MORPH (HAS-BEEN POP CULTURE ICONS WHO REMINDED ME OF MY FATHER WHEN I WAS A CHILD) PARTS 1-4 (2009)

(george lucas + burt reynolds + tom selleck + robin williams)



(george lucas + burt reynolds + tom selleck + ron jeremy)



(pringles man + george lucas + burt reynolds + tom selleck)



(pringles man + burt reynolds + the red baron pizza guy + robin williams)

I NEED A PLAN AGAIN

how could i justify pulling into my savings and working on art/writing fulltime?

thoughts?

last minute grant opportunities?

hello?

anyone there?

((edit: also will you let me sleep on your couch?))

i have nothing to say here

i watched the helicopter's spotlight
rooting around in the darkness
as i drove up the deegan
i keep hearing it circling overhead
(i think i'm going to move to queens)

savant
savant
ça va

(ça va)

i have to admit that i am very surprised and somehow slightly dissappointed...

today i found out that bruce nauman is a heterosexual!

(!!!!)

(and married to susan rothenberg)

who'da thunkit?!

straight guy with a queer eye, fo sho.







...wait a minute...

...seriously?






what a prankster...

oh man...

(cuz sometimes i geek out on this shit)

(PS)

(i was complemented for having "the old version")

new acquisitions, january 2009

when i was young(er)
i held very few hard and fast ideas about the world
(y'know, the sort of belief that tends to hold true)
(throughout the course of one's lifetime)
with one palatable exception being that
i think it is absolutely necessary
(if one is to be taken as a knowledgeable or)
(remotely intelligent and interesting person)
to have a stellar library
that communicates one's identity, interests,
and areas of knowledge and expertise with

one
swift
glance

this is a photograph of the 29 volumes
acquired by myself in the month of january 2009.

google photography

let's be honest here.
i don't really know shit about photography.
and even though i am slowly learning,
i somehow doubt that i'll ever be
one of those people who is incredibly successful as a commentator on
PHOTOOOOGRAPHY.

despite all of this,
i would like to publicly put forth questions that have been plaguing me lately
regarding the increasing conflux of photography
and net-based imaging
(both in terms of tools)
(and found imagery)

for now
i would like to focus on
google maps

as of late
i myself have been doing a great deal of experimentation

with google maps and streetview
and i know that a lot has probably been said about the subject
but i have been intentionally keeping myself away from the
mindless chatter
of the internet.

but
the truth is that this stuff is fascinating and
(moreover)
directly related to art history.

because the guy who originated streetview cites ed ruscha as a direct influence
(more on this in the next month or so)
and because i
(for one)
can't look at satellite view without considering
the photographic efforts of some minimalists
not to mention (sometimes) even
emmet gowin's
majestic aerials when i am confronted by a particularly
beautiful terrascape.

regardless...

we all know that the design of the thing is art within itself
as well as its customizable elements
(moma agrees)
(P.S. it's in there somewhere.)
(for a show that is dedicated to design it sure is a shitty website)
and that some serious net art shit has come about from it and
it has successfully been used as a tool for performance art
(see also)

BUT!

can this tool
which is so dependent on photography
operate as photography?

straight photography?
(street photography)
(aerial abstractions)

is screen capture a form of photography?

AND

is screen capturing more akin to incorporating found elements
or should it be considered along the lines of
appropriation art

AND
more specifically

the 

rephotography
of
richard prince
and
sherrie levine?

is this a new form of conceptual practice?

or is it

just

same

ol'

... ... ... ...
after all,
the only realm in which one can really get away with reworking anything these days is
netart
(which is not to say that its not already over-done)

----------------------------------------------------------

my latest project involves a voyeuristic archiving
a catalog of

everywhere i woke up (2006-2008) (2009)
(selections from)
(and very very very much in progress)






perhaps the best part of the google maps technology
is the fact that you can create this sort of conceptual document
completely in hindsight

GODDAMMIT!

the web domain name
www.badconceptualart.com
is taken.

and by someone who makes even worse conceptual art than i do!

my plans have been ruined.

