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I guess it's real, then--it still feels kinda scammy (but, maybe that's why he insisted his name be attached to it)

Is this real? I can't tell, 'cause normal people don't demand to include their name on settlements related to companies owned by the friends they insisted on inviting to their second inaugural...I'm so fucking tired.

Seemingly-legitimate-e-Mail from PayPal, titled, 'FTC Prime Subscription Settlement Fund has sent you $51.00 USD. // 'Note from FTC Prime Subscription Settlement Fund: // '"You are receiving this amount because you are eligible to receive a settlement payment under a settlement reached by the President Tr*mp's FTC with Amazon.com Inc., regarding Prime subscription practices, in the case of Federal Trade Commission v. Amazon.com Inc., 23-cv-0932-JHC. If you're already enrolled in PayPal prior to receiving this message, no further action is needed -"'

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And let's not forget the whole reason they went up there to begin with--the FISHING! You have your choice of THREE boats in which to peruse the lake (this shot of the dock taken from boat nr. 3)

A small dock/pier on a Michigan shore, showing two small boats tied, awaiting further fisherfolx. Water ripples in the sunlight against the leaved coastline.

We ought to also examine the kingly appointments in one of these fishing cabins--even though you had to go out to poo, there was plenty one could do remaining indoors

Front of fishing cabin--showing door & two windows (inside one of which I'm certain I see the silhouette of my great-grandma), two LPgas cylinders for the oven, & a stack of firewood for the wood-burning-stove to keep all campers cozy thru the night.

Kitchen[ette] inside cabin, furnished in knotty pine; 4-burner-gas-range, 2 cast-iron-skillets hanging on the wall (with potholder); 2 kerosene lamps in a high niche in the kitchen[ette]'s corner; & curtains made in a lovely light-shaded-fabric.

Double bed in one of the sleeping-rooms, with the old-style open box-springs (still shiny-brite) on a bedframe made with rough-hewn-tree-trunks (bedroom is also furnished with knotty pine paneling). Note the window curtain also matching the pattern seen in the kitchen[ette].

View from the head of the bed, showing built-in corner cabinet--upon which Great-Grandma has arranged her essentials: lotions, oils a candle, and the Holy Bible. Above the cabinet essentials is a circular mirror anchored to the wall, onto which has been etched a repeating leaf pattern.

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(SUB-GENRE)--on many of these fishing trips, participants were expected to "rough it," without the modern touch of full indoor bathrooms...so I am DEE-LIGHTED to find documentation of the outdoor "sanitary convenience" (usually accompanied by my beaming and/or cackling great-grandmother)

Great-Grandma & Mrs. Seiser stand in front of a rough-hewn-outdoor-commode, its door currently kept shut by a large stone propped up against the planking.

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I ought to get Mr. Seiser in here, too--here he is with Mrs. Seiser in front of the then-active "Standard School" of Friendship Twp., Mich. (it was de-commissioned in 1958)

Mr. & Mrs. Seiser stand in front of a lake-stone-schoolhouse (still including playground equipment & a bell tower).

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I like this one because it captures my great-grandpa at an age well-before I knew him (yet I can tell, just by how he comports himself in the photo that not only is it him, but great-grandma is either taking the photo herself--or standing next to Mr. Seiser, saying "LOOK NICE, FRANK!"

Black coal smoke billows from the funnel of a neighboring ferry as a slightly bloated man stands in late-'40s-leisure-clothes (this picture was likely taken in 1956) on the deck of our previously-noted-ferry. The deck planking is still glossily wet.

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Every so often there are little gems packed among these aging negatives that capture an artistry I wish I could've complimented Grandma or Grandpa on snapping--let's call this one "Local Urchins"

A set of three people are captured standing at the promenade amidships from a distance of several meters away. The wood of the handrail curves in the picture above ironwork & spigotry, as the ferry wessel pulls away from its harbor.

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My Great-Grandma & her neighbor, Mrs. Seiser, stand on the misty deck in front of a US flag that's missing some stars...look how happy they both are to be there...

At the stern of the ferry wessel, two Ladies of a Certain Age stand miserably before the 48-star-flag waving in the mist. Other passengers in various stages of dress are present behind the ladies, enjoying conversation and sundry variations of tobacco products.

