bobrosenbaum

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Boy on Bomb Shelter, Northern Israel, April 1994.

There was a time in 1994 when it seemed like Israel and its neighbors were on the road to real progress: the Oslo accords had been signed, the 'reborn' Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat returned to govern the West Bank and Gaza, and for a brief time, the nation of Israel once again breathed the fragrance of peace.

With my five years in the country, I keenly felt the accompanying excitement and euphoria. For me, it was the natural culmination of my own personal dreams for Israel. Hiking with friends around the country's beautiful back hills, valleys, forests and deserts, camera in hand, I began a photography essay which I also felt was an expression of the times, capturing images of the ubiquitous bomb shelters I found everywhere.

On one hike in Israel's northern region, walking through Kibbutz Misgav Am, an agricultural community which sits literally meters from the border with Lebanon, I spotted this boy checking out the majestic view from atop one of the eclectically-decorated kibbutz shelters.

AT THE TIME I thought it was a quaint image with a strong sense of pathos and also a touch of nostalgia — after all, I reasoned, like so many other shelters this would soon become an artifact of Israel's past. But in 1994, I was still new to the Middle East.

Today this image has a brand new narrative. Almost all of the members of Kibbutz Misgav Am are currently refugees from their homes, waiting to return after the Israeli Army puts an end to Hezbollah's incessant rocket attacks and the far too realistic threat of murderous cross-border raids. For anyone who remains on the Kibbutz, this shelter is more important than ever. Not quaint or nostalgic in any sense.

Exactly one year ago today in the south of Israel, residents living near the neighboring Gazan terror state were viciously attacked, raped, burned, massacred and kidnapped by Palestinian Hamas terrorists. On October 7th, 2023 alone, an estimated 1,584 people were killed, 3,300 were wounded and 251 were taken hostage (101 people still remain hostages in subterranean Gaza today).

There are ubiquitous shelters and safe rooms in our southern locations as well, but they did not provide much protection. In retrospect, Israel was 'still fighting the previous war', unprepared for the Hamas pickup trucks, motorcycles and paragliders that breached our expensive high-tech border, carrying some 6,000 terrorists wielding automatic weapons, grenades, RPGs, knives, axes, machetes and other low-tech killing tools.

OVER THE PAST year, in a war we did not invite, Israel has managed to push back some of the terror from the south, north and also from its primary source, Iran in the east. Today, as we commemorate our fallen as well as the unfathomable bravery of so many citizens, the war continues. The fragrance of death and destruction is what we breathe now — our own as well as that of our neighbors.

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Israel-Hamas War, Gaza, 2024.

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Ruins, Ancient Jewish Temple, Kerem Ben-Zimra, 1997.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Sabbath Table for 240 Missing Persons, Tel Aviv, November 2023.

Gathering by thousands to heighten the world's awareness of the approximately 240 people who were kidnapped on October 7th from southern Israeli communities to Palestinian Gaza by Hamas terrorists.

In the cross-border attack, at least 1200 people – mostly civilians including infants, children and elderly people – were murdered, raped, burned alive and mutilated by the Palestinian militias.

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Orange Bliss, Binghamton, New York, September 1997.

This magnificent oak tree grew in our yard at the top of our driveway. Each fall, after a sumptuous rainy summer, its branches would seemingly burst into flames before being exposed, dark and bare, to the upstate New York winter.

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Summer Night, Jerusalem, August 2020.

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Resistance - Street Protests, Hadera, Israel, July 2023.

Today is a sad day, and an apparently necessary day in the history of our young and historically-liberal nation.

Today the extreme-right governing coalition in Israel's parliament used the brute power of their majority to take what appears (for many of us) to be a nose dive into an authoritarian form of government, in spite of broad, vocal and sustained opposition from minority lawmakers, a large percentage of its citizens, and scores of leading judicial, national security, diplomatic, economic and business community members.

THIS IS NEW for little Israel, which throughout its first 75 years of hard-won (and miraculous) independence, created governments that have nurtured and championed a progressive democracy, focused squarely on the multi-colored sensitivities of its citizens. Today's vote formally shifts this often-fragile governing balance into the conservative realms of religious autocracy and fundamentalism, and with considerable force.

