Category: Fourre-tout

As everybody knows (or ought to know) midterms elections are around the corner. The stakes are high and calumnies of all kinds are blanketing the news media.

“There is nothing that wings its flight so swiftly as calumny, nothing is uttered with more ease; nothing is listened to with more readiness, nothing disbursed more widely.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

 Elected officials are supposed to work harmoniously with each other, but this is definitely not the case. Daggers are drawn everywhere. Exaggerations and lies of all sorts are flourishing all over like poppies in the spring. They are often colorful, but they mostly reek of biased partisanship.

In politics, no lie is too enormous. Extremists on both sides of the political fence are ready to believe anything that will buttress their long-held prejudices, and calumnies are the best vehicles for that task.

A calumny is like a skunk: once sprayed by it, it is difficult to remove the stench. No matter how hard your denials, some stink will remain.

“Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.” Francis Bacon

In a political campaign, you need scapegoats and there are always plenty of those. The bad “hombres” are always the Blacks, the Asians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Catholic Church, the Hispanics, the gays, the women, the lesbians, the polygamists, the meter maids, the vegans, the pétanque players… all these groups are minorities, therefore they are to be blamed for what’s wrong in this country of ours.

In the few remaining days before the elections, rumors are flying..

If the Democrats retake the House, you better run to Canada… or buy more weapons. They will open our borders and let everybody in… Our way of life is going to change for the worse…

Poppycock!

When you go to the polls, try to set your prejudices aside and vote for the person who seems to care more about people than his ideology.

Avoid extremists… because soon or later, regardless of your views, these storm troopers will bring you in for questioning.

Vote as if your life depended on it… because it does.

Alain

“I made my money the old-fashioned way. I was very nice to a wealthy relative right before he died.” Malcolm Forbes

 This is smart Malcom; much smarter than investing in lottery tickets with ridiculous odds.

In case that you did not notice, the country was recently in the throes of a Mega Millions ($1.6 billion prize) epidemic. And it was highly contagious… many people caught the bug and had to be treated in the emergency ward.
Unfortunately chances of hitting the Powerball jackpot were roughly 1 in 300 millions. Not very comforting.

But this little detail did not deter true believers. They squandered some hard earned cash to partake in this new Gold Rush. Somebody has got to win, right? It may as well be me… And somebody won. But this was a poisoned gift, a Pandora box.

When you come into (big) money, it becomes difficult to recognize your true friends. Numerous people and organizations trying to get a piece of the pie will besiege you. You will be surrounded by a crowd of smiling sycophants who won’t hesitate to drop you at the first sign of difficulty.

The number of your “friends” will be proportional to your holdings. The richer you are, the more playmates you will have, but quantity seldom equals quality. Personally, I would rather have three true friends than a posse of hundreds.

If you want to be at the receiving end of some relatively easy money, now is the time to locate a rich relative and start pampering him/her. Or maybe consider becoming a toy boy or a trophy wife. There is no shame in it… everybody does it. By doing so, your odds of collecting some moola will be far superior than winning the Mega jackpot.

 For my part I don’t want billions. I would be very happy with two or three little millions. I don’t want to come in contact with too much money because this product is highly toxic. It is radioactive and prolonged exposure to it will (among many other things) give your hair a weird orange glow.

Just like weed killer, prolonged proximity to big bucks will affect your health and sanity. Known side effects of money exposure are delusion and paranoia.

But cheer up. Everything associated with big bucks is not totally negative.

“Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort.” Helen Gurley Brown

“Champagne wishes and caviar dreams” to everybody and if you need some help spending your loot, I will be more than happy to help.

Alain

“Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.” Charles Caleb Colton

Every person is different, but as a photographer, I am more inclined to see than to hear. As a bonus, you don’t have to hear anything to appreciate the sight of a pretty woman… As a matter of fact, any sound might spoil the image.

In a 1958 movie, French director Marc Allégret put together a film titled “sois belle et tais toi” (be pretty and shut up). This provocative heading sounds a bit misogynistic but it illustrates the fact that an image is often effective than sound.

When I watch a boring movie, I often lose track of the dialogue while my eyes wander from character to character. The actors’ lines vanish and I am left with a kaleidoscope of moving snapshots. It is much more interesting than trite lines and unconvincing acting.

I also find it much easier to clearly see evil than to hear it. When you hear a hate speech, it might not make a lasting impression; but when you see an evil action (like the brutalizing of an animal) it immediately prompts a visceral angry reaction.

In WWII, General Eisenhower insisted on documenting the unimaginable horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. He wanted people to remember as long as possible the depravity and the barbarity of the Nazi criminals. He documented his finding with thousands of pictures.

Despite his presence in many photographs, Holocaust deniers persist to this day.

Images are definitely more powerful and lasting than sound.

I don’t know if you have noticed, but in this electoral period, money is flooding all media. The countless commercials that you see on TV and the political pamphlets clogging your mailboxes are the materialization of the millions of dollars spent by the candidates and their backers.

The sponsors prefer visuals to words or sound. If you like someone’s face you are more inclined to vote for him. Being photogenic undoubtedly helps a candidate, regardless of his views.

I am partial to images. It might be partly due to the fact that my hearing is getting less effective than my sight, but to me, an image will always carry more weight than a long speech.

“Hear no evil, speak no evil, and you won’t be invited to cocktail parties.” Oscar Wilde

Alain