New Tom Waits Music!!

http://www.tomwaits.com/news/

That link will take you to a page where you can hear Tom Wait's new track to appear on his upcoming album Bad As Me. Let me tell you, while it's sound is and can only ever be attributed to Tom Waits, it sounds different from all his other songs he's created so far.


-S.

Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene is really starting to get in the way these days.  Recently MAyor of New York City Michael Bloomberg has issued a mandatory evacuation for all areas that reside within what has been deemed Zone A.
Zone A is as follows:
Battery Park
Southern Manhattan
Staten Island
Coney Island

I mat be missing some but I'm currently without computer of television to double check these facts. No, the weather's just fine I just have no power cable at the moment and in general I've got no television.  What I can be sure of is that I refuse to have some hurricane come along and ruin things. I've recently hit that point in life that rarely comes around. It's that point where you swear everything is amazing. You wake up feeling great and happy to be alive and I'm not about to let Irene ruin that for me.

As I am not in an area listed for mandatory evacuation I'l be choosing to stay right where I m...tho maybe I'll come down from my 17th floor.

More info HERE.


Stay safe everyone.


Sincerely,



-S.

A Romantic Afternoon

"So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect, — What is truth? and of the affections, — What is good? by yielding itself passive to the educated Will. ... Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This was the calling for a revolution of thought, a protest against the state of culture and society put forth by R.O. Emerson in his 1836 publication Nature and is widely considered the catalyst that began the Transcendentalist movement.
(A digitized copy of the full publication can be found HERE)

This afternoon I spent my time taking pictures at an old abandoned and now nearly destroyed dairy barn. Though it's seen bette days it is more interesting to me now than it ever was.  During my time there today a storm set upon my town fairly quickly.  As the wind picked up and the lighting became more Romantic I found myself worrying about the fact that I only had about 3 rolls of B-2 (120mm) film on me. With my trusty Salut camera in hand I set to work.  I realized that I shouldn't be worrying about my film stock, rather, I should be enjoying the fact that with the onset of the breeze having cooled the area considerably, my time would be better spent admiring my overgrown surroundings...

Where I parked my car. The Parking garage, if you will.

The dairy barn.

The view from where I was sitting.

View while the storm approaches. 

What was going on above me.

I hope you also find moments that allow you to sit back and enjoy the awe inspiring beauty nature provides us with.

Sincerely,


-S

P.S. I will be posting a short video of the early stages of the storm and the lighting that took place.

Brief Thought

I think it's rather funny and impressive that Germany and France are seen as the only two countries that have wealth in Europe. Currently the world's financial minds are resting upon the idea that Europe is virtually broke...except France and Germany. Germany, the country who was completely financially devastated at the end of the second World War (albeit moreso after the first World War) is one of two countries that seems to not only have done financially well but is also retaining their wealth. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said on the news this morning that it's come down to one scenario being France and Germany needing to bail out all of Europe.  Now as German makes up a portion of my heritage I must say I'm rather proud that Germany has been able to bring themselves out of their financial debt and rise to where they are.

Information about Germany's WWI and WWII pay-off can be found in THIS article.

Information about the War Reparations can be found HERE.

Why Germany has found success, located HERE.

Image of the night # 11 - Midnight Thunderstorms

Even though there's no visible evidence to support my claim, there indeed was a thunder and lightning storm taking place during the time this image was shot. 

-S

©Steve Shilling II; 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Time of capture: approximately 1 A.M.
Shutter speed: 8 sec.

Image(s) of the Night #'s 9 and 10 - NYC By Night

©Steve Shilling II; 2011 -  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

©Steve Shilling II; 2011 -  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

City Storms (I'll take the rain)

On Sunday, August fourteenth New York City received quite a storm beginning in it's evening hours and extending through three in the morning.  I found myself out and about with my Chaika in hand when the torrential downpour began.  I decided to seek shelter underneath some scaffolding and wait it out. After several hours spent standing in, more or less, the same spot watching the evening progress I found myself becoming rather, poetic. This was the result:

Sincerely,


-S.

