Pocket Watch: I tick Well, by Rena Silverman

Fashion Victims, Police Unite | BlackBook Magazine

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:10:00 +0000

Memories of Fashion's Night Out. http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/fashion-victims-police-unite-memories-of-fashions-night-out/22224

Kiki Smith: Photographs - Photo-eye Magazine

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 07:01:00 +0000

by Rena Silverman

Throughout her thirty-year career, artist Kiki Smith has repeatedly employed techniques warranting the recognition of her artistic process. Her photographs fulfill a similar purpose, documenting everything from the onset of inspiration to the final result. Read More...

Survival of the Fattest

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:10:00 +0000

We study evolution in high school like it's some sort of History. Look, Ma! We used to look like Apes. We think of our current physical state as this aesthetic landing point (this = good news or else we wouldn't procreate). Time passes. The seasons go round and round. The painted ponies go up and down. The whole deal. We get old. We look back at our life, and the life of our parents, even our grandparents. We start to refer to everything in the past. "When I was a kid.." or "Back in the day...", because it was such a long time ago, wasn't it? We measure humanity in units of life and death. When I die it is over, we think. And to a degree, individually, yes of course, that's true. But what if we take a step back and look at ourselves as part of something larger? We are humans, and as a species, we are ever-evolving.

But what about medical care? we wonder. As humans, we think we're so smart. We've figured out the impossible! how to slow down and defy death. We've stretched out our life spans by almost 10 years since 1960! So this must mean of course, that we humans have also slowed down evolution with our brilliance, right?

wrong.

Recently, a group of researchers studying two generations of modern women found evidence of natural selection among humans that showed we are still evolving despite advances in medical care and standards of living.

Scientists found for example, through these groups, that women are becoming shorter and the term was "chubbier". Women will also have their babies earlier in life. And they will have lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

A paper on the study was published in last week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The author, Dr Stephen C Stearns is a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale.

Stearns and his team took records from a 60-year Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948. Reading through data on over 2,000 North American women who had reached menopause, Stearns and his team analyzed and recognized about six or seven traits that correspond to the health of humans and how it relates to quantity of offspring. In other words, the team studied and measured the paperwork behind what's called "reproductive success" throughout these women's lives.

The results suggested that:

The women's descendants will be slightly shorter and heavier.
The descendents will have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, making them "healthier".
The women will have their first child earlier, and will reach menopause later in life.

Dr. Stearns emphasized that although change may seem "slow and gradual" from the perspective of a human, the rates predicted from these studies are just about the same as anywhere else in nature.

"These results place humans in the medium-to-slow end of the range of rates observed for other living things," explained Stearns.

"But what that means is that humans aren't special with respect to how fast they're evolving. They're kind of average," he noted.

So yes, we're still evolving. And we're just as disposable as anything else on this earth.

Literary Rejection - a Haiku

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:28:00 +0000

Please don't call us 'cause
We'll call you. Ha, ha, ha, ha
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Alice + Olivia = Infinity

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:23:00 +0000

Alice + Olivia's Spring 2010 collection featured the Plastiscines, a French girl band and now I want all of their CDs. Here are the photos. Note, I'm still learning this camera.

Read more about the event here: http://blogs.wsj.com/runway/2009/09/13/party-girl-brand-alice-olivia-throws-star-studded-fete/

My People

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:26:00 +0000

Ride5 Team from Ride5 Media Group on Vimeo.

The Experimental Scholar

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:04:00 +0000

Some Notes for the New York Times.

Sunday, 6:48 am.
The minute my sleepless eye hit the words, "Uploading the Avant Garde" on the New York Times website, the pencil I had in my hand crushed into several pieces all over my keyboard. I knew exactly what this article was about. YouTube. And the impact of my frustration, albeit uppity and odd, comes from a place in my mind that perhaps only I imagine can be justified by my upbringing.

