mobile06/21/04 01:39 - ID#33377
hey what's that sound
I'm down with Julie's going underground. She has to do what she does, ya know? That FBI, it's frightening. What can she do to protect herself? She could try to curl up into the smallest ball possible and try to disappear for a while. I think I'd try to crawl back in the womb so my mama'd just have to kill me, like in Toni Morrison's, Sula.
One bar room friend told me that he thinks culture shock is the problem here. Artist Vs the government people. I can see it. I know that when I go home to my family I'm a fish out of water but I'm used to it and they're used to me. I have a good party story I'll tell later that kind of involves this culture shock idea.
Anyway uh ... oh yeah below is some stuff that they sent on the artist list serve in Atlanta so it's good that people outside buffalo are picking up on the overzealous actions taking place here.
Here are two stories about the Kurtz case. The first is from the Buffalo News, the second is from the Washington Post.
The different impression made by each is quite startling; perhaps attributable to the differing caliber of the news organizations or the recent prosecutions of the Buffalo sleeper cell (a dubious victory in the war on terrorism).
None the less, this puts the question (at least for me) of art's societal function in a different perspective from the usual navel-gazing answers.
Nicholas Fraser
Here's the Buffalo News story:
Six are said to resist grand jury
Artists, others wary of Kurtz probe
By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
6/17/2004
A number of artists and art professors refused to testify this week before a federal grand jury that is investigating Buffalo artist Steve Kurtz.
At least six people who were called to testify before the grand jury in the Kurtz case Tuesday refused to appear, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, legal sources said Wednesday.
Several defense lawyers involved in the case said federal prosecutors refused to tell their clients whether they might become targets of the probe, and also refused to grant them immunity from prosecution if they
testified.
"My client declined to testify, and so did quite a few others who were called before the grand jury," said Thomas J. Eoannou, attorney for Paul Vanouse, an assistant art professor at the University at Buffalo. "People in the art community are concerned about this investigation, and where it's going. They don't know who is being targeted."
Attorneys James P. Harrington and Daniel J. Henry Jr. said their clients, UB assistant art professor Andrew Johnson and California artist Beatriz da Costa, respectively, also declined to testify.
"I wouldn't call it a protest," Henry said of da Costa's refusal to testify. "It's just a concern she has to protect herself or people associated with her."
Harrington said, "People would love to go into the grand jury and say (Kurtz) is not a danger to anybody. But they don't trust the government."
Kurtz, Vanouse and da Costa all are associated with the Critical Art Ensemble, a controversial group of performance artists who sometimes use
human DNA and bacterial growths such as E.coli in their art exhibits.
The federal investigation of Kurtz, which began last month after the death of his wife, Hope, following an apparent heart attack, has upset many
contemporary artists across the United States and Europe. Public demonstrations supporting Kurtz were held Tuesday in Buffalo, Berkley, Calif., and at least two European cities.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force is conducting the investigation. William J. Hochul Jr., a prosecutor with the task force, declined to comment on the investigation or the testimony of any wi
tn
esses.
"As a prosecutor, I can't even confirm whether there is a grand jury looking into this matter," Hochul said. "Speaking generally, I can say that a grand jury's job is fact-finding, to determine whether a crime has been committed and, if so, by whom. Just because a grand jury is investigating, it doesn't always mean somebody is going to be indicted."
Authorities have told The Buffalo News that the probe is focused on how and why Kurtz got certain biological agents that were found in his Allentown
home after his wife's death May 11.
On May 13, FBI agents in biohazard suits were seen carrying numerous items out of the College Street home. The items reportedly included laboratory equipment, computers and bacterial cultures.
The Erie County Health Department closed down the home after the FBI search and reopened it May 17, after the recovered items were evaluated in a state laboratory.
Dr. Anthony J. Billitier IV, the county health commissioner, said that those who are criticizing the FBI for its investigation are doing so "without knowing all the facts."
"Being careful about public safety should be more important than worryingabout getting beaten up by critics," Billitier said this week. "I can empathize with the FBI's position. On the other hand, Kurtz deserves a fair evaluation of all the facts."
Paul J. Cambria, Kurtz's attorney, said the items Kurtz had in the home were "harmless," similar to those a high school student might use in a science
fair project.
Da Costa has told The News that the FBI appears to be trying to link Kurtz to "bioterrorism."
Kurtz, 46, is an associate art professor at UB. Officials at UB have declined to comment on the FBI probe, except to say that no internal investigation is being conducted by the university.
And here's the Washington Post's story:
The FBI's Art Attack
By Lynne Duke
NEW YORK -- "A forensic investigation of FBI trash." On the telephone, Beatriz da Costa says it wryly. Her humor sounds bitter. She's talking about the detritus of a terror probe at the Buffalo home of her good friends, the Kurtzes.
She's talking about the pizza boxes, Gatorade jugs, the gloves, the gas mask filters, the biohazard suits: the stuff left by police, FBI, hazmat and health investigators after they descended on the Kurtz home and quarantined the place.
The garbage tells a story of personal tragedy, a death in the Kurtz household, that sparked suspicions (later proved unfounded) of a biohazard
in the neighborhood. And it tells a story of the times in which we live, with almost daily warnings about terror, and with law enforcement primed to pounce.
