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"The sadness goes on forever." —Vincent Van Gogh as he lay in bed, dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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The Reason That I Am Alive Print E-mail
Monday, 06 August 2007

 seaside
Claude Michel Celse, Seaside Town, 1948

the reason that I am alive

By Boris Vian

the reason that I am alive
the reason that I am alive
for the tanned leg
of a blonde woman
propped against the wall
beneath the round sun
for the billowing sails
of a sleek schooner
at the mouth of the harbor
the iced coffee sipped through a straw
for the caress of sand
gazing at the watery deeps
turning so blue
descending into the deeps
with the fish
the tranquil fish
they calm the bottom of the ocean
fly above the seaweed hair
like slow birds
like blue birds
the reason that I am alive
because it is beautiful

 

Translated from the French by Joseph Suglia, corrected by me.

 
LeisureTown Print E-mail
Saturday, 25 November 2006

Leisure Town

Tristan makes some of the funniest and darkest comic strips I've ever seen, like a modern-day R. Crumb, using toy animals, great location shots, superb photoshop skills, and, most importantly, a thoroughly twisted sense of humor. Excellent writing. Particularly hilarious are "Pussy Driven," "American Masturbator," not that I would have any first-hand, so to speak, knowledge of either subject, and "QA Confidential," an extremely insightful send-up of the computer industry and Silicon Valley/Multimedia Gulch mentality.  I have heard some odd stories about him—he is a local boy well-known to some friends of mine ... apparently, he mines his own life for much of his material. Let us leave it at that.

mast1

 

A panel from American Masturbator


 
Using Technology To Understand Our Complex World Print E-mail
Sunday, 10 December 2006

Bullet_pear

Stop-action Super-fast Freeze-frame Bongo-beat Photography

A bullet piercing, penetrating, pulverizing an otherwise placid pear, from the IDF Tactical Logic website.

IDF Tactical Logic a bunch of cool bullet-going-through-things pictures, along with panoramic shots of destroyer fleets and ads for glock holsters. Definitely a Peace-Through-Superior-Firepower kinda site. 


slap_lingerie

 

 

 

Now let's use the same technology for art. Alva Bernadine 's Slap  
 

 

 

Not a bongo, but more fun to slap.

 


Which do you prefer? 

"A friend phoned me one lunchtime and asked what I was up to. I told her I was taking portraits of people bursting balloons, shooting bottles and smashing panes of glass using a sound activated switch. I could freeze the moment of impact rather like the famous Harold Edgerton picture of a bullet passing through an apple. curtain_cropIn a dark room you attach the switch to the flash then open the shutter of the camera. The sound of impact fires the flash freezing the action at several thousandths of a second.
"She was a submissive and immediately offered her bottom for experimentation. She already had a video of arses wobbling in slow motion. She and her partner came round with a bag full of flagellation implements and we tried them all.
"Subsequently, I decided I wanted to try it on a variety of different shaped arses and asked female acquaintances and women I met at parties to aid me in my objective scientific experiments by having there arse spanked. To my surprise 50% agreed."— Alva Bernadine

 

 
The Snow Birds Print E-mail
Saturday, 31 March 2007
snowbirds2
I had the pleasure of attending a concert by the choral group WomenSing. Martin Bienvenuto, the choir's Director, is a master of unearthing little-known gems from the classical and modern choral repertoires and bringing them to life with the enthusiastic cooperation of the 55-women group. 
From the WomenSing website: "Believing that music is transformative and enlightening for both singer and listener alike, WomenSing is devoted to the study and performance of great choral repertoire and to sharing it with a broad audience."

The evening's repertory did not disappoint, ranging from Vivaldi's Beatus Vir to Haydn's String Quartet in Eb Major to the Snow Birds—Words by Sri Ananda Acharya (born 1883 to the Brahmin caste, later renouncing the world and settling in Norway) and music by Michael Head (1900-1976). The lyrics for the song cycle came from an early edition of Sri Ananda's poetry, entitled "The Snow Birds."

