(non-space)

I.
I am observing this today:



"James Joyce's description of the piano as a 'coffin of music' might come to mind when entering one of Tyson Ayer's Sound Cave installations. However, the shanty-like sound sculptures made of jerryrigged piano parts are far more joy-inducing than Joyce's glum turn of phrase suggests. Playable both inside and out, the Sound Cave lets you literally inhabit one of John Cage's prepared piano pieces, wrapping you in a cocoon of resonating wires, plonks, scrapes and wooden thumps." It's on display at Million Fishes Gallery in San Francisco.

II. I wish Martin Amis would contain himself to journalistic non-fiction. This was really good, particularly the last paragraph, from the foreword of Warrant for Genocide:

"There exists a subterranean world where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics [notably the lower clergy] for the benefit of the ignorant and superstitious. There are times when this underworld emerges from the depths and suddenly fascinates, captures and dominates multitudes of usually sane and responsible people, who thereupon take leave of sanity and responsibility. And it occasionally happens that this underworld becomes a political power and changes the course of history."

yes. yes it does.


II. a
Iranian typography:









III.

The existence of MIT's OpenCourseWare is going to significantly change my life/damage my interpersonal relationships.
So far I've watched the first lectures of their Computational Science (MATRICES!) and Electricity and Magnetism (Physics I) courses, for absolutely free, and it is awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT