the (w)hole

My New Blog!

2007-06-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

This is the first post from my new, multimedia blog The Electric Mirror at Polysemy.org. Do check it. I don't plan to post on this blog, the (w)hole, much anymore, so please update your bookmarks and such. The Electric Mirror is going to be a wicked awesome blog, chock full of multimedia goodness. Check it out!

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Subway Station

2007-05-26T20:53:00.000-06:00

Cell Phone Pics, Chicago

2007-05-23T23:45:00.000-06:00

Polysemy Podcast

2007-05-16T18:07:00.000-06:00

Hey hey everybody everybody, Polysemy's first ever podcast is live! Check it. Seriously, check it out. I worked hard on this thing.

Limbs

2007-04-25T14:41:00.000-06:00

Bubbles

2007-04-22T16:09:00.000-06:00

Improved Means to an Unimproved End

2007-04-20T03:55:00.000-06:00

Goopy

2007-04-17T21:38:00.000-06:00

I drew this last November, but never posted it for some reason. Here it is now.

Spiral Stairs

2007-04-11T22:04:00.000-06:00

I've been rather silent lately. Hmmm... Well, here's a picture of the wicked awesome spiral staircase in my new apartment.

Last day in Colorado

2007-03-30T17:14:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow morning I depart for Chicago. My van is packed. Everything is set. I'm stoked.

Enough

2007-03-28T10:37:00.000-06:00

[author's note: This is an experiment I wrote after skimming through James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Feedback is welcome.]

Erica believes that she will eat her meal peacefully. A sandwich, simple. That already bites and swallows. Enough to feel full and temporary. Believing unknowingly. Unfortunately, she always wrongs. None. No longer. No. Enough to feel empty and permanently expectant.

Erica chews and swallows, sitting at her desk, her laptop glaring. Screensaver unfortuitously popping, pop, pop. Enough to eat a horse, beaten and wild. Glaring wild. Weakness wanes in the stomach of the melting moon. Enough to call.

Erica’s cell phone vibrates. It’s Eric. E(lect)ric lives superfluously in a proverbial basement. She hellos again again to enough enough. Chewing and breathing, swallowing or speaking and looking. Left to nothing of an imagination.

Eric wants Erica. Erica wants Eric. Nothing yet, always undergroundwater. Feet say something to eyes unblinking. Images pop, pop, popping. Disembodied electric talk.

They chat. Enough not in taste. Food feeds not is feet. Movies mind carefully. If a walk were in mindless speech, electricity unbinds. A possibility, half arranged. Enough not sat hunched. Er(ot)ica words charge a surprise word. Words words enough? Swim down then up.

Erica finishes her meal, content.

Leaving Boulder

2007-03-24T17:49:00.000-06:00

Hello readers. I will be leaving Boulder for Chicago in exactly one week. So if any of yous are in Boulder, and would like to say goodbye, drop me a line so we can meetup one last time before I go.

Page from Sketchbook 2/27/07: Distraction

2007-02-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

New Blog

2007-02-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yo. Readers. 'Sup.

I gots good news, and I gots bad news.

Bad news: ... Just kidding! I don't have any bad news! Everything's perfect and flowery!

Good news: I'm working on a new blog right now that I plan to launch sometime in the coming weeks. It's about my "college" education. In fact, that's the name of the blog, My "College" Education. "College" is in quotation marks because I'm not actually in college. The blog is about what I'm doing instead of going to college.

The skinny: After dropping out of 3 different colleges, I've come to realize that school isn't really working out, and so, my parents have agreed to give me a loan to fund a self-directed education in place of college. So, I'm creating this blog to keep track of and share the things I'm doing. There's more to it than that, but that's the gist.

To kick it off, I'm writing three manifesto-ish, mission statement-y posts that will have permanent links on the top of the sidebar. The titles: "What is the purpose of this blog?", "My educational history and philosophy", and "My life goals". Once I have these three posts written, and the sidebar all fixed up the way I like it, then the blog will officially lauch. WOOHOO! EDUCATION!

Update 2/26/07: I've decided to keep my new blog somewhat private, at least for now. If you really want to see it, then email me and I'll send you a link. But I won't be advertising it anymore or linking to it.