The lyrics to "Only A Singing Bird" I found particularly wonderful.

I am not God nor His messenger.
I am only a singing bird.
I am not Poet nor his Muse.
I am only a singing bird.
I am not Prophet.
I am not Sage—
I am only a singing bird.
 

I fly in the heav'ns across the seas.
And come to sing at thy door.
Each dawn when the morning God
smiles on the ocean,
Each eve when the twilight God
sings at earth's end,
Each night when the God of thy heart
sits in silence alone with the God of my heart.
I am only a singing bird.

 
The Most Beautiful Day In The History Of The World Print E-mail
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
My good friends Gustavo and Todd have started making comics for their website Want A Beaver? (It's still warm).
This one is my favorite, so far. I love the political ones as well.  I have a feeling NBC will not be knocking on their door anytime soon, as they did for 14 over at Gallery of the Absurd. (Way to go, 14!) 

wantabeaver1
And, not to be outdone, I have created a new strip, to which I will be adding frequently in the days and weeks months and years to come, I am sure, entitled "The Most Beautiful Day In The History of the World."
TMBD1

 

 
James Brown, R.I.P. Print E-mail
Friday, 29 December 2006

BROWN08

 

 

Mr. James Brown, the Godfather of Soul

(Video of "It's a Man's World" clip on the flipflop)

 
When I was just a sprout at Willard Junior High School on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, I often found myself cooling my heels in the dean's office, usually for trying, selflessly, to enliven an otherwise dreadfully boring class with a humorous quip or two, perhaps a series of them.

More often than not, it would be me and a couple of black guys who were also, in the language of today, most likely trying to keep it real, as only thirteen-year-olds can, within the oppressive confines of the conditioning system known as the Berkeley public school system.

And there we would sit together in the outer office, cooling our heels, waiting for the dean of boys, who knew us all on a first-name basis, to call us into his private domain.

 

Invariably, we would get in an argument about who was better, James Brown or The Beatles. 

I remember one time in particular. It was me and four guys.

They challenged me:

--Who's got more number one hits?

Me [mind you, I had no facts to back my claims up.]:

--The Beatles

Them:

--Who's made more money?

Me:

--The Beatles 

Them:

--Who's sold more albums?

Me:

--The Beatles

:::::::::::: [long pause wherein they all sort of gazed at the floor] :::::::::::

And then one guy looked me right in the eye and said:

"Well, who's got more SOUL??"  

 
What We Could Have Had Print E-mail
Saturday, 06 January 2007

orgazmo
What Steve Jobs foisted on us:mini

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And no Fortran, either.

Frown

 And now, the ignominy of the iPhone:appleiphone4

 

I mean, where's the steering wheel? 

 
How Did We End Up In This Dimension Part 3,461,086? Print E-mail
Tuesday, 16 January 2007

the assassins strike again

mlk

Love is real , real is love
Love is feeling , feeling love
Love is wanting to be loved

Love is touch, touch is love
Love is reaching, reaching love
Love is asking to be loved

Love is you
You and me
Love is knowing
we can be

Love is free, free is love
Love is living, living love
Love is needing to be loved

John Lennon, Love 

 

 
We Now Take a Break From Our Regularly Scheduled Programming Print E-mail
Sunday, 29 April 2007

To Introduce

Madelynn Jane Bronson

madelynn
One day old, April 23, 2007.
 
will_madelynn1
Proud Dad (my son Will) gives Madelynn her first lesson.
 
3gen
Three generations of Bronsons: Uncle Nate holding Madelynn.
 
I'm Down Print E-mail
Friday, 04 May 2007

 My son Will has asked me for Beatles music
for his two week old daughter, Madelynn.

Now, this is a man who is
taking fatherhood seriously!
I am delighted to assist.
As Stimpy would say,"Joy!" 

Babies love the Beatles.

Why? Because their music simply makes
us feel good to be alive.

Watch them perform "I'm Down" live.*

Then look at the artists
in today's Billboard Top 100.

Does it make you sad? 

