Memoryphone

So last night I performed with my memoryphone, the instrument I have been building for the past semester. (expect a video soon) Everything went really well and the crowd seemed very amused by my hijinks. My New Interfaces for Musical Expression class performed our homemade instruments at the club Tonic in the lower east side and I would dare say we sold out the venue. The place was packed and everyone did an amazing job. Performances included the darkest arts, resurrection, bird heads, and a weird torturous drinking competition. It seems like quite the dark night now that I think about it retrospectively. (is that a word? no.) But all in all a great time. Then after the show we packed up all the equip and I had to flag down an angry cab driver who became only more irritated by the sheer ammount of electronic stuff we were loading into his cab. After dropping it all off at school we went to Josh and Rocios where we watched circus soleil videos, played with hamsters and got thai massages. no seriously.

churn.

Tonight I finished almost everything. I feel like I am orbitting the rings of saturn and waiting for everything to be sucked into a giant black hole around me the moment I stop. I am afraid of stopping. There is no escape. I will continue to produce and produce and produce projects like a cow being squeezed dry of milk. If I stop, it's all over...right? You already know the ending. Even before it's penned out on the cosmic page of everything and anything. And yet I want to keep producing and producing and producing there is no limit to the human mind. You can go sour, ideas can go sour but you can still keep churning more and more and surely you are sure to hit one good one, one good stick of butter in the golden mess of fat.

Tiny People Trapped in Bottles

So I have just recently completed my video art installation "Animalia Chordata" which features a number of tiny human specimens put on view for your enjoyment. Watch as they struggle to get out of their glass prisons! If you live in New York City you can come see this amazing feat of science live and in person on December 17 and or 18th. Just click on this link for the exact time and location.
Itp Show Info

Boy

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Girl?
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Sex.
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Good Morning Lethargy

It's all coming together working clicking on fire bursting from every splintered bone in my body. I get no sleep or maybe I get too much sleep waking up at 1250 after going to bed at 630 and realizing that my alarm was set for 10 and I have class at 1230 and yet it's strangely warmer in my room this morning and I feel like I have enjoyed a good night's sleep. Maybe it's the new space heater I purchased from Kmart yesterday eventhough they had 6000 of them I liked the fact that it looked like a fan because this made me think about nice cooling air rather than dry dusty head which is the thing I hate the most you know waking up with a nostril full of dust, a snare across your chaped lips you know? I've been thinking alot about space travel lately and how yesterday Laurie Anderson said that we are eventually going to green mars and move all of the earth's industry and coal and crap to other planets so that we can have a virtual garden of eden for a planet. But wouldn't that just make all the other shitty industry planets just like what we have now on earth? It's sort of the landfill theory. Like hey we are making a mess in our house so let's dump it in the trash dump it in the landfill dump it dump it dump it. And then we end up with too much trash and burn it out by the ocean and make holes in the ozone layer. But then again saturn has a whole other layer to punch holes in and all those rings which we never liked anyway because they are so much nicer than our lack of rings. I wish we had some rings. That would make us a much better planet. And maybe another moon or two. Bigger really is better. Bigger and deep fried and crunchy with a small order of sex on the side. And beer and cars and plastics and no I dont want paper I want plastic so that when I drive a tank through all the elk in the forest so that I can have an entire bedroom made of antlers I can comfortably strangle myself with the comfort of a smooth plastic bag when I'm ready to go.

Running on Hy!

