A new one

Mood: Relaxed
Music: 80's Alternative listening to Human League - Human

Its been a interesting week so far. I've been working in pooler etc etc. I actually got a roll of film developed and put to cd. Its from my SLR so that was a nice treet. Part of the on-going Life Portfolio.

So now the question I have to ask and seek is how much photoshop is too much. And how much tweeking should the SLR pics go through. I guess it just has to be by my gut feeling attached is an example 1 of the pic and one of the tweeked one.

I'm definitely still trying to find my touch. I see other artists and know that them. I.e. A Desmal Piece is a Desmal Piece, or a Bridget creation is hers or Mats or the other artists I know of. But What I have to find. I feel as if I need to go on a mission, lol. But what I have to find is what is my voice. What images speak that this is me and whom I am. Its also important that I create me and not others. That's one danger I see with photoshop is that its easy to create images in the styles of others. But I think the organic nature of a click and print with not much inbetween is that is is less tempting and easier to create you in it. But than the question on broader terms must be asked. Can Originality Exist and is Original Art Possible.

that must continue another time, preferably with a few friends around a pot of loose leaf herbal tea. Which I have been enjoying lately. I have had some great black tea mixed with a little echinacea and peppermint


Other delights: The Vineyard http://www.meinhardtvineyards.com Me and H went there last night It was superb. I've been there a few times.

So here is it

So here is the deal. I'm listening to I tunes and i'm like whaa whaa I have these cool songs on there. Its always nice to find a hidden song

of course with a music junkee its easy

so here is a quick pick just to get something out there its been a while. A typical JM out the window. I need to do a series of these. I was trying to catch a water tower while not wrecking but missed it. I got luered into a sweepstake. I'm usually not that gullible. So I have to remember to cancel what I suscribed to. All the things I subscribed to were trial subscriptions, just 2 of them. I was trying to win a camera.

those things rarely work
oh p.s. If you have an extra camera that you want to give a good home to send it my way

or if you want to buy me a Nikon D70. Holla at a friend

I need to do something worthwhile

JM


peace and to my home here I come

9-12-01

Where were you 9-12-01. I know where I was. I was in my sisters room in Brunswick at my parents house playing my guitar while my tape deck was recording.

There are many songs in my heart. Songs of love, songs of faith, songs of despair. But this tape labeled 9-12-01 Is definitely one that stands out. I have many tapes of my playing probably about 20 or so.

But this one especially as I am listening to now, I haven't in a while still haunts me. Especially since when I listen to it it takes me back 4 years which seems like moons and moons ago. Some of the songs some are screams, some are crys some are ironic.

There are songs in my mind and in my soul. Sometimes it feels like they are screaming to get out. I feel now a need to play, a need to shout, a need to play as in the old days till my arms went numb

so anyhow that's my deep moment for the day
I need to take PICTURES BTW holla at DK if your nearby

In Case

In Case you read this

Hello

In case you are not reading this than Hello to you who are not reading this

update:

dental surgery, w/ no major problems so far. Not a lot of picture takings, wen't on the tybee casino boat and got kind of sick, kind of a bumed out week

but i'm still here and the weather was nice today

peace
jm

The Swainsboro Challenge

Me and H made it another month a few days ago. Which is always something to celebrate.

I have to give an internet shout out to an amazing Girl. Hollah Heather

The dubbed Swainsboro Challenge started yesterday. Meaning the most insane Croquet seen in a while. But I would have to say that the welcoming aspect of that town is amazing. Constantly I was amazed from the way the community has welcomed the roots and friends of the roots. It was an amazing gathering, topped off by a nighttime porchlit sing along. Yo ho ho.

So if your looking for something to do check out a swainsboro activity because it seems to be an amazing town full of super nice people.

So thanks to all for your welcoming. Hope to see you soon

JM

Things I need to do

Man there is a lot going on. My City of my Birth is now a bathtub, even though the family only let me live there for a few months before they moved to Georgia. New-Orleans will always be where I 1st entered this world.

There seems to be a bit of Gas panic also. Especially yesterday i heard multiple rumors about there being no more gas so It actually wen't up about 50 cents in a few hours. Which in economic terms is about impossible. But when people panic and freak out bad things happen. So people think rationally about running to the gas station. I"m going to try and walk or ride a bike more. The only way prices will come down is if people drive less.


