July | 2015 | Sleepy Coffee and Fables

Hans Zimmer and Inspiration

Posted on July 29, 2015 by FablesandCoffee

You know whats great for inspiration? To get you right out of the unfortunate dumps?

Hans Zimmer.

Seriously. At least for me, the best thing to do when my brains rotting from lackluster ideas and seeping slowly towards decay, that’s when I plunk myself down and blast some heavenly Zimmer tracks. That well known Pirates of the Caribbean theme song is great for engendering an “I can conquer empires!” feeling, while anything from Interstellar is fantastic for crushing your heart to dust and then reviving it towards greater emotion. Want something a little moodier but still inspiring? A track from The Dark Knight Rises would be what you’re looking for perhaps, though the Man of Steel score can capture your lungs in it’s fists and punch them towards the skies just as well. And of course, lets not forget most anything from Inception, though most especially Time, that heart-achingly beautiful triumph of the human spirit that starts like a sunrise in your veins and tears itself out as a cry from your mouth.

My most favorite tracks to dive my mind under, the tones that always bring me back to the light when things are just a little too dark and vulnerable, would be the last three songs from Gladiator– Elysium, Honor Him and Now We Are Free .There’s something about all three in succession that just grips me and raises me the depths of any perdition.

AC/DC, the Backstreet Boys, Eric Clapton, Beyoncé, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Crystal Fighters, M83, U2, Daft Punk, Florence + the Machine, these are some of the great artists that I find myself turning to when I need a bit of a boost to my mood, a jumpstart to my day- but when in the true dumps of things, Hans Zimmer is what I fall to so I can be shattered and remade again in better form.

Favorite tracks:

Where We’re Going- Interstellar Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
One Day- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World End
Strength and Honor- Gladiator, Music From The Motion Picture
Look To The Stars- Man Of Steel, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Rise- The Dark Knight Rises
Time- Inception (Music From The Motion Picture)
Elysium- Gladiator, Music From The Motion Picture
Mountains- Interstellar Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Not drowning in my coffee cups yet,
~m

21 Mountains- Fevered Topography Dreams

Posted on July 22, 2015 by FablesandCoffee

Lately I seem to be taking my artistic hermit ways even further than before.

Apart from the occasional text message here, emails answered to an old friend that recently reappeared and some online conversations, my interactions with humans (apart from my superhumanly understanding and patient boyfriend, someone canonize his soul please) has been severely limited on an as needed basis. I’m not an introvert in any sense of the word- haven’t been down that past since highschool- but lately i’ve felt like when I talk to people, i’m just cobbling together words that I hope sound right, instead of actually connecting with them. And that’s been depressing as all hell.

But, every cloud has a silver lining and whatnot so at the very least I can say this month’s umbrella of anti-socialness has resulted in a finished draft of my first attempt at a book, an actual written thing that i’m considering a personal triumph if only because I never thought I would actually finish it and now that I have it’s sort of like what-the-hell-wow-I-actually-did-this-ok-dokey, and at 112,000 words, it’s the most i’ve ever written on a single illuminated focus. So, hooray July anti-social tendencies?

I’ve also been experimenting with color more when it comes to typography mountains series, and let me tell you, not being very fluent in the wonders of sharpie art made this one a real pain to finish. There’s something so thrilling about working with just ink pens and sharpies though, this exhilarating heart in your throat feeling that makes your eyes burn with concentration and your skin sizzle with tension. It reminds me of breaking the speed limit at midnight on an empty stretch of highway by 30mph and that feeling of excellence in your bones that makes you know for sure that you’re not going to get pulled over because it’s just you out there.

Also, i’ve been listening to the album Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots on repeat for what feels like days now, so if anyone can recommend good music for me to dive into before my brain starts leaking out of my ears in waves of color, please do.

Not drowning in my coffee cups yet,
~m

A Tiny Roadtrip Through Missouri

Posted on July 20, 2015 by FablesandCoffee

The hallway of our home away from home.

I have never felt more aware of my own non-whiteness than while I was here. Beautiful place though.

An elderly fellow sat by us as we ate lunch here and we shared a laugh at the stubbornness of our chip bags. I bit through mine and he used a knife from his belt. Good times.

Caverns abound here in Missouri.

Three hours outside of any major city.

Overlooking the green from our Best Western room

Watched the storm settled over the land and the earthen smell of the air never smelled so good.

Roadtrips.
Gods, Roadtrips.
Is there anything I love more?

It’s a strange desire I have, to be out on the open road. Because that’s what it really is, the desire to be out there, driving driving driving. It’s never about the destination, though the thrill of going somewhere new just makes it all the better. After seeing some of the sights in Eureka Springs, we headed out away from Arkansas north towards the hilly roads of Missouri, because if I ever get a chance to mark off a state in my Visted! list, you bet i’m gonna take it.

So, I’m from Texas.
Well, strike that, i’m originally from California.
….Actually, if you really want to talk honest, my bones were born in NYC.
But! Texas is where I live now, and where I’ve called home for a good number of years now and when I tell you that i’ve seen some pretty deep-south kinda things, I hope the understanding is that I know at least a little of what i’m talking about. I’ve traveled through Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana (even marked off South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama though I wouldn’t ever say I really explored those as much as the others) . And so, I had ideas of what to expect, given it’s neighbors.

Some of those expectations bore fruit (like how many people I saw with Confederate Flag bumper stickers on their pick-up trucks) while others wilted on the stem (the weather here was more fearsome and less predictable than expected).

While not as green or beautiful as the Smokey Mountains region of Tennessee, or even as interesting as the maze that is Hot Springs, Arkansas, that South-East part of Missouri I got the chance to experience was it’s own kind of unique. And while I probably wouldn’t go back for seconds, the hours I spent on the roads there won’t be ones i’ll soon forget.

Trains In The Green- Photos From Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Posted on July 15, 2015 by FablesandCoffee

Eureka Springs….what a place.

I got the idea to take a roadtrip out there like I usually do, by messing around on google maps and clicking around. I’d like to think this is somewhat akin to unfolding a large map on a car hood to pick your next destination, but with the technological advantage of getting to see photos of where you’re going. Photos will only ever tell you so much, but I liked what I saw and so I roped the boyfriend into coming with on what turned out to be the rainiest weekends of May. We drove up through the quiet nothingness that is Northern Texas after a certain point, across the muted landscape of Oklahoma that only lights up with casino lights and billboards for said casinos, into the stomach churning green hill-roads of Arkansas.

We arrived near midnight in Eureka Springs, the muggy air beating down our lungs and the pattering of gentle rain falling on our heads. Well shit, I remember thinking, I hope it doesn’t rain too hard tomorrow. Sometimes i’m lucky and sometimes luck just slaps me in the face with a wet fish, but waking up that next morning was like waking up to a pot of gold. Sun shining down blazing hot, birds singing like no one’s business and everything looking pretty as a picture.

We’d already made plans to go check out the massive Jesus Christ of the Ozark’s statue (oh yes, it was exactly as fascinating as you’d think),finding the Thorn Crown Chapel (which turned out to be literally the most beautiful church i’ve ever been in, perhaps even counting St. Patricks Cathedral) and taking another mini road trip up through Missouri, so we didn’t plan to spend much time in the city center that day. But as we were leaving town, I caught a glimpse of a beautiful train behind green trees and just had to stop to explore more.

I don’t know what it is about me and old trains, not to mention my apparently depthless obsession with abandoned buildings covered in greenery, but I got a good fill of both that morning. It did end up raining like a bowl of water upended over the earth, but at least I got a sunny morning and afternoon that day.