Feria La Cañada, El Marques

My friend Hebert invited me to go to a "fiesta" here in Queretaro tonight. He described it as an event with food, music and beer out in another municipality. I thought what the hell, take is some authentic Mexicano culture rather than just the tourist activities in the downtown centre. As we approached I could see a Ferris wheel albeit a small one, and rides. Little did I know that it was going to be organized chaos much in the same vein as any Fair, with tons of teenagers and families. The kind of thing I don't really enjoy. Fortunately I don't think Hebert enjoys that sort of thing either because we didn't stay long.

Los Arcos, Queretaro Mexico 2005

My view for today: the current landscape

Queretaro, Mexico 2005

Photo Shoot with Leo - Queretaro, 2005

The best compliment

My buddy Ryan, who lives in Toronto and is such a total sweetheart, said this to me today about when we first met;

"I was like dayummmmm he's like a plate of good lord with some have mercy on the side."

It's the best compliment I've had in ages. Thanx!


How hot is Ryan!

Dustin!

I don't know exactly what to say about this man except this is the day we met and I'll never forget it.

Couldn't help but post this: A Catastrophe That Walks Like a Man

Bill Maher's closing bit the other night:

"Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one's speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

"Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you're saying: there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

"But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

"On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

"So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.' "

Terrifying Trivia #2

In the latest count, there is an estimated 11,000,000 (that's right 11 million) rats in NYC. That's approximately one rat for every resident in Manhattan.

Promising OUTLOOKS

Received some great news this morning, Outlooks Magazine, has contracted me to shoot the out & about Edmonton page, which is a photo spread of gay events that take place in the city every month. You can check out my photography coverage starting in November.

Had a warm and fuzzy dinner tonight with one of my dearest old (not her but us) friends, Dellee, in fact, she was my date for our High School Graduation. How fun is that! This year marks our 30th year of being friends, and although she no longer lives here, every time we see each other it feels like we were talking or hanging out just the day before. Time has become irrelevant. It's remarkable (and wonderful) how your really good friendships become like that. I'm a very blessed man, with some truly amazing friends.

Photo Shoot with Ward -- Centennial Park

more photos to follow.

Very WRONG, but not so wrong!

Terrifying Trivia #1

36 chips is equivalent to an average sized potatoe.
Ahhhh, so therein lies the problem.
Now how many scoops of ice cream equals an average sized potatoe?

Words of Encouragement

Finally reconnected with my Chicano buddy, David (aka Casper), who after 5 years in NYC, has returned home to LA. David, who has a great appreciation for the arts (and the male form -- wink), was solely responsible for getting my photography published in the national Latino magazine, QV. Today, in an instant message, he made the following comments, which I appreciate more than he knows;

"what i think of you and your talent yo....you go beyond being a photgrapher....you capture energy which alot of photographers don't and you already know this but i will say it again....thank you on how you capture people of color.....you dont exploit which is beautiful...you have a genuine love for Latinos which shows in your work."

All I can say is thank you David, encouragement like that only inspire me to create more and even better images!

Photo Shoot with Sando at Centennial Park

Had a second successful photo shoot with model, Sando (see original shoot on August 13, 2005). Today we shot outdoors at Centennial Park in Sherwood Park. Once again, I am once again incredibly pleased with the images.



(MORE PHOTOS TO FOLLOW)

Flowers in Mom & Dad's backyard.
Sherwood Park, Alberta

And still others also ask the same QUESTION

The following New York Times editorial said succinctly and exactly what I've been asking for the past week. The BUSH Administration is an atrocity and makes me not want to step foot in the US until either the fucker has been impeached or until his nightmare term is over in 2008.

Unfortunately, it's not so easy to completely write of all of Americans, I do have some wonderful, conscientious, politically aware friends that happen to live in what internationally is becoming regarded as one of the ugliest countries in the world. But I can't imagine not seeing them for 3 years -- a personal dilema truthfully.

I said to my friend John, the other day that Americans no longer have to worry about terrorists taking down their nation, it'll be their own politicians and citizens that do the job. Seriously!!!

Anyway this article is the last that I will post on the subject of New Orleans, a city I dearly love and have remarkable memories of (thanx Val Jenkins Brandt) for convincing me to get my mojo down there to visit you!) I never intended this blog to be a political platform, it was supposed to be photo journal with a tiny bit of personal data thrown in, so I've digressed. But I am so frustrated by what is happening in America. I'm heartened to see that I'm not the only one.

