I just watched “Dark City” for the first time - the great 1998 movie from director Alex Proyas. I can’t believe I hadn’t come across it sooner – its absolutely brilliant (Ebert named it the best film of 1998) and it deals with some of my favorite subjects, including Dark ominous cities and dystopic societies. In fact I came across it while scanning a list of the “Top Dystopian Movies of All Time”

Here’s a good definition of a Dystopic society: Massive dehumanization, totalitarian government, rampant disease, post-apocalyptic terrains, cyber-genetic technologies, societal chaos and widespread urban violence are some of the common themes in dystopian films which bravely examine the ominous shadow cast by the future.

If you like my images, I think you’ll like Dark City… but then, you probably beat me to it.

I’ve always had pets: cats or dogs usually… and I’ve always loved them…

But this is the craziest cat I’ve ever had, Frankie. And I’m talking evil-crazy. One day I’m stirring from my sleep - I was in college at the time. I open one eye and see Frankie sitting 12 inches away on my bed, staring at me with that demented look he had. I start getting nervous, but I stick to the staring contest. Finally I blink and Frankie charges towards me, towards my eye, mouth open with his little fangs showing. And his teeth wrap around my eye socket!! In the alarm and chaos I grab him and fling him across the room where he runs away.

A few weeks later I have a party and one of my friends, Mike, takes a liking to Frankie. I explain that he’s cracked, but Mike doesn’t care. He even indicates he would take him home if I wanted. I give him my blessing, and so off Frankie went, to a new home, and to new people to terrorize.

I give you… Frankie:

I have an unhealthy obsession with nuclear war and its aftermath - this influence is clearly stamped on my work. I can’t help it… I’d rather not have this obsession (I watched Terminator 3 for the 4th time today), but the fact remains that I believe in my lifetime at least one major city somewhere on this planet will be destroyed in a nuclear battle – and I think its irresponsible and dishonest for me to smother this belief. I have felt this way for, I don’t know… 20, 30 years.

Part of the package is that I have bad dreams related to this. I had one recently that was unusual because of its humorous ending:

The foolish decision is made to launch a first strike. The nuclear codes are entered and an electrical current carrying the launch command is sent to the missiles. In my dream, I see this current leaving the pristine government office and running along street cables at night. The current, carrying this doomsday command, is now running along cables through desolate, abandoned city streets, still late at night. It reaches its destination: a boarded up building at a vacant street corner, and comes to a sputtering halt. The missiles can’t be launched because some go-between business, required to get the missiles up, has gone bankrupt under our faltering economy.

Strange and beautiful clouds near San Quentin penitentiary, last Friday

My blog is not a political forum - its not the appropriate place. But I met someone at the Mill Valley show who showed me the most incredible thing: his credit card.  He then sent me his story surrounding this card (see below)

            On 11/10/06 I was on my way up to the Mendocino Art Center, about 4 hours drive north of where I live near San Francisco, for a 4 day intensive jewelry and metalsmithing workshop. I stopped in Cloverdale to fill my gas tank and was told that my card had been declined. No big deal, I thought, their system must be down at this gas station. After all, I have had this credit card account for 10 years and used it nearly every day. I drove across the street to another gas station, and was surprised to be declined there as well. Hmm, curious, I thought. I walked around the corner and called my credit card company (Chase), and was told that my account had been cancelled and closed. Well, I asked the person on the other end, “why is that?”  I was told that they could not tell me, however if I just call this other number.    
I called collect from the payphone to the non 800 # and was greeted by a woman who asked me for my name. I was not asked my account # or anything else, just my name. After about 30 seconds she came back on and told me that my account had been cancelled and that Chase no longer wanted to do business with me because of an additional card I had asked for a few months previous, and had been using ever since they had sent it to me. The name on the card was Bush Sucks!            
I got a little surly and angry at the abruptness of Chase’s response, and pointed out that I did not do anything dishonest, nor avoid paying a debt. All I had done was ask for an additional card/authorized user to be added to my account, as all the printed literature for years had stated I could do. She informed me that the card had been issued in error and that they had made a mistake. I suggested that Chase just give me a new account # and cancel this one. No, she said again, we do not want to do business with you. Does Chase really have no responsibility in this matter; after all they issued the card and sent it to me?  I got back in my truck and was stewing for a few miles, until I started laughing at the absurdity of it all. I wondered a little about the timing, coming 3 days after the election which saw the Bush and republican regime given a large no confidence vote at the polls.            
I called the woman who answered the phone 3 hours earlier, Karen Trimmer, Vice President for Chase Investigations, apologizing for being angry and frustrated with her earlier, and again stating that they had issued the card and I wish to keep my account open as it was before they added Bush Sucks as an authorized user. She thanked me for the apology and asked me to call back on Monday. I called back a few times and got no return call, as well as another where I got her and she said she would call right back. So I called her back again a few hours later, and she reminded me that I was rude to her the first time I called her. Well yes, I was. I was standing at a pay phone, away from home, starting a 4 day trip, with little cash, a cancelled credit card, and no other immediate resources. Just how would you have felt and responded I asked her? I am still waiting for a call back from someone she said would call me, and of course, she is away for a week now.     
       
