Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Anders Samuelsen.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Timo Soini and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Margot Wallström.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

This is one of the photos from a Power Point presentation explaining a study in Augusta, Georgia about a street named for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

The “Claiming A Street Named King” Project is the brainchild of Rev. Terence A. Dicks of Augusta, Georgia.

 

These photos depict homes, building and abandoned structures along Martin Lutheran King, Jr. Boulevard in Augusta, Georgia.

 

It began with research in Athens and Augusta (Georgia) through the University Of Georgia School Of Environmental Design.

 

Research was led by Dr. Mary Anne Akers in collaboration with Georgia Legal Services Program, Georgia State Trade Association of Non-profit Developers (G-STAND) and Neighborhood Works America, INC.

 

“Claiming A Street Named King” Project study in Augusta, Georgia – conducted along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard - shows areas that need economic assistance – and that’s the same issue in many American cities that have streets named for civil rights leaders

 

For more information:

 

claimingastreetnamedking.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/Claimin...

 

Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19

 

Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

1-Feb-11 Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie (nook)

"Papa Poirot comforts my soul every time. This book, replete with plot twists and a great cast of characters, also finds time to thumb its nose at pseudo-Sherlock Holmes types. Inspite of the title, golf does not play much of a role thankfully. Most marvelous of all, Hastings finally falls truly in love and is all set to betray even Poirot, or at least to try to betray him to save the woman he loves.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

""It is love that has come - not as you imagined it, all cock-a-hoop with fine feathers, but sadly, with bleeding feet.""

 

And Poirot's passionate insults are beautifully crafted as always.

 

""You are an old woman completely imbecile! and Leonie and Denise are no better. All of you are triple idiots!""

 

""Even I did not suspect - triple imbecile that I was!""

 

And best of all was when Poirot bets he could find the murderer before the snide ""modern"" clue-centric police detective Giraud. And wins, of course.

 

""Shortly after we got back to London, I noticed a magnificent model of a foxhound adorning Poirot's mantelpiece.

In answer to my inquiring glance, Poirot nodded.

'Mais oui! I got my five hundred francs! Is he not a splendid fellow? I call him Giraud!'"""

3-Feb-11 A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (nook)

"All of the above takes place in 13 chapters covering 40 years or so, ranging backward and forward across time, each composed from a different point of view, which means 13 different centers, 13 different peripheries. And yet everything hangs together, connected by a tone of simmering regret arising from love’s wreckage and time’s relentless devouring.

 

- The New York Times, Sunday Book Review

 

Funny and chilling at times, this is a collection of short stories where characters criss cross through the pages, and you frequently go through the thrill of meeting an old aquaintance you hadn't see or thought of for a while.

  

Quotes from the book:

 

In fact the whole apartment, which six years ago had seemed like a way station to some better place, had ended up solidigying around Sasha, gathering mass and weight, until she felt both mired in it and lucky to have it - as if she not only couldn't move on but didn't want to.

  

But the deep thrill of these old songs lay, for Bennie, in the rapturous surges of sixteen-year-old-ness they induced.

  

She hates Mindy, but Mindy doesn't take it personally - it's Structural Hatred, a term she coined herself and is finding highly useful on this trip. A single woman in her forties who wears high-collared shirts to conceal the thready sinews of her neck will structurally despise the twenty-three-year-old girlfriend of a powerful male who not only employs said middle-aged female but is paying her way on this trip.

  

Mindy feels a jold of attraction roughly akin to having someone seize her intestines and twist.

  

Structural Dissatisfaction: Returning to circumstances that once pleased you, having experienced a more thrilling or opulent way of life, and finding that you can no longer tolerate them.

  

He watched Stephanie anxiously: a big, ailing man with one bold idea left, ablaze with hope that she would like it.

  

Yet each disappointment Ted felt in his wife, each incremental deflation, was accompanied by a seizure of guilt.

  

In the distance, Mount Vesuvius reposed beingnly, Ted pictured the slightly different version of Susan standing near him, taking it in.

  

In the dusk, a chorus line of palm trees vamped against a Bellini sky.

  

Being away from his niece felt like opening a window, loosening an airless oppression. But what was the problem, exactly? Sasha had been having a ball, seeing the world; hell, she'd done more in two years than Ted had done in twenty. So why was he so eager to escape her?

  

After following a narrow street to its wriggling conclusion, he emerged onto a thoroughfare lined with a gauntlet of weary palazzi, their bottom floors gouged open to accommodate cheap clothing and shoe stores.

  

He'd let her go, conserving himself for - what? It frightened Ted that he had no idea. But he'd let her go, and she was gone.

  

What I suddenly understand. My job is to make people uncomfortable. I will do it all my life. My mother, Sasha Blake, is my first victim.

  

English was full of these empty words - """"friend"""" and """"real"""" and """"story"""" and """"change"""" - words that had been shucked of their meanings and reduced to husks. Some, like """"identity"""", """"search"""", and """"cloud"""" had clearly been drained of life by their Web usage. With others, the reasons were more complex, how had """"American"""" become and ironic term? How had """"democracy"""" come to be used in an arch, mocking way?

  

Strollers were prohibited at public gatherings - they hampered evacuation.

  

…a self-administered poultice that arrived in the form of a brain-T: no1 nOs about me. Im invysbl.

  

…children: the incarnation of faith in those who werent aware of having any left.

if thr r children, thr mst b a fUtr, rt?"

5-Feb-11 Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (nook)

"Another fast paced installment of the Hunger Games, this one ends in a rather gimicky way. If the heroine remains the same age, the villain remains the same, and so does the plot, then is it really a trilogy? Or is it just one story, published in three parts?

 

And as for Katniss's pendulum act with her two suitors... decide already!!

  

Quotes from the book:

 

""President Snow takes a seat at the large desk of polished wood where Prim does her homework and my mother her budgets. Like our home, this is a place that he has no right, but ultimately every right, to occupy.""

 

""It will require at least an hour. this sends Effie into a state. She pulls out her schedule and begins to work out how the delay will impact every event for the rest of our lives.""

 

""I walk along the track, squinting against the bright sunlight, already regretting my words to Effie. She's hardly to blame for my current predicament. I should go back and apologize. My outburst was the height of bad manners, and manners matter deeply to her. But my feet continue on along the track, past the end of the train, leaving it behind.""

 

""What happens next is not an accident. It is too well executed to be spontaneous, because it happens in complete unison. Every person in the crowd presses the three middle fingers of their left hand against their lips and extends them to me. It’s our sign from District 12, the last goodbye I gave Rue in the arena.""

 

""I weaken again at a clear green broth that I can only describe as tasting like springtime.""

 

""We are what no one wants to miss at the party. I act delighted, but I have zero interest in these Capitol people. They are only distractions from the food.""

 

""When I wake up, I barely get to the toilet before the white liquor makes its reappearance. It burns just as much coming up as it did going down, and tastes twice as bad.""

 

""Since I don’t plan on making it back alive a second time, the sooner Gale lets me go, the better. I do plan on saying one or two things to him after the reaping, when we're allowed an hour for goodbyes. To let Gale know how essential he's been to me all these years. How much better my life has been for knowing him. For living him, even if it's only in the limited way that I can manage.

 

But I never get the chance.""

 

""There's the classically beautiful brother and sister from District 1 who were victors in consecutive years when I was little.""

 

""The woman from 8 who Effie calls Cecelia, who looks about thirty, has to detach herself from the three kids who run up to cling to her.""

 

""I can't argue that Finnick isn't one of the most stunning, sensuous people on the planet. But I can honestly say he's never been attractive to me. Maybe he's too pretty, or maybe he's too easy to get, or maybe it's really that he'd be just too easy to lose."""

8-Feb-11 Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (nook)

"Well, lots of nice people die, not so nice people die, and all the downright evil people die. And the rest of them live happily ever after.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

And it takes too much energy to stay angry with someone who cries so much.

 

""Oh no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?"" says Peeta. ""It costs everything you are.""

 

Lies, once discovered, would be severely punished. with all the advancement, you'd think they'd have invented truth serum by now.

 

Maybe everyone is just trying to protect me by lying to me. I don’t care. I'm sick of people lying to me for my own good. Because really it's mostly for their own good.

 

""My words hang in the air. I look to the screen, hoping to see them recording some wave of reconciliation going through the crowd.

 

Instead I watch myself get shot on television.""

 

Underground. Which I hate. Like mines and tunnels and 13. Underground, where I dread dying, which is stupid because even if I die aboveground, the next thing they'll do is bury me underground anyway.

 

That's despicable, but I'm not sure it's beneath me.

 

The bed's stripped to the mattress, the closet gapes open, showing the emptiness inside, but I'd know this room anywhere.

 

""Oh, not now. Now we're in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated,"""" he says. """"But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss.""

 

""What?"" I ask.

 

""The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that."""

12-Feb-11 Flavia De Luce Mystery 03 - A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (nook)

"A whodunnit, this one reads like a visit to an English country village, replete with a muddled vicar, a gossippy housekeeper, and a huge country house in a state of disrepaire and on the brink of bankruptcy. Add a quirky eleven year old chemist to the mix, and a few mysterious strangers, and you have a nice little cozy murder mystery.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

""My ruffled glance must have made him feel guilty. Why is it that eleven-year-old girls are always treated as servants?""

 

""Hopefully, while muttering the Girl Guide's Prayer (""Burn, blast you!""), I lit one of the matches I had found in the caravan's locker. As the flame touched the twigs, it sizzled and went out. Another did the same.""

 

""Right now, even a slice of Mrs. Mullet's stomach-churning cabbage cake would probably be bearable if taken with a glass of ice-cold milk to freeze the taste buds.""

 

""with Feely prattling endlessly on about the muddy Mississippi, its length, its twists and bends, and how to spell it prperly without making a fool of oneself. We were given the distinct impression that she had personally conceived and executed the formation of that great river, with God standing helplessly on the sidelines, little more than a plumber's assistant.""

 

""He knocked his rib cage with a clenched fist and forced a cough that, since I had done it so often myself, didn't fool me for an instant.""

 

""It was a magnificent performance, if I do say so. As I had been forced to learn at a very young age, there's no better way to mask a lie - or at least a glaring omission - than to wrap it in an emotional outpouring of truth.""

 

""If I'd had my way, he'd have been sanctified on the spot: Saint Detective Sergeant Graves. Coem to think of it, I didn't even know his given name, but now was not the time to ask.""

 

""I have no fear of the dead. Indeed, in my own limited experience I have found them to produce in me a feeling that is quite the opposite of fear. A dead body is much more fascinating than a live one, and I have learned that most corpses tell better stories. I'd had the good fortune of seeing several of them in my time; in fact Brookie was my third.""

 

""And because water boils at only 212 degrees Fahrenheit, while nylon doesn't melt until it is heated to 417 degrees, I had verified my theory that one of Feely's percious stockings would make a perfect pudding bag.""

 

"" ""If I'd wanted to kill her, I'd have killed her, "" I said, exasperated. ""I'd have kept at it until I was finished. I wouldn't have botched it. Do you understand?"" ""

 

""I was sweing an invisible seam between truth and untruth, a skill of which I was especially proud. One of the tricks of the trade when doing this is to volunteer fresh information before your questioner has time to ask another.""

 

""As a token of goodwill, I would not be fut off by her childish behaviour - nor would I take offense. I would forgive her whether she liked it or not."""

