THRIVE

It's over two hours long and you're free to make of it... what-you-will. Many will consider it but a compilation of every "conspiracy" theory imaginable, from: free energy and UFO's, to our collapsing environment and The New World Order. The production values vary and it can be a tad "new Agey" at times, but keep in mind this is a man born to privilege, groomed for power and success, who mixed and hobnobbed with the monied elite. Some will dismiss it out of hand, others as the food for thought that it is...

The Lies The Rich Feed Us...

And that too many Americans, like The ("Git the govmint outta my Medicare") Tea Baggers like to gorge themselves on ...  Pssst- Ever feel left outta the conversation?

Operation Tomodachi

The Fukushima catastrophe changed the world. Nuclear reactors melted down on live television and twice as much radioactive material was released as during the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The disaster drove 150,000 people from their towns and villages, poisoned entire landscapes for centuries and killed hundreds of thousands of farm animals.

AFP/US Navy

There's an old Saturday Night skit in which a Black janitor (Garrett Morris) is ordered to get his mop and bucket and clean up... a radioactive spill at a nuclear power plant. It was one funny skit- it's also basically what  Navy Captain Thom Burke told his crew to do on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan when they entered the radioactive plume dispersed by the critically damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. Not so funny...

Many of those sailors lived and worked well within that radioactive plume for days, cleaning radioactive fallout without protective clothing, drinking contaminated water. Hundreds of them are now suffering from advanced cancers and "unexplained" debilitating diseases that the Navy says they cannot explain, and for which they take no responsibility and admit no accountability. Of the 500 sailors stricken ill, 247 are now attempting to sue Tepco (the Japanese power company that ran the plant in question), they're legally prohibited from suing the US Military itself due to the Feres Doctrine).

 

 How much of this have you heard or read about on the news???

Lists, Conspiracies, and Point of Origin



9/23/14 NYC- Photo: © S. Banos

Although there is no doubt whatsoever that Washington is awash in AIPAC $$$ (thus thoroughly compromising our Middle East foreign policy), "rest" assured that the remainder of America, and the world (from ruling WASP elites to average working stiffs of every color and denomination), is still thoroughly entrenched knee deep in anti-Semitism. The above is one conspiracy theory that has been around for centuries- and one that should have been put to rest just as long ago...

Reciprocity Failure: San Francisco Peaceniks, conspiracy theorists, and the marginalized silent majority   -via B

I knew it would happen one day- if I was knowledgeable enough, dedicated enough, sincere enough.  Reciprocity Failure would finally (FINALLY!) make it onto a "best of" list! Well, kinda, sorta... not really. But it was... a list!!! Strangest part was being associated with- San Francisco.*

Anyway, the positive side to all this (yes, there actually is one) is that there were some really good sites mentioned on said list that I've just either never got around to including, or just plain didn't know about- which you can now find (due right), thanks to Blake!

*So why exactly did I move to San Francisco? After all, it's been well over a decade now and I've yet to mutter dude or Awesome, that would just be hella gnarly. Well, there were three possible options in NYC: A) Start a family, like most folks, B) Make it big in whatever area of your choosing, C) Turn into a dithering old man muttering nonsensically on a street corner. I chose not to do A;  B kinda just didn't happen- trust me, there are plans in place right now (won't get into details) to deal with those who prevented that from happening; and  C... I just really wanted to avoid.

Reality/And The Lack Thereof...

Two loyal readers and very competent photographers in their own right sent me two interesting posts this week, one photo-related, the other not. Both should have had the element of surprise, even shock, if it wasn't that both are thoroughly logical... coming from their particular schools of thought.

Eric Rose alerted me to this particular affair; but at this point, I'm more just plain exasperated than infuriated. These people have neither shame nor scruples, they translate lack of wealth simply as lack of moral integrity (coupled with zero work ethic)- it doesn't matter that they either inherited their wealth, or that they "work" pushing numbers around while taunting and degrading those they steal their money from, those who have far less than them and actually do have to work for a living. Of course, this is what they do to celebrate and excuse their inexcusable actions! And whether some actually meet to conspire in top level secret meetings of the Illuminati no longer concerns me, whether they do or don't- they get their evil done, their agenda gets pushed through, regardless...

I'm too jaded at this point. That's why it takes someone like a Snowden to do what he did. Young enough and still wet behind the ears enough so that the extent of the malfeasance he unearthed rocked his very world and... shocked him into action! That's why we need the influx of informed youth, and why they do everything to keep ours, ignorant, underemployed and imprisoned!

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Dave Reichert alerted me to this interesting Burtynsky article citing the prevalence of staged photography that has currently taken hold (see below). I suppose one can put forth a number of reasons for such an overwhelming prevalence, and while I certainly don't travel in those circles... I certainly can't see every illustrious university with a photo program training their grad students in how to advance their careers through journalistic endeavors. Everyone knows that kite's no longer flying- they have to sell a much stronger drug. They're teaching them to be artists of the highest caliber- and you certainly have to create (and live in) your own separate reality these days to believe that you are actually going to succeed in the photo art world once you  graduate. They have to delude themselves into believing that- that's what their money's buying them...

You know it already, so how do you say something new about it? It locks us into a cliché, or a genre of understanding. We immediately understand it, so there’s nothing there.

I just came back from a conference on the future of photography, where we had an interesting conversation around this. One of the curators of a museum in Switzerland had invited students from any art school, anywhere in the world to submit work to be included in a survey of photography of the new generation. The one thing that was consistent in 1,200 submissions was that not one of the students was showing anything that had to do with spontaneity. Spontaneity was gone completely.

There were no pictures with light coming through the glass on the table or a Robert Frank kind of street photograph or a decisive moment photograph—nothing like that at all. It was all very staged and all very deliberate—not photography as the act of seeing the world or reacting to seeing the world, but rather a photography of crafting things in the studio. We didn’t find one that varied from that, which I thought was fascinating.

We were wondering, why this is? In school, are they teaching that all the possibilities for taking photographs of reality and interpreting reality and reacting to reality in a spontaneous way have all been done? There seemed to be a feeling that there is no new narrative that can be found by pursuing that avenue of representation, and that they have to move into creating their own world.

Blinded Them With Science

To say this is so scary on so many levels is, of course, a cliche. And yet scary is exactly what it is- and this I found particularly chilling (and telling)...

And eventually, when I spoke with the lawyer here at the University, I was told that, "Well, I represent the university, and I protect the university from liability. You’re kind of on your own." And I remember I looked at him, and I said, "But the very university, from the Latin universitas, is a collection of scholars, of teachers and students, so who is this entity, the university, that you represent that doesn’t include me?" But clearly there’s some entity that doesn’t really include us, the professors and students, and doesn’t really protect our academic freedom, I think, the way that it should.  (emphasis mine)

The Republican Road To Riches...

Ever hear of the TPP? Neither did I. Listen to David Cay Johnston as he explains and reveals just some of the reasons we continue to get robbed, pillaged and raped by our Rich, Republican Overseers...

Cure For Cancer!?!

Well, it certainly seems promising to say the very least! But... the question on everyone's mind is, of course- can we make money on it? At least that's what Big Pharma wants to know, otherwise--- what's the freakin' point?!?

Kickstarter anyone?

Two Sides To Every Story

They say there are two sides to every story, and nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to the "Official" law enforcement version vs those on the other side- particularly when the other side involves people of color. Now I'm not stating that either side is always right, but it comes as little surprise that the version propagated by the suits is the one that usually gets the most, if not automatic, credence- despite the somewhat "checkered" tradition of subterfuge, deceit and outright... lawlessness (the very evils they supposedly work to sublimate).

Read the official version of Joanne Chesimard and you get the picture of a wanton, rabid, killer extraordinaire. Listen to the version given by Assata Shakur herself and the picture is decidedly different. Some might say that the truth lies somewhere in the middle, that where there's smoke there's fire- but as I have more than once found out in life, that "common sense" approach doesn't always apply. Sometimes (sometimes), things really are- black and white...

The Central Park Five Fiasco

Remember it like yesterday- pacing the halls of our school at 116th and Lenox (my first permanent teaching assignment), hoping it was "not one of ours." And asking ourselves with befuddled looks, "What the hell is... Wilding?" Of course, turned out it was a non existent term manufactured by the cops- as were the well orchestrated stories these five minors were rehearsed into telling an outraged city in order to successfully prosecute, convict and condemn themselves of a crime they did not commit, and therefore grant the aggrieved populace some measure of closure.

 

And yes, even I at the time (am quite saddened to admit) was of the belief that where there was smoke... there was fire. More like smoke and mirrors...

Watch Central Park Five Preview on PBS. See more from Central Park Five.

