27 May 2011
The eternal quest for the perfect sound, pt. 3
No matter how far you go, it will always make the same sound.
***
Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis
Tags: Echolocation, Music for 18 Musicians, Nature Worship, Steve Reich, The Eternal Quest for the Perfect Sound
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14 March 2011
From San Francisco
I’m usually against sharing lo-fidelity shots from my Blackberry, but there is something about San Francisco air that will make a person go against their better judgment; and there is something about California light that makes a person prioritize action over consequence.
Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis
Tags: Blackberry, California Light, Cute Babies, Internet Poem, Nature Worship, Patriotism, San Francisco, United States
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7 March 2011
Michael Moore stirs some s**t and all I did was hang out on this hillside for two weeks.
As I’ve been fond of reminding everyone I’ve run into the last few days (because I’m something of a smarmy shit), I have been embedded in a cabin-like structure on a hillside in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles for over two weeks now. I’ve been busying myself with serious business — happily without television and disconnected from tiger blood, the blood in the streets of the middle east, and various civic demonizations of public employees. (My mom, a former teacher, is not psyched!)
Here’s a picture of my Pacific idyll:
Nothing fancy, really, but this image captures the feeling. I imagine this as the view as seen through a hummingbird’s eyes — an infinitesimal creature capable of stillness, yet always buzzing to hold their place in the air.
Anyhoo, as I prepare to re-enter civilization with a vengeance, this speech from a few days ago by “documentarian” (quotes necessary!) Michael Moore stirred my deepest bits. There is a fair bit of demagoguery here and, perhaps, a share of bad faith (the issue which is really most responsible for tearing our culture apart). But he gets to the emotional and intellectual gist of things in a way that I can get behind.
Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis
Tags: Alexi Murdoch, California Living, Charlie Sheen, Hummingbirds, Internet Poem, Michael Moore, Middle Eastern Unrest, Nature Worship, Tiger Blood
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9 February 2011
Ambitious Feline
Cat climbs tree; rises up to find new ways to the second floor.
Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis
Tags: Nature Worship, Photos, Pussy Cat, Tree Climbing
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12 January 2011
Adam Purple’s garden of Eden
Recall this recent post about the ecological incongruities hidden around New York City’s edges? The presence of nature — sometimes hidden, often denied — never fails to fascinate me.
But wow, I just ran across the story of Adam Purple. His handcrafted circular garden existed in my neighborhood between the years of 1978-1985. Was he ahead of his time? Or was he just not made for these times? One or the other, I think. Not sure which. This New York Times profile of him appeared in 1998:
- ”One doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist or a doomsayer to recognize that there may be something happening to the atmospheric systems on the planet Earth,” Mr. Purple said. ”That’s why I renounce the flush toilet, renounce the internal combustion engine. As a political statement. I can live without.”
A longer excerpt from the article after the jump…
Read more »
Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis
Tags: Adam Purple, Kickstarter, Nature Worship, New York Times