Vitro Nasu

Tony and daughters came to SF for wonderful food and company. (Found youtube)

They obviously did not go to Fun Fin Fin fsfs – fake squid fast stop – Chinese Restaurant.
Jurgen, Hal and I prefer the Chinese Noodle houses – they are within our budget. They serve noodles, duck and rice soup and other standard Chinese food. Jurgen and Hal have never met in real life but that does not stop them from talking and choking on German artists. (Do not miss the great videos of Rebecca Horn and Eva Hesse).

Speaking of Noodle house, Milan Kundera was linked at my Noodle Place post I did last year February.
(Very chop suey like – with an image of “Debt to Pleasure – Imagining Kundera, Kureishi and Tanizaki”)

Chop Suey
by Edward Hopper

There are number of interesting films that came out of the Independant cinema world about Chinese restaurants in overseas.

Vivian Wu in Kinamand

“Chinaman”: the unconventional love story of a Danish plumber and the restaurant proprietor’s sister whose only hope of obtaining a residence permit is marrying a Danish national.

Trailer here (without English subtitles)

Trailer for “Combination Platter” – Tony Chan made this film.

See Čínská Restaurace in Prague. I have never been to this restaurant. The friend of a Czech family I knew fixed a Chinese dish to show off his skill once. Many Czech restaurants have one Chinese dish in their menu among goulash, dumplings and Palacinky (pancakes). It does not matter what you eat, wonderful pivo (Czech pilsner) beer washes down the food. At the train station stops you often see people drinking pivo at 8 am before their commute to work. “Ceske Pivo, Prosim” “How dare Milan leaving Pivo country! We will go after you like the befuddled tourists who get arrested in our public transport; their crime: not knowing where to buy the ticket.” Ticket booth is no where to be found, no gate to go through etc. Very mysterious system. (I don’t know if the Prague police are still harassing the passengers today. You pay a large fine on the spot to the police of course. For foreigners only.)

Enough!

My geisha cacti are playing Sarah Failin and John McInsane this morning. We have a few more weeks to put up with this team. (Previously Fear and Trembling and Memoirs of C. Geisha – Andy W and Glenn G)

Some readings I’ve done recently…..

Kenneth Baker interviewed Zizek

Kenneth Baker interviewed by Timothy Backwater, and Part II
(I’ve always enjoyed reading Kenneth Baker’s reviews on art at the SF Gate, now I got to see what he looked like and learned about his background.)

Laughing with Kafka by David Foster Wallace (This one remind me of Nabokov lectures to his student on Kafka)

Nabakov on Kafka – Vladimir Nabokov played by Christopher Plummer

Part II of Nabakov on Kafka

Michel Houellebecq directed a film called A Possibility of an Island, starring Benoît Magimel (He was in The Piano Teacher, had a daughter with Juliette Binoche).

Right Again: The Passion of John Stuart Mill (by Adam Gopnik at New Yorker) Delightful reading, J S Mill’s wife was a feminist and so was he.

This one from Michael Berube

That one isn’t good for you
Though he may want you too
This one wants you back again

Oh, and this one would be happy
Just to love you, but oh, no, no, no
That one won’t be happy
Til he’s created a huge new
health care bureaucracy

This one would be John McCain
Would always feel McSame
If this one gets you back again

And finally don’t pass up on this Dickhead whose life was cut short tragically, unlike another dick-cheney-head who is hiding in his bunker.

Shark fin tissue used for Shark fin soup.

JTwine and I have started a Fung Shark Fin Soup project.
A misspelling of my name Fung Fin Hall by Jurgen had led to this new exploration and creative possibilites. He is German and I am Chinese we don’t like to waste anything. This should keep us busy for a while.

Now back to my other new project.
Tissue 2

Tissue 2 is my response to the current controversy regarding Issue I.
Tissue in this instance is not from our body or shark but more like the tissue you find as Angel Soft, Cottonnelle, Northern or Charmin. (Pay attention to different patterns from these brands – this is a digital photo based collage.)
See Flickr Tissue here.