Wolves.
I am the lucky/loving/lunatic daughter of what the New York Times once referred to before as an "avant garde composer". My father worked for years with Richard Foreman, known for his reign in Avant Garde theater just at its emergence in the Sixties. We're talking SoHo: Andy Warhol, structural film, Jonas Mekas, mixed media, the whole shebang (see this link + go at once*). Eventually, Foreman found a home at the St. Mark's Church, where he formed the Ontoloical-Hysteric Theatre. According to it's Web site:

The Ontological-Hysteric Theater (OHT) was founded in 1968 by Richard Foreman with the aim of stripping the theater bare of everything but the singular and essential impulse to stage the static tension of interpersonal relations in space.

TIP: Bear that brilliant quote in mind when you read the rest of this blog entry.

Tube: A hollow cylinder. Indeed.
Allow me to share with you the lead paragraph of the Times story "Uploading the Avant Garde":

The ﬁrst video on YouTube was uploaded at 8:27 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, 2005. It’s called “Me at the Zoo,” and it features the musings of Jawed Karim, one of the site’s founders, as elephants nose around in hay behind him. The video has a certain pleasing obviousness. “Here we are in front of the, uh, elephants,” Karim says.

I noticed that I began to feel that first spark of OH BOY when I reached the sentence about a "YouTube member named kvertrees, whose work includes other silent films, of mushrooms and swallows" and his tube film Manhattan Bridge Piers. This tuber's video, an "art film", the Times believes "recalls nothing so much as 'Manhatta,'...from 1921 — by the painter Charles Sheeler and the photographer Paul Strand."

But my fist really started to wrap around that pencil when I read the next paragraph:

In both films, the filmmakers align their technology with soaring modern structures and have sought vantages from which to underscore that identification. But the humans in the two movies are mostly out of sight, encased in monstrously beautiful architecture that can be truly beheld — in all its smoking, soaring, swaying, flashing sublimity — only by gods or cameras.

Now, I ask you, is this the future of art? and if it is, can we PLEASE have a better venue for it than YOUTUBE? I don't know, something FUNDED would be nice.

Stranded.
(aka, just to wrap it up)
Paul Strand vs. YouTube.

Rena Silverman
--------------
I post this in response to the article "Uploading the Avant Garde", a version of which will appear today on page MM14 .

In Memory of Rynn Williams

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:54:00 +0000

Rope

The girl’s father laughs a little too hard
when I say: She knows what’s important in life,
as his daughter whips the dime store jump rope
over her head for the twelve thousandth time--
laughs as if I’m joking, when really, she has it down--
sparkly pink handles grimy with effort,
her face obscured by her hair, shins thin and bruised,
socks down at the ankles. Abandoned
by the rest of the crowd, the concrete square
an archipelago, an alignment with rigor the others
cannot fathom, she moves with fierce persistence
into afternoon, the heft of the handles, smack of the rope--
no Double Dutch, limbo, no communal game,
but this resolute definition of rhythm,
slatted bench shadows lengthening into space,
the other kids simply forgetting she’s there,
her solitary corner of the playground darkening
as the dinner hour approaches, while pigeons pause
on their branches, squirrels come down the trunk and stop,
with rush hour beyond the fence, cars idling,
and the rope’s metronome, forgotten as breath,
weaving all the disparate energies of girl--
elation, fury, eagerness, song--
into one singular strand.

Adonis Garage, by Rynn Williams

Patti Smith

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:59:00 +0000

The cross-eyed teacher who couldn't control his pupils, and plenty more...

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:07:00 +0000

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.

He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends.

The sign on the lawn outside a drug rehab center said 'Keep off the Grass'.

If someone with multiple personalities threathens suicide, can that be considered a hostage situation?

The Police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was a nurse said 'No change yet'.

A prisoner's favorite punctuation mark is the period. It marks the end of his sentence.

The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing - but it let out a little whine.

Pencils could be made with erasers at both ends, but what would be the point (or, to write with a broken pencil is pointless)

Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.

A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Two peanuts were walking in a tough neighborhood and one of them was a-salted.

