...

2012-01-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

THRONG

Clicking the link above will take you to a piece made of screenshots I took while at work between December 2010 and November 2011. I constrained myself by only taking shots of phrases happened upon between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

On December 9, 2011, I performed THRONG at Kroswork Gallery in Oakland, CA.

2012-01-25T15:07:00.001-08:00

In 2005 David Harvey knows

2011-12-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

"But one persistent fact within this complex history of uneven neoliberalization has been the universal tendency to increase social inequality and to expose the least fortunate elements in any society--be it in Indonesia, Mexico, or Britain--to the chill winds of austerity and the dull fate of increasing marginalization. While such a trend has been ameliorated here and there by social policies, the effects at the other end of the social spectrum have been quite spectacular. The incredible concentrations of wealth and power that now exist in the upper echelons of capitalism have not been seen since the 1920s. The flows of tribute to the world's major financial centres have been astonishing. What, however, is even more astonishing is the habit of treating all of this as a mere and some instances even unfortunate byproduct of neoliberalization. The very idea that this might be--just might be--the fundamental core of what neoliberalization has been about all along appears unthinkable. It has been part of the genius of neoliberal theory to provide a benevolent mask full of wonderful-sounding words like freedom, liberty, choice, and rights, to hide the grim realities of the restoration or reconstitution of naked class power, locally as well as transnationally, but most particularly in the main financial centres of global capitalism."

TO THE EXTENT IT IS EROTIC, IT IS TRAGIC

2011-12-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

"But what is sobriety if not the fear of everything that is not lasting" (Bataille)

2011-11-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

"In the new way of working, a high rate of devotion to the company's objective is necessary: those who have the privilege of working in a long-term position have to demonstrate a total availability to the 'mood shifts' within the company and to the oscillations in production caused by the variations in demand. This is the explanation for the increase in overtime, often unpaid, which would seem paradoxical when on the outside a full 10 percent of the population is statistically unemployed. This, however, also explains why we are moving from a regime where in the job market the social rights of workers were almost universally acknowledged (in the form, for instance, of collective bargaining) and were protected by solid and lasting juridical norms, to a regime where workers' rights are rapidly disappearing under the pressure of economical needs and contingencies. When the marketing of goods is in charge and imposes quantity and quality in real time (just-in-time), work becomes increasingly constrictive: we need to show ourselves capable or devotion and obedience, under penalty of losing our job. When production can no longer be planned since the market is no longer able to expand infinitely, as happened in Fordism, due to the compression of purchasing power; when, in other words, contingency reigns, the unforeseeable becomes the rule and everything rests on immediate adaptability. The spaces for juridical protections and universal rights, independent from specific juridical persons, close up."

-- Christian Marazzi, Capital and Affects

2011-11-13T09:43:00.001-08:00

2011-11-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

"What grief displays . . . is the thrall in which our relations with others hold us, in ways that we cannot always recount or explain, in ways that often interrupt the self-conscious account of ourselves we might try to provide, in ways that challenge the very notion of ourselves as autonomous and in control. I might try to tell a story here about what am I feeling, but it would have to be a story in which the very 'I' who seeks to tell the story is stopped in the midst of the telling; the very 'I' is called into question by its relation to the Other, a relation that does not precisely reduce me to speechlessness, but does nevertheless clutter my speech with signs of its undoing. I tell a story about relations I choose, only to expose, somewhere along the way, the way I am gripped and undone by these very relations. My narrative falters, as it must.

"Let's face it. We're undone by each other. And if we're not, we're missing something."

(J. Butler, from Precarious Life)

2011-11-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

2011-10-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

2011-10-22T11:32:00.003-07:00

• Qaddafi, Muammar
• Al-Gathafi, Muammar
• al-Qadhafi, Muammar
• Al Qathafi, Mu'ammar
• Al Qathafi, Muammar
• El Gaddafi, Moamar
• El Kadhafi, Moammar
• El Kazzafi, Moamer
• El Qathafi, Mu'Ammar
• Gadafi, Muammar
• Gaddafi, Moamar
• Gadhafi, Mo'ammar
• Gathafi, Muammar
• Ghadafi, Muammar
• Ghaddafi, Muammar
• Ghaddafy, Muammar
• Gheddafi, Muammar
• Gheddafi, Muhammar
• Kadaffi, Momar
• Kad'afi, Mu`amar al- 20
• Kaddafi, Muamar
• Kaddafi, Muammar
• Kadhafi, Moammar
• Kadhafi, Mouammar
• Kazzafi, Moammar
• Khadafy, Moammar
• Khaddafi, Muammar
• Moamar al-Gaddafi
• Moamar el Gaddafi
• Moamar El Kadhafi
• Moamar Gaddafi
• Moamer El Kazzafi
• Mo'ammar el-Gadhafi
• Moammar El Kadhafi
• Mo'ammar Gadhafi
• Moammar Kadhafi
• Moammar Khadafy
• Moammar Qudhafi
• Mu`amar al-Kad'afi
• Mu'amar al-Kadafi
• Muamar Al-Kaddafi
• Muamar Kaddafi
• Muamer Gadafi
• Muammar Al-Gathafi
• Muammar al-Khaddafi
• Mu'ammar al-Qadafi
• Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi
• Muammar al-Qadhafi
• Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi
• Mu`ammar al-Qadhdhāfī 50
• Mu'ammar Al Qathafi
• Muammar Al Qathafi
• Muammar Gadafi
• Muammar Gaddafi
• Muammar Ghadafi
• Muammar Ghaddafi
• Muammar Ghaddafy
• Muammar Gheddafi
• Muammar Kaddafi
• Muammar Khaddafi
• Mu'ammar Qadafi
• Muammar Qaddafi
• Muammar Qadhafi
• Mu'ammar Qadhdhafi
• Muammar Quathafi
• Mulazim Awwal Mu'ammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi
• Qadafi, Mu'ammar
• Qadhafi, Muammar
• Qadhdhāfī, Mu`ammar
• Qathafi, Mu'Ammar el 70
• Quathafi, Muammar
• Qudhafi, Moammar
• Moamar AI Kadafi
• Maummar Gaddafi
• Moamar Gadhafi
• Moamer Gaddafi
• Moamer Kadhafi
• Moamma Gaddafi
• Moammar Gaddafi
• Moammar Gadhafi
• Moammar Ghadafi
• Moammar Khadaffy
• Moammar Khaddafi
• Moammar el Gadhafi
• Moammer Gaddafi
• Mouammer al Gaddafi
• Muamar Gaddafi
• Muammar Al Ghaddafi
• Muammar Al Qaddafi
• Muammar Al Qaddafi
• Muammar El Qaddafi
• Muammar Gadaffi
• Muammar Gadafy
• Muammar Gaddhafi
• Muammar Gadhafi
• Muammar Ghadaffi
• Muammar Qadthafi
• Muammar al Gaddafi
• Muammar el Gaddafy
• Muammar el Gaddafi
• Muammar el Qaddafi
• Muammer Gadaffi
• Muammer Gaddafi
• Mummar Gaddafi
• Omar Al Qathafi
• Omar Mouammer Al Gaddafi
• Omar Muammar Al Ghaddafi
• Omar Muammar Al Qaddafi
• Omar Muammar Al Qathafi
• Omar Muammar Gaddafi
• Omar Muammar Ghaddafi
• Omar al Ghaddafi

2011-10-21T15:43:00.001-07:00

2011-10-21T11:31:00.001-07:00

from Fanon's "Letter to a Frenchman"

2011-10-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

Millions of young bootblacks. Millions of "porter, madame?"
Millions of give me a piece of bread. Millions of illiterates "not knowing how to sign, don't sign, let us sign."
Millions of fingerprints on the police reports that lead to prisons.
On Monsieur le Cadi's records.
On the enlistments in the regiments of Algerian infantry.
Millions of fellahs exploited, cheated, robbed.
Fellahs grabbed at four in the morning,
Released at eight in the evening.
From sun to moon.
Fellahs gorged with water, gorged with leaves, gorged with old biscuit which has to last all month.
Motionless fellah and your arms move and your bowed back but your life stopped. The cars pass and you don't move. They could run over your belly and you wouldn't move.
Arabs on the roads.
Sticks slipped through the handle of the basket.
Empty basket, empty hope, this whole death of the fellah.
Two hundred fifty francs a day.
Fellah without land.
Fellah without reason.
If you don't like it you can just leave. Shacks full of children. Shacks full of women.
Wrung-out fellah.
Without dream.
Six times two hundred fifty francs a day.
And nothing here belongs to you.
We're nice to you, what are you complaining about?
What would you do without us? A fine country this would be if we left!
Become a swamp in no time at all, yes!
Twenty-four times two hundred fifty francs a day.
Work fellah. In your blood the prostrate exhaustion of a whole lifetime.
Six thousand francs a month.
On your face despair.
In your belly resignation…
What does it matter fellah if this country is beautiful.

2011-10-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

2011-09-16T10:45:00.001-07:00

the bread of the needy is their life:
he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood

(Ecclesiasticus 34:21, as quoted by Tzvetan Todorov in The Conquest of America)

2011-09-14T21:15:00.001-07:00

2011-08-24T15:51:00.001-07:00

2011-08-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

"At one point, in the town of Kitzingen, Casimir ordered the gouging out of the eyes of fifty eight burghers who had, he declared, 'refused to look at him as their lord.' Afterward he received the following bill:

80 beheaded
69 eyes put out or fingers cut off: 114.5 fl.
from this to deduct
received from the Rothenburgers: 10 fl.
received from Ludwig von Hutten: 2 fl.
Remainder
Plus 2 months' pay at 8 fl. per month: 16 fl.
Total 118.5 fl.

[Signed] Augustin, the executioner, who the Kitzingers call 'Master Ouch.' "

2011-08-08T14:44:00.001-07:00

2011-08-04T12:11:00.001-07:00

2011-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

the song of a lover as dawn approaches, often with a watchman warning of the approach of a lady's jealous husband
a song renouncing a lover
a song about the Crusades, usually encouraging them
a song heavily discordant in verse form and/or feeling
a long didactic poem, usually not divided into stanzas, teaching a moral or practical lesson
a poem expressing indignation or feelings of insult
a lover's apology
a boasting song, often presented as a challenge, often similar to modern sports chants
a song complaining about a lady's behaviour and character
a poem expressing pleasure
a love letter addressed to another, not always one's lover
the song of a lover waiting impatiently for the evening (to consummate his love)
a traveller's complaint

2011-07-16T11:46:00.001-07:00

Jesse Seldess, "End" from Little Red Leaves on Vimeo.

2011-07-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

“Power can be exercised only over free subjects, and thus the resistance of those subjects is not really posterior to power but an expression of their freedom, which is prior. Revolt as an exercise of freedom not only precedes but also prefigures the forms that power will take in reaction. If we are to understand better the nature of the emerging Empire, then, we need to investigate the antagonisms, revolts, and rebellions that press against it. These struggles for freedom determine the entire development of the structures of power.”

