nocturnal research dept.

"Vertigo" (1937) by Lynd Ward

2011-03-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

"Vertigo" (1937) is a complex Depression-era story of youth and beauty descending into chaos and despair. Difficult for sure (with alarming parallels to current events), though the story is enlivened by admirable moments of intimacy and struggle throughout. I think what makes Lynd Ward unique is his wide-eyed awe of life, no matter how brutal, and of course his incredible draftsmanship. I'm unaware of anyone before or since who so dynamically rendered rain, snow, or existential angst..(to do these images justice, click to enlarge)

Sierra Club fights to destroy local, sustainable farming?

2011-03-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

Pt. Reyes National Seashore is a glorious peninsula about twice the geographic area of San Francisco, its drastically-more urban neighbor to the South. Through an unusual series of citizen and legislative efforts in the 1960s, the entire peninsula has been shielded from suburban development, and visiting Pt. Reyes today thus feels like an escape into a late-nineteenth century rural community surrounded by ocean and wild nature. Pt Reyes is somewhat unique among NPS lands in that it was created in 1962 with a Pastoral Zone to maintain a handful of small beef, dairy and oyster farms operating within its boundaries.

I recently came by a copy of "Land Use Survey and Economic Feasibility Report for Point Reyes National Seashore," published by the U.S. National Park Service in 1961. This 30-page report contains several large, hand-drawn pull-out maps, including this one meant to show how much the growing population of the Bay Area needed a place to escape and unwind:

I love how the humans look so much like swarming ants. I also appreciate the nice woodcuts on the title page and that of the accompanying Economic Feasibility report:

The value of the farms to the Seashore is stated throughout. The oyster farm and cannery "would add recreation and economic value to the seashore" (p.1, Land Use Survey), and further, "The culture of oysters is an interesting and unique industry which presents exceptional educational opportunities for introducing the public, especially students, to the field of marine biology." (p.2, Economic Feasibility report) Then on p. 6 of the Economic Feasibility report: "Both the oyster production and the commercial fishery operations, in the thinking of the National Park Service planners, should continue under national seashore status because of their public values."

This is all amazing to read because since then, the NPS has demonstrated their repeated hostility towards these small farms, ranging from the enactment of 1970 Public Law 91-223 which allowed condemnation of ranchers' land (thus forcing them to sell to the government and have their land leased back to them), to most recently, employing shady tactics to force out the lone remaining oyster farm, Drake's Bay Oyster Company run by Kevin Lunny (active in Marin Organic). These tactics have included falsification of scientific data intended to make it look as if seals were being harmed, and sabotaging a Safe Salmon certification of Lunny's ranch at Point Reyes.

Incredibly, even though the Sierra Club benefitted from the small farmers' cautious support during their drive to establish the Park in the 1960s, they are now part of an environmental coalition that is also trying to force out Drake's Bay Oyster Co. The Sierra Club's portrayal of this conflict as a fight against "Profit" has resulted in a massive out-of-state letter writing campaign against the farm. Claims that they are fighting new commercialization of our public lands seem to be a deliberate distortion of the facts, given the intent demonstrated by the original planners, the original Pastoral Zone, and several centuries of small-scale agriculture at Point Reyes.

What? Politics? in this space? Yes, but I think this is important. While I have appreciated Sierra Club's efforts in the past (including helping to recognize and prevent impending development at Point Reyes 50 years ago), I think they are plain wrong here, and possibly deliberately deceiving.

It is my humble belief that the resurgence of small, sustainable farms and locally-consumed goods represents one of the only ways we can salvage any sort of quality of life in the otherwise mega-corporate 21st century. The efforts of the NPS and the Sierra Club to willfully destroy a rare coexistence of natural beauty and sustainable farms here at Point Reyes seems crazy.

OK. More rocknroll and existentialist woodcuts in the near future.

"Gods' Man" (1929) by Lynd Ward.

2010-03-30T23:20:00.000-07:00

(click to enlarge)

see the stunning 1929 original.
or: the stunningly affordable Dover Edition.

Tell the computer what you desire.

