Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Chapter 66 - September 4, 2012

Hi everybody. It's a bit of a cliche but I say nothing worthwhile is easy. You gotta take one day at a time. That's how I live my life right now. I get done with my day and I think of what I'm gonna do tomorrow. I got to pull out my soapbox right now. You guys out there listen. Have your kids listen. I said it before, but I'm gonna say it again: You guys cannot, I repeat, cannot talk on the phone or text while driving. If you saw what I saw, you would freak out. It was horrible. Remember what I said before. You're one glance away from death at any point while driving and talking on the phone. OK, that's it. I'll put away my soapbox now. That's all I have to say about that.

If you're lying there with traumatic brain injury, it's good to have a great imagination. It'll get you through the tough stuff. You know, imagine yourself in your favorite spot. Just use your imagination. It helped me a lot.

I had a good week this week. It was the closing of my show (see a few blogs back). We had a big party and I saw a lot of my friends that couldn't make it to the opening. It was a great day. I sold a lot of work, but I probably broke even. Like I said before, it's not about money. It's about photography. You see, you gotta do what you love. You gotta be distracted to make it through this stuff. Then, have a great friend, like my friend here. Having great friends is really important. I had a friend visit from the west coast. That was great. I had some friends stop over. That was also great. It was a good week. I guess I don't personally notice this, but I do have improvements. Like, I'm better at walking with assistance. I'm better at speaking. Just little things, but I still get jealous when I see someone go running by. I wish I could run again. Someday. Who knows? But for the moment, I just keep working hard. Hell, everything I do is like an Olympic event. You know, like rolling over in bed is a huge accomplishment. Sitting up in my wheelchair is a big accomplishment. Anyway, I didn't want to bore you any further. Just work real hard. Never give up. Always move forward.

Now I'm gonna tell a couple of stories. I guess I'll confess to a few things I did. I'm not really proud of them, but I feel better confessing to it. Ha! You know what I noticed. I notice that doing this blog does help other people, but it's been helping me. When I have a hard time I think about what I'm going to talk about. It gets me through the rough times. Just an observation.

OK, now I'm gonna talk about some location photographic shoots. The following stories are confessions.

I was doing a lingerie shoot in a loft in NYC. The owner of the loft was a woman in her mid 40's. Attractive woman. Very business like. Anyway, I was shooting and she said to us, "I'm going out for some breakfast. You guys are cool. Just shoot anywhere you want, but do not, I repeat, do not use my bedroom. It's personal space and off limits to photo shoots." And then she left. So, I was curious. She seemed adamant about not shooting in her room. The more I thought about it, the more curious I got so I stopped shooting, went down to her room and noticed it had beautiful light. Not only did it have beautiful light, but it had a gorgeous old bed. Well, I gotta shoot here, I mean come on. I'm doing a lingerie shoot. So I double checked to make sure she left and I got the whole crew to come  quickly down and shoot in her room. I got the model to stand by the bed, but it wasn't quite right. The bed had to move slightly, so I had my assistants move the bed. Well, the minute they moved it, I heard kerplunk. First 2 D batteries rolled out and then a big dildo or vibrator or whatever you call it rolled out as well. I was laughing then thought, Oh shit, we better get out of here. And I said to my assistant, pick that up and put it back. He said no way man. I'm not touching that thing. I said come on, just put it back together and put it back. Well, he looked at me and the other assistant, he said, all right, I'll be right back. He came back from the kitchen wearing some playtex gloves and he put it back together put it back in place where he thought it was, and we got the hell out of there. The woman came back just as we left. Thank god we left. She looked different to me.

The next photoshoot I'm gonna talk about happened in Miami. We were shooting in a beautiful home, a little tacky, but beautiful. Anyway, the woman who lived there was what you might say was obsessive compulsive. Her pens were neatly in a tray by the phone. Her pencils were not only neat, but they were stacked by the phone. All her plates were perfectly stacked in a line. All her CD's were alphabetized. Her coffee table books were stacked perfectly. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The woman must have stayed up half the night arranging her apartment. Anyway, it drove me a little crazy. The place was freakishly set up. The producer kept going on and on how we had to leave everything as we found it. Well, by the third day, I was going nuts so what did I do? I rearrange all the CD's. I mixed them all up, I put the pencils in with the pens. I rearrange all of her plates and glasses. I re-did all of her towels for her. Ha Ha ha ha. You get the idea. I had fun. She's probably in some institution right now.

I'll tell another story. This one's kind of short, but I still feel guilty. I was on a photo shoot in a house. It was in Connecticut. It was a great house, and an even better stereo system. I was shooting with these lights. They are kind of like movie lights. There was just enough power to use these lights. Anyway, I had one of these lights plugged in by the stereo. When we were finished at the end of the day, I helped my assistant with the lights. I still don't know what the hell happened. I unplugged one of the lights. Lo and behold, there was a huge bolt of lightening that just fried his whole stereo. It smelled like burnt rubber. and there was a loud bang. I think I could have been killed. Anyway, the stereo was toast. We got the hell out of there. Sorry about that, my friend the producer. You know who you are. Yeah, it was me.

Well, that's it for now as far as the confessions go. I have a few more, but I'll save them for later. I'll say one thing about traumatic brain injury. I notice that as I've become more alert and aware, I realize how messed up I am. It's kind of like a catch 22 situation. You're almost better off not knowing anything. It's bizarre and crazy.  For example, I'm really aware of my body and how messed up I am. I got a lot of work to do, but I'm ready to do it. Like I said before, it's my job to get better. A friend of mine came to the closing. He's also in a wheelchair and also a traumatic brain injury person. A damn tree when through his body. Anyway, he's doing good. I'm proud of him. We had similar journeys. We travelled far but we've got a lot more to do. I'll talk to you guys next week.  My friend here will do a few more scans for you. I used to keep a journal. You know, where I've been, what I do. The journals were in cartoon form. I can't draw like that now, but I'll share what I did with you. Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice



1 comment:

  1. Dear Brian, so glad to hear that your exhibition was a success. Keep going mate, you are a good friend and an inspiration to many. Love Sharon xxx

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