Going through old files yesterday, i ditched most of ’em. My new modus operandi is that if i’m not engaged in something today, or have definite plans to be engaged in it within a month or so, there’s no point in hanging onto a paper record “in case” i get to it in future. The future has its own fast-evolving set of circumstances, and its own ceaseless feed of interesting stuff, and its own imperative, and it’s unlikely that something i came across today will still be relevent. And if it is, odds are it’ll be available on-line. Continue reading “Normal life in America (ca 1995)”
Author: Greg Blee
Poster to my own gregblee.ca blog, and others.
Ethical computing?
I’m in a computer quandary — a classic modern dilemma that pits the right thing to do squarely against what’s easy. The genius of consumer capitalism lies in making it ridiculously easy to do whatever i believe will make me happier. (It’s debatable whether it actually will or not, but that’s not capitalism’s concern.) So whatever i want, or think i want, is just a credit-card-click away, and the system cleverly hides every potentially unpleasant aspect of my purchase behind a smokescreen of advertising and distance. Is my widget made by slave labour in a Far East sweatshop? The packaging won’t tell me. Continue reading “Ethical computing?”
Banksy + Tom Hanks
I’m a big fan of both street art and satire — seems to me we’re living in a world demanding way more of both. Here’s an interview with “Hanksy,” who provides a nice combo of the two. Particularly the trash can, eh? I wonder why we don’t have more guerrilla art here on the West Coast. Does the rain make it hard to use spray paint?
I just sent an …
I just sent an email to our Beloved Leader from this page on the excellent LeadNow.ca site. I thought i’d better put a copy of my letter up here, in case the PMO’s security squad decides i’m a danger to his highness and want to disappear me. Seems like anything’s on the table with this guy, now that he’s got his democratic majority — even tactics that undermine the democracy that gave him the majority. Anyways: Continue reading “I just sent an …”
Attack of the Arts Administrators
This post is prompted by the District of Tofino’s Request for Proposals for a “cultural scan” (on tofino.ca, the 3-page PDF downloads from this link). Scanning the document itself, i am struck by how little it has to do with actual art. In fact, the thing is pure 200-proof bureaucracy in its wording and its thought process, and as such is 180 degrees opposed to art. I suppose i’m not saying it shouldn’t be done; presumably the district’s bureaucratic mill needs it. I am saying nobody should even begin to confuse it with making or advancing art. Continue reading “Attack of the Arts Administrators”
Greg Blee 