Head for Analytics

Friday, May 29, 2015

Writing - Skytrain Gunfight in Two

Writing - Skytrain Gunfight in Two

“Take your shot.”

I stand on an empty train platform at 1 in the morning, having just exited the skytrain. My back is to a man who has been following me for the last seven stops, and the walk through downtown along West Georgia. He is in his late 30s, he has a non-descript backpack and a sling bag, black jeans, t-shirt and boots.

Life - Let's Go

Life - Let's Go

The night sky is open above my head. It stretches vast tracts above me, endless and uncertain. The wind calls, it picks up and holds me in her embrace. I am a lonely wanderer of the earth, but I am not alone.

Let's go.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Writing Exercise - The Belltower

Writing Exercise - The Belltower

The belltower was crumbling and wasting from disuse. Rotten timbers were strewn everywhere, the perhaps once-fancied idea of repairing the failing structure. Pigeons had taken to nesting in the eaves, vermin scurried underfoot, over it all was the pervasive fall of dust that clung to the surfaces like a lost lover. The rope to the bell-pull was long since gone, perhaps scavenged by some over-eager children for a new play-toy. The stairs rickety and unsafe to the rafter proper. But above it all, the bell. The bell, glorious thing, its brass had seen better days, and the clapper had some rust. But should it be rung, what a clear knell might sound over the abandoned city, consumed long ago by forest. What a clear kneel might sound.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Writing Challenge - Spartan

Writing Challenge - Spartan

The writing challenge for the next two days: 4-6 lines about a place that evoke an emotion through description of that place itself.

The space was even and regular, angular in a way that highlighted perfect corners and solid edges. Even the bed was impeccably dressed, no trace of softness to the blankets, or the stiff, single pillow that adorned it. There was no art on the walls, no accents on the tables, nothing gave off visible light save the soft glow of sunlight from the windows and the skylight. It could have been a magazine cover, or carefully tailored by an artisan's hand for a photographer. All that, save for a single dying rose on the bedside table, crinkled and beginning to flake in decay.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Writing - Politics

Writing - Politics

On Saturday, Matt came over to help me out with some furniture and put up posters in my place. One of the ones that is most important to me is a poster that is the iconic picture of Tiananmen Square. Everyone has seen it. It's a young man, a university student with two bags of shopping groceries standing in front of a column of tanks, unphased.

I have a lot of stuff up on my walls, big art, small stuff, post cards, pictures, paintings. I have wall scrolls, and movie posters, game posters and everything in between. But that's probably the only really political piece I have.

I have it up there because it's an open reminder, for the last ten years of my life. I keep that poster, I put it up everywhere, I remember, I think and reflect on it.

It reminds me that it only takes one person. One person, to stand up to atrocity. One person to enact change. One person with a belief that things can get better, and that there are things that must be done. It reminds me that there are masses of people looking outside for inspiration, but for me, and for that man I hope, there was something internal, a reminder that the possibility of a better world exists. And that we all just need the courage to stand up for it.

Be loud friends.

Today is the election in Alberta, and I hope each individual one person, will also stand up for what they believe in.

Stand up.  You can't back up into the future.