“Between 1884 and 1900 the European powers added one hundred and fifty million subjects and ten million square miles to their empires. By 1900 they had reached the stage where, for the first time, there was nothing left to claim—except by claiming from one another.”
16 years. A mere sixteen years that are more or less responsible for all the wars and struggles, independence movements, genocides, and border conflicts that have taken place around the world since, including within Europe itself. From John Berger's THE SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PICASSO, which as the passage suggests touches upon much more than just Picasso. No one exists in a vaccum.
#reads
“Last year, British architect Peter Cook, who is involved in the project, called the city an 'amazing absurdity'”, commenting on NEOM's The Line, the overtly ambitious real estate development hawked by Saudi Arabia in recent years, a notion that has been obvious to literally everyone from day one. No amount of glossy propaganda can possibly make it not look like a dumb idea.
Not to mention “the Saudi government has said more than 6,000 people have been moved to facilitate its Neom project, but some human rights groups estimate the figure is higher.”
Displacing a native population (violently, I might add) to make way for a global elite of the uber wealthy? Sounds to me like colonial practices by way of capitalist strategies. Which would be bad enough for a sound real estate development, let alone a terribly dumb one destined for failure.
#news
Whenever I see this kind of headline pop up, I always imagine how the US might react if China were conducting military drills with, say, Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico.
Couldn't get to sleep before 3am last night and was wide awake by 6:30am for no reason other than hatred from the gods of slumber or some shit.
I have a deep disdain for police procedurals, they all strike me as nothing more than blatant cop propaganda. But, for reasons entirely inexplicable, an idea for a procedural graphic novella set in the world of THE SOLAR GRID came to me in my hours of insomnia. Attractive to me only because it would be something that flipped the genre on its head and was instead about many other sociopolitical stuff, all while dismantling the notion of policing altogether. Policing as we know it anyway.
Gotta remember to jot notes down later.
More Mythomatic orders to fulfill today. There's been a clear uptick in international orders. In particular from the UK, France, and Mexico.
Have done fuck all for next newsletter. Was hoping to get some of that in today, but am too much of a zombie to muster any straight thoughts. Will have to get to it tomorrow, cutting it extra close.
#journal
Bulk of the day went into admin stuff, and it's already 4:30pm with absolutely no creative tasks tackled at my presumably creative job. Only reason I have some hope for developments in A.I. is that I'm really hoping for day when a bunch of invisible robots will do all the many things that get between me and writing/drawing/painting.
But as far as I can tell, it seems to be going in the other direction: helping admin people have things written/drawn/designed for them.
#journal
Compounded fatigue and frustration beginning to creep in.
#journal #work
It may have been a mistake to work for 10 hours straight today, spine not quite working.
But at least I got 14 pages of PROJECT OLDBOOK done. Will be satisfied if I can push it to 20/day. Not today or this weekend though, I'm on daddy duty.
#journal
As if Israel/Palestine stuff wasn't enough, today's headlines:
On a somewhat lighter note: Entertainment made by North Korea | Five-hour (!) youtube video that is incredibly informative and at times hilarious even.
#journal #news #research
7:40 am, another dark stormy morning. Jumping right back into PROJECT OLDBOOK first thing. About 90 pages to go, need to work round the clock if I want to be done with it in the next few days.
Won't be able to slide back into TSG until this is out of the way.
#journal
Dark morning, hard rain. Occasional flash of lightning followed by a loud roar from atmospheric belly. Doesn't look like this storm will let up for the next four days, at least not much.
A wrench in my rhythm when I can hardly tell night from day.
#journal