Baer.baer: 2011

Get your record on

Saturday brings the fourth iteration of Record Store Day, which celebrates (and attempts to perpetuate) the existence of mom-and-pop record shops. Participating stores around the world are planning in-store performances, contests and general joviality.

Steely Dan awaits you. So go Do It Again.

found movement

will be here for awhile

note: made in 1950

Thanks penpal

Penpals come in all ages, nationalities and cultures. Pals may seek new penfriends based on their own age group, a specific occupation, hobby, or select someone totally different from them to gain knowledge about the world around them.

Life Lessons found in books

Both dishwater and rinse water should be dumped well away from streams or lakes, preferably in brush or among scattered rocks where it will not run back into the water supply, and where the food debris will not be noticeable.

Meg Stuart: DAMAGED GOODS

Hunched over, arm outstretched: watch here

FILM FORUM: March 18-31

a tooth: fatal Newark sweatshop fire

Nana Baer Johnson was working the day of the fire, but left to go to the dentist. She had a terrible tooth ache but her boss refused to let her go. She left anyway, and when she returned the place was ablaze. Two of her best friends were killed that day.

MONA HATOUM

“I wanted to make, I wanted it to appeal to your senses first maybe or to somehow affect you in a bodily way and then the sort of connotations and concepts that are behind that work can come out of that original physical experience. This is what I was aiming at in the work. I wanted it to be experienced through the body. In other words I want work to be both experienced sensually and intellectually rather than just one dimensionally if you like.”

flipity-flop

free ride, hair

don't care

share to blare

yeah she was

until he was

color of stare

near they were

there

walking

where she cared

Biking time again

BICYCLE RIDING RULES IN NYC

RCNY § 4-12 (p) Bicyclists may ride on either side of one-way roadways that are at least 40 feet wide.

RCNY § 4-12 (p) Bicyclists should ride in usable bike lanes, unless they are blocked or unsafe for any reason.

VTL § 1234 Cyclists must ride by the right hand curb and no more than two abreast. Does not apply in new York City. It is specifically superseded by 34 RCNY 4-02 (e).

AC § 19-176 Bicycles ridden on sidewalks may be confiscated and riders may be subject to legal sanctions (see also: RCNY § 4-07(c)(3)).

RCNY § 4-07 (c)(3) No driving bikes on sidewalks unless sign allows or wheels are less than 26 inches in diameter and ride is twelve years or younger (see also: AC § 19-176).

Greenways When riding on greenways, stay on designated paths. No bicycle riding is permitted on pedestrian paths unless otherwise indicated. Violators are subject to fines and confiscation of their bicycles.

RCNY § 4-14 (c) No person shall ride a bicycle in any park, except in places designated for bike riding; but persons may push bikes in single file to and from such places, except on beaches and boardwalks.

RCNY § 4-12 (o) Bicycles are prohibited on expressways, drives, highways, interstate routes, bridges and thruways unless authorized by signs.

VTL § 1237 When turn signals are required, left turns shall be signaled with the left hand, and right turns may be signaled with either hand. [see the Biking Rules Hand Signals Section]

VTL § 1233 Clinging to vehicles or attaching bike to another vehicle being operated on roadway is prohibited.

RCNY § 4-12 (e) Cyclists must have at least one hand on handlebars at all times.

VTL § 1232 Cyclists must ride on a permanent seat, feet must be on pedals, and bike must carry only the number of persons for which it is designed and equipped.

an arm or a leg

At One Bray Avenue (the address of her bungalow in Keansburg), there was an open-air concession across the street, called "The Stand" by the locals. The Stand was a place right adjacent to the beach where one could purchase grilled meats, sandwiches, cigarettes, candy and ice cream. It also featured a dance floor, a juke box (5 cents a song, 7 for a quarter!) and a pool table (10 cents a game). When we visited Nana, we spent a lot of time there, at least when we were not "in bathing" (Nana's term for swimming).

rebuilding parts of a body

She worked in the garment manufacturing industry in NYC at the time of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. She was a "forewoman" who represented the workers in her factory. She marched in favor of Woman's Sufferage. She lived in an orphanage when she was very small. She was left-handed and red-haired which were considered to be negative attributes in her day. She built me a swing in her yard at the beach when she was 75 years old.

You should ask about the time she found Karen’s engagement ring, which had been lost in the sand. She rarely went outside. So, I love the image of her popping open the screen door, walking towards the beach, and then reaching into the sand to scoop out the lost ring. I am thinking she handed it to Karen without a word, and then returned to her chair on the porch.

