Categories
Category: These Are Those Things
That inspire, that I like, and that I hope you feel the same about
I loved rock and roll from a young age. It was one of those things that helped me recognize that I differed from my contemporaries. If memory serves correctly it was the same day that The Peanuts movie “You Are A Good Man Charlie Brown” and “Woodstock: The Movie” came out. Although the former was more age appropriate, I saw the latter and managed to stay up just until Hendrix started playing. “Kung Fu Fighting” was the number one cafeteria junior high juke box smash when Springsteen’s “Born To Run” captured me away. I had cycled out all my classic rock for new wave by senior year in high school, but had yet to truly lock onto something until in college. It was another party in the kitchen when X’s “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline” punched out of the radio and blew my mind. I found much to love sonically over the next 5 years or so, but I probably saw X more than any band. Just seeing/hearing them here brings back that rush I felt back then, the one that clarified “yes, finally, there was a music made for me”. Know what I mean?
Categories
The Beauty Of Space
“It’s eight years of time and 200,000 images compressed into 4 minutes of video. An awesome way to experience Cassini’s tour of Saturn.” It’s also incredibly beautiful. Take a trip to space.
Around Saturn from fabio di donato on Vimeo.
Via EarthSky.org
Do you have enough beauty in your life? Do you need something to make you feel that life is worth living? That you are fortunate to be on this planet? That it is a gift to see and experience these things? If so, you may need a prescription for beauty.
Have you learned to foster a deep appreciation for the strange and wonderful? Do you know how to have confidence in your least shared desires? Can you feel that warm surge for the thing that others may instinctively turn away from? If you are missing such pleasures, you need to develop a practice that celebrates difference a little more. You need a course in Fog Appreciation 101.
Do you know what it is like to use your labor, intellect, passion, and creativity in service of something greater than yourself? When you look at the things around you, do you see representations of your commitment or that of others? Are you inspired by the displays of similar commitment in the work and accomplishments of others? I believe that if you can, if you do, you too will do more with the gifts and opportunities before you. Learn to look at the labor encased in the thing that you admire.
It is on these lines that I was inspired by Simon Christen’s short and gorgeous video “ADRIFT”. Granted, I was well prepped for it. I have been living in San Francisco for less than a year. I am still awestruck by the action of fog. And the play of fog with the rest that this land has to offer. Part of the pleasure for me too, was in watching, considering the commitment that Simon must have had to make this movie for us. Thank you Simon.
And before you watch it perhaps you should consider what these feelings I described above would be worth for you. Think about a reverse crowdfunding campaign, where if you knew someone would deliver these feelings and thoughts to you what you would be willing to pay. Think about if you knew someone would have to hike regularly in the cold and in the wet in the early morning hours and then afterwards sort through the results, painstakingly come to know them intimately, aligning them next to each other to such an extent that the beauty maybe started to diminish and the artist behind them might question whether all those days and hours were truly worth it, would they ever get to a point where someone would say “Yeah, that was worth a dollar of my time.” How can we say loudly “Yes, Simon, thank you.”? Luckily, Vimeo has a tip jar. Don’t forget it after you watch.
Adrift from Simon Christen on Vimeo.
Hat Tip to Ryan Heller for sending me the short!
Categories
How Do We Use Beauty?
If you have not seen A Pervert’s Guide To Cinema, you are missing out. Here’s a taste:
The problems and the solutions are both hidden in plain sight. We don’t know where we are even when the map is right in front of us. What is this?
