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After taking these pictures at Straus Park (not the fire escape ones), I sat in a bar with a million TVs and there was nothing but snow news: talking to plowers, motorists, sledding kids, moms at the shopping mall and why the hell are they at the shopping mall, and mayors talking about how many plows are out there. You’d think we’ve never seen snow and that plowers fly south when bad weather comes. Two websites I looked at recently:

• A fantastic archive of American photography focusing on California suburbia.
• Go on chatroulette and see if someone pays attention to you for more than a second. Probably helps if you’re a girl.

Update (Feb. 28, 2010): Added 19 more pix (after the first six) to this gallery taken during the next two snow blizzards of Feb. 16 and Feb. 25-27.

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Sometimes it feels like a Brakhage movie. In this one, Stan glued moth wings onto film.

Of course, eventually it will all (not) look like Washington D.C.’s subway with all the renovation going on.

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I like the pool of melted foam plastic under the passenger door. I was going to take more pictures but the cop on duty didn’t want me to. It’s not like I work for the insurance company.

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Scared by how completely insane the right is (read the comments too) and also scared by the left being completely blind.

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I saw Avatar with maybe nine other people in the theater which is not a big deal. Lots of movies screen all the time in big theaters for a few of us. I enjoyed it but have some misgivings which I’m sure have been talked about in one review or another. I was disturbed by the premise that the we were there in the first place to steal and ended up fighting ourselves because a renegade had a conscience. What if a soldier in the Iraq War had fallen in love with an Iraqi woman, and decided he’s sick of bombing and fighting for oil, and turned on his officers? An occupying army sets up all kinds of conflict and storytelling but the idea of an occupying army is wrong. As Howard Zinn noted, all war is against children.

Another thing that bothered me is the coming onslaught of 3D crap to our movie theaters. Most of these movies will be more Manichean fantasies with good and evil prototypes who duke it out. 99.9% of the time, the good side wins. If they don’t, definitely catch the sequel. Life isn’t so simple and these movies are so far from reality, they may as well sell you the hibernation pod that goes with the movie at the theater. Obviously, the killer app for 3D technology is porn which will be in your home theater very soon. The movie studios should keep trying to change the world, not enable us to continually escape from it.

Ghost Boast: I took the photos during the boring parts of Avatar. 15 second exposures.

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Hulu has two free documentaries which are necessary viewing whether you’re conservative, liberal, radical, communist, or an independent weirdo.

• The Corporation – The beginning of “too big to fail” which is anathema to capitalism. It starts out sounding heavily left and critical but gives a fairly balanced view. The film was made by Canadians.
• Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky’s voice is usually censored from mainstream media which is anathema to free speech. Interestingly, also largely made by Canadians.

You have to put up with ads but that’s free TV. Feel free to discuss anything in these documentaries here or on hulu.

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The only way to skillfully steer this program is with practice.

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(This photo means a lot to me because at the time it was taken, a friend was inside.)

On Obama’s SOTU speech, he sounded good but he is a tool of the village. He could have remade politics in his first year but he chose status quo. The U.S. presidential pulpit is more powerful than the pope’s and he chose to rubberstamp a lot of what George W. Bush did. The financial industry is lord because of their bonuses and political contributions and even taxes on those bonuses. They rule because money equals speech and those with the most money speak the loudest. Given the continuing war obligations pledged, I don’t see how there is anything left for the American infrastructure, energy, and job creation talked about.

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I picked this up from the comments of a Huffpo story about a court ruling that you can’t fire someone over a slice of cheese.

Unions are un-American. That is why the American worker will go lower and lower to be a good American. Working for peanuts is the American dream, from dishwasher to millionaire. Over here in Europe we have socialism; that is really bad. You are fully covered health insurance wise, get 4-6 week mandatory fully paid vacations and other goodies. While we travel the world in our free time, the American worker has to have up to 2 jobs to make ends meet. As long as you keep believing whatever bull you are fed, you will be happy in the land of the fee and the home of the slave.

But wait! This is America where Fox News is the most trusted news source and Jay Leno’s funniest [saddest] bits are when he’s jay walking.

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Here are more shots of nobody on Broadway by Columbia University last night.

I’m selling my bass rig on craigslist and I got three responses from people offering to pay with a cashier’s check. SCAM! Since I live next door to a bank and another two banks are within two blocks, I’m tempted to accept the check and then walk over to the banks to see if the check is legitimate. Ideally, a cop or two would be handy to make a fraud arrest. They might be holding guns though. That would be weird.

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I was over by the East River today towards the end of the day when the light is pretty good. I took around 60 shots and edited them down to this gallery. While us folks on the far Upper West Side have Riverside Park, the far Upper East Siders have Wards Island on a very limited basis. Ha ha!

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Another friend from California is moving back on Wednesday. I’m the only one I know who ever stayed in New York. I may have to move back myself if I can’t find steady work soon. I could sublet my apartment and focus on better Photoshop! And better website design! Still, it’s quite the letdown to have to move back in with your parents. I can blame the recession but plenty of people are getting by fine and thriving. Sigh.

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