The Free And Independent Republic Of Washington Square

January 1917

“United Studios of Eldert”

June 2007

wtf?

http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=1978

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/Treasures/Dodo/dodo.html?dinos

These birds were extinct less than a century after humans discovered them in Mauritius.

http://anthro.palomar.edu/hominid/quizzes/ho1quiz1.htm

Also I’ve been listening to this audiobook “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson repeatedly for weeks now.

Most of the information here is so digestible yet still I tend to forget what I listen most of the time, which is mostly because the audiobook is 15 audio cd’s long and is full of an interesting piece of knowledge interconnected to another events all seamed together.

Narrator was talking about a site found by Louis and Mary Leakey near in Great Rift Vallet in Africa. Olorgesailie. It’s an early human’s tool factory where they produced axes and spears… for a millions years.

Interestingly none of the tools were sharp enough for anything! And this site was active up until 200.000 years ago, starting from 1.5 million years ago.

They have no idea who used the site for what purposes, they haven’t found any skeleton remains around to tell. The stones used were brought from mountains 6 miles away.

what follows from that is history proper.

the unfolding of the free and unfettered human consciosness.”

the earliest record of truly bipedal gait. And romantism.

I recognized this piece as soon as I saw it. I cannot confirm the relationship from the description on the burning man site. But I still say it’s a beautiful art piece inspired from an archeological find. Although my hope is that Laetoli footprints are made by a male and his female companion rather than a mother and a child.

Passage
by Karen Cusolito and Dan DasMann

The sculpture represents a mother (30′ tall) and a child (20′ tall), walking side by side through an unspecified time. Their hands are extended toward each other, the mother’s over the child’s, and from her hand pours a liquid flame. The flame mingles in the child’s hand for a moment, then pours into a long pool of fire which flows before them. The hands on the outside of the figures are extended and from each a gentle stream of water pours and collects on either side of their bodies into long reflecting pools which flow forward toward the horizon. From behind each figure trails a series of burning footprints which diminish as they get further from the figures, marking the history of each and the energy they shared with the earth during their passage. The mother’s gaze is fixed on the child. The child is looking forward to the horizon, at the future.

http://www.burningman.com/installations/05_art_grant.html

A convicted rapist who won £7 million on a Lotto draw while serving his sentence was released from jail last night as the Home Office admitted it could do nothing to prevent him from collecting his windfall.

Iorworth Hoare, who was jailed for life in 1989 after he was found guilty of one rape and two attempted rapes, was released from Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset, prison sources said.

There was a public outcry last August after Hoare, 52, from Leeds, bought the winning Lotto Extra ticket during a day release from prison.

David Blunkett, the then Home Secretary, promised that prisoners would be banned from benefiting from lottery wins while in jail. He also said he would look at whether a “substantial slice of the winnings” could go to a victims’ fund.

A spokesman for the Home Office said last night that no measures had been put in place to ensure that victims benefited from a lottery windfall if won by a criminal.

He added: “We can’t prevent prisoners from playing or winning the lottery. It could end up with us being taken to the European Court of Human Rights if we tried.”

A spokesman for the lottery operator, Camelot, said: “The only rules governing who plays the lottery are that you have to be over 16 and you can’t work for Camelot.”

John Donne (1572 -1631)

From  C. S. Forester’s description of British Army Headquarters in The General:

“It was like the debate of a group of savages. As to how to extract a screw from a piece of wood. Accustomed only to nails, they had made one effort to pull out the screw by main force, and now that it had failed they were devising methods of appliying more force still, obtaining more efficient pincers, of using levers and fulcrums so that more men could bring their strength to bear. They could hardly be blamed for not guesssing that by rotating the screw it would come out after the exertion of far less effort, it would be a notion so different from anything they had ever encountered that they would lough the the man who suggested it. “ …

From Kevin Sites Blog :

“A gunner sitting in the armored turret of a humvee fires 40-millimeter grenades non-stop into the building — until the gun jams.

Staff Sgt. Terry Mcelwain of Burden, Kansas is pissed. He grabs the bazooka-like AT-4 rocket launcher from the back of another humvee. It’s fire trail zips into the now smoking building. Mcelwain wants Weapons Company to fire a tow missile into it as well, but low hanging electrical wires make it impossible — so he calls up the tanks instead.

Two Abrams lumber toward the target. They stop and fire their main guns in unison. The explosion shakes the street. But the Marines aren’t done yet.
They pour in more rounds from 50 caliber machine guns and their M16′s.

But as the unit moves past the building, going from east to west, another RPG explodes behind them, then a third. More casualties. A Navy Corpsman cut the pants leg off one of the injured and wraps a guaze dressing around the bleeding wound while another Marine covers with a 249-SAW (squad Assault Weapon). But regardless of how much firepower the Marines bring to bear — they can’t seem to silence this phantom enemy, which continues to fire on them from the rear…

 The gun battle continues late into the night — eventually an AC-130 gunship is called in and strafes Elizabeth Street with its mini guns. With eight of their men wounded–it is a bloody and disappointing start for the Marines — and a reminder that to win the battle for Falluja — they will likely have to fight as they did today block by block, street by street. “

So we went there with friends one night and screamed a bunch of non-sense:
“Give me a green card! Please.” (since it was close enough to the INS office)
and
“Allah-u-akbar..” this one was an interesting idea since we were right across the court.

In the Economist I had read about these virtual worlds being popular in Asia. However I imagined them as Final Fantasy worlds where you have a goal which you have to accomplish. I guess it’s not exactly that. I heard this online game Second Life through Boing boing. It’s just like Sims -which I never played-. But it’s just seriously virtual. There are “80′s Disco Parties” in there! We sat down with this woman and talked about the meaning of -second- life, and the hierarchy of needs in virtual life. I said “we’ll all die eventually” and left.

Virtual schizophrenia comes to Second Life
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/10/virtual_schizophreni.html>
“Burning Man” realm in online world of Second Life
http://www.boingboing.net/2003/09/09/virtual_burning_man_.html
I’ll be at a virtual book-club meeting in gamespace this Sunday
http://www.boingboing.net/2003/09/16/ill_be_at_a_virtual_.html
Virtual Oz theme-park created in online game
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/14/virtual_oz_themepark.html

I beleive it will get bigger and better from here.

But don’t tell me she is “real”.

Her webpage is here.
NY Times article is in the extended entry:

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl
By MICHELLE YORK

Published: September 28, 2004

INGHAMTON, N.Y. – The hottest new abstract artist in town has reason to celebrate.

This summer, she went from selling her work in a coffee shop to having her own gallery show.

After a local newspaper’s feature on her, about 2,000 people came for opening night – everyone from serious collectors to the artist’s preschool teacher. She earned more money than she could comprehend. The gallery owner said it was his most successful show ever and scheduled a second one for October.

So celebrate, the artist did. During a recent visit, she climbed on a big bouncing ball shaped like a frog, grabbed the handles and bounced around the house with laughter pealing and pigtails flying.

The artist is Marla Olmstead. She is 4.

Her preschool teacher hasn’t taught Marla much of anything yet. And nobody wants her to – at least when it comes to painting.

“I think Marla is as gifted as any child I’ve ever seen,” said Anthony Brunelli, the Fine Arts gallery owner in Binghamton, who is displaying Marla’s work. “I don’t think she’s aware of what she’s doing. I think it comes from within.”

Marla uses bright acrylic paints, which she brushes, splatters and scrapes on large canvases to create art that commands attention. She sometimes works on one piece for days at a time. When she decides she is finished, she gives her paintings titles like “Dinosaur,” or something reminiscent of a bedtime monster. Then she leaves the grown-ups to see images and meaning.

In the beginning, her parents said, people bought her work without knowing her age. Then customers bought it because of her age. Some say she is a prodigy. Some say she is just playing. Her parents are sensitive to criticism that has not been voiced yet – at least not to them. They do not push her to paint or tell her how to do it, they said, and they do not spend a penny of her growing bank account. If she decides she wants to stop, she will stop.

Marla’s father, Mark Olmstead, a manager of a Frito-Lay manufacturing plant, was the first artist in the house. “You know how some parents put their kids in front of a TV to keep them occupied?” said Mr. Olmstead, an amateur painter. “Well, I let her paint, so I could paint.”

She first picked up a brush when she was 1, painting on an easel. Then her dad would put her on top of the dining room table and let her paint on canvases. “Soon after, I was letting her paint and I was watching,” Mr. Olmstead said.

By age 3, Marla’s paintings caught the attention of a family friend who wanted to display them in his coffee shop. When customers asked to buy Marla’s first large canvas painting, the artist’s mother, Laura Olmstead, who works part-time as a receptionist, priced it high, she thought – $250 – so it wouldn’t sell, because she had a sentimental attachment to it. It sold the first day.

“She has no concept of money,” her mother said. “She was really into lip gloss, so I told her it was enough money to buy a whole room of lip gloss.”

