SnarkInfested

01/20/10 It’s been a long time coming [In contrast with Real World DC which was shot, cut and premiered in less time] but it’s now possible to see the first episode of Blonde Charity Mafia  – not on TV but on the internets. Here it is.

The show’s original producer Lifetime never released it. Lifetime sold it to the CW which was supposed to run it in July but they shelved it as well. Apparently they sold it to MTV UK which used to have it on their web page but it now seems blocked.

Billed as a “docu-series” but clearly scripted, the buzz on the DC party circuit about this show was huge while it was being shot. I covered a couple of parties attended by BCM and it was always amusing to see people vying to get in the shot when the cameras were rolling.

Sophie Pyle (left) Krista Johnson (center) and  Katherine Kennedy filming a segment for their show “Blonde Charity Mafia” at Teatro Goldoni in September 2008.

01/18/10 I’ve been friends with Dionne McDaniel for almost 4 years now and she just gets more beautiful every time I see her. These images were taken at my Open Studio on 01/16/10.

Video snippets here and here.

01/16/10 Thanks to everyone who came to my Open Studio today! Especially my beautiful niece Maura who is 6. I’ll be photo editing a couple thousand images of the other models for the next few days and I’ll be sure to post some of the best up here.

[Maura with white background.]

[Maura with black background.]

01/15/10 I had lunch with the lovely Roxy today at the Capital Grille.

01/13/10 Send off party for Miss District of Columbia, Jen Corey.  She will be leaving for Las Vegas shortly to compete in the Miss America Pageant on January 30th. Party-goers got a glimpse of the gown she will be wearing in the competition.

01/13/10 There was hardly room enough for all the well wishers who came out last night to celebrate the launch of Tucker Carlson’s new web publication The Daily Caller. The spacious mansion of The Hostess With The Mostest Juleanna Glover was overflowing.

Daily Caller’s Editor-In-Chief, Tucker Carlson, howls along with Popper Popcorn.

Tucker and Sophia Davis

Jackie Kucinich (Roll Call)  and Moira Bagley (Opinion Editor at The Daily Caller)

Ashley Samelson and Brian McGuire

Scooter Libby

It’s really not a party without having a Russian guy dressed as Napoleon.

Moira Bagley (Opinion Editor at The Daily Caller) and Becca Glover Watkins (Media Strategist at The Daily Caller)

Shannon Flaherty (VP Herald Group) and Tucker chat.

Jeff’s Dufour’s (DC Editor, UrbanDaddy) bemused smirk speaks volumes.

Juleanna, Tucker and Becca.

01/12/10 The National Archives yesterday opened up a huge (280,000 pages) trove of Nixon-era materials including 7,000 images from the personal collection of White House photographer Olliver “Ollie” F. Atkins.

The collection includes negatives, transparencies, prints, contact sheets and related publications from a career spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Atkins was a photographer for the American Red Cross during WWII. As such, he documented the lives of refugees, prisoners of war and combatants in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany.

[Medics offload wounded near the front-lines in Italy, World War II]

[Central European refugees arrive in Italy during World War II]

After the war, Atkins joined the staff of the Saturday Evening Post as Washington correspondent and spent two decades photographing the political and social life of the city.

[Adlai Stevenson receives the "Johnson" treatment at a fundraising dinner]

[Slums in the shadow of Federal Buildings in the District of Columbia in the post-war years, circa 1946] It looks to me like the Treasury Building in the background.

[Senator Joe McCarthy, emerging from a pool (June 1947)]

[President Harry S Truman throws out the first ball (probably Opening Day 1948) at a game between the Washington Senators and the New York Yankees]

[casual portrait of young second-term Congressman Richard Nixon, on the Capitol grounds. Undated.]

Atkins was chief photographer for the 1968 Nixon-Agnew campaign and became President Nixon’s White House photographer after the 1969 Inauguration. Of his many images of Nixon, the series documenting the 12/18/70 meeting with Elvis became the most famous and most requested Nixon photograph.

Researchers can explore the collection at the National Archives College Park, MD facility and at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, CA.

01/11/10 Recent photo-related news items . . . Weatherproof Garment Co. erected (and then agreed to take down) a huge billboard in Times Square with an AP image of President Obama wearing their product in China. . . My extremely talented and blonde photographer friend Jaime Windon (she was a shooter for me back when I was Photo Editor at The Hill Newspaper) will be playing a blonde and talented photog named Jaime in a TV show about hunting UFOs . . .

[The Blonde Photographer and her evil Non-Blonde twin. From a studio session on 09/25/06. ]

Cool NYT story about a man and his Speed Graphic . . . Charis Wilson passed away. She was a model, creative collaborator and wife of one of the most influential 20th century photographers, Edward Weston . . . The Washington Times trimmed its newsroom by firing the entire photo department . . . The Museum of the City of New York has published a book to go along with its exhibit “Only in New York: Photographs From Look Magazine” . . . The Norman Rockwell Museum has an exhibit called “Norman Rockwell: Behind The Camera” which looks at how the artist used photography to create his work . . . Book review of “Who Shot Rock and Roll: A Photographic History from 1955 the the Present” . . . French legislator proposes requiring all digitally altered photographs of people used in advertising be labeled as retouched . . . George Will commentary on the most famous image by Robert Capa . . .

Finally, here’s a photo taken by my friend Al on a recent trip to New Mexico. He sent it along to me in his Christmas card:

Behold the Camera Van!

Video: CLICK HERE (“After you de-pants, spread out.”) and HERE!

01/10/10 Did you miss it? It sneaks up on us every year. Today was the day to ride the Metro without your pants. Who says DC is stuffy and boring? My rough guess is that over 100 people showed up at the pre-game briefing before descending into the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station to drop trow.  I wonder how many participants could hear their mother in the back of their minds saying “If everybody jumped off a cliff would you?” Or how many were attempting to overcome that anxiety dream. You know, the one where they show up to work or church in their briefs.

[Etiquette requires you tuck in your shirt when you ride the Metro sans pantalones.]

From the instructional memo:

“Arrive at C Street Park for a brief meeting. At the designated time / location on the metro – remove your pants!
Act completely casual or unknowing that your pants are missing.
The best part about this mission is the reaction of people hearing that someone could casually “forget” their pants or not be greatly bothered by their disappearance.
*Be sure to bring a backpack or bag or a friend with a bag as you will be responsible for your own pants when they are off and they should stay hidden*
*Note* This is NOT a nudism event and some appropriateness in undergarment choice is strongly encouraged. To participate, make sure your undergarment is no more revealing than a typical non-thong bikini bottom.”

[Typical day at the Smithsonian station.]

01/09/10 It was an absolutely packed madhouse at the cocktail reception to benefit EarthEcho International at Black Finn on Saturday night.  Celeb guest bartender Phillipe Cousteau,  “EarthEcho’s President & Co-Founder/Animal Planet & Planet Green’s Chief Ocean Correspondent/Ocean wonder boy man” was slinging the drinks.