THE MOST BIZARRE PLACE ON EARTH?

I know this is a big claim, but through all my travels, I think it may be true. The House on the Rock is located 7 miles south of Spring Green, Wisconsin. It all started as a unique house that was built atop of Deer Shelter Rock by an eccentric man named Alex Jordan. The house itself is a small part of the current attraction, but one of the most interesting. It features low ceilings throughout, self playing music machines, is dimly lit in blues and reds, and utilizes locally quarried stone for the walls and furniture. As the house itself became a popular attraction, Jordan began collecting and expanding. His collection of stuff takes another full 3 hours to view. He has model ships, doll houses, guns, self playing music machines, armor, the world's largest carousel, a steam engine, million pieces of miniature circus people, a three story whale, massive carved ivory statues, and the list goes on. It is imagination and consumerism gone wild. I don't think there is a more American attraction anywhere. Alex Jordan was a man who bent reality to his will, creating wealth, but more importantly, a legacy. And he did it all by buying lots and lots of interesting stuff!

CORPORATE GREED CAUGHT OUT ON A LEDGE

Today I visited a well known Chicago landmark, the Willis Tower. Maybe you've never heard of it. Perhaps you know it by it's old name, the Sears Tower. In March 2009 a London-based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings, Ltd., agreed to lease a large portion of the Sears Tower and as part of the agreement obtained the building's naming rights. On July 16th, 2009, at 10:00 am Central Time, the building was officially renamed Willis Tower. On August 24th, 2009 I refused during the entire duration of my visit to call the building by its stupid new name. How do you get away with renaming a famous American landmark after your crappy foreign company? Answer: As enraged as I was, I still had to admit that the newly installed "don't hate us" Skyboxes, which are glass boxes that extend out over the building with a clear view 103 stories down, are pretty cool. What happened to you Sears? You used to be cool. You could have built Skyboxes, but somehow you were led astray into the land of Lee jeans and $20.00 shoes.

IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

It's not often that you can find yourself having a deeply religious experience flanked on all sides by tourists with cameras. Yesterday I visited St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, considered by many to be the holiest of all churches in Christendom. Catholics have always done a great job at overwhelming you with the grandeur of their churches, and St. Peter's is the grandest of all I've seen. But it wasn't the size that moved me, it was the light. The light in this church enters in the form of angelic crepuscular rays that played with my soul. Maybe it's because I deal with light for a living, that I tend to revere great light, but I felt as if God was in those beautiful rays spilling out onto the marble floor. It was spectacular. I wanted to clear everyone out of the church and be alone with my thoughts and that light. The closest I came was finding a secluded corner where I felt I could sit and privately have a moment. I wasn't there two minutes before a guard came over and asked me to stand up. If I spoke Italian I would have told him that God said it was OK.

MY FAVORITE SPOT IN JORDAN

Watching the sunset from the rolling mountains overlooking the Dead Sea has got to be on of my favorite things here in Jordan. It's beautiful, quiet, religious, and peaceful. When visiting, I alway go to the mountain adjacent to Mt. Nebo, because there's nothing on it. It looks like it did thousands of years ago when famous prophets were also inspired by the view. Nebo, the spot where Moses saw the holy land and died, closes at 6 pm and is cluttered with buildings. The holiness of that land requires more imagination.

JORDANIAN ODDITIES

Every place has its quirks, and Jordan is no exception. Here are just a few observations I made while walking through the mall yesterday.

First, Amman is home to just about every large chain restaurant we have in the US. Here these chains are expensive and are considered very nice places to eat, reserved for special occasions. With the exception of most not serving alcohol and none serving pork, they look just about the same. What makes Friday's different is that their name doesn't make any sense in the Arab world. The end of the work week here is Thursday. Thursday is the day everyone has to endure until, and then celebrate on after work has ceased. So the whole notion of, "in here it's always Friday" is stupid. In here it's always Saturday? Who cares. What they are saying is, "in here you will feel like shit because of all the partying you did the night before".

