2009: Remembering May

2009: Remembering February pt.2

At Zazzle.com, I made a couple T-shirts from a few of my favorite photos. One of the shirts is in this shot of me with my brother in Gainsville Florida over this holiday vacation.

2009: Remembering April

Roadside Camels, on the road to Nefer, west of Diwaniya.

Downtown Diwaniya, smiling girls.

Two boys in Nefer. While parked and waiting we were usually treated with youthful curiosity, varied requests, entertained by antics, and occasionally taunted.

During my deployment I took a lot of pictures of the HQ kids, downtown. Very photogenic. They show up in several of my old entries, April and other months.

"...weather today: blue skies and hot with a mix of kids and Humvees."

2009: Remembering March (pt. 2)

It was bittersweet to see the way kids were unafraid of us, the Americans, but while just as curious, timid toward the soldiers of their own country.

Out in front of the Police Department.

A lone traffic cop, as our convoy rumbles through his intersection of swarming traffic.

A female beggar, on a bridge in Diwaniya.

2009: Remembering March

I don't intend to spend my whole leave this holiday season working on the computer. That said, there is a great number of recollections photographic and otherwise I want to review while I have time. I'll be going month by month here on Versa Vice over the next two weeks posting selections from the images I've collected in 2009.

I jumped head first into my March folder and it took me over an hour to select, optimize and post these five photos. I realize now what a productive month March was. There are a huge number of pictures to publish here, and I'll get to it. First though, I need to spend time with family.

2009: Remembering February

Over the past several months I've had various images of the past year pop up on my screen saver. I've been astonished at the number of pictures that are really good but still unseen on my blog or elsewhere. Over the next few days, till next month, in 2010, I'll reselect b-side images of the previous months, from the year 2009, and publish them here, like a rarities collection of tunes by a favorite band.


This one was among a series of "beyond a shadow of a gun" shots that I took. My vantage point, as a medic, in the back seat of a Humvee, waiting for traumatic action and reactions that never happened, but for one occasion, left me in the perfect spot to capture images that may never be seen by my the people in these pictures, but nevertheless left for me to publish on the Internet for a whole world to see. A tiny glimpse into another world.


This gal, this little princess or Diwaniya, still makes me think of "Angel of Harlem," by U2. Like a vibrant little rose, rising from the cracked concrete of a lost world. I can only imagine the life ahead of her and her friends.

All of these shots were taken in the more metropolitan areas of Diwaniya Iraq. My back-seat vantage point served my photographic tendencies well.

Fayetteville NC

I've come to a point where I've realized, North Carolina's OK, and in spite of a crash course on F.V.vice, on terms that I did not expect or enjoy, this town's ok. As with everything, it's a matter of perspective. Just because I haven't shaken off my youthful tendencies for short-sighted foolishness, it's no fault of this Carolina town situated between the coastal and mountain attractions.


I've found plenty of scenery to go with my continuing photography hobby. Downtown has enough to make me miss St. Augustine, and Gainesville Florida, where I'm from, but also plenty enough to make me curious and interested in the local scene, here, between Wilmington and Ashville.


There's plenty downtown, from Husky Hardware to Rude Awakening. Husky H. is a bar with excellent food and in-house brews, whereas RA is a perfect little downtown coffee shop, both with WiFi, even as I write this.



The long shadows at dusk near this common colder solstice. We pretend Chrismas means something more than commercialism and mundane group think, but the fact remains, the strip(s) of strippers and strip clubs. All blocks within blocks of family attractions, but our hours fade, so does the landscape, and this is our America. It's not the fault of Fayetteville, not the fault of MTV. Blame it on Desperate Housewives or Reality TV, Bush or Obama, America has changed. No matter if you prefer CNN, or Fox, our constitution has changed. Our better documents collect dust. Our youth are wasted on the younger. America, 2010.

Wilmington NC

After posting something here with a negative tone, I've developed a pattern of then needing to post something more positive, a counterweight within the same subject. So, after my Fayetteville rant I'll offer up my experience visiting Wilmington North Carolina.

Wilmington is situated south-east of Fayetteville, and is a long 2 hour drive on a 2 lane road (87) through 3 or 4 small towns, but mostly I encountered endless November brown trees on each side testing my faith that I am heading anywhere at all, much less a scenic historic and artsy hipster-friendly city near the Atlantic Ocean.

The area with all the shops, restaurants, and pubs is Front Street, and the streets that surround it. Here, even a vacant building receives an artists consideration, if only a sketch or idea outlined.

On the river is the U.S.S. North Carolina Memorial Park, decommissioned and open to visitors

There were three different weddings in progress as I walked around town last Saturday. Here are three passing shots of one. This is also along the river. The battleship memorial is on the opposite side.



The following shots are of various shop windows along Front Street. The shopping season is in full swing already, a week before the ultra hyped "Black Friday."