Disqus - Latest Comments for pforu

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/1214325026

propellers for umbrellas — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:50:07 -0000

i love what happened to this thread

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/1214325026

propellers for umbrellas — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:57:46 -0000

you're ridiculous. I find it encouraging.

Re: Not Home Yet

propellers for umbrellas — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:11:33 -0000

I am so very glad you're back, Mills. Tumblr is always less interesting without you around. I am very much looking forward to stories and images from all your travels, and if you are all, indeed, already in the bay area, I would be so pleased to hear and see them in person.

Re: http://marginalgloss.tumblr.com/post/661006951

propellers for umbrellas — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:36:46 -0000

holy moly. sounds frightening, really. My previous knowledge of Tesco was limited mostly to Eugene Mcguiness' song 'A child lost in Tesco,' and my sister's first trip to one, upon her move to the UK. I've seen them, but never been inside. Maybe I should be thankful.

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/594003535

propellers for umbrellas — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:44:37 -0000

i don't think I'd forget you even if such madness ever came to pass

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/594003535

propellers for umbrellas — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:32:41 -0000

I had very little interest in photography until I started hanging around tumblr - not to say I had no interest in taking pictures, but enjoyment of an action and enjoyment of the product of an action are two very different things. You did a lot, introducing me to artists whose work speaks to me - Joshua Heineman's and Pierre Gonnord's and now this - so thank you, thank you for paying attention to these people, and for bringing them to ours.

Re: http://noiseforairports.com/post/556045282

propellers for umbrellas — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:33:38 -0000

I was going to do a musurgia post this week, but now I don't have to! I suppose you've done the katzenklavier already, too?

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/553674440

propellers for umbrellas — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:20:46 -0000

I love that these kinds of buildings still exist, 100+ years after the fact, and that I have been lucky enough to see them. Also, that photographs like this survive.

Re: http://pforu.tumblr.com/post/506600088

propellers for umbrellas — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:22:24 -0000

Thank you for stopping by to tell me.

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/503636684

propellers for umbrellas — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:18:28 -0000

Oh, no worries. Third arms and indications proteus syndrome may also be ironed out, for a small fee!

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/503636684

propellers for umbrellas — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:05:27 -0000

I know enough people in tech in San Francisco that I could probably point you to more than a few places. And I'm sure you know plenty others that could do the same.

It'll be cool to have you on the West Coast. Can I convince you guys to let me take pictures of you?

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/503636684

propellers for umbrellas — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:30:27 -0000

That is very exciting. What kind of work do you want?

Re: http://thegreatpark.tumblr.com/post/491256910

propellers for umbrellas — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:54:18 -0000

Reminds me very much of the last half year. Lovely, lovely.

Re: http://disasterpeace.tumblr.com/post/443130359

propellers for umbrellas — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:14:02 -0000

Sometimes straightforward is totally excellent. I'm also a sucker for pianos, and this sort of feels a bit like you're freewheeling and getting caught on upward draft and watching detritus wheel past your in gusts of wind. Reminds me, somehow, of the animated sequence in Disney's fantasia where the flying horsies are caught in the wind.

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/434851407

propellers for umbrellas — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:25:02 -0000

Things just seem to have fallen away for me, really. When I was a small child I had chronic ear infections until I had my adenoids out, and then migraines, so most sounds were irritating to me. I was unable to enjoy fireworks, merry sounds of cooking utensils, the awful tone of the MRI. Eventually I grew out of them, and maybe it's because I'm just so glad that I no longer cringe when I hear high heels on hardwood floors, but most sounds are things I can enjoy pretty easily.

Re: http://thatwastheriver.tumblr.com/post/370860624

propellers for umbrellas — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:27:40 -0000

Well, I am glad you're able to find the enthusiasm sometimes. I generally fail miserably at recording anything longer than 35 seconds, so you're doing pretty well, in my estimation.

Reciprocity is not necessary. I'd much rather you spend more time recording and posting lovely things than wading through what I've done. More tracks like these would be of much greater value to me than a few hits to my blog.

Cheers!

Re: http://thatwastheriver.tumblr.com/post/370860624

propellers for umbrellas — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:23:32 -0000

Really, really. I came to this tumblr through photons, thinking, "oh, maybe I'll find some cool original content" and then this kind of stuff appears – I am so pleased that someone is posting things this lovely where I can find them.

Re: http://thatwastheriver.tumblr.com/post/403435497

propellers for umbrellas — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:18:30 -0000

I would like even more crap. This is an awesome kind of crap. Please continue.

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/434851407

propellers for umbrellas — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:33:58 -0000

For me the biggest drawback of developing the ability to accept and enjoy those banal, irritating sounds is that it's really hard to find an alarm clock that is horrible enough to be useful.

That, and I stick out like a sore, female thumb at tech metal shows. Past that it hasn't seemed to be that much of a problem.

Re: http://pforu.tumblr.com/post/434488142

propellers for umbrellas — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:58:08 -0000

oh no, thank you! it is so cool when people provide super-groovy-awesomesauce for my ears to experience.

