Taken with Polaroid Automatic 100 on Fujifilm FP-3000B Instant Film
I knew a tree cutter in high school. He did it during his weekends to make extra money. There was one time when he told me about one of the most valuable lessons he learned from cutting trees. Continue reading
Back in 2006, I ventured off to the eastern coast of Staten Island to check out the beaches. Even though I grew up in Staten Island, I never went to the beaches before. Back in the 80′s, most of the beaches were closed because of hypodermic needles and other trash washing up on shore.
But the landfills on SI were closed in March of 2001. (Though after 9/11 the beach was briefly opened to be used as a sorting ground for the rubble and debris.)
I packed my gear and brought along one of my two saint statues. I didn’t know what I would find, didn’t have anyone else to go with, wasn’t even sure if it would be worthwhile. There was only one way to find out though. Continue reading
“So I’ll go walking in the streets ’til my heels bleed
and I’ll sing out my song in case the birds wish to sing along.”
From Freakish by Saves The Day
No, my love for trash doesn’t come from growing up in Staten Island (home of the world’s largest landfill).
I’ve had an interest in the idea of cliches ever since my sophomore year in college. I found it interesting to think about how some phrases get old to us and lose the power they once had when we first heard them. Is it really the words getting old? How could they? More likely, it’s us getting old to the words.
Raw thoughts from my journal.
Originally written on December 22, 2007.
What’s it all worth?
Will anyone read the books
stacked at the edge of the table?There’s a layer of dust in
the room that seems
to never go away.
You could dust one spot
to only make room
for more.
I am fortunate to say that 9/11 did not really affect me personally. I did not know anyone who died in the terrorist attacks. Though the music studio I was working at at the time was only blocks away from ground zero, I was at home in Staten Island at the time. So, for the most part, I was only affected by the day as a bystander.
“Character is more important than being sharp,” said the interesting idiot (that would be me).
A lot of people have complimented me on the photo above. I’ve even printed it for someone to hang in her living room. I’m not sure what it is about the photo. Maybe it’s the perspective…maybe the colors…maybe a mixture of a bunch of things. Whatever it is…it seems to draw some people to it. But if you really look at it, it’s not really in focus. Continue reading
From “The Thin Red Line.”
Internal monologue from the face of a dead Japanese soldier looking up from the dirt.
Addressed to Private Witt, who stares silently at the face.
Are you righteous? Kind?
Does your confidence lie in this?
Are you loved by all? Know that l was, too.Do you imagine your sufferings will be less because you loved goodness? Truth?
Couldn’t you have picked something like, “I came, I saw, I conquered”?
Or even, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” ~Les Brown
But NO, you had to be asking for the long road from day one.
Dumbass.
I watched Inception a couple of weeks ago. Later than most people I know. Many of my friends recommended it and thought I would like it a lot because of how the movie probes ideas of reality and dreaming.
Overall, I thought Inception was well made. Great production, effects, and acting. But having a long history of lucid dreaming and having already thought about dreams and reality a lot, I found the concepts brought out in Inception to be old and boring.
It still made me think about a lot of things though. The most important being about feeling pain and suffering. Continue reading
I was thinking about writing about all the planning and prep that went into the beach shoot…but honestly, it gets a bit boring. Then I was going to write about how I go to great lengths for interesting angles. But I got sick of the self-praise.
So simply put…I take risks.
I wasn’t always so willing. I used to be scared to take risks. And I still am a lot of times. Continue reading
