It's Halloween and Sunday. This is Saint Augustine's Church on 15th and V Sts NW. Today the Redskins determined the outcome of the election by losing to Greenbay. The NFL has voted for Kerry.
Nice costumes in Adams-Morgan. Here a Viking calls his buddy while resting on a parked Metro train costume. Goodbye Daylight Saving Time, hello longest night of drinking all year!!
I went to the Corcoran Halloween Dance tonight. I walked around and photographed everyone having a good time. The costumes were shiny, skimpy, bloody, dark, pasty and creepy ... they were all great. An uneasy feeling hung over the event the entire night, perfect for Halloween.
This is an Anti-Communist China woman from Siberia. Her sign says she was held in a Siberian Concentration Camp. I tried to understand what I could. One thing is for sure, if she were a citizen of the United States she would vote for Bush. She had all kinds of Pro-Bush pins and items. I couldn't understand why, until I saw that one of her signs read that she was seeking political asylum in the United States. She isn't the only international homeless person I've met. One of my good friends, The Bum Isaac, is also internationally homeless. The man speaks nearly every European language. In the summer he is usually here in DC. In the winter he takes the Greyhound south down to Florida. Last week Isaac got his passport from the North Holland Embassy; he is a resident of North Holland. He told everyone at Swing's Coffee Shop that he was off to South America last Friday. We suspect that is where he is.
Here is respected photography writer, critic, and author (also the Chair of Photography at the Corcoran), Andy Grundberg holding up a photo of mine that was in last Sunday's New York Times. It is the third time the Times has run the photo. The first time, Dec., 20, 2001, it appeared on the front page. The second time, the photo was in the New York Times Review of Books. I didn't know the most recent photo ran until today when Andy revealed the clipping from his attache while walking into M.E. Swing's coffee shop. The photo, that depicts battlefield prisoners entering the detainee facility at the Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan, is also in my web portfolio.
In the student lounge at Sandy Spring Friends School some students relax from their scholastic activities to partake in multiple hands of "Texas Hold'em." I thought it was smart they were using scraps of paper in place of actual money. I mentioned when I was in high school my "un-assigned" study hall was at the end of the day so I could leave early. Me and my good friend Ruben Del Angel had the same un-assigned period. We would walk home together. Something I didn't mention was that, while walking off school grounds we would shout the lyrics to our favorite oldies tunes through opened classroom windows.
It's a scenic ride on the train back from Sandy Spring Friends School. I am working my internship there and sharing what I know about photojournalism with the students. When I am there among the students I remember back when I was their age. Today, I was going over the high school students' photo story projects with Lori the journalism instructor. I told her I had been editing photos since high school, maybe before. Down by the playground I saw a middle school student sitting on the bench drawing during recess. I remembered drawing at the picnic table during recess when I was in Preschool. When I boarded the yellow school bus that takes me to the Metro train, an interested student said, "Are you a photographer? That's one of the things I want to be." I told him to stay interested in art.
I walked up to Mount Pleasant to see my friend Solomon. He was just waking up late in the afternoon because he works as a DJ on weekends. I spotted him before I could make it to his house at my old favorite 7-eleven buying milk, cereal, and ramen noodles. Last night he DJed at a club called FIVE. He is the newest member of DC's DriveSafe DJs, who have recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary.
It's the beginning of the end, game one of the World Series. I went to watch the game with others at a small gathering at Andrew and Maris's place on Capitol Hill. We were all hoping for Boston to win it against St Louis, they did. What a great night of baseball ... crepes and mimosas, beer and pizza, laughing into the wind, and yelling into the oscillating fan.
My new lens showed up in the mail tonight. Its aperture of f/1.8 makes it ideal for taking photos in low light. My professor Mark Abraham suggested I get this lens for a photo essay I am shooting on feral cats. I had to take a walk and test my camera. I found this guy by DuPont Circle ending a cathartic night of drinking, literally on the sidewalk next to him. I was really impressed with the color my lens produced in this dim light. If you have a Nikon purchase a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AF, a bargain at $100 new.
Before our class today Andy McMillan lined up this ladder with the Washington Monument. The fact that a man was climbing the ladder created a humorous picture. "Good Thinking," I said. Nikon also likes the way Andy thinks (even though he uses Canon equipment). He won a $10,000 scholarship from Nikon at a recent photo workshop called Barnstorm XVII. It was the first scholarship of its kind and there is a nice article about it at Photo District News Online.
I was taking photos at a press conference in the Capitol Building this morning. Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) held the conference in support of a bill proposal that would increase the profitability of flu and other vaccine's production among domestic and Canadian pharmaceutical companies. Due to the recent shortage Sen. Bayh and others on the Hill have opted to pass on their "congressional" flu shot. The plan is essentially supposed to prevent vaccine shortages in the United States and decrease our reliance on foreign pharmaceutical companies. Sounds like politics to me. What I really wondered was if the senator from Indiana has been watching the Red Sox and Yankees the last few days.
I caught this Metro bus reflection in the glass shaft of the Glenmont Metro Station's broken elevator. The first year I lived in DC I was next door to the Waterfront Metro Station in Southwest. I thought the Metro train was better than San Francisco's Muni railway (A system which I admire). It wasn't long before I started noticing flaws. The first was that the elevators were always broken creating difficulties for people in wheelchairs among others. Because of the out-of-order elevators, special shuttles were provided from other stations, which created a hassle. The second major thing was the installation of the new money feeders on the buses that you can't put a penny in. And my third and most recent Metro pet peeve is the way bus after bus cruises down 16th St without stopping to pick anyone up during evening rush hour.
