12/4/2002: Sheep poetry

Shown here is poet Valerie Laws. She is writing.

Well sorta. What she's doing is painting words on the backs of 15 sheep. After she's done, she'll climb to the top of a platform to see what poems the sheep create by milling around.

No, it's art. It's called the "Quantum Sheep project", had a $4000 (L2000) grant given to it by charity.

The ananova story

But apparently this picture is of a trial run or something, because the actual project is supposed to take place later. I'm not sure why they have to wait, or why it would cost money to paint words on the back of sheep and look at them from a platform. Frankly I think I could do it cheaper through technology, having taken a course on random number generation, but there is something interesting about having the process be organic.

And that's what the artist says too: "I feel this is an exciting project in which the landscape of the countryside connects with the inhabitants and creates organic poetry."

Ogg not understand.
Head hurt.
Why art woman paint on sheep?
Why? Why?
Griff will know.
We ask him now.
Feel better later.
Good. Good.

Time for some cow meat on bread, eh? Or rather, mutton.

No offense intended Ogg, however, your simple mind may not comprehend this. Its too big. You see, its funded, it is significant. UT would have people develop art on their own time/dime, appalling. I did a similar quantum experiment with chickens. "from step get Oklahoma verdi time many" Random? Pay attention! I think not. Embrace it Ogg, you will FEEL better, other peoples art will give meaning to all your huntin' and gatherin'.

Copy Cat

I just saw on CNN about a week ago a story on a guy who was doing black-and-white photography of words painted on cows.

Here's the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/Northeast....ap/index.html

I'm not sure if the lady copied him, or if he copied her....

Okay, here's what I would now like to do for my next poem...a living breathing art project.

--First, I need some sort of grant...NEA, Penn, Villanova, Pew Charitable Trust, whatever...

--Second, I'm going to need 37 Cellar Dwellars. Each of you will be painted with a word. The grant will help to pay you a fee for your time and the mess you will endure.

--Third, I will gather all of you at LOVE Park (15th and JFK Blvd., across from City Hall).

--Fourth, I will play a moshable song (something by System of a Down or Ministry) and you will be forced to mosh in a cordoned-off area. The music will then stop at a random point to be decided by me.

--Wherever you're all standing in the end, that is what the poem will be.

These are the 37 words that will be used:

Duck
Chasing
Tampon
Pixy Stix
Fiend
Crucify
Peanuts
Butterscotch
Crawling
Lifting
Vagina
Lilies
Bowling
Turquoise
Matador
Is
Ain't
Try
Teach
Pilgrimage
Incubus
Stutter
Pornography
Sleeping
Chasing
Writhe
Rose
Liberty
Pencil
Telephone
Jerky
Hanger
Vengence
Discombobulated
Vegetable
Subsist
Diarrhea

Anyone willing to donate themselves or money, kindly contact me by PM.

I might help you here, but on two conditions...

1. I won't get nekked for your art. If you wish to get nekked for your art that's fine. I will try to keep the pointing and laughing to a minimum.

2. I wanna be "discombobulated".

Re: 12/4/2002: Sheep poetry

Well now. I will only participate in the cellar piece if I get to be naked, er... artistically nude, and imprinted as "bowling". The aesthetic randomness will have interpretive layers because, of course, my identity as "bowling" will effect my quality of movement. For instance I imagine I will want to spend much time in relation to, responding to, and in concert with the dynamics of "butterscotch". See, people *will* pay top dollar for this much fun. Virtual will not do. Ok, I'd be in as "vengance" too. I could tap into some unexplored emotional territory, but then "bowling" better watch out. Why look! I have a grant application right here...

I'm claiming "subsist" as my word right now. I would have went with "discombobulated" but sadly wolf already claimed that one.

I'm Sleeping.

C'mon, you slackers. Someone has to be Diarrhea.

For the record, I would like to state that I made no mention of nudity.

Griff has "matador."

Bushmills

Then you've agreed to my er... stipend?

Shhh! Not in front of everybody else damnit!

I'm Is

Few know this, but "Hey you, get off my Cloud" by the Stones was actually an old Scottish folk-tune, "Hey, McCloud, get off my Ewe!"

OK, I'll take "diarrhea" but I am staying as close to wolf's "discombobulated" as I can during the mosh.

Is 'pornography' taken? I want it.

Skunks, the word is yours.

Arz, hmmm...we'll see. (Side note to self: Tell wolf to keep running away from Arz.)

Now, now...

