I was reading this article, “The Regressive Avant-Garde” in n + 1, and I had the slow dawning realization that Eggers and Salinger share some pretty common, pretty American motifs in their work, mainly A Heartbreaking… since I never felt drawn to his other works. Namely a preoccupation with childhood innocence and the similar representation of childhood… which is probably a “like, duh” obvious for most other readers of American fiction.
Sometimes I love Seoul, but others times I hate it and I hate the person I’ve become for living here as long as I have.
The language barrier has made me into one of those pristine middle-class white ladies that barely interacts with anyone and as a result has constructed an elaborate and fantastical castle in her own mind to counteract the soul-gnawing loneliness.
Maybe in Berlin I felt like I had some kind of swagger, like for a moment I was flushed and full of the sensation of having a physical presence. I could understand more, and suddenly felt like a flesh and blood human type.
I’m a ghost here. And I want to be so completely agreeable: I shouldn’t make trouble, shouldn’t be too loud, or too rude, or too unfriendly. I’m practicing my invisibility. I worry if I’m wearing the wrong clothes, if I talk too much, because I can see everyone getting bored when I launch into a talk about anything, or worse yet have long and brutal conversations with other English speakers where every sentence is a snippet and gets buried under their conversational points that they couldn’t wait to introduce.
Why the bitterness?
On being a ghost, I’m an eye with no mouth walking around the city, examining things. Or maybe I’m an eye and a mouth, but no brain or anus, because I certainly do consume a great deal of objects with both of the former.
And then I go nun-like to my place of work where I entertain children and bother them to do their homework, and then haunt the bus and streets a bit before I return to my cell.
I begin to wonder: did I feel old before? Did I ever think to myself, then when I was younger, I’m getting too old for this shit? Or I feel tired and like I’ve run out of ideas?
Recently, a news reporter at Radio Sweden International uncovered the fact that Tomas Norström—the judge of what is known as The Pirate Bay Trial, the all-round calm and levelled guy who sentence the Pirate Bay four to one year in prison each and almost $4 million in damages—had some interesting hobbies. As it turns out, he is an active member of the Swedish Copyright Association. In another coincidence, some of the other SCA members happen to be Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadstedt—the three prosecutors who represented the entertainment industry and the American film companies in the trial.
“ The new research is part of an ambitious attempt to understand how food — and the massive, almost impossibly complex system that produces and moves it across the globe — affects the environment. For several years in Europe, and increasingly here in the US as well, food analysts have started to adopt a methodology called Life Cycle Assessment — a comprehensive accounting of all of the resources that go into the food network, from fertilizer and fuel to the concrete and steel used to build a packing plant and the electricity used to keep it cool. ”
I’m waiting around for M and J, trying to type a note before they come in. This past weekend, as obliquely referred to in the title, entailed two performances and two moderate sized adventures.
On Saturday morning, we met up and took the bus from Hapjeong to Youngin after we’d showered and rolled out of bed. I think that after the initial hurry and confusion of being escorted around and suddenly in a place you’ve never been before, I got a chance to wander around the museum and take a look at the collection.
I’d been fond of Paik, but more of Fluxus and Beuys. I didn’t get a chance to know his work as well, or to see a real collection of it together until I came to Korea. I think that seeing many works together and getting a grander idea of the pieces historical situation made Paik more understandable to me, or at least more interesting. I’m not sure how to explain the sensation exactly, because merely explaining it makes me seem pretty oafish and I’d rather not view myself that way, but it happens often. Wherein, I will totally underestimate or rather coldly receive things at first, am rather slow to warm up, and then perform a total round about and be absolutely enamored with the art and personage after a more through investigation, see also Barney, ad infinitum things Scott’s into, etc. I was more interested in Charlotte Moorman’s work, and just the general historical presence of the female experimental celloist, with legit classical chops, is completely awe-striking and really gives me a benevolent fairy godmother kind of aura.
The collection was well arranged, and I think that the pieces really fit together in a way that provided historical perspective and created an narrative about Paik’s development and gave the viewer a greater understanding of the art of the time and the crew Paik was hanging with. Playing, I think, was sort of an after thought. I guess we did well. I’d like to hear the recording Yukie’s made. I’m tending to wonder about music and what I want things to sound like, so I’m shaky on sailor’s legs. Plus, I’m not terribly sure I need to have a clear idea of what I want to do. I like making things up and find surprises to be rewarding. hmm…
Good seating
You can improve your seating by using a firm, wedge-shaped cushion that is about 2+1/4 inches thicker in the back than in the front. Or, or you can put spacers (books or boards) under the back legs of your chair to tilt it to the desired angle, provided your chair is the right height for you. It is not necessary to adjust your seat an entire 30 degrees. Most are comfortable with the back of their seat about 15 or 20 degrees higher than the front. The height of your chair can be raised by using a thicker wedge-shaped cushion or by placing a firm flat cushion beneath a smaller wedged one. (The tapered cushions are best made of rigid materials, covered with only about an inch of foam on the top for comfort. Those made completely of foam do not provide solid enough support.) Your chair is the optimal height if it allows you to sit with your knees several inches below your hips.
You can achieve the best support by having both feet several inches in front of your knees. Test this by leaning forward and backward as you vary the placement your feet. Another useful test is to raise and lower your arms as you move your feet to different places. Your arms will feel lightest when you feet are optimally placed. Keeping your feet farther apart than is customary frees your body’s natural balancing mechanism and provides the best support for all of your arm movements. Simulate playing full bow strokes as you broaden your base by moving your feet apart. Your own body will tell you when you find the best place for your feet. If you play the cello, you need an especially broad base in order to support the entire span of your bowing movements. The best way to accomplish this to keep your cello on the left side of you body and your right leg several inches (4” to 8”, depending on your size) away from the right side of your instrument.
