Dreampepper
35 most recent entries

Date:2008-05-15 15:11
Subject:alright, we might be wrong, but what if we're right?
Security:Public
Music:el-p - poisonville kids no wins


Women Observing Stars 1936 Chou Ota, Japan via COILHOUSE
Link via Lukas
Luxim labs recently unveiled an incredibly energy efficient light bulb that packs more luminosity than a street lamp into a pill-sized form factor. Each bulb is filled with argon gas, which turns to plasma when electricity is focused through it. The energy is driven to the bulb without electrodes. The resulting light is intensely bright and mirrors the quality of light radiated by the sun, yet is produced by one of the smallest, most energy efficient light sources we’ve seen.

Luxim, Pill bulb, tiny pill light bulb plasma bulb, halodes, super bright light bulb, eco lighting, green lighting, sustainable lighting, energy efficient lighting, lumen, pill-sized plasma bulb, argon gas, super-bulb, LED, light bulb

A substantial portion of energy is converted into light instead of heat, which makes the bulbs highly efficient. Each super-bulb produces a stunning 140 lumens per watt, doubling the output of high-end LEDs (70 lumens per watt) and leaving standard light bulbs in the dust (15 lumens per watt). While cost and longevity have yet to be released, these brilliant bulbs represent a bright future for energy efficient lighting.
I read about these brilliant innovations, and love them, but wonder if they'll spread down from the top in enough time to help. Most of the light bulbs in my house are the twirled glass energy savers, my roommate and I trek across the alley to illicitly use the neighbor's blue bins, we now have a balcony worm farm compost, and we shop as conscious consumers, as ethically as we can for every sort of product, be it food or clothing or cleaners. The same goes, likely, for most of my friends, but not, unfortunately, for the majority.

Which makes no sense.

From every angle I can see, it's a good idea to go green, even if you're one of the hidebound stalwarts who don't believe the constant, savage news about climate change or the impending food crisis. If we prepare for the worst, we have a chance to handle the worst, if we prepare for nothing, we can't handle anything at all. I think of it as a logic problem, preparing for the future, like Pascal's Wager applied to the environment instead of religion. "If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing"

What do you do to try and make a change?

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Date:2008-05-15 14:40
Subject:portrait sale!
Security:Public

photography flyer

7 comments | post a comment



Date:2008-05-13 23:16
Subject:just another day on earth, but with SYD freaking MEAD.
Security:Public
Music:brian eno - just another day on earth

From Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH, VISUAL FUTURIST: The Life & Art of Syd Mead.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
"We are giddy with excitement. Why? Well, we're turning 5 this May, and Syd Mead is coming to help us celebrate with a double feature – a presentation and Q&A with him, followed by a screening of Blade Runner: The Final Cut! Join us for the fun on May 14 at the Empire Theatre on Granville St. It has been years since Syd Mead, one of the most influential designers of our times, has been to Vancouver. He'll be speaking about his approach to design and the visionary work with which he has made his indelible mark on popular culture and our perceptions of the future. But wait – there's more! Our long-time supporter, Sophia Books, will be there with Syd's latest DVD – you might even be able to get the man himself to sign a copy for you. On top of that, Tangible Interaction is coming back with their Zygotes – a massive interactive hands-on display of fun meeting technology that the whole crowd can take part in. Reserve your tickets now and don't miss out on this huge event!"

"Syd Mead is a living legend amongst designers – he has been called a "visionary" and a "visual futurist". From his beginnings in automotive design at Ford, Syd developed a style and philosophy that has spawned an enormous body of work filled with futuristic yet realistic creations. Syd's work shaped the modern conception of the future with his designs for Blade Runner, Tron, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Aliens. Films that forged a vision which still reverberates through the motion picture industry today. Few artists or designers have been as fortunate as to be involved with such a variety of industries around the world. Whether it be designs for vehicles, film, theme parks, interactive games, toys, products, theatre sets, ships, planes, or architecture, Syd has managed to leave his mark and provided his unique perspective each and every time. Today Syd lives and works in Southern California, where he continues to design, illustrate, speak and inspire. Mr. Mead will introduce the film."

6:00 pm: Mixer
7:00 pm: Main Presentation
9:30 pm: Blade Runner: The Final Cut - FREE*
* Priority given to main presentation ticket holders

Members: $15 / Non-members: $25 / Groups (5+): $20 (online only)

Info and online registration:

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Date:2008-05-13 16:23
Subject:not recent, but still interesting
Security:Public
Music:we're from japan! - when I destroy an animal




Bike Accident, 2005
by Julie Fullerton Batten


From the surreal photography series Teenage Stories, using miniature villages and teenage girls.

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Date:2008-05-12 11:21
Subject:struggling for recognition
Security:Public
Music:charles bukowski - hostage

I forgot how touch can feel like a shimmering, slow, soft electrocution. Waking up next to someone has been bringing me back to myself, grounding me in the rhythm of living again.