-- Hardt & Negri in Commonwealth

2011-07-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

THE LARGEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD

2011-06-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

"[The Largest Picture in the World] is made up of 10,000 students, each holding up a book whose pages link with their neighbors’ to make up a gigantic mosaic image,” explains Bonner. “When the students turn the pages, the scene or individual elements of the scene change.” Each book contains approximately 170 different flashcards, and the children are signaled to turn the pages by semaphore.

2011-06-15T09:33:00.001-07:00

John Travolta swings a paint can
Kanye West longs for a Persian
Rug with cherub imagery
Kim Jong-il shoots
38-under par
Including 5 hole-in-ones
Sean Carter knows Jealousy
To be a female trait
Marjorie Perloff goes wild

NEWS

2011-06-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

To watch Joan Armatrading followed by Lil B
To watch now
To be unable to renew Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale : women in the international division of labour / 307500125528519sfsu / HD6060.6 .M54 1986
To be unable to go on a tour of historic Black Panther sites because of guilt
To downgrade to a dumbfone
To use a phone to send a text to tell a friend one will be using a phone as a phone soon
To avoid the pretty park because it is too crowded because it is too pretty
To order MGD because PBR is played-out
To move to Marin because a $2.7M SF home is too small for a family of 4
To name the closet the bedroom
To sit in front of a computer 8 hours daily
To tell one's coworker one is indeed very happy with the size of one's monitor
To have groin pain
To have eye twitching
To dream we were abducted
To buy a bag of dandelion greens and find them very fine
To buy a can of beans
To name my cattle likewise

2011-06-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

2011-06-01T23:16:00.001-07:00

2011-05-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

The government banned
The chicken pill
For chickens and women

2011-05-25T10:20:00.001-07:00

2011-05-11T15:16:00.001-07:00

2011-05-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

BIRTH STONE

2011-04-21T09:13:00.001-07:00

AS LONG AS I KNOW HOW TO LOVE I KNOW I'LL STAY ALIVE

2011-04-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

CATTLE, SHELLS AND MATS

2011-03-29T22:11:00.001-07:00

or women

2011-03-15T10:24:00.001-07:00

list of prohibitions included: “pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards."

2011-03-14T15:24:00.001-07:00

In order of decreasing levels of truth seen, the categories are: (1) philosophers, lovers of beauty, men of culture, or those dedicated to love; (2) law-abiding kings or civic leaders; (3) politicians, estate-managers or businessmen; (4) ones who specialize in bodily health; (5) prophets or mystery cult participants; (6) poets or imitative artists; (7) craftsmen or farmers; (8) sophists or demagogues; and (9) tyrants.

2011-03-10T12:57:00.001-08:00

What are today's union songs?

2011-02-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

2011-02-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

2011-02-17T13:49:00.001-08:00

2011-02-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

Anne Boyer's THINGS TO DO IN OVERLAND PARK

2011-02-03T15:17:00.003-08:00

SENTENCES!

EVERYTHING IS FINE

2011-01-27T11:10:00.001-08:00

2011-01-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

"Although it is an ancient fact of life, an ancient technique, money never ceases to surprise humanity. It seems to them mysterious and disturbing. First and foremost it is complicated in itself, for the monetary economy that goes with money was nowhere fully developed, even in a country like France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, even in the eighteenth. It only made its way into certain regions and sectors. It continued to disturb the others. It was a novelty more because of what it brought with it than what it was itself. What did it actually bring? Sharp variations in prices or essential foodstuffs; incomprehensible relationships in which man no longer recognised either himself, his customs or his ancient values. His work became a commodity, himself a 'thing'.

"The words of Noël du Fail put into the mouths of old Breton peasants (1548) expressed their astonishment and confusion. If there was so much less abundance inside peasant homes, it was because:
"both chickens and goslings are hardly allowed to come to perfection before they are taken to sell [at the town market of course] for money to be given either to the lawyer or the doctor (people [formerly] almost unknown), to the one in return for dealing harshly with his neighbour, disinheriting him, having him put in prison; to the other for curing him of a fever, ordering him to be bled (which thank God I have never tried) or for clyster; all of which the late Tiphaine La Bloye of fond memory [a bone setter] cured, without so much mumbling, messing and antidotes, and almost for a Paternoster."

[from Braudel's Capitalism & Material Life 1400-1800]

I used to hate it when everyone called me a ‘stylist’ — I am a curator and a communicator

2011-01-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

I used to hate Irv and everyone affiliated with him
I used to hate this city, how everyone is connected
I Used to Hate My Skin
~~I used to hate~~ Rain Dance
~~I used to hate~~ ethics
~~I Used to Hate~~ Timesheets
~~I used to hate~~ [and] women too!
I used to hate the Head-On commercials
~~I used to hate~~ the damn thing's scripting language
I used to hate that my mom had eyes
~~I used to hate~~ [and] every single blade of grass
~~I used to hate~~ little yappers
but now I really appreciate them
I don't hate Pennzoil. I just want to use the best motor oil I can

ETC

Walmart doesn't sell bullets before 7 a.m.

