On my way from one beach to another. See you within the week Brighton.

Brighton Our Story

Gay Brighton

Brighton Pride

Penn's Landing: A Proud Heritage

I haven't been to Penn's Landing in quite sometime, but I was incredibly pleased to see that Penn's Landing is still the hub for urban attention seekers. Since the 70s, Penn's Landing has been a constant home to rollerskaters, jugglers, mimes and any number of men who own exotic pets and like to walk around with them. "Breakdancers" too, although I would say "dancers who perform in the style of Rerun from What's Happening."

Look, I'm 40 and I know the Siren's cry of Penn's Landing to these Philadelphians. I've seen the ballroom rollerskating moves being performed in front of a giant speaker that had a purple fur covering. I was there in 1976, celebrating the bicentennial. I know Newmarket. This is why my heart was filled with joy when we saw this lady performing hula hoop moves at an outdoor concert. She had nothing to do with the show, she just opted to perform in a crowded space where another event was happening. And she was pissed if people got too close. Keep the flame burning lady! I'm just a little sad there wasn't a shirtless guy with an albino snake around his shoulders. Or a macaw, I'd take a macaw on his shoulder.

At the airport on the way home I met a guy, Jack, who works in oil spill management. Among the many, many things he told me regarding the oil spill were...

1. oil will breakdown into fertilizer and crude oil is a great fertilizer

2. I expressed concern that the number of dispersants used could cause long term problems he said that we use dispersants everyday, like dawn dishwashing detergent.

3. After showing him a photo I made of oiled water running inland into a marsh he said they'll probably burn the marshes which they do every few years anyway.

Burning the marshes was a real shocker. What? Burn the marshes? Burn wetlands? Now, I know very very little about geology, biology and organic chemistry, let me get that out the way, but while burning oil affected marshes is a option due to desperation in lessening the impact of the spill... wetlands are not burned every few years. Stop me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty certain that there's no "every few years controlled burns" in the Louisiana wetlands.

Jack believes that things will be fine within the next couple of months, and I hope that he is completely right.

Click here for his personal blog. I suggest that people take a look at it and read all of the Louisiana oil spill posts. I asked if I could link to it and even though I asked, I was hesitant to link to it because it's a personal blog, but I think it's important to read it due to his job as a contacted oil spill manager.

On The Beach by Zoe Strauss - Project Site

I'm still working non-stop on On The Beach. Check it out!

I am home from Louisiana. Today I drove my lady to work and got coffee from my friend and came home to Bobby, pictured below, yelling "ZOE, ZOE, I SAW 'FIDDLER ON THE ROOF!' THE PLAY AND THE MOVIE!" Bobby is super into my being a Jew and likes to yell random things he knows about Judaism to me. Actually, this year he knew when Passover was and I had no idea. I thought it was the week after, but of course he was right.

Christ on a cross, this is a difficult thing I decided to.

Zoe Strauss's current worries in order:

1. money

2. ability to produce work that can be edited into something cohesive about the BP catastrophe

3. the actual BP catastrophe

4. my chronic problems with taxes and bill paying, all of my own making and seeming not controlled by medication... looking like it can only be fixed with years of behavioral talk therapy and what the hell good is that going to do me? I'm 40. Hey, I just got it together to pay the electric bill without having a nervous breakdown! Damn it, I'm on my death bed!

5. 3 of the 4 above worries are included in the over all worry of "not being a good wife to the greatest and most supportive person in the world, aka, Lynn Bloom" The most current manifestation of this worry is best exemplified by this statement,

"Listen honey, I hope you mind that I don't have a job on the horizon and I'm using what money I have to go to the Gulf to record some of what's happening with this environmental disaster. And I'm not really sure how this work will turn out, it might not be successful, but I'm still doing it so do you mind taking care of the house, all the finances, and all the household responsibilities while I head into a toxic mess where you won't know where I am? I'll be driving through the Delta, rural Louisiana and maybe Alabama and Florida or maybe Texas and meeting up with strangers by myself. I'll call when I stop at an Arby's or something."


----


Also, new on my list of "what the hell?" is not being able to stop talking to myself. It's now turned into me humming all the time to prevent the full fledged insanity of talking to myself outside of my own home. Now I just hum what I'm saying to myself, which means I'm humming all the time, kind of like Peanuts teachers talking but replacing their nonsensical talk noise with a humming nonsensical talk noise.

Hello. I lost a little mail during the computer break, repair and recovery. If I haven't responded, please resend it. Thanks.

On The Beach Site

Hi Friends,

I'm working like 90 hours a day on On The Beach and have decided to create a site that will be my focus for the next 2 weeks as I edit my photos and structure the project. Posting here will be non-existant, or maybe just sporadic, as I plan my second trip and edit my work from the first trip.

Please check it out at http://onthebeach-zs.blogspot.com/

Be back here in about 2 weeks.

