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.]

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

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”.

go little book

Living reflection of a dream

Last night, in their respective Studio One readings, and each in their own way, Kevin Killian and Aaron Kunin were the Robert Plant of this performance of Tangerine.

I am having the not unwelcome opportunity to observe how each part of the body adjusts and recalibrates to compensate for the injured part. It's good to have an overt injury (cannot use foot for walking) and be able to watch and feel both the massive and the minute adjustments. I'm used to having ignorable half-injuries (hamstring strain, for example, only reminds in certain yoga poses, or after an ill-planned run), and I'm not really a sports person so I manage my pains the way I manage my sports, without thinking much about it. Now I am forced to, and this has me thinking about the emotional injuries, and trying to imagine all the forms of heretofore unobserved recalibrations I must always be making. I think I know what my 'overt' injuries or weak spots are, but what about all those 'ignorables', or the 'my-hamstring's-been-fucked-so-long-I've-forgotten-how-not-to-strain-it' and their attendant set of cute little deflective and protective (and re-injurious) habits?

When the foot can't be used as it's used to, the calf, the shin, the knee, the thigh, the hip, have a particular new mode, and the other leg bears it. Also the arms have to carry things otherwise, and the core thinks more about what it's supposed to do to keep me holding up. Back and waist are not left out. The head's of course on the biggest trip. Ask for help? Insist on it? Accept it? Oh my god. Fun with figures!

What's on your mind?

Suzanne Stein Burning cds for friends, playlists selected by variety of aleatory methods. If you want one, backchannel mailing address
12:37pm · Comment · Like
Brandon Brown at 4:01pm June 13
you already have mine. I want.
-------------------------
Dear Friends,
Thank you for letting me make an aleatory mix cd for you. Some of you I know very well, and some of you almost not at all. It’s been fun to think of you all while putting these together.

There are currently 3,886 tracks on my iPod. With very few exceptions, the 3,886 tracks were gifts to me from family, friends, & lovers, as I have never developed the practice or habit of looking for or buying music, and both rely on and delight in the variety of things my people give me. I almost always listen to the iPod on shuffle, and all of the playlists were selected using iPod shuffle + some formula, personal to the receiver, for the chance selection of tracks.

Your track lists & their formulas appear below in the order in which you made your requests, first to last.

-------------------------

Noah Eli Gordon, you have three names, and three O’s in your name. I selected every third song that had an ‘O’ in the title, for 3 x 3 = 9 songs.

Affectio -- Yannis Kyriakides -- The Thing Like Us
Universal Corner -- X -- Los Angeles & Wild Gift
Take Off your Clothes to Feel the Setting Sun -- Wolfgang Dauner Quartet -- Untouchable Outcaste Beats Vol. 1
Trois GymnopÈdies II. Lent et triste -- Aldo Ciccolini -- Satie: Popular Piano Works
Something About England -- The Clash -- Sandinista!
Can't Make a Sound -- Elliott Smith -- Figure 8
The Mystery of Love -- Marianne Faithfull -- Buuck cd 1
Looking At You -- Lee Wiley -- Lee Wiley Sings Gershwin & Porter
The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else -- Cook's Dreamland Orchestra Ft. Freddie Keppard -- The History Of Jazz

-------------------------

Mike Kelleher, I selected the fourth song (M-i-k-e), followed by the eighth song after that (K-e-l-l-e-h-e-r), and continued this way in rounds until I had 4 + 8 = 12 songs. In honor of ‘Aimless Reading’, my favorite chronicle on the internet, I decided to note something I remember about each track, or the giver, or time of receipt of track, etc.

Track 09 – Interpol – Antics
What a way to start: I don’t remember who gave it to me or when. I remember that I was obsessed with Track 02 for a few weeks, and made Taylor Brady listen to it while we were sitting together at Norma Cole’s Poetry Center/CA Historical Society project, ‘House of Hope’. She’d installed a living room, c. Duncan & Jess in the 50s, with couches and chairs and books and records & rugs, etc. I’d been her project assistant and we’d spent months driving around looking for furniture and every other accoutrement for living rooms c. 1950 poet’s life. Norma was ‘in residence’ in the installation all day every day for many months, and it was a comfortable open living room anyone could drop in and out of. Always a nice time to find and meet and talk to other poets & writers, & others. We drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of chocolate chip cookies sitting around together I remember. I met Bernadette Mayer there, sort of.

