sonny photos

RA 13

Ra presents dashenka's multi-dimensional works throughout the ra space in video, sculpture and more.
Next thursday ( 3rd ) at 8pm

Tedd Rall

Danielle Wallace Pop up Opening

Mark Cavanagh and Daniell Wallace
Mark I bump into sporadically, but Danielle I have not seen in a long time, always with a smile, and the girl to see for ties, without a doubt.
We are here for the opening of her pop up store, right on Macquarie & Bent Streets in Sydney, perfect location. I was just in my t-short so felt a bit under dressed when I walked to the corner of Bent street, with all the suits and ties around, but as always, Danielle makes you feel right at home and welcomed
of course some of the fashion set is here this evening as well
location , location
She's the queen of ties, and Toby Osmond has some of shirts on sale here as well
how awesome are these umbrellas, just think how good you would look with one of these crossing the street on a grey rainy day
game of pool while you decide which shirt and tie to buy, oh, and don't forget that umbrella for that rainy day
the bar is stocked up as well, so a refreshment with your tie ?
as you look around plenty of things to discover

a book perhaps, chrissy pressie
must be Toby's
we're all travellers
Love this image
Danielle and Alex Zabotto-Bentley
Peter McMenamin and Viva Vayspap.

Sydney Bushfires . . . again, then drinks Av style

Crazy ornage light in the late afternoon, there's bushfires out in the blue mountains again, so Sydney is blanketed with the firesmoke, causing this eerie light
so head up to the headland for a better look at it, that's Bilgola beach below in the shade
mad colour

aaaah, nice orange glow
open the camera a bit to expose the shaded areas

After little sun viewing, head back to Avalon and bar called L A , for a drink for Jessie Hill and Kane Skennar's birthday, and Dion is here, super
Me, 2 hours later, waiting for our food , waiting for our food, everyone else has left to go up Ogg's place and keep drinking there, but our orders got messed up. 't was a busy day at Avalon with market day
later that night, chillin at Oggy's place
Me & birthday boy
birthday girl
Was a nice evening of just chilled out fun, up in the hills at Avalon, no plastic, no crap music, no bouncers, no pricey drinks and waiting ina que to get one. Love it
Thanks to John Ogden for letting Kane and Jessie use your pad for their little birthday drinks/get together/booze up
yew :-)

FIX

Doing a shoot with Saskia Leibowitz today for a boy band called FIX.
Luke trimming the drummer's hair. Stay tuned for more pix once we make a little selection

DefWish Cast @Beachroad this Friday night

Diec, Sereck and DefWish, which form the DefWish Cast are performing this friday night ( that's tomorrow night ! ) at the beach road hotel in Bondi. Why the big plug. . ? 'cause they're awesome, and one of the few hip hop bands in Oz that actually can put on a jammin show. I took these shots back in May ( or was it June ) at the Herman bar at Sydney Uni, moments before they went on stage to their gig.
So do yourself a favour and get down there, I will be, snapping some more shots no doubt
This blurb from their facebook page
Dustones presents with Basic Equipment and Chemical Imbalance.
DefWishCast have a new live show incorporating "Thomas Rock" on live Vocoder and live 808 drum machine and MPC.The "Robotech" BBoys will gettin down as well and blessing the dance floor during the DWC set. It's a show you can really enjoy and guess what....This is what hiphop is really about....Peace,Unity and having fun!!!!
Witness the "Dirtbox Kings" supporting us as well and performing tracks off their new album , so get down early and enjoy the DJ's as well....We'll be there early....Hope to see ya...
ok, nuff photos, time to do a gig
start the gig !

Lowering the Bar: Kindergarten Recruitment

Tuesday 17 November 2009

by: Jon Letman, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

How old is old enough for students to be approached by military recruiters?

High school? Junior high? Fourth grade? How about ten weeks into kindergarten?

Last week at the dinner table, my five-year-old son announced blithely, "Soldiers came to school today." He then added, "They only kill bad people. They don't kill good people."

He made the announcement with the same levity he uses in recalling the plot line of Frog and Toad or a Nemo video.

My wife and I looked at each other incredulously.

"Soldiers came to school? What do you mean?" I asked.

He repeated himself and then I remembered - it was "Career Day" at school. My son mentioned a bus driver too, but it was the soldier who stuck out in his mind. When my wife asked if the soldier was cool, he nodded yes.

The soldier had given my five-year-old a gift. From his yellow backpack, he produced a six-inch, white, plastic ruler with big, bold, red letters reading "ARMY NATIONAL GUARD" next to a waving American flag and below that  www.1-800-GO-GUARD.com.

So, now we know the answer to the above question.

Kindergarteners - children with Dora the Explorer and Spiderman backpacks and bedrooms full of stuffed animals who are still working to master their A-B-C's - are now targets for early conditioning by the US military. Never mind that Hawaii's schools have just cut almost 10 percent of classroom time, dropping the state's public schools' instructional days down to the fewest in the nation. Teacher furloughs or not, time was found for the Army National Guard to give a pitch (and a gift) to wide-eyed five-year-olds.