Steve Kurtz, a Buffalo art professor, discovered on the morning of May 11 that his wife of 20 years, Hope Kurtz, had stopped breathing. He called 911. Police and emergency personnel responded, and what they saw in the Kurtz
home has triggered a full-blown probe -- into the vials and bacterial cultures and strange contraptions and laboratory equipment.
The FBI is investigating. A federal grand jury has been impaneled. Witnesses have been subpoenaed, including da Costa.
Kurtz and his late wife were founders of the Critical Art Ensemble, an internationally renowned collective of "tactical media" protest and performance artists. Steve Kurtz, 48, has focused on the problems of the emergence of biotechnology, such as genetically modified food. He and the art ensemble, which also includes da Costa, have authored several books including "Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media" and "Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas," both published by Autonomedia/Semiotext(e).
The day of his wife's death, Kurtz told the authorities who he is and what he does.
"He explained to them that he uses [the equipment] in connection wi
th his
art, and the next thing you know they call the FBI and a full hazmat team is deposited there from Quantico -- that's what they told me," says Paul Cambria, the lawyer who is representing Kurtz. "And they all showed up in their suits and they're hosing each other down and closing the street off, and all the news cameras were there and the head of the [Buffalo] FBI is granting interviews. It was a complete circus."
Cambria, the bicoastal Buffalo and Los Angeles lawyer best known for representing pornographer Larry Flynt, calls the Kurtz episode a "colossal
overreaction."
FBI agents put Kurtz in a hotel, where they continued to question him. Cambria says Kurtz felt like a detainee over the two days he was at the hotel. Paul Moskal, spokesman for the Buffalo office of the FBI, says the bureau put Kurtz in a hotel because his home had been declared off limits.The probe, Moskal says, was a by-the-books affair from the very beginning.
"Post-9/11 protocol is such that first-responders have all been given training about unusual things and unusual situations," Moskal says.
And obviously, says Lt. Jake Ulewski, spokesman for the Buffalo police,what the cops eyeballed raised some alarms. "He's making cultures? That's a little off the wall."
Erie County health officials declared the Kurtz home a potential health risk and sealed it for two days while a state lab examined the bacterial
cultures found inside. Officials won't divulge what precisely was examined, but it turned out not to be a danger to public health. And the house was reopened for use.
Still, federal authorities think something in that house might have been illegal, Cambria surmises. But Cambria denies there was anything illegal in the house. William Hochul Jr., chief of the anti-terrorism unit for the U.S. attorney's office in the Western District of New York, would not comment on the investigation.
Kurtz, on Cambria's advice, isn't speaking to the press either.
Da Costa, a professor at the University of California at Irvine who has flown to Buffalo to help out, says Kurtz is "depressed" and dealing with the loss of his wife, who died of a heart attack.Today the Buffalo arts community will memorialize her.
Adele Henderson, chair of the art department of the State University of New York at Buffalo, where Kurtz has tenure, is among the people who've been questioned by the FBI.
On May 21, she says, the FBI asked her about Kurtz's art, his writings, his books; why his organization (the art ensemble) is listed as a collective rather than by its individual members; how it is funded.
"They asked me if I'd be surprised if I found out he was found to be involved in bioterrorism," she says.
Her response? "I am absolutely certain that Steve would not be involved."
They also asked about "his personal life," Henderson says, but she would not describe the questions or her responses.
The investigation, she says, will have no bearing on Kurtz's standing at the university, where he is an associate professor. (Prior to Buffalo, he taught at Carnegie Mellon University.)
"This is a free speech issue, and some people at the university remember a time during the McCarthy period when some university professors were harassed quite badly," she says.
Nonetheless, considering the kind of art Kurtz practices and the kind ofsupplies he uses, "I could see how they would think it was really strange."
For instance: the mobile DNA extracting machine used for testing food products for genetic contamination. Such a machine was in Kurtz's home. His focus, in recent years, has been on projects that highlight the trouble with
genetically modified seeds.
In November 2002, in an installation called "Molecular Invasion," Kurtz grew genetically modified seeds in small pots beneath growth lamps at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, then
engineere
d them in reverse with herbicide, meaning he killed them.
"We thought it was very important to have Critical Art Ensemble here because we try to have our visiting artist's program present work that takes our curriculum to the next step," says Denise Mullen, vice dean of the Corcoran College of Art and Design, whose Hemicycle Gallery hosted Kurtz's molecular exhibit.
Beyond the cutting edge of art, she says, "we want work that is really bleeding edge."
In Buffalo, in the aftermath of the bioterror probe that has found no terror, activist artists have scooped up the refuse from the Kurtz front
yard and taken it away, perhaps, says da Costa, to create an art
installation.
One bar room friend told me that he thinks culture shock is the problem here. Artist Vs the government people. I can see it. I know that when I go home to my family I'm a fish out of water but I'm used to it and they're used to me. I have a good party story I'll tell later that kind of involves this culture shock idea.
Anyway uh ... oh yeah below is some stuff that they sent on the artist list serve in Atlanta so it's good that people outside buffalo are picking up on the overzealous actions taking place here.
Here are two stories about the Kurtz case. The first is from the Buffalo News, the second is from the Washington Post.
The different impression made by each is quite startling; perhaps attributable to the differing caliber of the news organizations or the recent prosecutions of the Buffalo sleeper cell (a dubious victory in the war on terrorism).
None the less, this puts the question (at least for me) of art's societal function in a different perspective from the usual navel-gazing answers.
Nicholas Fraser
Here's the Buffalo News story:
Six are said to resist grand jury
Artists, others wary of Kurtz probe
By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
6/17/2004
A number of artists and art professors refused to testify this week before a federal grand jury that is investigating Buffalo artist Steve Kurtz.
At least six people who were called to testify before the grand jury in the Kurtz case Tuesday refused to appear, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, legal sources said Wednesday.
Several defense lawyers involved in the case said federal prosecutors refused to tell their clients whether they might become targets of the probe, and also refused to grant them immunity from prosecution if they
testified.
"My client declined to testify, and so did quite a few others who were called before the grand jury," said Thomas J. Eoannou, attorney for Paul Vanouse, an assistant art professor at the University at Buffalo. "People in the art community are concerned about this investigation, and where it's going. They don't know who is being targeted."
Attorneys James P. Harrington and Daniel J. Henry Jr. said their clients, UB assistant art professor Andrew Johnson and California artist Beatriz da Costa, respectively, also declined to testify.
"I wouldn't call it a protest," Henry said of da Costa's refusal to testify. "It's just a concern she has to protect herself or people associated with her."
Harrington said, "People would love to go into the grand jury and say (Kurtz) is not a danger to anybody. But they don't trust the government."
Kurtz, Vanouse and da Costa all are associated with the Critical Art Ensemble, a controversial group of performance artists who sometimes use
human DNA and bacterial growths such as E.coli in their art exhibits.
The federal investigation of Kurtz, which began last month after the death of his wife, Hope, following an apparent heart attack, has upset many
contemporary artists across the United States and Europe. Public demonstrations supporting Kurtz were held Tuesday in Buffalo, Berkley, Calif., and at least two European cities.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force is conducting the investigation. William J. Hochul Jr., a prosecutor with the task force, declined to comment on the investigation or the testimony of any wi
tn
esses.
"As a prosecutor, I can't even confirm whether there is a grand jury looking into this matter," Hochul said. "Speaking generally, I can say that a grand jury's job is fact-finding, to determine whether a crime has been committed and, if so, by whom. Just because a grand jury is investigating, it doesn't always mean somebody is going to be indicted."
Authorities have told The Buffalo News that the probe is focused on how and why Kurtz got certain biological agents that were found in his Allentown
home after his wife's death May 11.
On May 13, FBI agents in biohazard suits were seen carrying numerous items out of the College Street home. The items reportedly included laboratory equipment, computers and bacterial cultures.
The Erie County Health Department closed down the home after the FBI search and reopened it May 17, after the recovered items were evaluated in a state laboratory.
Dr. Anthony J. Billitier IV, the county health commissioner, said that those who are criticizing the FBI for its investigation are doing so "without knowing all the facts."
"Being careful about public safety should be more important than worryingabout getting beaten up by critics," Billitier said this week. "I can empathize with the FBI's position. On the other hand, Kurtz deserves a fair evaluation of all the facts."
Paul J. Cambria, Kurtz's attorney, said the items Kurtz had in the home were "harmless," similar to those a high school student might use in a science
fair project.
Da Costa has told The News that the FBI appears to be trying to link Kurtz to "bioterrorism."
Kurtz, 46, is an associate art professor at UB. Officials at UB have declined to comment on the FBI probe, except to say that no internal investigation is being conducted by the university.
And here's the Washington Post's story:
The FBI's Art Attack
By Lynne Duke
NEW YORK -- "A forensic investigation of FBI trash." On the telephone, Beatriz da Costa says it wryly. Her humor sounds bitter. She's talking about the detritus of a terror probe at the Buffalo home of her good friends, the Kurtzes.
She's talking about the pizza boxes, Gatorade jugs, the gloves, the gas mask filters, the biohazard suits: the stuff left by police, FBI, hazmat and health investigators after they descended on the Kurtz home and quarantined the place.
The garbage tells a story of personal tragedy, a death in the Kurtz household, that sparked suspicions (later proved unfounded) of a biohazard
in the neighborhood. And it tells a story of the times in which we live, with almost daily warnings about terror, and with law enforcement primed to pounce.
Steve Kurtz, a Buffalo art professor, discovered on the morning of May 11 that his wife of 20 years, Hope Kurtz, had stopped breathing. He called 911. Police and emergency personnel responded, and what they saw in the Kurtz
home has triggered a full-blown probe -- into the vials and bacterial cultures and strange contraptions and laboratory equipment.
The FBI is investigating. A federal grand jury has been impaneled. Witnesses have been subpoenaed, including da Costa.
Kurtz and his late wife were founders of the Critical Art Ensemble, an internationally renowned collective of "tactical media" protest and performance artists. Steve Kurtz, 48, has focused on the problems of the emergence of biotechnology, such as genetically modified food. He and the art ensemble, which also includes da Costa, have authored several books including "Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media" and "Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas," both published by Autonomedia/Semiotext(e).
The day of his wife's death, Kurtz told the authorities who he is and what he does.
"He explained to them that he uses [the equipment] in connection wi
th his
art, and the next thing you know they call the FBI and a full hazmat team is deposited there from Quantico -- that's what they told me," says Paul Cambria, the lawyer who is representing Kurtz. "And they all showed up in their suits and they're hosing each other down and closing the street off, and all the news cameras were there and the head of the [Buffalo] FBI is granting interviews. It was a complete circus."
Cambria, the bicoastal Buffalo and Los Angeles lawyer best known for representing pornographer Larry Flynt, calls the Kurtz episode a "colossal
overreaction."
FBI agents put Kurtz in a hotel, where they continued to question him. Cambria says Kurtz felt like a detainee over the two days he was at the hotel. Paul Moskal, spokesman for the Buffalo office of the FBI, says the bureau put Kurtz in a hotel because his home had been declared off limits.The probe, Moskal says, was a by-the-books affair from the very beginning.
"Post-9/11 protocol is such that first-responders have all been given training about unusual things and unusual situations," Moskal says.
And obviously, says Lt. Jake Ulewski, spokesman for the Buffalo police,what the cops eyeballed raised some alarms. "He's making cultures? That's a little off the wall."
Erie County health officials declared the Kurtz home a potential health risk and sealed it for two days while a state lab examined the bacterial
cultures found inside. Officials won't divulge what precisely was examined, but it turned out not to be a danger to public health. And the house was reopened for use.
Still, federal authorities think something in that house might have been illegal, Cambria surmises. But Cambria denies there was anything illegal in the house. William Hochul Jr., chief of the anti-terrorism unit for the U.S. attorney's office in the Western District of New York, would not comment on the investigation.
Kurtz, on Cambria's advice, isn't speaking to the press either.
Da Costa, a professor at the University of California at Irvine who has flown to Buffalo to help out, says Kurtz is "depressed" and dealing with the loss of his wife, who died of a heart attack.Today the Buffalo arts community will memorialize her.
Adele Henderson, chair of the art department of the State University of New York at Buffalo, where Kurtz has tenure, is among the people who've been questioned by the FBI.
On May 21, she says, the FBI asked her about Kurtz's art, his writings, his books; why his organization (the art ensemble) is listed as a collective rather than by its individual members; how it is funded.
"They asked me if I'd be surprised if I found out he was found to be involved in bioterrorism," she says.
Her response? "I am absolutely certain that Steve would not be involved."
They also asked about "his personal life," Henderson says, but she would not describe the questions or her responses.
The investigation, she says, will have no bearing on Kurtz's standing at the university, where he is an associate professor. (Prior to Buffalo, he taught at Carnegie Mellon University.)
"This is a free speech issue, and some people at the university remember a time during the McCarthy period when some university professors were harassed quite badly," she says.
Nonetheless, considering the kind of art Kurtz practices and the kind ofsupplies he uses, "I could see how they would think it was really strange."
For instance: the mobile DNA extracting machine used for testing food products for genetic contamination. Such a machine was in Kurtz's home. His focus, in recent years, has been on projects that highlight the trouble with
genetically modified seeds.
In November 2002, in an installation called "Molecular Invasion," Kurtz grew genetically modified seeds in small pots beneath growth lamps at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, then
engineere
d them in reverse with herbicide, meaning he killed them.
"We thought it was very important to have Critical Art Ensemble here because we try to have our visiting artist's program present work that takes our curriculum to the next step," says Denise Mullen, vice dean of the Corcoran College of Art and Design, whose Hemicycle Gallery hosted Kurtz's molecular exhibit.
Beyond the cutting edge of art, she says, "we want work that is really bleeding edge."
In Buffalo, in the aftermath of the bioterror probe that has found no terror, activist artists have scooped up the refuse from the Kurtz front
yard and taken it away, perhaps, says da Costa, to create an art
installation.
Permalink: hey_what_s_that_sound.html
Words: 1999
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/20/04 11:56 - ID#33376
search
I love search engines for purposes of research but I'd rather not have this blog so easy to find by certain people (mainly my family).
I can still remember, Eric taunting my 10 year old self while he held my little pink diary. He spoke with a falsetto voice "I think I like Heath, Blah Blah Blah."
I can still remember, Eric taunting my 10 year old self while he held my little pink diary. He spoke with a falsetto voice "I think I like Heath, Blah Blah Blah."
Permalink: search.html
Words: 56
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/20/04 04:39 - ID#33375
I Like objects
11. Lipstick
12. French Fries
13. Toad Stools
14. Elephants
15. Dictionaries
16. Logs
17. Hormones
18. Hair Dye
19. dumpster clothes
20. Blue Balls
12. French Fries
13. Toad Stools
14. Elephants
15. Dictionaries
16. Logs
17. Hormones
18. Hair Dye
19. dumpster clothes
20. Blue Balls
Permalink: I_Like_objects.html
Words: 15
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/19/04 10:43 - ID#33374
possible objects to be
1. Sunglasses
2. Regular Glasses
3. Cigarette
4. Missing Sock
5. Belly Button Lint
6. Porcelain Mermaid Bell
7. Empty Coke Can
8. Tape Player
9. VHS Copy of Boys Don't Cry
10. Corpse
Permalink: possible_objects_to_be.html
Words: 24
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/19/04 10:06 - ID#33373
Girl Objects
I haven't been making any work lately and I think it's because I'm sick of myself. There are things going on in my mind and everything but they're not coming to conclusions.
