A Find at the Bar...

Hey,

I went to my local pissing spot for a... well... a piss. After my second drink I headed downstairs to make room. Here's what I saw on the stall.



What the hell is that? I'm all for graffiti... it's the reason I carry my point-and-shoot. But this is something else. Here's a closer shot.


Thoughts? Nobody else at the bar knew what was up... but then again, they weren't exactly in an art mood.

-Larson

We have 'good', how about 'human'?

Hey all-

We have 'good'. There are a lot of 'good' things in the world, cheaper cars, better toasters, smarter phones, bigger airplanes, etc. These 'good' things come from technology. Engineers tinkering away and getting paid the big bucks to come up with more 'good'. We have that, and we have a process to get more. However, I believe that the process to get more 'good' is reaching a critical problem. Really a couple of problems. First, there is no ending condition for 'good'. 'Good' can always be 'better'. There is always just one more thing to do, one more attribute to increase, one more factor to optomize. This is because the world is messy and imperfect and kind of crazy, but the engineers and business-folks who want 'good' will never admit it. The second problem is that 'good' also includes 'good' cost. In other words, the cost of designing, producing, shipping, and consuming 'good' things is dropping. In fact, cheaper is part of being 'good'. So these two problems get us one thing: never ending increases in quality combined with never ending drops in cost. And then the world gets its say, and kind of ruins it... or at least tarnishes.

So, we have a lot of 'good'. But do we have enough 'human'? To me, the human-ness of something admits the messy nature of the world. The uncertain nature of our reality. The conflicting nature of our decisions. The ordinary, everyday, profound ambivilence that consumes us all. On one hand, it's disabling because there is never any certainty. On the other, it's great because it means we can always act right from the here and now. Humans are finite. There is an upper bound. Despite the messy, uncertain world, people make decisions all the time. We go on regardless. And I'm talking something that '80% is good enough' kind of reasoning can capture. I'm talking about the world that blows a probability space away. Poeple act right from the seat of their pants, right from here and now, and don't even realize the power that's there or what kind of odds it overcomes. And yet here we are, and yet here we are.

What kind of technology is 'human'? And where can we get more?

-Larson

Sound Pm/Phto

Sound

War is making the sound
that a car accident makes.
the kind of sound that
you feel in your hands,
and it’s nothing like the movies.

This kind of sound is a sham,
because they never show us
the real version on the screen.
I’d be ready if they did.

No, I’m a liar.
If they did that, I would
walk out… which is
something I cannot do right now.

But I have to… I am walking out,
getting out, going down the hall
to the other movie that’s playing
for the same eight dollars

I’m sitting down,
and I’m watching this film.

I’m keeping my eyes
steady while the world shakes.

I am watching the war we aren’t fighting.
the war over being able to
buy a person in Haiti for fifty dollars.
fifty dollars, U.S.

-Larson

Laura Jones, Suck on This

Hi all-

Just finished my first comic book. So far, the pages are up on my google pics account as images. Each page is one image, so you can flip through the album like a book. here's the link to the album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/secondzflat/LauraJonesSuckOnThis

As I find a way to make a little flipbook for you to enjoy, I will put it up here for your enjoyment. In the meantime, enjoy reading the comic in 'raw' form. More to come!

-Larson Broome

Stressed but I'll be back soon.

Hey all-

Sometimes I get really stressed out. We all do. In those times, I read posts like this from Gaping Void for perspective. Good advice is often free.

-Anthony

Little moments of Graffiti

Yo-

Above from Seattle, WA. Sometimes I feel like I could walk by such a snippet anywhere, though. Part of me wants to. The side of a brick building, delapidated fencing, small moments of graffiti both obvious and inert. There's something about the illusion we have when we are walking down the street. The version of the world in our head and the version right in front of us. There's something to the level of importance we give to one or the other; how we pick and choose what to accent and what to ignore.

Sometimes my friends and I say that America is a third world country. We have a lot of stuff, a lot of money, and a lot of self-esteem. Really, though, what we have is the version in our head. The version that delicately leaves out the ones left behind. The buildings falling apart. The little corners of not-so-clean. We talk a big game, but there are still so many just not cared for, or cared about.

It's so easy to walk down the street and never let these things come into your head. It's also just as easy to focus only on them and get lost in the self-pity and dispair. What's hard is the balance between, where you know how to look for what should be there, and also see the little moments of graffiti. Look at the little dents in the perfection, that show us there's still a need for hope.

-A

Pm/Phto: Road

The other day I saw a woman
walking down the street in one-inch heels
meandering into the road
like it wasn't anywhere special
like there was no word 'road'
and it wasn't a place of its own

I was angry at the time,
she was in a place that the car I was in
belonged to. I was in a car that I
belonged to.

Now I wonder if she's one person
pulled away just enough
to lope over the asphalt yard
and not even think
about the car she belongs to.

Wine Label

you show your face to me like a wine label
and i'm trying to figure our what part of france you are from
somewhere warm where the wine is crisp,
or somewhere else and all dried up?

did you notice that i don't know a thing about wine,
besides that it is grapey?
and it involves something called a bouquet
(but not the kind you give someone)

And so I keep you on top of the refrigerator
or in the downstairs cupboard
and you'll stay there
because I never know how long you should keep
or if this birthday, or anniversary, or graduation,
or thursday, or boat christening, or memorial day
is toast-worthy enough to spoil you for a moment
and a whiff of your bouquet.

Strawberry

it's a quiet and beautiful life when you know how to
make yourself exactly half a pot of coffee.

i leave things around accidentally
like tissues with my blood on it,
a cat scratch or dry day for my nose
i forget that there's things here that aren't from the inside of me.

does it bother you to know that i can be so forgetful
of the kind of hygiene that keeps everyone separate
and not part of each other?

I eat strawberries with the coffee and I'm trying to remember
not to make that sucking sound
when I bite them off the green part on top.

It's quiet at this part of the afternoon.
There's light in the window and I can see the dust floating in it
it is floating up and down like it's getting heavy and it's
getting light all at once only to stay in place all told.

Let me make you some coffee
and you can hold this bag while I tidy up this mess.

Who is Larson Broome?

Hi all-

Looks like I'm starting back into this thing again. I've just gotten done with a huge event, presenting a conference paper. This is crazy stuff, this Giving Talks, this Having Work. Being someone who actually asks questions like "What do you consider to be knowledge?"

Here's a link to the paper, that you can read:
http://www.dodccrp.org/events/13th_iccrts_2008/papers/037.doc

Now that the presentation is behind me, I'm feeling a bit better... Like it's time to stop being in Crisis Mode, that the hurdle is past. That it's a whole story I can tell myself now. That it's OK now to come up for air.

Life has been happening so much over the past few months, and I've been neglecting these artifacts I can leave behind. In the wake, in the moment. So I'm wiping the dust off.

So Larson Broome is back, and we are still asking who he is. In Second Life, Larson Broome has a redisigned art gallery / AI lab that you should visit. In First Life, Larson Broome is still awash in his own concept. Still a blur we aren't pinning down yet. Situated, embodied, and nowhere. So stay tuned, there is more to ask of Larson Broome; more explaining himself that needs to be done.

In the mean time, I have several new poems that I've written in the months since we left off. I'll be sharing those and writing some more. So, Rock On.

Best,
A