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David Hammons TOILET TREE, 2004
ceramic urinal, rubber tube and plastic rope
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Erwin Wurm Toilet, 2014
Acrylic, wood, 76 × 11 × 67 cm.
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Imposter Syndrome Death Flush, 2020
‘Haunted by the memory of his grandfather’s death, Ronnie must face his greatest fear – peeing alone. Is the legendary Toilet Seat Killer really dead? Can Ronnie hold it a little longer? Featuring wooden voice acting, cryptic puzzles, and bathroom puns to last for days, Death Flush is spine tingling retro syle terror. This game was made in about a month for the Haunted PS1 Summer of Screams. My primary insperations were Nightmare on Elm St. and Silent Hill. Estimated playtime: 20 minutes. Caution: Contains profanity and gore.’
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Robert Gober Various, 1984 – 1993
‘The lack of pipework and faucets generate a dramatic appearance, like something is missing. The creation of the sinks in Gober’s career is not casual: it coincides with the first years of the AIDS outbreak in USA. The sculptures make reference to the uselessness of cleaning. This profound and dramatic message wants us to connect to all those suffering the illness and who, around those days, knew that death was the only way out.’
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Pipilotti Rist CLOSET CIRCUIT, 2000
toilet, infrared surveillance camera, LCD monitor and connecting cables
disabling pipilotti rists closet circuit
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Do Ho Suh Toilet, 2013
‘Do Ho Suh, the Korean sculptor and installation artist, is fascinated by the concept of home: he once created a full-scale replica of his childhood abode, and often highlights the smaller domestic fixtures we frequently overlook—as per this remarkably detailed toilet. His use of translucent fabric is suggestive of the ‘invisible memories’ of our daily experiences at home, bringing them into focus in bright monotone shades.’
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Unknown Men’s Restroom in Pattaya, Thailand, 2012
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Jason Rhoades Portable Toilet and Bamboo Stick/Pencil Set, 1993
plastic bucket, lid, bamboo stick, two polaroid photographs and paper instructions
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Dash Snow Untitled (Table drugs, toilet, gun/money), 2007
digital c-print
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Paul Stafford The Toilet Gallery, 2006 ->
‘Each day, on his walk to work at Kingston University, Paul Stafford passed a disused women’s toilet block, up a side alley in Kingston Upon Thames town centre. A germ of an idea grew, then became reality as he converted it into an art gallery. “The Toilet Gallery” was opened by Gilbert and George in a flurry of press interest and, went on to show the works of a wide range of new artists as well as hosting performance pieces and events such as the “Pink Pooch Party” in aid of breast cancer charities. In 2006, Paul and The Toilet Gallery won the award for “New Start Up Business of the Year”.’
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Roy Lichtenstein Bathroom, 1961
Oil on Canvas
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Tyler Hays Ceramic Urinals, 2019
‘The BDDW founder adorns artisanal urinals, molded from clay excavated near his Philadelphia studio and workshop, with hand-painted 19th-century American pastoral scenes.’
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Ai Weiwei Marble Toilet Paper, 2020
Marble, edition Unique
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Hugo LLanes Toilet, 2019
‘In the form of a black-ink graffiti verse written on the wall of the Einar Jónsson Museum’s toilet, this collaborative work was a reaction to the migration crisis that Iceland is experiencing, a situation that isn’t exempt from other countries.
‘The artwork was a correspondence to Led Zeppelin’s ¨Immigrant Song,¨ which was inspired by Norse mythology. This folktale is carved on Thorfinn Karlsefni’s shield, a statue also located inside Einar Jónsson´s Museum. The verse on the shield is written in runic alphabet, which in English reads:
From the Island of the north of Ice and Fire
Of blossoming valleys and blue mountains
Of the waking sun and the dreamy mists
The home of the goddess of the northern lights.
