by The Tears Of Things
We've been publishing this blog for five years.
The title above tells you what it's brought us.
We're still here, though. Sunt lacrimae rerum.
Presenting a Looking Back List we've compiled for interested readers, an annotated selection of most of our preoccupations since we started this blog in 2003. The numbers represent our selections, not what the "Search" feature on our blog might report. We have the final say.
· 71 postings under the category of Local Scene (not including the subcategory Local Yokels; see below). These include the many "Pride of Phoenix" postings; 4 about Writers Bloc Collective, which has now been whittled down to one workshop and not much else; Catherine King's "Flashlight Gallery," which predicted the car-trunk sales now ubiquitous on First Fridays; 4 pieces about gallery owner Amy Young, including "The Murder Pimps"; for the record, Young has not posted a single thing on her so-called blog on azcentral.com for over three months. The two truisms of Catherine King's "What The Hippies Taught Me" also serve as guideposts to dealing with this culture: You can't argue with a sick mind, and Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
· 34 postings under Single Artist Profiles. Artists we covered more than once include Heidi Hesse, Gregory Sale, Hector Ruiz, Jon Haddock, and Santiago Sierra. Catherine King's 2003 "Beverly McIver: An Unbecoming Portrait" continues to draw readers regularly, probably because Catherine's criticisms have stood the test of time.
· 23 postings about museums and museum shows in the state. Catherine wrote the four-part Just 'Fro Stories series about the racism in the HairStories exhibition at SMoCA. And there we no less than 9 postings on the politically-skewed ASU "Democracy In America" show in 2004.
· 19 entries under the category Art Meets Life. It begins, prophetically, with a description of the Robert Irwin Double Salute (picture middle fingers extended). It includes pieces on the cowardice of Pablo Picasso ("The Affair of the Statuettes") and the limpness of Richard Serra (in his "Stop Bush" work.) It includes Catherine King's perfect parody of the new Global Youth Artist, "Studio Visit: Blue McCool" --the best made-up name ever. Also our near-creep experience almost being interviewed by ex-New Times writer and tanning-salon bandit Joe Watson. Tony Ortega, now editor of the Village Voice, features prominently in "How I Narrowly Escaped Becoming The New Phoenix New Times' Art Writer."
· 3 farewell postings, including "We're Done" and "This Is Why We're Leaving."
· 13 postings on Illegal Immigration, including "Coda Illegal," "Local Community Resource Showcases Dead Criminal Aliens," "Saying Twelve Things You Must Not Say To Mexican Illegals," and "No Bibo No Mas."
· 37 postings on Islam. These include 4 pieces about Theo van Gogh and his murder by a Muslim, and, in "Sorry, Theo, Bat Boy Is In The Way," about the film and theater "communities" ignoring his story; 7 articles following Muslim academic incursions into Arizona public schools; and 3 pieces praising Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel's protest of an art exhibition which glorified a female Muslim suicide bomber.
· 12 postings about Cuban art and Cuba, not counting our novel. Two that Jerome is particularly proud of: "The Prisons Behind Lisa Sette Gallery" and "Cruelty In Color," about photographer Michael Eastman, with a riff on Kcho.
· 25 posts showing artwork by Jerome du Bois.
· 27 posts showing artwork by Catherine King.
· 4 pieces on Darwinism and evolution by natural selection (the Modern Synthesis), including "We Are The Universal People" and "New Eyes: How Darwin Clears the Day So You Don't Have to See Forever."
· 4 postings about "Culprits Of The Protocols," an ongoing art project / database compiling information about those who publish and disseminate "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion."
· 40 postings under the categories of General Criticism and Elevating The Discourse. Catherine King's 2003 "If I Had Curated The Arizona Biennial" sets the tone. (Her piece is the last time anyone in Arizona has written about one of those exhibitions.) The list also includes 5 articles which chronicle "Rebarbarization In The Academy"; 5 separate postings on Indian Giver Ward Churchill, including "Flying With Ward Churchill On The Astral Plane"; celebrations of musician Jim White and musician / rocket scientist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter; Einstein and cats, Shakespeare and Ron Rosenbaum, Frank J. Tipler and Jesus of Nazareth all make appearances here as well.