Limbs: hold tight

– Out on a Limb: Artist Andrea Bowers was one of the four arrested on Wednesday for trespassing and resisting a police officer, after climbing a tree in Arcadia to protest the bulldozing of oak and sycamore trees.

Exquisite Love Songs: created by Many

You plundered my soul

As if my center was made of cream

As the sangria turned to applesauce, I remembered

how much I loved Who's the Boss

twas the day in your night

like ginger and chocolate

you are a craving i just can't stop

fuck you

sweetly

the end is extremely nigh

- 474 Prospect on the eve on February 14th, 2011

Captain Cat in his galley

Lounging in her lace and sequined bow-tie

Vile, villain in a masque of innocence eternal

Thy plaster cannot hide, nor paint

obscure, thy agedness, infernal

well, now i feel observed

OMG, the bow-ties are abound

LOL, TTLY

What is the internet anyway?

and who can see beyond

being but 1994 today -

would we not mock uncharitably

to wish the past away?

so much cabbage. Alas your glass-

- is a short glass

short glass, tall order

in the end, we'll meet at the border

you said it was real

so steal it if you will

a chain left in pendulm dangle

the cameo spun into disoriented

bliss

i miss ms. champagne and her

mister and his mister's sister

On that I say,

Champagne Maintain!

- late night 474 Prospect on February 14th, 2011

Ode to Joni and Yogi Joe

your song is a foggy lullaby
crown and anchor me
like empty waves
fill a sinking sail

there is a song for you
there is your song from me

your song is ink on a pin
blue like tattoos
space to keep
where you don't look

there is a song for you
there is your song from me

Andrew & "Jacky"

Jacky (it’s me in the parentheticals)

I put up plastic to cover the skeleton of my residence

deconstructed as proof I’m conducting some holy gift between my barriers

dashing my face on the brick limiting external content

and thus having advanced to needing less shelter

with muscles completely intent

I die down into a nice fire for cooking

my better halves of heat and consumption brought together

(my other half is useless beauty which I use to commemorate myself so 150 percentage points I can earn depending on how I feel about me at any given time the same scale goes for roommates or lovers Jacky)

taken with blue flame

I wolf the structure down to its coldest

he weathers well and needs wind they say sucking drawn straws

and my morals are most abstemious when I sleep under gaping heavens

i feel better completely separate from the person I would be in place of where I

ended up

carelessly and purposefully I bed there in the rubble

I watch myself happening my heart beating on in the dark

when my fragility offends my own sensibilities

(love Jacky love!)

I can barely touch myself anymore

so an active dreamlife takes over the lightening of my testes

(in one a woman came down to me from a fire escape and I reluctantly consented sexually but I finished when she said ‘nice out of cavity work’ what do you make of that Jacky)

blood in the balls is semen and through breasts it´s milk

which makes great sense if not for this compulsieve analysis of death

but nothing replaces a hole streaming

i attend no sensitivity that training was forced

(bluffing off the cuffing Jacky)

and I left my best foot forward kicked into a tacked up plywood wall

I built at the end of a sawed off shotgun kind of hall

transport to a place to fill

a radius of shrapnel unconstricted and trailing from point on paper

and i limp away uninjured

energy is energy lets not define it because i´m light motherfucker

overcome and deadened because I see God in every little thing

but profaneness is spunkier and graspable like skin cells in the hand

and i lay up in the nowhere of the pseudopoets

sloughing off my polished pieces into fields of glass

which picked up again slip through my fingers

but take my hands with them

in ribbons excitedly shriveling like silk floss in hot coals

some poems are only about delivering a few lines of poetry

(circling the pit the hearth Jacky)

and I read that some writers only exist to help other writers write a few words

(jumping in burning up Jacky)

and some houses are built only to age in

(coffins over cellars Jacky)

well I’m roaring with slaughter

bellowing clear-headed winds into the veins of my victims

I’m done coming into the air

Doved, released in the culmination of indenture

Flapping bodies restored to wilds they are unprepared to meet

Hands outstretched are launching naming a cloud

The let go is less dramatic a slipping upward

but playful and possibly severe

abandonment guarded out of necessary ritual

and passed off with flying white

we cover our nakedness all too well

lowering it and running toward locked horns

and Thorough said we are the tools of our tools

guided by danger we can’t call death failure

but that intelligence isn’t love

rather the world allows itself a susceptibility

it quivers against us soft water shutting itself noiselessly into another version

our bodies show us

-back and forth movement of writing between Andrew Maples and Jack

a repetitive dance: transperancy

a single hand speaking for many bodies
tracing over others' fate
a stand in for a say
too little too late

unfurl

Follow this man's advice

and theirs

Ode to Bruce and the current state

Baby this town rips the bones from your back
Its a death trap, it's a suicide rap

