hoo-ray?

LONDON, Nov. 8 - Moving to control surging imports of clothes from Asia, the United States signed an agreement with China here today placing quotas on items including cheap shirts and trousers over the next three years.

The deal raised the volumes of clothing that the United States would accept from China when compared with previous arrangements, but it placed limits on those volumes and included a wider range of products than those already subject to restrictions.- New York Times Article.

This sounds like progress, but how many of these companies are actually US based corporations exploiting the human resources available in the country just to turn a buck. Yeah it benefits China, but i daresay that these talks were constructed around the notion that it would benefit the retailers and the consumers in the US and not how it would benefit the corporations and the governments. It is a song and dance that seems to need more attention from responsible consumers. (Where is adbusters on these issues? I would like to be informed more clearly so that an informed decision can be mad other than buy ther black spot chucks b/c nike bought the copyright to make the converse allstars classic...or not to shop on th e largest money making retail day of the year.) How come we can not get a fair shot at the freedom of communications act with negotiations like this? we as a public find ou tabout these decisions after they have been made. Corporations have continually exploited countries with the human resources to produce goods so that they can earn more money in the US or Europe. We as consumers revel in the sales of how we were able to obtain these available items for reasonable prices, but it is always one sided stories. it is always presented in a manner that benefits the consumer. There is always more to this story than the consumer , whom will be told in 6 months that they will need the next hot thing, what about the village making the goods and the conditions they are making them under. We do not hear about these becuase it may slow down or hamper sales for this retail season. We ARE all guilty of not being responsible consumers. If we are going to actively pursue one global economy and hegemonic conditions of a unified consumerists culture, then all cultures should be treated equall under that umbrella and not segragated by ethnicity and economic viability. Minimum wage for one country should be global throughout that company. It is the responsibility of the corporation to the labourer...and the consumer.

It is here! it's here!

Ubuweb has returned!
I have been longing for the return of this artist archive all summer. the past few weeks i have been mentally pacing. Checking the page everyday for updates hoping that today would be the day. go there now! read it, watch it. explore ,explore, explore. get comfortable and spend as much as time as you can sifting through tons of artist films, sounds, writings......artworks! so many to experience. It has changed how i look at the approaches of my own works. What a great spot.

Pt. 2 of this blog revolves around ubuweb in a weird manner. I was lucky enough to have seen a piece by Simon Morris at the Sleeper Gallery this past weekend. The regular white cube environment of the cellar, a decompression chamber from the hubub of cars passing by. The space had a been filled with the scattered signs of language. dismantled from any context and strewn about the space as a loop casts light upon the small hills and valleys of adjectives, nouns, and adverbs. A car comes racing along the road careening towards you. At the closest possible moment an explosion of printed text blasts from the open window and in a flurry they settle around those there to documnent the event. Upstairs a touch screen interactive piece is displayed in stainless steel like casing. On the screen a series of words randomly generated pop up in the place of text form and appear to create a very real legible text. i mean , it is real text. they do begin to assume sentence structure in appearance, however they are meaningless in there communication. His interactive re writing of freuds interpretation of dreams and accompanying publication was the center piece. a brilliant work. simple elegant. as the viewer participant you could touch one of three buttons of the touch screen. 'play' set the random generator (programmed by his wife he told me) pulling parts of texts from the tome. It then reassembled them in a page format like that of a book. The next button allowed 'you' to touch 'pause' doing just that pausing the piece in its selection process and letting the viewer to read the progress so far. The third action is 'print' giving a print out of the collection of words that appear on the screen. The assembling of the words give the participant something to try to decipher , but it is meaningless. the next step for simon is getting the reconstruction of the deconstructed text published.
I enjoyed it thoroughly.
In oru discussion we began to talk about the use of text in our works and he mentioned another one of his works inspired by an artist that one can find on....UBUWEB. our discussion continued around the topic of Kenneth Goldsmith and was a very interesting concept for a piece that i will have to find and read.
so there you have it. have a good night and a better tomorrow.
L8R