As surely as it's a battle, I've been going through the acid steps required to rebuild my legal identity enough in order to exist enough to venture across the border. MJ wants me down there Memorial weekend for Sasquatch, a three day music festival of favourite bands. Because there's an order to these things which isn't immediately clear, I've been getting caught unprepared as different departments give me different requirements, all of which involve busing back and forth between staid, solid buildings lacking in friendly edges. Thankfully, however, my new birth certificate was couriered to me in a matter of days, (arriving, of course, while David and I were in the shower, leaving me to answer the door as a rain-soaked towel kitten), so today I can apply for a new SIN card, which will mean I can legally work again. The next item is a Change of Name Certificate, which lets me get a BCID, the non-driver's answer to a photo ID*. And with that, I'm gold, I'm good to go.

I hope that I can unravel the most problematic snags today, find the right hoops to jump, and leap through with balletic if annoyed grace. Ah well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And I still need a day job.



*Yes, I'm working on the driver's license thing, it is just slow here in BC-land. Three years slow, in fact. I need to move, this is known.

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Date:2008-05-12 09:29
Subject:far funnier than it has any right to be.
Security:Public



via mordicai

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Date:2008-05-11 12:06
Subject:happy mother's day!
Security:Public



http://thingsididlastnight.com

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Date:2008-05-06 11:33
Subject:Silva's selling all her really cool stuff. Jump on it!
Security:Public
Music:andrew bird - the trees were mistaken

As some of you may or may not know, my godmother Silva, my mum away from mum, is soon to be moving.

To facilitate this, she's selling as many of her non-essentials as possible, this includes silver, books, furniture, mirrors, tea things, antiques, oddities, and almost anything shiny and interesting you can imagine. (Sorry everyone, the giant plaster parrot has already moved to my house.) Bonus: 250 books are for sale, $2 for any hardcover and $1 for any softcover

So come one, come all, to Silva's Super Saturday Sale!

She's been a constant inspiration in my life and I've always been immensely proud to be related to her. What she's about to do, move across the country to be with the woman she loves, is going to be difficult, and she needs all the help she can get. Even if you come by for five dollars worth of books, you'll be contributing. Added up, it tips the balance. That, and it gets it out of the house, which counts for more than you might think. The less she has to worry about, the better.

More pictures of what's for sale in her journal.


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Date:2008-05-04 16:47
Subject:in fine literature, they call that foreshadowing
Security:Public

On Seattle and life in general, I'm not going anywhere until I find my blasted wallet.

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Date:2008-05-03 01:58
Subject:impossible that there isn't something
Security:Public
Music:m83 - you, appearing

I'm going south again, down to Seattle, for another brilliant weekend with Robin, Ivo, Adam, MJ, and the polite gang of miscreants they run with, but this time with some special guests. I won't be the only person from out of town - animator Sean C. Adams, a dear friend of mine from Atlanta I've never had the good fortune to meet in person, will also be in Seattle. I'm thrilled! (Well, except for that dubious, nay-saying bit of my brain which won't stop claiming that somehow we will be unable to find each other, something will go wrong, the bus will break down or the house will catch fire or.. You know how it is. Tremendously good news in all directions? Must be a catch. Really I'll get there and I'll catch fire, scarred horribly in a freak accident as a piano falls on me from thirteen stories up.) Already I'm annoyed with myself for not being in bed, asleep, so as to get to tomorrow just that much faster. The nagging question, however, as I'm packing at two in the morning, what obvious, essential thing am I forgetting?

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Date:2008-05-02 12:44
Subject:laconic music love {I can't stop listening to a mad and faithful telling}
Security:Public
Mood:terribly excited

Devotchka tonight!

Tickets: $17.50. Richards on Richards, doors at seven, show at seven:thirty.

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Date:2008-05-01 11:32
Subject:we take polaroids with his father's camera, finishing off the roll
Security:Public
Music:ladytron - seventeen

A clean uniform of friendship, tattered in places, worn in the elbows and the shoulders, but strong all the same. I think of stone, how it erodes too slow to see, though it shapes itself to the wind almost perfectly. Holes in the middle of mountains, sunsets in the middle of deserts, countless grains flying through the air. Sometimes we go on holiday, go weeks without talking, stretching ourselves between the days, our names ignored like advertising, repeated until it's meaningless. It used to be calling every day, voices in bloom, eroding our negative spaces until they adapted, filling like smoke, glued to each other like words to paper, content a hundred days, ships on water, floating side by side. Then something happened, there was a split, a rift like fire shouting down a forest with silence. It took a very long time for him to talk to me, though it happened, and almost, somehow, over the horizon, everything seems fine. Now we are a story mostly written, soaking in solitude, aware of the other, solid friends, but purposefully apart. Civilization risen up, cities yawning into view, the rocks have been cut into walls, the foundations cemented down.

It occurs to me that this is the formation of family, laying in the darkness of a winter night, tearing stories out of history and presenting them like they were wine, showing where the scars are like a road-map of decisions never made, sharing what has happened in an effort to make something new, to frame a future of reaction and place that will make sense outside the room. Failing is part of it, crashing the bicycle to get up again, scrawling on the walls in crayon, dusting off our knees, calling bluffs, and saying alright anyway, holding hands, commiserating. It was awhile ago, but cities, once put to task, continue building, even in the absence of an architect. Once populated, they evolve, reach for the sky, develop eccentricities, and form personalities clothed in architecture or maybe memories. Along the avenue, all the presents we've presented, all the fact, fiction, and morning details no one else will ever see, they form a garden, they form a line, they spring, blades of grass, flowers, chaotic, ordered, a personal deduction against any further damage. A metaphor we can take with us into sleep, a certainty as easily satisfying as cake.