United States of Shame
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 3, 2005
Stuff happens.

And when you combine limited government with incompetent government, lethal stuff happens.

America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered infrastructure, a gutted police force, insufficient troop levels and criminally negligent government planning. But this time it's happening in America.

W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N'Awlins. He was clearly moved. "You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute," he said on the runway at the New Orleans International Airport, "but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen." Out of the cameras' range, and avoided by W., was a convoy of thousands of sick and dying people, some sprawled on the floor or dumped on baggage carousels at a makeshift M*A*S*H unit inside the terminal.

Why does this self-styled "can do" president always lapse into such lame "who could have known?" excuses.

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.'s prewar reports.

Who on earth could have known that New Orleans's sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy's uneasy fishbowl.

In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Not only was the money depleted by the Bush folly in Iraq; 30 percent of the National Guard and about half its equipment are in Iraq.

Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

Just last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials practiced how they would respond to a fake hurricane that caused floods and stranded New Orleans residents. Imagine the feeble FEMA's response to Katrina if they had not prepared.

Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.

When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals.

When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.

Who are we if we can't take care of our own?

And if you want to read more, follow this link to Anne Rice's moving and poignant op/ed article from the New York Times.

SUDUKO

I don't know whether to call Suduko my guilty pleasure or a sign of my inner geek. Whatever the case may be I'm totally hooked on doing at least one a day.

So I'm not only one who's asking QUESTIONS!

Just received an email with a link to Michael Moore's website (who I absolutely adore, along with his very provocative documentaries; Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 911) where he's posted the following letter to old W, which is exactly what I was bitching about in my post on August 31.

Vacation is Over...
an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush


Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

Photo Shoot with Ryan

Did a long-awaited photo shoot today with my good pal, Ryan, who is a talented artist himself. We had discussed him posing for me for a couple years now, and finally, this afternoon worked with both our schedules and even the weather managed to cooperate. We did the shots along the North Saskatchewan river valley -- it was very secluded and although there are no nudes with this particular shoot, I'm sure I will explore doing another shoot there in the near future. I'm also hoping to get Ryan to model for me again. The next time I will try to convince him to go sans clothes and pose naked with his very beautiful girlfriend, Dana. Together they are very HOT couple which will undoubtedly mean a very HOT shoot.

Question

What kind of country is the United States when rescue and relief can't even be assured within its own borders? It is a sad day in American history when survivors of hurricane Katrina are left stranded and to die without food, water or shelter. America the beautiful? (And if I hear on the news one more time that "the government is stepping in..." I'll scream - where has the Federal fucking government been this past week? No TV or newspapers fellas? Shameful!)

Question

Are all the hurricanes God's way of telling Florida that he's really really pissed with Govenor Jeb Bush?

Question

WHY, in the year 2005, if we scientifically know that cigarettes kill over one-half million Americans, and millions of other people worldwide, do Americans continue to grow tobacco?

SIX FEET UNDER (2001-2005)

Said a sad goodbye tonight to one of my all-time favourite TV series, Six Feet Under. I'm definitely going to miss this show -- it was visually ravishing, clever, dark, witty, cutting-edge, and yet in so many ways completely true to life. Although the final montage seemed more stilted than the traditionally shocking sequences of how characters usually shuffle off their mortal coil -- in fairness, it did still manage to sneak in several trademark moments of surprise, humor, and incredible camerawork. Notwithstanding, the final episode seemed a suitable send off to what will undoubtedly become classic TV.

It was because of this series that I discovered such photographers as Gregory Crewdson who was talked about as part of the storyline in one of the episodes and then went on to actually shoot the promotional/advertising photos for the 2003 season (pictured above).

I loved the fact that the character Claire was an aspiring photographer, which needless to say, I identified with on many, many levels and none more poignantly the series finale where she starts taking nude photos of her very cute boyfriend and ironically it was set in bed with white sheets (check my website for the parallels on that coincidence.) I was also moved by the dialogue/writing where she explains how she wants to be an artist but isn't sure if she has what it takes -- an insecurity I readily identify with. It was quite humorous that Claire ends up moving to New York City to pursue her career. I appreciated the fact that as a photographer, an occupation Claire was truly passionate about, means that she gets to live to the ripe old age of 102! Let's hope that life really does imitate art.

