Track Mangoes

Boy meets girl. Girl hates boy, but not really, but maybe. Boy leaves girl. Girl follows boy to college. Shit get's real. Feelings are hurt. Puke is involved. The latest fiction from my oeuvre.

Here's a poor quality version of "Part of the Deal" recorded on April 20th!!! A better quality one will be uploaded soon. Get a few laughs please. Enjoy.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!!!!

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was a Russian chemist and photographer, and although the earliest color photography can be traced back to the mid 1800's, Gorskii's work in the early 20th century stands as some of the most vibrant and striking of early color photography. In college, he studied photo chemistry, and his process utilized three monochrome exposures, combined to produce a color effect. His camera took three pictures in rapid succession, each using a different filter, but if any movement occurred 'ghosting' would be visible (an interesting rainbow like effect, most often seen in his images of water).


Gorskii, like other social documenters of the time (In America look at the FSA, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html specifically Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Marion Post-Walcott. In Germany see August Sander and the New Objectivity movement, 'Neue Sachlichkeit') sought to document the Russian social landscape, the people, the work, the everyday. Recently, much of his work has been digitized, and you can find high quality, rich, saturated images at http://www.prokudin-gorsky.ru/database.php3?first=0

With all these images in online archives (there are thousands on the FSA website) why not take a moment and begin sorting through the mass of information at your fingertips. It will be well worth your time.

"The nickname of the train was the Yellow Dog. Its real name was the Yazoo-Delta. It was a mixed train. The day was the 10th of September, 1923-afternoon. Laura McRaven, who was nine years old, was on her first journey alone. She was going up from Jackson to visit her mother's people, the Fairchilds, at their plantation named Shellmound, at Fairchilds, Mississippi. When she got there, "Poor Laura little motherless girl," they would all run out and say, for her mother had died in the winter and they had not seen Laura since the funeral. Her father had come as far as Yazoo City with her and put her on the Dog. Her cousin Dabney Fairchild, who was seventeen, was going to be married, but Laura could not be in the wedding for the reason that her mother was dead. Of these facts the one most persistent in Laura's mind was the most intimate one: that her age was nine."

"We have all of you courageous plaintiffs to thank: Go get married, live happily ever after, live the American dream."
--Des Moines attorney Dennis Johnson, who argued on behalf of the gay and lesbian couples

Maybe we weren't ready for Iowa to become what some conservatives have been calling "The New Gay Mecca." As Iowa joins the ranks of Connecticut and Massachusetts I can't help but wonder if it's all worth it. Is the "American Dream" really something we should want?

"It's a big win because, coming from Iowa, it represents the mainstreaming of gay marriage. And it shows that despite attempts to stop gay marriage through right wing ballot initiatives, like in California, the courts will continue to support the case for equal rights for gays. Once again, Iowa is leading when it comes to political dialogue in the country." --Richard Socarides, an attorney and former senior adviser on gay rights to President Clinton

It certainly does represent that.

"This is an unconstitutional ruling and another example of activist judges molding the Constitution to achieve their personal political ends. Iowa law says that marriage is between one man and one woman. If judges believe the Iowa legislature should grant same sex marriage, they should resign from their positions and run for office, not legislate from the bench ... Along with a constitutional amendment, the legislature must also enact marriage license residency requirements so that Iowa does not become the gay marriage Mecca due to the Supreme Court's latest experiment in social engineering." --U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa

The same thing recently happened in OR, where the judicial system decided to amend the law. It didn't last very long and, as I hear, there is already legislation moving to repeal the new marriage laws. How long will it last? How long can it go? And Must we follow Iowa? We're all very aware of Iowa's somewhat archaic relation to civilized depravity. We judge them for it. But the Iowa marriage law was simple and understandable, saccharine in its ability to provide a kind of eerie calm to the state. What is more, it was overwhelmingly supported by Iowans. Gay marriage will have to be a consensus. Despite what liberals tell you, gay marriage IS a threat to the institution of marriage, an institution that has been essentially monopolized by the Judeo-Christian establishment. Homosexual couples who want to be accepted into that kind of institution should consider the what it means for Conservatives to accept it. Right wigners think that homosexuality is an existential threat because it is an existential threat to society as they know it. We ought to be sensitive to the fears that we induce in conservatives. We are crushing their world, and in Iowa, we are doing it unfairly.