I couldn't resist taking this shot when I saw it. I was listening to the Rachel Maddow pod cast in my car while I was benching some trains at the howell train yard when I past this sign. I began to chuckle to myself and turned around to get this shot.
The reason this works is because of the pseudo "Christian" secret society called the "Family". It consists of a group of very conservative and very rich and very powerful men. They have an ultra conservative view point on the world and feel they have been anointed by God (like King David) to be leaders and to further their "christian" conservative ideals.
They also believe in the bond of secrecy (to me this is the beginning of something anti-christ, secrecy, money, and power don't mix) within organization, also the "Family"'s agenda comes before any other. A very scary situation.
Unfortunately for them and fortunately for everyone else they have had a lot of publicity lately. Both Senator Ensign (R-Nevada) and Governor Sanford (R-South Carolina) have been publicly humiliated by extra marital affairs. The problem for the Family is that both men have lived in the house at C Street and both admitted to getting advised while the affairs were happening. In fact in Ensign's case $94,000 was given to his mistress' husband (hush money) and her son was given a post in the Republican parties national committee. Sanford also admitted to getting counseling early on in his affair (it didn't end for a while) and getting advice on how to handle this publicly.
This has brought a much needed look into this kinda scary secret organization. I personally don't understand the need for secrecy if its a true Christian organization with nothing to hide, but thats just me.
Well thats what inspired this shot, hope you enjoy!!
ps
Just do a search for "the family" and Rachel Maddow and MSNBC and you will find more info!!!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Hello Everyone
I am using this blog as a way to post video and other moving files for my other blog on wordpress. I really like the blogger interface, but right now the few people that read me find me on wordpress..I will slowly merge these two accounts, but until then if you would like to read more of my articles and see more of my photos of the week please follow this link to my other pages. Thanks and may you have a great rest of the day or night which ever is appropriate.
Why I love Cameras and Still Images
Sometimes beauty is in the simple things around us that we take for granted everyday...thats what I love about cameras and still images...they freeze time so we might really enjoy a moment in depth and isolate aspects of the world around us so we might appreciate them!!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
How Low Can A Career Get?
If you want to see how low a career can get look no further than Dennis Miller. This man has gone from bad to worse quickly. This man at one time was a mildly funny comedian with a small up side on SNL doing small bit parts and doing the news, to being O’Reilly’s butt boy. Sad days indeed for Miller. His right wing fanaticism wasn’t obvious back then and makes one wonder if he is not pandering to the only segment of the population that likes talentless people, especially talentless comedians; the right wing fringe or as they like to be called “the foxnation”. FOX “news” channel (news is in quotes because I use that word lightly when used with FOX) has become the home of the talentless and home of the dying career. Many of these has beens or never have beens seem to sell their souls to get this audience that wants its world with no diversity and lily “white” (I call it lily “shite” ;-) ).
This small segment of the population follow the people that will entertain them without challenging what they believe or challenging them to think. If you can get in with Rush (the drugster as I call him) or to a lesser degree O’Reilly (the o’liar as I call him); you have a built in audience that will buy what ever type of shit you are shoveling at they time. Again, as long as it doesn’t challenge them or their lifestyle of greed and dehumanizes anyone that disagrees with them.
This clip is an example of how low Miller has gone. Not only is the joke not funny and needs to be explained (a good joke doesn’t have to be explained), its racists and demeaning (not only to the person that he is targeting, but unwittingly himself).
This small segment of the population follow the people that will entertain them without challenging what they believe or challenging them to think. If you can get in with Rush (the drugster as I call him) or to a lesser degree O’Reilly (the o’liar as I call him); you have a built in audience that will buy what ever type of shit you are shoveling at they time. Again, as long as it doesn’t challenge them or their lifestyle of greed and dehumanizes anyone that disagrees with them.
This clip is an example of how low Miller has gone. Not only is the joke not funny and needs to be explained (a good joke doesn’t have to be explained), its racists and demeaning (not only to the person that he is targeting, but unwittingly himself).
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Impeach (bush) rio/kerse/hope4
My jaw hit the ground when I saw this in the train yard. I have seen some great work at the Evansville CSX train yard and I have seen some great stuff at other yards (esp. the one in Lexington, KY), but this is in a league of it own. I love the late 1800's carnival font used on the impeach (☝mpeach) or the☝for an i is classic as well. These artists are incredible, many work at night and under great pressure and have to work with speed. I am in awe when they just get tags (a pseudonym they use for themselves or a group) on half a boxcar, but this is incredible! Half the car vertically and the whole car horizontally. Not to mention, the incredible artistic ability with a spray can; I can't even spray a metal chair right!! ;-) Even if you don't agree with the act itself (I know some see it as vandalism) you have to be amazed at the talent of many of these street artists or rebel artists if you will. Isn't that what true art is supposed to do? Make you have a reaction, not necessarily a good one, and the best art hits you on many levels and makes you question many things. For me this art form does that; plus it makes getting stopped at a railroad crossing a lot more bearable!!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Graffiti through the ages...
