Chasing The Blue Beyond

Peter Max · Celebrity Solstice · Pop Art at Sea The Elixir Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes A pop-art encounter at sea becomes a meditation on optimism, mass culture, American mythology, and the art of becoming the middleman. See Full Image Show Text Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir 01 The Canvas Philosophy The Art of Being the Middleman “I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman.” Peter Max “America is the canvas. Throw up as much paint as you can. We are just the middlemen.” Ed Reif The philosophy behind the art is not control. It is permission. Artist and dea...

Wake up kids/ We've got the dreamers disease . You 've got a reason to live / Can't forget  you only get what you give   New Radicals- You Get What You Give Cruise Ships are the new Golden Gate Bridges Putting the SIN in the sincerest form of criticism life can get- Why kill yourself? Life will do it for you  The earth school kills all of its students, eh? Suicide is man's way of telling God, "You can't fire me - I quit..."  so is jumping off the Carnival Splendor. One of the Assistant Waiters, 27 years old,  was seen shouting into a cell phone, throwing it overboard in disgust, then jumping to his death. Ouch. Taking your own life really kills 2 ppl's souls in this case, the chick he was arguing with too. I just couldn’t live with myself knowing I had just killed myself. Sure, 9 out of 10 ppl are would-be suicidal maniacs.But, it's the  permanent solution to  temporary problems.

Cabo · Paradise · Memory · History Foreign Land Another Day in Paradise Phil Collins in one ear, Neil Young in the other, and Cabo holding the contradiction between paradise and conquest. See Full Image Show Text Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir I was stuck in the 1980s, with Phil Collins resonating against Neil Young. One song called it another day in paradise. The other saw Cortez dancing across the water with galleons, guns, and the new world waiting inside a palace in the sun. Cabo held both versions at once: the postcard and the history beneath it. The Asymmetric Equation Paradise + Memory + Contradiction = Perspective The view becomes more honest when beauty and history are allowed to occupy the same frame. 0...

Malibu is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Talk may be cheap but intelligent conversation is very expensive these days. Ask anyone with a kid in college.Here at Pepperdine,a  dry campus-no one is maintaining a perfect 4.0 blood alchol level, or majoring in Beer. T he only thing that interferes with student's learning is their education.

Das Boot  The power of (my) intention to have a good time is the lyrics for the Beatle's song---Yellow Submarine "Embracing the life forced upon me" to stay in hotel rooms and live under pressure = Submarine. Because I have been  having a great time it is  Yellow (friends are all aboard). Sea of green = money. Time to surface----I need a vacation from this permenent  vacation . Hell is other people, and you usually find them on the buffet line of a Carnival Fun ship.(Their favorite food is Seconds). The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Wall-Mart of the cruise industry, pay less and have more fun,  isn't so funny anymore. Freedom is what you do to  what has been done to you- I quit. So we sailed on to the sun / Till we found a sea of green / And we lived beneath the waves / In our yellow submarine ...

Photography · Art · Pressure · Code rED Trials A Few Good Pictures A courtroom parody for the creative process: the pressure rises, the code turns red, and the art still has to hold. See Full Image Show Text Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir The creative courtroom is now in session. The evidence is visual. The pressure is real. The only acceptable verdict is work worth defending. The Asymmetric Equation Pressure + Taste + Execution = A Few Good Pictures The trial does not prove that the artist suffered. It proves that the work survived. 01 The Evidence The Picture Takes the Stand The original photograph becomes the cinematic opening statement. ...

10.10.10 · Chronological Time · Myth Beginning Again The Call Reinventing the Wheel All Along the Watchtower becomes a meditation on circular time, coming endings, and the choice to grow older without surrendering curiosity. See Full Image Show Text Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir The Opening Signal Some Kind of Way Out of Here “There must be some kind of way out of here,” Said the joker to the thief. With 10.10.10 only two days away, I was looking forward to the cataclysm and the Second Coming. The date felt less like a point on a calendar and more like a reset button disguised as a number. Roll Video ...

Art Auction On Board The Carnival Splendor The Mother Teresa of the Cruise Ship Art Auction World--turning water into wine, The Ed Reif brand, handing out the sacrement of faith--, and as M. T.  said herself" My wish is that everyone that meets me, leaves a little bit happier". Props to Gary Glitter, for "Hey Hey" song

In one year and out the other. A year ago today... Space travel sure is fun Greetings from the user-friendly universe---The Peoples Republic of Santa Monica; Home of The Mac Store, and Apple, the forbidden fruit. First in January, I was in the Majik Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a bit like Mars . Then in February, I went to The Land of Smiles , Thailand, and walked on the moon. Finally, in March and April, I had my head in the clouds with The Helium Report, winn ing and losing the American dream in Macau every night, playing high-stakes no limit- poker, on The Hong Kong Express . Leaving Las Vegas In May and June, I got my B aht out of Asia and went back to the United States of Unconsciousness , playing tournament poker in the black holes of Midwest bars and Las Vegas Casinos. Spent the best part of my losing streak.. .in an Army Jeep, from what I can recall. There's that line from Sheryl Crow -Standing in the midd le of the desert waiting for my ship to come in... In July, I decided ...