Photo File: Balazs Gardi

Kunar province, Afghanistan. Survivors of a US airstrike.

Balazs Gardi is a Hungarian freelance photographer, who focuses on documenting 
the everyday life of marginalized communities facing humanitarian crises.

Afghan National Army soldier watches airstrike. Kunar, Afghanistan 2007.

Korengal Valley, Afghanistan 2007

A man smokes heroin in an abandoned house in the nothern province of Balkh.

American soldier collapses in exhaustion. Korengal valley, Afghanistan 2007.

See more of Gardi’s photography here

posted by: Brent Carter

RIP: Caricaturist and Illustrator David Levine

David Levine created thousands of satirical portraits for The New York Review of Books and other publications. He died Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan of prostate cancer and complications from other ailments. He was 83.

According to his New York Times obit, Levine’s work was “not only witty but serious, not only biting but deeply informed, and artful in a painterly sense as well as a literate one.” It goes on to call him “the heir of the 19th-century masters of the illustration, Honoré Daumier and Thomas Nast.”

Check out the New York Review of Books‘ archive of Levine’s work that dates all the way back to 1963 here

Listen to NPR’s coverage of Levine and his work here

posted by: Brent Carter

Read: Possum Living, How To Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money

In the late seventies, at the age of eighteen and with a seventh-grade education, Dolly Freed (a pseudonym) wrote Possum Living about the five years she and her father lived off the land on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia. At the time of its publication in 1978, Possum Living became an instant classic, known for its plucky narration and no-nonsense practical advice on how to quit the rat race and live frugally. And now decades later the good people at Tin House Books are reissuing Possum Living for the next generation of disillusioned people seeking an alternative to an economic system that uses everyone but only adequately provides for a few.

In her delightful, straightforward, and irreverent style, Freed guides readers on how to buy and maintain a home, dress well, garden, raise farm animals, dumpster dive, fish in public waters, avoid building permits, preserve herbs, make your own wine, cope with the law, stay healthy, save money, and be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, all while enjoying leisure and keeping up a middle-class façade.

Thirty years later, Freed’s philosophy is world-renowned and Possum Living remains as fascinating, inspirational, and pertinent as it was upon its original publication. Especially her convincing argument that it’s hypocritical to buy meat in a store you wouldn’t or couldn’t kill yourself. This updated edition includes new reflections, insights, and life lessons from an older and wiser Dolly Freed, whose knowledge of how to live like a possum has given her financial security and the confidence to try new ventures.

Following her success as an author, Dolly Freed grew up to be a NASA aerospace engineer. She put herself through college after acing the SATs with an education she received from the public library. She has also been an environmental educator, business owner, and college professor. She now lives in Texas with her husband and two children.

Watch a documentary about Possum Living below.

Possum Living will be re-released in January 2010 but you can pre-order it now through Tin House Books. Read an excerpt here. 224 pages, $11

posted by: Brent Carter

Spike Lee Directs Michael Jackson’s Final Music Video “This Is It”

Spike Lee released his official video for Michael Jackson’s posthumous single “This Is It” over the Christmas holiday. It’s a montage of iconic images of the King of Pop, footage shot in his hometown of Gary, Indiana and during fan tributes following his death on June 25 (including the Brooklyn street party that Lee organized in his honor), and rare clips from live performances.

The video is nice and all, but considering the often-controversial Spike Lee directed it I expected a little more than a simple montage with some added video effects. The song is equally underwhelming but what could you expect from an over the hill pop star nearing death?

posted by: Harold Johns III

Video: Celestial Mechanics by Doug Burton

We’ll let the creator explain the ideas behind his animation.

“‘Celestial Mechanics’ 2008, has its genesis within the structure of the wall that holds the image – augmenting the fabric of reality within. It opens up the structure and burrows deep within the core, to extend itself to a tropical haven but never allowing the viewer to get there. It appears before me as a geological fragment owing much to the geological history that created it. The surface of the material goes through a process of fossilization from its singular organic origin into a fragment of history that allows the sense of time to aid in its transmogrification. The animation creates a physical force that uses time to embed the surfaces of the animated objects and scenes with a material presence that is in a continual state of flux.”

I’m not entirely sure what all that means but I still love looking at it. Burton has other animations too, check them out here.

posted by: Brent Carter