Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
Hurry Up
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Roy DeCarava 1919-2009
Roy DeCarava 1919-2009
Roy passed to another place October 2009. He was my friend, my mentor, my teacher and a beacon of strength, courage, artistic integrity and one the greatest artist of all times. His exquisite subtlety of tones has never been duplicated. Like his saxophone playing his images are in the lower register. He played these low notes so marvelously that you did not think there could be that many shades of grey, white and black. He was a master print maker. Knowing him and working with him made me a better man and photographer. The world will miss you Roy. Even though my wife and I have lost special friend we can still see Roy’s beacon of love, strength and integrity guiding me and showing us the way.
One of the important things Roy taught me was the importance of the artist’s vision. He said, before picking up your camera you must know what vision you want to create. Once you have mastered the vision the photographic object becomes almost immaterial. Because it is transformed into your vision.
I have noticed that in almost all the obituaries published, including the New York Times, that not mention Roy DeCarava’s wife Sherry Turner DeCarava. Sherry was the glue and comfort that kept Roy on track and focus. An accomplished Art Historian and writer she wrote many of the articles and book forwards that celebrated or chronicled Roy’s life and work. She, in all the right ways, was lovely and profoundly protected of Roy.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Anger
“…If Mr. Obama has become the focus of rage and fear, it is because he has come to symbolize what deeply angers and frightens many Americans: the complexities that make us feel impotent, the profound changes that are altering our world. It is hard, for example, for many of us to imagine a world in which white is not the dominant color and Christianity is just one of many respected creeds. The anger and fear that such change provokes are understandable. This does not make them any less irrational.
There is little that the president or his administration can do to allay this irrationality. Those who respond to him with visceral anger and fear are right to see him as the embodiment of the changes that enrage and terrify them. As he is the agent of change, he can do little to disarm the irrational response it often provokes. What is missing from our present political culture is an opposition that responds to the president's history-making administration with thoughtful conversation, an opposition that has the courage to eschew and explicitly criticize the rhetoric of hate and oversimplification.
Only conservatives and Republicans can provide such an opposition. The need for it is fast becoming desperate. For the vacuum created by the absence of such an opposition will not continue for long. There is a maelstrom waiting to fill it.
Astute Republican thinkers such as The New York Times' David Brooks have emphasized that the party needs to rethink itself to renew its identity. But there is already available to the Republican Party and the conservative movement an indispensable role in these historic times: They can stand up for reason and work to delegitimize the demagogy and malice that are betraying their deeply thoughtful and venerable traditions. Doing so may cost them votes; it may cost them primary elections. But it will earn them the gratitude of history.
We now need, perhaps more urgently than ever before, an opposition that is loyal, above all, to reason, as it was exercised by our founders.
Jerome Miller is professor emeritus of philosophy at Salisbury University. His e-mail is jamiller@salisbury.edu.
Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun”
Saturday, September 12, 2009
So What’s to complain?
Monday, September 07, 2009
A Partial List of My Interest
Giving love, being kind, learning to love my enemies, Poets, poetry, astronomy, parenting, child rearing, my children, my wife, balance, beautiful thinking, beauty, ice cold beer, wise old men, breast, carnal knowledge, chivalry, coffee, music, constant randomness, cooking, crunchy, studying cultures, Dali, dancing, delusions of grandeur, dreaming, eloquence, emotions, estrogen, eye locks, freedom, fresh expensive sheets, geeks, getting mail, imperfections, joint laughter, kissing, lovers, laughter, touching skin, letters, life, lips, lucid dreams, hugging, metaphysics, modest and undiscovered greatnesses, open windows, family, outsider art, art, people watching, people who love, philosophy, sociology, photography, psychology, quirky features, politics, health care for all, rhythm, travel, romance, self-improvement, serendipity, sex, sharing experiences with strangers, showering in twos or more, sharing visions, silence, protests against the war, ending all wars, hips, solitude, spoken word, spontaneity, spooning, subtle sexuality, testosterone, the way night smells, smelling warm rain, uncontrollable giggle fits, used book stores, unaided laughter, vintage, wandering aimlessly, weather, Buddhism, bonding with men, good health, mental clarity, Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy, 42.




