Hokae, diary testing finished.

I'll repost this because lots of people may have missed t because of the diary oddness:

Tell us, How on Earth did you find Elftown? And for heavens sakes, where was it?! I've been looking for it for months! Y_Y

And then I write a newer entry.

Lemme try this again too.

This is another test, this time I won't edit it, because that made odd things happen. Again, let me know how/if you get notified Silv.

I see there are comment links from your diary to my replies, so that's working that way, at least...

Tell us, How on Earth did you find Elftown? And for heavens sakes, where was it?! I've been looking for it for months! Y_Y

The first test is <diary:1036442>

"Taking his cue from Evans, Friedlander crops a letter at a time from signs (the K of CAR PARK, the B of BAR), window displays, notices and advertisements, breaking the alphabet down into its constituent characters. Once the alphabet has been itemized in individual photographs, he moves on to numbers."
(From Geoff Dyer's 'The Ongoing Moment' which is a rather splendificious book about photography.)


Dammit, that's what I wanted to do, the number-thing. I wanted to make a wiki for photographs of physical manifestations of numbers (house numbers, price tags, floor numbers in lifts, license plates, anything). Damn you Lee Friedlander. :P



I wanted to share something else with you too, but I forgotted what it was.

...

I lost my working notage from my diary. And when I say working notage, I mean uni working. :/ Thoughtings, decisions and reasons for decisions which way I was going with the work, questions that I had to think about and address, etc...

*trying really hard not to swear*

That'll teach me to keep copies of stuff.
*cries*

The Offspring's finally releasing a new album, after 4 years. That's a long time. I'm kind of amazed how dormant a fan I have been about them... I kind of grew up out of them I suppose (especially after Splinter and Original Prankster... Didn't like that single <_< ), but now I'm finding out that I still like them. :) I grew up with this band, goodness sakes. It's like old friends. So I'm finding myself getting rather excited about the album release (17th of June) and I've been listening to Hammerhead¹ today, and I do like the sound of it. I think I'll go and buy the album properly on CD when it comes out, as a treat. It's been so long since I've bought records of any sort. If I'm not uber-broke, I might even get Ixnay on the Hombre too, as I've never actually bought it properly. And then I'd have them all (given that I could find my copy of Smash - I have thieving siblings and I haven't a clue where it is but I know I have it).

Yesterday I found out that I'm actually rather behind with my current popular music - me and a friend went to dinner with a family from church, and after the meal their boys (6 and 14) were quizzing my friend about musicians and bands whether she likes them (they had pretty different tastes in music, my friend being rather gothy/punky and the boys being more into softer pop) and I didn't recognise 90% of the names they mentioned. o.O



^{1 http://www.imeem.com/theoffspring/playlist/H-rX4DtI/rise_and_fall_rage_and_grace_music_playlist/
My Facebook actually said that the whole album will be streaming in full today at 4pm UK-time... If that's true, it'll be awesome :3}

*edit*

It's true! The full CD is there for listening! :D



I'm really keen on the album, I've been listening to it all day today as well as Monday. Trust in You and Kirsty Are You Doing Okay are awesome, although I'm not that keen on Stuff Is Messed Up, which is a silly title, as he sings "shit is fucked up" in that song... The excessive swearing in it puts me off. <_< *ish mormon*

Attenshun!
<URL:stuff/558PrototypeWIP1.swf>

Because I love you enough to humiliate myself for the entertainment of yous all:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gSDzFEXnMe8

There's a bit where I explain about my kingdom, and my giant snail. Also something about jumping into a tree. Ignore the ginger bastard :P

Dear creative beasts (aka my friends)
Please submit something for the Elftown Museum Permanent Exposition. Why? Because it's a brilliant idea. And because I ask you to? :3 Note that it's not a contest, it's a personal best, and I know you all have that. So go there now, please. :)

kthnxbai

Reading on copyrighty things again (someone still has the Orphan works -bollocks in their house even though there was a very extensive conversation about what it's for, so I'm in an aggravated mood). But here cometh a quote from
http://www.carfac.ca/2006/11/copyright-law-and-the-visual-artist/

"if artists are not paid for what they create, why would anyone make art?"