Last night when I was trying to sleep I thought about an experience I'd had earlier in the day while plant watering. I stopped outside the Sunoco to refill my water buffalo. I was sitting along a short wall smoking and a Sunoco employ sat around 9 feet away on the same wall. We both just sat there smoking our cigarettes watching the passing traffic. It was slightly awkward, I felt like I should say "nice weather we're having" or something like that but I was feeling introverted so I just enjoyed the silent shitty job comradeship.
A man came out of the gas station and addressed my fellow smoker by saying "Just out here enjoying the scenery eh, huhuh." When he said scenery he looked directly at me with good natured smile. I'm sure at the time I just smiled back but lying in my bed later on in the night I replayed this incident in my head and it disturbed me. I don't want to be a woman object. I'd rather just be a plain old object without thoughts, feelings, and emotions and all that bullshit if old funny guys are going to throw me in the object category anyway.
Last night when I was trying to sleep I thought about an experience I'd had earlier in the day while plant watering. I stopped outside the Sunoco to refill my water buffalo. I was sitting along a short wall smoking and a Sunoco employ sat around 9 feet away on the same wall. We both just sat there smoking our cigarettes watching the passing traffic. It was slightly awkward, I felt like I should say "nice weather we're having" or something like that but I was feeling introverted so I just enjoyed the silent shitty job comradeship.
A man came out of the gas station and addressed my fellow smoker by saying "Just out here enjoying the scenery eh, huhuh." When he said scenery he looked directly at me with good natured smile. I'm sure at the time I just smiled back but lying in my bed later on in the night I replayed this incident in my head and it disturbed me. I don't want to be a woman object. I'd rather just be a plain old object without thoughts, feelings, and emotions and all that bullshit if old funny guys are going to throw me in the object category anyway.
Permalink: Girl_Objects.html
Words: 233
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/17/04 03:09 - ID#33372
Good Clean Family Fun
At work I told my boss the story of the plain clothed cops and my boss said I'm getting paranoid. I realize that he has a valid point and I am indeed totally paranoid of these control and authority issues.
I could be suffering from the beginning stages of paranoid schizophrenia like my uncle Michael. He was normal for a long time. He didn't start losing it until his 20's after tons of LSD, a violent car crash, and spending time in a rough ass prison. I never got to hang with Michael much because my Mom never forgave him for chasing my older brothers across a pasture with an ax when they were kids.
My brother Eric told me an interesting story about Michael last thanksgiving. He said that he was riding home on the school bus one day when he saw uncle Michael riding down the road on our horse. Eric was extremely agitated by this and ran down the driveway to the house and got his rifle and hoped on his bicycle.
Right when Eric got to the top of the driveway my dad was pulling in. Dad asked "Boy, where do you think you're going with that rifle?" Eric replied "Uncle Michael stold the horse!" My dad said "get in" so my brother hopped into the truck and they drove down the road in search of uncle Michael.
The caught up with Michael on Old 41 and he was galloping down the road on the horse in a white sheet. My dad stuck the rifle out the window and knocked Michael off the horse into a ditch. Michael's sheet fell of and he sat there in his tighty whities. About that time a police officer pulled up and asked "Michael, what have you done this time?"
funny how time changes people, or does it?
I could be suffering from the beginning stages of paranoid schizophrenia like my uncle Michael. He was normal for a long time. He didn't start losing it until his 20's after tons of LSD, a violent car crash, and spending time in a rough ass prison. I never got to hang with Michael much because my Mom never forgave him for chasing my older brothers across a pasture with an ax when they were kids.
My brother Eric told me an interesting story about Michael last thanksgiving. He said that he was riding home on the school bus one day when he saw uncle Michael riding down the road on our horse. Eric was extremely agitated by this and ran down the driveway to the house and got his rifle and hoped on his bicycle.
Right when Eric got to the top of the driveway my dad was pulling in. Dad asked "Boy, where do you think you're going with that rifle?" Eric replied "Uncle Michael stold the horse!" My dad said "get in" so my brother hopped into the truck and they drove down the road in search of uncle Michael.
The caught up with Michael on Old 41 and he was galloping down the road on the horse in a white sheet. My dad stuck the rifle out the window and knocked Michael off the horse into a ditch. Michael's sheet fell of and he sat there in his tighty whities. About that time a police officer pulled up and asked "Michael, what have you done this time?"
funny how time changes people, or does it?
Permalink: Good_Clean_Family_Fun.html
Words: 311
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/16/04 02:57 - ID#33371
BLAH
I just returned from Nietzsche's. I'd never been there before and it's a decent place.
The reason we went down to Nietzsche's rather than the Old Pink was because when we first arrived in the neighborhood in front of the pink smoking cigarettes we witnessed a plain clothes police officer beat down a guy in the street.
We were standing there and this man in a white shirt with a flashlight just jumped on this guy and tackled him to the ground on the hard asphalt in the middle of the street right in front of me, Liz, Soyeon, and Anna. They said "This guys a coke dealer, we've dealt with him before"
It was fucked up.
