Not to be missed … says Avishai.

Posted by: ptw | May 6 2009 12:54 utc | 3

Yeah, I agree with Uncle about Jeb Bush. This is all about getting him in the limelight for the Presidency. Again, the elite make fools of us.

Posted by: Rick | May 6 2009 13:32 utc | 5

Oh, sure, forget about the devil in front of you, Obama, and worry about that pesky Republican devil, Jeb Bush, in 2016. Give me a break. They all play for the same team, and that team has Government right where it wants it. Our Government is currently Corporate Controlled, so there’s not much more to change except doing away with entitlements. The defense budget will only continue to grow, and you need big government for that, and wars and perpetual enemies to rationalize it.

Posted by: Obamageddon | May 6 2009 14:46 utc | 7

There is a great deal of truth in the article to which Rick linked, but there’s also misdirection. The author is clearly an advocate for the coal industry. The only way to deal with the crisis to which he alludes is to radically change our way of life. No energy source is going to replace oil. Coal is antiquated and dirty. There’s no such thing as clean coal, and this guy’s a moron for suggesting we remove nountain tops and burn up our 250 years worth of supply. That coal should forever remain buried in the ground.

Posted by: Obamageddon | May 6 2009 16:06 utc | 9

Since the hog flu is now on the wane (though it still could wax again this fall), I figure it’s safe again to talk about pork and pork related things without eliciting too many gag flexes across lunasphere. So let me mention that there’s a math theorem called the ham sandwich theorem, which proves, believe it or not, that a ham sandwich can be sliced in half an infinite number of times, keeping the ratio between ham and bread the same. What makes this theorem especially tasty (pun intended) is that it still holds true even if you add a slice of cheese to it, just so long as the two slices of bread are treated as a single entity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_sandwich_theorem

Posted by: Cynthia | May 6 2009 16:57 utc | 11

Obamageddon@#7
The point wasn’t jeb, or the future p-residency, the point was the CNA. The CNA is the revamped PNAC. And someone to watch. Yet another type think tank with an over abundance of power and influence. Hence such things as the following:
The National Council for a New America Launches – Conference Call Report

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 6 2009 17:21 utc | 13

Cynthia… WOW!

Posted by: DavidS | May 6 2009 19:04 utc | 15

Cynthia, nice one… love things like that. I Don’t know if you were around when I posted the following a while back:
artist Theo Jansen

Shot in the Netherlands utilizing the moving sculptures of world-renowned artist Theo Jansen, this commercial, entitled “Kinetic Sculptures” forms part of a broader campaign which serves to highlight BMW’s market leadership in the fields of technology and innovation.

fucking typepad grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 6 2009 22:27 utc | 17

J 18) US R All Corporate Now:
Check out Obama, now that Afghanistan has become the Israel to Pakistan’s Palestine:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/05/06/afghanistan.pakistan/art.obama.karzai.zardari.gi.jpg
Notice Hamid got the ‘clean’ right side of Obama, and Zardari got the ‘unclean’ left side; then quick, take a look at Carter at Camp David:
http://morewhat.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/BeginCarterSadatWIKI.jpg
and another look at Clinton at Camp David:
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0czDeX4eCpbY5/610x.jpg
Always, always the Arab gets the unclean hand of the President to hold, and if you think this is just a unusual triple coincidence, then you are part of Corporate, and you probably believe we have always been at war with Eurasia.

Posted by: Winston Smith | May 7 2009 2:10 utc | 19

Uncle $cam,
No, I never heard of artist Theo Jansen. His work is amazing, so thanks for the link! I also thank you for linking me to Jeff Sharlet’s article in Harper’s entitled “Jesus killed Mohammed.” Since Harper’s has a pay wall in place, I though you may wanna just listen to Sharlet on the radio link below, discussing how our military is being Christianized from the top down. But if you’re already having nightmares about our military using its money and might to turn America into a Christian theocracy, I suggest you avoid this link like the plague:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2009/05/04/segments/130897

Posted by: Cynthia | May 7 2009 16:07 utc | 21

incident at ogala – free leonard peltier

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 7 2009 23:02 utc | 23

now that Afghanistan has become the Israel to Pakistan’s Palestine
it has?

Posted by: annie | May 10 2009 1:44 utc | 25

nice flying, the French have a very good team too but the best of what I have seen are hands down the Italians. their show is still good even after they made it all more timid after the terrible accident at Ramstein some 20 years ago

Posted by: dan of steele | May 10 2009 17:13 utc | 27

THE TASK
Walk the walk, the winners say
To losers languishing on the edge
Who never win, nor sun their day
With luxurious relaxation
What pledge to Moloch harvests plight?
Who climbs on lies to dizzy heights?
As shadow lengthens at their command
Who lords over world disaster?
Brittle Nation, the glow has gone
First world boasting is just a shell
Like Patriots with their broken slogans
Obscuring earthly hells
Renew the garden with secret seeds
And brush our footprints off the path
So vengeful gods among the reeds
Can’t reach us with Their wrath

Posted by: Lizard | May 12 2009 21:24 utc | 29

…—… , that some crazy pornography you’re posting…

Posted by: DavidS | May 15 2009 17:20 utc | 31

wow, some very interesting news coming out of palestine..
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003567.html
thank you helena
bold (in red!)> Abbas losing support from Fateh
blockquote>>>>
“Mahmoud Abbas is supposed to be the head of the Fateh movement, as well as of the PLO (!) and the US-supported Palestinian Authority (PA.)
Yesterday, Abbas swore in a new PA ‘government’, headed as before by the strongly US-backed Salam Fayyad… and most members of Fateh’s own parliamentary bloc opposed the move and refused to join!
This is a further illustration of the fact I have mentioned before, that Fateh no longer has any coherent internal organization at all– let alone one that could make any strategic or tough decisions or exercise other functions of national “leadership.”
And the more money the US and its friends shovel into the PA project, the faster the internal disintegration continues.
This commentary (ed note, includes link) from Ma’an News tries to unpack Abbas’s reasoning for forming the new “government”. The one I find most convincing is that Abbas and his American masters/friends figured it would look bad if he turned up in Washington May 28 without having some kind of a Potemkin government in tow.”
…
don’t miss this and check out the supporting link to Ma’an News

Posted by: annie | May 21 2009 2:21 utc | 33

I’m finally publishing my little paper again today (after nine weeks off) and this is the rant for this issue:

It has been a long time since I penned a rant for the FDO. Too long I suppose, but I’ve used the time well. I have a new inline, self-cleaning filter for my irrigation/sprinkler system that has yet to clog. Last year I had to clean the filter everyday if I wanted the sprinklers to work, this year I’ve checked the filter three times since the irrigation water came on and it’s still clean! I only wish I’d have discovered this set-up sooner (so does my lawn)
Irrigation worries seem so pleasantly bucolic compared to the feces raining down upon us from our business/government leaders.
I feel it is past time someone asked, “where do we go from here?”
Our Federal government daily proves it is being manipulated by criminals for their benefit and costing the American Taxpayer not only dollars but the lives of our soldiers.
And to those who continually beat the drums of war while wrapped in the flag yelling, “my country right or wrong” I want to personally tell you that you’re plain stupid.
Anyone who is a true American Patriot is angry and they know who to be angry at. It isn’t a bunch of towel-headed terrorist, or tie-dyed hippies that have caused these recent problems, but greedy bankers and businessmen in cahoots with the people who we elected to represent us. Yeah it is the three-piece suits and pencil pushers that are the greatest threat to our way of life.
I can’t keep track of how many unjust bull-feces laws are being proposed in Congress or how many are being passed. I can’t even begin to calculate the cost to each and every one of us in dollars these laws and bailouts are costing us, and I wouldn’t I want to. I’m angry enough as it is.
But it is the cost to our freedoms, and our American way of life, that I really despise. All so some rich f#@%ers can become richer and more powerful.
And if this weren’t bad enough, I want to share some more awful news; that all this is our fault!
You and me and she and he and everyone else who is daily going about their lives ignoring the creeping fascism that’s eroding the foundation of America, are enabling that fascism to grow stronger.
I can’t understand why people haven’t figured this out yet? I guess it might be because the bull-feces passing for news on TV has dulled Americans ability to think for themselves.
Our Founding Fathers are probably pretty angry right now, because we’ve basically let the same evil bastards they’d fought a war against, take-over the very government they’d established as an alternative to the Drunken Nanny State.
The DNS, is a land inhabited by childlike adults who can’t take responsibility for their actions, and so create endless rules that protect them from themselves; rules that the greedy ignore and the stupid ignorantly think are protecting them.
There are rules governing the color of paint on their homes and rules dictating how “smart” their children are. There are rules for this and rules for that, but at the end of the day the only rules that matter are the rulers who are cashing checks written against your children’s wealth and even worse, their blood.
Are we better off than our parents were? No. Why is this? Because our government is run, and has been run (for at least twenty years) by criminals. Simple as that.
The FBI has for years been focused on the small fry of crime families; The Mob and The Mafia – when in reality the two biggest crime families working in the USA are the Democrats and the Republicans!
We need a true citizen tribunal to investigate each and every politician that has ever taken a dime from these two groups. We need to rip the lid off these foul coffins and shine daylight upon the creatures living inside, drive legal stakes through their hearts and leave them to die. Otherwise we will never become the America we believed in, the America we were founded to be.
And that’s a rant!

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I’ll have the website up and running… then you can all check out my funky little town… also I’ll be able to show-off my pinhole photos and the new darkroom my buddy Dan is building in my basement.
Dan has a cool project going for those of you who like color photography The Kodachrome Project
I figure this is the best way to see how the fixed Typepad works…