2010-03-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area...tell the computer what you desire, and it will recommend some places to you:

It is very, very, very smart. So don't worry about stumping it. It knows where you can find comic books and diners, for example:

(Actually I just wanted a way to remind myself, when temporarily brain-erased, what exists to make me feel better in the Bay Area: good food, bookstores, nearby hikes, hidden stairways, etc., my favorite places. I would say it is a concise, highly selective database, except...I apparently couldn't narrow it down to less than 16 favorite pizza places!...also it was a good way to learn some primitive database coding. Hope it is useful.)

You Can't Hide your Love Forever.

2010-02-28T01:32:00.001-08:00

This modest typewriter-and-paste zine from 1989 was my guidebook to life at the time. Or at least music, which felt like my life. In 2010, I still devote many hours per week to music, but back then it felt like those romantic shards of grimy noisy beauty were always blaring at top volume in my head, in the foreground of every single thing I did. This Detroit zine was my partner in crime, my gateway drug, my surrogate cool older sibling. And they seemed just as excited about it all as I was. There was an unpretentious joy in the writings of the microscopic staff of "You Can't Hide your Love Forever" (Michael and Dave Segal and John Huston) that was infectious. I probably paid my $1.75 to feed my Sugarcubes and Beat Happening habits, but the My Bloody Valentine, World Domination Enterprises, House of Love, and A.R. Kane obsessions I acquired after reading this zine would soon overtake them. The excerpts here (zoom in to read) feature a list of the best singles and LPs of 1988, plus some fine record reviews.

touch pouch and flash tin.

2010-02-02T00:24:00.000-08:00

ipod touch case made of thick fabric-faced mouse pad (flat glass side) and twill-jean polishing cloth (curved metal side), wrapped in black duct tape with red electrical tape bottom reinforcement.

headphones case = vintage "Flash" waterless hand cleaner tin. (back of tin reads: "DANGER this product contains mineral spirits which may be HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED." contains lanolin and hexachlorophene. probably potent..)

also pictured: 1970s-era Sho-Bud pedal steel, 1970s-era Traynor YGL-3 Mk. III 2 x 12" combo, 1990s-era cat Veronica.

Pinups for the holidays.

2009-12-18T19:22:00.001-08:00

Analog hand tool project.

2009-12-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

The goal was to do a project that did not involve my iMac (I guess until right now..): build a chair! This is a traditional Chinese / Japanese design, or as at least as close as I could get by studying the one I already have, and consulting with a colleague who made one many years ago in China (thanks Zhong-Min!).

Figure 1.... Figure 2.

Fig. 1 is the final result (plus Veronica the cat) and Fig. 2 is my inital concept (argh more iMac). This was my first woodworking project. I used scrap pine boards, which felt like less pressure. I'll try nice hardwoods next time.

I had three rules:
1. No power tools.
2. No nails or glue.
3. No sandpaper or paint.

The idea behind Rule #1 was to spend some 'quality time' with the wood, using only hand tools, many of them Japanese. This meant spending _much_ quality time learning how to sharpen the blades! But boy did they end up sharp...

The idea behind Rule #2 was to learn how to make mortise and tenon joints. I ended up making twelve pegged, blind (i.e. 'stub' or 'stopped') tenon joints. The trick here was that every joint was at a 97 degree angle. This required some iMac-sketching and head-scratching (Fig. 3). For the 8 rail joints, I angled the mortise, and for the 4 leg-seat joints I angled the tenon, in both the x and y directions (Fig. 4). In doing the latter I screwed up some angles, and hence had to violate Rule #2. A sort of chain reaction of bad angles necessitated a reworking of all 12 joints, so that they no longer fit perfectly and required some wood glue. Luckily, making the 1/8" hardwood pegs was satisfying and successful!

Figure 3....Figure 4.

Rule #3 was intended to leave the wood surface feeling 'like wood'. I read a great furniture artisan book from the SF Library (can't remember the title) that advocated the use of a scraper to take off thin, single shavings from the surface, leaving a superior finish to sandpaper, which creates hundreds of miniature cuts. Pretty neat. A combination of blue and green stains ended up quite vivid.

Slow work...but all in all very enjoyable!

The tools (Fig. 5)...Japanese and Western mortise gauges. Gimlets for hand-drilling holes. Japanese saw, chisel, and mortise chisel. Drawknife for shaping the curved seat. Arkansas stone and Japanese water stone for sharpening. Scraper. Mallet. Combination square. Old plane that didn't work so great. Band clamp.

Figure 5.

