I promised to post things I'm reading or seeing regularly and so here's something I came upon tonight that's quite chilling. In light of the recent attacks in Mumbai, where I spent maybe 150 days a year for several years in the 90s, I had been thinking about intolerance and bullying. The Hindus in India are like Christianity in America. That is to say it drives the conversation, it sets the official schedule.
Hinduism sets the us versus them tone on the subcontinent. The Muslims and in some degree the Christians in India are tolerated. The Holy days are celebrated but India is by and large a Hindu country in the very same way that Pakistan is a Muslim one. Not at all in the way Turkey exists.
In that light it's quite easy to see how the internecine hatred and divisiveness has festered. It's always just below the surface. If you don't believe it watch Sara Sinder's CNN feed on the scene. This local based reporter is being bullied for reporting just the facts. The crowd is hostile unruly and the police are non responsive. It's a powder keg that avoid detonation because of Global economic growth. Kill that growth and watch it fester.
Meanwhile here in America, lest we get to high and mighty we get this. David Duke and his band of merry idiots are glorifying in the possibility for growth. Watch this video.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
a Great Referral Site for our Blog
A great way to drive readership is this wonderful referral source
http://alphainventions.com
I stumbled on this site this week and watched it drive hits and eyes in an unbelievable short amount of time. I want to do everything I can to drive people to see what this smart young guy is doing.
Kudos to alphainventions.com
http://alphainventions.com
I stumbled on this site this week and watched it drive hits and eyes in an unbelievable short amount of time. I want to do everything I can to drive people to see what this smart young guy is doing.
Kudos to alphainventions.com
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Tiger Woods on Barack Obama
It turns out while I was thinking of Tiger Woods and Pres. Elect Obama, so was he.
I wish I was that prescient about the market.
See this clip with Jane Wells.
CNBC interview of Tiger.
I wish I was that prescient about the market.
See this clip with Jane Wells.
CNBC interview of Tiger.
Is Denying Obama's Blackness Racism?
I awoke this morning to the sounds of Bo Deitl proclaiming to Don Imus how Barack Obama is "not really Black."
The reasons Bo Deitl put forward were:
This idea, this apologist rationalization has been picking up wind on Craigslist as well lately. By the way, the single scariest place on the internet is the craigslist political posting area - screeds and screeds with anonymity).
I suppose it's to be expected that if he's disciplined, focused, smart, successful - there's just no way we can just let him be Black. Is that a bridge too far? For some clearly it is.
The reasons Bo Deitl put forward were:
- The Matrilineal test. His mother was white - so he's just as much White as Black. I think of this as the Tiger Woods Racial Process (TWRP) (remember Tiger's equivocation on the matter "Cablinasian"). Tiger's analysis at least rings true because he makes it himself. He has the right to identify himself as he likes and his view of not rejecting his Thai mother has some resonance with me. Conversely the Black American rejection of this analysis always struck me as a bit racist: claiming someone for the race because he passed the one drop rule of slavery just didn't seem like the right way to go. Black people had a fit with Tiger but then went on about their business because we knew what his father knew: when America looked at him they saw a Black man. I call that the Police Officer Test - what does the cop think you are at midnight on the highway.
- His mother's family is an old American family.
His mother's family tree, at least as reported byt Sunday's NY Post, goes back to the revolutionary era. Well that should seal the deal, right?!
This idea, this apologist rationalization has been picking up wind on Craigslist as well lately. By the way, the single scariest place on the internet is the craigslist political posting area - screeds and screeds with anonymity).
I suppose it's to be expected that if he's disciplined, focused, smart, successful - there's just no way we can just let him be Black. Is that a bridge too far? For some clearly it is.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Returning to My Red State Roots
It's a terribly tense and busy time of year here in New York City. It always is this time of year but this year the bank's are shot (no bonuses), the mayor wants a third term (don't know why thought he was a smart guy - only goes to show you what an aphrodisiac politics can be).
With election day coming up next week I took a ride through some of my favorite red states to go to a football game last weekend. This trip was not about politics but about football. To clear my head and get a break from it all I drove to Morgantown WV for a few days of fun with very old friends. Here's what I found:
The further you are away from New York City the Red-der the state.
