I've Moved!

All blogging/photo sharing and other fun festivities will now occur at www.vantography.com . Go there and enjoy!

Hello again

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog. I can't say that my life has been altogether void of blogging--quite the opposite in fact. Due to my professor's new interest in class blogs for discussion and sharing of ideas and images, I've been blogging more in these past few months than ever before. But I feel as though I should update this place where my blogging allegiances used to lie.
What to say? This is sort of the question for blogs in any place I guess. Well I am at a pretty pivotal point in my life. I take that back. You know what? Every day is truly a pivotal point in one's life. That may sound pretty poetic and grandeur but seriously, what we do every day is what makes us. The way we react to the good and bad, the daunting and the easy, the way we move with or against the motions around us--these things are happening every day. Me sitting in class and choosing to complain or be grateful is huge. This is life, after all. Every day the realization of it's finite nature becomes just a hair more obvious.
I'm graduating college this year. Though it hasn't started too heavily yet, I am well aware the flood gates are about to open. I'm about to be deluged with the proverbial "so, what are you going to do after graduation?" questions. It's like senior year of high school has found its way on repeat and it's just as unnecessary now as it was then. Do I blame them for asking? No. Guess not. And it really doesn't bother me to answer, but I don't know if I have an answer they want to hear. I don't know what I'm doing really. Does anyone?
It doesn't faze me much. Call me a looney in love, but this is the truth. I've found the one. My one. THE person I will fall asleep next to every night and wake to in the morning. The person who will know all the stories about which people at work make me laugh and which ones are irritating. The one who opens my car door and loves me best when I'm a cranky unshowered mess. The one that will clean up kid throw-up at 2 am with me and always get second helpings of dinner I've made. We laugh at weird stuff. We dance to records. We're corny and probably gaggy in love sometimes. But we're connected at our cores. For life.
 This is enormous. How can I be worried about 'choosing the correct career path' when I truly realize that God's will is real in my life, and has blessed me in ways I don't deserve and will never understand--one huge one being Jake (the aforementioned 'one'). I have a family that supports me, laughs at my jokes, admires my photographs and makes me swell with pride when I think of each one. I have friends that are true and lovely and make me laugh til my sides scream. People whose absence hurts. Sorry for all the gushing, but I feel this is my Oscar moment and I wouldn't be where I am now if I didn't have these people. These warm souls.
So, geographically and job-aphically, where I will be a year from now is vague to me. That's ok. Can we all take a moment to breathe in and breathe out and say that that is okay (disclaimer: planning is important and I am formulating plans for supporting myself and being productive in society, I'm just saying that the pressure on college seniors doesn't need to be the twelve-ton load of bricks it is to some).
There you have it. Nothing interesting, really. Nothing that probably warranted the maybe one, two people that follow this blog, to actually read through everything. But I got it out. And catharsis is a good reason to write.

Song (of course!)  :  Sinkin' Annie, Down, Down, Down, Down by The Republic Tigers 

New Season New Tunes

Well hello there.
Tonight I have some song inspiration for your enjoyment and that's about it. Hopefully there's at least ONE bit on here that you haven't yet experienced. They are just a few of the ones I can't get enough of at the moment. These are mostly songs that have been shared with me by different people recently and whether they are aware of the pep their gift has given to my step or not, thank you, musical friends! These are all on grooveshark.com if you can't find them elsewhere.

Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells (really really can't get enough of this right now)

January Wedding - Avett Brothers ( I juuuust want to marry these guys)

Thumper - The Wedding Band (Mumford & Sons, Keane and other musical friends? YES PLEASE!)

This Too Shall Pass - Ok Go (Just turn it up loud and roll down your windows already, would ya?)

Decatur, or, Round of Applause For Your Stepmother - Sufjan Stevens (Oh, Sufjan...)

Big Red Machine - Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner (It'll sound familiar if you know Bon Iver)

We Will Become Silhouettes - The Shins (I think this may be my favorite of all the versions of this song)

Boney M - Rasputin (Just Dance 2 fans? You know this one will get stuck in your head for daaays)  

ok, I'll leave you with one more song. Cause it's customary...

The Avett Brothers -- Talk on Indolence
   (its good if you want to be able to yell some easy harmony and feel cool)



ALSO...tell me if any of these strike your fancy!

Graphic Design can save Elmo!

I love infographics. They are practical. They get the point across and they look chic. I am in school for graphic design. I watched Sesame Street a lot as a tot. $ for 3 years of PBS = $ for 1 small chai latte. So effective are you, Sir PBSInfographic!

