/|\ Thanksgiving Travel /|\

I'm somewhere around the Virginia-West Virginia border tonight. My friend Wes, who recently started his own family, has family there. If you live in D.C. you go elsewhere for the holidays. But if you're visiting anywhere in the vacinity, this is the place to get some Turkey Day tourism. I asked a Secret Service officer standing in front of the White House what he thought. "I might notice a little jump in tourism around the holidays," he said.

[I also talked to some tourists in front of the White House. Some of them are "in town" from as far away as Richmond, Va. I hope everybody has a Happy Thanksgiving and does some real reflecting ... (reflect)

~~Guardian Angels Patrol Mt. Pleasant~~

The Guardian Angels, a group of public saftey activists, patrol around Mt Pleasant. "As a rule we don't go into an area that we're not invited to," said Mark "Bishop" Saunders, the Guardian's D.C. chapter leader (foreground). A recent invitation from the District's city council also encouraged some visitors from the New York City chapter. "If it's a verbal dispute, we break it up. If it is more serious than that we may physically detain an attacker until the police arrive," said visiting NYC chapter leader Matthew McCoy (left). Saunders added that the group's relationship with local law enforcement authorities is outstanding.

[Their motto -- "Dare to Care." It feels good to see the Guardian Angels on the streets. Bishop told me the group was started in 1979 by Curtis Sliwa, the manager of a McDonald's in the Bronx. Who said nothing good ever came outta McDonald's? McCoy will soon be leaving for Parris Island, S.C. Semper Fidelis]

}} The Fruits of Labor {{(without leaving the privacy of home)

Around 10am I started a paper on the several levels of irony surrounding Aphra Behn's 17th Century novel Oroonoko. I ate a leftover slice of chicken and pepperoni pizza. A friend stopped by to pick up a disk of photos I took of his art work. I completed one of hopfully two interviews for an assignment to interview a photo agency, or news wire photo editor. My neighbor stuck my credit card bill in my storm door. I saw a kiwi outside previously dropped from my garbage. I placed my camera on a tripod focused out the door to the sidewalk. I took this picture about 10 minutes after I set up. I kept the camera there for about 8 hours, but was too busy at my laptop to catch anything else.

[Speaking of kiwis, my friend Jesse an American-New Zealander* came over from McLean, Va. He was going to give me a ride to my class tonight. When Jesse pulled up I was already a half-hour late for class and still working on my paper. When I finished it, I realized I didn't have any printer paper. I emailed the paper to my professor. Jesse took off. For the first time in almost a year I didn't leave the house all day.]
*Kiwi is an affectionate term for a New Zealander.

^^Sunday is My Habitual Day of Reflection^^

Chewing sticks, that's what our toothbrushes originated from. They had chewing sticks in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C. In the 1700s they started using neck hair from swine as bristles. It wasn't til the 1930s we had nylon bristles.

[Today I was at 7-11 talking to Lee, a Somali guy that works there. We both agreed that people would have more respect for each other if religion had more to do with our ancestors. People today are the products of hundreds-of-thousands of years of genetic mixing and are the material products of their ancestors. That makes everyone interesting.

:: Hockey a.k.a. That '70s Sport ::

My friend Chef Ryan called me and said he had a couple tickets to a hockey game this afternoon but couldn't go because he was working. So me and my friend Jesse ended up going to the game. The introductory price of free included two executive suite tickets, parking pass, beer and food! We didn't know the people in the suite but they were hospitable. Do hockey player go back to the Seventies to get their mullets groomed?

[Florida beat the Capitols 3-2, in overtime. This was a great game. Fighting, aggression, and dramatic goals. This is one of the Florida players picking up his stick after a brawl.]

+-- Getting Recreation Out of the Way --+

The word pool means a collective bet and became a term for the game when it began to be played in 19th century pool rooms which were then places for betting on horseraces. Went out with some friends and played pool in DuPont. Then we made our way over to the Hill to play darts. You'll have to come up with your own interesting darts fact.

[I looked online to see if I was eligable for any education grants. I found out that I am just in time to apply for next year. I was actually looking for money for next semester.]

