Ok Oh

2012-01-29T21:06:00.001-05:00

Back in the saddle.

2012-01-24T18:29:00.002-05:00

Red Robinson passed on Sunday evening, surrounded by family and friends at his home in Carlsbad, California on the eve of his and Grannie's 70th wedding anniversary. Papa generated more than a few namesakes, my son among them. The "Red Dog" helped incorporate Carlsbad in the 1950s, planning and building out much of the town's infrastructure. His strength of character, intelligence and generosity marked all the best things that North County has to offer. A pillar on the beach, Papa's enthusiasm for volleyball led to the creation of the Ocean Street Volleyball Association and countless games played just for the fun of it. Papa was a man of a thousand stories, each more enthralling than the next. From his daredevil flights transporting plumbing supplies to the inlands; from his time on the gridiron pairing in the backfield with Jackie Robinson; from his association with the most interesting time in California politics; Papa's most telling stories remain the ones he's left behind: his children, his grand children and his great grand children. A party is set for Saturday afternoon in his name. And a paddle-out to spread the ashes in memory of his birthday is set for July.

2012-01-21T12:35:00.001-05:00

Life is a box of chocolates.

2012-01-20T11:29:00.001-05:00

Taking flight is always a fearsome proposition.

2012-01-19T09:51:00.003-05:00

The Big Interview

"What do you make of President Obama?"

"Obama is a good guy and his slant is decent."

2012-01-16T14:18:00.001-05:00

Tall Poppy Syndrome

2012-01-16T13:15:00.001-05:00

There is a new Swedish coffee shop near my office. They do something called a "Swedish Roast."

Yesterday my son and I stopped by the music shop and tried to decide whether he'd start on the keys or the drums. He said he preferred drums.

Yellow Fever.

2012-01-15T17:42:00.001-05:00

Recent Movie: The Guard with Brendan Gleeson & Don Cheedle (2011). The first half we laughed every third line. The second half just made us oddly happy.

Recent Book: Morbo by Phil Ball. A lovely and introductorially concise paean to Spanish football.

Recent Music: Ever listen to Paraguyan harp music? Wonderful and relaxing.

2012-01-15T17:37:00.002-05:00

Once we were.

2012-01-14T18:41:00.001-05:00

When it happens one thinks, "there surely could not be anything worse than having an open bottle of red wine sitting in front of one without being able to drink a drop."

2012-01-14T16:14:00.002-05:00

The wind howls. We find warmth.

2012-01-13T10:00:00.004-05:00

A funny thing happened yesterday. I just wrote that. In seriousness. Actually, I wrote "yesterday a funny thing happened" first, then changed it to sound better to my ear. And of course it did. I've heard that line a thousand times in my life. The sort of standard intro line to many anecdotes. It sounds right. But really, yesterday a funny thing did happen. In the morning I received an email from one of those businussy social-networking sites called "Linked-In" asking me, for the umpteenth time, whether I'd accept a linking-in request from some person I know. This site apparently operates like Facebook, but has adopted the quasi-novel veneer of Facebook-for-professionals. It's the resume-Facebook where you have a sphere of online "professional friends" who allow other professional friends to see if there are any more distant professional friends who might fit the bill, do the trick, get the job done. I joined a long time ago for no other reason than someone invited me and frankly, it's difficult not to jump at the chance to talk about myself in a whole new digital venue. I've not really thought about it since, usually clicking "accept" whenever those email queries come through the in box. "Want to be connected with Bill Bromphy?" I worked with Bill on that Wheaties campaign. He was the squirmy one, if I remember.
Click.
Accept.
Except.
Yesterday the Linked-In email transported me to a magical place with a whole list of people whom I know, vaguely know, and maybe don't know so well. It presents me with the opportunity to link in with ALL these people at once. I peruse the list carefully. Well, as carefully as I can, looking at a list like that. After removing some definitely-don't-knows, I think "sure, why not?"
Click.
Invite.
And here is where the funny thing happens. Linked-In apparently goes through all the emails in my email in-box. It reads, apparently, every email I ever sent to or received from anyone and sends them an invite to link in. With me.
That older Japanese physicist guy I met at the New Year's Eve party a couple years ago? Invited.
The guy I went to college with who was friends with some of my friends but not with me who lives on the other side of the country and is a high school teacher and who happened to to be in a mass email chain someone included me in few years ago? Invited.
My father? Invited.
I was, well, am, shocked. But there is the funny little niggly bit. I am forced to contemplate the repercussions of the situation. The invites were gone. Out there. Sent. I can't recall them. In fact, yesterday a steady stream of jolly acceptances flowed through my in box, filling the thing to the brim.
"Find out about your new connection Stan Fuselage!"
The faux conundrum presents itself: do I risk losing all these hard won new connections, this brand new outlet for professional representation in the ever-expanding and necessary social media world? I do have a business to run, a product to sell. Should I throw all this free advertising away? Or: do I get angry at the intrusiveness? Do I cave to the embarrassment of having put myself out there, dangling myself on the limb painted in bright, pleading colors? There is a sort of weird ethical line crossed, a boundary that I think, whether I unintentionally allowed it or not, Linked-In has subverted.
In the end, the answer presents itself as it always does. And comes, as often as it always has through the voice of my father. In an email to my brothers and I, my father can hardly hold back his excitement for the new relational possibilities provided by this somewhat mysterious and magical site I've invited him to:

