The American Disabled For Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT, held a protest today calling out the National Governors Association on a promise made to gain more flexible use of Medicaid funds. The money would go toward finding community-based alternatives to nursing homes and other institutionalized care for physically disabled people. The rally started at the gates of the White House and continued up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol Building.
Here is my friend Matt taking a break in the back of the van on the way back to pick up some more furniture. My friends Andrew and Maris moved from Capitol Hill to Adams-Morgan this weekend. There was no question that I had to help them move. Andrew has helped me move 3 times since I've lived in DC, and Matt has helped me move at least once.
This is Lauraine behind the bean counter at Swing's Coffee Shop. She fills a role in my life that is sometimes limited to the African-American community. I know because many of my black friends have an older woman they respect and talk to who is not related to them called their "Auntie."
... suitable for a White House investigation.
One of my classroom assignments this week was a political illustration. I was lucky to pass by this plate a couple days ago. More recently I passed friend, photographer, and fellow military veteran Paul Kennedy. I told him to join Vets for Peace. He said he couldn't because he is "Pro-Nuke." My black eye has healed.
I will no longer be updating my blog on a daily basis, instead semi-regular. One of the reasons for this is that it was becoming momotonous after a year and a half. Another is that I cancelled my internet service through T-Mobile. I think I will be able to concentrate longer term projects better.
A personalized plate.
I walked down to the park with my friend Ryan to check out the Declaration of Independence Memorial Island. Before he saw what this picture looked like he said he though I was taking a picture of nothing on the sidewalk.
I went to Arlington National Cemetery to photograph the burial of fallen soldier, Staff Sgt. Kristopher Shepherd. Friends of mine in the Washington DC Explosive Ordnance Unit attended to show respect for their fellow ordnance man. Shepherd was the 119th service member who died in the current war in Iraq to be buried at Arlington.
I have a habit of stopping in the New Hampshire Mart on 16th St. every night on my walk home from downtown. Last night I bought a can of ginger ale. Usually I buy a pint of half & Half for my coffee in the morning. It's nice to walk into a convenience store and not know what to buy, a problem I didn't have before I quit smoking over two years ago.
This is Regan with a loupe in the color photo lab. Lately, I've been spending so much time in the lab I feel like a model student. Of course Regan actually is a model student. Last summer I saw her in the City Paper modeling for a club that was soon opening. She is always wearing things that it seems no one else could wear properly, like wrist warmers.
Right after I dropped off some film and slides at National Geographic this morning I lost a fight. What started out as an argument ended up as my black eye. At least I was able to get sympathy in the form of attention from girls on Valintine's.
I was watching news from Paris and they are in the midst of celebrating Valintine's Day. I don't know why I thought Valintine's Day was strickly an American holiday.
Today I walked down to the Winter Democratic National Convention at the Washington Hilton to meet with the Vets for Peace. When I arrived Dean was speaking to a room full of cameras. I had a hard time finding the veterans I had come looking for until a man smoking by the door said, "I saw a guy up on the corner with a hat that said Veterans for Peace." I met up with veterans Kevin, Doug, and Ruth. They chose an area of Connecticut Ave with high visibility to bring both the Public and the Democratic National Committee members' attention to their cause. Unexpected attention was recieved from the Reserve Officers' Association of which its members were beginning to gather for their own convention. The signs they held pleaded with Dr. Howard Dean the newly elected Democratic Chair to stop the us of armor piercing depleted uranium munitions. Kevin McCarron, a spokesperson for the Vets for Peace in Washington, D.C. said that being a doctor, Dean should be a standing voice against these weapons whose radiation deformed a young generation of Iraqis born after its use in the first Gulf War.
I have been printing a lot of old negatives from the first year I was in the Marines. I have never seen them in print and I want to try and remember the differences in my photography between now and then. I don't really know what I've come up with as far as an answer to that question yet. But between prints I have a lot of time to stare down the hallway and think about it.
