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Sunday, January 17, 2010 Support Jeffrey Beaumont and Social Media Week  So as I am a general wunderkind of the event planning variety, I often step down from my ivory tower of non-profiteering to lend a hand to up-and-coming organizations in need of some consultation and execution assistance. One such group that I'm working with right now is a fine little project called Social Media Week, founded by the inestimable Toby Daniels, and what they've got on the docket is pretty rad. Social Media Week is a weeklong meta-conference from February 1-5 exploring its title in literality: a week of citywide activities devoted entirely to the appreciation and understanding of social media and its inherent power. With thirty-five events running across New York over the course of the week, Social Media Week (SMW) is without doubt ambitious in scope...except that in addition to New York, SMW will also deploy concurrently in five other cities worldwide: Toronto, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, London and Berlin. Seriously. Each city will operate their own SMW with a fair degree of autonomy, so to be fair Toby is chiefly responsible for his New York baby, but the widescale organization of these events is impressive to say the least. I have been brought on by Toby to manage seven of the events (to be disclosed soon!) and so far, so good. I'll share more on what i'm working on in the weeks ahead, but for now check them out here and go here to check out the week's schedule for New York. There's a ton of shit going on, and it's all FREE, so please do Toby and I a favor and sign up and check-out anything that seems interesting. Holla! posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 1/17/2010 10:31:00 PM 0 comments Contemplated Thoughts With Hole In Mouth Things I need to write about, as thought up while sitting in my office on a Sunday night avoiding work:
That should cover it for the time being. posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 1/17/2010 10:04:00 PM 0 comments Friday, November 13, 2009 I Destroy Romantics, Actors --- KILL IT! "I have never felt better in my life" --Mark E. Smith, "The Classical" I am a bit hobbled and certainly fucking exhausted right now, but I'm Labels: BEAUMONT, plans, quickthoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 11/13/2009 08:10:00 PM 0 comments Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Crazy Busy / Expect Delays Huge event coming up next week so expect low postage from me for next nine days. Keep on living and loving. One update: Facebook group added for The Chairmen of the Bored, please join here. Holla! Labels: Chairmen of the Bored, late arrivals, plans posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 11/11/2009 11:08:00 AM 0 comments Friday, November 06, 2009 BRAINPLOTTING / SORRY MA / LIFE FACTORY NONSENSE  Four posts in one week is deprarious nonsense for me as you know. Friends, I apologize: I have a huge event to put on in less than two weeks and a scavenger hunt in less than 24 hours to execute. A few brief sentiments: a) Come to the Scavenger Hunt. There are already 40-50 people set to attend and I can promise that it will be the fucking jam. Email me at the address in the poster above to RSVP. b) More words will come soon, I promise. c) More photos will come soon too, including from our time learning to shoot rifles and our trip to Bannerman Island Remember two things: 1) The people in your life need reminders from you that you love them. Let love grow and flourish. In the form of Halloween candy or phone calls or back rubs or on the seat of your bike while you pedal (learn how here). 2) Love the fuck out of life and enjoy every goddamn minute of it. Labels: BEAUMONT, Chairmen of the Bored, plans, VICTORY posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 11/06/2009 04:20:00 PM 0 comments Friday, October 16, 2009 A Time Of Movement In Various Directions  I am 27ish years old and well aware of my place in the world as a man nowhere near "settling down." I'm honest with myself; it just ain't happening soon. Nonetheless! This is the kind of shit that makes me feel like I am 1,000,000 years old. A BIG baby prize!! I would even say why hold out on the kid--may as well give her the "Super-Double Baby-Ingrown Toenail WOW WOW WOW Songbird Prize"! This is the route to the heart of champions and unquestionably a path toward baby happiness and long-life livingness. Winning winning cornish hens morticians nonsense cow's dung tinkerbell linger dinger alpha male. Can it be I stayed away too long? Labels: fucktactics, kids, plans, quickthoughts, thoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 10/16/2009 01:20:00 AM 1 comments 1