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Date:2008-05-01 10:25
Subject:like that bruce sterling story
Security:Public

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Date:2008-04-29 14:54
Subject:not going to forget this year, you people won't let me
Security:Public
Music:the atomic swindlers - float (my electric stargirl)


The photographic art of Federico Bebber.
“It’s been believed in the past that the camera steals souls. I once thought this preposterous. Now I think it’s self-evident.

This is why we photograph. The fear of oblivion, ours and our worlds. We will inevitably die, but our photographs, if they’re honest, if they show our lives with clarity, unafraid, our photographs will preserve us. Our souls at least. Who we were inside, and the things we saw. Our images? Particles of light that have been traveling forever bounced off our subjects, were focused through our lens into the tender tissue of our eye, and our brain, and our film. Now, those very same shapes, made by those very same particles, the same ones we saw, others can see. Forever, they can see that fraction of a second we saw.

That’s immortality.” -Clayton Cubitt, 2005


Scientists discover exotic quantum state of matter.

May is quickly waltzing into being, every day one delicate step closer, bringing with it spring and, with that, my birthday. Fragile, the social ties holding me to it. Already people have started asking about a party, as I worked through my birthday last year. So once again, and this year I mean it, does anyone know of an appropriate venue for my birthday party at the end of May? My apartment is far too small to hold the 100+ people who will wander through during the course of the day and outdoors, really, is never an option I care for. It's impossible to foster the security of the microcosm we call a kitchen party in a park.

What I'm hoping for is the kind loan of a house with a yard for a BBQ that won't mind if we go over-night, preferably with crash space, that won't mind if we cook breakfast in the morning. Last time our resident Stephen was kind enough to lend us his place, but it has since been partitioned and rented out to people. (I think Frankie's girlfriend's sister or something now lives in the basement, like, just to go to show how small this city really can be.) It was perfect, big, two yards, just off the Drive.

It came out unscathed, too, minus a large pile of dishes in the kitchen we cleaned up the next day, two snapped guitar strings, and, I think, one broken glass. The people I know tend to be remarkably tidy when it comes to parties, we're not hard-drinking bar-stars with anything to prove, more the sort of argue films and physics over spanish guitar on the porch. Profit: fifteen dollars in returnable bottles, a set of car and house keys no one ever claimed, (I still have them, people, identify them and they're yours), and some wonderfully embarrassing arm-wrestling photos.

So, please, if this sounds remotely feasible, drop me a line if you've got a place or know of one. Let's see if we can't work something out.


edit: so far we've got the foxy house. anyone else?

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Date:2008-04-28 15:41
Subject:working a temp job from nine to five
Security:Public
Music:the hype machine: the bird and the bee - man

Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa compared the feet of people from different cultures plus 2,000 year old skeletons. The skeletons had the healthiest feet (at least when they were alive), followed by the modern population that normally goes barefoot.

“Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.” In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.
Justifying, wonderfully, what I've been telling everyone since I was at least six years old. Never again will I attempt to look meek when someone berates me on my lack of footwear, instead I shall raise my head high and declare quite gladly that science is on my side. I have citation!

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Date:2008-04-25 22:07
Subject:the only theme I could find is black
Security:Public
Music:mr. scruff - get a move on

Sidewalk Psychiatry graffiti.

365 day one hundred & eight: have a nice day
This is a story: ink hair, Queen street, where the roots are, I walked barefoot, crucified by how beautiful he was, how beautiful he could be, I was unknown, achingly young, it was perfect enough for me. Learning the boundaries of narrative, learning the theme and flow of biography. Another: ink hair, on stage in love, wings as wide as geometry, meeting, a lobby, a lost book, a romance of hotel rooms and late night cameras, smoked with his passions, it was more than it seemed to be, and sometimes less. Summaries, diagrams, lists. An old project is percolating in my head with a newer idea, photographs, coloured string.

He doesn't like it when I chew gum, but he watches me take out my hair pins as if the act carries the same intimacy as removing my clothing.

Being constructed naturally of disciplined angles, his only defense was to move with a maximum of constant, weightless grace.


Chapter headings in the shape of their hands, page count off how much poetry I can wring from their skin. Something is taking shape: ink hair, a familiar bar, an unfamiliar feeling of awe, music parallel to skill, traveling the next day, his unmatchable grin, every day always too far away, a myth, circling the world twice to end everything thirty feet from where it began. If I took a photograph of every one and layered them, there might be details submerged, but perhaps a clarity for all of that. It looks like: ink hair, eyes meeting, singing in the street, a miracle, his poetry, his children later on the phone, impossible, the sweetest thing.

Digital culture-inspired oil paintings.

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Date:2008-04-25 18:06
Subject:Van Burlesque Fest
Security:Public
Music:lyrics born feat. lateef the truth speaker - the last trumpet

The Vancouver International Burlesque Festival kicked off with a bang last night.

The show those girls put on at The Red Room was unquestionably the best burlesque show I've ever seen. I think I have a crush on one of the performers, Whiskey Rose, she was so much fun.

Between Worlds Burlesque, billed as Genre-Hopping / Era-Dropping / Mind-Popping, was EVERYTHING IT PROMISED. It was a comedy education, a sizzling phantasmagoria of stockings, high heels, and mixed media entertainment. Every girl had a completely different show, highlights of which include a Marlene Deitrich as done by Liza Minelli, a mad punk chicken beheading, a hip-to-the-hop hardcore booty-dancing water nymph, Tristan as a bioengineered Alien Queen, and, my personal favourite, Sexy Little Red and the Raunchy Fun Wolf. Just... wow.

Lucky for everyone who missed it, there's way more coming, so hold onto your tiny feathered hats, and run on down to check out some of the shows!

Tonight, Friday, April 25th, it's...

The Evil Bastard International Burlesque Showcase
Start Time: Doors at 8:00, Show at 9:00
End Time: 1:00pm
Price: $20
Venue: The Grandview Legion Auditorium
Venue Address: 2205 Commercial Drive

Performers: Ana de Lara, Bella Trixx, Bettina May, Champagne Sparkles, Ember LaValle, EmpeROAR Fabulous!, Go-go Amy, Holly Peno, Jacqueline Hyde, Midori Colada, Miss Kitty Baby, Ravenna Black, Scandal from Bohemia, Shetan Noir, Slick Moorehead, Star Rising, The Baby Jessicas, The Purrfessor, Stephen Taddei, Urban Improv, and Canadian Content.

If you can't make it tonight either, don't fret! The festival runs from April 24th - May 4th.

Full event listings: shows, workshops.

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Date:2008-04-24 03:13
Subject:whatever tomorrow brings
Security:Public
Music:yoko kanno - voices (acoustic)

German staging of Verdi's A Masked Ball on 9/11 with naked cast in Mickey Mouse masks

Yesterday I rushed from the apartment from a kiss at the door like a teenager caught by parents for the very first time, sneaking out the back as if dashing out a window, Black Crowes slipping out of me as I cheerfully walked barefoot, grinning, she never mentions the word addiction, in certain company.. along the alleyway to meet my friends down the street. Strangers catching my eye and smiling back, lighter. It was a nice day, though it hadn't started out that way.

I had a fever the night before last. My body, finally exhausted, broke down into a haze of heat and hallucination. I lay drenched in a pool of quiet pain, two cats huddled over me, whiskers in my face, a plastic bottle of juice luckily next to the bed. When I could finally stand, I'd missed a job interview, couldn't find my voice, and had to lean on the walls to take a shower. The world was pulling at my nerves, searching for signs of anyone home, but I felt invisible, as if all my senses had detached some time in the night. I bumped into edges, forgot where I'd put things down, and generally felt as if I'd suffered brain damage. By the time I was stable enough to leave, it was almost noon. Not only had I missed a job interview, I was late for Lung's celebratory Canada Council Grant dim-sum. Ten points for surviving alone, minus several hundred for sucking at life.

(Thankfully, sort of, he and Claire had been waiting on my call, and perfectly understood once they saw me. When I look pale, I look pale.)

Everything after that was roses, however, minus a persistent, nagging bit of headache. Dim sum was excellent, the company as fun as the food was delicious, I met up with a nice young man and we seem to be coming to some sort of relationship, dinner was amusing argument that wasn't really, visiting friends was a treat, and someone ran to meet me, something I haven't seen in years. For the life of me, I never would have thought it possible while lying in bed the night previous, cursed, huddled with the blankets like new best friends, certain any mirror I found would shatter upon the impact of my reflection, so much was the heat radiating off my face, wondering if there was even one person in my own city I could call if I needed rescue.

Reviewing life and the real world as if it were a massive multiplayer game.

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Date:2008-04-23 12:16
Subject:shiny shiny shiny, who's going and to which?
Security:Public
Music:dirty vegas - days go by (steve osbourne acoustic mix)


Illustrator Katelan Foisy has a new website up.
KRAZYTALK! A Speaker Series held in conjunction with KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art, May 15th - June 4th.

May 15th, 7 pm
ART SPIEGELMAN, comic artist
Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus, 577 Great Northern Way

A major figure in the underground comics movement of the 1960s and 70s, Spiegelman is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic memoir Maus, which retraces his parents story as Holocaust survivors. Formerly named one of the 100 Most Influential People of our times by Time Magazine, he continues to be a political activist and a public champion for innovative comic book work.


May 23rd, 7 pm
MICHAEL AMZALAG and MATHIAS AUGUSTYNIAK, M/M (Paris), art directors/graphic designers
Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street

Graphic designers Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak founded M/M Paris in 1992. Their work has been shown in art galleries and museums all over the world, most recently in the 2008 exhibition Vision Tenace at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Their projects are created in partnership with such diverse designers and artists as Stella MacCartney, Yohji Yamamoto, Douglas Gordon and Bjork.


May 29the, 7 pm
TIM JOHNSON, animation film maker
Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus, 577 Great Northern Way

DreamWorks Animation film director Tim Johnson directed the 2006 computer animated comedy Over the Hedge, starring the voices of Bruce Willis and Gary Shandling. His earlier projects include the animated action adventure Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and DreamWorks first computer animated comedy, Antz, as well as the infamous segment Homer3D from The Simpsons Halloween special Treehouse of Horror VI.


