you and me

this is a blog about me. and you.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

indonesian lessons pay off. favorite things learned:
hui akuarium (shark tank)
dialectical dog barks. "gonggonggong" (if the dog lives within java, with the verb then being "mengonggong") or "gukgukguk" (if the dog lives outside of java, making the verb "mengukguk").















teman - friend














ngobrol-ngobrol - talking (formally)

bercapak-capak - talking (informally)















teman-teman - friends















this photo is from bacon night at wando's bar and grill. every tuesday at 9pm they start serving free bacon. they cook 120 pounds of it. in indonesian 120 pounds is seribus dua puluh pounds. im romanticizing the numbers right now - 1,974 is written:
seteribu sembilan turus tuju puluh empat.
only two characters longer than
one thousand nine hundred seventy four.
i think my teacher tried to teach us the word for 'stupid' the other day. but we couldnt get what she was talking about. but we all talked after class and we're pretty sure she was trying to tell us what the word was for stupid. she kept making "doh!" noises, gesturing to her head, and finally turning the lights on and then off, before giving up and saying in english 'it doesnt really matter".
its all an exercise in interpretation, really. with all instruction on indonesian being spoken IN indonesian, sometimes it gets tough and you grab what you can.













my friend ian gave a lecture thursday on burma. i learned a lot. i think he teaches in hong kong, and while studying burmese here in madison, he lives in the dorm over on johnson with my friend kevin. i had planned to go over there to watch part of the world cup game on saturday morning, but ended up sleeping in lazily instead.












the indonesian word for dorm is "asrama". say it out loud (you could refer to the online indonesian dictionary kamus.net, which lists the pron. as "ah-sah-RAM-ah"). it sounds like how i felt when i found out i had to live in a dorm, which is how i remember it means dorm. but then i found out that the "dorm" i had been assigned to was actually a hotel, as the university i was studying at had run out of dorm space and was forced to put some students up in a hotel on 31st and 7th ave. and i realized that there are some really great dorms out there.












also, we spent 20 minutes learning what to say when your friend accidentally falls down and you're laughing at them. "hasian du lhu", and you have to drag your finger through the air like youre making a question mark. and roll your head a little back and forth, like youre in a sketch on that show "In Living Color". it translates literally to "Poor you". but we havent yet learned how to say "hey, can i help you up?" or "are you ok?" but the phrase for 'take me to the hospital' is
"anda pergi ke saya di rumah sakit."
or something like that.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

when i told my friend patrick that i would be in madison for the summer, he said
"ive heard about this thing called the Forevertron. I'm not sure where it is


















only that its somewhere in wisconsin.


















but if you can find anything out about it, you have to go! I dont even know exactly WHAT it is.


















Ive only heard that its amazing!"

i did some research. Forevertron is located about an hour outside of Madison. It is the worlds largest scrap metal sculpture. 320 tons. It is off highway 12.

When you go in, you're not sure what to expect, other than you get this vague feeling that you're entering some sort of wierd junkyard. And then you realize that there's a system. That you're looking at some sort of planned structure, and that theres a narrative going on here.


































its really hard to get these sculptures in pictures. i kept trying to get the scale of things, but then you get up closer and you see the event that they depict,















then you get up even closer and you see that their interior is made up of a scale from the chicago meat market in the early 20th century, 65 doorbells all welded together, half a fire engine cab, etc etc.






























This is Tom Every,



























who renamed himself Dr. Evermore after he gave his scrap metal demolition business to his son and started building the Forevertron (when he was in his 40's). all of the works here are made of scrap metal that was collected from his demo business. Dr Evermore was very happy to sit and talk about his work for awhile.



















Above is one of the more purely decorative sculptures. it is of a series of sea serpents. you can play their scales, which sound like a xylophone. dr evermore's wife eleanor played them for us, it rang out over the park, briefly overshadowing the 2001 theme song that was playing faintly in the background. 2001 had started to play a few minutes after tom and eleanor got there, but i never saw them go anywhere they could have hit play on any soundsystem from, and theres no one else who works there with them, so i dont know how it got turned on. and it only played once.

I asked Evermore about the work, the land, his history - his demolition business was industrial demo only, so they took down the big stuff, a lot of industrial factories, businesses, some labs. There is a piece in one of his works from one of the NASA decontamination units that were used to decontaminate the samples collected from the Apollo mission. There are also pieces from the Ford Museum, constructed by Thomas Edison.





























there are signs describing these sculptures as "sculptures of history". what happens when we take little parts of all these things that have previous cultural baggage/meaning, and then make something new with them - with what extent do the history of these objects color their reincarnation?





















Dr Evermore just said that he saved metal he thought was interesting and then wanted a way to recycle it so that nothing was wasted. but he didnt talk about why these forms, this story. thats his to know, i suppose.

this is another decorative work. an orchestra made up of bird figures.













































a lot of the smaller pieces in the park resemble human forms,




































aliens,






















spiders


















and birds.




















Evermore said he really liked birds, because "birds can just take off and go wherever they want to, whenever." we talked about how the sky and beings in the sky seemed like a recurring theme, and Evermore elaborated.




























There are many sculptures here, but several of the larger ones are specifically based on transmitting energy to or from the heavens and/or beings from space. the Futuretron sculptures are both constructed around a narrative of a "young scientist trying to send himself into space on a beam of energy" as well as being a series of experiential units that human beings could utilize in order to better view and interact with visiting celestial beings once they arrive on earth.
























above is the alien landing platform. "when something lands on it, the bird sculptures are all pointing like they're looking up, so they will be like a kind of greeting to whoever is arriving."
















And the pictures above and below are of the Celestial Listening Field, where people can sit and hear transmissions from space.













And, Dr Evermore said, "if the people in the gazebo speak into the speakers, the celestial beings may hear what they are saying as well."

Below is the main Overlord Control Center, "which is currently unfinished",














and which controls all the information coming into and going out of the Forevertron.






























And in the image above, behind the bird, you can make out the Epicurean Mobile, "where you can stop and have a snack if you get hungry".

I asked Dr Evermore if he is working on anything else in the near future, and he showed me some sketches from his sketchbook. He has been crafting a series that is along the same scale as the Forevertron, but a little different thematically. Its going to be amazing. Hopefully he will let me know when it will be installed. He said he needs some welders to help him finish the remaining pieces until his physical therapy is further along. (Evermore is now 57, and has been getting over a stroke for the past several months.) Talking to him was very inspiring - his energy, enthusiasm and drive are amazing, as are his belief in and support for public art and for doing what you believe (you can read more about him and his work in the spring/summer issue of Public Art Review Magazine).

Any welders looking for work in Wisconsin this summer should call Dr Evermore. He can be reached at the number for Delaneys Surplus in Baraboo, WI.

so this town is growing on me. i had a very madison day yesterday.
went to the famers market in the morning.



































saw the local baked goods































the local dairies





























(have you ever had cheese curds? they squeak when you eat them. also, a friend of mine said that she had always thought it was a rumor, a stereotype of wisconsiners that people in wisconsin loved cheese. but let me tell you, there were tons of cheese stands selling their wares this morning, and they were all packed with customers. and if there were free samples, forget it - you have to have some sharp elbows to get in on that action.)

flower vendors




























the canned goods


















saw the fresh veggies



































(this is actually the pile of sugar snap peas that i ate that morning, not the pile for sale.)

as i was taking this picture, this guy leaned over and said "you know, they taste better steamed". and then he and his friends laughed really loud. maybe he thought i was trying to use my camera to eat, instead of using it to take a picture.














am i naturally a tourist, even here, if im going out of my way to get a picture of things i dont see often, or things that strike me for whatever reason? it tells people that i am noticing the visuals, that i think they're remarkable enough to photograph, i suppose.















should everything be unremarkable, and photos only limited to what we find precious or exotic? is the farmers market exotic? i dont really think so, but who i am to say? i just thought some of the things i saw were nice. and i thought maybe you'd think so too.





















(see the people standing on the balcony? you can take tours of the capital building, and the tour ends with everyone going out onto the balcony and taking pictures of downtown madison stretched out before them. sometimes you can see their little flashbulbs going off. or whatever they call them now that everything is digital. flash leds?)

so i suppose thats good that i am feeling more at home here, more settled in - but i wonder if i will always look like someone who is sticking out, no matter where i go,whether its in this country, another country, my hometown, the town i go to school in, wherever. what does it mean to look like you belong? and who looks like they belong where?















(did i mention that as i learn more indonesian, i forget more of my english?)

and how do you behave if you REALLY live somewhere, does that mean you cant notice the little things that make up the everyday of where you are and that make it unique? and does to appreciate those things automatically make them exotic?
i wonder if i will ever really feel settled anywhere, as i hope every day i will notice the little things. and if that makes me stick out and look stupid, well, maybe i should give a shit.

however - i do feel like i am becoming more at one with madison, wi.



















even if i am doing it in front of a crowd of people trying to get on with their everyday lives. it still feels really good.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

stats:

my street















the courtyard of my apt complex:

















my front door (the one that says E, not the one that says R. all the apts on the lower level spell out the word BINDERY, as they are all below the grimm book bindery):


















the inside of my apt (from the view of my fully reclined murphy bed. and no, the wall isnt inverting in a temporal vortex, the tiles just reflect light wierdly).


















the street my dog and i walk when we go to the lake in the morning.
















my first madison sunset.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

















Ok you guys, easy. Sorry blog updates have been slow.

But, to put a positive spin on it – thanks for the emails, I miss you guys too!

Things are fine here in Madison, other than not having much internet time (at least not as much as everyone else is used to me having, apparently).

Also, oddly, every electrical device ive brought with me to work from has gone on the fritz in the past week. My camera’s memory (fine for the past 6 months) is mysteriously “unreadable” here; my final cut software worked in ann arbor, but now wont open to edit any videos; and two days ago my computer recently decided to reset its internal clock to a date in December of 1969. Its working fine otherwise, but spell check appears to be lost in a hallucinatory drug-induced stupor reminiscent of those smelly hippy days of yore (how can a misspelling of the word “turgid” propt it to suggest “halcyon“-? Perhaps a better question is what was I doing using the word turgid in a sentence in the first place.)

It is indeed a time for introspection. The physical world is a strange place - handwritten flashcards, homework assignments and talking to people in real time will take some getting used to. However, if I should ever get completely disoriented in this heady, graded, course-packets, physical space and chairs-connected-to-desks kind of a world that I am discovering Madison to be,
































at least theres a cow parade (or, as they would say in Indonesia, “Parade Sapi”) to keep me orientated in reality.































(Im sorry, this was the last thing I took pictures of before my camera blew out. I saw them and was completely shocked. I know, its hard to look at. Again, analog can be...daunting.)

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

i hate the sight of my own blood.

last nite i went out with my friends to a bar with one of those photo booths. we got photos.











































but then realized that the camera was lower than we thought.
so we tried again.












































i love these - once the camera started to go off, it was like we were on a roller coaster, everyone started screaming and we all got really giddy. it was beautiful. i feel like we all took a trip to virginia beach together or something.
then today i cut off the end of one of my fingers at work. i had to go to the hospital. one of my coworkers designed a bandage for me which i thought at the time was an excessive exercise in guaze wrapping.














but then this was the bandage that i came out of the emergency room with.














that and a perscription for vicodin.
my work called me later to tell me that they had found the part of my finger that i had cut off. that was nice of them. they laughed a lot and then threw it away. when i heard that they had found it, i was slightly embarassed. my roomate says that the part of my finger they found is like a souvenir. but then we were wondering, if its something you lost instead of a trinket from an experience gained, is it really a souvenir? what is it?
a memory perhaps. or maybe a ghost.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

while working at the museum, ive noticed that even the teabags the employees use are designed to hold and protect their contents in an efficient and aesthetic manner.

















sometimes we dont think about the things we hold, or their function.





























sometimes it just feels good to hold them.

















put them in another context however, and we cant help but think about them in the way we are used to thinking about them.
































if thats so, then who is really holding who?
















(photo credits by ronen goldstein)

Saturday, June 10, 2006

this has been a big numbers week.
56 hours worked.(i.e., not taking pictures for this blog)
three rehearsals for a show.

















one six foot giraffe built.





























4 days until i go to madison.
will it be fun? will it be a grind?
is summer over? or beginning?
am i being lazy? or trying to do too much?
should i take my time, sit back and watch life take its course?
these are questions i cant answer. right now.
but one question i do have is -
who doesnt like to go to the pool?

















no one.



Saturday, June 03, 2006

joie de vive, parts one through four

i got a new bike, yay!















it's a murry. once i got a new bike, i started to see bikers everywhere.















these bikers are actually in ann arbor from northfield, which i think is about 40 minutes away.
other people who bike, yay!

also, im working at the art museum part time as an art handler until i leave.















extra cash and spending time with pretty things, yay!

the other day i got to work in the rackham building on the 4th floor, which is a floor i never visited before.















some of the interiors in the rackham building are really beautiful. they make me think of ballroom dances and 1950's poise and jackie kennedy's smooth smile every time i visit.















all the materials that make up the rooms have their own weight, you dont look at them but then you cant help but look at them.















heres to joie de vive. in all its forms.