plyMOUTH & ANCHORage: the di[S|P|L]acement of the new calaMARi H.Q. to D.U.M.B.O.

[where i am writing [this] from]

[this] is the first 5¢ entry [for what it's worth] in 2010 in our new [S|P|L]ace—not that i have any travel or art or food or books to rePORT on [i've read some books lately but none worth commenting about] | this DISpatch is aBout j + i changing our immediate ENVIRONment—our LIVing [in] SITU ation—which is tRAVELing in a ¢ense | rather than chasing the worLd down [some]×[it's] better to stand in 1 PLace + let the WORlDs come to yo∩ | it may only be a move of a few miles but it's a new perspective ∀ll TOgather—a change of SCENEry [+ yes we FINally caved in & drank the Brooklyn Kool-aid] | we've been living sumwhat on a LIMBo since reTURNing from Africa in a FURnished month-to-month [S|P|L]ace in the MEATpacking dist not readY to commit to «living» back in NYC | but now we've done it you could say—«settLed» eveN—in the pastORAL ¢ense of the WORlD |

after ROME we spent the HOLIdays bunkered on the isLAND of MANhattan—living VIRTUALly | our temporary aBode was dark & small but in a good enough LOCation—though not a locale that was aNYthing new to us | we had reTURNed as if a year in Africa was just a long VACAT[e]ion—nothing new to be inSPIREd or inVIGORated by eXcept maybe our shower curtain:

8th × 13th [multiPLYing anima'L] beHIND us

ok maybe i miss that mouse [though we had a bigger one with pups in Nairobi] & the free TV & steam heat:

[some may reCOGnize the HEXagonal tiles from the P.S. SEQuence that i rubBEd in AFTer the fACT & sum of the anima'L might be forthcoming yet in the ARK CODEX] & OK the kitchen was big & the sleeping loft provided a jaguarial sense of danger & the Argentine bakery [«Sweetheart»] below smelled nice wafting up [but not when they were making empanadas & that one bakerboy really needs to get on key if he's gonna «sing» that loud before the sun even rises] & there were other things—lots of great restaurants & markets & art in the neighborhood like this SUN XUN exhibit we caught in Chelsea:

Sun Xun [inked on the walls of the gallery]

Sun Xun [backlit on vellum]

& a good enough PLace to flâneur...

cobbled ice

meat-packing concrete

Madonna neck-deep in snow

& i'll miss running on PIER 40...

[not that we hadn't flâneured in the West Village ⊥ Chelsea ⊥ Meat Packing before] | so yeah we decided to move into something more permanent & we were looking mostly in MANhattan on the west side out of convenience [not that we were terribly eXcited aBout the prospect] | we were thINKing maybe Morningside as we'd never «lived»  up there unless you count my longer runs or the week or two we spent in someone else's apartment when we were reVISITing but j works up there & it's not good to eat where you shit [or vice-versa] & too many students | we did look at 1 place in Brooklyn but we've always resisted bklyn despite the fact that most anyone that's anybody has long since defected southeast | then one EVEning we were down in D.U.M.B.O. [to see Reggie Watts at Galapagos] & we were snooping around [with REal Estate porn on the brain] & REALized we forgot how much we like[d] it down under the bridges...

under the Brooklyn looking at the Manhattan

the persistent TRACEs of old MODEs of transPORT

DUMBO is/was ACTually one of our old flâneuring gRounds—some of the base images from Trilce [eX] & The Revisionist [eX] were in fact appropriated from DUMBO walls [the dandelion 1 from Trilce remains down on Water street to this day] | here's some more ...

DUMBO street collage

currently dominated by vixen antichrist ninjas

& bug-EYEd zombies are all the rage

another bug-eyed zombie [from Meat Packing or Chelsea]

beyond just physical space though last month i did a lot of thinking about VIRTUAL space & how much we spend/W.A.S.T.E. in it | my last 5¢ fLash of 2009 is worth repeating:

