Polite, though:

Labels: mai new house, photos

Last night I was at a bar and I found myself trying to explain what it would be like to experience reality in four dimensions, instead of only three. At the time I felt utterly sober and lucid, but in retrospect I believe I may have been a little bit drunk. Either way, I had them eating out of my hands and marveling at the wonders of the universe.

I didn't actually mention Tralfamadore, but my explanation was cribbed heavily from Kurt Vonnegut's classic descriptions of four-dimensional reality in various novels of his (but in particular Slaughterhouse 5). To paraphrase (thanks wikipedia):

Tralfamadorians have the ability to experience reality in four dimensions; meaning, roughly, that they have total access to past, present, and future; they are able to perceive any point in time at will. Because they believe that when a being dies, it continues to live in other times and places, their response to death is, "So it goes."

Of course, there was never the remotest possibility that I would be able to do as good a job of it as Carl Sagan:



It's important to recognise that while Vonnegut's (and indeed the common) fourth dimension is identified with time -- for example, in Einsteinian relativity physics -- the dimension described by Sagan is a fourth spatial dimension. So in effect, he and I (and indeed Vonnegut) are describing two different things. And have described. And will describe. (Sorry, that was gratuitious.)

If that wasn't enough, Cliff Pickover asks us to consider how it would be to encounter four-dimensional beings in our three-dimensional spacetime. I gave it a shot. I think that is was for exactly this exercise that the phrase "my mind boggles" was coined.

And, The Commonsense Nihilist (whose blog has been going bloody great guns in general lately) recently posted on how to create four-dimensional paintings.

Labels: aliens are in our midst, debauchery, dubious nonsense, heroes

As Tom details here, The Stumps are playing on Saturday night at Happy with Elise&Jem (from Melbourne) and Black Boned Angel.


I don't know Jem, but Elise (originally from Palmerston North) is from such notable Melburnian acts as On, and BadCopBadCop.

Labels: black boned angel, gigs, stumps

I'm not exactly sure when this appeared, but I'm fairly sure it was very recently:


Evidence of expansionism by the Eastern Suburbs' Strathmore 44 gang?

Labels: mai new house, photos

One of the best sushi spots* in town, a little place in Brandon Street, also has the best Fake Plastic Sushi:



* Unverified.

Labels: photos

Apparently there is a "love field deviation" on the corner of Normanby and Riddiford Street, in Newtown:



Thank you to the person who posted this sticker and performed this valuable public service. I'll keep well away from this tree-protector cage thingummy, cos god knows I can do without a deviation in my love field.

I'm enchanted with the possibility that the sticker is is somehow a reference to the form of the tree-protector cage thingummy, which is more than a little reminiscent of classic diagrams of di-polar (electro)magnetic field-lines in (for example) geo-physics:




But I expect that it is more likely a promotional tool for an exhibition of the same name by Wellington painter REMO (Roger Morris), held earlier this year.

Labels: mai new house, photos

Down at the local, the arm-wrestling competition begins tonight:



I'm hoping to get along to have a bit of a perve.

Labels: mai new house, photos

On and off, over the years, a good number of people have asked me why I don't have any work from my Spaceships Of The Mind series available in my online-portfolio.

Are ''Friends'' Electric?, 2002
Oil on canvas, 64x99 cm
(private collection)

So over the weekend I pulled finger, and uploaded some.

Labels: aliens are in our midst, art

Evidence of the first Stumps excursion into the northern lands (aka Auckland, NZ). People seemed to like the show. Girls danced. It was certainly the most intense 50 min of furious noise-rock carnage that we have yet exacted upon a paying audience. Later on, that monitor at front stage right started smoking and we had to stop. Gig: Saturday night.. hearing returned to normal: Tuesday arvo.

Picture by Robyn. There's a WHOLE bunch more here.

Labels: photos, stumps

A song for Wednesday:

Pere Ubu - I Will Wait (2.47 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

... from Dub Housing (wikipedia).

edit
jeez, last night's effort was pretty lame huh. So, let's try again.

If you're interested in rock music; if you're interested in the fringes of rock music, where the madman hold court and the wild things are, then you really need look no further than Pere Ubu. Their late-70s "art-punk" albums capture the angst and chaos of their times -- and ours -- with both apocalyptic fervor and surprising humanity.

Some words about Pere Ubu: insular, fractured, volatile, bleak, whimsical, eerie, tense, anxious, paranoid, confrontational, harsh, gloomy, cerebral, detached, quirky, absurdist warble, rapturous, demented, self-destructing melodies, scattershot rhythms, industrial-strength dissonance, manic intensity, dark impenetrability

Labels: music, two-sentences-one-tune