drizzling rain with chico buarque

the rain's been spitting all day here in nyc- cloudy, cool and breezy. greens are green, blues are blue and the sky a thousand shades of gray.

i've been printing a trail of photographs for over a month now and close is where i've arrived, not at my destination but near. i don't dig tunnels so it ain't the light i can see, more like the anticipation of a summertime electrical storm arriving over the Hudson River (known as the muhhekunnetuk in the Mahican language or muhheakantuck in Unami, the language of Lenape peoples or the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois.)

next friday is july 4th and the history of this country always comes to mind around this time of year. Language and the history of the indigenous peoples of these lands is knowledge we've got to keep and remember...

this is a cliff in montauk in may 2008 overlooking the atlantic ocean.

love and health to all...

pastel ing the streets and the skies

for more than a month, a pastel of hillary clinton has adorned the corner of 109th street and broadway here in the city of new york on the island of manhattan. last week this same artist began working on an image of barack obama. this is 109th street yesterday as i was rolling to central park...

...where the new york philharmonic was representing for the masses and pastel ing music into the sky. the great lawn was one big massive green space of picnics and people. this is my friend nick and ethan listening to classical rythyms...

love and health to all...

thank you!!!

a big thank you to i.s. 216 and specifically to the wonderful students who i spent the morning with this past friday. your positive energy and magnificent questions that you all brought to class was inspirational. keep up the good work!!!

have a wonderful and safe summer!!

love and health to all...

flipping a 13 into 18

big poppa al's birthday flowed this year smooth as silk, the 18th of june, yesterday on the low.

a 13 is just a lil' bit lighter than an 18 and almost identical, that ain't no coincidence, believe me...

it's love.

living it up on a fresh and free family friday...

love and health to all...

IS 216... school for the world, stones in a forest or a building in a concrete jungle too

I'll be coming to IS 216 in the Bronx on Tuesday to make a presentation about life as a documentary photographer and the various work that I've done in schools around the world.

School. It is an important part of life and growing up.

What is a school? Does a school have to have four walls? Or even a chalkboard? Can a classroom be inside a circle of stones in a forest? Or can it be in a big building in the middle of New York City? What if a school doesn't have electricity, not even a toilet nor running water?

Schools in our world are physically different.

Above, are a few photographs from schools that I have worked and taught at in India. Many of the photographs are of schools in villages and many of the photographs are from schools in a forest, all within India.

Take a look at the images. Click on each photo to see a bigger image. Many of these schools look different than our schools here in the United States. No matter what a school looks like, it is a place to learn and share.

Please think about this blog entry and spend some time exploring the rest of this blog. Each one of you, please come to class with three questions- one about schools, one about anything on this blog and a third question of your choosing...

i'm looking forward to meeting you all, sharing photographs and having fun!

see you tuesday!!

love and health to all...

painted pastels

Happy Birthday Momma!

"Autumn Night" by Laura Adasko (pastels and paper)

love and health to all...

Ellen Rafel Frankel

Ellen Rafel Frankel

1945-2008

your beauty is contagious, your positive energy electrifying, your ability to share and love, inspirational. you are a magnetic force of life and love and peace and all that is beautiful and important on this planet.

thank you for you...

love and health and strength to all...

from cobblers to carpenters

while driving north on an interstate to my brother's graduation, i saw the truck of a furniture store on its way somewhere. this simple sight got me thinking- in the United States local crafts folk- from cobblers to carpenters- have all but disappeared. of all the goods in my home i wonder what percentage of them were manufactured in the USA or within 500 miles from my home?

without gasoline all these goods from everywhere but here, wouldn't be able to arrive at the prices they do. as the influx of goods arrived years back, the local cobblers and carpenters were overwhelmed and today, there aren't many.

but would a neighbor fixing soles on the corner, warm the soul?

all i know is that without petrol/gasoline/black gold, we would be living in a very different America. our supermarket shelves would be foreign to us yet so much more local.

gas is only getting more expensive, ice is melting, whether a cycle revisited or not, right now it is melting.

ask a polar bear.

if not at the end of my lifetime, surely when my greatgrandkids are my current age, life will be different.

perhaps we'll all have to eat healthy and prepare pulses...

love and health to all...