weeks worth

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

the past week has been interesting, but a little difficult to sum up. this is one of those there’s no coherence to the situations, but things feel related – lots of small, one-off moments that are more potent than they appear.

most content wins

discussions with some people about primaries, caucuses and (especially) exit polls reveal that some people form their ideologies based on suspicions or heresay, rather than experience or hope. One person told me that because their aging aunt (I forget where from) voted for Clinton recently in a primary, that all “old people” (a demographic I didn’t know existed) invariably lean towards Clinton – this was a counter-argument to my thesis that ‘the most content wins‘, where I am arguing that whoever develops the most online content (which spills over into the real world, of course) will win the Democratic nomination, and eventually the Presidency. They suggest that older people do not engage the internet, but rather television (not even newspapers), and so will not be swayed by content developed online; and that young voters do not account for a large voter base needed to gain victories. This, of course, was before Barack swept – and I mean fucking SWEPT – Clinton, winning the last eight competitions! And in doing so provided evidence to disprove their theory: Obama wins among older voters in Maryland, Virginia. Their thesis is also racially biased: their aunt is Caucasian, and so they believe all older voters from all races are in the same boat as them. Meanwhile exit poll data in Georgia and Missouri showed African-Americans over 40 casting landslide victories – over 80% – in favor of Obama. Other states may be of smaller margins, but no where did Clinton win such landslide numbers among white voters.

But my initial argument was that content developed online will be responsible for building momentum and eventually a win. It isn’t as if voters simply sit around twiddling their thumbs waiting for their day to vote and then simply shuffle off to the polling station and drop a slip into a box. The democratic process is about debate, discussion, and emotion. I’ve seen people at polling stations (or online in blog comments) arguing over policies, laws enacted, and reforms – while admitting they’re not sure who to vote for, it’s all about feeling!

and young people are responsible for galvanizing other voter demographics, by spearheading meetings, marches, rallies, sign-making parties, events, etc., assisted by technologies, which eventually encourages “old people” and others to vote for whoever they then believe in, and a lot of people are saying, Yes We Can.

web 2.0 concerns

another argument reflecting on elements of web 2.0 life, was I had someone recently suggest that I should email them images, images which are already freely available on my Flickr account. Additionally, as I am not a Press Secretary, I couldn’t possibly know exactly which images they are interested in. One point of Flickr is that it is remote and accessible by all browsers, there is no password, so people are freely able to search my content and find what they want. Of course I appreciate to know when people are using my images, but I haven’t turned down a request to date.

Two weeks ago, this person told me that their time was too valuable to “troll through” all of my images, and that rather I should spend my time to send them what they want. Again, I couldn’t possibly know what they want, and by no means am I going to send even a single 5 megabyte jpeg through email, let alone gigabytes worth of images, some from events that took place over 12 months ago!

Then this past week they requested that I point them in the direction of a specific photo they want, for their own purposes. Their time is too valuable, but mine is at their dispense?

I guess the point here is I’m interested in how web 2.0 philosophies expose bureaucratic tendencies: I am by no means obligated to process even 1 jpeg for the benefit of a non-profit which I volunteer for; the person who cuts a monthly check nearly equivalent to my rent is obligated. I have already done the work – free of charge – by taking the photo, uploading it, tagging it, bunching them into sets and collections, etc. What more could they ask for, really!?

jobby job

then recently I had my stable job of two and half years presented on a platter and told to think about it. the argument here is that I am currently employed part-time (a year ago I was full-time) and my employer “found out” (for lack of a better term) that I work odd freelance jobs on the side to gain some extra income. By no means are my freelance jobs stable, or enough to subsist on. I was told that the terms of our agreement should have provided me with enough to “survive on”. To survive. Yes, to pay rent, transport and food, nothing more. I may not work the other 4 days a week, but pick up jobs which net me some extra money to buy supplies, materials, a pair of socks, carry a cellphone, things above and beyond survival which I believe I need “to survive” in this hyper-consumerist society.

It appalled me to think that someone thinks because we agreed to work together, part-time on my clock, that that means I can’t find financial assistance elsewhere. As if they have that right, legally or ethically!

year of the rat

all of the above makes sense, of course. it’s Year of the Rat. changes are ahead. I saw a spokesman for the Chinese government talking on CNN (I think) about how the rat signifies buildings falling down & crop failure, but that it would also be a glorious year with Beijing hosting the 2008 summer games! That kind of weirded me out.

the super rich vs the merely rich

Friday, July 13th, 2007

some of my housemates are out in the library right now watching (yes, our tv is in our library) The Ruling Class, which just in my passings I would rate higher than a 7.6 (I will watch it before the DVD returns to the Netflix depot). And while the meat of this post has nothing to do with that film, its title reminded me of something I heard in passing recently, about the upper upper Echelon. as the super-rich, as they’re called, surge in numbers, and even the middle class find themselves ‘duped’, it turns out that these days the crust on top actually refer to lesser crusts as ‘affluent’ internally understood to be a derogatory term. Fascinating.

