interview by GARRETT HEANEY
Michelle Montany is an artist and friend from the NEK. You may remember her from the video that we posted in the Media Garden a few weeks ago, where she gives the tour of her Earthship in Taos (NM). A couple days after we reopened the Eyewalls gallery, Michelle emailed me and told me we could show her Bankster Series. I really like art that raises questions and conversations, especially a conversation as relevant as this one. We talked for a little bit about the bailouts and such below.
(all are oil on board, 61 x 77 cm)
What prompted you to paint these guys? Do you remember when the idea sparked? Did you know it was going to be a series when you started?
I was helping out at a Sundance event last January, converting a Main Street bar into a screening room. I’d had banksters and bailouts filling my brain for quite a long time at that point. The bar we were using had these big paintings of rock icons- you know, Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, etc. They were original paintings but copies of the two or three tone posters from the 60s, which look a whole lot like the old communist propaganda posters. We had to move them off the walls for the event, and as I was stacking them in back room, I had the idea to give our bankster friends the same kind of treatment, with no literal commentary or anything, just to paint them as the icons of our era. Because for the first time since the establishment of the Federal Reserve, these guys have really came out into the public spotlight- whether they like or not- and have lost their shroud of mystery. That was the original plan, but each portrait kind of took on a life of its own, and I ended up departing a bit from the poster idea.
I always knew it would be a series. There were a few more guys I meant to get in there, but by the time I got to Blankfein I had really gotten everything I needed to out of my system.
Define Bankster, for those who haven’t heard it before.
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by: JAMES ALLEN
FORWARD: This little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subject of the power of thought. Is it suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate man and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that- “They themselves are makers of themselves” by virtue of the thoughts which they chose and encourage; that mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.
Visions and Ideals – published in 1902
The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of the solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.
Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the afterworld, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, laboring humanity would perish.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Copernicus fostered the vision of multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it; Buddha beheld a vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it.
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Wishtank has been a fan of DIY Self Mastery Guru Tim Boucher and media expert Doug Rushkoff for a good while. When we discovered Boucher’s interview with Rushkoff on timboucher.com, we were very happy. When we discovered that Tim had turned the entire contents of his Website over to Creative Commons License, we were blessed. It meant that we could share the conversation, and host it right here for you. For those not familiar with Rushkoff’s work, Edge offers a solid bio here, that begins:
“Douglas Rushkoff analyzes the way people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other’s values. He sees “media” as the landscape where this interaction takes place, and “literacy” as the ability to participate consciously in it.”
We’d like to offer our thanks to Tim for his work in this truly amazing interview, and his generosity in sharing it with the public domain. And to Doug as well, for the huge contribution he has made in clarifying the chaotic storm of information we know as “the media.”
Tim Boucher interviews Douglas Rushkoff
TIM: Philip K. Dick wrote that the two questions he grappled with in his writing were “What is real?” and “What constitutes the authentic human being?” How would you answer those two questions yourself? And what are the central questions you wrestle with in your work?
DOUG: Well, I guess those aren’t the kinds of questions I wrestle with. At least not in the way I imagine Dick wrestling with them, given his work. What is real? Pain and suffering are definitely real. Get a dose of some of that and you’ll have no problem distinguishing between the fantasy of painless existence and the reality of a painful one. Honestly – just have a kidney stone or deliver a baby or watch someone in AIDS delirium. Things get real, really fast. Read the rest of this article »
We don’t like people telling us how to write either. These tips are different.
Here are 5 of the best writing tips we’ve stumbled upon this year. Follow them, and grow (or lose weight, whatever the case may be).
Excerpted from A Writer’s Book of Days by Judy Reeves.
1. Eat Healthfully. Give your body what it really wants so it can support you. You may think it wants caffeine, sugar, or alcohol, but it really wants broccoli and spinach. Eat healthfully for stamina, good health, and the sensory experience of it. (Notice your carrots when you eat them, their color and crunch. Smell that onion; look closely at its layers and textures.) Eat several small meals throughout the day; begin with a good breakfast.
