drmstream[writing]

“A good pho­to­graph is one that com­mu­ni­cates a fact, touches the heart, and leaves the viewer a changed per­son for hav­ing seen it; it is in one word, effec­tive.” Irv­ing Penn Irv­ing Penn reminds us that there’s a com­mon thread in the expe­ri­ence of beauty, whether it’s organic or inert, whether it’s tamed or wild, whether […]

  I responded to two e-mails today from young men who were look­ing for some life guid­ance.  After the appro­pri­ate pre­am­bles, I wrote exactly the same thing to both. Here are three ques­tions to ask your­self: What per­sonal skills and per­sonal attrib­utes do I pos­sess that will cause peo­ple to give me money? What kind of things […]

Secrets are dan­ger­ous things. My grand­mother hid behind her secrets. She car­ried them every­where. When she fought with my mother, she’d sit on the couch look­ing shat­tered. “It isn’t that bad, grandma,” I’d say.  She’d look away, whis­per­ing in a quaky voice, ‘You can’t know how bad it is, Danny,’. When I got older and […]

I take Adderal. I didn’t used to.  I’m writ­ing an essay about it — the work­ing title is Under­stand­ing My Stu­pid. The thing about writ­ing an essay is that you have to tease out the sense in things that are loosely con­nected in your head.  Some­times the essay peters out because the things that you […]

  That was a mean choice, giv­ing her the mir­ror, point­ing the cam­era past her fleshy arm. You aren’t being ambigu­ous.  You don’t like look­ing at her but you want to pho­to­graph her.  She’s a Gor­gon; her hair is filled with snakes and if we look her in the eyes we freeze to stone. You say […]

Part IV: I Know I’m Los­ing You — Once?  You fucked her one time!  Just once?  You fucked her just once?  A lit­tle whore and you stuck your cock inside her and just once is sup­posed to mean some­thing?  Like that makes you a good guy?  Maybe that’s why you’re telling me its just once, because […]

Part III: I Know I’m Los­ing You — Your love is fad­ing. — What? — I can feel your love fad­ing. It’s fad­ing away from me. — You don’t sound very orig­i­nal, Adam. — I’m not. — What is it then? — I thought you’d know. — Don’t give me a hard time. — The Temp­ta­tions. I played it for you the […]

  First, sink the foun­da­tions.  Pro­ceed slowly, make sure that each load-bearing point is set firm and square.  There’s no vis­i­ble progress and patience, an under­stand­ing of the big pic­ture, is required. Then, erect the frame.  Dis­trib­ute the force of the beams and gird­ers across the bear­ing loads. You have made the skele­ton, strung the tendons. […]

- Get your gun. — I’m watch­ing… –Get your gun to show the boy. –Hit that record thing for me. –I said,  Go get your gun. –You work that thing then. –I got it, Grams.  I’ll make sure you don’t miss any of your show. — All right then. — She’ll be back before any­thing hap­pens.  Ain’t noth­ing hap­pens on that show […]

- When you found me, you rec­og­nized me. –What do you mean? –You know who I am. — No, what do you mean, When I found you? — You found me. — We found each other. — But I wasn’t look­ing for you to find me. I was look­ing to find some­one. I just didn’t know what it would mean. — I […]