does it seem to you that so many things seem to be a mess at the same time?? the financial market, the war, the campaign, and oh yes right here on our blog…er, forum…
right here, after almost exactly two years, things could appear to be coming unglued…as i read your comments and e-mails, while usually thought provoking, i see dissension, in-fighting "behind the scenes", angry rants, and signs of weariness abound….
is it time for us to "cash in our chips" and walk away from the table at least not completely broke??
i mean nobody HAS to be here!! and almost all of our regular writers have openly "quit the blog" at one time or another…or at least threatened to…me included…
as Tom Waits once asked, "whatever happened to saturday night?"…
you can bet that i am very curious about what you think….but, i will tell you now what i think….
we started as strangers and became a "family"…or , at least, a family "type"…basically a pretty healthy happy family…i mean, we hung out together all the time….i do not know about you, but my girlfriend told me more than once that i loved all of you more than i did her…or sure seemed to spend a lot of time on this relationship, perhaps more than that relationship….she might have had a point…or a least a legitimate complaint….
lots invested here all around…..your writing, your photographs, my writing, my mentoring….a nice little creative trade out that seemed to work for all….lots of great photographic work came from many of you….after all we actually "produced" right here and continue to do so…blog generated essays…ways of thinking to lead to more work….generous critique from all of us….no "tech talk" , but a lot of "life talk"…
and all based on the assumption that if we are not human beings first, no good "art" could come out of it…my mantra for all of you to "look in the mirror" sure as hell worked for so many of you, and if nothing else comes out of our time here, then just wait and see when all your introspective work gets published in the very near future….but looking in the mirror does not always reflect a pretty picture…some digging deep might unearth the very demons that both drive and destroy….other "reflections" reveal an inner strength and peace….so , do we not all learn from each other???
people "out there" really believed in us…still do….generous donations from anonymous givers have come in this year to be invested in YOU….our Emerging Photographer Fund will continue no matter what and was born from our "family" right here in ethereal blogland…
so what happened to our family that birthed all this incredibly positive stuff?
well, what happened i think is that we actually became a" real family" ….anybody here know a "real family" that has not seen: dissension, infighting "behind the scenes", angry rants, and signs of weariness ???? sounds pretty familiar to me coming from a very tight loving family….the phrase "dysfunctional family" gets thrown around a lot, so i will throw it around one more time….aren't all "real families" pretty dysfunctional one way or another??
if we are a "real family" , then why in hell wouldn't we share all of the characteristics that anybody in their right mind well knows personifies FAMILY ?? i say smiling "too bad", but true…well, what the hell?? at least we've got a roof over our heads!!
so you tell me….should we keep rolling or not?? every single writer here who ever "quit", sooner or later returned..talked into it by their friends they met here….and even a few by their "sometime enemies"…i can right off the bat think of two serious clashes from talented photographers here, BOTH of whom i have promised to mentor book projects…and i will….and for anyone else here who shows promise…
do you not think there have been "clashes" among some of the most talented icons you may know?? yet still they form an extended family….ultimate respect born of just flat out acknowledgment and acceptance that we do not all think alike , photograph alike, nor behave alike…do you not think i have seen this at Magnum for example?? are we not still stronger after all these 61 years of being very very different from each other?? would we be a "happier stronger family" if we all walked , talked and looked alike??? i do not think so… sounds boring to me….sounds stifling to me….
i have always been suspicious of "families" that were just too too "perfect"…as a matter of fact ,i have seen more divorces among the "happy couples" than the ones who figuratively knock each other around a bit..i also think we can be honest with each other , yet show some common decency and respect as well….
so, i think we now sink or swim….choice 100% up to you…not me….i cannot pull off my totally energized ideas now of an online magazine, to be manifested in print as well, without all of you lending a hand…some of you perhaps more "hands on" than others, but we "sink or swim" on the "whole" …i believe we are in a position to do great things…unique…first class ticket….i think most of you smell this too…
our interaction is unparalleled in blogland…you must know that….we have been "here" for each other time and time again…but, should we take the "next step"?? it is not that "all good things come to an end"…it is that "he who hesitates is lost" or some other tried and true phrase that i cannot think of right now that connotes something like "what the hell, why not give it a shot?" see, i know already that one of the brilliant writers here will "set this up" just right and be most eloquent…..
yes, everything does seem to be a bit of a mess….it seems that worldwide, things could swing one way or the other….we all feel it….there is promise, there is potential disaster…so, what do we do with our little microcosm of life?? let it stall, or make it fly with the wind???
