jorge.cortell.net

In the TV show Britain’s Got Talent, Hungarian shadow-theatre company Attraction shows with beauty the horror of war.

If the world ends today, this is my goodbye soundtrack gift to you.

If it doesn’t, tomorrow it will be the soundtrack of a waterfall, my new beginning gift to you.

In any case, the first composition that I ever share with the world (“Waterfall in the winter“). Straight from my open heart. Enjoy. Peace. Love. Happiness.

From tilted posts to trees completely gone, after hurricane Sandy there were many signs of destruction around New York.

I had to stay at Stepahnie’s apartment (thank you again!) until Monday, because my building remained without power. And even after the power returned, the telephone and internet took two more days.

Some people were not so lucky, with all hotels fully booked, and had to stay at home for days without power or water. I heard of a woman who paid over $400 for a night in a room at the Gramercy Hotel, even though they did not have power or water either, just because she was too sacred of being at home alone for so long without electricity.

So, when Stephanie went to her office, I also went to work: to help others by helping handing out food and water in one of the “soup kitchens” (the one at 27th street). Signs of reconstruction were everywhere. And that’s when the real “American Spirit” shines its brightest light (not with flags or elections): when everybody comes together, in a fairly self-organized way, to wholeheartedly help.

[Note: images on this post, except those of the gallery above, have not been taken, or downloaded, or hosted by me; for full attribution follow the source]

Many people tried to help as they could. From great efforts, to little gestures. It all helped.

And just when things seemed to slowly be returning more or less back to normal, winter storm Athena reminded us that it can always get worse, and “Winter is coming”. Thousands of flights cancelled again, snow everywhere… pretty but cold!

I’m still stuck in Baltimore, but it seems I will be able to return to NY late tonight, arriving tomorrow morning afternoon, the day after Halloween (which reaches amazing levels, like Barbie special edition dolls).

So, instead of going to the Village Halloween parade (which has been cancelled for the first time in 39 years), or any of the Halloween parties I was invited to (the New Museum and Cara’s parties have also been cancelled), and wear the cool and simple MineCraft Creeper costume Cory Doctorow twitted (from Comic Con NY):

I will choose one of the volunteer efforts to aid those most affected by Hurricane Sandy and get to work helping those in need… after some much needed sleep and a shower, of course.

On Thursday I went to 319 Scholes to attend the art opening of “Collect the WWWorld: The Artist as Archivist in the Internet Age“.

Beyond the anecdotal post/pre hispter crowd, the exhibition itself is a sad celebration of noise. Which, in itself is as valid, or invalid, as any other starting point in the endless debate about art (more so in regards with contemporary, electronic, net, etc).

But it is its legitimization attempt, with research project, curator, catalogue, and international tour, which brings the debate to a whole different level. Again, struggling with the Institutional Theory of Art. Again, falling in the trap of the spoon fed.

Again under the false impression that art, time, space, and the like are limited resources. They are not! And they are not because we, ourselves, our time, our space, our bodies, our mids, are indeed limited, and therefore, when put into context and perspective all those other subjective concepts upon which scarcity we base our interactions on, do become unlimited in the light of our own finitude.

So don’t celebrate noise as an abandonment to the vastness of the unreachable. Don’t hide behind noise as a way to escape the unavoidable void. Embrace your own limits and work to expand them. Thrive in uncertainty, certain that the external shall not define you.

Lying on the carpet, poetry book and pencil in hand, U2 in the background.

October

October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care

October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on…and on…

So many literal meanings: the fear of wearing-out (The Edge was considering leaving the band like his brother did before they were even called U2), the false sense of security arising from self-defeat (“What do I care”), moving on after a loss (both Bono and Larry had just lost their mothers), the high hopes and expectations arising from new democracies in Eastern Europe only to become despair and dissapointment, and eventually resilience, surviving, going on…

Add that to the fact that Bono’s suitcase with the complete lyrics were stolen, he could only remember these lines, and decided to leave it like this, which is in fact quite poetic and coherently illustrative.

And then the personal meanings. This song speaks to me, with its haunting piano (the one song that motivated me to learn a little bit of piano when I was a kid), as I am sure it speaks to you. Today. In October. My October.

Of course, what song comes next?

‘All I want is you’

September 5th (I know, I have really fallen behind my posts; bear with me, there is just too much going on to keep up) I attended a very interesting and enlightening round table at the New York City Bar Association titled “How Will Recent Developments in the Law Influence the 2012 Elections”?

Moderated by Nan Aron (lecturer, author, and President of Alliance for Justice), the panel consisted of:

• Angelo Falcón: President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy
• Keesha Gaskins: Senior Counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program
• Lawrence Lessig: Professor of Law at Harvard University (and much more)
• John Samples: Director of the Cato Institute Center for Representative Government

The discussion was quite interesting. Leaving aside, which does not mean they are unimportant, US centric details of Campaign Law, the main points I took from the event were:

• Mr. Falcón focused so much on “Latino” that his words fall into the “leaving aside” zone.
• The debate between Mr. Lessig and Mr. Samples was simply striking: Mr. Lessig explained, in his characteristic accesible and charming style, how inequalities and concentration are hurting true democracy in the US. Mr. Samples, on the other hand, absolutely irreverent with data and facts, kept repeating a sort of right-wing ultra-capitalist mantra of “hands-off government”, “money is all that matters”, “freedom comes before justice”…
• While I have never been completely in favour of Mr. Lessig’s mild approach to admirable well-meaning reform, which in my view only leads to system assimilation, the false perception that “something is improving”, and eventual perpetuation of a stale, corrupt, and dying system, after seeing what he is against (irrational fanatism disguised behind manipulated classic theories), I understand why he does not try to aim higher.
• The discreet surprise of the night were the dead-on remarks by Mrs. Gaskins: we need to address even more fundamental problems, like education or identity, before we can even talk about economy, laws, or political campaigns. Otherwise, its a loud and busy debate that will lead nowhere.

Hugo sends me this amazing song/video made in Minecraft. Of course, that leads to 10 more, 14 more… there are so many!

When you make the tools available to the people, and allow them to create (in this case under the safe harbor of “parody”) wonderful things happen. It’s NOT all about the money, profit, control… It’s about imagination, art, creativity, culture. That’s how it happens: copying, re-using, mixing, adjusting, modifying… that’s what creativity is really about (or did you think it was about “inventing” and “making unheard of things out of thin air”?).

I have no clue about physics or philosophy. But just like, when thinking theoretical physics, I can’t help but reach the conclusion that time is a form of energy, when I think of epistemology, I can’t help but to think of it in a multidimensional matrix, of which we can usually only grasp part, because the interconnexions we trace are linear an unidirectional.

It’s a well known fact that our brain is not built to comprehend reality, but “to make sense” of it. And this is my attempt.

Just saying.

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