Manhole

Manhole

I'm holding here a book
Notable, but not the greatest
Stolen for me by the latest
In a long line of thieves
And I'm just about to drop it
Down that manhole of memories
When I realize it doesn't bother me
Like love's mementos usually do
And I look up to see who's different here
The latest me or the latest you
Course, you're the kind of guy who doesn't lie
He just doctors everything
Chooses some unassuming finger
And quietly moves his wedding ring
Who rewrites his autobiography
For any pretty girl who'll sing
But you can't fool the queen, baby
Cuz I married the king

And maybe it was I who betrayed his majesty
With no opposite reality
Like a puddle with no reflection
Of the sky or the trees
But after my dreaded beheading
I tied that sucker back on with a string
And I guess I'm pretty different now
Considering

I kissed you on the street that night
On the far side of four
But I didn't like the taste
In my mouth or yours
And ignoring the persona you wore for my benefit
For once I had the balls to call it
Just call it
But a lesson must be lived
In order to be learned
And the clarity to see and stop this now
That is what I've earned

And maybe it was I who betrayed his majesty
With no opposite reality
Like a puddle with no reflection
Of the sky or the trees
But after my dreaded beheading
I tied that sucker back on with a string
And I guess I'm pretty different now
Considering

I'm holding here a book
Notable, but not the greatest
Stolen for me by the latest
In a long line of thieves
And I'm just about to drop it
Down that manhole of memories
When I realize it doesn't bother me
And heartache not so dire
Cuz I looked up to see integrity
Finally won over desire

Ani DiFranco

watch this uTube flick from Ani, (click on her name) and you will understand why I have sympathy for her

I need volunteers

I haven't done a photo session with a model in quite a while. This bothers me a bit, because time flies by and the exuberance of such an event always makes you smile, in a good way... and I miss those smiles.
My next project would be situated out in nature, natural environment with natural nudity.
Mingling stones, seawater and shrubs.
If you know anybody or you are willing to volunteer yourself, we will share the laughter, crackers and cheese and the champaign. The location can be anywhere, but I prefer it to be on the island if at all possible.
I also will consider male volunteers, it is just so darn difficult to make their bodies glow... maybe something I have to still conquer. Mapplethorpe's imagery and photographs are just hard to live up to. I am tempted these days to say goodbye to digital imagery and focus on medium or large analog format. We'll see! Anyway, line up some volunteers. The results, you can keep and share them later, enjoying your youthful spirit with others.