As I have said before, ever since man has been able to make a mark that represented he/she or his/her group they have been tagging surfaces. This is apparent through time..tags on rocks, cave walls, structures, or anything else that might last longer than the person. This gives the person a feeling of ownership, belonging, a way of challenging current morays, and a feeling of immortality. Not to mention its a great way to express one's self. I have gone through some of my hundred of thousands of image files and have put together this slide show of some of the tags and graffiti it has been my pleasure to document..hope you enjoy!!!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Rights vs. the "Right"& the Wrong
I had a bit of trouble in E'ville with "csx enforcers" or at least thats what he said (i ran into across the river in KY and he was very cool, just doing his job) the guy in E'ville start w/ private property approach (I was on a public road) and then said I couldn't even shoot from my car if I was going to put them online..somehow they own all images of their trains (at least they like to think so)...if they are so against their trains being photographed build walls along all your tracks...otherwise we are free to shoot from public or land w/ permission they don't own or lease..once I called the private prop. deal and the open view..he brought up homeland security..anyone in law enforcement or security bring that up when they want to scare or get around rights they have no clue about..that is the magic catch all or their "trump" card..the hope fear will grab the person...fear of being held..or called a terrorists..the thing is I am a citizen..I have rights...many people died for those rights..and I would rather be in danger with rights, than safe and secure with on rights...freedom comes with danger..if you walk out your door and there is no longer any danger, you are no longer living in a free country...I thought everyone was getting over the homeland security thing..but the "right" leaning people in this country seem to want to live in fear, don't know how to act if they aren't living in fear...they hold up the constitution and talk about the founding fathers..but know nothing of it...talk about freedom, but have no clue what that word means...ignorance is the biggest enemy of freedom and the best tool of those that would control you...information and the ability to discern this information is your greatest weapon...so exercise that organ that is used for this (your brain) and exercise your freedom..other with the extremists across the seas and especially the ones in our government and in our churches will win..Wake Up & Smarten Up..spread the word...
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Moving Art...or Graffiti on Trains
This has become one of my favourite things to photograph and have found this art form to have a great amount of creativity and an ability to improvise and make the surface and materials as much a part of the work as the spray paint. I also love the idea of a moving gallery and covering something so mundane with shapes and colour. In my opinion as long as the subject matter isn't crude its art not vandalism. Especially when its on rusty or dull colored boxcars. So keep your eyes open and instead of being irritated or upset when your stopped by a train crossing the road, sit back and enjoy the show!!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Stop Hatin'
In a "post partisan", "post racial", "post sexist", "post homophobic" America this sign says it all. We all live here and its going to stay miserable till we say live and let live and one more thing....make a fair, unbiased, even playing field for everyone....conservative, liberal, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transsexual, asexual, black, white, Asian, Caucasian, African American, Native American, Jewish, Muslim, evangelical, Catholic, Welsh, Irish, English, British, African, Latino, Homosexual, lost, found, saved, smart, not so smart, country, urban, suburban, and the list goes on. Its time to celebrate who we are and celebrate who are neighbors are, its time to celebrate diversity; because this only makes us a stronger nation. We have millions of labels therefor we have millions of different ways to look at a problem and the ability to synthesize this into a great answer for any problem. So instead of letting these differences divide us we should celebrate it, embrace it, and take advantage of the gift it gives to us and also..we will never be bored!!! =)
Sign O' Times
This is becoming a common site everywhere you go in the US now. It is feeling more and more like the "Great Depression". Not that I know what the "Great Depression" actually felt like, I am a bit to young..