Bratislava under Siege

In early 19th century that frog-eating midget Napoleon thought it was a great idea to lay siege to Bratislava and bombard it and destroy a lot of valuable cultural heritage and whatsnot... well, some people obviously feel that is a reason for celebration and reenactment, and as little Filip wanted to go and see some of that, so went I and my camera. Sadly, we didn't get to see most of the program, so I only have a bunch of random shots. On the positive side, I feel like I've really improved my flash technique. :-)

Big Brother's long fingers

It is perhaps due to my ignorance that I am noticing this now, or maybe I just dismissed it as impossible, but I was pretty shocked by a finding that struck me tonight

Especially after 9/11, it is a common occurrence that Europeans pity citizens of the United States, because their privacy is invaded at every corner, and all that newspeak and fear-mongering really remind us of Orwell's 1984. My father is even so concerned about his privacy and personal information, that he turned down an opportunity to go to the post-2001 USA several times.

In fact, when I was about to leave for the Land of Freedom to spend a semester there last fall, I even had to pay for being watched and tracked. My visa request would not be granted unless I paid a $100 fee to SEVIS, an organization whose very purpose is to spy on foreign students and visitors.

I always thought that compassion is all that we had to offer in this context, but it turns out I was wrong: Obviously, an agreement between US and EU [NY Times] is about to happen, that will give the US government access to personal data of EU citizens. Am I the only one who feels this is an outrage? Any reason we should trust Team America with this?

Of course, they claim they will only "look for suspicious activity", but just consider how the FBI abuses the Patriot Act. Do you remember that sweet pot of honey they were feeding everyone prior to the Patriot Act vote? This is a binding agreement, and indeed is a big deal. If the EU will have to turn over any such information US would ask for, I think I have yet another reason to move to Norway.

Fortunately, there are some respectable voices speaking out against this. “I am very worried that once this will be adopted, it will serve as a pretext to freely share our personal data with anyone, so I want it to be very clear about exactly what it means and how it will work,” said Sophia in ’t Veld, a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands who has been an outspoken advocate of privacy rights.

Of course, “the fight against transnational crime and terrorism requires the ability to share personal data for law enforcement.” Naturally, I am going to feel safer immediately, knowing that Ahmed ibn Muhammad, who sells Gyros in Frankfurt, has his credit report resting safe within the hands of the DHS, right next to mine.

But wait, it gets better...! “The Europeans have agreed that the American government’s internal oversight system may be good enough to provide accountability for how Europeans’ data is used.” Yeah right. I wouldn't trust the American government's internal oversight system to oversee berries-picking in my backyard. They would probably lose an unencrypted laptop with full recordings of everything I said and did during the past 18 months.

Duh. Can someone please tell me that everything is going to be okay...?

Walrus on the Lawn

Although not technically a member of the odobenidae, I believe that this speciman has much in common with the marine mammal. Thus, although Janka likes to call him Blesk (Flash), I usually call him Mrož (Walrus). There's just something about his personality and phonic demonstration that makes me sure he should have been born somewhere in the Arctics with giant tusks. :-D

Perhaps his most favourite source of nutrition are tennis balls, which he pops effortlessly and devours with great passion. ;-) Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a wee bit.

When confronted with a stray tennis ball, Walrus darts after it furiously and although sometimes he gets disoriented, usually he manages to prevail.

Lately we've been having some quality time together no less than three times a day, so in case the next time I see you I act like a marine mammal, you know that Walrus has won the battle of wits against me as well. Then again, I might offer more resistance than a drooled-over tennis ball.

Notice the strong difference between shadow and direct sunlight on the photos. Sometimes it can be a real pain to compensate for this. :-(

Also, as some of you may have noticed, it is most unjust that I blog about Walrus sooner than I do about Freya. I plead guilty and declare that this will have to be corrected sometime soon.

PS: You have to admit... the similarity is just uncanny. :-D

We wanted the best...

...and we got the best! The hottest band in the world, KISS!!

It was with mixed feelings that I've decided to pay twelve hundred crowns for a show of a band I hadn't been quite that huge a fan of... at least until now. But hey, I said to myself, they indeed are a legend, an aging one, actually, and they might not come here again. You better go and see them now that you've got the chance. Well, that may just have been my best decision recently. :-D

I have been preparing diligently for this, feeding my last.fm account a hundred or more KISS songs a week lately. The show was happening at O₂ Arena in Prague, so we left Brno before noon. As Zdeněk and Jenda are really hard-core fans, make-ups were a must, and I have to admit that a bit of their enthusiasm brushed off on me as well. Speaking of which, I am very grateful to ZZ for making this happen for me.

It took us well over an hour to paint our faces, and we were pretty satisfied with the results. :-) I have to say it was rather enjoyable to roam streets of Prague like this, especially at night. Some confused tourists even asked us for autographs. :-D Sadly, Jana has little understanding or appreciation for this delicate modern art... and there I was sooo hoping she would join us next time. ;-)

The venue is really nice. Right size for a great show, well built, with working air-conditioning (it really was a bliss, I am still surprised) it might just be the finest place I've ever been to see a concert. As always, I have to praise the security... obviously, their main concern was to keep people from bringing their own water in, it really made me feel safer than ever before. To beef it up, when you bought a small bottle of soda, they would refuse to give you the bottlecap and throw it away. Maybe they were preparing for Fallout already, but it was really annoying to be unable to close the bottle. Even more so, you weren't allowed to bring the drink you bought inside to the stage itself -- which was again the guards' main concern. As it was shortly after six and we didn't expect the show to end before eleven, this was even more annoying.

