pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on mon 2 may 05
Hi Mel, all...
This whole area for me, is very difficult to talk about without feeling
almost instantly
clogged from exhasperation...or overwhelm...
I can see why the poor fellow who wrote "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Mantainence" was in the booby hatch getting thorazine and shock treatments
untill he walked palsied and could hardly remember 'who' he was.
I skirt that fate with all the delicacy of a kid on a bike going too fast on
a long downhill curve on a gravel road...and it is 'delicate' too...to stay
'on' that road.
What is 'quailty'?
What are the confluent attributes whose combination or synergy distinguishes
the result, to be what could be called 'quality' ? ~ or not?
What when no one, or almost no one...sees it? One way or the other?
Or they see maybe one emotionalized allusion which is the 'hook' for
something otherwise totally lacking quality in every way BUT 'that' one?
What when almost everyone is too buisy, too dead, too innured, too
compromised, too damaged, too far gone, too obligingly stupid from years of
practice ( adaptation, collusion, appeaseing, etc) , themselves, to 'see'
it,
one-way-or-the-other?
What do 'they' do then to have commerce with eachother?
Where does quality begin? what does it 'mean'?
What kinds of quality are they? or, is it?
"Who" is it for?
Who can tell us whether they see the presence of lucid vortex of euphorias'
'Eye', of the Temple Virgins, or, just another whore?
The average 'john' with a twenty?
Can he tell us?
As a boy, I once heard a little story, of some 'savages' somewhere who could
count only to "three". Supposedly, if one showed them three of something
they would exclaim "Three!"...if one showed them two of something they would
say "two". But if one showed them five, or nine or fifteen of something,
they would say "Three!"...
I recall this to have depressed me something terrible, because I knew only
too well even then, that this was 'so'.
That typified my parents, their peers and overall, the psychologic 'economy'
which already typified the late 1950s...
"Three!"
...sigh...
Artifacts are deeds, personified in the result, in the object. Co-Memorated,
realized...incarnate, 'in' and as...the resultant Artifact.
What is the 'deed'? what is the quality of the deed?
Purchase price is a vague barometer, since now-a-days especially, greed and
waste and cynical fatuous appeasements and hype typify most manufacturing's
offerings on every level or kind.
So that someone not greedy and wasteful
and cynical and bullshitting, could imaginably make something far far higher
quality, than something less so that 'costs' more...which then would confuse
all the "Three" charm school of pilgrim's doldrum shufflers and side show
townees.
Or, especially, the cost sometimes, if for something used, which may be
something of high quality in every way...
Someone I knew once, in 1978 or so, bought a minty "perfect" garage kept,
showroom condition, 1953 Buick big series two door hardtop. They payed
$100.00 for it from ( literally, ) an 'Old Lady'.
Over a few months they trashed it horribly, never having greased anything or
attended to anything or changed the oil or inspected anything or checked the
coolant, or...anything. They just got in and drove it all over, on long
trips and so on and were very rough and mean to it.
Then they just left it in an alley because it was having a little problem.
I asked them, "Why did you do that to that sweet and minty old Car?"
They said, "Why should I care about it...it was a Hundred-Dollar-Car..."
I have seen "this" kind of 'reasoning'...many times, in many forms...
I have five or six 'Spray Guns', all but one are ( way) pre-war, (some pre
first World War for that matter) some smallish and made of Bronze, from the
days when DeVilbiss had previously made only throat atomizers for Orators
and Opera Singers or people with sore throats anyway...Lol...some Nickle
plated Brass, and a few Aluminum alloy
ones of the one quart or half-quart size from the 'twenties...some are from
obscure long forgotton companys...made in places like 'Los Angeles'...when
Los Angeles used to make things...
My (unfinished from me being depressed or run ragged with other things, of )
Air Compressor is a 1929 'Curtis' with adjustable 'Timkin Bearings' on the
Crankshaft ends, and a big double row roller Bearing on the big end of the
Connecting Rod, that puts out 12 CFM (or is it 9.5? I forget now, sorry) at
400 RPM and is so quiet you can have
a normal conversation standing next to it. The specs for the most current
'Curtis' model, indicate that their comparable models are no more
'effecient' now. And, it looks very handsome in it's way...it has a nice
presence even if doing nothing at all. By 1929, it had got as 'good' as it
was ever going to get.