‘After Led Zeppelin came to Iceland in 1970, they released ¨Immigrant Song,¨ which took kind of the same lyrical construction from the previous verse, and they wrote:
We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow
The hammer of the gods / We’ll drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde, and sing and cry
Valhalla, I am coming!
‘Interested in the gap in between these lyrics, their meaning and their shifting within time, the piece replies to the representation of how the Vikings were moving from one place to the other looking to settle and to establish as a tribe, how this happened in history from the northern hemisphere towards the south, and how this migratory effect has switched roles, caused by political, economic and war-related problems in the different countries where the immigrants are coming to Iceland.
‘The graffiti was used to disrupt the very intimate but public space with some sort of vandalism that shows up in a space that is protected, listed by the government and considered national heritage. It aimed to confront the visitor face-to-face with the little verse handwritten on the wall. The restroom was specifically chosen in the context of the Museum in order to give the same importance to the toilet as the exhibition space, like the attention, respect and protection migrants deserve in society as well as any other citizen.’
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Walter Marchetti Musica da Camera N° 211, 1991
‘Over the next five days, a performers will activate the piece, which is not playable in the traditional sense. How do you play a piano made of toilet paper rolls? The work is by the Italian composer Walter Marchetti, who is best known for making use of recordings of toilets flushing and pigs squealing.’
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Sarah Lucas Edith, 2015
Plaster, cigarette, toilet, and table
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Nina Beier SIM, 2020
‘Danish-born artist Nina Beier produced a site-specific installation of her work in the context of the home environment of the space. A series of pastel-colored bathroom sinks protrude out of the floor and walls of the space, containing hand-rolled cigars crafted to fit the hole of the drain. Bringing to mind Marcel Duchamp’s iconic Fountain, in which he presented a urinal turned upside down, Nina Beier has created a tongue in cheek, feminist take on the use of a readymade household sanitary object.’
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Urs Fischer Untitled, 2015
Porcelain toilet, glass, fruit
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Shy Yong Toilet Bowl Waterfall, 2014
‘Yong’s homage to bathroom plumbing consists of thousands of toilets and toilet accessories, including urinals, sinks, and toilet seats, spread across 100 metres and rising 5 metres in the air. The toilets are in fact connected so that just a single flush will start the waterfall off, producing a relaxing sound to users of the park.’
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Tom Sachs Lil’ T’s Toilet Town, 2000
Sink, toilet, medicine cabinet with fake shit, piss and tampons, tanks, vac, electricals, pumps and service ladder
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James Casebere TOILETS, 1997
dye destruction print
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stillhousebrewco 1976 toilet that Elvis shitted and died on while playing a Telecaster, 2018
‘I couldn’t get the Telecaster but a lady who claimed to clean Elvis’ toilet and wrote a book about cleaning his death poop traded the toilet to me for a piece of broken windshield I got from a Mexican bus crash.’
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Sophie Nys Family Nexus, 2017
‘The title, Family Nexus, is understood in psychology to mean a vision that is shared by the majority of family members, often unconsciously and for several generations long, and is upheld in the context of events both within the family and in its relationship to the world.’
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Rachel Lachowicz Untitled (Lipstick Urinals), 1992
Lipstick, wax, fiberglas, 15 × 9 × 6 in.
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Nan Goldin Various, 1980 – 1987
cibachrome print
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Elisha Ramos There Are Ghosts in These Stalls, 2020
‘A short horror game for the Two-Minute Horror Jam, made in a span of 3 days. You are trapped in a bathroom stall. There are weird writings on the door. You feel a sinister presence in the room. Mouse sensitivity can be adjusted by pressing the Escape key.’
