Category: Uncategorized

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE AMERICAN DREAM?

Looking back from the moon in Artemis II, the planet Earth looks the same as it always did. Unfortunately, it’s just a photograph, and photographs lie.

Even if you ignore climate change and recent weather events, the American Dream is different. Owning your own home might still be possible, if you have a high enough paying job or you receive your parent’s house (or a large inheritance), but otherwise it might very well not happen.

American kids are now saying, “The American dream is the ability to become be the best you can be.” A worthy goal for anyone, but how easy is that to achieve without support? Emotional, mental, and financial. The more of that you have in your childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, the more likely you are to reach the ultimate expression of that sentiment. Identifying who it is that YOU are and what YOU have to offer, is much harder if you are not raised in a way that encourages deep thinking or your head is buried in a screen with earbuds on.

I truly feel for today’s youth in the USA. They are genuinely afraid and reticent to ask for help. I’ve offered to “pay it forward” several times lately without any takers, and it makes me sad. I hope the world stops being stupid, so that what really matters doesn’t disappear before it’s too late.

(Image: NASA)

“I’M NOT SO SURE HOW MUCH CELEBRITY AND SUCCESS CHANGES AN INDIVIDUAL

I think the world around you changes, but I think the person pretty much remains the same”

-Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders

SEATTLE IS FEELING IN THE GREEN BECAUSE OF THEIR WORLD CHAMPION TEAM – THE SEAHAWKS

Redemption never felt so good for us local fans. Congrats to all the Seattle football players, coaches, support teams and followers, for their faith and never give up attitude!

LOVE NOT HATE

The Capitol, Washington DC

There is love and there is fear. Fear spawns hate in those who choose it. Choose love instead.

Everything else is just opinion. So far, that’s still legal to voice in the USA, depending on who you talk to. I find it better to say nothing, because you never know who’s listening.

DEEDS, NOT WORDS

I’m a pragmatist at heart with a penchant for aphorisms, but even I know that a worthy man dedicates himself to service to remind himself that there are other things more important than his own selfishness. Forget the farcical hypocrisy you see on TV. It’s my belief that good deeds are best done the first time you think of them.

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY MOM!

Congrats to my mother for her remarkable achievement after a life of challenges, including the death of her mother in Estonia when she was very young, losing her father to the Russians at the beginning of WWII, being bombed while a prisoner of war working at a German hospital, learning English and adapting to a small fishing village in Alaska, working in a cannery, raising us kids, and a life that revolved around my dad, a commercial fisherman from Colorado who was often absent. You made it!

(Photo:Andrea Wells)

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The Massachusetts colonists, or “patriots”, won the first major military campaign of the American Revolutionary War in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, 250 years ago. Today is also the 250th time the signing of the Declearation of Independence will be celebrated (the official anniversary is next year). Here’s some reading material:

Continue reading “”

LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Words on a piece of paper. A document that used to have the same meaning for everyone. I remember a time in the USA when those words spoke of a dream that was attainable for all.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness seemed possible for those who worked hard and followed their passion. An achievement that was not just measured in monetary terms, but also in how WE THE PEOPLE felt about our nation. Continue reading “”

REMEMBERING OHIO

Injustice demonstration regression déjà vu. From Kent State 1970 to L.A. 2025: “I’m not a crook” to “I’m a crook, so what”.

Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

BEING MULTI-HYPHENATE

The word multi-hyphenate was something I was unaware of until recently. This term is being applied to a person who works in multiple jobs with each one being a field of expertise – especially influencers and celebrities. Thank goodness I don’t qualify for that last part.

Yet, working as a photographer-filmmaker-writer/author-music reviewer means I’m never bored. Beyond that I’ve never thought about it much. I’d probably be doing those things even if I wasn’t making a living at it. I’m certainly not a “renaissance man” in the traditional sense, since I’m not an inventor, musician, poet and mathematician. Now that would be something to be proud of.

I think as long as you are doing something you love and have a passion for, then you are taking care of your emotional health. Taking care of your physical health is another story, but it helps if you reduce stress, exercise regularly, eat healthy and takes breaks along the way. Everything in moderation is my motto today.

Making a meaningful difference for the better in today’s world is a whole ‘nother topic.

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L.A. FIRES

My heart goes out to everyone impacted by the fires in and around L.A. Several people I know lost their homes or recording studios, including Howie Idelson and Bernie Grundman. Others lost family heirlooms. I was just in Topanga Canyon and Malibu last month to photograph some Porsches. It’s a devastating loss and not always preventable. Mother Nature is not happy.

(Photo of burnt out mostly plastic car on PCH: Michael Christopher Brown)