A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway).

posted by Rena Silverman

They Do it Exceptionally Well (continued)

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:13:00 +0000

Or, the Baby Out with the Plath Water

Four thousand comments later, I make my case in the Plath debate.

A little literary lesson: (myself included), you can't argue Joyce Carol Oates--you know, the essayist --successfully! You just can't. We inhale Oxygen and exhale Carbon Dioxide, Oates inhales Oxygen and breathes out books.

By the way, I'm remaking my web site. And for no reason whatsoever. Good for me.

Rena

They Do It Exceptionally Well (Plath's Kid Kicks the Bucket).

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:02:00 +0000

The son of the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath has taken his own life, 46 years after his mother gassed herself while he slept.

Nicholas Hughes hanged himself at his home in Alaska after battling against depression for some time, his sister Frieda said yesterday.

He was 47, unmarried with no children of his own and had until recently been a professor of fisheries and ocean sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Nicholas Hughes hanged himself at his home in Alaska after battling against depression for some time, his sister Frieda said yesterday. read more.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.
--SYLVIA PLATH

Mirky...

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:07:00 +0000

which way is the better way to go? is it, to hit the floor from the impact of a mercury-poisoned newspaper headline? or tell me, is it better to go slowly -- for your brain to butter itself in a blanket of mercury over time. you see, i'm not sure.

Yesterday, the Washington Post almost killed me with the headline and lead:

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury
half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH SUGAR I CONSUME? no really, I don't think you do.

So, nearing death via shock and a detour in cardiac output (you know from the headline), I carried each finger to its corresponding letter: W-I-K-ipae. Typing my hardest, my hands just slipped. It was the shaking. The terror. I failed. As I sat there, cold and enlightened, my last lit second...as I sat there, muttering the irony of words like "silver", my elbow hit the "return" key. staring at the words in front of me, I read allowed. "Do You Mean Wikipedia?" said google in blue. YES, YES, I do! I do! Clicking on that oh, whatever, RELIABLE site (the one that can't get one thing right), I clicked on "Wikipedia", type in Mercury where the cursor blinked and waited for my old friend mr computer (recently the marriage with mrs. airport has slowed things down). I was brought to a page likely created by a Stewie or Good Will Hunting type. The bottom paragraph has clearly been written by several sources (don't click on their links, you'll enable their page rank):

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is charged with regulating and managing mercury contamination. Several laws give the EPA this authority, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Additionally, the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act, passed in 1996, phases out the use of mercury in batteries, and provides for the efficient and cost-effective disposal of many types of used batteries. North America contributed approximately 11% of the total global anthropogenic mercury emissions in 1995.

ok, present tense. i'm on mercury and stupid so my writing is bad.

about the paragraph above the above, here's my question. are those stewie good wills trying to be NEWSY? because that first line almost bleeds it leads so much, then they get flat which is often confused with not being biased, using words like "efficient" and "cost-effective". ANYWAY, my point and I do not have one, but I'm trying to make one...is about those "several laws."

Let's look at each, shall we?

Clean Air Act:
I don't need to look. Let me guess. created after the ozone layer realized it was hole-y.

Clean Water Act:
passed in 1972 AFTER rivers and lakes ALREADY polluted and AFTER wet lands had dried up from ...shmoosh.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act:
Until the mid-1980s most underground storage tanks (USTs) were made of bare steel, which is likely to corrode over time and allow content to leak into the environment. When I say content i mean petroleum type of gook, which had the potential to seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly half of all Americans.

Safe Drinking Water Act (think Erin Brockovich):
Congress enacted this one after nationwide studies of water systems revealed some really %^#^%# up $@%$, or to put it nicely, "health risks from poor operating procedures", inadequate facilities, and poor management of public water supplies everywhere. Since then, every time there's a problem with water, they update it after, which is good yes, I never believed in brita, but again, can't we prevent these things? (Remember my questions are for the gods too.)

Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management:
passed in 1996, this reduced the environmental impact of yucky mercury batteries in landfills that are bad for the earth. Unfortunately, we've just discovered that we've been eating the remains since. Oh well.