Posted by: DavidS | May 22 2009 14:32 utc | 35

*this is new, possibly not done yet…
ARS POETICA
I. The Charge
Listen.
Language is losing
and words are withering
giving ground to gross manipulation.
Millions die beyond our blinking (dry) eyes
as this Nation’s slow collapse descends
into madness
and meanness.
Poets, your job is restoration!
There is nothing more noble than to breathe new life
into language;
to free it from the guttural rage of our decline
before tongues turn militant
ordering hands grip a violence
decreed by sock puppets in dress
suits.
II. The Empty Suit
His language, aimed at the seething herd,
shoots disingenuous words
sucked of their marrow
like hope
and change
to bide time for his masters to continue the looting
and killing
with impunity.
Just listen to the husk of his words left drifting
meaning smothered by a velvet delivery
his adorers, ever doe-eyed and pliant,
lovingly consume.
Face reality, friends, because everything depends
on our ability to read between lies.
III. The Trap
Ars Poetica?
Just try and escape the political, the abused
you solitary threads rolled to knots left to rot
in concrete holding cells
waiting…
We’re all waiting now
dumbfounded by staging
and the lurid hypocrisy of our rulers.
Believe it.
Language is dangerous
and pools in the margins
of consciousness
seeping into spaces we dare not name
(where our cogs and their bugs hum with purpose)
IV. The Rhyme
no brand of criminality will ever stick
nor justice rain down from high above
when the unchecked power of mighty dicks
cause a total vacancy of our resident, love
V. The Paranoia
O mighty name changer, can the heavens see your teeth?
O smooth-smiling assurer-in-chief, will you subtly conscript us with poverty
to fight for the shadow perps?
What forces in concert with each other conspired to make you possible?
What secret oaths have you made to keep your sweet daughters
from slaughter?
Am I hook, line, and sinker? Will it ever be advantageous to wonder
how deep under the bus we’ll be buried, when all is said and done?
Under which tier of craziness will they shove the accumulation of my verse?
VI. The Garden
Scent of lilac, certainty of sun.
Lupine holding little beads of water.
Water itself, and the ease of it
pouring from our black rubber hose.
The Roses have become unmanageable. They droop
dangerously before me, sharply barbed with thorn
as I try to reach the edges of the yard with the mower.
This Nation is absurd. Each one of us embodies contradiction.
The fuel it takes to make the blades whirl. The water it takes
to keep the grass green. The aesthetic pleasure
and exponential growth of our presence.
This is who we are. Yes, there is garbage, just not here.
VII. The War
Listen carefully to the words as contingency plans unfurl.
This isn’t a war against weeds to keep the garden healthy;
it’s a war against resistors of occupation.
Listen. Our brains are occupied territory.
Take seriously the potency of Amerikan programming.
An insidious game with incredible numbers is being played
and this is what should concern you:
the majority of us are expendable.
VIII. The Conclusion
9 months old, his chunky legs kicking while the music plays.
Blue eyes, brown hair, holding tight as papa pirouettes across the floor.
Why do we allow these people (who call the violent death of children
collateral damage) to continue killing in our name?
Shame in every stroke of every letter inked callously across the pages
of every newspaper. It will never end until the people unify their voices
and declare it done.
DECLARE IT DONE!
or accept their definition of security, bow your head, and kiss your ass
goodbye.
Goodbye.

Posted by: Lizard | May 24 2009 3:08 utc | 37

nice, lizard
– – –
Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #1 — Insurrections or revolutions? The role of the political instrument [all emphases from the original article]

1. The recent popular uprisings at the turn of the 21st century that have rocked numerous countries such as Argentina and Bolivia — and, more generally, the history of the multiple social explosions that have occurred in Latin America and the rest of the world — have undoubtedly demonstrated that the initiative of the masses, in and of itself, is not enough to defeat ruling regimes.
2. Impoverished urban and country masses, lacking a well-defined plan, have risen up, seized highways, towns and neighbourhoods, ransacked stores and stormed parliaments, but despite achieving the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of people, neither the size nor their combativeness have been enough to develop from popular insurrection into revolution. They have overthrown presidents, but they haven’t been able to conquer power and initiate a process of deep social transformations.
3. On the other hand, the history of triumphant revolutions clearly demonstrates what can be achieved when there is a political instrument capable of raising an alternative national program that unifies the struggles of diverse social actors behind a common goal; that helps to cohere them and elaborate a path forward for these actors based on an analysis of the existent balance of forces. Only in this manner can actions be carried out at the right place and right time, always seeking out the weakest link in the enemy’s chain.
4. This political instrument is like a piston that compresses steam at the decisive moment and -‑ without wasting any energy -‑ converts it into a powerful force.
5. In order for political action to be effective, so that protests, resistance and struggles are really able to change things, to convert insurrections into revolutions, a political instrument capable of overcoming the dispersion and fragmentation of the exploited and the oppressed is required, one that can create spaces to bring together those who, in spite of their differences, have a common enemy; that is able to strengthen existing struggles and promote others by orientating their actions according to a thorough analysis of the political situation; that can act as an instrument for cohering the many expressions of resistance and struggle.
6. We are aware that there are a number of apprehensions towards such ideas. There are many who are not even willing to discuss them. Such positions are adopted because they associate this idea with the anti-democratic, authoritarian, bureaucratic and manipulating political practices that have characterised many left parties.
7. I believe it is fundamental that we overcome this subjective barrier and understand that when we refer to a political instrument, we are not thinking of just any political instrument, we are dealing with political instrument adjusted to the new times, an instrument that we must built together.
8. However, in order to create or remodel this new political instrument, the left has to change its political culture and its vision of politics. This cannot be reduced to institutional political disputes for control over parliament or local governments; to approving laws or winning elections. In this conception of politics, the popular sectors and their struggles are completely ignored. Neither can politics be limited to the art of what is possible.
9. For the left, politics must be the art of making possible the impossible. And we are not talking about a voluntarist declaration. We are talking about understanding politics as the art of constructing a social and political force capable of changing the balance of force in favour of the popular movement, so as to make possible in the future that which today appears impossible.
10. We have to think of politics as the art of constructing forces. We have to overcome the old and deeply-rooted mistake of trying to build a political force without building a social force.
11. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of revolutionary phase-mongering among our militants; too much radicalism in their statements. I am convinced that the only way to radicalise a given situation is through the construction of forces. Those whose words are filled with demands for radicalisation must answer the following question: What are you doing to construct the political and social force necessary to push the process forward?
12. But this construction of forces cannot occur spontaneously, only popular uprisings happen spontaneously. It needs a protagonist.
13. And I envisage this political instrument as an organisation capable of raising a national project that can unify and act as a compass for all those sectors that oppose neoliberalism. As a space that directs itself towards the rest of society, that respects the autonomy of the social movements instead of manipulating them, and whose militants and leaders are true popular pedagogues, capable of stimulating the knowledge that exists within the people — derived from their cultural traditions, as well as acquired in their daily struggles for survival — through the fusion of this knowledge with the most all-encompassing knowledge that the political organisation can offer. An orientating and cohering instrument at the service of the social movements.