17-Feb-11 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (nook)

"A lively kiddie-ghostie tale, for an easy read. Gaiman's writing is entertaining as always.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

""It doesn’t hurt,"" said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh, ""not so much as you'd notice. And after, think how happy you'll be.""

 

""One way or another,"" said the Bishop of Bath and Wells, cheerily, ""you'll become one of us. The other way is messier, involves being digested, and you're not really around very long to enjoy it.""

 

Mr. Owens himself was more evasive and less imaginative. ""It's not a good place, "" was all he said.

 

""You're as plain as the nose on your face,"" said Mr. Pennyworth. ""And your nose is remarkably obvious. As is the rest of your face, young man. As are you.""

 

You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anuthing, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change.

 

In on evening, he had had his first real argument with Silas, had attempted to run away from home, had failed to run away, and now failed to return home."

18-Feb-11 Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (nook)

"Sheer fun. Escapist reading at its best.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

'I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget.'

 

And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one.

 

That was the first verse. When he had finished it, Eeyore didn’t actually say he didn’t like it, so Pooh very kindly sang the second verse to him.

 

Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.

 

Because my spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling, but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.

 

'I ought to say,' explained Pooh as they walked down to the shore of the island, 'that it isn't just an ordinary sort of boat. Sometimes it's a Boat, and sometimes it's more of an Accident. It all depends.'

'Depends on what?'

'On whether I'm on top of it or underneath it.'

"

21-Feb-11 Jeffery Deaver by Garden of Beastsown collection

"A fast paced novel set during Hitler times, this one is among Deaver's best. Memorable characters, and chilling twists, it has so much more than the last 2 rather anemic novels that Deaver has written.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

This is a perfect example of how trust works here: You must either bribe someone or threaten him, and I prefer to do both simultaneously.

 

But he also knew that since Hitler had come to power three years ago, blindness had become the national malady.

 

Every establishment must have a radio to broadcast the Party leaders' speeches and must turn the sound up when thry are transmitting. It's illegal not to.

 

The minister loved Adolf Hitler the way Peter loved Christ. But Jesus eventually got nailed to a T of wood and Peter took over the operation.

 

""Ach, I have been married three times, possibly four,"" the German said. ""And I now have a … complicated arrangement. Expect no advice from me on matters of the heart.""

 

a great nation at heart, whose truths and ideals had somehow tragically been stolen by thieves."""

24-Feb-11 Little Bee by Chris Cleave (nook)

"The original title - On The Other Hand, was much more apt than the silly sounding Little Bee. And I am not sure whether the spectacular last two chapters were word plodding through the first nine tedious ones.

 

A dual narrative book, in which neither of the two protagonists' character rings quite true at times, this book is perhaps somewhat over-hyped. Going in with lower expectations, a reader might have enjoyed it more.

 

A child-woman Nigerian refugee, and a modern day Englishwoman - they come to find hidden strenght by the end in a rather breath-taking way. It could have been a bit written a little more convincingly, but instead of building up to the self-discovery of the characters, Cleave spends almost the entire book rehashing their tragic past.

 

All in all I liked the story, but found the writing to be a bit uneven in terms of put-downability. Cleave's quirky turns of phrase relieve the tedium somewhat though.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar mean, I survived.

 

That was always my trouble when I was learning to speak your language. Every word can defend itself. Just when you go to grb it, it can split into two separate meanings so the understanding closes on empty air.

 

I was torn between two kinds of shame. On the one hand, the disgrace of not discharging a human obligation . On the other hand, the madness of being the first in the crowd to move.

 

Everything was happiness and singing when I was a little girl. There was plenty of time for it. We did not have hurry. We did not have electricity or fresh water or sadness either, because none of these had been connected to our village yet.

 

Truly, there is no flag for us floating people. We are millions, but we are not a nation. We cannot stay together. Maybe we get together in ones and twos, for a day or a month or even a year, but then the wind changes and carries the hope away.

 

She was the kind of girl the men said could make them forget their troubles. She was a kind of girl the women said was trouble.

 

My first real choice was what to take at university. My teachers all said I should study law, so naturally I chose journalism.

"

26-Feb-11 Listen by Rene Gutteridge (nook)

"A vibrant tale of a small community, torn apart by gossip and rumors, a heartwarming tale of parenting, of love, strength, faith, friendship, human decency, and an unlikely whodunnit, all combined in one. I really loved this book.

 

Quotes from the book:

 

Computers irritated Damien. They cheapened society, caused social unrest, not to mention contributed to the butchering of the English language and the rendering of grammar obsolete.

 

He had certain self-assurance you normally didn't find among pale-skinned, superskinny, hairless males with a Bluetooth sticking out of unusually large ears."

► A view of a reservoir at Pertak Dam, Kuala Kubu Bharu. The official name of this reservoir is actually Selangor Dam

 

For some reason, in the past weeks, I have been spending much time in the sleepy hollow of Kuala Kubu Bharu, the northernmost township of Selangor state close to the Perak state border, an hour drive from Kuala Lumpur.

 

It has been a by-election following the death of a Member of Parliament in the area that made Kuala Kubu Bharu loses its decency. The unprecedented chaos and mayhem due to the campaigning frivolities had turned the place into a place like never before. The charming Kuala Kubu Bharu that I used to enjoy had been distorted beyond recognition with all kinds of circus and zoo animals’ activities. The only remarkable thing about the occasion was just the ugly side of local politics which is still in its infant stage that makes a sensible person to wear grimace in a face.

 

Fortunately, this gorgeous reservoir, Pertak Dam, which located some 5-minute drive from the town proper, remains as calm and serene, undeterred by turbulence that hits the area. I took refuge from the scorching heat on that Friday afternoon to be at the place. It was one good hour for me savoring the breathtaking view of the place, a great contrast from the horrid and unsightly views of political parties’ flags and banners in the town area.

  

Read more about the place here

 

This makes me forever ineligible for any public office :-) H. L. Mencken. HPPT!!

 

hybrid camellia, 'hiryu', j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina

Hey you, Whitehouse...

 

By the way, the 'Whitehouse' refered to in this song is not the White House in Washington as so many Americacentric folk imagine it to be, but is in fact a reference to Mary Whitehouse, the founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, who was a shocking prude and outspoken campaigner for 'moral decency'.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Whitehouse

I’d been standing outside of the courtroom in that suit for hours.

 

It was the only suit I’d owned.

 

I was really starting to hate that suit.

 

I wore it for my wedding, a bunch of funerals, too many trials and through my divorce.

 

I promised myself I was gonna burn it after the divorce was finalized.

 

I never wanted to wear that suit again.

 

Ditching it, I thought… it might cleanse me of the residue of this whole sordid series of events.

 

The whole thing made me feel so dirty.

 

Burning that suit would be a personal symbol of me opening a new chapter in my life.

 

Nobody knew who I was out there in the hallway and I was pretty grateful that it spared me from any small talk.

 

There were none of those courtroom artists who make pastel sketches for the news like at the first trial.

 

I remembered how that hit me... when I saw that there were three people sitting in the courtroom to sketch my wife's first trial for the television news...

 

you know you're in a world of shit when they come to 'sketch' your trial.

 

The media was never leaked information about this lawsuit… and against my better judgement I kept it quiet... Blake made that call... which I think was a mistake because it really was the media all along that made things happen… but it was nice not to have to deal with them right now.

 

I wanted to focus on what I had to say on that stand.

 

I wanted to stay sharp and honed like a razor for the combat I knew I was about to find myself engaged in.

 

This was gonna get ‘intellectually twisty.’

 

They were gonna try and destroy me on that stand and I knew it.

 

The Mole must've told me that a thousand times already.

 

My wife’s attorney was starting to see it too.

 

I was standing in the corridor by the big darkly stained and worn wooden doors of the courthouse when I heard the muffled words ‘the defense calls Mr. View Minder.’

 

A split second later my wife’s attorney Blake straight arms both doors open with a really pissed off look on his face.

 

I noticed that he was sweating and I’d never seen that before.

 

He looked nervous too.

 

Blake was a kick ass lawyer… he won the biggest lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department in history… for something like twenty eight million dollars… he specialized in cases of police misconduct and he was a big defender of civil rights.

 

The guy believed in the constitution and I really admired him.

 

He was always usually calm and collected… the guy was the definition of cool… I can’t remember ever have seeing him display any emotion.

 

Seeing him emotional right now... I guess that alarmed me.

 

For some reason I turned around and walked the other way… away from the doors to the courtroom.

 

Blake kinda caught up with me and put his arm around my shoulder…

 

He used his arm to slow down my flight and he stopped me there in the corridor and turned me to face him and the courtroom doors.

 

It seemed from the look on his face that he’d come to accept what he’d rejected for so many months in preparing for this trial.

 

I had told Blake that he wasn’t so much arguing a case in a lawsuit for the damages that my wife sustained in what they said was her false arrest at the Super Store that night… I told him that they were fighting what I did.

 

They were trying to slaughter the ‘whistle-blower.’

 

Blake looked me in the eyes with both of his hands on my shoulders now… the kind of grip that someone lays on you when they want to be sure that you understand what they’re saying… and he took in a deep breath.

 

The kind of breath somebody takes when they’re gonna give you some really bad news.

 

Between the grip and the breath I knew I was fucked.

 

Like when the doctor gives you that look right before he says ‘we’ve done all that we can do.’

 

I knew what he had to say was really gonna be bad and I tried to prepare myself mentally.

 

‘I don’t know what you did to these people’ he said as he spun me towards the doors of the courtroom… ‘but you are walking into your own execution here… you’re about to be crucified man.’

 

God… you never want to hear your attorney say those words to you.

 

It was obvious that he’d conceded the case to loss and he conceded it based on what he figured was gonna happen when I got up on that stand.

 

He knew what was coming.

 

Blake pulled open one of the big heavy doors and sort of began to push me through it…

 

‘Don’t fight’ it he said… ‘and it will be much easier on you’ and he gave me that wink and that look that said ‘let it go… and go peacefully... blade of grass deeply rooted.’

 

Fuck.

 

I felt like I’d just been sentenced to death.

 

Blake made sure that he timed the completion of that statement with his final push of my body into the courtroom so that there was no possibility of me replying.

 

He really pissed me off with that statement and the way that he said it.

 

I was mad… because all along I’d told him that the case was gonna head in this direction… I knew it… I knew these people now… I’d seen their playbook.

 

By the time he realized that I was right it all seemed too late.

 

The case seemed lost.

 

I took the chair in the witness stand one very pissed off man.

 

I wasn’t even afraid anymore.

 

Pure adrenaline was pumping through my veins where blood was circulating only moments ago.

 

Fuck Blake and his ‘don’t fight it shit’ I thought.

 

I wanted this fight.

 

I’d waited for this fight.

 

I waited for this fight for a long time.

 

I was gonna fight it.

 

And I was gonna fight it hard.

 

If the case was lost I was gonna fight even harder because I knew that in the grand scheme of things this was just the opening salvo in what was gonna be the mother of all legal battles.

 

And I was the guy that started it.

 

They didn't care if they hadda give my wife a million bucks...

 

the goal was to destroy me.

 

That's what would help them down the line.

 

I was sorry that Blake seemed to misread the whole thing but the way I figured it… now was my time to show ‘em what I was made of.

 

This was my time to shine.

