language is a virus

new place to go look for blogs, art info, writing, and stuff

2009-08-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

Hey I am focusing my blogging, writing, and web design efforts here these days, so that is where you can go and read new stuff and bookmark and rss and stuff, and all that, if you please. Thanks for being flexible, and for your interest. I appreciate it!

This image is a detail from one of my radiator oil prints, several of which will be shown at the Mina Dresden Gallery the week of September 19.

one of my new feline housemates

2009-08-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

mavis, one lucky kittie...she has a cast on her back right leg as she was hit by a car and had to have surgery. She hops around very well, it's kindof amazing, although she was always agile. Her friend Simon the big black and white cat is not pictured. More pics to come I expect as I hang out at my new place, cat sitting and the like.

social imprints, printing with a purpose

2009-07-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

Social imprints is a great new company that combines eco-friendly and non-sweatshop garments and office supplies with customized printing and embroidering. The company is founded on a mission of hiring and empowering people who have been incarcerated and recovering addicts with higher-paying, higher-functioning jobs and job training. They also feature profit sharing, collaboration, and co-management combined with excellent customer service, web-based ordering and custom websites.

Let me know if you are interested or know someone who may be, check out the website, and I can get you a quote. keatts@gmail.com.

new blogs somewhere else

2009-07-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like I am going to start posting in some different blogs, based on my newly redesigned and very exciting (to me, and possibly squarespace) website: www.charleskeatts.com

The new blogs will focus on web design, while this one will be more focused on my art, writing, and personal stuff. My website of course will have pages dedicated to art, writing, yoga, tae kwon do, and other areas. It's all very blog-centric don't you think?

The new site I hope looks a lot cleaner and professional, although it definitely needs work on links and content. I am still learning the squarespace design tools, so it should only get better and advertise my skills.

notes from my newest show: visual art and poetry

2009-06-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Charles Keatts – New and Recent Work, 2009

“Blue resin, windows, visions, what is this I, what is this seeking the now?”

I work with recycled, reused and found objects like old windows, and industrial materials like resin and spackle along with traditional oil paint and other standard media. I combine these elements in ways which are interesting to me, often relying on chance and accidents, a project I have been involved in for over ten years. I am inspired and influenced by artists like Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, Vikki Highland, Lucky Rapp, PJ Harvey, Crystal Ainardi, Steve Scotten, the dada movement, and many others. I seek to find the truth or reality in the materials, the moment of creation, and whatever state of mind I possess in that moment. The title of this show is a type of Buddhist Zen Koan, stating the obvious and also asking the questions: what is this I that asks? What is this seeking or wanting of the being in the present, of seeing, viewing, thought, breathing?

In addition to the usual brief description of the piece I have added poems/experimental texts, to give the viewer a better idea of my process around the work or interpretation. As part of, in addition to the visual art, text as visual, words or thoughts in the mind-brain.

All of these pieces were completed in the last year.

I have recently temporarily reduced my prices. I welcome commissions and corporate work.

10% of all sales go to the Breast Cancer Fund.

Past shows have included:

Studio 425, Kent, Ohio: group and solo shows from 1995 to 2000.
Zephyr Cafe, Kent, Ohio: solo show, 1996.
Unitarian Universalist Church, Kent, Ohio: solo show, 1996.
Black Light Ball, San Francisco: group show, 2004.
Church St. Cafe, SF: solo show 2008
Campaign Office of Carol Migden, SF: solo show 2008
Open Studios, SF: group show 2008
Private fundraiser for Breast Cancer Fund, Oakland 2009
Open Studios Art Explosion 2009 (2 group shows)
The Barcode, Pier 3, San Francisco 2009

Upcoming shows:

August 11, Featured Artist, 17th and Potrero, Art Explosions
Burning Man 2009, pending approval from BRC.

My education includes The University of Pennsylvania, Kings College London, and Kent State University. I recently took a class on glass work in Oakland. Walking around cities and looking at art all around the world is also a great education.

Charles Keatts
keatts@gmail.com
415-637-7330
www.charleskeatts.com

Front room, left to right:

1. decades
canvas, oil, resin, mixed media on glass, 2009
250

what doesn't sit well
sits well in the corner
a dirty broom flies dancing

2. essential dictation of colors (still)
vinyl and oil, resin on wood, glass, 2009
250

see what you see in this lens of your eye
wallace stevens said let be become seem
or something like that:
ice cream was the emperor then
as now

3. liquid sky (isolation)
resin, paper, metal tape on glass, 2009
250

she ignores me for a minute
it's her self-preservation kicking in
I don't blame her and take a drag
on my gitanes

4. new order
resin, photographs on glass, 2009
250

we were singing in the blue shade and
the end was near the beginning but
far from turtle mountain
see her in her true nature

5. power, corruption, and lies
resin and acrylic on glass, 2009
250

yeats said that we love what vanishes
I always remember that as my
skin burns away
too close to the sun

6. low-life
resin on glass, 2009
250

I want what I don't have but really
there is no I for real
just this idea

Back room, left to right

1. unknown pleasures
resin, photographs on glass, 2009
250

this is the most important thing
she said:
“you must care”

2. white light, red heat
oil on car radiator, 2009
250

craning our necks for a better view
a hot day of parades and sneezing
where do you get pancakes around here?

3. on the ocean floor (transmission)
oil, graphite, glue, tape, vinyl on canvas with cord, 2009
250

joy division
sonic youth
kool thing live
the world moves on a woman's hips

4. she's lost control
resin on glass, 2009
250

humming along in san francisco fog and heat
foghat steve miller led zeppelin
swans rush big black black flag
she's lost control again

Payments: I accept cash, check, or Paypal. I am setting up credit cards on my website so let me know if that is your preference.

I want to acknowledge and thank people who have been supporting me in art and life recently and helped make this and my many other recent shows possible: Wickie Stamps, Jen Freitas, Kate Shankari Sadowsky, Art Explosions, Steve Scotten, Michael Belfer, the Barcode, Lynnore Goldfarb, Corey Denis, Serin Silva, Lynne Herman, Linda Boucher, and many others.

Even if you don't buy my work right now, please donate to the Breast Cancer Fund or other non-profit to help sustain them in these tough economic times.

If I had known in elementary school that I could make stuff like this and call it art I might be rich and famous by now: support art education.

art shows and web design

2009-06-27T00:22:00.000-07:00

So I am taking my stuff down from Pier 3 after an interesting show there in a very nice space. I am putting up newly made art, windows with resin and acrylic, at Muddy Waters Cafe at 16th and Valencia, starting today, until the end of July. This coffee shop is literally a block from my apartment so meeting up is very easy for anyone who wants to grab some coffee and chat.

This cafe has done a lot of nice renovations lately and I'm happy about how the art looks so far.

I'm working on a new website and here is a sneak peak at this in progress site. I'm working on a business plan and strategy for starting up my web design business again. I've been working on site design since the late nineties and want to offer simple and affordable web sites that involve very little stress for me and my clients. I think communication and being clear about timing and progress is key. Many times a web project turns sour because the designer overpromises and then does not communicate clearly about what is happening, what is taking so long, etc. I want to be different, and my communication skills and integrity around project management and honesty will help.

What I am listening to this week:

Automatic - The Jesus & Mary C...

Leading by Omission - Ricardo Semler

2009-06-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

Excellent video from a very forward-thinking business guy.

some thoughts and some art, megan wolfe and desiree holman

2009-06-20T19:12:00.001-07:00

I need to head over to Berkeley in a minute. Glide and Indian Rock are planned for tomorrow. I applied for a job at Red Poppy today and have been in contact with Faculte about a position there. Updated my resumes, etc. I think it's funny that a potential employer for a sales position would be concerned because someone talked about their art or writing on their blog instead of music or tv or whatever else salespeople are supposed to be doing. Personally, I am working or being productive with lots of projects all the time and my blog reflects this. Multiple interests. If a company is worth working for they will see the value in that. A recruiter thought I should "clean up" my blog which is funny. Take out my comments on Burma or potential comments about marriage equality, since I was thinking about it? No thanks.

I was thinking about Zen Buddhism and what I like about it. Things are as the are, even if we can't comprehend them or describe them. If I feel weird, that's it, if you see God, that's it. Just another experience. Nothing special. This point of view usually makes sense to me.

Megan Wolfe covered some shows recently for Fecal Face, a gallery and site I will try to refer to as FF or FFG since I think the name is silly. I really like the shots of Desiree Holman's work. Pretty amazing.

I've decided that I really want a job that involves some type of management, like product or sales management, or working on some kind of project. I am currently working with David Park to get the Park Studio going, and there is real progress being made there.

I know that sitting at a desk and cold-calling is not what I wnat to do for the rest of my life, but of course I would take something like that, even in a good economy, if it was a good company and there was hope of growth sometime soon. These things do not interfere with my life unless I let them.

Trying a new blog design, again. Let me know what you think!

productivity for beginners

2009-06-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

So I am no expert on productivity or getting things done and I use Merlin Mann's blog a lot recently: 43 Folders is great.

I had a not very productive day yesterday. Lots of interruptions and no chunks of time to get into the flow much. I did manage to do things for sure, had a great meeting and great and wonderful conversations. But I wanted more.

One of the dangers for me in this kind of day is the desire, around midnight, to just keep going. In the wee hours I want to compensate for an entire day of missed opportunities and dissatisfaction. Not a good recipe for sleep, especially if I have to wake up at 6 a.m.

So I came up with a solution. I asked myself, Self, what could I do for 10 min. that would seem satisfying enough to be done with it? I picked the first thing that popped into my head. After 10-20 minutes of real focus I felt better and almost ok. I was able to go to bed having experienced focus and making progress on something that was important, even a priority maybe. The alternatives were to lay sleepless maybe or try to do five or ten things until 2 a.m., which does not sound good or sane.

So I would like to try this again and would love comments that would support this or mirror similar experiences.

Bessemer 10 Laws Of Being SaaSy Fall 2008

2009-06-16T19:44:00.001-07:00

Very interesting presentation on Saas and strategy.

Bessemer 10 Laws Of Being SaaSy Fall 2008

View more OpenOffice presentations from Philippe Botteri.

Power Of People - Short version

2009-06-16T16:37:00.001-07:00

marketing 2009 101 ...

Power Of People - Short version

View more Microsoft Word documents from Joakim vars Nilsen.

from a Machado poem

2009-06-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

I really like this stanza that I just read from my friend Michelle's fb page:

Last night as I was sleeping
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures. --Antonio Machado

Here is a link to the whole poem:

last night as i was sleeping/

art at pier 3, with fashion, music

2009-05-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

Waiting for my bluebottle coffee at Ferry Building, heading over to Pier 3 for my second day at the Barcode, a big cool fashion event put on by some awesome people from SF and Marin. going to get a canvas to work on while I am there. until 8 today, then noon to 5 sat. my work looks great in this space, and it is good to try different environments with a nice cross-section of people. call me or email if you have any questions.

two art shows in may and new photos, fundraiser for BCF

2009-05-13T18:22:00.001-07:00

While I continue to look for a job in sales and to develop new business and art-related opportunities, I have exciting stuff going on like two shows coming up in May: on May 23rd my friend Jen and I are having a private party/fundraiser featuring my art at her house in Oakland. All sales of my art will go to benefit the Breast Cancer Fund and my upcoming burning man art project. Contact keatts@gmail.com for details.

Also on May 28, 29, and 30 my art will be part of the Barcode, a fashion, music and art event at Pier 3 in downtown San Francisco. Part of my sales will again benefit the BCF.

Although the date says last weekend, it will happen again!

I just organized some new photos of work online, including some shots of work in progress:

Hope to see you at one of these events, and as always feel free to contact me if you would like to view anything in between shows. As always, I appreciate your interest and support, even if you can't attend.

What my art is about

2009-05-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

So what is my art about? I ask myself this question more than other people do, mainly because I am around myself a lot more and I think I'm supposed to have an answer. So I wanted to break down some of the history, art history, behind my work and how I think it relates. The main terminology around my newest pieces, a combination of old windows, car radiators, lights, paint, and other media are the following: found objects, dada, conceptual art, assemblage, and abstract expressionism. I think it's interesting how we can combine these different elements to express something, in what is perhaps a postmodern fashion.

Found objects: wikipedia gives a good definition here and I use old windows, car radiators, and other objects in my work to combine the ordinary with the standard artistic medium, to go outside the normal boundaries of art, canvas, paint, etc. These boundaries are weaker now than they were a hundred years ago, but they still exist.

Dada: one school or art movement that used found objects and influenced my work. Marcel Duchamp was considered a dadaist at one time, but moved on. His Large Glass has influenced me perhaps most in my window pieces. This definition states, correctly, that Dada was seen as anti-art. I think my work lives in this tension between art and anti-art in a way that the Dada movement was not quite able to maintain, although some did it. Subverting and opening up art from within by going against it and being within it.

I like this statement made by Duchamp in 1964:

Pop Art is a return to "conceptual" painting, virtually abandoned, except by the Surrealists, since Courbet, in favour of retinal painting... If you take a Campbell soup can and repeat it 50 times, you are not interested in the retinal image. What interests you is the concept that wants to put 50 Campbell soup cans on a canvas.

Conceptual art: one of many discussions on the term. What is a concept? Can any idea remain fixed? What about impermanence?

Assemblage: A really good description of what my art is about, along with modern painting ideas.

Abstract Expressionism: Much of my work was along these lines since 1989 when I first picked up a brush. I have deviated into minimalism and more conceptual work along with way, and obviously found objects.

Postmodernism: Interesting article that mentions Lyotard, who I'd like to read up on.

My current work is available for private viewings up intil about May 20, and I have a private show coming up in Oakland on May 23rd. Please let me know if you have questions at keatts@gmail.com. I twitter at charleskeatts and have a website at www.charleskeatts.com.

how derrida helps me write and think and other musings

2009-04-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

Recently I started reading some Derrida after a long break. I did not really understand his work very well a few years ago and my brain does not seem any different, so I had fairly low expectations. I just wanted something that would wear out my brain so I could sleep.

Instead of wearing me out right away, I actually understood his work better. I started reading "Cogito and the History of Madness" (from Writing and Difference), a lecture given on Foucault and Descartes. It made more sense than before, and it helped to organize my thoughts or the way my brain was working so that it was easier to think in terms of editing and writing a novel. I noticed that other things I might do, like looking at truly random information on facebook, did not help me think in a linear or helpful way to write better.

art show

Apparently I am in some kind of transition in my art career looking at a shift from smaller group shows and open studios to a stronger focus on getting gallery representation. Taking myself more seriously in a good way but not in a bad, ego way. That has been my main focus in the last few months, working with a life/art coach and attending dozens of gallery openings in the city. My work and feelings have reflected this focus. I have different feelings about open studios and that environment than I did a few months ago. It seems to be a natural or even long-time-coming progression after making and showing art for over ten years. I also get whiny sometimes when things don't go as I want and expect them to go. Internally whiny anyway. So I am trying to do some good things while still trying to sell art. Raising money for the Breast Cancer Fund, for one.

hanging out: important. need more of that, especially with friends.
twitter: good ebook presented by @timoreilly
face book: getting the word out. communication and self-promotion.
filter: just rediscovered this old ohio band.
ayurveda: helping me to be healthier and reminding me of yoga and other spiritual ideas
writing: moving through the editing process of the novel and getting some ideas, maybe good, maybe bad, we won't know...until I try them.
job search: got better today when I started actually doing it again. some leads...
movies: getting ready to watch the girl who leapt through time and re-cycle. watched max payne this week. a terrible movie I enjoyed thoroughly.
buddhism: my meditation practice is good, doing it and feeling nothing much. reading Hardcore Zen which is great. ultraman!
new headphones: needed good earbuds to block out my noisy apt so I can hear music and movies and relax.
web design. alternatives to current designs. my brain + web design = brilliance?
girlfriend: she is awesome and better than ever. need to spend more time with my friends though. busy beavers...

evening viewings

2009-04-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

I've noticed today that my work with windows and lights is better viewed in the evening in a darker environment. So...I would like to schedule private viewings at night in the next week or two. This is not just for people who like to buy art but so that my work can be seen in a better environment. Please email or comment to meet up. ck

simulacra and simulation: baudrillard

2009-04-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA - it is the map that engenders the territory....(Baudrillard, 1994, p. 1)

When I took an intro to Psychology course at Penn in the late 80s, the professor insisted over and over that "the map is not the territory." This still may be true, but is there a territory any more? Or has the map replaced it? Or has the map, the sign, taken the place of a territory, or signifier, that we longer for and assumed was there but never existed? So many things are unreal, so many things have become hyperreal. This article is a good starting point for understanding or contemplating ideas generated by Borges, others, and influencing films like the Matrix, as well as my art and writing.

new art show, open studios, art explosion, my show constellations and radiations

2009-04-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

As part of an amazing group show I will be showing new work and some older work along the theme of "Constellations and Radiations". This is my personal theme and not the theme of Open Studios.

Art Explosion Open Studios 2009
Preview Thursday April 23rd 5pm - 8pm
Opening Reception Friday April 24th 7-11pm
Open Studios Sat & Sun April 25th & 26th 12-5pm

I will be attending all the hours we are open at my studio. It would be great to see you there.

Open Studios General Announcement:

Please join us in celebrating our 15 year Anniversary with Art Explosion Open Studios 2009. Each year over 100 artists at three locations join together in opening their studios to put on a memorable show. There will be many fabulous works of art and jewelry on display in the galleries and studios during this event. It will be an exceptional opportunity to add to your collection, buy unique gifts and visit your favorite local artists. We will be having a preview Thursday night from 5-8pm which is a good time to stop by after work and get a first look. Friday the studios will be hosting our big opening receptions from 7-11pm with refreshments. Make sure to stop by for an evening of spectacular art viewing and mingling. Saturday and Sunday we will have our open studios from 12-5pm.

Opening Receptions: Friday April 24th 7pm - 11pm

All three receptions are within walking distance or a short drive and will make for an enjoyable evening out.

Art Explosion Studios 2425 17th St @ Potrero (my studio is here, #112)
Art Explosion Studios 744 Alabama St @ 19th St
Art Explosion Studios 2345 Harrison St @19th St

good tax music

2009-04-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

the stooges (iggy pop and) search and destroy

I'm a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm
I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb
I am a world's forgotten boy
The one who searches and destroys
Honey gotta help me please
Somebody gotta save my soul
Baby detonate for me
Look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology
Ain't got time to make no apology
Soul radiation in the dead of night
Love in the middle of a fire fight
Honey gotta strike me blind
Somebody gotta save my soul
Baby penerate my mind
And I'm the world's forgotten boy
The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy
And honey I'm the world's forgotten boyt
The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy
Forgotten boy, forgotten boy
Forgotten boy said hey forgotten boy

Raw Power - The Stooges

my first novel, blue, on kindle and iphone

2009-04-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

After looking into and starting the process a while ago, and then looking again and seeing that Kindle was now a reader available for Iphone and ipod Touch, I gave it a try again and was able to get a new cover, pricing, and text of my first novel, Blue, loaded on the Amazon website without too much trouble. I'm excited for people to be able to read my first novel at a lower price and in a way that is convenient for them. It's easy to upload text and I may try to put a book of poetry on their as well.

Here is the Amazon link: http://tinyurl.com/d6cp6b

Working on the novel

2009-04-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

I recently talked to my friend Lou, a poet who has written several novels, and others, and my Creativity Coach, Wickie of Monstre Sacre, about my novel in progress and they both agreed that I need to focus more on the forest and look at the 2nd half of the book, the one I really haven't revised much or even read since I first wrote it.

I have revised the first part, really the first third, many times, since I was going to publish it as a novella, and then changed my mind. Reading the rest of what I've got makes sense.

So far I am surprised and somewhat dismayed at how personal and autobiographical it is. How much will the reader be interested in my life? As if they would know it was my life...but anyway...how interesting is this material? I took a class this weekend from one of my favorite writers, living, dead, or undead, Stephen Elliott, on writing literary fiction or non-fiction using your personal life. It was a good class and is making me think about who my ideal reader is, and how similar they are to me. My friend Anne is probably my ideal reader, currently, as far as I can tell. My friend Simon used to be but my work is not dark or horrific enough for him anymore.

My ideal reader probably likes the following books and authors etc.: Infinite Jest, Ulysses, William S. Burroughs, (my friend Brian comes to mind...), Franz Kafka, The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch, maybe Kundera, Rules of Attraction, Nadja by Andre Breton, Paul Bowles, Samuel Beckett, Bukowski, maybe Natalie Sarraute and other new wave novelists, also maybe Middlemarch and Saffron-Foer. An eclectic mix, for sure.

Even though my style is not that similar, I feel closest to Kafka in some ways, in the sense of saying "yes, everything is fucked up, but so? it can, and will get much worse..." I think this is the world I write about, with characters more cynical or depairing than myself. Writing about hope is not as interesting to me as how people deal with the lack of it.

the joys and pains of writing and editing a novel

2009-03-15T22:16:00.001-07:00

so I somehow managed, in the last 8 years or so, to write a rough draft of over 150K words, over 500 pp on word depending on how you slice it. big.

anyway, I have revised certain parts of it, like the first 2 or 3 hundred pages, several times. and I just started what I thought was going to be the last revision, I hoped, and got through 90 pp making significant changes. so...just realized the other day some basic changes I needed to make, starting again from the beginning. feeling that it is an endless, neverending process. endless and neverending.

the truth is that most of the changes I've made are still there so none of my ongoing efforts have been wasted. It is a better novel than it was a few months or years ago. and as I go through the first hundred pages I am establishing a baseline and better understanding for the characters and story then existed before.

writing a revising a novel is easy, just stick your hand in the fire. ow that hurts! good, now do it again. repeat.

meat puppets song

2009-01-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

saw them last saturday. this song, like a couple others, I first heard covered by Nirvana on their great unplugged recording:

Oh me

If I had to lose a mile
If I had to touch feelings
I would lose my soul
The way I do

I don't have to think
I only have to do it
The results are always perfect
And that's old news

Would you like to hear my voice
Sprinkled with emotion
Invented at your birth?

I cannot see the end of me
My whole expanse I cannot see
I formulate infinity
Stored deep inside me

If I had to lose a mile
If I had to touch feelings
I would lose my soul
The way I do

I don't have to think
I only have to do it
The results are always perfect
And that's old news

Would you like to hear my voice
Sprinkled with emotion
Invented at your birth?

I can't see the end of me
My whole expanse I cannot see

I formulate infinity
I store it deep inside of me

books I am reading right now

2009-01-08T20:14:00.001-08:00

No Time to Lose, Pema Chodron, her commentary on the Way of the Bodhisattva. I am well into this and it is very good. Lots to think about and practice, especially mindfulness, which PC really inspires me toward.

Karma-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga by Swami Vivekenanda. Very interesting discourse on Bhakti which ties in with my novel and the next book....

Miracle of Life, stories about Neem Karoli Baba, compiled by Ram Dass. Stories about the guru of Ram Dass, who he describes in Be Here Now, which I actually read as a kid, maybe a teenager. Bhakti path. Good so far. Having met and had darshan with a real guru for the first time recently, Amma, her in NorCal, I am curious about gurus especially one like NKB who I "met" early in my life. I don't know if he is my guru or not but perhaps I will figure that out.

The image is of Kuan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, originally called Avalokitesvara in Buddhist texts like the Heart Sutra. She was originally described as male and then became male and/or female.

updating my website

2008-12-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

Web design itself is pretty difficult and hard to do well, so when I finally decided to update my website in style and content I chose to try Drupal again. It's kindof overkill maybe for a small site but it beats the headaches of trying to format using html or dreamweaver. It allows me to create content and keep things simple. I have a lot of respect for web designers and I know they know that few appreciate how tough their job is. This could help me if I end up managing web projects.

So check out my newly evolving website at www.charleskeatts.com and let me know what you think, how you think it could be better, and what works and doesn't work. Thanks!

Vipassana, "diluted" Buddhism and my teachers

2008-12-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

One day many years ago, after I had been studying Eastern religions for many years, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and some other possible permutations, I had a friend at the time tell me that he had gone on a Vipassana retreat. He had done a week or ten day silent meditation retreat in what I assumed was a type of Buddhism similar to the Soto Zen I had studied. Oh no, he said, maniacally, this type of Buddhism was the only real, true Buddhism, what the Buddha really taught. This type of dogma always made me skeptical and he said it with such certainty that I was especially dubious.

That was about ten years ago and I have met many practitioners of Vipassana, or Insight meditation, over the years, and have attended a class and studied books such as "What the Buddha Taught" based on a recommendation from my Soto Zen Teacher, Tim McCarthy. I have not heard many claims over the years regarding purity or superiority like my crazy friend, obviously a "young" student of the practice. I have noticed what might be arrogance or a lack of beginners mind in some, and in myself, over the years, but I see that as part of the process and nothing lethal. I am a big fan of Zen myself and love the Blue Cliff Record and other teachings, as well as the words of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, who founded the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara, and who worked with Kobin Chino Otokawa, Roshi who taught my teacher.

Recently the issue of Insight Meditation and other forms of Buddhism came up at my girlfriends' house and the discussion apparently got pretty heated. I was not there, thankfully, but heard enough to think of a way to poke fun at statement like "other forms of Buddhism are watered-down Vipassana". I don't know who told my friend Alan that, if anyone, but if that's true isn't Vipassana a diluted form or branch of Hinduism? I don't think so obviously but it's fun to imagine the reactions.

I prefer to think of these religions and philosophies evolving over time as they travel through different cultures. Maybe not better, or worse, but different. I don't know if it is necessary to complicate it much more than that. Or not at all. Suzuki Roshi talked about how we are just Buddhists, and Kobun says some interesting things here.

language virus theory origins and similarity to burning man

2008-11-16T01:50:00.000-08:00

so this link will take you to some info on the original ws burroughs idea of the viral language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nova_Trilogy.

I was also thinking about the viral nature of burning man. I think that it is interesting, annoying and scary the way people use burning man as a label, a way of categorizing certain types of art or dress. for example, if people have a certain kind of hair and dance or play a certain type of music, they can be lumped in the bm category easily, when their original motivation, like the culture of bm itself, came from somewhere else. maybe it is a lazy way of forgetting or not admitting ones ignorance: I don't know where these people came from or how they got their ideas but I am too lazy to wonder about it so I will just label them as burners. it's a virus, I think, like bm itself, which infects and lives off its hosts, and I am mixing my metaphor.

I love bm don't get me wrong. just don't assume and overuse the label, please.

legendary pink dots and other stuff

2008-11-16T01:20:00.000-08:00

saw the legendary pink dots at cafe du nord tonight: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Legendary+Pink+Dots

They were very good, reminding me of early pink floyd with syd barrett, but not crazy, combined with dj shadow and massive attack, who they probably influenced. the opening act was big city orchestra and they were good too, more avante garde.

a good day today of helping kate with her bike, a cool dahon ciao folding bike with a shimano internal shifting cartridge. very warm in the bay area today, thank you suvs. had fun painting with a friend's five year old daughter, very cute, and worked on my own stuff, more windows, using vinyl and other mediums. had an idea for a window covered in blue resin with just scratches in it, maybe other patches of color. tomorrow plan on meditating, running, bouldering, and reading ny times with coffee. some or all of that could happen. trying to keep up more on news these days. the idea of hillary as sec of state is interesting. not likely, I guess.

need to choose a project management class soon. if anyone has taken classes at PMI I could use some feedback on a couple. also looking at a life coach that I like but it's a bit pricey...

thanksgiving prayer by william s burroughs

2008-10-27T13:18:00.001-07:00

cheery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7_MYrVzU-Y

one version of language is a virus

2008-10-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

so this is how I first heard of this phrase, from laurie anderson's music, the idea she borrowed from william s burroughs of course. enjoy the fashion of the 80s...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZkjoXyexKk

a different world...

2008-10-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Unemployed for the first time in many years, I am fortunate to have a good support network, a cool dating partner, and my recent open studios gig to ease the transition. Terracotta was a great place to work with awesome people and I learned a lot. It's time to move on, and as I look toward the future I see opportunities for sales and project management perhaps, as I look at my options. If people know of IT sales or other sales opportunities, feel free to email me at keatts at gmail dot com, and if you know of ways to break into project management, whether it be training, jobs, certification, or people you know who would be good to talk to, let me know. I am trying to be open to possibities as I have some time to look around.

