This American Life

Has slowly started becoming my favorite NPR show. This week’s show was about how  books can change your life. Ira Glass starts his intro off with this quote; “its nice to think our lives could be changed just by an idea, by a vision in a book, instead of what our lives are really changed by, dumb luck, tragedies, coincidences..” It is a nice thought to believe that a single book or a collection of books can change your life. That particular show talks about four people that books have changed their life. No matter the topic of the show its all about just normal people, living, and striving to be themselves. Another really great TAL show was two weeks about describing and explaining in detail exactly what happened with the housing market and the why our economy is the way it is.  For someone who is not exactly econ savvy, I understand and can follow what they’re saying and now I know why the mortgages and the “giant pool of money” are to blame for the economy. Its a good feeling to know, and to understand.

Ira Glass

Speaking of books, I’ve started reading Slaughterhouse Five this week. I’ve not finished it but I think it is wonderful. A little dark and dreary, but wonderful all the same. The only other Vonnegut writing I’ve read was a short story called “2 B R 02 B”. A sad tale about the future where people would live forever, at least until they decided to die. And in his tale the only way a child could be born is if someone died in their place. Its super short and if anyone is a fan of The Giver, Anthem or A Brave New World, I defiantly think you should read this story. Or you can click here and down load the Librivox recording.

Apple picking was today, and it was fine. I woke up this morning and felt like my brain had exploded in my head. Not a good morning. I decided to still go apple picking, that is after I took 2 advil and hoped they would kick in soon. The first orchard we went to had lots of apples but they where small and tasteless. We next went to another orchard a few miles away that had huge apples and they where full of flavor. Now we have more apples then we know what to do with, but that’s not really a bad thing I suppose. Here are some pictures I took from today. I also took my Ricoh camera and shot with that. I’ll post those once I develop them.

The rain is killing me.

I have two of my favorite people here at camp again this summer- Holly and Laura.  They give me the tough love I so badly need right now. They are great friends who are always there for you when you need them, and more often than not- when you don’t.  ChrisJ calls us the three of us “The Trifecta”, it is so good for us to be together again. ChrisJ has made me a great playlist that I’m listening to it now. It is perfect for today. I’m sitting in the counselor’s lounge with my laptop, and there is noise and people chattering around me but all I hear is this music. I love when music is comforting, and makes everything else in life just fade in the background. 

It started to rain again last night. The rain makes me weak and feel more depressed than I am. After about 2 days of sun and nice weather to go back to this wet downpour is also taking its toll on me physically. I went to bed with a little sore throat and woke up to a big one. I hate hate hate summer colds! The rain is supposed to stay till tuesday. I hope my sore throat doesn’t.

I’ve been praying for strength and for peace in my heart. I was thinking last night that those things where so far from me, and then I realized that God has been working in me, slowly and in strange ways. I’ve been catching up on my NPR podcasts and just through listen to some of the interviews and stories I have been so encouraged. Here are my thoughts on the two that have really stuck out to me.  

Last night I was listening to AMP’s The Splendid Table, a radio show for people who love food. The host, Lynne was interviewing the poet Nikki Giovanni. Giovanni teaches at Virgnia Tech and shared one of her poems from her new book “Bicycles: Love Poems”. The poem is called “So Enchanted By You”, as she read it, I feel in love with it. It is beautiful, quirky and made me so happy. In the closing of the interview Giovanni said “There’s nothing sillier on earth than falling in love.” I couldn’t agree more. When you think of how love makes you change, do things you’d think you’d never do, and feel a way you never thought was possible;  I can’t think of anything sillier. 

So Enchanted With You

I like
    Boiled turnips
    Boiled potatoes
    Boiled rutabagas
        with butter
        and sea salt
But not every day

I like 
    Fried Virginia flounder
    Fried sand dabs
    Fried smelts
But usually only on Friday nights

I want
    Drop biscuits
    Miniature Parker House rolls
    Extra thin white bread
When I uncharacteristically
        make a sandwich

I like 
    Garlic straight off the vine
    Anchovies anytime
    And good red wines
        ’cause I’m too old
        to drink cheap

I like to pound and grill my veal
I rub my beef
    In a special chili mixture
I really don’t eat
    anyone else’s ground meat

In other words:
    I’m Normal

So this is the question:
    Why am I so enchanted 
        with you 

The other interview from NPR that spoke to me comes from the show Fresh Air and an interview with Woody Allen. The interview consisted of Allen talking about his new movie  ”Whatever Works for the legendary actor Zero Mostel in the 1970s, but then [he] put the script aside. Thirty years later, he dusted it off again when he needed a quick script to beat the writers’ strike.” While I enjoy this interview and getting to know more about Allen he ended with this, “ how could you go thought life you know, taking direction from the outside world, i mean what kind of life would you have if you made your decisions based on you know, the outside world and not what your inner dictaes told you, you would have a very inauthentic life.” An inauthentic life. I’m sure you’re thinking “well duh you’ve got to be authentic or true to your self”. The was something about how Allen said it, and about me hearing that right comment here in my life and right now just clicked with me right now.  I would encourage anyone to listen to the full interview with Woody Allen.