This vote now prohibits the Israeli Supreme Court from using a somewhat esoteric judicial measure called 'reasonableness' as a means to overturn government appointments and decisions, a Court practice that has been used sparingly but dramatically in recent years. The first likely outcome of this change will be the firing of the independent Israeli Attorney General, who has been a thorn in the current government's side since its election. A second likely outcome of the change will be the installment of the charismatic religious leader (and twice-convicted tax felon) Arieh Deri as the government's Minister of the Interior and Minister of Health. Other possible outcomes of the change include such fateful policy decisions as outlawing the current Palestinian Authority and ruling that Jews who move to the West Bank are, by law, guaranteed more rights than native Palestinians (i.e., apartheid).

To say simply that this change was opposed by some Israeli citizens is the understatement of 2023.

For seven months straight, hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of concerned Israelis have regularly left the comfort of their homes, screens and cars for street corners and intersections, protesting the governing coalition's step-by-step program to disembowel the country's judicial system.

There is no other spontaneous national movement in Israel's history that can be compared to this protest, in breadth, scale or effectiveness.

It appears that it will take every ounce of our nation's legendary strength, soul and courage to avoid translating this political shift into a potentially devastating civil war. At this moment, there is mainly only anger and disgust on both sides of the political divide.

THE FALLOUT FROM today's vote has yet to be seen and felt, but it is hard to be optimistic about the results. The predictions from many corners of the Israeli and global community are apocalyptic: massive shifts of capital away from Israel's high-tech 'startup nation'; resignations en masse by members of the Israeli military reserve forces; a dramatic reduction in American diplomatic and economic support, a rainstorm of new claims by anti-Israeli political, legal and civil groups; unprecedented waves of emigration by young people, progressive families and citizens with liberal mindsets – the list goes on. We shall see.

Anyway you turn it, today's vote 'winners' are also the losers – in fact, our elected leadership's inability (and perhaps disinterest) in arriving at a realistic compromise solution on judicial system reform has made all Israelis the losers.

The need to rise above the inflammatory rhetoric has never been more urgent. We need to take a breathe and focus on the basic motivations for this government's race to weaken the Israeli judiciary system and ask ourselves the question: 'Why?'

And we need now more than ever to proactively engage fellow Israeli citizens in 'the other camp' and ask: 'Why?'

The answers we hear – if any – are not likely to move us into their camp. But as long as we continue to ask 'Why?' we also continue to see our adversary as our brother or sister, a human being with thoughts, feelings and needs not unlike our own, and we can sustain Israel as a people of compassion and shared possibility in place of surging irrational violence and bloodshed.

This is not the first time we have seen the mosaic components of our people disagree so emphatically over the direction our government is taking – Israeli history is full of such moments. This is also not the first time we have so deeply feared and castigated 'the other camp'. But this time, the price of abandoning our compassion will be the continued existence of our nation.

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Seeking Symmetry, Catskill Mountains, NY, June 2023.

A young maple and its neighbors display their greenest greens following a rainy summer morning, not far from the Ashokan Reservoir.

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Archie Shepp, The Jazz Center, New York, 1985.

Saxophonist Archie Shepp remains a powerful, original voice in American music. As a musician, author, poet and teacher he has helped to build a new foundation for contemporary, uncompromised Black American culture -- a culture which has evolved over the last 50 years to thrive well beyond the lens of the dominant white American culture, and also without a need for often-misguided white promoters.

That's not to say that Archie Shepp creates music that is insular or closed to cultures outside his own. Quite the opposite is true, in fact.

ARCHIE'S MUSIC WILL will raise a few of your hairs, challenge a few of your conventions, and give a few of your angrier thoughts some free sparring time. It will also show you what swing is all about, as well as the true roots of the Blues.

I consider myself very fortunate to have heard Archie's timeless music so deeply, to have been able to experience and capture his performances, to have met and spoken with him for a time, and even to have served with him on the board of Music Inn Studios, a non-profit calling of our mutual Philadelphia-born friend, J.R. Mitchell.

I'm not going to try to tell you anything more about Archie, except perhaps to let you know that today is his birthday.

