Category: Essays

The Tao of Lacey

Originally written February 24th, 2018, lightly revised and expanded for clarity.

There are over 7.5 billion people on Earth now, roughly 325 million of them in the US alone. As entities grow larger, it becomes harder for them to move and react, and it takes them longer to do so. The pace of modern day life, especially the technological aspects, vastly outstrips the ability of human beings to react and change with it.

We can’t keep up. The resulting mental, emotional, and cultural disconnects are mammoth, and grow with each passing day.

I believe the landscape we’re in right now to be fundamentally different than any in recent history. The old rules no longer apply, and the problem is that almost no one seems to see it but the people who want to capitalize on it to cause chaos and hurt others. Most people really have no clue what is happening, and as difficult as it is to believe, there is a wide swath of this country who still have no idea that there’s anything they need to pay attention to, and haven’t taken any action to protect themselves.

I bring you 10 fundamental concepts that have brought shape and definition to my life. Some of them are relatively new, others are the product of ~20 years of honing and refinement. You will likely recognize much of the underlying theory, but I tend to apply it in somewhat unconventional ways because I see things at a slightly different angle than most other people seem to. If you’ve ever wondered about the way I approach life or the way I think, this is your window into how my mind works.

Continue reading “The Tao of Lacey” →

Cher

For the last 15-20+ years, whenever I consume media, I almost always do it from the perspective of the performer. The first time, anyway. How much fun must it have been to play this role? What would it have been like to lay down that bass line? How would I sing that song? What would it be like to be the sort of person who can write a passage like that? Would I tell that joke the same way?

Absorbing work that way allows me to appreciate it completely differently than most people do, a feeling I think all artists know. One of the most delightful parts about being a performer myself now is that my appreciation for art and the artists who create it has only continued to deepen.

Then Cher showed up.

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UFC and ESPN: Same Bat Time, New Bat Station

The UFC recently entered into a 5 year broadcasting partnership with ESPN, and tonight is the first UFC/ESPN event. The main event features Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw going down a weight class to challenge champion and former Olympian Henry Cejudo for the Flyweight belt, a fight that should be absolute fire. This partnership is intriguing for so many reasons.

Continue reading “UFC and ESPN: Same Bat Time, New Bat Station” →

Places Between Places: The Louisville Roads Project

I began work on a photography project in May. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the moment I could finally show you what I’ve been working on, and tonight’s the night.

Welcome to Places Between Places: The Louisville Roads Project!

Purpose

The focal point of this project is the major roadways of Louisville, Kentucky. I wanted to highlight why they are so important for our city, and to uncover facets of the past that might have been forgotten or overlooked.

With this project, I hope to provide a means for people to appreciate and reconnect with their surroundings. In doing so, my hope is that these photos clarify and bring context to the present day.

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Treescream

When the transformer across the street blew late Wednesday night, it emitted a shower of purple light, and it took my power with it. The sky was light and there was a bunch of lightning, it seemed fitting. Watching, I thought, man, this would be beautiful if it wasn’t 2am.

My transformer was one of many others that blew that night, LG&E estimated that approximately 125,000 people lost power because of that ice storm. When I stepped outside Thursday morning, the sky was still unnaturally light and there were so many tree limbs down. I left for work early, but it took forever to get there because of all the traffic lights not working. The traffic crawled, I shivered, and all I could think about was the Wilderness Road.

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First Lady of Song

First Lady of Song

“That night in Berlin, we were in front of twelve thousand people and at the end of a midnight concert. We had played Brussels earlier, flown to Berlin and been up for twenty-two hours. We were all so tired we couldn’t hold our heads up, when Ella turns around and says, ‘Let’s do “Mack the Knife.”

“My heart sank. I was too tired. We were in front of too many people to try something crazy, and I knew Ella didn’t know the tune. I said, ‘Well, golly Ella…’ but before I could say anymore she had turned around and was announcing it.”

Wilfred Middlebrooks, Ella Fitzgerald’s bassist that night, describing the night Ella, my favorite singer and the best Jazz singer that ever lived, sang Mack the Knife live in front of 12,000 Germans, forgot the words, and got her 5th and 6th Grammy Awards.

April 25th would’ve been Ella’s 100th birthday. This summer proved to be the best summer I’ve had thus far in my life, and in my mind’s eye, it started that night. That night, I was sitting in a San Antonio hotel room eating chocolate Rice Krispie treats, writing the earliest draft of what eventually became this essay, and listening to Midnight Sun, probably my favorite Ella song from one of my favorite Ella albums, her recording of The Johnny Mercer Songbook. Continue reading “First Lady of Song” →

Blanket

Blanket

On July 4th 2015, I went to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to see The Rolling Stones.

It was a wonderful concert, and a memorable day for many reasons. That day was the beginning of my current personal favorite tradition: roadtrips, especially for concerts or vacations, and at the time it was my longest drive to and from a single destination. Traffic close to the Speedway was ridiculous; I saw numerous people bail out of cars (that were admittedly not moving), run into buildings to either use the restroom or emerge with drinks and/or sandwiches, and run halfway down the block to catch their car. I’ll never forget getting lost when leaving the concert, getting lost in the Speedway, belatedly realizing I’d been driving progressively farther and farther from the lights for several minutes, that I was driving around in the infield, that I was likely on some security radar somewhere, and that I’d better turn around right now or they’d send someone to collect me.

I think of that concert more than any other concert than I’ve ever been to, but not for the reasons I ever expected to. Continue reading “Blanket” →

Double Exposure

All my life, especially when I was little, I remember such a kerfuffle being made about Turning Thirty ™. Lots of jokes, but also lots of angst and lamenting.

I remember my mother being so upset when she turned 30. I was a month or so into kindergarten. My continuity of memory picks up at about the point my mother was 29 years old. Over the past year or so, my memories of my mother’s 29th year have been overlaid on my real-time experiencing of my own, creating a double exposure that has been somewhat disorienting even before the haze of unreality that has shadowed the last year or so. We live in strange times.

Today is my 30th birthday. I am no longer standing on the verge. I’ve jumped. My canopy is full, and the scenery defies description.


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Motion of the Ocean

Motion of the Ocean

In 2004, I was 16, a Junior in high school and in the middle of a year that was a rocket to the moon. Many important things happened that year. I pride myself on usually being pretty good at realizing the importance of things as they’re happening, but something I didn’t realize was so important until later was reading Old Times on the Mississippi, a portion of a larger Mark Twain memoir named Life on the Mississippi, for my AP English class. (Ms. Grant, we loved you and you are sorely missed.) Continue reading “Motion of the Ocean” →