Welcome to the conversation!

[mirages]

(Thanks to augenpoesie for this beautiful after-hours image)

Adamtopia is more than a forum. It's a feast.

Day after day, Q3 lays out a table, often furnishing it with funny and thought-provoking essays, always laying out a rich assortment of Adam news, videos, clips and quotes. The news mavens and ninjas gather snippets from all corners of the worldwide web, and others make wise, witty and often profound comments on the whole tableau. Many of us have been nourished by this movable feast for years; I know I have, and although I seldom slap on a nametag and post, I'm heartily grateful.

The times I am tempted to post tend to be when the topic veers off. Adam attracts a lot of very interesting, articulate and creative people, many of whom are as befuddled to find themselves being a fan of anybody as I am, and who want to talk about that as much as they want to talk about Adam. Many can't help thinking harder, deeper, or further out of the box about issues sparked by, but tangential to, Adam himself or being an Adam fan. And many feel challenged by Adam's courage and risk-taking and fully living into who he is to do that in their own lives -- I can't help thinking that the best compliment you could pay Adam would be to become as fully who you are as he has, and to l"Show me what you're workin' with -- Strut!"

A few years ago, the Moon Garden Lounge gave Adamtopians a place in which to have these kinds of conversations, and a number of new and long-time Atoppers recently wrote about how much they missed it. Q3 responded by setting aside another corner of the forum and suggesting the name, "After Hours," which is a great way to set the mood -- it's a quiet corner to visit after the feast, after the concerts and the flailing.

Beyond that, it's up to us. I'll post a few possible conversation-starters below, but I'm most interested in hearing what you'd like this place to be.  Oh, and we could use some help with the decor -- this minimalist look is gonna get old fast!



And thank you, chapf!

[mirages]

So, this thread is inspired by the Moon Garden and as you can see, I'm writing by moonlight. There is something about Adam's way of embracing both dark and light without losing the beauty of either that's inspiring.

When I think of the moon, I can't help thinking of Rumi -- this poem in particular:

At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me.

Close the language-door,
and open the love-window

The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.

-- From: Like This Versions of Rumi by Coleman Barks

The rest of the verse in under the moon pic in my avi, which comes from Leonard Cohen's song "Closing Time" goes like this:

And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief

Another Canadian poet, Lorna Crozier, wrote this:

In Moonlight by Lorna Crozier

Something moves
just beyond the mind's
clumsy fingers.

It has to do with seeds.
The earth's insomnia.
The garden going on
without us

needing no one
to watch it

not even the moon.

And I loved it when we had the supermoon recently and an Atopper posted the lines from Coleridge (who was, in turn, quoting a traditional ballad), about the new moon holding the old moon in her arms. Love Coleridge, and love being enriched by posts like that!

[mirages]

And a final jumping-off point ... I'm a professional writer who has made a living telling other people's stories for a long time. Nothing wrong with that -- I enjoy it. However, I think I'm also supposed to be doing my own work, but a lot of self-consciousness and fear gets in the way. Last week I finally gathered my courage and started writing again -- it might be more accurate to say that I stopped not starting to write again -- baby steps! But I put in five days of a minimum 300 words a day of my own -- just sketches for now, nothing finished, and that's fine. I'd love to have a place to be accountable for keeping at it, and to encourage other folks to bring forth what's in them, too. Anybody interested in that?

[Deleted]

Aug 24, 2014 18:45:14 GMT -5 mirages said:

And a final jumping-off point ... I'm a professional writer who has made a living telling other people's stories for a long time. Nothing wrong with that -- I enjoy it. However, I think I'm also supposed to be doing my own work, but a lot of self-consciousness and fear gets in the way. Last week I finally gathered my courage and started writing again -- it might be more accurate to say that I stopped not starting to write again -- baby steps! But I put in five days of a minimum 300 words a day of my own -- just sketches for now, nothing finished, and that's fine. I'd love to have a place to be accountable for keeping at it, and to encourage other folks to bring forth what's in them, too. Anybody interested in that?

