April 2007 Archives

No, I am not turning into a hippy or reading palms. The stars I am talking about are the 'stars' in the movie, Hackers. If you are not familiar with the film, it came out in 1995. The plot summary sounds a little like this, "A young boy is arrested by the US Secret Service for writing a computer virus and is banned from using a computer until his 18th birthday"

The reason I bring this movie up in the post is that I received a Myspace message today that told me I am mentioned in this movie. The message said, "There is a scene in it where the main character is in class and a substitute teacher comes in off screen, you can hear his voice but you can see him. As he comes in he states-

"Hello class, my name is Mr. Simpson; I will be subbing for Mr. Bayless who was recently arrested at an Anti-fur rally."

I thought this was funny so thanks to Youtube I have found this clip - here it is let it load and then go to time code 3:30 - and as you watch the two skeletons on the computer screen and listen to the audio as the teacher walks in.

Ok, now why would that say this about me?

I have lived in Norfolk, Virginia for roughly six years. There are things in this city that I do not know about; my lack of knowledge is because I am on the road all the time. Today I experienced something that has been going for several years and I had no idea, it called the Doo Dah Parade. Ok I have no idea what this parade is or why they have it. According to their website the Doo Dah Parade,

Doo Dah Parade returns to Main Street at 12:30 P.M. on Friday, April 27th.

It's Lunacy on Parade as residents, business professionals, and organization members round up friends, family and co-workers to form silly, wacky, synchronized, unbelievably zany units, brigades and drill teams to participate in the craziest parade to ever hit Hampton Roads!

It's a chance for everyone to tap into their own spirit of April Foolishness. Who says we only get one day for our shenanigans? Don't miss out on this decade long tradition of controlled chaos. (we use the word "controlled" loosely)

Willing to try something new me and a bunch of guys that I work with decided, well- I will let the photos tell the story.........

(sorry guys, I am taken)

I have spent the last couple of days in wonderful Charleston, West Virginia. I like this town because the people who live here are so nice. It is so different from the typical fast-paced feeling of a bigger city. Along with some of the most laid-back people you will ever meet, you will also experience some of the strangest and funniest moments that will make you say to yourself, "WTF?"

I came to Charleston because Ringling Bros. circus was in town. No, I wasn't going to the show, I was here to document the elephants and how poorly they are treated. My fellow co-worker, RaeLeann, and I found out where the Ringling train was going to stop and unload the elephants for the walk to the Convention Center. We did not have an exact time when the train was going to arrive so we parked near the location to monitor the tracks and wait, and wait, and wait. Anyway, long story short, I went to the restroom at the local farmers market and as I went to wash my hands, this older man met me. As we said "hello" to each other, he began to take off his pants. Yes, he was taking off his pants next to me as I was washing my hands. As his pants hit the floor and he stood their in a pair of very dirty boxer shorts, he says to me, "it's pretty crazy what happened at that school" - I replied, "yes, it is very sad and horrible," the whole time thinking 'what you are doing right now is pretty crazy.'

Speaking of crazy, we all know that Ringling beats their elephants with a heavy stick that has very sharp points at the end called bullhooks. This is nothing new but we now hear from activists in California, who are working on the The Elephant Protection Act, AB 777 which will make the use of bullhooks illegal, that Ringling is claiming in the Californian legislature that their weapons of torture don't have hooks on the end. I guess they think the general public is not very intelligent. To see what big liars this would make them, check out the video footage I filmed just this week and let me know what you think. Does Ringling use sharp-tipped bullhooks or not?

On a lighter note, I met two of the most wonderful people ever. Archele Hundley and Garrison Christianson, they are two ex-Ringling employees who witnessed Ringling animal trainers beat elephants on a daily basis. In fact, they witnessed a Ringling animal trainer beat an elephant with a bullhook for nearly forty-five minutes, swinging the bullhook like a baseball bat. After witnessing this bloody beating and other abuses, they complained and reported these abuses to Ringling management. They were ignored by Ringling management and told; if you do not like it leave. Archele did just that, left Ringling and came straight to PETA to report this abuse.

