The CragBaby

Yesterday National Public Radio reported a story covering the photographer Chris Jordan and his artwork collection titled Intolerable Beauty of Consumerism. After listening to the story, I was intrigued to see his artwork and located his website. Not wanting to infringe on the rights of his artwork, none of his photos will be posted on this blog but I would encourage you to view his work.

In the statement section of his site he explains the motivation behind his Intolerable Beauty of Consumerism. I found his thoughts to be well written and contemplative, thus sharing with you here.

Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake.

I didn’t get the chance to post about the dual birthday parties in Joes Valley prior to my Thailand vacation. Though delayed, the Joe’s weekend was such a highlight of the year it still deserved a post.

As all my friends know, my birthday is the biggest day of the year for me. I don’t celebrate any official holidays and therefore go to great lengths to thoroughly enjoy my birthday. This year I had been fortunate enough to find a new excellent friend who just so happened to have been born a day prior to me (though years apart). We sent around a couple emails the week prior to the big days and magically ended up with a great crew of 20 boulderers hanging out in Joes Valley to climb and drink over the birthday weekend.

All good birthdays should be enjoyed in bikinis and cowboy hats.

Shaft killing a problem at the Black and Tan boulder.

Severhead working an excellent V6 in the Black and Tan area. He ended up sending by the end of the night.

A party isn’t a party unless ShutUp and Severhead are present.

Part of the crew (from left to right): SendHard, Shaft, BW and me.

After dinner (and perhaps too many drinks), we had the fabulous idea of working some crack problems by headlamp.

Me looking real serious while working a problem in the Moby Dick area.

Triznut on Moby Dick.

Toby working a problem in the Moby Dick area.

BW giving some love to the CB-GBers after we swam in the freezing cold river.