'The Internet Cafe -- Industrial Size'

This is a very, very large (hence 'industrial size') Internet Café, located in

a major city in Eastern Europe. Such cafes proliferated in small, dank,

hidden shops, often under arcades, where youths played 'games' in

almost total darkness until year or so ago, when shopping centers

opened large Internet cafes, such as this one. Now, with proliferation of

personal computers and netbooks, such cafes are rapidly becoming

outmoded. Your ratings, critiques and remarks are invited and most

welcome. If you rate or critique harshly or very critically, or wish to

make an observation, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment; thank you in advance for sharing your photographic

knowledge to help improve my photography. Enjoy! John

John, from the intensity of their expressions I would infer either that it is a very close game or else that they have suddenly found something on the internet that would be very intriguing to adolescents.

Well-captured in any case, showing your usual clear, contrasty images that we love to look at so much.

--Lannie

This was a very difficult capture, just for metering, sensor range issues.

There is a wide range of light variability (EVs -Exposure Values) in this photo, plus the boys' faces are illuminated almost solely by the screen plus a little overhead lighting, but they were mostly in shadow and too 'mooshy' when I first posted.  In less than 15 minutes, I managed to emphasize the faces a little more, and substituted photos almost immediately.

I think it was a good choice; as you remarked favorably on what it was I changed (faces/contrast).

Thanks again.

john

John (Crosley)

I think of the Internet is the most important invention in recent years.

But at the same computer games for many young people become like a drug.

The majority of big-time computer games are played over the Internet, and the Internet, you correctly state, is one of mankind's world historical inventions -- it has and will continue to change the way almost everyone where there's electricity (or batteries) plus telephone or wireless, can communicate with most other people on the planet or access the world's knowledge base (and its base of 'cr*p too).

The young men may be looking at a message from a girlfriend far away announcing her coming to them, or they may indeed be 'gaming' over the Internet.  Doctors now do surgery while watching the Internet.

In my last, doctors were busy looking at my photos on Photo.net (on the Internet) as they prepared me for my operation, and vowed that for me 'extra special care' (which I received) on account of a good portfolio -- and they were ordinarily pretty jaded doctors - not 'personal doctors' and didn't otherwise know me from Adam or Volodya.

Imagine, they're going into my body, after reviewing my photos on the Internet on their computer right as they prepped me and even as they started to administer anesthesia to me.  They said it gave them incentive to do a good job and showed the I was more than a body on their operating table.  My work, over the Internet, personalized me to stranger doctors, and we ended up being 'friends'.

I now seldom have to guess about 'facts' - I can verify through trusted sources using the Internet, so when I write something, usually I've 'looked it up' and not from some no-nothing guru, but from a well-known and recognized source (N.Y. Times, statutes and laws, encyclopedias, dictionaries, translations, and so forth).

There is a saying that some things are two-edged swords -- meaning a knife (or sword) can be lethal, but try leading a normal life without that knife or knives. 

Svetlana, thanks for visiting and commenting.

john

John (Crosley)

great universal capture for our times! ;-} dp

I think your observation is quite apt.

Thanks for viewing and commenting.

john

John (Crosley)

What happened to "Penny Arcades" and Pinball Machines? The World is going to fucking hell.

I am older, but not as old as you.

I remember, pinball machines and used to play them -- I loved to watch the points add up to the tens or hundreds of thousands and all those bells, beeps, bumps and lights flashing when the pinball bumped around down to the twin bumpers that you hopefully used to sent them back with (goalkeepers of a sort), all with some 'body English'.

I remember gumball machines, and also 'pulltabs' which were a way in a land of blue laws and outlawed gambling to evade rules against gambling.  You pulled a tap, and some few were lucky; the establishment owner paid you, if no cops were going to cite or arrest him (it always was a him).

I remember nickle candy bars, and with some heft, not pared down, and horizontal Coke machines where you had to slide your bottle around chutes then pull it up one main device that allowed just one bottle to be pulled up.

But if you had a bottle opener, a long straw, and weren't afraid of getting caught you could siphon all the Coke you wanted.

I once had a gunshot wound and was broken down somewhere in Eastern Pennsulvania awaiting service on my VW bug, wearing the same jeans I was shot in, with the blood stains still there; and playing pinball with my friend and co-driver when the cops came into the laundromat (only thing open at 3:00 a.m. and we had slept all day), and spied the bullet hole in my jeans and the old. dried bloody stains going down my pants leg.

I kept playing the pinball machine and allowed how I had indeed been shot, they might even know about, (ding ding, ding!  lights flashing, flippers flipping, ball wildly careening around) as they inquired, and I answered, not taking my eyes off the machine and ball. 

I used a lot of 'sirs' and told them where to call to get the answers to back up my story, and eventually their dispatcher made the call, got the answers, and they left.

I was still playing on my nickle . . . ding ding ding ding, lights kept flashing, scores toted up, and I kept flipping those flippers like there was no tomorrow.

Now, Meier, I am not nostalgic. 

I am older, and I do not lament 'the good old days.'

Those were the days when Jews couldn't get jobs with 'silk stocking' Wall Street and Manhatan law firms because of their religion or even their birth facts; same with country clubs and numerous private clubs -- even some very public venues.

Universities had 'Jewish quotas'.

You are Jewish.

You must remember 'the good old days' when Jews got *ucked in many things they tried to do in America.

'The good old days' are a big lament, but those were the days of blacks being gunned down for even 'stepping out of line', Rosa Parks starting a national furor by stepping to the front of the bus and daring to ride like a real person, the cops in Gold Beach, Oregon and Winnemucca, Nevada would openly brag that if a black moved in at sunup they moved out by sundown.  That would show 'them' the 'people' meant business; they 'knew' blacks were 'bad'.  It was in the national blood.

If you stood up for Civl Rights, you were called a 'Nigger Lover', and couldn't fight -- there were always too many on the other side.  Same with 'Jew Lover' and so on, and the gays got just about as bad as the blacks or worse.

It was Negro, then, and bastardized as the 'N' word which whites are no longer allowed to write or say, though I am an honorary one designated so by my young tutorees, in Central Harlem on Lennox Ave., in upper Manhattan where I was the only white guy they ever saw, except the cops who let the blacks steal from or hurt blacks, just so long as they didn't 'get outta line' with whites.

Yes, Meier, are those the 'good old days' that you refer to.

You long for those days, before equality and equal rights and when everyone despised everybody else on account of ethnicity, race, parents' nationality, sex, sexual orientation, or when even the word 'fairy' or 'homo' was enogh to get one assaulted or try to provoke one to respond to bullies, and bullies abounded.

Barber shgps and drug stores had girlie magazines open and lying on the floor, but all the interesting things (unlike Photo.net) had been airbrushed out. 

Breasts with pasties were allowed, and where there should have been pubic hair there always was a smudge.

Always until Hugh Hefner, king of the dirty old men, then a very young and vital man, snuck some pubic hair into a photo of I think a Brazilian model lying on a rock somewhere in the middle of a photo spread, maybe on page 38, or so, so it wouldn't be too obvious.

Kids could buy Playboys, moms always knew to find them under the mattress, and nobody screamed 'child abuse' but there was child abuse of young girls by fathers, stepfathers, uncles and even strangers, and they never complained for long, often shut up by their moms or sheriffs and cops. 

Priests abused young kids and nobody dared speak.

Rapes  occurred but women were afraid to report them. 

If a married woman had sex, and the husband found out, she said she was 'raped' 'by a black man -- a 'darkie', and sometimes he got hung or other times went to the State Pen for a long, long time or got put on a chain gang as part of "Industrial Slavery' which lasted until 1942, contrary to the history books which say the Civl War ended it all.

Yes, Meir, what the hell's the world coming to, anyway? We now have more equality.

Video games come along with it, and those old clunker pinball machines are with the coin-operated slot machines, along with other relics -- maybe even those who long for the good old days.

I don't think I'll ever miss them even if I miss being youthful; I was hyperaware of the inequities around me and how they didn't square with the Constitution.

Worse when I went to New York City to Columbia to school.

You can have the good old days, when you didnt get a lawyer, the cops might beat a false confession out of you or threaten to throw your wife an kids in jail unless you falsely confessed, and held you for sometimes a week or more without charging you, interrogating you every day and nobody knew where you were, and if poor, you could represent yourself in court, because no attorney woud without big pay.

Yes, the good old days, Meir.  You lived in the US part of your life, did you miss 'the good old days?'

Yes, I'm older, but I'd have liked to have been born later, sometime where I could have enjoyed the sexual revolution and not having to wear a tie, jacket and slacks to class at Columbia.

The good old days.

If I find them, you can have them.

Maybe you should go watch a film noire, and sate your fantasies about the 'goodness' in those old days. 

People got 'run outtta town, Reno police would arrest you unless you paid a speeding violation on the spot, and same with speed traps througout the nation . . . . . where suddenly there was a 20 mile per hour zone as you were zooming along at 60, and its only purpose was to give the inevitable waitig cop with ticket book a chance to increase some small town's revenue (or you might lose your car right there).  Worse if you were black or Jewish and that trap was in Alabama or Arkansas, because you'd get insulted big time too, to provoke you.