Celebrity Skin – Hole -- Celebrity Skin
My best friend from high school, Joy, lives in San Diego, with her long-term boyfriend and her little son. For some reason I decided to upload a bunch of their cds the last time I was visiting—about four years ago, maybe five? I also uploaded AC/DC, REO Speedwagon, Sweet, and the soundtracks to Magnolia, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Garden State.

Track 09
My father was killed in a violent accident when I was thirteen years old, and I inherited several records by this artist, not including the one this song is from. Oddly, the majority of the tracks or albums or artists in your playlist mark out the most extraordinary losses and sorrows of my life.

La belle excentrique - I. Grande ritournelle -- Aldo Ciccolini -- Satie: Popular Piano Works
Satie makes me think of My Dinner With Andre, but this track doesn’t.

Track 06 -- Heidi collection rotation
I don’t know if you’ve seen the SFMOMA Blog series ‘Collection Rotation’: I ask someone to organize a group of collection works online, however they like, sometimes they pair their selections with songs. Heidi sent me a cd of the songs she chose. This song starts out interestingly but the lyrics are plain idiocy.


Joey -- Bob Dylan -- Desire
I don’t recall. Desire’s kind of like that I guess, once it’s passed. [I lied the first time. We all know that isn't even one time true.]

3-Legged Dog -- The Handsome Family -- Milk And Scissors
My ex-husband and I discovered this band together. Are they famous? I don’t know. It’s a husband and wife team and she writes the songs and he sings them. We saw them play once at the Bottom of the Hill, I seem to remember the man looking sort of like the poet Jeff Clark. The wife was wearing a black dress, had black hair and was kind of plump. My favorite song on this record is a waltz, called Tin Foil. The lyrics are: “Late New Year’s Eve, paper hat on your head/ It’s hard to believe you’ll ever be dead/ But that dream where you’re falling you’ve had since you’re five/ Is a bird on your shoulder who whispers goodbye// What is moving will be still, what has been gathered will disperse/ What has been built up will collapse, all your dreams fulfilled// Evil Knieval shot up from dead grass/ I loved him better each time he crashed/ Liza Minelli spent a month in her bed/ certain that Skylab would fall on her head// What is moving will be still, what has been gathered will disperse/ What has been built up will collapse, all your dreams fulfilled// One night I dreamed that I dug my own grave/ and climbed down inside to patiently wait/ Down in the ground I breathed the warm air/ and blackbirds flew down to nest in my hair// What is moving will be still, what has been gathered will disperse, what has been built up will collapse, all your dreams fulfilled.

Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight -- Bob Dylan – Infidels
I’ve had this track on the iPod for years, and only listened to the song for the first time all the way through maybe three or four months ago, while walking around Lake Merritt on a gloomy day. This particular Dylan album was probably part of my ex-husband’s collection. In the early months after we split up, I would go to his house, where we’d lived together, watch our dog, and upload cds. He also burned a lot of cds for me at that time, because he was worried I wouldn’t have anything to listen to, since the only cds that were actually mine were ELO’s Greatest Hits and Yiddish Masterpieces, which he’d given me one year for Hannukah.

Yellow Sarong -- Yo La Tengo – Fakebook
Saw Yo La Tengo at the Great American Music Hall in the middle of a Sunday afternoon once. I remember best their performance of ‘You can have it all’, because the two guys did a funny dance with sort of faux-Polynesian hand movements. I don’t like going to music shows all that much. I get bored and irritate others by trying to have conversations.

Tulsa Queen -- Emmylou Harris -- Luxury Liner
Don’t remember a thing and not sure I’ve listened to this one ever. I recall that people say about Emmylou Harris ‘the prettiest voice in country music’ or something. Whenever I think of Emmylou Harris I think about the story that she never got over the death of Gram Parsons.

I Love Your Lovin' Ways -- Nina Simone -- Wild Is The Wind/High Priestess Of Soul
I remember listening to this cd over and over again driving highway 99 through the central valley of California. When I see the cd or the names of any of the tracks on it or hear the songs, I picture one particular spot on the road, lined with eucalyptus trees.

