Rise Industries

Are architects really this out of touch with what most Americans like in a building?

Judging from what people usually look for in a house, probably.

Hey, they have a pretty sweet monogram.

The Americans who voted for George W. Bush wish to return their television. Over at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

Relatedly, I have been reading Catch-22 for the second time lately, and it is fantastic. Sort of a drifting cloud of contradictions and rotating viewpoints, stepping forward and back through time to mull over the same events again and again. Alternating ludicrous humor with moments of clear beauty which set you up for horrifying episodes of staggering pain and violence. I can’t really get into it all right now, but I may need to start up some novel-blogging ala Defective Yeti on Moby Dick or something. Anyway. I hit this sweet little passage the other day, when Joseph Heller pretty much summed up our situation with Halliburton and private “security companies” in Iraq, but from back in time:

“‘Frankly, I’d like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry. If we pay the government everything we owe it, we’ll only be encouraging government control and discouraging other individuals from bombing their own men and planes. We’ll be taking away their incentive.’
Milo was correct, of course, as everyone soon agreed but a few embittered misfits like Doc Daneeka, who sulked cantankerously and muttered offensive insinuations about the morality of the whole venture until Milo mollified him wth a donation, in the name of the syndicate…”

-this just after Milo had his planes bomb his own squadron for a hefty profit paid by the Germans.

“‘Milo, this is Alvin Brown. I’ve finished dropping my bombs. What should I do now?’
‘Strafe,’ said Milo.
‘Strafe?’ Alvin Brown was shocked.
‘We have no choice,’ Milo informed him resignedly. ‘It’s in the contract.'”

The Americans who voted for George W. Bush wish to return their television. Over at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

Relatedly, I have been reading Catch-22 for the second time lately, and it is fantastic. Sort of a drifting cloud of contradictions and rotating viewpoints, stepping forward and back through time to mull over the same events again and again. Alternating ludicrous humor with moments of clear beauty which set you up for horrifying episodes of staggering pain and violence. I can’t really get into it all right now, but I may need to start up some novel-blogging ala Defective Yeti on Moby Dick or something. Anyway. I hit this sweet little passage the other day, when Joseph Heller pretty much summed up our situation with Halliburton and private “security companies” in Iraq, but from back in time:

“‘Frankly, I’d like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry. If we pay the government everything we owe it, we’ll only be encouraging government control and discouraging other individuals from bombing their own men and planes. We’ll be taking away their incentive.’
Milo was correct, of course, as everyone soon agreed but a few embittered misfits like Doc Daneeka, who sulked cantankerously and muttered offensive insinuations about the morality of the whole venture until Milo mollified him wth a donation, in the name of the syndicate…”

-this just after Milo had his planes bomb his own squadron for a hefty profit paid by the Germans.

“‘Milo, this is Alvin Brown. I’ve finished dropping my bombs. What should I do now?’
‘Strafe,’ said Milo.
‘Strafe?’ Alvin Brown was shocked.
‘We have no choice,’ Milo informed him resignedly. ‘It’s in the contract.'”

This past weekend Michele and I went to Art LA, one of them big art fairs that seem to be multiplying across the planet. This one took place at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, a handsome mid-century modern building near the ocean. Since Michele had a video in the Dangerous Curve booth, we got guest tickets through them (thanks Tim and Kathryn!).
So, the fair is like a big strip mall of art – mostly galleries from Los Angeles, but sprinkled with places from around the world. Some Mexico City, some Barcelona, someplace in Austria, another in France. They are all trying to sell some work, and we were in turn trying to find places we could feasibly show some work. So its alot of marketing type stuff going on basically. And there was actually a whole lot of good stuff here and there among the boring, bad or just plain detestable crap that serves as the filler any time a bunch of art is around.
The best part though, was that Machine Project – an experimental educational space which holds workshops, lectures, performances and shows art with a technical or mathematical slant to it – had taken over a large chunk of the lobby to do all kinds of fun stuff. They had some laptop sound performance going on, and some sewing workshop you could jump in on. Also a soldering workshop thing where you could circuit bend some little electronic sound things for a while. And they had a Nintendo Wii set up to play with just for the hell of it. No marketing tie in there, just a video game in the corner. But best of all the guerilla-jam-making group Fallen Fruit was in attendance cooking up marmalade from oranges gathered off of public and private land around Los Angeles. They are a gang of three guys who promote planting fruit trees around LA (and make maps of the locations with types of fruit) so that people can simply walk around the city and eat free fruit off of the tress or off the ground. Then they hold workshops where you bring in this public fruit, and they help you make jam. We have some of the marmalade cooling and congealing in the fridge, should be ready by the weekend. So, get out and plant some trees on public land folks! Just don’t get caught in the act.

Have you ever heard of Landschaftspark, in Germany? Maybe you have, but it was new to me. Apparently it was a massive industrial ruin that was rehabbed into a park/ art center/ retail place WITHOUT CHANGING THE ARCHITECTURE. One web site describes it like this: “…an industrial wasteland that the Germans transformed into a wildly popular park and tourist destination. Duisburg is in the Ruhr near Dusseldorf. It features acres of natural greenery. The old factory buildings house musical performances and art exhibits. Former ore silos have rock climbing walls. There’s an old blast furnace that’s been turned into an observation deck and more. At night, the old industrial structures are bathed in colored light.” I doubt New England could take advantage of this (our sites are smaller and land is more valuable in such a dense area) but maybe Pittsburgh could learn a thing or two?

I was happy to find out that a friend of ours from undergrad, Amy Bennet, is featured this morning over at the The Morning News. They interview her about her recent show of paintings out here in LA, which we had the opportunity to see in person last week. Fantastic work… and as the interview reveals, they are the product of a very complex process.

…speaking of 1985.

By the way, this is not what you are supposed to use MIDI for.

Holy Moley! There is so much insane video in Sarah Hepola’s video digest this week that I really have nothing else to say about it. Except that Fez (from That 70s Show, did I really have to tell you that?) is really just a rip-off of Balki Bartokomous (from Perfect Strangers, if you are under 30 I probably had to tell you that), but I hope you knew that already. And that I have an inexplicable urge to put on some parachute pants and head over to Wendys for a crappy burger.

Plus, I just found this. Oh my God.