This only reinforces why I’m happy that I’ve never aspired to be a part of that class. I can’t imagine how they treat each other in the more-crucial bits of their existence: their family, loved ones in sick health, friends in distress, children! Me, I’ll stick to egg salad and cucumber sandwiches for the next several weeks while I scrounge and save money for confirmation Europe.

Related: As fast as money grows these days, this article almost seems outdated, being a few days shy of a year old and all.

870,609,080

Friday, May 25th, 2007

Last December when NAS released his ‘Hip Hop is Dead’ album I wanted to blog about it. But at the time I didn’t really have any other cultural location to point to, and I didn’t want to do a review.

I wanted to say that it’s one of the best albums in recent years that is well-produced and attempts to critically examine contemporary shifts in hip-hop culture and the industry-mechanism it has become. A little nostalgic at times but more moments than not where one was invigorated with the message. Then at one point he makes an analysis of bling culture but recognizes that as with most cultural paradigms, someone else is still in control:

How they sell blacks to bootleg shit infact
Real millionaires spend 60 mil on paintings

(from ‘Not Going Back’ featuring Kelis)

Ah! Contemporary Art I thought! Sure 60 mil happens here and there, but how often does that really happen I wondered. How bloated is our art economy? Several months later, that is, May 2007, I would find my answer. The auctions that I recently briefly commented on would set new records for contemporary art and combine for a near-$1billion total, at $870,609,080, between 1,510 lots of work, or $660,000 per lot, about as much money as I’ll probably make in the next 20-30 years of my life, nevermind living expenses (you know, shelter, food, transport… food).

see below

Sale Totals
Sotheby’s, 15 -16 May Contemporary Art Evening:	$ 254,874,000
Contemporary Art Day:	$ 89,698,000
Total:	$ 344,572,000
Christie’s, 16 – 17 May Contemporary Art Evening:	$ 384,654,400
Contemporary Art Day:	$ 93,097,200
Total:	$ 477,751,600
Phillips de Pury, 17 -18 May Contemporary Art Part I:	$ 33,326,400
Contemporary Art Part II:	$ 14,959,080
Total:	$ 48,285,480
Grand Total	$ 870,609,080
Average Sold Lot Value (Sotheby’s, Christie’s & Phillips de Pury)	$ 660,553
Number of Lots Offered/Sold (Sotheby’s, Christie’s & Phillips de Pury)	1510/1318 (87% sold)

fueled by:

Top Ten Lots Contemporary Art
Mark Rothko, White Center (Yellow, Pink, and Lavender on Rose)	$ 72,840,000
Andy Warhol, Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)	$ 71,720,000
Francis Bacon, Study after Pope Innocent X	$ 52,680,000
Andy Warhol, Lemon Marilyn	$ 28,040,000
Mark Rothko, Untitled	$ 26,920,000
Mark Rothko, Untitled	$ 22,440,000
Willem de Kooning, Untitled I	$ 19,080,000
Jasper Johns, Figure 4	$ 17,400,000
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled	$ 14,600,000
Robert Rauschenberg, Photograph	$ 10,680,000

Do you reckon Nas reads ArtReview‘s annual top 100 issue?

[Via Art News Blog]

Related websites:
listen to Nas mp3
Nas ‘Not Going Back’ lyrics

updates

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

• The bag book (proof) came yesterday. Really fast. By the time my email inbox got the ‘your book has been sent’ notification it had already arrived in the mail! It looks delectable! There were some problems with sizes on the last 100 pages or so. Fixed that (that’s why you make a proof after all!). The colors look better this time around. I reckon that’s because of the difference in scanners I used between this final proof and the first I did about 2 months back to get an idea of the paper, process, etc. Anyhow, it will be available soon.
• Worked on the boat yesterday evening. Worked until it started raining. Have to go back tomorrow. Opening this Sunday (reminder: post on blog about this! faduh!!)
• I started working part-time this week. And yet still I don’t seem to have enough time (re-read above two bullet points). Still, this week is a fluke (i hope!).
• Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock died in a car crash earlier this week. What to say? We’ve dropped three straight games since, to tie last place with Houston, the other usual top-contender in the NLC. I know we’ll bounce back but it’s sad stuff.
• I’m supposed to go to Hungary this summer, but planning takes time. Ahhhhhghhh!!
• My apartment developed an ant infestation a couple days ago. Eff that sticky gel stuff. Can anyone say ‘expanding foam’? I can!
• ps – make art.

you know you’re

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

you know you’re a fan when you stay behind after an already long 11-hour workday to watch your team finish off a tie-game just because you’re employer has an internet connection and you have that mlb.tv package!

(when that screenshot was taken it was 1-1 with Eckstein on 2nd, Duncan on 1st; Pujols hit a beautiful shot to right-center field, splitting the outfielders, for a standing double, allowing Eckstein and Duncan to score, making it 3-1. no outs. more to come!)

recovery

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

In the past couple of months around these parts you might have noticed I can go a few days here or there without posting anything, much to my chagrin. It’s usually been because of either overwork or sickness, and unfortunately lately sickness has taken the throne.

