Collected Pictures and Thoughts on the American Southwest As Seen Through the Northern Stretch of Arizona

contrary to popular tendency, we as human beings are not herding animals. failed tigers, maybe. born of the lonely. un-natured by fear and abundance. a perspective of ourselves among many supports little resemblance to the nature at which we came. phoenix exemplifies this. ask any cancerous cell where he picked up those "tunneling" khakis. growth is a bottom-line business.

i did not go to phoenix.

with a biting wind and (quite possibly) brittling bone, my mother pled, "it's not like the scenery's gunna change." beneath the shade of each hesitant step, i found a world of lands. the breeze of ancient battlegrounds ghostly tempted each and every corner beyond sight. a true dictator unbound by any law above his own still governed the beaten land with an undoubted silence. one (the mighty Colorado), whose company i was unfit to share.

"i wouldn't have to go anywhere. i would have already been there," said the COW-loathing-BOY.

never had i chased the sunset so deliberately. never has a day been wholesomely satisfied with its un-compromised descent. never had my eye's inability to see been so royally confronted. never had inevitable doom been so clear . . . and ultimately freeing. never had a mild observation such as one prior been so overtly sensationalized, or lingually strategized.

enlightenment fails before so. whisky in orange juice does not.

funny, how many artists were born not of the desert. funny, how often the desert stands as a primary focus, guided inspiration, or suggestive conclusion of all things the creative arts animately seek. what does this say about the ever-rippling state of Evolutionarily Thinking Man?

an ungodly long run of "Would You Rather" unsheathed the following charismas: would you rather have a coconut fall from a tree onto your head, or fall from a tree onto your head? would you rather have your body with the head of oprah, or your own head and the body of gary coleman? would you rather dig your way to a literal hell, or birth a fully crucified christ? would you rather live in an eternally looping (and explosively loud) imax theatre, or at the department of motor vehicles? and for the divorcee crowd, would you rather travel with your mom, or your dad?

the absurd range of arizona's environmental terrain is mystifying, as is the threat of positive thought.

but back on the home front, i must express my total disgust in the ratty, yappy, marmot breed of dog. yeah, those things that barely even look like dogs. who would desire such ghoulish company? their numbers are growing as rapidly as nathanaels are not.