Dec 27th and still New York, or least Brooklyn is under two feet of snow. No plows till today and sidewalks are just getting shoveled. This is a video of why I sometimes dream of escaping from New York. First is the flagrant attitude of public servants when it comes to others property, and second is the angry stupid commentary of the videographer in his underwear.  The only thing missing of what a true New York experience  would be is an ensuing fist fight and riot with the various people on the street. Happy New Year.

With the onset of this heat wave in NYC, I am recalling the great Chicago Heat Wave of 1995. For five days the temps were 100 or more degrees But added to that was extremely high humidity so the heat index reached 119 °F (48 °C) at O'Hare airport, and 125 °F (52 °C) at Midway Airport. Over 700 people died due to heat stroke. I was working as a dogwalker that summer, driving around in my old car that had no AC. The worst day the temps got to 106. After being outside in the sun and already feeling extreme heat exhaustion, I had to make a phone call on a payphone in an large parking lot near my apartment. It was 5pm and there was no shade. For some reason the phone company had shut off my phone and I had to wait for over an hour to get through to an operator. I should have left and gone inside when I started to feel the heat stroke coming on, but a person becomes delirioius and irrational in that state, so I just stayed. Eventually I stumbled home (which had no AC) and managed to make it down to the basement where I passed out. My roommate was freaking out and when I came too I told him to put me in the shower with cold water running. I stayed in the shower for a long time, there was so little water pressure because every hydrant was opened by the kids in the neighbhorhood looking for some relief. I remember finally feeling my body temp going down and my mind becoming a bit clearer, but I was in a bad state the rest of the night. It's like when you have an extreme fever, you pass into a state of delirium and hallucinations, that almost feels pleasant. I guess at some point the body can only take so much before it says to the brain to shut down. I think that is how so many died. The elderly in a weakened condition already started acting irrationally in the heat and probably not doing some simple things to help keep them cool. In several instances some people who were found dead had working AC in their apt. but had never turned them on. Here is a description of heat stroke and heat exhaustion... one common mistake people make is that if you drink plenty of fluids you should be fine even in extreme temps. But  if you are in the sun and there is high humidity our bodies ability to dissipate heat shuts down and body temps rise despite being hydrated.

Heat exhaustion: Heat exhaustion is a warning that the body is getting too hot. Those most prone to heat exhaustion include elderly people, people with high blood pressure, and people working or exercising in a hot environment. A person with heat exhaustion may be thirsty, giddy, weak, uncoordinated, nauseous, and sweating profusely. As with heat syncope and heat cramps, the body temperature is usually normal in heat exhaustion. The heart rate (pulse rate) is normal or elevated. The skin is usually cold and clammy.

Heat stroke: Heat stroke is a serious, life-threatening condition that occurs when the body loses its ability to control its temperature. Victims of heat stroke almost always die, so immediate medical attention is essential when problems first begin. In heat stroke, a person develops a fever that rapidly rises to dangerous levels within minutes. A person with heat stroke usually has a body temperature above 104 F (40 C), but the temperature may rise even higher. Other symptoms and signs of heat stroke may include confusion, combativeness, bizarre behavior, feeling faint, staggering, strong rapid pulse, dry flushed skin, and lack of sweating. Delirium or coma can also result from heat stroke.

I have heard of several people committing suicide by heat stroke... will attempt to find out more.

Scent has such a direct connection to our more primal brains. Catch the whiff of an odor  you haven't smelled in many years, and suddenly you are transported back to that place and time as if in a dream. I remember once visiting an basement apartment and upon entering was hit with this smell that was exactly the same as my Aunt's cottage in rural Ohio.
A strong dose of mildew, old wood, decaying leaves, and the fresher air of the surrounding forest. Despite the fact I was in Brooklyn, I suddenly was overwhelmed with memories and emotions of that place and just sat and let the odor and thoughts take over for a while. It was a beautiful experience.
Just a few days ago, I came across an article that was mocking some strange perfumes... not traditional to say the least, but based more on evoking raw sex, strong emotions or scents that I feel are more tied to memory. Florals and citrus smells are pleasant, but life's events don't usually surround musk oil. Think of all the odors of the beach.... fish, brine, and seaweed.. not easy to market as perfume. But there are a few who are daring evidently.
Demeter Fragrance Library is putting out some novel ordors... a few favorites I would like to sample are
Mildew ( will this smell like my Aun't cottage?), beeswax, bonfire,  dirt, dust, funeral home, fresh hay, frozen pond, rubber, russian leather, earthworm and thundestorm... but there are a ton more....
To check out their website go to
Demeter Fragrance
 Yet another maker of fragrance... french of course has some unusual scent combinations.
Sécrétions Magnifiques by Etat De Libre D'Orange is the bottled essence of of coitus. Here is the company description:

Like blood, sweat, sperm, saliva, Sécrétions Magnifiques is as real as an olfactory coitus that sends one into raptures, to the pinnacle of sensual pleasure, that extraordinary and unique moment when desire triumphs over reason. Masculine tenseness frees a rush of adrenalin in a cascade of high-pitched aldehydic notes. The sensation of freshness is gripping. Then the fragrance reveals a metallic side, precise and as sharp as unappeased desire. We are on a razor-edge… skin and sweat mingle, and tastes of musk and sandalwood. The slightly salt marine effect stirs, arouses, and sets your mouth watering. Tongues and sexes find one another, pleasure explodes and all goes wild. Confusion reigns supreme. A subversive, disturbing perfume. It’s love or hate at first sight. Sensuous jousting is rarely satisfied with half-measures…In between Don Juan and the Woman who offers herself, arms are laid down…who will be the first to surrender?

But they also have some other wonderful ideas of fragrance:
Virgin and the Torero and Like this Tilda Swinton (love that actress)
www.etatlibredorange.com
But if you feel the need to go directly to the source... try Vulva ! Yes it smells like it sounds.. and you can get a t-shirt for some odd reason.. Love the description
"Vulva is not a perfume... it's an intimate scent for your own smelling pleasure..." for guys to jack off too evidently..
Love the pictures.. really drive the point home so to speak
Vulva

Got to view the full moon for a bit between cloud cover last night at a roof top bar. I was excited to hear about the lunar eclipse until I realized that the moon will have already set before the eclipse would start on the East coast.
Maybe next one...
which will be in North America December 21st and it will be a total eclipse... pray for no cloud cover !
Here is the info from NASA in PDF.. translated for North America as starting just after midnight...
Total Eclipse December 21st 2010

'God Particle" as sound.... was very excited to go to the LCH website and hear what God may sound like... but though they can build the CERN's Large Hadron Collider, they can't seem to build a decent website to deal with the traffic to their site. Bad design too. They are claiming to be improving the site for better traffic.
Check out http://lhcsound.wordpress.com/ when it's up and running.
Meanwhile you can check out article 
'God particle' symphony: CERN scientists simulate sounds of Higgs boson - CSMonitor.com
What the hell is a Higgs Boson: confusing article at wikipedia may help.... 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
otherwise let's wait for the music... sometimes theoretical science is best experienced directly if possible for an artist than broken down to mathematical formulas. Our minds don't always work that way.
Meanwhile for those in deep need for both science and a supernatural religion you can check out Godparticle.net. 

Happy Summer Solstice... the longest day of the year (sort of) and the first day of summer. Also is celebrated as Midsummer's Eve usually with the lighting of a bonfire... here are some pictures I linked too from the web....there is something to a conflagration, even a small fire when I go camping feeds some primal aspect to my psyche. It bonds groups of people and amplifies yet focuses their mysticism and violent inner natures. So beautiful to see yet you can never really join with it without huge sacrifices.
It's a pity we can no longer have these huge fires as part of the rituals of modern life. But I think you need to be a culture that understands these traditions, like in Northern Europe or a small of enough community of people to empathize with one another so that the rituals evoked do not go overboard. In American large cities people light fires in riots or to celebrate a basketball victory (and turn over someone's car while their in it ). Unfortunately we have whole aspects to our cultural that are to immature to be playing with fire.

