwin
How to Start Your Own Country
4. Pausch, Randy
Last Lecture
5. Mcewan, Ian
Atonement
6. Tzu, Sun
The Art of War
7. Thompson, Jim
Pop 1280
8. Bukowski, Charles
Factotum
9. Miller, Frank
Batman: Year One
10. Knight, Michael
Dogfight: And Other Stories
11. Brooks, Max
World War Z
12. Rand, Ayn
The Fountainhead
13. Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
14. Gaiman, Neil
Anansi Boys
15. Guevara, Ernesto Che
Guerrilla Warfare
16. Amis, Martin
The Rachel Papers
17. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K.
Myths Of The Hindus and Buddhists
18. Crome, Keith (Ed.)
Lyotard Reader and Guide
19. Zamyatin, Yevgheniy
WE
20. Galvin, Olga Gardner
Alphabet Challenge
21. Stein, Scott
Mean Martin Manning
22. Largen, Christopher
Junk
23. Pressfield, Steven
War of Art
24. Palahniuk, Chuck
Pygmy
25. Delillo, Don
Libra
26. Mcewan, Ian
In Between the Sheets
27. McCarthy, Cormac
All the Pretty Horses
28. McCarthy, Cormac
The Crossing
29. Obama, Barack
The Audacity of Hope
30. Mcewan, Ian
On Chesil Beach (Reread)
31. Dostoevsky,Fyodor
Notes from the Underground
32. Carver, Raymond
Ultra-Marine
33. McCarthy, Cormac
No Country for Old Men
34. Ford, Madox Ford
The Good Soldier
35. DC Comics
The Return of Superman
36. James, Henry
Daisy Miller
37. Machiavelli, Niccolo
The Prince
38. Album, Mitch
Tuesday's With Morrie
39. Brensilver, David
ExecTV
40. Calvino, Italo
The Castle of Crossed Destinies

Movies:

1. Battle Royal (rewatch)
2. Pinapple Express
3. Shoot Em Up
4. Watchmen
5. Resident Evil: Apocolypse
6. Snatch (rewatch)
7. Incredible Hulk (Norton)
8. Walk Hard
9. 30 Days of Night
10. Hancock
11. Star Trek
12. Borat (rewatch)
13. Choke
14. Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
15. Bruno
16. Taken
17. Luck Number Sleven
18. Keeping Mum
19. The Fountain
20. District 9
21. Inglorious Basterds
22. Observe and Report
23. Crank 2
24. Robinhood Men in Tights
25. Slumdog Millionaire
26. Everything is Illuminated
27. 40 Year Old Virgin
28. Men Who Stare at Goats
29. Law Abiding Citizen
30. Terminator Salvation
31. He's Just Not That Into You
32. Whatever Works
33. The Road
34. Avatar
35. Dodgeball

Another 10 words and phrases I am asking everyone to stop using in my presence

1. Guestimate
Example Usage: I’d guestimate her bride-price to be at around 8 cows.
Complaint: I’ll let it slide if you’re using it to mock moral stories that involve trading women for cows, but for those of you who are serious— please refrain in my presence or we can no longer be friends.
Annoyance Value: 8

2. Broad Daylight
Example Usage: The police officer threatened people on the street in broad daylight with a firearm because his Hummer was hit by snowballs.
Complaint: As opposed to narrow daylight?
AV:4

3. Expresso
Example Usage: I would like a Venti Peppermint Mocha Expresso with whipped cream, stat!
Complaint: My rant at people who confuse expresso with espresso is temporarily suppressed due to an overwhelming craving for a Peppermint Mocha, but the word is espresso, folks. ESSSSSpresso
AV: 9

4. Touch Base
Example Usage: Hey Milton, I’ll touch base with you later to go over the PTL numbers.
Complaint: It almost sounds dirty. Say “talk” or “contact” instead or, once again, we can no longer be friends.
AV: 6

5. What do you say? (as a greeting)
Example Usage: What do you say Jim Bob?
Complaint: This is something you say to a child after he/she has failed to say thank-you, not a greeting. When I hear this it makes me feel I’m being reprimanded for not saying “hello” fast enough.
AV: 8

6. Weird
Example Usage: He’s just weird. He gives me hateful looks every time I order expresso.
Complaint: The word itself doesn’t bother me, it’s the people who use it in place of what they actual intend or worse, as vague judgment. More often than not, the word reveals a speaker’s comfort level, sensitivity, and lack of cultural understanding.
AV: 5

Read the rest here...

Liu Bolin: The invisible man

"This guy paints himself... no trick photography ... no photoshop ...he just paints himself."



[click for more]

Banana Flavored Giant Orange Peanuts

I haven't been posting my writing lately because I haven't been doing much of it. Here however is something I wrote for/about Lindsay and her disturbing taste for a certain type of...

Banana Flavored Giant Orange Peanuts
by a.b. samien

She likes nasty sweets, circus peanuts, but
I let that slide because of the way
I feel here in the audience, sitting. Her hand
rests on my knee, her fingers
brush epidermis stretched over patella and
whatever else. I do not know the words.

I choose not to imagine her orange stained tongue,
teeth grinding rubbery plastic,
lips parting to accept that horrible candy
in the same way I ignore thoughts of
her past lovers.

