miseryXchord ♫

Inspired by Brett Gurewitz and suggested by mynameisfrankstfu...

Assignment # 2 for the Buzznet Photojournalists group: LOS ANGELES IS BURNING

Due 5pm PST, Thursday December 4, 2008

The assignment is to cover one or more of the Los Angeles wildfire(s) as a photojournalist and post a gallery of 10-20 of your best images on your profile and then ADD them to the group collection for this assignment, including explanations of the event, where and when the image was taken,  and what is depicted in the photograph. 

YOU DO NOT NEED TO PHOTOGRAPH THE FIRE ITSELF! Coverage could be evacuation efforts, visiting an evacuation center (for humans or animals), relief efforts/Red Cross, fire crew staging areas, etc.

Then post ONE linked image in the forum topic for this assignment (so we can find your entire gallery). Please tag your images "photojournalist2".

I will post the results of the assignment on Friday December 5, 2008

Members are strongly urged to view and comment on the galleries submitted for each assignment (this is how we all learn! :) as after a one week comment period for feedback and constructive criticism, ONLY THE STRONGEST IMAGE FROM EACH PERSONS GALLERY WILL BE KEPT IN THE GROUPS COLLECTION FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT.

If anyone wishes to write a news article covering the fire(s) and include/link their photographs in it, I'll also add it to the group's collection for this assignment. Note: you may team up with a writer for this!

Photo from Join the Impact

Assignment # 1 for the Buzznet Photojournalists group: PROP 8 PROTESTS

Due 5pm PST, Thursday November 27, 2008

On November 15, 2008, Join the Impact has called for protest against the recent passage of Prop. 8 in California at City Halls and offices Nationwide (find locations here)

The assignment is to cover one or more of the protests as a photojournalist and post a gallery of 10-20 of your best images on your profile and then ADD them to the group collection for this assignment, including explanations of the event and what is depicted in the photograph. 

Then post ONE linked image in the forum topic for this assignment (so we can find your entire gallery). Please tag your images "photojournalist1".

I will post the results of the assignment on Friday November 28.

If you are unable to report on any of the protests on November 15, you may submit photographs of a Prop 8 protest taken between November 5, 2008 and the due date.

Members are strongly urged to view and comment on the galleries submitted for each assignment (this is how we all learn! :) as after a one week comment period for feedback and constructive criticism, ONLY THE STRONGEST IMAGE FROM EACH PERSONS GALLERY WILL BE KEPT IN THE GROUPS COLLECTION FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT.

If anyone wishes to write a news article covering a protest and include/link their photographs in it, I'll also add it to the group's collection for this assignment. Note: you may team up with a writer for this!

"Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics, and this isn't really just about Prop-8. And I don't have a personal investment in this: I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics. This is about the... human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not... understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want -- a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them -- no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble. You'll even give them all the same legal rights -- even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage.

If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal... in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry...black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are... gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing -- centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children... All because we said a man couldn't marry another man, or a woman couldn't marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage. How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the "sanctity" of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don't you, as human beings, have to embrace... that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate... this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness -- this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness -- share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

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You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of...love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate. You don't have to help it, you don't have it applaud it, you don't have to fight for it. Just don't put it out. Just don't extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don't know and you don't understand and maybe you don't even want to know...It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow **person...

Just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

This is the second time in ten days I find myself concluding by turning to, of all things, the closing plea for mercy by Clarence Darrow in a murder trial.

But what he said, fits what is really at the heart of this:

"I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar-Khayyam," he told the judge.

"It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all:

"So I be written in the Book of Love;

"I do not care about that Book above.

"Erase my name, or write it as you will,

"So I be written in the Book of Love."

---

Good night, and good luck." - Keith Olbermann

Photo by Rick Loomis on the LA Times online:


Police detain two protesters during the demonstration against Proposition 8. There was a confrontation between those for and those against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

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6:48pm: Theres been one Twitter report that Mark may be the protester who was punched by a truck driver who pulled over during the protest (the original report was "protester beaten by driver of truck" and Marks last Twitter at 3:45pm was "shit some asshole in a truck.")

6:58pm (via Mendoza) Mark and Rich were arrested and are being transferred to the Pacific Station jail. (are in route at this moment)

7:12pm
Wendy has blogged about this here: MARK AND RICH I HOPE YOURE OKAY

Ashly has blogged about this here: A House Divided

If youre on Twitter you can follow Mendoza's updates here: mightymendoza

7:19pm Alex posted a link to a FOX News story reporting:

"Four people were taken into custody at the intersection of Hollywood and Highland when they tried to cross a line of officers.

Two more protesters were arrested in West Hollywood for disturbing the peace and another for public drunkenness, according to Sheriffs Sgt. Kristin Aloma."

7:25pm Shannon posted a link to an article in the Houston Chronicle online:

"Two people were arrested after a confrontation between the crowd and an occupant of a pickup truck that showed a banner supporting the amendment."

