Yes, yes I know...

...I haven't been around for a while. What can I tell you? I've been busy:-) However this is a posting With the specific intent of introducing you to my del.icio.us account - which can be found here (have you ever noticed that when you create a link on a page that you have to switch it off if you don't already have a space after it?) Not that I get distracted by technology or anything... Anyway, you'll find that the del.icio.us (that's http://del.icio.us/xozoome in case the link doesn't work) account is all about media - since that's what I'm into and what I do.

Frankly, with that being said I've only seen the social bookmarking thing in passing in the past, and never took the time to investigate it. Now that I have I suppose that it will take over my life like some sort of alien life form - and I'll be driven to heat my house to 100 degrees and maintain that temp at all times. After seven days when I determine that the temp is stable I will grow pods in the basement and pay obeisance to my cat. Not that that's anything that could really happen... and has never happened before... or anything.

Have I ever mentioned that I love sci-fi?

Oh the image of the guy on the road you ask: well funny thing I was on a flight to Rome, flipping through a French language magazine (wow I sound so cosmopolitan) when I came across this pic. What you may not be able to determine because you don't know me that well is that this guy looks one hell of a lot like me - if I decided to become a biker or something - but still he looks very much like me even to the way I stand. Yes Virginia I have a doppelganger, and this is not the Twilight Zone.

Graffiti is art - when I like it

The fact is that I hate the scrawled scribbles of idiots that feel the need to express their unhappiness to the world through aerosol excreta. I actively campaign against what has been splashed across walls in my neighborhood, while at the very same time I admire and enjoy the work of artists who choose to place their art where anyone can view it for free. Who decides what is what? Well, I do ,of course. No really, I'm of the opinion that even the likes of SLAG would agree that once you've seen his (or her) name done up in bright purple with a yellow drop shadow - you've seen it. There is really no particular need to see it everywhere on every stone wall or subway station. At the same time when I look at the amazing work of such as Banksy (click on the "outdoors" link and use your scroll on the bottom of the page to move right) in London I am amused, moved and humbled.

It may seem to you as if I am torn on this issue, but I assure you that I am not. Graffiti Art and graffiti litter are not the same but for the materials used and the general placement choices. If Michaelangelo had painted his name on the ceiling I do not think there would be even the slightest discussion of it's merit. Perhaps some gang members of the time had done such a thing and "Mikey" was hired by the Medicis to cover it up...

I suppose that should admit that sometimes I do encounter examples that at least in my mind walk the borderline between crap and art. Yesterday I encountered one of these and made the decision that when I passed that spot today I would shoot a short video of it. Imagine my disappointment when I passed the location and found that it had been wiped away. If only sanitation worked so quickly when I call about the blight in my neighborhood. Still, I missed my chance - so I'll just have to tell you about it: Someone using a marker (clearly no the permanent sort) placed a perfectly straight line across the white tiles of the wall of the escalator up from the 7 train into Grand Central. Obviously the marker wielder braced their hand on the rail and held the tip of the marker to the wall while they rode up. There were a couple of random points in the continuous line where the "artist" moved the marker so that the line took on a wave shape for maybe 10 inches of so before becoming straight once again. That was it, except for the single word printed at the end of the line, "Hi."

So was it art or vandalism? Perhaps it was both, or neither, but I found it interesting, and let's face we've all seen an extraordinarily valuable solid blue canvas hanging on the wall of MoMA.

At this point I'm kind of tempted to get a marker; replicate what I saw then video it as I wanted to do - and then go back and wipe it away, but it really wouldn't be the same. . .