"It looks like Todd has a new way for us to stay in touch, pass pictures, etc. I signed up this AM. If and when you do let me know and I'll put you on my list.Todd, could you fill us in on what LinkedIn can do for us?
Talk to ya.
Dad"

Needless to say, I deleted my Linked-In account.

2012-01-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

That old adage, always be prepared, can lead to a lot of ill-fitting clothes.

2012-01-11T08:51:00.001-05:00

It hurts me to hear, to see you got no faith in yourself.
It bothers me now to watch you, you got no faith in your own self.
You listen more to your friends than to your own heart inside.
Well, you listen to them, oh but you hide.
You don't got nothin' to be afraid of.
You're not as bad as you think.
And you're always puttin' yourself down,
But I'm just gonna tell you that I like you.
Darling, you always put yourself down, but I like you.
That's all I came to say.
Then there's no need to think that other people can do things better than you can do 'em
'cause you got the same power in you.
I got faith in you. sometimes you don't have it in yourself,
But I got faith in you.
And our time is right now, now we can do anything we really want to.
Our time is now, here in the morning of our lives.
And it ain't just me who thinks so, dear, I asked my friends.
Now, Leroy and Asa and D. Sharpe,
Tell her not to be afraid.
Tell her it's okay.
Tell her it's all right.
And our time is now, we can do anything we really believe in.
Our time is now, here in the morning of our lives.
Dear, I asked Leroy and Asa and D. Sharpe, and they said,
Don't you love her too?
Then tell her she's okay.
Tell her she's all right.
You're okay, dear. there's nothing to feel inferior about. you can do it.
And our time is now, we can do anything you really believe in.
I know it.
Our time is now, here in the morning of our lives.
Our time is right now, you can do anything you set your heart on.
Our time is now, here in the morning of our lives.
We're young now. right now's when we can enjoy it.
Now's the time for us to have faith in what we can do.
No need to fear, cause now's the time to have faith in what we can do.

Jonathan Richman "The Morning of Our Lives"

2012-01-10T12:50:00.002-05:00

Now that everything is so easy, what should we do with the wok?

2012-01-09T23:05:00.003-05:00

And were I a poet, a piano player or a painter

Would I long for the bright screen of late night

Would I yearn for the freedom of someone else's deadline?

2012-01-09T09:46:00.001-05:00

I need to fix that old typewriter.

2012-01-09T09:39:00.001-05:00

Your fashionable alternative for the next Women's Auxiliary Congress of the Supreme Soviet.

2012-01-08T11:39:00.004-05:00

In the early morning rush for a productive day, I am slowed by the sheer pace of it all.

2012-01-06T08:44:00.000-05:00

The Art of the Surgically Vague

2012-01-05T09:12:00.003-05:00

Possibly right is always preferable to surely right.

2012-01-03T17:37:00.003-05:00

"The gentleman is survived by a wife and two children and by a really, really exceptional blog
full of snappy and stylish images he craftily found while browsing the internet."

2011-12-31T21:30:00.001-05:00

You exist.

2011-12-20T08:38:00.004-05:00

There is a whole world out there that assumes we don't exist.

