This is a man that i love.

A little clip of him and toward the end.

Kurt Vonnegutt passed away Wednesday. So it goes.

I’m dissappointed, but fortunatly he left enough books for me to have not read them all as of yet. I will certainly make a point of doing this though.

He will be remembered, and loved.

My introduction into this little sect of society begins with this. which is a recounting of a act of plagarism that demonstrates a blatant copying of one individual’s artistic work for use in a phyiscal painting and then the production of said painting. Two threads of thought are brought to my attention.

Thread One
With the spread of media, and access to informaiton so readily, wouldn’t it be nice to track plagarists and idea theft in the art world? Apparently there is a website devoted to it. Unforutnatly it is questionable whether or not all the items are items of legitimate legal plagarism, but then there are records of people winning court battles re: art theft.

all the same it is an interesting website

Thread Two
I’m all for unbridled creative expression. I’m a big fan of art giving all sides of a story and not just the “clean” “cultured” version. I’m also a huge fan of art being a of all class distinctions and open to all interpretations. There should be no boundries in terms of artistic expression. But what bothers me most about the above article i’ve linked to, is how serious this individual’s artistic indeavors have been taken.

Let me blunt, I don’t like art to slam me over the head with text. It gives me the feeling that the artist is lazy, the reader is lazy and somehow at the end of the day we are just saying statements and more importantly the statements are losing emotional content because they are becoming sterile. I like art that is subtle. I like political art. I like art that alludes to what they are saying directly, but doesn’t come out and dictate the meaning of the piece.

examples to illustrate my point:

1) Spain by dali.

2) Piss Christ (The point i like most about this is that it has multiple interpretations. Technical: piss christ is obviously a negative statement against christ. Aesthetic: the jar of urine and the crucifix have this very beautiful appearance. The artistic merit is born from this contradiction. I will also say that this was a moment when art wast straying to the “ease” of intepretation side of life. Suddenly we have a very easy method of evaluating the item, and the title dictates an interpretative stance. Suddenly the title is not just a part of the piece but becomes the interpretation of the piece itself.

I wish i could pull picasso paintings and cezanne paintings (of which i admire both artists) but i can’t because i’m not as well studied in it as i’d like. I’d end up giving off the cuff remarks regarding the entire section.

My main conlcusion is this, when art results in displaying words to convey their “interpretative statements” i stand back thinking we have reached a point of decadence. We abandon complex thought for byte size interpretations and suddenly the “shocking” become mundane.

I’m probably wrong, but hey i think i make sense right now.

This is going to be a very strange post.
1) The new NIN album has been played solo throughout my entire apartment/car for the weekend. Easter for me meant doing little dances to NIN new funky album. Thats right friends, his new album has a serious funk to it. I love it more then anything. “and the bass goes BOMB” may sound like a bad lyric, but coupled with the beat and the buildup and the presentation, you will be singing it a lot.

2) We went looking at wedding bands last friday. I’ve come to a realization, not all rings are created equal. There is this manufacturing style of ring that is cut in a “comfort” style that is far more comfortable then any ring I’ve ever wore. In fact, after wearing several comfort style rings, i’ve come to the conclusion that i’ll get no other ring. Mary is having difficulty getting a ring to work with her engagement ring. We should be on the precipice of purchase soon.

3) I visited with one of my friends saturday night, it was enjoyable. His children are growing up so big.

I think that is it. Talk to you all later… get the new NIN album, you will enjoy it.

Wedding Plans created (done)
“” “” dated (done) (May 1st)
Honeymoon Plans planned (done)
Vacation Time requested (done)
Tickets to Japan purchased (done)
Hotel Reservations (done)
Passport (processing)
Packing (pending)

So it is done, and needless to say i’m excited. Our itenerary is as follows:
May 1st
– 8:00 in the morning, or as early as we can wake and dress, we make our way to the courthouse to get married.
– 9:30-5:00 (depending on how long the above takes us) we wander around NYC to find something small to eat and pledge our love to each other etc.
– 5:00 on we will have a little reception for ourselves. spending all of our spending cash that we had saved for Japan.
May 2nd
– wake up exceptionally early to go to the airport and check in for our flight to japan.
– Begining of our Real Honeymoon in Japan.

