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!
I've posted on journalist/cartoonist (definitely not your usual combo) Joe Saccobefore. This time he's not reporting on what he has witnessed and/or experienced personally. On a unique departure from his favored modus operandi, he delves into researching and depicting one of the bloodiest days in human history, namely... July 1, 1916- the first day of The Battle of the Somme. You know, WWI- The War To End All Wars. This is his amazing 24 foot long (accordion style) panoramic and tribute to mankind's continuing fascination with killing itself in grand fashion.
Been more or less a regular buyer of your fine magazine since the early '90s. But at $17 for your most recent issue, I can't even contemplate buying your magazine when it costs more than what I make an hour. All the fancy inserts and windows in #86 look... fine, but you should really consider whether you wish to publish a magazine the public can afford, or a limited edition art publication for an elite few.
Think My Lai was the only senseless mass slaughter of (elderly) men, women and children in Vietnam? An unfortunate military aberration, a freak confluence of the stars? Think again.
And should you come to think such atrocities a sad remnant of some far gone past- then you're just not thinking...at all.
First on my 2013 must get list... Love the feel and layout of this book by Gabriele Stabile and Juliet Linderman, relatively small and hand friendly, whereas the photographs, particularly at first, are dark and ominous- reflecting the aftermath of the long and dangerous paths these immigrants have had to negotiate to arrive in the strange and foreign place they are now to call home. The middle of Refugee Hotel contains the first hand accounts of those ordeals, the last third depicts them as they settle in and adjust to their new environments and lives. A brief but insightful journey into the shadows and overlooked lives of those who have been running the world over not for sport or fitness, but for their very lives. (@ Carte Blanche 1/18)
It was 1989, and if memory serves, my second full year of teaching Spec Ed in Harlem when I first heard the news, and like all the other teachers in my school (and no doubt so many others in schools throughout the immediate area)- was hoping none of them were any of ours. Praying none of our kids had done the deed- and that none had been picked up for being Black and convenient, and now in the fight of their lives...
The crime had been particularly brutal, vicious. A woman had been raped, beaten and left for dead in the showcase that is Central Park. People wanted justice, in fact, people wanted vengeance. The whole city wanted to make an example of these guys- if you had set them free in Central Park the following day, the park would have been over run by a tsunami of outraged citizenry that would have left them every bit as tattered as the jogger herself- or else hanging from trees. And one of the people leading that potential lynch mob was none other than The Trumpster with his $85,000 ads for vengeance.
They just had to be guilty. Even I pretty much succumbed to the scenario that at least some of them were probably in on it; after all, there were no other suspects, no other evidence, no other logical explanation... the best minds in criminal justice vehemently assured us so...
Only problem, of course, was that each one of The Central Park Five, each one of those vicious, (underage) sub human excuses of humanity was, in fact, as completely innocent of said crime as you or I. They finally got the real perp years later- it was his DNA that matched, theirs never did.
Each one convicted, sentenced, jailed. And no one has apologized.
If ya have to let that one sink in for a while before it makes sense, or if it just doesn't make sense to ya no way, no how- count yourself one helluva lucky bastard... for the time being.
Chris Hedges And Joe Sacco are two of my favorite journalists in the whole wide world- one tells it like it is, the other shows it. Both offer insights into sections of the world and society that many of us would either choose to ignore- or purposely wish to misrepresent to maintain our own comfort level and chosen "world view."
Photography (not to mention the written word) is often cited and faulted for being the limited medium that it has always been and cannot help but be- and no one knows it more than any skilled and capable photographer (or writer). Sacco's work addresses those limitations in all its various subtleties and nuances, and he's done so repeatedly (and ever so effectively) whether in Gaza, Bosnia- or the down and out realities of homeland USA in Days of Destruction/Days of Revolt...
...Of African Stereotypes- John Edwin Mason breaks it down for us step by step- the myths, the stereotypes, the long forgotten and deeply buried truths that pervade history well into the present. And the promise of more to come!
I'm really getting tired of the media's hollow protestations that they don't know what these protesters "want." If they really don't know: a) what country do they live in, b) what world do they live in, c) how the hell do they call themselves "journalists?"
Are they really that unaware, that totally ignorant of the pain and abuse so many Americans are currently experiencing directly because of the predatory capitalism practiced by the scions of Wall St.? These young people are marching precisely because so many, so called journalists have time and time again abdicated their responsibility to uncover, expose and disseminate the truth- a truth as blatantly obvious as the smoke that filled the skies above the crematoria.
Something this well done almost makes me wanna join the multi-media band wagon (if only I could pull it off half as well). Prison Valley is a quirky and enlightening insight into our out of sight, out of mind world next door...
No- it's anything but a law firm! Just three individuals loosely involved in a somewhat aborted and partially redeemed foray into Berkeley one evening- which started out on a quest to hearJoe Sacco speak at a local bookstore. Unfortunately, when I arrived in Berkeley, I soon discovered that said bookstore was not anywhere near the immediate town hub and that Stan would have to engage a bus to get there. Already running late, I decided to abort. Incredibly, I looked to my side, and behold- an exhibition by Sebastian Salgado. Now, I had seen his work several times before, but these were the largest prints I'd ever seen of his work, some of these measuring 35x53in, and they were digital- and gorgeous! And it was quite revealing to see how this size differential affected his work when no longer reduced, limited and restricted to the confines of the printed page. At these monumental sizes, his work was free to take on and more fully express the epic themes and grandeur that his photographs so readily portray and encompass!
Then on my way home, I came upon another bookstore where I found a delightful little photo book by Nick Muellner entitled Moscow Plastic Arts. It has the world's worst reproductions printed on what looks like prematurely aged and yellowed paper that all somehow works in its favor to make one endearing little package. Curiously, the online reproductions are of considerably higher quality- a good thing, I suppose.
And although I never got to hear Joe Sacco speak about his new book Footnotes In Gaza, I did find the video below. For those not familiar with his work, Sacco is an exceptional journalist and graphic novelist. He does painstaking field research into what he writes and draws, so that his work includes the little details and histories that are so often excluded by both camera lens and news print. The end result is a much better feel for the place, the people, and ultimately the experience they have shared with him and passed on to you ...
