Tag: seattle

by jad

Seattle: “It’s a City”

The other day was the second time in a row that I’ve heard a dig made at Seattle by a band on tour, and the first time was pretty direct: “if you’re born and raised in Seattle, that sucks for you.” That time, I laughed and waved my middle fingers in the air as the crowd cheered. This second time, the frontwoman was actually starting to say something nice, recalling how they’d recorded two albums and lived here for a month each time: “Seattle’s nice,” she offered, but voices in the back started to jeer and say “it’s alright…” Everyone … Continue reading “Seattle: “It’s a City”” →

by jad

Cornish BFA 2023

I haven’t been to a Cornish BFA exhibit since “Expo 2019,” which wasn’t long after I first moved to Seattle. Back then, I took any opportunity to push myself to write, so I wrote about what I found there, and I still follow the artists whose art I wrote about. Now I write all the time, but I’m still here sharing what I’ve seen; except now I’m pushing myself to take photos any chance I get instead. x x x x

by jad

Is Christianity Worth Saving & Other Frustrating Questions

I spent the day yesterday at a conference asking: “is Christianity worth saving?” All I knew about it was that it featured Brian McLaren, a post-evangelical theologian I’ve admired, & that it would have 3 sessions answering that question in 3 ways: “no,” “yes,” “what now?” I was surprised to find a very non-traditional format for the event. Instead of a panel with a series of talks and Q&As, there was a circle of thinkers & doers from around the city taking turns to ask Brian questions that began with: “I’d be curious to know.” This was a full circle, … Continue reading “Is Christianity Worth Saving & Other Frustrating Questions” →

by jad

The Harrowing

I’ve been co-convening a little get-together of 20/30-something church types who are into “questioning” and “wrestling” with matters of faith. Yesterday’s topic was empire and power, and someone raised the question of whether Christianity lost its ability to speak back to power after 313, when Constantine made it a state religion. I rambled a response about the paradox and scandal of incarnation – how, in an abstract and philosophical way, things took a turn towards human corruptibility the moment the Word decided to become Flesh (which got a laugh from the room) – and, at some point, I used the … Continue reading “The Harrowing” →

by jad

Transit Equity Day: RR x TRU

I want to use this last post of a gorgeous bus stop from my time in California as an opportunity to ask for your financial support of @RidersRightsLB. Next Saturday is #TransitEquityDay, and, to coincide with this occasion, the #Seattle Transit Riders Union has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support a mutual aid initiative that RR is coordinating in #Lebanon. I’ve put a link where you’d expect to find it on my profile. Please consider supporting mobility justice in Lebanon during an extremely difficult economic and political time there. The parallels we are drawing between our two very different contexts are deliberate. Rosa Parks and … Continue reading “Transit Equity Day: RR x TRU” →

by jad

Assemblage & Photography

Someone said that the best camera is the one that inspires you to keep using it. This is my #FujifilmXT4 with an old #NikkorLens originally designed for film cameras, with a focus wheel that’s a little loose but is light enough to feel like nothing on this camera body. It’s fun. It’s imprecise. Adapted to this body, it’s completely manual. How does one assemblage inspire what another does not? x This is the same route I take every time I walk to work. Sometimes, things change and I notice them in a #superordinary way, but most of the time, things are exactly the same, and so … Continue reading “Assemblage & Photography” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Corinne

Corinne isn’t really on Instagram anymore, but this is how we connected: pouring our little hearts out into this app until we became friends a couple years ago around this time, after a chat about some #AdventWord posts I’d made. Since then, we’ve worked together on a couple of things, including the coolest battle vest you’ve ever seen and that gorgeous set of portraits that David took for @inconjunct. Though I’ve known her primarily as a visual artist, I’m touched and honored to share Corinne’s moving poetry in the next three posts: x WILDERNESS by @cascadiacore Once a wolf swallowed me, andcarried me in … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Corinne” →

by jad

Doing Photography

I never intended to actually start “doing” #photography when I first started posted those little excerpts from Sontag and Barthes all those months ago, but here we are, featured in @anna.s.snapshots‘s Issue 3 of Plastic Perspective. It’s a portrait of Christine that I took on my very first roll on my #Holga135 at just the right moment, in just the right light. It’s all kind of surreal. And here we are playing photographer and model. I’d be cringing if I weren’t so grateful for Christine’s steadfast support, encouragement, and patience as I turn her into guinea pig slash muse for this strange new hobby that’s … Continue reading “Doing Photography” →

by jad

A Fire is Lit: Concert Photography

This was my first time attempting to take anything more than smartphone snaps at a concert, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Bar House wasn’t what I expected. It’s a great space but a little difficult to navigate with a chunky camera. I found it almost impossible to capture the frenetic energy from my cramped vantage point, so I’d assumed that most of my shots would have to be scrubbed off my SD card at the end of the night. But when I scrolled through them later, sitting by Fremont’s Lenin statue, I realized that much … Continue reading “A Fire is Lit: Concert Photography” →