Lets us all find a solution to end road kills! Every day there are millions of animals killed and hundreds of thousands of humans injured, maimed and killed by cars! When will this insanity end?
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Dead Fox, aka Vulture snack
We saw this fox while driving and there was this giant vulture on the side of the road eating the entrails of this poor road kill fox. The vulture got scared and flew away as I pulled over and got out even a distance away. I took several photos of the poor dead fox and I moved the corpse to the side of the road so that the vulture may eat in peace (avoiding becoming another auto victim) and that it would not be a road hazzard.
Fiction
Lately, one of my favorite things to do is hang out at Bonobles where one can observe people and learn much. This photo I titled fiction aptly because of the title behind but also because of the facades we all put on day to day in our interactions. I do no know these guys or the nature of their relationship but I feel there is some guarded behavior, a fiction if you will...
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Suburbia and my weekends
Blogging in NJ and at night. I have been spending my weekends these past months visiting my girlfriend J in Princeton, NJ. J is working very hard getting her PHD in Neuroscience at Princeton University and must be in her Laboratory at the minimum every 12 hours. This prevents her from coming to Manhattan as she used to. Meanwhile, I have learned to adapt to Suburbia and like most things when you submit to something it becomes easier to vibe with. Initially, I found the landscape of Suburbia hostile, cold, fake and devoid of soul. Ok, these feelings still stand but I have found positive things about here too. For example there is a lot of nature out of here. There are many trees, animals, and fresh air. The house has a patio, back yard with lots of nice grass to lay down on. I am such a city boy having grown up in Manhattan that I often wonder how large the yards are and how much grass and house devoted to one family. All around me are giant homes. They are big for suburban standards even and I think but to me someone raised in a small apartment these are like Cathedrals of suburban, white American, goodness and the equivalent of mini-Castles of the privileged upper classes. The garages are the size of Apartments and house 3-4 cars and this is not enough space for their are often more cars in the drive way. I like to imagine sometimes the difference of spacing lets say in the Meadow in Central Park on a weekend compared to the amount of turf I am allotted to sit on all to ourselves. We can order people off our land if we needed to! Well not "our" land but "their" land! There is a lot of us-them "ours" and "their" out here Maybe not more but more noticeable because of less people. Also, there are things like boundary lines of properties and this odd phenomenon where the neighbors are just meters from us outside like and no one has met before and there is no waving or acknowledging. The invisible property lines act as shields preventing the normal niceties and odd intimacy when you are the only people out that the eye can see but still maintain ignoring each other. I thought this was a byproduct of the city due to the crowds. Now I see it is either human nature or our society. It is similar to how we stare up at the numbers in elevators. Why do we avoid human contact?
This is one thought I have here when I sit outside and look at large homes with the large yards. I take note as to how this nation and others have been sliced up, divided and parceled out. The question lies though to me is who gave someone the authority to own and sell it and own it in the first place? How is it "thiers"? How are our loveliest lakes, coast lines, beautiful areas owned at all and by such few people. Once owned they are exclusionary. It is hard to walk out here. If you walk in any direction you either hit private property or a highway. There are remnants of barb wire from the farm days. There is much history here and it was rural here not so long ago. Now this has been replaced by strips malls, and private homes. In days of old in Europe and other lands there was always paths for the public "throughways" through lands. It was understood that people needed to pass through. I think you can see old example of that near here and throughout old America. This was before cars existed and man traveled on horse or on foot. Now a days one cannot just walk unless they risk their lives and walk along the road. The roads are unsafe to walk aside due to high speed traffic.
The lands they have converted to be criss crossed and dissected by roads and highways. Where there are not roads are small buildings housing small business' of all kinds. These small business' all by necessity have their own asphalt parking lot. The buildings are not build to any kind of conformity and are tacky. These strip malls and hundreds of thousands (million) miles of asphalt parking lots define the United States landscape and this is to me is very unappealing. It is clear to me that this evolved with out any planning. It developed organically and we know no differently as to how our landscaped looked. I think this development has stunted our society and makes the suburbs less appealing. Most of this is how our nation developed along with the automobile and the lands conformed to the automobiles in the form of parking lots and high ways, roads, drive ways and garages. In Suburbia the Car rules. I propose a revolutionary idea to redesign our landscape to a more aesthetic reality.
More on this another time...
This is one thought I have here when I sit outside and look at large homes with the large yards. I take note as to how this nation and others have been sliced up, divided and parceled out. The question lies though to me is who gave someone the authority to own and sell it and own it in the first place? How is it "thiers"? How are our loveliest lakes, coast lines, beautiful areas owned at all and by such few people. Once owned they are exclusionary. It is hard to walk out here. If you walk in any direction you either hit private property or a highway. There are remnants of barb wire from the farm days. There is much history here and it was rural here not so long ago. Now this has been replaced by strips malls, and private homes. In days of old in Europe and other lands there was always paths for the public "throughways" through lands. It was understood that people needed to pass through. I think you can see old example of that near here and throughout old America. This was before cars existed and man traveled on horse or on foot. Now a days one cannot just walk unless they risk their lives and walk along the road. The roads are unsafe to walk aside due to high speed traffic.
