tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50353142011-08-01T16:11:23.622-07:00Future WaveWhile impulsively selected, the title for the page, “Future Wave” is both a song by Tower Recordings and a state of mind that will hopefully sweep society sustainably into the next era.M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.comBlogger521100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-61116059309261616922010-10-18T19:39:00.000-07:002010-10-18T19:45:44.140-07:00i have been published, a prose poem about my sleeping problems (really, a waking problem), at Abjective, an excellent weekly online marquee, and it's been archived here.I also started collecting some of my online comment ephemera.M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-16050345328667414222010-07-29T08:35:00.001-07:002010-07-29T08:40:51.355-07:00an arbuscular fungus infiltrates and reclaims. this festering forestbed, futurewave, still limps. blogs abound, what's the difference? i can catalogue them all, also announce new egg, suchaswitch, prose poems. someone said use everything; to me this echoes Emerson, I open my manysidedness.M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-6050628394262540842010-06-18T06:52:00.000-07:002010-06-18T06:55:04.838-07:00After months of numbness and anxiety and confusion, I finally completed poems addressed to my imprisoned pals in Persia.M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-77892273488127871742009-06-02T17:35:00.000-07:002009-06-02T17:37:35.958-07:00Ph.D. Dissertation.Everyone says that no one ever reads your Ph.D. dissertation, but in the off-chance you might be interested, here is a link to it. I wrote a preface at the beginning that is more like an autobiographical account of my academic adventures thus far, which the general audience might find more readable than the rest.It is entitled: "Modes of Hydrogen Production by the M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-84932407044519400062009-05-07T17:31:00.000-07:002009-06-02T17:34:50.737-07:00If you jump to 35:30 on this youtube video of the Student Reading of the UC Berkeley Lunch Poems series, you can see and hear me read the poem that won me the Rosenberg Prize in Lyric Poetry this year.M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-46403097982967625722009-02-07T16:52:00.000-08:002009-02-07T17:05:44.751-08:00This year, I am again a co-recipient of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Lyric Poetry Prize! You may read the poem here.The judge had to comment:Matthew Melnicki's 'Untitled'.The best thing about the poem, to my mind, is simply that it is surprising.It doesn't bother with anything needless and instead launches, quiteeconomically, into a figure that it manages to develop both from line toline and in M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-73629287736110721192008-08-25T09:57:00.000-07:002008-08-25T10:00:05.556-07:00Poem Published at Idiolexicon.Someone posted an offer for a free copy of their poetry journal which I wouldn't buy. Read my poem and find out why.M.Melnickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13146097609423882559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-10060296096619534752008-05-16T20:46:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:09:06.497-07:00Poetry ReadingsOn May 1 2008, I read the poem that won the academy of American Poets Prize (here) at the UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Student Readings. You can jump to 52 minutes to find me reading it on this video.I also read it (and the Dorothy Rosenbergy Memorial Prize for Lyric Poetry - here) on April 25, 2008 at the "A Celebration of Writers" awards reading at the International House at UC.MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-22908747576714337582007-12-14T12:02:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:09:53.391-07:00Poetry AwardsI just heard today that I am the co-winner (with Johnny T Hernandez Jr.)of the Academy of American Poets contest for 2007-2008at the University of California, Berkeley.The poem can be read if you click here.The judge has commented:"The poem by #xxxx is a beautifully cadenced series of images. They have astriking, almost surreal character, thanks to the markedly originallexical MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1149225057066059062006-06-01T21:55:00.000-07:002006-06-01T22:13:44.296-07:00Books in the street.There is so much to say about Berkeley's books in the street, clothes in the street, dishes and furniture and art in the street. Two nights ago, a friend of mine found two six-packs of beer, a pizza, and a bunch of groceries in the street in SF (all in different places). Most of my wardrobe has come either from the street or the free pile in my building.But what I wanted to MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1104323803061107982004-12-29T04:36:00.000-08:002004-12-29T04:43:22.096-08:00I have not presented any new ideas in quite some time, namely because I have been preoccupied with my graduate studies. Woefully, I have had enough time only to read the required scientific literature for my coursework, and have done very little personal development beyond my new enthusiasm for tea and pressure-cooked beans. Nevertheless, I am currently in the doldrums between tumultuous MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1087180597732074382004-06-13T19:32:00.000-07:002004-06-13T19:36:37.733-07:00The