Breaking News from the AP

Nov 12, 2007 - Barack Obama addresses the crowd at this town-hall style event in the gym of Stevens High School in Claremont, NH, during the New Hampshire primaries.  

The most important feature of the photograph, however, are the two young men, seen sitting in the lower-left corner: Andrew Redd and Salvador Reynozo, high ranking National Security agents, here to advise then-Senator Obama.  

OK, beating a dead horse, I know.  I'm being insufferable with this Obama photo-stalking thing.  Does anyone want to kill me already?  Or even give a shit?   Well, I can't help it.  I'm so excited about Obama, and for the first time in my life I have a warm feeling of love for the president... imagine that!

I'm so used to equating the word "President" with words like "evil," "anti-intellectual," and "Texan."  But now, with a wise, good man in office, I barely know what to do with myself; it's such a novelty for me, something totally new and unexpected.  I'm so patriotic; who would have ever thought?  I'm an unabashed Obamaniac. 

And here's the cool thing about this photo.  I found it by chance, online, while I was googling this particular event-- (Yes, to see if I could spot myself, because I'm a narcissist.)--  And there I was in the lower left!  The photo is credited to a photographer from the AP named Jim Cole.  So I wrote to the AP asking if I could order copies of this particular photo.  And YES, to my surprise, they can do that.  So I am.

But then I got a little greedy, evidently, because I asked the AP about the other photos taken at the event, the ones that didn't make it to the paper.  "Surely," I said, "there must be several other photos that Jim Cole took that evening, (beyond the mere three that were published,) that never made it to publishing, and perhaps they've been saved and archived elsewhere...?"   

Now is that really such a silly request?  I know he must've taken more photos, and I'm likely to be in a bunch of them, because I was sitting in front.  ... C'mon!  Just send me a damn index print or something!  Or offer to sell me the lot.  Or at least a few... Why not?

A lady from the AP wrote me back and thanked me for my interest, but said that "they only handled enquiries on a company to company basis."    Elitist pigs!

 I wrote her back to thank her for the info, then asked her, "So, are you guys hiring?"  --Am I weird for asking that?   I mentioned I had a BA in Eng from UCLA if she was interested in seeing it.  "Just thought I'd throw that out into the ether," I said.  Yes, I actually wrote that sentence in the email.  

She kindly responded, believe it or not, and said she'd forward it on to her so-and-so in charge of such things.  She was in London, very proper with me, all "rather" and such.  A nice lady overall though.

Fortunately, there was ANOTHER photographer in attendance that evening; he works for the Miami Herald.  I've hunted him down now too and explained to him who I am and what I want, his photos of that evening.  ... And THIS nice little reporter said 'YES' to me! --and is more than happy to help me.   ... Thank God for Mr. Miami Herald, and other kind, generous strangers of the world, willing to just say 'yes.'

Well, now you know what I do in my free time.  I'll have you know, it can be very isolating and boring in a small frozen town on the edge of the Earth.  A person must find ways to occupy himself.   ... Just kidding, you know I love doing this.   Oh my god it's so much fun.  Playing "Where's Waldo" with yourself is great.

Does anyone else use this damn blog, by the way?  Let's have some action here!  Step up people!  Step up!   I can't be thinkin' I ain't talkin' to no one. 

Andrew