Rinds

we'll keep working on the problem we know we'll never solve
of love's uneven remainders, our lives are fractions of a whole.
but if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall.
then I think we would see the beauty.
then we would stand staring in awe at our still lives posed like a bowl of oranges,
like a story told by the fault lines and the soil.

Bright Eyes

Make a photograph dominated by the color orange today.

Machine

Filling holes with tiny sounds
Shining from the inside out
Picture of you where it began

Low

Make a photograph that features metal or a metallic surface today.

Top Chef

There is no reason why I should like Top Chef. There is actually every reason why I should hate it. The nauseating product placement, the orchestrated and unnecessary competitiveness, the hyper-tense melodrama, and yes the weird gongs and terrible music, but alas none of these aspects make a damn of difference because I love this show. I mean love, couldn't be more entertained. I never want it to end, love!

Late to the game, my wife and I started to download the series from season four and have been on a steady diet of episodes for a few weeks. Every night after the kids are in bed and the rest of our lives are in order, we snuggle up on the couch and watch a bunch of strangers talk about food. It gets us excited. We discuss the merits of each Cheftesitant (Lame I know, don’t judge me), talk about various cooking vocabulary, (Did you know that Sous Vide means to cook something slowly in a bag?) and of course we drool over the amazing art form that is fine dining.

As a college student, I worked in several fine-dining restaurants in my twenties (One restaurant was Aquavit in NYC. I was surprised to see Marcus Samuelsson as a guest judge, as I remember him expediting food one night when I was working.) As a former waiter I have a soft spot for the restaurant world. I pride myself in starting as a busboy and working my way up the food chain. (Pun intended) I learned about wine and flavor and things like Radicchio. In some sick way, I still miss my restaurant days. I have always enjoyed eating out and food culture. I was never a professional, but I enjoyed understanding food and giving my diner's a pleasant experience. My wife says, I am a terrible person to go out with because I am the guy wondering why our drink orders haven't been taken yet or why there are stains on our silverware.

Watching Top Chef has awakened something in me. I am making my own ice cream and pasta and really thinking about food in a whole new way. Yes, it is cheesy and dramatic, but it is also very entertaining, funny, and mouth watering. If you haven’t watched this show and you like food, you are missing out. I joke with my wife that I am in love with Padama and that she is my new TV wife, and I must admit that I have a bit of a man crush on Tom Caliiclhio. I have said too much. Looking forward to starting season eight tonight. Yes all-stars! Do you watch it too? Who was your favorite? What stories do you have to share about food?

Interaction with Dough

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she interacts with dough. Just watch a man as he pounds and dances with a ball of flour and egg and you can read right into his soul. You can watch insecurities morph into frustrations only to magnify into neurosis. Let that dough remain unyielding for long enough and a man may go mad. Or he may tenderly and firmly knead the dough, pull it, stretch it, find its (his) limits.

I decided to make fresh pasta today. I need a meditative practice. I need a new hobby. I need to see myself with dough, in dough, through dough? I need to tend to my anxiety and assuage my patience. I need to do something with all my soul. I need to not multi-task and work with deliberation. I need to cook.



One of the easiest Zen tenets is to act with awareness and determination. Be here now and be into what you are doing. Take the simplest task and give yourself to it fully. When I say easiest, of course I mean easiest to understand, but nothing in Zen is easy. One can want to make fresh pasta with his four year old daughter during spring break, but to actually make it happen takes a lot more_____________?

I am not sure what it takes, but I do know that when you find a simple task like making food, and you bring love to it, and surround yourself with music and sunlight, and you talk to your growing child about what you are doing, and you talk and knead, and roll and need each other, beautiful things happen. 

This is all there really is. This is the happiness so many people find elusive. A man and his child standing in the kitchen making lunch...

More pictures here

Inside

It's funny how things make sense when your lonely
It's funny how you want more when your happy
I'm coming over will you open the door for me
I'm better off inside

Hayden

Make a photograph that illustrates being inside today.

Audacity Indeed!

I am in a state in which I often find myself- too tried to write a fully thought out, well written post, but wily enough to want, nay, need to say more than a few Tweets. So what to do? Write the half baked, get it out of my system, more than 140 characters post, and move on.

