back burner boiling over

Does everyone's first blog start with Why I'm blogging, Why I resisted, How I feel about our narcissistic society's self-absorption (as if that somehow relieves one's culpability)? Probably. Much like dating profiles that begin: 200 words about myself, huh. I hate talking about myself, but here goes; I'm a pretty laid back guy, not into the bar scene but like to eat out relax on the weekend....

My friends are encouraging me to blog. I think the motive is to spare them my long, anecdotal, foot-noted and side-barred documentary reviews, blustery descriptions of each detail of a new restaurant, soap boxy, counter- culture declarations against norms like upholstering your yard in grass. Of seven-layer tales of small world connections spanning continents and decades, involving incongruous players.

I've been tempted because I enjoy playing with words, really like sending long tedious emails to friends. And, like fellow Austinite, Julie Powell, I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life again. Still.

The freelance work I've been doing for the past 15 years seems to have dried up. This "opportunity" has got me thinking about getting after really creative work. I've been a photo stylist, designing and procuring props, set dressing and wardrobe and "preparing" food for advertising shoots. This is when most folks say, "wow, cool!" and I find myself trying to persuade them how it's not. There's certainly more creativity involved than in data entry or meter reading but more often than not I've been an overpaid go-fer for unimaginative, non-visual control freaks. I'd need to rent or borrow 21 4'x4' wood tables and 4 chairs for each, then Dockers and polo shirts (in "goldenrod" and violet, no kidding) for 6 different men who haven't been cast yet, so don't know their sizes, and the shoot is day after tomorrow.

I have had a few truly brilliant, collaborative experiences, though. Years ago I worked with an artist/photographer on an early promotional piece for a breakthrough video game. With about 2 days notice I had to costume several of the game's characters who were um, futuristic medieval-ish types. The prop list included a gauntlet, a sceptre, a falcon, a man's ring with a surfaces large enough to photo shop a logo onto. And more! The first thing I learned by phoning a taxidermist is that "to possess any portion of a raptor is a federal offense". Swell. With that, it was decided that the shadow of a falcon would indicate that the burly, gauntleted dude was a falconer. By the kind of miracle that continues to save my ass I discovered the Game Warden's Academy and they let me go through their creepy storage room and borrow a stuffed bird. A grackle. On set, our poor, dead, once annoyingly squacky creature was augmented with chicken wire, paper towels and putty to become a fearsome shadowy stand-in representing a digital falcon.
This idea of a shadow of a thing that's not what it appears to be representing a virtual, non-existent something else reminds me of a great quote that I always keep in my styling notebook:

In the ad game,
the days are tough,
the nights are long,
and the work is
emotionally demanding.

But it's all worth it,
because the rewards
are shallow,
transparent,
and meaningless.


So I had an idea last night at a Bootstrap meeting about entrepreneurship that a blog might be a useful tool for Self Promotion! With my back burner overflowing with design projects, large-scale conceptual sculpture ideas, plans for revolutionizing the Smoothie, perhaps I will get some useful feedback and moveforward from thousands of people I wouldn't otherwise meet.

Next, images of useful or fashionable items made from repurposed materials (and a new, less cliche' term for "repurposed")