©Steve Shilling II; 2011 -  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

©Steve Shilling II; 2011 -  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

©Steve Shilling II; 2011 -  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

©Steve Shilling II; 2011 -  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Take Action on behalf of Mao Hengfeng

TAKE ACTION 
^^ (Click link for a brief description of why action should be taken as well as to receive information pertaining to how to do so)

Self Portrait

Now, I'm not a fan of self portraiture, at all. I find it narcissistic and those who abuse the genre of photography to be entirely self-absorbed. Having said that I know that no one knows me better than myself and so I listened to my teachers back when they told me that I should consider making a few self portraits. I figured that I had in the past been the subject facing the camera for others so why not revisit that brief stint of modeling.  At least this time the person giving the artistic direction would be someone who knows how to match my identity with the feel of the image.
My current profile image is in fact a self portrait taken by myself, here is another.

©Steve Shilling II - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Chart of Capitalist Society

Source: Meltzer, Albert. The Floodgates of Anarchy. 3rd. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2010. 66. Print.

Source: Meltzer, Albert. The Floodgates of Anarchy. 3rd. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2010. 88. Print.

To Touch Upon Monologues

One of my personal favorite monologues to be found in a movie. 

John Hurt, The Proposition, 2005

I've devoted a fair amount of time to watching films and I believe that the master of the monologue is Robin Williams (most notably for his performance in Good Will Hunting but also for his work in Patch Adams).

If you visit this site you will surely loose many hours of your life on here but I'm not so sure I would call it a waste of time. That is, the AFI's site chronologically lists the most highly ranked speeches by year and includes for your reading pleasure a copy of the speech and/or dialogue. I have not even checked to see if this one has made the list but I believe that it ought to.

Personal favorites (from the aforementioned site) of mine are as follows:


Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, 1996)
Billy Bob Thorton (Sling Blade, 1996)
Woody Harrelson (The People Vs. Larry Flynt, 1996)
Jack Nicholson (  -  As Good As It Gets, 1997)
Harrison Ford (  -  Air Force One, 1997)
Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, 1997  -  )
Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting, 1997  -  )
Gary Oldman (Leon, The Professional, 1994  -  The Fifth Element, 1997  -  )
Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan, 1998  -  )
Anthony Hopkins (Amistad, 1997  -  Meet Joe Black, 1998)
Al Pacino (City Hall, 1996  -  Devil's Advocate, 1997  -  Any Given Sunday, 1999)
Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, 1999)
Magnolia, 1999
Christian Bale (American Psycho, 2000)
Russell Crowe (Gladiator, 2000)
Julia Roberts (Erin Brocavitch, 2000)
Willem DeFoe (Shadow of the Vampire, 2000)
Ellen Burstyn (Requiem For A Dream, 2000)
Edward Norton (Primal Fear, 1996  -  American History X, 1998  -  25th Hour, 2002)
Terry Kinney (The Laramie Project, 2002)
Sean Penn (Mystic River, 2003)
David Carradine (Kill Bill Vol. 2, 2004)
Bruno Ganz (Downfall, 2004)
Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, 2004)
David Straitham (Good Night, and Good Luck, 2005)
Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta, 2006)
Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men, 2007)
Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood, 2007  -  Gangs of New York, 2002)
Mark Litoto (Senecdoche, New York, 2008)

Here is a site with a short top 10 list that I agree with (maybe not the order and maybe not all of them but enough that I've decided to share it).

TOO BE CONTINUED

Nation of Change

I stumbled across this progressive news site: http://www.nationofchange.org/
I've got to say it's got some excellent articles that have led to some hours of enlightening reads. It's a free, reader supported media source that only publishes digitally.

Some interesting recent articles include the following:

Three Good reasons to Liquidate our Empire

The Ongoing Costs of the Iraqi War

Will Oceans' Tides Supply Endless Electricity

Now, this is obviously a media source that is slanted politically towards the left. However, I believe that many of the articles contain important information that is kept out of the mainstream media sources we seem to find ourself turning to first due to their convenience or (comparably) subconsciously comforting reports.  One article (the second listed) led me to this site which now reads the cost of the war(s) the US are involved in at:

Source: National Priorities Project

Compare this to the price you see when you click on the link and tell me you're not slightly sickened.
The prices are supplied by the National Priorities Project which I strongly support in it's efforts of demystifying the information presented to te public on a daily basis.

I hope Nation of Change finds it's way into your bookmark folders or your daily regime of media consumption.

Sincerely,


-S