The One Rule

Skateboarding, foosball, bowling, Ultimate — this was a weekend of games.

For some reason, the phrase “Life’s a game” popped up in my mind while looking through this crop of photos. Do you think life’s a game? Some people put a lot of thought into the question, tackling it from a cynical or philosophical perspective. I don’t know the answer, but I do know there’s no redo button in those games (video games excluded) or in life. Whatever you do, good or bad, is a permanent part of the history that leads into every second. There’s no taking back a moment — it’s the one rule.

This fact might sound scary, but what are you going to do? Only what you can. Just don’t forget the rule, I guess. And give yourself something to celebrate every now and then.

By the way, bowling alleys make great birthday spots. A dozen of us went there to celebrate my co-worker’s Big Double-3. I’m pretty bad at bowling, but the company made up for the scores.

Sunday was way too windy for Ultimate, but life has its windy days, too, am I right?

Thanks for spending a moment here,

Dan

art book of life Crystal Bridges day of the dead death dia de los muertos dying Eureka Springs Halloween holidays life Mexico movies museum photography photos

Memory

It’s been a weekend full of art.

I came across a bagpipes rehearsal near my office after the solar eclipse this week, maybe for someone’s homecoming parade. Some family visited this weekend and went with me to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art up in Bentonville yesterday. Today, we went to Eureka Springs, a small town to the northeast that’s home to hundreds of artists and shops.

And tonight, I went to see “The Book of Life,” a beautifully animated romance and adventure story based around the Mexican holiday called el Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. The observance, which is coming up this weekend, is a celebration of loved ones who have died, a way to remember them while enjoying food and color and light and taking away the sting and dread of death.

In the movie, the dead inhabit two realms: Those who have living descendants to remember them dwell in the boisterously colorful and fun Land of the Remembered, while those who have no such legacy wither away in the cold, gray Land of the Forgotten.

It’s a family film, but like the holiday it celebrates, it dives into some of my deepest, most fearful questions: What happens when I die, and will I be remembered? I don’t think I’m alone with these thoughts.

Art, I think, is at least partly an attempt to answer those questions: to make something to remember, and to reach past the boundaries of a lifetime.

We have sculptures and buildings and paintings and books, but a lot of humanity’s art is temporary, like a group’s playing of the bagpipes for a crowd or an interaction on a sidewalk. Other art doesn’t come from us at all, like a sunset or solar eclipse. I like to think of photography as a way to record this art, to say, yes, you existed, and you did or made or were something worth seeing.

I hope my photography also qualifies as art, because I’m trying to make something to remember, too. We all want to keep the party going in the Land of the Remembered.

So when I say thanks for looking, I mean it. I hope you have a good week.

Dan

art art walk costumes Doctor Who downtown fall Friday Halloween life music October photography photos square street zombies

Welcome to October

I underestimated downtown Springfield, Mo., on Friday night. With the First Friday art walk, at least one high school’s homecoming, Halloween coming up and the square’s usual contingent of punk teenagers and low-income adults, there was no shortage of interesting people and interesting images.

One boy with a neon green shirt rode around the square on a neon green bike. Another guy, with purple hair and purple shirt and purple bike, taught how to play a harmonica to a grizzled old biker dude with a beer gut. Teens clumped together, skateboards in hand, looking around as if searching for a challenger to their dominance. A rock band played Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” across the street. Women loaded dozens of bridal dresses into a trailer for a tent sale the next day. A boy in costume as the Tenth Doctor ran around with a sonic screwdriver and a ukulele. Two women carefully applied zombie make-up to two other women. More restrained and respectable-looking couples and grandparents and families milled around, going from restaurants to galleries to bars, then to the live jazz band in the square. It felt like all life was there, to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite movies.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my images of it. In other news, I think I’m getting better at this street thing.

Dan