New Solar Chromatic Formula

Okay, kids--

I'm outta here.

I've hung in for 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 years now. I dunno. . . . I lost
count

I've learned quite a bit from the masters and gurus on this list, all
of whom I admire, and all of whom seem to really detest each other.
I've learned equally as much from the occasionally-raised hand on the
back row--the non-guru or two who would raise a question or point out
an obvious flaw in the conversation. I hope that on occasion I've
given something back, although I doubt it.

For the first few years I really tried to engage the conversation
("Yeah, this UV tube arrangement worked for me. . . . " or, "those
cheap foam brushes are far better than glass rollers for coating
Pt/Pd mixture on . . . . whatever. . . . ") and I was grateful for
personal connections (I thought maybe even friendships, silly me) with
an occasional guru or master or back row peer. I built a studio and
gallery based on what I learned here. And I took my son to Santa Fe
year before last so that we could meet some of the folks who are
luminous on this list. . . .

And some time back (a year or so, as I recall) it just got ugly. Mean.
  Viscous. Vindictive. Nasty. . . . Violent, even (if that's possible
in cyberspace--I felt some of the blows). So I held back. I became a
lurker, a bottom-feeder. To avoid the rampant arrogance and
ubiquitous self-righteousness I just sort of stopped tuning in. . . . I
dunno.

And now there are attitudes rising about the devastation of New
Orleans. . . . ?

That's it for me. I'm done.

I'm a reluctant native of Louisiana-- I often say it's a great place to
be *from* --and a sometime resident of N'awlins.

New Orleans is a crown jewel of history (Napoleon built his exile house
there, although he never moved in). She holds in her fine dark hands
a culture that no other city in the world would dare hold. She is
old and she is wild and she is utterly defiant. She is loud and she is
proud. She is fat in her blouse and in her skirts. Her children
laugh and dance around her big thighs.

My God. My Sweet Tender Loving God. . . don't let her die.

Katrina's maul is much broader than just New Orleans, I know. Lives
are shattered and lost all along the coast. My daughter is in
Shreveport, in the northwest part of Louisiana. There are 20,000
refugees there with no homes to go home to. . . . No jobs, no schools,
no homes, no life as they've known it. . . . . And those 20,000 are
just a fraction of the total who are displaced.

  All of this is, of course, off topic. Whoopie! Boil me in oil.
Heat the tar and pluck some feathers. Better yet--break my cameras.
If this post ain't okay, I don't deserve cameras. I don't even deserve
to see.

Hey, Gordon-- Take me off the list.

Thanks to those few who've been kind.

Godspeed to all.

See you,
John
_________________________
John Campbell
Photogecko Studios & Gallery
1413 S. 1st Street
Austin, TX 78704
512.797.9375

www.photogecko.com
Received on Thu Sep 1 10:59:20 2005