Valentine’s [232 SW Ankeny PDX]
Friday 1/23
Tiga [1465 NE Prescott PDX]
Saturday 1/24

Drop in and have a drink. Matthew Yake will be spinning records 9pm – Close at both locations.

He was kind enough to send me this Youtube Video so that we would have some ‘sound bites’ to chomp on while we eagerly waited to get out of work and go listen to his tunes

BTW Matthew Yake is also blogging for Multnomah County Library where he works as a Librarian.
How cool is that? A librarian blogger dj. Fuck. Thank god he is already my friend or I would be super envious and have to start stalking the mofo.

Here…Read this.
I have included an excerpt from one of his posts from the library’s blog

Saturday January 03, 2009
Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst…

If Russian academic Igor Panarin newest theory is correct, in about 18 months Oregon will be part of China. This is part of a larger forecast Panarin made which predicts that the United States will dissolve into six spheres of influence under conditions most of us would liken to an apocalypse. Happy New Year! Thankfully, Panarin states that there is only a 45-55% chance of said event coming to fruition. Whew…

To be honest, Panarin’s prognostication doesn’t exactly fill me with dread. Call me an optimist but I’m not about to spend 2009 preparing for the end of the world as we know it. However, if that tingling, creepy, melancholy feeling is what you’re looking (and as a fan of post-apocalyptic movies I could sympathize) try Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. It’s a quick read compared to his many of his other works and, like No Country for Old Men, it has recently been adapted for film. In fact, some of The Road’s bleak, weather-beaten, exterior sequences were filmed in Oregon. Considering that we’ve been at Nature’s mercy for the past couple weeks it might be easy to identify with this novel’s protagonist and his efforts to save his son in a cold world, nearly burned away by an unnamed ecological disaster of unimaginable scale.

And, if things do happen to get worse here, we can count on Joshua Piven’s The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook to provide a plan for escape. Illustrated with easy-to-read diagrams and including even (or perhaps, only) the most outlandish predicaments, Piven’s book makes imagining being attacked by a bear fun again. I recommend the audio-book version as read by Mr. Burt Reynolds. Clocking in at a little less than two hours, it is the perfect duration for a trip through the Cascades or out to the coast and it will keep you in stitches as it prepares you for anything that could, but almost certainly won’t, go wrong.

As far as secession from the union goes, Panarin’s a step slow. Folks around these parts have been dabbling with that idea for a while now. Hypothetical nation-states have included; the Republic of Cascadia, the State of Lincoln and the State of Jefferson. If one needed convincing of the longevity of this concept I’d point them in the direction of The State of Jefferson a terrific collection of prose and photos by Bernita Tickner and Gail Fiorini-Jenner. The State of Jefferson is a causal look at life in Southern Oregon/Northern California and includes many playful observations such as the re-emergence of Etna, the official beer of the State of Jefferson. The real fun in The State of Jefferson is looking over its many photographs. Their quality and abundance makes imagining living in this place, both mythical and real, a joy. More of Matthew’s Post from Jan 3rd…

I think Matthew writes really well and I am thrilled to see that the library is paying him to blog about the books there. He has worked at the library for eight years. He _knows_ those books dude. Who better to get a recommendation from then someone who has been working there for years? I wonder if they will post the top picks or something fun like that? I wonder if they get to write about more stuff than books? I wonder if anyone will read this post? Well whatever. Just go to listen to him spin. I mean it when I say you will not be disappointed. Peace.

What is Property

The First Book that caught my eye was What is Property by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a French political philosopher who wrote extensively on anarchy and was the first person known to have referred to himself as an anarchist. His most famous writings include The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century (1852) and System of Economic Contradictions; or The Philosophy of Poverty (1846). PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON (1809-1865)

I am particularly fond of this quote here “Property is impossible, because it is the Mother of Tyranny.” This book looks stellar. I read it a little bit at school but decided to grab a couple of different ones for this week and come back and pick this up next week.

The Art of Participation

The next book I checked out was called The Art of Participation edited by Rudolph Frieling. It’s apparently associated with an exhibit of the same title currently showing at the SFMOMA and I am reading that one right now. I wish I had seen this when I was in SF last week. Sigh.

Again I don’t think that the topic is revolutionary or new but I am excited to see more comprehensive anthologies of art and relational aesthetics work come out and for it to be encapsulated under new language like this. There is a merging of conversations between art, the social, media, communication and visual studies that is being re-presented again and again over the last 50 years.

This survey covers the rich and varied history of participatory art, from early happenings and performances to current practices that demand audience interaction. As the hallmarks of Web 2.0—browsing, sharing, collecting, producing—increasingly permeate every aspect of society, this timely project reveals the ways in which artists and viewers have approached the creation of open works of art. The featured artists include Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Vito Acconci, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Janet Cardiff, Lygia Clark, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Allan Kaprow, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Antoni Muntadas, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Erwin Wurm.

Original essays by Rudolf Frieling, Boris Groys, Robert Atkins, and Lev Manovich identify seminal moments in participatory practice from the 1950s to the present day. A rich array of plates introduce work by all the artists in the accompanying exhibition, with reproductions of significant projects by other major figures—from Helio Oiticica, Joan Jonas, and Gordon Matta-Clark to Rirkrit Tiravanija and SUPERFLEX—rounding out the survey. 215 color illustrations.

(Thanks Amazon! for the description)

As you can see the book is filled with popular works and TONS of color plates like this one by Erwin Wurm. Who makes some rather beautiful work in my opinion.

Erwin Wurm (born 1954) is an Austrian artist. Since the late 1980′s he has developed an ongoing series of “One Minute Sculptures,” in which he poses himself or his models in unexpected relationships with everyday objects close at hand, prompting the viewer to question the very definition of sculpture. He seeks to use the “shortest path” in creating a sculpture — a clear and fast, sometimes humorous, form of expression. As the sculptures are fleeting and meant to be spontaneous and temporary, the images are only captured in photos or on film. (Wikipedia)

The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture

The next book I picked up, and one I am currently reading is The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture edited by Bruce Grenville. Besides great plates, and really good essays there are whole excerpts from Donna Haraways < a href="">Cyborg Manifesto and Wililam Gibson’s < a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer">Neuromancer

The essay I am reading right now is called Sheborgs and Cyberfems

Maybe someone has read these books and can suggest some other ones? Has anyone gone to the library recently and run across some really great books?

Back before I spent so much time online I went to the library quite a lot. Of course it didn’t hurt that my boyfriend was a librarian. I still spend a lot of time researching via books and essays and I find that that tangible nature of the medium really speaks to me. These days I buy most of my books instead of checking them out because I like to highlight them, underline them and generally wear them out. I usually keep books on me for a while. My whole Summer 2008 I carried around Lawrence Lessigs The Future of Ideas. Now when I look at the book I think of Summer. I think that the PNCA library is a really great, cozy spot. Go check it out!

Architecture and Feminism by Debra Coleman, Elizabeth Danze and Carol Henderson, editors

Tantra for the West by Marcus Allen

Art as Inquiry by Marga Bijvoet