February 2012
8 posts
New Perspectives on Old Perspectives: How an Art... →
Joshua Heinemann, whom I am honored to call a friend, wrote a great piece for HuffPo on his Reaching for the Out of Reach personal project and his collaboration with the New York Public Library. Both Joshua’s creativity and honor for the past run deeply in his words.
Andrew and Christy Bauman, my friends from grad school and Mt. Rainier companions, lost their baby boy Jackson Brave to the damned hands of death this winter. Grace and peace to both of you, Andrew and Christy. Much grace and much peace.
Dan Allender wrote this in response:
May It All Be True
We had this privilege to be with colleagues and friends at the funeral of their son Jackson Brave...
KIRBY DREAMS
“Ok so ok. Uh, you and me and your two children, we were at my dad’s in Florida.”
“Your dad’s place in Florida?”
“Yeah, but he lived really far away from the airport. So, he had to drive us to a city closer to the airport, where I happened to have an apartment, where we didn’t live at. Um, but we were going to stay there for the night, before we...
January 2012
17 posts
Terry Gross, interviewing Tom Waits in 2002 for NPR’s Fresh Air
Terry Gross: Usually you write about godlessness.
Tom Waits: Godlessness? Really?
TG: Wouldn’t you say?
TW: I don’t know about that.
TG: The absence of God…
TW: I don’t know. Do you think so?
TG: Well some of the songs. Well one of them explicitly, like God’s Away On Business.
TW:...
Every morning I wake up, get out of bed, walk to the kitchen, heat water, pour heated water through roasted cherry seeds, and drink the flavored water. It’s a bizarre ritual and I wonder if the future people will look back on us with bewilderment. Regardless, I’ve dialed in a very specific way to do this, insuring a consistent, pleasing result.
Tools
Capresso Infinity Conical Burr...
Hell would be to know, continuously, every act of violence that happens around the earth, every second of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year. Torturous. How much more excruciatingly difficult would life be if I knew everything? Omniscience is hell.
And so I wonder, does God also preside in hell? I do not know.
“I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness.”
Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina Republican debate, January 16 2012
The right to pursue happiness? By God? Where and when did this happen and why didn’t anyone tell me?
I transferred my blog over to Tumblr. All of the archives are still there, but the formatting is a little off, which doesn’t matter. I got rid of the comments and made room for larger photos that are responsive to your browser.
Lastly, after writing on thelongbrake.blogspot.com and thelongbrake.com for 8 years, I am putting that name to rest for the time being and have switched my domain...
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Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, 1966-68 John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
If you can make pretty pictures then bless you. Bless you bless you. You will survive and you will be fairly happy. What a gift to the world and to yourself! Moments come and go when I would give all of the wealth I do not have to be able to make something that is simply beautiful, something that people want to hang...
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Body Orthodoxy: A Sensual Education
January 19 20 21
5:30-8:30pm
January 22 (tickets only)
5:30-8:30pm
1172 Republican Street
Seattle, WA 98109
(event page)
Exhibiting Artists: Phil Nellis Charis Brice Joshua Longbrake Jackie Moulton Tucker Fitzgerald Laurie Craft Shannon Presler Heather Fink Kate Miller Heather Stringer
“There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or...
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I always kept two quarts of oil in the trunk. The engine had a slow oil leak, a $950 repair or 1 quart of 5W/30 a month. The trunk had its own leak on the back right side, exaggerated by living in Seattle for 4 years. The rear windows gave up 5 years ago. The front two windows still went down begrudgingly, with a slow whine of fine fine but we’re going to take our time. The driver-side...
December 2011
4 posts
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A Fear: I do not believe in any one thing strongly enough that I will dedicate my life to it, and therefore I will simply get by for the rest of my time here.
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Jonathan visits Chicago
This is Jonathan standing near Lake Michigan.
This is Jonathan at Navy Pier.
This is Jonathan waiting for the brown line.
This is Jonathan in the alley behind my apartment.
This is Jonathan before he eats a pizza.
