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Sometimes I think I'm the only person alive who is actually enjoys election campaign commercials.

Its a form of entertainment! The deep sinister music. The deep Darth Vader'esque voice overs. The righteous indignation. The distortions. The blanket lies.

Course I'm one of those people that KNOWS that both sides distort the facts & take it as such. George W Bush (or Obama for that matter) is in no way shape or form remotely like Hitler.

& why is it always Hitler? How come Stalin, Mao, & Mussolini never get any despot love from the angered masses? Take Mussolini, he was so pathetically sinister he had to invade a backward African country to fulfill his delusions of a Neo-Roman ruler. Stalin purged & executed (what?) 25 million of his own people. & Mao! Didn't like 50 million of his people die IN PEACETIME to do his horrendous farming policies. Sorry but it takes a special kind of despot to kill that many when a war isn't going on.


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This here is my friend Heather. In case you haven't noticed, she's playing in her window frame.



Feel free to comment away on any part of this blog if you so choose.

Pericles versus Remarque

The 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks have come & gone. I was going to tell about a young buck's appreciation (bordering on fealty) for my military service & my discomfort w/ being called a "hero" but I've decided to go a different route.

I'm sure there will be writers/speechwriters/yappists proclaiming the honorable & noble sacrifices provided by the people of that day. It'll take a familiar tact: remembering our forefathers, the uniqueness of our way of life, the speaker/writer/yappist's humbleness on such a solemn occasion, remembering the honored dead & urging the living to emulate those who perished. Pericles & Lincoln would be familiar w/ these themes.

Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, disagreed w/ Pericles (a significant plot point in a debate w/ the main character's school teacher). Remarque's experience through the fictionalized main character Baumer, was one of monotonous life at the front, the constant threat from artillery fire, the complete disconnect between him & the civilians on the outside, & most importantly the complete randomness of life & death.

& what of this 9th anniversary thing?

I can see both sides of this. You'd WANT to think those 2500+ that perished in the towers (plus the god knows how many casualties elsewhere) were killed to give their deaths meaning. But at the same time I'm sure the untold millions who fell on small pieces of real estate like the Somme, Dogger Bank, Caporetto, Jutland, Verdun, the Marne the Falklands, Salonika, Meuse-Argonne, & Gallipoli (to name a brief few) might disagree about if their deaths were worth it.

I also hear people chant the jingoistic, "Never forget! Never forget!" in relation to the 9/11 attacks but will we? We've certainly forgotten or perverted such "never forget" days like June 6th or November 11th or December 7th or July 1-3 or April 14th or November 22nd. I don't see why we'd all of a sudden things would change now.

Its easier for people to justify their sacrifices if they actually know WHY they're fighting. Unfortunately, we the American public were initially told we're fighting to "keep the world safe for democracy"...err, I mean "keeping the world safe from terrorism". Then we were told its because so & so "presents a clear & present danger" to America. Then the public was told we're fighting to liberate other people.

Does anyone but me think this is a load of horse manure? We haven't honored the memory of the dead, we've perverted it.

In order to have their sacrifices mean something, there has to be some sort of benefit no matter how horrible the notion they may have arisen.

We're involved in 2 separate wars, one forced into it, the other by choice. We've wasted untold billions trying to win said wars when no one can remotely come to a consensus of what "winning" actually means. Because we're at war & need an enemy, we've started fighting amongst ourselves. It started w/ anyone who disagreed w/ the viewpoints of those in power, then shifted to minority groups simply wishing for equal rights UNDER THE LAW, then it shifted to immigrant groups (legal status was an inconvenient detail to many), then it shifted to ones belief structure.

I'd almost think we all lost our heads but then I open my proverbial US History text book. Muslims are today's scapegoat, I get that. Before that it was gays, before that it was woman *gasp* wanting equal pay for equal work, before that it was the blacks, before that it was the Commies, before that it was the yellow-belly Japs, before that it was scourge of organized labor, before that it was the Italian plague, before that it was the uncivilized Indians getting in our way, before that it was Johnny Reb (or Billy Yank depending on where you lived), before that it was the damn Irish, & so on & so forth.

Again I ask, were the sacrifice of 9/11 worth it?

Make no mistake, I'm not a lovey-dovey peace at all costs kinda person. There are some fights worth fighting.

But w/ this one, I think we blew it on HOW we've chosen to fight the good fight. I think its beyond salvage. Its like being down 42-0 at the end of a (American) football game's first quarter but the odds of that are borderline nil. There's nothing wrong w/ cutting ones losses & approaching it from a fresh angle. But oh wait, we'd be a "cut & runner" which is another overally simplistic, jingoistic, perverted idea.