When I was at the orientation on Sunday at Platte Clove we took a hike down to the waterfall...We had a few people from the Catskill Center with us that day and one was a conservationist who knew a lot about the forest. I had assumed that the woods that were found around scenic waterfalls in the North East were usually left uncut as they were a source of revenue for the landowner who had visitors pay a toll to see the falls. And that the surrounding forest looked very untouched to my eyes. But this man said I was wrong, and that this was more likely a "mature" forest, getting closer to a "old growth" forest since it is hitting about 150 years since it was last clear cut. He said this land was probably cleared for pasture and for forested for hemlock, which was used in the tanning industry and grows in abundance in that area. He also could identify birds by their song, which he said is the easiest way to know which birds are in the area than trying to see them in dense upper story of the canopy. I looked up a  few websites with birdsongs and of course there are Apps now you can download to your Blackberry or Iphone. A bird singing nearby he identified as the Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Check out the song at Whatbird.com
Yellow-rumped Warbler - Whatbird.com

Just got back from my trip to the Catskills. I went camping with the Stogie and got to experience some severe weather on Saturday night. Of course my thoughts ran to 20 people who died when a flash flood sweep through their campground last week. Most of the them were sleeping in tents near the river when the water started rising very quickly. We had a lovely spot, but we were near a dried out river bed, and the stream was a bit further back, but you could see where in flood conditions the water would rise so high that the river would be right next to our tent. But it was a great trip and we got to spend some time up near Platte Clove which was very lovely since it was covered in fog.  On another note, evidently Jesus was struck by lightning in Ohio. It was a giant Jesus with hands outstretched to heaven, nick-named the Touch Down Jesus. Seems appropriate that Jesus would be killed by nature in Ohio.

Well, my first solo show of Bodies of Trees is up at Artspace in New Haven CT. Got done installing this last sunday and the official opening is Thursday June 10th at 6pm... I will try like hell to be there.
Here are some pixs  of the images. There are 9 pairs of images total. Each image is on 20x24 inch MDF and then the image is covered in shellac. Some images have inclusions such as hair or rust imbedded into the surface. There is an old saying... "Nature abhors a straight line"  For some reason when it comes to my work, I never want to see it perfect... slightly flawed. Here is a link to the website http://artspacenh.org/galleries/longwall/

A very sad day.. probably not going to be noticed as much as the death of washed up child tv star, but significant non-the less. Louise Bourgeoise died at 98. I guess to have lived most of your life doing exactly what you were meant to be, up until the very end is not such a sad thing after all. Here is a link to NY Times article:
Louise Bourgeois

SOLO SHOW OF BODIES OF TREES
I have final confirmation on my solo show this June. It will be at Artspace in New Haven CT. It will be of my series Bodies of Trees and will show 12 pairs of that photographic series. I am working on mounting and display right now. So far the dates are June 8th through July 17th. Here is a link to the ArtSpace website.

Did you know that beavers are the only other animal on earth that can so extensively alter it's environment to suit it's needs?  The other of course is humans. Recently they have discovered the world's largest beaver damn, which can be seen from space... take that Great Wall of China.

OTTAWA (AFP) – A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world's largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space.

Researcher Jean Thie said Wednesday he used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 850 metres (2,800 feet) long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park.

Average beaver dams in Canada are 10 to 100 metres long, and only rarely do they reach 500 metres.

First discovered in October 2007, the gigantic dam is located in a virtually inaccessible part of the park south of Lac Claire, about 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Fort McMurray.

Construction of the dam likely started in the mid-1970s, said Thie, who made his discovery quite by accident while tracking melting permafrost in Canada's far north.

"Several generations of beavers worked on it and it's still growing," he told AFP in Ottawa.

Mike Keizer, spokesman for the park, said rangers flew over the heavily forested marshlands last year to try to "have a look." They found significant vegetation growing on the dam itself, suggesting it's very old, he said.

"A new dam would have a lot of fresh sticks," Keizer explained. "This one has grasses growing on it and it's very green."

Part of the dam may have been created by naturally felled trees, and the beavers "opportunistically filled in the gaps."

Thie said he recently identified two smaller dams sprouting at either side of the main dam. In 10 years, all three structures could merge into a mega-dam measuring just short of a kilometer in length, he said.

The region is flat, so the beavers would have had to build a massive structure to stem wetland water flows, Thie said, noting that the dam was visible in NASA satellite imagery from the 1990s.

"It's a unique phenomenon," he said. "Beaver dams are among the few animal-made structures visible from space."

North American beavers build dams to create deep, still pools of water to protect against predators, and to float food and building materials.

A 652-meter structure in Three Forks in the US state of Montana previously held the record for world's largest beaver dam.

Thie said he also found evidence that beavers were repopulating old habitats after being hunted extensively for pelts in past centuries.

"They're invading their old territories in a remarkable way in Canada," he said. "I found huge dams throughout Canada, and beaver colonies with up to 100 of them in a square kilometer."