I was shocked as I drove West out of New Jersey to see these HUGE McCain Palin Signs. They were so big that you almost wondered if they were shouting at you. Stop for gas and a cup of coffee and you hear everyone talking about the election. This is a good sign I thought but being a Southerner by birth and habit I'll just listen. Lot's of people chime in but it's all sound bites and Fox News retorts. You get the sense the local teacher is voting Obama and the local baker is voting McCain while holding his nose. No one defends her - there's just a begnign neglect and I heard several people say "McCain's mother is over 90!"
Got me to thinking. I always liked John McCain. That very strong sense that not even the President of the United States could bully him (didn't matter which Bush or Clinton it was) and those 5 and a half years in a POW camp somehow made me like his grit. I don't much like his campaign (not sure he would disagree) and I'm afraid his last best chance has been squandered by his lack of clear belief in his own ability to get elected and this is a critical difference between he and his opponent.
This was clear to me when he picked his VP. When he's telling the truth in his bio years from now he'll say so. He seems so angry all the time because he knows he's betrayed himself. There's nothing that will piss you off like having to live with a mistake that you KNEW was a mistake while you were making it. Watch how Palin tries to slice the Christian Conservative wing of the GOP off for herself (may be doing the party that gave us Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon a favor) in defeat.
There's an inverse corealation between the size of the yard signs and the size of the house.
You can't make this up: I passed a trailer in Eastern PA just before Harrisburg by about 40 minutes - the sign was a long as the house and so tall it obsurced the trailer. Gotta love the American fixation on size. Hope the owner was a true Republican and got paid for the placement.
People are afraid of Obama because they don't know him.
When you look at how people make decisions and where they get information you gotta remember how bad local newspapers are today. I looked at my old hometown newspaper. I remember selling Grit on the streets when the guys would be out selling the evening edition - but that was so long ago it seems like I was in a movie but I wasn't. So the local hometown rag is now just that a chain owned large type compilation of headlines and clips from the wire services.
The only writing is in local columns where deaths and weddings are remembered. There is no local news reporting so the owner of the local newspaper can choose not to cover almost anything.
I heard my friends, all Rock Ribbed Republicans like me, tell me things that I thought I'd never hear. To wit: he's a absolute Muslim; he's for One World Rule (what the Hell!); he's gonna kill small businesses with his tax ideas and HE'S GONNA TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS! I'm not sure about this one so I've gotta go back and have a look. I think he's supporting Hunters rights but not sure what he does about other guns. I am sure I want someone to remove sugar subsidies and make some sense of the Farm Bills and ethanol nonsense.
People will cling to fiction when they don't have facts (Remember when you believed in the Tooth Fairy). So, absent hard reporting and there' is no local reporting this is what you get. I came away really awe struck by how much cable news and the internet effect what people get as news. Now keep in Mind WV will elect a Democrat as Governor, the United Mine Workers have endorsed Obama and just about every college student you saw had an Obama shirt on. All politics is Local (thanks Tip)
...more later.
With election day coming up next week I took a ride through some of my favorite red states to go to a football game last weekend. This trip was not about politics but about football. To clear my head and get a break from it all I drove to Morgantown WV for a few days of fun with very old friends. Here's what I found:
The further you are away from New York City the Red-der the state.
I was shocked as I drove West out of New Jersey to see these HUGE McCain Palin Signs. They were so big that you almost wondered if they were shouting at you. Stop for gas and a cup of coffee and you hear everyone talking about the election. This is a good sign I thought but being a Southerner by birth and habit I'll just listen. Lot's of people chime in but it's all sound bites and Fox News retorts. You get the sense the local teacher is voting Obama and the local baker is voting McCain while holding his nose. No one defends her - there's just a begnign neglect and I heard several people say "McCain's mother is over 90!"
Got me to thinking. I always liked John McCain. That very strong sense that not even the President of the United States could bully him (didn't matter which Bush or Clinton it was) and those 5 and a half years in a POW camp somehow made me like his grit. I don't much like his campaign (not sure he would disagree) and I'm afraid his last best chance has been squandered by his lack of clear belief in his own ability to get elected and this is a critical difference between he and his opponent.
