The Benefactor

The truth is something that is told, not something that is known.

The ideas which interest me are asymmterical: one enters through one side and exits through a side which is shaped quite differently. Such ideas rouse my appetite.

These are quotes from Susan Sontag's novel The Benefactor. I wanted to read it after watching a PBS doc about Annie Liebovitz. This is how it came about: Liebovitz was assigned to photograph Sontag and as preparation and research of her subject Liebovitz read Sontag's novel, the Benefactor, and was impressed and affected by it, thus setting the stage for an irreversible friendship and subsequent romantic relationship. Curious, I changed my after-work routine one night and coasted down Park Blvd on my red bike to the downtown library where the only copy of The Benefactor in the San Diego Library system lives. The Librarian immediately tuned into my on-a-mission-expression and she very seriously went about the task of retrieving my selection from the archives. I like Sontag's quote above about assymetrical ideas because I think social connectivity works itself out in an assymetrical fashion too. Whether it's in the contexts of business relations, culture-making or dynamics in overlapping circles of friends, there is consistent assymetry in how we shape our connections. Sometimes a singular encounter, in a certain place and in a certain frame of mind is all it takes to begin the outline. You may never be that close to it again but the asymmetrical shape has been started and its exit point and final shape becomes yours to define.
It's easy to glaze over with symmetry, such as the 9-to-5, or circulating amongst the same people year after year, or going to the same places agian and again, because symmetry is easy and easily understood and an aesthetic free pass. I think my appetite agrees very much with Susan's.

look again...

after staring at the photos a 2nd time i guess i did catch venus

wet hair

found in translation

soundtrack: Beautiful - Moby

Instead of Venus

I chased Venus through the streets last night but ended up with this slowly exploding tree instead.

It's a good day when I find a new block.

The Prarie Block, collected in La Jolla on my way to the Museum of
Contemporary Art San Diego to see the work of Vik Muniz.