Anticancer

It's about food, mental and physical activities, and a positive outlook on your life

Las Vegas is Dangerous

Raoul and Dr. Gonzo in Las Vegas Painting by Daniel Bergren

The Quintessence of Continued Existence

“Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest Lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle; when the Sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

Harvest Moon

Tomorrow the sun will pass directly over the earth’s equator and the Fall Equinox will be underway, or perhaps it will have taken place. Along with the Fall Equinox, star gazers and horizon hunters will be awed by the Harvest Moon, a concurrence that hasn’t happened in 19 years, as well as a small star-like light close to the moon; “star-like” because it’s not actually a star, but the planet Jupiter. This will be the closet Jupiter has come to Planet Earth since 1963.

“Harvest Moon” was coined by Native Americans, denoting the proper time to harvest crops and bring the yield in pre-winter weather, and to give thanks to all living things of the fields and earth that provided them with life. Let’s give thanks

Photograph by Jeff Kiessel, Ludington Daily News/AP

Bummer Summer edit

Bummer Summer from Pass the Soap on Vimeo.

Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, ' My son, the battle is between two ' wolves ' inside us all.

One is Evil. - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. '

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ' Which wolf wins? '

The old Cherokee simply replied, ' The one you feed. '

I'll Have Produce, Hold the Bug Spray Please

Hiroshima

Midterm Essay: 20th Century Art History

Fountain, 1917

The Persistence of Memory, 1931

World War I started in the summer of 1914 in Western Europe and eventually advanced to Eastern Europe. To this day, the Great War is still recognized as one of the most calamitous struggles in history. Despite the amount of countries and soldiers who fought in the World War, none can truly say that they enjoyed the battle; wars are not glamorous, and for the most part they are not constructive. Wars fuel oppression, indifferences, and murder. There have been wars throughout mankind’s history, and unfortunately there may be future conflicts and hardships. Despite this fact that war is inevitable and supported by some, there are those who denounce conflict to promote peace, knowledge, and creation. Often time’s passive conception entails anti-war ideals that are communicated through literature, visual arts and theatre, music, and art movements. Dada, or Dadaism, was an art revolution spawned from WWI in 1916 in opposition to the war. An early influential Dadaist known as Marcel Duchamp toyed with Cubism before finding refuge within the Dada movement. One of Duchamp’s most controversial pieces, Fountain, 1917, incorporated a ready-made object that would challenge academia for decades to come. Eight years after the introduction of Dada, Surrealism was introduced also out of spite towards the Great War. Salvador Dali, arguably the most famous Surrealist of all time, shocked patrons and the art community with hallucinational works that were meant to induce paranoia and connect viewers with their subconscious. The Persistence of Memory, 1931, was an early work of Dali’s that cast viewers into a dream-like plain and inspired people to seek imaginative expression beyond what the materialistic world had to offer. Fountain and The Persistence of Memory, at first glance, appear aesthetically dissimilar, but Duchamp and Dali’s main intentions were in fact very similar. These similarities mainly involve retrospection on the art works themselves and on the viewers’ psyche, as well as a counterbalance of the art community in the early twentieth century. Through this text these two pieces and their respective art-revolutions, which were both formed in response to WWI and materialism, will be dissected and summarized in search of further similarities and oppositions.

Dada, as a cultural movement, began in Switzerland and New York City, concurrently. Dadaism was a social protest against the Great War. These counterculturalists blamed the science of reasoning for the fighting and unrest in Europe. Dada was also a means to denounce the snobbery and subjugation of the art-institution by shocking viewers with humorous and illogical pieces of art. Dadaism incorporated found or “ready-made” objects that Dada artists claimed. Dadaists either displayed their ready-made objects after slight modifications, or without alterations. This avant-garde tactic undermined traditional art and forced viewers to think differently; either scoffing or pondering. Dadaism inspired and insulted artists and patrons for roughly seven years. At the forefront of the Dada movement was Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp already had a sufficient background with traditional painting styles and his boredom with these mediums accelerated his personal drive to emphasize idea over materials. His new artistic epiphany guided him to Dadaism. Using Dada as a means of expression, Duchamp sought to challenge viewers to see things differently, to allow patrons to walk away with their own personal experience and interpretations of art, and ultimately to award artists with crucial artistic freedom; Fountain did just that. Duchamp displayed a men’s urinal turned on it’s side with a signatory “R. Mutt 1917” as a alias, which referred to a local plumbing company that manufactured the same toilet. The alias masked Duchamp’s identity when he submitted the work to an exhibition of the SIA, the Society of Independent Artists, whom he worked for as the director of installations. Duchamp was testing his fellow comrades to see how strongly they were devoted to artistic freedom. This piece caused people to debate “what is art”. Fountain stretched the borders set by art elitists and challenged a stable logical society. The “R. Mutt 1917” scribe was also a humorous joke that correlated with the renowned comic Mutt and Jeff. This was Duchamp’s means of bringing humor and jest into the art establishment.

