Bush League: Film Music :: 07.23.08
I heard this guys music a couple years ago in the Bush. Jacqueline, one of the main characters in the film, was listening to it in her shop. During the editing process I've gone back through the footage just to hear the music. I've been hoping I could find out who the guy is and get some of his music for the film. Got an email this morning from Malawi Jake pointing me a website that's selling Malawian mp3s (www.malawianmp3.com) and there he is: Lawrence Mbenjere! Got his name, now I can try to find him. He's got this video on YouTube. I love these videos, but I LOVE the music.
Bush League: Before Mobile Tech :: 07.21.08
This is just an aside from the film, but I wanted to put this together and put it out there. I'm really curious to see what happens when a place has a communication revolution that's never had an industrial revolution.
Drinking the TIgris: Cooking Steadier! :: 07.20.08
It's pegged!
Drinking the TIgris: On the Cover of the Rolling Stone :: 07.18.08
He's got to come to Iraq sooner or later? In the year I've been here, nobody has been as anticipated. In fact, nobody has been anticipated at all because we never know they're coming till they're here. My boss met Angelina Jolie when she came in. I was very jealous. He fitted her body armor for her, perhaps the most coveted roll any man could play in her arrival. When he got back to the office all he said for an hour was, "beautiful lips man, beautiful lips." I swear he got word she was coming in; normally he would never meet a flight. That was a surprise, but we know Obama has to come soon, so it's become a conversation here in the office.
I can't wait. I feel like a good guy is finally going to ride into town. I've seen a few powerful people come and go around here, and I long for the day their ride comes to an end. None of them made me sicker than the fat Texas energy tycoon. He came lumbering off a small jet with a gaggle of staff behind him, and a giant gut in front of him. His tent sized suit was at least five grand. His Daddy is one of the biggest energy businessmen in Texas and a major Republican contributor. Not exactly a self made man. Few of them are.
I'm out of here next week for a break. Hope Obama doesn't come while I'm gone.
Nice cover on that Rolling Stone!
Drinking the TIgris: Cooking Steady ::
It's HOT HOT HOT!
Drinking the Tigris: Ed on the Bomb Shelter :: 07.12.08
Looks like an ad for headphones. Not sure about this one, something with the exposure is off, it looks dirty.
Ed is a former Marine. He was an MSG. Those are the Marines that guard all the embassies worldwide. He met his wife at the embassy in China. He tells harrowing tales of his time in Mongolia shortly after their wedding. Six months in a concrete box apartment with nothing to do. Twelve-hour train rides to China to get a pizza. He also tells great stories about scuba diving, and in particular, one story about an underwater encounter with a giant clam at night. Most of all, he talks about his kids. He really misses his two sons.
Drinking the Tigris: Lloyd on the Bomb Shelter :: 07.10.08
Lloyd is a former Marine Corps Master Sergeant. A pure New Yorker who grew up in the projects of Brooklyn, he's the best-known personality around here. He doesn't really stand on the bomb shelter like this, I asked him to climb up there. That's really my favorite spot and the best place for mobile phone reception. From up there I can see over the T walls that enclose our compound. In the evening when it's cooler I like to get up there and talk to friends and family. Over the wall I can see the flight line and the civilian terminal in the distance. Just a few feet lower and it's a boxed in blackout beneath the walls. A construction crew temporarily moved the shelter last week. I feel like somebody moved my favorite chair.
Lloyd is almost fifty, which I find hard to believe. Guy is youthful. Most fifty year olds would break a leg climbing up there.
Drinking the Tigris: Edward ::
This is Edward, a Ugandan guard working here in Baghdad. When I arrived last year I was surprised to see such a diverse mix of people. Why is a Ugandan checking my ID at the chow hall? I thought it would be all Americans with a sprinkling of Brits and other 'Coalition of the Willing' personnel. Because the war has been so privatized, a lot of the less critical security work is handled by the lowest bidder. Edward's company is American, based in Tennessee, but they hire out of Uganda because their soldiers are well trained and work for cheap. We've outsourced the war that far. It's incredibly strange. Everyday at lunch you can hear different people, Airmen, contractors, anybody that's been around a while yell, "Jambo jambo!" as they great the guards in Swahili on their way to and from the chow hall.