I just think "discombobulated diarrhea" is not only amusing alliteration but also poetry on its own, and if we're all moshing together we'd be "poetry in motion."

i think this sheep poetry idea is about the stupidest thing i have ever seen.

just commenting.

Quote:

Originally posted by arz Now, now... I just think "discombobulated diarrhea" is not only amusing alliteration but also poetry on its own, and if we're all moshing together we'd be "poetry in motion."

please oh please can i have pixy stix?

~james

Done.

Okay, so that everyone is squared away, here are the words that are left:

Duck
Chasing
Tampon
Fiend
Crucify
Peanuts
Butterscotch
Crawling
Lifting
Vagina
Lilies
Turquoise
Ain't
Try
Teach
Pilgrimage
Incubus
Stutter
Chasing
Writhe
Rose
Liberty
Pencil
Telephone
Jerky
Hanger
Vengence
Vegetable

I think you're going to have a hard time getting a taker for "tampon"

One thing that might assist in making your art more "organic" in the medical sense ... (and it will reduce your budget significantly) would be to get a bunch o' bums ... uhhhh, I mean persons who are residentially and reality challenged who have issues with substance abuse and give them a buck each to mill around aimlessly.

You get used to the smell after the first couple minutes of exposure. Promise.

Strange as it may seem, the actions of Cellar Dwellars are nowhere near as random.

<h4>Sycamore</h4>
All of you guys are going to downtown Philli.....and will be dancing around with words on your backs?

Yer gonna need some security from the natives I can help you out with that. Does anyone faint at the sight of an AK-47?

I'll paint my face blue and wear a clear plastic suit, no one will fuck with us.

Well, I suppose I could take Liberty, but what fun would that be?

Set me up with Incubus!

No bail was required last time, I just had to surrender my weapon and chat softly with a nice calm man. His face was blue too.

I'd also like to request 3 words.


Try....Teach(ing)....Vengence. Can I pay extra for all three?

I can be your "poetic" badguy.

Whoa... PAY for a WORD! I think we've found a funding scheme, here! Syc, will it be ruined by evil monetary commerce? (or improved?)

And the thread goes out of control, like the bulls in Pampalona.

Bad Slang! You do NOT get three words! Nor will there be any payments for words! Damnit, we're going to milk this sonofabitch for all it's worth. Here's a list of possible donors:

--NEA
--Drexel University (have you folks with Comcast cable in the Philadelphia area watched DUTV--Channel 55? Talk about some crazy shit!)
--University of Pennsylvania
--The Walter Annenburg/CPB Project
--Pew Charitable Trusts
--Big Ed (You're damned right I'm gonna hit Big Ed up for some dough...he's an attorney.)
--WYBE (Channel 35...maybe they'll show it on the station)
--Will Smith (He likes to invest in the hometown)

The security offer is nice and all, but I dunno slang...you strolling around with an AK-47 in Center City may be a bit off-putting to some folk.

Thank God somebody claimed it, I was worried I'd have to do it in a drunken state.

Quote:

Originally posted by sycamore The security offer is nice and all, but I dunno slang...you strolling around with an AK-47 in Center City may be a bit off-putting to some folk.

strangely comforting, given that I'll be moshing and unable to correctly assess threats and cover myself.

Well, I still think you'll need a word...dangling from the rope overhead all blue and armed... how about "Jerky"? It has so many lovely layers of meaning.

<h4>Warch</h4>
How about " Jerky hanger"

Syc has been pretty clear, if not downright touchy about individual participant word amounts! However, with Brian in the chopper you could maybe work out a little something- a jerky hanger or perhaps hanger jerky. (Homer voice) ummm, jerky.

Quote:

Originally posted by slang The goal isn't to spook anyone anyway, I'll just hang out in the chopper with Brian. If I need to, I'll repell down a rope and blast off some "protective fire" for you guys. How's that sound?

Quote:

Originally posted by sycamore Better. Remember, these are city folks...for some of them, it's an all-too familiar sound...for others, they'd shit all over themselves at the sound.

(glad I'm going to be in the chopper)

How did I get in this? Much less into a helicopter gunship?

My pilots license does not allow me to fly helicopters.
I can fly a C-130 "Spooky" gun platform though. Multi-engine operations aren't too hard to fudge, kinda like IFR operations (for which I am also not licensed)

Brian

Thanks Brian, now I'm going to have to repel out of a balloon or some tall building

can it at least be a scary-looking black balloon? I don't think slang is a pastel rainbow kind o' guy ...