"You only get one life. There's no god, no rules, no judgment except for those you accept or create for yourself and once it's over, it over. Dreamless sleep forever and ever. So why not be happy while you're here. Really -- why not?"

[fade to white]

Top 10 Ways to Spot A FREAK on the Internet

1. If he/she says "I love you" in the first IM or email.
2. If he/she says they can "see the two of you spending the rest of your lives together" before you have even met.
3. If he/she wants you to quit having sex with other people until the two of you can finally meet and consummate the act.
4. If he/she starts telling you that he/she has had other online affairs but amazingly somehow you're different because you are really the "right one" and this time it's "going to work".
5. If he/she tells you how all the other people have been terrible and cruel to them by doing a variety of unmentionable things -- from ignoring them to cheating on them to theft and even violence.
6. If he/she offers to buy/send you things before they've "known" (and I use the term loosely) you for a week.
7. If he/she asks "Have you told other people about me?" by your second conversation.
8. If he/she has mood swings because you haven't been online for several hours.
9. If he/she feels compelled to tell you about all the bad things they've done including but not limited to: their illegal or legal drug use, unsafe sex, driving drunk, etc.
10. If he/she sends you endless jpegs of themselves coupled with the comment how these infamous "other people" all find him/her sexy, attractive, desirable or just basically hot.

Any of this sound familiar Philip?

Photo Shoot with Sando

As I so seldomly do photo shoots here in Edmonton, I was thrilled to have come across Sando online. Initially I was interested in photographing his tattoo, which I found unique; a) in that it was only type, b) it's placement and c) I truthfully liked the message -- "courage my love". However, when I met him in person I could see that he was going to be a really good model too. Needless to say, I'm hoping to do a subsequent shoot with him.

The type of news you DO want!

Happy to report NOTHING in your studio was hurt. We had to move a few boxes on the rack to let the firemen feel the wall for heat (and they poked a small hole in it) but only drywall droppings were the extent of the damage. I was told from the electrician that the fuses were old and loose PLUS the fact a useless doorbell was pushing in the wires that it was just a matter of time. Luckily we now have new fuses and all looks good – electricity seems more stable, less dim lights.

The type of news you never want!

Received the following email today from my roommate Eva and needless to say my heart dropped.

I want to let you know that we had an electrical fire last night
at the apartment. The boys (AJ & Michael) were home and noticed the fuse box glowing red and called 911 so the damage seems minimal to the space. The buffet got scratched up and the firemen made a hole into the studio to put out the wires that were on fire. Wallace said it will be fixed because we have no electricity at all now. I will keep you posted. I couldn't really see enough in the dark last night to tell. It was mostly the hallway that got messed up. The boys said we had been having weird brown outs for days and that is w/o most of the appliances on. I am glad they were home.

I'm terribly thankful that no one was hurt and that there appears that there wasn't too much damage, but am desperate to hear that all my negatives and film, that are stored in the studio, are alright. I'll post more as I hear.

Photo Shoot with PJ in Calgary

Spent the day shooting PJ at a couple great locations in Calgary. I first met PJ a few years ago in Edmonton and subsequently did two (one solo and one duo) photo shoots with him there before he relocated. As you'll see from these shots, the camera loves PJ and his killer blues. The bathroom shots were done at the home of one of my best friend's parents, who had an incredibly mod 1970's bathroom complete with the modular shower/bath unit that I wanted to photograph the moment I saw it.


PJ and those killer blue eyes, 2005 


PJ, Calgary, July 31, 2005 


the infamous "mod" bathroom 

The 2005 Jackson Tour makes its way back to Edmonton

Arrived back in Canada tonight. An amazing sunset welcomed me as I arrived in Edmonton. This is one of the shots that I shot as the plane descended from above the clouds. In a weird way the look of the sky and clouds reminded me of the scene from WAR OF THE WORLDS (that I saw just last week in Washington DC with Joe & Tony) where the aliens are arriving on earth amidst a vivid storm of whirling clouds. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty apropos parallel for my arrival in Edmonton -- truly a "war of the worlds" for me going from the chaotic frenetic pace of NYC to the very quiet, predictable and conservative life here in the northern outpost of Alberta. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike. It does put the yin back with the yang so that my life is more balanced. Plus I was more than happy to escape the stifling summer heat of NYC, especially after hauling suitcases in 95F on the bus to LaGuardia airport.