A Coupla Thoughts (& 3 Iconic Images)

Right now (actually for the past coupla days during early voting), racist Republican motherfuckers (let's call these shameless lowlife turds what they really are) are trying to suppress voters (and voting) in predominantly African American and minority neighborhoods. From your stereotypical White Trash bullies, all the way to the governor's office, they are trying anything and everything to stop non-Whites from voting. And that includes: curtailing voting hours, giving out false voter information and outright voter intimidation- as they have countless times before in history (from Jim Crow right up until this election). All for a draft dodging, say anything, tax cheat, son a bitch, rich kid (no, not our last Republican President). Is there a pattern here?

For the life of me, why is it, how is it, that a rich brat, a rich spoiled brat that any working class son would happily take a swing at in any grade school playground... that same spoiled shit, somehow grows up to be their redemptive savior- after never earning an honest day's pay in their entire life!

Must be- that ol' Black Magic...

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And now for something completely different...

How it was shot and how you can help...

Best self portrait in the history of mankind.

The Future Present- get used to it.

Under Our Skin

Under Our Skin is perhaps the most disturbing documentary I've ever seen- and for several reasons. First, it is a very somber study of a very serious disease that first made headlines in the late seventies and has managed to fall off radar while leaving an ever growing circle of despair and devastation. Lyme Disease is caused by a parasitic spirochete from the bite of an infected tick, that can conveniently burrow into any part of your body (just like its syphilitic cousin) and cause grave havoc wherever and however it chooses to manifest. This is one seriously scary bugger- and they're practically... everywhere!!!

Not only do the ever growing numbers of those stricken have to battle the infection itself (and its myriad of severely debilitating manifestations), for which the only treatment is massive and prolonged antibiotics- they also have the fight of their lives (literally) with the vast majority of the... US medical establishment. Meanwhile, the small minority of doctors who are, in fact, willing to treat patients (I'm very much tempted to say 'victims') properly are having their licenses revoked by the ruling doctors who are in bed with health insurance companies (1-3 months coverage and 'bye, bye') and private, for profit interests working on vaccines and completely unwilling to share information to hasten the control of this epidemic. Meanwhile, patients are dismissively ordered to see shrinks (by those who either should or do know better) while more and more of them are slowly and agonizingly suffering- and dying...

Black Panthers 1968- Howard L. Bingham

If anything is abundantly evident in this photographic tribute to The Black Panthers, it's that Howard L.Bingham is quite the competent, indeed masterful, photo- journalist. And that's clearly evident in his effective compositions capturing the little gestures rife with tension and meaning. The emotion and feel of the era is abundantly ingrained in these images of Panther leaders, their followers- and their adversaries, as well as in more private, intimate portraits behind the scenes. One clearly gets the hope, optimism and militancy that the Panthers evoked and inspired in the late 60s; a positive, progressive, grassroots movement that was tragically cut short by "extra legal" governmental infiltration, persecution (COINTELPRO)- and ultimately, the carefully orchestrated and condoned murder of Fred Hampton by the FBI and Chicago Police.

THE BLACK PANTHERS TEN-POINT PLAN

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black and oppressed communities.
2. We want full employment for our people.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the Capitalists of our Black and oppressed communities.
4. We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.
5. We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.
6. We want completely free health care for all Black and oppressed people.
7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, other people of color, and all oppressed people inside the United States.
8. We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.
9. We want freedom for all Black and oppressed people now held in U.S. Federal, State, County, City and Military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace, and people's community control of modern technology.
    

We'll Never Know...

John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King- we will never know the names and faces of all their shooters (and killers). There was plenty of circumstantial evidence that Sirhan Sirhan was the perfect Manchurian Candidate before this most recent revelation- the incredible suppression and denial of evidence in all three of these cases (that so shaped the latter 20th century) by the authorities of law and justice continues to boggle to this day...

Victims Of The Future

Just like the Kennedy assassination(s)- (we) will probably never know what the hell REALLY happened before, after or on 9/11. I certainly have my doubts as to everything the "9/11 Truthers" state- but look no further than the actual  9/11 Commission Report for what an official conspiracy theory really looks and sounds like.

As for those that still flat out refuse to consider the possibility that our very own US government would ever perpetrate or even conceive of anything that might possibly harm (or kill) its own citizenry simply for political gain- I once again point you in this direction... And before dismissing the latter out of hand as yet another delusional "conspiracy theory," remember it was a thoroughly researched plan waiting to be enacted at the drop of the President's signature. Feeling a little less secure are ya? Until ya'all do, we'll remain victims of the future- and the past...