 

This was my time to throw a few punches instead take ‘em like a punching bag.

 

I leaned forward in that seat and thought ‘bring it on.’

 

Slipping on my 'mental brass knuckles' was what I visualized.

 

I was ready.

 

I was ready to kick some ass.

 

When the defense brought out that letter… the one I’d emailed to the Chief of Police the month after my wife was arrested… as soon as the defense’s attorney asked me to read it to the jury from the stand, Blake objected.

 

He and I, the defense attorney and the judge went back into the judges chambers and discussed the legal merits of the letter I’d written and signed with my name.

 

I never denied sending that letter.

 

In fact, I was kind of proud of it.

 

I sent it to the Chief of Police to let him know not only how I’d felt about the whole case against my wife and what they’d done to my family, but how I knew that I had his ‘nuts in the nutcracker and I wasn’t gonna let go until he did the right thing.’

 

Which was to drop the bullshit charges against my wife and have those officers apologize to my kids.

 

That’s what I’d wanted all along was an apology.

 

Blake always hated when I said that.

 

‘I don’t work for ‘apologies’, I do this for money’ he’d say.

 

I wanted the police to right a wrong and make it up to my kids.

 

It really pissed me off that they were afraid of the cops now.

 

When the judge read the letter in his chambers he took a couple of those ‘oh boy’ gasps.

 

He seemed to be a decent guy.

 

He reminded me of my grandpa and in my head I liked to think that he saw the honor in what I was doing, the decency in the fight that I fought.

 

‘Mistuh Viewminder’ he began… almost inhaling as he spoke the words… ‘in my fifty years on the bench I have nevah… evah seen such a horrible letter written to any public official.’

 

‘This lettah is so bad that I’m afraid that if I allow the jury to even see it that it would only be predjudicial… that means that this lettah is so bad that if the jury were to see it I think it would make your wife lose her case’ the judge remarked with a confounded shake of his head.

 

Then he looked at the attorneys… givin’ them that ‘whaddaya wanna do look.’

 

The defense wanted the letter brought in to show that I’d contacted a witness in the case before the criminal trial against my wife.

 

Several of them in fact.

 

The Mole had ‘accidentally’ forwarded me a copy of one of those funny chain emails that just happened to have the email of just about everybody in the department on it.

 

So I thought I’d send a few of the officers some Christmas wishes if you know what I mean.

 

Some people might be inclined to call that ‘witness tampering’ but I liked to think of it as just ‘venting.’

 

The defense was not shy about trying to say that I was blackmailing the Chief of Police.

 

Maybe I was.

 

If telling a guy that if he doesn’t do ‘the right thing’ that you’re gonna squeeze his balls until they pop is blackmail… then indeed I was guilty.

 

I didn’t tell him what the ‘right thing’ to do was… I mean I knew that’d be crossing a line.

 

‘The right thing’ was up to him to decide… although I was pretty specific about squeezing his nuts in a nutcracker until they popped.

 

I preferred to think that the letter really showed just how dedicated that I was to the pursuit of justice in this case and for my family.

 

I swear his honor wanted to laugh as he pondered my audacity in even writing the letter but he struggled not to and he maintained the decorum of the court even though we were still in his chambers.

 

The judge came up with a pretty good solution.

 

We would black out every line of the letter… all that stuff about me squeezin’ the Chief’s balls until they popped and the like and that we’d leave the part that said ‘Dear Chief Hot Dog… and black out all of the body of the letter except for the part where I wrote ‘have a merry Christmas’ and signed it ‘View Minder.’

 

That way the defense could prove I’d tried to ‘tamper with a witness’ and all that juicy stuff about nutcrackin’ wouldn’t reflect poorly on my wife’s case.

 

Blake seemed relieved at this compromise and the defense attorney seemed pissed.

 

I would have really liked to have had the opportunity to have read that letter to the jury.

 

Even there I’d fantasized about how I would have read it with ‘feeling’ and verve.

 

I would have read it like I was reading the Emancipation Proclamation.

 

Unfortunately that was not to be.

 

We’d been in chambers for about a half hour and when we’d come out the jury looked sleepy and bored as hell.

 

The defense's tactic was sound... bore the jury to death with technicalities, objections and conferences in the judges chambers and they'll really begin to resent even being there.

 

I took my seat on the witness stand, adjusted my tie and tried to think of that 'blade of grass deeply rooted.'

 

The defense attorney handed me the letter and asked if I wrote it.

 

I admitted that I did without hesitation.

 

She asked me to read the letter to the jury.

 

I read them the first line… ‘Dear Chief Hot Dog’… then I told them that the judge had us black out the body of the letter because he said it wasn't relevant… and I read the signoff… ‘have a merry Christmas, Viewminder.’

 

The jury only returned puzzled and quizzical looks.

 

The defense attorney asked me if I knew that the Chief of Police was a 'witness' in the case.

 

I told her that since there was no crime commited, that there couldn't be any 'witness''

 

It went around and around and I wasn't gonna let her corner me like that.

 

By the time it was over she would accuse me of 'witness tampering' and 'manufacturing evidence.'

 

When she accused me of 'manufacturing evidence' I fought back hard... I almost stood up on the stand... I raised my voice and pointed right at her... I actually asked her a couple of times 'which media outlet used those numbers?'

 

Blake told me over dinner that night that he'd never seen a witness get away with questioning an attorney like that from the witness stand... and the judge let it go... he really couldn't believe it.

 

He admitted that before I went up there he'd figured that the case was lost.

 

But he was impressed by my testimony and he still saw some hope.

 

The defense attorney who was questioning me on the stand seemed shaken by my will to go head to head with her like that.

 

It seemed to get her flustered to lose her point in that way and I was excused from the stand.

 

'No further questions' she'd said.

 

Right at the point where her attack on me and my character was supposed to crescendo she fizzled.

 

My wife's attorney was smiling and he gave me 'the nod' as I walked past him on the way out of the courtroom.

 

That the judge said that what I'd written was the worst letter he’d ever seen on his fifty years on the bench indicated to me that he’d never seen the letter that the Illinois EPA wrote to the village in 1986.

 

The one where they told the Old Man that the village’s drinking water well was contaminated with a very toxic cancer causing chemical called vinyl chloride.

 

Nor did the judge see the letter that the village wrote back to the Illinois EPA that year… the one that said ‘we will stop using this well to provide drinking water for the residents of the village and keep this well online as a backup well only.’

 

That letter and the lie that I exposed behind it was the worst letter I’d ever seen written.

 

It might not have been relevant in this case…

 

But it was relevant to the thousands of people in that village who had no idea that they’d been drinking poisoned water for twenty one years until I told them.

 

It was relevant to all those people who had unexplainable cases of cancer and other health maladies from drinking that water.

 

It was even more relevant to the families of those that died.

 

The people I believe were murdered.

      

This is the weirdest yet mildest one yet. Almost everyone in Miami is obsessed with putting "family stickers" on the car. So they put like the parents, kids, pets, etc -- (cartoon-like figures rep. each member) that annoy the hell out of me. Even fish and birds and turles and grandma and grandma. The girl usually dances ballet and the boy plays a sport. No one is fat. A few cars have stick figures. A few have headless figures. These peopple at least had some decency and went with flip-flops. Still, this is a ridiculous trend that needs to stop soon. Some people still have all those yellow magnets and shit, but even that has died down. This new trend needs to go away. Stupid city.

I'm doing a catwash!!!!!

United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo held a press conference at the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Timo Soini and United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.

 

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

07 November 2018 — The Philippines and Japan signed exchange of notes on two official development assistance (ODA) projects geared towards enhancing defense and transport capabilities at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on 7 November 2018.

 

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. and Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda signed the Exchange of Notes on the Grant Aid of the Government of Japan to the Philippines of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) UH-1H Parts and Maintenance Equipment to the Philippine Air Force (PAF); and on the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) Rehabilitation.

 

In his remarks, Secretary Locsin noted how Japan has supported the Philippines’ development objectives.

 

“Throughout the years, Japan has vigorously and unfailingly supported the priorities of the Philippine government for the wellbeing of the Filipino people—and in particular through economic and development assistance as well as in enhancing our defense and security capabilities. It is help that has no agenda but friendship, decency, and a deep and abiding regard, as much for the safety and wellbeing of neighbors, as for oneself,” Secretary Locsin said.

 

“This is why we have elevated our relationship with Japan to a strategic partnership. Today’s Exchange of Notes affirms this ever-growing, mutually beneficial and gratifying relationship between our two countries and our two peoples,” he added.

 

For his part, Ambassador Haneda reflected on the successes of Philippine-Japan partnership, and how it remains to be committed to its “joint work”.

 

“With the signing of these two projects, let me assure you that we do not only mark our commitments on paper, we also pledge our all-out efforts in bringing these projects into successful completion,” Ambassador Haneda stated.

 

The Grant Aid on UH-1H parts and maintenance equipment to the PAF, involves Japan’s grant of some ¥5.31 billion (around PhP2.46 billion) worth of spare parts and maintenance equipment of UH-1H helicopters by the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) consisting of the following categories: airframe structure; dynamic power system, control system; rotor system; hydraulic system; electrical system; instrument system; accessory equipment; and others.

 

The UH-1H helicopters are used in the PAF’s activities related to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, transport, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

 

Meanwhile, the Project on the MRT-3 rehabilitation involves the complete rehabilitation of MRT-3 to restore its design capacity and reliability, the general overhaul of MRT-3's entire fleet of 72 Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs), and day-to-day maintenance.

 

The ¥38-billion (around PhP17.79 billion) loan facility will be used to cover the railway line’s trains, power supply system, overhead catenary system, radio system, closed-circuit television system, public address system, signalling system, rail tracks, road rail vehicles, depot equipment, elevators and escalators and other station-building equipment.

 

The Project will have a duration of 43 months, with the rehabilitation to be completed in the first 26 months, and the general overhaul to be completed by the 43rd month.

 

The exchanges of notes were witnessed by Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorezana, Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John Batan, Finance Undersecretary for the International Finance Group Atty. Mark Dennis Joven, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-Tokyo Senior Vice President Yasushi Tanaka, JICA-Philippines Chief Representative Yoshio Wada and officials from the DFA, the Departments of Finance, Transportation, and National Defense, the Japanese Embassy and JICA.

 

Japan is the Philippines’ top ODA partner and has contributed significantly to the country’s development and capacity building measures in areas that include infrastructure, security, health, trade, tourism, human resources, agriculture, education, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, among many others.

 

The two countries celebrated the 60th anniversary of the normalization of their diplomatic relations in 2016. END

 

20220614 HELSINKI. CROWNE PLAZA. NAFM2022. Ministry for Foreign Affairs produces photo material for media representatives. Please feel free to use the photos for journalistic purposes, considering the following restrictions: One-time picture publishing right, no archiving or reselling. Editorial use only. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organisation shall be mentioned as a source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. The publisher is not entitled to transfer rights to a third party. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall also obtain the permissions needed for any names, persons, works of art, trademarks, and proprietary rights shown in the pictures. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity. Photo: Atte Kajova

“About this cover – The spirit of love of country that has made us so great, has inspired me all my life. My darkest hours have come when I consider the devious elements at work in our nation today.

