Friday, December 25, 2009

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The sun is in the first house

The report was generated with the following birth data: female, born on 22 February 1968 at 6:17 am in Los Angeles, California.
Your sun sign is Pisces. This is the sign in which the Sun is in your birth chart. Your Ascendant is in Aquarius, and your Moon is in Sagittarius.
Partner references which may occur in the text are set for a relationship with a man. Explanation
Sun in Pisces, Moon in Sagittarius This astrological combination indicates a person who is in a perpetual state of motion. Your nature is excitable, sometimes irritable. You love change and will probably be involved in numerous occupations throughout life. You approach each new project and contract with new enthusiasm. At first, your interest is real enough, but it tends to be fitful. You appear to be a busy worker and have good abilities in a variety of areas. In society you are inclined to be talkative, sometimes enjoying gossip. However, your intentions are always sincere and you have a sympathetic nature. Your most conscious aim in life is to gain understanding and sympathy, but your chances for attaining these are diminished because of the diffuseness of your character. The key to a harmonious existence lies in trying to concentrate your will in a single direction.
Ascendant in Aquarius, Uranus in the Seventh House At the time of your birth the zodiacal sign of Aquarius was ascending in the horizon. Its ruler Uranus is located in the seventh house. You were born with a natural disposition to be humane, sympathetic, original and refined in your dealings with others. Among your features is the ability to understand human nature in a sympathetic manner. Unfortunately, you do not always act upon your intuitions and may become rationalistic at times when swift and prompt determination is required.    The common Aquarian is good and kindly, but usually led astray by eccentric and bizarre companions. Your tastes are refined and your discrimination keen. You have a natural inclination toward the esoteric and mystical side of life and you could develop some clairvoyant abilities. Basically you are a lover of freedom; in the realization of this desire you may go to extremes. Although changeable in appearance, your life is guided by very definite and fixed principles, one of which is a constant demand for personal freedom. In love you are a strange character. You can easily be emotionally attracted to one person and yet unpredictably terminate relationships.    As an inventor you have no rival; your problem is that sometimes you lack the practical ability to implement your creations. Professionally you will be successful in any of the following fields of activity: modern science, electrical work, photography, archaeology, astrology, radio etc.     This position indicates that you are extroverted in your behavior. You thrust yourself forward to meet people. You will have many unpredictable romantic liaisons in which you will behave impulsively and irrationally. Your partner may be an uncommon person with a flash of genius. It is not going to be easy to maintain happiness in your relationship. If you can exert some effort to better comprehend your partner and obtain the same co-operation, then your relationship will last throughout your life. Otherwise there is danger of separation.
Sun in the First House The Sun is in the first house. You are by nature energetic, proud and self-assertive. You project yourself enthusiastically and energetically into all situations. Your naturally outgoing disposition and personable manner usually make a good impression on people. Your heightened self-perception puts you in touch with a strong sense of will, and you can manipulate your will to suit your aims and desires in life. This position of the Sun gives the capacity for leadership, for you tend to attract people and to have a strong influence on them when they are with you. You do not like to depend on others, but you hold on to your friends, for they are usually pleased to help you when you need it. You are willing to help close friends who are deserving, but only if you know that your efforts will be appreciated. You often prefer to work alone. However, this is not your only choice, for you adapt well to working with people as long as you are free to express yourself. With a first-house Sun, there is a tendency to overestimate your own worth, but through repeated contacts with others you will inevitably come to a more realistic appraisal of your abilities and potential.
Sun Conjunct Ascendant The Sun conjunct the Ascendant shows that you have a great desire for recognition and are creative in finding ways to gain attention. In general you are uncompromising. You have great faith in your ability to rise above any of life's negative circumstances. You know how to use your vast creative resources in a direct assault against any adversary, and you believe that eventually you will succeed. Most often you do, but when challenged by stiff competition you will resort to brute force to demonstrate that you do not give in without a fight. You know how to win friends and influence people, and you use this talent effectively. To be truly comfortable in your profession, you need to have a position of some authority over others.
Saturn in the Second House Saturn is found in the second house at the time of your birth. This is not a very favorable astrological circumstance for the general course of financial matters in your life. It might be difficult to maintain a relatively fair position because of financial losses. You might also take financial matters too serious, and burden yourself with worries about them. Your arduous and dedicated work might produce little for you financially, but it does help to strengthen your self-worth and your appreciation of other values. Therefore, do not be discouraged. Saturn often grants a fairly normal financial status at an older age if one exerts oneself in this direction. If you make an effort to acquire greater enthusiasm in business, coupled with more liberality, life will change by the same degree.
Jupiter Opposition Ascendant Jupiter opposition the Ascendant indicates that you are generous toward your associates and civil with competitors. You are polished and refined, sometimes to the point that others may be suspicious of your motives. You prefer to associate with people who seem sure of themselves and their goals. Just as an investment broker deals in financial resources, you deal in the resources of people; who they are and what they can accomplish for themselves and for you. You pride yourself on your good judgment, but you ignore the fact that you are a taker, not a giver, except when it suits your long-range purposes. Your greatest problem is that you use people to serve your personal objectives. You must learn that being generous is as beneficial to you as accepting the generosity of others.
Moon in the Tenth House The Moon was found in the tenth house at the time of birth. Among other things, this is an indication of your ability to adjust to varying conditions. Whatever your temperamental qualities may be, destiny will place you in situations where you will have dealings with the public. Some public note could eventually come your way. Yet you should remember that the Moon successes are rather ethereal and do not maintain a permanent state. Imagination, a tenacious disposition and ability to relate to the public are among your attributes. Outwardly, you will appear as one who reacts to emotions rather than to reason, yet you attempt a logical rationalization of your impulsive notions. You will better develop your potentialities in any professional circle where your natural inclinations can be reasonably manifested.
Venus in the Twelfth House Venus was in the twelfth house at the time of birth. Only those very close to you have a hint of the little known facets of your personality. Regardless of the way you speak and express yourself, when you are alone, relaxed, and free of worry, you can have a sociable and congenial temperament that runs alongside a generous, kind, and attractive character. This astrological combination may lead you into clandestine love affairs. Unless you use a great amount of tact and diplomacy, these secret affairs may create social complications that force premature termination.

