In Which We Live Entirely In The Realm of the Semiotic

spring, summer, autumn, winterBlissymbols

by MOLLY LAMBERT

Today we begin again.

Originally called Semantography, Charles K. Bliss invented a language that makes ideograms out of seven hundred basic icons. Now known as Blissymbols, it is not widely used and it's still debated whether an entirely logographic language is possible. I like it because it reminds me of rebuses and the sample sentences sounded like Talking Heads lyrics.

In the future, This Recording will be written entirely in Blissymbols.

This is my house.

This is my life.

Please come here today.

I want to go to the cinema.

She is my friend.

It is made of wood.

I lost my hat while at sea.

On icy stairs.

We learn by teaching.

I think, therefore I am.

Who can help us now?

I doubt what the government says.

Whose book is that?

Her boyfriend is jealous of her work.

Their relationship won't last.

How did they like the giraffe?

She has beautiful teeth.

I like the music from these headphones.

Your wife said she was in the hospital because of depression.

That nonsense must stop.

Happy to help!

Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She tumbls here. She twitters here.

"Summertime Clothes (live on Letterman)" - Animal Collective (mp3)

"Summertime Clothes (Zomby's Analog lego mix)" - Animal Collective (mp3)

"Summertime Clothes" - Animal Collective (mp3)

"Summertime Clothes (Leon Day aka L.D. remix)" - Animal Collective (mp3)

"Summertime Clothes (Dam Funk remix)" - Animal Collective (mp3)

In Which I Always Imagined That Paradise Would Be A Kind Of Library

Computer Carrels

by MOLLY LAMBERT

Library Photographs from Curious Expeditions

There's a Bruce Springsteen song called "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)." Bruce looks better now than he did in 1990. (Doesn't everyone?) The song is about cable and how 57 channels are not enough to satisfy us. Of course now with the internet there are 57 million channels and yet sometimes, bafflingly, there can be nothing on. 

As a kid I used to fantasize about watching television all night long, until it went "off." I assumed there was a manual operator who had to press a button to end TV. As an adult I have lived this fantasy many times over, as I'm sure most of you have at one time or another. Long before the advent of DVD box sets or torrenting sites, I longed to immerse myself permanently in the state of watching television. Of course I learned that TV never really does go off, it just turns into informercials for a few hours.

The internet doesn't turn into informercials *yet, but even with the ready availability of Surf The Channel and Hulu and YouTube, a seemingly endless supply of entertainment, there are times when we hit the wall. This New York magazine article speculates about whether over-stimulation makes us smarter or the opposite.

I know that before I had the internet, I watched TV, and when I couldn't do that, I read magazines and books. Distraction is nothing new. How useless the new forms of distraction (twitter, facebook, et al) is still up for debate. The author of the NY Mag piece decides that Wikipedia cannot be useless if it taught him about the Boston Molasses Disaster. If you've run out of internet, read Alex's google shares.

For those of us who enjoy libraries (and if you read This Recording, you probably do), Wikipedia is like endless rows of stacks. And there are always more videos you can watch, more articles you can read. But you still reach your limits. No matter how many channels or webpages are available, you build up a tolerance. Or you get eyestrain. 

But as the internet continues, there will be more outlets. More online magazines (none as good as This Recording). New ways to dispense movies and television and images as well as the written word. Words won't get left behind. Text that is typed on a computer is every bit as authentic as something scribbled in a notebook or tapped out on a typewriter. There is no hierarchy of mediums. 

"Jennifer's Body" puts a crimp in the plans for my horror comedy "Victoria's Secretions" about a girl whose vagina lubricates poison; Megan Fox thinks she’s a role model for strong, young women. The Transformers star, who recently likened herself to a prostitute, wants to help teenage girls “feel strong and intelligent and be outspoken.”

Fox also called herself a "bull dyke" this week with reference to a time she gained some weight. I wish she would stop being such a 3rd wave feminist and get on board with the 9th wave. It's feminism in the ninth dimension. Seriously Megan, I want to like you. You're so ridiculous. Get on my level ho!

Accidental Mysteries

Ex Libris

Blind Pony Books

Seven Roads

Time Tales

Socus Locus

Ephemera

Confessions of A Bookplate Junkie

How To Find Images On The Internet 

 THE JUKEBOX IN HEAVEN IS STOCKED WITH PRINCE

 "Jack U Off" - Prince: (mp3)

"Let's Work" - Prince: (mp3)

"Annie Christian" - Prince: (mp3)

Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She also tumbls and twitters. 

In Which Earthquakes Give New Reason For Blog Posts

An earthquake shakes Molly's keys loose...

a SONATA for p/rep/ared KEYBOARD

BY molly LAMBERT

i AM not TRYING to MAKE this P/URP/OSELY look likE a RANSOM note OR because I’m A STR8 GANGSTA now. my COMP/TUR is BROKEN. I am TAKING this BETCH to THE glendale galleria GENIUS bar right AWAY.

i couldn’t STOP/ myself FROM trying TO blog AND it GOT me THINKING that JOHN cage WOULD be reallY into P/REP/ARED comp/uter KEYBOARDS and THE IDEA of BLOGUEING concrète. i’m SURE there ARe P/OETS who HAVe THOUGHT of THIS vis A vis THE internet. THERE was A dep/artment FOR it AT my SCHOOL. thE HYPERTEXT field IS wide BUT shallow. They HAVE yet TO imp/rove ON p/roject XANADU.

The ON the ROAD typ/ewriter scroll

RIGHT now MOSTLY the CAP/S lock IS turning ON and OFF at WILL and SOMETIMES things COME out AS sp/aces INSTEAD of CHARACTERS. It’s P/RETTY imp/ossible TO tolerate. IMAGINE how FRUSTRATING it WOULD be IF comp/utERS were MORE like HARP/S or ORGANS. LIKE if YOU had TO hold DOWN a SHIFT key NOT just TO cap/italize BUT to WRITE vowels OR YOU HAD to TAP/ some KEYS TWICE and OTHERS three TIMES.

WE think OF typ/ing AS being INTUITIVE AND close TO thinking, LIKE kerouac TYP/ING out the MANUSCRIP/T for ON the ROAD as A scroll, but LANGUAGES are ONLY intuitive ONCE you’ve LEARNED them AND thEY become INTERNALIZED. I remember looking At BILLBOARDS BEFORE I knew HOW to READ. Staring INTO THE incomp/rehensible ICONS known AS letters, willing them TO reveal THEIR meanings TO me.

The SCROLL of KUBLA khan by SAMUEL taylor coleridge

unfamiliar LANGUAGES can BE clunky AND HARD to USE. html IS a LANGUAGE but if I ever started THINKING in IT while NOT BLOGGING I’d want YOU to murk ME.

I was TERRIBLE at LANGUAGES in HIGH school. I took FRENCH instead OF the INFINITELY more USEFUL sp/anish p/arce QUE je SUIS un ABRUTI.

but EVER sincE i learned HOW TO P/LAy GUITAR off ABOUT.COM i AM sup/er COCKy THAT i CAN learn ANYTHING from THE internet. (EXCEP/T how TO fix A comp/uter KEYBOARD ap/p/arently).

John CAGE saddle shoes BY RAY johnson

my CELL p/hone IS broken in A way WHERE i CAN’T read MAYBE a FIFTH of THE screen AND i JUST work AROUND IT. Sometimes I get TEXTS where THE key WORDS are BLACKED (or actually, P/URP/LED) out like “HEY MOLLY i WANT to [........] YOU LATER.”

I AM still WAITING for THEM to INVENT a MACHINE that WILL directly RECORD MY thoughts.

THIS recording DIDN’T invent DIGITAL p/oetry WE just P/ERFECTED it. blogs ARE mostly ASSEMBLAGE anyway.

SAMUEL T. COLERIDGE: faggy GOTH kid

Kerouac wrote ON the ROAD IN an AMP/HETAMINE induced SP/RINT. DID Jack GET the IDEA for A CREATIVITY enhancing drug BINGE from SAM coleridge, WHO wrote KUBLA KHAN and THE rime OF the ANCIENT mariner IN an OP/IUM hazeP?

aaron SORKIN was COOKING his own CRACK when HE wrote THE american P/RESIDENT. I WONDER IF he WATCHES the WIRE. if DICK wolf RAN the WIRE there’D be AN amy WINEHOUSE ep/isode THIS season. I’M only on SEASon ONE so far MYSELF. don’t SNITCH.

John CAGE cooks

The VOYNICH manuscrip/t IS a mysterious illustrated book with incomprehensible contents written between approximately 1450 and 1520 by an unknown author in an unidentified script and language.

BOB coover AND his Electronic LITERATURE Organization would ap/p/rove. i LOVE ELO!!!!!!!!

John CAGE with P/IANO

TIMELINE of HYP/ERTEXT technology

great WORKS by TR’s P/ATRON saint JOHN cage

Indeterminacy ONLINE

UBU web IS the HOME of CONCRETE p/oetry ON THE web.

OUTGRAP/O

OULIP/O

ALL the covers OF p/ublished editions OF OTR

P?aul HARTAL

Haptic Poetry

John CAGE comp/osed IN america

Hyp/ertext

HYP/ERCOMICS

Memex

EMERGENCE

OFFICE of The FUTURE

WORLD brain

Symbiotic INTELLIGENCE

situationa/l awareness

Cybernetics

My Life Bits

Life LOG

Dymaxion Chronofile

ATOP/ aN ap/p/le MACBOOK,

yourS truly,

m LAMBERT

Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She tumbls it all right here.

"First Interlude" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata X" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata VI" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata II" - John Cage (mp3)

"Second Interlude" - John Cage (mp3)

"Sonata IV" - John Cage (mp3)

JOHN CAGE READS THIS RECORDING IN HEAVEN