)) Five Second Rule ... Hurry! ((

--== Class Interrupted by Minor Fire ==--

There was a small fire in the building adjoining Corcoran College's H St NW campus. I was sitting in class. We were just getting into this video about Buddhist dance from India. It appeared it might have been a very interesting video. The fire alarm rang. We all gathered our stuff and walked out to the sidewalk. After about five minutes we were back in class watching the video. A couple minutes later, after seven fire trucks pulled up and blocked the street off, we were all back on the sidewalk. I guess they were responding to a minor fire in the connecting building bacause we could smell smoke but afternoon classes resumed. We never got to watch that video. We had to leave class early.

[I made it to the darkroom for the first time in almost two years today. Made some negatives from my Argus Model A. The lens is more badly scratched than I guessed. It is also uncoated and seventy-five years old.]

**Getting to the Liquor Store Before it Closes**

Mike Wilson, known as Army Mike, grabs some cash from the belongings he sleeps on to make a last minute beer run. I met up with him on the way home from my digital darkroom class tonight. "The liquor store is going to close in 15 minutes," said Army Mike. I walked part of the way to the liquor store with him til I got to my bus stop. He always likes to make a dramatic exit. He took-off running backward down the sidewalk yelling good-byes and see-you-laters. When he swung around to start his full trot, I had to yell "Look out," as he almost ran into a street sign.

[Army Mike enlisted in 1976 with no diploma. Not long after his enlistment as a radioman he returned to his hometown of Danville, Va. He had a job washing dishes at a Holiday Inn. Some people there didn't like him. They poured bleach in the dish water. This irritated Mike's hands to the point of infection. When he asked for workmen's compensation he said they told him, "Prove it happened at work." His sister, Gwen kicked him out of their house in late 2001. Mike has been living on the streets of D.C. since.]

==> Lift This Work Off My Back <==

I Did a lot today but for some reason I'm still falling behind. I have a paper due for a class and I can't find the interest or concentration to get it done. I'll pull through. I talked to the photo editor of Esquire Magazine today. It was an interview for my photojournalism class. Well, now I can't find the paper I wrote the interview on. Along with that I'm missing an envelope with a $200 check and some other important papers. Wish me luck finding them!

[This picture was taken using a 500mm mirror lens. Maybe someday I'll find time to pursue an interesting photo story on towercrane operators. The angle makes my stomach a little woozy. At least the weather was nice today, as usual.]

== Photographic Intuition Leads to Cheap Booty ==

I remember going to the Swap Meet in Pomona when I was a kid. To me, the Swap Meet held the same weight as a trip to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, or even Lion Country Safari (yeah, I go back that far). Among other articles there were acres and acres of other people's unwanted junk. I remember a lot of first-purchases at the Swap Meet; a metal Honda push scooter, my three first bootleg tapes, License to Ill, the Fat Boys are Back, and King of Rock, I think possibly my first camera too. I can remember a Voltron 110 camera made to look like an SLR purchased form there and the majority of my lost keychain 110 camera collection.
My mom first took me to the Swap Meet as a 6-year-old, now I'm nearly 26 and find D.C.'s Eastern Market to be another another-man's-treasure outlet. The executor of my father's estate, Paul Dodds, once tried to insult me by telling me I spend money like a woman. (He was mad because the gravestone I bought my Dad cost more than he recommended.) Maybe I inherited it from my Mom?
Some of my favorite purchases at Eastern Market have been African masks from Mali, a strange, metal feline-representation straight out of Americana, and a too-much-meat sandwich from the produce market. My most favorite purchase from Eastern Market? ... a $5 Argus Model A camera. (It sold for $12.50 new in the late '30s.) I bought it a few months ago but didn't realize its importance to photographic history until yesterday ... in fact, until then I didn't even know it was a 35mm camera. It turns out, when it was made, way back in the '30's, it was one of the first cameras to accept Kodak's new 35mm cartridge, the same 35mm film you can buy today.


[This is my Argus Model A camera. Its body was made from the popular plastic material bakelite between 1936 and 1941. It was also around this time African art and cultural artifacts were becoming more and more popular among trendy Westerners.]