variousing

Cheers George Thanks for a lovely warm email, full of stuff. I, too, am glad you have got back in touch. We bark up similar trees it seems, and that feels good. My partner, Annie, remarks that you - like my other artist friends - always speak/write highly of your partners, when so many do not. I associate only with good people, I responded! Sure...yet more Oprahstentialism, as you brilliantly termed it! But, good to backslap when backslapping is due... I'm trying, as I write, to dust off my memory viz what we Mail Arted about in those heady 1990s. I do have everything you - and every other Mail Art mate - ever sent, in my Mail Art Archive, just behind me in this room. Somewhat inaccessible, as room is literally crammed floor to ceiling with my whole life! Hang on, though, let me take a look... Ourobouros: great nomenclature, useful allusion, circularity, circularly-dialectical, recycling, endlessly so... Burroughsesque cut-up, with polity, black comic social realism, Adorno mentioned, but in a cartoon... Heidegger as a Marvel Comics hero. What more could one ask for?! Theory take a bow... Stan Lee contributed to ontology as much as Sartre ever did! Mash those concepts and positions! That humour kept me climbing the doctoral hill, pushing its stone with my nose, but knowing that the trip was one-way, so only a temporary torment. Mail Art changed my life; and you, like a handful of others, were sufficiently on my wavelength enough to help to stem the PhD-associated solitude, necessary those that hermitage is for indepth study. So, thanks is mostly how I feel! I'm assuming that you've scanned my blog, and, as such, are seeing what takes my sideways fancy these days. Very possible, for the sheer reciprocity and sheer frippery of it all, to bat jpegs et al back and forth. So if the mood takes you.... I'll send you some music, too. Others have got to me via Wikipedia, also. Can't help liking that I have a presense there! Someone, a ****, asked for my help with ****; which was a buzz. Of course, as soon as I painstakingly dished up a sea of references and starting points, I heard no more! I am, though, better at dealing with such rudeness these days! I didn't email my annoyance! Major triumph! I've emailed ***** too. I get soppy thinking about it! But the idea of getting embroilled in receiving 50 sendings a week is a no-go at the moment, and I seek art fun elsewhere. Email is great. I love blogland. Surfing is worthwhile; but, like shopping, I like to know what I want before I set off. Lots of art and music on there; and more my kind of thing than the more centralised, mainstream outlets of TV, galleries, etc. The Internet has my channels on it; which I find awesome, it has to be said. It does eat time, however! But it was a steep learning curve, as we only went on-line for first time in October 2005. Before that, I had an ancient AppleMac, no Internet! Hence, the PhD is on ClarisWorks; so is stuck in those floppy discs, as the Mac died last summer! I don't even have a paper copy myself; though the British Library has or is getting a copy. Nice to be in there - again, can't help being pleased with that! ESL sounds like a happy medium. I considered it a while ago myself. I'm now considering doing teacher training. Don't know the system in Canada, but here one has to complete a formal, dedicated postgraduate teaching qualification in order to teach, a PGCE. One-year long this is. Do I need the stress though?! It does seem logical, however. I'm 43, George. Some day I'll decide, fuck it, be nicer to yourself, and take it easy! The PhD nearly killed me, actually. I ended up with uncontrollable migraine headaches, and was popping aspirin like there's no tomorrow. Funny that, because I did get nihilistic, even fatalistic - the doctorate became everything, as I pushed myself toward that one goal, come what may, with little thought beyond it. I reckon it took me a year or more to get over it and to get healthy again. I spent that time having fun and playing music. Then my life changed for the absolute better when I met Annie. It's a true love affair. We are seldom apart and she's my best friend. We talk about anything; never stop laughing. Getting married a.s.a.p. ... More Oprahstentialism, mate! 'Tis true, though! Food to make... Glad to know you. Best wishes, Anthony ----- Original Message -----From: G To: Anthony Donovan Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 2:10 PM Subject: Wahooo ! A mighty anachronistic fourteen letter **laughing out loud** in this frosty freaking back room laundry and office of my hundred plus year old home (remember, Canada as a Eurocentric nation state is 139 years old). I'm not so sure what the hell we talked about, but that vibe, perspective, that classwar karaoke humour and clarity surfing confusion-- it glows off the screen and is instantly recognizable. Fabulous. I found you through Wikipedia and your site. I found an old letter from you (ironically trying to find me in Canada) and thought I should blast the Net. Shoreline situated industrial facility? I am surely holding up a red Hello Kitty and it could be Hong Kong.... ? House husband. Me too, though I work now. The sad and funny thing is that I have become my dad. I am rewarded by, of all things, "achievement" and work, not so much nurturing. In theory, I want to be love dad and still have the full-on lefty weltanschuaang going, more so since fatherhood. But psychologically, I was not fulfilled as a stay home dad. Really a shitty discovery, but there it is. Enough Oprahstentialism. I play guitar. I still can't nail a 12 bar pattern after 25 years-- it ends up 15 or 19 or 11. Rhythm is not great. But I get people howling and stamping and laughing and love it. I also have a koto from my Japan daze. My father-in-law gave me his 1959 vintage accoustic guitar. When the guy in the shop plucked a string, everyone stopped talking and looked at it. The shop guy said "It barks" so I call it "The Dawg" and I love it, now in open tuning for months. I desperately want home recording equipment. Unclear whether it should be some simple some kind of box or computer shit. A brilliant community radio pilot assures me I can do it with shareware. Will need time, too, when kids are older. They are now visiting their lefty booze loving 90 year old great grandparents in Florida. Took a walk on a boardwalk and saw alligators. I watch snow fall outside of my window. Have shitty 4 month contracts at university teaching ESL to mostly super rich spawn of mainland chinese seatshop tycoons. I have taught Chinese immigrants and refugees and loved it. Was amazed by Shanghai, inspired by the people six short months after Tineeman Square. But this is, surprise, a class thing, not a race thing. Have never seen such uncurious uninspiring people. My wife lived and taught in China and she tells me that they can't be blamed for what their system teaches them. I am, unconsciously, coming to this point of view. At first I raged against their faux victimization and literal fascism re: Japan and Taiwan, but now I find myself feeling sorry for them. Anyway, a real job in a college or in the school board would take away my free time but double my income and give me a pension... I just made these yesterday for a friend who shares the name of this restaurant. It's by no means a great piece of art, but it is recent, precious little being made these days. The restaurant is a hundred miles north of here. It's a chinese restaurant beside a liquor store with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE around but bears and trees. It is unbelievably isolated. I dig this canoeing and kayaking nature stuff too man. I know it is a romantic projection-- the first line of a poem I submitted to our national literary contest is "petroglyph monoxide" -- but it's great to be out there. It's great to find you again. Tell me about your music... my wife is classically trained violinist and BRILLIANT at music BUT COULD NOT IMPROVISE. We have slowly changed that. Funny. She has all the talent and knowledge and would not play. I have squat but jam with people and take chances. Between the two of us, we would make one amazing musician (heh heh). See also my attempt to create a new literary genre, the e-bay listing. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5663941115&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 /////.........................

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dlly ViewItem&item=6603323418&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 I am trying to sell my old treasures to buy a Hello Kitty Stratocaster that I can't legitimately buy. Sell old crap for new crap is ethical though. Family gone for a week, and I have a cold, so no bachelor booze or toking. Kind of funny. Ciao man, George Fogarasi No virus found in this incoming message.Checked by AVG Free Edition.Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.15.2/252 - Release Date: 06/02/2006