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Edinburgh Film Festival
27 August 2005
Filmhouse
"the Devil and Daniel Johnston"
~Absolutely Fantastic!!!!!~ (if you liked 'Crumb' you will love this, too.)
Outsider Artist, Musician, Cult Hero. This Documentary outlines the ups and downs of Daniel Johnstons' bouts with manic depression and the obsessive nature of his artistic expression. From comic drawings with reoccuring characters of 30 years, homemade cassettes containing loads of his songs, Hi 8mm movies, to his audio mail correspondance and audio diaries. The film does a good job of showing the fine line of madness and genius that exists for Daniel, through his travels, tours, other experiences to his current status of recent internatinal tours and art shows. I strongly reccommend...SEE THIS MOVIE! Buy the DVD!( it will have he extarfootage of his reunion with lori at the south by southwest festival for the screening of the movie there.)Buy any music that you ocan find.
" The late great Daniel Johnstons Uncovered Covered on gammond records 2004 2 cds 39 tracks with artist like teenage fanclub, tom waits, flaming lips, beck, clim snide, gordon ganno and more $15
also look for more info and products at
www.hihowareyou.com
www.The devil and danieljohnston.com
you should also look at stress records in a google search for copies of his original tapes.
Enjoy!!!!!

cabar-yea

Tonight, wednesday, 24 august 05, pam and i ventured out to a performance called the ashton brothers at the assembly rooms of st. george west. One of the many venue locations throughout edinburgh. It reminded us of a theatre back home, part of spirit square. It has the church architecture of the great hall with a balcony. it was up close and personal as well. these four guys through their musical interludes and slapstick behaviour had the crowd cracking up. The skits bounced all over the stage, a few literally did as the guys balanced on ladders, stood on each others shoulders dancing, and the forth of july/ bastille day classical salute to patriotism where the percussion section becomes the rampart destruction of the celebrated wars for the audience as they fire their cannons and stay in there combat pilot flying formations. There is great fun to be had at their show.

Spam on my Blog! oooooh! NOOOOO!

What kind of asshole sends around unsolicited items advertising products on peoples' blogs? this is to be an area of discussion on the contents pertaining to the information located within the blog itself and anyone posting crap like this nonsense is disrespecting and violating the trust of blog authors everywhere. AHH! how frustrating that this asshole be able to do this!

friday, 19 august 2005

Today ,feeling the pressures of working entirely too much, I ventured out taking a day off to explore some of the cities offerings for the festival. I went to the Edinburgh College of Art. ECA has on display, in conjunction with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, works by Jannis Kounellis. I was told about the exhibition from a friend under the advisement that it was worth checking out and it proved to be worth every second i spent there. Often times when I engage a piece for the first time, I begin to dissect the layers of how it was made as trying to inform myself of some practise or technique of which I may not be aware. I entered the sculpture court unaware. Before me, laid out filling the entire sculpture court, was this sculptural installation 2,250 x 700 x 305 cm (73.8 x 22.96 x 10 ft.). The number of 'steel crosses' lined up as if it were a crowd gathering, migrating from the doorway across the collage of Middle Eastern and North African rugs arranged in a large rectangle outlining the domicile. At the peak of this 'forest' are meat hooks supporting a coat and hat. This untitled piece was constructed in 2004 for the Modern Art Oxford. I circled the piece looking for direction into the statement. My first impression was that these steel constructions called crosses resembled battlements used in defending a territory. The way they seemed obtrusive to the situation of the rugs gave them the appearance that they do not belong there/ had been placed there by someone other than the inhabitiants of the rugs. The nature of the coat and hat hung off the crosses in theis setting to me represents someone making this place their home. An invasion. the warm welcoming rugs versus the cold steel constructions. The western cultural influence of dress hung over the home of the Middle Eastern and North African rugs.The 'crosses' as described by the artist in the materials part of the tag for this piece adds another layer of symbolism to the artwork. What are the barricades/ crossses meant to protect? Whom are they meant to protect? This was my impression. I suggest everyone go and enjoy the magnitude of this installation.