Since both of these two wonderful people happen to be residents of Charleston we wanted to let everyone know of their stories. Cue Ringling Bros. opening night and an awesome PETA protest. Archele and Garrison were awesome, it was their first protest ever and they were both rock stars. We reached a ton of people, some even turned around and left after hearing how Ringling abuses the animals in their 'care' - Two TV news channels came out to cover the demo. It was an awesome week in Charleston, West Virginia.

This may have only been a couple of days in one town but hear me now; Ringling, I am coming after you.

• Stay tuned for more updates and don't forget to visit Circuses.com

Jailbird son bit in plotting Easter mom hit

BY SCOTT SHIFREL DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, April 11th 2007, 4:00 AM

Joseph Salvio

He spent Lent at Rikers, then reserved a spot in hell when he hired a hit man on Good Friday to murder his mom on Easter, prosecutors said yesterday.

Joseph Salvio, 30, of Astoria, Queens, was taped offering an undercover officer three of his mother's fur coats - a mink, a fox and a raccoon worth $10,000 - to kill her, prosecutors said.

"The defendant, in hiring a hit man to kill his own mother for his personal greed, violated almost every ethical and moral code of our society," Assistant District Attorney Jason Garelick said.

Salvio, a mechanic with a drug record and a history of conflict with his 54-year-old mom, Susan Allogramento, allegedly wanted to inherit her upstate home, Queens condo and proceeds from a life insurance policy, said NYPD Sgt. Robert Delaney.

Salvio was busted in January for crack cocaine and got four months in jail. There, he allegedly told another inmate he wanted to hire a hit man, Delaney said.

That led to a meeting with an undercover cop posing as a killer on Friday, three days before Salvio's release, prosecutors said. Salvio had planned to use jail as an "airtight alibi" for himself, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Salvio gave the undercover his mom's address and phone number - and the idea the murder was to look like it occurred during a robbery, court documents show.

"'If the [mother's] boyfriend is there, throw him a beating but don't kill him,'" Salvio told the undercover, Delaney said.

"Leave me alone. I'm upset enough," Allogramento said yesterday.

Salvio's lawyer, Georgia Rattray-Gray, said her client has a history of mental problems.

The wispy 5-foot-8, 120-pound Salvio was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court yesterday. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison for conspiracy to commit murder and was held without bail.

sshifrel@nydailynews.com

With Christina Boyle and Michael White

Found at http://www.nydailynews.com/

Some of you already know that I travel all the time. Therefore, when I am on the road I always have 'road trip' projects. My project for the last couple of years was to do mall photos. My goal is to have at least one mall photo from every state/province in North America. It did not matter if the photo was with Santa, the Easter Bunny, or from a baby portrait studio or Glamour shots - I would just grab a group of friends and drag them to the mall with me. If you have checked out my Myspace profile then you have seen that I have posted some of the mall photos there. (I have not found the time to scan them all in and post every one of them - but I am going to do it, one day.) If you have not seen a sample of my mall photos - the Myspace link is in the column to your right.

Since I am on the road all the time, I get the chance to hang out with people some would consider famous. People like Chuck D, Alicia Silverstone, etc but anytime people ask me about my travels I end up telling them about stories of the people I have met on my travels. No, the not stories of the 'famous' people I met and hung out with but the best stories of random people that I meet, at a bar, at a truck stop getting gas, at the hotel, and everywhere in between.

This gave me an idea for a new road trip project. I am going to start taking photos with the people I meet and post them here from every state, city, town that I travel. Some photos will have stories others will be of just the people. I do not know how this will play out but I am sure it will be great.

As soon as I have my travel plans set up I will post them on this blog so if you want to meet up and hang out or just want to have your photo posted - let me know and we will make this the best road trip project ever!

If I have already met you on the road and you have photos of us, please send them to me and we will start this project with a blast from the past.

We will kick it off with this photo of David and me. (I am the one in the black hoodie)

PS - thanks to everyone who has sent me a message since I have started this blog. - Its only been a couple weeks since I started this but all your comments/messages have been great. I am happy you are enjoying reading this blog. I hope that this road trip project will give a little back to this wonderful community we are building here.

PSS - A HUGE thanks to Jennifer for making me this awesome light switch for my horror theater.

This is from eKantipur.com Nepal's No.1 News Portal

Bizarre baby born in Dolakha

By Rajendra Manandhar

FOX News

Ok, I admit it I watch Fox News. I watch Bill O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes, and the rest. I like it - I think it is the funniest thing on cable TV. Seriously, where else are you going to get to see people on the News say the most outrageous things? Where else are you going to get 'News' that is fair and balanced in such a way that 'fair' means crazy and 'balanced' means the scales are broken. Fox News seems to be a cross between George Orwell's '1984' and a sitcom.

I like Fox News because I can get the a rough idea of the news and a good laugh all at the same time, similar to why people watch the Daily Show and The Colbert Report. - I guess the only difference is that most people do not turn in to watch Fox News for a laugh. - I like to find humor in the strangest places.

I am not one of the people who think that if you watch Fox News you are some crazy right wing, god-fearing, gay hating, racist, scum of the earth. I do understand there are people out in this world who take everything said on Fox News to heart and believe it to be truth and nothing but the truth but I feel, well, I hope, that those types of people are a fringe group and don't pose a real threat to our freedoms and well-being.

I hope that the people who do watch Fox News and not just for laughs understand there is an obvious spin on the way they report 'news.' I know I am not saying anything new or breaking new ground by saying Fox News has a Republican bias or a "rightwing outlet".

Is there anything wrong with Fox News having a rightwing/republican bias? No, I do not think so - if it is viewed as that more power to them - Every network has some kind of agenda or bias and it should be left up to the viewers to research and decide if that is the message, you want to support, reject or laugh at. The question we should be asking ourselves when is it too much or when do networks go too far in pushing their views? Is there a point when you should not consider it real news?

For example, Fox News hired Joseph A. Cafasso for four months as a Military and Counterterrorism Editor, had bogus military credentials. Cafasso claimed to have been a retired lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces, a veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star, and a participant in Operation Eagle Claw. However, his official military record indicated that he served only 44 days in the U.S. Army from May to June 1976, being honorably discharged at the rank of private first class. I am only going to list this one example because I do not want to write about the good and bad of Fox News, so if you want more of the story 'Google' it.

What I want to talk about is a new Youtube video that I stumbled across, the video sent me to the website, www.foxattacks.com.

Here is the video,

Ok, I know I said I watch Fox News because it makes me laugh but some of the comments that are in this video clip are not funny.

So it goes back to my question, when does it not become 'news' and when does it become something hurtful and painful?

That is my question to you, the readers of this blog - I am not going to go off on a rant, but I want to know what you think and open this up to a dialogue.

Here are all the links of both sides - do a little research and let me know your thoughts in the comment area.

Fox News Fox Attacks

I spent the last month and a half in NYC with the hopes of being able to film and create some of the ideas I have had for a while. The reality was that I was excessively busy and was not able to get some solid film time. Outside of not being able to film as much as I hoped, the trip was awesome. I met some amazing people and got to hang out with an old friend.

When I say old friend I do not mean a friend I have not seen in a couple of years. I am talking about a friend I have not seen or talked with in over 12-13 years. This friend, his name is Gray Matter. He was my travel buddy. We were the two who were always looking for something to do and of course, good times and trouble would follow. We both lived in Texas at the time and if we could think of it, we would do it. Seriously, let me tell you some of the things.

