HAVING A BAD TIME

Hands up. Who wants to have a bad time?

I’ll bet I’m the only one who raised their hand. No sane person wants
to have a bad time, right?

Wrong. (If you ask me.)

I think bad times, and taking steps which will more than likely lead to
having a bad time, are very important from a creative standpoint.

(And I say this from my comfortable, middle-aged, white guy, have a
new car and a pretty good job, point of view. I know that there are
bad times and there are BAD TIMES. What I’m talking about here is
the lower case, non-italicized version.)

I get sick and tired hearing all the time how cool everything always
is. How everything always works out (even tho it always does, in
the end). How certain we are. To me that just indicates a failure
of the imagination; a lack of risk taking; a certain acceptance of
the status quo. We don’t see that our groove has become a rut.

Not that I want to hear a bunch of complaining. No complaining.
No, what I like to hear from people, from time to time, is that
they’ve purposely gone and put themselves into a position where
having a bad time was way more likely than having a good time.
Where they’ve courted disaster or, at least, spectacular failure.

Screw Club Med, fuck Vegas, that shit’s just cliché. Get yer ass
out there, into the middle of nowhere (or into the middle of
everything), where nothing is certain. Go on, get confused,
make the wrong decision, get lost, don’t know.

Speaking from personal experience, I know that every time I’ve
gone and done it, every time I set myself up in sticky situations,
courted failure and welcomed bad times, well, I’ve never felt more
alive.

And, for your information, I’m actually having a good time these
days. But I have plans…….

SPAO OPEN HOUSE

SPAO held their annual open house last Friday.

I wandered around asking people the question:
“Why photography…..”

Here are a few responses………

Patrick Gordon. owner: Patrick Gordon Framing

Carrie Colton. curator: EXPOSURE Gallery

Angie Thompson. girlfriend of photographer

Samira El-Kassis, sister of photographer

Tony Martins. editor: Guerilla Magazine

Alice. kid

WEB SITE UPDATE

Well, I went and added a new gallery to my site. Called RECENT.

And, thanks to all you droolers who wrote in answering my question about
whether or not to include the April + Erik page. The response was unanimous.
The lucky winner of their choice of an April + Erik print is Brett Gundlock.

You can check out the update here.