I lost all of last weekend and am now about to miss my fourth day of work, after what started as just a possible head cold and developed into quite easily the worst sinus infection I’ve had in my adult life! This thing had me by the balls!

There was a point sometime Saturday evening when suddenly I lost all capacity to do anything. I went from no real symptoms to suddenly being more-or-less incapacitated. I failed to go to an opening that night because I couldn’t even imagine walking those six blocks in my condition. Sunday was a blur, mostly watching TV thinking if I just zoned out I’d recover, but the worst was still ahead. At least at this point at least I could still swallow with ease!

Monday was when it really hit. I hadn’t had breakfast and was drinking some tea to get me settled when suddenly the contents of my stomach went flying! I never really had a fever but rather cold sweats and hot flashes on and off for the next two days. This was the starting point of over 40 hours without solid food, actually without anything but juice and water. Like fasting but without the choice. I couldn’t stay awake for more than an hour at a time and kept collapsing either on my bed or even passing out in my desk chair (it leans back quite nicely, quite comfy actually).

By the second day I was really starting to feel the pressure because I’m missing everything happening at work. I tell myself I’m going to try and make it in, but my body is weak from lack of food and by Tuesday morning my face was so swollen that a friend of mine told me I looked 45 years old; the normally-slightly angular cuts of my face were replaced by bulbous puffs of who-knows-what, my eyes had no physical articulation but were rather flat shapes set inside a bloated sack of skin, my upper-throat area was so swollen that my neck actually looked shorter. I mean this flu bug, or whatever it was, was fucking king!

Usually sleep, rest and plenty of fluids work for me in these scenarios, but like I say this time was different. I could feel it.

Yesterday I finally went looking for a doctor. Since I work full-time right now I have health coverage, but I’m terribly versed at how health coverage works in this country, even though I live here. It’s all just so confusing, and defeating. Health shouldn’t be an industry.

First I looked towards work, but around my job I had too many options, over 70! Too many to choose from, actually. I looked back towards home and eventually settled on two (of only three available!) options. I set forth at 8am to find these clinics, and just walk-in and demand an appointment. The first one developed into a fiasco, as the address was the address not of a clinic but of the MetLife building at Queens Plaza! And the phone number was some sort of ‘routing number’ for an ‘office’ of clinics, or something like that. I couldn’t make out much at 8am once I finally, after over 20 minutes, got someone on the phone. While they did have a clinic elsewhere in the city, then it turned out they didn’t actually accept my insurance! Whhaaaa!? But you’re LISTED on my insurer’s website? Again, they said they were simply a ‘routing number’ for an ‘office’. Again, confusing, defeating.

I call up my second and last option, I have no where else to go. Please, please pick up, please take me in! They say they don’t have any more appointments available but after hearing me and hearing my situation, they ask how soon could I be there? I say 15 minutes. I book it over to the clinic and low-and-behold it’s located inside the Queensbridge Housing complex! Good doctor, crazy staff, wild patients! I’m the only white guy in the joint.

As I’m a completely new patient, I have more paperwork than most. I spend over 2 hours waiting and am in-and-out with the doc in less than 20. Appointments aren’t available as he explains at Queensbridge that logic doesn’t function! He recommends to show up early to get in early. Yeah, okay. Hah!

The meds he prescribes it turns out aren’t covered under my insurance – or maybe I need to give a call to get some reimbursement the pharmacist says – and one prescription cost over $10/pill! 10 pills, 10 days, $105!

I lost my weekend time, I didn’t get to develop a costume I was working on, I’ve lost four days wages now, and spent nearly $300 on doctor’s fees and prescriptions, not to mention the parking ticket ($60) I got illegally parking to get to the doctor! All in all well around $1000 lost.

Of course the financial angle is one thing. But what of the 40+ million other United States citizens without health insurance? 40+ million! What of artists and freelancers and everybody who doesn’t want a full-time job just in order to have health insurance provided, and can’t afford to buy good packages on their own? How are people attempting to make a career out of their work, who are supposed to be in the studio as much as possible, also supposed to provide their own health care? I cringe everytime I hear or read the term health insurance industry.

So I sit at home on this sixth day sick, finally recovery may be possible. In my adult life I can’t remember a time when I was sick for six full days. Sure, a couple of days here and a couple of days there with extreme sickness, but not six, not like this. I told one person upon reflection that there was a good 3 days there where I didn’t laugh, because all I was doing was sleeping and drinking, nothing more. That made me realize how much of an impact this thing had on my daily life, because I always laugh – it’s healthy! I didn’t take any photos for over five days and hadn’t posted anything here for going on six.

Now I’ll try and slowly put back in order my studio, which looks like a couple… dozen… tornadoes hit it. When you’re as sick as I was you really could care less about where anything goes!

I’ll catch up on past events and hopefully some future events will re-inspire this blog. I know I need to make some adjustments in my own standards of living and cycles now, but in the meantime keep yourself well.