Forrest Armstrong's Blog, page 15

ENIGMATICI – a new Crossing Chaos e-book, for free

This is a cool sampler my publisher put out, featuring stories and excerpts from myself, Tom Bradley, Mark A. Rayner and Martin Heavisides. Totally free, and all these guys got a unique way of tweaking your head, so definitely check it out at Smashwords!

Dali on a Game Show

Look at this crazy mother fucker.

How to Write a Surrealist Poem

"No idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted."
Un Chien Andalou

 

The idea of what surrealism means has definitely changed since its incarnation in the '20s, but when I say "surrealist poem" I'm holding closer to the original definition than how we see it now – meaning the exploration of the unexplainable processes of the subconscious.  The thing that's changed about the term is that the dreamlike images (also...

Crossing Chaos New Year's Deal

Hey everybody – Crossing Chaos has got a new deal to make it easier to acquire the dank art they put out.  All seven of their pocket novels for the clean, easy price of $60.  These novels include:

- my own Asphalt Flowerhead
by Tom Bradley
Marvellous Hairy by Mark A. Rayner
Undermind by Martin Heavisides
- Icehouse & Thirteen Keys by Hugh Fox
Sometimes Never by GX Jupitter-Larsen
Word Burials by J.J. Steinfeld

Get on it here! This deal goes from now until January 31st.

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Morning

Every time I wake up I think I'm only thinking for ten minutes and then two hours have gone by. I keep having apocalyptic dreams where the stakes are absurdly high – like this one where we broke into my old high school and just screened a movie. And it was some FBI shit. It didn't make sense and then when I got broken up I was running through these country backyards and thinking "Shit life ends NOW." It doesn't make sense and I keep having dreams like this that end with me thinking I'm...

Zen Habits

More in this ongoing dialogue about art being free… I recently found a cool website called Zen Habits, written by Leo Babauta, who aside from giving really head-refreshing advice on keeping your zen in check in this hyper-modern world, believes in everything he writes being uncopyrighted.  You know that reminds me, I was reading an article with this musician talking about how he hopes copyright laws don't diminish, because he makes a big portion of his money from sample clearances.  Mooching...

Naw Les Ge Dawn is a masterpiece and now it's yours

Keepin' art flowin' free. I mentioned Twists about a week ago because one of the newest Gasoline Monk beats, "Tie Your Drums in a Knot," uses a sample from them. That got me thinking about the amazing album they made a few years ago, Naw Les Ge Dawn Vol. 1.  It moved and influenced the hell out of everyone who heard it to the point where I don't think all of us would have had enough belief in ourselves to do what we're doing now without Twists. Because we're just chillin on train tracks...

Underground Pick #6

THE DEAD EMCEE SCROLLS by Saul Williams, 2006.

First off I think it's time to define exactly what I mean when I say this, and what the purpose of these  "underground picks" are… the term's not just meant to suggest attention to something simply not getting any – not just a list of things America's slept on.  This is art that fights to take back some of our collective mental shelf space from the monotone hum of the mainstream. Saul's book is the right piece of art to mention this on, because...

Danger Chimp

I wonder how often this dojo master gets his ass accidentally kicked by his student.  Thank you Angie Molinar for showing me something to remind me, again, how  much I wish I were an animal.

Verbal Mathematics

Here's a collection of quotes that, when all viewed together like this, really help clean out the head.  Found 'em all at this awesome website, so if you want more that's where you can get it.

"Art permits us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
- Thomas Merton

 

 

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work."
- Emile Zola

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"All good ideas arrive by chance."
- Max Ernst

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"I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me...