The Archive

A Tune in the Void

2009-06-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

About a year and a half ago, when I was taking a poetry workshop with Priscilla Becker, I was given the assignment to find a poem in another language and "translate" it without regard for the meaning of the words, only the sound and appearance of them. I knew the poem I wanted to do, because it had a great title, but I never got beyond the title, A Tune in the Void (from EEN TUIN IN DE AVOND.)
Yesterday I attended a reading at the new (so new it isn't yet open) Unnamable Books, on Vanderbilt, and bought a couple of poetry volumes. I haven't written anything in a long while. Reading some Anne Sexton just now, I decided to write my poem translation. It is...I don't know. Its inspiration follows it.

A Tune in the Void

There's gonna deepen here in these bended engines,
the wheel well,

and all the named ones on, a second warning

here, stated out loud, taut and barked, under apple blooms
their lights in our outdoors, in hot grass
they're coming out gilded with hot heads
here is our light for the strength

it goes better like this: a tune in the void

and what you now hurt and now fight-- the playing
war we kill, grooves in
death, hiding in good looking works

and versions of omens and nights set by will, a sign
for that which has been.

EEN TUIN IN DE AVOND
Rutger Kopland

Er gebeuren dingen hier en ik ben de enige
die weet welke

ik zal ze noemen en ook zeggen waarom

er staat een oude tuinbank onder de appelboom
er ligt een oude voetbal in het gras
er komen oude geluiden uit het huis
er is oud licht in de lucht

dit gebeurt hier: een tuin in de avond

en wat je niet hoort en niet ziet – de plekken
waar we kuilen groeven en
die huilend dichtgooiden

ik vertel dit omdat ik niet alleen wil zijn
voordat ik het ben

Also, I updated the season pages on my website, so go check them out tomorrow when you get bored at work!
Jen

and while i'm here

2009-05-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

here is my second and failed attempt to germinate my seed of wanting to make a project out of drawings of Antarctica. With Max (who is incidentally the destroyer of the first attempt-- a traced map on a piece of a dress pattern) in the background.

all part of the process...

It's been so long...

2009-05-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

But I am, once again, attempting to recommit myself to the blog. now that everyone is twittering (tweeting?), i decided to revive this thing. and i won't lie, i have been really impressed by zoe strauss's blog (thanks to nat for introducing me to her) and that also contributed. Anyway, I know that you have heard it before, but here it is again.

I wanted to introduce you to a painter named Joy Garnett because I just found and am in love with a series she has done on the Yangtse Three Gorges Dam
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73257&id=47320229387
This is one of them:

And I also wanted to share a talk by Mae Jemison on the subject of the falsely dichotomized fields of science and the arts.

Stimulate the Economy-- No to Prop 8

2008-10-13T15:23:00.000-07:00

The wedding industry pumps about $40 BILLION into the US economy a year, and some put this around $70 billion. It's no secret our economy could use a boost, and this won't cost the taxpayers a dime. But in case you think that our society should uphold equality for all, that would be a better reason to vote no.

I do not live in California, but I believe in freedom and equality. Prop 8 is wrong for California and wrong for America. What's there to be afraid of, letting people be free to express their love?

From http://noonprop8.com:

OUR CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION -- the law of our land -- SHOULD GUARANTEE THE SAME FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS TO EVERYONE -- NO ONE group SHOULD be singled out to BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY.

In fact, our nation was founded on the principle that all people should be treated equally. EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW IS THE FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN SOCIETY.

That's what this election is about -- equality, freedom and fairness, for all.

Marriage is the institution that conveys dignity and respect to the lifetime commitment of any couple. PROPOSITION 8 WOULD DENY LESBIAN AND GAY COUPLES that same DIGNITY AND RESPECT.

Regardless of how you feel about this issue, the freedom to marry is fundamental to our society, just like the freedoms of religion and speech.

PROPOSITION 8 MANDATES ONE SET OF RULES FOR GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES AND ANOTHER SET FOR EVERYONE ELSE. That's just not fair. OUR LAWS SHOULD TREAT EVERYONE EQUALLY.

In fact, the government has no business telling people who can and cannot get married. Just like government has no business telling us what to read, watch on TV or do in our private lives. We don’t need Prop 8; WE DON’T NEED MORE GOVERNMENT IN OUR LIVES.

REGARDLESS OF HOW ANYONE FEELS ABOUT MARRIAGE FOR GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES, PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE SINGLED OUT FOR UNFAIR TREATMENT UNDER THE LAWS OF OUR STATE. Those committed and loving couples who want to accept the responsibility that comes with marriage should be treated like everyone else.

DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS are NOT MARRIAGE.

When you're married and your spouse is sick or hurt, there is no confusion: you get into the ambulance or hospital room with no questions asked. IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND ESPECIALLY IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS, DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS ARE SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH. Only marriage provides the certainty and the security that people know they can count on in their times of greatest need.

EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW IS A FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE. Prop 8 separates one group of Californians from another and excludes them from enjoying the same rights as other loving couples.

Forty-six years ago I married my college sweetheart, Julia. We raised three children -- two boys and one girl. The boys are married, with children of their own. Our daughter, Liz, a lesbian, can now also be married -- if she so chooses.

All we have ever wanted for our daughter is that she be treated with the same dignity and respect as her brothers – with the same freedoms and responsibilities as every other Californian.

My wife and I never treated our children differently, we never loved them any differently and now the law doesn't treat them differently, either.

Each of our children now has the same rights as the others, to choose the person to love, commit to and to marry.

Don't take away the equality, freedom and fairness that everyone in California -- straight, gay or lesbian -- deserves.

Please join us in voting NO on Prop 8.

Samuel Thoron
Former President, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

Julia Miller Thoron

800 lb gorilla in the campaign-- Please Read

2008-09-16T06:10:00.001-07:00

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

Sep 13, 2008

By Tim Wise

Tim Wise's ZSpace Page / ZSpace
http://www.timwise. org/

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin
and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a
personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,
because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families
with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible,
pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
Bristo! l Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot
shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the
same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes
you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on
themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God"
in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding
fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from
holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s
and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that
reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the
Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires
it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband
who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to
secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one
questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and
your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being
disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree
with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a
"second look."

White privilege is being ! able to fire people who didn't support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if
you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
! the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of r acism
and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
"trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything
at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and
experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent
of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their
homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world
opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change"
thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),
and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
For review copies or interview requests, please reply to
publicity@softskull .com

Foreclosures, my uneducated response to a single article

2008-08-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

This is an old article, one from March, but someone mentioned to me this aspect of the foreclosure crisis today, and I looked at this. It got me thinking, and what started as an email response spiraled into this. It isn't art, but I wanted to put it here; I hope no one minds.

