Thursday, April 16, 2009

3+1 Poems for Togetheringspring

A few weeks ago, I participated in a marvelous helloing to th Springtime in Evanston, hosted by Aaron & Lorna Johnson & attended by all manners of living, wine-guzzling wonderfuls. My co-conspirator Jacob Barton & I performed a newly-composed piece for microtonal piano exploring th birth cycle of a centaur. All parties danced & made merry. On this occasion, I happened to recite 3+1 poems, & having been recently asked about th poems, I will share them here.

A special thing happened that night. In candlelight, a roomful of dreamers somehow forgot about th sometimes-cruel sometimes-seemingly-artless outside & simply enjoyed each other & th togethering universe. I felt very grateful.

To prepare yrself for these short poems, I invite you to design yr own meditation for peace & rebirth. Pour yrself a glass of wine, play some music in dim lighting, feel yr body breathing, & recite these aloud.

Three by Wallace Stevens:




Tattoo



The light is like a spider.
It crawls over the water.
It crawls over the edges of the snow.
It crawls under your eyelids
And spreads its webs there--
Its two webs.

The webs of your eyes
Are fastened
To the flesh and bones of you
As to rafters or grass.

There are filaments of your eyes
On the surface of the water
And in the edges of the snow.


Life is Motion



In Oklahoma
Bonnie and Josie,
Dressed in calico,
Danced around a stump.
They cried,
"Ohoyaho,
Ohoo" . . .
Celebrating the marriage
Of flesh and air.


On the Surface of Things



I



In my room, the world is beyond my understanding;
But when I walk I see that it consists of three or four hills and a cloud.

II



From my balcony, I survey the yellow air,
Reading where I have written,
"The spring is like a belle undressing."

III



The gold tree is blue.
The singer has pulled his cloak over his head.
The moon is in the folds of the cloak.



One by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks:




Where Everything is Music



Don't worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn't matter.

We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.
The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world's harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing.

So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.

The singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.

Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can't see.

Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

it & I

In English, we capitalize pronouns when they refer to divinity. We call Jesus & th Buddha He & Him, & when they speak, they say Me & My. We don't capitalize pronouns otherwise, except for when they appear at th beginning of a sentence, & whenever we write th tiny word I. Does this mean that we recognize ourselves as divine, but no other beings, not th its, th yous, th shes in our lives? We don't even capitalize 'me', implying, perhaps, that we recognize our own divinity only when we speak of ourselves as agents of a sentence, & not when we objectify ourselves. What a special word, this I.

So what happens if I write about It & Her, You, We & Us?

Interestingly, we have just started in recent years to call ourselves lowercase 'i'. What does this say about how we feel about ourselves & our relationship to th divine?

^ Bad linguistics, I know, but maybe a worthwhile writing experiment....

Monday, April 13, 2009

(Cybernetic) Imperatives

Cybernetician Larry Richards has recently written a paper called The Anticommunication Imperative. In general, I recommend it, & in particular, I'd like to copy for you his list of 'imperatives', collected from a few sources & augmented by his newest one, which I happen to like quite a bit: If you seek the new, compose asynchronicity.

IMPERATIVES

Heinz von Foerster initiated a tradition, or what could become a tradition, when he articulated in the context of cybernetics a set of imperatives:

The Ethical Imperative: Act always so as to increase the number of choices.

The Aesthetical Imperative: If you desire to see, learn how to act.

The Therapeutic Imperative: If you want to be yourself, change!

Klaus Krippendorf later formulated the following set:

The Aesthetic Imperative: Construct your own reality to see.

The Empirical Imperative: Invent as many alternative constructions as you can and enact them to experience the constraints on their viability.

The Self-Referential Imperative: Include yourself as a constituent of your own constructions.

The Ethical Imperative: Grant others that occur in your constructions at least the same capabilities that you employ in constructing them.

The Social Imperative: When communicating, preserve or open new possibilities for others.

In this tradition, I [Larry Richards] would like to add:

The Anticommunication Imperative: If you seek the new, compose asynchronicity.


This tradition of Imperative-writing has some overlap w/ a project of Jacob's & mine -- see: repertoire cards. (Perhaps especially th repertoire card entitled 'imperatives' which contains th text, "Speak only in imperatives.") Our project also plays w/ constructions & so points at Krippendorf's set of imperatives.

As always, I invite yr response.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

beerdig improvlab doodleydoo

La Casa hosted a beer dig yesterday - bribing our friends w/ alcohol to get them to dig a pond for us! Rather than re-post about it here, I'll direct you here, to th beer dig entry of th notorious La Casa Urbana blog. Mudluscious!

I zipped over to th University of Illinois this afternoon to participate in an "Improv Lab". Folks got together to play improvised music & dance improvised dances. I had hoped for something weirder & more well-attended, but I enjoyed what I got. I did a bit of mandolinning as well as dancing. I haven't spent so much time examining my toes since th age of 6 or so.

