Nine 12 Nineteen

Zero dark thirty. Up early as you guessed in anticipation to the drive and show this weekend. I turned off all the items using electrical power and now waiting for daylight to arrive because lifting weights or doing yard work in the dark MIGHT give the neighbors and people in general the IDEA that one MIGHT be crazy, if not odd, peculiar or just a little off the bubble.

Silver is fueled, loaded and ready. Not to boast or anything, I put so much thought and planning into this show being so far away that I am taking only essentials, staged them all carefully in the garage and from there packed containers and THEN loaded them all up.

As I was saying, there is actually room to spare. But there are fragile pieces on top and a few other last minute things like the overnight bag to go in. Bottom line everything should be fine.

I woke early wondering what happened to Stars player Jason Spezza. I looked at the Stars page/site last night and his name was a notable omission.

This season he will be playing for Toronto but that’s just the start of the story.

I was going thru his CAREER tab and see the familiar stops. Big year in Binghamton and looking down the list of places he played I spot something odd. NLA Rapperswil-Jona for part of a season or perhaps the entire season as some European leagues are short season schedules.

It’s a link to a team in Switzerland and there follows a link to the village, town or city and it is quaint and charming with all the usual and unusual POINTS OF INTEREST.

Now it starts getting good.

Under the NOTABLE PEOPLE heading, I start looking down and spot something odd. An ‘sculpture, illustrator and athlete’ born 1953 passed 2008. Jesus, Maria & Jose, this could be ME. (!)

So I click to further my education on Alfredo Battistini. Fascinating story. A boxer, then something happened that wasn’t clearly explained in the bio. I am speculating some sort of accident as the next series of achievements are ‘paralympic’ feats wheelchair weightlifting. I mean a LONG list.

He worked as a bricklayer apprentice, then a stonemason apprentice in the 70’s and then became the sole student of a famous sculpture. Anyway, not to lose the reader in the minutia, I read the rest of the page not worrying at all about the test on Friday.

I back out returning to the NOTABLE PEOPLE section and notice another artist from there by the name of Alexander Hahn. His media is ‘electronic art’ which really captured my curiosity so I jumped in again.

WHAT’S ELECTRONIC ART?

You’re getting ahead of me so stop interrupting me. Por favor.

Well, there was a utube video and it is very hard to describe.

Hahn is still active and his work combines elements of painting, writing and light. It is described as dream-like and ephemeral and after watching the video it is just incredible.

HOW SO?

Probably the best way for moi to describe it is transformational stream of consciousness imagery.

As an example, the camera rolls and focuses on a light bulb. Then zooms in very close and the bulb gets blurred, out of focus and reforms as a galaxy or a universe. (semantics)

Then the universe becomes a drop of water that falls off a leaf into a river. With a HUGE school of fish. And you watch the fish swimming for a while then one fish is isolated and becomes what first looks like a filthy old bath tub in a ransacked room but then the tub comes into center-stage focus and it isn’t filthy at all but painted elegantly and exquisite in the Roman bath style.

So I’m getting that this is all about perception and a perspective, motion, movement, constant change and an evolving series of images.

Six minutes of this and I was nearing overload.

I BET. ARE YOU OK NOW?

So I explore Hahn’s site further and there is a video art conference going on RIGHT NOW S19 in Cairo Egypt. The 9th annual no less. I mean where have I been and why am I not there? Not that I would go but IF it was in a better place, funds suddenly became available OR I married into greater wealth, who knows.

INDEED.

Who knows?

PS: Now it is 6:30 and it’s still dark with no signs on daylight. This is starting to really piss me off. I have things to do God can’t you work with me a little here now?

Thanks, Your friend, Bill