Luckily I had enough cash for gas home and minimal food for the long weekend until I got home. I spent the next 3 nights sleeping on the floor of the jewelry studio, and eating skimpily, while it rained outside.            
A signature is different from a name. A signature can be a mark, or even an X. A signature is just an acknowledgment of whatever agreement you happen to be making at the time. In another time and some places still, a handshake is a signature. I started signing my credit card receipts “Bush Sucks” about four years ago, before the last presidential election. I was not changing my name, nor was I trying to shirk a debt. I was and still am signing my signature, Bush Sucks, out of frustration with the state of America and the world.  Yes it is a little confrontational perhaps, and it is certainly an opening for a dialogue with people about empowerment and being able to act or make change. In the years I have been signing “Bush Sucks” the # of times I have been really hassled for it are only 3 or 4, out of many hundreds, across many states. Rather than go into the point that a signature is different than a name with an upset clerk (very likely with republican tendencies.) I decided to have the name on the card match my signature and called up to ask. I was actually surprised when it came.    
Every time I sign my signature I am asking myself, just what does “Bush Sucks” mean? Does it mean that most people and I feel much less secure or hopeful about the future, than we did before 9/11? Does it mean that we feel like there is a national leadership which values freedom and independence, and community? Does it mean that we are getting any closer to healthcare or real education? Does it mean that we as a nation or a people are working toward any kind of goal besides self serving or $ profit?  Does it mean that the great uniterer is dividing us? I wonder     One of the places I was hassled the most was at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, when I paid for a yearlong national parks pass with my credit card, at the ranger’s kiosk entrance gate. I went round and around with the poor ranger woman after she decided to not accept my signature, and made me sign my pass a second time as Sierra Salin, which I did, and she then told me that my signature was not matching my license, which also shows Bush Sucks on the signature line, so I tried a 3rd time, making a total mess of the golden eagle pass. I informed her again that Bush Sucks has been my signature for 4 years and I barely know how to sign otherwise. My wife and children were hoping that our next stop was not the Petrified Jail for homeland security. A signature is not a name; it is an expression of personality and experiences. A person’s signature changes and grows with them. I signed my escrow papers “Bush Sucks” when we bought our home, and yes, I did resign them with my “other” signature as well when asked to, not because Bush Sucks is not a legal and legitimate signature, but because it would have likely added another day or more to the closing.    
Yes, I wanted a card where the name matched the signature. No big deal, and perhaps a little less hassle with some narrow minded bureaucrats along the way. In my life I see so many people resigned to “that is just the way it is” and “there is nothing you can do about it”, and “let someone else take care of it” “too much trouble”. I believe that the world is only the way it is because we allow it to continue as it is. I believe that healthcare and real education should be funded at the top of the list, and that a nation which runs on the premise “all that maters is $ profit” at the expense of sustainability, fairness, and trust, is heading for disaster.    
Yes, Bush Sucks. And Bush is us, we are all Bush. . We are all on this little blue ball together, spinning round and round and round. I ask just what are we working and striving for as a nation or as humanity? Why not expect and demand better from our elected folks, and from ourselves? I hope for my next card and signature to read, Love Heals.      

Today I head for Mill Valley, just north of San Francisco for the MV art festival. Its a real treat doing a show close to home…

I bought a new auto digital camera, the Kodak Z1012 - something small that I can take with me everywhere (except the alleys of course, which are reserved for my Hasselblad and Kodak film). It will replace the piece of crap I’d been using. It’s the same size, but is infinitely better, and costs less than my old one HP camera - purchased 6 years ago. It has a Schneider lens (that’s a very good thing), a 10MP chip, a 12X optical zoom, fast response time, and manual over ride .. all good… yay!

But my HP has travelled a lot with me… Here are some shots I took at sunrise in the Central Valley last week.

I’m in the middle of another good brain worm… I’ve played the late Elliot Smith’s “Pretty (Ugly Before)” a hundred times this week.

Another brief break between shows…

In San Diego I stayed with an old friend, Nancy and her family. Her younger sister Ingrid Bouchard is my oldest friend. We met in Kindergarten and became close friends at age 10, remaining close friends ever since. She lives in Montreal, where she’s happily married with kids. In our teens and twenties, we had our share of adventures… among other things, she’s one of the many friends I would drag into alleys at night, just to look at them and experience their raw energy. She never once found this odd.

Speaking of energy… Here are some of the many hundreds (thousands??) of wind turbines you see driving through California’s Central Valley. I shot these this morning.

I went shooting last night in San Diego. I found a couple of old abandoned industrial buildings intersecting in a dusty alley. A delightfully haunting scene. The light was only a little interesting, so I had to light most of the scene myself. All went without incident, which was good because I was shooting alone.

In October, I plan to start going through the mountain of negative I shot this year. There are many many good shots in there, requiring a mountain of time to sort through and work on.

This is a very beautiful city… almost too much so. I went looking for a little urban decay today but couldn’t find much. I did find an area that I’ll be exploring further tomorrow night. A detective with the San Diego Police Dept, who I met last year and is a fan of my work, had agreed last week to come along as my bodyguard - what could be better? Better would be an armed cop when I’m shooting in downtown Detroit at 2am. However I haven’t been able to reach him… hopefully we’ll get in touch tomorrow before I go shooting, otherwise I’ll be looking over my shoulder all night.

Here’s another shot from my flight last week. If only we could fly…

I just got these… 

Opening reception for “Four Views”- a group show at LH Horton Jr Gallery, running August 21 - September 18