I remember we both had this crazy desire to climb buildings - no, I am not talking about taking the stairs to the top or climbing the fire escape. Apparently, we thought we were spiderm(e)n. We would climb up drainpipes, window ledges, anything we could grab and pull ourselves up until we got to the top. We set off many alarms in our day and caused some sparks. Gray Matter and I made our way to Hollywood, Ca - I will go more into that trip later in this blog - and our desire to climb things almost got us killed and arrested. One night, we were hanging out with the local squatter punks in an alley behind Hotel Roosevelt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HollywoodRooseveltHotel) - when one of us looked up and saw how tall this building was - it seems both of us knew what we had to do without saying a word. Next to the fire escape was a pipe that ran from the ground all the way up to the roof. With no hesitation, Gray and I starting making our way up that pipe. With both hands on the pipe and our feet on the wall, we walked ourselves up. We were laughing and having a good time until we reached, if I can remember correctly, the 5th or 6th floor and out of nowhere - well, out of the pipe we were climbing - came these HUGE sparks and this loud pop. We both freaked out and continued to laugh. I said to Gray, we could jump onto the fire escape and climb down. Once we started making our way down the fire escape, he told me that he felt the heat from the sparks on his hands, as he was checking them to make sure he was not burned. The next day, we were walking around trying to find something to do when we came around the corner and saw these old tires lying around this old gas station. What made those tires so special was that they were under one of those huge billboards; you know the kind you see on the side of the highway - the ones that are very tall. As we looked at the tires, we noticed that if we stood on those tires we would be able to reach the ladder that would take us all the way to the top of the sign. So guess what we did. We made our way to the top. We hung out there for a while checking out the world below. We were bored and climbed down - as we made our way down the ladder, we heard, in the distance, an army of cop car sirens. We did not think anything of it until we got to the bottom of the ladder and jumped off because as soon as we turned the corner we saw all of these cop cars speeding into the old gas station. So we ran into the nearest fast food restaurant. All the cops jumped out of their car and started searching the area for us. Therefore, the moral of this story is if you are going to climb billboards -do it fast, because the cops will be there shortly.

The reason Gray and I went to California was to attend 'Chaos Days' - Side note -What is Chaos Days?: Chaos Days (German: Chaostage) was a punk annual manifestation, held in Hanover starting in 1982 and reviving in the mid-1990s. The Chaos-Tage ("chaos days"), were a West German punk scene phenomenon, which began in the mid-1980s in Hanover and Wuppertal and consisted of meetings of punks from all over Germany. The most well-known "chaos days" took place in Hanover in 1994 and 1995 and resulted in huge riots and the destruction of cars and buildings. These "chaos days" were the main topic of TV debates and newspapers for several weeks. Popular bands like WIZO spontaneously played a show there, and Terrorgruppe wrote a classic song about it ("Wochenendticket", named after a train ticket that most punks used in order to get to Hanover from all across the country). Chaos Days USA Chaos Days were organized in the United States in 1995 and 1996, to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area during the same period of time as the German Chaos Days.

We were in Texas, it was a late night and we were riding around with a friend in his car. The question that kept coming up was, "What do you want to do tonight?" This question was thrown around several times throughout the night. Until, I said, "Let's go to California!" Gray answered jokingly, 'You know Chaos Days is coming up soon - we should go!' I said, 'Take me to my work so I can get my clothes'

- Another side note: I worked at Olan Mills at the time - I was the studio photographer and what the other Olan Mills employees did not know was that I lived in the studio. I kept all my clothes, etc up in the ceiling. I had an alarm clock that would go off an hour before everyone would begin showing up to the office to begin their day. I would take a shower in the sink and get ready for the day, leave the office, go across the street to the coffee shop and wait until it was time for me to arrive at work and then come in and start my day.

We went to the Olan Mills office a.k.a. my home and I packed up my stuff and left a note that read, "By the time you read this I will be well on my way to California and won't be in today. I quit!'

