On Language and Laziness

So I guess I haven't done this in a while, huh. I'm forgetful. And lazy. Those two are a terrible mix. I've been writing longhand in a notebook lately, so this poor blog has been neglected. Maybe I'll put up some entries I wrote in there. Maybe not, though. Like I said, I am pretty lazy. And forgetful.

Let's talk about... let's talk about language. About how it looks and what it represents to me. I'm taking a rhetoric that's been making me think about this kind of stuff a lot lately.

One thing people always ask me about, particularly in my poetry, is capitalization and punctuation. Okay, I guess that's two things. But they're like tied for first place.

I'm certainly heavily inspired by E. E. Cummings and W. S Merwin, breaking convention and making frequent use of he ability. It's sort of a philosophical thing now, something that just sort of developed in my head. Let me try to explain.

"...just no more three-by-fives."

What does it say that I've never really been much for taking myspace style pictures?

I've just never been somewhere or had something happen where I was like, MAN, I want to take a picture of myself. I don't make fun of other people who do it (well, there are certainly exceptions...) but it just always makes me feel extremely conceited. I understand that people want to remember moments -- but how much more often do you see people taking pictures of themselves versus taking pictures of actual events? I'm a big fan of candid photos. How often do you see people out somewhere spending more time taking photos of themselves then staring at them on the screen of their digital cameras for a minute before taking more? Not nearly, I feel, as much as you see people out living in the moment, taking in every detail of things -- the sounds, the scents, the rushes of excitement found in actually doing things rather than posing for pictures? There's just something weird about seeing pictures of some event rather than actually talking to any of the people who were there, even more so than getting pictures of relatives you just never meet.

John Mayer's "3x5s" is one of my favorite songs, and it really sums up how I feel about the whole issue:

"Today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame.

Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to lose my way (withwords) but let me say

You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes -- it brought me back to life.
You'll be with me next time I go outside; no more 3x5's."

All or nothing, in a way. Essentially: if I want to share a moment from my life with you, it won't be in a Facebook picture or an envelope come Christmas. I'll make the effort to immerse you in a detailed recount, with a mindset undistracted and expressive so that you can get a glimpse of what I felt at that moment -- or better yet, come along. Pictures just aren't enough.

I can't explain it-

I don't know what's wrong with me.