Monday, December 29, 2008

Places Where Nobody Would Find You: Magadan



"Magadan is Definately Not a Tourist Destination"
"The buildings in Magadan are mostly typically Russian highrise buildings. The pavements and streets are hardly ever cleaned and are revoltingly dirty. In summertime there are the odd flowers grown in front of some buildings and in little parks."

Wikipedia:
"Magadan is very isolated. The nearest major city is Yakutsk, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) away via an unpaved road ['The Road of Bones'] which is best used in the winter, especially since there is no bridge over the Lena River at Yakutsk."

Cycling Home from Siberia:
"To Russians, Magadan was known as the “gateway to hell” - over 3 million
Russians who arrived at this port were sent to work to their deaths in the
icy gold mines of Kolyma."

Magadan is cold.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

I have been published by Six Sentences


Two Penises.
Go there and vote for it - vote 'six-tacular!'

The lowest you can vote is 'good' which is still a compliment, although in this cntext it probably means 'meh.' Great is only neutral. Six-tacular is the only indication of a positive reaction.
Thank you.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

This was my Christmas Card


I think it is the best Christmas Card I have ever made.

I have made very few Christmas Cards.

Friday, December 26, 2008

I wrote an email address on a post-it note and lost it



Does anybody else get no-reason boners when they ride on airplanes? Does public transit make you horny?

I am drinking an Arizona Iced Tea. Big gulp in a can. Great Buy 99 cents. Tommy is here and he was shopping today. My brother, Tommy.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas

photo by Michele Abeles

Happy Holidays from Adam + Ramin


Thursday, December 18, 2008

End of the Year Lists 2

List of Foods for 2008

6) Veggie Patty Sub from Subway
5) Burrito from Curly's
4) Hamburger in Canada
3) Health Grain Bagels from Murray's
2) Soups from Westville
1) Coffee from Trader Joe's

Sunday, December 14, 2008

How to fire a proffessional athlete


The Dallas stars say Sean Avery will not be returning to their team. All he said was something about sloppy seconds and Elisha Cuthbert. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. This crisis seems manufactured.
The real problem might have more to do with him interning at vogue and acting like a total twat all the time.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Hungry to Recieve Lots of Cash

Some guy named 'Adam Humphreys' emailed me.

My reply: "fuck off"

He wrote me back: "good luck trying to get ahead with that attitude."

-

I picked up my tickets last night with L and had a bacon cheeseburger.

I thought they would be fake.

I scanned in at the gate and the man's little device made a green light, and I saw the word 'go' with a check mark on it's little screen. That was nice.

Monday, December 1, 2008

TM seems bogus



David Lynch is into transcendental meditation. Here he is, interviewed, being pushed, and acting cranky. David Lynch is a successful artist, and has been called, by Tom McCarthy (winner of the believer book award and co-founder of the international necro-nautical society), ‘one of the most interesting artists.’*

*Not an exact quote

I downloaded ‘Catching the Big Fish’ after learning it will be turned into a mini-series that will be web-broadcast. I liked listening to Lynch, and thought: ‘yes, I should learn to ‘plunge inward’ and ‘expand my container’ and ‘experience the unified field.’’

I wrote them, and then called them – the TM people. At first they emailed me ad copy, which spoke of a free orientation meeting. If I chose to go on there would be eight intensive lessons. They gave a phone number to call to book my orientation, and I did. A woman answered the phone, and said that there they had taught 38000 New Yorkers since inception. She went back over the part about the intensive lessons and mentioned a personalized mantra that I would receive from the teachers. I was told that the ‘teaching’ would cost $2000. I told her that this dissapointed me immensely.

After hanging up, I googled something like ‘Transcendental Meditation Bogus’ and came up with a lot of results – people who said it wasn’t worth shit. People who felt exploited. I read about the guru guy, Maharishi Mehish Yogi, and learned that he makes a lot of money off of the ‘teaching.’ I learned that the 'personalized mantra' which you are to tell to nobody else, is not really personalized. They give everyone the same mantra.

This makes Lynch an even more interesting figure to me. How can a director who obviously privileges artistic integrity over money choose a philosophical/spiritual practice that obviously privileges money over other concerns (increasing world peace)?

Is there no dissonance?

It takes a ‘suspension of disbelief’ to think that you are not being exploited a little bit when you pay so much to be enlightened. You have to either be naïve, or good at denial to block out the negative notion ‘this might just be a profitable cult.’

Maybe you can think: ‘Everything costs money, even inner peace.’ If that is the case you probably have money and little sympathy for people that do not.