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A brief-yet-ongoing journal of all things Carmi. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll reach for your mouse to click back to Google. But you'll be intrigued. And you'll feel compelled to return following your next bowl of oatmeal. With brown sugar. And milk.
About this photo: I found these garbage cans in the park near my office and immediately thought they'd serve nicely to wrap up this week's metallica theme (click here for a last-minute addition. Or pop back tonight at 7:00 Eastern when we launch our next theme, bricks and mortar.)After dragging my camera around for years on end and looking for new ways to look at the world, I've learned a number of truths about photography. One of them is this: Not every photo is heroic. They aren't all epic scenes destined for the front page. You're not always going to capture the penultimate moment - the goal, the shot heard round the world, the elusive something that couldn't be recreated even if you tried.
About this photo: It's Thematic's metallica week, and you're invited. Just go here. It won't hurt.There's a cruel irony to anything new and shiny: With few exceptions, it begins to degrade the moment it's made. Sure, we do our best to keep it looking showroom-fresh, but the sad truth is that it'll never be as lovely as it is the day you first bring it home. It's all downhill from there.
"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too."Now, why can't people be more like dogs?
Samuel Butler
About this photo: It's Thematic's metallica week. Just click here to get involved.The U.S. Postal Service has been making all sorts of noise that it's at risk of shutting down if it doesn't stop bleeding money. I get it, as most of its former business of delivering letters to pen pals and mail ordered Garden Weasels to octagenarian gardeners has been hoovered by the Intertubes.
About this photo: Today's the big day when we wrap up our week-long edible fest. It's been a great week, and you can still share your own by clicking here. Otherwise, our new Thematic theme, metallica (if it's made of metal, we want to see it), launches tonight at exactly 7:00 Eastern.Jello is one of those foods that seems to have no purpose. It has no nutritional value. It's full of sugar - okay, it essentially is sugar. And it's quite possibly the most highly processed food you can find at the grocery store.
"All great changes are preceded by chaos."As I scan the headlines screaming about debt crisis in Greece and the rest of the EU, revolution in Libya and the ongoing season of the Arab Spring, this quote seems to strike home. I wonder if everyone involved appreciates where all this could be taking us, and how much change awaits us in the process.
Deepak Chopra
About these photos: We're celebrating edible week as part of our latest Thematic theme. Please click here to share your own.We've been here before. Indeed, my wife and I practically grew up here, as this is the bakery in the middle of the neighborhood, a place known as Chomedey, where we both grew up.
"At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable."The most famous character that Mr. Reeve played flew with the help of well hidden wires and pulleys. Yet later in life, he managed to fly in ways no camera could ever record. As the week draws to a close, his words are bouncing around my head a little more energetically than usual.
Christopher Reeve
About this photo: If it's edible, we want you to share it. We call it Thematic, and the fun starts right here.There's something about the texture of a hamburger bun that gets me every time. It's not that these things taste particularly good. Nor are they remotely nutritious: They're simply vessels that keep the messy stuff from your burger from getting on your hands. But that's all irrelevant as far as aesthetics are concerned. Yes, I am indeed that shallow.
Your turn: Thematic. Edible. Here.It had been a grand day at the beach. We took our kids and our daughter's friend to Grand Bend not because we had any kind of plan, but because we had an unscheduled day and this seemed like the ideal way to spend it.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last"I've always appreciated the man's ability to put impossible-to-comprehend adversity into perspective. Not that I want to overstate it, but he led his nation through a period where it stared into the abyss of a new dark age, and fought back.
Winston Churchill
About this photo: It's Thematic's edible week, and you're invited to share your own edible vision. Just click here to get started.When I was a munchkin, my uncle lovingly referred to me as "butterball" (it was #2 on my first 100-things-about-me list.) I was chubby, red-headed, and cross-eyed, just right for some bizarro-Gerber marketing materials, I suppose. I've thinned out since then, but the term has stuck in my mind ever since, because no one else ever used it, and it's always been one of those neat things that connects me to him.
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."I keep looking at my former self, and I keep wondering if I'm being superior to who he was. Not sure I'll ever know the answer to that one - sometimes, it sure doesn't feel like it - but I'll keep trying.
