Is it highfalutin to post a short history of your writing life or even your MFA entrance essay on Blogger?

A mess of writing stuff. Photo by Tameca L Coleman

I don't know if it is highfalutin, but a couple people have asked me to post it (that's only a little bit weird...but I still love you anyway):

Essay for Application of Admission to Regis

In my mid-twenties, I thought I was going to completely give up on writing. There were many reasons for that. For one, the way seemed hard. So many friends I thought were doing well told me this. Many of those friends have stopped writing, committing their work to boxes in their closets or hard drives. Some of that writing has been shredded, burned, or deleted – forgotten, in any case and relegated to the past.

I wasn't sure if any of my writing was any good. Sure, I'd been encouraged by my school teachers from grade school through graduation, but by the time I was twenty five, I hadn't much more to show for my writing than my own files chock full of juvenelia.

I had no interest at the time of going back to college (I had been cut from a music program because I “didn't fit in socially”) but the idea of higher education kept eating away at me. Maybe this is what finally prompted me to step foot into the Log Cabin Literary Center (now called The Cabin) in Boise, Idaho. It was a nice compromise and it began to fulfill this craving of wanting to be a part of a group of practicing writers who were creating, publishing, and talking shop with other writers.

At the The Cabin, I met many talented and accomplished writers like Annie Proulx, G.E. Patterson, Dagoberto Gilb and Janet Holmes. The Cabin hosted intimate writing workshops with these writers, and of course weekly workshops with a local community of writers who were at multiple levels of seriousness and experience. I loved this group, so I decided to register for The Cabin's writing retreat that summer for a more intensive experience.

There I met many more writers. I remember sitting at a dinner table with Robert Wrigley, his wife Kim Barnes, Lance Olsen, Joy Passanante, Billy Collins and others. I was mostly silent because there was all of this experience around me. I silently made a promise to myself that the next time I sat at a table full of accomplished writers like that, I would be one of them. I wanted so badly to be an equal rather than just a student (though, we are always students, I've grown to realize).

Since then, I've moved to Denver, a place where I have met many more writers in many different genres, many of whom I regard highly. I've gone to some conventions, picked brains, finished an undergrad where poetry and linguistics were my focus. I have even published a little, and some of my income is generated by writing news content, ghostwriting, website and pamphlet content creation and at times, coaching people how to write better. I feel that this is pretty good success but it doesn't necessarily allow me the time to devote to some of the ideas I want to explore in poetry, fiction, music, and whatever genre might fit.

I work with a couple of pieces of advice at the forefront of my mind. During my undergrad, a literature professor told us that we should all try to write everything, even if we fail miserably. I think that is how I found myself writing news. The opportunity came up and I thought, “Why not? I get paid to write and I can learn as I go.”

The other piece of advice came from Robert Wrigley at The Cabin retreat way back when. I had signed up for a one on one session with him. I needed to find out if I had any potential in writing poetry. He looked at my poems, which mostly were poems I'd written in junior high school, and he was very encouraging, very positive. I asked him about college, and he admitted that it's not for everyone. He also said “You go to school for short cuts and community.” ← This made more sense to me than anything anyone else had ever said to me about college. It was honest and has stuck with me ever since.

 I have a foot in many worlds and I have friends at multiple levels of seriousness and experience in those worlds. I'm always looking for the community, and to be a positive force in that community. I want to be able to promote that community and the work that is coming from it. That's why conversations I have had with staff at Regis mean so much to me. It is apparent that the program's focus is to build and maintain community, not just for one graduating class or even within the program, but more broadly. I want to be a part of that!  

* Here is another, older, probably better written essay about Why I Write from my undergrad. 

