The Lady or the Tiger?

“The Lady or the Tiger?” is what Landron labels the lower level of his installation piece the "Shattering of Time." Here we have an elaborate toy train set. There are two tunnels. The train goes in one tunnel and comes out (locomotive first) the same tunnel it went in. The red circles on the tree are not bulbs, Landron insists, but "nodes."

Every Spring semester he teaches Boolean Logic at the Claire Trevor School for the Arts Art and Technology Department at U.C. Irvine. Teams of his graduate students take train tracks from a Lionel box. They must guess what the layout of the track for "The Lady or the Tiger?" is inside the mountain including Boolean switches. Since Landron lives in Bilbao, the course is podcast.

Speaking of trains, seen here hanging from the ceiling is Chris Burden's "Medusa's Head."

Giant Sundial

I had the honor of being a guest on Junk Thief TV's YouTube cavalcade about the Amish and San Francisco's second most popular tourist attraction The Giant Sundial.

Junk Thief mentions Albion Castle in his current blog. Graham Robb refers to Great Britain as Albion in his biography Rimbaud. It was the original name for the island.

Arthur Rimbaud spent more time in London than in Paris. In London he probably heard a lecture by Karl Mark and almost knocked knees with Swinburne (drawn here by Rosetti).

Troll Window Special Guest Appearance!

First the special guest appearance of Bea Lillie on Junk Thief and then the special mystery guest in the Troll Window . This sacred window (I call it the Troll Altar) on 18th Street near Valencia in San Francisco is one of the three reasons left to stay in San Francisco the others being (2) diagonal crossing and (3) the Giant ______ which will be revealed in a future Junk Thief TV episode. Today's safety hint: If you have a sunken living room be sure to place a potted plant or a Modigliani sculpture or two around the perimeter so your guests don't fall into the conversation pit. One wag suggested a bust of Virgil.

Photo is of Graham Robb, biographer of Arthur Rimbaud.