have i mentioned...

although i was apprehensive about the art i've been seeing in portland, i have seen a couple exhibits this month that left me in awe. the first was at mark woolley gallery, and unfortunately the exhibit is already closed; i saw it on its last day. but it was really interesting, stephen scott smith's work is matthew barney meets twin peaks.


stephen scott smith, bunnysmith

smith confesses that his art focuses on narcissism in his artist statement, and i far from doubt his narcissism. smith looks like a good looking, intelligent gentleman and i probably don't. he says, "I am basically making fun of the whole fame-obsessed world that I am of, not above." which is fine. we know all about narcissism. as cal would point out, christopher lasch wrote a whole book on it and i've heard enough driveling essays on narcissism and facebook while i was at college to last me a lifetime. stephen scott smith then adds that he believes "what we see in others is really ourselves." interesting, but an idea still not fresh of face. so let's see, he connects narcissism with facebook and then with voyeurism (maybe?) with identity. okay, nothing new.


stephen scott smith, zebrasmith

but what was interesting about this exhibit was the craftmanship. everything was perfectly crafted. and you know jess marie has turned me and i know believe in craftmanship over concept. it's like pretending you're writing the best novel ever while you can't even put a grammatically cognizable sentence together. the technique and form carries the concept, even the conceptual artists (with a captial 'c') understood this. so even if smith's work is conceptually shallow, the execution was flawless. each photograph was blown up to large proportions, the focus right on the tip of the nose of each self-portrait. extraneous material to the photograph, such as frayed rope, meticulously worked into the portrait and displayed. the videos were edited very well. the whole exhibit was visceral and visually stunning.


stephen scott smith, video still from hyenasmith

in the end, smith's musing about narcissism fall a little flat, except that it is interesting, or at least i find it personally interesting, the ways in which narcissism manifests and what it produces when not denied. if we suppress our narcissism through facebook by calling it "social networking," what if we were to call it just what it was and be unabashed?

anyway, more impressive and stunning and interesting is an exhibit i happened to catch at IGLOO saturday morning. the exhibit, or rather i should say, on-going installation/de-installation will continue through to the end of january. gary wiseman with meredith andrews present "where am i."



they're working on a project that builds on relational aesthetics and takes those principles in a different direction. let me describe my experience: when i entered through the white metal front door into IGLOO, my eyes immediately fell onto gary wiseman himself sitting at a small table in the middle of the gallery. the table was cluttered with papers and books and computers and cables and a large scanner. to the right of wiseman's table and the door were scraps of fabric and paper and other samples sealed into ziploc bags, neatly and evenly spaced pinned to the wall. to the wall to the right of this display, a web of strings hung connected various points in the corner. on the far wall another display of drawn and printed images as well as a map of portland. in the right window, a multicolored disco ball; in the left various objects and artifacts.

wiseman asked how i had found the event, handed me a hand explaining the project, and then explained that the abstract matrix of string to my right corresponded to the pins placed in the map of portland on my left which themselves corresponded to places he had held exhibits or events in portland in the past. he explained that the objects in the window were left from past events of his, and that each visitor to the gallery was invited to take one of the objects as a gift. he was then taking the address of each visitor and was plotting where the gifts went to in relation to where they had been used in his art ventures. they plan to use the information to create a book and further art projects. i inspected the various displays and objects in the gallery, nearly speechless. not only was i impressed and interested in his project, but it was exactly the sort of idea i jot down and analyze in my own sketchbook. in fact, the entire exhibit looked like my sketchbook had become large and three-dimensional. especially the web of string.


this sketch was from my sketch book and used as the title slide for my senior project in art history titled "Relational Aesthetics and the art of creating space." gary wiseman's project reminded me of felix gonzalez-torres, who everyone knows i love. i even own a piece of licorice by the late artist, tucked safely away with the reason of my possessions in alabama where it can't be eaten.




and i wanted to tell this all to gary wiseman but i was just struck dumb for some reason until his friend meredith came in. she was nice, helped me pick which gift i should take. we settled on a ball of blue yarn to match the jacket and sweater i was wearing.



i sat while gary took my photo, chatting with meredith, sometimes looking nervously at the camera. and all i could think was how this was the sort of art i've been waiting to find and how much it reminded me of my own art and how i wanted to make more art.

jokes: we've got 'em

gail collin's pieces are generally dull and uninformative, but here's a zinger from a piece about obama's warm reception to the opinions of the senate, writing: "We are rooting for Burris to make it into office, since any Roland who names his kids Roland II and Rolanda is bound to provide a welcome diversion in the gloomy months ahead." what a riot! you know i'm still upset about this whole situation.

and today there is no sunshine to keep me chipper. yet despite the rain, i still have to get my books to the library before i end up paying my next paycheck to the institution.

