with my grande zen.

sitting at starbucks now, too chilly to sit outside since the Biltmore seems to block all the sunlight down 5th, but I got the last small table...and here are the things:

Have now requested information/books from twenty art schools/programs. Favorites so far are Pratt Institue (ny), California College of the Arts (sf and oakland), Parsons New School for Design (ny), SCAD (savannah, jo-ja), School of Visual Arts (ny), RISD, School of Art Institute of Chicago, RIT (suprisingly has a pretty good art program...but not so sure about rochester), and OTIS College of Art and Design (la). Eh, can't help but notice that those + the others are on opposite sides of the country...sort of stretching up and down California and then making the 3000 mile leap to New York (and a little of New England).

Read through the very very cool book I got from the School of Visual Arts (I pretty much get a package a day...)--will share next weekend--and took some notes and jotted down some phrases that could potentially be inspiring for an application essay or a letter of interest:
'emphasis on conceptual problem solving based on visual literacy, technological skills, solid grounding in aesthetic formalism', 'frames your thinking in the context of social/political issues', 'passion for art', 'potential for growth', 'serious commitment', 'quality of thinking', 'daring: willing to start in the void and work my way out', 'approaches to problem solving--work with engineering', 'unique thinking, creative voice', 'change the way I see.', 'culture', 'self-discovery', 'pursue your muse', 'tired definitions and conventions', 'push limits' ,'powerful thinking'. I really hope that one day not too far away I can play on all of these things. Can't wait to talk about everyting that I've been thinking and considering. I'm ready to push myself to think differently, and to pursue my muse--ready for this passion to grow into something real.

http://www.monkeybrains.net/~dietrich/musings/links.html
--lately, have added the following to my 'go exploring' bookmarks tab (these sites are bookmarked on a trial basis...they must earn the 'je t'aime' bookmark tab)
http://16sparrows.typepad.com/16sparrows/
http://www.pomegranita.com/
http://www.justmycupoftea.typepad.com/
http://amyalice.blogspot.com/
http://baradesign.blogspot.com/ (on this site, the author eireann has just published a book of poems entitled 'music for landing planes by'; thought it was worth looking into after reading one of hers:
TRAIN VOYAGE NO. 38

I myself am hell/ Nobody’s here
Robert Lowell, “Skunk Hour”

What search goes on goes on across distances;
you say the word selectman
as if it is nothing, Atlantic’s far side
crashing into your history: I’ve left
all that behind now. Body
being what it is, frantic, knowing
cellular breakdown, basis of all things,
I am still longing spread
across tarmac and railroad. Today
the train had no heat, I hunched
in jacket and corner and drew
faces from memory. Hands trill
like birds, motors, how after drought
earth almost shakes to take in all it can
of rain. Not knowing
breaks all into pieces, I gather half-hours
one by one to pass the day. Will there ever
be another hand touching
me? No could be, glass
splintering on tile floor, bones
without song in them. I want
black hair curling by a wry face; fear
I have left second place behind
in vain, an anxious wind hurrying me every wrong direction.

(she wrote: '...not from the books; from the daily exercises with my friend'; I would love to find a book that had daily writing promts--even if my writing never goes anywhere academically or 'career-y,' I would love to get better and push and stretch myself in different ways...constantly feel very inspired to write (not for anybody, just for me) by Jonathan Safran Foer)

http://shimandsons.typepad.com/shimandsons/ (used to read this one; am giving it a second chance...can't remember why it was un-bookmarked in the first place)
http://twotreeswithrootslikethese.blogspot.com/
http://ideadujour.blogspot.com/ (none of the blogs I read are too funny, mostly about scrapping or crafting or designing--filled with inspiring and delicious stories, but nothing funny...thought I should give this one a chance after reading the subtitle--'ART. FOOD. LIT. MUSIC. SEX. TRAVEL. THINK, DAMN IT...THINK.' hello--me? ...and after reading this little blurb (and, er, sorry about the language...but it's Bukowski):

Last night I dreamt that I was having a discussion about poetry with Charles Bukowski. My poetry. His poetry. Truth, intent, the unconscious and fucking.

As is natural in a dream state, we were sitting around a 50’s pink Formica table that I have not owned in many years, in the bright yellow kitchen on the top floor of a 1920’s restored hotel-cum-Hollywood apartment that I moved out of a long time ago. Type written pages papered the floor.

The conversation went something like this:

Bukowski: You know, your writing isn’t half bad - but for heaven’s sake – can’t you write about something other than love?

Me: Why? You never found the need to write about anything other than fucking –

Bukowski: I wrote about plenty of topics other than fucking…

Me: No you didn’t. You wrote about drinking, landlords, racetracks, women with generous backsides – you were changing the proper nouns but you still fucked them all… Pages upon pages of verbal intercourse with bottles, with whores, with horses, with back alleys, with regrets…

Bukowski: You’re certainly not suffering from any lack of opinions. The only true story is the one you already know - maybe all your talk of love is what’s keeping you from nailing your words to the paper – maybe you should try writing about fucking too.

Me: Please don't go all Raymond Carver on me.

Me: Oh, and fuck you.

Bukowski: Do you want to…?

Me: Not likely. I’m going to keep me pants on and stick with love for now.

http://www.superherodesigns.com/journal/ (oh, un tres beau bebe...is my french getting worse? yes. I will be trilingual. English. French. Spanish.)

...can't wait to add more!

been finding myself in a jazz place lately, and am digging:
enrico pieranuzi + paul motian, art blakey and the messengers, brad mehldau, john zorn, medeski martin + wood, cannonball adderley, art tatum, charlie parker, eric dolphy.

http://www.blurb.com/ --think we should 'back up' this blog maybe in a year--idea courtesy of soulemama.

on my out-of-hand multi-tasking reading habit: am also looking forward to picking up God In Search Of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel whenever The History of Love doesn't feel quite right:
"It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of an authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless.
Religion is an answer to man's ultimate questions. The moment we become oblivious to ultimate questions, religion becomes irrelevant, and its crisis sets in. The primary task of philosophy of religion is to rediscover the questions to which religion is an answer. The inquiry must proceed both by delving into the consciousness of man as well as by delving into the teachings and attitudes of the religious tradition.
There are dead thoughts and there are living thoughts. A dead thought has been compared to a stone which one may plant in the soil. Nothing will come out. A living thought is like a seed. In the process of thinking, an answer without a question is devoid of life. It may enter the mind; it will not penetrate the soul. It may become a part of one's knowledge; it will not come forth as a creative force."
On another Jewish side-note, Bee Season has been on HBO a few times, and I'm finding myself obsessed. Must read the book, even if it's not as good as the movie--is this possible?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixthborougher/ (New York set coming soon?)

Haven fallen in love with Tim Walker's work; thank you, Kat Heyes. (even realized one of the Vogue tear-outs on my wall is his...the woman walking with the giant red sunglasses.)






Things we should do, because they will be good.
Write a 32-thing list. (http://www.bugheart.com/about.html)
30 Day photo challenge...take one photo worth looking at each day, and post.
Make our own 'Dares.' We can post one a week--or every other week--alternating. And then we'll each make an art-journal or scrapbook page based on the dare. (http://fortheloveofeffers.blogspot.com/) Am crazy about this idea--and can't wait. I'll be thinking of the first dare, and will post by tomorrow. Think one every two weeks sounds perfect, can you swing it?

Am going to dinner tonight at Einstein's--have really been trying to save, but haven't been out with the the girls in over a month or two I don't think.
portabello and brie melt, or the mussels (what do we think of red broth), or the tilapia sandwich, or the pecan chicken salad--saw Martha and Paula have a debate about 'peh-caahhhn' vs. 'peeeee-can!' the other day...are you a pecahhhn? I am. I am a pecahhhhn, seeerUP, vaahhhze, 'i'ther, 'ni'ther kind of girl.

something else I wrote:
on a summer peach:
the dark wooden pit--entangling knots and spots of juicy feathered flesh still sitting on his chin as he looks up at the sleeping starry sky with his long curled eyelashes and fourth of july eyes

(by peter fischli and david weiss...swiss artists who know.)

I will follow this.

love, katie.