So I'm loving my own personal, shareable version of Pandora. I love seeing what friends are listening to. It's like a music junkie's version of the crack that is Twitter.
Follow my Blips here:
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Quotable quotes
"To be a writer is to be a shuttlecock in a badminton game, one racquet of which is naive optimism and the other a cynical despair."
- John Jerome, The Writing Trade
Well, Jerome, don't you just speak the truth. And I hope, Jerome, you don't mind me calling you by your surname... it's so much more intriguing than John.
On another note, the twelve-year-old inside me just giggled at the word "shuttlecock". You totally don't get to see that one often enough.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Wanderlust
"Not all those who wander are lost."
- Tolkien
Those words make me want to high-five a dead man.
I also would like to give a hand-slap of approval to whichever wise soul wrote this in my MFA book:
A detour on your bus route is at first a delay and a tedium, but it also brings the freshness of different streets, and whatever streets are taken, you know that the destination is still the same. In any digression, the writer has an eye on the narrative arc of the piece and the through-line of the theme, keeping an eye out along the way for extra, subsidiary meaning that may become apparent in diversion so that the whole forward movement may become stronger.
On my own note,
I've realized a correlation between the things I've really started to cling to in my life: writing, running, and my ever-burning desire to travel anywhere I can (never wanting to be idle). While they're all simple ways of getting from point A to point B, when you take the time to diverge off the most direct route or go a bit longer than you planned to, that's when you get the good stuff. That's when you learn the most about what you are capable of. And that's what I'm coming to understand gives me the most pleasure out of the seemingly simple, the technically mindless tasks. It doesn't take much skill to keep running, to write, to exist in a foreign place -- the directions are inherent. Anyone is able to call themselves a writer, a runner, a traveler. You just do it. Yet, no one really gets lost in them... And that's what I've found to really make all of these things worthwhile. The more I wander, the more I enjoy my results. It's what makes any of it worthwhile to me. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is waiting at the finish line.
I mean, don't get me wrong, just because I agree with Tolkien, doesn't mean I'm gonna nerd out with the Hobbit... I just think that simple wisdom is something people don't do enough of these days. Me included.
Meanwhile, I'm gonna go counterbalance all this heady life talk with some VH1 Rock of Love reruns.
- Tolkien
Those words make me want to high-five a dead man.
I also would like to give a hand-slap of approval to whichever wise soul wrote this in my MFA book:
A detour on your bus route is at first a delay and a tedium, but it also brings the freshness of different streets, and whatever streets are taken, you know that the destination is still the same. In any digression, the writer has an eye on the narrative arc of the piece and the through-line of the theme, keeping an eye out along the way for extra, subsidiary meaning that may become apparent in diversion so that the whole forward movement may become stronger.
On my own note,
I've realized a correlation between the things I've really started to cling to in my life: writing, running, and my ever-burning desire to travel anywhere I can (never wanting to be idle). While they're all simple ways of getting from point A to point B, when you take the time to diverge off the most direct route or go a bit longer than you planned to, that's when you get the good stuff. That's when you learn the most about what you are capable of. And that's what I'm coming to understand gives me the most pleasure out of the seemingly simple, the technically mindless tasks. It doesn't take much skill to keep running, to write, to exist in a foreign place -- the directions are inherent. Anyone is able to call themselves a writer, a runner, a traveler. You just do it. Yet, no one really gets lost in them... And that's what I've found to really make all of these things worthwhile. The more I wander, the more I enjoy my results. It's what makes any of it worthwhile to me. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is waiting at the finish line.
I mean, don't get me wrong, just because I agree with Tolkien, doesn't mean I'm gonna nerd out with the Hobbit... I just think that simple wisdom is something people don't do enough of these days. Me included.
Meanwhile, I'm gonna go counterbalance all this heady life talk with some VH1 Rock of Love reruns.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Video Films can improve your life.
Meet Fred and Sharon, independent film makers of the highest caliber:
And because I know I just left you wanting more (or questioning if this gem of genius could actually be real), check out the motherload:
www.fredandsharonsmovies.com
And because I know I just left you wanting more (or questioning if this gem of genius could actually be real), check out the motherload:
www.fredandsharonsmovies.com
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
And I Ran... I Ran So Far Away.
My first half marathon.
Austin, TX - 2.15.09
Like how my blue PowerAde tongue matches my blue Nike top? Totally intentional -- I was sponsored by both.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Sunlight Hurt My Eyes
Why is it we let the pettiest things get the best of us? Maybe it's just me, maybe it's a bigger epidemic, but I've come to the stark realization that, for whatever reason, I let the little things like the boy who breaks up with me, become the person (or issue) that gets to lift back the ugly grey curtain to expose all the decaying mess inside of me.
You're all cuddled up in a darkened corner where you’ve slept in till noon, enveloped in the drunken bliss of romance. Out of nowhere (maybe there's some internal alarm clock that boys come equipped with), he throws off the sheets, turns his back to you, and whips open the shade. In comes the burning ray of light, exposing your matted bedhead and bad morning breath to the world. You cover your eyes, reach around for something thick and meaningful to comfort you. Some blanket of passion, a hobby to distract you from realizing what's become of you… you look around desperately for some deeper meaning in your life to replace a love gone wrong…
You find nothing. An empty dusty room with a faint smell of mildew and last night's cheap whiskey.
I realized something big this week:
I cannot reach out for my happiness anymore. The snooze buttons that I relied on to bypass getting up and finding my own happiness no longer works. I don’t know why this particular boy, this recent house of cards is the one that crashed down with such an impact, but all of a sudden I’ve found myself surrounded in the leftover dust of important things I let pass me by. All of the things that would have taken time and effort and focus to build meaning and beauty… were left on the floor like scattered Legos. I was too busy steadying my hand at all the other frivolous card games.
I thought I knew what a quarter-life crisis was about. I also thought I had passed mine. Turns out, I merely glossed over it. And now I finally take about 20 steps back to look around at my 26 years of being, and wonder where I am. Where I'm headed. If I'm too lost to find my way out of this dark room. I look at myself in the mirror and I'm not really sure if I recognize who I am, what I stand for, what direction I should take.
Here I am, all exposed with nothing to fall back on. And I'm running out of cards to play with.
Why did it have to some silly break up to unwittingly pull back that dusty old curtain and shine an unforgiving light into my cluttered world?
So while I get adjusted to reality beaming in through my dirty window, the only choice I have now is to stand up slowly, dust off, gather up the pieces that mean something to me, and start sweeping out the flimsy fallen cards and cobwebs of complacency. Who knows, maybe if I really get going, I can turn those torn-up curtains into a fine Scarlett O’Hara-style masterpiece.
What Would Whitman Do
In the preface to Leaves of Grass:
Love the earth and sun and animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others...
Be free, wild, with dignity and independence...
And your very flesh will be a great poem.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Raw, uncensored, and uncut
Find the full-length master copy of my infamous Kodak billboard on Dustin's blog:
http://babylonsabator.com/blog/kdk.mp4
Ch'ch'check it out.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Shaving Seconds Off My 15-Minutes-o-Fame Clock
So this is pretty cool:
My good friend Dustin Copeland (Hi, Dustin) works for Ogilvy NY on the Kodak account. I was up there in November doing a little job-hunting, enjoying the usual Manhattan merriment, and was able to be in a shoot for their account. My friends and I went into it pretty unassumingly and more than a little hungover from an awesome Bishop Allen concert the night before. But we managed to make it through the freezing temps and into the final cut for their digital billboard -- prominently featured in illustrious Times Square.
I know it's kind of hard to see, but in the top right hand corner, that's me in the yellow scarf and red top laughing in a candid (more like completely posed) fashion. Apparently there are a few more of my friends and I included in this giant slideshow, but I'll have to get up there to document it better myself.
I'm taking this as a 'sign' (har har) that New York is calling me to move there, be a part of it all, and as the tagline reads, "Make Something" out of myself.
My good friend Dustin Copeland (Hi, Dustin) works for Ogilvy NY on the Kodak account. I was up there in November doing a little job-hunting, enjoying the usual Manhattan merriment, and was able to be in a shoot for their account. My friends and I went into it pretty unassumingly and more than a little hungover from an awesome Bishop Allen concert the night before. But we managed to make it through the freezing temps and into the final cut for their digital billboard -- prominently featured in illustrious Times Square.
I know it's kind of hard to see, but in the top right hand corner, that's me in the yellow scarf and red top laughing in a candid (more like completely posed) fashion. Apparently there are a few more of my friends and I included in this giant slideshow, but I'll have to get up there to document it better myself.
I'm taking this as a 'sign' (har har) that New York is calling me to move there, be a part of it all, and as the tagline reads, "Make Something" out of myself.
Very un-Victoria
This is an ad that's been out there for Victoria Beckham's new dress collection.
I kind of love that, while the ad is obviously fashion-centric, its concept is pretty freakin' cute. You completely forget the celebrity behind the label or even the typically untouchable models on display. It's refreshing, whimsical, endearing, and playful....
In other words, Very un-Victoria.
(It also kind of makes me think I'd like to hang out with her. Hey Posh, wanna be besties who play hide and seek together, share clothes and the occasional husband?)
I kind of love that, while the ad is obviously fashion-centric, its concept is pretty freakin' cute. You completely forget the celebrity behind the label or even the typically untouchable models on display. It's refreshing, whimsical, endearing, and playful....
In other words, Very un-Victoria.
(It also kind of makes me think I'd like to hang out with her. Hey Posh, wanna be besties who play hide and seek together, share clothes and the occasional husband?)
If this doesn't make you smile, we probably wouldn't get along.
Do you think this A+ assignment got a place on the fridge?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
