Friday April 13, 2007

Hello and welcome back. This past Wednesday one of my personal and artistic inspirations departed this world for whatever lies beyond. Kurt Vonnegut wrote novels that were both fictional and full of truth. His humor was darker than the dark matter that fills the void between the stars, at turns satiric and cynical, and always a bit absurd. It was a balancing act that defied convention and definition. His books were often labeled as science fiction, but there was little hard science in them and the fiction had that persistent vein of truth that ran through everything he touched. I never read all of his works, but those I did read had a profound influence on the direction of my life and art. Slaughterhouse Five is considered by most to be Vonnegut's breakaway novel and drew on the author's experience during the allied fire-bombing of Dresden. That horrifying incident represented literally the death of art at the hands of war. What Vonnegut managed to do was nothing less than a resurrection of art in the form of the novel. The circle closed and the phoenix rose from the ashes. Art survives death and destruction and in doing so is a life force. Thank the fates for the bards and storytellers, players and singers, and above all those who can tell the truth, frame it as entertainment, and make us both laugh and find the truth within. I think I'll stick with writing for a while and see where it leads.

The picture of the week was created using Bryce
Click on the picture to get a full-sized view.

The loops of the week are going be delayed while I find a new host for the files. Those acidified WAV files take up a a fair amount of space, so I'm on the hunt for a bigger place to house them.

The website of the week is Jump the Shark, a page devoted to the moment when a TV show looses all touch with reality or the illusion thereof.

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.

Bye for now!