Jacob & I had a 17-tone woodshed fest this evening, no doubt annoying our housemates w/ microtonal singing, tromboning & cümbüşing exercises. More 17-tone tunes to come. Our band (band?) may have a name soon (soon?).

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

(beautiful) sounds of Africa

A sharing: a short video featuring music from th Baka tribe in Africa:

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

some latelies

Bits of nowish goings in andRLand (traveling backwards in time):

  • Now: recovering from an inter-co-op potluck, lying on th oh so comfy bed in our livingroom.
  • This evening: met w/ Snowleopard & Dogbody about playing dead people.
  • This afternoon: started arranging th old Nim song 'how to ferment th colon' in 17edo.
  • This morning: totaled meat at th food co-op I work at.
  • Last night: auditioned an improvised dance w/ friend Sarah for th dance department of U of I, playing cümbüş.
  • Yesterday afternoon: digitized.
  • Yesterday morning: chatted w/ Drew over tea.
  • Sunday evening: went to a lovely concert in somebody's living room.
  • Sunday afternoon: cleaned my room; started reading th Diamond Sutra.
  • Sunday morning: groggy house meeting.
  • Early Sunday morning: drove home from Chicago, arriving after 2 am.
  • Saturday evening: attended a party in candlelight at AKJ's place in Evanston, IL to ring in th spring; debuted a brand new piece w/ Jacob for a grand piano tuned to a microtonal scale called Centaur; danced & shouted; imbibed wines; recited poetry.
  • Saturday afternoon: took Jacob to my "old neighborhood" in Chicago; we visited El Taco Veloz for lunch & Myopic Books for compulsive reading buys (for me: th Diamond Sutra & a new (for me) version of th Bhagavad Gita - for Jacob: Philosophy in th Flesh).
  • Saturday morning: finished preparing Centaur piece w/ Jacob & rehearsed it.
  • Friday night: saw an improv comedy show in Chicago at iO.
  • Friday evening: arrived by accident 24 hours early for th concert in Evanston!
  • Friday afternoon: rode north (w/ Jacob driving); made last-minute plans for our piece.
  • Friday morning: selected poetry for spring celebration (3 by Wallace Stevens); brainstormed for Centaur piece..
  • Thursday night: potluck at La Casa; I made black bean burgers!
  • Thursday evening: went to Bobbi's art opening at th IMC & chatted it up.
  • Thursday afternoon: began composing Centaur piece w/ Jacob.
  • Thursday morning: worked at food co-op, stockin' stuff.
  • Wednseday night: ate at Courier Cafe w/ Beth, Anna, Jacob, Mark, & th folks in Insurgent Theatre.
  • Wednesday evening: my band w/ Rob & Jacob opened for 'Paint th Town', a play put on by Insurgent Theatre, at th IMC.

& so on. We could take this all th way back to my birth, I suppose, but frankly, I don't remember much before Wednesday evening....

Monday, March 23, 2009

I wants.

A poem written by my friend Susan P:

I wants.

I pushes me: this causes a personality (in) me.

Me goes along with it, jumps onto it, actually sweats it, writes lists,
worries it along, trying to accomplish something.

Meanwhile, with no personality but want, I loses interest;
I sees things moving but always away from I.

I makes events, me reports them, following along like
Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn of the movies.
Me, the tough newspaperman in a raincoat, huddled over a payphone, reporting;
I, running ahead, erratic, in a golden evening dress torn and splashed with mud.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Don't be a carcass of names

Before I return this thing to th library, I'd like to give you one last wee snip from Chuang Tzu:

Don't be a carcass of names
or treasure-house of schemes;

don't be a servant of pursuits
or proprietor of fine wisdom.

Make the inexhaustible your body
and wander beyond origins.

Make everything heaven gave you treasure enough
and know you have nothing.

Live empty, perfectly empty.

Sage masters always employ mind like a pure mirror:
welcome nothing, refuse nothing,

reflect everything, hold nothing.
And so they triumph over things with never a wound.


~ translation by David Hinton

Thursday, March 12, 2009

no nature

Can a person really have no nature?" asked Hui Tzu of Chuang Tzu.

"Yes," replied Chuang Tzu.

"But if you have no nature, how can you be called human?"

"Tao gives you shape and heaven gives you form, so why can't you be called human?"

"But if you're called human, how can you have no nature?"

"Yes this and no that - that's what I call human nature," replied Chuang Tzu. "Not mangling yourself with good and bad - that's what I call no nature. Instead of struggling to improve on life, you simply abide in occurrence appearing of itself."

"If you don't try to improve on life, how do you stay alive?"

"Tao gives you shape and heaven gives you form, so why mangle yourself with good and bad? But you

make an exile of your mind
and wear your spirit away.

You brood, leaning on a tree,
or doze, slumped over a desk.

