Someone posted a picture of what parents do at their kids' soccer games. They all have their phones out and they are taking photos of their child on the field. A normal impulse, but there they are (written in ink), all holding a piece of plastic, glass, and fingerprints that separates you from actually being in the moment. It's a staged moment, granted, but it's more real and repeating than not. The picture within the picture makes it sweet, in a general, family way, but there is something empty about the whole transaction.*
It's sort of like when the Olympians in the opening ceremonies all walk along with their phones and cameras running, shooting back at us.**
So PoMo! I get it, you are on this world arena and dressed to the 9s for your country, and you're like, Man, I gotta show this to the people back home...
But you forget you are there to be looked at. You are the movie star of the moment, of life's camera, not just the BBC feed. We need to see you, how you walk, how you carry it, the way you shine on the path. A nod to our South American friends. Don't block your face trying to be the fucking love child of Robert Flaherty and Mr. Brainwash.
Seriously, let's not all try and grab it at all once. Let some of it pass, lest you look like a sucker in all your memories.
What I'm saying is I'm trying to show up. Yes, I too am mostly failing, I'm happy snapping away, trying to grab it all and repost it, only I know there is another way of being that isn't so rushed, forced, harried. The bath of eternity all around, and we sit staring into some useless apparatus that we will swap out next year, while the times and people pass without our appraisal.
Btw the digital revolution is horseshit. Now everyone can shoot grabass garbage. Literally.
I want to go back to the magic box, where you had to know what an f-stop was to make anything happen. I say this for our souls, for the audience (lost in the modern era), and posterity.
Show us how to do facebook on 35mm film and you will save the world.
Enjoy the soft rain.
* And I don't mean just because soccer sucks. It does. No, I'm kidding. Sort of. Now I really like World Cup for some reason, and I played when I was a kid, and enjoyed some bon homie (sp?) and all that playing then. Compared to American football, I personally don't think it's as interesting. The field is too big and I could weed in the corner and no one would notice.
(On a side note I enjoy Australian football when I catch it. Particularly when someone scores and the ref does that cool move and brings his arms down and points out his fingers. Badasssss...)
** Btw This was my fav image from the last go. Made me happy for days to see little Janis Pumpkin from Slidell made it into the parade (note: no phone in her hand).
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