Poetry in Motion

2007-02-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

Space Sketch

2007-02-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

My friends Ballard and Jason, along with other Secret Circus posse, recently made this video. Check it. Wreck it.

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Valentine's Day, and I'm back in Boulder, sitting here with my computer, at a friend's house, where I am residing temporarily, lonely, lonely, lonely. It's snowing outside. It's been snowing since I returned on Sunday, more or less. I feel like listening to Elliot Smith and drinking a glass of red wine, perhaps splattering some ink into my sketchbook.

Anway, my Valentine's gift to you, my beautiful readers, is a short poem I wrote a couple weeks ago while I was in Austin after reading many many poems out of Charles Bukowski's Love is a Dog from Hell, which my friend recommended to me. I think I'll just call it "Fan the Flame". Here 'tis...

If I had a woman
with a torch in her hand,
I would never be afraid
of the dark.

Instead,
I would crave it.

If she was a witch
with fire in her eyes,
I would never be afraid
of the moon.

Instead,
I would study it.

If she was invisible
and burned only in my heart,
I would never be afraid
of the fire in my own eyes.

Instead,
I would fan the flame.

Trip Almost Over

2007-02-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm in Dallas, Texas, at my parents' house. Sunday I will be flying back to Colorado. I didn't blog nearly as much as I intended to at the beginning of this trip. Oh well. To compensate, I will be writing a novel based on this trip in the coming months. I plan to have a solid manuscript (or at least a first draft) done by my 21st birthday (August). Then eventually it will probably get published through iUniverse or some deal like that, and it will be available for purchase through danallison.org or somewhere else.

My trip in a nutshell: Started in Boulder, hitchhiked to Chicago, spent a week or so in Chicago, hitchhiked to New Orleans (which took a full week), spent a week or so in New Orleans, became ill while in New Orleans, took the Greyhound to Austin, spent a few days in Austin, got a ride from a friend to Dallas, currently in Dallas, will be returning to Boulder on Sunday.

When I return to Boulder, I plan to start up the ol' doodle machine again and crank out some more drawings to post here. So get ready.

In other news, this blog was recently listed in Integral Institute's online publication Holons, under the "staff picks" section. Also listed was Polysemy's staff blog the Woodshed. Thanks Holons!

Travelblog 1: Boulder to Chicago

2007-01-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

The first leg of my hitchhiking journey, Boulder to Chicago, has been completed and I am now chillin' in the Windy City (the town which is to become my home in the coming months).

The first day of my trip was a dud. There was a heavy snowstorm in the Boulder/Denver area, which made things difficult. I started in Boulder, got a ride to dowtown Denver, took a bus to I-76, stuck my thumb out for a while, walked to a gas station, got a ride to a truckstop, tried to get a ride there unsuccessfully, took a taxi to a Greyhound station with the intention to get a ticket to get me just outside of Denver where it would be easier to catch a ride, but decided against it and hopped on the bus back to Boulder.

The next day, the weather was much better, and my friend Lindsey gave me a ride out to I-76, just outside the city, where hitching would be much easier. I barely stuck my thumb out before I had a ride. A guy in a big pickup truck pulled over and said that he was only going about ten miles up 76, but I got in anyway even though it was a short ride. He was a former leader of a motorcycle gang turned preacher at an Anglican church, or something like that, and he asked me if I believed in Jesus Christ. I told him that I try to keep an open mind around religious matters. He didn't respond. He dropped me off at a good exit with plenty of traffic and plenty of room for cars to pull over. I stood on the corner with my sign, which read "It's a long walk to Chicago. No ride is too short!" (a bit wordy, I know), and stuck my thumb out. I waited for about forty-five minutes with no luck. So I went to the gas station to warm up and go to the bathroom. Then, back to the corner. I waited for another forty-five minutes or so, no luck.

I thought that maybe people might be seeing the word "Chicago" on my sign and instantly thinking "Oh, I'm not going that far" and driving past. So I put my sign down, and within two minutes, I had a ride. The guy pulled over and asked me where I was headed. I said "Chicago, but I'll go as far east as you can take me." "Ok," he said, and I got into his big blue Suburban.

