Everyday Hallows Eve

Think about it, whatever age you are now represents how many Halloweens you've grown up dressing for...or not. I woke up this morning forgetting it was the 31st of October, but when I was reminded I became reminiscent of all the costumes I've been over the years. What do you feel like being today? It changes...at least for me!

Writing like Warhol and Goldsmith

Warhol:
Halloween…time to costume.
Looking, staring at the front page of an online webpage wanting to see one thing. Too many things portrayed to know. I want to be what everyone is, but nobody chooses. This costume is a wardrobe of things put together. Lace, cut-off pants, wigs…I loathe wigs. I can see myself wearing one in a Judy Garland ensemble, but only if I have a drink in my hand. A Greygoose martini, dirty with two olives…but not drunk; I will most certainly have a stumble. I won’t go to any parties of people I know. I know too many people. The one I’m going to will have a costume prize. Girls, boys, men, whatever. I went to a birthday party once where I thought everyone was wearing a costume… One knows when they are in the presence of glamorous. I think Gwen Stefani was there, she was ten. I loved the shoes my friend was going to wear, they were dirty and brown. Will anyone notice me? I am going to a party. I do know too many people…they will. I’m walking there. In heals. Blue stilettos by Bivel..with a dress to match. Devil in a blue dress with fishnets riding high. My friend doesn’t know it’s me when I get there. It’s in the city. I get my drink right away; I order a Stoli and coke with three maraschino cherries. I need sugar, I need sugar. Block Party is the noise thumping behind me…I go to get a better listen. There are stairs down to the chaos. Nobody knows me…I know nobody…we all look good…a little too good. I need another drink, maybe something bland…like the person sitting down in front of me. I sit down; I order my drink and get a vodka and soda. I never thought, maybe once that, I would come all this way for a party where I knew nobody and nobody knew me. When does this happen? I do go out…in the city with people sometimes. Humphrey Bogart and the Hamburgler are break dancing on the wood floor. Why do people stare? Do I know the Hamburgler? He is taller than I would have expected. Why would I expect anything..that is odd.

Goldsmith:
Action Figures..
How does one get smart with an action figure?
An action figure, an action figure, an action figure.
Does action represent itself within a costume?
Does Halloween allow for action in its costumes?
Certainly numerous individuals would hope to portray action through their costume, their costume!
Would the President wear a costume, would the President want a costume?
See it on-line somewhere and I’m sure it’s possible.
Exciting times, beautiful rhymes singing a song all day long of what was seen of the war machine.
Knowing what’s right and uplifting a fight for what one wants, a costume or not.
Representing oneself in wardrobe, in stealth freeing oneself to start presenting.
Where can we find action heroes now?
It is Halloween time, time to prowl the gardens, tha gardens, those gardens where the pumpkins must grow; carving ones way out of an old.
Secret stashes of clothes ones held onto, for times like these, times for cheese, times for we’s and threes and more to explore.
Making up a costume to roam and play as we may into the moonlit night, we can dance and be gay, if we choose, we may.
The time is now, the time is then, the time is men and women making a choice.
See what you like, what you want to be for this hallows eve.
Trick or treating with the greatest of ease through eyes that spy on pumpkin thieves.
Make your way to the place you call home after hoarding candy that is not your own, in fact it was someone else’s, but you brought it home, it home.
Think carefully what you place in your cheeks because it could posses something other than sweets.

The Last Clean Shirt and News From Home

1.)

In _News From Home_, the function of the letters sent back and forth between mother and daughter is communication. The entire film carried different forms of communication within it. For example, the different lines that were filmed against the NewYork buildings explaining to the audience that they were in downtown. The different lines created other shapes, like triangles of blue sky up high with the buildings surrounding it. There was also footage of many streets and sidewalks with "don't walk" signs lit up, but people were still crossing, thus communicating a city atmosphere. During the subway footage, there was the obvious graffiti, but also at the stops the film honed in on each particular stop i.e. "Christoper St."

The mother, through her letters as well as the film footage was also able to bring across to the audience how she was feeling. She was not well through out many of the letters..she had dizzy spells in her first letter and as she read, there was footage of a fuzzy sign that was not readable, thus creating a sense of dizziness for the audience. It made watching the film surreal. The subtle effects were just enough to get the mothers points accross through the use of visual communication as well as audio...and as mentioned previously, it opened up for the audience to acutally feel how the mother was feeling.

