Pedestrian Prose

I lament the things I see or hear but cannot share. Though one day I believe we will see the death of that which is ephemeral: nothing which cannot be recorded. No conversation unrecorded, no image too fleeting to capture.

I saw a scarf of birds today whose acrobatic flight paths were too intricate and quick for digital film. Lately I’ve found a general fascination with the notion of recording and keeping everything in hopes that one day some future anthropologist will stumble upon it and make sense of my life.

So, frustrated and paralyzed by the need to capture this fleeting beauty (to analyze later), I sat and watched the birds’ erratic yet enchanting dance in the sky. And then it hit me: an epiphany of the importance of ephemeral. It did me just fine to stop, sit, watch, feel, and then reflect and write about what I saw.

Does my theory of the apparent death of all that is ephemeral also mean the death of narrative, of reflection? No; surely it needn’t be that way. Personal artifacts were meant to be reflected upon to illustrate their significance in our lives. I just think it helps to see that reflection in context, that’s all…

I did capture a few images during my travels this week, and have made a sample playlist to try and recapture some of what I’ve been experiencing:

Universal’s City Walk party hosted by Educause (taken from the balcony of the Groove (a bar/dance club)

The “Sky Vodka Blue Room” at the Groove

Monument Circle in the center of downtown Indianapolis

Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral (also in Monument Circle)

Ohio Street, Indianapolis

‘Traveling’ Playlist

I wish I could have recorded my entire journey on video or something. I’ve encountered so many new people, places, and things. I wish I could have taken you all here. Alas, these blog entries are all I have at the moment.

Reflection is all that we may ever have in the end.

Not to be one-upped by my best friend Ashlee, I almost saw Debbie Gibson at Karma (a gay bar) in Orlando. Let me start from the beginning…

So I spent the week in Orlando at Educause, an IT conference for folks in higher education.  In addition to being totally re-energized by the awesome presentations and 7500 geeks-like-me that were there, we had a pretty great time in Orlando, except for a few things:

Aside from those sore points, Orlando knows a good party.  And I saw quite a few.  In previous trips, I had only gone to Disney World, which is a blast.  But this time I got to see Universal’s City Walk.  Nice. This is what downtown Little Rock should look like.

I also had to go to the Parliament House, an all gay resort/bar/club complex. It was sort-of the Baskin Robins of gay bars.  A cross between Little Rock’s Discovery and the Bates Motel, but dirtier.  More like if Disco was bigger and there were no straight people.

Later I hopped over to the Dragon Room, a “lavish, ultramodern lounge,” and caught-up with a friend from High School.

So back to Debbie, I had planned on just going to Karma, because it was down the street from my hotel, but it was $20 to stand outside (ya’ll, Orlando is hot, okay?!) or $100 for VIP access.  Ouch.  Even worse, there was no one there when I walked by.  Sigh.

So, you win Ashlee.  Hope Angela Bassett was cool.  I’m off to Indianapolis.