News worthy
This is far more interesting than celebrity gossip, partisan politics, or most of what is considered news.
Telekinesis: better than television?
I’m back in Dallas for almost two weeks, until I can move into my new apartment. Until then, I’ve found myself entertaining questions like “can I vaccum the carpet with my mind” and “does a triangular tree have a square root?” The depth of these questions, and the dearth of interesting events in Dallas, causes me to drink coffee in the hopes of coaxing my molecules into some form of astral projection.
As for physical traces of my current productivity, I have re-organized some of the elements on the “video” and “performance” pages of my website. My thought was that Fischerhosen 1 is really more of a performance for the camera than an actual video piece. I still have more footage from that project and hope to create the resulting video piece when I am back in Boulder. Also, I have given headings to the videos, so that they have a bit more context.
Beyond these thoughts, I must thank Chris Lavery for introducing me to the concept of Resistentialism. As a child, I frequently anthropomorphized the world around me. Luckily, I wasn’t aware of any intentional hostilities or resentments. However, this may have been a simple case of naiveté on my part.
Imágenes de México
I’ve finally edited the flickr images from my México trip. There are plenty more to work with, but the remaining images will probably be worked into upcoming projects.
Photos and fatigue
I’m back in the States and am somehow avoiding rest. Since getting back Monday evening, I’ve already started apartment hunting, dealing with financial aid, making phone calls, and editing photos. The first set of images from México are up on flickr. I have more to upload and others that will probably become some kind of series. Until I get around to those other groups, there is at least something new to look at.
28 days in Mexico
I`ve enjoyed my last day in Mexico today without any scheduled events, apart from our final, group dinner. Tomorrow morning we leave for the Guadalajara airport at 5:30 am.
Within 28 days, we have covered quite a bit of ground, starting in Cancun and ending in Guadalajara. Along the way, we visited Merida, Campeche, Palenque, San Cristobol de las Casas, Oaxaca, Cuernevaca, and Mexico City. During this time, along with another student or two, I have climbed almost every ancient temple and structure we visited. With all the traveling, I`m happy to have had some excercise and to be able to counter the effects of my French tan (i.e. no tan) from this Spring in Brittany.
I`ve photographed around 9 gigabytes of jpegs this past month, as well as recorded a bit over an hour of video footage. While I may have some new visuals to work with, the most beneficial part of this trip has been the gathering of information relating to myth and religion. During this time I`ve taken notes and recorded ideas as much as I´ve been photographed. When I return to the States, I will have quite a bit of information to sift through to prepare for upcoming photo, video, and audio pieces for this fall.
Just as I didn`t really start to miss France until I was well into my trip in Mexico, I think that all of this past month will start to make more sense once I`m back in Colorado. This past 6 months has been incredibly interesting and inspiring.
Tassely Yak
Last night another grad student and I went to see a Lucha Libre match. It was as ridiculous and entertaining as I had hoped. The crowds are probably the most entertaining, but there were many interesting elements of the show as well. There was a small section that acted as the ´band,´ but they sounded more like a muppet chorus of plastic bicycle horns. The costumes were as I expected with many variations on the masks. My favorite was the one that we renamed Tassely Yak (due to the fringe-like ankle garments and the horns. The evening was ended nicely with a cheap cab ride listening to ´Rock Me Amadeus.´
Almost Free
I´m in Mexico City at the moment and will be leaving for Guadalajara on Thursday. Since my last post, here are a few things I’ve kept myself occupied with: I´ve climbed the ruins at Xochicalco, climbed the mountain streets of Taxco to see the Jesus statue overlooking the city, climbed the ruins at Teotihuacan – where one of the vendors sang the song we heard the vendors of Chichen Itza: ‘Almost Free,’ visited the Diego Rivera house and the Friday Kahlo house, the Anthropology museum in México City, the Tamayo Contemporary museum, the Modern Art museum, attended a lecture about NAFTA and broke away from the group to do some gallery exploration. I´m a bit exhausted and have little to share beyond listing, but I imagine that I will be processing most of these experiences when I return to the states on the 7th. Also, I was just reminded by my roommate that we have agreed to find a Lucha Libre event before we leave for Gudalajara. That´s an experience I will look forward to.
Here are a couple of news stories relevant to things I´m currently seeing or thinking about:
