An Artist I Enjoy

I guess what I really enjoy about Juan Gris, is his ability to make one think. This is sort of at the essence of the cubist movement, the act of taking something ordinary, and distorting it create a more powerful image. However, Gris does it in a way that seems to split away from Picasso. Gris paintings become much more about space and overlap and the shifting of different planes. Looking at the paintings makes one wonder how they fit together, and what the original images looked like. You soon realize that the image does not fit together, and anomalies begin to present themselves. Anyway here are a few examples.

A Few Thoughts

On Stoplights
Yellow lights in Colorado Springs are unusually long. It makes it an excellent place to squeeze in at the last minute. Is it yellow lights? Sometimes I think they are orange. People also accelerate very quickly when the light turns green. Maybe I'm used to the slow pace of Arkansas, but these people are fast. Even like soccer moms in minivans are flooring it off the line. Have you ever wondered why the lights have those little shields around them? I can't decide if it diminishes glare, or keeps people from looking to see when the light turns so they can gun it off the line. I also think there should be an amendment to traffic laws. Here is the scenario: say you are at a 3-way intersection. You are on the street that can either turn left, or go straight. There is no road to your right. I think that you should be able to go straight on red in this situation. It's no different than turning right on red at a four way. All you are looking for is the people on your left, making a left hand turn. I'll talk to my local police man.

On Iraq
On the radio today, I heard that 2 soldiers sued Boeing for a helicopter malfunction that happened in Iraq. They were awarded some 15 million dollars. They said one soldier was left a quadriplegic and the other sustained lesser injuries. A quadriplegic is about the worst injury you could sustain apart from sustaining death. That leaves a very wide range of lesser injuries. p.s. I'm sick of Iraq and I don't even care any more. I just wish everyone would be happy and love each other. I also hate it when people try to talk about Iraq like they know more about foreign policy than the government does. If you know so much, run for president.

On Pop Divas
Why do people care about other people? It's usually because they have a relationship with them and have invested things into their life. That's why I'm perplexed by people caring about celebrities. As most of us know, Anna Nicole Smith recently died of collapsing(otherwise known as an OD), in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Every morning when I turn on the TV, reporters and journalists scramble around to find the latest news on Smith. The thing I saw that disturbed me was images of young kids and teens that had gathered for a memorial to her. You've seen them before, posters with little pictures of the deceased with little messages and candles and text like RIP so and so. I was thinking, why do these people care??? They obviously never knew this person personally and therefore should have no interest in her death. I guess its different for an honorable person. When someone dies that is famous, that has lived a life of honor and grace and love, people should celebrate their death, even if they never knew them. I guess I just don't get it when people care about someone they don't know, who has lived a terrible life. Drugs, pornography, adultery, and greed were all a huge part of this woman's life. What good does it to memorialize her? So Britney has shaved her head and has checked into drug rehab twice in one week. I love how everyone cares so much.

On Reporters
I guess what angers me is the medias eagerness to unveil terrible things. That's why I was so happy when Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith gave all their credit to God. The media couldn't do anything with it and you could tell they were disappointed to hear these things. They were looking for the next T.O. scandal, or C. Johnson's latest end zone blasphemy. They couldn't find it. All they could find was God-fearing men. Thanks for the bust-out guys.

A Show and A Night

A short trip to Denver had me standing before the Bluebird Theater. Alone as I was, I made my way to the back of the line and awaited orders. Earlier that night, I had contemplated riding the L-train into town just for kicks, but I figured it would be too complicated for me to understand. I had gotten there fairly early, just when the people began a steady trickle in. I sat and chilled and played the part of observer in my new world. There seemed to be a lot of couples there so I thought about what that must be like; what it's like to take someone you really care about to a good show. I bet its cool a lot.

The female foursome from Montreal took the stage first. I remember smiling a lot when they played. Something about them made me feel happy and safe. It seemed like they had good hearts. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a little Asian girl squeeze through the crowd to claim a plot of concrete just in front of me. After the second song, appeared in her hand a pom-pom. She took photos of the band and shook her tassels in a jumping frenzy. She was also alone and the shear absurdity of pom-pom shaking made the whole crowd laugh, in a good way. The band recognized her and were happy to have such a devout fan. At the end of their set, she placed a brightly colored gift bag on the stage. The lead-singer knelt down to see what they had been given. "Pringles!" she exclaimed as she held up the cylindrical can. There was also some bubbles and a huge bag of candy. I laughed a lot.

Between sets me and this guy started talking. He said he was surprised that this many people had heard of this band that was about to go on. I asked him how he knew about them and he said he just likes a lot of music. This man must of been in his fifties, and to see people of that age at shows, is a little strange. He told me that he was a comedy writer and for a living he writes comedy for comedians. He said he writes jokes for Larry the Cable Guy. I thought he was weird. Apparently he sits around in his underwear all day, and thinks of jokes, and emails them to people, and gets paid tons of cash. Again I thought he was weird. We started talking about music, everything from The Strokes, to The Good, The Bad, and The Queen. He seemed very opinionated about music.

Then Camera Obscura came on. I always love the moment when a band comes on stage because for the first time, you see these people come to life. You realize that they are people like everyone else and it's fun. She said in her very Scottish accent that she was impressed that there was so many people at the show. They had heard that Incubus was in town on the very same night. She said, "we were at the bar last night doing karaoke and everyone was singing these Incubus songs. We don't even know who Incubus is." I thought it was hilarious that they didn't know who Incubus was. I laughed again. They then proceeded to play an absolutely brilliant show. Being alone allows me to enjoy things more sometimes. Since I have no other distractions, I can focus wholly on the band and listen to the intricacies of the music. It was nice to do that. If you ever get a chance, I recommend them in concert.

3 things

that I am happy about.

60 degree weather.

Lost tommorrow.

Camera Obscura in Denver on Thursday.

Downtown Blues

Standing on a street corner.
A ragged man stumbles by pursuing no direction.
"How you doin?" I mumble.
He glances at me turning the other way.
"Where'd you get that Navy coat?" he asks.
"I'm not sure, I got it as a gift."
"I bet its real warm."
"Yeah."