 

“Now in my 78th year I take comfort in the rebirth of patriotism that is rising all around us.” – Norman Rockwell

 

That quote from Rockwell is quietly powerful. At 78, he was responding to the turbulence of the early ’70s with a gesture of hope. The catalog cover, with its upward gazes and salutes, feels like yearning for unity, for shared values, for something steady amid the noise.

 

The year 1972 was a moment of reckoning: post-Vietnam disillusionment, Watergate looming, cultural shifts accelerating. Rockwell’s statement about “devious elements” hints at his unease, yet he chooses to frame the moment as a turning point—a “rebirth” rather than a decline.

 

Norman Rockwell’s significance as an artist keeps rising and falling among that rarified breed known as the “art critic.” I can’t account for that ebb and flow in Rockwell’s reputation, but maybe it has to do with his consistent and unashamed love of country that he displays so clearly in his art and in this message.

 

He’s often scrutinized by critics—almost like he’s too sincere for the avant-garde, too illustrative for the fine art world, and too emotionally direct for those who prize ambiguity. His “unashamed love of country” is part of a larger emotional clarity that some find unfashionable. He doesn’t wink at the viewer or hide behind abstraction. Instead, he paints what he hopes for—community, dignity, decency—even when the world around him is fraying. That kind of visual storytelling feels like a quiet act of resistance against cynicism.

 

And maybe that’s why his significance keeps cycling. When the cultural mood leans ironic or skeptical, Rockwell feels too earnest. But in moments of fracture or longing, his work becomes a balm—a reminder of shared ideals, however idealized.

 

My offical purpose in Japan is to observe and study the

juxtiposition of technology and spirituality. I walked to the

bus station and I basically finished my project. The shinto

paper hangie-thingies waving wildly in the whooshing wind of

a passing train? Can you handle that alliteration?

 

I had to find an ATM that accepted foreign cards, so I

followed the train tracks down two stations through suburban

town houses. I passed no fewer than four shinto shrines.

Playgrounds and parks are also a dime a dozen out here in the

light residential area around the Kotesashi station (where

I'm staying).

 

Apparently I still have some vestiges of social awareness. I

didn't know. I saw a Japanese midget hoing in a garden (like,

using a ho --- like, weeding with a garden tool) and I

didn't take a picture. I was amazed too.

 

For those of you who have some sense of decency and don't

find imaginary hoing midgets funny, I have a picture that you

don't have to imagine. I'm sure that it has some deep and

inviolate religious meaning, but I don't know what it is. I'm

pretty sure that it isn't the end result of some crass panty-

raid at the local retirement home. I doubt they would have

matching red underwear, anyway.

 

I'll have to ask someone about religion in Japan. From

everything I've heard, they are religiously atheists;

religion is more of a cultural thing. You can pay for

churches in America by telling people that they'll go to

heaven if they write you a check. I wonder where all the

money to maintain the shrines comes from?

 

Superlatives:

Best T-Shirt:

GET COMMON: Read a Book

Best Alliteration:

Jason puts the "J" in Japanese Jaywalking

Best Waste of Money Today

Accidentally paying three times the required fair to get

home and drink a glass of water after walking for five hours.

The fact that I actually made it home is awesome too.

with much Japanese-y typing difficulty,

--Jason McKim

A Church along MLK Blvd. in Augusta, GA

 

Miles Memorial CME Church

2014 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

Augusta, GA

30901

 

(706) 722-2955

 

maps.google.com/maps?q=2014+Martin+Luther+King+Blvd.+++Au...

 

This is one of the photos from a Power Point presentation explaining a study in Augusta, Georgia about a street named for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

The “Claiming A Street Named King” Project is the brainchild of Rev. Terence A. Dicks of Augusta, Georgia.

 

These photos depict homes, building and abandoned structures along Martin Lutheran King, Jr. Boulevard in Augusta, Georgia.

 

It began with research in Athens and Augusta (Georgia) through the University Of Georgia School Of Environmental Design.

 

Research was led by Dr. Mary Anne Akers in collaboration with Georgia Legal Services Program, Georgia State Trade Association of Non-profit Developers (G-STAND) and Neighborhood Works America, INC.

 

“Claiming A Street Named King” Project study in Augusta, Georgia – conducted along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard - shows areas that need economic assistance – and that’s the same issue in many American cities that have streets named for civil rights leaders

 

For more information:

 

claimingastreetnamedking.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/Claimin...

 

Most passengers were totally oblivious to the group in high-vis jackets watching them go by. A couple did have the decency to look startled, though!

I REMEMBER YESTERDAY (Two)

 

I recall the days of youth in a mind that feels as young and fresh as though I were back in the days of childish realization and youthful awakening myself once more. The flesh is older now and the reflection in the hallway mirror still takes me by surprise as that old man stares back at me as though he has known me a lifetime, when in truth I barely recognise him but for that glint in his eyes, the vivacity for life so similar to my own.

 

In the days when children were allowed to wallow in the precious years of childhood, in sharp contradiction to these days where tiny girls with pierced ears, tattoos and stilettos, prance and preen in adult make-up and dresses too old for their tender years, pregnant in their early teens, life's plan already set as mothers proudly boast of generational traits as they head to the queue for state benefits. We have rapists aged twelve filling the pages of our tabloids and barely an eyebrow is raised by a population no longer shocked by the demise of standards and the fall from grace of our common decency.

 

Back then a while, with open doors, we children played in the streets, jumpers for goalposts, imaginations our greatest allies as we made our own entertainment without need for computer wizardry and the stale and stagnant concept of viewing the world through virtual reality Xbox games or on line ;Second life' programming for those sad enough to posesses a first life! Blissfully content and unaware that the euphoria of our experiences would one day give way to the harsh reality of adulthood with it's many twists and turns as fate dealt her cards, we were allowed to enjoy our formative years, not brush them aside and run from them into the clutches of faux adulthood. The long hard drought of seventy six when collecting water in buckets and containers from stand pipes on the corner of our street, the power outs when mum would use a candle to see us to our rooms at night and tea was brewed on camping stoves, the family huddled round and telling jokes whilst laughing madly. Summer days when my bike was king, a second hand Christmas present too large for my scrawny limbs, but loved and cherished just the same.

 

I weaved and wobbled on the pavements, a threat to every living thing both animal and human as I tasted my first real feelings of freedom. Cycling over to local parks and woodlands with my closest friend, I'd take my box Brownie and shoot landscape shots on the old fashioned film, a love affair with photography in the making. The miles I covered, the sights I saw, the sheer exuberance of youth still fresh in my mind from the days when the world seemed somehow a friendlier place, when the pace of life was slower and people happier without the expectations and trappings of the modern day need and greed society in which we live. Just three channels on the television screens, vinyl albums with that distinctive 'just pressed' aroma as you parted with your paper pound notes, tank tops and seventeen inch flared trousers, and school holidays that seemed to last forever.

 

Nowadays computers rule and children are attached at birth to mobile phones and Ipods, sometimes suffering into their later life with serious neck disorders from constantly looking down at text screens, instead of seeing the world and the beauty within. Caring parents, a happy heart and my bicycle as my chariot to freedom, I was a king of the road, a warrior for adventure, and childhood set me up for life ahead, as the man I am today. Memories, like butterflies gently rise and fall, bringing happy thoughts and sadness in equal measures, though few regrets as I look to the future, dwelling occasionally on my mistakes of the past. The important formative years of our lives, when the world is a green and pleasant land. Let the children have their childhood, for life is all too brief, let them walk before they need to run.

 

.

 

.

 

Written July 4th 2010/Rewritten July 4th 2011

Photograph taken in my parents back garden in Blackheath, London, England at 13:54pm on Sunday July 3rd 2011.

 

Nikon D700 85mm 1/160s f/8.0 iso220

 

Nikkor AF 85mm f/1.8D. UV filter. Nikon GP-1

 

Latitude: N 51d 27m 58.40s

Longitude: E 0d 1m 55.62s

Altitude: 48m

 

Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov shook hands at the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.

 

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Queens Of The Stone Age, Make It Wit Chu video shoot, Joshua Tree, California

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19

 

Kuvat: Petri Krook / Ulkoministeriö

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

festive bag of dog crap tossed beside a planter near the street. it's admirable that people recycle their leftover junk, but i'd appreciate it more if they didn't buy useless items in the first place - and didn't heave their garbage out for the world to share. dog owners, like smokers and people who eat fast food need a shift in their way of thinking. not all of them are rude, littering assholes, but the default position of far too many of them allows for public disposal of trash in inappropriate places.

 

we're not legally allowed to hunt them down and torture or kill them, but current laws aren't enforced and really amount to minor penalties anyway, so there's no deterrent or encouragement in place save for human decency, civic pride and public shaming. these obviously don't weigh heavily on people who willingly ingest toxins and deliberately smear the landscape with infectious trash. given that humans overpopulate the planet, it's time we started culling.

The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.

 

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19

 

Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo held a press conference at the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2020. Attn: Alfonsina Russo @alfonsinarusso_ / direttore del Parco archeologico del Colosseo di Roma. "Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship," President & Constitution and the laws of the United States of America (28 May 2020).

 

Washington D.C., U.S.A (28 May 2020) - EXECUTIVE ORDERS - Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship

INFRASTRUCTURE & TECHNOLOGY - Issued on: May 28, 2020.

 

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

 

Section 1. Policy. Free speech is the bedrock of American democracy. Our Founding Fathers protected this sacred right with the First Amendment to the Constitution. The freedom to express and debate ideas is the foundation for all of our rights as a free people.

 

In a country that has long cherished the freedom of expression, we cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to hand pick the speech that Americans may access and convey on the internet. This practice is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic. When large, powerful social media companies censor opinions with which they disagree, they exercise a dangerous power. They cease functioning as passive bulletin boards, and ought to be viewed and treated as content creators.

 

The growth of online platforms in recent years raises important questions about applying the ideals of the First Amendment to modern communications technology. Today, many Americans follow the news, stay in touch with friends and family, and share their views on current events through social media and other online platforms. As a result, these platforms function in many ways as a 21st century equivalent of the public square.

 

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube wield immense, if not unprecedented, power to shape the interpretation of public events; to censor, delete, or disappear information; and to control what people see or do not see.

 

As President, I have made clear my commitment to free and open debate on the internet. Such debate is just as important online as it is in our universities, our town halls, and our homes. It is essential to sustaining our democracy.

 

Online platforms are engaging in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse. Tens of thousands of Americans have reported, among other troubling behaviors, online platforms “flagging” content as inappropriate, even though it does not violate any stated terms of service; making unannounced and unexplained changes to company policies that have the effect of disfavoring certain viewpoints; and deleting content and entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse.

 

(...)

 

As a Nation, we must foster and protect diverse viewpoints in today’s digital communications environment where all Americans can and should have a voice. We must seek transparency and accountability from online platforms, and encourage standards and tools to protect and preserve the integrity and openness of American discourse and freedom of expression.

 

Sec. 2. Protections Against Online Censorship. (a) It is the policy of the United States to foster clear ground rules promoting free and open debate on the internet. Prominent among the ground rules governing that debate is the immunity from liability created by section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act (section 230(c)). 47 U.S.C. 230(c). It is the policy of the United States that the scope of that immunity should be clarified: the immunity should not extend beyond its text and purpose to provide protection for those who purport to provide users a forum for free and open speech, but in reality use their power over a vital means of communication to engage in deceptive or pretextual actions stifling free and open debate by censoring certain viewpoints.