Photo two is a coke machine inside a very expensive gym. Run for an hour, then enjoy an ice cold coke. Red Bull is also available for purchase if you need a little extra energy on the front end of your workout.

And finally, Chix-filet, but this time it's not another American chain. This is a knock-off of an American chain. Knocking something off is extremely common here; from DVDs to watches to restaurants. Intellectual property seems to be one of the most common victims. Some magazines here are composed entirely of photos taken from Google images. In fact, some graphic designers spend hours meticulously removing watermarks from stock images in order to save the company from spending the $50.00 for the legal right to use them.

JULY NOX TEAR SHEETS

It was a fun month shooting for Nox magazine. They gave me my first feature here shooting a large desert rave called Distant Heat in Wadi Rum. They ran it as an eight page spread and even put a little tiny photo of mine on the cover. I really felt that my Distant Heat photos were a nice compliment to an excellent article written by a local artist named DJ Hasan, who graciously provided my transportation to the event.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE 70 MILES ON EARTH

Yesterday I went on an overnight trip to Tel Aviv, Israel with a friend. From Amman, Tel Aviv is only 70 miles away. We were told a cheaper alternative to flying was using the border VIP service that gets you rapidly across the border and over to the coast. This information is incorrect. The total transportation costs to transit 140 miles (there and back) was $1047.00 USD, and it was a complete pain in the ass. Here's how the costs break down:

$140.00 each way for an ex-mukhabarat general to drive us from Amman to the border; approximately 30 miles. This is important because without someone with connections at the border, your passport will be stamped by the Jordanians and leave a trace that you've been to Israel. That trace turns your passport into a useless collection of stamps. Most Arab countries will not allow you into their country if you've been to the land of the Jews. Slip an additional $30.00 to the guy behind the desk that doesn't stamp the passport. $15.00 for the exit tax from Jordan. Now comes the interesting part. People have spent days waiting to cross this border into overly-paranoid Israel. So both sides came up with what amounts to a legal bribe they call the "VIP" service. For $190.00 each way we were sped through customs and provided a private car for the roughly 1 mile drive between borders. We also got one free bottle of water. Once in Israel, our ride to Tel Aviv was not there, so we had to take a bus to Jerusalem ($20.00). Luckily the man my friend was meeting happened to be in Jerusalem, or we would have had to spend another $100.00 for a taxi to Tel Aviv.

The next morning at 9:30 am we were met by a taxi that drove us the 40 miles back to the Jordanian border at the bargain rate of $232.00. Another $190.00 for the VIP service, and $90.00 for the exit visas. No cost to get hassled by a 20 year old Israeli with an M-16 about why we don't want any trace of Israel in our passport. Surprisingly no bribe for the Jordanians not to stamp our passport with an entry stamp. And finally, another $140.00 for our secret police ride back to Amman. As stated before, one night in Tel Aviv cost $1047.00 just for land transportation and bribes. I came across a perfect metaphor for this experience in the Welcome to Israel magazine. On the first page is a "warm" welcome from the Minister of Tourism, and his cold emotionless expression says to me, "did you have fun getting here assholes?"

JULY AL-SIJILL TEAR SHEETS

SADDAM HUSSEIN: THE HERO, THE MARTYR

A few days ago I shot a junk market in the Baqa'a Palestinian camp north of Amman. There are ten official Palestinian camps here in Jordan, and conditions within them are only slightly better than being homeless. In Baqa'a, residents scour the trash cans in Amman and sell whatever junk they find: broken cassette tapes, dismembered dolls, a phone cord. The residents are also very outspoken about their dislike of Jews, Isreal, and America's support of said country. The bookstore owner pictured above asked to see my camera and after I handed it to him, told me he was keeping it. When I protested he said, "this is what the Jews did with our land". Point taken. He then insisted I take a free book and the poster pictured above, which reads, "Saddam Hussein: the hero, the martyr". Every day here is an education. Tyrant + misguided American imperialism = hero.