LIFE- It Don't Always Make Sense

     Photo: © S. Banos

I spent a considerable amount of time, money and effort to do "the right thing" and get my father in a different place where he would hopefully have a better time of it in his remaining years. This not to laud my own efforts, they've been absolute minimal- my mother has done the totality of the heavy lifting. And I mention it only because in the end, I succeeded in getting him placed in a setting where he this week broke his hip and now lies in a hospital post op in stable condition with a screw holding him together. 

And all he wanted to do was die in a dignified manner a few years back, when he still had his mind.

Where To Invade Next

I was tepid at best about seeing Michael Moore's latest, Where To Invade Next. The previews looked, well... not only lackluster, but silly, seen it before and- no longer funny. But being that we hadn't seen a flick in quite a few, off we went- and I celebrated by taking... my first senior discount ($1.50- Woo Hoo!).

Surprisingly, the movie itself did not disappoint. Unfortunately, at this point, Moore's movies only preach to the choir- it's pissed off Trump Republicans that need to watch and learn. Watch and learn how the US has chucked, forsaken and forgotten what once made this country great- and what we could now undertake to heal, repair and restore. As usual, Conservatives go on and on about how the US is overtaxed, and yet they never mention the crippling amounts we have to pay for: health care, higher education and a whole host of other social/civic services that we either pay top dollar for- or (increasingly likely) learn to do without. Our health, economy and hopes breaking down before our eyes just as the very environment and infrastructure we so desperately depend upon. And as Moore points out, insult to injury- many of the very ideas that could alleviate so much suffering and right so many of our current economic and social ills that other countries so effectively employ... originated right here in the good ol' US of A!

Sadly we have allowed ourselves to become so tone deaf and dumbed down, so marginalized in our own frustration, that we can only now seek to blame others as we mindlessly chant on in ever increasing fervor- USA, USA, USA...

Because We're Stupid

Not stupid because we didn't understand exactly how the banks were conducting business, it was made purposely too complex for us to understand. No one can be faulted for that. Stupid because once they were finally exposed, finally exposed bare and naked and clean for all to see just how longingly and lovingly they were fucking us up the ass each and every day, we chose to... 

1.) Allow them to be rescued with our money,

2.) Demand no accountability whatsoever,

3.) Blame exactly who they told us to blame ("poor people, teachers and immigrants"), and-

4.) Smile as we continue to let them fuck us each and every day, to this very day!

The beauty and genius that was Jon Stewart and The Daily Show was that they broke down complex (and often boring) social, political and economic issues into logical, easy to understand bits and pieces that were... goddamn funny to boot. The Big Short does much the same, and does so brilliantly, covering the financial meltdown that happened under our watch (Anthony Bourdain explains CDOs, Salena Gomez breaks down synthetic CDOs)- and that continues unpunished and unrepentant, however disguised, as you read this.

But, hey, it's Christmas- grab the eggnog and a warm blanket; you can kick the dog when you're hungover after New Year's. 

PS- Oh... And when someone with a big, self satisfied smirk demands you explain just how the government could ever possibly keep a secret as overwhelmingly HUGE as UFO's under lock and key for soooo damn long- kindly just remind them that... it's all so easy, when we're the ones who do it for them; aliens are small potatoes indeed, compared to knowingly letting them rob us blind each and every day of our hard earned $$$...

Just try not to roll your eyes when you tell them.

My Not So Torrid, Middle Aged, Digital Fling

After decades of rigorously maintained analog self control and moderation, the very first chance I got a little extra change in my pocket, I immediately made a play for the young hot bod housed in the petite looker known as the Fujifilm XT-1 (complete w/14mm). The mere sight of her drove me crazy with desire- all those buttons and dials to press and caress amidst her tight young curves... OK- Enuf.

  

Love those muted greens.   All Photos: © S. Banos

Yes, the XT-1 can deliver the goods, it has also driven me half crazy getting to know it. The first few days were absolutely maddening- pressing every wrong button for every wrong reason (purposely and accidentally). We're a tad more acquainted now, starting to respect each other's space and preferences. Still, there is a very palpable tension between us...

The main drawback remains the EVF which may be the best out there, but still looks like a vintage era color TV from the '60s if you ask me. It's especially annoying in changing, contrasty light, as well as sunlight, where seeing what's in the shadows is particularly difficult- particularly ironic since one thing this camera can do is render shadow detail extraordinary well! The body is superbly compact but that also causes one to push things one doesn't want to- at least I'm getting familiar with how to undo it. 

Did notice slight shutter lag for high speed action shots.