Here are just a few links to start hearing and learning about Archie Shepp from his ground-breaking, counter-culture work in the late '60s to his National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master recognition in 2016: Archie's mind-blowing take on Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady (1968); the beseeching Hipnosis (1975); his classic composition Steam live from the Montreaux Festival (1976); Archie in his seminal duo arrangement with pianist Horace Parlan on the spiritual Trouble in Mind (1986); his wonderful funky big band arrangement of another wailing classic 'Mama Too Tight' (2012); and finally Archie's NEA Jazz Master 2016 Biography.

May Archie Shepp's revolutionary artistic statement, his exhuberance and music live forever!

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Ugly Beauty,* Carmel Foothills, Israel, March 2011.

Not everything in this world is meant to be beautiful. But some things are beautiful just because, 'ya dig?

* With love to Thelonious Monk: Ugly Beauty

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Demonstration, Haifa, Israel, March 2023.

The End Game

SEVERAL TIMES NOW, I've started to post about the unprecedented national crisis in Israel and the increasing liklihood of a showdown between the sitting government and the judicial branch, which would result in a paralyzed and prone country.

Each time I felt I had written something that could bring some value, the situation here changed, rendering my words valueless.

Along with this, the sheer volume of writings, opinions, predictions, warnings, etc., is so dizzying that I could post a dozen links to as many effective pieces written by other citizens as concerned as I, and also far more qualified to provide a worthy analysis.

So, let me just cut to what I see as the End Game.

THE END GAME FOR the governing coalition creates a State which eliminates the independence of its judicial system, to benefit the will of governing politicians. Of course, they want to do this for a specific reason; simply stated, they want to pass laws which cannot be challenged by the Israeli Supreme Court.

The unwarranted speed, deafness and vicious forcefulness that the governing coalition has used to advance their legislation is damning and depressing evidence that an unprecedented blow to Israel’s democratic system is indeed their End Game.

If Israel had a constitution, a bill of rights, or some other formal basis for protecting our system of government and our citizens from such concerted corruption and abuse, today’s national scenario would not be as frightening. But that is not the case. And this End Game empowers the governing coalition to usurp the traditional guardian role of the Supreme Court and to pass brutal, blatantly political laws which change the very nature of the system. For example, a law to revoke the rights of non-Jewish citizens to vote in national elections. Or a law to delay future elections until the desired outcome will be certain.

Grim imaginings? Unfortunately not. There already have been attempts by some extreme religious members of the current coalition to implement their power, for example, a proposed law to arrest women who arrive at Jerusalem's Western Wall inappropriately dressed. The statements just this month by the Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotrich about his desire for the Israeli military to "burn down" the West Bank Arab town of Hawara could, sadly, find legal support by some convenient new law that promotes the extreme Right's anti-Palestinian agenda.

Their End Game does not stop with just dismantling the judicial system. Another likely target for change will be mandatory military service for Israeli citizens – long a source of ideological discomfort by the orthodox religious community. The list goes on: the State’s recognition of civil marriage, the acceptance of Reform Jews as full Israeli citizens, the right for workers to strike or even to demonstrate, the right to perform abortions, the adoption of children by same-sex couples – these and many other present-day norms could be overturned with ease under the governing coalition’s proposed changes.

"After these laws pass, there will be nothing that limits the power of the government.” -- Yuval Harari

In a recent television news interview, world-renowned Israeli historian and author Yuval Harari also talked about the End Game. He urged, that instead of examining and arguing over the minute details of the coalition’s proposed judicial legislation package, “People should focus their attention on one question only: ‘What will limit the power of the government?’ ”

“Until today,” Harari added, “in Israel we’ve used a jumbled-up combination of basic laws, together with the legal power of the Supreme Court to tell the government ‘No.’ After these laws pass, there will be nothing that limits the power of the government.”

“It’s not important what is going on in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s mind right now. Who knows what will pass through his mind next year, or what will pass through the mind of whoever follows him? We need to be able to thwart the government’s ability to destroy our freedoms. What the coalition is trying to do is create a political atomic bomb that may not be used right away, but can still be used in another year, or two years.”

It's little wonder that hundreds of thousands of Israel’s active and highly vocal citizens have been organizing and demonstrating using every legal means – including the streets – for 3 months now.

BUT THERE IS A SECOND End Game to consider – that of the opposition (current members of Israel’s parliamentary minority).

