Saturday, March 9, 2002

And finally (as I am not seeming to fix my attention on my preparations for a lecture on the history of radio technology: whenever I come across the name "Fessenden" my attention snaps elsewhere) a digest of Biennial talk from Joy Garnett's Newsgrist: MATTHEW MIRAPAUL (NYTimes): "...the Internet's collective unconscious made visible." "...Ms. [Christiane] Paul has opted for talk radio." WALTER ROBINSON (Artnet Magazine): "This is not funny!" "The show is not completely devoid of painting." "There's more to say, but as usual no time to say it." HOLLAND COTTER (NYTimes): "Spiritual America, From Ecstatic to Transcendent." "...half the work is of lingering interest..." "(Lots of white boys this year.)" "These are the makings of a good show, which this biennial is." "you can ask only so much of it." "...the thrill of discovery (a little of that here)." "...a few artists stay in the mind after you're back out on the street..." SARAH DOUGLAS (The Art Newspaper): "... it is more difficult than ever to confine the chosen works to any one definition." "There is a decidedly youthful angle to this biennial..." "This biennial will likely be criticized for excessive inclusiveness, but its willingness to take risks is refreshing. " DOUGLAS KELLEY (Douglas Kelley Show): "The Whitney may have more similarity to an open air Philippine trash dump on fire than the Louvre, but I found things to like anyway." "All day I have been called to task for trying to be nice about it." 9:34:48 PM

Human desire explored, no chickens (see 3/2) whatsoever: From the weblog Random Walks, the tale of a woman who has been married to the Berlin wall for 23 years, despite its reduction to rubble on their 10th anniversary (this means that someone sent me a relic from her husband's corpse in 1989). Her explanation for the success of their relationship: "I am object-sexual -- that is to be sexually and emotionally attracted to objects -- in my case The Berlin-Wall and other constructions. I am married to the Berlin Wall (and have been since 1979). Hence my married name (Berliner-Mauer), which means Berlin Wall in German. It is the actual Wall I love, not the border - like some intolerant people seem to think. They fail to see difference between the Wall and the purpose, which are two completely different things. If you fail to see that - well, too bad!" more 9:09:15 PM

Five Things (for more on this, see Feb 23) is good this week. Especially "computers I've known and loved." I've been inspired to write the true history of my Kaypro; coming soon. 6:47:44 PM

Bad Causal Narratives, Part One:MIT Professor Blames Tolkien For Computer Culture 6:18:35 PM

More on Weed and Nativism (see 2/28) from "Concrete Jungle: A Pop Media Investigation of Death and Survival in Urban Ecosystems," a Re/Search book edited by Alexis Rockman and Mark Dion, Manhattan nature/art bad/boys. Good book, especially for rat-tale aficionados. But here's Dion on Alanthus Altissima, the "Tree of Heaven" that was featured in the novel "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn:" "The ailanthus is a native of China and was imported to England as both an ornamental plant and as a food source for silkworms as early as the 1750s. It first made its appearance in the new world in 1784. Perhaps its modern naturalization to American soil could be considered a reintroduction, since the fossil record clearly demonstrates that the ailanthus flourished in western Nother America before the last ice age (from 70 to 100 million years ago)." "...The tree of heaven has many drawbacks. The male plant produces such a disagreeable odor that a law was passed in 1875 making it illegal to harbor the tree in the District of Columbia...." I live in a city where one cannot harbor the tree of heaven. Didn't know. 6:11:07 PM

Without chickens to distract them (see 3/2), penguins explore the complexities of desire. In Coney Island, of all places. Wendell and Cass, gay penguins. A zookeeper explains: " ...They're very in touch with each other. But there are a few couples that are sort of like that -- some are very dedicated. They seem to be one of the more dedicated couples. They're more aware of where the other is in the exhibit, they talk to each other a lot, probably a lot more than some of the other couples do. They're just one of the best couples on the exhibit. Just a really nice couple." Good thing Andrea Zittel (see below) didn't think to experiment with penguin flight: they might have been exhibited in the window of the New Museum, passing as straight sex partners for all but the most astute of ornithologists (even the zookeepers had no idea for years). 5:53:56 PM

© Copyright 2002 Lisa Lynch.