Ernest Hemingway
About this photo: It's been a great week for triangles, but all good things must eventually come to an end. If you're still on the geometric fence, click here. Otherwise, we're back at 7 p.m Eastern - tonight! - with our new Thematic theme for the coming week. What will it be? How does edible grab you?I learned to sail when I was 13 years-old. My logic? What better way to get around the lake than by letting the wind shove you around? The lazy kid in me felt pretty darn smug as I tacked back and forth and watched the canoeists and rowers work themselves into a sweat.
"A bird only flies. It does not turn to another bird and ask 'Am I doing this right?'"Your turn: What three words come to mind when you see birds in flight?
Mary Anne Radmacher
About this photo: We're slowly bringing our week-long celebration of the humble triangle to a close - but we're not quite done yet. We've got until 7 p.m. tomorrow (Monday) to raid the archives for similarly geometric pics. Head here if you're still feeling pointy.I probably shouldn't have taken this one. It was windy, with fading light and a seemingly endless series of yappy dogs being walked mere feet from my feet. Not ideal conditions for anything, much less taking a closeup picture of a leaf.
"History shows us that the people who end up changing the world – the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries – are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses."Your turn: Who changed your world? Who inspires you?
John Eliot
"Our life's a stage, a comedy: either learn to play and take it lightly, or bear its troubles patiently."
Palladas
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."I'm digging the late Ms. Keller's words tonight. This week's been a particular adventure for us, and I'm still not sure where this big wave I've been riding will end up.
Helen Keller
About this photo: It's Thematic's triangular week, and you're invited. Just go here and all will be explained.There's a reassuring quality to old engineering that I just can't get enough of. I dig old bridges and buildings, built long before the era of supercomputers turned building stuff into a lowest-common-denominator process. They were overengineered, and as a result many of them not only still stand, but they continue to carry massive loads central to a modern world their builders never envisioned.
About this photo: Thematic explores the triangle. Do you want to join in? You can, you know. Just click here.I was on a tour of the countryside to the west of our burg when I came across a ratty old tractor with a for-sale sign on it. I shared its story here.
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Albert Einstein
About this photo: It's Thematic's autumn week, and everyone's invited (even you, Beav). Head over here to get your seasonal licks in before the new theme, triangular, launches tonight at 7:00 Eastern.Like all seasons, autumn eventually comes to an end. And when it does, we're left with a stark landscape of bare branches and wide-open spaces. There's no canopy, no shade to cover the increasingly cold ground. Even the sound is different, as the wind no longer has leaves to rustle.
About this photo: It's not too late to get your autumn-themed photo submitted as part of our latest Thematic. Click here to celebrate the season.A whole bunch of years ago, I shot my first roll of film. It was black-and-white, and I recall feeling an immense feeling of power at my newfound ability to capture snippets of the world. I even saw the lack of color as an advantage, a limitation that forced me to rely on composition to tell the story.
"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."Your turn: Ever stand up for something and end up paying the price?
Winston Churchill
About this photo: We're sharing perspectives of autumn, and you can, too, by going here.There's a more than a little bit of bittersweet mixed into autumn, as much of what you see here is on the verge of disappearing for a while. Sure, the flowers and leaves will grow back next spring, but not these particular flowers. It'll be another generation, and you wonder if they'll be everything you remembered in the old one.
About this photo: Thematic. Autumn. Here. Go for it.It's been a rough week capped off by a rough couple of days, and I need to look at pretty things to compensate. I'm still running on the proverbial treadmill, so it'll take me a day or two to catch y'all up on the rather eventful day I had yesterday. For now, I hope this tree is enough to brighten your day.
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."Your turn: What does simplicity look like to you?
Leonardo Da Vinci
About this photo: We're welcoming autumn as part of this week's Thematic. You can, too, by clicking here.You can choose to see autumn as a season of endings, or one of clearing the decks so you can see the beauty that lies beneath. As you can see, I tend to lean towards the latter state, because even forlorn, twisted branches possess their own beauty. You just have to wait around long enough in the year to see that beauty - and you need to be willing to open your eyes to a different view of things.
About this photo: If it's in the details, we're hoping you've got a picture of it. Or at least an idea you'd like to share. Head here to get started on this week's Thematic theme.I hate driving unnecessarily. I bought a car because the life we currently lead - kids, work, school, suburbia, the whole modern-family enchilada - almost requires it. I'm not happy about it, and would much rather ride my bike to get where I need to go.