“…the Less You Say” by Frank Chimero
Good Morning Andrew
Conceptually Oriented, Practically Confused
1001 rules for my unborn son
“Dissolute behavior in a coat and tie is always more amply forgiven.”
Theodore Bouloukos
Practical Opacity
What you actively spend time on, and (far more difficult) what you choose not to do, who you choose not to spend time with, and who and what you decide to say no to — what you choose, then — is how you mark time. And that is all there is.
via Practical Opacity.
Practical Opacity
» Facebook Suicide | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters
In the end, what does all this online, arms-length self-promotion ultimately provide? Perhaps it’s merely one component of the pursuit to alleviate some of the blackness encountered in the existential vacuum of modern life. As Schopenhauer once projected, modern humans may be doomed to eternally vacillate between distress and boredom. For the vast majority of people experiencing the fragmented, fast-paced modern world of 2008, a Sunday pause at the end of a hectic week may cause them to become all too aware of the lack of content in their lives. So we update our online profiles and tell ourselves that we are reaching out.
via Practical Opacity.
Bobulate
Things usually make sense in time, and even bad decisions have their own kind of correctness.
—Miranda July, in a 2005 interview, on the word “forever.”
via Bobulate.
07-10-2010
My life so far has been centered around a type of “chain migration.” I started off in a small town (Kearney, NE pop. 24,000), moved to a slightly larger area (Lincoln, NE pop 225,000), and ended up in the Twin Cities Metro (pop 3,200,000). Apparently, somewhere along the way I lost the innovation and skill necessary to appreciate the poetic elements of life in a rural area. As anyone that has lived away from a major population center can attest, being able to stimulate your mind in an environment lacking stimulus is an immense gift.
Perhaps the most poignant of all of the entertainment endeavors I happened to engage in while living in a small place was my search for a gay community. In Kearney there was nothing except for the late-night cruising grounds in Harmon Park. In Lincoln, I was upgraded to 1 gay bar: the less-than-lovely (as in hepatitis) Q Bar.
While traveling through rural Waterloo, Iowa over the Fourth of July weekend, I decided that there was no better way to celebrate our nation’s (and my own) independence than to go to a small-town gay bar.
Kings and Queens was the aptly appointed name of the joint. It smelled of mold from the last time the Cedar River flooded downtown. There were no decorations, just a bar, a few stools, and (on the evening of a drag show) a full buffet of Hy-Vee cookies. To be inside of the small town gay bar is to transport oneself out of all contexts and into a vacuum-like abnormality of a bar. Think something like a John Waters film (The “Pelt Room” from “Pecker” comes immediately to mind).
There’s something beautiful in all of this. And, if one is patient, signs of that underlying beauty will eventually surface. In this case, I was fortunate enough to see a young woman, in a wheel-chair, dancing/wheeling her heart out in a rhine-stone studded wheel chair.
Thank you Waterloo. I needed that.
(VIDEO POSTED BELOW)
Objects Culled From Time
So, I am actually still making photographs. Instead of getting off my ass and investigating, documenting and experiencing the urban fabric, I’m sequestered in my studio. Here are a few objects of my collection that I keep returning to… because of design as well as their particular place as objects in/out of time.
Walking, Meditating, Summarizing
In the spirit of Richard Long’s text and sculptures involving the process of walking, I’ve decided that I am going to document each of the times during my day that I merge into walking meditation. Ideally, I’m going to force myself to summarize each walk in just a few images. Superficially, the process of walking is… incredibly boring, basic, and often overlooked. I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes dread the end of my workday and the ensuing 30 minute walk, almost always following the same path, to my home. I’ve tried wearing an iPod, talking on the phone, and what not, however, the process of walking demands my attention. And so, I’ll surrender to the ordinary again. Perhaps the greatest entertainment isn’t entertaining… it is simply being present.
Here are today’s entries: