-Kurt Vonnegut
Art, writing, photography and everything stuck in the present.
Posts tagged: cold soup
life:
On this day in LIFE — June 12, 1964: In color: Ugly war in Vietnam
Dear Chicago Sun-Times,
You were right. Staff photographers are dead weight.
Sincerely,
A writer.
Do you see a story here?
A good photographer doesn’t take a picture, he absorbs a moment and communicates it across time.
Wayne F. Miller tells a story.
Late last month, Wayne Miller passed away at the age of 94. This is my homage to him and what a good photographer is capable of.
Enter the Chicago Sun-Times.
While the memory of Wayne Miller lives on in his iconic collection of life in post-WWII Chicago, the Sun-Times have completely eliminated their staff photography department. All 30 of them.
Pulitzer prizes and all.
To cut staff photographers. Artist who have worked and imbedded themselves in a community to tell stories and document time are being phased out in favor of iPhones and “whatever else” writers have on them.
Photos that have the power to change the world have been reduced to mere pictures.
Please read and support this open letter to the Chicago Sun-Times and SHARE it. Photojournalism is one art form that tells the truth in the plainest way possible.
You can read the open letter here.
Enjoy and reblog, reblog, reblog.
“The real truth is just a plain picture.” -Bob Dylan
Ah, the majestic lines of Mount Everest.
As humans we suffer from the inability to always think freely. Sometimes, names and places and what “everyone else” is doing just seems too great and we too, find ourselves walking over a statue at Angkor Wat.
With our free will comes the unique ability to decide what is great in the world we live in. What is worth our time. What invigoates and changes and transforms us into the beautiful creatures we have the potential to be.
Too often do we opt to go for what we heard was the best or the biggest or the most beautiful without taking a minute to decide for ourselves.
We live on a rapidly transforming planet that will never be the same again. With 7 billion people comes great responsibility. Mount Everest cannot be sought simply because one has the money to do it. With what natural and ancient wonders we have left, we individually must see beauty and the awesome everywhere.
We have little choice left.
To hike mindfully in the woods at the end of the city can be just as invigorating as the tallest mountain on Earth.
Anything is for you. This is your world (our) world.
Live in it wisely.
Enjoy and please share this essay on the overcrowding of Everest among other things. An essay is the best way to start (or end) your day. Don’t count them out, especially one’s written for fun alone.
Read the essay here.
Thank you for your support!
Where will you find happiness?
Alderaan Had It Coming.
Take a look at these films and think.
What do the six most profitable films in domestic box office history (adjusted for price inflation) say about Americans and Canadians?
What do the films we love really say about us? What do they give away about who we are?
Or is a film just a film?
Who
am
I?
Read, share and enjoy this list (yes, a LIST) about what the Six Most Profitable Films in domestic box office history say about us.
You can read the article here.
Please share it!
The American craft beer industry is the growing heart and soul of what makes America so great.
Are some of America’s regional craft brews the best in the world? Without a doubt.
There is an air of unchartered territory. The craft beer companies follow no lineage or ancient brewing techniques. There is experimentation, excitement, trial and error, and variation on old themes to create something new, original and local. They also present some of the most sustainable business practices in the United States.
So in short, support your local beers, be proud of them and share them.
These are a few of my personal favorites.
For more on craft beers in America, enjoy this essay about why they’re so great. Long-form essays will never die! Read, share, enjoy and comment on the essay here.
That being said, what’s your favorite craft beer?
Enjoy.
Break the rules.
It is necessary. Somewhere out there is a “No trespassing” sign with your name on it or a wall to spray paint or a boss to not listen to or a train to hop.
There is a freedom on the edge, but there is also a clarity. Out on the edge we know where we stand and who we are. We define, for ourselves, in that moment what is right or wrong.
How else can we do it?
We can choose to be limited and safe or suffer the consequences of trying something new.
A new way of thinking is always on the cusp of erupting.
If everyone did it would you? If everyone did it, that would be a movement, then you’d have to do something different.
Think
outside
the
box.
Read, share and support this independent essay and let me know what you think. Long-form writing is not dead and ideas are worth spreading. Support independent journalism and enjoy it.
You can read the essay here.
The photo set is an homage to trail-running. It is not breaking any rules, but the spirit of taking off with nothing but shoes is one way to come close to the edge of understanding.The final photo is of Andrew Forsthoefel. He was recently featured on This American Life and he was the catalyst for this essay.
Enjoy!
I woke up with no voice, so of course it’s a good idea to record.
There is freedom in anything we do and with that freedom comes the power to reframe what the world we live in is.
Everything is normal.
People just need time to realize it.
Read and share this essay exploring the changing face of being transgender in America through the lens of Laura Jane Grace and Against Me!
You can read the article here.
We are not static beings, why do we treat ourselves that way?
The 21st Century should be a time to destroy things. To get rid of the way things are and were in favor of completely new modes of thinking.
This starts in the way we learn.
Information is everywhere and anyone can learn anything whenever they want. It is time that education and the role of the teacher changed dramatically.
We should be finished dictating what the right ways to do things are and what should be learned. The canon is there to find anytime and anywhere and it can be anything we want it to be. Do you like Vonnegut? Socrates? Marx? Mao? The French Revolution? Sherman Alexi? The Rosewell Incident? String Theory? Singularity? Learning is what we make it.
It is time that we re-learned how to learn.
It is time that learning new things became intrinsic and uninterrupted.
Is there a place for such a world?
Is it time to radically transform?
TED prize winner Sugata Mitra seems to think so. It’s time we stopped listening and started doing.
Check out this article I wrote on restarting education in the 21st Century and share your thoughts. Long-form essays are not dead. Share the article and enjoy! Break something and rebuild it.
You can read the article here.
As for the comic book pictures?
One, I love golden age comics and two, they illustrate basically anything I can think to write about with equal hints of sarcasm, cynicism, beauty and humor.
A new tune. Enjoy.
We are all eroding.
We are all obsolete.
We are all drowning.
Soon we will all just be some clothes on the beach that hinted at
what was once there.
And people will wonder, what became of him?
Read, share and enjoy this quick character study of Don Draper. He is Dorian Gray.
Read the article here.
Also, kudos to all the great artist who depicted Don Draper.
The sun is there to put us in our place.
If humans don’t ever stop and think of our insignificance, our immortality or our fragility in a harsh, wild universe then we will never fully appreciate what we have here on Earth.
NASA’s 3 years of the sun in 3 minutes serves as a remind there that there are much larger mechanisms working outside of our small minds and humble existence and what the sun gave us, it will inevitably take it away.
Read this article, share it and enjoy:
http://www.policymic.com/articles/37653/breathtaking-nasa-video-shows-3-years-of-the-sun-in-3-minutes
Are you nostalgic yet?
It seems like my generation suffers from a case of early onset nostalgia. Just mentioning anything from the 90s be it Legends of the Hidden Temple or Push-pops or Kool-aid or N64 or Windows 95 or Pokemon cards (the original 150 only) or pogs is enough to give us banter for the better part of an hour.
But why?
We aren’t that old and my N64 still works fine. Why do we feel the need to remember things as if they were ages away, when in reality, we are all around 25.
Here’s to premature nostalgia: http://www.policymic.com/articles/36979/millennials-are-remembering-the-good-old-days-way-too-early-in-their-lives
Read, share and enjoy the article.