best, and perhaps only, value judgment one can make on individuals is of demeanor. Draw the gentle folk to your floors and love them as they love the world. Every smile they exude to strangers is a gift to society and their work is perhaps the most valuable form of activism. Those that cuss, argue, interrupt, spit, grab, stare, steal, stomp, and mutilate possess a variant violence. To MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1085985922520756122004-05-30T23:45:00.000-07:002004-05-30T23:45:22.520-07:00Early in life, back in the suburbs, I heard occasional gossip of particulars who “ran away and joined a commune” (pronounced CAH-myoon). This was intended to evoke that the person jumped off the deep end and has some undesirable personality traits. You occasionally heard of cults and people who danced naked around a fire and had to turn over all their material possessions and were never allowedMMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1071293943916886142003-12-12T21:39:00.000-08:002003-12-12T22:06:25.403-08:00Limits to the spread of a grand solution.
Whatever magnificent scenario arises to guide a polis toward sustainability, the path will be most difficult to navigate amongst a sea of people. Perhaps, should a group of individuals seize upon an idea of seceding and constructing a new home, the task of membership might erode any democratic spirit of liberation. Indeed, rules would need to be MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1069655238505514412003-11-23T22:27:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:06.921-07:00Benevolent conversation and encouters.
I have sat lonely, envious of tribes and communities that I remain an outsider to, desirous to open conversation with persons that appeal and whom I assume to be interesting. Having moved around different cities, and being an initially-shy, honest person without the façade of laying pickup-lines nor wearing an advertising costume to lure people to interactMMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1065595133369548262003-10-07T23:38:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.929-07:00My thoughts on the debacle of electing a pawn for governor.
It is outrageous that a society can be so ill-considered to select a republican governor with no platform and embarassingly funny celebrity status. It is even more outrageous that people are disillusioned with the whole democratic political process. "My vote didn't make a difference". "See, next time I won't even waste my time." MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1065162734225864852003-10-02T23:32:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.936-07:00I have not posted in quite some time. Much idealism has been running around my head, but lately I have been considering posts in slightly-less scatterbrained form. The internet allows impulsive communications, which I often end up regretting. I would like to try to plan better to formulate more well-developed ideas, and I have no idea where this blog will turn. While I think it is important MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1061012933969539152003-08-15T22:48:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.945-07:00The Infinite Mechanism of Being.
Take a digital disk of music: it is a work of art, an expression of an individual's emotion, culling their experiences to an effusion of sound. It is a unique experience, inimitable. Yet, it is a digital collection of concrete definitions... the bits of a digital piece of information are not subjective -- they're either one or zero. There is mechanism in MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1058979722480541602003-07-23T10:02:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.954-07:00Dead Diggers.
We have a large problem on our hands. Society does. There is an ideal of how to engineer a society that works for 100% of humanity (Bucky), but I am not a philosopher, sociologist, politician, leader. I have only seen a glimpse of the way and thus will not elicit the details of a utopia. But the problem on society's hands is that, however this future community might be MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1058630179062207362003-07-19T10:41:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.962-07:00Last night I went to see a concert (Bardo Pond, Kinski, Subarachnoid Space; see Atrocity Jukebox for the review.) I stayed up front, unlike my usual retreat to the back corner perch of the concert space, because I attended the show with two friends. I can almost undoubtedly say that I did not leave the view from in front of the amplifier because of peer pressure (i say "almost" because I did MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1058629908187953442003-07-19T08:51:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.969-07:00In this life I think we strive to do whatever we can to continue living past our individual moments. Those that are too indolent have children to pass on their genes, heritage, property, reputations. But for the creatives and critics of the world, we may seek to leave a cultural, ideological mark. Be this through art, science, culture, or achievement; it is the creative act that continues our MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1058505418660749762003-07-17T22:16:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.978-07:00Les Enfants Terribles.