I don't think it's going to be fun to look for a job until after the election anyway. It should be better then, he says optimistically.

And I am optimistic. Everything happens for a reason, even if it means hard lessons, which I don't think is the case here. We will see what the future brings.

I sold several pieces at Open Studios, and have some definite ideas for new work. Feel free to share your own positive experiences of survival post-job or job change...

Open Studios in the Mission

2008-10-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

This will be my first Open Studios, at my new studio in Art Explosions at 17th and Potrero. The hours are listed here: http://www.theartexplosion.com/Events/Events.php

I will have new work and some older work for discounted prices. I look forward to seeing people there friends and many new people.

What else is new? Although my territory at Terracotta has changed, I am still working with people in Western Europe, the US, and Asia, mainly China, Korea and Japan. In the US I am focused on the Midwest i.e. Illinois, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Texas, etc.

It's a great opportunity and lots of cold-calling. Trying to learn as much as I can from my team and from Sandler and other resources. I am pretty much in awe of the developer talent here and am always interested in what is going to happen next with this technology.

great paul bowles quote from the sheltering sky

2008-08-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have posted this quote many times in many places. It is probably my favorite quote, aside from the opening lines to Mrs. Dalloway....

Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that is so deeply part of your being that you, that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.

Paul Bowles, the Sheltering Sky

good tips for time management for sales etc.

2008-07-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

The TACTIC: Be on goal time, not clock time.

The STORY:

It dawned on Bob that for the past week or so, his fellow salesperson, Janet, had barely mumbled hello before disappearing into the office or leaving for appointments. Wonder if it's something I said. She had even left the office early a couple times that week. We used to close down the office at night, he thought.

Bob knew the way you made it in sales was by putting in the time. No one else in the office even came close to putting in the hours they did. With all the things that needed to be done, or the emergencies that always popped up, there was no way to just work an eight hour day. But what was happening to Janet, he wondered. Had she lost the edge?

The next morning, Bob showed up two hours early to catch up with Janet. He did.

"Yo, Janet," he called, getting out of his car, just as she was getting into hers. Where's she going, he thought to himself. It's six in the morning.

"Hi, Bob," she responded, "guess we haven't gotten together much in the past week."

With a big smile, Bob said, "Janet, I want you to know I've changed my mouthwash; you don't have to tell me... I figured it out myself."

She laughed. "That's not why. Ever since the sales meeting two weeks ago... it just clicked in my head."

"What's that? Half the time I'm lucky enough if I don't snore."

"You only snored once . . . the thing about working toward daily goals and letting the clock take care of itself. So that's what I did. I've got a couple of daily goals that I work at each day until they are completed." Then in a surprised voice she added, "It's working, too!"

"Come on, Janet, it's Bob. I'm not management."

"You know how I hated to ask for referrals? One of my daily goals is calling my customers until I get one referral. It works. I've gotten four appointments:

I don't run with the clock, I run with my goals."

"And I'm left taking care of all the important stuff."

"Sure," responded Janet, "like the whole day we spent tracking down the guy who could fix the copier?"

"Well, someone has to take care of business."

The RESULT:

Janet finally sees that how you spend your time is more important than how much time you spend.

DISCUSSION:

There are a couple of commonly accepted sales tales handed down from one salesperson to another. It's almost like a tribal mythology.

One of the more enduring is how you have to spend much more than 40 hours a week if you want to make it in sales. Then the tale goes on to relate how Bill, or Mary, or whoever, spent a tremendous number of hours a week and by age 30, was pulling down an income in the high six figures. Now remember these "tales" may actually be true.

The unfortunate message that most salespeople hear from these tales is that a tremendous number of hours spent means a tremendous income at some point in the future. So they decide that they, too, are going to spend the long hours.

But then the question becomes doing what? There are more day-to-day things to do then there is time to do them. If you have any doubt, anyone who owns a home knows that you could spend the rest of your life working on the home and never finish all that needs to be done.

Thus many salespeople, willing to put in the hours, get caught up in trying to do all the things that just seem to pop up every day. After a few weeks or months of this, still not seeing any substantial income improvement, they tire of the 18-hour days. Who wouldn't?

Here's their problem. They worked very hard to deal with the things that popped up instead of working on reaching their goals. If they were working on their goals, many of the things that pop-up would be relegated to someone else's list of chores.

What you choose to do with your time is truly up to you. Why not spend that time working toward your goals?

APPROACH:

There is no substitute for an individual salesperson's goals. While a monetary goal is good, there also have to be goals that lead to the monetary goal.

Setting specific goals for yourself and working toward them on a daily basis is, at first, difficult. You will be sorely tempted to skip a day or so and go back to your old ways. Others, who are still reacting to pop-ups, will do their best to get you back to the way you were.

If you give in, you are only denying yourself additional income. You cannot go back and redo a day. Once you waste it on pop-ups, it is gone forever.

Always build into your goals a periodic—at least once every two months—review. On that day, you spend the entire day reviewing your progress and making goal adjustments as needed.

THOUGHT:

Either way you are going to spend the time. The only question is how. Which one makes you money?

©1995, 2007 Sandler Systems, Inc and TEM Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. S Sandler Sales Institute 180° From Traditional Sales Training (with design) is a registered service mark of Sandler Systems, Inc. Tactics for Sales Managers is a service mark of Sandler Systems, Inc.

just a few groucho marx quotes

2008-07-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.

From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.

Go, and never darken my towels again.

I could dance with you until the cows come home. On second thought I'd rather dance with the cows until you come home.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.

It isn't necessary to have relatives in Kansas City in order to be unhappy.

I'll see you at the opera tonight. I'll hold your seat till you get
there. After that, you're on your own.

With a little study you'll go a long ways, and I wish you'd start now.

You are going Uruguay, and I'm going my way.

writing, art, climbing etc.

2008-07-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

I noticed today that most people write blogs about the main focus of their work or their life. I read alot of tech blogs for work. I have not been blogging about my main areas of expertise and focus lately, writing and art. I don't really like to, for one thing, and there's not that much to say really even when I am writing or making art a lot, which is not the case right now. I have been focusing most of my energy on my new job these last few months and a. marathon training and fundraising b. socializing c. moving. All good stuff but it's time to get back to writing and art, and climbing too.

I bought a new fancy notebook yesterday and starting writing in it. This is an important part of my process, not just in terms of working on novels but also art, life, etc. I have been keeping a journal since I was in high school and although I don't call it that, my notebooks are the equivalent and have been since I started writing poetry and fiction more seriously in 1987 or so.

I think I am starting to rewrite a novel that is fairly big, called living in the ice age, definitely sci-fi, and also working on the rough draft of another new novel. and looking for an agent/publisher for my second novel, in the flat field (formerly called daydream nation).

I picked up a book on training for climbing that is very good. I need to get some cheap thrift store furniture for my new art studio and I will be ready to rock there.

It's a good thing I don't like to relax or do nothing, per se, as I have no time for that. I do things that are relaxing, healing, rejuvenating, etc. so I am set.

Marathon Fundraising with Art for You

2008-07-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

So I am almost ready to do the marathon here in San Francisco Aug. 3. I am ready, probably, and ran 20 miles on Sunday and felt pretty good. I have raised over $900 which is great! Thank you to everyone who contributed! The Aids Marathon and SF Aids Foundation are a great cause. Unfortunately for me I agreed to raise $1800 by June 1, which means that the balance, about $900, has been deducted from my checking account. I agreed to these terms, but it does put some pressure on me to raise funds quickly which will be reimbursed to my account.

So what I am going to do is offer my art! Anyone who makes a contribution to my aidsmarathon page via credit card or directly to me via check/cash can choose a work of art from my online portfolio: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keatts/sets/1600926/

or another piece they have seen that they like. I will even do a commission if it is within my ability (I don't paint realistic portraits etc.).

Donate here: http://www.aidsmarathon.com/participant.asp?runner=SF-1085&Year=2008&EventCode=SF08

So please check out my images on flickr, stop by my studio or my new apt, and tell me what you want. Let's raise some money!

Obviously anyone who has already made a contribution can also choose something. Thank you very much for your help! Also, I don't mind making a contribution of about $100, so I hope to raise $800 more in the next few weeks.

Narrowing the focus at Terracotta

2008-07-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

A good description by Alex Miller of what's going on at our home away from home (also known as work). Well, actually he doesn't leave home. Unless he's going to a coffee shop:

http://tech.puredanger.com/2008/07/08/narrowing-the-focus/

spreadsheet server from extentech

2008-07-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

My last employer, Extentech in San Francisco, where I learned a lot about sales and java, has recently released the collaboration edition of their spreadsheet server. Check it out here: http://www.extentech.com/index.jsp. If you are involved in spreadsheet development, collaboration, java and/or restful development, it's a great alternative to google or other spreadsheet solutions.

In other news, I am sunburned from trying surfing and boogie boarding for the first time on Saturday. I am now completely moved into my new place and new studio and look forward to seeing Yas tonight in Oakland.

saturday night after long run

2008-05-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

got up at about 5:30 am and ran 20 miles with the aids marathon crew. it was pretty good. I am very sore. just watched the second disk of "dead like me" a good and funny show. now watching the pixies live in boston on their reunion tour. fun!

a woman in my group is thinking about running a marathon in utah in september. it is all slightly downhill, which sounds pretty good.

invade myanmar

2008-05-30T14:50:00.001-07:00

A dumb idea I want to talk about.

If we are going to invade another country, we should invade the country formerly known as Burma, not Iran. Here are the key reasons why:

it would be easier. the junta in myanmar is incompetent and would be pretty trivial compared to real fighting real terrorists or military powers.