 

Section 230(c) was designed to address early court decisions holding that, if an online platform restricted access to some content posted by others, it would thereby become a “publisher” of all the content posted on its site for purposes of torts such as defamation. As the title of section 230(c) makes clear, the provision provides limited liability “protection” to a provider of an interactive computer service (such as an online platform) that engages in “‘Good Samaritan’ blocking” of harmful content. In particular, the Congress sought to provide protections for online platforms that attempted to protect minors from harmful content and intended to ensure that such providers would not be discouraged from taking down harmful material. The provision was also intended to further the express vision of the Congress that the internet is a “forum for a true diversity of political discourse.” 47 U.S.C. 230(a)(3). The limited protections provided by the statute should be construed with these purposes in mind.

 

In particular, subparagraph (c)(2) expressly addresses protections from “civil liability” and specifies that an interactive computer service provider may not be made liable “on account of” its decision in “good faith” to restrict access to content that it considers to be “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable.” It is the policy of the United States to ensure that, to the maximum extent permissible under the law, this provision is not distorted to provide liability protection for online platforms that — far from acting in “good faith” to remove objectionable content — instead engage in deceptive or pretextual actions (often contrary to their stated terms of service) to stifle viewpoints with which they disagree. Section 230 was not intended to allow a handful of companies to grow into titans controlling vital avenues for our national discourse under the guise of promoting open forums for debate, and then to provide those behemoths blanket immunity when they use their power to censor content and silence viewpoints that they dislike. When an interactive computer service provider removes or restricts access to content and its actions do not meet the criteria of subparagraph (c)(2)(A), it is engaged in editorial conduct. It is the policy of the United States that such a provider should properly lose the limited liability shield of subparagraph (c)(2)(A) and be exposed to liability like any traditional editor and publisher that is not an online provider.

 

(b) To advance the policy described in subsection (a) of this section, all executive departments and agencies should ensure that their application of section 230(c) properly reflects the narrow purpose of the section and take all appropriate actions in this regard. In addition, within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), in consultation with the Attorney General, and acting through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), shall file a petition for rulemaking with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting that the FCC expeditiously propose regulations to clarify:

 

(i) the interaction between subparagraphs (c)(1) and (c)(2) of section 230, in particular to clarify and determine the circumstances under which a provider of an interactive computer service that restricts access to content in a manner not specifically protected by subparagraph (c)(2)(A) may also not be able to claim protection under subparagraph (c)(1), which merely states that a provider shall not be treated as a publisher or speaker for making third-party content available and does not address the provider’s responsibility for its own editorial decisions;

 

(ii) the conditions under which an action restricting access to or availability of material is not “taken in good faith” within the meaning of subparagraph (c)(2)(A) of section 230, particularly whether actions can be “taken in good faith” if they are:

 

(A) deceptive, pretextual, or inconsistent with a provider’s terms of service; or

 

(B) taken after failing to provide adequate notice, reasoned explanation, or a meaningful opportunity to be heard; and

 

(iii) any other proposed regulations that the NTIA concludes may be appropriate to advance the policy described in subsection (a) of this section.

 

Sec. 3. Protecting Federal Taxpayer Dollars from Financing Online Platforms That Restrict Free Speech. (a) The head of each executive department and agency (agency) shall review its agency’s Federal spending on advertising and marketing paid to online platforms. Such review shall include the amount of money spent, the online platforms that receive Federal dollars, and the statutory authorities available to restrict their receipt of advertising dollars.

 

(b) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the head of each agency shall report its findings to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

 

(c) The Department of Justice shall review the viewpoint-based speech restrictions imposed by each online platform identified in the report described in subsection (b) of this section and assess whether any online platforms are problematic vehicles for government speech due to viewpoint discrimination, deception to consumers, or other bad practices.

 

Sec. 4. Federal Review of Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices. (a) It is the policy of the United States that large online platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, as the critical means of promoting the free flow of speech and ideas today, should not restrict protected speech. The Supreme Court has noted that social media sites, as the modern public square, “can provide perhaps the most powerful mechanisms available to a private citizen to make his or her voice heard.” Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730, 1737 (2017). Communication through these channels has become important for meaningful participation in American democracy, including to petition elected leaders. These sites are providing an important forum to the public for others to engage in free expression and debate. Cf. PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 85-89 (1980).

 

(b) In May of 2019, the White House launched a Tech Bias Reporting tool to allow Americans to report incidents of online censorship. In just weeks, the White House received over 16,000 complaints of online platforms censoring or otherwise taking action against users based on their political viewpoints. The White House will submit such complaints received to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

 

(c) The FTC shall consider taking action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, pursuant to section 45 of title 15, United States Code. Such unfair or deceptive acts or practice may include practices by entities covered by section 230 that restrict speech in ways that do not align with those entities’ public representations about those practices.

 

(d) For large online platforms that are vast arenas for public debate, including the social media platform Twitter, the FTC shall also, consistent with its legal authority, consider whether complaints allege violations of law that implicate the policies set forth in section 4(a) of this order. The FTC shall consider developing a report describing such complaints and making the report publicly available, consistent with applicable law.

 

Sec. 5. State Review of Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices and Anti-Discrimination Laws. (a) The Attorney General shall establish a working group regarding the potential enforcement of State statutes that prohibit online platforms from engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices. The working group shall also develop model legislation for consideration by legislatures in States where existing statutes do not protect Americans from such unfair and deceptive acts and practices. The working group shall invite State Attorneys General for discussion and consultation, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.

 

(b) Complaints described in section 4(b) of this order will be shared with the working group, consistent with applicable law. The working group shall also collect publicly available information regarding the following:

 

(i) increased scrutiny of users based on the other users they choose to follow, or their interactions with other users;

 

(ii) algorithms to suppress content or users based on indications of political alignment or viewpoint;

 

(iii) differential policies allowing for otherwise impermissible behavior, when committed by accounts associated with the Chinese Communist Party or other anti-democratic associations or governments;

 

(iv) reliance on third-party entities, including contractors, media organizations, and individuals, with indicia of bias to review content; and

 

(v) acts that limit the ability of users with particular viewpoints to earn money on the platform compared with other users similarly situated.

 

Sec. 6. Legislation. The Attorney General shall develop a proposal for Federal legislation that would be useful to promote the policy objectives of this order.

 

Sec. 7. Definition. For purposes of this order, the term “online platform” means any website or application that allows users to create and share content or engage in social networking, or any general search engine.

 

Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

 

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

 

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

 

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

 

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

 

Fonte / source:

--- President & Constitution and the laws of the United States of America (28 May 2020).

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-p...

 

S.v.,

 

--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA. Roma – Notizie da Roma: Perché la dott.ssa Alfonsina Russo, direttore del Parco archeologico del Colosseo di Roma, ha cancellato i suoi account Twitter? / Why did Dr. Alfonsina Russo, Director of the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum of Rome, Delete her Twitter Account? (13/03/2020).

 

www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/49655228796

Stockport 5 has been nicely restored, but modern values insisted the restoration had higher upper deck "decency panels" than originally used. Nonetheless a good example of a typical 1900s British tram.

Queens Of The Stone Age, Schlossberg, Graz, Austria

 

large size here so you can find yourself

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19

 

Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.

 

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.

 

Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

 

Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

PUTKIN PRESENTS: FROSTMACE.

 

"You know, this thing kinda makes me see the beauty in just swinging around a big chunk of something at the end of a stick. It's a bit simple, isn't it? But it's kind of beautiful. Sometimes, all it takes is a dense chunk of something attached to a stick! This is a bit more elegant than that, but you get the gist. This weapon is called Frostmace, because it's a mace, and it seems to be made partially out of ice. Again: simple, but beautiful.

 

"According to the legend, there was a powerful mage who could bend the elements to her will, and who took a particular interest in ice and snow. It's said that long ago, when a seemingly never-ending blizzard plagued the elven lands, she joined a party of other remarkable individuals to put an end to the meteorological phenomenon. When she joined, she sculpted from the ice a guardian to aid them, and bound it to a suit of glorious armor. This is said to be the mace that ice elemental myrmidon wielded! Fascinating, isn't it? I don't know much about elven history, but I do know that this thing is COLD. Glad the one who made this mace at least had the decency not to make the handle out of ice. It would've been a lot worse to handle for... *collectors* like us."

Session Americana playing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.

 

www.facebook.com/pages/Session-Americana/53199003969

 

www.sessionamericana.com

www.myspace.com/sessionamericana

www.hi-n-dry.com/session_americana

www.exploitboston.com/music-musings/grab-new-music-from-s...

Session Americana - from www.sessionamericana.com

 

This ad hoc acoustic supergroup started around a table at a small pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Conway, Sean Staples, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and other friends gathered to swap songs and stories. Their lively performances and inspired versions of tunes from the dusty backroads of America's past were such a hit with fans that they decided to take their musical conversation into the studio. The two-CD debut Tabletop People ups the ante with stellar appearances by folksinger Rose Polenzani, Twinemen's Laurie Sargent, Dennis Brennan, Asa Brebner, Merrie Amsterburg, Dan Kellar, Presidents of the United States' Chris Ballew, Jabe Beyer, Tim Gearon and other luminaries. And the 18 gritty, funny, soulful performances included span a gamut of emotions and tastes that should please both adult and younger listeners.

 

"Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard:...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston

and vocals that do the same"

— Performer Magazine

 

Session Americana sit tightly around a small cafe table, ambient mics tuned to catch the whole sound of the voices and instruments. A suit-case drum kit, an old electric bass, a bunch of acoustic instruments, a field organ: This format feels very theatrical and though the musicians face each other, the audience feels drawn into the circle by the warmth, joy and camaraderie that emanate outwards by the all star cast of characters seated around the table. What keeps you coming back show after show is the same thing that any audience member longs for, great songs performed by a great band. The six core members of the band have brought enviable careers worth of experience to the “table”, featuring (current and former) members of Treat Her Right, Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, The The, Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst. The group has grown from a rag tag jam at a local pub to a regional institution, playing gigs from church coee houses to urban nightclubs to regional festival tents to large halls.

 

Band: Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting, Sean Staples and Jon Bistline.

 

*Winner “2005 Best Folk Act” - The Boston Music Awards

*Winner “Best Roots Act 2006” - Improper Bostonian “Best of Boston” Issue

*Winner “Best CD” 2007 - Improper Bostonian

*Nominated “Best Roots Act” 2007 - WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll

*Nominated "Best Live Act" 2007 - The Boston Music Awards

*Nominated "Best Americana Act" 2008 - The Boston Music Awards

 

“Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard: ...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston and vocals that do the same”

— NE Performer Magazine

 

“No egos, no big production, just some great songs stripped down to their bare essentials and performed with a real genuineness of spirit and emotional authenticity... it’s beautiful.” (Brian Mosher)

— The Noise

 

“An eclectic, swinging tour de force” — The Boston Globe

 

“[This] local country-folk megagroup’s double CD is one of the most loose, spontaneous, warm, and homespun acts of community and decency since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

 

— The Boston Phoenix

“the cream of the Somerville/Cambridge community" - No Depression (read less)

Queens Of The Stone Age, Schlossberg, Graz, Austria

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19

 

Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19

 

Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

Session Americana playing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.

 

www.facebook.com/pages/Session-Americana/53199003969

 

www.sessionamericana.com

www.myspace.com/sessionamericana

www.hi-n-dry.com/session_americana

www.exploitboston.com/music-musings/grab-new-music-from-s...

