June 2009 Archives

(tentacle monster, April Flores, etc.)

(the guy from Converge, etc.)

(detail)(painting)(acrylic)

Yeah yeah, I know, "less-kvetchin'-more-sketchin''" but I just got back from Portland.
In the meantime, please do check out this:
I've been interviewing other artists for The Rumpus--if you like me, you might like them, too...

Sean McCarthy:
http://therumpus.net/2009/06/artists-interviewing-artists-zak-smith-in-conversation-with-sean-mccarthy/

Gordon Terry:
http://therumpus.net/2009/06/artists-interviewing-artists-zak-smith-in-conversation-with-gordon-terry/#more-22008

Here are some more book tour dates:

1    Disjecta    Portland, OR    Thursday    June 18    7:00 pm    http://www.disjecta.org/main.php   
2    Book Soup    Los Angeles, CA    Wednesday    July 1    7:00 pm    www.booksoup.com 
3    Rumpus Room    San Francisco, CA    Tuesday    July 7    TBD    therumpus.net/   
4    Moe's Books    Berkeley, CA    Wednesday    July 8    7:30 PM    www.moesbooks.com   
5    City Lights    San Francisco, CA    Thursday    July 9    7:00 PM    www.citylights.com   
6    Barnes and Nobles    New Haven, CT    Monday    July 13    6:00 pm    yale.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/BNCBHomePage?storeId=16556&catalogId=10001&langId=-1   
7    Museum of Sex    NY    Tuesday    July 14    7:30 PM    http://www.museumofsex.com/   
8    McNally Jackson Booksellers    NY    Wednesday    15-Jul    7:00 PM    mcnallyjackson.com/   
9    St. Mark's    NY    Thursday    16-Jul    7:30 PM    www.stmarksbookshop.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp   
10    Skylight Books    Los Angeles, CA    Friday    July 31    7:30 pm    www.skylightbooks.com   
11    Bookslut    Chicago, IL    Tuesday    August 4    7:30 pm    http://www.bookslut.com/readings.html
12 Bumbershoot fest Seattle Sept 6

("There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." -Deu 18:10-11)

stolen from Boing Boing


The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter.

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP's over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don't retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don't blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don't publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don't signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind... 

p.s. Here's how to set up an alternate IP to help Iranian citizens get around the government firewall:

http://blog.austinheap.com/2009/06/15/how-to-setup-a-proxy-for-iran-citizens/

*"When I say the word 'punk' I assume you know this is shorthand for 'the-do-it-yourself underground music scene that has been more-or-less-reliably producing very good, loud, stylistically diverse music under names such as "punk", "hardcore", "grind", "crust", and "doom" for the last thirty years and which nearly all people my age who make art professionally seem to have at least a passing familiarity with and which people who write about art professionally seem to have never heard about'."

(sketchbook page)

busy, I'll post something tomorrow

(in progress)

"The point," people say self-righteously, and condescendingly, when you ask why their art looks like crap "is to make people think."

The goal of academic contemporary art seems to be to make the gallery just like a church: a place where dutiful people can go once a week to get so bored that they grow introspective.

"Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round."

-from "Church-Going", by Philip Larkin

(in progress)

("I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light." -Jer 4:23)

(pixie pearl)(in progress)(acrylic)

(Starla Suicide)(acrylic)
(in progress)

(sad racer)

(Blood Meridian, p. 57--Vintage Edition)

(chessmen)

(sketchbook page)