2011-01-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

He called a high-school
pot-smoking buddy
ran away from his father
into a cactus-dotted desert
and updated his MySpace profile

2011-01-14T13:59:00.001-08:00

YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT IS

2011-01-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

BUDGET OF A MASON'S FAMILY (5 PEOPLE)

2011-01-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

IN BERLIN ABOUT 1800 IN PERCENTAGE OF INCOME

bread 44.2%
animal products 14.9%
rent 14.4%
other vegetable products 11.5%
light, heating 6.8%
clothing etc. 6.1%
drink 2.1%

WE SHALL HAVE TO BLEED HER

2010-12-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

Can you say Our Father?
Who taught it to you?
You say that you are sent by God?
So you believe that God hates the English?
You have told how Saint Michael appeared to you ... how did you greet him?
In what form did he reveal himself?
What was Saint Michael wearing?
How can you know whether the person you saw was a man or a woman?
Was he naked?
Do you not believe that God would have clothes for him?
Did he have any hair on his head?
Why should he have had it cut off?
Why are you wearing men's clothes?
Are you willing to wear a woman's dress?
So it is God who has commanded you to go about in men's clothes?
And what reward do you hope to obtain from the Lord?
Do you not understand that what you are saying is blasphemy?
Has God promised you anything?
Can you not tell us what it is that God has promised you?
What has God promised you?
Has God promised you that you will be released from your prison?
When?
Will you take an oath never to bear arms against England again?
Would you recognize your King's signature?
You profess to be a daughter of God?
Then why will you not say Our Father?
Has God told you that you will be released from your prison?
Has God promised you that you will go to Paradise?
Since you are so certain of your salvation ... why do you need to go to confession?
Are you in a state of grace?
Are you in a state of grace?
Joan, if you were allowed to go to Mass now ... would you consent to give up your men's clothes?
Then you would rather keep your men's clothes than come to Mass?

APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE

2010-11-22T15:38:00.001-08:00

2010-11-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

I wrote a poem for Paul Ebenkamp after reading his poem THE MESSENGE. The poem I wrote is called OUR TENDER URBAN CORE and contains the line "feeling kind of Eyjafjallajökull in-a-trance". The E-word is the Icelandic volcano that erupted this past spring. I don't know how to pronounce this word. I'm giving a reading on Sunday and would like to read this poem. Maybe I should sub in a new word? Mount St. Helens? What's the ethical code here? I ask the void.

2010-11-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

“The refusal of work does not mean the erasure of activity, but the valorization of human activities which have escaped from labor’s domination”

The poem PARTISAN CUPCAKE

2010-11-11T10:13:00.000-08:00

2010-11-03T15:28:00.001-07:00

I wanted to ask about piece in this context:

Sorry Stacy
about the big piece
it’s on the brain

in AUTHENTICIZED APOLOGY POEM CIRCA 2009, and I also wanted to ask - is
the person speaking a man or a female or does it shift? (Icelandic sucks
in this way, you have to attach a gender to some words here and there,
like "drunk" or "myself")

and we also have questions about some stuff in CAN I PREVENT MY WAGES FROM
BEING GARNISHED?

In the ninth line, does "pop" mean the sound or a soda?
In line number 12, is "icon" a painting of a saint or a symbol?
What is the exact meaning of "stacks and flumes"? There´s a lot of
possibilities...
What is the meaning of "spread"?
Is the conductor in the last line a man conducting a symphony or a man who
works on a bus or a train?

I'm having trouble with two things in the apology poem:

"Sorry this is my lame suit" - are we talking about a lame suit (as in
"this suit is so lame"), or the golden suit Elvis Prestley wore (which is
what I get if I picture-google "lame suit") or something else entirely?

And one more thing:
"Below to SNOPES" - are you refering to the snopes.com website (as
urbandictionary.com suggests:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snopes) or does snopes mean
something else in this context?

2010-10-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

2010-09-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

"Speak / a few light words / quick and true / as the pigment—was it pink—"

2010-09-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

ACTING OUT

2010-08-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

A chapbook I wrote is now available from Editions Louis Wain. It's called "Acting Out". You all helped me write it -- thank you.

& now for some Barry White

2010-08-19T16:04:00.001-07:00

(that's a clickable locket, btw)

Federici Footnote, Chapter IV

2010-08-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

31. This tale appears in several demonologies. It always ends with the man discovering the injury inflicted on him and forcing the witch to return his penis to him. She accompanies him to the top of a tree where she has many hidden in a nest; the man chooses one but the witch objects: "No, that one belongs to the Bishop."

2010-08-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last night on BART, reading Caliban and the Witch. Man in business suit gets on at Montgomery, takes the seat next to me, spreads his legs so widely that I must recross mine and scrunch into the corner. He spends the entire ride reviewing financial reports. He flips the pages loudly with his married hand. The report says Pimco. I catch him glancing at my book. The open page depicts a prostitute being subjected to the acabussade, "the ducking stool".

I get off at MacArthur.

2010-08-09T10:47:00.000-07:00

2010-08-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

Please join us in the Bay Area this Labor Day Weekend for a unique collaborative event.

Sunday, September 5, 1-7pm, Studio One, 365 45th Street, Oakland
Monday, September 6, 11am – 2pm, 21 Grand, 416 25th Street, Oakland

THIS EVENT IS FREE.

We are convening around the notion of labor and poetics. Because issues of labor and money are integral to so many of our lives as artists, we hope that gathering as presenters and participants will highlight the particularity of our struggle to “do two jobs,” that is, make artworks and earn a wage to support ourselves. For the many of us who are not employed by the University, the occasions for speaking in and with a group concerned with poetics and politics in a formal way are rare. We think and hope this gathering will be a positive model for thinking cooperatively in the future.
Our participant-presenters:

Chris Daniels (as deputized by Pamelu Lu), Steve Farmer, Samantha Giles (as deputized by CA Conrad), Andrew Joron, Kevin Killian, Lauren Levin, Dana Teen Lomax, Laura Moriarty, Jason Morris, Vanessa Place, and Cedar Sigo. We are also glad to be able to present short texts from Pamela Lu, George Albon (as deputized by Stacy Szymaszek), and Rodrigo Toscano.

