A Scenic World

For your listening enjoyment, Grizzly Bear’s “While You Wait for the Others”

The setup for mirror shots:

The important thing is that if you can see the lens, the lens can see your eyes!

Dr. Dog - The Breeze

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Ben Gibbard - Brand New Colony

I get inspiration from what I read, what I hear, what I see, what I think.

Yesterday, inspiration abounded.

First, I read Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Hidden within it are snippets from the revered Book of Bokonon, like this one:

Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end,
And our God will take things back that He to us did lend.
And if, on that sad day, you want to scold our God,
Why go right ahead and scold Him. He’ll just smile and nod.

The I ran across this website (via yewknee) called “Before I Die, I Want to…” The idea was simple; photograph people and let them write what they want to do before they die on the bottom of the photo. Some of them were downright haunting…

Heady stuff, to say the least.

Then I read another book (I’m still in the “recovery” stage of my recent surgery). My book-swap friend had recommended The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst, and as he has nearly impeccable taste in literature, I dove right in and read the entire thing last night.

It was haunting and sad and deep and sad. It was the story of a man, a linguist, and his attempt to understand his beautiful, passionate, troubled wife. She was a maker of masks, and the idea that we never really know what’s behind a person’s mask - the face they present to the outside world, even to the people they love - ran through the novel, right up to its crushingly bittersweet end.

And so I gathered my inspiration up today, and I made this:

Those who know me in real life know that I have spent the past six weeks in varying degrees of pain. I had no idea what “pain management” meant, but I do now. Every day is a different struggle to find the will in myself to do things I took for granted before. During the worst times, I find solace wherever I can - I have become a consummate pill-swallower, my first-person-shooter skills have improved tremendously, and I have devoured the Olympics coverage.

And today - or rather tonight, after I left work early - I had the following pleasures, which distracted me (somewhat) from my daily agony:

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I read this in college, but no summary can really capture the beauty of each passage and the terrible, vivid story of the Joads.
• “Carry Me Home” by Polly Paulusma.
• Haagen-Dazs’ Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream.  I’ve been following the plight of the honey bee for the past year or so, and when I found this ice cream at my store two days ago, I had to buy it. Honey ice cream! It’s divine.
• Clueless. God, it takes me back to high school. And Bravo played it twice tonight! I was inspired to put on heels :)