This was clear to me when he picked his VP. When he's telling the truth in his bio years from now he'll say so. He seems so angry all the time because he knows he's betrayed himself. There's nothing that will piss you off like having to live with a mistake that you KNEW was a mistake while you were making it. Watch how Palin tries to slice the Christian Conservative wing of the GOP off for herself (may be doing the party that gave us Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon a favor) in defeat.
There's an inverse corealation between the size of the yard signs and the size of the house.
You can't make this up: I passed a trailer in Eastern PA just before Harrisburg by about 40 minutes - the sign was a long as the house and so tall it obsurced the trailer. Gotta love the American fixation on size. Hope the owner was a true Republican and got paid for the placement.
People are afraid of Obama because they don't know him.
When you look at how people make decisions and where they get information you gotta remember how bad local newspapers are today. I looked at my old hometown newspaper. I remember selling Grit on the streets when the guys would be out selling the evening edition - but that was so long ago it seems like I was in a movie but I wasn't. So the local hometown rag is now just that a chain owned large type compilation of headlines and clips from the wire services.
The only writing is in local columns where deaths and weddings are remembered. There is no local news reporting so the owner of the local newspaper can choose not to cover almost anything.
I heard my friends, all Rock Ribbed Republicans like me, tell me things that I thought I'd never hear. To wit: he's a absolute Muslim; he's for One World Rule (what the Hell!); he's gonna kill small businesses with his tax ideas and HE'S GONNA TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS! I'm not sure about this one so I've gotta go back and have a look. I think he's supporting Hunters rights but not sure what he does about other guns. I am sure I want someone to remove sugar subsidies and make some sense of the Farm Bills and ethanol nonsense.
People will cling to fiction when they don't have facts (Remember when you believed in the Tooth Fairy). So, absent hard reporting and there' is no local reporting this is what you get. I came away really awe struck by how much cable news and the internet effect what people get as news. Now keep in Mind WV will elect a Democrat as Governor, the United Mine Workers have endorsed Obama and just about every college student you saw had an Obama shirt on. All politics is Local (thanks Tip)
...more later.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Motion and Form
I'm deeply disappointed that I've not been able to maintain my active shooting schedule on my own work this last 45 days. There have been many practical and necessary things that have to be dealt with at present and they will, one hopes, settle down sooner rather than later.The benefit of this "down" time is that I'm forced to spend what spare time I have to cull through some of the millions of frames I've shot this year. I keep finding work by models that I really like and that should be seen and shared.
This frame was shot sometime in the Spring of this year in a rather small studio here in Manhattan. The notion of movement and tension was dramatically created for each pose by the model who was quite extraordinary.
I believe there's good tension in the frame as well. The photo violates the "Rule of Thirds" but gathers the eye very nicely. I'm much more concerned these days with the technical composition of the frame and find that I'm rethinking several "happy accidents" that are in the portfolio and wondering about re-shooting them with much more detail. Also very interested in using some of the things I like a lot to work in a more painterly fashion. That is the compose the idea and then to do several studies of the model going through the pose again and again to find the composition and light angles that work best for the pose.
The difficulty of this is that I've found a couple of new models that I want very much to work with and I'll be doing that while working forward with the others.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
More Sara Palin
I'm not sure I even want to figure out how to spell her name is it Sara or Sarah? Who cares? When will she go away. A crafty, shrill ambitious governor - shocked, amazed!?
Rudy Guiliani in a skirt. Let's see what rolls out about her church and it's views on Israel?
Let's see what she says about people she know nothing about - that would be almost everyone who lives where I do. She's using "small town" and "hockey mom" to mean what exactly - I think "regular white people". Try substituting the words - every time you hear her say "hockey mom" replace it with 'regular white people' . It works.
Read Paul Abrams' post on the Palin Paradox.
Rudy Guiliani in a skirt. Let's see what rolls out about her church and it's views on Israel?
