Today is a teacher in-service day so I'm hanging-out with my five year old daughter. Even though she squashed me fair and square in 9 out of 10 rounds of Rat-a-Tat Cat (while eating a chocolate ice cream cone), she says she is feeling "melancholy." She thought that a little Shonen Knife would perk her up while she putters with the contents of her "invention" drawer. So, as she twists pipe-cleaners and glues an assortment of sticks together, I will twist and glue some thoughts together.

This morning, Zaida (the five year old) and I went on a photo safari as we sometimes do. This time, however, we didn't make a map and we followed Caprice. One thought I had when we stumbled upon this frame that someone had screwed onto the side of a building was how "right" Rudy Rucker's description of panpsychism feels. Peering through the frame I witnessed what he calls a "truely intelligent" looking site and I stood in awe at what appeared to be pure computation and a form of higher consciousness. I'm glad it wasn't just me in seeing a connection between Rudy and Dennis. Also, thanks to Dennis for expanding upon the threads and introducing me to Architecture: Form, Space, and Order by Francis D.K. Ching, which is now on my list. I also have to thank Dennis for this wammy from a recent post about his christening of paintings (giving structures (paintings?) that he has helped grow, titles): "I don't like the reduction of art to communication. This definition forgets the imaginative element, which is the heart of art. I like the discovery thing." Damn. I had put all my money in the Art = Communication Bank. But then, I can see his point. I sent an e-mail communication to Chris Ashley the other day, and before posting it, he had to preface my comments with "I had to read this a couple of times to fully get it," which I must thank him for taking the time to read in the first place. We were using language to describe a painting. Dancing about Architecture. Now, this all runs against the grain of one of Dennis Dunleavy's recent posts who starts off with a quote from Mary Helen Briscoe : тАЬIt takes intelligence, even brilliance, to condense and focus information into a clear, simple presentation that will be read and remembered,тАЭ and suggests that these qualities are essential for photojournalism. The heart of Art?

Is it this thing? I have no idea what this thing does. This hot-rod thingy is another frozen moment from my photo safari with Zaida. I've drawn shapes like this ever since I can remember. Does it blow out or suck in? As I stood staring at this thing and trying to frame the reflection in the shot, I realised that I was missing my figure drawing session. Oh well. I'll paint extra hard tonight.

Another thing that I've been missing: Jonathan Foster's site The Autobiography of a Narcissist has been up and running since LAST Saturday. The site is a comment and discussion area for his first novel The Autobiography of a Narcissist which is now available online. Jonathan is a screenwriter, playwright, my brother-in-law, and a frequent comment poster to FoCB. I'll be adding his link to "The Blogs That I Actually Read" menu. Which brings up a point. I've been changing that link list, and I sense that it will always change. Franklin quit bloggin' and I've read as far back as is reasonable, so I might loose his link soon. The Cabin blog seemed sweet and rugged at first but hasn't hit a chord with me lately. . . it might go soon. As far as new blogs go, I was recently linked to a blog called daveawayfromhome which was really just a monster list that this individual compiled by clicking on the "next blog" button on the top right of your screen. I should thank him for including me in his random sample. I skipped through his list one evening, and the only thing that caught my eye was the blog Red Shift (I mean Dan Flavin AND Cardinal!) So I looked at his 13 links and was impressed with S/FJ who instantly caught my eye with his pictures. It turns out that Sasha who runs this blog is a music writer/musician and NYC hipster and his beautiful photographs rarely have anything to do with the text. In fact the drywall gack on the left is from a post about Franklin "closing up shop." Huh? How did I get back to Franklin? Maybe this blogoshere thing isn't as enormous as I thought.

A little glitter here, some dried up macaroni there. . .

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