THE CONDITION OF MY CONDITION

'cause i was a hapsburg dont ya know and i was a hapsburg ya see? but i was this equilibrist aware of the drunks the brutality the racism the cockroaches rats and diseases of poverty when i was a hapsburg see and i was this equilibrist not knowing what to do about what it was i felt so much that was hurting me so much that i never could articulate ya see? there was no one i could really talk to about these things cause everyone was a hapsburg see and didnt want to talk or feel with me cause i was this equilibrist ya see and i felt they all accepted this stuff as god's will but not me' Link

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trackingtransience

'Soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government mistook Hasan Elahi for a terrorist. On a return trip from Europe, the Bangladesh-born, New York-raised artist was flagged at the airport and interrogated. To prove his whereabouts, Elahi showed them his Palm PDA, a device that yielded enough information -- from calendar notes of appointments and classes he teaches at Rutgers University -- to placate his interrogators.' Link 'The artist hatched a plan. If Big Brother wanted proof of his coordinates, why not surveil himself? Recording his own moves could, theoretically, seal his alibi. [Since 2002] Several times a day, the artist input his location into the phone and his computer recorded the data (he hopes to incorporate a live GPS tracker soon). He then created a Web site that allowed viewers to see where he is at any given time... and he began taking photographs with a digital camera as further proof of his whereabouts.'

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Stockton - third extract

'And sort of on my way to bed, I saw something on the, heard or saw, something about a plane hitting the World Trade Tower. The first reports were of the "small plane"--like one of those things that sometimes hits buildings around the world. That got my attention just enough not to go straight to bed. I turn around and have a look at the TV set, just in time to see that other one go straight in. Jesus.'

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The Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate

The Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate is an on-line research resource for individuals interested in the writings and the ongoing critical theory of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). "This site maintains a collection of resource information on some of Benjamin's writings, as well as current essays about Benjamin, his work, and the work of some of his close contemporaries. Our focus has been on those writings and projects too-often excluded from academic Benjamin scholarship." Edited by Scott J. Thompson & Co-edited by Christopher Rollason Link

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Terry Southern reports from the 1968 Democratic Convention

'Right after lunch we very dutifully piled into the car and headed for the Convention Hall. It is exactly like approaching a military installation; barbed-wire, checkpoints, the whole bit; Genet was absolutely appalled, I was afraid he was going to be physically sick; Burroughs, of course, was ecstatic; it was all so grotesque that at one point he actually did a little dance of glee. He has a tape recorder, and he applies his cut-up and fragmentation theory to its use -recording speeches by the delegates and committeemen, then putting blank spaces in them, and filling the blanks with pieces of other speeches, and finally playing back this composite of cliches and inanities in such a way as to sound like live radio coverage, a possibility which was enhanced by the fact that this particular recorder looks exactly like a portable radio. It was Burroughs' belief that if these tapes were played constantly in the Convention Hall, the subliminal effect of the repetitions, the non sequiturs, and the general idiocies would so confound any chance listener as to possibly snap his mind, and thus become a profoundly disruptive factor in the overall "Convention profile."' Link

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Apartment

'Viewers are confronted with a blinking cursor. As they type, rooms begin to take shape in the form of a two-dimensional plan, similar to a blueprint. The architecture is based on a semantic analysis of the viewer's words, reorganizing them to reflect the underlying themes they express. The apartments are then clustered into buildings and cities according to their linguistic relationships. Apartment is inspired by the idea of the memory palace. In a mnemonic technique from a pre-Post-It era, Cicero imagined inscribing the themes of a speech on a suite of rooms in a villa, and then reciting that speech by mentally walking from space to space. Establishing an equivalence between language and space, Apartment connects the written word with different forms of spatial configurations.' Link Old, still fun.

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Leonard Cohen's Cuntomatic

And then leaning on your window sill he'll say one day you caused his will to weaken with your love and ... Chloe murmured. "I have been working hard at it all night. It's my warmth" And then taking from his wallet "It is time redistribute the warmth," I say. an old schedule of trains, he'll say "No!" she said. "The warmth is trickle down." I told you when I came I was a stranger "The warmth is concentrate in the breasts of minority tiny and is reach crisis point." I told you when I came I was a stranger. "No," Chloe soon said. "The warmth defines who Possesses it. It is the warmth which oppresses, seeping from point to point, not the wielder of the warmth." And you say ok the bridge or someplace later "Tell me," I say, "your sexual fantasy." Link Link Link

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Now this is how you comment

Link N.B. Peter Purves used to be on Blue Peter.

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Extract 2: Stockton

'Why exactly did you try to deliver an elk's heart to Jack Nicholson's house?' 'I thought it would be fun and it's in the spirit of our relationship. A little humor. I don't know, it just came to me tonight. I had a few bombs, you know. We do that pretty frequently, exchange bizarre presents. I couldn't have foreseen the horrible circumstances around it. He had just gotten in from LA. I didn't know it, but he had a stalker. I saw him the afternoon he got in. I said I'd see him later. I figured, shit, I have some presents for the kids. I was supposed to get there a little earlier. I feel a little queasy looking back on the night. Of course it was all in good humor. It went wrong in so many weird ways. I went out there and sort of did my thing and left, feeling rejected sort of. Bear in mind I was pretty much wanked up, in the mood I frequently get in with Jack. He's pretty fast. He's one of the natural aristocrats of our time.' 'He's fast? ' 'Oh, yeah, we have a good time talking. Jack is quick. One of the smartest people I know.'

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Public Pages

'Public Pages is an exhibition of Text Art and Visual Poetry bringing together contributions from poets, artists and makers of works which explore the visual and cultural impact of the word, the sign, and the slogan in public space.' Link

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