Garbage men in Frankfurt, Germany, think art installation project is refuse and haul it to the dump. Are now being sent to art remedial school.

Apparently the installation materials looked like they were discarded construction materials.

I know the feeling. My poor found art roller disco chicken from my freshman 3d design class met the same fate. It was so cool. Made me think of Picasso’s toy car head monkey. My chicken was made out of a portable gas tank, spray bottles, duct tape, toilet brushes, and old thrift store roller skates. This was when a lot of my ’supplies’ were purchased at thrift stores or on my parents’ Exxon card.

Just discovered the downside to the kitty shelves. Phunq is sitting up there on his little dalmatian print shelf purring away at me and there are two huge phunq drool slime trails rolling down the screen.

Ew.

Cody wanted me to burn a song I’d bought on itunes onto a cd so he could rip and convert it to mp3. The crap non ipod owners go through for portable music. I secretly cheer for the guy that’s suing Apple. No, no one forced him to buy music through itunes and I don’t think he should be awarded ridiculous damages. But it might make them change their assinine refusal to let other companies swim in their DRM paddling pool. That’s really what cases like this are about, boys and girls, making corporations change something.

Anyway, I didn’t want to waste a whole cd for one song so I burned a whole disc of songs. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but we usually hate each others’ music. A lot. I tend to gravitate towards old-school punk, funk, 60s and 70s soul, classic rawk, glam, 80s alternative, album rock, old jazz and blues. Even classic country. He likes what I call Lezbean Rock: Natalie Merchant, The Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge. Of course I’m just teasing about the lesbean rock thing (I have absolutely positively no problem with lesbians I just like saying it this way because I think it sounds cute) but he sure has a thing for those gravely-voiced gals. He also likes what I call “novelty” music: Weird Al, Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants. Lately there’s been a lot of Dutch music listening too. And he’s been learning to appreciate Punk.

Sometimes we agree: Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, The Stone Roses, and, oddly enough, Rosemary Clooney.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we have one very distinct difference in what we value in our music: I like how it sounds and don’t usually care much what they’re saying. He likes what they’re saying and doesn’t really care too much how it sounds. That’s today’s explanation anyway.

So we’ve been together since July 1997 and I’ve never made a mix cd or tape for him before. And here was my perfect chance. But I didn’t want to put anything that he would ridicule too much. I wanted him to acutally like what I put on there. Mostly.

So here tis:
Goo Goo Muck - The Cramps
In a Funny Way - Mercury Rev
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads (that’s what he wanted recorded)
Chariot’s Rise - Lizzie West
I Want You Around - Ramones
Slide Away - The Verve
Gold Dust Woman - Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
Common People - Pulp
Fisherman’s Blues - The Waterboys
The Boxer - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Ways to Be Wicked - Lone Justice
I Will - Alison Krauss & Tony Furtado
Shade & Honey - Alessandro Nivola (from Laurel Canyon)
Ever Fallen in Love - Buzzcocks
Sweetness - Yes
Take the Skinheads Bowling - Camper Van Beethoven
A Case of You - k.d. lang (see? I like lezbean rock too. when it’s good)
Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen
Pale Blue Eyes (live) - Hole
When a Woman Loves a Man - Billie Holiday

Sorry about the lame itunes links rather than offering mp3s but mr man’s been giving me a hard time about sharing music these days.

We are sick, sick people.

Word got out that I haven’t read any Harry Potter books so I was promptly given a set for Christmas by Cody’s parents. Which is kind of ironic since they live in a town where there had been publicized Potter-story-magic-is-of-the-devil protesting. But they’re not that fundamentalist. (coughyetcough)

I was happy to get them I’d been meaning to read them because I like the movies just hadn’t gotten around to buying the books. They’re excellent sick reading. Goes quickly, doesn’t take a lot of thought to follow the plot, easy to drop on your chest for a nap and pull out from under the blankets to read later.

I’m completely surprised to admit it but they’re worthy of all that hype. My surprise would be because I’m a big snob that has almost no confidence in the ability for the general public who dictates pop culture success to show good taste. Sorry. But you all watch way too many reality tv shows for me to not think that.

Don’t get your reality tv-lovin knickers in a big, defensive knot just yet though because sometimes I show even worse taste.

Last night while making Frito pies with Cody (recipe below) I was telling him about how nonplussed I’d been by actually enjoying the books which made me enjoy the movies even more. Then we started talking about all the popularity, promotional tie-ins, candy sales, etc. A few minutes later we were making up rip-off names for bad porn movie titles. Like Lord of the G-String, Beverly Hills 9021-Ho, Dude, where’s my Dildo? You know, the classics.

These were our favorites:

Harry Potter has big Sorcerer’s Stones
Harry Potter and Marilyn Chambers’ Secrets
Hairy Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Asskaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Desire
Horny Harry follows the Orders of his Penis
Harry Potter and the Uncut Prince

Yes. Hello! We’re twelve years old. But I couldn’t resist posting it anyway. And if I’m going to get such creepy search engine referrals I might as well run with it.

Cody’s really concerned that he’s going to come off as a big perv in this post so I’d like to note I’m fairly sure I started it. Wouldn’t say I’m a big perv but I would admit that I usually have few illusions about the lower orders in the minds of men.

If you’re wondering what a Frito pie is…

Basically a cup or so of Fritos corn chips smothered with (Texas) chili (as opposed to New Mexican chile sauces), topped with shredded cheese or cheese dip, then sometimes with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and/or onions, salsa, sour cream, or whatever else you can come up with. Some eat them in bowls, others on plates, there’s a very vocal contingent who refuse to eat them out of anything other than a sliced-open bag of Fritos.

Not the healthiest food in the world but sometimes ya just gotta eat stuff that’s bad for you and damn the consequences.

We usually make it with leftovers of my homemade chili (which I’ve been making with ground turkey lately) and plain old embarrassing rotel cheese dip, an addiction to which I’ve been battling for the last twenty years.

New Mexicans take their Frito pies very seriously and many claim it was invented at the Woolworth’s in Santa Fe. The legend has held strongly enough where there’s even allegedly a rider in the lease contract requiring that anyone who rents the former Woolworth storefront on the Santa Fe Plaza must sell a specific recipe of Frito pies no matter what else the store is selling. Not sure if this rumor is still around or not. Yes, Santa Fe is weird. And full of hippy-crites, resentful locals, glad-handing ranch-owning state politicians, and really annoying tourists. But you’ve gotta love a town that has priorities like that in proper order.

I waited to order the cats’ yule gifts until after we got back. And we did go with the cool monitor shelves I mentioned before.

They seemed like the perfect idea since phunq and melon are always hopping up on the monitors enjoying the warm air from the fan and trying to look cute by resting their chins just above the screen.

In case you’re curious the order was very easy to place using paypal. They sent an email with a tracking number when it shipped and it got here in about a week.

They’re perfect! Clearly handmade which I think adds to the charm. There are really cool adjustable legs in the back with adhesive on the bottom to prevent slipping and there are two large velcro strips on the bottom in the front so the front stays flush right above the screen. I wasn’t entirely sure if this would be stable enough for my heaviest (at ten pounds) phunq boy jumping up there but it hasn’t moved at all. Well, they say it holds up to 25 pounds and I’d believe it.

We got two different fabrics. One in imitation fleece for Cody’s monitor (pictured above) and another in dalmatian print faux fur for mine (below).

I highly recommend these for cat and computer enthusiasts! So do phunq and melon they just love them! Kurry has never been much of a high spot kind of cat and has gotten a bit old for high jumps anyway so she remains neutral.

There are a few more photos in the photo journal.

While national US news sites and news-related weblogs never fail to gleefully point out articles that make people from Alabama look like ignorant, racist, illiterate, blindly religious, snake-handling bumpkins, stories about good people who make a difference are quite rare.

Not seen on any other news site.

Seems it’s time for the The Winter 2004 Edition of Neurotic Fishbowl’s Burn It. I opted out of the Fall 04 edition because the theme, while interesting, just didn’t inspire me. I haven’t been in school in years (and frankly didn’t like it much when I was there) but mostly because I didn’t get all the cds from my Summer 04 group and I was still annoyed about that.

In fact, I got all the cds but one. And what kind of chaps my ass is the person whose cd never got here is a semi-famous blogger too. She’s almost always on other semi-famous blogrolls and while I never really got into her site much before, since the exchange all I think when I see her linked on other sites is, “You never sent your cd! You suck!” And she was even hosting some kind of cd exchange on her own site but damned if I was going to sign up for that.

