.
Computer illustration of the destruction of a human cell: photo by Kateryna Kon/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF, 12 August 2018
Stockholm, Sweden, 2005: photo by Lasse Persson, sometime in 2005
TB_141A_30 [Manila]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 21 March 2013
TB_6546_02 [captured US pilot, Vietnam]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 20 March 2013
TB_11004_07 [Vietnam 1972]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 19 March 2013
TB_11004_07 [Vietnam 1972]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 19 March 2013
TB_882_23 [China 2009]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 10 April 2013
TB_315_27 [Indonesia]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 18 March 2013
TB_10937_77-78 [Vietnam 1972]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 19 March 2013
TB_11A_01 [China 2009]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 26 November 2013
TB_316_07A [Indonesia]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 18 March 2013
TB_6405_11 [captured US pilot, Vietnam]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 19 March 2013
Södertälje, Sweden, 1995: photo by Lasse Persson, sometime in 1995
TB_10929_06 [Vietnam 1972]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 19 March 2013
TB_0001 [Mozambique]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 18 March 2013
TB_10950_38-39 [Vietnam 1972]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 19 March 2013
TB_882_20 [China 2009]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 10 April 2013
TB_747_08 [Jakarta]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 22 March 2013
TB_341_28A [Indonesia]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 18 March 2013
TB_10927_08 [Vietnam 1972]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 19 March 2013
TB_108_23 [Manila]: photo by Thomas Billhardt, 21 March 2013
Friedrichstadt, Germany, 1999: photo by Lasse Persson, sometime in 1999
Chittagong-18: photo by nayeem siddiquee, 6 August 2018
Chittagong-18: photo by nayeem siddiquee, 6 August 2018
Chittagong-18: photo by nayeem siddiquee, 6 August 2018
burial ceremony
#China Fresh fears over fate of Macau's abandoned greyhounds Photo @AntAFP #afp: image via
Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP,
11 August 2018
#Indonesia People bury an earthquake victim during a burial ceremony at Tanjung, in northern Lombok Photo @sonny_bali #AFP: image via
Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP,
11 August 2018
#Indian Occupied Kashmir A Kashmiri fisherman rows a boat after a rainfall in Kashmir Photo TauseefMUSTAFA #AFP: image via
Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 9 2018
India An Indian woman sits inside her house immersed in flood waters in Ernakulam district of Kochi, Photo @AFPphoto #AFP: image via
Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP,
11 August 2018
#India An Indian Muslim woman prays at the Shah-E-Alam Dargah (Shrine) in Ahmedabad Photo
Sam Panthaky #AFP: image via
Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP,
11 August 2018
\#Philippines A resident using a candle inspects their mud-filled belongings, after flash flood brought about by heavy downpour due to exiting Tropical storm #YAGI submerged their homes in Marikina City Photo Ted Aljibe #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
\#Philippines A resident using a candle inspects their mud-filled belongings, after flash flood brought about by heavy downpour due to exiting Tropical storm #YAGI submerged their homes in Marikina City Photo Ted Aljibe #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
#Bangladesh A young Rohingya refugee girl washes her school bag at the Kutupalong camp in Ukhia near Cox's Bazar Photo @Chandanphoto #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
#Bangladesh A man sells candy floss at the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp near Cox'sBazar Photo @edwardesjones #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
#Bangladesh: A Rohingya refugee stands in the Hakinpara refugee camp near Cox's Bazar Photo @edwardesjones #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
#Bangladesh A Rohingya refugee girl looks on as he she stands on an iron bracket outside her tent in Kutupalong camp in Ukhia near Cox's Bazar Photo @Chandanphoto #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
