prod & ponder

In a perfect world, I’d be able to take and share pictures of the cute kids who stop by in costume to pick up candy tonight. They’d be adorable. You’d smile and laugh. Maybe their parents could log in and get some nice snapshots to remember the fun. But we live in a world where pointing your camera at a stranger’s child is likely to get you assaulted. Forget the boogey man, ghouls, and goblins. The really terrifying monster to watch out for: strangers! (Boo!)

I mean, didn’t you see the latest batch of Virgnina political ads? Apparently those crazy potential predators are freaking everywhere, and the danger they pose is every sensible mother’s greatest worry for their child. Poor education, poverty, malnutrition, and the myriad of other more likely and pressing risks children face? That sort of pap would just be the wingnut left trying to distract us from the real pressing crisis: strangers are everywhere, and they’re hunting our young. Ohh… and I almost left out the crucial part out about us not killing enough of them. Wouldn’t want to leave out the “safer world through more killings” plank of the platform.

Now just to be clear…
People valuing protecting children is a very good thing.
Parents straying on the side of some over-protection, well that’s totally understandable.
And being quicker to trust with those you know than with those you don’t? Well, duh.

But I can’t help thinking that maybe we’ve gone just a little bit overboard, and then some, in these ghoulish and continually hyped narratives we have floating around about the many perils of strangers. All this fear. Sure it gets votes. Sure it makes for splashy headlines that get media outlets the readers and viewers their advertisers crave. But we’re terrorizing ourselves beyond sense, at the cost of all the benefits that more trust and community can bring.

So yeah, no pictures of trick-or-treaters. And I’m ok with that. But just for the record, when I think of things to get really frightened by on this spooky holiday, the first place I look isn’t going to be toward my fellow man.
… Unless they’re zombies. Those damn brain-munching zombies will get you every time.

Stopped by Toledo Lounge last night to have a beer and take some photos.

Seeking Irony posted a photo of a sign she ran across at a DC bus stop that read:
“Welcome to DC. Wow, you condescended to leave the suburbs and visit the city… well, the “nice” part of the city, anyway. Wouldn’t want to see the poverty and misery, that might spoil the day or awaken your conscience. All you want is a nice relaxing meal. And, as far as you know, that is what you are going to get. Guess you didn’t see the movie ‘Fight Club.’ But we did. We are your kitchen staff, and we are laughing where you can’t see us.”

Someone wrote that and accused others of being condescending? Clearly smug, snarky, and daft condescension knows no bounds. I dearly hope the nitwit who taped this up got papercuts, lots of them.

When did this new brand of narcissistic, self-imagined (but not) “activism” start getting so popular anyway? The “I don’t really want to try and persuade people to change as much as I want to get across the fact that I’m hipper, smarter, and have better politics than them” agenda?

I mean sure, why not forget trying to really help people in dire economic situations and change the systems that push and keep them there? Let’s just use their plight as a ticket to ride on the self-righteous pony.

Did I mention the sign was even printed in color, with faux stencil artwork at the bottom? To borrow from Dorothy Parker, “This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.”

Everyone was all hyped up about the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show last week, for naught. If you ask me, the show to catch was Brandon Butler, Portastatic, and John Vanderslice at the Black Cat. Fantastic.

You can look over a larger set of my photos from the night here.

Last night was the DC Flickr group’s monthly meetup, held at Wonderland, which I have to say serves up one hell of a tasty foot-long chilli cheese dog. Anyhow, here’s my minutes from the meeting…

Flickr Meetup Minutes
Well I’d say the meeting was a success.

But that I mean…
People were there, they had cameras, beer was consumed, and pictures were taken.

Topics included…
. All the dc flickr f’rs who are traveling to beautiful and exotic corners of the world that we aren’t at.

. What would you do for a Klondike Bar? I’m talking a ‘hella good klondike bar here. aka: How much spending is too much when it comes to this photography obsession? Do we even believe in the concept of “too much”? How can we better work the IRS to have more money left over to feed our photography corporate overlords?

. Bathroom towels: necessities or evil breaders of lint that forever torments our drying negatives.

Consensus truths we seemed to arrive at:
* Super saturating images does not ramp them up “to eleven”

* Desaturating does not a true b&w photo make.

* Macro camera mode does not mystically only produce macro photos.

* Downhill skiing requires kickass tunes.

Future Business:
1. We didn’t get around to organizing a photo walk. We did however have an official impromptu photowalk to the bathroom. No, not together, stop thinking like that.

It turns out that there really is very limited good photography material in a bar’s bathroom (there was a surprising & funny amount of overlap in shots found). Sooo… Maybe we should think of a more spacious and interesting location for a group photo walk. Ideas? Anyone? Speak up! Don’t be shy about your ideas. Look, we were taking photos in Wonderland’s bathroom. The bar ain’t exactly high here.

2. For a change of scenery and to mix things up, possibly the next meetup, or one in the near future, should be in (don’t freak out here)… Northern VA. Maybe Arlington/Clarendon, which really is just Occupied DC anyway (dear VA: no takebacks).

Nothing permanent. The DC Flickr group is DC after all. (And hell, I’m hiking in from MD.) But change can be fun, particularly when we don’t have to like it and we get to go back to the way things were really, really quickly right afterwards. I’ve also been assured that Northern VA has beer.

If people balk too heavily about this and there’s much caterwauling about DC urban sensibilities, then we should at least consider a photowalk in Northern VA. Those NoVA folks trek in for these things a lot (more than many DC residents *cough*) and deserve a break. And they’ve got badass motorcycles (Bodhi). And trucks. Trucks with way more horsepower than any sane human being should ever desire in a truck. Don’t worry f1.4, I’m not going to name names.

That’s it.

The meeting was adjourned when everyone, you know, left.

I finally made it out to Takoma Park and Savory Cafe without getting sidetracked along the way. Commented on and graded more papers; 35 students x 4-6 pages each really adds up–who knew?

I’ve played with wide and normal lenses on the new camera, so it was time to tinker with a telephoto:

Agenda from Saturday…

In the morning: grade papers. Lots and lots, and lots and lots, and then a few more. Not a particularly photogenic scene, so nothing to show from that.

Drop my photos off at Knew Gallery in Georgetown and then wander around to take new photos, like this one:

Go to friends Greg and Sharon’s going away party. I’ve known Greg since I was twelve years old, twelve!, and you can’t hope to find better people than Sharon. So no, I’m not actually very happy about them moving away. But I can’t fault them for their plans; they’re expatriating to Canada (Vancouver).

Head back into Georgetown to catch the tail end of the late-night Flickr gallery show.

What to do on a Friday night? Take photos of alleyways… duh!