I’m not trying to start some big blog valley high drama it was just annoying to me because I worked hard on my cd, buying songs on itunes, making cool labels and liner notes, getting neat little envelopes for them, bought little extra goodies like stickers and balloons to put in with the disc, even mailing it out before the deadline and she didn’t even send the friggin music she agreed to do when she signed up. So seeing all that linky love for her annoys me sometimes. That’s all.

Anyway, I found this new theme, remixes, to be a fun one. Probably inspired by that really cool What is Hip cd Kymberlie mentioned a while back which I’ve really been enjoying - as was my dad when I uploaded it onto his computer over christmas. So I’m going to bite the bullet and sign up for this one. And I’ll try not to take it personally if I never get any cds back.

But I’m telling you this now: if you never sent your Burn it discs out (or, for that matter, never bought your secret santa gift - especially if you didn’t send one to the cool woman who was my secret santa) I’m completely and totally a better person than you are and you SUCK.

However, it’s not too late to redeem yourself! Even if it was for Christmas 2003 you can still send something! Include a note explaining how sorry you are that you suck so much. Throw in an extra cd! Or buy something worth twice the amount you were originally supposed to for the secret santa drawing! At least try to renew your jilted person’s faith in humanity and exchange games. You’ll feel better. And that weird nagging feeling of guilt will be magically gone! Unless you forgot to do something else…

So go sign up but ONLY if you’re going to actually send your discs ok? Seriously. Don’t bother if you’re not going to send them. Because it only makes you completely and totally SUCK and people to stop signing up for cool things like this.

Sculptor makes money by sculpting food

Reminds me of that weird “art for all the senses” idea I had in 92 but never did anything about. It’s in a refrigerated room but damn you know that butter smell gets old.

Young Prospective Artist Finds Herself in a ‘No Sketch’ Zone

A second grader was scolded by a security guard for sketching some of her favorite paintings at a traveling show entitled “School of Paris: Masterpieces from the Baltimore Museum of Art” which included works by Matisse, Picasso, Monet, and Degas. The guard claimed that the artwork was copyright protected.

The museum has since issued an apology and is inviting artists to sketch to their artistic hearts’ content as long as they don’t get in another viewer’s way. Sketching other artists’ works is an extremely common practice among all ages of art students and is encouraged and sometimes required in undergraduate and master level classes.

Seems Mr Big Time museum security guard has recently read the infamous failure to copyright is akin to communism interview and thought he was doing his bit to prevent artistic terrorism. (Please note my restraint in making a bad performance art joke at this juncture)

There was some kind of early Kubrick theme on TCM tonight. I missed Dr Strangelove I have that on DVD anyway but I caught Lolita from the beginning. This was maybe my seventh time watching it from beginning to end? It’s extraordinary considering the period of time during which it was created but I think the 1997 version with Jeremy Irons is a little more faithful to the Nabokov novel and the story’s original time period.

Dominique Swain was a real treat playing the nymphet in the remake. Really she captured that greedy selfish gawky baby gazelle beauty that seems to be the essence of pre-teen girls. The essence that seems to attract men with an arrested imprint on what they consider attractive. I say they just haven’t matured beyond their first junior high crush.

Sure there’s the bullshit biological argument that they have an inherent urge to breed and these girls are freshly of birthing age but that’s a totally crap excuse. I think for the most part men date significantly younger women because they get to teach these young girls the ways of the world without the risk of being called on their shit as they would be by women who are old enough to have experienced life for themselves and don’t need some manipulative asshat to tell them how they should do things. In effect, they get to be the big man and their young girls won’t have the inner strength that comes simply from experience and survival to refute any of Mr Big Man’s declarations on life and mankind.

These men fear being with a mate that could be considered an equal, a peer. Because said mate could potentially beat them in whatever bullshit man-game their tenuous egos rely upon for their self-image. These man-games seem to range from jar opening abilities to obscure football play knowledge. Or in a more modern age: fragging his ass in Counterstrike to knowing cleaner more functional Perl code. It’s all the same status-reliant crap just different mascots.

This was supposed to be my thoughts on watching Paths of Glory for the first time but my prepubescent girl-lust rage took over for a bit. Sorry.

And if you took offense you might want to examine that sore spot for edges of truth. Oh hell you all know I’m full of crap and this is such an old argument anyway.