Film by Melville, 1949, based on novel by Cocteau.
I viewed this French film tonight. While all art is negotiable (and thus nonnegotiable; it is what you perceive it to be and no interpretation can ever be objectively false), I found a parallel in the characters' stoicism to the absurd fervor of life.
(short plot: brother and sister with quarreling relationship float MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-1057966514452121432003-07-11T16:35:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.986-07:00Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I just started a new job and it's #1 on my list of things I'd rather be doing: research on making renewable fuels from biological organisms at UC Berkeley. In the lab of Dr. Tasios Melis, I am going to be working on a project of trying to get a unicellular green algae and a photosynthetic purple bacteria to grow together and produce hydrogen. More details toMMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-2003994302003-06-08T02:14:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:06.994-07:00Four Views of Collaborative Art.
While viewing a documentary about the science fiction author William Gibson, "No Maps For These Territories" (recommended), I had an idea for collaborative artistry. This could probably work with poetry or musical composition... What would occur is for one artist to write half of a poem, with very loose lines. They then would pass the lines to a comrade artist.MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-2003777142003-06-02T23:55:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:07.004-07:00In conjunction with today's post, "Open Idealism", I should like to envision a way for me to convey the ideas contained to others. A friend of mine says that these long-winded highbrow "lectures" might only preach to the choir; that is, those that have the tolerance to sit (or sift) through such a dissertation might not be the ones to benefit from any of it. What is needed is this "entreaty MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-2003777112003-06-02T23:49:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:07.018-07:00Open Idealism.
It is subjective and blindly arrogant to say "my idealism is the correct path" or that something is "most important". There are multitudinous paths to meaningful activity in this world, and we must always keep in mind that each person embarks upon quests that appear to suit individual needs. That is, what is ideal work for one person (helping at a soup kitchen) is just as sacredMMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-934506402003-04-28T23:37:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:07.026-07:00email to Glenn Donaldson
what follows is an email I sent to Glenn Donaldson, who runs Jewelled Antler Records...
one would think that the concept of communes go hand in hand with being
space-cadets, and maybe we are all each, individually, jesters of our own
majesties; yet here ... the earth is more a jewel than the star.
I have been tempted of times past, when these seeds were young, of
MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-933838142003-04-27T23:16:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:07.034-07:00Email to Miriam Greenberg.
...and here is an email I sent to Miriam, who has just started a blog, Poor Word Choice, in response to her inexpressibility.
while it is a joy to achieve things through publicly releasing yourself (yes, surrender to the moment), perhaps you should focus more on the joyful discoveries you find in the world. a blog is powerful in two respects: for one thing, you may MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-924747952003-04-12T00:24:00.000-07:002008-05-26T01:07:07.045-07:00I am now met with frustration over the twenty-something existential crisis of what to do with my life and how to do it. I am now looking for places to live in San Francisco, wondering if it's the best thing to do (I could always stay where I'm living now and protest and garden and bind books and learn on my own)... I just sat and listened to Bizet's opera, "Carmen"... I appreciate it much but MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-917849852003-04-01T10:22:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.052-07:00Departing GWU for Good.
The best advertising a university can do is to support their alumni with email and web server access. One would expect that if the university has shaped their students (clients?) into latent successes, their audiences will expand. Nevertheless, the university does not see things this way and only seeks to free up bandwidth (perhaps a large problem of the future, as more MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-916404222003-03-29T23:21:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.061-07:00By Way of Peace & Activism.
