BEATNIK INDUSTRIES, a BREAD
BOWL of IMAGES and GENERIC ASPIRIN
August 24th, 2009 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. June 20, 2009.
In fact, it’s part of a bigger theme I’ve been mulling over: freedom from choice. I’d always been taught to fetishize freedom of choice. It’s the American way. It’s why I went to Brown university, where they don’t have any requirements, and you can go through all four [...]
June 4th, 2009 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
The Forbidden City, Beijing, China. September 7, 2007.
PARIS — There is a civil contract implied by photographs. An Israeli writer, Ariella Azoulay, published a book making that point. Henri Cartier-Bresson made it too. He described shooting pictures of people as a “sort of violation,” adding, “if sensitivity is lacking, there can be something barbaric about [...]
April 25th, 2009 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
Chicago, Illinois. April 24, 2009.
Chapter XII: The Leap into Certainty. The further step which we have to discuss has been called by Kierkegaard the ‘leap into the unknown’ or the ‘jump into the abyss’. This leap is required both in the religious and in the ethical sphere, but has different implications according to whether we [...]
February 15th, 2009 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
Seattle, Washington. Mid 2002.
But soon the scene broke apart and lost its perfection … I was unable to capture the moment that has passed, the perfect composition. I could return tomorrow at the same time if the sirocco continues to blow, and certainly people will continue to tumble around in the waves, the intensity of [...]
July 24th, 2005 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
Shortly after I read a (very) abridged version of Don Quixote in grade school, I started noticing little references to the book everywhere: a favorite cartoon would do a takeoff on the tilting-at-windmills bit, I saw a Gustave Dore print in a history book (see image to right), a local high school did Man of [...]
July 21st, 2005 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
Let’s assume, for a moment, that the above sentiment is true. Of course, such a statement is used only as a reactive justification, never as a proactive reason, and of course, such a statement is only used by the person who finds himself on the losing end of a deal such as a relationship, never [...]
July 17th, 2005 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
I could start by saying what a trip of a weekend it’s been, but that’s just so trendy to say right now. So I won’t. Let me point out the interesting balance-counterbalance aspects of the last few days:
Balance: Drinks at the Holiday Inn hotel bar.
Counterbalance: Drinks – not two hours later – at a swanky [...]
July 6th, 2005 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
In the last few days, I’ve refined one of my models for classifying events. I’ve always thought that events seesaw back and forth between good and bad, strange and normal, like a pendulum. However, I’ve now refined this metaphor from one that uses a simple pendulum to one that uses a Foucault’s pendulum. Whereas a [...]
June 18th, 2005 | by nick | published in On the Nature of Things.
There was a theme running through the fabric of yesterday’s karmic space-time continuum (how’s that for mixing religious and scientific metaphors?) that, for some reason, put the idea of sixosix magazine back in my head.
Exhibit A. Verbatim quote in an e-mail, Friday afternoon: ‘i’m slightly disappointed 606mag is no longer in the works.’
Exhibit B. Verbatim [...]