The gathering will include two events. On Sunday at Studio One we will have a day of presentations. On Monday (Labor Day), we will reconvene at 21 Grand Gallery for an open, informal, but hopefully rigorous conversation about issues and ideas raised in Sunday’s presentations and performances. This will be a potluck brunch at 11:00 a.m., with moderated conversation from 12:00pm to 2:00pm.

A detailed schedule of presentations will be available shortly before the event.

As we are organizing this in our "free time," we do of course need your help! There are several ways you can help. If you can host out of town attendees, furnish supplies for the potluck brunch, have video or other technical skills, or would like to pitch in and lend a hand facilitating the event itself, we would love to put you, uh, ‘to work’! Please send us an email at labday2010@gmail.com and tell us what you can offer.

Finally, this community event is open to all, and there will be no door charge. We would be quite grateful for help defraying costs of the event: for those who would like to contribute cash , we have set up a PayPal account. Money will go towards space rental costs, supplies, and tech.

Feel free to spread the news! We hope to see you there!  

David Brazil, Suzanne Stein, Brandon Brown, Sara Larsen, Alli Warren

http://www.labday2010.blogspot.com/

2010-07-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

"If I should demand of the poor man of the country what thing he thinks to be the cause of Sedition, I know his answer. He would tell me that the great farmers, the graziers, the rich butchers, the men of law, the merchants, the gentlemen, the knights, the lords, and I cannot tell who; men that have no name because they are doers in all things that any gain hangs upon. Men without conscience. Men utterly void of God's fear. Yea, mean that live as though there were no God at all! Men that would have all in their own hands; men that would leave nothing for others; men that would be alone on the earth; men that be never satisfied. Cormorants, greedy gulls; yea, men that would eat up men, women, and children, are the causes of Sedition. They take our houses over our heads, they buy our grounds out of our hands, they raise our rents, they levy (yea, unreasonable) fines, they enclose our commons!"

~ Robert Crowley

2010-07-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

How do we break into the draft board building
when there is no draft board building?

2010-07-22T11:29:00.001-07:00

“It’s almost like you’re shopping online,” said Ms. Cheek, “but you’re shopping in real life.”

2010-07-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

"Some one who was living was almost always listening. Some one who was loving was almost always listening. That one who was loving was almost always listening. That one who was loving was telling about being one then listening."

(G. Stein)

2010-07-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

I read James Schuyler's The Morning of the Poem last night for the first time. Near the end, he mentions "Anticipation" and though Carly Simon is far from my bag, that tune's been ringing in my head ever since.

I should also mention that last night I realized Carly Simon may be insane? She maintains her own YouTube channel where she seems to post nothing but little monologues about her hair color, what she ate for breakfast, how her grandson is doing, etc. Thank you James Schuyler for your gifts.

Not that there was anything but a few flaming dumpsters, but

2010-07-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

how in the days leading up to the Mehserle verdict, and its immediate aftermath, the media shows its deeply racist & classist internal organs. How city "officials" and "community leaders" were heard first coaxing then sternly warning and finally threatening the public: you. must. not. lose. "control", you. must. not. riot., you. must. swallow. yet. another. injustice. The media apparatus is saying: African Americans in Oakland are not capable of guiding their own (re)actions. As if African Americans in Oakland lack any kind of control over their own minds & bodies. As if they must be forced, like children, to "behave".

And how that media message, paired with debilitating police presence on the streets of Oakland, almost *begs* for violent conflict. How a line of overeager cops in riot gear invites a riot. It's practically a welcome mat. The police desire it more than anything. They *can't wait* to use their tools. Why else get all dressed up?

And how the media also begs. The desire of the media & the desire of the police are aligned. They're perfect for each other! They should tie the knot.

2010-06-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

------------SAVE THE DATE------------

LABOR DAY 2010/CONVOCATION

Please join us in the Bay Area this Labor Day 2010 for a unique collaborative event.

Partly as a response to the form of the academic conference, in which invitees share the common condition of working in the academy, we are organizing a gathering in which poets who survive by other means are able to present in a formal structure that encourages conversation about poetics and social life.

The topic for this first convocation is therefore LABOR, and we have invited a number of poets and writers to prepare short presentations around how they earn a living.

Because issues of labor and money are integral to so many of our lives as artists, we are hoping that gathering as presenters and participants will highlight the particularity of our struggle to “do two jobs,” that is, make artworks and earn a wage to support ourselves. Because we are not employed by the University, the occasions for speaking in and with a group concerned with poetics and politics in a formal way are rare. But we think this gathering will be a positive model for thinking cooperatively in the future.

Specific locations and exact times remain TBD, however the overall structure of the event looks like this: Sunday afternoon and leading into evening, we'll gather in the East Bay to hear the presentations. Afterwards, we'll have drinks and socially process the material from that day's event. On Monday (late) morning, we'll all convene again to have brunch. At brunch, the presenters along with the audience will have an open, informal, but hopefully rigorous conversation about issues and ideas raised in the performances of Sunday.

We would especially like to encourage attendance by as many of you from outside the Bay Area as might be interested in participating. Because we understand that out-of-pocket travel can be quite expensive and difficult, we will do everything we can to try and help find accommodation and defray the cost of meals. And the weather is usually quite perfect here around Labor Day, if that’s any more persuasive.

This event is open to everyone, and we hope to see as many of you here as possible. This is also something to share with others. Travel will be easier if done in pairs or small groups, and absolutely no one is discouraged from participating.

We'll also look into the possibility of Skype or other forms of broadcast, in order to include as many as might wish to engage.

Times, locations, and a list of presenters shortly forthcoming.

