Ira Glass and Etgar Keret: Is Reality Overrated?—LIVE from the NYPL, October 28, 2009
http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/player.cfm?vidid=68
Etgar and ira discuss how a writer is the one that sits there wishing for the fish to speak. START 17 minutes in!
"When we write we always try to document a subjective experience, and when you talk about realism or reality it is basically this kind of thing that all the people here can agree on which is actually a reduction of our personal experience. so all we can agree on is less than we experience. so when i write a story I want to tell you how i feel like and if when i meet someone i feel like im levitating why shouldn't i write that I'm levitating, just because there is this guy in the 3rd row that doesn't agree with me that im levitating..."
11/15/09
10/19/09
the four seals: excerpt from "What Makes you Not a Buddhist"
From the Introduction to "What Makes You not a Buddhist" by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyents, Shambhala Press, pp 3-5.
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...a non-Buddhist may casually ask, "What makes someone a Buddhist?" That is the hardest question to answer. If the person has a genuine interest, the complete answer does not make for light dinner conversation, and generalizations can lead to misunderstanding. Suppose that you give them the true answer, the answer that points to the very foundation of this 2,500-year-old tradition.
One is a Buddhist if he or she accepts the following four truths:
All compounded things are impermanent.
All emotions are pain.
All things have no inherent existence.
Nirvana is beyond concepts.
...The message of the four seals is meant to be understood literally, not metaphorically or mystically-and meant to be taken seriously. But the seals are not edicts or commandments. With a little contemplation one sees that there is nothing moralistic or ritualistic about them. There is no mention of good or bad behavior. They are secular truths based on wisdom, and wisdom is the primary concern of Buddhism. Morals and ethics are secondary. A few puffs of a cigarette and a little fooling around don't prevent someone from becoming a Buddhist. That is not to say that we have license to be wicked or immoral.
Broadly speaking, wisdom comes from a mind that has what the Buddhists call "right view." But one doesn't even have to consider oneself a Buddhist to have right view. Ultimately it is the view that guides us on the path to Buddhism. If we can adopt wholesome behaviors in addition to the four seals, it makes us even better Buddhists. But what makes you not a Buddhist?
If you cannot accept that all compounded or fabricated things are impermanent, if you believe that there is some essential substance or concept that is permanent, then you are not Buddhist.
If you cannot accept that all emotions are pain, if you believe that actually some emotions are purely pleasurable, then you are not a Buddhist.
If you cannot accept that all phenomena are illusory and empty, if you believe that certain things do exist inherently, then you are not a Buddhist.
And if you think that enlightenment exists within the spheres of time, space, and power, then you are not a Buddhist.
So what makes you a Buddhist? You may not have been born in a Buddhist country or to a Buddhist family, you may not wear robes or shave your head, you may eat meat and idolize Eminem and Paris Hilton. That doesn't mean you cannot be a Buddhist. In order to be a Buddhist, you must accept that all compounded things phenomena are impermanent, all emotions are pain, all things have no inherent existence, and enlightenment is beyond concepts.
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...a non-Buddhist may casually ask, "What makes someone a Buddhist?" That is the hardest question to answer. If the person has a genuine interest, the complete answer does not make for light dinner conversation, and generalizations can lead to misunderstanding. Suppose that you give them the true answer, the answer that points to the very foundation of this 2,500-year-old tradition.
One is a Buddhist if he or she accepts the following four truths:
All compounded things are impermanent.
All emotions are pain.
All things have no inherent existence.
Nirvana is beyond concepts.
...The message of the four seals is meant to be understood literally, not metaphorically or mystically-and meant to be taken seriously. But the seals are not edicts or commandments. With a little contemplation one sees that there is nothing moralistic or ritualistic about them. There is no mention of good or bad behavior. They are secular truths based on wisdom, and wisdom is the primary concern of Buddhism. Morals and ethics are secondary. A few puffs of a cigarette and a little fooling around don't prevent someone from becoming a Buddhist. That is not to say that we have license to be wicked or immoral.
