Media Fast

Posted on August 30, 2008 by Varg

… nothing to suggest it’s going to not effect the area so we are heading out.

As soon as we get to where we are headed the media fast will begin. I’ll allow Weather Underground, Stormpulse and NHC but I just don’t want to hear anyone telling me about the storm because, as I recall from Katrina, they don’t use any sort of tact or consideration and only serve to further distress the viewers who live in effected areas. So, no CNN, Weather Channel or anything else but silent, mostly unbiased and sensational chart and models for us.

Media fasts are necessary sometimes. We employed the tactic after Sept. 11 and I’ll need to utilize it in the next few days. I can handle circumstance, I can’t deal with frenetic energy of 24-hour news.

On Gustav, there isn’t much to hope for at this stage. I can only hope that his predicted westward turn happens sooner than expected and spares New Orleans, Houma, Lafitte and the rest of beautiful Acadiana. Houston should be prepared. The storm surge scenarios on the West Bank are worrisome but ultimately we will just have to wait and see.

Talk y’all on the outside.

2 thoughts on “Media Fast”

jeffrey says:

August 30, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Good luck, Varg. We’re still here us. But we will decide in the morning.
Kelly says:

August 30, 2008 at 2:17 pm

A media fast is a really good idea — if we leave tomorrow (likely) I’ll have to employ the same tactic once we get to the hotel room. Take care.

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.