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Rocky Horror Social Statement

I have a confession to make. Tonight I watched Glee with my daughter and I kind of liked it. I enjoyed how they handled the Rocky Horror Show (despite a couple of cringe worthy auto-tuned moments). I decided to comment about it here because it said something pretty important to the kids who watch it. It told them that they are not stupid. The whole episode was a commentary on how ridiculous society is for dancing around obvious themes in the arts in the name of protecting children. It’s because children are more likely to openly deal with and possibly accept these themes without the venom that is eventually forced down their throats by uncomfortable adults who would rather piss on things they don’t fully understand than accept them that makes the parents of today so damn scared. Wow, that was a mouthful.

Last week, Glee posted a preview of their rendition of Time Warp on YouTube and my daughter caught it. She asked me about it and I started to give her a little history lesson. I told her how it was a play that was made into a movie that is still shown in movie theaters around the world over 35 years after it was made. She wanted to know more, and more importantly, she wanted to see it. I didn’t think much of it – heck, I saw it when I was a little kid too! I queued it up on Netflix and the girl must have watched it a dozen times throughout the weekend. She re-watched the musical numbers over and over and sung along. She even made me learn Time Warp on guitar so we could sing it together. Needless to say, she gets into things head-over-heels.

She did pop a question about one of the more adult themes of the movie. “Dad, what’s a transvestite?” she asked during the first on-screen appearance of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. I explained to her that it is someone who cross-dresses, “Usually it’s a boy who wears girls’ clothing or vice-versa.” “Oh, OK. I think I get it. So, does he like boys or girls?” she asked. “I think he likes both, but it might make more sense when you realize just what he really is” I told her. I didn’t want to spoil the big reveal of him being an alien from the planet Transsexual, in the distant galaxy of Transylvania. That was it. No heart pumping, how do I explain this to a 5th grader flop sweat formed on my brow. She’s an extremely smart kid and she knows when we’re anything but straightforward with her. I couldn’t tell you exactly what she has taken from the movie, but I do know that she loves it dearly. And what’s not to love? The music is awesome and it has such an awkward cast of characters – it paved the road for guys like Tim Burton!

This takes me back to tonight’s episode of Glee. The main plot line is about whether or not Rocky Horror is inappropriate for high school kids. What I saw was clearly a commentary by the writers of Glee on their own restrictions of making a broadcast TV show about it. They made it quite obvious that they had their hands tied, and the only way they would get this cast to sing these classic songs on TV was make the show about the fact that they couldn’t do it. I thought it was brilliant – another case of taking your restraints and exploiting them to make something fresh and energetic.

I also thought it was sad. Kids are really smart and truly innocent, yet we as a society treat them like idiots and rob them of their innocence by filing their open minds with fear and hate. The vicious cycle of hatred of people who are different keeps living on because we not only allow it, we encourage it by avoiding uncomfortable conversations. We say we need to protect our children. From what? Sexuality? Faith? I think every parent needs to stop every once in a while and think about how they learned about life and who that knowledge first came from. I know I had a shithead of a brother who made up stories about how women got pregnant. He told me guys with chapped lips would kiss girls and the girls would swallow the skin flakes which would grow into babies in their bellies. What a dick! If I was told the truth in the first place by the right people I wouldn’t have such a hard time kissing family members on the lips to this day.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is one of the most famous lines from the Declaration of Independence, and I truly believe what I wrote about yesterday – that happiness is the wonder and joy of discovery. Let kids discover life and if you’re uncomfortable with how they are exposed to certain things, join them so they can have the proper context for the stuff they don’t understand (and maybe you too can discover new things that might bring you happiness). The best part of raising kids is watching them grow – not just physically, but mentally as well. Celebrate their passage into maturity, don’t repress it. What better way to spark those “uncomfortable” conversations than through art? Make the experiences cool and interesting and your kids won’t have weird hang-ups because some jerk fed them misinformation.

Now that my daughter has seen the movie and Glee’s take on it, I’m taking her to see Rocky Horror live at the Charleston Ballet this weekend. I know how excited she is for it, and because of that I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Expanding The Sphere

Today my wife and I picked up some new lighting effects for our upcoming Halloween party that we’re throwing for our kids. I’ve always wanted a plasma ball, and today I finally got to live vicariously through my children and actually purchase one. As my kids played around with it this evening it got me thinking, is the secret to happiness the wonder and joy of discovery? I’ll pause for a moment here and let that one sink in.