Hi Mirages! First thanks for doing this. I was a dedicated lurker of the Moon Garden and really miss Mika's posts and the dreamy nighttime landscape he created.  I never got up the courage to join in and then it was too late- After Hours sounds like a great successor. I too am returning to writing after a long difficult time irl and would appreciate a place to be accountable for word count that's also laid back. Let me know how I can help.

[mirages]

Aug 27, 2014 3:07:14 GMT -5 @iris said:

Aug 24, 2014 18:45:14 GMT -5 mirages said:

And a final jumping-off point ... I'm a professional writer who has made a living telling other people's stories for a long time. Nothing wrong with that -- I enjoy it. However, I think I'm also supposed to be doing my own work, but a lot of self-consciousness and fear gets in the way. Last week I finally gathered my courage and started writing again -- it might be more accurate to say that I stopped not starting to write again -- baby steps! But I put in five days of a minimum 300 words a day of my own -- just sketches for now, nothing finished, and that's fine. I'd love to have a place to be accountable for keeping at it, and to encourage other folks to bring forth what's in them, too. Anybody interested in that?

Hi Mirages! First thanks for doing this. I was a dedicated lurker of the Moon Garden and really miss Mika's posts and the dreamy nighttime landscape he created.  I never got up the courage to join in and then it was too late- After Hours sounds like a great successor. I too am returning to writing after a long difficult time irl and would appreciate a place to be accountable for word count that's also laid back. Let me know how I can help.

Iris, wonderful to hear from you, and I LOVE your avi -- a sort of quiet floral supernova! Q3 will be announcing the thread on the weekend, but this After Hours club also opens early -- magic! (It's always After Hours somewhere ...)

I'm an inveterate lurker myself, and other than opening up a quiet corner of Atop for musings and following our Muses, I have no master plan -- I'm looking forward to seeing what people want to bring to the after-party.

Getting back to doing our own writing is tough, eh? I'm great with an external client and a deadline, but it's way too easy to let my own stuff slide. I was five for five last week -- of which two sessions were ghastly, two glorious (fun, I mean, not that the writing was stuff for the ages), and one kinda meh. Then I got completely derailed on the weekend and have been hit-and-miss this week. So thank you for saying you're trying to get back in the saddle yourself -- that will help get me to plunk my bottom down in front of the keyboard today.

I know Atop also has lots of visual artists and musicians, so I hope anyone trying to do their own creative work, or who just enjoys the heck out of other people's, will stop by here, too, and tell us about the creative work they love, or about following their own stars (or moon).

What stops you from writing most? With me I think it's partly a tendency to be too other-centered (like many women) and not invested enough in doing my own work, plus a sort of morbid self-consciousness and fear of mediocrity. Adam is a great muse because of his fearlessness, his willingness to be himself even if sometimes it looks ridiculous, and the utter joy he seems to experience and definitely communicates when he's doing what he was obviously made to do.

What motivates you to do your own work? I just finished reading Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird," which is really helpful in addition to being hilarious a lot of the time. She talks a lot about that negative, self-critical voice in her head -- she calls it listening to radio station K-FKD, and it basically broadcasts all your negative, paranoid, self-defeating thoughts (maybe that's not you -- it's certainly me!). So I've printed up a big "BOYCOTT KFKD" sign and posted in on the wall adjacent to my monitor -- makes me smile!

[mirages]

I couldn't resist going and finding a poem that Lamott quotes in "Bird by Bird" because it made me laugh out loud (she includes it as an example of how we can use even our self-defeating thoughts creatively):


We Who Are Your Closest Friends
Phillip Lopate, 1943

we who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting
as a group
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift

your analyst is
in on it
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as long as you need us

in announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves
but since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make
unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your
disastrous personality

then for the good of the collective

[nikki]

mirages, hello and thank you for the warm welcome.