I admit that I don't know this guy they tackled. I don't know his story. I don't know who he is. It overwhelms me that some people have the right to physically abuse others because just like I don't know the story of what lead these plain clothed police guys in an unmarked car to attack a man on the street right in front on me and my friends. They don't know what lead this guy to sell cocaine (if he actually does) and they don't know who he sells it to and why these people think that it's fine to purchase such a self destructive drug.
I was upset. We all walked down to the wine bar decided that it looked stupid and decided to go home but as we passed back by the officers and the unmarked car my stupid attitude flared up and I had to declare at the top of my lungs "Lets go down to Nietzsche's and celebrate the death of god." I don't know. I had to show off I reckon, that I am not afraid even though I am actually terrified.
oh well, I've gotta get some rest for my plant watering and trash can painting tomorrow.
The reason we went down to Nietzsche's rather than the Old Pink was because when we first arrived in the neighborhood in front of the pink smoking cigarettes we witnessed a plain clothes police officer beat down a guy in the street.
We were standing there and this man in a white shirt with a flashlight just jumped on this guy and tackled him to the ground on the hard asphalt in the middle of the street right in front of me, Liz, Soyeon, and Anna. They said "This guys a coke dealer, we've dealt with him before"
It was fucked up.
I admit that I don't know this guy they tackled. I don't know his story. I don't know who he is. It overwhelms me that some people have the right to physically abuse others because just like I don't know the story of what lead these plain clothed police guys in an unmarked car to attack a man on the street right in front on me and my friends. They don't know what lead this guy to sell cocaine (if he actually does) and they don't know who he sells it to and why these people think that it's fine to purchase such a self destructive drug.
I was upset. We all walked down to the wine bar decided that it looked stupid and decided to go home but as we passed back by the officers and the unmarked car my stupid attitude flared up and I had to declare at the top of my lungs "Lets go down to Nietzsche's and celebrate the death of god." I don't know. I had to show off I reckon, that I am not afraid even though I am actually terrified.
oh well, I've gotta get some rest for my plant watering and trash can painting tomorrow.
Permalink: BLAH.html
Words: 321
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/15/04 08:45 - ID#33370
So Pissed and Partying
Well, I've been waiting for the fucking news to come on TV and right at 5:30 my stupid reception goes out. It almost makes me wish that I had cable. I guess I can tell y'all the story of the protest today. I'm not much of a protester but when they try to take one of my most favorite professors, Steve Kurtz, and do god knows what to him, I get upset ... so I went up to Niagara Square today at 9:00 am. There were a fair amount of people there maybe around 100 or so. We walked around in a circle yelling and holding signs. There was one chant about FBI and underwear that I didn't get but others were fine. I liked the "This Kurtz has no Heart of Darkness" chant but I still didn't join in (chanting I circle walked a hell of a lot). I'm not much of a group person even when it's a good group. There were people up from NYC, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Some newspaper man asked me some questions. I said Steve is nice and the FBI is mean for using his wife's death as an excuse to run off with Steve's work and try to arrest him. There were a few news stations taping. What a spectacle.
As far as how the hearing went or whatever it was I have no idea. I hope they'll just leave Steve alone. I'm mad as hell. There is still a lot of knowledge I need to suck out of that guy and how can I do it if those people (AKA embarrassed stubborn mistaken piggies with hurt egos) lock Steve up or harass him out of a job. IT'S NOT FAIR, IT'S NOT FAIR, IT'S NOT FAIR! Things had best turn out in his favor or I will be even more disillusioned with this life and that is a terrifying prospect.
Well, on slightly more personal notes thanks to you guys who offered to take Andy to the airport today. I got him there by 1 and now he's gone. So there goes my fine ass, difficult, and fun boyfriend. God only knows when we'll meet again. He had a good time here. We had a busy 5 days, lot's of birthday stuff going on.
Thursday night we went to the pink. I got drunkish and Andy had a beer. I'm now officially 23. Lots of people came out that night. The next night I can't remember so I have to think hard...oh yeah I guess I wrote about it. arguing, silence, baths, and grocery shopping.
Saturday Soyeon and I had a BBQ for out birthday. Me and Andy went over to Soyeon's to help prepare around 12:30. I had my first beer at 3 and a cheeseburger shortly there after. The people started trickling in, by the time I was drunk it was somewhat crowed.
I have to admit that I can hold my own when drinking. I ate and drank and talked and repeat that a few times. Some friends bought me this crazy old pink bike and I gave a go at riding it but in my less than sober state I was not successful. Me and Matthew got to having a conversation with an eight year old. She was the only child in attendance of our BBQ. Earlier in the night she told me "I can see your underwear." She was a sassy little thing.
I reckon Jesse has gotten over his irritation with me or whatever because he came out and stayed for a long time. He gave me a wood music playing thing and said it would be good to put weed in but I wonder how he would know such a thing since he doesn't smoke weed. We had nice dream conversation and Holly told us a crazy dream she has had involving hand eyes on a little boy. Southernyankee turned out and she and Paul made Andy laugh a lot.
I got made fun of because I told some people that "Andy is my lover." They said I may as well have said fuck buddy but I still like the word lover. It means that you love each other and you make love. Sex without love is kind of well, pointless for me, not that I think sex has some mystical meaning or anything but hmm.... I don't know. Sex is just better if you know each other. That's when it gets fun. It makes you ask each other "What can we try next?"
