finally
My new camera is announced:
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/microsite/d800/index.htm
Sample images:
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d800/sample02.htm
… I’ll be getting the D800E. Perhaps I’ll ramble on the subject later. Thank you nikonrumors.com!
one of these leaders is not like the other
Vladimir Putin
Stephen Harper
Vladimir Putin is starting his election year by touring on a motorbike, with Russian motorcycle club The Night Wolves, who were instrumental in the rescue of children and families from war-torn areas during WWII. This man is the coolest dude in world politics, bar none.
And yes, I feel like I’ve polluted this blog by putting a photo of Harper here.
All that being said, the few photos that have emerged from Putin’s tour are pretty interesting from a somewhat analytical viewpoint. Most are at night, most of the vehicles are in black, and he really does look like a proud leader of a motorcycle gang parading across his conquered territory.
Flags and banners, a lack of visible security or bullet screens; there’s a brazenness to it that’s both intimidating and likely ‘inspiring’ of power, all of which softened by the idea that he’s travelling with WWII veterans who rescued children. Not to mention the delicious “pack” mentality that is no doubt infectious to those he’s riding with and visiting. There’s a fairly interesting adaptive form of nationalism at work here, signified by the flags, but masked by motorcycle culture and compassionate military history, and I’d say a little sense of rebellion. Probably more than I have time to write here about, but I’ll be keeping an eye on Mr. Putin. Clever and stylish!
the motel strip in burlington
A while back, a BBC author wrote a short article asking where the Steinbecks of our generation are; a follow up has been posted, as he traces Steinbeck’s route in The Grapes of Wrath around the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14296682
Of note is that the ‘cheap motels’ of the US are rapidly becoming the part-time home for the homeless middle-class; they live there for the first half of the month, when they receive their unemployment benefits, and spend the latter part of the month in shelters.
Plains Road in Burlington, Ontario, has interested me of late, as it has retained a rather long motel strip, ageing back as far as the 50′s. Brief queries have suggested this strip of motels ‘boomed’ when there was an active beach culture along Lake Ontario, before much of it became industrialized or too polluted to support such a thing. How these motels persist now is a bit bewildering, and they may start to vanish now that the condo-culture that has gripped Burlington to the point of insanity now creeps along this very old part of town.
I wonder when, if not already, these motels will be re-purposed to reflect the dire consequences this current depression has had on our economy. Given Burlington strives, persistently, to have as high a per-capita income as possible in Canada (a few years back, the average home in Burlington cost $700,000), it would seem to be a painfully ironic turn of events.
On an entirely random but related note, our house once received a phone message at 4am from someone asking if we still wanted to meet at one of these motels on Plains Road … wrong number, but a hilarious result.
absence
It’s been some six months since I last updated, and it’s a new season and a new year, not really sure what happened to autumn, apart from the obvious things that kept me away, from, well, everything. Hopefully 2011 will yield more consistent results. I’m teaching digital photography at Western until april, so at the very least, I’m anticipating some exciting student work coming across my desk.
Meanwhile, a good friend provided me with some photos from my work in 360 degrés’s outdoor exibition Les Visiteurs, in a small town called Joliette in Quebec; I’m told the large vinyl prints from the exhibition have been recycled into re-useable bags and sold at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, if anyone happens to see them there, snatch one up for me 
I feel like we finished the “Ten Days of Cthulhu” series not too long ago, and already we’re barely a couple months from the season of He Who Is Not Dead But Eternal Lies. Something will have to be done mark the ten days again this year.
welcome
recent events have suggested it might be beneficial to have some kind of a website with contact info. figure this is a good compromise!