 I got a postcard from France today, an old fellow counselor from my first year.It blows my mind that she through to write me here. Things like that give me hope, and faith in people. Amazing how people keep coming in to my life, remind me I’m not forgotten. Brings me to tears, brings me to my knees. 

 

ChrisJ’s playlist mix for me just ended and so has my post. Perfect.

 

rainready.

I’m just a maybe

celebrity crush.

I love Mo Rocca. I’ve been sorta a fan of him since first seeing him on VH1′s “I Love the 80′s” a few years ago. I love his witty, dry, sarcastic humor. Since then Mo has been popping up in my life; I really started to take note of him recently. He appears in two of my favorite shows as a guest judge or commentator; the first is “Iron Chef America” and the other is NPR’s news quiz show “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”. Whenever he is on one of these shows I just seem to enjoy it more. I really like his humor and just how he doesn’t seem to take his job as a commentator so seriously. I love that fact that he is able to be a foodie and political commentator all at the same time.   And come’on who couldn’t resist his nerdy boyish looks? Defiantly my celebrity crush.

Mo Rocca

HI- human interface 

This is a neat video from a Spanish interaction design group called Multitouch Barcelona. I love how on their about page they describe themselves as a group “that explores natural communication between people and technology. We design experiences that merge real and digital into a creative environment where people are invited to touch, play, move, feel as they do in the real world.” I think that is so powerful. Technology as we know it is quickly taking over the way people communicate with one another- for better or for worse.  This video is humorous and socially satirical. Not to mention that the way it feels so DIY with cardboard props and comical plays on computer icons.  It’s nine minutes of your life well spent, enjoy! 

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

 

HI- Loading Please..

 

beauty in entropy

I would like to thank my friend ChrisJ. for giving me a title for my bed series- “Beauty in Entropy”. He described the images as looking like “krinkled paper” and then called it “beauty in entropy”. Lacking an extensive vocabulary, I had to look up entropy, where I found this.. “lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder”- how freakn’ perfect. I love talking to people about my art (and other’s art) because often I can’t put words to what I am trying to show or convey coherently. And if I’m conveying what I want to then someone else will surely say it and then it just clicks! Like magic.

I loved critiques in college and high school because of this. I hated in college that people would only say polite, or nice comments. Heaven forbid you not like someone’s work! I would rather a person say that they didn’t like or even hated my work and why they didn’t, than for them not to say anything at all. How are we supposed to learn if no one points out our weakness or failures, likewise with our strengths and successes.  It doesn’t mean you have to agree with them at all, or think what they have to say is valid. Its how we can grow, though adversity. It’ll make you stronger, either in your own sense of work and knowing what you’ve done is right or in seeing changes to made for the betterment of your piece. 

Today was a good bed morning, I had a hard time picking from my shots- thus a triptych! 

 

 

Bed Six

 

 

And here’s some others.

 

Bill, the cat

 

Clayton & French Press

Wall/Flower

 

Inside

 

bonnie.

 I’m still enjoying my time here in the house and constantly being inspired. My daily routine has changed a little, for the next 7 days I’ll be taking care of another person’s cat too! This cat, Bonnie, is diabetic. I have to be at that house to give her an insulin shot by 8am and then 7:30pm everyday. It is so confining to me to be bound by those time regulations. I am glad that it will only be for 7 days. I feel constricted in planning my day, I’ve never had to deal with something like this before.

I was thinking last night what if Bonnie was my cat and I had just found out she was diabetic, would I keep her?  Being a young and active person would I bind myself and my life to caring for this cat on such a regimented schedule. I would like to think I would, that I loved the animal before I knew of it’s disease and that I would continue to love and care for the cat afterwards. The more I think about this,  the less sure I am that I would keep the cat.  I wouldn’t go to the extreme of putting the animal down but I don’t think I could continue to afford caring for the animal, afford both in time and money.  I would probably seek out a new home for the animal.  Just thinking about makes me appreciate people who are put in those situations and grateful that I’m not.

Falling, Things, Sleeping.

Falling in love is awfully simple, but falling out of love is simply awful.

I am in a wedding this weekend. I have no idea how I’m going to get through it. I am over joyed for my best friend Lauren to be married, and I am so happy and proud to stand up with her at her wedding. But no matter how happy I am to see her live out that dream, I feel a sense of loss in my own life. 

I’m trying not to let my fears take over. I’m learning to let go, I’m trying not to hang on. 