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Outback Slangin'  On my short list of things I'd like to do in the next few years of my life is to go to Australia. If one were to name three possible courses of action in going to Australia, what might they be? Holla at me if you got an idea. Labels: plans posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 10/16/2009 12:43:00 AM 3 comments 3
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009 Facing The Day  The inestimable Bobby Allyn, always face-up even when he's face-down: August 2009. Larger size here. It's just one of those days where the blood is pumping and action is happening all around you. And what better way to increase circulation of those red and white cells than to pump one of the all-time great (albeit hilariously gaytastic) New Order songs, the concluding number from their best record: "Face Up", from 1985's Low-life. Someday I'll write some more about my relationship with New Order (and their best song "Temptation", one of the ten greatest songs of the 80s), but for now just enjoy this sweet pop good-bye, which is kind of like a low-powered but equally gay version of "Bizarre Love Triangle". LISTEN: New Order - "Face Up", from Low-life Labels: mp3, music, plans, quicksnaps posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 10/07/2009 12:19:00 PM 0 comments Friday, October 02, 2009 On My Own  "A Strangely Isolated Place", by Marcelo Halmenschlager. Available here. I'm always fascinated by the ways and circumstances in which people decide to share private, sensitive information with others. Sometimes it's standing up on national television and sometimes it's just blurting out thoughts to whichever stranger happens to be nearby... Right now I'm at a cafe near my home waiting for a waffle and I'm overhearing a barista telling a woman he clearly doesn't know well about how on Monday he has to go to jail for not paying child-support. The calmness with which he's retelling his story, with laughter and sighs even, is jarring almost to the point of belying the absolute tone of gentle sincerity in his voice. There is no doubt that he carries an weary uneasiness about himself, but also a resigned steadiness against the acknowledgement of his plight and a true expression of a man offering some kind of honesty to the world. I do not know this man, nor have I ever seen him before, but right now all I can think about is how sad I am that this has happened to him and how fucked everything is and how I'm sure he's been wronged in some grave way, if only by a world that couldn't possibly ever work out for him. I don't honestly know of course if he is Guilty--or even guilty--of crimes deserving of the punishment he's about to receive. Some people are slick, and others so delusional of their relationship to the world as to be unforgivably irresponsible to themselves and those around them. But I know that for whatever reason, my heart goes out to this poor stranger, and I wish that I could hold him and let him know that everything will be all right.* --- ...Or sometimes it's just through a hardly read, mostly unknown-enough-to-not-even-exist blog. As a semi-tangential digression, I repeat this last sentence on the barista to myself and recognize the degree to which my feelings about him speak to my own plight, as a man (historically) far more interested in caring for and assisting others than himself. I've spoken at length recently about possibly adding a canine to my life, and in response a close friend encouraged me to do so because--while admitting that he would never feel this way about most people--he was convinced that being responsible for a dog's well-being would cause me to in turn take better care of myself. How does one take on this duality of love and neglect? It's unfortunately all too easy to see how many people are able to care for themselves and neglect those around them, but it's a bit harder and more complicated to understand the reverse. For me this distinction was rooted for a long time in a lack of self-confidence and self-definition--summarized best by saying that I did not know how to "dare to dream"--which was significant enough that even in the absence of being able to "help others" I didn't know what to do with myself. Now I finally seem to have made enough strides to have figured out my identity and get a better sense about the things that I feel I want and need in my life... but somehow the emptiness of Who Am I? has been replaced by a strange and steely I Live To Live that is somehow just as resultantly neglectful. I have been thinking quite a bit about this topic since Wednesday evening, when some friends were over and, through the course of many