On Gender Balance

Novel illustration

Minute Haiku 122 - How long is a minute?

Three Tragedies, Four Seasons

Humber River meeting Lake Ontario, Toronto

Seoul evening 1

Rainy season

Rabies Beach - the Canadian D-Day

Green tea - still/ video

Linked video at YouTube.https://youtu.be/EW1VuRFG-Q4

Night forest

The Business Army

Excerpt from the opening of The Business Army, now online at Eclectica:

PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
July 28, 1932. Washington
The sky is a high, mid-summer blue. It has a quality of vast, apparently infinite, peacefulness. Cumulus clouds—as grand as towers—float through the sky, while at ground level the white dome of the Capitol also resembles an immense, majestic cloud.

But also at ground level a demonstration is taking place. A group of World War One veterans moves down a boulevard in one direction while a small group of cavalry backed by a battalion of foot soldiers approaches from the other.

The veterans are mainly dressed in mufti: the neat but inappropriately warm wool trousers of people with only one good pair of pants to wear, white shirts with the sleeves rolled up, or worn-out, shiny jackets. Some are also dressed in doughboy uniforms. But all of them look both impoverished and determined, like a peasant army marching with ragtag determination toward the walls of a royal castle.

Then one of the cavalry's horsemen rushes forward and wades into the crowd. The crowd tries to to stand its territory but almost as quickly pulls back with instinctive fear. The horse rears up, its sweating brown flanks rippling with quivering muscle as the animal's hooves spin dangerously in the air; living clubs.

Two or three in the crowd shriek. Behind them, some others call out the demonstration's rallying cry: "Bonus! Bonus!"

Then the horse stomps to all fours, its rider yanks the animal's reins, and the demonstrators inch a little farther forward with cautious determination.

To one side of this scene, watching attentively, stands the figure of General Douglas MacArthur. He is impeccable attired in a cavalry uniform, freshly pressed, plumped jodhpurs, and brown riding boots glossed to a fastidious sheen. Next to MacArthur is Major Dwight Eisenhower. He is dressed in civilian clothes: light trousers, a dark jacket and incongruous straw hat. He also looks on the scene taking place attentively, but with some embarrassment. MacArthur, however, is unaware of his aide-de-camp's discomfort; his nostrils, petitely equine, flare with impatience. He calls out to the captain leading the infantry battalion: "You there. Why aren't those troops moving faster?"

The captain calls back, "Sir, they're going as fast as they safely can."

"Don't make them go 'safely.' Make them go."

The infantry advance, their long rifles down, their bayonets forward. In the crowd of demonstrators, individuals—with the bravado of the doomed brave—call out.

"Bonus! A fair bonus for the veteran now!"

"Where's Hoover's heart?"

"We fought for this country! All we're asking for is help at a time of need!"

But the infantry keeps methodically approaching, and when they encounter the first demonstrators, they implacably keep their bayonets at chest level.

A demonstrator, his voice suddenly urgent, cries at the troops, "You brutes! Can't you see there are women and children here?"

The captain leading the infantry battalion says loudly, his tone commanding and bland, "Move on, you people. Move on. Remember, you were in uniform once. Do what you're told. It's for the best."
A man in the background steps to the front of the crowd. He has the hungry, alert look of one who would be either categorized as a troublemaker or hero, depending on one's allegiances.

"The hell we'll take orders from the likes of you! You're just a pawn! Don't you feel any shame? There are veterans here who can barely feed their families! Why don't you think of justice first before you start lecturing others on their duty?"

But the troops are unmoved. And as they continue their advance, the demonstrators are forced to choose between retreat and the feeble defiance of the un-armed which, soon enough, turns to defeat.
A different officer blows a whistle sharply, and second, more aggressive battalion of cavalry move forward. Some of the soldiers, upon reaching the crowd, reverse their rifles and use their butts like truncheons.

Behind the foot soldier, also advancing, is a column of tanks. In the midst of them is the figure of George S. Patton. He surveys the crowd for a few moments. Then he says to his crews, "Charge!"
The tanks trundle-squeak forward; the infantry stomp in rhythm, the cavalry whinny and attack.

The demonstrators are now divided into a series of broken up groups. Some turn to run. Others scream, push and shove. But from several yards away, it seems almost as if the demonstrators might have a chance: the troops and the horses and the tanks do not seem to be achieving a clear victory.