Well, actually, the opposition doesn’t have an End Game, nor any real plan to help prevent the State of Israel from sliding into an autocracy (or perhaps a theocracy) fashioned by the extreme religious Right. As they have in the past, the opposition is relying on existing laws and political norms to serve them. That is the nature of democratically-inclined societies. But these very laws and norms are now the targets of the Right’s attack.

Opposition leaders have decried the ruling coalition’s End Game, laid every parliamentary roadblock they can, supported the unparalleled public protests we are seeing, and called determinedly for a halt to the shamelessly one-sided legislative process to enable a broader, more thoughtful national dialog over the proposed judicial reforms.

Yet they have not created an alternative End Game. Their request to return to a respectful discussion – whatever that means in Israel – is not an End Game.

On this day, as the democratic fabric of Israel woven over 75 years unravels before our eyes, we can plainly see the flaw that lurks behind the legal crisis now consuming our country. It is the failure of our nation to have produced an organized, broadly-based, formal set of democratic laws and civil rights – a Constitution.

As Yuval Harari concluded in his interview, “In the new situation that has been created we will need stronger defenses for Israeli democracy. The current basic laws and the Supreme Court will not be enough. We need to find other methods…I hope that this shock will bring us forward to a better situation, that it will move us toward a stronger democracy.”

A national Constitution must be today’s End Game for Israel.

Without it, Israel's institutions and its citizens will continue to be tossed about by self-serving, short-sighted, corrupt and incompetent governments, politically frail Supreme Court rulings, and egotistical, power-focused politicians.

And with tonight's protests enflamed more than ever in the face of another ill-motivated action by the country's Prime Minister, it's honestly difficult for me to see how Israel will succeed in reaching such an important redefining moment.

___________

Photo by Etty Ya'akov. Young people demonstrating in Haifa, Israel on March 18th, 2023, carrying signs that together spell D E M O C R A C Y in Hebrew.

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Reverberation, Photographic Exhibition, Tel Aviv, February 2023.

My friend, the wonderful photographer Victor List raised an excellent (and far too short) exhibition of his live music photographs this week at the eclectic Tel Aviv nightspot Kuli Alma.

Victor's performance images exude emotion, especially when you see them enlarged and presented in a loving visual space like Kuli Alma. He is gifted at capturing the unconventional (perhaps even the anti-conventional) musical moment and preserving its energy for all to see.

There is also a definite musical flow from image to image, revealing the sensibilities of curator Asia Dublin, who also wrote in the exhibition catalog:

"Victor's work takes place alongside the work of the musicians. The passion for photography, the sensory richness, and the drama that happens on the stage, bewitch him and draw him to the depths of the basements, to the bars, to the night clubs, to the concert halls. Victor is addicted to how music sounds, how it looks, and how it is photographed."

I'll add that Victor's works are imbued with warmth and an intimacy that is not often seen in live performance images. That is not a surprise, for Victor himself is a person who simply radiates warmth, openness and humility. It was fun to join in his 'Reverberation' — the only critical observation I could make is that the exhibition should have run for a month and not just four days.

Congratulations and thank you Victor! You can see more of his exceptional images on his Facebook and Instagram pages.

Above, top to bottom: Singer and performer Kama Kamila; Victor List signing a catalog among the throng; the exhibition space at Kuli Alma

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Answers to 10 Questions About What is Happening in Israel

Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90, Times of Israel, 14 January 2023

THE STATE OF ISRAEL, unlike some modern Democratic nations, has no written constitution, no Bill of Rights, and no 'inalienable' recognition of individual freedoms which formed part of the basis for its founding. Despite this fact – and in the face of enduring hostility by many of its neighbors – Israel’s steadfast support of policies that protect basic human freedoms and equal rights for all persons before Israeli law has been largely preserved by its many elected governments and courts of Justice throughout its 74 years as a sovereign nation.

This support has always been recognized as one of the most important moral touchstones of the Jewish State.

But events since the Israeli elections of November of 2022 may well be leading to a dramatic shift in the Israeli government’s official attitude towards its historically progressive and Democratic nature.

Below, I’ve assembled 10 key questions that anyone interested in the future of the State is likely to ask in coming days, together with some brief answers. I am no expert or political pundit, believe me, only a deeply concerned Israeli citizen.