Session Americana - from www.sessionamericana.com

 

This ad hoc acoustic supergroup started around a table at a small pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Conway, Sean Staples, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and other friends gathered to swap songs and stories. Their lively performances and inspired versions of tunes from the dusty backroads of America's past were such a hit with fans that they decided to take their musical conversation into the studio. The two-CD debut Tabletop People ups the ante with stellar appearances by folksinger Rose Polenzani, Twinemen's Laurie Sargent, Dennis Brennan, Asa Brebner, Merrie Amsterburg, Dan Kellar, Presidents of the United States' Chris Ballew, Jabe Beyer, Tim Gearon and other luminaries. And the 18 gritty, funny, soulful performances included span a gamut of emotions and tastes that should please both adult and younger listeners.

 

"Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard:...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston

and vocals that do the same"

— Performer Magazine

 

Session Americana sit tightly around a small cafe table, ambient mics tuned to catch the whole sound of the voices and instruments. A suit-case drum kit, an old electric bass, a bunch of acoustic instruments, a field organ: This format feels very theatrical and though the musicians face each other, the audience feels drawn into the circle by the warmth, joy and camaraderie that emanate outwards by the all star cast of characters seated around the table. What keeps you coming back show after show is the same thing that any audience member longs for, great songs performed by a great band. The six core members of the band have brought enviable careers worth of experience to the “table”, featuring (current and former) members of Treat Her Right, Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, The The, Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst. The group has grown from a rag tag jam at a local pub to a regional institution, playing gigs from church coee houses to urban nightclubs to regional festival tents to large halls.

 

Band: Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting, Sean Staples and Jon Bistline.

 

*Winner “2005 Best Folk Act” - The Boston Music Awards

*Winner “Best Roots Act 2006” - Improper Bostonian “Best of Boston” Issue

*Winner “Best CD” 2007 - Improper Bostonian

*Nominated “Best Roots Act” 2007 - WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll

*Nominated "Best Live Act" 2007 - The Boston Music Awards

*Nominated "Best Americana Act" 2008 - The Boston Music Awards

 

“Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard: ...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston and vocals that do the same”

— NE Performer Magazine

 

“No egos, no big production, just some great songs stripped down to their bare essentials and performed with a real genuineness of spirit and emotional authenticity... it’s beautiful.” (Brian Mosher)

— The Noise

 

“An eclectic, swinging tour de force” — The Boston Globe

 

“[This] local country-folk megagroup’s double CD is one of the most loose, spontaneous, warm, and homespun acts of community and decency since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

 

— The Boston Phoenix

“the cream of the Somerville/Cambridge community" - No Depression

diaper changing station in the bathroom at my doctor's office at Swedish Hospital

Photo above 25 September 2019.

________________________

 

§ Quote from a review of the new building by The Guardian journalist Gwyn Topham, 14 Mar 2012.

   "Should you rise from the underground, step off a train from Cambridge, or pass en route from Paris to Edinburgh next week, have the decency to gaze up at the reincarnated London's King's Cross station. After five years of construction the new western concourse is all but complete: a smaller but equally elegant counterpoint to its neighbour, St Pancras International."

   "Network Rail has restored and preserved Victorian facades but added a stunning modern roof, creating an uninterrupted space springing from one plume of white steel - and all without, as the company stresses, cancelling one train."

  

Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19

 

Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.

This is Bebelplatz. On the 10th of May 1933 Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, with the aid of brownshirts and Nazi Youth, held the first of the Nazi book burnings here. 20,000 volumes were destroyed that evening. The plaque nearby reads: "where they burn books, they will also burn humans in the end."

 

I wasn't going to post this image -- there are technical flaws. But doing the rounds on the immoral, godless, liberal nightmare that is the reality based blogging community is the wonderful "Family Bookstore" at abunga.com/default.asp. Abunga allows you to Empower Decency! by "blocking" books -- if enough people "block", they won't stock it. This marvelous feature is here to prevent our families from being corrupted by violence and pornography. And to prove it, the first book to be banned is The Golden Compass. They have produced a press release in celebration of this triumph of family values over filth. It's good to know that those voting to ban the book have not themselves been corrupted by actually reading the book: the other two books in the series remain on sale.

 

You can sign up and do your bit for Empowering Decency! I myself have banned Fahrenheit 451 and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. Banning Fundamentalism and Evangelicals was rather satisfying. Let us pray for their success!

 

This is not a small business moulding supply to demand or a specialist merchant picking only the relevant stock. A petty tyranny this may be, but it is a demonstration of the real tyranny of the majority that is never more than a vote away.

  

‘Pasting (from AUGUST STRINDBERG'S 'THE DREAM PLAY')’

 

CHRISTINE. I paste, I paste.

THE DAUGHTER. [Pale and emaciated, sits by the stove] You shut out all the air. I choke!

CHRISTINE. Now there is only one little crack left.

THE DAUGHTER. Air, air—I cannot breathe!

CHRISTINE. I paste, I paste.

THE LAWYER. That's right, Christine! Heat is expensive.

 

Talia: “The characters split, double, multiply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and merge. But one consciousness rules them all: the dreamer's; for him there are no secrets, no inconsistencies, no scruples and no laws. He does not judge or acquit, he merely relates”

 

Ruin: The wonderful Mister Strindberg. Waving here. Whilst un-pasting, even.

 

It’s all a bit like that, I guess. Unravelling, perhaps, more so. But there is a definite picking apart. I almost feel like I have ‘breakthroughs’ every morning, though there might be some self-delusion there. I am aware of my neediness, that yearning for some sort of acknowledgement, central to posting here on Flickr, the text with the images. That is now stopping, I am unlearning that ‘habit’ currently, un-pasting it, unravelling it, whatever. But I can’t spend too much time on that, it’s time to make the move. I think I have done it.

 

I have started to write alone, for and to myself. I can do it. I even found ‘Rock’ to help me out, a fictitious character, an ‘anti-me’. I know. He might, or might not, become fully-fledged, an amalgamation of ‘daddy voices’, a character in himself. He might fade away with time, I have no idea. I am continuing to write.

 

This frees me up, I don’t have to worry about censorship, offending anybody, or being cancelled. There’s an idea, like I care about being cancelled anyway. How more cancelled’ can one be? Death does that eventually and is the only cancellation that is of mild interest, even.

 

Yes, to the world out there, its stupid wars, and its unravelling climate-wise. I am not going to be going out there throwing tomato soup over, oil-painted, water lilies. Each to his own. I have never driven, and never will, and will more than likely never fly again, having not done so for 12 years now. I will wear extra jumpers and turn off the heat. I will continue to write, pasting up those cracks. I won’t be sending money to charitable causes where the head of the board drives a car or takes planes to emergency climate meetings. With a total pension of 500 Euros a month, why would I send money to any charity?

 

Hopefully I will overcome this schizophrenia, this pasting/unpasting, by removing myself further, this quarantine.

 

It’s a bit scary, but ho-hum, that’s life. Ernaux has been wonderful to read, a tonic in these times, the self, that core, extended outwards shamelessly, Sadean and true, wonderfully desperate.

 

I will always have room for you, and will always answer you, and love your incursions.

 

I might not play so much with images anymore, but will continue to put things up on Flickr, more everyday notes, like a visual journal, a day by day diary. I have been using it as a research place for a while now, putting up other reminders for myself, like the one attached, just visual notes.

 

just memory enhancers...

 

And yes, there is an awful lot of writing, and I will try to make it into what is called a book. If any of it is any good, it might survive, if it's not any good, then it won't. I can't judge it, being in the middle of it, and am too busy to bother to even try. Time will tell, and I won't be around for that telling, either way, anyway.

 

I disagree with that “You can’t call yourself a writer ... when you’ve never actually written a book!”. You can call yourself anything you want, the world doesn't have to concur, but that, ultimately doesn't matter.

 

Self-delusion might be at the core of every individual, so embracing that might be a beginning.

 

It's interesting that this brings up a pithiness in me, it's very uncomfortable, but at least interesting to acknowledge. It's a huge failing in me, I have no doubt about that, forty shades of green and all that palaver.

 

Screaming 'love me' relentlessly sure wears one down. I suspect though that this might eventually be a good thing, that wearing down. Hope springs eternal!

 

Paste, unpaste, pick apart and tangle up. Gordian knots, go figure. I like realising how awful I am; it's a great first step.

  

Rack, I guess you are, for now, the only sounding board I am not relinquishing. I know I can do it without you, but I love doing it with you. It is, of course, totally up to you if you want to play the muse role or not. Rock is proving to be a great help, a godsend, even.

 

Enjoy those 40 variations of verdure.

 

Rock: Okay, so you have begun to be more methodical with the keeping of a diary, I think that might be a good idea, to have some continuity. It can feed in and out of what you are writing too.

 

Ruin: Yes, that’s the idea. Of course, it’s inspired by Ernaux, but also by Rack. Rack, apparently, has written every day for as long as I have known her, and obviously well before that too (Yes, there was life before me). This means she knows dates, the exact date we met, the days of our screaming/laughing walks, shared hysterics, and the dates of other huge events in her own life, ones I can only guess approximately. Like the day she discovered she also had Hep-c, on top of her principal fatal disease. In 1988 that’s exactly what it was, there was no talk then of it being manageable. She has always been at great pains to point out to me that these diary entries are just that, the bones of each day, just a record of what happened on that day. Rack has always been spare, the opposite of me. I guess it’s one of the many reasons I am drawn to her. I have always loved to coax out ‘trusting’ from the overly cautious, it’s one of my many failings.

 

I find hesitancy beautiful.

 

I have even asked her for some dates, like what was that date we met, the day of that break in filming in the ‘Moondance Diner’. There is always this sort of vague ‘promise’ of her telling me, of giving me that information, but it isn’t really a promise, more an indication that I was heard, and that, perhaps, I don’t need to know, like it’s one step too far. I love this privacy dance. There are so many ways in which Rack is beyond generous. She is more than right in this preserving of her own bones.

 

As it happens, I don’t really need dates. I can even get the year slightly wrong, and the story would still be exactly the same. I don’t even know on which dates my mother and father died, I know I could search for it in those million words of emails, or Flickr posts, but I don’t have that knowledge in my head. It’s on a hard drive external to me. It’s not something I am proud of, it’s just true. Jeffrey died of Aids sometime in 1991, I think. I helped him die, stopped him universally hemorrhaging with morphine, and I don’t even remember the date.

 

Who believes in dates or calendars anyway?

 

Answer: Obviously Rack and Annie Ernaux do. I love that they do, so I might give it a go here.

 

It might even alleviate the squandering of days, in becoming a daily chore, like brushing your teeth or having a good dump. I suspect it might even become pleasurable, rather like the latter of those two chores.

 

I did follow Rack down the HIV route, some 15 years after she tripped-up potholing. I didn’t follow her down that Hep-c boreen. Perhaps something had kicked-in, in between times. Perhaps our emails had sobered me up, or maybe the childhood abuse was already healing. Either way, Rack sloughed off that liver lurgy, hip-hip-hooray for science, and now we only have this one ‘manageable’ death sentence to negotiate together, side by side whilst forever apart. We now get to catfish each other gloriously.

