jim christ
Santa Rosa, CA
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the author has vague memories about the 49 years that led him to this spot in time, and can only paint bits of whatever it was from time to time in the poetry that appears here. he remembers that when asked what he wanted to be as a child, he would retort, "a cartoon character". he thinks that he's quickly approaching that status while spending time in VP's in the Excite community.(yes, at Ninians Poetry Cafe)he bounces off the walls there as "climbmax".
yours,
climbmax aka jim christ |
• What do you do for a living?
now that is one loaded question, isn't it. I consider work what I do to "pay the bills". it's a part of "the living" but a consequence of necessity rather than a life vocation. haha. don't get me wrong, I do what I love for work. my primary lifework though is still processing and emerging and doesn't have any clearcut marketable facets at this time, therefore ya gotta keep those wolvesies from the door. nowthen, for "a living" or in other words "to really live" I create airsculptures and make 2dimensional images with the illusion of 3dimensional images when I cut lino and wood into printing plates, roll them up with medium and then press that image on to a waiting piece of something or other. sounds like an allegory for life or living don't it? hahaha.
then again, to finish the answer to the surface of the question, I inspect, by checking dimensions and condition of construction projects. commercial and residential. it's interesting and rewarding but it doesn't hold a candle to clicking an airsculpture or conceptualizing and manifesting a linocut or woodcut print. you know about that rush of a feeling that happens when you create something from nothing or something that manifests into reality and image from a vision - or we wouldn't be here. - all of us reading this. haha. • Who are your favorite artists?
not enough room here to answer that one completely. looking at the cream of favorites though, there'd be a diverse little group of peaks emerging from the clouds. Dali, Picasso, Utrillo, Van Gogh, Elizabeth Quandt, Max Heine, Betrane, Miro, Rousseau, and on and on in the paint and prints category.
in the music sector my faves are Louis Armstrong, Clyde McCoy, Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Bonnie Raitt, Ben Harper, Taj Mahall, Richie Havens, Lightning Hopkins, John Hiatt, John Hammond, Hot Tuna, Maria Muldar, CSN&Y and all their beginnings and endings, Frankie the Zappa, Tom Scott, Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan, Les Claypool, and on and on.in literature Richard Brautigan, Jim Dodge, Buk, Jack the K., Laura Chester, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Robert Frost, Robert Hunter, Gino Sky, Mary Stewart, and on and on. • What influences you to write about/how you do?
the influences/drives/allures/obsessions/magnets/stirrings that are the ocean of what I write, are whatever is affecting/infecting me at the time. my writing is just a spilling of what flows through me. I seem to be producing a constant splashing much more than the even pour that began my writing. things have changed in three and a half decades, that's for sure! • Where do you see the underground writing scene in 25 years?
put everything we know on the head of a pin. hold it up in front of you, and then think and conceptualize the difference between that and all the surrounding area - all the way off into the foreverness. then, do the odds on what might happen. with that in mind, I think we will see some amazing emerging trends that are already existant and discernable and which will take leaps and bounds into some progressions and digressions that we can only wonder about. already, the amount of what is out there to be read is multiplying so quickly that not only can't we read and assimilate what is out there RIGHT NOW, we have less and less of a chance at accessing a smaller and smaller percent of it - FROM NOW ON. hahaha. comforting thought, eh? at this point the loudest squeak gets the grease, the brightest flower gets the look and smell, the most dangerous aspects get the attention. the influx of art and data is a swelling logarithm of growth.the emerging common occurances that I see in "underground writing" are right there for all of us to look at. I think that trends in the web experience will take shape and become new types of writing. my favorite trend at the end of the last millennium that is now reaching a popular enjoyment height is the rant. rants satisfy many aspects for both the ranter and the listener. a rant must be original and eloquent or totally fresh and interesting to be a success. if it is not logical or at least built on shared neurosis or other imagined important subjects or complaints, then it quickly becomes a whine. I don't know about you, but a rant, even one I don't agree with is entertaining. a whine on the other hand, is merely a whine.I think we will see progressions in all areas of expression. underground politics, ecology, sexual interests, conspiracy theories, alternative living solutions will along with too many others to list emerge to become important or at least participated in underground movements. this little net that has brought us all together is accellerating the information flow in such a way that change is giving birth to change at a rate that challenges the speed of light. we are hurtling into change and evolution at a rate which increases exponentially. the greatest underground trend that I see and feel and imagine with excitement begins with the merger of the mind of man. beyond all the freaking geographic, political, religious and other divisive and repressive ways of our ancestors and those who rule and control us RIGHT NOW, I see this net connecting and making possible the revolutionor evolution of mankind on planet earth. the connection between the underground and the overground is the really important critical dynamic to watch. how long will this underground and the joy of free speech, free progression and interchange of whatever is next, whatever ideas spout forth tomorrow - exist? now more than ever before, "FREE SPEECH" is not only important, but may be the difference between life or death of the quality of our freedom. survival of diverse and unpopular (at first) possibilities and thought progressions depend on it. with this in mind, the terror and the ulitimate horror and cataclysm for everything that is outside or "under" the status quo is CENSORSHIP. not only do the healthy and positive seeds of thought need a place to grow, but all things no matter what should have a place to be aired. in this way we have a chance to understand and know each other. better to hear a monsters most malevolent and horrid wishes and interests, and be aware, than for that monster to be silenced and never known until it's too late. the issues are compound and complex, but in the end, to be able to access it all beats the hell out of SOMEONE ELSE DECIDING WHAT CAN BE ACCESSED. maybe another good question is, "how far underground will the underground be?" • from cait - I’ve heard that when you were a little boy, your dream was to be a cartoon character when you grew up but you never mentioned which cartoon character. I was curious to know if it was a male cartoon character, a female cartoon character, the whole show and do you masturbate online – with cartoon characters!?
yep, yep, yep. true, true. Daffy Duck. I saw something of myself there. Bugs was a distant second. both those guys were great role models. explorations of outer space, humor in the face of violence and authority, an off the wall "joy of life" that recognized the absurd and foolish and acted out the same right back at everything in their path. there was one other, Jerald McBoing Boing. but that was too early a memory to really delve into. something about a screen over the tv, and drawing in stairways and ladders and solving problems for the character. scribbling and drawing on the tv, then later on the walls of my room, the hall, and everything that I could reach, making magic doorways, stairways, tunnel entrances, windows.this led to some negative reinforcement repercussions and then access to large quantities of paper. threats pertaining to what would happen if my drawings ever wandered off that stack of paper and on to the wall again stuck with me until adolescense and spraypaint cans took me back to that old bad habit. I wish I could go into that aspect, but there are many reasons I cannot. at this time, I haven't experienced the female cartoon character that calls to my inner x chromosome self. so far, the female aspect attracts and elicits a hunting mode, or a cuddling mode, or a passionately plundering mode rather than an identification mode. that's just the way the chemistry flows. if the future holds cross dressing or an expensive sex change, I haven't heard the call yet. I think I'd rather play with one than be one. as far as the online masturbation thang, I'm still a virgin. I've been aroused mildly and wildly, but haven't consummated the relationship with my CRT. there's just something about the flesh that makes the rest pale by comparison. maybe one of those blowup miss pinkies attached to a CRT might do it, or a peripheral device with some groundbreaking attachments, but until then it's me and my out of control imagination in the realm of cyber or auto sex. this interview was accomplished with three cups of jet fuel coffee and one hour of a saturday morning for the-hold ezine on 1/13/2001.peace, over and out,
jim christ |
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