Three things of little or no importance…

These came to my attention today – two in a staff meeting, one while purchasing chai:

1) What is with the nagalene bottle of water thing? I thought it was confined to college campuses but now I see folks everywhere toting around liter bottles of water in clear plastic canteens. There’s something that creeps me out about it (aside from the fact that water is being surreptitiously privatized) and the bottles always somehow look dirty to me.

2) Women (and let’s be fair, some men) have to stop that new streaking technique when they dye their hair. You know the one that was developed to look more natural by producing varied shades? Well for the most part when you really look at it, it just means that people have vertical stripes in their hair. It’s the new acid wash.

3) Little Richard had an incredible voice on him. He recorded everything he ever did way too many times, but I just heard an early recording of “Lucille” and it’s some of the fiercest singing ever. You can tell that live he could hold his own against big RnB bands with little or no miking. One of the reasons I can’t bear programs like “American Idol” is that someone like him would never have a chance on them. Conversely, none of the people from those shows can make me give the slightest shit about anything I’ve ever heard them sing.

0 Comments +

  1. The seem to want something different but, they’re just looking for a formulaic singer with a unique sound. Unique only in the sense that it is not a voice that’s current in the market.

    Little Richard as one time wanted to be a preacher. He was telling people to burn his records, yet he was still under contract and new recordings were being released. I was talking with some friends about how he was a hippocrite (although in my young mind I wasn’t aware he couldn’t really control his record releases). Anyway, he was standing directly behind me while I was saying all this stuff. My friends were trying to tell me to shut up and when I realized it, I turned around to see him glaring at me with the “evil eye”. I was VERY embarrassed! Later that day we (my family) went over to LIttle Richard’s sister’s house for dinner. My mother was a friend of hers. πŸ™‚

  2. snow white and those damn horny dwarves

    hello. i wanted to comment on your show when it was up but haven’t had the personal space to engage you about it. when i was an undergrad, you were an art g-d, one of those high ideal types we all looked up to. i find it strange i can ever write to you now. so i went to go see your show in chelsea. it was a day like today – snowwy, but much more cold. so cold that there weren’t too many people on the streets and it was sat. i didnt bring with me any tissues, you know how your nose gets stuffy when it gets cold like that. so what do i do – but blow my snot across the pavement in front of your show, wipe my hands on my ass before i open the door to the gallery. well its better than using my sleeve. i can only laugh now – because of who was around, the higher order of art viewers in their super-chik clothes, smoking cigs and talking nothing about nothing but themselves. people in their closed out worlds. thinking that the moment was more art than anything i could ever see inside. funny because i wonder about the role of artist in society, not so much in a gallery. how far away we are sometimes from the reality in which we focus on and work from. how to value or package success – is it here, in the supermarket of galleries, when its furthest from its people. if thats the case, why did i go here in the first place, to take that leap into this space, am i perpetuating the rumor of art in its place by coming to view it here. i realize the relations of control present (like a hair-sexed version of foucault wrapped in a beach blanket). gee, i must seem like a real loser writing all this – i havent even talked about your show. relevancy i guess, like finding a place to talk takes time, finding a place to exist – a home perhaps for my thoughts. a context. i could have written i came, i saw, i left. a blunt understatement. i guess thats why it took so long to write this. so i saw your show and it was good, but in all honesty i expected a lot, and didnt get much. knowing your previous work, i was a bit dissapointed. somehow i feel like the work doesnt take anything further, kinda lays like a reiteration. somehow i feel you have kind of labeled yourself and then got caught in the trap of it. some of it was pretty cool, i do have to say it brought me a smile to see those cutie kid bunnies, a bit of a laugh imagining the kid inside them – the innocent brat or the naughty boy brought out (like the picture of dorian gray in some past life). the video work was a bit hard to watch, its the deadpan 70’s performance vid shots that make it so boring that its hard to get the substance of what you are trying to make with your actions. reading over all the good reviews you got (i didnt see any bad ones) made me wonder a lot about my own views. whether they are valid. i mean i realize your political position to your work – but is art really political in this context? is it really there to create policies of action, or simply reaction? well i think your previous work does a better job, it has a lot more levels to it – something deeply passionate – something you really reached for and invested in and took risks. i feel the work is mulling around, not really saying anything new. the reviews makes it seem relevant to society today – referencing your work and the era of “identity politics”, but are identity politics over, a product of 90’s invention. what brings it into today? the reviews police your past like a badge, labeling, defining, but not acting on it. it makes it almost impossible to look at it in a current context. maybe its nostalgia for a lost generation, knowing you probably have a current of viewers which this work is most validating for – maybe im too young to be a part of that, to know the work in its currency. maybe im just a supercurios person with high expectations. your work was definitely worth the cold i got the next day. lol. so thank you for continuing to pursue your work and sharing it with the world.

    best
    ethan
    i1darkangel@yahoo.com
    http://disiterate.tripod.com

  3. WHOOOOOOOO!!!!

    so i just got back from south by southwest in austin and little richard gave the keynote address. 30 minutes of non-sequiturs, rhymes, preaching, ranting and telling the audience to shut up. he was beautiful.

  4. the nayland blake? I saw you in my friends list, and couldn’t believe the art I saw at Marks’ Gallery was made by someone in my very own lj yard. I’m giddy.

    the nalgenes are great for camping, but I cannot imagine anyone needing on for the city. maybe it was something folks bought for their go bags. It’s got “this water bottle can survive a terrorist attack” written all over it. Or maybe people like gauging the amount they drink. (“Hey Edna, I drank .53ml of water on the L train today!”)

    I have one I bought on sale. I’m guessing it was on sale because it’s a translucent yellow–surely not one of the more popular water-bottle colors Nalgene developed. But it usually stays in my camping bag. I like it, and nobody ever asks if they can have some of my water πŸ™‚

  5. Wow, I’m shocked you saw my show! Well yeah that is me. I guess we’re both giddy.

    And what you write about those bottles of course makes a lot of sense – they’re like the SUV of waterbottles: perfect for camping but over determined for every day use.

    With a yellow one, I would imagine that if you DID have someone ask you for your water, there would at least be an interesting ensuing conversation. πŸ˜‰

  6. Re: snow white and those damn horny dwarves

    Thanks for going to see my show and for taking the time to write about it. It’s strange to hear I was an art g-d in any circumstance. I agree, galleries can be very intimidating spaces, and when I was working on the show I wrote about how it was intimidating for me. I don’t expect it to be a place of political transformation, because it’s a store like any other. I do try to make it be a place of complexity and contemplation, two things I feel we all sorely need. I agree that much of the writing about the show is about labeling. My hope is to make things that take the labeling for granted and then cause them to slip.

    And of course your own responses are valid. Reviewers are offering an opinion that is no more or less valid than yours. Your response to the work is what matters. I’d be interested in reading what you think of things down the road. Thanks.

  7. Taken me a while to respond…

    …but you must be VERY strong indeed to have taken LR’s evil eye and still be standing. I would think it reduces lesser mortals to ash!

  8. Wow, I’m shocked you saw my show! Well yeah that is me. I guess we’re both giddy.

    And what you write about those bottles of course makes a lot of sense – they’re like the SUV of waterbottles: perfect for camping but over determined for every day use.

    With a yellow one, I would imagine that if you DID have someone ask you for your water, there would at least be an interesting ensuing conversation. πŸ˜‰

  9. Re: snow white and those damn horny dwarves

    Thanks for going to see my show and for taking the time to write about it. It’s strange to hear I was an art g-d in any circumstance. I agree, galleries can be very intimidating spaces, and when I was working on the show I wrote about how it was intimidating for me. I don’t expect it to be a place of political transformation, because it’s a store like any other. I do try to make it be a place of complexity and contemplation, two things I feel we all sorely need. I agree that much of the writing about the show is about labeling. My hope is to make things that take the labeling for granted and then cause them to slip.

    And of course your own responses are valid. Reviewers are offering an opinion that is no more or less valid than yours. Your response to the work is what matters. I’d be interested in reading what you think of things down the road. Thanks.

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