WELCOME 2020!

Good Advice for the next decade... Photo: © Stan Banos

I was gonna at least attempt the requisite annual retrospective, but then I saw that there were a whole  lottta decade reviews floating around on just about... everything.  So, in the interest of compromise, here's my half decade review- 2015 to 2019 were the absolute worst fuckin' years of my life, saving 'The Best' kick to the head and groin for very last! So, good Fuckin' Riddance 20Teens!!!

But... I'm trying to stay positive! And as trying as those last five have been... they've also been my most productive- photographically. That's hardly Even/Steven, but better than absolute nothin'! And with the passage of time, the acknowledgement that each day, each hour, each minute, is in turn more valuable than the one before it- thus it has always been.

Uncut, Uninterested...

I love movies where people find themselves over their heads, waaay over their heads- flicks like A Simple Plan and American Animals. So I was all up for Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler...

Don't get me wrong- Uncut gems is definitely well made, well acted, and the pacing... the pacing is a New York minute on a speedball laced with Meth! And as if the lunatic freneticism of the film's pacing wasn't enough, the only time people stop screaming in the movie is to inhale enough oxygen to yell and scream louder and faster. That said, I could tolerate all of it, if only I could empathize with main protagonist Howie- a New York City 47st jewelry dealer, hustler and thoroughly deranged gambling addict. And addict he is, not giving a damn about his family, his children or anything else in life save the next BIG bet! 

I avoided and despised self absorbed, self promoting Blowhards like Howie long as I lived in New York- and look upon them none the kinder 20 years and 3,000 miles away today...

ADDENDUM: I was hesitant to include this previously, but I really can't leave it unmentioned- particularly now that I've confirmed one aspect... One can't help but notice Sandler's fake teeth, and one can't help but wonder how that doesn't play into stereotyping the exaggeration of certain physical features and characteristics by which Jews have been historically caricatured. It was also more than a tad unsettling to see Kevin Garnett depicted as the pro Black athlete who after years of practice, training, etc to become a superstar... comes to believe his court Mojo is mysteriously controlled by a 'magical' rock- really?

The Holy Grail of Nepotism

Was the whole Joe Biden/Hunter Biden Brouhaha really a case of crass, wanton nepotism- you bet it was! No-questions-asked. So... while the Repubs are screaming it loud between every breath to anyone forced to listen- why aren't the Dems saying anything about that most unqualified of couples (besides Little Donnie and Melancholia) that occupy the White House? Exactly what are Jared and Ivanka qualified to do on a national/international scale? What exactly are their qualifications again??? Especially when you have Jared placed in charge of... that little quarrel they've seemed to be having in the Middle East for the last thousand or so years...

That alone is very well beyond any known peak of insanity and hypocrisy- and yet, Dems never seem to even mention it... 

IMPEACH The Racist, Fascist, Criminal Bastard!!!

Photo: © Stan Banos

All Seeing Baby Cop

Not too many things make me "happy" these days in San Francisco, there's JR's still ongoing exhibit- and then there's... "Baby with a Handgun." Completed just days ago, it's truly ginormous, and what I love about it most is that it can be interpreted in oh so many ways- while still bringing a smile to your face.

Photo: © Stan Banos (click to embiggen)

Naturally, I wanted to incorporate it into a photo, so I started exploring it from different angles just to get a feel. At first I got as close as possible, while still being able to include surrounding details, but resigned myself to the wisdom that it would probably take months before I got lucky. On my way home the other afternoon however, I decided to check out the perspective a bit further back, noticed some activity going on between the phalanx of cars in the foreground and all seeing baby cop towering in the back. I really couldn't make out what was going on in the tiny view screen of my GR, but lined it up best I could and shot a few rounds, if only for practice and reference. Sometimes ya just get lucky with this camera...

And the GR came through yet again, producing a file crisp and clean enough to draw notice to the small human figures subtly interacting and drawing back and foreground together. A nice surprise after weeks of running on empty... It's also eerily reminiscent of many a perspective controlled land and cityscape carefully shot with a view camera in many a contemporary photobook essay.

I started growing concerned about my aging GR; the new Super Duper GRIII goes for... $900!. No doubt it's plenty fine, but after biding my time, snagged another used original for $320. Seems in very decent condition, and will be testing during week. Upgrading's cool when ya have the dough, but it's always a tad ironic seeing so many videos showcasing masses of wholesale mediocrity produced with the utmost premium equipment... I may not be able to afford the latest and greatest, but at least I'm afforded an excuse when I don't come up with the goods.*

*Or so I'll tell anyone that listens...

Why Dems Suck...

