Halfway Between Fake and Real

All right, this is a crappy soundbite but it should be good enough to solve some controversy. I can not stop listening to Bright Eyes. This kid Colon just keeps getting better. Here's the deal. They have this song "False Advertising." On the copy I have of this song the lyrics say,

On a string
On a string
On a string
I was held
The way I move, can you tell
My actions are orchestrated from above
And so I swing and I'll sway
Wave my hand, kick my leg
And it's always right with the music
(Til all that swaying starts to make you sick)
For a song, I was bought
Now I lie, when I talk
With a careful eye on the cue cards
Onto a stage, I was pushed
With my sorrow well rehearsed
So give me all your pity and your money now
All of it
(We used to think that sound was something pure)
But if I could act like this was my real life
And not some cage where I've been placed

Then, and you can read this part and listen to it with the audio blogger...

I told you it was crappy.

Well then I could tell you
The truth like I used to
And not be afraid of sounding fake
Now all anyone's listening for are the mistakes

The music stops and some girl yell's "I'm sorry" and he says, "no, it's ok it's ok." Now judging from the words, this is all just theatre and if the song were performed live, some one would yell in the background, "I'm sorry." They do a good job of making it sound naturally occuring. I think it began as a joke, a kind of revolt or interpretive action to go along with the song but it goes farther than perhaps intended. Why is the lyric fake or any more fake than the rest of the lyrics or any song for that matter? Shouldn't all songs be improvised, shouldn't all paintings be painted over and shouldn't words disappear after they've been read in a move more consistent with our lives?

In all honesty, I was listening to this song a couple of days ago and heard the lyrics say, all anyone's listening for are the mistakes, and then I heard someone yell sorry and I flipped. I thought an accident happened and someone walked into the room and because of this artistic gift of circumstance this was the best song ever, and even now I am debating erasing this post and letting you think that that type of perfection exists in the world and these types of performances do occur. It was fun for the week or so I thought it was a natural occurence. I thought I had evidence of the best production ever and even though I know that this was scripted, I still have hope. If it is fake and I've taken away from the excitement of the possibility of such a wonderful happenstance, I'm sorry, it was a mistake

Jean Genet

"Poetry is a vision of the world obtained by an effort, sometimes exhausting, of the taut buttressed will. Poetry is willful. It is not an abandonment, a free and gratuitous entry by the senses; it is not to be confused with sensuality, but rather, opposing it, was born, for example, on Saturdays when to clean the rooms, housewives put the red velvet chairs, gilded mirrors, and mahogany tables outside, in the nearby meadow."

Jared Wants More...

I'm not sure really what to say about my turtle/hare painting yet. I keep on thinking of Joseph Beuys piece "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare." In this performance Beuys cover his head in honey and 50$ worth of gold leaf. He carried a dead hair in his arms and communicated with it while crossing over a some sort of fir tree limb. He believed himself to be a shaman of sorts. Many have postulated about the exact significance of this performance, and the metaphors within it. I think Joseph Beuys was a genius, and I think he was slightly crazy. He'd probably agree. He loved straddling the line of being silly and serious. The healing metaphor in this piece is very serious. The hare has been thought of as a metaphor for mankind, because the hare in ancient myths have a connection to the sky and the universe.

The reason why I do not think that it is useful to connect them - although Beuys always refered to Steiner's ideas, - is Beuys drawing "Partitur fuer Dieter Koepplin": The process how an idea comes to form is shown from left to right.
Steiner described this process from top to bottom. He used Newton's physics - words like gravity - to explain it. But with Albert Einstein gravity became obsolete and replaced by inertia. This forced Steiner to call Einstein an idiot in one of his lectures... I think it was April 26th 1926, but this is more than shaky.

So the hare that is dead may actually be man who has committed suicide. However, the hare is held in the arms of a man (Joseph Beuys sitting on a chair) and both are surrounded by pictures. Beuys' head is covered with honey and gold leaf is put on it (a kind of golden mummy), and looks at the hare. He stands up and walks through the room, holds the hare close to the pictures, seems to communicate with it and sometimes interrupts his guided tour to cross a withered pine tree that lies in the gallery.

Not the drawing but it is a Beuys chalkboard which he kind of coined.

So I'm not sure. I suppose in a lot of ways the painting is more autobiographical than anything else. It seems rather vague naturally. Is the hare hurrying the turtle or is the turtle holding back the hare? Is either a bad/good thing? The painting often contextualizes itself while you paint it.
A couple others...
Durer
Another rabbit is below...
Click here to see Painting
This is a beautiful painting by a really good friend of mine, Andrew Johnson. His brother, who was HIV positive, overheard a few of his co-workers taking bets on how much longer he had to live. It is a part of his Pathetic Fallacies series, which has always had an enormous impact on me.

Meanwhile...

Meanwhile...
Originally uploaded by Cap'n Pete.

This is the one of the paintings I am working on right now. I have not decided exactly why yet. Yes, it's a rabbit in a turtle shell. It might be neat to see the painting progress online. I mean, it doesn't even have feet yet. I haven't been writing for Coney Island because I've been working on a letter to Mel Chin and because I've been working on this and another painting.

Meanwhile...
You should check out what A-Rob is working on over at The Pickle (My Sister Site). He is working on a project that I can only hope will search for poetry.

Meanwhile...
At a site I feel too close to call a sister site Jared Sinclair has come to life and will respond in kind to any comment you can afford him.