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a short film by Kirby O’Connell
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I enjoy photographing the weddings of my friends because there is immediate trust, and it’s always an honor to share such an important day and have intimate moments with those I love most.
Many congrats to you, Aubrey and Selena. I miss you both.
November 2011
10 posts
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Conversion Experience
Ok, you win. For whatever reason I guess it’s you and me tonight.
Thank you.
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North Hermitage Nightly
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Kyle Fletcher’s adaptation of my self-portrait.
Kyle’s blog is full of phenomenal work.
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It is November 14th and that is a date.
It is Christmas time.
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Paul persuaded me to use Instagram, and I’m glad he did.
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A great sin: the fear, and ultimately paralyzation, of becoming.
You are not who you want to be, and the path is unclear, so you sit down in the dirt. The cloud of dust is comforting for awhile as it has the illusion of movement, but you’ve been fooled. The dust settles on your increasingly stiffened muscles. Rigamortis, God forbid. God forbid.
God forbid you sit in on the path and...
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Anyway, the elevators in Kirby’s building are moody. I named the elevator on the right Mark Rothko and the elevator on the left is Eeyore. Mark Rothko is typically fast, but on occasion he says That’s enough I’m through with you people you can all take the stairs and go to hell. Eeyore is a bit of a b-hole. (And wouldn’t you be if you had a spike driven into your rectum?)...
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A few weeks ago Kirby and I were driving back to Chicago from Fort Wayne on US 30, and upon passing this sign I asked if we could turn around and go back so I could take a photograph. We went back, pulled over, I got out and took a few shots, and then continued driving west. I forgot about this image until I got the negatives back from the processor.
Originally I placed this image in the set...
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October 2011
10 posts
El Words
It’s not true. I just don’t really know how it got to that point. Like two crazies get together and get kind of drunk. I think the only person who knows is Lexi, and that’s ok. I was terrified of him. But it’s ok and he’s alive and I guess we’ll survive. I’m not a good person in this story. This is Paulina. There’s no way that that’s...
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All right all right. I hear ya. I hear ya.
So it was my first month living in Seattle and I had just begun graduate school. Didn’t know anyone, didn’t have a job, and I was living in a tent in the back yard of a house full of guys in Madison Valley on 29th and John. They invited me to move into their house before I’d even moved to Seattle, but they weren’t going to have a...
El Words
You know those people who call you to just call you? So you’re working? This is Southport. That’s all I do for 8 hours. Doors closing. I said before: you’re fine. I feel better. Like I said it was a good deal. This is Paulina. That’s why it’s so funny. Doors closing. Yes. Yes. I…, Super Mario Brothers and Wii. That was the one that burned up. Stainless steel...
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My greatest failure, one of my greatest failures, is that I keep waiting for someone to say something that is courageous and beautiful and difficult and so full of truth that it is crippling. The failure is in my own silence and my own fear of saying it myself. I fear that I will make an impact, and moreso I fear a reaction from others of delight and change. I wait and I wait and I listen for...
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Tom Wait’s new record Bad As Me was released today and, unsurprisingly, I love it. The first track on the record is prophetically entitled Chicago.
The seeds are planted here
But they won’t grow
We won’t have to say goodbye
If we all go
Maybe things will be better in Chicago
To leave all we’ve ever known
For a place we’ve never seen
Maybe things will be better in Chicago
Well It’s braver...
El Words
It depends like. Southport is next. It’s warmer and it’s faster. It’s about a Sharpie. Paulina is next. Doors open on the right at Paulina. I think Julie has done it. It was almost like a jumbo Sharpie. It depends, too, what kind of yarn you want. Standing passengers: please do not lean against the doors. We just lay on top of it. For a long time I took pictures. Irving Park is...
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Me & Jack
October 17 2011
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I am unable to deal with Jack’s relentless pursuit.
Jack, my lab/malamute mut, has unending desire and love for me. It is too much for me. Yesterday, after having put him in his kennel for 8 hours while I was at work, he followed me around my apartment as I went from room to room. I put things away in the kitchen, and he stood at my feet. I went into the living room and then into the...
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We are two grown men conversing on the internet.
September 2011
3 posts
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