Artforum Talkback, 2002

Re: "Expressionism" still a valuable concept?

by welchsonnyo, 08.31.02 01:13 am

You know you are getting there Max in the self promo thing, have you studied
Ali?
Confidence is 60% of the battle.


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Hey all, I've been wanting to post about Bill Moyers for a peck o' spells,
his new show NOW was about the Summit in Johannesburg. One thing kept off
the table was "the consuming habits of the North" i.e. richer developed
nations. Off the table, right.

A good show however, one may see the future shadow of G2K in it; Nadine
Gordimer was the big art-person there (no priests I don't think). A man
from the American Enterprise Institute, one from the big drug companies, a
Chinese official for these matters, a green activist from India, a rep from
Oxfam. They talked about how very little water there is going to be in
2025, desertification, governance, the role of markets, the role of the
state. Also this Danish kid, in sneakers, talking about some goof theory
he's got. Also a scientist, (Richard Watson?) that Bush kicked off a large
science organization, who said "it's going to very hot in here quite soon."

Naomi Klein was there, saying we North have to "lead our leaders," which is
exactly not what you do in wartime I don't think. The Green activist from
India called the flush toilet "a mindless technology" which was pretty nice
to hear.

However Empire says that the only way to control people is to take away all
their power; let's not forget that Empire means Fascism, the very
definition–the fasces, the bundle of sticks being stronger than a single
stick. So you can say "we're in Empire" or "we're fascist" and it maketh no
difference.

The willowy, spectacular co-host ended the show asking this group of Summit
attendees "if you had one wish, what would it be?" I found it very G2K
though Buddha knows you can't discuss G2K around business leaders or on TV.
Go figga!

So it's back to square zero, which I also wanted to mention is the logo of
the new PC I'm using, a big red null which signifies "Freedom." So the
computer goes like "Opening Freedom" and shows a zero (white on red
background actual).

Note to August Highland, the intense study of peptides is what put me thru
college thank Buddha. Also my Dad's discovery of the juvenile hormone in
Monarch butterflies and how it regulates mating and migration. You didn't
go to SU didja? There was a performance/digital art student named August
there when I was, ran around naked with a coaxial cable coming out of his
anus for final project I think. You him?

I was thinking about whether Nintendo could sue Sean Combs for using the
name "P. Diddy" which uses "Diddy," also the name of a Nintendo game "Diddy
Kong Racing." I do not approve of the general practice of Nintendo in its
current form but I play James Bond with my friend who has a broken ankle.
In the Complex you have to shoot your grenade launcher down what I call "the
laundry chute" to give your opponent what I call "a very warm climate" or
"extremely hot temperatures."

We were also noticing how the phrase "a second, larger explosion" has
entered the idiom. We debated the impact of 9/11 and how it may have
differed if you were there; I was speculating that the billions who saw the
jumpers on CNN are the larger aggregate of experience than those who saw the
jumpers from the highway. This was not a totally sound argument I decided.

I hear an echo of Zandinsky (my new FRIENDLY nickname for d42 karei until
further notice) in August's "cellular awareness" discussion of the peptidal
in text. Is this a literalist contravenison of virtuality, or, what I'd
call (undisparagingly) a "weak allegorical force"? Either way.

I'd not say I can feel with my individual cells, even though my second
favorite show is the Juiceman commercial. I can however feel the vitamins
(somatically via taste/smell/bowels) in the organic lettuce and tomatoes
I've been eating recently.

I also realized why I suspect Judson: it's because I think he's Judd
Nelson, who I did actually see on a Boston subway in the fall of '89. He
had scruffish beard and glasses on, but he looked right at me (him on train,
me on platform) and I just grinned real big and nodded at him a bunch. I
was reading Pound at the time. This reminds me of what Ezra Pound said
about "gathering out of the fine air" as opposed to going to war to save "a
civilization gone in the teeth….a few dozen broken statues."

Oh yes, the Danish fellow on NOW was very young, like a surferboy, first
name Bjorn, wrote a book called "The Environmental Skeptic" so maybe he's
one of the new Danish right intellectuals.

You read "The Infant Prodigy" by Mann yet Natalie? My libary card is tres
chaud and no coin for "The Glass Bead Game."

Another general question to all is, is the US conquest of Iraq a fait
accompli? Shields and the other guy on Lehrer Newshour said yes, unless
there is a dramatic change in US public opinion.


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