Welcome Republicans

Dispatch from FLA

Old pal Mario Tama writes up his experience photographing the aftermath of Hurricane Charley.

I drove into the bull's-eye of Charley's wrath at daybreak. The 100-foot steel light poles lined up along US 75, now bent over backwards like pieces of wire, were the first signs I saw of the storm's angry presence. Trees had been uprooted and blown about like tinder. And then came the neighborhoods. Endless rows of houses appeared to have been pushed through a massive paper shredder.

Posted by Jim at 03:42 PM

Dispatches from Najaf

Photographers Thorne Anderson and Kael Alford report from both sides of the front line in Najaf. Excellent.

From Anderson inside the shrine:

Imagine the intensity of the experience of those who felt they were defending the shrine and the old city on a religious imperative. It was fascinating to spend time inside with them last week. Contrary to the misinformation of the Iraqi Interior Minister, the shrine was not being used for fighting. Fighters who came in to rest or pray left their weapons outside. Occasionally armed men would enter the shrine in order to carry wounded fighters into the makeshift triage center set up in one of the offices inside the shrine, but even those men were quickly ushered out once the wounded had been delivered and they were told to leave their weapons outside if they wished to come back inside the shrine to visit their injured friends.

From Alford trying to reach the shrine:

When we reached the last square at the edge of the old city we spotted the first hardened, front line Mehdi Army fighters. They shouted for us to stop. Just as Adnan called out a greeting, a solider stepped into the intersection and approached our car looking breathless and nervous. As he reach our car, about a dozen rounds of heavy machine gun fire unloaded into the pavement in front of our bumper.

Posted by Jim at 03:39 PM

Old Greyhound

Old pal Spencer Platt just returned from riding the lonesome roads on old bus and has a fine picture story in this month's Fortune.

Let The Games Begin

And they're off. Two days before the start of the Republican National Convention and we already have two protest stunts and 15 related arrests.

And the journalist pals are arriving. Brilliant to see Welch in town. And he had loads of fun late last night playing music.

Jim Lowney Photo

Duh TeeVee

Old Pal Ken Layne isn't enjoying the cable news today.

Midtown Madness

If you are going to be in or around Midtown Manhattan any time from Sunday on next week it would be wise to start checking out the restrictions while the Republic National Convention is happening.

Preparing For The Overflow

The Hoboken Police Department is making the rounds in the city bars asking staff to be extra alert for underage drinkers and highly intoxicated folks overflowing into the Mile Square City from the Republican National Convention in Manhattan.

Most Hoboken bars will probably not see a massive jump in business expect for the joints around the PATH Station. Being able to smoke in a bar will surely draw some souls under the Hudson and over to the Jersey side.

I will be behind the stick at The Quiet Woman the Sunday before all the fun starts if you don’t mind the ten-block walk from the PATH, would like to enjoy a cigarette and a drink at the same time and a good chat.

Out & About in NYC

Not a bad auld weekend at all. The beautiful Angela and I enjoyed the Saw Doctors performing for a silly-happy crowd of Irish outside Lincoln Center Friday night. And there was the bad art outside there as well. And we had our UWS cocktails and a late chatty dinner with friends. Couldn't say a bad word about any of it.

And on Saturday there was my annual trek up to the Bronx. This time massive rain storms stopped some sad Yankee ball for more than 4 hours. Good fun all the same. Here are the Jim pix of the craic.

Soldiers' Stories

Some American Iraqi War veterans are launching their own web site to get their stories out to the world.

"People aligned with the (Bush) administration say it's going swimmingly. It's not," Rieckhoff said. "The other side paints a picture of an entire nation in chaos. That's not an accurate picture either."

Welcome Operation Truth.

Operation Truth will educate the American public about the truth of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the perspective of the soldiers who have experienced them first-hand. We will provide returning veterans with national, regional, and local podiums from which they will expose the preventable hardships that they endured as a result of failures at the top levels of leadership. We intend to publicize how poorly-planned policies and approaches have manifested themselves as problems on the front lines and back at home. We will act domestically to protect our troops and to aid them in their fight to protect us.

Posted by Jim at 12:37 PM

The New PDN Is Out

This week's PDN offers a fair bit of decent reading--even the free stuff. Up top is the sad story about a New York photog being held in Iraq.

Micah Garen, a New York-based documentary photographer and filmmaker kidnapped last week in Iraq, has been threatened with execution by his captors if U.S. forces do not pull out from Najaf. A video shown on the Al Jazeera TV network depicted a man thought to be Garen kneeling in front of hooded militants armed with rifles and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers.

There is also a fine tribute to Carl Mydans who passed away last week.

Photojournalist and war correspondent Carl Mydans, one of the original five photographers hired to shoot for the launch of Life magazine, died at his home in Westchester County, New York, on August 16. He was 97. Among his best known images was his photo of General Douglas MacArthur wading ashore to Luzon in the Philippines in 1945.

A Parade in Elizabeth

Jim Lowney Photo

Raise A Glass To Hank

Sadly, I forgot about Bukowski's birthday Monday. Even sadder, I seem to have forgotten so much of his beautiful madness and passion and art. Thankfully Tony Pierce reminds us of Hank's raw beauty in some brilliant typing.