PANDORA!

i've added my pandora radio on the right there. you can click and listen to any of the songs, buy them etc. i haven't really configured it too much--from the list there you'd think...well, you'd think i'm an edgy person. which is simply absurd.

check them out. it's pretty neat.

A letter published on Altercation, and a damn fine one at that:

Name: Tim Kane
Hometown: St. Louis, Mo
Dear Eric: I wanted to thank you for directing me towards Norm Birnbaum's piece on Monday. I would have to say that it contained some of the best analysis concerning current politics that I have yet read. It was efficient, short yet breathtakingly brilliant. To my knowledge, I had never read him before, but I will be looking out for everything I can get from him. First I must say that Birnbaum's piece reminded me why I am so sympathetically fond of things Jewish. Having grown up in a Jewish neighborhood, with lots of Jewish neighbors, I've probably been to as many Bar/Bah Mitzvas (spell?) as any non-Jew, but my affinity has always been deeper than that. It's the realization that the need for plurality to protect the Jewish community lead the Jewish people to apply their influence, skill, intellect and support to helping create and implement Roosevelt's New Deal social contract - which provided plurality, but also distributed wealth more evenly creating the great post World War II economic boom (which doubled global productivity in 30 short years). My father was an uber-mechanic with only a high school education, who gained a supervisor position in a factory that gave him an upper middle class wage - something his father could only have dreamed of, and allowing for him to send me to private schools and college. And my father's siblings did much better than he. Birnbaum's piece reminded me of all these things and renewed my appreciation for the Jewish community in America and while I am glad of where I grew up. And for those who have never had Jewish educators, perhaps it’s harder to appreciate the contributions they make. As Americans, they have been the greatest Americans and all of us have benefited immensely. It seems to me that Birnbaum's piece reflects a reasonable, rational dissent in the Jewish community. Again, the skill and efficiency of his assessment simply amazed me, creating an irony whereby in trying to debunk the myth of Jewish intelligence, he manifests it all over again in the process. Brilliant really.

His assessment of the situation of American Jews and Israel helps me understand Spielberg's movie "Munich". Munich presents a case of Game Theory gone awry. According to Robert Axelrod's "The Evolution of Cooperation" the best, most rational strategy, where two parties are in an iterative relationship with no discernable end, is to cooperate. This phenomena explains why I can trust the person who cuts my hair but not the person who sells me a used car - one represents and ongoing relationship with no foreseeable end, the latter does not. The second best strategy is "tit-for-tat": I punch you in the nose, you punch me back. The thing about tit-for-tat is that it should lead the parties back to civility and cooperation - that is unless one likes ones nose broken. The dark side of Game Theory is that if a party learns that the game is going to end, even many moves from now, it pays to stop cooperating immediately. This phenomena is illustrative of Chamberlain's Munich circa 1938 - to the Western allies (France and Britain), cooperation was rational. By bending over backwards, Chamberlain was trying to send a strong signal to Hitler his intent to do the rational thing, participate in cooperate, civil diplomacy to avoid war. What Chamberlain couldn't grasp is that Hitler saw the game of European diplomacy coming to an end. Hitler saw himself vanquishing his (or being vanquished by) opponents and so logically wasn't interested in diplomatic civility or cooperation. Of course this was both irrational and yet logical - Irrational in seeking an end to the game, but once arriving at that position, became logical to end cooperation and civility in diplomacy. (This same lack of civility and cooperation, by the way, is what really frightens me about Bush and the Neocons in American politics.) This brings us to Spielberg's Munich. He demonstrates the insanity of a continued game of tit-for-tat. The refusal to cooperate suggests that the game is being played by extremists who propose to end the game, as Hitler attempted, by vanquishing their opponent. This view exists on both sides, and as the assassination of Rabin by a fellow Jewish Israeli suggests, not only are their extremist on both sides, but they are willing to cooperate to eliminate moderates on both sides. I have no doubt that this phenomena contributed to Arafat not cutting a deal back when Clinton oversaw our politics. What I now see, from viewing Spielberg's film and reading Birnbaum's piece is that there is a dissenting school of thought in the Jewish community that suspects that the on going tit-for-tat strategy is insane, destructive and perhaps has a nihilistic end - which could never be good for the Jewish community, even if it somehow succeeds, and that salvation lies in pluralism, strictly construed and rigorously applied; In other words, coexistence.

