Interestingly, have been quite the "prolific" for this early in the year- well, relatively speaking. No Pulitzer Prize winning achievements mind ya, but getting anything 'round this time is pretty unusual, least for me... Random shots here and there have been popping up on a freakishly consistent basis (as opposed to the usual Biblical drought). Most, but not all, falling into my "Squared" collection.
When the Women's March rolled around, I was ready for... the more "serious stuff!" Had my used, recently purchased X-T1 in hand along with my original (with 20 and 28mm equivalents), surrounded by thousands- got one photo for my 4 1/2 hours afoot. Sheesh! Oh, well- still got a ton of B&W scans and restorations to attend to. Meanwhile:
Until two weeks ago I knew nothing about cleaning a digital camera sensor- the very thought sent chills down my spine; I wanted nothing to do with sticking my uncertain, unknowing hands down into the very heart of the most vital and fragile component of digital technology. Screw that up, and there goes the ballgame! But deep down inside, I knew without doubt, rhyme or reason that at the most insidious and inconvenient time imaginable- my date with destiny would most assuredly arrive, and I best be prepared...
Well, having recently picked up a used X-T1 body for $425 in seemingly V Good Cond on eBay- I was, at the very least, somewhat leery as to the cleanliness of the sensor. So I studied a good half dozen sensor cleaning videos on You Tube, purchased the necessary tools and manned up for what would probably be my first "wet cleaning." Sure enough, the camera sensor did have a few spots, so I steeled my nerves, steadied my hand and dove right in. After the initial air blowing, I applied one even stroke followed by another in reverse, and the spots were gone- but now in their place were a myriad of streaks across the entire length of the sensor; and not one of the videos viewed ever mentioned anything about any dreaded... streaks!
So I did it again, and again, and again- and got more, and more, and more streaks. All the videos said not to over saturate the cleaning swabs- so each time, I put on less and less cleaning solution (Aero-Eclipse). So yeah, as can well be imagined, I'm pretty much in scream for my life crisis mode- I Google "streaks sensor cleaning." And finally, some useful information... Seems the (new) Aero-Eclipse solution is prone to streaking, and the (new) Sensor Swab Ultra (the brands used) is ultra absorbent. So instead of delicately applying 2-3 drops on either side of the swab, one really has to saturate the dang thing with 4-5 on both. The manufacture alludes to this on their video, which I hadn't found previously. Tried it anew, and... streaks begone- I finally achieved one nice, very clean sensor!
I notified the manufacturer of said products concerning my trials and tribulations, and David M. Stone replied, explaining that the new, non flammable (ie- airport worthy, thus the prefix) Aero-Eclipse cleaning solution was more problematic (and now: Discontinued) and prone to streaking- he was also nice enough to send me two bottles of the regular, less problematic Eclipse solution (more alcohol based, quicker drying). Don't think I'll ever use all the solution in my remaining lifetime, but I may need an extra swab or two...
Was not even quite sure I wanted to see this movie, it's received zero publicity, and ya know... a Western. The word "somber" kept reverberating in my mind throughout the start, it cast a pall upon every scene and situation- no matter how scenic or beautiful. I guess another word would be "morbid," but that casts too negative a tone on a movie that does make one think- despite the omnipresent threat of death. In fact, violence and death are not just the end results of the brutal existence portrayed- they are ultimately the factors of change and insight.
Both sides, White and Indian hate each other intensely, for reasons both good and bad- which is certainly not to say that both sides are equally culpable. It's the way things are, and its how they lead and live their lives. But when we join the main protagonists in this movie, as fervent as they are in their beliefs, they are also painfully cognizant of the inherent insanity it imposes on them all. But sanity and redemption is not something they believe within their grasp.
Of course, things are bound to change on a monumental scale (for those that survive) when all these more than world weary characters are thrown together in the Captain's last assignment before retirement. Some of these insights occur perhaps a tad too quickly or unconvincingly, but the story is one whose earnestness allows it, and the recurrent brutality of all sides concerned allows anything even remotely sentimental a certain welcome.
Although never releasing us from its somber grip, Hostiles does manage to end full circle. Christian Bale as the army Captain and Wes Studi as Chief Yellow Hawk dutifully pursue and play out their destinies, respectively- brutal as they are, they do leave some room for hope...
The owner of The Washington Post, Katharine Graham, was rich, influential and... female. She hobnobbed with fellow well connected, well to do movers and shakers, and yet... despite the influence, position and inherent power, she was a woman adrift- condescended to however slightly by her very peers and underlings simply because of her sex. She was the ultimate figurehead, who ruled not by individual decree, but through the consent of her male colleagues.
It was a dynamic I immediately recognized- subtle, discreet, where one is perhaps heard, but never truly acknowledged. And it happens whether you're female, or of color. A dynamic that has always given me the impetus to sound off, even when (particularly when) denied the power. And to have this movie come out at the exact time when women are doubling down on their right to be heard and believed is particularly fortuitous!
In The Post, Spielberg finally just lets the story play through- no cgi, no fancy cinematic techniques, no all conquering heroes. History has a story to tell- one several we have well yet to learn...
Anything of worth cannot be expected, anything of worth can only be demeaned. Interesting US history lesson in The Nation, on why every American should, in fact...thank Haiti:
1) For the sake of argument, I'm gonna assume what you see before you was created out of sheer, blatant ignorance- not out of willful, modern day, in your face racism. I'm also gonna assume that before this actually went to print, it passed through a variety of adult hands, many of them well educated, some even possibly intelligent. And at no time was an eyebrow raised, a question forwarded.
2) American history is long and rife with racially disparaging insults "comparing" Black children to monkeys, Black men to apes- and this "tradition" continues throughout the White world to this very day, so the fact that this is a foreign based ad, does not conveniently excuse it away.
3) But Mum says it's... OK! Granted, moms is definitely not of the Rosa Parks mold, but the only person who can claim both ignorance and innocence- is the person pictured. And she certainly wouldn't be the first stage mom of any color that knows the price of her meal ticket...
4) Ignorance and racismwalk hand in hand, it is how the US electorate managed to propel not only the most wantonly obvious of cons, but a thoroughly avowed and proud racist, into the highest office in the land...
Well, for someone who said that photo books weren't lighting his fire of late, this is the second one I heartily recommend in a matter of a coupla weeks. I first caught sight of it on A Photo Editor which publishes This Week In Photography Books every Friday, and is a consistent source of what's worthwhile and out there (another being the Photo-Eye Bookstore).
I was anxious to get New Deal Utopias upon first viewing online- and like I said, I don't get much excited by most books of late... In a word, the photos had presence, the images not only grabbed my attention, they sustained it- and like a good song, I wanted to experience them better and keep going back to them. The subject matter is an interesting one on paper, but not one you'd think exactly conducive to memorable vistas, or photographs for that matter. In a word, the locale is pretty... mundane; fortunately, most of the photographs are anything but... Jason Reblando manages to make complex yet subtle compositions of the surrounding area with a poetic, discerning eye- don't believe mine's as nuanced to so effectively discern such beauty from such banality.
One small caveat- some of the photos (particularly in the beginning of the book) are printed considerably flat and on the light side- I don't know if that's the photographer's preference or just a printing shortcoming, either way, it was not sufficient to deter me form appreciating the book as a whole... This work will not be denied.
Much has been said of Millenials, much of it not quite positive- I know, cause I've said my fair share. But... Really, there is just no arguing it! No justification, no rationalization, no lame ass excuse imaginable. Yes, we were supposed to be the instruments of change- the generation who became educated, enlightened and inspired enough to transform our nation's (and in turn, our world's) ills into something more equitable and visionary... did we ever drop that ball!
Racism, poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, political corruption, war mongering and profiteering- and I can rant and rave all I want about how much more ignorant we all are in this century (at least in this country), but... it all happened under our watch! Is what and where we are today the vision of the Woodstock generation? More like a doubling down on everything we ridiculed, disparaged and pledged to dismantle- once and for all.
We have waged endless war (even when not attacked), rolled back many of the rights that even our predecessors fought for, and continue to maniacally usurp every last drop of oil, as we methodically disembowel a once life giving planet. We, The Baby Boomers, stand guilty as charged. We did not transform, we depleted and ransacked tenfold, at first excusing and then ultimately denying the consequences of our actions. We deserve in full, the anger, disgust and accusations of those that have inherited the remains of our wanton greed, arrogance and destruction. We were the ones who knew better, who swore to do better...
