set and reset

after the last days of work and documenting, we are back to blogging, and rediscovering where we stand.

a set and reset, evoking my days with Eva Karczag.

these two items (horoscope from rob breszny, given to me by Elyce Semenec, an american artist i met in Berlin, and a Sam Roberts video, shown to me and Nikos by Eric Fro, the american artist we met here in Detroit), actually symbolize very much were we stand.

Ps: sorry for the name dropping, but they stand as references to persons that have given us a'lot!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Every year smokers toss away over four

trillion cigarette butts, fouling the environment terribly. But recently a

few Chinese scientists embarked on the seemingly impossible project of

finding value in this noxious waste. Collecting up big piles of discarded

filters, they developed a process to extract chemicals that are effective

at preventing corrosion when applied to steel pipes. Your assignment,

Pisces, is to accomplish a comparable miracle: Turn some dreck or dross

into a useful thing; discover a blessing in the trash; build a new dream

using the ruins of an old pleasure.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The film *Avatar* hammers out such

vehement anti-military, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist themes that it

could have been endorsed by the leftist rock band Rage Against the

Machine. And yet it's the highest-grossing film in the history of the world.

One critic marveled at its popularity in even the most conservative areas

of America, noting that it got "a theater full of people in Kentucky to

stand and applaud the defeat of their country in war." Your assignment in

the coming week is to do what *Avatar* has done: Try to make sure that

your opponents and skeptics are entertained by your message -- maybe

even excited and intrigued.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Paul, a fortune-telling octopus in Oberhausen,

Germany, had an amazing run of success predicting the results of World

Cup competitions a while back. His technique? His handlers gave him a

succession of choices between two tasty morsels, each representing one

of the teams in a given match. The treat he picked to eat was the team

whose victory he prophesied. I wish I could access his expertise to help

me sort out your upcoming decisions. It's really important that you not

over-think the possibilities, but rather rely on simple gut reactions. Why

don't you pretend you're an octopus, and imagine that each choice you

have to make is symbolized by some food item. Ask yourself, "Which is

yummiest?"