Order in the universe

I hate to repeat myself, but once again today I just need something quiet. Just a little bit of silence, that's all. In the absence of that, I'm finding some solace in this photo. When I was a kid, I had two favorite car activities: counting American flags (lord, how I've changed) and letting myself be hypnotized by a perfect line of crops. I love how you drive by and can see all the way to the end, turn a little to the left and the right and it's a perfect diagonal. Something about it made me feel all was right with the world. In this picture, it still is. And it's quiet too.

A kid in the photo store

Oh yay of yays...Today I got a whole new batch of photos from the muse himself. This time around he included some of his music photography, and being a music lover, I'm excited about these. So I'm starting with one.

I love Tracy Chapman. Like I love my Aunt Connie who always makes everyone happy. She can do no wrong with me. This cover looks like it should be the cover to the album of Tracy Chapman b-sides (which doesn't exist). I remember hearing that album for the first time -- a personal revolution. This also looks a little bit like the Where You Live cover, but more dramatic to me. Can you believe this is a live shot?

My 50s nostalgia

What I love about this photo is that it has this seedy undertone, but it's such an innocent subject: an old-time drive-in theater, complete with Coca-Cola logos. I miss being a kid and going to the drive-in with my mom. I especially regret that I never made out at one.

Rich guilt?

Okay, I'm not rich, but watching this video (thanks to Matt at Animal Mind), I guess by global standards I am. Watching it gave me the same feeling that this photograph did. I guess it's guilt. Which is odd because for all I know this guy has a sprained ankle from a drunken fall. But when I saw the picture I felt guilty, I felt like Jason as a photographer exploited the subject. Meanwhile, the truth of the emotion has nothing to do with this man, or the photograph even, but only with something subconscious in me. I think that's what good art brings out.

It's just love

Jason gave me both of these pictures at the same time, with some others, and these two stuck out to me. In a way, they're pictures of the same thing. People who believe in something so strongly that they want to publicize it to the whole world, at all times. I had to reassess my own prejudices though, when I tried to figure out why one seemed insane to me and the other just seemed extreme. In the end, they're both pictures of love...

Stylish like the devil

I was going to go on a "way to go Venezuela" rant in response Hugo Chavez's recent statements at the UN, but I decided against it. Instead, I wanted to post a picture that I think is as perfect as calling George Bush the devil. Some of you may have seen it, since it's the front of Jason's new site, but it's so stylish that I'm posting it here too.

A good destination

Well, for anyone who has wanderlust like I do, here's a cool destination: Jason's new website. No picture today -- his site is enough eye candy for a week...

Places I'd like to go

I've been having wanderlust lately. I wish I could be out on the open road, or in Japan (only if it's like Lost in Translation though). Or inside one of these photographs, just because they look different from my life:

Rock n roll, baby

This weekend I leave you with a sneak peak of some amazing music photographs Jason is going to be posting on his new website...not yet launched. How cool is that?

Hello twelve, hello thirteen...

I didn't think I'd be saying this again in my lifetime, but the new Indigo Girls record is really good. I feel kind of like I'm in high school again though. And then I also went to an art show for a female artist whose stuff I think is really great...ah, all this estrogen is making me nostalgic!

gender-bending

So I heard today that for $20,000 you can choose the gender of your baby. The technique has been around for years, but now it's starting to become "affordable." It's kind of a creepy first step down a slippery slope. Eventually, are we going to get into Gattaca territory? Or more importantly, at what point are people going to be able to start breeding super-masculine women, or super-feminine men? Because maybe once humanity can get over the gender polarity hump, we might make some cultural progress...

The opposite of 9/11

There's lots of attention today on hate, and the legacy of hate that news reporters love to invoke on slow days. But maybe we could focus a little more on things that are joyful...

Fighting the geek fight

Wow, I absolutely adore these guys. I've only listened to one podcast, but they're hilarious. I had no idea things like this existed in the world. I mean, I still laugh when I hear "Snakes on a Plane." But "Mansquito?" Just try saying it out loud...See what happens.

This one is for the geeks of the world!

a sense of obligation

be still my fluttering heart

Move over iPod, move over Jon Stewart. I'm in love. No, seriously. I'm in love. Is it bad to tattoo "I (heart) Barack" all over my body with a ballpoint pen? To think, it could happen in my lifetime...oh, the longing...

just something beautiful

Jason has a huge print of this that he's putting in his upcoming one-man show. I wanted to post it here without any of my usual rambling because to me, it's purely beautiful. Innocent, sweet. A good way to go into a holiday weekend...with bliss.