· 66 photographs of flower arrangements by Catherine King. It was therapy by beauty in troublesome times.
· 26 portraits of Catherine King in her various ensembles. This is therapy by beauty for Jerome.
· 8 posts describing public art and installation proposals, from the domestic violence piece "The Last Time" to the hopeful spirit of "The Blessing Room." We're now developing a new idea involving over three hundred and sixty representations of gods and goddesses from religions worldwide.
· 54 Ghost Photo postings, not counting the dozens of photos in "Spirit Photography by King & du Bois," nor the Ghost Photo Art pieces.
· 16 mentions of Arizona Republic writer Richard Nilsen, including "Local Art Critic Jumps Camel, Quotes Koran."
· 8 postings describing online artworks made from screen captures of newscasters, male and female, wearing the color pink, from "Enough With The Pink Already," through "Don't Be Pinkin' With Us" to the banner "World War Pink" to "Pinkorcism." There's also a description of a multimedia installation on this subject.
· 37 postings under the category Local Yokels, people who are not necessarily artists. You could also call the category Making New Enemies, But Keeping The Old Ones. Our feature on the Phoenix New Times editor Amy Silverman sure generated a lot of blowback. (One recent piece we shelved was about Silverman reconciling her sleazy profession --celebrating misogyny in print-- with her squeaky-clean Mothers Who Write seminar at SMoCA, with suggestions for topics such as "Explaining To Your Daughter Why You Promote Whoredom.") We've had to ban the IP of one of her yapdogs --Julie Peterson-- twice now; local slam poet Bernard Shober provided a laugh for us after we banned him for the third time: on his microblog he wrote that we had closed down comments after a couple of hours. That was a lie to cover up the fact that we're simply sick of him. Pathetic. As you can see, comments are open. And moderated. We're not fools.
· 24 postings about fashion, including Catherine's Fashion Boards, the ultimate dress, "The Psychedelic Leprechaun," the ultimate scarf, "Glowing Embers," and the ultimate collage, "Primavera Postmoderna"; dustups around SoldierLeisure (now down to six shirts) and LabelHorde (now defunct); and 3 pieces about PAM's fashion director Dennita Sewell and her impoverished imagination, including "One Shoe + No Imagination = Good To Go."
· 9 postings in the category Life Trumps Art. This includes "Step Outside," about Marcel Duchamp and the high cost of being an independent artist; "Life Always Trumps Art: So Why Don't Today's Artists Deal With It?" which still needs an answer; "The Mile-High Line," about space elevators; and "The Lunaphiles," about the Moonlight Collectors down Tucson way. Also "The Burning One In The Broken World," a sermon for the return of Imagination.
· We lost count of the comments we had to delete which went along the lines of "Why doesn't Catherine show her face?" The latest one was just last week, out of the blue. What is the matter with people? How about that guy who wrote, "I think I saw her in a Safeway in Tempe, but her face wasn't covered so I couldn't be sure it was really her."
Of course we've left out dozens of postings. I mention now our long involved pieces on the Arizona Partnership for Innovation and its followups, and the piece on Community Engagement at ASU's Herberger College of the Arts. Those, along with many many others, contain many many questions, all of them having nothing to do with us, all of them motivated by decent reasons, none of them answered yet. They read the words, those people we address the questions to, but they stay silent. Sycophants and spear carriers show up instead, and we have to swat them away. But we --have you noticed? well, here's notice-- We will not be silenced.
We're still here and still standing for decency and dignity and restraint, and respect for women, and high standards in art and life. Still hoping that the ship will turn before it goes over the falls. Still believing, while stranded above the stinky sweep of the current decadent culture, that the best is yet to come.
Posted by Jerome at March 13, 2008 10:30 AM | TrackBack