We hope to see you there!

David Brazil, Suzanne Stein, Brandon Brown, Sara Larsen, Alli Warren

Bifo sez

2010-06-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

"...the expansion of the economic domain coincides with a reduction of the erotic sphere. When things, bodies and signs become part of the semiotic model of the economy, wealth can only be experienced in a mediated, reflected and postponed way. As in an infinite play of mirrors, what is really experienced is the production of scarcity and need, compensated by a fast, guilty and neurotic consumption because we can't waste time; we need to get back to work. Therefore wealth is no longer the ability to enjoy things, bodies and signs in time, but the accelerating and expansive production of their loss, transformed into exchange value and anxiety."

The Soul At Work, Franco Berardi

I sing because I know

2010-05-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

2010-05-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

Increased globalization and extensive international networks generate enormous trade benefits but also consequent challenges. Disruptive events, whether natural or man-made, can have debilitating effects on business continuity and economic viability and thus have put global trade security at the forefront of every proactive business agenda. At Ridge Global, we help you understand those risks and how to manage them.We know that any effort to protect trade requires a comprehensive focus on improving security throughout the entire supply chain. That’s why we develop innovative security solutions designed to look at the whole picture – solutions that protect everything from fixed assets to assets in transit to human capital to brand equity and goodwill.

By integrating Ridge Global’s unique application of the Total Security Management approach, we help our clients avoid, mitigate or recover from disruptive events that risk crippling vital supply chain operations. We develop plans to incorporate important trading partner security measures that support a "culture of resilience." The ultimate goal is to create an environment that transforms security investments from a net cost to a net benefit and turns existing security programs into a competitive advantage.

2010-05-24T16:34:00.001-07:00

This is about as good as it can get right here. Not even exaggerating.

2010-05-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

i just LOL'd the entire time i read this.

2010-05-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

Solicitation Number:
W5J9JE-10-R-0078
Notice Type:
Presolicitation

Synopsis:
Added: May 12, 2010 8:07 am
This Pre Solicitation Notice is for design and construction of Phase 2 of the Afghan National Detention Facility (ANDF) in Parwan Province, Afghanistan. The construction site is located within the Bagram Airfield complex. The resulting contract will be a firm fixed price (FFP) Design-Build contract for three (3) new detention housing units to be located directly adjacent to the existing detention facility at Parwan. The three new detention housing units include one (1) Special Housing Unit (SHU) and two (2) Detention Housing Units (DHU). The approximate size of all three units combined is 9,924sm. Work shall include but is not limited to all site preparation work, utility installations, facility construction and completion and related exterior security infrastructure.

The dollar magnitude of this project is between $10,000,000 and $25,000,000.

The period of performance for construction and completion of all three housing units is 270 calendar days from issuance of Notice to Proceed (NTP). The Special Housing Unit shall be completed and operational in 200 calendar days from NTP. The contractor will be authorized to work 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Award will be made to one (1) Offeror who is deemed by the Government to be responsible in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), conforms to the solicitation requirements, and whose proposal, judged by an overall assessment of the evaluation criteria and other considerations specified to the pending solicitation, represents the best value to the Government. The source selection process to be utilized for this acquisition is Best Value Trade-off. The submission requirements and evaluation criteria will be defined within the Solicitation. In general, Offerors must demonstrate experience in designing and constructing at least two (2) same or similar detention/prison facility projects completed in the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility and valued at over $15,000,000. The Offeror will also be required to provide information about the Offerors experience, management, key personnel, past performance and proposed construction schedule. In addition, the Offeror will be required to submit a Security Plan specific to the geographic area of the project location, as well as a Capacity Development Plan describing how the Offeror would promote the education and develop skills of Afghan citizens.

Solicitation W5J9JE-10-R-0078 for the Afghan National Detention Facility will be issued on or about May 28, 2010. The solicitation and any amendments will be posted through the Armys Single Face to Industry (ASFI) to the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website at: http://www.fedbizopps.gov. It shall be each contractors responsibility to check the FBO website for the solicitation and any amendments.

The applicable NAICS code is 236220 Commercial and Institutional Building Construction.

The point of contact (POC) for this acquisition is Mr. James Purcell; e-mail james.w.purcell@usace.army.mil; telephone 540.667.5953.
Contracting Office Address:
USACE District, Kabul, Afghanistan Engineer District, Kabul AFB, APO, AE 09356
Place of Performance:
USACE District, Kabul Afghanistan Engineer District, Kabul AFB APO AE
09356
AF

nevermind

2010-05-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

2010-04-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

"There is ultimately an inadequacy to everything I think & this fills me with extraordinary hope. Despair would be lack redesigned with the absence of longing, & thinking is longing. Grief is adequate—its extremity fit to the break confirmed by loss. Adequate thought would destroy me."