June 4, 7 pm
WILL WRIGHT, god of computer game designers
Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus, 577 Great Northern Way

Widely acknowledged as one of the most important innovators in gaming, technology and entertainment, Will Wright is the designer of the groundbreaking computer simulation games SimCity and The Sims, the bestselling computer game of all time. Wright has received two lifetime achievement awards from Game Developers Choice Awards and was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2002.

TICKETS: 604.662.4717
SERIES OF FOUR PRESENTATIONS: $85, Members and seniors $68, students $34.
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS: $25, Members and seniors $20, students $10.

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Date:2008-04-23 11:05
Subject:Attn LA folks: please help
Security:Public

via Mildred:

"Zoetica and her fella were in a serious car accident Sunday, during which her dog, Moo, ran away from the accident, seemingly unharmed. We're now desperately trying to find her."

Click here to help.

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Date:2008-04-22 22:52
Subject:strike back by passing it on
Security:Public
Music:devotchka - ocean of lust

Someone scraped the contents of Darren Di Lieto’s website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. via warren.

This book — which reprints without permission several dozen artist interviews which Darren had posted on the LCS blog — transcribes these interviews word-for-word, including the artwork, and was “published” under the title “Colorful Illustrations 93°C”. The book even includes a CD with all the illustrations from the book, all lifted off the site as well.
Publishers have faked their details, resellers refuse to pull the book. The ISBN they provide is also a fake. It being nigh impossible to track down the culprits, (they seem to be located in HK, a city world renowned for copyright infringement), the only real way to shut these people down and/or make sure no one works with them again is to spread the word, create an information backlash and rub their faces in the muck so hard they'll never get clean.
First, please re-distribute this blog post or Darren’s original post. Repost the whole thing, or part of it, in your blog, with links and tags included.

Next, use whatever social networks and news sharing sites you use every day — Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Magnolia, Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook — to spread the word about this overpriced book full of plagiarized and stolen content. Feel free to quote us, and remember to also include the same keywords and tags in your posts.
There's more information on Darren's blog as well as a gallery of photos taken of every page.

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Date:2008-04-20 12:28
Subject:eating practically nothing but chocolate and words, a debt
Security:Public
Music:cocorosie - honey or tar

365 day one hundred & two: new tomorrow
From a letter I wrote to Juan, "I wish I could mail myself to you in a great cardboard box, foolishly mark myself a gift and sleep until you found me in your kitchen. Oh look, I would say, I'm real after all. See my problems? I will give them to you like ripened apples for you to chew. They will turn sweet in travel. I thought once that if my life refused to improve, I would just begin walking, not look back, and find my way to where you live. Life did improve, though. It feels alright now, like a place to live, at least until the next thing happens."

Edward Lorenz, the founder of Chaos Theory, died Wednesday of cancer.

My eyes slip across the street, noting where sand collected in what used to be rain puddles. I think if this moment could be collected, I have friends who I would like to send it to, who might understand the feeling of weight my blood carries in my body. Everything is heavy, even while curled on a couch, resting my head on a pile of silk pillows, my dreams full of choreographed shouting, difficult and lonely. A sheathed short sword in my hand, taken from a shelf, held in my hand, jabbed in the air for emphasis. If we're going to do this, we're going to do it my way, thick with mythology, mired in darkness, as pregnant with promise that only mystery can be. The tip of the black bamboo case held at his throat, keeping him still, an implied threat. Any minute I could drop it, any second, I could put it down, and wait for his hands on me. A pass, forensic, you are healed, lightning coming down layer by layer, impressed upon the landscape like a gravestone rubbing, rain falling without regret, reminding the grass to be green.


Behind my eyes, I rewind, reposition him, the stairs, the way I might reposition a tea-cup for a photograph. I attempt to find a configuration that has nothing to do with frustration or anger. I rewind, reposition, I suggest lines to the scene as if to an actor. My body lies perfectly still, except for a frown, one tiny crease. Why can't I be dreaming of cat strange eyes? I am sent to the river. Washed of glory, he walks down the stairs again. I again gesture, upset, incontrovertible. It is a loop, queerly criminal, taken out of time as if it were stolen. My footsteps are silent, but his are not. There is no wall where I want one.

Above all, I require grace. I said it out loud in the shower the next days, the words like soap bubbles, clean, beautiful, a renewed realization of what keeps me clear.

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Date:2008-04-17 01:14
Subject:when love comes calling, don't look back
Security:Public
Music:télépopmusik - into everything



This just breaks my heart.

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Date:2008-04-16 01:46
Subject:I love the things I can talk my friends into
Security:Public
Music:gabriel rios - broad daylight

duncan & jhayne - cake fight 2008

365 day one hundred: duncan & jhayne in.. CAKE FIGHT 2008!

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Date:2008-04-15 03:50
Subject:keep the engine running
Security:Public
Music:air - somewhere between waking and sleeping

1guyporphyrefrontyard

photos, unsurprisingly, by lung liu


"This life turned out nothing like I'd planned." "Why not?" "When I was younger, living in L.A., I only wanted to grow up to be a famous pro-skateboarder. Pretty good at it too, not one of the insane guys, but up there." "So what happened?" "My father moved us back to San Francisco and I became a musician."