I honestly believe we are worse off now than the year or so after 9/11. At least then we didn't attack go after our own like rabid dogs. At least then our disagreements didn't hinder us from getting stuff done.

Maybe I'm delusional idealist. Maybe the deep seated, hysterical racism was always there & me w/ my rose-colored glasses never saw it this way before.

If so & we are unable to control our emotions, shucking reason & logic aside, & giving into our hate & fear, we as American have already lost & we're to stupid to even know it.


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This here is Lorraine, shot back when I was in Boston. She had this acting background that completely made my job as a photographer easy.



Feel free to comment if you so desire.

Tea Party and Tom Joad

Came across some self-professed Tea-party enthusiast showing a Rage Against the Machine performance covering "Ghosts of Tom Joad". He encouraged us to emulate RATM & express our anger towards our government.

Its been close to 3 years since I took my "Politics in Springsteen" elective but from what I remember of the album (as well as the song), I do not remotely recall it being about expressing anger & discontent towards anyone, let alone our government. Did a quick reference check & sure enough my suspicions were correct. The prevailing themes of the song entail hopeless, poverty, depression, hunger, & homelessness to name a few.

I ask for a clarification in how expressing ones anger towards the government remotely relates to that song? I ask because for the life of me, I am not getting that kind of message from those lyrics. I asked also because (giving them the benefit of the doubt) rock music is hardly known for its accurate lyrical interpretations. Whether its Liz Phair discussing her "secret beauty routine"; or the GOP misappropriating Springsteen's "Born in the USA" in 1984 thinking it was an uplifting song to be proud of; or the delightfully raunchiness of the Who's "Squeezebox".

The response accused me of "being an ideologue & lacking intelligence". Its a response I fully expected but, as mentioned earlier, I like to at least TRY & give people the benefit of the doubt. If they weave their own noose, that's their prerogative.

That's unfortunately one of the many problems w/ discourse today. Everyone's shouting at each other, assuming that volume alone equals merit. No coherent message. No leadership. No attempt at understanding your opponent's perspective (if for nothing else than to counter their arguments).

Its more like a gaggle.

"Let's get together & be angry. It'll change things." Expressing ones anger is all well & good but its one step a very long & time consuming process. If you want the change bad enough, you have to spend the time doing the grunt work. Unfortunately, most people aren't willing to get their hands dirty.

Whatever, life goes on.


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This here is Ivory, yet another gracious participant in my Abandonment Adventure series.

I remember this being a tough shoot, more so because of the life issues on my end that I was dealing w/ at the time. She's a good person & am still glad I went through w/ it.



Feel free & comment away if you so desire.

Robbery Update

As a follow up to my blog regarding questions about the validity of a local purse snatching, the local paper is reporting that it was indeed a false report. It was to cover-up, of all things, a domestic assault case.

http://poststar.com/news/local/7cf4a21a-9e89-11df-a296-001cc4c03286.html

The irony is is that had they not bothered to report the robbery that never happened. They likely would not be looking at the domestic assault charge, among a host of other charges. Course I doubt they were thinking that far ahead.

Go figure.

Glad the Glens Falls Police Department figured it out. The city isn't crime ridden but they have enough to worry about without having to waste time investigating false allegations.

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This here is Vron. She's a total sweetie.



Feel free to comment away if you so desire.

One Dimensional Lazio

Its nice to know that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Republican candidate for governor, Rick Lazio, is choosing the much bellyhooed construction of an Islamic Community near Ground Zero:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/nyregion/23lazio.html?pagewanted=2&hp

...a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign. So much for having actual ideas. So much his previously much belly-hooed pet-issue of "reforming Albany dysfunction."

I remember back during his 2000 US Senate race against Hillary Clinton where his entire platform was, "Vote for me. I'm a true New Yorker". He lost that race by 12% points & those were during relatively good economic times.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he's still one-dimensionally bankrupt of ideas. If this is the absolute best he or the State Republican Party can do, they deserve to be crushed by 25+ points, like they are behind now.


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This is here is Rika participating in my Abandonment Adventure project.



Feel free to comment on any of this if you so desire.

Heroes Hypocrisy

Had a recent incident w/ a former model of mine.

She's a staunch Republican who will periodically post things in her Facebook status message about her views. Y'know, "If you believe that Joe Schmuckatllie is a complete douchebag, please repost." Stuff along those lines. Whatever floats your boat, its your profile.

