four photographers

---

Jann Bhogal: Young boxers in training; the Paris Metro; Racetrack habitués; Marwali Shepherds. A 28 years old photographer who is "...still addicted to the silver grains which gives that rough and textured look."

---

Tina Kazakhishvili. Portraits in abandoned buildings; residents in former Soviet mental hospitals; Intentional double exposures. Haunting, enigmatic images from a Georgian photo artist as she gives us uncompromising glimpses of the world around her.

---

Ovidiu Gordan. A visual photographic journal is what artist photographer Ovidiu Gordan appears to have us "read". Gordan's objectives are to photograph things of the country, to provide representation.
    In an interview in Art/Act magazine [text in Romanian] Gordan notes the difference ~ and challenges ~ between working in film from digital. Among them is that with film, you have to wait to see the image, and that changes one's interpretation, and even how one accepts what images to use.

---

Michael O'Brien. From his website: "O’Brien has photographed subjects ranging from presidents to small-town heroes. His candid, unapologetic style captures the dignity and humanity of his subjects, whether they be celebrities or “ordinary” people."
    A collaboration between O'Brien [photos] and balladeer Tom Waits [poems] Hard Ground, presents to us the very human face of homeless peoples, has been published in book form and is available through various booksellers.

---

All images above are © of each individual artist. Permission should be sought from the artists themselves if interested in purchase or commercial use.

coming out in the military

Told to me by a friend

---

When I was in the service a guy fell in love with me
or at least lust

We were racquet ball partners; newly formed friends
One day while in the showers he abruptly walked out, left the gym and disappeared

I went back to my dorm room and went to sleep

Later that night he burst into my room , drunk, saying how he loved me ~ crying actually

I tried to reason with him but he was pretty hysterical.
we went to the beach to talk since it was very dangerous to speak of such things in the dorm
I told him I wasn't gay and there was no chance

He wanted to die

On the way to the beach he tried to run in front of a passing train
I tackled him on the gravel next to the tracks
we then walked to the beach (I was pretty pissed at him actually for all of the theatrics, but sad for him at the same time)

When we got to the beach he wouldn't stop so I hit him a few times, not hard at all, but I needed him to know it wasn't going to work

He cried more

I felt terrible...

...but I left

I saw him a few times later, but we never talked
(btw my strikes did not leave any marks)

Q: Do you know what happened to him?

No
He was a nice guy

I understand now the time of his life and what he was going through
I think his father was military and put pressure on him to join, IIRC

Also note that at that time in the military the AFOSI was hot on investigating gays
it was very dangerous to be caught with anyone suspected of being gay. FWIW, this was in the fall of '83

My drinking buddies for a time were my squadron commander, a female lieutenant who "looked" dykish but was really into men, and a girl we called "Miami" ~ who was gay ~ and was being actively investigated by the AFOSI

I remember he spoke of being embarrassed about getting a partial erection while we were in the showers (I never noticed, but had he stayed I might have)

My main motivation for hitting him was tough love in that it really bothered me but I (and he) couldn't afford all of the noise and drama he was producing at the time

I cared, but in that setting there was nothing else to do

To be clear ~ when I say it bothered me, i mean it bothered me to hit him

Video ~ undertow, by Ria Krause

Undertow from Ria Krause on Vimeo.

Simultaneously serene and chilling.

websites of interest

Pushed to the Left and Loving It: A self-described grandmother from Canada, her blog profile states: "I am a Baby Boomer, having grown up through many periods of social upheaval. However, I believe that as a nation we have moved forward and I can no longer simply sit back and watch it be destroyed."
     Her site has won recognition, as she opines about politics, health care, the environment and how powerful extremist neo-cons in the USA and elsewhere subvert the principles of democracy.
     Although it has been a very long time since I lived up by the fluid border that is the boundary between Canada and the USA, I make no secret (while at the same time not much talking about it) that I find myself more culturally Canadian than American.
     She also writes about Victoriana, Women in Canada and dolls. I'm proud to post a link to her informative site.

---

Mental Floss:
     This archival edition focuses on four mental/medical experiments gone awry. Three are no doubt clear examples of torture; two of the three are conducted on other mammals than human beings (dolphins and fighting bulls). One is self-inflicted.

     The dolphin experiments conducted by none other than psychedelic researcher John Lilly, presumably before he had an epiphany that what he was doing to cetaceans was clearly wrong.
     The human "study", conducted by social psychologist Milton Rokeach wanted to test the strength of self-delusion. So, he gathered three patients, all of whom identified themselves as Jesus Christ, and made them live together in the same mental hospital in Michigan for two years. He wrote a book about it, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti [later made into a film]. Twenty years later, Rokeach renounced his methods, writing, “I really had no right, even in the name of science, to play God and interfere around the clock with their daily lives.”
     The "self-inflicted" experiment is the tale of a man, Michel Siffre, a 23-year-old French geologist, who chose to sequester himself in an ice cave, conducting an experiment on himself. For two months in 1962, Siffre lived in total isolation, buried 375 feet inside a subterranean glacier in the French-Italian Maritime Alps, with no clocks or daylight to mark time.
     Siffre later re-conducted this experiment in 1972, and again, in the year 2000, when he was 62 years of age.

---

Science Codex:

ARTICLE ~ How the brain encodes memory.
     Senior author Kenneth S. Kosik, co-director and Harriman Chair in Neuroscience Research, at UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute. Kosik is a leading researcher in the area of Alzheimer's disease.
     "One of the most important processes is that the synapses –– which cement those memories into place –– have to be strengthened," said Kosik. "In strengthening a synapse you build a connection, and certain synapses are encoding a memory.
     "Those synapses have to be strengthened so that memory is in place and stays there. Strengthening synapses is a very important part of learning. What we have found appears to be one part of how that happens."

---

IMAGE CREDITS: 1- Ninjamatics' Canadian Web Awards; 2- Self-phofo of Michael Siffre, from Cabinet Magazine; 3- Sourav Banerjee, posted on Science Codex

favorite musicians ~ haslinger

From Wikipedia:  Paul Haslinger was born in Linz, Upper Austria, Austria. After studying classical music in Vienna, Austria, Haslinger joined the German electronic music group, Tangerine Dream in 1986. During the following 5 years he recorded a total of 15 albums with the group, participated in 4 international tours and collaborated on a number of soundtracks, including Miracle Mile, Near Dark, and Shy People. The soundtrack album for the Miramar film release Canyon Dreams by director Jan Nickman, earned Haslinger his first Grammy nomination in 1991. Read more here

And for something more recent, Be-Bop in Baghdad:

poetry ~ Companion

How intimate the lesser bodies of the universe
Our thoughts lie close
                  well-nigh a billion miles away.
United only by the dim reflections presented
                  wavelength-aeons apart;
Friends by telescope.


Knowing only, as we do, the simple names of elements
How is it
                  we pretend
                  we know more than this?
I, voyeur, window-peek by microscope
                  measuring memories in angstroms
                  trying to place affection on a grid
A quantitative affair.


Plucking compassion from a shelf of chemicals
Apply it with sterility
                  Earthen values shant sully
                  Cerebral sensuality.
To you, those million light years away
                  How can I convey this:
I want nothing but your kind approval.

nature ~ tree climbing

Collage: Turkeys Bearing Arms

Doomsday Preppers: Wood Powered Cars