I received my 2009 calendar from Lulu this weekend. Having looked it over, I’ve now made it available for purchase by the public. The cost is $14.99. The calendar features thirteen 8.5 x 11 inch black & white images – one for each of the twelve months plus the cover. The images are all art nude photos that I’ve made indoors.

The link to the calendar on Lulu is http://www.lulu.com/content/4362444 .

I’m posting a composite of thumbnail images for the twelve photos inside (click on it to see it larger), but you can see the images even larger on the Lulu page. Scroll down and click the “Preview This Book” button on the left side. Just give it a few seconds to open and for the first image to appear.

As I’ve written earlier, I got into the calendar game very late last year, with the calendar first becoming available on the last day of 2007. It was composed of outdoor nude images. I’m much further ahead of that this year, and as relatively few people may have seen that first calendar, I’ve decided to update it for 2009 and offer it again. The images are the same as before, with only the calendar pages changing.

The Lulu page for the calendar, Figures of Grace 2009 #2, can be found at http://www.lulu.com/content/4375133 . I’m posting the cover image and a series of thumbnails for this one, too.

So, that’s it for my 2009 art nude calendars. One year, two calendars to choose from. I’ve also been thinking of creating a calendar with some of my travel images – probably from Japan – but that’s something that remains to be seen.
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The next presidential debate is tomorrow evening. Obama is ahead in the polls and apparently gaining ground, so McCain and his moose-gutting surrogate are trying to engage in character assassination. They can’t seem to win by talking about things like the economy (you know – issues), so I guess there’s not much else they can do at this point.

Followers of my blog will know that I pretty much try to limit what I write to my photography and my travels, but this presidential campaign is just too important to ignore and be silent about.

However, I’ve got a story to recount that mixes both my photography and presidential politics. (The connection between the two may be a tenuous one, but it’s better than nothing.) Here’s the story:

I guess it was in November or December of 2000 that I went to B&H Camera, the big photo store here in New York, to get some things. This was shortly after George W. Bush had been “elected” president the first time. I had paid for my merchandise and was sitting in a small area beyond the check-out line, going over the stuff I’d just bought before I left to go home.

Sitting near me were some other people who were evidently waiting for someone else in their group to join them. I overheard them talking, and I heard that they were from Texas. Knowing this, I asked one of them – a woman sitting close to me – if she was happy that Texas had finally gotten rid of Bush as governor.

Her answer was ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ She said she was happy that Bush was finished running Texas, but sad that the whole country was now stuck with him. She readily told me that she was a Democrat, but she also shared this with me: she knew Republicans who had worked in the Texas state house when Bush was governor, and even these Republicans admitted that “Bush is an idiot.”

So, I guess the moral of this story is that some Republicans can be right now and then. Eight years later, and it’s pretty obvious that those Texas Republicans knew what they were talking about.

Of course, it still boggles my mind that someone like George W. Bush could have made it to the White House not once but twice. This year, in 2008, I hope Americans choose their next president based not upon likeability, but simply on ability.

(Four more weeks, four more weeks, four more………)