The article's "take-away" element is this:
"Real-estate agents estimate that about half of foreclosed properties to be sold by mortgage companies nationwide have "substantial" damage, according to a new survey by Campbell Communications, a marketing and research firm based in Washington, D.C."
The article does not, however, offer any frame of reference for this statistic. For instance, I would like to know how many rental homes have "substantial damage" when the tenants move out and also what percentage of foreclosed homes had "substantial damage" before the start of the current 'foreclosure crisis.' The article also buries deep the fact that vandals often break into abandoned houses and smash things. Mortgage defaulters can hardly be considered responsible for that, yet these occurrences would fall into the 'nearly half' statistic they are using.
I would also add that, whatever the reasons for the damage (in some cases for money, other cases for 'revenge'), many of these homes are going to be purchased by the sorts of lowlife entities who put billboards up in low-income neighborhoods (like all over Oak Cliff, South Dallas, Brooklyn, The Bronx, etc.) advertising that they buy homes and property, for cash, in any condition. These companies and have a culpability in the housing boom that has helped bring us to this point by throwing up shoddy housing developments with ostensibly cheap houses that are a terrible blight on the urban landscape. Oh, and, as those of us educated enough to notice all the fine print will see, these little boxes are often sold with predatory adjustable rate mortgages and are no, in fact, 'cheap' in cost, only in quality. In short, I am not condoning the vandalism and theft of these particular mortgage defaulting no-longer-homeowners, for indeed in most states the stove they are selling belongs to the bank. HOWEVER, I do not feel much sympathy for the bank or the predatory development companies that will buy these mortgages from the bank, because they have helped to create this situation. They aren't going to lose their homes over a couple thousand dollars in damages. In fact, the CEO of Citibank won't even lose his summer home over it. Remember, that the 'victims' of this vandalism are not small time landlords. They are the institutions who, were they to possess a moral compass, would never have given these mortgages in the first place.

And the b) part is an important issue, when you consider what is and is not covered in the media. Of course it is part of the 'story' of the mortgage crisis, and it should be covered, but given all that is not covered by the media, I have gotten very interested lately in what is, and what function this selection serves. Maybe it is all the schadenfreude, maybe it's 'defaulter fatigue', or maybe it is that increasing rare instance in which our news media (not to single out the WSJ at all) is trying to give a balanced picture. I think it is something more, though.
It is my strong belief that people feel affirmed by stories like this one for the same reason so many people liked stories about crime and Katrina refugees (many of which were also overblown and decontextualized). These stories allow "us" to excuse the system by thinking, in some way, however small, that it is not such a travesty that these people have lost their homes, because as it turns out,they are petty, vindictive people who aren't taking responsibility for their own mistakes, but instead stealing and vandalizing. What this story serves to do is quiet that impulse in moral humans such as ourselves that says "This crisis came about for a reason, and there are many culpable parties, BUT I DO NOT THINK THAT I WANT TO LIVE IN A SOCIETY THAT IS ABOUT MAKING MONEY BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS, WHERE THE SUPER-RICH GET SUPER-RICHER OFF PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, A COUNTRY THAT IMPOSES INCENTIVES FOR 'THIRD WORLD' NATIONS TO HALT THEIR AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES, AND THEN PUTS THEIR FOOD IN OUR GAS TANKS." The media's emphasis on stories like this quiet our impulse to call for actual, substantial change in how we are in the world, as a nation and as individuals. Let's not quiet that.

summer summer summer

2008-07-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

yes, it is still summer. and i'm ok with that.

blogs and boredom

2008-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Mary Button brought this to my attention. We had both already been like-hating Jezebel, but this article, which just intensified my existing feelings, was the straw that broke my back, if I may modify a cliche. So, what are to turn to in our restless boredom? Well, if you are too distracted for this, which at any rate is not updated very frequently, maybe try checking out the random blogs recommended by blogger. I just found this odd fellow here http://48thpennsylvania.blogspot.com/

Happy hunting.

Patrick Chamoiseau

2008-07-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

from Childhood

"The man today has a melancholic weakness for rainy weather, damp winds, and nights turning to rivers. He might even have been a poet, perhaps, had these too blatantly beautiful preferences not been in such bad taste."

Required Listening

2008-06-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

If I could actually require my friends to listen to Democracy Now! I would everyday, but this episode resonated particularly strongly with me because I know how relevant the issue of news access and balance is to...well, the whole world, but particularly my artists/journalist/progressive friends. It is Bill Moyers's keynote address at the National Conference for Media Reform

Monday, June 09, 2008
Broadcast Legend Bill Moyers on Media Reform: “Democracy Only Works When Ordinary People Claim It as Their Own”

http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2008/6/9

and yes you can put it on your ipod.

In other news, my wonderfully talented students are showcasing their work next weekend at ICP school-side.

Saturday, June 28th
Photo I - 3:00-4:30pm; Classroom A

Sunday, July 1st
Photo II (afternoon): 4-5:30pmpm; Classroom A

1114 Avenue of the Americas at 42nd St
Come get inspired!

2008-04-04T08:12:00.001-07:00

2008-03-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

a leonardo sketch of a copse of trees seen in sunlight

Completed Prairielust (revised)

2008-03-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

So, again, this is the revised form of the old quads and I am reworking the new ones still.

new and in progress

2008-03-01T16:54:00.001-08:00

It's been a while...

2008-02-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

...over a month in fact and I won't lie, I have no good reason for it.
I haven't been writing enough or shooting enough. I've been watching too much TV, listening to too much music, and feeling waay too sorry for myself. I have been 'thinking' a lot about the grad school plunge and I am starting the countdown to Fall 09. Unless something drastic happens to/for me in the next year, I am out of this city May 15, 2009, hopefully en route to Albuquerque or Tuscon and an MFA. And by 'drastic' I have no idea what I mean. Yesterday I didn't get a fellowship that would have been a drastic thing and nothing else is really on the horizon (the recipients all have their MFAs and one is on artnet.com. So much for emerging.)
This is not a pity post, though, just a way for me to get back into the blogging groove. It is like riding a bicycle-- when you hop on after a long break you suck at it for a while.

A question up for vote:
Should my prairielust quads be photogravures? I am leaning toward yes even though it would be a big ole pain in my arse. Thoughts?

What are you doing tomorrow night?

2008-01-16T12:13:00.000-08:00

I will have a piece in the Brooklyn Arts Council show opening this week--

WHERE: BAC Gallery, 111 Front Street, Suite 218, Brooklyn

WHEN: Thursday, January 17th, 6-8 pm.

