Smoke and Mirrors

-          Let’s do a C.T. scan

-          Ok.

-          All C.T.'s are scheduled for Wednesday

-          Ok.  How much do they cost?

-          840 dollars. Some insurance companies cover 100%, others 80%, and  others....

-          Ooooh, I knooow my insurance most definitely does not cover 100%.

-          We give you a 50% discount if you pay in full when you come in.

-          Oh that’s good, I’ll do that, is that after the insurance pays their  part?

-          No.

Riddle: how much does a C.T. scan really cost?

Business News

Facebook stock is up 40%.  Apparently the “biness” is growing; meaning there are more users.  It is also developing, or has developed, a mobile app; meaning more people are on it, in more places, at all times.  But it is revenue that makes stocks go up, not mere usage, and Facebook revenue seems to be up as well.  Good for Facebook and its stock owners.  A company that produces fuck-all and makes money selling advertising is doing better than the broader stock market with stocks of companies that actually produce tangible goods.  Granted Facebook “produces” a communication environment; and god knows, maybe those communicating on it actually exchange productive ideas... 

    

I’m nothing if not optimistic in my pessimism.

2nd quote for the day

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
Pablo Picasso

gimme a hammer

…I miss the days when I used to come to my blog freely and just write whatever came to mind.  These days I feel more self-conscious: paranoia assumes a viewer.  God knows why, for the chances of people actually reading what I write in this miasma of information that surrounds us is very low, random, and in the end, quite meaningless (though once upon a time, it actually got read with consequences)

Assuming a viewer can sometimes be a good thing. I do think it can help one grow as an artist; but it can also act as a barrier to work.  What’s all that bullshit (though not such bullshit) Lacan said about the toddler facing himself in the mirror and “realizing” that his ego is formed by “others” (or some such thing), leading to all kinds of neurosis?  In theory: part and parcel of growing up…old(er). 

Sometimes I get blocked in the studio for the same reason I stopped blogging as often as I used to. Time to bust up the mirror.  As that despicable man and sometimes great artist (Picasso) said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

Another good read...

...about our sad sad country:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/360429/shutdown-simulacrum-mark-steyn

Where did Syria go?

It was only last week that I was bent out of shape over that "Syria theng"; now the "theng" is all but gone.  No real mention of it on the main media.

Man, as an artist, I have, for years, been reading about how we live in the era of spectacle; but never has it been this apparent.  These are truly vertiginous times.

Do Over? Cold, or is it Hot War

Mark Tansey, White on White

Who'd'a'thunk it?  ...That we'd be revisiting a world viewed as a battleground between the USA and Russia.  Granted, it is looking a little bit weirder than last time, so to quote the father of communism himself, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce."  

I've always thought that farce had no teeth, but I am beginning to rethink that.  I'm not feeling too comfortable right now.  India has not weighed in yet, but the BRIC countries of Brazil and China are applauding Putin's words and actions and calling him a great leader. They seem to respect Vlad's strength and leadership and agree with his chastising of America.  And believe you me, as a Brazilian myself, I really really get the impulse; but I really really know a little better than to give in to the impulse and applaud Vladimir as an impartial level-headed democratic leader acting on the behalf of the good of the world at large.

I can only conclude that we, as a species, are afflicted with severe amnesia at this point in our technological development.  Putin, ex-KGB and dictator of Russia (regardless of what he tries to pass himself as), is anything but a freedom loving individual with any right to take up any high moral ground on any matter.  He has proven, again and again, that he will not hesitate to trample over anybody's rights and life if said individual (or group of individuals) gets in his way.  That he is successfully fashioning himself as holding the high moral ground in this "Syria theng" is pretty surreal and more than a little scary.

For a nice take on Vlad's editorial:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358480/american-ineffectualism-mark-steyn