I shot this quick little video of Larry reading one of his poems during Lyndsie's interview of him.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
New Project
I've started a new project. I shoot photos for OKC.net
http://okc.net/2013/07/18/painting-pictures-words-interview-oklahoma-poet-robert-spencer/
http://okc.net/2013/07/18/painting-pictures-words-interview-oklahoma-poet-robert-spencer/
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Day 8, Wednesday: A piece of advice you have for others. Anything at all.
Listen to Nick Drake.
And then realize everything he ever wrote happened before Nov. 1974. Today would have been his 65th birthday, but he killed himself with sleeping pills on November 25th, 1974. His mother testified that he didn't want to be a star, but he felt that he had something to say to the people of his own generation, and he didn't feel that he did that. His sister has testified that he once said to their mother "If only I could feel that my music had ever done anything to help one single person, it would have made it worth it."
Sadly like many greats, he was a person out of place in his time...little did he know his songs would be accepted almost 40 years later.
Nick Drake Online
And then realize everything he ever wrote happened before Nov. 1974. Today would have been his 65th birthday, but he killed himself with sleeping pills on November 25th, 1974. His mother testified that he didn't want to be a star, but he felt that he had something to say to the people of his own generation, and he didn't feel that he did that. His sister has testified that he once said to their mother "If only I could feel that my music had ever done anything to help one single person, it would have made it worth it."
Sadly like many greats, he was a person out of place in his time...little did he know his songs would be accepted almost 40 years later.
Nick Drake Online
Monday, June 17, 2013
What I Run With
In my head...
I run with the pessimism of a thousand ghosts on my shoulders. Tonight's run was just a hair over three mile island in about 27 1/2 minutes. After I ran the first mile, I passed my mom's old apartment where she lived away from my father for a year so she could get the schooling and tutelage she needed for her master's certificate. That's a year they'll never get back.
Trashcans line the street because tomorrow is trash day. All of them are neatly and in seemly measured rows. My boss's boss's boss has his can out at the curb, but I can't imagine his dainty hands touching such filth.
Today, I shut down my computer and walked out into the nearly empty waiting area where a "lesser" colleague of mine sat. All the others in my shared office were plugged into the internet, sub-navigation section--facebook. This woman had a slightly smaller screen of which I could distract her from it momentarily.
We chit-chatted casual small talk until I was asked to update a partition of a sub-section on a website of a small college in a poor state of a country loosing ground on the world's stage.
And I was reminded of a story I overheard one coworker said to another coworker in between laughing at memes and online games. "That woman got all mad when her boyfriend pissed her off and so she smashed her phone out in the driveway. And I was like...honey, that's only hurting you."
And I chimed in from my silence like the local nutcase, "maybe it's the one thing she could control? Maybe she just cut off the only way he communicates with her!"
Maybe I'm crazy?
By mile 2 of my run, I wanted to open up a lemonade stand offering friendship instead of capitalizing on cheap beverages. I could see this big cardboard sign in which I would write "Free Friendship," and I would drive it into the ground next to me with a cheap wooden stake.
I'd be the Pied Piper of the Interwebs, luring the droves of people from their screens, never to return again. I would wait out on the lawn until they all showed up, and we would all march back out into the natural world again.
But the only people who would see me out on the street corner would be the bums and transients. And how would they get along with my rich neighbors and their posh way of life? How would my rich neighbors see me with their heads turned to their TVs?
Mile 3...and I debate whether to tell anyone about these thoughts in my head. I wish I was more hopeful and happy with the world around me. Do other people think of such terrible horrors as often? I live with these things in my head, but do you? Do you think about where we are headed as a species emerging from the cave? I'm only privy to my thoughts and what little I hear between the sparks of interconnected communication I hear online and echoed chatter afterwards.
What world do we live in when I have read more of "your" thoughts online than my wife has spoken to me from her mouth? I don't "want to want" (intentional repetition) to know the superficial charade of thoughts pouring from the digital masses so often. This morning, I was on facebook, scrolled until I was bored, so I mindlessly typed facebook.com in the URL bar to solve my boredom. The Sisyphusian irony was more than I could handle, and another part of me broke inside.