On Saturday, February 19th, the House of Representatives voted 235-189 to pass a continuing resolution that eliminates funding for public broadcasting. Chris Bishop a DC based artist, illustrator and creative director for PBS Kids put together this handy chart on why PBS is worth saving. Find out how you can fight back at 170millionamericans. Make Big Bird proud. 

Question: Have a favorite Sesame Street character? I enjoyed Mr. Snuffleupagus.

You can call me Aloysius

Good Evening, all!

MusicSuggestion: anything by Sufjan Stevens. I can't get enough of that stuff. John Wayne Gacy Jr! GAHSOGOOD! 

You don't have a clue what it is like to be next to you

I'm here to tell you
That it is good.
    That it is true




I really love portraiture. There's something not just gratifying but comforting about capturing a subject at their real moments whether they are posing or not.  If I can hold dear this little bit of a personality, my work becomes relational and the humanness of photography overwhelms the technical tussle between shutter speed and aperture.

Which picture would you like to see?  

A) There's a girl looking right in your eye and saying, "Hi, I'm ____, nice to meet you. I feel_____."

B) There's a girl staring past you saying, "You know, I have a lot going on inside me right now. It feels like yesterday I was a kid and now I am nearly an adult and I don't think I like it. I'm tired of responsibility and decisions. I just want recess. Or a least a nap."

The answer is hopefully B. My photographic goal is to do this. Pictures can have labels or they can have stories and questions and intrigues. Let's hear it for the intrigue!

Okaysofacebook. Facebook allows us, among about a bajillion other things, to post pictures of ourselves and others. A little peeve that really digs deep under my nailbeds is when teenage girls most pictures of themselves really hamming it up on photobooth with that 'color pencil' effect to look allkindsa sultry. Or those infamous 'myspace pics' taken from above with kissy faces and the pop of a hip. Okay, I am sure that I had some of these when I was younger but now, if there are any younger girls reading this right now--I plead with you to STOP! There's a way to be classy and fresh and fun and beautiful in your new profile pic that doesn't involve heavy lip gloss and black eye liner in a badly lit bathroom.

Need proof? I was hoping you would because it's the next images that inspired me to send out this S.O.S. To prove that you can be a teenager and take both fun and dramatic photos of yourself that won't degrade your integrity is a little lady by the name of Alison Titus. She is FIFTEEN years old and took all these and more by herself with a remote shutter on her camera. And I know, most fifteen year olds don't have cameras with interchangeable lenses and remote shutters, I know I didn't, but these things can be done with point and shoots too.

To see the article these pictures came from as well as more self-portraits from Alison, go here.
To see more of Alison's work, her flickr account can be found here.
Alison did the picture-a-day-for-a-year-challenge and has little literary bits attached to each picture that most teenage girls will find relatable.



One of Alison's fans on flickr (a free photosharing website you should all spend time on if photos interest you) made this comment that really beautifully sums up my whole point:


"A clear standout among a new generation of creative young Flickr photographers, her images are personal but not narcissistic. Allie is really something special, she records light and her life as she finds it, albeit beautifully."

Go on, be classy.

EELS- That Fresh Feeling


-this is a good song

SO...coffee or tea?

brace yourself. it's winter.

So you're a tea drinker-eh?
    The the words 'english breakfast' make your toes curl up with anticipation? Do you take it with honey or cream and sugar? Do you go ga-ga for green tea? Does chai make you chipper? Or is it those earthy herbal teas that steep in your thermos? Your cupboard is overflowing with teabags and looseleaf in crumpled brown bags and a nice new teapot is at the top of your birthday list and maybe a gift certificate to 'teavana' was in your stocking on Christmas morning. A granny sweater, some cozy chamomile steeping in an extra large mug, a plush chair and that book you haven't been able to put down can make you giddy to say the least.

  are you shaking your head right now? just not connecting with anything I said yet? well then...

    You're a coffee drinker? You take yours so black you feel your teeth under siege. Or no--you dump so much flavored creamer in the cup it tastes more like a cup of hot melted ice cream than it does coffee? A deep inhale of that fresh bag o'beans aroma makes you close your eyes and smirk.  And espresso? Don't even start. A stop at starbucks or dunkin or your favorite downtown cafe can give you the juice to get through even those days when it's sleeting and you have a cold and you forgot to put in earrings this morning and your socks are wet already and it's only 9 am. You don't just drink it for the caffeine--you drink it because it truly is the best part of waking up, even if you have coffee stains on that white t-shirt, your car's passenger seat and the side of your purse.

  are you option c--none of the above? Maybe you just like water the best. (If so, you're really missing out, I mean...live it up, water?) I must say that I am sort of all of the above. I love mint medley with a spot of sugar, black english breakfast tea with a spot of 2% and honey just as much as a strong columbian brew with some half and half and maybe a squeeze of chocolate syrup and whipped cream on top if it's been a hard day.

