Caterina.net

I discovered that there was a Tim Hawkinson exhibit at the Whitney by looking at Carolina's What's In Your Bag submission. If you haven't heard of the guy, he is a sculptor who makes enormous instruments like the Uberorgan, a stadium-sized organ made out of several miles of inflatable plastic sheeting, as well as curious ways of depicting his own body (including sculpting a tiny bird out of his own fingernail clippings, very Tom Friedman-y). Here's some information from the Whitney site, and another from Art 21 on PBS.

If you scream "censorship" in a crowded blogosphere, a thousand blogs will cry out, instantly condemning whomsoever has been called a censor.

Another surefire attention-grabber is "fired for blogging".

Once, when I was down by Fisherman's Wharf, a man asked me for a quarter, and so I gave him one. Then I went and bought a sandwich, and sat down and started eating it. The man came back, and said, "Give me your sandwich". I said no. So he turned around and started screaming "Racist!! Racist!!" and pointing at me. A dense crowd turned and looked at me. I got up and started walking away, and he followed me, screaming "RACIST! RACIST!". "Get away from me!" I said. I was walking faster and faster. No one was looking at him, they were looking at me. Suddenly I was scared. There would be no help. I started running. He ran after me, screaming "RACIST! RACIST!". He ran after me for ten blocks.

Marge and Jim, waiting in line for some lemonade, watched the woman run over the hill, the man chasing her. "Racism is a terrible thing!" Marge exclaimed. "Indeed," said Jim, and nodded sagely.

For the most part, I have stood alone in a crowd of snobs thinking that Prince is a great artist. I've tried to explain what to me is an obvious fact to many people many times, to small avail. Look, it's hard to hear an argument when you are ROTFL. Seriously folks! You have to learn to look past the jerry curls -- and the pencil thin moustache, Louis XIV cuffs and purple sequins. He's like Sylvester Stallone: in spite of looking ridiculous while doing it, he writes everything AND plays all the instruments.

So FINALLY someone who is neither wearing lingerie nor from Minneapolis (nor Anil Dash) steps up to the plate. Nico Muhly, to be precise, profiled in The New Yorker. Viz:

If it weren't so late, I would tell a Prince story. Oh it is hilarious!! But it is long, and the hour is late. And so, so long. I will laugh myself to sleep thinking about it.

(via 3 quarks daily)

Sometimes I want to read a poem, but I dont know what poem, and so I do a search with the first word I think of, and then the word "poem". Then I read the first poem I find. You can discover some really bad poetry that way.

I did that today, and the first word I thought of was "trouble", and this was the first search result on Google for trouble + poem".

There's a good Q and A on Ron Silliman's blog today that describes some of the background of Language Poetry, its cultural context and its various practioners. His blog is consistently one of the best blogs around. If you're at all interested in poetry you should make it part of your regular reading.

I forgot to say here that I'm at SXSW in Austin. I'll only be here until tomorrow afternoon (after my panel), then I'm off to San Diego for Emerging Tech. You can follow along with the photos in my sidebar.

This is a photo of Horton Plaza in San Diego, a shopping mall built by Jon Jerde. I've never been to a Jerde mall before, though I'd read about him and had greatly anticipated doing so. It did not disappoint. It really is the consummate American architecture: colorful and caloric -- but ultimately unnutritious and ungratifying -- commercial junkspace. Here's the food court and the main promenade.

I was talking to Matt Jones and trying to recall that nice quote by Saarinen's dad in which he says, "Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context—a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan...." Matt observed that what Jerde had done was inverted that idea. He put a whole city into its next smaller context: a city inside a building.

His site, where you can read about his philosophy. Frank Gehry used to work with Jerde, I believe, and when you think about it, it's obvious: Gehry builds high concept art malls.

Just arrived tonight in Scottsdale for PC Forum. The air smells beautiful around here -- sage? -- and there is a fantastic waterfall in the middle of the hotel, modelled after Aztec pyramids.

Forgot my bathing suit -- again!!

Also forgot to bring the book I was reading at home, Women's Writing in Contemporary France. And had nothing to read on the plane! Unthinkable. So I bought The Master by Colm Toibin at the airport bookstore. It's a fictionalization of Henry James's latter years, and so far it is beautiful and sad.

• Been busy. One of my favorite blog posts ever, too.
• When Jerry and Esther made the announcement somebody let out this really loud gasp, then there was some whooping, a holler from Marc Canter, and much applause. Esther took a picture of Jerry right as he was announcing it. Marc Canter was described in the Tagging forum -- after all audience members were encouraged to take the mike to ask their questions -- as "the man who needs no microphone". That was a fruitful breakout session, all audience participation. Tagging is still being invented, so it was the perfect format.
• Mitchell Baker, Chief Lizard Wrangler at Mozilla, is cool.
• If you're ever in Scottsdale, you should go to Cowboy Ciao in the old downtown, and you should order the Stetson Chopped Salad and the Exotic Mushroom Pan Fry. They've got an amazing wine list too.
• I showed Melody the lining of my leather jacket and she told me a Zen saying: The dharma is found under the chins of dragons and in the linings of coats. Lovely, no?
• I am loving The Master. It's as good as the blurbs say it is.

Thank you Estee!