Just a note to remember that Marseille did not burn in the November 2005 French riots.

Long Integrated, Marseille Is Spared

Southern Port Was Largely Quiet as Riots Raged in Other French Cities

By Daniel Williams

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 16, 2005; Page A12

STOLEN CAMERA

STOLEN CAMERA
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

I just had a $1000 camera 'pilfered' from my baggage while traveling with American Airlines (AA). I arrived in Tucson AZ on Saturday October 7 (2006), flying from Paris (CDG) with a layover in Chicago O'Hare. On arriving at my destination and opening my bag, I immediately noticed my bag was not packed the way I had packed it. My $1000 camera, a $60 camera bag, and a $100 pair of prescription sunglasses were STOLEN.

Phoning the Tucson baggage services was useless, AA does nothing for 'pilfered items' and only handles lost baggage cases. If my bag had gone missing they would reimburse me $2800 with seemingly little hassle. I phoned the AA toll free number and got the same response, ‘NOT RESPONSIBLE’. My problem is, my bag arrived after being 'pilfered' and what was left in the bag is of basically no value.

I am in the process of understanding the maze of paperwork and how to file a complaint with AA, the TSA, and I am filing a police report in the city of Tucson. This is a THEFT, a CRIMINAL act.

The AA phone representatives have tried to explain that checked baggage ‘goes through a lot of hands’ and they cannot be responsible for items ‘pilfered’ (e.g. STOLEN). Aside from my current sorrow and headache, I want to make one other point.

If a baggage handler is able to pilfer/steal a large camera with a bag and is able to remove it undetected from the secure baggage handling area, how long before the same handler puts something INTO a bag? How long before the baggage handler, who is presumably STEALING for monetary gain, will accept a BRIBE and put something into a bag. Something like a bomb?

So the net time you are being frisked at the security checkpoints. Don’t feel safe, think about what is going on underneath you in the ‘authorized personnel only’ areas. Is someone ‘pilfering’ your bag, or maybe jeopardizing the safety of every person on board by exploiting an unacceptable internal baggage security system? If you work for an airline and/or have friends that fly on planes, are they safe? Does this flawed system make you happy?

Does the following questions you are repeatedly asked really mean you and your fellow passengers and crew are safe? “Has anyone unknown to you given you something that you are bringing aboard the aircraft? and Has your luggage been in your possession at all times since you packed it?”

MEANINGLESS questions.

Happy flying,

Robert (no camera) Cudmore

Graffiti and Urban Renewal in Marseille

DATED POM


Originally uploaded by cudmore.

This POM paste-up mural covers two vacant store front windows at an intersection in Marseille were work is still going on to finish the new Marseille Tramway. A daily walk through the streets will tell you, the tramway has not made much progress since something like October of 2003.

POM pasteups appear on mostly vacant storefronts, usually depicting the original theme of the sign from the vacant store, say a bakery. I like this one because POM is representing the constant non-moving construction site, as permanent as an ancient sign saying this place is a bakery.

But this is getting all to academic. Good work POM. Keep beautifying the city of Marseille.

The Night Librarian

Summer in Tucson is, brutal. It was 103 today; average, maybe a little below. For better or worse, I get to spend the majority of my days in a windowless overly air conditioned room, working as a temporary hire. I am temporarily employed. Under employed, which is not nearly as debasing as being under paid. It is no fault of the organization which employs me, nor the organization where I show up for forty hours a week. The condition I find myself in is both humiliating and frustating. My dissertation has barely progressed this summer, as the better parts of my energy are being used to make $12 / hour, so I can afford to stay in Tucson (to be near my committee) and finish said document. But hope, finally, has found its way into my perview. My options, while limited, have trebled in the past week. And for that, I am thankful.

So, summer's brutish nature manifests itself in multiple ways. My apartment, while fantastic in many ways, is no respite from the heat. My escape from the sweat inducing confines of my flat is limited (by no choice, rather, by the impoverished conditions I find myself in)to: the Job Site, the Gym, (which, is not much cooler than outside, and intensified by the rationale of physicality), the library, (wherein lies a tiny, two seated windowless enclosed cubicle, empty save emergency coffee coffers and writings necessary for completion of aforementioned paper) and the Car, which is straining under the circumstance of summer.

Poverty (or the middle class graduate student equivalent, which involves working to pay rent, and maybe utilities if one is flush with funds) constrains ones options. There are no dimly lit cafes or restaurants, blissfully chilled cinematic entertainments, no misted ramadas shielding frozen margaritas and their sippers.


But the greatest constraint is locale. Tucson, while rife with majestic natural features, and odd ball attractions, slumbers in such inhumane heat. OUtdoor activity is verbotten. Concerts worth the price of admission dwindle. Which is moot, given that the price would have to be gratis (along with the drinks) to be feasible. Daytime is oppressing, and night only slightly less so. It is a place of near emptiness.

One of the few redeeming qualities is that, as bad as it may be here, at least it's not the state capitol.

Vienna, Hotel Atlas

hotel 1
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

I was in Vienna (July, 2006) for the bi-annual European Neuroscience conference (FENS). Aside form taking mostly mundane touristic shots and staying in a 'gay friendly' pension with a 'sports sauna' in the basement, I found myself the last two nights in a new hotel with some photos of that hotel. Here they are.

Vienna, MUMOK Museum

lumière d'abstraction 3
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Vienna, July 2006. Photo abstractions taken at the MUMOK exhibit Why Photos Now. It is difficult to get permission to take photos of anything in a Vienna museum less than 200 years old. You just have to convince them you won't make money on the photos and you don't want to take straight on shots to reproduce the works verbatim.

Thus, here are some abstraction of mostly the building and not the art. Bids for each photo start at $1 USD, I will also sell the lot to those interested.

Garbage Greve, Marseille

parking meater heap
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Marseille, June 2006. The warm and not yet too hot month of June in Marseille found itself a wonderful 2 week garbage strike(greve), mostly only affecting the urban center. I found it neccessary to take some shots of the heaps. Don't be impressed by the number of shots, this was taken by just walking through the neighborhood in 10-15 minutes. They were everywhere. The strike came to an end, not because of an agreement between the unions (syndicates) and the city, but when the smell started to get stomach turning.