art+beauty

flight said something fascinating in response to my post on street art-she said "everything is art if you look at it with an artist's eye". and its really true- we have so much stuff around us, we just take it for granted. that's what pop art is about-making people realize the art all around them. the thing that inspired me to think this, actually, was a broken teacup. i was walking down the street and i saw a teacup broken into two pieces in a trash can. and it was the most lovely thing i had ever seen-delicate, exquisite, elaborately painted and yet still simple and dainty. it was gorgeous, so i took it. then, when i got home, i realized "i just took a broken teacup out of a garbage can and brought it home." i mean, what was i supposed to do with it? so i put it on a ledge near my house for all to admire.
there are two things: natural and artificial. artificial things are all art, and natural things are all beauty.

who's to say?

there is a fundamental problem in ethics and all opinions-says who?
this is probably why humans have invented god-a final place where the buck stops. but really-think about it. zoom way out into space and picture the planet earth. who's to say that it's wrong to kill people? people? but aren't they just thinking for their own benefit? nothing is definite, because there is no one decision-maker. there ARE no truths to be held self-evident, because who are we to make decisions? think of it this way- every adjective you can name is an opinion.
blue
cold
silly
affectionate
destructive
annoying
happy
depressed

says who?

the balance

the elements were once earth, wind, fire, and water. they have changed. they are now human, nature, machine, and art. just as we once had to keep a balance between the dirt and the sea, between the wind and the flames, so now must we keep a balance. the proportion of human: nature: machine: art should look like this:
1:4:2:4
instead, it looks like this:
7:2:9:6
this is the disaster at hand. the amount of nature is shrinking at an ridiculous speed, while the amount of machines and art is swelling so fast that we find ourselves overwhelmed by our "culture", as we call it. these swellings are all caused by one thing: the exponential increasing of humankind. we are reproducing at a quite alarming rate. and i have no idea what to do about it.

happy mother's day.

nooks and crannies

the things that we love are the errors. the world is an unbelievably complex anarchy made by millions of people. it is so complex and chaotic that there must be hundreds of mistakes, hundreds of things with no purpose or "practical function". these things are perhaps the most important things of all, because these are the things that make us happy. examples of these are: street art, obscure shops and restaurants, street performers, chocolate, and all followers of Hermes (ie, all those who live by their wits).

this all occurred to me when i was sitting in my favorite spot in the world (the parts of it i've seen)-my fire escape. now, i live in a very practical, complex, ancient yet modern city. it is full of nooks and crannies. if you've ever been to a city, you will know that the buildings are pressed up against one another in squares, and between the squares are streets and sidewalks. however, the buildings do not fit perfectly together, so there are alleyways and gaps inside the squares.
when you're on my fire escape, you're between four buildings. you're inside on of those squares. its like you're in a secret place, a magical mistake. these "mistakes", i think, are the best things in the world.

my dream

you know, people are always asking me if this is what im like in real life, what is stuff like in my *dreams*?
well, here is the response. this was my dream last night.

im an archeologist or something like that. im in my shul, but its hundreds of years old and theres cobwebs everywhere. we're having some kind of group therapy session, and we're all in folding chairs. theres a woman at the front who hates her name. shes in a clown suit and she's singing "dianna is a very silly name" over and over. then i climb up one of the really tall walls and there are mouse skeletons everywhere and im covered in rotten old mouse bones and they're in my hair and clothes and i cant get them out and im screaming and screaming and
i spend the next few scenes trying to get mouse skeletons out of my pants. its quite unpleasant.
so then i'm, like coming back from boarding school or the army or something. im arriving at a playground, but no playground in particular. im unbelievably happy, and i see my brother playing with his friends. i go over to say hi, and he's kind of unexcited that im back. he welcomes me, though, and i go to play with him and his friends.
this is where my alarm clock goes off.