Fortunately (from the military's perspective), the economic collapse has been a boon for military recruiters  as education and job-hungry young people  flock to a place they know will offer what many other employers cannot - a job with benefits.

And with Department of Defense projections indicating that the baseline Pentagon budget will grow over the next decade by $133.1 billion, or 25 percent (even before war funding), it appears likely there will be plenty need for more soldiers in 2022 when my son and his classmates turn 18.

In his book "The Limits of Power,"  Boston University history Professor and retired Army Col. Andrew J. Bacevich describes a near future in which the US is in an almost constant state of war. He writes, "Rather than brief interventions ending in decisive victory, sustained presence will be the norm ... The future will be one of small wars, expected to be frequent, protracted, perhaps perpetual." If Bacevich's bleak assessment proves true, it's no wonder the National Guard sees value in chatting up kindergarteners.

After raising my concerns about military personnel pitching to my five-year-old on career day to the school's principal, I was told the soldiers (who were dressed in uniform) were there to focus on "the good things they do." To be sure, in times of natural disaster, the National Guard can do a tremendous amount of good.

But in what must certainly have been a first encounter for my son and his classmates, the take-away message was "they kill people. But only the bad ones."

As a parent, how does one explain what killing "only bad ones" means when the child asks why a NATO airstrike obliterated dozens of civilians, an unmanned drone flattened a mountain village killing children just like them or a deeply disturbed soldier goes on a rampage on a US base in Iraq  or in Texas , and projects the violence he has learned against his fellow soldiers?

Whether you find the Army National Guard visiting kindergarteners utterly disturbing or perfectly normal, each of us needs to ask ourselves, in an era when our government spends trillions of dollars supporting wars with no end in sight, at a time when we can't even fund our schools or public services at a minimum standard and only begrudgingly support health care reform, what kind of society and future are we building for our children?

Box Head, surf

While I was having my little surf at Avalon's off rocks, one of the local boys told me they had Box Head really good a few days ago ( Red Dog ) and that there might still be a bit of a wave there today.
Now box head being one of my favourite surfing spots in the world, and it only working once every 3-5 months due to it's position and fickle sand bar, I was in the car , driving on the freeway before you could say don't forget the wax. So here I am out at the line up, waaaaaay of the beach
So we are now on the other side of broken head, on the far left we see Whale beach headland, then the back of Barrenjoey headland, and on the right Lion Island, and....lots and lots of water, water form the ocean, water from Pittwater, water from the Hawkebury and water from Brisbane waters ( in other words, a little bit of shark potential )
And this is the actual broken head headland, and a narrow passage way for boats to enter Brisbane water and central coast.So pretty much behind this line of surfers, no matter how big the waves get, that little passageway never has a wave breaking through there as the water is really deep. So yeah, you're sitting out her ein deep mwater ( not clear ) waiting for a wave, and on low tide is a bit dicey as all the water is emptying out into the ocean, so you constantly have to paddle direction shore, so you don't get taken too far out
and luckily it is not too crowded today, then again, it is only about 2 foot on the sets
So that's the shore you see in the distance, quite a long way, bad thing about that is, it is a long way to get out here, took me like 15-20 min to paddle out here ( if the tide is coming in , from low to high , you can expect that to take a bit longer ) good thing is, it is one of the longest left handers I know off on the east coast. Sort of like a left hander version of the pass, minus the rocks
Easier way of getting out here of course is with your boat , or your mates boat ( I'm saving up now )Would be a lot quicker to jump in the boat from Palm beach ( say 20 min cruise ) as opposed to the hour plus drive I just did.
This wave does not look like much, but the wall just keeps growing as this wave rolls down the line. I certainly had fun out here. ( and yes, must get out here when it is bigger )
Another shot of the boat , and an arrow I placed to show the little white dots that are houses on the shore line, to give you an idea of how far of the shore we are, and the potential for the super long waves to be had.
So then the ferry comes past with Jacqui and kids on board, and as I said the passageway is so narrow, the ferry came really close and we could clearly see each other ( jac's took a pic with her phone cam ) So I caught a wave in, there was little gap in the sandbank, and then on the second bank caught another wave which felt like it went forever, was so good, can't wait to get out here again, but had to go in now and pick up Jacqui from the ferry.
Here's an aerial shot from google earth, shwoing the line uo, so you can see the passageway for the boats and the perfect sandbank going into shore. And obviously in this shot there were no waves.

Surf day

Yes, next day is a beauty, and still a little wave around
gorgeous blue sky day
and a fun little wave at off rocks

Sydney Peak hour

Hate dealing with this grind of getting across the bridge, just want to get home, but at least I don't have to deal with this on a daily basis ( can you imagine )
once I get across that, it gets better, still slow in spots , but at least it is moving, unlike right now
by the time I get to Avalon, sun has set, and looks like there might be a bit of a wave still tomorrow
Lines coming in