at trader joe’s

at trader joe’s i feel the energy of people getting deals the sense of making steals and living to tell about them (that’s half the pleasure) like walmart after thanksgiving but without obesity i check out and in my heart I feel the insidious energy of scorn __________ caveat: I really don’t have much against [...]

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St. Louis Murder Rates in Maps – Visualizing Despair

the murder maps each year just bleed the same dark stain; drops like question marks __________ While reading the paper online, I came across these horrific interactive maps from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Each image below is linked to its source page and clicking on any drop on the original tells you, in police blotter [...]

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The lie of keeping it real – A review of Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Williams

If you have not been reading this blog for long, and perhaps “reading” is an insufficient word here, perhaps you are confused whether it is a photo blog or a poetry blog or blog presenting prose pieces. The answer to this question is “Yes.” It is clear that photography takes up most of its real [...]

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a man in darkness – a poem for Mohamed Bouazizi, Tunisia, Egypt and Tahrir square

a man in darkness burns out his life, touching fire to a firmament

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Photography as Inspiration – Mira Nair – The Namesake

If it weren’t for photography, I wouldn’t be a flimmaker. Every film I make is fueled by photographs. Sometimes it is a particular image of a photographer, sometimes it is what I have learned by seeing the world through his or her eyes. Either way, photographs have always helped me crystallize the visual style of [...]

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Helping Your Neighbor, Loving Your Enemies – Pakistan Flood Relief

When the Haiti earthquake occurred, the response in our country was immediate and overwhelming, and with good reason, as so many people lost their lives. The needs continue to be great and help should continue to flow. The response to the Pakistani flooding, though, in both dollars and attention, seems to be muted in comparison. [...]

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The Student and the Ustad – The Grand Tabla Tradition

“Ustad” is a word which essentially means “teacher,” but really is a term more specifically used for talented, well-respected musicians (tabla players or Qawwali singers) who take on students, or disciples, and pass their craft on. On my recent trip to Philly, I got to see Ustad Aqeel at work teaching my cousin-nephew (that is [...]

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Summer Fire Hydrant Joy

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the neighborhoods around my church’s office this week, and have also had some conversations with friends about many of the challenges of living there. Today, I was there with a friend who I tutor to find some more friends to have a soccer game with. And despite [...]

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“Grief in the Age of Facebook,” a Fascinating Article

A friend of mine passed along this article to me as my local church community recently experienced the death of a friend and some of our grieving was expressed via Facebook. Our friend did not have a Facebook profile himself, as the very popular girl in the article did, so we did not have that [...]

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An Article in Catapult, and Two Haiku

The article is “Do FarmVilleans Dream of Analog Sheep” and is, in a nutshell, about how our lives are increasingly interwoven with technology and how that affects us. I think both of the haiku have appeared on this blog already, but here in a fancier format are “On Facebook” and “On Twitter.” If you read [...]

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