Saying goodbye, listening to the taste of every word that's falling from my mouth like a flower petal, pearls spilling on the floor, why doesn't he hear them? I hope the waiter doesn't slip. A fortune of curiosity rilling across the floor. Formica table, silver edged, I've written about this before. It seems to be a place I say farewell to lovers. Late night, wishing we had picked the music, juke box saviors, noise, funk, tanned in the red light. My taste buds are crying out for the flavour of his sentence structure, how I find myself pronouncing his the word friends. A wild-eyed longing for something new, for all the stories he has to give the world, suffering from never enough. We should have, his future, another time, my past, we could have, but we won't. Rain check. I want to lick his eyes, tri-coloured, red in the middle like a demon, green edged, the colour of jealousy, getting to fly away and jump away from here, cramped maybe, but I can't care about that. Amazing. Summertime. Warmth. I'll see him then, same old city, secrets open, wide, blazing. Press passes. Another stage, another show. Performances on and off, back behind fences, over by a beach, tucked around the lake. Maybe I'll catch him a rabbit, eight track ears, folding back the soft fur, the sunburned faces of the people in the front row. For once, I don't mind that I crossed the river. At least he held my hand.

"When I was sixteen, I had a decision land in my lap which would have changed everything. He was very rich, very famous. I see the face of the girl who said yes on magazines." "I think you made the right choice." "I think so too, or at least, I like to think so. Sometimes it's hard to tell, but right now, all of it brought me to being here with you, and I'm okay with that. That feels alright by me."

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Date:2008-04-13 19:21
Subject:Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free
Security:Public
Music:pete samples - four letter words


the secret knots, "unspeakable"
On the heels of my time in Seattle, then my time in Whistler, my lover came through town for a weekend. And broke up with me. But it was lovely. My blood is still gently humming contentment from the weekend with the same satisfaction found in tying a good knot. Mike and I had the nicest, kindest, most genial, and convivial split-up I have ever encountered, then spent all of Sunday on The Best Date We Never Had. Seriously. I feel all warm and fuzzy and completely and utterly loved, all the way from the roots of my multi-dyed hair to the very tips of my bare little toes.

Saturday started out badly, we had a worrisome phone-call notable only for the gulf of heart-bruising silence that ran underneath everything we said, but it brightened immeasurably as soon as we met at the club. There's something baked into his smile which unfailingly cheers me up, like an open door with sunshine on the other side.

The gig was marvelous, everyone had a fantastic time. The albums don't do him justice, they're great music, but seeing him live.. it's an extraordinary, inspiring experience. He twists, dances, and contorts around his instrument, setting a mad pace thick joyful exuberance. I've been to his concerts more than anyone else's and yet I still don't think I quite have the words to describe what it's like. There was one boy dancing along at the front so enthusiastically a wind came off his limbs.

Thankfully, it was an early night, with another band playing after, so we got to pack up and go for dinner at a half-way reasonable hour, something which doesn't happen very often. We went to the best Korean Tapas Fusion place, over on Robson, with James, Lung, Claire, her boyfriend, and my mother, Vicki. Delicious, nutritious, and tremendous fun. We toasted unlikely things, celebrated, and ate the perfect amount of far too much. On the ride back to my place, when it was just the two of us again, we went over the conversation we had neglected before, fitting our words together like the devout gears of a crystal mechanism, casual and insistent, gently examining our language to see where we'd gone and what would happen next. When we got to my place, it was somehow finally okay to go in and sleep alone.

Then all of Sunday, as if to make up for lost potential time, we spent on The Best Date We Never Had. He called when he woke up, drove straight over, graciously crammed into my windowsill with me so Lung could take our portrait, then brought me out to Pnohm Pehn, one of my favourite restaurants, for a few hours of religious experience late afternoon breakfast, then to La Casa Gelati, home to 208 flavours, for double-scoop ice-cream cones. When it was time to scoot over to the gig, we had elbow room enough to sit in the car and talk music before going in and facing set-up, and when it was time to vanish before the show, we settled into a coffee-shop with delicious tea to talk politics and the state of our worlds. (The Cold war, Rush, growing up believing in The Nuke, where we were when the Berlin Wall went down, the natural disasters created by man.)

I took video, That 1 Guy playing the Railway Club, April 5th & 6th: Forgotten Whales, How's 'Bout Those Holes in the Moon, Buttmachine, Somewhere Over the Rainbow (on the magic saw), Dig (on the magic boot), Solea (w. a bit of Iron man), The Moon is Disgusting (It's Made of Cheese), Cameo's Word Up finale, and one just for me, as I threw panties at the stage in Seattle.

After that we went for late night burger and shakes and the waiter thought we were so cute drinking two strawed from the milkshake that he took our picture. I even got a kiss goodnight at the door. It's like we should break-up all the time, "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, where should we go for dinner?" So though I'm suddenly single, it was done with such grace that I feel completely undamaged. He figured out the magic combination, like how to kiss angels without being scalded.

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Date:2008-04-12 13:01
Subject:fresh from NZ
Security:Public

As an introduction to Canada, and more particularly Vancouver, Duncan and I are taking Christine to


Duncan's going to be a cheerleader.

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Date:2008-04-09 23:52
Subject:one of his cameras is made from Aluminium, Titanium, Acrylic, Formaldehyde and an infant human heart
Security:Public
Music:laurie anderson - born, never asked





Untouchable (HIV Camera)
by Wayne Martin Belger


4”x5” camera made from Aluminium, Copper, Titanium, Acrylic and HIV positive blood. The blood pumps through the camera then in front of the pinhole and becomes my #25 red filter. Designed to shoot a geographic comparison of people suffering from HIV."

