jorge.cortell.net

For a few years I have accumulated art projects and pictures, in that oh-so-common delusion “one day I will start working on this and…”

Well, reality, resource constraints, day-to-day life… are all excuses not to take one’s passion and live it. So I am going to live it. How? I don’t know. But the first step is to share, and to make accessible, my plans, ideas, and projects.

So HERE ARE MY ART PROJECTS (tumblr), and HERE ARE MY PHOTOGRAPHS (500px).

Next: book ideas, songs I have composed… and you already have my literature bits HERE.

You may laugh now

Five days ago, the New Museum invited me to the “All White Party”. It’s one of those events I would not normally go by myself, but Jane told me about the rooftop bar that only opens on weekends and during parties, so I decided to go and check it out. Plus, I was told it was the only chance I would have to see new yorkers dressed in white.

As it was to be expected, lot of people, quite a few “celebrities”, and 95% wearing white (with your typical “I am wearing black, to signal I am bad, or odd, or fun, or whatever”, two or three “ooops, I thought they were joking about the white – or I don’t have white clothes – and I am wearing my grey/orange shirt” and a petite blonde wearing black skirt and white top).

I took my Lytro camera to experiment (and because it is much more discrete than the DSLR). ¿Result? As you can see (here are bigger versions of some of the pictures I took), too crowded, too many depth fields, so it does not take advantage of the “multifocus” capability (or perhaps I haven’t learned how to use it well enough yet). Also, low light conditions and lots of movement does not help the camera.

But +1 for convenience and “conversational piece”!

The rooftop bar is small, and it could get crowded. But either not everybody knew about it or not everybody wanted to visit it. In any case, it was much more fun to be up there: good views of the sunset, nice temperature, and much much better for conversation (you get to meet all kinds of people in an event like that). 

Before I forget more (I am sure I am leaving out a lot), here is a little recap of things I’ve done, tried, or discovered in NY during July:

July 1st I went to Strand, my favorite bookstore, with its cool graffiti outside.

and then went to the “Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration” Party at the MoMA with Nebula.

The next day, in SoHo, I took a picture of this robot figure on my way to the gym.

July 3rd I went to Tibet House for a meditation and concert. Unfortunately it wasn’t Tibetan music, which I would have preferred, but some sort of “world music ensemble”. Let’s just say it was a “show”. Good thing dinner was at Zen Palate, to make up for the “concert”.

July 4th, of course, is about party and fireworks. I watched them from the roof of my apartment building, which at the 50th floor, is a pretty good place to watch them from.

July 5th, I watch lightning bugs in Central Park instead of an Oliver Stone debate at the MoMA.

July 7th I try Aquagrill, and remain there until they close. My mind, just like with the lightning bugs in Central Park, absolutely distracted.

July 10th I went to take a walk on the HighLine, and then grab a bite at a Japanese Restaurant with one of the curators of the New Museum.

July 11th I went to Central Park with Alvaro to see La Mala in concert. It looked as if she had too much weed or something before getting onto the stage. So weak it was the concert, that we left early. The best thing was dinner at The Vermilion on the way to the hotel.

Of course, July 13-15th was HOPE9.

Coming and going, those days, I took a few snapshots of things that caught my attention, such as the BatSignal on the NYPL, extreme heels, surveillance gear all over, or abandoned liquid nitrogen tanks on the sidewalk.

July 14th I went to see the moving Scabbard Samurai at Japan Society Cuts! Film Festival.

July 15th, as an “end of Hope” celebration, we went to Miss Korea BBQ, and had a lot of food, and a funny anecdote: of course, the place, which is right in the middle of Korea Town (34th between 5th and 6th Aves) was packed with Koreans, so as 3 Asian girls sit next to us and ask us where we were from (obviously Alvaro and I do not look Koreans), I politely ask the same question. I felt a little dumb asking, but their answer proved me wrong: they were from Australia!! (and very nice, by the way).

July 16th I had lunch at Japonica, where I saw an unbelievable work of art. The picture does not do it justice at all. It is a torn paper collage or Chigirie (not painted, all little pieces of hand cut paper, a technique from the Japanese Heidan Era, IX century) “White birch at Autumn dusk” by Reiko Tsukahara.

July 17th I went to the opening party of “Ghost in the Machine” at the New Museum, where I met the editor of The Institute of Modern Russia. We both agreed that the exhibition was a failure. It should have been called “Machine in the Ghost”, what a missed opportunity! Dinner at Public was definitely much much better.

July 19th I went to Red Rocket tattoo to get a small one commemorating the Anarchist and Hacker movements.

July 20th I missed most of the drawing class at the MET. But at least I made up for it having dinner with some new friends at Mezza Luna, where Roya talked me into trying the Amalfi Pizza (with slices of lemon). Awesome surprise!

July 22nd I went to see the very funny Love strikes (moteki)! again at the Japan Society.

July 23rd was a special day. Tea in Union Square park and dinner at Souen only made it better.

July 25th was the “All White” party at the New Museum (individual post for that).

July 26th brought a “storm” that knocked me off my feet. I was not prepared for it, it was amazing! I spent the whole storm at Blue Water Grill. Looking forward to more storms like that!! Here is what the sky looked like

a minute before it turned into this

July 27th I met Fiona and talked about her NGO, trying to make the world a better place… I also had the chance to finally see my building (the one on the right in the picture) from a different rooftop.

But the inescapable reality sinks in when one sees this on the streets: homeless on the sidewalk, and Ferraris on the road. #InhumanInequality

July 29th I went to a Water Workout class at the gym (only man among 20 women). It was more like Water KungFu! #BeWaterMyFriend And I have just returned from Bryant Park, where they were supposed to show “Rebel without a cause“, but decided to postpone it until tomorrow.

Upcoming week: crazy schedule, so… time to go to sleep!

July 13th-15th Alvaro and I attended Hope9 (Hackers On Planet Earth number 9) conference in New York’s Hotel Pennsylvania.

It was a lot of fun, as usual. Besides the many and informative talks (we gave one on “Digital Security in Health Care Institutions“, the first day), there was music, booths (FSF, EFF with a girl that wanted to come to Spain to help the #indignados, Free Manning, No Starch Press Books and more), arduino and lock-picking classes, a pro-ponies and against-zombies USA Presidential Candidate wearing a boot on his head, MakerBot 3D printers, the IMMI, Hackers For Charity, AlphaOne HackerSpace (will be visiting it next Thursday with Audrey), StartUpHire, SparkleLabs (awesome presents for kids and n00bies!), DIFR Faraday caged apparel, art projects… Check out some pictures:

NY Storm, photo by Ryan Brenizer

Last night’s storm was, again, AMAZING. I was not exactly in a position to take a picture, “too concentrated on something else” (although I would have loved it), but this is a great shot by Ryan Brenizer.

Let me share some odd videos I have watched recently, thanks to Leaitrice and Patricia:

The famous “Sunscreen” music video (the text comes from an essay written in 1997 by Mary Schmich, a columnist at the Chicago Tribune, as a graduation speech for the class of ’97) which gives some amazing advice for life. There is even a StarWars Version.

Drunk History: get some history students drunk, have them narrate historical events, while reenacting them… more fun than it seems. Watch them all.

Unbelievably messed up Bible stories. Here is chapter 1, and you watch the rest if you like (links on the side).

And, of course, everybody knows TED lectures by now, but here is a particularly interesting one: the artist that can hear color.

After reading “Debunking Putin’s Newest Myth” by Alexander Yanov, PhD, and with all my respect and admiration for this very well known historian of Russian nationalisms:

Although quite brilliant and eloquent, I believe it is not incisive and daring enough in debunking Putin’s newest myth. It takes a very conservative approach, perhaps letting a Western traditional philosophy baggage and inclination take the part of pure reason and belief, which is usually needed, in equal parts, to fight a political/philosophical quarrel.

Of the two “counter arguments” Yanov makes of Spengler’s ideas, the first one is the simple, and comfortable, “tradition”. Which has never been a good argument for anything deep. It may convince many people, and it may sound “common sense”. But there is no real merit in that argument. As a matter of fact, it is dangerously misleading, for if followed to its most dire consequences, it leads directly from Aristotle to Hegel, and from Hegel to Kant, one step short of Aynd Rand, and the shiny but deadly Objetivism that seems to engulf all aspects of politics in the Western world.

The second one, a much more interesting and well researched approach, falls short (perhaps out of time-space constraints) of the implications it seeks. Sure, in the debate culture-civilization, as portrayed by Huntington, there is SO much to add and polish that it could be endless, but an omission does not warrant an impossibility.

Personally, I believe Civilization has an “organizational / political” meaning to which Culture does not refer to (which regards more the subjective and individual achievement, although collectively considered).

Then again, what do I know?

I am looking forward to be able to discuss this nuances with him.

After playing with it for a while, beyond it limitations (light, format, movement…) here are the two biggest pitfalls with the Lytro camera:

1) It is still for Mac OSX only. They NEED to come out with Open Source / Free Software (both their software AND platform support for GNU/Linux).

2) Picture library size and location. BIG unresolved issue.

Accompanied by your absence
I hear your skin calling.
Silently, still, I answer.

In the solitude of your presence
I remember sliding down your gaze
fearlessly falling into your void,
your being’s foyer.

Next to you, finally, I rest
dreaming and longing,
with the peace and tranquility that comes from
knowing me you. 

The Guardian. From the window of a plane leaving LaGuardia airport. Photograph: Dhani Jones/Twitter/Instagram

I have been under tropical storms several times in the jungle. But I have never seen anything like today’s storm over Manhattan. Absolutely incredible.

The Guardian. Photo: Inga Sarda-Sorensen