CHAZ CARTIER

From a dozen years ago.......from a note to a friend, whom, at that time, I knew as "Chaz" and with whom i've shared many 'dialogues', although we have never met in the "real world", but only within the contexts of Myspace and Facebook: Re: mental illness as the burdensome lagniappe of Creativity...the compartmentalization, then unravelling, of associative collusions within the mass of cortical tissues......:.....It is not so much that eccentricity is incomprehensible, for i don't seek to discover the periapsis of intellect or the common, intersections that we share......somewhere between 24 and 42, so to speak, wherein the trajectory of random thoughts collide in expressions that are both recognized as "real",yet, at the same instant, are transient and unknowable........i keep, at my bedside, 7 boxes, varying in both size and design, materials of construction and contents.......At one point in time....well, actually not a POINT, but a span of time........there were fewer containers for the stuff, less stuff and a more random assembly......to find an item, i had to open all the boxes and search the multi-leveled vaults of treasures, many that i had forgotten were there and could no longer remember their origins.........Now......i can see a box and, because of my 'organization' have a relatively accurate idea of the 'types' of things therein.........an economy of placement now constructed, my prior randomness gave way to 'you can find it if you concentrate' .......Many of the "things" in the boxes represent entire constructs or clues to memory and insight.......some are purely nostalgic......One could say that this whole procedure is just a form of OCD to fill the dots between the mind's clicking in time......but the process inhibits dissociative thinking, for me, and ties me into the more rigid relativity of the rest of the world........eccentric? i suppose so........ but then, i make no claims to normalcy, and find it rather pathetic and dull, don't you? On the other hand, however, i have seen Madness, both intellectually and emotionally........and my advice is: "don't get lost" The vast space with which we have little familiarity is far greater than the known universe.......the world is full of "code".....the world, perhaps....IS just "code".........the "cheat-codes" are just delusionary devices to corral the Incomprehensible into a text of believability.......So....I've found that Art is the best excuse for living.......writing it, drawing it, dancing it....whatever........then observing this output, thinking "ha ha....it is what it is". Now, there are a dozen 'boxes' of inter-related conceptualizations, taking form as 'things.......a box of nail clippers, of bracelets, of old photographs, of clippings from books and magazines.....of refrigerator magnets bearing 'words' that can be assembled and reassembled.......as Fancy would have It...... then, this assemblage of words will be enveloped in stacks and stacks of paper, bearing other assemblages of language as 'brushstrokes'......

Will.They.Ever.Know.Best?

If only fathers knew best and their offspring actually comprehended the wisdom that fathers should convey to them........if only we were all raised with love, compassion, forgiveness and understanding, the Consciousness of Humanity would evolve......It all begins in infancy, is congealed in childhood, is fixed in adolescence and unyielding in adulthood.....

Excitation with Mollifying Emoluments

First, 

a second dessert! : lemon-scented "eggs" iced cream with powdered Schaffenberger cocoa and a plasticy blob of Robert Rothschild raspberry chocolate sauce, unheated.......   Then, a few

Chili-hot small dish samplers for a late luncheon......another tribute to Parts Unknown.......especially hot........particularily the braised collard greens with chili flakes, hot garlic, tomatoes cooked in sriracha chili sauce, tortilla pasta rice with chili oil and tamarind paste, black beans in walnut oil, yard scallions....marinated in rice vinegar, and fava beans Hannibal Lecter, with grated aged parmesan cheese...with a solacing side dish of green dragon-enhanced Bhindi Masala with ground mace and star anise and black salt.......For 'dessert', a sponge cake soaked with mango iced cream, refrozen, then sliced and served with whipped cream, flavored with raspberry and apricot liquors.......This dessert....a tribute to my friend Hill Irving....I miss our many conversations about cooking, Films and really alternative music, which spanned almost a half century.........We once had a telephone dinner party, wherein we cooked then ate foods.......hundreds of miles apart, watching Babette's Feast and commenting on the "Spread" and Repression.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBG4mRIg-9M

still going through thousands of old 'family' photos......This photo, of a line of competitive ocean swimmers has a 'note' on its reverse.....I have no idea of who any of the swimmers or the photographer...obviously some family member.....or who wrote the 'note' on its back.....Nevertheless, the photo is a 'wide group shot' cropped and edited from a 62.5mm contact photo.......

Dining, Alone....as usual

no thank you....I can make a better lunch, without leaving home, driving in traffic, waiting in line at that trendy 'brunch' place......before my friends were served, I cranked out some white cornmeal and yellow grits-covered spicy chicken tenderloins with a 'snaking' of green curry sauce, French-herbed fingerling potatoes with fresh rosemary and cabbage/carrot coleslaw, quick-marinated in rice vinegar, some corn relish that I made a few days ago and a glass of spicy chai tea........and, no cacophony, no steel eating tools, no morning elevator pop muzak or ubiquitous 'live trio', playing 80's greatest hits........and no 'getting dressed'! My absence gives everyone 'someone to talk about' over coffee and beignets.....

Moving to The Capitol.......After avoiding The Draft

more old photos.....It took only a couple of days, visiting Atlanta, to make the decision to move here in 1968.....quickly meeting Mother David and the Underground Artist Culture.....It 'took' another month or so to confront the 'Reality" that Atlanta was STILL in the middle of The Deep South, as we 'freaks' were beset by men in uniforms, carrying batons, cuffs and guns.....So, how have 'things' changed? Fewer protests......more militarized 'law enforcement'......and, which may be a 'boon'......everyone has a camera......EVERYONE! But, I'm not 'cocky' about that.......Photoshopping can make just about everything just as Big Brother would have you see it....can't it? Don't believe 'it' just because there's a 'picture' on the WEB....Nevertheless.....this photo is real.....shot on film, processed without 'changes' and published in The Great Speckled Bird.......the hippies' source of Leftist News in the later 1960's.......and, to think, I was...just half a decade later......modeling double-knit bell bottom trousers with nik-nik shirts! Shake 'it' up.......Fortunately, that was short-lived!! I gave away my red, yellow and green bells, Ritz Cracker sleeveless sweater and Sgt. Pepper shirt, went Nik-Nik and dropped out of the Full Catastrophe, as Zorba would have called it........following the 'Program': 1)play 2)protest 3)march 4)party 5)obsess on 'catching up' with those who Worked 6)work and acquire 7)play 8)reflect .....Full Circle......then....reflect on all of it to figure out what it was/is all about.....right, Alfie?

http://www.thestripproject.com/category/community/history/page/4/

Send in The Clowns.......The cops won't shoot 'em......

Watching the DirecTV 'News Quadriplex' early this morning.....with its 4 screens full of violent, shouting and sign-waving men, women and children, emboldened behind the anonymity of Coro-19 masks......i thought of 'Thoth's Buddhist activism from a few years ago......'Between Social Wars'.....His words may be incomprehensible, but his message is clear......Today, his audience would ALL have their phones in 'record' mode, however......before moving on to the next 'interesting' event....the acrid smoke screen, from which uniformed, armed men in helmets emerge to 'break this up".......History has shown that 'crazy people'....like Thoth (and his wife), Moondog, Captain Beefheart, Buckethead, St. EOm, and Alice Cooper have Auras that separate them from All, excepting the Willing Watchers, that view them as 'relatively harmless' Amusements....[if they were observed as 'Real' or 'Subversive', they'd have been hauled off in leg irons and handcuffs, into paddy wagons....] Clown outfits are the best disguises, because few humans ever want to look into the eyes of Reality, when they can 'laugh it off'.......That's why so many wear dark glasses on cloudy days.......'Who? Me?'.........