If you have ever lost anything of value you have probably experienced what I call "a hot feeling of regret". I see it as a cross between shame, anger, and fear. Your mind might simultaneously scan the past to figure out where and when your valuable item could have disappeared while also scanning the future for the various...
A couple of weeks ago I got an email asking if I would be willing to include a photo from my mall series in a show at a Williamsburg-based gallery. I was given a description which read in part, “The artists included in this exhibition have been chosen for how their work delves the socialization of space—not as something perceived...
I think it has to do with my general tendency to chafe against expectations, but I'm not so good at giving birthday gifts. It's not that I don't like to give things to people but instead, on some level, I find it uncomfortable to give gifts just because I'm expected to. Like my daughter Fiona (and my mother and my...
Humans have a tendency to want to think of ideas, as well as scientific "facts", as solid and immutable. Unfortunately, things tend to be a lot more complex and nuanced than we want them to be. This is nowhere more evident than in health care. The disease model of medicine looks for a single cause of illness because that makes...
Suki and I got back to work on “All The Rage” yesterday after two solid weeks of having the kids at home due to snow days. Snow days are good way to practice learning to accept what comes. It was distraction from the work, but sometimes stepping away gives up renewed perspective. One of the most difficult parts of...
The other day a friend asked me if I had a Kim Gordon photo he could use for a Salon article he was designing. He let it be known that there was no budget to pay anyone. I of course would rather be paid than not paid. But I was happy to have the images connected to...
A pentagon assessment that Vladimir Putin might have a form of Asperger syndrome was all over the news this week. Asperger’s is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by difficulties with social interaction and nonverbal communication. It often involves restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. The Austrian pediatrician, Hans Asperger, who first wrote about the condition in...
As we work on our film about the relationship between our emotions - both conscious and unconscious - and health, I've been thinking a great deal about the idea of how information reaches our awareness. One of the most difficult things for people to wrap their minds around is how to become aware of the shaky frames that define our...
Sick of Heaven from rumur on Vimeo. - a video for the sleepyhead song sick of heaven- which involves releasing my father's ashes into the ocean It's 5 am on the 9th anniversary of my father's death, and as I lay here thinking about writing about my father - and myself - I struggle with the balance between nakedness and exhibitionism;...
[caption id="attachment_17833" align="aligncenter" width="681"] "Yellow Glove with Shank" -Lavar Munroe- from Area 919 show at the Nasher Museum of Art[/caption] I know both from memory, and reminders by mother, that I could be a real brat when my I was a kid. This knowledge give me a great deal of empathy for my parents, my kids, and myself. When my daughters...
The word responsibility comes up a lot when you have a 12-year-old daughter. It also comes up a lot when you're working on a movie about issues related to healthcare and emotions. The other day I wrote something about the relationship between poverty and asthma, which raises several questions about responsibility. These questions have both cultural and political implications. From...
Today there was an article in the Washington Post that discussed a surprising new study which found that it's not asthma and urban poverty that are linked, but instead, poverty in general. While the author of the article was able to surmise that living in poverty might possibly be a causative factor in regards to asthma, it completely missed the...