In college I once drank about 200 cans of redbull in a semester. I worked out some sort of deal with a girl down the hall where I gave her 50 bucks and she gave me 300 dollars worth of her parents money (dining card money that is) The hitch was that this was at the end of the semester and the 300 dollars had to be spent by the end of the day or else it all faded away. So I took the 300 dining dollars or trojan money or whatever USC called it and purchased so much red bull that we had to rent a cart from the student services to cart it back to Caroline's dorm room. For the next three months, my hands had a noticeble shake to them but I was sharper than speed racer in the mach 5. You know what I mean. So since then I have sampled many an energy elixir. And although I have cut down significantly since my undergrad days, I'll still pick up a new oddly shaped energy can just to see the jolt factor. So that being said the other day i tried Hydrive. Hydrive sounds like the name of a new harddrive but in actuality it is a kick in the face water that claims to be "dragonfruit" flavor. Ha! It tastes like medicine but slightly more acidic. However about 10 minutes later I was spun out on caffeine which I later found Hydrive has 30% more of than most energy beverages. So I decided I might as well do something with all this energy. I started by running from the East Village to central park. Sure it was 34 degrees outside but the heat in my muscles warmed me up and luckily I was topped off with Hydrive! But by the time I got to central park I was still not tired so I decided to keep running. By the time I reached 165th street I began to break a sweat but still no signs of fatigue. Oh Hydrive you are the best! I decided to keep on trucking and somehow about 9 hours later I found myself in rhode island. My toes were bleeding but I felt great. It's been 4 nights since that run and I still haven't slept a wink. So I guess the moral of this story is Hydrive wow. My skin may be a pale green, my eyes are bulged and burning red, I basically look like a christmastree with enormous calves but I am still extremely alert and ready to take on the day!

Happy Bunny Joyous Day!

So the other day one of my good friends told me that reading my blog makers her depressed. She says my blog entries are suicidal, too dark and make her feel sad. So here is a blog post for you Jenny Lee. Yesterday I woke up and the first thing I noticed was the smell of springtime flowers floating through my open curtains. Sure it's the middle of winter but for some reason I felt like prancing around my room stark naked. So I put on some vivaldi and shed my sleeping cap and gown and oh it was a glorious time! Prancing and skipping and jumping about my chamber to Vivaldi's spring. The cool air against my flesh and a bounce to my step. Suddenly in the middle of a prance a fluffy pink bunny rabbit bounced through my door and twitched its tiny little nose. I bent down to the cute creature and said:
"Why hello mr rabbit, I am famished would you like to accompany me to lunch?"
To which the rabbit replied with a twitch of its nose and a bob of its tail:
"Alas I have just eaten and my stomach is full of carrots and onions! But good sir I have a pleasant idea."
"What is that Mr Rabbit?"
"Since you are in search of a lunch partner and I have already just stuffed myself with delicious garnishes, why don't you just eat me?"
And with a tiny twitch of its nose, the rabbit quickly snapped its neck and presented a delicious feast for my enjoyment.
After lunch I bounded down the stairs and out of my apartment. The homeless man outside wished me a joyous day and I wished him the same with a shine in my teeth and a glitter in my eye. I gleefully skipped down the avenue around losing lottery tickets and broken glass (surely from last night's bachhanalian festivities) I stopped at a chunky puddle of vomit which winked at me and I winked back knowingly. Oh what a glorious day! At the office I wanted to wish everyone a joyous Saturday but then I realized oh silly me it's Saturday and there is nobody even present! So instead I lept from cubicle to cubicle wishing every stapler and keyboard a splendid hello until I reached the cubicle of Peter the office intern who in fact was present even on such a glorious Saturday afternoon.
"Why hello Peter my friend, isn't it a beautiful Saturday afternoon?"
"Why are you naked?"
"Why Peter, I need not clothes to be mineself!"
But Peter did not share in my joy. He was grouchy and grumbly and mumbly. The kind who writes depressing entries in his electronic journal. Oh poor Peter. He shall never be happy, he shall never share in my joy and bliss and sunshine rays!
I left the office and gleefully skipped home wishing the homeless man outside a Joyous evening.
Oh what a day wht a day what a glorious day!

33 Black.

I was thinking ealier about the increasing ammount of blockage in my right nostril and the Atlantic City boy who bet it all on the cancer in his leg and all of the loneliest people in this world and the debate comes to mind between what's worth more...personal sucess or the feeling of being loved. The girl next to me laughs but when she does I instictively turn because it sounds like she is crying. What a horrible illness. To sounds like you are crying when actually you are laughing. Her boyfirend says he wants a beer and there she goes crying again. Or is she laughing? Laughing at his alchoholic tendencies. Maybe she is amused by the way he slurs his words. Or the way his palm strikes her milky face night after the night he suspects infedelity. Why is it that the only place cancer ridden boy feels safe is Atlantic City? Maybe it's the one place where no one feels safe. Where depending on the spin of a roullette wheel anybody could be just as well off. And maybe we are all growing a cancer deep inside of us. The girl who laughs as if she is crying, the blockage in my right nostril, the boy who gambles on life...

