The Week

[RSL]

Here are a few street shots from the past few days. I've been concentrating on the penny arcade in Manitou Springs, but our Soda Springs park yields a number of drifting kids on the weekend. The rest of the sidewalks usually yield something too. I've been spending enough time posting on LuLa that I'm sure some of you think that's all I'm doing. Not by a long shot. Any day the weather's reasonably good I'm out there on the street.

http://www.fineartsnaps.com/LuLa/TheWeek/index.html

[Lost]

I really like the "Common Ground" picture - the name of the cafe, the wonderful mix of people sitting on the railing and the framing work really well. Also, the expressions of the people playing games are fun.

The only one that I didn't get along with was the cafe/laptop scene, which didn't seem to be saying anything (maybe because it is so common place these days?).

[Rob C]

Russ

For me, it's the door shot that's king! Love those old textures/contrasts.

I also like very much the group sitting on the fence; does everybody in America carry guitars? I do worry about the images that you have caught, though; nothing to do with your photography, but everythig to do with the culture you are revealing - or at least, my interpretation of what I'm seeing. It depresses the hell out of me. It all looks so shallow, second-hand thrills, stock solutions to a bored populace. In fact, it's the American Dream edition of Martin Parr's English Nightmare. Same diference, as it is sometimes put.

The first shot, the child in the costume: A fine irony there, an American Crusader or Knight? As dangerous politically as absurd historically; just like our own Brits used to be, doing takes on cowboys and injuns! You must admit, the world gets madder every day; maybe that's something to record!

Who said the days of/need for photojournalism are over?

Rob C

[Justan]

It’s good to see that you’re taking fotos again, Russ. I thought the 3rd one would include a self-portrait, but you were in the shadows.

[RSL]

Russ

For me, it's the door shot that's king! Love those old textures/contrasts.

I also like very much the group sitting on the fence; does everybody in America carry guitars? I do worry about the images that you have caught, though; nothing to do with your photography, but everythig to do with the culture you are revealing - or at least, my interpretation of what I'm seeing. It depresses the hell out of me. It all looks so shallow, second-hand thrills, stock solutions to a bored populace. In fact, it's the American Dream edition of Martin Parr's English Nightmare. Same diference, as it is sometimes put.

The first shot, the child in the costume: A fine irony there, an American Crusader or Knight? As dangerous politically as absurd historically; just like our own Brits used to be, doing takes on cowboys and injuns! You must admit, the world gets madder every day; maybe that's something to record!

Who said the days of/need for photojournalism are over?

Rob C

Rob, Actually there are two different things going on here.

The first is the penny arcade, a fixture in Manitou Springs since early last century. My kids have been going there since 1965, especially during the 20 years when we lived a block away from it. Now their kids go there too, and soon their kids' kids. The tourists and their children love it, and in spite of the horrendous graphics on the machines it's a very non-threatening place to spend an hour or two. There aren't many like it left in the U.S.A.

Here's a link to another dozen shots just from the arcade: http://www.fineartsnaps.com/LuLa/PennyArcade/index.html.

There are pictures in there of three porno movie machines from early last century. I'd guess that the" Doctor's Office" is from the 1910s. The other two I'd guess are from the early forties. The wooden clown probably is from the 1910s too, and the poor monkey with the cymbals probably from the next decade.

The second thing going on in those pictures is the gatherings of junior-grade, would-be hippie kids in Soda Springs Park. As Lost pointed out, the array of kids, ending in the girl on the left with the dirty foot, is in front of a restaurant called the "Maté Factor," which advertises itself as "common ground," whatever that's supposed to mean. That's the culture you and I both see as scary and depressing. These mostly are kids from good families with smooth faces and healty, orthodontist-straightened teeth, but lack of authority by their parents and an infusion of political correctness have infantilized them. Unless socialism allows them to live out their lives in their dream world, reality may mug them somewhere down the line and turn them into real citizens. The guitars, by the way, are symptomatic of the illness. None of those kids are motivated enough actually to learn to play them, but the instrument is a bridge that they think connects them to the sixties, heydays of hippiedom.