After a thought provoking and mind opening chat with my friend Ari, I am reading Audacity of Hope by none other than B. Obama himself. And honestly, I am loving it. It is too soon for me to make any grand political epiphanies or sweeping judgments, but the book itself is an absolute pleasure to read. Flawlessly written and honest in spirit, it is a book that every American should read if for nothing else a firm understanding of how politics works in our current age.

The prose is fluid, well crafted and a pleasure to read. His ideas, while wildly centrist and bipartisan, can't help but make you, no matter what your political persuasion, think about your position in a more open-minded way. It is a dispassionate, realistic, and honest look into the mind of a politician.

As I mentioned earlier this is not the soul bearing post in which I closely examine some fundamental shifts in my thinking due to the content of this book. This is merely to say that I am really enjoying the ride. I will definitely be reading his earlier book if for no other reason that I love his style. 

More soon. I am about half way through it...

Names and Things

But you, you can't be found when the bell rings
You weren't there that day for the naming of things

The naming of things
The naming of things

Andrew Bird

Make a black and white photograph and go monochrome today

Happiness

Your love is better than ice cream
Better than anything else that I’ve tried
And your love is better than ice cream
Everyone here knows how to fight

Sarah McLachlan

I have a little more to add to this Daily Shoot assignment. Last night, I spent a little over an hour making fresh mint ice cream from scratch, and this simple act of creation made me very happy. My mind was swirling with cool mediative thoughts on simplicity and freshness. Rather than try to recapture them all now, I will open the flood gates and let spill some of the ideas that I remember:

We have forgotten how simple creation can be. Fast and easy has overtaken slow and deliberate. We allow others to make everything for us because they have made it appear to be difficult and while they have promised to make our lives easier,  really they have only made our lives more shallow.

Flavor comes from the earth. All of it. Everything else is processed chemicals. Everything tastes better homemade. To say we don't have time means to make time for other things. Food is important. I enjoy stirring cream. I like the smell of fresh mint. This is meditation. I am learning right now. I can feel the tingle. Learning how to make a custard. Learning how to infuse flavor, learning how to slow down and breathe. These are the lesson we should be teaching in school. 

I hope sharing this experience will connect me to like-minded people and/or inspire others. I like it all by myself here with the spinning iced cream. What flavors are next: Saffron, rosewater, pumpkin, peach? Tomorrow night I will make fresh raviolis. Something inside me is alive and growing. I will nurture it with the love I put in this food...

Here are some images from my Saturday night.

Body Rockin'

The sound of the music makin' you insane
You can't explain to people this type of mind frame
And like a bottle of Chateau Neuf Du Pap
I'm fine like wine when I start to rap
We need body rockin' not perfection
Let me get some action from the back section

Beastie Boys

Make a photograph of something in motion. Use blur to help convey the motion you are capturing.

Way Home

Have you found your way around the down and out?
I know it must seem long so long
I'm still trying to keep this time from running out
head down
always moving on and on and on

Foo Fighters

Make a photograph featuring a path, road, or trail that leads the eye through the photograph.

You Are My Face

I am looking forward
Toward the shadows tracing bones
Our faces stitched and sewing
Our houses hemmed into homes
Trying to be thankful
Our stories fit into phones
And our voices lift so easily
A gift given accidentally
When we're not sure
We're not alone

Wilco

Make a photograph today that uses layers as a compositional tool.

Opportunity

I've been wrong before
And I'll be there again
I don't have
any answers my friend
Just this pile of old questions
My memory left me here
In the field of opportunity
It's plowin' time again.

Neil Young

Illustrate the rule of thirds in a photograph today.

Home

Home, with our bodies touching
Home, and the cameras watching
Home, will infect whatever you do
Where home, comes to life from out of the blue

David Bryne

What reminds you of home? Make a photograph of it today.

The Empire's New Clothes

A few days weeks ago, I wrote about an exchange I had with Ari about a book I am reading about Obama. Our conversation, rightfully, caused a shift in my political equilibrium and personal values.  Ari really made me rethink the expectations I have of my politicians  and examine my own actions and morality. Basically he said that, it is easy to rant against X and Y, but we should be careful not to actually be acting like X and Y ourselves.