I feel no stop signs clogging the road of life


I was born in the winter of love

Personal Daily Horoscope of Friday, 11 December 2009
for Suzanne, born 22 February 1968

Your true aims
***

Valid during many months: During this period subtle energies are at work that can help you make many creative changes in your life. It is a chance to act more effectively than at almost any other time. You may have opportunities to take on more power and to assume authority over others, but this is a subtle influence, and you will not be compelled either by circumstances or your own inner energies to do a great deal. Therefore this time could go by without significant happenings at all, unless you make a conscious effort to grab the chance. This is a fine time to establish good relations with authority figures such as bosses, employers and other officials, for they can provide opportunities that you can use during this time. Another source of creative opportunity may come about through working with groups and organizations, in which you can exercise control and bring about creative reform. During this time it is often best to work with groups or agencies, rather than alone as an individual. However, do not fear that your individuality will suffer or be lost within the group. This influence gives you the chance to establish your individuality through working with others. In your personal life this is also a time of creative change. You can totally rebuild whatever needs rebuilding without the turmoil that you might experience at other times. On the immediate practical level, you may be able to rebuild or repair a house or other material object. At a higher, more psychological level this may mean rebuilding structures within yourself. Great changes can occur that totally alter your objectives in life, largely because your true aims will become more apparent to you. This can be a consciousness-expanding time in the highest sense of the phrase.

The interpretation above is for your transit selected for today:
Pluto Sextile Sun, ,
activity period from end of January 2009 until end of November 2010

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Sunday, November 22, 2009

stop producing

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Monday, November 9, 2009

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Friday, November 6, 2009

Shame, Humiliation, Guilt, today's community bywords, cropping up in dreams and on the internet. I like the quality this headache has. I'm never prepared for the arrival of weather. The antidote is exceptional, can't be had at any price, talks backward in sleep, this sentence is boring, this internet is boring, this rain is boring, I feel okay, my boots are wet, I am never prepared for the arrival of weather I am never prepared for the arrival of weather I am never prepared for the arrival of weather I am never prepared for the arrival of weather I am never prepared for the arrival of weather, my headache's antidote is boring, cropping up in dreams and on the internet, this internet is boring, the byword is 'friendly' the byword is boring, the byword is 'headache' the byword is 'boring' I am never prepared for the arrival of weather, shame on the internet the byword is boring,

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Evergreen o evergreen
how faithful are your branches.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Because it's helpful, I'll think of it as Saturn's last gasp in Virgo and, as Erika said tonight at Alli's impromptu, I'm just going to hold the fuck on til it's over. That's what getting older gets you. The knowledge, if not the belief, that you live through practically everything. I "believe" in astrology, the way I "believe" in, what? astrology.