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A favorite genre of photography for me is re-discovered family vacation shots. Tonight, here's a selection from one set of great-grandparents (my Dad's mother's parents, both of whom I knew in my early life), from what appears to be a fishing trip in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (pre-Mackinac-Bridge)

Deck of early 20th-century-Great-Lakes-ferry-boat, apparently dubbed "THE STRAITS of MACKINAC," showing storage for life preservers (55 adults, 10 children), with instructions to "PUT ON LIKE VEST." Air intakes for lower decks can be seen alongside a steam funnel, with tremendously wet planking.

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(The greatest reward was the "oh, my golly!" uttered by Aunt Marilyn when she got to see this shot of her wedding day again, nearly 70 yrs later)

...it's incredibly time-consuming (lots of blowing dust off improperly-stored-negatives & re-racking for a better scan), but I wouldn't outsource this to any unfeeling machine. Just an example: a before & after of my great uncle & aunt on their wedding day--after eyeballing tint & contrast:

Wedding-day-shot of a backlit bride & groom in front of a little white church--heavily yellowed due to age of the KodaColor film stock, ca. 1955

Updated scan of negative, showing a less-yellowed-image (with a harsher blue on the sky that would have been present in the original 1955 print, before it too yellowed/reddened due to age), & slightly improved contrast (owing to better optics 70 yrs later).

I've been digitizing deteriorating family photos (some, luckily, from original negatives) using a flatbed scanner--but I WON'T resort to the slop-machine, 'cause there is SO MUCH that can be done manually to bring back what's always been there (but didn't remain, due to aging/hasty prints, &c.)...

...or...you could let it grow & see how long a length you can sustain...(from someone who's still not yet ready to let his hair & beard go)

Bearded bloated guy with 7 years of scalp growth & a good 7 months on the jaws.

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Just checked mine (even tho I'm not sure I'll still be breathing in November)--it only takes a moment...

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Not "Lost April" from the Bishop's Wife? (with Animal in Cary Grant's position)

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

And DAMMIT! I forgot my most favoritest thrift store find from back when I was 19

Bearded bloated guy holds vinyl album "The Amazing Nina Simone" [Colpix, 1959].

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DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Further honorable mentions: Linda Ronstadt/What's New [Elektra, 1983]; Stan Kenton/Kenton in Hi-Fi [Capitol, 1956]; Dolly Parton (& Friends!)/Those Were the Days [Sugar Hill/Blue Eye, 2005]; Paul Simon/So Beautiful Or So What [Hear, 2011]; Norah Jones/the Fall [Blue Note, 2009]

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DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Little Angel--Greenwood Cemetery, Bridgman, Sun.25.Sep./'22. Taken on CineStill400D with the 1934 Rolleiflex Old Standard [6RF621, uncoated Zeiss/Jena Tessar 3,8]; developing & scanning by mee

Diminutive white marble headstone showing a stylized angel clasping lillies in its hand while looking down at the inscription "Charles Jr. //Maranto // Aug. 12, 1928 // Aug. 8, 1932." Behind the headstone, further monuments are seen out-of-focus, resting among trees & shrubs.

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The best thing about this shot is Gretl looking directly into the reflection of the lens, so she's smirking into your soul now...

It's "b00b1es," all lowercase--the Os & Is are numbers

Bumper theme being a Salt-n-Pepa cover on handbells & a pipe organ

Finally decided to get crafty & switch the dual-hour-hand off my '23 Bunn Special (that I sadly overwound back on Christmas Day) onto the 1915 16Size Illinois Bunn Jeweled Barrell that I've been carrying more frequently #TodaysTimepiece

Yellow-gold 16Size pocket watch with large arabic numerals on a double-sunk-enamel-face (also bearing "Illinois" in diminuative caps), showing a double-handed-hour-armature (red hand with diamond point arrow an hour earlier than the black/fire-blued-spade arrow) & a large second-hand-dial ar 6-o'clock. Watch is attached to fish-scale-like 5-fronded watch fob.

Interior of watch case opened on reverse, showing the 19-jewel "jeweled barrel" movement & the Jugendstil motif with leaves & shamrocks on the back case.

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

the Gremlin at-rest, March 2023. Taken on CineStill800T with a 1982 Minolta X-370 [58mm Quantaray multi-coated, f 3,5~4,5]; developed & scanned by meee

At a baffroom medicine cabinet mirror, bearded bloated guy (clad in gray button-up-cardigan) stands with a 35mm SLR film camera raised to his face. on his shoulder, a blonde chi-hua-hua (wearing a small black hoodie) perches, rather pleased with herself for getting a free ride around a few feet higher than usual.

