Sapir makes some heavy suggestions that, as I look around the social system, are little considered by folks as an idea or worldview. the ramifications are too complicated to consider, eh?

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group . . . . We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. -- Edward Sapir

this from a simple yet moving essay by designer Milton Glaser

If you turn on your TV set and look away at the nearby wall you will discover that the reflections produced by the light from the TV set constantly vary dramatically in contrast and intensity. These contrasts are paralleled by the sounds emitting from the same source. It occurred to me that abrupt changes in the intensity of light, were indications of danger that our neurological system has evolved to respond to. What effects can a lifetime of exposure to this assault produce? After all, our children are subjected to it within months of being born. When a shadow passes over a field mouse, it becomes alert to danger. Every cell of our body has been programmed to respond to light. It's obvious that the intensity of visual and audio contrast has increased though the years. I assume that our brains' response to this continuing onslaught is a protective deadening to our neural receptors. I am convinced that the passivity and indifference of the American public to their own lives and interests, is some how related to this phenomena. -- Milton Glaser

my network friend, Varsha, invited me to join this project, you can see my contribution either on my site or with the rest of the official exhibition site.

The project, No Man's Land invited 65 participants from diverse locations and backgrounds to utilize cyber-space as the primary platform to present works addressing the territorially imagined line of the border, its powers of inclusion and exclusion, and its ability to simultaneously promote both unity and conflict. Borders also define our sense of nationalism, giving rise to a sense of belonging or not-belonging and informing historical and current cultural practices that influence our senses of nation-hood and ownership.

Participating artists: Yoshiko Shimada, Barbara Lattanzi, Renata Poljak, Tejal Shah, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Terry Berkowitz, Kai Kaljo, Dragana Zarevac, Roland Bergere, Manit Sriwanichpom, Susanne Ahner, Pisithpong Siraphisut, Patricia Reed, Mella Jaarsma, Mideo Cruz, Mona Burr, Manu Luksch/Ambient TV, Karla Sachse, Martin Zet, Wen Yau, Traci Tullius, Tintin Cooper, Jerome Ming, Estelle Cohenny-Vallier, Katherine Olston, Pinaree Sanpitak, Sutee? Kunavichayananda, Lawan Jirasuradej, Sara Haq, Karen Demavivas, Nigel Helyer, Nilofar Akmut, Andrew Burrell, Pamela Lofts, Beatriz Albuquerque, Kirsten Justesen, Maryrose Mendoza, Hsu Su-Chen, Michael Bielicky, thingsmatter, Arahmaiani, Kate Stannard, Judy Freya Sibayan, Chaw Ei Thein, John Hopkins, Farida Batool, Baiju Parthan, Liliane Zumkemi, Noor Effendy Ibrahim, Tamara Moyzes, Ana Bilankov, Chakkrit Chimnok, Suzann Victor, Marketa Bankova, Sue Hajdu, Jim Previtt, Keiko Sei, Suvita Charanwong, Noraset Vaisayakul, Konrad, Reiko Kammer, Silvia Pastore, Felipe, Chitra Ganesh, Varsha Nair.

Chris mentioned that old-and-very-possibly ex-friend George Saunders just had a MacArthur Fellowship bestowed on hissef. well, dang, George, congrats! I had to chuckle when I went to his fan site and saw it had been hacked by a Turkish Armenian freedom fighter -- complete with a waving flag and anthem. it's back up now...

George's latest short story collection, In Persuasion Nation gets qualified critical acclaim as is likely with a collection of stories. I haven't read it yet. I'm waiting for a 600+ page novel to wield baseball-bat to torso, outlining in bruised flesh the practice not of resistance to the contemporary cultural brutality, but of a thoughtlessly new way-of-going. potential's there, but somehow mundaneity clogs the sweat pores. put a hold at the local library on Nation, review forthcoming.

Following his superb story collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) and Pastoralia (1999), as well as last year's novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, Saunders reaffirms his sharp, surreal vision of contemporary, media-saturated life, but keeps most of the elements within his familiar bandwidth. In the sweetly acerbic "My Flamboyant Grandson," a family trip through Times Square is overwhelmed by pop-up advertisements. In "Jon," orphans get sold to a market research firm and become famous as "Tastemakers & Trendsetters" (complete with trading cards). "CommComm" concerns an air force PR flunky living with the restless souls of his parents while covering for a spiraling crisis at work. The more conventionally grounded stories are the most compelling: one lingers over a bad Christmas among Chicago working stiffs, another follows a pair of old Russian-Jewish women haunted by memories of persecution. Others collapse under the weight of too much wit (the title story especially), and a few are little more than exercises in patience ("93990," "My Amendment"). But Saunders's vital theme?the persistence of humanity in a vacuous, nefarious marketing culture of its own creation?comes through with subtlety and fresh turns. -- Publishers Weekly

mes amis laboiteblanche and Carl.Y at (no)music are running their 10th 24-hour collaborative online sonic streaming project. I decided not to participate this time around for lack of technical infrastructure, but see there are some old faces like androvirus, Jon Eriksen, Bernhard Loibner, & Jerome Joy among 48 others -- sure to be a long, interesting day! check it out!