Everybody's out on the run tonight
but there's no place left to hide

The amusement park rises bold and stark

jammed with broken heroes
Its a death trap, it's a suicide rap

Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin out over the line

you're on a last chance power drive

through the streets of a runaway American dream

its a death trap

its a suicide rap

'cause baby tramps like us

Ralph Lemon: MOMA

She was wearing yellow pants

Ralph a yellow sock

We caught them in a moment

before that second sock comes off

Takes a lot to reach for that other sock:

desire, will, bending, grabbing, balancing, pulling

It can be utterly exhausting

There is panting

he searches

is there someone to help free the other foot

suffocation.

just listen, an entire body gasps

he finds her

the two collide

yellows fuse briefly

limbs tangle

but he will have to free the other foot himself

Ralph stood upstage

She was in the foreground

Task: Daily Dosage

Wake up, visit Derek's Daily 45's, press play, dance your dance, continue with your day.

Contribute your grooves here.

Mary Wisinski: January 25, 1923

Dean's Rendition (button story)

KATIE: Hey Dean, you look fantastic as usual.

DEAN: Oh this old thing? (looking down at himself) These are just RAGS! But I love your sweater!

KATIE: Thanks I love it too, I have all these buttons, it's nuts! Look, I even have buttons on the INSIDE!

DEAN: Wow, that must be hundreds of buttons. I've never seen so many on one sweater, they look like freckles.

KATIE: Freckles or acne?

DEAN: Freckles! You know what, I actually lost a button just like that...

KATIE: What they hell are you insinuating?

DEAN: Well, umm..I mean, since you have so many...maybe I could umm, I don't know, borrow one long term...?

KATIE: (sigh) Ok, but don't think I won't come looking for you if I lose one! (smiles, vivisects a button and gives it to Dean).

DEAN: Thanks Katie, you're the best ever!!

Thank you Theodora Allen

A Long term Loan

DEAN: Wow, that's a really great sweater.

KATIE: Oh gee, thanks. I like it too. It used to be Jim F's.

(Katie shows Dean the sweater's tag)

DEAN: Ah yes, Jim. I have a coat with the same buttons. Classic.

KATIE: They make the sweater. Just need a soft brown leather chair to sit in.

DEAN: Yeah, sadly I lost one of my buttons.

KATIE: Really, this one still has the extra one sewn on the inside. You want it?

DEAN: Really?

KATIE: Yeah, what good is it on the inside of a sweater?

DEAN: True.

(Katie removes extra inside button with scissors, Dean puts button in his pocket)

KATIE: I might need that back.

From William Byrd's Secret Diary:

May 23, 1710
I rose at 5 o'clock and read 2 chapters in Hebrew and some Greek in Amacreon. The children were a little better, thank God. I said my prayers and ate milk and strawberries for breakfast. I danced my dance. My daughter was very ill, but the boy had lost his fever, thank God.

June 16, 1710
I rose at 5 o'clock and drank some milk warm from the cow. I read a chapter in Hebrew and some Greek in Thucydides. I said my prayers and danced my dance. About 10 o'clock Captain Drury Stith and his wife came to make a visit, notwithstanding it was very hot.

June 17, 1710
I rose at 5 o'clock and drank some milk warm from the cow. I read a chapter in Hebrew and some Greek in Thucydides. I said my prayers and danced my dance About 8 o'clock Mr. Anderson came on his way over the river.

June 19, 1710
I rose at 5 o'clock and read chapters in in Hebrew nd some Greek in Thucydides. I drank some warm milk from the cow. I said my prayers and danced my dance. About 10 o'clock came Isham Randolph and Mr.Finney to see us.

June 21, 1710
I rose at 5 o'clock and drank milk from the cow. I read a chapter in Hebrew and some Greek in Thucydides. I said my prayers and danced my dance. My wife was disposed.

December 31, 1710
I rose about 7 o'clock and read a chapter in Hebrew and six leaves in Lucian. I said my prayers and ate boiled milk for breakfast. The weather continued warm and clear. I settled my accounts and wrote several things till dinner. I danced my dance.