11th Bombardment Group WWII

Over the holiday, my dad gifted me a package of photographs taken by my Grandfather between 1941 and 1944. Some were snapped in Hawaii before he took off for Japan. More info on the 11th Wing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_Wing


Herve Sirois and Crew

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day

make every line count

The older I get, the more I appreciate him.

New Free BMA Audio Tour

Beginning January 16, 2009, visitors to the BMA can experience a dynamic Acoustiguide audio tour of some of the most beloved and intriguing works in the Museum’s collection. Titled 60 Objects / Countless Stories, this innovative free tour offers an insider’s perspective on the works of art from theBMA’s expert curators, as well as art-inspired stories and poems by celebrated Baltimore writers, including David Simon, Laura Lippman, and Michael Kimball.

In addition to the personal take on objects from the Museum’s expert staff, the BMA invited 23 local writers to chose anobject and submit a piece of writing to be recorded. “There are tons of stories that surround and inform our understanding of objects,” said the project leader Anne Manning, Deputy Director for Education. From Laura Lippman’s musings on Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen to Justin Sirois’ poem on Alberto Giacometti’s Man Pointing, the creativity of these writers adds another dimension to our appreciation of these works of art.

http://www.artbma.org/press/documents/Jan-Feb09PRCalendar.pdf

7:00-8:00 PM•

Introduction: Anne Manning 5 minutes • Laura Lippman (Degas): 4 minutes • Jackie Regalas (Saar): 4 minutes • Hank Lewis (Cole): 4 minutes • Shirley Brewer (Berck): 4 minutes • Elizabeth Spires (Guanyin): 4 minutes • Ed Hodges (Sienna Dos Equis): 4 minutes • Stephanie Briggs (Cole): 4 minutes • Joshua Weiner (Man Being Swallowed by a Fish): 4 minutes • Amy Siegel (Madridscape): 4 minutes • Chezia Thompson Cager (Boticelli): 5 minutes • Kevin Robinson (Music): 7 minutes

9:00-10:00 PM•

Introduction: Anne Manning 3 minutes • Kevin Robinson (Music): 6 minutes • Michael Salcman: 4 minutes• Claire Banks: 4 minutes • Dan Fesperman (Rodin): 4 minutes • Barbara Diehl (Chess Players): 4 minutes • Olu Butterfly Woods (Cole): 4 minutes • Suki Kuss (Rinaldo & Armida): 4 minutes • Caleb Stine (Music): 4 minutes • Justin Sirois (Giacometti): 4 minutes • Teri Taylor (Reflections): 4 minutes • Michael Kimball (Flavin): 4 minutes • Jennifer Carinci (Writing Desk): 4 minutes • Michael Salcman: 4 minutes • Caleb Stine (Music): 4 minutes

Holiday Weekend report

Digital Yule log burning, everyone showed up at the Narrow House for dinner, Cajon shrimp and grits makes our heads spin, Bassie’s party shirt, drunk – clean – drunk – clean, Jamie Gaughran-Perez loves his new sweatshirt and I love Jamie Gaughran-Perez, airplane conversations; Mad Cow at Hopkins and little white worms in his brain, Christmas shopping crammed, (to myself): DON’T buy ANOTHER pair of boots, Benjamin Button tried so hard… and failed, all you do is Wii, old favorite Cuban restaurant and new takeout Cuban restaurant, Padron, Montecristo, Romeo & Juliet Cigars, old photos: WWII and Ferrier Christmas (above) lost walking in the suburbs, a valiant try at Simpson’s themed Sorry, Michael Clayton with the folks; amazed, iPod (yeah, I broke down), I miss Baltimore, Bassie gets so lonely he pukes now, Sing Sing prison dinner tray replica for Lauren, American Teen, Deadwood soundtrack, 65 degrees on Sunday December 28, 2008, her: “text me a photo so I can draw you”.

Baltimore Art Secrets (according to Royer)

Oh, ROYER! You ole bugger. I think this is just a very sophisticated way of drawing traffic to his Baker profile:

http://www.bakerartistawards.org/nomination/view/ric_royer

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day

Forgotten Victims - Iraqi Christians

In the first century AD, long before Islam spread in the seventh century, St Thomas the Apostle brought Christianity to the Chaldeans and the Assyrians of Mesopatamia. The Assyrians are to Iraq what the American Indians are to America.

The Assyrians and Chaldeans are some of the few remaining peoples who speak and worship in the original Aramaic language of Jesus Christ. They are the oldest continuous churches in the history of Christianity.

