Tuesday's Textures

Today is going to be a long day.  I wanted to remind myself ahead of time to slow down and appreciate whatever little things there are to be appreciated.  Take the time to absorb things with as many senses as you can; the memories will be more vivid.  I ran my hand along the flaking paint of this wall and can remember exactly what it felt like, where it was, and why I was there.

Taste can be a tricky sense to do this with.  Don't taste things that obviously shouldn't be tasted, such as paint and gutters.  Unless, of course, you want to make memories of a hospital, in which case, taste away.

Empire Building

I've used much of my time over the last two weekends building a foundation for the presence and presentation of my photographic alter ego.  There are so many ways to open yourself up to the world that at some point, you just have pick a place and get started.  You have to accept that you're a drop in one of many oceans.  The hope is that you can scatter enough drops out there that at some point they start overlapping and adding to one another.  

My first drops... 

www.photosteevo.com

www.photosteevo.blogspot.com

www.flickr.com/photos/sdhronek

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12416325

Old fashioned physical social networking devices are on their way (i.e. business cards), courtesy of Jenny.

Walking the gridiron

In my ongoing efforts to generate envy in those that love the Saints way more than I do, here are some pictures from last night in the Superdome.  I got to throw footballs, be on the big screen, and if one of the players finds a tortilla chip in the "0" of the 50 yard line, it's probably the one I dropped.

In between 1 and 3...

I wish I could recall where I heard this, but here is a very simple approach to life.

(1) You're born.

(2) You're alive.

(3) You die. 

In between 1 and 3, don't be a dick.

Easy, eh?  Unfortunately, people are able to dig up all sorts of excuses to be dicks toward one another.  These guys, for example, are dicks.  

I could go on at length about the issues I have with this sort of people, but I'm not going to waste my time on hateful attention whores with a warped worldview.  That sign alone demonstrates how completely ridiculous these people are.

Thumbs up to the counter protesters.  

A great interchange between this guy and one of the protesters. 

Hateful protester --  "Fuck off"

Counter protester -- "Thank you! How very Christian of you!"  

Remember, in between 1 and 3, don't be a dick.   

P.S. I'm posting this on 9/11 to illustrate a point.  Religious extremism can take many forms.  These guys are completely sure that they're right -- just like those guys that took down the planes nine years ago.

Your Friday Fix

If I were Dave Matthews in this picture, I'd be saying "My week has been really busy between work travel and other crazy stuff.  I'll write more on my blog in a couple of days.  In the mean time, enjoy this picture of Taylor Swift during her cover of Slayer's Angel of Death."

Artsy music man in awe of talent

I really enjoy getting out to see and hear what the creative musical minds of the day are producing.  The challenge is that the businessman schedule and the artsy music man schedule overlap on different ends of the 11pm-6am time period.  The businessman always uses his fancy logic and big words to talk the artsy music man out of doing anything interesting.  Artsy music man needs to find something better than PBRs and ringing ears to negotiate with.  

Every once in a while, I do manage to drag my lazy butt out to one of the many bars or music venues around New Orleans to catch a performance.  It helps when there's either somebody I really want to see or I know somebody in the band.  On this particular night at Saturn Bar, Dane Terry was the touring pianist with Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch.  I first encountered Dane in my high school music theory class.  Not that he was enrolled in the class; he'd just wander in periodically to pester the teacher and make people laugh.  Oh, and he'd occasionally put on a show behind the baby grand.  

Let me back up.  I've learned to half-assed play several instruments over the years.  I've studied a little music theory.  I've played in front of different crowds with different groups on different instruments.  The point being that I'm not a complete ignoramus when it comes to understanding what goes into playing instruments and making music.  I know that most people have to practice a lot just to achieve a level of basic competence.  That's most people, but of course, there are exceptions.

Dane would sit at the piano during our class and bang out whatever intricate little piece of music crossed his mind.  I'd say he did this from memory, but I don't think that the pieces were necessarily memorized in the traditional sense (i.e. repeated over and over again).  It's probably more accurate to say that they were being recreated from some sort of audio-visual echo that had been imprinted on his brain.  Watch a song get played and it could be reproduced.  Frigging impressive, there's no other way to put it.  Add several years of additional training to that natural ability, and now I'd call it f*cking impressive.  

It was great seeing somebody doing something that nature seems to have engineered them for.  Not everybody has such a talent so it would seem a shame to go unused.  How many other people have these differently wired brains?  We can only hope that they're out there putting on their own shows for us to marvel at while we grumble to ourselves "why can't I do that?"

As for my scheduling issues - PBRs were consumed, my ears rang.  Score one for artsy music man.  

It's been how long?

Has it been over a month already? Where the heck does the time go? It seems like only 40 days ago that I was taking self portraits and considering starting a blog.

Ha ha ha. See, that's funny because it has been exactly 40 days. The observant reader will notice that my sense humor hasn't improved in the last month. Hmmm. I wanted to put a line through observant to make it look like I crossed it out, but I don't know how yet. **sigh** OK, any reader can notice that I haven't learned much of anything about this blogging stuff during the last month.

The fact that I don't care or have a commitment to anything on here is what makes it so gratifying. I'm free to populate these pages with inane drivel until I can drivel no more. I can also write nothing. Freedom is its own reward. With all of this unrequested responsibility accompanying my adulthood, that reward is invaluable.

I figured there would be a lot of possible directions I could take this. Pure photography, pure writing, or a mix? Common theme or random blabbering? Profound and serious or giddy and idiotic? So many choices. A lovely part of that freedom I mentioned above is that I basically get to say "Eff it, I'm not choosing." Although, I think that defaults me into a "hybrid-random blabbering-seriously idiotic something or other" mold.

Overall, I'm happy about a few things:

1) I've managed to get a post up about every three days.

2) I've got more things I want to write about (and photograph) now than when I started. Ideas promote learning which yields more ideas; truly a virtuous circle.

3) People have actually told me that they're reading this, and for one reason or another, they're enjoying it. I love self-selected samples - the people that read this and conclude I'm an idiot surely aren't going to tell me.

Looking forward to whatever the next 40 days bring.

Cheers~