¢ i don't BElieve in «REsolutions» but on this last moUrning of the decade amiDst falling SnOW i've been REflecting on some NATURally eMERGing trends [that have alREADy been de[n]veLoping in me] for 2010: [1] the URGE to REplicate [PUBlish or MASS produce or get more HITS, etc.] is being rePLACED by an urge to CREATE ORIGINal works—either original ART or limitED edition books printed by hands—whose «success» [in SURvival terms] & «value» is deterMINED SOLely by the object itSELF rather than by the sheer NUMBer of offspringing copies of said art or book objects which only serve to diffuse the IMpact of said originAL objet d'art | what this enTAILs only 2010 will tell... [2] [sort of RElated/tied-in to [1]] is to: LIVE life itself rather than talk about living it or TELLing others how to live IT | the encROACHing proLIFEration of «social networking» sites these past few years is breeding a viral ugliness in people [me included] to self-promote & to tell [virtually anonymous] people what to see/read/listen/eat/etc. which only serves to diffuse what was ORIGINALly interesting [about both the perSON & the subJECT being talked/blogged/twittered about to begin with][it's not so much the original visit to a place that corrupts it but the SUBsequent CUMulative unraveling write-ups in travel books/magazines that leads to «tourISM» once that KNOWledge gets into the wrong hands—the same is true of art & spelunking: it should be a privilege left to those that disCOVEred it because if you didn't figure it out for yourself then it means so much less] | it seems more & more people [including me] are becoming preOCCUPIED with telling others HOW to live at the [time-sinking] EXpense of living their own lives & at the eXpense of others discovering the great things in life for themsELVES | what this all means [for 2010] i don't know—i'm already «off» facebook & twitter, etc. [not just for these reasons but also concerns of intellectual property rights & privacy & out of sheer boredom] & so you'll be hearing less & less from me [telling you what to read, where to go, what to eat, etc.] unless you CHOOSE to come here or the calaMARi or sleepingFISH sites or yoU disCOVEr meMEs thrU SEARCH engines—but eveN then [THIS] will likely beCOME a place for original art & one-offs & the things that DIREctly inSPIRE me—a place of Creating not RElating | [3] «RE» & «EX» will henceforth be [RE]moved from my vocabulary |

the immediate enVIRONment yoU'Re immersed in is inevitably mirrored in your art | if you spend all day in a dank apartment looking at janky social networking sites & other «web 2.0» kitsch then it will be RE:flected in whatever art you do | same is true of your living SPace | with this IN MIND we set out to find a [S|P|L]lace to call our own | i mean we had a plan & as usual we said we were going to look at a lot of places & be picky & not just settle for aNYthing & called up our old broker even [who rocks by the way if anyone is looking for a broker] but then of course we just jumped on the first thing we saw on Craigslist [a SUBlet in DUMBO]: i took the F train down to check it out & immediately called j at work & told her she better come check it out & she did but our prospective landlord was leaving the city for the holidays so we ran back to our old place to get our checkbook & put a depoSIT down & that was that then it was just a matter of waiting in anticipation to move in | we did the IKEA thing as we had no furniture—cheap goods sure but what a nightmare of an experience that i lived for the 1st time & never want to repeat | then a few weeks later we rented a PENSKE & lugged all our stuff [read: books & art] down 4 flights of stairs & drove it across the Manhattan bridge & thankfully there was a freight elevator waiting on this end that took everything up to another 4th floor in 1 fell swoop | spent last weekend unpacking & assembling & arranging & so without further ado here's some images of our new place & its affjorded views:

INT. where i'm writing this from now [roosting over Anchorage PL]

INT. the «living room» IS the room

INT. j at her hanging door desk [a PRE∃Xisting condition]

INT. the natural tendency regardless is to congregate in the KITCHen so may as well make it front & center [isLAND PRE∃Xisting] & yes that's the shower

INT. our Malawi Chief Chair disPLACEd [overTHRONE] from it's original PLace in Nairobi

EXT. next to the writing on the wall [the window to the right of «W A I»]

INT. Calamari stock repositioned [hint: fuck porkbellies—help stimulate the economy
& free up our shelves by buying Calamari]

INVentory. more Calamari [w/Ever & Stories in the Worst Way out of stock]

INVentory. 3rd Bed [consume 1 & get another free mentioning this post]

& then when the sun goes down ...

EXT. reflected in the NYC skyline

under the bridge [call us trolls henceforth]

Loft-warming/Sleepingfish Party

oh yeah & there's this:

somewhere aMIdST our RElocation i launched an issue of Sleepingfish without much of a to-do so now it's time for a [REAL world] launch/loft-warming shindig to celebrate the issue + our new digs + 2010 + pre-Superbowl + etc. | i plan on cooking up some things maybe that will undoubtedly involve some of those green chiles we picked up in Hatch [whilst transPORTing our things back from New Mexico] | so ...

WHAT: j & d's Loft-warming/Sleepingfish-launching Soirée
WHEN: [SAT] FEB 6, 2010 around sunset [~4 to ~10]
WHERE: 135 Plymouth Street #409 in DUMBO, Brooklyn [if buzzer doesn't work or you need DIREctions call 646-330-3638][it's near the F [york st] & A/C [high st] & 2/3 [clark st] stops]
WHO: you
WHY: because we love you

B.Y.O.B./«fly casual»/R.S.V.P. please for food prep expectations

(c) 2010 Derek White