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Juliette Blightman Oh shit!, 2018
Toilet, LED strip, dimensions variable
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Man Ray Trompe l’oeuf, 1963
Assemblage
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Mariel Clayton Barbie Comes Home To Find Ken Playing Rear Admiral Again, 2011
‘The prettiest girls do the ugliest things😉’
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Nabil Mir Flushing an iPad Down the Toilet, 2017
Mobile AR Grad Class @ IDM NYU
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Joel Holmberg Untitled, 2017
‘It is an American phenomenon to cover the toilet seat in a public restroom before sitting down, and most public or shared restrooms stock the stalls with flushable paper seat covers. When on vacation abroad or in a shared bathroom with no official seat covers Americans will usually rip and arrange small sheets of toilet paper to provide a protective ring to sit on. The shared bathroom in Holmberg’s studio building became the site of several snapshots of toilet-paper arrangement and shifting ambient light. Those snapshots have been converted into a new series of paintings. The abject qualities of the subject matter are obscured.’
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p.s. Hey. ** G, Hi, G. Oh, I see, about the reviewing. Yeah, it’s tricky: negative reviews. I gave quite a few of them back in the days when I did reviewing, and I don’t regret them, but a few did cause some permanent social awkwardnesses. That said, if you hate ‘Gone’ — hey, you never know — you can go ahead and whomp it. I can take it, ha ha. ** jamie, Oh, great, you’re a Tom Verlaine fan too. I really feel like his post-Television stuff has gotten lost, but I’m guessing that will turn on a dime at some point. Nice you saw that show with Jimmy Ripp. I’ve never him solo live, but I saw Television a number times back in their golden heyday. ‘Little Johnny Jewel’ is unbelievable. I still remember getting that when it came out pre-punk and being astonished. I’ll check the youtube link. I have a bootleg back in LA of the Eno-produced tracks, and they’re just wrongheaded and awful. Strange that such a seemingly great combo could have wound up sounding so dreary. I’m still good, thanks. How close are you to freedom? I might see a film in a theater for the first time today, we’ll see. Big, big, big up, buddy. xo, me. ** Dominik, Hi!!!! Yes, I really wanted to hang on to my Dutch, but there are so few people not in Holland or Belgium who speak it, so I had no one to keep in practice with. Alas. Oh, well, if S-A-R is candy, I would dig in, although, yes, I’ll bet it tastes pretty nasty. I hope your love’s head bobbed along to Verlaine’s chunky rhythms. Love writing a poem on a napkin when he’s depressed in 1864 which is then set to classical music in the early 20th century which is then adapted into a rock song that is a big hit in the mid-1960s which is given a more r&b flavor and becomes an even bigger hit when Beyonce records it in 2018, G. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Good talking with you last night my time. Yes, Tom Verlaine rules. He must’ve opted out of ‘PKM’ for some reason, no? Everyone says he’s difficult. I met him once at a gallery opening in NYC in the late 80s, and he was really nice, but then I was gushing at him, so… You went to the Fassbinder retro! We we’re at so many of the same things before we knew each other. How great was the Fox Venice. I saw so many films that were hugely important to me there. It was a great loss when it closed. I like(d) the Nuart, but it was never in the same class with the Fox Venice. Whoever ran the FV were serious cinema people. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Mm, I don’t remember, but I think if anyone from Television is in ‘Gone’ it’s surely Richard Lloyd as I had a gigantic crush on him at the time. I couldn’t see anything about that livestream, but it seems you have to Follow Ashley Paul to access it, so I’ll go do that. Fingers crossed, and thanks! ** Misanthrope, Oops, well, if I can laboriously delete files from my blog’s archive for whats feels like it’ll be the rest of my life, you can labor over your novel’s insides. Worth it, etc. I think you really have to want to be Bernard Butler at whatever cost to be Bernard Butler. Or Randy Rhoades. How badly do you want it, man? ** Steve Erickson, I think ‘Dreamtime’ is Verlaine’s post-Television masterpiece, but I do think ‘Cover’ is a pretty great album. And the comp ‘The Miller’s Tale’ is excellent. Agreed that Rhino should put that out. Seems strange that they haven’t. So … you need to get a new doctor? Everyone, Steve E. has reviewed Christian Petzold’s new film UNDINE, and he has released a new song,’Abductee’, his ‘ first time writing in 3/2 and the Aeolian scale.’ Go. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. I saw your email, but your comment came through, so I’m guessing everything’s fine now? ** Brian, Hi, Brian. Yeah, as I was saying to Tosh, the theater that held the Fassbinder retro was kind of saintly. Best guess is it’ll be Wang Bing this afternoon, but we’ll see. Yeah, porn without your finger on the FF button is kind of impossible. Imagine what it was like before even VHS or DVD much less computers when you had no choice but to sit through an entire porn film in a theater, and that’s when porn tended to have all this narrative stuff, much more narrative than actual sex scenes, that you never, ever were interested in. Nice you got to see your friends. Sucks, though, about your belly woes. May you have woken up with a big spring in your step today. Leading to a Friday that renders your week into mere foreplay. My Friday has possibilities so far, we’ll see. Be well, pal. ** Okay. I thought I would give you something useful today. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hi!!
I had a phase in my early twenties when I dreamt about toilets and various embarrassing/weird bathroom situations almost every night. Then, I just grew out of it or resolved whatever inner pattern they stemmed from. Freud’s wet dream, haha.
Aaaand here’s the latest SCAB piece, an excerpt from Josiah’s (Morgan) latest book-in-progress! (I actually think I forgot to share a few links here. There was a new piece on Monday, too, by M. T. Coombe.)
https://scabmag.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/josiah-morgan-road-an-excerpt.pdf
Hahaha, I love these “you’ll never see it coming” loves so much! Thank you! I wonder if your love would be happy that his poem lived to see so many interpretations. Love feeling like that one toilet in James Casebere’s picture, Od.
I remember at the very start of this pandemic when UK supermarkets suddenly had all their toilet rolls ransacked for no reason. Never any actual shortage in the first place, but such is the mystery of the panic buyer’s behaviour. Sure there must be houses around this country still full of the stuff.
Hi, Dennis!
I see. At first I thought you had changed the updating time to the evenings and I got confused. I’ve realised I can see today’s post on my phone, but not on my laptop. So I’ll check it on my phone from now on. Ha ha, yeah, the heat is here! And I’m with you. It’s not very nice. Yay! Please! Come to Primavera!! We’d be so delighted to have you here. Oh, I mixed up tenses, sorry! I meant we caught Covid last year. I’m perfectly fine now. At the time we didn’t go out much, but we were invited to a picnic and it seems we got it there. I think I’m getting vaxed this month. Wow, thanks for sharing the trivia with me. That’s crazy. Every time I came across the title ‘George Mills’ while working on Elkin I thought of your George Miles, but I would never in a million years have thought possible the connection. Yeah, I figured you would have read ‘The Magic Kingdom’ because of Disney World, but I assumed you wouldn’t be much into its form and plot. Yes, it is a very fun book. I love the characters and how obsessed they all are. Wow, a post about it would be so cool! Here’s something Blake Butler wrote about it:
http://htmlgiant.com/i-like-__-a-lot/i-like-stanley-elkins-the-magic-kingdom-a-lot/
A small press from Barcelona offered me to translate Elkin’s ‘The Condominium’ seven years ago. I’d never heard about Elkin before. That’s when I read ‘The Magic Kingdom’. So I was very happy to get the chance to translate it. But it has been the most challenging book I’ve translated in terms of style.
Toilets, yay!
Lots of love,
NGL, I didn’t think I’d enjoy this post, but I did! I even lowkey want that Barbie toilet with two Kens fucking in the bathtub. Super pretty! Where’s Duchamp’s urinal tho?
Yeah, I’ve read some of your delightfully & rightfully shady reviews in SMOTHERED IN HUGS. I can only imagine the writers and perhaps even their publishers didn’t love the reviews. Frankly, I don’t think I’d be able to get away with that level of shade, although I wish I could, and you rock because you have (despite the social awkwardness)?
