Noah's Arc

I hope you have better weather where you are...
Don't worry, I am not thinking of the Olympics today, the contortions of human flesh in speed do not attract me anymore, I am too old for this. It's all a game anyway, but not very Olympic in nature.
Back in the days, ah - I do not wish to go there.
But today it is all about swimsuit-technology.
Boring.
And as it rains here, as it has not ever rained here before, I start to comprehend the motto of "global warming". Basically what global-warming does in my observations, is to create extreme weather patterns all around the world, both locally and nationally (or continentally for that matter).
If we don't watch out, a Noah's Arc will not subsidize this time around.
I don't think a spaceship would be an adequate alternative either.

Lindenwood bowl 1983

For sale for $1800 - uhps, oh no - I'm just kidding; it's not for sale. But I am always open to take comissions!
Was that the point? No! I wanted you to observe the lines, follow the lines and touch the curves. It is a simple bowl, nevertheless it aims to capture the theme of giving, taking and containing. Linden wood, sparse in the United States.
Some of my work, intuitively or not, embraces the forms of the human body, you could say this is an other word for "organic".
This bowl is an example of this.

Summer in the city

... hot summer in the city

The link above brings you to a fine dance performance on uTube.



'Pilobolus'' is an amazing dance group, where sculptural form and movement join as one entity. The link I placed is a clip which is done behind a curtain, shadow shapes.

<--- they actually can do this stuff for real (picture), it ain't fake!

Help me!

Help me clean up this mess, I will pay you $25 an hour. All you need to do is give me a hand. Some wall painting is involved with this. If you can handle that, be my guest.

24 hours later and no response -
Are you all saturated in doe? Is earning a little cash on the side your smallest concern in life? Well, so be it, I guess I am doomed to do it all alone again, seems to be my karma anyway.
But listen, I would have been perfectly fine to pay someone $12 an hour just to clean the brushes and tell me some stories why I'll work my ass off. Silence is silver, but conversation is gold.
It is seriously time for me to learn some Spanish.
A crew from the town came by the other day to cut tree limbs beside the road and I could hear them laugh, making jokes, plow through the day with light spirited hearts. Of course they were Mexicans!
Time to understand their lingo.
And despite contrary beliefs, they (the Mexicans) work hard for every penny they earn.

New York still rocks, whatever you say

I know, I posted these images before, albeit in a different format. I was going to post the whole history of the US at war since its conception after I listened to an interview of the blue-eyed house speaker Pelozzi this morning on the radio. She is so naive; she doesn't understand that the United States has been continuously at war throughout its existence and nothing seems to alter that fact. The US is comparable to the Mongols in that respect. She doesn't understand that "pulling out the troops in Iraq" means five or six military bases remaining and the largest embassy of any country in the world in Baghdad. She doesn't understand that peace is an obscure word you can only look up in the dictionary in the US.
So I was thinking of posting that continuous thread of wars and make it graphic and simple. While getting all my material lined up, I suddenly felt disconnected and my interest to do so faded.
The only solution I can see in the future for the US to succeed, is cutting the pie into pieces. Texas a country for themselves, as well as the East Coast, The West Coast and the Midwest.
So that makes four independent countries, or at least some kind of federation where Washington only plays a minor role.

...so please
lets take these broken hearts, and use
lets use only what we really need
you know we only have so little, so please
take these broken hearts and leave

Jack Johnson

this is not cynical or gloomy

A decade ago I walked the path of spiritual and sensual love. It was exhilarating, though when it ended, the affair almost broke my heart - physically!
Now she is pregnant and will marry her mate coming up in September. I never thought much of him in the past, but I corrected my mind in the present and embrace all his follies.
It is just odd how time flies by. I was her mentor once, send her to Germany to embrace a different culture, to learn things abroad. More or less I made her go, though she carries the stamina to do this quite well all by herself. Probably this was one of my least selfish moments in life, to let go, and to know that it is for the other persons good to do so as well.
In any case, I am going to her wedding to deliver my blessings - a journey through geographical space, time and also emotions. A journey to encompass past and future.