--------

3:24 AM...
UPDATE!!!
UPDATE!!!
UPDATE!!!

the greatest google predicament in contemporary art history.

dear amazon.com,

please stop recommending anthologies of
hal foster's prince valiant comic strips.

surely by now, you must realize that
i am interested solely in a completely different
hal foster

sincerely,
me.

i know some people be all crazy an shit about ladies' armpitz bein' all hairy an shit but let me tell you that shit is whack

my dad and i had a strange heart to heart to night
(which already, ten minutes afterward, i barely remember)
over a lot, a lot, a lot of margaritas
talking about how he needs to change his life and
his body and i suggested cycling
(which changed mine, most certainly)
and he was one a guy who biked from austin to victoria
(121 miles)
just because he wanted to save gas money
(in college)
so i said i would ride with him

and somehow he gets the gall to ask me that if he changed his life
would i change mine... in the form of shaving my armpits
and all i have to say is
"what the fuck, seriously?"
because i'm drunk
and as far as i'm concerned this has been a change in my life for the better
akin to being a guy with high blood pressure and all sorts of health problems
who seeks to improve his condition

i was once a girl
forced into convention with no outlook who saw beyond that and sought to
rebel with naturalism and honesty
and its never, ever been a problem in my life until now,
sunbathing on the beach in mexico with my family,
who is embarrassed by two strategically placed tufts which mean nothing
but a little extra body odor and
a lot more liberation.

to a certain extent
but certainly more comfortability on my part
and nothing that i intend to change
in the near future
(unless, of course)
(it might shave a few years off of)
(my father's most certainly imminent)
(heart attack)
(((((((((((((oh what to do, what to do?!?!?!))))))))))))

where is my mind?!

ok, so i seriously almost quoted part of this song in verbatim today in conversation
(signs of a culturally-deprived, artistically-deficient, geographically-disabled childhood)

WHAT THE FUCK!



I know. It doesn't work. Jimmy Buffett sucks. If you really need to see it you can just click
here.



okay, but seriously:

WHAT THE FUCK?!

why is it that i am able to have jimmy buffett committed to memory, but not barthes?
what do i have to do to make that shift in literacy or cognition or whatever happen?
maybe i should just listen to more of this?

tra la la self-discovery blah

i've always though it was kind of a cop-out that this is my favorite tom waits song

but i don't even really fucking like tom waits anyway.

but i've had it in my head for a while

and i just figured out all of the lyrics

and i think i have a deeper understanding now

of why i like it

for so many different reasons.

to those who might be interested...

I'm in a show in Marfa that opens tomorrow.

BOOK
Do Right Hall
(a.k.a. Buck and Camp's Church, a.k.a. that building with the horseshoe)
106 West Dallas St. Marfa, TX
November 15-29, 2008

My piece, ,-MON ,S5SE is in the show.

,-MON ,S5SE is a zine-style/booklet reproduction of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, written in the code of a .brt format file, a file type designed to interface with braille readers and printers. The file was downloaded without cost from the Internet, then transposed page by page into booklet form as a zine, printed and copied illicitly at my workplace.

With this document, I attempt to draw connections between methods of underground/non-commercial communication (pamphlets/zines, the Internet, materials for the disabled) and military codes (ARPAnet, Ecriture Nocture) which eventually evolve into methods of public discourse, literacy and communication (the Internet and Braille, respectively).

today.

I stood in front of my window

looking out across the grey sky as it rained

my flannel shirt still damp from walking through the rain

or perhaps simply dank from the fact that

i've been wearing it for the past three days.

i stood looking out from the third floor

slowly eating chili and drinking milk from a quart

with a straw that I had taped to the carton

so that it wouldn't drop into the milk

so i wouldn't have to fish it out with my fingers.

and i just thought

like

goddamn

this is the most beautiful moment of the month.

a message

to the girl who shows up to the first day of my history of modern art lecture with a tote bag from matthew marks gallery:

...really?

there is no reason why i should be telling anyone about this except that i have a blog and can subject you to my whims

if you must know what i am doing right now

i am drunk
and sweaty
from the heat of
the outdoors and
parties
and i am listening to this

while trying to read this


it was a very bad idea.
a little overwhelming
to say the least.
in fact it all just makes me want to
bang my head against a hard surface
while wailing unintelligible intonations.

EEEHUIHUIHUIHUIHUIHUIHUI

(you said it ms. monk)

i'm going to go do something sensible now.

updates from shitty south texas

my dad just asks me
"what's a twitter?"
and i explain
(these conversations about technology always have a strange)
("birds and the bees" role reversal vibe)
(it was clear from our conversation that he still has)
(no idea what a blog is)
(or even what youtube is, for that matter)

then, just now, i hear his voice from the couch in the other room
melanie!
(my mother's name)
melanie!
i'm twittering!
i'm twittering!
i'm just letting you know that i'm watching the news

a moment passes

then

melanie!
melanie!
i'm twittering!
i'm thinking about going to the bathroom!
i'm twittering!