Regular Life

Look in the left center of this shot to get an idea how far back the flowers go. If you read my story “Talk With a Killer,” then you know why I posted this pic. My only other pics are on medium format negatives, and I have no idea where the prints are.

The only good wide shot I could find features people I didn’t want to post here, so you get two shots that try to convey the breadth of Wye Mountain’s daffodil field. That is, if you keep reading.

Thanks to everybody who read it. It was a lot of fun to write. I miss making fiction.

Simian Farmer challenged me, so here it is:
I challenge Alvis and anybody else reading this, if you want.

1: Black and White or Colour; how do you prefer your movies?

Can’t say I prefer one over the other, although a B&W movie with great lighting and cinematography (all squeezed into a good story, of course) cannot be beat. Colorized B&W is a wretched creation that deserves a quick burial.

2: What is the one single subject that bores you to near-death?

Math.

3: MP3s, CDs, Tapes or Records: what is your favourite medium for prerecorded music?

CD’s, because I can listen to them like that, or make MP3’s if I want, in any quality I want.

4: You are handed one first class trip plane ticket to anywhere in the world and ten million dollars cash. All of this is yours provided that you leave and not tell anyone where you are going … Ever. This includes family, friends, everyone. Would you take the money and ticket and run?

No.

5: Seriously, what do you consider the world’s most pressing issue now?

Poverty. Everybody says it is bad, but nobody seems able to a) admit that it is not all caused by oppressive actions by “the man,” or b) admit that not everybody can just “buck up and not be poor anymore.” (I would have said AIDS, but a lot of money seems to buy drug cocktails that ward off the symptoms, so again we’re back to my first point. Plus, AIDS is preventable.)

6: How would you rectify the world’s most pressing issue?

I’m included in that “everybody” in number 5, so I don’t have a solution either. First, I would somehow make everybody who looks down on poor people live a whole lifetime in their shoes and see how they fare, but all fast-forward like, so we wouldn’t have to wait a lifetime for results. Also, make someone who is a leech (no, not saying all poor people are leeches) see that most people who have a safe, comfortable place to live work their asses off for it.

7: You are given the chance to go back and change one thing in your life; what would that be?

To not tell my dad he was stupid for buying me a handmade, single-shot .22 rifle for Christmas when I was a kid. I had become so excited when I got it that I honestly was just trying to downplay it to preserve the feelings of the people whose gifts did not elicit that reaction. It backfired (pardon the pun).

8: You are given the chance to go back and change one event in world history, what would that be?

The first day a slave was brought ashore in the British colonies that became the United States of America. (I know there are lots of other cases of slavery and racism, but it asked for one event, so there)

9: A night at the opera, or a night at the Grand Ole’ Opry — Which do you choose?

Don’t care for either. Grand Ole Opry by a nose, because at least I can understand what they’re saying.

10: What is the one great unsolved crime of all time you’d like to solve?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

11: One famous author can come to dinner with you. Who would that be, and what would you serve for the meal?

Stephen King. Through all the supernatural hubbub and the occasional stinker, his character development cannot be beat (at least back when I still read his stuff). Read The Rage or The Talisman without being moved. I dare you. Throw in The Eyes of the Dragon for good measure.
I would serve chili dogs, because he’s as American as they come.

12: You discover that John Lennon was right, that there is no hell below us, and above us there is only sky — what’s the first immoral thing you might do to celebrate this fact?

I hope Heaven and Hell are not what make people behave. If so, then the human race is in big trouble, because faith is fading.

Comments RSS