Boats are also easy to photograph… they dont move and cant run you over when you’re on the street….

As per earlier, old people have very limited attention ranges, which makes them easy prey to photographers on the escalator next to them.

Outside of the Ludwig Museum in Budapest.  Dad & I went to see a great exhibit of Robert Capa’s work.

Capa’s war photography featured some of the most memorable pictures of all time.  Check out some of his stuff here:

Capa on PBS

Every flea market has a ‘camera’ shop.  This one was full of great looking Leica-like cameras.  Unfortunately, I’ve got enough collections of random crap, so I did not buy one.

The seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes said, “I put forth a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire for power after power, that ceaseth only in death.”  This view of human nature led Hobbes to favor any kind of government, however authoritarian, that would keep the peace by blocking what he thought was the natural inclination of people to do violence to one another.  He talked about “the dissolute condition of masterless men” that required “a coercive power to tie their hands from rapine and revenge.”

Beliefs about human nature thus become self-fulfilling prophecies.  If you believe human beings are naturally violent and bad, you may be persuaded to think (although not required to think) that it is “realistic” to be that way yourself.  But is it indeed realistic (meaning, “I regret this, but it’s a fact ….”) to blame war on human nature.

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

Kissinger approved the bombing and invasion of Cambodia, an act so disruptive of the delicate Cambodian society that it can be considered an important factor in the rise of the murderous Pol Pot regime in that country.  After he and the representatives of North Vietnam had negotiated a peace agreement to end the war in late 1972, he approved the breaking off of the talks and the brutal bombardment of residential districts in Hanoi by the most ferocious bombing plane of the time, the B-52.

Kissinger’s biographers describe his role:  “If he had disapproved of Nixon’s policy, he could have argued against the Cambodian attack.  But there is no sign that he ever mustered his considerable influence to persuade the President to hold his fire.  Or that he ever condisered resigning in protest.  Quite the contrary, Kissinger supported the policy.”

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

One of the important biographies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is titled Roosvelt: The Lion and the Fox. Roosevelt deceived the American public at the start of World War II, in September and October 1941, misstating facts about two instances involving German submarines and American destroyers (claiming that the destroyer Greer, which was attacked by a German submarine, was on an innoscent mission when in fact it was tracking the sub for the British navy).  A historian sympathetic to him wrote, “Franklin Roosevelt repeatedly deceived the American people during the period before Pearl Harbor …. He was like the physician who must tell the patient lies for the patient’s own good.”

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

With my first full year in the books, I’ve decided to try a new direction with this site for 2010. Basically, my idea is this: I read a lot of books. This year i read Howard Zinn’s Declarations of Independence about three times and I’ve decided to use some of his writings as the captions of my pictures (despite the fact that there will be very little relationships between the two). The point is – there is stuff going on that we just need to pay more attention to and we need to better understand our rights as citizens and as human beings.

Additionally, at least the first three months of the year will feature my travel photography, not for any reason other than I have a bunch and some of it is good. I’m definitely not tired of messing with local hipsters and their worship of subpar music and ill fashion senses, I’m just going to go a different way for a while.

You can read more about it in my updated ‘about’ section here: 2010

In honor of the recent release of Felt 3 – a shot of Murs from a recent show at the Record Bar.  I had to mule my camera in to get this shot, but it was worth the risk.

Additionally – great musician, massive tour bus, amazing hair.

This poor girl hasnt looked down yet.  Otherwise, she’d be thumbing the safety off on her pepper spray and blowing her rape whistle.