Tool sources and info:
Alameda Antique Faire
Japan Woodworker (Alameda)
Hida Tool (Berkeley)
Cliff's Variety (San Francisco)
Books and Bookshelves [stains and inspiration] (San Francisco)
Robert Larson Hand Tools (San Francisco)
"Japanese Woodworking Tools" by Toshio Odate
"Hand Tools" and "Planes and Chisels" from the "Fine Woodworking on..." Series
"Woodworking" by Jackson, Day, and Jennings
"HOME BUILDING AND WOODWORKING IN COLONIAL AMERICA" by C KEITH WILBUR

Electro-Alchemical Maps of Northern California.

2009-11-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

Adapted from an 1898 San Francisco and North Pacific Railway Company map, located in the awesome David Rumsey archive located here. My goal was to breathe some luminous life into these maps, to tap into some of the strange dark sparks emanating from these remote places, and from the ghosts of men and trees felled in 1898 that still linger...The 'map of desire' on the right spotlights some of my favorite necks of the woods. Although the main arteries on these maps (that actually look like blood vessels in the version on the left!) are railways and stagecoach and wagon roads, the travel times in each circle are for 2009-era automobiles on paved roads, venturing from San Francisco. To get sharper, super-vivid versions go here and here.

27 Books of No Small Importance.

2009-10-05T00:55:00.000-07:00

1. "EROS AND MAGIC IN THE RENNAISSANCE" by IOAN P COULIANO - mindlblowing stuff. a dynamic and potent psychology of human interactions, refined over 400 years ago.

2. "NATURE'S METROPOLIS - CHICAGO AND THE GREAT WEST" by WILLIAM CRONON - an amazing story about the impressive, innovative, and brutal 'resource extraction' that built both Chicago and the world we live in today.

3. "THE WORLD WITHOUT US" by ALAN WEISMAN - somewhat freeform but perspective-shaking provocation about the intrusive yet temporary human species.

4. "STRANGE ANGEL: THE OTHERWORDLY LIFE OF ROCKET SCIENTIST JOHN WHITESIDE PARSONS" by GEORGE PENDLE - a good demonstration of the hazy boundary between science and fantasy.

5. "CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON: A BIOGRAPHY" by EDWARD RICE - portrait of a gifted spy/chameleon obsessed with finding authentic trancendence.

6. "ALREADY DEAD" by DENIS JOHNSON - dark, wild battles between skepticism and belief on the remote Northern California coast

7. "LIVES OF THE MONSTER DOGS" by KIRSTEN BAKIS - dignified, eerie, gothic pulp.

8. "THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE / THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH / DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? / UBIK" by PHILIP K DICK - words fail me. each of these were so potent they threatened sanity.

9. "THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS" by JOHN WYNDHAM - a good old fashioned story about a new species of freaky children and some difficult decisions.

10. "CONS, SCAMS, AND GRIFTS" by JOE GORES - colorful, vivid tales of San Francisco and its modern gypsy (Rom) underworld.

11. "THE MALTESE FALCON" by DASHIELL HAMMETT - dark, tough, and thoughtful.

12. "THE KILLER INSIDE ME" by JIM THOMPSON - psychological subtlety and blunt, rhythmic dialogue. Thompson has half a dozen others just as funny and tragic. Wounded romanticism masquerading as savagery.

13. "JAZZ AGE BEAUTIES: THE LOST COLLECTION OF ZIEGFELD PHOTOGRAPHER ALFRED CHENEY JOHNSON" by ROBERT HUDOVERNIK - a daring vision of ethereal fantasy and real women.

14. "THE CHUCKING WHATSIT" by RICHARD SALA - great noir/horror/mystery/fantasy/humor serial comic. Vivid, wild, and wide-eyed...

15. "THE DORMANT BEAST" by ENKI BILAL - a graphic novel about irrational wars and loves, infused with sadness and unbelievable drawing skills.

16. "END TIMES: TIEMPOS FINALES" by SAM HITI - cinematic, epic, humongous.

17. "MORE TREE TALK: THE PEOPLE, POLITICS, AND ECONOMICS OF TIMBER" by RAY RAPHAEL - eye-openingingly honest and informative treasure about both 'sides' of the West-coast timber debate. Actually if more people read this, I am not sure if there would be any more 'sides', only some tough and careful choices.