Let's simplify World Wars

World War 2	World War 3
WI.
Commonly Believed Cause of WW2 Three years of mounting international tension - encompassing the Spanish Civil War, the Anschluss (union) of Germany and Austria, Hitler's occupation of the Sudetenland and the invasion of Czechoslovakia - provided the setting for a likely world war. In March,1939, Hitler demanded that Poland allow Germany to annex the Nazi-dominated free city of Danzig, and that Germany be given control over a 25-mile wide strip of land between Germany and East Germany, created by the Versailles Treaty to give Poland access to the Baltic Sea. Attempts by the Allies to persuade Hitler to negotiate with the Poles were unsuccessful. After signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact, which safeguarded his eastern border, Hitler sent his air and land forces into Poland on September 1, 1939. Warsaw and other Polish cities were bombed. Britain and France declared war on Germany (September 3) when Germany ignored their demands to cease its attack and withdraw.	Commonly Believed Cause of WW3 In his State of the Union address and other speeches, President Bush attempted to articulate the reasons for going to war with Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein. Essentially the three main objectives: (1) to eliminate Saddam's weapons of mass destruction (WMD); (2) to diminish the threat of international terrorism; and (3) to promote democracy in Iraq and surrounding areas. However, many believed the war was the administration's goal of preventing OPEC's use of the Euro as an oil transaction currency standard. In order to pre-empt OPEC, the US needed to gain geo-strategic control of Iraq along with its 2nd largest proven oil reserves. Many claimed the war was illegal (didn't obtain UN sanction) and still others state the war was about gaining control of valuable Iraqi oil.
I	The Real Cause of WW3 The Third World War was foreseen to be between Zionism and Islam. This prediction is incredible in many ways, beginning with the understanding that this prediction of a third world war occurred in 1870, a time when Israel did not exist as a nation, and when no one believed it would ever exist again. The vision predicted that out of the smoke and destruction of this World War, a new leader will stride triumphantly, to put an end to the War, and to finally give the embattled world "Peace and Safety". Interestingly, to back up this prediction, a report was released in December 1996 by The U.S. House of Representatives' Task Force On Terrorism And Unconventional Warfare. It was entitled, 'Approaching the New Cycle of Arab-Israeli Fighting'. In brief, the report tells us that such nations as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Egypt are planning and building for a final, devastating war of annihilation against Israel. This includes acquiring nuclear, biological and chemical weapons (NBC) in a mix with conventional weapons, e.g. tanks, aircraft, and soldiers, all in massive, overwhelming numbers."
WW2 Ended September 2, 1945	WW3 Ended Only time will tell...
Duration of WW2 6 years and 1 day	Duration of WW3 Only time will tell...
Casualties in WW2 Soviet Union 25,568,000 China 11,324,000 Germany 7,060,000 Poland 6,850,000 Japan 1,806,000 Yugoslavia 1,700,000 Romania 985,000 France 810,000 Greece 520,000 USA 495,000 Austria 480,000 Italy 410,000 Great Britain 388,000 Holland 250,000 Belgium 85,000 Finland 79,000 Canada 42,000 India 36,000 Australia 29,000 Albania 28,000 Spain 22,000 Bulgaria 21,000 New Zealand 12,000 Norway 10,000 South Africa 9,000 Luxembourg 5,000 Denmark 4,000 TOTAL 59,028,000	Casualties in WW3 If the World Trade Center attack on September 11 2001 is considered the trigger required to start World War 3, a total of 3,000 should be added to the figures below. Source: www.september11victims.com The death count (of mainly Iraqi civilians) so far, updated daily. Source: www.iraqbodycount.org. Get the latest allied fatality count since the invasion of Baghdad here (3,252 as of January 1, 2007).
Financial Cost of WW2 $2,091.3 billion (adjusted for 1990 dollar values) Source: www.cwc.lsu.edu	Financial Cost of WW3 $532,159,354,169 To see more details, click here. Source: target="_blank" href="http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/wastebasket/nationalsecurity/2003-03-21costoI

I purposely left out the statistics of WW1. That war was concluded in a completely irresponsible treaty, signed in Versailles, France, which contributed to the then Weimar Republic in Germany to fail, creating the vacuum for Hitler to gain control as foreseen in a prophetic way by the then British foreign Minister who participated as delegate in the treaty of Versailles.
It has been a train of though, if not policy, by Woodrow Wilson (1st WW) and then the Eisenhower and the Roosevelt administration (2nd WW) to engage in countries affairs deliberately, pressed by either dreams of world domination or issues pressed upon by the ever so mighty oil cartel. Pearl Harbor was known to be attacked by Japan, but they did not warn or inform the base. Pearl Harbor was the key-stone that America officially could enter into the meddling of WW2. So the "sacrifice" was deliberate to achieve such goals.
Now that Bush (just an other oil cartel lackey) has endorsed the meddling involvement in Iraq and the Middle East, this avenue of thought prevails, against all decelerations and warnings from the "founding fathers" of the constitution, namely George Washington, to not interfere in other nations problems without good cause.
The more I think of how we got engaged deliberately into a Third World War Scenario by the Bush family, the more I have to puke.

The middle class has been wiped out by US legislation and their somber politicians, the US dollar is worth shit and the barrel of oil is $140 and rising. The housing market is not in a slump, it barely exists and hence the once famous diversity within US population has come to a "have and have not" status. Time to take some heavy duty drugs purchased around the corner at the local crack house - or else start WW3, and the latter has already begun...

If the US-American people would be illuminated and had real guts, they should start a revolt (as the founding fathers did with England) by eliminating all tax payments to the government. Then the sharks would starve to death and the pricks and princess/es of oil would have nowhere to go.
Wouldn't that be a "brave new world" in a new dimension?