Errrr, I don't have one (yet), so... I can't exactly vouch for where they're actually made...
This is how you Make AMERICA Great Again- Good Ole Yankee Ingenuity! This is the future- right now! It sure don't get better than this- seriously, this is the world class leading technology I'm talking about!!!
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!
“It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen; I have no idea what I saw.” -US Navy Fighter Pilot
This year on 60 Minutes, billionaire entrepreneur and head of Bigelow Aerospace, Robert Bigelow said that he was "absolutely convinced" that aliens and UFO's have visited the earth. Last week, something else of note occurred that for the most part... flew in under the radar- the DoD admitted to a program specifically documenting unidentified flying objects, which in and of itself is no big deal, but... they even allowed a video, or two (of no doubt hundreds, if not thousands) to be publicly aired.
You're representing our country, for fuck's sake. They need to see a wholesome American family. -Skating judge
But I don't have a wholesome American family. -Tonya Harding
I, Tonya is one of the best movies of this, or any other year! I suppose for brevity's sake, one could call it a "black comedy," but it succeeds on so many levels (eg- docudrama, social satire and commentary, etc)- which is exactly what a really good black comedy can do, should do... and this most certainly does! Several reviews have criticized it for not knowing what it wants to be or trying to do too much- and not anything, very well. That would pretty much be my wrap of The Shape of Water, a sentimental ball of confusion that indecisively meanders between hardcore Disney and attempted adult situation fantasy. Any retelling of a tale so inherently insane with characters so fundamentally flawed can easily divert into parody or lecture, but Craig Gillespie hits the right tone for this multidimensional dive into American class structure, aspirations and insanity. And Margot Robbie, who looks a helluva lot more like Nancy Kerrigan than Tonya Harding, pulls off an amazing performance as the self professed red neck who would not be denied; but then, that's the other thing about this flick- each and every actor does such a bang up job, you actually anticipate and look forward to their reactions and appearances! Tonya's mother literally steals the first third of the movie with a tour de force portrayal between her nips and drags of booze and cigs. The intrigue, betrayals, pathos and bathos galore is all quite Shakespearean to say the least. And Gillespie not only manages to make a most compelling commentary on the American class system, he also manages what I thought previously impossible- portray Tonya Harding as a genuinely sympathetic character! This is someone who was abused by her mother, brother, husband, and skating judges alike- and as she rightly points out, by a society (ie- us) that was more than eager to demonize her. And (ironically enough) you get to both marvel and laugh throughout the entire spectacle...
The one SantaCon photo that I really wanted this year came out unfocused (Bad Fuji!). This one is... OK, even if it doesn't truly do justice to the Santa on the left. When I first encountered heshe it, I must admit to doing a double take not quite realizing what had just quickly waltzed by- a rather clever mask that upon close inspection reveals two rather well obscured eyes peering out at you behind the mass of hair. But I digress- what I really enjoyed most was when that particular Santa's helper started handing out sweets to small children. Their looks ranged from outright confusion to abject terror- the perfect Holiday Cheer!!!
Being very much the Errol Morris fanboy, I was very much looking forward to Wormwood- his latest and longest (240 min. divided into 6 parts on Netflix) docu...drama... mentary... reenacment!? And it's on a subject near and dear to my heart- the mysterious 1953 death (ie- falling out a NYC hotel window) of a prominent US scientist who was unknowingly fed LSD as a part of the CIA mind control program called MK ULTRA.
So, yeah, I was real psyched to view Wormwood, particularly with a bit o' time on my hands now during the holidays. What I wasn't particularly prepared for was the endlessly repetitive and prolonged snooze fest that was to ensue before my (soon to not be) waking eyes. Unfortunately, it's as if the usually innovative Mr. Morris (for inexplicable reasons unknown) studied and adapted every lame, 2nd rate pseudo-documentary technique from every sleazy TV "true crime investigation," complete with the ad infinitum slow-mo sequences that serve as filler for not having anything else of consequence to portray. Take out the endlessly repeated reenactments, and we have a regular 90 minute production which would have played out just fine as your usual quality Morris production!
