Portrait of my friend and former co-worker, Kate Golden, in May 2007. Kate occasionally does radio journalism segments for the American Public Media program, Marketplace.
George Carlin, champion of the First Ammendment and foe of hypocrisy.
(Note: I just found these quotes on The Nation website in a tribute to Carlin)
"Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians," he explained in a routine that challenged all the premises of today's half-a-loaf reformers. "Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.'"
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying – lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else," ranted the comedian whose routines were studied in graduate schools.
"But I'll tell you what they don't want," Carlin continued. "They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. You know what they want? Obedient workers – people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."
Carlin did not want Americans to get involved with the system.
He wanted citizens to get angry enough to remake the system.
I was flattered beyond words yesterday when I checked my website stats and noticed that I had a link from Haskell Wexler's website.
Academy Award winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler, ASC was in Modesto on May 31, 2008 to speak on a panel to commemorate the 35th Anniversary of Modesto native George Lucas's breakthrough film, "American Grafitti." Wexler served as visual consultant for the film.
Academy Award Winning Cinematographer Haskell Wexler and Packard Hood Ornament
Hood ornament of a classic Packard automobile on display in front of the State Theater in Modesto, CA during a 35th Anniversary celebration of my Modesto homie George Lucas's breakthrough film, "American Grafitti."
Widescreen view (no freakin' pan and scan allowed...) as Academy Award winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler, ASC uses his mini DV camera to record a close-up of a Packard automobile hood ornament. He was in Modesto on May 31, 2008 to speak on a panel to commemorate the 35th Anniversary of my Modesto homie George Lucas's breakthrough film, "American Grafitti." Wexler served as visual consultant for the film. I brought along two DVD copies of "The Secret of Roan Inish" for him to autograph, which was filmed by Wexler and directed by John Sayles.
Above is a Google Maps satellite view of downtown Modesto, CA with 11th Street at its center, but most photographs in this gallery were taken in the area between I and J Streets. A mere 1.5 miles long, 11th Street is Modesto's corridor of power (city and county government, courthouse, fire station, irrigation district, county clerk, etc.) and cultural center. I have been documenting 11th Street as a project since 1996, but have really only been concentrating on it for the past 4 years.
Tweaked photo of acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz during his show, "From Bach to Hendrix and Beyond," in the "Fat Classics" performance at the Fat Cat Music House and Lounge on 11th Street in Modesto on January 12, 2006. Surrounding him are art samples from the "Cellobration" exhibit in which local artists decorated donated cellos to be auctioned in a fundraiser for the Modesto Symphony Orchestra.
Classical pianist Simon Mulligan performs an audience requested "Rhapsody in Blue" during the Modesto Symphony Orchestra's "Fat Classics" series at the Fat Cat Music House and Lounge on 11th Street in Modesto on Thursday evening, April 19, 2007. Mulligan requested the use of this photo on his personal website. You'll find it in the gallery section, under "Latest Pictures," just past photos of his newborn son.
Singer Beth Hart writhes on the stage during her performance of Led Zepplin's song, "Whole Lotta Love" as her husband, Scott, looks on with mouth covered during the annual Tresetti's Mardi Gras on 11th Street in Modesto on Fat Tuesday, 2006. Beth gave new meaning to the lyrics, "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love..."
Guitar Ace Gary Hoey performs at the Fat Cat Music House and Lounge on 11th Street in Modesto.
Photos from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Sacramento and Modesto, CA
This photograph is for my friend, Patrick Giblin, and his series of what he calls "Teryaki Donuts".
My buddies Sergio Ruiz, Russell Irwin and Todd Milbourn as we arrive to the Esquire Theater in Sacramento, CA for the Imax showing of Martin Scorcese's filmed concert of The Rolling Stones, "Shine a Light."