This is true of a great many things, or, they went down hill, from
"there"...where ever their "their" was for their kind of device, mechanism,
Tool or item...
So, my little medley of Spray Guns - I found these here and there...over
time, and every one is a gem. Every one is excellent in it's way.
What wears out on these?
The maybe few thousandths in the mid-section diameter of a tempered Brass
'Needle', maybe, or the needle's end where it closes into an aperature, easy
to ammend if ever needed, otherwise...little felt or leather seals, maybe to
renew if one wants to...tiny oakum packings one tightens once every twenty
or fifty years or so...or, when they need it anyway, easy to renew also if
one wanted, if they needed it somehow...
No big deal. If one had a worn one, one can make a new part or repair what
is there by any of various methods.
How long of occasional use could these last?
Eons...geologic epochs...
Of frequent use, with care, and once or twice a generation to give a few
minutes attention to tightening a small oakum packing or addressing a
Needle-and-Seat...?
Eons...
Do they work well? do they have variously adjustable fan-settings? Can you
adjust various things on them? do they work well over a wide range of
pressures in many kinds of paint or finishes or other liquids? do they look
good? Are they ingeneous and attractive and curious and made with care? Are
they easy to take apart and clean? And is each one 'Proprietary' ?
Yes...
How much am I into all of them for?
Maybe 20 bucks, maybe 30...three bucks here, eight bucks there, five bucks
here, a couple bucks there...
Find one, bring it home...study it, soak it for days in a bucket of MEK to
get off the enamel paint someone did not clean off in 1950 when they used it
with contempt because it was 'old'...
Take it apart...admire it, clean and tidy up, re-assemble, good-to-go from
then on, for-ever, more or less...
Little hand stamped serial numbers, jig-stamped patent dates and makers'
names...each one different in it's way of being what it is, from the
other...
Did DeVillbiss "Stamp" ( yes, the old ones were Stamped, with) their name on
something someone else made?
I do not think so...not in those days I mean...now, they have no earnest,
nor any real integrity anymore...so it is a different matter entirely. They
are now merely mimimal substance, and mostly bullshit. Kind of like
everything 'else', for that matter.
Later, when Die Casting came into fashion, names and other details were
cast-in to the form, but even still sometimes, serial numbers and model
numbers were hand stamped on them. Many of these 'guns' were very very
good, even if 'in' a new material instead of being made of Sand Cast
delicate Bronze or Brass, whether Nickle plated, or not...
Not only do the function very well to deliver paint or something...but, as a
whole, each one has a unique integrity AS something in itself. They do not
merely 'fucntion' on one prefunctory 'level'.
This is one aspect maybe, of how or why the idea of 'quailty' seems to
confuse people.
Or, how people who are confused, tend to remain that way without epiphanies
occuring from their happenning to look at something.
Anyway...
Different orders of quality, of things...and, in different ways of being
different orders...and...
So...
What is anything?
To whom?
Who "gets it"? (Meaning, who understands it?) Understands it on what way?
What is there TO 'understand' about something?
In what ways of, orders or, kinds of, understanding? deferential to what?
What is the deference, which something 'has', embodies, 'says'?
What basis of experience or perspecuity does one have to 'understand'
anything?
Why does any of it matter?
What is discernment?
And to whom, and about what...?
Many threads to gather, for any tapestry...
Endless...
Poems...
Kalidescopes...
Vertigo maybe...
When all we are left with is the most banal and mean-spirited tokens of
appeasement or perfunctorty one dimensional "means to an end"...with all the
justification that can (and allways does, ) have for itself...
What then is the 'end'?
...something that already happenned?
Phil
el ve
----- Original Message -----
From: "mel jacobson"
> it is an old story here on clayart:
>
> `anyone know where i can buy a cheap kiln, cheap tools?`
>
> i cannot stand that attitude.
> no commitment to the craft...no commitment to yourself.
> your approach is all wrong.
> cheap is always cheap.
> rarely do you get a good deal.
> mel
> have respect for yourself and your craft...buy good tools.
> from mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
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