Reply: What’s the Matter With Eastern Kentucky?

What’s the Matter With Eastern Kentucky? Whats the Matter With You? Frankly I don't see a thing wrong with Eastern Kentucky, unless you're speaking of the druggie problem... 

Sure, parts are a little remote and inaccessible, but does that mean it's a problem? Maybe we enjoy our rolling factory free hills, maybe we don't need to make $150,000.00 a year to be happy or have a better life, maybe we don't need a formal education to have a love for a simple life. Maybe us Kentuckians can see a little something besides bank accounts and social status. 

Maybe us Kentuckians are satisfied with a farm pond full of bass, a whippoorwill calling to it's mate somewhere down a holler (you do know what a holler is don't you?), a rocks glass with fine Kentucky bourbon kissing your lips, or maybe just laying in a hammock petting our dog... It doesn't have to be down town before it's a good place to live.

Personally I'm poor as the day is long, but I can go to sleep at night with a stress/guilt free mind. When will people learn it's not always about the amount of cash in a persons pocket, it's more about the person the pocket belongs to. As Abraham Lincoln once said "in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years." (might I add is a fellow Kentuckian). 

As A Kentuckian I could come to your home town and say "well, these people live in a bunch of bricks and mortar, don't have time for a sun rise, the air smells of automobile emissions, and the poor souls have never eaten a home grown ear of corn. What a miserable existence they must live... Maybe if we gave them a few thousand bushels it might give them the kick start to live better..." But I don't, because we believe in letter our neighbors be, unless they started it.

Don't you worry about Kentucky, let Kentucky worry about Kentucky...

Kentucky For Kentucky

Here is the original article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/magazine/whats-the-matter-with-eastern-kentucky.html?emc=eta1&_r=1

"Quirky", And It's Use As A Word

"Quirky --Unconventional, surprising, odd. A word often used by narcissistic scenesters when they describe their oh-so-unique selves in their LiveJournal user info pages in attempts to sound like interesting people."

 (Source: Urban Dictionary)

If there is a word that I hate more than "quirky" I haven't heard it yet... Every women I've met since birth describes herself as "unique and quirky". I've got news for you... you're neither of those words. you're not weird in a good way, you're not one of a kind out of 6-7 billion, you're just like every other girl that thought of a word with a damn Q in it, and thought you would use it to sound fun/interesting. I cringe every time I hear a girl use it, I'm also cringing my way though this blog post about it...

I'm going out with the next girl that's never used the word "quirky", hopefully she can't even pronounce her Q's, I'm sure she for a fact might be indeed... "Quirky". It's pretty obvious to me that none of us are really that "quirky", philosophy and psychology wouldn't even be topics if we were.

A personality disorder is not "quirky", it's a fact of life you have to deal with. A girl that plays video games is not "quirky", she just indulges in a waste of time. A girl who knits is not "quirky", she has a hobby. A girl who has a fake dick in her purse is not "quirky", she's a... well maybe it works here...

Accepted Uses Of The Word "Quirky":
If you carry a fake cock around in your purse, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you eat a live cockroach off of your floor, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever said "Well I'm just a quirky little cunt booger aren't I?", you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've eaten cheese wiz in the shower, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever drank a beer in a volcano, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you're missing a limb/eye, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you're dog chewed your toe off, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you have stitch scars, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever ate a fresh yak's eye, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever been in a side show, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you have a tattoo of a puddin pop, you might be a "quirky" girl
If Bill Cosby visits you in your sleep, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you found waldo on your underpants, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you started your own cult, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you stick fight behind the dumpster, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever eaten a whole turkey leg in one bite, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever fought off a homeless man, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever made love to Bear Grylls in the woods, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever cut your nipple off on a fan blade, you might be a "quirky" girl
If all your piercings are connected to all your other piercings, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've bit the ear off a rabid coyote, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever got snake bit while taking a piss, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever driven a cocaine fueled funny car, you might be a "quirky" girl
If you've ever given Gary Busey a lap dance/titty twister, you might be a "quirky" girl

ETC...