Heaven made this your form,
and you waste it, twittering

away in a darkness of arcane
distinctions and quibbling."



from Chuang Tzu as translated by David Hinton

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

JARband @ Concerturtle


^ JARband performs at La Casa Concerturtle, March 6, 2009.


JARband "is" 17 tones per octave. JARband "is" Tonbar Cobja "on" 17-tone tubulong, udderbot, & trombone; AndRnim "on" Cümbüş; robscott "on" drumz.

This arrangement consists of two songs glued together, each taken from Book of Days.

First song, starting at 0:00:

[ @@@ Tz'ikin :: Three Birdsilver ]


gift of insides Saturmorn
numberfingering islandbear
a bribing cup of eggtalk
uglying mudwater between us
bafflheaded vines & targrunt
holes in places
cognitive trombumpetting weed
alley flightgarden
an assembled being
crunchbody

Second song, starting round 1:47:

[ @ Kame :: One Death ]


one quick away th faulters
fixated black & sunpants
resolved to (not) alter
talk to th pocket, thx
hey gravel yo gravel
sleep sleep & antiquity
away, not any place, fanned


We tune to xenharmonic/microtonal scale 17edo (a.k.a 17-equal (divisions of th octave), 17tET, 17-tone equal temperament). Each song takes a different subset of 17 - two different modes of th so-called heptatonic neutral scale: kleeth & dril - both w/ tonic note B.

kleeth


degrees-of-17 between steps: 3 2 2 3 2 3 2
degrees-of-17 from 0: 0 3 5 7 10 12 15 0
interval classes: Perfect Unison ; Major 2nd ; Neutral 3rd ; Perfect 4th ; Perfect 5th ; Neutral 6th ; Neutral 7th ; Perfect Octave
17edo solfege: do re mu fa sol lu tu do
as pitches in B: B C# D-up E F# G-up A-up B

dril


degrees-of-17 between steps: 3 2 3 2 3 2 2
degrees-of-17 from 0: 0 3 5 8 10 13 15 0
interval classes: Perfect Unison ; Major 2nd ; Neutral 3rd ; Diminished 5th ; Perfect 5th ; Major 6th ; Neutral 7th ; Perfect Octave
17edo solfege: do re mu fu sol la tu do
as pitches in B: B C# D-up E-up F# G# A-up B

These scales differ by one two pitches, so altogether we play nine pitches in these pieces. "Neutral" refers to an interval between th more familiar Major & Minor intervals. 17edo has Minor, Major & Neutral 2nds, 3rds, 6ths & 7ths. Those neutral intervals help give th so-called "neutral scale" its particular mood.

Playing (with) Policy

At the House Concerturtle at La Casa Grande Colectiva on March 6, 2009, AnAndR presented their first draft of a toy piano and banjo piece entitled, Playing (with) Policy. The piece explores a city ordinance on Loud and Raucous Noise.


La Casa Concerturtle - March 6, 2009

Last Fridaynight, a fine few performed performings at th house o' me, Ms. La Casa Grande Colectiva. Our good friend Anna hosted, & it went something like this:



(I performed in two of these; I'll give them their own entries & embed video for you shortly. One of them you can already viddy here.)

I think it went delightfully well! We filled our living room, kept our guests in popcorn & organic grape juice, & followed it w/ a "talk back session" & a bonfire in th garden. I enjoyed having a deadline to finish (drafts of) my two projects. Hooray, etc!

This makes my third La Casa house concert. On my very first visit to Urbana, almost a year ago - March 27, 2007 - I came to this same house & performed Cümbüş songs (old blog entry about it here). That launched my interest in School for Designing a Society, which I attended in th fall. That fall semester culminated in a house concert in December, mentioned in this blog entry. Now, having spent time living & doing "independent study" another concert has come & gone as a ritualistic marker of time & work, an opportunity to show traces of thinking & engage in togethering nowness. Hooray!

More house concerts (I predict) will happen here, & I do hope some not-so-far-away friends will make it down here to see. (I miss you!)

Ten thousand loves,
Andrew

Monday, March 9, 2009

my house has a blog

Friendlings: see th newest o' blogs: that called La Casa Urbana: where I & my housemates can digitally share our doings. Live w/ us in cyberharmony. Blah blah blog.

La Casa Urbana!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

...from Chuang-tzu.

Now there is a saying about this, but I don't know if it's in the same category or not. If being in the same category and not being in the same category are construed as being in the same category with each other, then there is no difference. In any case, let me try to say it.

There is a beginning, there is never beginning to have a beginning, there is never beginning to never begin to have a beginning. There is existence, there is nonexistence. There is never beginning the existence of nonexistence, there is never beginning never beginning the existence of nonexistence. Suddenly, there are existence and nonexistence, but we don't know if existence or nonexistence actually exist or not.

Now I have said something, but I don't know if what I have said actually says anything or not.