painting the horse

Despite current economic trends, how do you view painting? Having had a show revovling around the identity of scotland and artist influenced by a painter that represents scotland on an international level, where do you view the status of painting?
As a painter, i can not escape it. i have constructed collages, assemblages and i have taken photography. I want to do film/video installations. all of the aspects come back to painting. i need to feel that process, the act of the brush smearing pigment across a surface. The smell, the act. i do not need validation. it will not help. the need is still there. one art form is not more important than another. Intent is intent. the message is what is important.( an easy arguement can be had there...but if the artist is not responsible for how they are used then they will be used out of their control.)
there is something inherent in painting that people can access. it is a physical act that anyone is capable of doing, but don't feel like they can do.It is different than other art forms that they can avoid. ie photography, film/video, sound or installation. the same happens with painting...the switching off..but when people go to see art they go to see paitnings. When a painting goes beyond their comprehension whether it be by intent or by technique they discredit it. when i say intent i mean that the piece may have come across as simple but may be of relevance of an art historical substinance that they, the masses, are not privy to.( who cares what they think?)
i back step from that statement. the public may not always get what a painting means, but they will always fall back on the cliche" i don't know if it's art, but i know what i like." no one talks about painting. I am not looking for stallabrass' comments on what is 'incorporated'. i have similiar takes on the power of the pound or dollar and their investment in the art market. i need to finish it first. if it is dead how does it reoccur? not to mean that people are not continually doing it. it cannot keep up with the technology of printmaking that mass media utilizes. It does not cease to exists. even weekend painters still exists when they could just take a digital photograph and print it out on their specialized 'dock' printer. i am looking for a point of view that can help me grow... we all need to learn. "the unexamined life is not worth living."(socrates) just ask bill and ted

some days

Spent like money
Chasing dragons
As you come to fear
As I come to fear
that what I hold dearest
is that is the nearest.
That idea
The devotion
the dedication
the pursuit
a must
My boredom.
My time.
I just can’t seem to drink you off my mind.
All around the island
Even walls fall down
Part of me is wrong
It could crush this town
They don’t even notice
The revolutions come one by one
isn’t it funny that
we forgot how to have fun.
Looking for a purpose
Hit the road
Can you deny
There’s nothing more than the traveling hands of time
And I have nothing left to lose
The roads are lined with colorful billboards
Trying to sell me things I don’t need
This ain’t living
I’m just buying time
You walk the floor
The way I do
The voice in the corner
calling for the innocent
it’s to dark to put the key in the ignition
I want to know
I want to know
We may well be the ones
To set this world on its ear
If not then why are we here
Tell me that I’m wrong
Did you think that I would just walk away
We are still here
Atleast for today

We'll pay later

Shopper. Wares and aware
that nothing lasts forever
that way we can go buy
more trinkets and gear.
Wearers lay bare
their wallets for this advertisement
on the shirt
like the one a friend has,
like the one that model wears
with the mobile like mine.
Bear in mind that
the same seasons colors
are at every store
along Princes Street. Who decides that?
They do. They do
for you, or at least
your money and we buy it
every time. Not you?
not there? not the money
that you earn? Well it
must be at the other shops
off Cockburn.
My work by design
Trying to understand
Tryin to find the reason
Of That vibe
Pay later, two for one
The sound waves of the messages
The visual consequence
My subconscious burned.

