16 June2008
Bruce JacksonWhere I was
I didn’t post anything on Buffalo Report for all of May and the first half of June. I want to thank all of you who wrote during the hiatus asking if everything was okay and if BR was going to continue.Everything is okay and BR is going to continue.
It was the 24/7 bloviating that got to me: I just needed a break from it. I should have posted a note saying that, but at the time I didn’t know if I was going to start up again so I figured I’d wait until I knew.
The noise toward the end of the primary campaign got relentless: there were opinions everywhere one turned and ever less information. The noise got louder and louder, the information scarcer and scarcer.
For audiologists and sound engineers, that’s what “noise” is: sound without information, sound that is just aural clutter and mess, sound that isn't now and never will be part of the music. For people like us, it’s pooling ignorance rather than exploring issues and sharing knowledge.
So I sort of reached out and turned off the switch on everybody, including myself. I just didn’t want to add any more opinionating for a while.
I worked on prints for some upcoming exhibits. Scanned about 1500 negatives and Ektachromes from Texas prisons I'd never printed or even looked at since I took them thirty and forty years ago. Read the Peavear and Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina. Hosted out-of-town visitors. Read John Berger's About Looking. Reread Barthes' Camera Lucida and found it every bit as annoying as last time. Started Steven Bach's bio of Leni Riefenstahl and Eric Clapton's autobiography. Sat in the kitchen with Diane and watched a dazzling sequence of films on our new Blue-Ray. Edited and printed a dozen of the 1978 Texas images on 13x19" sheets. Like that.
But found myself more and more missing the opportunity to pick, gloss and share. Stuff was going on. Amid all the noise, there were good things being written, good things being said and I missed being able to tell you about it. So now I’m back.
Those of you who regularly send me suggestions: please keep sending them. Those of you who read the glosses and click on the links for the full articles: keep reading and clicking. We're not done yet!
Onwards!
Bruce
Copyright 2008 by Buffalo Report, Inc.
