Anodyne: 09/01/2014 - 10/01/2014

"The Palmieris formed a band of themselves, a couple of Latinos that included Andy Gonzales, jazz-funk great -- even then -- Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie, and some white guys and taught them how to play a music that was equal parts Cuban mambo, American soul via Stax/Volt, blues, Funkadelic-style rock, pop-jazz, and harmonic and instrumental arrangements every bit as sophisticated as Burt Bacharach's or Henry Mancini's or even Stan Kenton's."
- posted by cjb @ 9:26 PM

"Mr. L. shared the same perspective as the other defence witnesses on the character of the neighbourhood, testifying that that he 'could best describe a lot of people there as rednecks.' I infer that he meant by this term that the residents have the kinds of interests that people who live in rural areas are popularly thought to enjoy, such as carrying out their own home improvements and owning trucks, boats, heavy equipment or livestock."

Another well-written judgment out of the BCSC. Half Raymond Carver, half Trailer Park Boys. Takes a few paragraphs to get into direct evidence, at which point the narrative lifts off and soars.
- posted by cjb @ 7:03 PM

Irony: my few real heroes inevitably say, when interviewed, that if things hadn't worked out for them in their respective creative careers, that they'd "probably be working in a bookstore."
- posted by cjb @ 8:04 PM

This is the only useful thinking I've accomplished this week, & it fills me with weird giddy joy, like a chest full of helium. This took two full days of non-work thinking to accomplish, btw, so I'm not planning on quitting the day job any time soon. A MIT-bound high schooler could probably have solved it in 10 minutes, but that person isn't me.

Q: Bob multiplies three different prime numbers together. Is it possible for the digits of that product to sum to 18? Why or why not?

CJB:

1. To make a number divisible by 9 (9, 18, 27 & etc.), 9 needs to factor in the initial multiplication process. 9 = 3 * 3, so you need 2 3s as factors.

2. You can never get 2 3s using "3 different prime numbers" because 3 is prime and by the question's rules you can only use it once.

3. Therefore you can never produce a 9.

4. By the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, 18 uniquely factors as 2 * 3 *3.

4a. Bob is consequently SOL with his multiplication process, because it will never produce one of the three factors required for an 18.
- posted by cjb @ 8:42 AM

Ben Lerner: "Google is useful as this unbelievable resource of collage materials."
- posted by cjb @ 5:15 PM

- posted by cjb @ 9:04 AM

"Even when the camera moves, the threat of that movement (and thus of the camera) becoming noticeable as a unique entity is subdued by the presence of narrative action before it.

When, however, camera movement becomes very intricate, the threat of the camera proclaiming its autonomy becomes greater. This situation arises in those long takes which present an entire narrative moment, an entire 'spatio-temporal integrality experienced as being without "flaws,"' in one shot, without editing. The autonomy of the camera is proclaimed in these shots when the moving camera leaves characters behind, abandoning them outside the frame, or when characters are allowed to leave the frame on their own. The former instance demonstrates the autonomy of the camera by showing that the camera controls the process of narrativization by selecting its own objects. The latter calls attention to an offscreen space that the spectator can not see."
- posted by cjb @ 8:48 AM

If in work you're able to be in touch with the forces that make you and direct you--
- posted by cjb @ 8:38 AM

Studies for pictures. Hawaii; Israel.
- posted by cjb @ 10:32 PM

Metal Heart, 2008 (Cover of Metal Heart, 1998)

"Make something, a kind of object, which as it changes or falls apart (dies as it were) or increases in its parts (grows as it were) offers no clue as to what its state or form or nature was at any previous time...."
- posted by cjb @ 10:21 PM

"We were excited to pay homage to those brilliant Nineties music videos where the artist's personality is prominently featured in one long unbroken shot."
- posted by cjb @ 10:06 PM

Metal Heart
Music and lyrics by Cat Power

Losing the star without a sky
Losing the reasons why
You're losing the calling that you've been faking
And I'm not kidding

It's damned if you don't and it's damned if you do
Be true, 'cause they'll lock you up in a sad, sad zoo
Oh, hidy-hidy-hiding, whatcha trying to prove?
By hidy-hidy-hiding
You're not worth a thing

Sew your fortunes on a string
And hold them up to light
Blue smoke will take
A very violent flight
And you will be changed and everything
And you will be
In a very sad, sad zoo

I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see you
How selfish of you
To believe in the meaning of all the bad dreaming

Metal heart, you're not hiding
Metal heart, you're not worth a thing

Metal heart, you're not hiding
Metal heart, you're not worth a thing...
- posted by cjb @ 4:34 PM

"Legendary curmudgeon gone soft, embraces infant."