If you're not truly "quirky" then don't use the damn word...

NO SIGNAL

NO SIGNAL, electronics with no conscience,
drifting around randomly in the blue void,
the kind of blue that would make the sky sick,
food network as abandoned me, NO SIGNAL.

NO SIGNAL, eyes are burning from a lack of sleep,
bladder is swollen from an excess of cheap beer,
back hurts from months of couch sleeping,
throat is dry from dehydration, NO SIGNAL.

NO SIGNAL, I hear the thunder heads rolling by,
I'm sure the laundry room is leaking again,
hair of the blue healer clovers my blanket,
I'm alone again for another night, NO SIGNAL

NO SIGNAL, remove my bent glasses,
wipe the cold saliva from my mouth,
make my dog shake hands with me,
muster the strength to take a piss, NO SIGNAL

NO SIGNAL,  my eye lids get heavy again,
I leave my couch for a different place,
where I love a girl who doesn't exist,
where I long for a place I've never been, NO SIGNAL.

NO SIGNAL

Cropping And Society

I'm a photographer. As a photographer I'm repulsed by cropping.

As a Society we crop to much out of our photographs and our lives. Every thing has to be "perfect", well what if it wasn't wasn't meant to be perfect? What if it was meant to be what it is. Sit back and enjoy the big picture for a bit. If it's in frame maybe it was meant to be in frame. One of the big reasons I like looking at old photographs is because of what they didn't crop. They took the photograph for what it was. I love to see a photograph with lots of "stuff" in the frame, a box of cereal, a bottle of Pepsi, a 1977 Buick. It all just adds to the story for me.

Every time I document something I take my wide angle lens, I take in as much of the world and surroundings as I can. Personally I find photography as a window into the past, and if that's the only view I have why would I want to leave anything out? I find that background and foreground are just as important as the subject in my work. I feel like there are too many one dimensional photographs as well as people in the world today. Enjoy your environment, experience your environment, sell your environment. There is no bad environment to take a photograph, there are however bad framing, composure, and exposure.

Don't worry about finding the perfect place to start photographing before you get started, the perfect place to photograph will find you as you work. Take your time, smell the daisies, and you'll notice something interesting as your smelling those daisies.

If you must crop, crop with your lens.

Bullying And The Art Of Education

Bullying is a crock of shit... If it wasn't such a damn crime to stick up for yourself, then maybe bullying wouldn't be a problem. From birth it's drilled in hour damn heads to never cause trouble, never question anything, never talk back, don't fight even if we're right. Maybe that's the problem... For the love of god fucking stand up for yourself.

It's nature, if you're weak you're a target. Hawks eat rabbits because they can, snakes eat frogs because they can, people fuck with other people because they can. Because they can, that's the reason most bad things happen in life. If you lay back and take it someones going to fuck you. it's a fact. I've never been fucked with much in my life because I won't take it, and they know I won't take it.

The education system in America has doomed all of our futures. They taught us how to be good test takers rather than functional human beings in this day and time. Anyone under the age of 30 can't fail... In high school they are automatically given easier classes when their perfectly capable of passing regular classes with a little more effort. In college they're put on "academic probation" "one more chance" that never seems to run out. On the work force they're the idiots that human resources protects, they fuck up and you're in trouble for telling them they fucked up. It's a damn shame that you can't even call out a dumb-fuck coworker for some kind of dumb-fuckery that elementary school could have fixed with a few simple corrective actions in the right direction.

I feel there is a misconception in the world that you're either a leader or a follower, a "sheep" or a "Shepard" well what about the beat farmer who doesn't want anything to do with damn life stock or the Shepard??? I don't want to lead, I don't want to follow, I just want to be left be... I just want to rise my damn beats in peace and I want the sheep and the Shepard out of my damn garden...

I'm not sure if anyone has saw this video yet but I wholeheartedly agree with what the man is saying, but I don't agree with how he's saying it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3azpcltLSTM