Busy day, catching up with everything after the short trip to Stockton. Got told that I will be going to South Korea before the Holidays, but for two weeks rather than one. Last I'd heard, that trip was canceled. I'll probably have to take the time off early next year rather than lose it this year. And Saudi Arabia is still on, though with no clear schedule. And now Israel, near the end of February - that one will actually happen. Shit, I'll probably have to get a duplicate passport now.

On the photography front, I ordered and have received the HP CombiPlan T, a daylight tank for developing 4x5 film. I've put the old leaky daylight tank away for good. Now all I have to do is start making photographs again. Of what, I have no clue. Only that the format will be 4x5 and B&W. Naturally, that won't travel well by airplane. The world and I are becoming more and more incompatible.

The Levi Strauss book mentioned below is heavy, depressing and difficult. It's also has an obvious political lean. But it has profound truths as well. Salgado came up again in the third essay - he is one of the outstanding photographers of the age in my opinion. The book puts into words why - something I haven't been able to do very well. But the book isn't good to read while I'm in a personal depression as it is both depressing by nature and reinforces that there are people out there doing so much more than I can ever hope to do.

This is Desiree, playing with herself in my motel room in Long Beach. Hmmm - I'll bet Salgado hasn't made a picture like this one. (But I wonder whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.)

P.S. The umlaut didn't work. Back on the first page. Any code monkeys out there have a way to keep spiders and bots off this blog?