(((NOMUSIC))) wishes to generate improbable duals and gatherings between pairs of participants during one hour at a time in a web audio performance. We make no storage because we think that Internet is a huge database which conveys already a great amount of dead informations and we don?t want to pollute it further. We are thus in favour of instant access to a selective event. The mechanism of the programming is not automated; it is relayed manually for 24 hours without any interruption by laboiteblanche and Carl.Y., two real human routers who are at the service of continuous audio stream and who endure technical difficulties and give rapid formation on the technologies of streaming to all the participants.

in the days preceeding the material frenzy that so characterizes the holiday in the consuming world, I ponder my own relation to the holiday. what could be nicer than receiving a gift? something useable in the course of survival or something completely use-less except for the aesthetic energy it slow-releases to the eye or ear over time. or something that touches on the architecture of the relationship of giver to receiver.

for me the highest gift in the sped-up road-warrior world of 21st century amurika would be the gift of attention. now, I'm not talking about the obsessively sought attention of media-to-star, the ego-centric attraction of appearances, of shiny and slick surfaces, of painted-over cardboard facades, of glimmering particles that exert the false-attraction of material desires. nor the gloming and needy self-centered-ness that requires vampire sustenance.

but more the binary and reciprocated exchange of attentive presence where the floating self might turn full-faced to the other and in Light and in Gravity -- making Light, making Gravity -- the two beings take up temporary residence in each others field-of-attraction and field-of-reflection. this is the gift of life, lived life-time shared. attentively shared, focused, concentrated. a gift without value, except for the value of life-time passed. a commodity in limited supply for each, such as the Moirae decree. no higher value of gift except for the giving of life to save a life.

but what is the essence of this gift of attention? in the exchange, sharing of life-time, the self is open, and in that open-ness, adsorbs the be-ing of the other. in this, the self is changed, evolves, realizes the absolute character of other-ness, and what a precious gift it is -- to provide the opportunity of change. and between this change, and the apprehension of difference, occurring in an unstable space of the not-knowing, creative spark flashes. and we become more than we previously were.

earth comes to meet the foot, slowly, imperceptibly. warming like a lizard in the sun. suryanamaskara.

later the 18th Acker Musical Showcase gets underway. too many places to visit, some great music, some mediocre, some embarassing, some quirky. no video this year, forgot to buy tapes in time, and didn't feel like shooting, though it was much warmer than last years showcase evening which made it more enjoyable. and caught a toasty set from the local band Shri -- fresh off another long European tour.

the entire website server goes down again -- of course at the moment when I have five job applications with web documentation pending -- so, pondering a roll over to a dotcom hosting service, only have to settle the tech details of rolling the php blog platform over. too many problems with sharing a server which was once blacklisted, and these days goes down at mission-critical times. understandably systems are inherently unstable, especially for bottom-feeders who do not have triple-redundant military systems in place, but, weary of this one.

Darko Fritz announces his participation in spokendays. I reflect on this intriguing project, tracking the sonic resonances:

time passing. this project touches on that inexorable passing. where inspirated and aspirated breath divides life into periods. periodic demarcations like the seasons, like the sun risings and settings. months are social demarcations that frame our social existence. not shared everywhere on the globe, they represent one system of social order. how else could one sing and chant time passing? by facing the sun each morning and saying to it, upon appearance above the rim of self-seen earth, welcome! from the rested and warm-skinned body.

Twelve international artists were each invited to choose a month in 2007, and to record an audio file of themselves speaking all the days of that month, ie: Monday, January 1st, Tuesday, January 2nd, etc. Those audio files were forwarded to me where I added additional sounds or musical elements in response to what they had submitted. Each artist spoke their days in their native language. The result is a conceptual experiment to achieve a 'verbal' calendar. Each month's audio file (MP3) is available for online listening without charge or registration. A good quality computer sound system or headset is highly recommended. Future 'Spoken Days' years will feature speakers from various commonly-held occupations, beliefs or interests, ie: actors, politicians, blue collar workers, and so on. This project was not motivated by politics, religion, or financial goal. It was independently funded by only the time spent in the process and by the generosity of the various international participants. -- Jerry King Musser