As always, keep cheerful and do the best you can locally.
Cheers, Zee.

I don't understand

How is it possible that people in Zimbabwe need to vote at all?
First Mugabe intimidates the competition so no one is left in the race, then he orders (now being the sole candidate of choice) the common folks to "vote" for him. What's that got to do with voting? You got one party, a one man situation and you are being asked, or sometimes threatened, to vote for the present boss?
That Mugabe guy is hitting 90 years soon. Time to declare him an Alzheimer-baby!

I will admit that I don't understand all that much about African politics and African countries, but the woman who I taught clay modeling to, who did her teacher training in the US to become a Waldorf teacher abroad, taught me and enlightened me of how village life actually works in Zimbabwe. Listening to her story and comparing it to Mugabe's aspirations, I came to the conclusion that Mugabe is just an other enemy of the people, the enemy of the people he actually is supposed to serve.

I am sorry my friends

I have no desire to take pictures these days,
I don't crave to rhyme a verse,
nor speak about shitty politicians or other religions.

I just live, and I have little to say
while working my ass off to get ahead.

I don't think this is entirely bad,
considering the circumstances.

So forgive me for not posting anything fancy -
those days will come back when I shout out: NOW!
____________________________________________________________


Epilogue:
It has been a strange early summer. Since weeks it is warm or quite hot on the east-coast in the mornings, followed by thunderstorms every afternoon. This makes me think that this could become a sub-tropical enclave.
Time to plant palm-trees and avocados. But what will happen throughout the winter months, destroy them all again? What a vicious cycle.
_____________________________________________________________

P.S.:Will be working on the island during July

dog days

The dog days are here to stay, they all say
nothing you'll hear but an occasional bark
when people sleepwalk astray
and talk into the dark
while I work away
stop right here
no shark
no fear.

The glitz of humanity has lost its sanity
deeper and deeper we creep and flow
to places of hiding, nowhere to go
sometimes I call this vanity
when little is said
as of today -
pray.

It is time to launch a new revolution, right now!
and I don't say this lightly, nor with shame
oil is running out, a superb smelly fluid
who are we going to to blame,
the masters of the cows?
I would become a druid
now, just right now,
if that would help.

Dog days are haunting me, nothing to do but work my daily shift
the better world is around the corner, so I've been told
but as you can see from this verbal rift
my soul has been ravenously soled,
ominous, before the final shift
from these days of old.
Keep barking.
_______________________________________________________________

...we didn't start the fire

sums it all up. Billy Joel on uTube.

heat wave and sensuality

Mid' nineties Fahrenheit and super humidity for three days in a row, does it to you. Time to strip and take off unnecessary layers. I didn't have photo opportunities today, so for the spirit of the situation I threw some older pics I took onto the studio floor, and here they are...
The top two were part of an exhibition. The prints 20x30 inches, taken through a window reflecting clouds and trees as well. Hence the "cut off" head of the second one (I actually sold three of them for a fair price).
The lower two were taken in front of my studio a couple of summers ago, spontaneously. The girl then - is now a content mother-woman. Time flies by.

In general I love the human body, and I have no complicated puritanic mental blockage preventing me to record it, either in stone, paintings or photographs. Nudity should be surrounded by an aura of beauty and pride, nothing else will do.

have your treat of choice

Have your cake and eat it too! The Aussie celebrated his 30th something birthday. A day earlier he told me: "Before you leave the island for a few weeks, you will pay me the $80 dollars you owe me, or I will kill you!" Good old Crocodile Dundee speak.
I payed him of course. Next time I hire help it will be a woman though, still dangerous, but perhaps less threatening. The one I have in mind is not in any of these pictures. I do not wish to give my secrets away. But all I can tell you is that she will be ready and ambitious, a good worker and a fine person to be with, eager to get the job done without them death threats (jokingly or not...) But in defense of David, the Aussie, he is a great guy - so is his native American Mikmak woman! (the one with the cake). After all, my blessings as a witness helped them to get married. A fabulous couple indeed!