Howling Hex - dynaflex

Diary Entry 6

dynaflex — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:44:34 GMT

Product Review: The Mach 3. I would never have bought this thing - unimpressed by the TV ad deluge these last months, but Target's razor aisle had been entirely swept free of my old Sensor blade options, and so I bought these, mistakenly believing they'd still fit the handle I've owned since college, when I was sold on it as the perfect one.

Mach 3 blades are too fat to fit old Sensors, it turns out, so I got a Mach 3 handle, and I'm here to say after three weeks of adjusting that it's okay, it gets the job done.

The pitch is it has like 500 skinny blades, but honestly I can't detect a smoother shave. Like the old Sensor, it still doesn't nick or cut so that's enough for me. The other gimmick is a thin blue strip of aloe across the top, which I don't like, I have to scrub that shmutz off after I'm done.

The main cool thing about it is, unlike every other blade I've ever used, where you essentially push the blade part to your cheek with the handle, with the Mach 3 you are gracefully dragging the blade across your face like a sled - weird. But fine, except (I thought) for the parts where you have to dig the blade in - for me that's the horizontal lines that need to be sculpted under the sideburns, and reaching stray weeds between the nose and upper lip. I did not think I'd be able to get satisfaction in these regions, and am surprised, especially at the 'burn edges, how precisely and deeply this reverse-pull approach works.

One last quirk: ejecting a spent blade causes it to really pop off with some force - the first couple times I did it the thing shot well over the trash can's rim.

Diary Entry 5

dynaflex — Wed, 19 May 2010 05:28:58 GMT

Genesis 9:2 is the first time in the Torah that Gd talks to us about fear. In this case, he's talking about how all animals are going to fear man because part of his blessing to Noah post-flood is that from now on man gets to kill and eat animals, so, yes, they're going to be afraid. To me this is a reminder when I'm afraid of fear's relative nature.

The next time Gd mentions it is to Abram, who has just killed a bunch of people and is freaking out in Gen 15:1. But Abram's concern is only that he won't get a reward from Gd, and Gd reassures him: you won't be punished, I'm your shield, your reward is going to be exceedingly great.

Diary Entry 4

dynaflex — Sun, 16 May 2010 02:24:16 GMT

This was supposed to be simple,
on how I finally finished the animation described in my last entry, with a .jpeg:

and a link to see it. Full animation here...

Unfortunately in the intervening months I got my car stolen, found a new (best one of my life) job, retrieved my (stripped) car, and had a baby, and so this entry has had to become about how difficult it is for me to complete projects, and this feeling of there being so little time.

Now it's true that this perspective is distorted: I actually get a ton done every day; too much, arguably, but I'm talking about making little art works, which brings me my best and most complete satisfactions in this life.

The outlook of the major self-help art gurus like Anne Lamott on the lack of time to make art emphasizes carving time out , even a little every day, and making it "sacred", to use the terminology of Julia Cameron, the grand dame of this genre. In support of this, Cameron quotes Toni Morrison:

"We are traditionally rather proud of ourselves for having slipped creative work in there between the domestic chores and obligations. I'm not sure we deserve such big A-pluses for that."

On the other hand, Karl Marx's view is essentially that capitalism seeks to rule all of the proletariat's time, and that as a result the production of art, whose manufacture requires a surplus of leisure, ultimately belongs to those who hold the instruments of capital:

"Time is everything, man is nothing; he is at most time's carcass."

And this, from Kapital, v. 1:

"On the other hand, the working day does have a maximum limit. It cannot be prolonged beyond a certain point [...] the extension of the working day encounters moral obstacles. The worker needs time in which to satisfy his intellectual and social requirements, and the extent and number of these requirements is conditioned by the general level of civilization. The length of the working day therefore fluctuates within boundaries both physical and social. But these limiting conditions are of a very elastic nature, and allow a tremendous amount of latitude. So, we find working days of many different lengths, of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 hours.
The capitalist has bought the labour-power at its daily value. The use-value of the labour power belongs to him throughout one working day. He has thus acquired the right to make the worker work for him during the day. But what is a working day? At all events, it is less than a natural day. How much less? The capitalist has his own views of this point of no return, the necessary limit of the working day. As a capitalist, he is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital. But capital has one sole driving force, to [...] absorb the greatest possible amount of surplus labor"

Even as I type this out it's hard for me to shrug off the instinct that I'm (and Marx is) acting like a victim, that what is missing is just a marshalling of the will, staying up a little later or getting up a little earlier. But I think that instinct is at least in part societally placed. And Marx never stops with mere victimy indictment:

"If the worker consumes his disposable time for himself, he robs the capitalist."

Diary Entry 3

dynaflex — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:09:21 GMT

Here are .jpegs from the animation I'm making. It'll be two minutes when it is done, the longest one I've ever made, which is like 1300 .jpegs the way I'm doing it. I've been working on it when I can't sleep after everything else is out of the way, and I can really get into a zone with it:

1. Energy comes from the ball being trapped

(more over the jump...)

2. The ball starts rolling down

3. Then when the flipper fires the ball's going to turn into this (I also used the comet part - which I still have to clean up - in my wedding program because I got married under the Perseids in mid-August)

4. The next section is going to be a silhouette created from these classic rappers' (find LL, Run-D.M.C., Flava Flav, Ice-T) outlines

5. Like so - they'll be vibrating in front of some barely seeable hot pinball action, sort of a la Piper at the Gates of Dawn back cover or Fat Albert & Cosby Kids when they laugh.

And here are stills from one of the other movies I'm putting out next, by vaunted Chicago comedian Jet Eveleth:

Diary Entry 2

dynaflex — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:53:25 GMT

"Yosemite: 'Elijah's flight in a chariot of fire could hardly have been more gloriously exciting,' wrote John Muir of a ride he took on an avalanche of snow in Yosemite Valley. 'Being eager to see as many avalanches as possible,' he had walked out one fine morning after a heavy snowfall and climbed up to a commanding position over the valley, when the land suddenly gave way beneath his feet. Undaunted, he simply threw himself on his back against the sliding snow and 'was swished down to the foot of the canyon as if by enchantment.' He later wrote, 'This flight, in what might be called a milky way of snowstars, was the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of motion I have ever experienced.'" From The Magnificent Continent (Rand McNally, 1975)

http://www.yosemitefun.com/yos...

Diary Entry 1

dynaflex — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:45:41 GMT

I was recently laid off from my job as a high school teacher at a tough school on the west side. My plan is to post here as a treat break from looking for work until I find a new position. Here's the start: a dream Tameka Erves, a student of mine gave me.

"I was at Keyonna's home with her mom and dad, I hadn't seen her in a long time, and I had to go but Keyonna and this normal looking lady Keyonna claimed was Keyshia Cole (I don't know what she looks like) had to sing me their version of Break Up. It was real dope, it was mostly just them singing, but I had to jet. So me and Charla headed out and we were lost driving lost trying to find the Amtrak station. The station wasn't even the last stop but Beyonce Knowles had told Charla she would be there cause she wanted to hang out with me cause we had missed out on hanging out earlier. So who knows, but anyway I agreed with Charla's thing that the meetup should be short so it wouldn't get in the way of our last stop. Are the numbers going up or down, to see if we're heading north or south. I took the wheel when Charla started throwing a fit - grow up girl, keep it together. She's been around less than me, she don't know the main, freeway-like thoroughfare can also have the qualities of a regular street in a throwaway burg like this. So we must be on the right street. I started singing Dreamlover by Mariah Carey as I pulled around to ask the Polish waitress at the outdoor cafe but another guy sitting behind said he knows where it is at. It's the one where all the music and the lights are coming out of it."