Open up your heart

Last night, my buddy Devin and I went to see the rapture at the Henry Fonda theater in Hollywood. We arrived early so as to secure a good standing place before the show. At this point I notice that everyone around us is like 18 and is either a crazy little girl with a black headband or a beefy looking dude. I guess in New York, the crowd at concerts tends to be a little older. So we watch the first band "The Presets" which pretty much suck. All their music is sequenced and they sound like Joy Division after a ketamine binge. At this point I am wondering about the current state of so called "indie" music. At a show sponsored by KROQ and filled with 16 year olds out on thanksgiving break who were probably listening to Fall Out Boy on the car ride over, I am pondering the current state of so called "indie" rock. That is until the rapture come on. The rapture are a rare sort of band that manages to sound amazing live and maintain a fun nonpretentious stage presence. They seem like the kind of guys you would actually want to hang out with. And they can all play their instruments. NO SEQUENCING!

So about halfway through the rapture show I notice that dev's disappeared. It was right after some beefy dudes warned me that "bro there's gonna be moshing here so watch out" And moshing there was. Again moshing at the indie rock show? Maybe at the slayer show but seriously kids, moshing to the rapture? Anyways so Devin has disappeared but wait no there he is off to the side of the stage talking to this cute girl. Wow good job Devin. Somehow amidst the sea of psycho KROQ'ers Devin manages to chat up a girl. So the concert comes to a close and I find Devin who is bidding the girl adieu. But he doesn't look all that excited or happy. This is not the face of someone who has a new number burning in his pocket. I can see this. And so I ask the obvious "Hey man so did you get her number?" Devin looked shell shocked. LIke he had just seen an indie ghost! Or actually he had seen an indie baby. Because this girl was 17....and therefore 7 years younger than Devin. And jailbait! Yikes! Apparently the conversation went something like this: Both were making comments about the crowd and how strange it was. Devin said he felt like an old man. The girl said "you're not that old!" and then it came out that she was 17 and he was 24 to which she replied "all my friends are like a couple years older than you." I want to know who the 34 year old guys are that hang out with 17 year olds. That's pretty gross. So would it have been wrong for Devin to get that girls number? What do you think? I mean he is only 24 and she is 17. In maybe less than a year it would be legal. But also it's legal right now as long he doesn't "get himself into it" (rapture quote) wink.
anyways since this post is alot about devin here is a movie that we made together once upon a time in a land far far away.

The Desert

The minute I stepped off the plane and onto Los Angeles (well Burbank) soil I noticed a change in the air. Something about the wind here, the desert, it feels dusty and serene. The wind has weight here, like it's pulling at your hair and face but not stinging or chapping it. I stick my head out of the car going 60 on Venice boulevard and I feel like riding a horde of mutant buffallo into a giant spinning orange tornado.

Foodcourt Woes

So it's official. The westside pavillion foodcourt is falling into a state of decrepit downfall. All that is left is korean, japanese, mexican salad. What happened to the glorious 1980's foodcourt golden era? Where can a good guy go to get some pre-packaged styrofoam divided deep fried food served on a plastic tray. What is happening to America?