*Sadly, YouTube keeps pulling down the actual live video, so this composite with the studio version will have to suffice. If you are curious, you can go to YouTube and do a search for Beatles I'm Down and find the concert footage. It's a lot of fun. Update: I seem to have found a "permanent" live version. Whee!
 
Saluting 40 Years of Progressive Feminist Thought Print E-mail
Sunday, 02 September 2007

The Most Beautiful Day In The World Salutes Feminist Thought
These are things I've heard in my hometown, Berkeley!

Girls: are you happier now?

UPDATE: No, you are not! 

 
Happy Birthday Louie Van Bee Print E-mail
Saturday, 16 December 2006

beethovenDecember 16—Happy Birthday My Dear Ludwig van Beethoven.

I do not have anything to say about Beethoven, the man who freed music, that has not already been said.

I was introduced to Beethoven in my early twenties by two newspapermen, Ed Frisbie and Fran Ortiz, both of whom worked at the SF Examiner where I was a copyboy. We would sit around the M&M Tavern at 5th & Howard and talk about the late quartets, the Grosse Fugue ... and I would try to soak it up and I'd go buy pieces they recommended ... and I'd listen to them when I tired of Bowie, Roxy Music, and Captain Beefheart.

I am forever grateful to the two of them.

Fran was a great news photographer whose works - four pieces as a matter of fact - were chosen by the New York Museum of Modern Art for their retrospective of twentienth century photojournalistic excellence. He was a gentleman, a kind man, a great cook, and quite the ladies man: he gave me a lamb recipe for the first time I had a woman over for a serious dinner date. It worked. 

But this is not really a story about Fran, or Beethoven, but about Ed Frisbee, one of the most serious drinkers and most entertaining story-tellers I knew in my early life. It was another era. I had a lot to learn about booze.

 
Two Lambs—Two Recipes Print E-mail
Thursday, 11 January 2007

lamb

 

Sweet fluffy lambs.

 

 

On a recent post celebrating Beethoven's birthday, I mentioned a lamb recipe for the bachelor who wants to impress a woman with his prowess in the kitchen. As we know, skill in the kitchen implies a heightened respect and knowledge of les Plaisirs d'Amour. D'accord.

One of our readers requested the recipe. I am including two recipes today. Neither are very demanding, but are delicious, nutritious, and shagalicious. Here is the first:

  1. Determine if prospect eats meat and has sex on first date.
  2. Get good lamb chops, about 1" thick.
  3. Trim excess fat.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  5. Sprinkle dried tarragon generously on lambchops. Cover tarragon with coating of gourmet mustard - your choice, hot, sweet, whatever
  6. Sprinkle italian seasoning on top of mustard.
  7. Put lamb chops on roasting rack and into oven. Cook for 30 minutes. (Vary time according to thickness of chops)
  8. Serve with brown rice and raisins. Spinach salad with avocado and tangerine slices and vinaigrette.

You will get lucky. Innocent

(Recipe #2 & story on the flip-fl0p) 

 
Robert Farber Nudes—Natural Beauty Print E-mail
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
farber1

 

From his website:

Robert Farber~Fine Art :

"Welcome to the Fine Art Gallery exhibiting Robert Farber's expressions of the nude. His work in nudes have many parallels in painting. For example, his classical nudes seem to draw inspiration from the old Dutch masters, and the softness of many of his images echo Renoir's Impressionism, yet his graphic nudes have all the strength of abstract art."

Hard to believe I've been posting for months and haven't put up one true nude, aside from the large-breasted mannequins piece, that is. 

Fifty years ago, I was looking around my father's study, a small room off the garage, where he worked on his first book, The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned, and I found one of his photo magazines. His day job required him to shoot photos as well as write and edit marketing materials for the companies where he worked before that book became a best-seller, setting him free from the workaday world.

I was five years old, obsessed with Superman and Zorro for the most part.

Back then, the photo magazines were very different from the soft-core porn they are today.farber4 I remember though, as if it were yesterday, looking through the magazine.