Photo: © Stan Banos

I swear, if I didn't know the facts and circumstances of what the hell is going on here... there are times when I would actually believe... Republicans. Yes, they're loud, fast talking, and annoying as hell, but at least they're- Impassioned; even as they full well know that every syllable that drops from their mouths are the most specious of lies built on the most bald faced of lies from the lyingest Con Man this country has ever spawned. The Dems just lay out the facts and expect logic to magically take command, they still expect people to coherently connect and follow the dots where they most obviously lead, still expect that actual, reality based facts trump... "Alternative Facts!" 

If you or I try to shoot someone with a high powered rifle from blocks away and miss- we're guilty of attempted murder. If you or I try to shoot someone point blank with a handgun, and somehow manage to fall wide of the mark- we're still guilty of attempted murder! And yet, over and over and over again the Repubs argue that since Ukraine got their money anyway- it's all good! No worries...*

You're still alive... why-in-hell are you still screaming that someone tried to kill you!?! You've got the absolute gall to go after the very person who let you... live?

The question is- why do we even have to stop and explain this like we're appealing to the "logic" of four year year olds? Because when you're trying to explain things to people the likes of our current electorate, we need to simplify, repeat and accentuate the truth every bit as hard as the other side obfuscates! And let's face... facts- Dems suck at it. And this is why such an obvious, strong arm, mob threat abuse of power by someone who has proclaimed that he can do whatever he wants, someone who has LIED OVER 13,000 times in just three years alone, together with a long history of: housing discrimination, money laundering and criminal association before ever becoming POTUS should be such an obvious slam dunk- and is instead allowed to have his high crimes and misdemeanors confused, conflated and convoluted first into a non crime triviality, and then into an outright affront and unwarranted attack... against the perpetrator himself!  And thus he is allowed to get away with the most blatant of outright falsehoods and in your face illegalities over and over and over again.

This is a 5X DEFERMENT who should have been pronounced unfit and certifiably insane from jump for declaring and insisting (despite the most perfunctory of glances) that he had more people at his inauguration than Obama- and then having his underlings repeat his insane inanities ad nauseum. A person who declared in all seriousness that (are you ready for it)... "Windmills cause cancer!" This is a man who stops lying only to enthusiastically repeat and emphasize the most blatantly conspiratorial rumors and innuendos already proven and debunked to be demonstrably untrue! "You know the word is... people are saying... believe me!" That is all "the proof" his supplicants need hear...

And if you think we've already seen crazy- the next four years could well herald an era of insanity and criminality the likes of which will make The Bowling Greene Massacre seem like a mere 'charity.'

*Translation: Had Obama attempted to have a foreign country investigate a US citizen, forget his major Presidential opponent, think... Anonymous No One in trailer park- his rotting corpse would have been seen hanging on the White House lawn.

PS- How Blatantly Hypocritical are REPUBS willing to go in perverting this? 
       Oh... about this freaking far!

Americans Parade- George Georgiou

For someone who kinda prides himself on not owning much, I recently almost killed myself and a couple of friends who helped move me- and my 16 boxes of photo books weighing about 65lbs ea (down 3 flights... then up 3 flights).

After swearing to sell, donate and never buy another- here I go again... Hi, I'm Stan Banos and I'm a photobookaholic...

And how can I resist? I mean look at these photographs, each one a minor miracle compromising a major masterwork! Each image of Americans Parade by George Georgiou is a wonder of nuance, composition and detail that speaks to the ages.

What I Did For The Holidays

Central Park circa '77   Photo: © Stan Banos

Thanksgiving, that is. And what I will keep doing right into the Christmas Holidays, New Year's (the most dreaded holiday on earth) and well past that. Trying to right my damaged B+W negs- "The Legacy." Gotta keep busy, can't let the mind sink into wallowing. And attempting to restore damaged negs is a chore both time consuming (like hours into days consuming- for just one image) and concentration intensive. Kinda just what the doctor would order should one's wife leave!

Hate His Books...

 But every dog has it's day!

"I get a kick out of the Republicans saying impeachment is an effort to overturn the will of the American people when Hilary beat the dumbbell by 3 million votes. He won because of the antiquated electoral college, a 2-mule wagon in a jet plane world."  -Stephen King

The Irishman

I suppose if you're the type who enjoys going to Stones concerts when they're in their seventies (as opposed to back in the seventies)- you'll thoroughly enjoy The Irishman. It's pretty much a geriatric conglomeration of previous Scorsese/DeNiro Greatest Hits. It's not bad, it just... shows its age, particularly in the wrinkles of its actors, which at times I was tempted to count just to confirm what particular timeline we were in.