A Long Wednesday Delayed

I write this post from the airport. Today I awoke and got all my things together and packed my bags. I left my apartment with two hours to get to the airport. Usually this is enough time to get to JFK, even with traffic. Do you sense the impending doom? So I was walking down the street to quickly return the "Notorious Bettie Page" Dvd I forgot to return the day before and I notice an extreme lack of cabs. Maybe this is just in my mind I tell myself. Two hours is fine! That's plenty of time! So I get out of Kim's and walk up st marks towards 3rd avenue looking for a cab. Nothing. Ok I'll try 3rd there are always cabs on 3rd avenue. Taken. Ok how about 4th avenue. I roll my wheely luggage up the gravel road bouncing plastic chunks off the wheels. 15 minutes in. All the cabs are taken. 20 minutes. Finally a cab stops next to me and asks where I'm going. "JFK" and I move to get into the cab. The driver turns back to his wheel and drives off before I can even lift my luggage off the sidewalk. Seriously. He just left me there because he didn't want to drive to the airport. That is illegal by the way. So I walk around a little more and begin to get really nervous. I still have plenty of time but it's just the nerves starting to get to me. Finally a cab drives up that is off duty but the guy is nice enough to take me to JFK. It's probably close to where he is dropping off his cab for the night. The cab driver says "I'll take you to JFK but I have to warn you, there is alot of traffic right now." Shit. Well even with lots of traffic it shouldn't take more than an hour. Right? So we are off and the cab driver is great, he's swerving around cars and honking and getting the finger thrown at him more times than Donald Rumsfeld at a peace rally. Everything is going great until we hit the expressway. And that's where things begin to go wrong. And I mean really wrong. It was probably the smoke pouring from the hood of the cab. I really hoped it was a magical illusion and this cab driver was an amature magician. I was hoping that at any moment he would turn around and yell "I'm just kidding!" But unfortunately he did not. And you can't imagine how hard it is to find a free cab on an expressway. SO needless to say it's now 6:47 and my flight left at 445 now i'm delayed and waiting for the new flight. It's going to be a long wednesday.

Underwater (I Found Your Face)

So I am going to begin a new project featuring people dunking their heads into water. The faces will appear almost as if they are drowning in watery graves. As you approach these tubes mounted on a dark wall, the faces will poke through the water and stare at you holding their breath while holding their eyes wide open. Almost like a watery staring/breath holding contest. I want it to look really blue and black. I've been really into the blue/black look lately. Or maybe they will look like portholes as if you are on a giant ship and there are these weird ghostly faces peeking in from the ocean looking at you. I like the idea of the viewer being watched by the art. Sort of like a watery silent film star screaming for your attention.
These are some sample photos I found online by a photographer named SnoopRat. I tinted them in photoshop to show what kind of effect I hope to achieve.

Easy rider:Blog from a bus

I am writing this from a bus
it went dark
on the way
to
atlantic city

5 to 1 1 in 5

I was eating lunch today and there was this guy slurping his spaghetti out of his plate and his head was hung so low into the plate that his chin would dip slightly in the sauce everytime he bent down for a slurp. He didn't seem to notice.

My first and most immediate reaction was to be disgusted. Here was a guy so busy, so engrossed in life or work or thought that he was shovelling noodles into his mouth like a snake handler cramming 35 snakes into a cigar box. And with every slurp of a new wet spaghetti strand, his chin burned a deeper tone of saucy crimson red. But he didn't seem to notice.

I on the other hand could not stop watching. It was a beautiful and hideous display. It reminded me of a scene from Mathew Barney's cremaster cycle. As the man chordled his final slurp I desperately hoped that he would forget to wipe his chin and walk around all day with the bloody looking mess decorating his chin but to my dismay, he quickly swiped the sauce from his face and practically ran out of the pizza place.

I think this scene was especially interesting to me because I have weird issues with food. If I dont have time to sit down and actually enjoy the act of eating, I tend to just skip the food altogether. I really enjoy relaxing and talking with people while I eat and I can't imagine becoming a human food vaccum, slurping down nutrients like a hungry plant.

Drillin for a livin'

So I am currently constructing something called the memoryphone. It is a musical instrument based on the design of an organ grinder. More Info Here So last night I was using a heavy piece of machinery known as a drill press. You know the kind of machine you need to wear goggles so the splintering wood chunks dont' fly into your eye. The kind of machine they make horror movies about (ahem Body Double) The kind of machine you should not be drinking while operating. However this didn't stop my buddy who was also working in the shop from offering me a bottle of wine while drilling! It's like I'm diffusing a bomb and trying to decide between the red and blue wire and sweat is pouring down my brow and the time is ticking down and wait oh here buddy have a drink! NO. There are certain situations where a drink is a definite bad idea. So I thought I would make a list of other situations in which I feel it would be innapropriate to be offered a drink:
1. Riding a bicycle in New York City traffic
2. Swimming with a killer whale in a tank full of seals
3. Any sort of Trapeeze work
4. Running in the special olympics
5. Driving a schoolbus
6. AA meetings
7. Climbing at high altitudes
8. Any sort of religious cult meeting (especially Kool-Aid drinks)

But of course I couldn't wait to have some wine and now thanks to mr drill press I have a huge yet stylish hole in the middle of my hand. That's in this season though. The bloody gash you know. I swear.

