meryl wrote:
> You're right though, people (Americans in particular)are taught very early
> on that pleasure is "bad" and that self indulgence is always a sign of
> weakness. All the flux artists I know of (particularly those most active in
> the 50s and 60s) seemed to understand this or faked it remarkably well. I
>
There were definitely some drinkers in the crowd- Emmett Williams with his "In
Vino Veritas" and Dick Higgins with a borderline alcohol problem.
> believe that pleasure is at the heart of most good art (well, pleasure and
> vaudeville to be painstakingly accurate). I believe in total hedonism as a
> valid "lifesytle" (insofar as I believe in "lifestyles"). Crowley had it
> right you know, "Do What Thou Will Shall be the Whole of the Law." Good old
> Uncle Al...one of the last men to know the value of a good sideshow.
>
I used to practice total hedonism. I smoked, I ate meat, watched porno etc.It
did bore me after a while though. Now I'm a bit older and I realize that
there's was something missing i.e. taking care of my health! So I quit smoking
which definitely would have killed me eventually considering how much I smoked.
And went vegan for a diet and started excercising. I guess you reach a certain
point where you say "Whoa!" I still hate excercising though. One Fluxus
proposal by the mail artist Mark Bloch was to walk on a jogging paths and offer
the joggers cigarettes. I thot that was very funny.
There's always Max Stirner "The Ego and His Own" too.
>
> Indeed, blah, blah, blah, woof, woof, woof.
> Clearly too much time on my hands today.
>
> Exactly under the sun
> Badgergirl
>
> (it was Beuys who changed my life. i get the feeling that people don't
> realize how funny he was.)
YEEEEEEESSSS! Beuys definitely. I just purchased a set of his postcards and
they're really terrific. I did a mock version of his Fluxus Zone West rubber
stamp not too long ago.
>
> ----------
>
RA
