Comments on Surviving Phalaris: Let Them be Played by Machines

I don't mean life imitating art, I mean life a...

2011-08-25T20:40:08.723-06:00

I don't mean life imitating art, I mean life as art. I think Andy Warhol got into the idea a bit.

What else is the ultimate temporal expression of being?

I think of pets in my past, and Monkey was epic, because s/he had personality. Missing toes. Clung onto the cage like a hanger. Vicious for a while. Wanted to take other peoples' toes, maybe. But I'm still fond of the bird.

It's these incredible complexities in the character of something or someone that make life and reality especially vivid for me.

But I say repugnant, yes, because that part of me that thinks I should have done better, become more -- I suppose it's the critic all artists have in the back of their head. It's repugnant when I think I should have or should do rather than I did or I do. Should've had flawless veneer, etc.

Dave, I had a great time in Minnesota. I spent mo...

2011-08-21T20:49:24.435-06:00

Dave,

I had a great time in Minnesota. I spent most of it in the violin shop, but I did manage to make a trip to downtown Minneapolis to visit the Hard Rock there. ;) I accidentally ended up in the middle of a baseball game that I didn't mean to attend, but I managed to find my way to where I was going in the end.

I also visited the Science Museum in downtown St. Paul where they currently have the Tutankhamen exhibit, and I decided to go to that. There is something really strange about being around all of that really old stuff... but it was neat. Outside of the exhibit, I got to look into some microscopes and examine some live bacteria and some amoebas. That was a lot of fun.

Perhaps my best time, besides making a violin, was going to dinner with a Jew, a Catholic Priest, and a painter. I love being a little bit cosmopolitan and getting out of the monoculture here.

Anyway, why would the idea of life imitating art seem repugnant at times? The best music is dynamic music, and the bright spots in a great painting are only striking because they are surrounded by the dark bits. Not too many artists are content with whitewashing the entire canvas and calling it finished. Life is a rhythm which is perfect not in spite of its ups and downs, but because of them. The thing that makes playing games so enjoyable is that most of the time we are not playing games.

Thanks for posting. I was curious how your experie...

2011-08-19T17:39:56.561-06:00

Thanks for posting. I was curious how your experience was ...

You touch on Emanationism, which I've been thinking about lately. I disagree with it. There may be an original Form, but I don't think it's the ultimate ideal.

You also touched on this idea -- I guess I'd have called it living a pre-fab life without really examining the blueprint too much.

I've also thought about one's life as being the greatest work of art one can accomplish. It makes sense. But it also makes me wonder why the idea almost seems repugnant at times -- I don't want to have a growing experience, I want to play games, and so forth. Am I making the most of my life? What does that even mean? Is it even possible to live life according to a blue-print? Maybe a rough sketch at best. I never cared much for having to color within the lines.