When I worked on the island the last few weeks, I stayed with a fisherman who had lost his son due to medical complications. It was his only son (or heir). This happened two years ago, and he is in grief ever since.
It is (retrospectively) a blessing to let someone go, but only willfully - and see that person then thrive and bloom to maturity down the road. The fisherman's loss on the other hand, is undoubtedly severe, while mine was a pathway of transformation and learning.

PS - I usually don't like to gossip about my state of soul too much, sometimes you do have to make exceptions...

episodes of dual entities

Lennon was wrong.
"Imagine" is not enough to save anything of value.
Lennon was wrong because he kept deducting from the equation until nothing was left to take away, you then end up with absolute zero content.
"I might be a dreamer", but there are different kinds of them...
"Living life in peace, aha -" very cute.
Paul's answer to peace and love was: "I wanna hold your hands" - better choice! And he didn't got shot dead for it either.
The Beatles still fascinate me now and then, a pivotal point of pop-culture in their times, still valid today.
Paul and John were the perfect twin. Once they had separated, the magic bond got broken. Paul grew a beer-belly and put out mediocre songs of overproduced stuff, and John was sitting in his living room in Manhattan with Yoko, recording these under-produced boring Lennonescian lullabies.

What does this have to do with Barrack Obama and John McCaine?
Absolutely nothing. They are just jet an other odd twin couple, and once they are separated, mean little to the common man.

"Live or let die" (Wings, Paul McCartney, song for the James Bond movie) sums that dualism up, and resembles McCaine's philosophy.

I don't know what Lennon would have said, because he is dead.
Maybe it would be, "you better run for your life, little girl - hide your head in the sand, little girl...
Is that Obama's philosophy?

We will never know, because for three decades the House of the Bushes and the House of the Clinton's ruled this merry country.

Time for a change, Obama declares in return. Very well, just don't you get yourself shot in the process, hit by bullets like all of the Kennedy's before your time.

Dualism is a tedious and obnoxious concept.
It is about time that we have at least three ore more viable parties participating in the USA.
After all, we claim to be "the" Democracy, not "that" Duocracy!

Pirates and fisherman

...some kind of explanation or story about this event will follow later.

--------------------------------



my goodness gracious, I just don't have the energy right now to give you the scope of all the details
Let me just say: The pirates took over this small island again. An annual event,,,

The game

The Olymic's, the Olympiad, the summer games.
How many of you have visited the gracious place of Olympia on the Peloponnese in Greece? Nevermind.
Now that thing is in Beijing.
What a bling.
This is actually a French invention, the modern Olympics that is. Some kind of liberal enthusiast with plenty of Pernod in his belly thought this out. I believe this was still in the 19th century. Anyhow, this dude was dreaming about people of all nations competing peacefully, "competing peacefully".... forget the wars, forget political struggles, forget animosity.
Dream on. History teaches us nothing.
Hitler did a good run on this one, he didn't even know that he had the pie (or pie) in the pot. The decision to hold the Summer Olympics in Berlin was done before he came to power. Being the bastard he was, he was going for the gravy.
Some forty years later comes the chance for redemption, in Munich. The stigma was supposed to be eradicated, and the German Nation neutralized and accepted fully to the global community.
It failed again.
Some Palestinian Muslim assholes shot and kidnapped Jewish athletes. In German fashion, they didn't get away with it. But the end result was: All were dead.
So that was the 70's. Let's go over to the 80's.
Russia, ohhps, the then Soviet Union at that time invades Afghanistan in 1979 (or thereabouts) ((I am not a living walking Encyclopedia, so there...)) - anyhow, it leads to the boycott of the US and some other nations of the Summer Olympics in Moscow 1980.
Ironic, considering the fact that the US embraces Afghanistan as a vital combat zone for its own troops nowadays.
It is funny to watch morale and borders change for the convenience of a few investors. All we can do is stare.
Now what about Beijing?
Is it going to have the same "democratizing" effect as it was in Seoul in South Korea back in the 90's? I strongly doubt it. But who am I to tell...

