The Haphazard Blogging of K ...

I know this will seem weird ...

specialK — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:20:35 GMT

... but I now have a job. I just got hired on contract to Safeway as an analyst at their corporate headquarters in Pleasanton. Fuckin' yay. I start on Monday.

Ephemeral Art

specialK — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 00:55:46 GMT

I just read an article in National Geographic about artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude who do ephemeral art. I wrote them an email relating this story about my own philosophy regarding art and its inherent impermance. Caution: spelling is not art. ;) I rarely blog but I wanted to save this story for future edits. So read it or not! While at a weeklong art festival I was priveleged to partake in the building of a structure which was meant to have several stages of artistic and spiritual realization. The intricate design and erection of the structure was the first stage ... and it was magnificent; layers upon layers of wood cutouts arrayed to form a Temple. It was called the Temple of Tears and the interpretation of its purpose was left to the admirer and participant to some extent. The designer and builder was usually on hand and encouraged participants to add to the meaning of the piece by writing on it or inserting personal objects of significance ... for the Temple at the end of the festival would be burned. The Temple was built to be burned, designed to be burned, and the people who added things and thoughts knew they would go up in flames and smoke. All week people contributed to the Temple and added their own meaning and significance to an already beautiful work of engineering, sweat, and conception. And on the last day it burned. While watching this beatiful thing catch fire, the watchers and builders and contributers, I was moved by an appreciation for all the energy and determination and soul searching it took to bring it to this predetermined end. Yet, the appreciation I felt was emotionally superficial compared to my thoughts and emotions that coalesced nearly instantaneously when I was asked a simple question by a fellow watcher. "Why is burning it so important?" Thoughts swirled in my head and in some manner sorted themselves into a response, which is normally quite difficult for me on short notice. "Art is a person's or group's physical attempt at realizing an abstract ideal. The actual piece that is created cannot possibly fully or accurately meet the artists conception due to the constraints of material, time, or available funds. Burning the art, in my opinion, is the artists beautiful way of erasing his imperfect attempt and releasing the ideal back into the perfect form which is only and idea and can exist only in the mind." I am not normally particularly philosophically inclined so my response surprised me and I have thought a great deal about it since. No art is permenant or a perfect realization of the artists conception. Impermenance adds a time factor to the appreciation of art. After it is gone, the only way to appreciate it is through memory or by a specific interpretation through another medium like film. A great deal of art can be made from others ideas and the actual implementation of them (note the art made with photography on Flickr.com of the Gates) but it is an interpretation only. Art using nature and fabric, the way Christo and Jeanne-Claude do, is made even more fleeting by being different at every moment from every angle ... it can never really be experienced fully. One question (if you have read this far): Was the Gates project planned for the time of year when snow would be likely so that it had the potential to be seen within different natural settings?

it will pass

specialK — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 05:27:39 GMT

i had a very nice "a-ha" moment the other day while sitting outside my local coffeeshop, drinking my mocha, and smoking a clove. it was sunny for the moment. the first sun i had seen in days was being crowded by the next stormfront. more rain was on its way. i could see it approaching from san francisco and started to get frustrated. we have had so much rain and i was missing the sun before it was even gone. then i thought that this was something i couldn't change, shouldn't change, shouldn't even want to change. it would pass. when i saw the full reservoir on the way to camping at the beach this weekend, i remembered this moment at the coffeeshop and was glad i had considered the benefits of rain coming at a rate higher than average . it would pass. the mocha would soon be gone. the rain would come ... and then be gone. troubles i have had recently would also disappear with time. my leg will heal. i will get a real job again. i too will pass. i won't be here for all that long. families prosper and disappear. humanity. the earth. all are transient and ephemeral in the larger scope of things. it was interesting to put my own shit in perspective. and even more interesting was to not to hint, even to myself, that getting a job isn't important to me. it is. very important. i just enjoyed seeing my own struggles as a small part of the longer challenges that will shape the future.

