One Minute of Doubt

It’s Friday, finally the end of a very long stretch of employment work.
I don’t know why this is resonating today.

Carsten Höller, One Minute of Doubt (loop)

Carsten Höller used money from the exhibition budget to buy an old car, a Mercedes station wagon. He had the car covered with stickers that read “The Laboratory of Doubt” in different languages. With a loudspeaker fitted to its roof, he then drove through Antwerp expressing his doubts. The car became a vehicle for rumor; as an artwork it both spread rumour and expressions of doubt via the megaphone and functioned as a story that people passed on to each other.

From Ways of Curating by Hans Ulrich Obrist (discussing the Laboratorium exhibit, 1999).

In the clip referenced above is explained:

His first experiment with doubt was conducted in Antwerp, Belgium, where he drove around in a car with two loudspeakers on the roof, to spread the message of doubt. But only silence came from the speakers as Carsten Höller, in the middle of the rush hour, drove back and forth along the busiest streets – and stopped every couple of metres, unsure of where to go next.

So today we are doubtful and unsure but appreciating this story.

 

June 1, 2001

And I see Bobby, and I see Martha and I see….

 

Romper Room…Mr. Do Bee… Story Book Time… Romper Stompers… London Bridge… Willie the Weatherman… Prayer as a daily ritual…. it’s all coming back.

May 26, 2001

MNudeInWoods

Dumb Things I Gotta Do Today

Pressing things I was planning on getting done this weekend before you know,it’s gone.Where to start?
1.Where to start…purchase tickets.
2.Learn to knit.
3.Never mind,I keep saying that. Needlepoint is better.
4.Catch up on TV viewing.
5.Practice.
6.Go food shopping.
7.Oh yah, and that stinking laundry. Clean sock drawer
8.Make new friends, use party as a verb.
9.Call to apologize for stupid Memorial Day Weekend   filler then offer up a tale of humiliation.

 

April 26, 2001

nelson_m

More celebrity knitting.

Staying on topic today,Index magazine pitches in too:

Marc Jacobs Interview with Mary Clarke:

MARY: The first time I saw your work was back in the mid-’80s when I was an editor at Seventeen. You were doing sweaters.

MARC: Yeah. I learned to knit from my grandmother. She loved to knit in front of the TV before going shopping for pantyhose at Saks Fifth Avenue, or wherever she was going.

MARY: You’re a city kid.

MARC: I grew up with my grandmother on the Upper West Side. Anyway, she taught me to knit, and I used to design sweaters. Then when it came time to do my senior project at Parsons many years later, I had Perry Ellis as a critic. I designed these three really oversized, very heavy, hand-knit sweaters.

MARY: I just took up knitting again.

MARC: It’s really relaxing. Needlepoint, too. I’m working on Jeff Koons’Puppy right now! [laughs] I went to Bilbao, and the gift shop had thisPuppy needlepoint kit. I had to have it for my couch at home. I do like crafts and things.

MARY: How did you get those student sweaters into production?

MARC: I was working at Charivari at the time.

MARY: Which one?

MARC: I worked at two of them. I started out working at the one on 72nd and Columbus, because I lived down the block at 72nd and Central Park West.

MARY: I used to do a lot of window-shopping there. It was so chic.

MARC: Barbara Weiser, who was one of the buyers, had seen the sweaters at my school show. She decided she wanted to produce a limited edition for the stores. Andy they were photographed all over. It was a time when Gaultier had a very big, tapestry-looking sweater. Bill Cunningham picked it up for “On The Street”, which he still does for the Sunday Times. He did a story that depicted four different people in the sweaters, as seen on the street. That was sort of the beginning of my career.

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Index magazine appears to currently not have a functional web site. In the April/May 2001 issue you can also find Thurston Moore interviewing 30-YEAR-OLD-DRUMMER Susie Ibarra. This is cool, I did not know who she was.

THURSTON: A lot of hard-core Houston bands used to play in New York in the early ’80’s. I was really into DRI and Pissed Youth.

SUSIE: Oh, is that what you’d call that- hard-core? I’m really bad with the lingo! [laughs]

(Edit- Bless you Susie).

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And finally if you only have 5 seconds and always wanted to see what Manhattan cable- access TV star Robin Byrd looks like not wearing a macramé/crochet bikini, turn to page 103. I guess that brings us right back to knitting.

(Edit- as if to drill some strange point home, when/if you move out of Manhattan, you no longer are privy to Manhattan’s Cable Access TV..it is a distant memory for me. Who knew that Brooklyn ran on family values.)

March 22, 2001

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*This made me laugh today.

(via an email I received today)-

Horrors of the Cubicle:

“I got called into the office two days ago, I came within a whisker of getting fired. They kept saying “what’s going on” over and over again. My production is supposed to be 100% and it’s at 30%. Then they said “are you on the internet all day?”, and “do you leave early every day?”, and “do you sleep at your desk?”. I looked them straight in the eye and denied everything. Then I told them I suffer from migraine headaches and massive ennui, but I would try to focus and work harder. Surprisingly, I did not get written up or receive any warnings to fly right, but I know the evil eye is staring at me 24-7″

-anonymously posted to save the guilty

March 21, 2001

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I know it’s hard not to obsess over the weather at this time of year. I unsuccessfully tried to find signs of spring yesterday. Except for some morning sunshine just to tease us, I think it still looks pretty bleak around here.