"They're re-engineering the landscape," he said.

It's the 40th Anniversery of the Kent State shootings. It was always a popular subject in my house growing up. First because my family was quite liberal, two because it was in Ohio where I am from, not far from Cleveland, and three, because my mother was pregnant with me at the time. She always said it was the first time she felt me kick was when she heard the news.

Here is a link to a wikipedia news article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho | Local News | Idaho Statesman

I have often wondered if this might have been a valid life choice. It's like a fantasy you keep in your back pocket, a little to cowardly to

take the risk. I have always had great reverence for the loner, hermit, and eccentric... trying to be hermit in Brooklyn is possible but probably not as

rewarding. You still have to pay rent. Look at this layout, all for free !

Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho | Local News | Idaho Statesman

After having done my taxes I made virtually no money from the making of art last year. But probably spent  well over $3000 on making it. I did have to buy a new mac when my old one had a complete melt down.
I also still owe 10,000 or more to my old alma mater SAIC. I have come to the conclusion that there is something screwed up in my own perspective on making money (somehow not yet worthy) or that the system for treating art to be far beneath the value of infomericals, bad made-for-tv movies and shitty bubblegum pop albums is horribly screwed also. Then I saw this article in NY Times where a lawsuit is being brought from a collector who feels he is blacklisted for not being able to sell art as a commodity. I am so far from worry about such issues, but it does help to remind me that art is really a rich persons game. And I think to myself "why are these "collectors" so concerned about buying only a hand full of big name artists instead of helping to invest in future talent and keeping the art market open to many more?" I guess because we are American greedy bastards after all. I also love this picture. Of course this bastard only buys giant sculptures of really ugly shoes....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/arts/design/17blacklisting.html

Lawsuit Describes Art ‘Blacklist’ to Keep Some Collectors Away

By RANDY KENNEDY

Published: April 17, 2010

A federal suit filed in Manhattan describes a rarefied contemporary art market in which artists refuse to sell work to collectors they fear will profiteer. click on link above to read rest of article.

Woke up to more Feb. weather... my favorite... 37 degrees and driving rain. Perfect hypothermia weather.
But none the less... found a quote from Thoreau while going through my papers.
Hoping for spring to run through the swamp.

When I would re-create myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most
 interminable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp.  I enter as a sacred place, 
a Sanctum sanctorum.
  There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature.
-   Henry David Thoreau, Walking, 1851

And I wonder why I am so miserable. It must be Cleveland. I just  found an article online from Forbes.com that my hometown of Cleveland ranks as the most miserable US city. I haven't lived there for years, but it is interesting to note that I also lived in Chicago and now NYC. All on that miserable list. What does that say I wonder.

Cleveland leads a slew of Midwestern towns on our annual list, but thanks to high taxes New York and Chicago make it too.

The city of Cleveland has had a colorful history. The Cuyahoga River, which runs through the city, famously caught fire in 1969 thanks to rampant pollution, and it wasn't the first time. In 1978 it became the first U.S. city to default on its debts since the Great Depression. Cleveland sports fans have had to endure more anguish than those in any other city. The city has been dubbed with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake by the Lake.

In Pictures: America’s 20 Most Miserable Cities

This year Cleveland takes the top spot in our third annual ranking of America's Most Miserable Cities. Cleveland secured the position thanks to its high unemployment, high taxes, lousy weather, corruption by public officials and crummy sports teams (Cavaliers of the NBA excepted).

Misery was on the rise around the country last year. Sure the stock market was up big, but so were unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcy filings. Meanwhile housing prices, the U.S. dollar and approval ratings for Congress continued their downward spiral.

The widely tracked Misery Index initiated by economist Arthur Okun, which combines unemployment and inflation rates started 2009 at 7.3 and rose to 12.7 by the end of the year thanks to soaring joblessness. That is the highest level since 1983.

Our Misery Measure takes into account unemployment, as well as eight other issues that cause people anguish. The metrics include taxes (both sales and income), commute times, violent crime and how its pro sports teams have fared over the past two years. We also factored in two indexes put together by Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling that gauge weather and Superfund pollution sites. Lastly we considered corruption based on convictions of public officials in each area as tracked by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

We expanded the list of cities under consideration this year to include the 200 largest metropolitan statistical areas (in years past we've examined 150), which led to a shuffling in the ranks. Any area with a population of more than 245,000 was eligible.

