Tuesday, October 25, 2011

"Then I realized I would sleep most of the day, and my excitement disappeared."

Friday, June 08, 2007

go to http://www.pinkoscopies.org!

I would like to officially end posting on this website, and from now on, redirect you to http://www.pinkoscopies.org

you should all have received e-mails about the new login process over there. if you have any problems, just let me know!

yours, sturgeon

Thursday, June 07, 2007

http://www.pinkoscopies.org!

My friends,
the new version of Pinko's Copies is up and running.

the address is http://www.pinkoscopies.org

which will redirect you to the blog on that domain.

What are the advantages of posting to this new blog, you might ask?

First and foremost, you will no longer need to sign in with your Google account. To understand why this may be beneficial, please see this demo.

Also, you'll be able to save your stuff (pdf, video, images, doc, whatever) directly to the domain.
Right now, you can upload files while you're posting to the blog. I'm also thinking about making a wiki or something like that so we can expand this beyond the simple scrolling blog format, and then you'd be able to upload stuff on another part of the domain and link to it on the blog.

Furthermore, the blog software is open-source. It's called WordPress. It has an importer function, so everything from this Blogger blog is now on that, including comments, etc. It's a pretty great software and its always being updated with new options, since it's open source.

Ok, so now cons: I'm still working on the design of the blog, trying to update it but keep it similar to the design we're used to. It's not so easy since it's all code, but I got it done pretty well. One problem I'm having is that the first line of each post for some reason is only one or two words long, and then it goes to the next line. You'll see what I mean when you check out the blog. It's not a huge deal, but it's annoying and I'm trying to fix it - hopefully, I'll figure it out soon. It's also not a permanent thing, and it has to do with the template, so don't worry about it screwing up the formatting forever.

I'll email all of you with your password to the new blog (you have the same nicknames but that can be changed at any time).

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

From Huang Po "On the Transmission of Mind"

tr. John Blofield, ca. 1940. Originally written ca. 850 AD, by a disciple of Huang Po. Sturgeon: compare with Artaud's letters. Q: Is it possible that Buddhism could save the schizophrenic?


27. Q: What is the Way and how must it be followed?
A: What sort of THING do you suppose the Way to be, that you should wish to FOLLOW IT?


Q: What instructions have the Masters everywhere given for dhyana-practice and the study of the Dharma?
A: Words used to attract the dull of wit are not to be relied on.


Q: If those teachings were meant for the dull-witted, I have yet to hear what Dharma has been taught to those of really high capacity.
A: If they are really men of high capacity, where could they find people to follow? If they seek from within themselves, they will find nothing tangible; how much less can they find a Dharma worthy of their attention elsewhere! Do not look to what is called Dharma by preachers, for what sort of Dharma could that be?


Q: If that is so, should we not seek for anything at all?
A: By conceding this, you would save yourself a lot of mental effort.



Q: But in this way everything would be eliminated. There cannot just be nothing.
[Consider the similarity between this last and Dostoevsky's famous "If God did not exist, everything would be permitted." Nothing in the Western world (so far as I know) resembles Huang Po's- that is, Zen's resolution to this issue.]
A: Who called it nothing? Who was this fellow? But you wanted to SEEK for something.



Q: Since there is no need to seek, why do you also say that not everything is eliminated?
A: Not to seek is to rest tranquil. Who told you to eliminate anything? Look at the void in front of your eyes. How can you produce it or eliminate it?

Q: If I could reach this Dharma, would it be like the void?
A: Morning and night I have explained to you that the Void is both One and Manifold. I said this as a temporary expedient, but you are building up concepts from it.

Q: Do you mean that we should not form concepts as human beings normally do?
A: I have not prevented you; but concepts are related to the senses; and, when feeling takes place, wisdom is shut out.

Q: Then should we avoid any feeling in relation to the Dharma?
A: Where no feeling arises, who can say that you are right?

Q: Why do you speak as though I was mistaken in all the questions I have asked Your Reverence?
A: You are a man who doesn't understand what is said to him. What is all this about being mistaken?
* * *
28. Q: Up to now, you have refuted everything which has been said. You have done nothing to point out the true Dharma to us.
A: In the true Dharma there is no confusion, but you produce confusion by such questions. What sort of 'true Dharma' can you go seeking for?

Q: Since the confusion arises from my questions, what will Your Reverence's answer be?
A: Observe things as they are and don't pay attention to other people. There are some people just like mad dogs barking at everything that moves, even barking when the wind stirs among the grass and leaves.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

h'cnar eht ta noitacretla

Blind dazily into deserted street walks over for a conversation. My head looks up. Hey blind. Is it goin any different today. He reckons it isn't. Tractors got the same hell in'm they had yesterday. There ain't gonna be any produce this harvest weekend.

How many chickens we got left, I ask him. He don't know. Well is it gonna be enough to make due for the dinner, I say then. He shrugs.

Well then I magine you'll be lookin for somethin to serve. He looks up, his unfortunate, sunk in cheeks reflecting sunlight. Boy's got one slim neck. Could be broken in the split of a second.

It's plenty: (didn't quite see his lips move just then).

Glare. Sunlight hung in the humid air, swirling trace paths of commotion. It was time waiting, it wasn't either of us was gonna say anything. We just looked, back and forth between us, seein if the other might have reason to turn lip. But neither of us did; we got set to go back to work, and we did. There wan't ever a fight that day boss, there wan't ever a fight. I say it simply as I can.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Pinko's 201st Copy

Pinko was a robust, rosy skinned baby weighing in at 46.2 lbs on the morn of his hairy, slippery entrance into this world over two years ago. The date was April 30th, 2005.

"Oh Jeanne, what a strange path I took to meet you!" - Michel, Pickpocket

Here's links to my 3 final papers in pdf format (please ignore the cheesy names). Also, all of them are pretty well related, and all talk about Camera Lucida.

Robert Bresson (Silverman) final: "The Limits of Exchange in the Work of Robert Bresson"
(draws on Baudrillard's distinction between semiotic and symbolic exchange, suicide in Bresson's films, Barthes' definiton of the punctum in Camera Lucida, Deleuze's conception of the any-space-whatever in the cinema, and Bresson's use of "limit cases" - also, for some reason I thought that Jeanne's name in Pickpocket was "Marie" while I was writing this, so I apologize for that horrible blunder)

Photographic Theory (Doane) final: "Exposed or Framed? The Criminal Body in Focus - Sekula's Account of the Photographic Archive"
(Sekula, Barthes and Bentham to talk about the modern subject and his relation to photography)

Visuality (Silverman) final: "A Real Image: The Disorder of Modernity - Tracing the Photograph through Barthes and Benjamin"
(talking about indexicality and iconicity in the photograph, and how those ideas relate, on the one hand, to Barthes' conception of "absolute subjectivity" in relation to photography, and on the other hand, to Benjamin's thoughts on commodification and universalization)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

In com pleto

Taken by childhood distraction, he dreamed warily through the afternoon, pausing now and then to consider the time. Bells carried from the distance, chiming six times in number, echoing through the street, across the square and into the window. Worry-gone he rose, a music in his step; as spring, into over-long winter.

We skipped the light fandango
We turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another dream
the waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly
turned a whiter shade of pale

Trembling ice droplets
over-green leaves
violin force
of trusted bough
crusted over

But left to light,
evaporative