In 2010, there were 18 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 323 posts. There were 27 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 7mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was February 2nd with 106 views. The most popular post that day was Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Questionned.
The top referring sites in 2010 were racialicious.com, twitter.com, blogsurfer.us, search.aol.com, and happynappyhead.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for don’t ask don’t tell pros and cons, disco ball, dont ask dont tell pros and cons, black pin up girls, and mirror ball.
I am still taking something of a blogging break from serious and contentious news of the day. Usually when I feel worn down like this I retreat to music, fiction, or photography. I have been listening to a lot of music lately—and can’t wait to re-join Old School Friday soon to share some of my musical ministry here. I have picked up an interesting novel, and have a couple more on my list. So that leaves photography. These shots I modified from the White House’s Flickr photostream.
They are nothing momentous: Just moments.
I don’t know why I am partial to this image. Actually, yes I do. It shows the President writing with his left hand. I’ve written before about the pride I feel, on behalf of my leftie daughter, whenever I see Barack Obama use his left hand. But I also like to imagine the moments right before this shot was taken, when he asked this brother (personal aide Reggie Love) to hold up a minute so he could write on his back.
This guy’s folks will have this image forever. He’ll show it to his own grandkids one day, should he one day be a grandfather. This young man will never know a United States in which a Black President did not exist as a reality. I know that there are important policy issues that we should be attending to—and holding this president accountable for. But in doing so we should not lose sight of the radical-ness of this president’s very Being President.
This is another one of those captured moments that I want to imagine the moments just before. The kid in the baseball hat really wanted to play this whole thing cool. But you can tell he’s interested. (Though I wish he had taken his cap off.) The President has got his Dad-face on.
And of course, who doesn’t like Bo. The “Snowcopalypse” may have shut down the Capital and much of the rest of the country, but it was all fun and games, apparently, for the First Dog.
…I don’t know how else to sing it. I’m on something of a blogging hiatus. Follow me on Twitter—or drop my my house to help with laundry or my office to help me write. Otherwise, I’ll be back blogging soon!
Both Volume 1 and Volume 2 are now out on DVD (I think, only at Target stores). I highly recommend them. Volume 3 premiers on HBO February 8.
If you have dropped by this spot before, you know I have a thing for black and white photography, and black and white historical images of African Americans in particular. There is a subset of these images that are of hardship, struggle, pain. Yet many images are still what I would characterize as beautiful—sometimes startlingly so.
Such is the case with these photographs, more from Flickr’s incredible collection of public domain photographs, The Commons.
These may not be famous works of photographic art from their periods, but they masterfully capture important slices of history. But beyond that, they are beautiful works of art.
As was the case of the people in my post “My People and Other People’s Children,” I do not know who the subjects of these photographs are. But I claim them, proudly, as my own ancestors. I am grateful to them, for enduring, and to the photographers who captured their beauty.