"If it is so beneficial, and I know it is, from experience, to not know what is coming next, to allow ourselves to open directly to the world and be present with what our senses deliver, then why don't we do it more often? No, even more importantly - why is our culture so against it?"
Source: Inside Space (Blog), a buddhist blog on writing, photography, teaching, life - with the aim to open inside spaces.
Someone sent me this and I thought this was rather interesting.
(From the NYTimes)
"When is the last time you took a photo with an old-school camera — the kind that doesn’t have a wireless connection, needs to be loaded with finicky rolls of film and is too bulky to slide into a back pocket? Unless you are a professional photographer or an artist, it has probably been a while. Most people have abandoned film cameras for digital models or, more recently, smartphones outfitted with lens accessories and apps like Instagram that make photo-sharing extremely simple. But film photography is having another moment in the sun, thanks to some hip, quirky companies like Lomography and the Impossible Project, which are resurrecting this seemingly archaic art for enthusiastic hobbyists. These companies and their customers tend to embrace the imperfections of film, rejecting the cold precision of digital photos."
I was writing on my laptop last night, with Jay Leno re-runs as background noise, when the band Beirut began to play. Immediately, I realized how cool it would have been to have the variation available in today's groups when I was growing up and impressionable and, well, cared about music. Beirut seems to fit the bill quite nicely given the instruments featured in the band and the very cool combinations they formed when playing together.
In my case, it seems as if everything musical has been relegated to a tertiary position to life and living. Maintaining relationships, raising kids, making ends meet, cleaning after the dogs, making sure there is something quick to eat, gassing up the car, washing the bird poop off the driveway, those things seem to have priority now. But I am willing to bet that were I a teenage girl now, knowing how eclectic my taste has always been, I'm pretty sure I would have known or heard or liked many of the musical entities listed in this poster.
Now, I am happy to (at least) be able to recognize the headliners for each day. I can guess at where the name Zeds Dead came from, but then again, that shows my age and my penchant for movies. Yeah, I think I would have made every attempt to attend the first day of Choachella because, frankly, First Aid Kit sounds more like a necessity in case of emergencies than anything I would ever imagine listening to. Though, along with Dr. Dre, there is "somebody I used to know" (Gotye) and, of course, Beirut on that last day. And who doesn't want to hear Pure Filth Sound on the second?
It doesn't take an online article to inform me that the importance of personal signatures decreases significantly when entered on LCD screens at the supermarket. But it does confirm that regardless of the mark we leave behind, we are still going to be charged real money every time we swipe our plastic cards to conclude our shopping transactions. As is often the case, perhaps indicative in mine of the lowly places I frequent, I am often left with a lingering suspicion that I might as well have drawn a straight line in lieu of my signature and no one would notice or care or bother to revoke the use of my credit cards because I wasn't signing my own name.
Congratulations, your signature is worth crap so let's have fun recreating it at every point of transaction!
There is the sense of profound loss when a beloved author passes from this world to the next. But there is an undeniable loss when that author is one of a handful of international authors recognized by those of us who enjoy and benefit from non-Eurocentric letters. Carlos Fuentes transcended geographical and political borders.
This is not to be facetious nor to incite fury in those who think we have more than enough reading material in the US already (which in itself is a very stupid idea to even propose). My point in writing this lies closer to the notion that we could indeed do more to promote the works of our neighbors immediately south of the border, as well as in promoting our very own Latino writers living and creating in the US without the need to exoticise them or their work. Being of color in the US is analogous to being exotic and relegated to "otherness." It seems like US readers, while not stagnant in any way, could benefit from learning what writers throughout the world, as well as those in their own 'hoods and barrios, have to say without seeing the work or its authors as foreign. Surely, people of color have known, and in many ways continue to live, a history of oppression but that does not mean that it is a history exclusive to us, the people of color. Ours is history whether we are receiving of inflicting the pain onto others. And included in that history are the same conditions, processes, and redemptive powers of a group of people that could easily be translated into any socio-political context out there.
People are far more alike than they care to acknowledge. Learning about the nuances facilitated by our own contexts as well as those of others can only lead to knowledge and ultimately wisdom. I think Fuentes understood that and through his gift of letters was able to translate it to the rest of the world.