March 1, 2001

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If you are feeling passive-aggressive about your job today…Take a look at Disgruntled Housewive’s “Handy tips to help you stomach that soul-crushing job of yours” archive.I love this site that comes out of Austin, TX- a veritable smorgasbord of graphics for starters,helpful hints for the weary,and even naked ladies!

cuchi-cuchi!

Save this one for after lunch- only if you haven’t had your fill of saccharine yet.Scrolling down this weeks Michael Musto’s Village Voice column,you can read his interview with Charo,to find out why her English is getting worse!

** on a more sober note, thank you to fellow Ex-NorthWesterner Dangerous Monkey yesterday for the knowledge regarding the Seattle earthquake. Sometimes I wonder if East Coast papers can look beyond the tip of their own noses. The NY Times On-line didn’t even list this as breaking news yesterday-it made it to their second tier news section. Fuck them.

(EDITORIAL NOTE: I’m warning you most of this early stuff doesn’t make sense)

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“I’m a Bernese Mountain Dog”

This just in from Jeff (aka:RockerOne)-

“My dog breed test says I’m a Chihuahua. I find that oddly refreshing”. Take emode’s The All-New What Breed of Dog Are You?test, and solve whatever identity crisis you are wrapped up in at this moment.

Uh oh- next take the IQ test(All New!) and see if you’ve got the smarts to stop while you’re ahead- before going on to the What’s Your Emotional Age? test.

Before proceeding-

Take this warm-up quiz:

I find the image to the left:

 

my ideal woman

oddly compelling,but somehow revolting

 

   

*”I don’t get it- what do you mean niche marketing?”

February 26, 2001

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2/26/01

I could certainly use a little humor to start this week off. Enter Dewey’s Deathpool 2001. This cheery new addition to a most appreciated site,is generated by Mr.Dewey Webb.

In his embracement of all that is kitsch and everything that is weird, he has built quite a comprehensive empire of facts. If you have some time to kill, take a tour through his Objet of the Weeksection. Who ever knew Mr.Blackwell and Edith Massey both cut records (w/ sound bites to prove it!)?

You can spy all other kinds of Hollywood related gems as well, but I’m most envious of the fact that he has met glamour lady Liz Renay in person!

 

February 22, 2001

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What it means to be a Southern Floridian

“My business card says “Guitarist, Inventor, Engineer, Eternal Child”

Animal, rock or mineral? Disney on Parade meets The Naked Civil Servant? In the maybe-too-much-information bin, a site that reconfirms recent speculation that the web really one big culture of nar·cis·sism. Maybe I am just jealous of one who has time on their hands to also sprout pages regarding their philosophical meanderings, and create entire clothing collections for themselves. Perhaps I could catch up if I just started out small.

February 22, 2001

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What it means to be a Southern Floridian

“My business card says “Guitarist, Inventor, Engineer, Eternal Child”

Animal, rock or mineral? Disney on Parade meets The Naked Civil Servant? In the maybe-too-much-information bin, a site that reconfirms recent speculation that the web really one big culture of nar·cis·sism. Maybe I am just jealous of one who has time on their hands to also sprout pages regarding their philosophical meanderings, and create entire clothing collections for themselves. Perhaps I could catch up if I just started out small.

 

February 21, 2001

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This isn’t the Discovery Channel:

TNN’s Turkey Call

Set your VCR’s now for Saturday morning… this is by far (to me anyway) the strangest thing on TV right now. See how this(uh)”fast-paced” show delivers detailed information on how to attract game,dress for combat and pack your rifle for airport transport. See two guys whispering to each other in the bushes.

Classified as a live action hunting show and brought to you by the folks over at the Wild Life Turkey Federation, I am trying to wrap my mind around their rationalizations for calling themselves a conservation organization. Its certainly not like I sit down to a Tofurky for Thanksgiving Dinner, but there is something mildly disturbing in all of this, especially the super graphics during their sponsorship commercials. Bonus points: check out the trailcam.

February 19, 2001

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GOD BLESS AMERICA WEEK

In honor of President’s Day and in light of our new administration, I would like to reflect on some of the things that make our country so great.

Only in America could you find someone willing and ambitious enough to improve upon Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. At the beautiful Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, MO., rediscover a more G rated version (none of those pesky Italian nudes)…and they all speak English. See for yourself.

February 15, 2001

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Just had to mention I can’t stop obsessing over my new EggWave. It is the coolest thing I have ever seen. And I am totally serious about that.

Meanwhile,back at the ranch while chewing on my freshly microwaved omelet I came to pass over this, a blast from the past- Mr. Fisk and Co. Glad to see the old Ellensburg campfires are burning. And on to more happy trails…Van Conner’s Strange World rules, if only for the extra special friendship and merchandising deal he has struck up with the wonderful Tanya Harding.

Get Crafty. This winter sucks, but this page is awesome. I think I am going to pull my head out and learn how to crochet!