Posted by: b real | May 24 2009 3:53 utc | 39

Wait! we need to call on the Super Friends!
Superheroes of Capitalism?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 24 2009 4:43 utc | 41

uncle! thank you, it appears we cross-posted. which means maybe you could answer yer phone, no? c’mon, uncle, it’s saturday night, and there’s lightning flickering outside.

Posted by: Lizard | May 24 2009 5:50 utc | 43

Some nice newsfor a change. Let’s hope more of CALA takes advantage before the OECD gets on the bandwagon and wrecks it for everybody.

Posted by: …—… | May 27 2009 0:56 utc | 45

whoops, screwed that up but good. link

Posted by: Lizard | May 29 2009 4:42 utc | 47

Lizard. Thank you. Words fail me [as usual].

Posted by: beq | May 30 2009 0:51 utc | 49

this is interesting.

Sorry about the long break. I had to deal with my real job, even picked up some extra hours. Once I would have bitched non-stop about that, but I’ve noticed that everybody’s gotten real flexible about their schedules, now that they’re lucky to have a job at all. No more Monday morning jokes. We’re as cheerful as a bunch of Mormons getting root canals. And under all the gung-ho attitude, people are just plain scared.
So naturally, everybody’s trotting out the end-of-civilization scenarios. There’s a whole bunch of guys out there (mostly guys, a few butch girls here and there) who sulk online for years waiting for somebody to bring up the Omega Man/I Am Legend scenario: what are you going to do when civilization collapses?
It usually comes down to gun talk. That really makes me laugh. As if small arms would get you through the end of the world. Oh, I get the idea. In fact there was this joke when I was in high school that summed it up nice: “Q: What is the definition of a survivalist? A: Somebody with a rifle and the address of a Mormon.” Because everybody knew those Mormons were required by an official memo straight from God to Joseph E. Smith, Jr. to stockpile canned goods for a year in their tidy little basements. If you had a rifle, the idea was, you just strolled over to their house and either ordered them out if you were feeling all interfaith-cuddly or shot the whole bunch, although with those Mormon birth rates you’d be using up a lot of ammo on basically harmless people.
Well, they were harmless back then. I suspect if you kicked down the door of the average Mormon house now you’d get a face full of buckshot. People are meaner than they used to be.
But being tough, being armed to the teeth and ready to kick ass, that wouldn’t save you either if it all came down. It’d come down to dull stuff that nobody wants to think about, like organization. That’s what really hits me about these survival fantasies: it’s always about holing up in your house with guns and ammo and years of video-game wet dreams bouncing around in your head.
One question: where you gonna get your water? You can go weeks without food (in my case more like a year; in fact I’d probably be better off after starving for a year or so) but you need water every day. Let’s take California. Last I heard there were 24 million people in So Cal. You know where they get their water? From a tap, yeah; but when the taps stop flowing? Flick that ball socket faucet in your townhouse and a spider drops out? That’s what’d scare me, not armies of zombies or gangbangers.

Posted by: Lizard | May 31 2009 6:37 utc | 51

i think maybe the above is a weak example of flarf

Flarf poetry can be characterized as an avant garde poetry movement of the late 20th century and the early 21st century. Its first practitioners practiced an aesthetic dedicated to the exploration of “the inappropriate” in all of its guises. Their method was to mine the Internet with odd search terms then distill the results into often hilarious and sometimes disturbing poems, plays, and other texts.

i dunno, maybe i’m just not hip to the trends, but it seems to me contemporary poetry in the states is often nothing more than institutionalized intellectual masturbation.
sure, there are poets doing good work, but the proliferation of MFA programs is producing thousands of poets in a culture that is quickly losing its appreciation for the power of language. the poets produced in the institutions of higher learning seem to exist in these insular circles, detached from the grit that brings life to language.
i should note that, as a poet, i am obviously biased, desperately wanting to carve out my own little niche, because i operate under the delusion that i can help revive what’s become so obscenely corrupted (ha, ha) so i offer this disclaimer: much of my criticism stems from a gnawing desire to be recognized (published, lauded by me peers, etc.) and is therefore highly suspect.
that said, in the last few decades, hip-hop (as opposed to the corporate co-opted variety of urban exploitation called rap) has done more for the life of language than poetry has, so it makes sense that slam poetry is a vibrant, growing movement, breathing much needed life in the art of the spoken word.
but even slam poets have to work against a sort of standardized cadence that’s been heavily co-opted by corporate interests (watch some of the new McDonalds ads for blatant proof)
uncle $cam always reminds me how powerful spoken poetry can be, versus reading poetry written on the page. i tend to enjoy reading poetry more than hearing it, because then i can see the poetic gears at work, like clever line breaks, the use of space, and how the rhymes, if there are any, are structured (i think using end rhymes is a no-no according to the institutional cliques who set precedent for style)
*
i’m glad the open thread option was revived. maybe they can be like back eddies from the fast current of link-hooks and host-posts.

