Ride

Leaving the Southern Utah Desert.
It’s been a funny time looking for inspiration. Sometimes you’re moving too fast to take the time to stop and think about the things that might move you. Sometimes even the most overwhelming events float right by without notice because you’re focused on other goals, or are just too caught up to care. The desert hasn’t always been a source of inspiration for me. I remember when I first moved there 5 years ago. I wanted to be writer, but instead I was waiting tables at Caesar’s Palace. I remember starting an article about Freedom. I wanted to know how people defined Freedom, and if they felt free or trapped by their lives and the choices they had made. I thought it was cool, but I don’t really think I knew I was writing about, who I was writing for or why. The piece on Freedom was mainly about asking others questions in order to make a choice about a path that I was unsure about. When I visit the desert today I’m awestruck by the beauty and can’t wrap my head around the wild there, that is untamed, harsh and yes, free. When I saw this video by Lana Del Ray I was in love and immediately inspired. It shares all the stains of desert living in the same forgiving light I now seem to always view it in. I still haven’t figured out what true freedom is, but I’m making choices everyday to try and find it. (more…)

Weekday Surrender

I remember an illustration from the New Yorker that used to hang on my dad’s living room wall when I was a teenager. It was a map of the USA from a New Yorker’s point of view, where the descriptions of all the other various states were some kind of generalized overview from someone who’d never been there and obviously didn’t care to go. (more…)