G A N Z E E R . T O D A Y

Sounds like Netanyahu is genuinely worried about the prospect of an ICC arrest warrant issued against him. The problem with such a prospect however is that it would make the US complicit given America's unwavering support and backing of Israel. And the problem with that is the American Service-Members' Protection Act passed in 2002 which defends US officials and military personnel from possible detention or prosecution by the ICC. Informally known as “the Hague Invasion Act”, the law also authorizes the president to use “all means necessary”, including an invasion of The Netherlands where the ICC is located, according to Democracy Now.

#journal #politics

There's a side character in SNOWPIERCER, the movie, who is an artist. Living in the tail-end car, he does depictions of his fellow tailenders and what they go through. I couldn't help but picture a scenario where that same character's art was instead wholly different. Either:

a) Completely abstract line-work, things first-class passengers could precure and display in their car without it looking the slightest bit out of place.

b) Escapist stuff; him and his comrades rescued by mythical space heroes, or perhaps a family of tailenders fighting off all the other tailenders in the car who had for some reason been turned to zombies.

If we, as an audience, were to see that that's the kind of art this character was making, we would most certainly scream: What the fuck are you doing, man?

And that tells you everything you need to know about the state of [most] art today.

#journal #film #art

“When I taught creative writing, I would have my students do an exercise where they had to pick one of their close friends and write about the first time they met them. What were the writer’s first impressions of the friend? What was their initial dynamic with the friend? Then I would have them write a couple of scenes set in subsequent years showing how their impressions changed as they got to know the person better. Were their initial impressions correct? What did they learn that deepened their understanding of their friend? Showing that kind of evolution in perception and in the dynamic between two people is one of my favorite things about characterization.”

That's Sarah Stewart Taylor on Crimereads where she and several other writers weigh in on “the writing life”.

#writing #research

Having failed to meal-prep last night (passed out, thank you very much, spreadsheets), cooking Egyptian moussaka right now, which is pretty identical to Greek moussaka except you do without the bechamel. Somewhat time-consuming, and you want to avoid having to prep time-consuming meals midweek, but I've been craving eggplant and don't know what else to do with it other than baba-ghanoug, but that's a dip and I still have plenty of hummus in the fridge from the weekend bash.

Got a full hour exercise in after not for a whole week, and working my way through PROJECT OLDBOOK which I'm enjoying getting lost in, but I'd also really like to finish by the end of the week if I can, a tall order.

#journal

Nearing 5:00pm, famished, but my day is far from over. Will have to pop something quick and unhealthy out of the freezer and carry on with Accounting, as I'd really like to have the first quarter of 2024 all wrapped up and accounted for.

Will likely be braindead by nightfall but may just reward myself with ice cream. Perhaps some late-night meal prep, a delightful libation, and soft music is also in order. Would like nothing in the way of creative work for the remainder of the week.

Inbox = 1, RSS = 7.

#journal

Finally got around to throwing my first bash at the new place, a rejuvenating experience after not really doing that sort of thing for over a decade now. Towards the end of the evening, it was suggested by some to make it a regular occurrence, perhaps on a monthly cycle. Something along such lines was certainly in the back of my mind when setting the place up, establishing sort of what the kids call a “third place” these days.

A few lifetimes ago, I used to share an apartment with two other artists halfway across the world. Aside from it being where we lived and worked, one of the extra rooms (it was a rather large apartment) was turned into a makeshift art gallery where group exhibitions were held every two months, mostly showcasing the work of other artists around the city. With each exhibition “opening”, a party would naturally ensue, and it generally became one of the defacto artist hangouts in town. Before long, the apartment across from us became the office of a small but feisty indy journalism outfit that grew exceedingly prominent, and the neighbors downstairs had these open-invite weekly brunch gatherings. Pretty soon, another apartment in the building became a multi-artist studio setup, but dare I say it all started with my flat-mates and I moving in.

Utilizing one's residence for happenings that aren't entirely private, “events” that border on the public-facing, don't really happen in America (at least not anymore, it was different back in the 60's-70's, at least as much as I can gather from my readings), but I would argue that it's an integral part of the engine of cultural ontogenesis.

I understand the fear of losing one's solitude, but I think such fears are quite unfounded. The residence never becomes fully public-facing, it becomes something else, something multifaceted and malleable. A place that can be what you want it to be whenever you want.