18. "YOU CAN'T WIN" by JACK BLACK - the words of a hyper-intelligent, retired grifter/hobo/criminal turned librarian.

19. "HOME BUILDING AND WOODWORKING IN COLONIAL AMERICA" by C KEITH WILBUR - thoroughly and entertainingly explains every traditional western hand tool and structural technology, using all hand lettering (!) and hand-drawn illustrations.

20. "PHOENIX (VOL. 1-4)" by OSAMU TEZUKA - there's more volumes but I haven't read them yet. These 1960s graphic novels are simply the most philosophically and artistically ambitious that I have ever seen. Would be exhausting, except for the strategically placed slapstick humor.

21. "THE WILD PARTY" by JOSEPH MONCURE MARCH with drawings by ART SPIEGLEMAN - it's hard to imagine the text without the drawings, but this cool 1920s era speakeasy tale manages to say a lot about human nature.

22. "HAROLD LLOYD'S HOLLYWOOD NUDES IN 3D" ed. SUZANNE LLOYD - bold, warm, sensual 1950s pinups. Is it possible that this kind of portrait will never be made again? (ironic pinups don't count.) the 3D pictures are cool too!

23. "BUILDINGS IN WOOD: THE HISTORY & TRADITIONS OF ARCHITECTURE'S OLDEST BUILDING MATERIAL" by WILL PRYCE - stunning photographs of traditional, organic buildings from around the world.

24. "FORGOTTEN MODERN: CALIFORNIA HOUSES 1940-1970" by ALAN HESS with photos by ALAN WEINTRAUB - some designs here leave me cold. But the houses that merge warm, simple wood with epic spaces are seductive.

25. "THE VISIONARY STATE: A JOURNEY THROUGH CALIFORNIA'S SPIRITUAL LANDSCAPE" by ERIK DAVIS with photos by MICHAEL RAUNER - a history of radical Californian sanctuaries that manages to be fascinating, disturbing, and level-headed.

26. "PORTS OF HELL" by JOHNNY STRIKE - ridiculously fractured vignettes that somehow tell a coherent and humorous story about hedonism and extraterrestrial conspiricies in San Francisco, Thailand, Hawaii, and Mexico.

27. "THE MOTION DEMON" by STEFAN GRABINSKI - a collection of Poe-like short stories from early-1900s Poland about speed, exhilaration, metaphysical doom, and trains.

4 admirable 7" singles with origins circa 1992.

2009-09-27T00:26:00.000-07:00

2 great rhythmic rabble-rousers on spilt 7" picture disc.

Noisy blues swagger on Claw Fist / Butchers Hook #001. Green vinyl and amazing leap on heavy cardstock.

2 great Shellac songs in a hand-stamped, intricately-folded sleeve.

Nightmarish romance on sparkly silver vinyl.

Recent, Lurid Findings at Kayo Books.

2009-09-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

From a recent journey to Kayo Books (= 2-story downtown SF oasis of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves loaded with vintage pulps, paperbacks, comics, and magazines from the 1930s-1970s plus other assorted esoterica/exotica = museum of fine illustration and tawdry brilliance = my favorite bookstore in San Francisco...)

79 favorite albums list, in roughly descending order, 9/6/09.

2009-09-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is not a list of favorite artists or biggest influences. This is a list of albums that, in my opinion, are perfectly executed and consistently great throughout. The album as a self-contained universe, a coherent journey, an impressive achievement. I only considered LPs and EPs (and CDs), no singles. Compiling this list was a massive and ridiculous project, needless to say…and it was painful to reject all the ‘imperfect’ albums that still contain my favorite songs. Another list maybe.

So why 79? That’s the total number of albums that unquestionably do it for me, that hold my devotion from start to finish. Amazing. These albums all generate biochemical sparks of pleasure in my brain every single time I listen to them.

It turns out this list is dominated by albums from the late 1980s. If one graphed the number of albums per year, one would see a nice Gaussian peak at 1988, tailing off in both directions into the 70s and 2000s. (OK, I did actually graph this!) So it is obvious that the music I enjoyed during my passionate, formative kid years has not only stuck with me, but also shaped me - I am still most emotionally receptive to those same musical values: noise, beauty, genuine personality, drama, and disorientation. And a dark sense of humor doesn’t hurt either...

