Today was a long day. My most interesting writings were:

from the LEV list:

> so it is true, there still are people who do genuinely believe in
> society being malleable….
> i’ve always taken that for sentimental gossip…

Gee, you sound like someone who’s too cynical to believe in nihilism…
Pity that.

1. You don’t have to “reform” society – it reforms on a daily basis, it changes all the time. Repetition is a form of change. All you have to do is stand up for something and go for it. But if you twiddle your pomo thumbs you’ll just sit there. Twiddling your pomo thumbs. Also note: 100 years ago cinema was black and white, silent and passive and insanely expensive. Now performance cinema is in colour (often lurid, but that’s another issue) with sound, it’s active, and the means to do it are little more than a keyboard, a laptop, and a projector… Society changes. All the Time.

Also: in the early 1900s there was a strike at a mine in Colorado. People wanted to work only 5 days a week. The governor, who was in the pocket of the mining interests, called out the State National Guard Units and had them move on the camps. they fired into the strikers tents. All the men were at the mine, picketing, so the soldiers shot 24 women and children DEAD.

They died so people in the USA could have a 5 day work week.

There is absolutely nothing sentimental about brutal blind slaughter. People dying in order to change the world is not “sentimental gossip”. The hand wringing attitude that it is such only serves the interests of the likes of the crypto and not so crypto fascists who are presently running things.

2. Performance cinema must stand on its own, claim its own intellectual space, with its own theory and aesthetic. This must be articulated and the articulation must reflect the diversity and complexity of the the source material.
You can either help or hinder. I’d REALLY like it if you could help. I’m running myself broke to put this symposium on – (so far) no company has stepped in to help, no government has squeezed its teat to make this happen. This makes its free and open and very low budget but also of the highest possible integrity and purpose.

3. As performance cinema stands and articulates itself in time, our media culture will be that much more vibrant and interesting, and Bog only knows what will be born from it.

Got a note from Kim Cascone – hope to have lunch with him and his family this coming weekend. It’ll be good to see him.

Completed recording post audio for SEI down at Chris Tann’s digs in S. San Jose. He has a wonderful home theatre set up. Someday I will too…

Elizabeth is in swimming camp this month. She’s a sweetie bump. She showed me how to pronounce Montmartre. It sounded more like MonnnMarrr. God bless the good ship FAIS and all who sail with her.

The recall effort to remove Gray Davis is well underway. Ariana Huffington wrote a typically miguided article on Salon.com about it, and I felt I had to respond. I mailed the following, under the name “Ralph Spoilspot” to the Salon editors.

Huffington on Davis Recall

This is simple, and predictable and sad.

This is what will happen:

The sour grape Republicans at the behest of the idiot likes of Tom DeLay will push through the recall.

No Democrat with even a nanogram of party loyalty will step in the way of Davis. It is likely that the Republicans will field more than one candidate.

The Democratic voters will (again) hold their noses and vote for Gray Davis, and the Republican vote will be divided and lose the election.

A total waste of time and money.

And the worst part? A mental image that fills me with inertia: Gray Davis Gloating.

I’ll vote for Gray Davis, simply because I can’t see surrendering the governorship of California to the reptilian likes of Bush & Co. But frankly: Davis sucks. And the saddest part? He’s the best outcome of this whole sorry mess.

This is not a good time to be in California.

(2009: note to reader, Schwartzenegger swooped in and won the election.)

Today is another day. I don’t know what today will bring. Beth actually drove to cupertino to be at work today. she’s going out of town several days later this month for some training in Irving, TX. We have a friend, “Red” Nelson, who lives not far from there, so Beth will have someone to hang out with.

I’m planning to re-set up my studio after ripping it apart yesterday to do the recording at Chriss Tann’s place. Right now my studio is such a mess, I don’t know if I’ll get to it – I might just spend this morning cleaning the place, and then work on the cover for Dennis Young’s new CD, “Old Dog, New Tricks”.

I grew up with Dennis – he lived several blocks away from me, and his grandfather lived even closer. We were in some of the same classes in grade school, and our fathers were both on the volunteer ambulance squad. I remember playing in his grandfather’s backyard with him – some of my few really happy memories from childhood. Dennis is the percussionist in the group “Liquid Liquid”. They had a hit back in the day with the song “Cavern” which was sampled by Grandmaster Flash in the monster hit “White Lines”. That super bass/drum/percussion line is striahgt out of Cavern. Dennis is a great guy and I urge everyone to collect his music. It’s nothing like mine: he’s very involved with striaght ahead groovy funky beats w/ smooth vocals and soaring guitars. Really nice stuff. And *I’m* doing the cover for the CD… Gotta get cranking on that today. I did a rough a few days ago when I got the CD, but I want to present him with several alternatives, so I feel comfortable that he’s comfortable with what he’s getting. His pressing plant sent me the Quark Templates they use, so that will ease the development of the artwork considerably. I enjoy doing CD covers. I do them well…

Dennis Young’s WEBSITE.

Last night, after putting Elizabeth to bed I scampered down to Dimension7, (D7) to reconnect with the people there and get some more movement on the symposium. Sometimes I despair for performance cinema. There was some really nice wallpaper stuff there – abstract washy lines and forms that gently evolved into other, ummm, washy lines and forms – zero “content” but beautiful to look at. I missed the main attraction at 8pm. supposedly it was pretty good. Grant of D7 had some really striking stuff looping for a while. Gave me a few ideas about what I can do with SEI. One guy (I forget his name) showed up with a keyboard and laptop and Arkaos, and performed clips (processed in real time) of some guy dancing. Badly. It sucked. I have nothing against “VJ” work, but damn people : THINK before you project something… life is SO much more interesting than the lowest common denominator – it’s why I’m busting my back on this symposium!

Speaking of the symposium, So far I’ve received some nice stuff, from all over the world. I’m getting very excited about all this…

Once I put my studio back together, I’ll be editing SEI back together with the new audio tracks. This late afternoon will be spent web – job hunting.

Unemployment is at the highest rate since 1983. No shit. A friend of mine says it’s because the Republicans are trying to wring all the wage gains of the working classes out of the economy, so as to improve the short term profits of the Republican overlords. He might be right.

Spent the morning writing a response to a jackass on the levList. I haven’t sent it in yet – I’m refining it a bit to make sure it is what I want – a delicate balance between positive explanation and toasty flammage. I detest cynics. It’s fundamentally reactionary and self-serving. Yuck.

Well, the weasels are out again. Gov. Dean has shown that he has something to say, and so the mainstream and even so-called liberal press is out to sabotage him. The stirling example of this is Salon.com, where today the ONLY candidate discussed for the past two days has been Dean, and only in the context of how his “liberal” positions are not likely to win an election against the likes of Bush.

Frankly, I think Dean could easily win against Bush by simply speaking the truth about what’s really going down in this country, and mobilising people to vote (on the one hand), while demonstrating to the independents that his position is vastly more in line with their actual interests. If the economy continues to tank, it should be fairly easy for Dean or any Democrat to win.

The Democrats that I think are least likely to win are the ones anointed by the DLC: Edwards, Lieberman, Gephardt. Edwards needs a personality transplant, Lieberman’s a fool, and Gephardt is too compromised from his wishy washing in Congress. Of the remaining, Kerry’s not so bad, but could be better, and Dean has his value. I think if Dean was willing to be #2 on a ticket with the likes of Kerry, or even (eeewwwww!) Edwards, I think he could really bring the race into focus for some people and we can actually vote Bush out. With Dean as #2, it’s like Bush41’s choice of SpudBoy for VP, only from a reverse angle: the right wing will tend to leave a democratic president alone if his running mate is even father to the left. That I should even be concerned fills me with despair for this country.

It’s not like the USA had a great start: some landowners didn’t want to share the spoils with King George. Slavery, a lack of franchise for women, the open slaughter of Indians, etc. A real horror story. But the ideals they cooked up back then are high, and it’s to those ideals that this country should endeavour, and not shirk from for the sake of some idiotic notion of security. The USA needs to abandon its empire, and resolve to live as what it is: 6% of the world’s population, no more, no less.