Edward was very anxious about being photographed. He asked me over and over again, "What's this for?" The shot is behind the chow hall after his shift ended. He turned his head in the middle of the exposure, checking to see if his boss had caught him. I tried to explain that I wanted to take his picture, just because, but I walked away feeling like I'd asked for way too much. He could have lost his job or been seriously reprimanded had the wrong person noticed. People have been fired for less.
Drinking the Tigirs: Big D, a KBR driver :: 07. 9.08
Truckers, honkies, bubbas, Georgians, Texans, Croatians, Serbs; KBR is a big mix. It's true that at the top, these companies are corrupt money stealing machines, but the character of the company's employees is completely different. Most of the Americans who work for KBR are working class people from Texas and the South. Big D was a long haul trucker before he came to Iraq. When he started with KBR, he drove an 18 wheeler running convoys from Baghdad to Kuwait. A year and a half ago he scored a job with us. Now he drives people around in the armored suburban sitting behind him. I'm not sure why he's got an armored vehicle, he never has to go outside the wire any more.
His politics and his rebel flag sunglasses aside, Big D is a lovable guy. He sometimes reminds me of the Lion from the Wizard of Oz actually. Except the Lion didn't have a bald eagle tattooed on his forearm and a gold flake painted Peter Built truck with 9/11 murals on three sides. Badass!
No to the FISA Bill! :: 07. 7.08
Here in Iraq I've gotten an up close look at what happens when corporations get in bed with the government and vice versa and its hard to imagine anything worse. This is really important. Write you Senator now!
What Every American Needs to Know (and Do) About FISA Before Tuesday, July 8th from Tim Ferriss on Vimeo.
Drinking the Tigris: Impeach Cheney :: 06.30.08
Rep Wexler put this out six months ago. Looks like its getting a second wave of attention: Go Wexler!
www.wexlerwantshearings.com
Drinking the Tigris: Supreme Court Slap Down! :: 06.13.08
"The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."
Yes! Yes! Yes! That's my America! I hope this is just the beginning. Unravel baby! If Bush is MacBeth, then does this mean the forest has begun to move?!
Pardon me for making light of this, but the epic battle that our society is locked in, may be best summed up in this Chuck Norris clip: we are Chuck, the Bear represents the stupid people that have been mauling the Constitution for the last 7 years.
Speaking of mauling, how bout that dissolve on the close ups?! You can get kicked out of film school for stuff like that.
Drinking the Tigris: Video Serendipity :: 06.12.08
I received two different Youtube links today from friends who don't know one another. They are strangely, shockingly connected:
The first one is painful reminder of our pathetic leadership and the mismanagement of our stupid war:
The second video is exactly the kind mercenary behavior we should be prosecuting these contractors for. We don't have a legal framework to address these types of crimes, but we call ourselves a nation of laws?
Drinking the Tigris: Full Access??? :: 06. 2.08
Baghdad Airport, Lee at Night
Fortress Baghdad, T wall at Night
I've been interested in taking pictures outside our compound for a while but assumed because of the security environment it would be impossible. A couple weeks ago I talked with an Air Force officer, and fifteen minutes later I had a letter that gave me authorization to take pictures of anything and everything excluding two sensitive areas. I couldn't believe it. The sergeant that issued the letter talked about how they want transparency and people back in the States to know what's happening here. Given the new obsession with security back in the U.S. and all the stories about people being busted for taking pictures of buildings and train stations, I think it might be more open here? What the hell is going on with us? These are a couple shots from a test roll. Hope to crank out some daytime stuff soon, pictures I could never take in the States.
Drinking the Tigris: Bush League :: 05.27.08
Last week, I got to go over to the (scary) place where the Iraqis train and fire a full auto AK47. It was fun and broke the monotony. Nobody should ever be allowed to own one of these things, its ridiculous that there's an argument about it in the U.S. Otherwise my day to day life is so monotonous that I can't remember anything about it.
