Tschüß, До свидания, Ciao, Adios

Nothing to look at here.  Keep on moving along.

Many pilgrims sailing to distant lands beached their ships, burned them to the ground and moved on to their ultimate destination.   They did this to remove the temptation of going back to what was familiar and forced them to move on to their new lives.  In Viking cultures, the fallen warrior's body rested on a ship and the family and friends would set it ablaze to say goodbye and send him in to Valhalla.  This blog is now beached.    This blog is dead.  I am burning it down soon to clear some clutter from my life.  It served its purpose.

I originally created The Sensual 5-7-5 as an outlet for my artistically and erotically repressed soul.  I was a naive blogger who had much to learn.  It evolved into the Sensual 7 Seconds,  and finally became the The Photo Fermata.  Through all of these iterations I used it as a sounding board of ideas,  to share rants and raves, to expose readers to ideas, art, and life, to seek glory, to share my dark secrets and to learn what it means to produce in the pixel forest.  It did this.  Too be honest though, I don't think the blog is worth what it once was.

To grunt and sweat under a weary life - Hamlet  3/1 - Shakespeare

I had the wind taken out of my sails a little while ago concerning this piece of myself known as the Photo Fermata.  Diminishing readership, declining comments, and staleness show me it is time to light the torch and burn it down.

Thanks to those who followed and commented.  I appreciate the friendships we made.  I will continue to read and enjoy all the blogs I currently follow.  To my readers, enjoy the old posts.  Feel free to comment.  I leave this burned out hulk as a vestige of my tiny tree in the overly dense pixel forest.

I hope you all find your place in the world and maybe our paths will cross again.

Tschüß,

Karl

 

Someday You Will Have Say Goodbye to the Sun

Someday you will have to say "goodbye" to the sun.
You will bid farewell to the moon, the sky, the clouds, and the stars.
As all things that live, we dim out to a smoking wick, our quiet goodbyes to those things that were  always with us acknowledge we were the grain and they were the beach.
They may not hear our goodbyes, but their existence in our beings need to be recognized and bid proper adieu.

 

 

One of my favorite scenes from my favorite movie, Pulp Fiction

Photo Fermata went shopping for a new outfit

Valya -011211

Photo Fermata went shopping for a new outfit and is still trying on the new duds before settling on the layout.  Thanks to Valya for helping me create one of my best images last year.

There are a few other minor changes to the blog look, but I think you can see the big changes at face value..

The original - Valya - 011211

Valya stencil - 011211

RE-POST Scary shit in Arizona is spreading..

Don't - Joshua Tree National Park

RE- POST  Originally posted on May 5, 2010

First they passed a law in the name of immigration reform allowing police to legally harass you for being brown.  Now non-white groups lost their right to learn about their history and culture in public schools.   I am sure the liberal arts will be next.

 CNN Conversation on Arizona's ethnic studies law (Basically two pundits blasting each other)


So many are making a poison in our country.  This poison pits cultures, races, beliefs, religions, art and educational systems against each other.  This poison of divisiveness is tearing a hole in our country.

I was too young to develop memories of the turmoil of the 60's and 70's.  My only memories are vague unease and stronger memories of the malaise President Carter commented about. Maybe it is time for another cultural revolution.   I fear though it may not be a peaceful one.


As I wrote on April 16th:

I look to the four compass points
and am starting to see
the division lines for battles
scratched in varying grounds.

Some are for ideals
some are for religion
some are for freedom for some
some are for closing others in

We are heading to our own chosen lines
we scratch with a sharp, jagged stick
to stand behind and look across to the adversary
then slowly turn our backs to
so we no longer acknowledge
they may be more like us than not.

Is it an itch or a scab?

NYC - 010711

Damn. I have that itch.  I really need to get out of Dodge and go to New York.  It is like that lustful itch that nothing but the real thing will satiate.  I would be happy as a clam to be sitting on a subway car watching the stops come and go with the daily humanity shuffling about me. 