Rena

It's a Bird AND a Plane

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:19:00 +0000

What the Flock, by rena silverman
They're calling it Miracle on the Hudson. An appropriate name for a story with
a hero - the pilot -- who managed to land a US Airways plane onto the Hudson River with the grace of a ballerina , and without one injury. read more on iReport.com...

Get Served in an Incredibly Crowded Bar - wikiHow

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:52:00 +0000

a little advice from me because I'm short. read more.

It's a Stick Up!

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:38:00 +0000

Burglar sure knows how to pick 'em: Breaks into home of off-duty cop
BY KERRY BURKE, ALISON GENDAR AND WIL CRUZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, October 31st 2008, 3:07 PM

Bad idea. Worse location.
A career criminal hoping to score during a daylight burglary was met by an off-duty cop who whipped out a gun and shot him.
Police said the would-be-thief broke into the officer's Brooklyn home Friday shortly after 1:30 p.m. The suspect, armed with a tire iron, attacked the cop. read more..

(well, a screw up)

Haiku of the Day, and at this rate, don't expect one tomorrow.

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:20:00 +0000

Sharing the same blood

but we're not related--that

hateful mosquito!

Rena Silverman

Haiku of the Day (but don't expect one tomorrow)

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:08:00 +0000

The Fight of a Freelancer

Please don't call us 'cause
We'll call you. Ha, ha, ha, ha
Ha ha ha ha ha.

posted by Rena Silverman

Express Yourself ...They've Crossed the Line!

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:09:00 +0000

or, how to be a local lunatic.

In every supermarket, there is an express aisle. In every express aisle, there is a line. In every line, there is inevitably someone who cheats the system, never thinking twice about it.

John Mason thinks twice about it. Mason, who has a habit of making small purchases,is often seen in the express checkout line at his local supermarket, which he emphasizes is for people with "15 items or less".

"Invariably," he growls, "there is a guy also in line who thinks he can get away with buying twenty."

That's when Mason into what he calls "Sesame Street mode."

He begins by counting loudly and clearly as he loads each of his own items onto the conveyor belt. "It's just subtle enough that there is room for people to think that you are doing it for your own sake," says the twenty-nine-year-old cartoonist from Statesboro, Georgia. "But it's also just obvious enough for the guilty person and anyone else with a clue to know you are making a point."

Mason says that he has yet to shame anyone into actually leaving the express line. But he is not done trying.

"It's always the guilty party who looks the other way and pretends it's not happening," he says. "And it's usually the clerk who tosses me a knowing glance and chuckles a bit."
Posted by Rena Silverman

Artists: How to Cope with Rejection Letters

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:50:00 +0000

And, how toilet paper can help.

The following activities have been used in various psychiatric hospitals, prisons, nursing homes, and other ill-fated institutions. It has long been known that trivial craft projects deflect the agony of the dark-hearted and cynical. The goal here is not to make great art but to create a purpose, an actual "pragmatic" need (if you will), for your rejection letters.

Toilet Paper Effigy
Pick your nemesis: agent, editor, director, curator, critic. Effigies say "Die, motherfucker" better than any vengeful threat or dartboard. You will need: scissors, glue, a photo (or a copy of one) of your nemesis, a cardboard toilet paper tube, a Ping-Pong ball, a rejection letter, and lighter fluid.
1. Paste your rejection letter around the cardboard tube. Trim excess.
2. Make two slits opposite each other in the toilet paper tube. The cuts should go a third of the way up the tube.
3. Curve each of the two flaps you just created into small cylinders—these will be the legs.
4. Glue the Ping-Pong ball into the top of the tube.
5. Paste an image of your nemesis's face onto the Ping-Pong ball (or simply draw your own rendition).
6. Douse in lighter fluid and burn on fire escape.

Paper Chain Noose

This one's easy. Create one for every room. You will need:
many rejection letters, scissors, and stapler.
1. Cut rejection letters in half, then into strips.
2. Staple one loop, then create another inside the first, staple, and repeat continuously.
3. Hang chain from ceiling. Loop into noose.