* Also, writers are assholes...or are they? -->

Even in death, there is beauty: Hubble captures new image of Butterfly Nebula

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Astronomers have captured a new image of a cosmic butterfly, also known as the Twin Jet Nebula that probably formed only 1,200 years ago. Photo: ESA/Hubble/NASA

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Nebula PN M2-9, better known as the Twin Jet Nebula, is the product of two stars in the final stages of their lives. The bipolar nebula contains one red dwarf, which is between 1.0 and 1.4 times the mass of Earth’s sun, and one white dwarf, which is between 0.6 and 1.0 times the mass of the Earth’s sun. Both stars orbit one another every 100 years and the gravitational pull from one of them is suspected to be pulling released gases from the other into twisting tendrils of iridescent gases across space, reports ABC Science Aug. 31.

NASA / Flickr -- Creative Commons

The image (seen above) was released on the Hubble space telescope website, Aug. 26. Nicknamed “Cosmic Butterfly” because of its shape, the Twin Jet Nebula is also known as “Minowski’s Butterfly” (it was first discovered in 1947 by Rudolph Minkowski, a German-American astronomer), “Wings of a Butterfly Nebula” and simply “Butterfly Nebula.”

The Cosmic Butterfly was first photographed by Hubble in 1997. The newly released photo, is more vibrant and even seems to shimmer. The new photograph shows the complexity of the binary nebula’s two lobes of expanding gas which are estimated to be flying out of the nebula’s center into space at speeds more than 620 million miles per hour.

Located within the constellation Ophiuchus, the nebula is approximately 2,100 light years away from Earth. Astronomers hypothesize that the white dwarf orbits the red dwarf and pulls its gas in two different directions, making for a gorgeous show of colors as the two stars die. The red dwarf has thrown off its outer layers and the star’s core shines through them, making them iridescent.

Though the Cosmic Butterfly is created by a binary star system, it is not certain whether all binary nebulae are caused by them. Other planetary nebulae are created by a single star’s death when its expanding gas ejects into space. Popular single star nebulae photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope include the Crab Nebula and the Orion Complex. Though catalogued as a single star nebula, the Cat’s Eye Nebula may be a binary star nebula. If it is, it will join the Cosmic Butterfly nebula and many others.

*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com

Gitz Crazy Boy, Bree Davies, inspiration, collaboration and starting where you are for social action

My neighborhood is now a "hot" neighborhood where buyers can buy "pre-scrape" lots, have the existing houses torn down to make room for homes that fit many more people into those lots for $300,000-$500,000 or more per unit. This is a drastic change that means current residents must leave in order to find new housing that is hopefully affordable. Of course, this is good for the buyers and in many cases for anyone who can sell during what seems to be a big economical boom in Denver.

One of my favorite and most transformative experiences from my time at the last Arise Music Festival was meeting and talking with a man named Gitz Crazy Boy. Gitz is a Blackfoot and Dene youth worker and environmental activist who fights a fierce fight via peaceful activism against tar sands extraction in his Native lands. He's been featured in the documentary "The Yes Men Are Revolting", and travels far and wide to educate people about what is happening with the tar sands in Canada, why tar sands extraction is unethical and destructive and what can be done about it.

Gitz was a panelist during a talk at Arise about activism and doing the self work necessary to create change. The panel moved along with an aim to instill hope for those who were in attendance. I -- and I assume many of us who were in attendance that day -- see a lot of injustice and foul play in our respective worlds on a daily basis. However, feeling a bit helpless and unable to voice what is felt, it is often difficult to see whether we (can I say we?) are able to produce effective and long lasting change that is inclusive of a much larger scope than current paradigms based on consumption and capitalism allow. I know that I yearn to see changes in an unscrupulous world that seems to be ruled by an ethic of discarding, not only raw materials from the earth, but people themselves. I also know that I am not alone in this yearning.

During the workshop, Gitz made the answer to the internal dilemmas I was feeling radically clear and palpable. "You need to get the ideas of deus ex machina and tech ex machina out of your minds right now," he said during the panel. He pointed out that we all have a choice: We can sit back and watch things happen or we can do something about what is happening.

