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Hardt Times

A good turn-out at Michael Hardt, et al.'s talk and panel at SFU yesterday afternoon, the morning after Hardt's longtime collaborator Antonio Negri passed away. I had read his and Negri's Empire (2000) when it came out, and it was one of those books that many of us reached for again after the events of 9/11, in the way that many of us do when we think it was in Empire that we first heard that something like that is possible.

Warehouse Wall

Walking east on East 1st Avenue, past Main, a long wall, and a few panels in, evidence of the Vancouver Mural Infestival. But the wall itself -- its materials, its design. It's enough that it's a wall and not a support for more visual information. Why can't we leave it at that, allow our eyes a rest? Allow our ears and nose to occupy us?

The False Creek Flats

A picture taken on my way to a studio visit. I knew the picture would look better in black and white, but there is no Black and White setting on my device, only related options, which led me to choose Noir because it offered the highest contrast. I was hoping the photo would capture some of that Lee Friedlander energy, but all I got was a whisper of Laurence Oliver introducing another episode of The World at War (1973).

Woke Up It Was a Chelsea Tower

The Chelsea Tower on 6th Avenue just east of Main. Not sure when the ribbed concrete look came about (early 1970s?), but I like it.

The Art of Darkness

Rereading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902), with special attention to the section that begins with Marlowe travelling to France to interview for a job as a steamer captain, then south for miles and miles and miles to the "Big River," which we all know is The Congo.

This is nice:

"Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you -- smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, Come and find out."

And the line that follows -- typical of the Eurowestern gaze (my italics):

"This one was almost featureless, as if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness."

A Received Face Fits Its Gifted Nose

Walking home after a studio visit yesterday I noticed another example of the Vancouver Mural Infestivalization, this time along 1st Avenue. Only what's this? An intervention? A received face fits its gifted nose!