You know that I think about everything
I do it on the wing
as I go wandering
hoping to find what I didn't know I was looking for
trying to fall behind on running after I want
so that what I need can walk up to me

the Robot post

I have been running into lots and lots of robots lately... virtually, of course.  Not too surprising, considering all the playing robot I do with this computer attached to my fingertips, lately.

A couple of the synapse- and circuit-blowing real-life robot stories that I've come across lately:

1.  Radiolab's "Talking to Machines" episode: http://www.radiolab.org/2011/may/31/

2. Momoyo Torimitsu's creepy robot performance:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djJDvgUOL7E

3. Martin Hans Schmitt's Robot World non-verbal documentary... awesome, if you can get your hands on it... in the meantime, the trailer: http://vimeo.com/14416505

4. I'm afraid this could just go on forever... I just found this on my buddy Andy Fritz's buzz, cracked me up:

Bad news for all those in the tiny underwater step pyramid construction business.

Make: Online : CNC bacteria swarm builds tiny pyramid

Researchers at the NanoRobotics Laboratory of the École Polytechnique de Montréal, under Professor Sylvain Martel, produced this remarkable video showing a swarm of about 5,000 flagellated bacteria--...

Daaaaaammmmmnnnnnnn I just checked out the audience stats to this page, and I am mad wowed by the fact that Iran takes 2nd place after the US for this past month.  Word to IRAN, especially to those open-minded youth that I keep hearing are living resistance to the oppressive regime! And word to those that aren't, too, it awes me that so many people might be reading this words in Iran, and I am grateful and jaw-dropped. And much love to Germany, bien sur a la France, and claro que lo mejor a Argentina mi casa, and Russia good lord almighty, South Africa sweeeeet I'm listening to Hugh Masekela's Grrrr album now wow, Kuwait whaaaaaat I just saw "Lessons of Darkness" by Herzog which blew my mind, Canada alriiiiight tomorrow going to see Les Sept Doigts de la Main circus in Buenos Aires the best circus worldwide, and the UK what can I say spent the day watching banksy in his new film. Not generally my style to pepper my entries with excessive letters, but I couldn't help it with this audience report, and I thought that readers might be interested to see with whom they are sharing this space...

AudienceRefresh   Now   Day   Week   Month   All time 2011 Apr 28 – 2011 May 27

Pageviews by Countries United States 115 Iran 32 Germany 18 France 17 Argentina 15 Russia 15 South Africa 15 Kuwait 13 Canada 6 United Kingdom 6

The world is wheeling all around the universe with such grace and blunder and people plundering each other. Could it also possibly be that I fear that I'm crazy and that so is other human being and that's why we like each other so much? All I have are broken, sullied and spit-on misconceptions, mistakes and mishaps, not to mention a lack of apologies, which I now apologize for.  I only hope that my humor can slay my doubt. I try to tell people that the world is on fire and that we are holding a torch under our own feet, and they tell me I'm crazy.  Maybe only by pretending to be the fool can the crooked be made straight.  Keep 'em laughing till they hit the floor and feel how hot it is.  Smooth tears and rough, fiery laughs must collide, the outward communication of the deepest emotions merging, within one person – so as to evoke a feeling of sympathy for others and for the reeling world.

estilo libre animación de graffiti

fotograma ficticia de Movimientos espectaculares, mi película en montaje... con Maya Cahua y dibujos de Alejandro Salazar.

fictitious frame from Spectacular Movements, my film in process... with Maya Cahua and drawings by Alejandro Salazar.

my latest creation of moving images and sound:

You ever put your hand in your pocket only to find another man's hand?
You ever walk the streets or the docks that leave you nowhere to stand?

You ever stroll along the edge of dawn
and find the side of sea that you're on
affords no quarter much less
the half that you need?

This is all a bit of a shot in the dark….

Luckily, I got loads of bullets

and I love to dance that bang bang rhythm,

trippin’ out with that gunpowder strobe,

and since I’m generally a pacifist, I’d rather see these potential killers buried safely in the wall

"beauty is in the street"
- from Paris, May '68... to Cairo, February '11 -

"la belleza está en la calle"

Although these words aren't mine, they gave me such joy that I can't resist but share them. And I'm kind of tired of my words and thoughts and images, aren't you? So this blog will henceforth include the works of others, I so declare! Suggestions gladly accepted...

"Tripping over Joy"
by Hafiz
trans Daniel Ladinsky

What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, "I Surrender!"

Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think

You have a thousand serious moves.

My latest video... mi último video.
A promotional short doc I directed... un corto docu promocional que dirigí.
See it in HD on youtube...verlo en HD en youtube.

I saw a gangrened leg rotting away my psyche’s locomotion, so I blasted away with my magnum.

She turned, feeling the sting of gunpowder-charred steel in flesh, and returned fire,

Incinerating the leprosy crawling like devil’s ivy up my arm, making my trigger finger twitch.

See things as they’re not

to see what’s beyond what you got on the spot,

a wider panorama, a deeper dig,

as a sleeper dreams, as a walker schemes

beyond the physical state of things,

draw expanding rings from your pebble-of-a-place

where you fell from space into this pond

and beyond, grow in grooves, move fluid…

if you always knew it, then do it,

bit by bit, spit the bitterness of the hum-drum out

of your clogged-up mouth, if you gotta, shout,

so you can again breathe easy,

blink and rethink first glances till you get trances

and see the seething on the surface of the ordinary…

only then will you sink deep and join the mass movement underneath

Almost didn’t make it out of Buenos Aires:

Fell asleep at the gate, emotionally drained,

woke up at last call

shaking like a drunk,

no control of my body,

my step unsteady, I forced myself to fly

even though I walked as if I couldn’t control where my feet

were to land and in which direction.

I could – but I felt under a spell

as if something-someone wouldn’t let me go.

Almost didn’t make it back from Bolivia.

Lingered at the threshold of a disappointing dream

searching for meaning,

Lingered in my shower’s cleansing heat

hoping for healing,

Lingered over my aunt’s homemade yogurt

groping for feeling

The flight’s closed, he said.

Let him go, they cried.

Shaking, I pleaded, like a refugee,

You must let me fly. Please.

My work here is done

and my life there goes on.

The gate opened, I slipped through.

Again, I am in the great between,

gates opening and closing around me

and I stumbling through…

what to?

A woman who loves me, whom I adore…

we are searching for more.

A megalopolis: fascination, inspiration,

opportunity, community, generosity, be what you want to be;

isolation, repulsion, contamination,

arrogance, decadence, inertia… I try to shake it all off, be me.

Work to be done, where to start?

and if begun, where will I end up?

Much as I love this liminal, I dread

getting stuck neither here nor there.

So I seek the land beneath me and all around

for a sign saying HERE!

Land, lay foundation, build your home,

grow the garden of your dreams

so that you may fall asleep inside or out,

open and close the gates at will.