dan abernathy - contributing to the chaos

10-30-07

Stop!

I live in a small town that is obsessed with idea of not having a stoplight. In the past this was all right, Main Street was dirt and the automobiles didn't move much faster than a horse drawn buggy.
Now it is slightly different. The vehicles not only move at a break-neck speed, the drivers in said vehicles are following societies same fast pace. No one wants to chill. Remember the lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel?

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.

We are also in the middle of an oil boom, which is adding a volume to the daily pace, brought in a lot more people and I have to say; more big trucks and redneck attitudes.
We are now in what should be our slow season and it is still hard to get into the flow of traffic, and to cross on foot is similar to crossing the track in a Roller Derby. Our town leaders had the brainy idea to give pedestrians green flags to cross the street; this idea came from the ones used in Jackson Hole and Sun Valley. What they failed to notice that these towns also have stoplights breaking and slowing the traffic. The traffic on our highway, and yes it is a highway and not just a main street, is only broken by speed signs that for the most part go unnoticed. The green flags, they are only visual props for our Nascar obsessed drivers.
What is it going to take to break the flow of traffic on Main Street? I venture to guess nothing short of a fatality. When we see the head of some child bouncing into the gutter after being severed off the body by a Dodge Ram tough truck, maybe then someone will take notice that a stoplight might work.

10-29-07

Posted new photos on Me & My Friends page. This selection of photos were shoot by Dave V. when we were in Kona, Hawaii. The are suited with cut lines to better explain what was going on, or at lest what i want to remember about it.

10-28-07

Have been working on the Rock Rabbit web site a lot, but it's big, full of ideas, photographs and words. As I get a page done I will let the blog readers know by posting it here. I have been getting some compliments from people taking the time to look. Thanks, and I'm glad you are enjoying it.
I have got the photomontage page done. Not that I have all the pieces posted, I will keep adding them as I finish them. My photomontage work takes time to do, but it is some of the most satisfying work that I do. I hope that you can grasp the concept. It is not done on the computer, nor with one image torn up. Each image in the montage is a full frame picture. The photomontage is created from numerous single images. Click on the below link and have a look.

Photomontage

The other new section I've posted is Words. This is starting out with a selection of writings I am putting into Trolling for Coyotes. But there will be more in the future. Click on the below link to see what has ran through my mind.

Words

10-24-07

Making a Winter Statement

I think we should always try to make some kind of

statement. Even a bad statement is better then none. A statement does not have to be load, but it should show who you are, or what you are about. Even something rather odd can show individuality.
I have decided to defy the winter season and not stop wearing my summer shorts. Bold and yes cold, but there is a slight chance that it might make winter a bit more tolerable. To accessorize this statement I have also decided to sport load, wild and crazy socks. I'm not use to wearing socks as I wear sandals most of the year. I find socks very binding and uncomfortable. So picking out the wildest socks that will fall down and be comfortable is becoming a challenge. I'm trying to get some knitted but this to is becoming difficult. It seems that socks can't be knitted over night. I met a hippie chick that came into the shop and she was going to knit me some, but before I could get her that yarn she had to move on. So no hand knitted socks yet, although I did deliver some yarn to another hippie chick and I think they are in the works. If there is anyone out there that might want to partake in my movement I have a size 11 foot, one right and one left, and the wilder the better. They will be honored on this blog as will as sported around the coffee shop and town.

10-22-07

A one arm portrait of Me and Rachel

My cousin Rachel stopped by to visit yesterday. What a great surprise we had a grand time catching up and talking about our family. She lives in Florida and is a feature reporter for the Palm Beach Post. Below are some links to a multimedia presentation she put together for her paper about an Elvis competition.

In The Image of The King

All Roads To Graceland

10-20-07

The compass That leads you to Nowhere

I found this compass (and paid $1.00 to the gate keeper) before it was lost into the entrance of the portal. Portals are real, though they often move. With this treasure, at some point I will find the entrance of the portal I seek. Until I loose it it will be with me always.

10-19-07
From Trolling for Coyotes

A Friend
I had a friend.
My friend got married.
He bought a mini van.
I sure miss my friend.

A new t-Shirt I designed for the Coffee Shop. Email me if you want one.

I shot this last summer at Lakeside Lodge. This is the spot for many Sunday afternoons. "Margaritas Sundays" as they have been titled. That's Jed lurking out from below the embralla.

Who Am I
From Trolling for Coyotes

I wonder when I think of myself if I'm not a failure. But, then what is a failure? For myself and how I believe, how and measure success, I am far from it. I am happy and have been living the life that I want. When I look at my life and who I am, in the eyes of our regulated society, then I might be. To myself I am rich. I am an outcast, yet I am accepted. I am living my own life, a life that is influenced by everything. I try and I'm succeeding to not be incarcerated with the formula society has plotted for the way, the direction that man should live.
    Not that I have left mans well trodden path completely. I have not veered so far from its borders that I can never return to the realm of normality, but my path is my own. My path holds few regrets, or sorrow. It was just a road of which I followed and doing so is grooming me for the next journey. Will this path prepare me for the next one? If so I greet it with wide arms and great excitement.
I can't seem to fit a mold of a curtain type of person. Nor do I want to fit into any type of mold and seam normal. All sides have good points and all sides have bad points. This is the balance. By not excepting both sides the balance gets off and the problems begin.
I try to see the person that I am and the person that I'm trying to be. It is this computation of the two that makes the person. The facts I have arranged so far are not set in the concrete of today's troubled path society have set.
I'm trying to complete a self-portrait, if only in my mind. If I can do this I will be content. I can deal with reality and fight negativity. The world is so full of negativity and to live you have to find a balance. The world I so much want is a world that refuels me, that keeps me whole. My mind is like an electrical storm. I wonder if I will ever get a hold of it.
    I am an outsider. I enjoy and want this label. I want to enjoy and push cultural boundaries between our known world of safety and rules and the unknown one beyond it. Where rules crumble and safety dissolves. Individuality is a madness that society is suppressing. I am an outsider because I stand up. By doing this personal right, I am laughed at, feared and wanted. A novelty to have when needed, but kept at arms length when approached to close to the safe confinement of society.
    True life for me, though I will never condemn other people for not traveling in my direction, flows directly from the uninhibited, a hedonistic approach to complete happiness. Inspired unconscious that has the innocence of a child. The purer I flow with this the stronger the freedom builds. Ironically so does recognition, which is amusing to me, and others that pride themselves on the isolation of not belonging.

10-16-07
From Trolling for Coyotes

A Threesome
I saw a sight walking back home yesterday. On a paved street, quite a distance from any pond or water, there were three ducks, two drakes and one hen. I believe they were having a threesome.