SnarkInfested

UPDATE 5:15 pm 02/09/10 WTOP radio is reporting that as much as 25 percent of the District’s snow plow fleet is down and they’re having trouble getting replacement parts.  They also report that DC is now rationing their salt supply.

02/09/10 DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, speaking from the “DDOT Snow Command/Salt Dome,” provides an update on snow removal and readiness efforts in preparation for a second anticipated winter storm in less than a week. Meteorologists predict 10 to 20 inches of snow to start falling this afternoon and end on Wednesday evening.

[Mayor Fenty chats with snowplow operator T. Greene.]

02/08/10 In honor of The Saints winning the Super Bowl last night and with Madri Gras fast approaching (on February 16th) I thought I’d run some my photos of New Orleans. These were taken on my last visit to the Crescent City for Jazz Fest in April 2007.

[Leaning tree by the Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District.]

[04/26/07 Marvin "Word" Day works the counter at the Camillia Grill. This photo was taken the day after it re-opened after being closed for almost 2 years since Katrina.]

[Fais Do Do at 37th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The guy's shirt reads "It Ain't Easy Being Sleazy"]

[Crawdads and Abita beer at Frankie & Johnny's.]

[Ruined house in Lower 9th Ward almost 2 years after Katrina.]

[Sarah in the French Quarter.]

[Café DuMonde]

[Children practicing musical scales outside the 37th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.]

[Crawdaddyman gets a surprise hug outside Jazz Fest]

[Amy in the French Quarter.]

[Rep. Murtha press conference in the House Press Gallery in 2006.]

02/08/10 Pennsylvania Democrat Jack Murtha, 77, died at 1:18 p.m. at the Virginia Hospital Center today in Arlington, Va.

The first Vietnam combat veteran to become a Member of Congress, a king of pork-barrel politics, a survivor of the ABSCAM scandal and a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, Murtha was a close ally of  Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and was her pick to fill the position of House Majority Leader she vacated after her elevation to Speaker of the House.  Murtha wound up losing that race to Rep. Steney Hoyer (D-MD).

On Saturday February 6th,  Murtha had officially become Pennsylvania’s longest serving Member of Congress.

UPDATE:  02/09/10 According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rep. John P. Murtha’s (D-PA) death has been attributed to mistakes made by the surgeon during Murtha’s gallbladder surgery. According to a source close to the Murtha family, doctors inadvertently cut Mr. Murtha’s intestine during the laparoscopic surgery which caused an infection.

02/07/10

02/05/10 I put my camera on a tripod looking out my living room window and snapped a photo every now and then.

02/05/10 It’s been snowing hard in DC since about 10am this morning and we are allegedly going to get up to 28 inches of the white stuff before it is all over. Batten down the hatches!

Title: Black & White

Caption: Annie on Ryan Farm 2003

02/01/10 Today FOX News’ Megyn Kelly begins anchoring a new all-about-America newscast called “America Live.” I saw the story on a couple websites this morning and invariably whenever I read about her, the story is accompanied by a photo I took almost 4 years ago now.  Here it is:

[Taken on 07/13/06 for The Hill Newspaper when Megyn Kelly was FOX News' Supreme Court reporter.]

02/01/10 PDN (Photo District News) magazine came out with a list of the 30 Most Influential Photographers of the Decade but had to delete the comments posted under the story “due to the incivility of many of them”. . . Funny TV news report tutorial highlights the insipid and banal . . .  LA Times story on the plight of pro photographers who struggle to make a living amid a flood of stock photos and amateurs whose images are “good enough” (translation = awful, awful, awful crap but we don’t care and don’t know the difference) . . . Along those same lines, there’s a new web zine made up entirely from stolen images . . . The great White House Photographer Pete Souza has assembled a slideshow entitled “The First Year“. . .  Many of the tragic images from the earthquake in Haiti left media organizations – like NPR and NYT – discussing whether it is appropriate to show the dead. One NYT reader wrote “If this had happened in California, I cannot imagine a similar depiction of half-clothed bodies splayed out for the camera. What are you thinking?” . . . Photographer Dennis Stock passed away at the age of 81. He’ll be best remembered for his photograph of James Dean walking in the rain in Times Square in 1955 which he shot for LIFE magazine . . . The National Museum of American History has a new exhibit featuring more than 100 images by one of the premiere African American photographic studios in the country and one of the longest-running black businesses in Washington. It’s called “The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise” and it runs until February 28th  . . .  Best of Google Streetview slideshow from The Times of London . . . One of the world’s oldest cameras is up for auction. The ‘Daguerreotype Giroux‘ dated 1839 is signed by the inventor Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre and is estimated to sell for between 500,000 – 700,000 Euros at the WestLicht Photographica Auction on the 29th of May in Vienna, Austria . . . Check out my friend Lauren Burke’s photo blog on The Congressional Black Caucus called www.crewof42.com . . . Finally, my January Open Studio shoot went well (see photo of Dionne below) and my next one is scheduled for Saturday 02/20/10. I’ll have a pro make-up artist on hand and I’ll be shooting more than just glam pix. I’ll be doing head shots for actors, “about the author” photos, family portraits and etc. Please get in touch if you need a portrait. . .

[01/30/10 18th St., NW DC]

01/28/10 Yesterday was my nephew Kieran’s 6th birthday and he was greeted enthusiastically as he got off the school bus from Kindergarten . . .

[Ella Rose waiting for her big brother.]

[Nephew Tim holds his cousin Eamonn.]

[The birthday boy arrives!]