The Lack of Desire seeks to visually represent, from a side glance, what our desires intimate: the universal lack existing in the multiple recesses of our psyche from which our fleeting and never-ending desire springs. The artworks chosen for this exhibition offers the viewer a way to be present with lack rather than escape into the endless feedback loop of desire.

I hope to see you there!
xo,
Jen

a poem i've been thinking about

2008-01-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

A Grave
by Marianne Moore

Man looking into the sea,
taking the view from those who have as much right to it as you have to
yourself,
it is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing,
but you cannot stand in the middle of this;
the sea has nothing to give but a well excavated grave.
The firs stand in a procession, each with an emerald turkey-foot at the
top,
reserved as their contours, saying nothing;
repression, however, is not the most obvious characteristic of the sea;
the sea is a collector, quick to return a rapacious look.
There are others besides you who have worn that look--
whose expression is no longer a protest; the fish no longer investigate
them
for their bones have not lasted:
men lower nets, unconscious of the fact that they are desecrating a grave,
and row quickly away--the blades of the oars
moving together like the feet of water-spiders as if there were no such
thing as death.
The wrinkles progress among themselves in a phalanx--beautiful under
networks of foam,
and fade breathlessly while the sea rustles in and out of the seaweed;
the birds swim through the air at top speed, emitting cat-calls as hereto-
fore--
the tortoise-shell scourges about the feet of the cliffs, in motion beneath
them;
and the ocean, under the pulsation of lighthouses and noise of bellbuoys,
advances as usual, looking as if it were not that ocean in which dropped
things are bound to sink--
in which if they turn and twist, it is neither with volition nor
consciousness.

Wondering whether microwaving dal in my coffee mug will make it taste like coffee, and other things I am cluttering my mind with

2008-01-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

Well, it is 2008. Yea. So. I do want to make 2008 a more productive year, though 2007 wasn't so bad on the personal stage; obviously, on the global stage 2007 saw a doozy of travesties. But, the personal/professional stage is the one I would like to currently occupy (the global one is enough to make me want to crawl into a foxhole and wait for the world to end, which I am feeling would not be a long wait.) Anyhoo, it is off to a decent start, as one of my photos will be in the Lack of Desire show at the Brooklyn Arts Council Gallery and I have a pending fellowship application. Also, I joined PhotoShelter, which at least one of you knows is a sort of alternative, creative stock photo agency, so I am looking forward to doing that. However, I cannot seem to keep my head in the game. I have a "plan" as it were, but that plan involves me sticking around in NY for another year and applying to grad school for the Fall of 2009. So, the interim time is to be spend working on my portfolio, improving my writing, applying for group shows, and trying to get short residencies and/or local fellowships. But, somehow I cannot manage to block out what the French would call the bullshit. Feel me?
Happy New Year,
Me

Opinions please...

2007-12-07T15:01:00.001-08:00

Hey guys. I'm not a photographer by any means, but I do like photography. While sitting at my desk the other day, I looked down and was intrigued by the geometry of what I saw. I had a camera handy and snapped some shots. It wasn't a high quality camera, as the image confirms.

Anyway, I just took a look at it and was again intrigued by the details of what I had captured: a drawer full of receipts, a check written to "self," a Samsung laser printer, a huge ink pen, and a lighter, hiding the shadows.

Maybe I'm just stoned or maybe it's not half bad. Or maybe I'm just half-stoned. In any event, I'd like to know what others think.

It actually makes a good wallpaper.

TONITE!!

2007-11-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

COME TO THE opening reception for 2 FABULOUS exhibitions:

Mary Button (Daniel Rosenberg Fellow 2006) exhibits "The Hymnbook Project"

Nat Ward (Leon & Michaela Constantiner Fellow 2006) exhibits "buy me something"

721 Broadway, Gulf & Western and 8th Floor Galleries
On view until January 5th, 2008

Opening Friday, November 30, 2007, featuring art, wine, cookies, crudite, wine, music, and wine. And I'll be there. Next to the wine.

2007-11-28T10:34:00.000-08:00

HELP

2007-11-27T16:19:00.001-08:00

Please help me edit down this group of images. I need four images emblematic of land use/abuse for a fellowship proposal. They will be combined with the previously posted Prairielust images and some others that have not yet been scanned. Some obviously are multiple versions of the same thing, so, keep that in mind. Muchas gracias!

Resonances

2007-11-27T09:45:00.001-08:00

These two photographs appeared in the NY Times a couple of weeks apart. One is a feral cat and the other is Elliot Spitzer (can you tell which is which?)

Also, I will be updating this week with some of my work, so be on the lookout.

Prairielust Pt II

2007-11-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

Short notice invitation

2007-11-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is a founder of the clothing line Vane (wearevane.com). The are having a launch party tonite and in addition to their fabulous clothing, there will be art by emerging artists throughout the space. Check it out and you will see one of my photos from Berlin. Info below.

"As Vane enters it's first public season and initiates a Citywide retail launch, we invite you on Thursday, November 8th, from to 4pm to 10pm, to an exclusive opportunity to see and buy our new collection at a private midtown loft before it drops in stores.

There will also be some Women's items that will not be available in retail, and will only be available that evening, with the remaining items to be sold through our online shop. We will also feature selected works of art, curated by Atif Ateeq, which will be available for purchase as well.

If that weren't incentive enough to come, we are offering a FREE tee with the first 100 purchases. Beer and wine will also be served all evening compliments of Vane. So stop on by, grab a drink on us, and check out what we've been up to, we wouldn't be able to do what we do without the continued love and support of all our friends and family!

In the meantime, head over to our newly renovated site at http://www.wearevane.com to preview the a sneak peak to some pieces in the new collection, along with all the other great content you expect from the Vane site."

Date:
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Time:
4:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Private Midtown Loft
Street:
34 West 28th Street, 6th Floor

AMNH

2007-10-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

I went to the American Museum of Natural History today, which I absolutely love. However, I am always astonished by its nature as a timecapsule to an era in which no one questioned putting the mummyfied corpse of an unknown Andean copper miner behind glass, or having vast wings exploring the exotic nature of bygone cultures from essentially every inhabited region of the world except for western Europe. The new exhibits do not display this level of what, for want of a more appropriate, informative and informed phrase, I will call sensitivity toward minoritized and exoticized peoples. However, the sizeable majority of the museum is old, and though much of it is devoted to minerals, flora, and non-human fauna in magnificent display cases (which I had gone to photograph), I can't help but wonder about the museum's complicity in perpetuating a style of cultural learning emphasizing otherness that many other institutions have sought to reform. Thinking about this, I remember the remark Justin gave upon seeing the statue of Teddy Roosevelt outside of the museum. He remarked that if the statue is designed to visually reinforce that Teddy was friend to Indian and Negro alike, perhaps the artist would do better to break with the convention of the equestrian prortrait in which all is submissive to the rider, and let the flanking men have horses.
Anyway, happy Halloween week.

"You make things how they are by the way you think of them"

2007-10-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Dellwood Barker, from The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon by Tom Spanbauer

I am working on a new project tentatively named Prairielust for the relationship that the emotional impetus has to wanderlust. The project examines land use and abuse, the reintroduction of nature and its proxy into the built environment, and the return of the built environment of nature thru neglect, decomposition, and reclamation. I want to keep this quote in mind as I move forward and it occurred to me tonite that many would do good to keep it close at hand.

Prairielust

2007-10-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

A Sad Week for Good Dogs

2007-08-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

(or RIP Chuck Lehe, beloved dog and roadtrip cow chaser, Sunday July, 29, 2007)
We had some good times and good hugs.

current fixation

2007-07-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

Some of you know that lately I have been obsessed with sparrows and as some of you know I am obsessed with google image searches. QED, I have been looking at lots of sparrow photos lately and I just came across this little sport:

She's a hard nut to crack, but I think I like her.

And, yes, I am writing this on a Friday night. I embrace this and you should too.

Contemporaneity is not doing it for me

2007-07-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

So, I used to think that I was born 35 years too late for my sensibility. I missed the Stephen Shore, Ed Ruscha, Garry Winogrand, Helen Levitt roadtrip appreciation of and comment on what made America America through the everyday sights. Exhibit A:

I think I would have been good at it.

But now that I have spent 3 days with Timothy O'Sullivan and William H. Jackson, I wonder if I wasn't born 150 years too late... Exhibit B:

looking for feedback

2007-07-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hello. As you may know I recently spent a few days is Andalucía and Berlin. Here are some photos I took and I am hoping to get some feedback. They are not sequenced.
These are in Spain:

These are from Berlin.

Me-related news

2007-06-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
As some of you may know I am currently working on a project photographing the community gardens. I am going to put some of that work up here soon, but in the meantime you can see it at wooloo.org, go to Browse Personal Exhibitions, and search for 'community gardens' or 'jennifer lehe' and you will get a sampling of the work.
News item the second, on the same subject, some of this work will be on sale at the DIY Arts, Crafts, & Design Fair at Think Coffee Saturday, June 30. It is the perfect opportunity to purchase art from me and/or Mary Button (http://www.thehymnbookproject.org) at really great prices (definitely under $50 a print, probably more like $25) and help us continue to make said art while we eat and pay rent. Oh, and there will be coffee, too. And a raffle. And film screenings and whatever.

Think Coffee 248 Mercer Street [between W. 4th St and W. 3rd Street on the east side]
Saturday, June 30
Noon-7 O'clock PM

required reading

2007-06-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0724,tucker,76913,2.html/full

2 reasons to love photoblogs

2007-06-13T10:04:00.001-07:00

2007-06-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary!

2007-06-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

Happy 40th Anniversary, Loving v. Virginia!
When you are done celebrating, read this completely unrelated article:

New York Region / The City
The Hallelujah People
By JOHNNY DWYER
Published: June 10, 2007
Members of a Christian sect based in Corona believe that 61-year-old José Luis De Jesús Miranda is both Jesus Christ and the Antichrist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/nyregion/thecity/10fait.html?ex=1339128000&en=edaa507c2aa95529&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

migration

2007-06-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

So, I am in the process of updating my website, so I am migrating some images over here in the process. Please forgive the redundancy.

jennywren

2007-05-14T12:04:00.001-07:00

Always Saturday Afternoon

2007-05-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hopeful(ly) Rejuvenation

2007-03-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

where are you jerks?

2006-12-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

while you've all been off doing whatever the fuck it is you do with your pitiful human lives, robots have been evolving by themselves. Merry Christmas.
ROBO-HEALTHCARE.

2006-11-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

Mysterious Spam

2006-10-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

A secretly dirt-encrusted tornado is ostensibly hypnotic. Now and then, the inferiority complex accurately buys an expensive gift for some vacuum cleaner from a vacuum cleaner. Furthermore, a satellite behind a carpet tack trembles, and the self-loathing fairy single-handledly pees on a turn signal. Indeed, a pine cone overwhelmingly cooks cheese grits for a so-called mastadon. A cough syrup requires assistance from an abstraction.

An elusive submarine Now and then, a briar patch goes deep sea fishing with a nation from a rattlesnake. Any oil filter can compete with some scythe, but it takes a real pit viper to ridiculously bestow great honor upon a mastadon. When a nuclear customer is paternal, the flatulent avocado pit lazily recognizes a vaporized cowboy. Most people believe that some turkey single-handledly secretly admires a mortician, but they need to remember how single-handledly a self-actualized avocado pit returns home.
My organisation believes in dot-com relative capability.
Indeed, another optimal power drill hardly pours freezing cold water on another tuba player. A girl scout buys an expensive gift for an earring. Any roller coaster can have a change of heart about a cargo bay about a briar patch, but it takes a real paycheck to wisely graduate from the seldom precise fighter pilot. A fractured briar patch beams with joy, and another knowingly statesmanlike tomato hesitates; however, the underhandedly elusive photon makes love to the sheriff about a pork chop.

It's gettin stale, so...

2006-10-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

What's everyone going to be for Halloween?
After you tell me via comment, check out the following interesting links for this week:
http://www.idiotcomics.com/
http://www.shabdismyname.com/

And here's a quote from Gawker:
Fortunately, a number of inexpensive bed and breakfasts have popped up to save you from the indignity of sharing your cramped studio with your judgmental parents for an uncomfortable weekend. Let's look at Loftstel, an organization offering accommodations in Brooklyn.

"At Loftstel.com, we provide beautiful spacious apartments for our guests. It's an affordable hotel option, especially if you're one of the following: • A large family who needs more space than a cramped hotel room. • A tourist interested in low-cost accommodations. • Someone who is moving to New York. • Driving a car and don't want to pay for parking"

Sounds great! What's the catch?

"Our brownstone is located in historic Bedford Stuyvesant. It's a perfectly safe neighborhood, but the demographics (it's a Caribbean neighborhood) may make some people who aren't used to city life uncomfortable."

Wow, thanks for letting us know! We've got to assume that, at the very least, the sheets are white, white, white.

AND FINALLY, for those of you interesting in the politics of imagemaking and publication, check out this comparison of two magazine covers from the same month featuring the same woman (Yoojin Kim.)

Interesting, no? Interesting, yes.

i like birds.

2006-10-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

i wanted to be an ornithologist as a kid [this was the last in a long line of biological pursuits: geologist, paleontologist, primatologist, marine biologist... fuck if i know where i came across these words when i was eight years old.] for some lamentable reason, i was seduced by art and was lured away from these more ambitious, respectable aspirations. i was also crap at science class.

i came across this website recently which has made me realize a) i picked the wrong field, b) i picked the wrong continent and c) animals are really important and stuff.
i will let ARKive.org explain: "ARKive is the Noah's Ark for the Internet era - a unique global initiative, gathering together into one centralised digital library, films, photographs and audio recordings of the world’s species."

so i really haven't got anything else, but its a pretty amazing project, and also the videos are mesmerizing. watch the barn owl hunting. i did. several times. its like YouTube, but educational and shit.

Tonite's the Nite

2006-10-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, it's finally here. 10 hours and 50 minutes from now the episode I have waited long months for will air, revealing far less (in plot and in sexy sexy sexiness) than I hope it will.
For much more on that, see http://thelostlowdown.blogspot.com
PS I'm not sure why the suit is back for this publicity still. Perhaps the others appreciate style.

2006-10-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

From the IU "Daily Student"

2006-10-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

My Newest Nemesis: Jennifer Lehe Blankenship

2006-09-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

If you're anything like me, and I know many of you are, you totally get off on Googling yourself. Also, if you are anything like me, or Claude for that matter*, most of the search results are actually you. Conversely, if you are like Sarah Steele, you share a name with minor young actress from the movie "Spanglish" and some episodes of Law and Order and said actress dominates the first couple of pages.

Anyway, my point is that almost all of the results on a google search for my name are in fact me; this is obviously because I have a unique (last) name. However, there is a girl out there named Jennifer Lehe Blankenship mussing up my results. She is a couple of years younger than me and I do not know if "Lehe" is her middle name or maiden name or mom's maiden name or what, but I know I must find her and challenge her to a duel (or convince her to change it.)

Here is the problem:
http://www.genealogysf.com/Stanton-p/p263.htm

*When Claude's search yielded a jpg titled How2Pimp I had assumed (and indeed hoped) that this was not him. I was mistaken, but the 'pimping' in question was not that of a bitch but of an internet browser.

2006-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

alskdjaslkdjaslkdjaslkdjaslkdjaslkdjaslkdjaslkdj

For those days when you need something to trip over

2006-09-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

**floor lump** - $15 (Upper West Side)
Reply to: sale-211137473@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-09-23, 10:14AM EDT

I am selling a floor lump I used for 1 year in my bed room. Painted in black and can be assembled easily. This is Not hallogen lump but an ordinary one. give me your phone number if interested. thanks.

Who is this man?

2006-09-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

a.) Easy! It's restauranteur Artie Bucco from "The Sopranos."

b.) Someone who was arrested this May in Park Slope for driving drunk and with coke residue in an envelope in his pocket.

c.) The man whose (former) brownstone I've been living in for the past three weeks, above his ex-wife and two daughters.

d.) All of the above.

I just found this out today, via his nine-year-old, who I baby-sat along with her friend from up the block. We ordered a pizza and played hide and seek, and then I watched them put on costumes and have a dance party.

Last week John Ventimiglia was sitting on my front stoop, and we introduced ourselves as I threw out my trash. Small, strange world.

I don't know what to do with a webcam

2006-09-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Vote for my friend Sylvia

2006-09-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, help my former roommate Sylvia win this art contest. She's hands down the best of the bunch. Check out some of her paintings below and vote for her [[here]]
(scroll to the bottom of her page for the vote link)

?Vivimos en los últimos días?

2006-09-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Steal of a Deal!

2006-09-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

$250 renting out my backyard (Murray Hill)

Reply to: hous-208681071@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-09-17, 9:54PM EDT

hello im a nice, young, japanese buisnessman who seeks to rent out his tented backyard. i live in a floor level efficiency and have a 400 sq. ft. backyard with a tent over it and fenced in for your protection! it has a hose but all other amenities you must provide for yourself - such as heating, electric generators etc. for an additional $500 you can have access to my kitchen and bathroom as long as we split the utility bill. there is minor shrubbery in my backyard but it is pleasant to look at. serious applicants only! will provide pictures upon request. you cant beat this price in NYC!

no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Fee Disclosure: 0

Marilyowl

2006-09-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

i just watched all of Season 2 in a weekend and boy are my arms tired.

2006-09-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

i wish they could swear on Lost. i know i would swear an awful lot if i were on Lost. sometimes i would swear because i was stranded on a desert island, and i might never see my family or friends again, and i might starve or drown or be mauled by polar bears/get Infected/get shot/get blown up/get Deliveranced/get abducted/etc etc etc, or i might swear because of the multiple unresolved plot holes in my day-to-day life.

either way, i'd swear a lot.

Message to the Knowledged Few

2006-09-03T02:37:00.000-07:00

ruo nalp si rinkowg
noctuine sa stinurecdt
het cheop si rean

Night Shots of Williamsburg

2006-09-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some night shots from around where I stayed between 8/22 and 8/30.

In order, since Blogger doesn't like to publish the captions in the places I type them:
Cats in a vacant lot on Hope Street
Busy intersection
Colorful graffiti off Havemeyer
Manhattan-bound JMZ from Marcy Avenue

How I spent my first day back

2006-08-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

My return to this lovely city of ours was a good one. I spent my first day back checking out a room in a Williamsburg loft (a no-go), scarfing down much-missed chickpea falafel, and listening to (not seeing, given the masses between myself and the stage) "La Traviata" in Central Park with some friends of mine.

This is a little masterpiece I like to call "Hordes of people who don't really appreciate opera, but use it as an excuse to look cultured and get trashed on blankets on the Great Lawn."

We decided to conclude the night at Cooper 35. If you have ever experienced the wonder of this NYU kid's paradise, you know the drill: you are surrounded by hundreds of your peers getting their--in many cases illegal--booze on. It is not somewhere I would go on a date if I were over 30. These two, however, didn't seem to mind. La pièce de résistance:

This went on for a good, solid two minutes. They were totally oblivious to the multiple flashes of my camera (I didn't take this photo, by the way). She was 30-ish and trashy looking. He was a 30-something biker type with a beard the size of Montana and long, long, long hair.

In any case, we made our exit a bit after midnight, at which point I realized that I could not get to my temporary home, as the JMZ was not running over the Williamsburg Bridge, and the L just plain wasn't running. I was not about to wait until 3 a.m. for a shuttle bus to show up on the LES, so friend #1 and I crashed at friend #2's gorgeous place at Water Street. In the morning I watched the sun come up over the Financial District.

Not a bad start to the next four months, if I do say so.

