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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

Union Station D.C.

I recently took a trip down to Washington D.C. which I'll get into briefly in the next post. In the mean time here are three images made from essentially the same object. If you've never been to D.C. I suggest going, especially if you;re a fan of architecture. I got off the train late at night/early in the (dark) morning and was not expecting to walk through such a magnificent train station. I'm used to crumby ol' Penn Station.

©Steve Shilling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

©Steve Shilling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

©Steve Shilling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Image of the Night #8 - NYC Night Street Corner

©Steve Shilling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

©Steve Shilling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I like how you can see more information about what's going on in the first image but I enjoy the 'feel' of the second image.