Back to the party... It winded down by 11, by this time I has probably consumed 5 beers, 3 wines, 2 hot-dogs, a cheeseburger, several little k
im
chee dumplings, some Korean noodle stuff, a few strawberries, 2 cups of sweet tea, a coke, 2 cups of water and I was picking at the stir fry. I'm not sure where I got room for all of it.
Well, four of us headed over to a friends house and she was gracious enough to smoke a bit of marijuana with us. Then a few more people came over and it was around that time that I realized how incredibly drunk I was. I went onto the fire escape for a few minutes and then crawled back in the window and laid on the floor with my eyes closed. Did I pass out? Why no, I did not. I listened closely to the conversation going on around me and joined in every now and again saying things that I could only say in the state that I was in.
I remember that while lying there in the darkness surrounded by familiar conversing voices I spoke to them of a dream my father said he had. Dad told me about this dream when he was driving me to Atlanta after my recent visit to GA. He said that he dreamed he was in a graveyard and he saw a tombstone. He reached down and cleared off the writing and the tombstone was his. It read Robin's dads name 1944-2017. So I told my dad "wow that's a long time away" and he looked at me and said "Robin that's only 17 years" He said it in the most heart broken voice too. In my slightly passed out state we also talked about our grandmother and how they went crazy once they got to a certain age. My Granny and a stroke and Anna's and altimeter's disease.
After I rose up from my friends floor I immediately realized that I was not feeling so well. The ever wise Holly said "if you're sick don't hold it in." So I went to the bathroom turned on the shower and blew chunks in the toilet. Then me and Andy walked back to my place. I passed out on the love seat and woke up at 3 and purged my system for a few hours. It was most unpleasant. This is the time where y'all should be considering my food consumption list from earlier. The next day Andy walked down to the store and got me some Tylenol and ravioli and I started feeling better.
Keith called a bunch and said come see the robot and American Idol's John Steven's so me and Andy walked over there for a while. Keith went in the back and put on these Daisy duke shorts that were to big for him. He wasn't wearing underwear so his crack was showing a lot. I videotaped him dancing with a robot. Then me and Andy went to eat some pizza and on the way back home we went to frizzy's and took our picture in the booth.
Then we went home and fucked and hung around here all night.
The next night we went out to soundlab for a fundraiser. There was some girl rapping to us about people keep telling her that there were 6 rapes in her neighborhood last year and it's not a big deal because to her because she thinks it's a small number compared to how many rapes actually happened and she talked about how she bets that in the white college frat boy neighborhood a few streets over that kind of thing happens just as much and so on. She was intense and good I thought.
and all that ramble leads us back to today to the beginning.
As far as how the hearing went or whatever it was I have no idea. I hope they'll just leave Steve alone. I'm mad as hell. There is still a lot of knowledge I need to suck out of that guy and how can I do it if those people (AKA embarrassed stubborn mistaken piggies with hurt egos) lock Steve up or harass him out of a job. IT'S NOT FAIR, IT'S NOT FAIR, IT'S NOT FAIR! Things had best turn out in his favor or I will be even more disillusioned with this life and that is a terrifying prospect.
Well, on slightly more personal notes thanks to you guys who offered to take Andy to the airport today. I got him there by 1 and now he's gone. So there goes my fine ass, difficult, and fun boyfriend. God only knows when we'll meet again. He had a good time here. We had a busy 5 days, lot's of birthday stuff going on.
Thursday night we went to the pink. I got drunkish and Andy had a beer. I'm now officially 23. Lots of people came out that night. The next night I can't remember so I have to think hard...oh yeah I guess I wrote about it. arguing, silence, baths, and grocery shopping.
Saturday Soyeon and I had a BBQ for out birthday. Me and Andy went over to Soyeon's to help prepare around 12:30. I had my first beer at 3 and a cheeseburger shortly there after. The people started trickling in, by the time I was drunk it was somewhat crowed.
I have to admit that I can hold my own when drinking. I ate and drank and talked and repeat that a few times. Some friends bought me this crazy old pink bike and I gave a go at riding it but in my less than sober state I was not successful. Me and Matthew got to having a conversation with an eight year old. She was the only child in attendance of our BBQ. Earlier in the night she told me "I can see your underwear." She was a sassy little thing.
I reckon Jesse has gotten over his irritation with me or whatever because he came out and stayed for a long time. He gave me a wood music playing thing and said it would be good to put weed in but I wonder how he would know such a thing since he doesn't smoke weed. We had nice dream conversation and Holly told us a crazy dream she has had involving hand eyes on a little boy. Southernyankee turned out and she and Paul made Andy laugh a lot.
I got made fun of because I told some people that "Andy is my lover." They said I may as well have said fuck buddy but I still like the word lover. It means that you love each other and you make love. Sex without love is kind of well, pointless for me, not that I think sex has some mystical meaning or anything but hmm.... I don't know. Sex is just better if you know each other. That's when it gets fun. It makes you ask each other "What can we try next?"