Prior to the 2003 invasion, the Christians of Iraq comprised approximately 3% of the larger population, and under the regime of Saddam Hussein they enjoyed relative religious freedom. The Christian minority were traditionally respected for their education and entrepreneurial business skills.

more:

http://www.christiansofiraq.com/forgotten.html

the weather not the weather

Ric's book is here. Thanks for the nice photos Jessica Smith.
twntw.blogspot.com

Weekend report

Free printer from Sweetney, Jeff Goldblum drunk, shrimp and grits, the sweetest deaf man in the world finds the video game I was searching for at Bust Buy – he’s too big to hug, World at War, Narrow House dinner party preparations, Keyhole (handwritten awesome issue), Rupert’s release party, Michael Kimball will smash you, Sweatpants! carolers getting it all wrong right, free cinnamon and sugar crepe, Selda, you're still crazy cute, Baltimore has too many multipurpose spaces, awkward story, chilly cock, 1080 degree turn on 83 (smashed bumper, but little damage), Bassie's party shirt, Normal’s Christmas show, Dan Higgs – Baltimore's gentle shaman.

Iraq photo of the day

Generation Kill on DVD

David Simon and Ed Burn’s adaptation of Evan Wright’s Generation Kill depicts a much more critical view of the war than I originally imagined. Simon, during his Q&A at the National Press Club (NPC) a week before the premier, admitted they weren’t tasked to write from an Iraqi perspective and their primary goal was to translate the book to film as accurately and honestly as possible. This aggravated me at first, but the series is far more sophisticated than Simon let on. I’m not sure if he was holding back in that forum because the first episode hadn’t debuted yet.

If the name of the series puts you off, you’re not alone. Wright explained that kill is the mantra of the Marines. During his stint embedded with Bravo Company they chanted it day and night – literally repeating and repeating kill until it lost its meaning and became a reflex. This isn’t fleshed out in the series that well, but I can’t imagine how the creators would have pulled it off without being cheesy. Instead, they settled for a cheesy title.

Simon and Burns are experts at writing captivating characters, but it helps that they’re based off real people. Every member of the Second Platoon of Bravo Company is believable from the sublime (and sometimes estranged) Sergeant Brad 'Iceman' Colbert to the rambling, amphetamine popping Corporal Josh Ray Person played by James Ransone (Ziggy from The Wire). Person’s pop song singing and blathering about Marine culture are essential comic relief between civilian casualties and firebombed towns. Of course, race and class issues are addressed in classic Simon/Burns style, but this time through hyper masculine barbs aimed at other soldier’s shortcomings. This only adds to the realism.

I can’t say, from my own experience, that the series “feels real”. I’m a civilian trying to write about the war through interviews and research, but from what I’ve heard from the panel of Marines at the NPC is that the series is spot on. The soldier’s confusion and anxieties during battle and their aggravation when driving half blind at night are filmed in jarring Night Vision and you absolutely understand their frustration. As Simon and Burns illustrate, sometimes coping with the endlessly banal is just as hard as dealing with the occasionally fetal.

Much of Generation Kill is about waste and incompetence. In the first month of the war, no one really understood the Coalition’s stunning ability to squander resources. The seven hour series exposes the bureaucracy and abuses throughout the chain of command while focusing on the frustrations of the Marines trying to perform with integrity and courage. Supply trucks are abandoned. Batteries are scarce. And the men least worth of commendation are typically rewarded for their persistent mistakes.

By then end of the series, the Iraqi perspective is indeed heard. Roadside dead are left for stray dogs. Children are badly burned and orphaned. Upon entering Baghdad, newly homeless Iraqis beg for water, sewage removal, and protection from roving gangs of looters. Their suffering resonates louder as the viewer experiences it through the eyes of the soldiers – soldiers you’ve begun to care about in the few hours you’ve known them.

By the end of Generation Kill, you cringe when the Marines enter Baghdad celebrating the end of the war when it’s only April of 2003. Nearly six years later, this HBO series comes out of DVD just in time for families of Marines to buy it for the holidays. It might have taken a generation for soldiers to quote slogans from Apocalypse Now like, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” or whatever lines Kubrick lifted from Heart of Darkness – those clichés are shouted from the mouths of green Reservists and Replacements. This is where life imitates art and it’s the type of material that makes really good TV.

Operation Iraqi Freedom has gone on long enough for contemporary soldiers to begin adopting new slogans from movies about themselves, not their fathers. Maybe quoting themselves is exactly what the American public needs to hear.