Broadly speaking, wisdom comes from a mind that has what the Buddhists call "right view." But one doesn't even have to consider oneself a Buddhist to have right view. Ultimately it is the view that guides us on the path to Buddhism. If we can adopt wholesome behaviors in addition to the four seals, it makes us even better Buddhists. But what makes you not a Buddhist?
If you cannot accept that all compounded or fabricated things are impermanent, if you believe that there is some essential substance or concept that is permanent, then you are not Buddhist.
If you cannot accept that all emotions are pain, if you believe that actually some emotions are purely pleasurable, then you are not a Buddhist.
If you cannot accept that all phenomena are illusory and empty, if you believe that certain things do exist inherently, then you are not a Buddhist.
And if you think that enlightenment exists within the spheres of time, space, and power, then you are not a Buddhist.
So what makes you a Buddhist? You may not have been born in a Buddhist country or to a Buddhist family, you may not wear robes or shave your head, you may eat meat and idolize Eminem and Paris Hilton. That doesn't mean you cannot be a Buddhist. In order to be a Buddhist, you must accept that all compounded things phenomena are impermanent, all emotions are pain, all things have no inherent existence, and enlightenment is beyond concepts.
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10/4/09
Jeff Stark: nonsensenyc: 10.2 to 10.8
From nonsensenyc: 10.2 to 10.8, 2009 by Jeff Stark, the infamous weekly list serve of underground stuff to do in NYC. I thought this email was poignant if not historically significant.
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NOTE: We’re celebrating the 10th year of this list next week and we want to do it with you.
We never imagined what Nonsense would turn into when we first sent it out to 50 of our friends way back then. We did come up with a timeline. Seven years -- that's what we thought. The first three years we'd just figure out what was going on. We'd hit a peak at five, and then gracefully go out after two years of slow decline. We would be too old. We'd stop going out.
It didn't work out that way. You know why? Because you didn't stop. You keep doing interesting stuff in New York. You are still promoting loft parties with robots. Trapeze performances. Whirlygig classes. Weird plays. And boats. Goddamn boats everywhere.
The thing is you still care about New York. You're going out and organizing and booking your friends and sending out emails and wondering who will come. You still have the fever.
In a lot of ways New York is better than it has ever been. The funny thing is we thought that back when we started. And after all the shit -- two fucked up mayors, an economic collapse, and another collapse far worse -- we still believe.
We believe because we have the lens of this list to look at the city. The New York that comes to us every week is vibrant and alive. It's a place where people do stuff because doing stuff is fun. Because that's how you meet your people. How you exist in the world.
You might be making art, but we think what you're doing is far more important. We think you're creating culture. We are creating culture. All of us. Whether you're going to see an art show in a maze or sticking your neck out with a one-night lease on a huge warehouse.
In case no one ever thanked you, thanks. Without you there wouldn't have been a list. Thank you. Sincerely.
We'd like say it to you in person. What we're trying to say is there's a party at 3rd Ward next week. And you should come.
We're not just opening up a brand-new warehouse space. We're also trying to put on an incredibly complicated event that turns the Nonsense list into a real thing. For one night. With all of you. You can read about it below.
Unfortunately we can't have everyone. Advance tickets go on sale today. You're reading about it here before it's promoted anyone else. Get your tickets now please. It's probably going to sell out. Like us. Anyway, here's the listing, unprecedented, above the index. And again, thanks:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: We’re celebrating the 10th year of this list next week and we want to do it with you.
We never imagined what Nonsense would turn into when we first sent it out to 50 of our friends way back then. We did come up with a timeline. Seven years -- that's what we thought. The first three years we'd just figure out what was going on. We'd hit a peak at five, and then gracefully go out after two years of slow decline. We would be too old. We'd stop going out.
It didn't work out that way. You know why? Because you didn't stop. You keep doing interesting stuff in New York. You are still promoting loft parties with robots. Trapeze performances. Whirlygig classes. Weird plays. And boats. Goddamn boats everywhere.