2011-12-19T10:41:00.003-05:00

Winter Holiday Broadway Style

2011-12-19T08:51:00.001-05:00

Hot, cold, yes, no.

2011-12-18T15:02:00.001-05:00

If you've been lucky enough to have the thought injected into your skull at the right age, and you've found yourself somehow not living for the commute but rather feel as if you are in a flow of things seemingly rather grander of portent, just remember: everyone's life is lived small; all shits and sniffles and mood swings; the diarrhea of daily existence. And besides, no one was ever an acclaimed artist whose art didn't fetch a pretty penny.

2011-12-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

Here's to the radicalized homeostasis of Christopher Hitchens.

2011-12-15T13:36:00.002-05:00

Burn and bother, canker sore of love.

2011-12-15T09:50:00.003-05:00

Sometimes when I talk I sound like an asshole.

2011-12-14T15:11:00.003-05:00

Grant & Mark

2011-12-14T10:33:00.002-05:00

I always knew what I'd tell you, if I had the chance.

2011-12-13T13:03:00.003-05:00

Lately we've been on a Woody Allen kick.

2011-12-09T16:39:00.001-05:00

It's always a good idea to walk away.

2011-12-08T11:00:00.001-05:00

Say What Again or The Quiet Life of the Retired Colic

2011-12-05T18:15:00.001-05:00

There will always be more. There will always be other.

2011-12-02T17:37:00.001-05:00

In through the nose out through the mouth

Feel the toes

Way down south

2011-12-02T08:52:00.001-05:00

I didn't get this far being a layabout by being a layabout.

2011-11-29T17:31:00.001-05:00

The light shines out your forehead.

2011-11-28T21:54:00.001-05:00

There are a number of things one might list as having learned recently should one try hard enough. One could, with some mental argle bargle, peruse the backlog of uncollated nearby memories to parse some novel declaration of personal pedagogy. And I've endeavored to do just this. Just now.
1. For absolute safety, keep the bicycle in the highest gear possible, no matter how silly it makes you feel.
2. Three turnips, six carrots, one medium sized red potato, three rutabagas, five parsnips, some other weird orange colored root, two white-ish onions, two of those really sweet littler onions I forget the name of (oh yeah, shallots, and make sure they are extra large), a handful of peeled cloves of garlic, a bunch of water, some salt and a whole chicken. And some Italian parsley. and a couple celery sticks. And some rosemary. Boil and/or simmer for an hour and or three. At some point remove half the veggies and blend. Remove and un-bone and de-skin the bird. Repot all ingredients.
3. Those pot cookies will just get in the way if you really want to have a good time.
4. If you get the chance, and you will, and you are all alone, and you will be, and they ask you if you'd like to spend one hundred or two hundred dollars on an upgrade to a better seat or First Class, do it. Do it.
5. Leave your pimples alone.

2011-11-28T21:50:00.001-05:00

Offenbach. Miika Nousiainen. Fried Chicken. Iron Horse.

2011-11-28T21:46:00.001-05:00

My son.

I love you.

2011-11-28T21:41:00.001-05:00

Today on a lark I had the coffee lady grind my coffee beans at setting #3 instead of #4. It worked just as well.

2011-11-28T21:23:00.001-05:00

Our Lady of All Sorrows Fulfilling

2011-11-21T22:23:00.001-05:00

Nothing tells me a little bit about everything.

2011-11-20T23:03:00.001-05:00

"Walter Matthau big, not Karl Malden big."

&
"Steve Jobs was a douchebag"

2011-11-18T22:14:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I look at photos, by photographers, online and in magazines, and I think "jesus fucking christ I mean come on, you just walked by that and took the photo of a fucking thing, I mean fuck off." And other times I look at photos by photographers, online or in magazines, and think something else.

2011-11-18T08:50:00.001-05:00

Ah! sweet thing,

Like that wondrous legend

Of Hottentots past,

Your prociphilic tendencies

Go not unremarked

2011-11-16T11:06:00.001-05:00

Success is written in the sounds.