Being on the other side of the country, I will most likely be unable to attend the event. Nonetheless, I demand "Turquoise".

You should definitely use pastel colors. Give slang a peach-and-apricot balloon. It will constrast nicely with the blue face.

Oh come on Torrere, how about a road trip. There is nothing better than the open road, a large selection of music, and thousands of miles between you and your destination.

Yeah Torrere...what Cam said. Plus, we'll hit all the bars on South Street, get sloppy drunk, make asses of ourselves, and eat cheesesteaks.

I'd be vastly more likely to attempt to take the train =]. It might be feasible!

Do I get Turquoise?

Well either way just as long as your on the move, seeing differnet country and joking with convenience store clerks(or their equivalant on the trian ride) listening to music so much your getting sick of it, and eating food from a sack it's all good.

"Turquoise" is yours, Torrere.

wolf enough people already think you're lost without writing it on your back.

Can i be tampon?

Quote:

Originally posted by MaggieL Oh? How much turbine time do you have? Do you know how to start one? Uh...zero. But I *do* know how to start one. You pick up all kinds of stuff hanging around military pilots. A herkybird has four... so you won't be too stressed if you lose one, I guess. :-) IF. What are the chances, really?

Feathering position should be labelled right on the throttle quadrant on the prop controls. IIRC, all multi-engine planes have that, unless they changed something. I should just pull the blade angle to maximum, full, or whatever it says there.

I remember my engine-out training even though I have yet to go for my ME rating. I also have to pad my SE time a bit before I can upgrade to my IFR ticket, which is next after passing my BFR. The rules state I cannot be rated until I have 200 hours TT in VFR...I can, however, train under the hood.

Brian

A lot of people say he's a stuck-up cunt, but..

Joke! Joke, it was a joke.

Now see...! Jeni would bring a subtle dynamism to her interpretation of the role. Perhaps gently dragging a string along behind her... Wait a minnit, who's vagina?

Wouldn't being a tampon make Jeni a dyke?

(Maybe this should have been placed in the Tasteless Jokes thread.)

I thought we all agreed to give up on this meaningless convention of topical threads...Anarchy!

"So we jumped up on the table and shouted 'Anarchy!'"--Dead Milkmen

Damnit, my case of army surplus berets just showed up. I suppose the latte concession is screwed as well? grumble grumble note to self order Boris and Natasha balloons

I'm STILL waiting for that latte, damnit!

On a certain news channel right now is a story about a guy who did this exact same thing, but with COWS.

Within days of each other... there are no new ideas in this world.

What's that UT? The poetry on animals?

My project is unique in that it 1) involves humans as opposed to livestock and 2) involves moshing in a well-known city park.

I'd offer to show up and take any unclaimed verb, but if I do, then no one will show up other than me and maybe Maggie and Wolf.

Brian

You're not that scary honey ...

apparently I am. Look in the Cities section under Philadelphia for the GTG I tried to start.

Dead silence is the appropriate term. I had to go FIND Maggie to meet even ONE Cellarite. I know you're out there.

I understand that the global nature of the Internet allows us users from all over and I forgive anyone not living within one hour of Phila for not coming. But if you live nearby, you should have at least RESPONDED! I don't expect you to drop your life and come a-runnin just cause I happen to blow into town without notice, but a response...an RSVP if you will would be nice.

No I'm not hurt either.

Brian

For the record, I'm social phobic and afraid of everybody equally. Yes even you, yes even though I gave you a couch.

I'm not buying that excuse Toad ...

I met you.

At a Cellar GTG. (Dinty Moore's in fact)

Admitedly, we used to do more stuff together in the good, old dialup days ... jively, adamzion, cerberus, jerry, ruthie (TITS! (oops, sorry ruthie), russoto, editor, keymaster and gatekeeper, and a whole bunch o' folks whose names I'm not remembering very clearly. Heck, we could fill the old front section of Michael's Deli in KoP.

And Bri ... you know I'm not scared of you. We done stuff together more than once. Even things involving live ammo. Heck, we've been to each other's houses more time than I can count when you were living up here!

My big problem is my goofy work schedule. Working nights is not conducive to having even the sort of sad, demented social life of many Cellar participants. I also often don't know that I'm going to be working some weekend nights.

I need to win the lottery.

Yabbut it's been seven years since then, and every seven years every molecule in your body is completely changed out so you're an entirely different person.

Well that was an old tale someone tole me anyway.

