Perjur, reefer zen

In US popular culture, especially in book titles, and Zen often refers to the idea of a “basic, bare-bones, simply stated essentials, an understanding of the basics without all of the useless other stuff. The zen of cooking, the zen of motherhood, the “zen of this” and “the zen of that“ — with the suggested implication that the reader will be exposed to some simple secret understanding of some thing.

In the popular mind, zen as a metaphor implies insight into the basic fundamentals of “some “thing”—bare bones zen—without all the “red tape”—Is other stuff I do the “red tape” of my life? Am I doing unnecessary things everyday which I need not be doing so I could be doing some thing basically more important?

Perhaps in the zen mind enlightenment is doing the zen things all the time, and/or never doing the “red tape,” Would the opposite be any diferent— doing the “red tape” things all the time and never doing the zen.?

Emptiness is form, form is emptiness. (public domain image of The Heart Sutra)

I walk on the Alameda Creek levee daily, and since the “stay at home” conditions, the kinds of people out on the creek trail has changed.

When you are walking as a person approaches you how do you feel? Its a rush, the more information you can experience the more you quickly you define the situation until you arrive at a conclusion— if its a dangerous situation you are under time-pressure and in normal situations it all just unfolds unconsciously.

‘Its the “normal situations” which interest me.

With my photographs you do not get specific information, you could not make that kind of specific judgement, . . .

perhaps people could not be safe in the world, but they are, generally. And when you do it may not be what you expect.

Walking along the creek everyday is the same thing, I never know what to expect . .

Before the virus I used to give a greeting to almost everyone, we share a common bond, exercise in the outdoors. Before the virus there was a “community“—people who were out there regularly who got to know each other on sight—did not feel uncomfortable when theperson cannot sight—greeting and passing, sometimes even stopping to talk and a social structure of common behaviour emerged,

This is ‘public property” and for the past three months there have been many new faces, a new strangeness, new definitions, new adjustments— while older regulars had established some “personal preferences” through a nonverbal negotiation— sometimes the short term process of change appears to resemble how society changes which would be a long term . . .

or maybe because as I experience it I try to make sense of it and end up with a “concept or theory.”

What brings social solidarity to a geo-political nation, an empire or civilization, or what if I used the word “tribe? What defines social solidarity?

As a global social order evolves—there is no choice, as the “world gets smaller and numbers of people increase” outside of disaster or massive war— an upstart USA seems to lack the ability to deal with empires and civilizations and as a break-off colony which became a geo-political legacy of an empire with a lot of negative world wide baggage it has shown little capability or interest in dealing diplomatically with others.

In Shibuya real people and printed people share the same space quite comfortably.

Somerville, Massachusetts about 1970, probably some where from Winter Hill, you can see the Mystic River Bridge, (aka Tobin Bridge) and some film mottling in the sky

Union City, California, 2020. I had an oil change and I walked around for 45 minutes. there was a large business with union workers which went out of business and there was pension and healthcare money up for grabs and the lawyers and a judge—in collusion, kept the case in the court for decades, slowly bleeding the capital while the workers went without health care or retirement funds.

Plagiarism or revolution, if these are choices I want see Art’s last name, and while the girl’s expression probably has nothing to do with the words on the back of the shirt . . . the viewer sees it little differently.

What is Art? is a simple question with a simple personal answer, we all know it when we see it? But in selling Art its different —more than personal taste, there needs to be a group demand. a place in the market which exercises a demand.

Seeing up-side down in hand cuffs, is that a workable concept? Is credit given where credit is due or is it just a band-aid to cover up the wound.

There was an article last week in the NYT referencing 1969— here are three images from Fall, 1969, Chicago. Often “political oriented” references to the 1960s are associated with the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, but these were made over a year later.

At Sensoj early one morning I met a young documentary film maker—I had his information written on a piece of paper, but lost it. He was excited about his life and it was about 6:30 am.