2011-11-15T13:37:00.001-05:00

I buy, in the least possible conspiratorial way that I can muster, the idea that the Republicans simply aren't trying that hard to actually win the White House next election; that the Republican powers-that-be will only try to disrupt the foundation of the Democratic party to paint centrism as far left liberalism. Why would they need to oust Obama when he is doing essentially the same things they'd do were they in power? Look at the hilarious morons they are putting out there as candidates. Canon fodder meant to make right wing religious fascism seem mainstream. All the while the current administration is so far in the pocket of the interests of the wealthy, no one needs to see them go anywhere. At least not until the table is set.

2011-11-07T22:21:00.001-05:00

Face it. Everything from here on out is just going to be stupid.

2011-11-04T11:18:00.003-04:00

Why are homeless men so often so handsome?

2011-11-04T09:12:00.001-04:00

This morning, at the new local foreign gourmet confectionery sandwich coffee shop, I was cut in line by two latethirtiesearlyfourtisomething yoga moms talking about how Great Danes are wonderful with children. When it was time for them to order, or perhaps after one had ordered and the other had not yet, the lady behind the counter confusing which, the two of them looked at me and my imposed patient smirk with doeish eyes, the brights of my smug disdain stopping them in their chattering tracks. With that look of special questioning that feigned ignorance, or truly believing it, flashing across their wide-sets, they pleaded for a proper tip of the hat. I gave none, instead fixing my own upon the shop girl, screwed them up cross-wise so she could let out a giggle.

2011-11-03T09:48:00.001-04:00

Maura has a head cold.

2011-11-02T13:34:00.001-04:00

They stare at me

I know they do

2011-11-01T14:55:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, after passing by a particular looking man, walking with his tourist's backpack just

so, shuffling with his companion, amiably enough, down the street with heads turned in a

uniquely decidedly unawed way, I have that distinct impression that I just passed a

Southeastern European movie star on holiday.

2011-10-31T15:32:00.002-04:00

Often, when one is trying to create beautiful stuff, one would rather not be confronted by the beautiful stuff other people are already creating.

2011-10-30T11:06:00.002-04:00

"Pit bulls are the sweetest, nicest dogs. And really great with children."

"Prince is such a genius musician. A lot of people don't know that."

"New Jersey is actually such a beautiful state."

"Sharks rarely eat people!"

2011-10-30T10:56:00.002-04:00

Safe Bet

2011-10-29T13:10:00.000-04:00

Upon the precipice of leeway, the narrow margin of emotional error.

2011-10-27T09:10:00.001-04:00

The seemingly bi-monthly paroxysm of self loathing.

2011-10-25T13:37:00.002-04:00

Neil

2011-10-24T07:26:00.004-04:00

Evan

2011-10-23T18:25:00.002-04:00

Beautiful Dreamers

2011-10-23T00:33:00.002-04:00

Tonight? Tonight I saw Jonathan Richman again. People shushed us.

2011-10-22T12:22:00.001-04:00

Just like the old days.

2011-10-20T15:54:00.001-04:00

"Oh" she said, casually with a knowing twinkle, "he does it the same way I do: the down on the cheek with a light behind."

2011-10-18T14:32:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you figure you'll go one way, then someone is there! Then you think ok to yourself and go a different way, and someone is there too! All of a sudden! And then you finally look up and there is this third way you can go, suddenly! And you go that way!

2011-10-17T09:35:00.001-04:00

     My Own Private Nemesi:

     The Bike Lock
     The Clothes Hangers
     The Shower Head
     The Shower Curtain
     The Headlights
     My Breath
     My Skin
     Sleep

2011-10-17T08:05:00.002-04:00

Know who you are! (Or find out.)

2011-10-15T19:14:00.000-04:00

Making movies with Marilyn.

Lately I've had the chance to work with Marilyn Minter, making art films for the Whitney, Nowness, Art Basel and her upcoming solo show which will feature the work projected 24 hours a day outside the New Museum. She is one brassy, classy dame.

2011-10-14T10:48:00.001-04:00

Eggs Benedict

2011-10-13T22:36:00.003-04:00

Sometimes one cannot quite remember beauty.

2011-10-13T10:05:00.002-04:00

Let me be the first to congratulate you.

2011-10-12T11:15:00.003-04:00

Thank heavens there are things.

2011-10-12T08:44:00.000-04:00

"So what's with all this Occupy stuff? Is it supposed to be funny or are they serious?"
"Does it sound funny to you?"
"Well, yeah, it does."
"Well there you go."

