earlier today, i went out for a little free running (a.k.a. parkour). i like free running cause it's one of the only sports nowadays that keeps it real. it's not a sport for sell outs. it's as legit as you get. there is no professional parkour league, and i hope there never will be. people who participate do it for one reason: they love it. i bet you that's how all sports started out. after time though, i guess the artists and the lovers get pushed out by the jocks and the fighters. it's a shame.

anyway, i was running along, and i came across a spider-web on the side-walk. the spider-web was maybe a foot off the ground. however, rather than hopping over it, i knocked the web down with my left foot and walked off as though nothing had happened. i had no reason to tear down its web. like i said, i easily could've hopped over it. then i imagined the time the poor bloke spent repairing the damage. guess i don't know much about spiders save to say it was certainly a lot of work for the sucker. moments like that remind me of that extension stuff mencius was always talking about.

i'm not a fighter. i'm a lover. but sometimes, i feel like i'm neither...feel like i'm somewhere in between. and sometimes, i feel like the artist in me can be demented and cruel. i wish i could bring out the beauty in everything. i wish i were one of them people who bring out the beauty in other people - the people who are always so encouraging to be with. i still got to iron out some of them kinks in my mean side though.

offside

i recently came across this video, and found it very moving:



truth is, we're all god's children. this conflict has been going on for years. both sides are right, and both sides are wrong. so instead of loving each other, we destroy ourselves. what a shame...

how can we end this? thoughts?

art is hard (our love will blow it all away)

i find myself offended by the oppressive neutrality that mislabels a colorless canvas - less stirring than wallpaper - as art. in a world where kaleidoscopes are bigger turn-ons than the oiled pages that i find framed and hung in hallways, i myself prefer to see those flower-print-slacks (the worn-in, stitched-up, seventies flare things) over browsing the modern art exhibition across the street. i fear that art is being murdered by the artists themselves (no doubt spoiled by the sweet taste of money). it seems as though the psaltery is searching for her psalm, but all the poets are gone. a coffee table's worst nightmare materializes as it becomes a shelf for some hopeless magazine - replaced by an anecdotal amnesia brought on by needy, greedy messes of men. even the bouquets are flowerless, mundane mums unequipped to brighten any young girls day.

of course, i am speaking somewhat poetically here. to be honest, the painters and the architects are (for the most part) doing just fine...to my knowledge. i don't know though really. it's not my area of expertise.

what DOES bother me is what i see in the musical realm. flip on the radio, and it is full of meaningless, inartistic, boring, minimalistic, commercial crap. like everyone else out there, i have to search the internet up and down to find GOOD music. does this frustrate anyone else? are you tired of hearing that some guy is hot because he's fly? did you lose track of how many times dave grohl said "best of best of best of best of"? are you sick of music that is only popular because it "pushes the limits" concerning what people can get away with (see i kissed a girl by kate perry)? are you stuck asking how nickelback is so successful (if you know why, could you please tell me their secret)?

now, don't get me wrong. this is not a pride thing for me. i'm glad the people who are "making it big" on the radio are finding success. God put them in that position for a reason. what i struggle with is the fact that the artists who i love and respect the most usually don't get very well compensated for their efforts.