in between

i think i died a little bit more tonight. sometimes the silence in between words can take away your soul and everything you believe in....which is worse? If all that we believe to be true comes crashing down around us where are we supposed to turn. If we have faith in colors and sounds what are we left with when they turn out to be a mirage.

how do you pick up life when you have stopped living it, when you have been caught in the rapture, the belief that there is something special where do you turn, should you have turned earlier in life. the choices we make all end up costing us something. It is just that we are unaware what that cost is and most often we are oblivious to it for some time. think of the people that you have hurt and where they are now, would you change anything in your life, would you turn the other cheek.

I am not one for leaving questions unanswered on the table so i say; i would never lose faith in colors i would always look to the sky, sounds are the most important measure we have. the coo of a baby, the moan of a lover; i do not believe in mirages i trust what i see; i do not stop living, i live each day as it is my last; this rapture is just, just something inexplicable; there are no regrets only memories; yes our choices cost us something; i would not have missed this, i am glad i am living this out; there is only one way to face things and that is head on.

i am sorry for having written this

the artist and the prism

should all artistic endeavors start with inspiration or can it be subconscious drive. the premise behind the artist and the prism is that we are receptors and communicators but that we need a prism around us to disassemble the signals and stimuli that we receive. this prism, like a regular prism, takes a feed on one end and utilizes it to construct several variations that transport themselves across, through and out the other side of the prism. the artist receives these variations and within himself constructs an artifact. at times the artist may only be able to channel one of the variations and the resultant artifact is a minimalistic representation. others can carry many variations and channel them through to a complex piece.

if we were to remove the prism we, communicators and receptors, would be unable to interpret and synthesize the signals and we would merely reproduce what we hear, see, and smell. what i see around me is an abundance of reproduction. our society is built on reproduction and the purchase and repurchase by the citizenry of these reproductions. often as we reproduce these items(much different from artifacts) we lessen the original idea and create a less expensive reproduction that will reach even more consumers.

with so much stimuli for art; war, poverty, contra-wealth, propaganda, music - it seems society is at a juncture where it must step back from the stimuli and prism out some of the channels so that it can be accurately consumed and then recreated in art, what ever form it is.

through time the prism has been constructed through various chemicals and natural (indigenous) plant. it can not be claimed that the popularity of this construction has diminished but it has been removed from the foreground, relegated to the darker areas of the periphery. we need to establish a new construction method for the prism, a foundational base that allows children, adolescents through to middle age and seniors the opportunity to experience art. by touching all bases of the society we can produce a consciousness about our lives that can outlive taste and preference. i see children painting along side senior citizens in the city parks - painting supplies provided free of charge in an effort to recollect our consciousness and provide a venue for all of us to regain that amazing human ability to feel art.

In Between

I searched in vain again tonight, through all my yellow pieces of paper, for an idea that has been with me for some time. I have written about it a few times and even tried elaborating on it. It is the idea that all meaning is found in between words and between meanings. Extrapolating on the first aspect of this we know that as people speak to us we sometimes start the processing of language instantaneously and that we mix experience and personal circumstance into this process just as fast. Meaning comes after the process cycle and it is only when we can see and hear space (in that this is possible through some sort of post processing chemical trigger that allows us to reach a conclusion) do we actually uncover meaning. Unfortunately we are all too often only processing and not understanding or finding meaning.

A friend of mine one day asked me if i had observed a new billboard on my commute in. He went on to describe in great detail the emotions and impact that this new billboard had on him. I, in fact, did not see the sign but processed much of what he said and found meaning in his words. One can presume that I was able to do this by way in part because i envied the fact that he remembered the sign and captured the essence and message of the sign so dramatically. I do not recall the content of the billboard only that i did not notice.

This causes me to evaluate my world differently. I am absolutely on the other end of the spectrum spending most of my process cycles on inventions and creations instead of absorbing datapoints at hand.

I did out of wonderful chance uncover a passage from my favorite writer that offers something similar.
"Between the experience of living a normal life at this moment on the planet and the public narratives being offered to give a sense to that life, the empty space, the gap is enormous. the desolation lies there, not in the facts." (pg 176, Shape of a Pocket, John Berger, 2001)

you have not been here

one of the coolest places i hang out on the web is http://www.blogotheque.net/, be it in french there is much for anglophonia. one of my favorites is Bon Iver playing in front of the moose. their song flume is insane and i dont just say that because 1 of the three readers of this blog is from the US. i say it because bon iver is has got it- the pain the suffering the haunting all the elements of a song. i guess there i sno need to mention johnny flynn. check it out you will hammer the site day in and day out.

dont miss margaret and the nuclear so so's

good night and good luck

where are we

I find that through my daily readings that we are lost, that i am particularly lost.  I am specifically referring to economies and cultures. 

We have little to no understanding to the connection between the current state of our culture and its impact, in both directions, on the economy. Consumers are inundated with advertisements proclaiming steep markdowns. This creates a sense of urgency for the consumer. I believe that advertisers and marketing agents are attempting to create a false sense of urgency through sensory overload. The link to culture is we are in all self aggrandizing purchase and consume mode that feeds insatiable emptiness with two important commodities; information and consumer goods.

Information being relatively cheap and consumer goods appearing to be relatively cheep. The linkeage to the economy is that if not for the current state of the culture there might not be a current economic meltdown. I sense that the economic meltdown is much,much more drastic and catastrophic then current media reporting allows us to believe. understanding the derivatives market and short selling proves too daunting a task for me but just my initial forays into these areas spin off a whole host of other data points. 

There is much more to the story and i sense that the market turmoil has only just begun and the stimulus packages and bailouts might not be the best course of action. we need to understand the culture of the economy first before we offer a solution. It is difficult to support billions from my government and trillions from other governments to prop this problem up. We are doing nothing in the way of understanding the pysche of the economy. Is it possible that we need to stimulate the culture in order to stimulate the economy. think about it is it possible that motivating and stimulating 20 million culterites could solve many of the crisi facing civilization now or should we stimulate the aspect of our lives that is doing the most harm to us, that is robbing us of our communities, that are driving downwards culture and art, reducing human intellect to hours in a day, that are creating commute parents that are minimising the importance of values and ethics.

This is not to say that there are not important stimulus packages for the economy, just that we have forgotten that there is a much large problem on the horizon if we choose only to stimulate the economy.

spirit

I was asked a while back what i was a force for, in other words what do i stand for. I chose 'spirit' as it is a word with so many meanings. I had a close friend along time ago talk to me about the importance of spirit, while at the time i was a bit lost and out of touch with my own spirit what this friend said is now ringing in my ears.

The word spirit, for me , comprises both the theological and metaphysical sense. There can not just be one side to spirit. it develops over time and is influenced by early childhood learnings. Complex isn't it. Spirit in the workplace makes real all the vlaues and ethics that are perhaps a bit too plastic to chew on. it also brings forward your reason to live.

what does spirit mean to you?