2.08.2012

Credit, Thank You & Vicariously Living thru a Photo

Photo Credits: Kay Joe Unscripted 
Anyone who knows me for longer than five minutes, knows fairly quickly that NYC is my home away from home….




And anyone who has known me longer than an hour, probably has come to the odd conclusion that I REALLY have the audacity to believe I am from NYC when it is clear as day, either by my accent (or lackthereof) or the corn falling out of my pockets, that I am born and raised in HOosierville, USA, otherwise known as sleepy ass naptown, Indianapolis, Indiana.yeah..and still, I have managed over the years to find some genuine love for this city.

However

NYC is my home.  Its hard to explain but I swear there has yet to be another place in the states that brings that sort of freedom to my spirit. 


Well.i say all of this to say.have you noticed my new background?????

Probably so, if you are reading this.however, I suppose if you are not reading from the comfort of a PC or a laptop or Mac or I-whatever, then its possible that my background is completely oblivious to you……but I digress (I love saying that)

.in case you didnt know, yesterday my background was and has been since I got this blog years ago, Grand Central Station..lights beaming in the windows, people walking and Sepia--toned old look that reminds me of Harlem Jazz for some reason..yeah..so finally, I changed it..

I had come across a picture on facebook a week or so ago that was so beautiful it took my breath away..and I mean, upon me seeing it, I gasped.so serious!!!! It is a night shot and its almost black & white looking, but I wonder if that was the intent or just the fact that it was nighttime.either way, this picture, which has now become my new background, was beautiful..in the seconds I stared blank-faced into my work PC, I was blown away..how could something so beautiful be so far from ME???? How could a picture worth so many thousands and thousands of words not be taken BY me.(lolyou KNOW I love taking pics.esp when in NYC)..

This picture took me right into the heart of Times Square……the tall buildings, the dark but still busy, still heavily flooded, frequented and aliveness of it all..it looked as if there were people by the thousands beneath these buildings walking the grand streets of NYC, in search of the same oooh and ahh that I experience every single time I go……the picture was not a mix of dark buildings, lit only by random office lights..it was a mix of cultures, heights, loves and a totality of respect that can only be comprehended by a true Yorker, or at least someone who pretends to be in her not so spare time……

This picture was so beautiful, that I downloaded it off facebook to my desk computer because I just wanted to be able to look at it on those days that I needed to feel closer to NYC……..only thing was, this was NOT my picture..as stated earlier, I didnt take it..matter a fact, the person who did take it, while it is true he is my FB friend, is not someone I know personally..

Yesterday, while trying to pass the time away, I started playing around on my blog with the settings and found myself totally pictureless and damn blogless.i dont know what buttons I clicked but I caught hell trying to get back to Grand Central Station..then I realized I had the power to change my blog picture from the ones they had available to whatever I wanted to upload..after trying a few pictures of me performing, I scrolled past the downloaded picture of NYC, taken by my FB friend and decided to just see what it would look like…….
Shit was DOPE.

So I left it……..then I got home..and started thinking.i remember seeing someone with a picture of me as their profile picture……the picture itself was nothing.it just said poetry saves inside of a book, presumably a journal or something similar..this person, who I really didnt know, had taken the pic off my page or possibly my blog or somewhere and made it her propic..i didnt get upset because all it said was Poetry Saves and I could understand why she would want that as her propic..but it was odd.for two reasons.one because it was my picture, I didnt really know who this person was and I really had no idea where she got it or what her motivation was……oh and the other reason is because, although all you can see is what I described, the un-cropped version of that picture is SO much more..it was a complete nude shot of ME, holding my journal with those words written out on it.the journal just happened to be in front of my whooohaaagotyouallincheck ;)    But the cropped version, is just the book .and its hard to make out anything else in the picture but the book.  So I didnt say anythingI figured I KNEW she didnt know what it was and it was all innocent enough……but anyway, as I road home, this crossed my mind and I thought about my blog, NYC and the person who shot this beautiful masterpiece of the place I would love to call home from his hotel room and I thought to myself, how would he feel if he happened upon my blog and noticed his picture on it..wouldnt it make him feel some kind of way, whether he could explain it or not????

So I reached out to him.thank God for the new fb, where it is so much easier to find things youve posted or commented on.i didnt really remember who took the pic, but in five minutes, I had it back up.so I asked for his permission and let him know I am major-obsessed with NYC (w/o going into too many details)..

He said yes..i promised to credit him with taking the picture and giving me the permission to use it..

So this long ass blog was created just for that!!!! LOL.only me huh ???

His name (at least on facebook J ) is:::

Kay Joe Unscripted  
He is a poet as well and actually has a show coming up February 25 at One Night Only (Chicago)

I have read some of his FB poetry posts and they are pretty great, so by all means check him out!!!! I dont know if he does photography professionally or if he is like me and manages to catch paparazzi shots naturally (at timeslolI am by no means a professional picture taker)……but either way, I would like to sincerely thank him for a small, but very kind gesture..this pic just happens to be his cover picture on facebook and he could have easily said No, I would like you NOT to use my shit, thank you ..if thats what he wanted to see……free will right??/

But he said yes..
And thanx to his yes..when I come to this blog, at least for the time this picture remains, which if my Central Station picture is any indication of how often I change my blog pics, this one might be here until I can take my own NYC pic and top it!!!!!

.but when I come here, to my blog, my place of literary freedom to speak, feel and shout, I will feel THAT much closer to home..the home away from home that is.technically, Im already home.

Either way.special thank you, background photo credit and love to Kay Joe Unscripted  (look him up on facebook!!!) for giving me the permission to live vicariously through his photo.

This blog may take you about ten minutes to read.

Anyone who knows me longer than 10 minutes, knows that I have a slight obsession with NYC….
Bet you can tell that from me turning a thank you and a picture credit into a 3 page word documented blog. 

MyLifeAsAPoetGirl

jY

1 comment:

  1. LOL!!! and this is why I LOVE U!! Love your new background pic...Big ups to Kay Joe Unscripted...Art/Poetry/Theater/Stages/Mics/Music....YOU GOT 2 LOVE IT....*True2Life*

    ReplyDelete