March Madness for Realz
Posted by Troy | Filed under Traverse City
March Madness has a whole different meaning where I come from…
When everyone else around the country has a skip in their collective steps celebrating the new season… grass sprouting and dogwoods blooming…
We’re typically knee-deep in crusty, dirty snow that’s been frozen for the past two months.
It can make you go a little bit nuts.
This year however, we’re joining in the heel-clicking… thanks to some unexpected sunshine.
It makes me a little nervous to think that winter might return in April… with a sneer no less…
Well I say, bring it on…
Tags: depression
Spikehorn Meyers
Posted by Troy | Filed under Travel, Traverse City
I discovered Spikehorn Meyers this week in an old travel-film clip my grandma sent me
It’s really cool to see mid-century footage of my home here in Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, but Ol’ Spikehorn steals the show.
He seems like a guy I’d want to know… or maybe even a guy I might have become…
Spikehorn said that the company of bears was much preferable to that of other people… he might be right, but I guess I’m lucky that I haven’t yet become so cynical about people that I’ve taken to avoiding them altogether…
I was hoping to check out the biography from my local library, but I haven’t had time… each nugget of information I scrounged up online just made Spikehorn more and more interesting though…
like when he made national news in 1945 after sending wires to Truman, Atlee and Stalin announcing a personal offer of $50K for the capture of Adolph Hitler.
I like him…
Photo from Don Harrison’s Up North Memories Flickr collection. I thought some color might give it a little life.
Tags: Travel, Traverse City
Haunted State Hospital
Posted by Troy | Filed under Art/Design, Traverse City
It is starting to smell like winter outside.
So I took advantage of some unusually nice weather and shot some photos at Grand Traverse Commons.
The old state mental hospital.
Some say it is haunted.
Tags: ghosts, original photo, Traverse City
Is Capitalism a Sin?
Posted by Troy | Filed under Culture, Film, Traverse City
My sister shared today’s note from Michael Moore.
I like Michael Moore.
- He is a Traverse City neighbor
- He is funny
- He cares enough to say something
- He challenges people
- He respects others who earnestly seek justice (even if they disagree)
Of course the question he raises in the note (and apparently at some point in his newest film) is a provocative one (what else?):
Is Capitalism a sin?
Now at this point, people are already writing their blog post comments in their head (just as he hoped) quick to point out how Mike might be using certain particulars of his faith only when they happen to support his agenda du jour…
But that’s not really what he’s doing at all.
Michael Moore knows that question can’t be answered.
His films are never about black and white, I’m right-you’re wrong…
They are intended to make you doubt… to start asking yourself questions… to consider…
Because without doubt… where would I be?
If I just follow someone or some system… economic, political, religious, relational…
Then I’m merely a cog… a tool being used by that particular system and those that run it.
If I doubt however… If I question the system… If is say “Is this right?” or “Is this wrong?” even if those questions can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” then I’m no longer being used by the system…
Instead of a cog, I’m a compass… or a refining fire… or a strong ingredient that somehow makes the whole thing smell less toxic and more intoxicating…
Salt, perhaps.
P.S. If the trailer doesn’t make you want to see his movie today… you must have some sort of super-power resistance to fantastic and effective advertising… and M.I.A.
Tags: Culture, Film, michael moore, politics