It would fun to hear the call to China for help: "I'm sorry but no one is available to take your call, please leave a message..."

it's a good cause. the junta is a corrupt dictatorship and does nothing to help their people in times of crisis.

it would be good practice for jungle fighting. lots of jungle there. It might make North Korea nervous for a minute.

it would support the cause of Aung San Suu Kyi who is the coolest. she would not support a violent takeover but that's ok.

there might be oil, gold, diamonds or natural gas all over the place in burma, and the junta would not even know, they are so stupid. there could be terrorists there hiding in the hills, even osama. He could be there. we should go look.

major opiate producing country, and source of child prostitutes for thailand. good to stop or slow this down.

it would annoy the Chinese government.

Iran and other countries could relax and focus on extorting trillions of dollars in oil from america instead of worrying about getting invaded. whew! what a relief!

I bet you have some good reasons of your own! I look forward to them...

a quote

2008-05-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

a quote from my new novel (wt) land of a thousand suns:

"i need online dating like I need a hole in my head. but this is a hole I can't really avoid in my quest. to empty out brain matter, certain portions of the brain I did not need anyway. online dating can certainly accomplish this."

obviously me, or the main character, were anticipating even more loss of brain matter which would ensue.

moving sometime...

2008-05-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Every time i think of you
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue - new order

Well it looks like I can move. Thanks to the parents in their usual random but timely generosity I have a little extra cash to move in San Francisco, which if you know anything about SF, or NY or such big cities, it can cost a lot of money to move into a decent place. So the search will begin soon...no rush but I do want to get started.

Other options like buying a scooter just aren't good because my landlady may end up selling her house, leaving my screwed blued and tattooed (as my dad would say). The last part is ok, but maybe not in the way I would like...

I will be looking at studios, 1bdr, shared spaces, live/work art spaces, and the like. Mostly in SF but possibly in the East bay if a cool art studio live/work situation pops up.

Like with burner types who are more into art and working than partying. That soft of thing. Big kids like me with goals.

helmet

2008-05-23T13:55:00.001-07:00

A great song, (punk/metal) whether you are recovering from the flu, like me, or not:

In The Meantime

earth tone suits you
so give it a smile
if i could hold your feet down
get to know for awhile

to make due is a promise
hard to keep without help
never taught to look in
i'm too concerned with my health

help me spread right, ash is
cow fertilized
come down in a feed town
strength to minimize
hold it
in the meantime

astrology

2008-05-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

this description fits me better than many I have read:

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com
/november-17-birthday-astrology.htm

excitement

2008-04-17T12:11:00.001-07:00

testament
Originally uploaded by ck23.

the idea of having a space to put up this large, bright, lovely painting is very exciting. I have not seen this puppy rolled out in a while. I should ask for $2K. Half to be donated to the campaign of course.

yet another art showing

2008-04-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

Just found out yesterday about a chance to show alot of my art in a space in Soma. It's for a campaign kickoff for Carole Migden's re-election, and I am donating half of my sales to her campaign. If you are a supporter of Carole then you can stop by at 9:30 saturday morning, it is very much focused on political activity and re-election stuff, but there will be great art on the walls. :-) I know she has done a lot for my part of the city and I am excited to be supporting her and showing my art. Let me know if you want more details.

some lyrics from pavement. for no reason:

cut your hair

Darlin dont you go and cut your hair
Do you think its gonna make him change?
Im just a boy with a new haircut
And thats a pretty nice haircut
Charge it like a puzzle, hit me wearin muzzles
Hesitate to die, look around, around, the second drummers drowned
His telephone is found

Music scene is crazy, bands start up each and every day
I saw another one just the other day
A special new band
I remember lying
I dont remember lies
I dont remember what
But I dont care, I care, I really dont care
Did you see the drummers hair?

Advertising looks and chops a must
No big hair!!
Songs mean a lot
When songs are bought
And so are you-
Bitch, rant down to the practice room
Attention and fame so
Career, career, career...

climbing, running, and working

2008-04-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Listening to Spiritualized, live at Albert Hall, on great headphones at work. Saw Ani Difranco earlier this week at the Fillmore, a great guitarist and band, song writer and musician, very moving. It was like watching Miles Davis, in terms of musicianship, and his band before he died. Amazing.

Lots of climbing in the gym and talking to people about trips. Climbed four days in a row last week which seems to have paid off, felt stronger for sure last night. Heading down to Castle Rock sunday. Ran 11 miles with Aidsmarathon crew on Saturday and did my three short runs this week for the first time! Legs feel stronger.

Link to my Aidsmarathon site to donate.

Work at Terracotta has been very busy so I have not been as available for friends. I hope that changes soon, until then, hang in there.

I changed the title of my blog a bit to reflect the germs and ghosts we, or I, at least, live with. Boo.

lyrics from setting sun

2008-04-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite songs....by the chemical brothers...just hits me on many levels...

reminds me sortof of a paul bowles quote, how many sunsets will you see again in your lifetime, etc... and the music is super high energy here so the effect is of total transformation:

You're the devil in me I brought in from the cold
You said your body was young but your mind was very old
You're coming on strong and I like the way
The visions we had have faded away
You're part of a life I've never had
I'll tell you that it's just too bad
(X5)
You're coming on strong
You're showing your colour
Like a setting sun

a great Tolkein elf

2008-04-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingolfin

one of my favorite elves and stories from the Silmarillion. 400 years!

photos of recent show

2008-03-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

at church st cafe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keatts/sets/72157604324543939/

First show, first sale

2008-03-28T12:34:00.001-07:00

Not my first show ever, but first solo show in San Francisco and the Bay Area, I believe. And a sale, which is cool. Just the beginning...

truly, madly, java, art

2008-03-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

Two things. More fun java info from my new job here at Terracotta. http://javathink.blogspot.com/2008/03/clustered-classloader.html

It's interesting stuff. Also, I am indeed showing my work at the Church St. Cafe this week, from yesterday until the end of the month, so check it out, and stop by my table/party on Thursday after 6 pm. This is the cafe between 15th and Market on Church. Used to be Muddys. I have six paintings and/or mixed media canvases on display. Here is the artist statement:

I have been painting and making visual art since 1989, and although I have shown my work in San Francisco and other places over the years, this is my first solo show in San Francisco. I am happy it is in this space where I have spent many hours and purchased many mochas over the last few years since I started living in SF.

These paintings and mixed-media works comprise three basic styles or periods. They blend or overlap somewhat, but there are differences. All were made in San Francisco, either in the Castro or the Mission, so they are all within the last two or three years. Some focus more on color, or layer, and certainly others have a more textured quality. I have always been fascinated by a sculptural texture in painting and the different techniques or materials to use in that. I love color also but sometimes, as in the unprimed canvas work, a more muted color or a darker, grittier urban feel. My recent work is more like chemical stains, a sortof accidental darker homage to Frankenthaler.

Conceptually I see my work engaged with language, the struggle with language, or its absence in the face of a visual existence. As a writer and novelist I have an interesting relationship with language that is very much in the truce stage now. This conversation goes more into theory of course and discussions about Lacan, Derrida, etc. Ultimately like Kenneth King, the chorographer/dancer, I am mainly interested in eyes, in looking, and in making things.

Thank you for looking.

Charles Keatts, SF, 2008

my art is on display

2008-03-23T19:25:00.001-07:00

my art is up at the church st cafe! for one week! woohoo!

this monkey's gone to heaven

2008-03-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

New job has a new website design: www.terracottatech.com. I am really liking the new job alot, it shows you can work and have fun with cool and interesting people. I really like hearing the tech side people present the product, it makes me understand it better and appreciate the level of quality that goes into the software.

In other news, my health is stabilizing, as Jen pointed out, I am doing well even though I have had a change in sleep patterns this week, not really tired much at all. I did sleep in today though...

Tonight at the Make-out Room Amy Tan and a bunch of other poeple will be reading, so I am looking forward to that. I just updated Linkedin to show my work on writing and art, so that is another way to market oneself.

Got my road bike. Very nice to ride after the cool but heavy cruiser/folding bike. Easier to carry too.

ch-ch-changes

2008-03-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

Much stuff happening lately:

Resigned from my job at Extentech today and accepted an offer from Terracotta. I learned a lot at Extentech, it toughened me up, and I am very excited to be at a growing startup.
I went snowboarding last weekend for the first time in 3 years. I did quite well and was very sore from just boarding and a few falls.
I am watching Speed Racer, the first episodes, and just confirmed that Trixie is indeed his gifrlfriend. As I thought. I like Trixie.
Last week, after an endoscopy and colonoscopy, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, which is basically an allergy to wheat or gluten. With a gluten free diet, healthy eating, and supplements I should be back to normal in about six months. It's a challenge avoiding gluten though.
Somehow, possibly from the new diet, stress, or sports I have managed to lose about 7 lbs in the last week or so.
Work on my newest novel, Regret, continues, while I continue to look for an agent for Daydream Nation. I think Regret may easily be the best thing I have ever written. Although I have written a few good poems.
Just got some more contributions for the aidsmarathon. email me at keatts@gmail.com if you would like to contribute.

new toy

2008-02-20T23:58:00.001-08:00

SOA, Virtualization, and Exteria

2008-02-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

This is a great quote from Information Week that relates to one of the products I sell, an integration/soa platform:

"What virtualization does for hardware, SOA does for software. Programmers need no longer develop each application separately; SOA lets them build apps from simple services that can be used over and over. Those programmers are, increasingly, business analysts who use model-based development environments and never have to write a line of code."

