I posted my portfolio to the internet: www.picasaweb.google.com/karlhol
I started running again, though now its too cold most days to do it. Still, this is a major victory for yours truly, the belgium beer guzzling couch potato.
My November HBA1C was a 6.5.
Regrets:
I have yet to contact a single gallery, apply for a single grant, or try to show any of my artwork outside of my bedroom or the internet since moving to New York City.
As well as I may have known those paradigms, and as many constructions as I have crammed into my brain, I never finished learning Sanskrit.
Concerts:
It was an EXCELLENT fall for truly brutal shows. By the time Novemember was over, I was exhausted and ready for a quiet weekend (or weekday!) at home, with a cat, a hot coco and a book.
Suffocation/Immolation/Skinless @ B.B. King'sDysrhythmia @ Europa
Enslaved @ B.B. Kings
Exhibitions:
Though I missed the fall openings this September, I did still manage to make my way to a few choice art exhibitions and gallery shows before the year was over.
Damien Hirst @ the Lever House "School: The Archaeology of Lost Desires, Comprehending Infinity, and the Search for Knowledge" : As I said to one of the gallery attendants, anything involving dissected, preserved carcasses that also somehow alludes to Francis Bacon and surrealism is something I can live with...in my living room. THIS is the best picture I could find.
http://moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=3960: When MoMA does an exhibition whose description includes the phrase "the most beautiful painter's drawings in existence," my inclination is to RUN AWAY. However, I have to give it to the man, these are some of the most beautiful figurative studies I have ever seen. A combination of delicate line quality and a sensitive capture of light, these works transcend their nature as studies. Many of these drawings are even more beautiful than the famous paintings they inspired.
Books:
No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy: "But look at it my way. I got here the same way the coin did." This is one of the best books I have read, ever. I'm not sure what about its simple linear story telling or postmodern style really took hold of me, but I do know I read it cover to cover in just a few days. It grabbed me by the back of my eye sockets and refused to let go. Most astonishing about the book is the villian, a man who adheres to a strict and uncompromising code. In a novel where many characters define themselves by their inconsistencies and contradictions, it is awesomely chilling to encounter a killer who never falters in his own sense of duty.
Dune, by Frank Herbert: Though most of my friends read this book for the first time in high school, I was very glad to have made time for it in college after reading a few. A breathtaking take on classic epic literature, Herbert breathes new life into the ancient tale of the displaced heir who must reclaim his throne so that virtue may once again rule the universe. Brillant too is this novel for its weaving of religious influence. Where has my copy of the Orange Catholic Bible been all these years?
Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow, by Zak Smith : I saw this piece installed at the Walker Art Center while visiting some friends there this summer. This DIY, vegan anarchist punk artist gave himself one task: to make one illustration for each page of Pynchon's book. The title of the piece, "Pictures showing what happens..," is misleading. Each drawing is neither a synopsis of the page, nor a straightforward attempt to describe a main event for that page. Instead, each drawing is an association, a small detail, a saying, an impression that came to Smith while reading this notoriously difficult piece of literature. Since Pynchon's work itself is very much full of these kinds of impressions, the drawings do suit the style of the book, making it a wonderful illustration of the novel, even though the drawings taken together don't read like a comic of the book.
The New Glucose Revolution : A great resource for anyone trying to maintain a healthy diet. For this diabetic cyborg, this book has proven to be nothing short of a holy grail.
Movies:
No Country for Old Men, by the Coen Brothers : So good I had to read the book.
Transformers : "...and I am Optimus Prime" (cheers!) The only thing better than this movie was seeing it with a theater full of early to mid twenty somethings, all of whom were definately as plastered as I was. The best cartoon turned live action movie since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Code Unknown, by Michael Haneke
71 Fragments: A Chronology of Chance, by Michael Haneke : Though I am not nearly brave enough to see Haneke's masterpiece films (such as The Piano Teacher), this brutal little story of crossing paths is a brilliant look at the fragmentary and coincidental nature of modern living.
The Decalogue, by Krzysztof Kieslowski : At the chance of using the word perfect too many times in this blog, these ten short films are perfect. A postmodern contemplation of the ten commandments, Kieslowski propells his audience into 1980s Poland, a land still scarred by war and searching for virtue amid its Catholic traditions.
The Simpsons Movie : I saw this at the Mall of America. I think that really sums it up.
Television:
Dethklok Metalocalypse, DVD set season 1: rating- \mm/ (too much metal for one hand) Seriously guys, not dildoes. This flash animated, Adult Swim short is a must have for any metal head, or those who just get a kick out of seeing a lot of anatomically correct, animated gore. Also, the Dethklok album debuted at 21 on the Billboard 100, making it the highest debut for a death metal album, ever. Not to metion the fact that it stands at Number 1 for the college radio metal listening lists. Dethklok is a self fulfilling prophecy it would seem.
The Wire, DVD set season 4: Installment four of the single best show on Television. I'd give you all some of the highlights, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone. David Simon, bless you and your brutal Baltimore police dramas. My only regret, season five is the last one! At least the series will be perfect. I mean it, absolutely perfect.
Southpark "Imagination Land: The Trilogy" : So, I hadn't seen a new episode of South Park in, well, years, and this was the one I caught when I randomly turned on the boobtube. Our imaginations are indeed running wild.
Science:
Minimed has developed a continuous glucose monitoring sensor which is now in more or less general distribution. I started using it in early December. How I lived this long without it, I'll never know. It's the best thing to happen to me since I got an insulin pump almost 8 years ago.
MiniMed Paradigm® REAL-Time Insulin Pump and Continuous Glucose Monitoring System
News and Politics:
Iraq, now a veritable wasteland for cultural production, has a heavy metal band named Acrassicauda. Acrassicauda is Iraqi for Black Scorpion. Though they have been running for their lives for the most of this year (and several previous), Vice Magazine made a movie and raised money, and they are now refugees in Turkey.
For the first time in history, the American presidential race is front runned by a woman, and a man who isn't white. I'm not really sure how to otherwise classify Barrack Obama. I mean, part of him is white, and part of him is black, on top of basically a million other things. Can he and Tiger Woods be the namesakes of an Interrace? Just a thought... And what does it matter anyway. We all have genes within 95% similarity to everyone else on this planet, meaning that yes, you are as related to your second cousin as you are to someone who lives on the other side of the planet. Race: this is what happens when we try to broady classify morphological characteristics based on reconstructed patterns of language migration.
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