I have a few new insights on our chat, but will hold on to them until I finished Audacity of Hope, which is now on my bedside table. I will give Obama the benefit of doubt and read his point of view with an open mind. In the meantime, I have scratched out this quick review of the Paul Street book. I hope to revisit my thoughts, our chat, and both books when I finish the Obama book. This review is tepid at best, but I felt I needed to get something now at this juncture.

A review of The Empire's New Clothes by Paul Street

A bit skewed left, but rightfully so, many will claim this to be an unrealistic, utopian rant by a left-wing radical, but really the one question the writers asks repeatedly is this, "Has president Obama moved toward a peace and justice agenda based on the wants and rights of poor and middle clas Americans, or has he been a puppet of big moneyed Wall Street and big industry interests?

The book does a great job of breaking down every aspect of Obama's failure to even come close to the "progressive" agenda his campaign sold to Americans. It would do apologist Obamaist well to take a look at these claims and rather than blindly defend  "Brand Obama's" short comings, start asking new questions: Is this false reform what they want from Obama, or is it time to cut their losses and move in a new direction? A movement that actually force Imperialist, corporate America to shift radically left. Time for us as a nation question the very nature of our values. Time to admit that no man shackled by the office of president, beholden to a broken free market system will ever work for the needs of the people. It is time for us to work actively building alternative grassroots movements...

I know, I know...what the hell am I doing working at a corporate private school in a foreign country? I guess I should just move home and get to work or stop my bitching. I am off to read The Audacity of Hope so as not to be called biased. Let's see what the man himself has to say...

In The Window

I know too many people unhappy
In a life from which they’d love to flee
Watching others get everything offered
They’re wanton for discovery
Oh my brother my sister my mother
You’re loosing your identity
Can’t you see that it’s you in the window
Shining with intensity

Sarah McLachlan

Make a photograph that incorporates a circle.

All Around The Light

Now I see my father, he's so small against the sky
The child, the tree, the shadow's on his eyes
He doesn't know who he's supposed to be
Father you are free
And all around the light
And all around the light

Alexi Murdoch

Go somewhere you've not been to in a while and make a photograph of something that grabs your interest.

Carry Me Down

Miles and miles of nether worlds I roam
Settle for love you're never far from home
Carry me down into the waters of
Carry me down into the water of love
Two of us were made of angel's dust
I've been around
But not around enough

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Convey warmth in a photograph today.

Hands of a Prayer

Am I the man I choose to be, choose to be,
Or just the man I used to be, used to be
Am I the man I want to be, I want to be
this question, it keeps haunting me, haunting me

Ben Harper

Show your own hand in a photograph today doing something. Reaching, holding, touching, or making a sign.

Translation

What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long
and then the sun went down
and he sang for me this song

M. Ward

Make a photograph outdoors without an obvious horizon line.

Worried Shoes

My shoes took me toward crooked path.
Away from our welcome mats, my worried shoes.
I looked all around and saw the sun shining down.
Took off my worried shoes, my worries shoes

Karen O

Today's color is green. Make a photograph dominated by green today.

Fresh Knowledge

I swear to you
That I would never feed you pain
But you're staring at me again
Like I'm driving the nails...

Soundgarden

Make a photograph today that illustrates the idea of freshness to you.

Badfish

Ain't got no quarrels with God. Ain't got no time to get old
Lord knows I'm weak
Won't somebody get me off of this reef

Sublime

Make a photo of two complementary objects arranged in a pleasing composition, one large and one small.

Welcome to the Machine

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine. 

What did you dream?
It's alright we told you what to dream.


Pink Floyd

Make a photograph that illustrates a role of technology in your life.

little mouse

every morning a little mouse carries
a pile of books
and randomly lines her nest with
words and pictures...

she buries herself beneath the weight
of possibilities.

Make a photograph that illustrates randomness in some way today.

Close to Home

I find something very beautiful, humbling, and wonderful about people sitting in rooms alone and recording their favorite songs.  We so often associate musicians as extroverted performers, but the reality is that many of us are shy, quiet folk who strum chords and sing out of key, simply because the songs in us must get out.

I love watching random Youube covers. There is often such a pure innocence in the way these songs are covered. The cynic may claim that we closet singers are looking for some kind of attention, others may mock us like they do to the poor victims of American Idol, but I think there is something very brave in locking yourself in the bathroom with a guitar and singing to the world.

