selfish intentions??

you know i sat in a journalism class a few days ago and i couldn’t believe it.

tsunami? blank stares

rwanda? blank stares

there they are. the young, the bright, our next generation of journalists. and they have no clue what is going on in the world. and this isn’t the first time i saw this going on. it happened last year when a professor wrote “darfur” on the board, and nobody could identify it. please.

the professor summed it up. americans are concerned with themselves before anything else. to the extent of being selfish.

and then people are surprised that the anti-american sentiment is on the rise. at least william jefferson seemed to care. he made a point talking to mike wallace that he turned the world’s view of america around. and that’s true, there was a lot of respect for him. and people hated him because of a little something on the side with an intern. fucking please. firstly its his private life and didn’t affect his presidency. if he’d been stealing money for her, oh yes. secondly, the divorce rate in this country is above 50%. this shit happens all the time. so who cares.

i digress.

anyways.

all i can say is wake the fuck up. i had this same conversation with my friend in japan. R.G. is going places let me tell you that. and though personally i didn’t agree with him all of the time, i know he’s going places. give it a few years and he’ll come up on the political radar.

wake the fuck up. this crap isn’t going to fix itself. and the next generation of “journalists”, the next generation of people doesn’t seem to give a shit. you’ll have to fix it. you can enjoy life (read: get wasted every weekend), but you can also pay attention to what’s going on outside your backyard.

this man is paying a lot of attention. and i believe his rhetoric has some amazing power:

his words are very very powerful, and very wise. all the best in the future.

and he has soft hands. must use moisturizer or something.

could work on his handshake.

there was also this man, who’s not quite as powerful. but he was still a baller.

DWF
works for TIME Magazine and Redux Photography. and shoots a six.

and now i am going out for a drink. all of mine was confiscated and poured down the drain. i’ve never wished so much for a glass of chivas.

c’est la vie

that first wedding, “you should hide your bottles”

here’s a few shots from that first wedding. only m shots, cause the other ones are at work and i’m too lazy to resize them and everything. and i have a 2nd wedding from this past weekend with nicer work (at least i think so).

i never knew that weddings were such hard work. got back on saturday and almost died. but then again, carrying 2 full size cameras all damn day and following everyone around is definitely hard work.

for some reason i didn’t shoot the m at all at the wedding this past weekend. it was strange. prolly because i put some velvia in and then the clouds rolled in. but i don’t know. it was great fun. and i got a bottle of wine as a gift from the vineyard.

too bad it got confiscated yesterday. alcohol violation. fuckin laws and policies.

i have a lot to say about that. mainly, it’s bullshit.

how someone can buy porn, cigarettes, go to jail and go to war; basically be accountable/liable/responsible for all the decisions they make, but cannot buy a beer with dinner is ridiculous.

“you should have hidden it”

i am not hiding my alcohol. i have been legal to drink in every other normal country for the past two years. call me a stubborn git if you want, i don’t care. this is stupid

AAANYWAYS, enjoy these:

twenty

so i am twenty today.

wow.

enjoy:

what a wonderful day….

yes weddings are wonderful days…

i love them. no joke. not that i will be in one anytime soon. don’t want to deal with that kind of stuff anytime soon. but i love to shoot them. especially the kids during the weddings.

here’s some from one last weekend. was assisting my boss and snagged a few with the M in between digital shots:

the flowergirls.

this guy was out of control. but he stopped and smiled.

violinists can be hot

for some reason they were reluctant to do this

the women

i have a great deal of fun assisting at weddings. in fact, i hvae a wedding this saturday. the only difference is that i’m not assisting. i am shooting a wedding myself. big step you can call it. and i will be shitting my pants till about 10 pm on saturday. but i’m confident.

so for the next 2 days i am studying wedding albums.

peace and enjoy.

september 11th

lest we forget

pirates, mt. fuji and a couple of ladies

my last 4 rolls from Japan were developed in the US. so I have them available.

my last week in Japan was full of everything. sightseeing, shopping, partying, drinking, eating, seeing everybody. my last wednesday there, most of my friends went on a grueling hike up mt. fuji to watch the sunrise from the top. for my own reasons i chose not to. as hardcore as it seemed.

but that wasn’t going to stop me from having fun too.

a friend of mine, eri, invited me to a movie with her and her friend, rie. i guess movie in japan means “let’s watch a movie, then go to and all-you-can-drink dinner and get obliterated”.

and you know what

i like that definition.

johnny was great. though i was pretty disappointed that the movie ends with, oh wait, you have to watch pirates 3 to see the ending. FUCK.

not before we stopped in some photo booth to take some sticker photos.

now let me tell you these people are fucking nuts when it comes to sticker photos. but i didn’t care. i was all for embracing this japanese culture.

afterwards is when the fun started. part of this japanese culture is the all-you-can-drink specials at restaurants. the focus is moreso on the alcohol than the actual food. for about $25 bucks you can get a “package”. all you can drink beer + a certain number of appetizer dishes.

the best thing about this. japanese can’t drink. eri was an exception. for a young japanese lady she held out pretty damn fuckin well.

rie on the other hand. she was funny herself. didn’t speak a word of english but was determined to go to the US to study in university. dunno how far that was gonna go. she sounded horrible.

either way, by the end of the evening, they were both smashed. rie was forcing english. it sounded like a really bad violinist.

and the two hours was up. it was really too bad. i wish i’d done this thing a little more often while in japan. but my host dad was a great cook.

we went outside

saw some poor soul working overtime in the streets

went out to the UFO catchers and fucked around for a little bit. I won a Stich doll and gave it to Rie.

And the fun ended on the train ride back to my home station.

c’est la vie.

trix + 1

ty

i stayed at my boss’ place for a while before i moved into the dorms. was very grateful, and got to hang out with ty, his 15 month old son. went to dinner, and chilled on the porch a few times with the dogs.

’twas fun.

standing tall

unable to wait for the restaurant to open

noodles!

peekaboo

riley

cody

the last three were shot hp5, first few were across 100 +1.