“Caribbean sugar plantations constituted the first truly modernized societies in the world where people, mobilized through violence and oppression, were thrust into remarkably industrial settings for their time. The sugar industry also created the economic basis for the European merchant and commercial classes to challenge, gradually, the monolith of the feudal aristocratic order.”
From Dominic Boyer's NO MORE FOSSILS. Here's another bit:
“The automobile has a surprisingly deep and complicated history, one that intertwined with the locomotive for many decades. A rail-less automotive machine was a serious aspiration of inventors no later than the end of the eighteenth century. The locomotive won out for both engineering and infrastructural reasons and was safeguarded by inconvenient legal measures like the British Locomotive Act of 1865 that required non-rail automobiles travel at a maximum speed of four mph and be preceded by a man waving a red flag.”
Personally, I'd love to see a return of the above legislation, but I know I'm in the extreme minority here. Another bit:
“The philosopher Andre Gorz argued back in the 1970s that the class structure of capitalist society was sustained by a phenomenon he termed the 'poverty of affluence.' What he means is that capitalism utilizes scarcity as a means for reproducing social inequality and preserving class heirarchy. New technological achievements and luxuries are enjoyed first only by the elite, which displays them as status symbols to attract the desires of the masses toward them. As the masses gain access to old luxuries, new unattainable luxuries develop to replace them. This treadmill of luxury means that no universal “good life” will ever be enjoyed in a capitalist society.”
One more:
“Green capitalism as a whole is paradoxical. It will never be satisfied by sustainability. What we call capitalism is a metastasizing arrangement of production, trade, rent-seeking, and consumption that constantly fights for more resource usage and technological development. Its hunger is sucropolitical, it thirsts after the sweet taste for more. Its bones and sinews, especially in the rapidly industrializing world, are still surprisingly carbopolitical, driven by machines and coal toward relentless production of more things. Its epidermis is petropolitical, mobile, plastic, ever reshaping itself in response to technology, desire, and fashion.”
NO MORE FOSSILS by Dominic Boyer
#reads
Insomnia kicked in the other night, and I found myself beaming RIPLEY. Beautifully shot series! Entirely black and white with some of the most unusual angles I've seen on screen. In this iteration, Mr. Ripley is actually not all that talented, and in fact kind of a fuckup.
It's all played far more believably than the Matt Damon portrayal. Though, it's been a very long time since I looked at that one.
#journal #watches
Came across this Arabic comix magazine on my shelf and realized I have yet to post about it, and it is certainly worthy of a post, not just because I happen to be featured in it but because its format/approach isn't one I think I've come across before.
Featuring critical essays, extensive interviews and complete short comix, the inaugural issue of [+] Magazine is a hefty 154-page package, jumpstarted by editor extraordinaire Jad Khoury. Each issue has an over-arching theme (though I'm not sure if any issues have been produced since its inaugural Nov. 2022 issue), this one being “Arab Revolts and Comix Strips”. Under the umbrella of this theme are 5 critical essays and 5 complete short comix, and one graphic novel excerpt, each accompanied by an in-depth interview with its creator.
Here are a few photos from my interview:
And here's a link to my featured comix, a crop of which made the cover.
#coverage #work
Mythomatic orders fulfilled and paintings hauled to the vault, and that's my exercise for the day. Read Dominic Boyer's NO MORE FOSSILS, which distills extensive research into an immensely insightful handy 96-page sort-of-pocketbook.
Remainder of the day will have to constitute feeding myself and tidying up after spending weekend with the child, get the space in good operational order for the work week ahead.
#journal
Hit the 100-page mark on Salman Rushdie's THE SATANIC VERSES, my threshold for testing my appetite for any given book. It still feels like a drop in THE SATANIC VERSES' hellish waters, because it's not even a quarter of the way through and I'm not entirely sure what it's even about yet. Rushdie writes beautifully. It's all very poetic, but I haven't the slightest clue what the hell is going on most of the time. When I do have a grasp on the narrative, it is in fact captivating, but those pages are far and few between.
Just put the child down and my body is aching and my brain is dead and I cannot for the life of me see myself spending my extremely limited leisure time carrying on with THE SATANIC VERSES. Do I feel guilty for putting it aside? Not right now. Maybe tomorrow.
Need a palette cleanser of sorts, something easy that I know I'll enjoy. It's been years since I've read Elmore Leonard, who's always an easy bet for me. I think I'll read TOUCH, a battered old paperback of which I picked up in Denver for three bucks some years ago and have yet to crack open. Pages literally falling out, this may be the last time this particular copy will ever be read by anyone.
#reads
“Marijuana smoking by white youth represented a symbolic threat to normative suburban values and capitalist ideologies” — Mathew D. Lassiter on America's war on drugs.
The U.S. military's Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) expresses concern over China's expanding presence in Antigua and in the Caribbean region.
House passes contentious Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid package — “China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are working together in a new axis of evil to harm our alliances and undermine our national security,” House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said on the floor ahead of the vote.
Some light reading after failing to put the little one down for nap time. Thought for sure soccer practice would zonk him out. Could use a little shuteye myself tbh.
#journal
PROJECT OLDBOOK trudging along, around the midway point now. Really need to move faster though.
Very early on in the project, the idea of something AI-based was suggested. But no, I ended up going in the absolute polar opposite direction with the most tactile and labor intensive thing imaginable for some reason.
Masochistic tendencies probably.
#work
Steven Heller isn't wrong in calling me an “Artist Who Designs (and Vice Versa)” in this short interview over at his blog The Daily Heller (hosted by Print Mag).
Quite an honor to be featured on Steven's blog. I remember first encountering his book, Design Literacy, at the tender age of 19 some decades ago. Very formative reading for me and one that I still recommend to young designers just starting out.
#journal #coverage
Accounting today, which I am behind on and will certainly suck my soul dry by day's end.
Also on the docket:
– Fulfilling Mythomatic orders.
– Meal prep (because not enough time over the weekend).
– Excercise
And that's probably already one thing too many to fit into a single workday.
#journal
Love me a good drag show.
The thing about drag shows is that they could either be a sign of a closed society (where women performing in public is considered taboo) or an open one (where men needn't abide by heteronormative restrictions). I get the sense that in Houston, it's actually a little bit of both.
#journal