Seventy year old Deniro (via contemporary CGI) is converted into a strapping 30 year old in the movie- but he looks more like a well preserved fifty year old- one wearing a girdle at that... In one of the more graphic scenes of violence, his kicks and punches look more staged than anything via WWE. And that pretty much is at the heart of what's wrong with the Irishman... it-has-no-edge. Not good for a gangster flick. It's a bunch of old men reminiscing through the fog of time in slo-mo. Everything plays out as it should, when it should- no immediacy, no surprises... everyone's in on the punchline.

A Tale of Two Faces

This perfectly succinct example, supplied upon request, is a... shamelessly juvenile and personal attack beyond the pale.

But attempting to mock a person with disabilities is downright... okey dokey- 
apology unnecessary.

DISGUSTING!

Ain't It TheTruth...

“If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning, and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil... If what we’re talking about is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable.”     -North Carolina Law Professor Michael Gerhardt

My Luck (in A Nutshell)

As recently attested to, there was nothing I could personally do to keep my wife in San Francisco, she wanted outta the city- but there was one thing (1 Thing) that would have kept her here with me. For several years right up till the end, she had wanted to work as art instructor where I work with people with disabilities. In a place of guaranteed high turnover, it was one of the few positions that was not vacated on a regular basis. As you can well imagine, there's many a "starving artist" in San Francisco that would be happy to have the job. With my long track record there, they would have looked favorably upon her to get the job- a job she would have been most suited for. Alas, it was not about to magically open up just for our sake...

The position became available 2 Work Days after she left.

Dark Waters

No, Dark Waters ain't the greatest movie ever- but if it doesn't keep ya in uneasy anticipation throughout, well then, you've been somnambulating throughout you own sorry life anyways!

Granted, it's the age old story, those in power, be they: rich, corporate or government will attack you, damage you, kill you, all the while they profit and deny it just the same. And having right on your side usually guarantees you're entitled to a heaping helpful doseful of yet more humiliation and degradation than you ever possibly bargained for!

I remember my mother's pride upon first getting a Teflon pan, it was one of the few things our family could afford that brought us straight into... the future, as we all collectively marveled at the ease with which eggs slid hither and yonder! In time, that Teflon coating of "forever chemicals" would slowly begin to wear and scratch off, right into our collective gullets. This film chronicles what happened to those that ate it, breathed it, drank it, bathed in it, lived next to and on top of it- all the while your friendly folks at Dupont (the "Better Living Through Chemistry" folks) kept secret, and later denied, that they had any knowledge of its potent toxicity and devastating heath effects...

Can't Say I Wasn't Warned...

 

Best Pick Up line ever? Photo: © Stan Banos

But then, people say shit all the time we don't mean, half mean or just regularly bitch about... I, uh, do it all the time. But after years of sporadically muttering "I can't live in a city anymore-" The Wife finally made good on that word, and up and left. And so I find myself in Act III of my life, ensconced in an SRO- so much for getting old together. I thought we made a good team, made each other laugh- but I guess there's more to that location, location, location mantra than I thought...

Although 'invited' to join her, I chose to stay behind, certainly not out of any great love or fealty to San Francisco and its gleaming tech towers above shit stained streets, but because I am a city boy- and San Francisco is as small town as I can possibly endure. We lived in Tuscon once for a year, and much as I love the scenic Southwest- towards the end, it was great to move out and back into an actual walkable city, a real city. I've even thought of returning to my original stomping grounds in NYC, but that city had already departed me by the time I departed it. It is every bit as expensive, and I actually happen to like my job, and at my age (with Medicare looming), I am not about to embark on a new career with a blue vest, exclaiming... "Hello, and Welcome to..." 

Still, this is not how I envisioned things would... end. I very much wanted to keep adding to our list of shared memories, adventures and experiences, she was the reason I could smile at the end of the day- no matter how bad it had been. The noble part of me says I want her to be happy no matter the personal cost, that is what true love is, letting go- the selfish part says, uhhh, whatever happened to the little "for better or for worse" jingle, what was that all about? 

I've heard Buddhists believe that life is about loss, throw in I'll no longer be waking with best bud  Nelson, our one eyed, cat/dog hybrid wonder (least he acts it). Have no idea what the next ten years will be like, 'cept to say they're nothing what I had imagined them to be- but all I need do is but step outside to see just how much more fortunate I still am than so many, many others... Addendum: Thank you to everyone who emailed privately.

Happy Thanksgiving!

When You're Forced To Eat The Very Shit You Peddle...

