Photographer Lorna Crozier What of the blind photographer? The one who measures distance by the warmth of the sun on her eyelids, the one who hears the picture and snaps that sound when you hear only silence, the one who lists fourteen colors of the rain. You imagine her cloaked and hooded in a black cloth, a photographer from long ago who grew images like lichen on glass and copper, her fingers running over the plates as if they spoke to her in Braille. There are days when you blind yourself with too much longing. Light is tactile then. With its many hands it washes the dullness from your skin,…

I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” — Malcolm X

Reading… Nox by Anne Carson. It’s for the dissertation. It’s not the first time I’ve read it. It’s interesting, and occasionally beautiful, but it’s long, and cumbersome, and my personal desire to not be working on this project right now is probably interfering with my ability to objectively evaluate any of the works I’m (supposed to be) writing about. Watching… The most recent seasons of Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. At this point, Legends is the only one that I’m particularly interested in, but they are just interconnected enough that I feel obligated to keep watching the others. BUT I read an article about casting changes for the new seasons of a bunch of…

…it’s become a mantra for me and our family that, win or lose, it’s important to “get caught trying.” Whether you’re trying to win an election or pass a piece of legislation that will help millions of people, build a friendship or save a marriage, you’re never guaranteed success. But you are bound to try. Again and again and again. — Hillary Clinton, in What Happened

There is such a place as fairyland – but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth, they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they…

Reading… Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker. On the polar opposite of Wine. All The Time., which I read just before this, this book makes me want to run away from the wine world screaming. I am FIRMLY on Marissa Ross’s side when it comes to approaches to wine (aka I want to feel relatively confident discussing, purchasing, and drinking wine). Becoming a sommelier sounds horrifying, though in a way where I suppose I kind of admire these people? Bosker’s writing is fresh and entertaining, so the book is a good read. It just also makes me want to scream fairly frequently. Watching… Jane the Virgin. Okay, technically I watched this. I’m caught…

“Then I decided that this disorder and this dilemma, revealed by my desire to write on Photography, corresponded to a discomfort I had always suffered from: the uneasiness of being a subject torn between two languages, one expressive, the other critical; and at the heart of this critical language, between several discourses, those of sociology, of semiology, and of psychoanalysis — but that , by ultimate dissatisfaction with all of them, I was bearing witness to the only sure thing that was in me (however naïve it might be): a desperate resistance to any reductive system.” — Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida

Society6 is already running Cyber Monday deals. 20% off everything plus free shipping. Start your holiday shopping early! Or treat yourself to something. I won’t tell anyone… Click ‘Shop’ in the header or click here to check out all the goods in my store. My personal favourites include the art prints, notebooks, phone cases, and metal travel mugs. And while you are over on Society6, be sure to poke around and discover work by some amazingly talented folks!

The Second Coming William Butler Yeats Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank…

If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose. — Charles Bukowski