Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Food Stuff Consuption And Miscellany
Monday, July 30, 2007
1 mocha coffee (16 fl. oz.)
1 hash brown (net wt. 2.5 oz.)
1 16 oz. can of malt liquor (brown bagged)
1 sm bag of nacho cheese flavored tortilla chips (net wt. 7/8 oz.)
1 bottle of Negra Modelo (12 fl. oz.)
1 bottle of Yeungling Black/Tan beer (12 fl. oz.) same location
1 sm bag of hot crunchy cheetos (net wt. 7/8 oz.)
1 sm bag of whole grain pretzels (net wt. 1.25 oz.)
1 sm bag of pork rinds (net wt. 1/2 oz.)
1 sm bag of nacho cheese flavored tortilla chips (net wt. 7/8 oz.)
sm mug of black coffee
2 pints of lager (*)
1 can of coke (12 fl. oz.)
1 meatball/provolone cheese on longroll sandwich
sm ramekin of cole slaw
sm ramekin of hot peppers
sm ramekin of sweet peppers
2 pints of lager (same location)
bottle of lager (diff. location)
slightly more than a pack of cigarettes
(*) additional pint of lager
Photos & Food Recipes:
2fer Tues:
Watermelon Mint Gazpacho
Makes 4 to 6 servings, about 1 1/2 cups each
Ingredients:
*1 1/2 to 2 quarts watermelon chunks (1/2 seedless melon)
*2 to 3 cups honeydew (1/2 melon, seeded)
*2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, divided use
*1 shallot, peeled
*1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced, or to taste
*1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
*1/2 cup cilantro chiffonade (shreds), divided use
*1 cup sparkling water (such as San Pellegrino)
*8 ounces lump crab meat
*Juice of 1/2 lemon
*1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
*Salt and white pepper
1. To a blender or food processor, in batches as needed, add 3/4 of the watermelon, the honeydew, 11/2 cucumbers, the shallot, jalapeno, mint, and half of the cilantro. Blend at medium speed while slowly adding the sparkling water. For a smooth puree, a blender works best. (If you want some texture, blend in quick pulses to avoid overmixing.)
2. When all is blended and combined in a serving bowl or pitcher, season with salt and white pepper. Refrigerate.
3. For the crab salad, pick over the crab meat for bits of shell. Cut the remaining watermelon and half cucumber in small dice and add to the crab. Drizzle with the lemon juice and oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix gently.
4. To serve, ladle the soup into chilled bowls. Place about 2 ounces of crab salad in the center. The soup can be held for up to 3 days, covered and refrigerated.
- From chef Brenton Wallace, Loie Brasserie, Philadelphia
Per serving: 146 calories, 10 grams protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, 16 grams sugar, 3 grams fat, 34 milligrams cholesterol, 145 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.
------
Soba Carbonara with Edamame, Bacon and Bay Scallops
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
*12 ounces Japanese soba noodles
*1/4 cup shelled edamame (fresh soy beans)
*2 cups Carbonara Sauce (see recipe below)
*1/4 pound smoked bacon, diced small, rendered crisp and drained (or precooked)
*1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
*Chopped chives
*Truffle oil
*1 cup dashi-soy sauce (see Note)
*1/2 pound dry bay scallops
1. Bring 8 quarts water to a boil. Cook soba just tender, 4 minutes. Add the edamame after 3 minutes. Drain. Rinse.
2. Prepare the Carbonara Sauce. Add bacon and chives.
3. On low heat, toss the noodles and edamame in the sauce for 2 minutes to coat and thicken. Do not overheat or the sauce will break down. Remove from heat.
4. Bring the dashi-soy to a simmer. Add the scallops, turn off heat and let cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Portion the noodle mixture into serving bowls. Finish with grated Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of truffle oil. Spoon the soy-poached scallops on top and a tablespoon of the dashi-soy poaching liquid around noodles on each dish.
6. Serve at once warm, at room temperature or chilled.
- From chef de cuisine Gerald Drummond, Morimoto, Philadelphia
For the Carbonara Sauce: Bring 1/2 cup dry white wine to a boil to cook off the alcohol. Add 1/4 cup dashi-soy and 1 cup heavy cream. Return to a low simmer. Meanwhile, set up a double boiler. Crack 3 egg yolks into a nonreactive bowl and whisk, slowly tempering in the wine-dashi-cream mixture. Set the bowl over simmering water. Whisk until eggs set at 160 degrees F. (the mixture will ribbon lightly). Do not overheat or mixture will separate. Add salt, freshly cracked white pepper and truffle oil, to taste.
Note: Dashi is a Japanese broth, often seaweed stock, sold in Asian and specialty food markets. For dashi-soy, mix 11/2 cups prepared dashi with 1/2 cup soy sauce. Refrigerate.
Per serving (with Carbonara Sauce): 858 calories, 39 grams protein, 77 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams sugar, 44 grams fat, 284 milligrams cholesterol, 3,400 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber.
------
Watermelon with Feta
Ingredients:
*2 pieces peeled watermelon cut in rectangular pieces
*3 oz. Dodoni Greek Feta
*1 tbs. Ladolemono
*2 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Method of Preparation:
Peel and cut watermelon into rectangular shaped pieces and place in center of serving plate. Top watermelon with Dodoni Feta and herbs, drizzle with ladolemono and olive oil and serve.
Garnish:
Fresh micro herbs such as mint leaves, chive blossoms, thyme flowering, lemon thyme leaves, and Greek oregano leaves.
from Chef Jose Andres
recipes via Philadelphia Inquirer (7/19/07) and Key to Philadelphia (7/30-8/12/07)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:28 AM 0 comments
Monday, July 30, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Sunday, July 29, 2007
lg mocha coffee
1 hash brown (net wt. 2.5 oz.)
1 sausage/egg/cheese on biscuit sandwich
pint of lager
4 pints of lager (*) diff. location
pint of lager (diff. location)
can of beer (16 fl. oz.) brown bagged
1 serving of steak with side of mashed potatoes and broccoli
slightly more than a pack of cigarettes
(*) additonal pint of lager
more poetry:
How To Paint a Perfect Christmas
Above, you paint the sky
delicate as maidenhair.
Below, pour a little darkness
heated to room temperature
or slightly more.
With a cat's claw in the dark
scratch out a little tree,
the finest tree in the world,
finer than any forester
could ever imagine.
And the tree itself
will light up
and the whole picture purr
with green joy,
with purple hope.
Right. But now you must
put under the tree
the
real big thing,
the thing you most want in the world;
the thing pop-singers
call happiness.
It's easy enough for a cat,
a cat will put a mouse there,
Colonel Blimp will line up
the largest jet-propelled halberd
which shoots and bands and salutes,
a sparrow will gather
a few stalks for its nest,
mister junior clerk will submit
a stuffed file tied with red tape,
a butterfly will put there
a new rubber peacock's eye,
but what will you put there?