Justan, Believe it or not, I'm out on the street most days. I just haven't seen a need to post the results. I'll be out there this afternoon unless the thunderstorms (CBs) building over the mountains move our way.

[Rob C]

Thought it only fair to indicate where my own version of the American Dream lives:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwIGZLjugKA

I particularly feel drawn to the flash of Dixie; would have liked some muscle cars too, but you can't have everything, not even on video!

Rob C

[RSL]

Yes, that film clip, along with just about any MTV program demonstrates the problem. It's not hard to see why some of the world's most catastrophic societies see the USA as decadent. What they miss, just as the "Axis" did in the thirties, is that people brought up in liberty, even though they abuse it, who see their liberty threatened can turn on a dime from decadence to become committed warriors.

[Rob C]

But Russ, I don't think the video is decadent; I think it's actually very innocent and representative of what most people imagine is a perfect way of life. That's its innocence - I think even the actors believe it. I would love to, but unfortunately always lacked the mobility graces and the voice! Maybe I could have been the casual observer, the innocent bystander - what a drag that must be in such a situation!

Rob C

[RSL]

Rob, Among other definitions From the New Oxford American Dictionary: decadent: "luxuriously self-indulgent." What are these kids if not  luxuriously self-indulgent? I guess the word I'm leaving out is "knowingly." Can you be self-indulgent if you don't know you're being self-indulgent? In other words, is it a crime that requires intent? If you did that you'd be guilty as charged, but I'm not sure about them.

This morning our local newspaper carried a clip from the Associated Press about second-graders who can't tie shoes or zip jackets, four-year-olds in Pull-Ups diapers, five-year-olds in strollers, teens befuddled by can openers and ice cube trays, college kids who've never done laundry, taken a bus alone, or addressed an envelope. The stupid column then asks "...do we have only ourselves to blame?" Who the hell else do they think we have to blame? It's all part of the same thing you see in those Soda Springs Park pictures. If it continues it won't be long before I'm able to photograph a line of teens sitting on a Soda Springs Park railing wearing Pull-Ups diapers.

I don't want to sound like an old-testament prophet, but I know that somewhere down the line something big, painful and serious is going to happen and snap these kids out of their self-indulgence. Some of them won't make it, but the ones who do are going to turn out to be fine adults after all. It's not that they don't have the intelligence or the backbone. What's doing this to them is the nanny PC quotient in our politics that spreads like oil into our society.

[Rob C]

“Rob, Among other definitions From the New Oxford American Dictionary: decadent: "luxuriously self-indulgent." What are these kids if not  luxuriously self-indulgent? I guess the word I'm leaving out is "knowingly." Can you be self-indulgent if you don't know you're being self-indulgent? In other words, is it a crime that requires intent? If you did that you'd be guilty as charged, but I'm not sure about them.”


That’s a very important point you make, Russ – the knowing.

Accepting that we are chatting about a pro video, that can by definition hardly be unknowing about its message, I think that when the message goes out to people like myself, certainly more than old and aware enough to ‘get it’, that what we see is a lost Eden. Perhaps it only ever existed within very tight and solvent groups – but the imagery is certainly also about lost innocence, even the theme of the song is based on the singer’s retrospective musings.

Where I live I am surrounded by boats; there must be zillions of pounds-worth of yachts sitting around the local marina, many with Se Vende writ large, but that doesn’t necessarily mean threatening bankruptcy: boats seem to be on sale right from the season in which they are bought. But what is missing here, always was, is the sense of youth and fun that the video projects. Especially youth. Fun? Never saw a lot of that, even though there was a decade when we spent a lot of time on those yachts, both in the marina and cruising. Money seems to buy the toys but not the joys.