7:29pm Shannon posted a link to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle online:

"Brief violence erupted when marchers surrounded the pickup bearing a pro-Proposition 8 sign. Protesters ripped the sign, and an occupant of the vehicle got out and knocked down a protester. A demonstrator, Maurice Carriere, 27, of Studio City, ended up with a bloody nose in the fracas. He told police he didnt see the punch coming. Officers arrested two people and put them in a patrol car. It was not clear who they were."

MARK WAS NOT PUNCHED! :)  (SEE ABOVE)

7:30pm (via Twitter) Richs sister got the news about her bro and is contacting the police

7:39 Sean Bonner has blogged about this: Metblogs friends busted at Prop 8 protest

7:45pm Rosalie posted a link to an article on LAist:

"The LA County Sheriffs Department, who patrol West Hollywood, arrested three people--two for failure to disperse and one for public drunkenness. "

7:49pm Another photo from the LA Times



8:09pm Wendy reacts to the most recent LA Time photo here: YOU FUCKING PIGS

8:10pm (via Mendoza)  More photos of Richs arrest on Getty Images coverage of the protest (Buzznet can post these under their license, right??)

8:18pm Rosalie found live footage:


LOOK FOR MARK AND RICH AT 2:40 INTO THE VIDEO

8:35pm Rosalie blogs about the video here: Video footage of Mark and Rich getting arrested

8:41pm Richs sister reports via Twitter:

"i called the station all they said was that they havent arrived and to call back in 3-4 hours!! useless..."

8:50pm Mendoza wonders:

"Can we set-up some  kind of fund to bail them out?"

Anyone have experience with that sort of thing? I have had friends set up Paypal accounts to set up donations for medical bills but they have a processing time up to a few days (not good for this!)

8:51pm Ive uploaded the arrest video to Buzznet in case it gets taken off YouTube

8:52pm Ashly blogs about the video: DEAR LA PD

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8:53pm TWEET FROM MARK!!!


10:19pm Wendy has the Getty photos here:


10:25pm



MyFox Los Angeles | Two Arrested in Anti-Proposition 8 Protest

"Two people were arrested for suspicion of disorderly conduct Thursday as backers of same-sex marriage took to the streets of the Westside to protest the passage of Proposition 8, snarling traffic in the already congested area. "

10:39pm Wendy and John looked up the LA bail schedule and blogged their findings: So I looked up Los Angeles Bail Schedule for 2008

11:18pm Mendoza grabbed a clip of NBC 4s news broadcast



11:30pm Trendysecret blogs her love and support for Mark and Rich

11:39pm CBS2.com news video

Police Detain 2 at L.A. Protest Against Prop. 8 Passing

"Los Angeles police arrested two people after a confrontation between the crowd and an occupant of a pickup truck that had a banner supporting Proposition 8.

Demonstrator Maurice Carriere says he was punched in the face during the confrontation. He was left with a bloody nose. 

Officers were also seen struggling with one person on a sidewalk but it was unclear if the two incidents were related."

A police representative says the arrests were for "Disorderly conduct"

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11:46pm MARK HAS BEEN BAILED OUT!


12:00am

panasonicyouth We were told it was a felony so relieved its being listed as misdemeanor. If anyone can help @formerme and I with legal battle please do!

12:01am

panasonicyouth My brother said my mom said: "Im glad hes gay and he got arrested."

12:11am

panasonicyouth Were out!!! Just spoke to my mom and we both cried. I feel violated and dehumanized .

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12:00am Richs sister says shes headed down to the police station... she feels helpless waiting at home for news

12:19am RICH IS FREE ON BAIL!!!

panasonicyouth @formerme is bailed out! Apparently Richard and I are all over the internet? Also I have hundreds of new friends! Hello new friends!

12:26am Richs sister reports "I have a brother! We r headed to get their bikes!"

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12:39am Rich speaks!

formerme battle scars coming.. :/ with my awesome sister retrieving bikes. thanks all for the e support.. you guise rock!

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1:00am Mark tweets that they were originally arrested for "unruly behavior" which magically transformed into "battery on an officer"... and that he and Rich just retrieved their bikes (which had been left near the Mormon Temple protest site) and are headed out to get something to eat @ Bright Spot (cafe in L.A.) after a stop at home.

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Nov 7, 8:30am   I had to sleep :) .... updates:

The guys were released on bail around Midnight last night, retrieved their bikes from the protest site and grabbed some food and hopefully a few hours sleep. They have to claim their belongings and probably deal with a lot of legal junk this morning, but Rich's sis mentions the ACLU is getting involved.

Karen from the DF board bulletined:

"What happened:
4 men in a dark gray truck pulled up and one of them punch a protester in the face, breaking the protester's nose. Mark went to help the protester by holding a bandanna over the man's nose. police arrived and began yelling at Mark and Rich, and as you can see from the video, they were doing nothing wrong. The police attacked them for no reason."

Mark's many friends on the Despair Faction message board (official AFI fan club) were sitting their own vigil last night online trying to glean info and make sense of what happened, and we can thank their members for going down to the PD and waiting outside for news/bailing out Rich.

9:09am The Beak/thebeak.org blogs about the arrest here: Dude? Fuck hope.

"They sent an internet-famous person to jail for thinking gay people should be allowed to get married in a state where it was already fucking legal until a couple days ago. The internet will kick back furiously, of course."

9:27am Article from the San Francisco Chronicle online that shows the assault on a protester that happened right before the arrest:

"Maurice Carriere, a protester, falls to the pavement after being punched by the unidentified driver of a pickup truck. Carriere had ripped a portion of a "Yes on Prop. 8" banner from the man's truck..."



I still haven't seen any information indicating the driver was arrested/charged with anything...?

12NOON Mark is back on Buzznet (Hi Mark!) and is starting to post his photos of the protest to his Reverse Prop 8 Rally! gallery, which also includes images from the previous night's ralley in WeHo.


Maurice Carriere assaulted by Yes on 8 supporter


12:16pm Lindsay William-Ross at LAist posted a story about Mark's arrest here: A Closer Look at Prop 8 Protester Arrests with an amazing gallery of shots by photographer Tim Andrews.

"Two arrests were made last night during the protest against the passing of Proposition 8, one of which was someone known to many online as "Panasonicyouth.""


Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist

12:27pm Heartsapocolypse was inspired to write this: We hold these truths to be self-evident

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12:36pm ElRich blogs to all of you from his heart: Buzznet = Love

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12:35pm MARK BLOGS HIS STORY HERE:

My experience at the 'Reverse Prop 8' Rally in West Los Angeles yesterday

3:26pm Mark has added a "Donate" button to his blog post to help cover his and Richard's bail costs and forthcoming legal expenses...

"As it stands, Richard and I are now $4,000 in debt. ($2,000 to my friend Ramon, $2,000 to my brother.) I do not have a lawyer. My initial court date is set for December 3. While Buzznet pays me a fine salary, I have no money for legal charges and I am not even going to attempt to be humble and refuse money. I have no idea what the future holds except a lot of expenses. "

You can donate here:

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3:42pm Savannah is making bracelets with all proceeds going to Mark & Richard's legal defense fund... if you'd like one, please leave a comment on her blog: Raising money and awareness AKA Are you a fighter of H8?


7:56pm updates: Mark has meetings with a Lambda Legal lawyer (Lambda Legal is one of the groups that has filed a lawsuit with the state to overturn Prop 8) and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center next week... and was just interviewed by ABC 7 for tonight's 11pm news broadcast.

WATCH ABC 7 LOS ANGELES TONIGHT AT 11PM FOR MARK'S INTERVIEW!!!

Mendoza will be trying to tape a copy to post on Buzznet.

11:40pm Jade Puget of AFI blogged about Mark's arrest here: My friend Mark got arrested at the Prop. 8 demonstrations here in Hollywood.

Nov 8, 1:35am Mendoza posted a vid of Mark's ABC 7 Interview: ABC 7 Interviews Buzznet's Mark & Rich

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11:00am Mark added a note to his blog

"UPDATE November 8th, 10:16am: Both Richard and I have graciously received enough money to cover BOTH of our bond costs to repay Ramon and my brother. You're welcome to donate for any future legal fees, but know that this amazing community came together in less than 10 hours to raise money for us, so you don't have to donate anymore! We love you and we cherish your thoughts and support."

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Nov 9,  2:42am   I found a followup article on LAist about Mark from Nov 7 - this one links to his blog about the arrest

Protest Arrest: Panasonicyouth's Story

"This morning we showed you photos captured during yesterday's massive Prop 8 protest outside the Mormon Temple on LA's West side that included the arrest of a man known online as Panasonicyouth and his friend. Of course, while images often speak a thousand words, in this case most people are wondering: "What happened?""


Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist

Nov. 11, 4:36pm  Mark was interviewed by Queerty.com:

Reported by the CBS News:

Best-Selling Author Michael Crichton Dies

Best-selling author and filmaker Michael Crichton died unexpectedly in Los Angeles Tuesday, after a courageous and private battle against cancer, his family said in a statement. He was 66.

Crichton was a brand-name author, known for his stories of disaster and systematic breakdown, such as the rampant microbe of "The Andromeda Strain" or dinosaurs running amok in "Jurassic Park," one of his many million-selling books that became major Hollywood movies.

Crichton also created the hospital drama "ER" for television. His most recent novel, "Next," about genetics and law, was published in December 2006.

"While the world knew him as a great story teller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us -- and entertained us all while doing so -- his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes," the statement said. "He did this with a wry sense of humor that those who were privileged to know him personally will never forget."