There are numerous probems now, too, but there were then, too.

Ours are just a little different.

Maybe I'm more tolerant than you; I think much of the world is doing pretty good, by comparison, though FAR from perfect.

I had expected by this time most of the world's population would have outstripped the food supply but the agro scientists and the bug scientits figured out how to grow more and keep more.

I think given everything, (if I didn't live in Israel, which my one day go up in  puff of nuclear dust) things really are pretty good, recent global financial crisis or no.

That's my view, and I have no explectives to declare about progress, though parts irk me also.  I do hate trying to fix a cell phone bill with someone in Bangalore who asks what 'State is Los Angeles in"?  And means it.  Or Seattle, or Denver.

So, sir, I beg to difer about 'the good old days' and your lement, 'what' the (expletive) is the world coming to'.  In fact, in those days they could arrest you for writing that word or even speaking it in public in mixed company.

But I enjoyed the exercise of dredging up the past to really truly remember it, and not some idealized chimera.

john

John (Crosley)

Yes, you're right, it's a two-edged sword.

I wish you good health!

Svetlana.

Svetlana, this is a personal note, regarding me, my photography and photographic career, and thanking you (with an explanation) for your kind good wishes. 

Others may ignore the following.

I spent all day at Boris (you know where) both on Kreshatyk and Bazhana, today, (clinics and hospital), and was reminded of how awful my Christmas holiday was last year.

A friend was in Boris Hospital, close to death and getting inexplicably worse.

Someone who owed me a delivery from the United States failed, and it became threatening to my ability to lead a life without being bedridden, so with my friend possibly dying, my paying the Boris Hospital bill every day with thousands of dollars, because my friend could not afford and really might die, (the Ukraine State Medical Service made a terrible error, so free/low cost treatment was out of the question), with my friend  burning up with unexplained fever, even when I left my friend before recovery began. 

My friend was almost at death's door when suddenly I had to leave my friend's hospital bedside.

I spent the previous day, night, and day night in Boris Hospital with my friend, sleeping in my friend's room, making sure the nurses did their rounds each 15 minutes, then trying to sleep in a straight chair in my friend's private room (that's all they had at Boris Hospital was private rooms, and in the US the care might have called it 'intensive care').

So, I went from that, to the place I stayed in Kyiv, and with no sleep at all, had to pack for a week's trip to the USA to pick up that package (or thing) that the sender failed to deliver to me, and had to use a last-minute round-trip airfare to the USA and stay a week mostly confined to a hotel, although the only reason for that trip was just to pick up a packet-- a very important packet, and without it my life would basically STOP.

The packet had medicines for me; without them I was bedridden, so when I arrived in California, not having the medicines, and staying in a hotel, instead of having a good life in Ukraine or even in California, I was without this medicine until the failed shipper in the first place would send me a replacement, and that took some time,and I was ill until it arrived just with bolna (pain).

Ploho!  (Russian for bad).

I spent my Christmas in an expensive hotel,  in a hotel room alone in California where I knew no one and was in big pain, all because someone broke their continual promises and reassurances to me, to deliver me medicine (before I left previously for Ukraine, and failed to get it to me in Ukraine.  It was otherwise unavailble to me, except from my doctor through this man who didn't keep his promises to me, and kept telling me he knew better, just follow his advice and he'd deliver.  He never kept any of those promises.

It was among the worst Christamases (December 25 in USA), that I've had in my life, and I've had some very, very awful ones - (a few nice ones, but I have an outstanding record of having awful Christmases).
I had vowed last year's Christmas would be perfect, first a holiday celebation in Ukriane, then a trip for me to California, meeting my friend on the summer beaches of South America to take photos.  All without almost any cost.

Instead, it turned out world class awful; one of my worst ever holidays.

I had made advance plans to celebrate my Christmas with my friend, then go to South America, then (1) my friend started suddenly and quickly to die (I paid the hospital bill), (later my friend did get 100% better, and we could have made that trip to South America.  It had been pre-arranged months before, visa approval was obtained, and nothing would stop me from having a textbook perfect Christmas.

Except . . . . .

I also had to turn down work that might have paid me very, very much -- thousands -- because of that trip.

When I arrived back, my friend was recovering and soon was well, but I got very very very sick (not from my friend because it was NOT contagious) but from dehydration, exhaustion  and flying 18,000 miles in a week, just to get a package of medicine.