Later that day, I crossed paths with Gitz on the festival grounds. I decided to shirk my usual social awkwardness and just walk straight up to him to if nothing else, thank him for what he said at the panel. We chatted for a good while, and during that chat, he reiterated a detail from the panel that didn't quite hit me until we were talking face to face. He said that all anyone has to do is to start in their own neighborhoods. It seemed so simple but I remember feeling lost and frantic, already overwhelmed. The comment was familiar. It ran along the same lines as the common slogan from environmental movements everywhere: "Act locally; Think globally." The imperative was evident.

I wanted to do something but even in that moment, I wasn't sure I had any power. At the same time, I was thinking about one of the biggest sticks in my spine about the drastic changes that are happening in my current neighborhood. I've lived here a little more than three years and I have seen the neighborhood change from a place where I felt comfortable, a place where my neighbors would greet and talk with me, to a place where barely anyone says anything at all (I have even been run away from in this new iteration of the 'hood). I have seen this neighborhood literally scraped up, its past residents bought or pushed out. It's uncomfortable and angering.

I thought that maybe I would write letters to all of the old neighbors that are left, ask them what they think about what is happening in the neighborhood, or at least say, "Hi." I didn't do that, though.

Three weeks after that panel, I admittedly was back to my insecurities about whether or not there was anything I could do. But then, I had a coffee meeting with a local writer a few days ago from Westword and The Colorado Independent. Her name is Bree Davies.

Bree and I learned that gentrification is a subject that flips both of our emotional switches.  We learned that while I have been taking pictures of my neighborhood and posting them into an album on Facebook, she has been reporting, blogging, tweeting, talking with people and taking pictures, as well. Our talks continued after that coffee meeting and then there was that question again: What do we do and where do we start?

Bree suggested that we put together a Tumblr showing others what is happening and what the changes look like. We'll include stories, insights, news blurbs, information, talks with people who are involved with these changes, and just about anything we can think of. We also have made this project available for others so they can share their thoughts, ideas, concerns, stories and images, as well.

If you are in Denver and the changes are disconcerting to you, if you are an artist who lives here, a teacher, a resident of any kind who is affected, we want to hear from you. We want this conversation to be huge and to make waves. Starting from where we are, we can make big changes. Let's rock the boat and let's start here: http://disappearingdenver.tumblr.com/.

Not looking forward to Monday? 'Office Monkey' (meme) can help

The "Office Monkey" meme can help cure your Monday office work blahs.

John Lund / Getty Images

It’s hard to think about Monday, especially if you feel a bit ho-hum about your desk job. Boring conference calls and day length work meetings aren’t things most people look forward to. Often, office computers don’t even seem to work like they should, especially when you are in the middle of completing a big assignment that was due last week. And then, there's your favorite (or not so favorite) coworker who may or may not have eaten your lunch. . . .

Luckily, a new meme has been floating around the net. A slew of GIFs have been turning up on social media accounts expressing office job woes. Mashable reports Aug. 29 that the GIFs were originally found on Getty. From being frustrated with a busted laptop computer to having that dreaded meeting with the brass, “Office Monkey” (or more accurately “Office Baboon”) seems to express the many frustrations that come along with an office job. Further, Office Monkey is just hilarious.

Giphy, a search engine for gifs, has logged the Office Monkey memes into its search. From the site, gifs can be shared onto numerous social media pages including Twitter, Pinterest and even Facebook.

So, if you’re on hold, have caught your boss at an inopportune time to talk about that big idea you have, or if that computer just isn’t working...again, just remember, you do it for the money so you can make it rain on Friday.

*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com

Tourist drone operator finds Benedictine Monk sun-bathing on wind turbine

A Benedictine Monk was found by a tourist's drone while he was sunbathing on top of a wind turbine

YouTube screenshot

Benedictine monk Brother Joseph Byron climbs high to find a place for peace and quiet, and until Aug. 16, his private sunbathing spot was a secret. A visiting tourist named Kevin Miller from California took a video of the monk via drone on top of a wind turbine located at the Rhode Island Portsmouth Abbey School. Needless to say, Brother Byron was not entirely pleased.

