I needed a break.  I really did.  The compulsive email & Twitter checking along with monitoring the etsy store like a hawk with OCD and nothing else better to do were driving me crazy.  How I even got to the point where I was manually refreshing three different windows in 30 second, 5 minute and 15 minute intervals is beyond me.

Yeah, it was a problem…folks wonder why I don’t have a Blackberry.  Can you imagine?!?!

For the last week, I gave myself no more than an hour and a half each day for what is usually 7+ hours of bullshit browsing, blog-reading, and all the other stuff I delude myself into believing is necessary and important.  Amazingly, my head didn’t explode and my urge to constantly be connected has waned.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

Sooooooooooo, how have you been?

Me?  I’ve gone about 80% vegetarian, have vowed to only shop at local farmers markets, and am never eating at a fast food restaurant again.  Blame Food, Inc. Better yet, buy/rent Food, Inc and join me.

I try to keep my political views separate from this lil blog o’ mine, so I’ll keep my thoughts short and sweet.  The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell project by Los Angeles photographer Jeff Sheng found the direct route to my heartstrings and yanked them.  Hard. 

Don’t ask, don’t tell (DADT) is the common term for the policy stopping openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals from serving in the United States military, as mandated by federal law Pub.L. 103-160 (10 U.S.C. § 654). Unless one of the exceptions from 10 U.S.C. § 654(b) applies, the policy prohibits anyone who “demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts” from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because “it would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”  (via Wiki)

Each picture is titled with a name and place of significance to each person.  Each subject, in full uniform, is photographed with his or her face obscured. 

How that must feel…to have to conceal who you are while voluntarily putting your life on the line to defend a country where your rights are not fully respected. 

It boggles.my.mind.

 

Photos are from Volume 1, available for purchase here.  Volume 2 is in progress. 

photos via The Los Angeles Times / Thanks to Linda for the heads up.

—

REMINDER: I have no problem with dissenting opinions.  I have a MAJOR problem with people being assholes in my comment section.  Please be respectful.  Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks!

The news that Alexander McQueen has killed himself is particularly devastating because it always felt to me like he’d be the last man standing. He was restless, but so pragmatic with it I assumed he had what it took to endure the extreme situations he placed himself in. He was also an arch romantic with a pessimistic streak. It produced some of the most beautiful, shocking images in the history of fashion, but it’s a state of mind that can lead to endless disappointments. The death of McQueen’s mother last week would have validated his pessimism. It would undoubtedly have taken away his most vital support. It’s awful to imagine him trying—and failing—to cope, and one can only hope that, if he was looking for peace, he found it. For everyone left behind, there will eventually be consolation, however scant right now, in a body of work whose power will never die.

—Tim Blanks (via Style.com)

So goes the plight and fall of the tortured artist.  Long live McQueen.