The Museum of Conceptual Art

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine
"A Dollar for Your Soul"
A good introduction to Ponzi™ schemes and the madness of crowds. Based on a true story about a high-school soul-selling pyramid scheme, this story originally appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine. A Russian translation was done by Andrei Novikov and published in December 1993 in Yesly ("If") magazine, which has been voted Europe's best science fiction magazine. Since its circulation in 1993 eclipsed that of MZBFM, it appears that far more people have read this story in a Russian translation I knew nothing about.

"The Vision Vine"
A short story about virtual reality and entheogens, originally published in Whole Earth Review. It's also about tribal cultures in conflict with modern civilization. The magazine Transdimension Vista published a Japanese translation without my knowledge or permission, so I'm using this graphic without their permission. (Also see Google's translation of the Japanese version back to English.) The story was then translated into Russian (from the English version, of course) and published in the May 2002 issue of Yesly magazine.

"The Talking Cat"
A very short, allegedly true, story.

Boring Bedtime Stories: An Anthology for Insomniacs
A collection of stories designed to be as uninteresting as possible — your contributions are requested.

"The Girl Scout Cookie Project"
What happens when your local scout troop goes on strike and refuses to sell cookies containing trans fatty acids (TFAs)?

"DreamNet"
An unpublished story about dreaming and networks. No one has bothered translating this.

I've been trying to understand what makes this guy tick. While some people underestimate him or dismiss him as a celebrity, he's an effective speaker, good at feeding off the energy of his audiences. He stirs up the crowd by peppering his speeches with coarse phrases and put-downs. Even as he cultivates chaos by playing to peoples' fears and resentments, he offers himself as the visionary leader who can restore law and order. He paints the present day as a time of decline and decay and promises to make the country great again, but is vague about his actual plans.

He has been described as an egomaniac who only loves himself; a self-obsessed clown with a strangely scattershot, impulsive style; a narcissist with a flair for self-dramatization and a "characteristic fondness for superlatives." His manic speeches raise questions about his capacity for self-control, but he's a shrewd politician, with a keen eye for the strengths and weaknesses of other people and an ability to instantly analyze and exploit situations.

He's been called "so thoroughly untruthful that he can no longer tell the difference between truth and lies." He believes in appealing to the emotions - not the reasoning power - of the crowd, with repeated slogans consisting of accusations, vows of revenge, and promises for the future.

His supporters feel the country needs a strong man who can shake things up. "Why not give the National Socialists a chance?" a prominent banker said of the Nazis. "They seem pretty gutsy to me."

The Clockworks Project
An online diary of what I was doing and thinking each time a random timer beeped

The Dollar Project
I distributed dozens of dollar bills rubber-stamped with messages asking for return of the dollar or information as to its whereabouts