2026.03.20
three questions for google/AI today
  
What does it mean to 'go underground'?
AI Overview
"To go underground" means to go into hiding, operate in secrecy, or disappear from public view, often to avoid authorities or persecution. It implies shifting activities to a clandestine, covert, or unconventional level, such as a political group working in secret or an animal hiding in a burrow.
Usage Examples:
Political/Illegal Action: "The resistance group was forced to go underground after the coup".
Hiding/Evading: "Facing intense media scrutiny, the celebrity went underground for several months".
Subculture/Art: "The band operated as an underground act, gaining popularity without mainstream radio play".
Synonyms for "Go Underground":
Go into hiding
Go undercover
Become clandestine/covert
Hole up
Disappear
Operate secretly
Key Contexts:
Political: Secretly working against a government.
Criminal/Fugitive: Living in hiding to avoid arrest.
Cultural: Artistic or social movements that are anti-establishment or avant-garde.
What is the difference between 'going underground' and 'an element of the unknown'?
AI Overview
"Going underground" and "an element of the unknown" differ primarily in that the former describes a voluntary or forced hiding of actions/identity, while the latter describes the inherent uncertainty or mystery surrounding a subject or situation.
Going underground implies a transition from public view to secrecy to evade detection, surveillance, or to operate outside mainstream constraints.
An element of the unknown refers to a state of being not understood, discovered, or known, representing a void in knowledge or a domain of pure possibility.
Detailed Breakdown
Going Underground (Action/State): This term is often used to describe someone or something (like a political movement or artist) who hides or operates in secret. It is active, conscious, and deliberate--an "underground" artist chooses (or is forced) to avoid mainstream outlets. It suggests a "subsurface" existence where people can still act, but away from prying eyes.
An Element of the Unknown (Condition/Quality): This term is more philosophical or abstract, referring to a lack of data or predictability. It is often described as a "permission field" or "generative space" that exists independently of observation. While going underground is about being hidden (but still there), the unknown is about being unseen and unpredictable.
Key Differences
Going Underground: Action (voluntary/forced hiding), Safety, privacy, subversion, Hidden from public/authorities, A resistance movement hiding.
An Element of the Unknown: Condition (uncertainty/mystery), Exploration, discovery, anticipation, Not yet known or understood, A dark room not yet entered.
Contextual Distinctions
In studies of creative work, "underground" often means "independent" or "countercultural". By contrast, in science or philosophy, "the unknown" is the frontier of knowledge--the space where new possibilities emerge.
Going underground is a strategic decision.
The element of the unknown is a reality of existence.
What is the similarity between 'going underground' and 'an element of the unknown'?
AI Overview
The similarity between "going underground" and "an element of the unknown" lies in their shared connection to secrecy, hiddenness, and removal from established, visible reality. Both concepts represent a transition from the known, public sphere into a concealed, obscure, or unpredictable space.
Key similarities include:
Concealment and Secrecy: "Going underground" means moving into hiding or initiating secret operations, which inherently introduces an element of the unknown to those on the outside, as actions, motivations, and identities become hidden.
A "Special" or Hidden World: In literature and psychology, going underground is akin to entering a dark, uncharted, or "special world"--the "inner cave"--which serves as an unexplored, dangerous, yet often revealing, territory.
Subconscious/Hidden Potential: Just as an "unknown element" or factor implies something yet to be discovered or understood, the "underground" is a metaphor for the subconscious or unexplored, mysterious areas of life.
Separation from the Public Eye: Both involve moving beyond the "threshold of the known," leaving behind the safety and visibility of mainstream society to enter a realm where rules are uncertain.
In short, going underground is a physical or metaphorical act of moving into the "unknown," making the underground a tangible representation of the unknown element itself.
arrived in today's mail
Although I did see this exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art thirteen years ago, looking through the catalogue now, I am again amazed at the number of early works by Rauschenberg and Johns included in the exhibition, all works that I never imagined that I would ever see in person.
2025.03.20
451 Rhawn Gallery
15:11
2024.03.20
in the works Genetic Engineering 006a 006b
Sting/Pee-wee Herman Pee-wee Herman/Sting
2023.03.20
20 March 2023 Monday
From The Discovery of Piranesi's Final Project
While Miers was here, today in 1812, awaiting an agreeable Russian foreign relations party, I was here, today in 2023, greeted this morning shortly past 9 with this:
Big smiles and genuine laughter.
Later in the morning received some positive text updates regarding a bone marrow transplant performed late last Thursday. Rest of the day just took it easy; all of us were a bit tired, although completely random DJ George did have us listening to Barry White for part of the afternoon.
2017.03.20
zero zero four
2005.03.20
20 March 1966
It was my 10th birthday, and it was also a Sunday. I think my cousins came over the night before. Anyway, as there were no plans for Sunday, I asked if I could go to the movies by myself. I saw in The Sunday Bulletin movie listings that The Magic Fountain was playing at the CREST theater's children's matinee that afternoon. To my surprise and delight, I was allowed to go, which meant I was also allowed to take the 50 trolley up Rising Sun Avenue for like a mile and a half--the Crest was in the Lawncrest neighborhood at Rising Sun and Cheltenham Aves. (a 7-Eleven is there now). To save some money for myself (probably to buy some candy at the movies), I decided to forego taking the trolley and walked instead.
I got to the theater ok, and watched the movie with a whole lot of other kids. I don't remember anything about the movie except that it ended with a great aerial shot of this fantastic castle. I was mesmerized. "Where is that place?!?" I wanted more.
To everyone's surprise and joy, a snow storm had started while the movie ran. It was now a wonderland outside, and thank God I didn't spend all of my trolley money.
It wasn't until 1969, when we got Encyclopedia Britannica, that I again saw (a picture of) the fantastic castle. I was seeing Neuschwanstein.
Not that it means anything, but it just so happens that King Ludwig I of Bavaria (grandfather of Ludwig II who built Neuschwanstein) abdicated to marry dancer Lola Montez 20 March 1848. I finally saw Neuschwanstein in person sometime the first week of January 1976. I had no idea then that my brother Otto was very sick at home. I still don't know what happened, but it appears Otto ODed New Year's Eve. A half year later Otto went schizophrenic. Back then I didn't know Ludwig II also had a brother Otto who also went schizophrenic 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles while (cousin) Wilhelm King of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor.
Brothers Grimm indeed.
1988.03.20
CITY HALL CENTENNIAL
A Vision for Penn's 5th Square in 2001
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
...if we were a daring society we would go so far as to accept some of the statues being nude. [The idea is making me laugh right now.] The northern round part of Dilworth Plaza is kept, and filled with a fountain of trees. Yes, a fountain of trees. Or else you could think of it as a gigantic flower pot. Why not? There is that gigantic clothespin just across the street. What a weird place in the world. It's Philadelphia. So, there is the flower pot at the beginning of Fairmount Park. . . . I have to talk about the big TV screens. There are just two screens, but perhaps each screen could be divided into four screens--multi views. [I just ate a soft pretzel. I'm not kidding.] There would be those two big TV screens, and they would be on most of the time. They, the screens, are supported by three caryatids--actually, since the statues are male (in the proposal here), they would be called Persians--Caryatids are just women. These big screens would broadcast all kinds of things. There would be live broadcasts like the Mummer's Parade, and baseball and football games, and historic events, or just something that is going on in different parts of Philadelphia, or different parts of the world. [You know, I forgot all about my idea of a satellite dish somewhere on Dilworth Plaza. I'm not worried about it though. There is still room for it.] I could just see some soap operas playing in the TVs at lunch time, and all the secretaries in Center City going to Dilworth ...
This text accompanied the design proposal entered in the City Hall Centennial--A Vision for Penn's 5th Square competition. The entire design was executed using CAD, which, given the date of 1988, is an historically rare occurrence prior to the mid-1990s.
It should be noted that none of the 1988 competition entries had any effect on what actually occurred at Philadelphia's City Hall during its centennial year in 2001.
               
A reenactment of the competition board.
Axonometric view of Dilworth Plaza.
The 'colonnade' of statues that lines the west edge of Dilworth Plaza represents prominent Philadelphians. This civic gesture works as a manifestation of Philadelphia's collective memory, and acts as a symbolic gateway to Philadelphia's municipal center. The precedent for this display of a region's historical figures are the numerous statues of past Belgians that grace the facade of Brussels' City Hall.
The literal focal point of Dilworth Plaza is the giant housing of two electronic screens. While the technology for such large display monitors has for the most part developed in the 1990s, the idea for such an architectural feature goes back to the Football Hall of Fame project by Venturi and Rauch, and, indeed, during the 1980s many sports stadiums incorporated large screen displays for closed circuit television. The placement of such screens in front of Philadelphia's City Hall, like the statues of famous Philadelphians, is meant to portray civic pride as well as a live record of the city's history.
1985.03.20
slide painting 009
slide painting 010
1984.03.20
I Can't Stand the Sight of Blood
1980.03.20
Osteopathic Hospital of Philadelphia City Avenue and Monument Road
Shortly after noon, lobe removal surgery is performed on Otto George Lauf, a consequence of Otto's near fatal car crash on the eastbound Schuylkill Expressway somewhere west of the Girard Avenue Exit at about 4am the same morning. Many years later, Stephen Lauf surmised the reason for the brain operation was to practically eliminate the sensation of pain throughout the right side of Otto's body.
1962.03.20
1962. Tuesday, New York City
On behalf of Pontus Hulten and Ulf Linda who would like to follow the Movement in Art exhibition [6.5.1961] by organizing a "Brancusi-Duchamp-Mondrian" exhibition, Duchamp writes to Henri Marceau of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to enquire whether the museum accepts the idea in principle. They will find Mondrians in Europe," explains Duchamp, "so, for you it is only a matter of the question Brancusi-Duchamp."
Ephemerides
1961.03.20
1961. Monday, Philadelphia
In the evening, with Katharine Kuh as moderator, Duchamp, the sculptor Louise Nevelson, and two painters, Larry Day and Theodoros Stamos, are members of a panel to discuss "Where do we go from Here?" at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art.
Of the panellists, Duchamp is the only one to make a brief, prepared statement [which ends with the sentence:] "The great artist of tomorrow will go underground."
Ephemerides
1956.03.20
Osteopathic Hospital of Philadelphia 20th Street and Susquehanna Avenue
during a snow storm three hours and thirty-two minutes before the vernal equinox
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