Archives For video
Bullies Called Him Pork Chop… he took that pain and created art.
From creator Shane Koyczan…
This animated piece is the result of a group of individuals coming together and binding their talents in an expression of solidarity and compassion. My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways.
I wrote “To This Day”, a spoken word poem, to further explore the profound and lasting impact that bullying can have on an individual. Schools and families are in desperate need of proper tools to confront this problem. We can give them a starting point… A message that will have a far reaching and long lasting effect in confronting bullying.
There is so much we can do. So much that needs to change.
Start today.
- Watch the video.
- Share the message.
- Teach your kids.
- Heal yourself.
“Fires of happiness. Waves of gratitude.
Do something worth remembering… a photograph or a scar.
I may never be a rich man… I dig the thought of that.”
What does this video spark in you?
Will the message stay with you long after you’ve seen it?
Can you feel your heart connecting with his words? Images?
There are so many tiny, beautiful, funny, tragic moments in your life — how are you going to remember them all?
THE PROJECT
One second every day is what Cesar Kuriyama has been recording since he turned 30. When he’s 40, he’ll have an hour long video that captures his entire 30s. When he’s 80, it’ll be 5 hours long.
Can you imagine what he’ll see? The camera he’ll use to record his life? What his grandchildren will think?
Could you see yourself doing a project like this? You should try it. I’m going to.
THE CHALLENGE
At least for the next 40 days of Lent (starting Feb. 13) I’m going to record a video clip every day. At the end, I’ll compile them and share what I captured and learned on the journey. Then we’ll see if it’s something I want to continue.
Think about it. Consider joining the journey or creating your own version. Could be illuminating!
As I reminisce about giving birth to a healthy baby boy on this day eight years ago, I got an incredible “jolt” of laughter out of watching this video. Perhaps you will too!
It’s time to learn it, embrace it, experience it. A life of abundance.
A life without self-imposed limits. Do you believe it’s possible?
Listen to what Steve Jobs says it will take for you to make that happen…
Here’s the transcript of the video:
When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside that world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.
What’s stopping you?!?
The vintage inspired photo booth I shared with you earlier was a huge success. At my daughter’s birthday party, she and her friends spent much of their time in front of the camera on the set we created. Dress up clothes added that extra flair to the images that you can only find in the freedom of a photo booth.
There is something about putting on a costume that changes the way we see ourselves and what we’re willing to do. I believe Shakespeare even had a thing or two to say about the effect of the costume on man, but we’ll leave that discussion for a later time.
For now, I’d love to share the images and video with you from the photo booth we created. These are some of the kindest and sweetest teen girls I’ve had the joy to be around. I honestly couldn’t believe how amazing my daughter’s friends were during the entire celebration… kind to one another, encouraging, and definitely full of fun and laughter. What an absolute joy as a mom to be able to see your daughter surrounded by girls who are just as amazing as she is… well almost at least.
Dance. It’s one of those things in life that seeps into your soul in ways unexpected. Not unlike music. When you listen to music or watch a dancer, you see a different side of life, a beauty unparalleled in the never-ending to-do lists and piles of laundry. It’s an ethereal experience, even a holy one at times. At least that’s what dance is for me.
Whether I’m watching or dancing, I feel a giddy sense of how life should really be lived… all in, wholehearted, full of emotion, passion and movement. There was a time in my life when dance was such an intrinsic part of me that I could never imagine not dancing. But decades later, that is the reality of my everyday life. I no longer identify myself as a dancer, but somewhere my spirit knows that it once flew on the wings of a dancers feet and my heart knows the love of movement that only a dancer can understand… the freedom, the joy, the unbridled attention to the connection between heart, mind, body and soul. Those are moments of freedom, joy and bliss.
What brings that feeling of freedom, joy and bliss to you?
When do you experience that connection to your heart, mind, body and soul?
Do you remember?
I remember practicing for our performance at the 49ers 50-yard line for a big game. We were so nervous and excited. Arcell filmed us with an old video camera so we could see how well we did and what we needed to change before the big day. Another long forgotten memory that came to the surface as I watched his performance was a day we took everything out of Michelle’s closet and pretended to be models. We tried clothes on, walked down the hall to the living room and posed for the camera. We were top models before “Top Model” was ever created… or at least we tried. I’m pretty sure I have the VHS of that somewhere under lock and key.
What memories do you have that bring you laughter and tears at the same time?
In the not so distant past, photo albums were used to preserve memories. For my grandma, she was relentless and committed to putting her film images into standard one pocket per picture albums. Some went in the sticky page albums that quickly yellowed and faded, but they were there. For my mom, sometimes images got in albums, other times they were sorted into envelopes for later organization. For me, I started with sticky albums and pages, moved on to one pocket per pictures albums, and then graduated to scrapbook albums. From there, things got crazy… professional pages designed for myself and others, a book about scrapbooking, you know what I mean.
Then, just a few years later, we are in a time when people are questioning the role of paper albums… do we need to print our images? Everything lives digitally so is it easy enough to enjoy digitally or does it matter if we see it in print?
While I can’t say that there is one right answer, I’ve adopted the strategy of using whatever medium works for the amount of time I’m willing to invest, the number of images and people involved, and the ultimate goal of the photography in the first place.
One such example was a recent trip to a friend’s home where our children were able to play together for a few days. Since we live far apart, these excursions are few and far between. One afternoon we visited the park and I decided to capture the moments of these three young ones playing together. Afterward, I knew I wanted something to share with the kids right away so they could remember each other despite the distance.
So, here’s what I created… would love to know your philosophy and approach to viewing and sorting images and albums!
Somehow we stumbled upon the very thing that woke his heart and mind. What a stumble.
From Thomas the Train to Bakugans, books to movies, and then we found it. It has been around forever, or so it seems. It was around when I was a child. How we never found it before is a mystery, but once it was discovered, everything else faded into the background like some beautiful bokeh in a favorite photograph. Not unlike Cortez who ordered his ships burned in 1519 before leading his men to battle against the Aztecs in orders to take away their ability to retreat.
It was Legos. It was Legos all the time. Legos that would teach him to play alone, to focus deeply and for longer periods of time than ever before. It was Legos that would transform the way he saw the world. Every movie, book, computer game, building, road trip, would be fodder for the creations he would make.
That’s just the way it happened and the story still goes on. Where will it end? Only time will tell.
The short film was created by my talented husband one afternoon when the two boys were playing. I’m blessed with such creativity in my abundant family.
Just for fun, see a sneak peek of an entire city created in one day all by the hands of a six-year-old Lego master with an eye for detail and design.
