Bicycle Haiku is a reproduction of a sketchbook I kept while I rode my bicycle across the US in 1979. It contains an ink sketch and a haiku for each day of the three month 5,000 mile trip. A typical scene would be like the day I passed through Francisco, Indiana. On a page full of cow faces staring up at me, the haiku goes: "Collective silence/Like I walked into the wrong room/Every horned head turned." (This was Annie Dillard's favorite.) I scanned the 151 images in the original book (which is the same size as this one) and printed this at a books-on-demand printer in 2001. This book will not be a best-seller. It's a book of poetry, and you know what that means. It might appeal to anyone intrigued by pedaling across a continent, or loners fascinated by blue highways and other little-traveled roads, or sensitive souls really into haikus, or sketches. I can imagine a few odd ducks who collect self-published books that will be thrilled by this book. Personal friends of mine may be interested in this vanity publishing. For the rest -- that is for most normal people -- there is nothing of fashionable interest here.

Bicycle Haiku

Literature & Fiction

Kelly, Kevin

Poetry

Kevin Kelly

I once took a class with the brilliant black and white photographer Minor White. He had us perform all kinds of wonderful exercises on our photographs. At the time of the workshop (in autumn of 1971), I was spending a great deal of my life trudging around upstate New York with a tripod and large format camera making slightly abstract black and white images. My favorite Minor White exercise was his request that we draw or sketch our own photographs. This non-intuitive idea tickled me, and I got out my pen and ink and eagerly started.The first image I drew surprised me. What I seemed to see in my own close-up picture of the decaying paint on a rusty outdoor sign was a one-legged man in shorts chained to the night sky. I have absolutely no idea where that image came from.I continued to sketch what I saw in other photographs I had recently done, and the resulting drawings continue to disturb me. The same guy in shorts kept showing up, entangled in all kinds of unresolved tensions. By the tenth one, I found that I could easily get into the state of mind, or rather state of no-mind, to start drawing. The emerging theme seemed to be "bad dreams." I would probe myself for bad dreams, and record. By the eleventh image I found that I didn’t even need the photograph. I would just relax, try to "see" a bad dream, and then draw.For several years afterward, long after I had stopped taking abstract black and white images, I would occasionally take out a sheet of typing paper, open my bottle of India ink and with a pen in hand slip into a "bad dream" trance to draw. It was like going to the movies because I felt I was watching someone else draw. Maybe this is what "channeling" feels like, I thought, because I don’t feel much responsibility for what comes out. I’m just passing them on as the delighted messenger.I kept this pile of sketches in an envelope in a file cabinet and came across them while moving. I decided to reproduce the series here in this homemade book for several reasons. One, why not? The drawings were lonely and bored, and doing little good stuffed in darkness and kept from view. They are inconsequential doodles, but I’ve learned late in life that whatever marginal value they have can only be gathered by being shared. Two, the exercise of drawing photos is a good one to try and to disseminate. And Three, maybe others in the audience can tell me what these images mean. What don’t I see?Four, and most importantly, I really enjoyed these and maybe others would enjoy seeing them too. I hope so.

Bad Dreams

Arts & Photography

Drawing

Recommendations for cool stuff. Included are books, tools, software, videos, maps, gadgets, hardware, websites, or gear that are extraordinarily handy or useful for individual and small groups.

Cool Tools

list here 100 great true films. These are the best non-fiction films Ive found for general interest. I define true films as documentaries, educational films, instructional how-tos, and what the British call factuals  a non-fiction visual account. I recommend here only those great and worthwhile titles that are available on tape or DVD at consumer prices. I indicate first whether a film is rentable from Netflix, and then if it is purchasable from Amazon. If neither of those options are available, I will then list an alternative source.

True Films 1.0

From the author's introduction: In this book I offer rave reviews of 150 great true films. I define these non-fiction films as true films -- documentaries, educational films, instructional how-to's, and what the British call factuals - a non-fiction visual account. The 150 films included in this book are the best non-fiction films I've found for general interest. I haven't had TV for 20 years, so I've concentrated my viewing time on documentaries and true films. I run a little website (www.truefilms.com) where I solicit suggestions of great stuff. So far about 40,000 documentaries and factual films have been released. There's no time to watch them all, and little guidance to what's great. I've watched all these films more than once. Sometimes thrice.This little book will steer you to the best true films in English. Each film gets a short review of why it is worth your time, and then I feature 4 or 5 screen grabs from the film to show you what the texture and style of the film is. I also include a picture of the cover and indicate where you can rent it (say on Netflix) or purchase it (from Amazon). All the films reviewed are available on DVD or tape at consumer prices. This is the golden age of documentaries. Inexpensive equipment, new methods of distribution, and a very eager audience have all launched a renaissance in non-fiction film making and viewing. The very best of these true films are as entertaining as the best Hollywood blockbusters. Because they are true, their storylines seem fresh with authentic plot twists, real characters, and truth stranger than fiction. Most true films are solidly informative, and a few are genuinely useful like a tool. What am I looking for in a great true film? It must be factual. It must surprise me, but not preach to me. If it introduces me to a world or subculture that I never thought about before, even better. There's a plot - a transformation from beginning to the end. It's easily available. Enjoy the best!

True Films 2.0: 150 Great Documentaries & Factuals

Humor & Entertainment