Tuesday, August 31, 2004

enycee

kudos to those on the frontline in NYC. all of us far away are watching and listening every step of the way. just to see the sea of collective dissent surging through the veins of New York City. aiyah! you make me so proud (sniff). keep on keepin on.

Monday, August 30, 2004

and this room...

the interesting thing about acquiring property with one's partner is that you have to face and negotiate every point of contention that gets avoided on the day-to-day level as if it was a major decision. priority structures in everyone's mind becomes transparent when it comes to alloting space to the most and least important activities in one's life. simple decisions like 'what is the largest room in the apartment for?' may seem simple, but become concentrated distillations of each person's outlook on life. So is the big space for living, as in a 'living room' or is it for working? how about which room to sleep in? would that be the biggest room or the smallest room? or something in between?

and what to do when faced point blank with the statement: "We'll make the smallest room our bedroom because we only sleep there."

Hold everything... Do I know you?

Sunday, August 29, 2004

gossip

So-and-so used to date What-cha-ma-jigger. What's-his-face cheated on his wife and left the country. Thingy had her jaw rebuilt and the scars to prove it. Whosit has a new girlfriend - don't tell Whatsit. Thing-a-ma-whumpus has quit his job and opening up shop here. Thing-ma-jigger is being sued by What-ch-ma-callit.

That's today's gossip. You didn't hear it from me.

Saturday, August 28, 2004

hot damn

it works. now I can join in the white noise on the internet just like everyone else, so there.

Just updated my website with images of my newest useless machine. A knitting machine made of some pretty wonky stuff. It's amazing that it hasn't disintegrated yet. Here's a link to see it in all it's glory. Click on the 'Magic of Knitting' at the top of the list.

I should have started this earlier so I could have kept a running commentary on getting that art piece together as well as curating the electronic art exhibition The Location You @ Now in Beijing and Shanghai. Nutty fun. There are all kinds of stories, but here's just a sampling: at one point the shipping company came to the gallery in Beijing to pick up the work and truck it over to Shanghai. They arrived in an open flatbed truck while it was pouring buckets of rain outside. No tarp and a piddly little piece of rope. In true Chinese style they waved it off (mei wenti)and proceeded to lift the incredibly heavy wooden crate up onto the bed of the truck using their own backs as a forklift. If I wasn't freaking out about never seeing the work in one piece again, I would have taken photos.

Another random scene: A few days ago a hawker came into our apartment complex pushing a bike with two large baskets on either side. He had a megaphone strapped to the handlebars on which he had pre-recorded his hawker call. Most of the time these megaphones are shouting things like "Get yer Evening News here" or "Fresh Vegetables" but this guy had the most monotone voice on there saying very nonchalantly, "Collecting Hair.... Collecting Hair." bizarre.




Friday, August 27, 2004

um..

I'm finally doing this. testing the waters to see if it's warm enough...