The lands they have converted to be criss crossed and dissected by roads and highways. Where there are not roads are small buildings housing small business' of all kinds. These small business' all by necessity have their own asphalt parking lot. The buildings are not build to any kind of conformity and are tacky. These strip malls and hundreds of thousands (million) miles of asphalt parking lots define the United States landscape and this is to me is very unappealing. It is clear to me that this evolved with out any planning. It developed organically and we know no differently as to how our landscaped looked. I think this development has stunted our society and makes the suburbs less appealing. Most of this is how our nation developed along with the automobile and the lands conformed to the automobiles in the form of parking lots and high ways, roads, drive ways and garages. In Suburbia the Car rules. I propose a revolutionary idea to redesign our landscape to a more aesthetic reality.
More on this another time...
Thursday, May 17, 2007
New Blog
Ok, it is official (to me atleast) this is the home of my new blog. Although, like a new home it's not quite finished yet. There are still quirks to work out and design and concept issues I am considering. However, I am not waiting for those issues to be resolved for my new blog to begin.
What you will find in this blog is my own stream of consciousness and currently the making of my first real feature film "Cast Aside" about the corruption and neglect occuring in Adult homes for the mentally ill. I am hoping to bring awareness of the poor conditions these unrepresented people live in and the big money involved in "warehousing" them.
Please join me, my life, my intimate thoughts and perceptions when you feel like for there will be plenty to write about.
What you will find in this blog is my own stream of consciousness and currently the making of my first real feature film "Cast Aside" about the corruption and neglect occuring in Adult homes for the mentally ill. I am hoping to bring awareness of the poor conditions these unrepresented people live in and the big money involved in "warehousing" them.
Please join me, my life, my intimate thoughts and perceptions when you feel like for there will be plenty to write about.
My first feature film "Cast Aside" (pre-prod)
It is here in my blog that I want to share with you my gentle reader about my most current endeavor, a film titled "Cast Aside". Cast Aside is a documentary in the making, an advocacy film for those who have little voice in our society. Meet Norman, Norman is a nice middle aged man who likes to read and lives in an Adult Home where conditions are poor. Norman is very active advocating the rights of the residents and it is from Norman we draw inspiration for this film. Norman's experiences with the corruption and neglect of these Adult Homes is indicative of the rampant corruption that exists through out Municipal, State and Federal programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps, government spending and pet projects for friend's of politicians and just overall waste of money and inefficiency. This is why I am making this film. I am making it not to just make a Documentary because it's interesting or tragic but because I think awareness is our biggest weapons against this rampant corruption and the complacency that exists among the world's citizens in light of the vast greed, corruption, and exploitation that exists in the world.
Yes, We all know corruption exists and we tolerate it but what I think is intolerable are those who prey on the most vulnerable. There is money to be made in the institutions surrounding our elderly, Sick, handicapped and Mentally ill. There is no shortage of private companies lined up to make money off the misfortune of others. The list is long including and no less than Pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, Banks, Nursing Agencies, Home Health Agencies, the home's operators (many which are unlicensed) and many more milk the system often double or triple billing for services that are often never seen by those they are supposedly benefiting. This is a crime. This is more than a crime, this is a moral outrage. I am outraged by the People who do this, the filthy greedy people and their nasty insidious ways to make their profits on other's suffering. This film "Cast Aside" is being made to shed light on these cretins. I intend to make this film with all my passion and love of truth I can muster. I will be shooting this summer. I do need help! I need any kind of support imaginable not excluding money and crew members. :)
So feel free to write me a check or hand me a wad of sweaty cash. Or if you see yourself working in film than hey let me know. As long as you understand that as director I am G-d (not so much to use his/her name in vain) See I am G-d and that while the cameras roll is true. The only exception is if you put giant rolls of sweaty cash in my hand and than VOILA you are a Producer! So do you fancy yourself a producer and telling me (or at least arguing with) what to do and your vision and so on...but if you have the cash. Otherwise, if you want to do a good deed in earnest I am raising money for this film and I could use hands and support. If you think something should be done to raise awareness about the neglect of people living in homes and other institutions than this is a way. Right on! Thank you all for reading and please come again.
Yes, We all know corruption exists and we tolerate it but what I think is intolerable are those who prey on the most vulnerable. There is money to be made in the institutions surrounding our elderly, Sick, handicapped and Mentally ill. There is no shortage of private companies lined up to make money off the misfortune of others. The list is long including and no less than Pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, Banks, Nursing Agencies, Home Health Agencies, the home's operators (many which are unlicensed) and many more milk the system often double or triple billing for services that are often never seen by those they are supposedly benefiting. This is a crime. This is more than a crime, this is a moral outrage. I am outraged by the People who do this, the filthy greedy people and their nasty insidious ways to make their profits on other's suffering. This film "Cast Aside" is being made to shed light on these cretins. I intend to make this film with all my passion and love of truth I can muster. I will be shooting this summer. I do need help! I need any kind of support imaginable not excluding money and crew members. :)
So feel free to write me a check or hand me a wad of sweaty cash. Or if you see yourself working in film than hey let me know. As long as you understand that as director I am G-d (not so much to use his/her name in vain) See I am G-d and that while the cameras roll is true. The only exception is if you put giant rolls of sweaty cash in my hand and than VOILA you are a Producer! So do you fancy yourself a producer and telling me (or at least arguing with) what to do and your vision and so on...but if you have the cash. Otherwise, if you want to do a good deed in earnest I am raising money for this film and I could use hands and support. If you think something should be done to raise awareness about the neglect of people living in homes and other institutions than this is a way. Right on! Thank you all for reading and please come again.
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