You think and think
till the day grows grey,
till the river almost runs out,
till even the bulbs begin to yawn,
you think
and finally
there in the darkness you blot out
a hazy white spot,
a bit like a florin,
a bit like a ship,
a bit like a Moon,
a bit like the beautiful face
of someone (who?) else,
a hazy white spot,
perhaps more like emptiness,
like the negation of something,
like non-pain,
like non-fear,
like non-worry,
a hazy white spot,
and you go to bed
and say to yourself,
yes, now I know how to do it,
yes, now I know,
yes,
next time
I shall paint
the most perfect Christmas
that ever was.
Miroslav Holub (translated from the Czech by Ian Milner and George Theiner)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 2:40 PM 0 comments
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Saturday, July 28, 2007
1 hash brown (net wt. 2.5 oz.)
lg coffee (light/sweet)
1 sausage/egg/cheese on longroll sandwich
1 pretzel (mustard)
3 pints of lager (*)
glass of fountain coke
2 double cheeseburgers (McDonalds)
sm order of french fries (McDonalds)
double shot of espresso
3 pints of lager (*) diff. location
plastic cup of fountain coke
2 pints of lager (*) diff. location
bag of pretzels (net wt. 1 1/4 oz.)
1 med. mocha coffee (12 fl. oz.)
1 bottle of lager (diff. location)
slightly more than a pack of cigarettes
(*) additional pint(s) of lager
Did You Know?
"Just 1% of gun stores sell 57% of weapons seized in crimes nationwide."
info via New York Daily News editorial (Sat. 7-28-07)
3fer Sunday:
Ice-Fishing
Not thinking other than how the hand works
I wait until dark here on the cold
world rind, ice-curved over simplest rock
where the tugged river flows over hidden
springs too insidious to be quite forgotten.
When the night comes I plunge my hand
where the string of fish know their share
of the minimum. Then, bringing back my hand
is a great sunburst event; and slow
home with me over unmarked snow
In the wild flipping warmth of won-back thought
my boots, my hat, my body go.
William Stafford
Don't Sign Anything
Riding the horse as was my wont,
there was a bunch of cows in a field.
The horse
chased
them. I likewise, an uneasy
accompanist.
To wit, the Chinese proverb goes:
if you lie in a field
and fall asleep,
you will be found in a field
asleep.
Robert Creeley
a politician is an arse upon
a politician is an arse upon
which everyone has sat except a man
E. E. Cummings
all three poems excerpted from:
VOICES
an anthology of poems
and pictures
the fifth book
edited by
Geoffrey Summerfield
copyright 1969 by Rand McNally & Company
Posted by Allan Smithee at 10:27 AM 0 comments
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Friday, July 27, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
plain bagel with cream cheese
can of malt liquor (16 fl. oz.)
lg coffee (light/sweet)
2 sm bags of pretzels (net wt. 1 1/4 oz. each)
slice of strawberry shortcake
1 Chick-Fil-A sandwich
2 pints of lager (royal/imperial)
1 single shot of espresso
2 bottles of lager (diff. location)
2 pints of lager (diff. location)
2 pints of lager (diff. location)
pack and half of cigarettes
note to self:currently owe the coffee vendor for 13-14 lg coffees ($1 apiece) and 4 pretzels ($0.40 apiece). pay asap. gave vendor a ten spot this a.m. (Wed. July 25th) will pay remainder tomorrow. done. owed vendor $6. ordered lg coffee (light/sweet), sausage/egg/cheese on longroll sandwich, and pretzel with mustard. gave them $12.40
Architecture:
A home design that considers first the user; A celebration of Charles Eames' birth visits his 1949 home, a modern style far from minimal.
More Architecture:
For Architects, Personal Archives as Gold Mines; A small but influential number of celebrity architects are considering selling their archives as they continue to work.
Moving Along:
Taking a design dream for a spin
Posted by Allan Smithee at 10:40 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 27, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Thursday, July 26, 2007
lg mocha coffee (sweet) 20 fl. oz.
1 hash brown (net wt. 2.5 oz.)
1 egg/sausage/cheese on toasted plain bagel
5-6 lg mugs of black coffee
1 kaiser roll with butter
1 toasted raisin bagel with cream cheese
1 bottle of Pomegranate Pear juice (17.5 fl. oz.)
1 chicken salad on multi-grain bread sandwich (mayo/lettuce/tomato/onion)
sm bag of sour cream/onion potato chips
1/2 sliced (length wise) pickle
3 pepperoncinis
2 grape leaves stuffed with rice
3 pints of lager (*)
1 can of coke (12 fl. oz.)
1 hot roast beef on kaiser roll sandwich (mayo/horseradish) plus
raw onions/sliced tomatoes and pickle on the side
sm side of cole slaw
2 pints of lager (diff. location)
slightly more than a pack of cigarettes
(*) additional pint of lager
more fun...
battle of the cover bands:
Behind Blue Eyes/Faith (reigning champ)
vs
Billie Jean (challenger)
plus explication
serendipity:
Just walked into the computer lab (11:45 a.m.) and the departing intern, Bailey, a (senior) student at Notre Dame gave me a 2-cdr set of John Lennon cover tunes as a good-bye gift. Sweet.
unrelated; bad bonus round:
In A Class Of Its Own:
For Those About To Rock We Salute You!
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:28 AM 0 comments
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
1 hash brown (net wt. 2.5 oz.)
lg coffee (light/sweet)
plain bagel with cream cheese
lg coffee with shot of espresso (light/sweet) 20 fl. oz.
2 pints of lager
2 pints of lager (diff. location)
glass of fountain coke
2 pints of lager (*) royal/imperial (diff. location)
glass of fountain coke
lg mocha coffee (light/sweet) 16 fl. oz.
slightly more than a pack of cigarettes
(*) plus additional pint of lager
photo essay: 24th St/Bainbridge (Philadelphia)
bonus round:
Stephen Malkmus - Trigger Cut (Pitchfork Music Festival - 2007)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:41 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
6-7 lg mugs of black coffee
sm cup of tea
2 med-lg servings of green veg/beans/cheese/noodle/spaghetti casserole
1 sm pkg of Entenmann's "Little Bites" brownies (100 calorie packs)
box of HiC "Frightening" Fruit Punch (6.75 fl. oz.)
1 bologna on white bread sandwich
1 pkg of Cheez-It baked snack crackers (net wt. 1.5 oz.)
1 pkg of Famous Amos peanut butter cookies (net wt. 2 oz.)
1/2 pack of cigarettes
note to self:currently owe the coffee vendor for 13-14 lg coffees ($1 apiece) and 4 pretzels ($0.40 apiece). pay asap. gave vendor a ten spot this a.m. will pay remainder tomorrow.
Thing to do this weekend:
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Sunday (pay what you want)
Show:
Notations: Kiefer, Polke, Richter
July 21, 2007 - November 25, 2007
Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke, and Gerhard Richter are undoubtedly three of the most important European contemporary painters. Working in Germany after World War II—a historical moment characterized by philosopher Theodor Adorno as marking the death of poetry after the atrocities of Auschwitz—these artists proposed a vigorous reconsideration of the possibilities of pictorial practice. Through dynamically distinctive approaches, they each question the relevance of history painting, examine the relationship between painting and photography, and pursue experimentation to redefine the technical potential of painting. Kiefer, Polke, and Richter have restored a profound significance to the act of painting as a means for individual artists to unearth and transform the collective consciousness.
By tackling the subjects of history and mythology, Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) creates works of imposing fragility that are extraordinary testimonies to the possibilities of lyricism in a European landscape scarred by genocide and war. Sigmar Polke (born 1941) re-actualizes the experimental impulse—the backbone of artistic practice in the early modern period—revisiting and reinventing the explorations of Dadaists and Surrealists like Francis Picabia (French, 1879–1953) and Max Ernst (German, 1891–1976). Gerhard Richter (born 1932), who left East Germany in 1961 for a career in the West, systematically explores painting’s relevance in a cultural landscape seemingly dominated by products of popular culture and the photographic image.
more budget living:
Wake Up Wednesday...
Add a free shot of espresso to any drink!
coffee - $1.50 (16 oz. or 20 oz.)
free computer time
ING Direct Cafe
also, pick up a coffee "credit" card
every 5th coffee free
Daily Provocation:
"Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it."
Cullen Hightower
via Philadelphia Evening Bulletin frontpage (still $0.25)
note: though a conservative newspaper, culture and arts section very good. also interesting to read the editorial page; gives a good overview of what neo-conservatives believe, a viewpoint very different from mine.
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:24 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Monday, July 23, 2007
6-7 lg mugs of black coffee
1 bag of Doritos Nacho Cheese flavored tortilla chips (net wt. 1 oz.)
1/2 pack of cigarettes
note to self: currently owe the coffee vendor for 13-14 lg coffees ($1 apiece) and 4 pretzels ($0.40 apiece). pay asap.
unrelated:
Push th' little daisies
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:28 AM 0 comments
Monday, July 23, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Sunday, July 22, 2007
2 sm coffees (light/sweet)
2 glazed donuts
1 med butterscotch coffee (light/sweet)
1 can of green iced tea (apple flavored) 12 fl. oz.
3 peanut butter/grape jelly on whole wheat bread sandwiches
3 sm rolls of semi-hard candy (smarties)
1 container of blackberries (half dry pint)
box of fruit punch (6.75 fl. oz.)
3 peanut butter/grape jelly on whole wheat bread sandwiches
3 sm rolls of semi-hard candy (smarties)
can of ginger ale (12 fl. oz.)
1/2 pack of cigarettes
Saturday, July 21, 2007
lg coffee
1 pretzel (mustard)
1 vitamin water (dragonfruit) 20 fl. oz.
1 med butterscotch coffee (light/sweet)
1 tootsie roll
1 can of fruit punch (11.5 fl. oz.)
4-5 biscuits
1/2 pack of cigarettes
photo essay: Grove (Branded Trees)
photos taken Sunday (7/22) 3:30 - 3:40 p.m. and Monday (7/23) 8:40 a.m.
location - B. Franklin Parkway between 20th and 21st
Journeys | Religious Art:
European Artists Return to Church
more:
Speaking volumes - an interview with Chris Burden
Well, it's pretty simple. I went to a prep school in Cambridge, Mass., as a day student. It was a very hard school; my dad must have paid a lot of money to send me there. Between my junior and senior year, I got a National Science Foundation grant to go to La Jolla, to be like a junior scientist, and I took the Greyhound bus from Boston to L.A. That was an eye-opener. I was supposed to have some college interviews. I had one at Pomona College on my way back home because it was off Route 66.
I ended up going to Pomona in a pre-architectural program; the deal was you studied math, physics, art and art history. The math and physics were really hard, and I could not keep up. To tell you the truth, I wasn't interested, and I started working in the art department. My first teacher was John Mason and we did bronze castings; I still have my first casting.
I went home one summer and I worked in an architecture firm in Cambridge and it was horrible. I hated working there. I was organizing magazines and such, but there were people who had gone to architecture grad school, and they were sitting there at these drafting tables drawing toilets on these huge blueprints and I went, "No, I am not going to do four years of grad school to become a draftsman." You had to be 55 years old before you got to make a decision!
So I came back to Pomona and I said, "I want to be a sculptor." My chairman, Nicolai Wasisksi, Jr., was buying art for collectors. We'd see works by Poons and all kinds of Minimalist painters and stuff before he would send them on to the collectors. It was good; I was lucky to go there at that time; schools have life cycles, and this was a good phase. So then I went to graduate school at U.C. Irvine. It was the first year they had the program. I had applied to East Coast schools, like Rutgers and Columbia, got all kinds of offers from there, but I did not want to go back East.
I liked California; I liked the openness of it; I already had started building big sculptures, and I remember deciding that I had to get a pickup truck. I liked doing things outdoors. So I went to Irvine, and after graduating I stayed one more year in Santa Aria because I already had a great studio there. I was the first tenant in this industrial unit: they were huge, 300-foot-long tilt ups, where the walls are poured flat on the floor slab and then craned up into place in a day, with the bases of the walls cast into footings and their tops tied together by the roof beams. They chopped these things all up into little industrial units, and each had a garage door and a little door. You were not allowed to live there: you had to hide your car because that was the sign that someone was there all the time. They were $100 a month, 20 feet wide by 20 feet high by 50 feet long, a little bathroom and a sink in the back corner, brand new.
I worked at the Newport Harbor Museum doing prep work; I got to know a lot of L.A. artists. Somehow Chuck Arnoldi knew that a bunch of us were looking for a space to show our work; we wanted to keep living in Orange County but we wanted to have a small gallery hike the F Space, which was adjacent to my studio. [Burden did performances, including Shoot, there.] Chuck heard of a little hot-dog stand on Brooks Ave. in Venice. It was so nasty, it took us a year to fix it, and then at the end of fixing it, the other people kind of lost interest, so I said, "Well, I'll pay you back for all the materials, so I can live in this." And they said, "Sure." So I paid them $350 for all the paint, and bingo, I had my studio. That was great.
The lady who owned the building lowered the rent from $90 a month to $80 because I was an artist, as opposed to the drug dealer who ran the business before! All the 10 years I lived in that little place, people would get out of jail and come and not just knock on my door but really pull on it, looking to buy drugs. I could see it flexing. It was kind of scary.
I always thought I'd have a career as an artist, at least since my second year in college, when I decided to become an artist. I did not want to teach. I felt really bad when I had to start teaching. I was 33 years old and borrowing money from my mother; my career was weird that way. I got a lot of L.A. press originally, then a lot of art press, but it did not really translate into money. ! was on the cover of Artforum in 1976, and my phone did not ring for two years after that, because the art world is so fashion-conscious and so cyclical. Once you get known, it's like, "Whom should we have for a performance or a lecture? Well, everybody knows him. Let's bring in somebody else, because he's a known quantity."
I started teaching in '78 at UCLA and at the San Francisco Art Institute. Every other day I'd fly into San Francisco. It was a lot of work, but I needed it to get going. I was really penniless. I'd been at UCLA three or four years when Charley Ray was hired. I was full time, but we were lecturers, not tenure track. There were no new positions--it took years to get them.
Southern California has changed a lot since I've arrived, of course. It's become more frenetic, more stressful. L.A. has completely changed. You used to be able to drive around here; can't do that anymore. There's this ossification. The city used to be small because you could get everywhere fast; now it's huge, since driving has lost its fluidity.
I do feel in a community of artists: I see Mike Kelley sometimes and Paul McCarthy; I don't really know what Charley Ray's up to these days. I go out sometimes, not too often, traffic's changed so much. I don't leave Topanga Canyon, where I live now, unless I can do five things at a time. What's happened in my neighborhood here is like what's happened all over L.A. I'm a preservationist, as opposed to my neighbors, who are developers. We bought extra land so that other people would not build on it. My theory is that if you don't own it, they will build on it. I wish I could have bought more land.
I built the skyscrapers here. My office manager Katie's husband, Cary Gepner, is a certified architect. When we were first building here, this is now 22 years ago, I asked, "What's the biggest structure that you could build without a permit?" His answer was, you can build something up to 400 square feet. At the time I had lots of books on architecture. There are these Baltimore row houses that are 10 feet square. Your rooms are stacked on top of each other. The height here for residential building was 35 feet max. I could build a little skyscraper, because that would be within the definition of the 400 square feet--four 10-foot-square floors, and it's four times 8 feet high per floor, making 32 feet plus the thickness of the roof and floors. And who's to say you can't stand on the roof and have that be your deck? So that was the idea.
I made a little sketch of it in 1991. Then these architects came to me; they wanted to do a project with houses designed by artists, and they asked me for a concept. I said, "I've already got mine designed, you guys do the arithmetic." So we started meeting for a couple of years. It was interesting--we got all these different materials, they brought all these samples. So I did end up getting to be an architect. Well, kind of.
We showed it in L.A. at LACE, lying on its side. They did a prototype. Then we built one in Basel in the summer of 2004 in the Messeplatz, and the more I built it, the less I wanted it to be a building, and the more I wanted it to be a sculpture. In Basel it was vertical, it really looks good vertical; so now I have two, because it was cheaper to rebuild it in Basel than to ship it there. See, my dream is to use those two skyscrapers, make some stainless steel ones, and also have these wooden frame houses, and have all those kinds of models of real things, totally freak my neighbors!
I started collecting old municipal light poles, many from the '20s, a while ago. They get taken apart, stripped, restored, repainted and rewired. I've installed them three rows deep on three sides of my studio, about 150 total. They all work. I like the light poles here, so it's not a terrible loss if they don't get to go somewhere else. There's discussion of them going to Vienna, but I would never loan them for an exhibition. When they go from here, they go to a home and I get a check. It's the only way it's going to work for me.
I built a beehive bunker near the top of my property. It's made of 100-pound paper sacks of concrete mix, laid up like the blocks in an igloo. We drove rebar through the bags to link them together and then installed some drip irrigation lines so that the dry mix in the bags turned into concrete over a couple of weeks. The thing weighs more than 5 tons. Access is through a manhole set in the top, about ten feet from the ground. It's the right place for a bunker because it's just a tremendous view, and it's very bizarre when you're up near it, it's disjunctive. You're looking down on all these multi-million-dollar homes, so it's not in Beirut, or on the Golan Heights or something. It gives me information before I build it somewhere else. And I keep waiting for someone to call, and I'll just tell them that it's a sculpture! I wonder how many beehive bunkers it will take before somebody calls?
A lot of my work is performative. I would say the same of the bridges: they're about spanning from A to B. You could do it by writing an essay connecting nuclear physics to Renaissance painting, or you could do it in a physical way. The bunker is performative by implication. With the Medusa Head, the whole thing [a suspended, dark, gnarled 14-foot-in-diameter lump] is covered with model railroad tracks. The trains can't move, but the implication is that this whole thing is like a snarling world of industry. I don't know if it's performative, but it seems to me it is. Medusa Head is about an ecological nightmare that did not come to be. It shows what an early British farmer thought in his heart of hearts when he saw the first fucking steam locomotive coming down the tracks. There are parts of England--or New Jersey, for that matter--that look like the Medusa Head for sure. But trains are also like, well, the Orient Express--they have their own mythology.
I am not sure that the radicality in my work is linked to California, linked to place, but maybe it has to do with how you feel history is so much newer here. I remember going back to my father's funeral in New Hampshire around ten years ago. There were some people in the room, so just to be a wise guy, I say to them, "And when did you get rid of your Indians?" The glare and the hatred was indescribable, and they looked at me like I was some sort of madman, you know. And they stuttered a little and said, well, I could probably go to the library and look it up.
excerpted from Art in America (November, 2006)
...and lastly, just cause it's a good tune
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:51 AM 2 comments
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Friday, July 20, 2007
sm cup of coffee (light/sweet)
sm amount of baked chicken
1/2 of gyro/pita bread sandwich
lg coffee (light/sweet)
3-4 lg mugs of black coffee
1 pkg of oven roasted turkey breast (net wt. 8 oz.)
2 sm cups of sweet tea
1 1/2 servings of chicken/veg/cheese/macaroni noodle casserole
1 1/2 side servings of mashed potatoes
2 slices of whole wheat bread
1 slice of heavy/hearty multi-grain bread
3 sm chocolate brownies
sm amount of water
1/2 pack of cigarettes
Art, Music, and The Unknown...
Dumping The Shark:
More Damien Hirst (New York Times editorial, Friday, July 20th)
Tunes:
10 unreleased Dr. Dog songs (one per week) info via Ice Pack by A.D. Amorosi
Column:
Today I Had...
bonus round:
say it ain't sew (haiku)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 8:54 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 20, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Thursday, July 19, 2007
bottle of water (16.9 fl. oz.)
5-6 lg mugs of black coffee
toasted kaiser roll with butter
plain bagel (toasted)
bottle of water (20 fl. oz.)
pint of lager
16 oz. can of malt liquor (brown bagged)
pint of lager (diff. location)
bag of bbq pork rinds (net wt. 0.5 oz.)
pint of lager (same location)
bag of honey roasted peanuts (net wt. 2 oz.)
pint of lager (same location)
1 mocha coffee (light/sweet) 24 fl. oz.)
1/2-3/4 pack of cigarettes
Things and Junk (But Not Stuff)
Beatles' songs plus others on youtube.com
More Stuff on youtube.com
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:32 AM 0 comments
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
3 breakfast biscuits
1 caramel coffee (light) 16 fl. oz.
1 med butterscotch coffee (light/sweet)
1 bottle of water (16.9 fl. oz.)
3/4 pack of cigarettes
Summer Express: 101 Main Courses/Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less... by Mark Bittman (The Minimalist)
American Food Writing: An Anthology With Classic Recipes
From Thomas Jefferson to M. F. K. Fisher to David Sedaris, Americans have long been passionate about food.
Reviewed by ROY BLOUNT Jr.
other:
How often do you find yourself on the internet looking at the same boring pages? You know there is something out there but you don't know where to look...
random website, click here
Posted by Allan Smithee at 9:27 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
1 raisin bagel (plain)
4-5 lg mugs of black coffee
1 bottle of water (20 fl. oz.)