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I would settle for a cover version with Lil Jon doing the "Turn around" parts a la "Get Low"

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DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Every year my twin gives me a new cardigan for Christmas--owing to the fact, I think, that I won't quit wearing the at-least-85-yr-old Al Aldritt sweater I've had lo these last 12 yrs

Cloth label stitched into late-1930s/early-1940s maroon cable-knit-button-up-cardigan, declaring the garment to be from "Al. Aldritt athletic goods co. // MINNEAPOLIS"--flanked by a stylized weave of a football- & basketball-player.

Young lady perches on the lap of an older man seated in a folding chair on the sidlelines of a highschool football game, while bearded bloated guy stands behind. All three figures are smiling.

Bearded bloated guy smiles for the camera, standing in a backyard with hos hands crossed in front of him. He is wearing the ancient maroon sweater with a pink tie.

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This lewk's giving "The Seven-Year-Itch Beyond Thunderdome" to me--I can see Norma Jean and/or Anna Mae rocking this frock!

As usual, bluesky does a great job clipping the whole point of the pictures out of the mobile-app's prevue-display. Heckuvuh job, kiddos.

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This is the longest I've let my nails grow in a good 18 yrs--surprising for a nearly-lifelong-nailbiter. Maybe it's because this is one of the few aspects of my existence I can actually control...at any rate, it makes strumming strings a bit less painful

Left hand of bearded bloated guy spread slightly to show the beginnings of luscious nails. He is wearing an early-aughts yellow gold college ring on his ring finger ('cause arthritis & adipose now prevent it from being worn on the right); a late 1920s Jugendstil white gold ring on his middle finger (with an onyx-bordered 4-triangle-inlay of lapis & malachite, arranged in a repeating square pattern); & an early 1930s white gold Jugendstil band on his thumb (marked "Golden Wedding" to denote the repeating pattern of thistle leaves & orange blossoms).

Right hand of bearded bloated guy spread slightly to show the beginnings of luscious nails. He is wearing a yellow gold 1972 highschool ring on the middle finger (with a rectangular onyx inlay onto which the golden head of Jas. Whitcomb Riley has been bolted; the design is flanked by "19" and "72" on either side in gold numerals over a deep midnight blue background); a mid 1920s yellow gold Jugendstil ring on his ring finger (the rectangular inlay of onyx, jasper, malachite, opal, lapis, & serpentine stones arranged in what looks like a Franz Marc painting being housed in a raptor-claw-looking-shank); & a simple black-cord with blue beads as a bracelet.

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Where is your boy to-night? I hope he is a gentleman. Maybe he won't find out what I know: You were the last good thing about this part of town.

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"Dammit, Bethany"--keep yourself hydrated & get thru this

...sadly, a week after this, I dropped my open Jr620III on the frozen effluence of my apartment's alleyway.

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DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

St. Paul's spire nestled into One World Trade (the shot I finally knew I'd understood the viewfinder) Thu.10Jan./'19; taken on Kodak Portra400 with a 1938 Kodak Junior Six-20 Series III

Light leaks abound as a neo-gothic spire nestles into the groove of Daniel Liebeskind's One World Trade on a frosty Manhattan morning where I had to move fast, before a security guard tried to come out & make me move away.

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The straws are all stowed till next spring, so I've done the seasonal switch with all the pins

15-yr-old 6-panel-slouch-cap in blue & gold plaid, with pins arranged on the wearer's left. There's a crowned pink flamingo in enamel, with its left leg crossed; a 1956 red/white/blue button declaring "I like Ike and DICK;" a malachite-colored-pigeon ringed with scrolls saying "I will shit on everything you love" (a gift from my twin); a large gold-tone-elliptical-shaped-Jugendstil ND monogram (a replica of George Gipp's letter); a black round pin asking that you "pleaee use he/him pronouns" in gold; a post-war-enamel with the town of Innsbruck's Stadtwappen in red & black (the white has yellowed over the years); a rainbow heart; a blue dumptruck-ass with "NICE CHEEKS" overwritten upon it in gold caps (a gift from Uncle Dick's leather days); & a large Keith Haring "coming out day" square, showing a gold figure opening an orange door & emerging into a green room with reddish-brown-floor.

