More Roofs

It was my birthday.

With detachments steady throwing, we the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving. Across the wilderness, America, America.

"With detachments steady throwing, we the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving. Across the wilderness, America, America." 2010

A video piece I made last year but have had trouble uploading to the web due to length (I think?). Video from my trip across this large land mass from Pittsburgh to San Francisco. Audio as well.

**Update 3/12 - This is now on my Vimeo account with much greater success to the quality.

We Are All Crazy.

I made a new piece. I haven't posted on here in over a month.
I'm putting a piece in a group show that my uncle is curating in Philadelphia.
I need to photograph it, and then I need to figure out how the fuck to mail it.
It's 2'x2'.

I'll post soon.

We live in a world overrun by tourists
Tourists - 89 flowers on their back
Inventors of the Accu-Jack
They look at life through a pocket camera
What? No flash again?
They're all a bunch of double drags
Who teach their kids that love is bad
Half of the staff of their brain is on vacation
Mama, are U listening?
We need a new breed - Leaders, stand up, organize ... yeah!
Don't let your children watch television until they know how 2 read
Or else all they'll know how 2 do is cuss, fight and breed

Alot of this.

I've been doing alot of this lately. This and working. And I suppose a fair amount of drinking. But more working and this. I feel like life is winding down after my whirlwind December/Christmas/New Years/Early January. I've had enough down time to start making my down time productive and enjoyable. I'm finishing a book I've probably been reading since...it's embarassing, so never mind. I'm excited to be done with it and use that fresh space in my guilty reading concious to re-read some of my photo history books. A friend is also loaning me the "Just Kids" Patti Smith book, which I'm sure I'll fly through given it's photo history connection. I also want to hit "Art & Fear" back up. I've been feeling like I could use a go at it again lately. I feel greatly unmotivated to produce work by the insanity of the MFA gallery scene here. It feels like unless you study under the darlings, the darlings will never let you in their galleries. Or, perhaps they might, but how the hell they are ever going to see your work to even think about it...? Why in your MFA crit. of course....! Sorry to end on a seemingly negative note. Here's better. This is a hold over. Borrowing a friends D-90. Will produce newish digi things now-soon.

Times Flimes Bimes.

Hello Again.
Happy New Year.
Time sure does fly eh? Apologies for time away from this little slice of the internet lately. I have been having some of my best friends in the world in and out and in and out of my life like a whirlwind for the past 3-4 weeks. And so it continues on for another week or so. Though last year went out on quite an absurd note, as occurrences can sometimes be, this one seems off on a good foot. It seems full of kinetic energy. And I feel like taking more initiative to get things done. So here's to good friends and good feelings. I hope you are all feeling somewhat similar. Lets go balls deep on 2011!!

One Touch, Is Never Enough.

Happy Thanksgiving. I went to an early turkey dinner yesterday, this was there.
And this was on the street today. Props to the photo nerds who see it.

This is not my photograph.

This is by a guy in the mission who does alot of rad photo work. Times like these are when I wish I had a digital camera, like I did when the Steelers won the superbowl last, and Sharon Needles graced Bloomfield with her presence. Anway. This shot reminded me of Pittsburgh. And oh yeah, if you didn't hear, the Giants won the World Series.


Check out his Flickr album from it:
HERE

Self and Bob, Ocean Beach, 2010

Gobble Gobble

WILD ANIMAL

NYTimes Op-Ed piece by Ted Stroll: Aw, Wilderness!

This intro discussion touches on the Forest Services refusal to do things like post signs, allow mountain biking, or anything "mechanical" within nationally designated "Wilderness Areas". Described within the National Wilderness Act (1964) as, areas "“where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Within those areas, the act forbids cars, roads, structures and anything else that could impair the “outstanding opportunities for solitude.”" However the NFS's stringent enactment of the act have made much of the mass amount of area set aside inaccessible and quite dangerous to many Americans. Apparently even experienced hikers have been lost with nearly fatal consequences in these areas due to a lack of anything, anywhere to aid in location.

While I am all for the lower end of the technological spectrum in the wilderness, as well as the preserving of natural land as it stands, it seems a bit counter intuitive to leave these as places that people who truly want to experience them, can not have reasonable access to. On a recent camping trip with a friend we were allowed to camp in a "family camp ground", which, albeit high on a mountain and quite isolated, did not deliver the true idea in my mind of camping. A plot with a metal tub for a fire and a parking spot, next to a running spicket and pay phone. Our only other option was to park the car and make a trek to a camping ground (probably in a similar vein) 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 miles out on trail. And again while I am up for that hike/bike (allowed on service roads), it would have been exciting to park the car anywhere we liked and gone off in search of a nice spot. And though the full details are not known to me, another friend recently was woken up by park rangers and given a citation for sleeping in an un-designated area after getting a bit lost late at night after watching the Persiad meteor shower.

This piece has a nice ring to it, and a nice little patch of information. I can't say I disagree. It's wonderful that we are setting aside places in this truly beautiful land to be untouched permanently by human hands. Sure we can't really know who would respect the lands, and who would leave their beer cans behind. But it seems silly to have such great natural resource abound, but generally unavailable.