#Bangladesh A Rohingya refugee child blows up a balloon at the Thangkhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar Photo @edwardesjones
A child hanging on the back of a van holds an electoral leaflet of Mali's incumbent president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, ahead of the runoff vote in Mali's presidential election on August 12. Photo @cattani_michele #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
#Mali Mali in presidential runoff overshadowed by security crisis. Photo @IssoufSanogo6_michele #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 August 2018
#Venezuela An opposition activist takes part in a rally in Caracas, in support of opposition Venezuelan lawmaker Juan Requesens, who was seized by intelligence officers at his home this week. Photo @federicoparra #AFP : image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 August 2018
#Philippines Rickshaw driver carrying passengers manoeuvers on a street flooded due to a heavy downpour brought about by tropical storm Yagi in Manila Photo @herime23 #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 August 2018
#Greece A man drinks ouzo at a traditional tavern near the village of Skala Sykamineas on the northeastern island of Lesbos Photo @ArisMessinis #AFP : image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 August 2018
#Haiti A long exposure photograph shows lightning strikes during an electrical storm in Port-au-Prince Photo @hectorretamal #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
#SYRIA - A member of White Helmets puts out a fire following Syrian government forces air strikes in the rebel town of Orum al-Kubra Photo Aaref Watad #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 August 2018
@realDonaldTrump listens to Italian Prime Minister @GiuseppeConteIT speak during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Monday, July 30, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) @AP Images: image via Andrew Harnik @andyharnik, 30 July 2018
@realDonaldTrump at his golf course resort in Bedminster, NJ.: image via Tom Brenner @tombrennerphoto, 10 August 2018
illusionary lives
pendiente olvido | no alcanzo [Caracas]: photo by Anthony Salazar, sometime in 2014
interna identidad | permanece, Charallave [Charallave, Miranda, Venezuela]: photo by Anthony Salazar, sometime in 2013
Y con la gloria la eternidad | espacio, Charallave: photo by Anthony Salazar, sometime in 2014
estratos [Caracas]: photo by Anthony Salazar, sometime in 2015
2016 Caracas: photo by Anthony Salazar, sometime in 2016
2016 Caracas: photo by Anthony Salazar, sometime in 2016
Chimalhuacán, EDOMEX 2018... [Los Olivos, Chimalhuacan, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 7 August 2018
Chimalhuacán, EDOMEX 2018... [Los Olivos, Chimalhuacan, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 7 August 2018
Chimalhuacán, EDOMEX 2018... [Los Olivos, Chimalhuacan, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 7 August 2018
Tepetlaoxcoc, EDOMEX 2013... [Barrio El Calvario, Tepetlaoxcoc de Hidalgo, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 31 January 2013
Tepetlaoxcoc, EDOMEX 2013... [Barrio El Calvario, Tepetlaoxcoc de Hidalgo, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 31 January 2013
Tepetlaoxcoc, EDOMEX 2013... [Barrio El Calvario, Tepetlaoxcoc de Hidalgo, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 31 January 2013
CDMX 2018... [Centro, Distrito Federal, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 4 August 2018
CDMX 2018... [Centro, Distrito Federal, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 4 August 2018
CDMX 2018... [Centro, Distrito Federal, Mexico]: photo by Fermin Guzman, 4 August 2018
Untitled: photo by J Ward, 15 March 2018
Untitled [LA]: photo by J Ward, 28 July 2018
Commenter: The one in the middle is saying something...
J Ward: I believe he was saying "What are you lookin at, asshole?" His point was well taken.
Untitled [LA]: photo by J Ward, 28 July 2018
Untitled [LA]: photo by J Ward, 28 July 2018
Untitled [Trinidad, Cuba]: photo by Gustavo Minas, 12 January 2018
Untitled [Trinidad, Cuba]: photo by Gustavo Minas, 12 January 2018
Untitled [Trinidad, Cuba]: photo by Gustavo Minas, 12 January 2018
What Is It, Shadows or Smoke? Smoke on Shadows? Makeup on Gloria Mundi: The Swansong? Barbaric Theophany? The Mascara of a Dying God?