I feel like I have tons of stuff to do. But rarely get anything done. So I made a list. lol.


Things I need to do

Go to the dentist ( i'm going today)
Write a Song
Play my Guitar
Finish the rolls of film which are sitting in my various cameras
Develop the Existing Ones
Order Printer Ink
Find a Job
Pray
Read
Meditate
Have a Quiet Moment
Travel
Take a Walk with Heather
Be Creative
Be more Productive
Convince the World to stop driving so much so Gas prices do down
Show more Love

horray

Well I finally got my internet going in my room and what did I discover, a worm waiting for me. But i seemed to have gotten taken care of it

The art is up and ready. Or at least it should be soon.

The left is a scan of the main piece for the lomo show at dk.

It makes me glad to have my art where many can see. The 1st Friday (gallery crawl) is friday the 2nd. So hopefully many will get to see what's going on

The picture is my family's house in Genmora, Louisana. Its the one that my dad was raised in and will always hold a place in whom I am.

Its been a bit of a bummy day. But its nice because the weather has not been so hot.

Seems harder and harder to post these days

it will be better whenever my roomate gets his router so I can hook up my comp to the network

anyhow. holla

a saturday

There is something about a saturday in SB. It's quite amazing

some might think its booring but I do love saturday in this place. I also got to play sorry with drew. That was awesome.

The countdown has begun

I have 5 days
to finish my work (3 framed lomo images) for the lomonaught exhibition

I have 1 work ready to print, with no ink...its on its way. and a put-together frame with no mat, glass, and backing board

and at least 4 un-fimished rolls. That said I need to be kicked in the butt but by the photo head hauncho and get some work done

I also need to find my smena 35. It's lurking nearby

I'm going to go shoot before the sun drops too low

carry on

tuesday

Yesterday I had a cup of coffee that tasted like sand. It did seem to be quite grainy

Come on people show some gourmet coffee love

Things are in full swing in sb. It's quite crazy out there. Way to many people !!!

Sometimes I think we as a people tend to ignore things that harm us as long as we don't want to look at it face to face. It's as the ideal of not in my backyeard. We have come accustomed to having certain things as long as its not in our backyard. But it is always in somebodies backyard The block below represents the blinders that we put on. Also how we ignore the harm for the common good. But that place as with other places is stuck with me. I have driven past it many days of my life.

I have never thoguht about it in this way before. I think that is part of what life is. Seeking and finding things around you and thinking about them in ways you have never thought of before

thats enough for now



JM

the week or so in just:

travel travel travel. Broken Cable internet (via joey). Smelly house due to removing carpet padding which was stuck to the hardwood floor. Birthday party which was great. Job Searches Its rainy in Ga. Bla bla bla. And a my Holga got modded so I hope to get some images on it soon.

tis it for now

I should be in my new room soon and have my comp hooked up

Monday I think

Monday: SB in the new place

Me and H went for a walk today. Its nice to have a place to walk. It always felt way to dangerous to walk at the old place

Tuesday: B-town and working a day job at a store
and the day that I arrived i.e. my birthday:
....Friday (or sooner) back in SB
Saturday: {Party at the Hosta De La Oz}
Sunday B-town for dad's birthday

still not comp hooked up, my housemate J has not been here so I'm not sure how to get hooked into the cable modem


If you want to open a deli in downtown statesboro or a coffee shop in swainsboro I'm your Guy...ya herd!

Movin some rain

been moving and its raining

what a beautiful day in statesboro. I love it when its a quiet rainy afternoon / evening

its as if the land is gulping up the rain and saying thank you. Everything seems greener. Its been a hot week and the showers today sure are inviting. Its also nice to wear a pair of jeans which usually can't be done when its a hundred degrees. My stuff is boxed up and in my new room, and I'm on a friends comp. It will be a few days till I'm settled. But this rain has me itchin to take some pics so I hope to do so soon. I remember something that shown about Ansel Adams that he said that weather gave nature character.