The Bear, a poem by Galway Kinnell

2008-02-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

"The way upward and the way downward are the same."
1. p.89. Fr.60

Diels: Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (Herakleitos)

a nice quote from the beginning of Four Quartets. Here is a great poem:

The Bear
by Galway Kinnell

1 In late winter I sometimes glimpse bits of steam coming up from some fault in the old snow and bend close and see it is lung-colored and put down my nose and know the chilly, enduring odor of bear. 2 I take a wolf's rib and whittle it sharp at both ends and coil it up and freeze it in blubber and place it out on the fairway of the bears. And when it has vanished I move out on the bear tracks, roaming in circles until I come to the first, tentative, dark splash on the earth. And I set out running, following the splashes of blood wandering over the world. At the cut, gashed resting places I stop and rest, at the crawl-marks where he lay out on his belly to overpass some stretch of bauchy ice I lie out dragging myself forward with bear-knives in my fists. 3 On the third day I begin to starve, at nightfall I bend down as I knew I would at a turd sopped in blood, and hesitate, and pick it up, and thrust it in my mouth, and gnash it down, and rise and go on running. 4 On the seventh day, living by now on bear blood alone, I can see his upturned carcass far out ahead, a scraggled, steamy hulk, the heavy fur riffling in the wind. I come up to him and stare at the narrow-spaced, petty eyes, the dismayed face laid back on the shoulder, the nostrils flared, catching perhaps the first taint of me as he died. I hack a ravine in his thigh, and eat and drink, and tear him down his whole length and open him and climb in and close him up after me, against the wind, and sleep. 5 And dream of lumbering flatfooted over the tundra, stabbed twice from within, splattering a trail behind me, splattering it out no matter which way I lurch, no matter which parabola of bear-transcendence, which dance of solitude I attempt, which gravity-clutched leap, which trudge, which groan. 6 Until one day I totter and fall— fall on this stomach that has tried so hard to keep up, to digest the blood as it leaked in, to break up and digest the bone itself: and now the breeze blows over me, blows off the hideous belches of ill-digested bear blood and rotted stomach and the ordinary, wretched odor of bear, blows across my sore, lolled tongue a song or screech, until I think I must rise up and dance. And I lie still. 7 I awaken I think. Marshlights reappear, geese come trailing again up the flyway. In her ravine under old snow the dam-bear lies, licking lumps of smeared fur and drizzly eyes into shapes with her tongue. And one hairy-soled trudge stuck out before me, the next groaned out, the next, the next, the rest of my days I spend wandering: wondering what, anyway, was that sticky infusion, that rank flavor of blood, that poetry, by which I lived?
From A New Selected Poems by Galway Kinnell, published by Houghton Mifflin. © 2000 by Galway Kinnell. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

a song

2008-02-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

A great song, maybe it's about me right before this latest breakup:

New Order, Regret

Maybe Ive forgotten the name and the address
Of everyone Ive ever known
Its nothing I regret
Save it for another day
Its the school exam and the kids have run away

I would like a place I could call my own
Have a conversation on the telephone
Wake up every day that would be a start
I would not complain of my wounded heart

I was upset you see
Almost all the time
You used to be a stranger
Now you are mine

I wouldn't even trust you
Ive not got much to give
Were dealing in the limits
And we don't know who with
You may think that I'm out of hand
That I'm naive, I'll understand
On this occasion, its not true
Look at me, I'm not you

I would like a place I could call my own
Have a conversation on the telephone
Wake up every day that would be a start
I would not complain of my wounded heart

I was a short fuse
Burning all the time
You were a complete stranger
Now you are mine

I would like a place I could call my own
Have a conversation on the telephone
Wake up every day that would be a start
I would not complain about my wounded heart

Just wait till tomorrow
I guess thats what they all say
Just before they fall apart

I'm going to run a marathon

2008-01-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well, as some of you know, I used to run marathons, triathlons, and ultramarathons in addition to climbing and living life. I have not done a marathon or similar even since the Big Sur trail marathon in 2003, when I decided to take a break.

Well, it is about 5 years later and I have decided to run the San Francisco AIDS marathon to raise money for local HIV/AIDS foundations. I will have more details soon that I will send out via email on how to contribute, but I figure if I get about 100 people to give me $30 I will raise way over the minimum amount of $1800. $3000 is alot if you think about all the people who are doing AIDS rides and the half or full marathon this year. Most of us have been effected by HIV/AIDS and this is a great way to contribute.

On a selfish note this race will help me get back in shape, break my previous best time, and start preparations for the Marathon des Sables, a longer, warmer race in the Sahara Desert. I will also be raising charity money for that but not until 2009.

Stay tuned!

vacation over more or less

2007-12-27T18:19:00.001-08:00

But I still get to celebrate new years eve in a probably mellow way. If Jen is feeling ok she will come here to my place in SF and we can watch a movie. If she is not up to it I will probably meet Shira and others at Death Guild, which would probably be ok even though I would miss Jen.

Back to work tomorrow to work on an RFI and an Exteria demo. Maybe a few calls but many folks will still be out until Wednesday. No problem.

Did some cleaning in my room tonight. Tossed out recycling, cleaned, vacuumed. My place is pretty messy though so an hour was only a small dent. More tomorrow. After work.

I love my new Dahon bike. It is a normal sized mt bike or cruiser but folds in half for bart or muni. It is a fun bike to ride and does well on SF hills. 26 lbs, black. A nice present from Jen.

Helped Jen buy a stove, fridge, and microwave today, all stainless steel fridgidaire for 1700 with tax. Pretty nice stuff. Then dinner at Olive Garden, very suburban, and that brought back memories from Ohio.

Still need to call my cousin Barbara. My integrity not so solid there. In other areas my integrity is present more. AA gave me sobriety and my life, Landmark gave me authenticity, integrity, self-expression. Good stuff!

tuesday early evening

2007-11-27T16:55:00.000-08:00

sitting here at work, not working obviously. listening to nils petter molvaer, on last.fm, eating a kitkat, drinking diet coke, the usual. had to work today, there were people here...

looking forward to show friday, a little nervous. being nervous is funny though...why be nervous? it's silly.

went to death guild last night, feeling ok but a little tired and wired. always good. will I go climbing tonight? I could just read from my darkside astrology book:

Scorpio with Moon in Aquarius (me): dark, powerful, brooding, obsessive, cruel, harsh, and alien...good evening, Lord Vader...

it's nice to know I have explored my dark side enough, I think, to know when it is coming out and *control* it (control is a key word for scorpios...we want it...and the total kind).

Well it's after 5, time to work on my new ING account...

dark phoenix tattoo

2007-11-21T00:48:00.001-08:00

My new tattooo, right arm, more or less. More bird of fire qualities, probably. Jean Grey as Dark Phoenix, from the X-Men, good stuff.

dark_phoenix.jpg (JPEG Image, 900x720 pixels) - Scaled (33%)

Powered by ScribeFire.

Birthdays in November Video and Reading Bash

2007-11-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

Please Join Us

Marguerite Harris and Charles Keatts would like to invite you to celebrate our November birthdays in the best possible way!

With art and spoken word!

Please join us at 5:30 PM on Friday November 30th at the Gallery Cafe, 1200 Mason at Washington.

Marguerite will be showing her video work and Charles will be reading from his new novel, Daydream Nation.

We will also do a special collaboration piece/performance.

If enough people come the owner will keep the cafe open late so we can have an open mic with readings and musical performances!

Links for Marguerite:

myspace.com/mpvideofox

Blogpage: www.mpvideofox.wordpress.com

one of her videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02T-QF3V_jo

Marguerite says: "I'm a visual artist. I am inspired by many things, life, nature, the beach, the ocean, listening to the San Francisco poets at the readings and good music."

Charles Keatts has been writing and making visual art for many years and is currently seeking an agent and publisher for his new novel.

Charles has lived in the Bay Area since 2001. His website is www.charleskeatts.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Directions to the cafe: http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/map/36914118/san_francisco_ca/gallery_cafe.html

There is a cable car stop and museum right there also.

The cafe is open until 7, but if we have a lot of people, the owner will keep it open for us...so bring a friend or two!

Control is good

2007-10-31T01:28:00.000-07:00

Control is a film about Ian Curtis, Joy Division, Deborah Curtis, Factory Records, and Anton Corbijn. Good good stuff. I saw it tonight and am still a bit high, I love Joy Division, New Order, punk and post-punk, goth and much of what surrounded this music. Ian was a poet like Rimbaud or Artaud, I think, and Corbijn is a filmmaker like Antonioni, or even older directors. He was quite arresting and stylized in the beginning but then he allowed his actors, esp. Riley as Ian, to be very strong in their roles. What a great director! The perfect balance almost of art and story.

The music was well done. No complaints. The crowd at the theatre was cool, laughing when appropriate at Rob the fucked up but funny manager. Ian seems large, as does Annik and Deborah, while the rest of the band seems smaller, peripheral. Tony Wilson seemed more prominent, as perhaps he should be.

center camp

2007-09-18T00:39:00.001-07:00

center camp
Originally uploaded by ck23.

jen and I at burning man. photo taken by jack, a great guy, kandy mountain camp-mate. sitting on the poohs, stiched together.

some good zen or buddhist quotes

2007-08-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

People in the West are always getting ready to live.
—Chinese Proverb

The mind, the Buddha, living creatures - these are not three different things.
—Avatamasaka Sutra

If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion.
—Lin-Chi

The heart Sutra teaches that "form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. "Many people don't know what that means--even some long time students of meditation. But there is a very easy way to see this in our every day lives. For example, here is a wooden chair. It is brown. You sit in the chair, and it holds you up. You can place things on it. But then you light the chair on fire, then leave. When you come back later, the chair is no longer there! This thing that seemed so solid and string and real is now just a pile of cinder and ash which the wind blows around. This example shows how the chair is empty: It as no independent existence. Over a long or short time, the chair will eventually change and become something other than it appears. So, the brown chair is complete emptiness. But though it always has the quality of emptiness, this emptiness is form: you can sit in the chair, and it will hold you up. "Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form." ....Zen Quotes byZen Master Seun Sahn, The Compass of Zen

saturday in oakland and other musings

2007-08-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

A great day so far, went running for the first time in a long time. My biking, climbing, and maybe even skateboarding have paid off and my legs were ok with an hour and 15 min. run/walk/jog, felt really strong. Ran down to Lake Merritt, nice and flat, and then around and over to Peets were I saw James and his Cherie and dog Kosmo. After my iced mocha I ran back to Jen's and ran into Duane and Adeeba which was great. Duane's new book, Black Artists in Oakland, written with Jerry Thompson, is a fascinating look at the history of black artists here as narrative in photographs.