Whatever you favorite beverage--it's gonna be a cold winter so drink up! I love getting excited about a treat and an easy, cheap treat on those duldrummy days ahead can be a nice hot drink. Don't be afraid to have fun in your own kitchen and create tasty drinks at home! I have a hand-me-down-espresso machine/milk steamer (thanks, mom!) and the feeling of making my own frothy gingerbread chocolate chai latte at 1 in the morning at a cost of a few cents is pretty swell to this college student. Even though I wish I could be the idealized woman that drinks tea, throws pottery, quotes Jane Austen and finished every crossword puzzle she starts, I'm far from that. And of course I also romanticize of being the slender, sexy black coffee drinker who wears black silk rompers and fedoras and travels to Italy to drink espresso with her amice every summer. I am also not that person either.  I fit somewhere in the middle and that's okay. Keeps things interesting :) So sip from your mug and enjoy the enormous blessing that is the sense of taste, my friends. Happy Winter!

Danny&Annie

This is beautiful. Really. It's the short story of Danny Perasa and his wife, Annie's twenty-seven years together, not just in marriage but in true romance and devotion. I won't lie, it made me shed a few tears, but it was worth it. Great little story of wonderful, real people. As StoryCorps describes, "...These remarkable Brooklynites personify the eloquence, grace and poetry that can be found in the voices of everyday people when we take the time to listen." I think it's a neat thing to hear stories from 'the common man' and I've had a few experiences where I've opened discussion with a stranger, of they with me, and a truly genuine connection was made, whether it be from a little nugget of experience passed, a funny tale or just a different outlook on something...it's worth it. So, please, take the headphones out when you're sitting on the bus and talk to someone who looks up for it. You, afterall, are an 'everyday person' too, right?

...poetry...can be found in the voices of everyday people when we take the time to listen...

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo


The Blizzard's Never Seen The Desert Sand by The Tallest Man On Earth


p.s. I need to send a thanks to Chaucee Stillman who had posted a blip about this video on her facebook page where I first noted it and followed the link to experience this moving tale for myself.

Didn't I Just See You At A Barn Raising?

This was in a series of Minimalist Music Video Posters and it's brilliant. There's more here but the website is written in...German I think. But the posters are still neat. What makes this work? The colors are in high contrast and match the video. Who could forget that vibrant red jacket? Michael Jackson is well-known enough that he is recognized by two letters and the typeface the words are written in is creepy enough to pull it off, but not to wacky to be a distraction. And those eyes! Of course, Michael's eyes in that video are enough to provoke nightmares in us all, and the symmetric, bold shapes and colors used for those eyes are just as striking as the man himself. I have a Graphic Design class where we have been looking at successful posters and ads and picking apart what about them makes them "click" in the minds of their viewers. There are some more that I'll share below that either shock the viewer, make them laugh or somehow else grab their attention AND make them remember what they've seen.

I love that last one. It was an ad poster for a shaving kit. If you look at any of these and aren't sure what exactly they mean....look harder. It's rewarding. My professor has been telling us to look more than we have before and not just look, but understand why what you see means what it does. What does good design look like? Why is it successful or, contrarily, a waste of space and money? We don't live in a perfect world, of course, but everything around us has been designed. I think it's a wonderful thing that God's designs have far outlasted ours. The trees and the mountains are majestic designs that are always "successful" in their purpose. In addition to nature, man is God's design. Our brains alone are a BRILLIANT display of design with form and function meeting to create a beautiful and powerful machine. Don't just take a moment to take in good design around you, make a shift to be conscious of it nearly always. Appreciate that even if man's hands and machines created something, their idea was God-breathed. Many are inspired by nature which is, of course, God's artistry.

Go and...see!

I'm gonna throw it back a little with this one. Just back a few years.

Citizen Cane-I've Seen Better Days

B-A-G-G-U spells a trend you should fall for ! These Baggu bags are really neat and much stronger than your run of the mill, 99 cent canvas grocery bags. Sleek, reusable, machine-washable and available in lovely, rich and bright colors, these things are pretty dang awesome. And for the earth-conscious nucleus in all of us, the Baggu company estimates that using just one Baggu for a year when grocery shopping or whatnot, will prevent 300 to 700 disposable bags from being used. THAT is pretty gnarly. They come in little back packs or duck bags, regular size, small size, jumbo size...all awesome. The regular size is said to fit as much as 2 or 3 normal plastic bags.

