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Where There's Smoke...

Reflections: Self Portraits

Take Me Home...

Country Livin'

& They Get Cats Out of Trees Too...

These people get paid to run TO the fire, instead of AWAY from it. Amazing...

Light it Up!

Rising Gas Prices





In addition to my rapidly growing jones for nocturnal photography, I seem to have developed an affinity for classic rides... I shot this outside of a Mc Donalds in downtown Oakland at around 3 o'clock in the morning.













I take my camera just about everywhere that I go... Check out this night shot of traffic on Market street in SF...








Fast Cars, Fast Women, & Jim

Liberty & Justice for All ?

I thought that this flag across the street from Oakland's city hall looked pretty majestic... BUT I'M STILL VOTING FOR OBAMA.

Peekaboo...

Missin' Ya Brooklyn...

It was so hot that summer, I had to sleep out on my fire escape three or four times to beat the heat...



I took these photos during the hottest summer that I've ever experienced in my life, an INCREDIBLE summer in New York... My homegirl Sallome (pictured above), an amazing poet, designer, teacher, listener, motivator & just all-around good gal, decided to take me to Brooklyn's famed African Arts Festival. That experience struck a chord with me for a number of reasons, mainly due to the fact that I had never seen so many Black folk groovin' to house music! (Yeah, I said HOUSE MUSIC!!!) & GOOD house music at that! I mean come on, do you really have any idea what you're missing by limiting your musical tastes to the standard fare played by conglomerate-owned money machines like Clear Channel?! Really, how many times can you hear the same "shake-a-booty-ho-&-get-my-cash-cuz-I-be-slangin-the-most-rocks-on
-the-planet-my-3-baby-mama's-ain't-sh*t-but-I'm-ridin-on-dem
-86-inch-rims-beeyotch, hyphy, Ying Yang, Pitbull, Cassie, cock my "9", no depth havin' ass, SAME THREE CHORD PLAYIN' "ARTISTS" on the radio?! It's really a shame that we don't support other genres in the same way, there's a bunch of extremely creative, soul-stirring music out there, but we aren't spoon fed that kind of stuff... in the Bay Area, you have to go lookin' for good, funky, Chicago-style house music, which is the real tragedy of living out here if you are a music head...or Black...or a HUMAN BEING. (Well, to be truthful, I like some of the crap played on the radio, but the saying goes: "everything in moderation" right? ;-) Better still, why not make XM Radio FREE FOR PEOPLE IN LOW INCOME HOUSEHOLDS?! just a thought.

WOOO HOOO!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR! (yeah I'm 15 days late... so what.)

The fireworks were wild, but that sh%t looked like Armageddon.


A few Roman Candles later & we were all pumped up & ready to see the real deal, so we headed upstairs to check out the sky show from the deck atop the gallery.










After having a few glasses of wine, we went outside to see a mini fireworks display in the street. Something about these photos really makes me think about the "Big Bang"... maybe it's how the bottom one looks like there's some kind of tear occuring in the space/time continuum... & the one above it is kinda like the beginning of the universe.




Hey wait a minute dammit! Is that George Carlin...?


Some New Year's Spirit for your a$$!



Visitors at the gallery checking out my work!



Artists from the opening of "New Works II"
Left to right: Jason Haubrich, Kailin Carlson, Me (The black guy wearing the glasses in case you couldn't figure it out on your own), Batya Ross & Ashley Munro.



My new line of greeting cards are currentltly on display/for sale at the gallery...


This New Year's celebration was a very special one for me, mainly because the party that I attended was held at Ore Projectz, the new art gallery in North Beach where I've had my work for the last month or so (850 Greenwhich Street, San Francisco). It was also a special night for me because it was my first New Year's as a 30 year old! I met some pretty amazing people that night, including Claudio, a photographer that used to work with some pretty famous models back in the day (He also cooks some mean lasagne & lentil soup), and Gary & Aline Brewer, both are amazing artists that were also showing at the gallery:

See Gary's work here: http://www.garybrewerart.com/

and Aline's work here http://www.alinemare.com )

It's pretty weird the way some New Year's parties come together at the last minute... would you believe I really didn't think that I'd have that much fun, and that I almost considered staying in the house?! Bananas.

ME...AND...MY...SHAAAAADOW...

Praise

Once again I found myself down in Union Square trying to bottle up some of the city's energy with my camera. The gentleman pictured here, barefoot and engaged in a brief moment of worship between himself and the Creator, became one of the highlights of my day due to the sheer intensity of the moment. QUESTION: Do the mentally ill maintain a special connection with God by virtue of not being ridiculously self conscious? I tend to lean towards the affirmative...

IRONY Pt. 2

I watched these cops hand out tickets to folk on New Year's Eve for having open containers !! They lined all of their bikes up along Columbus street in North Beach, and posted up in the same spot, picking people off one by one... That is until the same police officers managed to surround a young Latino guy who they suspected of physically assaulting a white woman in a nearby bar. While the woman stood off to the side with a black eye and a bloody lip, they grilled the man about the incident. Several people shouted obscenities at the cops urging the officers to leave the guy alone, but they just kept at it, shining their flashlights right into his face. The people also tried to tell the guy not to speak to the police without a lawyer. Approximately 45 minutes later, they let him go. Turns out the woman confessed to being very drunk and that her own sister/drinking buddy was to blame for the shiner that had developed around her eye. To "Protect & Serve" indeed...

One More Use for Your Cell Phone...

Peep the old school "Jersey Girl" rabbit fur hooker jacket.



Like big picture windows...



Enjoying the festivities



Learning Patty Cake





Thanksgiving at my mom's house is always something special... Excomunnicated siblings finally making their way back into the fold, long lost family friends suddenly turning up at the party & mingling with the multitude of cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces & nephews there to celebrate, the whole lot of 'em drowsy after devouring a turkey pumped full of Tryptophan... Screaming babies, children's dvds, and limbo contests are just a few of the things you can expect when you walk through the door to my mom's house, along with my mom's almost DAILY viewing of "The Color Purple" (no lie, she has watched that damn movie hundreds of times since it came out, effectively turning a 154 minute movie into a LIFETIME of "You told Harpo to BEAT ME!" aaarrgh!!!!... but I still sent her and my big sister to see the theatre production in '07 :-) The occasional loudmouth stripper or police batallion making their way to the annual dinner. Strippers?!, The Police?!!, WTF??? Yeah, one of my 30 some odd cousins is a pole dancer & this year she brought another one of her "stripper buddies" to eat. As for the police, somehow we have managed to have at least one cop car at the house consistently since 2003; fights, kidnappings, fires, disturbing the peace, you name it... they don't get to sit down and eat though.

IRONY Pt. 1

I found this woman screaming her head off and waving her arms around frantically in the middle of the street near Union Square. She weaved between cars and stumbled in my direction, blurting out that she was addicted to crack, the corners of her mouth white with spit. Shouting that she was tired of people mistaking her for Mick Jagger, she looked at me and began to pose for the camera, clutching a small living creature wrapped up in a couple of dirty sweaters close to her breast. "Just talk to me", she asked again and again, but when I stopped to chat her up, she quickly said, "You're sick!", and ran off.

Who Shot Ya?!