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day

HTML Giant (dot com)

HTML Giant showcased my Secret Santa gift:

http://htmlgiant.com/?p=2472

Iraq photo of the day

Mail your shoes to the George W. Bush Presidential Library

George W. Bush Presidential Library

c/o SMU

6425 Boaz Lane

Dallas TX 75205

Iraq photo of the day

Narrow House Holiday Fiasco

Yes. All the readers of my blog are invited, whoever you are. Unless, for some reason, I don't like you.

Iraq photo of the day

Weekend report

Outer Dark, Rosetta Stone (Arabic): lots of girls/boys running and eating and swimming, hacksaw haircut, mallard in the bathtub, owl in the back seat, Proctor’s Mustache party, Gorelick’s hand speaks, cute socks/cute stash, in the eyes of some – I am a legend, President Bush ducked... and then took questions, Son of Rambo, scouting for the Arboretum video with Joe Cashiola and Dave Heumann in Ellicott City, train tunnel, shot up VW, a field of red bricks, Hmart, Hell Ride (the miserable demise of Quentin Tarantino).

Auto Bailout (Union vs. Senate)

Stock Futures early this morning on news that the Auto Bailout didn't pass. I'm not all for a blind bailout; any tax money we hand over to Detroit must have some serious oversight that steers the (Little) Three in a sustainable, efficient, and creative direction. It's hard to say if we should just let these mopes fail.

Iraq photo of the day

Portraits of War

I picked up a copy of Detroit Free Press' Portraits of War (2003) after reading an article about the artist featured in the book. The collection is a concise and intimate survey of the first year in Iraq from the perspective of different ranking soldiers from Infantry, Colonels, Medics, Navy Officers, and Marines. The illustrations make the book. Richard Johnson's traditional graphite drawing are paired with one page descriptions of each soldiers' everyday routine with confessional quotes detailing their anxieties, fears, and courage. Jeff Seidel, the journalist, gets it right by letting his subjects do the talking. As a documentation, it's emotionally spot-on and accurate.

Civilians aren't featured with the same care. Interviews and sketches of Iraqis are pushed to the back of the book where they only get twenty-something pages, but the book isn't about people on the other side. Initially, this was the same problem I had with David Simon's adaptation of Generation Kill, but HBO tasked him with translating the book to screen – and the book is about Marines, not Iraqis. I remember marching, collar fuming, out of the National Press Club after a pre-release screening and Q&A with Simon and Brookings experts, but that's fodder for another blog post.

You can grab gently used copies of Portraits of War on Amazon for around 5 bucks, which is a bargain for such a fascinating volume. But don't let the naivety of the first few pages turn you off; it would have been prudent for the publisher to wait a few months before printing the book. I scanned the title of the preface to show how quickly dated the language is. Precision-guided. Please.

Iraq photo of the day

Topps

Oh, Topps. You never disappoint.

As long as you hardline collectors don't put your Desert Storm and Obama sets in the same binder.

http://www.toppsonlinestore.com/servlet/the-Obama-Trading-Cards/Categories

HTML Giant Secret Santa

God help whoever receives my HTML Giant secret Santa gift.

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day

KBR sued

A lawsuit against the company [KBR] recently filed in Houston federal court accuses its workers of exposing military and non-military personnel in Iraq to contaminated food, contaminated water, and improperly incinerated human remains. Joshua Eller, the principal plaintiff, says he witnessed a wild dog running around base one day carrying a human arm in its mouth.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2008/12/kbr_halliburton_lawsuit.php

Iraq photo of the day

Weekend report

Sound off was a complete success, BIG PINK, meeeeow, do Franz West poop? Bill Bender just might be the coolest dad ever, iPod app. of the century, can I have that popper?, the Depot’s men’s room, 5am crazy, sleep and sleep and sleep, a completely badass (drawing?) painting of Beckett by Clem, mysteries from the desert, Ross’ poems, study day: The Mall is empty and a story about a man living in Outdoor World, El Rancho Grande, Michael Ball is hush hush, Lauren Bender is full of Gatorade, WINDOMATIC!

moleskine - Two in One Grave

After months of revisions and editing and screaming out my window, the first draft of Falcons on the Floor is complete. Haneen Alshujairy is reading the last 100 pages in Cairo this weekend and the ms. was send out for proofing/editing by the generous Christy Whipple. With a little luck, an agent will request the entire novel after reading my query letter -- Michael Kimball is helping me with that stage of publishing (thank Christ). Abundant thank yous go out to Beckett Hills, Jamie Gaughran-Perez, and Lauren Bender for all their love, food, and support. You guys are great.

Iraqi photo of the day

T for True

I think the ESRB just summed up my entire existence.