At the end of Spielberg's Munich, the protagonist turns his back, not just on the game of 'tit-for-tat' and the insanity it imparts upon him, but also upon the non-pluralistic premise behind Israel, choosing instead to live the life of a Jew in pluralistic America. To Spielberg, this is much more rational. As Birnbaum suggest, the homeland for American Jews, is not Israel, but America. Spielberg's Munich and Birnbaum's piece make excellent bookends for making the case of a dissenting opinion in the Jewish community. Birnbaum correctly points out the security that comes with functional plurality, for Jews, of course, but also for all. He also points out that the Neocon-Jews are making a Faustian bargain with the evangelical Christians who could turn on them the minute they realize that Christ's second coming is not occurring and perhaps is stalled, and hung up because Jews refuse to convert to Christianity as prophecy says they will on the eve of the second coming. (The evangelicals propose, by their actions, to manipulate God into implementing the second coming simply by recreating the conditions so prophesied in the book of Daniel and Revelations, conveniently ignoring Christ's commandment "though shall not test the Lord thou God). He also points out that the Neocon movement is a reaction against modernism and a refutation of the enlightenment and all its fruits, one of which being our pluralistic constitution and all the protections it affords and has built into it. By aligning with the Neocons one signs up for a brave new world yet to be defined. For a community known for its shrewd business acumen, this is a notoriously and intrinsically bad bargain) By definition, though powerful but still relatively small, in a world of tribe-against-tribe, the Jews just don't have the numbers that would suggest they would succeed long term. Then there is all that blood shed and misery that comes with the tribe-against-tribe paradigm. Wouldn't it be better to just opt for functional pluralism, and get back to the game of making money, making babies, and pursuing knowledge and enjoying everything that comes along with those pursuits? Thanks so much for pointing me towards Birnbaum's piece. That was great stuff.

Dittoheads:

anyone have a membership to Rush Limbaugh 24/7? and i'll ignore the question: "why?" and just ask if i could get a copy of the transcript of Rush talking shit about my wife.

thanks,

rg

The joys of life without God | Salon Books

worth sitting through the salon ad--this is a guy who makes excellent arguments about not just the uselessness of religion, but about the fact that being an atheist isn't at all a big deal--it just...is.

a quote from the article:

It's not why there is no God, it's why there's not compelling evidence to believe in God. That's a better way to put it. And from my perspective, it's just not there for me. With training in science, I have high standards of evidence. If you said God is real, and you sent your evidence to the journals Science or Nature for publication, you'd be laughed out of the room; you wouldn't get past the first reviewer.
On the other side, the best evidence that there probably isn't a God is that belief in God is so deeply culturally embedded. When you study world religions, it's obvious that, throughout time, all of these different people are making up their own stories about God. If you lived 1,000 years ago, hardly anybody would be a Christian. If you were born in India, you'd likely be a Hindu. What does that tell you? From a Christian perspective, it means we need to get more missionaries over there to tell them the truth! From an anthropological perspective, it's another case. Christians today might say, I don't believe in Zeus, that was a silly superstition. Yet for many people that was a real god.
So it turns out there are 10,000 gods and yet only one right one. That means we're all atheists on 9,999 gods. The only difference between me and the believers is I'm an atheist on one more god.

Critics Condemn 'Baby Cry' Exhibit | WKRN.COM

to click through to this would be silly--after all, it's the same piece as from ABC and others, with a (slightly) different voiceover. however, to see, LITERALLY, Ron Fucking Burgundy introduce it is...priceless.

do not be hypnotized by the moustache...must pull eyes away...am being swayed...

MARGINALLY UPDATED

i suppose, given that i do actually get the occasional visitor here at the blog, i should disclose the following: for the first time in my career, i was on page one* of both the trades (for the uninitiated, the Hollywood Reporter and Variety) for the sale of "The Boys from Brazil" remake with Brett Ratner attached to direct and he and his partner to produce, with me. i'll link the articles when i have them linkable.