In other news, my recentest pop addiction. On repeat play for the last two days. Who knew Suzi Quatro? I didn't. She's so damn cute, and sings this song as though suffering's cute too. It is, kind of. Watch your own sometime, and look how you can care for yourself in it. A cut pet whose paw you sew to.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

SWEET BELIEVER EXIT @ 2ND FLOOR PROJECTS




top : John deFazio, Cloned Dogs, Siegfried & Roy, 2007; glazed ceramic.
bottom : Daniel Minnick, Chief Imitation, 2009; (detail) photobooth photograph


SWEET BELIEVER EXIT: John DeFazio and Daniel Minnick

A knock-out honor to have been invited to write a text for Margaret Tedesco's incredible 2nd Floor Projects, and a knock-down drag-out fight with self to have actually gotten it done "on time". But I did! And it's a crazy freaking piece of writing, so please do try to acquire it. Margaret commissions a text for each exhibition, and produces the result in spectacularly beautiful editions of 100.

AND, there's always a reading to close the exhibition. So, on Sunday, November 1, at 5pm, Brandon Brown will join me, and we'll read from our collaborative work-in-progress IT'S A FICTION!, with, we think, a little help from the marvelous Lindsey Boldt.

On the subject of the text: Daniel Minnick stages detailed, costumed performances in photobooths, and John DeFazio makes ceramic objects, in this case, elaborate ceramic bongs and, as seen above, freakish panting hybrid Siamese cloned ceramic pets [and pets and pets and pets]. Both artists' work have qualities of psychedelic, kaleidescopic, grotesque kitsch. In addition to these chewy, hyper-natural pop distortions, I was especially interested in the opposition of duration in the fabrication of the objects. IE, the instant flash in the photobooth with its single-positive produced by the machine, vs the hundreds of hours of hand-casting, hand-carving, firing, painting, firing, glazing, re-glazing, decaling, & re-firing the ceramics require. I found myself not sleeping for several weeks while writing this, inducing a frantic, half-hallucinatory, internal state-of-war, and producing a work in three parts, with three adjacencies, & three mad stabs at duration. One for John, one for Danny, and one for me. It's called THREE-WAY. (I'm not saying it's good. I'm just saying.)

You can acquire the "broadside" (it's 8 pages) for $10 (+ $1 s/h) from Margaret, go to the website, or email: 2ndfloorprojects [at] earthlink [dot] net.

Here's the project page.

And here's the front page (RSS it; her exhibitions are excellent).

Hope to see you at the reading.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Sunday, October 18, 2009

In last night's dream, Alli & I were in conflict.
There was the appearance of a formula around which our argument circulated; it was this:



x [ or else = or ≠ ]



Cute cues, but it was a bad dream.
I made it three and a half months into my year-long moratorium on book-buying, but I'm afraid I'm about to fold. Fuck.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Attuned heart hears tone.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Sunday, October 4, 2009