Is Israel's standing as a Democratic nation in danger?

Yes. There are formal moves underway to change the ‘checks and balances' specifically between Legislative and Judicial branches of the Israeli government, with the ultimate effect being the erosion of Democracy due to an unprecedented strengthening of the parliamentary majority’s Legislative and Executive powers over independent Judicial powers.

Is the newly-appointed Minister of the Interior really a man who sat several years in prison for bribery, fraud and breech of trust?

Yes. Aryeh Deri, the new government’s Minister of the Interior (and not incidentally also the new Minister of Health) was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in jail for these crimes in 1999, while serving as Minister of Religious Affairs. He returned to serve in the Knesset in 2013. After new allegations arose in 2018 which resulted in charges of serious tax offenses in 2022, he avoided a new jail sentence by plea bargaining -- resigning from the Knesset to avoid being formally barred. His latest re-appointment by Bibi Netanyahu is now being challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court.

Did a majority of Israelis really help to elect an Arab-hating racist to the Knesset, and did Bibi actually grant him the power to make policy decisions for the State's police forces?

Yes. That would be Itamar Ben-Gvir, a follower and protégé of the late leader of the extremist Kach Party, declared racist Meir Kahana. Today Ben-Gvir leads his own extremist party called Otzma Yehudit, which now holds 6 seats in the Knesset.

Will the newly-elected government actually shut down long-established Public and Army Broadcasting channels, which are historically critical of their policies?

This is what they stated they will do. It remains to be seen if they will succeed.

Can the governing Knesset really change Israeli laws to effectively make the currently-independent Department of Justice and Israeli Supreme Court their obedient servant?

This is what they stated they will do. It remains to be seen if they will succeed.

Are all of these extreme policy changes related to newly re-elected Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's continuing corruption trials which opened in 2019?

From all appearances, yes. And not just that: The intentional weakening of Israel’s historically progressive, human rights-oriented courts system, the move to influence Israel’s internal security policies and practices, and the stated desire to silence media outlets that are critical of extreme right-wing policies will also help pave the way for the new government to change the existing ‘status quo’ of the occupied Palestinian lands and to begin a process of taking complete control over these lands.

Why did the recent Israeli elections result in such a far Right government? And why now?

It‘s hard to pinpoint only a single cause. The previous pro-Center government, installed only after 4 consecutive national elections which had each failed to produce a functional government, seems to have created a very effective beachhead for far-Right political forces. For the latest election in 2022, Bibi Netanyahu strategically and forcefully reduced the influence of his own center-Right Likud party in order to include and promote several smaller extreme-Right parties in his coalition. This combination of multiple parties brought the Likud back to a leadership position, but at the expense of discarding their own center-Right policies. In addition, the general global trend of electing extreme-Right governments since 2016, the seismic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the sudden outbreak of the Russian war against Ukraine in Eastern Europe all seem to have tipped a delicate balance in Israeli voters’ minds.

What will happen now to the long-standing agreements with the Palestinian Authority?

These agreements are likely to be declared null-and-void at the first practical opportunity by the new extreme-Right government.

Do Israelis really believe that they can effectively rule over millions of Palestinians without giving them any political voice in Israel?

A significant number of Israelis now appear to believe this.

So, is Israel an apartheid state?

No, but the newly-elected government is likely to change Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories to more closely resemble the outlawed policies of South African apartheid.

And 2 more answers for those who have read this far:

What are Israelis who disagree with all of these changes actually doing about the situation?

So far, there has been an enormous public and media outcry in Israel against these and other extreme-Right policies, despite the fact that these policies actually won significant voter support in the recent elections. Because Israel uses a multi-party (and not a two-party) form of government, the extreme-Right representatives did not need to attain power with 51 percent of the popular vote -- they achieved it through partnering with the much larger Likud party. At this moment, as the new government brings its newly-formed policies to the floor of the Knesset for review, opposition leadership as well as key leaders of the Justice department, heads of the Army, and both current and former Judges and other public officials have declared the policies anti-Israeli and anti-Democratic. Public mass demonstrations and other activities have already begun. Some extreme-Right members of the newly-elected government have been quoted as labeling the opposing reaction as “exaggerated” and the leadership statements as “incitement to violence" and "treason”.

