Let us retreat, for the tired brook has ceased its song; and the bubblesome springs are drained of their copious weeping; and the cautious old hills have stored away their colorful garments.
Come, my beloved; Nature is justly weary and is bidding her enthusiasm farewell with a quiet and contented melody.
-Kahlil Gribran
Grave digger when you dig my grave; could you make it shallow? So that I can feel the rain.
-Dave Matthews Band
From one of the books currently under my view
Plato by a goodly similitude declareth, why wise men refrain to meddle in the commonwealth. For when they see the people swarm into the streets, and daily wet to the skin with rain, and yet cannot persuade them to go out of the rain, they do keep themselves within their houses, seeing they cannot remedy the folly of the people.
Sir Thomas More (1478 - 1535)
Source: Utopia, 1516, Concerning the Best State of a Commonwealth
"The seen tree, the tree as object of my consciousness, need not be the 'real' tree, it is in any case the real object of my consciousness."
- Hannah Arendt (I think)
Sometimes I get caught up thinking that the real object is what is important.
Decided to read through old journal entries to help get out of the rut. The memories were fresh enough that I could still recall the moment of the writings, the feelings and thoughts running through my mind.
Walking in the snow:
… So instead I dance through a white curtain, I smile at the sky and try to catch pieces of this moment on my tongue. I try to savor all that is here around me in the present. I choose to ignore the future cold that might take me over, just as I choose to ignore the bites left by snow storms gone by.
I’ve collected a few more writings from walls around town. In case you don’t remember the original thread, these are all scribbled or painted somewhere in the cracks of Prescott:
- The only one!
The only one for me
is my babely.
She takes me
she breaks me
she makes me be.
I am not complete
without
my babely.
- Nite
nite
sleep TIGHT!
- LOST IN thE StRuGGLE
- CUZ Im A KiNG
- Sadism is just the lighter form of humor.
- Gooks of hazard
- Eat at Joe’s
Joes nose crabs
- u CAN’T StOP
:)
There are some days where I forget to take my camera on a walk. And sometimes there are walls with graffiti that is so incomprehensible that trying to photograph it is an effort in futility.
So I have started carrying a simple notebook in my back pocket for those writings on the wall that catch my eye, even if they don't catch the attention of my lens. After a week with this little notebook I've come up with quite a collection.
Many writings are the vulgar type of scribble that the young feel rebellious and edgy when putting into words. Some writings are political, and some make no sense. Others are just plain funny.
Here is a small sampling of what I have seen so far (attempting to keep spelling and capitalization errors intact where I could):
- Drippin'
I'm Sober
but Arizona's
got me Trippin'!
- Yuppies don't float
- WATCH YOUR Spoon, IT knows where TO GO.
- Save the ReDwooDS
- OPEN your eyes.
Look within are you satifed with the life you are living?
- vote with a brick
- Satan Sucks
- BlOOd is thicker than water
- 9/11 was inside job. INFOWARS!!
- Watch no TV
Read a book
Do less drugs
Do more art
Explore
Create
Reflect
Kongo Great
- Pot is an herb.
Bush Jr. is a DOPE
It's amazing how many places contain a quick note scribbled in sharpie. Throughout the alleyways and creekways it seems like there is hardly a block without a mark of some type. I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more little gems like these as I continue my lunch-time escapades through town.
Just found this over at Chase Jarvis' blog, an interesting point of view on the character of the people you hire:
Clark interviewed to be my assistant a couple weeks before he was scheduled to graduate from the University of Southern California. Unlike the other finalist for the job, an attractive woman the rest of the creative department was imploring me to hire, Noah was more "boy band": spiked hair, fresh face, jeans that were more fancy than a guy needs to own. But there was something about him that reminded me of myself. And it wasn't the hair. He was just so damn eager to be in the business. There was no pretense, no attitude or entitlement. All he wanted to do was work hard, learn and help.
So I hired him, spelling out very clearly that the chances of his growing into an art director position with us were similar to the word at the end of our agency name: "Zero." He nodded along and said he understood. Then he set about completing every task asked of him to the highest standard possible. Between doing all the so-called "grunt" work, Noah grabbed every creative brief he found lying around the office and looked for ways to help out with layouts, taglines, new business presentations, etcetera. He never asked to be promoted. He never bitched about his day-to-day responsibilities or acted like anything was beneath him. Which is why when a junior art director position opened, I decided it was time to do what a guy named Peter Seronick did for me years before: Give him a chance. So I gave the kid who was Ground Zero the opportunity to join our creative department over all the guys and girls who simply wanted to work for Ground Zero.
Like it? Go read the entire article here.
"Don't cry that it is over, smile because it happened."
- The sign outside of a church on the way to work
Little inspirational things like this always catch my eye as I am driving around. :)
"Not everyone understands what a completely rational process this is, this maintenance of a motorcycle. They think it's some kind of a "knack" or some kind of "affinity for machines" in operation. They are right, but the knack is almost purely a process of reason, and most of the troubles are caused by what old time radio men called a "short between the earphones," failures to use the head properly. A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. I said yesterday that the ghost of rationality was what Phædrus pursued and what led to his insanity, but to get into that it's vital to stay with down-to-earth examples of rationality, so as not to get lost in generalities no one else can understand. Talk about rationality can get very confusing unless the things with which rationality deals are also included."
From Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, one of the very best books I've ever read (and am currently re-reading)
Part of this quote is heard in the movie Equilibrium (awesome movie!), and it always strikes me when I hear it.
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.- W.B. Yeats
"Motion is the ingredient which music has in common with emotional states and which it is able to shape creatively in a thousand shades and contrasts."
"Think of the biggest number you can. Now add five. Then, imagine if you had that many Twinkies. Wow, thats five more than the biggest number you could come up with" — This quote came from a 6 year old. It pretty much blew my mind.
(via)
"Never underestimate the joy people derive from hearing something they already know."
And also - a bit of random. I just want to say thanks to anybody who hangs wind chimes outside of their house. Whenever I walk around town, hearing those little chimes playing in the wind always puts a smile on my face. :)
“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'”
No theme to these, each one just caught my attention.
1. Abandoned Hydroelectric Plant:
Ten stories under Niagra falls sits an abandoned hydroelectric plant from the Toronto Power Company.
Not a lotof information about the people who explored the pipes, but a there is some history about the plant, and some more pictures at the website.
That is the kind of place you hope the batteries don't die on your light!
(via)
2. Uncle Dirty
Uncle Dirty is an old man who has lifted weights and worn thongs around on the beach all his life.
His hobbies? Cutting and pasting pictures of penises onto people in magazines.
A seriously interesting look into this man's life, with lots of pictures (yes, most of them are him in a thong). And probably NSFW.
(via)
3. How the Internet gets from A to B:
See, the basic premise is that your ISP isn't really part of the whole world, so they have to connect to other ISPs in order share the information. That way your cable provider in backwater Idaho can talk to another provider in backwater China, so that you can read that cute little chinese woman's blog.
How is this done? With what's called 'meet-me rooms', where lots of ISPs connect to eachother. The link goes to a picture gallery for a meet-me room in LA where 260 providers all come together and hook up with each other. It takes up almost an entire high-rise building.
4. Quote by Henry Clay:
“Let him who elevates himself above humanity . . . say, if he pleases, "I will never compromise"; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromise.”
5. A few new blogs that I have been reading:
- First of all, Catalyst is back up and running. Hooray!
- Tequila Mockingbird - funny funny funny.
- KatyDidNot - hilarious adventures in mom-hood.
- Beer is NOT food - doesn't post often, but very entertaining.
- New York Photography - posts often and takes nice bw photos.
