mind control in modern society...

Humans have an electric charge - this is not news. And we are affected by all kinds of things in the natural world because of it like the sun and the moon, the way other people smell and feel, plus all the chemicals and electrical junk inside our own minds.

During the cold war, the US and our friends the Soviets found out that we are also affected by external sources of electric influences. And once we realized we were all brainwashing each other, it became clear that the tiny batteries inside our skulls which are spent doing very little (besides deciding what to eat or who to fuck) can be greatly influenced by things such as light, color, shape (or form), along with more complicated influences like sonic frequency, magnetic forcefields, and other things that sound like something out of the movie Weird Science.

Having grown up in a planned community where much of the city's electrical infrastructure is underground, I became very interested once I left in what seemed to me like an elevated skeletal structure in bigger cities. When I eventually moved back to Los Angeles, where I was born and my family lives, and when I started traveling somewhat locally, I was able to observe the way the electricity and it's support structures connected cities and states to one another. Even in the small suburban city where I grew up, I was able to see, in retrospect, evidence of a society saturated in light, color and shape in it's lamp posts, traffic signals, and in the simplest forms like stop signs.

And it all made me wonder, who designed all this? Who was the architect/engineer in charge of the very first street lamp? Who decided that traffic signals would flash red green and yellow lights? If we know that certain colors have specific effects on people in fast food restaurants, and we know that flashing colored lights have either helpful influences on children with ADD (phototherapy) or negative effects on epileptics, who's to say that the flashing red light signaling an approaching train has no effect on drivers? How do we know that the red octagon with the white letters "STOP" doesn't somehow limit us - isn't part of the reason that humans use a supposed 7% of their brain, or some equally embarrassing statistic? How do we know that the white street signs in Beverly Hills vs the blue street signs in Los Angeles don't cause different emotions towards these different cities or their authorities? (Yes, I realize the obvious hole in my hypothesis being location - if I were right - people in remote locations with no electricity or semiotic influence would be geniuses, but just for the sake of argument, let's just pretend...)

Obviously, I'm just posing questions which have probably been brought up and left unanswered by countless nuts before. However, before I get to my photo-point, I just want to note that the Japanese are on to this too, despite their passive approach:
http://www.seihin-world.com/s/2005/09/29_0119.php
Also, it's not an accident that Hello Kitty has no mouth. The fact that she says nothing or has nothing to say was a very careful DESIGN decision. If Hello Kitty had even a line for a mouth, Japanese girls would grow up thinking they could do something besides just pose pretty for pictures and would run their mouths like us American women. See? Mind control through form.

Now on to my point. When CVS took over Longs Drugs, as soon as I saw this new CVS sign, all I could think about was the sign it reminded me of: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I've spent about two months wondering how similar they were since there isn't a Krispy Kreme THAT close to me and I really didn't feel like looking the logo up online or searching out Krispy Kremes in a store - I just don't care that much. I even had a dream that my brother made us all (the sister, his wife, and I) stop at the Albertson's nearby to purchase some because they used to sell them there. Today, I finally was near a Krispy Kreme and got both a doughnut and a photo. Not as close as I remember but it still makes me question a) what company made these signs? Was it the same company? Is there a trend in polygonal shaped signs these days? and b) was it simply my hungry-little-mind that made the connection or was this really a case of subliminal mind control achieved through similar shape choice by the same sign-design company? I know... it ALMOST seems like a completely useless quandary but what if I'm... right...?

apartment for rent: masochist a plus

I first started photo-fixating on these church marquees maybe five years ago when I noticed just how many there were in my local area. I stopped almost a year ago when I tried to edit, print and exhibit them and instead realized how void the images were of any real sentiment.

The irony was clear - the historic purpose of the marquee is to announce or advertise the featured event or performer. Some of these church signs simply do just that, stating the time and leader of the upcoming Sunday's sermon. The others, however, usually try to use humor to do what - lure the unaffiliated or perhaps wayward soul into a specific denomination through comic relief? "Let's meet at my house Sunday before the big game! - GOD", "Swallow your pride, it contains no calories", "Trouble sleeping? Try counting... your blessings", "God answers knee-mail", etc.

Like many of my fine art photo projects, I went to the same churches, week after week as the signs changed so I could photograph them at different times of the day - the same thing only slightly different, over and over again in still photographs throughout an indefinite period of time. Just writing that long, run-on sentence-fragment makes me excited.

Early one morning, I stopped at the store between churches to grab a package of cashews and as I sat in my car munching on them, I barely noticed a man coming out of the store with a chrysanthemum plant. He got into his car and drove off. I did the same and when I arrived at my next church, I saw the same man walking from his car with the plant. As he set it down in front of the church before that Sunday's service, I realized it was the actor Morgan Freeman looking (in my opinion) a little annoyed at being (accidentally, in my own neighborhood, mind you) followed. I wanted to get out of my car and calmly explain to him the coincidence; that this was my church too and I had been photographing it, not him, for some time. Instead, I drove away without taking my photo nor explaining to him the difference between me and the paparazzi.

There is one of these signs across the street from where I live now, across from where a neighbor of mine is raising a fresh baby boy. I can't help wondering each time when I see a new message, "A wise child hears his Father's instructions", "A child brought up in church is seldom brought up in court", "In the dark? Follow the Son", "Christians are not perfect and innocent but guilty and forgiven", what kind of impact these suggestions will have on this young, impressionable fella.

ready-made...

The Catching Up Blog!

It seems that when you have so many of these unhealthy obsessions/healthy addictions (cooking like 90% of the food you eat and growing some of it, talking to your cat, dogmatically debating between contact lenses and new glasses) well, you tend to stay pretty busy. Here's what I've been up to that I can take photos of - you'll just have to imagine the rest (swimming a lot to firm up my already-nice ass, mouthing off at work and planning my upcoming trip to the most geographically isolated country on earth!)




the cat gets pissed when my new laptop sits in her spot. she marks her territory during a recent movie night by leaving her chewed popcorn all over my couch.


music mission - biking to spaceland with georgia and megan, plus some new (for me) records... because a gal can never have too much Billie.


there's all kinds of things growing in my garden these days...




it all tastes better than it looks, I swear.


I sliced my thumb open while making yam chips a couple weeks back - the photo of my hand is after 2 and 1/2 weeks of healing! I thought it was an interesting coincidence that I hurt my hand the same week I had a very important hand to photograph at work - I was just totally stupid with hand-job jokes for like 3 weeks about it! The chips were delicious, by the way.


I think I may go with contacts if I can ever get the right fit...


This is a combo. of a blank sign and a word-bubble shape that was cast onto my floor one day by the light of my office window being partially obstructed by my desk. I have a couple of these word-bubble shapes in my collection but can never really find a good use for them.

unhealthy obsession, post-modern interpretation:

i love the little feller' in the bottom left corner "struggling" to disarm himself of his proclamation! and i know i don't need to point out that the man from the internet is wearing a hat?!

I think my produce is trying to tell me something...