~ from Chuang-tzu, translated by Thomas Cleary

Monday, February 23, 2009

AndRlogic

Toward a usable logic for human interactions, communications, constructions, understandings, etc. I welcome comments, corrections, suggestions, disagreements, connections, etc. Send email or do fnord (comment)!

Entities or Objects


Let any letter, word, or phrase represent an entity or object, eg. "A", "X", "computer", "snail", etc.

Cognizing Entities


Let some letters represent cognizing entities, who create a world thru embodying a world. Eg. I, U.

Impression


Let a set of parentheses represent an "impression" - a dynamic pattern of thinking about a given subject which comes before language, before description. By putting you in parentheses, I create you for myself. Only cognizing entities have impressions.

I(U


reads "I's impression of U" or rather, "my impression of you."
An impression can change from moment to moment, & must.

If I haven't yet considered my impression of you, I can ask myself:

I(U)?


"What is my impression of you?"
By posing this question & attempting to answer it, I can dramatically alter I(U) thru a recursive feedback process.

Description


Let a set of square brackets represent a "description" - a performance of a representation, given in some language, & once given, fixed in time. A new description may be added to th old, & th old may be declared obsolete, but a description, once given, remains.

I[U


"my description of you (at a given time/place, in a given medium)."

Descriptions do not "contain" meaning - they get their meaning thru impressions of cognizing entities. Tho th content of a description cannot be changed, my impression of it can, & must. Indeed, I have access to an understanding of a description only thru an impression:

I(I[U


"My impression of my description of you."
Altho on some level, we can both encounter th same description (hear th same story, watch th same song & dance, etc), we cannot possibly have th same impression of it:

I(I[U does not equal U(I[U


"My impression of my description of you does not equal your impression of my description of you."

Relationship


Let a set of curlique brackets represent a "relationship" between two or more (cognizing) entities or objects.

{I,U


reads "the/a relationship between I & U" or simply "our relationship".

I have access to an understanding of a relationship only thru an impression:

I({I,U


"My impression of our relationship."

Primacy of Impressions


I cannot know directly anything other than my own impression of an entity, object, or relationship. All meaningful terms, for me, must start with I(.
Thus I cannot know (for example):

  1. U - "you"
  2. I - "me"
  3. U(I - "your impression of me"
  4. U({I,U - "your impression of our relationship"
  5. U(U - "your self-impression"
  6. U[{I,U - "your description of our relationship"
  7. U[U - "your self-description"
  8. U[I - "your description of me"
  9. {I,U - "our relationship"
  10. I[U - "my description of you"
  11. I[I - "my self-description"
  12. I[{I,U - "my description of our relationship"

But I can know my impression of each of th above:
  1. I(U - "my impression of you"
  2. I(I - "my self-impression"
  3. I(U(I - "my impression of your impression of me"
  4. I(U({I,U - "my impression of your impression of our relationship"
  5. I(U(U - "my impression of your self-impression"
  6. I(U[I,U - "my impression of your description of our relationship"
  7. I(U[U - "my impression of your self-description"
  8. I(U[I - "my impression of your description of me"
  9. I({I,U - "my impression of our relationship"
  10. I(I[U - "my impression of my description of you"
  11. I(I[I - "my impression of my self-description"
  12. I(I[{I,U - "my impression of my description of our relationship"


Knowing What I Don't Know


This model may prove useful in pointing at th limits of our understanding.
For instance, I know from th rules so far that I cannot know:

{I,U - "our relationship"
U({I,U - "your impression of our relationship"


But I can know:

I({I,U - "my impression of our relationship"
I(U({I,U - "my impression of your impression of our relationship"


So, I can now ask myself th following question:

I({I({I,U}),I(U({I,U}))?


What is
my impression of
th relationship between
my impression of our relationship
&
my impression of your impression of our relationship
?

&, having given that some thought, I can attempt to describe that impression with:

I[I({I({I,U}),I(U({I,U


My description of
my impression of
th relationship between
my impression of our relationship
&
my impression of your impression of our relationship

Q

Does my taking match yr taking
or my me, yr you?
What happened in those nows
that can't happen again, or must?
How do you look yr taking?
If I make a sideways gesture,
noticed or not
(how not to drag us drugged & screaming)
which way do tomorrows fall
or do they fall at all?


p.s. Happy 23 Day!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Health Care Design Intensive in Baltimore

I went w/ School for Designing a Society & th Gesundheit Institute to Baltimore this past week for a Health Care Design Intensive. A hundred or so people gathered in th American Visionary Art Museum to generate new alternatives & conversations about more desirable ways of doing health care. Guests included students, artists, nurses, activists, doctors, patients, visionaries, educators, clowns. My friend Susan hosted, along w/ Patch Adams, who I found delightful. We had talks, workshops, design groups, Q&A's, polka dances, powerpoints, & singalongs. I fell in love w/ several great people & great ideas.