Greggorian

The small suburban town was the perfect place for the infiltration. It allowed the spaceship to dock on a local structure resembling a water tower in the midst of the common landscape, so that it would go unnoticed. This spaceship was from the planet Greggoria. The spaceship was docked at the local highschool and my classmates told me that i was from the planet Greggoria. I was Greggorian based on the fact of my literalness and aptitude. When the time comes to graduate from this middle school i can return to my ship at the highschool to make my report of living on earth and return home. It had nothing to do with monks or calendars. It had to do with the fact that this fat adolescent had a hard time expressing his sense of humor. their jokes weren't as funny. they were a trying bunch. Peer pressure is such an underrated word used by adults to describe the relationships of pre-adults in the fight for individuality of a social setting in the consumer culture of our time. All posture and circumstance is what was relevant then and now. We live in a time were we buy labels and label. We never grow out of it. We transcend to different levels of social strata due to experience, but never out grow the idea of judgement. Our personal politics allows us to see our place in society in conjunction to how we see our relationships to others and how we perceive their place in society. We want to transcend the banal aspects of the hedonistic traits we are taught, but that river runs deep. Everybody judges. WE may then second guess our first judgement in our heads and give that victim another chance to prove themselves only to adhere them to the same criteria with a handicap as if it were a golf game. The majority then treat it like their country club is the best. The goth kids in their rubber accessories play putt putt or par three keeping out other kids with the same soundtrack and sense of isolation because of how they dress. Putt puttt may then seem to be a judgement but i use that example because the game is bigger than that simple aspect much as life is bigger than the games we play with social politics( and goth kids are a variable that can be filled by any click in any school). We are taught these rules. Survival has nothing to do with credit limit unless you are trying to survive in a shoppingmall. Where as the store we decide to shop at has more to do with the crowds we want to be judged by and judge with at this congregation of ritual. Will we reach the platform of our ship and return home? We must still gather data to break this system. We are learning more about the tools used to propagate this culture, but are we learning the adverse effects causing the schizophrenia of identity in each of us? We are consumers. We all buy things under the guidelines set by contemporary capitalism. That is the manifestation of technology unto industrialization that created Frankenstein. We are trying to capture Frankenstein's head and take it home to crack it open in the hopes that we can create a terminator2 to save the day. Is the answer to be found within the parameters of this game? I wish there was an easier way to the ship. Most days i want off this rock...., but i do enjoy the ride. Until next time. same geek channel same geek time.
nanoo nanoo (?)
live and prosper?
may the forth be with you?
feck it.....L8R
ttfn
bff
LOL
;/
lmaool ?
signing off, good night.
(starbangled banner)
beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

screen flavour

Star dated
Star struck
the bark of metaphor
This rustic skin
under glass
decorated with dirty fingers
space
and place
turnstile culture
poll position
I'm late
I'm late.

right before your eyes

Standard
Automatic
Automoton
Constructed
Engineered
Understood
I see what you're saying
Hints
Suggestions
Allegations
Lucidations
Hallucinations
Emancipation
i see what you are saying
Resemblance
Representative
Reprehensible
Repressive
Replacement
Regress
Reissue
i see what you're saying
Have what you have always wanted
Art now pay later
In your best interests
Protect your future
For the ones you love
Your last chance
Once in a lifetime
i see what you are saying

