Once I get the time slot in line to update this thing, so much has happened that all I can do is write a few stupid anecdotes that are supposed to sum up my days/weeks. Well, they don't sum it up. The few anecdotes I am about to type really give no clear picture of what my life is like, good or bad. They are only tiny pieces of my life that don't tell you very much about me at all. I'm here to entertain you.

I am still working on making photographs of Rosedale, MS. The problem I've run into is that I'm intimidated by the people of that town because I feel like an intruder that they don't want. My home is only 20 minutes from Rosedale, and Cleveland is definately no metropolis (barely a city), but it is still developed compared to Rosedale. When I go to Rosedale with my stupid cameras I feel as if they say "Ahh yes here comes another outsider to document our mostly old and dead culture. Document the buildings that have been built and crumbled, document our attempts to keep on having a town at all. And in the end whether you admit to being biased or not, people will still look at those photographs and say either 'Look at that poor little town.' or at best 'Look at that nostalgic old town'. It will never be a place where people live normally." So I tried shopping in the Rosedale grocery store and eating a biscuit there to not be a outsider. I tried doing lots of things, but it is still not my town and everyone knows it. I don't know how I get anything done there.

I also realized the approach I have to photography. I will stare through the viewfinder of my camera. It is very simple. A lot of the time I will then say aloud or to myself "I don't care about that." Sometimes I will take the picture anyway, even though I know before hand that I will not care about it when I look at the negatives later either. That is my new standard for art. I will write a book about art critique, and the whole theory will be to just look at the piece and say "Do I care about this?" and if not, then it sucks. We can't just go around making art all the time just because it's original or technical or even beautiful. If you don't care about it you are wasting your time.

So on that subject, while taking some pictures at the east end of town I peed on the "Welcome to Rosedale" sign right there on the major highway. That tells you about how many people are driving into Rosedale.

One more anecdote. Our wild and crazy bass player Patrick was dancing outside of our house in the afternoon when I drove home from work with a glass of gin. He walked up to my car and I started to say "Patri...." when he said "Before you say anything, I want you to know that this one is for you." He drank the entire glass of gin, then stared at me for 20 seconds, then threw up all over my car and laughed. ha ha. ha ha.