Cleveland nabbed the top spot as a result of poor ratings across the board. It was the only city that fell in the bottom half of the rankings in all nine categories. Many residents are heading for greener pastures. There has been a net migration out of the Cleveland metro area of 71,000 people over the past five years. Population for the city itself has been on a steady decline and is now less than half of it what it was 50 years ago.

Cleveland ranked near the bottom when looking at corruption. Northern Ohio has seen 309 public officials convicted of crimes over the past 10 years according to the Justice Department. A current FBI investigation of public officials in Cuyahoga County (where Cleveland is located) has ensnared more than two dozen government employees and businessmen on charges including bribery, fraud and tax evasion.

On the housing front Cleveland is dealing with thousands of abandoned homes. The city contributed to its foreclosure problem by providing down payments to many people that could not afford homes through the federally funded Afford-A-Home program. Cleveland led by Mayor Frank Jackson sued 21 large investment banks in 2008 who he felt were complicit in the subprime and foreclosure crisis that hit Cleveland hard. A federal judge dismissed the suit last year, but the city is appealing the ruling.

A 19% decline in foreclosures last year is possibly a glimmer of hope that the housing situation is starting to improve, although Cleveland still ranks in the top third of all metros for foreclosure rates according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed property. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County were awarded $41 million last month from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This money will go towards demolition of homes, foreclosure prevention and the rehabilitation of homes.

There are certainly bright spots in Cleveland. Downtown has experienced a revival over the past 15 years helped in part by the construction of three new sports venues for the city's NFL, NBA and baseball teams. The Cleveland Clinic is one of the top medical centers in the U.S. and the largest employer in northeast Ohio.

Mayor Jackson's chief of staff Ken Silliman calls 2010 a very exciting year for Cleveland. He points to three projects in development for the city. The first is the Cleveland Medical Mart which is a convention center that targets the medical and health care industries. Next is a casino plan. In November Ohio voters approved casinos in four cities, and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is leading a group that hopes to have a Cleveland casino up and running in three years. Lastly is the Flats East Bank project, which ran into funding issues during the financial crisis. The waterfront development will include an office tower, hotel and space for retail and dining.

"Clevelanders over the years have developed a tenacity to deal with these kinds of situations, and we are very aggressive in attempting to solve our problems rather than awaiting someone else's solutions," says Silliman.

Other cities on the list include Memphis, which came in third thanks to the second-worst rate of violent crime in the U.S. and an alarming rate of convicted public officials. Detroit, ravaged by the ailing auto industry was forth. Flint, Mich., was fifth. Also on the list?Chicago (No. 10) and New York City (No. 16). Torturous commute times and nosebleed-inducing taxes are the high prices locals pay for the cultural opportunities and corporate headquarters located there.

Our most miserable city last year, Stockton, Calif., nabbed the second spot on this year's list. Unemployment and crime continue to be major issues. Stockton ranked seventh worst in both of these areas. Stockton residents have average commutes that are among the highest in the country and, like all Californians, they suffer from onerous sales and income taxes.

Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston says the city is working to fix its problems. It has seen a reduction in crime in recent months as it targets troubled areas with an increased police presence. On the economic front, the city recently expanded the Port of Stockton, which it hopes will attract new companies. Stockton is an agricultural community, but the Mayor says the city is working to diversify its economic base and echoes Silliman's comments about Cleveland. "We're an All-American city," says Mayor Johnston. "And it's not because we sit on our hands and do nothing. It's because we recognize our problems and work to solve them."

Ahhh, it's Valentine's Day. Not exactly my favorite holiday. But I thought I would post about a show I sorely missed back in Nov. at the Italian Cultural Institute called Feminine Futures. The show was about women in the Futurist Movement in Italy especially Valentine de Saint-Point.  I never really looked into her work, but while reading up on this show I stumbled upon her "Manifesto of Lust". Amazing that this was written in 1913. I can't agree with everything stated in the Manifesto, but it is a powerful document that suggests that all of us are crippled by sentimentality and novel romantic ideas. Much like ideas of moral religious laws are used to oppress women, instead acknowledging true lust is a revolutionary and empowering creative act for both sexes. Here is the text from Valentine De Saint-Point's "Manifesto of Lust"

A reply to those dishonest journalists who twist phrases to make the Idea seem ridiculous; to those women who only think what I have dared to say; to those for whom Lust is still nothing but a sin; to all those who in Lust can only see Vice, just as in Pride they see only vanity.