a letter to my brother

I am stuck on this island until the end of July ... willfully!
Got a cold yesterday and have some kind of "temperature" - haven't had that for ages (years). It's a funny feeling when you are all miserable and feel sorry for yourself. Don't worry, it is just minor. I was just not used to this stuff anymore.
Next weekend will be the Pirate Gathering on Greens Island, just across from where I am. Perhaps that will "erect" me, or in worst case scenario just create a simple erection, or none of the above. But it will be fun. There will be lots of music!! I am part of the organizing/welcoming committee, so despite my ancient age, I feel somewhat included ((bla, blah, blahh).
Painted the hull of my boat with some wicked toxic anti-fungal paint yesterday, so I am all good to go (maybe that's why I'm sick - all those copper nitrates seeping into my skin). I know there is such a thing as disposable gloves, but when you are on a mission, not even the head-master of hell can stop you, gloves or no gloves...
On the more delicate side, I scavenged a pretty fine Washburn nylon string acoustic guitar the other day, with a decent pick-up made in Finland (not China for a change). Fine craftsmanship and good sound for $140 and a twelve pack of beer. (It included a guitar stand and an awesome soft-case)

Life is good, as long as you keep tickling the toes of the muse!
Be well brother,
me.

White, Black and Red

So yes, I am in that sleazy bar up around 120th West side in Manhattan, the only bar around within walking distance from my "host family".
That was four years ago or so.
The manager/owner was Jordanian. Nice guy, interesting stories to tell. He used to be a tutor for a while in a school in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was still under the living.
Anyway, the bar had only three customers in the late afternoon. Him, me and and an other dude...
The situation changed aaround nine PM. The owner/manager called me to the kitchen and told me to stay put. The fun begun.
More and more ladies, with dubious motives, came in and changed their regular clothes into some kind of costumes in the kitchen, the bar filled up with people, a party in progress.
After a while I meant to leave, I had enough, the air was heavy and thick, so I tried to make my way to the exit through the crowd. "Hey white nigger, how are we doing today? You caught a glimpse of my woman, do you want to fuck her?" I just smiled and went back to the kitchen and asked the owner if there was an other exit, there is always an other exit. But right now and then there wasn't. So the owner, the Jordanian guy, plowed me through a bunch of black niggers to save the white nigger.

What I am trying to say here, I love niggers, no matter black or white, yellow or red.
So since this is on record now, I can go on and talk about Obama and why he should opt out of the race towards presidency. A lengthy intro to make a point, I know...

It is just so. I make my calculations with careful considerations. The economy is in shambles, the credit companies act like wolfs, the housing market is at loss, the Dollar is worth shit, oil prices will hit $200 a barrel before fall this year, heating will become a luxury next winter, food prices rise, so will unemployment.

No, it is not Armageddon. I wish to call it adjustment.
So why in all earth does a white nigger like me has to vote for a black nigger right now, in 2008/09? Why doesn't he vote republican instead, so the miss-lubed machinery of nowadays grinds it's own wheels to a halt, and let them Republican idiots take full blame for our present miserable situation, the economical and the ecological downfall.

The bottom line is, if McCaine wins the election - all he will inherit is hell, and I think this would be a fair finale to conclude the Republican dream. But for Obama, it would be death - and that would be no good. I want him to succeed in four years from now, not inherit the present hell-hole. That is, speaking as a wise white nigger, embracing the black one.

All the power to Obama, but as you see - it's a tricky, if not an unsolvable situation!

Red, Blue and White

This is a spread of the paper USA-Today on July 1st. I don't think "most of Americans" conjure to more oil drilling, that is just not so. I believe they find condolences inhaling several company plans to reduce dependency on oil.

Putting little petty holes into here or there, siphoning up an other drop, means nothing.
It is such an banal struggle, the world can not function on scavengers. And so the US has officially become a Third World country as of today. But this is not the time to bail out - yet.
Take the survey on the left if you have the energy, or else enjoy red, blue and white ... and dream on.






Oh jeah, the pictures are from my garden, but what might be more interesting is, that after Bush got this years annual cash (162 billion US$) approved by congress, the expenses paid by the US-American people for the adventures in the Middle East now add up to $813 billions and rising since the war begun.
Is it going to stop anytime soon? I think not.

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!