07.19.2009

Washington DC

so, i can already tell that i will have to force myself to write. yesterday was my first really 'strenuous' day and my legs are starting to feel it, which is pitiful. if nothing else, i need to start document what i've been doing, if not how i feel about it. on friday, i waited in line for tickets to the bureau of printing and engraving, the washington monument and the holocaust museum. spent most of my morning in the permanent exhibit at the holocaust museum, after visiting the smithsonian castles and gardens. then the freer gallery, the sackler gallery, and the museum of african arts. then the hirshhorn and sculpture gardens, both of which i adored. then the washington monument, the world war two memorial, then toured the bureau of printing and engraving.

caught the metro back, drove through taco bell and halfway through my fresco bean burrito, lynn showed up to take me on a nighttime driving tour of the monuments. saw dupont circle, got sucked into virginia where i saw the 9/11 memorial and the pentagon, then back to district heights around midnight. saturday, i started at the library of congress, got my reader's card, went by the capitol, walked to union station for lunch, quickly went through the postal useum and then walked back to the botanical gardens where i unwound for a bit. then off to the national art galleries, where i could have spent days upon days. then i walked into the national art gallery sculpture garden, bought an overpriced cappuccino which i enjoyed in line waiting to get into the national archives. then, the long walk to the lincoln memorial was next, and i stopped by the white house on the way, though i just passed by. then the vietnam war memorial, the lincoln memorial, the korean war memorial, world war one memorial, then all the way back to the smithsonian metro stop.

sunday, air and space museum, finished the west art gallery, went to the american history museum, natural history museum, then dinner in chinatown at an italian restaraunt (ha) and back to pack and get ready for my long day of travel.

07.17.2009

Washington DC



the smell of smoke and candles flood my senses as the reverberation of footsteps echo through this hall. this is the first place that all of these millions are receiving the silence and respect that they deserve. the only thing more appalling than the reality of this historical nightmare is the blatant disrespect that so many have displayed today when they should have been shocked and numbed into silence. the last few hours have been beyond words or descriptions, and the realization that these names raised on the walls will be concrete, physical manifestations, places on a map and marked in my memory is almost bringing me to my knees. these light, straight, unbending walls that surround me, enclosing me, give the illusion of an almost complete circle, past, reality, and future reaching fruition, a beginning and an end all in the same moment. but not quite. this octagonal memorial is simply an illusion, a representation, a wish of connecting the dots in an idealistic world. that maybe one day these events will truly be in the past, just pictures on the wall, words in a textbook, boxes in an archive. for now, however, they and what they stand for are much more important that that. maybe it will always be that way, but the inevitability of a comparable disaster lurks around every corner, in every dark alley of the world. the same mindless, commercially-driven, mass-produced mentality that degrades this museum into a hopeless tourist trap full of desperation to move on to the next exhibit, turning on an ipod in a memorial, complaining about the stench of thousands of shoes from people just like them, just a lot less fortunate. this kind of mindless, self indulgent puppet going through all these motions is what really makes this so terrifying. if they can't be lulled into humility in the face of this horror, what other atrocities will they allow or endure in their own lifetimes? what nightmares will their apathy breed? there will alwayts be monsters and demons lurking in our present reality, and there is no real way to distinguish between any other individual fighting their own personal 'dark passengers.' who will unleash these on others?

what is the difference between popular opinion and propaganda? only retroactive acknowledgment.

what feeds minds today may be discredited or interpreted differently a week, a month, a year from now. what are we willfully ignorant of? what is reality, and what is facade? who among us is capable of such things? there is no denying that such people exist, and these events are mirrored a dozen times over all around the world. the bravery of a few, the cowardice of many, the terror it should bring to all. . .it leaves my hands trembling, this pen's strokes barely capable of connecting to one another.

