Today's the Big Day

I am excited and totally anticipating this afternoon's event. I couldn't sleep last night. I went over the program multiple times, just wanting to be sure that everything was ready to go. And the day is here, so it's go time! "Barbershop Talk with Dr. Carr" — LIVE from International Styles and Cuts, Whitsett NC. 

There's always the worry in the back of your mind that something unexpected will happen. Something always goes off script--it's bound to happen. That's the nature of this business. But we roll with the challenges. When life throws us curve balls, we do our best to get on base--and sometimes we hit a homer. We'll see what today holds. It feels like a homer kind of day.

 That same mentality is relevant to life. When we are challenged, we do not ask why us anymore. We ask what does it take to win here? Whatever the win is for that situation. 

Personally, there are things that I want to address, but not at the expense of making thought-provoking and inspiring visual art. So I let it cook, and trust our creator in my personal creative process. 

But for the record, my mom's passing is serving as an inspiration to me in ways I could have never imagined. Every single day, I wake up with a renewed sense of what it means to be alive, excited to have another opportunity to change a life for good. 

And today's event feels like it will be one of those life-changing moments. Someone asked if we will do this again, if we will do a women's event, if we will go to other barbershops. All of those are exciting possibilities. All I can do is say stay tuned and join us today for our livestream "Barbershop Talk with Dr. Carr" today at 4 pm LIVE from International Styles and Cuts in Whitsett, North Carolina. 

See you live at 4!

James 

Extra-Ordinary

 

(Image Credit: The Love Trollinger Initiative LLC via James Love)

It’s safe to say we like making extraordinary highlights of ordinary people.
People ministering, people chasing their dreams, people running their small businesses. Teachers and their daily feats. The family mourning the loss of a loved one and how they endure. A new church opening in the middle of nowhere but full of life and promise. We are here to help document those stories and many more!

We want to be an integral part of the documentary/documentation space.
We want to help produce the ideas, then document them being acted out. That’s art. Idea, creation, documentation.

And so hopefully the next time you set out to tell your story, you won’t feel like you are at it alone or the only one who cares about it.
We care too. The voices and documentation of some people are getting fewer and fewer. Tech leaders are monitoring platforms, allowing disinformation, and no state regulation of artificial intelligence. We want to be around not for clicks and virality, but to assist in grounding us in our creative reality. We simply want to help produce the idea, create it, and document it.

This is a continuation of our art that helps people.
Our art which seeks to be interested in others. We are not bashing anyone. We just want to be here as things are getting crazy, so we can offer some more grounded, extraordinary regular productions that will keep it real enough for you to feel and return to when things start losing more of the feelings behind their creation. Intelligence but no heart. Networks but no connection. In the midst of all that, we will be here.

We are not taking ourselves and our gifts for granted, but we are also not so consumed with ourselves that we cannot see and appreciate our fellow human and their differences.
For anyone that we lost along the way, we never really lost you. Your exit was to clear space for us to be here and download this information from our heads and hearts straight to you now, reading this. We are grateful for every experience. We understand now that there is no greater art than the art of life, the art of God.

So this is an exciting time for us!
If it still exists when you read this, check out www.ltisite.com to see what we are up to.

You can also check the archive (here) and it will have as much as it can hold (as much as one person (for now) can update it).

Best,

James

PS

hmm...is that how you got here?

Between Two Farmers

"The Backyard." April 15th, 2024. Graham, NC. Before the recording of "Like a Farmer."

This photo is the property of The Love Trollinger Initiative LLC (c) 2024.  All rights reserved. 

    The upcoming video podcast with myself and Don Armon has been in the works for years.  It was strange circumstances that had us in the same city at the same time, but we were there and we answered the call to finally record a conversation between the two of us--totally unscripted.

    Our project team met at City Park in Burlington, North Carolina to smooth out the details of the recording.  We ate Biscuitville (please go if you ever find yourself in Burlington) and shared our ideas with one another.  In the true spirit of collaboration, everyone's ideas were heard.  

    The idea was brought up to improv the conversation, so that it would be as organic as possible.  The next idea that was approved was at least having a beginning topic and then letting the ideas flow from there.  Since we are both creative people, we decided to begin the conversation talking about art and creative processes.  

    The idea of treating this conversation like how jazz musicians would treat recording sessions was brought to the table and accepted. No cues, no scripts.  We prepped the space, set up our equipment, turned the mics on and began recording. We ended up talking for about 1 hour and 21 minutes straight.  

    After recording, we talked about editing the video, but ultimately decided to leave it largely unedited, so that the flow of the conversation could be captured, the different sounds and distractions, the slips of the tongues--all of it was recorded.  Mistakes were made and captured on film in real time.  We were even fighting bugs!  What could be more cool than that?  We didn't want to hide any of those things.  We wanted it to be as authentic of a production as possible. 

    Right now, we are planning to release the interview in two parts.  Ultimately, we plan to have the full-length conversation available at ltisite.com. 

    The name of the recording is "Like a Farmer." The name is not arbitrary, nor is it as random as it seems.  In fact, the meaning will be made clear after you watch the the entire video.

    Can't wait for you to see it!

Best,

James