Reviews: Wolfgang Tillmans

We went to the Hammer Museum to see the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibit. The photographs are curiously closed down and matter of fact. Like they're pretending to be neutral and devoid of content. But they are queer, odd and emotionally resonant at the same time, they're tilted. One of a man and a deer on a beach, you can't quite reconcile beach, man, deer. Why is the deer that size, who has ever heard of a deer on a beach, why is the man near the deer? It's all very odd.

We saw it a while ago and I haven't mentioned it in my political catatonia and switching jobs and all. But I recommend seeing the exhibit. Go to Westwood and park in the building, they'll validate!

Talking Turkey

This morning, as I made myself bacon and eggs for breakfast, I thought "What did I do in my life before I discovered turkey bacon??????????"

Turkey bacon, good turkey bacon, it's only s few calories per stick, it has a nice salty & smokey flavor, it's great on Turkey Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches. BLTs didn't exist in my life prior to turkey bacon. Oh yeah, and eating any form of meat. BLTs wouldn't have been part of my life prior to starting to eat poultry and fish.

I love turkey bacon, and life is just great now that I have discovered turkey bacon. Some turkey bacon is pretty much like cardboard and I don't like that turkey bacon, but Wellshire Farms turkey bacon (I'll give them a plug) is pretty damn good.

You might be thinking, wow, turkey bacon. Or you might be thinking, what the fuck is up with Scott? She's usually a tad more pithy and angry than this. I don't stumble onto her blog to read about turkey friggin' bacon.

And you're right. There's an election coming up, over 100 soldiers have died in Iraq this month, 43 people exploded in a car bomb in Baghdad today, global warming is happening and I don't have air conditioning in my apartment. There's a lot going on. But I can't get into it. I'm happy to just walk my dogs, go to work, eat turkey bacon and shop. I could be doing something other than that. But it's just so hard to get up every morning and be angry. It's so hard to think globally and act locally. It's so hard to read the fucking new york times and Frank Rich's articles which totally rocked this week and have a take away. What's my take away? That the U.S. is being run by a ruthless bunch of motherfuckers who don't know what they're doing and who are too arrogant to take the advice of experts. Give me my bacon, man. I can't think about that. It's easier to think about turkey bacon.

Because how do you ask the last man to die in a war that was a stupid idea to begin with?

And our government has asked that question a hundred times this month.

And Halliburton has posted record second quarter profits this month.

Give .... ME ...... TURKEY ...... BACON

Axis of Stupidity

Does anyone remember that axis of evil speech?

The duly unelected George Jr. gave it. In talking about Iraq, Iran & North Korea he said; "States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. I will not wait on events while dangers (sic) gather. I will not stand by as peril draws closer and closer. The U.S.of A. will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

And then he invaded Iraq. A country that was run by a bathist, i.e. pan arab nationalist dictator who didn't like islamist fundamentalists and who didn't train or harbor Queda operatives and who didn't have weapons of mass destruction.

And in invading Iraq he put fear in Iran and North Korea who now have nuclear weapons while U.S. forces are stuck in a no-win quagmire in Iraq - a country that didn't have terrorists or weapons of mass destruction.

Good going George!

And while I'm on the subject of stupidity, the Republican hysteria on homosexuality continues to fuck them over. Yes, Dennis Hastert should resign, he protected an idiot for political purposes. But it ain't homosexuals who are ruining our country. If you're worried about children, then you should be locking up men. After all 95% of pedophiles are strait men.

Reviews: What to Wear

So we went to see "What to Wear" an opera with music by Michael Gordon and libretto by Richard Foreman.

It was a totally amusing event, with fantastic music and a truly Dadaist sensibility. The costumes and props, of which there were many, were charmingly home made, like the original Dada costumes by Hugo Ball.

The opera concerned the concerns of Madeline X, who is beautiful. Madeline X was represented or discussed by a quartet of singers, dressed up like four psycho Andrews Sisters. Madeline has a brain inside her brain that is a box that either is or is not open. Madeline likes or doesn't like to play golf with or with out ducks. There are big ducks and BAD DUCKS in the opera. Ducks who go into restaurants beautifully dressed are eaten. There was a gaggle of "movement ensemble" performers and a rather large chorus who also moved. The performers who were not Madeline were dressed in black suits, with short trousers (the golf thing) and large kilted barrels wrapped around them. They wore striped glasses and a daub of paint on their chins to represent goatees. One of the chorines was an adorable young thing who was having a great time, she couldn't stop smiling. Though when you have a striped golf club as a prop you probably shouldn't be smiling. The set was a charming homemade mish mosh, with a card and mirror motif reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. Indeed the movement ensemble and chorus looked rather like pawns. Occasionally the movement ensemble would push in a large duck tank. I really enjoyed myself and would certainly buy the album - the music was absolutely wonderful. And I would recommend the opera to anyone who doesn't mind not knowing what's going on. If you have to know what's going on, then don't go.

This picture is of Leche with the "PRE" version of the french market bag. I knitted and knitted and got this huge bag, all floppy. This was my first knitting project that did not involve a rectangle or square. It was also my first felting project. I knit the thing in the round and it was large and floppy. Then I popped it into the washing machine in hot water. And it came out like below. I followed the recipe (I guess they call it a pattern) which I would never actually do if it was a recipe, and the things I wanted to change I should have changed. Proving that knitting isn't really that complicated. Here's a picture of the POST felted bag.