cigarettes and glasses of wine, we somehow touched on the topic of death and the fear of dying. "I just couldn't do ___," said one friend, "I am just too afraid of the possibility of death to let it go like that." And then another followed by saying, "I am afraid of a lot of things, of course. But in fact, what I really fear is that I might get to a point where I no longer fear death, which is the most terrifying idea of them all." But I, as an insouciant late-twenty something, arrogant in his beliefs in the great possibilities of the world, firmly stated that "I do not fear death at all. I am ready to walk out my door right now and be struck down forever, if that is what is to be." Despite my occasionally macabre attitude and the name of my online "handle", I do not believe that tossing around statements like these are casual (or forceful) acts of nihilism, nor are they a sign of some kind of degradation of my cares for the world or the value of my life. It's really just so simple that despite the many things in life I have been afraid of, I don't really know how to fear death. I have spent far too much time and energy in my life anxiety-ridden dwelling on overimagined outcomes of seemingly very real sequences of possibility, and the ways these outcomes could represent the crumbling of a life I'd worked hard to put together for myself. Largely these digressions into fear-world produced, at best, wasted hours or days or weeks, and at worst led to legitimately self-destructive behavior that actively brought on an unnecessary reality of the very fears I had lost sleep over wanting to avoid. Luckily I am largely past this kind of brain-tracking now, but only as long as I am on-guard against their attacks and always keeping in mind that for me, the wolf will always be at the door. BUT: as destructive and unhelpful as those fears always were, at least they were rooted in some kind of understanding of a possibility that, however remote it may have been, was an extrapolation of the potential of me understanding the way things might someday be. In contrast, thoughts on death, however, bring no sensation of the sort--to die would be not to live, which would mean the end of outcomes and possibilities; if I am dead, then there can be no painful reactions, no terrible consequences to deal with. Death means [STATIC NOISE], [silence]. All of which is to say that in my years of confusion and non-happiness, I have gained an acute understanding of what it means to fear the outcome of being alive and living badly, and so the thought of living in fear of no longer being able to feel seems almost laughable. As strange as it may sound, all of this is actually a good thing, I think. I spent a solid 15 years of adolescence and early adulthood incapacitated by my anxieties over what could possibly torture me while being alive (situational irony alert), and now that I am free of those bounds, the idea of being tortured by nothing is just a conversational "whatever" (... or maybe not, judging by the length of this post). Still... to bring it back to my earlier thread: I know that there is a connection between not fearing death and not taking good enough care of myself, and I do think the root lies in the continuing to be true fact that I just don't know what the fuck I'm doing with myself. I'm fairly convinced that I've made important changes to put myself on a good path, and that not being preoccupied with life-constricting generalized anxiety is an important measure of progress to hold onto right now... but at some point not far down the road I know it will be time to take another couple of steps, and I'm sensing that that time is steadily approaching. Perhaps with a little more concrete understanding of not just who I am but what I want, perhaps then I will worry a little bit more about ceasing to exist. And frankly, I don't think a dog is going to be much of a savior here--I just need to keep looking out, looking within, and experiencing life on a day-by-day basis. LISTEN: Ulrich Schnauss - "On My Own", from A Strangely Isolated Place## Nina Simone - "Isn't It A Pity", from Emergency Ward%%% Gogol Bordello - "Through The Roof N' Underground", from Multi Kontra Culti$$$$ Brian Eno - "An Ending (Ascent)", from Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks^^^^^ NOTES: * -- Trust me, I know that most likely this is the last thing he needs right now. ## -- Someday I hope to get around to writing about this record, one of the warmest and strangest pieces of electronic music I've heard. My associations with this record are deeply intertwined with my real-life goings-on at the time when I picked it up in spring 2003 (Carmiel, where are you?), but other no record I've ever heard so closely