We drove all night and all day - and arrived in San Diego, Ca - I do not remember how long we stayed there - it was not too long - we made our way up to LA and on the first day we got there, we went to Hollywood. Within the first couple of hours in Hollywood this woman with clipboard in hand pop out from around a corner and said, "how would you two like to be in a video - we will pay you" Since we both didn't have jobs and limited cash flow - we said yes. To make a long story short - here is the video we are in - we are on the bus about half way into the video.

So, back to NYC - As I said earlier in this blog, it was good to see an old friend. I have some video of me and Gray messing around in New York but I have not had time to edit the footage - I will do it soon and post it -but until then here is a video I made the last night I was in NYC - enjoy! (scroll down and push play - there is a 10 sec buffer and then it will start)

Having two jobs, many hobbies, and a lovely boyfriend, it is rare that I have a Sunday completely open to spend anyway I choose. This Sunday, however, by some shear stroke of luck happened to be a free day, so I chose to have a few of my close friends over for a delightful little brunch-a-riffic brunch.

I arose early this morning and because the weather was nice, I had the back door open. While cooking up my potatoes with fakin' bakin and brewing coffee, this faint chemical smell--probably auto exhaust from the side street below--drifted in. It was an odd association and it is truly amazing how stumbling upon random smells can take you instantly to another place in the blink of an eye, but this combination of scents was identical to that smell that you get when first you board an airplane.

Its that unforgettable MR&MRS T Coffee experience--somewhere, somehow, and with a pot fastened securely enough, there is coffee already being magically brewed for you. This is then of course mixed with that jet fuel/pollution smell and juxtaposed to the essence of whatever the first class passengers are already eating--seriously I swear they get cocktails and a full course meal before they begin boarding all passengers. Their little game continues to work, as the rest of us will never be able to find out.

Regardless of my disapproval of the airline social hierarchy system, we have to continue to use it and just make the best of it. Throughout all of my years of traveling, I have continually sought out and made note of the things I have found most awkward, awe inspiring, or delightful. These are my top 5:

1. Sitting next to an emergency exit and being personally interviewed by an intensely focused flight attendant who said, "Ma'am, do you have any health problems that I cannot see? For example, if you had heart disease, I couldn't see that. Do you have any I need to be aware of that would restrict your duties and are you willing to help to help passengers out the exit in the event of an emergency?"

2. Mott's Tomato Juice--this doesn't exist in real life anywhere. Purely an airline phenomenon. 3. The fact that they serve you piping hot coffee on desperately bumpy flights but I cannot take my nail clippers in my carry on.

4. In Flight, waking up after a nap from which I had fallen asleep mid movie on my laptop, to find that me and my flight mates were all enjoying a violent and gory scene from Dario Argento's Suspiria where a dog (possessed by evil powers-not his own accord) is voraciously devouring his guardian--a blind pianist.

5. The mid life crisis man--Playboy in hand--talking to his wife on his cell, talking about the boring weekend he was about to have skiing in Vail with his "buddies" all the while unfolding the centerfold and turning it from horizontal to vertical repeatedly, muttering the un-emotional, "I will...I will...I love you too."

For these brief moments you are intimate with strangers. You get to catch glimpses of phobias, grief, and joy. Each flight is a mash-up of those traveling to see loved ones, leave loved ones, say goodbye to departed ones, and welcome new ones. Some are coming back, others are gone forever.

Hearing bits of conversations, seeing unusual currencies peek out of wallets, and hearing the accidental leak of sound from slipped headphone jacks you can learn so much about people you will never see again. You could fall in love at first sight, have a scandalous affair, or just entertain yourself and gain mad people watching skills when the air gets rough. Flying is sort of like camping. The normal things in flight are not always like what is considered in your normal grounded world. The complementary food sucks, but you like it because that is all there is.

Its also sort of like how jelly is way funnier than peanut butter.

And when the going gets rough, I know I can always flip through my Sky Mall catalog and find the hot dog cooker/bun warmer combo, and that makes me feel safe. <3