Rin left me an entry for Knees Are Weird scrawled on a chunk of wood, before he left for massachusetts. It's fucking awesome. Forgive me for showing it before any of the other entries, since he is my best friend. I'll be picking out a couple other entries and showing them soon, just to show some of the variety of the work I've been getting, and to hopefully encourage more people to submit. It dares me to try and scan it, so I did. There's a high res 15x30 300dpi print file in your mail inbox rin. If you're still working on your entries, there is plenty of time. I expect huge ass paintings.

If you're in Savannah, you should go to our performance/show/installation. Desoto Row, April 11th. Details are here.

Even More Website Update

I just updated my website. It's mostly written pieces. Let me talk for a second about my friend Dana. She takes dirty gritty images of kids doing whatever. Maybe a lot of people do this, but she's good at it. I remember being in a class with her and she got a lot of shit for her stuff. Even while terry richardson etc are out there making millions, people in my art school class would tell her they looked like snapshots, they were gross, etc, or more often simply didn't say anything, just stared uncomprehending. (c) Dana Lauren Goldstein But she loved it. She loved doing it. She moved to new york and kept on loving doing it. And oh, hey, what's this? Saatchi is showing her work? Do what you love motherfuckers. Even if no one else gets it, do what you love and push it and push it and bring it to the insane levels and keep on loving it. I love writing crap. I'm not even sure if it's good, but it represents me, in a way. My crap is now up online. And I love it.

These are from over break when I visited my great aunt Miriam in jersey. She has a couple of my prints in her house, hung proudly in the dining room. If that wasn't flattering enough, in the entrance way is an original Miro, and the rest of the house is absolutely stacked with amazing art. Her and her late husband george used to be serious art collectors. I think there is a picasso in there somewhere. She told me the picture of my mother, which I had given her a 20x20 print of, was her favorite piece of art in her house. That was probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me about my work. Everyone say Mmmmyspace! I'm looking forward to visiting her soon. Here are a couple more rolleis.

I'll be seeing beth this weekend. Suhweet. I'm super glad we're best friends. We've got some quirky stuff planned for april. I'll post some more pictures of beth from over winter break tomorrow.

Big website update. Changed navigation and added a lot of new stuff. I'll be updating the resume tomorrow. I've been really busy with a couple projects I can't really tell you about. Ok, bed time. Edit: If you're in New Jersey, make plans to check out this show (information copy pasted from an email.) I'm in it, as well as amazing people from all over the world. Some good news: we got our first big mention in the press today, in the Star-Leger, New Jersey's leading newspaper. I've yet to get my hands ona printed copy but I'm told it looks great and that we're front page news! You can read the online version of the article here. I will also scan and post the print version (complete with photos) on iheartphotograph.com sometime in the next few days. Also, we've added some exciting programming and a closing reception to the list of events for the exhibition. Please come and help us spread the word: April 6, 3:00-5:00 pm: Opening Reception May 4: 2:00-4:00 pm: Free Family Art Workshop: I Photograph New Jersey May 4, 4:00-5:00 pm: Guided Gallery Tour (Lead by Curator Laurel Ptak) May 22, 7:30-9:30 pm: Panel Discussion: The Google Aesthetic: Photography, Technology, and the Internet May 22, 9:00pm: Closing reception For those of you planning to come out for the show, directions to the Pierro Gallery can be found here.For those of you in New York City, I want to point out that the galleryis just a 30-minute train ride from Penn Station to South Orange.Trains leave frequently and the gallery is only a 5-minute walk fromthe train station. You can find complete New Jersey Transit scheduleinfo here.