Idealological diversity ... ?

specialK — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:01:25 GMT

ok, i was just catching up on my "classic" reading ... or call it what you will ... and was reading the introductory chapters of Deliverance. in it there is a contrast between the "survivalist" mentality and the "sliders" - those who do their best with the status quo. i thought about this for a while and reviewed in my mind all the different types of humans, the different ways they group themselves and build their skills and ideals. it is so varied as to be exhaustive and boring to review here, but settling back into what spurred the thought ... survivalists vs sliders ... i just wanted to mention the following: thank goodness. thank goodness for all those different groups who are ideologically diametrically opposed ... that the future will favor SOME of them. thank goodness that for any given circumstance, there is a group of people out there who "know" for their "truth" that it is going to happen. these will be the people who survive best, carrying forward the genes of the human race most suited to that circumstance. given the variability in the human race - both genetically and ideologically, we would be hard pressed (not that it couldn't happen) to imagine a circumstance where NONE of us would survive. bear with me here ... i too have my opinions of what is moral and what is ideal, but those are morals based on what i think the future will be ... or what i fear it to be. some of us will be right or some of our opinions will be right, whether those numbers are huge (status quo) or miniscule (in this example, survivalists). most of us, unless the future is predictable by pop culture (strike that - the pop culture group would still be disappointed that others disagreed, as would we all), would be disappointed in the resulting society. but most likely, society and the human race would go on, based in the genes and the culture and the skills held by those who turn out to be "right". of course the annoyance of having to deal with all these opposing views of the world never leaves our newspapers with lack of fodder for ridicule or praise, but, as a second point ... thank goodness we all exist with our differing ideals. we might need them someday ... and be adaptable in ourselves to either join the winning team(s) OR not be so smug as to ostricize those who admit they were "wrong" for the unbelieved in outcome. for it is all just probabilities for what our future holds and our learning and backgrounds only give us so much information to form our own opinions (and dare i say) idealologies.

Take 2

specialK — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 20:41:51 GMT

Great party Soliel!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much all of you. That was perfect. Even the rain added to the atmosphere. HunnyDu and Cliffhanger and Tony and Thea and Kurian and Ben and KC and Kevin and the other Kevin and Aaron and Robert and Beca and Cadillac and Snowflake ... et al ... and especially the lovely Sparkliel Soliel!!!! Thanks to Kaylin for mixing my nonalcoholic drinks! It was the last night of my self imposed two month sobriety. Lessons learned: fun will be had with substances or without! But I do like me my beer. Thanks to those who let me rub their heads and hands!

Silly Photoshoot Pics

specialK — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 12:30:03 GMT

Well, I downloaded a bunch of pics from Flint's camera today of a photoshoot at RW&B. He was taking shots of his crazy clothing on me for his portfolio. I hope I did them justice. I posted some to my gallery.

Fun weekend!

specialK — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 14:54:57 GMT

I got to go to SF on Saturday and visit my *other* friends ... the swing dancers who welcomed me to this fair place 5 years ago. We are still friends even tho none of us dances as much as we used to. We all BBQed before the North Beach Music Fest. I bought a kick ass set of masks. We danced. We got drunk. Ya'know ... the usual. I come home from this to find that Flint has completely renovated the closet. Maybe we WILL be able to fit three people's stuff in there now. I was blown away! Sunday brought yummy Thai breakfast with Heather, David, and my loves! We had to say goodbye to Ember because she is headed down for a weeklong solar education workshop. Flint bought a used/stolen(?) bike at the flea market and we rode around the lake poking our noses into trails and tunnels and stuff. Wheee!

My 1st Blog - I have been assimilated!

specialK — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 03:40:48 GMT

So I got the new tribe profile thingie today and this new blog function seems like it might be useful ... somehow. So I am trying it. My new tribe url is people.tribe.net/specialk. I am sure you would never have guessed that. News: Ember moved in. We are taking care of Morley's cat, Spatula, for a year. Flint moves in Aug 1st. The massage business is going well. I am happy. Ok. Done for now.