Let's see what she says about people she know nothing about - that would be almost everyone who lives where I do. She's using "small town" and "hockey mom" to mean what exactly - I think "regular white people". Try substituting the words - every time you hear her say "hockey mom" replace it with 'regular white people' . It works.
Read Paul Abrams' post on the Palin Paradox.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sarah Palin - Come On John!?!
No one can convince me that the appointment and nomination of Sarah Palin was anything other than a pandering attempt to appeal to continually disaffected Women for Hillary. They kept ringing the bell and look at what they got: an intellectual lightweight who's comfortable with the guys in the same way Elizabeth Dole or Condelezza Rice might be - only minus the gravitas or experience.
Here she is - if you went to High School you know her: pretty, ambitious and ruthless. When I see her smile and wave I keep getting these High School flashbacks from the 80's. Does that make me a sexist, I think not. Great angle from the GOP though - through out a lightweight to bait Biden (he's weak and undisciplined so he'll do more work for McCain than for Obama on this one - see his comments on 7-Eleven and Indians). Take an Old School Pol mix in an attractive light weight and he either tries to hit on her or is too dismissive. AND she's pro-life so all those mouth breathers out there (the Reagan Democrats I think they were called) who didn't like McCain anyway now have some reason to get the Access-A-Ride to the Polls in November. It's a layup!
Teach abstinence only - how's that working out Sarah? Maybe she was out hunting the day her daughter was to take the class?
No one who's ever been a parent of a teenager can pass judgment on the parent for the actions of the child but can anyone deny that this is a class issue and not a religious one? Rich kids and Upper Middle Class kids don't get into these problems in America do they? Perhaps it's those Long Artic Nights.
Here's a link to the Daily Kos that was written by a local about Sarah. Enlightening.
Here she is - if you went to High School you know her: pretty, ambitious and ruthless. When I see her smile and wave I keep getting these High School flashbacks from the 80's. Does that make me a sexist, I think not. Great angle from the GOP though - through out a lightweight to bait Biden (he's weak and undisciplined so he'll do more work for McCain than for Obama on this one - see his comments on 7-Eleven and Indians). Take an Old School Pol mix in an attractive light weight and he either tries to hit on her or is too dismissive. AND she's pro-life so all those mouth breathers out there (the Reagan Democrats I think they were called) who didn't like McCain anyway now have some reason to get the Access-A-Ride to the Polls in November. It's a layup!
Teach abstinence only - how's that working out Sarah? Maybe she was out hunting the day her daughter was to take the class?
No one who's ever been a parent of a teenager can pass judgment on the parent for the actions of the child but can anyone deny that this is a class issue and not a religious one? Rich kids and Upper Middle Class kids don't get into these problems in America do they? Perhaps it's those Long Artic Nights.
Here's a link to the Daily Kos that was written by a local about Sarah. Enlightening.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Summer 2008 @ New York
I believe all women are beautiful. Some beauty is more obvious than others. Some have beautiful hands, some have beautiful eyes, some beautiful feet. Some have beautiful dreams and aspirations. Some have all aspects and All have some. Can you find them. Do you look or do you process all your images of beauty through the prism of what the other guy is seeing. Do you wonder: "could I have done better?" when perhaps the question is more accurately: "how did she do so poorly?" If you don't believe in the Universal truth of beauty how do you get through your day?
Are you the guy in the bar who is always wondering about the next girl while the girl with you pretends she doesn't notice? Why does she tolerate it? Perhaps she hasn't recognized her own beauty. Maybe she hasn't seen it yet.
Have your even fallen in love with a gesture? A smell, a glance? If so you've been in touch with Universal Beauty.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Why Republicans and Catholics can love Obama
read this very important article from Saturday's NY Times about Douglas W. Kmiec, a Catholic, a Republican and an Obama Supporter.
It answers all the questions I've had and been asked about why I, a lifelong Republican, born and reared in Red States could support Obama. Other than the obvious reasons.
I've never voted for a Democrat in my life, ever. Not for any post, anywhere, anytime. I believe that government should be small, supple and useful to folks and never intrusive. I'm offended with a political party that insists it should peer into people's bedrooms (see Bowers v. Hardwick). I believe my tax dollars should pay for roads, bridges and schools - not government administrators, not commissions, not politically appointed boobs!