Replying to @AgentEleni: image via Bart Denny @bartdenny, 11 August 2018
Replying to @berkeleyside: image via Eleni Sotos @AgentEleni, 11 August 2018
off MLK Replying to @berkeleyside: image via benjamin shaykin @bshaykin, 11 August 2018
from Sausalito Replying to @MargaretJow @berkeleyside @JEREMYLAND: image via Stephanie Willerton @stephwillerton, 11 August 2018
Point Isabel Replying to @berkeleyside: image via LiberalHedonist @urmimukherjea, 11 August 2018
i saw the same cloud in el cerrito! Replying to @berkeleyside @JEREMYLAND: image via Margaret Jow @MargaretJow, 11 August 2018
Replying to @JEREMYLAND: image via Olivia Anne Sinclair @olivianne, 11 August 2018
Richmond Replying to @berkeleyside: image via Jeremy Land @JEREMYLAND, 10 August 2018
Replying to @annarunkle: image via Kester Allen @kesterallen, 10 August 2018
“eye lashes on sunshine” via Heidi Sachs. (thx !): image via berkeleyside @berkeleyside, 10 August 2018
Replying to @berkeleyside Yes! Spectacular!: image via Megan Graziano McDevitt @MegGrazMcDevitt, 10 August 2018
Spectacular sunset tonight. Share yours here #Berkeley: image via berkeleyside @berkeleyside, 10 August 2018
Replying to @berkeleyside Yes! Spectacular!: image via Megan Graziano McDevitt @MegGrazMcDevitt, 10 August 2018
Spectacular sunset tonight. Share yours here #Berkeley: image via berkeleyside @berkeleyside, 10 August 2018
San Francisco Bay as seen from The Lawrence Hall of Science: image via Bay Viewer @SFBayViewer, 10 August 2018
Shadows on smoke? What is it? @berkeleyside: image via Anna Runkle @annarunkle, 10 August 2018
backfire
In the Altiplano, Bolivia, 1964: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 26 July 2006
Return from Necropolis, Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 February 2005
Macchu Picchu, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 26 July 2006
La Paz, Bolivia, 1994: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 26 July 2006
Otavalo women, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 12 February 2005
Peasants, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 12 February 2005
Shanty, Quito, Ecuador, 1975: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 February 2005
Old Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 February 2005
Even the dead, Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 21 February 2005
Young gravekeepers, Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 21 February 2005
Otavalo women, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 12 February 2005
Peasants, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 12 February 2005
Shanty, Quito, Ecuador, 1975: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 February 2005
Old Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 February 2005
Even the dead, Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 21 February 2005
Young gravekeepers, Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 21 February 2005
Return from Necropolis, Quito, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 February 2005
Macchu Picchu, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 26 July 2006
Macchu Picchu, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 28 July 2006
Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1964: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 16 August 2004
Sunday Morning in La Paz, Bolivia: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 6 September 2014
Terrorist Suspect In Lima Jail, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 29 August 2014
Terrorist Suspect In Lima Jail, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 29 August 2014
Apra Headquarters, Lima, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 March 2005
Orphanage, Lima, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 March 2005
Poto Pelado, Ecuador: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 21 February 2005
Light Drawing in Lima Cemetery | Someone broke the glass and stole the flowers but the sun engraved it: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 14 March 2005
Mad in Lima, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 March 2005
Carnival, La Paz, Bolivia: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 30 January 2005
Carnival, La Paz, Bolivia: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 31 January 2005
Carnival, La Paz, Bolivia: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 30 January 2005
Carnival, La Paz, Bolivia: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 31 January 2005
Carnival, Oruru, Bolivia: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 30 January 2005
Cuzco, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 26 July 2006
The Old Leftist, Lima, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 13 March 2005
Dance of death, Villa El Salvador, Lima, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 31 January 2005
What Is It, Shadows or Smoke? Barbaric Theophany?
