I took this shot in Buffalo's City Hall, while Ben and I were waiting for an elevator down from the observation deck. There was an exhibit of artwork and photos of the city and its history up in the tower-- and a whole bunch of people up there (surprising that it was a very cold day).
“There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than ''politicians'' think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas... that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.”
A couple weeks ago I went with my friend Rick to see one of the matches in the World Junior Hockey Championship in Buffalo. We saw Finland embarrass Slovakia. Needless to say I had a camera along, and though we were sitting way up in the nosebleed seats, I think I got a few decent shots (especially as enhanced by PhotoShop).
I was using a zoom without anything to steady the camera, and of course the action was kind of fast moving, so sharp images were few. But I think these convey something of the action on the ice. 
This week's featured denizen of Toonerville: The Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang. You know, I think Mr. Bang represents the roots of more recent purveyors of the funny anger schtick like Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks. or Lewis Black. I wonder if any of the latter three ever gave Mr. Bang credit?
"A principle is the expression of perfection, 
One of my favorite things to do is walk around with a point and shoot camera swinging at my side and indiscriminately snapping pictures. Here are a few examples from my trip to Prague last March. I don't claim these are great photos, but they do offer a somewhat different perspective compared to more carefully composed shots. I believe these are all from Wenceslas Square, or just off that main drag.
A lot of low angles, but that's the nature of the technique. Above was a side street that Ben and I used as a short cut back to our hotel. You can tell we were in the tourist district by the use of English on the store sign. Below, in the background is the History Museum. I think I bought a Fanta at that kiosk, if memory serves.
I'm not much of a boxing fan, but I have to admit there are a lot of really good movies about boxing. The Fighter, directed by David O. Russell, is the latest. As is often the case, the film has less to do with the finer points of the so-called sweet science than it does the personal struggles of the protagonist. In this case that means Mickey Ward, the up and comer portrayed by Mark Wahlberg, must figure out how to cut family ties that are holding back his career (his Mom is his manager and his brother trains him) while maintaining the emotional bonds with those individuals that fuel so much to his personal strength and ambition. The brother is played by Christian Bale, and the relationship between he and Wahlberg is the true heart of the story which plays out is a gut-wrenching but ultimately wholly satisfying way. It reminds me of the relationship between Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (not exactly a boxing picture, though that's a big part of the subtext for the brothers' relationship), though in that case the destructive element is conscious and even premeditated. In The Fighter, the effects (at least early on) are the same, but result from tragic flaws more than intention. It's a very entertaining flick, with lots of fine performances beyond those of the leads. Check it out if you get the chance.
"Happiness in this world, when it comes,
There was a time when, if I went to Fables Cafe for lunch and they had a soup listed that I'd never had before, it was an automatic order and the odds were very good I was going to be in for a treat. Well, evidently those days are past. On my recent visit to Buffalo, I had soup four times at Fables, and only once was it even remotely good (the Zucchini Parmesan of all things). The last time was the worst, and it involved an unfamiliar variety that I jumped at with unwarranted enthusiasm. It was Southwest Ancho and Corn, and I had no idea what "ancho" was, so I really was going out on a limb. In fact, as I watched the server fill my bowl it hit me that it might be short for anchovy, and I hate anchovies. Well, it turns out ancho is a kind of chile, but that didn't save the soup, which was little more than a watery vegetable mix. I can't believe that the best soup place ever has gone into the tank, but I don't know what else to conclude from my recent experiences. I guess the good side of that is when I go back next summer I won't feel obligated to eat there when I'm downtown, and maybe I'll discover someplace as good or better as my memory of what Fables used to be. I guess this is just another example that nothing stays the same. But I'll always remember the good old days.
"False happiness renders men stern
The Who
The Moody Blues
"History says, Don't hope
The temperature is due to head well south of zero here for the next few days, so naturally, I'm thinking of warmer places. The above was shot one evening last summer at the Erie Basin Marina in Buffalo.
Above you see a group of school kids gathered around a fountain at the mission at San Juan Capistrano southeast of Los Angeles. I wonder how long before I get to see so much green again?
You wouldn't know it from a glance, but this was taken in warmer climes too-- it's a fountain in the botanical gardens of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Playing around with these pictures (they've all been processed to one degree or another) certainly warmed me up, at least for a little while.
Sometime back I posted an entry in this series about my visit to the new Baja Fresh restaurant in Bozeman, and my (mild) disappointment in their version of the chain's otherwise excellent Chicken Tortilla Soup. Well, I'm happy to report that they have righted themselves. I visited again yesterday and the soup was much much better, albeit a tad different from what I've enjoyed in their other outlets on the west coast. In particular, and contrary to the stock image above, the broth was fuller, more like a thin gravy than than the clear broth I was used to. This was not a bad thing, and along with the abundant avocado slices (more than served at other locations) contributed to making this a uniquely pleasant experience. I don't get to Bozeman that often (maybe once every four to six weeks), but it's going to be awfully hard to avoid making this a regular stop when I'm there. Believe me, that's not a complaint, as long as the soup remains such a standout (and by the way, the tacos are pretty good too).
No doubt about it, Milton Caniff was the master of the adventure strip, starting with his classic creation Terry and the Pirates. Here are what I believe are the first four Sunday pages from that series.
This sequence introduces one of the greatest villains in all of popular culture-- the beautiful bud deadly Dragon Lady. 
Caniff would produce Terry through the World War II years (when Terry became a pilot), then move on to create Steve Canyon, a quintessential Cold War character. Of course, a lot of the fun in Caniff's work came as a result of the supporting cast of characters, both good guys and bad, and that's already evident in these early examples of his work.
"The remedy in the United States is not 
Sometimes I like to go out and shoot a bunch of pictures specifically for the purpose of playing around with them later on Photoshop. These often include subjects that are so familiar to me that I don't feel like I can come up with something original in the initial photo (thoug I do try to make interesting compositions). I like to go to Ellicott Creek Park for just this reason-- I rarely see something new or striking (I've been going there since I was a little kid), but it's still fun to see what I can make out of that familiarity. So here are three pictures taken last week at the Park, and now processed a bit (or in one case, a lot) through the various filters available on my software.
This is a good example of what I mean-- the only thing that makes this picture somewhat interesting is that I boosted the colors to create a little more contrast between sky and foreground. But I admit, it was more valuable as a learning exercise for me than as a finished product.
The park is prime dog-walking territory-- I think this one could use a little more work to sharpen the detail (especially in the trees), but I kind of like the overall effect. Again, even if this isn't a great final product, it may give me ideas for techniques to use on other pictures later.
“The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but 
Easy question this week: who is Ben laughing at? This is a cropped photo, and I'll print the full version next week revealing the answer. So get your guesses into the comments in the meantime.
I remember that for many years I resisted seeing the classic ballet film The Red Shoes, made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger back in the 1940s and widely hailed as something of a masterpiece. Since my interest in ballet was practically nil, I didn't bother checking it out until I had seen a few other Powell/Pressburger collaborations and became convinced that maybe they could make something interesting out of the subject. Turns out I was right, and much to my surprise I ended up liking The Red Shoes quite a bit. So, when I heard that Darren Aronofsky, another director whose work I've really liked over the years, came out with Black Swan, I was willing to forgo the long and pointless wait to see it. Unfortunately, this did not lead to the same happy ending, as I found it a bit of a tough go. As you've probably read elsewhere, Natalie Portman is amazing in the lead performance of a dancer who has the technical skill to wow an audience, but lacks the soul or passion in her performance to make it truly transcendent. My problem with the movie is that her struggle to conquer her flaws unfolds like a horror film, with lots of violence, both emotional and physical, and I just don't care for horror films. Watching graceful bodies mutilated-- even understanding this was largely imaginary, an extended metaphor for the physical abuses the dancers put themselves through willingly as a matter of course-- was too off-putting, and that's not what appeals to me in screen entertainment. Maybe if I were more of a ballet fan, I would have appreciated those segments where the dancing is in the spotlight, but since I don't, I was left with the nasty business of watching someone destroy herself for my entertainment. Definitely not my cup of tea.