Now comes this....click on the hypertext link above to read this.
It answers all the questions I've had and been asked about why I, a lifelong Republican, born and reared in Red States could support Obama. Other than the obvious reasons.
I've never voted for a Democrat in my life, ever. Not for any post, anywhere, anytime. I believe that government should be small, supple and useful to folks and never intrusive. I'm offended with a political party that insists it should peer into people's bedrooms (see Bowers v. Hardwick). I believe my tax dollars should pay for roads, bridges and schools - not government administrators, not commissions, not politically appointed boobs!
Now comes this....click on the hypertext link above to read this.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Hil the Queen
Queen of Pork - always wondered why so many of the old school Black pols were lined up so early behind her when it was in cards in their neighborhoods/districts. It makes sense the power of incumbancy. What's strange is how big her debt is at the end of her run....
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Second Amendment - Still Works
Terrible how we confuse our problems in this country. There is no question that illegal guns, usually illegal handguns, cause lots of hurt and anguish in this country: the suicides, the accidental shootings and of course the crime. But you gotta keep clear that the hardware's not the problem. Criminals are the problem, troubled people are the problem - do we make them illegal. Now there's an idea. But the social scientists closed all the insane asylums in the 70s because we believe we can medicate and talk to everyone for everything. Or was it Reagan, later shot by a madman, whose programs emptied the crazy houses of the mad men? Ad Nausem.
But we continue to sloganize, sermonize and scream about handguns, certainly here in New York City. We have a police force of almost 30,000 men and women with state of the art technology and intrusive minded prosecutors - 30,000 police men and women. That's an Occupying Army!
In D.C. where crime continues to drive the economy - poor people taking advantage of poor people and the powerful ignore it. Name one other national capital where the crime rate is routinely that high (okay, maybe San Paolo Brazil but is that really the parallel we want)? So DC, without 30,000 police officers wants to make it illegal to defend yourself at home.
Well finally the Court gets it right and the radio waves are blaring with the "lots of people will get killed now" wails. Aren't the numbers of people killed the same, it's just that now the law abiding, honest tax paying people can arm and defend themselves.
Read Eugene Robinson's take on this and see if I'm nuts.
But we continue to sloganize, sermonize and scream about handguns, certainly here in New York City. We have a police force of almost 30,000 men and women with state of the art technology and intrusive minded prosecutors - 30,000 police men and women. That's an Occupying Army!
In D.C. where crime continues to drive the economy - poor people taking advantage of poor people and the powerful ignore it. Name one other national capital where the crime rate is routinely that high (okay, maybe San Paolo Brazil but is that really the parallel we want)? So DC, without 30,000 police officers wants to make it illegal to defend yourself at home.
Well finally the Court gets it right and the radio waves are blaring with the "lots of people will get killed now" wails. Aren't the numbers of people killed the same, it's just that now the law abiding, honest tax paying people can arm and defend themselves.
Read Eugene Robinson's take on this and see if I'm nuts.
Election 2008 - Maureen Dowd
Sometimes she misses but no by much - when she's right her wit is rapier sharp. See her New York Times piece on Obama and elitism.
Don Imus Not a Racist, just a Publicity Ho!
Don Imus is not a racist. Gotta let this go. Anyone who listens to the show knows good and well he's not a racist. Not sure he's always well served by his sports people. If you think about this dust up it started with that very unfunny and overplayed Warner Wolf. Warner was really trying to make a point about PacMan Jones that was not positive and I-man started in behind him. Not sure why Imus is letting Warner run his old vaudeville act every day anyway. Reminded me of the trouble that often started with Sid Rosenberg. Wonder what it is about guy's that they always want to hang out with someone who's right at the edge.??? Women are smarter about things like that.
Anyway Imus should get a NAACP award for introducing America to The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson. She's the smartest voice out there today about issues pertaining to Black America (if there is such a thing).
Anyway Imus should get a NAACP award for introducing America to The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson. She's the smartest voice out there today about issues pertaining to Black America (if there is such a thing).
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