And that's sort of what's becoming of my new digs; The hermitage, the sanctuary, the art studio, gym, fulfillment center, indy “cinema”, intimate library, writer's study, cafe, eatery, spa, and third place. Hard to fathom given the space's extreme smallness, but it is somehow working and with that a return to myself after almost a decade of largely antithetical existence is also taking place.

#journal

Harry Harrison (via Warren Ellis' Orbital Operations):

“Joan's mother, a paragon of virtues in all other ways, does not realize the basic needs of a writer or she would not have opened the door when I was writing, as she did once years ago when we were staying in her home, and say, 'Harry, since you aren't doing anything, would you go to the store for me.' A writer's family understands; my daughter knows when I have that glassy look in the eye and am staring into space that I am not to be disturbed because I am 'working'.”

Sums up why I will never cohabitate again, because truth be told a writer's family doesn't always understand. If ever circumstances were to once again necessitate the unfortunates of cohabitation, then this is the only way I might deem it workable:

The studio homes of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, separate structures connected by bridge. Masterfully designed by Juan O'Gorman, photos will never do the place justice. It's a very spacial experience, as spaces ought to be. It was something of an eureka moment for me when I first paid it a visit in Mexico City a couple years ago. For both Rivera and Kahlo, the majority of their home(s) was designated studio space, because a true artist's art practice is in fact their life. None of this “work/life balance” nonsense, that shit's for office jobbers.

Edit: That Harry Harrison bit is apparently from the book HELL'S CARTOGRAPHERS, a short article from which lives on Michael Owen Carrol's website.

#journal

Newsletter drafted and scheduled for tomorrow but my week—despite it being a Friday evening already—is still not over. Much email to catch up on and my RSS reader is at 36. Would like to bring it all down to zero before night's end. If I can.

#journal

“Caribbean sugar plantations constituted the first truly modernized societies in the world where people, mobilized through violence and oppression, were thrust into remarkably industrial settings for their time. The sugar industry also created the economic basis for the European merchant and commercial classes to challenge, gradually, the monolith of the feudal aristocratic order.”

From Dominic Boyer's NO MORE FOSSILS. Here's another bit:

“The automobile has a surprisingly deep and complicated history, one that intertwined with the locomotive for many decades. A rail-less automotive machine was a serious aspiration of inventors no later than the end of the eighteenth century. The locomotive won out for both engineering and infrastructural reasons and was safeguarded by inconvenient legal measures like the British Locomotive Act of 1865 that required non-rail automobiles travel at a maximum speed of four mph and be preceded by a man waving a red flag.”

Personally, I'd love to see a return of the above legislation, but I know I'm in the extreme minority here. Another bit:

“The philosopher Andre Gorz argued back in the 1970s that the class structure of capitalist society was sustained by a phenomenon he termed the 'poverty of affluence.' What he means is that capitalism utilizes scarcity as a means for reproducing social inequality and preserving class heirarchy. New technological achievements and luxuries are enjoyed first only by the elite, which displays them as status symbols to attract the desires of the masses toward them. As the masses gain access to old luxuries, new unattainable luxuries develop to replace them. This treadmill of luxury means that no universal “good life” will ever be enjoyed in a capitalist society.”

One more:

“Green capitalism as a whole is paradoxical. It will never be satisfied by sustainability. What we call capitalism is a metastasizing arrangement of production, trade, rent-seeking, and consumption that constantly fights for more resource usage and technological development. Its hunger is sucropolitical, it thirsts after the sweet taste for more. Its bones and sinews, especially in the rapidly industrializing world, are still surprisingly carbopolitical, driven by machines and coal toward relentless production of more things. Its epidermis is petropolitical, mobile, plastic, ever reshaping itself in response to technology, desire, and fashion.”

NO MORE FOSSILS by Dominic Boyer

#reads

Insomnia kicked in the other night, and I found myself beaming RIPLEY. Beautifully shot series! Entirely black and white with some of the most unusual angles I've seen on screen. In this iteration, Mr. Ripley is actually not all that talented, and in fact kind of a fuckup.

It's all played far more believably than the Matt Damon portrayal. Though, it's been a very long time since I looked at that one.

#journal #watches