Considering everything, I think it’s highly unlikely for me to ‘hate’ GONE. However, in the unlikely event that I do, I obv won’t review it. In fact, if I come to hate it, I probably won’t tell you. (winking devil emoji)
Excellent blog today. So much quality work here. Today’s blog should be a book or an actual exhibition. I’m very fond of Do Ho Suh’s work here. I think Duchamp was on to something here. The urinal and bathroom fixtures are very beautiful. In many ways it’s the perfect functional design. The Thailand urinals are dirty, in an enticing manner! Alex from A Clockwork Orange may have that in his personal bathroom if he grew up.
With respect to Tom Verlaine, I went through a Dylan rabbit hole because I just interviewed Paul Morley on his new Dylan book (excellent by the way), and I found a recording of Tom Verlaine doing Dylan’s “Cold Iron Bound” for the Todd Haynes soundtrack to his “I’m Not There.” It’s on all the streaming services. He totally made the Dylan piece into a Verlaine creation.
The Fox Venice was incredible. There was something magical about that place, and the curating was consistently top-notch. The Fassbinder retrospective was a program of genius. I’m still feeding off that meal, decades later.
Hi Dennis,
I think this might be one of your finest ever posts! It’s certainly one of my favourites. Maybe the subject matter, I don’t know, I don’t think I’m a toilet-minded guy. Maybe I am. When I had a disease that caused me to shit blood a few years ago, I used to photograph loos after I’d used it. It wasn’t really gross, was just really crimson blood against porcelain white and kind of beautiful. My plan was use the pics for something or other, but the phone I was using broke. Hope that’s not TMI. When I was a kid I thought two monster-guys lived in my loo and collected all my shit in jars and I used to run fast after I flushed so they wouldn’t get me. I saw a bunch of sculptures that would fit well in this collection recently, big chunks of pink marble with toilets and sinks and human body parts carved into them.
https://www.museumvanbuuren.be/en/daniel-dewar-gregory-gicquel-nudes-2/
– there’s a photo there that doesn’t quite do them justice.
Anyway, it’s an amazing post and thank you!
The reason I linked you to that particular Television/Eno video is cos the top comment is from Richard Lloyd, making it very clear that those tracks were NOT produced by Brian Eno. I quite like them though.
How was your day? Did you get thunder and lightning? We had a few storms here, which were nice.
Did you get to the cinema? We’re inching closer to freedom and once Ari is out of quarantine on Wednesday it’ll feel really good, I think. I’ve started making cinema showings on fb as ‘interested’ and even that seems exciting.
Hope you have a really great weekend!
Love, jamie
hey dennis, thanks for your kind words about my piece on expat. It is from the novel that I’ve been working on the last year plus. Things are good in mtl. I will finish my carpentry course on July 2nd. Lots of job prospects for when I am done so I am excited to get to work. I have been reading a bit less lately and watching too much baseball but I am currently making my way through A Sentimental Education before moving to Ficciones by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. Really enjoyed the barbie/ken rear admiral piece, very funny.
hope all is well in Paris,
Ian
Dennis, Some of these could be very convenient. I like the colored TP too.
Ha! Hmm, I want it kinda badly? I wouldn’t mind a day where I could write my own song or at least improvise something. But I’ve got to get beyond the basics obviously.
Yes, I plan on spending the weekend working on this novel. Or part of the weekend. Hope you have a good weekend too.
This back of mine is really no better. Ugh. So…I took one of the muscle relaxants my mom was prescribed for her stiff neck but won’t take. This was right before bed. It fucking wrecked me, hahaha. Seems you shouldn’t take it with the meds I take for OCD. Ugh.
Woke up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night. Then woke up freezing. Thought I had flu. When I got up for real this morning, I was nauseous as hell. Much better now, but fuck, never again.