GOOD NEWS

that's right, i used all caps. for those of you who know me or read this regularly, you should already know that i don't capitalize anything (including things that should be capitalized...such as god, i, chris, sam, etc.), so if something is worthy of all caps, it must be pretty damn exciting. AND IT IS!

the jackson rescue event had been canceled, but have no fear! there are people putting together an event at mississippi college and guess what - YOU SHOULD ALL BE THERE. they are meeting tonight to get together more details, but i am going and so should you. it is this saturday and it will be amazing! for those of you who don't know what the rescue is, it is the big invisible children event for the year and it is a great way for your voice to be heard in the community. if you remember the displace me event, this is the equivalent for 2009!

if you are going, or if not, do this! contact people, get individuals motivated and be a part of the change. get up, enact the ideals you stand for, and make a difference! this is such a huge deal, and even if there aren't a lot of people at the event (which you can change by coming, too!) you are still a part of this simultaneous event that is happening all over the country and all over the world! don't believe me? go to facebook, search the rescue and filter by events. there are hundreds of people rsvped to events (561 in melbourne, australia...617 in salt lake city....1496 in chicago...1134 in boston...and countless others. austin has 825! and these are just the people with facebooks you guys!) and YOU can be a part of it!

here is an instructional video, and be sure to check back here for more information about the event once i hear back from the wonderful individuals at MC. also, if you want to see some fun examples of the youtube shout out videos, i have one a couple of entries back. get excited people :) make a difference, enact change in yourself, your peers, and the world. fight apathy and get out for this.

The Rescue Instructional Video from Jason Russell on Vimeo.

and, as a last thought, i will leave you with some parting words from a man i love dearly, bryce avary, the singer of this great band the rocket summer.

i'm thinking 'bout other things i heard about today
all this week and tomorrow
and how these hands can create some better things for bettering. . .
do you feel
the weight of the world singing sorrow
or to you is it just not real
cause you got your own things
yeah we all have our things i guess

i guess my mind wanders off
from time to time
sometimes i convince myself
that all is fine in the world
it's not mine
why should i
have to try
to fix things i didn't create or contrive
. . . can you feel the souls behind what's going on

and for good measure, since i love TRS so much, here is a cool in-studio version of so much love

on nature

this looks so. cool. i wish i were able to get shots like this (at least at some point in my life). unbelievably beautiful.

on listing

i realized the other day that i have done some pretty absurd things in my life. then, yesterday, i went to get my monroe re-pierced, came back, and sam pointed out to me that it has been almost a year to the date since i got it done the first time. seeing as how things have come full circle, i decided to (start to) list some of the ridiculous things that have happened in my life in roughly the past twelve months.

• got two new piercings (three if you count the monroe twice...which i think you should)
• lived in three states (mississippi, tennessee, texas)
• ran a music festival (jubilee jam)
• had over nine hours of tattoo work done
• worked for two production companies
• became friends with a singer of a band on the radio, that a lot of my friends listen too (justin)
• started talking to the drummer of another fairly well-known band (only to learn he was an asshole)
• put on a $50,000 concert by myself
• became BFFF (best fucking friends forever) with my idol
• beat cancer (twice)
• drove over 2,000 miles in five days
• partied like a rock star in dallas
• worked for invisible children on warped tour for three days
• went to greece
• went to st. louis, on a whim
• had my first mardi gras in new orleans
• went to way too many shows to count (at least fifty....at least)
• fell in love
• had a photograph published
• read part of the first harry potter book in greek
• read at least 40 books on my own (outside of school)
• started writing (and became pretty prolific for a while)
• read narnia at least three times
• went to a sing-along showing of labyrinth
• watched all of the seasons of weeds, supernatural, and bones....all of them.
• bought my first record player
• went to austin city limits for the first time
• worked for two different production companies
• learned photoshop
• finally became close with sam, who will be my best friend for life, without a doubt
  
• ingested an inhuman amount of caffeine, as per usual.
• became really close with complete strangers, and i wouldn't have it any other way

i'm sure there is more to come, but that is all i have at the moment. also, in hindsight....the estimate of fifty concerts is way, way, way too low.

on understanding and intelligence

Having already touched on the idea of a well-rounded, liberal arts education in our discussions, but Newman is much more eloquent in identifying what exactly it is we are trying to get at when we say this. What does it mean to be well-rounded, and what is the benefit to attaining this elusive, enigmatic quality? Newman asserts that the result of such a pursuit is a “concert of the intellectual powers.” What exactly is this “concert,” and what benefit does it provide? Simply put, we “don’t discern truth intuitively, or as a whole,” but “by piecemeal and accumulation, by a mental process, by going round an object, by the comparison, the combination, the mutual correction, the continual adaptation, of many partial notions.” This logic is sound, but once this has been established, we must still ask which is more beneficial – this well-formed intellect or the usefulness of the expertise that we choose to cultivate?