Something I happened to notice while perusing the interweb

2006-08-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Today I was visiting the website of one Diane Bertolo, a woman Claude would like preserved in a shroud of mystery. Diane has an ongoing web-based art project in which she constructs diptychs from one screen capture and one digital photo. I check them out every once and a while and today I randomly spied this:

Well, the crucial part is this:

I must say, I am flattered and a bit shocked.

From The Thrift Store

2006-08-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

Another Gawker swipe

2006-08-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

Despite Claude's mandate that I stick to photography, Gawker posted this notable quote from Ed Koch. You may remember the formenr NYC mayor from such roles as participating in the spread of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s through a conspiracy of information supression designed to purify the city of drug use and homosinuality or his role backing up the New York City Health Department's decision to shut down the city's gay bathhouses in 1985 instead of supporting needle exchange programs and safer sex initiatives. Here's what he has to say about the new film "Another Gay Movie," which I know nothing about. And I quote (from Gawker):

"Former Mayor Ed Koch, in his current role as movie critic, seems displeased with recent release Another Gay Movie:

Nathan Lee's review of this film in The New York Times was interesting. He wrote: "What follows is a rude, rollicking and exceedingly raunchy attempt to turn 'American Pie' into 'American Quiche.'"
"American Pie" was an extraordinarily funny, albeit raunchy, movie. It was written with intelligence and great humor and was attractive to mainstream audiences. "Another Gay Movie," however, is not good from any point of view. It is simply trash and so gross that it loses any intended humor.

Cheer up, Ed! Clearview Chelsea's showing a revival of My Own Private Idaho. Just be sure to take Bess Myerson along with you so nobody gets the wrong idea."

This last sentence refer to the fact that although his unwillingness to act of information about AIDS disproportionately impacted the queer community, there was speculation that Koch was himself gay. I don't know what all this is getting at, but I thought it was worth mentioning here the way that Koch and Nathan Lee (the NYTimes review Koch is responding to) respond uncomfortably to the queerness of the sexuality in the movie (see 'quiche' and 'trash'.)

Funny link I just found on Gawker

2006-08-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Can we all just get past the fact that I was looking at Gawker and get to the point?!?! You know, I have a very boring job.
ANYWAY:
http://rightwingnytimes.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
It is a parody of what conservatives see when they look at the New York Times.
Enjoy cheap shots at 'the other'

Click here...

2006-08-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3356457&postID=115492411732623254
to be redirected to a comment on Claude's blog in which someone refers to "Liar, Liar" and "The Ringer" as "high concept."

i took a life today.

2006-08-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

Bad News...isn't it always bad?

2006-08-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

http://ia311537.us.archive.org/0/items/dn2006-0811/dn2006-0811-1_64kb.mp3
It'll make you want to move off the grid

Greatest Movie Ever

2006-08-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

A film about the Helvetica font will be opening in early 2007. Prepare yourselves. This is going to be as good if not better than Snakes on a Plane.

http://helveticafilm.com

Awesome photo

2006-08-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this was taken, to be "Art" as it were, or just a location snap shot for a film as it was somewhat referenced as. But I think it's awesome.

Speaking of politics...

2006-08-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

Playwright, screenwriter, director, film theorist David Mamet has apparently entered the wild and wacky world of political cartooning...

Line of the week

2006-08-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she called "failed policy" in Iraq.

"I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late," the New York Democrat and potential 2008 presidential contender said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation."

"The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress and with the people," she said. "It's time for him to step down and be replaced by someone who can develop an effective strategy and communicate it effectively to the American people and to the world."

Asked about Clinton's comments, Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said,

"We don't discuss politics."

The Students

2006-08-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well, here they are, the ragamuffins that have taken over my life this past month. The photo was taken by Bami "my black friend" Adedoyin. Anyway, here's the 411:

Dear Family and Friends,

Please join us from 4 PM to 6 PM on Friday, August 4th in the Gulf & Western Gallery at 721 Broadway for the Tisch Schoool of the Arts Department of Photography and Imaging Summer High School Program Exhibition.

This exhibition is the culmination of student's photographic work during the four-week Summer High School Program, which includes images in response to a range of projects and assignments. Please take time to visit the Exhibition Binder to read student's statements in relation to their work, to view artist's books, and the assignments and readings for the course.

The focus of this program is to use photo-based image making for communication, creative expression and personal exploration. Designed for beginning and advanced students, the program is a rigorous combination of cultural, technical and historical lectures, darkroom work, critiques of student work, critical discussions and written responses to lectures, readings and gallery visits. The course introduced students to 35mm manual cameras, B&W film exposure and dark room printing as well as color slide film, scanning, basic Photoshop and digital color printing.

Thank you for your attendance and support.

Participating High School Students: David Allen, Lily Avnet, Charley Damski. Schuyler Duffy, Andrew Gold, Jordan Hodge, Jordana Hoyt, Hadear Kandil, Brittany Keema, Kimberly Muirhead, Beatrice Oshodi, Gabriela Rodriguez, Scout Sanders, Hillary Strack. Michelle Watt, Jonathan Weiner.

Professor: Erika deVries
Teaching Assistants: Ifetayo Abdus-Salam, Lauren Fabrizio, Ben Harrison,Ariel Goldberg, Katie Kline, Jennifer Lehe.

2006-08-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

up until very recently [2 pm yesterday,] i had very little material evidence of my family history. the fragmented nature of my genealogy has been something that i have been obsessed with since i was very young.
my grandfather's sister's son is in the process of clearing out her home [she is in her late 80s, and has little if any use for things.]
yesterday my grandfather showed me his mother's photo album and a box of photos that no one even knew existed.
here is one of the photographs.

the name on the back is Bertha Gesell. i am unsure of her relation to us [my grandfather thinks there isn't one.] but i'm proud to have her in my family album.

If you can't stand the heat, imagine how bad it will be when the blackout hits

2006-08-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, we (people who live in NYC) have devoted so much time to straddling our high-horses making fun of those LA shit-heads and now look where we are: the midst of a heatwave with energy consumption so high we are likely looking at a blackout. Now before you state the obvious (that I am clearly wasting energy by typing a stupid entry on a cosmically meaningless blog) you should know that I am using the computer for my job edifying young people. So there. I digress. Just recently there was a major power outage in Queens and it took a week and a half for Consolidated Edison of New York to fix it. You will notice that I did not call it "Con Ed," because "Con Ed" is a nickname and nicknames are for friends and Consolidated Edison of New York is no friend of mine. Anyway, despite the envy with which Chuck Klosterman (the man Gawker and I believe Sarah Steele love to hate) refers to people who were in NYC when the blackout of 2003 happened (envy based mainly on the highly publicized reports of store owners giving away ice cream and cold beer), let's consider the following:
No A/C, no fans-- that'll be fun in a 105 degree heat index tomorrow
No subway-- yeah, we all complain about the MTA, but do you really want to walk home? We all remember the transit strike.
No entry to electrical gates-- even if you get home, will your building open? Mine won't.
No internet-- this speaks for itself.