The president made his first public comments on the Omarosa Manigault book at a photo-op with the group Bikers for Trump.: photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP, 11 August 2018
Bikers for Trump at Bedminster earlier today. Thank you!: image via Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump, 11 August 2018
Bikers for Trump at Bedminster earlier today. Thank you!: image via Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump, 11 August 2018
Bikers for Trump at Bedminster earlier today. Thank you!: image via Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump, 11 August 2018
Bikers for Trump at Bedminster earlier today. Thank you!: image via Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump, 11 August 2018
Latest WH Pix of Week newsletter mostly a photo dump, pix going back months w lot of military scenes. Dinner for corporate execs at Trump Bedminster Club on Tuesday was telling though--like a PR shot the way it highlights the grounds. An #emoluments special. Photo Shealah Craighead: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 10 August 2018
What Is It, Shadows or Smoke? Barbaric Theophany?
Prez Bonespur mugging and smooching for the cameras with his rolling tundra
gas-'n-noise-thug posse
gas-'n-noise-thug posse
backfire O backfire is the weekend threnody that inveigles
its explosive Dimfowars way through the thickly carbon coated trees
on the Ave all the way up the landfill hillside to my cowering aerie
where as the shades of evening come down, the battle lines are drawn
just shy of the encroaching eerie ribbed sundown human cells begin to die
each one no matter when where or in whom in exactly the same way
each one no matter when where or in whom in exactly the same way
or is it just the smoke the smoke as the forests
burn all's enclosed in this now so obscenely spectacular panoramic twilight
view of the ruins
la naranja de los muertos cloud makeup on empty space vain theatrical gloria
swansong del mundo
within minutes
swansong del mundo
within minutes
of administration the general dispersal begins
slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills
Th'Emp remains Th'Emp remains and kills off towards Moab
the soul desert widens yet becomes e'en shallower
as if by a wicked empire gofundme magic its shimmering baked crust radiates gold
and cancer Aye
salt flats and test range unexploded ordnance picnic area
a man saw a cowskull blown to smithereens
by another human bean yclept Clint Aye, it was a true actual cowskull
as if by a wicked empire gofundme magic its shimmering baked crust radiates gold
and cancer Aye
salt flats and test range unexploded ordnance picnic area
a man saw a cowskull blown to smithereens
by another human bean yclept Clint Aye, it was a true actual cowskull
temps dropt 40 degrees in last hour Vegas
it's Vegas baby
Bloodier than blood
A man saw a ball of gold hanging fat and swollen in the bloodred sky above Mechanics Bank
beyond lay the hesperides bits of el cerrito and sausalito engorged with candy apples and instant treasure
to which thanks to Providence the spoils were always going to be due the stumbler upon
exploiter of
layer of claim and systematic destroyer of all his finder's fee trove in
eternity
and perpetuity Mr You Know Who
What's in a name
a decal a thin skin a slippery top
Aye, it was a ball of gold
A shot in the arm
"One mine capitalist in Potosi
seeing the hillside ablaze
with portable wind-furnaces, and the Indian
indentured laborers emerging
from the freezing pits, thought the silver
es más sangre
que metal
(is more blood
than metal)"
- James Buchan
In Peru, the Spaniards under Baldivia "compelled Atahualpa to fill a room with two million pesos of gold and then garroted him."
All up and down the Cordillera that is the stoic suffering proud spine of the continent so many puncture wounds. The Europeans came by way of the long problematic challenging preparatory camp of the Plains to extract, torture, plunder, build the 110 and the 880, and burn down the forests, a way of getting even with nature by roasting the heart on a stake made all of gold.
The Indians then taught Baldivia to be more cautious in his desires. They captured him, melted two pounds of gold and poured it down his throat.
All up and down the Cordillera that is the stoic suffering proud spine of the continent so many puncture wounds. The Europeans came by way of the long problematic challenging preparatory camp of the Plains to extract, torture, plunder, build the 110 and the 880, and burn down the forests, a way of getting even with nature by roasting the heart on a stake made all of gold.
The Indians then taught Baldivia to be more cautious in his desires. They captured him, melted two pounds of gold and poured it down his throat.
As the shadows of evening come down, or is it smoke, or smoke on shadow?