"troubled waters" or "sea of change" ????
AKAKY
“…Korean equivalent of Where’s the beef?..”
소고기는 어디 있어?
Sogogi-nün, ödi issö?
(Just so you don’t have to wait four years…)
Cheers,
Hello all,
sorry for my bad information…
Here are some new images
http://gallery.me.com/audreybardou#100591&bgcolor=dkgrey&view=mosaic&sel=0
It is not maybe the good moment with the election…
Congratulations James, Lance!!!
Best regards, audrey
AUDREY..
;-)))
for your photos..?
It is always the “right” time…!!!
Can’t wait to get out of this damn truck
and check’em out..
peace & hugs..
ISRAEL FOR OBAMA.
Very well done video. Take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/v/K2VFRt5W4FM&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs
That was excellent Cathy. Thanks for sharing.
Lee
the world would be a better place full of bob b’s.
——————
Bob B, nobel prize?!?!?
Roll over Mandela, tell Elie Wiesel the news! :-)))))
Rafal, to pounce on a human being and treat him as a traitor to the human race is weirdly reminding me of the ideological apparatchiks and hatchet men of the totalitarian regimes you despise so much for having been born in their midst.
Do not hate, my friend, what value such emotion and bitterness could give to your work as a photographer, especially as love is demonstrated all over your family essays? Let go of feelings that keep threatening the best you have to give with surging tides of negativity.
November 4th, 2008
http://www.pbase.com/image/105506914
Akaky
I think that just made me Bob’s brother.
someone
I wanted to make sure I answered your question—I don’t really know what to think about Palin, but if her experience is in question holding a VP spot, then Obama’s should be in question leading a ticket. He’s had about 150 days in the senate prior to campaigning.
She is on point with one thing I agree with—that our country needs to live within it’s means, and our government needs to lead by example.
AKAKY,
You always make me laugh so much that I have chosen to also laugh at the comment that in countries like France the population is so corrupt and debased in their personal morals that they are known, well-known, in fact, for putting mayonnaise on their French fries. :):) Let me tell you that for a Frenchman who has lived in Belgium for about 13 years this is NOT true… Only Belgium people put mayonnaise on their fries :):):):):)….I started doing that only after living in Belgium for about 5 years and after being contaminated by their influence…. As an aside, these fries are indeed French fries and NOT “FREEDOM FRIES” as some in US congress wanted to rename these a while back :):):) As far as not having any personal morals….less prepared to fight this :):): but we French are really not that bad!!!!!
Cheers,
Eric
government needs to lead by example
————————
She could have started by not putting her daughters on the state’s travel expenses, David. It’s not like she can’t afford them a plane ticket and hotel…
National debt is some 6 or 7 trillion dollars, and going. living within our means would be to simply stop doing anything but balancing that debt (That’ what my parents would do). Hollow words, David, I accept that you vote differently, welcome it even, but not on some shallow language politicians have used ever since they were given a pulpit to speak from.
I am supposed to pack up, but no, you keep pulling me back in…… :-)))))
laughing…
FREEDOM FRIES???
I’ve just seen a bumper sticker on
a car on the freeway 15… saying:
“IF YOU SPEAK ENGLISH, THANK A MARINE”
.. Except from “freedom fries”
we also have “freedom soldiers”…!
LOL ..
Ok now.. Running to the store .. I’m out of mayo…
driving
panos
;-)
Audrey,
I love your new photos…Looking forward to seeing the whole series…I especially like the cats at the table & the one of your dad & the white house & fence.
