Monthly Archives: February 2010

When thinking is a crime

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In 2006 when Christopher Handley was accused of owning too much Manga, I didn’t hear about it. I heard about his sentencing yesterday. OK, so the basic story is that this guy, Christopher Handley, owns a crap load of Manga. As I understand it, Manga is Japanese Anime in book form. It comes in various forms from completely innocent to totally grotesque. It goes from Pokemon to Tentacle Porn. It runs the gambit of cute fluffy animals having fun in the forest to people having sex with cute fluffy animals in the forest. It further delves into what could be construed as child pornography…or at least, that’s what they’re calling it. This guy, Christopher Handley, apparently owned a ton of it and a good deal of it involved images of children engaged in sexual acts.

Understand, this is artwork. Manga are cartoons. They are drawings on paper. They are Japanese comic books. Handley is guilty of reading cartoons. According to the articles I’ve read, he’s never acted on these images. He looks at them and ‘bates to them. Hey, whatever floats your boat. So tell me again how that’s a crime?

I don’t read Manga, but my step-daughter does. She reads the cutesy teen romance stories. I had Little House of the Prairie, she has Manga. I’ve seen plenty of Manga, it’s hard to ignore when you’re a Comic-Con attending dork and yes, a good majority of it is about sex, implied or explicit. Big boobs, young girls in smaller than small skirts…but not all sex is profane, some of it’s just inferred and a lot of it’s just kid stuff. Television and movies go further than that, so what are we talking about here?

I wouldn’t read the books Handley does and I don’t even really like Manga, but it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist. If he’s just reading, collecting, and ‘batin’, where’s the crime? If no one’s being hurt and this doesn’t uncover some illegal Japanese child pornography ring, why is this man serving time? If my step-daughter is reading Manga, should I be worried? I’m not. Not all Manga is bad. How does this effect my life?

It effects everyone’s life. You, me, your mom, everyone. This law basically states that any implied child pornography, even cartoons, is illegal…which means it’s illegal to own or look at Lewis Carroll’s photographs. Does this mean Anne Geddes is a pedophile? She takes pictures of naked children, where do you draw the line? Why is the line an issue when it comes to art and concepts? This is merely a first step to domination, control, and censorship. Criminalizing art? What’s next? Serving time for killing digital men in video games? Will I go to the big house for allowing Mario to fall of a cliff? It was an accident. This may sound extreme, but once we allow people like Christopher Handley to go to jail for READING and THINKING we lose more and more freedom. It happens slowly enough and enough under the radar that by the time people take notice, it’s too late.

Photography by Lewis Carroll

I think most people agree that child pornography is wronger than wrong, but if artwork depicting it doesn’t actually hurt children and the people reading it aren’t physically committing crimes, what’s the problem? What this boils down to it what George Orwell called “thought crimes”; you think bad things and bad things happen to you. If America is the Land of the Free, why are people being imprisoned for THINKING about child pornography? Let me be clear, this man never acted on the images aside from wanking off (sorry, no one ever said that, but it’s pretty obvious).

I don’t know the law, in fact, if I try to read legal forms I glaze over in a dumbfounded haze which can only be cured by funny cat videos on YouTube. What I do know is that yes, a crime has been committed, just not by Handley…but by the American Justice System. OUR justice system, the one that’s supposed to protect us from the baddies of the world. I bet all those cartoon kids are happy Handley is in the clinker. He can’t hurt them anymore. Wait…THEY’RE CARTOONS! They have no feelings! They’re not even remotely corporeal!

The biggest mistake Handley made wasn’t owning kiddie cartoons, it was pleading guilty. I’m not sure why he did this, but he should be fighting for this rights and the rights of every American. Perhaps he didn’t want the publicity, too late. Perhaps he just figured he’d serve his time and go back to his life. And what? Go back to the life where he can’t read what he wants, where thinking bad things is a crime. Thankfully the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund seems to be on the case. Handley may not be fighting for his rights, but other good people are.

When I’m outraged to this level, I ask myself what I can do. I can do two things: I will not be afraid and I will help spread the word. If anyone has any better ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Castile Soap Saves the Planet

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Over the weekend, I started writing several blog posts about what I’m doing to improve my life and systematically lessen my impact on the planet. I think about these things all the time and am always trying to figure out how to share my discoveries, especially the really easy ones, with my friends and the two people who read this blog. Except, everything I wrote over the weekend sounded WAY too preachy and was a bit too self-serving. I figure that’s the the wrong approach. All I’m going to do is tell you what works for me, where to find it, and how to use it.

For years I’ve seen this gigantic bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap on the shelves of Trader Joes, Whole Foods, and health food stores. I was always overwhelmed by the biblical-era novel written on the packaging and assumed it was one of those creepy soaps that didn’t bubble or foam, that if I tried to use it, I’d end up regretting it as the worst possible purchase. Turns out, it was the best possible purchase in the history of purchases.

Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap comes in various varieties like peppermint, hemp, almond, rose, and others. I started out with the mild baby version; not at all sure what to expect. I started using it to replace my shampoo and body wash. Needless to say, it’s pretty awesome, foams like a dream, and has actually started improving the feel and texture of my hair. One thing to note is that if you do use it for shampoo, you need to rinse your hair a little extra, your hair will be squeaky clean – which is an added bonus for the health of your scalp. I also do an apple cider vinegar rinse once a week. I might post on that later.

Along with shampoo and body wash, Castile Soap has replaced my dishwashing liquid. I’ve read that some people even use it in their dishwashing machines but that it leaves a film. I currently wash all my dishes by hand and haven’t noticed a problem. I’ve also started using it as a shaving lather and it works pretty well. I love this product. As an added bonus, it takes very little to get any job done; in some cases just a few drops.

So what’s so great about one product replacing three? Besides the obvious? My preliminary calculations show that we’ll use one 32 oz bottle of Castile Soap every 2 months which means it costs $6 a month. Buying shampoo, body wash, shaving cream, and dish soap costs about $25 a month at $300 per year. Castile Soap comes out to $72 a year. So there you go. Big savings all around. Good for the home, good for the wallet, good for you and your family, and good for the planet. Win times 4.

From http://www.drbronner.com/DBMS/LS.htm:

A combination of organic extra virgin coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp oils, together with pure essential oils, creates a unique soap that cleans effectively without being aggressive and produces a velvety-lather that leaves the skin silky-smooth and refreshed.

* Completely Biodegradable and Vegetable-Based
* Made with Certified Fair Trade and Organic Oils
* Multi-Purpose: 18-in-1 Uses
* No Synthetic Foaming Agents, Thickeners or Preservatives
* 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Cylinder Bottles and Paper Labels
* Simple, Ecological Formulations Based on Old-World Quality and Expertise
* #1-Selling Natural Brand of Soaps in North America

Now, they say it has 18 uses. I’ve come up with 4 practical uses which saves me over $200 per year. I think that about covers the addition of more channels to our cable line-up and I can finally watch the Sundance Channel, BBC-America, LOGO, IFC, the Biography Channel and more. Honey, are you reading this? LOGO is playing episodes of Buffy and Biography has Shatner’s Raw Nerve. Must have.

Whenever I find a product that rocks as much as this one, I can’t help but feel on top of the world. I’m also super proud of myself when I manage to save this much money with one simple product. Dr. Bronner, you may be one crazy religious mo-fo, but you make the best soap on the planet.

Where to Find:

* Online at http://www.drbronner.com
* Target
* Whole Foods
* Trader Joe’s
* Most health food stores

Note: If you use for washing dishes in the sink, the basin water will not foam up like you’re used to. Water will turn milky, but trust me…it still works.

Weekly Photo Round Up – Feb 13, 2010

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Ok, is it just me or as these weeks going by faster and faster?

Had a pretty great week, regardless of how fast it went. While AJB was out of town, JCS and I got off our asses and visited the Audubon Center at Debs Park – a place I never knew existed until now. It’s great! It’s a natural park with hiking trails and learning centers, they also provide all sorts of free classes like Tai Chi on Sundays. Needless to say, like most natural parks, it’s just gorgeous and what’s better, it’s about 10 minutes from Pasadena, just outside of Downtown. You can discover all sorts of cool things just by driving around and following signs.

The image of our television set is one of the Winter Olympics athletes being interviewed. Me and the kids were making fun of her, so I took a picture and it was all I had for that day. The final picture is our bathroom being fixed after extensive rain damage.

Everything will be fine

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I realize what one of my weakest points is: I over-think things. Does everyone do that or do the really successful people in life just go, “Yeah, I’m gonna jump of that bridge” and not worry about what happens when they hit the bottom? Do they assume they won’t hit the bottom? Are really successful people blissfully ignorant when it comes to failure? I’d really like to know.

I suppose the key to success has everything to do with luck, circumstance, and talent. Just like meeting the person you marry, job success has similar right place, right time aspects to it. If {insert actor’s name here} had been sick on the day of their big audition, they wouldn’t have gotten the commercial job which lead to them being discovered which lead to the big movie which lead to the Academy Award. Someone else would have gotten the commercial and might not have been discovered for the big movie which lead to the Academy Award.

Success isn’t just about talent. I look around and I see a jilion other photographers who haven’t made names for themselves but are very good at what they do. I’m pretty good at what I do. No star is born over night. Even in the movie “A Star is Born” Judy Garland had been singing in night clubs for years before she hit it big. She just happened to meet and fall in love with the biggest star in the world who helped her get a camera test. Her talent took it from there. She had the opportunity.

So, without meeting and falling in love with the biggest star in the world, how do you make it big? OK, let’s forget about making it big. How do you make a living? If persistence was all it took, just about everyone I know would be photographing for National Geographic or Vanity Fair. If all it took was talent, every kid at Art Center would be selling their work like hot cakes. Therefore, the likely conclusion is that you must also have opportunity. Yes, we’ve determined that already. So where do you get it? Where do the opportunities live and how do you get your hands on them?

Truth is, you can have all the opportunities in the world, but if people don’t like you, you’re not going anywhere. Conclusion? Success is: Opportunity, talent, personality. I have two out of three. Now to find the opportunities, which seem the most illusive.

I’ve been thinking about personality and how it effects my work. Who am I to my clients and potential clients? While I realize I won’t hit it off with everyone, I also know that I must always be myself. I can do nothing more than that. I see a lot of photographers being really positive and upbeat about the current state of the industry. They also over-emphasize their skills; which I’m not good at. Aside from the insider comments on message boards, most photographers go about their day as if nothing is wrong. Truth is, there is a lot wrong and I worry about it every day. I worry that dumb kids with $50 cameras are making more money than me. I worry that I come off as strange or dorky, but not professional or comforting. I worry that I don’t really know what I’m doing and that by the time I figure it out, I’ll be ready for retirement. I’m worried I don’t have what it takes and that some days, I’m really not even that motivated. I worry that all of these character traits are fine if you’re Andy Warhol or Crispin Glover. I am neither and somehow fall into a category of in-between.

So what if I were to be genuinely honest about how things really are in my business? What if I were to send out my newsletter every month and talk about how it all sucks, that I’m not feeling positive, and that I worry I’m a failure? Would that turn people off? I’m pretty sure if would. Thus, I stay perky. Even when I feel bad, I have to remain confident and as Dry Idea as deodorant: Never let ‘em see you sweat.

Everything will be fine.

UPDATE: About 2 seconds after I posted this, an interesting opportunity came my way. I’ll post more about it when it’s more solidified.

Weekly Photo Round Up – Feb. 6th

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Has it been a week already? Man, this week flew by. I feel like I didn’t do anything or get anything done, even though when I think about it, I’ve actually gotten a lot done. I’ve been working on my business website and continuing to tag and keyword all 40,000+ of my images which are being re-imported into my newly purchased copy of Lightroom. It’s a lot of tedious work, but essential.

The rain over the last few days has put a damper on any sort of motivation and all I really want to do is watch TCM and snuggle with my cats. I love the rain. It makes everything look and smell so wonderful. Our grass is greener than ever and the world is clean. Meanwhile, I’ve been listening to a really great Old Time Radio station 1710 Antioch. This station is literally run out of this guy’s house in Illinois and gets a local broadcast range of about a mile radius. He’s streaming online which is how I found him. I really love the DIY aspect of it and even donated $15.00 to his efforts; something I never do. This is what life is about: Doing what you love and sharing it with others. I have to support that.

1710 Antioch runs the gambit of OTR programs from suspense to comedy to science fiction. You’ll hear famous actors who got their start in radio including the wonderful Glenn Ford. You’ll even hear old station bumpers, commercials, and PSAs from the 20′s to the 50′s. Its a blast from the past and really makes me wonder why we need television at all. I mean, all these programs are so great and while all of them aren’t Mercury Theater caliber, it still instantly transports you to a simpler place and time. It also reminds me that nothing can compete with your own imagination; what the scene would look like or just imagining a group of actors huddled around a microphone holding scripts, the sound effects guy in the background clanging bells and knocking on tables. You can find magic in the world if you look for it. Antioch 1710 is magical. Sheer perfection comes with listening at night with the rain splashing on the shingles. The station owner really cares about the shows, fixes audio, and provides really clean recordings. If you do listen, consider donating a few pence to help the guy out. He really puts a lot of work into it.

And now onto the Round Up…

This week’s Photo Round Up contains 6 images – actually 2 are from the same day, but it was such a great photo of Oatmeal, I had to include it. I’m also noticing that my subject matter consists mainly of my cats. I suppose it’s because they’re always around. I should use this project to get out more or at least wander the yard a bit. Then again, it’s been raining. Let’s see how I do next week.