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 5 2009 5:56 utc | 53

Rick thanks #6. Peak oil is important, also think false, that oil is contaminated with fossils more than derived from them.
Dave Mcgowan newsletter #59
Lizard #51, link interesting, he’s certainly right about water, artesian wells are the best thing, though not as good as being a top Rockefeller, top Dupont, Ted Turner, Henry K. etc.
I once posted here link to piece by a reporter in an LA “alt” paper (was fired) about serviceable neighborhood feeder water pipes being replaced by ones that could electronically be cut off (or substance from individual reservoir fed in) on a house by house basis if precision necessary, and much denial that the valve involved even existed, can’t find quickly now, words too generic. She also got reports of similar in midwest.

Posted by: plushtown | Jun 5 2009 13:19 utc | 55

Lizard, anna missed-
John D MacDonald in his Traviz McGee series did a book about the art world and Modernist in particular… one of the main characters was a wealthy woman artist who is making beau coup bucks for her paintings. Old McGee wins her heart and her mind by asking her to draw a cow… ‘Cause even Picasso could draw a cow.
The woman goes berserk and gets all huffy about how she is a great artist and they aren’t like a trick pony that performs on command… after a bit she finally admits she can’t draw a cow. Typical eh?
I was once a bit like this myself. I remember being a young photographer shooting photos for a daily paper and thinking that I’d achieved a sort of peak. I was 18 and making as much as the college educated journalist while all my buddies were going into debt working towards their college degree. I thought I was just a couple of years away from a gig with National Geographic – I felt I was that good.
Silly me. A few years later I’d had given-up on journalism (and waiting tables for money) and took a job at a pro E-6 lab in Aspen… This is the place I truly learned how to be a photographer. I was working with amazing photographers from National Geographic shooter David Hiser to news/stock shooter Jeffery Aaronson (who taught me the phrase, “que lastima”) and, also, an up and coming Brian Baily (whose raw film was the most fun to look at… the guy is a kook and has an awesome eye!)
Well I learned two things working there: the first was that I probably wasn’t good enough to ever shoot for National Geographic and I probably never would be… I’m too lazy of a shooter – My photos aren’t always as tack-sharp or perfectly exposed like the big-wigs film is.
And the second thing I learned was how much depth there is to photography. I had been so focused on photo-journalism that I never learned other techniques to produce interesting photos and I’d never learned nuances that would have made me a much better photographer.
I was making good images… but I couldn’t draw a cow, so to speak.
Looking back, I probably would have continued working at newspapers, had I been able to have more “fun” while working. I was much too much into the old, “f-8 and be there” approach rather than looking much deeper for other images that might better tell the story.
These days I’m now doing a little publication, and with every issue, killing the english language with a “death of a thousand cuts” ’cause I’m either too lazy, too proud or maybe just too poor, to have a proper editor. English has survived Shakespeare, e.e. cummings and political double-speak, I’ll bet it will survive being daved too.
I guess to sum-up (as if I can) is that there are many who say they do and few who do. If you become so caught-up in the details that you don’t do ’cause you’re afraid of doing doodoo den you’re no better den those that do do doodoo ’cause at least they’re doing. Or something like that 🙂

Posted by: DavidS | Jun 5 2009 14:33 utc | 57

anna missed–
What I guess I didn’t get across very well is that I’m too lazy to make good photographs for National Geographic which values super sharp images that glow and I sometimes am not the sharp and my exposures, well, listless, not that I’m not a good photographer, I just spent too many years shooting B&W for newsprint which is kind of muddy anyway. I’m sure had I spent more time looking at my photos on slick, glossy paper I’d have been more critical 🙂
I shouldn’t be writing before coffee like I did that post :)… I think you and I are on the same wavelength; art is very subjective, and as such, it truly is “in the eyes of the beholder” to interpet. But universally accepted (or is the word I want “understood?) art is a far rarer thing, or at least I believe so. A painter friend and I were laughing about one of his shows where two people were discussing one of his works and he had been surprised to find all the meaning and symbolism that was “shinning” out of the piece… He’d just thought it was a nice painting.
I feel there is value in art and in the artist who masters a technique before dismissing its value. I think the point I am slowly floundering around is that I agree that a good work is a good work… I don’t care who or how it came to life.
Five-year-old children produce some really cool art without any formal training at all. But to me this type of art is interesting in it’s purity, but I don’t find it as challenging to contemplate as Picasso. I feel there is more to be learned from an artist who has trod further from what normal is, AFTER they have followed the herd. To go against the accepted current viewpoint is costly…
Robert Frank is a great photographer… like many of the image-makers to come from his era. But that isn’t what I was getting at when I chid myself for being lazy, there is just something that really great shooters have that very few people do… or even understand. Our modern gear is so much better than when Frank started making photos… I’d have loved to seen what he’d have done with a modern Leica… or even a digital camera (not to insult the Leicas).
There are many natural artist… I know a married couple that shoots photos that look like the best stock with a crappy little point and shoot digital… you’d swear they clipped all their photos out of magazines! But neither one has ever taken a photo class, they both just have that knack for composition. And I don’t mean to totally dismiss these “naturals” when I sound bitchy about art… I just am sick of the artist that are much better at telling everyone how important and great they are then they are with creating something that hopefully furthers mankind rather than recycling and regurgitating the same old crap.
I should add a kudos to Lizard… to wear the title “poet” publicly is similar to wearing some type of scarlet letter, at least this seems to be what has happened in our modern times. I hate to bring this up… it seems wrong to write of poetry and hollywood at the same time, but the movie, “Dead Poets Society” really rocked my world.
Not that it was a great movie, but it had some great moments… the boys breaking their curfew by sneaking off into the woods to read poetry by candlelight changed me. I realized you didn’t need to be gay to be an artist and that poetry, literature and even painting were being done by people that were neither crazy nor “weird.” Wow, who’dda thought?
And Lizard, your poems are strong stuff, like homebrew spiked with whisky or drinking a midnight pot of cowboy coffee. There is both strength and truth in your words… the only one you need impress, is of course yourself, but I’m sure there will be more than a few of us along for the ride.

