the reality of a dream

In a recent interview with the ISPWP, I said, "The way I see has been shaped by everything I have learned and experienced." The more I embrace that, the more significant all those things I have experienced becomes. I recently was conversing with a local musician. Our conversation led me to share with him about my dream job:  photographing bands. The past week has left me understanding the beginning of that dream, as well as a compelling drive to not let dreams sit dormant. I get this from my dad. When I was a child, my dad & I would drive 2 miles an hour by  300 empty and weed covered acres of pasture. He would say, "That would be an awesome place for a concert." One of the best and most lethal gifts I have inherited from my dad is my ability to act despite odds. One of our favorite verses says that God laughs at odds, no matter how big the hope, lofty the dream or infinitely immeasurable the task God can do it and infinitely more.

After years of those slow drives across our land, it soon became a venue for Nebraska's largest music festival featuring some of the best national talent in America, as well as a home for a unique windmill collection. It was a place where thousands of people located to an unincorporated town three hours from an airport. A pile of lofty odds became reality.

I purchased my first camera toward the end of the festival's existence. I made myself a media pass and sat on the edge of the stage photographing legends of the country and rock industry. It almost makes me sick to think of all the access I had which could have handed me over to my "dream job." Out of the thousands of concerts that happened literally in my backyard, I documented maybe 20.

So I sit here shuffling through images, remembering where I came from and what I have seen.  I've got a notepad filled with ideas on how to make my dream a reality. Life is short and anything is possible.

The Second Wind Ranch houses nearly 80 standing windmills and has hopes of being the world's largest collection of standing windmills.

Poison

Big and Rich

Keith Urban

Peter Frampton

Creedence Clearwater Revistied-CCR

Ariel image of Comstock. This is a stock image.

Brooks and Dunn--accompanied by Jess, her Micky Mouse glasses and me doning a hair beard. "'I've never seen anyone wear their hair like that,' said Brooks."

On the right, Kirk Cameron--best known for his acting on Growing Pains. The bearded man, Travis--- best known for being the Comstock employee that was hated by security :) The girl--That's Casey-- I mean me, best known for the large sign that I made in the north beer tent saying, "Warning! Undercover Cops on Dudy!"

Keith Urban, one of the best performers I have ever seen.

I guess you can see that we weren't too star-struck. My brother and I thought it would be appropriate to wear mullet wigs when we met Kenny Rogers.

Comstock Festivals have been in and out of activity for the past few years. The downturn of the economy took a hit upon the entertainment business. As these images show, things are falling apart. The images evoke a lot of emotion for me. They show the honesty and fragility that we have on earth, the truth that things come and go.

Though the hope is lofty and the task lacks practicality, there is a crew investing in Comstock's revival for 2011. One of the certainties I have learned from my dad is that nothing is impossible.