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Readying for the walk home (George & Halsted Strs.), Thu.20.Sep./'18. Taken on Kodak Ektar100 with a Kodak Tourist II 620 (Canadian, ca. 1952), Kodet 12,5; original processing thru Central Camera Co., Chicago. #HappyAccident

Street- and vehicle-lights of varying construct (LEDs, incandescent, & c.) twirl over the night-darkened-corner of Halsted & George Strs., on a humid Chicago evening where just looking up the street shows the haze of a sultry evening. Dark orange brick commingles with the night, in a happy accident created by the photographer accidentally opening his shutter when he thought he'd closed it.

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DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Cornet & trombone soloists, please consider this 1903 duet [re-released 1906, still making it both #FairUse AND #PublicDomain (fuck you, S*nyMusic; pay ME for my record!)] with Herbert Clarke [cornet & Komponist] & Leo Zimmerman [tromboner] backed with Sousa's Band

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

somewhere damn-near 24 yrs ago this weekend, I took the-Buddy-Dog (my family's pet which they adopted the winter previous, when I was overseas) to my dorm's Chariot Race dressed in a pillow case & 1950s fake plastic grapes. He got to eat more than his weight in pizza-crust, 'cause he was so cute...

In a blue 1990 Plymouth Acclaim sedan, a brown/tan/white Jack Russell terrier smiles on the passenger seat (wearing a white pillowcase festooned with red,pink,&green synthetic grapes that have been pinned to his ersatz toga) as his chauffeur (a tragically closeted college senior wearing a white twin-sheet & his str8-cheerleader-roommate's compression shorts,along with the same '50s fake grapes & Vietnam-era-shades) leans in to get started driving toward campus.

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DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The camera on which this was taken is tiny...and has a tinier-still "brilliant" viewfinder for you to very basically set up the shot...along with a rudimentary focus-slide to get closer subjects crisper. Given that this is from the 2nd roll I shot thru, it's remarkable I was just a few inches off...

Bearded bloated guy leaning over to look into the "brilliant" viewfinder on his 1926 Vest Pocket Kodak Special, a miniscule folding camera that looks even smaller in this guy's hands.

Image looking down into the Vest Pocket Special's viewfinder (showing a grandfather clock), with the focus range indicator beside.

DanglinDon @danglindon.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Buddha in the backyard, Fri.25.Sep./'20; taken on Rollei Crossbird200 127 film with a 1926 Vest Pocket Kodak Special [Kodak Anastigmat 78mm 4.5 lens, Diomatic Nr. 0 shutter]; developing & scanning by mee

A large tan & white American Bulldog lays across the lawn on all fours like a sphinx, his red & greenish ID-tags jangling off his large black collar, staring at the photographer as if the say, "what the fuck are you doing?!" Behind him, trees & telephone poles are illuminated in golden sunset.

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Jake at Canal & Jackson, Thu.17.Oct./'19 [this was after our mutual first shots of Malört, so he's a little out-of-focus]. Taken on FomaPan400 with the 1934 Rolleiflex Old Standard [6RF621, uncoated Zeiss/Jena Tessar 3,8]; original processing thru Central Camera Co., Chicago.

Bearded guy with mid-length short hair squints into the sun while waiting to cross the street. The columns of Chicago's Union Station are seen to his right, on a slightly-off-angle mimicked by the architectural elements of the building to his back in this sunny-16 black-&-white-image. One of my favorite street portraits.

With Tierney's album, start with "Only the Lonely;" then move to "Emily," "I Could Have Told You," "Last Dance/Dancing in the Dark;" & if you still enjoy the ambience, restart the album & listen thru completely. A gorgeous soundtrack for whatever (or, err, WHOMever) you're doing

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(sadly this story doesn't have as humorous a coda as when Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" hit the turntable & another ex & I started laughing so hard at Karma Chameleon that we were no longer, umm, hard)

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Suddenly remembering a hookup soundtrack that turned into a half-dozen tunes adored by one of my first great loves & me ...

Tierney Sutton, Dancing in the Dark [Telarc, 2004]; "inspired by the music of Frank Sinatra." A redheaded woman clad in a white evening gown with plunging neckine cleaves a strawberry-red curtain on the album artwork.