Posts
beauty
tightness untethered \/\/ some contradictory instances of a modern idea
“Tight” is a word with some significant ambiguity in modern usage. It can mean drunk, cheap, fit, cool, calm, close, angry, well-rehearsed, cautious, or secretive… For my money, and I’m cheap, “tight” is as rich a word as circulates in modern American English. It has a long and international history of ambiguity bringing it... »
popop\/\/i shall be released
This is going to seem like too great a stretch, but there is a very real connection between the New Orleans Saints, the Stoics of Ancient Greece, and Nina Simone. What brings them together? Compassion. Nina Simone’s short hymnal “Compassion” is actually Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Compensation” set to music. Dunbar also wrote a vaudeville song... »
the desultory results of theavantguardian logo competition\/\/the candidates
We have results! For the logo competition we’ve been blathering about for the last month or so. Please admire. What follows is a list IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER of the logos we received. We would like you to admire them, comment on them, hold them, love them, and decide amongst yourselves. We will be... »
commodity fetishism gone right \/\/ alexander mcqueen, meatpacking district
February 11, 2010: Beneath the flurries of the worst blizzard to hit the northeastern United States in over a decade, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week kicks off in New York City. The crowds flock to the tents of Bryant Park to witness some of the most prominent designers in the world unveil their Fall-Winter... »
pink hearts mcqueen
a small tribute, to a talent larger than life. there is a pink spot inside each and every one of us… especially those with rusted hearts. “Hope there’s someone Who’ll take care of me When I die, will I go Hope there’s someone Who’ll set my heart free Nice to hold when I’m tired” -Antony R.I.P. Alexander McQueen »
color theory \/\/ and bad writing
Poets care a great deal about color. They’re artists in black and white, but they refer to color. The words for color, the associations they call up in the reader’s mind and their music, have fascinated poets for centuries. Goethe went so far as to write a scientifically-ridiculed theory of color, completely ignoring its... »
bad-mouthing women \/\/ a short poetic history
The Saints victory in the La Supair Bowle this past week gave everyone ample opportunity to talk about Kim Kardashian’s big ass. Why, you may wonder? So many questions torture my already fevered brain… If they lost, would her presence on the field have blamed like Jessica Simpson was for Tony Romo’s flameout awhile... »
an invocation to the \/\/ whose it’s?: whitman’s pants p@rt 2
So last week I gave a little breakdown of the players involved in the Levi’s Whitman commercials, a bit of background on Whitman’s fashion lexicon, and left you with a bit of Whitman’s “Respondez!”– a poem that is decidedly less friendly to the purpose of selling jeans. This week, I’ll float a few ways... »
commodity fetishism gone holistic \/\/ satori holistic center, upper east side
Though widely hailed as the father of free verse, Walt Whitman famously identified himself in his epic Leaves of Grass as “a cosmos, of Manhattan the son.” A native of Long Island, Whitman relocated to neighboring New York City during the era when the metropolis first laid down its roots as the cultural and economic... »
swarms\/\/composed of millions
God I love a good animal swarm. A shoal. Huge teeming masses of living things moving together as one. Pulsating erratically. What awesome power. What capability. What sheer animal instinct. Probably a little bit of stupidity too. I also like the word pullulate. Never has a word you probably haven’t heard before meant so much. pul·lu·late... »