Remembering Gramp

This is my grandfather Harry Kennedy. He passed away one year ago today. He is greatly missed by my grandmother and the rest of his family and friends. He is fondly remembered by all.

Gramp did many things in his life. He was a WWII vet, deputy sheriff, construction foreman, caretaker/handyman/jack of all trades for well known Ct. politician amongst other jobs. He was very interested and involved in politics for some time. The last number of years he was very involved with his church. He liked to teach teenagers about the bible.

I got my wandering spirit from him.

I have tons of great memories of my grandfather as I got to spend lots of time with my grandparents all of my life. There is not one favorite as there are too many, but here is a good little one. He also liked to tell stories. He was very good at that.

My grandmother used to make bacon and eggs for my grandfather all the time for breakfast because that was his favorite breakfast. This was passed on to me. I love bacon and eggs. When I was very little and was staying with them one of the little tricks he used to play on me was when we were eating. If there was some food I did not like or want to eat my grandfather used to tell me it was bacon and I would just gobble it up.

So thanks Gramp for being what a grandfather is supposed to be.

Peace.

Jill Freedman

Jill Freedman is a great photographer who has done some excellent work covering the gritty side of New York City. She may not be as well known as other documentary photographers but her work is every bit as good. She was out of the limelight for a number of years however it seems that her work is getting rediscovered. Lets hope so, she deserves it.

Labor Day Roadtrip

Decided to take a quick little Labor Day roadtrip here, http://www.gastateparks.org/info/providence/. Should be pretty darn cool. I know they got tons of rain from Tropical Storm Fay so hopefully that does not mess things up to much.

Going to take Route 27 from Tallahassee up so there should be tons of photo ops. Lets hope so.

Untitled

This picture is from William Eggleston. It is untitled. Eggleston for me is great at capturing the everyday moments that most people pass over, they never see it or process it. Simple yet captivating shots of life.

His color work is fantastic. Many great pieces of work to choose from.

Candy Cigarette

For my next few posts I am going to show some pictures of some of my favorite photographers.

The first one here is from Sally Mann. I think this is a classic photograph. Sally Mann has caught a lot of grief over the years for some of her material but she is a great photographer and art should make people think.

This photograph is simply classic and a great piece of work.

What a Dork

Well I screwed some camera settings on vacation and the picture file size are very small. I take pictures at the largest file size so I can get some large prints. I can still do this however it is not easy. Oh well, maybe I'll watch what I am doing next time.

Dear CNN

Dear CNN,

You are screwing up your convention coverage.

We the grownup citizens of the United States want you to take all your stupid crap off the tv screen. Do we really need the sound level indicator on the screen. Nobody fucking cares about that. If there are really people who need to see that I do not want them voting in the election. It is just plain stupid. Then you have the Gavel to Gavel schedule on the other side of the screen and you continue to show this over and over. We do not need to see this over and over and over and over and over and over. Get the point. It is just plain annoying. Then you have the largest amount of space taken up on the bottom of the screen that the world has ever seen. Again most of this is just utter crap. Make it smaller and if you feel you need to have the Gavel to Gavel coverage then scroll that across the bottom of the screen. Please. You really make watching the unbearable.

I will be watching on PBS. No crap on the screen, just like we want it to be.

Thank you, now please fix this. Immediately.

Joe Biden

Well I said it a few weeks ago in a post that I thought Obama needed to pick Biden. I am glad to see Obama has been reading my blog and accepted my advice. Biden has a great view of the world and where America needs to be and he will be able to help Obama guide the U.S. back to a place where we are respected around the world again. He also is not afraid to speak his mind even though sometimes he gets hammered for his thoughts. The other great thing is he will know where to strike at the heart of the Republican team. I am sure that McCain is somewhat afraid of Biden being the attack dog for Obama. He knows McCain very well and will be able to punch many holes in McCains platform.

Now Obama needs to pick Bill Richardson as Secretary of State and Jim Webb as his Secretary of Defense, Robert Reich as Secertatary of Labor and if he wants it Al Gore as Energy Secretary.

Vacation is over

Man, do I hate coming back from vacation. I always want to be someplace other than home. My house is fine, however I need to be someplace else.

Vacation was great. Was in Connecticut for 9 days. The weather was perfect. Low eighties, no humidity and the temp at night was around sixty. Just perfect. Went swimming in Rhode Island a couple times. The Ocean was around 67 degrees. A tad cooler than the Gulf of Mexico where this time of the year the water is 90 degrees. Like swimming in a bathtub.

