Last December I traveled to Israel where I had lunch with Yitzhak Apeloig, the president of their premiere university, the Technion, and interviewed their President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shimon Peres (photo, right).

In the next few months I will be returning to the Holy Land for a week-long photography expedition.  From the students of Haifa to the dolphins of Eilat; from the vineyards of the Galillee to the Bedouins of The Negev; I will engage in a photographic documentary of the people and landscape of Israel.  The goal is to create a comprehensive body of images of the country that are licensed as free content, meaning my work will be available to everyone via Wikimedia for both commercial and non-commercial uses.

Watch this blog for updates.

Michael Lucas has been a long-time Wikipedia booster.  Upon reading my blog post that the Israelis invited me back to photograph their country, Lucas offered his home in Fire Island over Labor Day weekend so that I can photograph the island for Wikimedia Commons.  It will be an excellent opportunity to generate free media of one of New York State’s most historic islands.  Lucas spends his summers there and is well-known amongst the residents.  Wikimedia projects thank you for your generosity, Michael Lucas.

Lucas spoke at Stanford and Yale in the last year, and was recently profiled in the high-brow culture and politics magazine The New Republic.  Watch this blog for posts about my Fire Island adventures with Michael Lucas and friends.

After she read my blog post announcing that I have become a vegetarian, Ingrid Newkirk, (photo, right) President and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), sent me a refrigerated box full of vegan cuisine as encouragement.  A happy, healthy cow seemingly smiled on the cover with the words, “Your efforts really moooved me!” under its chin.  Ingrid wrote that the feast is “only a sampling from the very wide world of vegan goods.”

The Uline Cold Bricks she used are foam refrigerant, non-toxic and reusable!  They’re in my freezer.

Look for blog posts where I review the cuisine, from vegan chicken tenders to an assortment of dips and main courses, in addition to other extras I sample from my new experiment into vegetarianism.  Let’s see how it is…

(Even though I told Ingrid that I was going to try soy milk, I’m still addicted to my organic, family farm skim milk, which I drink straight from the carton.)

“MICE are the No. 1 infestation problem in the city today.  We have a pretty good handle on roaches. But the rodent population has been steadily increasing. I would say that most buildings in the city today have some level of infestation.”

Michael Deutsch, an entomologist with Allied/Pioneer Pest Management Companies in Manhattan, January 17, 1999.

Ten years later and the rodent infestation has only gotten worse in New York.  A giant inflatable rat makes its way around New York City as a symbol used by unions to protest against employers and non-union contractors.  It’s a surprise anyone notices.  The infestation is the worst I have seen since moving here in January of 2001.

I have started a series of East Village rat and mouse photos, of which “Flowerbox Rat” to the right is a part.

Rats taking over a KFC/Taco Bell made national headlines in February of 2007.   Then in November 2007 the famous ice cream parlor Serendipity, home of the world’s most expensive dessert ($25,000 “Frrozen Haute Chocolate”), was shut down due to roaches, mice and sewage.  In March 2008 a mouse was caught eating in the window of Macy’s during their flower show.  In May 2008 three mice were spotted playing amongst the stuffed animals in FAO Schwarz.

The real problem is in our homes.  My apartment has become overrun.  I can no longer free-feed my dog Little Man as his bowl has become a mouse food trough.  They have ruined my sofa.  I only just discovered that they have been living in there last weekend, and I can never have a person sleep on the sofa bed again.  My living room at night has become like Cinderella; waking up to get a drink of water is met with mice on shelves, lampshades and the sofa.

Every humane attempt (and official recommendation from New York State) I have made to get rid of them has failed, and they are multiplying.  I called the building manager today, and she said she has the problem too, and when she complained to the exterminator he said it has been a problem citywide.  Summer the mice typically stay outdoors, but this summer:  everybody is infested with mice in New York City!

The exterminator recommended a wooden snap trap and chocolate.  I am not sure what else to do.

The Iraqi government has just opened the airport in Najaf hoping for a tourism boom.  “The political and economic success in Iraq will make it a center for those who want to invest, and the opening of this airport is a step on this road … this is a message to investors to come to Iraq,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told reporters.  Any takers?

Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick has steadfastly defended her son, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.  Josh Kraushaar at Politico writes that the connection between the two is starting to hurt Rep Kilpatrick.  It should.  Kwame Kilpatrick is one of the worst mayors the ailing city of Detroit has had to put up with:

In a scandal that has consumed the city, Kwame Kilpatrick is facing eight felony counts for lying under oath about engaging in an extramarital relationship with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The perjury charges stem from a 2007 trial in which a jury ruled that Kilpatrick unfairly dismissed two city employees who were investigating him.