resembles the humid cloud-must of a waking-life fever dream. %%% -- Yes, I called on this one once before already. And I will certainly do so again at some point. $$$$ -- I discovered this tremendously sweet little curio of a song as a backdrop to a quirky and mediocre-but-still-interesting indie film called Wristcutters: A Love Story. Though flawed in all sorts of ways, there was still a nice spirit of light "c'est la vie, and so it goes" that I appreciated tremendously and which this song represents precisely. ^^^^^ -- This is literally the endpoint of all ambient (not ambient) music. Nothing there could ever possibly get better that this. Labels: BEAUMONT, JB screeds, mp3, plans, quickthoughts, thoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 10/02/2009 11:52:00 PM 0 comments Wednesday, September 23, 2009 Autumnal Grace: 2504 And Counting  Richard Serra, "Schunnemunk Fork (Part II of four)", from Storm King Arts Center The last day of summer concluded last night with the setting of the sun and it's now autumn. And now, finally, after riding 35 miles today I have reached and passed my goal of riding 2500 miles by the end of summer (more or less). All it took was 115 bike rides (to and from work counting as one "ride") since March The best part, honestly, is that I'm not suddenly "done" now either--nothing, in fact, is any different for me tomorrow than it was today or last week: just keep on rolling them tires until winter makes me housebound. I guess I'll just have to see where I am at then too on the mileage front. But, for a man who most of his life has lacked profoundly any internal drive resembling the term "discipline", this feels like a pretty solid life victory. HOLLA! Labels: BEAUMONT, biking, Hyperliving, plans, VICTORY, YEZZIR posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 9/23/2009 11:37:00 PM 1 comments Friday, August 28, 2009 Three Down, Twelve To Go With the least auspicious beginnings I've had yet, here I am now, awake at 3:08am after a measly three hours of sleep, getting ready to head off on the longest bike ride of my life. Or at least strongly considering it. It's also the beginning of a day that, according to Weather.com, is sure to be rife with rain and 20mph headwinds. Dudes have already bailed and so if I ride I'm all alone. Decision-making time.... Here goes. Labels: biking, lolgore, plans posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 8/28/2009 03:09:00 AM 0 comments Tuesday, August 18, 2009 80 Percenter I have tonight reached the threshold of 2000 miles biked in my ticker of 2009 cycling. According to Dr. Gabe Mirkin--who I have never heard of nor know nothing about--this is equivalent to approximately 575-625 miles of running*** (as far as calorie consumption goes). Mille bourn, deux fois. 2000 miles is of course eighty percent of my goal to hit 2500 miles by summer's end--now just 500 miles to go. My body right now is feeling a little worn down--my right knee hurts, my hamstrings are still tight, and my back is sore. I'm also not totally sure I'll be able to do the rest by September 22 (and I have a friend visiting me for a week right before then, so it'll be extra hard), but I'll do my best, which is ultimately all that matters. And either way, my hope is to continue biking to work every day until late October or early November, so I'll reach my goal eventually. What seems to matter to me most now is that--my broken body excepted--I feel pretty great right now. NOTES: *** -- Derived by using Mirkin's format; see link above Labels: BEAUMONT, biking, exercise, plans, VICTORY posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 8/18/2009 01:42:00 AM 0 comments Thursday, July 02, 2009 1420 Miles Down, 1080 To Go  Few realize that the secret to a winning athlete's diet is eating lots of these. It's July 2 today and I'm pleased to report that I've now ridden approximately 1420 miles since March 14, taking place over 65 days of riding*** ranging from 5 to 118 miles. This leaves me with 1080 miles to go to hit my end-of-summer goal of 2500 miles. I won't stress if I don't reach it, but I'm feeling pretty good right now that I will. Can't stop / won't stop / what not. Das Leben, es ist sehr gut. NOTES: *** - I say days of riding because on my chart I'm keeping I count things like "a ride to work and the ride home" as one ride. In total "rides", I guess the number is probably more like 100? It sorta definitely doesn't mean a goddamn thing, any of it, of course. Labels: biking, exercise, plans, quicksnaps posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 7/02/2009 01:14:00 PM 0 comments Wednesday, June 03, 2009 I Can Smell The Wiener Schnitzel Here it is again, June 3, and I am once again less than than 12 