i am z blog

zblog

i am z — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:23:00 GMT

zblog has moved

s/z

i am z — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:56:00 GMT

a long overdue post on the infamous z of Roland Barthes S/Z:

of which the title S/Z refers to the clash between the ‘S’ of ‘Sarrasine,’

the male protagonist of the work, and the ‘Z’ of ‘La Zambinella,’

the castrato with whom Sarrasine falls in love. But there is much

more to learn of interest to learn of z from the XL VII. S/Z section:

"SarraSine: cutomary French onomastics would lead us to expect SarraZine:

on its way to the subject's patronymic, the Z has encountered some pitfall.

A is the letter of mutilation: phonetically, Z stings like a chastising lash, an

avenging insect; graphically, cast slantwise by the hand across the blank

regularity of the page, amid the curves of the alphabet, like an oblique and

illicit blade, it cuts, slashes, or, as we say in French, zebras; from a Balzacian

viewpoint, this Z (which appears in Balzac's name) is the letter of deviation

(see the story Z. Marcas); finally, here, Z is the first letter of La Zambinella,

the initial of castration, so that by this orthographical error committed in

the middle of his name, in the center of his body, Sarrasine receives the

Zambinellan Z in its true sense - the wound of deficiency. Further, S and Z

are in a relation of graphological inversion: the same letter seen from the

other side of the mirror: Sarrasine contemplates in La Zambinella his own

castration. Hence the slash (/) confronting the S of SarraSine and the Z of

Zambinella has a panic function: it is the slash of censure, the surface of

the mirror, the wall of hallucination, the verge of antithesis, the abstraction

of limit, the obliquity of the signifier, the index of the paradigm, hence of

meaning."

and to think z machine was powerful!

and for those further curious about what Balzac said of z in Z. Marcus:

"There was a certain harmony between the man and his name. The Z.

preceding Marcas, which was seen on the addresses of his letters, and

which he never omitted from his signature, as the last letter of the alphabet,

suggested some mysterious fatality...Do you not discern in that letter Z an

adverse influence? Does it not prefigure the wayward and fantastic progress

of a storm-tossed life? What wind blew on that letter, which, whatever

language we find it in, begins scarcely fifty words? Marcas' name was

Zephirin; Saint Zephirin is highly venerated in Brittany, and Marcas

was a Breton."

z: one powerful machine

i am z — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:38:00 GMT

the raw power of z machine the world's most powerful X-ray source:

with a wonderful z logo:

via boing boing post

zctu

i am z — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:22:00 GMT

we are zctu
from crooked timber post

airport codez

i am z — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:01:00 GMT

in the Airport ABCs: An Explanation of Airport Identifier Codes, we learn:
"...'Z' was reserved for special uses. One of the special uses for 'Z' is identifying
locations in cyberspace...an example is ZCX the computer address of the FAA's
air traffic control headquarters central flow control facility. ZCX is not an airport
but a command center just outside Washington D.C., that controls the airline
traffic into major terminals."
discovered from this boing boing post via kottke

everything changes with just one letter: z

i am z — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:06:00 GMT

how z did not know about this is well beyond z, but fortunately was informed

by a friend of nissan's z-car only to discover its importance, the z series being

the best selling sports car series in history!:

and some amazing z quotes!:

"The last letter. The first name in performance."

"We will build the Z. And we will make it profitable"

not only in real life, but z-car plays an important role in the world of manga

in Michiharu Kusunoki's Wangan Midnight in which the main protagonist,

Akio Asakura, "the Devil Z", a Nissan Fairlady Z S30Z which is supernaturally

fast and extremely hard to drive, is nearly invincible behind his z:

go z, go!

thanks fabrizio!

raising z-bar

i am z — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:10:00 GMT

being z, a friend recently gave me a box of Z-Bars:

and z being curious, contacted Clif to inquire why the

z as there seemed to be no reasonthe answer z got:

We chose the name, “Z-Bars” because we thought

it was a fun of saying “the bars.”
so simply z is just fun to say!

thanks bobby!

thanks giovanna!

zillionics

i am z — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:54:00 GMT

a z that "can amplify ordinary quantities of everyday things into orders of abundance

previously unknown...a state of supreme abundance...a new realm...our new home...":

the daunting zillionics of kevin kelly discovered in the latest edition of edge

thanks kevin!

tom nichols didone z

i am z — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:15:00 GMT

Having contacting tom nichols after discovering his beautiful type work,

he was generous to send me "Z" from his Didone (Untitled) typeface a

headline typeface inspired by Firmin Didot's self-titled font, Herb Lubalin's

Avant Garde and Edward Ruscha's typeface work. He said, "It's my favorite

letter of the Didone (Untitled) character set because of its optical symmetry,

and I think the form of the letter Z really suits the type of this typeface."

Now here for all to enjoy the beauty of tom's z!:

thanks tom!

z-spotting spain

i am z — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:35:00 GMT

thanks emilie!

busted z

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:44:00 GMT

from the urban dictionary "busted z":

A computer technician term for a computer belonging to or primarily used by a black person.

The term comes from the phenomena of ebonics using a "zz" in a large number of their words,

causing the Z key to prematurely fail on many of their keyboards due to overuse.

z's villa

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:39:00 GMT

a restaurant here in detroit wonderfully full of z's!:
z's villa

z nyc

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:28:00 GMT

upon landing in nyc recently, the first thing z

sees adorning the back of z's cab driver's shirt?:

z chocolat

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:17:00 GMT

as lover of chocolate, the discovery of z chocolat's: a pure amuse bouche!

z death

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:35:00 GMT

in Pascal Quignard's Petits traités, Vol. I. the letter z the shape of the mouths of the dead

seem to suggest that they are proclaiming the sound "zzzz":
"Appius forma le voeu qu'on abondonnât la lettre z.

Il espérait de la sorte préserver la bouche des hommes de la mort."

translation:

"Appius formulated a wish to abandon (to no longer use) the letter z.

He was hoping that way to preserve the mouth of dead men."

thanks Allen!

for the love of z

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:29:00 GMT

z post on the wonderful blog ugly doggy!

thanks sandra!

z ninja

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:20:00 GMT

z photo published in issue #7 of ninja mag!

(inside the front cover)

you can download a copy and be their myspace friend here

enjoy!

weiss/z

i am z — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:47:00 GMT

Having previously posted on z from Allen S. Weiss' Ingestion/ A Personal Gastronomic Alphabet, Part III

in Cabinet magazine, z quickly learned how the web works and was contacted by Allen S. Weiss to inform

z of another z story written in his book Autobiographie dans un chou farci he translated a section for z,

which moved z to tearz, and post here for others to enjoy the beauty of his words and unique story of z!

"Origins easily disappear. My father - to whose memory I wish to dedicate this fragment of a memoir -

survived, in Hungary, one of the most horrendous events of history, the Holocaust. He lost everything:

home, family, city, country. Even his name. I'm convinced that only when survivors can laugh, with that

mad laugh that both wounds and heals, can they seal their victory. A more-than-pyrrhic victory, a victory

over nothingness, a victory over Death. And yet, as we can well imagine, this maddest of laughs is rarely

possible. However, there are all sorts of monuments: certain may even behidden in the corner of one's

mouth, like a bite of superb food, or like a raging toothache. Such monuments are no less sincere, no less

profound, because of their smallness and hiddenness. Perhaps the greatest monument of all would be

miniature, portable, ephemeral. A culinary monument, for cuisine brings joy and life from the jaws of

death. A stuffed cabbage as monument - why not!? For cuisine is a prime site of memory, and the mouth

a topology for all that is essential - eroticism, language, taste / dissent, aggression, violence - source of life,

source of death. Otherwise stated, according to good dialectical form, the story that begins as tragedy ends

as farce.

And the farce is me. Arriving in America after the war, after the camps, after the loss, my father wished to

change his name, thus Laszlo Weisz [SZ] became Leslie Weiss [SS]. I had always found this to be a curious

choice, and yet I never got a satisfactory explanation to this strange "americanization" by changing a Hungarian

name to a German one. Especially after the Holocaust. Perhaps this transformation of SZ into SS was a manner

of marking, of scarring, of bearing the wounds, the loss, the uprootnedness, the death - all in silence, like tattoos.

The S accentuates by attenuating, being the scar of the wound Z. It reveals the Z a contrario. Or is it I who

activate the meaning of the dreaded Z? What can this SZ mean? What might the Z, that rarest of letters, add

to a name? For Victor Hugo, it's lightening, it's God. However for others it's the hated letter, which throughout

European history was often threatened with elimination. Remember that exclamation from King Lear [II.ii.65]:

"Thou whoreson zed! / thou unnecessary letter!" But why? In his book entitled S/Z, Roland Barthes explains

that in Balzac's novel Sarrasine [and here I condense]: "The Z thus falls through a trap-door...it cuts, it strikes

out, it streaks [zebre]...it is the letter of deviance...the wound of lack...S and Z thus exist in an inverted graphic
relationship : they are the same letter, seen from the other side of the mirror." True indeed! The Z is superfluous.

The Z is mysterious. The Z is dangerous. It's the letter of the zigzag, source of uncertainty. It's the evil double,

violence itself inscribed within words, an exterminating, eschatological letter. And here I am, Weiss [SS] speaking

of the disappeared Weisz [SZ] - the return of the repressed incarnate."

the book can be purchased here through amazon france for further reading

thankz Allen!

schnipper's z

i am z — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:17:00 GMT

z in schnipper's a-z:

the installation:

a picture of face with one record for each letter of the alphabet and a corresponding anecdote

z - zapp- more bounce in the ounce:

the podcast:

one story a day for one record for each letter of the alphabet, talking and then a song from the record

z - zvuki mu- the source of infection:

by justin thomas kay
from etcetering post

zombie moshed codez

i am z — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:24:00 GMT

from paper rad's channel