I'm writing this list both for my blog, some friends, and my Experimental Film and Installation Design class. I've been asked by several people what blogs and sites I visit to do with the art world, and it's a very valid question. I'm constantly working, but I'm constantly consuming. It's hard to list a single influence since I consume so much on a daily basis. At least 40 livejournal posts skimmed, all the upcoming list of bogs read, several forums visited, and the odd random link in an email. It would be impossible to list everything, but here are some places I like to start if you're interested in internet, particularly on photography, and art. Like all blogs, the categories blur all the time, but I tried to sort them a bit. Photoblogs - Primarily on art or the industry Shoot The Blog - New on the scene, but actually getting paid for her work, Rachel has so far found some great stuff and pulled together some interesting posts. Check out that craigslist ad. A Photo Editor - No longer masked, but still dishing out information on the photo industry from the rooftops of gotham, the batman of photoblogging is Rob Haggart. A Visual Society - Another good industry insider blog. Heather Morton, Art Buyer - Wednesdays is Ask An Art Buyer day at Heather's blog, and the candid discussion is something of use to any artist. We Can’t Paint - Besides being one of the best named photo blogs out there, Noel has great rundowns of work I've never heard of very often. The Sonic Blog - No, not about the fast food joint, this is an art and photography blog out of Germany. It's translated in each post, don't worry. Zoum Zoum - This one is all in French, so I can't understand most of it, but the images selected are amazing. pause | to begin | blog - These guys started a competition and now update with great discussions on photographic art, from aesthetics to animals. On Shadow - If you're looking for great posts full of new thought and links, this is a good place to start as well. Similar to most of the blogs in this category, it sticks out because of it's solid layout as well. Conscientious - One of the most well known blogs out there, it's probably a must read if you're going to read a blog at all. Shane Lavalette - Another place to find a mix of featured work and a photographer's own great images. Exposure Compensation - Miguel blogs on similar subjects to these others, but often seeming to come from a more academic or introductory standpoint, which is a good place to start for some people. There's a bit less of the meta-wanking I enjoy so much found in some of these other blogs. Subjectify - With a name that makes me think every time I see it, even in comments on other blogs, this blogger writes mainly with a focus on contemporary portraiture. i heart photograph - Probably the best place to find work on the net right now, your daily dose of awesome. Just my humble opinion. Bitter Photographer - If the photo editor is Batman, this anonymous blog.. well, I don't know where to push the metaphor, but it's full of sarcasm and pretty damn funny at times. Like any anonymous internet presence (you know, 4chan.org, which got talked about on fox news as if they were terrorists, when they're a bunch of 12 year olds looking at porn... and somehow shaping the new aesthetic of the internet. I'll talk about that later) take it with a grain of salt, laugh or dismiss. whats the jackanory ? - I love this blog's name too, and if you've seen wired lately you've seen this guy's work. The behind the scenes details he posts are refreshing. Ground Glass - Lately Cara Phillips has been posting with a distinctly feminist and refreshing viewpoint. Her writing on issues still contemporary is really worth reading. “DEAR LEADER” : Illic ego est, vestri deus quod dominum - You actually need a password to read this one, but getting one was less of a cloak and dagger affair than I had expected, unfortunately. It's worth it, I've been browsing for a couple hours now. Somewhere between cryptic and hilarious, his writing style is something I enjoy as much as the photographic work discussed. This is one for you lit majors, perhaps. Success - This one just started, supposedly on the concept of success in contemporary photography. I'm waiting for it to start, really. Photoblogs - Primarily on the individual artist and their work alec soth - Alec hasn't updated for some time, but have a look through his archives, there's some good stuff from his personal life and on other photographers. passport to trespass - Polaroid travels from someone from my hometown, who was probably there when I was, though we never met. I get dual nostalgia. Boonville USA - He documents six towns named boonville, and it's good. World Famous Photo Reporter - This girl is