I have recently upgraded and expanded my Linkedin profile and network, and I appreciate everyone who has opted in, even if you don't know me that well. I have been using Linkedin alot for work and it is very helpful in terms of finding contacts and opportunities.

Work is challenging but hopeful: if you or someone you know is in the market for systems integration tools or other development tools and wants something better, drop me a line. My Linkedin page has more details about my company and the solutions we sell.

Tonight is going to be mellow as Jen had a class all day and I am feeling the need to relax. Chilling with a nice dinner, movie, maybe the L-word or Harry Potter.

Other news: I saw Sunshine recently and thought it was good, very good visually. I'm reading Count Zero which is the second William Gibson book. Still reading Proust, I'm on the 3rd book. A friend in Thailand started reading my latest completed novel, Daydream Nation, and found it "more engaging" than my first novel. I like the idea of getting better.

Tomorrow we go to Mighty to start getting ready for Burning Man. Jen completed her Landmark Forum last weekend, which was great, and for me very helpful as my Advanced Course leader was her leader. I got to see how I want to be more creative in my life, and dynamic, and empowered. In addition, I started attending an informal men's group on Thursday with 3 other guys. That was cool. It looks like a lot of things are coming together...

friends and a free novel

2007-07-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

I need to spend more time with friends, esp. those I have not seen in a while, so those relationships are not neglected. writing went well this week. I have pdf of my novel blue, if anyone wants it for free just tell me your email or email me keatts at gmail dot com. free novel!

I just found out it is available on not only amazon but also barnes and noble, target, and a few other web sites. that's cool!

netvibes is very cool and is possibly my favorite website right now, right up there with Linkedin. check em out! facebook is a distant third, but I keep checking it anyway. sigh.

Don't worry. I'm 11% tested.

2007-07-12T23:09:00.001-07:00

Don't worry. I'm 11% tested.
Originally uploaded by Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

Advert from the Breast Cancer Fund.

Support the Breast Cancer Fund

2007-07-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

I like to joke about how toxic our environment is, but the truth is that the toxins in our environment have been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, and a host of other diseases. Today I had the priviledge of meeting my girlfriend Jen as she returned from what turned out to be a fairly scary summit attempt on Mt. Shasta. Even the guides admitted that they had never seen rockfall that bad. But everybody was ok and tonight I was able to learn more about the stories and ideas behind the climb and the Fund. Check out Jen's link and the links to the Fund and learn more about this disease that touches our lives in so many ways:

Jen's BCF site

Main site for the Breast Cancer Fund

I have a friend on consumating etc.

2007-06-30T01:53:00.001-07:00

I'm just messing around with clip addon.

clipped from www.consumating.com

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publishing with the scribefire add-on

2007-06-30T01:24:00.001-07:00

right now I am looking at my last post on clipmarks, a firefox add-on I just tried, while typing my new post in scribefire। add-on o rama!

this is an easy feature to use that may be helpful if I remember it is down there...the blog this function was nice but I lost it somehow and couldn't find it, I think। Maybe google took it away for some reason। anyway, I wanted to say that clipmarks seems to have a lot of functionality and I am very interested to see what I can do with it, especially at work, being more efficient to add stuff to our knowledgebase.

well I had to do some editing, and somehow blogger wants me to write in hindi, but overall a successful post I guess. with all it's complexity, the clipmarks result was easier.

Technorati Tags: firefox add-on scribefire

using clipmarks for blogging

2007-06-29T16:39:00.001-07:00

just managed to try to clip just part of my lastfm page, what I am just now listening to...experimenting with clip marks...

clipped from www.last.fm

Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen (born 1962 in Tromsø, Norway), a musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his "ambient techno" then "arctic ambient" styles, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His track "Novelty Waves" was used for the 1995 campaign of Levi's. His 1997 album Substrata is generally seen as one of the all time classic ambient albums. Before launching Biosphere, Jenssen was a member of the Norwegian indie band Bel Canto. Bel Canto released records on the Belgium-based Crammed Discs. Some tracks are free downloadable on...
(read more)

blog title change, the way of the warrior, and work

2007-06-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

There is more but those three things are a good start. Life is Challenging! but things are moving along. I changed the title of my blog from Language is Virus because Liquid made more sense, language can be slippery and powerful and vaporous, although that is technically not a liquid, vapor can still be mostly h2o which is what I am thinking, or mercury, another cool liquid.

Read part of the Rock Warrior book, which is very cool and helpful for life, climbing, sales, etc. Based a lot on the teaching of Carlos Castenada, like the Dan Millman book Way of the Peaceful Warrior which I read about 20 years ago and am reading again. It ties in nicely with Landmark and builds on that.

Selling and marketing software in a startup environment is challenging but things are coming together. My interest in technology has come full circle, in a way, so now instead of just reading about technology such as web 2.0 I am now part of all that in a big way. Aright! I don't feel limited by terms like web 2.0, that is just a starting point for other inquiries. The link above is to a faq article on the main product that I am selling and introducing to North America and Europe.

new workspace

2007-05-25T01:17:00.001-07:00

work
Originally uploaded by ck23.

this is where I work now. it's good, I get to focus, sales, marketing, flash demo design, training. more on that later...it may not seem that exciting, just to look at this space, but for me it represents a huge jump in the possibilities for work and life for me. Huge amazing possibilities. I like the software I am selling, the company I represent: they are really cool! And our partners. It's all good and a good challenge to help me learn and grow as a salesguy, account manager, and as a person. Landmark has made a huge difference for me to be here now. And many of the other areas I have worked on.

I am tired now, my eyes esp. ready for climbing trip, this weekend, owens river gorge. looking forward to sleep.

the onion talks about this american life

2007-04-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence

CHICAGO—Producers have documented every single existential crisis or self-congratulatory epiphany that has been or could be experienced by a left-leaning agnostic.

it doesn't get much better than this.

sequence4

2007-04-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

sequence4
Originally uploaded by ck23.

just looking through my portfolio and saw this, am liking it right now. part of a series of photographs of a video that was being shown at popscene.

shootings, massacres, and history

2007-04-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today's shooting in Virginia.

A history of Native American Massacres.

Tulsa, 1921

I am posting these links because someone is calling the shooting today "the deadliest in US history" or "modern history". I guess that might be true if you thought US history started a few years ago. I immediately thought of Native Americans slaughtered by Europeans on somewhat larger "shooting rampages". I guess this just points to how violent this country is and has been and how clueless people are about that sometimes. Today's events are horrible and senseless of course as are all these incidents of mass killings. There is a tendency in this country in the media and otherwise to try to see current violence as a new phenomenon, when in fact it is part of a long and obvious trail of blood.

landmark somersaults

2007-03-16T01:39:00.000-07:00

Did my 2nd night of assisting as Production Supervisor for the Landmark Forum in Action Seminar tonight in SF. It went very well. Patty, the Seminar Leader and Center Director, was amazing. It is helpful for me to assist and to be there, in the seminar, which is part of what makes assisting great. And the coaching I get around assisting from Patty and Eris is great too. I think most people, if not anyone, can benefit from the Landmark Forum, and should attend an introduction at least to check it out. It has made a huge difference in my life, in particular the level of honesty or authenticity in my relationships and in my life in general, with myself. It's great.

After the seminar I went to the Make Out Room to hear and see Foxtail Somersault, Cat's new band. Great voices, guitars, sounds, drums. Great overall sound. Reminded me of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. This picture is from the Stork Club.

the camus quote

2007-03-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

“Man may authorize himself to denounce the total injustice of the world, but he cannot affirm its total ugliness. There is a transcendence we experience –every beautiful thing is a promise of it– that leads us to prefer this limited and incomplete world to any other. Art leads us to the origin of the revolt against the world, to the extent that it attempts to stamp its form on values in the perpetual process of becoming”

p. 210 Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt

the quote I mentioned in my last post. Deserved its own spot.

Giacometti, Beckett, etc.

2007-03-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

http://oxtogrind.org/archive/22

This is a great post/article about Giacometti and Beckett. A great quote from Camus's The Rebel at the end too. I love AG's work and now want to learn more about him.

why I am glad I don't work at Yahoo...

2007-02-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16402

This article details how Yahoo is handing over information about its users to the Chinese government to allow that regime to imprison political dissidents.

Le Tigre

2007-02-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

I love this song:

LE TIGRE

"Fake French"

I've got - the new sincerity.
I've got - a secret vocabulary.
I've got - MIDI in, out, thru.
I've got - dialectical sprecstimme.
I've got - herm choreography.
I've got - a conceptual stunt double.
I've got - a deviant scene.
I mean. I've got - multiple alliances.....
I've got to move.....
I've got - The Gift of Fear.
I've got - The Courage To Heal.
I've got - site specificity.
I've got - plan "B" ability.
I've got - extensive bibliographies.
I've got - flow disruption.
I've got - wildlife metaphors.
I've got - post-binary gender chores.
I've got to move...
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh got to move...
My Fake French is hot.
You can't make me stop.
Got nowhere to run to baby.
Come on turn it up...

work in progress

2007-02-08T00:09:00.001-08:00

work in progress
Originally uploaded by ck23.