Maybe we can start with a simple leap from a daily news topic following Gaga's performance with Adam and his response and see where that goes. Just some initial thoughts.

Initially, what I thought was, 'Welcome to the new business model for entertainers where fan behaviour is actively factored into the business model'. People pretty much know by now that no artist can really survive in this era without very good strategic branding and consciously grooming a core die-hard fan base to market on their behalf via all the new mediums/distribution channels including reality TV platforms. So 'fan as marketer' for an artist is a brave new world as never before because the desired messages cannot be controlled to the degree that they were in the past.

The upside, of course is the power, speed and reach of social media. One downside, of course, is when the message goes 'off script' because peoples' motives for what they do is individual, often unconscious and also shaped by group dynamics and values. In short, the environment is unpredictable, a loose cannon. 

One of the key value shifts of the social media environment and era that I see is a rampant individualism and assertion of the 'right' to say and do as we please without factoring in the impact of others to the degree that societal norms used to demand previously, even the notion of common courtesy. We have the ability to connect across the globe in a way never seen before and the sad fact is that for many reasons we often don't like one another and now find new ways not to like one another, and so we increasingly retreat into tribes and defend them as we clearly see on the world stage in many contexts.

I absolutely love and adore Adam as an entertainer and respect him enormously as a human being. As a human being, to me, he integrates in a very beautiful and balanced way an understanding of fiercely expressing his individuality and difference but it is tempered by love and consideration and all the beautiful qualities of the heart that we all have as our core and are capable of consciously expressing; where we find our deeper reflections in others; similarity and connection, not difference. He celebrates both at once and it is a very powerful message that is increasingly getting lost. Without it you are in Kanye territory.

Many of us have taken time and a lot of reflection and discussion here to come to understand why we are doing what we are doing and for so long. In terms of my own expression of 'fandom', I loathe even the idea of entering into any type of marketing relationship with any artist, even if I choose to see it in a different way or do it from my own desire to see Adam succeed. It's a matter of principle for me and the negatives simply outweigh the positives. I don't want to be a part of any targeted marketing machine, even on my own terms. I buy Adam's music and go to his concerts and that is where I draw the line. I also never want to open myself up to the possibility that I have given Adam, the businessman, the authority to correct my behaviour if I go 'off script'. I like the simplicity of interacting with Adam, the artist and human being.

[mirages]

Aug 29, 2014 0:11:42 GMT -5 nikki said:

Maybe we can start with a simple leap from a daily news topic following Gaga's performance with Adam and his response and see where that goes. Just some initial thoughts.

Initially, what I thought was, 'Welcome to the new business model for entertainers where fan behaviour is actively factored into the business model'. People pretty much know by now that no artist can really survive in this era without very good strategic branding and consciously grooming a core die-hard fan base to market on their behalf via all the new mediums/distribution channels including reality TV platforms. So 'fan as marketer' for an artist is a brave new world as never before because the desired messages cannot be controlled to the degree that they were in the past.

The upside, of course is the power, speed and reach of social media. One downside, of course, is when the message goes 'off script' because peoples' motives for what they do is individual, often unconscious and also shaped by group dynamics and values. In short, the environment is unpredictable, a loose cannon. 

One of the key value shifts of the social media environment and era that I see is a rampant individualism and assertion of the 'right' to say and do as we please without factoring in the impact of others to the degree that societal norms used to demand previously, even the notion of common courtesy. We have the ability to connect across the globe in a way never seen before and the sad fact is that for many reasons we often don't like one another and now find new ways not to like one another, and so we increasingly retreat into tribes and defend them as we clearly see on the world stage in many contexts.

I absolutely love and adore Adam as an entertainer and respect him enormously as a human being. As a human being, to me, he integrates in a very beautiful and balanced way an understanding of fiercely expressing his individuality and difference but it is tempered by love and consideration and all the beautiful qualities of the heart that we all have as our core and are capable of consciously expressing; where we find our deeper reflections in others; similarity and connection, not difference. He celebrates both at once and it is a very powerful message that is increasingly getting lost. Without it you are in Kanye territory.

Many of us have taken time and a lot of reflection and discussion here to come to understand why we are doing what we are doing and for so long. In terms of my own expression of 'fandom', I loathe even the idea of entering into any type of marketing relationship with any artist, even if I choose to see it in a different way or do it from my own desire to see Adam succeed. It's a matter of principle for me and the negatives simply outweigh the positives. I don't want to be a part of any targeted marketing machine, even on my own terms. I buy Adam's music and go to his concerts and that is where I draw the line. I also never want to open myself up to the possibility that I have given Adam, the businessman, the authority to correct my behaviour if I go 'off script'. I like the simplicity of interacting with Adam, the artist and human being.

Nikki, wonderful to see you here! And what a powerful and meaty post!I've been musing on this topic myself and wondering how to open it up, so thanks for doing it so well!

For me, every single aspect of being a fan is weird -- I've never been one before and it makes me feel a little ridiculous (okay, very ridiculous) , but one of my mid-life lessons seems to be about taking myself a whole lot less seriously and loosening up enough to let fun in, not to mention owning who I really am rather than who I think other people want me to be. So, as it turns out, Adam is a great role model.

I also love the way he models the message "there's enough for everyone," because I think the fear that we will not get enough or as much as the next guy runs deep in our species and motivates much of the atrocious behaviour humans allow themselves. He has explicitly modeled this by quashing fan wars and repeatedly saying, "there's enough room for everybody" in music/entertainment. He models it with the way he promotes other people's music and projects. I'm sometimes staggered by how this example, doesn't penetrate the mindset and behaviour of people who say they're his fans, but it's the same storyin religion or politics, too. I always remember Lenny Bruce saying that if Jesus could see the things his followers were doing in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

Actually, I've been struck again and again by how similar fandom is to a religious movement -- the early ecstatic phase, the formation of communities, then the emergence of schisms and of rules of how to do it right and the accusations that others are doing it wrong, and especially the assumption of the faithful that they KNOW what their prophet or hero or deity ithinks, means and would want.

And then there's the hero's journey stuff, too ... following Adam introduced me to Katy Perry who introduced me to Russell Brand, and although that man would scare the hell out of me if he were to saunter into my living room, I enjoy his psycho-spirutual-political polemics ... his recent "Messiah Complex" monologue was an extended riff that reminded me at times of Beat poetry readings, and a pretty profound (and funny) meditation on who we choose as heroes, and why .

Lately, he's been doing a series of short Youtubes called "The Trews" www.youtube.com/channel/UCswH8ovgUp5Bdg-0_JTYFNw in which he examines the messages and emotions the media try to communicate and incite -- it's sort of a layman's version of Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent". One of the things he often highlights is how media and the people who consume it repeatedly choose someone like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus or Lady Gaga, elevates them to semi-godhood, and then seems to need to rip them apart, to sacrifice them. It's pure Joseph Campbell.

Hmmm, speaking of going "off-script," I think I just did in relation to your post and its point about how by being a fan one is inadvertently also being observed, judged and groomed as a marketing tool. I don't care for being told what to do either, but I do like the fact that we as fans can be, and often are, one of Adam's selling points when a new label is looking at him or a TV show is considering him for a part, or a band like Queen is thinking about using him as their lead singer (although I suspect Brian and Roger would have put him out there nonetheless because they like the way he delivers their music -- they don't like being told what to do by anybody either!).