Still-lifes, landscapes, nature photography and then, near the back of the magazine, at the bottom of the page, a tiny picture of a naked woman.

And I knew in that moment that there was a universe full of wonder to explore, a world of mystery of which I had been heretofore unaware. And that that exploration would shape my life.

Little did I know.

 
Le Bateau Ivre Show—Got the Poster, But Not the Gig - Yet Print E-mail
Thursday, 22 February 2007
bateau_poster

Nathanael over at onetonnemusic.com
made an announcement that he would make a
poster-a-day for musicians (with a show to promote)
for the month of February.
I got my request in for the 28th & final slot.
I told him I had a booking, but not a firm date,
so he was kind and came up with
this very interesting take on yours truly, based
This is what he wrote about me:

Today's poster is for Knox Bronson. It's an interesting mix of Bowie-esque, slightly 80's inspired, but darker - music. 3 Sec b4 mia smiled is my pick of the myspace tracks. 

Bowie-esque? Yes, hard to avoid his influence. Darker? My songs are bright vessels of West Coast pop-puffery, infused with sunlight fermented during the Summer of Love. I think.
And ... the eighties? I was, like Bowie, in an blackout for the whole decade, so I don't really see how I could have been influenced by the music of that era. Some kind of subliminal infusion?
Oh, BTW, do yourself a favor and visit onetonnemusic.com and look at the other posters he's done for other artists. Thank you, Nathanael!
I will of course notify this space as soon as I HAVE the show date. 
 
"Take Me Down" Live Print E-mail
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
Based on a true-life story.
 
Take Me Down @2006 Knox Bronson (ASCAP)
Click on Read More for lyrics. 
 
November 22, 1963: The Coming of the Great Darkness Part Two Print E-mail
Sunday, 31 December 2006

jfk2"... fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives ...
"So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked.
"But if you see what I see,
if you feel as I feel,
and if you wo
uld seek as I seek,
then I ask
you to stand beside me one year from tonight ..."
                —V, V For Vendetta

[This is Part Two of a three-part series. If you haven't done so, you may want to read Part One first.]

So we are talking about the killing of President John F. Kennedy, the fact that his killers were never brought to justice, and the feeling that we are now, as a country, living in Bizarro-world, where everything is the opposite of what it is supposed to be.

KENSHOT We left off in Part One with my ex-gangster friend replying,"Are you having a nice night, kid?" when I asked him who his associates in the mafia thought had killed JFK.

I smiled, but was silent, totally focussed on him and whatever he might say next.

 And he said, finally, looking at me levelly,"I could tell you a story. I don't like to talk about it that much. I knew at least fifty people who were involved who have been killed ..."

(further conversation on the flip-flop)

 
The Bondage Jukebox Print E-mail
Sunday, 03 December 2006
mylenethe bondage jukebox: the best bdsm music and bondage songs

A Mylene Farmer cd cover. I found a myspace tribute page to her. Her music is like most 80's metal: easy listening music with drums and distorted guitar. Lots of thick synth pads, too ... kind of Enya with hairly legs, but in a good way. Mylene is clearly endowed with amazing talents. A HUGE star in Europe.

One of may artists featured on the Bondage Jukebox::::

The French Madonna makes like Joan Jett crossed with Catherine Deneuve in some of the most amazing bdsmy concerts you've never seen, in which she prances in latex hobble dresses, steel-cage ponygirl attire and other visual delights while cooing ethereal over a heavy-metal soundtrack. She even managed to sneak a naughty song ("L'Histoire d'une fÈe, c'est..." the last two words of which translate phonetically into "fessee," French for spanking) onto the soundtrack for Rugrats In Paris. (more on the flipflop)

 

 
In Loving Memory, John Lennon, Oct. 9, 1940-Dec. 8, 1980 Print E-mail
Thursday, 07 December 2006
johnlennon

Here is a little bootleg of John singing "Working Class Hero" with a heavily phase-shifted guitar. Very cool.

Don't know what else to say, except I still miss him after all this time.

 
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