Author: wasswasswass

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Mom and…

Here are some photos and a videoclip of a performance installation K and I did on Monday the 21st of April, 2008. It took us over 14 hrs of set up time. Blowing up balloons took a lot longer than I had imagined. Especially when you only have one hand pump. I bought a second one to use in the last few hours before the piece ran. The location of the performance was the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery @ 155 Grove Street. I was asked by the group Kunsole to do something there. One of the members of Kunsole, Roddy, created a sound piece he played during our performance. He places mikes in contact with the tape wall to pick up the sounds of the balloons, which were integrated into his score. The music was then piped out to the sidewalk.

Initially I purchased 2500 balloons online, but they arrived a day late, so I had to find enough balloons in town to do the piece. Turns out I had more than enough. The limiting factor was time. And because time was limited, we had to limit the space that we could fill with balloons. Further evidence of how time and space are inextricably linked. Next time, and I hope to do this or a version of it again, we will use an electric air pump.

Popping balloons is a very satisfying sensation!




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The Damned Don’t Cry

The clip above is from the noir film “The Damned Don’t Cry” starring Joan Crawford. It’s an okay flick, kept waiting for the titular line, but it never came. The clip above is from the end of the movie when the shit hits the fan. The bad guy kills the other bad guy. There’s a great roll and flip over a staircase.

Who says parkour started in France?

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The Torch Relay is stupid

The torch is winding its way to Beijing. It was recently in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

“Instead of being paraded down Islamabad’s leafy main boulevard from the presidential palace and other streets, it will now circulate around the Jinnah sports stadium in the capital, watched by 8000 handpicked guests.”

How fucked up is that?

Hand picked guests!?!!?! I thought the point of the relay is to share the joy of the Olympics with everyone, not just a select few. Why have the torch relay if no one can see it?

Even worse was in New Dehli – “…the relay [was] virtually closed off from public view except for the estimated 15,000 policemen who will line the road leading from the presidential palace to India Gate.”

Doesn’t anyone think that is retarded? Again I ask – why have the torch rally if the public cannot see it? How can China not think something is wrong if so many people are wrecking havoc or at least trying to? And why are people trying so hard to keep the tradition of the torch relay alive?

I say drop the relay. Why keep a tradition started by Hitler alive?

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Berkeley Animal Rights Activists or Bomb McDonalds

“University seeks restraining order against protesters who rally outside of homes of researchers”

Animal rights activists have gotten rather rowdy lately, harassing professors who use animals in their research. I can’t say that I am for using animals in research, not sure if it always that effective. But I am pretty sure that the protests are just further alienating the public from their cause.

The two most effective protesters to date – Gandhi and M.L.K. – were both non violent.

Look at Palestine and Israel – continual violence and no progress. Didn’t the change happen in Ireland once people stopped bombing each other.

And maybe some good comes from animal testing. I am sure some vaccines and medical procedures have been discovered/invented as a result of animal testing.

Where the animal rights activists should put their energy is in fast food. No good comes out of that and the animals are treated far worse in industrial food making than in labs. Attacking professors in labs in too removed from the everyman. If activists put smoke bombs in fast food “restaurants” driving people away from KFC etc, they would get more of a reaction. People would begin to fear going to buy fast food.

Animal testing, while is such for the animals does some good. Fast food does no one any good. It just creates trash and type 2 diabetes.

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Learned Phrases for Social Interaction

Yesterday, I was at a friend’s house working in his garage on a bench. The bench is almost done. Won’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but that is another post. The house next to my friend, A.’s house is for sale. As I was grinding the bench, a man approached. Couldn’t hear him as grinding is very loud and I was wearing hear plugs. Turns out he was the real estate agent for the house next door. He wondered if I was the owner of the truck that was in the driveway. Truck belonged to the pool guy, who was fixing A.’s pool. As the agent and I bumbled through the conversation about the truck driveway etc, he mentions the earplugs I was wearing-
“Smart idea to wear those. I used to be in a rock band and should have worn something like than when I was playing”

As the pool guy approached the agent asks him to move his truck and compliments him on his sunglasses. That compliment stuck out to me. Seemed forced, a concerted effort – Oh, now is when I insert a compliment to make this exchange smooth
It was as if the agent had learned a method of exchange with strangers – Engage, add compliment, get what you need. As if he were following a script he learned in a seminar.

Seemed like a dorky guy who somehow ended up in a social line of work. I would guess he is better at the paper work side of his job than the people work side of his job. Hope the seminar was worth the money.