Everything’s Exploding

February 20th, 2009 by Gnat

Or collapsing, depending on how you look at it. People getting laid off left and right. The center cannot, and will not, hold. I’m trying to stay positive and forward-thinking, but it’s becoming really hard. I’m thankful to still be employed. The future is unwritten.

Here’s something nice I discovered this week, however: Picnik, the online image editor. My favorite feature is the Firefox extension, which allows you to edit and upload images without ever leaving your browser. Nice to not have to launch Photoshop just to do some quick image edits/fixes.

Another cool thing I discovered this week is the Maybe Logic Academy. Online courses are offered by well-respected authors and social critics on subjects such as Gnosis, NLP and secret initiation rites. There’s even a course on how to run your own cult. According to the website, by the course’s end “students will have designed and developed their own religious cult to the point of marketability.”

Harry Smith, Holy Shit

February 9th, 2009 by Gnat

Harry Smith is the kind of guy who makes me feel guilty. Guilty for not going out and making art and documenting the human experience every minute of every hour of every day. Watching a folk music documentary on the Ovation channel tonight, I was reacquainted with the genius of Harry Smith. Harry Smith compiled (from his own collection) the legendary Anthology of American Folk Music, which was released in 1952 on Folkways Records. In 1965 he went on to record and produce the first record by avant folk/rock pranksters, the Fugs. Not only that, he was at one time “the greatest living magician” according to the godfather of experimental cinema, Kenneth Anger. Because even before Harry was capturing magical music, he was making magic with film. Check this piece out:

The life and work of Harry Smith is severly interesting. Visit his website here. And though I have only started this bad boy, here’s a hefty and heady analysis of Smith’s films, entitled Alchemical Transformations: The Abstract Films of Harry Smith (Jamie Sexton). Now, go make art.