Then a shot rings out, followed by another. A woman's voice can be heard screaming hysterically, "Jesus! Lord Jesus!"

This only seems to stiffen some of the demonstrators' resistance, even as someone else, his voice also hysterical, calls out, "Doctor!" and the melée reaches its crescendo.

Link: http://www.eclectica.org/v23n2/harvor.html

Project still

Project still

Temple, South Korea

Please Say A Command

Crow Meditations

Muddernity 2

Outside Pangyo, South Korea

Poster/ affiche

Snow in the Temple of Memory and Hope

Gordon Phinn, part one

Toronto market

La paradoxe de voyager/ The Paradox of Travel

Toronto storm/ tempete a Toronto

Baram LII

Blizzard

South Korea, Japan— Seasonal

Language Krebs

L’hiver / winter

Seoulography

겨울/ l’hiver/ winter

Peace 5

PeaceWalk

PeaceWalk 4

MoonSong

PeaceWalk 3

Automne/ autumn

PeaceWalk 2

PeaceWalk 1

가을/ autumn

Fin d’été / summer’s End 2

Summer’s End

Seoulography

Asian Cycles 5

Asian Cycles 5

Asian Cycles 4

Greening Korea

LoveWind 12

일본/ Giappone/ Japon/ Japan

Feu/ fire

Kyoto (Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion) -- ambient 3

Sois certain/ Be sure...

Asian Cycles 3

Asian Cycles 2

The Future is Rain

Minute Haïku 3

Minute Haïku 2

Minute Haïku 1

Peace 1

Peace 4

Peace 3

서울 사람/ Seoulites

타워/ Tower

Niigata, Japan

PeaceWalk 2

Peace 1

anthropocene art

Snow - new cut - about my brother

ChantWalk II

ChantWalk

World Systems

하동/ Hadong

Paul and Sarah -- Truth Marathon

PeaceWalk 1

Laureate's Defence

선물/ Seoul

PeaceWalk I

저녁/ Soirée/ Evening

Seoul street, December 2017

Video poetry art

PeaceWalk series. YouTube links:

Les biens communs par rapport aux modèles acquisitifs de la propriété

North Korea and Its History With the US: Asian Cycles 23

Seoul: Big Apartment Complexes and Their Parks -- (Asian Cycles 2)

More about the incredible congestion in Seoul -- and how nature tries to coexist with all those vehicles.

Seoul, Seoul, Seoul -- Asian Cycles 1

If you want to experience urban density at its most congested, you have to come to Asia. Yet the region also possesses some of the best cities on earth. How these metropolises manage -- often, unevenly -- to maintain the right balance between natural spaces and hyper-development is the focus of this series...along with a look at what, ecologically, is next to come.

Liverpool

Japon [Japan]

Baram LXIV: The Violence of Sadness -- Synopsis

Two brothers and two poets. But one with the poet's disease, alcoholism. As this brother dies of liver failure … and family dysfunction … and medical indifference … the first brother reflects on one of the central obsessions of the second brother: the degree to which our perceptions of the real are framed by presuppositions that blind us to the boundarylessness of existence. We do not live in a world; we live in worlds. In a sense, death is integrated into life; it is within us, even as we live.

Makin' Shelter - synopsis

This is from a project-within-a-project (the Baram Series). This particular piece -- Makin' Shelter -- is about refugees. But it is also about the perils and poverty caused by war and the actions of demagogic politicians.

Baram VIII - synopsis

The movie is set in Seoul. Unlike earlier videopoems of mine, generally set in Hadong, a southern province of South Korea, Seoul is world-famous as an immense metropolis. But it, too, has its green spaces -- one of which is Soreapeul (close to the French quarter of Seoul). But, while still natural, it is an area in which development is also encroaching

This is from a long series of "authorial movies" -- these are videopoems that are created by the author; furthermore, all aspects of the movie are also done by one person, giving the overall work the same subjective singularity that literature has.

Baram VI - synopsis

Attached is "Baram VI", from a series of movies I have made about nature -- largely in northeast Asia, where I live, but also parts of Canada and Europe. I am interested in nature itself -- as a beautiful entity, which deserves admiration but not sentimentalization -- and also the relationship between nature and the urban.

