5 Things

because other than the occasional photograph, I do not exist here

Five things you will find if you open my bag:
1. mini-journal
2. pen
3. coffee candy
4. beautifully worn in leather Harley Davidson wallet (previously my grandfather's)
5. camera

Five things in my bedroom:
1. books upon books upon books
2. Dinosaur high-tops
3. Kiss Your Favorite Beatle poster
4. a couple maps of the world
5. a wooden globe

Five things I have planned for the week:
1. go to the Sugar Bowl
2. attempt to study for my AP tests
3. register for New Student Orientation at the University
4. lose weight
5. blog

Five things I’m currently into:
1. cotton candy colored hair
2. plum lips
3. Siamese cats (specifically my darling Amelie)
4. long skirts
5. veils, lace and other semi-sheer articles of clothing

Five things on my to-do list:
1. knit a Tom Baker scarf
2. commence Italian lessons
3. art journal
4. go to the cinema
5. silk robe

 

By artsist Micah Lexier and poet Christian Bok.

Vertigo

by Anne Stevenson

 

Mind led body

to the edge of the precipice.

They stared in desire

at the naked abyss.

If you love me, said mind,

take that step into silence.

If you love me, said body,

turn and exist.

"Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living."
- Jonathan Safran Foer

365q by Julian Bialowas

 

 

(more)

by ari tare

a girl who reads

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

Rosemarie Urquico

"_______ " will "_________"

somday life will be good to you - anonymous

be not afraid of darkness; it will reveal yourself to you - megan

one day i will seduce you - anonymous

someday i will surpass you - anonymous

the uncertainty of life will always astonish you - anonymous

sometimes life will seem to destroy you, but you are strong enough to overwhelm it. why? because you are you - dangerd

someday you will find your soul you - anonymous

in all your nothing, your something will make all of those nothings feel like somethings to you - anonymous

   

questions will inspire you - anonymous

someday, somewhere, someone will see you for who you are and kiss you - anonymous

time will tell you - anonymous

i will always regret what i did with you. you changed me and i will never forgive you - anonymous

i will never be able to escape from you - anonymous

  

	sadness will cripple you - mk

"___ will ___ you"
(more messages)

The South Korean military dropped thousands of leaflets attached to helium balloons on their northern siblings, spreading news of the revolutions taking place in the Middle East in hopes that North Korean citizens will be encouraged to rise up against their Dear Leader.

“[A] dictatorial regime is destined to collapse,” the leaflets proclaim.

FULL STORY

10 Lessons for Young Designers (and Photographers!)

Take note on these lessons from Wieden+Kennedy’s Executive Creative Director, John C Jay:

1. Be authentic. The most powerful asset you have is your individuality, what makes you unique. It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.
2. Work harder than anyone else and you will always benefit from the effort.
3. Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture. Life is visceral.
4. Constantly improve your craft. Make things with your hands. Innovation in thinking is not enough.
5. Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know.
6. Being original is still king, especially in this tech-driven, group-grope world.
7. Try not to work for stupid people or you’ll soon become one of them.
8. Instinct and intuition are all-powerful. Learn to trust them.
9. The Golden Rule actually works. Do good.
10. If all else fails, No. 2 is the greatest competitive advantage of any career.

(source)

sebastian errazuriz: american kills

'american kills' installation

'american kills' by chilean-born new york based artist sebastian errazuriz is a public

installation showcasing the suicide rates of US soldiers. after searching on official

war sites on the internet, he accidentally found out that 2 times more american soldiers

had died in 2009 by committing suicide than those killed during that same year in the

war in iraq; an alarming comparison that errazuriz had personally never read or

heard about before.

according to the artist, a first google search showed only reports of media alarm about

suicide rates, but the information was always comfortably presented divided into months

and generally separated by statistics from the army, navy or air-force.

'when I first found the overall statistics summed the 304 suicides by US soldiers during
2009, I was shocked. I tried to find a number to compare that statistic. to my surprise
the suicide statistic doubled the total of 149 US soldiers that had died in the iraq war
during 2009 and equaled the number of soldiers killed in afghanistan.' - SR

errazuriz's first instinct was to post the statistic on facebook, dumbfounded by the lack

of response and interest, he bought can of black paint and decided to 'post' the news in

the real world on his own wall outside his studio in brooklyn. equipped with a ladder,

he marked a black strip for every dead soldier, until both the suicide rates and war rates

occupied the entire wall and were registered as a single image.

'the counting of dead soldiers outside my studio was long and surprisingly eerie; it was
hard to forget that every brush stroke was a soldier who had died the previous year.
a lot of people stopped to read the mural and were immediately impressed by the reality
portrayed. most of them seemed quite shocked and approached me to ask if what I was
painting was real. I tried to explain that I simply wished to create a physical image that
could capture people's imagination, creating awareness of the current numbers in death,
war and the infinite discrepancy between the resources and energies destined to fight and
protect soldiers at war versus the energies invested in protecting their mental health
and stability.'- SR

(source)

Characteristics of a Shakespearean Tragedy

The following fourteen points are a summation of a typical Shakespearean tragedy. 

 

1.)     Tragedy is concerned primarily with one person – The tragic hero.

 

2.)     The story is essentially one of exceptional suffering and calamity leading to the death of the hero.  The suffering and calamity are, as a rule, unexpected and contrasted with previous happiness and glory.