Posted by: DavidS | Jun 5 2009 21:51 utc | 59

listening/perceiving are qualities an artist must possess. whether a natural conduit, or a hard working observer, if an artist can’t move beyond self-absorption, then the output is a waste of time.
it’s not surprising that poets seem to have the most difficult time transcending self. TS Eliot even wrote an entire essay about the need to kill (figuratively, of course) the author. maybe Eliot’s impulse to abolish himself from his text stemmed from the degree of influence Ezra Pound had on shaping the poem of all poems, THE WASTELAND. or maybe it was an honest acknowledgement that, no matter how skilled, all artists, to some degree, channel the intangible energies of inspiration from a place unknown.
maybe so many poets have destroyed themselves because they took literally what Eliot approaches theoretically.
i admit, there’s something about using words as building blocs for poems that threatens to ruin the communicative function of language, which may or may not be an explanation for why so many poets are reduced to behaving like arrogant assholes in the company of others.
when you’re obsessed with finding new ways of expressing poetic laments about the same old human transgressions, it’s easy to have little patience for lazy lines of thought, which too often is what we are conditioned to share with each other in mixed company; horrific banalities and tired commentaries, over and over again.
which is why MoA is so indispensable.
in a forum comprised wholly of language, the fragments, entanglements, links and threads provide something i can’t find in my immediate community. i’ve been more exposed to a rich diversity of information here than in any expensive college class i’ve indebted myself by attending.
so let the conversation continue, because time is fleeting.

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 6 2009 5:55 utc | 61

i do not care to what degree you deny the real. what’s the use
of ears if they refuse to hear the sameness of empty suits
slaughtering meaning by wiggling their paid-for tongues?
Yes!
I think what causes most artistic angst is that no matter how “good” an artist is, they know in their hearts that they are doing nothing more than “channeling Elvis.”
What I mean is that there is another place/plane where pools of creativity lie dormant waiting for some random human to fall-in. I know that when I have done a work I feel really good about, I often don’t remember how it came to be created – and this is what I mean by “channeling Elvis”
Creating art is almost like a prayer asking for heavenly guidance and a good work is this prayer answered.
An example that really struck home for me is when several years ago, a week after publishing a ‘zine in aspen that had included a funny take on Hunter Thompson’s drug use, he shot himself… The piece I’d done that concerned me was turning Ben Franklin on a $100 into Hunter Thompson… and I changed a few other parts too, like instead of “the united states of america” I put “the united snorts of america” All this was silly and done in humor, but when HST put a hole though his head, I’d wondered if the piece wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back?
Of course Hunter’s last shot wasn’t because of me, but I have a rather elevated sense of how I fit into the larger world, and for a couple of days, I worried that it might have been somehow my fault and that now I’d have to deal with mobs of angry Hunter fans.
And this leads me to my personal greatest “channeling Elvis” moment which was the next issue of my ‘zine which I devoted to Hunter. There are several pages that I know I designed with words that I must have wrote, but I’m still not sure how it all came together as well as it did.
I still feel a little funny when I look through the thing and wonder where it came from? Whose hand was guiding mine? I know it sounds weird and maybe even a bit arrogant to think it, but I really feel Hunter somehow had directly influenced me.
It would be easy enough to dismiss my literary mimicry to simply that, mimicry. But there is too much weird coincidence in how the whole package came together for me to take all the credit – someone’s invisible hand was guiding mine, I’m sure ’cause I really ain’t that good 🙂
The magic of the Muse is undeniable and when we, as artist, allow ourselves to conjure its possibilities then every word, photo, painting or sculpture (to name but a few) become something far more than the said object… it becomes a talismans that holds an universal truth that everyone feels, but many may not be able to describe.
Too many humans see with their eyes but are still walking around blind – and this is why humans are scared of art – it evokes feelings we aren’t taught words to define and we don’t trust our feelings enough to leave the description to our souls.

