Archives: 2009 March

Archive for March, 2009

V.20 Of I’m So Smart Now went up last night, putting an end to over a year of non-learning. I was convinced by a friend that learning is worthwhile, and did some rudimentary poking around into some of my previous knowledge and am tempted to agree, so in another effort for betterment, I’m starting it up all over again. I’m so smart soon.

I’m So Smart Now

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down syndrome

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Off-colour puns aside, my internet has been down. This would have passed unnoticed had I allowed it to pass unmentioned, but the whirring nightmare of net-separation has created a feedback vortex in my brain that can only be alleviated with an admission in the form of an apology. Fairpoint, my service provider, decided to lob a firmware upgrade which knocked out my modem, turning it into a lifeless blinking box. I am down for until further notice… which should not be far off.

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Out to Africa

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

In June I will be traveling to Malawi Africa with a friend’s organization A.G.E.. AGE (Advancement of Girls Education) develops secondary education programs for girls (generally orphans) in Malawi. You can follow the school’s blog here. I am beside myself with excitement over this trip. I’m going to be doing some website work with AGE, which is how my trip will be funded, but even more excitingly, we are developing the trip into a project with a photographer that will then hopefully be expanded into a book and traveling show examining the effects that secondary education are having one these girls and the communities that they are a part of. More on everything as it continues to develop.

“Sure is a lot of traffic, I can’t wait to get Out of Africa.” -Titular line from Out of Africa (so I’m told).

AGE Africa

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A Division of Labor Corp

Monday, March 16th, 2009

It has become necessary to hedge my bets and cover my assets. I have been purchased by a larger body. Assimilated into their model, and proceeding with business as usual so long as it does not become a drain on their forward lurch. Announcing the merger of myself, Andrew Lyman, all my brain children, and EDSEL/ Lepanto Industries. A Division of Labor Corp.

The truth is I may be wagging their tail, or shaking their dog, or pulling their punch. In this increasingly high-risk and desolate economy, we need to stick two gather. A day traitor. A bare market. This is insurance, and life, actually, slips away. You aint no kind of man without a corporation at your back. Onward to failure. Backward too.

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Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Recently I completed a site for the newly re-established Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts or MEVLA for short.

MEVLA is a group providing legal services and aid to individuals and groups working with the arts in Maine. Intellectual property law, contact negotiations, mediation services, etc. They look like they are poised to quickly establish themselves as a prominent fixture in Maine’s cultural landscape. I am happy to have had the opportunity to do some work for them in their early days. For full disclosure I probably only got the job because I met the founder when I moved into his old apartment.

MEVLA

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MENSK

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Last night I was elected/ hired as executive director of a non-profit group here in Portland called MENSK. From what I understand from my friends that work for non-profits, this means that I will work for slave wages, with little hope of thanks or recognition, for causes that are repeatedly and increasingly neglected. Should be an absolute blast!

MENSK is a hub. We aim to provide a set of utilities and resources for artists and organizers to get their projects, events, organizations off the ground. MENSK is a negative space. It is an umbrella organization and it’s primary aim is to support and nurture burgeoning bright ideas. We also have a proud history and promising future of events organization and community building.

I have absolutely no idea what I am in for at this point, but I aim to learn as I go along. It’s all we can ever do. The second you really get a handle on something I believe you should quit, it indicates that you’re done learning.