I drove home today thinking about how I would have to take a panoramic photo of my drive home because my view was much wider than it was tall. Above was the blandness of blue skies and below the grayness of concrete. I felt full like someone might who has eaten to much salt. And I craved natural-unmanipulated surroundings like one craves water. I just wanted to see it even if I couldn't be in it right now. I imagined what living in Colorado must be like with the mountains towering over the dread of the city.
I imagine in other people's minds, they go running to escape the day. They may think about losing weight, a project they are working on, becoming more zen...hell, I have probably been all of those people too. But I also think like this, and someone needs to just come out and say it. Get the fuck off your computers for most of the day! I remember a time when using a computer was only a fraction of my day. So if nothing else, keep track of how many hours a week you use a computer or mobile device. Then ask yourself, are you proud of that fact? Is that ever part of a story worth reading? "And then Joe Blow spent 4 hours checking facebook and updating his OKCupid account."
Sounds like a real page turner.
And the terrible irony of me writing this on a computer...
It's not that computers are the devil. Ha! Of which I do not believe in. I just spend my day in a computer lab where students mainly stare at screens. I don't know them when their being human out in the world. My coworkers spend 90% of their time staring at their screens, and sometimes I plead with them to just turn around and talk to me.
Mile 3 complete. What now?
I run with the pessimism of a thousand ghosts on my shoulders. Tonight's run was just a hair over three mile island in about 27 1/2 minutes. After I ran the first mile, I passed my mom's old apartment where she lived away from my father for a year so she could get the schooling and tutelage she needed for her master's certificate. That's a year they'll never get back.
Trashcans line the street because tomorrow is trash day. All of them are neatly and in seemly measured rows. My boss's boss's boss has his can out at the curb, but I can't imagine his dainty hands touching such filth.
Today, I shut down my computer and walked out into the nearly empty waiting area where a "lesser" colleague of mine sat. All the others in my shared office were plugged into the internet, sub-navigation section--facebook. This woman had a slightly smaller screen of which I could distract her from it momentarily.
We chit-chatted casual small talk until I was asked to update a partition of a sub-section on a website of a small college in a poor state of a country loosing ground on the world's stage.
And I was reminded of a story I overheard one coworker said to another coworker in between laughing at memes and online games. "That woman got all mad when her boyfriend pissed her off and so she smashed her phone out in the driveway. And I was like...honey, that's only hurting you."
And I chimed in from my silence like the local nutcase, "maybe it's the one thing she could control? Maybe she just cut off the only way he communicates with her!"
Maybe I'm crazy?
By mile 2 of my run, I wanted to open up a lemonade stand offering friendship instead of capitalizing on cheap beverages. I could see this big cardboard sign in which I would write "Free Friendship," and I would drive it into the ground next to me with a cheap wooden stake.
But the only people who would see me out on the street corner would be the bums and transients. And how would they get along with my rich neighbors and their posh way of life? How would my rich neighbors see me with their heads turned to their TVs?
Mile 3...and I debate whether to tell anyone about these thoughts in my head. I wish I was more hopeful and happy with the world around me. Do other people think of such terrible horrors as often? I live with these things in my head, but do you? Do you think about where we are headed as a species emerging from the cave? I'm only privy to my thoughts and what little I hear between the sparks of interconnected communication I hear online and echoed chatter afterwards.
What world do we live in when I have read more of "your" thoughts online than my wife has spoken to me from her mouth? I don't "want to want" (intentional repetition) to know the superficial charade of thoughts pouring from the digital masses so often. This morning, I was on facebook, scrolled until I was bored, so I mindlessly typed facebook.com in the URL bar to solve my boredom. The Sisyphusian irony was more than I could handle, and another part of me broke inside.
I drove home today thinking about how I would have to take a panoramic photo of my drive home because my view was much wider than it was tall. Above was the blandness of blue skies and below the grayness of concrete. I felt full like someone might who has eaten to much salt. And I craved natural-unmanipulated surroundings like one craves water. I just wanted to see it even if I couldn't be in it right now. I imagined what living in Colorado must be like with the mountains towering over the dread of the city.
I imagine in other people's minds, they go running to escape the day. They may think about losing weight, a project they are working on, becoming more zen...hell, I have probably been all of those people too. But I also think like this, and someone needs to just come out and say it. Get the fuck off your computers for most of the day! I remember a time when using a computer was only a fraction of my day. So if nothing else, keep track of how many hours a week you use a computer or mobile device. Then ask yourself, are you proud of that fact? Is that ever part of a story worth reading? "And then Joe Blow spent 4 hours checking facebook and updating his OKCupid account."