~ Dana Ward, Typing "Wild Speech"

Always knew it'd be like this

2010-04-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

when we were in the kitchen to see the face of collective affection, of a lived ethics, always about to be made and yet. not. The practice of happiness – against everything the world as it is aims at – is subversive when it’s collective I copy down the notes and outside everything is either damp and gray or expectant with it. I’m in here on my lunchbreak waiting for the budding by which to read the glow Erika had it at the bar as I sat across from her bumped and brushed all evening by the passersby I do not spill my drink I only want to be fooled into embodied group joy – misguided, drunk, momentary – or not. I only want for the bump to transform us into lasting affinity. The real possibility of this which we forget which I was forgetting sitting there across from Erika, the strength of Nina’s “Feelings," her plea to the audience, that unseen multitude, for a sing-a-long and receiving no -thing. Not a chorus in the bunch. Which, as Nina knows on her face and fingers as they dwindle on the keys, is a kind of food. Instead we - perhaps I shouldn’t speak for others - instead I just knock my head against the can and gulp the paint all day and ask what’s so hard about moving about and to breathe. It’s hard to see what might be budding clearly even at the Marina though it's a day off and Andrew and Paul and I read the Times looking at all that water and Paul even told a joke but that slush in the lungs does not leave the body. So easily. I’d passed by a woman she said Hello Miss Happy Monday To You and I was startled by the kindness of it I wanted to embrace her but only mumbled Thanks You Too and kept walking down Grand untransformed. We might as well sell it for money. We might as well call it a Feeling and nothing else. Bifo says friendship and creativity make the existence of bridges possible. Friends our bodies. The paint cans the gulping standing there in the kitchen by the light of the hood lamp bottles clinking and gleaming and aching.

It’s / just / one / of / those / things.

2010-04-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

2010-04-21T09:53:00.001-07:00

Administrative Professionals Day Gifts (hand-picked by our Gift Gurus)

Gourmet Treats for Great Assistants
Watch Your Wishes Grow
Desk or Tabletop Dish Gardens
Banks for Grown-Ups
Anti-Stress Bath Gifts for Workaholics
Ecospheres for Home or Office
Electronic Massagers for Car or Office Seats
Tasteful Todd Oldham Arrangements
Brilliant Holders to Keep Purses Off the Floor
Refreshingly Fun Desk Accessories

I cannot deal with that particular village

2010-04-15T16:59:00.001-07:00

I have been living, for the past two months, in fear of orchid bloom detumescence. This is unlike living in fear of aerial bombing.

I like these spatially dense gladiators

2010-04-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

I like the novelty
how the two ladies
how they both combined
the proportions
things that just appear

I like the ease of her bias
how she pairs it
taking what is considered
maybe more ridiculous
with her gray shift

and I'm just looking
I don't have fur on me
I like paintings and whatever
the idea of something classic

Also I like color
how they look as a group
I like her small hat
the wing-y aspects
I like Mami's topknot
I used to live there

I like the idea
her cute empire
to intertwine the two
that they both have shoes
I like it as dirty though

I like a lot now
and her injection
how she has kept it
her sweet white locket
how you glint

The East Coast

2010-04-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

I eat more vegetables and drink more alcohol in the Bay Area than in DC, NJ, CT and NY (combined).

NYC needs to step up its coffee game. The Bay Area needs to step up its sartorial game.

If a man reading the Koran in Bed-Stuy asks if you speak French, you should buy one of the hats he is selling.

The man in front of the White House with a sign reading Meace on Earth.

Cherry blossom bulge.

Embassy row.

Busboys and Poets.

Buck Downs's notebooks.

Russ & Daughters lox. Foie gras ice cream. Katz's pastrami. Steamed buns and pickled cherry soft-serve. Veal liver. Rob's beef shoulder. Clam apizza. Goat roti. Jamaican empanada. Opting for the smelt cupcakes.

Covert plastic surgery clinics in the Upper East Side.

Fight between homeless man and irate man on DC bus. Yelling match between homeless man and irate man on NYC subway.

Comrade Gaga.

Coco texting.

Roman bedrooms.

Being unable to sit on Lincoln's lap.

CA Conrad eating garlic in Atlantic City.

Empire State Building Horror.

The bar bill Friday night in Brooklyn.

Latina women pushing white babies in elegant strollers.

Crying with a bottle of $4 Miller High Life in hand.

Kim's radiance.

The light in LRSN's kitchen.

Traveling by train.

Drew Gardner as 80's teen heartthrob.

The Bruce High Quality Foundation.

Generations at Segue.

Brandon Downing Girl Group.

The two couches at Space Space.

Meeting everyone.

"It feels very Bay Area in here."

Coletti's "holy shit, you've got to talk to make sound?"

DGLS's 6 button Shaq suit somehow feels 1940's.

TRY! magazine comes to NYC.

Drunk in the Detroit airport.

Not dying in an aircrash.

GRATIFIED HORSE

2010-03-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

On Thursday 18th, I was gratified for a few minutes with the luminous appearance described above. It was about nine o'clock, P.M. I had no sooner got on horseback than I observed the tips of both the horse's ears to be quite luminous: the edges of my hat had the same appearance. I was soon deprived of these luminaries by a shower of moist snow which immediately began to fall. The horse's ears soon became wet and lost their luminous appearance; but the edges of my hat, being longer of getting wet, continued to give the luminous appearance somewhat longer.

2010-03-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

Haiti Relief Classic-Fit Polo
Haiti Relief Custom-Fit Polo
Haiti Relief Skinny-Fit Polo
Haiti Relief Big & Tall Polo

2010-03-10T16:31:00.000-08:00

Born in Buffalo, New York
Attended Westminster Preparatory School
Attended Yale University
Worked as a stock broker in New York and California
Worked as a probation officer in California
Spent nearly two years in California penitentiaries for the possession of marijuana
Traveled to the East
Wandered through India; visited New Zealand and Austrailia
Settled in Bali, Indonesia
Returned to California
Died in Goa

2010-03-04T11:43:00.001-08:00

Total words: 549
Total words devoted to self-justification: 134
Total words devoted to taking responsibility: 92
Total words devoted to regret for actions: 4
Total words devoted to attack on prosecutor: 180
Total words devoted to "time to move on" theme: 137
Total words devoted to apology: None