Got the application to the Sounds shindig in St John’s NF out the door yeasterday. FedEx’d it and it should get there on time. Was mentioned in Markus Reuters’s web journal which was very kind of him. If you don’t know his music, check it out. It’s really good stuff. Markus is an amazing player of the tap-style guitar (Chapman stick, Warr Guitar, etc.) and makes some very celestial stuff. He’s also a very decent all-around bloke.

Today, in a few minutes, actually, Kim Cascone and his family (wife: Kat, boy: Cage) are coming over for a brunch. They’re bringing some fruit and I will be serving my infamously delicious pancakes, and an egg frittata fry up kind of dealie I make that is also scrumpdili-icious! It’ll be good to see them – they are some of people I have known the longest here in San Francisco – I met them through their old music label days at Silent Records. They are very wonderful people, and I enjoy their company a lot.

I actually gota decent nights sleep last night, for the first time in a week.

Brunch with the Cascones was wonderful. It was good to see them again. Cage and Elizabeth chased the cats around, my pancakes were excellent, and the eggs came out beautifully. They brought a fine collection of fruit, and a splendid time was had by all. We all agree somafm.com has the BEST internet radio stations. Totally brilliant that. We all agree that cliqhop is a Very Good Thing. They’ve been travelling lately, and they told me of a great thing- it plugs into the iPod so you can listen to the iPod on your car radio. Talk about a world of wonderful things! Especially when travelling through the Central Valley of California which is a very right wing and culturally deprived area. Gives me a reason to get an iPod! Now all I need is a job so I can buy the iPod…

I figured out that I should *just* be able to squeeze my CD collection onto an 80gig HD. When laptops get cheap enough, I’ll get one for the Warwick Music Archive.

Beth is in Dallas for a few days at an SAP training thingie for HP. Neither of us are big fans of Dallas, but we have a few friends in the area, and Beth hopes to see them when she gets there, esp. Judie. Already I miss Beth… Elizabeth was a bit of a pill early this morning, but not impossible. I gave her lots of hugs, and everything was fine.

Super busy today – editing video of SEI for performance, and reviewing the entrants for the symposium in September. Got another entrant; VJs from Quebec. Got email from Kim, Raul, and a lovely friend from my wacky old days in DC, Tonya. Stacy from Oz touched base as well. Good to hear from everyone. I wish I had more to say – I do, I just haven’t the time right now to put it into words…

Sometimes I think Beth, Elizabeth and I should be living in Europe.

Didn’t sleep much last night, but I slept well when I did finally doze off.

Getting more response to the Symposium. I developed a simple website for the symposium (SFPCS) and need to fix it up a bit. Get a few more emails out to people interested. So far, it looks like I’ll have people from as far away as Norway to come and speak, and performers from all over the place. It’s very exciting.

Right now, I’m up to my eyeballs editing SEI for a test performance/premiere at Goddard college in early august. Peter Nyboer’s been doing my software development, and he recently sent me the latest rev of our app (FLORENCE). I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to even test it!

Last night I made a yummy dinner of Runner Beans, Soy based sausage, a salad and Juice to drink. Cheap easy eats, and Elizabeth dug it. This morning had breakfast with Jerry (as usual of a Thursday) at All You Knead (as usual) at the middle booth on the right (as usual) and ordered eggs / bacon / pumpernickel toast and garlic potatoes with coffee (As usual) served by the ever delightful Michelle (as usual) who’s birthday it is today. We talked about video (as usual) and the horrific state of the world (as usual). Now, with a monster breakfast and enough coffee to give a bull elephant the jitters, I’m fueled and ready to edit a ton of video.

Political statement for the day: Fuck George Bush and his junta of greedy imperialist thugs.

18 JULY 03

Major Dream Action last night. Hardly slept. Finally faded around 2 AM. Up at 7.30 to get Boo ready for school. Last night had wild vision about understanding the universe as harmonic structures in higher dimensional space – it was if I could see the extra dimensions. Certain resonant harmonies resulted in different kinds of matter or energy. In this way, gravity was a kind of “leading wave” that easily resonated with other similar leading waves. The Cosmo. Constant went in the other “direction” and had its own harmonic structure – it was all these resonating frequencies – matter and energy were just the manifestations of them that I could “normally” percieve.