*by page one what i mean is page nine. you see, it read, in variety, "and to be produced by" and that was it, off to page nine for my name. somewhere a copy editor hates me and is laughing. we'll see who laughs last, bub!

here's Variety:

Posted: Wed., Aug. 9, 2006, 10:00pm PT

Ratner takes trip to Brazil
'Rush Hour' director will helm remake for New Line

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Brett Ratner
Ratner


Brett Ratner will direct a contemporized remake of 1978 thriller "The Boys From Brazil" for New Line, which has finalized a seven-figure rights package for the property.

Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz will write the script.

The rights and scribes were part of an auction that came down to New Line and Universal. Outcome was shaped when New Line-based Ratner agreed to make the movie.

Granada Films held the rights for the original film, which it acquired when buying the ITC library. "The Boys From Brazil" will be produced by Rob Green of Granada, along with Rat Entertainment partners Ratner and Jay Stern.

Based on the Ira Levin novel, the original "The Boys From Brazil" fit the mode of 1970s paranoid thrillers, with Laurence Olivier uncovering a diabolical plot by Nazis in South America to revive the Third Reich through the use of cloning. Gregory Peck played Dr. Josef Mengele, the plot's mastermind.

The writers pitched a take that sticks close to Levin's novel but sets the action in the present day.

"The original was a flawed film with a brilliant concept," Ratner said. "You no longer have to spend time explaining cloning as you did then."

The hope is Ratner will make "Boys" his follow-up to "Rush Hour 3," which New Line puts into production in late September for an Aug. 10, 2007, release.

Deal is the second for the writers since they teamed a year ago. They're working on an untitled supernatural thriller they sold to Warner Bros. and Mosaic.

END TIME PRESS COVERAGE (partial list, please leave a note if i've missed something)

ABC News
Air America - LA Radio Interview
American Photo - July/August 2006
BBC
Chicago Tribune- 4/4/06
Citizen K magazine - France
Cooperativa Radio Station - Chile, radio Interview
De Morgen - Brussels
De Standaard - Belgian Newspaper
de Volkskrant , Dutch National Daily - Netherlands
Demorger - Belgium
Der Spiegel - Germany
Die Neue - Austrian
Donna Moderna - Italy
El Mundo Newspaper - Spain
Explosiv - Das Magazin Channel RTL- Germany This was a live TV interview broadcast in Germany
Good Morning America - Live interview
Guardian - UK
Het Belang van Limburg Newspaper - Belgium
MSNBC - Live interview
National Post Newspaper - Canada
PhotoMedia - Has more than End Times photos - other work too.
Rebdactora Revista Viva - 8/20
Suddeutsche Zeitung - Germany 7/28
Sydney Morning Herald
The London Sunday Times Magazine Cover Story - UK
Trouw Newspaper- Netherlands
View - NY
Viva Magazine, Clarin Newspaper - Argentina

a couple of weeks old, but here's a super creepy article from an Aussie magazine about Jill.

an excellent discussion about the work from a livejournal user named Angie Reed Garner with some very thoughtful readers and commenters. noticeably calmer than in other places, and noticeably more females doing the commenting.

as well, and only tangentially related, some discussion of Details Magazine's use of a pig photo to talk about non-stick-figure women is at Pandagon, Unfogged and The Poorman.

jill took the pig photo, to be clear, but it wasn't her concept.

up next--i was on the cover of the trades! first time, and it only took me 10 years to get there!

Here's an article on Jill from a German newspaper. She also appeared on RTL's version of Inside Edition--i'm hoping to upload a video of this soon.



aus der Süddeutsche Zeitung Nr.172 Seite 15
--
from Süddeutsche Zeitung No.172 page 15
the Süddeutsche is one of Germany's biggest daily newspapers with an average print run of 440.000 issues per day.
--

rough translation of the article:

If one steals lollipops from kids: the controversial photos of Jill Greenberg

To give the little ones some candy and take it away right away, that usually does it. Sometimes even that wasn't needed, says photographer Jill Greenberg who made children between the age of two to three cry for her photo series »End Times«. Often the fact that the kids had to stand on a pedestal in the bright studio light without a t-shirt, surrounded by strangers, was enough to make them cry like crazy. And a minute later everything was fine again.
All tears are real only the dramatic lights and the shiny skin of her models were enhanced on the computer by the photographer. The pictures from the series »End Times« were on exhibition in the Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles until July; they will be seen in New York in 2007. But they seem to show more than the moment of aggravation over a withdrawn lollipop. The frustration seems to transform into theatric exasperation, despair and anger through the aesthetic exaggeration. That's what the artist wants to toy with. She gives her series an explicit political meaning opposing the Bush administration and names her portraits »Four more years«, »Intelligent design« or »Misinformation«. The pictures remind Greenberg of »the despair and anger i feel myself about the political and social state of affairs«. Others see something more explosive behind the rage-distorted faces of the kids: abuse.
Is it fair to make children cry just to take pictures of them afterwards? The American Blogger Andrew Peterson started, under his internet alias Thomas Hawk, a discussion in April that still continues: »Jill Greenberg is a Sick Woman Who Should Be Arrested and Charged With Child Abuse«, writes Peterson. Other Bloggers joined him. What followed was strong scolding, Hitler comparisons, threats, pornographic accusations. Greenberg and her husband threatened with legal measures agains libel and exposed the identities of their worst critics. »As a mother, I am quite aware of how easily toddlers can cry.« writes Greenberg in a press release. »A joyful smile can dissolve into a grimace of despair.« Supposedly none of the kids was hurt. Many of the young models are children of friends of the photographer, one of the pictured girls is her own daughter.
American Photo Magazine calls the exhibition the most controversial photo exhibition of the year. Never did they receive so much feedback, the editor in chief told the L.A.Times. The discussion forums on the website of American Photo Magazine had to be closed. Also the sudden attention benefitted Greenberg. Just the page views of the gallery website, where all the pictures can still be seen, increased by 270% - on some days the site has 14000 visitors. Meanwhile a department store has inquired about the rights to the series - to use the pictures for advertising.

no posting, vacation, see you all with lots of new stuff on monday the somethingth.

a kind note from a mother whose child was one of the models at the "end times" shoot.

Hi Jill,
You might remember me, I'm Grace Dever's Mom Rebecca.
I have felt compelled over the last week to drop you a line and say how very ridiculous and unnecessary I think all of the criticism that has fallen on you and End Times lately is. (Ok, the hand slaps for the parents suck as well but that's beside the point) I was so completely touched by the imagery in your project and the message behind it. The children are just so amazingly stunning. I too feel like this is a pretty un-fortuitous time to bring children into this world. But then again, this world would be so much more bleak not to have them to celebrate and love.

Anyway, I'm sure you are being inundated with emails right now so I'll keep this brief.... I just wanted to lend my support to you in any way I can. I saw in you a level of compassion and empathy you displayed when Grace (finally) did become a little tearful while working that touched my heart. For anyone to call you cruel is simply asinine. Really, who lets their kid have candy simply because taking it from them will make them cry? (I take it from my girls almost daily simply because they aren't allowed to have any.... they are quite accustomed to it. LOL)
Know that myself and many other Mothers of your models are firmly behind you!

By the way, "Faker"... OH MY GOD!!!!!! I had absolutely no clue at all that that shot of Grace was even on your site. I looked at the End Times section on manipulator a million times since the exhibit came out but did not think to look at the children's section of your portfolio since the first time I did back when Grace was booked months ago. (to see what kind of work you did., I loved it!) A friend directed me there a few days ago and I'm just without words. You are an unbelievable artist, Jill. Plain and simple. You utterly captured my fantastic imp at exactly her most petulant and beautiful moment. I see this expression daily but never thought to ever try and capture it. That you did so, so poignantly just floored me. Thank you. And thank you for sending the jpeg. I'm so proud to put Jill Greenberg right up at the top of Grace's resume.

Yours,
Rebecca Dever....