the sun actually shines today

it's been a bit warmer these past few days, in the fifties during the day. and even if it chilled a bit today, the sun came out and the city was resplendent in sunlight. and it wasn't just that lighter gray that portlanders call sunlight. one afternoon a few days ago, i met one of my coworkers outside the office. she said, "look at that sunshine!" i looked around and saw only gray skies, replying, "oh, you portlander..." but today: beautiful. so i convinced booth to ride the train with me out to cascade station so i could get a case for my new ipod at best buy and then stop in at ikea. it was clear enough today that we could even see mt. hood hazily looming in the distance.



the train wasn't crowded and it was nice to be outside, walking around.



and i'm much happier now that i have more coffee mugs and a drying rack for the dishes. however, when i went to city bikes earlier, i lacked a dollar for lubricant so i'll have to return tomorrow, and the woman i spoke to there said a tune up there would cost $75 which is a little rich to me right now. i'll see if i can't find someone to look at my bike for less. and i forgot to take my books with me, so now they're late and i'll have to go to the library tomorrow. furthermore, even though booth got off the train at 42nd and hollywood to go to trader joes, our arms were already carrying our ikea purchases and i forgot shopping bags, so we bought just some dinner for this evening and i'll have to return tomorrow.








so booth and i will eat some dinner, drink some beer(obtrusive sidenote: drunk, walking home last night, booth and i stopped into zupan's market for "snacks" which i took to mean more beer which i didn't drink when we got back, so now i'm drinking deschutes inversion ipa as i type), then the possibilities are endless. last night we went to a pub quiz at the belmont inn with helen and garrett at which i had a lot of fun even though i was unfortunately little help to the team. we still ranked at sixth from the bottom out of twenty. but i enjoy hanging out with helen and garrett. they're laid back, no drama; they're easy to talk to; and they're not the sort of people who party all night and i feel like i'm struggling to keep up with me. you know i like to be in bed by midnight most nights, especially now that i wake up so early. on tuesday, helen, garrett, booth, and i ate dinner together, drank some wine. it was nice, probably the highlight of my week. it's nice to get together like that, and we plan to do it hopefully once a week if we all find the time. on top of that, christina, a friend of helen's booth and i met when we flew out here to visit months ago, has just moved into town with her sister in the past few days, and i'm pretty excited to have more friends here.

i'm hoping everyone wants to get together for a little obama inauguration celebration on the 20th, even if just for a few drinks earlier in the evening at the blue diamond or our apartment. of course, holocene is also having a party that night and if others want to really go out, i'd be willing to loose a lot of sleep for obama. though to be honest, both of the opinion pieces by krugman and brooks today in the times were about how hard it's going to be for obama to pull off this economic "recovery." krugman doesn't think obama's stimulus ("stimulation" for those rural alabamians) plan is ambition enough. brooks said, "Maybe Obama can pull this off, but I have my worries. By this time next year, he’ll either be a great president or a broken one." i personally believe, or at least hope, that obama can be the greatest president, let alone pull us out of this financial morass. and hope was a big part of his campaign; it's why we voted for him. although we can't tell what exactly obama will be able to accomplish or will be willingly to do, the american public who voted for him hopes that he can at least help us with this tremendous crisis. which reminds me of my old standby fluxus aphorism, "demand the impossible and hope for everything."

fridays are my new saturdays

here's a reason to celebrate: blagojevich was impeached this morning. i wonder what it feels like to be out jogging in your neighborhood knowing that you're not just going to be fired at anytime, but impeached. on the other hand, despite blagojevich's impeachment, senate democrats flip-flopped on me and wednesday decided to seat burris anyway. whatever. you know, sometimes even the politicians i respect so much disgust me.

so, my schedule has changed a little. i now have fridays and saturdays off and will work a strange afternoon shift on sundays. which is fine because that means i have friday off and can still go out saturday night. so today, what am i going to do? i have so many errands. i need to go to the library, i have to buy some lubricant for the chain of my bicycle, i have to try to fix the back brake on my bicycle, i need to buy a case for my ipod, and i really should return to REI to exchange these fenders. there seem to be a million other things i need to do, too; i'll of course be reminded of them when it's too late. yet first things first: more coffee. i need to go to stumptown for a little half pound du cafe. oh, and i desperately need to go to trader joe's and buy some groceries. e to, e to, e to...

finally nice weather

if november brough the rain to portland, and december brought snow, here now january has brought the winds. the wind has been so strong the past two days i have found it hard to pedal my bike. the wind slows me down to the point that i feel as if i am riding underwater. my body combined with my bicycle apparently isn't aerodynamic enough for this weather. and i swear this morning that the wind pushes the rain to fall parallel to the ground. by divine providence, as i arrived downtown on my bicycle, i rode west one block further than i normally do to avoid making an illegal turn onto a one way street in front of two patrol cars, and suddenly found myself sitting next to my 35 macadam bus a few blocks away from the stop. i met the bus at the stop and decided just to ride to work since the bus was there and i was went and the wind was intense.

i do enjoy my bike ride every day. it only takes me about thirty minutes, maybe a little less, to bike the four miles from the apartment in the inner northeast to my office just south of the south waterfront. here, let me show you a map:


View Larger Map

however, if you'll notice this route takes me through downtown, and i usually take the train back over the river into the inner northeast, so there are large swaths of the city that i never see or explore much, namely, the southeast, most of the northeast, and the north. sometimes booth and i do wander a little farther north into the northeast and north sections of the city, and we often run errands downtown (such as when we went to the city of books a few days ago), but for the most part we stick around in our neighborhood. it just sometimes exhausts me thinking about walking too far and then having to walk back and sleep and wake up and begin the commute all over again. and generally there's no pressing to leave the neighborhood anyway.

as booth and i were on our way back from powell's on sunday, we got on the train at 10th and yamhill or whatever the crossroad is, and as we passed by pioneer square we noticed a protest again the attacks by israel against hamas in the gaza strip. however it wasn't the large gathering of people that can occur here in portland. there were twenty people at most, holding signs and waving flags. it reminded me of the group of senior citizens who protest the war in five points south in birmingham, the five or seven people who show up to the protest, the cheap, sometimes unreadable signs they hold, the smiles on their faces as they wave to passing cars which occassionally honk in support. i wish i had had my camera with me to show you the gathering here in portland, and i kind of wish i had known about the protest, had been able to participate.

the situation in palestine is absurd. the israelis suddenly attack after seeming to smudge that bottom line just slightly when the truce between the israeli government and hamas ended a few weeks ago. then today, after devasting the small, densely populated area, israel decided to allow three hours of cease fire a day for humanitarian help to the gazans. does this make sense to anyone? the israelis say they are attacking hamas, yet the people being injured are palestinian citizens. the israelis seem to understand they are hurting these civilians and do not seem to be affecting it apparently makes sense to the israelis and the american government, but apparently the rest of the world, particularly the french and egyptians, are trying to stop the insanity.

burris and blagojevich

so this blagojevich nomination of ronald burris to u. s. senate is a fiasco. everyone, politicians, newspapers, acquaintances, illinois citizens, being very politic, speak highly of burris. supposedly burris would be an excellent candidate to the senate. but the senate does not need to accept a member to its ranks when that person has been posted after such a scandal involving the naming of that post. everyone can see that blagojevich needs to be impeached, and that the senate needs to dismiss blagojevich's appointment. while i am not an expect in the law, i think that the constitution can be looked at in this case, considering we really haven't had a situation like this despite how some legal experts try to relate this situation to previous scandals. article i, section 5 of the constitution reads, "each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own members." so obviously the senate can judge the legitimacy of an election. the question is can it judge a gubernatorial appointment. but i say that this appointment is contingent upon an election therefore can be judged, and furthermore point out that the senate can judge "qualifications" which i believe would include the circumstances of the appointment. and despite the high opinion people seem to have of mr. burris, i think we should take into consideration the fact that burris knew the situation he was putting himself in when he accepted this "appointment." the news talks about how calculating blagojevich can be, but could burris be just as calculating? what kind of person would accept this appointment knowing just how controversial it would be? why would burris not just wait like a person we would hope to be chosen as senator would? burris obviously wanted this position badly enough that he was willing to take it under dishonorable circumstances.

so let me tell you about the new year.
first of all: J. D. Salinger turned 90 (corrected: both age and link)this year, and here is a lovely little article about how he changed the short story. although this author for the times disparages salinger's spiritualism, i think that this element in salinger's is what makes certain stories great "coming of age" novels. my coming of age novel: look homeward, angel by the early twentieth century modernist thomas wolfe. a massive tome of stream of consciousness writing given to me at nine years old by a friend of the family who i called uncle. i didn't finish reading the novel until i was 18 or 19, but now it's one of my favorites.

second: oregon's pretty progressive. minimum wage here has now been elevated to $8.40 per hour. and even more progressive, the smoking ban is finally in effect. you can't even smoke in a bar here. this means i won't wake up in the morning wondering what that horrible smell is until i find the clothes i wore the night before on the floor reeking of cigarette ash. booth and i went to the blue diamond last night to have dinner and so that he could watch the alabama game, and after a few minutes i was suddenly struck. hey! my eyes were watering, the place didn't smell like an ashtray, i wasn't going to smell like an ashtray when i walked out. it was amazing. certainly there must be a lot of grouchy people out there who have to smoke outside by the front door in the cold, but at least it doesn't get too cold here in portland. and luckily, there were still plenty of people gambling last night, so hopefully the smoking ban won't cause the state economy to collapse after all.

third: yesterday morning, with arctic blast 2008 a week behind us, i thought we were about to see the beginning of arctic blast 2009. when i walked outside to unchain my bike, the scary man who lives in the basement apartment walked out and said, "snow again, huh?" i had no idea what he was talking about until i turned around and saw ne flanders blanketed in snow yet again. i sighed and set off to work on my bicycle since it wasn't even cold out. the bike ride was a little miserable however. while the snow lay over the ground, the atmosphere was warm enough that as snow as the tires of my bicycle rode over the white ground the snow instantly turned to water which splashed over me. luckily, i was smart enough to wear my rain suit, which is now covered in grime from the dirt and sand that the city threw down to help driving in the snow last week, but my feet were still soaked by the time i got to the office.