Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups

The video is a bit odd, but I just love how this song builds. Happy weekend, folks!

Random

Years ago, when I was taking a psychology class, I remember how the mood of the class became electrified toward the end of the semester when we would be studying abnormal psychology. It's all fine and good, this mood suggested, to study how the mind works and what makes people tick, but studying the diseases of the mind was getting down to brass tacs. But studying seratonin uptake inhibitors and hypochondria can only go so far in explaining the human psyche. And what does that have to do with pictures? Isn't something that steps a little outside of ordinary infinitely more interesting?

What Sounds Look Like

It occurs to me that a camera works very differently from your eyes. A camera records, but your eyes share all sorts of sensory real estate with all of your other senses. When thinking about some of my favorite (or least favorite) sounds, I have to parcel out whether some are sounds, or smells, or sights, or some combination thereof. Do I like the sound of a plane taking off, or the feeling of it? When I hear a lawn mower, is it the sound or the smell that I enjoy? Coffee brewing? None of this is ultimately important unless you're trying to think what sounds look like. Or whether they are even sounds to begin with. This must be the stuff that sound technicians on film sets obsess about, and when you see a movie, it's all these sensory experiences working together to tell a story. Horses breathing, a crackling fire, a cup being filled with hot coffee at the counter of a diner, dishes being washed by hand in a sink, a door creaking on its hinges ... they all nestle in the cradle of your ear and make you remember. Or at least think that you do.

She Likes Rot.

I'm always a bit nervous when someone starts a sentence with, "I was thinking about you the other day when I saw ... ," and inevitably follows some description of a scene of decay or disorder. Okay, I'm secretly flattered.

We pretty much live in the backyard during the summer. So every year we go a little crazy with plants and flowers. I tried to exercise a little restraint this year, retire a few terracotta pots, and avoid the jungle of heirloom tomatoes we had in years past. One year I planted purple perilla in pots on the fronts steps, and I have been pulling perilla from the pavers ever since. Last year, the lime green potato vines threatened to take over the patio, so I've decided to stick to purple instead. Doesn't it seem you have to learn things the hard way with plants?