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY
from Rob Schneider

[reprinted without permission of either variety or rob schneider, FYI]

I, Rob Schneider, a l/2 Jew, pledge from this day forth to never
work with Me1 Gibson-actor-director-producer-and anti-Semite.
Even if Mr. Gibson offered me the lead role in “Passion of the Christ 2”,
I, like Bernie Brillstein, would have to say “NO!" Even if Me1 had a juicy voice-
over role in his new flick “Apocalypto” andI spoke ancient Mayan, I, like
Bernie Brillstein would still have to say “NO!”
Even if “Apocalypto”is a gigantic smash and Mr. Gibson is quietly forgiven
by Hollywood’s Power Brokers, and I was offered a lead role opposite Me1
Gibson’s Father, (the Mad Max of Holocaust deniers) I, like Bernie Brillstein would likely have to say "NO!"
Even though I have just completed principal photography on my directorial debut in my upcoming motion picture "Big Stan" (A Prison Comedy) in which there is a Nazi gang leader, which apparently Mel would be PERRRR-FECT for, and I had a Time Machine and could go back in time and RE-CAST the lead Nazi, I, like Bernie Brillstein would most likely have to say “NO !
Of course that would be only after i talked with my financial backers,
some of whom share Mr. Gibson's hankering for a good bottle of Tequila.

Because, after all...

I don't get to call all the shots.

Sincerely Yours,

Rob Schneider


P.S. You won’t see ME at Taverna Tony’s in Malibu anytime soon!

Jill Greenberg on GMA

diane sawyer doesn't seem to take the non-real-world-idiot-driven accusations of child abuse very seriously. typical liberal media at work!

The Poor Man Institute
(UPDATED TO REFLECT MY TOTAL CONFUSION ON THIS ISSUE)
the poor man answers your mel gibson questions. Definitively.

huzzah to ari emanuel (also known as jeremy piven, confusingly) for his piece in the huffpo as well. he shows guts by saying hollywood should shun gibson. inasmuch as an agent is showing guts by trying to sabotage another agent's client's opportunity to work on big movies that his own client...

wow, is that cynical. i take it back, i take it back. i genuinely believe that what mr. emanuel is saying is right. no one who doesn't believe what mel believes, i.e. that the holocaust is overblown, and that jews are belligerent scum should hire him. those that agree with those views, by all means. i'm sure the iranian film commission and president ahmenijad would be happy to put mel in the new "drive israel into the sea" thriller.

i will stop now. i'm hoping to still be hired by someone someday in this business, and i believe there is still a bridge left unburned.

although...

Brian Lowry makes some excellent points as well here in Variety. since it is behind a moneywall, to wit:

AT FIRST GLANCE, it would be hard to imagine stranger bedfellows than Mel Gibson and Oliver Stone.

Still, advance publicity surrounding Stone's fundamentally apolitical film "World Trade Center" (which prompted second-guessing from conservatives over whether the conspiracy-minded filmmaker is an appropriate vessel for this patriotic tale) gave way to talk of "professionally shunning" Gibson, as Endeavor principal Ari Emanuel suggested on Huffingtonpost.com.

The anti-Semitic remarks attributed to Gibson following his drunk-driving arrest are contemptible, just as some of Stone's movies bastardize history. Nevertheless, the broader notion of applying ideological or character tests to talent -- or prejudging projects based on who's associated with them -- is as close to the proverbial slippery slope as anyone should be eager to step.

Right-wing pundits already have a field day demonizing "Hollywood liberals," tarring even benign projects with that label. Some threw silly hissy fits over "Superman Returns" because the Man of Steel is said to stand for "truth, justice, all that stuff" -- ostensibly dropping "the American way" from his repertoire. Damn ungrateful Kryptonian illegal aliens.

Lost amid the din, of course, is the ideal of evaluating artistic works on their merits, as opposed to the increasingly common and distasteful practice of flatly dismissing any material from those with whom one disagrees.

The problem is that once you begin contemplating boycotts over boorish behavior and despicable opinions, where does it end? Good luck finding bankable casts for that next movie or TV show. Media moguls and sports tycoons, after all, have never exclusively employed choirboys, what with the historic link between big money and bigger excess.

Even before the inevitable apology tour, Gibson has cemented his status as a Leno punch line, and no one is required to work with or otherwise help further enrich him -- just as they needn't buy Dixie Chicks CDs, patronize Ludacris concerts or see Stone's next movie.