She was outraged how Muslims dared to open a Mosque near the hallowed grounds of the where "9/11 heroes fell."

For the record, I think this uproar is a completely phony issue. I also think its more of an outrage that the idiots in Congress failed to pass a health insurance bill for the 9/11 first responders (those very same heroes) & cited the link as a reference:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_attacks_health

I of course am accused of using an openly biased news source. Funny. I never realized that the AP was an openly biased news source. And even if it was its not like having a bias has anything bad about it, so long as they are open about it. I think its MORE honest being up-front about said bias & letting people take them into account than continually touting that they are "fair & balanced" when they are anything but.

That's a rant for another time though.

Anyway after she complained that my link "horribly biased" & then goes on the usual talking points rant; defeated on procedural issues because "my Democrats" wouldn't allow amendments, wanted to prevent illegal immigrants from using it, blah, blah, blah...you know the deal. "My Democrats"?! Talk about assuming statements not in evidence. I wasn't pointing fingers or giving some lame excuse why (its semantics anyway), the shit just didn't get done.

If they are the "heroes" we the public continually claim them to be, they (& by extension their families) have EARNED the right to be here regardless of purported immigration is. Its the same w/ how we treat our GIs. We put them on the pedestal & call them "heroes" but the fact of the matter is, we don't treat them as such.

It takes forever & a day to get them the equipment the need to fight the fight we've asked them to. The government for the past 9+ years refuses to tell us why exactly we're fighting the good fight. The servicemen's mental health care is woefully inadequate (& is interestingly enough starting to show in military dogs). Its like everything else in our society, we use it until we cannot anymore, throw it away, replacing it w/ some new product to start the cycle all over again.

Needless to say she defriended me. I care but at the same time I don't. I'm sorry but I'm of the type that if I say something retarded or act like a complete idiot, I'd WANT someone to call me on it. I guess I'm in the minority like that though.

Whatever, life will go on.

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This was a impromptu shoot w/ Emily. I would have LOVED to have spent a little more time working w/ her but the scheduling just wouldn't permit it. I'm happy w/ what I got though.



Feel free to post comments on anything here.

Enjoy.

Walkoffs Need to Take a Walk

We here at Farenell Photography propose that "walkoff" should be expunged from the baseball lexicon.

We are tired of reading headlines "(Such & such team) wins in a walk-off error" or "walk-off walk" or "walk-off hit". The term should be used as an exclamation point. Use to many exclamation points & the emphasis of the entire sentence loses meaning.

The only exception to my proposed rule is the home run. Its very being IS the exclamation point. A home run to win the game is like 2-4 exclamation points.

Kirk Gibson hitting a walk-off homer in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series is acceptable. Mookie Wilson hitting into a walk-off error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series is not acceptable. Joe Carter hitting a Series walk-off homer is MOST DEFINATELY acceptable. Edgar Renteria hitting a walk-off hit in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series is not acceptable. Carlton Fisk hitting a walk-off homer in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series is acceptable.

While we're at it, MLB should get rid of the designated hitter. No more of these over the hill sluggers whose only use left is to hit.

Same with interleague play too. I'm tried of seeing my crappy Red Sox have to play actual good teams like the Cardinals & Dodgers every year while the Yankees get to use half their interleague schedule to beat up on the Mets.

I know very well none of these proposals have a snowballs chance in hell in happening. But one has to start somewhere, right?

:o)

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This here is Ally, Danielle's roommate. The same Danielle whose picture I posted last entry. I was originally supposed to shoot she & Danielle the same day. Ally was in the mid-morning slot, Danielle took the afternoon.

The snag in the plan were the torrential thunder showers that day. Not quite to Noah's caliber but enough for me to request a reschedule. She was, thankfully, & as fate would have it 20 minutes after we agreed to reschedule for the following weekend, the sky cleared.

Go figure.

The new shoot day was in the high 80's (unseasonably warm is an understatement for early May), while the old shoot date was in the 50's. The incident reinforced the old adage, "If you don't like the weather here in the Northeast, wait a minute. It'll change."

Anyway, this is another of my Abandonment Adventure series. The one people sometime refer to as "Urbexing" or "Urban Exploration" or "Urban Decay."

I'm tentatively calling this shot "Leather & Lace." Whether it stays that way god willing I have a show, I haven't a clue. I'm running w/ it for now.



Feel free & comment, if you dare.