In my defense: she's a cute kid, and weighs less than my cat.
- posted by cjb @ 7:15 PM

- posted by cjb @ 10:27 PM

3 days and several Excel spreadsheets later, I've just cracked the "locker problem":

"A new high school has just been completed. There are 1,000 lockers in the school and they are numbered from 1 through 1,000. During recess (remember, this is a fictional problem), the students decide to try an experiment. When recess is over, each student walks into the school one at a time. The first student opens all of the locker doors. The second student closes all of the locker doors with even numbers. The third student changes all of the locker doors that are multiples of 3 (closing lockers that are open, and opening lockers that are closed). The fourth student changes the position of all locker doors numbered with multiples of four and so on. After 1,000 students have entered the school, how many locker doors will be open, which ones, and why?"

Answer: 31 open, 969 closed.

The open locker #s correspond to perfect squares: #1, #4, #9, #16, #25, #36 etc.

Perfect squares factor oddly, eg., 25 = 1, 5, 25. Any odd # of factors reduces to = open, closed, open.

Everything else factors evenly, eg., 10 = 1, 2, 5, 10. Any even # of factors reduces to = open, closed.
- posted by cjb @ 12:30 PM

- posted by cjb @ 10:50 PM

Recharging in the sun, Crown Mountain.
- posted by cjb @ 9:58 PM

"On the 6th floor of the VPL we absorb flickering fluorescents instead of a natural light spreading through a window. Meanwhile carpet tiles, rather than the thin clean brush strokes, give the impression of a reflective surface. The painting feels like an anticipation for the empty filing cabinets and small paper scraps that will be removed. The space will soon be an isolated endnote to an autobiography of diffidence. A landscape of emptiness, intrinsically longing for something unspecified, a conceptual ideal: nostalgic, uncanny, eviction."
- posted by cjb @ 9:00 PM

Fit 29-year-old who's never climbed with me before passes judgment on my skills: "Patience of dust, reflexes of a cat."
- posted by cjb @ 6:16 PM

A day of scrambling in the hills. 11+ km walk-in, followed by a 4-hour grovel up a moraine; up a chimney full of chockstones; and, finally, 4th-classing it up some of the finest slabs on the North Shore to the summit of Crown Mountain, followed by a two and a half hour up-and-down bash back to the top of Grouse, and civilization, right at sunset. About 1500m. of cumulative elevation gain.

Photos of the route, not mine.
- posted by cjb @ 9:07 PM

- posted by cjb @ 5:48 PM

New fall collection at the Bay. Photo courtesy L.
- posted by cjb @ 1:46 PM

Fortified Door (Picture for Dan), 2014. Detail.
- posted by cjb @ 10:27 AM

Also: Stray Phrases Play J. Dilla's Donuts, Parts 1-5. One of my favorite performances of all time.
- posted by cjb @ 10:59 PM

Relevant to my interests in any number of ways.
- posted by cjb @ 10:52 PM

Fortified Door (Picture for Dan), 2014. Detail.
- posted by cjb @ 10:33 PM

Cheryl Strayed's story about the kittens in the walls.
- posted by cjb @ 12:33 PM

That feeling, you can only say what it is in French.

(See also: sequence shot)

The centerpiece of the next show, significantly changed from its first incarnation a few weeks ago. A Los Angeles Street View picture, c. 6" x 4.5'. Mark Lewis; JW; Stuart Davis; Edward Hopper; DB.

The source -- one artist ventriloquizing another's performance -- feels very close to me.
- posted by cjb @ 9:31 AM

An abandoned mining camp in the Boundary Ranges, courtesy Dru. Varley; David T. Alexander.
- posted by cjb @ 9:13 AM

Our Saratoga Correspondent Writes

"Another fine show. The weather co-operated with no rain during the show, but goodness, rain of biblical proportions before[hand]. It seems that the extreme dampness caused Donald to lose the G key on his Rhodes but [he] said he would 'work around it.' Great work by the band, usual set list. Also during band intros Walt had his best Donald intro, rather than the [usual long-drawn-out] one, he turned to Don and said 'Oh it's you.'"
- posted by cjb @ 1:14 PM