The thing is you still care about New York. You're going out and organizing and booking your friends and sending out emails and wondering who will come. You still have the fever.
In a lot of ways New York is better than it has ever been. The funny thing is we thought that back when we started. And after all the shit -- two fucked up mayors, an economic collapse, and another collapse far worse -- we still believe.
We believe because we have the lens of this list to look at the city. The New York that comes to us every week is vibrant and alive. It's a place where people do stuff because doing stuff is fun. Because that's how you meet your people. How you exist in the world.
You might be making art, but we think what you're doing is far more important. We think you're creating culture. We are creating culture. All of us. Whether you're going to see an art show in a maze or sticking your neck out with a one-night lease on a huge warehouse.
In case no one ever thanked you, thanks. Without you there wouldn't have been a list. Thank you. Sincerely.
We'd like say it to you in person. What we're trying to say is there's a party at 3rd Ward next week. And you should come.
We're not just opening up a brand-new warehouse space. We're also trying to put on an incredibly complicated event that turns the Nonsense list into a real thing. For one night. With all of you. You can read about it below.
Unfortunately we can't have everyone. Advance tickets go on sale today. You're reading about it here before it's promoted anyone else. Get your tickets now please. It's probably going to sell out. Like us. Anyway, here's the listing, unprecedented, above the index. And again, thanks:
Eileen Myles: in Parkett
From Eileen Myles essay "Reunion" (on Robert Frank) in Parkett No 83 2008 page 46(?)
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"Long after one learns to read, don't you still want to hold a book upside down like a baby and feel all that negative power rushing like a train? Janine Pommy Vega, a beatnick girl,was on the scene when she was eighteen, and I'm sure dated one of the men-maybe Peter-but she also had an enormous speed habit that d r o v e her writing, and she once described keeping copious journals during those years, writing so fast that the bulk of what she wrote back then is unreadable. Pages and pages of a wavy line. One could call this tragedy, or stupidity. But I call it the heart of the matter; the fact that I write is more important that what I have to say, and being unable to reconcile the time I spent saying it with ANY particular meaning is the outer limit of what the twentieth cenury's project was all about."
________________________________________________________________________________
"Long after one learns to read, don't you still want to hold a book upside down like a baby and feel all that negative power rushing like a train? Janine Pommy Vega, a beatnick girl,was on the scene when she was eighteen, and I'm sure dated one of the men-maybe Peter-but she also had an enormous speed habit that d r o v e her writing, and she once described keeping copious journals during those years, writing so fast that the bulk of what she wrote back then is unreadable. Pages and pages of a wavy line. One could call this tragedy, or stupidity. But I call it the heart of the matter; the fact that I write is more important that what I have to say, and being unable to reconcile the time I spent saying it with ANY particular meaning is the outer limit of what the twentieth cenury's project was all about."
8/4/09
Katherine Streeter
Her website is as much a pleasure as her collage illustrations
http://www.katherinestreeter.com
5/25/09
Stefan Bench:Ejercicio de Dibujo
Ejercicio de Dibujo by Stephan Bench http://cargocollective.com/stefan
5/24/09
harmen de hoop
http://www.harmendehoop.com/ his living sculptures, sculptures, and updated sculptures are excellent.
5/18/09
Anton Weller Gallery, Dogz in Ze Hood
I like almost everything this paris gallery has on their site, even in generes that dont usually interest me http://www.anton-weller.com
evol: stencils on cardboard
This artist does hyper realistic stencils on cardboard and is represented in berlin by wilde gallery http://www.wilde-gallery.de/ and evol's website: http://www.evoltaste.com/ and flickr:http://www.flickr.com/photos/evoldaily/
1/31/09
my installation in phili
ZOE McCLOSKEY
And I Don't Want It to Be Misappropriated
thanks to Clara, Im working on an new installation in the tiny back room of the Bridgette Mayer Gallery
in Phili. It will be on display Feb 6th- Feb 28th, Opening Reception Feb 6th, 6-8:30 pm
http://www.mayerartconsultants.com/index.html
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