December 13, 2005

secret messages













battle chaos with truisms and irony! i just can't find an image of the one in the ny guggenheim that says something like "megalomania is prerequisite to success." i mean, monomania.

i heart jenny holzer.

7 comments:

bruce said...

it's like big brother is watching. only this time big brother is an emo-head!

Anonymous said...

monomania!!

this reminds me of:
1. walking eastward on geary toward the russian cathedral, and gradually catching sight of a billboard advising CA voters against "condoning" gay marriage. bizarre semiotics.

2. certain photographies; too many to remember; weegee's, for one.

3. Los Angeles semiotics. goddammit, there are too many things to spit out onto your blog.

4. Los Angeles aural-semiotics. because l.a. is full of driving, l.a. is also well-equipped with well-produced radio (while s.f. is more "literary", it can't and doesn't want to "match" production standards).

i spent approximately 80 minutes of yesterday evening, willingly driving on the freeway(s), all the while listening to KCRW, which is likely the largest carrier of NPR in california. after 1:00 a.m. or so, the music programming was bearable. but between 7-8, jason bentley's "metropolis" came on.. and it was so, so bad. one of the tracks featured a thom-yorke-like voice faintly whining... "I'M SO AFRAID OF THE FUTURE.."

these little things additively irk me about l.a.

Miss J said...

any radio show that plays paul van dyk permanently discredits the entire station, in my book!!! (er, stereo?)

hm, maybe that's a little extreme, but sometimes i like to pretend i am cooler than everyone else. okay, everyday.

yes, i suppose that's why people not from LA tend to say it feels "fake" -- that is, everything feels very produced, but not in a subtle way? (but maybe this is better than "produced naturalness" like an imitative college radio station? like social networking websites?)

is semiotics meta-semantics?? maybe we need to start a new blog just about this stuff ...

Miss J said...

electronic mindfuck emo ... from the minimalist 1980s, that is.

holzer

truisms.

and andrea ... i like how you said "addictively irk," that receiving irritation can be an uncontrollable impulse. perhaps this is the story of my life!

Anonymous said...

good morning!

oh, i meant "additively" irk.. because all these things are "discrete" quantities in my head. like a collection of cells, or like a pound of dust.

who's paul van dyk? i'm bad with names, anyhow. KCRW's other programs ARE great, like "Which Way L.A.?" and "To the Point". there are a few bourgie shows. and there's a show, "Chocolate City", by Garth Trinidad, that i love. but you know. single shows can't save a sunken ship.

"is semiotics meta-semantics??" yikes! as bad as i am with names, i can be sloppy with the employment of such loaded terms. we had better start a new blog just about this stuff, a blog that has multiple posters and editors. it'd be coo....

Anonymous said...

also, everything "fake" in L.A. can point to the fact that it drains its water supply from the Colorado River to sustain its civility and civilization. the county lines are drawn as such (gerrymandering!), and the "unified school district" pays the cost. the movie, "Chinatown" is a good one to see about the subject...

.. so many L.A.-based post-apocalyptic movies, too!

Anonymous said...

are these "secret messages" or "viral messages"?