curating hope
heroes
and
hobos
journeys across time
Safari as LIFE
Some will always seek the authentic experiences available in this life. Out in the wild places and lonely places of this world, they search for the raw beauty of an existence unavailable in the manicured landscape of domestic life.
On the pages of Kerouac's novels, they race across Midwest American nights in stolen cars and recite poetry conceived on desolate mountain peaks. In the war-torn streets of Mogadishu, they uncover history and culture, finding compassion through the lens of a camera. They burn money and abandon cars in American deserts, trading material possessions for discovery in the unforgiving wilderness of Alaska.
These journeys are new and yet the paths have been traveled before. Through time, and across cultures we find tales of adventure. These are the stories of heroes and hobos-- individuals who set out to find adventure and meaning.
"To explore the unknown and the familiar, distant and near and to record in detail with the eyes of a child, any beauty (of the flesh, or otherwise) horror, irony, traces of utopia or hell."
-Dan Eldon
Artist and photographer Dan Eldon lived creatively and with intent. He embraced the world and his life became his art.
American folk singer Woody Guthrie lived and played music from the time he was young throughout most of his life. He wrote thousands of songs, including This Land is My Land. Guthrie grew up in Oklahoma during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Like the Joad's in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, his family migrated from Oklahoma for the West.
His song Do-Re-Mi speaks of the imagined paradise of California for migrant workers. The reality, which Guthrie refers to in the song, was not always what migrants expected. What is Guthrie's caution to aspiring migrants?
woody sez,
"This is our country here as far as you can see no matter which way you walk or No matter what spot of it you stand on
And when you have crossed her as many times as I have you will see as many ugly things about her as pretty things"
Times were hard during the Great Depression, and many Americans struggled to survive. In his songs, Woody Guthrie told their stories.
Ekai Kawaguchi
Ekai Kawaguchi was a Japanese Buddhist monk who in the late 1800s found his way into the isolated kingdom of Tibet. He was the first Japanese visitor to that country
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac's On the Road set a generation of young people out into America's open spaces and into its crowded cities. In search of the wild ones, the Beat Generation...
FURTHER. . .
READ:
Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie
The Journey is the Destination by Dan Eldon
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Three Years in Tibet by Ekai Kawaguchi
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
LISTEN:
The Chronic, Dr. Dre
3 Feet High & Rising, De La Soul
Paid in Full, Eric B & Rakim
Run-DMC, Run-DMC
Paul's Boutique, Beastie Boys
Illmatic, Nas
Fear of a Black Planet, Public Enemy
Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A.
Midnight Marauders, A Tribe Called Quest
All Eyez on Me, 2Pac
VIEW:
Hip-Hop Evolution (2016)
Uprising: Hip-Hop & the L.A. Riots (2012)
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes (2006)
Rhyme & Reason (1997)
Style Wars (1983)