les miserables

tonight i skimmed part of practical photography while strolling through barnes and noble. reading that magazine kind of erodes my sense of the spontaneity of photography. the editors strongly encourage photographers to plan their photo sessions or, worse yet, to stage their photographs. this makes pratical sense, but somehow i'm afraid that it dulls the creative juices and cheapens the magic of a good photograph. oh, well.

i also saw les miserables. if you ask me about it, i might tell you some things. otherwise, i'm going to bed.


andrew david 'quintessential picture of a donkey and a palm tree' yelapa, mexico.

rhetorical belly flops

my ego is blistered and bruised from a week's worth of rotten arguments. every time i attempt to make a point, i'm suddenly stalled in no-make-sense land. in gre terms, i'm james joyce parading about like john stuart mills. i have several theories for this loss of logic, but it's my bedtime. here are some examples of the points that i have inadequately defended:

1. "rebecca, you and i have a totally different process for deciding whether or not to watch a movie"

2. "beth, i don't like what alcohol does to me; i don't like the way it feels" (i go on to compare it to multiple sclerosis)

3. "ben, several lines of iambic pentameter are just as difficult to write as a haiku"

4. (i can't remember)

5. (also can't remember)


andrew david 'tropicana hotel 1, 2, and 3' puerto vallarta, mexico.
i'm posting these pics, just in case you want to see what a beach-front near-budget hotel looks like.

happy ash wednesday

i'm not posting anything of substance tonight. i have a few thoughts regarding ash wednesday, but i don't feel like writing anything insightful at the moment. blogging is like life; sometimes you just feel like being empty, doing nothing, vegging, or, in my case, reading someone else's writing for a change (instead of my own, over and over again, which is what i tend to do when i write). so here's a first and final word about ash wednesday: churches should not serve modern-day ding dongs during lent or holy week. however, if pressed to include hostess snacks in a service, the older (and better) model of the ding dong is the most appropriate choice. indeed, the cream-filled treats of my past had a physical appearance that was more suited to christian symbolism. rather than an entirely smooth chocolately exterior, the older ding dongs had peculiar circular dents in the top surface of the ding dong; to some it may seem sacrilegious or even morbid, but these indentations could serve as a reminder of the nail-pierced skin of our resurrected Christ. in fact, if one is in the transignification camp concerning the eucharist (vs the transubstantiation or consubstantiation camp), the older version of the ding dong could actually serve as a more meaningful communion item than the more traditional bread or wafer. and on ash wednesday, i bet a cross of chocolate would be far easier to see than this cross of ash that seems to disappear invisibly into my forehead...

(oh, and trust me about the two stages of ding dongdom, i know my ding dongs a lot better than my frozen pizzas.)


andrew david. 'looking up' puerto vallarta, day 1.
if i were to consider printing this picture, i would crop out a bit more of the sky and play with the colours some more. as is, i think it's boring.