I didn't get on this train today, but the Boston Red Sox got on the train to New York ... after the fifth game of the play-off series. I'm not a big baseball fan but this is a classic rivalry that turn into an exciting race to the World Series. The Yankees won the first three games. Boston won the last two games by a single point each, both with extra innings; the two longest games in American League play-off history. Tonight's game was 5 hours and 20 minutes. Yesterday's game actually ended early this morning. Next year I look forward to taking the train to one of Washington DC's very own Major League "Senators" games.
This is Zack scraping a model railroad forest off the side of a gallery wall. He is taking his work down that was featured in the White Walls Gallery at the Corcoran. Listening to music accounts for a large part of Zack's inspiration to produce art.
. . .
He said "stream of consciousness" exercises as well as his large tennis shoe collection have played a role in much of his recent art. Tomorrow another senior Fine Arts show will go up in its place.
Yet another birthday celebration tonight. Although I neglected to call both of my sisters and my great-niece on their recent birthdays I still find time to celebrate where my welcome wears thin. Happy birthday to all and to all a goodnight.
Tonight I checked at the front desk for a lens I'm suppose to be receiving in the mail. Instead I got a package from my dad's attorney who has just closed his estate after nearly four years. The parcel contained a bunch of business records and letters. I was looking at a letter from the East Fairfield Coal Company to my dad. My eye went straight to the only small talk, "How is your photography coming? I won Honorable Mention at the Canfield Fair for a landscape scene of swans." It was really strange because I thought they were writing to me. I guess they were I just received it a generation later.
Happy birthday, Maris. Darts.
It was funny, I watched the debates tonight and every time Bush opened his mouth he told me to "Vote for Kerry!" And when Kerry spoke I remembered that the United States will be safer with anyone but Bush.
Most nights I walk passed one of the Johns Hopkins buildings on 17th St NW and cut through the parking lot. Tonight I looked in on a class from the sidewalk. I also have one night class a week. I am currently working on my Honorary Doctorate; I'm taking it day by day ... no clear dates yet.
This is Amanda outside of the Corcoran Gallery. She along with half of the Fine Arts seniors were at the school's White Walls Gallery installing their first show of this year. I walked through half of it today before I had to go. There is a lot of amazing stuff including a large ink drawing, which by its dates has taken nearly 2 years to complete. Half of the seniors show stuff this week, the other half of the class next week. I imagine there will be an opening on each Thursday, along with a nick-naming ceremony.
I saw this cabby today cooling down from a soccer game by the World Bank. He had been playing soccer in the Ellipse Park, the White House backyard. On Sundays the Ellipse is known for its diverse soccer games. Cooks, clerks, cabbies and executives gather there for pick-up games that have been going on for years.
These are some Polaroids in the gas station Food Mart around 14th St and Florida Ave NW. Walking through the gas-pumping cabbies there were some shabby-dressed vagrants playing with a knife.
One of my favorite classes is Friday morning's "History of Photo."
Very low finances left me eating at McDonald's today. Now they take credit cards at most locations. My friend Zack, a painter and artist, was there eating. He said his hot apple pies were made out of potato. I looked it up on the McDonald's Menu Site. It turns out they're apples. I did find several sites that mentioned the urban legend that McDonald's Apple Pies contain potatoes.
On Monday, Tuesday, and some Wednesdays I travel out to Glenmont. In the morning I take the bus for $1.25. Then I take the Metro train to Glenmont for $1.30. On the way back I take the Metro train during rush hour into downtown costing $3.35. Totaling $5.90 a day. Holy crap! Anyway, if I had a car that averaged 15 MPG/city it would cost me approximately $3.50 in gas each day (at $1.81/gl). However, if I had a car I would also pay over $5.00 a day just for parking in the lot of my own building. I make out way ahead, not even including auto insurance, maintenance, road rage, and fuzzy dice.
My friend Solomon asked me to make him a tape today. I burnt him a CD instead. Solomon flipped through Beaumont Newhall's History of Photography while he waited for the CDs to burn. He got as far as Chapter 11 In Quest of Form, "This guy Moholy-Nagy has some cool stuff." This is a picture I made that may have some resemblance to the spirit of Moholy-Nagy's photograms and photo-collages.
Today I shot photos with my friend Don. He majors in Fine Arts Photography. Don had a "pinhole body cap." It is like using a very small hole to take a photo with instead of a lens. I shot about 200 photos with it today. This is one of them from Henry's near 17th on U St.
I saw my friend Rick downtown. We decided to go get something to eat, both disappointed in our prospects to shoot anything exciting during this so-called World Bank and International Monetary Fund protest. It seems like they blocked the streets off for nothing. At the Ellipse Park in front of the White House we found few protestors but many tourists wondering why the White House was blocked off and barricaded by 80 U.S. Park Police.
Things Better Than Television
Later on, I met up with some friends to do things that are better than television. We went to see Jackie, the improv comedy troupe at District of Columbia Arts Council. After the show we headed back to one of the best joints in town, the Common Share. There is no cheaper beer or pool, and no better mix of blue collar in DC.
This is one of my friends Adam. I was over at his place earlier today. I said, "you look like a Gaul." He was cleaning his face and and talking to me at the same time.
This is a group of my friends from school, gathered to watch the 1st Presidential Debate of 2004. Kerry was the clear winner of the first debate, so decides this politicized group of well-educated, well-read, and well-drank students.