On th first day, Gesundheit had an event to raise funds for a hospital they've been building in West Virginia for some years. I learned about their work & offered my own contribution in th form of two old Nodal Nim songs, performed by Jacobbarton on udderbot & myself singing & mandolinning (vegetables you've never heard of & love song 5).

Patch led us in a workshop on loving, which consisted of four parts:

  1. We paired up & hugged - good hugs - long hugs - hugs in which we make ourselves entirely present w/ each other. One of th ladies that I hugged during this part found me every day of th conference for another hug, & each hug felt just incredible.
  2. We paired up w/ someone new & took turns gently holding th other person's head, gazing into their eyes, & saying, "I love you. I love you. I love you," for quite a while. I found that at first it didn't seem right, but then it seemed exactly right ("Yes, I do love this person!") & finally it seemed far too mild! I felt a way not at all done justice by th phrase "I love you." (Patch said later, in th context of a poetry recital slash mic check, "All love poems are understatements," & that made a lot of sense to me after this exercise.)
  3. We changed partners again, & this time, person B rested their head on person A's lap while person A gazed into person B's eyes & comforted them in silence, touching them, soothing them, imagining that their mother had just died. It felt great, & I think I let go of much of my pain then (for I found myself clinging to suffering very very little thru th rest of th conference). Th woman I comforted gushed afterward & seemed to feel quite a bit of relief as well.
  4. Finally, we paired up w/ someone new & took turns, while gazing into each other's eyes & not breaking eye contact, telling th story of love in our lives. Everything good, everything loving. I talked about my mother, memories of my father, my dog, my housemates, my former lovers. My partner, an older woman, told me about th first time she fell in love, & tears welled up for both of us. I felt close to this woman thru th rest of th conference, & talked to her a bit each day after that.


I wanted to share these exercises because I think they effected me th most. I learned that I can love perfect strangers, genuinely love them, & it feels very right to do so. I've started moving toward an greater embodiment of compassion, & having done this workshop, I think I've come far toward a goal: to genuinely feel love for everyone in my life.

I made good friends: a film-maker named Koushalya, who I hope to eventually clown w/ on th subway in NYC to get smiles of th miserable unsmiling masses (th little darlings!). I asked Koushalya th time & she showed me her watch. It has no hands. "Time is an illusion," she reminded me, & I laughed w/ joy at her thoughtful & welcome perturbation. Her filmmaking team: Accessible Horizons.

& six young students from Austria - Alexander, Reinhard, Giselle, Paula, Matteös & Lucy. Dressed as clowns, they smiled, danced, sang songs about sushi, wrestled, hugged & kissed us all. I felt fantastic in their presence, & they inspired me to relax & show love. They have intentions to build a hospital in Austria called Einherz, which means "One Heart." I will miss them & remember them, & I wish them th best. Paula made me promise to visit them in Europe... so who wants to sponsor a trip overseas for Andrew?

So much more to say. So much fun & love. It carried over today, as I stayed out dancing in Urbana at th Independent Media Center, to music DJed by my good friends Nate, Chris, & Elizabeth. I'll end w/ a new self-description in th form of a list of intentions that I put together at th Intensive:

* I live in love.

* I sit in gigantic NOW.

* I remember that I am myself AND I am not myself (I don't take myself literally).

* I LOVE US (& I will never again not love a stranger).

* I am not, but I am becoming.

* I work (moment to moment) to trivialize (projected) power differences while cultivating appreciation for distinction out of love.


Love to All,
Andrew

Friday, January 30, 2009

2 self-descriptions of then-Andrews

Interested in th practice of writing self-descriptions. No description of anything explains th thing fully. All sentences fail (including this one). But no matter!

For th December La Casa house concert, each of us wrote a "self-description" for th program, a little anticommunicative something-or-another. For record-keeping / trace-leaving purposes, I will reproduce mine here:

That gesture of hearts & black boxes. Th dilemma of re-verbing-(stuck? stuck? stuck?). Anti-blame yrself, Self!


Another: my "Facebook profile". People use this space to list favorite bands & quotations to assemble some kind of communicative identity. Admitting that no description describes (every description lies?), I've had some fun w/ it. But my space has become gargantuan & out-of-date. I will reproduce it here as a trace & then burn it - start over. Ignore it completely - I insist!