2. Be Physical. Remember when your mother warned you about making faces (“your face could freeze that way”)? If you’re sitting at your desk all hours of the day and night, your whole body could petrify that way. Move it — stretch, exercise, work out. Breathe. It roils the blood and feeds the brain. When you walk, run, bicycle, or swim, you’re in touch with the earth (unless you do it in a gym, and in that case, get outside). Do it alone so you can pay attention to your body and notice your environment as you glide along.
3. Laugh Out Loud. You take big breaths when you laugh out loud. Laughing helps rid the body of toxins. So lighten up. Take a break from work, and play with your puppy or your child or your neighbor’s child. Look at cartoons; tell a joke; share with friends. Find something funny in the world and let loose belly laughs. Create a playground for the Muse.
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“There’s this wonderful buddhist story, an ancient Indian story, and basically the parable is this: If a man wants to walk across the Earth, and the Earth is covered with thorns, he has two answers, he has two possilbe solutions: He can cover the entire Earth with leather, which will take a lot of time — that’s the external solution — or he can make sandals, that’s the internal solution. And I really believe in making sandals.”— Josh Waitzkin in interview with Ben Mack
A few nights ago my brother GOMAR2, sent the me a link to an interview between Dave Lakhani and Josh Waitzkin. Waitzkin is that dude whose prodigy chess game was portrayed in the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” (based on the book “Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess,” written by Josh’s father, Fred Waitzkin.) He’s also that dude with this on his resume:
• 8-time National Chess Champion
• 13-time Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands National Champion
• Two-time Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands World Champion
When he was 10, Josh defeated chess master Edward Frumkin in six moves by sacrificing his queen and rook to set up the mate. At 11, he played to a draw with World Champion Gary Kasparov — of course, this feat was accomplished during an exhibition where Kasparov played 59 kids simultaneously. Josh was one of two children to earn a draw.
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1. Saffron | Metal Fingers | Special Herbs
2. Green Eyed Love (Classixx Remix) | Mayer Hawthorne | Green Eyed Love Remixes 12″
3. Tracks of My Tears | Smokey Robinson And the Miricales | Motown Single (69 re-release)
4. Salento | René Aubry | Plaisiris d’Amour
5. Dance Yrself Clean | LCD Soundsystem | This is Happening
6. Monsieur le Maire de Niafunké | Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté | In the Heart of the Moon
7. Dedicated | Digable Planets | Beyond the Spectrum: The Creamy Spy Chronicles
8. Where is My Mind? (Pixies) | Maxence Cyrin | Mondo Salvo 28
9. So Dark for April | Dr. Quandary | Unreleased
10. My Life (Outro) | Reflection Eternal | Revolutions Per Minute
11. Song for No One | Miike Snow | Self Titled Album
12. This Must Be The Place (Naive melody) | Talking Heads | Speaking in Tongues
Listen now:
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Mayer Hawthorne | Green Eyed Love
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LCD Soundsystem | Dance Yrself Clean
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Maxence Cyrin | Where is My Mind? (Pixies
This was originally part of a packet of essays called “The Power of the Printed Word” that International Paper sent out via a coupon promotion in 1980. I’ve seen it published all over the place, so as far as I know it’s public domain. If anyone claims copyright over this material, let me know and I’ll gladly pull it from the Site. Maybe.
by Kurt Vonnegut
Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style.
These revelations tell us as readers what sort of person it is with whom we are spending time. Does the writer sound ignorant or informed, stupid or bright, crooked or honest, humorless or playful — ? And on and on.
Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead — or, worse, they will stop reading you.
The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not. Don’t you yourself like or dislike writers mainly for what they choose to show you or make you think about? Did you ever admire an emptyheaded writer for his or her mastery of the language? No.
So your own winning style must begin with ideas in your head.
1. Find a subject you care about
Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.
I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.
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In writing the intro to Five Pages from Fromm: The Revolution of Hope, I revealed a small but definitive fact about the origins of Wishtank. The sentence I’m referring to reads: “This was the book I was reading when we were building Wishtank last year at this time, and it helped me construct our humanist perspective.”
Re-reading this, it dawned on me that, although much of our literature is humanist in nature, we have never made the assertion that we accept the lifestance of humanism. As Editor of this project, it is important to me that the Wishtank community maintains an openness in regards to our motivations and principles. Transparency, as we are learning, is a virtue of truly functional and sustainable communities. With this in mind, this essay will serve as both an educational article on the evolution of humanism, as well as a notice to our readers that Wishtank is, and has always been, a humanist journal.
As many do, I developed an understanding of humanism through literature, written by or about thinkers who promote humanist thought. I came to my personal understanding of humanism through the words of Kurt Vonnegut, R. Buckminster Fuller, Albert Einstein, Julian Huxley, Erich Fromm and members of the NEK tribe, including Spencer Ford, Dan Briggs and Justin Boland.
In more directed research, I read three versions of the Humanist Manifesto that were proposed by the American Humanist Association in 1933, 1973 and 2003 respectively. The document’s evolution over the course of 70 years is inspiring and prompted me to draw up this analysis. Before we get too far along, though, we should assert a working definition of humanism so that we can share a common understanding.
What is humanism?
Vonnegut summed it up concisely when he said, “I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead.”
The most complete and agreeable definition that we have found, though, comes from The Humanist Magazine (a publication of the American Humanist Association):
“Humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. Affirming the dignity of each human being, it supports the maximization of individual liberty and opportunity consonant with social and planetary responsibility. It advocates the extension of participatory democracy and the expansion of the open society, standing for human rights and social justice. Free of supernaturalism, it recognizes human beings as a part of nature and holds that values — be they religious, ethical, social, or political — have their source in human experience and culture. Humanism thus derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny.”
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If our 40 Artists to Change Your Life music round up wasn’t enough to keep you busy, here are 90 music blogs that will definitely expand your library. Note: You probably don’t have enough room on your hard drive to download all the free music these blogs disperse. Courtesy of our new BFF, Stereomood. These blogs are where Stereomood fetches its music and arranges it by mood for your listening pleasure.
Maintaining focus and undivided attention has become increasingly difficult in this modern age where distraction lures us from every direction. Social media, instant communication and real time access to information is enough to extend the timeframes of projects that should take X amount of hours into projects that take X-Squared amount of hours – sometimes without completion at all. To be clear, I’m not a neo-luddite – in fact, I am of the opinion that technology will end up saving us in the end – but I do believe there is a learning curve. Most of this starts with a fundamental process in the brain called executive attention.
Executive attention is the ability to maintain cognition, independent of incoming sensory data. Some people do this naturally; you’ve met them in conversation – laser focused, listening with both eyes and ears and deliberate with feedback. They seem to have an innate ability to control which aspects of their environments they attend to and which to ignore.
Most importantly, they have the ability to switch fluently between different attention types, depending on situation. In this way, they control their minds positionally as they assess their relationship to their environment, and reassess as their environment changes.
There are several forms of attention, and we experience them all every day. Some of us realize it, some of us don’t. The purpose of this article is to help us become more aware, so that we can control and execute each form when it is most advantageous to accomplishing our goals.
Here are the 5 types of attention as laid out by neuro-psychologists McKay Sohlberg and Catherine Mateer in the book Introduction to Cognitive Rehabilitation: Theory and Practice.
*Note that each form of attention is listed in order of complexity.
Focused attention: The ability to respond discretely to specific visual, auditory or tactile stimuli.
Sustained attention (vigilance): The ability to maintain a consistent behavioral response during continuous and repetitive activity.
Selective attention: The ability to maintain a behavioral or cognitive set in the face of distracting or competing stimuli. Therefore it incorporates the notion of “freedom from distractibility.”
Alternating attention: The ability of mental flexibility that allows individuals to shift their focus of attention and move between tasks having different cognitive requirements.
Divided attention: This is the highest level of attention and it refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands.
* Wishtank’s take home advice: Recognize that focused, sustained and selective attention is easiest for the brain to administer, and we should employ these when working on projects that matter. Reserve alternating and divided attention for leisure or tasks that don’t require your whole brain.
For more on this riff, check out these reciprocating interviews between World Around Record’s Justin Boland and myself: Productivity 101 and Productivity 201.