"For some time, I conceived of gardens of “tendre” which mix writing and photography with real spaces: the path of reconciliation, the tree of shame, the herbs of confidences, the turtle of longevity, the spider of scandal, the route of chance, the maple of dispute, the copse of indiscretion, the timber trees of hope, the oak of kisses, the poppies of confession, the rabbit of fortune, the branches of forgetfulness, the junction of uncertainties, the forest of hesitations, the lake of temptation, the plains of fatigue, the lime tree of rest, the mountain of assiduousness, the passageway of pain, the intersection of ambition, the ramble of emotion, the slope of forgetfulness, the mound of despair…"
Per Anne Boyer on Facebook, MY post "being paid in jouissance" reading dreams: I was in a bath house very like (or it was) the Gellert baths in Budapest, where Sarah Jessica Parker---in one of those wraparound string bikinis we used to wear in the 80s---was teaching water dancing to a fleet of current and former starlets, including a dramatically aged and peeling Sophia Loren, with Catherine Deneuve just behind, all of the aging stars accusing SJP of knowing as well as they do the beneficial powers of Retin-A; I was in a narrow hotel room in the mountains, lying on a shag rug by the sliding glass doors waiting for my ex-husband to come up the wrought-iron stairs; my ex-husband had a tan; the ice in the paper cup of water on the hotel kitchen sink was still ice three days later; from the narrow narrow bathroom I tried to make or receive a telephone call from the Italian or Iranian gangster or banker next door; a murder was being plotted or discovered; the menu was hand-corrected and a political call-to-action; the assistant director of development and I had a strange exchange related to both my ex-husband and the gangster, in the doorway of the hotel room, near the bathroom, but I can't remember what was said; I looked over the balcony to the parking lot below; I put the butter in the freezer (wait, that was just now); this is only a third of it, I don't recall the order of events, obviously it doesn't matter. I woke up with what might be a cold, but also, I woke up and my apartment was very cold. First cold morning of fall.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Lygia Clark, Dialogue of Hands


or more properly translated is probably 'Hand Dialogue'

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009




‘supra-sensorial’



Hélio Oiticica, Bólides Gemini, 1959, Glas, Metall, Kunstharz, Pigmente und Flüssigkeit 16,5 x 17 x 8 cm, Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zürich, © Nachlass Hélio Oiticica.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

facebook you make me dizzy

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Monday, September 7, 2009

Saturday, September 5, 2009

ALL DAY

"So this is reality too, come in
And now you're here. All swept
up for you the floor shiny
and our wonderful pet, the
antelope clatters its little hooves
on the floor to eat from your
hand. All the pictures
you love on the walls and
your favorite books read
themselves aloud. And you
can leave if you want to, just
turn the page or have the kids
come over for cake, little Louie
from downstairs, he likes you
so much he brings his friends
too, the twelve year old girl,
She loves it here. We give her
shiny hair and crackling
petticoats. It's always
just after school and
just before supper. The
flower in the flowerpot smiles
all day in the sunshine
and waves its little
leaves when you come home. Such
a bright yellow floor and
such a big cozy bed
It says Hey Get Up or
You've got a temperature or
Stay here with me
let's watch TV all day.
Sometimes there's a moon
when we're alone but
it's always the grinning
kind that hangs from a
thin wire. Oh yeah, the
stars have five neat points
The coffee pot giggles and
the dishes wash themselves with
their little rubber gloves
squealing and laughing.
You have that effect on things
and even the bathroom,
so often left out of things,
is happy, when you're
home"

[Rene Ricard. The poem's not really representative, or it is, of the whole of this little book, which continues to be one of my favorite books of poetry ever, despite or because of its many instances of failure and inexcellence, whatever that means. (Here's another poem: "I am young / And I am beautiful / And I will fuck you / Over just like everybody else"). It is a perfect book. I not so long ago drunkenly described Rene Ricard to a roomful of people, who would know of the writing of the one but not the other, as the poor man's Frank O'Hara. Possibly others have said that before me, or more interestingly. RR is famous for making (or thinking he made) Jean-Michel Basquiat famous, as you know from the film. Here is his 1981 Artforum piece on Basquiat, The Radiant Child. Here is a curious two-decades-on look-back at that famous essay, by Bruce Hainley, from 2001. Both restore me to thinking about, towards the end of my vacation, a question that continues to be a point of investigation for me (& my colleagues) regarding the SFMOMA blog---especially given the collapse of print media and the strange new requirements or possibilities for institutional, grant-funded publishing apparatus like, say, a museum blog. How, and who should, write about art? For whom? On a museum blog? (Clearly I already have very specific ideas about that. Getting a bit weary of the daily battle-for-its-existence, however.) Here is a five-minute interview with RR. On another note, I have a mental tic whereby whenever I think of Julian Schnabel I sort of think of Stephen Rodefer and vice versa, it's the pjs thing.]