Her fingers still rest on my pant leg and
the details of the room somewhere
else with the words from the voices
on stage that now, no longer mean…
For I mean only to take her outside,
to wrap my arms around her,
nasty circus peanuts and all,
for as long as she’ll let me.

Ron Mueck, Evan Penny: hyperrealistic sculpture

On a recent Washington D.C. trip I saw some of Mueck's work in-person including the below pictured: Untitled (Big Man) (2000).




The "Big Man" is, well... big. I couldn't find measurements but I'd guess the sculpture was 7' in its presented form. Due to its realistic nature it felt as if the sculpture could rise at any moment, put aside his sulking, and wreak havoc on the inconsiderate tourists and photographers disturbing his solitude. Here is more of Mueck's work and other sculptures by similar artists.

A good Christmas gift idea:

Panasonic Introduces Portable 500-Disc Changer To Compete Against iPod



(The Onion)

Jonesboro TN man sees Jesus on pickup!

Link dump:



Did Jesus take the wheel? Jonesborough resident claims image of Jesus appears in truck window
(Is this really news? It's the residue left from one of those stickers.... fun though)

Productivity surge signals job growth to follow

Space Tourism a Reality by 2012

10 Health Care Systems Around the World

Excerpts:

Tawain: All citizens have a smart card encoded with their entire medical history. Present it to any doctor, and he or she will know every health concern you've had since you were born.

Germany: All citizens must have health insurance in Germany, which they purchase from private, nonprofit funds. There are about 200 of these plans, none of which is allowed to deny coverage for a pre-existing condition.

Canada: The doctors and hospitals are private entities, which distinguishes the Canadian system from the British socialized medicine system, in which doctors are employees of the government. Canadian health care providers bill the government, so that citizens never see a bill or fork over a copayment for anything other than dentistry, optometry and prescription drugs.

[Full article here]

Studios to create delay between dvd purchase and rent availability?

According to this article, as soon as next year studios will prohibit dvds from being rented for a period of time after they are released. This seems like a smart financial move, but isn't good for us, the consumers.

Top censored stories of 2009

After I finding that a lot of what had been broadcast last Summer in America regarding Russia's invasion of Georgia was false and then never corrected in America (for example the public airport was never bombed) I started looking for other blatant media washes and found this site. More on Georgia later.

The mission of Project Censored is to teach students and the public about the role of a free press in a free society - and to tell the News That Didn’t Make the News and Why.

Top censored stories of 2009/2010

Forest Hills virtual tour from Slate

I would often get off and on the Long Island Rail Road at Forest Hills for trips to visit my girlfriend in Queens. It's a fascinating and lovely place, seeming more European in its architecture and enduring appearance than it actually is. I later took a camera back to Forest Hills for an Architecture/Photography for a project that has since been lost. I was happy to see the familiar area again in the following history and slide show.

Forest Hills Gardens
A walkable, transit-oriented, architecturally rich planned community, built 100 years ago.
By Witold Rybczynski

Quick Quotes 5

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
- Bertrand Russell

Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.
- Dan Barker

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
- Steven Weinberg

News dump

1. Will Blair Become Europe's First President?
2. Despite Slump, U.S. Role as Top Arms Supplier Grows
3.'Net neutrality' rules attacked
4. What exactly did the Fed do with Two Trillion Dollars ?
5. Fed Rejects Geithner Request for Study of Governance, Structure

You are perfect to me

Michael Gregg art found at yard sale

I work in the same building as Gregg but never knew anything about his art until recently when I ran into him at a yard sale. He had some of his work on the ground for sale beside an electrocutable Marv (Sin City) figure, old school Nintendo units, and a bunch of other randomness.

His collage art doesn't shy away from violence or sexuality while still being playful. Perhaps it's just the unexpectedness of finding such in the heart of the bible belt, but I like it.



He's working on a web site, hopefully it will have better quality photos.

"CAT FOUND!!!" poster

I didn't make this but wish I did.



More funny lost and found posters here

Dear Jon Stewart, your younger brother traumatized me…

Dear Jon Stewart:

This letter is more a written confession than typical correspondence for I have done you wrong. I have questioned your supreme leadership of Comedy Central news satire.

Let me explain.

For some time people have been annoyed by my repeated mention of Did you know Jon Stewart went to my high-school? or Did you know we bought a house off Jon Stewart’s parent/step-parent? “Yes, yes, you said that already,” they would intone, “now let me watch the show”. But it is true! I remember your younger step-brother’s video game addiction. I remember him playing Splatter House and being shocked at the sight of countless bloodied heads flying to the horizon, wacked from their necks by the hero’s baseball bat. It was crazy. Despite now having an immobilizing fear of baseball, I think I’m about over it and have managed to keep from mimicking this behavior. [Read the rest here]

Help get Jon Stewart a holiday!!

Red light camera shooting in Knoxville

I'll post more on red light cameras another time (I despise them) but here are some links about the man who shot one out with a rifle in 2007. Charges against him were dismissed just this month (Aug 2009).

1. Original story

2. Story on recent dismissal

3. The really interesting link: Clifford Clark's homepage. The guy clearly has a problem with web design and organization. I'll have to read more to judge beyond that.