No Subject

If gravity is an accelerative force related to mass, and mass affects gravitational waves, and gravity affects the dilation of time, which is the scissors, which is the paper, and which is the stone?

And if the speed of light is a limit relative to an observer considered stationary, then how fast are two beams going passing in the night?

Ikebana

Now I remember where I've seen work on the order of Sarah Sze.

The Man Who Heard Voices

Ok. I am fascinated by artists who wear their emotions on their sleeve, because, let's face it, I'm one of them.



This book is a play-by-play record of Night's creation of the movie "Lady in the Water". As such, it offers the best exposition of creative angst I've experienced since "Adaptation", a movie by Charlie Kaufman.



Every artist who struggles with creating should read this book. It's a reminder that no matter how hard you work, your message may just be too personal to attract a large audience.



After reading this book, I went out and watched "Lady" for the second time. Despite all the insights from the book, which certainly gave me an appreciation for the movie, it still didn't gel into an emotional whole. I tried really hard to "get it", and intellectually could do so, but my heart wasn't in the total picture.



As an artist, I realize that this may happen. It is one reasons why people disagree on aesthetic issues so often. Because art usually seeks a gut response, our guts often disagree. But one thing is sure: Night is a hard working craftsman who isn't afraid to make the kind of movie he wants to make.

My hat is off to those who try to live on the fickleness of the buying public. Night probably realizes that even the most sincere of us consumers don't always know what we like, and that it changes from day to day.



Despite that, he works his soul off to present his vision.

Grotne Nuke

Grotne nuke. Grotne Nike. Grotne go home on your bike.
Little boy crying at the bottom of the tree.
They won't come down and he
Is afraid of the tree.

He runs home to mama, who laughs to see such sport.
She dies, and the drug users come and take over Daddy's life.

Grotne home. Grotne Hume. Grotne bone and chicken loom.

Review: Kirby, King of Comics

I remember in the late 60's buying a friends Marvelmania mags and a lot of comics to add to my collection. The guy who did Marvelmania was Mark Evanier.

He also wrote this new book, Kirby, King of Comics.

This was a pretty good read, I read it cover to cover the first day. I found out that Mark was an assistant of Kirby's for awhile. There was also a lot about his creations and the work environment for a comic artist in the last 50 years.

To me, the book seemed rather negative, and maybe this was intentional. As I understand it, Kirby and many other comic artists got paid zilch and were treated badly by their publishers in terms of rights and contracts. What saved the day for Kirby, according to Mark Evanier, was his ability to do comics really fast, often several at a time, and his persistence in order to feed his family.

Stan Lee is also discussed, and the relationship between the two makes me recall the Lennon-McCartney creative process. Evidently the story depends on who you talk to. In this book, Stan comes off as somewhat of a bad guy, and I've never read anything else about the two, so judge for yourself.

Personally, I remember the comics and all the amazing art and brashness of the dialogue and storytelling, and I suppose I should look for some other book that celebrates that. Regardless of who did it, I enjoyed living in the Marvel Universe. Kirby's artwork inspired my own and that of countless others.

All that said, this book has some fine artwork in it, and you can tell that Evanier wrote it as a labor of love.