I spent a while on Saturday carefully traversing through the landscape of what had been the digital equivalent of dusty, weather stained photographs. Most were from what I consider now to be years that were both supremely underappreciated and indubitably formative. Both of those realities impress upon me how where I was, where I’ve traveled, where I am and where I’m going are inextricably linked.
Let me be more clear. Martin Scorsese, in accepting the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award quoted William Faulkner in saying: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” (the line is from his Requiem for a Nun). While I’m going to keep the bulk of my genuflection (and excoriation) to myself, this is an imminently important statement. And the realization of this declarative is facilitated through film and photography.
As if they were visual missives sent from the past, sometimes over 10 years ago, I stopped at each photograph to look at myself. My friends. My life. My place. Each one revealing itself as a puzzle piece in the complex anthropology of my self. There were regrets of time lost. Distanced friends. Altered relationships. There was a longing for an unbridled and youthful exuberance and anticipation. There was a puzzling curiosity in the equation that had drawn me from point A to point B. And that curiosity led me to one of the most alarmingly simple of insights to come from the entire experience. The forces and choices that have shaped my life are not past, or dead. They are very much present. The curiosity that leads me to wonder how I’ve come to this point in my life is satiated with the knowledge that every step of the way was a choice, sometimes captured in a photograph or a film. And as I vault quickly from point B to point C in my life the “regrets” and “youth” and “anticipation” are forces that are cumulative and iterative, not discrete. The young man in those photographs embarked upon a series of choices. Informed by those choices, the young man typing these words, catalyzed by the viewing of those images, will do the same.
What will the man see when he looks at these words - and those photos - again in 10 years?
Boogaloo Sam and Popin Pete, part of the Electric Boogaloos, are largely credited with realizing/popularizing popping in 1975, with locking being developed around the same time. Popin Pete would develop unique techniques such as crazy legs in the late 70s as the group popularized the dance.
Popin Pete is a legend in the street dance world. He was creating revolutionary techniques in 1978. Here he is 2008, still a master of his craft, and with insightful words about the connection of music and beats to the expressive action of dance.
The prolific blog Shaking Words rightly noted that I had not blogged in quite some time. Such a long time, in fact, that “a word, forgotten” had been removed from the sidebar.
A couple of updates. I’m on track to log another 60-80 flights again this year and work is as busy as ever.
I’m excited about the spring in DC, although mildly put off by the influx of sheeple (tourists).
