Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak struck visual gold when he came across these photos at a photo studio in downtown Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban. Photographing any living entity was banned under the strict Islamic code of the Taliban yet there is a long history, whether for identification purposes or for pleasure, of the Taliban being photographed."Kandahar, a city of Pashtuns noted for their gaiety, so to speak, where Mullah Omar had made his final headquarters, has traditions of men in high-heeled sandals, with make-up of kohl and painted nails like sultry silent-movie stars. They liked to have their...
Dalai Lama Day
The Tibetan Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom in 100,000 Verses(Tibetan Collection, Asian Division)The Dalai Lama received the The Congressional Gold Medal today. The award is our nation’s highest civilian honor and was given to the Dalai Lama in recognition of his advocacy for religious harmony, nonviolence and human rights throughout the world.The Dalai Lama also met with President Bush though you won't see any pictures of this event because the Chinese are pissed off and the Bush administration agreed not to release any pictures of the meeting. The Bush Administration also chose not to release a formal statement on...
Shaker Primal Books
"There is a primal book as there is a primal voice, & it is the task of our poetry & art to recover it" says Jerome Rothenberg curator of the amazing visual ethnopoetic trip through history over at UBUWEB.Rothenberg says that "while the initial focus of ethnopoetics was on orality and performance, the discourse turned as well to the visible aspects of language — writing & inscription — both as a persistent contemporary concern & as an often unacknowledged kingpin of a revitalized & expanded ethnopoetics."The image above was done in the mid-nineteenth century and is attributed to Timothy Randlett...
Biblio.com: The Green Underdog
The Real World of an Aspiring Horror Novelist
Jose Luis Calva, An aspiring horror novelist, was arrested in Mexico City after police came to his house to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend and found her "torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box."Near the body parts police found a draft of his novel "Cannibalistic Instincts."Though Calva denies eating any of his victims he did admit to boiling his girlfriend's flesh.Calva is now suspected in a couple of other "mutilation killings."CNN story Writer suspect in dismembering girlfriendThanks to bookshelves of doom for the lead