[Deleted]

you've drawn out so many interesting points mirages. sadly i have nothing new to throw out so i'll just share on some of the points made if that's okay.
re: the writing and return to creating. i have some health issues that can make it difficult to read and i'm often awake at night waiting out headaches and similar listening to downloads of anything except non fiction (that's what I deal with professionally so...). Poetry, books, even tv/movies, sometimes podcasts (Night Vale!). the isolation of illness has provided a different perspective and words have become both a way to connect to people but words have also taken on another dimension. listening in the dark i often visualize the words spooling out, shaped by the message and the voice and who knows what. the growing desire to reach back, to send some words of my own spinning back has been a big motivator in returning to writing. Also the desire to create better worlds and people to talk to:). what gets in my way? laziness (wince) and looking up the mountain when I start, knowing that I'm at least 2 or 3 complete rewrites away from good

on your new topics. i'm a fan of many things but this is really the only fandom I've been kind of in. i like and agree with your comparing it to religion and have to say my reaction to both is similar - not really for me. sometimes it seems as if for many, there must be doctrine. anyway, my falling-from-a-great-height infatuation (the ecstasy) with adam has largely transformed into a calmer enduring affection quietly sustaining. Still the bold choices Adam made and imagery he created are enduring sources of inspiration and energy.

i too have increasingly and almost hesitatingly become a big Russell Brand fan. I knew him from his comedy several years ago which very much wasn't my thing but his writing and his you tube commentary, in addition to the Messiah tour have really impressed me. And tearing down our pop culture gods is sometimes as simple as rejecting new work/art because it's just not new anymore, not hip to like what's already popular. i honestly can't imagine how difficult it is for popular artists to navigate this turbulence - esp now that social media provides a constant stream of criticism and vitriol.

tonight i'm listening to a movie i've already seen 'only lovers left alive' - in the right mood i enjoy jarmusch's molasses slow movies and i love tom hiddleston and tilda swinton and how they convey the strange sweetness of the relationship and the musician vampire's disappointment in humanity and the lack of reverence for art in the modern world. okay i know none of that meant anything -- maybe file under After Hours meandering

[mirages]

Aug 30, 2014 0:18:12 GMT -5 @iris said:

you've drawn out so many interesting points mirages. sadly i have nothing new to throw out so i'll just share on some of the points made if that's okay.
re: the writing and return to creating. i have some health issues that can make it difficult to read and i'm often awake at night waiting out headaches and similar listening to downloads of anything except non fiction (that's what I deal with professionally so...). Poetry, books, even tv/movies, sometimes podcasts (Night Vale!). the isolation of illness has provided a different perspective and words have become both a way to connect to people but words have also taken on another dimension. listening in the dark i often visualize the words spooling out, shaped by the message and the voice and who knows what. the growing desire to reach back, to send some words of my own spinning back has been a big motivator in returning to writing. Also the desire to create better worlds and people to talk to:). what gets in my way? laziness (wince) and looking up the mountain when I start, knowing that I'm at least 2 or 3 complete rewrites away from good

on your new topics. i'm a fan of many things but this is really the only fandom I've been kind of in. i like and agree with your comparing it to religion and have to say my reaction to both is similar - not really for me. sometimes it seems as if for many, there must be doctrine. anyway, my falling-from-a-great-height infatuation (the ecstasy) with adam has largely transformed into a calmer enduring affection quietly sustaining. Still the bold choices Adam made and imagery he created are enduring sources of inspiration and energy.

i too have increasingly and almost hesitatingly become a big Russell Brand fan. I knew him from his comedy several years ago which very much wasn't my thing but his writing and his you tube commentary, in addition to the Messiah tour have really impressed me. And tearing down our pop culture gods is sometimes as simple as rejecting new work/art because it's just not new anymore, not hip to like what's already popular. i honestly can't imagine how difficult it is for popular artists to navigate this turbulence - esp now that social media provides a constant stream of criticism and vitriol.

tonight i'm listening to a movie i've already seen 'only lovers left alive' - in the right mood i enjoy jarmusch's molasses slow movies and i love tom hiddleston and tilda swinton and how they convey the strange sweetness of the relationship and the musician vampire's disappointment in humanity and the lack of reverence for art in the modern world. okay i know none of that meant anything -- maybe file under After Hours meandering

iris, this is lovely meandering, thank you!