Featuring the work of 3, 164 poets. Completely unpermissioned and unauthorized, pissing off the entire poetry community. Either you’re in or you’re not.Issue I from Poetry anthology.

i think this is funny and i approve of it -Tao Lin(a reader of depressing books)
i’m excited, i really like Tsuyoshi Yumoto – Tao Lin (again, in one sentence.)

Mme Levy of La Vache qui lit called out a certain delusional old poet for his post on Issue I

Lime Tree

I take this to be a characteristic pathology of artistic/intellectual community on the web: the constant panic over whether one is presenting oneself in the most sophisticated and even-handed light, and whether someone else has outdone one in this regard. I don’t know if the project was consciously deployed in light of this dynamic, but that’s certainly the way it’s manifesting its effect. Or maybe this is just me projecting. Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed.
Lime Tree on Issue I

I am bothered that he is bothered

Dear The Future,
Even though I’m not actually
Ron Silliman, I’m pretending
to be just for the sake
of this poem. (read more from Hitler’s Mustache)

I enjoyed reading Shaviro’s response, here.

The Author, Resurrected – Amy King’s Alias

Filed under: Artifice, Blogging, Entertainment, Poetics, Poetry, Sexy — amyking @ 3:23 pm
Tags: Author, Barthes, Death of the Author, Internet, Ownership, Poetry Anthology, poets, Situationist, Spectacle

Issue #1 Faux Anthology - Nick Piombino of fait accompli

I would just call it-The Unbearable Lightness of Issue #1. There is something about that huge sudden ironic parody that calls for instant recognition of the non serious nature of the intervention. This is the “unbearable lightness of blogging” as I have termed it, par excellence.

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TP Meditation

Denis Diderot

October 5 was a birthday of Diderot and Louis Lumiere.

French philosopher, and man of letters, the chief editor of the L’Encyclopédie, one of the principal literary monuments of the Age of Enlightenment. The work took 26 years of Diderot’s life. In seventeen volumes of text and eleven of illustrations, it presented the achievements of human learning in a single work. Besides offering a summary of information on all theoretical knowledge, it also challenged the authority of the Catholic Church. (Via)

Diderot was a freethinker who disregarded any dogma, tradition or authority, ecclesiastical or secular, over his mind—his right to think and express his thoughts. He never found the answer of his quest, but he described the enigma of our existence (via)

La Religieuse (The Nun)
Jacques Rivette’s La Religieuse (The Nun), 1966 is the adaptation of Denis Diderot’s novel (1760).
The film was banned despite Anna Karina’s great presence and acting.

What is a Diderot Effect? (Beware of trading up – the burden of wealth).

Beware of the contamination of sudden wealth. The poor man may take his ease without thinking of appearances, but the rich man is always under a strain.

L’espirit d’escalier

that moment of belated inspiration when you think of the perfect comeback for a difficult encounter only when you’re walking down the stairs after the conversation is over. That’s another Diderot effect I observe too often in myself. (On Diderot Effect)

Late Theresa Duncan named her blog The Wit of the Stairecase

From the French phrase ‘esprit d’escalier,’ literally, it means ‘the wit of the staircase’, and usually refers to the perfect witty response you think up after the conversation or argument is ended.

Snowball Fight

See also The Card Game (1896) on youtube.

“The moment the object jubilates gush forth its qualities”
—Francis Ponge

Michel De Broin who works in Montreal and Berlin

Questions and answers via artnet de

(5) What is the purpose of your art?
As a strategy, I often intensify the function to show its absurdity, but I see art as what frees itself from any function or intension.
(7) What does your art change?
Change is understood as something positive, but we should consider that what we call change as a natural process participates in a progressive and irreversible degradation of resources, slowly forwarding us to an inexorable end. In that sense it is probably better to not be held responsible for too much change.

Pedal car meets the law in Canada, video on youtube here

the case was thrown out. The Shared Propulsion Car was deemed nothing more than a glorified bike with a roof. (Pedal car not guilty)

See Lost Object and a hilarious video Inside Out

When a visitor penetrates into the space, the latex form retracts and hide into the wall like an improbable animal.

Black Whole Conference consists of 72 chairs 400cm in diameter.