MENSK Website

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A dream

Monday, March 9th, 2009

I don’t make a habit of transcribing my dreams, honestly I rarely remember them, but I woke up with a very vivid one in my head this morning and quickly jotted it down. I also don’t make a habit of relating my dreams, but I have been thinking of this all day, and think it is interesting enough to relate. For whatever reason this was not a stressful or disturbing dream for me. I can’t even remember the last time I woke up even remotely distressed from a dream (probably ten years ago or more). I’ll record what I jotted down plus what I remember from this morning to the best of my recollection. I can’t apologize for lapses in dream logic.
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Driving on a dark road at night to get away with a car full of friends. The woods around the road are pitch black outside of the minuscule light from the car’s head lamps. We pass a small animal, a pile of guts, that has become roadkill. Then another, larger and messier. Then a deer. Then several, bodies exploded, piles of blood and entrails. Then wolves. Then horses. Piled out into the road. Endless carcasses. The pulpy carcasses eventually become skeletons, bones picked clean, luminescent white. They keep getting bigger and more twisted. Camels, then elephants, then larger giants. Blood stains the pavement. Through a labyrinth of the skeletons of giant bloody creatures never described. We stop before a mountain of pulp blocking the rest of the road
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I return after an interlude in New York. I ride a train that goes through people’s living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, through a theater running a dress rehearsal, through a video shop. The rails are made of polished wood, and everyone ignores the train passing through. I get off the train into an infinite mall. My friend finds me and takes me to where the shoe stores are so that I can buy myself new shoes because I need to run to find another one of my friends to take them to see the road. I purchase some shoes and go to an aquarium. I take my new shoes off to wade in a pool. I reach into the water and a large fish bites my fingers. While I am trying to pry it off a small pink shark swims up and bites my ankle. A worker at the aquarium comes to help and we remove the fish, but there is a deep bite in my ankle and my fingers sting. I am approached by a handsome young family and smile at their small boy who is playing with a ball. The father introduces himself to me and inquires as to what business I am in. He gives me his card against the protestations of his wife. He pitches a newspaper subscription to me which I turn down. Distracted by the salesman, I forget my new shoes.
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I find my friend and I take him out to find the road. We walk through the small town, now covered in snow. There are other people all over the streets. They all seem like college students, people who have heard about the animals. I want to show my friend the road, but he keeps getting stopped by people he knows. Neither of us have shoes and talk about the difficulty of continuing in the snow in our socks. We take a wrong turn at a split in the road and end up in a dark green corridor of a building. There is a square pillar at the end of the hall and around the corner it opens up into a large room, dimly lit, with human bodies piled violently in a corner. A skinny kid with a big green t-shirt comes out of a room and says “don’t worry, I haven’t killed all these people.” He pulls a gun and shoots “Bang! Bang!” My friend gasps, pitches, and collapses. The skinny kid turns and fires at me “Bang! Bang!” Nothing happens. My friend sits up abruptly with a big large grin. The kid smiles, “this is my work! My mom and I do it. Wanna see?” His mother comes out from the room, the epitome of middle American suburban mom. We ask about the roadkill animals, and they lead us back to the road. The progression of ascending carcasses happens again, but it is different this time. After a point they are no longer exploded carcasses, but stiff dead animals stacked against each other on the side of the road. Leaned up against each other. 3 deep at first. Then 4. Then 5. Horses and horses and horses, then wolves, deer, pigs, elk, camels, elephants. Some are half buried in the dirt, some have drips of white paint on them. Their limbs are all twisted and their muscles tensed as if they died running.

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iPod swap Faces legitimacy

Monday, March 9th, 2009

Now it can be officially called a half-assed attempt. Up from the original eigth-assed attempt at the formalization of iPod swap.

A Facebook Group! Gasp!

If connected systems exist, use them.

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End: The results

Friday, March 6th, 2009

The great iPod experiment was a huge success. I will definitely continue the practice. The randomness of someone elses’ unknown music is disarming. I found myself occasionally quite enjoying music I wasn’t “supposed” to like. Some religious beliefs were reconfirmed however, for instance, I still really really hate James Taylor. I also cannot pallet Ani Di Franco, not one bit, although curiously and disastrously didn’t use any of my 5 allotted skips on her.

Here are the results as I documented them (which is not very extensively at all):

Tracks I dug:
Wilson Phillips
Juanez
JJ Cale
Justin Timberlake

Tracks I skipped:
Some completely unignorable fiddle-pop jam-fest.
Alanis Morissette
Coldplay
Tori Amos
James Taylor

No huge revelations to be had, but it was totally worthwhile and fun. I’ve had some positive feedback from the other camp as well, which only used one of their skips (but apparently considered it on a couple other tracks). Leave what we know. Even if just for a day.

Live different.

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Experiment: Music

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Today begins a grand experiment: iPod swap! My good friend and I have profoundly different tastes in music, but fearing stagnation, and possessing in us both the tendency towards self-torture, we have agreed to switch iPods for the duration of the day. They must be kept on random, and we are only allowed 5 skips each, so we must be conservative in case we encounter a 20 minute long live Phish jam, or a 35 minute Merzbow track and be left with no other option but hurling ourselves off a bridge (self-termination is not outside of the rules).

Despite the risk of Barenaked Ladies (a constant threat) and jam bands, I think this should be a very worthwhile exercise. I hope to implement it with more formality in the near future. We get very easily stuck in our own worlds. I think it is important to venture out from time to time and open ourselves up to thoughts, sounds, and images that we would never explore on our own. For instance, already I have learned that Wilson Phillips rules, and that I still do not care at all for Ani Di Franco. Other realities are so close by. We have the ability to explore them every day and yet we rarely do.

..It is only great restraint the keeps me from skipping the Alanis Morisette song which has just come one. …Oh but then Tuvan Throat singing is the reward! Endless surprises abound, if we only take the minimal risk to venture out.