avanderzwan

Grand Rapids had Art Prize this week and so I ran around town with my camera. There was really low light with the night shots. I think the shutter was open for a full second for most of the portraits.

(click on the photos to view larger)

Self Portrait

The Station

David Schultz

Jason Murray

Central Station

Joel Stob

Touring around Grand Rapids and shooting with a 35mm camera brings me back to my days as a college student. Here are some of the black and white shots that I took this past weekend. I love photography and will be shooting a lot more in the near future, I am certain.

(click on the photos to view larger)

The 6th Street Bridge

The 6th Street Bridge Webs

The 6th Street Bridge Side

Kids Playing with Art

Highway (131 & 196)

So apparently I missed this boat. This apparently was huge about a year and a half ago. I just came across it on youtube randomly, clicked on it thinking it was The Today Show’s “Where In The World Is Matt Louher (sp?)”. It actually turned out to be a video of this kid traveling to every possible place in the world and doing a little dance at each stop. I am thinking that The Today Show’s version was a spin off of this guys travels.

Now I generally don’t subscribe to guerilla/viral marketing (which this definitely could be), but this guy openly confesses that this started out as a fluke. He had always danced like a goof-ball (since 2-3 years old) and still dances that way. One day his traveling buddy said, ‘Dude, do that annoying dance you always do and I will film you’. Eventually people found that video and it became popular. Then people from Stride gum contacted him and asked him if he wanted to make another video that they would sponsor. He of course said yes. They kept their hands out of it, not requiring anything except that he create it. (Get the whole story at http://wherethehellismatt.com/).

The coolest part about this whole thing, is that after the first video he had massive popularity so he could contact tons of people, tell them when he would be in their city and ask them to join him. So he contacted Stride again and asked if they would sponsor one more trip, a trip that would include local people dancing with him.

I watched part of one of his talks and he talked about bubbles, and how people are so comfortable in their little bubbles (apartment bubble, car bubble, workplace bubble, shopping mall bubble, etc.) He is using this opportunity as a way to try to get more United States Citizens to do more traveling and step outside of their comfort zones. I will say that it definitely worked on me. I want to travel now and feel lame for not ever really taking that option seriously.

So here it is… I hope either you have seen it, loved it then and don’t mind watching it again, or love it when you watch it for the first time now.

Here is the first video

Here is the second video (the one with many people displaying their own culture).

Following the Sudanese Peace Treaty on January 9 the Democratic Republic of Congo signed another peace treaty yesterday. It is exciting and hopeful, but does not mean that everything is golden. There are a lot of issues that still plague the area. The ethnic Hutu extremists, the ‘Interahamwe’ (same group that carried out the Rwanda killings), are still in the DR Congo. The treaty calls for help from the U.S., the U.N. and the European Union. These three groups will place peace keeping stations in between all of the major fighting regions to control the peace. The treaty calls for an active roll from the international helpers, not just an observing one.

This conflict has killed 5.4 Million people over the last decade. It has been the largest conflict since WWII. It has displaced 800,000 people. The treaty calls for the escorted safe return of these 800,000 people as well as international support in maintaining their security upon return. The U.S., U.N. and European Union will also teach the Congolese army who are notorious for being uncontrollable and ruthless.

I am not pretending to be a reporter here. I am just excited. I am fully aware that this could be another broken treaty but it is at least a step in the right direction. We will see where this goes from here.

Reference:
NPR (optimistic) – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18368606
BBK News (seemingly more realistic) – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7206823.stm