Gold Macaroni Frame

Here's a great way to display your all-time favorite! You will need: your best (i.e., most insulting) rejection letter, glue, dry macaroni, foam- or cardboard, and gold or silver spray paint.
1. Paste macaroni shapes to the edges of a ten-by-twelve inch piece of card- \ board or foamboard. You may want to alternate your pasta shape with bow ties, rotini, and wagon wheels for a thoughtfully patterned design.
2. Coat with gold spray paint (or use
silver for a more industrial look).
3. Glue rejection letter inside your gorgeous frame and hang it on walls for all to marvel at.

Holiday Arson Balls
This a delightful holiday treat if you're one of the few artists lucky enough to have a fireplace. If not, an alley garbage can will do. Grab your friends and a few gallons of eggnog, and let the fun begin. You will need: potpourri (or substitute dead flowers and crushed pine needles), cheap bourbon, festive ribbons, and rejection letters.
1. Place rejection letter facedown and plunk a handful of potpourri onto its center.
2. Fold up corners and gather at the top like a doggie bag.
3. Cinch with festive ribbon.
4. Douse in cheap bourbon and toss into the fire.

Angel of Despair

Why not pray while sobbing on your knees? Remove your hands from in front of your face and clasp them together before this lovely Angel of Despair. You will need: scissors, glue, your favorite rejection letter, poster board, paper doily, and metal beer pull tab.

1. Back your rejection letter by gluing it to a piece of stiffer poster board.
2. Cut letter into the biggest half circle it can make.
3. Fold half circle into cone and glue at seams.
4. Trace hand shape onto two doilies and cut out.
5. Glue doilies to back of cone to create wings.
6. Draw head and arms on poster board and cut out. Attach to cone body with glue.
7. Glue beer pull tab to head to create halo.

If you run out of activities to cover your rejection letters, simply start all over again from the top of this list! Soon enough, you'll have a house full of reject-o-crafts!

Posted by Rena Silverman

Andrea Mitchell: Left but Right

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:01:00 +0000

by Rena Silverman

Andrea Mitchell,
You are the Best
You really know
who to put to the test.

You're full of wisdom
You're full of wit
You're on to politicians
who are full of___

That is why this video is so great
You should host the next debate.

All Cats Go to Law School

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:31:00 +0000

hey, can you hear me now?

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:06:00 +0000

yeah, I can. now shut up.

When it comes to public spaces, silence is part of what belongs to the public. But increasingly, cell phone talkers commandeer this shared good and fill it with their own idle chatter.

Sometimes their babble is painful for its sheer banality. Other times they delve into topics that to discuss out loud would make even the most intimate of friends blush.

But these people, in all of their loud self-importance, don't seem to notice. Or at least they don't seem to care.

The Web offers a booming trade in pocket-sized jammers, which block cell phone signals within a forty-five-foot radius. Unfortunately, the devices are illegal to use in the United States, so law abiders, left to fend for themselves, tend to resort to lower-tech guerrilla tactics.

John Dilbert says that he most often encounters loud cell phone talkers in airports. His tactic is to hold up the small tape recorder that he keeps with him, as if to record the loud talker. "They go into that handover-mouthpiece mode," says Dilbert, a fifty-eight-year-old sociology professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. "Occasionally someone will complain that I am violating some kind of agreement or something, but it certainly isn't something I agreed to."

Jane Lilac reads aloud when confronted with this situation. "Last time I read several articles from The New York Times Magazine and Nature Conservancy," says Lilac, the educator from Phoenix, Arizona, who also offered a creative solution to cope with inconsiderate dog walkers (tell you later). "Usually the person on the phone gets really ticked off and the other people sitting nearby throw me appreciative glances."

