So in 1999 I spent New Year's Eve in Chicago at a Morphine concert. There was an obvious anticipation in the air for what might transpire as we hit midnight in the club with the band still on stage. Near the time for countdown Mark Sandman, the late singer, stopped and said something to the effect of; "For those of you that are still counting, I ( Read more... )

So it's Sunday evening and I'm writing in from my mother's place, a small farm house a few miles of dirt road from Chelsea, MI. I've based my nomadic reacquaintance with life in North America out of this humble house for the last eight weeks, though I've been all over the state and managed a couple of excursions out to such Meccas as Cincinnati ( Read more... )

pssst.... if you add pixelgrain to your friends list you'll get to see a photo of mine every few days...

thanks vidicon.

So... after a year studying anthropology and all its word-play I've been on hiatus from writing for the last few months. I think I am starting to feel the itch to write again, but until it strikes me I've only got 2 things to mention here ( Read more... )

So, thanks to our brilliant friends Dan and Marisa I've now go this embedded into my right arm:


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My father was here visiting me in Leuven for two weeks during the study session for my exams. He and my step-mother have never been to Europe and were rather intimidated at first by what to expect. My father, for instance, was surprised that he could get breakfast cereal at the grocery store. It's expected, i suppose, but was amusing. I'd been ( Read more... )

My brain has been saturated with ideas to the point of uselessness lately. I keep finding myself lost in thought in the middle of a room, half-way through some task and often with something in my hand or even in mid-stride through the house. The last 9 months of research, lectures and attempts at writing seem to have filled my mental space almost ( Read more... )

We cannot rule out the possibility that the anthropologist, following Freud's example, might care to consider himself as indigenous to his own culture -- a privileged informant so to speak -- and risk a few attempts at ethno-self-analysis.

Mark Augé
I spent a gorgeous Tuesday afernoon and evening lurking about underground in the Brussels metro ( Read more... )

I spent Tuesday doing "participant" observation in the Brussels public transport system.


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A couple weeks ago i was struck by an immanent need to use all my old 35mm photo gear. I think i'm just over-saturated in anthropological theory and web programming and my eyes are begging for a break. Between the books and the screens i spend all my time staring at i'm afraid my vision is going to permanently focus in the 18-24 inches range one ( Read more... )