blessingx

Still significantly cropped, but the other side of the jacket.

At home in 2017

RIP Shane MacGowan https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2023/11/30/shane-macgowan-fairytale-of-new-york-singer-dies-aged-65/ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/arts/music/shane-macgowan-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Now That's What I Call Music turns 40 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67553906

Pentaxians are a loyal and vocal group. 12 MP is all you need, good sized sensor and focal lengths covered. Enjoy! It also came in other colors. Sample images: https://alvinalexander.com/gadgets/pentax-k-x-sample-photos-gallery-examples/

Soar on your birthday!

For those in SF, there’s also a Sugimoto exhibit at the Fraenkel through next month. https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/a-closer-look-hiroshi-sugimoto-brush-impression

Lost was my biggie and watched both versions of Sigmund, but Lidsville was my introduction to drugs.

Speaking of Kodak, for all those 8mm/Super 8 shooters, they have you covered (provided you have $5,495). https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/22/23972513/kodak-super-8-film-camera-lcd-screen-price-release-date-specs-features

I'll stop after this post, but Ezra Klein & NYTimes did a couple podcasts recently, one from the Palestinian and one from the Jewish Israeli perspective. I clarified on the latter as 1/5th of population of Israel is Arab, a group possibly pulled in multiple directions, though obviously there are diverse opinions on all sides. The goal of the podcasts, as stated, is not to pick who won, but, if possible, to understand some of both. If you don't have any interest in that probably best to skip. Why Palestinians Feel They’ve Been ‘Duped’ The Palestinian policy analyst and writer Amjad Iraqi on how Gaza’s past, present and future look from his eyes. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-amjad-iraqi.html What Israelis Fear the World Does Not Understand The writer Yossi Klein Halevi talks about why many Israelis see the ongoing conflict as an “existential war.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-yossi-klein-halevi.html (also on Apple, Spotify, etc.)

After everything said here recently, it's probably worth reading today's look back at the last serious attempt at peace, including the rise of Hamas and Netanyahu. Plenty of complications and blame to spread around. For those without NYT subscriptions PDF attached. Thirty years ago, a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seemed achievable. The story of how it fell apart reveals why the fight remains so intractable today. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/20/magazine/israel-gaza-oslo-accords.html Why the Oslo Accord Between Israelis and Palestinians Failed.pdf

This is the third time I've tried to start a response and twice attempted to PM you directly Mike. I wasn't sure how to respond to your non-bullet, bullet list with a single emoji, and once you posted about no comments and your lack of surprise at HC silence, even less so. I don't pretend to understand the weight of all the historic injustices in play in the Levant or peoples from there (the Holocaust most obviously, but also Spanish & Portuguese Inquisitions, The Crusades, forced migrations, etc.). However not only one side here was affected by those, especially the last two, and I most certainly don't support protecting oneself at all costs. That applies to the US or any other state or people. Look at awful 9/11 AND the awful 9/11 response. When W. said "you're either with us or against us" I thought most understood that wasn't the best path forward. I have to admit, probably my being naive, I can't remember during my life even having sympathy for innocents on both sides got you labeled as not supportive enough on one side. That feels different, though I know further back it was quite common. I hope we all feel similarly against terrorism, minimizing collateral damage, long-term peace goals, democratic governments, etc. If that's the case, it's probably why it goes less spoken. We already agree. But we all have additional lines too, and one of mine is cutting off food and water to an entire population. That's just waaay too far over the line on the at all costs yardstick and I can't believe people aren't starting every conversation with that fact. Not invalidating power structure or history or identity, etc. It's complicated history, but one side actively starving out the entire other side is the opposite of complicated. So for what it's worth I've given $2,500 so far to try to help slightly there. Hopefully humanitarian channels will further open.

I know this isn't NASCAR, but how did that go over? 🤨

Todays the annual day to pick up some Audeze. https://www.audeze.com/pages/black-friday-2023

Hope things reverse and calm down. As others have said, stay safe.

Hope it’s a fluid birthday.

Well, it didn’t take long for AI imagery to step over the line. https://petapixel.com/2023/11/07/adobe-stock-is-selling-ai-generated-images-of-the-israel-hamas-conflict/

https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/06/apple-says-it-is-not-making-a-new-27-inch-imac/

Been picking up more photo books, but the one I was most excited about this last month was the title I thought best captured those early pandemic days. Maybe a bit on the nose, but how do you show the lonely alienness of those first 6-9 months? Anyway, Andrew Rovenko's The Rocketgirl Chronicles (Backyard Space Travel)

Life is too close to Sabotage https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxiTX8nOMYZ/?igshid=aGNqdGJkMThqbXk1

Please help my conflicted brain. Is this ugly or not ugly? https://www.stratonwc.com/collections/frontpage/products/straton-cuffbuster-sprint

RIP David Kirke, the world’s first modern bungee jumper, piano skier, and early Dangerous Sports Club member. https://people.com/david-kirke-the-worlds-first-bungee-jumper-dead-at-78-8383202 'David Kirke’s old chums found the peaceful circumstances of his death last month — in bed, at age 78 — paradoxical. “He could have been killed at least 20 or 30 times many years ago,” his friend Edward Hulton said. For instance, on April Fools’ Day in 1979, when Mr. Kirke put on a tuxedo, attached himself to elastic ropes, and stepped off a bridge in England clutching a bottle of Champagne in the world’s first bungee jump (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-29819029) Or the time he flew over the English Channel standing in the pouch of a giant inflatable kangaroo held aloft by helium balloons. Mr. Kirke was the founder of the Dangerous Sports Club, a group of University of Oxford students who, typically while not sober, hatched deranged stunts in English pubs during the 1970s and ’80s, often as a metaphorical middle finger to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s society of squares. “Most people think we are mad,” Mr. Kirke once said. “We think they're mad to endure such humdrum lives.” Decades before extreme sports such as bungee jumping, kiteboarding and wingsuit flying became mainstream, Mr. Kirke and his coterie of foolhardy mates were skiing down Swiss slopes on grand pianos, skateboarding (not running) with the bulls in Pamplona, and flying makeshift microlight gliders across imprudent distances.'

^ I'm Halloween drunk, but you know everyone talks about the influence of Elvis and The Beatles, but Denver...