Starry Nights

The minute I get out of the city, all I can harp on are “Look there’s a star!”, “Oh, there’s a constellation!” and “I love/miss the stars!” Whenever I see a few stars when I am in Chicago, I simply marvel at the wonder. And when I’m in Colorado? My neck starts cramping from just sitting in a chair around the fire pit, sitting in silence.

When I came across Thierry Cohen‘s photography exhibition entitled Darkened Cities, I immediately started to have a new appreciation for city stargazing. Here, Thierry captured the cities without their usual glow and instead, played with the skyline shadowing against a starry night. And the result is quite moving.

My personal favorite is the San Francisco one. Time to go back I guess.

 

New York City

San Francisco

Tokyo

 

 

 

 

Getting Some Perspective

Every year around this time, I feel like most of us start analyzing life. And realizing that all the trips, dinners and other plans we broke over the course of the year in the name of work don’t leave us very fulfilled. I think at times, we put way too much pressure on ourselves, telling ourselves that we simply must get this done. Right at this very second. When often times, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

A journalist for The San Francisco Egotist recently passed away and spent the past year documenting his life and thoughts with cancer. One piece/post in particular has made its way around the advertising sector, “A Short Lesson in Perspective.” It’s worth the read. The full read. I cannot remember the last time I sat at my desk and read something so profound, so moving and so incredibly truthful.

“The creative industry operates largely by holding ‘creative’ people ransom to their own self-image, precarious sense of self-worth, and fragile – if occasionally out of control ego. We tend to set ourselves impossibly high standards, and are invariably our own toughest critics. Most artists and designers I know would rather work all night than turn in a sub-standard job. It is a universal truth that all artists think they a frauds and charlatans, and live in constant fear of being exposed. You don’t have to drive creative folk like most workers. They drive themselves. Just wind ‘em up and let ‘em go.”

48-Hours of Firsts

After befriending a musician and Celia getting booked to werk the Treasure Island Music Fest, fate dealt some sweet cards and I was on my way to the west coast for 48 hours. Where I had a weekend full of first times.

-First trip to San Francisco
-First time navigating a new city without a map
-First time eating and drinking total German cuisine at Suppeküche
-First time walking up “hills” and being completely out of breath
-First time having a rooftop party that felt like a movie
-First time hanging with Kacee in America (Dublin reunion 4 years in the making)
-First time at a Music Festival
-First time movin’ and groovin’ in the Silent Disco (San Fran calls them “Silent Friscos”)
-First time using a sewing machine to create a beer koozie in the arts & crafts tent
-First time on a Ferris Wheel that was so old-school, it didn’t have a cage around it keeping you in
-First time getting a haircut on an island. At a music festival

And the big one:
-First time I bought a journal and started writing my book. While gazing at the Pacific Ocean.

Needless to say, I’m in love with San Francisco. And leaving was horrible. The music fest wasn’t too bad to boot either.