Nemo: Time Lapse

Who knew my video recorder had a time lapse feature? I certainly didn't. This may have something to do with my aversion for reading instruction manual. Reading the instruction manual might have also clued me in on why this video recorded in black and white.

More experimentation is necessary.

Keep your eye out for cameo appearances by my aloof black cat named Iggy. He enjoys the fourth floor look-out up atop my house. It's the only area that he can be reasonably sure not to be interrupted by his arch-enemy, Magnolia Wigglesworth.

Views from Nemo

Art Shows the Unseen

Artist Sandow Birk gives us two opposing images:

A Conservative Map of the World/Sandow Berk

A Liberal Map of the World/Sandow Berk

Follow me on Tumblr for an ongoing view of things that I'm looking at that show the unseen.

The Unseen Sea

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

Crane Beach

I've felt the ocean calling to me me over the last couple of weeks. The weather was somewhat cooperative today so we all packed up and made a trip out to Crane Beach. Part of the Trustees of the Reservation, the five and a half miles of trails made of an ideal winter hike.

Winter is probably my favorite time to visit Cranes. The crowds of sunbathers are absent--as are the pesky green headed flies. The slower pace of winter allows to take in the area with a sense of leisure that the summer doesn't allow. Here are a few of the details from the hike that caught my eye.

Ocean Sky

This is so amazing and inspiring. Worth the couple of minutes to sit back, relax, and enjoy the experience.

Ocean Sky from Alex Cherney on Vimeo.

Sign, Click, and Feel Good

When is the last time you watched a documentary and were inspired to make a meaningful lasting change? After watching Bowling for Columbine did you sell your guns, call your senators demanding for gun control measures, and write a check to support a local agency that serves at-risk teens? After watching Food Inc. did you start your own garden, shop from local farmers, and eschew any form of pre-packaged food made by an agri-business? 

If you made changes, were any of them changes that you sustained?

Probably not.

I recently watched and fell in love with the luscious and beautiful film Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. It didn't make me write a check to support Tsunami victims. It didn't make me board a plane for Japan to help survivors heal and rebuild their lives. It didn't inspire me to take any meaningful action that an outsider can observe, measure, and document.

Documentaries are an art form that stimulate us to have an emotional response about the human experience. They document history and teach us about it. They don't stimulate us--at least very many of us--to do anything. They stimulate us to feel something. When done well, the art form of a documentary exposes us to a new part of the human experience. In revealing something new about the world, we reveal something new within ourselves. 

I love documentaries as an art form. I love exposing myself to new parts of the human experience. I love discovering new parts of my own experience that were opened and exposed by my interaction with the documentary. 

I don't, however, confuse this with action, behavior change, or social change.