April 27ths

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4/27/1943

(Diary of Anne Frank)

“Our German visitors were back last Saturday. They stayed until six. We all sat upstairs, not daring to move an inch. If there’s no one else working in the building or in the neighborhood, you can hear every single step...

The rhythm: 

 

 ***

None of the topics really relate to each other--yet. The nature of random processes is that they converge at some point. The rhythm feels like an undercurrent--a drone. It could be about an oil rig worker with second thoughts about being on it and want to be on the road.

Sunken oil, underground river
[Sunken oil underground river]

It doesn't matter what you do
You can change it

Started “On the Road”
In the small hours of the morning
Hotter than ever
In the heat of work
Discovered an important opening unity

It doesn't matter what you do
You can change it  

4/27/1949 (Jack Kerouac Journal)

Started “On the Road” with a brief 500-wd. stint of 2, 3 hours duration, in the small hours of the morning. I find that I am “hotter” than ever — tho on Closer examination afterwards I figure I may only be over pleased with words, and not structurally sound yet (after a long layoff.) My interest in work is at a high pitch. My aim is to have much of "Road” done, if not all, by the time T & C is published next winter. I quit school today so I can do nothing but write. — Now I want to expand the original 500 words which, in the heat of work, ‘discovered’ an important opening unity.

4/27/2001
            
The problem with conceptual art is that it always comes with a detailed set of instructions that you have to study in order to enjoy a work of art. The best art cuts to the chase with the maximum impact, and ignores the test of time. Exceptional art augments the definition of art, but should not replace it.

[4/27/2026: This was before I started making it. I don't mind having to explain it because it defines the process and objective]. 

4/27/2010

Sunken oil rig continues to spew 42,000 gallons of oil a day off the Louisiana coast...

4/27/2014, Sunday

Studio: Cenote Angelita, an underground river, and it should sound like that. 

4/27/2022

This afternoon at the bookstore I ran across a small book of Andy Warhol aphorisms. One of them struck me because it's something that I thought about before: "It doesn't matter what you do. You can change it—become an abstract expressionist and then the next week you can turn into a pop artist or someone else without feeling that you've given something up." I like this idea. One week I might be into songs, then next week ambient music, or do representational art of some kind and then do abstract painting. I think we could do all those things, which sort of ties in with the song character idea.

4/27/2025

EXPO 2025, Navy Pier. Amazing and exhausting. What I like to do is alternate between a collector's view and an artist's view: Would I want to look at it every day, and as an artist, would I want to spend weeks or months making it? [Photos]

[If you want to make conceptual art, or art driven by ideas, this is one of the shows to go to]. 

4/27/2026 

I realize I'm now into year 2 of the Songdays as I loop back to the 2024 ideas. The original idea was that it would be like On Kawara's date paintings where you didn't have to make a choice on what you would make, but I find myself having to choose an idea or to continue on with those already in the queue. Art is much different than music in how it inhabits time.