Castro-Castro is a jail in the outskirts of Lima where some high security (Sendero Luminoso, MRTA) prisoners were held. - MM, 2005
Warden, Lima, Peru: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 14 March 2005
Los Cabitos jail, Ayacucho 91: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 14 March 2005
Prisoner, Lima, Peru 92: photo by Marcelo Montecino, 14 March 2005
Wilco: Shot in the Arm (live KEXP Seattle 2015)
ReplyDelete"...more blood than metal..."
ReplyDeleteGold poured down the throat while some dead eyed conquistador flicks through the pages of Ovid.
Didn't Ed Dorn translate a number of Mayan texts and testimonies?
Duncan,
ReplyDeleteHaving no Spanish nor any way back into the literatures and visual languages of the prior inhabitants of the Americas without intelligent assistance, Ed was fortunate to find a willing and able guide in the British scholar Gordon Brotherston, a mutual friend who was our colleague at Essex; with Gordon's essential help, a number of Mesoamerican and Native American texts were English'd. Hieroglyphic picture languages having fascinated Ed's teacher Charley O, likewise himself devoid of necessary skills in the field, this was by the 1960s proving a fruitful area of pursuit for anyone who had taken seriously the work of everybody's Master Ez P who spent a lifetime in tireless search of a visual language transferable to the page; an impatience with the blind tunnels of the "western" way of the Logos (or anyway its historical misuse as doctrinal authority) was the common impetus in all these efforts. What they had in common was a dim or maybe sometimes clearer inkling of the historical truth, that the Europeans who had come to and conquered the "New World" - new and promising of course, to them, as any wondrously abundant new place was always going to be, to the Colonial Mind. How to advantageously short circuit that Mind while also retaining privileged access and ultimately dominant entitlement to the entire hemisphere, continually extracting and exploiting its great natural wealth and resources and subjugating as convenient cheap labour and finally killing off those of the native peoples who got in the way of the project - obviously that grandly ambitious clean-up operation, riddled with contradiction and aporia as it is, goes on down to this day. However one does fear it is only disingenuous at best, patronizing at worst to pretend a belated concern for what has been so purposefully destroyed over such a long period in a such a callous, disrespectful, wasteful and cruel fashion.
This patch of the hemisphere we're on now is going up in smoke, all the best of it wafting down as polluting particulate, and I reckon no Ohlone native with a very long memory would know what to make of it. The Redding fire which killed ten and decimated a forest was sparked by something so little-big as a trailer hitch dragging on hot asphalt ("our way of life"). Pouring molten gold down the throats of the cutthroat commuters ramming their poisonous shitmobiles up and down the freeway feeder in quest of goods or money or fun or combinations of the above, at this moment, sounds a fine idea "in theory" - but in actual practise, battling the insane windmill-whirly traffic defensively (quixotically!) with my medicare-dispensed cane, far less effective, if less costly.
And you know the pavements would soon enough be cluttered with opportunistic techies who arrived here last week, scraping up the precious metal residue with a Mind to Doing a Deal.
Don't know if the news has escaped these shores, but didjew know that Herr Drumpf, upon swearing in as Boss of Murica, requested that the Book upon which he be sworn be not the Bible but...
The Art of the Deal.
Then, it was still possible to say No to him.
Terrific freakin poem! Vietnam pix are stunning.
ReplyDeleteDear Unknown,
ReplyDeleteThanks very much.
Unknown? Yeah, that's me, ole John G on steamy East 12th. Your poem yesterday, and comments, and today's work... They're why I rarely miss a day for some TC earthmanship. I love it. Roll 'em!
ReplyDeleteTrying to get into this box to feedback on your outta the box.
Hail JG, and Salute!
ReplyDeleteHonourd and blest by yr visitation!
Glad you dug the Billhardt vietnam pix. The war seen from the "other side" - the side where it was actually happening. Extremely interesting, as mirror turned backward. TB was as wd now be sd "embedded" - privileged/protected access, as official photographer of DDR. They are very smart propaganda shots; what he was brought there to do.
We can still learn from the masters.
What is the relation of art to ideology to truth?