I am different from then. Not as different as Mags, but different anyway. Mostly, I think, not in good ways; it's been a difficult time.

Let me then be a little early to wish you joy, luck and blessings for the holiday season, and particularly that with the solstice and the new year you will begin to experience the growth and healing that you need. May the return of the light nourish you.

Admitedly not my usual sort of post, but it's from the heart.

Argh, such secrecy! Toad, I want to know "the rest of the story". It sounds very interesting. Plus, you sorta make me feel like I barely know you.

The problem with letting out too many details about how you feel about yourself and how your life works, there will inevitably come around someone like Xugumad who will look to use those facts against you.

There's always a question of how specific you want to get here. Some bad shit happens and you don't want to make it worse by putting info in the wrong hands. Anyway good luck keeping it together Bro, we're with yah.

UT, sounds like you could use some Krispy Kremes to cheer you up.

Most of what I say about myself and my life here is stuff I don't have a problem sharing with the world at large. People have tried (and failed) to use it against me here before. They can keep trying. For what I have posted here, there is much more that people don't know...which is how I like it.

I'm feeling a bit guilty for being so chippy recently. I best appologize.

7 years ago this very week...

--I was a sophomore in college, just getting ready to move back to St. Louis.

--I had just figured out how to use the internet.

--I was nursing an incredibly bad case of food poisoning from a Ruby Tuesday in Cape Girardeau. I don't know how the hell I made the drive back to St. Louis, but I did. All I remember is stopping several times along the way and then collapsing in my bed when I finally got home.

Memories.

Dammit Griff, that cycle had just about cleared itself, and now here you go starting it all over again.

Ogg understand now.

Ogg no more hunt.

Ogg no more bang rocks togther.

No more! No more!

Ogg now macrobiotic lesbian performance artist!

Ogg make poop on dead animal skin.

Ogg say it represent brutality of hegemonistic white male attitude toward women and nature.

Good. Good.

You give Ogg grant now.

Terry Gross interview Ogg on NPR.

Ogg drink latte now.

Good. Good.

I would like to appologize as well, especially to Ogg. Contrary to my expectations, you've made great strides towards recognizing that individual talents should only be showcased when experts grant funding. We're all very proud of you.

My performed apology to Ogg

Ogg's decision to apply for a grant has given him official standing as an artist. Now that hunting and gathering are no longer necessary for his corporal existence the skills of hunting, killing, and processing creatures are a legitimate forms of art, when exercised by someone other than the reformed Ogg. As tribute to Oggs growth as a human, I have performed my own one man four scene exercise.




There are problems with my piece, however. The first is that at conclusion there are several useful products meat for the freezer, a skin for Slang's back, and of course the tallow to be used as Ed Norton instructed us in Fight Club. Art is only valuable for its own sake therefor a resultant product corrupts the whole process. Another issue is the taking of game. We've been instructed that this is legitamit as long as we honor the Great Spirit and the spirit of the creature. Unfortunately this dishonors the tradition of artist as instructor of rational atheism. I don't believe we have a separation of church and state issue, however, as long as Christianity is not endorsed.

An important aspect of the piece is the joy expressed by the doe at having acheived a purpose higher than her own pathetic existance mirroring Oggs emergence from his own selfish existence through the granting process.

The next piece for which my funding is pending will address those problems. I will hunt and kill an American bison on the ranch of neo-capitalist Ted Turner. Since the animal will be provided by the taxpayer and Ted, I can havest it without giving thanks to any power larger than our blessed government from which all good things flow. I will also destroy the meat or leave it to the wild things. Teds separation from Jane leaves open the question of his response to my art. The NEA grant should more than cover any court related expenses.

I'm a wild thing ... any chance you can pack some of that meat you don't want anymore on dry ice and ship it?



Thanks for doing your part to reduce wasting disease in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

You're a good man, Griff.

Ogg, after you hang out with Terry Gross at WHYY in Philadelphia, you head down the street to 5th and Market. We will dine on cheesesteaks...a unique take on cow meat and bread. You might even call it "art."

Speaking of deer...Griff, what time should I be up there for dinner?

I wonder if they'll have another deer hunt in the city this year.

Tribute to Ogg fails to stir up trouble.

If you people are not offended, you really don't get it.

I'm thinking the Dept of Ag might have a problem with amateur butchers mailing meat around the state. As far as having the Sycs over for mountain beef, we can do that any time, back when I was in high school there were guys who'd jack a deer any time they threw a party... hmmm seems to me one of thems a game warden now.