variousing

Hello * Hope you are having a nice weekend. Visitors here. Nice food on the go. ** ** ** Pity about the *. Similarly can't burn it onto a CDR - says 'cannot synchronise'; just sits there on Windows Media Player! Never mind... Appreciate positive comments about my blog. Raising a chuckle is exactly part of the point - brilliant. You're spot on to refer to it all as '...intellectual playfulness...', too. That's entirely my motivation: an undifferentiated, non-hierarchical treatment of information, phenomena, material, systems, personae, criteria, stuff... A soup of associations, I often call it; so your use of '...blender...' is astute, also, mate. I like the way we seem to understand one another. I, too, have my compartmentaliser moments; but, via comedy and surrealism - and a natural irreverence, on the one hand, and a deep respect, on the other, for the ingredients in my soup - conflation and hybridisation, its seems a fairly natural process to mash the world up. All my heroes do this, I suppose; and I do gravitate towards a notion of collage - as a method, surely so, but as politics, as well. I believe this way lies another kind of purity, actually; call it poetry, but poetry with meaning. I like it to be funny; but funny in the way that Chris Morris can be, or Bill Hicks, Gilbert and George, Paul McCarthy, Fluxus. The PhD really loosened me up. Since then, I've tended to be less precious about things, for one thing. That looseness has led to a lightness, and I've tended to see the funny side. But I've also realised the depth and usefulness of that perspective - as a means of investigation, and as a method of creativity. At times, this manifests as a kind of gallows humour. Because such a thing is intrinsically lateral, though, it forges links and offers possibilities which more singular, single-minded approaches tend, by implication, to negate. There are, of course, pros and cons to every approach, every stance - so it is only a method in an array of possible methods. Choose your weapon. It's truly wonderful to learn that contact with my little world has inspired you. I appreciate you sharing this with me. Once again, that combination of generosity, enthusiasm, and intelligence bodes well, I feel. Often people are really cagey and defensive - loathed to admit such things; for what reason I don't know. I'm for taking a chance, sharing, building bridges. The MEMES project sounds good. Blogging lends itself entirely to, what you lyrically call, '...surrealist dream diary snippets, figments and fragments...'. Abiding themes emerge, too, though - by-the-by: the 'man enjoying himself' thing; the 'variousing' thing; the 'part of an equation' thing. Another, newer thing is '24 Skidoo'. On some pretty informal level, I'm composing a work of art, I feel. The blog is a library; certainly it's a diary; it can't help but be - being structured in an unavoidably linear fashion. At first, this annoyed me - as I wanted a proper, grown-up website! Now, I like the way the blog's linearity reveals the course of my own development, as I get to grips with its possibilities, and the technology I use for the posts themselves. The tendency, in art - as elsewhere - is to synthesise, sort the wheat from chaff, kind of deny one had a past in so doing, not to show one's working out. The tendency is, then, to offer a kind of best of version. Blogging is like Mail Art: it's wheat and chaff. How annoying! ...and how interesting... Certainly, I'll maintain an interest in the Hafler Trio stuff. I really do like the feeling of his little world. Like I said, I realise he's a curmudgeonly pedant, but - in a world of top sheeting and sound bites - there's room for a bit of rigour. I share his view, actually; I share it 100%, as any of my old friends would tell you! So long as he operates his politics with good manners, he's okay by me! There are, I think, enough bad-mannered egoists in the arts. No matter how much of a genius Artist A was it didn't stop him being a *. Wonderful, though, if one could be a genius and a lovely fella! I'll keep up my Hafler researches - thanks for the information. Most definitely I would be interested in collaborating with you in any feasible way, *. The multiples idea sounds good to me. And I'd be happy for you to submit material for the big bad blog! Once again, mate, very generous of you to say so. Let's see where we go... All these words - '...surreal/provocative/inspiring/fragmented/demented/engaging/intrusive/ enlightening/creative/illuminating/suggestive/fetishistic/conceptual - are fine by me! My invisible friends Porno Adorno, Eno-Ob-Scene-O, Ronnie-James RaDioHead, et al are all waiting to receive impetus! Let's light fires under their hairy arses! Best wishes, Anthony