 

3.)     The tragedy involves a person of high estate.  Therefore, his or her fate affects the welfare of a whole nation or empire.

 

4.)     The hero undergoes a sudden reversal of fortune.

 

5.)     This reversal excites and arouses the emotions of pity and fear within the audience.  The reversal may frighten and awe, making viewers or readers of the play feel that man is blind and helpless.  The audience will regard the tragic hero as an individual who is up against an overwhelming power that may treat him well for a short period of time, but will eventually strike him down in his pride.

 

6.)     The tragic fate of the hero is often triggered by a tragic flaw in the hero’s character.  The hero contributes in some way, shape, or form to the disaster in which he perishes.

 

7.)     Shakespeare often introduces abnormal conditions of the mind (such as insanity, somnambulism, or hallucinations).

 

8.)     Supernatural elements are often introduced as well.

 

9.)     Much of the plot seems to hinge on “chance” or “accident”.

 

10.) Besides the outward conflict between individuals or groups of individuals, there is also an inner conflict(s) and torment(s) within the soul of the tragic hero.

 

11.) The tragic hero need not be an overwhelmingly “good” person, however, it is necessary that he/she should contain so much greatness that in his/her fall the audience may be vividly conscious of the individual’s potential for further success, but also the temptation of human nature.  Therefore, a Shakespearean tragedy is never depressing because the audience can understand where the hero went wrong.

 

12.) The central impression of the tragedy is one of waste.

 

13.) The tragic world is one of action.  Action is created when thoughts turn into reality.  Unfortunately for the tragic hero, their plans do not materialize as they may have hoped and their actions ultimately lead to their own destruction.

 

14.) The ultimate power in the tragic world is a moral order; more specifically, the struggle between good and evil.

 

a)     The main source of the problems which produces all the death and suffering is evil in the fullest sense.

 

b)    This evil violently disturbs the moral order of the world.

 

c)     Evil is seen as something negative, barren, weakening, destructive, a principle of death.  It isolates, disunites, and annihilates.  Only while some vestiges of good remain in the hero, can he/she still exist.  When the evil masters the good in the hero, it destroys him/her and those around them.

 

d)    This evil is eventually destroyed and the moral order of the world is re-established.

(source)

(source)

the expirement

The Time Wasting Experiment by Alison Provax

Tandem Story

This assignment was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca ... and Gary ...

English 44A, SMU

Creative Writing

Professor Miller In-class Assignment for Wednesday:

One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.

---

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

 

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish partical beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.
 

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel." Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth - when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.
 

Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!"

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.
 

Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.
 

Asshole.
 

Bitch.
 

(source)

i've always loved this,

Poetic Terrorism by Hakim Bey

Weird dancing in all-night computer-banking lobbies. Unauthorized pyrotechnic displays. Land-art, earth-works as bizarre alien artifacts strewn in State Parks. Burglarize houses but instead of stealing, leave Poetic-Terrorist objects. Kidnap someone & make them happy. Pick someone at random & convince them they're the heir to an enormous, useless & amazing fortune - say 5000 square miles of Antarctica, or an aging circus elephant, or an orphanage in Bombay, or a collection of alchemical manuscripts. Later they will come to realize that for a few moments they believed in something extraordinary, & will perhaps be driven as a result to seek out some more intense mode of existence.

Bolt up brass commemorative plaques in places (public or private) where you have experienced a revelation or had a particularly fulfilling sexual experience, etc.

Go naked for a sign.

Organize a strike in your school or workplace on the grounds that it does not satisfy your need for indolence & spiritual beauty.

Grafitti-art loaned some grace to ugly subways & rigid public momuments - PT-art can also be created for public places: poems scrawled in courthouse lavatories, small fetishes abandoned in parks & restaurants, xerox-art under windshield-wipers of parked cars, Big Character Slogans pasted on playground walls, anonymous letters mailed to random or chosen recipients (mail fraud), pirate radio transmissions, wet cement…

The audience reaction or æsthetic-shock produced by PT ought to be at least as strong as the emotion of terror - powerful disgust, sexual arousal, superstitious awe, sudden intuitive breakthrough, dada-esque angst - no matter whether the PT is aimed at one person or many, no matter whether it is “signed” or anonymous, if it does not change someone's life (aside from the artist) it fails.

PT is an act in a Theater of Cruelty which has no stage, no rows of seats, no tickets & no walls. In order to work at all, PT must categorically be divorced from all conventional structures for art consumption (galleries, publications, media). Even the guerrilla Situationist tactics of street theater are perhaps too well known & expected now.

An exquisite seduction carried out not only in the cause of mutual satisfaction but also as a conscious act in a deliberately beautiful life - may be the ultimate PT. The PTerrorist behaves like a confidence-trickster whose aim is not money but change.

Don't do PT for other artists, do it for people who will not realize (at least for a few moments) that what you have done is art. Avoid recognizable art-categories, avoid politics, don't stick around to argue, don't be sentimental; be ruthless, take risks, vandalize only what must be defaced, do something children will remember all their lives - but don't be spontaneous unless the PT Muse has possessed you.

Dress up. Leave a false name. Be legendary. The best PT is against the law, but don't get caught. Art as crime; crime as art.

an excerpt from T.A.Z.