OK, here’s what I mean; children live life every day with their eyes wide open, and these gullible little people soak in everything without doubt. It’s those joyous feelings and experiences that get wrung out of people as they pass into adulthood and become cynical and sarcastic members of society. I still have brief moments where I feel those feelings of wonder when I learn a new trick with my camera, or figure out a way to fix a problem on a computer. More importantly, I feel that feeling when I experience an original piece of artwork – whether its a photo, a song, a movie, etc. I remember being let down by the movie Avatar because I was so excited at the promise of seeing this beautiful world that nobody has ever seen before only to be completely let down and distracted by the rehashed Pocahontas storyline. I’m sure a child would be much more engaged by this movie because they wouldn’t recognize it’s rehashed plot. As we grow older, it becomes more difficult to experience joy from new experiences when there are fewer new ideas in our sphere of influence to surprise us. Maybe that’s why so many older folks get the “grumpy” label thrown at them.

What to do to avoid this vicious downward spiral of grumpiness? I think that it’s easy – you need to expand you sphere of influence to include new experiences. Sure, the world has gotten much smaller since the explosion of the Internet, but for me it has made the access to new information, art, and music much broader, and no single person could explore it all in a single lifetime. The key is to step out and open your eyes. Look at a kid’s ability to soak in the world and try to relearn that lost or forgotten skill. If you asked me five years ago how much I cared about photography, I would have told you that I didn’t even think of it as an art form – it was just a way to freeze memories and that was all. Why would someone take a picture of something other than a person? My Grandfather was an amateur photographer and I used to snicker at his pictures of squirrels and birds and rocks – I didn’t understand why he took those pictures! Now that I’ve opened that door a bit wider, I completely get it.

What thing out there has you baffled or disinterested? Is it a type of food? Go to that Indian restaurant and try something new! Is it a style of music? Look in the local paper and find a punk rock show and experience it live! There are tons of things in life that I don’t even know if I truly like or dislike yet. You just gotta make sure to leave your prejudices at the door and go out and find something new… you crotchety old curmudgeon 😉

Getting Your Hands Dirty

My wife left me alone with the kids today so she could get some work done. I had no idea what we were going to do. I had two options; we could spend Sunday as it was meant to be spent – relaxing and getting ready for the week, or we could go out and do something. After a few minutes of lazying it up, we decided to venture out to the burrito place for some lunch. While we were there, we spotted one of our neighbors. Their daughter came and ate lunch with us so she could hang out with the kids. During lunch we talked about all of the things going on around town – there were two different Oktoberfest celebrations as well as a handful of pumpkin patches we could explore. After I shot down their idea to go roller skating (I did not feel like being pulled down every time one of the kids falls, which is like every five feet), I offered up a trip to the park.

My daughter, the social butterfly, invited her little friend to come to the park with us. Now we were four – I was outnumbered by three-to-one. I took a deep breath and we loaded into my car to head out to the park. The kids had a blast, and I had fun taking pictures of them playing. At a certain point, I had to come to grips and put the camera away so I could pay closer attention to the kids. Also, once we decided to hit the paddle boats and kayaks, I didn’t want to have any distractions (although I couldn’t stop looking at the great colors of the trees reflecting in the lake or composing in my mind the best shot of a great blue heron that was perched on the shore).

I do have a point to this story, and it’s two-fold. Number one is reiterating the point of yesterday’s post, which is that you need to go out and do something. Get started now – don’t put it off, whatever it is. Life is meant to be lived every day, and when given the opportunity to get up and go out, you should take that over laziness every time! You never know what your reward will be when you put yourself out there, but I can guarantee that sitting around the house doing nothing will get you nothing! Number two refers to the title of today’s post – that is getting your hands dirty. You know when a kid is having fun? When they look like they’ve been bathing in mud. As an artist, you need to get out and play in the mental mud. Try things that you normally wouldn’t try. Don’t be scared to get your shoes wet or your camera dirty. Get in there and get that shot – get as close as you can to make it work.

I read a story this morning that was both shocking and understandable in a sick sort of way. A New York Times war photographer named Joao Silva continued to take pictures after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan and blowing off his legs. The man lived through such a horrible experience and was conscious enough to pull a camera up to his eye and photograph the aftermath of the explosion. That to me is the sign of a true artist – a crazy man with a sick dedication to his art. It makes most of us pale in comparison with our pictures of beautiful scenes and decisive moments. That man captured his own life altering moment. Hopefully nobody reading this will ever come close to enduring such a horror, but he managed to turn to his craft as a means to work his way though it and for that I can’t even express how amazing I think he is. Here I was, doing what I thought was the right thing by putting the camera away so I could pay more attention to my kids when entering a potentially dangerous situation in the water, and this guy is shooting in a war zone. I can’t compare myself to a guy like this, not even close, but I can certainly be inspired by him and his sacrifice.