Hillary
Thanks to Hillary, Lee, and Mike for your comments. It helps so much to have your perspectives, and it is an encouragement to keep trying. I did convert to BW after your comments and like them better. I still hope to achieve stronger images, and your ideas are appreciated. And a big hug for Panos and Lee as well. Your mother has missed so much–very sad. I hope somehow she will put differences of opinion aside and see her daughter again. Life is short.
Hi~
I was hoping to have pixx from Halloween edited already, but from 3 events I have over 15 gigs to weed through…Almost there….
So, I’ll post some from Mexico just BEFORE Day of the Dead 2 years ago…
http://hillaryatiyeh.visualserver.com/portfolio.cfm?nK=6325&nS=0&nL=1
More later…going to an Election Party…Good time to be with friends!
PEACE!!!
Hillary
David McG,
how can you even compare Palin with Obama?
Obama has been thoroughly vetted. Palin? How many interviews has she done? In the few that I saw, she came off horribly. Its frightening how she doesnt have a firm grasp on basics. She doesnt read, she isnt intellectulaly curious, she doesnt know basic things like the role of the Vice President, the job she wants to hold. Obama graduated from the best universities in the country. Was the editor of the Harvar Law review. He is obviously intelligent, has done countless interviews, nearly two dozen debates, has been in the spotlight fpr the last 2 years. NOBODY has the experience to be president before they actually become president. The question is, who has the intellectual ability to hold such an important office. Can you honestly tell me Palin can?
Well you may have me there Herve -
And I’m not one to defend politicians—they are after all, politicians—I’d much rather criticize. But I wouldn’t exactly say hollow words either. I would call it typical political speak if the travel expenses occurred while the state was experiencing a budget crisis, but I think I’d reduce it to poor judgment if there was no deficit and the state’s economy was strong, as a result of the governor’s policies. Especially since “Alsaka law does not specifically address expenses for a governor’s children.”
Easy there Rafal -
I don’t recall comparing Palin to Obama with head to head specifics, but rather said if you’re going to question the experience of the second spot on one ticket, you really have to question the experience of the first spot on the other ticket.
So far Obama’s intellectual abilities haven’t convinced me that this is a good time for extensive spending and expansion of government—unless of course he’s gunning for the “hollow words” award.
But I’m sure he could beat her a Scrabble.
Please look at this picture
http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=49137
and just think to yourself… “Hope is coming”
I dare you.
Taken in Teviot Students Union, Edinburgh.
Rosemary,
I like photos 7 (magnifying glass vertical) and 13 (green light in eyes). Like the idea of centre of image out focus rest not and I bet you could do more with the idea. One shot I kind of like is the machine in focus, lady out but I’d reverse it with machine way out of focus and lady in focus. Photo 14 has a nice feel to it – something like that to end maybe. Number 7 is my favourite.
Doug
what did just happened to
PENSYLVANIA????
I think that the “game” is already over!!!
Hmmm
Hey David, that’s my point.
If we consider it’s not OK for us (or our kids) to use someone’s money because after all they are doing well, while we are not providing any service for them, so that we know we are not living up to the way we have been raised (my father was in charge of budgets, he’d have hung himself rather than use one penny not his), how come we rationalize it being done with politicians?
So, what I say is not that she should not, but that these values of showing by example, and living within means, are simply not ever that of politics. It is a different world than the one where we know what is right and what is wrong. And poor judgement can be paid with shame, loss of job, or trust.
yet, she does not lack people to defend her and explain why it’s not wrong, or why it’s “only” poor judgement. Gee, If I do wrong, I have no spin doctor to tell the judge it was taken “out of context”…
Se, that’s what’s broke. They are unable to apply the values that make of us decent (or not) men and women thru-out our lives to their own standards which they pretty make up as they go.
Few can resist. Great men. You know that DE Gaulle paid for evry pice of paper and pen he used in the ELYSEES, if it was for his own use, not as a president? And Mitterand travelled with an entourage of dozen sycophants and media stars, all “aux frais de la princesse” (taxpayer money).
