Day 139 of 170: If You’re Lucky, You Can Stop Caring Now

I say that because this season’s playoff race is already re-diggity-donkulous. I also say that because in my leagues – where I’m the commissioner – the playoffs start this week, and thus end on April 4th, thereby avoiding that annoying last Week-And-A-Couple-Days at the end of the season. This is also good for the people in those leagues (those being mine) who own LeBron James because the LeBron Jameses clinched a playoff spot yesterday with a big win over Patrick’s non-one-name-team, the Boston Celtics. James was not the best fantasy player yesterday, though. Line of the Night: Dwyane Wade (1.30) scored 38 points in a win over Philadelphia. I think Wade is going to be huge for the next couple weeks at the Dwyane Wades try to keep their lead over the Raptors and beat out the Bobcats so they don’t have to play the LeBron Jameses. Of course, watching those two go at it for a 7-game first round match-up would be nothing short Legend… wait for it… Honorable Mentions: Tyreke Evans (1.20) continued to give Stephen Curry a real race for the ROY trophy with 29 points (2 threes), 9 rebounds, 11 assists, and 2 steals. Amare Stoudemire (0.93) had an eye-bulging 36 and 12, while Deron Williams (0.87) had 27 and 14 of the other kind. And I bet he’s a lot happier with a loss to Oklahoma City than he would be if he were back at Illinois. Ouch. Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Nicholas Batum (0.99) goes the dynamite! Batum was #3 on the night with 22 points (5 threes!), a steal, and 2 blocks. Okay, fine, he shot 78%, so technically he’s not eligible, but seriously, at this point, what have you got? Wesley Matthews (0.73) was impressive with 29 points, but he shot 82%. I suppose Donte Greene (0.62) gives you a 50/50 shot at double-digit points and a bunch of rebounds. You’re taking your chances wherever you go. You can probably tolerate the risk in daily changes leagues, but I wouldn’t be so sure about any of these guys in a weekly league. The Biggest Loser: Jameer Nelson (-0.52) certainly didn’t help Orlando’s chances against the surging Bobcats with his 2-10 shooting, nor did he help them with much of anything else. All Eyez On Me: Beware the Ides of March… A day after the so-called Sunday Showcase, there’s not much going on, but the Nuggets will try to push the Lakers for the top spot in the West when they take on the now-always-dangerous Houston Rockets. The Golden Ticket: The Lakers try to hold off the Nuggets, and they have a good chance since they’re going against Golden State. Perhaps that will give Pau Gasol a few extra shot attempts. At what point do we start wondering what team he’ll be playing for next year? New York at Philadelphia should be a good one for fantasy lines… except there’s not a whole lot of talent going on there… Still Waiting? … ary. Don’t Forget: Play GMTR’s Weekly Fantasy Game. No, really. It’s fun! —– Dont miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter. sr_adspace_id = 5975307; sr_adspace_width = 300; sr_adspace_height = 250; sr_ad_new_window = true; sr_adspace_type = "graphic";Other Stuff Like This: GMTR Mock Draft Analysis: Round One (14) The Fantasy Basketball All-Stars: Eastern Conference (1) Day 85 of 170: Halfway Home (1) Day 127 of 170: LeBron v. Wade (4) Day 78 of 170: Jameer Tops Huge Games By Dirk, LeBron, Dwight, and Dwyane (2) Day 32 of 170: Dwyane Wade FTW (1) Day 12 of 170: LeBron James Will Do That in Your House (5)

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Morning Meme: Kish Anger Flares, Puppies Kiss, Basketball Goes Gay and Did Lady GaGa Hang Up on Jonathan Ross?

For those of you wondering if Robert Pattinson can open a movie, we now know he can’t. One Life To Live’s decision to fade away Kish has Daytime Confidential mad as hell. I felt a little sorry for the boys, because it sounds like GLAAD scaled back honoring the show Saturday if you read Brett’s Twitter, which sucks, because the actors did groundbreaking work. And there are multiple efforts underway to protest the decision. George Michael and Boy George aren’t feuding anymore. Those of you who have been too concerned to eat can now head to McDonalds. I’ve mentioned my concern about the Texas Textbooks Commission rewriting history to suit their conservative agenda before. And how it affects everyone, because Texas is such a huge customer for books. But this new round of changes is truly outrageous. They’re dropping Thomas freaking Jefferson from American history in favor of more conservative thinkers. I think there should be a rule: If you’re on our money, you get taught in history class. Does anyone here watch anything on USA Network? I’m trying to understand how they rake in 3x as much advertising revenue as SyFy, the next closest cable network, which I watch regularly. Anyone? Cutie Matt Doyle has a gig coming up singing at Joe’s Pub in April, and tickets are on sale now for the Gossip Girl, Spring Awakening, and Bye Bye Birdie star. Netflix ran a contest to optimize their recommendations system, and gave away a million bucks as a prize. They wanted to do it again, but got sued for privacy concerns, since researchers worked with poorly anonymized data. I knew all this, but I didn’t realize one of the people who sued them was a closeted lesbian who feared her rental history could out her. At this website, you will find a classic paper doll you can print out and play with and dress. Did I mention it was modeled on film star Colby Keller? The page is SFW. The San Francisco Chronicle has a great story about the Gay and Lesbian night at the Golden State Warriors game last week. Other than some seriously upscale tailgating, it sounds like it was just a normal night at the arena. But then again, I’ve spent some time in luxury suites at sports stadiums, and maybe it wasn’t any more upscale than any other night. A lesbian soldier was discharged after the local police department saw her marriage license through the window of her house and reported her to her commander. That’s right – no asking, no telling, just a third party outing. There was a survey of straight people about what they do, and do not consider to be “sex.” By these results, you’ll be disturbed to know that gay men do not do anything that qualifies as sex if straight people do it. The Writers Guild of America, West’s Gay and Lesbian Writers Committee and the Committee of Black Writers will be sponsoring “Flipping the Script: Beyond Homophobia in Black Hollywood” on March 23. Participating writers are like the rock stars of Hollywood, including Paris Barclay. read more

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Interview with Inigo Manglano-Ovalle part II

