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KNOW_WHAT_I_LIKE

                               April 13, 2003

It occurs to me that I like
4'33" better than
Rauschenberg's white
paintings.
          
   Cage makes the point that shadows on 
   the canvas are like background noise 
   at the performance, but the analogy 
   breaks down: shadows are all too    
   easily obliterated by harsh white   
   museum lighting.  Noise is not such 
   an easy victim.                     
               
But then, I think I also like Rauschenberg's
black paintings better than the white.
Darkness strikes me as a more appropriate
metaphor for nothingness than whiteout, I
suppose.
   
   Though it could just be that 
   I'm goth at heart.          
                               
      I'm more likely to want to
      decorate the place with   
      panels of black --        
                  
      Wait. I've actually done that.                                         
      When I was an undergrad at Stony                                       
      Brook, I had a sheet of black                                          
      contact paper lying around, and                                        
      on impulse I just peeled off the                                       
      backing and slapped it on the                                          
      wall.  It filled the space well,                                       
      and made a nice contrast against                                       
      the crest-blue paint they used         This was *literally* crest-blue.
      in the dorms there.                    When you were moving out of a   
                                             room, it was standard proceedure
      I didn't think very much of            to smear toothpaste in any      
      this, one way or another as far        little knicks or holes in the   
      as creative acts go -- but it          walls to make sure you got your 
      got some reactions out of the          deposit back.  The toothpaste   
      other undergrads.  One woman           was a perfect match, it made    
      stopped, looked at it stunned,         completely invisible, if        
      and exclaimed "I *like* it!".          temporary patches.              
      Another said timidly with                                              
      (mock?) fear "He has a black                As long as they didn't     
      picture on his wall --"; and                notice the mint smell,     
      one of my suitemates responded              you were home free. 
      "Yes, it's an existential                                              
      poster!"                                              Ah, Stony Brook. 
                                                                             
I hadn't heard of Rauschenberg at that point.                     SUNY
But the Cagey ideals of modern art had long                            
since slipped the bounds and infected the minds                        
of anyone susceptible.                                                 
                                                                       
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