NYC - 010711

I wonder though if that itch is in need of a scratch or is a scab covering something hurt and could leave a scar.  Sadly, the earliest I will get back to that place is October.  Until then, I guess I am left to look at my images and watching TV shows and movies set there.

What are your favorite movies or TV shows set in NYC that truly reflect the life and locale of that city?

New frontiers

Valya -  010611

Do you remember that precise moment in your life when you realized, acknowledged and knew, "I am in love."?  What about the first time you flew to another country and got off the airplane... and all the signs were different? 

I remember the moment when my dog, Paloma, took her last breath and died.  At that moment of transition I felt so suddenly alone, sad, and raw.  My favorite place in Montana is driving east along Highway 200 between Missoula and Great Falls and getting to that magic moment where the Rocky Mountains suddenly end and the Great Plains hits you with its great expanse.

Rocky Mountain Front/Great Plains outside of Browning, MT - 010611

I am fleshing out an idea for a photo series.  It is still very abstract and nebulous to me.  The theme is "Borders, Boundaries, and Tipping Points".    As a psychology and education graduate, I've always been both perplexed and fascinated by that moment, location, feeling, event, etc., that signals the change or demarcation of what was and what is and will be.  We can see what came before and maybe even predict what comes after it, but what is special about that place, time, and experience that turns us around, points us in a into new direction, puts us in another country, or makes us realize we are in love or the love is gone.

Valya - 010611

Courtney - 010611

Even though these areas have always subconsciously interested me all my life, I never thought to formally explore them.  I stumbled upon this idea of trying to capture it after showing an artist/photographer friend these photos of Valya and Courtney.  He said, "Karl - these two photos are important.  They are threshold moments.  What is about to happen right now in each changes everything."


Where is that line in SF between the high-end Union Square area and its rough and dirty neighbor, the Tenderloin?  What is going through the mind of the beautiful woman at the moment where "yes" becomes the answer?  When is the point in time where an era ends and another one replaces it?  Where is that point when one more RPM destroys the engine?  At what point does that person in from of you become "one of us" or "one of them"? 

 Right now I am exploring the meaning for words like decision, boundary, border, etc., to find that gossamer of a moment where we pivot, retreat, or march ahead and all changes.  I need to figure out where these locations are in the world and in our minds.  The challenge will then be to figure out how to capture that moment. 

I encourage everyone to share moments of when everything changed, what made that instant powerful, and what did that exact moment mean to you.  You can share them in the comments section or send me an email at sidebphotography@gmail.com.

Without a helmet

Crossing Houston Street near Katz's deli - NY - 010411

Sometimes I feel like I am taking on all the traffic in the world...  while on a bike... without a helmet.

Tourist hint - Be careful how you pronounce the name of Houston Street.  It will peg you as an outsider instantly.   According to Wikipedia:

The pronunciation of "Houston" confuses many people from outside of New York – invariably becoming one of the easiest signs of spotting tourists – because the letters "ou" are pronounced as in the word house (pronounced /ˈhaʊstən/), whereas the same letters in the name of the city of Houston, Texas are pronounced like the "u" in huge (pronounced /ˈhjuːstən/ or /ˈjuːstən/, "HYOO-stin"). This is because Houston Street was named for William Houstoun – note that the spelling is different – before the fame of Sam Houston, for whom the city in Texas is named.

Bonus trivia - SoHo = South of Houston.

Watch what you swallow.

SoHo - NYC - 010310

My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers

My uncle ordered popovers
from the restaurant’s bill of fare.
And, when they were served,
he regarded them with
a penetrating stare…
Then he spoke great Words of Wisdom
as he sat there on that chair:
“To eat these things,”
said my uncle,
“you must exercise great care.
You may swallow down what’s solid…
BUT…
you must spit out the air!”

And…
as you partake of the world’s bill of fare,
that’s darned good advice to follow.
Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.
And be careful what you swallow. - Theodore Geisel

Maybe this should be my new resolution for the year... be careful of what I swallow.

How many calendars did you get for Christmas?

Washington Square Park - NYC - 010211

Seems like I always get a few, but not this year.  None.  I will take everyone's word for it, we are in 2011.

I really miss that city.