archives: death wind

my backyard in Greenpoint a bunch of years ago. we were spooky all year round.

Angela Davis at the Cooper Union

Angela Davis at the Cooper Union 10/30/08, originally uploaded by dirtystan.

I went with my mom to hear Angela Davis talk about the prison system, Obama, race, and historical context. It was interesting. She quoted from Obama's speech on race that he made in March, and wondered why any discussion on race was absent and seemingly not welcome in this election, which I hadn't really thought about. Angela is pretty cool.

When I was walking out I was thinking, shit, I can definitely NEVER get elected to anything now.....Bill Ayers was my nursery school teacher and I go to lectures by people who used to be on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

I love this: my friend Tom Voorhies gorilla drawing

Tom is a master

archives: Mom on Fifth Ave, New York City

Here is my mom on the steps of the church at 53rd and Fifth Avenue a couple of years ago. I love walking on Fifth Avenue, day or night; it feel like you own the world walking up past St. Patricks to the park. And the best season for this particular type of wallowing in pure New York is right around the corner. I remember as a kid hearing someone say at some point every year, "Oh, they've put up the snowflake at 57th street already," and just like that it was winter and the holidays were circling ever nearer.

Watch this: Damon Weaver, 5th grader in FL interviews Joe Biden

this sort of thing always makes me very happy.

archives: Berlin, 2000

TV tower of former East Berlin peeking over a street in the Mitte.

Today finally felt like Fall

time to pick apples, make pies, crunch through leaves, vote for Mr. Obama and bring the poor succulents inside.

Is she really this stupid???

AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Congrats to Suzanne!

Suzanne Revy, who was my classmate at John Coffer's workshop this past July won the National Juried Photo Competition at the Camera Club of New York. I went to her show last week at the Club's gallery on 37th street and it is pretty great. I was inspired to pull out some black and white film. She does beautiful photos of children.

Time flies

I cannot believe this election is almost finally over, and with it another year coming to a close. Thinking about what it means to be American makes me want to travel very much. It is important to see things from the outside once in a while. I was in Washington this past weekend and that always puts me in a contemplative mood. Do you think the founding fathers thought it would last this long?

This is Sam in the water on a beach in Krabbe, Thailand in January 2002. He is 21 now, and a senior in college, which blows my mind.

dueling houses

Saw this on Capitol Hill in DC this past weekend. I like that the Obama sign is on the "white house". heh heh.

obama in my window

obama in my window, originally uploaded by dirtystan.

if you can't find it, make it. I think the dudes in the parking lot next to my building must be thoroughly convinced by now.

29 Palms, CA, January 2008

I took this at the little motel near 29 Palms where I went with Anna to shoot her line for Dolce Vita this past January. We had to wake up around 5 or 6 in the AM and I was waiting for them to be done with makeup and such. It was much too cold to go swimming unfortunately. This year has gone so fast.

Bill Ayers was my nursery school teacher. Seriously.

Below is a letter I sent to the New York Times today:

Letter to the Editor:

What makes a radical? Is it early learning, or your parents beliefs passed along? I am a liberal, yet American to the core, the descendent of passengers on the Mayflower according to my grandmother, yet Bill Ayers was my nursery school teacher. I turned out fine and I’ve never had the inclination to bomb anyone. So when I read, “Senator John McCain joined in the attacks on Thursday on Senator Barack Obama for his ties to the 1960s radical William Ayers as he told an angry, raucous crowd that “we need to know the full extent of the relationship” I feel I must add my two cents. These people do realize that Mr. Obama is a United States Senator, do they not? Not to mention that the Weather Underground was active when Mr. Obama was a child himself.

Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn worked at a day care center called BJ’s Kids on Manhattans’ Upper West Side in the late seventies. Only years later, after Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn had been pardoned by the government did my parents realize who they had been. My mom remembers BJ’s kids as an unruly operation, where she protested the practice of the children being sent home with whatever jacket or mittens happened to be closest, as she had knitted my winter accessories herself. And the time they took all the kids to a No-Nuke demonstration somewhere just outside of the city without letting the parents know in advance about the field trip. I guess I must have been mumbling leftist rhetoric that evening at home and she knew something funny had happened at school that day. Day care centers in the city were hardly regulated back then and many such home-grown operations supported the burgeoning crop of babies from aging hippies like my parents; full disclosure: my mom volunteered for the Chicago Seven during their trial in 1969, writing press releases in Chicago.

So when John McCain and Sarah Palin and others intent on making you forget what this election is really about and bring up Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground, who no one really remembers nowadays anyway, I hope everyone remembers that Barack Obama was a child when the Weather Underground did their dirtiest work. Also that I was a child when Bill Ayers helped me learn to tie my shoes and find my winter mittens, and I am not a terrorist and neither is Barack Obama. The only people looking childish in this situation are, well, John McCain and Sarah Palin. Barack Obama is the only candidate that really has a plan to get this country back on track and I plan to be in Washington to watch him be sworn in to office in January.

- quotation taken from: McCain Questions Obama-Ayers Relationship By Elisabeth Bumiller
October 9, 2008, NYT

Lia on Sugar Island

still editing photos from the summer. it's been a busy time in life, which is good. being on Sugar Island this summer with the Brezavars was truly wonderful. I am so excited for Mr. Obama to be our president. I am so excited for what he can do and proud of his campaign.

NY Mysteries

Everytime I walk past this building on 13th street, which is an old church that was made into apartments years ago, I get weak in the knees. I decided when I was 15 or so that I would live there someday. I wonder what it is like inside, if it's quiet, if there are stained glass windows and pews here and there.

Summer memories of a farm in Dundee, NY

Here are a few polaroids I took up on John Coffer's farm in Dundee this past July when I was taking the tintype workshop.