Interests: musick, art, chaos, xenharmonics, (meta-)languaging, (meta-)games, Situations, (epic) poetry, shamanism, stripes, my beagle, th avant-garde, animalia, mandolinia, beans, Discordianism, Nomic, backgammon, cümbüş, theatre, avocados, fucking, pi, anarchy, design(ing a society), relativity, revolution, 17edo, vegans, mythology, toki pona, agnostics, teaching, toast, conversing, crayons, prime numbers, cybernetics, mismatching, conlanging, DNA, divination, nuts, th cosmos, Joyce, spooling, dots, pacifism, neologisms, nonce words, index cards, (post-)modernism, th Oulipo, cryptozoology, UFOlogy, 1 1 2 3 5, thoats, prickle, Go, Killer Bunnies, bards, forgetting, vejtbls, futurists, zedonks, skeptics, (c)raisins, quantum physics, nudity, gnosticism, metaprogramming, peanut butter, belts, photographs, tarragon, 22edo, dada, th Fool, strong coffee (but I quit!), onions, belief, whimsy, paleontology, fnords, artichokes, 13/10, Truth, Lies, confusion, Bacchus, breast pockets, discord, 20-consonant poems, strange loops, surrealism, platypodes, turtles, garlic, humanism, digits, song-poems, bourbon, technology, Tlaloc, moment of symmetry, boom, symbols, sigils, 23, Esperanto, atheism, Eris, rice (milk), constrained poetry, Unitarian Universalism, neckties, popcorn, memory, outsider music, mythistory, 20/11, druidry, primitivism, th Church of th Sub-Genius, Lojban, synthesis, lucid dreaming, cannibalism, minimalism, optimism, kitties, plaid, phenomenology, th aftermath, fuzzy logic, contradancing, astronomy, complexity, clay, 37edo, E Prime, manifestos, creation stories, podcasts, tea, (mystery) cults, cubism, th Fifth Circuit, sweet, (de-)constructing, habanero chile peppers, drums, autonomy, (rock) operas, robots, Deenmark, Chaos Magic(k), dice, cut spelng, Taoism, (red) wine, anarchy, nihilism, doilies, 13edo, veggie stir-fries, Ragnarök, pungent, synchronicities, Zen, clovers, transcendental numbers, Kabbalah, pasta, Operation Mindfuck, fiction, science, science-fiction

Favorite Music: Captain Beefheart, R.E.M., Threshold of Pain, th Fiery Furnaces, Deerhoof, th Shaggs, Charles Ives, th Beatles, Björk, Flaming Lips, Soul Coughing, Anton Webern, th Residents, th Beach Boys, Richard Wagner, Danielson Famile, Harry Partch, Ornette Coleman, Shooby Taylor, Edgard Varèse, X. J. Scott, Fat Worm of Error, George Crumb, Aphex Twin, They Might Be Giants, Os Mutantes, Wild Man Fischer, Caglar Juan Singletary, David Fox, PUNK'N, Rilo Kiley, gamelan music, karnatic music, John Cage, Tool, th Mathematicians, Cecil Taylor, Radiohead, Rodd Keith, Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Jacky Ligon, Syd Barrett, Elvis Costello, Allen Ginsberg, Arnold Schoenberg, King Crimson, Chest, th Cure, Tiny Tim, 00100, Counting Crows, Ravi Shankar, Wendy Carlos, ZIA, Joanna Newsom, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Aaron Krister Johnson, Jacob Barton, th Bad Plus, Joseph Spence, Jandek, Alhaji Papa Susso, Dismemberment Plan, Tears for Fears, Morphine, Olivia Tremor Control, Autechre, David Bowie, Mark Enslin, Drunken Boat, Peter Blasser, JAARband, Talking Heads, Kraig Grady, th Starlight Mints, Coco Rosie, Herbert Brün, Glenn Branca, Charles Manson, Sibelius, th Doors, th Who, th Sugarcubes, Boredoms, Lucia Pamela, Alban Berg, William Shatner, Ween, Evolution Revolution, Led Zeppelin, Neutral Milk Hotel, Pere Ubu, Portishead, Igor Stravinsky, Sun Ra, Steve Reich, Skip Spence, Skip LaPlante, Guster, th Velvet Underground, Syzygyz, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Ken Nordine, Sufjan Stevens, Luciano Berio, Hamza El Din, Peter Gabriel, Philip Glass, Of Montreal, Terry Riley, Bill Monroe, Matt Munisteri, Eric Dolphy, Daniel Johnston, Ben Johnston, K.U.K.L., Lutoslawski, Nodal Nim

Favorite TV Shows: Six Feet Under, Star Trek (TOS; TNG; DS9), Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast, Mr. Show, Carnivàle, Boston Legal, th Daily Show, Twin Peaks, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Big Love, th Golden Girls, th Colbert Report, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Batman: th Animated Series, Seinfeld, Frontline, Monty Python's Flying Circus

Favorite Movies: Fata Morgana, Forbidden Zone, Out of This World: The Song Poem Story, Stroszek, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Julien Donkey-Boy, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, th Nightmare Before Christmas, What th BLEEP Do We Know?!, th Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, American Beauty, Pi, Donnie Darko, Grizzly Man, Labyrinth, Dreams, Beetlejuice, Being John Malkovich, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Gummo, Dr. Strangelove, Dune, Heart of Glass, Spinal Tap, I Heart Huckabees, Eraserhead, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2

