fold my arms, breathe in deep, cross my legs
tuesday, april 16, 2002
i know, i'm posting trillions of photo's lately that must be slowing somebody's day down, but i can't help it. there's so much equiptment in this office, and i want everything on film, everybody, everything, it's a race against time and light and flowers about to wilt as i type.
and i can't help it -- i'll be on my way home and accidentaly look out the window and a cloud space ship fills the sky and really, somebody's got to document it. i could be the only one to see when they come.
or my friend leah will come in with shimmery sea colours all over her eyelids and i just.. must force her out into the sun and shoot a roll. so. heh.
i blame spring and peter gabriel's song "i have the touch" ..especially heather nova's version of it. it has this warm breath all over it, and her way of forcing consonants out with this wet spray.. she doesn't need contact, she needs KontaKt (tak-takatakt, tak-takatakt).
the whole song conjures up memories of summer nights at concerts with all those warm bodies and elbows pushed into my back and arms stretched toward the stage, grasping in want to touch, make contact.
"The time I like is the rush hour, 'cos I like the rush
The pushing of the people, I like it all so much
Such a mass of motion, do not know where it goes
I move with the movement and ... I have the touch"
--peter gabriel, "i have the touch"
mutual experiences, memories, words, music, it's contact, it spins webs between us. and walls. heh. i once knew a guy who didn't listen to any music. i just couldn't figure out how to relate to him very well. of course, he said he never remembered having dreams either, so i should have known early on it was a bad fit.
but i remeber that first real.. connection. his name was kent, and he got me into throwing copper by live. the entire experience together is coloured by the first few tracks of that album simply because they were always lingering around the walls where we spent time.
and while the connection didn't last (seriously, the very tall republican with millionaire friends and short, fat lefty girl with an all-black warderobe wasn't very.. happening in the long run) it's the only album i've bought three times (i always end up selling it and then re-buying it used--currently i'm in a "should i buy it again? it's just $6!" phase).
or a not-so-close friend in high school who sent me home with tori amos' little earthquakes, complete with a 3 page letter he'd composed that high-lighted certain lyrics and specific moments in the music i should pay attention to. both the letter and the friend were lost as we graduated, but i still remember being given this way into tori's music, and that's huge to me.
of course, there are the obvious non-connections, most often with the casual ex-people. the ex-girl into aerosmith (ok. i have a recent crush on aerosmith's song dream on, but we're talking recent aerosmith). the ex-boy into jethro tull (yes, i get it, flutes are cool), the next into jimi hendrix (who i like on principle, i think. some days.) .. 70s rock is alright, but.. i just can't do it sometimes.
but it's okay. there's a balance brought on by even more people. the ex-girl who got me into anything from devo to cocteau twins, or the other with her aimee mann obsession. or hell, close friends like angela (thank you, thank you, thank you for kristin hersh!) and gene (fiona apple, ani difranco, nine inch nails, the list still grows).
do i have a point somewhere in that sudden listing of a past? i don't think so. just.. contact. and music. and did i mention the part where it is 90 degrees and i just spent a solid 20 minutes in direct sunlight documenting leah? so.. ignore me. it's probably the dehydration talking. tak-takatakt, tak-takatakt. cin cin! �� 3:02 p.m.
...
okay, i just found a guy on our staff who knows how to do the black and white studio photography that i've always loved. the guy never impressed me much on our staff, and we always find downloaded pornesque pictures on computers he uses, but today i saw this session he did that was just.. beautiful.
predictably, it was a lot of black and white photo's of naked women, but most unpredictable, the work was.. good. i liked the dramatic lights and sharp, stunning quality of the pictures. and i wanna learn how to do that. in fact, it's been on my mind all week long--that and really sharp, detailed night-photography.
so i bugged him, and he said he'll teach me how to do studio photography. he's taking a class at duke university and usually uses an older camera than we do that the office. i'm all kinds of eager. he said he'd try and find a subject i could practise on as well. so. wee!
also--my boss is arranging a weekend trip for me and a former staff member to go to fredericksburg, virginia to pick up our award from the society for professional journalism. ooooooh. free trip! all money paid! award! yey! cin cin! �� 4:53 p.m.
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