Archive for February, 2009

What: Start

When: 3/6/09 at 6:30 pm

Where: Shinn Photo’s G Street studio in Reedley

What: Prose, art, media, and a time for cool people to hang out with each other. See the attached poster! If you want to bring something creative, contact andrew@shinnphoto.com.

I need to write this post really quick, because I want to make a prediction before the Oscars start, and they’re already to Mickey Rourke on the Red Carpet.

Slumdog Millionaire will win Best Picture. I know that’s not much of a statement, because half of Hollywood is saying that and if you read any pre-Oscar media you also already know it is going to win. But I want to express why I think it will win.

It’s this amazing film that has nothing to do with America or Hollywood (other than it features the very Western-oriented, Regis-inspired gameshow, and it was picked up and distributed by Fox Searchlight at some point) and yet Hollywood and American film geeks (including me) absolutely love it. It will win because it’s the right film at the right time. America elected President Obama under those circumstances, and the hope for national and global reformation that our country now feels is going to drive the voting members of the Academy to choose Slumdog as the year’s best movie. Once again, everybody feels like our country can be a positive force, a big brother country to the world, and we want to show that hopefulness by honoring the film.

Whether the film actually wins Best Picture, or if it only wins 9 of its 10 possible awards, I hope those young child actors from the real-life slums of Mumbai have the time of their life being the world’s biggest stars tonight.

so i took some time to come back here and now i’ve found myself somewhere ive never wanted to leave…

the idea that i have committed to create in conjunction with others in my community is a daunting one.  it’s a commitment that’s unsupervised by anyone but myself and will only benefit me if i take the time to actually participate.

my absence was not planned, there have been many trying days and nights since i last came here, that need no further discussion. what is pertinent is the time has come to unleash those creative energies that have for so long been put on hold for one reason or another.  it is as though the pain of the past has given way to a strength and determination to create in every aspect of my being.  even if the creation is as cliche as the last statement i made…

i was fortunate enough to get a weekend away. to drive for hours and see things that i had not seen in years, in seasons i’d never searched through before, renewed my love for all that their is to behold in this wonderful state of  ours.  never had i driven out  on 152 to the coast in February.  i had not seen the fields that line the highway as far as the eye can see, disrupted only by the occasional dilapidated industrial complex, so green and vibrant with life.  the blowing wind drove the rain across the highway and across my wind shield. the wipers of my car working in tandem to keep me safe, could scarcely fend off the barrage of droplets trying as they mite, to keep me from continuing on to my destination.

i saw that road in different lights on this drive coming and going, than i ever had before.  i had not driven into the night headed to the end of the continent with no time schedule and no rush.  i had never watched the storm clouds  gather to the east as the sun was setting in the west.  there were no surprises on the road, it’s the same road i traveled on as a youth, in the passenger seat of my mothers Pontiac, nervous and tense, losing myself to the sounds coming out of my headphones, waiting. opening my eyes at a stoplight  hoping it was the parking lot where my fathers car would be found. only to be dashed by the glare of the sun off the rear of the car in front of us.   the park too was where i remembered it, looking exactly as it did when i was nine, in the way that government institutions never seem to age, only to shrink in stature as you have found you have risen to yours.

i made it to the edge of my world again this past weekend.  having only ventured out past the edge of the continent twice, i find that there is something magical about standing at that edge, knowing that with some help you could keep going, but alone, you have made it, there.  i lingered until the urge to consume pulled me away on another adventure in the art of sustenance, feeling refreshed from standing over the rocks on a deck made by men from once living things, watching and listening to the ocean battle with the land for greater control.

there was a much needed reprieve from the everyday that was had this weekend. i now want only to capture the beauty and the filth that surround me in both word and image with such voracity that i can hardly stand to know my production computer needs repair and that there are lesson plans to finish when i return from the homes of friends that i have missed seeing in the handful of days that i have been gone.

thank you for the time you have spent with me here. Reedley Creative is putting on a reading and art show at SHINN PHOTOGRAPHY on MARCH 6th.  You need to be there. Maybe you will even get to be a part of it…