Here's Natalie doing some calisthenics on the tundra that used to be a beach at Evangola State Park last week. I'm not sure why that setting prompted the exercise-- maybe she was cold?
This is kind of a sequel to last week's picture of Emma (though they were taken days apart). You gotta love those big blue eyes!
"The world is not dialectical - it is
"The truly powerful feed ideology to the 
As an Americanist historian, my knowledge of the events surrounding the French Revolution are fairly rudimentary: I recognize most of the key names and events, but they kind of all exist in a scramble in my head. Mark Steel's Vive Le Revolution has helped put some order to those facts, but more importantly suggested a way of thinking about the revolution in ways that make it, and especially its apparent excesses, relevant to contemporary events. That's an impressive achievement, especially given the book's subtitle: "A Stand-Up History" means Steel spends a lot of time making jokes about the whole thing. At first this was off-putting, and early on it seemed like the so-called comedy was kind of forced. But as I read on, it became clear that this was an effective technique for demonstrating just how much the revolution reflected the kinds of frustrations, complexities and human foibles that still plague our political institutions and processes. Beyond that, the book helps build the case (a very strong case) that the ideas and impulses behind the French Revolution remains powerful forces in shaping current perceptions and political activism in relation to issues like class, race, business, democracy, etc. I'm not so confident that Steel gets all the details right (I know there are mistakes in some of the biographical data he gives about Thomas Paine, for example), but that really is somewhat beside the point (and he provides a fine bibliographical essay at the end to point readers towards more academically-oriented sources). It's something of a Daily Show take on history, and while I wouldn't want that to be mistaken for the final, or complete, take on the subject, it makes for an entertaining and mostly informative entry into historical interpretation.
I've been enjoying some fine soups over the course of my recent travels, but not where I most expected to encounter them, namely Fables Cafe which has apparently changed chefs or vendors or something. I didn't even mention the watery split pea soup I had there last week because it was too depressing to contemplate that they were no longer offering up the kind of special treats I'd grown accustomed to on my visits. But they rebounded slightly with a surprising candidate, Zucchini Parmesan. I'm sure that I've taken my shots at zucchini soups here in the past (possibly even for something I had at Fables in their glory days), and I'm not prepared to change my opinion that it is among the most boring of vegetables, listless and limp in both texture and flavor. But mixed with the parmesan, I have to say it was quite tasty. Cheese has that power, especially good cheese. This certainly wasn't a pantheon-level of soup, but it was a nice surprise to find that my old haunt still had the capacity to surprise, and in a positive way.
"Nature is relentless and unchangeable, 
"Liberty of conscience and inquiry can only be 
I was out again today with the Rosieks and Andromeda. We headed down to snowy Wales (near East Aurora) and Hunter's Creek Park, which I've never visited before. It's a nicely wooded set of trails up a hill and along a ravine through which flows the aforementioned creek. Andromeda (seen above) had fun running loose among the brush, and the rest of us got a little exercise too.
There was a constant wet snow falling and it was very cold, which made picture taking a challenge (trying to keep the camera dry and the batteries from freezing), but I got a few good shots. I like the interplay of color in the above, though I wish I had a better composition. 
I think this one turned out well-- a distinctly more abstract image than I typically take. It's the result of a second-long exposure while moving the camera up just a bit. I received as a Christmas present a book all about experimental photography, so you may be seeing more of this kind of stuff posted here in the near future.
Linus has always been my favorite Peanuts character. Here's just a little more evidence of why.
"A true conservationist is a man who knows 
These three shots show where I spent a good part of the afternoon, down on the shore of Lake Erie. The weather has been unseasonably warm the past couple of days, but there remains a pretty big icepack along the beach down in Evans, along with an interesting sky out over the water
In the summer this spot is probably teeming with sunbathers and swimmers, but Sally, Tom, Natalie, Andromeda and I were the only ones around today. The light was great, though it suggested a somewhat bleak landscape.
This isn't usually the kind of environment I search out, but I do think it made for a great photographic setting. I'm looking forward to doing some work on some other shots in PhotoShop to heighten the spooky elements that I think are noticeable in these pictures.
"Your success and happiness lies in you.