Today I pondered what one is to do in this world, once conscious of the conundrums of civilization. I had an argument with a fellow about peace and protesting. He felt that according to Ghandi, all one needs to do is lead an exemplary life of noncontradiction regarding peace. He felt that "screaming protesters" were only aiding to the true causes of war (antagonism MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-915134172003-03-27T16:49:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.072-07:00My Method of Talk.
I like to talk; I don't like people who listen. Granted I may talk interminably, I enjoy conversation, exchange, dialogue. When people say I talk too much, or too fast, they misunderstand me... I will speak my mind as thoughts arrive. I have also been criticized for cutting people off, as if I should feel rude. I wish others would cut me off whenever they had something to MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-914694812003-03-27T01:10:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.079-07:00I want to be proactive. Things I would like to start doing regularly include: bike protests against the war, doing an hour of vocabulary every day, doing an hour of plant biology research every day, reading a book every ten days (yeah right), taking my vitamins!, meditating for ten minutes every morning while listening to my stoner ambient noise music, waking up and going to bed earlier (with MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-912900382003-03-24T09:45:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.087-07:00My university, GWU, has rescinded in its promise of a permanent email address and fileserver account. Here is a letter of complaint I wrote to the IT department.
Hello,
I am outraged that, as a GWU Student, I was told numerous times by the University that students with ACAD and email accounts would be able to keep them indefinitely (FOR LIFE!) as long as they were maintained. Now they are MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-910453102003-03-19T23:19:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.094-07:00I really enjoyed this following speech that Senator Robert Byrd made on the floor of Congress this afternoon. [CLICK HERE TO READ]MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-910450322003-03-19T23:12:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.104-07:00I hate Bush.
This war is on. The dimwits have deadbolted the door to the cockpit of arrogance. Upon hearing the news of the bombs flying, while en route through the Mission District on a peace march -- the entire human cavale thus inverted and circumsized -- my heart felt weight and my mind shifted into cartoon mode. Caricatures are the only personification of evil that I know and now I MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-909121702003-03-18T00:44:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.111-07:00I travelled for the second time today to the East Bay to look for apartments. This time I was a little more successful, finding one nice place off Craigslist, and another nice one in the same neighborhood from a sign on the street (the benefit of bicyclery!). It is still very draining to have to bike around back and forth, but soon enough I will have an address and will be able to apply for MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-909118432003-03-18T00:33:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.120-07:00Music Aquisition.
Eyvind Kang: "The Story of Iceland"
This album is wonderful. Eyvind has played with Secret Chiefs 3 (oh my goodness, such wonderful composed eastern orchestral fusion, the music of the coming apocalypse, eh?). This album is one of his on John Zorn's Tzadik label. This was also recommended to me by Cerberus Shoal's Caleb Mulkerin. It consists of repetitive woodwind&strings MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-905078902003-03-10T22:51:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.130-07:00first week in SF.
I am now going to try to recreate the pithy post that I lost because of the inadequacies of Blogger. Over the past week, my first span of days in San Francisco have been largely exciting, despite my not leaving the house too much. I have been helping create the Free Eats, Free Shelter, Free Pantry, and Free Medical Charts that the Free Print Shop puts out every three months. MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-905058412003-03-10T22:01:00.000-08:002004-06-13T19:54:48.533-07:00New Music Aquisition
A few days ago I took a trip to Aquarius records. I had used their wonderful website for opinions and clips of music in the past and am in wonder that the record store even exists. They say all these great things about Amoeba records here in San Francisco (and rightly so), but the selection at Aquarius blew my mind. They were a bit exclusive, and I wonder how they get by (MMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-2003639012003-03-10T00:11:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.144-07:00I just want to say right now that I supremely hate blogger. It lost a long post I had been working on and now I am furious. I will hopefully try to switch over to a more benevolent, less leviathan-like program that is much more user-friendly, but first I have to try to safely re-write this hour-long post I had been working on.MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-2003638992003-03-04T20:53:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.152-07:001-march-03
City Change.
