Crawling from the Reruns

Thursday, January 20, 2011

11/02/09 "......summer ends and we wonder where we are....

....it's just that time of year when we push ourselves ahead,we push ourselves ahead......

and it was cloudy in the morning and it rained as you drove away and the same things looked different it's the end of the summer it's the end of the summer, when you move to another place......"  -dar williams

I have a friend who takes a photo every day.... just for her blog!

my friends teach me much - when I actually look outside myself and see what they are doing - I become better.

I took this shot today of my milkweed pods - burst and spreading their seeds around my neighborhood - in the november southern sun.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

11/01/09 "if what you want... if what you need is poetry .......

...so, let's fight this tide....let's fight this tide....

let's swim harder than we have in our lives 

cause what's the point of being here if we're not going to try....?"

  -brie sullivan

I've wanted to put this photo up since before I started posting to this blog.....

the above quote reads like something that your Dad might tell you somewhere along the way...but to hear the writer sing those words gives them a whole different texture and meaning...

the dog in today's shot, my Rose, lived those words as they are sung - from before she even made it out of the birth canal - She fought the tide, She swam harder.

...and, yeah... I'm gonna be really sad that She's gone - for a long time

a friend sent me a message, today - it was a reminder that I need to come back into the world - I need to start functioning in the care

Rosie was always willing to go back out and fetch up another one

I think - me, too. 

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

10/31/09 "....Grip this stem of my history...

.....and help me shake through to ugly"  

-rose polenzani

when I hear people tell me that I'm a good photographer.... well... inside I kind of chuckle a bit. I'm the guy who learns most quickly by making the big mistakes... and I maintain that if you take enough shots - eventually you are going to come up with a good one.

somewhere... must have been a movie..I heard a saying, "don''t take pictures of beautiful things, take beautiful pictures of things..." 

that's trite but also very true... 

back in the early days of taking shots of the rock stars in my life at places like Schuba's in chicago... I took a lot of shots.... and I got some very nice ones - sub-consciously teaching myself the aesthetics as well as the technicals.... 

from time to time I will be showcasing a shot that I like of one of my folkie rock stars - see... the idea in my head about this blog is to not repeat anything that's already been published somewhere.... and that's not easy because all the great shots have already been pushed forward... it also means that I've got to get busy with my cameras and go out and start shooting again.

it's motivation

so here's one I came across from february of 2000

in this case - it's a beautiful picture of a beautiful woman - a good artist makes it easy to take a good picture...

10/30/09 "...it's cloudy today but no rain came....

...still on most days - I hear myself say - everything's easy....

but you never know...wherever I go... is a way...."       

-nate borofsky

today's photo comes from Amherst Ohio at the Days Inn...

I found myself stranded there while waiting for my transmission to be rebuilt last july - for four days.....

luckily I had my travelling companion and competent storyteller, Rufus, the knitted sock monkey to keep me company while I tried hard to not miss home too much...

Rufus likes very much to people watch.... but on this particular day there were no swimmers at the pool...... 

10/29/09 "...isn't it sweet... out in the street out in the sunshine...

...oh what a day, everyone's gay, isn't it so sublime.... 

and will I see the only home for me?

tell me I'm beautiful I promise I'll believe you this time... "

-david nields/nerissa nields

so this is what it looks like to be on a float in a parade in my hometown of Libertyville, Illinois.... it can't help but be fun because everyone is cheering for you! it's kind of strange... really.

why was I on a float in a parade - in my hometown - earlier this month....? My 30 year High School reunion - so much fun!

Namaste!

10/28/09 "....me, i'm a part of your circle of friends...

and we notice you don't come around......
and being alone is the best way to be.
when i'm by myself it's the best way to be......"
-brickell/withrow

ok..... this is the window I woke up to after arriving at Heathrow airport in the middle of the night... once again I'm presenting you with a photo of a room where I can see the happiness and wish I could show it to you, too! Sometime, after barely falling asleep, I was woken up in the pre-dawn by a milkman below my window.... seriously, the clattering of glass as this guy dropped off fresh dairy and picked up the empties.....

so.... eight hours on a jet away from home I'm pulled back forty years... by a sound heard outside a window.....and I fall back- this time deeply since it was finally late in central standard land.....

this. my first England sky!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

10/27/09 ....something completely different....

"and the train conductor says take a break driver 8, driver 8 take a break

we can reach our destination, but we're still a ways away"

  -Berry, Buck, Mills, Stipe

...and so... in september of 2006... I made the trip across the pond in order to attend a friend's wedding. This is the friend who calls me an anglophile as if it's a bad thing.

 Hmmmm.... 

The wedding was splendid- taking place in a suburb of London. After the wedding, though, it seemed practical to spend a few days in London, having never been. I'll never forget London - I hope to return soon - Well. despite being completely overwhelmed by everything UK - I took photographs.

It's difficult to say what impressed me most about England...but in the top 5 had to be the London underground railway system - otherwise known as "the Tube."

I loved riding the tube! easy. efficient. clean. this picture is of the Queensway station in the Bayswater area of London near to where I stayed.

a week later I found myself on Chicago's "El" railway system... trundling down to watch the Cubs cream the Brewers. 

I felt sad, though... the car I was in was hot, stuffy.... dirty, slow and wreaked of urine.....

  Blecch!

"...mind the gap...."