hours from heading out the door for another transatlantic departure to see the world's biggest and brightest. Despite whatever bullshit I can complain about during work, I really can't argue with the great many trips I have been able to take in my time working for this institution. I am without doubt an incredibly lucky man. Today's travels take me back to Berlin, where I will once again conquer the challenges of dunkelweisse and schnitzel until next Tuesday, when I fly to Paris and then train to Poitiers to visit my great friend Rebecca and her boyfriend Jeff, who have been more or less living the Eat+Pray+Love lifestyle for the past year plus while Rebecca works on her PhD dissertation. I haven't seen her in a few years and I've never been to Poitiers before, so I'm incredibly excited for the great possibilities that lie ahead. Of course, it wouldn't be a Jeffrey Beaumont trip if I weren't able to tell you that at 8am on the morning of a day with a 7pm flight and a nearly full day in the office ahead of me, I still had yet to pack. Why would life be worth living if I did not push it the extreme? Anyway, it will all get done as it always does while I spend much of the next six days thrashing about the earth like a man on a fucking mission. Except some lengthy blog posts and strange smatterings of photos. And love. Labels: BEAUMONT, plans, travel posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 6/03/2009 07:55:00 AM 0 comments Monday, May 25, 2009 Goodbye, Hyperliving; Long Live Slang Editorial  I have officially shut down shop at Slang sister-site Hyperliving, retiring it to streamline my life to just Slang Editorial, which is plenty of work enough for me to keep up given everything else in my life. Read more about the close here if you're interested, and the original site manifesto I laid out in January 2008. The best overview of what I did with Hyperliving can be found here, but everything is pretty organized if you feel like poking around the archives to check it all out. A lot of my plans panned out; some didn't. But overall my objectives were achieved and I feel good about where I went and where I am now. And so, on to What's Next. Labels: Hyperliving, plans posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 5/25/2009 12:24:00 PM 0 comments Break My Body  There are some great changes going on these days in the mind and body of one Jeffrey Beaumont. For a variety of reasons that I understand and some that I don't, I have been attempting to beat my body into some kind of submission over the past month. Right now I am pretty exhausted. I think I have been feeling lately that many years of stagnance, physically and mentally, have made me feel increasingly weak and unprepared to handle the brutal world around me, and that my desire to get tougher, coupled with my general high-energy/low-need-for-rest attitude have set me on a crash course of some hyperathleticism. Of course, I also have a tendency to overdo things, and that's probably where I'm at right now. At the moment, every part of my body is aching, from a somewhat punishing schedule of biking, basketball and rockclimbing. On Saturday I biked 50 miles; yesterday I played two full games of basketball; and today I'm going rockclimbing again. The biking I am able to do these days without experiencing much post-ride soreness; the other two activities, however, have been making me hilariously tender, and when coupled with the biking, I feel like I'm 70 years old as I walk around the office. And topping it all off, I will be adding yoga to the fold this Thursday, which I hope will reduce and not add to the aches and pains I'm feeling. I think of a part of this hyperactivity is my growing restlessness with (at least a part of) the life I've been living, which has been increasingly great on many fronts, but increasingly tiresome on the work and routine front. I have mentioned this to nearly all of my friends recently but right now the thought of working in an office seems like one of the worst things I could imagine doing, and I am beginning to consider any and all escape route possibilities for non-office alternatives. For the time being though, I still do work in an office, and so I am making due by pouring every ounce of my extra-work energy into whatever kind of mind and body activity I can come up with. After so many mental combustions over the years, perhaps I'm just trying to see if I'm capable of physically combusting. Either way, this stream of thought ends conclusively with "To Be Continued..." Labels: basketball, BEAUMONT, biking, exercise, plans posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 5/25/2009 12:17:00 PM 0 comments |
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