more notes on the peculiar position of modern man

I was thinking about the internet dating schemes that have seemed to become so popular these days with 8 million kinds of compatibility and so on and so forth.Match.com, Eharmony.com, and I got to thinking. I believe that the match.coms and the eharmony.coms of the world could pose a much more sinister threat and be much more corrosive to society as a whole. Online dating sites may not even be the whole problem. social networks (Myspace, Facebook), MMORPG's (Everquest, World of Warcraft). Do all of these things trivialize the benefit of real face to face interaction? I mean for all the good that they do and I have heard of people finding real happiness with another human being on the internet, they kind of take the guess work out of what we call "romance". They are the fast food of the dating world, and could they do to human interaction what McDonalds and Burger King have done to nutrition in this country? Sure I could go on match.com and put in my order and it would give me a virtual menu and I could start ordering up my favorites. Is that a cop out though? Do people who find love over the internet unknowingly cheat themselves out of the experience of dating, or meeting people for that matter? For one they will never have a great story to tell their grandchildren about how they met and fell in love. About how the stars aligned and all these little things fell into place and for one moment love seemed possible. Instead they'll be able to proudly declare, "I filled out an application and got your grandmother, it was so romantic". With all it's rejection self-doubt, heartbreak and the crying jags, let's not forget the crying jags. Is there truth to Friedrich Nietzsche's famous quote "that which does not kill us makes us stronger"? And what's more, should we heed that advice now? Is the value of the dating scene that which is merely procreational, or does dating serve a higher purpose in out civilized society? Can fine art exist in a world without the basest of human interaction? The visual arts may be able to sustain themselves in this world of post-modern minimalism and appropriation. Post-Modern art has, for the most part diverted from the idea of the heroic and the romantic that had influenced icons throughout art history. The idea, has become much more important, and as a result the pool of ideas and concepts has grown to be quite diverse. But in the same respect the visual arts still need human interaction to exist, art needs to be talked about by real people, in real places, with real passion, a message board cannot give art the intimacy it truly needs to thrive. And what about music? Literally, millions, of songs have been written about heartbreak and love lost. Elton John says "sad songs say so much," and they do, they truly do. What would Film be like without the one that got away? What could be said about love if every love story started "well we met on the internet, and she was perfect for me, we had dinner, got married and had kids. Would any of a number of songs have been written, or a slew of movies been made, or a million different works of art ever even been completed if these artists could go on a website and dial up their dream girl, or meet friends that share the same views and interests? Or does the culture of rejection and the act of meeting somebody new in a way that defies all logic foster these art forms that society holds so dear? If we get rid of romance do we also lose a part of ourselves? I know this is an extreme situation, and quite possibly, a scenario that will never play out. But it is something I believe people do need to think about in this, a world of short-term thinking and instant gratification. I'll quote Booker T. Washington because he's said it better than I ever could myself. "Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work". This is an concept that we all, i think, need to take a look at.

Heart of Darkness
Vernon Fisher
Sep 7 - Oct 7, 2007

Opening Reception
For the Artist
Friday, Sep 7
6:00 - 8:00 pm

DUNN AND BROWN CONTEMPORARY 5020 Tracy Street Dallas TX 75205

Vernon Fisher has another show up at the Dunn and Brown Contemporary, and always it's really good. I Studied under this guy at UNT and to this day it still blows me away how fresh and relevant his work is. The way he takes these disparate elements and marries them together using composition and juxtaposition still really speaks to me. Of course I may be biased seeing as though I build images in a very similar way but this guy is really at the top of his game and never ceases to amaze me if you're in Dallas it's worth a look-see.

The internet has destroyed communication while at the same revolutionizing the way people communicate. Now we can speak in bad grammar to people we don't know in countries we don't care about, or instead of having meaningful conversations with just one person face to face we can have serveral surface level conversations with a whole huge group of people and never have to see them at all...isn't technology great?
...match.com...eharmony.com...that eharmony.com place freaks me out. I'm convinced they are going to find out that the compatablity tests are hooking people up with distant cousins. Ever notice how much alike those people look? It's scary...and those match.com ads that are just the girls staring at you through the computer..Is that supposed to be reassuring?...Who needs to go to the bar anymore, when i can try and marry a cam whore who might be my cousin? (thanks to grant for helping me with this rant).

Sometimes I wonder what everyone else is thinking about. What is the average ammount of thought that people put into their everyday lives? If you're anything like me, I think all the time, about really random things too. I wonder if stupid people know that their stupid. Why do people who can't sing always think they can, and people who can sing always think they can't? How does stupid shit get on TV? You would think someone somewhere would have put their hand up and addressed the pink elephant in the room. "Yes, Bob, you had a question," "Just what kind of brain damage does everyone here have? I don't think putting Jim Belushi in another sitcom where he plays a douchebag is going to help our ratings". Sadly honesty has become a lost art here in America.

working it out...

I think the worst thing about having a boring office job IS the fact that it is a boring office job. How tech support companies make money and stay open is beyond me. I'd say you'd be hard-pressed to say we generate any REAL work here. I for instance do maybe 2 hours of REAL, honest to god work here in an 8 hour shift. The rest of my time is spent trying to invent new ways to NOT work. The internet proxies at these places are always downright oppressive. You can't get to anything good, so you're forced to read every article that's ever been written on wikipedia, and CNN.com. That really only gets you so far into the day. Sometimes I find myself trying to sleep just so the time will pass. Blogs sometimes get you through the day, but eventually you've read all of the "older posts" and then you have to wait for them to be updated. So you update your own blog with a bunch of useless crap about how your job sucks, while you wait for somebody else to update their blog about how much their job sucks. Technology has brought us so far.

ongoing here in DFW

Ron Mueck: Sculptures

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

June 24 - October 21, 2007

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
http://www.themodern.org/
817-738-9215
3200 Darnell Street
Fort Worth, TX 76110 map

For those children of the 80's out there Ron Mueck was part of Jim Henson's creature shop back when they made Labyrinth. He has a fine art career now doing large scale installation sculptures like the one above (In Bed, 2005. Mixed media, 63 3/4 x 255 7/8 x 155 1/2 in. (161.9 x 649.9 x 395 cm). He has 13 of his works on display at the Ft. Worth modern right now they are worth checking out.

summer reading list...

For anyone that doesn't have one and for others looking to expand theirs. Here are 3 gems.

Grab Onto Me Tightly as if I Knew The Way - by Bryan Charles - a freshman effort by what I believe to be an up and coming writer. Grab onto me is a quick read, not too difficult, wonderful storytelling, and easy to identify with. Charles, while he has not written the most difficult book of the year he has, I think really stumbled onto something very human with this coming of age story about a boy and his love for a girl with scars on her arms.

Love is a Mixtape - by Rob Sheffield - another quick read...once you start you will read it straight through. Sheffield, has spent his life writing album reviews for the likes of Rolling Stone and Spin now turns his eye for detail on his own life. This is a heartwrenching tale of personal loss and redemption through music. Wonderfully poetic and at times altogether tragic this is one of the best books that will ever grace your bookshelf.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - by Jonathan Safran Foer - Anyone that has read or seen Everything is Illuminated should drop whatever they are doing right now and get a copy of this book. A beautiful sophmore effort from one of the premier authors of our generation. This is a bittersweet story about love, loss and rememberance. An adventure through the burroughs of New York as a young boy tries to solve one last mystery that his late father left behind. A wonderfully fun and informative read. Foer once again is able to capture, in his characters, all of the flaws, imperfections and just the simple pain of living like no other author I've ever read. In short just a phenomenal book, and worth a read.