Disco dancers in their habitat

2010-03-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

"At this point the rush of image materials becomes too dense to enumerate: optical effects, children's blocks and erector sets, reproductions of classical paintings, as well as mannequins, advertising images, computer printouts, textbook illustrations of all kinds, cartoon figures rising and falling (including a wonderful Magritte hat slowly sinking into Lake Michigan); sheet lightning; a woman lying down and possibly under hypnosis...ultra-modern hotel or office building lobbies with escalators rising in all directions at various angles; shots of a street corner with sparse traffic, a child on a big wheel and a few pedestrians carrying groceries; a haunting closeup of detritus and children's blocks on the lakeshore...Beethoven sonatas, Holst's Planets, disco music, funeral parlor organs, outer space song effects, the Lawrence of Arabia theme accompanying the arrival of flying saucers over the Chicago skyline; a grotesque sequence as well in which friable orange oblongs (that resemble Hostess Twinkies) are dissected with scalpels, squeeze by vises, and shattered by fists; a leaky container of milk; the disco dancers in their habitat; shots of alien planets; closeups of various kinds of brushstrokes; ads for 1950s kitchens; and many more."

(Jameson)

2010-02-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

Prince in heels in front of the mirror, applying makeup
Prince in heels practicing spins in front of the mirror
Prince in heels on a purple motorcycle
Prince in heels in a heap on the floor
Prince in heels on a pile of hay in a barn
Prince in heels in his bedroom closes his eyes, tries to relax
Prince in heels shirtless and gleaming
Prince in heels pacing back and forth in a frenzy
Prince in heels fishtails in the alley
Prince in heels on the sofa, motionless
Prince in heels destroying canned veggies
Prince in heels distributes two tambourines

2010-02-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

I feel bad that people believe this kind of stuff or any random rumor that is taken as fact because 'it's on the internet.' This rumor is particularly ironic because I was actually happy with a business class seat and was offered a seat in first class. A friend of mine was sitting in coach so asked if they could bump him up to business instead of putting me in first. There was absolutely no altercation in any way. There's been many a time where I've given someone in coach my business or first class seat in order to sit next to a friend I bumped into. I really could care less about where I sit on the plane. It's hard to deal with the rumors sometimes. As a good person with a warm heart, it does bother me. I'm not bigger than feeling pain, embarrassment, stress and worry.

2010-02-03T13:45:00.001-08:00

"illimitable vastness, brilliant light, and the gloss and smoothness of material things."

The Monologue Pt. 3: Monologue as Song

2010-01-28T10:52:00.001-08:00

"I just like to take a little of your time here to talk about two words that folks always like to use. They always talk about 'making love,' yeah 'making love'. But have you ever sit down to think about everything that's got life in it likes to make love? Did you know that? Why horses like to make love. Cows like to make love. And mosquitoes like to make love. And human beings like to make love. But now it's one thing about the horses, cows, mosquitoes and things, when they get ready to make love, I don't care where they at, they make love right there, don't make no difference where they at. But now, we human beings, we just a little bit different from that. Some of us, that's got a lot of money, we like to go way up in an airplane somewhere, and make love. And then there are those of us who like to wait till Sunday afternoon and then we go way out on a boat in the water somewhere, and make love. Ah but children there are those of us who ain't never had nothing, ain't got nothing now, and don't ever expect to get a doggone thing. So what we like to do, we like to get ourselves about 50 cent worth of gas, and we like to drive way down a country road somewhere. Ah and children we like to make love on a backseat of a car, children! Ah but maybe one of the sad things about making love is that folks like to slip around. Ah you know some men that got some good women, women that stay at home all long week and don't worry about going nowhere, while the man just runs around with every Mary, Jane, and Sue he can find, off somewhere making love. But children, men are not the only ones that like to slip around, why women like to slip around too. How many times have you heard some women sitting down talking and you hear one tell the rest of them, she say "I sure wish he'd stay at home sometime, 'cause I'm tired of him following me around everywhere I go." She wants to slip around so she can make love. Why I tell you, it makes no difference if you came from the city, and it don't matter if you came from the country, and some of you out there... [inaudible] sound of my voice may have come from the suburbs. But I like to suggest to you one of the best places I know that you could go to make love, and that place is..."

The Monologue Pt. 2

2010-01-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

"You know they gonna stop making them king size cigarettes and start making the queen size...because it's got a bigger butt! Do you know why elephants don't smoke? Because they can't get their butts in the ashtray! I know a boy who took his girl out on a country road the other day, stopped his car and took his key out. Says to his gal, 'Now you gonna be like a Camel, and walk a mile, or like a Chesterfield that satisfy?' She said, 'It depend on whether it's king size or regular, daddy.' "

The Monologue

2010-01-28T09:14:00.000-08:00

"I've heard people say that too much of anything is not good for you, baby. But I don't know about that. There's many times that we've loved, and we've shared love and made love. It doesn't seem to me like it's enough. It's just not enough. It's just not enough..."

2010-01-20T14:00:00.001-08:00

"I support the striking coal miners
But will the striking coal miners
support me."

(Rene Ricard)

not if but how

2010-01-17T11:12:00.000-08:00

"Take writing, for instance -- an example by the way I love to use! By writing this story I want to make you think about certain political matters -- a praise-worthy objective, no? But I also want to amuse and entertain you, and more. In what I write I would like you to be able to feel pleasure, even joy. I don't want to give up on either goal, though only one of them is concerned with power. Isn't it possible to think about power in new ways? Why not suppose that as comradeship and equality get to know each other, they naturally become friends -- lovers even. And if -- as you must -- you consider such problems in your own life, you must soon begin to seriously ask yourself, how is it possible to make a truly human social life for the first time?"
(Boone, Century of Clouds)

...