With Love,
ZS

I Ain't Ever Satisfied - Steve Earle

I was born by the railroad tracks
Well the train whistle wailed and i wailed right back
Well papa left mama when i was quite young
He said now "one of these days you're gonna follow me son"

Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't ever satisfied
Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't ever satisfied


Now i had me a woman she was my world
But i ran off with my back street girl
Now my back street woman could not be true
She left me standin' on the boulevard thinkin' bout you

I got an empty feeling deep inside
I'm going over to the other side

Last night i dreamed i made it to the promise land
I was standin' at the gate and i had the key in my hand
Saint peter said "come on in boy, you're finally home"
I said "no thanks pete, i'll just be moving along"

Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't ever satisfied
Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't ever satisfied

Protest for Immigrant Rights Tomorrow

AZ Governor in Philadelphia-


Come and Take a Stand for Immigrant Rights!
Date:
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Time:
5:30pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Geno's Steaks, 1219 S 9th, on the corner of 9th and Passyunk


-----



"Some of America and PA's worst elected officials will gather at Geno's Steaks from 6 pm to 10 pm this Wednesday for a fundraiser and supporting Arizona's illegal immigration law.

PA state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe,who supports a similar law for Pennsylvania; and Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta will be at Geno's Steaks to raise money to support Arizona and the anti-immigrant law SB 1070.

AZ Gov. Jan Brewer; AZ state Sen. Russel Pearce, who authored the state's controversial immigration bill; Phoenix, AZ SherrifJoe Arpaio, notorious for human and civil rights abuses will be broadcasted over conservative radio supporting the event.

We will not tolerate this kind of hate and racism in Arizona, Pennsylvania, or Philadelphia. Come and take a stand of civil rights, human rights, and dignity for all people!"

-----

I've deleted the last two comments by mistake... PLEASE PLEASE REPOST THEM HERE IF YOU CAN. SORRY MY FRIENDS FROM CHINA!

我错误地删除最后两个意见...请请转贴如果你能。抱歉我的中国朋友！

Wǒ cuòwù de shānchú zuìhòu liǎng gè yìjiàn... Qǐng qǐng zhuǎn tiē rúguǒ nǐ néng. Bàoqiàn wǒ de zhōngguó péngyǒu!

These photos are making me sick.

The brown and black on the side of the seawall is oil. The puddle of brown and black is oil. The brown and the black on the yellow boom is oil.

Above is all true.

And the media blackout is causing people to have no idea about the human scale of this catastrophe. It was abstract until I was literally on the beach. Then, from over a hundred miles away from the gusher site, I stood on a beach in Mississippi and saw oil as far as I could see in either direction. This was in Waveland, MS, where I planned to go BEFORE the beach was closed and people were still fishing and swimming... but oil showed up before me. Oil in all different forms was in the soil across the street from the beach, buried under the sand on the beach, on top of the sand, on everything that was on the beach, the booms, the docks, the seawalls; visible oil "patties" ranged from smaller than a dime and bigger than at least a yard across, oil was on top of the water with a visible sheen, oil was in the water showing up with bands of brown clouds. Oiled clouds of minute debris floated in the water and that looked black, as opposed to brown.

Clean up crews were working with no respirators. Photos can't describe the problem with this: they are picking up oil that's melting in the sun and there's oil in every direction. It's not like someone poured motor oil on the beach, there's many forms of oil and all the forms of oil are cooking in the heat. And the clean up crew is breathing that in. Now, maybe that's ok, what the hell do I know about breathing in hot oil... but it seemed to me like respirators should be standard for the people who are working on the beach all day.



All the the black on the sand is oil. The brown mass in the water is all oil. The dots on the seawall on the right are oil.

Waveland, Mississippi

Here's water hitting the shore and a sluice that leads inland.


The seawall leading inland


Where the seawall sluice leads

waves washing oil in

---







waves washing oil in

Our Life, Between Sea and Oil by Martha Serpas

Boom is surrounding the barrier islands to prevent oil from making landfall



Boom protecting seawall sluice and beach in Mississippi

Not working out so great.

oil

Happy Birthday, Cosmo Baker!

Love you brother.

No updates for a few days, I'm working all day and getting back and saving photos, falling asleep and then getting up and going again. Thanks to the NRDC and Ryan's Cajun Adventures for the boat ride today.

The photo above is from the fly over of the disaster site on Tuesday. This is fucked up.

Yes, this template is updated for the first time since 2005.

Thanks to the Philadelphia Weekly I am legit and looking at an oil spill fly-over either this coming Tuesday or Thursday. I'll be flying out of Houma, LA.

And it seems like I'll be able to get on a chartered boat ride with the NRDC. The NRDC is doing an enormous amount of work in the Gulf and is going to be opening a much needed resource center in Buras, LA this week.

A Shoutout to Springboard Media

Today, you know, as I'm working on a trip involving a tremendous amount of planning, stress, money and all day computer usage, my computer crashed. Right, fuck you.

With crossed fingers, my computer should be covered. But because I bought my computer at Springboard over on Walnut street, I was able drop off my busted computer in the middle of the afternoon and get a loaner computer, WITH ALL MY DATA ON IT, by the time they closed at 6pm. THANK YOU SPRINGBOARD!

On The Beach by Zoe Strauss - Project Site - Where Great Art Starts - from United States Artists

On The Beach by Zoe Strauss - Project Site - Where Great Art Starts - from United States Artists


Spread the word... I've got to hit the minimum goal to get ANY cash to support the trip and I'm reserving my ticket without having hit that goal. That's the bare minimum to be able to get down there and produce work and I'm looking a lot more fundraising to publish a book of 30 photos. Help me out, I ain't no NYT, I'm just a lady from South Philly but I know I can record some important things down there.

I've got to reign in my internet spread... blog and facebook are too much, so I've got to consolidate some something.