hilarious. Her work is great, pushing that new edge you find dan deacon and others on and her blog is worth it for the layout alone. Digressions - Daniel Shea has a number of interesting photo projects going on, and you can keep up with them here. Amy.Elkins.Photo - Another photographer who's work I really enjoy, mostly intimate portraiture. Amy Stein - Amy could probably be in the other category, but I admit I'm a huge fan of her work and keep waiting to see more. She posts a lot of other people's work as well. Organic Chemistry - Shawn was one of the first to feature my work, and that means a lot to me because his stuff is damn good as well. T.A. - Tim has some amazing work and a great book out, and is always willing to discuss concepts in comments. Like he said, this isn't flickr. Very Young Millionaire - Brad is your link to the chicago photokid awesome homeshow underground, and he's got a great website chock full of great stuff as well. Check out his Special series on his website, it's one of my favorite recent works by anyone. Baby Sinead - Sinead is sharp as a tack and extremely nice, but she's also a porn star as well as an artists so you might not want to browse this one at work. Dana Lauren Goldstein - I know dana from scad, and if you want an inside view on new york grit, she's your gal. projectspace -Jason Lazarus. Check out his Self Portrait as an Artist series. Photoblogs - Academic and Industry Blogs SCAD Photography Department News - SCAD Photo department blog, Savannah edition. Not a bad thing to read for scad students. Photo Awesome - The SCAD Atlanta photography department blog. Pretty much what you'd expect. PDNedu - You can find any information about PDN stuff here, probably, and there tends to be some education related stuff and the odd featured artist. TeachingPhoto - Not super exciting, but some contest updates and I'm still waiting for the second half of the grad school post. Hallmark Institute of Photography HIPsters Blog - How the other half lives. Just kiddin, I went here, but they're probably all making a lot more money than me. I like to check and see what my fellow alumni are up to. Ryan Brenizer's Amazon Blog - I had to include at least one tech/equipment/commercial blog and Ryan's is a good one (plus we had lunch in new york and he's a very nice guy to boot. The CameraArts Blog - Industry news, contests, upcoming shows, etc. Exposures - Aperture Foundation's blog. Not updated often, but some good content. FJORD PHOTO Feed - A great place to find out about a huge variety of calls for entries (and check out the work on Fjord if you've somehow missed it) Work - Often updated photo or multi-disciplinary artwork VVORK - You want cutting edge shit? This is cutting edge shit, mostly sculptural installation, curated by badasses. Check out their sites as well. Artblog - This is an artblog. Pretty self explanatory. Art Fag City - Fresh hot review and commentary. Anaba - Small blurbs and conversation on a variety of fine art pieces and shows. Yay! Monday! - An eclectic collection of tomfoolery and top work, updated weekly. Misc - Shit I check daily that's in my blog folder PhotoshopDisasters - Self explanatory and awesome, you can't imagine what manages to get into international markets. Don't people look at the final proofs? Dr Giraffe - I'm waiting for something insane to happen from this blog, so far it's a a graphic designer ranting at spam, but I don't really know much about him. Kotaku - The Gamer’s Guide. I like videogames, sure, but I breeze through this often for the super awesome scoops on interactive content. I see stuff here I should be seeing in installations all the time. I respect every single one of these people for you know, blogging. What blogs do you guys read all the time? On video, I've selected a bunch of videos in my favorites. It's not all genius, but take a look at the Youtube POOP, the stock actor's response to a political ad (from the Hilary Clinton campaign), Showbeast, Willow Don't Cry, Freezes, and Peitin - Ice cube videos. This is the future, kids. Another place I've seen some cool discussion was at this site www.artreview.com which I think is sort of new. The featured some of my work there and I spent a couple days posting in a thread on "What is Art." Most of the posters were painters, I think, and many of them never went to art school and have very little connection to the "art world," they simply create, sell, and survive off their art. I think much of the discussion is rehashed, the kind of things I know I've talked about in my art classes, but it's great to see it worked out through people who haven't had it pushed down their throats, and see that many of them come to the same conclusions as those of us who are just so damn classically trained.