The movie is set in Hadong, in a southern province of South Korea. It is an area in which development is encroaching upon rural areas.

Baram V - synopsis

Attached is "Baram V", from a series of movies I have made about nature -- largely in northeast Asia, where I live, but also parts of Canada and Europe. I am interested in nature itself -- as a beautiful entity, which deserves admiration but not sentimentalization -- and also the relationship between nature and the urban.

The movie is set in Hadong, in a southern province of South Korea. It is an area in which development is encroaching upon rural areas.

Baram IV - synopsis

Attached is "Baram IV", from a series of movies I have made about nature -- largely in northeast Asia, where I live, but also parts of Canada and Europe. I am interested in nature itself -- as a beautiful entity, which deserves admiration but not sentimentalization -- and also the relationship between nature and the urban.

The movie is set in Hadong, in a southern province of South Korea. It is an area in which development is encroaching upon rural areas. 

The Industrial and the Green - synopsis (complete)

The movie opens in Yongin, a region of Kyonggi-do province that is close to Seoul but that still retains a certain amount of rural character. However, this rural character is always being impinged upon -- by cars, by development.

The movie begins with a dialogue with Lee Su-jeong (my wife) as we hike on a nature trail near the university where I work. It then moves to an extended conversation with Yves Millet, a colleague at the same university, and one who has written extensively on the subject of nature within the context of the "anthropocene" -- the idea that we have now entered an age in which human activity is the major force shaping the planet, and that these changes cannot be reversed. The movie then returns to an extended conversation with Lee Su-jeong on the topic of healthy food, and its place within an industrialized society like South Korea's.
 
This is an experimental documentary made with Lee Su-jeong and Yves Millet, on the topic of industrialization and the protection of natural spaces/natural ways of doing things, in South Korea. The movie is intended to give something of a personal and intellectual overview of the issues involved, but to also create a meditative state in the viewer.

Instruments de bruit, Instruments de Evolution" - synopsis

Voici la traduction française de "Instruments de bruit, Instruments de Evolution". Comme je l'ai dit, ceci est une vidéo basée sur la tension entre l'urbain et le naturel en Asie du Nord; une région de la planète où la terre est rare et la spéculation immobilière est fardée.

Ceci est un récit expérimental et impressionniste qui montre la voie dans laquelle il y a un équilibre difficile entre le naturel et le développé en Kyonni-do, la province où l'on trouve Séoul.

*

Here is the French translation of "Instruments of Noise, Instruments of Evolution". As I said, this is a video based on the tension between the urban and the natural in northeast Asia; a region of the planet where land is scarce and property speculation is cutthroat.

This is an experimental and impressionistic narrative that shows the way in which there is an uneasy balance between the natural and the developed in Kyonni-do, the province in which one finds Seoul.

The Penz - synopsis

This is a very simple movie that was made in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.At that time, people were initially horrified. But then, a heated argument arose at PEN -- the international literary organization -- when a dispute arose whether or not to give a prize in memory of the victims of Charlie Hebdo. What was forgotten was their direct experience; terror is not just an act by a perpetrator, but also a horrifying confrontation of imminent death on the part of its victims.


This is a short movie on terror -- not the phenomenon of terror as violent act, but as something quarreled about by "the chattering classes", and then as something experienced, by those who have been targetted.

Baram CVII: synopsis

Baram CVII is one of a videopoem series, this time with footage shot in Hadong-gu and Yongin-gu of South Korea. Both areas contain exquisite nature. Both are under threat from development. Furthermore, within Korean culture there is a strong tradition of poetry and art celebrating nature. So, in a sense, this video poem shows what still exits, and celebrates it, too.

Synopsis - The Baram Series (iPhone)

A short video shot on an iPhone about the tension between nature and urban development in northeast Asia. This is one of the most crowded places on earth, and it is a nexus of the natural and the human-made.

Baram LXXXIV: Siren Scenery (synopsis)

A short video shot on an iPhone about the tension between nature and urban development in northeast Asia. This is one of the most crowded places on earth, and it is a nexus of the natural and the human-made.

Nature/ La nature/ Naturaleza/자연/ Природа/ 自然 -- THE INDUSTRIAL AND THE ...

Hiking in Seoul

From a precursor to the Baram series.