Since politics have been discussed … and I find I have little to say here anymore … I might as well make an ass of myself one more time. (get it? ;-)
Politics. I have come to loathe politics, from local to national, but that does not mean I am lost to cynicism. I have been both a professional observer and participant in politics. I have covered or sat through literally hundreds and hundreds of meetings from the local planning commission to the congressional hearing, been part of political fundraisers of both the local pig roast and the D.C. insider ilk, participated in kitchen cabinets, and given issue briefings to candidates and the seated alike.
The American political system is, in the final analysis, disheartening. It is, in fact, often quite scary how public policy is made, the amount of information on which decisions are made, and the lack of depth to which issues are plumbed. Still, through all the politics, through all the corporate and narrow constituency-driven authorship of legislation, the money and the excess, the arrogant hegemony of foreign policy, the subjugation of values to the conformity of the party system, and the pandering to the interests of the few over the interests of the many, to name a few, despite all of these flaws in American governance, things have progressed. Slowly. Or they did.
There are few times in American history when the political system has been so bereft of judgment and so full of fear. I have no doubt that this Administration will go down in history as one of the worst, if not THE worst presidency. It filtered through every segment of society with the commandment of “fear thy neighbor,” fear and despise those different, conform or be cast out, American and un-American, to be patriotic is to be silent or just part of the choir, be vigilant, be vigilant … the paradox of a working democratic republic based not upon the power of many individual voices but the suppression of free thought and expression.
Just as “American Beauty” was the mirror held up to the absurdity of American conformity, the needle popping the balloon of what the American dream has become, so too is the Obama campaign the clear call of hope to wake us from our apathetic slumber fraught with nightmares and whispers of cynicism.
It is well past time to throw some plates against the wall. No more denial.
It is interesting that the sum of the Bush years in my mind is not some litany of bad policy but rather a single photo essay, that of Christopher Morris’ My America. Fanatical nationalism and blindness revealed so profoundly, simply and clearly … simply brilliant and I believe time will prove this.
This election has come down to fear versus hope … a rejection of our blindness and the politics of fear, those ugly whispers of doubt and hate in the darkness, to instead embrace all those things we can accomplish … to seek real solutions not because they are easy but because they are hard, without fear, and with hope.
I choose hope and by god, it is time!
Panos,
Your last series ‘Making the Costume’ seems like so long ago but since I’m in a reviewing mood these last two days I’ll say this about that:
8 The Fun (my fave), 10 Faithful, 11 Schizo, 12 Mistake, 17 the Lonely, look good to me. The portraits have a sad, lonely feel it seems. ‘The Lonely’ seems to be just that. The colours work, too, I think.
To be honest I look at all your work and I breeze through the individual photos – I think its the captions that gives me quick closure. Kind of like a comic book. Don’t know if that is good or bad. Just me likely.
Anyway I’m looking forward to seeing the final form of Venice – as a book.
Doug
ALL
I’ve just posted my USA Election Day 2008 photo gallery. The URL is
http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/election_day2008
Oh happy day!!!!!!!
Patricia
It’s over!!!!
BIG HOLLYWOOD PARTIES
TONIGHT..
My friend George T.K..
is getting married tonight
his long time lover( over 20 years)..
they are both at their late sixties..
I’m so happy for them..
LOVE PREVAILS..
Doug,
;-)
I have couple of things to say
about the “Venice thing”…
but I need to wait one more month..
I’m super excited..
I’m so happy you see a “comic” feeling..
COMIC, characters.. , captions..
Damn, DOUG… You just “revealed” me..
Please email me here
Innerspacecowpanos@mac.com
to send you some more details about..
my idea about that “comic feeling”…
Peace… More to explain soon
whatever happened to OHIO???
Hmmm..
Now that’s a flipper;-)
GAAAAH!!!!
They kicked us all out of the Students Union with a minute to go on the next series of projections. US students hurry in all directions to flats to see what happened!
End of photography for my night.
Will post what I got here:
http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/blog/?p=306
Good luck whoever is still shooting, enjoy the parties.