Kermit sings it’s not easy being green. Posing for this portrait of Kermit Higgins is easy, his friends have done it before.

Scene from Dolittle McCain instructing Eliza Palin.

Audrey Hepburn wanted to sing in her own voice but the Studio got Marni Nixon to sing for her.
If Rex Harrison could use his voice, why not let Audrey sing in her voice?

Extra McCain cartoon: He put it on Ebay

The Pain in Spain falls mainly on McCain – Time magazine

American Psycho – The Greed took hold under Reagan

Pyramid

Enrique Chagoya

Fair and Fair alike 2009 – Art Pretenders (Joanne Mattera)

The crowd pleaser: Enrique Chagoya, Pyramid Scheme, at Lisa Sette, Scottsdale; at Art Miami

American Psycho - Business card exchanges

More scenes from American Psycho

Click to enlarge! Things I got from garage sale.

Cow Gorilla

Click to see a pair of Antonio Gaudi Arm Chairs - Palacio Guell

UPDATE: “You got both BOTH chairs at a garage sale?” – Alan Sondheim asked.
MY reply: The big chair I bought many years ago. It was sold hastily by a roommate. The owner of the chair was very sad when he found out that I paid only $5.00. Too late.
The small one I found last weekend.
Should have titled this both BOTH.
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Found this great photo from Democratic Underground commenter.
Is Hillary blowing a kiss? Did she learn this from Marilyn?

“Now, if you’ll indulge me one last time…” (Read our Hillary Clinton’s Thinly Veiled Loathing for Obama speech-o-tron, from Newsgrist)

Maya
Barack’s sister has the voice and the same confidence her brother displays. (Maya Soetoro-Ng at the Convention)

Michelle
Gorgeous Maya and Michelle bring fresh air to the tense and chaotic Democratic Convention in Denver.

Networks Sleep While Democracy Burns by Timothy Karr.

The late George Carlin, all he wanted was to wake up a hamster, Dennis Kucinich wants to Wake up America. (Youtube presentation – the Media never covers Kucinich).
See Dennis Kucinich and his wife minipops(repeat)

Denver Diary by Amitava Kumer who is writing for India Express.

Fay Ryu’s Blog is all about Neko and Meow C Tong
(Sean alias Meow C Tong is the son of my sister Fung Ching Kelling and Fay is his girlfriend)

Comic by Fay Ryu

Birds by Fay Ryu

(Birds eating the Face of Hitchcook)

Bye bye birdie – audio clip The Mexican Jay calling

Digital image by Fung Lin Hall

Also see this video - Pigeons deliver drugs to Brazilian inmates.

Bye bye George Carlin!

What is your greatest fear?
To lose the power of speech.

What do you most value in your friends?
Their ability to exchange overcoats while running at full speed.

(read more from Vanity Fair – Proust Questionnaire on George Carlin)

Wake up the hamster, from Carlin’s homepage.

His last interview: on Arthur Koestler (Psychology Today)

The jester makes jokes, he’s funny, he makes fun, he ridicules. But if his ridicules are based on sound ideas and thinking, then he can proceed to the second panel, which is the thinker—he called it the philosopher. The jester becomes the philosopher, and if he does these things with dazzling language that we marvel at, then he becomes a poet too. Then the jester can be a thinking jester who thinks poetically.

More Carlin quotes

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section?” She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. – George Carlin (via)

Le monde du silence: Opening shot – Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Louis Malle, 1957

Tao Lin underwater hamster (Reader of Depressing Books Blog)
Gas-powered oceansunfish -alligator hybrid
Network card’s raft ride to freedom realizing it’s fucked

Literature is inside of life

Tao Lin has developed his own unmistakable and unique style by utilizing a contagiously honest way of writing. Marcelo Ballvé discusses Bed and Eeeee eee eeee with the author.

Exactly What I Want -

I want three friends within a 40 mile radius; one 5 miles, one 10 miles, one 30 miles, two females and one male. The male should talk very slowly and laugh at almost everything I say. I want to send one of the females mixed CDs very often and her send me mixed CDs very often but rarely see her in real life. The other female I want to see in the daytime sometimes for lunch. -more here)

Previous post Diver here.