This question stumped me. Not because I can't answer it, nor because I've never thought of it, but because I can't understand the concept that anyone would need to ask this question. Look at art history. Did any of those people do it for the money (except for Salvador Dali :P And he didn't do it for the money, he did it because he was mental, but happened to like money :P) ? I honestly think that if there is an artist out there, who can't think of any other reason for doing the work than the money, then I'd dare say that that artist is in the wrong game. This is not the field to go for if you want to get money. Because art is so high risk. You really need to have a lot better reason to do this line of work. I do my work because I have to. If I wasn't in art school, I'd be doing my work on my spare time. If I never ever get paid for anything art related that I do, if I end up being a cashier in a supermarket for the rest of my life -- I will still do my work. In some form or shape, I will keep doing it. Why? Why? Y'know, I haven't a clue. But I will, and I have to. Because I wouldn't be me if I didn't. Sure, it's nice to get paid for the creative work that you do. It's nice to be in art school and preparing to make art a career - because that'll mean I don't have to split my time into "work" and "artwork", so that I won't have to have what would essentially be two full-time jobs just to sustain myself financially and personally. So yeah, if it pays off, good for me, means I can do better work. But in the end, if no one pays me for my work, if I'd manage somehow to do my art fulltime with no money involved -- that'd be just fine with me.



For those who couldn't care less, here's an interesting observation:
This group, CARFAC¹ is associated with another group called SODART XP Yeah, I'll trust their opinions about art, won't I? XD

^{1 Pronounced "car-fuck"}

As you may know, I am a bibliophile. If you are also, then have a look at this article from the New Yorker, about libraries and cataloguing information throughout history, especially now in the light of digitising books.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/05/071105fa_fact_grafton

Duguid describes watching a fellow-historian systematically sniff two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old letters in an archive. By detecting the smell of vinegar—which had been sprinkled, in the eighteenth century, on letters from towns struck by cholera, in the hope of disinfecting them—he could trace the history of disease outbreaks.

...

Thousands of forgotten men and women have covered Bibles and prayer books, recipe collections, and political pamphlets with pointing hands, underlining, and notes that give insights into which books mattered, and why.

...

But these streams of data, rich as they are, will illuminate, rather than eliminate, books and prints and manuscripts that only the library can put in front of you.


Have I mentioned that I love the New Yorker? :3 <3

An enticing medieval-esque staging of the first (or last) movement from Carmina Burana, O Fortuna:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBrgUbQs0A

Soft values

Quickly sharing something percussioney with you guyses:
http://dekku.blogspot.com/2006/03/music-for-one-apartment-and-six.html

Remember the Free Mickey -video some time back? (If not, I think [Hedda]'s diary has a link to it somewhere.) Here's another Lawrence Lessig lecture video - sort of a sequel - that I'd appreciate if you guys watched:

http://www.opensourcecinema.org/lessigfinal

I was very impressed with this (as I am with most of Lawrence Lessig's work - he is a very charismatic speaker), and my work for uni (and beyond my course, too) is beginning to revolve more and more around these questions. There is also a bit in the video that explains the harm in letting orphan works, these cultural assets, turn to dust.

I think I'm headed towards making open source art, by the way. I'm doing this sort of generative program thing in Flash, but I think in the end I'll let the image assets loose, too. :)

I found my ideal home ^^
http://www.erindalerealestate.com/4a_custpage_16798.html

How does this place comment in my diary thingie work? This is a test. Silvie, lemme know if you are notified, and in what manner. :3

*edit*
It's a different colour. That's interesting.

*second edit*
After editing things went really bizarre.

At the top it says

1036442
Written about every year at month number 12 and day number 31
Written:2008-07-12 12:08:09
Comment to: 1034386 In SilverFire's diary

WTF?


Directly after posting it said

1036442
Written about Thursday 1999-09-09
Written:2008-07-12 12:08:09
Comment to: 1034386 In SilverFire's diary

We went back in time?