It was something that the drone operator absolutely did not expect, reported WHDH, Aug. 29. In fact, the drone operator viewed the monk from 175 feet in the air, flew away, and then came back again to watch some more. Likewise, the monk was surprised. He had never seen a drone in person before. "The next thing I heard was the buzzing," he said. "And at first, I was kind of - I had never seen one before so, that's kind of cool."

When the drone had flown away, he thought he could relax again, but upon the drone’s return, he was a bit annoyed. “At that point, I was like, ‘cmon, really? How about a little peace up here,” he said.

The video has since gone viral, yet another surprise to Brother Byron. As a result of the video’s publication, Byron has decided to shirk his once private getaway for a little while. “It seems you cannot go anywhere to get away anymore,” he told the Providence Journal.

*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com

Now you can memorialize your deceased loved ones on the moon

The sentiment 'I love you to the moon and back,' is no longer only a sentiment. Now you can send a portion of your deceased loved one's ashes straight to the moon.

NASA

It is now possible for humans to go straight to the moon, but there are some catches. While it will probably be possible for humans to live on the moon within the next 30-40 years, the first moon inhabitants will be sent there by way of burial services that send people’s ashes into outer space. To get their ashes shot into space all anyone needs is approximately $10,000.

According to ScienceMag, Aug. 27, a San Francisco-based company called Elysium Space has recruited its first customer after making announcements earlier this month that it would begin offering lunar memorial services. Elysiumis the second company to get into the “moon burial business”, Celestis being the first. Normally, the service would cost $12,000, but Elysium has devised a deal of only $9950 for the first 50 reservations.

Techcrunch reports that Steve Jenks, a US Army Infantry Soldier from Seymour, Tennessee is Eysium’s first customer. He has purchased a spot for his mother’s ashes on the moon. To him, it seems more than fitting, since his mother always used to sign her letters to him “No matter how lonely you feel and how far you are, always look at the Moon and know I am with you. I love you to the Moon and back.”

Both Elysium and Celestis offer other services which aim to increase customers’ connection with space including aMilky Way Memorial, where a portion of the deceased ashes are jettisoned out into deep space, and a cheaper option of simply putting a portion of the deceased remains into orbit around the Earth (Elysium’s Shooting Star Memorial or Celestis’ Earth Orbit).

*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com

The Black Hills Unity Concert initiates its second year for restorative justice

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The Black Hills Unity Concert brings together musicians, artists, activists and concerned citizens in efforts to raise awareness over the Black Hills Initiative.

Black Hills Unity Concert / YouTube

The second Black Hills Unity Concert begins tomorrow, Aug. 28. The event brings together Native American tribes and leaders, musicians, artists, activists and concerned citizens who support efforts for the Black Hills Initiative, a movement aimed at restoring the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Native stewards of the land, the Great Sioux Nation.

Black Hills Unity Concert / Promotional Poster

Last year, the free concert brought thousands of people from all over the world in efforts to raise awareness and increase support for the cause. Unity Concert organizers and participants come together again this year urging the United States government to keep its word. “Honor the treaties,” stresses a note onthe event’s Facebook page.

As reported by EcoWatch, Aug. 26, this year’s concert features almost all Native American performers, activists from the Climate Change and Black Lives Matter movements and many others. “The Unity Concert is becoming a gathering place for the intersection of various movements that are addressing society’s woes and failures, especially in the area of restorative justice and with a focus on the return of the Black Hills,” says Peter Yarrow on EcoWatch.

The Unity Concert is headed by lead organizer Lyla June Johnston, a young poet and activist who founded The Taos Peace and Reconciliation Council, a non-profit organization that works to heal inter-generational trauma and ethnic division in northern New Mexico.

This year’s performers include Bethany & Rufus, Cody Blackbird, Nahko Bear,Peter Yarrow, Supaman, The Jeremy Goodfeather Band and Ulali. The event will also host community prayer, workshops and talks educating event attendees about Native American arts, language, culture, and environmental and restorative justice.

The Black Hills Unity Concert goes through Sunday, Aug. 30. The concert is free and open to the public and takes place at the Elk Creek Resort. There is plenty of room for camping (free tent camping is available in certain areas) and load in begins at noon, Aug. 28. For more information about the the Unity Concert of the Black Hills, visit their website or follow the event on Twitter and Facebook.