Fact or Fashion

Fact or Fashion:
Installment 1

Looking around the crowd, they are the comers and the goers, the movers and the shakers, college kids playing jet setter, and business people (not playing, not personal, just business) at this intersection of airport to bus to train. A crossroads of mass transit, emptying on to the high street of Edinburgh, a boulevard of mass media. I like coming here. Sitting here at the bus stop pretending to wait on someone or at the Scott monument under the same m.o. you can get lots of people watching done. Today, I’m at ‘Acanthus’. At the center of the aforementioned crossroads is a pub. Instead of posturing I am actually waiting for a friend to arrive from the States via London. With his flight already two hours late, I have succumbed to the luxuries of popular television. A giant projection screen television sits across the bar area from a slightly smaller high definition flat screen television. Both are strategically placed so that everyone in the bar can enjoy them and avoid engaging in the tepid boring monotonous conversation of their friends or colleagues biding time to speak. On VH1 Classic, “Sweet Child O’Mine” by Guns N Roses starts up (boy, am I feeling old) as a waitress in retro rock torn jeans (it’s in style again) brings me a Tennents’. Next door to a mall it seems almost fitting that the space of Acanthus feels more like a food court. This could be anywhere. It reminds me of a watering hole I would haunt regularly. Could it be the carpet?
I relax into my pint as I begin to observe the demographics represented by the patrons populating the pub. Just outside is a couple that appear quite frequently throughout New Town asking for change and just ten meters away is a professional management type in a full length wool trench coat which costs more than our high profile couple will see in the next few months. Inside the pub, I am surrounded by and mingle with the likes of people I do not normally see in the pub. They are the regular people I see at Tesco or run into at the neighborhood bakery. It’s a Friday afternoon, a good enough reason for an early tea, so off to the pub with a couple of work mates. At a nearby table, a few ladies from Admin., with their recent acquisition, a younger new hire, sit chatting. All with trendy hairdos, no color, and new conservative dress, jacket, button down, trousers and one has a wool skirt (past the knee). There are others just passing through the joint. Fresh off the train, backpacks in tote, just stopped in for a refreshing pint before heading to the hotel or the hostel. One of the other comforts that reminds me of the Graduate are the young men playing pool…eight ball. Half must work here and are on their day off or just got off. What better place to go for a pint with friends? Where you know people, like the bar/kitchen you work at the rest of your time. It’s definitely a good reason to drink. As I am parked here, waiting. I enjoy another pint and an order of chips. During this time I have been peering through the window anticipating Byron’s arrival. Through that portal I take notice of a fashion conscious crowd migrating from points a to b in route along the street infront of the bar. Indie kids, goth kids, parents, students; and as I investigate further, I recognize this passion for fashion, this courage for couture that these beings are portraying. It is really something that I am not used to seeing. Older, more mature women sporting pop diva hairdos of two colors in the latest street clothes turning them into twenty year olds from 15 meters. BRAVO! I applaud it. Be comfortable, be YOU and continue to grow. Willing to experience and remain open to try new things. I am used to seeing women, once they reach a certain age, slow down and become more reserved in their tastes as they are to give off the appearance of sophistication and maturity. They are to be grown up and adult-like. The younger kids have their youth and are forging their identities. You see young women almost twenty somethings dressed in the latest trends of cut-off denim skirts over leggings in open puffy winter jackets revealing their healthy physique reaching over their belt line under a too tight Von Dutch tee. It’s great! Their self confidence. Their me too attitude. They know what fashion is and they don’t believe that you have to look like Christina Aguilera or Kylie Minogue. It’s hopeful. Wilfred Trotter in his book, in 1916, “The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War” said that……’terrified by existential isolation, people were inescapably motivated by the ‘herd instinct’, an inherited, unceasing need to gain the approval and camaraderie of the social group.’ These young people are exemplary in their courage even if it is a cloak for their self doubt.
I tip up the bottom of my pint glass at the perfect time. I’m done and Byron has stepped off the bus. I have to go as I see him head up towards Princes St.
See ya later.

the beat

beat
and out of step
out of breath
no pr
save my identity
smoke filled capuccino foam
washed up on the shore
of my online catalogue of dreams
makes me want to scream
wake up!
wake UP!
WAKE UP!
to the hum drum
drudgery of the public radio
morning traffic
in my favorite jeans
triple stitch seams
seems like i have heard this hipster song before
scuffed steel toes
the weight of this sidewalk
on the way to nowhere
i know where
the way outta here
they tell me
and i can share
i had fun there
last night it was fun
gotta go for now
sorry i gotta run
text me later
we'll chat
have a drink
after that listen to the jukebox
remember when
i had a dream
before lay a way plans n mortgage responsibility
we had it beat
we got the beat
listen to that beat
beat down
beat of my heart
bum bump bum bump bump
the beat
beat
beat
and out of step........

i'm down

conga manilla
concrete vanilla
paved and craved
penny loafer
treble cleff
polka dot
shuffle step
under electric pale
day-glo skin
polystirene pose
pencil shaving
yeah yeah yeahs
face to face
with my good byes
rose up in a clatter
to meet perforated surveys
sheen and shine
the glass house
future of dividend shares
and what we all need is someone to lean on

Inauguration

This day marks the beginning. The republic of Greggoria has been born. Let's see where we can take it. i will be posting as often as physically possible. i will post with the following quote by Lucy Lippard, in the catalogue "Art and Ideology" exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. 1984: " It is understood by now that all art is ideological and all art is used politically by the right or the left, with the conscious and unconscious assent of the artist. There is no nuetral zone. Artist who remain stubbornly uninformed about the social and emotional effects of their images and their connections to other images outside the context are most easily manipulated by the prevailing systems of distribution, interpretation, and marketing." With that said, i leave it to the mass to discuss. I welcome the feedback and discussion around this idea by artist of all levels of experience. Sharing experience is sharing knowledge and knowledge is power.