Look at those faces... Usually they're very content and happy to peddle the lies, half truths, rumors and innuendos that serve to distort, confuse and misinform. And they do it in service to the voice they have chosen to both obey and create, the very voice they are now listening to, the very voice that is now finally exposing them firsthand to the maelstrom of uninhibited insanity they have helped empower and propagate. And they are totally, 100% gobsmacked to the MAX- dumbfounded in absolute denial to the very mirror they have unwittingly propped up before themselves. Priceless!

A Coupla Things...

Photo: © Stan Banos

Based On A True Story will be going dark at the end of the week, hopefully back in business by the end of next. Which should buy ya's enough time to get your shit together and... SUBMIT! Good Luck, one and All - next year is my year. Whether I want it, or not- (more later)...

Climate Scientists Got It Wrong!!!

Yup... W-R-O-N-G!!!

Climate Change is happening A LOT FASTER  (a whole LOT Faster) than what they told us... Personally, I think they knew it all along, scientists tend to be conservative in demeanor- and they didn't want to panic us, 'cause what they were saying was scary enough (if we bothered to listen). They thought we would act logically, as do they. Instead, we just continued to go about our lives or, particularly in this country,  go into absolute 100% denial as if the very lives of our children just didn't matter...

The King

I love films that center on the issue of... trust. Who-do-you-trust? That's about as central an issue in life as one can possibly get. It's also why I loved Training Day so much- I remember saying that if there was any justice in the world, Denzel would get the Academy Award for his performance in that (he did).

Anyway, The King centers on that very theme, and does so exceedingly well: trust, love, friendship, betrayal. I was in turn anxious to discover how much of the film's depiction was true to history- and it was a mixed bag as to be expected. Although trusting anyone in those days was a truly mixed bag- as it remains today...

Reciprocity Partial Failure

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

This blog, as a select few of you may know (be interesting to know exactly what that single digit really is) is the second coming of the original blog called Reciprocity Failure which began in 2007 (after originally appearing elsewhere in 2005). One day in 8/2016, I unknowingly erased all the images on Reciprocity Failure post 8/2011, (a mere 5+ years of work) after Google purchased Blogger. During this past weekend however, I accidentally discovered that, nonetheless, Google retained at least some of the photos in some kind of archive, although not according to any readily recognizable timeline or other means of management that would make reinstalling them back into their proper posts an easy task. Nevertheless, theoretically, it is, more or less... possible.

So comforting to know I have a retirement hobby awaiting (after restoring all my damaged B&W photos)- for a retirement I will never have... 

A Classified Program... Within A Classified Program

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

 ESP? Remote Viewing? Yeah, right... Who's gonna believe that bat crazy shit?

The C.I.A., for one (as well as several other intelligence, law enforcement and military agencies). 

For decades? Spending millions? To this very day? Yes- to all the aforementioned...

To Be Continued...

Not even close...   Photo: © Stan Banos

As y'all (4 of U) may have noticed- things have slowed down just a tad 'round these parts- and it's for good reason, which I will divulge in good time. Major Life BS- the kind no one wants to go through, but life being what it is, comes out and bites ya nonetheless. And this one's chomping down hard...

I'll continue on impulse power as best I can, but there may come a time when I may have to go dark- temporarily. In the meantime, just trying to put up the brave front- and quite honestly, not for anyone's sake other than my own. No, not anywhere near dying, just something I could have really done well, well without- now, and for a long time coming...

Some Of You May Remember...

The Exonerated Five

The Central Park Jogger Case of 1989. Thirty years ago, a young White, career woman was brutally raped, beaten and left for dead in Central Park while jogging one evening in Central Park. It was a vicious crime, and also the same night that by sheer coincidence, a bunch of teens from Harlem decided to go to that nearby park. You get a bunch of male teens together of any race or ethnicity, looking for excitement and god knows what- yeah, bad shit can happen. Bad shit did happen- all around. Several joggers and passers-by were beaten, robbed harassed and threatened, the perpetrators of those crimes rightly arrested and jailed. Unbeknownst to any of the teens in attendance however, there was another crime committed in that park that evening. It was a far more heinous crime, one committed in an area they did not frequent that evening- Central Park is pretty huge for a city park, one that spans several Manhattan neighborhoods.

I was a teacher in Harlem at that time, and I remember crossing my fingers and hoping with my fellow educators that none of our students (who were the same age) were involved- fortunately, none were. And I remember (much to my regret) thinking- sure, it's a big place, sure the time lines may not exactly match, but with all that running around, all that confusion... hey, where there's smoke, there's fire! If they didn't do it... well then, who the hell did? New York detectives are anything but dumb- if they couldn't piece it together, no one could. And piece it together, they did- just not how I, or many others were led to believe.