 

I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, ask for more. Knowing she is out there, and apparently immortal, is more than enough. We share a certain sardonic humour about it all, recalling her “The year of my so-called death” in 1988, a year I initially got wrong at first, erroneously placing us in 1997 in ‘The Moondance Diner’.

 

What’s 34, or is it 35, years between friends?

 

Rack as Nora, Nora as Rack

 

Rack never blurted; she always controlled her output. The effect was precise and Protestant, “I found out I am HIV positive a few days ago.”

 

“Oh Christ”, Ruin blurted, Catholic to the hilt.

 

Ruin was always an outlet for Rack, almost like a delinquent spokesperson, the stuttering utterer of the unspeakable. He had the ability to take the private into the realm of the universally available with consummate ease. She didn’t. It was something she greatly feared and something she instinctively grasped that early summer morning in 1987, in the 'Moondance Diner', on 6th Avenue and Grand. She knew she was making the personal public. She was undoing herself.

 

He possessed that strange gift, the one imposed and imprinted, like the mark of Cain, on the sexually molested child, of having no facility to recognise boundaries, no ability to be able to tell the personal and private apart from what could be made generally available. She knew that he was her surrogate broadcaster and momentarily shuddered at the stranger, whom she had spontaneously trusted, sitting opposite her. This understanding hung between them as they ordered breakfast.

 

Their opening was torturous and drove them scurrying apart. It was more than either of them could handle, Rack racked with regret for exposing this opening wound and Ruin incapable of carrying the story alone. Their rehabilitation was slow and arduous. It was a time when to speak these words was a declaration of the almost immediate dissolution of self. It was a time before the hope generated by the misnomered cocktails and the political agitation, which was to burgeon out of despair and become Act- Up. It was a time before anything could be done except grasp at straws. So, both started grasping and would occasionally find themselves in the same room drawn to the same possible panacea. Rack’s volition was desperation. Ruin’s was guilt. They acknowledged each other with some embarrassment and growing affection and more often than not turned away from each other and left separately. Ruin knew he loved Rack. Rack was not at all sure.

 

Dear Rack,

 

Just sending you back some words you once sent to me:

 

“I have often thought that writers do not write; they read what is already written and transcribe. So perhaps they are not complaining about ill health, lack of money, and rejection, but about the bondage of a calling that keeps them laboriously transcribing cryptic messages in rapidly disappearing ink, like the traces of a dream, year after year...."

 

Thinking of how romantic you are.... even if it is all so appalling to live through.

 

We seem to endure, and hopefully will continue to do so for a little while longer.

 

Love,

Ruin

  

Rack: There they are. And there they aren’t. I love them like I could never love them.

 

Ruin: Yes indeed, there we are and there we aren't. I like finding an image of us, whilst telling a mis-remembered story. I like that we have inadvertently grown older than we expected, and are growing towards not hating ourselves through the writing of it out, and I love that we have written to each other over 35 years and I have squirrelled it all away to draw ‘Artificial Intelligence’ images out of. This image is made from us, but is not exactly us. This A.I. is a late life gift.

 

I dreamt about Rock. He didn’t look at all like me, which sort of surprised me. I am not sure why. We were in bed together, and we were spooning. I was trying it on, of course, which used to be my wont in the intervening years between the rupture and the present, pushing back on him, and he was telling me no, that it was inappropriate, and not what we both needed. Of course, it put me in mind of James, my uncle, and I agreed with Rock. Yes, he was right.

 

Rock was big spooning me, tenderly, lovingly, it felt good, it felt completely nonsexual, there was no pressure against my back. I was a very small spoon. Once I accepted these new, strange, parameters, I was relieved, perhaps more so because I am now, at 68, enjoying being inviolate, and my dream sort of knew this, even though I was young in the dream. There was a weird sort of retrospective knowing. I felt as vulnerable as I was then, but I somehow knew that Rock was right. He said, “you want to talk about James, don’t you?”. Again, he was right, I did. The Pope was also in the dream, not in the bed, but he might as well have been. I can’t remember why he was there, what he was up to. I just remember thinking he must be the biggest tourist-draw in the world, now that Liz is dead, at least as an individual. This seemed, and even now seems, incontrovertible.

 

This diary thing suits me. I start typing as soon as the computer kicks on, before I take my first of three morning pills, before I have time to forget. I still have no idea if Putin has decimated Kherson overnight, or if there is a new universal plague working its terror outside our front door. The world will do what it does. It will work its way into my consciousness all in good time, no man being an island and all that palaver. I really have to stop saying that. The initial diary entry can just sit there uncompleted, a memory jogger, to be filled in, fleshed out, or concluded later, constituting what Rack might call “The bones of the night”.

 

Ok, the bones are established, I can take a peep. Al Jazerra is screaming:“ ‘Too loud is true’: Is Russia setting a Trap in Kherson? “. The madness of the everyday asserts itself, stretching out before breakfast, echoing Blanchot. But back to Uncle James, and other personal insanities.

 

I never pushed back on James, or did I? I don't know. I was a needy child. I was stupidly innocent, young, ignorant, or perhaps just unschooled. He was the predator, put in my bed by my mother. I was the ‘victim’. Unfortunately, this victimhood status seems to be a very hardy perennial, one that flowers even for the whole life of that plant, or the person, but not only does it flower once yearly, it flowers often, and whenever it wants to. It’s more like a very persistent budding weed, a knot weed of sorts. The Gordian aspect of it all is perhaps gilding that description. But it is there. Either way, unravelling it can take a lifetime. There are shortcuts through it, suicide or running riot with a chainsaw, slicing through it like Alexander the Great, that sort of thing, but Ruin was always glad he hadn’t resorted to those. No, he decided he would gnaw at the knot, hopelessly hoping that nobody would notice his teeth wearing down.

 

Of Boreen Raging (A Silverfish Book)_Photo below.

 

People noticed of course.

 

Anyway Ruin, his pronouns are ‘he’ and ‘him’, is that third person descriptor of the protagonist here, and I am going to write this in the first person. Afterall it is just an early-morning diary entry written to, and for, me, so all subterfuge can be dropped.

 

Rock: I get what you are saying there, but you do know that’s virtually impossible, don’t you? Do you really think you can tell the ‘truth’, even to yourself, I mean, can anyone?

 

Ruin: Yes, Rock, I think he gets that, but you are right to point it out. Perhaps we both need to shut up and just see what he comes up with.

 

Rock: Get you Ruin! Move over King Solomon, there’s a contender in court.

 

Ruin: More of a pretender, but whatevs! Let’s try shutting-the-fuck-up.

 

Either way, I won’t be rushed in this. It will come out in its own time. It will come out. I might write more later today, or I might not. It’s not a question of ‘waiting for the muse’, it’s more letting things percolate. You two, Rock and Ruin, can chime in whenever you want, don’t hold back, I appreciate your input even if I don’t always agree with you. Rack has flown from New York to Ireland, she’s there now. I am thinking about her proximity to Amsterdam (my current home), and ever-present absence. She can still tolerate being there, I can’t. My imagination won’t allow me even to contemplate ever being there again. I can’t see that changing, but I can consider the remote possibility of being wrong about that.

 

As an aside, Annie Ernaux came a little closer to what I wrote about her earlier, that de Sade connection via de Beauvoir, in a quote from her diary in ‘Getting Lost’, page 178:

 

“A descent into sadomasochism, but gentle, without violence (because of the combination of sodomy and ‘normal’ sex - bruised all over, at one point, I thought I was torn). He said, ‘Annie, I love you’, and I didn’t attach any importance to it because it was during sex”

 

My convoluted mind connects this with the abuse in my early teens, I am not sure why it does, it just does. Hence, my need to let things percolate.

 

There was a point, towards the very end of that rupture, when Uncle James, said he loved me. There was no victory there at all, other than getting him permanently out of my bed, which was in itself huge. Strangely it more or less happened at the same time as I seemed to, miraculously, overcome my stammer. I have never understood that. Actually, I do sort of sense what that means though I will need some time to be able to describe that ‘vanquishing’.

 

I think I was 15 years old.

 

Saint Annie hits the nail on the head again, driving it further into that sprawling green Grünewald-ean hand.

 

Look, the stutter is gone, and I am no longer just a set of holes.

  

01/11/2022

 

I dreamt about some right-honourable-members last night, or early this morning. They weren’t ‘in full flight’ members, not ‘virilis’ or anything, just cuddly soft ones, nestled, slumbering in, pre-depilation, retro pubes, with their hoods drawn over their dry little heads. The word ‘cute’ comes to mind. They were attached to unrecognisable individuals, those cuddly coils, one of whom seemed to be collecting money in one of those plastic collecting thingies that those people outside the supermarket carry, trying to relieve you of your spare change for some good cause or other. Their days might be somewhat numbered, those collectors, what with everyone in the queue seemingly flashing their iPhones at the scanners nowadays, so that cash seems to be becoming redundant, going the way of that downy cushion of pubes, following advancement and the new century, like the rest of everything else, towards extinction.

 

Blessed, and much beloved redundancy, all part and parcel of this rush towards endless growth and a brave new post-tumescent world. Bring it on. Being chaffed off is more than acceptable. It’s even interesting to be in the process of feeling the parts fall off. It all puts me in mind of watching Mark America die, yes that was his adopted name, as he watched, and described, his body working to “let me go”, as he put it. I couldn’t be beside his bedside for the whole duration, we were not that close, and he wanted time alone. I asked him would he like to have a camera to record dying, and he said that he really would. He was one of those artist types, incorrigible. I gave him a few disposable cameras, they were all the rage then in the late eighties or early nineties, whenever it was. You know me and dates. I can check though. The dates of his taking them were inscribed automatically on the photos themselves. I have the images; I will take a look.

 

It was later than I thought, 20/12/94 to be precise, coming on Christmas, not that far off the date when the pills became lifesavers. Mark missed that boat, but he didn’t seem to mind at all. He didn’t appear to have a ‘poor me’ bone in his body. Yes Ruin, shut up, I know I could take a page from his book, whilst inserting him into mine. Can you and Rock just withdraw for a moment, whilst I work this out?

 

I have no idea how he did it. He was ensconced in a private room in a salubrious midtown hospital, with a view out on that island in the Hudson, ‘Roosevelt Island’ by name. He could watch the famed aerial tram, a strangely placed type of ski-lift, go back and forth. I knew the area, from having worked up there on some interiors for ‘Parrish Hadley’, well for Arthur Hadley really, Sister Parrish having recently done her own sloughing off. I used to do these interiors, so called ‘special finishes’, Venetian Stucco and the like, to support my making of the ‘Ikons’, those memorialising, honouring, pieces which were part and parcel of my meeting with Mark in that hospital. Some of those pieces are now ensconced in the ‘Irish Museum of Modern Art’. Mark didn’t live long enough to be included in that set of 40 gold-leaf pieces, though we initially met to discuss the possibility.

 

Mark was English originally, I never knew his family name, something else he had sloughed off, becoming an ‘illegal alien’ artist, with no health insurance, taking on the name of his host country. He was a fellow raving homo in the middle of a raging plague. Of course, we loved each other instantly. What was not to love? That love lasted all of three weeks, just allowing him enough time to bring in the New Year and die. How he ended up in a private room in the ‘Memorial Sloane Kettering Hospital’, I will never know. I did ask, but he waved the question off as inconsequential. He was right, what mattered was that he was there, with a catheter tube snaking out of his, fully on display, nestled and swollen trouser-snake.

 

He loved its redundancy. I must admit that I loved its redundancy too, it was infectious, but I even more loved his total acceptance, his embracing, of his devolving.

 

Or was it evolving?

 

I remember him say “Look at me, look what my body has to do to let me go. Isn’t it remarkable?”, whilst gesturing towards his family jewels. We both laughed. Yes, it was remarkable, it was a rhetorical question. He appeared to have no anger at all. It wasn’t every day that you would walk into a room and be encountered by a man, a veritable stranger, in a hospital bed with his ‘Scolaro’ out, swollen and pierced by a red dangly tube, leading to a bag attached to the side of the bed. Don’t worry, the full etymology of the word ‘Scolaro’ will follow shortly, but you will know from a few paragraphs above that I am talking about his ‘John Thomas’, those offending members do seem to be the subject for discussion this good morning. Those of a delicate nature might choose to look away, though it is possibly a mite too late now for one of those ubiquitous ‘trigger warnings’. I shall endeavour not to allow my description, my feeling my way into this delicate subject, become too purple.

 

I am looking at a photograph of him now, and no, I am not crying, neither am I sad. He was, and is, formidable, holding his swollen uncut member in his hands, swollen by the substantial tube disappearing into it. The tube itself is forked, the part outside his body, I mean. One fork is sealed off with some sort of stopper, the other fork continues into a long plastic tube, snaking off the side of the bed to a slowly filling bag. I presume the second forked, and stoppered, tube is for ingress, for whatever drugs might be needed to facilitate the body’s acceptance of this intrusion, perhaps some anaesthetising agent.

 

Mark is wonderfully alert, obviously talking to me, but, for the most part, I can’t remember what he was saying. I suspect he was just getting on with being very much alive, and he was letting me record it. I guess that it might have been at that point that I asked him if he would like me to get him some disposable cameras. I knew the answer before I asked.

 

He was still handsome, thin but handsome, with a fashionable goatee beard thing, just on his chin, in the middle of his otherwise cleanly-shaven face. I would guess that he was around 34 at the time. We didn’t really discuss age and birthdays.

 

Come to think of it, it was about one year after I had my first New York exhibition ‘Saints and Survivors in a Time of Plague’. I showed 6 or 8 of the ikons in that show, and ‘The Sodomy Piece’. If my memory serves me rightly, Kelly, one of the ‘ikon’ sitters, introduced me to Mark, and this was how I ended up sitting by his very entertaining bedside. I know, a strange descriptor for that type of vigil, but Mark was full on. I know, ‘ikons’ as opposed to icons, and survivor is missing its ‘u’, but hey, I was American too. Both Rack and Ruin, our titular duo are both represented in these ikons, with perhaps 40 other ‘saints’ and some survivors, even.

 

Mark died 3 weeks later, and left me the disposable cameras, with his last images.

 

I still have them.

 

An Open Beaver

 

Ray: I know you don’t need me, or anyone else, to say this but, Ruin, you’ve done great! And of course far more than great.

 

Ruin: I am not very confident about it, but I am doing it anyway. We get as far as we get.

 

You too.

 

Thank you for saying that. I got your message just as I was going to bed. Yes, to your list above...No interest in (sex, alcohol, travel, parties, people)...I am there too, completely. The rest is extra, though I have said that before. I am still planning to write until I drop, for no other reason other than I enjoy it, and it explains things to oneself.

 

I needed the musk of aging male. That wasn't a choice either, just a happenstance, debatably imprinted during the abuse, but more likely there from the beginning, that missing father stuff. Yes, we are doomed (doomed I tell you, doomed, intoned as a comic aside), that has never been not so, from the beginning of time, and will never be any different. Everything dies, get over it. It’s that universal story to do with what it means to be mortal, and no bloody big deal, whilst being at the same time, for us, the biggest deal of all.

 

Vermeer, Klimt, Grünewald, all great describers in their own time. I am only interested in the now of Putin, Covid and the rest of the sorry travesty (all of which I love, go figure). The world can sink or blow itself up, I will describe it until I cannot. End of story.

 

I don't mind being a demented fool, and getting HIV was not a mistake, or a misfortune.

 

It was a coping mechanism, like everything else. I must say that I am tired of decent good people. Decent good family people, decent good priests and nuns, decent good businessmen and bank managers, decent good 'professionals' and politicians, decent good artists, decent good billionaires. I am most thankful that I never had to take a machine gun to them all, like some poor unfortunates with access to a machine gun license in America, and elsewhere. I am so pleased I only really ever hurt, damaged, 'killed' myself even. That's decency personified in my book.

 

We did, and are doing, okay, and feck all the begrudgers.

 

Well then, that's all the hard edges knocked off at last!

 

Ray: I feel the same way about my whoremongerings. In the post-ménopausique I can see, rationally, that it is sexual exploitation. I was taking advantage of the disadvantaged: poor women in a developing country.

 

Ruin: The whole world is at it; it's what nature does, red in tooth and claw, and all that cliched stuff. The weak are eaten, that includes everyone, the self even, there is always someone stronger. It's the veneer of dignity and pseudo decency I find offensive, especially that dressed in religion and etiquette, propriety, decency and chivalry.

 

The Conjoined Origins of Chivalry and the Humble Domestic Can Opener (Photo attached below).

 

a 'de Selby' classic essay (currently unavailable).

 

'There's many a slip twixt cup and lip', as the old saying goes.

 

Ruin: I suspect he might need a can opener to use the urinal.

 

Seven: Such beautiful lighting for an isolation of desperation. Nobly knelt before the unthought of his decisions. Very much the religious approach and a hilarious reduction of the original taking the knee.

 

Ruin: and this was years, verily centuries, before the advent of the electric can-opener too.

  

Of course, the knights and Samurai of yore, or whatever local military brute force available, would build chivalrous systems based on manners and church-sanctioned decency. They could afford it through the patronage of the top, vicious, dogs, who themselves had evolved through combining brute force with intelligence. It’s evolution at work, that survival of the fittest, nothing noble about it, except in the same idea that defines the ‘Noble gasses’ in the periodic table. They are a chemical fluke that created a class system, wholly natural and infinitely exploitable, and exploiting. Of course, I have no problem with this, how could I?

 

It’s the dressing it all up as ‘decent’ and ‘dignified’, those with ‘manners’ and ‘breeding’ against the ‘Not quite our class, dear’, and then using those ideas as weapons to control. This is partially what I have a problem with. I also know that this story has been told forever, but that’s possibly why it needs to be told, continuously updating it. I don’t think either that humankind is the only facet of everything that tells ‘stories’. The entirety of everything does, it’s about consciousness. I am afraid I am one of those who believe that everything (and non-thing) is conscious, or as the bible says somewhere “The very stones themselves will cry out”. Stories are that ‘crying out’ made manifest.

 

‘Choice’ would be a fine thing, but in my ‘system’ it doesn’t exist. But you know this already.

 

Either way, it is the system I am going to use to describe. It’s the same one I used for forty years whilst visually describing, now I want to take that into words. Writing, or making art, is not a choice. They are both compulsions and survival mechanisms. I see this true of everything we do, including murder, suicide, rape and whoremongering. Sometimes we have to quarantine ourselves to control these compulsions. Those of us who don’t have the compulsion to rape and murder are very lucky indeed.

 

I suspect that empathy grows out of that seedbed, the recognition that we are all capable of the worst atrocities, but by sheer happenstance, and luck, we haven't had to utilise those methods as, what appears to be, our only route for survival. We accidentally, and thankfully, found other ways, in keeping with our natures and conditioning. You gotta luv Darwin.

 

❤️

 

That heart was for Charles, not for my statement.

 

By the way, your name is Ray in the 'book'. I was going to just use 'J', but that, of course, suggests its own name.

 

Ray: As life wears on, and, on reflection, I have come around to your understanding of the meaning of the word ‘choice’. For example, I have no choice about testosterone withdrawal taking away my libido or interest in sex, just as I had no choice about its onset, aged 12, and everything that arose from that. But I do suspect there are categories of choice/no-choice, and that example of the no-choice effect of hormones on behaviour is but one. As far as choice governs conduct, I know I’d be lying if I said I had no choice about whether or not to have sex with a prostitute: it was always a conscious choice, as was the choice to use condoms, even if the libidinous impulse itself wasn’t. Those choices we *are* responsible for, I think, like it or not. And when it comes to crime and law-breaking, criminal law holds us responsible.

 

I am very glad that I was fortunate enough to be able to escape marrying someone I don’t love, having children I don’t want, and doing a dead-end job I hate, to keep all that going. I think that is the lot of many heterosexual men. I can see how that might generate resentment and violence. All thanks to the hormones which make all this happen.

 

Ruin: Yes, to that, but there are other, equally powerful, drivers at work, an infinite number of them, even. I don't see self-quarantining as a 'choice' either, it's a survival mechanism, as is my cuckoo instinct, my moving into already built nests. Anyway, all that is my 'starting point', even if I am wrong.

 

I am somewhat of a mind with Miro on that one, start with a point (a full stop, even), then take that point for a walk. Start with an idea, erroneous or not (who's right and who is wrong anyway?) and begin to walk it forward.

   

Taken at the "You've been NAB'D 19" rally, cheshire, May 2010.

 

I have been rallying for over 25 years and have been to the NABD (National Association for Bikers with a Disability) rally in the past, but not for several years. To be honest, I was disappointed. I went home after only one (sleepless) night and will not be returning.

 

Now, before anybody posts comments saying that "I am putting down good people", and I am "trying to damage a worthy cause, blah, blah, blah", let me say a few things.

 

1) NABD does an excellent work with and for disabled bikers, and is a charity I support 100%. I was a member for several years and am still an affiliate member. I am NOT criticising NABD in any way, but I have a few comments to make about how their rally was organised. These are not just my views, they are shared with other people I spoke to.

 

2) The programme said that due to complaints from neighbours, the music would have to be turned down by 11.30pm, and turned off by 1.00am. Oh yeah? Full volume 'til 3.30am more like. This is an excellent way to ensure that the neighbours will campaign to have the event banned next year.

 

3) It was billed as a "family friendly" rally. There was a marquee offering family friendly entertainment. Right next door to this marquee was a provisions store, called "Kumansukme" ("Come and suck me" - how childish), which had a large blackboard advertising "Fags & Porn Mags". Next to the marquee where children will see it? That's what I call sensible (not).

 

4) There was a trade stall called "Cannabis Cannabis", which sold everything weed themed, except the weed. So, everybody brought their own, and smoked it openly throughout the site. The marshalls obviously condoned this, as they did nothing about it.

 

Bikers are still a misunderstood bunch, and we often have to stand up to combat prejudice, but if we behave like a load of selfish, immature hedonists, then we can't complain when people label us as such.

 

If NABD does nothing about this sort of behaviour at their rallies, then they will end up alienating many bikers who do not behave in this way, but rely on the essential services they provide.

 

Again, I must stress that I fully support NABD, but if they do not at least listen to the complaints of some of their members and supporters, then it would be a sad day for biker democracy.

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

"Yous' guys skedaddle!"

 

3 frogfish in one dive, and two of them had the decency to "swim" together.... Constantly shooting wide-angle does have its built-in 'missed opportunities', but sometimes you have subjects who are cooperative enough to stay put while you shove a huge camera in their face!.....

 

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