Clearly, it's naive to think such entertainment decisions can be disentangled from politics. Yet most Hollywood leaders' reticence to join in publicly pillorying Gibson might have something to do with this wider view, and the realization that allowing professional undertakings to become a referendum on personal lives is a slow conveyer belt to Hell -- one where the ox that's gored, in the long run, just might be their own.

That makes sense to me as well. i hate it when i think two people are right and they totally disagree with each other. it is such cognitive dissonance that makes me a liberal, i suppose.

Jill on RTL

They're German. They're a network. we like them. interview happening now, we will post it when it is available. also will be posting Good Morning America via the magic of YouTube.

also, Jill's Bacardi ad is all over Miami Vice apparently.

also, it has come to my attention that some of you are reading my blog and actually like the ideas or the writing. i strongly discourage this, as it will only spur me to write on it more.

Audit Finds U.S. Hid Actual Cost of Iraq Projects - New York Times

you know, when we had bush come in as president with the whole "CEO" style, IIRC, it was a good thing. clear up some bureaucracy, make stuff happen. and his biggest single contributor, again IIRC, was Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay. Further, the company that supplied the plane that Bush used when he was flying to and fro Florida to steal the election: Enron. Who, and i'm pretty sure IRC here, took california and treated her the way Jack the Ripper liked to treat a whore.

And here we are, a few years and a few hundred thousand people killed later, and what do we get?

The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects there and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found.

The agency hid construction overruns by listing them as overhead or administrative costs, according to the audit, written by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent office that reports to Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department.

Called the United States Agency for International Development, or A.I.D., the agency administers foreign aid projects around the world. It has been working in Iraq on reconstruction since shortly after the 2003 invasion.

The report by the inspector general’s office does not give a full accounting of all projects financed by the agency’s $1.4 billion budget, but cites several examples.

The findings appeared in an audit of a children’s hospital in Basra, but they referred to the wider reconstruction activities of the development agency in Iraq. American and Iraqi officials reported this week that the State Department planned to drop Bechtel, its contractor on that project, as signs of budget and scheduling problems began to surface.

The United States Embassy in Baghdad referred questions to the State Department in Washington, which declined to comment immediately.

it sounds so very "Chewbacca" or "Star Wars" or whatever the hell andy fastow was calling his latest scam.

kee-rist, they literally turned the damn country into enron. on every possible level.

YesButNoButYes: But what about the children.

very funny website, generally, very funny post. of course, she already did the "same thing to monkeys" and in fact bulfinch is releasing a book of jill's monkeys in september. hopefully a bestseller!

some kind notes for jill from around the universe:

Subject: Jill Greenberg - No, I'm not writing for blood, oh contraire...
Hello,

I just wanted to write a note of support for Jill Greenberg, you and your gallery. Of course I should tell you that I am a vocalist and artist, so my viewpoint might be affected by this, but only slightly, as this just seems to be about basic common sense.

I did view the portraits on her website, and although I might not have made the children cry (ah, would that I had the idea!), I agree that no babies were harmed, maybe just irritated a bit. Ok, that might seem a bit exploitative, but the art that came out of it is beautiful, and just creates a different sense of mortality, vulnerability and immortality.

It's such a shame that San Francisco isn't (exactly) around the corner.

Wishing you both success and much more art.

Regards,

Laurie Amat

I heard an article on KCBS about Jill Greenberg and the outrage that followed her photographs of toddlers. Please tell her that I personally thought her message was POWER-FULL!! Based on the fact that each child had a parent with them AND the parent consented to they way the photographs were taken, she brought a message that people really need to take attention to.

I am bookmarking your web site as I look forward to viewing more from the artist that you support and if I'm ever in the Southern California area, we would love to visit your gallery.

Janet Mercer

I don't think anything was done wrong... if anything... if taking a lollipop from a child makes them burst into flames of tears... I think the parents need to take a look at the emotions of their child.

I do try and take natural photos... but I've never gone for a pose of a child in complete tears...

what about all the kids that cry on Santa's lap and parents buy those photos and laugh at how devastated they are?