Duchamp’s beloved Dada movement paved the way for another avant-garde Parisian artistic revolution known as Surrealism. Like Dada, Surrealism was actualized in response to WWI, and also because Surrealists felt that industrial progression was fueling a repetitious, ambiguous lifestyle overrun by materialism and lacking imagination. Andre Breton composed his Surrealist manifesto in 1924 shortly after Dadaism had subsided. Breton’s manifesto announced his intentions of a philosophical artistic approach to conveying what was once considered a subconscious state of mind; thoughts that most would not publicly express without fear of alienation. Breton intended to evoke the subconscious mind by portraying hallucinative states of illusion. These dream-like images seemed extremely real with fixed light sources, clear perspectives, and crisp imagery. Like Dadaism, Surrealism was an attack on rational society and it challenged the art-community. Surrealists promoted self-exploration by challenging viewers with surprising juxtapositions and frozen images in order to evoke paranoia and the subconscious mind. Shortly after Breton’s manifesto, Salvador Dali had fled from art academia, given up on Cubism, experimented with Dadaism, and grew a distinguishable mustache. Dali worked diligently to formulate what he called “Paranoiac-critical method”. The Paranoiac-critical method was Dali’s brain-child of accessing the subconscious mind to promote pronounced artistic originality. Dali’s method was meant to connect what is rational with what is irrational by causing viewers to experience images and places that are unimaginable in a conscious state of mind. Dali was diving deep with in his subconscious, or a dream realm, and he was determined to make his patrons do the same. Many of his famous works included images that looked like two different things that may have resulted in two different connotations, depending on how the viewers mind operated. This went hand in hand with Paranoiac-critical method. The Persistence of Memory has one such image centered in the foreground; what appears to be a white cloth draped across the earth, but with the resemblance of a nose, tongue, and eye lashes it also looks like a face melting away in due time, as if aging. Atop the cloth-like figure is one of four clocks, three of which are melting. The closest melting watch is slithering off a normal table-like surface while the other is again draped from a hollowed tree. The last clock, which lies face down is covered in ants that busily work and cluster as most ants tend to do. In the left background there is another flat surface. These two tables develop clear perspective and establish the distance between the watches in the foreground and the cliff in the far right background. This landscape with water leading up to the cliff is lucid enough to cause viewers to second guess what it is they’re viewing, and this response is exactly what Surrealists and Dali wanted.

Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain and Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory were both executed in reaction to one of the world’s most devastating wars, The Great War, and also in response to man’s industrial progression and consequential materialism. Both artists desired reactions from their patrons and the art community by displaying what had never been done before; claiming found objects as art work and painting paranoiac subconscious thoughts that most would never recall to their friends. Duchamp’s goal was to create more freedom for artists and extend the boundaries of what was considered art. Dali took advantage of these alleviated barriers by exposing the subconscious and unrealistic to the normal, sound mind. Both artists supported new creative methods that catapulted their respective movements; ready-made with Dada and the Paranoiac-critical method with Surrealism. Dali and Duchamp’s later inspirations came to them after they experimented with Cubism. On another note, both Fountain and The Persistence of Memory are dissimilar. Fountain is a three-dimensional ceramic object covered with written text most likely in ink or paints, where as The Persistence of Memory is an oil painting on a two-dimensional canvas. Fountain lacks detail and artistic skill, like that of Dali’s painting, and there is no foreground or background, psychedelic images, or landscape. Fountain’s minimal perspective does not compare with the depth of the lucid landscape of The Persistence of Memory. Although Fountain was meant for viewers to debate what is art, The Persistence of Memory seems to hint at how precious and impermanent time and life can be, and thus has a deep peculiar implication. Lastly, Fountain can have natural shadows depending on the light source above the display where as The Persistence of Memory has a fixed light source reminiscent of Surrealist paitnings.

