Is What It Is...

And while we're at it!!!

I Don't Understand...

 And I don't think I want to... 

There's a Pokemon Convention/Celebration/Championship currently in San Francisco. I don't know much, if anything about it, other than being some kind of cartoon character game/creation that seems to be quite the money maker. Now, I can understand parents taking their six year olds to it, what I can't understand are all the twenty year olds lumbering about with armloads of hundreds of dollars of swag, smiling away, looking as if they were finally released from their basements for their first taste of sunshine since puberty- all for something I would have been thoroughly embarrassed to have not left in the rear view mirror years before entering freshman year of high school!

People in this country are dying from not having the money necessary for routine life saving operations, and people and babies the world over from Afghanistan to Gaza to Sudan are dying from not having the most basic nutrition and medicines to stay alive, thanks to the gutting of US Aid (.5 of 1% of the total US budget) so that a Nazi saluting billionaire could gleefully claim he eliminated government fat while not touching a single cent from our bloated military budget (soon to be well over a trillion US dollars), so that yet another billionaire could get the public's mind off his pedophile past by starting a completely unnecessary and illegal war he had already resoundingly lost a month in- and has not the slightest on how the hell he's getting us out 'cause he's just too damn busy personally handpicking matching drapes and fondling his Corinthian columns! 

I-just-don't-get-it.

Trump Economic Breakdown

That's Gratitude For Ya!

You'd think that after fixing up the rotting pier where it now stands to the tune of millions in order to show the public world class art (photography) exhibits for absolutely free (exhibits that would go for double figures these days)- yeah, you'd think that would count for... something! So the good people in charge right here in San Francisco decided to show their appreciation by throwing Pier 24 Photography out- lock, stock and barrel...

Cali Dream Deferred?

No argument there...   Photo: © Stan Banos

San Francisco once seemed an exotic faraway destiny when I lived in New York, not quite wholly American, like... New Orleans- some innately elusive, foreign aura. Hard to believe I've now lived here some twenty odd year and seen it go through some pretty profound changes- the majority not for the better. Homelessness was always a problem, but it metastasized exponentially during Covid to the present day. Coming from New York I didn't fear walking any street here in any neighborhood, now I most definitely avoid certain streets- and it's not so much because of the plethora of mentally ill, drug addicted, shadows of humanity that lurk about, as it is: the filth and feces, the dilapidated tents blocking entire sidewalks, the sheer... stench! Mission St between 5th and 9th streets is a zombie nation unto itself, full of the walking wounded, many of them in various states of nodding off in place, looking for all the world more sculpture than human, melting in the not so setting sun.

On days when I'm running late, and don't have the time to: avoid, walk around, and detour... I take the bus, and directly below its window on the same street that James Nachtwey photographed his San Francisco portion of the opioid crisis, I see the entire sidewalk unsteadily emerging to greet the new day with its first hit- needles, pipes, aluminum foil and lighters all at the ready. This video taken in Philly gives you the basic feel, which is again replicated in Skid Row, Los Angeles, as well as several other American cities.

Experiencing this daily, gradually and inevitably exacts its toll in a myriad of ways, and as I've stated countless times before, I at least have a place to call home at day's end. How much longer do I stay here? At least till seventy when I get the extra SS dough- this soon to be sixty-seven year old ain't starting anew somewhere else in a blue vest, proclaiming: "Hello, and welcome to..." And there ain't too many walkable cities in the US of A, something I consider mandatory- certainly wouldn't mind spending the rest of my days in London, but don't think I've caught the queen's fancy as of yet.

Meanwhile, San Francisco it is- and it still does have its relative strengths, and yes, even beauty. Where else within a seven mile long and seven mile wide stretch of humanity can one get such disparate views of existence as seen on the opposite ends of this post?

SF Americana, '22   Photo: © Stan Banos

Red Pill or Blue- Wait... There's More?

As Mr. Wolff points out, in the US of A (unlike many other parts of the world) we are taught that there is Good (Capitalism) vs. Evil (Communism, Socialism, Satanism, terrorism- same difference). That's why precious few Americans can describe or even recognize the major differences between: fascism, socialism and communism. There is no alternative!

It's a Big Ask, but if you listen to this 2hr lecture (plus question and answer period) you'll not only understand why Americans can fall prey to a charlatan's bombastic  boast that, "I alone can fix it," but also hold in contempt someone who actually does have the workingman's best interest in mind.

But you don't have to take Mr. Wolff's word, he simply asks you to remove your elbows from your ears and review the simple facts of US and world history as... they... occurred. They alone make the case for his argument quite eloquently, and convincingly! 

So if you want to know whatever happened to... The American Dream- have a listen and all is explained.

PS- It's seven years old, but just as relevant now as...

The Year In Non-Review...

Well, I was gonna expound on my personal (photographic) accomplishments this year of: 2 books, 2 zines, and having one of the above accepted for show- but in all honesty, that all pales to not having stepped in a fresh pile of human excrement in San Francisco! Don't know how I managed to pull that off yet again, but yeah, my proudest accomplishment two years running- although I know the clock is ticking...

There are so many problems in this world at the moment (local and global) that one doesn't know where to start; I try to draw attention to them here on an individual basis throughout the year, but, well, yeah...

And as I've often said before, enjoy this 'respite' while it lasts- before climate change hits the entire planet like the runaway global freight train that we are unabatedly making it. Meanwhile, can't end the old year and start the new on such a dour note, so I'll sign off on this one with well wishes towards all and... someone who does know better- much better. And he's got it down pat, to-the-very-syllable. Why we are, where we are- and there's plenty of blame to go round on all sides: politically, economically, socially.

Every American should hear this, better yet, actually listen...

$300 Million Per Day- For 20 Years!!!

Forget the thousands of innocent civilians killed- so many of them... children, right till the very last drone strike of the very final day. It's all about the money, honey!

 

TWIMC

I sent the accompanying comment (and photos) to the San Francisco Chronicle out of long standing frustration: frustration at how long this problem has persisted, frustration at how it has grown and metastasized, frustration as to how all concerned have proved so inept and ineffective at combating it. And this is just from the point of having to observe it on a daily basis, not live it as a recurring, personal reality.

I included the photos as a point of reference and emphasis. Some may call it homeless porn- yes, absolutely, 100%! If you know a better way to make someone look at and (hopefully) acknowledge something that we naturally divert our eyes from and strive to ignore- please, pass it along... These are but a small scenic handful of the multitude of examples of palpable misery beheld daily, as the city applauds itself for the bandaids it spews out annually, while the gaping wound continues to fester and grow.

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

TWIMC,

How long do we continue to ignore this, turn our heads, throw piecemeal, self absolving, non-solutions at a problem that has metastasized all around us, swallowing up whatever remains of our own humanity just as surely as it obliterates the lives we step around each day? How much longer do we ignore it, deny it, curse it and wait for someone to do what needs to be done? Every year it gets worse, while we're told not to believe our own eyes because, because... it's getting better! People literally incapable of taking care of their most basic of needs, defecating themselves, left to fend for themselves- in a city awash in money.

How long do we continue to ignore this?

Stan Banos

Addendum: No sooner had I clicked SEND, when a vague recollection came to mind- that of doing the same exact thing just a few years prior... sending an equally alarmed commentary along with a few illustrative photos. All of it ultimately garnering the same amount of feedback and reaction- silence.

Bargains & Consequences

A while back when I had an excruciating case of GAS, I did what I often do to ward off this perennial nightmare- I bought a camera bag... a pretty decent bag... at a drop dead bargain price of just under $20.00! I was all set to review it- but I then noticed it had gone up to... $45.00! Still a fair price for the overall package- but nothing to jump up and down about as before. Then I saw it for... $15, and realized that it was probably gonna fluctuate wildly in price for the remainder of its existence. As I write this... it's back up to $40.00! A little patience and it'll be back down to peanuts, again...

The thing is, this medium sized package is a whole lotta bag for $20. Well constructed, well padded and pockets and sleeves galore to stick in iPads, water bottles and innumerable small accessories- the camera/lens compartment is actually detachable as a padded and self contained, zippered unit! In fact, my only complaint is that it's perhaps a little too well constructed for protection, at the cost of room for an extra (or larger) lens or body. But for that price- go cry on someone else's shoulder! Did I mention the handy-dandy top zipper that lets you dive into the main contents without undoing the top cover? Nice. And I've currently taken the separate camera compartment out and use it as an excellent day bag... 

PS- As with any Amazon purchase- I'm torn between saving $$$ (if I'm honest), and supporting one of the few venues for readily available, if stupefyingly petty, sources of employment in the US of A. Why does the richest bastard in the world insist on being the biggest fucking miser in the world?* Why can't he treat his workers in a humane fashion, instead of as non-biological androids? Even Henry Ford made his workers feel as if they were, at the very least, needed. Bezos can more than afford: decent bathroom and lunch breaks, workers benefits, health care and... unionization!  

BTW- Why did workers recently lose a Unionization vote? Because even if one ignores the behind the scenes shenanigans with worker intimidation... turnover is so fucking high at Amazon that by the time they're finally set to vote, the people who originally organized and set things in motion, have already long burned out and left!

* Yeah, I know- I answered my own question.

It's Back!

Pier 24, the bastion of premier photography in San Francisco, will return (as of 7/01). They haven't just returned from Covid... they had a nasty, drawn out mano a mano with the city of San Francisco itself on whether they were even going to be permitted to return... period. Seems SF was asking for significantly more rent, said it was part of their initial agreement- yada, yada, yada... Now I don't exactly have a deep history of siding with rich fucks like Pier 24 operator Andy Pilara, but the guy did pour in his own millions to repair, renovate and maintain the place at a cost of nada to the public (appointment only admission is free). For months, I kept looking fruitlessly for updates... but it looks like everyone has finally made nice and "the world's largest space dedicated to photography" is set to reopen!  

Actually, I've usually seen most of the work they exhibit there at other venues on multiple occasions- it's a kinda "Greatest Hits" album in perpetuity. But the venue is so grand, the atmosphere so contemplative- it's the long, long, long... awaited return of a recurring reunion with the best of the best that first awed you into appreciation, then inspired you to create your own...

And after what we've all been through, couldn't come at a better time- appointment set, anticipation rising.

He's Taking Over The World...

And like Lex Luthor: is bald, has no real super powers, but yeah, basically taking over the world-
And no Superhero but us to stop him..."

Addendum: Beware fake Amazon supporters!

Food For Thought

 Because Bullshit like this never stops,
and Americans are always dumb and eager enough to buy in...
"...the poverty that causes so much misery is also causing the growth that makes everybody get out of poverty."

 

If You're Going To...

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

Some of this is pretty simple to fix. You can't have Big Tech come riding into San Francisco on their tax cut, city handouts throwing money at landlords who in turn throw out long term residents for no good reason. But what about all the money that they bring? You mean the money that goes into constructing more luxury apartments, high end restaurants and boutiques... for them? You mean the money they use to disrupt and overturn a somewhat balanced (racially- another story), thriving city into an inequitable abomination of wealth and privilege vs. those without? An untenable situation they create, exacerbate and then abandon in the disgust of their own making. Yeah, putting an end to that could be, should be fairly easy- establishing and maintaining laws that limit outright, unfettered greed!

But some of this is also very, very complex. You can't just throw people in jail because they're mentally ill or drug addicted- neither should you just cut them loose unto our streets! Again, each side needs to sustain some measure of responsibility. And when laws and policies that mean well, don't work out as intended, they need to be challenged and changed- ASAP!

Even now as thousands are leaving the city, construction continues unhampered- and it's not affordable housing! Homelessness in this city has always existed, has always been visible- but it was also considerably more limited. It was not rampant throughout vast swaths of the downtown area- you did not have to walk in the street to avoid sidewalk tent encampments, hordes of dealers and dope fiends or human feces. This is a social pandemic now amidst a biological one- one for which there is no vaccine on the horizon. The patchwork quilt of band aids and half measures thus far employed in San Francisco to battle homelessness have obviously not worked, just as the same lack of nationwide non-policies failed to confront Covid. The homeless need shelter, the unemployed- jobs, the mentally ill (and we're talking s-e-r-i-o-u-s-l-y mentally ill) and drug addicted- programs... and cannot be allowed to roam the streets living in their own filth and squalor, subsisting on petty crime.