All because in my opinion, someone got too lazy, and couldn't get the energy to call a delivery company, then advised me to return to Ukraine, the month before (a delay of return by even a day then might have cost me $4,000 with requirement I was told to buy a new, very expensive ticket.  That occured the prior month when the medicine delivery failed the first time to my address in the USA.  There was lots of time for the delivery too, and I was told 'just go to Ukraine, enjoy yourself, everything it taken care of' (paraphrased).  Don't worry, I was told, no problem.  The man would fix everything, but he didn't.

So, no alternative or substitute being available, I had to return to the USA for a replacement.

I had an influenza injection today, (and did last year also, and did not get influenza at all - only bronchite (bronchitis) which put me in bed after my 18,000 miles trip, all for 2-1/2 weeks after the trip, spoiling my Christmas and New Year and much of the first month of the New Year.

All because of a man's negligence in my opinion, and he knew if he failed, I would have to fly back and be bedridden until he got me new medicine and it would make me ill -- no medicine, then big stress from big trip fast.

I took his advice; he was a professional, he would keep his promise.

He did not and diddled so my Christmas last year was spoiled.

After I left Kyiv my friend soon got better, and if I had been well (not bedridden with exhaustion and illness after returning) we could have gone to South America together and also that small job that paid very much simply evaporated -- it went away.  The work required I do it at Christmas time -- the days before or after, but not after the middle of January or even January first, when Ukraine and Russia shut down until 21 January.

I'm afraid to go outside this year, for fear this Christmas something awful will happen.

It cost me well over $10,000 just to go pick up a prescription . . . .

I had to fly to America to do it, when it was not delivered on time and as promised and there was NO substitute.  To do otherwise would break a contract with my doctor, then he would cease treating me, and he's a long-time doctor, both wonderful and wise in my opinion.

I don't name the company or the person who spoiled (ruined) my Christmas last year or caused other losses.

I am happy my friend survived and did not die, and immediately got so much better, and soon was 100% of normal.

We missed our trip to South America, I lost the work that paid very highly (thousands), and had to fly 18,000 miles suddenly, then got ill, and so far nobody has paid me 1 cent or 1 kopek for all the time, money health and inconvenience I lost last year.

I had spent almost all the previous 365 days in the USA, and was again resuming trips to Ukraine to photograph.

When I asked my losses be reimbursed, I got severely insulted, as though I had  done something terrible, called a essentially called stupid, inferred was called a liar, and also derided saveagely, instead of getting a sorrowful apology.

Any Christmas this year has good promise of being better than last year.
Svetlana, I am sooo thankful for your good wishes.

It comes at a wonderful time, as this time last year I was spending money for an unexpected 18,000 miles trip that left me celebrating Christmas in a hotel room in America, alone, bedridden and unhappy  - and ill with pain.

Almost anything can be better than that.

You can read what you like about how I treat friends, but I won't comment further than say friends are more important than money and so is health.

But when someone charged with keeping me healthy makes promises that are easy to keep but somehow fails to do their job, and it costs and injures me,  then it's wrong - simply wrong.

And I got insulted on top of that, rudely, for complaining politely.

And while I was flying those 18,000 miles and celebrating (hah), Christmas alone and in a hotel room, I was deprived also of the chance to watch and be with my friend, as my friend started to get better or to help my friend and family which needed but could not get my friend's services at home.

My reward is a bad memory, but a healthy friend.

Somehow in my equation that works out to a plus, for me, but financially and even many other ways, I lost so much last year at Christmas.

I don't tell this story except that you wished me good health, and frankly it touched me deeply.  I asked my losses be fixed, and was insulted, derided and treated monstrously by his company and his agents.

Your good wishes this year are a wonderful thought, and for me so appropriate.

Good health also to you, and may you spend Christmas (Western and/or Russian) Christmas with loved ones . . . . and have a very happy, healthy, prosperous New Year -- if you are Christian and if not, maybe you've been celebrating Chanukah -- so pardon me if I presupposed a religion . . . . everyone should have their own happy holiday . . . . and I wish that the upcoming holidays be very good to you.

I am not like many Ukrainians - -I am not a bigot about religion - though many Ukrainians I have met are -- mostly through ignorance.

I already know you'll take wonderful photos.

I await seeing them.

For me with photos, that's another story, but I'll tell you why personally some day when we first meet face to face.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

Thank you very much for your wishes! I'm going to celebrate Christmas (Russian). My best wishes to you and your friend.

Svetlana.

Please have happy holidays.

john

John (Crosley)