2011-10-11T09:38:00.001-04:00

My cyclical love affair with the iPod on my phone kicked in at an inopportune moment. You simply don't want "Me and Julio" seeping out your headphones the exact moment you are bounding up the stairs past Paul Simon. But there it was, and I couldn't help it. It didn't help that I was carrying a small framed black and white photo of the songwriter or that I was due to sit in a small room (the size of, perhaps, a doctor's waiting room on the second floor of a brownstone) and talk about his work in an intimate literary meeting. The room itself had a long, narrow glass fronted display case running shoulder high, inset into the wood paneled wall, enclosing a frieze-like assortment of WWII plastic figurines and model airplanes. As I took my seat, glancing up, I noticed Paul Simon roll his eyes, scanning the small room, he himself holding a stack of balsa wood airplanes and a small box boasting pictures of a snap-together Japanese Zero on the outside. He sat down next to me, but I quickly shifted a couple seats over as more people showed up. When he started to read, gingerly, from his own small hardback compendium of his collected works, I realized I'd brought the wrong book and couldn't follow along. We were all taking turns reading aloud, Paul Simon looking more agitated as we went along. As everyone turned to me, I couldn't find a single poem in my pages, just pictures of engravings, so I started to recite what I could see in front of me on the wall, "spitfire, signal corps, quartermaster, bazooka, silver latch, wooden coping..." At this, Paul Simon spat with fury. He was so sick of sycophants wanting to waste his time reading old crap and talking about nothing, we all knew nothing, in fact, and he got up to leave. I can't remember what Kevin said to quell his anger, but it was funny, smart and well-timed and it sent the room into peels of appreciative chuckles, Paul Simon included. As he sat back down into his easy chair and he put his feet up on the ottoman, Paul Simon stared at Kevin for a moment letting our remaining giggles uneasily die down . Declaring he was the only worthy one there, Paul Simon asked Kevin if he would drive upstate with him in his convertible Mazda and talk about book ideas. It was then, just as I conspired to get Kevin to speak up in my defense, to plead dispassionately that I too was worthy of a cramped seat in the back of the Miata, that my son's Darth Vader alarm clock bellowed forth.

2011-10-10T15:46:00.003-04:00

Don't piss into the wind.

2011-10-10T09:53:00.001-04:00

Your dire funeral pyre, constructed out of glass.

2011-10-10T09:51:00.001-04:00

"We are here for a reason, we are here for a reason" they all insist.

2011-10-08T19:34:00.003-04:00

When your insides are scrambled, your outsides don't always show it right away.

2011-10-06T09:42:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago I partnered up with Ben and Chris on a new venture in Brooklyn making art films, industrial web films and T.V. commercial films.

This is Ben.

2011-10-05T09:33:00.002-04:00

I tip the guy for coffee, I tip the guy for beer.

2011-10-04T09:37:00.002-04:00

Unto thee I admonish.

2011-10-04T09:31:00.002-04:00

Eagles and Birds

2011-10-03T10:06:00.002-04:00

That famous coat has ever seen better days.

2011-10-03T10:04:00.002-04:00

The girls in their percale dresses.

2011-10-03T10:02:00.001-04:00

G-d bless you.

2011-10-01T11:12:00.001-04:00

Cart before the horse.

2011-09-30T14:50:00.003-04:00

On the cusp of boring.

2011-09-30T14:49:00.003-04:00

The schtick of artistic vision.

2011-09-30T10:35:00.004-04:00

Read Your Dog

2011-09-29T08:50:00.003-04:00

Forget what I said.

2011-09-28T11:27:00.001-04:00

Occupy Wall Street.

2011-09-26T01:08:00.001-04:00

Houston Texas is flat but tropical.

2011-09-23T09:22:00.002-04:00

People love wicker.

2011-09-23T08:45:00.003-04:00

Sometimes one simply has to accept there is nothing to say.

2011-09-22T08:58:00.001-04:00

If, for a moment, you thought I was not afraid of you, you were wrong.

2011-09-21T09:21:00.003-04:00

The vagrant's life of cabbage and vinegar.

2011-09-21T09:06:00.006-04:00

Fear is the only sure harbinger of harm.