Mountain Climbing

The Black Hills, June 2019. Photo by Rob Salem. Copyright 2019-2021 Rob Salem/The Stormworks There's a saying in the firefighting community that I think has broader applications to life, and especially pursuit of goals and dreams. "Risk a lot to save a lot; risk little to save little." For firefighters, it basically means, "We'll risk...

The Art of Loneliness

Me at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, June 2019. Photo by Scott Pretorius. The more I pursue my artistic interests—whether photography, music, filmmaking, or any of the others—the more I embrace the self-prescribed loneliness that goes with that pursuit. Loneliness as an artist isn’t a universal truth, of course. But I find in my experience...

No Perfect Mondays

Aerial photo by Rob Salem. Copyright © 2021 Rob Salem/The Stormworks I’m one of those guys that likes to plan. And when planning I have a need to make the start of a thing line up with the calendar in such a way that it will start on the “first” of a block of calendar...

The Weight of Things to Come

I'm currently working on a music video. It's... heavy. Musically, yes--it's for a metal song after all. But that's not what I mean. The content--some of it shot by me, some provided to me for use in this video--has an emotional gravity to it that is making it tough to work on. I can see...

Of Passion

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. - The Sith Code I find myself at odds with my passions often enough these days. Not so much that I have them, but that I subject others to them. I once subdued them, and it made me miserable. I didn't write. I didn't play. I didn't...

The Fallacy of Order

Just hours ago, in dusk's fading, I could see the end of forever, but now I see its beginning... Time is a curious thing while not being a thing at all. It exists because we perceive it to, and while it is measurable and observable, and from our natural perspective, stable and constant, it also...

On Muses

"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." - Hunter S. Thompson A chill washed over him, like icy fingers dancing their way up and down his spine, followed by a sudden emptiness. It was like...

Musings From The Porch: The Storm & The Vigil

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” - Hunter S. Thompson A year ago I wrote...

Resignation & Resolve – A Moment’s Notice

We reach points in our life where we are forced to choose new paths. Choosing a new path very often means resignation of the old, and often of the life that went with it, for the sake of the new. Sometimes, we can hold on to aspects of the old path, the old life, if...

Untitled

And quietly, the silence ensues, hanging over us like rain, vengeful in its persistence and allowing only thoughts of shade to consume; and in it's being I turn as only I can, to that place where the only answers offered are the ones that I hide inside-- and in the void I find the nothing...