I guess that I’m missing the edges of things, where honest opinions are not averaged out into the singular voice of “the people”. In a weird way, I consider it to be the equivalent of McDonald’s grinding up thousands of cows at once to create the most consistent burger ever. It may be efficient and useful, but it’s also bland and soulless, if not unethical and dangerous.

And so, while everyone has the opportunity to express their expert opinion, the point becomes moot when the “expert” part of it is ground up into the noise of general opinion. Should we all really love or hate the same things? Give me some real opinions, not just loud opinions. Give me knowledge, not charts and graphs. Give me something crafted and singular, not derivative. Give me yoyo champions!

More yoyo pics after the jump.

I’ve never been big into poetry (too much of a philistine, I suppose), but I heard the poem that I’ve excerpted in the vid this past weekend on NPR and it really stuck with me. The poem is Rilke’s God Speaks to Each of Us. Absolutely incredible.

I’ve been very interested in the idea of content on the internet that is more performative, if you will. What would it mean to transcend the scale and form factor of the browser? What is the (Platonic) form of art on the internet? Tough to say. Despite the wonder and reach of the WWW, there is a fundamental lack of presence that makes work seem prosaic and small, and the most interesting stuff is typically straightforward and narrative (and often text based). Video or image-based work on the internet simply cannot compete with film or the physicality of the painted or printed image.

So what will the cultural artifacts of our generation look like? What combination of 1s and 0s will resolve into Beauty with a capital B? Time will tell. In the meantime, appreciate the past and take in the whole poem after the jump.

God Speaks to Each of Us

God speaks to each of us before we are,
Before he’s formed us then, in cloudy speech,
But only then, he speaks these words to each
And silently walks with us from the dark:

Driven by your senses, dare
To the edge of longing. Grow
Like a fire’s shadowcasting glare
Behind assembled things, so you can spread
Their shapes on me as clothes.
Don’t leave me bare.

Let it all happen to you: beauty and dread.
Simply go no feeling is too much
And only this way can we stay in touch.

Near here is the land
That they call Life.
You’ll know when you arrive
By how real it is.

Give me your hand.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s all kind of a no-brainer when you consider the combination of large, still bodies of reflective water, the mist off the crashing waves, rocky outcroppings, and introspective people silhouetted against the setting sun. We’re pretty squarely in David Casper Friedrich territory with this stuff (tell me this painting couldn’t have taken place at the site of the Sutro Baths). Everything becomes noble, evocative and nostalgic.

Of course, nostalgia is an idealization of the past, as if the Sutro Baths embody a gentler, more civil time, even in their devastated state. But when I did a wee bit of looking into the history of the spot, I came across a couple videos from the turn of the (18th to 19th) century that kind of undermine this idealization. They’re videos shot by Edison that show just what a zoo the Baths actually were. Quite honestly, it looks like a blast. I can only imagine rolling around the place sporting a stripey, full-body wool swimsuit and waxed mustache.

Skulls must have cracked like coconuts with all this action going on:

Check out all of the folks lined up to shoot down the slide head-first just a few feet away from the previous swimmer.

The rise of Lomography and Hipstamatic-like camera filters is something I’ve been noodling over lately. It is a curious return to the idea of the analogue and imperfect, not dissimilar to fetishizing vinyl and its limitations (or warmth and humanity, depending on your point of view). Both trends were championed by the hipster: vinyl coinciding with the first wave of contemporary hipster-ism, 1999-2003, and Lomography aligning with the hipster resurgence of 2004-present (you really must read this ethnography of hipsters. Proper infotainment).

There are certainly folks that claim that the trend is a vote against the cold and impassive nature of the digital, embracing simulated light leaks and improper “film” processing as markers of authenticity and equating amateurism with honesty. The irony is obvious: the images are ultimately manufactured and manipulated. But this is not a screed against the fake authenticity of these images, but instead an analysis of just why they are so effective. Quite honestly, I kinda like them. And the reason I think they’re quite acceptable is that the heavy filtering that Hipstamatic photos go through shifts the subject of the image from the item portrayed in the photo, to the photo itself. In other words, we’re not looking in the photo, so much as we are looking at the photo. It is the difference between a photo and a painting.

This is not to say that I’m equating the application of cheap filters to a cellphone pic to the skill involved in executing even the poorest of paintings, but there is a physicality and meta quality to any painting that somewhat applies to these pics. The images are not representations of the real anymore, but instead are interpretations of the “real”. And despite my ambivalence about Hipstamatic images, I am more than willing to accept that they can look good. Maybe that’s enough.

Happy as a clam, this one.

Another specimen. Bit less impressive. No less immobile.

Well, “thrash about” may be an exaggeration. Anyhow, an impromptu visit to the Golden Gate Park in the morning yielded a very helpful fact: the California Academy of Sciences is open for members an hour before other visitors. We had an hour free of the usual throngs and got a good look at the oh-so-photogenic animals in the place. Top on that list has to be Claude, the albino alligator, who suffered a bit of a mishap with one of his toes a few months ago. Take a look at his right-front pinkie toe, or area that used to be his right-front pinkie toe. Seems he had a run-in with his ex-tank-mate, and ultimately had to get his toe lopped off (full story here, and it’s a pretty interesting one).

Anyhow, here’s some vid of the guy and some picture of the fauna after the jump.

Close inspection shows Claude to be a pretty interesting handbag, if you’re into that.

Little frog that looks like a lump of colorful clay. Not for snacking, though.

‘Nother toxic frog.

*shiver*

I dunno. Interesting looking fellow.

Penguin playing with a leaf. This guy would swim around and play with the leaf for the crowd’s pleasure. We’re such suckers for that kind of stuff.

I came across an article in the SF Chronicle that inspired this latest post. It concerns the art of aquascaping, or iwagumi, which is basically the art or plunging as much money as possible into as small a fishtank as possible. I’ve mastered that art. I’ve invested enough time and money into a 7 gallon fishtank to provide for a small family in some other country that does not concern itself with these crazy hobbies (pretty much anywhere but Japan and San Francisco). Regardless, perhaps the time for the tank to pay for itself is near, as I have 2 pregnant Crystal Red Shrimp in the tank.

More about my little xmas bonuses and some pics after the jump.

These guys won’t grow to more than an inch in length, but can command up to $1000 per shrimp if they possess some sort of highly valued pattern in their coloration, as the article notes. I’m thinking the Virgin Mary, or something along those lines. I’ve already had a batch of babies hatch, but I think a 2 dollar guppy has eaten most of the fry, enjoying meals that are way more expensive than I would eat myself. Tough to tell, as they are incredibly tiny for the first few weeks, so I’m hoping they’re hiding out in the plants.

Mama 1 coming ’round the mountain.

She has a “tiger tooth” pattern. Okay, but not $1000 dollars worth (don’t follow that last link unless you are willing to concede your last vestige of hipster-ness).

One of the little guys from the last batch after a few weeks of seasoning.

Another denizen of the tank. The largest organism in my ecosystem, fully 1 1/4 inches long.

So large that he has his own entourage.