Who knew Ethan Hawke…

Could write so well???
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Ethan Hawke wrote a pretty damned long article about Kris Kristofferson – the songwriter-singer-actor who spent his life jumping from career to career without much (apparent) fear or self-loathing.

Kristofferson is now a role model of mine – a man who was a rugby player, Rhodes scholar, Army captain who taught literature and then flew helicopters and demanded to be sent to Vietnam before leaving all of that behind to work as a janitor in Nashville with the hopes of becoming a songwriter of country music.

He is old school. Photos in the article of Kristofferson dripping with so much male swagger and testosterone that you couldn’t doubt any of the authenticity of the lyrics he ‘d penned. A scholar-soldier. Poetic officer. A man who understood the bullshit and told the truth both in terms of his life as well as his art.

So, now he’s someone that is a role-model of sorts – he fought for his art – he lost two wives (I don’t plan on emulating that part) and a significant part of his liver for it all. His parents disowned him for his choices – but he stood tall and kept on working at his craft.

But, what I left impressed with – wasn’t all due to Kristofferson. It was due to the writing that Hawke, an actor-director, concocted to cover this apparent mountain of a man. Flattering to say the least – Hawke made it perfectly clear that he looked up to Kristofferson – it just kept on bouncing on through the life story it was trying to tell. Hawke originally wanted to produce a film on the subject – a “Walk the Line”-esque biopic in the similar vein as was done with Johnny Cash (incidentally, one of Kristofferson’s close friends) and Kristofferson refused, making Hawke settle for one hell of an interview.

He did a good job. I’m now a fan of the music and the man behind the music. I walked away from reading Rolling Stone – of all things…inspired.

Kris Kristofferson – he’s what’s RIGHT with country music.

Grow Flowers in The Cloisters – OR – Why Unicorns Hang Out In Fort Washington

So today I went to the Macy’s Flower Show – it was the last day to see it. Me and Yifan walked down from the dorms all the way to Herald Square. W 34th and 7th – it was at least a two mile walk through Midtown Manhattan. So I can honestly say that I was FLOORED at how beautiful the Macy’s Flower Show is. Each square inch of the store that doesn’t have merchandise instead had flowers, plants, trees, grasses, and vines growing out of them. It was amazing, instead of the usual department store perfume/cosmetics counter scent, the gentle scent of flowers filled the air. Azaleas, irises, daffodils, tulips, roses, cherry blossoms, cacti, banana palms, ferns, and mosses ruled the store. It was an awesome sight.

In less than thirty minutes I had over 100 pictures. The lighting inside of the Macy’s was extremely bright for my digital camera and prompted me to discover how to actually work my camera. I figured out how to change the brightness settings, turn off the flash, change the white balance a little bit of everything. I’m putting pictures up on Flickr… Honestly the photos were gorgeous…

After about 30 minutes of frolicking through a department store and being looked at like the craziest black man in all of Manhattan – mostly by black security guards – we decided to split and head uptown to study for a little while before we met Yif’s friend and headed up to the Cloisters. We hopped an A train and took it until we got to 168th. Then we transferred to a shuttle bus and rode the rest of the way up on Fort Washington Ave. It was the first time I’d been that far uptown during the day, and it was pretty cool. I really enjoyed it – great deal – the neighborhood is beautiful and the hospital itself is gorgeous. The park there is beautiful and it immediately reminded me of Seattle. I found myself walking towards a mansion that looked like it was out of a scene from Batman – Huge columns, ramparts and masonry construction that was on a massive scale that I’d never seen prior to that. It looked like it was half castle/half villa. The inside was immediately beautiful with amazing lighting (my poor camera couldn’t quite figure it out every time) and huge vaulted/arched ceilings. Yifan’s friend unleashed a torrent of information – it turns out he is a medievalist – about the architecture, relics, treasures, tapestries, and artifacts and their historical and biblical significance. I was amazed and felt like I had taken a step back into time. The stories that surrounded the relics were unfathomable…I’m still breathless – pictures after the jump…

Sometimes

Sometimes isn’t fair

And I just want to be free

Of these sometime devils running inside of my head

holding me down so that I cannot breathe

oh no

Sometimes isn’t fair

I just need some equity

a stake in my future that I can control

please behold I’m just trying to be me

good lord

cause I said sometimes isn’t free

we just started on this road

discovering myself and leasing the past to my soul

sometimes just aint nice

we all have to pay a price

for the sins of our fathers and omission of brothers

so please watch how you steer your life

god  said

you’ll never deal with more than you can

but sometime it feels like I can’t stand

on a single foot let alone two

and i’m left wishing that I was here with you.

god help me on this path

I’m singing in the dark hurting bad

and this sadness is raining inside of my head

so that all I can feel is cold blackness

…

a work in progress…