Many people say that positivity blooms from negativity, and in the case of art movements like Dada and Surrealism sprouting in reaction to World War I, some may agree with the aforementioned. Marcel Duchamp pushed the envelope with in an art community that he felt needed more freedom of expression by presenting his Dadaist piece Fountain in 1917. He was determined to stir artistic debate and promote further creativity in a time when most were worried about the destruction taking place in Europe. His bold accomplishments, like presenting ready-mades to art academia, inspired Salvador Dali, who after toying with Cubism and Dada found himself trapped with in his subconscious mind juxtaposing the rational with the irrational. Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, created in 1931, applies his Paranoiac-critical method in terms of making a cloth seem like human skin, or was it the other way around? The Persistence of Memory perfectly captures a subconscious dream-like realm by pairing a genuine landscape with surreal melting clocks, a misplaced hollowed tree, and random ant farm runaways. Like Duchamp, Dali was communicating the importance to live boldly and creatively by accepting what may be eerie or out of place in a perfect world; a world without war and greed.

***written by A. Burgess

Surviving The Tokyo Metro; Yokohama To Ueno

This would be me, as an North American Brontosaurus romping through the Far East

Elementary students in a Ueno park

I was cruising the World Wide Web when I stumbled upon a video that captured the Japanese insanity known as the Tokyo Metro system. I was immediately thrown back almost four years in time to the most memorable year of my existence thus far; 14 months teaching English in Yokohama with my wife. Yokohama is not as clustered as Tokyo, but it does boast the second largest population in Japan. Luckily for Teresa and I our commutes to and from work were civil in comparison to that of central Tokyo.
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art

On a fine winter’s day Teresa and I had gone to Ueno to see the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art. We arrived early and spent about six hours in Ueno, viewing the exhibit, strolling through the local parks and byways, and smiling at the stray cats the congregate around Buddhist temples for a free meal of compassion. We entered the Ueno train station close to 6PM on a week day, and to our surprise the station was extremely crowded with business folks, students, and house wives returning from shopping sprees. We nervously waited in line as two trains came and went with no room for the extended queue. Finally it was our turn, and like these films, we were pushed in and somewhat separated from one another. Praise the Gods and my genes for making me a foot taller than the rest of those sardines, and putting my head above the stench of sweat, blood, and tears; I could breathe! We must have been on that train for 25 minutes, riding from Ueno to Yokohama. I was paired with the fattest man I have ever seen on a Japanese train, and I could see and smell the sweat seeping through his jacket. A small woman, perhaps a solid 4’11” in height, was smashed into the same blob’s side, and truth be told she was gasping for air and did seem to pass out more than once. Because I stomp through Japan like a brontosaurus with all the black haired deinonychus running around under my stride, I was grasping the bars on the train ceiling that the locals had dreamed of one day touching (these bars are the cleanest by far, free of hand oils and cough spat spray). I could see Teresa’s buttocks mashed into another man’s groin, and despite her torture and my annoyance there was absolutely nothing either of us could do. At each stop a few people would exit the train only to have more enter, and by the time we reached Yokohama station we all emerged through the train doors like water flowing through a hose. After acclimating to the fresh air on the platform we dodged through the stairways to cross over to our local, comfy, quiet train line where the seats seemed to glisten like a misplaced quarter on a sidewalk.

Local art


Feline Refuge
The ride home


trains in Tokyo

FESN

Nana ななちゃん

Nana: pronounced Na-na

Shun Moroi しゅんくん!

This is an I-Path Japan advertisement featuring my friend Shun Moroi. Actions speak louder than words, yah heard!?!