Just a bit of support from another photographer!

Let Jill know...

Thanks,
Barb Farley
Photolady & Friends Photography
www.photoladyandfriends.com

Jill Greenberg's photo's are excellent...I love the crying babies...My most treasured photo is of my, now 24 yr. old grandaughter...crying...sitting on Santa's knee...And I knew she was going to cry...But I did not feel like I had abused her....It is fantastic...and she loves the picture too....

Thanks for the good work....

Patricia S. Thompson

Dear Jill,

Joe Allegro from New York here. Congratulations on the End Times photographs. I love them. I am sure you have received much negative attention because of them, which in a way is a good thing. More attention for you and your work.

I certainly would have not heard of you were it not for the controversy surrounding End Times. I can understand the emotion the photographs evoke, no one wants to see children in pain, even if it is for a moment. BUT, I feel your work has much deeper meaning and has much more potential to inspire, rather than agitate. The inspiration for me lies in not only wanting to ease the pain of the children in End Times, but the pain of children worldwide. Children affected by and dying daily because of war, hunger, disease, poverty, oppression and hopelessness. Combine all of these things with the effects of Global Warming, which we are now beginning to see, and the world we are leaving our children does not look too pretty.

I only hope that all of the folks that are so upset over your work would get as equally upset about the condition of humanity, the planet and our future. If they do, it just might help make a difference. As for myself, I am very involved with a grass roots campaign to establish a cabinet level Department of Peace, which would research, articulate and facilitate non-violent solutions both domestically and internationally. There are chapters in every state. So as not to inundate you with details, our national website is www.thepeacealliance.com take a look if you have time.

Once again, thank you so much for having the courage and vision to create End Times. Your work has touched many. It is my hope it will also spur them into action to create a better world and future. Sorry for the long email. Be well.

Peace.....
Joe Allegro

Hello,

I'm Karen, a young freelance theaterdirector from Belgium.
This morning when I opened the newspaper, I saw the pictures of Jill
Greenberg, End Times.
Beautiful!
And the idea about the lolly and the incomparison with the politic situation
in the US.
I don't understand the people who give bad comment on her pictures.
They are very conservative.
I looked up your website and the website from Jill.
I didn't know her work.
Now I am. And that's nice!

Greetings and a lot of succes,
Karen Claes

I would like to congratulate Jill Greenberg and the gallery on the
exposition End Times.

I read (in 'De Morgen', a Belgian Newspaper) there was a lot of protest
about it from concerned people about the suffering of those children
when the pictures when taken.
This is good news. I assume those people who thing, taking away candy's
for just a secund, is child assault, are sympathetic towards children.

I'm sure those people would do everything to help all the real suffering
children in the world, homeless children, poor children, children that
have to work on, the children who can't get healthy water, who can't get
food to grow up well, children who lost their parents or homes because
of war, aids, etc .....

I'm sure the criticasters would spend a big amount of their monthly
wages on organizations that try tho help them, and would vote for the
right politic party, the one that doesn't create hate, war or a polluted
future and who wants to create a fair economy in the whole world for them.


Kind regards,
Ive Van Krunkelsven,
Belgium

Hi,

I'm a professor at USC and run a regular series of art and science events. I was very moved by photographs I saw in the LA Times, and would like to contact Jill Greenberg directly. We're doing a program on End Times in September, and I wondered if she'd like to say something about her photographs. The program includes an astrophysicist from Caltech, a religious scholar, and novelist Caroyn See.

If you could pass this one or get me an e mail, that would be great.

Many thanks,
KC Cole

Hello-

Read the LA Times article on End Times, and I think it missed the
point. The real atrocity is the one Greenberg was trying to illuminate
- clarified for me even further by the idiocy of how this thing has
been received.

Good work and keep it up.

best regards,

Elizabeth Wendell

I can understand why Jill Greenberg might not want to advertise her email
address on her website, given the adverse reaction from some quarters to
"End Times," but please pass to her, from this photographer and father,
that I think her series is priceless and perfectly done. I have no problem
with the temporary distress inflected, given the timeless results. Hurrah!
for her!