Posted by: DavidS | Jun 6 2009 12:50 utc | 63

Uganda: Oil Reserves [might] Rival Saudi Arabia’s, Says U.S. Expert

Posted by: plushtown | Jun 7 2009 1:57 utc | 65

Thanks plushtown & b real, some beautiful pictures.

Posted by: anna missed | Jun 7 2009 5:36 utc | 67

A Swedish Kind of Death, you so Rock!
[Please remember us when you become PM]
=)

Posted by: beq | Jun 9 2009 0:47 utc | 69

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Posted by: AgineeNagma | Jun 13 2009 4:57 utc | 71

@Dan of Steele
Re your “come here, I’ll bite you!”, buried in an Iran thread
LOL :))

Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2009 23:48 utc | 73

i’ve been kicking around a “literary” project of sorts, and it’s beginning to coalesce.
so far i’m thinking of focusing this project on an artistic relationship where art and politics intermingled to the point of fissure, ending the creative coupling. the relationship is between two poets; Denise Levertov, and Robert Duncan, and their personal correspondence (in print at over 800 pages) has been the subject of much analysis.
i’ve been tracking a hunch for awhile, without any definitive words of explanation. i still don’t have the language, but i’ve got some preliminary sketches, and, perhaps, a discernible direction to take them.
stay tuned…

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 26 2009 5:02 utc | 75

The Pirate Bay: We’re Thinking of Selling

The Pirate Bay this morning announced that the hugely popular torrent site at the center of a highly publicized court case in Sweden could change ownership.

SKorean intelligence agency runs ’spot the spy’ game

South Korea’s normally publicity-shy intelligence agency is creating a stir among liberal groups with a “spot the spy” flash video game offering a variety of prizes.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is hosting the game on its website (www.nis111.co.kr) to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950.
The game, which runs from June 22 to July 21, challenges users to pick out spies and those who sympathise with communist North Korea.
Two hundred lucky winners will receive laptop computers, digital cameras and game consoles. Bloggers who link the game to their personal web pages will get premium watches.

Posted by: Outraged | Jun 30 2009 10:29 utc | 77

re: “billmon’s 2 cents”
I don’t believe that Billmon actually posted that. If he did, it’s almost as sad as the loss of “b”. Both are evidence of the awesome force of The Empire in grinding down opponents.
As any self-respecting contrarian knows, America propped up the Romanian dictator Ceaușescu.

Chomsky: OK, so let’s take his example, Romania under Ceausescu. Hideous regime, which he forgot to tell you the United States supported. Supported right until the end, as did Britain. When Ceausescu came to London he was feted by Margaret Thatcher. When George Bush the First came into office, I think the first person he invited to Washington was Ceausescu. Yes, Romania was a miserable, brutal regime supported by the United States right to the end, as Robert Kaplan knows very well, so the example he gave is a perfect example.
ES: It wasn’t supported by the States in the 70s though?
Chomsky: In the 70s, in the 80s, right to the end of Ceausescu’s rule. It was supported by the United States. The reasons had to do with great power politics. They were sort of breaking Warsaw Pact policies and so on, but the very example he picks illustrates it and we can proceed onward.

The supporters of this phony Iranian revolution are to a man hysterical and mendacious. The Neocons who generated the revolution wish to make Iran a weaker and more chaotic country. There is no doubt that following their lead will bring misery to the world. I don’t know what is the best government for the Iranian people. I do know that changing this regime using the amoral approach America was using in the 1990s would lead to a better result than using the immoral approach Israel is using today.

Posted by: airtommy | Jul 1 2009 15:13 utc | 79

This link, instead

Posted by: Anonimate | Jul 3 2009 14:35 utc | 81

Yes, Lespeakeasy has been hacked. It’s possible that only someone with access to the actual server can solve the problem. The php page for the forums has been replaced by the hacker.
Given how this world works Lespeakeasy may be using old software with known vulnerabilities as it hasn’t been active for quite a while. So it was an easy target.

Posted by: ThePaper | Jul 3 2009 15:43 utc | 83

If time is pressing, the best thing would be to set up a Yahoo Club as a temporary base.

Posted by: airtommy | Jul 3 2009 16:21 utc | 85

One last note – if these open thread comments close, it’s always possible to create a diary at the open diary space we have over at firedoglake – OxDown though I think we’re doing a relaunch of it in a day or so with a new name – but that’s a completely open option and at least would let folks connect in comments to make a plan.

Posted by: Siun | Jul 3 2009 17:21 utc | 87

Well, Siun -thanks for your help on trying to get Le Speakeasy re-opened over the past few days. Sort of feels like some punks came along and burned down our new digs.
One more snippet from Ulysses (Tennyson):

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, —
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Posted by: Maxcrat | Jul 3 2009 18:06 utc | 89

Re. Siun #86 post:
Re. Full disclosure: I was one of the “folks that suggested it was done for political reasons”. I won’t confess to paranoia but only a high level of suspicion. The following was my post to Siun:

Hacked!!
After long discussions at MOA over moles and patsies possibly posting there, for the last three weeks, I find this coincidence disturbing to say the least. I strongly believe there were conscious agitators over there and they have deliberately come over here to thwart our coming back together. This community, though small, is still a significant voice exposing the MSM propaganda monster for what it is and getting out a more accurate diagnosis of events. When the corrupt get so corrupt and omnipresent that it becomes obvious to most people, we become an even more severe threat to them. I was just beginning to write a new post on this when I got your email and checked back. I had successfully posted earlier this morning. If you have time to check and read the link you will see how it adds credence to my suspicion.
Now I replace my tin foil hat but I’ll still post something like this when we get back on line. I may share this email with a few I trust in the meantime.