—— Insert Japanese adventures here ——-
May 10th go back to work.

So as you can see we have everything planned. There is a lot of detail in the above iternary, and as always everything is subject to change.

Funny that is all we have planned. There are some vague possibilities in the future.

I could be layed off/fired this week.
I could be layed off/fired in the next coming weeks.
If i’m not fired, I will be resigning sometime this summer, more likely late summer then anything else at this moment.
I could possibly be going back to school to get my masters in History to allow me to change careers into the teaching profession. (really excited about this possibility.)
I could possibly be making best friends with corn stalks, as they might be more friendly/interesting then the native populace.
I could be living in a colder environment then i currently live by next winter.
I could additionally be working in a part time job next year.
I could be a father in three years.
I could be penniless, alone, and miserable in four years.
I could also be in Europe, lost and looking for a home in 10 years.
I could run a local bar in a small town in Jefferson Parish in 15 years.
I could sell the local bar to another locale in 40 years.
I could die in the ocean by drowning amongst the pollution and the algae in 58 years.

There are very few things that I know, and fewer of those ideas that I don’t doubt. It seems as I progress into maturity, I notice a need for stability. The following list is a list of items that I know,

It is a constant battle because the world is out to subdue us. Lets be honest. Our society is a society predicated on the notion that we want contentment and lack of conflict or societal friction.

This is one of the funniest skits i’ve seen in a long time.

awesome little skit.

I must admit that Trey tried to get me to watch Robot Chicken. Robot Chicken is the adult swim show that created this skit. I saw this skit ages ago, but it is only now that i put two and two together and realized this skit is a part of the Robot Chicken show.

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Libby begins to get measured. Yes, the jury is deliberating over Libby’s case.

Libby is charged with two counts of perjury, two counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines if found guilty.

I doubt he will get anything clost to the above quote.
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Several NIN fans out there may enjoy this. A new album is coming out and this website gives a lot of the background regarding the album. There are also some mp3 files that have been found in “various” bathrooms across Europe. Those files have been circulating for a bit. They are new songs from his album. – Trey is credited for giving me this information.

NIN is also releasing a new DVD. I’ve pre-ordered mine. It was a damn good concert, and i can’t wait till i get a copy of mine.
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US District Court of Appeals in Washington decided 2-1 that federal courts do not have the authority to hear cases from detainees held at the remote US Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba. “Federal courts have no jurisdiction in these cases,” the ruling said.

Well then that means those individuals don’t have access to our legal system and so they fall outside the bounds of having legal rights, at least according to our judicial system. This all stems from the Millitary Commissions act that was signed by Bush to “cut” a lot of a red tape and reinforce his beliefs that “enemy combatants” cannot have access to the rights we afford our citizens/illegal immigrants. This article gives a better explanation.

Patrick Stewart to voice Final Fantasy XII (the ad) !….!……!!!…..!!!!!!!!!

HaHA!

I’m not a big fan of his, but i do appretiate the gesture. Its a shame the ad will advertise in austrailia. I wish he would do the localization for the next Final Fantasy.

Kansas. You may remember a while back i posted something about the school board in kansas ruling against teaching darwin without a creationist alternate theory, well now apparently they ruled in the opposite direction.

Such is the progression of the democratic system. Ideas change by election cycles. Now darwin will be taught in school and Crationism Here is a summary quote from playfuls.com.

“The Board recommended the deletion of paragraphs that dealt with the evolution vs. creation problem, and allowed school manuals to include key-terms from evolution-theory that refer to the common origin of life on Earth and random mutations that lead to the appearance of new species. The new standards are said to reflect mainstream scientific views of evolution.

‘There seems to be a pattern,’ said board member Steve Abrams. ‘Anything that might question the veracity of evolution is deleted.'”

This is good news.