Thursday, September 26, 2013

Josh Rushing at UCO

Josh Rushing, photo by Brooks Nickell
The University of Central Oklahoma's Media Ethics conference 2013 afforded me the opportunity to be part of a group that got to interview former marine and award winning journalist  Josh Rushing of Al Jazeera America. If your not sure what AJA is give it a Google. You can read more about that interview next week on the Ucentral Student Media website.
Bishop Bennie D. Warner, photo by Brooks Nickell

I was also able to see Rushing, alongside several other journalists, professors and the former Vice President of Liberia Bishop Bennie D. Warner, speak on the opportunities afforded, as well as the darker side of being a journalist on the front lines.

These panelist really shed light on what it takes to be imbedded with troops inside militarized zones, through both heartwarming and horrific first hand encounters.

They spoke on the hardships that come from seeing some of the violent and graphic images of combat, but more importantly they talked about the significance of showing the public masses the true nature of war.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

GOTR; Downtown Guthrie Street Festival

I spent the weekend in Guthrie Oklahoma for Mumford and Son's Gentlemen of the Road Stopover Tour.
The campgrounds and concert venue were bursting with the bustle of people in the thousands.
To provide entertainment for concert goers outside of the main events and increase the towns revenue, Guthrie closed off their downtown streets for the Guthrie Downtown Street Festival. Bands took the downtown main stage surrounded by food vendors, artists and local businesses. What particularly stood out to me over the weekend was just how receptive this small Oklahoma town was to mobs of people from all over the country. My hats off to you Guthrie for being just one factor that makes this a GreatOK.

Nothing Left, but love: A Weekend in Guthrie


“This is my simple religion; there is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” – Dalai Lama
I stood elbow-to-elbow, skin-to-skin, within a small group of campers within a massive group of concert attendees at the Gentlemen of the Road Stopover Tour. We were in more ways than one cosmically connected to each other, as well as connected to the surrounding 30,000 people that were dancing, singing, crying and experiencing what one can only describe as euphoria. Maybe it was the blistering heat that lashed at our skin like a whip for three days straight. Perhaps its dehydrating malicious rays gave us all a false sense of affection for one another. I like to think it was deeper than that, in fact, I know it was. I had only met a handful of these people Thursday and as for the loving masses, I’d hardly spoken to a fraction of them. Yet, here we all were, a part of one another, a part of something bigger and better, something meaningful.
Mumford and Sons finished their set list and exhausted, both physically and mentally, the group and myself began to wade through the multitudes back to our campsite for the weekend in Guthrie Oklahoma’s Cottonwood Flats. The next morning would bring an end to an amazing weekend that still has me awestruck.
As we sat around the small propane grill and chatted about life, about our newfound friends’ 12-hour trek back to Chicago, a friend of mine stared blankly into the dark. Several minutes went by before she turned and said, “I have nothing left, but love.”
That really stuck with me. I carried it the rest of the night and into the next day, meditated on it as we took down the tent and loaded up the car. I agreed, after the concert that night, there was nothing left but love.
But I’ve walked that path before. I’ve experienced the sense of communalism that comes when likeminded individuals meet and share experiences. What I was afraid of were the coming days. When I was removed from the festival, where love was not so easy, when I was back to the real world where holding the door for someone became a task instead of an innate response, wouldn’t it all fade away like the times before?
It is hard to see the good in people during your day to day. I’ll admit, for some it’s easier than others, but at some point the majority of us just give up and fold back into the normality of ugliness.
My mother called me when I got home from the festival Sunday night and we chatted briefly. She shared something with me that opened the floodgates. Two high school friends of mine had contacted my little brother Saturday and taken him to a college football game. They didn’t need to. They could have found a friend their age to go, could have sold the ticket. They could have done a number of things differently, but instead they cared enough to take the time and remember one individual that looks up to them more than they will ever know. As the tears ebbed down my face, I came to the realization that just because I was back to reality, just because every person around me might not have the same loving qualities of those I experienced over the weekend, didn’t mean it wasn’t out there. It didn’t mean it was time to fold back in the crowd.
In life, we experience connections. Singular, within the confines of a small group or even on a cosmic level, no matter the significance or size, throughout the years we become connected to a number of people. It’s important to seek out the good in those people that we connect with. It’s important to treat them with outstanding kindness. If we strip away all the ugly, all the hatred and hurt, all the want and lust, we’re left with a singular emotion. But let me tell you that what’s left is by far stronger than any external force man could create. It’s stronger than we ourselves ever imagine being, and it’s something we must consciously gain, something we must perpetually establish within the confines of a global community. It’s love, and when there’s nothing left but that, we will soar.



Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Blogs for nature lovers and urban explorers

Urban Exploration
Ethan Meleg
Graf Nature Photography
Moose Peterson
Nature and Wildlife Photography
Jim M. Goldtein
Explorations
Wild Nature
Nature Photography
A beacon in the smog


I particularly enjoyed the first blog, 500px, and its post on urban exploration. The focus on finding man made structures that nature has taken back is very intriguing. Nature is all around us and at times we forget that we are intertwined with it in our everyday life. I think these photos prove that no matter how much concrete we lay or brick we stack, mother nature will always take back what is rightfully hers.
I hope to find some areas in Oklahoma where structures like these are present, dilapidated ruins of what once was taken back by what is to be. I think this blog, 500px, is great. However, I wish it was a dedicated blog to urban exploring, where as this is just one post on a blog that photographically encompasses so much more.  

In a Bed of Grass by Michael Mehrehof, 500px