I have been a bit obsessed with the song Far From Home by Iron and Wine. First I remixed it with snippets from this confession by Justin Hall.

Far From Home On A Dark Night by intrepidflame

Now I have covered the song with a simple guitar track and posted it on Soundcloud, in hopes that other will add some noice, backing tracks drums etc... to my track and repost it on Soundcloud.  At which time I will download the different versions and remix a collaborative version of my cover.

I have sent an invite to the following people on Youtube, so I hope you join in. Great covers! One and all.
 

So take this track:

Far From Home by intrepidflame

and add your voice. Upload it to soundcloud and send me the link! Let's see what we create together. To clarify there are a few things you can do:

1. Download this track and add backing vocals or other instruments to it and upload it or send it to my dropbox on Soundcloud.  Sort of a duet. 
2. You can play my track in the background but only record and upload your tracks. So I can then layer the various tracks to create a more layered song.Make sure the timing works to make it easier. I can then take your tracks and simply add them to a Garaband File.
3. Do something totally random and crazy and make me deal with it.

Let' em rip people. Here is the tab I used.

Circles

When the ghostly dust of violence traces everything
And when the gas runs out just wreck it, you insured the thing

I don't need to walk around in circles
walk around in circles
walk around in circles
walk around in

Soul Coughing

Make a photograph of a beautiful simple shape, such as an egg, today. Utilize lighting and focus to make it sing.

Ripple

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of man

Grateful Dead

Make a photograph that features water in one way or another today.

Let's Grow Together.

Below you will find a thread from my Facebook page about the latest book I am reading on Obama.The thread also references an article by Chris Hedges.

Half way through this exchange my good friend Ari and I had a chat on Gmail. You will find the transcript of that chat below. I have pasted the conversation in its entirety for the sake of context and flow.

8:52 AM
Ari: our stupid fight on facebook?!?
8:53 AM
me: It is blocked here at school, I have my retort all written out, but can't post it now.
But don't have more time to get into it now.
What else is up?
Are you still teaching at the Russian school?
8:56 AM
Ari: i am . why do you ask?
 me: You should check out this book.
8:57 AM
Think it is an easy sell for kids. Lots of good themes etc...

8:58 AM
Ari: k. ...basically, my question about the marxist book you are reading is why you think this guy is more true in statements than obama in his books
8:59 AM
me: Don't have time right now. Leave it on Facebook.
9:00 AM
Ari: okay. can i share one small peom really quickly

me: sure. Now you got me thinking, why does Reb Anderson have more credibility to you than say Glenn Beck?
9:01 AM
Why Democracy Now over Fox?
Ari: totally!!!
me: Why Josh Ritter over Justin Beiber?
Ari: exactlly
 me: I get your point. There is no truth. We all know that.
9:02 AM
Ari: well if there is no truth...we need to watch out for people who seem to traffic in "their" truths
me: but we construct meaning and narrative through a melange of ideas. I don't believe Obama like I don't believe a commercial.
Yeah, but at some point we traffic in our truths too.
9:03 AM
I believe the marixts guy like I believe in NPR
Ari: too, true....this is what the branch of epistemology is all about in philosophy
me: His narrative matches people I respect and admire: Zinn, Chomsky etc....
9:04 AM
Ari: what "counts" as knowledge, as logical
me: His story matches the one I have viewed first hand. Thus making it more authentic...to me.
Ari: yep
yep, bz
 ...but...
me: That doesn't take away from the authenticity of it for me and trying to share that view with others who may not have seen it this way.

9:05 AM
Ari: (i have a big life shattering point to make)
me: people who still believe other views points, like the fact that Obama is honorable and authentic.
Ari: (i guess i just got flustered when you wrote "i told you so")
9:06 AM
me: For me it is like people believing that Reagan was just folksy or that Bush was a cowboy.
I see no difference in the Obama ad.
Ari: (it was like had some special insight that only your team was able to divine)
me: Valid point. That was provocative and uncalled for.
9:07 AM
Ari: okay, thats all i was reacting to
(when i am being honest with my emotions...i was just reacting to your provoction)
me: Anyway, great book. I am loving it.
Ari: cool...the dialetic thing is

