Neva Cooper Likes art politics science technology fashion music life and everything else

1Aug/120

Trip Report from a Dosed Teacher

"Drugs are a common topic in my classroom. The students have questions and I have answers, and if I can prevent one less overdose or drunken driving death, it's worth it. My students get fucked up. We live in the wine country, and whenever you live in a booze-based economy, kids are going to grow up with issues. Acid, mushrooms, meth, coke, prescription drugs and a whole lot of weed are what the students are into. You would think it would change after 25 years, but it's just the same as when I was in high school.

Max had left a screensaver depicting 12 tabs of Scooby-Doo windowpane acid on one of my classroom computers. I told him to do a research paper on Timothy Leary and quit being such an asshole. I think that's why he dosed me"

"Second Street East is one of those Sonoma streets that make tourists want to move here. Lovely restored cottages, perfect landscaping, large porches, shade trees--the American dream. I stopped at a white craftsman, similar to the home I grew up in. I was thinking how my dad, a newspaper writer, was able to pay for this house and our not-so-extravagant middle-class life (two kids, two cars, dog, tennis club membership, a cabin in the mountains) while I struggle like crazy working two jobs, hardly able to afford my mortgage in a little house on the other side of town, with no tennis club and certainly no cabin.

"Mr. Moss, are you OK?" It was Brenda, suddenly pulling me out of my thoughts. "The rest of the class is blocks ahead; you've been staring at this house forever.""

Read the rest here!

24Jul/120

Amazing Light Paintings

I really love what photographers are doing with light paintings.

Magic in the Woods

Dennis Calvert's fresh new take on one of my favorite toys growing up, the Spirograph.

Spirograph image.

It's really exciting to see art making it's way back into photography. Anyone with a decent eye and a camera can take a great picture, the hard part is making a transcendental image that is more than the sum of it's parts.

Light Painting by Dennis Calvert

I'm also currently obsessed with all things LED toy related, so this is extra cool to me.

Time Traveler Light Painting