What can I do about this situation?

If you live in the U.S., Europe or a country that shares strong Democratic values, please remember that foreign countries hold very powerful and timely sway over Israel's moral, political and economic direction. Please make your voice heard by your own representatives in government, and also by colleagues and friends. It is completely legitimate to criticize standing (and well as proposed) Israeli policies, especially if you feel that they will result in a country that is less Democratic and less oriented to the goal of human rights and equal treatment for all under the law.

– Bob Rosenbaum

Postscript: I generally avoid using this platform as a political megaphone, simply because I’d rather use it to promote music, healing and the creative endeavors of myself and others. But I sense that the current extraordinary situation demands extraordinary measures, and so I’m adding my voice here, loud and clear.

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Elephant, Salerno, Italy, December 2022.

This massive mammoth was among the light sculptures erected for the year-end public holidays in the southwestern Italian port city of Salerno. Beautiful design and execution.

Here's wishing everyone a great post COVID-19 holiday celebration, and a wonderful New Year!

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George Cables and John Heard, Los Angeles, 1981.

One of my all-time favorite pianists, George Cables, is a gorgeous traditionalist with outstanding accomplishments as both a sideman and a leader.

There's this tendency in jazz to call any artist older than 60 a 'legend', but even at age 40, George had rightfully earned that honor through his extensive work with some of the greatest players of the late 20th century – people like Woody Shaw, Billy Harper, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper.

No doubt George has always been in demand because of his highly sensitive, swinging, and sometimes downright funky accompaniment. He also brings the entire range of jazz piano history with him, and plenty of the inventiveness that front line players need to keep the fire in their music.

One result of his tenure with so many leaders is his distinguished lyrical style with its often mesmerizing sound and rhythm. Another result is a trunkful of beautiful, memorable compositions that have enjoyed treatments by the leaders above, and many others.

 Listen: “I’ve got the best seat in the house, because I can listen and I can play too!”

When George lived in Southern California, I was fortunate to see him regularly in various musical settings, record him at The Lighthouse, interview him for my jazz radio interview series at KCRW-FM, and also be blessed with his extraordinary personal warmth and friendship, which continues to this very day.

You can get an idea of George's eclectic range with just a few clicks. Hear how he lifts alto saxophonist Art Pepper in the high-speed bebop classic 'Cherokee' from 1977. Check George's gorgeous solo work with tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon on 'Tanya' from 1979. You haven't really heard George at all until you hear him with his own ensemble, playing 'I Told You So' from his 1980 album Cables Vision.

Nowadays, George performs the world over with his own Trio, as well as together with a group of companion legends (Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, Donald Harrison, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, and others) who have named themselves 'The Cookers', in tribute to the classic live 1960s Blue Note album which inspired them. Check out 'Traveling Lady' from 2021. Thankfully, George's work is well recorded and readily available. Find a nice discography here.

Today is George's birthday. Here's wishing you a beautiful birthday George, and so many more to come – your music is really a gift that you give to all of us!

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A Pretty Death, Binghamton, New York, Autumn 1975.

A moment from one of my very first Fall walks loaded with high speed 35mm color slide film in the woods of Binghamton's South Mountain, the pristine backyard of my youth.

This exposure also marks one of the first times I processed Ektachrome film in my darkroom. Years of black-and-white processing experience could not prepare me for the sensation of viewing that roll of dripping-wet, newborn color images. It's hard to appreciate that feeling now, living as we do in a world where ultra-saturated color images and videos bombard us from every street corner sign and every screen, everyday.

What is the act of making a photograph if not a visit to another realm from wherever we are at this moment -- half present, half absent, a vague sensation of disbelief wrapped in wonder.

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Green Security, Route 28, New York, September 2021.

One year ago, while wandering blythely around New York State's exquisite Catskills Park, I happened upon one of its deeper secrets.

Critical demands for preserving national security preclude me from revealing the precise location of this (obviously) important nerve center. I can assure you, whoever happens to discover this place quickly forgets its location -- overwhelmed by the beauty and serenity of the luxuriant mountain forests and pristine rushing streams nearby.

In any case, I searched and found no classified or top secret U.S. government documents here whatsoever, and (to the best of my knowledge) also no outstanding federal warrants for such.