Next time you second-guess pulling over the car to capture a fantastic cloud formation, or shy away from the idea of kicking off your shoes and getting knee deep in the water to get a few feet closer to an egret, remember that you will most likely not get maimed by an explosive and your discomfort is quite minimal and will be forgotten after you take home that shot that everyone else was too shy to get.

Art Is Hard

A couple of weeks ago my daughter picked out a cupcake costume at the costume shop. Unfortunately, it was way too small and they were sold out of the larger sizes. No problem, we thought – we’ll just find it online. Little did we know that this particular costume is a new item and is very hot this year. We couldn’t find it anywhere (with the exception of eBay where people are selling it for about 3x the list price). So, knowing that my daughter had her heart set on this costume, my wife became determined to make one even better than the store-bought version she couldn’t have.

She started out by Googling cupcake costumes looking for ideas. The results she found were less than desirable to say the least. She decided to go to the local hardware store and browse around with the hopes that a light bulb might go off in her head and a solution would come to her. She came home that night with a couple of pieces of PVC tubing, spray paint, and some poster board. Pretty soon she had constructed what looked like an upside-down pink lampshade. I took two dog leashes and made a pair of suspenders out of them and we had the cup portion of the cupcake.

The really tough part was figuring out the icing top. After a few days of going back and forth, my wife decided to use poly-fill at the icing. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to attach it. We thought about getting a giant over-sized shirt and gluing the fill onto it, but it would have looked more like a mess than a scrumptious treat. Then I had an idea to mimic our favorite cupcake shop in Charleston, appropriately called “Cupcake”, who uses really thick icing in a giant swirl to top off their cupcakes. We could use quilt batting and sew it into a tube stuffed with the poly-fill and twist it around my daughters body, just like a cupcake from Cupcake!

After another trip to the store to get some hot glue sticks, yarn, and a giant sewing needle to assemble the icing so that it would stay put, my wife managed to make what looked like a giant pastry! We glued little colored pom-poms to the icing to look like sprinkles, and then my daughter made one big pom-pom into a cherry that she glued to a headband as the finishing touch to her pink wig. This is the final result:

She got to show it off for her Girl Scout troop this evening at their Halloween party and she won the prize for cutest costume! Surprisingly, the costume is still in tact for next weekend. My wife should be proud of what she made for my daughter, because it is so much better than what had inspired it in the first place. It took a lot of hard work and determination, a few curse words, and a couple or bloody fingers. The same is true in any artistic endeavor – if you don’t go out there and do something, even if you know it will be really hard, nothing will ever happen for you, which is even harder to deal with in the long run.

Pro or Amateur?

Tonight, the family came with me to drop off my prints for the 2010 Coastal Carolina Fair photography contest. As I was filling out the entry forms, the inevitable question came up that I didn’t want to answer. “Are you a pro or amateur photographer?” Oh boy, that’s a tricky question. Last year it was easy for me to check the amateur box, but this year I feel I’ve grown a lot (especially since I completed my 365 project). If you go by the definition of amateur, I fall right in to that title. As I write this, photography doesn’t support my family, my other career does. I love photography – it’s what keeps me sane as far as being an outlet for creativity. But in my mind that doesn’t make me a professional, because it’s technically not my profession for now.

So, it sounds easy, right? I’m still an amateur by definition of my true profession, so I can check off the amateur box. Unfortunately, there was this clause on the entry form under Division 1, which is the pro division, “This division is open to professional photographers (those who work full or part time in photography) and accomplished amateur entrants who are capable of competing at the Division 1 level”. Ugg. Why the hell did they say that? Division 3 is for students, and it doesn’t have a clause that says amateurs who read a lot of books and photog blogs can compete in the student division, so why allow amateurs in the pro division? I’m not complaining because I think its wrong, I’m complaining because I don’t want to have make that decision! If it’s cut-and-dry, then cool – I don’t have to think about it. Now I have to stress about it, which is silly, I know.

I asked my wife and she said without a doubt “Division 1”. Then she looked at the work of some of the other amateur photogs in line and said, “whoah, they’re really good”. OK, well that makes things difficult all over again. I finally decided to man up and make my own decision. It was not something I should worry about, but here I am venting about it on the web for all to see. In the name of honesty, I’m sharing my insecurities about my own skill and vision.

