Like a Thief’s Dream
Books
The Letters of Hugh Edwards (1903 – 1986)
Hugh Logan Edwards, who from 1959 until his retirement in 1970 was the curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, was born in Kentucky in 1903. His great-grandfather came from Ireland...
Juan Goes Home
Reading the opening of Jean Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew, he argues that Anti-Semitism (dislike of, avoidance of, negative table talk about, hatred of, and extermination of Jews – he wrote this in 1947) was a Passion, not an Opinion. An Opinion is “You can’t trust Jews”, “They didn’t serve France in enough numbers in … Read more
In Memoriam JASON MARTIN
born in Idaho, died in the Hudson Valley April 2012
The first time Jason came to me was on my farm in the Hudson Valley. It was because I needed someone to help me with the Internet, with digital editing, with Photoshop, to bring me … Read more
“Tell me what a police state looks like!” “This is what a police state looks like!”
Sky Blue live streams OLA “Tell me what a police state looks like!” “This is what a police state looks like!” This journalist has spent many moments of his life crossing the line of the law…. I have been either detained or arrested for entering the United States with marijuana, speeding twice at 100 mph … Read more
Occupy LA, Ola!
The last two weeks have seen a successful coordinated national suppression of the Occupy camps using massive police force, with help from helicopters, firemen and Homeland Security. The powers at be, have shredded the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, which for those of us that do not remember it, states the government cannot … Read more
Occupy Journalism
1) Hold your ground. You are the press and the frontline of truth. 2) Refuse to join and oppose the formation of pools. Pools are being used to control the truth at its source, which is the most effective means of censorship. You are the journalist. You have a right and it is your duty … Read more
@bleakbeautyblog is live on Twitter
seeking links to Occupy LA et al
Occupy Thanksgiving 2011
In fifty years of traveling, of talking with, of photographing people I have often wondered “Is America a Country?” The disparity of culture, of wealth, of a people often at odds with each other makes me wonder what is it that unites us, if anything?
Our history is divided between the 16th … Read more
Occupy
The credo of bleakbeauty.com, which was created twelve years ago, includes the words “Is this what we have done with our freedom? Our greatest surviving value is greed”. On July 24 this blog praised NYC as “the finest definition of our Democracy.” One month later, in NYC Occupy Wall Street created a living heart in … Read more
“Blood in the Streets” – Live Audio
“Blood in the Streets” As Danny Lyon made a brief speech upon receiving the Missouri Honor Medal in Journalism, an award also given that night to David Fanning of Frontline, and previously to Winston Churchill, Walter Cronkite and Christine Amanpour, Lyon paused and drifted from his prepared text called “What is the Truth?” “I just … Read more
Definitions of Democracy Part One
Greetings from New York If our civilization should come to and end, and it may, and in the future another intelligent life form would look back at the history of human accomplishments, than New York City, as it exists right now at this moment, would stand as the finest definition of our Democracy. In a … Read more
What is Journalism?
It has been announced that the writer of bleak beauty has received the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. Previous recipients include Christiane Amanapour, Tom Brokaw, Walter Chronkite and Winston Churchill. When the award prompted thoughts of making a speech entitled “What is Journalism?” the recipient was told he had only two or … Read more
“Deep Sea Diver” (2011)
Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement
In the summer of 1962, Danny Lyon packed a Nikon Reflex and an old Leica in an army bag and hitchhiked south. Within a week he was in jail in Albany, Georgia, looking through the bars at another prisoner, Martin Luther King, Jr. Lyon soon became the first staff photographer for the Atlanta-based Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which already had a reputation as one of the most committed and confrontational groups fighting for civil rights.
“SHADOWMAN” – A NEW FILM BY DANNY LYON
SHADOWMAN, Bleakbeauty video #5
22 mins DVD. $20.00
“I left the cave to find reality”
Lyon’s existential look at himself, filmmaking, the irony of digital, the death of film, and the meaning, if any, of documentary work. Shot in the Bernalillo graveyard (Lyon’s fifth major scene shot in this spot), the New Mexico desert, the streets and garages of Manhattan, and the Maine woods.
“FIVE DAYS” – A NEW 60 MINUTE DVD BY DANNY LYON.
On the last days of August, 2004 and the first days of September, New York City experienced the largest non-violent demonstrations directed against a political convention in American history. NYPD listed 120 separate protests. 1821 people were arrested. On a single day, half a million persons marched up Eighth Avenue towards the Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden. Almost none of these protests reached the American people or the world via television.
FIVE DAYS is a documentary shot on DV by photographer Danny Lyon assisted by his twenty year old daughter Rebecca Lyon and edited by Anne Barliant, with audio mix by Jason Martin, in Kingston, New York.The 60 minute documentary, was filmed, and edited in twenty one days, and was broadcast on FreeSpeech-TV Net Work, where it had the potential to reach eight million viewers on Monday Nov. 1st the day before the election and on Tuesday, Nov. 2nd., Election Day. For a work of cinematic art and history, to be created and reach the public in a matter of weeks, is an event in itself. It is also another example of individuals, and small groups of people, working on their own and without corporate funding, or any funding for that matter, replacing the traditional media as a source of truth and news.
Five Days is full of music and features the dramatic appearance of the Infernal Noise Brigade from Seattle at the historic Fox New Protest on 6th Avenue. Later the entire band was arrested. Five Days is a testament to real democracy in action and an homage to New York City.
For Individuals: $20.00 USA
For Institutions: $50.0 USA(Includes Universities, Museums, classroom and in-house broadcast use.)
“Born to Film” & “Two Fathers” – 2 DVD BOXED SET, Films by Danny Lyon
Born to Film, 1982 and Two Fathers, 2005 available together as a two DVD set. Born to Film is, among other things, intimately auto- biographical, interspersing footage of Lyon's own young son with film shot in the 1930's by Lyon's father, a doctor who immigrated from Germany. Two Fathers, the child star of Born To Film, Raphael, is now a twenty-seven year old who returns to his father’s farm to plant corn and “experience fatherhood”. A filmic meditation on life, age, family and death.