The Uniformed Secret Service seems hard at work lately. This man was being collected at 17th and H Sts NW. After seeming another man being loaded into a cruiser a few blocks down 17th I gathered that this could have been a fight, but who knows. Later one of my instructors, David, was talking about certain aspects of photography, like chance, could be refered to as a kind of magic. I am surprised to say it, but I finally agree with him on something.
The Pope missed Ash Wednesday services because he was feeling ill. I missed Ash Wednesday service with no excuse. I feel a stronger connection with the Pope now though.
On Monday nights I have a class called Non-Darkroom Processes. We are learning to use solvents, acrylic medium, heat, and water to transfer images to plastic, metal, and cloth. People are still situated in the room in a similar way that they would be in a darkroom only the lights are on. Instead of using light to make images we use hair dryers, clothing irons, spoons, and brushes. And just as you might expect, two students at the rear of the class discuss their dreams of one day making T-shirts for a living.
I went to my friends Andrew and Maris's house to watch the Super Bowl. Great close game. The best part was the hot wings and the steaks our friend Paul cooked on the grill. The Super Bowl is the Thanksgiving of sporting events.
I felt uncomfortable getting on the elevator with a woman, while I was carrying all my laundry bags. I got to the laundry room, threw my dirty clothes down, and went to the change machine -- out of order! Later, when I was nearly done I found out that one of the dryers I was using didn't work.
Two sculptors, Adam and Ellen sit in the basement of the Corcoran Gallery discussing an opening at the Arts Club of Washington. I told them I'd see them there, but not before I had something to eat. I went to Goldie's Italian and ordered a slice of pizza. Since it was Friday I decided to get a beer too. It was $3 a glass or $6 a pitcher; I went for economy. When I walked out of Goldie's 15 minutes later it felt like a whole new world. I was lucky to make it to the opening. I remember most Bill Newman's colorful oil paintings. The attention to detail in Newman's paintings is supernatural. Drinking that pitcher so quickly earlier was a supernatural sleeping pill with a side of Tourettes. I fought its effects as well as I could for about 3 hours until I found myself at home sleeping.
A friend of mine, Rick heads to his apartment after night class. He is a photography student from Panama. He is working an internship at the Gannett Publishing/USA Today photo department in McLean, Va. He may ride his bike to and from his classes but I've only ever seen him walking it.
This is Cassie sitting by the color print machine waiting for her print. She is the only other photojournalism student in Mr. Kim Stacy Kirkpatrick's Wednesday night color photography class. Tonight we all spent a lot of time waiting for prints to emerge from the machine. It was my first time using a color enlarger and I made a few simple mistakes. However, I was able to make a good enough print to move to the next assignment by the end of class. I have a good time in class. I remember that having a tangible photographic print is one of the reasons for photography.
Elizabeth Chacko, GWU associate professor of geography and international affairs spoke on the affect of the tsunami on development and public health issues during a discussion panel held Tuesday night. The gathering of panel experts from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs was entitled The Asian Tsunami: Political, Economic, and Social Implications. Chacko was the only one of the panel who was in the area of the tsunami at the time it struck. She was concerned with raising awareness about the emotional and psychological repercussions of the tsunami on women. Moderator and dean of the Elliott School, Harry Harding, summed up the situation by first drawing a connection between the night's sparse attendance and the tsunami's drop from the headlines. Harding said that although the problems have just begun the consequences will last for decades.
On my way home from class tonight I went to Chef's Express to get a small Hunan Chicken ($4.75). While I was carrying my dinner home I saw a vagrant man talking to himself beside a church. As I got closer I realized he was speaking in Chinese. As I got even closer he snapped out of his one-man theatrics and gestured me for a cigarette. When he realized I didn't smoke he went back to talking to himself. The way he was using his hands to talk you'd think he was Italian and not Chinese. When I snuck around the church to snap a picture of him I realized he was acting into the church's security camera. I was never able to find out if he was a Chinese National or not.
