Y’know, I don’t remember, through all this recessionary nonsense, having seen a single person responding to media buzz with actual income figures. Nobody’s bothered to explain in real numbers what exactly has happened to them. Shall we?
Gross income in 2000: $97, 419.
Gross income in 2001: $122,830.
Gross income in 2002: $14,085.
Change in savings and investments in 2000: +37%
Change in savings and investments in 2001: +19%
Change in savings and investments in 2002: -93%
Change in living expenses in 2000: -22%
Change in living expenses in 2001: +7%
Change in living expenses in 2002: +39%
Change in actual work output in 2000: -29%
Change in actual work output in 2001: +31%
Change in actual work output in 2002: +66%
and I was wondering whay I’d gotten so bitter in the past few months. Guess that question’s been answered.
as a smoker, i have my rules. i never smoke in enclosed spaces (nightculbs and bars notwithstanding). i don’t smoke in my own home. i never ever ever smoke around kids. my rules have increased to the point that i go through a pack every three days, and i hope to quit soon. based on all that, this gets me really happy.
Turkish Delight redesigns, albeit only slightly. no frames: good. greener: good. and oh look: it’s discovered CSS. Wanna watch me have a seizure while your entire page reflows? everybody Wang Chung tonight!
Thirstype launches ApexSans, which is good; it’s a gorgeous face. what’s upsetting, considering the source, is the tagline, “The New Modernism.” what, again? i thought everyone agreed the Wallpaper* crew killed Modernism with their baroque reinterpretation: PostModernModernism (all the forms, none of the ideals, just like Diet Coke).
even more irritating is to see “Thirstype” and “Modernism” on the same page without any irony. where’s the punchline?
i remember laughing with a friend (while i still worked there) at what we called The History Trajectory: A studio begins with modest means and great ideas, has a short superstar period followed by a baroque period followed by culutral acceptance of the studio’s ideals, then complete disillusionment and finally: a settling into Modernism. why? because it’s easy. because you’re tired. because you just don’t know where else to go.
i don’t think Thirstype means it. i think someone just got bored.
whichever. buy Apex. it’s gorgeous.
in other (distinctly non-Modernist) news, there’s new art happening this coming Thursday, courtesy of BreakBone Dance Company. it’s going to be amazing. how do i know? the founder lives with su and i, silly. we’ve been helping build parts of the performance.
only good news thus far: a glowing review from the tribune, critic’s choice from next week’s reader, and an upcoming profile of Her Baldness in the tribune arts section. make your reservations now.
thirstype releases the playground cd. it’s limited edition, containing a number of typographic experiments, including my own apocalipstick. grab one now, there will only be 50 available, each with a handmade case by El Valicenti himself. That, in and of itself, is worth the price—his handdrawn work is magnificent.
i recall something about “of the people, for the people, by the people.” not “in spite of the people.” dubya, you’re acting like a spoiled brat. the entire world thinks you’re simply fabricating reasons to expand your own commerical interests, and frankly, you’re ruining my chances of pleasant bar chat the next time i travel overseas. i kinda resent that.
joshua davis, the man behind praystation, now has a new project. in a public self-critique, he stated that the work “looks a little too much like winston churchill for me to be comfortable with it.”
that last part was a lie.
One finished its run last night. Amazing show. Here’s the Reader’s Critics’s Choice review.
for those who missed the show, here’s my (and Su’s) breakdown of the themes by piece:
01) Having shoes this gorgeous hurts. I must dance.
02) Having hair this gorgeous hurts. so I must cut it off, play cello, and then dance.
03) I am working my skirt. It causes me deep psychological pain.
04) Juan, stop masturbating and eat a sandwich.
05) Juan’s a girl! (Fill-in performance by Atalee)
06) Dead chicks aren’t much fun.
07) Elizabeth’s a slut! In PK and Su’s bed! But we knew that.
08) Elizabeth and Atalee have creative differences, and we get to watch a grade-A catfight.
09) All of Breakbone are sluts! But we knew that.
10) “A Chorus Line,” or, “We Hurt And Therefore Must Dance In Syncopation.”
There’s much more to it than that, but it’s absolutely necessary to take the piss out of a project so huge it engulfs five months of Atalee’s life. Bravo, roommate!
Yes, Virginia, Playgirl’s for gay men (via Carly). And, joyous rapture, there’s gonna be a one-woman show about it, as if Dirk hasn’t covered this one already. No great revelation, of course, but does this mean we can stop talking about it already? Good.
Thirstype’s Rick and chester at The Walker Art Center on March 11. Someone take notes for me—I’m probably going to be in an onsite production meeting in Madison. Eesh.
“Instead, they reinforce the pattern of solipsistic consumption by making prisoners take their food back to their cells, where they eat it in the same solitary and furtive fashion as they masturbate.”
An article I find sociologically interesting for the fact that the subjects have reverted to a somewhat feral existence, eating when they need to (rather than simply wanting to, as many inhabitants of first-world countries seem to). But the author’s underlying attitudes regarding food also interest me: social eating becomes an analogy for family and social belonging. Not sure if I agree with that. Food is a necessity and occasional sensual experience for me, not often a social experience (in fact, only when it is suggested by someone else).
Note to Monotype: whoever you commissioned to digitize Joanna was a fuckin’ monkey. The color is as uneven as a seismic graph of Los Angeles and the kerning’s got holes big enough to chuck an 18-wheeler through. Call chester, stat.
I’m thinking about incorporating. No idea how. Who’s got advice for mama?
