thinking too hard

I'm thinking very hard, and there's a piece of me that knows all too well that I need to just let go and the ideas will come. I'm thinking too practically, too literally, too theoretically, when I need to just dream and see where my ideas take me.

I'm trying to get riled up and constructive. I'm trying to take the old and put a new twist on it. I'm trying to innovate, while keeping it simple.

I'm listening to old and new music mixed together, in an attempt to remember the oldies but goodies, while falling in love with the newbies.

I'm falling in love more than I ever thought I could, and trying to cut/paste that energy into everything else I do. (So far, I think it's working.)

This is not what I've been writing on all day. But this is what I've been reading, and I'm just in love with it.

(Image: Federico Veronesi. African elephants in Amboseli National Park, Kenya.)

busy, busy bee

It's been a crazy few weeks with the end of the quarter coming up fast and trying to finish up projects and grade papers. I have been finding some really great websites though, so I thought I'd share a few here.

out with the old, in with the new

old "assignment". just to have as a record of the change.

"a small rush from clicking the shutter...i forgot how good this feels."

Images I like.
Images I've taken.
Ideas about Images.
You get the gist of it.

Access: An Idea

Photo: Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images

"By 7 a.m. Tuesday, few Cubans had heard the news, which was published in the online version of the Communist Party newspaper Granma....Cubans are not allowed to have internet in the home. So word of mouth will spread rapidly as people start to wakeup and head to work..." - NPR, February 19, 2008

"..now allowed to have internet..." and "...so word of mouth will spread rapidly..."

These are the phrases that caught my attention this morning and have stuck with me as I've casually skimmed online news media sites throughout the day.

Word of mouth. In the age of technology, the primary method of sharing news of the end of Fidel Castro's presidency is being shared in the most rudimentary method that any historical story has been shared - from person to person, voice to voice.

And then tonight, just as I was closing the various windows and checking the papers one last time, I noticed this - the BBC has ended its English shortwave radio service in Europe after 75 years of transmission.

How is it that in the same day, one society can end its most basic communication services in favor of higher technology, while another society continues to stretch the limits of its most basic - and far less efficient - method of communication to spread what is possibly the most important news in its history.

The juxtapositions are endless. The comparisons. The stories within the stories.

I am amazed that more has not been written yet about how Cubans found out that Castro resigned (though I have admittedly not done that much research on it today). Media outlets mention that the news was released online, but at most skim over the fact that Cuban families are not allowed to have internet in their homes. However, a simple Google search for "Cuba, internet access" confirms that Cubans are forced to wait hours in line for access to a computer and that internet service to individual homes has been shut off since January 2004.

Yet, as one BBC article notes "It is true that whenever a new law comes into effect here, Cubans - who are famed for their inventiveness - tend to find a way around it. "

This has sparked incredible interest and curiosity in me. It touches on all of my areas of interest - technology, access, storytelling. Not to mention it adds to my long desire to visit Cuba and adds just another item to the list of reasons to go.

hmmmm...ideas percolating.

the lost images

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough." - Robert Capa

There is an amazing article in the New York Times about "the Mexican suitcase" or the lost negatives of photographer Robert Capa. The negatives were discovered by a Mexican filmmaker among his families' belongings, and have recently been given to the International Center for Photography in New York.

As I read this article, which even hints at the need for an entire book to tell the story of these lost images, I can't help but want more. While chatting with a friend, I casually mentioned that someone should write a book telling the entire story. His response was quick and candid, "do it."

So I might just do it. I'm at least going to start reading and researching more about this story. It's just too good to turn away from.