“The things that once gave you comfort, now give you discomfort.“

I’m listing to Elizabeth Edwards on NPR talk about her book “Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities”. She mostly talking about her relationship with her husband John Edwards who had an on-going affair. It’s just a really neat and interesting, she is just such a posed speaker and very eloquent in her manner of talking about all these hardships she has gone through.  Her ending words where, “We each are going to have lives that are going to take us in places we never imagined, and some are going to be unpleasant but its how we react to those things” (paraphrased)

Sleeping sounds, Sound sleeping

I’m still inspired here at this house. Sometimes I despise coming here and being alone with the menagerie of pets but over all I do like it. I like time alone just to be. I’ve decided to do a series of my bed after i get up in the morning. I am sleeping in this bed that is all taupe colors. With the natural morning light it creates a dynamic plane in all the wrinkles. And my personal obsession with diptychs has influenced me natch. 

 

Bed One

 

Bed Two

Face/Space

 

Red Chai

I still haven’t tried to make coffee. And I decided I really like this chai and so I might just be off coffee for awhile.

the only line that is true is the line you’re from

Blind Pilot.  

I am a fan. I first heard Blind Pilot’s single “One Red Thread” on an Apple Indie Music Sampler, and then  promptly forgot them. They finally stuck when I heard their interview on NPR. It was crazy to hear about a band that biked the West Coast on tour. They didn’t just bike themselves around, but also their equipment. The band’s “ bassist Luke Ydstie, even constructed [his] own storage pieces to help move equipment. ‘He calls [his case] a treasure chest…but everyone else calls it a coffin. And it definitely gets the most attention.’”  I love the singer, Israel Nebeker voice. A smooth, twangy sound that instantly captivated my heart. Their songs speak to a folky nature with an indie, world traveled twist.   

 I love how their office band site, which is a WordPress is full of postcards from their shows on tour. Their brief little descriptions on the back of postcard from towns they play at are  humorous and narrative. I’m a big supporter of simple sorties, and getting right to the point, ( such as the 3-min documentary “Wait for Me”, and One Sentence) and I’m a fan of mail- wether sending or receiving. All rolled into one, I’m  a fan of Blind Pilot, maybe you should be too.  

Blind Pilot’s NPR Interview about their Bike Tour 

Blind Pilot’s NPR Music Page 

Blind Pilot’s Myspace

Blind Pilot’s WordPress 

 

Blind Pilot + Bikes!

 

Blind Life.  

I don’t speak up. I don’t speak up enough or period. This is something I’m working. I’ve always been a complaisant person, its just my nature. That doesn’t make it a good thing.  I’m trying to break out and speak out. I know this summer will give me plenty of opportunities too, with some colorful co-workers.  

One step at a time, makes all the world fine. Something like that, I guess. 

 

Happy Mother’s Day! 

 

Mom and I

 

 

Findings and Futures

Findings

As I’ve written about before I love NPR. On Sundays NPR has a variety of series ranging from religious to just humanistic. As I was driving back home from Justin’s house on sunday I was listening to an especially interesting interview with Dr. Francis Collins, the scientist who was leading the team that deciphered the human genome code. It was inspiring to listen to this scientist make the progression from growing up agnostic, becoming atheist and then through studying the human genome he became a christian. Collins wrote a book called The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Speaks about his faith as a young medical student, when asked by a patient what he believes that he floundered to explain what he does, or didn’t believe. After that experience he decided to learn all he can refute it. He knocked on the door a Methodist minster who handed him a small book saying that it was written by a man who had the same questions he did, the book was “Mere Christianity”. 

 

“the public only hears about the conflict about the idea that there are absolutely irreconcilable differences between believers and scientists” 

I find it so interesting that popular culture leads us to believe that science explains and proves that there is no God, when historically there are many notable scientists who believe in God. Collin’s says in the opening to a lecture on his book “the public often only hears about the conflict about the idea that there are absolutely irreconcilable differences between believers and scientists…”  Maybe it’s that they work so close with things that are simply in explainable except that there must be a God, or a greater being behind it all. They explore so deeply the physical world that God has created that  they are studying his own personal work. 

You can listen to the full podcast version of this interview here 

Futures

I graduated this weekend. Actually I graduated six months ago but I walked across the stage this weekend. It was good weekend filled with family and friends. I was so grateful that so much of my family could make it, my Mom’s parent’s drove out from Kansas and my brother Adam came up from North Carolina and my boyfriend Justin from Maryland.   How I miss being with my photo family! As dysfunctional as any other actual family- but with as much love.  

Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Justin, Myself, and Adam

 

L-R, Paula, Me, Sarah, Neil, Shawn, Jessy, Michelle, Jaybird, Amy

Down front- Tara, Christine 

As I plan for grad school, and pack for a summer in Maine, I ‘m sure at some point I will be struck with the fact that I wont be returning in the fall and that I’m not sure when I’ll see some of these amazing people again.