1 peanut butter/grape jelly/potato chips on white bread sandwich
1 sm-med ziploc bag of potato chips
1 (butterscotch/peanuts) granola bar (net wt. 1.2 oz.)
1 box of berry juice (6.75 fl. oz.)
1/2 pack of cigarettes
Letter to the Editor (Philadelphia Daily News, 7/18/07)
Painted steel beams aren't tourist-worthy art
The recent erection of the sculpture "The Iroquois" by Mark di Suvero on the Parkway demonstrates once again that Philly is brain-dead when it comes to understanding what is and isn't art. The only difference between I-beam sculptures like Suvero's and demolition rubble: His are painted.
The effect of sculptures like "The Iroquois" on tourism is best demonstrated by a visit to Sistine Chapel in Rome. A series of modern paintings are hung in the stairway corridors. In my many visits, the majority of visitors rush through the hallways to get to the main hall. There, the paintings and sculptures by the masters are presented for the world to see.
I doubt that even a Canadian will cross the border to see a jumble of painted I-beams titled "The Iroquois." Philly needs to stop shopping at the junkyards for art.
name withheld*
Mantua, N.J.
*name withheld by Automotive Acne blogspot not Editors at Philly Daily News
**appropriated photo essay: advertisements stripped of context (a suspension of viewpoint)
Artists represented:
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ryszard Wasko, Priscilla Monge, Roseanne Backstedt, Not Vital, Ed Moses, Robert Weingarten, Philip Guston, Meg White by Juergen Teller, Ouattara Watts, Sherrie Levine, David Hammons, Zhange Enli, Christopher Wool
**ads from an international art magazine (circa March, 2006)
(other) very amusing:
Are you high?
Posted by: G at July 17, 2007 8:19 PM
Is it not up on the website too? I just looked for it and can't find it.
Posted by: Paddy at July 17, 2007 8:53 PM
No, not online yet. But it may show up soon. I'll be sure to mention it when/if.
And no, I'm not high. One healthy grocery trip and everyone suspects mind-altering drugs.
Posted by: Kriston at July 17, 2007 9:08 PM
read original post and all comments
Posted by Allan Smithee at 12:39 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Monday, July 16, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
4-5 lg mugs of black coffee
1 can of grape soda (12 fl. oz.)
sm cup of chicken/veg. noodle soup
1 baked chicken drumstick
1 sm (m&m) brownie
3 bread rolls
1 plain bagel (dry)
sm-med container of sliced fruit (various)
med plastic cup of sweet tea
1 hotdog (mustard/ketchup)
2 bread rolls
1/2 pack of cigarettes
recipe:
Vegetable Fried Rice
Ingredients:
* 1 cup instant brown rice
* 1 cup vegetable broth
* 2 eggs, lightly beaten
* 2 teaspoons canola oil
* 6 ounces asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
* 1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced into 1-inch pieces
* 4 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
* 4 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
* 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
* Hot pepper sauce, to taste
Cooking Directions
1. Combine rice and broth in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, 12 to 14 minutes. Spread the rice out on a large plate and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. While the rice is cooling, coat a large nonstick wok or skillet with cooking spray and place over medium heat. Pour in eggs and cook, stirring gently, until just set, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer to a small bowl.
3. Heat canola oil in the pan over medium-high; add asparagus and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add bell pepper, scallions, garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, until the vegetables are just tender, about 2 minutes. Add the cooked rice, soy sauce and vinegar to the pan; cook until the liquid is absorbed, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Fold in the cooked eggs. Remove from the heat; stir in sesame oil and hot sauce.
Yield: 2 servings
Nutrition Info
Per Serving
* Calories: 366 kcal
* Carbohydrates: 47 g
* Dietary Fiber: 7 g
* Fat: 14 g
* Protein: 14 g
* Sugars: 6 g
courtesy: Yahoo.com
(other) recap:
For The Laugh Of God
vs
For The Love Of God
(more) profile:
God is dead, long live us; Ron Currie Jr. creates a post-theistic society
Finances:
Two Thumbs Down and Both Middle Fingers Extended (Bad Business Deal In The Making)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:06 AM 0 comments
Monday, July 16, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Sunday, July 15, 2007
2 sm coffees (light/sweet)
1 med coffee (light/sweet)
2 bottles of water (16.9 fl. oz. apiece)
1 hotdog (mustard/ketchup)
sm side of potato salad
1 bag of crunchy cheese doodles (net wt. 1 oz.)
1 banana
med styrofoam cup of sweet tea
1 serving of baked chicken (breast)
med side serving of risotto-type rice
1 bottle of water (16.9 fl. oz.)
3 sm bags of peanuts (still shelled)
sm diet coke (10 fl. oz./guesstimate)
sm serving of general tsao chicken
med serving of white rice
1/2 pack of cigarettes
Saturday, July 14, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
2 slices of hamburger/sausage pizza
2 slices of cheese pizza
lg coffee (light/sweet)
med coffee (light/sweet)
sm amount of orange soda/french fries/bread roll
1/2 pint of chocolate milk
1 serving of baked chicken (drumstick/thigh)
side serving of white rice
side serving of green string beans
bag of honey nuts (net wt. 1 oz.)
1 mixed bag of apple slices/grapes (net wt. 2.3 oz.)
1 white cheese on bread roll sandwich
1/2 pack of cigarettes
*Visuals:
*
other:
One for the books - Phils fall to Cards, become first club to 10,000 losses
more:
Know Your Dealer (10 Pot Pusher Profiles)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:09 AM 0 comments
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Friday, July 13, 2007
2 lg coffees (light/sweet)
1 pretzel (mustard)
16 oz. can of malt liquor (brown bagged)
1 sm bread roll
3-4 lg mugs of black coffee
2 dry bagels (plain/onion)
1 mini french baguette (net wt. 7 oz.)
bottle of water (20 fl. oz.)
1 mini french baguette (net wt. 7 oz.)
can of orange/pineapple fruit juice drink (11.5 fl. oz.)
1 ham/salami (mustard) on rye bread sandwich
1 Tastykake strawberry krimpet (iced sponge cake) net wt. 2 oz.
bottle of water (16.9 fl. oz.)
3 "taquitos"
2 slices of sausage/hamburger pizza
1 slice of cheese pizza
1/2 pack of cigarettes
note to self: currently owe the coffee vendor for 7 lg coffees 9 lg coffees ($1 apiece) and 4 pretzels ($0.40 apiece). pay asap. (updated 7/16)
Portraiture
New exhibit at the Free Library of Philadelphia (Central branch on Vine St./20th) in the gallery/hallway next to the Government Publications Department
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:17 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 13, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Thursday, July 12, 2007
2 lg coffees (light/sweet)
2 pretzels (mustard/Siracha hot chili sauce)
6-7 cups of black coffee
1 toasted bagel (plain/dry)
1 sharp provolone cheese on long roll hoagie/hero (12") sandwich (lettuce,tomato,onion, mayo)
1 mango
pint of lager (royal/imperial)
single shot of espresso (sweet)
2 bottles of lager (diff. location)
1 sm cherry snow-cone
1/2 pack of cigarettes
Two videos from the Circus Devils' newest release Sgt. Disco (available August 7th) Produced by Todd Tobias. Voice, lyrics and cover art by Robert Pollard. Musical instruments by Todd Tobias.
Bogus Reactions
War Horsies
other:
Ten Friday the 13th Facts and Theories via Digg / News
Posted by Allan Smithee at 11:54 AM 0 comments
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
1/2 pulled chicken hoagie/hero sandwich
1 serving of meatloaf with
side of mashed potatoes and
side of green beans
lg coffee (light/sweet)
2 pints of lager (*)
2 pints of lager (diff. location)
pint glass of fountain coke
2 bottles of lager (*) diff. location
bottle of water (16.9 fl.oz.)
1/2-3/4 pack of cigarettes
(*) additional pint/bottle of lager
Interesting Facts About Water (Water, more precious than gold, learn to conserve it)
*There is the same amount of water on Earth today as there was 3 billion years ago.
*Bottled water may cost up to 1,000 times more than water provided by the City and is not as strictly regulated for purity.
*You should survive about a month without food, but only 5 to 7 days without water.
*2/3 of the water used in an average home is used in the bathroom.
*66% of the human body is water.
*66% of the human brain is water.
*75% of a living tree is water.
*Typically, 3 to 7 gallons of water are used for every toilet flush.
*On the average, a person uses 2 gallons of water to brush his or her teeth each day.
*A 10 minute shower uses about 55 gallons of water.
*A leaking faucet can waste up to 100 gallons of water a day.
*You can help prevent pollution of drinking water sources by carefully disposing of the chemical products you use in your home.
info via The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center
Fun With Fish:
2005 & 2006 Fairmount Fish Ladder (Passage Data Compared to Historical Counts)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:42 AM 2 comments
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
6-7 cups of black coffee
1 pkg of crackers with peanut butter (4 per pkg)
bottle of water (20 fl.oz.)
sm plastic cup of pink grapefruit juice
1 1/2 servings of pasta/veg. casserole (tomato sauce, corn, peas, red bellpeppers, cheese and sm amount of chicken)
bottle of water (16.9 fl.oz.)
2 bottles of grape flavored fitness water (16.9 fl.oz. apiece)
1/4-1/2 pack of cigarettes
Almanac
Wednesday, July 11th:
Whenever Wednesday: A Midsummer Night's Screening. The Avengers: A Touch of Brimstone, directed by James Hill, 1966, 60 minutes, and Helter Skelter, directed by Tom Gries, 1976, 184 minutes. Dusk. Free with gallery admission. Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th.
Sidewalk Soundbites Concert. Wayneron and the Untouchables (beach-style). 1818 Market (rain location: Gallery, 9th & Market). Noon-1:30 p.m. Free.
Center City Sips Happy Hour. $4 cocktails, $3 wine, $2 beers, and $1 appetizers. 5-7 p.m. 47 bars and restaurants around Center City.
More:
God Given
Man Measured
Dog Approved
other:
Personal Note: Again, Thank You for reading Automotive Acne (Barely A Blog)
Your Account
Welcome Allan Smithee
Site Name: Automotive Acne — Total Hits: 4000
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Statistics as of July 11, 2007 at 8:07 am CDT
Site: Automotive Acne
Your counter was created on January 25, 2007 at 12:20 pm CST with a starting count of 0. You currently have your counter set to increment on Unique Hits Only.
Total Hits: 4000
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Daily History
Day Date Hits
Today 07/11/07 2
Yesterday 07/10/07 29
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Weekly History
Week Dates Hits
This Week 07/08/07 - 07/11/07 52
Last Week 07/01/07 - 07/07/07 94
2 Weeks Ago 06/24/07 - 06/30/07 145
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4 Weeks Ago 06/10/07 - 06/16/07 143
5 Weeks Ago 06/03/07 - 06/09/07 204
6 Weeks Ago 05/27/07 - 06/02/07 231
7 Weeks Ago 05/20/07 - 05/26/07 225
8 Weeks Ago 05/13/07 - 05/19/07 144
9 Weeks Ago 05/06/07 - 05/12/07 116
10 Weeks Ago 04/29/07 - 05/05/07 66
11 Weeks Ago 04/22/07 - 04/28/07 164
12 Weeks Ago 04/15/07 - 04/21/07 219
13 Weeks Ago 04/08/07 - 04/14/07 229
14 Weeks Ago 04/01/07 - 04/07/07 236
15 Weeks Ago 03/25/07 - 03/31/07 182
16 Weeks Ago 03/18/07 - 03/24/07 197
17 Weeks Ago 03/11/07 - 03/17/07 128
18 Weeks Ago 03/04/07 - 03/10/07 145
19 Weeks Ago 02/25/07 - 03/03/07 142
20 Weeks Ago 02/18/07 - 02/24/07 178
21 Weeks Ago 02/11/07 - 02/17/07 177
22 Weeks Ago 02/04/07 - 02/10/07 196
23 Weeks Ago 01/28/07 - 02/03/07 162
24 Weeks Ago 01/21/07 - 01/27/07 61
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:27 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Monday, July 9, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
8-10 cookies (assorted)
6-7 cups of black coffee
med slice of pound cake (fruit)
1 pkg of grilled cheese flavored crackers with
yellow cheese (6 per pkg) total net wt. 1.38 oz.
2-3 sm cups of water
1 pkg of honey mustard & onion pretzel chips (net wt. 8 oz.)
med cup of water
med serving of spaghetti (tomato sauce/sausage)
1 ham/white cheese on whole wheat bread sandwich
1 ham/white cheese on white bread sandwich
1 Tastykake chocolate chip soft cookie (net wt. 1 1/2 oz.)
bottle of water (20 fl.oz.)
1/4-1/2 pack of cigarettes
Summer...
Recipe:
Ceviche
Rating:
4.00 (1 ratings)
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients
1 lb. firm white fish, chopped into 1/8” pieces
2 Tbsps. cilantro, diced
1/2 cup white onion, diced
2 ripe tomatoes(Roma), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup fresh lime juice(or more as needed)
salt to taste
Instructions
In a large bowl combine all ingredients except the tomato and cilantro. Toss gently but thoroughly, making sure all of the fish is thoroughly coated. Add tomatoes and cilantro to mixture. Cover and refrigerate for one hour (or longer), stirring occasionally. Fish should become opaque and scallops will lose translucent appearance. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Serve with tostadas or saltine crackers.
note: for some spice, add sm amount of chilled/diced jalepenos to taste.
other:
Broads and Bikinis
Hairy Guys
plus:
Beer Coasters
bonus round:
Man flies 193 miles in lawn chair
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:41 AM 0 comments
Monday, July 9, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Sunday, July 8, 2007
2 sm coffees (light/sweet)
3 powdered donuts
1 bottle of water (16.9 fl.oz.)
1 bologna /white cheese on white bread sandwich
1 pkg of cheese crackers with peanut butter (6 per pkg) total net wt. 1.38 oz.
1 cherry tootsie roll lollipop
lg coffee (light/sweet)
1 honey bun (net wt. 3 oz.)
2 med cups of water
1 med-lg serving of pasta (linguine noodles, chopped tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, cilantro)*
med serving of brown potatoes (sliced/baked) with sm amount of sweet potato as topping*
med serving of green salad (cherry tomatoes, red onions, balsamic dressing)*
bottle of water (20 fl.oz.)
bag of pretzel chips (net wt. 8 oz.)
bottle of water (20 fl.oz.)
1 sliced hot dogs/white cheese (mustard/ketchup) on white bread sandwich
sm cup of noodle (tomato sauce) pasta
1 tropical punch pouch (6.75 fl.oz.)
2 peanut butter cookies
1 sugar cookie
bottle of water (20 fl.oz.)
1/4-1/2 pack of cigarettes
*prepared/served by Food Not Bombs
Azalea Garden - Philadelphia (Sunday, July 08, 2:15 p.m.)
More Recommended Art:
Project H.O.M.E. Back Home Cafe - "Naif/Outsider" Paintings on Paper; Note: *very* high quality
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:01 AM 0 comments
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Saturday, July 7, 2007
2 med. coffees (light/sweet)
1 Tastykake chocolate/chocolate chip soft cookie (net wt. 1 1/4 oz.)
lg coffee (light/sweet)
1 soft pretzel (mustard/Siracha hot chili sauce)
1/4 pack of cigarettes
kid's art:
Dear Diary:
You know you’re not in the suburbs when you see the following exhibitions hanging on the walls of a nursery school:
1) “The Numbers and Letters of the Subway,” featuring hand-painted paper plates in red, yellow, green and blue, each correctly lettered and numbered for its appropriate line.
2) Collages made from expired MetroCards.
Martha Katzeff
excerpted from Metropolitan Diary, New York Times (7/2/07)
Recommended Summer Shows (Philadelphia):
Moore College of Art and Design (Graham Gallery - Selections from the Fellowship Show)
Gallery Joe (Ink)
Larry Becker Contemporary Art ('Some'
A Changing Selection Of Work By Gallery And Invited Artists, and Special Projects
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:39 AM 0 comments
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Friday, July 6, 2007
1 turkey, swiss cheese, lettuce, mayo on wheat bread sandwich (net wt. 6.3 oz.)
lg coffee (light/sweet)
6-7 cups of black coffee
1 Fiesta salad (white chicken, corn, blackbeans, salsa) net wt. 9.45 oz.
bottle of water (20 fl.oz.)
box of apple/grape juice (4.23 fl.oz.)
bag of pretzels (net wt. 1 1/2 oz.)
2 pkgs of granola bars (2 per pkg)
1 Reese's peanutbutter cup (net wt. 0.55 oz.)
1 tropical punch pouch (6.75 fl.oz.)
can of sweet tea (23.5 fl.oz.)
1/2 pack of cigarettes
bumper sticker sighted:
Cats are just small people in fur coats
that sentiment is sort of accurate and yet... there are so many things wrong with the statement it makes.
more fun
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:13 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 6, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Thursday, July 5, 2007
lg coffee (light)
med coffee (light/sweet)
bottle of peach/watemelon juice (16 fl.oz.)*
5-6 cups of black coffee
2-3 sm cups of water
med coffee (light/sweet)
1 peanut butter/grape jelly/corn chips on white bread sandwich
bag of corn chips (net wt. 1 1/4 oz.)
sm brownie
sm box of raisins (net wt. 1.5 oz.)
2 bologna/white cheese on white bread sandwiches
1 Tastykake chocolate/chocolate chip soft cookie bar (net wt. 1 1/4 oz.)
bottle of water (16 fl.oz.)
1 Tarragon chicken salad on multigrain bread sandwich (net wt. 8.5 oz.)
1/4-1/2 pack of cigarettes
*note to self: had bottle of peach/watermelon juice last week though forgot to list it
Twofer Friday:
There Will Come Soft Rains
War Time
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white.
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Sara Teasdale
The Red Cockatoo
Sent as a present from Annam -
A red cockatoo.
Coloured like the peach-tree blossom,
Speaking with the speech of men.
And they did to it what is always done
To the learned and eloquent.
They took a cage with stout bars
And shut it up inside.
Anonymous (translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley)
plus one:
Philosopher
He scowled at the barometer: "Will it rain?"
None heard, with all that pattering on the pane.
John Frederick Nims
all three poems taken from:
VOICES
an anthology of poems
and pictures
the fifth book
edited by
Geoffrey Summerfield
copyright 1969 by Rand McNally & Company
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:12 AM 0 comments
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
bottle of peach iced tea (16 fl.oz.)
ham/egg/cheese on bagel sandwich
med coffee/shot of espresso combo
toasted onion bagel with cream cheese
1 hot dog (mustard/raw onion)
2 lg glasses of fountain coke
pint of lager
2 pints of lager (*) diff. location
glass of fountain coke
2 pints of lager (diff. location)
pkg of saltine (2 per) crackers
sm amount of potato salad
sm amount of coleslaw
1 sm takeout container serving of (asian) veg./rice medley with papaya slices
sm amount of french fries
sm amount of hush puppies
sm side of coleslaw
lg plastic cup of fountain lemon iced tea (20 fl.oz.)
pack and half of cigarettes
(*) additional pint of lager
Photo Essay: The Morning After (July 5th, 8:45 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.)
more local news:
Vocalist acquitted of charges
JUL 5, 2007
CENTER CITY - Street singer Anthony Riley was acquitted Tuesday of disorderly conduct charges that stemmed from what he is known for — singing outside.
The 20-year-old aspiring vocalist from West Philadelphia was cleared of the March 27 charge in Community Court after witnesses testified that the arresting police officer told Riley, “This is Afghanistan,” after Riley questioned why he couldn’t sing in Rittenhouse Square.
“We won,” Riley’s attorney Evan Shingles said after the hearing. “And [the judge] was kind enough to note that this indeed is not Afghanistan and this is America.”
The arrest led to a public debate over free speech rights that involved a musical rally for Riley in Center City’s posh square as well as Fairmount Park and city officials weighing in on whether musical events were allowed without permits prior to the performance.
City Solicitor Romulo Diaz Jr. recently weighed in with a memo to Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson writing that “a musical or theatrical ‘event’ implies some sort of staged production. The fact that an individual is simply playing a musical instrument in a public space ... does not suggest that the individual is inviting others to watch or participate as an audience.”
Metro Newspaper (Philadelphia edition, July 5, 2007)
related:
Letter to the Editor (Weekly Press, July 4th, 2007 edition, Philadelphia)
RE: Turning Rittenhouse Square into Times Square, New York.
For the past twenty-nine years I have lived on Rittenhouse Square. I came here because of the beauty of the park and the tranquility it offered in the heart of a big, noisy city. For the first twenty-seven of these years, Rittenhouse Square served all the nearby residents well as our neighborhood park, just like Washington Square and Fitler Square. In the last two years, however, a small group of young people from outside the area have been trying, for their own purposes, to turn Rittenhouse Square into Times Square, New York.