It’s really funny bc I’m always warning other people about taking other people’s meds. Then I go and do dumb shit. Eek.
Don’t forget “eRoi Jones’ “The Toilet” whose original production starred Taylor Mead
Here’s the REAL story of “The Lord of the Flies” which is surprisingly copasetic.
Here’s the skinny on the new Leos Carax: “Annete” — a musical starring Adam Driver and marion Cottillard with songs by Sparks
WHODATHUNIT! “Conservatives” have discovered Michel Foucault They mst be into fist-fucking I guess.
Hey, Dennis,
Those urinals in Thailand are really something. Points for creativity, I suppose. And a round of applause to all of these other wonderful variations on one of man’s most important and weirdly culturally charged inventions. That does sound like a wonderful, wonderful theater. The main ones that I know of around here today are the Lincoln Center outfit, Film Forum (that’s where I’m seeing “8 1/2”), and the Quad. They’re doing the good work. Hope you had tons of fun with Wang Bing, if you did wind up seeing his stuff. Yeah, watching feature length porn at full length in a movie theater does sound pretty exhausting and intolerable. I am sometimes sort of interested in the effects of that tedium, though–you’ll recall I subjected myself to thousands of pages of de Sade with no skimming, which certainly wasn’t always an entertaining or exciting sit, but it did make for a fascinating experience. Of course it’s a little different with movies, though; not as collaborative (or at least not in the same way) as writing, so it’s likely ten times less endurable. Fortunately my upset stomach seems to have recovered today. We’ll see if that holds. I spent my hours mostly listening to the new Japanese Breakfast album. I’m a fan of hers. I concur with DL Steve Erickson’s take on this one (it’s good). Tomorrow will be more lively. You said your Friday has possibilities: I hope they all fulfilled themselves in their most wonderful versions. Or if not, that the weekend brings even better. Best wishes, happy Saturday.
Greetings from the land of the electric toilet!
Dennis, not sure if anyone mentioned the terrible news about Chris Goode’s suicide. I don’t know much, but it seems like a lot of tragic stories and accusations surrounding it. I’ve just been listening back to your interview with him. I know how much you and this place and community meant to him. Just really sad news. Love from me.
Hey Dennis. First time commenting. Don’t really know if there’s any special etiquette or anything like that I might be missing, but my throat is tightening from GERD and so this is blog is keeping my mind off of the anxiety of it and I felt compelled to comment.
Recently read Closer which is the first book I read by you. I really enjoyed it and found out you had a blog. Was really confused when the first full thing I read was people asking to be bloodied and killed and what not. Thought I stumbled into something weird. Took me a bit and I think I get it lol. It is weird.
Anyway, I enjoy your stuff and I felt it fitting that my first attempt at engagement was one about toilets. You hear about that guy who sold a statue of nothing for $18,000? I don’t really have an opinion on it but it is always nice to just see people do weird things. Even if it might be stupid weird.
Thanks.
I’d feel bad about peeing in those Tyler Hays urinals. Those transparent toilets, wow. Wonder if there are urinals with faces of people on them that we’d love to piss on, hmm.
Did you catch the Ashley Paul stream? I was having a family lunch and couldn’t watch it, but I see it’s on Vimeo now.
Bill
Last week I saw my uncle and he told me about urinal gaming at a minor league ballpark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ4GexzPRtE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HLXwsynT7E&ab_channel=CaptiveMediaCaptiveMedia
My dad died two weeks ago. Grief’s coming in waves. I made it in time to say goodbye and stuck around with my mom and sister for almost two weeks. My mom’s gonna take some time to figure out what to do next.
Got back to Tel Aviv yesterday, recovering from jetlag. Back to work tomorrow. Already throwing myself back into stuff. Thanks for recommending “The Combustion Cycle” a few weeks ago. I’m starting to read it. I think I’m close to the deadline here so I’ll sign off for now.