He didn't say where he was going. In fact, he didn't say anything, and neither did I. I didn't want to speak unless spoken to, cuz, you know, it's important to be extra polite when hitching. But he never said anything. We just sat in silence. No music, no talking. Just the sound of tire hitting pavement and wind hitting windshield, and the occassional ticking of the turn signal when we changed lanes. About an hour into this, I saw a big yellow sign that read, "Correctional Facility. Do not stop for hitchhikers." It was the first of many. This made me increasingly nervous, seeing these signs and not knowing where this guy was planning to drop me off.

Suddenly, he took an exit, right after we passed yet another big yellow sign. To my relief, he said, "I'm just gonna stop for lunch," and we pulled into a gas station with a Quizno's. We ate lunch silently, then as we were walking back to his car, I asked, "So what's your final destination?"
"South Bend," he said, "It's just a couple hours past Chicago."
"Oh, wow. and you don't mind taking me all the way to Chicago?"
"No."
"Well, thanks man, I really appreciate it."

And that was that. I had a ride all the way to Chicago. And thank God, because after those yellow signs had ended, some new anti-hitchhiking signs popped up in their place when we hit Nebraska. About every ten to twenty miles, there was a sign with a picture of a hand with it's thumb out with a big red line through it, as if hitchhiking was like smoking at a gas station, all the way through Nebraska. I remembered that I had read somewhere that this part of the country was notoriously difficult for hitchhikers, but it didn't really sink in until I saw these signs, one after another. I felt that I had truly lucked out in getting a ride straight through all of this.

More stuff happenned after that, but I'll write about it later.

No Email

2007-01-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

Howdy Friends,
I won't be on the computer much for the next month, so if you need to contact me, call my cell phone.
Peace Out !
Dan

Less is More

2006-12-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

I've been planning my upcoming hitchhiking trip, and I think I've got a pretty good, basic idea of what I'm gonna do.

Firstly, I've abandoned the idea of going to the east coast. It's not worth it at this time of the year. Maybe I'll go in the summer, but for this trip, I plan to spend most of my time in (more or less) warmer parts of the country. The three main cities I plan to visit are Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco, in that order. Other possible cities on my list: Kansas City, Dallas, Austin, and Portland. Of course, all of my plans are subject to change in the moment depending on where the Wind takes me.

Secondly, I plan to pack as few items as possible, and one of the items that didn't make the list is my laptop, which means blogging will most likely be very sparse. I went back and forth on whether it would be worth bringing or not, but it's too heavy, too valuable a possession, too distracting, too fragile, and most of the time I probably won't have internet access anyway. I'll probably blog about the trip more after it's over.

That's the news I have now. I depart next week.

Page from Sketchbook 12/25/06

2006-12-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

Whenever I want to draw something realistically, I usually default to my left hand. I don't really like drawing furniture or other boring things in my imediate environment, so it's nice to have my left hand handy whenever I don't have a naked woman in front of me. (Same goes for jerking off. Yep, that's right, I'm a lefty when it comes to beatin' the meat.)

Page from Sketchbook 12/19/06

2006-12-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

I don't have access to a scanner right now, and probably won't for a while. So I'm just gonna use my camera instead.

In other news, Blogger seems to be working again, at least, working well enough. New little glitches keep popping up. So if you have trouble with the rss or the archives, then that's probably why. Hopefully things will clear up soon enough.

Blogger Glitch

2006-12-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

It seems that my problem between blogger and my ftp server is simply a glitch in the new blogger system (google recently revamped blogger). So all I have to do now is basically just wait until the glitch is fixed because I've tried everything I can think of. A few other people seem to be having this problem also, so hopefully it will get fixed soon.

Travel!

2006-12-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

This January, I'm going to be hitchiking around the United States, possibly through the end of February. I don't really have any solid plans at this point, and I don't plan to chage that anytime soon. I'm just going to go where the wind takes me. If anyone has a couch they'd be willing to let me sleep on, please do drop me a line (dan[at]danallison[dot]org). I'll be blogging sporadically throughout the trip, with pictures and such. I look forward to hearing from you!