New York, the whole country, wanted the bad guy(s) caught on this one... the-pressure-was-on! And when they couldn't make the pieces all fit- the NY DA and NYPD  pieced the story together whole cloth, and went with it. Of course, the whole concocted fabrication should have been thrown out of court when no DNA samples from the victim matched any of their chosen perps- in fact, that there was no evidence of any kind linking The Central Park Five to the jogging victim. Videos of their police coerced "confessions" however sealed their fate; they were going down for that vicious, heinous crime- one they not only did not commit, but didn't have any knowledge of until they received their officially approved police scripts, which had to undergo several creative rewrites. They literally became the faces of that crime- all five were quickly imprisoned.

In 2002, the real assailant confessed to the crime- he had previously committed several other rapes, incl one in the same area, using the same MO! Somehow, New York's Finest never considered looking into that most glaring and obvious of leads...

When They See Us is the painful recounting of that woeful tale: before, during, after and present day. And a scary refrain to that which happened some... ninety years ago.

Addendum:  Donald J. Trump saw it necessary to put out a full page ad at the time in New York's major newspapers demanding a return to the death penalty. When all five were later exonerated of the crime, he said that they still deserved to be in prison- of course, one can only speculate as to why innocent people should remain in jail, but I think there's already a rather appropriate name for those who think that anyone of color should be in jail, regardless.

From Subtle, To...

SUBLIME!!!

SEEN Magazine

© Shane Lynam

Last week I discovered and directed you to Fotoroom- this week for your viewing pleasure, I lucked upon (and once again through sheer serendipity)... SEEN magazine, yet another treasure trove of photographic wonders. The site is heavy on landscape, and going from one winning set of images to another at one's whim and leisure is not only a pronounced and prolonged visual joy, it's also a vivid reminder of how one just begins to scratch the surface on one's own visual journey through life...

What You Can't See...

Photo: © Stan Banos

... can most definitely hurt you (particularly when it comes to radiation)- but there's plenty mischief behind closed doors that can cause all manner of irreparable harm. Mark Klein and Edward Snowden can tell you that for sure. This unadorned, fortress like edifice belonging to none other than AT&T at 611 Folsom St. in downtown San Francisco is, to this day, passed by thousands (incl tech savvy hipsters) oblivious to the sanctum within that held the means to spy upon their daily, private lives. It was in a "secret" room on the third floor of this building some two presidents ago that the NSA began spying on the communications of American citizens- something most definitely not within the legal parameters of its very creation, something we still wouldn't know of to this day if it wasn't for the likes of those, unsung patriotic heroes called... Whistleblowers! 

Once again they're in the news- God bless 'em, each and every one!

FotoRoom

So.... I been at this (blogging) thing how many years (since 2005), and incredibly... I just heard about FotoRoom, this week. And, actually, I didn't "hear" about it at all- came up on it quite by accident. But there you have it, an incredible venue for work which, only now, I've been made aware of. 

Just from the most cursory of glances, I've come across Niall McDiarmid's often wondrous portraits (if only that NY human guy had been this good); Clay Maxwell Jordan's insightful views of the contemporary American South; Shaun Pierson's revelatory photos of his own family members. There's a myriad of high quality work to see, enjoy and learn from- indulge your favorite styles and subject matter, and discover your own faves! One can also become a member, something I'm seriously considering...

"We’ve Reached A Turning Point"

Photo: © Stan Banos

Unfortunately, did not make it out to the Area 51 Alien Fest this past Sept. But this article is curious in that it encompasses and gives voice to the whole of the UFOlogy world- from crackpots... to scientists. And it's certainly nice to find a mainstream article on the topic that is, in fact, even handed. Yes, the field no doubt attracts more than its fair share of loony tunes- a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y! But within it's cracks and crevices you'll also find the openly dead serious: astronauts, military and commercial pilots, radar operators, astrophysicists, police and other trained observers across the globe who have personally witnessed these inexplicable phenomena, and more...

Photo: © Stan Banos

Up Is Down, Down Is...

So it turns out that Joe Biden was carrying out US policy under Obama back in 2015 by calling for the ouster of a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor general- and by so doing, was actually outing his son's business dealings in Ukraine.... not trying to bury those ties as Trump's Republican spin machine now seeks to claim!

The Bugs Are Dying, The Birds are Dying and The Oceans Are Halfway Dead...

In other words- carry on... nothing to see here folks! There's still plenty of the Amazon left to burn, vast swaths of Africa we have not yet destroyed or deforested, and even when we do manage to kill off just about everything in the deep blue sea... it'll still look pretty much the same from on top!