RICK CASTRO: DIARY- 4/7/2020

So This Is How The World Will End: by Rick Castro 4/7/2020

I love fires & fireplaces, but have to be careful with the fireplace of Bee’s cabin. 

It's been over 20 years since a good ol fashion chimney sweep came it and made it right… who am I kidding.. It's never been cleaned.. in 50 years! My dad told me he cleaned it himself about 20 years ago, so like I said, it’s never been cleaned. After awhile the carbon monoxide in the air causes me to go limp…. It’s dangerous, especially now when I need to protect me lungs from the plague. Therefore I only light her on special occasions. This morning is a special occasion, it’s rainy, turning to snowy, and 29 degrees. I have to risk a little carbon monoxide poisoning.

I fumbled around trying to get this mammoth widescreen TV to connect to an outdated VCR….. Everything at Bee’s cabin is circa1970s-80s, except the “home entertainment”, this provided by my bro in the, i’m gonna say, 90s. 

Nothing matches, or connects to anything. 

I figured this out in only one hour. I did get the TV monitor to turn on, so this is now my home entertainment.. I like it.. reminds me of that scene from, The Man Who Fell to Earth… ok I’m stretching.

One beautiful bluejay sits on the same elm tree everyday.. he’s become comfortable with me, and doesn’t fly away.. but doesn’t want to be photographed. Whenever I’ve tried I either drop my phone, or it taunts me and then leaves.. if I don’t have my phone on me it stays and let’s me admire him. Some entities don’t want to be documented. There’s a lore in indigenous culture that believed photos take away a piece of the soul. When I first started to take photos, and started to become somewhat well-known, I thought this would be a good way to be anti-celebrity.. have no existing images… keep the public guessing what I looked like, if I was more than one person, or even existed at all.

Does anyone remember the iconic fashion photographer Guy Bourdin?

He rose to fame in the 70s with French Vogue. His big campaign was Charles Jourdan shoes. Bourdin created memorable adverts for the company. People like myself would run to the newsstand to find the latest issue of Frenchie Vogue just to see what Guy had created. Not surprisingly he was somewhat eccentric. Guy never had a photo taken of himself… ever… Rumor had it that he was frumpy and obese. At the same time, he decided models chose to give themselves away to the camera, therefore they were soulless. Guy Bourdin was an artistic genius, he was also a needy, possessive and controlling man with a disturbing tendency of keeping his girlfriends locked away in his apartment, and insist that they cut contact with the outside world. Two of Guy’s girlfriends committed suicide, one from an overdose, another was found hanging from the ceiling of Guy’s photo studio. Guy Bourdin passed in 1991. Apparently he had terminal cancer. I heard he hung himself in the same studio before succumbing to the disease. 
Just thought I’d tell you…..

Tonite is the Full Pink Moon Opera Povera from Quarantine: Livestream, 250+ artists worldwide will sing their hearts out to raise funds & find a cure for the plague. It should be spectacular. We can all experience at once, just like we have the plague. This time for a beautiful reason. Interestingly enough, the Pink Moon Opera, reminds me of the same scene from The Man Who Fell to Earth, which reminds me of this oversized TV monitor I’m trying to hook up.. what synchronicity. 

So this is how the world will end.

copyright-rick castro- 4/2020

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