The Weepies- World Spins Madly On

Help!

I'm getting a new camera. Hopefully. Thinking of a Canon T2i. Do you have any recommendations, blog world?

This is short today. But I will include a song, to make it more worth your while.

M.I.A.- Jimmy

This is good shake yo hips song. It belongs in a dance hall with a disco ball and enormous speakers. And lots of dancing folk.

Swallow the Sun

Ever since reading "Eat, Pray, Love" several years ago, the memoir's words have never left me. Written about Elizabeth Gilbert by Elizabeth Gilbert, it tracks her year journey through the world and through her soul. The book have me a passion to travel and discover and love and..it's just sort of hard to explain. Gilbert has a way of story telling that grabbed me--she's honest and concise and an expert and finding the words to define those things we all feel but can't manipulate into words. Also, she writes about Italy, a place I am longing to visit, so I read the Italy portion of the book slowly and imaginatively, it's my own little way of being on the cobbled streets eating gelato and overhearing the crowd at a nearby soccer game. Words also interest me and she spends a lot of time on the translation of words from our language to others. The literal translations of things can be humorous or inspiring, nevertheless they at least bring an appreciation for the words I speak each day and are spoken in other forms across the globe. Gilbert writes about people she meets and I feel myself missing them as I finish the books final pages. I didn't start this post to talk about the book, but as you can see--I love it. To pieces. If you get the chance, please, please, read it. Especially since the movie is coming out soon and though you've already probably seen trailer footage that might tarnish your mental film reel as you read, I hope you can create the characters and scenes yourself before you see it played out in its entirety on the silver screen, if you are, of course, even interested in seeing the movie. I have a fear, as is natural, I think, that the film will fall very short for me. It was the little idiosyncrasies of the characters, the cultural immersion I felt as she effortless described the scenery before her and the dead on metaphors Gilbert's wonderful memoir was filled with that made me fall in love with Eat Pray Love. They story itself is not so much about finding a love as much as finding yourself and from the trailers I've seen so far, it seems that they shift the victory and the concept of the story to this 'love story.' I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I'm wrong. For Gilbert's sake. It would be a pity for such a beautiful story to be lost.

Do you like Ted Talks? Do you know what they are? If not, please find out. "Ted Talks" Conferences are held annually in different locations and they invite the most fascinating thinkers and doers of the past year to give a talk. As the Ted website notes, they "...are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)." And so, these talks are great, I listen to the podcasts of them in my car all the time and the videos are also available online, at http://www.ted.com/. I recommend the talks by Mike Rowe, J.J. Abrams, Sir Ken Robinson and Dan Buettner, who speaks about the areas in the world whose inhabitants often live to be over 100, why this is, and what we can do to be like them. I find this talk, and the others whom I listed, to be very inspiring and even life changing. Stimulating in the least.

Given my obvious adoration for Elizabeth Gilbert (see above if you missed the whole 'she's awesome and her book changed my life' thing) and humungous fan-age of Ted Talks, when I saw that Elizabeth Gilbert had given a Talk in 2009, I was instantly sucked in. Her talk was interesting and spoke on the subject of creative minds seen as crazies who are prone to suicide of depression. I don't really want to talk about it anymore, or spoil anything else for you, so just watch it if you're interested or a Gilbert fan like myself.
Here's the link

The annual conferences in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Oxford bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over

listen to this and I dare you, try not to dance or at least tap your toes. I've lost at least 150 calories thanks to this tune today. I can't stay still when it comes on and...it's been on a lot.

I heart NY

Awesome

Champion

1) I love silhouettes

2)Don't we all want to go up against something like this and come out the victor?
I hope today you can face that dragon and come out on top. Even if your dragon is a pile of clothes in the corner that needs to be put away which...is mine. I shall attack my whites and darks with a spear and a shield!

Simon & Garfunkel - El Condor Pasa.

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail.

Oh, The Temptation

Moral: Good things come to those who wait. That's all I got today, folks.

That and a song.

The Wombats- Little Miss Pipedream

No Pulse No Chance

This is a neat bit I found surfing the net today. It's hard to remember the differentiation between what we need and what we want sometimes.

Want vs Need

by Erin Hanson

Say Anything- I Want To Know Your Plans