Maybe it’s also a matter of scale. Small boats are one thing, but larger ones another. I can remember sitting up on the flybridge of a 25m Italian boat in Almeria when a much smaller boat came in to shelter. At the bow was a woman in a bikini, in her early thirties, dealing with the help ashore; the only other person on board was her male. On our boat, there was a crew of three. The owners, our friends, didn’t have the pleasure of the boat to themselves even when without guests. But the greater question is: did they really want that privacy?

This morning, at twenty to eight, I was standing in a cold queue outside the clinic awaiting my turn for a blood test. In front of me stood a young girl and her mother. It took my mind right off the needle. What I was looking at was my wife, as she was when we met in school. I couldn’t get my eyes off the kid. I felt guilty as hell, and even somewhat nervous in case it became noticeable to anyone else. Not that she was all that similar, facially, but the ‘look’ was there: a touch of the Veronica Lake hair, the lovely teeth, damn it, I lost half a century and more. Is it any wonder that watching a video can bring back a false fantasy memory of a youth I never actually had?

What is real?

Rob C

[RSL]

Accepting that we are chatting about a pro video, that can by definition hardly be unknowing about its message, I think that when the message goes out to people like myself, certainly more than old and aware enough to ‘get it’, that what we see is a lost Eden. Perhaps it only ever existed within very tight and solvent groups – but the imagery is certainly also about lost innocence, even the theme of the song is based on the singer’s retrospective musings.

When I look at something like that video what I see isn't a lost Eden; what I see is confusion: the idea that you can have sexual liberty without responsibility. Richard Feynman, my favorite physicist, made a profound observation when he said that nature's most powerful command is "do it again." It's a command that manifests itself in every element of physics and every element of life. Our literature, film, visual art, even fashion photography is saturated with what we call "sex," which, at its heart, is the urge to reproduce. Nature is telling us to "do it again." It doesn't tell us to marry and be responsible for our offspring, it just tells us "do it again." Yet, the basis of civilization is a social contract that includes being responsible for our offspring. We all resonate to the "just do it -- again" message in a video like that. Maybe it seems like a lost Eden, but the lost Eden is a mirage in a desert that would subsume civilization. Yes, perhaps the mirage is an image of lost innocence, but innocence lost is civilization gained.

Money seems to buy the toys but not the joys.

When has money ever bought joy? Having enough money brings a surcease of discomfort, but having more money doesn't bring joy. The lives of most celebrities makes that pretty clear. What does bring joy? Photography!

This morning, at twenty to eight, I was standing in a cold queue outside the clinic awaiting my turn for a blood test. In front of me stood a young girl and her mother. It took my mind right off the needle. What I was looking at was my wife, as she was when we met in school. I couldn’t get my eyes off the kid. I felt guilty as hell, and even somewhat nervous in case it became noticeable to anyone else.

Rob, I can sympathize. I've had the same kind of experience even though my wife is still with me. Having lost a wife the memory of whom would intensify the projection must be terribly painful.

[Rob C]

Hi Russ

Yes, the incident has stayed with me all day. In fact, I ended up stumbling onto some old papers in a Samsonite briefcase I hadn't opened for ages. It was all stuff about my mother's last four years - copies of letters to her, bank reports, all that kind of thing. I was very glad to have purchased a shredder some years ago.

However, I came across this little gem which I had cut out of a Scottish newspaper and had obviously slipped in with the other stuff - it lifted my spirits more than a wee bit.

Two Glasgow lads are sitting on a wall. A car with a German driver pulls up, and he leans out of the window to ask directions.

“Entschuldigung, koennen sie Deutsch sprechen?” he asks, but the two lads just stare at him. He tries again: “Excusez-moi, parlez vouz Francais?”, but the stares continue. Then, “Parla Italiano?” followed by “Hablan ustedes Español?” gets him nowhere, so he drives off.

One of the lads says: “Do you no’ think we should a stuck in at school and learned a foreign language?”

“Why,” says his mate, “That guy knew four languages – and it didnae do him any good.”

Rob C