Part I of PORT's interview with Inigo Manglano-Ovalle discussed his shows Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With at Mass MOCA and Happiness is a state of inertia at Max Protetch Gallery, in continuation here the conversation digs deeper into the artist's sources and process. Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With, MASS MoCA Alex: Switching gears: How does Sergei Eisenstein's movie Glass House relate to Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With at Mass MOCA? Inigo: In the beginning I was interested in uncompleted projects. These uncompleted projects were also located historically in a similar sort of period - these were projects by individuals in a period of modernity. So I was interested in Eisenstein's Glass House because that was the title of what would be his first film in the US. Which was to be based on We (the novel by Zamyatin). I'm really interested in this. Also I'm interested in that when you read We his architecture is very similar to 1924-6 theoretical projects happening in Europe, which Eisenstein would have seen when he went to and had seen when he went to premier The Battleship Potemkin, right? SO when he went to Berlin to view the Potemkin he talked about this architecture-on-paper. And the architecture-on-paper were actually drawings because they were unbuildable projects. One of them certainly would have been Mies' Glass Skyscraper for Friedrichstrasse. So Mies' Glass Skyscraper for Friedrichstrasse could very well be a building in Zamyatin's book "We", right? Mies is not reading Zamyatin and Zamyatin was not necessarily seeing "We", but Eisenstein has both read Zamyatin and is looking at Mies. Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With, MASS MoCA Then Eisenstein's idea is to make this project called the "Glass house" in Paramount studios and he get contracted for this and actually starts to talk to engineers and movie set people to figure out how to build glass rooms that he can shoot from underneath and so forth. He starts to actually talk about it, then starts to narrate some - making some minor kind of sketches on what his screen play would be, right? Who his protagonist would be. Etc. Next, one of the next that Eisenstein did that I really liked is that in his proto-screenplay his protagonist doesn't necessarily identify himself as the mathematician in We. Eisenstein says you don't know if the character is a mathematician, a priest or a clown, right? And at this moment in some of Eisenstein's notes - he's very sparse on this - he talks about this character getting in to such things that he's banging his head against the glass wall to call attention to people on the other side on the wall, right? Because this literal and physical transparency in We can only exist if one ignores that transparency of the glass walls. In other words the transparency isn't really there for us to see other people but in We it is more for us to be seen by some monitoring device. So it's a very large and fluid panopticon, right. That character tries to break that panopticon and he tries to make the other person see him. That moment in Eisenstein's film that was never made was something I was really intrigued with. And what I had originally wanted to do was to make Eisenstein's film, right. So Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With is a collapse of Mies' unfinished project and Eisenstein's unfinished project. And so what happens is that the We… we are Eisenstein's "Glass House" and he says it gets played out in two places. One is through the phone calls, where the protagonist is absent. And the other is with what I call the only way to experience the house is actually "cinematically" right? The way that you move around the house you are basically tracking a shot. You become the camera… so two deflections for Eisenstein's uncompleted project. Would you say that all your work is best viewed in a cinematic mind frame? Only in this sense right? That one of the reasons I'm interested in quoting Eisenstein is that he had also written an essay on architecture. His father was an architect. And he was supposed to go to architecture school but he didn't want to. But Eisenstein wrote about architecture and he was very natural about architecture. Hence when he was in Berlin he went to go see architecture, right. He went to see these theoretical projects. He wrote essays on how architecture works as not as a singular image or object but as an experience. That we need to move through it that architecture unfolds to us as we move through it. This was really important to me early on. Le Baiser - The Kiss (1999) multi-channel video installation and projection, cd audio recording, and mixed media dimensions variable That essay was actually really important in developing The Kiss or La Blassiare as an installation. It was actually floating in space, right. Where the projection was something that you came to and moved around in and there was no correct space to stand. You could even go inside the building or outside the building. So at that moment I decided it was seminal for me. When I think of the viewer viewing work, how they take in the work, even the kind of criticality and the paradox that occurs in real locations real corporal locations; that's a phenomenological experience. You are standing with this "thing." This "thing" occupies the same space with you and time with you and so it is contrary to conventional cinematic experience. Which for me is a Quarto Centro experience and what I mean by that - in the renaissance you have a perspective painting and the painting is meant to bring everything to a center spot. This is our usual experience with film. So when you go into a movie theater lets say you might come in late and the good seats are gone. And your off to the side maybe too close to the front. But once you sit down in that black box you especially experience the self and some how project yourself to this natural sector. So that is one kind of cinematic experience, that the consumer cinematic experience. And the other is the camera, right. In other words that you actually move through space. Isn't that a mindset though? You can always move around space and acknowledge it, but is there a particular mindset that you engage in? …because there are certain moments where life seems more cinematic than others? Well I guess it depends on the term. Like when you say "there are certain moments where life seems more cinematic," for example and those moments tend to be the ones that are beyond real experience. So you say "this is like a movie." I think I'm more interested in what the cinematic experience tries do. We do it all the time too but we aren't being conscious of it. Phantom Truck (2007) 32'9" (10m) long x 8'2" (2.5m) wide x 13' (4m) high project for Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany, 2007 The camera is an apparatus and film making as an apparatus has to actually create a situation into which we can project ourselves into experiencially, but remove all the apparatus so we never see it. We never see the lights, we never see the dolly tracks. The apparatus has to be invisible. Ok? Then what I'm interested in is bringing back the apparatus, but the apparatus is you, you're the apparatus. So in Documenta 12 the hybrid right? You go into a dark room and it takes about 30 seconds for you to even realize something is in there with you and even a little longer for you to realize the scale of it to discern what it might be, right? It might end up to be just be a truck. And that's it - that all you know. You might not know anything else that I've put into it… about Colin Powell, his speech and what not. But if you just get that… that to me is really important. Because what happens there is that you become the apparatus for making this thing visible. And then if you understand what the piece refers to. Then you, in a sense, have become part of the apparatus that has, in a sense, made it appear. You've colluded in the grand lie, you are the mechanism for allowing the lie to produce itself. And it's actually a physical experience, it's not optical, it's physical. It's standing in a space, it takes time and it is not immediate. It's an almost psychological apparatus that we have to engage in. And once again, I am here with this thing and this thing is in this space here with me. It is more of a phenomenological experience than an intellectual experience. Would you say that self similarities appear in your work and if so does your work relate to fractal geometry and/or chaos theory at all? I think that in some of the work I'm definitely pointing towards that. There's a piece of mine called "Vanishing Sky" and its just a mathematical problem that creates universes, always creating universes. Lets call them stars, right. As the universes are being created the program is extinguishing them star by star. So your watching these universes being created and your also watching stars going off. Also it is generated, so there is definitely a notion of that pointing to the basis of evolution… that is version of fractal equations or the notion of the arbitrary. I actually started doing that very early on because I had problems. I had this piece called "Sonambulo" which is a summer rain storm that last 11 minutes. It starts off as a thunderstorm. It's kind of like a new age meditation, 11 minute new age track. But its single source is a gun shot. But then is morphed into all the sounds that you're hearing. And one of the problems was with rain drops. You couldn't create raindrops that sounded like raindrops because every thing would sound like rhythm. So that's the first time back in 1998 that I had to engage a mathematician to help me to create a fractal equation. That would allow the generation of all these thousands upon thousands of rain drops to fall without rhythm and at different distances and different weights with each other. To me it was it was almost like "I need to resolve a technical problem." Later on maybe I'm referring to these things in the work. In here (Max Protetch Gallery) I am definitely referring to it within the photographs. Iceberg B15 (12/18/03 05:20 GMT), 2010 Or the Rorschach inkblots. Or the kaleidoscope, or the fact that we may not know what these photographs are about. And it may be very difficult to understand what they are and where they come from. But there is a sense of familiarity when you look at these photographs because I think culturally we have become really acclimated to the notion of the fractal. And the geometric patterning, which is a very high end math is actually palpable within culture. We see it we use it, we're familiar with it. So although one of the things that these photographs do, or that they want to do at first. Is that they want to present themselves that way. If you come in and see them for the first time it's some psychedelic New Agey image that you are looking at. That's fine, that's what it wants to do, and then maybe later on you locate what the source is and you begin to understand that there is time that shows up in this set of photographs. What inspires you to make art/work? What inspires you to be active? Lately I've been thinking that… it depends on what project I'm working on. But a lot of times I think that part of my activity, I can't label or have a harder time labeling as art. In other words I don't need that thing for myself - {labeling} what I do in the world as art. Sometimes what inspires me the most is that there is something that I have to see for myself. There are questions I have to pose and I have to pose them - for myself. And I don't have to answer them. I just have to pose them. And some of those questions or situations are creating this. And the question is never just purely intellectual, right. It's never purely conceptual in a sense. It is actually situational. You create a situation for an inquiry to exist into something. Some of those inquires are things I want to share. I want other people to experience them. I don't necessary want the situations to answer the questions or to find a correct answer. I try very hard to tell people who may represent my work or what not, "Don't tell them what it is. There is no answer. You don't get it. There isn't something you're suppose to get." You might say where the source is from but the subject of the work is never the source of the getting of the work, right. So I think that what inspires me is… I don't know. Wanting to experience something. Really wanting to experience something. So its foremost for yourself… but what makes the work successful for you? And do you get satisfaction out of every work or is there works that give you more satisfaction than others? Cloud Prototype No.1 (2003) fiberglass and titanium alloy foil installation view at Max Protetch Gallery, 2003 Certainly there are works that are more successful than other. And certainly you keep making work because its never been truly successful. Successful seems like such a bated word… how about self-satisfaction? Satisfaction… You know its really interesting because successful is very different. You are right. Success if very different. You want work that is very different. You want work that is "working" not that "works." But that is working. Some work works better than others. It is working. The notion of working is a larger concept and so some of it does it better than others. Or you suddenly find something that works and have to go back to it. You pose these intense questions that are in essence unsolvable. I'll relate it back to myself for a second. When I pose intense questions if one person has a particular relationship whether it is "right" or "wrong" I am satisfied. I think when I'm experiencing the work. Because a lot of my work I experience literally the first time when installing it. A lot of the important work for me is work that is special/based on time. Even though it might be a static object or something. There's no way too… your creating a situation. I definitely... I think that I am very good at creating situations but I can't know all of the things that will come froth from those situations, a totality of them. So a lot of the satisfaction comes from surprise, right. When I'm again surprised by something. But also equally and maybe perhaps even more so when somebody experiences the work with me and says something that I had never planned for that I had never realized was in the work but it is totally true. And at that moment there is this incredible rush because I start to realize the work is working. In other words it is generating meaning, right. Yeah. It's not didactic. It's not communicating meaning. In other words its not communicating my meaning to you. But it's generating meaning. That has as its source meaning not everything that I put into it. But another source which is the viewer, another viewer, the other. And that brings it alive. And to me - that's a big rush. There are big questions that I am still trying to ask. The fish tank here I'm grappling with whether I should call it "Bauen." I've been wanting to call it "Bauen" Bauen (2010) aluminum, glass, water and Astyanax fasciatus mexicanus (Blind Mexican Cave Fish) Bauen? B A U E N right? Because its an essay I've read very early on. Very early on, I was very young by Heidegger, on dwelling. So bauen as a word for dwelling. But dwelling also as a verb and building as word for building the building. And the notion of dwelling as a way to contemplate how we exist. Dwelling as a notion of existence. The fact that we can not actually exist or be conscious of existence without dwelling, right. Without actually the notion of dwelling. We are just set out there in a vacuum so we have to construct a habitat. And the habitat isn't physically floors and walls. But we have to construct a habitat. And that as humans we're always constructing habitats or destroying habitats, right. So, I'm rereading that now because of this piece. I'm rereading that and I'm trying to come to grips with whether I 'm dwelling. Or if I'm actually dwelling the right way. Whether we are dwelling the right way. Whether we are consciously building and taking care of what we build the