Animal Exodus in movie form...

When the illustrious Cutlass Supreme was disbanding and vacating the Arizona sun, we threw a end all party that we titled Animal Exodus. Kinda like Halloween, which is coming up, but with more purpose, we asked all of our friends to dawn their inner animal and meet us at our favorite bar - The Yucca Tap Room, like you didn't know - for a night of celebration. The idea was to have everyone embrace and illustrate what they felt their inner animal to be, just as we were taking ours and getting the hell out of sun baked dodge. I think back fondly on that night and often wish I could be there again; surrounded by good friends, in a great environment with plenty of drink on hand and loud music breaking down all different kinds of walls.

I'm digging on this video for multiple reasons but I can't lie, it reminds me heavily of that night. I hope that you like it too. I'll be looking for more from the director/production crew that created this. It also reminds me of Lite-Brite.

Return as an Animal from Bruno Dicolla on Vimeo.

Another Year Older...

I was driving into work today - just another day but yet another year older - and this song, which I'd never heard before, came onto the radio. I'm of the belief that some serious reflection is a good thing and, well, this resonated something heavy.


Lyrics to "Everybody is free to wear sunscreen"
by Baz Luhrman - vocals by Lee Perry

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97,

Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term
benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis or
reliable then my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice....now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, nevermind, you won't understand the power and
beauty of your youth until they've faded, but trust me in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of
yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous
you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra
equation by chewing bubblegum.

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind: the kind that blindsides
you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is
long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive; forget the insults. (if you succeed in doing this, tell me how).

Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people
I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of Calcium. Be kind to your knees -- you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll
divorce at 40; maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half
chance, so are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body: use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it; it's the
greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance...even if you have no where to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions (even if you don't follow them).

Do not read beauty magazines; they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents; you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings: they're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in
the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but what a precious few should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps
and geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you
were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.

Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old; and when you
do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children
respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse,
but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you are 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia;
dispensing it is a way of wishing the past from the disposal--wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and
recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me, on the sunscreen.


*I'm still looking for the exact mix I heard. Anyone know if this album is hard to get?

Cars and Skateboards, but NO BIKES...

From the Burnside Skate Park, this AM.

Peace's Prize - A tale of two acceptance speeches...

OBAMA

"This is not how I expected to wake up this morning..." "...and then Sasha added, plus we have a three day weekend coming up." Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize, October 9 2009.

DR. KING JR.

"I'm mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham Alabama, our children crying out for brotherhood were met with fire hoses, snarling dogs and death," Martin Luther King, junior, accepts the same prize, December 10, 1964. Full speech here.

*Heads Nodding to the Portland Mercury Blog

The Evolution of News...

Yeah, Print is either dying or evolving. It's either being beaten, slashed, treated with ill respect, or any other number of verbs. One thing is for sure, and has been for a long while, print is changing and this change, well, it will likely effect you. Take this memo for example, that was leaked, as memo's often are, this morning from the Oregonian. It's interesting and valuable to see how a news entity is approaching this change, from the inside.

"We will not abandon our foundation of beat reporting," the memo says, "but beats will be redefined along areas of expertise of most interest to our readers. Some beats will be eliminated because with fewer people we cannot cover everything that we have in the past."

And the bulletpoints of how these changes will happen.

"Our focus in print:

• Reveal how power is used, decisions are made and the impact on citizens.

• Explain how all manner of things really work.

• Question and explore relevant issues in depth, and explain their substance and context.

• Introduce people to others worth knowing and to new ideas and innovations.

• Tell compelling stories of community.

Our focus online:

• Break news.

• Encourage, engage and collaborate with communities of interest (both geographic and subject).

• Serve as the center and catalyst for community conversations (both geographic and subject)
  

• Aggregate information in broad swaths across topics and provide information on topics of greatest interest/utility

• Tell stories with tools unavailable for print."

Bent Moments...

For a long while I've been interested in both the written word and the visual image. These interests have manifested themselves in a couple of different ways and blogs happen to be a good easy format for exploration of these interests. The Lonely Hero offers me a place to scribble down some thoughts, write up some music reviews and watch or review my general interests as they change over time, always allowing for some sort of written reflection. At the same time, and on the other hand, I've always wanted to create visual imagery but never really had the know how or, never had the guts to learn the know how. Over the past year, however, I've been trying to change that and in turn I've been working on some photography skills. For those of you who don't know, you can catch this vibe over at The Bent Moment, my photography blog.

Why the Name The Bent Moment? My feeling is that any particular moment can be seen through so many sets of eyes, that each moment of everyday, has it's own individual reality for each and every viewer. The way I see it is the way I photograph it. I'm bending my version of events, my vision of reality, my vision of every moment I capture, and allowing you to get a glimpse of that image.

Why two blogs? Well, for the time being I've decided to keep these two entities separate, so that I may focus on each in it's own, ever evolving way. So, unless there's a concert review where I might have snagged a couple of pictures, or some other event that I'd like to share with you, you won't see many original MTJ's here on this, the loneliest of sites. If you want to see images I've taken, please head on over to The Bent Moment and please, drop me a comment letting me know what you think. I'm kinda craving feedback at this time and those images are open to the public for a reason, I want them to be enjoyed. As for the Lonely Hero, I've got some ideas for what's next so please keep checking back.


Kindness out -