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Date:2008-04-06 12:10
Subject:go out with a bang, but not, but yes, but no, but YES!!
Security:Public


That 1 Guy live at the Railway Club, April 5th, picture by Keith loh
Last night was stellar! I've been getting incredible enthusiastic thank-you's from all the people I convinced to come down. Here's a sneak peek of some of what you missed, (but wait, there's more). There's one more chance, though! Not all hope is lost!

Tonight! One night only! The Railway Club, doors at seven, show at eight!

That 1 Guy as interviewed by Chris Clark for JamBands.com (2008-03-22):
Mike Silverman is a man of many talents. Beginning his career as a classically-trained upright bassist, he has long since become an individual orchestra, performing a multitude of concise and elaborate sounds with two hands and two feet. Based in Berkeley, Silverman is a fixture on the live music circuit. Armed with the magic pipe (you have to see it to understand), That 1 Guy is undoubtedly one of the most unique and innovative musical acts around. Jambands.com had the pleasure with catching up with Silverman the day before his spring tour commenced to discuss all things That 1 Guy.

Tell us a little bit about your musical background. Where did it all start?

My father was a professional jazz bass player in the 60's-70's. By the time I was born; he had changed careers and put his upright bass in the closet. When I was old enough to find it, he was about to plant ferns in it out in the back yard as part of the landscaping (true story). I told him that I wanted to play it. He was just happy to see it getting some use. He was also my first teacher. I got into jazz and classical early on, at about 10 years old. Then rock, funk, punk, blues, etc. My dad always told me that if I played bass, I'd always be in demand because "no one played bass, but everyone needs a bass player". He was right. By the time I learned where a few of the notes were, I was already in 5 bands, and it never really slowed down for years. That is of course until I quit all my bands to play by myself. Then I invented this other instrument out of steel pipes and don't play bass anymore at all. Boy, that story has a strange ending. What was the question again?
...to read the rest of the article, click here

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Date:2008-04-06 11:46
Subject:culture this afternoon
Security:Public
Music:m83 - you, appearing


White, Yellow, and Red
uploaded by Sonia Prabowo.

THE ANNUAL GAMELAN EXTRAVAGANZA

Today, Sunday April 6, 2-5 pm, Robson Square Theatre


Presented by the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia.

Featuring Gamelan Madu Sari (Javanese), Gamelan Gita Asmara (Balinese), VCC School of Music (contemporary Sundanese), SFU School of Contemporary Arts Gamelan, and Indonesian students, performing traditional music and dance and new music.

To find them, go under Robson Square, through the UBC doors, then down the stairs to your right.

Free admission (donations for the musicians gratefully accepted)



For the record, this isn't the gamelan I played with, but the one my mother used to play with.

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Date:2008-04-04 16:56
Subject:global initiatives in your back yard
Security:Public
Music:bering strait - porushka-paranya

My friends Jill Binder and Kajin Goh are attempting to create a Vancouver chapter for Pangea Day, a global film festival, "The day the world comes together through film".

From the site: "On May 10, 2008, a 4-hour live streaming program of films & social consciousness outreach will be broadcast everywhere -- everyone around the planet will be watching the same thing at the same time. The idea is a movement to promote World Peace through the medium of moving pictures. Films are powerful. Are they powerful enough to cause a global shift?"

If you're interested, they're having a meeting tonight at the End Cafe on Commercial Drive, (just north of Broadway SkyTrain Station), from 5:30 - 7 o'clock. I'm told that they are often late to their own meetings, so don't be discouraged if you don't see them right away.

Pangea Day Vancouver
Pangea Day on Facebook

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Date:2008-04-04 03:23
Subject:the places livejournal takes me
Security:Public
Music:salvation army chalk farm band - allegro spiritoso

Seattle was beautiful, a week of people I like and trying unfamiliar intersections on for size. Compass points. The stars and sea. Music, driving, carrying the city in my head. Robin brought me down, we talked love, I stayed with Joseph, we talked sex, and I bathed in every minute of living somewhere new. The nutrition facts of being away: elevated mood 90%. I would have been content to simply stay. Mike agreed I should. Walk out the door and never, ever return.

My favourite time was sitting in the hotel hall with Adam as we asked each other ridiculous questions designed to let us know each other as fast as humanly possible before we had to make the mistake of letting the next day wake and stretch arms and happen. He effortlessly touched the place I hide my face, a perfect replica of what I need to be content with life, reminding me to keep reaching out to others. It's all a matter of numbers. Odds. Carrying each other like islands with similar species. Eventually, something's going to give, somebody will stay and be a little bit of everything. Chaos theory, psychographics, the aching joints of disharmony, all of it faded away in the flowering safety of spending time together. Tangled in his hair, my hands remembered how easy it can be to like somebody, what it's like to want to have someone else around, as if I could break the sound barrier with only our names. It looked like I killed a child in his shower.

Ross drove me kindly back into Vancouver on Monday, where I was at loose ends. I had forgotten to make any plans past Return, Unpack, and Clean. I stood at my window, glaring at the bland clouds, purring black cats tied to my ankles with neglect, thinking, "the drugs just don't work today."

