Here's a cogent passage from that Gopnik article on Popper that Dratfink had
posted.
But what really underlay the contradiction between
what he thought and what he was, I now think, after
a quarter-century's reflection, is a perversity of
human nature so deep that it is almost a law-the
Law of the Mental Mirror Image. We write what we
are not. It is not merely that we fail to live up to our
best ideas but that our best ideas, and the tone that
goes with them, tend to be the opposite of our
natural temperament. Rousseau wrote of the feelings
of the heart and the beauties of nature while stewing
and seething in a little room. Dr. Johnson pleaded for
Christian stoicism in desperate fear of damnation.
The masters of the wry middle style, Lionel Trilling
and Randall Jarrell, were mired in sadness and
confusion. The angry and competitive man (James
Thurber) writes tender and rueful humor because his
own condition is what he seeks to escape. The
apostles of calm reason are hypersensitive and
neurotic…
I just want to say how true it is. And if any of you have been taken in by that namby-pamby, new age nonsense posted
elsewhere, well, just let me assure you that it's strictly therapeutic. I require the bandwidth in order to dispense with these awful impulses of love and understanding that torment me. I am so thankful to have this means of eliminating my baggage, so that I can get back to my real business of being
one nasty bastard!
I'm sure this has already been discussed but I missed it. What is up with the yellow underlined words in posts that then link to definitions of that word or in other cases, products.
bucky meets jesus -->
future positive
Tom's astute equation of The Boards Of Canada and afterschool specials in his
techno diary reminded me that I've been meaning to post a couple of links on this page.
On a
hunch I bought on ebay a 16mm print of
OWL AND LEMMING by the Dutch animator
Co Hoedeman. The film is an adaptation of an
Eskimo legend, one of a series he did in collaboration with Inuit artists and musicians.
The film blows my socks off.
16mm prints and videos of the complete series are available through
The Film Board Of Canada.
Life: it's the Anti-Death!
(Happy Easter, in despite.)
Obviously the situation is very serious. The most up to the minute weblog reporting from Jerusalem I've found is
Michael Bernstein. He's not a news reporter, but like many of us in NYC on 9/11 he is just trying to say what is happening. Does anyone else have any links to other personal reporting from this region? What's really going on over there?
spring has arrived at the Green Market--arugla rabe (new to me), dandelion, and a root i have never seen before from the mint family....will mix these three in small amounts to a risotto made with clam broth, to which i will add clams and squid....to celebrate ?? still being alive ??
gotta love a BYOB---this place is new, food quality dont know but its BYOB for now--TIP NICE:>))--Osteria del Sole
On what might be one of the West Village's prettiest corners, the late EQ has quietly morphed into this lively trattoria, with a moderately priced menu of traditional Italian fare and a boisterous Italian clientele that laps it up. Until the liquor license arrives, the busboys will happily fetch a bottle for you from the local liquor store (as long as you pay up front).
267 W. 4th Street
212-620-6840
Cuisine: Italian
Elsewhere on the Tree we've been discussing Google, on and off. Two analogies I've been thinking about. Maybe someone else has posted about this.
1. Just as biodiversity is good for an ecosystem, having a lot of search alternatives is healthier than having just one. Practices such as googlebombing emerge because people figure out the weaknesses of the system. Eventually the system becomes unreliable, diseased, because too many people know how to exploit it in ways it wasn't meant to be used. If there are no alternatives remaining when it rots, the ecosystem (Web) as a whole suffers.
2. Google is like the Interstate highway system. Towns on older roads decay and shrivel up because everyone starts building to catch passing traffic on the superhighways. Weblogging, with its heavy dependence on the link-and-constant-update-loving Google, is like Motel 6 and the Olive Garden. Yet just as those clusters of Interstate franchises will be collecting tumbleweeds when the oil economy winds down, many webloggers now furiously linking to each other to "up their ratings" will be history when, say, Google is wrecked by greedy shareholders after it goes public. And there'll be no "old growth" community to fall back on, because static websites will have packed it in for lack of hits (see #1 above).
These are meant to be words of caution, not pessimism. Just use Dogpile once in a while.
Check out my sketches based on the movie
Blade 2 here. Caution: not for the squeamish. Also, a capsule review.
Musto on murderous club-kid king Michael Alig. A movie is in the works, no doubt looking for that audience who's world
didn't change on 9/11. Party on, kids.
Ok meal at Solera, nice meals at Blue Hill and The Tonic,
another fab meal at GSIMidtown, another raid on the list at Manducati's (still some gems:>), really need to get back to Al Di La cause it s/b up on top list.....
The plan is to convert a
DNA sequence – the order of the four chemicals that form the genetic code of a plant or animal – into a piece of digitally encoded music that can then be copyrighted like any other tune.
Talk about a gestation period; it only took nine months, but I finally got my new Bookstore Clerk! That's a
typical government timeframe. She's just out of film school, and I guess the pickings are slim. I told her I know someone who'll hire her, as soon as
he gets a job. (Just kidding; no way I'm letting her go.) Now maybe I'll actually be able to take a vacation…
Do As We Say, Not As We Do
In Mexico, George W. introduced "Millennium Challenge Grants," foreign aid available to developing countries that "end corruption, reform their economies and help their own people," in the Washington Post's words.
Below is the
Artforum ad layout for my upcoming show with Gregor Passens in Munich. The dates have been changed: they're now May 3 - June 14, 2002.
[ad removed for remodeling]
another daily candy like venture:
flavor pill.
The earliest know photograph has been sold.
It's a photo of an
engraving. Technology keeps devouring itself.
Czech Republic Enacts World's First National
Light Pollution Law
In the Bay Area, a new breed of restaurant is on the rise: places that are devoted entirely to serving
small portions of serious food. The cooking styles are all over the map — Italian, French, Greek, Southwestern, Hawaiian, Asian — often on the same menu. Eating from everyone else's plate is not just acceptable, it's required. You can order half of a petit "rack" of lamb at Isa in San Francisco. Or the "taco" of ahi tartare in a crisp little potato shell and a side of curly polenta fries at Andalu. The restaurants even have their own miniature cut of steak — called the flatiron, it's about the size of half a chicken breast.