Monday, September 27, 2010

Dedicated To The Bee...

I've been on set all weekend in case you were wondering. And while we had been working by every standard any animal care expert could use in a shoot with only one dog working under thirty minutes, we still managed to come up with a tragedy.

No. Not the dog.

As we shot the big crazy scene at the end of the film Barrett turned to me and said "I think something just stung me." He looked confused and held up what at first glance appeared an ultra-thin, bloodied splinter. We walked outside trying to warrant this surprising and head-scratching turn of events when I spotted the thing. A worker bee still barely clung to life on the collar of Barrett's shirt. "There's a bee on your shirt." I said as mildly as one can say such a sentence. And Barrett, "Where?" like a guy who just found out he had a bee on his shirt would, threw the thing directly at me (thanks a lot Barrett [lol]).

Contrary to popular belief no one squealed or said they could not shoot the rest of the scene. It was a minor incident to say the least... and Barrett handled it as best a man could without the proper training (what is the proper training[?]).

But I think the sense of tragedy on set became quite extreme as the night went on. Oh Mr. Bee (yes Mister), we'll never know why you chose to end your life so recklessly. Or what end you hoped to achieve. All we know is you sacrificed yourself for the sake of our little movie. And we cannot show you more gratitude than by writing you this obituary.

Perhaps now you can be at peace, no longer a sex slave to one woman sharing her with the infinits of your tribe, no longer picking honeysuckles (though you always liked that part the best, oh how wonderful those fields were... when you could find them in the Valley[?]), no longer having to crawl up into the tininess of a hive we could not find and squish in between all of your brothers as you tried to go to sleep as uncomfortable as ever. Now you are in a better... place.

I salute you Mr. Bee.


P.S. - Hopefully Barrett woke up and wasn't, in fact, allergic... but he took the brutal attack like a man, so props.

Friday, September 17, 2010

(No) Syzygy

Even with the brightest moments come staggering pitfalls. I climb the steepest steps and every time I reach a new platform I find that I still have a great deal more ground to gain. It seems worth it. I continue the struggle. Because life is just a series of platforms that we must reach in order to reach the next one, and even when we fail it is just another platform leading to the next. This stairway is hard to make sense of, because it rises and falls and eventually we must recognize that it is not an upward rising staircase, but a forward facing staircase. I think of the Great Wall of China, or the repetitive image of an artist I have previously mentioned. And there is a strange sort of syzygy that isn't syzygy but still is. Like we stay connected to the world in an everlasting dance as the world lets us go and picks us up again. Reality slips away into dream and hopefully it returns.
I promise I will soon return to a more sensical series of entries. But not before I'm ready. I must still make sense of the logistics of this world that I have never truly understood.

(No) Syzygy:

1. Hideaway - Karen O and the Kids
2. Where Is The Puzzle? - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3. Cantina Theme (Workin' For The Law) - Bob Dylan
4. Eisler On The Go - Billy Bragg & Wilco
5. The Owl And The Tanager - Sufjan Stevens
6. Free Translator - The Books
7. There You Are - The Flaming Lips
8. The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice
9. Hurricane - Bob Dylan
10. Stone On The Water - Badly Drawn Boy
11. What Can I Do? - Antony & The Johnsons with Rufus Wainwright
12. Age Old Hunger - Christopher Denny
13. Over The Hills And Far Away - Led Zeppelin
14. The Ocean Song - Tiny Vipers
15. Sealion - Feist
16. More Like The Moon - Wilco
17. Lille - Lisa Hannigan

Monday, September 13, 2010

Do I Seem Like A Surfer?

Things have been moving recently. And I can't help but wonder what's next. But before I say anything more... Do I Seem Like A Surfer?



Or a Basketball Player?

It's just a part of life I guess, we have "good days and bad, highs and lows... sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar... well he eats you."
"Is that some kind of Eastern thing?"
"Far from it."
And I've been feeling myself growing as a person. If you've ever experienced that it's kind of magical. Realizing the energy you are putting out into the universe is the right kind of energy and people are actually willing to respond. It's just part of the great mystery of the universe I guess.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Wounded Man

I tried channeling Victor Hugo's charcoal pieces with this one. But in reality, this came out of a very weird app I downloaded on my Evo called Steamy Window. The result is far more interesting than I could have hoped.