right way. And by "building" here I am not talking about "architecture" which is almost everything. Like… Society… Right. So in this exhibit you have this large global picture, right. This massive expansive land that is imaged. Bodies of water and ice environment are imaged, right. And then you have this small, small ecosystem that's trapped in this piece of architecture. And both are sites of dwelling, right. And one of them is actually an inquiry back to us, back to our selves. Kind of a Rorschach test that tries to analyze our own state of denial, right. That we're not actually recognizing that our dwelling is something bigger and more complicated, and maybe perhaps more essential and more primordial than what we think about our dwelling is, right. What we go about seeking for our dwelling, right. Our house, our apartment, our car, our clothes these are things that we apply to most dwellings. This is how we live, right. How do you live: I have this apartment, I have these records, I have this car, I have these clothes. This are the structures that define how we live. But Heidegger was talking about a different notion of dwelling. And I am asking that with myself. What does that mean right? Inigo Manglano-Ovalle installing (right), Alex Rauch (left) Now, for the viewer these are big heavy questions and you have to understand when I'm talking to you… For me and you I think it's this kind of privileged situation. We get to hit these big things. But how does the regular viewer acknowledge this. They just come in. Well I think its very simple in many cases. Like this piece here you just look at this object. It's a dead sort of dumb modernist object. You might as well go over to Zwirner gallery right now and look at the Larry Bell's, McCracken's, Robert Irwin's and all its doing is sort of riffing off those kind of things. Except that moment when you realize that the fish you are looking at are blind. There is in that moment… I have built in a situation in which I am guaranteed and I am guaranteeing that my viewer with just that little bit of knowledge enters into this moment of this kind of existential moment. Because humans will always - blindness for humans, right. I'm not talking about impairment. Just the notion of blindness. We approach it in a very profound sort of way. Because it's a state. It's a state that we can think about but can't necessarily conjure up. And so this is what I mean about that state of existence, right. Its kind of built in. it drives the piece. These are blind fish. For a moment I know they'll be thinking about; there're blind, I'm not blind. Are they going to laugh? They might, you know. On a level it seems like a stripped irony. If you do self reference it. If you don't put blind fish in a clear fish tank… That's lit. These guys should be in the dark. So there all this built in irony, right. Like this cave is fully of light and all the walls are glass so you can't cast a shadow. So vision wouldn't help you gain knowledge this time. Can they feel the heat from the light? Well the lights are very low heat. Do the blind fish just run right into the glass? Sometimes they don't but that one did… I think they're working it out all right. It's interesting, I don't know how they function. Would they do that in a cave? Yeah. They're probably going at this particular speed that they probably know how to function at. I talked to this guy about the cave and says its totally smooth. You have to be really careful walking in these caves because the bottom is so smooth. I mean its undulating. Its so smooth. So they're always hitting smooth surfaces. Hard but smooth. In this they're hitting something at a right angle. I was reading this paper on Happiness Inertia (Happiness Inertia: Analytical Aspects of the Easterlin Paradox) and economics There is this quote "if Happiness Inertia is to be more than a transitory phenomenon, we should be focused on the long run. Further, one interesting case surfaces whereby the most consumption and habit-rich societies are the "least happy" (have the lowest welfare)." Which leads me to the question: Where do wealth and welfare come to an equilibrium? Which I also narrated into this piece as a commentary on global warming. Yeah, this is a commentary on our state of denial and also our ability for escapism and ironically the piece is almost at first a glance denial what they are. And then we read them formally as graphic things and they are kind of escapist. So the Rorschach test is the very thing it is trying to analyze… it's becoming that. The Rorschach test is already a system of denial. Andy Warhol - Rorschach, 1984 It's a denial of an ink blot? It's a kind of denial. In a way what I'm saying is, because the image by very subtly mirroring itself starts to deny what it is. It flattens itself of what it's actually looking like. It denies what it's looking at and suddenly you are shifting… what was originally the center focus is now the margin. And in the center (of the original picture) is this thing that isn't interesting. Also, there is this denial of what we are looking at, even if just at first glance you can't really tell what they are and then it has that kind of kaleidoscope. It's a kind of psychedelic poster; there's that sense of escapism within that. Good or bad right? Even as a mandala that kind of escapism from reality. Even a spiritual escapism. Which can be seen as good or as a negative a kind of social escapism. Escaping the condition. Not necesarily a positive or negative comment on happiness inertia? I think its a negative in the term that I use. Are you familiar with the term affluenza? Oh yeah. It means you are trying to keep up with the Jones and you can't be happy because your trying to keep up to date. Right. And when I say "happiness is a state of inertia" is kind of like Happiness. Not the happiness that should be a kind of fluid and profound state or joy or bliss or just happiness. But what we think of as happiness is actually stagnant set. I think I'm referring to that obliquely. I don't want to be didactic. And that is an interesting problem for me as an interviewer because that's the one thing I want to do as an interviewer is to get a concrete statement out of you. Even though its agents the idea of the work. But at the same time you have to create some narrative about the piece. The title of the show basically came... Its an interesting side because there another site for work and discourse its: there is an image that we produce for a magazine that we have announced the show and the show at mass moca. Mass Moca has this title Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With. And so its on this image. And I start to title this piece in response to the other show. It's almost like there is this moment they wanted to put these big letters up there on the window Happiness is a state of Inertia. I said no, that's not the site. The site of that where that is already exists. it exists in the big ad. In between the two? It exists in the art forum ad. And that's another site. So you can throw up the statement there Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With at Mass Moca and Happiness is a state of Inertia at Max Protetch both at the same time. So Gravity Is a Force to be Reckoned With has multiple levels of understanding. Physical gravity which is the gravity of the situation. You know that something is actually serious. That something I've had to wrap around my mind. As a physical force or allegory? Yeah I think it actually comes back to what you talked about you not wanting to talk about success. So happiness here in the title may refer to - do you want a clear answer from me? Yes. I can give you one. Happiness here refers to that... success. Its a state of inertia, a tractor. There's no real movement. It's a falsehood Huh. A falsehood is like a false state of reality. Yeah, it's a false happiness. So you are focusing on the thing that is not making you happy, but something that you think should. Yes, acquisition. Black Jack (2006) carbon fiber and aluminum That "goal" of that thing you are getting, rather than happiness? So there is this one piece called Black Jack. That was here in this show called Paradise. I was doing these works about Dante's Inferno. So Paradise was part of it was this big sculpture. This is what you get this is what you are. This is your paradise. But of course It is the opposite of an inferno. But here is this glorious object, the weapon, the stealth, the power, the beauty, the blackness, the power. This is your paradise. I think this title has that similar type of irony. I mean that's a child's toy made into a ballistic weapon. Its carbon fiber its totally sexy and beautiful. And then next I thought this is it. I started with purgatory which was the cloud. Which is a cloud but also an explosion. I thought by the time I did this one we were practically into what Bush had created and the state we had arrived in. I just said here, "you are this… is this what you wanted, this is your paradise, this is it." Would you ever be tempted? I mean we're obviously talking it out and you are elaborating on a narrative. As a piece would you ever write out a narrative that would relate to your works? My works? As an overall body. The fractal geometry question I asked earlier on an integral/literal level relates to mathematical things you've used in your work. Which makes me think of self-similarities like a forest. There are patterns to a forest but you can't really see them on the surface. Do you see your work like a forest? That's an interesting question because the other day someone who knows my work came into the gallery and said "this is the el nino effect" this is this thing I've done before. This is the weather systems and warm bodies of water. And yeah there is some sort of... I continue to do some kind of work here there is a hidden pattern but I can't discern it. I can't discern it. And so its not going to be a line. There isn't a thread some sort of progression. And that is the relationship I was wondering about chaos theory and how it might relate within work? Right, from what I understand about chaos. There are two different types of chaos. There is one which is fractal, the non-pattern… it is turbulence. And we're beginning to learn that turbulence has a pattern. You look at it long enough and let it flow there is an actual pattern. Therefore within what we consider chaos there is a kind of stability. And then there is a primordial chaos. And in primordial chaos is this strange situation because in primordial chaos there is actually nothing. Its lack of pattern, its also lack of anything. (Turns and walks toward the latest picture in the timeline of the photographs in Happiness Is a State of Inertia) If anything, here in chaos it wouldn't be the fractal aspect there. We're defining it this way now, right? Iceberg B15 (02/15/05 21:55 GMT) 2010 Archival Giclee Prints 26 x 20 inches and 40 x 52 inches Yeah, we're defining it as the void. You know what I mean. The "nothing." Total uncertainty. Total uncertainty. And so chaos has a heavy connotation if your thinking about it philosophically or theologically, but primarily theologically. If you are looking at the midst of creation chaos is very important. De-void the void. Right. And that carries with it a huge weight. And you transfer chaos/chaos theory to then fractals it continues to carry that weight. That term continues to carry that weight. And maybe its actually the opposite. Maybe its not chaos that math is trying to figure out. But that's the beauty in it. When would we know? When will we know? Is there a pattern or is there not? But there is that possibility. You could be a astrologer trying to derive patterns, a Greek astrologer, out of that non-pattern. So you put up your consolations and so you get a pattern to that non-pattern, pitter-patter. And that is one way to deal with chaos. Or you could be a macro-physicist and look at that and look at a nebula. And say that this thing is beautiful. And just think that turbulence is beautiful in and of itself. I don't need to order it. Even though I'm going to try and figure out how turbulence occurs. I don't need to order it. It's the process rather than the answer. And there are two different ways to define the terms. A lot of times I'm more interested in the etymology of the term. Because it ties it to cultural history. And just like when people say to me, "your so interested in science or collaborative science" I'm not interested in science per-se all by itself. I'm interested in science as one of many very complex cultural manifestations. In other words what science produces actually responds to culture. If I believe that the artist doesn't exist solely within their studio, I also don't believe that the most creative brilliant scientists doesn't exist solely within their lab. They are being blemished and tarnished and driven by forces outside. Science, because of politics and the mechanisms of politics, primarily economics, produces what we desire. Like inherent problems that exist within 3-D space that even mathematicians based within theoretically perfect worlds had to acknowledge? A lot of genetic engineering has been driven by the fact that there is a potential consumer out there. If there wasn't a potential consumer out there for what genetic engineering might provide I bet you it wouldn't progress further. So we see cultural in trends. I am interested in that permeation, and that has always been my interest. So I would locate my interest in science being as a part of a cultural engine that isn't driven in isolated spaces. There are actual walls; the walls of the lab and the walls of the art studio are full of holes, permeating. These things are coming in and out. And we're responding. We're never in a isolated hermetic situation. It's impossible. It's uninteresting. Totally uninteresting. The artist who believes himself to be totally hermetic is totally uninteresting to me. In fact I think it's an impossibility. It is an impossibility. Because you are part of a society even if it is a society of one. And if you look at it the fractal is inherent in the title because inertia is a place where chaos would stop, supposedly. Inertia is a place where things would come to a standstill. (laughing) The beauty of this (points to the piece) ... in a way it is very hard. Even though I'm trying on a very simple minded level. Do you feel like there is a point where rhetoric and art jargon is ridiculous? Joseph Kosuth Five Words in Green Neon 1965 Yeah at a certain point. But at another point. Someone asked me when I was doing activist work, "will your work actually change things?" And I go - I learned very quickly that in all the places it can change, in all of those places art can provide real change. Art can actually change power. One of the places where art can change power is language and if someone writes about something or develops a new term or changes the definition of another term because of what art does. Then we're actually making change in language. And language is something that is in the hands of many different elites, but none the less elites. So the place where art can have social/political change might actually be within language. But not within the work. But not within what the work does or what it says by itself. But how it impacts later on in discourse. So yes I have this strange skepticism about art jargon but it is in art jargon where the redefinition takes place. The invention of the term "the other" is huge and has HUGE political impact. And then subsequently the other in that terminology, that way of thinking and its impact on art allowed for the existence of strategies called multiculturalism. Once multiculturalism moved away from the linguistic into a more or less another stylized way of working it lost it's power but it also lost the other. What happened is that we stopped talking about the other. We don't speak about the other. We talk about community. That's a more benign, less incisive, and a less critical term. More innocuous. Right more innocuous, and benign. So you can see that power comes back and recovers itself. But where? In language.