That's what it takes to live in a successful, thriving and equitable community. And those in power are neither thinking as clearly as they should, nor acting in any way close to assuming responsibility. Sometimes, I think the best thing that could happen to this town is a nice... good... shake!

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

What's In A Title?

Some of you younger kids out there (yeah, I know, I'm kidding myself) may be wondering what the "Skittles Raised Beef" is all about in the sub-title... So there ya go!

Struggle at El Museo Del Barrio

One of the places I was going to approach about possibly donating my photo book collection was El Museo del Barrio, which was originally formed in East Harlem as a source to serve and foster the then mainly Puerto Rican community's art needs, needs not necessarily met by other more privileged institutions in other parts of the city. Actually, I was in a group show there (with En Foco) in the latter '70s before it relocated to its permanent location.  

Recently, El Museo's original mission statement seems to have changed or evolved, some would say... mutated or gentrified. It is now considerably more vested in the competing art world of more well heeled and international art interests, yet another victim of New York's hyper gentrification. Obviously, neither art nor contemporary art institutions can or should remain stick in the mud icons to days past, but there should be some allegiance to its original raison d'etre of community service, while still managing to forge ahead into exploring new territories- why must it always be presented and executed as either/or? 

Bottom line... look elsewhere.

Don't Ask A Question You Don't Know The Answer To...

Now, I'm not a lawyer like Chris Cuomo is, but even I know the first tenet of how not to look the fool if you are. Pro Democratic CNN and MSNBC both run for the hills whenever 'Extreme Left Socialist Radicals" like Bernie or AOC are mentioned, and AOC is in full display here as to why Repubs hate and despise her so- and spineless, middle of the road Dems fear her! Smart as a goddamn whip- she does not suffer fools lightly...

Somewhere Along The Line

Joshua D. Greer - Somewhere Along The Line from Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg on Vimeo.

Of course, I'm a sucker for essays like this- good ones, that is. And this counts as one of the best. The Great American Road Trip, The Open Road- Frank, Shore, Sternfeld... you get the picture. Somewhere Along The Line by Joshua Dudley Greer does not disappoint- I couldn't find a photo I didn't fawn over for the first two thirds of the book. 

And this book does two things: it brings the geographic and economic expanse of modern day, early 21st century America into view in its captivating compositions, and it doesn't hold back- this is a country that is hurting, and this is a book that doesn't shy from showing it "from sea to shiny sea." Accidents, sinkholes, homeless encampments... a homemade billboard in the midst of a field bears a phone number with the words, "I need a kidney."

This is also the first road essay that actually makes the road a main focus of the photo essay itself; America's highways and byways are the main character here, not just a mere cameo presence as in most of this genre. This is not a tourist itinerary of America by a long shot, it's more hardscrabble America on the go, still proud and industrious, but in search of its bootstraps nonetheless...

It makes us rethink and reenvision the America we've known, and the America we think we know. One of the last photos is of a junk yard in a vast expanse where yellow school buses surround the junked cars held within- we're still circling the wagons...

Photo: Joshua Dudley Greer

Vanishing New York

 

          Photo: © Stan Banos

I left New York at the turn of the century, after 40+ years of being a hard core, native New Yorker. Something had changed, I felt it was part me and part... New York itself, the home I had so loved, respected and championed. Of course, when you live in the midst of something, are surrounded by it, engulfed by it- it's often hard to view things fairly, proportionately or even rationally. All I knew, is that for the first time in my life, New York felt alien to me, something now strangely apart from me, no longer just the natural extension of everything both good and not so good about me and every other of my fellow New Yorkers... I had long ago stopped romanticizing New York, I knew it cared nothing about me, neither as individual nor as the very smallest of its cogs, but even the sense of mutual, sustained respect for having withstood everything it had thrown my way both as child and adult had suddenly begun to wane and tarnish. 

My favorite scene (the only worthwhile scene in my opinion) from Martin Scorsese's abysmal Gangs of New York was the very end, where New York's skyline morphs and transforms throughout the decades, a CGI transformation that embarrassingly almost brought me to tears, particularly since my parents first arrived at its shores in the early fifties having "migrated" from Puerto Rico and settled in a $40 cold water flat on Crosby St. in... SOHO. I sensed that I was getting older, no longer part of the generation that was changing New York on a street or cultural level, but something else was going on, a change that was occurring and metastasizing from what seemed to be outside forces well beyond the farthest reaches of its outer boroughs. And I saw it all around me, the rampant gentrification, the disappearing neighborhood joints and landmarks, the skyrocketing prices of anything and everything imaginable, and the not so tangible but very definite change of... attitude. 

And the latter was the most mystifying to me, I couldn't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it, although the new Domino's Pizza on Third Ave. off St. Marks did offer the most viable of clues- how did such a shit ass, cardboard chain eatery invade and survive New York City, the only place in the US of A where you could actually get good great pizza? Pizza, the NY/NJ poor man's staple that one could eat cheaply, plentifully and deliciously in any of its five boroughs! Couldn't figure it out for the life of me- what semi-sane, self respecting New Yorker would ever patronize such a place? And the answer was... but a block away, at NYU's most recently built dorm. New York was now conforming not to the needs of its working, everyday residents, but to the well monied interests of those moving in and having it conform to them, both on the micro and macro level. Domino's, of course, being the very least of it, as high priced chain boutiques and luxury condos with or without "poor doors" became the norm, just as New York street attitude, whatever one may think of it, was being replaced by the shrill, outright arrogance of its well heeled, elitist new comers. 

And that is what Vanishing New York, How A Great City Lost Its Soul by Jeremiah Moss makes abundantly clear in the most minute and meticulously researched detail. This is not a vanity publication of some curmudgeon's opinions and biased observations, as some would like to allege; Moss backs up his claims with an abundance of facts and historical data. Critics like to point out that New York has always been in flux, constantly changing and morphing- one says flat out, "Someone give Moss a Metrocard," so he can see all the working class diversity in Bay Ridge (my place of birth); this critic, allegedly paid to write and "think," obviously clueless to the fact that he just proved Moss, right- having to go to the outer boroughs to finally reach a diversified working class community! Even The High Line, that most seemingly benign, beneficial and contemplative of new New York's additions, was little more than the stealth juggernaut for destroying that entire neighborhood to pave way for monstrosities such as Vessel, that (if I may quote myself) "monumental monument of monumentous proportions that affords the monied elite living 'round it the grand view of watching the minions below them walk endlessly about within its circle going nowhere."

Despite all the changes and evidence all around me some twenty years ago- I couldn't see the forest for the trees! And that is what this most depressing, yet fascinatingly detailed, chronicle of a book so clearly recounts and outlines- the unmaking of America's most uniquely original city into base camp for the world's filthy rich and boorishly boring... 

The irony on my part, of course, is that we moved to San Francisco, the only other American city that had long intrigued me as an open, viable city; and although we did catch a few good years, what occurred in New York in thirty years, happened here in ten- thanks to the high tech, geek elite whose only sense of community lies solely within the parameters of their virtual online reality- and the dollars it affords them! Like their ultra rich cohorts in New York, they have successfully devolved a city once abundant in character, and have done so by transforming it into yet another anonymous platform on which to place their laptops and $5 coffees...

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

It's hard to distinguish if The Last Black Man in SF is a fairy tale based in reality, or reality based upon a fairy tale. The movie starts out with some delightful visuals before settling down to its basic story line which tangentially includes a whole lot of what is and has been going down in San Francisco. The main characters are far from the portrayals of young Black men you're used to seeing on the big screen, which in and of itself makes interesting viewing. 

The editing could have been tighter, and towards the end, the movie seemed as if it didn't quite know when to end- but in all fairness, that simply could have been because any sense of ventilation was absent in our theater, the air becoming increasingly hot, stagnant and oppressive, to the point I began anticipating a possible medical emergency situation (perhaps my own) any second...