But if the conversation veers toward the raunchyand amazingly enough it often does-those within earshot are usually left with no other option than to vacate the area. "You hardly want to hear everything about what happened at the end of that person's date last night," says Jim Coudal, forty-five, who owns a design firm in Chicago. "Then that person hangs up and calls three more people, telling it again and alain in even more graphic detail." The indignant stare rarely works with these people, and interrupting the conversation usually seems like more effort than it's worth, he says.

That's why "Dear Cell Phone User" cards come in handy. Produced by the Society for Handheld Hushing-or SHHHI-A fake group that Coudal invented, the cards read as follows:

"Dear Cell Phone User: We are aware that your ongoing conversation about is very important to you, but we thought that you'd like to know that it doesn't interest us in the least. In fact, your babbling disregard for others is more than just a little annoying."

Since they are fill -in-the -blank, the cards can be tailored to fit the occasion. For instance, the card on Coudal's Web site has "your husband's vasectomy" written into the blank. In the last year, more than three hundred thousand people have downloaded the wallet-sized cards, which are free online.

Coudal believes that loud cell phone talkers are practically a universal frustration these days. He points out that French, Swedish, and Japanese versions of the cards have already appeared online. "Everyone wants a way to tell the obnoxious cell phone user that they are being a pain," he says. "But they want to do it discreetly."

posted by Rena Silverman

BEHIND EVERY GREAT FORTUNE THERE'S A CRIME.

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:51:00 +0000

so, behold the written word (oh, and pass me a lime?)

If you're filthy rich, you can protect your disgusting dirty secrets with this confidentiality agreement!!

CLICK HERE

UPDATE: Top Ten Foreign Holders of United States Debt

rena.silverman@gmail.com (Rena Silverman) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:55:00 +0000

As you see, last year I wrote this:

Pocket Watch: I tick Well, by Rena Silverman: To the DEBTpartment of the Treasury: we have issues

Well, I'd like to update you all with a new, little graph:


                                         MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES
                                                   (in billions of dollars)
                                                 HOLDINGS 1/ AT END OF PERIOD


                                                                                                   New 5/  Old 5/
                                                                                                   Series  Series
                     Apr     Mar     Feb     Jan     Dec     Nov     Oct     Sep     Aug     Jul     Jun     Jun     May     Apr
Country               2008    2008    2008    2008    2007    2007    2007    2007    2007    2007    2007    2007    2007    2007
                   ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------