This spring, a friend of Mr. Brunelli’s bought one, and brought it to him at the Fine Arts gallery. Mr. Brunelli is a painter whose photorealistic works are displayed in SoHo. He was drawn to Marla’s work. He and his friend stared at it like children staring at clouds, seeing flamenco dancers and their vivid movements on the canvas.

Then the friend told him the artist was a toddler. “I admit I was a little skeptical at first,” Mr. Brunelli said.

He discovered Marla’s father was his high school classmate. A week later, he visited the family, scrutinized more of Marla’s work and watched a video of her painting. He bought one for himself and gave up his August vacation so he could organize her show.

“When I’m in Marla’s presence, there’s a weird little feeling ’cause I know there’s something inside this girl that many artists look for their whole lives and never have,” Mr. Brunelli said. “But it’s in this little 4-year-old.”

Another person equally impressed was Stuart Simpson, a California businessman who was working in Binghamton when he heard about Marla. He bought three pieces, including one called “Bottom Feeder.”

“I typically don’t like abstract as a rule,” Mr. Simpson said. “Don’t tell Tony, but I would have paid any price for ‘Bottom Feeder.’ “

Mr. Simpson and his wife own paintings by Renoir, Monet and Manet. They have a space picked out for Marla’s work now, too.

Others scoffed. “If I didn’t know a 4-year-old child had done it, I wouldn’t take notice,” said Yvonne M. Lucia, who turned down Marla’s work for the feminist exhibition, Rude and Bold Women, to be on display in October at the Y.M.C.A. in Binghamton.

Another artist, Orazio Salati, said: “I think her ability is her desire to paint, her excitement and the opportunity to play. There’s a lot of finger-painting in the process.”

Parents of other budding artists have besieged Mr. Brunelli. “They’d never produce that, never,” he said of the other children.

As for the skeptics, he said, “People wouldn’t be buying the work if the work wasn’t exceptional.”

In all, Marla has sold 24 paintings totaling nearly $40,000, with the prices going up. Her latest paintings are selling for $6,000. Some customers are on a waiting list.

Laura Olmstead still gets teary-eyed when her daughter’s work sells. She would rather keep it herself.

“It’s beautiful whatever your child does,” she said.

Meaning, why do you fight against something so hard, when you have never seen any outcome? This many years after Vietnam, you make a war protest, one of the biggest earth has seen. The first ever war protest -before- the war even starts. yet the war still starts.

War happens

maybe for a reason. The biggest reason of sadness, anger and frustration maybe serves purposes.

I don’t believe in the utility of war protests. some 35 years later London and New York City can still ban a protest organization and turn it into an “anti-war parade” anyways.

Went out with friends to Bar 515. After we had agreed to go there, I had seen this girl on 34th and Madison handing out “Complimentary drink” flyers. I took 2, and then 13 more for the rest of the crew. I realized “free alcohol” is appreciated like nothing else.

Last night I drank

1 margarita
2 jack daniels
1 beer
1 jackdaniels
1 beer
1 beer
1 jackdaniels
1 mcdonalds coca cola

went to 5 bars including 515, CBGB’s, that colorful (creativity overkill) bar on 2nd ave and 2nd street, Piano’s and my neighbourhood’s Bar 159. Looked for the girl who handed out flyers in 515, took pictures of my friends band at CBGB’s, gave the name of a completely made up friend “Paul” to get into Piano’s and listened to some good solid house set by Derrick from Cleveland at Bar 159.

I realized only one person in my colleagues was smart enough to get drinks from the two bars located in the front and the back of Bar 515. it wasn’t me. I was an hour and 2 whiskies late.

At Piano’s they had this 8–12 year old girl on stage, with a red cloak. she was trying to hush people to begin whatever she was going to do. I don’t know what kind of a performance an 8 year old can do in a club without me attributing a
Lil’ Bow Wow worth of charisma to her. she stopped her performance before it even started since she “forgot something”. Drunk and annoyed I rushed out.

I promised Abdel at the door that I’d be there for his show on October 6th. He plays african drums, I told him about Central Park Drum Circle, he said he’s the real thing.

being single is all about drifting around in this city.

What drew my attention was this mans effort in the video; trying to run his life away from from the missiles landing on his left and right.

Of all the months in the year (there are 12

of them) August is the one I like most. August is one fine month.

http://www.hurriyetim.com.tr/haber/0,,sid~1@w~1@nvid~453673,00.asp