Abandoned

This is my hobby. For better or for worse I gas up my vehicle and drive the open road going, OOoo!! At this moment I slam on the breaks, whip out my camera and get to work.

When this happens photos like the this one are created with my camera.

An abandoned farm structure lies, well... abandoned. :/

I liked the photo in black and white... it just seemed fitting.

I can't tell you how fun this is for me. There's something about these structures that speaks to me. It's like I can feel the energy flowing from these structures. Like they were once the pride and joy of a family and were taken care of and nurtured as precious necessities. Most of the things we hold dear in life are like this; merely material and are destined for abandonment. Don't believe me? Go to your local Gamers and ask for an original 1985 Nintendo. Betcha they'll dig one out of an old box full of video game guts and dust it off and kindly ask you for $20 so you can take t home.

Amazing how everything material we have is destined for decay just like this old barn. The only things we should hold onto are each other.

That's my two cents. What do you think? Feel free to comment on the photo itself as I'm trying to improve my photography skills. Don't be afraid to be mean, I have a tough outer shell.

Masks

"Nobody cared who I was until I put on the mask."
-- Bane, Dark Knight Rises

I got to thinking about this quote from The Dark Knight Rises. It was spoken by the now infamous super villain, Bane. The extremely powerful masked man who is hell bent on the destruction of Gotham City and Batman, also known as playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne. If you aren't familiar with the story of Batman you're in luck, you don't have to be to get the main point of this post. Read Batman 101 if you want to know more about the story of Batman, if not simply read on.

Batman 101:
Basically for all of you non-batman fans out there all you need to know is that after losing his parents to a violent crime in the alley of a theater, young Bruce Wayne grows up without a mother and father, still very rich but he would trade it all for just their love again. As an adult he joins an organization called the League of Shadows where he learns under the tutelage of Ras Al Ghul (pronounced Ray-sh Al Ghoul). When asked to execute a man to prove his loyalty to Ras, Bruce refuses, turns against the League and narrowly escapes with his life. He goes on to become Batman, our favorite dark and scary caped crusader. With the help of fancy gadgets, his trusty butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and friends like Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman in the movies), he dedicates his life to fighting crime ensuring that what happened to him as a child never happens to anyone else.

So I got to thinking about this quote and it's connotations to real life. Until we become something other than just ordinary, nobody cares who you are. I'll use a good example and a bad example:

Good:
You somehow come up with a cure for cancer in your basement and suddenly you're a savior, a God, you've been blessed from on high with a gift and you're using it to help people. Who is this person? Where did he come from? How did he grow up? They'll run television shows about your life, about your family, about your hardships and struggles. Articles will be written about you and your name will forever be immortalized in stone. But is that you? In a sense you had to become something more than what you were to get people to even notice that you share the same space as them.

Bad:
You've had it with evil mega banks taking advantage of you. They're threatening to take your house so you decide to get even. You burn the house that you're about to lose to foreclosure down but you don't stop there. You're an arsonist and go burning every house owned by that bank just to spite them. Naturally you get caught and arrested and you're now facing a massive jail sentence. But just like the person who cured cancer suddenly everybody wants to know your name, who you are, what you did, what caused you to become a serial arsonist? Was there something in your past that made you go bad? Bad parenting, surely they must be monsters etc. Again, you've become something far removed from what you were and suddenly people notice...

Now this blog in no way is encouraging anyone to become a serial arsonist for attention, or go out and do something awful to get recognized... if you're going to cure cancer, do that please... but anyway, it seems that like Bane and Batman, nobody cared who they were until they put on their masks and became the figures they were. Batman represents the light (or darkness sometimes he walks a fine line) and Bane represents the darkness...

Why is it that nobody cares who you are until you're front and center? Does our society have it backwards? What could we learn from each other if this wasn't the case? Who's story is out there that you may need to hear but can't because this person isn't something other than what they are?

Happy New Year (Yeah I'm late, what of it...)

So I'm late. Yes...

I hope this year has started off well for you all. I'm just working on getting back into the swing of things with this blog. I plan on posting some new and exciting things in the coming weeks, I'll try to keep this thing fresh and new for you all so be sure to check back periodically!

Just remember, no matter what happens this year, don't allow yourself to slip into complacency. Keep working hard, the world needs the gifts you're sitting on!

J.R.

The Male Stereotype Intro

In the universe, there's something called "Dark Energy".  No, this isn't a physics blog, but let me explain.

If you subscribe to the Big Bang (and lets not discuss that here) it says that the energy that initially caused this huge event is driving our universe apart.  In other words, all the "Stuff" in the universe is moving away from our galaxy.  

Physicists blame something called "Dark Energy" for this effect.  We can't see it but it's there and it's having huge effects on our universe.  

Geekdom aside, lets get to the meat of the matter:  We've all heard of, and are aware of the female stereotype in media, but is there a male one in the background having huge effects on our society?  In another post I'll attempt to bring some compelling evidence and links to studies done on this (If there are any that I can find).  