Sounds like a real page turner.
And the terrible irony of me writing this on a computer...
It's not that computers are the devil. Ha! Of which I do not believe in. I just spend my day in a computer lab where students mainly stare at screens. I don't know them when their being human out in the world. My coworkers spend 90% of their time staring at their screens, and sometimes I plead with them to just turn around and talk to me.
Mile 3 complete. What now?
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Day 5, Sunday: Publicly profess your love and devotion for one of your blogger friends. What makes them great? Why do you love them? If you don’t have blogger friends, talk about a real-life friend or even a family member
Um... I just watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Kendra. Do I really need to do this blog? Nah...have a good night everyone. -b
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Day #4: Saturday: Favorite quote (from a person, from a book, etc) and why I love it by Bill Hicks.
My favorite quote comes in the form of a Youtube video and transcript. Although I would have loved to quote Carl Sagan, Bill Hicks seems to speak about more pertinent matters and slightly more grand humanistically rather than Sagan's grand Cosmic perspective.
Now I do want to say I find Bill's dichotomy of choosing only between love and fear somewhat pigeonholing, but nonetheless, it gets me thinking in a new context about how many of the decision I made in my life were out of fear. Why would I want the one life I get to be guided by fear?
Strangely, I can see the connection with the way I see things in the previous post I made and this video. Can you? Well, I'd rather you spent your time with this blog post entertaining me by watch the video or reading it transcribed. It's longer than just your average quote, but I promise it will inspire. I have his entire routine on video if any of you want to get together and watch it sometime, I would be down. It's an hour and a half of awesome!
PS: Please read the transcript below...it is the uncut non-TV friendly version.
This is his speech transcribed below:
"You've been fantastic and I hope you enjoyed it. There is a point, is there a point to all of this? Let's find a point. Is there a point to my act? I would say there is. I have to. The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think that it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. [Audience member shouts 'bollocks'] There is a lot denial in this ride, the ride, in fact, is made up of denial "All things work in Goatboys favour". The world is like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride..." And we... kill those people. Ha ha "Shut him up." "We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." Just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus mudered; Martin Luther King mudered; Malcolm X murdered; Gandhi murdered; John Lennon murdered; Reagan.... wounded. But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love.
The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great. [Applause] I hope you enjoyed it. London, you were fantastic, thank you, thank you very much. [bow] [bow] [three shots ring out - Bill crumples to the ground] CUT: Bill slams against the Monolith, and slides to the ground CUT: the riderless white horse walks along the road, away from the camera VO: It's Just A Ride... It's Just A Ride..." -Bill Hicks
Now I do want to say I find Bill's dichotomy of choosing only between love and fear somewhat pigeonholing, but nonetheless, it gets me thinking in a new context about how many of the decision I made in my life were out of fear. Why would I want the one life I get to be guided by fear?
Strangely, I can see the connection with the way I see things in the previous post I made and this video. Can you? Well, I'd rather you spent your time with this blog post entertaining me by watch the video or reading it transcribed. It's longer than just your average quote, but I promise it will inspire. I have his entire routine on video if any of you want to get together and watch it sometime, I would be down. It's an hour and a half of awesome!
PS: Please read the transcript below...it is the uncut non-TV friendly version.
This is his speech transcribed below:
"You've been fantastic and I hope you enjoyed it. There is a point, is there a point to all of this? Let's find a point. Is there a point to my act? I would say there is. I have to. The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think that it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. [Audience member shouts 'bollocks'] There is a lot denial in this ride, the ride, in fact, is made up of denial "All things work in Goatboys favour". The world is like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride..." And we... kill those people. Ha ha "Shut him up." "We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." Just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus mudered; Martin Luther King mudered; Malcolm X murdered; Gandhi murdered; John Lennon murdered; Reagan.... wounded. But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love.
The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great. [Applause] I hope you enjoyed it. London, you were fantastic, thank you, thank you very much. [bow] [bow] [three shots ring out - Bill crumples to the ground] CUT: Bill slams against the Monolith, and slides to the ground CUT: the riderless white horse walks along the road, away from the camera VO: It's Just A Ride... It's Just A Ride..." -Bill Hicks
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