To everyone's vast surprise, the security didn't work well, and soon I had a full bottle of Fanta right before the stage. With a bottlecap on it, of course -- no one can keep my post-apocalyptic loot from me. It made me feel like a sly and cunning criminal, but then again, it really wasn't that much of a challenge to outsmart those plantlike goons. :-P

It was quite a long wait until eight, when the forerunners appeared on stage. Cinder Road, they call themselves. They are pretty weird, you can't really decide whether they are rockers or just a boy band, but in retrospect the latter seems more likely. I've seen much worse bands and their songs were not too demanding, but overall I was unimpressed. Also, their frontman must be the most feminine guy I've ever seen.

And finally, what we've all been waiting for. The best! The four old men (don't frown, this was the 35^th anniversary of the band, after all, although they really don't look like they're pushing their sixties) descended from the sky in their fancy costumes, and the utter világos started. The sound and lights were impeccable, show professional, and the band was playing one legendary hit right after another... it was sweet. It's difficult to emphasize just how spectacular the show was, and how well the music sounded, but it was earning goshu points every minute.

We managed to get pretty close and get an okay (though not fantastic) view as well, so all the flying and blood-spitting and effects were pretty impressive, even better than Iron Maiden we saw exactly a year ago.

Edited to add: The one thing that surprised me mightily was the crowd. Not only were they slightly less enthusiastic than I expected, but no one moved. During the whole three hours, not a single person bumped into me, nobody around me jumped, nobody swapped their places -- people were completely static. I haven't seen this happen (or not happen, more accurately) right in front of the stage on any concert before, let alone show this huge.

Overall, it was a very pleasant surprise, KISS managed to exceed my expectations more than just a little. For that, I award them 91 goshu points and dub them supreme világos, the second greatest of all time, surpassed by none but the classic Therion show in Miškolc. I am deeply saddened to realise that the list of meganoobs and criminals has grown yet more this week. :-(

Finally, for a little taste of what you missed, you may want to check out these vids:
I Love it Loud, Rock'n'Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City!

--
Edited to add: Zdeněk has posted a blogpost of his own today, and it's pretty good. The photos over there are better than the ones I have here, and it's definitely worth a look.

War on Photography

I've been planning to blog about this topic for ages, and now the mighty security guru Bruce Schneier did that for me in a Guardian newspaper essay:

What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are?

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Just look at this bastard. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to kill a kitten. :-P

Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.

Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don't seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?

Because it's a movie-plot threat.

A movie-plot threat is a specific threat, vivid in our minds like the plot of a movie. You remember them from the months after the 9/11 attacks: anthrax spread from crop dusters, a contaminated milk supply, terrorist scuba divers armed with almanacs. Our imaginations run wild with detailed and specific threats, from the news, and from actual movies and television shows. These movie plots resonate in our minds and in the minds of others we talk to. And many of us get scared.

Terrorists taking pictures is a quintessential detail in any good movie. Of course it makes sense that terrorists will take pictures of their targets. They have to do reconnaissance, don't they? We need 45 minutes of television action before the actual terrorist attack -- 90 minutes if it's a movie -- and a photography scene is just perfect. It's our movie-plot terrorists that are photographers, even if the real-world ones are not.

The old town of Bratislava clearly promotes terrorism without any qualms...

The problem with movie-plot security is it only works if we guess the plot correctly. If we spend a zillion dollars defending Wimbledon and terrorists blow up a different sporting event, that's money wasted. If we post guards all over the Underground and terrorists bomb a crowded shopping area, that's also a waste. If we teach everyone to be alert for photographers, and terrorists don't take photographs, we've wasted money and effort, and taught people to fear something they shouldn't.

And even if terrorists did photograph their targets, the math doesn't make sense. Billions of photographs are taken by honest people every year, 50 billion by amateurs alone in the US And the national monuments you imagine terrorists taking photographs of are the same ones tourists like to take pictures of. If you see someone taking one of those photographs, the odds are infinitesimal that he's a terrorist.

Of course, it's far easier to explain the problem than it is to fix it. Because we're a species of storytellers, we find movie-plot threats uniquely compelling. A single vivid scenario will do more to convince people that photographers might be terrorists than all the data I can muster to demonstrate that they're not.

Fear aside, there aren't many legal restrictions on what you can photograph from a public place that's already in public view. If you're harassed, it's almost certainly a law enforcement official, public or private, acting way beyond his authority. There's nothing in any post-9/11 law that restricts your right to photograph.

This is worth fighting. Search "photographer rights" on Google and download one of the several wallet documents that can help you if you get harassed; I found one for the UK, US, and Australia. Don't cede your right to photograph in public. Don't propagate the terrorist photographer story. Remind them that prohibiting photography was something we used to ridicule about the USSR. Eventually sanity will be restored, but it may take a while.

---

Yeah. I soo can't wait. :-) But I can't really blame those poor people, my 77 mm diameter lens could easily fire even a large RPG. So beware, for next time you find yourself on the wrong end of my viewfinder, it may be more than just a bird that flies out! :-D

As related information from nycphotorights.com, which has some pretty interesting posts as well, if you can chew through all the excessive exclamation marks and immature posting, (the admin must be like 15, not more ;-)), there is one about Fox reporter doing a story on photographer harassment on the Union station in Washington D.C.

While he is interviewing the Amtrak spokesman, who says that photography is perfectly alright in the Amtrak part of the station, they both get assaulted by a security guard who makes a big speech about how photography is illegal and not allowed at the station.

Priceless. You just can't make this stuff up, it's way too unbelievable. :-D I wonder if anyone gets fired for this... See the video here.