I am currently aboard my Amtrak train from San Diego to San Francisco -- a meager 15 hour trip compared to the 5-day trip I have taken before. Two days ago I quit my job testing membranes and writing up test procedures for the Pall Corporation (yes, I am aware that it was a corporation I was working for. When I have more experience working with businesses I can furtherMMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-899129582003-02-28T10:13:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.162-07:00Against War.
I am not going to go on and on about why it is a global atrocity (for America and for human morality and for human life) for the US to attack Iraq preemptively (heck, at all!) There has been enough said about this issue, and all I seek to do is align myself with the other anti-war folks. The people, united, will never be defeated. Here is a good article written by the honorable MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-896837972003-02-24T18:35:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.170-07:00in case anyone is curious, I was able to settle the case of the library book that I left on the train. I purchased a hardcover copy of the "Biotech Century" for 11 dollars online (was almost perfect condition!) instead of paying the library forty dollars to replace it. They made me get a librarian's signature to say it's okay and then I was doing fine again! I then went upstairs and took out MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-894019862003-02-19T17:39:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.179-07:00My colleague at work.
My roommate and I caught on the news two nights ago a story about a boy who was killed by a woman in a SUV while his father was using an ATM; apparently she pressed the gas instead of the breaks while she was pulling into a parking space. I found out the next day that the father was a fellow that I work with, Alan Remos. Alan is in the hospital with two broken legs, and MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-891820302003-02-16T02:59:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.187-07:00Missed the Peace Rally
Today I goofed and I've never been more mad at myself... I accidentally confused Saturday with Sunday, in that I thought tomorrow was the International Day of Action against the war... I had been looking forward to this day for quite some time, as I feel that it is necessary for civilian everybodies to support those activists and otherones that are putting their "decencies"MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-890762992003-02-13T21:52:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.195-07:00I posted an entry from my print journal about "what's going on in the world today?" which, for my ideals, exposes what I think the true inspirations of the US government are (oil! clout!) CLICK HERE TO READ. MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-890641062003-02-13T17:25:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.209-07:00The Car I Dented.
Today, while riding on my bike home from work, I wasn't looking where I was going and I lost my balance. Luckily I didn't steer myself into a passing car, but I did manage to steer myself into a parked one. I feel horrible, as I think I might have dented it. Now, I loathe automobiles, and it is very easy for me to say "dang those people should not have invested in a car in MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-888946792003-02-10T21:03:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.221-07:00The Lost Library Book
Well, I am certainly a buffoon enough to have left a book on the train. (It was The Biotech Century by Jeremy Rifkin.) I have done this once before, with The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers, and the conductor rescued me by holding on to it, but this time no such luck; we have a new conductor on my commuter train. The worst part is that it's a library book, and I MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-888334542003-02-09T20:56:00.000-08:002010-10-20T18:05:34.298-07:00I submitted an old paper to my school's honors program's academic journal, even though I'm an alumni. It's entitled Holistic Thinking in the Globalization of Invasive Exotic Species. I will definitely be jumping for joy if I get published. I already achieved my first published poem a few months ago (maybe being an alumni gains credibility?).MMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-888323302003-02-09T20:31:00.001-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.239-07:00I had started a "blog-type" entry earlier today, before I created this blog. I left it on my journal page. It's about why I'm moving away from San Diego, to Berkeley.CLICK HERE TO READMMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035314.post-888305722003-02-09T19:55:00.000-08:002008-05-26T01:07:07.248-07:00Welcome to Future Wave.
Welcome to my blog. For a while I fought the urge to create one of these things. I love the DIY ethic, and my mother homepage was created by my remedial HTML skills on my school's server. I have a writings page on there that has excerpts from my ink journals over the past few years... That is the stuff I'm proud of. You should certainly check it out. However, I MMnoreply@blogger.com0