Lust, when viewed without moral preconceptions and as an essential part of life's dynamism, is a force.

Lust is not, any more than pride, a mortal sin for the race that is strong. Lust, like pride, is a virtue that urges one on, a powerful source of energy.

Lust is the expression of a being projected beyond itself. It is the painful joy of wounded flesh, the joyous pain of a flowering. And whatever secrets unite these beings, it is a union of flesh. It is the sensory and sensual synthesis that leads to the greatest liberation of spirit. It is the communion of a particle of humanity with all the sensuality of the earth.

Lust is the quest of the flesh for the unknown, just as Celebration is the spirit's quest for the unknown. Lust is the act of creating, it is Creation.

Flesh creates in the way that the spirit creates. In the eyes of the Universe their creation is equal. One is not superior to the other and creation of the spirit depends on that of the flesh.

We possess body and spirit. To curb one and develop the other shows weakness and is wrong. A strong man must realize his full carnal and spiritual potentiality. The satisfaction of their lust is the conquerors' due. After a battle in which men have died, it is normal for the victors, proven in war, to turn to rape in the conquered land, so that life may be re-created.

When they have fought their battles, soldiers seek sensual pleasures, in which their constantly battling energies can be unwound and renewed. The modern hero, the hero in any field, experiences the same desire and the same pleasure. The artist, that great universal medium, has the same need. And the exaltation of the initiates of those religions still sufficiently new to contain a tempting element of the unknown, is no more than sensuality diverted spiritually towards a sacred female image.

Art and war are the great manifestations of sensuality; lust is their flower. A people exclusively spiritual or a people exclusively carnal would be condemned to the same decadence—sterility.

Lust excites energy and releases strength. Pitilessly it drove primitive man to victory, for the pride of bearing back a woman the spoils of the defeated. Today it drives the great men of business who run the banks, the press and international trade to increase their wealth by creating centres, harnessing energies and exalting the crowds, to worship and glorify with it the object of their lust. These men, tired but strong, find time for lust, the principal motive force of their action and of the reactions caused by their actions affecting multitudes and worlds. Even among the new peoples where sensuality has not yet been released or acknowledged, and who are neither primitive brutes nor the sophisticated representatives of the old civilizations, woman is equally the great galvanizing principle to which all is offered. The secret cult that man has for her is only the unconscious drive of a lust as yet barely woken. Amongst these peoples as amongst the peoples of the north, but for different reasons, lust is almost exclusively concerned with procreation. But lust, under whatever aspects it shows itself, whether they are considered normal or abnormal, is always the supreme spur.

The animal life, the life of energy, the life of the spirit, sometimes demand a respite. And effort for effort's sake calls inevitably for effort for pleasure's sake. These efforts are not mutually harmful but complementary, and realize fully the total being.

For heroes, for those who create with the spirit, for dominators of all fields, lust is the magnificent exaltation of their strength. For every being it is a motive to surpass oneself with the simple aim of self-selection, of being noticed, chosen, picked out.

Christian morality alone, following on from pagan morality, was fatally drawn to consider lust as a weakness. Out of the healthy joy which is the flowering of the flesh in all its power it has made something shameful and to be hidden, a vice to be denied. It has covered it with hypocrisy, and this has made a sin of it.

We must stop despising Desire, this attraction at once delicate and brutal between two bodies, of whatever sex, two bodies that want each other, striving for unity. We must stop despising Desire, disguising it in the pitiful clothes of old and sterile sentimentality.

It is not lust that disunites, dissolves and annihilates. It is rather the mesmerizing complications of sentimentality, artificial jealousies, words that inebriate and deceive, the rhetoric of parting and eternal fidelities, literary nostalgia—all the histrionics of love.

We must get rid of all the ill-omened debris of romanticism, counting daisy petals, moonlight duets, heavy endearments, false hypocritical modesty. When beings are drawn together by a physical attraction, let them—instead of talking only of the fragility of their hearts—dare to express their desires, the inclinations of their bodies, and to anticipate the possibilities of joy and disappointment in their future carnal union.

Physical modesty, which varies according to time and place, has only the ephemeral value of a social virtue.