The Creating Fear

It feels like fear in your chest but it isn't. I get so excited. I can't sleep. It won't go away until I do something, until I produce, until I save, and cage it in an idea, a paragraph, an image, a wall, a gallery. It stalks and turns and twists and shivers and drives me from under my ribcage.

This is the best fucking blog right here. This blog right here. I'm not even kidding. I've been laughing at it for hours now. Sorry if you've seen it before, but seriously. best. Blender has set a new standard in committee-think with their composite Britney cover. Not only do they put the poor tart's head on an uncredited model's body(which is probably, sadly, in her portfolio), they puss out by flagging the image as a composite. To pile insult upon injury, the tragic and desperate use of the word 'truthiness' is an exercise in pathos. As if this wasn't enough pussing out, the composition suggests that hitting rock bottom means smoking cigarettes and drinking diet Red Bull. Hello? It's Brit-ney Spe-ars. I'm not sure where I found it though, which is odd. It was some point this morning while I was reading one of the many other photoblogs I've been reading lately... mostly on blogger. I'm actually in the progress of cloning this journal over to blogger. I'm going to try to update them simultaneously. I've actually been really excited about internet lately, which is nice. It's great wanting to update, and it helps me work off some of my twitchy directionless drive to produce. Dust spotting images just doesn't scratch that itch, and that's mostly what I have to do right now, in terms of actual work. I feel like I mention this almost every day, haha.

My mom, in my grandparent's apartment in the bronx. These are from over winter break as well. There are a few more under the cut.

I'm done with the Being Inside book, for now. As a small portfolio book, a selection of images from Gray Days, and as a personal statement, I feel it's relatively successful. This is a picture Oliver took of me while I was working on the final selections and sequencing for the 20 image portfolio. It's amazing how over 1000 initial images gets filed down to set a specific mood for a book, and the countless other books that could have come out of the same work. I need need need to put some kind of cap on Gray Days, at least temporarily. I feel like I won't be able to until the summer, however. Same with the Israel project (which has seen some significant developments lately, in terms of concept and contacts that I've made.. though I don't want to say anything really, until more has been fleshed out.) I need to be done with these more straightforward projects, because I have something that I'm much more interested in stirring in my belly. This is one of those nights where I'm feeling the artistic equivalent of howling at the moon, I'm just so so restless. I get excited with concepts and art that makes me uncomfortable and really think. I'll still be using photography in some for, be it as a document of an artistic experiment or as way to finalize the concept, but it's hard for me to think of the actual pieces as photography. Some of the works, in fact, have nothing to do with photography, and those I'm extremely excited about. I'm ready to start on it and I'm burning for it, but I can't leave these other things unfinished. In a way, it's good, to let these ideas bounce around my head for so long. I'm excited about art again, and it's a wonderful feeling. Oh, before I forget, you can see some of my polaroid work with a reception on

Sunday, March 23rd at 7pm, at the Desoto Row Gallery.
41st and Desoto, one block from bull street.

Beth and I have also pretty much decided on Desoto Row Gallery for our upcoming installation/show/performance as well, since we won't have to worry about censorship (scad apparently can't handle work with photographic nudity and references to certain types of drug use) and the small space is pretty much ideal for what we have in mind. We have to work out some details, and you should hear more news soon. I just have to wait until she gets down here and gives the space a once over to be sure. I'm extremely excited.

This is the view from my family's apartment in the bronx, which I visited over winter break. I stayed there a couple summers ago, which was great, because I got to eat my grandmother's meatloaf and my grandpa's egg salad on a regular basis. I know my grandmother reads this, so I can just tell her I love them here and I'm sure she'll tell Abe too. I love you guys. I'm pretty damn sick right now. Yesterday was worse: I went through an entire roll of toilet paper sneezing and then soaked a rarely worn t-shirt with snot. Totally gross. I'm amazed it's thursday already. I didn't get anything done yesterday, and now I feel like I've got nothing done all break. At least I'm not sick for my first day of classes. Today, at least, I'm going to drop off some work at Desoto Row for the upcoming Instant Gratification show, so if you want to see some of my polaroids, they'll probably be in that. Then, if I can continue to not sneeze long enough, I might get some work done. I really wanted to put a significant dent in the israel negs over break.

Important Information

(entire entry copy-pasted)

"I assume most of you don't live under a rock here on LJ -wink-so I'm pretty sure that you're aware of all the crap that LJ has been putting us through lately. They've taken away the option to create Basic accounts (meaning it's Paid or Plus with the ads). But what some of you may not be aware of is that they're using a program like Facebook's 'Beacon' to log and then share some of your information -information about you as well as the sites you visit and what you do there with advertisers.

Explained a little of what's going on in her post here:

Basically,anytime you visit an LJ page with ads on it, your gender, birth date,country, 10 most popular interests and the content of your first public post are sent to an ad-targeting server. If none of those things are available, the server starts scanning the public content of your journal. You don't even have to have a Plus account for this to happen;if you've ever visited an LJ page with ads on it, or even have someone with a Plus account on your f-list, they've done this to you already.craftykim@LJ explained in a comment over at lj speaks what kinds of things this sort of technology is capable of, using Facebook's "Beacon"program as an example:

"For people who don't understand,beacon tracks ALL of your computer activity on the internet so long as you are logged in with that browser. It then reports back to the mothership:

*where you go
*how long you are there
*exactly what links you look at.

"So somewhere in the ether a record then exists of everything you've done(or your IP)--bit torrent files or software. Well, there's a record of it. Music sharing? The RiAA would like a share. Looking at porn at home? Your employer might want to purchase those results.

"The reality is right now, the company keeps those files and nothing happens. But tracking illegal activities is a compelling reason to allow seizure of the information. And the information itself is valuable beyond the primary use for ads.

"And we have a graphic example in front of us of how companies hand possible profit."

ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE: Friday, March 21, from midnight to midnight GMT.

For one day, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ.

SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site.

So, for one 24-hour period, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT, let's see how many people we can get to pledge to contribute NO CONTENT.

This will create a permanent downward spike in the daily-posts statistics, a permanent reminder of the power of the userbase.

We are holding the Content Strike because we want to demonstrate that LiveJournal is content-driven.

We are holding the Content Strike because we want the new owners of LiveJournal to better understand the power and resolve of the LJ Community of Users.

We are holding the Content Strike because all of us, Paid, Permanent and Plus users as well as Basic, want to demonstrate our solidarity as a Community of Users. We do not consider Basic users to be freeloaders, we consider them to be valuable content-providers and Friends.

We are holding the Content Strike because we ache to do something to show our displeasure, and commenting on the post -- even with cat macros -- just isn't powerful enough!

For more information about the strike check out the journal of .

Back to these blue images. Let's finish them off. These are the last couple, possibly not as exciting as the other few, but misewell post em. I've got a lot more rolleis to get through. Went to a great little show at the Sentient Bean last night. This kid I met in Brooklyn, Smo, was playing with Mose Giganticus, and they did a pretty hard cover of Mr. Roboto that was really satisfying. Then Emotron took down the small house and Rock Band, a local guy who I really enjoy seeing around a lot recently, built it back up again. Good shit. We grabbed Emotron's cd on the way out so I could rock out to it at home, since as standard for coffee shops, no one was really dancing at the bean.

Yesterday, Rin found this really old snapshot of us, cruisin' hardcore in my 1990 Camry hatchback. What can I say? It's pretty much conclusive evidence that he was born gay and I was born retarded. I'm glad we're still best friends after all this time. It's official that he's not coming back to scad next quarter. He's going to work and hopefully will come back after the summer. Since Andrew moved out this weekend, it seems both of them are gone till fall. Beth probably won't be living in Savannah again till Summer, if she does at all, so this next quarter might be a little lonely, I guess. It's not like I don't have other friends, but I will miss my best buds. It's a good thing Cody and I have a class. You probably have no idea who all these people are, so if this block of text wasn't helpful you can just go back to staring at my horrible horrible face. Rock on!!

So we narrowly avoided the tornado in Atlanta, only to have it knock out all power as soon as we got to savannah. As a result, my internet was down for a couple days at my apartment. No huge deal, but I apologize if you've been trying to reach me through the net. We drove down the dark streets and I was surprised that no one was honking, it was the most polite disaster. In fact, the main side effect of the tornado seemed to be boredom, since Andrew's pal Seth had borrowed my bike. Apparently Andrew and him had an amazing time sewing hell on bikes while the tornado was going on, with a huge group of other people I knew. I'm not really that sad about missing it, Beth, Rin, Trevor and I spent it trading stories in the dark and looking at drawings with flashlights. Going through my old work felt like uncovering an archaeological dig.