9:08 AM
me: But def check out Speak for your classes.
Ari: if you read obama's two books
me: I will.
Ari: you would come away with this idea that he is the such a nuanced, thoughtful, brave, community-organizer-y dude
me: Just to be able to have a more solid foundation on which to criticize.
Ari: so reasoned.
he read sarte
he read marx
9:09 AM
he got down with the churches in chicago
me: Yeah, I also feel that Apple products make me cooler or that having a Pyrius is great, but that doesn't change the illusion.
Ari: he grew up in indonesia. he stuggled to find himself
me: He may have been all those things, but he aint that no more.
9:10 AM
Ari: yeah, but he did this all when his name was barry and he was going out for a first date with michele to see "do the right thing"
me: He is a pawn who thinks he is king. That line!
Ari: no. bob
let me say one thing

me: go
Ari: do you know how easy it would be
9:11 AM
to make you appear as a some two-faced capitalist pig
who espoused himself to his students
as pro human rights this and pro human rights that
but in the real world...mr. raisdana
took this job here
and shopped at this mall
and this online website
and consumed this
9:12 AM
and vacationed here
and spent his money on this thing
and ate from this place
i mean
i could go on and on
i could a priori
decide you were a corporate shill
and then only provide evidence that confirmed said belief

9:13 AM
me: Great point.
Very very well said.
Ari: leaving out all the lefty stuff
me: Sort of a pow to the head!

Ari: (its called being "intellectually dishonenest)
9:14 AM
i could EVEN easier do it with myself!
me: I get where you are going: Questioning the validity of the honesty of "working within the system."
But when push came to shove how would Mr. raisdana react?
Ari: well, push comes to shove every fucking day(that line!)

9:15 AM
me: Your point is well made, but did I try to convince my students, readers, family self..that I would do one thing than do the exact opposite....yeah yeah I do.
You are right.

Ari: bob, i dont want to be "right"
9:16 AM
...i just want to say...this:
me: I mean I understand your point.
Ari: its easy to fall in love with chomsky, et al
i love chomsky!!!!!!!!
i have his god damn reader, for christ sakes
but....

9:17 AM
me: I guess the trick is to change ourselves to become the honest people we want than attack the politicians for not doing it. then

Ari: i am part of the system is he critquing
I AM PART OF THE PROBLEM I AM RAILING AGAINST
YES.
as long as i shop at target
or get a cup of joe at starbucks

me: But that is so hard. Because I feel powerless in the face of the system.
Ari: or get lazy and dont recycle

9:18 AM
me: Maybe my frustration with Obama is really a mirror of my own anxiety.
Ari: (AND YOU DONT THINK PRESIDENT OBAMA DOES??????)
me: The system has trapped me too.
Ari: AND YOU ARE A MIRROR FOR HIM
TOTALLY
..i feel so trapped, too.
i dont make much money

9:19 AM
me: Yeah, try it with a family, where your choices are not your own anymore.
Ari: and sometimes it cheaper to buy from the corporation than from the local artisan
me: They are collective. Guess much like poltics

Ari: AND, GET THIS...THE COUNTRY IS THE PRESIDENTS FAMILY
so much to think about

9:20 AM
me: And they are crazy, irresponsible, illiterate, and dysfunctional and unable to listen or agree.
I get it. Thanks for this talk. I will let it stew for a while.

9:21 AM
Ari: k. me, too.
i just want to add this very very small point
me: obv
Ari: i think one thing that makes me trust obama in the way i never did with bush or most republicans...
me: oh oh....

9:22 AM
Ari: is he doesnt come from business...he didnt get into politics as a way of advancing some corporate loop hole for his company, etc...
he was an academic, a lawyer, a professor
a community organizer
his intentions were dispassionate

me: That almost makes it worse.

Ari: when it comes to corporate self serving greed
9:23 AM
well depends on a lot of stuff...
but the moral hazard isnt there
like with cheney as ceo and then the wars, etc
me: ok
9:24 AM
I will save this chat btw and share it somehow.
 
Great stuff.

So there you have it! It was a pretty intense chat, and honestly I am a bit drained from it all, but I wanted to try and at least synthesize the gist of it. 

The part that obviously struck me was when Ari called me on my own hypocrisy and shallow self-righteousness.

