America = Corruption

Man Of Valor, Man Of Honor!

Cartoon: Mike Luckovich

Being the modest, humble, utterly truthful, and self proclaimed hero, that he is- be it in the heart of the relentless Falklands War or the protest march under his hotel, don't forget this man has also shed his blood in our name in the battlefield called... The War on Christmas. While we routinely celebrated the holidays safe and oblivious, Bill has stood his ground and survived a bloody onslaught against all odds, single handedly fighting the good fight against every imaginary foe and attacker he can possibly hurl at himself, at home and abroad!

God Bless Him! There is no quit in this man!!!
(no shame or humility either- but, what the hey!)

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)

Now I Ain't No Scientist...

but I sure as hell saw this one coming years back when they first started totin' their poisonous goddamn Miracle product...

Lance, Chapter... The Fall

Gotta admit, I did love ol' Lance. Didn't have a sports' idol since I was kid till he came along. Conqueror of the Alps, victor of the hardest feat in all sports- repeatedly, decisively, like take it to the bank, superhuman style. He'd train and suffer and drive himself harder than anyone in the game, and when the money was on the table- Bang, he'd come through! Over, and over, and over again...

At first I thought it that all so rarefied combination of super human physicality, talent and heart. This was the man that had run the Big C straight outta his body for Chrissakes, practically by sheer force of will alone (along with a cocktail regimen of death defying... drugs)! He stared The Grim Reaper flush in the eye with that steeled hawkeye glare, and emerged intact, talent undiminished. What he set out to do, he did- and neither man nor nature could intervene. It's what we of mortal means dream of in any field of endeavor, in any enterprise or human undertaking large or small.

And then the rumors began. Petty little people with their petty little ways- jealous and envious of his success and determination. Better they tend to their own sorry lives. Lance wanted no part of these leeches and liars, and neither did I. 

The malignant rumors persisted however. No matter- Lance kept focused, jealousies and innuendo would have to wait. He would remain steadfast, and so would I. Life had taught me that contrary to logic, where there's smoke, there wasn't always fire. I had witnessed how fickle human beings can turn on those they love, encourage and admire. The most common of human failings.

I don't know when I started to doubt, or if there was any one single occurrence that precipitated it. I suppose having the doctor most renowned for doping on his team didn't help. Or the fact that seemingly loyal friends, team members and coworkers were being tossed aside in a constant procession like so many discarded, roadside cups of water. It was an overwhelming confluence of factors that slowly started to point the way from superhuman... to more than all too human. 

Somehow my loyal love and devotion transformed into a perverse curiosity and admiration. This man truly had no peers, neither in talent nor guile. He was perpetrating one of the biggest international con games worth hundreds of millions right in open public. And all but the losers were drinking the kool aid. Exalted in his blatant non chalance, he reveled in his success, all the while looking the public straight in the eye- challenging them like any mountain underfoot his ever advancing front wheel. Arrogant, self assured, ever the winner! To this day, to this very practiced apology, I remain- very much amazed...  (and soon @ a theater near you...)

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.

HOPE + CHANGE You Can Take To The Crapper

This is about as outrageous as it possibly gets... He's starting to make pretty speeches again, and say all the right things (while his Justice Dept. goes after pot smokers); but arrest, try and convict even one of the financial terrorists who swindled millions upon millions of dollars, homes and livelihoods from hard working citizens and rammed the 99% of this country headfirst into the toilet- surely you jest... (Make sure to see Part 2)

...as Federal prosecution of financial fraud falls to a 20-year low, over two thousand people have been arrested in connection with the Occupy Wall Street protests.

 

Has Photography Come To This?

What won't a photographer do these days to get their project funded? Yesterday, I (and several others) received an email from a "name" photographer tearfully describing how she and her family were mugged, robbed and helpless in a foreign country. Odd- I had never corresponded with this photographer on a regular basis. Nevertheless, I emailed a wee bit of advice and then quickly got the squeeze on where and how to send the... $1, 950! Jeez, not even the hint of a postcard for my effort (like from many a project at Kickstarter)- and even my Nigerian friends always promise to cut me in handsomely!

Of course, it was all a scam, and they were quickly told what they could do while they waited. More importantly, perhaps this is a forerunner of more elaborate ploys to come our way...

Eric Cantor- Hypocrisy Is Thy Face

Portraits are tricky critters. They can purposely or unknowingly trick, mislead, even lie- and we in turn can misread them, choosing to see only what we want to see. Was Mona Lisa smiling in the security of her own self assuredness, masking her own insecurity, or was she merely exhibiting a tell tale consequence of some chronic form of agita, as has also been suggested?

But sometimes, sometimes (rare as it admittedly and most definitely is) a portrait, even a simple snapshot such as the one above can downright nail it, let the air out, release the trap door and expose the down and dirty behind the moat and castle walls. Such is the case in this most intriguing photo of Mr. Eric Cantor- the look of a guy who most definitely works on the sly, when your back is turned, when the lights are low, when there's a crowd to hide behind. The look of someone who will never look you full in the face, eyeball to eyeball, mano a mano...

How do I know I'm not simply misreading this, not pouring my own personal animus into the shell of this foul skinned excuse of humanity? Well, for one thing, you can just read the accompanying article- and countless others just like it. The writers may vary in their style and delivery, but his actions never waiver in their utter contempt for his fellow man. He lies, distorts, accuses and then hides- from the truth, from his constituents, and worst of all... from his very own words and actions.

True, that doesn't much separate him from a plethora (if not the overwhelming majority) of politicians. But take a long hard look at that face; deep down in your gut and right through to your very soul, every goddamn sensory organ in your whole goddamn body screams that that face does not lie- no matter what its mouth says!

A Tale of Two People

This is the movement and these are the people that Glenn Beck swears will kill everyone in America- this from the premier American hypocrite clown, writ large, whose inane rantings have actually inspired people to the point of violence and assassination. One misinterprets and misrepresents the Constitution, the others try to make sure it applies to everyone, equally...

Meanwhile, Facing Change has quite the slide show on Occupy Wall St...

Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein

Photo: Anthony Suau

Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered A Young Girl- (Not) Taken Down

All good things come to an end, and after proving and winning his counter claim, Isaac Eiland-Hall has taken the "offending" website down- a class act. Class I would not have afforded such a shameless buffoon who has repeatedly proven just how low he can go...

Update:  It Lives!  See Comments...

William Eggleston- Stranded In Canton (with Lou Reed)

I'm not big on "going negative." It's way too easy and hardly novel these days, when everyone's ready to cuss out anyone at the get go. But then you come across something the likes of William Eggleston's latest "book," Stranded In Canton, and you kind of ask yourself, "What the fuck?"

I had no idea what the major premise behind this "book" was (if one can, in fact, call it one) when I came upon it, or the DVD contained within. Basically, the book portion consists of a couple of grainy, blurry B&W photos that look like grainy, blurry B&W film stills. Perhaps what's contained within the cover is the greatest artistry ever burned unto disc, I would hope so since this has no reason whatsoever to exist as a book- well, other than because of the name.

And now I find out that none other than Lou Reed has been named a guest curator at the 2010 New York Photo Festival- and don't get me wrong, I've been a looong time fan... of his music, that is. And I have no idea if I saw his first, or his second book- but whatever I saw was one level above the aforementioned Stranded, or very much at home on your average FLICKR photostream... If that was number one that I saw, why on earth was there a number two? And if it was number two that I saw...

Aren't there enough legit photographers already out there who can't get their work published? I guess you could argue that a name like Lou's could help pump in some much needed revenue and publicity- in that case, I hope he plays Coney Island Baby...

Change I'm Starting To Believe In...

Photographic OCD?

Well, it certainly looks like yet another "documentary photographer" has been caught with his hands in the "art" photography grab bag. That is, someone who has purposely gone so out of his way to deny he does any digital manipulation, certainly appears to have both hands deep into it- so much so, the NY Times has removed his featured essay from their site. Some people are obviously better able to spot such things than myself, I guess the question is- since this wasn't particularly a flash news item, shouldn't these images (all images in this day and age) have been vetted more meticulously by a photo editor who can, in fact, identify such manipulation for such a prestigious organization? Perhaps, this should even be a separate position- Image Authenticity Editor?

At this point, it sure seems as if Edgar Martins has got quite the case of photographic OCD. (via HuffPo)

Documentaries- Great and Small

In the mid nineties, I watched a "documentary" about a strike that hit every possible high note imaginable for that genre. Based along the conventions of Barbara Kopple’s award winning Harlan County, USA of 1976, I thought I had witnessed a rare masterpiece of documentary film making- until I came upon the list of actors in the closing credits. Yes, the joke was all on us- Dadetown's director Russ Hexter had done his job exceedingly well in separating us from our money in the most cunningly deceitful production imaginable.

Unlike the director above however, the French students who faked their photojournalism essay did not profit financially from their venture. They did not take peoples' money under false pretense. While Dadetown did stir up some dialogue about the structure, conventions and expectations of documentary film making, it could never live down its financially tainted deceit. You can't have it both ways. The French students' goal from the get-go was to stand photojournalism on its head and have it reexamine itself. And they did so more convincingly than Susan Sontag ever did scolding and reminding us that photographs do little but tell us nothing and lie. Nothing wrong with the occasional attempt to keep things honest though- not unlike the venerable Yes Men.

Why does AT&T and Verizon now make you pay for Flikr Pro?

AT&T and Verizon Internet Services have reworked their broadband packages and will no longer be offering Flickr pro to subscribers after January 31, 2009.

Ohhh!!! They reworked their broadband package- that certainly describes it to my satisfaction. If they hadn't reworked it, and say... left it well enough alone- it would still be free. If they hadn't bought it up and absorbed it into their conglomerate financial monstrosity, it would still be free. If they hadn't seen an easy way to make a shitload of money on one of the last free things in life- it would still be free!

It's only money- Or not...

Feeling any safer this holiday season? Hope so, cause it cost us US citizens $10 trillion dollars...

Meanwhile, while the our government spent our money to further endanger and impoverish us, this guy outbid everyone to save us from same said government...

FOX = WWF

Remember back in the day how the Nazis were so fond of distorting the facial features of Jews into vile cartoon caricatures? Add yet another tactic to the "venerable" journalistic tradition of The Fox News Network. At least the World Wrestling Federation had the integrity to change their name to World Wrestling Entertainment. Don't expect any such appeal to credibility from the FOX.
-via HuffPo

White Girl from the Hood-- Not!

Presley, Pat Boone, Vanilla Ice, Margaret Seltzer (AKA- The Notorious B. Jones)... The last name(s) on the exploitation roster is just the latest lame attempt at appropriating and repackaging black life and culture in the US of A through that ever prescient white filter of success!

The truly sad thing in all this, of course, is that there are people of color born and raised in every hood throughout the country who could tell the real story, describe the real problems, and yes, offer up real solutions. People who work minor miracles each and every working day as teachers, counselors, community activists... But their book deals, bonuses and other assorted media perks are not quite so forthcoming.
(photo: Susan Seubert)