end of an era.

i hate birthdays. today is my birthday. it was a long day with many in and outs. i called joe and jenya the other night to tell them that it will be my birthday and i want them to go out with me and tess, not because it was my burthday, well paretialy but mostly so that they can finally meet the mystery girl her self.it was before 2300 but they were both already asleep, still not a bad thing to be woken up for. joe said they had already made plans to go out anyway and that we should join. i though that this was not a bad idea. first call of business was to go to the bank and get me a credit card. this will not be my first ever credit card, but my first american credit card. i guess for some real americans, like my syster this is all simple plain common knowledge that a credit card is a special thing and they dont just hand them out like they might do in other countries or places. the truth is that my sister as smart as she is and knowldgeble about the world as she may, does not know everythong, but noether do i or does the internet. the internet said that you can just walk in to your bank and get a card. the guy at the bank said that its not such a good idea to ask for a card if you do not have a job or other income. they dont care if you are hugly rich but only if they can assert that you can pay for your credit card, somthing they find out by looking at your previuos credit cards, wich as we know i have never had. so another reason why they probably not give me a card is that i never had one before.

i was discoureged but educated and went back to the internet wich told me that there are bank, better then the one i already use, that will give students a credit card, will give other poeple credit cards with no income on basis of good standing large amounts good ol $$$. another reason why a bank would refuse giving you a card is if you have been rejected on an aplycation in the past. i guess that i should have done more reaserch before but i just couldent belive it is that much of an issue. the guy at the bank who seemed like he was an ex football player, or maybe army type, and was verry talk and self assured seems verry nervous as he was answering my questions about why and how the whole credit card thing worked, as if he was scared shitles of actualy giving osmeone a card that might be defunct on payment. it seemed as though he knew that him and all the other economy type suit wearers bank or other money institute workers had done somthing they knew they shouldent have done over the years in the way they behaved with their liberalist economy and free market enterprising globalization and so on that led to the extreme financial crisis that america is going through and is affecting the whole world (except for israel thnak god - the land of god the all mighty Aw ler??) and that it its all their fault for inventing credit, making money appear out of thin air, so that poeple could buy a house with money made of air, invest with it or use their credit card with it, then have the government insure it and vouch for it, and once all the companies have soled their good to the poeple with invented money they asked the banks to realize the cash wich was never there in the first place, forcing the banks to forclose on its capital, but why hsould a bank loose out, its the custumer who never had money in the first place who is at fault here, and so he is to blame and take the fall while the government made good on its promise of the invented money and paid in to all the bank and big companies who lots their pants with bad managment, bad economic phylosophies and terrbille morals, only to see them come out of the crisis with more invented money then they ever had, even worse managment, non existing morals, and worse then ever product (wich also happens to be cheaper but who cares, no one is actualy paying for it, its all invented money anyways) so we can start the cycle all over again, just like with GM or chrystler. dont get what i am talking about? ask senator La roche... its part of his big scheme of things. i should have voted for Nader, he had it down all the way back in the mid sixties, but even then no one was listening, today even less poeple do.

anyways after the debockle (googles spell checker does not know this word, even though its dictionary does, so dont feel bad if you dont, arent i articulate in english... :) at the bank we had gone shopping, somthing we have been doing for a while looking for glasses for tess and what not. we landed a perfect parking downtown providence just outside the american apearal store, well near perfect, that is near a free spot but still good and then went to the providence mall (another pankruped example of the words above - just buy and all will be well). we did have an appoitment sometime in that after noon with a 16 year old girl from Hopedale, MA, somwhere about and hour away from boston in the back woods near some trees, some water and an empty abandond mill. this girl had posted an ad in craigslist asking poeple to be shot for her portfolio wich she is building up for art school. i though thats cool i should go. i asked tess she also said yes and then we went. hopedale is at the ass end of the world. there is a school police station and a pizza place, where we met the girl and her father. it was strange not what i though it would be out of somone posting an add of pictures he wants to take of poeple. but it ended up that tess gave the girl her camera because she was not really sure of what she wnated to do and i felt her camera might have dont the job if she was really going for it, wich she only did a bit later. it took a while and then we left. we drove back to providence after stopping at an empty drive in theater to admire the view. before we left tess wanted to use the bathroom so i said ill get a slice of pizza and a drink and she could use the bathroom, we walked in and the guy said that there is no bathroom but she can use thiers. i decided against another pizza because of my strict diet and tess later said after seeing the kitchen from the inside it was not a bad idea. we rushed home to make out date with jenya and joe who said they want to go the meckromick and shmicks, ive never been but like vages im told its great... we got back and had a fast dinner and shower. i had spent the morning ordering a new cell phone for tess as the one she brought with her from israel dident like the Tmobile line i got for it and it dident work. getting a phone for tess was no simple task and only the fact that so much time has passed and no phone had been bought or gotten she agreed first to get just a SIM card and since the phone dident work to get a phone that i will choose and that might not be the size she wanted it to be, mihgt not be pink and other things. so i looked on ebay for a nokia like jonathans and got it. little did i know it would cause much truble, but more on that tommrow. we had to ruch dinner in order to get a bus down to kennedy plaza so that we could drink and joe did not have to pick us up. it was nice to find out my student card is still valid for the buses. we got there in no time and met up with joe and jenya for happy hour, wich ment cheapo PBRs and Narragansents we even cheeper at a pretty preicy place, but with a verry real hamburger for 3 buck it was all worth it. any ways i like cheap bear and i like BPR no matter what it costs. in the end this was such a long day that was never ending, again. we had to get up early and so a million things with no time inbetween for our selves and we dident really do anything, and on top of that we had to get up the next morning at 7 to make an appoitnment wiht our new landlord to go wiht my mom to sign the lease.

more then kodak discontinuing this film or that one, this lab closing or another, this is truly the end of an era. yesterday night, it was techinichally already today, i loaded the last roll of superia 100 120 in to the mamiya. this was a bitter sweet moment that shall never return, this was the last roll of superia i have, i only had found it by chance when we were cleaning out the house in jerusalem. the most advanced color film ever developed, with the most modern color technologies (well now you have ektar or reala but they suck with over saturation) this is best film in the world, it has been discontinued a few months ago and will be no more. it has been MY film ever since i found its 60Y 80M fixed white light combo on standart printing time (12 seconds at 8"X10" at F8 at 50mm) was globally accurate. ever since i knew it was the most honest film you can have, its cheap, its sharp and true to reality, it was consistant, it was really 100 ASA, (unlike some NC160 or others) nothing fancy just plain and simple good stuff, truely a puritan film, just like me, and a puritan uses a puritan film - this is a puritan film for the puritan photographer. it has served me well over the years. it is reality - and more real then Superia REALA 100. i believed in it so, and still do, in Superia i trusted.

so long Superia 100 my friend in film.