Saturday, August 27, 2011

Hurricane Irene

I started out my Saturday night watching the news reports on Hurricane Irene. I started to think about how...what's the words I am looking for...how overly-dramatic the newscasters can get. I mean we look to them to show us the severity of the situation but sometimes I think they choose adjectives that do more that just inform us but incite fear. Now don't get me wrong, we should not take natural disasters lightly. They ARE things to take very seriously, I just think that the newscasters can do a better job of conveying that message. Some people just can't handle the wording that these newscaster use, in my opinion. Needless to say, I am sure I will get most of my hurricane info from twitter. At least there I can look forward to get the news with out the overly dramatic tones. I don't think anyone on there is trying to win a daytime Emmy. At least I hope not...


-Namaste


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Baltimore

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Crime Happens or How I survived life in Baltimore...

When I was a kid I had plenty of dream places I wanted to live. Well some of the places weren't dream places but places that I could actually see myself living in. NY and Tokyo to be exact. Once I got older I started dreaming about other places and after I visited certain places; they started to creep into those "I wouldn't mind living there" places. For those of you who know me personally, you know I hold an extreme special place for Chicago. For this post I will probably pick on Chicago a lot. Maybe not. :)

All of these places I have dreamed of and thought of in my mind would be great places to go. Great places to start a new life in. Most of the places stateside I "habitatually covet" are high crime destinations. Coming from the little big city that is Baltimore, I am all to familiar with crime. I think in some ways I have gotten to a place where in my mind it's almost a way of life in Baltimore. I won't say I am desensitized to it but when you live in a city that averages 40 murders per 100k people and only has a little over 650K; you get that "I living in Baltimore...that's how they do" feeling.

In a way when I am a city like New York or Chicago, which are just as violent; it seems easy to feel like I belong or like it's not like I haven't lived in this environment before. I recall visiting Chicago about 8 years ago waiting for my ride at the Dan Ryan Expressway, up around 95th and Dan Ryan. I was told just stay where I was and to not to wander because it was a dangerous neighborhood. Pretty unsavory. But I sometimes like to think of myself as a "man's man" so I wandered a little bit. After seeing some of the exchanges, interactions and "unsavoriness," I came to the conclusion that this is not unlike anything I have seen before. In my mind it was just like the "410" except it was the "773." All through life, I have heard from people that you don't want to go there or you shouldn't go in that neighborhood. I have a friend who has worked in DC about 15 years. In 2000 when I started college in DC, he warned me about SE DC. "You don't want to spend too much time there...". I remember one day being on the metro back to Union Station and hearing this altercation between two old guys and the one old guy screamed he was from SE and the other humbled himself. I remember at the point saying to myself, I MUST VENTURE TO SE DC! Again not unlike anything you would see in Baltimore. I feel like there are a lot of us who do realize that Baltimore was dangerous way before The Wire.

I am one of those people who while in their mind knows that things are rough still feels like he is being adventurous when walking into certain "dangerous" surroundings. Don't get me wrong I am not so naive that I would blindly walk into let's say a war torn country but I do have no qualms with walking into an urban city that many people have viewed or view as "hell on earth.". I guess you can see it's a matter of strong faith or zen belief, if you will.

I talk so much about how I would love to live in Chicago or New York. I talk about what a great experience it would be to do so. I never think about the crime. The crime rarely comes up. If we were to go by what statistics say, it's probably safer to say its safer to live in Chicago or New York than Baltimore. Now I know a lot of people may disagree with me but as I mentioned before my mind has basically taken crime out of the equation. I am always hearing people who have moved here talking about how Baltimore is such a great place to live and have often wondered if they even think of baltimore as a dangerous city. I know that might come off as contradictory of my argument earlier in this post but that's just my native baltimorean mind speaking. As someone from here, I have it ingrained in my mind no matter how much or how often, I view crime here as commonplace. As a matter of fact, I sometimes wonder if I have the opportunity to live in a "Chicago" will I adopt that same mindset as people who move here. My bets on YES.
Well, I am glad I got the chance to share with you guys. I hope my ramblings didn't go off kilter too far and lose it's cohesiveness. If it did, I hope you guys caught the gist of it. I will continue this topic again at a later date. Until then...

-Namaste


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Submission for Show



This is a video of my latest piece. I might post some more pics of it next week.


-Namaste

Saturday, August 6, 2011

I sometimes ramble...but So What..."Who Cares..."

Hello Faithful few, how are you guys doing this week? So today a I did my first in-depth YouTube video(Check out my channel, my YouTube username is ArtStarConfidential.) I intended for it to be a quick video on what I have on my IPad at the moment but as I was shooting it the time got away from me. It is close to 13 mins long! "Lord, I was born a Ramblin' Man..." One of the weirdest things is to hear yourself talk. I have people who tell me all the time I like to run my mouth but when you record yourself and actually hear yourself you might be amazed at sometimes how much you DO actually run your mouth. I guess you never know how much you truly have to say until you actually open your mouth...LOL.

I am currently working on a drawing that I am hoping to finish by end of next week or the beginning of the following week. I will have some progression drawings for you guys maybe next week. I really have been trying to get back in the habit of creating. Don't want my head to explode from all the ideas I have in it;) Well that's all I have to say this week I think. I look forward to sharing with you guys next. Until then...

-Namaste