I think I see your point, Herve. But I don’t think that such a message has to be completely lost though, just because it’s applied to political policy. Of course executive budgets are a different monster than family budgets, but for example, in retrospect Clinton plus his Congress could have represented a message of “living within your means” and “leading by example”, though I’m sure there were questionable uses of funds along the way.
Maybe it’s just not worth making it a political mantra, since it’s not guaranteed to translate into public behavior anyway. But in Palin’s case, like it or not, it will probably ring true to a lot of people in a few years.
“and thats it”
I love BBC TV commentary
thank god – I can finally get back to not having an opinion
CNN said:
O!: 51% yes President
McC:48% not President
IT’S OVER
peace
David,
I don’t have a lot of time for reading many blogs, but this one I enjoy when I can- I usually find it very inspirational.
Thank you for the time you give to us ’struggling photographers’- very much appreciated!
Amiran
Hey AMIRAN
;-)
Nice to have U here!
peace …
10:44 pm in LA…
Watts is going nuts!
Holla…
Party on!
http://www.pbase.com/uc/image/105525849/original
Congratulations America!
SEA OF CHANGE!!!
as a citizen of the world, i feel very proud this morning…yes we can!
TO ALL-
Rama Yade, France’s black junior minister for human rights, told French radio: “On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes.”
So well said! I am so proud of the US and like many across the world would like to be American this morning!
Eric
Congrats Americans on the new reasonable president ;-)
@ERICA: have you tried developing yourself? You can buy a 5 roll tank on ebay for peanuts, and adding some chemicals to that is pretty cheap. You’ll save plenty of money very fast. I mean… $10 /roll? You’ll maybe spend $40 on the tank, maybe $5 for a missing spiral or two, and then $10 on chemicals for lots of rolls, and I’m aiming my budget pretty high. Plus that allows you to fiddle with the process…
what a great day over here..
Now I can freely wear my Bandana
to work, blast some 2Pac & B.I.G
down the freeway..
He’ll yeahhhhh,
The “White House”…
not that “white” anymore????
Gay couples getting married…
Now that is some sweet “corruption”..
In California…
Today is the right day to go get
your “Medical Marijuana” prescription/ annual licence for $100
down in Venice Beach and let’s meet
down at the Bistro…
AMERICA voted for FREEDOM..
Can’t describe the mood over here..
All, 7:00am in LA..
in Cali…
First day with no Bush around…
Crazy, unbeliavable, insane..
America is out of jail today…
Peace
Dr Martin Luther King…
Is blessing Our country today..
Tears in my eyes…
… Thank God our Troops also
Voted for O…
Poor kids..
I support our Troops.. Young kids
they wanna live.. Not come back
disabled.. messed up.. Fighting for
somebody else’s money!!!!
Killing themselves for Bush oil!!!
Enough!
Bring the kids back home…
Spare their lives…
… I’m just listening at the AM,
the Republican Channel..
“they” think that the country just sold its soul
to the devil.. They think we are turning communists..
They think we are going “left”…
They insist we lost our values…
Ohhhh pleaseeee!
@Panos: well, it couldn’t go “right” much more
While we open the elderflower champagne, russia is on the move again (hey, like the olympics!):
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5090077.ece
JONI
completely sensible thought, but I was a professional printer for some time and I just don’t want the chemicals in my life…
Anyone work in the lab at ICP and want to make some money? But you need to be able to push and process 3200 and all that…
damn right Joni..
Just like the OLYMPICS…
The russian guy just announced
Missiles deployment in Kalinigrant
right next to Poland!!!
Right on Obama’s face..
How lame !!!
Just like the Georgia invasion & attack
on the olympics opening ceremony!!??
How “respectful” for the rest of the world…!
hey, DAH…
;-)
maybe it’s time for new post…
How about…
“… the day that the White House turned Black…”
:-)))))))
@erica: cool! I wish I was there to get your money ;-)
AUDREY – #5 AND 9 I love them!
also Arizona and this time Florida is
coming along..
NO ON PROP8…
52% success…
Victory!
Nightmare? Who said nightmare… More like a dream come true:
http://www.pbase.com/uc/image/105539621/original