You know, I think very many of us here at Atop come here for respite from something. I'm so sorry to hear that you have health issues, and especially that they interfere with your reading (I have an eye condition that does that, too), but I love the way you describe listening to books, the words inspiring images on the backdrop of your eyelids or the rich dark screen of night. You talk about words bringing you meaning and comfort and wanting to respond with words of your own, and there is some of that motivation in me as well. Maybe more it's that books and poems have been some of the best companions I've known. I memorize poetry and recite it while I walk. I listen to books while walking, too, and there are portions of my city I associate strongly with certain writers as a result  ...  by the way, if you have in iThing, there's a great and inexpensive app called Audiobooks that has past-copyright material recorded by volunteers -- I've recently listened to 'The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius,' 'Walden Pond,' 'Tale of Two Cities,' 'Moby Dick' and other classics for free on this app. Anyway, I'm always so grateful when I encounter a kindred spirit in a book, or even a completely not-kindred one I can learn from, and I want to figure out how to offer that companionship to others, too. Plus, my experience of life is richer when I'm writing -- I pay more attention.

You make a good point about popular disdain for the no-longer-new-and-hip, and I think Gaga is probably feeling the pangs of that. I can't imagine having to do your growing up in public, as Lou Reed put it. It's embarrassing enough doing it in complete obscurity! I actually quite like Gaga -- she's very entertaining to look at and I think she has a great voice and is a good songwriter. She was a bit of a hot mess on stage with Queen and Adam but I think she was being Rock Chick, you know, flirting with the edge and going off-script with the vocals. I do worry for her a bit -- I think the meteoric rise to super-fame so young, and then the tepid response to her latest work combined with the vicious attacks on her appearance -- well, it can't be easy to stay centered. I hope she can get back to just having fun (I saw one early video she made, backstage, where she was making a prop with a hot glue gun and spare parts -- it was a "disco stick," and she said how great it was to get to do this stuff and get paid for it -- so much like Adam "getting" to play dress-up for a living). I think she did have fun on stage with QAL, and there's no question Adam enjoyed the hell out of it. I was grinning ear to ear seeing all those tweets of his about it, and then watching the "better view" video he posted.

Nikki, that's where I think I may diverge on this issue -- I totally get what you're saying about a sense of discomfort when I give "businessman Adam" (because there definitely is one of those) the ability to influence my actions or expression of my opinions. But I'm not sure if his favouriting of mys*&@^#r's tweet was the businessman Adam as much as just-Adam who obviously couldn't have been more happy and excited about the duet, finding a fairly discrete way to say it was a downer to see his fans saying negative stuff about it. He has the right to express his opinions, and why wouldn't he have opinions about whether his fans are making him look good or bad? What makes it seem more business-model-y was Shoshana also endorsing the tweet.

iris, I have a soft spot for Jim Jarmusch myself ('Down by Law,' 'Coffee and Cigarettes'), and in fact have just put "Broken Flowers" on my to-watch list on Netflix (they don't have 'Only Lovers Left Alive' -- darn!). And I love slow , talk-y movies. A favourite is Louis Malle's 'My Dinner with Andre' -- now there's a conversation!

[mirages]

Borrowing this photo by augenpoesie from the daily thread ... thought it was a perfect after-hour flower.  How does she DO this with light and shadow?  If you've never visited her photo site (there's a link in her signature line), I can't recommend the trip strongly enough. In the same way that Adam "sings in 3D (TM bridgeymah), somehow opening up a space with his voice that we can feel and share, augenpoesie's photos are inhabited by tremendous presence and a beautiful soul.