Potato Head Blues -- Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven Ft. Johnny Dodds -- The History Of Jazz
Redacted.

-------------------------

Erika Staiti, your name is notable for its multiplicity of vowels: six out of eleven letters! I selected the first six tracks that began with a vowel. You haven’t been cheated in terms of cd length, though. ‘Original Sufferhead’ goes on for at least twenty minutes.

edward appleby (in memoriam) -- Mark Mothersbaugh -- Alli Warren's top 25
Oh Well, Okay -- Elliott Smith -- XO
Original Sufferhead -- Fela Kuti -- Original Sufferhead
ees -- Aldo Ciccolini -- Satie: Popular Piano Works
Affectio -- Yannis Kyriakides -- The Thing Like Us
I'll Be Your San Antone Rose -- Emmylou Harris -- Luxury Liner

-------------------------

Carrie Hunter, since I know you will write poems to these songs, I selected the first ten songs that were longer than five minutes. This is going to make one fuck of a good chapbook. I hope you dedicate it to me.

You Got Me (LIVE) -- Roots
Adagio -- Zoltan Kodály : Duo for Violin And Cello, Op. 7 -- Starker Plays Kodály
Komoriuta: Lullaby for the Moon -- Inzan Tanaka -- Lullaby for the Moon
Long Before -- Palace Brothers -- There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You
Don't Know What To Tell Ya – Aaliyah -- I Care 4 U
Untitled -- EKG & Giuseppe Ielasi -- Group
Track 18 -- transatlantic space 2
Bullet – Hayden -- The Closer I Get
The Call Up -- The Clash -- Sandinista! (Disc 2 of 2)
Concierto De Aranjuez -- Miles Davis & Gil Evans -- Sketches Of Spain

-------------------------

Linda Poe Waterfield, in honor of your daily documentary photo project, I chose a ‘documentary’ style of selection. I set the iPod on shuffle, let it run, and noted every track that played on my commute to work on June 16, 2009. I noted where I was when each song began.

Yardbird Suite -- Charlie Parker Septet, featuring Miles Davis -- The History of Jazz — The Be-Bop Revolution
----my doorstep----
Radio Waves – Magnapop -- Rubbing Doesn't Help
----looking at Lake Merritt, walking to carshare----
I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone -- Elvis Presley -- The Sun Sessions CD
----still walking to carshare----
A Mistake -- Fiona Apple -- When the Pawn Hits
----in a car, on Perkins----
If You Leave -- Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark -- Pretty In Pink
----in the carpool lane, almost to the toll gates (traffic’s been pretty lite til now, bridge doesn’t look as good---)
Hey Jude -- Elvis Presley -- The Essensial 60's Masters I (Disc 4)
----on the west span of the bridge, just out of the tunnel---
Transitions -- The Beastie Boys -- Ill Communication
---how appropriate. I just got out of the car and started walking----
Ocean (Outtake) -- The Velvet Underground -- Loaded (Disc 1)
---still walking. (and the song ended exactly the moment I arrived in my cubicle).

-------------------------

Chris Chen, in honor of our Christmas Eve coffee date, I selected every 24th song. 24 ÷ 2 = 12 songs. I swear with all my honor that this was the method and I did not cheat. Freaky!

Gett Off – Prince -- title
ees -- Aldo Ciccolini -- Satie: Popular Piano Works
Letters -- Bruce Andrews -- DiPalma, Lally and Andrews @ Ear Inn / New York, November 10, 1977
In The "Cheder” -- Mardechai Hersman -- Yiddish Masterpieces (Compiled By Dr. Motti Friedman)
Change Gonna Come -- Otis Redding -- The Otis Redding Anthology
Lo Mismo Que Tú -- Ana D -- Satelite 99
Will You Find Me? -- American Music Club -- Mercury
Into The Groove – Madonna -- The Immaculate Collection
The Lies In Your Eyes – Sweet --The Best Of Sweet
Catch A Wave -- The Beach Boys -- Surfer Girl / Shut Down Vol. 2
Skin – Madonna -- Ray Of Light
There She Goes Again --The Velvet Underground -- The Velvet Underground & Nico