Leaving for NYC tomorrow- please, come by Friday for my 9/11 post. I'll be in New York for approx a week thereafter, so I don't know what posting will look like since my only internet access there will be via an Apple store or chance rental, and I'll (hopefully) be busy developing & scanning once back. Peace (and justice)...

How's Your Photo Legacy Looking?

Photo: Lisa Wood

I once read (forget where, forget who) that even with the most famous photographers, people remember only 100 of their most famous photographs- at most. So right there and then I set a goal for myself of eventually creating at least 100 images in my life that (at least in my view) could be considered damn good memorable photographs that could proudly withstand the test of time... Done!

And yet, I still got that nagging feeling that I'm no closer to photographic immortality now, than I ever was. So I started thinking what it might take to have My Mighty 100 forever memorialized...

1. Start shooting fashion at major natural catastrophes.
2. Dodge multiple bullets in multiple wars and rescue every person I photograph.
3. Fake half my photos and proclaim the fake half really realer than the real half...
4. And claim I thought of it first.
5. Average a daily minimum of 100 comments per each of my posts.
6. Have the first Blurb Fine Art Photography book optioned by Hollywood.
7. Appeal to The Religious Right- Jesus Saves (His believers kill the rest)!
8. Name a gallery, grant and workshop after myself.
9. Name an art critic after myself.
10. Take a hundred thousand more better photos!

So what would it take for everyone to remember just ten?

The Beautiful Truth...

My wife is a vegetarian, and I'd sure like to be- the mere thought of killing cute little pigs sickens me. But the faintest airy wisp of thin crispity bacon (let alone the actual magic of having it settle upon the taste buds) is almost enough to induce near ecstasy. It's one of life's many contradictions I've learned to negotiate a very uneasy truce with, but the big C (as in cancer) is about the only incentive that will ever make me go totally vegetable. Of course, it may be a little too late by then, but them's the odds I've chosen.

For those a bit wiser, or just more self disciplined, The Beautiful Truth traces the path to longer, healthier living- and escaping the jaws of that dreaded disease. It describes nothing radically new or revolutionary as far as vegetarianism (juicing, organic fruits, vegetables, etc) and holistic lifestyles are concerned, and the film itself is certainly nowhere, anywhere near Oscar contention. In fact, the main reason, the only reason I can recommend said movie is that it introduced me to the the good Dr. Gerson, who devised and promoted said program a good many decades ago, and for his effort has been vehemently ridiculed, ostracized and condemned by both medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies alike ever since. And did I mention... was poisoned to death (arsenic) for his effort.

Read It And Weep...

"I wish you'd just go ahead and shoot yourself. It would save us a lot of paperwork." (click title above)

Avenue Patrice Lumumba- Guy Tillims

I suppose everyone has seen at least one of the now familiar post Chernobyl crisis photo essays. Abandoned office and apartment buildings, vacant playgrounds and classrooms, and everywhere the eerie presence of loss and decay. And as eerie as those photos are, now imagine the same apocalyptic environment- except with the haphazard presence of its still living occupants.

The cities and streets of Avenue Patrice Lumumba have not been cursed with the invisible poison of radioactivity, but with the dreaded legacy of colonial and post colonial rule and interference. This is what countries, cities and towns look like when they have been stripped of their resources, both natural and human for centuries on end, denied of even the very hope that a Patrice Lumumba died trying to revive and instill.

Guy Tillman's photographs very tellingly depict those ghost lands of heart, mind and soul, where history continues to overwhelm the present and undermine that yet to come. For more on Lumumba (incl the excellent movie), the man who could've prevented today's turmoil in Congo see: here, here, and here.

Congratulations ABC-TV!

The ABC PrimeTime Special on UFOs Tuesday night was the most "comprehensive" and level headed look at the UFO phenomena on mainstream television to date. Absent was the pronounced giggle factor that often accompanies such airings, and the skeptics and naysayers that usually dominate the discussion were also noticeably toned down. "Abductees" however, were still presented as delusional- by the same Harvard psychiatrists who fought long and hard (before ultimately losing) to oust the late Dr. John E. Mack as head of the Pscyh Dept there- simply because he believed the phenomena to be very much real. But it was refreshing to see a significant portion of the program devoted to the experiences of trained, professional observers involved in sightings with multiple witnesses. And thank you, Dr. Michio Kaku who said it was high time to start taking the whole phenomena seriously and conduct the necessary science to investigate this... AMEN!