All in all a great vacation. Spent time with the family and friends. Went to some car shows, looked into putting some photos in an art gallery.

All in all very good.

We better keep our eyes open

One other thing we need to watch out for during the Georgia/Russian conflict is something that Putin said recently was he thought that Russia should renew their Cuban/Soviet alliances. Now that would be trouble. All we need is Cuba, Russia, and I bet good old Hugo would join the party to be plotting things right in our backyard.

We could diffuse that whole problem by normalizing relations with Cuba. It is time to get over Fidel and our Bay of Pigs fiasco. There is nothing more the Cuban people want than to have normalized relations with the U.S. The Cuban embargo has to be one of the dumbest policies we have. How can we justify this policy when we do all the business we do with China? Oh yea, I forgot it is about money. We stand to gain nothing from Cuba like we gain from China. We have nothing to fear from Cuba as long as we keep Russia from going back to Havana.

I find it interesting all this happening during the presidential election and when our troops are stretched as thin as possible. The Russians are seeing us as being weak and attempting to put the screws to us.

We are in some deep trouble. We better be picking our friends very carefully.

Gutter Journalism

How come a major publisher like Simon and Schuster publishes a book of shit about a presidential candidate? Is their agenda just about money? I am talking about Jerome Corsi's book about Obama. The Obama campaign better push back hard and make this guy squirm.
Are people ready so stupid they will actually believe this type of crap. As a matter of fact if I was part of the Obama campaign I would literally drive this guy's reputation into the ground. We do not need assholes like this fucking up our presidential campaign. The candidates can do that by themselves just fine.

I hate scumbag journalists. This guy qualifies.

The Bear Awakens

So the mighty Russian bear is coming out of his slumber. They decided they had to beat up little old Georgia. They are testing the United States and we are losing this battle. Now we are sending troops in with humanitarian aid. What happens when the Russians do not let us through?
What happens if our troops get caught in some crossfire? Will we fight or walk away?

Believe me this is a test . The Russians are going to push this as far as they can. What can we do? The Russians do not need the U.S. They have enough resources and will work with anybody they want to achieve their goals. We better watch out or will be be in a war that will make Iraq look like a walk in the park. The Russians have a massive army and they do not care how many of their own die. This is very dangerous.

Dumb Politicians and Corporate Thieves

Florida is going to hell.

1. We are going to have an amendment on the ballot in November that if passes will cut property taxes by 25% to 40%. Sounds good, right. However that money, 8.2 billion dollars this year, is what we use to fund our education system. There is no current plan in place as to how we are going to replace those education dollars. The amendment only requires that the state legislature finds a way to do this. How can you vote for a plan when you do not know where the missing money will come from. You know full well it will some form of tax.

Who is supporting the amendment? Why it is the "Florida Association of Realtors" and our lightweight governor Charlie Christ. Follow the money trail.

2. State Farm wants to be able to raise insurance rates by an average of 47%, despite making $5.5 billion in profits last year and $5.3 billion in 2006. They have been screwing the people of Florida since the hurricanes of 2004. Follow the money trail.

3. Our local energy company Tampa Electric, part of TECO Energy, wants to raise our rates by 31%. By the way they just posted a $51.4 million dollar profit for the second quarter. Follow the money trail.

So now Floriduh will produce more ignorant kids, steal money from my pocket to give to big corporations and will wonder why people are leaving the state in droves. Long time residents are leaving and new people moving in is at a 30 year low.

Crime in Hartford, Ct.

Since I grew up in Ct. and have family in Ct. I like to keep tabs on what is happening there. So what do I notice is going on in the capital of Ct. Tons and tons of crime. This past weekend there were 11 shootings and one death. There have been 110 shootings, at least reported shootings, this year. Now they are going to enforce a curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. for anyone under 18. A law that has been on the books but not being enforced. Its about time. Now to be fair I really am against these type of laws, however Hartford has been a crime ridden city for many years and nothing has been done about it. They are going to enforce this for 30 days. How about until you can safely walk down the streets of the capital city. Maybe you need to dip into the coffers and hire more police officers. There is no nightlife in Hartford because people are afraid to be out late. Business will not invest in the city if they can not get people to the restaurants, clubs, art galleries, theaters and so on. They keep on trying all types or revitalization projects and they always fail. If the city is not safe people will not come. Plain and simple. If your city is not safe please suck it up and hire enough law enforcement so the dirt bags either end up in jail, clean up their act or move on. You can always send them to Detroit.