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Foto Friday - For Cat Lovers - I Never See Them Do Anything All Day - How Do They Get So Tired?

This guy has had quite a rough day don't you think? It's really hard for me to judge this because there are days where I might pass by him in virtually the same position at various times throughout the day. Did he simply find this position so exceptional that it has become his signature pose for the day. Maybe he's playing a game and everytime I move he sprints back to this spot to make me think he's not up to his typical "no good" behavior. Really, I know that could never be the case. What makes these cats so tired and yet in an instant they can turn on their full power and become enthusiastically alert. It's not in the Meow Mix I'm sure. I am curious but not as much as they can be?

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Official Carlisle Tree Draggin' list

Ok guys since we all did this last year (a good bit of us) lets get the list going of who is going to be draggin' a tree(s) again. _Those of you who don't...

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What You Need To Know About The National Broadband Plan - A good first step, possibly made worthless without lobbying reform

Some 36 public workshops, 9 field hearings, and 31 public notices later, the FCC today finally unveiled their national broadband plan (pdf). There's 376 pages of dense policy to dig through, so it's going to take some time to completely digest the plan. Legal experts and policy wonks will be poring over this one for weeks, given the FCC recommends some fairly dense changes to telecom mainstays like the Universal Service Fund (USF). Also keep in mind that this plan is preliminary, and will heavily mutate as it runs the lobbyist and political gauntlet. That said, here's our high and low points: What's Promising About The Plan • At least it's a plan -- kind of: One good thing about our national broadband plan is that it is one. Almost. It's more like a pile of recommendations to Congress, or a plan for a plan. That may not sound like much, but for a country that has spent the last decade using bad data to proudly proclaim we didn't have any broadband issues to fix? It's a forward step. The plan punts to Congress on some of the tough issues, but it at least gives recommendations and establishes a framework. • The FCC wants 4 Mbps to be broadband's baseline: For years we've reported how the FCC used fairly paltry definitions of broadband (256 kbps downstream, recently updated to 768 kbps) so that our national success on this front looked good. The FCC's plan now calls for broadband to be defined as "4 Mbps of actual download speed and 1 Mbps of actual upload speed" (page 135). Page 19 tries to argue that 95% of us already have access to those speeds, which brings us to... • The agency makes collecting more hard data a priority: On page 38 of the plan, the FCC proclaims that "the dearth of consistent, comprehensive and detailed price data makes it difficult to evaluate price competition." While the FCC tries to do so anyway -- it's clear the agency's decade-long disdain for hard science has come home to roost, and impacted the agency's plan draft. The plan calls for a complete overhaul of FCC data collection and public presentation. This is the first of many FCC proposals where the devil will be in the details and the agency needs to stand up to major carriers to achieve the goal. • The plan pushes for broadband advertising improvements: While the plan's habit of citing transparency as a fix for competitive issues is disingenuous, the plan makes it clear the FCC would like to impose requirements that improve the accuracy of broadband advertising. The FCC is eager to eliminate the use of the dreaded "up to" speed descriptor, replacing it potentially with a "broadband nutritional label" (see FCC example, left and page 46 of the plan) that could potentially advertise both the maximum and average provisioned rate. • The plan finally begins revamping the Universal Service Fund: For years even the government's own General Accounting Office has complained that the Universal Service Fund was collecting billions in taxpayer dollars but the FCC wasn't doing a very good job managing the fund. While the plan's USF reform is a complicated tangle of policy revision, the primary goal is to refocus $16 billion in USF funds over the next ten years away from legacy voice service and toward broadband. By 2020, voice-only networks (assuming there are any) won't be eligible for USF funds. •The FCC wants wireless broadband to be a priority: The plan clearly pins a lot of hope on 4G wireless broadband services as a cornerstone of future competition, and Chapter 5 (starting on page 73) is entirely dedicated to spectrum. The plan's goal is to get 500 megahertz of spectrum into the hands of 4G providers, of which 300 megahertz (between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz) is to be made newly available for mobile use within five years. There's an ocean of details involved in the FCC's agenda, and the devil will be in the end-game details and whether broadcasters want to give up some unused spectrum (hint: they don't). •The FCC wants more competition in the set top box market: The FCC is pretty clearly annoyed with the industry's (and their own) failure with CableCARDs and starting on page 49 explains how the agency is going to push hard to end proprietary conditional access systems "on or before" December 31, 2012. In other words: they want more consumer choice in broadband-powered set tops and home gateways that can access the Internet without carrier restrictions. Again, the devil will be in the details and whether TV operators want consumers to have access to their choice of completely open set tops (hint: they don't). What's Troubling About The Plan • USF reform could actually increase the cost of broadband and phone service: While the FCC repeatedly states their goal for the plan is to deliver "affordable" broadband to Americans by 2020, the proposals could actually raise your broadband costs. The plan imposes a new "Connections" fee as part of an overhaul of the USF that will be used for deploying broadband to under-served markets. While good for under-served markets, that means a higher bill for you. The plan annoyingly omits how much this fee could be, but once the details are hashed out, it could raise your monthly broadband bill from anywhere from $1 to $5 a month. In addition, the FCC recommends to Congress that they allow increases in the FCC subscriber line charge, which is money that goes right back to carriers. The plan is vague when it comes to hard numbers per subscriber here as well, but industry analyst Dave Burstein tells us his his initial analysis suggests the plan could actually wind up with American families paying $5-$10 more a month when it's all said and done. Yes, maybe this money goes back to the public, but given the FCC history on this front, maybe this money goes into AT&T's pocket. Of course also tied directly to high consumer prices is the fact that... • Again, the plan fails to tackle a lack of competition: On page 30 of the plan, the FCC proudly proclaims that the plan "contains more than 40 recommendations that directly spur competition," which makes the fact that the plan doesn't really address competition all the more obnoxious. These recommendations include such things as child safety, digital education efforts, and identity theft countermeasures. While all noble, they don't address the problem that large swath of U.S. markets suffer from high prices and slower speeds created by monopoly or duopoly markets. The agency's own study suggested that open access policies could be one possible solution to the nation's duopoly logjam. However, the agency has made it very clear they have no intention of upsetting incumbent carriers -- many of which not only wield incredibly influence over Congress, but have also been fused into our national security infrastructure. With absolutely no hyperbole intended, many of these carriers now wield far more legislative and legal power than the FCC itself. "The dearth of consistent, comprehensive and detailed price data makes it difficult to evaluate price competition." -FCC's National Broadband Plan• The plan is heavy on the showmanship: Many of the recommendations look good and are politically easy to accomplish -- but lack substance. As we've already noted, the agency's goal of bringing "affordable" 100 Mbps to 100 million U.S. homes sounds good and is getting played up by the press. But when you consider that cable broadband alone already passes 125 million homes -- the majority of which will be upgraded to faster DOCSIS 3.0 service within 5 years without FCC intervention -- this supposed "cornerstone" of the plan rings hollow. Did we mention "affordable" is left undefined? The agency also proclaims that they want to see broadband adoption improve from 65% to 90% by 2020, something that could happen organically whether the FCC is involved or not. A few million thrown at digital literacy campaigns is the supposed answer -- though several of these efforts involve using taxpayer dollars to fund cable industry advertising campaigns. There simply is a vast mountain of policy in this plan that is, for lack of a more scientific term, empty, feel-good crap, while issues like unethical billing practices go completely unaddressed. • The plan fails to disrupt the status quo: We've been covering this sector for a decade, and there is absolutely no limit to the number of think tanks, fake consumer groups, policy wonks and PR flacks employed by major carriers to help shape (and distort) public opinion, press coverage, and DC policy. Both before and after the plan's announcement these chorus of voices for hire were collectively, notably, uncritical. Why is that a problem? Any plan worth the 376 pages it's printed on should address competition, which could hurt revenues, which would anger the carriers, who would then fire up this "sound wall" of opinion for hire. Granted, some carriers may not like the various rulemaking processes that emerge from this initial plan, but by and large the plan itself (after two full read throughs) does absolutely nothing to rattle the duopoly status quo in the broadband sector, and carrier silence proves it. That indicates a lack of conviction, courage and vision by plan architect Blair Levin. It also indicates that politics and carrier loyalty drove the national broadband plan's structure as much as science. That doesn't mean that things can't be accomplished as we head into the real rulemaking battles to come, but... •The plan completely fails to address money in politics as a primary reason for our failures: The primary problems the plan faces actually aren't technical, given we're a nation packed with oodles of fiber, bright network engineers and significant wealth. The plan's primary obstacle is the influence the nation's wealthiest carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast) have on the nation's political and legal infrastructure. We've seen an endless parade of well-intentioned sector reforms scuttled by carrier lobbyists. It remains unlikely that true change in the broadband (or any other sector, for that matter) can be implemented until the problem of undue corporate influence on policy has been addressed first. What Happens Now As we noted at the start, the FCC's new national broadband plan is more of a "plan of a plan," and implementation in the face of lobbyist pressure will be key. As plan architect Blair Levin stated this morning at the plan's introduction, the "plan is in beta, and always will be." The FCC has simply set the table for a significant number of policy discussions and rule making procedures, that may (or may not) end in substantive improvements in the sector. read comment(s)

