11.29.2006

The Trinity

- I was thinking about the Trinity today and I ran across the realization that the trinity gives you a 1-2-3 person perspective on any given subject. Below I started a list of the different (tri)nities that came to my mind. Please feel free to add to the list, especially if you can think of one for composing music? I am thinking that hands, instrument and expression could work for music but I am not sure?

The Good, the True, and Beautiful

Morals, Science, and Art

God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit

Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha

Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva

Body, Mind, Spirit

ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed (lastly, a little something for the photography crowd out there: Stop asking what equipment I use and ask ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, that is your Holly Trinity)

11.28.2006

Ecosexuals

- I think I am an ~ Ecosexuals. “Ecosexuals are an evolving breed of city dweller for whom keeping green is every bit as important in their romantic life as in their choice of household cleanser, dinner food, or wall paint.” I hope my parents are proud!!! Thanks to Integral Options Cafe for placing the info on his daily speedlinking post.

11.27.2006

Pittsburgh, PA Light-Up Night 11/17/2006





Click here for the complete portfolio

Back to the real world

Back to the real world: spent the last couple of days with friends and family eating too much and laughing just the right amount. Red wine plus turkey makes you real sleepy, I think that is why they have boring football games on Thanksgiving Day, and I enjoy football but not watching Detroit play. Sorry, Detroit but your team is mind-numbing, hence good TV to watch after consuming too much red wine and turkey. Typically I try to eat a vegetarian diet but some times turkeys must die. Don’t get me wrong I have no ill-will towards the turkey, but what says Pilgrims and Indians bonding more than the slaughtering of turkeys. Lambs and deer have to go too, pretty much any animal that only frolics and eats leaves has to go.

11.21.2006

Elegant Thorn Review + Craig Photography

Elegant Thorn Review has posted a number of of my photos and an artist’s statement of mine. You can check it out here, and a big thank you to William Harryman the curator of ETR for being a supporter of my work.

I will be taking the next couple of days off to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. I will see you all this upcoming Monday morning. Have a great holiday, be safe , peace, happiness and smiles.

11.16.2006

Autograph of God

Click here for larger viewing

Autograph of God
This is one of my favorite pieces, I hope you enjoy it

11.15.2006

Moment

Current Reading: One Train Later: A Memoir by Andy Summers
Music: What by Stuart Davis
Mood: Happy-feeling good; sing with me “Sometimes I feel like dancing, I got dance the night away”
Sounds: Typing fingers and humming heaters
Smells: Everything is completely odorless right now? Should I get that check out? – Nah because “Sometimes I feel like dancing, I got dance the night away
Sights: Barren tree tops and gray skies
Temperature: Slightly warm in the places where I am not chilly
Thoughts: Mechanics of your skill equals magic.

Updates

I added some new links to the sidebar: There is a list of several great charities to support and also a number of photographers who have been inspirational to me.

11.13.2006

Bach is Back in my Life

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Bach is back in my life. Last night was the first time in about six months that I pulled out my Bach transcriptions book and started working through some of my favorite pieces. I played well, actually, unexpectedly well. I am afraid that I have nowhere to go but down in my performance ability. With that being said, I will continue to drudge through.

Bach brings so much to my compositional thought process, principally because I have to play slowly to understand where I am going to attain an understating of the music. Often when I am learning a new piece I will start at the end of the last stanza and play to the beginning of the first stanza. Then when I have the technique down I can play the music in the manner in which it was written. I can enjoy the music in the path in which it was written, giving me the reward to enjoy the transcendental capability of work.

11.10.2006

I Raise The Camera To My Eye


I raise the camera to my eye and I look through the viewfinder. I go into a place of silence, a place of inner stillness. The room could be filled with noise and rumblings of a passerby or I could be in the forest sitting next to a raging stream. At that instant of composition I go into stillness. Letting my conscience evolve into the environment that surrounds me. Next I move into a moment of unearthing discovery, looking to see the unseen to find the spark where God lives and art grows. Following that I move into the “yes of the blessing” when I capture that sacred frame that lived only for that finite second of stillness. To conclude I move into the point of celebrating the gift, that presence of grace that I alone was able to see, experience, document and share with the world.

11.09.2006

Transcendental composition

Vulnerability, naïve, susceptibility: are these strong traits for an artist? Are these high-quality traits for a spiritual leader?

The reason I started this post with 3 words with a negative connotation and end the sentence with spiritual leader and artist is because in a time of personal or global troubles this is where society turns for healing. The focus on weakness, art and leadership are typically not a starting point for transcendental moment. Moreover they can be the nexus point for the creative spark to ignite. The majority of artist people have a connection or a faith in a higher power. Classically this belief is confirmed when producing works greater than your capability, that moment when you become the vessel for the art to move through. So why vulnerability, naïve, susceptibility: because these are the traits that leave you open to new thoughts, feelings and expressions. They are humbling moments of grace. Denial of a flaw is the end of the creative instant. Art has a responsibility to serve. Art has a responsibility to heal. Art should give us the ability to look into a photograph, not simply at it.

Transcendental composition only begins when you get up from knowing that you were previously incorrect. Artistic techniques in conjunction with meditation practice will help you to produce a transcendental composition. Transcendental composition can be that divine healing in our time of need.

Photo of the Week

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11.08.2006

Blog Recommendations

I stray away from giving review or recommendations, I would even say that I try not to influence the readers of this blog. With that being said and all politicalsim-media-negativity behind us I want to share some very enjoyable blogs with you.

