Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: berlin, breaching the vortex, columbia, cortex, dead time, dispatchwork, dubai, eminent domain, flipper, gentrification, ghost of petrodollar bubble past, hardcore, jan vormann, occupation, open the gate, punk, the future
The picture above is from the Berlin that I won’t be revisiting in June – I think it’s from the alleyway/courtyard leading to Central Kino? Couldn’t agree/hope for more perhaps – capitalism is pretty much ‘civilised cannibalism’ anyways. Ditto with ecocide – I have issues with the “Earth-my-mother” vibe – but it seems that hyperconsumption and death-by fossil fuels looks a bit cannibalistic? And sorcery – I don’t remember where from but Paul Bohannon has opined that “men attain power by consuming the substance of others”. (For a desktop sticky note tells me so – I sense my life would implode slightly if the program ever crumbles). I’ve been thinking a lot about magic/sorcery and links to power and art lately following a recent final (and via Zerzan’s ‘Case Against Art’ – hopefully not the beginning of an awkward green-team foray) – more on this later perhaps. Also from Berlin though, this time to patch up the gaps of the past (not that the vortex hasn’t been breached already) is this lego brick project I’m really digging:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: berlin, berlin wall, east side gallery, gentrification, germany, graffiti, kreuzberg, music, prenzlauer berg, street art
Ahh! Berlin is like a morsecode of mental checkmarks so far, staccatoing really satisfactorially (as opposed to satisfiyingly maybe? more heavyset perhaps) like the bmm tsh music that seems especially popular. I’ve only ever been into ambienty idm and breaky glitchy digital hc type electronics before, so it’s been a nice introduction to more technosided and dancey stuff. My friend arrived and has been searching for the alternafilm strains; perhaps I should quest for the subaltern? 
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: anarchism, ☭☭☭, collective amnesia, doris salcedo, el otro lado, eyal weizman, gentrification, green scare, istanbul biennial, postco, postracial scars, property not people, racism, RAF, rupture reveals structure, sds, seattle, shibboleth, violence, weather underground, western freedoms
A lot of things can happen between the gaps, and down little alleyways and other narrow spaces between one building and the next. Like this installation by Doris Salcedo at the 2003 Istanbul Biennial, which fills a gap between buildings by lowering in 1600 chairs. Or this ridiculous house in Seattle, found by Kyle Gabouer. He says that it was owned and inhabited by an elderly woman, who “was so insistent on living her last days in the home that no matter the price, she refused to sell it in order to make way for construction. The contractors decided they’d build around her. I heard that she recently passed, and the building isn’t even finished yet…” Something to think about with “Manhttanville”, perhaps?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: art, gaia, gentrification, nyc, pigs, street art
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Again with the pigs huh. I don’t know what it is – maybe the years of living in a Muslim country where pork is considered to be haram, and thus relegated to a sad section of the Spinneys/ supermarket of choice? I remember being little and getting a video of Babe the movie nearly confiscated at Dubai Airport Customs once. Not that I even eat meat at all. What I do know is that this print from street artist (and as it transpires, bang-up painter and photographer too) Gaia is kind of amazing.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: coney island, gentrification, mermaid parade, rezoning, savitri d
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[photos by Kurt Dietrich]
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many pasties in my life. This was the first time I’d been -and with Coney Island continually being reslated for redevelopment, I’m glad I made it this year. Soon, there’ll probably be glitzy hotels, condos and malls in its place. The Mermaid Parade itself is an annual affair, flooding the place with mad kinds of mermaids, sea creatures and amusement park iconery every summer. Started in 1983, it’s apparently the largest art parade in the US. Free, faboulous, and above all, super-fun.
We got there towards the end of the parade, and spent some time wandering around the boardwalk before heading to the beach. The water – I think the Atlantic Ocean – was a little irresistable, despite being murky and probably near-miasmic with toxic sewage. It did make for an uncomfortable subway ride home. The paraders themselves were wickedly creative, the dancers wonderful and mostly ultraglam (we didn’t stay for the burlesque show afterwards). (Hopefully I can get to my own photos soon). Despite the deceptively- ripoff food and drink prices and the somewhat questionable ’shoot the freak’ attraction, this was probably among the best days of this summer. Everything that New York was and/or should be? (if only in your head).