Then Jacob Appelbaum called.


Jake, the gateway drug

Come on down, he said, this is where I am, he said, where should we go next? A week unfurling, futures whispering, why not? Yes. Please. Rescue me. So I met him to the Jupiter, (forgetting they host the worst karaoke to ever issue from human beings), then found myself in a hotel room where the last of the hackers were trying to unsuccessfully party down on a Tuesday night. Tables covered in con-badges crowded the room, pizza boxes sat semi-ignored near the balcony door, and no one seemed to remember names. It would have been sad if anyone had been more awake. Eventually I caught a ride home from a Berkeley fellow, bared my teeth at sleep, and collapsed into Thursday.

Jacob, now Jake, called again. Come out, he said, we're at the Vancouver Aquarium. Loud music, blurred laughter. Yes, of course. Bringing Ray, knowing he wouldn't make it too late. They handed us tickets at the door, Complimentary Drinks From Microsoft, as I was highly amused how easy it was to swagger in. People standing everywhere, a string of blaring speakers probably bothering the fish. I scouted, looking for bleach blond hair to catch my eye. Jake was in the back, standing with Julia and speaking German with another girl I'm not sure I ever met again. We floated around the building, trying to find a way in to see the lemurs, but failed and eventually found ourselves outside with the dolphins and belugas instead. For five hundred dollars, I promised, I would strip down to underwear and swim with the dolphins. Sadly, only about three-fifty was ever raised, so I stayed dry, not willing to risk pneumonia without my rent being essentally gauranteed. Oh thwarted adventure. The Baby Buddha cried.

Eventually Ray went missing, as was expected from a Thursday late night, and whosoever was left was packed into school busses and brought back to the hotel. Another party, same room, more people, better everything. Topics: Internet security, computer user anarchism. Fascinating, technical, I liked it, (it was odd), though I felt that I might flounder at any minute, left behind by the jargon of the industry. Jake invited me to Whistler in a conversation lull, and when I said yes, he and I danced in a corner of the room with Sergio, a fun Argentinian fellow with short hair except for one long, thin, braid, who I ended up staying over with.

I woke in a king sized bed to an announcement at a ten o'clock that felt like seven a.m. THIS IS NOT A TEST. EMERGENCY SERVICES ARE ON THEIR WAY TO ASSESS A POSSIBLE EMERGENCY. ALL ELEVATORS HAVE BEEN LOCKED, PLEASE USE THE STAIRS TO EVACUATE THE BUILDING. WARNING CODE ONE. PLEASE REMAIN CALM. My first waking thought. "I'm not navigating 18 stories of stairs until I smell smoke. Especially," as I opened my eyes, "it appears to be snowing outside. Ha." Instead of pulling myself from the wide, warm blankets, I curled myself deeper into my nest of utterly first class pillow and went back to sleep, chewing a complimentary chocolate. Until the warning sounded again, then a third time, at which point I gave up, got up, and walked out, soundly forgetting my camera on the table until the moment the door clicked shut behind me.

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Date:2008-04-02 15:43
Subject:post punk progression
Security:Public

Jordan, my man, thank you for everything. This is for you, rock out with your caulk out:



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Date:2008-04-02 02:04
Subject:moving in on the first date
Security:Public
Music:hymie's basement - moonhead

Once upon a time when time was shivering apart and memories seemed more real than reality, the girl who fell from the sky and the west coast hacker king came to an agreement.

Today was gloriously stressful, much more than I bargained for. April 1st is my one-year nonniversary with Antony, which struck me in the heart like the world wanted me to understand the word "smite" in a pure, holy way. Every living cell in my body misses him, they take turns reminding me. Today, however, they ganged up and jumped me. All today, as the last of the SecWest cool kids came down from Whistler and connected with the airport and chores, I could rewind a year back and see exactly where I was, minute by minute, 365 days ago. As I write this, we were smiling. He was saving me from darkness, I was inviting him back to my place. It was a Saturday, then, and we had gone to dinner and dancing, as if we had drawn a straight line on a map from meeting to what would be. Any minute now, we'll have kissed.

I called him tonight after I got home, half an hour after midnight, and left a message. I told him I miss him, that I love him, that of everyone in the world, it's his blessed voice I would like to hear the most.



Editor's Note: To wit, my life took a left turn and fell apart and came back together and all those things that lives tend to do, but all in one day instead of stretched over a reasonable amount of time. I'm back from madcap Whistler, I met keen new people, Dragos came over, Nicole took me out, I called home, and now I'm alright. Watch the Brothers Quay video, it's splendid and makes me glad the world exists.

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Date:2008-03-31 12:32
Subject:funkier than a snake's banana
Security:Public


Boot Playin'
Originally uploaded by peterkelly.
"Hello Friends

Western Canada, I'm talking to you! Coming soon, a few shows in your neck of the woods! Salmon Arm and Vancouver to be more specific.

See here:

April 4, 2008 - Salmar Classic Theatre - Salmon Arm, BC, Canada

April 5, 2008 - The Railway Club - Vancouver, BC, Canada

April 6, 2008 - The Railway Club - Vancouver, BC, Canada

Hope to see you there!

love

that1guy"

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