Have Satellite Truck, Will Travel.

Good bye Paul Newman. Thanks for all you did for the world around you.

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"If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you."
- Paul Newman

Dothan, AL - This morning was the first time I took serious stock of my accommodations in Oxford, MS. The stains in the bathtub. The pealing and somewhat burned toilet seat. The sticky spot on the rug under the table and chair.

Now I remember why I avoid hotels with a number as part of their name.

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"When I come rolling in to town for a morning shot, usually with three or four hours to spare, I'll check into a nap and crap before going to the location."
- Name withheld upon request

Oxford, MS - The nice thing about having a satellite truck is being able to watch the raw tape feeds from all over the country. One of today's feeds showed a reasonably well attended protest down on in New York's Wall Street.

Among the various shots of protesting activities were numerous people, all in black, wearing plain white face masks and wearing signs that say "Greed Kills." They laid themselves out under the Merrill Lynch bull and went limp. I can only assume they presumed to be representing various people dead in the name of greed.

It was interesting to see one of the limp white faced pseudo-corpses suddenly jerk to life, pull out his Razor cell phone and answer a call. You have to wonder how many of those greedy corporations worked together so he could lay there at the feet of the Big Brass Bull, dressed and acting like an idiot while taking that call.

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"If you are not a liberal by the time you are 25, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative by the time you 45, you have no brain."
- Sir Winston Churchill (?) There is some argument over whether or not he actually said that.

Birmingham, AL - Allow me to quote from an interview Sen. Biden gave CBS News:

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened,'"
AP: In gaffe, Biden says FDR led when market crashed

I don't think I can add to that...

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"Television has been around since 1884. But no one was able to do anything useful with it until someone invented Gaffers Tape in 1934."
- Unknown

Jill Greenberg, a still shooter, once again found her way into controversy. This time she readily admits that during a McCain shoot for she purposely lit him and shot him in a manner to make him look really bad.

"Greenberg also crowed that she had tricked McCain into standing over a strobe light placed on the floor - turning the septuagenarian's face into a horror show of shadows.

Asking McCain to 'please come over here' for a final shot, Greenberg pretended to be using a standard modeling light.

The resulting photos depict McCain as devilish, with bulging brows and washed-out skin.

'He had no idea he was being lit from below," Greenberg said, adding that none of his entourage picked up on the light switch either. 'I guess they're not very sophisticated,' she said.
The New York Post

Well isn't she just the sweetest thing?

But wait, it gets better. Greenberg took the some of the pictures from that session, Photoshopped them with all the wit and wisdom of a junior high school student then posted those image on the web.

That last part could be a problem for Greenberg. Last I heard, the photos taken as part of a paid shoot belong to the person paying for the session. Based on an interview I saw this morning, the Atlantic's lawyers are tuning up in the wings waiting for their cue.

Greenberg gave a statement on the matter saying, "Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for [The Atlantic] to hire me." and "The pictures speak for themselves. I took the opportunity to create an image which shows my feelings about the Republican administration and possible continuation of the policies of the Bush/Cheney White House." Quotes from the above NY Post article

Perhaps others will consider whether or not is responsible to hire Greenberg for future work as well. It is clear she will not be getting any more work from The Atlantic. The article's author, Jeffrey Goldberg, is very angry over the incident.

I don't know Greenberg (I count this as a blessing) and I can add nothing to what James Bennet told the Post except to say that Greenberg is quite obviously an indecent person who should not be working in magazine journalism. Every so often, journalists become deranged at the sight of certain candidates, and lose their bearings. Why, this has even happened in the case of John McCain once or twice. What I find truly astonishing is the blithe way in which she has tried to hurt this magazine.
The Atlantic - Jeffery Goldberg: About that McCain Photo

Let us not forget that Greenberg had no problem making children cry for a photo essay to express her feelings on President Bush's re-election. She must think the ends justifies the means. (Every time I think of her making those children cry, the words low life scum sucking *** come to mind. Go figure...)

Greenberg is allowed to have political beliefs. She is also allowed to shoot pictures and Photoshop them as well.

However, photographing a candidate while hired by and acting as a representative of a magazine requires a certain amount of maturity and professionalism. True to form, Greenberg proved beyond any shadow of a doubt she has neither.

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Some photographers take reality... and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.
- Ansel Adams

I didn't have anything to do with this project. However I would have traded body parts to work on it.

GMA Train Technology Tour

That is just so cool! It was good to see a lot of familiar faces in some of those shots too.

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A private railroad car is not an acquired taste. One takes to it immediately.
- Eleanor Robson Belmont

A big thanks to all of you that wrote, called and stopped by to help me forget how old and gray I'm getting.

Here's a little humor to round out the day with...



So funny and yet so sadly true...

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It is lovely, when I forget all birthdays, including my own, to find that somebody remembers me.
- Ellen Glasgow

I don't think I can add to that.

A tip of the hat to paltergo for showing this one to me.

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I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.
- Barack Obama

Lower Manhattan from across the river late on the night of September 11, 2001.

This morning my usual catch up on the news was nothing but reminders of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Perhaps it is fatigue. Maybe it is just the frustration and stress of the last month. It may even have been the interview with Todd Beamer's father on Fox News. Maybe it's just a withdrawal from a severe caffeine binge.

But today these reminders hit me kind of hard. Hard enough to send me vehemently changing the channel for a change of background noise.

This morning's reaction made me wonder again why this catastrophe hit me so hard.


The realization of the implications when the line of ambulances were replaced with a line of dump trucks.


Was it the exhausted rescuers coming form the pile? The haunted, empty looks in their eyes? Some of whom were completely unable to speak? Others who to this day have nightmares about what they saw while digging through the rubble?


Perhaps it is my empathy with those that ran in while others ran out. All of those that ran in and paid it with their lives. Watching as rescuers stood at attention, saluting and openly weeping while two of their fallen brothers were taken through the rubble to waiting ambulances for their final ride in an FDNY vehicle.

What ever it is, this one hit me like no other event. It forced me to remember there are people behind the stories we cover. It reinforced my efforts to make sure the relatives of the fallen on any story we do are treated with respect, courtesy and maximum consideration to their feelings.

We are never too old to learn. No matter what we've seen in our lives, we have never seen it all.

Related post: Have Satellite Truck, Will Travel. - September 11th, 2001

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"We are going to have to lose a city before the far left wake up to the realities we face in today's world."
- Uplinktruck

Indianapolis, IN - Don't you think that it is just a little bit hypocritical to be speculating whether Alaska Governor Sarah Palin can serve as Vice President and be a good mother to her five children?

Lets look at it from another perspective. Let us suppose that Gov. Palin was passed over for a high level job at any large US corporation, prestigious law firm or government job because some stuffed suit thinks she cannot be a good mother to her five kids and do the job.

You, the very same people speculating in the negative about Gov. Palin's ability to do both, would be screaming to the high heavens... Or at least the news media. You would be hooking her up with activist lawyers, filing friend of the court briefs, and picketing outside the offending employer's premises demanding justice and equal opportunity for all.

Give me a break. If that is the best you can do, it sounds like McCain picked the right running mate.

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Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld