"Do they collide?"

Passenger Seat - Death Cab For Cutie

I roll the window down
And then begin to breathe in
The darkest country road
And the strong scent of evergreen
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home.

Then looking upwards
I strain my eyes and try
To tell the difference between shooting stars and satellites
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home.

"Do they collide?"
I ask and you smile.
With my feet on the dash
The world doesn't matter.

When you feel embarrassed, then I'll be your pride
When you need directions, then I'll be the guide
For all time.
For all time.

"It doesn't have enough whimsy."

Today I discovered Alicia Bock.

The colors in her photographs are amazing. I love the desaturated look to it. It's definitely not something you can capture with digital, which is pretty much my view on film. Alicia has a blog she quite frequently posts new pictures.

Despite this new found love however, Denis Olivier will always reign my favorite photographer ever.

This is from his new series, Dreamspace Reloaded. It's less realism then I'm use to seeing with him, but still had the same dreamlike quality. The whole series is in black and white, which is what he does best.

Today I also saw a Mercedes Benz commercial which I think captures the overall feel of both photographers collections. Skip to 1 minute 6 seconds in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3JUHYlx98M

I'm in love with the opening shot. Look for the commercial this summer for better quality.

Lately...

A Different View

Some of my favorite types of books are Autobiographies. I love reading about those crazy experiences that set people apart. At the same time, I very much enjoy the stories that ground the author, and make them part of the normal club. It can be both exciting and disheartening to read how someone's life plays out. Autobiographies however, aren't always books.

I recently came across a site about a man who documented his life through a daily Polaroid for close to 20 years. Actually the site is more of a blogged translation of the photos pictured here. Life is full of surprises, and there is most definitely an unexpected ending in this one. If you have the time, I suggest clicking on the second link first before reading through the cheat sheet (a.k.a. the first link).

I keep thinking about the meaning life lately. It's obviously a short, delicate, yet miraculous thing. I'm having a lot of trouble forming a view on something I have so many unanswered questions about. I mean, what is the purpose of life, the purpose of my life? Is there any purpose at all? How significant am I really to this world, to everything?

Watching this video didn't exactly help, but it brought upon a view that was much needed.

túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.

It's amazing how this video put so much into perspective for me. I always knew we were small specs on a rotating sphere in space, but you don't always believe what you know. What I'm getting at is that you see the sun rise and set, same as the moon, but I don't think I've ever truly felt like we were doing all the rotating, more so that things were rotating around us. This video has definitely turned on a few light bulbs. The time lapse is so quick that you actually get to see how we are spinning in circles, and everything else is staying put. Not the other way around.

Anyways, the video is by Till Credner, a very dedicated observer of the sky. Till is also part of a group of observationist who have come together to blog their ideas and questions about the atmosphere and all it's crazy mysteries. You can read their thoughts and discoveries here. Lastly, he has another site, which he runs with a friend, filled with digital documentation of the sky and space. This is the website, but I recommend the blog more.

"We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams; Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams."

Sometimes it's really hard to put my thoughts and feelings into words everyone can understand. When I can't write or talk it out, I simply sit back, listen to some music, and feel what I need to feel. Occasionally, a song plays that says everything better then I thought or felt it.

I decided on these days to just post the lyrics that bring me to such epiphanies. Even better, today I decided to make a playlist so that if you'd like, you can hear these very songs.

I Believe In Symmetry - Bright Eyes

Some plans were made and rice was thrown
A house was built, a baby born
How time can move both fast and slow
Amazes me
And so I raise my glass to symmetry
To the second hand and its accuracy
To the actual size of everything
The desert is the sand
You can't hold it in your hand
It won't bow to your demands
There's no difference you can make
There's no difference you can make
And if it seems like an accident
A collage of senselessness
You weren't looking hard enough
I wasn't looking hard enough at it

An argument for consciousness
The instinct of the blind insect
Who makes love to the flower bed
And dies in the first freeze
Oh I want to learn such simple things
No politics, no history
Till what I want and what I need
Can finally be the same

I just got myself to blame
Leave everything up to fate
When there's choices I could make
When there's choices I could make
And now my heart needs a polygraph
Always so eager to pack my bags
When I really wanna stay
When I really wanna stay

When I wanna stay
When I wanna stay
When I wanna stay
When I wanna stay

The arc of time, the stench of sex
The innocence you can't protect
Each quarter note, each marble step
Walk up and down that lonely treble clef
Each wanting the next one
Each wanting the next one to arrive
Each wanting the next one
Each wanting the next one to arrive

An argument for consciousness
The instinct of the blind insect
Who never thinks
Not to accept its fate, that's faith
There is happiness in death
You get to the next one
You get to the next one down the line
You get to the next one
You get to the next one down the line

The levity of longing that
Distills each dream inside my head
By morning watered down forget
On silver stars I wish and wish and wish

From one to the next one
From one to the next right down the line
From one to the next one
From one to the next right down the line

You get to the next one
You get to the next one down the line
You get to the next one
You get to the next one down the line

"He is much better off without me."

61 years, 2 months, and 16 days ago Evelyn McHale took her life by jumping from the top of the Empire State Building. Minutes later Robert Wiles snapped this...


This may be one of the most disturbingly beautiful pictures I have ever seen. Its amazing how peaceful this 23 year old woman looks just minutes after her lowest of lows.

...

www.scad.edu

We don't talk because we have so much to say.

Now At Last - Feist

Now at last I know
What a fool I've been
For have lost the last love
I should ever win

Now at last I see
How my heart was blind
To the joys before me
That I left behind

When the wind was fresh on the hills
And the stars were new in the sky
And the lark was held in the still
Where was I? Where was I?

When the spring is cold
Where do robins go?
What makes winter lonely ?
Now at last I know.

When the wind was fresh on the hills
And the stars were new in the sky
And the lark was held in the still
Where was I? Where was I?

When the spring is cold
Where do robins go?
What makes winter lonely ?
Now at last I know.

Ignorance is bliss.

best advice ive ever been given.