Oh, shit. I need to pay my rent! Maybe my landlady will assume that I’ve been distracted because of the horrible cold weather we’ve had these last few days in San Antonio. Or maybe she thinks I’m a massive sports nut, and this upcoming Superbowl has got me all a-twitter. Woah — wait! I just checked Google. Super Bowl is two words. What do you know…?

I feel like a heel. This weekend is Cine Festival. It’s my favorite film festival. I totally blew it off. True, I’m poor. But probably I could have swung a full pass. I think the problem is that I just feel this crushing dark and miserable winter tsunami pressing down. That, and I am also ashamed that I failed to create something of value which I might have submitted. It’s been more years than I care to admit since I last had a film screen at Cine Festival.

So, I have been laying low. And, again in this blog, I quote or misquote from some translation of Camilo José Cela (hell, maybe it was Céline).

“Sometimes the best course of action is to drop out of sight like the dead.”

Anyway, I’m doing my standard half-assed job of avoiding the world these last few days. I’ve been more than happy to aid my friend Deborah. She was drawn into helping one of her fellow Northwest Vista teachers. It was a mission of mercy. And because I never say no to Deborah, and because the colleague in question is someone I had gotten to know fairly well, I was more than happy to help. My impulse to lay low was only partially realized. So, yes, I poked my head from my burrow to help a friend. And also I was out doing my Luminaria duties, more or less. I’m working on my Neighborhood Film Project movie. I’m helping out at C4 Workspace and attended First Friday. So, no, I’m not a complete recluse.

People have tried contacting me via email, text, and phone.

I hate texts. I have to pay for them because I haven’t bought into a fucking plan. If I like you (and the truth is, chances are I do), this is okay, just don’t make it a habit. I’m not too crazy about email. I’m not always quick to respond. Your important info is sitting there with spam and shit. Hardly appealing. FaceBook email is actually a bit better. I pay more attention to it than regular email because I receive less. Phone calls? Well…. Here’s the thing. If you don’t get me to answer, don’t bother leaving voice mail. I really hate listening to that shit. I’m fine with phones. Call me. If I don’t answer, call me again. Don’t leave a message, just pester me. I’ll know who’s calling when I’m not there to answer. My phone’s smarter than me. I’ll figure it out. Snail mail? Hey I’m all over that, but it’s so fucking exotic I shouldn’t even bother talking about it. Who’s gonna write a letter? The best way to get in touch with me? Face to face. Come and talk to me.

@@@@@

A couple of years back I made the mistake to creating a website. I created it under my “production company” name, Eyewash Pictures. The site was hosted by 1&1, a company I thought stable and honest because of a word-of-mouth suggestion. What a horrible relationship! I’m not sure if I’m free of them yet. But it looks like they’ve stopped siphoning money off my credit card.

Yesterday I made a cursory perambulation through the internet, seeking a new place to park a website. I decided upon a place from which to purchase my domain (in this case: namecheap.com). And then I found a different hosting company (which is hostgator.com). So far it seems fine. The site-building software hostegator uses is SiteBuilder. I believe this is some creature which has evoked out of Geocities–and if this is true, how sweet, how archaic!

I tried to get, as my domain, erikbosseDOTcom, but it wasn’t available. Probably because the Erik Bosse in Massachusetts has already pounced on it. Best I can figure, he’s a musician turned photographer. So, maybe I need to reinvent myself. Erik’s not my first name. It’s my middle name. Let that young east coast guy have it. And then there’s Eric Bosse. He’s no youngster (though he’s younger than me). Eric has worked his ass off to create his identity as a writer and a filmmaker. His Eric Bosse brand is fairly well-established.

Because erikbosseDOTcom is unavailable, I decided to lean towards one of my other identities. My first name starts with an R. So, I could be R. Erik Bosse. And sometimes I am. But there have been some projects lately where I’ve identified myself as R. E. Bosse (basically to take the heat off Eric Bosse, who seems to be a truly swell guy) — and that slips easily into REBosse, or, in lowercase, rebosse.

Okay, so my new identity will be evolving over at www.rebosse.com

Here’s the deal, rebosse, if I’m going to, in a sense, start fresh, I want my work to be beautiful. I want it to be art. I have no strong ties to the crap I’ve generated in the past. I hope to do work of quality. And I hope you want to do quality work as well. Because if your primary tool is a digital camera and you’re not interested in creating art, I’m not interested in what you are doing. You see, entertainment without art is pure crap. And I really don’t want that vile fecund nastiness in my nostrils day in and day out.

True, I might completely fail to become successful as a self-respecting digital artist, but I’m going to give it a shot. That, and I hope to get published. This seems like a good year. For both.

So, what’s up with you guys?

Where is your aesthetic compass pointing?