My ‘this’ link is short but highly pertinent. It indicates the depth of clandestine involvement of the empire’s agents existing in legitimate overseas business.
This was written this morning before I discovered this Open Thread was still open. I sure don’t know, I have no positive proof, only the confluence of “coincidental” incidents that point my mind toward suspicion. Now the second paragraph of Alamet’s #88 post just makes me all the more suspicious.
I’m not claiming anything, just sharing my no longer private thoughts, but with today’s political and foreign policy situation, I think it’s prudent to maintain vigilance.

Posted by: Juannie | Jul 3 2009 21:21 utc | 91

we must have been cross posting juannie. yep.
here’s a video i ran into @ the comment section of mondoweiss.

Rav Gershon Salamon: I want to ask you,
Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir
is about to have talks with
the arabs about Eretz Yisroel
It is important that the Rebbe
tell the government and all Jews,
that it is forbidden to talk
to the Arabs about Eretz Yisroel
and to give territories
of Eretz Yisroel to the enemy.
Rebbe: They promised me and, and they
will surely keep their promise,
that of all the talks there will not
be any concessions of territories,
The talks are only so
the public shouldn’t say that
Eretz Yisroel
is not interested in peace.
It doesn’t mean
they’re right,
but this is a criticism
that is hard to counter,

Posted by: annie | Jul 3 2009 21:27 utc | 93

bummer. have been away from a computer all day & just catching up. if LS is toast now, and unless someone rewrites the application this will be an ongoing issue even should someone be able to restore the backup & bring it up again, then it’s time to move to plan b c. what – there is no plan c?
the critical factor at this point is probably to get a space where people can hash out what we can do to keep the community intact as much as possible. while there’s no sense of immediate urgency, the quicker something gets up, the better the chances for retention.
there have been mentions of setting up a google or yahoo group – what are the positives & negatives of doing so? how many participants might be leery about signing up w/ such companies? they’re not accessible to non-registrants, correct?
what other options are there? has anyone compiled and/or weighed the invitations from the ‘goodbye’ thread? how feasible is it to migrate en-masse to somebody else’s space?
or is anyone interested in setting up a temporary blog to provide open access to all – lurkers, commentator & content generators alike? ideally, a collaborative effort would be more practical than a project led by only one individual. blogs are simple to set up these days – much simpler than actually running them.
the community does have a fair bit of credibility/goodwill/karma built up over the years, so an offshoot would be able to take a certain amount of that with it.
find a handful of moderators that can produce content, create a blog, slap a welcome sign up, and let it evolve from there.
just some thoughts
i’ll have limited access to a computer for the rest of the weekend so will check in when i can

Posted by: b real | Jul 4 2009 6:14 utc | 95

wrote this before i saw the comments were closed:
(oh no this is awful news tears fall)
B I was in awe of how you kept it up all my heartfelt thanks and all best wishes for the future. To all the posters thanks as well.
Really I’m at a loss for words and can’t express myself beyond the conventional phrases.
Now what?
I can pay a reasonable or hefty subscription.
About alternatives: I do not think that congregating at some existing site (e.g. speakeasy, eurotrib) will work – sites have their own communities and ideologies, povs, etc. and it is impolite to swamp them to mention only one aspect. I would most emphatically discourage that approach.
Kevin B suggests a Forum (there are many even free forum possibilities out there), which is user-driven. Of course it would never replace MOA but it would be a place to say hello and keep in touch, lift a glass, and consider yet other alternatives, such as conserving MOA but lifting it off b’s shoulders in some way – think of it – he could be a commentator and post short or long or not as he pleased. The danger of forums is that they may sprawl out of control – the format is lax and attracts the domineering and flame wars spark like bush fires –
Now if someone would set one up (i am not that internet savvy so it would take me time and i certainly wouldn’t pick the best option or organize it beyond the standard thingie offered) I can help.. e mail me.
Maybe china hands has some thoughts.
Blackie – then Noirette – now Tangerine:
andrea black 140 at hotmail dot com (no spaces)
ps. read only to 162 on the closing MOA thread so will have missed any subsequent suggestions.

Posted by: Tangerine | Jul 4 2009 11:13 utc | 97

I feel a little bit like I’m trespassing. I’d swear there already feels like a layer of dust is covering the bar and tables.
Anyhoo, Tangerine, yeah it’s sad. I feel like I’ve lost something the language hasn’t invented a word to describe.
I might as well leave a little graffiti in the dust, kind of the sort of thing I’d have done when there was a bar full;
Listening to the propaganda, ahem, news this morning and I must admit I was very, very nervous when they mentioned North Korea launched seven missiles, each with a range of 300 miles… being the sheeple math-whiz I am, I quickly did the math – 300×7=2100 miles, which I’m relieved to find out is less than one half the distance to Hawaii.
Åhhh, I sighed with relief, must have only been the Koreans celebrating the Fourth of July like all the world’s people do.

Posted by: DavidS | Jul 4 2009 12:12 utc | 99