-------------------------

Alli Warren, there are twenty-two letters in the phrase “Granada Hills High School”. We were born sixteen years apart. Twenty-two minus sixteen is six. I chose every sixth song, if it had both an “A” and an “S” in the title. There are seven letters in ‘Allison’ and seven letters in ‘Suzanne’. There are also seven letters in the title of the song, ‘Roxanne’. You get seven songs. “keys and keys and more keys”

Last Call -- Elliott Smith -- Roman Candle
Epistola -- Yannis Kyriakides -- The Thing Like Us
You Made This World, We Didn't -- Bruce Andrews -- SUNY Buffalo / April 15, 1992
When I Was Drinking – Hem -- Rabbit Songs
Say Cheese -- Granfaloon Bus -- Sleeping Car
pissing in a river -- Patti Smith
Impasse: -- Richard Buckner -- Impasse

-------------------------

Brandon Brown, you were born on June 26th, thirteen days from June 13th, the day I decided to make cds and you decided to request yours. There are eighteen letters, six syllables, and two spaces in ‘MIR HUSSEIN MOUSSAVI’, and eighteen letters, seven syllables, and one space in ‘MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD’. 18+6+2=26. 18+7+1=26. There are two syllables and six letters in TEHRAN, and two syllables and four letters in IRAN. There are ten letters in REVOLUTION and eight letters in ALEATORY, and seven letters in RECOUNT and thirteen letters in SUPREME LEADER, and eleven letters in GREEN RIBBON. There are seven letters in CAESURA. There are four letters in ROME. There are four letters in ROAM. There are five letters in RHONE. X divided by Y is Z. I selected every Z, X, and Q song.

Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart -- Judy Garland -- Little Girl Blue
Zinsizwa Zase Makhabeleni (Young Men Of Makhabeleni) -- Frans Msomi -- Singing In An Open Space: Zulu Rhythm And Harmony, 1962-1982
Zisho Esikhaleni (They Are Singing In An Open Space) -- Norman Sibisi and Izintombi Zakwa Zulu -- Singing In An Open Space: Zulu Rhythm And Harmony, 1962-1982
Zyeza Amagola (The Crooks Are Coming) -- Amos Mkhiza -- Singing In An Open Space: Zulu Rhythm And Harmony, 1962-1982
Xmas Lights Spin -- Mark Eitzel -- Caught In A Trap And I Can't Back Out 'Cause I Love You Too Much, Baby
q q q -- Bruce Andrews -- DiPalma, Lally and Andrews @ Ear Inn / New York, November 10, 1977
Quattro (World Drifts In) – Calexico -- Feast Of Wire
Que Me Hace Dano -- Beny Moré -- Latin Roots
Queen B@#$H -- Lil' Kim -- Hard Core
Queen Of No One -- Mark Eitzel -- Caught In A Trap And I Can't Back Out 'Cause I Love You Too Much, Baby
Queen of the Silver Dollar -- Emmylou Harris -- Pieces Of The Sky
question -- Old 97s -- BB CD for SS

-------------------------

Jennifer Manzano, you were the ninth person to request a cd. I selected every ninth song, wrote the titles on slips of paper, put them in a bag, pulled three out and discarded them. Then I selected three more tracks, by the every-ninth selection method, wrote those three on slips of paper, & put them in the bag. The order of your songs is the order I drew the nine slips of paper from the bag. First track is one of my all-time favorite songs. There’s a funny partial narrative here about getting knocked up. Watch out!

Back Of A Car -- Big Star -- #1 Record/Radio City
Wake The World -- The Beach Boys -- Friends
Just Friends -- Irene Kral With The Junior Mance Trio -- Better Than Anything
I'll Be There -- Elvis Presley -- The Essensial 60's Masters I (Disc 4)
I'm Free -- The Rolling Stones -- December's Children (And Everybody's)
Papa Don't Preach -- Madonna -- The Immaculate Collection
She's Crafty -- The Beastie Boys -- Licensed To Ill
Head Held High -- The Velvet Underground -- Loaded (Disc 1)
Track 07

Much love to all
xxxooo
s

when the elephant gives push-back to the ant.

nothing like a day on the job. try it some time.