These were caused by a massive harmonic resonance – a huge number of giant waves all coalesced in one place as several harmonic forces all met at once. There was someone playing a singing bowl, and it grew so loud, it cracked. When it cracked, there was a shower of light, and it all spun off into all directions, even ones that haven’t the same dimensionality. Intense dream.

Today, I edit more video, and work on some music soudtracking, and pick up Beth at the Airport. Then it’s off to Elizabeth’s swimming lessons. A full day ahead. Yesterday I worked on the credits – they came out really well – and the cafe scene, which is going to be a lot tighter than I first expected…

20 JULY 03

Today is a VERY busy day. LOTS of editing to do. Got a note from Dennis Young – wants some more ideas for his CD cover, so I’ll get to that later this week, once I sort out a minor technology situation on my end. Got a lot of editing done last night, lost a bunch of it, but will simply have to re-render it. I’ll probably save that for tonight and re-render the whole thing at once, rather than in bits and pieces and waste my day with it.

Lately I’ve been listening to Kim Cascone’s blackCube( ). It’s very uncompromising sound. Very smart, rather dissonant and distilled. I approve.

Elizabeth had a sleep over at her friend Gabby’s house. There were six little six year olds there. Gabby’s parents get a medal. In honour of the evening, Beth and I did something we *never* get to do: go out for a spicy dinner and watch a movie that isn’t something cooked up by Disney or Pixar.

We went to Guymas in Tiburon. It was very good, and the view of Angel Island and SF is fantastic. I had a seafood mix (squid, octopus, coho salmon, mussels, and an assortment of veggies in some kind of spicy butter sauce) and Beth had skewers of lamb and chicken with various veggies. And Margaritas!!! Yum. We did some window shopping, bought a very nice bottle of Wine (Windsor Merlot, 1999 signature series…oOOoOOoo. We tasted it first – it’s very good) then went on to see a movie: Northfork by Bros. Polish.

It was very good, but not great. I’d give it 3.5 stars out of 5. I liked the magical elliptical plot that keeps you dangling and wondering. I loved the idea of the story – that a boy might actually be a de-winged angel, now dying, and soon to accompany other angels who have come to find him. I wondered if the boy was actually the angel of the town that was about to be submerged, and that as the town died so did he; and as the town entered the world of forms in history, so too, the boy ascended to his rightful place as an angel. I liked some of the acting – I thought Darryl Hannah and Nick Nolte were very good. They seemed to care about what they were doing. Some of the performances I thought were a bit flat, but sometimes it was hard to tell, given the exigencies of the characters. The worst part of the movie was the music. It was continuous, obtrusive, and never ending. As soundtrack, it was OK, nothing special in terms of composition, and could have been used very effectively. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It was used VERY badly, and it bothered me. A lot. However, given the utter shite that normally gets pumped out of Hollywood to dull and distract the masses, this is well worth watching.

We got home, and basically passed out. We slept in till about 8 when the cats wouldn’t let Beth sleep any longer and insisted on being fed. We went out for breakfast – something else we don’t get to do very often. We went to All you Knead, in Haight Ashbury. We stuffed ourselves (their portions are large and very reasonabley priced) and we basically skipped lunch. Elizabeth is now out with her “godmother”, Bree, feeding kitties. Bree said she’d feed E. so Beth and I get a dinner to ourselves tonight… Yippie! I think I’ll cook something spicy… I have some tilapia defrosted in the fridge…

This afternoon, I’ve been editing sections for SEI. Sometimes I look at this and think : I’ll never get this done. Ever. I’m doomed. But then I start working on it, and little by little each shot transforms into a clip, and everything slowly clicks into place. I’ll be up most of the night and for the rest of the week working on this. It’s one of the linch pins of my thesis work.

Saturday, a few more submissions rolled in for the Symposium. Gotta work on that too, this week. Woof.

I also watched the interviews with Brakhage on the retrospective DVD I bought. He’s one of my heroes. That DVD is amazing and wonderful. Truly a remarkable document, and a must have.

Political Statement of the Day: Fuck Ann Coulter and her skanky fascist lunacy. People like her make me wanna clear my throat.