May 2008
Comic Book Philosophy
lose-lose situation
 detail of 1973 collage from journal - foto by smith someone wanted to know why 14 fotos have disappeared from my online memorial collage of Mother Dwarf’s last art outing - a piece i called The First & Last Annual Gathering Of The Norman Rockwell Lawn Poets Society. those 14 fotos featured a young child. today the father asked me to take her name and fotos offline. for some reason, even though they’ve been online for 3 years, he decided they were a threat to his daughter. i don’t think so - there’s no way the child now can be identified from her fotos then, there’s too great a change from the one-year old person to the 4-year old… i checked the laws and found i didn’t have to remove them because they were taken in a public place. and i didn’t want to remove them because it was a special collage honoring my mother’s last gathering - she died 6 weeks later. but i couldn’t leave them up because even if i don’t understand his logic, he’s still the parent and it wouldn’t be right not to comply. so i blanked them out, just left a note on each explaining they were removed per his request. this way it loses its magic, but continues as an interactive performance art piece. this is a lose-lose situation for me. it was one of my favorite foto montages. its magic came from the year old child interacting with my dying mother. the piece was also a factor in my winning my wife’s love. the father’s an artist and poet as well, and i found his request i eviscerate one of my creations somewhat insensitive. it left a bad taste in my soul all day, ate at my mind. but eviscerate i did. so be it. this it is the it it is. now i leave this slice of doubt behind and go on to the next slice. they say life is what keeps happening to you while you keep trying to figure out what’s going on.  internet / store across the street - foto by smith |
pet soldiers
 1972 journal collage - foto by smith the pentagon has admitted using a pet crematorium to cremate 200 soldiers who died in iraq and afghanistan. amazing - they lie us into an illegal war, kill 4,000 americans, murder over one million iraqis, ignore the physically and mentally damaged soldiers who come back, burn dead soldiers in a pet crematorium, and then have the gall to say WE have to support our troops, that we’re undercutting the troops by pointing out the futility and illegality of the war. can you say “sleazy cowardly scum-sucking liars”? george bush - traitor  political graffiti - foto by smith |
radio one
 graffiti - foto by smith
lady says “you’re … something,” and trails off. i tell her i’m a lone radio station from a far off place, with no format, no frequency, no tuning dial.  political graffiti - foto by smith  political protest - foto by smith |
now time
 U.R.O., governor of Oaxaca - foto by smith our friend Chiplis–who twice loaned us his little love shack out back to live in–wrote “is it time to relax a minute now that the book is done and the social security pipeline is finally plumbed? for a minute?” well, the only thing that ever soothes me inside is creating, or doing something specific like washing dishes. it’s all the in-between life activities i find uncomfortable. that’s why i like reading and watching movies so much because they eat “now-time”. our now-time is becoming new-time because we had 2 goals here - get social security and finish the book. now that we’ve done both, we have to figure out what our life is to be down here. i’m starting my table collage, and once we get our yearly visa (that was supposed to be at the end of march), we can do some side travel to guatemala, peru and belize - lady would like to visit suriname again since she was down there with her grandfather when she was 4-5. i think now is the time for lady to blossom even more. she’s been obsessed with me these past 33 months, and with our book these past 2 years. now she can work on getting herself some art and foto shows down here, and on her own fictionalized novel of her past. i’ve been me a long long time - i think perhaps this is her time to become more her. who knows, cept The Shadow. all i know is this is the longest most cohesive most interesting and rewarding adventure i’ve been on, and i’ve been on a few in my time. adventures are more fun when you have adventure-mates, and i’ve not found another in lady’s category. life is sweet in this unknown paradise.  caffeinated rabbit on restroom door blackboard in coffee shop - foto by smith |
7 sequence
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took these 7 fotos yesterday in this order . . . no meaning beyond sequentiality.  U.R.O., the governor of Oaxaca - foto by smith  altered ad - foto by smith  fallen flower - foto by smith  mortar & pestal and jicema - foto by smith  paper mache mask on Lady’s art - foto by smith  dying cockroach at english language library - foto by smith  orange flower tree in front of palm tree - foto by smith |
miles runs the blue do down
 graffiti - foto by smith second poetry challenge - “what is the taste of blue?” Miles Runs The Blue Do Down Blue tastes of ~ ~ ~ third challenge - “bright red” Red Light Many colors are subdued ~ ~ ~ the challenge “freedom” leaves too big a hole in my head. kristofferson says “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” so maybe it’s freedom the CheneyBush Beast is giving us as they take all our rights away while we play “Freedom of Choice…” “In ancient rome / There was a poem / About a dog / Who found two bones / - Devo - Freedom Of Choice - Songwriters: G. Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh ~ ~ ~ the poetry challenges are from Katelyn - myspace.com/kateybwriting  political graffiti - foto by smith |
fone fungi forelobes
 graffiti in krakow, poland - foto by smith 2 studies (swedish 2005, great britain 2008) finally admit what we suspect - cell fones can cause brain tumors. england says using a cell fone 10 years doubles your risk of brain cancer. the study predicts cell fones will kill more people yearly than smoking does now (cigarettes officially kill five million people a year globally) because three times as many folk use cell fones as smoke. sweden points out rural cell fone users have an 8 times greater chance of a malignant tumor than non-cell fone users, because they have to up the fone’s power to get the signal to the tower and blast your brain with even more toxic no-nos. germany and france have warned against letting children use them. nothing will change though because money’s being made. we’re used to corporate products killing their customers. the tobacco industry kills off its customers right and left and then replaces them by recruiting from the grade schools. alcohols and guns both kill customers and non-customers alike. as do automobiles, fast food, elective surgery, politicians, and TV. TV at first just numbs then kills the brain, but the body continues on unknowing. this is where a lot of republicans and the religious wrong come from. i’m not a fan of cell fones. they’re frequently rude intrusions, insensitive or arrogantly aired dirty laundry in public. i won’t be missing a lot of the soon-to-be departed. the true evil is cell fone radiation is one of the things driving our missing honey bees crazy. they get lost, jammed, overwhelmed, weary, and forget the where and why of their hive. we might have to fit each little buzzing bee with a tiny GPS device to help them find their way back home to the hive. or else hire manual laborers to start pollinating fruits, grains and flowers with q-tips. hey, maybe i can rent my penis out as well - it’s small enough to do bumble bees, pollinate plant pistils, and wouldn’t embarrass the stamen.  erect banana food store advert, oaxaca, mexico - foto by smith |
candide candy
 graffiti - foto by smith wrote an exercize poem because a friend asked me too. the assignment was to use the line “like candy on ice cream.” here it be. feel free to hack away. Like Candy on Ice Cream Like Candide’s best of all possible worlds Like Wallace Steven’s Emperor of Ice Cream Like Candy on ice cream Like constant lice on the American dream Like good on bad and bad on worse the friend was Richard (myspace.com/afairlyhonestman ), and the poem assignment was via Katelyn (myspace.com/kateybwriting)  painting in local show - foto by smith |
Immigrant Isolationism
 My Friends at Home - paper masks on our kitchen table - photo by Lady My friend says the men here don’t do any chores. All the men of Mexico are macho, she says. I look out the window and see our landlord and I’m reminded of this. He always has a handsome macho stance. He and his wife lady hop on their motorcycle some nights. His wife lady is chubby in a cute way, has curly hair, a rarity here, and wears spike heels on the motorbike. I would like to know the wife lady a tiny bit more. She’s a real lady lady. Sometimes she wears traditional indigenous clothes–woven embroidered house dresses–as she does the chores in the courtyard. Lady |