One Hand Clapping

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

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

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.

Monday, August 15, 2011

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.

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.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

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

Monday, August 8, 2011

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

Welcome

Greetings. Here you will find postings of whatever I happen to find interesting at the time. I hope you will also find some form of personal connection here as well. I'll be highlighting topics such as: Art, Architecture, Music, Design, Religion, etc. As well as posting some random tidbits about various locations throughout New York. I check my site and e-mail often so if you have a question or comment I'll be sure to respond to it quickly. I thank you for taking the time out of your day to share in some of my interests.

Sincerely,

-S.