Speaking of skill and vision, in case you didn’t know, I’m doing a photowalk at this very fair on its opening night, which is Thursday, October 28th. I’ll be trolling around the photography/fine arts building at around 5:30PM so we can get a little pre-sunset action before the big light show in the sky. You can get all of the details right here. It should be a lot of fun, so I hope you can find the time. I found out that the local photography club is also having a photowalk on Saturday, Oct. 30th, so if you can’t make Thursday, you can be sure that a lot of local photogs will be there on Saturday to keep you company.

In conclusion, my wife thinks I ultimately made the wrong decision. Unfortunately for me, she’s usually right. Next year, I know which box I’ll be checking for sure 😉

Guided By Violins

I just wanted to write up another music post since I haven’t done one lately. As I’ve stated before, I take a lot of my inspiration from the music I listen to. This evening I was seeking out a song by the band Guided By Voices on Youtube when I discovered this cover version of the song I was looking for by a guy named Owen Pallett. I found his style fascinating, I can’t believe how full he is able to make the violin sound. Sure he’s using loops, but it really works well with this song. If you don’t want to hear all of the lead up conversation, just start at 1:40 to get to the music.

After watching this video I got a little curious and decided to check out some of the other cover songs in the series, which is entitled “A.V. Undercover“. This is originating from a subsidiary of The Onion called The A.V. Club. There are some of my favorite songs and some of my favorite artists interpreting them. For instance, Superchunk covers the Cure, Alkaline Trio covers Archers Of Loaf, and Ben Folds covers Elliott Smith.

I love the idea of this because it sets up limits for the artists to work with – they have to perform live in this little round room and they have to choose from a dwindling list of songs that was thought up of by someone else. Its within these kinds of constraints that you can separate the true artists from the fakers. A true artist has a sound work ethic and can make something spectacular even with limited resources, while a hack will complain about not having the right widget, and how that person did this, and they will slam you with an endless barrage of excuses. Sure the artists out there have their gripes and feel those same pains, but they produce none-the-less.

When was the last time you thought you couldn’t do something photographically because you didn’t have the right lens, or you left your good camera at home, or you forgot your tripod? So what! Most of us have a camera of some form with us at all time. I shot this photo with my iPhone. I was in North Carolina and we were walking into a Mexican restaurant named “El Cancun” when I saw this colorful fence behind the building. I took a closer look and loved the colors, the loose nails, and the diminishing light in the background. I saw the picture with my eyes and then quickly pulled out my phone to capture what I saw.

You can make positive things happen in just about any situation. You just have to open your eyes, identify your limitations, and then exploit what you do have at your disposal.

2010 Coastal Carolina Fair Photowalk

***Update #2 10/28/2010***
The weather looks good and the clouds right now are awesome – I’m leaving for the fair momentarily. See you there!

**Update 10/28/2010**
If the forecast is actually correct, today is going to be a messy day, but if you look at the time we’ll be photowalking, the storm should be moving out, which usually mean spectacular cloud formations for the sunset! As of now, we are still on!

*Update*
I’ve been informed by a friend that the local photography meetup group is having a photowalk on Saturday, October 30th. The details for that walk are here.

–Who: Anybody with a camera and the will to use it
–What: A Photowalk at the 2010 Coastal Carolina Fair
–When: Thursday, October 28th 2010 at 5:30PM and if there is bad weather, the rain-date will be Friday, October 29th 2010 (check this site for confirmation)
–Where: We will meet at The Photography/Fine Arts building at Exchange Park, 9850 Highway 78, Ladson SC
–Why: Because sunsets at the fair are awesome, as well as motion capture shots of the rides, the colorful backdrop of concession booths, rodeo action shots, cute animals, flowers, musicians, etc. and whoever makes my favorite photo will win a 1 year Flickr Pro Account!

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What is a photowalk you ask? A photowalk is made up of a group of people who go to a location and take photographs. It’s mostly photography enthusiasts who like to get the chance to learn from each other or just enjoy the company of other photographers. Anybody is welcome, and there is no need to worry about your skill level, what kind of camera you have, or anything like that. Nobody has to see your pictures if you don’t want to share them!

Here are the details for the contest: Photos must be submitted to the 2010 Coastal Carolina Fair Photowalk Flickr Group to be eligible for the contest. If you don’t use Flickr already, you can sign up for a free account and then just join the group to add photos to it. You can submit up to five photos. I will pick one photo from the group that I like the most (it must be taken on the the night of the photowalk, so make sure your Exif data reflects that – film users will just have to be honest) on Monday, November 1st. You can change your submissions at any time prior to the end of the contest, but when Monday rolls around, the group will be locked. The winner will get a 1 year Flickr Pro Account courtesy of JWNPhoto.com!

You can shoot in any style you like, and you can use any technique you like as well. HDR, split-tones, and creative filters are all fine by me. It doesn’t mean that it will make the best photo though, so keep that in mind! I’m looking for my favorite shot – not the most technically correct shot, so it will be quite subjective to whatever makes me think, “Wow, that’s really cool/good/cute/amazing/different!” I won’t know ’till I see it.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Diptychs, Dragons, & Doggies

Sometimes it takes more than one photo to illustrate your idea. Sure, a great photo will tell a whole story or be composed like an opus, but sometimes you can convey a more powerful message by showing showing two separate images together. The trick to making a successful story-telling diptych is to make sure that each photo stands alone as a strong photo. When combined, they should serve to enhance each other to either tell a more complete story, exude a more compelling emotion, or just drive a point home.

Above, in the photo no the right, I liked the play of the dog and the toy – it looks as if the toy is whispering sweet nothings into the dog’s ear. Unfortunately, you can’t tell just what the toy is even though in what little you see of it it takes on life-like characteristics. With the addition of the photo on the left, you see more of the toy as it lies lifeless on the couch like a toy the kids left behind. The toy, by the way, is a Dronky from the Shrek movies, which is a half-donkey and half-dragon. The message of the shot is about relationships. While the photo on the right could convey a similar message, when it’s combined with the lonely toy shot it uses the thematic contrast of the two to drive home the idea of happiness in companionship.

Below is another diptych I made. The theme of this shot is loneliness. The two shots are different but the same – an empty stool in an ice cream shop and my daughter sitting alone at the counter of the same shop waiting for someone (in reality she was waiting for the waitress to refill her drink).

West Farm

I wanted to quickly add this post as an addendum to yesterday’s post. I love taking photographs of my kids, and as they get older, it really sinks in that there are only so many of these types of family activities left like this. My daughter has grown so fast, and it’s a matter of time before she thinks it’s soooo not cool to be going through corn mazes with her little brother or way too lame to let kids bury her in corn kernels. My son still has some time left in him, but unfortunately he will progress earlier than her because he’ll try and follow her example. I’m excited to see them grow up, but it’s hard to let go. I’ll be sure to capture as much of this fun age as humanly possible!

West Farm is a little farm up in Moncks Corner, SC who’s claim to fame is their 6-acre corn maze. The theme for the maze this year was oceanic, with a giant crab as the centerpiece. They also added a mission to complete while in the maze (as if trying to find your way out of one of these things isn’t enough), which was a Clue style who-done-it mystery that involved finding clues at check-in stations throughout the maze.

The kids had a blast, and they got to paint pumpkins as well. Here’s a shot of Kegan’s pumpkin. It started out like this, all cute as can be. By the time he was done, he turned it evil by adding a uni-brow and covering it with bats and spiderwebs. I thought he should have left it simple, but alas, the boy has to exorcise his creative bug on his own.

You can view the rest of the shots I took at the farm here. Have a great week!

Everybody’s Working For The Weekend

I spent this past Saturday with my family in typical fashion. We are on a mission for a specific Halloween costume for my daughter that seems to be sold out everywhere, even on the internet (with the exception of eBay sellers doubling the price of the outfit). After checking out 3 different Halloween shops, we called off the hunt and broke for lunch. We then had to pick out a present at the local toy store for one of our little buddies who was celebrating her 6th birthday. When we got home, we found this little squirrel burglarizing our bird feeder. I grabbed my camera and quickly captured this mission impossible moment.

We wrapped up the gift and then headed to the bowling alley for the birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun and I don’t think the six-year-olds had any concept of scoring or even who’s turn it was half the time. Does it matter though with bumper bowling? As long as there were smiles on their faces I think it was very successful! Here’s a set of photos from the party.

After that the kids went to a jump party and the wife and I went to see “The Social Network”, or as I like to call it, “The Pirates of Silicon Valley 2”. It was a very well acted and directed movie – At no point did I find myself thinking they should have called it “Facebookland” after seeing Jesse Eisenberg’s previous acting roles.

Today should be more of the same, with pumpkin patches on our radar. Have I told you how I think October is the best month yet?

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