new focus...
last night something came upon me, a remembrance of the spirit of the shakti and i suddenly felt inspired to let a new, yet old power of concentration and insight return to my life. i think part of what started to surface in my mind was the enormity of the work i've laid out for myself in the upcoming four months. i've booked my calendar tightly with photo shoots thru mid-June, have three new photo books in progress and then there is the trip to Chicago in August. a lot more work than my wavering mind/spirit/body's health can handle in their normal mode of boogie-till-you-drop gonzo-ism.
so i came home from soaking/steaming at the gym a little perked to make some shifts in my consciousness to create some cracks in my numbskull for some discipline of the shakti to filter in. basically played some recordings of Gurumayi chanting the mantra for a few hours and cleaned up my room a little bit. tried to think of some other major movements i could make in the layout of my bedroom/office to allow energy to flow a little more freely, but came up with no new ideas. ended up staying awake much too late (4:30am) and slept later than i intended too. i did use the Astrid notes app on my phone to make a list of important things to tend to today that i most definitely otherwise would have completely forgotten about. i am yet to do them though. just a couple of phone calls. although, i was punctual in making an executive decision about purchasing new tires for my car today. something that should have been done about 6 months ago. i definitely have angels that watch over me on the highways because baby, i've been driving on balloons.
so, back to the shakti... i have a model that i'm working with this week (Kaiti), either on Thursday or Friday, depending on the rain, who is one of the most mystical women i've come across for this project since Emakhet. we started to plan this shoot about a month ago and came up with some visual ideas about a witch-goddess type character. she has dreadlocks and some very distinctive tattoos. she is also a photographer and is very familiar with Mountain View Cemetery. anyway, i want/need to have my own energy clear and strong for when i work with her. i want to have our combined energy of inspiration and creativity flow through me vividly and poignantly when we meet... so the chanting, some yoga, walking, maybe some of Baba's sour cereal for breakfast tomorrow morning... will help me become a more clear channel.
then in two weeks is another wonderful photographer-artist girl from Oakland named Luna who i've had to reschedule with a couple of times. she also is going to generate some new, symbiotic visual energy with me. we've been talking about some very interesting ideas to try out with her that i've never tried with anyone before, and which i've resisted using with anyone else in the times of her reschedulings.
next week is the first mother/daughter shoot i've done since Myra & Laura, about 3 years ago. this will be with a person that i know from high school and her daughter, Katherine Patti. really looking forward to this shoot a LOT. then the other upcoming shoot i'm very excited about will happen on Friday, May 13th with a local girl i've been wooing to model for me since November named Izzy. this girl is going to be incredible. her energy and look is soo electric. can't even tell you what i'm anticipating happening with her... one last one to tell you about now is an eleven year old girl, the daughter of one of my recent models (Jahan). her name is Lillian and we are going to do a shoot of her in St. Catherine's Cemetery dressed in a white communion-style dress.
and there are even 2 or 3 more models on the calendar that i'm not going to mention now. this is all a blitz so that i can fill up the new volume of Cemetery Girls to be released in July.
Gracie Carthey is also working on a new batch of poetry for her third Cemetery Girl Poetry release and Sarah Bradley (from Chicago) is busy writing poems for her own photos to be published in a Cemetery Girl Poetry book.
So, see? I need some focus. I need some balance. I need some even flow of energy and to not have extra things to worry about or distract me. And the shakti, just a nice flow of it, not an over abundance of it, is what I know works best. The mantra constantly in the air, some regularity of physical energy moving through my body, a better sleep routine... i've been hooked of using full tablets of Ambien for about 3 months now because i've been craving deep, unconscious sleep. two nights ago i took a smaller dose and had early morning dreams. a pretty amazing dream too! freaking Neil Gaiman was there and spoke to me! and that was followed by dancing in the rain! dreamed this morning too but i was up much too late last night for it to be coherent.
ok, for now, that is all.
so i came home from soaking/steaming at the gym a little perked to make some shifts in my consciousness to create some cracks in my numbskull for some discipline of the shakti to filter in. basically played some recordings of Gurumayi chanting the mantra for a few hours and cleaned up my room a little bit. tried to think of some other major movements i could make in the layout of my bedroom/office to allow energy to flow a little more freely, but came up with no new ideas. ended up staying awake much too late (4:30am) and slept later than i intended too. i did use the Astrid notes app on my phone to make a list of important things to tend to today that i most definitely otherwise would have completely forgotten about. i am yet to do them though. just a couple of phone calls. although, i was punctual in making an executive decision about purchasing new tires for my car today. something that should have been done about 6 months ago. i definitely have angels that watch over me on the highways because baby, i've been driving on balloons.
so, back to the shakti... i have a model that i'm working with this week (Kaiti), either on Thursday or Friday, depending on the rain, who is one of the most mystical women i've come across for this project since Emakhet. we started to plan this shoot about a month ago and came up with some visual ideas about a witch-goddess type character. she has dreadlocks and some very distinctive tattoos. she is also a photographer and is very familiar with Mountain View Cemetery. anyway, i want/need to have my own energy clear and strong for when i work with her. i want to have our combined energy of inspiration and creativity flow through me vividly and poignantly when we meet... so the chanting, some yoga, walking, maybe some of Baba's sour cereal for breakfast tomorrow morning... will help me become a more clear channel.
then in two weeks is another wonderful photographer-artist girl from Oakland named Luna who i've had to reschedule with a couple of times. she also is going to generate some new, symbiotic visual energy with me. we've been talking about some very interesting ideas to try out with her that i've never tried with anyone before, and which i've resisted using with anyone else in the times of her reschedulings.
next week is the first mother/daughter shoot i've done since Myra & Laura, about 3 years ago. this will be with a person that i know from high school and her daughter, Katherine Patti. really looking forward to this shoot a LOT. then the other upcoming shoot i'm very excited about will happen on Friday, May 13th with a local girl i've been wooing to model for me since November named Izzy. this girl is going to be incredible. her energy and look is soo electric. can't even tell you what i'm anticipating happening with her... one last one to tell you about now is an eleven year old girl, the daughter of one of my recent models (Jahan). her name is Lillian and we are going to do a shoot of her in St. Catherine's Cemetery dressed in a white communion-style dress.
and there are even 2 or 3 more models on the calendar that i'm not going to mention now. this is all a blitz so that i can fill up the new volume of Cemetery Girls to be released in July.
Gracie Carthey is also working on a new batch of poetry for her third Cemetery Girl Poetry release and Sarah Bradley (from Chicago) is busy writing poems for her own photos to be published in a Cemetery Girl Poetry book.
So, see? I need some focus. I need some balance. I need some even flow of energy and to not have extra things to worry about or distract me. And the shakti, just a nice flow of it, not an over abundance of it, is what I know works best. The mantra constantly in the air, some regularity of physical energy moving through my body, a better sleep routine... i've been hooked of using full tablets of Ambien for about 3 months now because i've been craving deep, unconscious sleep. two nights ago i took a smaller dose and had early morning dreams. a pretty amazing dream too! freaking Neil Gaiman was there and spoke to me! and that was followed by dancing in the rain! dreamed this morning too but i was up much too late last night for it to be coherent.
ok, for now, that is all.
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