I came back from my initial real life, field test (see results) fully prepared to put it up for sale on eBay. It hadn't been a fun experience, and had really missed my Nikon analogs. If there's no joy in the actual experience- what is there? Case closed. But before I got to actually packaging the camera away, I decided to take a look at said photos, and... First, there were the colors (and you must understand that except for a literal handful of SX-70 shots, I have not shot color since 1978), some lovely reds and muted greens- Wow! And it complemented the compositions, it wasn't just filler. OK, fine- but back to reality, I still wanted to know how it performed as a tool for B&W. I completed my first B&W conversion, and it came out... OK. Amazingly, while the color corrections took mere minutes, it was still a slow drive getting the local tonalities in B&W down pat (although selections were easier). But in the end, it still had that plasticky digital look- it needed.... grain. It had to have grain to feel "real." Fake grain for authenticity, Stan? Really? Yes, it's one slippery slope...

The self professed "King of  Pain." Yes, that is a taser. Yes, that is a (very) sensitive area.

I had read how grain software was pretty awful at best, but reluctantly went ahead and... I've been looking at 35mm Tri-X grain for decades, and this fake shit looked looked pretty damn good to me. Scanning B&W negs somewhat exaggerates grain, so I didn't pump it up as much (the grain software can be infinitely massaged or intensified) as it appears on my scans, gave it more a Plus-X feel- but it was enough to soothe the craving, and rid the image of its digital curse. It had achieved the look and feel of B&W film.

Relationships- they need constant work and attention.

So is everything copacetic? Not really, I may still sell it. Or I may sell all my analog film stuff to finance 28 and 40mm equivalents. I honestly don't know right now, but I can't afford to keep both. The film cameras are fun, simplicity and ease in the field- they can also last me a lifetime. The digital is more a working tool with various perks, like getting color & B&W (and a 1:1 crop) on demand. It's definitely not a one night stand, I just don't know if we're ready to commit just yet.

America = Corruption

Leviathan

The setting is the hinterlands of Putin's present day Russia. Cold, corrupt, brutal. Save for the raw, minimalist beauty of the surrounding seaside, the reality is- it could be a lot of places throughout human history...

They say you don't see and think straight when you're depressed. One of the biggest, all time lies we constantly tell each other- just to keep each other going. When we're down and out, we basically see things as they are, stripped of unrealistic hopes or pretension- when we're not, we merrily look the other way. Most times, things don't get particularly better; for many... luck, life itself, means they just keep going.

In many places, Russia being one of them, if you don't have the connections, the money, the privilege- your existence is merely circumstantial...

Trust Us, We Lie For A Living

I don't know how anyone can say they have nothing to hide- if you believe in anything, they can use it against you.     
-Diane Roark


Whenever Obama or any national security official assures us that there are channels aplenty through which government whistle blowers can report their concerns of abuse or malfeasance within the system, all one needs do is utter the name Diane Roark to give testament to just how large a lie that really is, and always has been.

And why Edward Snowden did what he did, exactly how he did it...

A Government of Law

It is so often stated (with much pomp and pride) that this is a nation of law, as if this sacred principle applies to everyone equally, when in reality, the law serves those that most directly control and influence it- while those most in need of its protection are, in turn, those most abused by it. The Ferguson Grand Jury was not the greatest perversion of law and justice, merely its most recent, and more importantly, it's most publicized.  And yet, even when so obviously twisted and perverted to facilitate and favor those in power, so many remain oblivious, silent or... satisfied.

McAfee Sucks- And Other Various Sundries...

Went to see Kill The Messenger (recommended) this Wed; got home at 8:30, turned computer on and... an ominous black screen appeared that I'd never (ever) seen before.

Stay calm, stay calm... stay... the fuck... calm...

PANIC!!!

 

Try my thoroughly, amateurishly pitiful this and that and- nothing, nothing, nothing... Call some numbers on the official Mozilla and McAfee sites which immediately hook me up with your friendly internet technical specialists (ie- Major Scumbag SCAMMERS). One tells me that my IP address is compromised, the other that some files are corrupted, one says he wants $400, the other wants $200. I tell both to go fuck themselves, knowing full well that the only one who's totally fucked is yours truly. And it's now 1 AM.

 

Come home from work following day- delete Mozilla, install Mozilla... same shit. Repeat- same shit. Screw Mozilla, I'll just use IE that came with the hard drive, thank you very much. Dead in the water. SHIT!!! Somewhere amidst the cussing I see that IE wants to install a security update. Why not- nothing else works. Install finally completes, and... IE is fully operational!!! I'm a happy man; lost a ton of bookmarks (actually, in a file I can't open), but least got my computer back for "free" (even if it does, or doesn't, have a freaking ticking time bomb inscribed with my name somewhere deep down under). Guess I now know why people buy freakin'... Macs.