=) but I have read quite a bit about it and the signs are all around us. The signs I am writing about aren't signs in the market or in the government but the sites and sounds in our communities. Food pantries and shelters filled to capacity, lines around the block at unemployment offices, job fairs packed past capacity, but these aren't the worst signs. The worst signs are tent cities popping up outside not only our larger cities, but around average towns, people having to live in garages and boxes, people like the gentleman in the sign that are begging for a little money for any labor they can do. The ones that are the hardest hit are the children. They have to fend for themselves lots of the time while the parents are looking for work and have no stable place to study, eat and especially sleep. No place to wash their bodies and clothes regularly and no food at night or on the weekends because the schools are closed. The only stable place a lot of the children have are the schools, its gives them food, shelter, and most cases love and knowledge. Things that are hard to come buy when your homeless or living in an over capacity building. Many schools are starting to launder the clothes of these children and packing food to get them through the weekend, but this doesn't address the main issue, a stable place to live!! The sad thing that is happening now is because of lost revenue (another symptom of the recession/depression) schools are feeling an enormous budget crunch. Many are having to layoff teachers, social workers, nurses, and teachers aids. The schools that provide transportation to and from school are feeling it even more, many of these schools are even considering only having a four day week to save money. Can you imagine how far behind this will put our children? We are already behind fourteen other industrialized countries and falling fast. We aren't preparing our children for the global economy already, and the summer break has been a contributing factor in this. So getting rid of a weekday will only make a bad situation worse, but the part that I fear even more are these homeless students will have one more day a week of unbearable suffering. Their one bastion of hope, warmth, and normalcy will be one less day, it will make the "weekends" feel like an eternity, something most of us can't even imagine. Why would we take away much needed class time for our students and then throw salt in the wounds of the children that are less fortunate then most of us. I can't wrap my head around why people complain so much about paying school taxes and about tax dollars going toward schools, yet we ask them to be shelters, social workers, soup kitchens, laundries, minor medical centers, day cares, psychologist, and the list goes on and on. We expect them to work miracles, and blame them for all of societies ills. Then we pay teachers less then most other workers with comparable education, give less funding to the schools for equipment, and then expect them to produce miracles and protest and cut funding or even shut them down when the miracle isn't produced. This country will continue to lose in the global economy and our children, yours, your neighbors, and the children that have no where to go are the ones made to suffer. So next time you complain about the schools, or complain about high school taxes, think about what they are asked to do and what they are given to accomplishment. Have a great week and a belated Happy St. Pat's!!
Scary pundents
I found this on a BSNF boxcar this week, it reminded me of all the fireworks that are going on in the GOP between Megan McCain and coulter & ingram. Ms. McCain has a blog on "the Daily Beast" (a political and current events blog website). A very interesting website and worth a browse everyday. Anyway Ms. McCain voiced her opinions on what the republican party needs to do to expand its tent so it doesn't get spanked like it has in the past two elections (2006 & even worse 2008). She wrote about the party trying to come to the center or at least closer to the center on social issues like most of the country has. Especially on gay marriage and a woman's choice, these issues have really change with the newer generations. She also commented on how a. coulter (I like to call her she-who-shall-not-be-named) was bad for the GOP because of her racist and bigoted speech. She-who-shall-not-be-named never responded to Ms. McCain's blog, which is out of character for her, but ingram decided to defend her. She also decided to take the low road as usual and attacked Ms. McCain for not her ideas, but her intelligence and size/weight. This is the usual tactic for these extremist right wing windbags, most of their ideas don't hold up so they attack the person. These are the tactics of a movement that is bankrupt of ideas and angry that everyone sees it now. So I am sure the more Ms. McCain points out the hard things that need to be done to put that party back into contention, the more the rush's, ingram's, ect. will take the low road and attack people's look and personalities, not debate the issues.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Hawk that Scared Me Silly!!!
This hawk found a way to make me jump higher than I ever have. I was on the edge of the John James Audubon state park trying to get a good pic of a "Red Bellied" woodpecker, when some noise scared the bird away. I was annoyed, but decided to move a little further in and try and find a good spot to find him/her or another one. Little did I realize there was a raccoon in the tree over my shoulder, I never notice him though. The reason I knew he was there was a hawk out of the blue decided he/she was small enough for dinner. He/she dove down, hit the raccoon, and broke its neck, I had no clue what was going on and the noise was intense from this epic battle (ok it wasn't a battle, I am sure the raccoon was as aware of the hawk as I was of both of them!!). I nearly had a heart attack, I had just recently heard of a man that was hit by a bullet from a stray shot of a .22 and that was the first thing that went through my paranoid head, and the next thing was why is the hawk just sitting here eating. I guess when your hungry matters don't matter =)...anyway he stayed and let me photograph him while he had dinner and then nonchalantly flew off. Made for a very exciting day out in the wilderness, very exciting indeed!!