*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com

New message in a bottle is possibly the oldest ever found

A message in a bottle was found last April by a couple vacationing on the German island Amrum. The postcard inside was one of 1024 sent out over the seas by Marine Biologist George Parker Bidder III between 1904 and 1906.

Marine Biological Association

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After more than 100 years, a postcard has finally reached it’s destination. Between 1904 and 1906, a bottle was thrown into the North Sea, the contents of which were meant to return to the Marine Biological Association of the U.K. The bottle was found back in April by a couple who was vacationing on the German island Amrum. Marianne Winkler saw the bottle’s contents, and sent the postcard in.

Marine Biological Association

According to the Associated Press Aug. 21, UK marine researchers were thrilled. "We certainly weren't expecting to receive any more of the postcards," stated Guy Baker, a spokesman for the group.

The Associated Press reports that the message in a bottle was one of 1024 postcards sent out over the sea by marine biologist George Parker Bidder III. Postcards were tossed into the ocean as a way to test ocean currents. Each postcard promised to pay a shilling to anyone who had returned the postcard. Marianne Winkler was paid an old English shilling, as promised by the postcard’s text (which was written in three different languages).

The aim of Bidder’s study was to test deep sea currents. He wanted to prove that the North Sea’s currents ran east to west. To accommodate his study, he had each of the bottles specially weighted so they would float just above the sea bed. The bottle sent in by Winkler came much later than most of the bottles which for the most part were found within months of their release, mostly by fisherman.

Bidder went on to become MBA president between 1939 to 1945, becoming the fourth president of the association. He also founded and was integral to other endeavors such as the Company of Biologists and the important journalsJournal of Experimental Biology and the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (today known as the Journal of Cell Science). The Marine Biological Association stated via email on Aug. 24 that Bidder also played an important role in the development of their Laboratory.

This 108 year-old find, may be the world’s oldest message in a bottle ever found. The existing record belongs to a message in a bottle that was found July 2013 just west of the Shetland Islands 99 years and 43 days after its release. The Marine Biological Association of the U.K is waiting to find out whether their postcard will set the new record for oldest message in a bottle ever found.

*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com

Banksy's new art installation isn't just street art; it's a whole theme park

You won't meet exuberant employees or characters at this theme park. Dismaland's attendants don't really seem to want to be here.

Matthew Horwood / Getty Images

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The graffiti artist Banksy has created an art exhibit in the form of a theme park called Dismaland amidst the ruins of the abandoned Tropicana seafront swimming resort in the United Kingdom. The dystopian themes of the art exhibit, which will be open to the public for five weeks, is described by Banksy as a “family theme park unsuitable for children” that “offers an escape from mindless escapism.”

Dismaland

The exhibit slash theme park features the work of more than 50 artists, including Damien Hurst, Jenny Holzer and Jimmy Cauty. It is no secret that part of the theme park’s aim is to pointedly bewilder its audience as the term “bemusement” is attached to the theme park’s title. Attendees are faced with disconcerting situations from the start. They are accosted by strange and confusing apocalyptic images that counter the sweet-washed world of popularized media in Western culture and of course, Disneyland.

On Aug. 20, the BBC posted a walkthrough of the exhibition. BBC journalist Andrew Plant entered into the theme park and was stopped by multiple actors posing as disgruntled security guards. After he walked through the security gates and entered onto the theme park grounds, distorted music the likes of what can be found in cartoon resort hotel elevators was pumped out over a park dubbed by Plant as “carefully constructed chaos.” Despondent park attendants (whose vest backs literally read “dismal”) slouched nearby as the journalist explored the exhibit which includes (per the exhibit’s website) “uneven floor surfaces, extensive use of strobe lighting, imagery not suitable for children and swearing.” The park also includes a host of art exhibits, many of which offer commentary on recent political and social issues. Many of the park’s exhibits, such as the games on site, require audience participation.