The Album List:
1. “Goat” The Jesus Lizard (1991)
2. “Mutiny” Birthday Party (1983)
3. “Express” Love & Rockets (1986)
4. “Tender Prey” Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1988)
5. “Cold Hands” Boss Hog (1990)
6. “Hole” Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel (1984)
7. “The Taming Of The Shrewd” Barry Adamson (1989)
8. “Psychocandy” The Jesus and Mary Chain (1985)
9. “Fun House” The Stooges (1970)
10. “Songs Of Love and Hate” Leonard Cohen (1971)
11. “Bird Wood Cage” Wolfgang Press (1988)
12. “Stoneage Romeos” Hoodoo Gurus (1984)
13. “Time Bomb High School” Reigning Sound (2002)
14. “Night Music” Tones on Tail (1987)
15. “Treasure” Cocteau Twins (1984)
16. “Sign O’ The Times” Prince (1987)
17. “Horse Rotorvator” Coil (1986)
18. “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” The Sex Pistols (1977)
19. “It Takes a Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” Public Enemy (1988)
20. “Peepshow” Siouxsie and The Banshees (1988)
21. “The House Of Love” The House Of Love (1988)
22. “Marshall Crenshaw” Marshall Crenshaw (1982)
23. “Bloomed” Richard Buckner (1994)
24. “You, The Night, and The Music” Gallon Drunk (1992)
25. “Kicking Against The Pricks” Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (1986)
26. “Let’s Play Domination” World Domination Enterprises (1988)
27. “Infected” The The (1986)
28. “Portishead” Portishead (1997)
29. “The Director’s Cut” Fantomas (2001)
30. “a Table Forgotten” Faun Fables (2008)
31. “Purple Rain” Prince (1984)
32. “Junkyard” The Birthday Party (1982)
33. “Green” Green (1986)
34. “Underwater Moonlight” Soft Boys (1980)
35. “Liar” The Jesus Lizard (1992)
36. “Stink” The Replacements (1982)
37. “Raw Power” Stooges (1973)
38. “The Good Son” Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (1989)
39. “The Bad Seed” Ep The Birthday Party (1983)
40. “The Ponzi Scheme” Firewater (1998)
41. “Presentent The No Comprendo” Les Rita Mitsouko (1986)
42. “Forever Blue” Chris Isaak (1995)
43. “The Negro inside Me” Barry Adamson (1993)
44. “Palomine” Bettie Serveert (1992)
45. “Gentlemen” Afghan Whigs (1993)
46. “Music To Remember Him By” Congo Norvell (1994)
47. “California” Mr. Bungle (1999)
48. “I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits” My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult (1988)
49. “Allegory and Self” Psychic Tv (1988)
50. “Ocean Rain” Echo and The Bunnymen (1984)
51. “The Velvet Underground and Nico” The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
52. “Unknown Pleasures” Joy Division (1979)
53. “Jackson” Tar (1991)
54. “Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven” Love and Rockets (1985)
55. “Lifes Too Good” The Sugarcubes (1988)
56. “Twentieth Century Chemical” Those Bastard Souls (1996)
57. “Loveless” My Bloody Valentine (1991)
58. “Pornography” The Cure (1982)
59. “Drink Me” Queen Adreena (2002)
60. “Soul Mining” The The (1983)
61. “Zuma” Neil Young (1975)
62. “The Untidy Suicides Of Your Degenerate Children” Alice Donut (1992)
63. “Abandoned Meander” Andrew Douglas Rothbard (2007)
64. “The Locust Years” Hammers Of Misfortune (2006)
65. “Prayers on Fire” The Birthday Party (1981)
66. “Darklands” The Jesus and Mary Chain (1987)
67. “Hanky Panky” The The (1994)
68. “Armed Audio Warfare” Meat Beat Manifesto (1990)
69. “Yawn + House = Explosion” 20 Minute Loop (2005)
70. “Dolly Horrorshow” The Blacks (1998)
71. “Head” The Jesus Lizard (1990)
72. “Fake Can Be Just As Good” Blonde Redhead (1997)
73. “Sunburn” Blake Babies (1990)
74. “Souls For Sale” Verbena (1997)
75. “The Birthday Party” Ep The Birthday Party (1983)
76. “Bodies Need Rest” Pleasure Forever (2007)
77. “Floating into The Night” Julee Cruise (1989)
78. “Star” Belly (1993)
79. “Spiderland” Slint (1991)