Favorite Books: Principia Discordia, Popol Vuh, th Odyssey, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, th Oulipo Compendium, I Ching, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, Illuminatus, Tender Buttons, th Tree of Knowledge, Prometheus Rising, Breakfast of Champions, Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, A Larry Richards Reader, Cat's Cradle, A Pattern Language, Quantum Psychology, Jitterbug Perfume, th Epic of Gilgamesh, Metaphors We Live By, th Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Cosmic Trigger I, Monkey, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, A Clockwork Orange, Being & Nothingness, th Tao of Physics, th Tao of Poo, Liber Kaos, Man & His Symbols, Cybernetics of Cybernetics, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Pale Blue Dot, Zen & th Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, th Phantom Tollbooth, Understanding Systems, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, th Omnivore's Dilemma, Galapagos, Waiting for Godot, th Bacchae, th Neverending Story, th Oresteia, Sri Isopanisad, E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962, th Gnostic Gospels of Jesus, Urban Shaman, Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980, Alice in Wonderland, Lila, th Egyptian Book of th Dead, Alice Thru th Looking Glass, Still Life w/ Woodpecker, th Teachings of Don Juan, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Oulipo Laboratory, Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy, th Golden Compass, Dune, Beowulf, Naked Lunch, Summa Discordia, Time & th Highland Maya, Sophie's World, th Man in th High Tower, Four Plays by Aristophanes, Songs in the Key of Z, Tao Te Ching, th Art of War, Life of Pi, th Joy of Pi, Operating Manuel for Spaceship Earth, th Wasteland & Other Poems (T.S.Eliot), th Book of Lies, th Dancing Wu Li Masters, Bitter Music, My Words & Where I Want Them

Favorite Quotations:
{{

A DOG.

A little monkey goes like a donkey that means to say that means to says that more sighs last goes. Leave with it. A little monkey goes like a donkey.

}} ~ Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons

{{

If you want to be yourself, CHANGE.

}} ~ Heinz von Foerster

{{

Th primary role of conversation is not communication; communication is secondary. Conversation is th converse of control; it supports th autonomy of th participants. Th primary role of conversation is th maintenance, transformation, & creation of distinction.

-

I do not know what utopia is. What I know is that whenever I act on my wants, needs, or desires, I do so w/ utopian intentions. When I do so, I am influencing in some way th society in which I find myself. However, if I realize that my autonomy - my ability to experience choice - requires a relationship w/ others who possess a similar propensity, I must accept that they have *different* wants, needs, & desires, & that indeed that is desirable.

}} ~ Larry Richards

{{

A way a lone a last a loved a long the / riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

}} ~ James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake

{{

Oh, a sleeping drunkard
Up in Central Park,
And a lion-hunter
In the jungle dark,
And a chinese dentist,
And a British queen -
All fit together
In the same machine.
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice -
So many different people
In the same device.

}} ~ Bokonon's 53rd Calypso

{{

Meanwhile everyone wants to breathe & nobody can & many say, 'We will breathe later.' & most of them don't die because they are already dead.

-

Let's not change bosses, let's change life.

-

We want a wild & ephemeral music.
We propose a fundamental regeneration: concert strikes,
sound gatherings w/ collective investigation.
Abolish copyrights: sound structures belong to everyone.

}} ~ Situationist International Anthology

{{

Wait!
thou Maker, thou Modeler,
look at us, listen to us,
don't let us fall, don't leave us aside,
thou god in the sky, on the earth,
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth,
give us our sign, our word,
as long as there is day, as long as there is light.
When it comes to the sowing, the dawning,
will it be a greening road, a greening path?
Give us a steady light, a level place,
a good light, a good place,
a good life and beginning.
Give us all of this, thou Hurricane,
Newborn Thunderbolt, Sudden Thunderbolt,
Newborn Nanahuac, Sudden Nanahuac,
Falcon, Hunahpu,
Sovereign Plumed Serpent,
Bearer, Begetter,
Xpiyacoc, Xmucane,
Grandmother of Day, Grandmother of Light,
when it comes to the sowing, the dawning.

}} ~ Popul Vuh, translation: Dennis Tedlock

{{

Th law which you don't break will break you.
Th language which you don't speak will speak you.

}} ~ Herbert Brün




(Hm... it seems this blog has become where I put things to forget about them - an oubliette of soorts.)

Friday, January 16, 2009

wherewhen AndR?

Words I have hardly given to this blogthing, & so, presumably, to some friends that read it. Hellohi! I will place myself in spacetime for you.

past


Fall Semester of School for Designing a Society ended, climaxing w/ a concert at our very house, La Casa. We had musicks, stories, essays, hangings, recitations, installations, & an intermission w/ popcorn jam. Jacob & I joined our goodfriend Rob in an aggregate we call, tentatively, JARBAND, to play one rock-ish version of Nodal Nim's 'how to ferment the colon' & a piece of theatre composed by Rob called, very tentatively, Cockroach Opera, & featuring Nodal Nim's 'stripes' w/ new lyrics by Rob & renamed 'gripes'. I enjoyed it & want more more more of it.