I do not know where these definitely amateur "musicians" and their friends come from or why they feel so strongly that it is perfectly all right for the discordant and loud sounds that they make on their out-of tune instruments to be allowed to override the music I am listening to, or the conversations I am having, in my home. It also frequently occurs just when I need some peace and quiet, or when I am ready to get some well-needed rest. But their insistence on being in Rittenhouse Square seems a bit perverse because there so many other nice parks in close proximity to Center City where they could play their instruments without disturbing the peace. (In fact, their presence at several other locations in Center City is already starting to create serious problems for the people and businesses in those areas).
Lord knows, there are plenty of natural noises I hear all day from down on the street. That is to be expected in this busy area. And there are many times during the year when professional musicians and entertainers, authorized by the Fairmount Park Commission, perform in the square - sometimes during the day, sometimes in the early evening. As good citizens, my neighbors and I respect the right of our neighborhood organizations to use the park for important cultural, religious, charitable and communal events that end before sundown and last only for a few days at most.
I can't believe that it is either fair or legal for a few uncaring itinerants to seriously disrupt the lives of hundreds of respectable citizens living in a well-established historic neighborhood. I also believe that once people start trying to change a law that has been in effect for over one hundred years, without complaint, other outsiders will also make every effort to change the other regulated regulations. And once that happens "there goes the neighborhood." But by then the troublemakers will have moved on and my neighbors and I will have to work hard to re-establish the kind of neighborhood that brought us to Rittenhouse years ago.
(name withheld)*
Rittenhouse, Center City
*editor's note: name withheld by Automotive Acne blogspot (Allan Smithee) not Editors at Weekly Press (Philadelphia)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:27 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
bottle of peach iced tea (16 fl.oz.)
lg coffee (light/sweet)
1 kaiser roll with butter
5-6 cups of black coffee
2 pints of lager (*)
bag of salted peanuts (net wt. 2 oz.)
bag of bbq corn chips (net wt. 1.5 oz.)
slice of cold cheese pizza
2 bottles of lager
single espresso (diff. location)
2 bottles of lager (previous happy hour location)
2 pints of lager (*) royal/imperial
pack and half of cigarettes
(*) additional pint(s) of lager
Spin: 'The Libby Motion' - The legal impact of Bush's action
"By Choosing a commutation over a pardon, President Bush has started a national conversation about sentencing."
This Date In Baseball
Blast From The Past:
"He told me...that, as a martyr, he would have been granted 72 virgins. This didn't seem quite the moment to point out that there is a lively, ongoing debate among scholars of Islam as to whether the 72 promised virgins might, in fact, only be 72 raisins."
-- The New Republic's Peter Bergen, on an interview with a would-be suicide bomber
info via the Philadelphia Inquirer and Doonesbury.com
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:42 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Monday, July 2, 2007
lg coffee (light/sweet)
2 bbq babyback ribs*
sm-med piece of meat (med)*
sm amount of french fries*
bottle of peach iced tea (16 fl.oz.)
dbl cheeseburger (McDonalds)
2 pints of lager (royal/imperial)
2 pints of lager (*) diff. location
glass of fountain coke
3-4 pints of lager (diff. location)
2 glasses of fountain coke
sm cup of potato soup with
3 pkgs of saltine (2 per) crackers
1/2 pickle
1/2 soft pretzel
pack of cigarettes
*room temperature (outside)
(*) additional pint(s) of lager
LIES LIES LIES
"Bush said he decided to "respect" the jury's verdict that Libby was guilty of four felonies for lying about his role in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity. But the president said Libby's "exceptional public service" and previously unblemished criminal history led him to conclude that the 30-month sentence handed down last month was "excessive."
White House Stationery
Nuclear Energy Is Hot Again
The United States has 104 commercial reactors which supply about 20 percent of the country's power. In comparison, France gets nearly 80 percent of its power from nuclear reactors. The Department of Energy projects a 45 percent growth in electricity demand by 2030, meaning 35 to 50 new nuclear plants will be needed by then just to maintain nuclear's share of the energy market, said Scott Peterson of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's chief lobbyist.
Recycling used fuel, which contains 90 percent of its original energy after one use, can reduce waste. "Reprocessing" also produces a plutonium that‘s nearer to weapons grade, raising fears that widespread reprocessing could increase the risks of nuclear proliferation. Waste disposal, safe operation and security remain major concerns, but economics may be the biggest deterrent. Huge capital costs combine into an enormous price tag for would-be investors.
"That growing demand, *not* global warming, has been the single biggest factor in companies looking at building nuclear plants again," Peterson said.
Note: Nuclear power is produced when neutrons split the nucleus of uranium atoms, releasing heat which is used to boil water and produce the steam that drives a plant‘s turbines. The process is emissions-free and the radioactive waste is contained inside the plant.
"There are better ways to boil water," Jim Riccio of Greenpeace said.
But any major expansion will require selling nuclear in new places, where local opposition may be intense and winning approval may be costly.
"This isn't just a bunch of environmentalists who think this is a bad idea," Riccio said. "It's most people who *aren't* being paid to think otherwise."
Fourth of July Prayer:
Pride Brings Disgrace
The Humble Are Wise
Lord, Please Give Us
Wise Leaders
seen at Highway Tabernacle - Assembly of God (18th/Spring Garden - Philadelphia)
Posted by Allan Smithee at 6:36 AM 0 comments
Monday, July 2, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Sunday, July 1, 2007
lg mocha coffee (20 fl.oz.)
1 hash brown (net wt. 2.5 oz.)
bottle of orange juice (16 fl.oz.)
2 pints of lager
lg glass of fountain coke
2 pints of lager (**) diff. location
2 glasses of fountain coke
2 pints of lager (diff. location)
pack of cigarettes
(*) additional pint(s) of lager
update re: Beer Fueled Petition Drive
Eleven persons have signed the (3-4 page) petition.
postscript: If Money's Burning A Hole In Your Pocket, It's Not A New Pair Of Pants You Need. (postcard/page 3 of petition) Also, two persons at a table refused to sign. They're Comcast customers... um, no, don't know whether they paid their tab with cash or plastic.
Posted by Allan Smithee at 7:05 AM 0 comments
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Food Stuff Consumption And Miscellany
Saturday, June 30, 2007
lg mocha coffee (20 fl.oz.)
sausage/egg/cheese on longroll sandwich
sm coffee (light/sweet)
bottle of peach iced tea (16 fl.oz.)
2 pints of lager
2 lg glasses of fountain coke
sm coffee (light/sweet)
2 pints of lager (*) diff. location
meatball/provolone cheese on long roll sandwich
sm side of coleslaw
1/2 pickle (sliced lengthwise)
pint of lager (diff. location)
lg medley of puffy cheetos/pretzels/nacho cheese tortilla chips
2 cans of PBR (12 fl.oz.)
pack of cigarettes
(*) additional pint(s) of lager
See it before it's gone:
lg scale mosaic (4'x6') tile mural of Center City streets. Probably made in the late 50's or as recently as the early 70's. The mosaic is located on the Benjamin Parkway between 17th/18th. Note: the glass protecting the piece has been shattered/broken for about two years, maybe even longer. Its sorta hidden in front of an abandoned building next to the Subway sandwich shop.
link
Posted by Allan Smithee at 8:10 AM 0 comments