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OneTravel brings quick airline ticket purchases to your iPhone with "Wanderlust"

Filed under: Gadling Gear ReviewOnline travel agency OneTravel just released their very own iPhone app - Wonderlust. The application brings easy air ticket reservations to your phone, allowing you to find fares from almost any airline in the world. Searching is simple - and if you regularly use the application, you can securely store your travel profile inside the program, making booking a ticket quick and easy. During my review, I did run into a minor glitch - when entering an airport code, the app first matches the letters to countries. This means that AUS turns into a list of all the Australian airports. To actually find Austin, I had to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list. Other than that, the program functioned perfectly - I had a list of all available fares in 10 seconds, and could book a ticket right away. The booking screen allows you to select the number (and type) of passengers, and even lets you pick a premium cabin. Some other apps require you to pay for their premium version to get access to first and business class travel. Once you have booked a ticket, the app also acts as your booking manager, providing quick access to your itineraries. Wanderlust is free of charge, and is available in the App store (iTunes link). Gallery: OneTravel Wanderlust iPhone application OneTravel brings quick airline ticket purchases to your iPhone with "Wanderlust" originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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How Musician Ellis Paul Got 300 Fans To Give Him $100,000 For His Latest Album

Yet another great blog post by Ariel Hyatt, exploring how musicians are embracing the concept of focusing on the true fans to build a modern business model -- this time looking at how musician Ellis Paul was able to raise $100,000 from just 300 fans. The actual concept appears quite similar to what we've seen elsewhere before, in that he put together a set of "tiers" for support. The Ellis Paul story actually sounds quite similar to the Jill Sobule story -- both musicians who have been around for many years, bouncing around in the old system before realizing that a big label doesn't make much sense, when you have a strong fan base and really aren't selling the amount of albums the big record label really needs to consider you a success. Like Sobule, Paul has focused on really building up a loyal audience, and figuring out ways to communicate with them. What's interesting here, is that it took just 300 fans buying into tiers to get Paul to that $100,000 mark. Not bad. There are some parts that suggest Paul could have an even stronger model, however. It doesn't appear that he really embraces "free." For example, there's lots of talk focusing on selling albums, even though his manager admits that he makes about 60% of his revenue from live shows, and a key focus for Paul is to build up his audience. In fact, for people who did participate in his tiered offering, they would send them CDs and ask them to pass the CDs along to other potential "true fans." But why not just embrace the more efficient system of offering the music up for free to expand the audience much further, continue to build up that live following, and offer additional alternatives for the business model that might get even more than 300 people to participate? Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

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"home is whenever i'm with you"

finally... in bed.. have to be up at 8a.m. tomorrow for a photo shoot. i am shooting for the korean fashion line maloom tomorrow. today ivey, dylan and i went to loyola university for a third eye blind & steve aoki concert. such a fun day.. it finally feels like spring.. the sun is out.. my sweater is off.. longer days.. i love it. yesterday ivey, jeff & i started the day with brunch at chateau.. one of my favorite places to grab a bite in hollywood.. after we ate we went to the horse races.. it was my first time ever going.. i had such a great time !! i won on a few of the games but lost it all on the last race.. typical.. ha ha.. friday ivey & i did a photo shoot w. sophia at her studio.. one of the looks was a rock n roll patriotic deal.. so fun.. i have never been as happy with my hair as i am now.. i love it.. only two more weeks till im in hawaii soaking up the sun.. this week the runways is finally coming out !!! i have been so excited about this film.. i have a feeling i will love it.. the music.. the fashion.. genius.. tons of work to get done this week.. i just got the sample of the pullover i did with kid dangerous.. its the best.. once it goes on sale i will let you know where you can purchase one.. do you have anything fun planned for spring break? are you as excited as i am for the runaways? xxoo

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[ARTICLES] KNOW YOU GOT SOLE - PAPER CHASR INTERVIEW

Chasing paper is a full time occupation for the man they call Paper Chasr! From dusting off kicks to producing banging beats, Sean ‘Paper Chasr' Williams has his finger in every pie – co-hosting sneaker talk show Obsessive Sneaker Disorder, creating the first sneaker comedy show ‘Just Ask Chad' and this month releasing the very first sneaker-themed album Know You Got SOLE : The Music. Created off the back of an as-yet unreleased sneaker documentary, Chasr has sourced a bounty of talented sneaker freaks and MCs to compile ten tracks dedicated to your favourite vice. We caught up with Sean as he embarks on an original conceptual promo tour. Hey Sean, what's poppin off in the US right now? First off, thanks very much for having me stop by as part of my virtual tour. This IS a great way to travel, minus the jetlag and lost luggage that would most likely contain kicks that would be gone forever! The U.S. is weird as far as kicks goes these days. Shops are closing; people are selling everything or giving stuff away for various reasons. Other folks are doing really grimey things so they can be the ‘so-called' man in the culture. The saying goes ‘I just sit back and watch the show' as Dr. Dre said on the song ‘The Watcher'. I love that record. I'm happy about the things we're doing at OSD (Obsessive Sneaker Disorder) for 2010. We have Know You Got SOLE: The Music releasing March 16th all over the Internet. I'm very happy with how it turned out and it's a great prelude to what will be Know You Got SOLE: The Documentary. I'm very happy that I'm continuing to stay inspired. What was the decision to promote your new album Know You Got Sole: The Music in this way - dropping interviews on various sneaker websites around the globe? The reason why I'm doing promotion in this way is because when I originally put everything together for the film, we were on schedule to release on 2008. Due to some unforeseen delays with production, I was left sittin' with all of this dope music (most of which I produced) that was sitting around doing nothing. I couldn't stand it anymore! I was looking for a new approach to promoting music and evaluating the marriage between sneaker culture and the Internet so that's when the virtual tour seemed like the best thing. I ran the idea across Dee Well (OSD's creator) and he loved the idea. I hope it changes the way folks promote music forever. Just remember who was one of the first. Give us a bit of background behind the making of the album - how you chose the artists and what their affiliation with the sneaker scene is? I knew from the beginning of the film process that I wanted music to go along with it. I've been a music producer for over 20 years so whatever I do (outside of music) I try to include music as an added dimension to it. This soundtrack is my coming out of retirement project. I got so frustrated with the state of music a few years ago that I retired from it altogether. It's funny how my love of sneakers would pull me out of retirement. When it was time to decide who the artists were going to be on this project, it was a matter of reaching out to artists who I knew already loved kicks, and that I knew were very good MCs. Most of the artists I have known personally for over a decade. I was confident they would give me good music once I gave them the tracks to pick from. Some of the artists on the album I actually passed the sneaker bug to and they are addicted pretty badly now, and then others I have quite a few stories between us regarding sneakers over the years. Writing songs about sneakers is nothing new - as with 'My Adidas' and 'Air Force Ones' but this could possibly be the first album dedicated to kicks....Where did the inspiration come from and why sneakers? Indeed it's nothing new at all. Speaking of 'My Adidas' I have a song on the album called 'My Shelly' that I think is the 2010 Shelltoe anthem. I hope someone from the trefoil (adidas) hears that song. I'm sure we can help Shelltoe adidas sales with that one. Back to your point, at OSD we've implemented a lot of ‘firsts' for sneaker culture that we knew for a fact did not exist before we introduced them. The talk show, the Internet video network and the sketch comedy show 'Just Blame Chad' are things ‘we knew' for a fact did not exist yet. But with music, there are so many people making music (especially Hip-Hop music) in various corners of the world that if it turns out Know You Got SOLE: The Music is the first official sneaker album then I'm happy to have brought it to sneaker lovers the world over. My hope is that it is well received because I've put it out there in a way that makes it easy for both music and sneaker lovers to get it. The inspiration for this album simply came from wanting music that would be just as memorable as I hope the documentary will be. I really wanted people to have more than just the movie to remember from OSD. But seriously how many ways can you talk about sneakers? Ten...check the album out and you'll see. I'm very appreciative of the fact that all 10 of the songs on the album approach kicks completely differently. Musically and lyrically this is a very diverse album to play. I'm hopeful that everyone who listens to it has at least one favorite. That was my goal with the creation of the album. This album is released off the back of a documentary you have in the making of the same name - is it strange to be releasing the soundtrack before the film when it's generally the other way round? My inspiration came from the fact that most music related to films gets lost and neglected once people go see the movie. They walk out of the movie theatre and the music is lost forever. There are music composers and music supervisors all over the world that work very hard to make movie music happen. I was once one of those people. I also don't want folks to go see the documentary and then there's nothing for them to hold onto from the project until the DVD comes out. It's not fair in my humble opinion. With something like sneaker culture where you have folks that are always in search of other things related to the culture, I wanted the music to come first and serve as its own commercial for the movie as well. After the movie releases I will put out Know You Got SOLE 2. If this whole thing works out we can make this a franchise of sorts to see how so many artists out there feel about kicks and can relay that message through their music. I'm excited about that possibility. Maybe Sneaker Freaker could join me on that mission (hint). Tell us a bit about the film... it's been a while since Just for Kicks. The film will conquer issues within sneaker culture that we've heard about over the years of doing the weekly talk show and me being involved with sneakers for over 24 years. Some of those issues are - the inequity between what female and males get when it comes to kicks. Women are very unhappy (angry even) with what they get in comparison to men and boys. Another issue we tackle is the problem finding kicks for men who wear a size 15 and up. We also tackle the VERY HEATED debate over camping out for sneakers. These are some of the things we know will make for a hot debate on camera that will lead to the discussions in the boardrooms for the footwear companies. The movie will be ready by the end of the Summer in some form. We are completely re-shooting the entire film at the moment. It will be nothing like what folks remember from seeing trailers in 2008. What's been the hold up? The delays were due to a few issues both within and beyond our control. One was a very bad car accident that our post-production genius was involved in that almost cost him his walking abilities. The others were related to the battle to put out a film that people are fiendin' for without disappointing them by not hitting certain topics the best way we could. All roads lead to us doing the entire film over again. Luckily for us the music we created withstood the delays. Sneaker culture in many places has shifted into a somewhat 'new school' era where the old cats that were heavily into it have moved on, making way for a new generation. Is it the same in the States? It's funny you mention that old to the new theme. That's actually one of the reasons why Dee and I are podcasting with OSD every Wednesday. Our show's mission is 'Appreciate, Educate, Elevate Sneaker Culture' and each week we talk about news and shoes. When you have a multi-billion dollar industry like kicks, we think it's irresponsible to focus on collections and ‘characters' alone. Let's show kids all over the world the thing you love can actually put you on a path to a career that will last a lifetime. We take great pride in trying to enforce that point every week for two and a half years now. That's the reason we support folks like Dwayne Edwards of Jordan Brand when he introduced the Future Sole competition. I was so impressed with seeing kids barely out of puberty could possibly be on a path to designing sneakers for a lifetime. I'm a former graffiti writer and I never thought to draw let alone design kicks and I've been into kicks over half my life to this point. Kids are the future of the business. If we don't walk with them down the path to a future of great kicks to come, we'll be bitter old sneakerheads (I hate that term) complaining about the good old days of sneakers. That's for the birds! For sure! How do you hope Know You Got Sole will connect with audiences? My sincerest hope is that the issues raised and addressed by this film will consciously resonate with sneaker lovers all over the world. These issues affect so many people, and that's the reason I chose the ones I did for the film. I hope the music offering is something folks really look at as a labor of sneaker love. The album was not created out of boredom or novelty. I really love sneakers and I really love music. I hope that shows. I appreciate the support for everyone who will be able to hear that. So for all those fiendin their fix, when does the album drop and how can heads cop? The album drops March 16th and can be purchased from online retailers all over the world such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon.com, Myspace Music and it's also available for Nokia phones and Microsoft Zune players. Once again I thank EVERYONE all over the world for the support. If you have love for kicks, then I have love for you! I hope to one day have sneakers for everyone to buy. What's up next for Paper Chasr? That was one of the hardest questions in this interview. Let's see...we've got OSD as usual every Wednesday night, then there's Just Blame Chad episode #2 of the sneaker world's first sketch comedy show coming soon, and a sneaker game show on OSD in the works. We have a line of Tees we're working on, and we hope to secure our first footwear collaboration project this year, and there's more! (As if we have time). Musically, I'll be back in the studio with a slew of releases from my record company Ope Entertainment. I have 'Napoleon Complex' which is a project with me and 5FT from Black Moon which will be his first official solo project, an album from my long time friend Benjamin Hooks, a digital EP from a very talented new MC named Proper, and after completing the film, I will jump back in there to do Know You Got SOLE 2. Thank YOU to Mafia, Woody and the entire Sneaker Freaker Team, and thanks for putting out those dope New Balance too! I hope to be back soon with more good sneaker related news to report! WALK GOOD!

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