in Beloit

Stump and Walnuts, Beloit, WI (photograph) 2010

Outer Space (digital photograph) 2010

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Ill-Starred

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November 19, 2010

: expecting a shadow to be as warm as the body that cast it

1 in 4.17

for a possible new project about chance and astronomy i bought a Cosmic Chance $1 scratch-off Illinois Lotto ticket a week ago. i haven't scratched it off yet and am not sure if i need to/should yet. below is some research i've done on this scratch-off.

from the IL Lottery site

from the Book of Odds - this ticket has the same odds of a married male 15 - 44 using a condom during his last sexual encounter

leaves

a lot of poetry can probably be read with Gabriel Orozco's work, but i have run across one Orozco-conjuring poetic instance in particular today. from Leaf-Stalks by Ágnes Nemes Nagy, a poem that describes the beauty in the fractals of a tree.

"Who sees the designs of trees? Appearing readily in material form behind the leaves, the web of sticks, stalks and tendons; precision ticking, raising and placing the leaves in position; accurate to the last mm. no matter how high it is raised. Precisely as far as the light. Each to it's proper place, to the geometrical point it must occupy. Whose concern is this transaction between branch and leaf, who is concerned with the network of auxiliary lines? With the precision hidden within the pathos of this leafy crown which is length, angle, and direction?"

Gabriel Orozco - Light Though Leaves (iris print) 1996

over-emphasized poetic tropes

I don't understand why some poets (it seems like the old ones) read poetry with wispy, drawn-out, voices. This type of reading seems to wildly emphasize words to the extent that the filigree and over-design of the reading gets in the way of the poem. I can't help but think what Alfred Loos would think of this. Don't words carry their own emphasis? Because poets are working in a publicly exclusive medium anyway, shouldn't they try to open up their work for the widest audience? - by making at least the tone/feel/meter accessible. I have been to five readings in the past week, and two (by Naomi Nye and Linda Gregerson) have read in this manner. This way of reading doesn't keep my attention and at times seems like a parody of itself.
Here is one that follows a speech patter that seems normal. James Schuyler - Freely Espousing. Recording of this poem as read by the author.

Affect

Jennifer Reeder - Tears Cannot Restore Her: Therefore, I Weep (video still) 2010 (image from Andrew Rafacz Gallery)

After a few experiences the past week, I have found myself considering affect in various expressive forms; like how a mixed-cd or tape represents the aura and intentions of the giver.

1. Jennifer Reeder's exhibition, Tears Cannot Restore Her: Therefore, I Weep, at Andrew Rafacz. Initially the objects in the gallery seemed kinda odd and idiosyncratic; really I couldn't place them or give them much time. I found myself in the screening room fairly quickly. There I was assaulted with a distraught never-ending-narrative that pitted my uncertain emotions for the characters against one another. It was the kind of piece that leaves you spinning like a dream that boiled up from somewhere between showing up to school in your underwear and an erotic nightmare. After viewing this nicely disturbed video the sculptures and print seemed to be effected. The feeling from the video carried through into the personal undertones and subdued color of the object.

Jennifer Reeder - installation view of a sculpture in Tears Cannot Restore Her: Therefore, I Weep

2. Joe Grimm's piece, It's Gunna Rain 2: I Make it Rain, in Ornament and Crime (and Crime) at Adds Donna. A chaufured Escalade ride around Garfield Park and under the CTA Green Line over Lake St, to the soundtrack of an art-remixed version of a rap song.

3. Listening to OK Computer by Radiohead on the Rock Island Line of the Metra, from Joliet to Chicago.


4. The Bad at Sports interview with James Elkins, about the Stone Summer Theory Institute and what comes after the anti-aesthetic (affect?).

5. The Danney's poetry reading series. Featuring Lagunitas beer, Joel Felix, Michael Earl Craig, and Lisa Olstein.

Michael Earl Craig
Night Visit

I'm awakened at 3 a.m. to the sound of an owl.
It takes me a minute to find my glasses.
I press my face to the window.
A silver flash crosses the yard.
It settles into an owl shape on a nearby post.
My nose and eyes are stinging.
A stinging behind my face.
Like some kind of problem behind a billboard.
Why would a man look at an owl and start to cry?
My body is trying to reject something.
I have no idea what it is.
The owl is sitting in the moonlight.
The yard is completely still.

USF Collages

collages made at the University of St. Francis - either during class when i'm trying to stay out of my students' hair (to let them work) or between classes.