I Need a Miracle Everyday
I was listening to an old Dead show on the way home from USI the other day. I had recieve some not so good news and was feeling a bit blue. When the song "I Need A Miracle" came on the iPod, I was thinking about how appropriate that song has been throughout my entire life and I see this brilliant sun beam touching the ground. I had to pull over and take a pic and of course that turned into a ton of pics, Can't waste a beautiful sky!! That is the one thing I am thankful about photography, it has made me see the beauty in the most glorious things and even better the most common things we take for granted. I wish everyone could see the beauty all around them, they would treat the world very differently. They wouldn't take life and the people around them for granted, and realize the little things are the things that count. The bird that flies by, the child that smiles, the way someone walks or holds their heads, and the way our pets act when we come home to them. These are the precious things, the common things we see every day and most of the time take for granted. I promised myself at that instant, on the side of the road, that I will try to realize and enjoy all the small miracles that surround me everyday, and enjoy and exhault them for how ever long I have left on this beautiful planet. We should all take time to realize what is really important and keep it in a special place in our hearts, maybe one day I will find the person that cares about things the same way I do and we can share the joy that surrounds us all. For now I will share it with the virtual world and hope I can bring a bit of happiness to others.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Forever Young (reliving Optimus and the Transformers)
I was going through some toy pics I did in the past and came across this. I had to get the toy out and mess with it.. I guess I will never grow up mentally.. a good thing in my book. I can be mature when I need to be, but young at heart and mind is something we should all strive for day to day. Anyway I really like the angle here, but I may do some shots this coming week with my new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi..just to see how they turn out. This is the Takara Japanese Version of the Ultimate Optimus Prime. Metal and plastic action figure that stands almost two feet tall and articulated everywhere and transforms completely. I was used on Robot Chicken in the Optimus gets Colon Cancer sketch...very dark and funny indeed..you can catch it on "Adult Swim" on CartoonNetwork...talk to ya soon..stay safe and in Bob Dylans eternal words "Stay forever young...."
Friday, February 20, 2009
Put Your Joke Here____________________
I was out taking pics in the Ice Storm of 2009..now known as the "Storm of the Decade" on the banks of the Might Ohio River near Uniontown, Kentucky. If you want to see where that is go to the pics Flickr page and its geotagged..using Google Maps... Anyway I was looking for wildlife and how the storm had affected the river itself and came across this sign. Couldn't resist taking a shot of it...'nuff said!!! =-)
Male House Finch Perched in the Freezing Rain
Here's a shot taken during the freezing rain we recieved a couple of weeks ago. Not only was it rough on us weak humans but the wild animals had a time as well. Tree breaking everywhere and food sources under two inches of solid ice. Being the sap I am I made sure to put seed and food out for the animals every so often when I notice a thick layer of ice on it. Of course power went out, if someone sneezes hard the power goes out for a day, so you can imagine how bad it was when there is three inches of ice and three inches of snow. Especially in an area that comes to a stand still with only snow!! What kills me is the fact that KU over the years have laid off and refused to hire employees, no longer do you see KU trucks going around repairing the electrical infrastructure, more and more they wait for damage and half way fix it then and rely of less of their own employees and have to depend on private contractors. Instead of keeping employees to keep up our electrical infrastructure they lay them off and give themselves (the CEO and board) big bonus and cry poor when they are questioned about work crews. We used to have a couple of crews just for our county, but now they only keep one for the four county area. That is completely ridiculous...no wonder it took a week and half to get our power back and that was fast compared to a lot of people in this area. The people down the road were out for three weeks and some people in severely rural areas are still waiting. I understand the weather is out of their control and know that outages occur, but this aging infrastructure can't take anything anymore..why not bury the wires so trees and the such won't take them down, or have some sort of up keep so the lines won't fall at the drop of a hat, quite literally. Anyway I am glad the ice is gone, nice to shoot with my camera for a day, but tha enough for me. I love snow but the ice isn't even for the birbs =)...This year I am ready for spring..I guess being single again is making me ready for spring as well...a few of my fave bands are on tour and a concert or four would really put me in a better mood anyway... Oh, we had a wind storm a few days after the ice melted...it went from 10 degrees F to 60 degrees F in a couple of days with 50 mile an hour gusts..and of course no power at home or on campus (except for a couple of the classroom buildings) for a couple of more days. And USI had to have class....inbetween no hot water for a week and no power on campus during the ice storm and the wind storm..people were beginning to get a bit ripe..thank goodness the hot water is back... I personally used the locker room showers at the PAC..Physical Activities Center =)...just went into the weight room early in the morning and acted like I had a quick workout and took showers there....Where theres a will there is a way!! Hope everyone is doing well btw!!
My Cover
This is the cover of the atlas that bought and used my pic. I took this last year on the banks of the Ohio. I was across US41 South from Ellis Park on the bank. A beautiful early October afternoon, beautiful blue sky listening to "Ladies and Gentlemen...." The Grateful Dead..the last night of the four night stand at Filmore West. Great show and inspired me to take some interesting pics. I thought someone was playing a joke on me when I recieved the email requesting the use of the photo and offering money too. Thats what made me think it was a joke!!! Well come to find out it was real. Not a huge deal, but it made my day nontheless and enough money to invest in a new Canon EOS Rebel XTi. Love it btw. Just thought I would share this with everyone...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
