(Another) Ramble

One of the most amazing moments in music video history. Maybe it's just me but there is one moment I will always remember:

Blink 182 - Feeling This music video. The first time the lyric "Place your hand in mine" is sung this scenario played out. It's an amazing piece of cinema, and it's merely seconds long.

Ramble.

So it's my personal opinion that The Killers are one of those bands that will go into history as music that defined a generation. They are the real music that keeps my faith in the music industry. Bands like (and I'm just picking at random here) Flyleaf and System of a Down just sort of create the same song again and again. The same goes for other bands I really like (Disturbed, Kill Hannah, blah blah). The Killers take emotion and spin it into epic Ballads that will reverbate throughout time. Part of what makes them so eternal is that they simply create stories.

There are bands that make "I'm misunderstood, Fuck, why don't you underdstand?" music.
There are bands that make "I hate you, and I hate that, and I hate me, and I hate hats!" music.
There are bands that make "My relationship is really sad/broken/gone" music.
There are bands that make "WAAAAAAAAHHHH!" music.
And there are bands that make music about the full spectrum of emotion. The Killers is one of those bands.

Epic ballads for a generation caught inside a descent into target audiences and mediated reality. That's what The Killers provide, that sober moment inside the haze of manufactured reality.

I have fixed the AC adapter!

I have foiled the corporate something-or-others that manufacture cheap product! I've foiled you! Yeah, that's right, I stripped my broken ac adapter down and made it into a dangerous short circuit electrical fire generator that now powers my laptop once again!

On to the real update. I went back to The Alystra with two of my friends. The door that can be unlocked with the right key has been welded shut. So much for that idea. However, the building was still easy to get into. Juliet took a few pictures thatcame out pretty nice. As soon as those are up I'll link them HERE. Anywho, here are two shots from that excursion.




More recently I went draining with Steven. The amazing thing is just how easy it is to get into the amazing tunnel systems. In fact if you go HERE you can find a map of the damn system. Steven and I entered a tunnel near the Henderson DMV that led us deep underground and eventually opened up in a neglected wash. The tunnels were amazing and cavernous. Domed at the top they were at least 20 or 30 feet across and about 20 feet tall. We saw the actual molds used to make the drains up on a hill as we exited. Once we reached them we looked down and saw a secluded small lake. No kidding. On the other end of the lake was another tunnel which took us farther. Two amazing skylights (large vents) allowed me to take one picture while in the tunnels. I didn't take many pictures (which I now regret). I was so enamoured with the experience. I'll be going back very soon.






There's juat a bit more to the story. Steven and I went back out later and explored two more drains. One that we faound was easily accessible from the same area as the first one. It was of a similar shape to the other one, but smaller. It led for 3+ miles and eventually opened in, seriously now, a high end gated community. The kind with a 24 hour guard.

The last drain we explored was right off of the freeway exit headed toward my house. It rewuired the hopping of two fences but was a nice closing to the day. It was relatively short and sweet. and emptied near the base of that huge mountain with the radio towers on it.

Quick update.

Only one person has participated in the www.BehindDoors-TheAdventure.blogspot.com thing so far and that makes me sad.

I explored a shit ton of tunnels today. They were rediculously amazing.

I have and XBOX 360.

I have 9 minutes of battery life left.

I want to start The Society for Re-Writing Crappy Endings.
Movies/books in particular include:
Stardust
The Invisible
And a few more I won't get into because I'm down to 8 minutes.

Well shit.

Computer failure!

Sorry so say, for those who care, that my computer has merely an hour of battery life left. I'll probably be making blog entries without images for a while. Larger programs make my computer's battery drain. And my family is photoshop/photo editing software deprived. So till next time, explore. Please dear god, explore something.

Venture with a Vandal

I went out tonight (last night?) with a graffiti vandal. He's mostly into stencils and the like but has made some headway into the freehand genre. Pretty neat stuff. Hope you enjoy. I thought the pictures came out pretty nice.

HENDERSON UPDATE

If you live in Henderson or Vegas and want free prints here's your chance. Go to www.BehindDoors-TheAdventure.blogspot.com to find out how. There are new explorations for you to earn prints with, Have fun, and please do it. If you've already done the exploration feel free to send me documantation of previous visits. They still count!

Epic Road Trip

So we left this morning at 5:00 am for a trip to Vegas. It turns out that Nevada is really fucking cool, in case some people were unaware. (Also check Behind Doors: The Adventure for an update as well) Juliet, Sean and I visited some truly awe inspiring places. I'll detail the places with minimal words and a bunch of pictures.




