is (or are) a series of notes and informal discussions about ideas
This is the ninth mp3 letter ‘written’ to my nana and RSS fed. I ride a bike to school and talk in stuttered phrases due to pedaling or distraction. There is some apologizing for this. After a quick stop at the Family Mart for some lunch we listen to ‘One Great City’ by The Weakerthans off their Reconstruction Site album [Golden Boy photo from Miss Vincci (cc) on Flickr]. The bike ride home is spent rambling.
In reference to the previous discussion of Intellectual Property, this is not to be confused as an argument of art being for art’s sake. Keeping in mind that the term ‘art’ was only really used for lack of a better term for ‘the expression of ideas’, ideas for the sake of ideas is more of a correct way to put the goal of putting this argument forward.
More important is that this notion ought to be taken as an argument for ideas, their production and sale as a hyper-pragmatical and transparent process. That we are making sure that what we say is important and productive, and that we are doing these things for good and productive reasons.
This is part of the ‘holistic’ notion that ought to be hammered out a bit more before continuing. To begin with, we are attempting to eliminate the idea that we have a split between the ‘private’ and ‘public’ selves, and that these selves interact with one another and the end result is a kind of morality. The idea of living ‘morally’ this way in a kind of contractual obligation, is one that we in the capitalist-liberal tradition rest on how our private person acts in public, that they are different in kind from one another and that we rely on other public selves to keep our public self in moral check, even though our private self might want to murder/maim/destroy other public selves. Continue reading ‘Privacy and/in Property’
This is the Eighth Letter to Nana in which I ramble on my way home from a school in North Iwata, and jump on a train to go home to Hamamatsu. In which, I discuss teaching children, change in season / schoolyear / child-development. Also, some Japanese school system attire, upcoming plans for Golden week and we hear “Do You Like Icecream?” ‘Lime’ Level Unit 11 Song, “Paper Plates” by Butter Vaughn Kingson, along with what it’s like to ride on a train in Japan.
The sound quality may or may not be so great due to my lack of meticulousness in monitoring the peaks. Also, there may oor may not be too much “train-listening” time. I may, or may not be apologizing for these things.
Art is the expression of ideas.
What are we doing when we engage in the activity and publishing of art or ideas? Here I’m using ‘Art’ in an extremely broad sense, far more broad than is typical. I’d qualify anything from fiction, non-fiction, painting, journalism, photography, patents, or proofs; intangible, or seemingly intangible property is what I would call ‘Art’. This exchange of ideas as the step before we apply or manifest them as physical objects. Admittedly, this applies to any set of ideas about the world.
However, for the sake of simplicity, let’s deal with Intellectual property in the space of ‘Art’. This is admittedly up for grabs, and even slightly contentious in terms of what property in general is. I feel as though property, in general, is property. However, that’s not to be argued here. The focus here is on ideas, and intellectual property, whatever that means. Continue reading ‘Intellectual Property’
This is the seventh Letter to Nana in the series in which I write from my school in Iwata and walk about 15 minutes to the station to go home for the evening. I discuss my dad visiting, how it’s odd living again with my father, and how much fun and frustrating it is to travel with him.
There is some talk about the awkwardness that seems to surround a foreigner living in Japan. This talk may or may not be interesting or insightful or important. I don’t feel as though it’s offencive, but it may be, although I’m not sure how. What I do know is that, for whatever reason, it’s awkward to talk about. This is really why I am bringing it up, so that I can explore why it is so awkward.
Although this has been discussed to death, and shown in film and television, It’s another thing entirely to experience first hand. I hope I’m making at least some kind of clear case here.
Hello, just a minor Housekeeping issue concerning the RSS and the journal entries. I figure that they aren’t all that professional sounding, and I want to keep them as frank and blunt as possible so perhaps for the sake of editing, and keeping a separation between a ‘published’ section and a ‘verbal diahrrea’ section, I’ll be excluding the Journal Entries from the Main RSS. Fret not, you can still find all of the entries here, and if you’d like to subscribe to them exclusively, please do so through the about Journal page. Thanks!
Letters to Nana 6 (Video) from Aaron Russin on Vimeo.
This is the sixth in the series of Letters to Nana highlighting Jeannine and Aaron’s trip to Tokyo in the Winter of 2008. Although there is some amount of preambling in explanation of Tokyo and their trip’s itinerary, there is a slideshow of photos set to music during the last (and better) half of this episode. Tokyo is good, and we recommend going there.
The music used is used without permission, but we’re not really concerned.
+81 - Deerhoof
(Aaron’s Karaoke rendition of Everyday by Buddy Holly)
Tout va pour le mieux dans le pire des mondes - Les Breastfeeders
The Stars of Track and Field - Belle and Sebastian
You can Download Letters to Nana 6 here (Requires Quicktime).
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