I'm glad that I wasn't raised in a fundamentalist fashion, but sometimes I do wish I had some kind of idea of Truth embedded more deeply in myself. It seems that I've certainly got the questioning and searching down, be it from the Jewish or New-Age influences, but it forms a more postmodern kind of inquisitiveness, something that is willing to say "Why?" and "No." endlessly, but very rarely "Yes." I understand truths and facts in a very fluid manner, but haven't yet found much extremely solid, any capital "T" Truth. I don't know, it's interesting to muse on; it seems many people are very secure in their convictions. Some discussion on Pause To Begin's blog about digital presentation of work. To sum up my current thoughts: How could a digital presentation be a misrepresentation of work if the work originated and exists primarily or only digitally?

It's come to my attention that my website might be totally messed up (instead of just kind of messed up as it usually is in IE) in the Resume section on Internet Explorer, on lower (around 1024) resolutions. Anyone want to check this for me, since I'm away from home and computer labs right now? Personally, I think the problem is the viewer had their fonts enlarged (select font, cntrl-middle mouse roll) and it was moving outside of the layout. Is there a way to stop fonts from being sizable? I tend to prefer that people can change that if they really want, but if they don't know they've done it, they must be browsing most of the internet in a bit of a jumbly mess.

So I fucked up. Pretty bad, really. Not with anything work or legal related, just some personal shit. They know I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do to make the situation any better. I don't know. I have to figure some stuff out over the next couple days.

Oh, I'm in atlanta. I hopped a bus at 4:50pm, right after my last final. Spring break! I'll be back next week. I'm probably going to continue updating from beth's laptop, I uploaded a couple folders of rolleis right before I left. I'll be continuing with winter break and then start into the pictures from this last quarter. Expect book related updates soon!

From Massachusetts, of course. It's not that cold at all down in Savannah right now. Tonight was Sean's last show down here. I'm going to miss Coquette a lot. I think he was the first person I saw live down in Savannah three years ago. On the plus side, for those of you up north, he is moving to nyc, so maybe you'll get to see him. I hope so.

I'm going to put together a bunch of stapled and torn film ends at some point, because I really enjoy how they look. Oh finals. Oh boy. Wish me luck with my handmade book, I'm going to need it. I've had a lot of help from Janelle, but I generally take photography classes so I don't have to work with my hands. My snowflakes are always retarded. Anyone going up to Atlanta on thursday? I need to get up there and want to avoid the bus if possible.

I'm printing these in three hours, so if you notice anything totally horrible about them, you've got about that much time to warn me. I'm not going to be able to act on too much critique though, I simply have to get it done at this point. I won't lie, after about 48 hours straight on these ten, I'm probably starting to see things. This has been a challenge for me, since it's possible I just don't understand landscapes. I don't have the same emotional reaction the same way I do to pictures with people in them, or close intimate interiors or daily life moments. The epic landscape just doesn't usually do it for me - I can't seem to get into Ansel Adams. I tend to look at a great view and appreciate the moment, but I almost never grab my camera. I guess Israel was different, but I was in the almost constant capture mode that a photographer on a short shooting trip is probably often in. For some reason, I actually do have an attachment to some of these images individually, and overall have been warming to it... or will be able to once I relax a little concerning the end of this quarter. I like these thought of almost as one long panoramic, so it will be ten feet long. Alright, time for a three hour nap.

My roommate Andrew and Tara, who was visiting from Atlanta. Actually, he's moving up there this next quarter. I'm sad, he's the best roommate I've ever had. Scratch that, the kid's a fricking walking miracle in general. I'm not sure what else to say, but now I have yet another reason I have to visit atlanta more often (as if beth wasn't more than enough.)