This is the last thing I'll say

As I tried to decide between Ry Cooder and Ryan Adams on the record player I found myself thinking of the men who shovel the snow at the Washington & Emerson St light rail station. Through blistering cold and white out four men keep the sidewalks and station entrance clear and clean. Nary a wayward snowflake can land without one of the four attacking it with a vigor that would make the criminals from Home Alone scared. They lurk in the bus stop over the interstate, eyes peeled for rogue flakes. While the rest of the city struggles to keep up with the seemingly never ending snowfall these four men shovel in the dark and through the day to keep the façade of the transit system ready to receive the passengers that she never will. Nobody rides the light rail, I’m sure that it is some bureaucratic wear-it-on-your-sleeve public works program that some self proclaimed liberal Subaru driving, Ben Harper CD listening politician earmarked in some state budget somewhere to make himself feel better about the plight of the atmosphere. As if he even knew where to begin. But this idea looked good on paper. At least it keeps four anonymous snow shovelers employed.

The delicate sounds of Love is Hell Part 2 creep out of my bedroom from Washington Park I’m wondering if I really want to be writing this all down. I’m superstitious. I do things because once those things led to good things. This is my way. I also don’t like to reflect out loud that often on what good has come my way in fear that perhaps it will only lead then to bad. But I do want to say a few things before I officially sign off for 2007.

I left some friends behind this year. I was rude and disrespectful to a few folks along the way and I’m sorry for that. Often it was because I wasn’t mature enough to know when to stop leading you astray. More often than often it was because I was going to let you down at some point and that would have been harder if I’d kept leading you astray.

I calculated my existence in frequent flyer miles. As an official Silver Medallion Delta Sky Miles customer and a Premiere United member I must say that I do enjoy the perks of being a regular. Flying first class is great and all when it happens but perhaps the best part about being a frequent flyer is that I can cut the security line and board the plane first always ensuring that my rather large camera bag carry on can fit in the overhead. And I never sit in the wrong seat.

I made some great new friends. Some is the wrong word. I made a lot of great new friends. What a blessing to cross paths with so many wonderful people and to reconnect with long lost friends. If I hadn’t written an e-mail to a man named Mark Cunningham as a 17 year old college freshman I’d never be where I am right now. Truly unbelievable and amazing as I think that I owe a fair bit to this connection that I made ten years ago.

Nobody will ever write a better blog than my friend Alex. He’s a wordsmith, a songsmith and a gem of a friend. You should read his blog. He’s got a lot to say and the right to say it all.

I must now do some laundry and pack my bags for a shoot over the next five days in Big Bear Lake, CA. You probably haven’t heard of the Block or the G4 network but from my understanding its about a group of Scotts and Todds who didn’t quite make the cut at the Real World living and working in a hotel called The Block who spend their days snowboarding and their nights partying. Maybe they don’t actually work. I’ve heard that all they do is party and chase women. Should be funny at least. I’ll have a camera in my hand. And boy oh boy the things people do for the camera. I do find it rather reassuring that I’ll close out the last seconds of my year shooting an awful reality TV show for an equally as awful cable TV channel. There’s no glory there, there’s no guts, just excess that I’m witnessing through the lens of my camera. Going out the way I came in. And that’s a good feeling. No pressure right up to the end, just doing my job, paying the rent and looking forward to the coming year.

a photo of a friend

He's going to hate me, but I just found this photograph of him. And I love it. You should too.

this is how i feel this morning

Falling out of touch with all my
friends are somewhere getting wasted,
hope they're staying glued together,
I have arms for them.

Take another sip of them,
it floats around and takes me over
like a little drop of ink in a glass of water.

Politics, Religion & The Presidency

To those non-secular friends of mine.

Mitt Romney yesterday said that "No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes president he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."

In the same speech he then went on to add that he "do not define my candidacy by my religion" and eventually went on to add that he "will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest. A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States."

How then, would Mitt Romney, or any other non-secular candidate, including our current President, in their next breath explain their views on Abortion and Gay Marriage, issues which for them are clearly explained through their religious views?

Is this not serving not just one religion, but most religions?

What about the majority of Americans who are secular like myself?

Why does no reporter or person ever ask this simple question of non-secular politicians? You believe in a separation of church and state yet your religious views cloud your judgment on such major issues as abortion and gay marriage; how is this separation of church and state and how do you then seek to include the majority of your constituents who would then be cast aside by your non-secular views?