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Well after compulsing about my midterm, begging the teacher for extra time and extra availability from him for help I was the first one finished with my project. Now as I explain to my fellow students, I only go to two classes and run a very slow pace for school. I am also able to work on my projects in my free time at work. But I had no expectations that I would be able to accomplish what I had in the time I did, I guess I know more than I thought I did. I also worked on my project over the weekend and went into school to use their lab. When I told my mother about doing homework on the weekend, I qualified that by letting her know that hell had also frozen over. That was the kind of student I used to be, but now I am just another old compulsive grade whore. Oh, well that is what I am and I just have to accept this.

Now I had a hamburger for dinner but tried to cook it in the microwave, but found that microwaves cooking for over 7 minutes is a bit much and I ended up with a bit of carbonized meat. Which when I tried to bite into broke a piece of my braces. So now I have to go back to the orthodontist and get that fixed.

Oh and I am now compulsively messing with these new fingernails which I am told can lead to infection. I am surprised I am not on some kind of medication for obsessive compulsive behaviors. Thank goodness for photography and photoshop, otherwise I wouldn't have anything to eat and no fingers or fingernails left.

ta ta for now

Step up and be counted

New Blog New Directions

I don't think I really have anything to say about the Pope coming to New York except that it will tie up traffic and make my neighborhood very difficult to maneuver around. I have nothing profound to say on anything else relating to his visit as religion is such a touchy subject, part of human beings deepest feelings and belief systems. The question of why we are here, whether or not we have any purpose other than that we invent for ourselves, and the ultimate issue, death cuts rather deeply to our sensibility of our own importance and place in the universe. Other than the issue of major intolerance and the problems of integrating religious values for civil values in our society I don't want to get into it. I do have problems with those who wish to impose their particular value system based on their particular beliefs, there is an assumption that the prevailing belief system is the only right system. Or that assumption that moral values can only be derived from a religious system is offensive to me, it assumes that those who don't share one set of values cannot share other values like regarding life as important, a revulsion to the physical or moral degradation of others or wishing good things for others.

Art is one way a person can address the spiritual questions of life without necessarily engaging a historical system of beliefs, hopefully we can ask the old questions within new context or new imperatives.

ta ta for now

Not the Marx Brothers Movie

Well I have had a very fruitful weekend, I have been working on postcards and finished another 9 cards. I should have them all mailed out by the end of the week. I think after that I will take a short break. I enjoy making them and enjoy the whole process of going to the post office and negotiating the postage process. I usually take them to the window so I can do this with a postal employee which is more fun than simply using some mechanical device which would rob me of the human interaction.

I have passed a milestone with my cards, I now have over 50 of them scanned and will be sent out, I have over a hundred of these blog posts and have had fun doing both. I am not sure where I am headed with all this or even if I want to continue to make cards or even write this. What I do know is that I want to keep doing something that communicates with others, whether it is in physical art or online writing, but I do like to send out my thoughts or interpretations of the world. I am not worried as much as I used to be about who or how many people are receiving my message.

I am a little disappointed that only amiko chose to respond to my question post. Not that I was disappointed with amiko or his response, but I am not sure what the problem is with getting others to engage in a dialog with me as opposed to this monologue. I don't think I was asking that much, I know people have their own levels of desire for privacy but this should have created a platform for others to spread their message. Oh well, not everything works.

The door is still open if you desire to use this blog to let others know what it is that drives you as a member of this community. Photography, or not we are all here for some creative reason.

ta ta for now

How to extend my art and in what directions

A few things about my life, how I work and whatever comes to mind

Pictures I don't Post

I spent a great deal of time and worry about my page views on flickr. Now I have about thirty thousand and a few thousand over here and it has become meaningless to me. I feel a tinge of concern time to time but I feel much more involved in the count of images I post and the number of postcards I create and mail out. The issue for me is now what artistic direction I want to take or would I recognize a direction if it came up and bit me on the ass. Oh on numbers, one of my images was getting a huge number of hits, through pornographic search terms due to conditions outside me control. I let it go on for a while but I decided to make the image private, it was amusing to see the numbers in my statistics mount up but I got tired of that and ended this. So I want to be more conscious of what I produce, the cards being my primary outlet.

Look for more on the subject. Got to eat and run off to a meeting.

ta ta for now

Important numbers

Well before getting to anything remotely connected to art I will bore you to tears with my slice of life. So I am hitting the road again, doing my evening walks in the hope of raising my levels of high density lipids (the good kind) and to lose weight (fat the bad kind around the gut). I am headed towards getting back into my routine of at least three times a week going at least an hour of good brisk walk. Since I live right near the Hudson River and the New York Harbor this is a very pleasurable thing to do. When I am on the road I start to get into a nice mood with the water to my side and the breeze cooling me off and the feeling of very large expanse when I get into position to see the harbor and the Statue of Liberty and seeing the large container ships waiting way out there to come in and be loaded or unloaded in New Jersey. So the I feel expanded after spending the day in one of those gray little offices with gray little people, actually they aren't but it sounds good.

I am almost done with school for summer vacation. I am sorry to see the semester slip by so quickly, I haven't finished my paper sculpture, partly because the teacher enjoys talking to me which slows me down, but that is ok. I love my art classes, they have been the most fun of going back to school. I am thinking about taking a music class like a survey of classical western music, I saw an interview with the head of the music department and I really liked what he had to say about teaching people about music and the philosophy of musical creation. Very interesting indeed, with the issue of whether music is to provoke emotion or to express emotion and the implications of the differences.

Well I do know that I am looking at things differently and hope to continue the expansion of my perception of the world around me especially music and art. The computer stuff I enjoy but I am not good enough to enjoy the elegance of a well constructed program. And I know there is an elegance there.

ta ta for now

ps. I got an Asus eee computer, is very cool.

Other than the fact that I am attending a couple of movies I don't really have much to say about the film festival. While I enjoy watching movies and after taking a number of acting classes and doing a bit of acting my tastes have become a little more stringent over the years, I can't claim any great knowledge of movies. I am going to see "Waiting for Hockney" and "A portrait of Deigo" both in the documentary area which is what I enjoy these days. Last year I saw a movie about Sam Wagstaff which was fascinating. I have also seen an updated Zatoichi which was a real treat and very interesting as I used to go and see the original Zatoichi movies at a little theater called the Toho La Brea with my brother who turned me onto Samurai movies and I have some posters from that period from Zatoichi and the Assassin with a son series, "Lone Wolf" I think it was. Not the bastard version they butchered for American screens. I loved the cinematography of those films, the countryside and the period costumes and the various characters. I also got to see a move called Planet B Boy which was a documentary about dancers from around the world. It was shown on this giant outdoor screen they set up behind the World Finance Center and show movies for free. Very cool and I got some nice pictures as well from the experience. With all the building in the area, the festival is showing more movies out of the area, that is ok I think overall the whole thing is kind of nice for everyone.

The other nice thing is how spring is just popping out with new plants abounding planted by our local conservancy and the trees are filling out, it is just life renewing after a very long winter, though not a harsh winter it just dragged on and on.

ta ta for now

Amiko Postcards Rock and I Rule the Amiko Collecting World. Or So I Say!