My memory of early drawing goes back as far as any of my memories of my first toys…

Where were you born and where do you live now?

I was born in Banja Luka, Bosnia, moved to Muenster, Germany because of the civil war, and found myself migrating to Richmond, VA with my family in early 1998 where I still reside.

Tell us about your education.

I went to Douglas Southall Freeman high school and proceeded to receive my BFA from the Comunication Arts Department at the Virginia Commonwelath University (VCU) where I also currently teach.

More Tin.

Tags: ::ART::, ::INTERVIEWS::, artist interview, banja luka, douglas southall freeman, exclusive interviews, tin salamunic, vcu, virginia commonwealth university

Dog meet Human, Human meet Dog.

An undeniable kodak moment, I’ll give you that much.

Thanks, Agent 3Z!

Tags: ::HUMOR::, dogs and babies, kodak moment, pic

I know what made me write well in the past. I didn’t always know, but now I know. As I sit here next to a lofty jalousie window that opens onto an eternal light in the alleyway, listening to my lover read off entrees from restaurants on Espanola Way, I know that My Morning Jacket was the reason.

Thanks Peter.  Hope you’re digging wherever you are, Greece, Spain, Houston, New Orleans, or, someday, if you stay true to the epiphany you had in South Beach, while staring wildly into the Atlantic horizon, the sea up to your sternum, Miami.

High up in a condominium on Brickell that opens onto the Port of Miami, you felt the peace that comes with trade, commerce.  Nations that trade are nations at peace, you said to me, and then after that, in the sea, you said that you have seen the good life, and you’re willing to work for it.

In response to your epiphany, I had one of my own.  I incanted, as if reading directly from a pillar of newly discovered truth, this poem:

A woman is beautiful
but you have to swing
swing
swing
like a handkerchief
in the wind.

-Jack Kerouac

Meanwhile, the barges and reefers unloaded their cargo from one nation and loaded cargo from ours.  Peace and love filled the air.

This, I remember thinking, is unlimited loving kindness.

**Addendum: Interesting to note that after I finished this post, I did a Google Book Search for [jack kerouac pomes] and found the above-referenced poem.

This is how Mr Beat wrote Woman in Pomes all sizes, page 150:

I don’t know about you, but I personally like my version better… well, Kerouac’s does make your eyes dance/swing more.

UPDATE: “International trade reached its apogee as a percentage of world GDP just prior to WWI.” -CAT

Tags: ::LITERATURE::, ::SPIRITUALITY::, a woman is beautiful, epiphany, espanola way, handkerchief in the wind, jack kerouac, loving kindness, meditation, miami, pomes all sizes, trade commerce peace, woman

I saw this pic before reading the context.  Apart from it being full of electricity, it also has a cinematic counterpart equally electric.

I’m talking about Back to the Future, when Doc gets nimble and Marty hits the magic speed that sends him, well, back to the future.  This scene is ingrained in the spirit of our times:

Doc, the spitting image of a white-haired scientist, loses the plug for added suspense.  He zip-lines down to street level for the retrieval, but he has to be quick about it; history, as he knows very well, will only gives him one try.  Meanwhile Marty, in his cool red vest, works the clutch and the flux capacitor.

The plug back in its outlet, the DeLorean at 88 mph, lightning strikes the courthouse at the precise moment necessary for time travel.  The stainless steel car disappears, leaving a spinning license plate and a skid mark of flames.  Doc does a loon dance in the street.

The pic at the top (as opposed to the pic in the middle), however, isn’t from Universal Studios; it isn’t a movie set, but rather a real-life snapshot of City Hall in Athens, Georgia as a series of storms straddled the area.  Fires were sparked and 4,000 people lost their power.  Kelly Lambert was there with her camera.

For more on this June 18, 2009 calamity, visit Online Athens.

Tags: ::FILM::, ::PHOTOGRAPHY::, athens georgia, back to the future, courthouse, delorean, doc, like in the movies, marty, people lose electricity, pic, storm, time travel scene

This post has been reblogged to death starting as early as May of 2008.  I’m not even sure who got the story first, but I think it was USA Today.

67 year old Illinois native, Bill Bramanti built his future coffin in the shape of a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer can because he just really loves the beer. Until he passes away, he’s using the coffin as a beer cooler, but admits that he has actually gotten inside the coffin to test the size. He even threw a party where he used the coffin to store beers for his friends. We just hope none of his friends became mentally unstable after they found out it was his final resting place.

Anyone know what’s going on with Bill Bramanti of South Chicago Heights?  If he’s still using the coffin regularly as a PBR cooler, I wonder how it’s holding up.

Thanks, Emma!

Tags: ::HEALTH::, ::HISTORY::, beer drinker, bill bramanti, chicago, pabst blue ribbon, pbr, pbr coffin, pic