That’s being light on the long list of charges of misbehavior by Mayor Kilpatrick.  There is no excuse, and Carolyn Kilpatrick’s defense of her son has forfeited her right to represent the people in her district.  Vote for Mary Waters in the primary.

Frank Rich is possibly the most brilliant columnist writing today.  In his recent column, he raises the point that McCain’s campaign continually talks about the “free pass” the press gives Obama.  The only evidence on hand, however, is how inept the press is at holding any of our leaders accountable:

It was laughable to watch journalists stamp their feet last week to try to push Mr. Obama into saying he was “wrong” about the surge. More than five years and 4,100 American fatilities later, they’re still not demanding that Mr. McCain admit he was wrong when he assured us that our adventure in Iraq would be fast, produce little American “bloodletting” and “be paid for by the Iraqis.”

It’s hard to see how John McCain can ever be elected given his record.

For a long time now I have received a stream of e-mails from people based upon my photography on Wikipedia.  Sometimes they mistakenly think I am the subject of one of my body illustrations (they are of a model friend); other times it is because they want me to contact a celebrity I have photographed.

These e-mails sometimes creep me out.  Sometimes they are windows into naive hopes that are built out of media illusions.  Take this one I received because I photographed “Reverend Run” of Run DMC, Joseph Simmons, at the Brooklyn Book Festival (right):

Hi my name is [REDACTED],
I have read where you have done a piece on Joseph Simmons of runs house. I am having such a hard time with getting my daughter who is 15 years old heard, and when I say heard I mean:Shes a singer, very blessed by God above. I live in Alabama and have no means of finding her someone to work with her. Everywhere I go people want me to pay them to work with her. I was told that managers work with her and get her ready and when things start happening for her they get paid as well. My financial status is not that good its only enough for us to get by. I no she has what it takes if I can only get someone to give her a real chance, not someone who will rip her off. The reason I picked Mr. Simmons is because he say he’s a Godly man, and I feel he wouldn’t take advantage of her. I really need your help, I’m tired of dead ends. I have been doing this for years and haven’t made it to far. No resources, no help, um growing tired, but this is my child and I’m trying so hard, but all I see i
s the devil trying to stop her from using this gift God has blessed her with. [REDACTED] is her name, and has never had singing lessons. I don’t want the streets to get her, that’s why I’m coming to you to see if you can use your resource to help me. This is no game, pray if you have to on this, follow your heart, just no that your decission to help her or not lay in your hands, until I hear from you God bless.

E-mails like this creep me out for a few reasons.

First, it shows the unrealistic notions people have about how the media works.  I have been asked to give Drew Barrymore messages like, “your new body looks really good” and to contact people to pass along screenplays and manuscripts.  Simply because I have photographed Martin Scorsese or Sam Raimi.  I have been told unsubstantiated gossip about people; read diatribes against their work; and been asked to help people out.  Photographers rarely form relationships with their subjects.  When I am in a private room with people like Madonna and Mariah Carey, nothing but the most canned professional chatter transpires.   No lasting relationships are formed.

Second, it shows the unrealistic expectations people have in what it takes to “make it.”  It does not matter how talented this 15 year old girl is, Joseph Simmons is never going to fly down to Alabama and make this underage kid a star.  Besides her age, he has so many talented people banging on his (and his brother Russell Simmons’s) door.

Lastly, I can’t imagine ever approaching someone I know based upon an e-mail like this.  Nobody hands you success and opportunity.  You have to go out there and create it for yourself.  It has to be chased.  It does not come to you, no matter how good you are.

From Boulder, Colorado’s Daily Camera (my former hometown newspaper):

Bonsall, 26, failed to appear at a July 16 court hearing in which prosecutors were ready to lay out a case that the 2000 Boulder High School graduate violated his probation stemming from an assault on his girlfriend, Lindsey Dunavan.

Bonsall, who was serving two years probation for the 2007 assault, faced charges that he had failed to pay for domestic-violence classes, missed daily breathalyzer tests and submitted a positive breath test — all conditions for his staying out of prison.

Ouch.

Newsweek published an interesting story about the death of Lawrence “Larry” King, a fifteen year old boy who was shot by a classmate after he asked his shooter, another boy, to be his valentine.  The gist I just wrote is not the full story, and I think Newsweek wrote an excellent article.  The tragedy in the situation is both King and his killer, Brandon McInerney.