The Springtime of Our Youth

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

 

Saw it from half a block away, a pure and simple snapshot to be sure- so full of life and promise and hope. Of course, it would all be over by the time I got there, and it was- but it wasn't... They were taking one more shot, one more try- and I was there!

Dad seems detached, but it don't matter none- cause Mom's bursting with such joy and pride! Young blood standing proud looks toward her with love, care, appreciation. That's all he needs- tripod at hand, he's already proving he can do it on his own. Youth = Hope; hopes and dreams as big as he is tall, as wide as the building behind them.

 And I wish him all the possible best!

Present/Future Imperfect

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

Once, you could actually make the assertion that Dems and Repubs were essentially the same- that was until Trump unleashed Republicans to realize their full Fascist, wet dream potential. And now there's no turning back; the only people more delusional than Trump supporters are those that think that nonexistent "Moderate Republicans" will somehow seize the day from the rabid MAGA throngs!  

 

Remember when common wisdom espoused that Repubs would never win another national election? Their backers were too old, too White, too few- well, not only have they awakened and recruited some hard core, White Boy Crazies into their fold... the Repubs are taking the House in '22 (as history informs us) and the Dems have No One to run in '24- they still haven't figured out a working antidote for the orange, con man, buffoon! And even if they do, the fix is in, now that the MAGA universe has been fully positioned to "legally" turn election results in key states- no matter what the results. The Dems have allowed it, and at this point, the only semblance of hope is that their most current of routinely toothless 'investigations' will finally nail Trump's career long, criminal ass, instead of dissipating into nothingness... as-have-every-other.

Outside The Box

 Innovative, eccentric and beautifully comical- what else could one ask for!?

"The LEAST Compelling Videos"

Take that to the bank! I don't know who makes the ultimate decision(s) on this subject in our multi-layered strata of government(s), but somewhere down the line the decision has finally been made for a slow and gradual disclosure process. Just as important a question- why have they finally decided to do this... now? You don't have the government 'leak,' release, and confirm, such deeply guarded information without major policy change.

And yeah, officialdom will... eventually treat us to at least some of the up close and detailed videos that will provide incontrovertible evidence not of our ordinary, everyday reality. The story line they will then offer is, in part, being written (and edited) on how we the public currently react to the trail of cookie crumbs they are now ever so gingerly releasing... because many of us would just like to continue:

 "...being happy in our ignorance."

Oct. 31st.

Photo: © Stan Banos

Halloween is supposed to be the scary day, but nowhere as scary as Nov. 3... could be.

Photo: © Stan Banos

The Enablers-In-Chief

Photo: © Stan Banos

Kinda felt sorry for Chris Wallace, Tuesday night- after all, who could have controlled and prevented any of that? What man or woman alive could've reined in, let alone stopped the rampaging school yard bully, the raging, Right Wing bull in the China shop? Who amongst us could ever hope to confront the power and fury wielded by the very person (s)elected to lead... "The Free World?"

Those calling themselves members of "The Free Press," that's who the fuck who! When Trump states, "that's what  people are saying," who the fuck is saying it? When he boasts "that's what I hear," exactly where the fuck did he hear it? When he repeatedly states that he is under audit and therefore can't release his taxes, when he declares his health care plan infinitely better and cheaper- and has yet to present either in Four Fuckin' Years... It's full well time to put your collective foot down and DEMAND some small modicum of fact and sanity. Enough... is... Enough!

And yet, our mighty press has let him slide and slide again, time and time again. Whimsical, Sharpie, weather map redraws- no problem; paying prostitutes as campaign expenses- easy peazy; casting patriotic military and intelligence truth tellers as traitors- business as usual; suppressing and denying overwhelming Intel on Russian security meddling and domestic White terrorist activity- piece o' cake; editing and subverting crucial pandemic and climate change findings that will affect us all for years and decades to come, respectively... Done and Done!

So yes, members of the US Press Corps, you and yours have helped create, enable and embolden this Man Child Bully of the Western World. You've swallowed his lies daily and then served them cold with a shallow shrug of your collective shoulders. You, more than anyone, have helped pave the way for his continual and now casual onslaught on truth, civility and sanity... And have willingly done so- year after increasingly sorry year.

So knock off the feigned looks of outrage and dismay- you have wiped your hands clean of the whole stinking mess that you have allowed to grow, fester and metastisize. This insecure sociopath who has never experienced the word "NO," who has never been held accountable his entire life (legally, financially, personally) will once again and forever run roughshod with your kowtowing forums of appeasement. 

Mr. Wallace should have quashed that charade of a so called debate- and held the nationwide intervention this overgrown, at risk child has so desperately needed his entire life- as any worthwhile parent, teacher, friend or partner would have. That was the time to wrench that machine cold of its non stop lies, division and vitriol.

Members of the press- reclaim and retake your dignity, your responsibility- to us, and hold this incestuous crime family accountable for its decades of fraud, corruption and deceit. Yes, we the voters hold the final say, but you're supposed to help make that challenge all the more transparent, not provide years of continued cover and legitimacy for criminality in the very highest of offices.

 ADDENDUM: Something like... this!

COVID 19 Is Gonna Kill Us All!

Photo: © Stan Banos

Well, Actually... no. But I don't think anyone would've believed the predicament we're in now just a couple of months ago, even though it's been one of the long held tenets of climate change as we compete more and more each day with our remaining wild environment. The misnamed Spanish Flu (it didn't originate there) was ever the more deadly, with fatalities in the millions as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of Covid 19. If you caught it, your chances were not good, it was so horrific that once over, populations worldwide actively chose to forget the whole episode... ASAP. Corona has not been anywhere near as deadly, but are diseases just like it going to be the repetitive new norm?

The very fact that China's "wet market" (the very place from where this disease, and others like it, were most likely dispersed from) has already been reopened displays that leadership's lack of will to do anything about preventing future pandemics from occurring. Mainland China's abuse and slaughter of wild (and domestic) animals (eg- rhinos, elephants, sharks, bears, pangolins and yes, even dogs) has already very much been a world wide concern; now it is something that threatens not only the lives of the animals involved- but of people throughout the entirety of the planet. China's leaders must be made answerable to this callous disregard of human, and animal life!

It's Not About Feeling Good...

Photo: © Stan Banos

Or making yourself look good- it's about doing what works best! Because.... ABOVE! 

Planting a Trillion trees sure sounds like a damn good idea, and for the most part, probably is... Although the money could be better spent- only that would involve real effort, real work, and real commitment! But, hey...

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...

Photography And Climate Change

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

While we've all seen plenty of photo essays documenting climate change, I haven't seen too many* articles on how photography itself will be affected by climate change. In the past few years, I've already had to cancel and/or curtail a couple of vacations due to extreme weather conditions- and I'm sure I'm not the only one (not to mention those who've actually lost their homes due to man made climate change). It used to be the wise choice to (whenever possible) take your vacation just before or after the crowds and heat of summer. Now, instead of the seasonal warming and cooling we'd normally experience, we go from extreme flooding, to extreme heat, to extreme storms... Repeat.

Of course, photographers worldwide will certainly continue to document the effects of said extremes. The ensuing increase in: droughts, fires, flooding, famines, and increased conflicts for diminishing arable and habitable land will provide plenty of... photo ops. But I'm also wondering how this will affect the very nature of photography itself as our lives and psyches adapt and change to such extreme changes in lifestyles. How will everyday people look upon reality based photography; how will they react viewing photos of the past that portrayed their subjects enjoying themselves year round in a world of relative ease, comfort and plenty? Will those who can engage in more escapist rituals, celebrations and activities (eg- Burning Man, cosplay, etc) as humanity tends to do in times of crisis? Will people use Instagram and other social platforms yet to be conceived not so much to display the artistry of their meals, but to convey the times and locations of where they can be had?

I suppose we'll be finding out sooner than any of us thought...

*(ie- zero)

... Be Happy!

Photo: © Stan Banos

1. Shirt and Trousers- CHECK
2. Jacket- CHECK
3. Kicks- CHECK 
4. Chain- CHECK
5. Shades- CHECK
6. Lid- CHECK
7. Earphones- CHECK
8. Backpack- CHECK

To be completely honest, I am a tad disappointed at the cell phone cover- but no points deducted. The man has clearly gone above and beyond- and I've no doubt the socks would not disappoint... Humankind's ability to accommodate, tune in and rise to the occasion is the stuff of legend- and our capability to look beyond, persevere and overcome whatever malevolence, whatever catastrophe sent our way is indeed formidable. Time and time again, it is our greatest, proven asset!

It's also our greatest liability. Humanity is literally fucking itself in the worst way(s) possible, and there aren't enough grown ups on the entire planet to save us. We Baby Boomers have raped, pillaged and ravaged Mother Earth- laughing all along the way. And while we talk of family values, we are leaving our sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters on down the line a dying planet on the verge of environmental collapse that will lead to: massive drought and flooding, severely diminished fresh water supplies and arable land, worldwide famines and opportunistic epidemics- and the inevitable rise in bloody conflicts for those remaining and rapidly dwindling resources. 

The time to have avoided the worst has long passed, now we can only try to salvage whatever little will remain- and we're steadfastly refusing to do even that. The signs are all around us, the warnings straight up in our face: heat records at all time highs, storms at record power levels, both polar ice caps melting, a Sixth Extinction Event, endemic coral bleaching, insects dying en masse, entire swaths of oceans lifeless, old tree forests cleared and cemented... 

Fortunately, it's all a hoax! It's just a... you know, a cycle- yeah, that! So, let's all do ourselves a favor- dress up, be happy and party like it's 1999!

I mean- who's gonna be alive in 2080... anyway?!?!?!?!

 
Gotta admit, grandma's really cute- even if she's brain dead...

Happy New Year!

 

Photo: © S. Banos

The third absolutely shittiest year of my life in three consecutive years! Is there a pattern in there somewhere, anywhere? And what are the chances of breaking out in 2018 when our glorious leader is a narcissistic moron deluxe on a scale that even his Propecia addled cerebrum cannot possibly twitter away???

Well, I ain't throwing in the towel just yet, least not while I can walk and talk, and my extended family continues struggling away on a 30X100mi island with little more than elbow grease and... paper towels. 

So here's to 2018, Leonard Cohen said the one thing he learned from Buddhism is not to whine so much. If we somehow manage to avoid a nuclear exchange between two equally repugnant Man-Babies trying to out manly the other so they can make their dead daddies & imaginary girlfriends swoon- let's make it a good one... for ourselves and one another!

 

Photo: © S. Banos

"... All the losers will be winners, all the givers shall receive ..."

No, Not Quite Hell, But...

The wife and I were having this (usual for us) conversation just the night before. We can't possibly reincarnate into this earthly life yet again once we depart the present. We're exhausted, disgusted (with humanity per se), and let's face it- we ain't gonna get any better than we are now (least I'm not). This is indubitably the very best version of me attainable- granted, not much... but what could be gained risking the possibility of regressing and going backwards? Really don't wanna go there...

Lombard St.   Photo: © S. Banos

Anyway... how does this get us to Lombard St.- "The Crookedest Street in the World?" It's an incredibly beautiful street in San Francisco- very nice homes, highlighted with flowers everywhere in one of the most uniquely architectured living environments anywhere! So what's the problem? 

Well, despite all the above- it's also besieged, and I do mean besieged, by tourists every damn minute of every damn day. Those residents have little, if any respite from the meandering hordes... ever! Morning, noon or night. Even in Italian hill towns, tourists tend to dissipate come night and winter. Not here. They are on their streets and sidewalks, their driveways, posing in front of their front yards. Residents are literally prisoners in their own homes- nice as they are! On the other hand... while I do have sympathy (I really don't know if I could withstand it)- it's not like they're living in Iraq or Syria.*

I've often gone to the top of Lombard St. attempting to get some Marty Parr(ish) type photos of all the ridiculousness, but have always come back empty handed. This time I found myself at the bottom (it's on a steeply inclined hill) where I made note of said monument to what crosses my mind every time I've gone there.

I suppose there are various versions and intensities of hell, and we all have our shared and unique burdens to persevere- Chrissakes, the very fact that I can casually ponder such inequities is proof in and of itself of my "elite" world class status... despite living on an economic precipice. It's just that, it's just that... goddamn, life is hard enough even when you're not living on the streets, hard enough when they're not taking pot shots at ya, hard enough when you don't have a terminal disease or major disability! 

Next time 'round, maybe I'll just learn to stop complaining.Though that won't be particularly easy if I'm plunked down in the midst of a nuclear winter- particularly with all the Repubs crowing about how wrong we got global warming...


*All kidding aside- this is what hell on earth really looks like (ironically, they're the first to mention that there are others who have it even worse).