Stay tuned. 

The Narcissistic Poet: Must Every Poem be about your Crappy Love life?

"Poetry is Narcissism."  
-- Loose Quote 


A friend of mine said that, and I'm misquoting a bit but it's pretty close.  When you read most poetry out there do you ever ask... "I wonder what the poet was thinking about when he/she wrote this?"  Consider the selection below.  
__________________________________________________________________

I Love You

I see her in the distance

A place afar off

Her beauty ever present

Her skin so soft

My heart begins to race

With the passage of time

As I behold her grace

And wish she were mine

My lips are sealed

My legs grow weak

Only my mind

Is brave enough to speak

I Love you.

She grows closer

A place so near

She fills my heart

And soul with cheer

She is close now

A place so nigh

I could reach and touch her

Though I dare not try

So I whisper the words

With a weak voice of fear

A sound so low

Nobody could hear

I Love you…

She is past me now

A place far away

My mind goes numb

My heart led astray

She secretly killed me

When she walked away

She secretly killed me

And she didn’t even see

It’s a price I pay

As I stand all alone

For daring to say

Words not condoned.

I Love you…

__________________________________________________________

As embarrassing as it is to admit I wrote that in high school (circa 2001) what was I thinking?  Well I was head over heels in love with this girl (Name concealed to protect the innocent).  I couldn't get her out of my head, I would think about her all day every day.  When she passed by my heart skipped blah blah blah all that love stuff.

She inspired me to write poem after poem, most of which was lost because I didn't care as much about poetry as I do now.  

"Who gives a F*** about your love life?"

-- Loose Quote

Good question...

I'm quoting my friend again but why should the reader care if you're hurt, or if you have an intense love for somebody?  Why should the reader care that you asked your high school crush out and she mercilessly shot you down with a chain gun?

Should others care, and why?  Must every poem be about your crappy love life?

The business of being... Homeless?

I saw this sign today, I had to stop and take a pic.

Look at this thing, it looks as if a college art student were advertising in a faux product showing.

This colorful work of art belonged to a man who was homeless... or so I assumed just by his appearance.  I have a friend who says, you can't judge a book by it's cover but you can get a pretty d*mn good idea.

I stop and say... "Well this is an elaborate homeless sign sir."  And he laughs, I asked him if I could take a picture of it and gave him $2.00 for his time... it just felt like the right thing to do.

As I walked away I realized something.  This man just advertised, got me to stop, inquiring about his sign and he made a sale.  My next thought was... well what did he sell?  And that's what I realized... he sold himself, his condition, his entire being was his product and this was his advertisement.

Time out here, I'm not saying he is scamming people, he looked for all intensive purposes homeless, and I could tell his condition was very real.  He was probably somebody who had gotten laid off and fell on hard times... poor guy.  However he learned to survive and adapt to his new life on the streets by collecting money from curious on lookers who would see his sign and say... Hmm what's this about?   So how is that different from what Walmart does?  Or what Microsoft does?  All have widgets they want to sell and they advertise using fancy commercials designed to peak your interest and say... hmm what's that all about?

Is there a secret code amongst the homeless in terms of how to advertise?  Is there a formula one can follow to be the most successful?  This sounds crazy but I guess what I'm really asking:  Is there a true business model for being a successful hobo?

Mannequin (By Choice)

A mannequin by choice
You know you’re not real
You believe you’re alive
But you can’t truly feel
You have flesh of plastic
A hardened heart of stone
Wires for veins
And rigid iron bones
You cry acid tears
Scorching the green grass
Burns solidified, like
The scars of your past
You truly blend in
A source of envy to your friends
Shaped like flawless art
With sleek glossy skin
You have the whole world
Yet have an empty soul
You lay in bed at night
Wondering where it will go
You have a thousands friends
Without having one
To be crafted by hands
Forever the product of someone
To be loved only in lust
For an instant you feel alive
Only to be left
Feeling dead inside
You feel the emptiness,
Of having no vision to see
To be trapped inside
An invented personality
A mannequin by choice
Crying out to be free
Behind solid glass
On display for the world to see
A vision an entire nation
Aspires to be
A mannequin by choice
Seeking its identity.


J.A. Wine

Bitter Poet

Bitter poet…

Sittin’ there with a blank stare
Suckin’ a blunt
With kinks in your nappy hair
A pen in one hand
A pad in another
As you attempt to emulate
The darker brother
With passion you write
Anger on a page

Bitter poet…

“Filled with un-channeled rage
Worthless nigga’
With nothing good to say”
But that’s just what some say

Bitter poet…

You continue to write
Pen mightier than the sword
Maybe you’ve struck a chord
Or perhaps a nerve
As in the last
Dead last in your class
A brilliant lazy ass nigga’
Trying to escape his caste
By venting with blue ink

Bitter poet…

Angry at the world
Or the injustice you see?
Personally you’re free
So what is it you see?

Bitter poet…

Lazy as can be

Bitter poet…

The price of freedom
Wasn’t free.


J.A. Wine