Anyway, there would probably be some sweet looting though. Remember, looting isn't nearly as bad as this:

I'm begging...

2006-07-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Someone please post something new. Please.

More religious truth, in image form

2006-07-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

Sarah's post was very interesting and it prompted me to do a little research on said book.

Along the way I found other illustrations from JW books:

Look at the guy on the right, in the turtle neck and blazer. He looks mysteriously like the supposed "Mexican" in Sarah's first image.

This impage appears to be a white man leading a group of Asians. Well, maybe the man is Asian, too. But we can all agree that no man in a sash is to be trusted.

The caption read: "War in heaven ended with Satan and the demons being hurled down to earth. You are now feeling the effects"

But are we supposed to believe that heaven is in outer space? And could angels, evil or otherwise, really survive the heat generated on re-entry?

Propoganda usually proves to be very intersting. And it's nice to see the JW's aren't left out.

2006-07-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

i picked up a book at a thrift store today.

it is a Watchtower publication from the1970s. its easy enough to laugh at, but, as with most religious propaganda, it intrigues me. there are a few chapters on science & politics - them Witnesses are thorough, if nothing else.

i haven't read this little red book, but its got some swell illustrations. let me share a few!

the amount of Asian peoples in this drawing is inexplicable. since i'm preeeeetty certain that the Jehovah's Witnesses were started by a couple of white Anglo-Saxons from the middle United States, what is the meaning of this?
i can only assume that what the artist was trying to depict the world's races to their percentage of the population, only his hand got tired after drawing all those darn Asians. so he gave up, a sketched some other races in real quick. i see two Caucasians, one gentleman with a suspiciously hooked nose, a possible Mexican & only ONE BLACK MAN shoved way down there in the corner. front and center, however, is some dude of ambiguous ethnicity who looks like he just walked out of MisShapes.

this is the picture on the following page, and it clears up all the confusion brought about by the previous illustration: Jehovah's got an AZN fetish.

apropos of nothing, this is the final illustration in the book. no caption, no explanation.

i know it was the 70s, i know, but is this really appropriate for a ultra-conservative religious tract? is this evangelism or a Beach Boys song? maybe this is just where Jehovah's Witnesses go when they die - to an interracial orgy party in the sky.

who blogs before 6 AM?

2006-07-20T03:49:00.000-07:00

if you were going to recreate [not "forge"] a well known painting [for the sake of "art,"] would you or would you not include the original painter's signature?

oh, post-modernism, you call into question all notions of authorship!

everything you always wanted to know about the theory of relativity (but were afraid to ask)

2006-07-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

Over the last week I had the pleasure of reading an exposition by ol' Al "two socks" Einstein of his famous theory of relativity.
You can purchase it here for a low price.
I've actually only read the first half which covers the "special" theory. It's surprisingly easy to understand, and interesting, and fun, and I don't even like physics. Not one bit.
Sure, it's obsolete now, but who hasn't really wanted to "get" e = mc^2? No one? NOT YOU!

The uncertain future (not a post about hezbollah)

2006-07-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

I have a job interview in an hour. Wish me luck.

A "craft" for your freetime

2006-07-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter how I found it, but I just stumbled across a "women's interests" website (bellaonline.com) and found this gem of an artistic trick. The alternative is, of course, to just use a polaroid camera. But what's the fun in that?

Instant Polaroid Creator

Like many photographers, I'm a huge fan of the Polaroid. I have a "classic" camera that takes the instant pictures you have come to expect: The click, the whir, the photo pops out of the front and eventually fades in (with that tell-tale slim white border and wide space at the bottom). Polaroid has even come out with new films that make stickers and smaller cameras for easier portability to broaden their instant portrait products section.

Because a Polaroid picture has such a recognizable look, it's a favourite among digital artists and web designers for creating graphics. Using digital imaging software, such as Photoshop, you can easily take any image and make it into a Polaroid-esque photo.

If you aren't keen on using Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro to get the Polaroid look, there's a site online called the Polaroid-O-Nizer (http://pon.josti.nl/) that allows you to take any image that's online and make it into a digital Polaroid.

You can change the background colour from the classic white, alter the angle it's viewed at (or keep it straight), shift the centering of the photo, and add text to the bottom.

A less urgent call

2006-07-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

Not to distract everyone from Sarah's need for housing, but I am embarking on a project and I need some materials. Specifically, I am going to make an artist's book out of the blank end pages of old novels. If any of you have crappy old novels slated for the garbage and they have blank pages in the front or the back, I would happily exchange the book or just the pages in for my undying affection. Alright, I am off to the Strand dollar rack.
Hugs.

Thank your lucky asteroids

2006-07-03T06:16:00.000-07:00

As we all know, entertainment icon Yahoo Serious went on to create on of the biggest internet portals, from which this news story comes:

LOS ANGELES - A huge asteroid whizzed by Earth early Monday, passing about 269,000 miles from the planet's surface — slightly farther away than the moon.

More than three dozen asteroids have flown closer to Earth in the last few years, but scientists believe 2004 XP14 is among the largest. The asteroid, discovered in 2004, is estimated to be as wide as a half-mile based on its brightness. Late Sunday and early Monday, it was expected to be visible as a small moving dot to amateur sky watchers with good telescopes in North America and as a fainter object in Europe. Its closest approach was over the U.S. West Coast.

Scientists estimate 2004 XP14 will have 10 more close encounters with Earth over this century, none expected to pose a threat to the planet.

Isn't it strange to know that you could have died last night, a la the dinosaurs, while you were, say, drinking and becoming entangled in the most intriguing mysterys Scooby Do and Mystery Inc. could never solve?

Ranty McRant Rant

2006-06-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

The other day I typed up this really lovely, intense rant on livejournal (cue emo fun-poking now), and I decided that my fellow bloggers might like to indulge as well.

However, to avoid taking up an entire Archive page with my (rather justified!) angst, I decided to actually make a post in my personal blog, and link y'all there instead.

Enjoy!

Want to know if you are gay?

2006-06-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

I love Scientific American. I'm currently reading about the origin of the human species in an awesome special edition of the magazine.

In other news: I was trolling their site and found [this] very interesting article. It states that a new study has found that the odds of a man being gay are increased based on the number of biological brothers he has. It doesn't matter if the brothers grew up with the man or not, just the fact that the mother gave birth to other boys does the trick.

The article didn't mention why this would be the case, or potential benefits species-wise, but states that the mother may produced certain antibodies that causes a subsequent male child to be gay.

I have a theory, one of population control. Maybe homosexuality is nature’s way of making sure a species doesn't propagate too much. After producing a certain number of boys (walking inseminators) a woman's body produces antibodies that influence her next boy to be gay. Thereby helping to ensure he won't go out and create more humans.

I love the idea. Though, of course, there are plenty of gay men who are only children or don't have any brothers (why is everyone looking at me?) but I think the theory holds in general, and the study speaks for itself.

That is, until it's proven incorrect.

[Go read it.]

My last day, but not

2006-06-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well, today is my last day at my job, but not really. I am coming back after a one month absence as a 'casual,' non-student, employee. I did, however, get a 'party' with a vegan German chocolate cake, which was delicious but left us all delerious with sugar and coconut. Sadly, fellow blogger Laurinha was not able to enjoy said cake, although she is a fellow employee of the office I am not leaving. Needless to say, the party was a bit anticlimactic, not only because it was at 11 AM when I am working until 5, but because I AM NOT LEAVING, as I keep having to explain to confused professors who have phds but little comprehension of basic things. Still, a party is a party.

Recycling of info...

2006-06-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Here's something intersting I found here:

An influential British art gallery owner has launched a virtual art gallery that allows any artist to showcase their work online. Saatchi's Your Gallery also has an accompanying online magazine with “news, reviews, diaries, events, and photojournals.” The site is completely free for artists to use, and in only a few weeks has amassed thousands of galleries and 6-digit transactions from sale of the work.

6 degrees of blogeration...

2006-06-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

Looking at the list of contributors to this glorious collective blog, it donned on me that I only know 2 other people who are on there. I assume that Jen (Jennifer, if you're nasty) is the focal point, connecting all of us.

In any event, I'd love to see some sort of flow chart of sorts, blog family tree if you will, showing how each of us is connected.

And maybe it would be fun if we each did one of those crappy-bio-answering-questions things. Maybe just like age, location, profession etc.

Good idea, right? Or am I a floppy disk?

A link and 2 unrelated ebay purchases

2006-06-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/undocumented_war/

A Non-Hierarchical List in Progress of My "Hi, Bye" Friends

2006-06-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

As the name suggests, this list is incomplete. It is just a beginning. For further information about the details of Hi, Bye friendship, please see Jonathan Goldstein's piece in TAL episode: Allure of the Mean Friend, 9/5/03, Episode 245 www.thisamericanlife.org. Here goes:

Robert Rosenblum, curator emeritus for the Guggenheim
The superintendent on Waverly Place who once asked me out
Fred Ritchin, photo historian I have met many times but never seems to be able to place me
Emily Stephens, girlfriend of conversational friend
The janitor in my building
Abe Lincoln (Mike something), friend of friends, Abraham Lincoln look-alike
The jovial 30-something man who is always in the digital lab and may or may not be a professor in the film department
Sandra Jackson, Director of Education, Studio Museum in Harlem
Veronica, from the cage
The bagel guy
Dosa man

Bulletin Boards and the Internet

2006-06-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

The internet in general and bulletin boards in particular have had an impact on the entertainment industry by providing an open forum for untethered criticism. I offer the following pieces of evidence: "Lost"-direct responses to internet criticism woven into the show, "Snakes on a Plane"-the title was kept and additions made as a result of internet chatter, the rerelease of the 70s version of Star Wars after internet grumbling, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"-a sequence in which bulletin board posters are punched in the face for their insulting posts, "American Idol" - responded directly to internet accusations of fraud by various contestants.

This sort of stuff wouldn't have happened 10 years ago. Imagine in "Twin Peaks" if someone randomly said "So, who attacked Dr. Jacoby anyway? We never found out!".

A Dirty Little Secret

2006-06-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered that two members of this blog have a podcast. Listen to them and get a sense of what it would be like to have to date one of them.
http://mr-podcast.blogspot.com/
From here you can link to their other podcast which comprises their theories of the cult show Lost.

capturing magic moments

2006-06-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

Since at least a few of you are photographers/bad people:

http://www.longawkwardpose.com/

Oh so close....

2006-06-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

According to this generation's Albert Einstein, Dr. Stephen Hawkins, or Stevo as his friends call him, says Humans are close to figuring it all out--universe-wise.

Read more here.

What's interesting, and rather disconcerting, is that the Hawkster questions how Humans will survive the next 100 years. 100 years!? 500 years, 1000 years, I can understand. But 100 is just, forgive me, brief in the history of time.

In other news, Stevo is writing a children's book on theortical physics, with his daughter. I think the title is "Green Eggs and How String Theory is the Closest Model We Have to Describing the Nature of the Universe."

An Open Call

2006-06-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks,

Well, now that summer is (not technically) here, people keep asking me* "Jen, now that summer is (not technically) here, what should I read in my spare time?" Well, I am now issuing a call to all you wonderful people to email me book recommendations (to jen@jenniferlehe.com) and I will compile and blog a reading list. Feel free to snub my request, but know that in so doing you are contributing to illiteracy.
~Jen

P.S. What do you think of my business card design. I know, me with a business card is laughable.

* People have not really been asking me this, most people are surprised that I read

3 mintues o' fun

2006-06-08T01:50:00.000-07:00

Here's another example of someone with too much free time creating something that's interesting but something we'll all forget about when the next cool thing comes.

Here,you can view this nifty applet that details the most used words in Presidental State of Union addresses.

It's a good way to kill a few mintues.

It also tells you the grade level of the speech. I was surprised to see George Washington scoring almost the highest. I won't metion which president's speeches are on some of the lowest grade levels...but it's G. W. Bush.

Salivation ho.

2006-05-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

You might not want to be dining at the computer screen while you have a look at the Gallery of Regrettable Food, as I learned when I sent my mother the link in the next room ("That is disgusting! I'm eating cereal!"). The commentator is a genius. I just spent about half an hour oogling this array of delectable vintage treats, and I was crying, I kid you not.

"Potpourri" is mandatory.

Some favorites:
one and two.

Buon appetito!

Not What I Signed Up For

2006-05-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

Just three, count them three, weeks out I am already asking myself, and now you, Is this really what I worked so long and hard for? Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace...blah, blah, blah...Signifying nothing. Those are the key parts at least. The point is that I, like Macbeth, think this shit kinda sucks. Granted, my wife isn't dead (she is alive and well) and I do not wish to die, I just need a job that is rewarding on some level. But still, I think Macbeth and I are getting at the same thing: there has to be something good about this but I don't f-ing see it. Hopefully things will work out a little better for me than they did for him. I hope that's not a spoiler for anyone.