Back to the party... It winded down by 11, by this time I has probably consumed 5 beers, 3 wines, 2 hot-dogs, a cheeseburger, several little k
im
chee dumplings, some Korean noodle stuff, a few strawberries, 2 cups of sweet tea, a coke, 2 cups of water and I was picking at the stir fry. I'm not sure where I got room for all of it.
Well, four of us headed over to a friends house and she was gracious enough to smoke a bit of marijuana with us. Then a few more people came over and it was around that time that I realized how incredibly drunk I was. I went onto the fire escape for a few minutes and then crawled back in the window and laid on the floor with my eyes closed. Did I pass out? Why no, I did not. I listened closely to the conversation going on around me and joined in every now and again saying things that I could only say in the state that I was in.
I remember that while lying there in the darkness surrounded by familiar conversing voices I spoke to them of a dream my father said he had. Dad told me about this dream when he was driving me to Atlanta after my recent visit to GA. He said that he dreamed he was in a graveyard and he saw a tombstone. He reached down and cleared off the writing and the tombstone was his. It read Robin's dads name 1944-2017. So I told my dad "wow that's a long time away" and he looked at me and said "Robin that's only 17 years" He said it in the most heart broken voice too. In my slightly passed out state we also talked about our grandmother and how they went crazy once they got to a certain age. My Granny and a stroke and Anna's and altimeter's disease.
After I rose up from my friends floor I immediately realized that I was not feeling so well. The ever wise Holly said "if you're sick don't hold it in." So I went to the bathroom turned on the shower and blew chunks in the toilet. Then me and Andy walked back to my place. I passed out on the love seat and woke up at 3 and purged my system for a few hours. It was most unpleasant. This is the time where y'all should be considering my food consumption list from earlier. The next day Andy walked down to the store and got me some Tylenol and ravioli and I started feeling better.
Keith called a bunch and said come see the robot and American Idol's John Steven's so me and Andy walked over there for a while. Keith went in the back and put on these Daisy duke shorts that were to big for him. He wasn't wearing underwear so his crack was showing a lot. I videotaped him dancing with a robot. Then me and Andy went to eat some pizza and on the way back home we went to frizzy's and took our picture in the booth.
Then we went home and fucked and hung around here all night.
The next night we went out to soundlab for a fundraiser. There was some girl rapping to us about people keep telling her that there were 6 rapes in her neighborhood last year and it's not a big deal because to her because she thinks it's a small number compared to how many rapes actually happened and she talked about how she bets that in the white college frat boy neighborhood a few streets over that kind of thing happens just as much and so on. She was intense and good I thought.
and all that ramble leads us back to today to the beginning.
Permalink: So_Pissed_and_Partying.html
Words: 1392
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/14/04 07:28 - ID#33369
Airport ride help!
Can any of y'all car wielding friends of mine help me and Andy out tomorrow? He needs to be at the airport by 1:50 but we can't find a ride, oh no! We're both so poor now. It's sad.
Permalink: Airport_ride_help_.html
Words: 38
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/14/04 04:33 - ID#33368
fundraiser tonight
Monday, June 14, 7pm, $6
The Evolutionary Girls Club presents …
featuring 2-D, 3-D and 4-D art, poetry, performance & free food!
All door proceeds go to the CAE legal defense fund.
On May 30, members of the performance art collective Critical Art
Ensemble, an internationally-recognized group of five artists whose
work examines the politics of information technology and biotechnology,
were subpoenaed by the FBI. On Tuesday June 15, a grand jury will
convene to consider indicting CAE artist & UB professor Steve
Kurtz. The subpoenas are the latest installment in what many consider
to be a bizarre investigation in which members of the Joint Terrorism
Task Force have mistaken an art project for a biological weapons
laboratory. (More info. at www.caedefensefund.org)
The Evolutionary Girls Club works for peace through art and activism.
The group's artwork, writing, and other actions are aimed at providing
voice and access. "We believe that oppression and violence are wrong in
any form and strive to help create a world where all people are
sovereign citizens with choices about how they live in the world … our
group is committed to working through art and other forms of activism
to promote peaceful resolutions." Information about the Evolutionary
Girls can be found at
The Evolutionary Girls Club presents …
- ART IS ACTIVISM FUNDRAISER ***
featuring 2-D, 3-D and 4-D art, poetry, performance & free food!
All door proceeds go to the CAE legal defense fund.
On May 30, members of the performance art collective Critical Art
Ensemble, an internationally-recognized group of five artists whose
work examines the politics of information technology and biotechnology,
were subpoenaed by the FBI. On Tuesday June 15, a grand jury will
convene to consider indicting CAE artist & UB professor Steve
Kurtz. The subpoenas are the latest installment in what many consider
to be a bizarre investigation in which members of the Joint Terrorism
Task Force have mistaken an art project for a biological weapons
laboratory. (More info. at www.caedefensefund.org)
The Evolutionary Girls Club works for peace through art and activism.
The group's artwork, writing, and other actions are aimed at providing
voice and access. "We believe that oppression and violence are wrong in
any form and strive to help create a world where all people are
sovereign citizens with choices about how they live in the world … our
group is committed to working through art and other forms of activism
to promote peaceful resolutions." Information about the Evolutionary
Girls can be found at
Permalink: fundraiser_tonight.html
Words: 226
Location: Buffalo, NY
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