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

In ancient mythology, Ambrosia is sometimes the food, sometimes the drink, of the Greek gods. The word has generally been derived from Greek a-("not") and mbrotos ("mortal"); hence the food or drink of the immortals. Derivatively, the word Ambrosia (neuter plural) was given to certain festivals in honour of Dionysus, probably because of the predominance of feasting in connection with them. "Ambrosia" is related to the Hindu amrita, a drink which conferred immortality on the ancient Hindu gods. However we know Ambrosia as a fruit dessert, often made of oranges and bananas with shredded coconut.
Click to get the Ambrosia Salad Parfaits Recipes

Thursday, August 20, 2009

With those tools you may take measure, and define:

Every week or so, Brandon Brown & I get together, usually on the internet, and write a novella. It has lots of ways of going about it. The basic thing is, we write for one hour and don't look back. Last week we got together in person instead of on the internet and decided that, instead of an online back and forth, we were to describe, separately, a scene, while together drinking white wine in my living room. Later we would each send our RAW DATA of the one hour to a third person who will mesh them. We will not each see the other's until after our proxy has married them. Here were our rules, as I noted them, exactly:

[[[landscape on a mountain, to which our character, and whoever else, will eventually go. a reflection on geologic time, and the events of the last week in proportion. (oh god). necessary objects: a boulder, a pair of scissors, (that exercise, as an object). no running water, no stream, no waterfall.]]]

Here is my RAW DATA . Generated Aug 13 2009, 834pm til approx 934pm:

One doesn’t describe a mountain one is not seeing. Mountains are often brown. Alternatively, belief is in a green mountain. Steep. Trails always dusty on mountains, and the desire is always to get to the top of one. Or them, depending. On wit, inclination, manliness, gestural affection for objects of nature, plans and pleasures of conquering, snow aptitude, gear readiness, fiction. A mountain is steep. Gentle if white, if fierce. An object for exercise. A tent pitched askew on the trail, asking for entrance. A rock, it could almost be called a boulder, pitching askew the flap, in order to make the object appear it is begging for entrance. At the top of the mountain, a tent, tail pitched askew. Flap folded open. No objects inside it. (The mountain?) No tents know mountaintops ready to ascertain the object of entrance. A rock aside the tip of a flap, holding askew an ask for an entrance. Tent, object, rock, tree, sway, open. Ok. A mountain. If there were one to see it, it could be seen from here. Beyond the tent are the trees, mountains generally have them. Here. Here they’re generally some kind of skinny pine. So, pines, shade, rock, tent, objects with entrance. Entrancing. That’s bad linguist. Wrong introduction. A small metal canteen, in the dirt, at the other side of the tent. Near a tent pole. A stake. Tents are held up by poles and by tension of small metal stakes pounded into the mountain. The canteen set the stakes. The canteen sets the stakes for this scene. Change direction. The mountain. Mountains have vistas. There are two scenes: the shade of the trees, and ‘the vista’. Three: the tent. Nothing moves. The skin of the tent slightly moves. The skin of the tent breathes. The needles shift. The pine shifts. Behind the ocean shifts. The canteen sits. The stake stage left glints. The stake is an upside-down L, with the tip pointing left. It's captured the ring of the tent and by this tension it keeps it taut to counter the boulder’s pull at the flap, it lets the skin tightly shift, in appearance “to breathe”. It takes time in a landscape to shift. The ring in the fold of the tent that encircles the upside-down, left-facing L of the stake is laquered as gray as the tent. Its underside’s unpainted and touches the mountain. The fabric’s rent. The fabric’s rented. A breeze. The canteen angles, it tips, it’s empty. That’s it for event. The vista: a hillock, an ocean, an island. Bridge to the island cuts a vista like an angled third of paper. This time it takes to get from flap to vista: a long time. Back again: frame never shifted. Behind the tent a shade from trees opposite a vista. Of mountains it’s said trees, of trees grove, shade, needles, bed, floor, forest, things, wet, dry, they get said in equal proportion. To slice up the scene: a canteen, a rock, a tip, an L, a multiplicity of angle, of needle, an expression of height, ‘atop’ is implied, a tent, a flap, a ring, a lack, an entrance, an ask, a shift, does anything really ‘breathe’? A tension. Is the envelope implied? the entrance an enclosure? The vista is open. Oh, a road. And it’s been there the whole time. Between the tent, afront the line of trees, and between the tent and the vista, a road. Rough. Rocky. But tame. It’s a tame scene. Flap’s flapping. Canteen’s on its side. “Resting”.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009