• There, I Fixed It!: Kansas City Style

    Citizen journalism in this town is celebrating a huge victory and I am here to take all the credit. My recent ground-breaking report on a possible contender for the biggest pothole in the State of Missouri sent seismic waves through the City Hall and the solution came swiftly – a bigger barrier.

    Parts of the previous orange obstacle that weren’t swallowed by the pothole were recycled…

    …and replaced with the state-of-the-art early warning system.

    City geologists used the circular cracks around the barrier to size up a new commemorative steel plate which will be placed over the pothole in the near future.

    The City Council ordered the City Attorney to draft a letter to BP demanding reimbursement for the repairs (mostly for the barricade) since the appearance of the pothole is directly related to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

    On behalf of myself and many residents of the nearby property tax-free building I’d like to thank the City for paying attention and quick decisive action.

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  • Old Photos: Kansas City Bombing

    I couldn’t find any article or a reference to any specific bombing in Kansas City for this set of the Life Magazine photos taken in 1953. I think they just illustrate a few unrelated episodes in a day of the KCPD’s Bomb Desk.

    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
    © Time Inc. John Dominis.

    Who wants to identify the hotel visible in the window? And what is the headlight-shaped object on the desk – intercom?

    © Time Inc. John Dominis.
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  • Old Photos: Kansas City 1945

    Life Magazine photographer Hans Wild traveled through Kansas City in 1945, while collecting materials for the article about the Missouri Valley. These images didn’t get published.

    Busy area surrounding a memorial building. © Time Inc.Hans Wild
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  • Billboards: Two States – Two Realities.

    When I was growing up©, we had those “us and them” propaganda posters like this:

    Two Worlds - Two Plans

    At the top, a Soviet  manager points to a map of windbreaks and hands his worker a sack of acorns to plant under the heading “We are planting life!“. At the bottom, a capitalist directs a general to a map of the military bases under the heading “They are planting death!“.

    Recently I noticed several billboards on the opposite sides of the State Line with the similar “compare and contrast” message.

    On the Kansas side we should be thanking the legislators for our “safer roads & 1000s of new jobs for Kansans”:

    Kansas legislators make construction workers happy; the guy in the middle and his shovel are ready to build even more roads for the grateful Kansans.

    But on the Missouri side the same guy is not smiling, he can’t even lift the shovel because of those fund-delaying evil legislators the gullible Missourians voted into the office. He even tucked his shirt in, that’s how sad he is.

    That’s why there is nothing but the pothole-ridden rough road ahead for the Missourians and the unsuspecting visitors to the state.

    Obviously, it’s not fun to be a construction worker in Missouri, no reason to smile for sure. Maybe just for the photos for billboards on the Kansas side.

    *photographing billboards is not easy and it was raining today, hence the quality.

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  • South Beach, Florida

    People don’t come to this here blog for good photos, so I have a reputation to uphold. This post contains plenty of mediocre photos of South Beach, photos just like you would take on your own trip with your hundred dollar camera. And that’s my goal: feel free to show these photos to your friends and relatives as your own, and if you are really fancy you can insert yourself in any of those for a complete effect.

    South Beach has the air of authenticity that is hard to find anywhere in the United States. Thanks to the genius idea to preserve the Art Deco district, one could easily imagine how this place looked 40-50 years ago. If you are in town for a day or two, this is the place to be. Stay in an old hotel and spend your time sightseeing; sitting on a beach is overrated.

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