Ari: do you know how easy it would be
9:11 AM
to make you appear as a some two-faced capitalist pig
who espoused himself to his students
as pro human rights this and pro human rights that
but in the real world...mr. raisdana
took this job here
and shopped at this mall
and this online website
and consumed this
9:12 AM
and vacationed here
and spent his money on this thing
and ate from this place
i mean
i could go on and on
i could a priori
decide you were a corporate shill
and then only provide evidence that confirmed said belief

And really it is this inability to see ourselves and our choices within a political arena that causes so much anger and conflict. Here I am berating Obama for being a corporate stooge and sell-out, while I myself work at a for-profit school, make choices that I find appalling, and for all intents and purposes support the very machine I rage against.

Perhaps my anger toward Obama is that he was branded as our savior and I am disgruntled that he cannot do what I cannot do. Ari, made me realize that maybe he too is trapped within the system. I am sure if asked I could write a litney of justification as to why I work within the system, and how my intentions are in the right place and how i am trying to change minds from inside, the question than becomes: Who is to say that Obama is not faced with the same fate?

So what is the answer? Honestly I don't know. I think it has something to do with settling the storm within ourselves before we stir it up in others. I had a good run away from politics, and perhaps this immature return was a good lesson. I am just glad I have good teachers like Ari to remind me when I am acting irrationally. We should all be so lucky to have such good friends. Perhaps instead of reading inflammatory politics text, I should allow my temper to settle on these beautiful poems by Ari.

For those of you who know me, you know this will not be the last rant. Others will come and go. I am sure, but on this day it was nice to have my mind changed ever so slightly, even for a few minutes. It reminded me that I am free and not tied to any ideology or dogma.  My mind is my own to change. My ideas are fluid and not set in stone.

I will continue to read and write and discuss and feel and change. Hopefully I will find others who are also this invested. What do you think of all this? A lot to take in, I know. Share your thoughts. Let's grow together.

 

The Jungle

We got fun 'n' games
We got everything you want
Honey we know the names
We are the people that can find
Whatever you may need
If you got the money honey
We got your disease

Guns N' Roses

Make a feeling that conveys a sense of being outdoors today.

One Red Thread

have to say there was a mile or two
I had the itch to fly and i flew
now at best we would make our dreams
with something used
with something used

Blind Pilot

Today's theme is red. Red hot? Red paint? Or something else? You decide. Make your photo and then reply with a link!

Swirls

three crooked hearts and swirls all around...
i miss you all day

Pearl Jam

Make a photograph of a smile today.

It's funny, since my kids were born I take pictures of little else. I joined Daily Shoot to force myself to take pictures of subjects other than my kids, but seems that I have had problems with that goal for a week now. But a smile? Come on how can I pass this up?

Linger

All this day long I linger here and on in through the night
My greeds, desires, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight:
My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled, I walk above all pain
Back to the breast of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again

Wilco

Make a low contrast photo today. Concentrate on other cues—such as line and texture—to create your photograph.

Amused

i am a scientist - i seek to understand me
i am an incurable and nothing else behaves like me

Guided by Voices

Make a photograph of something that you find amusing today.

Candle

My best friend from high school, Ari, over at We Buy Balloons has been writing some amazing poems. I want to do a long term project with his words, like record a CD, so today I grabbed my guitar, recruited Kaia and played around with a few lines. It is raw and fresh and honest. I hope to record a few more and see where these go. I will upload them all to Soundcloud, so feel free to download them add your spin and upload them again.

I think these poems offer a sweet taste of vulnerability and motional honesty that can help us all. Add your voice, let's sing together.

a candle, lit and alive,
burns within me
night and day,
rain or shine.

this flame may flare and flicker.
yet something tells me i can't be sure.

perhaps it's only when
i seek warmth someplace else
that my candle seems to fade.

when i trust my light,
this love catches fire...

Candle by intrepidflame

And of course mention anything to Bryan Jackson and get his take within 24 hours.  Thanks Bryan:

Candle(s) - collaboration w/ Jabiz Raisdana & Ari Zeiger by Bryanjack

Long Shadows

I'm not afraid of the dark
When the sun goes down
And the dreams grow teeth
And the beasts come out
Cast their long shadows
Every time that they start
I'll be right here with you
I'm not afraid of the dark

Josh Ritter

Make a photograph that features a shadow as your subject today.