Our first stop took us to an abandoned minesite. We simply saw it as we were driving through Luning and decided it looked fun. The structure sitting above the mine was mostly in tact, probably only abandoned within the past 30 40 years. We did not explore the mine part, only the structures really.








After conquering that amazing site we were on our way again. A thick fog engulfed the road and we passed a sign saying "Goldfeild Cemetery". My photographic senses prickled and we turned around and went. Our results are below.





The next stop was the famously haunted Goldfeild Hotel in Goldfeild Nevada. The building was incredibly hard to find an entrance to, but incredibly worthwhile.









After that we drove for quite a while ending up in Rhyolite Nevada. This is the most photographed ghost town in America. Which is ironic, because I got very few pictures while I was there. We're headed back sometime soon when we'll have more time to explore.


Sean took this one



Please click on this one and watch it. It's relatively short and pretty. It's a montage of the trip from start to finish. Time lapse photography thing.

No sleep.

I'm getting to the point where I type words backwards, abd replace b's with p's and other sich weird little things. My head is doing that neat little spinny thing where every movement feels like I'm doing it on a tightrope. And I'm watching Angel, which is cool. I finished my journalism final and I'm pretty damn proud of it. Also, I forgot what this scentence was originally supposed to say.

My newest addiction.

Oh my lord I have found a new addiction. Myst. Go to Gametap and get a free account and play this game. I won't be sleeping tonight.

Sculpture

This is an azzemblage that I created for my art 100 class. It's titled "Dyscalculia" and has to do with my inability to grasp numbers in the ways I should. It is also about my love for theoretical math, and the inability to fully explore my ideas.

The moment I've been waiting for. (Edited for clarity)

Here it is. For those of you who have stuck with me to this point, I'm going to give you a treat. In few sentences there will be a link. That link will take you to the website for my final photo project. You'll have a head start at finding the various places around campus (before I release the site to my photo class, and the spaces might be discovered by athourities and closed off). Please treat the areas with great respect and maintain their integrity. And remember, if you provide documentation of your explortion, you will recieve a free print of the area you explored. Feel free to do this with all of the areas.

www.BehindDoors-TheAdventure.blogspot.com

Update.

Sorry about the slowed pace of updates. I hope you'll stay tuned, because quite soon my urban exploration website, Behind Doors: The Adventure, will go live. I don't even know if I'm using that phrase correctly. But stay tuned for some winter pictures. It snowed last night and I was there with my camera.

This week in Photos (Seven Point Three)

Here's what we used as the main photo for the Identity story in this weeks issue. I thank Higdon for his help with this. In fact I really hope he included his name in the cutline. I meant to make sure he did that.



Identity Story on Sagebrush site


Also, if anyone knows where I can print a small magazine/pamphlet for cheap, please let me know.

This week in Photos (SevenPointTwo)

Here's the rest of this weeks photos. World Aids Day and some photos from an event about the crisis in Darfur.

I have no idea why clicking the photos tries to get you to download them... I'll figure it out later. It's late and I still have a paper to write.

















Darfur story on SB Website
National Aids Day story on SB Website

This week in Photos (SevenPointOne)

Here's a post for the local band Buster Blue. I went to a concert put on by WolfPack Radio and discovered this band. One of my new favourites. I'm awaiting their mews songs, specifically one I know only as "that one with the megaphone". Anyhow, here are a few pictures I took of the band. Hope you guys enjoy. Click to download bigger version.











Photo gallery on SB Website

Book Reviews!

Please enjoy this undoubtedly boring review of two books I've recently read.

Beneath the Neon by Matthew O'Brien

The book is good in that it exists. It is a first person account of O'Brien's exploration of the storm drain system in Las vegas. It's well written, but reads a lot like a newspaper article which sometimes becomes draining at times. I find myself comparing it to Brokeback Mountain, not for it's subject matter of course. But It's existence is important. Beneath the neon gave voice to an underexplored culture, as did Brokeback Mountain. The only things I would have really changed are the pull out quotes (which seem redundant in that they are already in the main text) and perhaps include a few more photos. But the photo thing is coming from me, so take that as you will.

Shooting War by Anthony Lappe' and Dan Goldman

This is a compilation of a web comic that I never read till its book form. Joe gave it to me as a gift, and I thank him. The art is a fusing of real images and drawings that work seamlessley together to create a beautiful and startling vision of the future. In this future, the war in Iraq has created a plague of tension and war that has spread across borders. It follows a video blogger through his expirences inside Iraq. The story is very well constructed, and contains realistic and interesting commentary on the world we live in today. Simply a good read.

If anyone wants to read either of these I do own them and trust people pretty readily.