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase

Market Street, San Francisco

Lunch break

Louisiana Hot Sauce

Scotty the Body likes it hot

EATS: Tampa, FL

Cephas West Indian Restaurant

1701 East 4th Avenue

Tampa, FL 33605

Grassroot Organic Restaurant

2702 North Florida Avenue
Tampa, FL 33602-1522

http://thegrassrootlife.blogspot.com/

http://www.thegrassrootlife.com/

La Teresita
3248 West Columbus Drive
Tampa, FL 33607
http://www.lateresitarestaurant.com/
Taj Indian Cuisine
2734 East Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL 33612-6275
http://www.tajtampaindiancuisine.com/

&

Island Cuisine
2301 E Hillsbrough Ave
Tampa, FL 33610


Sorry Taco Bus on East Hillsborough Ave., but the last time we dined I wasn't into your dinner conversation...

Ode to the Gulf of Mexico

Once upon a time...This can't be happening...

Today at 13:30 I stepped outside ready and reeling to eat lunch. I hesitated on which direction to head and where to eat when I was called upon by a lady looking for Oxfam America donations. Since I hadn’t decided on where to eat I asked her what my donation would support. She started rattling off global issues when I interrupted her with a smile; “I understand people are suffering in distant lands and I feel for them, but what about the oil gushing from the Gulf of Mexico’s bowels? What is your company doing for the Gulf right now???” Well, she of course mentioned BP isn’t doing anything, or so it seems, and in the meantime Oxfam America is educating the Gulf locals on how to handle the worst disaster of 2010 on a neighborhood level; i.e. proper clothing for clean up, educating people on the toxic affects of the oil, etc etc. So, being the believer of good souls that I am, I declined the monthly contribution option, handed her $10 cash, and quickly filled out my “one-time gift contribution form”.

I’m going to start this off by stating two things; 1. I believe the US gov’t monitors anti-USA conspiracy trash talking via internet blog flagging, of sorts, and 2. This is my opinion, which I am entitled to here in the good ol’ United States of America, so I’m going to disregard #1 and go with #2. I feel this oil spill crisis could have been handled long before it became the worst disaster in 2010. Now, everyone is up-to-date on what’s going on in the Gulf with the BP oil gusher, so there is no reason for me to recap what Fox News has clearly outlined. However, what I am extremely confused and irritated about is why the US Gov’t was contacting, or communicating with, the director of Avatar to set up a better live feed rather than stopping this underwater North American tectonic plate bleed??? Are they serious??? Rather than stopping the oil and billing BP after the fact, since BP can’t get the gear stick out of their arse and into drive, we’re concerned about underwater cameras!!!??? Is this a scam for people to buy more Avatar DVDs, because everyone and their momma have seen that film at least twice in the theatre!!! Seriously, there are only two words that can describe this pathetic waste of time tactic; 1. STALLING and 2. BULLSHIT. Really people, do they take us for idiots???

Right, so I gave that lady $10. I don’t give away money I work hard for unless I know it’s going to good use. Don’t get me wrong, I randomly will give money out to individuals within the huge homeless population here in San Francisco, $27 being the highest one-time donation straight out of the ATM from my account into a man’s hands, but there was good reason for that; we chatted for an hour, he told me jokes, he sang an acapella big band style, he new the year in which my silk vintage tie was produced, and he had the best schpeel for why he needed exactly $27 I have ever heard, even though it was indeed a scam. I’m not cheap with my money, I’m smart with my money; paper notes that really don’t mean squat in the grand scheme of things…what happened to gold and silver?!! Anyway, I gave that lady ten clams with the hope that it will do something. Why do I care? Well, my brother and I grew up on Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, FL. We, along with close friends of ours, have canoed the Wakulla River in Tallahassee, the Alafia River in Hillsborough county, swam at South Beach in Miami, stared in awe as we drove through the Florida Everglades, climbed through mangrove forests, snorkeled in the Florida Keys, swam with manatees, watched dolphins make sweet love, and this list could go on and on. If I made six figures a year and drove some posh yupped-out Hummer whilst my Louis Vuitton-leather enclosed blackberry rang with my the latest investment update, I would have signed up for that monthly donation, as well as donated more funds to other non-profits who are directly in contact with the Gulf borders of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and of course my beloved Florida. Alas, I am just a humble middle class citizen who wishes Poseidon would arise from slumber only to send a hurricane/water spout/massive lightning bolt straight for BP’s jugular while plugging that damned oil leak with his big toe.

…A week ago I swam at Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach with my brother-in-law and my wife; at their home beaches. Pensacola is one of the closest Florida beach towns to that infamous oil trickle, with sands whiter than the after affects of staring at the sun for too long. It was said that their hotel bookings and seafood orders have nearly stopped and that tar balls have started to surface and wash ashore on their beaches. I’ve heard of a visible oil sheen creeping into one of their main bays. It’s really hard to believe that that could have been my last Gulf swim, free of pollution and floating aquatic corpses. And what’s even sadder is many US residents aren’t able to envision the spectacular beauty of Florida’s Gulf Coast, where the best mainland American beaches were once known to reside. All I can do now is hope that THE MAN has flagged my blog, having read my opinion, and perhaps passed it along to people who could help solve this problem…and I hope that The Gulf of Mexico will fully recover with in my life span so I may wade and swim once more with the memories of my youth.

Skateboarding in Uganda

Kitintale from Yann Gross on Vimeo.

Bay to Breakers, San Francisco; trois

le Francaise baiser

la culotte

Madame Teresa et Madame Carrie



Madame Grace et Madame Nina

Carrie escaped London and returned to San Francisco, thus easing her mental from the pains of comprising her dissertation. On Sunday we blended in with the Bay to Breakers mayhem disguised as a few lovable, loyal French citizens, boasting a baguette with mixed drinks like cafe au lait, jus d'orange, and lait de coco (no glass or cans allowed). We decided on the French theme to make our fellow BtoB walkers, who actually are from France, feel comfortable in that 8 hours of American madness; they loved our French front.

Hey Nike, relax your corporate claws

Shun Moroi しゅんくん!

If I were to single out a favored human being based on the 34 year old ollie maneuver, Shun Moroi would be that distinguished soul. Shun blasts a kung-fu ollie in the greater Yokohama area.

http://www.bptrading.co.jp/mt/riders/2006/04/skater.html

Lunch #3; San Francisco

Specialty's Cafe and Bakery - New Montgomery @Mission - tuna with chips $7!
Portico - Mission @1st St. - pesto ravioli with two sides - $7.95

Mondo Cafe - New Montgomery @2nd St. - turkey panini - $8.45

The Store on the Corner - New Montgomery @Minna - chicken bulgogi, home made kimchi, salad, and rice - $6.50!!!

Flames - 2nd St @ Mission - turkey burger and fries - $8

Bindi - 2nd St. @Stevenson - chicken ? curry with rice and naan - $7.25

Let's Eat

It's all about the food we ingest. These diagrams do not mirror traditional Western eating habits, but the eating practices of Okinawans, those who age gracefully and have the longest life expectancies.

Both images display the same idea, however the latter is a bit more complex.

http://www.okicent.org/index.html

Lake Anza, Berkeley CA

Walking to the lake; pre-swim.
Walking around the lake; post-swim.
Walking away from the lake and back to the car; post-swim.

GZA, RZA and Bill Murray : Coffee & Cigarettes

"I told her lay off the dairy products, chill on the citric acid, and you should feel a little better, you know" - RZA aka Bobby Digital

True words, brother, true words.

Signify Zine: Issue 3

Cover art by John Lindsay

urban energy

Leo Valls skates hard and fast

post-oil slide

As I skirted Post Street past Union Square engulfed in a mystic mist dodging tourists who staggered with their maps and SLR cameras struggling to find a heading, my elbow ached and I thought of the motor oil I slid through just 14 hours prior to my alarm sounding. My elbow was still bleeding and my hip and knee were swollen, but I’m young, able, and it amounted to a captured moment in time. Documenting a thrash maneuver is like flossing my teeth; I think about doing it, I know the outcome will be euphoric, but I don’t exert the effort as much as I should. I need motivation, either from the dental hygienist who stabs my gums and scraps my teeth, or from a friend who compiles photos, art, and text to showcase his perceptions of urban energy. Signify Zine; Issue 3 is Kohei Yamada’s most recent compilation of photography shot in both his neighborhoods; San Francisco and Tokyo.

signifyzine@yahoo.com