The Whiskey Rebellion

From crack to whiskey and from whiskey to crack
From the poor shall everything be
Taken, even the little that they have
From crack to whiskey and from whiskey to crack

 
 

Sunset in Watts-Compton

 
 

Fireworks in Disney Town, December 23, 2012

 
 

Refugees at the Getty Museum

 


 
 

Not Fade Away

"Bobby Keys: I first met Keith Richards physically in San Antonio Texas.
They recorded a song, "Not Fade Away," by a guy named Buddy Holly, born in
Lubbock, Texas, same as me. I said, "Hey, that was Buddy's song. Who are
these pasty-faced, funny-talking, skinny-legged guys to come over here
and cash in on Buddy's song? I'll kick their asses!"

"We were all staying at the same hotel in San Antonio, and they were out
on the balcony, Brian and Keith, and I think Mick. I went out and listened
to them, and there was some actual rock and roll going on there, in my humble
opinion, and they did "Not Fade Away" actually better than Buddy ever did it.
I never said that to them or anybody else."

"And then I ran into them again in L.A. when they were doing the T.A.M.I. show.
I discovered that Keith and I had the same birthday, both born 12/18/43. He told me,
"Bobby, you know what that means? We're half man and half horse, and we got a license
to shit in the streets."

"There was something about Keith that immediately reminded me of Buddy Holly. They're
about the same size; Buddy was a skinny guy, had bad teeth. Keith was a mess. But some
folks, they just got a look in their eye, and he looked dangerous, and that's the truth."

-Keith Richards, Life


 
 

Blue Days in Paris

We were living in Paris like a regular 19th Century couple.
I'm a brat with a tuba and you're my
phantasmal masseuse!

Blue days in Paris!

Brutal runts and homuncular runes on the Champs-Élysées!
Cellophane opalescence of the cigarette-cafés and the
sauce-pan sarcasm of American super-moms!

I'm your euphonic copycat!
You're my astral recluse!

Bop-nabobs in the Metro and bombs in the suburbs!
Monumental ennui and the blood of unicorns!

Blue days in Paris!
 
 

Magdalena Frackowiak

Gonzo fashion-blogger Isaac Hindin-Miller sneaked into Chanel during Fashion Week in Paris,
stuck his head out a window at exactly the right moment, and captured this image of Magdalena
Frackowiak on his Blackberry.
 
 

Killers

 
 

Rainy Sunday in Griffith Park

 
 

The Burning Ship

Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?
 
 

Shadow

Santa Monica - December 11, 2012
 
 

Olya Snagoshenko

One of the only remaining relics of my brief "career" as a fashion
photographer is the occasional bulletin from some hard-scrabble
model agency in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, the
Ukraine, Georgia, or the Czech Republic, and if I weren't already
sad enough about the miserable prospects of almost every human being
on our miserable little planet, now I have to contemplate two or
three hundred really beautiful girls almost none of whom have even
the ghost of a chance at the kind of contract that buys you a visa
from there to here.

So I'm always ecstatic whenever the real thing shows up,
this time in the form of Olya Snagoshenko, and if she weren't
quite so beautiful, if she weren't so incredibly, eerily, amazingly
beautiful, with an unearthly, fall-down-and-die-for-her
beauty, she wouldn't have any chance at all.
 
 

Translation

Dalai Lama walks into a pizza shop and says "Make me one with everything."

What this story needs is Jimmy Carter's Japanese translator.

"President Carter told a funny story. Everyone must laugh."
 
 

Anaheim

 
 

Long Beach City College, December 7, 2012

 
 

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

 
 

The Wisdom of My Folk

Most of the legends of my folk involve animals that eat stuff. For example...

Once a parrot was eating a banana, and a coyote got after him, but the parrot
said "Watch out, a bear that eats stuff is coming," and the coyote ran away.

The next day the parrot was eating another banana, and the coyote got after him
again, but the parrot said "Watch out, a bear that eats stuff is coming," and
the coyote ran away.

The next day the same parrot was eating yet another banana, and the coyote got
after him again, but when the parrot said "Watch out, a bear that eats stuff is
coming," the coyote didn't run away, and a bear that eats stuff ate him.

The wisdom that my folk learned from this legend is...

Always eat a parrot the second time you get a chance.