treats & a trick

HERE ARE YOUR TREATS (a.k.a. eye-candy)
AND NOW FOR YOUR TRICK. . .

click the arrow to start video - run time, 0:28

epidermal art

There was a lot of fun body art out and about last weekend and I had a great time shooting all those painted poses. Posting most of them here though was problematic, for the obvious reasons, but these three are cool and show off the inventive range of styles.

alternatives

Last week I listened to a Presidential debate between Ralph Nader (Ecology Party) and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party). The event was sponsored by Restore the Republic. I thought it was an interesting discussion of alternative, albeit unworkable, solutions to our collective problems.

Both men were intelligent and well spoken as they talked about the hot button issues of our times (and we all know what they are) with a refreshing absence of the dumbed down, rehearsed rhetoric we hear from the geezer (R) or the empty suit (D).
I don't know about you, but when I hear the major party candidates' slogans, "change we need" and "change is coming", before or after a mouthful of media designed sound bites, I remember the age old axiom, "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

Anyway, do I think Nader or Baldwin have a "snowball's chance" of winning the White House? Frankly, no. The political system is stacked against them as it is for the other nine minor party candidates legally running for the Presidency. The truth is that, including our two major party candidates, there are a total of thirteen Americans, both men and women, running for President in 2008.

After visiting each of their websites I had a pretty good feel for what each one of them were about and discovered that despite myopic mainstream media coverage of only two political points of view, there is a broad range of alternative ideas out there. Diversity has always been America's strong suit and although I'm not endorsing any of these folks, I do think that the more ideas we have to think about, the sooner we might find our solutions.

Each candidate's name is linked 

to their respective website. . .

Gloria La Riva - Party for Socialism and Liberation

Chuck Baldwin - Constitution Party

Gene Admondson - Prohibition Party

Bob Barr - Libertarian Party

Thomas Robert Stevens - Objectivist Party

James Harris - Socialist Workers Party

Cynthia McKinney - Green Party

Alan Keyes - American Independence Party

Ralph Nader - Ecology Party

Brian Moore - Liberty Union Party

Charles Jay - Boston Tea Party

. . .and to be fair, i'll include

Barack Obama - Democratic Party

John McCain - Republican Party

fantasy festivities - VIDEO

Fantasy Fest comes once a year and when it does it brings good cheer;
The locals' are glad for the hoops and hollers while raking in tons of tourist dollars. . .

I guess I've seen Fantasy Fest Parades most every way you can. Like a spectator, as a madness monitor, beside a float, on a float and selling beer from the side lines. It's always been fun.

This year I wanted to see it from behind the camera so since Monday I've shot piles of photographs and miles of streaming video. This is a short sampling of those efforts. (yes friends, this is the PG version - no need to lock the children in
their rooms).

Enjoy. . .

click arrow to start video. run time, 4:17

texture

I spent Sunday afternoon working with my plants. It's like a meditation to get me out of my own head for a while. Anyway, I think the best way to study something is to either draw it, clean it or take it apart. Taking care of the plants is a little of each and they're all loving all the rain we've been getting.

So I'm potting and pruning, pretty close-in visually, when I become aware of the texture of each of the guys. I read somewhere that if all the plants and bugs on the planet went extinct the planet would die but if humans went extinct, the planet would prosper. If you haven't seen it, there was a great documentary on the History Channel called "Life After People" that spelled it out - cool stuff.
Here's a link to a 2 minutes "sneek-peek" of it - LIFE AFTER PEOPLE and if you get into it you can Google it and YouTube has the whole thing in 10 minute video clips.

I haven't voted yet. I like going to Old City Hall on Election Day. I get that "it's a special kind of day" feeling that maybe you get too from Easter or Christmas or any of our bank holidays. They call them Bank Holidays in most of Europe and we call them Federal Holidays but call them anything you want, the energy in the ether is just a little different. So on November 4th I'll make my choice of the "lesser of two weevils", confident in knowing that which ever choice I make, there'll be something new in American Politics, either a black man in the White House or a woman in The House. I'm pretty sure "politically" it won't make much difference which happens but "culturally" it's a pretty cool step forward. A small shift America's zeitgeist.

If you're interested in a good look at politics, religion and banking from an alternative perspective, take a look at "Zeitgeist Addendum". It's pretty easy to watch and playable on Google so you can see it, as they say, "in it's entirety" which takes about 123 minutes.
Here's that link - ZEITGEIST ADDENDUM

There's a lot of shifting going on these days beyond the political stuff too. Nationalizing Banks and privatizing their debt, the end of America's space shuttle program and a Chinese presence in space and Apple Computer created it's first ever crap product (the new MacBooks are. . . wanting). But what I thought was interesting, overall, is how it's all happening at the same time. It's almost like someone put something in the global water supply to trigger a need for upheaval in humans. Glad I am to be living in the Keys where it's easier to be less sour and dour about all the mayhem. Any one I've spoken to up north recently (where everything is serious) has sounded just a bit stressed and edgy. If I can feel it over the phone, I know the energy in the ether up there would give me permanent agita.

There seems to be a wrinkle in the texture of our times, I hope we can get it ironed out.
I wondered if plant consciousness was aware of it. . .
Probably, not so much - more concentrated on photosynthesis than politics and heliotropism than the human condition.
I asked myself, "if the movie theatre on Eaton Street converted entirely to solar power, would they be obliged to change their name to the HelioTropic Cinema"?

bamboo shoots

There are so many bamboo trees living in the garden, you'd half expect a family of fat and happy Pandas to be living back there. Bamboo can grow very tall so we cut them back every few months but, left un-eaten by hungry bears, they "shoot" right back again.

peace vigil - VIDEO

On any given Sunday, at the corner of Eaton & Duval Streets in Key West, a group of concerned Americans spend the hour between 1 & 2 p.m. making a stand for peace.

click the arrow to start video - run time, 4:38

artman's alphabet - G

small bights - part 1

small bights - part 2