We do get a most telling revelation (ie- confirmation) towards the end of the movie- two actually, both of which one could have readily surmised... One, Frank Olson's fall from a hotel window was obviously not a suicide, the other- his extrajudicial execution (straight outta the CIA manual) was not about a crazed, drug addled scientist who had to be shut up... it was about silencing someone who had become vocal in his opposition to the US germ warfare program during The Korean War.
Throughout the movie Mr. Morris interviews Frank Olson's son, and his long history of trying to get to the bottom of his father's death- a life long quest that consumed every aspect of his life, including his career. Unfortunately, in the end we too feel as if we've spent way too much energy pursuing something we should have spent way less time on...
Back
in the late sixties/early seventies, members of the ruling elite were
concerned (ie- frightened to death) that the radicals protesting and
rioting in the streets would take over our wondrous country. And that is
exactly what happened, except it wasn't from the... Left, as everyone feared, and it wasn't quite as soon as everyone imagined...
We now find ourselves at the beginning of a century not entirely different from the last- except that this time, the Fascism looms much closer to home. I had thought hoped that even hard core, red neck America had finally, well, if not matured, than at least grown tired of its penchant for electing some down home good ol' boy that both mirrored and implemented the worst practices of ignorance imaginable- particularly since the last left in flames after initiating a totally unnecessary and unending war, and then sending our country down a whirlwind, financial wormhole that impacted them worst of all. We were finally done with... d-u-m-b. Right? Right?
Well, after an eight year respite of relative... sanity- Right Wing America came rip-roaring back to reclaim it's perceived right of White National dominance and sovereignty! And come back with a vengeance they did- this time there would be no niceties, no reason to disguise or sanitize bias, racism or bigotry. The Radicals were in charge, and were openly ecstatic to reign in total defiance of: logic, fact or science. Ethics and rule of law were now improvisational, at best. The road had been paved step by step: from Hollywood hold over, to Evangelical make over, to outright Fascist take over...
Admittedly, I'm not much of a color photographer, that is, save for one or two exceptions (where color is crucial), I'm shooting what I've always shot- just with color thrown in (as do most people). Sure, there are some additional (or at least different) factors to be considered now (like making sure the colors don't collide or distract), but
after 40 somewhat years of shooting exclusively in B&W, this whole
dang color thang has been going down a whole lot smoother than imagined! And that's on two counts- I really haven't had to reinvent the wheel in how or what I shoot, and post is now reduced from days to an average of an hour at most. And the latter is why I'll continue to shoot color in the time remaining...
PS- I suppose the B&W photo above is the more aesthetic, but it's the color one below that makes me laugh...
Was gonna mount the moral high horse again for yet another round of where we are today; but honestly, it hasn't changed- those who know, take action, and those that don't... ain't listening.
Republicans have always propagated their racism in codified policy; Trump has further inflamed White fear and rationalization, and... legitimized racist discourse to the point of actual physical backlash (one had only to watch his rallies). He has sold this package of success and development as a twofer- financial progress and forward mobility comes hand in hand with equal measures of White Supremacy (ie- diversity can only lead to every current and future national malady imaginable). And many a White American will simply look the other way if their lot improves at the cost of others- "it's just the way things are..."
Trump will never be another Hitler (ie- he will never kill six million of any one people), but each rose to power by: channeling ignorance, utilizing propaganda, and legitimizing the racist mindset (and the threat of violence). The parallels of any fascist regime are readily recognizable, and their ultimate consequences... equally predictable.
Yeah, I know, I know... I just wrote how I was cool with not getting any more photobooks, at least for the foreseeable future. Well, life is like that, and... the holidays are coming up. This book, at this price,* can not (I repeat- cannot) be passed by- this is an absolute bargain for absolute gold! The only problem with this particular book is that it has too many pictures, and let me tell ya- lots and lots of 'em are really, really good!!!
It's a freakin' Bible it is- chock full of many memorable (and well reproduced) images. Do Not attempt to take them all in on one sitting; this homage to photo great Anders Petersen takes days, weeks- and will have you coming back for years... These are not just the kind of photos that you sit down and enjoy- they're also the kind you contemplate and... learn from!