In Universities, “education and instruction ‘useful’ and ‘utility’ becomes their watchword,” but Newman states that “a liberal education is truly and fully a useful, though it be not a professional, education” and that we must be careful of what we mean by useful. While some might ask if there can be “any thing more ridiculous. . .than that a father should waste his own money, and his son’s time, in setting him to learn the Roman language, when at the same time he designs him for a trade, wherein he, having no use of latin, fails not to forget that little which he brought from school,” but “if every attainment had been honoured in the mixt ratio of its difficulty and utility, the system of such a University would have been much more valuable, but the splendour of its name something less.” Furthermore, “let us take ‘useful’ to mean, not what is simply good, but what tends to good” and be sure to qualify that while “useful is not always good, the good is always useful.”

A liberal education can render itself useful in the sense of the word that others are intending due to the fact that “the intellect is so excellent a portion of us, and its cultivation so excellent, it is not only beautiful, perfect, admirable, and noble in itself, but in a true and high sense it must be useful to the possessor and to all around him; not useful in any low, mechanical, mercantile sense, but as diffusing good. . .first to the owner, then through him to the world,” hence adding wealth and “utility” from even the study of things such as Latin or Greek. Additionally, a university “teaches all knowledge by teaching all branches of knowledge, and in no other way” and “a cultivated intellect. . .brings with it a power and a grace to every work and occupation which it undertakes, and enables us to be more useful, and to a greater number.”

We must note that “the specific duties of that calling are exalted at the cost of those free and independent tastes and virtues which come in to sustain the common relations of society, and raise the individual in them. . .his virtues, his science, and his ideas are all to be put into. . .the exact mould of his technical character,” if we do not provide the means for a well-rounded character prior to, or in the process of pursuing this or any vocation. Once an individual is “out of a University he is in danger of being absorbed and narrowed by his pursuit,” according to Newman, but I think that many times, even in University, individuals are forced to narrow their pursuit far too early, regardless of being liberal arts or otherwise. It is impossible to know definitively what realm of education you want to follow through to fruition without dabbling in any number of fields to test the waters first.

In the same vein, “we may affirm, that one of the best companions is a man who, to the accuracy and research of a profession, has joined a free excursive acquaintance with various learning, and caught from it the spirit of general observation,” and “whereas the enlargement of his circle gives him increased knowledge and power in a rapidly increasing ration, so much do ideas act, not as solitary units, but by grouping and combination.” This is the concert of ideas and intellect that Newman, and ourselves, have been trying to get at, and what better source to pull on than Classics, where there is a wealth and breadth of knowledge all within a particular frame of focus, from which to connect and extrapolate into our own lives and those of our peers?

According to Newman, Lord Bacon, believes that the study of “history would give fullness, moral philosophy strength, and poetry elevation to the understanding. . .the elements of general reason are not be found fully and truly expressed in any one kind of study” but “if different studies are useful for aiding, they are still more useful for correcting each other.” Lastly, in regards to our responsibility in looking to other intellectuals, such as Mr. Burke, for inspiration, we should note that “if any mind improved like his, is to be our instructor, we must go to the fountain head of things as he did, and study not his works but his method; by the one we may become feeble imitators, by the other arrive at some ability of our own.” – idea of liberal arts, becoming our own intellect and individual with informed, framed opinions in a variety of “concentrated lights” to “correct the false peculiar colouring of each, and show us the truth.”

“It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them.”

on purpose, or lack thereof

the juxtaposition of all these horribly simple events has led me to an intolerable impasse.
i can't even find the words, but if i could, this would be the result.

sound acoustics, one

sound acoustics, one, originally uploaded by some idealistic future.

theater at epidaurus, may 2008