9/22/14 NYC- Photo: © S. Banos

 

Photo Week In Review...

1)  We start the week off with yet another rejection notice- am I the only one who thinks getting these were a lot more fun climactic via snail mail?  OK- nothing unusual there...

2)  Then on the third day of working a three hour nightly shift on one tiff, and just before officially calling it a done deal- I notice this one little shadow area that I really... pretty much... hadn't really.... noticed all that much before. I had noticed all the other 53 problem areas that lurked about in this particular wide angle shot- yet there it was... leering at me in full realization that it was completely and thoroughly unfixable and beyond redemption. It only took up about 5% of the entire real estate in said image; would anyone even notice (at least that much)?  Now, of course, it seemed to loom larger than a Jovian moon. 

Naturally, I tried to fix it. I hadn't come this far, spent so many hours, endured and solved so many of it's previous secrets to give up on this last minute pimple of a hiccup of an excuse. So on I went into night four, and slowly, surely, finally- Progress! Validated, exonerated, I triumphantly compared it to my low res scan, and... deleted that four day son of a bitch down the computer wormhole of all things forgotten and never again mentioned.

3)  WOW! Here's something to take anyone's mind off the darkroom hell of the computer monitor- something I've never ever seen offered in my 35+ years of photography--- an offer to participate in a A Flash Powder Workshop! Screw tintypes, glass plates and albumen et al... we're talking Flash Powder Baby- Hooah! Don't know where I'll get the money, but this is something to see, something to experience first hand- photography at its primitive best! Danger, adventure, excitement writ large...

Well, not quite exactly...

"Please have no leniency with me."

Said the 80 yr old nun to the judge... Hero(es), plain and simple.
(and truly Christlike).

The unmitigated hypocrisy! Not only should Homeland Security thank them for exposing such obvious lack of security, think of all the banksters who robbed us blind and didn't serve one, single day!

Zazzle Frazzle

I recently gave a rather positive report on Zazzle and their card printing service. On 11/29, I spoke to them via phone concerning the emailed photographic evidence they requested and returned their defective cards- well, it's12/09... and I still have yet to receive my reprint order! In fact, after speaking to them again, it became quite apparent that they have yet to even print it!!! So in short- ZAZZLE SUCKS!--- and apologies for leading anyone astray...

The American Scheme

 

Credit card debt rose by 53% during the '90s for the middle class; for the working poor, it rose by 184%. Not because of a sudden increase in consumer greed, but because of the wholesale elimination of living wage jobs replaced with minimum and P/T employment w/o benefits.    Photo: S. Banos

Unless you make a minimum of 50Gs a year, you're little more than a shit stain in this country. And I oughta know, just like so many of my fellow Americans who live on half that. It means you live paycheck to paycheck, counting every damn penny, buying necessities on credit, with no chance of ever quite catching up- no chance of ever breathing a sigh of blessed relief. Actually, in many ways I am truly lucky, I have some modicum of health benefits- more importantly, I have no dependents to feed and worry about. 

This documentary, which follows the lives of two families over twenty years, exposes what has now become largely myth- that the American worth ethic will determine your success. It is no longer sage advice, simple logic or even common sense- it is now the exception to the rule. Your toil will no longer set you free, your dedication and perseverance simply prolongs your survival. The robust economy of yesteryear was never at the mercy of welfare queens driving pink Cadillacs as Reagan would have had us believe, just as it is not the victim of illegal immigrants today. Plentiful, decent paying jobs have been purposely dissipated overseas, along with our dreams, our benefits, and the billions of tax dollars that banks, corporations and CEOs once invested in this country. On any given day you can stand and watch the container ships from China parade under the Golden Gate in the beautiful California sunlight loaded with the economic bounty that was once ours. We are no longer meant to share in this country's great bounty, we are simply the means to increase that bounty for those already enriched.

The American Dream now exists solely as just that, an unattainable goal for the masses, a leftover legacy held high above our heads to first delude us, and ultimately, to shame us when we fall short in a system that is now largely rigged.

 When will we ever wake up?

Watch Two American Families on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

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...

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

National Geographic Chases Its Own A**Hole

This Linda Hamilton look-a-like is supposed to somehow blind you into watching this pathetic program.

