This page contains all entries posted to Manufactured Environments in April 2000.

CLASSICALLY DIVINE

Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 29 Apr 2000 at 12:00 PM

This week really went quick. There is but one went left of classes and two weeks left to the academic year. I have one final exam to take and that’s all I have left of this year. It went very, very fast.

I don’t know what’s happening but my musical tastes have been really doing something interesting. For the past two or three weeks I’ve been listening almost exclusively to classical music. I mean, I’ve always had a modest collection of classical titles in my music collection, but I’d never listen to classical more than once or twice a week. But damn! I’ve thrown rock out the window. I can’t really explain it. It just happened. It could be because of an intense longing for a piano to play. Music, like writing, is an incredible creative outlet.

My reading for this week consisted of two nonfiction titles. I plowed through Andy Warhol’s POPism. A quick and funny read. It is much like the Warhol Diaries in tone and content. I also read a very good financial book called The Millionaire Next Door, which I recommend to anyone. It supplemented Your Money or Your Life very nicely, which is another excellent financial book. Simply put, it’s a sign that I’m ready for grad school to be done (3 months to go!) and start pounding the pavement as they say. I know *so* many people who are too cool to consider money management, and they are so stupid.

I was going through the books on my desk, seeing which ones I want to read the coming week. The titles in hand are by Kundera, Kerouac, Rilke and others. I also have five reviews to write for the books page of the titles I’ve read in the past few days. Hopefully I’ll get to that this evening after I go for a walk. The weather’s been getting nice again.

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EASTER WEAKENED

Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 22 Apr 2000 at 12:00 PM

So anyway. I started reading POPism: The Warhol Sixties today. It was written by Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett. Really, it’s as gossipy as the Warhol Diaries, but unlike the diaries, which Pat Hackett started recording in the ’70s, POPism is a portrait of an artist on the rise. More specifically POPism begins with Warhol’s shift from being a commercial artist to being just an artist. He discusses briefly the disdain that ‘fine’ artists hold for the commercial masses — how there is little communication between the two worlds — how artists would do commercial art under a pseudonym.

I don’t think the same is true for writing. People who are journalists often write books under their own names, even if the book is a novel. Rather than to obscure the source of origin I think pen names are more often used for marketing purposes. Even Andy changed his name from Warhola to Warhol. Literature is certainly filled with examples of people using names for effect. Mark Twain anyone? At any rate the use of alternate names than one’s given name is a tried and true way to get sales. Even pulp-writer Stephen King experimented with pen names. My question though is this: is Walter La Fée a name that sticks in one’s head? Or should I come up with a name for myself … Leo Tolstoy Orwell. Or how about Edgar Allan Fitzgerald? Albert Kafka? Franz Camus? Federico Garcia Mahfouz? No. I should dispense with the past & delve into the future. T32? WLF00? WALTERlaFÉE? /wlf/dev/hd1? No. I’ve got it. Walter Godot. Yeah, that’s good.

Not too much has been going on lately. I finished up a research paper I was writing & I’m steadily progressing on my master’s thesis. Hard to believe there’s only two weeks left of classes. & one week of finals after that. I’ve been doing the job search. Actually it’s been a pretty good thing because I cleared out some outmoded ideas of the types of work I’m looking for & found some good ideas. At this point I’ve sent out resumes & am waiting to hear back now. I called one prospective employer — a major university, which shall remain nameless — and the response was good. But things are glacial in academia and I won’t even know until the middle of next month whether they want my auspicious talents on board.

I’m listening to the fabled Greg Brown right now. “In The Dark With You” — what a great album. Very good. Highly recommended. I went to the record store today and found a couple vinyl treasures in excellent condition for $2. Even after all these years my turntable is my most used piece of stereo equipment. I’ve also been enjoying Ben Folds Five - “Whatever and Ever, Amen” on vinyl as well. I think it’s a good sign that musicians worth their weight still release their albums on vinyl. They know that people who are into vinyl are typically passionate about music. A friend recommended a recent movie called “High Fidelity” about the romantic interludes of a record store owner played by all-the-women-love-him John Cusack. Anyone seen this one? Write me via email.

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TECHNOCULTURE

Posted by Daniel Stout on Thu 6 Apr 2000 at 12:00 PM

I’m beginning a marketing campaign for fish soon & I’m looking for people to help. This will involve spreading stickers around, handing flyers to people, placing classified ads in local papers, radio interviews, print interviews, and all other manner of propaganda. There are two stated goals to the campaign - 1) let people know about the existence of danielstout.com and 2) increase the number of submissions to fish - both the zine and the e-zine.

Nights here in my apartment I’ve been planning the thing and thinking of ways to maximize exposure per dollar spent. If the corporate funding comes through we’ll be doing some billboards along the highways and possibly a TV spot. Judging by the feedback I’ve gotten people are excited about fishthing, many wondering when the next issue is coming out.

Today I sit at the computer, a cappuccino at my side, thinking too of William Gibson’s latest book, All Tomorrow’s Parties. I read it the other day and like all of his books I rather enjoyed it. But it got me thinking about technoculture. Wouldn’t an issue of fish be fun if we all donned skin-tight black leather and wore wrap-around mirrorshades. I’m still thinking of a title for the next issue of fish. Any suggestions?

I have a package coming from CDNOW today or tomorrow. Should be good. It’s got Meat Beat Manifesto’s 99% and the Matrix sndtrk. and also vinyl of Ben Folds Five. Yeah, go figure, huh? My vinyl collection continues to grow. I’ve found that a number of old albums have been reissued lately. I’ve picked up some old Pixies, NIN, Sonic Youth and stuff like that. At any rate I’ll be heading out now. Drop me a line.

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