Jittery Bostonians cash in on marketing ploy

2007-02-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

You can make a lot of money by being paranoid. This link shows you how.

I see weird and scary shit all the time that looks like terrorist weaponry. I think the United State Government is a terrorist weapon. Where is my $2 mill settlement!? I wanna stick it to the man! Where do these marketing people get off trying to manipulate us? That is so Unamerican. But over-reacting to dumb shit like this is very American. Go America! There is no "I" in Team America! But I digress...

glowsticks

2007-02-03T03:46:00.001-08:00

glowsticks
Originally uploaded by ck23.

like I said...

mighty

2007-02-03T02:43:00.000-08:00

After Mighty, Glowsticks...

new level of hell under construction due to "crunchers"

2007-01-30T13:37:00.000-08:00

AP, Reuters, Hades: Sources near the pit of hell report that a new level is being constructed, number 10, to accommodate a growing population of people who are appearing in hell due to their loud eating of crunchy foods at work. "These people are meeting untimely deaths as well," says a spokesman for the Devil, who did not return phone calls. "It's not unusual for people to underestimate the severity of certain "activities" if you will. Eating potato chips, crunchy vegetables, and other snacks in cubicle environments and movie theatres has been on the rise, with or without mouths open, with a corresponding rise in spontaneous homicide, and of course, nobody "up there" (in heaven) wants to deal with these people." . Of course "the crunchers", once they arrive, will be given plenty of snacks and special amplifiers so that they can hear each other clearly. It's the least we could do." Construction on the new level should be completed by summer, while many crunchers wait in refugee camps on the 9th level. "I can't wait for my eternal supply of potato chips," said one damned woman cheerfully. Other denizens of the nether worlds petitioned the Great Deceiver to put up sound barriers to protect them from the new 10th level dwellers: one glutton on the 7th level said "it's bad enough we have to burn in cold eternal hellfire!".

writing by and for women who are involved in technology, science, gaming, and other geekiness

2007-01-26T12:41:00.001-08:00

I went to a great reading last night at City Lights, several women in the tech or gaming fields, comics, etc. The first book of it's kind, giving voice to women in male-dominated areas who have never had this opportunity before. A wide variety of voices: a woman who runs a journal for rpg of Harry Potter, blogging, a comic book artist, a woman who is into many games but talked about her experiences with larp and Vampire Masquerade. Charlie Anders' development as a health care wonk. Co-editors and contributors Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz both read, well-respected writers for literary, technology, and other fields. I would urge folks esp. women in these fields or interests to check it out.

being single in amerika and why people are dumb

2007-01-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

well this article in today's new york times does shed some light on changes in singleness and marriage in different classes today. yes Virginia, there is a class system in this country and it is closely tied to race, immigration, education, etc.

speaking of conspiracies (what else is there to think about), I was just pondering such venerable media outlets as the times, it's extremely lame article on the suits, sitting, standing, clapping, and nose-picking of congresspeople and speakers in the house last night. this is news? the conspiracy of helping americans in their goal to remain stupid and unaware of much of what really goes on that various media outlets and others maintain. fortunately starting a ridiculous war will get their attention once in a while.

Walking Molecule Now Carries Packages

2007-01-22T15:40:00.000-08:00

I originally found this on slashdot:

Walking Molecule Now Carries Packages
Molecule walks in a straight line and carries a tiny shopping bag in each hand
(January 18, 2007)

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) –- A research team, led by UC Riverside’s Ludwig Bartels, was the first to design a molecule that can move in a straight line on a flat surface. Now this team has found a way to attach cargo: two CO2 molecules, making the nano-walker a molecule carrier. The work will be published Thursday, Jan. 18 in “Science Express” and later in the print-version of the journal “Science.” “This is an unprecedented step forward towards the realization of molecular-scale machinery,” said Bartels, associate professor of chemistry and a member of UCR’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. “Our experiments show a means to transport molecules reliably. This will become as important to the molecular machinery of the future as trucks and conveyor belts are for factories of today.” (more)

el topo, a film by alejandro jodorowski

2007-01-21T00:16:00.000-08:00

what a fucked up movie. saw it at the castro last night. guns, blood, guts, incest, random images, odd tonal music, super violent, bloody, odd. really two films as it is hard to reconcile the second half with the first or with anything. very interesting film. sexy and brutal.

does anyone remember tones on tail? they were really good. go, twist, christian says, lions. excellent.

writers with drinks at the rickshaw was awesome tonight. I met a couple of new people, charlie anders the hostess was hilarious and smart and fabulous...I did drift off during michelle tea's "cyberpunk" story.
justin chin's feces-focused "erotica" was wonderful and burroughs-like. extreme. like...el topo!

the theme was writers in drag: writers writing in genres outside their usual. I have an idea to make a mash up of of two genres I don't usually dabble in, or haven't in years. maybe charlie will go for it...

language is a film about the politics of desire, bear-ly

2007-01-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

now to link that title to something...I was just thinking about the title to this blog. I first heard that as a Laurie Anderson song in high school, of course it came originally and famously from William S. Burroughs, "language is a virus from outer space." As someone who has had the idea that I could communicate with aliens, this has special meaning. and as a writer who often feels that language is a prison, hence leading me to painting and other Non-Language art.

I have seen Laurie perform three times, in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Kent, Ohio, at Kent State.

thinking of renaming my novel "the politics of desire" or making that the overall title for the Novel which daydream nation is a part. living in the ice age is another title.

I've been working on mash-ups and such with sony acid xpress. very fun.

I did not get the job at Embarcadero, they gave it to someone with more experience in software sales. But at least they called me to let me know. Now I just need a part-time job, maybe hosting in some swanky sf restaurant. craigslist.

laurie's song:

Language is a Virus

Paradise
Is exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much much better.
I saw this guy on the train, and he seemed to gave gotten stuck
In one of those abstract trances.
And he was going: "Ugh...Ugh...Ugh..."
And Fred said: "I think he's in some kind of pain.
I think it's a pain cry."And I said: "Pain cry? Then language is a virus."
Language! It's a virus! Language! It's a virus!
Well I was talking to a friend, and I was saying:
I wanted you.And I was looking for you. But I couldn't find you.
I couldn't find you.And he said:
Hey! Are you talking to me?
Or are you just practicing for one of those performances of yours?
Huh?Language! It's a virus! Language! It's a virus!
He said: I had to write that letter to your mother.
And I had to tell the judge that it was you.
And I had to sell the car and go to Florida.
Because that's just my way of saying (It's a charm.) that I love you.
And I (It's a job.) had to call you at the crack of dawn
(Why?)And list the times that I've been wrong.
'Cause that's just my way of saying that I'm sorry.
(It's a job.)Language! It's a virus! Language! It's a virus!
ParadiseIs exactly like
Where you are right nowOnly much much
(It's a shipwreck,) better. (It's a job.)You know?
I don't believe there's such a thing as TV.
I mean, they just keep showing you the same pictures over and over.
And when they talk they just make sounds
that more or less sync up with their lips.
That's what I think!
Language! It's a virus! Language! It's a virus! Language! It's a virus!
Well I dreamed there was an island that rose up from the sea.
And everybody on the island was somebody from TV.
And there was a beautiful view, but nobody could see.
'Cause everybody on the islandwas saying:
Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!
Because they all lived on an island that rose up from the sea.
And everybody on the island was somebody from TV.
And there was a beautiful view, but nobody could see.'Cause everybody on the island
Was saying: Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!
Why?
ParadiseIs exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much much better.

"Language is a Virus" originates in a William S. Burroughs quotation: "Language is a virus from outer space." The Buddhist implications struck Anderson too: "In Buddhist thought, there's the thing and there's the name for the thing and that's one thing too many" (qtd. in Gaar, Talk Normal 27). People's cheesy sanctimonious excuses for harassment are delightfully satirized. The bit about tv images and voices synching up involves a musical hocket effect one hasn't heard since the Middle Ages. And of course the show with celebrities on an island became a "reality," as it were, in 2003.

Einstürzende Neubauten, the concert film

2007-01-17T09:56:00.000-08:00

I saw this film last night at the Castro in San Francisco and it was really great. Blixa Bargeld was there and spent at least 45 minutes after the show chatting with people and answering questions. I found out that he lives in SF and will be doing a couple of things here this year, would not say what. The film is low-budget but in a way that's good because a more polished film might go against the grain of the raw edge of EN sound. It was an 11 pm show on a cold Tuesday night and the place was packed!

Cerro Torre

2007-01-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

I have made a new committment to get in shape for Yosemite this year, going for the big walls, but this area is a long range goal of mine.

the make out room

2007-01-10T14:25:00.001-08:00

DSC00530
Originally uploaded by ck23.

went to Writers With Drinks that night, hosted by Charlie Anders. Heard and saw Stephen Elliott for the first time. I highly recommend checking it out again at the Rickshaw Stop coming up at the end of the month.

throwing muses

2007-01-10T12:57:00.001-08:00

throwing muses
Originally uploaded by ck23.

must be last show I saw. couple weeks ago, with mike. great show, kristin with her 50 ft wave and throwing muses bands. sigh. I like this photo because the effect is photoshop-free. just the way it is. great american music hall. thanks mike for dinner!