In a recent press release, Banksy related that the exhibit was “not a swipe at Disney.” He said that he had even banned any and all images of the beloved Mickey Mouse from the theme park grounds. “It’s a showcase for the best line-up of artists I could imagine, apart from the two who turned me down,” he wrote. However, similarities are undeniable. The rundown Disney-esque castle on the park grounds, as well as the one in the distressed theme park logo (which features a distressed version of the Disneyland font), are dead giveaways. Exhibits such as the one featuring a riot gear outfitted paparazzi surrounding what looks like Cinderella’s overturned carriage is another satirical nod towards the wonderful world of Disney. No wonder there is a note on Dismaland’s website that strictly prohibits “spray paint, marker pens, knives and legal representatives of the Walt Disney Corporation.” Of course, even this note is written jokingly, since satire is still a form of free speech.

*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com

'We Are Gypsies Now' tour in Denver tonight; speaks to gentrification, art, life

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"We Are Gypsies Now" speaks to gentrification, consumerism, hardships,
travel and the creative life on the road of Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander
Hacke.

Press Photo

Danielle de Picciotto (Crime & The City Solution) and Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) bring their somber and surrealistic performance to Denver tonight, Aug. 19 to the Mutiny Information Cafe for their “We Are Gypsies Now” tour. Their performance will be accompanied by projected visuals which follow the duo’s songs in their focus, communicating the themes of transformation, hardship and travel associated with becoming artistic refugees.

According to a recent press release, Picciotto and Hacke hail from Berlin. They moved from their hometown after the neighborhood they were living in changed from the world of creatives they knew to a world of cheap tourist attractions. They sold their house, got rid of most of their possessions and became world travelers. Along their travels, they found that cities all over the world were going through similar changes. What the couple wanted to find was a community where creatives thrived and who were also supported. Unfortunately, there was gentrification everywhere. The duo has been traveling the world since 2010.

The duo will perform music from Picciotto’s new album Tacoma, a work that speaks to the quest that the two musicians have taken on. They will also perform music from their upcoming albumPerserverantia, which tells the story of the kind of gumption that is needed when one strives to live off the grid. Along with those messages comes the idea that the nomadic option may be the only option for creatives to survive outside of the prevalent trends of gentrification and consumerism.

Woven throughout the 90 minute performance will be spoken word excerpts from Picciotto’s graphic diary “We Are Gypsies Now.” The diary documents the first 18 months of the couple’s nomadic adventure.

This surreal dreamscape of a performance is all ages and begins at 10 p.m. tonight at Mutiny Information Cafe, 2 S. Broadway, Denver, Colorado. Donations are requested.

*originally published at AXS.

Watch astronauts' timelapse video of Aurora Borealis taken from space

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly captured this rare image of the Northern Lights from space.

Scott Kelly / Twitter

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has captured a breathtaking set of timelapse photos showing the Aurora Borealis. In his viral video, a rare view of the Northern Lights is seen from above the Earth’s surface. “The chapter of a day ends as it began. #Aurora on a sunrise. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace,” he tweeted on Aug. 15.

Kelly’s video is just one of many sets of photographs shared on his social media that will document nearly a full year on the ISS. Aug. 15 marked his 141st day on the space station.

According to Newsmax, Kelly has shared images detailing the Suez Canal, Egyptian pyramids, the Perseid meteor shower and more. One of his colleagues also posts beautiful photographs from the ISS, such as this one of the Milky Way and another image of the Aurora Borealis which also went viral with nearly 4,000 retweets and more than 6000 shares on Twitter.

The #yearinspace mission is a record breaker. Kelly along with cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka set off on their mission earlier this year. By the time their mission ends, Kelly and Kornienko will have spent 342 days on the ISS, surpassing a 7-month record from 2007.

The Northern Lights video mentioned above is a 10-second timelapse of the Aurora Borealis captured at sunrise. Kelly and Kornienko follow in the footsteps of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who also posted photography from space on his social media. To view the video, visit the link at Scott Kelly’s Twitter page.

*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com