Hartford has been a dump for at least 30 years. Get your shit together.

If you want to visit a nice town in Ct. go the little town of Chester. You will be pleased.

Stellar Blue Jay

In July 2006 I went on vacation to Northern California. I stayed in the small town of Crescent City which is just a few miles south of the Oregon border. It is a very beautiful area. The Pacific Ocean on one side with mountains and Redwood trees on the other. Because of the ocean and mountains it stays cool all year long. Even on July 4th the temps never got that warm.

Many people were wearing jackets that morning during the parade. If you headed east to the other side of the mountains the temps would be 20 to 30 degrees warmer

What I loved about the area was were ever you were the magic of mother nature was right there for you to view. Seals in the ocean, Elk on land and birds all over the place. Magical in my opinion. There were many long stretch of beaches between Crescent City and Eureka were there was not a soul on the beach. Something you do not see on most east coast beaches. Another cool thing was one of the beaches had loads of cool rocks of all shapes and patterns. There was always people on this beach laying on the rocks looking for "right ones" to take home.

They are playing us as suckers

So I am watching the Olympics and during the latest commercial break, of which there are too many, and Exxon-Mobil put this nice B.S. commercial out. They are touting how great they are because they are giving out nets and medicine in Africa to help combat malaria. Now I applaud them for doing that. However they are not being altruistic. The commercial is nothing more than a feeble attempt to throw us off and make us forget how much money they are raking in and how much they are really not giving back. Nice try but it is not working.

Dear Mr. Clinton

Dear Mr. Clinton,

Enough of your crying. So your wife lost the primary and you are mad. Tough shit, I say. She lost in no small part to your running of the mouth and not doing any effective campaigning. If you had campaigned effectively she would most likely be the candidate. We the people of the Democratic party do not owe you anything. Barack Obama does not owe you anything either. The more you act like a little child the more respect I lose for you. If you are mad at Barrack then just say nothing or get behind him and act presidential. You seem like a little kid who is mad because he did not get his candy.

Also I think Hillary needs to pay off her own campaign debt. Why should Barack pay it off, seems like a bunch of garbage to me.

This may seem a little rude but you are an ex President so start acting like one or you will get a time out.

Paris for Prez

Thank you Paris Hilton for running the best campaign ad this year. Nuff said "bitches".

Photo Contest

So I will be going home in about ten days and I am going to be bringing a couple of my recent favorite pictures with me to enter in my hometown's fair. The pictures came out great and I had them mounted and matted at the local Pearl Art store. The guys there do an excellent job working with you and getting the right matting and helping you work on getting the picture framed to show your work in its best light. So I say kudos to Matt and the others in the frame shop. It also is cheap. Getting a 16 x 20 picture mounted and matted cost between $11 and $12 dollars. I think it is worth it for doing a picture of this size.

If you have never mounted and matted your pictures I encourage you to do so. It puts your work in a whole new light and you will not look at that piece of work in the same way. You can see yourself as an artist and not just somebody who takes pictures.

http://www.chesterfair.org/

Things I am wondering about today

Why won't Obama have town hall debates with McCain?

When airlines are in such poor shape why do they raise rates, charge for an extra bag, charge for pillow and blankets and any other thing they can screw us for?

Where should I go on my last vacation this year?

Why don't cable companies have more channels and then let us pick what we want to view and not have to pay for crap we do not want?

Why is there Fox News?

Why am I tired?

Will I ever be able to own a house?

Should I move someplace else?

Why are there video cameras wherever you go? Sometimes I like to flip them off while I stare into the dumb thing. Have you done that?

What do most people really think about gas prices and do they really care?

Why does organic food cost so much?
If it were cheaper would people eat any better?

What's wrong with us?

So we now have 1% of the population of the United Stated in prison. Not sure what that says about the U.S., but that number is staggering and I fear will get much worse down the road. If we do not work on fixing the education system in this country we will be on the long slow path to decline. We need to teach the basics first. How do we expect do get anything done when we have so many people who can't read, write, know any geography, any history or math. Just basics. With these fundamentals at least we give people a fighting chance. We could also stand to have schools get back to teaching technical skills like auto mechanics and things of that nature. We need to create and foster kids to learn these skills so we can get back to being a creative and manufacturing society. Is it too much to teach simple skills.?

We also need to teach kids the arts. Music, books, drawing, painting and so on. We seem to forget how art is something a society needs to thrive and grow.

If we do not address these issues we will continue to help the prison business grow and the world will take notice.