11.07.2006

Outsourcing

Indian food on my plate, a beautiful woman sitting across the table from me and I am eavesdropping over the conversation next to me:
"$85.00 dollars an hour US currency or $15.00 dollars an hour if you have the work completed in India." "India, done deal" the American answers. Outsourcing right in front of my eyes, actually right next to my ears. "Why not?" I think to myself. Then again, "Why?" I think to myself. In a world when business can be digitized, completed and then re-digitized back; why does it matter where the work is being processed? If I was hired by an overseas client to process Photoshop or work on prints I would happily jump at the opportunity, or better yet the income.



Creativity, service, and having the ability to digitize a product is the new economics. Is this "sink or swim" outlook for the working class that does not embrace this approach? Yes, I fearfully answer (barring skills labor & teaching industries). The office parks have replaced the factories in America. As our Fathers were able to get a job at the local factory, we today can get a job at the local office park. The office park can be placed anywhere on the globe where there is an internet connection. Why not place them at the best economical viable place?



Thankfully outsourcing can be embraced by both sides for a small business man. Having the ability to send work overseas and have it completed in 24 hrs or less and also having the opportunity to receive new clients from overseas is a win-win to me. Furthermore the bulk of my readership from this blog is generated from overseas reader. To my fellow American readers I say catch up and spread the word, and to my overseas readers I say thank you and how the hell did you find me anyway?

11.06.2006

Political Atheism + Get out and VOTE

A conversation between a believer and a non believer in the political pundit arena. The following dialog is based upon this previous post:

Non -believer: Political Atheism
Believer: Nature of the beast, my friend. Always has been, always will be

Non -believer: That is exactly my point – if current political are not going to change, why bother to vote. I wish I could believe the voting system will work or even give a true out come of the actual voting results but the beast won’t let that happen. Anyway, I still hope the democrats win….
Believer: It’s also not really a matter of “believing” that the voting system will work. If it were that simple, people would cast their ballots and just say “that’s that.” Instead, people vote and then look into the many irregularities that pop up, and they track down allegations of fraud, and they investigate allegations of voter intimidation, and so on.

Non-Believer: Do you think the majority vote winners will win the election or do you think it is pre-determined who will win??? To make it simple let only talk about high profile candidates such as Casey and Santorum.
Believer: Barring vote-fraud and gross errors of accounting, I think that the candidate with the most votes wins. Even when fraud and voter-suppression occur, it’s still not predetermined that one candidate will win over another. In Santorum’s case, I think that he (and those working on his behalf) has gone to great lengths to stack the deck in his favor.

Non-believer: Correct me if I am wrong: but don’t you believe-know-feel (insert whatever word you want) that Bush stole the election both times?
Believer: Based on all available evidence, I am confident that that is the case. That’s what I meant by “barring vote-fraud and gross errors of accounting,” both of which occurred in 2000 and 2004.

Non-believer: Your argument sounds like circular reasoning to me.
Believer: How so? Unless I misunderstood you…You asked if I thought that majority-vote wins. I answered that I think that it does, unless vote-fraud occurs. If I ask you what time it is, and you say “If my watch is correct, it’s 11:23,” is that circular reasoning?

Non-believer: But voter-fraud does occur; you know that it has occurred. It is odd for me to say but I hope your faith in the system is true.
Believer: Just remember that my faith in it is based upon the hope that vigilant people will work to ensure the system’s integrity. I think that it would be foolish for me simply to hope (or believe) that it’ll all work out just fine on its own.

11.03.2006

A Note to an Artist

Composition needs to have adjectives; the mistakes need to be real.
Limiting, qualifying, specifying and distinguished tones need to be communicated to our audience. The S-curve to the infinity point, the relationship between two chords, the poetic verse of words, perfect brush stroke, these are the tools for the practice of composing to begin. The back stories, narrative, aesthetics & hermeneutics (art & science of interpretation) are our building blocks to the greater whole, where composition lives.

Art is an act of expressing feelings, art is our original face. Art can suspend you in a moment of disbelief and then bring you back again to believing. Art is spirit.

11.02.2006

Composition

I can tell you that I have always been a bit of a hermit, taking escape and refuge in my own thoughts and practices. I think that is why my relationship between the camera and the guitar has always been so meaning full to me. The one constant in my life has always been the driving force to accomplish better composition no matter if it’s the guitar, the camera or this blog

11.01.2006

Political Atheism

I am from the church of non-believers when it comes to the state of current politics. My views appear to be straightforward and simple but presently most people do not agree with them. When our current president has one hand on the bible and one hand on the military (or nuclear bomb) that is not a good place to be. How can smart people still believe in current politics? When did the rational dialogue of running for political office become 30 seconds of argumentative sponsor announcements shoved between Jerry Springer and Oprah. Stop arguing on TV. We all change the channel and are tuning you out. Or better yet go on the Dr. Phil show and let him work out all your political issues.

There is currently an uprise of articles about the end faith and/or how religious conviction is the end of the free world. Where are all the articles on the end of politicalism? Fear-based politicalism has to stop. Unfortunately I do not have any answers to any of my questions but I am convinced if you ask the person to the right or the left of you, they have the "universally correct answer that is so completely obvious to solve all the worlds problems and why doesn't the world understand my single point-of-view answer that would collectively solve all the worlds' problems if only they listened to me" answer. Also I am positive that they think they are right because don't we all think we are right. Right? Change your perspective on anything: that will make the world a better place.

Lastly, have you ever noticed that people who call themselves "politically conservative" are the most judgmental people that you know and the people that call themselves "politically liberal" are the most conservative people that you know?

Interview: William Harryman

William of Integral Options Cafe is interviewed over a POLYSEMY: it is a great read.....

"MD interviewed me for POLYSEMY this weekend, focusing on my interest in poetry as curator of Elegant Thorn Review. It was fun to answer his questions.When you stop by for the interview, be sure to check out "And the Gods Made Love" by Jean Rivard."