Things disappear easily in unfamiliar surroundings as many thoughtful travelers have found. A night on the town leaving valuables unsecured is an all too familiar experience. A gold watch, 24 carat gold neck chain, platinum, diamond engraved dog tag or perhaps a gold thimble, brought to patch a rip or tear with a stitch or two in time for the paranoia to subside, asking repeatedly in peculiar doubt, “Why did I bring this stuff with me if I knew they wouldn’t be in a ‘safe’ environment at the very same time detectives and criminologists continue working all over the world with scientists to develop new strategies to invent a fool proof safe.

For your consideration is a unique product, a bit basic and somewhat offensive and yet desperate times call for desperate measures, The Brief Safe, featured on Shomer-Tec.com, a site specializing in law enforcement & military equipment. The one aired here “ is an innovative ‘diversion’ safe that can secure your cash, documents, and other small valuables from inquisitive eyes and thieving hands, both at home and when you’re on the go. Items can be hidden right under their noses with these specially-designed briefs which contain a fly-accessed 4″ x 10″ secret compartment with Velcro closure and “special markings” on the appropriate areas.” Priced at $11 a pair, its unclear if it comes in designer brands or women’s wear.

Leave this item near the laundry bag as if it was going to be hand washed or in plain view of the washing machine, perhaps some detergent such as Tide or Wisk and a container of bleach to add the props, a milieu that make a convincing image. When traveling, a clear plastic bag in your suitcase for those business men who often use their frequent flyer miles will suffice. It will certainly cause some crooks to think twice before touching any of your personal valuables.  Made in the USA, one size presumably fits all, two tone white.

My Percepto rating: Hey, it’s disgusting, but anything that will bring thieves to a screeching halt, skidding on their own greed, needs a double take.

“The exploration of reality through Art is very complex. There is no right or wrong. There is both.”
Playwright Harold Pinter

As a creator, any combination capable of evoking an image or emotion, is unique, requiring no justification or approval to validate its existence. Whether the perception is positive or negative, subtle or overt, the reaction should be left for others to make without explanation or apology for its content. Attempting at its best, not only to provoke the audience to think but also to ideate from the perspective of the architect, hopefully tapping into some “classic exemplar” sensibility, simultaneously. A diverse reaction will, ideally, reflect the wide range of listeners whose instincts are affected by a creative insight.

On the other hand, an artist is also an observer, whose work often suggests other meanings than initially envisioned by its creator, molded by other conceptions, adding unanticipated suggestive nuances that exhorts the notion that exploration of art, as Pinter said, however defined, is beyond “right or wrong”, good or bad. Paradoxical in it’s simplicity yet complex to both the trained and untrained eye.

To all those parents out there who thought Comic Books were useless pieces of trash – including my mother who threw out my box of treasured DC classics, this original page from a 1988 Batman story, “The Killing Joke”, reported in a New York Times article dated June 30th, 2008, sold for over $31,000 at auction.

Ha Ha Ha, The Joke(r)’s On You!

On Kandor, The Lost City Of Krypton

“History is not just the evolution of technology; but of thought, reflecting choices taken and the consequences of action by understanding the reality of those who came before us. Perhaps a vision why we view the world the way we do, as certain values develop from experience defining what our potential for contribution toward further progress can be.”

Genocide of indigenous populations, a foundation of many current democratic countries, was based on advanced technology with economic factors at play, as key to the success or failure of one side over the other. Sophisticated weaponry became the event horizon – a turning of the tide – in any political conflict. No examples are necessary. This isn’t political opinion, as much as historical fact.

Now, a Twenty-First Century world will be forced to look back in order to define its future, the center of its moral compass, and reveal what has been learned from history. Discovery News reported on May 30, 2008, “Dramatic images of an isolated Brazilian tribe believed never to have had contact with the outside world were published by officials to draw attention to what they felt were threats posed to their way of life.”

An odd way to preserve a culture by exposing them to a predatory world with a history of relentless imperialism.

Discovery Channel – Lost Tribe Of Brazil Found

When I considered Art in the past, photography was never part of the repertoire of forms which were as creative as painting or sculpting. Just aim and press a button. What’s creative about that? I have since had remorse, realizing that I was doing to photography what a friend of mine, a painter, implied when he said, “Painting is a purer art form than sculpture.”

I had decided to explore photography. I wasn’t concerned about the quality of the photograph as much as understanding what it was that I was setting out to do, with a pocket sized Casio 900 series camera. What I discovered was intriguing.

My awareness of what was going on around me became noticeably focused on looking for interesting things to picture. I was excited when walking down 59th street between Park and Madison Avenues, on the South side of the street, I passed a Hallmark Store. When I gazed into the window, there was a 2-inch water bug, belly up in an “I love NY” ashtray. Anyone who lives in NYC has seen them. They are the ones that crunch when you step on them.

The interesting thing about this image was that “the Bug” was laying on one of the lines that comprise the N in the word “NY”, with antenna curved like a heart shape, adjacent to the red heart in the tray. As I carefully aimed the camera and took various shots, I thought: “Would anyone find this interesting?” Perhaps as another way of imaging the “I love NY” Slogan. A true unanticipated “Kodak” moment caught in speechless imagery.

I went into the store, casually showed the picture to the manager and asked, “Is that a ‘real’ departed bug, or is it a prop to play on someone’s sense of humor?” The owner was not as excited as I was and I will let you, the reader, decide if it is true, not or just a crock?

Now that I scratched the surface, what lay next as I continue to explore Philosophical Photography?