[Nocturnal]

Mirage, lovely mood you have set in here.  Moonlight always sets my mind at peace.  I am a painter, mosaic artist and novice quilter. I have been putting off projects telling myself I am too busy with the day job.  Maybe we can all inspire each other to find the time and confidence to express our creativity. 
I want to comment on the Gaga video/ Adam tweet discussion.  The fans want to help, and have a connection with Adam through social media, but some don't always go about it very well.  I think his intention was to educate, since some are not following his example of being supportive of other artists.  Was his favorite of that tweet the best way to do it ?  probably not...  But, I think he is so thrilled and proud of the Queen opportunity he's worked so hard to earn, he was shocked when his fans made negative remarks towards one of his favorite artists, and just reacted.  I agree, Shoshanna jumping in too made it very business like.  He's still an emerging artist, and needs support.  Adam's is a relatively new fandom.  Sadly, I've seen the same craziness in many older fan groups.  Just look at the disrespectful way a few Queen "fans" talk to Dr. May.  I know they suffered when Freddie past.  I grieved when John Lennon was killed, but I love celebrating his work when newer artists play it.  Hopefully, the fans will continue to support Adam, and maybe evolve a little as he does.  
   

[Deleted]

Hi, everyone. Thanks mirages for starting this thread.

I am a writer too. I have written two novels in the past but right now I am doing freelance business and marketing writing for others. It took a while to get this business off the ground but now I have enough clients to make it full-time. I have a good idea for a new novel and hope to start working on it in earnest "soon," as Adam would say. This whole thing is part of a lifestyle change that I hope will eventually allow me to work from anywhere, enabling me to move to a small coastal town and away from the big city.

There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about. —Helen Frankenthaler



P.S. My thoughts on the Gaga/fan/tweet imbroglio is this. The internet really makes it marvelous to be a fan these days. I was a fan of musicians back in the day. I remember when you didn't even know any other fans, and your favorite artist disappeared off the face of the earth between albums, and you just had to treasure and dote for years over a tiny picture you cut out of TV Guide -- because that's all there was.

Having worked in internet outreach for years for a large cultural institution, I learned that people are ungrateful for the new ability to communicate and connect. Rather than conduct themselves with self-restraint and politeness, they periodically unleash all the pent up rage lurking in the reptilian brain. That was certainly what I saw when I logged on and saw that Adam had dueted with Gaga -- a collective tantrum. Unfortunately the offending parties probably feel more self-righteous and justified than ever, and are clueless that they were even the ones being called out by Adam's favoriting of mys*&@^#r's tweet.

[rosepetal]

I am very excited, thanks to all who made this possible . I have written poetry my entire life, I grew up in a very bad place with very bad people and it was an escape. As I've gotten older much of my writing had become a statement of things as I see them. I'm often inspired by Adam and social injustice of this world. A lifelong Emily Dickenson fan I sometimes lean toward the subject if death but not the sadness, it's the peace and understanding I feel death brings that I write about . But since we are talking about the moon and darkness I will post a little poem I wrote years ago when I was so unsure what tomorrow would bring
Perhaps the night will linger
And grace me with its kiss,
Tell the dawn it's not welcome.
And dry the morning mist,
For I'm frighten by tomorrow
And yesterday was so sad ,
That darkness is now my fortress
While in its arms I'm clad .
It wooes me and comforts me
Then whispers in my ear ,
Rest now my little one
For life is drawing near.
If only I could stay here
Safe from care and harm ,
But I fear it will not happen
For alas here comes the dawn.

[augenpoesie]

Awwwwww mirages, thank you so much for your kind words!
What can be more beautiful than doing what you love from the bottom of your heart and your work getting appreciated by others?! I feel very honoured that you've chosen my pics for this cozy little place for the "after hours".

I really admire all those people that are so good with words, who can express their feelings so accurately and so detailled by writing and who can create mystical places just with their imagination and words. Maybe it's because english is my second language but it is so much easier for me to express myself with pics or gifs.

I'll be a regular visitor here and if it's okay I won't contribute with words but every now and then with a photograph of mine.