The letters were an open door for the creator of this film to bring accross to the audience other forms of communication, to show the issues of race, class and gender all while keeping the audience intrigued in the frequent letters from mother to daughter. Very creative, and subtle.

Andy Warhol

I have read through half the book and am fascinated with the language. This book reminds of one long run on sentence. It is an easy read with the use of very different language...but it is interesting. I want to know more...It makes me want to be alive during that time to know what these people like "Taxi" looked like. I'm just jealous he knew people from the Velvet Underground!..

l'acte

This clip of "To Kill a Mockingbird" was very strange...Not quite sure what to think about it. I understood the concept of sound, but why that clip? It is very random...so I would have to say that it would parallel with "Nadja".

Every day Tuesdays

Every day Tuesdays in October consist of carving someones face out of a huge, oversized and crooked pumpkin. Then sitting it on my door step with a candle inside and lighting it!
It turned out pretty good!...I think

Starting Nadja

I am slowly getting through the book and find it quite random and a little hard
to follow...I am however interested in seeing what the entire book has to say. I love the pictures of all the random places the person has stayed way back in history...It's almost like a play...we'll see...will keep you posted!

Un Chien Andalou

I think the whole film was full of random acts, but the one thing that did catch my attention was the small box carried by the man who looked like the flying nun. It was odd I thought how the young girl ended up carrying it into the street and was ran over as she clenched it tight... I will say though, that the eye ball slicing was really disturbing! Not a good image to have stuck in your head.

Bothell Video Clips

Pictures of bothell

Apples to Apples

The game I chose to play was Apples to Apples! This has got to be one of mine and my friends favorite games...and it just so happened that last night we had enough people to make the game interesting. The more people the better! We can play this game until everyone gets tired of playing because you really don't keep tract of winning, which is exactly what we did. It really interesting to me because this game helps you learn a lot about the other people by the cards they choose to show. This is a guessing game, if you haven't figured out yet. To see how people react to the different cards put down is strange because you learn what other people think about and are use to..., just a glimpse into their everyday lives and how they live. All games have different strategies; however, they all prove the amount of knowledge a person has at any given subject. It is truly fascinating to me to learn so many little details about my friends and the things they know...things they deal with in their everyday lives!

Five seconds of video

So, the group I was in today did a really good job checking things off our list...we got everything but the motorcycle in motion and the two strollers w/babies. All of our videotaping seemed easy...all while I was learning how the video camera worked. That part wasn't so bad, but that sense of anxiety starts setting in because now that the fun part is over and I've taped the stuff, I am required to post in on-line...this is where my anxiety starts. Does anyone have any helpful tips?
If not, it's ok...I am slowly learning all this stuff one mistake at a time.
It really is good for me! I've done more in three weeks than in...WOW!

Quoting from "Everyday"

The first 47 pages of "Everyday" were very thought provoking. There were actually a bunch of things, or quotes I thought of using in my blog. There were many great descriptions of what each individual "thought" everyday life was; however, I think Maurice Blanchot in his Everyday Speech from 1962 said it best on page 38:

"For the ordinary of each day is not such by contrast with some extraordinary; this is not the 'nul moment' that would await the 'splendid moment' so that the latter would give it a meaning, suppress or suspend it. What is proper to the everyday is that it designates for us a region, or a level of speech, where the determinations true and false, like the oppostions yes and no, do not apply-it being always before what affirms it and yet incessantly reconstituting itself beyond all that negates it."

It is with this idea of a "level" that has me convinced that he knows what he's talking about... a level of life lived differently by each individual, never to be relived or the same again.

Blanchot also ends his piece nicely by summing up everyday life as he says, "For in the everyday we are neither born nor do we die: hence the weight and the enigmatic force of everyday truth." pg.42

I will leave you with that to chew on...it's pretty heavy stuff, yet thought provoking!

I think I am confused

So, I started putting together my powerpoint slide show, which by the way is very new for me...but I like it! What I wanted to ask, is what are we basing our slide show off of?
Is it the readings...Debord, Smithson, ect? Some clarification would be great!
~Thanx

An agonizing Friday

Today has been a tough day to stomach. I had to take my car into the shop yesterday
and am still waiting to get it back. I got the call last night that, unfortunatley for me, my radiator
needed to be replaced on top of the other work the shop was doing...ouch!
I am staying inside from the rain, trying to make the best of the day. Dreading the bill that is coming my way... man...I haven't even paid my tuition yet! I guess that's life...hopefully not everyday though.