Japan                 592.2   600.7   586.6   586.9   581.2   590.9   601.7   591.9   595.8   620.6   622.9   612.9   615.0   614.6
China, Mainland       502.0   490.6   486.9   492.6   477.6   458.9   459.1   467.7   471.2   480.0   477.3   405.2   407.5   414.2
United Kingdom 2/     251.4   202.9   181.4   157.9   156.7   172.3   151.4   125.1   101.5    67.3    50.0   192.2   169.5   135.4
Oil Exporters 3/      153.9   150.8   146.1   140.9   137.9   138.7   141.6   137.1   134.7   134.7   133.2   122.1   121.1   112.0
Brazil                149.5   149.1   146.6   141.7   129.9   121.7   113.9   110.5   107.7   105.8    94.8    93.7    81.6    79.7
Carib Bnkng Ctrs 4/   115.4   107.1   103.0   108.1   116.4   107.4   105.6    99.1   103.8    70.7    78.2    42.8    47.2    75.6
Luxembourg             84.8    92.7    83.1    68.4    69.7    68.3    63.3    58.4    57.1    57.6    55.9    62.6    62.2    61.8
Hong Kong              63.1    60.5    57.4    54.3    51.0    51.6    51.1    52.5    53.1    55.9    57.3    60.5    58.6    56.3
Russia                 60.2    42.4    38.4    35.2    32.7    33.5    33.6    31.8    31.9    35.9    33.5    14.7    11.8     7.7
Norway                 45.3    44.5    34.0    33.6    26.2    27.6    25.5    22.9     6.4      --     3.1      --      --     2.1
Germany                44.0    42.5    42.5    43.0    41.7    39.1    41.8    41.8    42.3    41.7    45.9    48.3    51.4    49.8
Taiwan                 42.6    41.2    38.8    38.9    38.2    37.1    40.7    39.9    39.5    44.6    44.7    57.5    57.4    59.2
Switzerland            42.5    41.2    39.4    39.3    38.9    38.1    37.8    37.0    37.4    37.2    38.3    32.2    31.9    32.3
Korea                  40.5    40.7    41.4    42.1    39.2    37.8    37.0    39.4    42.6    44.4    43.7    50.0    52.1    54.1
Mexico                 38.0    38.8    36.5    35.5    34.4    32.0    30.5    30.0    30.2    34.9    33.9    36.6    35.5    35.5
Singapore              33.3    33.1    33.3    38.3    39.7    40.1    38.8    36.6    37.8    36.3    36.0    33.0    34.4    32.1
Turkey                 31.1    28.7    28.5    28.2    25.6    25.6    28.1    28.3    29.2    28.5    28.7    27.1    27.0    26.2
Thailand               27.9    25.7    30.5    28.9    27.4    27.5    22.8    24.7    22.9    22.5    20.6    17.8    18.7    16.8
Canada                 24.0    19.4    21.4    23.0    17.5    22.8    15.5    17.6    19.2    23.3    24.6    30.5    33.6    29.8
Ireland                18.5    17.8    15.6    15.6    18.7    17.5    17.0    16.3    16.8    15.6    15.8    12.0    12.0     8.5
Netherlands            15.5    15.1    14.1    15.9    15.2    14.2    14.8    15.1    16.6    15.7    16.5    21.2    20.0    21.3
Sweden                 13.1    13.2    13.6    13.4    13.7    14.1    14.5    14.8    15.7    15.5    15.1    15.7    15.4    14.8
Egypt                  12.7    12.7    12.0    11.6    10.4    10.6     9.9     9.9    10.1    10.2    10.0     6.4     6.3     6.0
Belgium                12.5    12.8    13.2    13.1    13.2    14.2    14.6    14.6    14.6    15.4    15.2    11.9    12.1    12.9
Poland                 12.5    11.6    10.2    10.3    12.9    11.1     9.8    10.6    10.5    11.1    10.4    12.9    11.8    12.2
Italy                  10.6    11.3    11.3    12.7    14.6    15.5    14.1    13.4    13.2    13.9    14.0    13.5    13.4    13.3
India                  10.5    11.8    14.4    14.6    14.9    14.8    14.9    10.8    12.1    14.1    14.0    12.8    15.3    20.0
All Other             154.2   159.2   156.6   157.3   157.8   153.5   146.4   144.6   147.0   147.7   158.4   145.6   162.1   162.3
Grand Total          2601.8  2518.2  2436.7  2401.5  2353.5  2336.4  2296.0  2242.2  2221.0  2201.0  2192.0  2191.7  2185.0  2166.7

Of which:
For. Official       1742.7  1706.6  1681.6  1688.0  1641.1  1619.1  1613.8  1607.7  1595.1  1621.0  1612.6  1443.1  1448.4  1458.4
Treasury Bills      215.1   201.3   204.3   207.1   196.3   185.3   180.4   178.3   180.0   176.2   160.9   160.9   172.7   178.1
T-Bonds & Notes    1527.6  1505.3  1477.3  1480.9  1444.8  1433.8  1433.4  1429.4  1415.1  1444.7  1451.7  1282.1  1275.7  1280.3

Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board
June 16, 2008

1/  Estimated foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury marketable and non-marketable bills, bonds, and notes
   reported under the Treasury International Capital (TIC) reporting system are based on annual
   Surveys of Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities and on monthly data.
2/  United Kingdom includes Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
3/  Oil exporters include Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
   Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria.
4/  Caribbean Banking Centers include Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Panama.
   Beginning with new series for June 2006, also includes British Virgin Islands.
5/  New series reflect new benchmark survey taken in this month.  Estimated positions based on the
   previous survey are shown for comparison.


Thank you, come again. 

Rena Silverman