When planets crash into the sun

Tonight I got home after soldering for 8 hours and thought I was going to go directly to sleep. Actually I really didn't want to go to sleep at all. I wanted a break. Some fun. But as I got home and set my bag down and sat on my bed I felt increadibly tired. It was 1230, I was ready for bed. So what did I do?

I went out. And it was very pleasant. The air has turned crisp and breezy and the leaves crunch and twist under my shoes on the pavement. The air is buzzing with people on friday night in New York City and everything feels alive and undulating. A mass hysteria or is it belligerance? Either way it's still interesting to see. Sleep is overrated.

It's now 5:33 am. Tonight I saw MIT students dancing to hip hop, a man smash a beer bottle over someones head at a bar, an awkward but pleasant encounter with a friend from last summer, and the Turkish theory of phenomenon. Yes this makes no sense whatsoever, but I've come to the conclusion that life itself makes absolutely no sense whatsoever most of the time. And that's fine. Let's stop trying to find meaning in everything and just enjoy things for a while. Sounds a bit libertine doesn't it? But coincidence and chance and spontenaiety are often what drive the most important turning points in our lives. You could spend your entire life trying to achieve your life's purpose or goal. You could spend everyday in the lab, in the office, on the set, studying the stock market, reading medical journals...and then one day you look right instead of left and wham! you are hit by a greyhound and all your hard work and dedication is tossed in the air and flattened on the road.

I'm not saying you shouldn't try, I'm just saying next time it's 1230 and you are ready to go to sleep, make sure you really want to be sleeping. Do what you want, don't do what you should. And that's my inspirational rant of the night. Goodnight vampires and good morning early birds.

I'm a vampire

It's 522am and I'm a vampire baby!

I don't know what it is about the night that keeps me so awake but I love it. There is something about the quiet. I can't imagine only being alive when it's noisy.

Back Again (with a mouse in the house)

Ok so I have officially decided to start this engine up again. It's good to have a blog I think? Maybe it is. Maybe not. Ok I'm done good bye.

No ok I'm back now and here's been what's up. I have been working on several projects. Most of them video installation type things with screens and projectors and little people in bottles. It should be crazy. I'm also working on something called the memoryphone which is a musical instrument/ video player. hot Hot hot.

In personal news. I believe there is a mouse in my apartment. I was washing a cup the other day and out of the corner of my eye i noticed something flash by on the floor. It was like a scene out of a really small horror movie. I was thinking about it. Mice are pretty cute but when they are in your house they suddenly aren't cute anymore. If you put the mouse in a tank it would be cute. But if it's free than it's vermin. This applies to some humans as well.

Halloween was pretty great. Me and ranny went costume shopping and purchased some good suits. Then for actualy Halloween I ended up working till 1am and then went to the Motherfucker party at the Roxy down by the water on the westside. That place is totally insane. There were people naked and covered in blood. good old pagan fun you know? At some point they turned off the lights and put on Carrie and played the shower scene. However when the clip ended and the lights came back on, I noticed that directly to my left there were two gentlemen engaging in some halloween fellatio. Yes right there on the dancefloor. Only feet from where I was standing. Who does that? Especially during carrie?!

On another note I finally removed my air conditioner from my window and now I think it I may have been a mistake. Yes it's still warm in New York. It's going to be a hot nuclear winter boys and girls. But it's fun to be back in the blog.

July 12th 2006

...and it's on this day of our lord July the twelfth two thousand and six that two legged animals will burst like tiny bubbles of bones. And all the squids and snakes and manatees will grow plump from excess oxygen and fruitfully multiply both day and night until all that is left is unintelligible blobs of furry winged, saliva horned male-female zygote sex bristled beasts...