On a personal note, I’ve been recently trying to trap a couple of stray cats in my neighborhood to get them fixed. The crazy old drunken Cuban man across the street just loves to feed the kitties — of course without taking one iota of responsibility for their health care and general upkeep. Yes, some people just love to see the miracle of nature at work: lots of cute stray kittens running amok that eventually end up ravaged by fleas, half-starved and teaming with infection. I was actually astonished to hear an acquaintance remark over the weekend: “what’s so bad about having lots of stray cats in your neighborhood?” This person seemed to think the scenario on my block was Norman Rockwell-esque, with scrappy yet fun-loving hobo felines trailing little Johnny as he trots off down the block, perhaps with fishing pole in tow.
This ain’t the case, folks.
So I’ve had a couple of trapping mishaps befall me the last couple of days. The first was when I caught the wrong cat on Sunday morning. Whoops. But no harm was done, I released the kitty and tried again last night. This morning I checked the trap and had caught a gray stray. Upon attempting to transfer the stray to my carrier, the damn thing bolted right over the fence. Whoops again. I’m giving this thing another shot today after work, so wish me luck friends.
Oh and I’ll be going to Texas for a few days this week. Leaving on Thursday and returning Monday. My mom and I will be spending July 4th in Marfa, and we will get to see cool things like this:
And this…
And finally…
First image: Prada Marfa storefront installation; second image: still (from gallery site) from the Hello Meth Lab in the Sun exhibit at Ballroom Marfa gallery; third image: the mysterious natural phenomenon that is the Marfa Lights (flashes on the horizon).
Hopefully this trip to Tejas will be good and maybe even help me get a fresh perspective on things. Lately I feel like I relate less and less to people and the world around me…
OK so I’ve sort of neglected my REAL blogging duties lately here at Pink Moan in favor microblogging over at Twitter. What can I say, I have a short yet intense attention span. If you’re interested, my Twitter handle is Gnat74.
Weekend before last my friend Kitty and I made a trip to the Integratron, near Joshua Tree. Long story short the Integratron is an acoustically perfect, wooden geodesic dome-type structure. A late UFO enthusiast built it over the course of many years, but now these cool women own it and offer sound bath therapy sessions in the dome. Per the Integratron website: “The Integratron is the creation of George Van Tassel, and is based on the design of Moses’ Tabernacle, the writings of Nikola Tesla and telepathic directions from extraterrestrials. This one-of-a-kind building is a 38-foot high, 55-foot diameter, non-metallic structure originally designed by Van Tassel as a rejuvenation and time machine. Today, it is the only all-wood, acoustically perfect sound chamber in the U.S.” During a soundbath sesh, a series of quartz bowls are rung that correspond to each Chakra. The effect is uber-spacey and trance-inducing due to the dome’s heightened acoustical properties. No, this isn’t just hippie mumbo jumbo. I don’t know if I was in between sleep and wakefulness at one climactic point during the soundbath, but I do know I was somewhere else entirely. Here are a couple of pics, one exterior and one shot of the roof of the dome. Hey the iPhone camera isn’t too bad, sure wish it had a flash:
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.”
Now that I have your attention, listen up. This album was released in 1974, and few original copies exist today (the copies that are still in existence will cost you mucho dinero to acquire). I just read this LP was reissued in a very small run (prolly for collector scum), so I suggest you take a few moments to download this here digital file. Amazingly good afro psych/pop/groove. A fuzzy lead guitar snakes its way through one catchy, rhythmic tune after the next. Highly recommended.
Oh gentle readers, my blog posts have been few and far between, I know. I’ve been sort of overwhelmed with attempting to navigate the sea of information online as of late. I’ve found the migration of users from Myspace to the cleaner, yet just as time-wasting, Facebook to be a semi-fascinating phenomenon. Social media — is it a groovy new way to communicate or just the next dot com bubble? I think that remains to be seen, and the future is unwritten so it’s anyone’s guess. I know lately that I crave to return to some more primal, pure, way of living. Twitter and Facebook are nice, yes, but what about steppes and tundras? Deserts, forests and oceans. Albert Hoffman in his old age and wisdom said that we must include nature in our everyday lives in order to be happy. I agree. A conundrum of modern life has always been how to marry progress with happiness. Here are ten historic clashes that kicked our intellectual evolution into overdrive:
I have to blog about this infographic from the New York Times article,Why Is Her Paycheck Smaller? While the results are annoying (yet not surprising), I find this to be a very cool little infographic. It’s interactive, so click on the below image to go to the NYT page then rollover the dots to see details.
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.
