tidying the mental environment/a dilemma

i don't know what i think about this advert. basically, it seems that sky movies is being very clever and advertising the fact that they won't be showing adverts during their movies any more, and comparing this to the wonderful change in legislation regarding the total ban on outdoor advertising in são paulo last year. the ad, currently showing in cinemas (and below), is genuinely beautiful. atmospheric, inspiring, it really made me smile, until the end, when i realised it was... an advert! still, a good advert i think. premier league advertising. so, i guess, well done sky movies! for being so wily and appropriating an attempt to clean up our mental environment and slapping it right back in our faces.
if you don't want to watch the rather sumptuously produced video, you can simply check out some great pictures of the new, unbranded são paulo instead. let's hope more cities do the same soon.

borders

last saturday i was invited to speak at a sort of cultural event thing here in porto, as one of three projects loosely linked under the event title: borders (fronteiras). 

the first presentation was given by an architect named marta, from cirurgias urbanas, which is a portuguese architect collective who are working with architects without borders. their project involved organising a competition to ask people to propose projects to provide cheap, sustainable housing to develop areas of their city for habitation by primarily immigrants and asylum seekers, and to evolve the concept of a hosting centre (the places where immigrants are housed while waiting for deportation/citizenship) into a more open, constructive way of finding an active place in the host city for them. the project was called cidade de abrigo, or hosting city. 

                            

for me, this raised a lot of issues about immigration (not least the fear that this was all a bit lefty, with no practical dissection of the actual ethics of immigration, just a simple idealistic "we should let them all in and help them!" attitude, which i was able to discuss with marta in the debate afterwards and find was not really the case, although i think i was the only person there who doesn't think we should have boundless immigration and if i hadn't been presenting a project about israel/palestne i would have been branded a raging tory). 

i was next, talking about the process and purpose of an exhibition nuno coelho and i made a couple of years ago based on some experiences we had in palestine. technically it's an exhibition by nuno coelho (not one to share glory), but i was asked to talk about it as i was involved in some small way, and nuno was off holidaying in the açores. so, i gave a little presentation, explaining why the posters were made the way they were, and about the problems with widespread information about political situations like this and about the potential problems of education in conflict zones and unilateral borders and all that type of stuff. 

   

anyway, after me was this lovely group of austrians, who are part of a vary varied and multi-talented collective called goldextra. they were presenting a project they were working on, which was basically a computer game made in the half life 2 model (that's a reference for computer game types by the way) so multiple players in different locations can play at the same time. when playing the game, you can choose to be either a border guard or an illegal immigrant trying to cross the borders. you can follow one of two routes, one from western africa, and one from eastern europe, and get try and get into europe. it was actually really interesting. i'm not into computer games really (at all), but the process or research they went through and the reasons that they decided to make a computer game to illustrate a point were really fascinating for me (for each project the group do, they try to choose a different medium that they feel fits the purpose).

anyway, they were lovely, so go and have a look at their websites and that. we had a very pleasant conversation over delicious greek food too, which was courtesy of 555, so thank you to 555!

it's not like the old days is it? but is it better?

that is the question. let's find the answers by general consensus. votes please, over there -->

words words words words

i recently decided to try and give this blog some semblance of a purpose, and set about trying to think about something which would do the following things:

 - give me a reason to have it.

 - involve other people i like.

 - cause those people (and myself) to be a little bit creative, in a way they may not have reason to be in their day to day lives (although many of them are creative in their own right).

so, i sent out some e mails, asking each of them to write a text (between 200 and 1000 words), which can be accompanied by photos or videos or what have you. these texts were to be about whatever they liked, but had to take a certain word as their starting point. i chose all the words from a page of the book i was reading at the time. 

so far everyone has confirmed that they have at least started on the task (i know you're busy), and i for one am jumping up and down slapping myself around the chops and salivating with boundless anticipation. 

so, hopefully soon i'll have some creative gems for you. i'll be posting each one accompanied with a little bio of the writer, and whatever they choose to accompany it with. 

oh, and if anyone has a word they'd like to suggest for me then be my guest.

on an unrelated note, i would like to register here for posterity that i love finding things in the street. to illustrate this, here is a pencil i found in the street and brought home. it's the size of a child. i love it. i have included a shoe in the picture to give you some sense of the magnitude of the pencil. enjoy! 

oh, and p.s., as they say, do tell me what the most interesting thing you have ever found in the street was (witty vignettes and hilarious anecdotes may be published).

results are in

the polls have spoken. unfortunately (due to unforseen technical difficulties) we are currently unable to change the picture, but as soon as my computer comes back from the repair shop i'll do it i promise. go mountain vista!

well done for voting. 

Clever Americans

If analyzed through my first hand experience my knowledge of the McSweeney´s literary empire is limited. Yet, I´ve just added several works by Dave Egger´s protegés to my Amazon wish list so I think that gives me enough credibility to recommend them.

If you have no idea what I´m talking about, then read this.

In any case, if you like books and stuff you are probably going to like this brand of literary entreprises.
so.
there´s a journal. a blog. a dvd magazine. and quite few books. and another journal.

If this is all too much, then watch this unrelated gem of eastern european cultural assimilation.

POLLS!

look! over there! there is a poll for your interactive enjoyment! i want both of you to vote ok? this is a serious decision. antonio, put a picture (or pictures) of your choice up for our deliberation. me? i'm going with string, but democracy is the by word here, so think super wednesday and have your say!

 

welcome! antonio

i agree. about the individualist society and web 2.0. i think it ties into the celebrity culture business. i keep noticing how dumbed down things are in England (and probably here too, but in the absence of the red tops it's hard to get a good handle on the low end of society without actually getting your safari gear on and actually, like, going and living among them and that), and the way everyone says these throw away comments about people they don't really know ("amy winehouse is blonde now!") and it makes me think that (and i'm definitely a victim of this) people don't really think their lives are worthwhile unless someone is watching. hence new clothes thrills, facebook, the worship of the suddenly-famous prole. especially the worship of the suddenly-famous prole. because people think "ooh, they're just like me! no more talented, or attractive or interesting! but people take pictures of them shopping or wiping their arse or vomiting up their iceland king prawn roles, and thus they have achieved a higher status of being than us old fashioned left on the shelf proles." they may not phrase it exactly thusly, but something similar, punctuated with references to low culture and some belching and gasping (caused by the obesity).  

and no, we can't change the name. allow me to explain:

cabin fever is a condition which produces restlessness and irritability caused by being in a confined space, isolated and/or shut in for an extended period.  i believe in it. and it rhymes. the only other possibility would have been "break in case of anything", which is nice. we could potentially change it to "cabin fever believers" now there's two of us. and glad i am that there's two of us by the way. it's nice and cosy now. shall we invite someone else? if so, who?

oh, and by the way, welcome! antonio

hello, is it me you're looking for?

i think we should change the title of the blog.
i like "the official end of everything". don't like cabin fever believer. maybe because i don't get it.
can we change the title?
this post is becoming a bit like when people post messages on the wall in facebook instead of sending a private message so everyone can see that they are talking with that person about how amazing their new haircut is. i hate people that do that. which is more or less everyone. i'm sure i could analyze people like that and see a symbolism for the merge of our individualist capitalist society with web 2.0. but i won't.
anyway. this is quite cool. (if you have a mac that is, otherwise is quite boring, but then you are probably quite boring if you haven't got a mac so it suits you just fine)

antonio

a photo essay: how i felt for five days.

monday jan 28

tuesday jan 29

wednesday jan 30

thursday jan 31

friday feb, 1

a fawning parasite

and today's word of the day is: sycophant

a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

sycophant.

a virtual raison d'etre

right, so blogging. here's what i think about this. today. i'm sort of weirdly drawn to blogging, although i can't help but have a sort of niggling reluctance. it's something i quite like the idea of, but at the same time, a healthy degree of realism about.

allow me to explain. i fully embrace the following facts:

i will probably get a bit upset that no-one will read my blog, apart from maybe my friend julie, who lives in france and, to be quite honest, probably has very little else/better to do (sorry julie).

i acknowledge that although i will get upset about this, i will also find it totally understandable, as i never go around reading blogs. and i probably won't really put up anything worth looking at anyway. or i'll put loads of things up, and then i'll forget about it for ages, and then come and check and be doubly disappointed.

i will almost certainly lose interest in blogging within a year (maybe less). this loss of interest may be fuelled by the following things:

lack of people making jaw droppingly hilarious responses to my witty, insightful comments on daily life/utterly brilliant pictures (they'll come sooner or later, be patient).

the realisation that making and maintaining this blog is yet another activity of a lengthy list of things i do to procrastinate, and not do things which are ultimately more important than giving myself a virtual raison d'etre (!) (hark at me), for example:

(things i do to procrastinate)
reading magazines/newspapers/books, making lists, smoking, watching films, having a job, putting them stickers on things and then peeling them off again and then sticking them on a bit straighter and then peeling them off again etc., staring out of windows, drawing pictures of space rockets (really), organising documents and bills in a hugely unrealistic way which i will immediately stop maintaining rendering the activity pointless, and/or worrying obsessively about my ultimate pointlessness and inferiority and inability to achieve anything.

(things i procrastinate against (against?))
having a job, talking to people in real life, achieving tangible goals which enrich me as a person, organising my finances/teeth.

however. despite knowing all this in advance, i've decided to throw caution to the wind and advance gung-ho into the world of blogging. watch out (world of blogging). here i come.

this post should end on that optimistic note, but in a punch to the face of emphatic final comments, i'll continue, and aim to end on a more even keel. sort of a warm down if you will.

i'm off now to stare out of a window for a bit. the chinese family opposite usually get home around this time.

possible blog titles.

this blog is called "cabin fever believer", or cabinfeverbeliever, as it were. other names were considered, for times varying between a couple of seconds and anywhere up to a full minute. other candidates included: 

i made this blog for you, julie

i want you to believe in me

i'm going to tell you a story

the only thing between us is nothing

break in case of anything (the strongest runner up)

myths and other deceptions

not afraid of you or any other monsters

the official end of everything

thank me with your hands

it's just the two of us everybody else is wrong

you are what you think (too pretentious)

embrace me tomorrow for i am ready 

just the shadow of a doubt

polar bear (my favourite animal)

brand new to you

you are a really good person (well, we just all need to hear it sometimes, don't we?)

ultimately, cabin fever believer won. probably because it rhymes. to celebrate this phonemic wonder, here is a list of nice words which also rhyme with both "fever", and "believer":

beaver, lever, meat clever, achiever, receiver.

right. see you in a bit then.