Philosophical Investigator

Real world events.

2008-05-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

A recent paint tray.

Random rectangles

on rain-wet sidewalk.

Spring Snow

2008-04-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Not just a great novel my Mishima!

This spring has been bountious with snow

This half-eaten snow frosted doughnut
(of unknown material)
was outside of Bedrock the other afternoon.

"Photography is inherently fragmentary . . ." writes Robert Adams on the last page of a recent book.

At first I thought this was profound. Upon continued reflection it seems platitudinous.

Isn't all art inherently fragmentary? Consciousness is inherently fragmentary.

Baseball is inherently fragmentary. Pitch by pitch.

*

Photography is inherently unifying.

Yet another picture of my favorite two-headed eagle.

2008-04-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

With a triangle on its heads.

What does it mean?

Oh, and a recent tray.

Frozen chaos of the everyday.

Red Ink

2008-04-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Next I need a big bottle of black ink.

*

Claes Oldenburg?

2008-04-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

This looks like a gigantic sculpture to me.

Nancy Rumbel & Eric Tingstad

2008-03-31T17:42:00.000-07:00

Presented a Tilt-a-Whirl
performance at the Methodist Church
here in Helena
last Saturday night.

Beautiful sounds abounded
as the soothing tones
cut through the air like razor-sharp scythes.

They did a tasteful arrangement of
"What A Wonderful World."

I'm looking forward to comparing it to the cover
version forthcoming on the new Ministry album.

American monetary system

2008-03-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

Remember these machines?

There's still one at The Hub in the Helena Valley.

Much like the economy today

it's "broken."

Out of order.

Vote Obama.

Restore order.

Ultimately, it may mean

more pocket

"change"
for us all.

The Corner Bar?

2008-03-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

How long can it remain?

Paint tray shot in the afternoon light.

Late Dusk March 1st Light 2008

2008-03-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

On
the
walk
home
from Bedrock.

Annual Snow Carving Contest on Rodney Street

2008-02-17T22:44:00.000-08:00

New directions in random color splatter

2008-02-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Chain-lock lattice

2008-01-27T21:54:00.000-08:00

Stuff

2008-01-27T21:50:00.000-08:00

Check out this guy's art:

http://www.chrisjordan.com

Reading this book . . .

2008-01-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

is like receiving mild electrical stimuli

to the brain through the electrodes of prose.

Not harmful at all, trust me.

Rumor has it

2008-01-09T23:37:00.000-08:00

Charley B

will be Oprah's next selection

but

it might be just one of those

internet

dreams

No Country For Old Men: The Movie

2008-01-05T23:10:00.000-08:00

The C-Brothers have made a film that reminds us of the promise of cinema.

That is, it can be an art form like poetry or painting or prose.

The masterstroke is this: The complete absence of a soundtrack as such.

Yet, it is as much an aural experience as a visual or narrative one.

The sounds of the world are allowed to live on their own.

No folksy guitars to say, this is "the west." No ominous drones to indicate foreboding and menace.

Plenty of unease in the sound of footsteps in the hall, the scrape of coathangers in a cheap motel closet.

Not a single note of "music" in the entire film; yet, the most appropriate and artistic use of sound in cinema I've ever "seen."

New Year's Resolution.

2008-01-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

Blog more.

Blog worse.

*

Resist nothing.

Obey everything.

This I believe.

2007-12-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

I believe in the random line

accidental color

chance glimpses behind

veils of delusion

*

Perhaps Jimi Hendrix presaged

waterboarding when he wrote

"feel like I'm living at the bottom of the bay."

But also, to be forced to breath

air--isn't that a form of torture as well?

Call it . . . in-hell-ation.

Consciousness is given just enough oxygen to realize that it is doomed.

*

Still, as Cioran pointed out, each moment of this tedious hell is a sublime miracle.

The 3rd album by Tomahawk

2007-12-23T22:22:00.000-08:00

I picked up this cd in Missoula the other day.

It's pretty good stuff--but there are certain questions of appropriation.

"All tunes are original arrangements inspired by native american material from the late 19th century."

That's it for information on what the original sources are.

I would hesitate to play this music for the Indians I've worked with in my studio.

Ultimately, I think it could all be worked out. There just needs to be more specific reference to the original sources.

I've got some amazing stuff on vinyl of field recordings made in Montana in the 50's and 60's.

Apparently, this is stuff that is TRANSCRIBED by anthropologists or ethnomusicologists--there just isn't enough information in the packaging or at the Ipecac website.

Www.Ipecac.com

Actually, I really like the music, I'm just disappointed that there isn't more direct acknowledgement of where its coming from.

The "Anonymous" title also bothers me. Mike Patton has borrowed riffs from the Ramayana Monkey Chant for years. All music is derived from other sounds. Bartok doesn't specifically reference the folktunes he appropriates. Yet, in our time, we can now easily refer to our sources.

"Anonymous" seems pretty lazy. The borrowings on this album range, it would seem, from Hopi, to Crow, to Blackfeet, to . . . I don't know.

Time Machine

2007-12-12T17:30:00.000-08:00

Bought this device at a garage sale

a while back.

Happened to get it out the other day

wind it up and set it in motion.

*

Haven't seen it since.

On the stand-up philosophy of Cioran

2007-11-30T12:09:00.000-08:00

Erasmus had this to say:

"Nothing is more foolish than to talk of frivolous things seriously; but nothing is wittier than to make frivolities serve serious ends."

Back in Butte, again.

2007-11-25T22:43:00.000-08:00

I snapped these white walls in Butte 2 weeks ago.

Butte continues as a backlot of existence

& nothingness. Awaiting its' next visit from Wim Wenders

or David Lynch or Shaun Penn.

*

Movie Alert: INTO THE WILD.

*

"Wollt Ihr den totalen Krieg?"

2007-11-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

Ever since I read this quote ("Do you want total war?") somewhere, attributed to Hilter's propaganda adviser, Joseph Goebbels, I've been pondering this fine distinction between Total War and Absolute War.

Total War is essentially a war in which a state's political system, society and economy are mobilized to a massive degree for the continuation and expansion of the war effort.

Absolute War, would be a war that is free from the moderating effects imposed on it by politics and society.

Clausewitz, western philosophy's esteemed theorist of warfare, considered the concept an absurdity--since, a nation (a social and political economy) is required to underwrite a massive war machine.

However, Clausewitz was thinking about this 150 years before the birth of George Bush 2.0.

The Bush/Cheney regime would appear to be the first successful practioners of Absolute War in history. Their program is international in scope. Boundaries are less important than targets. Targets can be anyone and anything.

It is generally agreed that World Wars I & II were the first instances of Total War, incorporating civilians and the civilian infrastructure as part of the military's logistical support system.

Absolute War has taken this one step further. Now, civilians have been hired to do the actual killing. International law and the moderating influences of social custom? How quaint.

With Total War there was at least a sense of an Us versus a Them.

Absolute War is not so obvious and is most clearly embodied in the conduct of Herr Cheney: You may be his friend but that doesn't mean he won't shoot you in the face.

Our cat, Sid, on her way to giving me a high 5

2007-11-19T21:59:00.000-08:00

She's got to learn to keep those claws

retracted, though, during this maneuver.

The Music that Destroyed the World

2007-11-15T12:41:00.000-08:00