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/420978304

propellers for umbrellas — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:46:13 -0000

This neither a new phenomenon nor a newly noted phenomenon - 'bipolar' is currently trending, that's all (and even that is nothing so terribly new) - and considering that Moliére was writing about this kind of thing 300+ years ago (and I'm sure people have written about it before then), I rather share your bafflement.

There are a million ways to avoid responsibility, and more; given the fact that the DSM (and our cultural sensitivity/hypersensitivity - to mental illness) is constantly expanding, I'm amazed that the psychiatric community would be surprised by this. When so many hovering parents are sure their children have ADHD or Dyslexia or an Autism Spectrum Disorder, so many more children are taught from an early age that their behaviour is something they cannot (and are not expected) to control. While I'm sure there are many children who have real problems which could be treated with medicine or other therapies, I'm generally of the opinion that more children are simply exhibiting a natural range of human behaviour - the problem is that we, as a society, seem to believe less and less in natural ranges and more and more in diseases (real or imaginary) and their treatments.

I was diagnosed with severe depression and put on high doses of prozac when I was ten years old, at a time when the drug had not yet been tested on children. I probably was deeply sad - circumstances were not the best at the time - but I wonder occasionally at such a simple and drastic course of action: child is exhibiting intense emotion! She's diseased! Get the drugs! I am quite sure I wasn't the only kid who experienced it, and I think that kind of reactionary behaviour contributes to the way that people view their own actions and emotions in later life. And I haven't done much research, but I'm willing to guess that hypochondria is a very middle to upper class kind of thing.

I've done intense amounts of therapy, and met and loved probably more than the usual amount of people with real, severe problems. I believe that treatment is possible and necessary, but there are big problems in our world with regard to the way we treat and think about mental illness, and this article is even more discouraging. If the people we trust to be doing the treating have only recently struck upon something that seems to me to be so patently obvious, their right to that trust seems to be sitting on rather shaky ground.

Re: http://marcintustin.tumblr.com/post/417361306

propellers for umbrellas — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:20:07 -0000

No kind of super flash, just the standard built-in for the model. Here I set the camera to a longer exposure (1/6) and 1600 ISO. If I'm trying to shoot rain or snow during daylight I generally shoot at 100 or 200 ISO with a slightly shorter exposure, depending on the light. Hope that helps - I'm not an expert myself, but this may be enough to get you started. Also, found your page through flickr stats/referrals - thanks for keeping the click-through link active!

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/407354936

propellers for umbrellas — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:29:52 -0000

I am very glad that someone helps turtles cross the road, and I'm rather pleased by your definition of happiness. What did this ex of yours mean, when she said you were shallow? Somehow depth doesn't seem terribly relevant to that kind of conversation.

Re: http://pforu.tumblr.com/post/398318155

propellers for umbrellas — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:03:44 -0000

I am glad you agree. More smiles today.

Re: http://mills.tumblr.com/post/407354936

propellers for umbrellas — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:45:43 -0000

The thing about meeting, passing, or even imagining homeless, addicted, brutalized, severely disabled or people otherwise less fortunate than myself was that while I sometimes managed empathy, or even just sympathy, I more often could not manage more than guilt - the feeling that my happiness was to blame for their troubles, that happiness and/or good fortune (I managed to be fortunate and unhappy for many years, so I'm quite sure these things are not mutually exclusive) were exhaustible resources and I had somehow taken more than my share, or that I simply had no right to a happiness unburdened by the state of mankind (or otherwise, really.) I was not proud of this, but I was also pretty sure I wasn't alone. Yes. I sometimes cried honestly for these people, but I think I mostly cried for myself. I was a middle class white kid with two loving parents and a million opportunities - I unable to understand my own, privileged unhappiness, I think I sometimes wanted to feel a more obvious, tangible anguish.

Other things: I always had a difficult time with war and disaster photography, partly because of that sense of guilt but also because there seemed to be a moral grey area - at some point the cameraman had to decide to photograph the man on the ground reaching out with one arm and a hole in his head instead of helping him. I couldn't figure out how far you had to be in that moment, both physically and mentally, to say, "I will take this photo and hopefully it will raise awareness so men will die like this less often" instead of "there is an imperiled person in front of me, and I will help them because they are not yet dead." I could never decide whether I could hate the people who took those photographs, most of which seemed cold and removed (or worse - romanticized), or thank them for keeping my eyes open. I feel similarly about a lot of documentary art - songs, canvases, film, what-have-you - these are contained things, with borders, where our lives simply are not. On a related note: When I see the words "based on a true story" I generally prepare myself for a period of melancholy and quiet outrage.

Things are a little different. I still wonder about war photography, but I have achieved some sense of happiness, and also that I have a right to pursue that happiness. I've noticed I'm actually more likely to be proactive about all this suffering than I used to be, because this happy, hopeful feeling has done a number on my formerly epic levels of cynicism. There is this thing about despair: whether I feel it for myself or for another, it's crippling. It doesn't help me, or help me help anyone else.

I am statistically insignificant, but so is everybody else, alone. I figure the more I believe that things can change and horrors can be averted or lessened, the more I'm likely to convince other people of the idea. I am hoping to go viral with this thing.