Ashes

Poetry is just the evidence of life.  If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. 
Leonard Cohen

What kind of other art do you appreciate? Make a photograph that celebrates it today.

Buildings and Bridges

Buildings and bridges
are made to bend in the wind
to withstand the world,
that's what it takes
All that steel and stone
is no match for the air, my friend
what doesn't bend breaks

Ani DiFranco

Find a repeating pattern today and make a photograph of it.

Absence of the Sacred

Sometimes you read a book that you want to share with everyone in the world. It moves you in so many ways that you don't know where to start even talking about. You highlight so many passages that you do not know which ones to share first. The review remains shelved, because you so want to get it right that you become paralyzed. Problem with books like this is that if you wait too long to get "it" right, you will never write about them. The trick is to just start writing and have faith that you will write more as necessary. Sometimes these books that shift our world view and make us doubt everything we stand for, need more than a 750 word review. Sometimes they need a few years to really be absorbed. Trouble is that you want to share them with everyone right now!

Well, faithful reader, I have read such a book. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations by Jerry Mander had me asking questions, reflecting on my values, and really looking closely at my relationship to technology and nature.

Mander's book is an angry protest against the uncritical adoption of technology, the expansion of capitalism, and the centralization of political power. He warns that these trends will lead to a New World Order dominated by multinational corporations, resulting in devastation of the earth's natural environment and native cultures. Mander argues that technologies like television and computers extend corporate control in society and promote the uncaring consumption of natural resources. From Amazon

Mander makes many claims throughout the book:

• We have lost touch with nature and the earth.
• We have created false reality through the use of technology and this disconnect from the earth is at the heart of many of the world's problems
• We are only ever "sold" the best of technology by those it befits most (Corporations ) and so we never really look critically at how technologies affect society and nature.
• Indigenous people's have lived at one with nature for thousands of years, while technological society is relatively young and is headed for extinction.
• If we do not change our relationship with the earth we are doomed.
• An economic system based on infinite growth cannot function on a finite planet.
• We have a lot to learn from Indigenous people
• We feel Western, technological society is better off or more advanced than "primitive" cultures
• When really they are just waiting for us to kill ourselves off, so they can go back to living life on earth.
• They do not enevt us or want to be like us. They pity us an dhow lost we are.
• The Earth is alive, when we forgot this, we began to recreate nature to fit our technological needs. (malls, suburbs, domes, space stations etc..)
• Failing to see the earth as alive we do not feel guilt or shame as we exploit her for resources for our own "comfort"
• We are so disconnect from nature that we live in our own minds. Our technology mirrors our disconnect.
• Most technology is born from corporate and military parents.
• Television is a tool of corporate powers to influence and shape culture into a homogeneous consumerists society.
• Corporations are not made up of people, but behave systemically like machines
• They have grown beyond our control
• We have become part of the machine so we have difficulty determining it's boundaries and shape.

I could go on and on. This book is similar to Ishmael, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunshine, and A Language Older than Words. In short, they are all warning us that the myth of technological advancement, perpetuated by corporate interest to make them money, is not the only model for our planet, and it would behoove us to begin to explore alternative ways of being human on this planet. The west is not the best, we are not number one and if we do not wake up soon, we will be gone. Please read this book, track me down and let's chat.

One final note, this really could be two separate books, while the beginning covers most of the topics I mentioned above, the second half is a brief history of the various genocides both past and present against the indigenous people of the world. From Hawaii to Alaska, Canada to Indonesia, Mander documents how technological society has always been at war against native peoples, because of the fundamental difference in worldviews. One group sees the planet as alive with humans as one aspect of a greater whole. We are part of nature. While the other group sees the planet as a dead pool if resources to be exploited for the benefit of mankind, a superior species destined to control the planet. From Manifest Destiny to Globalization, Mander claims that we have been moving in the wrong direction and that we should slow down, stop and re-evaluate our existence on this planet.

Final thoughts:

Yell Fire

A revolution never come with a warning
A revolution never sends you an omen
A revolution just arrived like the morning
Ring the alarm, we come to wake up the snoring

Michael Franti

Make a photograph illustrating a sound that catches your ear today.