Stephen Haynes

Hi,
Just a note a support (please also forward to Jill Greenberg.)
I just saw an article about the children's portraits.
I was blown away by the pictures and when I found out she was the same artist that did the monkeys I was even more impressed. I thought the monkey portraits were one of the best photo books I have ever seen and I have seen a lot.
I am amazed that people are up in arms about taking a lollipop from a child for a minute and we are living in a country whose president tries to make torture legal.
Can you please put me on the mailing list for the gallery.
Gary Steinborn

I just saw a news report on Los Angeles channel 7 news about the outrage against Jill Greenbergs End Times photo gallery. It was said that she is a child abuser by some and it is unfortunate by others.

I immediately looked her up on the Internet, which led me to your gallery and found her work with End Times to not only be real, but wonderful and acceptable.I am the parent of a 16 year old boy and a 4 month old girl and occasionally they cry and that crying is a part of life and emotion. Without crying in any capacity and age of our lives, we have reduced emotion. Withour recording this emotion in others, we would have lost our understanding and sensitivity to crying in our babies and children. Please assure Jill receives a job well done from me and much success in her future photo projects.

Sincerely,

Rick Mitchell
Burbank

i think the belgian "they must all be conservative jerks" is my favorite. thank you, karen! and ive, don't worry, not only do they not really care about the issue of child abuse, the guy who started this whole thing makes money by having a picture of a crying child on his own website!

so jill was on some right-wing radio station in seattle yesterday, having a back and forth with some mouth-breathing fool who commented about jill's being an environmenalist: "so what, you aren't a capitalist?"

now, that this is an either/or is so risibly stupid it causes actual pain in my neck. but while jill talked about RFK Jr.'s book, where he discusses allowing regulation to walk hand-in-hand with capital, i see a different issue.

the issue at hand is one of measurement. and until we fix it, we are probably hopelessly lost. economics (and, for that matter, the more meta econometrics) is a "science" that studies amongst other things the nominal "value" of objects in society. how much do we pay for a barrel of oil? well, 78 dollars is what standard economics tell us it is "worth". an economist will argue that in fact this is just the "Free Hand of the Marketplace" at work, establishing value, and that all they are doing is providing tools to measure the transaction, but that is a load of crap on two levels.

1. oil isn't really 78 dollars a barrel. oil costs 78 dollars a barrel plus all the money that must be spent in the future to deal with the ramifications of the use of that oil in the present. this should be obvious to anyone with a high school education. yet we blithely, as a society, pretend that there is no measurable future cost so that we can keep living the dream here in the present. funny word that, measurable, because it leads to...
2. the measurements of trade, which are our financial instruments, created by or weighed up by the "science" of economics and econometrics. and of course neither of those disciplines are able to force measuring the actual cost of things into their price, nor does the consensus in either discipline really try (and yes, there are plenty of economists who will take a crack at it, but they are on the fringe and don't seem to have any impact) to make a public argument about it.

so. we continue to pretend that our trade exchanges are based on some accurate measure of utility plus market valuation plus government regulation and so on. and it's all bullshit. plain and simple. if you factored in the true cost to our world of products in the energy sector, taking into account let's say 50 years or so of forward-utility, you would find that without question wind-generated power was cheaper than oil by a factor of...well, by a lot. and you could more accurately measure the cost of ethanol (cheaper because we don't have to ship it from the middle east where we cause wars over oil, more expensive because of the pesticides and energy needed to grow corn etc.) accurately. and so on. and when we discovered just how unbelievably wrong we were about the cost of a barrel of oil, or of putting a new coal plant on-line, we'd move to an alternative. and maybe in so doing, we'd make the world a little less horrible for our children. as well, to stop relying on oil, we'd be doing a HUGE favor to the person on the street in the middle east, whose leaders wouldn't be able to steal all the resources and buy them off with sops. instead, those countries would be forced to generate new ways of thinking and doing business.

now, back to our regularly scheduled husbandry.

Jill on MSNBC. Rita Cosby wants to know: was she involved in kidnapping white women? No? well, we have to move on, but Jill thanks so much for showing up.

followed by two lawyers. we like the woman better.

also, ABC News goes for the sensational. viewers nowhere are shocked.