We must face up to lust in full conciousness. We must make of it what a sophisticated and intelligent being makes of himself and of his life; we must make lust into a work of art. To allege unwariness or bewilderment in order to explain an act of love is hypocrisy, weakness and stupidity.

We should desire a body consciously, like any other thing.

Love at first sight, passion or failure to think, must not prompt us to be constantly giving ourselves, nor to take beings, as we are usually inclined to do so due to our inability to see into the future. We must choose intelligently. Directed by our intuition and will, we should compare the feelings and desires of the two partners and avoid uniting and satisfying any that are unable to complement and exalt each other.

Equally conciously and with the same guiding will, the joys of this coupling should lead to the climax, should develop its full potential, and should permit to flower all the seeds sown by the merging of two bodies. Lust should be made into a work of art, formed like every work of art, both instinctively and consciously.

We must strip lust of all the sentimental veils that disfigure it. These veils were thrown over it out of mere cowardice, because smug sentimentality is so satisfying. Sentimentality is comfortable and therefore demeaning.

In one who is young and healthy, when lust clashes with sentimentality, lust is victorious. Sentiment is a creature of fashion, lust is eternal. Lust triumphs, because it is the joyous exaltation that drives one beyond oneself, the delight in posession and domination, the perpetual victory from which the perpetual battle is born anew, the headiest and surest intoxication of conquest. And as this certain conquest is temporary, it must be constantly won anew.

Lust is a force, in that it refines the spirit by bringing to white heat the excitement of the flesh. The spirit burns bright and clear from a healthy, strong flesh, purified in the embrace. Only the weak and sick sink into the mire and are diminished. And lust is a force in that it kills the weak and exalts the strong, aiding natural selection.

Lust is a force, finally, in that it never leads to the insipidity of the definite and the secure, doled out by soothing sentimentality. Lust is the eternal battle, never finally won. After the fleeting triumph, even during the ephemeral triumph itself, reawakening dissatisfaction spurs a human being, driven by an orgiastic will, to expand and surpass himself.

Lust is for the body what an ideal is for the spirit—the magnificent Chimaera, that one ever clutches at but never captures, and which the young and the avid, intoxicated with the vision, pursue without rest.

Lust is a force.

Lumen show is now up and had a really nice opening.  The show can be seen at Middlesex County College in the Studio Theater Gallery. 20600 Woodbridge Ave. Edison NJ. The show is open 11 am - 5 pm Mon-Friday Jan 21st thru Feb. 11.
Here are some pictures of my piece "Contained Garden" before I set it up at the show. Now it looks like an overgrown empty lot in the desert. But this gives you an idea of the piece. There should be some pictures from the exhibit up on Asha, the curators website site soon.

We can love trees...

This was a really sad story I saw earlier in the week. Taken from Associated Press

A 240-year-old American elm tree that has graced Yarmouth, Maine, since before the American Revolution will be cut down on Jan. 18, ending  one man's half-century effort to stave off the ravages of Dutch elm disease.

CAPTION

By Steven Senne, AP

The tree, known as "Herbie" would have succumbed in the 1950s if not for the care of Frank Knight, now 101, who calls the 110-foot tall tree "old friend."

  See video above or clickhere.

Over the years, Knight, a former town warden, has nursed Herbie with insecticides and fungicide injections to battle the dreaded disease,  writes David Sharp, of the Associated Press.

But the battle is now lost and the tree will be cut down in two weeks.

"His time has come," Knight tells the AP. "And mine is about due, too."

Just added a new web gallery to my site... for Bodies of Dirt. Though this is an unfinished project in my mind, but  I think there are enough images to warrant a new section.

I also added the images from Platte Clove.

2010... A new year and hopefully a better one.
I finally got some organization into my life and am going to be working on my Contained Garden installation today. Usually I go out foraging for plants in empty lots and roadsides for installations, but since it is Jan 1st...and there has been lots of snow on the ground, I will try to sow some seeds I collected and have gone to Home Depot for plants. I have always been fascinated by the defense mechanisms of plants.  When you have to be rooted to one place, you tend to come up with some violent and imaginative ways to defend yourself (rather than running away) Cacti and succulents are some of the more interesting ones. Their spine configurations resemble something prehistoric and otherworldy.  I will incorporate some of them into my work, and they are a good plant for my cats, since they love to eat any plants I bring home.