Visited at that time did Dogbody Lathus, goodfriend o' me, who now intends w/ Tilly T, alsogoodfriend, to move to Urbana for living & future SDaSing!

I took Greyhound home to Troy, NY & saw goodfriends from timespast. Had lots of jolly asynchronous conversation, wrote a lot, & generally felt at peace w/ universe. Spent Xmas w/ my mom & her man Bob. Made good food & good musick improvisationally w/ Scotty. Remembered how to meditate.

Greyhounded back to Urbana, IL to spend New Years w/ goodfriends out here. Anna hosted a gettogether gamenight, & we played Apples to Apples & Boggle, chatted, & made musick out of banjo, saw, toy piano, & apartmentbits.

Beth hosted another composition intensive, at which I made new friends, wrote up some bits about antijamming, reacquainted myself w/ th Blue Demon (my mandolin), & participated in smokey pancakemaking.

Went out hunting for something joblike, but have yet to find anything.

Read books. Cooked food. Ate food.

Inspired in part by a visit to th Prairie Zen Center in Champaign I started a daily sunrise meditation practice which I've continued for a week or so to th present day. Newfriend Caroline (who invited me initially to th Prairie Zen Center) joined me for th first few sessions, & since then, Jacob & my new housemate Ronna have also occasionally joined.

Attended one session of a "contemplative meditation" group hosted by newfriends Snow Leopard & Ty.

Started a dual journal w/ Jacob.

Reacquainted myself w/ my Cümbüş & taught some daysongs to Jacob, who then learned an accompanying part on tubulon (stainless steel tubes he has cut to play in 17edo). Played again w/ neutral scales.

Attended & helped at Oddmusic Convergence, hosted by Jacob, augmented by UnTwelve, at th Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, whereat people of all sorts assembled instruments from parts strewn about, showed them off, played them w/ others, etc. Jacob performed Messiaen on udderbot w/ Snow Leopard. Jacob & I debuted tubes-Cümbüş musicks.

Started a daily(ish) morning schmooze w/ goodfriend Drew, at which we've discussed desire, determinism, doubletalk, description, radical constructivism, reality, & other topics beginning w/ "d" & "r".

Attended one evening, so far, of a poetry class taught by Michael Halloway, hosted at Michael Brün's house down th street from us. Showed Book of Days project, which I rather miss.

Played a bit of Go.

Survived w/ good humor th bitter cold (so far).

present (well, ok, more recent past)


Find myself needing a shower.

Feel pretty nice, & attribute it to getting good sleep, having a nice walk w/ Sophie in th sun, & finally getting around to writing for my blog.

Hear Jacob in th other room playing distorted hymns & singing along, as part of a compositional practice.

Run to catch th phone... don't quite make it...

Look forward to...

future (as predicted, wished for, expected, by me)


Will go to contemplative meditation w/ Snow Leopard & Ty at 5:30.

Will, hopefully soon, make steps toward a radio show w/ Jacob called, perhaps, "Talk Wrong Radio".

Intend to take a shower as soon as I post this.


Excited about new member of JARBAND, our friend Anna, who has agreed to our proposal to learn Jacob's tubes so he can play udderbot & trombone. Our new four-piece plans to do all 17edo music, including old Nim/Andrew songs, old Jacob songs, & new cybernetically-themed songs by all.

Will have a job sooner or later, & so a routine & rent money. Fingers crossed.

New interest in I Ching makes me wonder where a project involving that could take me.

Have plans to compose a song w/ Anna that "plays w/ policy".

Enjoy Buddhist & constructivist readings & plan to continue them into th future.

Would like to suggest a Go tournament w/ four or so local playerfriends.

Want to clean my room a bit later.

Mostly, I don't know what to expect of th future. I have no long-term plans at all. I rather like it that way, actually.

Now that I've mostly caught things up on this here blog, I'd like to share more up-to-date ideas & use it for organizing bits of this & that & that & this.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

(of Ever-Ever Land i speak

a poem by E. E. Cummings:

(of Ever-Ever Land i speak
sweet morons gather roun'
who does not dare to stand or sit
may take it lying down)

down with the human soul
and anything else uncanned
for everyone carries canopeners
in Ever-Ever Land

(for Ever-Ever Land is a place
that's as simple as simple can be
and was built that way on purpose
by simple people like we)

down with hell and heaven
and all the religious fuss
infinity pleased our parents
one inch looks good to us

(and Ever-Ever Land is a place
that's measured and safe and known
where it's lucky to be unlucky
and the hitler lies down with the cohn)

down above all with love
and everything perverse
or which makes some feel more better
when all ought to feel less worse

(but only sameness is normal
in Ever-Ever Land
for a bad cigar is a woman
but a gland is only a gland)