No Longer Coreled by My Software

My Canon PS SX10 IS came back in snappy time, less than a week in total, and was fixed by the Canon people. Very impressive service. So, I'm sort of back in the saddle, but my horse doesn't have a destination. The idea of returning to the streets of Detroit, with so many others who have claimed the streets as their own, does not appeal to me at all. I figure I had my shot and now it's time to move on. That doesn't mean I will "never" return, but for now, I am not interested. As time went by, I also began feeling that my visits were intrusive and that I wasn't doing the city any favors by showing my work. It is important for people to know what's really going on in Detroit, though, and that was my main objective. The corporate-controlled media is not going to show you what I saw. Perhaps you'll get a glance when a robust filmmaker shoots a documentary on the city, but you're not going to see street after street of a city that was abandoned by an industry the way the auto people fled Detroit.

Detroiters are really struggling to survive now. Good jobs are hard to come by, especially in Detroit. Sure, we're all having a rough time thanks to the last thirty years of watching the middle class in this country getting plundered by the rich.

I am thinking of turning my eye to some of the skirting 'burbs, a few in particular that are packed with people struggling to stay afloat in this weird economic environment. Those with less find interesting ways to survive and decorate their worlds. I drove through one such neighborhood last week on my way to a dollar store that I find to be THE most depressing I've visited, where I shot Mom's Taxi. Chinese Junk. That's what I find in these stores and I use this junk for my photos.

Someone listening to my rants might think I'm one of those flag-waving Americans who loved George Bush and wants this country to be a Christian nation. Truth be known, I am very interested in other cultures. I largely eat Indian (east) food, as I learned to cook quite an array of tasty dishes, firing up my pressure cooker for a steaming spicy bowl of palak mung dal, some fiery hot sambars and rasams, steaming pots of basmati and masoori rice...Really excellent food. I watch scores of foreign films. No, I do like being a citizen of the world and don't want a closed society. I don't want to stop buying foreign-made goods. But I do want jobs to return to the U.S., and I want a thriving middle-class where we get a slice of the pie, too.

Not only am I pissed off about what's going on with bankers and Wall Street thieves, but I'm even more pissed off that nobody seems that interested in what's going on. How can real life events that effect us all compete with the latest line-up of television shows?

Back to these poor neighborhoods. The ones I have in sight are not poverty-level areas, but hoods where it is a real struggle to stay afloat. I see some very interesting home decor, and that's what I think I want to go after next. I'm not looking for post-war bomb-out shots, but more quirky shots.

Sorry to disappoint all of you. I wonder, if I ever return to the streets of Detroit for photos, if those crazy-ass Wall Street tycoons would be interested in placing hedge bets on whether or not I return unscathed?

Something new regarding my photography...I'm shelving my Paint Shop Pro and delving into the world of Adobe Photo Shop. I will finally begin to experience all the wonder I've heard about this program. I have been using Paint Shop Pro for all my digital days, long before Corel bought the company. It has been okay, and performs basic adjustments alright. Perhaps not. I've really had nothing to compare it with. So it's time to boost up my computer, but in that new graphics card, pour in the RAM, and get ready. The software was shipped.

Bon soir Corel. And good riddance. I've been a loyal fan (forced to be for economic reasons, I might add, plus a touch of my attraction for the under-dogs of the world) but you have really let me down with your latest versions of software. I've invested hundreds and hundreds of dollars into your company. Thanks for the complete breakdown in support this past year.

waving with great enthusiasm...blowing a kiss to the north, to Canada, where Corel lives...thinking kindly of my Canadian neighbors and not holding Canada accountable for the buggy software that Corel publishes.