... a picture worth millions and millions of words.....

.... Everyone.... stop reading this entry RIGHT NOW and go to Chris Jordan's website.... look at the Running the Numbers: American Self Portrait series... come back to me once you have seen it.....

....Was your mind blown.....?

Those of you who didn't fo when I first told you to, here is your second chance to not be a huge dumb ass...... go see the coolest thing i have encountered in a LOOOOOONG while...

If you still haven't done it there is nothing I can do for you.... It's such an amazing idea.... to create images from exactly the thing you are criticizing, or even simply contemplating on, without judgement....

although, anyone that can look at these and not think of the States as a place of hyberbolic caricature boggles my mind.... almost as much as the waste.....

... i am using you....

.... just in case you were wondering... i am only friends with people i think are AWESOME... and this is because they lead me to more awesome people....

....this process has been sped up exponentially by the advent of facebook (and I am not commenting on it as a social phenomenon, i leave that to EVERYONE else.... like they weren't expecting it, after myspace, youtube, google... shocker people like the internet to find things... bigger shock, we like to find ourselves on it)

.... anyway I found this guy on this guys's page....

His name is Izik Levy and he is an amazing glass artist.... I love glass art...

seriously this will be a topic for a future post... but lets just say. Glass speaks to me... and Izik Levy's is saying "I AM SOOOOO COOL"...

....then i went to his website... it kicks ASS!...

...go there... immediately... or else

.... a matter of brine....

.... the politics of food can lead to many a debate.... sharing, ordering, preparing, savouring..... all these can lead to many hours-long discussions (i have had more than one turn into shouting matches).... People are serious about food, and when it comes to matters of taste nothing can be taken lightly.....

.... that said..... one should know the deep-seated (or is it deep-seeded) love I have for pickles.... it's nearly fanatical.... The following is a quote from a fellow pickle enthusiast, which I found on a page dedicated to such discussions. It is highly informative, intelligent and logical....

(and for those of you who don't speak hebrew, or it's english transliteration, tzedakah means charity):


"At a deli, the venerable pickle is cut length-wise either into quarters or eighths. That notwithstanding, the entire pickle should be served as a matter of good graces. The reason for it is known to any proper yiddishkite proprietor- when sitting at a table with other, the pickle is necessarily public property and parts of said pickle shall be eaten by all and sundry. By providing the full pickle, you allow the person who ordered the pickle to perform tzedakah by giving some away while keeping some for his own consumption." -Matt Consky

..... a great link.....

.... for all my designer friends and enthusiasts out there.....

(meaning... I love this website... and am actually a little obsessed with it)

...big fuckin' word of the day...

...... superfluous......

....goy... if you don't know, you are one....

Lenny Bruce (1925-1966) is something of a patron saint--make that rebbe-- a hero and martyr to the cause. Born Leonard Alfred Schneider, he was imprisoned on obscenity charges, but refused to censor his act. He died at 40 of a drug overdose. In the following piece, he takes humorous aim at the Jewish propensity to see the world as starkly divided, often absurdly, between things that are "Jewish" and those that are not--for the latter, self-consciously using the term goyish, considered today a slur, though it's still used by some to describe such culturally foreign things as bologna on white bread with mayonnaise.



Dig:

I'm Jewish. Count Basie's Jewish. Ray Charles is Jewish. Eddie Cantor's goyish.

B'nai Brith is goyish; Hadassah, Jewish.
Marine corps--heavy goyim, dangerous.


Kool-Aid is goyish. All Drake's cakes are goyish.
Pumpernickel is Jewish,
and,
as you know, white bread is very goyish.
Instant potatoes...
...goyish.

Black cherry soda's...
...very Jewish.

Macaroons are very Jewish...very Jewish cake.
Fruit salad is Jewish.
Lime jello is goyish...

...Lime soda is very goyish.

Trailer parks are so goyish that Jews won't go near them.
Jack Paar Show is very goyish.

Underwear is definitely goyish. Balls are goyish.
Titties are Jewish. Mouths are Jewish.

All Italians are Jewish..


...Greeks are goyish... bad sauce.

...so it goes....

... these were the words uttered by author/narrator Kurt Vonnegut in slaughterhouse five, every time a character would die....

... and now, it is time to use the words for the prolific man himself....

Kurt Vonnegut passed yesterday, after falling almost two weeks ago in his home in
NYC, which caused irreversible brain injuries. A legend, a genius, a writer and 'just a guy'.

...he will be missed by all who knew him, if only through his words (which may be deeper than you most people you actually know)

... I unearthed this quote from an interview done with Vonnegut a while back, it perfectly sums up the man, his sombre nature, his twisted humour, and his light approach to the worlds heaviest issues. I will close my post with it:

"I'm embarrassed to have lived this long. It's in terrible taste (laughs). You know I had a fire several years ago, and it would have been so shapely if I'd died in the fire. But here I am, and of course I'm suing the cigarette company because on the package they promised to kill me, and here I am."

-Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

... i fall down a lot....

... and perhaps that was why i was so drawn to the work of Kerry Skarbakka.....

It's kinda fucking awesome..... any image that you see in this post is from his website.... I claim credit for nothing, except the complete awe that strikes the viewer..... I am all over the sense of wonder......

He bases the works on Heidigger who described human existence as a process of perpetual falling. On his site Skarbakka claims that, "it is the responsibility of each individual to "catch ourselves" from our own uncertainty. [His] work is in response to this delicate state. It questions what it means to resist the struggle, to simply let go, and the consequences of holding on. The images stand as reminders that we are all vulnerable to losing our footing and grasp, symbolizing the precarious balancing act between the struggle against our desire to survive and our fantasy to transcend our humanness."

Fuck.... and I just thought I was clumsy... turns out i am being philosophical and shit..... cool