According to a very interesting book review at Slate, Right now the wealthiest one percenters grab 24 percent of annual income in this country. That's even more than the 15 to 18 percent they hauled in during the robber baron era of the Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts.

I think that most of us know that the rich are getting richer and everybody else is treading water or getting poorer but I had now idea that the inequality was this severe. The top one percent of the wealthiest people in America make essentially 1/4 of all the income in America. True, the Bush years were very good to the very wealthy, but the trend started way before Bush and it is still going on under that socialist, Obama..

I think that this is a big part of the reason so many people are so angry. I know that I am angry about it.

First, as an aside, let me – Steve Stern – make a few comments. I have been to Burning Man twice, in an unofficial capacity, let's say. I think it was eighteen and sixteen years ago. The first time was when we were taking some friends to the Black Rock playa and unexpectedly ran into Burning Man. The second time was when we bailed out of a camping trip in Yosemite – because of a forest fire – and then said What the hell, let's go to the Black Rock and check out Burning Man. 

I was blown away by the pageantry and ritual of it and – I am sort of embarrassed to say – I have never been back. Kirk sent some pictures to his brother, Mike Moore, who then passed a couple on to me and – circuitously – I asked Kirk to put some of his pictures here. Check out his website, he is a suburb photographer, especially if you like travel photography. End aside.

Burning Man 2010

After years of procrastination I finally got to Burning Man. I credit three buddies who talked me into it by renting an RV. Thanks, guys…definitely worth it.

Burning Man? Difficult to describe.

Try to imagine a juried art exhibition on steroids, Time Bandits, Mad Max, Woodstock, and Star Wars all mixed up and plopped down on a remote desert with 50,000 campers for a week. It’s art, partying, music, creativity, freedom, community, and whatever you want it to be, with the vast playa as your canvas.  It met and exceeded all my expectations.

As a photographer, Burning Man was a treasure trove of imagery. I was visually attracted to everything…but especially to the juxtaposition of the harsh, arid, and boundless Black Rock Desert with the art projects (some funded by honorariums, most self-funded). The pristine desolation made for a uncommon but appropriate backdrop.

Add to that the DMV (Dept of Mutant Vehicles),

the dress code (none whatsoever),

the 24/7 techno music, and the inevitable dust storms…there was a myriad of photographic subjects, all day and all night long. I don’t want to jam up Steve’s Blog, so this is just a taste of what it was like.

To see more photos go here:

http://web.me.com/kirkmoore/Burning_Man_2010/125_photos.html

 Kirk Moore

For more info…check out their website: http://www.burningman.com/

For a historical timeline: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/bm_timeline.html

This is pretty amazing

Fernando Alonso won the Grand Prix of Italy in a Ferrari last weekend and I am – sort of – happy about it. A couple of years ago, when he was driving for Renault, was the underdog, and was young and innocent; I would have been much happier. But Fernando has been caught cheating several times and he now seems to have feet of clay.

Yea, he is a superb driver, but as a human being…meh. And – maybe – that is what makes him such a successful driver. Certainly other athletes fall into the category, Berry Bonds come to mind.

I have always had heroes. People who I have admired for what they have done and – then – that admiration got carried over to who they were. When I was a teenager, I had a picture of Sterling Moss on my wall. My mother was afraid I was gay but it still makes sense to me.

But it does make me wonder about hero worship and role models and how much we are willing to forgive and overlook in those distant demigods. It seems to me that, once our admiration of their talents crosses over to devotion, we are willing to overlook alot. Right now, I have a commemorative medal of Ulysses Simpson Grant  1832-1885 on my desk – his real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, by the way.

Grant is a man I greatly admire and he did some very stupid and mean spirited things I am willing to overlook. I have friends who hate Sarah Palin and justify that hate with the fact that she is a lier but are perfectly willing to overlook lying in Bill Clinton. 

I have no point to make here except that we hold on to our believes fiercely. We think those beliefs are products of our logic and reason but they aren't, they come from some deep and hidden recesses of our being.

Michele happened to be at a pet shop before our Mono trip where she saw a cat. What she was doing at the pet shop, I don't know – she says she was there to buy fish food – but, while there, she saw a cat that was up for adoption. Not being in the market for a cat, she just talked to it for a few minutes and left.

When we got back from our trip, the cat was still there. Maybe Michele had gone back for more fish food. The next week, she was still there and Michele started to get concerned that she would not be adopted. It turns out that the cat is a is only nine months old and is a mother. When she had her kittens, her owners – who must have been new owners, after all – dropped her off at a Feral Cat Feeding Center.

I am not sure that I even know what a Feral Cat Feeding Center is and I certainly don't know where one is. But it doesn't sound good. The cat had a micro chip so it was easy to track down the soon- to-be-ex owners who confirmed that they had named her Athena and now didn't want her. So, when Michele ran into her – at nine months – she had been adopted once, had kittens, had been abandoned, and now – then, really – lived in a cage.

You know where this is going. 

We are now the proud owners of Athena. Proud may not be the right word, and owners definitely isn't. When Michele first started talking about Athena – back when she was still a cat, before she was even the cat – I kept saying, Yea, but a cat would be a real pain in the ass. Now she is living in our home and Athena is pretty painless. Mostly because she is very shy and almost out of sight.

She spends most of her time under our bed coming out to look at us from across the room. When we call her name and make eye contact, she will come running across the room only to stop when realizes there is no cage wall between us. Today, I did manage to get her on top of the bed so I could take her picture. But, she was hyper-vigilant.

It will be an interesting journey.