He is dressed in white, has a deep voice and is the outspoken voice of putting our waste in thin plastic envelopes, usually green but sometimes white.
The bag is what is shared with another character that makes rounds about this time of year.
But enough of that, time for Milk and Other Good Things.
At the studio today, hard to believe that this is actually part of my job. I always feel like I am playing hooky or something when I come get some work done. Today, I am finalizing some work for a small showing of work around an upcoming talk by Gwynne Dyer from his book “Climate Wars“.
The work was chosen because of my tendency to photograph landscapes under reclamation. Reclamation landscapes is the term used by several landscape photographers who are interested in how the land eventually consumes and erases human passage. As usual, my contrarian manner of looking at things makes me turn this question into something else. For me it is more about our inability to see past a few dozen years into the future and think that if it exists after I am dead than it has existed long enough. We are such shortsighted animals.
The Clock of the Long Now is an interesting experiment in altering perceptions about duration (I tend to use duration instead of time, according to Henri Bergson it is a more accurate description of how we use the word). http://www.longnow.org/ Instead of writing 2009 we shoudl write 02009, that little zero will remind us of how recent of an apparition we are and of how short an influence we will exert on the planet. Chances are we will cause a whole bunch of harm, but in the scheme of things the planet will live on.
Still thinking of the title, images should be viewed in a horizontal line about 12 cm from each other.
In these times of pestilence and war…
Les litanies de Satan
Charles Baudelaire 1855
Ô toi, le plus savant et le plus beau des Anges,
Dieu trahi par le sort et privé de louanges,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Ô Prince de l’exil, à qui l’on a fait tort,
Et qui, vaincu, toujours te redresses plus fort,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui sais tout, grand roi des choses souterraines,
Guérisseur familier des angoisses humaines,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui, même aux lépreux, aux parias maudits,
Enseignes par l’amour le goût du Paradis,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Ô toi qui de la Mort, ta vieille et forte amante,
Engendras l’Espérance, — une folle charmante !
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui fais au proscrit ce regard calme et haut
Qui damne tout un peuple autour d’un échafaud,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui sais en quels coins des terres envieuses
Le Dieu jaloux cacha les pierres précieuses,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi dont l’œil clair connaît les profonds arsenaux
Où dort enseveli le peuple des métaux,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi dont la large main cache les précipices
Au somnambule errant au bord des édifices,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui, magiquement, assouplis les vieux os
De l’ivrogne attardé foulé par les chevaux,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui, pour consoler l’homme frêle qui souffre,
Nous appris à mêler le salpêtre et le soufre,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui poses ta marque, ô complice subtil,
Sur le front du Crésus impitoyable et vil,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Toi qui mets dans les yeux et dans le cœur des filles
Le culte de la plaie et l’amour des guenilles,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Bâton des exilés, lampe des inventeurs,
Confesseur des pendus et des conspirateurs,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Père adoptif de ceux qu’en sa noire colère
Du paradis terrestre a chassés Dieu le Père,
Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère !
Furthermore…
“The alliance between War and Plague was cemented with the first germ experiments and in this area there have been a number of interesting developments. Despite a lot of talk about discontinuing such experiments and closing down the biologic and chemical warfare centres, Fort Dietrich, in Maryland is now dedicated to cancer research. And cancer research, incidentally, overlaps the more sophisticated areas of biologic weaponry.” W.S.Burroughs, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Expanded Media Editions, 1988, p.12
It was sunny today, a bit cold but bright and clear.