jimlog subscriptions

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stay connected

This blog will be five years old next month, having evolved from a series of emails I had started sending to friends six months earlier, almost immediately after September 11. Some of those folks asked me early on to continue letting them know whenever I did a new post.
In response to this modest demand I continued to maintain a dedicated email address group for the purpose, naming it “jimlog”, and It’s grown a bit since I started it, necessitating several re-configurations. At the end of every day on which I’ve done an entry I’ve manually assembled specific links to every separate item (anywhere from one to seven posts a day), generally giving each a new, fanciful or abstruse title to relieve the routine, and then clicked “send”. At least I didn’t have to burden a postman.
Until now. Jimlog is being modernized. My wonderful webmaster Barry has recently set up an automated system which will send an email to reader/viewers on any day I’ve logged one or more new entries. That one piece of electronic mail will include each separate post done that day, and each will appear instantly and exactly as it does on the site – in full color! The mailing will be sent at the end of the evening, New York time.
My old, manually-produced email list will be discontinued in a couple of weeks; if you are getting emails now and wish to continue getting notices of new posts, or if you wish to get notices for the first time, you will have to subscribe using the new system. The process is very simple:

Go to the sign-up box on the top left, enter your email address, click “subscribe”, then verify your intention by typing the code you will see displayed.
Don’t forget to look for the confirmation email, as you will have to respond to it in order to activate the subscription (note: the automated confirmation email may get diverted to your spam folder, depending on the nature of your email security system).

[image from Minnesota Historical Society]

June in January

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I don’t mean to unduly upset anyone not already concerned about climate change, and I know that as scientific evidence it’s merely anecdotal, but tonight while I was sitting in front of an open window checking my email I was buzzed by a mosquito. And on the roof garden just beyond the sill our large begonia bush, like all of the other plants not cleaned out of the pots last fall, seems to be thriving.
The place: Manhattan. The date: January 6.

[image from Mosquito Netting Project]

Taylor McKimens at Clementine

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Taylor McKimens has a single large piece installed inside Clementine Gallery.

An exhibition featuring Taylor McKimens’s first comic book, published by PictureBox. All of the artwork used to make the comic book has been re-mixed to make a single freestanding large scale artwork in the space.

No old board fence ever looked so pretty – or so wonderfully yucky. The show’s title, “Drips”, only begins to explain the latter; the two details of the untitled 2006 work shown above should also help if you haven’t been there yet.
Barry and I bought the comic – and the editioned small print – on the spot. We both find it hard to stay away from McKimens.

feds throw blogger Josh Wolf into prison

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Wolf at work

“I feel a little bit responsible for this mess he’s in right now, because he told me, ‘Mom, you taught me to do what’s right.'” Liz Wolf-Spada
A Federal grand jury investigating the alleged vandalism of a San Francisco city police vehicle have imprisoned Josh Wolf, a weblog video journalist for refusing to hand over a video tape.
More.
Be afraid, Americans, be very afraid.

[image from SF Weekly]

my respite

I think it’s about time to come back from my vacation. The first half of the interval was the good part, the rare visit of two members of Barry’s family, here on separate but overlapping schedules.
The second half, not so good. I came down with a very bad intestinal flu the day after his mother-our-very-good-friend had left. A temperature which quickly rose to five degrees above normal meant that neither my energy nor my head was up to the simple mechanicals of a keyboard – actually, until just about this very moment.
Thank intelligent design for having the good sense to create antibiotics!

more on comments

Barry writes:

I don’t enjoy coming home to the level of discourse I get when my post on Jean Rohe’s speech has such a high Google rank. From now on, all comments must be approved. I don’t need to hear people calling for violence, or calling her a cunt, on my blog. Get your own damn site if you want to do that.

I’ve been seeing a certain amount of the same kind of violence and stupidity hurled onto my own site in the guise of “comments”. From tonight I will no longer be entertaining this stuff either, but unfortunately I suppose I’m still going to have to read these droppings.

real and fake comments

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we get letters

I love comments, and I get really excited about comments about comments. I rush to open each of them when they are announced in my mailbox. Unfortunately I often have to wade through a flood of spam to get to the genuine article, and for this blogger the genuine does not include the unsigned rant with a fake address.
Yes I know there are disturbed people out there. I also know I’m unable to help them, and my hosting parasitic notes or essays simply won’t help anyone.
This site is not anonymous and I simply do not expect to get anonymous comments, unless the writer has good reason to screen an identity and indicates as much.
Everyone else, please keep those cards and letters coming.

I’ll try to do better

I’ve been much too neglectful lately in posting items about the art stuff we’ve seen. If I have an excuse it’s that I’ve been distracted by construction and other projects inside the apartment. Hey, it’s a large apartment, and sometimes it gets very needy.
But now there might be another impediment to good blogging, since today I finally sent my good camera off to be repaired. I have no idea how long it will be in the garage, but I’m placing my hopes with the good gay spirit of the shop’s address, Walt Whitman Road.
I still have my little pocket box however, and a huge stash of older images I never uploaded, so the raw material is there; I’ll just have to be more disciplined. Retirement is hard. How is it that I always had more time to get things done when I actually had a job?