My personnel life is also pretty lame, but at least I have my film to keep me going. Every now and then I hit a patch in the footage that reminds me why I love it so much and why its become the focus of my existence.
Bizarre extremes?
Bush League: 14 sec Malawi Moment of Zen :: 05.22.08
Bush League: Zolokere Choir :: 05. 6.08
I put this video up ten months ago and its been averaging around a thousand hits per month. It passed 10 thousand today. A nice landmark! It’s a no brainer considering how good the music is, but even so, the response is way beyond my expectations.
I'm glad to say that more will come out of this. No details for a while, but I've been talking with Malawi Jake about doing some field recordings that focus on this music. He's looking for a fitting project for his post-Peace Corps return to Malawi and it looks like it's going to happen this autumn.
I was shooting a soccer practice for Bush League when I heard the choir start. I recorded five or six more songs, so I'll have to post a couple more for you soon.
Drinking the Tigris: Old Glory :: 05. 1.08
I was perusing flickr the other day and came across my buddy JR's latest photos. This one caught me off guard. From his notes:
"This is the massive face of the BP Hydrogen Refinery in Long Beach. It faces the 405 freeway; several thousand people see it every day on their way to and from work. It's a pretty provocative image made more so with each passing day. While I was shooting the plant, well within my rights, a security guard zipped up in his company truck and demanded I stop taking photos. He asked me to return to my car where I would meet him. By blowing through a red light, he beat me back to my car, which he had blocked in with his truck (it was the only car in a vacant lot on a Sunday afternoon). He wouldn't allow me to leave until I had given him my name, phone number, street address, place of business, and "reason" for being there. He claimed that "since 9/11, you can't shoot anything you want," and that I would need to check with the local police in order to find out what I was allowed to shoot. Unfortunately, this kind of misinformation about photographers' rights in the post 9/11 America is becoming more and more common. I eventually gave up trying to explain my rights as he seemed more intent on filling out his paperwork and keeping his job. It was a sad experience - his written english was very poor, and I ended up having to write the report for him. It's a hollow feeling to be forced to help someone take away your liberties; America in microcosm."
Bush League: The Warm Heart, Mr. Muntale ::
Receiving a hand written letter from a friend in Malawi is a huge treat. From Mr. Muntale, a shop keeper and local chief in the Hewe valley:
"Dear Cy Kuckenbaker
First and foremost, I would like to know your life. How are you treated there?
With me here and the family, I am doing fine.
Sir, I have thought it wise to write you a letter because since you left Malawi, no communications with Mkwinda (that's him). You have been here in Malawi, chatted with us, to me that was a very good thing.
I know traveling is money. For you to come to your friend Jake. It means you really love one another.
The next thing is that you have been with us here (in his shop), so I should apologize if in any way myself or other people have done anything bad to you.
Nothing more to prolong. May God allow us to communicate once more in letters or physically.
Your Loving Brother"
How can you not love a guy that writes like that?!
Drinking the TIgris: Red Bandana :: 04.27.08
These are some amazing photos of a Mi-24 HIND my buddy James took out at one of the outposts. A Polish crew is running this thing. I'm pretty sure this is the same helicopter Rambo took out with a sling shot and a red bandana. From James:
"Max speed is over 200 mph, which is pretty phenomenal. The pilot is really
crammed in there -- he can really only get out by opening his canopy,
although there's a kind of crawl space behind him which he could use if
he were a twelve-year-old child. The co-pilot is really just trapped
down on the nose by himself in his bubble. The crew says they are being
sent to Afghanistan, possibly."
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
July 2005
June 2005
April 2005
March 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
Afrigadget
Alder Films
Alpha Diaries
Andrew Miksys Photography
Ape Entertainment
Ben Ferencz
Bruno Films
Cal Arts
Chiperoni.org
Docs in Progress
Doculink
The Documentary Blog
IDA
Jake Wilson
Librivox
Monochrome
Painted Land
A Silent Monsoon
Stephen Hawkins
Trona
US Peace Corps
Wood Movie