Peace
have character

my blue eyed son

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward all other nations, large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. We must show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that we are earnestly desirous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit of just and generous recognition of all their rights. But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong. While ever careful to refrain from wrongdoing others, we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged ourselves. We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression.

from the Inaugural Address of Theodore Roosevelt
Saturday March, 1905

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard,
it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Bob Dylan 1963

105 degrees

A day on the concrete and in the sun will make you hot. I spent the day at the auto processing (AVP) for a labor position. One of the thermostats in the car read 104 for outside There is a picture in the office of a thermometer reading 120 inside of a car. So it was warm. But at the end of the day there were some seagulls flying around. Its as if the creator was saying Hey I know its hot down there but I'm going to let these birds fly around you to remind you your not alone.

Usually my spiritual side lets me see the deepness of our surrounding. I try to take nothing for granted. May it be a bug on a porch or a space shuttle lifting off as it did today. We were created to be good stewards And I hope people remember that.

So I'm a bit tired. But something totally unique happened. A guy in a large car rode by and asked where to find water, meaning a river. He sounded as if he was from Germany. There is a river about 10 mins from my house So I told him how to get there and he was on his way. That was odd

location: Brunswick
Job Status: temp labor, still looking for full time

NEW WORDS

New Words of my day

Swanky: Wow ain't that swanky
Booughe: from the word bourgeoisie man that is so booughe, meaning overly rich looking but in a silly way. as of things you might find in an import store.

I laugh so hard today it hurt. I love it when that happens.

Another week, another interview, another Hot summer day.

"you have to deal with the hand your dealt with."
Well no duhh. If you Weren't given that hand you would not have to deal with it

and one more classic from the olden golden days of Gallagher

Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?


JM aka: Oscar

fair trade

If you made minimum wage could you afford a 2 dollar cup of coffee?

Can a person who farms on a coffee plantation walk into a gourmet coffee shop and buy a cup of the product from which he farmed

With so many issues in the world it may seem that there isn't much that we can do. But there are a few things that I am trying to do something about. This is one of them. The Fair Trade of the import of coffee is very important to me. You might say well why is that important. Huge corporations are usually involved in the importing of coffee. So they generally buy beans from very cheap sources and make their blends. This brings the demand for single origin coffee growers lover and drives the price down. The smaller farmers can not compete with the bargain buyers. A fair trade initiative sets a fair price for the farmer and helps them receive what is due to them. Usually the bargain buyers pay around 80 cents where fair trade is closer to $1.20 a for a pound of coffee beans

So what can we do?

1. Be informed

2. If you love Coffee love those who grow the coffee and encourage your cafe/coffee stop to do the same

Change can occur. It already is happening it just needs to happen more.

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/

http://www.transfairusa.org/

TGIF

There is an island

There is an island behind my house. Or the house that I'm at now, that being in Brunswick...We live up against the marsh and there is a trail back to it. It has been used many times for camping and other quiet moments. So I walked back there this afternoon before the sunset and took a few pics. Something about the smell of the marsh. The sand below my feet. How the grass priceless at your arms. Its very close to me and whom I am

I did take a few pics with my slr. I need to finish that roll of film. Its been in there a while.

I enjoy taking journeys. Although it seems that I take less than ever now. But I still try to have a small one as the trip to the island today. I'll post a pic if I ever get it done.

The pic is one of my 1sts. Kinda the opening journey to lomography. It was taken with a smena 8m that is no longer with me due to the broken shutter. It also represents my favorite corner in SB. The corner of South Main and West Vine. On that corner is DK. But you probably already knew that.

The job status seems to be come and go. I get something new almost every day or so. I know the right one will come about.

Holgaeyed Easyshare

So I installed photoshop 7.0 on my comp, and added a holga feature add on. There are way to many things in photoshop.

I think I am going to get a book so I can learn how to use it.
Above are example of what I've done so far. Any artist who goes into the digital realm must ask themselves what is to much. So far everything I've twiddled with has been digital photos. Or mainly. I'm not sure how I feel about messing with a film print. I guess we will see after I get some developed and printed

A question. When does a picture no longer become a photograph?

There is something very soothing though about a manual camera. I don't think I'll ever be able to leave that behind. But the the instancy of digital sure is alluring. But similar to stove top perk. A rarity these days. I can get an instant cup of coffee and it gets the job done. But if I use the stove top percolator, which usually takes about 10-20 mins its much more satisfying. A great shot with a manual camera is more satisfying

and if you want to confuse the heck out of you local coffee shop, ask for some organic fair trade coffee made freshly in a french press. Which if I may say is the best way in the world to have a cup of coffee. So if you find a place which will tow your line...hold on to that place because its golden