Let The Wind

Relax, let the wind take you where it wants you to go. This is what was written along with this image when I posted it over on Yesterday was only a while back with a handful of other images from a day spent out on a lake with YoungDoo and my brother. This is the same lake I often find myself exploring in one way or another and now that the weather has warmed up a bit we can find new areas via boat that are not accessible by foot. This time out we came across a whole colony of turtles and a number of other kinds of wildlife enjoying the spring day as much as we were. 

I love having the 5D with me everywhere I go now. Still after a few months of daily images I still don’t mind carrying it along with me, work, the lake, into restaurants and grocery stores, anywhere and everywhere its slung over my shoulder ready to catch anything that may be interesting. Of course there are days when nothing pops up but more often than not there are still moments I find that are fun to explore with the camera. It will surely be more interesting to visit the day to day process of this project after a good six months of shooting. 

The image above was well received and loved over on Tumblr so I thought there would be plenty of you who would enjoy this as a desktop image as well. Something to remind you that there is more to life than the screen you are staring at right now. Enjoy!

Typist

The last time I posted a photo of this typewriter you guys seemed to spin around in delight. Our attraction to old tech is undeniable and the lust for it surely stems from the desire to escape the day to day pressure to keep up with the new. While this old machine rarely gets used it is nice to mess about with from time to time and If I could get a couple of the keys to stop sticking I may actually put it to use in the future for a couple of things 50ft oriented. 

Speaking of the site, I have been doing my best to post at least once a week lately and plan to keep up that pace. Usually I shoot for monday unless something holds me back from publishing something new. I have been picking away in the background whenever I get a free moment to focus and I still can’t wait to share with everyone. At any rate, no need to ramble on about it just now. Till next time, enjoy the new desktop.

Strawberry Morning

Pardon my Sentimentality, I wrote this a couple of days ago in Day One and felt it would be a nice thing to pair with an image. Remember I was talking about getting lost in details? Well this is me sharing one of those moments, perhaps a bit personal but why not share. Desktop links below!

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Today is the first day in forever I didn’t have to wake up and worry about getting to work on time, or missing a call, or fear I may be forgetting something. I woke up early, with not enough sleep behind me from the late night prior but I forced myself up anyway and went to a local weekly farmers market with YoungDoo. I felt connected to all the people who were there to celebrate life and food and good health. We bought vegetable plants, strawberries, and ate fresh pancakes then afterward spent a short while at the community garden planting the new veggies and enjoying the perfect spring weather.

I arrived at home tired but not ready to give up and nap so I put on a show and relaxed a while on the couch. After a simple lunch of food from the market I decided to light some incense, put on some music, and lay down a while for a much needed and deserved siesta…

…and that’s where I lay as I write this, quietly in bed, on this calm afternoon feeling time tick by slowly enough to recognize that I have a beating heart for the first time in what feels like months. Cool air falls through the open window beside me, incense smoke swirls about unpredictably in the warm breeze and casts a calm over the room I usually only get to daydream about through old photographs. Chatter sneaks in from people walking by outside and the meandering guitar of a calm song in my ears is in sync with my slowing breath…

This is surely the meaning of life. Love is in this space and I feel free. This is the reason we fight through the stress, the reason we try harder and harder every day to find happiness. Because it’s real, and waiting patiently for us to recognize its beautiful embrace.

Cheers.

50ft Radio Volume Eight

I have always had a great response from the mixes I have made in the past. It’s one of my favorite things to post around here actually. Introducing great new music to others is something I find a lot of joy in. In the past I was one of those kids often making and receiving mix tapes then later, mix CD’s. (Anybody else remember Toast?) My love for finding interesting new music beyond the world of pop grew from a mix tape a friend gave me that still lingers in my mind at times. It was full of great indie rock and punk music and it kick started my addiction to finding great music hiding behind the big label marketing budgets.

Following my mix tape days I worked as a DJ at a college station at a school that I didn’t even attend. I had two shows even, one with a friend playing electronic and another new music show where I discovered so much of what I know and love about music today. If any of you have the opportunity to work at a campus station I suggest you take it, its a great experience. This also eventually lead to me taking live sound more seriously after volunteering my time (and my fathers resources in audio systems) to local shows in record shops and tiny back room venues around town. Wherever there was an indie rock show, I was there with a PA.

I have worked with so many amazing bands through the years because of those affiliations, Mount Eerie (aka. The Microphones), Viva Voce, Phosphorescent, Mark Kozelek, The Octopus Project, Lymbic System, THE MONKEYS (heh, well, Davy Jones at least), The Mountain Goats, Mount Moriah, Cat Power (In her awkward shy live days), Vetiver, Of Montreal, Jason Anderson, Damien Jurado, Lost In the Trees, Tobacco, Bob Log III, Akron Family, Warpaint, MachineDrum, Bill Callahan, Odd Nosdam, Mirah, Helado Negro, Des Ark, Monotonix (craziest live show ever), Beach House, Man Man, Six Parts Seven, 31 Knots, Tara Jane O’neil… haha, yeah you get the idea. There are just as many I don’t remember, point is that its been a pretty great run, and to think it all started with mix tapes.

Point being, music changed my life and sharing it is something I truly love to do. There is no genera that I frown upon. Music is music, and good music is universal so while I tend to have a common aesthetic on each mix I like to explore as many styles as I can in the process. This time around I was inspired by the shuffle mode on my iPod. I love the unexpected nature of using shuffle to listen to my music and I wanted to bring a little of that feeling to one of these 50ft mixes. So this version is both diverse and quite long. Right around two hours in fact! I suggest you set the file option in iTunes to remember the playback position. (FYI: One song is not clean for young ears but it’s modest.)

As always it is an AAC file so if you really aren’t feeling a song then you can jump ahead. Please, never re-distribute these. My intention is not to give away music, I will never make these available broken into individual tracks. I offer these purely for the love of sharing and introducing you guys to great artists. If you enjoy the music please, support the artists, buy their albums, see them live, send them love, it’s the only way to keep it alive.

Download the mix here without spoilers, or trying something new, here on S3 and play it like a radio station or peak into the playlist here.