I don't have cable, but since everyone knows Nat Geo is a Grade A, serious class act- I just had to see the 2 hr. premiere of Nat Geo Chasing UFO'S last night. Luckily, I had a neighbor who would indulge my enthusiasm. Finally, we would be treated to a high tech, scientific, no bullshit, Nat Geo UFO Investigation Extravaganza!!! Yes, sir- everyone knows... Nat Geo does not fuck around!

I profusely apologized and left before the first hour was up. It was the same, very sad and very tired ghost searching, Bigfoot hunting in the dark and oh so scary woods exploitation formula. What was that? Did you hear that! Whoa! What the f... was that!? Did you see that? 

Yes- I have... A hundred, thousand times before- although never had I seen it from the likes of a supposedly reputable and fact based name brand. And name brand is all it was, and all it served to demean.

One eyewitness showed very clear video of a UFO (yes, that was exactly what it was- an Unidentified Flying Object) he shot from his backyard. Cool! Next stop- video analysis, right!? Certainly, with today's latest computer/digital technology they could at the very least determine if it was doctored- at the very, absolute least! Cut to commercial, and when the Linda Hamilton Terminator impersonator returns, she proclaims that they were instead... "Kickin' it old school" by investigating newspaper accounts in the local library, which in turn leads to an 1891 account of a meteor exploding locally and scattering fragments all over the neighborhood- which they then proceed to look for a hundred years later... at night!

That's right, this 'serious, in depth investigation' didn't even return to perform the most cursory digital examination of said video- and I was supposed to stay for another hour!?!?

Sarah Connor/Linda Hamilton- T2

Conservative Parents Everywhere!!!

You guys got kids, right? I don't have a worry, don't gotta one- I'll be cashing out in another 25 years, if not sooner... just like the fat bastard so rich he spends every day spewing ever more deluded rantings no real working person with the slightest would ever believe.

But I assume you worry about your kids- right? You know, like their well being, and future and stuff... You like, love them, right? Right? Then time to embrace the Conservative in you and start facing the fact that this planet you're leaving them is... dying!  
 

I realize you think "science" all a myth- unproven, hysterical, left wing propaganda. The Great Liberal Lie! Otherwise, you wouldn't be so preoccupied with your real religion- making money at any cost, even at the very expense of the planet that keeps you alive. Just hope the religion you go through so much trouble trying to convince everyone else you really believe in comes through and Raptures your ass on up high into the heavens you're so busy polluting with your SUVs and your non regulated, profit inducing carbon emissions- cause pretty soon there aint gonna be shit to eat down here!

Not to worry- fat man's got your back! Your kids can bet on it...

Prometheus Unrisen

God knows I wanted to love, love, love this movie. All I wanted was a sense of wonder, a few sacred fleeting moments of complete and utter bedazzlement, the ability to temporarily lose myself in the glory of its vision and imagination. That's what I got from classics like: 2001, Terminator 2, the original Matrix- not to mention Forbidden Planet and The Day The Earth Stood Still of the '50s, and the original Frankenstein and its matrimonial sequel. I would've even settled for the cheap thrills aplenty and all out claustrophobic paranoia of John Carpenter's The Thing.

Alas, what I got instead was the Obama version of sci-fi cinema- an ever so alluring trailer package of promise writ large cleverly disguising a less than 3D reality of mediocre retreads and redundancy. No wonder, no suspense, no real vision of any lasting consequence whatsoever...

Truth To Power!

Talk about the perfect follow up... to yesterday's post!

"When you’re given a mission that cannot — cannot — succeed militarily, then what is the purpose of the mission?"  -Lt. Col. Danny Davis

2012- Year In Review

Well, I gotta be honest here folks, it's not for lack of trying- but I haven't taken a decent shot all year. The good news is that at least I have one new friend from Africa who, if I just let him have his way, wants to make me a rich man, a very rich man- and from the dental bill I'm about to incur from eating a piece of popcorn watching godawful Melancholia recently, he reached out just in time.

Meanwhile, I pledge to redouble my efforts to introduce legislation banning Uggs throughout the world- particularly since I failed so miserably in having similar legislation passed concerning Birkenstocks. This time failure is not an option!

Once passed, we cannot rest, other challenges just as dark, just as threatening, await us. They lurk in the shadows today- but tomorrow? Yes- I speak of none other than the dreaded toe shoe things!!!

2011's Greatest Fail

  This one really sounded good on paper. The epic marriage of the epoch- peanut butter goodness and yummy dark chocolate, instead of the yucky milk stuff. Mmmmm... Alas, the perfect fail-- Beeyecchh!!!